Riled Up

Fighting Climate Change with Star Power

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:15:17 GMT

For those who haven’t yet heard of a McTwist, Backside Rodeo or Triple Cork, check out the ESPN Winter X Games, which are in full swing, right now, in Aspen, Colo.

It’s a media circus and a Mecca for slouching pilgrims in baggy snowboard pants. But wait up, Dude, there’s more happening here than Red Bull hype and on-snow carnage. Between laps on the superpipe or the slopestyle course, athletes are spreading the word about climate change.

The X Games themselves aren’t entirely green. On Thursday night beneath the floodlights, crowds watched the Snowmobile Freestyle Final, in which competitors performed gasoline-powered midair flips on their sleds. Pure fossil-fueled insanity, brah.

But during the day, a handful of extreme athletes appeared at schools across Colorado’s Western Slope, urging school children to save snow from the threat of global warming. Under the aegis of Protect Our Winters (POW), Olympic snowboard silver medalist and four-time X Games gold medalist Gretchen Bleiler spoke at a high school in Carbondale (30 miles to the northwest), while her freeskiing colleagues and competitors spoke at schools in nearby Basalt, Glenwood Springs and Gypsum. The athletes, assisted by experts from the Alliance for Climate Education, share their own stories and multimedia presentations about climate science and potential solutions.

Protect Our Winters photo

POW’s Hot Planet/Cool Athletes program has sent iconic winter athletes to schools around the country since its inception in 2011, and the group estimates the program has reached 15,000 members of the next generation through its high school assemblies.

That’s some sick PR, Dawg.

– Bob Ward

From Walden Pond to the Sand County

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:27:19 GMT

Knowledge of natural history requires good observation and sometimes over many, many years. Annual bird counts by amateur investigators and researchers alike provide essential data on changes in avian populations. Likewise, plant behavior over decades can provide even more critical environmental understanding. Now, data on the time of flowering, originally gathered by two of our finest natural observers, Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, has been re-analyzed to tell us a direct story of climate change. Concern is warranted.

Publishing in the online journal PloS One using the provocative title: Record-Breaking Early Flowering in the Eastern United States, researchers at Harvard University detail changes in flowerings (phenology) from original data collected at Walden Pond and Wisconsin’s Sand Country. As the lead authors comment:

“Changes in plant phenology have broad implications at the ecosystem level. Flowering and leafing out times signal the start of the growing season, and altered phenology influences associated ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. Interactions with herbivores, pollinators, and other ecological associates may be compromised and lead to ecological mismatches.”

Reanalyzing the "first flowering" notes made by Thoreau and Leopold, 2012 showed the earliest flowering times in recorded history for dozens of spring-flowering plants of the eastern United States. These flowering results were over 160 years of botanical observations.

lowe

Initiation of Flowering, Walden, MA., and Dane Co., WI

This ground-breaking analysis of original flowering observations resulted from a research initiative---Assembling the Tree of Life---that was started by the Science Foundation in 2012. It will be fascinating to see other interconnections of 'Life on Earth' that show up from additional projects.

WHB

The Bucket List

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:42:31 GMT

Got this email just now from my homie. Thought I’d share in case you’re interested in coming to the party.

-RC

to: buddies (list)

from: jenkoff@youmail.com

Subject: World’s End Party

Sup bros!?

LeRoy T. Jenkins here, on parole but still going strong.

Like 6 million other Americans, you and I know that the world is ending. We need to party like it's our last night, cause it is.

(BTW, my friend Hugh said wrongly that the world was supposed to end at midnight last night. It's tonight, Hugh -- get your facts straight.)

So here's how we are going to work the party tonight:

I’ve worked up a "bucket list." These are things that I would like to do before midnight, when a planet called Planet X or Planet Nibiru slams into the Earth, and we're out.

[Photo from UFOSightingsDaily]

This bucket list will be screwed into the wall of Danny's house – sorry, Danny, you weren't getting your deposit back anyway. Whoever checks off the most items from the bucket list wins the party and wins, as prize, a football I got free and a yoga mat that is only slightly soiled.

