Estimates regarding the rate of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil blowout get spewier with each succeeding news cycle. The mess being made requires that we Americans consider what we are willing to pay—economically and environmentally— for energy. I didn’t see President Obama’s live televised remarks to the nation on the BP oil spill but watched itContinue reading “Let’s not gush about our clean energy options”
Tag Archives: AGW
Sounding the alarmed, are the world’s forests 80% fragmented?
Ignorance is the parent of fear” – Herman Melville Willful Sturm und Drang A statement crafted to alarm you: “…80 percent of the world’s intact forests are already gone.” – Tzeporah Berman, co-founder of ForestEthics. But it could have come from any number of environmental organizations—in competition for your wallet. You need to act nowContinue reading “Sounding the alarmed, are the world’s forests 80% fragmented?”
You’re pulling my Yang. Ten dead-on reasons for using dead tree stuff.
Some anti-logging activists have latched onto a fact like mistletoe on a branch; it looks green but it’s hurting the trees rather than helping. The fact: Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, and via photosynthesis combine the CO2 with hydrogen to make wood, and expel oxygen. This process pulls CO2 , a greenhouse gas,Continue reading “You’re pulling my Yang. Ten dead-on reasons for using dead tree stuff.”
California’s Deforestation Due to Wildfire
This is a map of the National Forests in California. These forests comprise about half of the forestland in California. The Forest Service graphic below shows the results of the 2000-2009 fire season in California. About 1% of California’s fires chalk up 90% of the total acreage burned. Half a million acres that had theContinue reading “California’s Deforestation Due to Wildfire”
Hot Air Cuts California Forests Out of Carbon Offset Program
In order for California’s proposed cap and trade system to be anything but a mockery we need to rip down the “Do Not Disturb” signs on much of California’s forests and commit ourselves to harvesting in California’s forests, even (gasp) clearcutting. Foresters and forest landowners aren’t the only ones who feel this way; the UnitedContinue reading “Hot Air Cuts California Forests Out of Carbon Offset Program”
Clearcutting, Climate Change, and the Center for Biological Diversity
“A clearcut is about as beneficial to the climate as a new coal-fired power plant.” – spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity Spin consumes science Such a sound bite is ‘spin;’ and we should not confuse such political posturing with fact. Perception trumps truth and the California Air Resources Board has caved to politicalContinue reading “Clearcutting, Climate Change, and the Center for Biological Diversity”
Governor Schwarzenegger, AB 32, and Global Warming: Code Redd
“When the search for truth is confused with political advocacy, the pursuit of knowledge is reduced to the quest for power.“- Alston Chase, author of “Playing God in Yellowstone.” ‘Redd’ is another ort in the acronym soup of climate-speak from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); it stands for “Reducing Emissions fromContinue reading “Governor Schwarzenegger, AB 32, and Global Warming: Code Redd”
Environmental Story Trends to Watch: Climate Change
“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” – Danish physicist, Neils Bohr A few posts ago I attempted to list the top environmental stories of the last decade: the Doha development agenda stall, the 2008 economic downturn, Al Gore’s Nobel prize, and others, ending with the Credit Card Reform Act of 2009.Continue reading “Environmental Story Trends to Watch: Climate Change”
Forests and Climate Change, Not Clearcut
Will the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit filed against Cal Fire have the putative result of slowing global warming? Not likely, probably the exact opposite effect.
If it's not grown, it has to be mined
Recently, Barnes and Noble launched its own e-book reader, the “Nook,” to compete with the Amazon Kindle.[i] E-readers are handy electronic devices, they can hold hundreds of books, and use an ‘electronic paper.’ They have been heralded as alternatives to ‘dead-tree publishing.’ Without doubt, digital technology improves lives. Consider mobile phones: once isolated African fishermenContinue reading “If it's not grown, it has to be mined”
Nullius in Verba 