Norm Benson

The Week’s Environmental Story Roundup

Seventeen stories in this week’s roundup. 1. Cancún Climate Change Conference expectations: more hot air The United Nations Climate Change Conference is to be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. What is it supposed to do? According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) website, the conference ”Continue reading “The Week’s Environmental Story Roundup”

Green quotes

“On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us.” – Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1830 in Edinburgh Review “You have to have at least one square meal a day to be a conservationist or an environmentalist.” Richard Leakey, quoted by Dr. NormanContinue reading “Green quotes”

Holiday Postcard: The view from the neighborhood, Thanksgiving 2010

It is just another quiet day in the neighborhood and I am thankful for my spouse, my friends, and my family–especially my sons in whom I am delighted as to who they have become. (Grammarians, do I have that right?)

Leaving on a jet plane

According to PR Newswire there is an “initiative to promote aviation biofuel development in the Pacific Northwest” that “will include an analysis of potential biomass sources that are indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, including algae, agriculturally based oilseeds such as camelina [wildflax], wood byproducts and others.” Because biomass sources absorb carbon dioxide while growing andContinue reading “Leaving on a jet plane”

Gaming Malthus with “Fate of the World”

I have submitted this to the Record-Bee for my December Green Chain column. “I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.” – John Stuart Mill In 1901, while searching for giant clamsContinue reading “Gaming Malthus with “Fate of the World””

Sunday Funny

Weekend postcard: Yosemite

I love this picture perhaps because of the mist on the lens rather than despite the mist. I like the rock in the middle of the stream with water rushing past; it says “stop and smell the shooting stars.”

The Week’s Environmental News Roundup

State of California will purchase Tejon Ranch easements The Los Angeles Times reports, 62,000 acres of Tejon Ranch, in the Tehachapi range, will be placed into conservation easements. The move marks “the first step in implementing an agreement that would protect up to 240,000 acres of wildlands in one of the largest pieces of privateContinue reading “The Week’s Environmental News Roundup”

Just call him “Alan Greenspam”

From Grist.com come’s a sign of the times we live in: a virtual arguer. Nigel Leck got tired of arguing with people who were skeptical about global warming science. Noticing that most of them used the same debunked arguments over and over again, he decided to make a Twitter chatbot to answer them automatically. TheContinue reading “Just call him “Alan Greenspam””

Happy Birthday Climategate

My, oh my, how the time does fly. A year ago today, someone revealed more than 1,000 emails of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the U.K.’s University of East Anglia. The emails spanned more than 13 years and reveal the researchers worries at how to make their fuzzy data appear to be smoking hotContinue reading “Happy Birthday Climategate”