Here is the list:

1. Eat four Baconators.
2. Call everyone you ever secretly hated and tell them that you hate them. Call everyone you ever secretly loved and tell them that you love them. For everyone you secretly don't care all that much about, "like" them on Facebook.
3. Get a YOLO face tattoo.
4. Enter a bank wearing a balaclava and holding a gun. Sneer at the teller, "I'm here to make a deposit, Jack!" When he starts handing you cash, slide it back and say, "Are you deaf? I said deposit." Hand over a deposit envelope. Ask, pleasantly, "Is this not how this works?"
5. Kick a pigeon.

You may say: “LeRoy, you’re already living your days like they’re your last. I’ve even seen you kick pigeons.” True, true. But it wasn't a terrible decision, right? Pigeons are buttholes. And if you take the cosmic view of history, you know that your 80 years on this planet is, basically, a few seconds. So I drank too much and saved too little and I didn't floss. So what?

Was I that different from everybody else? Even, like, politicians?

If you read the newspaper, it looks like we all drew up a bucket list, sometime around 1500, or maybe 1500 BC, which wasn't much different from my list for tonight.

It was something like:

1. Conquer all. Rape a little, pillage a little, enjoy the local fruits and vegetables, and why not take a slave? They work cheap.
2. Is there a minority you're not too fond of? Have you considered genocide?
3. See a tree? Cut it down. See some oil? Burn it.
4. If you're rich and fat:
        A. Build yourself a massive mausoleum, but not roads to get there.
        B. Engineer a financial collapse. Wait for bailout.
        C. Underfund education. Overpay for bling.
5. When your smartest people tell you something that feels wrong – when astronomers say that the earth revolves around the sun, when lawyers say that democracy is a right, when preachers say that all men are created equal, when artists say that every war might not be a good war – kill those people.
6. When your smartest people tell you that it's getting hot in here because some invisible gas portends a hot, chaotic future, kill them, too. If killing smart people is currently unfashionable, ridicule them by pointing out that it's snowing somewhere. (It's always snowing somewhere.)

Let’s be honest -- that way of living worked out spectacularly well, at least for certain people. We’re super-rich now and super-fat, like, uber-fat, like so fat we’re affecting the orbits of other planets and LeRoy T. Jenkins – no skinny dude myself -- has lately had to bend my rule about “No Fat Chicks.”

So, bring your game face tonight and spring for the expensive beer. If there’s any downside to my lists, it won't matter tomorrow, because there is no tomorrow.

It’s how we’ve always rolled, my brothers.

LTJ

P.S. Who’s bringing Hot Pockets?

Yes, it’s a Trash Can. Yes, it’s Awesome.

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 23:14:00 GMT

Check this out.

Yes, it’s a trash can.

But it’s no ordinary trash can.

This is a self-powered, self-compacting trash bin from Big Belly Solar that senses when it’s getting full and then compacts itself. When it fills up 85 percent of the way, it’ll send a message to the right person that it’s ready for emptying. This reduces collection trips, fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, and eliminates the costs of servicing empty bins.

- Michaela Capps

For Earth Day: 10 Ideas

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:21:00 GMT

Today is Earth Day.

A celebration is in order because an educational gathering that was initiated here in the USA 40 years ago has now grown into a world-wide event. But it should also be recognized that even more needs to be accomplished now towards protecting and restoring the environment. A TED Talk reminds us why we have an Earth Day to begin with:

Willie Smits on Restoring a Rainforest in Borneo (credit: TED Conferences)

Here are 10 ideas on ways that anyone can participate in a project that assists in helping to further any one of a myriad of Earth Day objectives:

1. become educated on the environment in your area and get kids involved in investigative programs like Roots & Shoots;

2. plant a tree with kids or read to them about a man who replanted a forest;

3. participate with 350.org and the upcoming Climate Impact Day to show concern about climate change;

4. participate with organizations like the Earth Day Network;

5. work to help restore a river like the efforts of the pioneering group, Save The Colorado;

6. investigate green building programs and energy efficient architectural design technologies;

7. ask the meat department of your grocery store if they sell fish harvested from sustainable sources;

8. learn about the oceans and the status of sharks, dolphins, whales, coral reefs, and volunteer to help turtles anywhere;

9. consider over population and get some endangered species condoms promoted by the Center for Biological Diversity;

10. get outside, camp in the mountains, walk on a beach, or hike in the forest to enjoy the beauty and the wonder around you.

