Mandelbrot set
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
Please contribute relevant news items to be posted below - send links to peter.caplan@yahoo.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Science for the People on cable radio. Listen to Jane Zara's interview of John Kelly, author and investigative researcher and DC Metro Science for the People member on the subject of incompetence and corruption at the FBI laboratories and abuses of forensic science. (may take up tp a minute to download - be patient!)
Science for the People in the community:
We submitted grant proposals for funding under the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1D Small Grants program for 2009. These three proposals have been funded:
* Is My Neighborhood Hazardous to My Health?
* Urban Gardening in Mt Pleasant
* Forensic/Legal Counseling for Indigent Arrestees
At the left is a photo of David Schwartzman and Jane Zara explaining the effects of air pollution on lichen growth to summer school students at Bancroft School.(Aug, 2009)
FEATURED VIDEO: In Schools Everywhere: The Story of Stuff. Annie Leonard's simple, cheerful and brutal 2007 video about consumption, waste, the environment and capitalism has become a hit among teachers and students nationwide, according to this front-page Times article.Watch the video HERE. [Leslie Kaufman, NY Times, May 10]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LATEST POSTS..
Posted Nov 14: The Science News Cycle:
The journey of a research finding from tentative theory to gospel fact, courtesy of the mass media. See the cartoon below, left. [From the Language Log, a blog based at U of PA]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted Feb 15: IPCC errors: facts and spin. Himalayagate, Amazongate, Seagate, Africagate, calls for IPCC director Pauchuri's head - what do these media feeding frenzies have in common? All stem from misreadings or trivial errors found in the 2800-page IPCC Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007. [RealClimate,Feb14] See also “AmazonGate”: how the denial lobby and a dishonest journalist created a fake scandal. [Tim Holmes, Climate Safety, Feb 9]
Posted Feb 1:Nuclear Does Not Make Economic Sense Say Studies. . While safety and environmentalmconcerns have not dampened the current enthusiasm for a nuclear-power renaissance, new studies by several independent European organizations and Citibank(!!) asserts that due to the enormous technical and financial risks it will no longer be profitable for private capital to finance new nukes.[Julio Godoy,IPSnews,Feb 12]
Posted Feb 15:‘Global Weirding’ and Climate Skeptics’ Slushy Logic. Errors by the IPCC and recent snows in DC and Copenhagen have opened opportunities for global warming denialists seeking to distract attention from long-term trends. [sarahlaskow, AlterNet, Feb 12]
Posted Feb 15: Skeptics Find Fault With U.S. Climate Panel. The erroneous report of melting Himalayan glaciers and the stolen e-mails are still being inflated and echoed through the denialosphere. The NYT stumbles to the rescue with quotes from a Wyoming senator, the yellow press of London and the notorious Lord Monckton, all calling for the decapitation of IPCC chair Pachauri, who the reporter helpfully notes, is a vegetarian. Not a single bona fide researcher in the field was cited. Not a word about the motives of the e-mail hackers.[Elisabeth Rosenthal, NYT,Feb08]
Posted Feb 15: Biological threats: A matter of balance. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists took issue with a recent Congressional report (by the Graham-Talent WMD Commission) that "asserted that a life-altering bioterrorist attack is highly likely to take place within the next four years." The BAS called the findings exaggerated and the remedies too narrowly-focused and urged instead that efforts should be made in " improving public health capabilities to respond to any kind of infectious disease threat" [Scientists Working Group on Biological and Chemial Weapons, Bull. Atomic Sci., Feb 02]
Posted Feb 15:Job Opportunity - Don't Miss. Do you have training in ultamatonic field patterning, quantum singular activity and radio esthetics? Put it to use, now at Maperton Trust. Salary 20,000-24,00 per annum (units not stated) [Ben Goldacre, BadScience, The Guardian,Jan 30]
Posted Feb 15: Vaccine-Autism Study Is Retracted. The Lancet, a major British medical journal has just "retracted a flawed study linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine to autism and bowel disease " Large numbers of British parents had refused the to have their children immunized, leading to a resurgence of measles, and there is still widespread skepticism. "Britain's General Medical Council ruled [that the co-ordinator of the research , Andrew] Wakefield had shown a ''callous disregard'' for the children used in his study and acted unethically [AP, NYT, 2/2]
Posted Jan 28: World's Glaciers Continue to Melt. Although a lot of publicity was given to the erroneous Indian claim (which appeared in the latest IPCC report) that Himalayan glaciers were retreating, glaciers across the globe are continuing to melt so fast that many will disappear by the middle of this century. Confusion has arisen because glaciers at very high altitudes may continue to grow in the short term because of increased snowfall. [Juliette Jowit, Guardian(via Common Dreams), Jan26]
Posted Jan 28: If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Damned Cold? An Essay on Regional Cold Anomalies With Near-Record Global Temperatures. [James Hansen, et al., RealClimate, jan17; updated Jan 27]
Posted Jan 28: Who's Afraid of the HPV Vaccine? NSF research into how people decide which scientists to believe indicates that it has to do with cultural credibility, i.e., shared values. [ScienceDaily, Jan14]
Posted Jan 28: A Rebuttal to a Cool Climate Paper.
