Global Warming is Going to Get Us

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The Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, is doing his best to get countries to work together to deal with climate change, warning us that “We have four months to secure the future of our planet.” You may think that’s alarmist, and that’s what the oil companies funding “controversy” are banking on.  Yes, figuring out past and future climate is complicated, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know the climate is changing and that the effects are going to be bad.  Even groups that traditionally denied climate change are confident enough that it’s occurring to advocate for (bad) geoengineering schemes.

Some recent climate change & environmental news:

Traditional weather patterns around the world are shifting rapidly and 1 in 7 people may be a climate refugee in as little as 50 years.

We’ve caused incredible (and deadly) algal blooms in Brittany.

We’ve made the oceans able to spawn more and deadlier hurricanes.

We’re losing many more species than we can afford.

Ecosystems are changing rapidly as some species adapt and others die out.

How to solve these problems? Consuming less is part of the solution, but reducing population is even more important.  The single best thing you can do to ensure a healthier planet and a better future for the human race is to not have children.

The real “hard sciences”

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E.O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge:

Everyone knows that the social sciences are hypercomplex.  They are inherently far more difficult than physics and chemistry, and as a result they, not physics and chemistry, should be called the hard sciences.  They just seem easier, because we can talk with other human beings but not with photons, gluons, and sulfide radicals.  Consequently, too many social-science textbooks are a scandal of banality.

What I’ve Noticed: Really Long Edition

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Between things like steep fines and jail time for the “crimes” of being poor and/or a person of color and being unable to get a job because of poor credit, it’s almost impossible to escape poverty in the US.

Moonbow

Moonbow

Yesterday was the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in WWII.

Still sucks to be a woman in Afghanistan.

The Sri Lankan government doesn’t seem much better than the LTTE.

Plants can communicate and recognize self. Awesome.

No wonder we’re all addicted to the internet.

How and why patriarchy hurts men and who stands to benefit from feminism.

Scientists are grown-ups who refuse to give up their sense of wonder & curiosity.

It’s hard to keep believing Isreal is a “victim.”

Another evangelical caught fleecing his sheep.

from flickr user bobster855

from flickr user bobster855

I’m definitely going to make these cookies.

It’s hard to chastise other countries when you’re guilty too.

The Russian government doesn’t even try to hide it.

Attacking Iran would be idiotic.

Going home isn’t easy.

Cutting already insufficient education budgets means students pay more for less.

Odd and disturbing Time magazine cover.

David Trautrimas, Sprinkler House

David Trautrimas, Sprinkler House

Think people don’t use religion to escape responsibility for their actions? Think again.

Why taking physics is important:

Extreme Pool Jump – Celebrity bloopers here

Major Prop 8 supporter gets divorce.

If ecology doesn’t work out, I’m applying at Netflix.

Incredible juxtoposition: US vs. Japanese representations of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Why we sleep: who knows?

ESA Meeting

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I spent last week at the Ecological Society of America meeting in Albuquerque.  ESA meetings are huge, and Albuquerque was not quite prepared – at least one bar ran out of beer.

Albuquerque was not the prettiest city, but I loved that there were murals everywhere.  Unfortunately, I only got one picture.

Murals are everywhere

Mural on 1st Street

 

There were so many exciting and interesting talks.  My favorite sessions were Ecological Insights from Long-Term Research Plots in Tropical and Temperate Forests and The Interplay of Ecology and Evolution at ‘Micro’ and ‘Macro’ Scales: Empirically-Motivated Theory.  I’m itching to get my hands on some of that forest data – I had no idea there were so many long term monitored forest plots across the globe.  The level of detail of the data that’s been collected is incredible – the presentation photos showed what appeared to be armies of field assistants.  The ecology and evolution talks were super interesting to me since I’d eventually like to explore that interaction for tree populations in the context of climate change.

The absolute best part of ESA, though, is the people.  I met professors I want to go to grad school with, students from all over with similar interests, and got to spend time with some of the amazing friends I made last summer.  It’s a good feeling to be able to talk about what I love without people getting bored or intimidated.

As fun as the meeting is, it is exhausting.  In an ideal world, I’d take a week off afterwards.  Unfortunately I’ve got an abstract due August 21st for this conference.  Ok, not unfortunately.  I’m SO excited to be going to the conference, but I would like at least a little bit of a break.

Davis arboretum

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While in Davis, I did take my own advice and went to the arboretum a few times.  I was especially fascinated with a group of plants in their Australian collection that produced flowers along their stems and kept on growing – you could see what was left sheathing the stems for years afterward.

strange Australian plantI wish I could remember what this group is called…

What’s the problem?

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E.O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge:

The current status of the social sciences can be put in perspective by comparing them with the medical sciences.  Both have been entrusted with big, urgent problems.  …  In both spheres the problems have been intractably complex, partly because the root causes are poorly understood.

The medical sciences are nevertheless progressing dramatically …

There is also progress in the social sciences, but it is much slower, and not at all animated by the same information flow and optimistic spirit.  Cooperation is sluggish at best; even genuine discoveries are often obscured by bitter ideological disputes …

The crucial difference between the two domains is consilience: The medical sciences have it and the social sciences do not.  Medical scientists build upon a coherent foundation of molecular and cell biology. They pursue elements of health and illness all the way down to the level of biophysical chemistry …

Social scientists, like medical scientists, have a vast store of factual information and an arsenal of sophisticated statistical techniques for its analysis.  They are intellectually capable.  Many of their leading thinkers will tell you, if asked, that all is well, that the disciplines are on track – sort of, more or less.  Still it is obvious to even casual inspection that the efforts of social scientists are snarled by disunity and a failure of vision.  And the reasons for the confusion are becoming increasingly clear.  Social scientists by and large spurn the idea of the hierarchical ordering of knowledge that unites and drives the natural sciences.

Davis

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In an attempt to avoid monsoons (and resulting migraines), I spent most of July in Davis, CA where the weather is much more consistent in the summers than where I live.

I didn’t do too many vacation-y things since I was getting ready for a conference and a workshop, but I did enjoy staying in Davis.  I especially liked how easy it was to bike around – it’s very flat, there are bike lanes everywhere, and drivers are generally aware of cyclists.  Drivers here are usually either oblivious or openly hostile.

I was also borrowing a very nice bike.

The bike I borrowed

This bike's awesomeness >> my bike's awesomeness

My bike was beaten, then abandoned, rescued by property surplus, and left outside by its next owner for a year and a half before I got it.  It’s very rusty and doesn’t change gears anymore.  It was also designed for someone about a foot taller than me.