Be mindful that Earth Day isn’t something to be celebrated just once a year.

Riled Up

Greening Captured

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 12:37:00 GMT

Spring arrived earlier this year, perhaps by nearly a month from anecdotal accounts. A NASA satellite has captured an image of the Piedmont area, between the Appalachians and the Atlantic coast, using its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that is providing more precise measurements. In an early April image, the Appalachian Mountains remain brown as the trees cover higher elevations and have not begun producing leaves yet.

Spring Greening along East Coast

(credit: NASA)

The timing of ‘leaf break’ and first flowing are important tools to determine the start of spring. Along with the tree leafing, initial flowering of plants, and animal migrations, these environmentally induced events have been occurring earlier as field studies and bird counts have all confirmed. They are further indications that climate change is now affecting multiple biological “clocks” with still unknown consequences. NASA satellite monitors like MODIS are now providing data on ecosystem level scales.

WHB

Climate Change on Steroids

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:57:00 GMT

If you’re someone who is perplexed to understand weather events and their relationship to climate change, then a clever video by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research UCAR is worth watching. Comparing increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to a baseball player on steroids, the effects become obvious:

Baseball and the Climate on Steroids (credit: NCAR & UCAR)

WHB

Restoring Hawaii

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:03:00 GMT

Beyond the fancy resorts of Waikiki or Kona, the beauty of the Hawaii can be sadly diminished and unknown to the Island’s tourists. The early Polynesians released rummaging pigs that soon went feral exposing mountainous vegetation to erosion; later, 19th Century white settlers logged off vast native koa tree forests converting the landscape to cattle ranches; and now more recently arrived mosquitoes spread avian malaria that has decimated native Hawaiian bird populations found nowhere else on Earth.

If there ever were landscapes where environmental repair was appropriate, Hawaii represents a great example and a place to apply ecological principals and new restoration technologies.

An innovative initiative known as the Ka'ena Restoration Project is making an excellent start on Oahu. Early results show how quickly an ecosystem can recover when proper planning is applied and pressure from invasive species is removed. Using a new technology called Xcluder, a barrier was erected across the peninsula that prevented predators access to Ka’ena Point and rats and cats were manually trapped and eliminated from the inside. In little more than an year after the novel predator-proof fence was completed and off-road vehicles were banned, bird populations have increased and damaged vegetation had recovered to blanket the Island’s northern point. The results are amazing.

The Hawaii Reporter celebrated this pioneering project and the collaborative efforts of Hawaiian natural resource agencies, a private environmental restoration company, and individual volunteers.

Ka’ena Point, Hawaii Wedge-tailed Shearwater Laysan Albatross with chick

(credit: Ka’ena Restoration) (credit: Ka’ena Restoration Project) (credit: Hawaii Reporter)

Populations of sea birds like the soaring Laysan albatross are being monitored and hatchlings banded to track their migrations. Marine mammals like humpback whales and monk seals have been observed at the point as well. A short video talks about the project:

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Ka’ena Restoration Project

There is much more needed before invasive species are fully controlled and many other damaged places exist in Hawaii but projects such as this show what is possible with insight, appropriate technology, and dedicated people.

What environments need restoring near you?

WHB

Big Data

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:18:00 GMT

When I was a grad student conducting ecological field research in the 1970’s, I spent much time in the mountains. My research consisted of an early examination into the environmental factors influencing restoration of vegetation destroyed by fires in the Colorado Rockies. The project required the collection of copious scientific measurements from multiple study sites across diverse plant species, soil chemistry, light intensity, air temperatures, and fire timelines. All this data was necessary to develop a comprehensive predictive model of the limiting factors to high elevation forest and tundra recovery.

‘Back in the Day’ I collected this data using a hand-held device, a punch-card system developed by IBM, called a “Port-a-punch”. IBM had never thought of an ecological application for their prototype device so I was on the “cutting edge”. Unlike taking handwritten field notes, the little, portable, gadget was really quite handy. It worked by using a stylus to manually eliminate chads in the cards, each hole representing a specific field measurement. The punched cards were later fed into a reader attached to one of those massive computers stored in a sterile, air-conditioned, room back at the university.

