Last April I posted about how the earth had improved since the first Earth Day. At the end of the post is a poll about whether, after reading the post, the reader was optimistic, pessimistic, or ambivalent about the future. Overwhelmingly, people were (and apparently, are) pessimistic about the future of the earth. Matt Ridley,Continue reading “Matt Ridley – A Rational Optimist”
Author Archives: Norm Benson
Weekend Postcard from Brasilia
From our 2008 trip to Brazil.
BP – Beyond Perspective
Since man discovered fire, we have learned that any form of energy production holds risk. Fire cooked our food, lit the night so the wild animals stayed away, kept us warm, removed old vegetation at the end of the hunting season so that new growth would attract game in the coming spring. Fire also burnedContinue reading “BP – Beyond Perspective”
Weekend Postcard from Puerto Rico
This is from the Christmas season, 2002. We wanted someplace exotic that we wouldn’t need to have passports and visas for. So for Americans that’s Hawai’i and Peurto Rico (I assume Guam too, but that was too far). Since it was Christmas time, San Juan International Airport plays some of the cheesiest holiday music onContinue reading “Weekend Postcard from Puerto Rico”
Science Isn’t Enough: A Forester’s Search for Truth
A presentation on 10 February 2010, by William W. Keye (of the California Licensed Foresters Association) given at the UC/USFS Pre- and Post Wildfire Conference. You may get the PDF version (with the visuals) of his talk here: http://ucanr.org/sites/Prepostwildfire/files/3765.pdf _____ In looking over the agenda preparing for this talk I must tell you thatContinue reading “Science Isn’t Enough: A Forester’s Search for Truth”
The role of science in policy
Spiked has, what to me is, a nuanced discussion with Professor Mike Hulme (professor of climate change in the school of environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia. He is author of Why We Disagree about Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press.) on science and its role in informing policy. Two quotes ofContinue reading “The role of science in policy”
Weekend Postcard from Benicia, California
Benicia is a laid back place that Mary and I found easy to walk around in. It was California’s capital from 1853-4.
Collective intelligence
I rather like knowing that I have it better than Louis XIV.
For whom the oil tolls
On April 20th around 10pm local time, a drilling vessel leased by British Petroleum (BP), the “Deepwater Horizon,” exploded, killing eleven workers. At the wellhead, 5,000 feet below the ocean surface, the fail-safe blowout preventer (BOP) did not pinch off the well as it was designed to do. The ruptured well gushes an estimated 5,000Continue reading “For whom the oil tolls”
Weekend Postcard from the Oregon Coast
These pictures are from a trip we took along the coast of Oregon.
Nullius in Verba 