It has been four years since I have read Elizabeth Kolbert’s sprawling long essay on climate change? FOUR YEARS? I have to reread it and see if it anything has changed in that time period. If you feel like reading journalism at its best, someone reposted it: The Climate of Man 1,2,&3. This event is related to the central idea of that essay: that the demise of civilizations throughout human history have been the result of some catastrophic climate event like drought:

Environmental Lecture

Counting the Rings

Did you know that tree rings can indicate more than the number of years a tree’s been alive? The width of each ring refers to how much the tree grew that year, so scientists are able to measure the ring widths to determine when historical droughts took place. (continue reading…)

If you are one of those individuals who have reservations about global warming, climate change and how rapidly it can occur, please read on. I don’t know if Science Life readers recall back in the winter, but I wrote about this science special on the Bermuda Triangle, and scientific explanations of the mysterious happenings that occur near it. One of the most compelling theories was that of large deposits of solid methane ice that is abundant in the area, was bubbling up to the surface in massive amounts and causing disturbances with ships and planes. There is definitely enough of it down there. Now, another area of our oceans could be experiencing a similar bubbling and it is also not good news: (continue reading…)

This exhibit on climate change closes sunday:

Museum Exhibit

Say Goodbye to Climate Change

Catch it while you can, because the informative and exciting exhibit Climate Change, the Threat to Life and our Energy Future is closing after this Sunday. The exhibit examines global warming, one of our biggest environmental concerns. (continue reading…)

Happy Earth day. yes, that’s “day.” with a period, not “day!” with an exclamation point. Personally, i have little to celebrate about. I turn on the radio, (and having left the station on WFAN from the mets broadcast the day before) and i hear morning host craig carton making fun of  former NY Giant Dhani Jones for caring about his carbon footprint. By the way, my sister got me into Dhani’s new show on the travel channel where he goes all over the world playing other sports and learning about other cultures: Dhani tackles the world. (It’s a great show!). Jim just said yesterday: doing things, and going new places changes your mind (plasticity).

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If you haven’t seen Nova’s joint effort with National geographic, Extreme Ice, it’s available online in clips. It’s a really distressing look at the melting ice up north, and its much more than anticipated speed of melting. 

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Elizabeth Kolbert has an article in National Geographic where she expands her underdstanding on climate change. It highlights what I feel is missing from the current debate, an argument that trumps what all the deniers of global warming seem to not understand: (continue reading…)

I may be one of the few that really likes Al Gore. Even though he does what I hate when it comes to winning the climate debate (showing extreme possibilities as inevitable) I still agree with almost everything he says. He is writing a new book (by way of Marc Armbinder at the Atlantic): (continue reading…)

This could be a seminal moment in understanding the effects of climage change and global warming.  Tomorrow night at  8 pm, PBS is airing Nova’s Extreme Ice,  a photographer’s journey looking at the rapid and cataclysmic process of the world’s melting ice. These are unprecented human events. Think of it as watching all of the world’s skyscrapers just falling to the ground. And these skyscrapers are much, much bigger.