February 2012
26 posts
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Pondering Stewart Brand @longnow essay on merits of “not so fast” button: “Technologies with [the] property of perpetual self-accelerated development—sometimes termed “autocatalysis”—create conditions that are unstable, unpredictable and unreliable. And since these particular autocatalytic technologies drive whole sectors of society, there is a risk that...
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Recent "Marsquakes" Hint Red Planet Could Have...
Release from AGU: Mars rocks indicate relatively recent quakes, volcanism, on Red Planet. Images of a martian landscape offer evidence that the Red Planet’s surface not only can shake like the surface of Earth, but has done so relatively recently. If marsquakes do indeed take place, said the scientists who analyzed the high-resolution images, our nearest planetary neighbor may still have...
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Great #AAASmtg panel on ways students grasp science by studying social implications. Relates to @SENCERnet. More:
As the Far North experiences climate change at an alarming rate, its marine and terrestrial ecosystems are also rapidly transforming. This occurrence is causing many new challenges for scientists, educators, and policy-makers. Broad-scale changes include significant loss of sea ice,...
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Science, Sustainability and the Arts at #AAASmtg
Neat session recognizing that the big questions in sustaining home planet relate to values as much as data:
Summary: Sound decisions about the complex sustainability challenges of the 21st century must be grounded in science, yet science alone is never sufficient for making decisions that must also involve complex trade-offs and thus engage our values and ethical concerns. Indeed, such decisions...
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From @HeartlandInst, a statement on documents “stolen” from board meeting and “total fake” 2012 climate strategy:
FEBRUARY 15, 2012 – The following statement from The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more information, contact Communications Director Jim Lakely at jlakely@heartland.org and 312/377-4000.
Yesterday afternoon,...
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Politicians' Divide on Climate Rules Public Views
New paper: Shifting public opinion on climate change: an empirical assessment of factors influencing concern over climate change in the U.S., 2002–2010
This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the factors affecting U.S. public concern about the threat of climate change between January 2002 and December 2010. Utilizing Stimson’s method of constructing aggregate opinion measures, data...
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Biologists mixed on notion of using elephants,...
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January 2012
27 posts
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Demand by @climateprogress for no gas push without carbon price forgets advice of late Steve Schneider on sequencing climate policy steps, as @dotearth explained: Stephen H. Schneider of Stanford University made these points while a “thinker in residence” in Adelaide, Australia, in 2006: “It is important that the sequencing of policy steps for achieving the emissions target build from...
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Would like to hear what attendees of #AMS2012 think of @ForecastFacts effort to ‘out’ TV weather forecasters whom it deems “deniers.” Its definition:“Forecast the Facts defines a denier as anyone who expressly refutes the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change: that it is real, largely caused by humans, and already having profound impacts on our world....
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Detailed look at ethics of climate change disinformation by @Climateethics, starting with “who is the climate change disinformation campaign,” then exploring key issues: “Reckless Disregard for The Truth; Focusing on Unknowns and Ignoring Knowns; Specious Claims of “Bad” Science; Front Groups.”
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Via Columbia U: Scientists Make Progress in Assessing Tornado Seasons. Study Offers First Step in Short-Term Forecasting. Read the rest: Meteorologists can see a busy hurricane season brewing months ahead, but until now there has been no such crystal ball for tornadoes, which are much smaller and more volatile. This information gap took on new urgency after tornadoes in 2011 killed more than 550...
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Jim Hansen of NASA assesses 2011 temps and bids farewell, in case his ‘polar bear plunge’ ends badly: Our analysis of 2011 global temperature is available on my web site. This may be my final e-mail. Last year, in a moment of temporary insanity, I agreed to participate in Chesapeake Climate Action Network’s annual polar bear plunge this Saturday. One of my sisters claims that...
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My contribution to NPR’s “Winter...
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WatchSetback for @WildlifeWorks as Somali elephant poachers kill ranger, badly wound 2nd. Video of rangers at work. News release: Somali Elephant Poachers Kill Wildlife Works Conservation Ranger and Critically Injure Another San Francisco, CA and Voi, Kenya, Jan. 14th, 2012 — Somali elephant poachers operating illegally in the Wildlife Works Kasigau Corridor project in Kenya, opened fire this Friday...
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Why can’t more environment/science publicist pitches be like this? Smart, efficient, useful on both ends #journalism:
I’d greatly appreciate if you have two minutes to answer three quick questions about EcoSummit, an international conference which brings together the world’s most respected minds in ecological science to discuss restoring the planet’s ecosystems:
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UK’s @ChathamHouse: Businesses, governments unprepared for how interconnected world is vulnerable to unpredicted disruptive events: • The frequency of high-impact, low-probability (HILP) events in the last decade such as Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and the nuclear crisis and tsunami in Japan, signals the emergence of a new ‘normal’ – the beginning of a...
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NOAA: La Niña & associated weather impacts (e.g., Texas) expected to continue into the Northern spring 2012. New forecast:
During December 2011, below-average sea surface temperatures (SST) associated with La Niña continued across the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean (Fig. 1). The weekly SST index in the Niño-3.4 region remained near –1.0°C throughout the month (Fig. 2),...
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Must-read paper on feeding ~9 billion with < enviro impacts (narrow yield gap, intensify existing production):
Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture
. David Tilman,1, Christian Balzer, Jason Hill, and Belinda L. Befort
Abstract
Global food demand is increasing rapidly, as are the environmental impacts of agricultural expansion. Here, we project global demand...
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