Mark Bittman makes the point in his column at the New York Times today, that the biggest killer of Americans isn't guns but industrial agriculture. A point I have made repeatedly with my family over the years. ...the root of that dangerous diet is our system of hyper-industrial agriculture,…
My wife and I were having a conversation about the weather/climate of our youth. What brought the conversation up was the fact that I was mowing grass in our yard on January 11 as the temperature approach 70°. I commented on the fact that when I was a teenager in…
Federal scientists confirmed Friday that Texas had its driest year on record in 2011. The statewide average rainfall for the year totaled just 14.88 inches, according to the National Climatic Data Center, beating the previous low of 14.99 inches set in 1917. During the last century, Texas averaged 27.92 inches of rain…
This hour, with Bill McKibben, we seek perspective, both factual and moral, on human responsibility in a changing natural world. McKibben wrote The End of Nature, the first book on climate change for a general readership, in 1989. "Only in the disappearance of nature as we have known it," he…
All of the folks that are claiming that the Earth is and has been in a cooling cycle are being disingenuous...Using weather trends to infer climate trends breaks down when you watch the averages over any period of time. I can already hear the cries from the climate skeptics...But, here…
Parched winter months this year have put California agriculture into a tailspin. With a third dry year in a row, the state has been forced to deeply examine its strategies for coping with dry times. Many worry this drought is a harbinger of the long-term impacts of climate change, a…
Dear Kitchen Gardener, Whats a home garden worth? With the global economy spiraling downward and Mother Nature preparing to reach upward, its a good question to ask and a good time to ask it. There isnt one right answer, of course, but Ill give you mine: $2149.15. Last year, my…
From the web... That’s CalTech engineer David Rutledge, who spoke to EarthSky at a recent science meeting. He said governments around the world have overestimated coal reserves or, the amount of coal still available for energy use. David Rutledge: That estimate, at least for these trends, appears to be high,…
Food is a microcosm of the macrocosm. Eating the right food is part of the solution to the problems of climate change and global hunger.(1) Resurgence Magazine is focusing on Food this month. I often find myself drawn to the subject of food...Not necessarily for reasons that would appear obvious.…
This link is as much for me as it is for you few folks who read these daily musings. Farmer in Chief By MICHAEL POLLAN Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is…
Anything Wendell Berry writes is worth the time it takes to digest...My recommendation is to go spend some time today with the man... The general reaction to the apparent end of the era of cheap fossil fuel, as to other readily foreseeable curtailments, has been to delay any sort of…
Paul Krugman's latest column focuses on food. Wander on over and check out his thoughts... Grains Gone Wild - New York Times These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there’s another world crisis under way — and it’s hurting a lot more people. I’m talking…
This was in my morning email news feed from Grist... TOP STORY With Gore Galore Al Gore will run as Independent for president, Bloomberg tapped as veep You might want to sit down for this: Al Gore has announced his candidacy for president. Wait, wait, don't get up…
In the business world the dollar is the religion of choice, with it businesses are able to buy politics. This years political buy has started in the dirtiest business in America. Coal Industry Plugs Into the Campaign - washingtonpost.com A group backed by the coal industry and its utility allies…
The weather out is delightful, even the humidity has fallen below 90%. Morning temperature is 64°. The skys are clear and the day has yet to break. We should be heading into a beautiful weekend. It could be time for a photo road trip... ++++++++++ Well...It looks like the Industrial…
When I got up this morning the weather had gone back to summer mode...The temperature was pushing 73° before sunup. Now, twelve hours later we are still at 83°. Even though the temperatures are still summer-like, the light out is definitely fall-like. There is a hazy smoky look to distant…
Old Friends And old photo's of Old Friends... We still get together once and a while, me and my old friend from the 6th grade...It is over 40 years ago that I developed my first school boy crush on this old friend. She went on to be the steady of…
After this afternoons session, my sacrifices on the alter of the atomic spheres comes to an end...The number for the day is 35...of 35. An ending and a beginning, even though I am yet to be thru this journey I am embarked upon. In the news today on the weather…
"The days still come in order. Gray light collects in the bedroom long before dawn. Then comes a bleached noon and nearly always the threat of a late-afternoon thunderstorm. The darkness is notated by fireflies, who have been unusually numerous — or is it unusually bright? — this year. The…
One year ago this week we were sitting on the side of a mountain in northwestern North Carolina. We aren't the first Texans to have discovered and fallen in love with the Blue Ridge Mountains and I'm sure we wont be the last. The plan for this year was to…
What a difference a day makes...Yesterday morning I was in Medical Mode and not hurrying out the door, so I drew my first cup and glanced up at the "Weather Station". The outside temperature was 68 and the humidity was lower than normal, just in the 80% vicinity, so I…
Looks like the same old game for the Bush administration. Give a big speech taking the oppositions side away from them, do some back office finagling to ensure what you just promised doesn't happen, and then just assume no one will notice. WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is drastically scaling…
Today's papers are full of news of war and rumors of war, both real and political. There are a number of sites around the internet that will give you better coverage of this than I will. But the little, oft unremarked news stories are more problematic. This is just one small…
From the parallel universe of Robert Novak. "Environmentalists' well-financed propaganda operation"...Does the man live in this universe? Industry has been spending many times the amounts the environmentalists have but the truth is still coming thru their lies and distortions. Industry has controlled the conversation for 12 years in congress and…
After listening to some of the hearing on the radio, I am forced to agree with the Post. What does it say about America, that the ruling party for the last decade have placed the biggest obstructionists in positions of power and then blamed the opposition for being obstructionists. THE LAST hearing…
Fred at Fragments posted this link this morning. You should jump on over and check the article. I know I will be looking for the magazine at the B&N this week to read the rest. Scientific American.com: A Climate Repair Manual: "Translation of scientific consensus on climate change into a…
Daily Kos: Science Friday: Tis The Season: "Science Friday: Tis The Season by DarkSyde Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 03:41:48 AM PDT In the aftermath of the devastating 2005 hurricane season, the following soundbite was repeated incessantly, packaged in various ways, on every network news station by head meteorologists with…
