Posts tagged “Climate change”
Figures Lie and Liars Figure – On Discussing Climate Change with Relatives
Many of my relatives don’t believe that climate change is occurring. As a scientist interested in what climate change means for the ecosystems humans rely on, this is a mite frustrating. One of my aunts is actually interested in learning more. In our last discussion, I realized that a lot of things that I think […]
Kitty Todd Nature Preserve
If you’re driving from Michigan to Pittsburgh, you’ll probably go through Ohio. At least, that’s how the car-full of ecologists I was with did it. Some people might advise you to find some (any) way around it. I had never been to Ohio before and was not particularly impressed from the highway, even though they […]
Oak Savanna
While I was in Michigan earlier this summer, I went on a tour of the MacCready Reserve where there are multiple research projects and restoration efforts active. I’m not very familiar at all with midwestern ecosystems, so I was pleased at the opportunity to go on a guided tour with a brand new PhD who’d […]
What I’ve Noticed
Dogs take the train in Russia. Surprise! Scientists didn’t do anything wrong. The real ClimateGate criminals are the accusers. One in four flowering plants faces extinction today. Thought the oil spill wouldn’t affect you? You’re probably wrong: Remember all those people claiming the snow last winter proved climate change was a hoax? They don’t seem to […]
The last tree
We ask what the Easter Islanders thought as they cut the last tree down, implying that they were somehow stupider than us, that we would certainly recognize the value of a resource and preserve it before it got to that point. But species are going extinct every day and even many common species are in […]
What I’ve Noticed: Politicians don’t get economics edition
AZ governor and strong supporter of the bad-for-business anti-immigrant law, Jan Brewer, lies about immigrants and her own past. Anyone who grows such lovely hydrangeas couldn’t possibly be a spy! Knowing a little history goes a long way towards refuting people who try to rewrite it. It could also prevent our politicians from making the […]
What I’ve Noticed
Frank Fenner thinks we’ll go the way of the Easter Islanders in the next 100 years. I disagree that humans will go extinct, but I agree that we’ve waited far too long to address energy and population issues to avoid dramatic and involuntary reduction in our population. And it’s already happening: resource competition, exacerbated by […]