I’ve argued in the past that my enthusiasm for the “scientization” meme comes from my experience covering all sorts of controversies, large and small, that play out in the same way: competing data used to support conflicting political positions. This doesn’t just happen on the big stuff, like climate change. It’s an intrinsic problem, found …
Apparently union regulations require all climate bloggers to weigh in on Bill Broad’s story in today’s New York Times about Al Gore etc. In brief, there’s not much more I could add to what Chris Mooney and Andrew Dessler have said: “surprised it didn’t happen sooner” (Mooney) given that Gore was largely solid on the …
Unfortunately, the world’s only reliable newspaper doesn’t put all its stories on line, so unless you’ve been to the supermarket recently, you probably missed this: “It’s coming,” Dr. Soakes warned Weekly World News. “Due to the effects of global warming, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that a flood as bad or even worse …
I’m not sure what this has to do with arms control: A nearby motel advertises, I shit you not: The Four Hour Nap.
A thoughtful commenter over on Eli’s blog observes that it’s lucky I work for a small paper. update: It seems this has been misinterpreted. Eli’s been a delightful host, and it’s been a thoughtful and largely respectful discussion. I just wanted to be first on Google when you search for “John Fleck is an idiot.”
On the latest Clovis research: The Clovis hunters, some of the earliest human settlers in North America, were not around for long, new research suggests. But they made the most of the time they had. The Clovis culture, named for the New Mexico site where its distinctive spear points were first discovered, spread across North …
Via NEI Nuclear Notes, an interesting discussion about the role of nuclear power in the energy mix as Europe grapples with carbon emission reduction targets. Per capita/per GDP unit carbon emissions in France are already substantially lower than the UK and Germany. France generates 80 percent of its electricity from its nuke plants. The French …
With El Niño fleeing the equatorial Pacific over the last month, and with La Niña apparently seizing the opportunity like Rush Limbaugh seeing Al Gore’s electric bill, it’s worth reflecting for a moment on the El Niño that was. From today’s Drought Monitor: Los Angeles has seen their driest season to date on record, with …
birds: Via MJH, the Great Blue Heron Flickr project: take a picture of a heron, geotag it, include it in the group, and open source science of a sort occurs paper: Stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at low levels: an assessment of reduction strategies and costs: “The net present value of abatement costs for the B2 …
John and Mom at the Bosque del Apache Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. I’ve been meaning to get this up. From a couple of weeks back. Trip to Bosque del Apache to see the birds. Cranes of course. And snow geese. Eagles. And the American coot, my current bird fascination. They’re so modest.