the answer to this question is both good and bad… we can ‘demonstrate’ just how beneficial trees are to our ‘well-being’, at least economically, but who’s to say this quantification won’t come back to bite us in the pants?…
Category: environment
evidence synthesis: calling technology’s bluff
“We all want our views to be based on truth, and many of us look to science to provide truth. But the truth is not always convenient, and rarely is it convenient for everyone… This is particularly true in the domain of environmental policy.” -Naomi Oreskes in “Science and public policy: What’s proof got to…
#36
so, yesterday i had the privilege of attending a carnegie mellon “speak your mind” discussion about environmental issues in china led by donald sutton, a professor of history at carnegie mellon. i enjoyed myself, and was even pleasantly surprised by the presence of food at an event where i was not expecting any food. i…
Time to Move the Mississippi?
The New York Times reports that the state of Louisiana is planning to divert a large portion of the Mississippi River south of New Orleans in order to offset marshland loss in the Mississippi Delta. This seems like a fabulous project, and an impending disaster all at the same time. I don’t really know which…
#27
In Environmental Science and Technology News (ES&T), it is reported that India has banned Coke and Pepsi products due to the presence of pesticides in their products in India. This is madness! I used to think Coca-Cola was the real thing… Now what will I drink?? Before I make any rash conclusions, there may be…
#26: stop the madness!
I was reading in my Sage RSS reader and noticed an article in Grist’s Muckracker pages about senate races environmentalists should pay attention to. You can find it here. Reading through this led me to a point of contention I’ve had with our leaders, but especially with the advent of the Bush administration. Today, I…
do we have a plan B? or, wasn’t this the reason for plan A?
These words quickly come to mind when I consider the words of Frances Cairncross, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. She is expected to tell delegates at their annual festival that even maximal deployment of the best technology cannot stop climate change. In my opinion, this is certainly true. Considering historical…
Passion and Purity: Strange Bedfellows in Environmental Journalism
In “They Walk The Line“, top environment reporters talk about journalism vs. activism. Grist Magazine preface the article with the tension between simply reporting facts dispassionately or engaging activism in the face of daunting environmental problems such as global warming, biodiversity loss, and fossil fuel consumption, to name a few. I find it quite interesting…
ethiopia in troubled waters
I am excited to see that the US has sent troops to help in the Ethiopian flood crisis. At times like this, it helps to remember that there is some notion of human compassion in our military despite our current crises… As an engineering student interested in water resources and environmental stewardship, it is difficult…