Revkin.net

Great to see: @BrownUniversity board to hear @BrownDivestCoal student argument 5/23. Beyond the...

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:42:51 -0400

Great to see: @BrownUniversity board to hear @BrownDivestCoal student argument 5/23. Beyond the...

Useful #fracking fact finder: @NASciences Workshop on Risks of Unconventional Shale Gas...

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:18:53 -0400

Useful #fracking fact finder: @NASciences Workshop on Risks of Unconventional Shale Gas...

South end of High Plains Aquifer being sucked dry. (@nytimes)

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:08:16 -0400

South end of High Plains Aquifer being sucked dry. (@nytimes)

Ethicist’s argument for why big CO2 emitters need to act...

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:06:47 -0400

Ethicist’s argument for why big CO2 emitters need to act promptly to share space in greenhouse ‘bathtub.’

In contrast to work in PA, Duke/USGS study finds no groundwater issues in Arkansas #fracking...

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:06:02 -0400

In contrast to work in PA, Duke/USGS study finds no groundwater issues in Arkansas #fracking...

What I learned after I had the kind of stroke that hits...

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:00:16 -0400

What I learned after I had the kind of stroke that hits youngish, healthy people who see the sweating, red-faced guy running up stairs and think, “He’s a stroke waiting to happen”: Blog, print article, more video.

The biodiversity beneath our feet, in soil - Great piece by Jim...

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:42:31 -0400

The biodiversity beneath our feet, in soil - Great piece by Jim Robbins (art by Katie Scott).

"As an environmental mantra, ‘leave no trace,’ is a bit pathetic. It assumes that we can extract..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 22:31:47 -0400

““As an environmental mantra, ‘leave no trace,’ is a bit pathetic. It assumes that we can...

A carbon curve worth pondering.

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:09:58 -0400

A carbon curve worth pondering.

What links tigers, feces, DNA and Nepal wildlife conservation?...

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:51:03 -0400

What links tigers, feces, DNA and Nepal wildlife conservation? @KashishDS reports.

To see what students can do to fill the communication gap on...

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:58:46 -0400

To see what students can do to fill the communication gap on tough environmental issues, read on! My Pace students are wrapping the third film in our series on natural-resource conservation (shrimp farming, cork forests, now sea turtles).

The previous films were featured on my New York Times blog, Dot Earth.

The new film, “Viva La Tortuga: Meshing Conservation and Culture in Magdalena Bay,” is 15 minutes long (like a 60 Minutes segment). Two public screenings will be followed by q&a with the team (me included).

May 7 at Pace University in Pleasantville

May 8 at Pace in Manhattan (near City Hall).

Any help spreading word would be greatly appreciated. This is a great example of students tackling tough subjects and making a difference!

Two posts from student blog give the latest on the production and some tough news from Mexico:

http://pacebaja.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/the-final-cut-for-a-turtle-documentary/

The Final Cut for a Turtle Film

Posted on May 1, 2013by Travel Course to Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Our class met for the last time Tuesday evening and to the average passerby, the room probably resembled more of a loony bin than it did a traditional classroom. Within this frenzy of students, laptops, and even a mandolin and guitar, progress was being made. Although this is our last official meeting, both students and professors alike will be working on the various aspects of our film right up until our release date at 4pm on May 7th! This was the final push and what Dr. Luskay described as the “night of perfection.” Lou Guarneri continued to sweeten up the film’s transitions, color and sound and also worked closely with Professor Revkin, who supplied some original scoring with his mandolin. As soon as we finalize the credits, “¡Viva la Tortuga!” will be ready for export!

The work does not stop there. From here on out, in addition to researching a variety of different film festival submission deadlines, editing a final trailer and flooding the Internet withtweets about our film, each of us will find a way to market “¡Viva la Tortuga!” to ensure a solid turnout for both our Pleasantville andNew York City premieres. Join us there!

Turtle Conservationists Demand Action From Mexican President

Posted on May 1, 2013by Travel Course to Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

Sea Turtle Restoration Project, a California based conservation group that has worked to protect and restore sea turtle populations worldwide, recently wrote a letter to President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico pressing him to act promptly to cut turtle deaths in Baja fishing nets.

The letter is open for anyone to sign. On the ground in and around Magdalena Bay we met many fishermen whose lives would be disrupted by a total clampdown on gillnet fishing. But we also saw the devastating impact on loggerhead turtles. There are no easy answers, but a lot of people are working hard to find the balance.

Mexican officials don’t seem inclined to press for turtle protection. As recently as today, senior officials have challenged years of peer-reviewed studies demonstrating that a recent spike in loggerhead deaths in the region is from gillnets set on the bottom off the Pacific coast.

