Culture & Ethics
The Washington Post versus George Will
The paper seems to be disavowing the views of its own columnist: The new evidence — including satellite data showing that the average multiyear wintertime sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2005 and 2006 was nine feet thick, a significant decline from the 1980s — contradicts data cited in widely circulated reports by Washington …
Continue reading “The Washington Post versus George Will”
CONTINUE READINGGetting Serious About Toxicity Testing
Most of the products we use everyday contain chemicals that have never undergone meaningful health and safety testing. That statement is hardly controversial; most folks on all sides of the continuing debate over chemical policy reform accept it as accurate. Yet there is controversy over whether such testing should be required as a routine matter …
Continue reading “Getting Serious About Toxicity Testing”
CONTINUE READINGCass Sunstein Has Lost His Mind
I’m in the middle of reading Sunstein and Thaler’s Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, and a lot of it is illuminating, if somewhat predictable for those who have followed behavioral economics over the last few years. But so far, by far the worst chapter has been the one on the environment, which …
Continue reading “Cass Sunstein Has Lost His Mind”
CONTINUE READINGLubchenco on scientific integrity
Shortly after her confirmation as NOAA administrator, Jane Lubchenco sat for an interview (subscription required) with Science and Nature. Asked about her priorities, she listed science at the top (others include ending overfishing, getting NOAA’s satellite program back on track, establishing a National Climate Service, and protecting and restoring ocean ecosystems). When pressed to expand …
Continue reading “Lubchenco on scientific integrity”
CONTINUE READINGAction on Nano-regulation Likely in California This Year
On March 19, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) hosted its third symposium on nanotechnology. The symposium featured speakers from industry, government, the NGO community, and academia and focused upon potential regulatory approaches for dealing with health and environmental effects of nanotechnology. In his remarks, Assemblyperson Mike Feuer announced his intent to introduce …
Continue reading “Action on Nano-regulation Likely in California This Year”
CONTINUE READINGCarlson to Nat’l Academy of Sciences panel on mitigating climate change
Contributor Ann Carlson’s too modest to post this herself, but she’s recently been named as one of two lawyers to the National Academy of Sciences’ expert panel on “limiting the magnitude of future climate change.” (The other is CARB chair Mary Nichols.) As called for by Congress, NAS is convening experts from across disciplines to produce …
Continue reading “Carlson to Nat’l Academy of Sciences panel on mitigating climate change”
CONTINUE READINGThe US Chamber of Commerce on Carbon Regulation: Sub-zero stupid
Holly referenced the Chamber of Commerce’s hysterical claim that regulating carbon dioxide would stop all the infrastructure projects in the stimulus. Not only is that not true, but it might in fact be exactly the opposite. The reason is pretty straightforward: to the extent that the government places caps on carbon dioxide, such a policy …
Continue reading “The US Chamber of Commerce on Carbon Regulation: Sub-zero stupid”
CONTINUE READINGPollution sniffing robofish
Monitoring has always been a big challenge both for enforcement of water pollution laws and for understanding the effect of pollution on aquatic ecosystems. Now a group of scientists in the UK may have an answer: robotic fish the size of seals which can swim around on their own, equipped with chemical detectors to sense …
Continue reading “Pollution sniffing robofish”
CONTINUE READINGSave Us From Ourselves
I often have conversations about climate change with those who believe that the crux of the problem lies with the individual. To put it somewhat differently, these individualists believe that we can’t solve the climate problem without individual change and that the possibilities for such change are all around us. People should use less electricity, take …
Continue reading “Save Us From Ourselves”
CONTINUE READINGGot oil?
According to research compiled by the staff at The Oil Drum, we may have hit peak oil production in 2008. Many experts predicted that peak oil would happen sometime around now, although perhaps not for another decade or so. If this research is correct, then we should expect a corresponding decrease in the supply of …
CONTINUE READING