From a press conference today at the AGU, with the prez's chief science advisor: Bud Ward: It seems that over the last two years the momentum on climate change has been lost. The Obama administration came in with climate as one of the adminstration's top priority, and the President is a great communicator. Two years agoContinue reading “Obama admin: We’re “not giving up” on climate action”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Climate quote of the week
Henry David Thoreau, way ahead of his time, as usual… It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear. [from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, the Wednesday chapter]
Cancun talks do not end in failure
Newspaper headlines by their nature are expected to state what happened, not what did not happen, because what did not happen is not, after all, news. Unlike the headline above. But the truth of the modest deal that emerged between 190 nations negotiating at Cancun, under the auspices of the United Nations, is that theContinue reading “Cancun talks do not end in failure”
The tea maker, thirty years later…and Yoko
About ten years ago, astonishingly, I got a call from Yoko Ono. I happened to have written a magazine story about the time she spent with John Lennon in the little town of Ojai, in the mid-70's, after he and Yoko were driven out of Greenwich Village by FBI and NYPD surveillance and harassment. They bought a stationContinue reading “The tea maker, thirty years later…and Yoko”
Acceleration of drought in Mexico accelerating illegal immigration?
That's the startling argument advanced by Thomas Elias in today's Ventura County Star: a new study published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences appears to establish a coming (and possibly a present) link between global warming and illegal immigration from Mexico,..the study led by atmospheric science Prof. Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton UniversityContinue reading “Acceleration of drought in Mexico accelerating illegal immigration?”
Winter sunsets in SoCal…
…are the best. Someday I'll find out why. Promise. [pic courtesy of Lauren Coyne]
Data-driven journalism: Factory Farm Map
Though newspapers are, blessedly, finding a way to hang on through hard, hard times, the real cutting-edge in journalism is arguably found at the intersection of data and the web, with relatively little writing involved. Here's a prime example, via the hard-working activists at food&waterwatch. The future: It's much more statistical than the past. (Here'sContinue reading “Data-driven journalism: Factory Farm Map”
Deal to “fix” the delta collapsing: Dan Walters
In a front-page story last week in the Los Angeles Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Bettina Boxall used an oblique structure, gritty detail, and a plethora of conflicting quotes to give a sense of the trouble surrounding a plan to put a massive new straw from the State Water Project into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Here'sContinue reading “Deal to “fix” the delta collapsing: Dan Walters”
Into the Fossil Intensive future: When could we reach 4C?
It's possible the world will not manage to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases, and instead stomp on the fossil fuels and speed up global warming. That's what it looks like right now, with the black diamonds below representing observed emissions, and tracking towards the upper end of estimates: Today the world's oldest continuously operating scientific body, theContinue reading “Into the Fossil Intensive future: When could we reach 4C?”
Frozen in Portland…
James Howard Kunstler, the grim futurist, speaks of Portland, in the present and in the future: Portland, on the other hand, has turned itself into one of the finest walkable cities in the USA and the Willamette River Valley is one of the most productive farming micro-regions in the world. Human beings will continue to live andContinue reading “Frozen in Portland…”
Kit Stolz 