Energy & Environment
Solar Energy Where It’s COLD Outside
For most people, the very north of Michigan, the Keweenaw Peninsula, on the shore of Lake Superior, might seem an unlikely place to get electricity from solar energy. But Professor Rolf Peterson of Michigan Technical University, well-known for leading the long-term study of wolves of Isle Royale … [Read More...]
The Shifting Geography, Technology, and Politics of U.S. Energy Production
Guest article by Joe Browder. About the author: Joe Browder of Washington, DC, an active participant in Meeting of the Minds, is a consultant to global energy and automotive companies, NGOs and to Native American groups, chairs the Advisory Committee of China’s ChangCe Institute and is a member … [Read More...]
Is There Nuclear Power in Our Future?
Can We Build Enough Nuclear Power Plants Fast Enough? In a recent (May 22, 2013) Wall Street Journal article, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger state that nuclear power “is the best chance we have to make big reductions in carbon emissions quickly.” In fact, however, “quickly” is … [Read More...]
Biological Diversity
How Many Grizzly Bears Were There Before European Settlement of the West, and How Many Are There Now?
I tried to estimate how many grizzly bears there were at the beginning of the 19th century and how many there are today. I wrote about this in my book, Beyond the Stony Mountains: Nature in the American West from Lewis and Clark to Today (available 2012 as an ebook, New York, Croton River … [Read More...]
The story of the moon in the nautilus shell is now a video
The chamber nautilus and its fossils that go back 500 million years tell us about the history of connection between Earth and moon. See the new video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyPKoJY23xU … [Read More...]
Morph The Moose
A New Symbol For Our Times! As the summer wildfire season approaches, we need to rethink how we manage forest fires. It is time to say goodbye to Smokey Bear, because suppressing all fires leads eventually to very large, intense, and disastrous fires. Most forests in the United States used to … [Read More...]
Global Warming & Life
REVIEW OF Saving a Million Species: Extinction Risk from Climate Change by Lee Hannah (ed). 2011. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
(This review was Published in Ecological Restoration Volume 31, Number 1, March 2013, pp. 99-100) (Copyright by the journal 2013; all rights reserved) Having begun research on possible ecological effects of global warming in 1968 and developing one the first major methods to forecast such … [Read More...]
Carbon Dioxide and Temperature: Who Has Led Whom?
As I wrote in my new book, The Moon in the Nautilus Shell, given the scientific complexities, one can only be rather agnostic about the role that human actions have played and are playing in climate change. A new, important paper in the journal Science casts some fascinating light on the question … [Read More...]
Excerpt for Scientific American: Get Used to Climate Change
The following excerpt from The Moon in the Nautilus Shell: Discordant Harmonies Reconsidered, by Daniel B. Botkin (Oxford University Press, 2012. Copyright © 2012) appeared in Scientific American magazine on December 7, 2012. "Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot … [Read More...]
People & Nature
Is it People Versus Nature or People Within Nature?
Among the many stories that have come out of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition that got stuck in the ice, is this quote: “It's fantastic—I love it when the ice wins and we don't," marine ecologist Tracy Rogers told the BBC journalist onboard, adding: "It reminds you that as humans, we don't … [Read More...]
Thinking about Goals for People and the Environment
Having worked in ecology and dealt with applied environmental problems for 45 years, I think about what are the leading environmental problems that face us today in the 21st century. Climate change has captured people’s attention, but there are other issues that we need to consider. Here’s my … [Read More...]
My Natural History Travels Following the Life of Henry David Thoreau: Concord, Walden, Maine Woods, and Cape Cod.
I have followed the travels of Henry David Thoreau as he tried to understand nature, wildness, wilderness, and civilization during his lifetime (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862). He lived most of his life in Concord, MA, traveling and writing books about: the woods of Maine including his hike up Mt. … [Read More...]
