December 2009 Blog Posts (5)

Do the University of East Anglia "Hacked" Emails Show Global Warming Isn't Real?

The short answer is (a) global warming is real, regardless of what the email may say, and (b) it's not clear that the authors of that email did anything illegitimate.

Global warming is a fact. Arctic ice is melting, and the average temperature of the atmosphere has been increasing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (about 1750) -- to the best of our knowledge, at a rate 100 times the rate before 1750. These changes can be measured directly, and no one who can read a… Continue

Added by Jack K. Horner on December 30, 2009 at 4:59pm — 1 Comment

Tap water contaminants

Check out the LA Times story regarding contaminants in tap water.

Added by Staci Matlock on December 17, 2009 at 10:04am — 3 Comments

A flood's lasting impacts

Ten years ago a flood and mudslides devastated Vargas state in Venezuela. A decade later, a whole lot of devastation remains and reconstruction projects remain unfinished according to the BBC. An estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people were killed, some buried in the mudslides.

the Latin American Herald Tribune reports the… Continue

Added by Staci Matlock on December 17, 2009 at 10:02am — No Comments

the good fight

letter from santa fe

About two years ago, this time, many of us were in a panic. There were meetings all over town about the shape of our future. The conversation has ebbed, since the oil and gas threat has left us, at least for now. Thanks to a pioneering effort on the part of the citizenry, the county, and good legal council, Santa Fe has a very tight ordinance -- that is proving to be a prototype for counties next door and around the country.

We in Santa Fe can thank our… Continue

Added by Alice van Buren on December 17, 2009 at 9:04am — No Comments

Can Planting Green Plants Offset Human CO2 Production?

It has been suggested that we could solve the carbon sequestration problem

simply by planting more green plants. That approach, unfortunately, is a

"sneeze in a hurricane". The planet's entire green plant mass, together

with the ocean (which is capable of sequestering only ~25% of the current

carbon production), cannot keep pace with the atmospheric CO2 concentration

growth rate. The atmospheric CO2 concentration is increasing at the rate of

~1% per year ([1]); the… Continue

Added by Jack K. Horner on December 13, 2009 at 8:28am — No Comments