I now use a laptop with more computing power than that entire room of machines and data collection and storage has exploded exponentially over the past 40 years. There is little chance of this changing anytime soon. Informed data interpretation is still critical in understanding a given situation, issue, or topic, however.

Old School Computer Room Port-a-punch Portable Data Recorder

(credit: Computer History Museum) (credit: Wiki-Commons)

I was reminded of all this while reading an article about efforts to get a handle around the flood of new digital information, or big data.

The White House Office of Science and Technology, DARPA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the Defense Department have joined forces and developed a new computational research initiative. The goal of this effort is to address opportunities by combine diverse data sources from the internet, industrial sensors, social networks, and satellites to increase interpretation of important issues like improved weather prediction, climate change impacts, visual animations, crime prediction, business and insurance risk assessments, and any number of discoveries not yet imagined.

Hurricane and environmental impact analyses have already benefited from using “big data” for predictive modeling. However, the scientific and artistic applications of these new manipulation technologies is limited only by the imagination.

Hurricane Models Using "Big Data” Visualization of Data Sets

(credit: NSF) (credit: NSF)

The Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas was an early adopter of “big data” sets for creating advanced hurricane models and the Scientific and Imaging Institute at the University of Utah has been a leader in data visualizations of everything from interactive surgery to animated films.

Such new computational and imaging tools will impact all of us in ways we can’t imagine. They sure have come a long way from my Port-a-punch data and mainframe computer analysis days.

WHB

Rampage of the Pythons

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:29:00 GMT

Invasive species are annoying.

Whether they are cane toads hopping across Australia, kudzu vines smothering southern pine forests, or lionfish eating Caribbean coral reefs, these new visitors from other environments are rapidly growing in their frequency, impacts, and eradication costs. Such unwelcome guests can be especially troublesome if they happen to be an apex or top predator like pythons that have invaded the Florida in massive numbers.

OnPoint Radio from WBUR focused attention on the invasive snake from southeast Asia that is on the move after having eaten virtually all the small mammals in the Everglades National Park in Florida. Even an entire deer was found inside one 17 foot monster sized python. The apex predators were introduced into Florida’s ecosystem after becoming too large to maintain in a home aquarium. The snakes were originally purchased for $19.95 as pets from shopping mall stores. Like other weedy species, the snakes reproduce profusely, adapt readily to new landscapes, and are general in their dietary requirements. They are especially hard to locate in the vast river-of-grass that is the Everglades. The potential extent of the slithering reptiles migration isn’t known but the environmental conditions that could support python populations covers a wide area of the southern USA, particularly along the Gulf Coast.

Burmese Python in Everglades Potential Range of Python Survival

(credit: Florida Highway Patrol) (credit: USGS

If all the wildlife destruction weren’t enough, the pythons are battling the iconic alligators of the swamps. The winner is unclear but you’ll need to watch the video.

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Python and Alligator Combat

If it isn’t already obvious, invasive species are super-annoying and really bad news.

WHB

Chasing Ice

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:35:00 GMT

In the vein of full disclosure, it must be admitted that I am super-biased about the subject matter of a yet-to-be released movie, Chasing Ice, the film’s subject James Balog, a friend of 40 years, and the Sundance Film Festival where I was an original long-time volunteer. It is hard not to celebrate this fantastic documentary film, the dedicated explorer-photographer, and a festival that has come to represent all that is important in independent filmmaking.

Chasing Ice chronicles the efforts of Balog and his small, elite, crew of scientists, engineers, and artists to bring the existential reality of climate change to a wider audience beyond dry government reports and climate statistics. It succeeds well at this task as The Hollywood Reporter so aptly reviewed.

Using spectacular photography for which he is well known from work with National Geographic Magazine and augmented by incredible time-lapse imagery and video, Balog brings the audience along on his personal journey to try and grasp the magnitude of climate change. He decides to focus on ice and all its forms from broken chunks to glaciers and icebergs in arctic and alpine regions. The technical and logistic struggles Jim and his crew had endure were amazing and deeply moving.

Chasing Ice (Credit: Sundance FF)

Chasing Ice poster Chasing Ice film crew Time-lapse Camera

(credit: SWP Media) (credit: Sundance Green Room) (credit: SWP Media)

The film won a Sundance award for the brilliant cinematography of the young filmmaker, Jeff Orlowski, and the film was totally sold out during the entire festival. Sundance is also a world marketplace for acquiring new films and the documentary was purchased for distribution by National Geographic Television as The Washington Post reported.

