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US Economy and Rising Seas

Posted by EarthDude on Tuesday, 09 August 2011 in Climate Change

As many of this column’s readers know, I am from the U.S. and have lived in Europe and most recently Canada for the 10 years since getting my Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. While I am no economist (my Ph.D. is in business), I believe that the recent U.S. debt crisis and the complete and ...

The World at 7 Billion

Posted by EarthDude on Thursday, 04 August 2011 in Human Health

Demographers aren't known for their sense of humor, but the ones who work for the United Nations recently announced that the world's human population will hit 7 billion on Halloween this year. Since censuses and other surveys can scarcely justify such a precise calculation, it's tempting to imagine ...

Heat Waves Around the US

Posted by EarthDude on Tuesday, 26 July 2011 in Climate Change

Americans withered under yet another day of searing sun Friday as a heat wave spread in earnest into the urban core of the Northeast, while excessive heat warnings stretched from Kansas to Maine and the Carolinas.Temperatures were forecast near or into the triple digits Friday and into the weekend. ...

Obama’s Chance to Reduce Auto Emissions and Our Thirst for Oil

Posted by EarthDude on Sunday, 24 July 2011 in Fossil Fuels

PRESIDENT Obama has promised to break the United States’ oil addiction and tackle global warming. With a decision he will make in coming days, he can do both, and help consumers cut gas costs as well. The right decision would be to order automakers to reduce tailpipe emissions by 6 percent, steerin...

Yellowstone Cleanup Will Take More People

Posted by EarthDude on Sunday, 24 July 2011 in Earth Violators

Exxon Mobil Corp will bring in more people to mop up oil from a broken pipeline beneath the Yellowstone River as receding floodwaters reveal new contamination, federal officials said Friday.Also Friday, Montana environmental regulators said the pipeline may have leaked up to 1,200 barrels of oil int...

Global Warming is a Global Problem

Posted by EarthDude on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 in Climate Change

Citizens of developed economies are used to being shielded from the environmental or human impacts of the products and services they use every day. We have "clever" marketing people to thank for this ignorance. We don't think about a coalmine or gas plant when we flick a light switch. All we s...

EPA Update on Yellowstone River Oil Spill

Posted by EarthDude on Monday, 11 July 2011 in Earth Violators

On July 6th EPA issued ExxonMobil an administrative order instructing them to provide information on the circumstances of the spill, conduct appropriate recovery and remediation actions, and perform ongoing environmental sampling. The order also requires ExxonMobil to provide a work pla...

Red, White and Green on the 4th of July

Posted by EarthDude on Friday, 01 July 2011 in Buy Local

The 4th of July weekend is upon us, which means we're lighting up our grills all across the country. There's nothing like a great bar-b-cue shared with friends and family. With the increasing concern about our health and that of the planet, I'd like to take a few minutes and talk about how you can m...

Coal Vs. Nuclear

Posted by EarthDude on Tuesday, 14 June 2011 in Fossil Fuels

As America struggles down the road toward a coherent energy policy that focuses on a higher degree of self-reliance, policymakers face numerous issues and realities. These include: the finite supply and environmental impact of fossil fuels, the feasibility and costs to implement a widespread switch ...

Washington Should Lead on Climate Change

Posted by EarthDude on Monday, 06 June 2011 in Climate Change

Over the next two weeks, representatives from 194 nations will meet in Bonn, Germany, to push forward a deal to stabilize the global climate and help poor countries address the inevitable changes that global warming brings. Tornadoes, record-breaking heat waves, devastatin...

The Carbon President

Posted by EarthDude on Friday, 03 June 2011 in Fossil Fuels

He promised to slow the ocean's rise, but Obama has opened the mine gates. Luckily, tough terrain is fighting back In our globalised world, old-fashioned geography is not supposed to count for much: mountain ranges, deep-water ports, railroad grades – those seem so 19th century. The ...

Two Greenland Glaciers Lose Enough Ice to Fill Lake Erie

Posted by EarthDude on Wednesday, 25 May 2011 in Climate Change

A new study aimed at refining the way scientists measure ice loss in Greenland is providing a "high-definition picture" of climate-caused changes on the island. And the picture isn't pretty. In the last decade, two of the largest three glaciers draining that frozen landscape have lost enough ice tha...

KIDS - Fighting Climate Change Through Innovative Initiatives

Posted by EarthDude on Friday, 20 May 2011 in Environmental Heroes

Floods and droughts may be the "new normal" and sea levels may be rising faster than previously thought, but the younger generation isn’t willing to accept these climate change consequences for their future. As the grownups duke it out in Washington, kids take action with visible r...

Top U.S. Scientists "Global Warming. Really. We Are Not Kidding."

Posted by EarthDude on Monday, 16 May 2011 in Climate Change

by Adam Frank Last week the National Research Council, one the nation's leading scientific bodies, published yet another report on the current state of climate research. What was newsworthy about this effort was the degree to which (from my perspective) the nation's best scientists seemed to ...

Bamboo grass may hold key to fighting global warming

Posted by EarthDude on Thursday, 05 May 2011 in Agriculture

Bulacan, Philippines — The Bulacan Environment and Natural Resources Office (BENRO) emphasized yesterday the value of bamboo in Philippine culture as well as its ability to fight the adverse effects of global warming, earning the support of the Capitol leadership. Recent studies show that s...

Cooling on Global Warming

Posted by EarthDude on Wednesday, 27 April 2011 in Climate Change

"What the heck went wrong?" That, apparently, is the question roiling the environmental community as it realizes that the fight against climate change has fizzled. As Brad Plumer writes in the New Republic, everything was looking great in 2008 for a sweeping effort to make good on candidate Barac...

Wide-Ranging Oil Spill Scenarios

Posted by EarthDude on Tuesday, 26 April 2011 in Oil Spill

After millions of gallons of oil spilled and billions of dollars spent, Mark Cohen figures the United States is ready to handle a spill like the deepwater blowout that fouled the Gulf of Mexico a year ago. But it's probably not prepared for the one that happened in 1979. Ixtoc was a nine-month spi...

What Will You Do For Earth Day?

Posted by EarthDude on Wednesday, 20 April 2011 in Environmental Heroes

Need something to do for Earth Day? Here are several Earth Day links to choose from. EARTH DAY LINKS DLTK's Crafts for Kids features an entire section on craft-making for Earth Day. You'll find songs, coloring pages and construction paper crafts, plus some entertaining online games.Earth ...

Why Do Sea Turtles Need Solar Panels?

Posted by EarthDude on Sunday, 10 April 2011 in Wildlife Conservation

Five things you may or may not know about sea turtles: They can live 80 years or longer. They're important to ocean and beach ecologies. They're immune to (and happily feed on) deadly box jellyfish. All seven species worldwide are either endangered or critically endangered. And solar panels might be...