A widely circulated June 2009 Geophysical Review Letters paper authored by Richard Lindzen (long-time global-warming-minimizer) and Yong-Sang Choi, attempting to once again challenge the results of climate models, was roundly rebutted in a communication posted at RealClimate on the grounds if misleading use of observed sea surface temperature data and the use of a model lacking an interactive ocean. [Andrew
Revkin, NY Times, Jan 8]
Posted Jan 28: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - a chilling 7-minute video. "Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. " [Posted on YouTube in April 2009]
Posted Jan 28: No Gender Gap in Math. More nails have been hammered in the coffin of dead theories about inherent differences in math ability between girls and boys, as seen in this international study. [Christie Nicholson,Sci. Amer., 1/6]
Posted Jan 28: Climate Change Scepticism Will Increase Hardship for World's Poor. [Adam Vaughan, Guardian,via CommonDreams, Jan 4] Rajendra Pachauri, chair of IPCC, warned of increasing attacks from vested interest via global warming deniers, which could seriously weaken the chances for a strong agreement in Mexico and have further endanger the world's poor.
Posted Jan 28: On issues like global warming and evolution, scientists need to speak up. Increasing public distrust of scientists suggests that they should get their hands dirty and speak more to the public instead of each other. ' "Why target us? We're the good guys. And if we become more media savvy, we'll risk our credibility." There is only one answer to this objection: "Look all around you -- at Climategate, at the unending evolution wars -- and ask, are your efforts working?" The answer, surely, is no. '[Chris Mooney, Wash Post, 1/3/10]
Posted Jan 28: The Temperature of Science. James Hansen traces the path from his first historical analyses of global temperature data in 1980 to his present status as a target of hate mail and threats, necessitating an armed escort to a talk he presented in Houston last month. Contains useful charts of temp trends 1880-2010. [James Hansen, e-mail to public, 12/18/09]
------------------------------ 2009 ------------------------------------------------
, Posted Dec 15: U.S. Business Interests Suspected in 'Fabricated' Climate Scandal. "Business interests and US partisan politics are behind the furor over leaked emails that have whipped up a controversy at the Copenhagen climate talks, Canadian according to Canadian IPCC scientist Andrew Weaver and author James Hoggan(writer of "Climategate"). [By Staff , Agence France Presse,Dec 14]
Posted Dec 15: Water Is the Missing Link in Copenhagen. Global Public Policy Network on Water Management (GPPN), which has been working to raise the profile of water in past climate change negotiations, leading up to Copenhagen, is trying to gain attention for one of its core messages, that water "is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by populations and the environment." .[Thalif Deen, IPS, Dec 14]
Posted Dec 15: Deniergate: Turning the tables on climate sceptics. Refutations of some of the more persistent myths about the sources of the global warming still being widely circulated, such as sunspot cycle length and cosmic rays .[Michael Marshall and Michael Le Page, New Scientist, Dec 14]
Posted Dec 15: Mike Gravel’s Lament: Fighting Another Dumb War. "Barack Obama, who is as mesmerized by the red, white and blue bunting draped around our vast killing machine as the press, the two main political parties and our entertainment industry, will not halt our doomed imperial projects or renege on the $1 trillion in defense-related spending that is hollowing out the country from the inside."[Chris Hedges, TruthDig.com, Dec 13]
Posted Dec 15: Climate technologies: a leap into the unknown. Geo-engineering to the rescue? "The failure of industrialized countries to offer anything close to the emissions reductions commitments required to avert catastrophic climate change has stimulated a flurry of activity in recent months in the arena of new technologies to "rescue" the planet. [Oscar Reyes, Znet, Dec 12]
Posted Dec 15: Copenhagen climate change blah blah. Bad Science columnist Ben Goldacre oasks "why do roughly half the people in this country (UK) not believe in man-made climate change, when the vast, overwhelming majority of scientists do? Discussion follows. [Ben Goldacre, The Guardian, Dec 12]
Posted Dec 15: Small Farmers Can Cool the World. A study presented by Klimaforum09, at an alternative meeting in Copenhagen representing the world's small farmer, finds that industrial agriculture is the largest single contributor to carbon emissions. [Stephen Leahy, IPS, Dec 11]
