Climate272
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Climate News Roundup – Week of 5/2
Big Wind Farm Off Cape Cod Gets Approval, New York Times In a press conference on Wednesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced — after nine years of regulatory review – that plans for the nation’s first offshore wind farm were approved for construction. The controversial decision faced resistance from both Democrats and Republicans, including the…
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The Letter: Climate Change and the Integrity of Science
255 prominent scientists from all over the United States published an open letter in today’s Science Magazine, in defense of science, scientists and the scientific process in the face of vocal and aggressive climate change skeptics. In case you don’t subscribe to Science Magazine, it’s worthwhile reproducing the letter here.
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42,225 Daily Temperature Readings, and Counting
A Rare 114-Year Record, Kept by Generations, Logs Changing Climate
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Seeing the Big Picture of Climate Change
L. Douglas James, a former Hydrologist for the National Science Foundation (retired), is a Big Picture guy. Concerned that scientific research and public policy are both too focused on isolated bits of the climate change issue, he had a go at inspiring attendees of a Columbia Water Center Seminar to branch out, make connections, and…
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Vote for the Earth Institute in the eBay Fundraising Tournament for the Environment
Do you share our belief that the world has the know-how and resources to solve our environmental challenges in a sustainable manner? Do you support efforts by the scientific community to help understand the effects of climate change, reduce environmental degradation, and advance renewable energy technologies? Then please vote for the Columbia Water Center’s parent…
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Illuminating the Science: Art and Climate Change Part II
Last week I expressed some skepticism that art and climate science were complementary languages. I also expressed some hope that the nature of these two fields – that is, that they both are ways of better knowing the world – really were reconcilable, and could create a better robustness of understanding the natural world. I’m glad…
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Mandating energy benchmarking: the next step for cities in addressing climate change?
by Marne Sussman Within the past two years, two cities in the U.S. have passed ordinances mandating that existing buildings benchmark their energy usage. Benchmarking requires a building owner to report energy use data which can then be compared to data from buildings of a similar size and function and to past data from…
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Year Without a Summer? Not this Time.
You may have heard about the Year Without the Summer, 1816, when severe climate anomalies linked to the eruption of Indonesia’s Mt Tambora provoked widespread famine, the westward expansion of the United States, the invention of the bicycle, and Frankenstein. So epic, so influential: Tales of the dramatic climate impacts of that fateful year got…
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The Desert Margins – vulnerable to desertification, but not hopeless
Most people are aware that vegetative cover, such as trees or other shade producing plants, helps to keep moisture in the soil, especially in the driest climates. Not all plants have the same effect, though.
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