From a (typically excellent) NPR science story, this one about Ken Caldeira, the Stanford researcher into ocean acidification: "Decades ago, everybody was smoking cigarettes — and it was acceptable to smoke cigarettes indoors," [Caldeira] says. "And there was a phase change in social acceptability, where it is no longer acceptable to dump your cigarette smoke in airContinue reading “How to stop global warming: Ken Caldeira”
Category Archives: thinking out loud
The lull in the rise of global temperatures: NYTimes
Justin Gillis for the NYTimes writes definitively on "the lull" in the rate of increase of global temperatures. It's confident writing that coolly savors the ironies of the crisis, even as it depicts the news with jaw-dropping facts. Speaking of the leveling out of global mean temperatures in the last fifteen years, he writes: What toContinue reading “The lull in the rise of global temperatures: NYTimes”
The dark side of science: The control of nature
As mentioned in a post not so long ago, Rachel Carson believed in "Silent Spring" that DDT represented an attempt to control nature. Which she abhored. A book about a fascinating friendship between a genius physicist, Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli, and Carl Jung, reveals that the physicst thought physics also represented an attempt at control.Continue reading “The dark side of science: The control of nature”
Changing — and being changed by — the sea around us
Brian Fagan, whose The Great Warming is the single best history of climactic change over the course of history, writes this week in The New York Times of the unseen dangers of rising sea levels: Fifty thousand drowned, steamships aground with their bows among trees, cattle rolled head over heels by gigantic waves — storiesContinue reading “Changing — and being changed by — the sea around us”
Greatest nature drawing ever? by Albrecht Durer
Christopher Knight suggests such is the case for Albrecht Durer's "Great Piece of Turf": The drawing's technical mastery is astounding. Watercolor can be an unforgiving medium, allowing for few mistakes. Yet even in the face of this complicated, seemingly chaotic tangle of plants, the 32-year-old artist made no evident missteps. The viewpoint is head-on, seenContinue reading “Greatest nature drawing ever? by Albrecht Durer”
A home in the wild, under the wind
Three nights ago I slept tentless in the desert. I slept despite a breeze, moving over my pad and bag, over my face exposed to the night. The moon came up bright, woke me at midnight, but the air had gone still and quiet, and I found my way back to my dreams. A dayContinue reading “A home in the wild, under the wind”
The fall of a mighty oak: The Guardian notices
Nothing against new style longform journalism, but let's give credit where credit is due to a tradional but awesome story from The Guardian on the greatest tree in Wales, and how it fell (but could possibly have been saved). No one knew quite how old it was because it had lost its heartwood, but MichaelContinue reading “The fall of a mighty oak: The Guardian notices”
Want to boycott Koch Bros. products? There’s an app…
The 21st century has another technological moment. Yesterday a new application for mobile phones was released. It can reveal to a shopper with a smartphone what products profit the fossil fuel billionaires the Koch brothers. The app, called Buycott, is eighteen months in the making, and actually is designed to reveal the corporate structures behindContinue reading “Want to boycott Koch Bros. products? There’s an app…”
The Driven American: Unable to wander freely
From Edmund White's gloriously thoughtful The Flâneur:: The flâneur [city walker/wanderer] is by definition endowed with enormous leisure, someone who can take off a morning or afternoon for undirected ambling, since a specific goal or a close rationing of tme is antithetical to the true spirit of the flâneur. An excess of the work ethicContinue reading “The Driven American: Unable to wander freely”
Navy meteorologist convinced that global warming is real
Last weekend I wrote a story about a conference in UCSB on sea level change in the Ventura County Star. To quote Rear Admiral (ret) David Titley, a meterologist who once was a skeptic but now believes in climate change: “I’ve told the Navy and Congress that we should expect a global sea rise between nowContinue reading “Navy meteorologist convinced that global warming is real”
Kit Stolz 