Posted Dec 15: The American Health Care Pyramid. The giants in the banking industry get bailouts, but No guarantees for working Americans, who receive very little from their government: unemployment insurance and food stamps, which add up to a poverty existence. Poverty wages or poverty assistance. And now new levels of poverty health care.[Carl, Ginsburg, Counterpunch, Dec 11]
Posted Dec 15: No Slowdown of Global Warming, Agency Says. According to preliminary analyses released by the World Meteorological Organization, 2009 was the fifth-warmest year on record and the decade 2000-2009 was the warmest on record. The previous warmest was the 90's. [Revkin and Kanter, NY Times, Dec 9]
Posted Dec 15: Climatologists Under Pressure. "Stolen e-mails have revealed no scientific conspiracy, but do highlight ways in which climate researchers could be better supported in the face of public scrutiny."[Editorial, Nature, Dec 3]
Posted Dec 15: Agent Orange's lethal legacy: For U.S., a record of neglect. With U.S. veterans seeking compensation for their Agent Orange-caused illnesses facing delays and a slow-moving bureaucracy "...untold numbers of Vietnamese -- including many who weren't even alive during the war -- also suffer from maladies associated with the defoliants. Tens of thousands more are at risk today from dioxin that remains in the environment at dozens of former U.S. military bases."[Chicao Tribune, Jason Grotto and Tim Jones, 5-part series began Dec 4]
Posted Dec 15: We May Be Born With an Urge to Help. Interesting evidence for apparent helpfulness instinct in toddlers. But, " Sociality, the binding together of members of a group, is the first requirement of defense, since without it people will not put the group’s interests ahead of their own or be willing to sacrifice their lives in battle. Lawrence H. Keeley, an anthropologist who has traced aggression among early peoples, writes in his book “War Before Civilization” that, “Warfare is ultimately not a denial of the human capacity for cooperation, but merely the most destructive expression of it.”[Nicholas Wadw, NYTimes, Nov 30]
Posted Nov 14: AHIP (Americas's Health Insurance Plans) Pollster Disrupted by Singing Troupe of Protesters.A health nsurance industry conference was disrupted on its final day by a creative and polished bit of guerilla theater. See the video [Sam Stein, HuffingtonPost, Oct 23]
Posted Nov 14: Digital Dumping and the Global ‘E-Cycling’ Scam. Where does that old computer go once you think you've recycled it? The 'recycler' may simply "take your electronic items for free, or pocket your recycling fee, and then simply load them onto a sea-going container, and ship them to China, India or Nigeria." "The Basel Action Network investigated Nigeria's e-waste situation and detailed its findings in a shocking report..."[Gbemisola Olujobi,CommonDreams.Nov12]
Posted Nov 14: Empires and the Sullying of History. A historical description of the use of anthropolgists in the pursuit of colonialism and war, and the notable anthropologists who exposed and resisted this misuse.[Robert Lawless, Counterpunch, Nov 6]
Posted Nov 14: Is Your Doctor's Continuing Ed Funded by Drug Makers? Doctors maintain their medical credentials by taking Continuing Medical Education courses - heavily funded by the drug giants and larded with drug ads.[Martha Rosenberg, Counterpunch,Nov 4]
Posted Nov 14:You want the Amazon to survive? Then pay us not to pump the oil, says Ecuador. In a lawsuit that has dragged on for 16 years, Texaco (which Chevron acquired in 1993) is accused of dumping "more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into the rainforest between 1964 and 1990, and claim(s) that 1,400 deaths occurred in the region as a result[Huw Hennessy in Quito, CommonDreams, Nov 1]
Posted Nov 14: Powering a Green Planet: Sustainable Energy, Made Interactive. A special web-only-with graphics piece, arguing the practicality of a massive shift by 2030 to a hydro/wind/solar powered economy. Discussion follows. [M.Z. Jacobson, M.A.Delucchi, Scientific American, Nov 2009]
Posted Nov 14: Waste heat in solar energy generation - another myth destroyed. The author shows the absurdity of a claim made in the book Superfreakonomics by Levitt , using elementary math and inormation available to everybody [Ray Pierrehumbert, RealClimate, Oct 29]
Posted Nov 14: Book review of "Climate Cover Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming." An exploration of climate change contrarianism...exploring the PR techniques, phony 'think tanks,' and funding used to pervert scientific fact, this book serves as a wake-up call to those who still wish to deny the inconvenient truth." [RealClimate, Oct 20]
