Tag-Archive for » water «

December 15th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

People don’t want to deal with climate change if it disrupts their lives and the number of people in the US who don’t believe in climate change is increasing (despite the availability of information like this).  This is silly because climate change is going to disrupt their lives a lot more than increasing public transportation or switching over to a green economy ever will.

Scientists studying climate change are frequently described as alarmist or criticized for coming up with wildly unrealistic scenarios.  In reality, we’ve exceeded the IPCC’s worst case scenario for emissions.  If anything, our models are far too conservative.  A recent study suggests that global warming could be 50% higher than current models predict.

Here are just a few things scientists have under-predicted:

Sea level rise is already creating climate refugees and Bolivia is considering moving people because of its climate change induced water issues.  Immigration is a difficult issue in most countries.  Climate change will create refugees directly though things like sea level rise and changes in precipitation that convert livable areas of the world to desert.  It will also create refugees indirectly – climate change will make already scarce resources scarcer, causing violent conflicts.

Science is describing what’s happening to our world and trying to predict what we should prepare for.  But dealing with climate change isn’t a scientific issue – it’s an ethical, economic, and political issue.  The science is being politicized, but science can’t tell us how to prepare for climate change or how to convince people to do something about it.

December 12th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Testosterone doesn’t actually make people selfish; it promotes fair play.

It’s not that feminists don’t have a sense of humor, you’re just not funny.

China really isn’t getting better about human rights abuses.

Fantastic essay by Asimov on “The Relativity of Wrong.”  I feel like this would be especially good to read in intro science classes.

Having health insurance doesn’t necessarily make healthcare affordable or accessible.

Large animal farms (actually large farms period) do incredible environmental damage with human victims.  Dairies in New Mexico have led to contaminated water in a region where water scarcity is a growing issue.

We thought flowering plants had such an advantage because of their flowers.  Actually, it’s their veins!

Teeny tiny orchid discovered by accident

Teeny tiny orchid discovered by accident

The Discovery Channel clearly doesn’t appreciate the women who watch their shows.  Otherwise why would they put out such offensive ads?

Comic books and vagina dentata.

November 14th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

I had this crazy thought that things would slow down a little after the conference.  I definitely wasn’t considering what missing a week of classes was going to do to my workload.  Oh well.

The conference was a good experience for me.  It was a smaller conference that brought together policy makers, social scientists, and ecologists to talk about water issues.  Based on the arguments conversations we had,  I can see why things take so long to change.  Most of the students, including myself, were very frustrated with the pace of the discussion.  We spent so long very carefully defining the problem (which we all knew and agreed on before we got there) instead of having real conversations about solutions.  For example, we talked a lot about how important it is to engage all stakeholders, or at least as many as you can.  I knew this before I got to the conference and so did everyone else.  I wanted to talk about why we fail at it so often, how to do it, and what to do when you can’t engage them.

October 10th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Japanese farmers grow the most beautiful apples.  The process is incredibly labor intensive, however, and may die out in the next generation or so.

Anti-Ballistic Missile Complex

Anti-Ballistic Missile Complex

Peg Mullen, the Cindy Sheehan of the Vietnam war, died last week.

Why aren’t more women philosophers?  It’s the same reason most women steer clear of computer science: the large proportion of arrogant, sexist pricks currently in the profession.

Abigail Reynolds - The Music Room

Abigail Reynolds - The Music Room

Hope you like bugs – one of their major predators is on the way out.  And amphibians aren’t the only ones in trouble: 20% of mammals, 12% of birds, 5% of reptiles, and 4% of fish are in danger of extinction.

Just one more woman on a committee or in a group can make an incredible difference.  I’ve been in math classes where I’m the only woman and math classes where I’m one of just a few women.  FSP really captures the difference in the dynamic in her post.

On COROT-7b, it rains rocks into lava lakes.

ExxonMobil is still funding climate change denial PR.  Since we’re  going to hit peak oil in the next 20 years and there’s no way we can change things fast enough to prepare for that, they’ve set themselves up for some incredible profits.  Unfortunately, their profits won’t help us much.

Think ecosystems don’t provide absolutely essential “services” for humanity?  Check out what cutting down part of a forest has done to an entire country.

September 19th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work: men, don’t rape people; women, just stop having a vagina to tempt the rapists.

Postcards from a green future by Liam Young & Darryl Chen

Postcards from a green future by Liam Young & Darryl Chen

For as wealthy as the US is, you’d think we’d have safe drinking water.  But we really don’t.  Pollution is one reason why the popularity of bottled water is such a bad thing – people think that because they’re drinking bottled water they’re safe.  Then they stop worrying about the tap water until it’s too late.

fush suckerbutt by snickcluck on Flicrk

fush suckerbutt by snickcluck on Flickr

Churches and sexual abuse seem to go hand in hand.

Ive always wondered if wed recognize alien intelligence

I've always wondered if we'd recognize alien intelligence

Nation building is for the people who live in that nation.  Also, Afghanistan has a pretty awesome (and rather long) history.

What I think when I see women in games

What I think when I see women in games