The “loading dock” is a metaphor in the science policy wonk world for a process by which scientists just sorta drop off information for folks, hoping that they somehow find it useful. Mitchell Berger, a New Jersey public health planner had an letter in Science April 6 placing an interesting twist on the issue: It …
Harrison’s Rose Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Lissa’s Harrison’s rose is the product of some adventure. Our first try involved stealing a clipping from a certain prominent government building, all Tom Cruise Mission Impossible-like, swooping in like secret agents. But it never took root. Then Tim Berners-Lee invented the Internet, and she bought one on line. …
From the Yucca Mountain debate: Transporting nuclear waste by rail to Yucca Mountain through Reno and Sparks could adversely affect tourism in the area even if there never is an accident. That was the message the Sparks City Council heard Monday from Bob Loux, the executive director of Nevada’s Agency for Nuclear Projects.
UN Security Council climate debate: Britain holds the council presidency this month and organized an open meeting to highlight what its foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said was the “security imperative” to tackle climate change because it can exacerbate problems that cause conflicts and threatens the entire planet.
Press release today from the House Science Committee’s Republicans: Today, in the first congressional hearing with authors of the Working Group II section of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) fourth assessment report, Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, the Science and Technology Committee was told that many different factors will determine the impacts …
Southern Africa’s been having a dry time of it in recent months. This is vegetation anomalies from NASA for March 2007. Big drop in maize production expected as a result. (Hat tip NASA Earth Observatory.)
Jon Carroll on the Galileo problem: My correspondents seem to be taken with the image of the lone scientist battling for truth against the bigwigs and their lackeys. “They laughed at Edison,” one told me. Maybe so. They also laughed at a lot of people who turned out to be laughable. Being laughed at is …
Kit Stolz has a great look at drought in Southern California, with a particularly nice bit of business from Bill Patzert, the region’s most quotable climatologist: Patzert had a more personal reason to doubt the forecast. In his backyard he has an old oak tree, and for years he has noticed that the tree seemed …
I knew my talk Friday worked when, during the Q and A at the end, one of the grad students asked for a show of hands. “How many of you believe humans are the primary cause of global warming?” Probably 90 percent or more of the hands in the room went up. “How many of …
news of the warm: Climate change and national security in the Times of New York paper of the day: Schenk and Lensink discuss the difficulties associated with public discussion of greenhouse gas emission scenarios word of the day: fruiterer – one who sells fruit (this would be a subset, apparently, of greengrocer, sans veggies) reading: …