Posted Nov 14: Crisis Has Hurt Investment in Renewables. "Interest in investing in renewable energies seems to have waned as a result of the recession and the drop in oil prices, despite the pressing need to find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide, which are blamed for global warming. " [Emilio Godoy, IPS,Oct 10]
Posted Nov 14: Spreading Hysteria about Swine Flu "Hysteria". In view of the uncertainties inherent in predicting the spread of any new disease, Soldz criticizes the commentators who promote public distrust of the need for a vaccination program. They use "the common commentator's trick to pose the options as 'hysteria' or forgetting about it, as if those are the only options. Of course, hysteria is never useful. But cautious alertness often is. " [Stephen Soldz, Znet Sep 29]
Posted Oct 12: Southeast Asia: Back to Traditional Farming to Beat Climate Change.] A perceived increase in the duration and intensity of droughts and floods and decrease in a reliability of the changeover between rainy and dry seasons, together with damage from deforestation and monoculture has led to experimentation with traditional methods and seeds. [Anil Netto, IPS, Oct 9
Posted Oct 12: Dwindling Fish Catch Could Leave a Billion Hungry. A mega-shift in ocean productivity from south to north over the next three to four decades "[due to climate change]will leave those most reliant on fish for both food and income high and dry. [Stephen Leahy, IPS, Oct 9]
Posted Oct 12: Boxer-Kerry Climate Bill Greenwashes Nuclear Power. Riccio reviews the dangers, both economical and environmental, of bringing back nukes. [Jim Riccio, CommonDreams, Oct 8]
Posted Oct 12: Our Love Affair With Our Lawns vs the Water Crisis. According to a 2007 NASA study, "Lawns are America's largest irrigated crop -- we have 63,240 square miles under cultivation -- and we use roughly 19 trillion gallons of water annually to care for them." (Note: This could cover the whole continental U.S. to a depth of a centimeter)[ Dara Colwell, AlterNet, Oct 2]
Posted Oct 12: IFPRI study highlights future food shortages due to climate change. Using two different models of climate change, the International Food Policy Research Institute predicted large increases in food prices by 2050, especially in South Asia, due to declining yields caused by lack of rain and increased temperatures.[ifpri.org press releases, Oct 2]
Posted Oct 12: G-20 Protesters Faced New Weapons. In addition to the old standbys tear gas and pepper spray, Pittsburgh police unleashed bean bags fired from shotguns,flash-bang grenades, batons and, for the first time on the streets of America, the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), used basically to screech people off the streets. More advanced weapons are in the pipeline, including heat rays, puke rays and sonic bullets.[Mike Ferner, Consortium News via CommonDreams]
Posted Oct 12: It's Not Sex, It's Money. Instead of looking at the population growth of the very poor, ii's time to focus on the environmental impacts of the rich, says George Monbiot. [UK Guardian, via CommonDreams, Sep 29]
Posted Oct 12: How to read articles about health and health care. Would you read an article called “Coffee pretty unlikely to cause cancer, but you never know”? Probably not. But the headlines that do attract your attention are often misleading. Here are some simple questions to ask about mass media science reports. [Alicia White, Bad Science, Sep 16]
Posted Sept 11: Why Not to Buy a New Computer for College. What portion of those rare elements vital in small quantities for the latest electronic toys originate in genocidal war zones in Africa? Global Witness delineates how multinational companies are "pillaging natural resources and fueling holocaust in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)." [Deena Guzder, CommonDreams, Sep 10]
Posted Sept 11: The Mystery of Chernobyl. It has been reported that "it has been reported that the abandoned town of Pripyat has become a wildlife haven." Now, 23 yearsa after the accident, a team of scientists is now investigating the effects of the released radiation on local wildlife.[Sanjida O'Connell,CommonDreams, Sep 9]
Posted Sept 11: No Flies on S.F.'s New Composting Law. The city of San Francisco is distributing over 100 composting bins daily to speed compliance with its new composting law which mandates that by Oct 21, every home and business will have separate bins for trash, recyclables and compost. [Heather Knight,CommonDreams, Sep 9]
Posted Sept 11: Whole Foods Fair Trade and Organics. Open letter from Organic Consumers Association blasts Whole Food Markets for greenwashing and threatens a boycott. [Ronnie Cummins, Counterpunch, Sep 9]
