Various stories on the wire today discuss the Chinese government’s attempts to control expanding deserts. What I found interesting was this bit from the Indepedent: A persistent drought in northern parts of China has only added to the problem, sucking moisture from the soil and making it more easily picked up by the wind, officials …
IMG_0059 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. ride: The picture’s from a pedestrian bridge over the interstate near my house. This is how we do a lot of our rivers here in the western U.S. – all concrete, but with very little water in them. In this case, it’s a bit of a puzzle that there’s any …
From NASA’s MODIS satellite, an image of spring drought in northern China: You can also see the same thing in the IRI global standardized precipitation index, though on longer time scales the effect is not apparent.
We can do without toilets, we can bring our own water, but we have to have Internet. Mount Stromlo Observatory director Penny Sackett, on the priorities for restoring infrastructure following the wildfire that swept across the observatory in January 2003. From Dennis Normille’s account in the May 5 Science.
David Appell’s back. Yay. (His first two posts are about climate, so that’s where I’m putting him in the blogroll. I’ll amend as needed.)
I’m a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan. But for some reason, I hadn’t read Blink, his latest book. I bought a copy a while ago, and both Nora and Lissa have read and enjoyed it. (Lissa got me hooked on Gladwell in the first place.) I briefly picked it up right after I bought it and …
Steve B, in the comments, points to an AP story about a new study in Science Friday by Fu et al. on what they say is evidence that the jet stream is creeping poleward. They only hint at the implications in the paper, noting that “the poleward shift of the jet streams and the associated …
Mom sends along this note in response to my post last week about my favorite bird of paradise from our house in California: I didn’t know that you remembered it so fondly. Did you know that that plant was Grandpa’s gift to me on the Mother’s Day just after you were born–the grandson who carried …
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was incredibly pleased with the questions we got today for the drought chat over at the ABQJournal web site. My favorite bit: Amanda: Are we able to predict when there will be a serious problem with NM’s water supply? John Fleck: The short answer is “no.” The …
I’m the guinea pig for an on-line chat experiment at the office. My chosen topic is drought science, of course. Join us tomorrow (Thurs. 5/25) at 1:00 p.m. MDT, or send in your questions early.