I found a link the other day to a government website with global mean precipitation data from 1900 to 2000. Of course, I can’t find the link now (please comment if you have the link, but first see the note at the end of the post). Anyway, I put the numbers into an Excel spreadsheetContinue reading “A warmer and wetter world”
Tag Archives: environment
Making money out of thin air
What do the South Seas Company and carbon exchanges have in common? A desire to make money from an idea.
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””
Should there be a new way of living for the top one billion? – The iPat edition
Andrew Revkin asks on his blog, Dot Earth, ‘Would the world benefit from a set of millennium development goals for the “top billion”?’ Michael Schesinger, a climatologist at the University of Illinois, among other things, wrote, “Perhaps humanity and the Earth can survive with 9 billion people in 2050, but what type of world willContinue reading “Should there be a new way of living for the top one billion? – The iPat edition”
‘Environmentalism’ doesn’t need to address climate change
Dave Roberts wonders on Grist.org (motto: “A beacon in the smog”), “Can we survive in conditions [caused by global warming] that humanity has literally never faced?” Oh I think so. In fact,our species have faced such occurrences. Notable warm periods occurred from 230 B.C.E. to C.E. 140 and C.E. 640 to 760 (Report: “Two millenniaContinue reading “‘Environmentalism’ doesn’t need to address climate change”
Let’s not gush about our clean energy options
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”
The hangover after Earth Day
A few expletive filled thoughts for the day after the 40th anniversary of Earth Day from George Carlin, stand-up philosopher. Watch him “coalesce the vapors of human existence into a viable and meaningful comprehension.” “The planet isn’t going anywhere. We are. We’re going away. Pack your sh*t folks…The planet will be here and we’ll beContinue reading “The hangover after Earth Day”
Happy 40th Anniversary, Earth Day
Happy 40th Earth Day Everyone! As I’ve written before, on April 22, 1970, I attended one of the first Earth Day celebrations (as did 20 million others that day). The one I went to was held at Santa Monica City College. In those days, most of us in the environmental movement worried about the populationContinue reading “Happy 40th Anniversary, Earth Day”
Have one-half of the world’s forests been converted to non-forest use?
I posted recently “You’re pulling my Yang. Ten reasons to use dead tree stuff,” the Yang being half of the Taoist Yin-Yang concept of male/female, light/dark/ ebb/flow, action/reaction. The post’s message was that we can’t look at only one side of an issue as a Yahoo Green blog had done (10 big reasons to stopContinue reading “Have one-half of the world’s forests been converted to non-forest use?”
Nullius in Verba 