Watch for Chasing Ice at a film festival near you, in a local TV Guide listing, and hopefully at a cinema somewhere near you. Maybe the documentary shown in the thin air of Park City, Utah will be nominated for a documentary award in a large room in LA in 2013.

WHB

Penguins Aren't People

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:05:00 GMT

by Conrad Anker

Humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize animals.

Penguins, with their tuxedo like plumage and waddle, are a fine example of how we extend characteristics and behavior of humans to animals. The physical similarity makes the connection to animals is logical--- they are born, they die, and they share a brief time span on this planet. Obviously penguins, cute and adorable as they are, would not be granted personhood in the Bill of Rights. Less obvious are corporations and unions. Do groups of people speaking as corporations and unions have the same rights as individuals?

On the 21^st of January 2012 the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission observers its second anniversary. In 2010, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow corporations and unions to support political candidates. The ruling gave corporations First Amendment rights, under free speech, to favor or oppose candidates as they choose. The central theme is that corporations are people. However, the question should be, “Does money equate to free speech?”

Ninety-nine years ago, Montana faced a similar dilemma with the powerful Copper Kings of Butte spending large sums of money to influence elections. The 1912 Montana Corrupt Practices Act specifically blocked political speech by corporations. The citizen initiative won on the ballot, as there was a clear need to balance the might of the, then, powerful Copper Kings, who were buying elections.

The elections of 2010 were the first campaign cycle corporate entities could freely favor or oppose candidates with unlimited and unrestricted spending. While a boon to Political Action Committees (PAC) and the special interest groups they represent, it was a step away from protecting the individual under the Bill of Rights. The Citizens United case will affect the upcoming 2012-election cycle. While more information is generally seen as a boon to an informed electorate, much of the advertising is negative and inflammatory. This widens the current divide along partisan lines, further fueling the dysfunctional gridlock Washington is currently experiencing.

On December 30, 2010 the Montana Supreme Court defended the Corrupt Practices Act. Chief Justice McGrath declared for the court, “Citizens United does not compel a conclusion that Montana’s law, prohibiting independent political expenditures by a corporation related to a candidate, is unconstitutional.” The core of this discussion hinges on ‘are corporations individuals’ and ‘can they spend unlimited money to influence elections’. Montana has defended the Corrupt Policies Act, which applies only to state elections. All federal elections are under the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling.

Montana Supreme court

(credit: montana.gov)

Montana’s Senate election of 2012 between Sen. Jon Tester and challenger Dennis Rehburg is going to be front and center in the debate of corporations as citizens and corporate campaign influence. With a small electorate, relative to the national scale, and the chance to gain Senate majority by the Republican Party in 2012, this cycle is going to be rife with negative political advertising. Both parties are lining up to assail the other and persuade you, the voter, to cast your lot with their view. While the various public media stand to benefit from the increased financial resources going into the election, it will not necessarily make for a well-informed electorate.

Ninety-nine years ago the citizens of Montana stood up to corporate influence. We learned the lessons of how special interests, when backed by financial resources, can mute the individual to the collective detriment. While corporations and unions are essential to our society, from an economic and political standpoint, giving them the same rights as an individual does not benefit the individual. Corporate interests smother independent businesses, the under-represented, and the health of our democracy. Montana went through this a century ago and a lesson was learned us well.

Penguins are not people and neither are corporations.

Conrad Anker is a renowned mountaineer and environmentalist. This year, Conrad will participate in a special expedition to Mount Everest and document changes on the mountain over the past 60 years. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Happy Birthday, ESA

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:08:00 GMT

The Endangered Species Act became law on December 28, 1973. That makes the law 38 years old today and appropriate for some recognition of accomplishments over the years. The ESA was a pioneering piece of American environmental legislation.

The Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It was designed to protect critically imperiled plant and animal species from extinction as stated in its charter as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.”