Posted Sept 11: Dr. Pepper's Wet Dream. Water, Government Subsidies and Transfer of Wealth in the Middle of the Desert. " For the past three years, [California]has been in the grip of a devastating drought," with water deliveries cut in half. Yet here in Victorville on the edge of the Mojave Desert, the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, has announced plans a facility that will "suck up hundreds of millions of gallons of water a year from this water-scarce area to supply soft drinks to 20 percent of its domestic market." [Yasha Levine, AlterNet, Sep 8]
Posted Sept 11: Ending Africa's Hunger. An in-depth look at the dangers of bringing a second edition of a Bill Gates-funded Green Revolution to Africa. [Raj Patel, et al, The Nation, Sep 2 (sep 21 print issue) ]
Posted Sept 11: Water: the Newest Wave of Corporate "Social Responsibility". A major opportunity for a corporate PR coup, " World Water Week has [attracted]...companies selling water, beverages, and water and sanitation services to grab a seat at the table, as water practices and policies are discussed." [Diane Farsetta, Counterpunch, Sep 2]
Posted Sept 11: Wall Street's Health Care Takeover. Former flack for the health insurance mega-lobby speaks out: "I'm ashamed that I let myself get caught up in deceitful and dishonest PR campaigns that worked so well, hundreds of thousands of our citizens have died, and millions of others have lost their homes and been forced into bankruptcy, so that a very few corporate executives and their Wall Street masters could become obscenely rich." [Wendell Potter, Common Dreams, Sep/1]
Posted Sept 11: Ian Plimer’s homework assignment. A detailed response to a new set of questions posed by Ian Plimer, one of Britains most often-quoted climate-change deniers, who is widely quoted on Fox News and other far right meida. [Gavin Schmidt, RealClimate, Aug 24]
Posted Sept 11: The brutal truth about America’s healthcare. "The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed – for eight days only – into a vast field hospital. In America, the offer of free healthcare is so rare, that news of the magical medical kingdom spread rapidly and long lines of prospective patients snaked around the venue for the chance of getting everyday treatments that many British people take for granted. "[Guy Adams, The Independent, Aug 15]
Posted Sept 11: Protesting at Climate Ground Zero. Accounts of direct action to raise consciousness about global warming, featuring a daring nine-hour ascent of the inside of a 600-foot smokestack at England's Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant. [Tomdispatch.com, Aug 11]
Posted August 13: G.M. Puts Electric Car’s City Mileage in Triple Digits. 230 miles per gallon - for an electric car? Yes, for an EPA standard 100-mile trip, you run it until the battery quits after 40 miles, then the small gasoline engine kicks in and feeds the battery to get you another 60 miles. That's how this number was calculated. Thus, if you drove only 40 miles, your gas mileage would be infinite. Nissan's Leaf will get 367 "miles per gallon" using the same EPA standard. Just thought we'd clear that one up for our readers. By the way, for non-home owners - sorry, there doesn't yet seem to be any way of re-charging your batteries, which takes 8 hours. But, confusing numbers aside, the development of the Volt may show that GM (now 60% government-owned) may at last be serious about innovation. [Bill Vlasic and Nick Bunkly. NY Times, Aug 12]
Posted August 13: 10 Questions to Ask If You Find Yourself at an ObamaCare Town Hall Meeting. Or if your in-laws are visiting...[David Lindorff, Counterpunch, Jul 12]
Posted August 13: Let's Talk About Tasers. "Tasers were sold to the public as a tool for law enforcement to be used in lieu of deadly force", but there is increasing evidence that this weapon "is becoming a barbaric tool of authoritarian, social control."[Digby, CommonDreams, via Salon, Aug 11]
Posted August 13: Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security. What's that? National security! The all-purpose justifier is at last being wheeled onto the field of the battle on carbon emissions. Talk about lives lost due to starvation and flooding is turning more and more to talk of threats of political unrest and the need new military interventions. [John M Broder, NY Times, Aug 8]
Posted August 13: The World's Rubbish Dump: A Garbage Tip that Stretches from Hawaii to Japan. Another story on the vast "trash vortex" in the Northern Hemisphere portion of the Pacific, composed mainly of discarded plastic and foam products, detectable from ships but not dense enough to be seen on satellite imagery. [Kathy Marks, The Independent (via CommonDreams, Aug 6]
