Author Archives: Kit Stolz

Hellraiser Ain’t Quitting

Ten years ago in December a wildlife biologist named Roy Van de Hoek was arrested, thrown face down, and handcuffed forcutting non-native shrubs out of the legendarily wild and beautiful Carrizo Plain. He faced twelve misdemeanor charges, but eventually was given three years probation. That’s according to a Mother Jones "hellraiser" piece on Van deContinue reading “Hellraiser Ain’t Quitting”

Right-Wing Shocker: Conservative Endorses Regulation to Reduce Emissions

Genuine conservatives (as opposed to the Bush administration) have been pointing to the need for conservation of fossil fuel supplies and innovation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for some time now, but this is really a shocker. The prominent conservative Niall Ferguson calls not just for the usual measures of reducing emissions, but for flatContinue reading “Right-Wing Shocker: Conservative Endorses Regulation to Reduce Emissions”

The Secret History of the Gold Rush

One of the most interesting ecological writers today has to be Rebecca Solnit, an explorer in prose whose work is so original it’s difficult to categorize. History? Essay? Polemic? The reader has to decide for himself, or herself. Her latest journey in thought comes to us from Orion, and reads to me much like aContinue reading “The Secret History of the Gold Rush”

California Leads the Way on Air Pollution…Again

Yesterday the California legislature reached agreement on a deal to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Here’s how the Washington Post introduced the story: In stark contrast to the Bush administration’s consistent opposition to mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, California’s bill requires its industrial sectors to cut the state’s carbon dioxideContinue reading “California Leads the Way on Air Pollution…Again”

Cynicism and Ugliness: An American Marriage

Though Hunter S. Thompson still casts a long shadow, the best ranter alive has to be James Howard Kunstler, who in a new essay breezes past Thompson and Marx and Mencken and into a realm of his own: The new stuff built all over America in the late 20th century was analogous to the contentContinue reading “Cynicism and Ugliness: An American Marriage”

Graph of the Week: GCMs Accurately Predict Ocean Heat

A first-rate post in Real Climate by Gavin Schmidt with a great graph makes clear an important point that is, I think, little understood. Climate models are not speculative; they’re checked against observations. No one doubts the complexity of the challenge, but what is not generally understood  is how remarkably accurate the biggest and bestContinue reading “Graph of the Week: GCMs Accurately Predict Ocean Heat”