Get ready for International Polar Bear Day. The N Y Times reported last December 20th that the conservation organization Polar Bears International, has so designated this February 27. The debate over whether polar bears are an endangered species continues since it was made into a major environmental issue in the United States by Al Gore's 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth. … [Read more...]
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 Publishers; Originally published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, N.Y. ) Here is … [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...]
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 National Park, thought differently. He installed a photovoltaic system on his … [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 of the Advisory Board of Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for the Study of the … [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 impossible. A large number of new nuclear plants would have to be up and running in the … [Read more...]
Botkin Rule of Ecology #1
Over the years of working in the science of ecology, I have learned some basic rules. I find that many people are unaware of them, yet have firm convictions about what we should do about the environment. So I would like to share these rules with you. They are easy to understand, helpful, and even fun. I will post one of these at a time, adding to them frequently. These are … [Read more...]
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 effects on forests, I looked forward to reviewing Saving a Million Species, because … [Read more...]