Posted August 13: Jelly Fish and Warm Oceans. This Wash Post blog writer points to accounts of increasing numbers of jellyfish, including the giant jellyfish, reportedly connected with rises in sea surface temperature. One interesting figure from NOAA that he references from a previous article indicates that "June's combined average global land and ocean surface temperature was the second warmest on record since 1880, and world ocean surface temperatures set an all-time record high for the month".[Andrew Freedman, Capital Weather Gang, Washington Post, Aug 5]
Posted August 13: India: Rural Communities Turn to Traditional Climate Mitigation. In Tamilnadu, southern India, and Uttar Pradesh, northern India, villagers, helped by NGOs including Oxfam, have revived ancient systems of storing surface and groundwater that are putting them in a good position to contend with anticipated increases in monsoon rainfall intensity. [Keya Acharya, IPS news, Aug 5]
Posted August 13: Crackdown Against Environmental Criminals Follows Greenpeace Report. Shoe Brands Get Tough on Leather Suppliers to Save Amazon Rainforest. As a result of a 3-year investigation by Greenpeace, "Some of the world's top footwear brands, including Clarks, Adidas, Nike and Timberland, have demanded an immediate moratorium on destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their leather suppliers in Brazil".(see related Alcoa story below)[Damian Carrington and Tom Phillips, The Guardian,(via CommonDreams), Aug 4]
Posted August 13: Organic food no better than normal food? Ben Goldacre takes a hard look at the PR techniques of the organic food movement and also at issues of faith-based reasoning vs Big Science. Good discussion follows. See also Jun 30 post just below on Huffington Post.[Ben Goldacre, BadScience, The Guardian, Aug 1]
Posted August 13: The Huffington Post is crazy about your health. Curing swine flu with deep-cleaning enemas? Getting cancer from candida? Autism from vaccinations? De-tox and deep-cleaning therapies for everyone? Parikh criticizes the Huffington Post as being callous in its "lack of substance" and failing to provide citations of controlled experiments to back up claims.[Rahul Parikh, Salon,Jul 30]
Posted August 13: Alcoa Razes Rain Forest in Court Case Led by Brazil Prosecutors. Detailed and troubling look at how uncertain environmental enforcement by Brazil combined with sustained pressures from powerful multinationals, including Alcoa and Cargill, are combining to continue the destruction of the rain forest through minies, cattle ranches and industrial-scale agriculture. "We are not going to reduce global warming if we don't do something about deforestation in the Amazon," says Doug Boucher [member of DC Metro Science for the People], director of the Tropical Forest and Climate Initiative at Concerned Scientists. "It's that simple, and very alarming. The Amazon is a big part -- if not the key part -- of a solution to deal with global warming."[Michael Smith and Adriana Brasileiro, Bloomberg.com, jul 30]
Posted July 31: Organic Versus Conventional Food: UK Report Flawed. The review study (see next article below) was criticized by the Soil Association of the UK, citing Michael Hansen of Consumer's Union, [who said that] "including older studies, with crop varieties that no longer are on the market, and which did have more nutrients, only serves to lessen the possibility of finding any significant differences between organic and conventional foods."[Paula Crossfield, Huffington Post, Jul 30]
Posted July 31: Organic has no health benefits. A new review study (by Alan Dangour - see abstract), commissioned by the UK The Food Standards Agency concluded that "There is little difference in nutritional value and no evidence of any extra health benefits from eating organic produce". [BBC News, Jul 29]
Posted July 31: India's 20 GW solar energy plans. India announced a $19B 20-year "National Solar Mission" which by 2030 is expected to put online 20GW of photo-voltaic-generated solar power (the equivalent of about 15 large nuclear power plants), . This would amount to 10-12% of India's estimated power needs for that year. China has already announced plans of about this scale, sheduled for completion in 2020.[Reuters-India, Jul 28]
Posted July 31: Rich Nations Vulnerable to Water Disasters. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned yesterday that the state of California, for example, the world's fifth largest economy, "could see prime farmland reduced to a dustbowl, and major cities running out of water by the end of the century". Other areas that can suffer from redistribution of rainfall due to climate change include Spain and Australia.[Thalif Deen, IPS news, Jul 28]
Posted July 31: The Privatization of Global Health. Large increases in global health aid going from rich to poor countries are serving to spread the for-profit delivery of health care by private entities at the expense of public systems. [Sanjay Basu, Zspace, Jul 28]
