For the first time in forever people might be forgiven for feeling just a bit optimistic about stopping climate change. Although the deal is certainly not perfect and has many critics, an agreement was reached by a large number of countries in Lima, Peru a few days ago. It doesn’t do much but there is…
Can an arachnid reverse climate change?
It has been incredibly difficult to do anything about climate change, in large part because no one wants to give anything up or pay more for anything. However, Americans may soon not have a choice in the matter thanks to a disease carrying tick. Most of efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses has, for obvious reasons,…
Everyone Needs to Stop Predicting Human Extinction
I grew up in the middle of the cold war. Along with fire drills, we were regularly asked to get under our desks at school and pretend that nuclear weapons were on the way (and pretend that that thin piece of wood would protect us in some way). In 2014 there are more nuclear weapons…
A sports analogy to help explain how global warming is measured
There is a great tendency among humans in general, to filter information based on their own recent experiences. People, for example, tend to believe in global warming less on cold days. Obviously climate change doesn’t work that way. Other than the potential impact on storms, today’s weather in your town has nothing to do with global…
Why Geoengineering is our only real hope in the battle against climate change
The idea of geoengineering, essentially using technology to artificially cool the planet is not popular among environmentalists. Former US President Al Gore recently said that the entire idea is insane. Although most people don’t know what it is, it is already the stuff of internet conspiracy theories. However, given our failure to make any real…
Video: Bill Nye vs. Climate Change Denier Marsha Blackburn
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Bill Nye debated Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn an anti-science climate change denier. Sane people can only hope that the Republican party will continue to implode. At a time when science and technology are essential to our survival (economic and otherwise) their attacks on science and even logic are moving past stupid and…
What Are Genetically Modified Foods [Video]
There is a lot of talk about genetically modified food but there frequently seems to be far more talk than thought on the subject. Yes, there are problems but they are not generally health related problems. The key problem, in my opinion, is that genetic modification happens so quickly now that the impact on the…
Support the Petition to Name Storms After Climate Change Deniers
A petition is circulating to change the naming system for tropical storms and hurricanes. Currently the World Meteorological Society gives storms the names of people. Those names however are fairly random and the people storms are named after have done nothing to earn the dubious honor. The folks at Climate Name Change have a fantastic…
Thanks for Being Part of the Biggest Science Experiment Ever
We are in the midst of the biggest scientific experiment in the history of the Earth and we are all a part of that experiment. To be specific, we are seeing what happens when we push greenhouse gasses to record levels. Last week we pushed past 400 parts per million in the atmosphere and exciting…
Thanks for Being Part of the Biggest Science Experiment Ever
We are in the midst of the biggest scientific experiment in the history of the Earth and we are all a part of that experiment. To be specific, we are seeing what happens when we push greenhouse gasses to record levels. Last week we pushed past 400 parts per million in the atmosphere and exciting…