dispatches from Canada's capital
Climatologist James Hansen emphatically argues that cumulative emissions are what really matter – how much warming the planet experiences depends on what proportion of the world’s fossil fuels get burned. One reason for this is the long lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere, with much of it remaining after thousands of years. That being said, [...]
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Probably the most problematic thing about writing associated with Richard Feynman is repetition. Both his books and books about him tend to be at least quasi-biographical, and often feature the same stories, examples, explanations, and even bits of writing. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out certainly suffers from this flaw, at least for those who [...]
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One of the most interesting things about Richard Rhodes’ detailed history of the making of the atomic bomb is the way it gives the reader a better sense of context. This is especially true when it comes to things happening in very different places and spheres of life. It would take an unusual facility with [...]
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One of the many things that falls into the category of ‘things that climate change deniers say that are true, but deeply misleading’ is the claim that carbon dioxide (C02) is ‘plant food’ and thus beneficial to the planet. This video does a nice job of smashing that argument. Ironically, in the very long term, [...]
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Today’s Globe and Mail makes a good point about the ongoing Russian heatwave and wildfires, namely that they are a partial counter to the argument that northern countries like Russia and Canada would benefit from a warmer climate: Russia’s summer heat wave has dimmed prospects that northern countries will “win” from climate change thanks to [...]
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Generally speaking, it seems like a bad thing when human beings eliminate an entire species. That said, it is usually done by accident, as a consequence of habitat destruction and pollution. To a considerable extent, we should probably scale back those harmful activities, and think about backing up some DNA in the meantime. In at [...]
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Content copyright Milan Ilnyckyj (2003-2010). May be used non-commercially with attribution. For more details see this page.