Posted July 31:Foreign Disbelief of Topless America. Big Coal and mountaintop removal are alive and well in Obama's America (two videos included) .[Jeff Biggers, CommonDreams.org, Jul 28]
Posted July 31: How Eating Steak, Cake and Butter Can Make You Live Longer. Eat more fat??? "Even the American Heart Association (AHA), a leader in the campaign against dietary fat, recently revised its nutritional guidelines, increasing the daily recommendations for fat. 'The science just wasn’t there,' acknowledges Robert Eckel, president of the AHA and a professor of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. [Janet Paskin, Ode,July 27]
Posted July 31: Why Are Humans Different From All Other Apes? It’s the Cooking, Stupid. Richard Wrangham in his book “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human” attibutes a central role to cooking in his explanation of the development not only of many aspects of human society, but also many physical attributes, such as uncommonly weak jaws for a carnivore.[Dwight Garner, NY Times, May 26]
Posted July 31: World Will Warm Faster Than Predicted in Next Five Years, Study Warns. An temporary pause in global warming during the 10 year's since the El Niño peak in1998 (that led to a lot of noise-making by the denialogists) whould come to a quick end according to results just published in thd U.S. A return of El Niño coupled with a cyclic maximum in solar activity should lead to another run of record-high global temperaures in the next few years[Duncan Clark, The Guardian(via CommonDreams, Jul 27]
Posted July 31: Climate Change to Force 75 Million Pacific Islanders From Their Homes. A new Oxfam Australia report, "The Future is Here" warns of the urgent need for action now to intensify efforts of the people in danger to mitigate the coming destruction and for the richest nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. [Bonnie Malkin, Telegraph(UK), via CommonDreams]
Posted July 31: How the Food Industry Has Made Bacon a Weapon of Mass Destruction. "The confluence of factory farming, the boom in fast food and manipulation of consumer taste created processed foods that can hook us like drugs." From the vertically-integrated livestock monopolies to the manipulation of the public's food preferences to the obesity epidemic and the swine flu epidemic - it's all here.[Arun Gupta, AlterNet, July 23]
Posted July 12: Missile Defense Yet Again. Exposing a series of Washington Post spins (and lies) on the possibility of missile defense, defense researcher Cirincione quotes a recent letter from leading physicists to Obama: "We assess that the planned European missile defense system would have essentially no capability to defend against a real missile attack. ... This system has not been proven and does not merit deployment. It would offer little or no defensive capability, even in principle. At the same time, its deployment would result in large security, political, and monetary costs."[Joe Cirincione, Huffington Post, Jul 11]
Posted July 12: Forget Shorter Showers - Why personal change does not equal political change. Is the personal political? "Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance."[Derrick Jensen, Orion, Jul-Aug]
Posted July 12: The Organic Monopoly and the Myth of 'Natural' Foods: How Industry Giants Are Undermining the Organic Movement. "How natural is the so-called natural food in our local Whole Foods Market, coop, or grocery store? ... [is] it ...disguising unhealthy and unsustainable food and farming practices as alternatives? Is 'natural' just a marketing ploy to sell conventional-unhealthy, energy-intensive, and non-sustainable food and products at a premium price? [Ronnie Cummins, CommonDreams, Jul 9]
Posted July 12: G-8 Failure Reflects U.S. Failure on Climate Change. Jim Hansen blasts the Waxman-Markey bill as the reason for the disappointing result in Italy, pronouncing it "...no more fit to rescue our climate than a V-2 rocket was to land a man on the moon. " Hansen favors, among other measures a carbon fee at the source with a dividend returned to the public according to their success in reducing their own carbon footprint.[James Hansen, HuffingtonPost, Jul 9]
Posted July 12: Meatless Mondays: Do Something Good for the Earth and Your Health. Schools of Public at Johns Hopkins, Columbia Univerity and 27 other institutions have launhed a Meatless Mondays campaign, focused on trying to persuade the world to forego meat on at least one day each week. [Kathy Freston,AlterNet, Jul 6]
Posted July 12: Science at the bleeding edge. In media reports of scientific breakthroughs, the press rushes to bring the latest novelties to its readers, albeit in distorted form, but "...quite often news stories are focused on claims that turn out to be wrong, or if not actually wrong, heavily reduced in importance by the time the dust settles."[Gavin Schmidt, RealClimate, Jul 6] (Also see "Asking for it", just below)