In China, Breathing Becomes a Childhood Risk...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:45:41 -0400

In China, Breathing Becomes a Childhood Risk (@comradewong @nytimes) Excerpt: Levels of deadly pollutants up to 40 times the recommended exposure limit in Beijing and other cities have struck fear into parents and led them to take steps that are radically altering the nature of urban life for their children.

Tom @Yulsman photo peering into the “Cretaceous on...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:07:07 -0400

Tom @Yulsman photo peering into the “Cretaceous on fire,” a porthole in an old coal-fired power plant. Brings me right back to Loren Eiseley’s “Man the Firemaker”!

As I explained in my 1992 book on global warming:

In his 1954 essay “Man the Firemaker,” Loren Eiseley correlates human progress with the use of ever-more-potent fuels. First came firewood, which enabled humans to cook meats and thus increase food’s nutritive value. Then came charcoal. The Iron Age would have been meaningless without the hot charcoal fires over which metals become malleable. Mastery of glass, ceramics, and steel was a function of rising temperatures in kilns, forges and furnaces.

As Eiseley put it, “Man’s long adventure with knowledge has, to a very marked degree, been a climb up the heat ladder…. Today the flames grow hotter in the furnaces…. The creature that crept furred through the glitter of blue glacial nights lives surrounded by the hiss of steam, the roar of engines, and the bubbling of vats…. And he is himself a flame — a great, roaring, wasteful furnace devouring irreplaceable substances of the earth.”

RIP Richie Havens, pioneering power folkie.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:08:00 -0400

RIP Richie Havens, pioneering power folkie.

Water pollution is illegal? Cage-free hens are content? Says...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:01:15 -0400

Water pollution is illegal? Cage-free hens are content? Says who? Compared to what? Meet @earth_desk.

Would human progress be more sustainable and just if business schools taught the full Adam Smith?...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:13:39 -0400

Would human progress be more sustainable and just if business schools taught the full Adam Smith?...

Videos conflict with @tammierosen explanation for excluding...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 10:28:35 -0400

Videos conflict with @tammierosen explanation for excluding ticket-holding farmers at #TFF2013 @Gaslandmovie II premiere. Her explanation:

“Gasland Part II had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Guests that had purchased advance tickets and were in line for the film 30 minutes prior, as our ticket policy states, were admitted into the screening. Once the house was at capacity, the remaining ticket holders who had not been in line prior to 30 minutes were unfortunately not able to be accommodated in the theater.”

One can have ground rules for behavior at an event, but excluding potential critics before the fact and stifling open discussion is not a path toward progress.

I’ve had my own experience dealing with a disruptive appearance by Phelim McAleer (more here), the “Frack Nation” filmmaker accompanying the batch of Marcellus-region farmers and landowners who had tickets for the event. So I recognize the risks, but closing the doors to discussion is not solution. This is particularly true given that McAleer’s film-making approach is remarkably similar to that of Josh Fox.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the first Tribeca reviews of the film, by Eric Kohn in IndieWire:

“The director’s activism naturally stirs up trouble, and while most of “Gasland Part II” lets its countless subjects lead the way, the story eventually returns to his personal antics: The finale involves a well-documented 2012 incident in which the filmmaker was arrested on Capitol Hill after attempting to film a congressional hearing on fracking; he handles the situation well, but ultimately gains nothing except another illustration of how much his hands are tied — by getting them cuffed. In this David versus Goliath tale, Goliath still has the upper hand. ‘Gasland Part II’ runs longer than the earlier installment, but ultimately it has less to say. Fox sounds the same alarm with a bizarre mixture of confidence in the message and an awareness of the vanity involved in delivering it.”

.@BillMoyers asks Sandra Steingraber tough question about poor farmers & #fracking income. She...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 14:21:51 -0400

.@BillMoyers asks Sandra Steingraber tough question about poor farmers & #fracking income. She...

Refereed paper finds big water & greenhouse benefit in coal...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:20:29 -0400

Refereed paper finds big water & greenhouse benefit in coal > gas shift. Eager for @levi_m view. Notable, of course, that it’s Exxon research (!). But findings either stand or fail based on strength of data and analysis. Main conclusion:

The carbon footprint of Marcellus gas is 53% (80% CI: 44–61%) lower than coal, and its freshwater consumption is about 50% of coal. We conclude that substantial GHG reductions and freshwater savings may result from the replacement of coal-fired power generation with gas-fired power generation.

Clearest @FBI image of one of the two suspected Boston bombers....

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:37:00 -0400

Clearest @FBI image of one of the two suspected Boston bombers. 1-800-CALL-FBI