Since the Act went into effect, combined efforts by public agencies such as the Fish & Wildlife Service, private conservation foundations like the Center for Plant Conservation, numerous biological researchers, and concerned individuals have helped in the identification, designation, collection, propagation, and restoration of endangered species to protected habitats nationwide. Species rescued and restored include iconic American animals and little known plants like the Bald Eagle, the California Condor, the Gray Whale, the Peregrine Falcon, the California sea otter, the Hawaiian nene goose, the San Clemente paintbrush, the Hawaiian Cabbage-on-a-Stick (Brighamia), and numerous species of desert cacti. Hawaii, Texas, California, and Florida have the most identified endangered species but the Act covers every American landscape.

California sea otter San Clemente paintbrush Northern spotted Owl Hawaiian Brighamia Gray Whale (credit: NOAA)

(credit: Wikipedia) (credit: USDA) (credit: USFWS) (credit: NTBG)

There have been a few species that were not saved from extinction but the successes greatly out-number the losses and potential conflicts with development have been limited. The law is a major cornerstone of American conservation in action and should be celebrated.

Here’s to a big Happy Birthday to the ESA and its continued future conservation successes.

WHB

Monster Storm

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:29:00 GMT

It isn’t often that a hurricane heads towards Alaska but one is on its way. The storm barreling towards the Baring Straits is predicted to carry hurricane-force winds and waves as it hits along the Alaskan coast. The National Weather Service has stated: "This will be an extremely dangerous and life-threatening storm of epic magnitudes rarely experienced," in Alaska.

A NOAA satellite image captured the scale of the weather system.

Massive storm hits Alaska (credit: NOAA)

Monster storms have been common this year in many regions. So far, there is no mention of a reason for a hurricane of this magnitude would evolve so far from tropical latitudes over cold marine waters.

WHB

The Storms Are On The Ocean

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:40:00 GMT

The Appalachian folksingers, the Carter Family, wrote a beautiful sea shanty-- The Storms Are On The Ocean --about a sailor leaving his homeland and a girl far behind:

I'm going away to leave you, love
I'm going away for awhile, 
But I'll return to you again someday
If I go ten thousand miles

In the 18th and 19th Centuries seafaring voyages like the one in the Carter tune were a treacherous matter and storms were always on the horizon. Times and sea going vessels have changed but the threat of storms has not. They are getting even more intense and dangerous with each passing year due to a changing climate.

A recent paper shows just how dangerous storms are becoming. In this case. the atmospheric pollution, instead of CO2, comes from smoke and soot. Environmental researchers at the University of Virginia compared cyclone patterns in the Arabian Sea between 1979-2010, a thirty year period. Their report, Arabian Sea Tropical Cyclones Intensified by Emissions, was just published by Nature Magazine. It showed the Indian Ocean region historically averaged two or three weak cyclones per year even though the surrounding ocean temperatures—water surface temperatures drive storm intensity --were warm enough to generate much more powerful storms. The reason for this low cyclone level was due to upper atmospheric wind shear that destroyed the tops of developing cyclones, preventing them from creating the circular winds typical of such a large storm. The Virginia research team was led by Amato Evan and their study showed that now, clouds of particulates-- the result of incomplete burning of coal, biomass used in cooking, and deforestation fires in Asia --have grown in volume six times since the 1930’s. The particulates have changed the past wind shear patterns. The aerosol and soot pollution is now a disruptive climatic change phenomenon in itself and not dissimilar from the effects increased carbon dioxide emissions have on storm intensities.

Asian aerosol pollution, 2009

(credit: UCSD climate change symposium)

Dr. Evan’s research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that commented on his results by saying: "This study is a striking example of how human reactions, on a large enough scale-- in this case, massive regional air pollution caused by inefficient fuel combustion --can result in unintended consequences.

The traditional Appalachian songwriters could never have believed that the storms they sang about would get anywhere this bad. It is unlikely that their sailor boy ever made it home.

WHB

Antarctica cracks up

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:27:00 GMT

New imagery from aerial surveys of Antarctica shows the development of an enormous crack in the Pine Island Glacier. Measurements indicate that the glacier basin makes the highest contribution of ice into the ocean than any other glacier in the world. This is of particular interest since the ice sheet is so large, unstable, and a large source of uncertainty in predicting rising sea levels due to global climate change.

