http://www.danielbbotkin.com Reflections of a renegade naturalist Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:12:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The answer is:  ideally the best designed house would be as close to as sphere as possible.  A Buckminster Fuller geodesic Dome is a pretty good approximation. Dan Botkin http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2008/06/24/joshs-asks-so%e2%80%a6if-you-wanted-to-design-the-most-energy-efficient-home-what-shape-gives-you-the-best-surface-to-volume-ratio/ Published originally in the International Herald Tribune December 28, 2007 by Daniel B. Botkin NEW YORK: Now that the Bali conference is over and climate scientists have warned us again about the dire predictions of their climate models, a question remains: Will their forecasts come true? Given the current international focus on global warming, ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/12/31/science-and-soothsaying/ ?    Global warming and threats of extinction of species are two different issues. They may be connected, but let’s not confuse them. ?    There is ample justification for moving away from fossil fuels.  This is important to do not only because of the potential threats of global warming, but also because ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/12/06/let%e2%80%99s-get-a-little-perspective-on-global-warming-and-extinctions/ In his classic book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (originally published in 1941), Charles Mackay discusses how difficult it is to forecast the future, yet how fascinated and focused on this people become. Just how difficult, I came to realize today. In researching recent literature on ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/11/05/what-idiot-said-this-or-the-difficulty-of-predicting-the-future/ NUCLEAR POWER IS NOT A SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING Daniel B. Botkin Copyright © 2007 Daniel B. Botkin It has come as a shock to me that some of my fellow environmentalists, and one of this country’s leading newspapers, have recently begun arguing in favor of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/10/21/can-nuclear-energy-solve-our-energy-crisis/ Daniel B. Botkin Copyright © Daniel B. Botkin 2007 Fifty years ago, a group of scholars and scientists --- some of America's greatest humanitarians --- published a landmark book titled Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth. It was one of the twentieth century's major statements about how ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/06/01/mans-role-in-a-globally-warmed-world/ We hear a lot these days about what "scientists" are saying, believe, or have discovered. Especially with complicated scientific problems that have major implications for economics, politics, and society, it is important to understand the difference between scientific results and what a scientist says. Scientists play three roles in our ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/05/18/scientific-opinion-and-the-opinion-of-scientists/ The March, 2007, issue of the scientific journal, BioScience, has a new article by Daniel B. Botkin and colleagues titled Forecasting Effects of Global Warming on Biodiversity. The news release from this journal's parent organization, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, writes that "current mathematical models indicate that many species ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/05/16/will-global-warming-cause-the-extinction-of-many-species/ Daniel B. Botkin Copyright © Daniel B. Botkin 2007 As someone who has done research since 1968 on global warming and its possible effects on living things, I am impressed and surprised by the great amount of attention that the media, Congress, international bodies, and people in general are paying to this ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/04/23/global-warming-and-buying-insurance/ Copyright © Daniel B. Botkin 2007 Jim Welter lives in Brookings, Oregon, where he has spent his life as a fisherman. I first met Jim when he was in his eighties and blind in one eye — a wiry, thin, smallish man. He came to an open public meeting I ... http://www.danielbbotkin.com/2007/04/21/jim-welter-fisherman-country-philosopher-and-natural-scientist/