Posted July 12: Asking for it. "Bad Science columnist Ben Goldacre tracks down the "scientists" referred to in a recent headline in the Telegraph, “Women who dress provocativelymore likely to be raped, claim scientists" [the article has since pulled by Telegraph] and finds both it and the article to be false and/or grossly distorted. [Goldacre, BadScience, jul 4]. Apropos of this, check out this cartoon in phdcomics.com
Posted July 12: Eat, Drink, Think, Change. Eric Schlosser is a producer of, and a character in, “Food, Inc.,” in which the director Robert Kenner 'takes a sprawling look at the perils of Big Food. The film is being promoted as an exposé of “the highly mechanized underbelly” of the seemingly benign food people eat every day'. [Kim Severson, NY Times, Jun 3]
Posted July 12: Summer Travel Suggestion: Come and visit the Creation Museum. Conveniently located just 7 miles west of the Cincinatti Airport. This "...state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its characters and animals in dynamic form and placing them in familiar settings. Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers." Or, you can be lazy, stay home and just read what AlterNet has to say about all this. [July 2 AlterNet post]
Posted July 12: Green Power Takes Root in the Chinese Desert. While the U.S. Congress is still debating proposals that American utilities generate more of their power from renewable sources of energy, China imposed such a requirement almost two years ago. "This year China is on track to pass the United States as the world’s largest market for wind turbines — after doubling wind power capacity in each of the last four years."[Keith Bradsher, NY Times, July 2]
Posted Dec 12: Climate Change:Latin America Could Show the Way. According to a new World Bank report,'Low Carbon, High Growth: Latin American Responses to Climate Change'by Augusto de la Torre, Pablo Fajnzylber and John Nash[link not yet available], "The region is suffering the impact of climate change; however, it is not a main source of emissions that are driving global warming, thanks to its clean energy matrix and its innovative policies to promote low carbon growth." [Ramesh Jaura, IPS, Dec 10]
Posted Dec 12: Nuclear Weapons Obsolescence Former Lawrence Livermore Lab weapons researcher Manuel Garcia asks why such personages as Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, William Perry and Sam Nunn have recently joined the likes of Bertrand Russell, Einstein and Gandhi in calling for nuclear disarmament.[Counterpunch, Dec 10]
Posted Dec 12: The New Generation of "Non-Lethal" Weapons 20,000 First Brigade Combat Team troops will be assigned inside the U.S.- the first such assignment since Reconstruction. Ostensibly the forces are for use in response to terrorist attacks, but will also be available for "civil unrest and crowd control". Featured is a new package of "non-lethal" weapons, some of which have been tested in Iraq, and may include heat beams, high-intensity sound, biochemical agents, and advanced tasers[Mike Ferner, Counterpunch, Dec 8]
Posted Dec 12: This Toxic Life On the effects of decades of toxic waste on native pople of southern Ontario living near a concentration of heavy industry.[Wayne Ellwood, New Internationalist, via Counterpunch Dec 9]
Posted Dec 12: Will $1.81 Gas or Russia Save the Hummer? "Will low gasoline prices put America (and the world) in another fossil-fuel “trance” — as President-elect Barack Obama cautioned — and make us forget the long-term energy and climate challenges ahead?" Check out Comedy Central's National Hummers Club video in this article by Andrew Revkin in the Dec 3 NY Times.
Posted Dec 12: Small Farmers Key to Combating Climate Change "The agricultural sector, including land use change for agriculture, has been estimated to make up...28-33% of global emissions. Combined with the emissions created transporting food in our increasingly globalized food economy where the average bite to eat travels 1200 miles from field to fork, the industrial food system may be the largest single contributor to global warming. In small-scale organic farming systems however, carbon is actually stored in the soil at a rate of about four tons per hectare. [Annie Shattuck, Common Dreams, Dec 2]
Posted Dec 12: The NIPCC (Not the IPCC) Report. RealClimate debunks this attempt to discredit the IPCC report and also announces the launch of a powerful Wiki-like tool for exposing the false premises of the climate-change deniers
=====================================================
ARCHIVE
News items for 2009 (first half)
News items for 2008
News items through 2006 and 2007
-