You can watch the impressive NASA video here:

Major crack observed in Antarctic ice shelf (credit: NASA)

Riled Up

Stop it, Bag it, Save it

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:20:00 GMT

As one commentator has noted: “We need to stop throwing stuff away since there is no more away there to throw it” as he reflected on the expanse of plastic debris in the ocean known as the Pacific Garbage Patch.

This massive gyre of pulverized rubbish is the result of garbage being cast overboard by large ships and subsequently pulverized by wave action. The consequences for marine wildlife including birds, turtles, and dolphins who ingest the materials is tragic and preventable. It is also an example of a wasteful, throw-away, society and an inefficient use of plastics, all products of petroleum.

The International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii has graphically illustrated just how massive the garbage patch has become. The dump now includes debris from the Japanese tsunami at Fukushima moving around the Pacific Ocean. The IPRC’s animations show the predicted path of trash movements and their eventual deposit on Hawaiian and West Coast beaches.

2011 Tsunami debris 5 year simulation

(credit: International Pacific Research Center)

The environmental documentary film, Bag-It, showcased the absurdities of these approaches to consumption of natural resources. Mr. Bag-It often appears at screenings to inform audiences that it is well past the time that we end throwing stuff away (stop it); initiate serious efforts to recycle plastics (bag it); and start rescuing the oceans (save it).

Bag-It (credit: MtFilm)

WHB

Climate crimes

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:43:53 GMT

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:43:53 GMTTim DeChristopher-- the climate activist --received a 2 year felony sentence for disrupting a federal auction of oil & gas leases near preserved parklands in southern Utah. He's now in jail. We're not attorneys but other successful bidders in earlier BLM drilling auctions didn't get tried or go to jail for failure to pay. The Huffington Post provided a reasoned perspective on the sentencing and related events here. Whatever the merits or demerits of the trial, we do agree with the sentiment expressed by these climate demonstrators awaiting the verdict outside the courthouse: [caption id="attachment_5949" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="Climate demonstrators (source: file photo)"][/caption] What will the future say are the real climate and environmental crimes being committed today? Riled Up

The Inspiration Gap

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 06:58:05 GMT

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 06:58:05 GMTHere at Riled Up we try to showcase a diversity of discoveries and thoughts about the world of science, exploration, and the excitement, issues, and beauty that can be encountered in such pursuits. National Public Radio has aired a commentary about inspiration and curiosity with the conclusion of NASA's shuttle program. It speaks to the scientific "sparks" that can grab and cultivate a young mind. The astrophysicist, Adam Frank, offers a personal reflection that is worth a listen here: The Inspiration Gap The space program caught the attention and curiosity of many kids in the 1960's like Frank. I wonder if the opportunities and challenges of climate change, energy, and the environment will grab another generation's imagination and talent? WHB

Mountainfilm in Telluride

Sun, 29 May 2011 22:24:48 GMT

Sun, 29 May 2011 22:24:48 GMTFor 18 years, I have participated in the ongoing conversation about mountaineering, social action, and the environment known as Mountainfilm in Telluride. It is a remarkable gathering in the remote San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. I'm always thrilled by the engaged lives of those who come to present their latest thinking represented in books, photography, and documentary films. Their inspirational creativity, dedication, and progressive ideas draw us all back to Telluride like moths to a flame. [caption id="attachment_4363" align="aligncenter" width="1024" caption="MtFilm in Telluride photo credit: SWP Media"][/caption] It's not possible to review everything that happens during MtFilm but here are three films that screened over the Memorial Day weekend that are representative: Magic Trip: the famous 60's road trip by the iconic writer Ken Kesey and his tour bus, Further. The documentary was created from recently discovered archival footage filmed during Kesey's travels, and showed a compelling, if chaotic, view of a period -- now a memory -- and personal adventuring that remains for all time. Happy: was a wonderful and timely exploration of the emerging research from human psychology, neurology, and brain science on the importance of happiness and compassion to daily life. The blended perspectives and happiness case studies should be seen by anyone trying to live in this world of woes. Waiting for a Train: a humorous view of a Japanese guy who fell in love with American country and bluegrass music while still a kid in Tokyo. He now does gigs in the USA. Seeing him singing Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams tunes in a Texas jam session was worth the ticket price alone. Who doesn't love train songs? Did I mention that the Mountain Film programming is eclectic? I can hardly wait for the 2012 festival reunion. WHB