Energy & Environment
It’s not Solar and Wind, but Fossil Fuels, Nuclear and Biofuels that Reap the Most Subsidy Benefits
A persistent and common criticism of solar and wind energy is that they don’t pay their own way, but require government subsidies. Discounting one-time allocations under the now infamous bailout funds, the reality is just the opposite: fossil fuels, nuclear power, and crop biofuels have been getting … [Read More...]
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...]
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
Peanut Butter In Space: How to, and how not to, develop life support systems for long-term space travel.
(This article is based on a chapter in my book Strange Encounters: Adventures of a Renegade Naturalist) If we are going to Mars and hope to settle there, we need to develop reliable ecological life-support systems that provide food, oxygen and water, and recycle wastes. Such a system doesn’t … [Read More...]
How To Live On Mars: The Ecology of Mars Colonization
A Dutch company has advertised a program to start a human colony on Mars, called the “Mars One project.” Seeking applications by those interested in becoming one of these Marsonauts, the company published an offer in which, for $34, a person could have his/her name listed as one of the applicants. … [Read More...]
What Our Forests Need: A Forum
This is a forum open to anyone who has thoughts to share about forests and forestry. I will start by expressing how I see current problems about America's forests and forestry. I have spent almost half a century trying to understand how forests work, and to use that understanding to solve … [Read More...]
