Hello to any occasional readers of my blog!
I apologize for the several months' time with no updates. I have been very busy attempting to find employment and apply to graduate school, and I intend to provide a more substantial update soon.
There is a wealth of information circulating regarding the accelerating pace of climate change. Recent headlines have included climate topics more and more frequently in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. It has come to light that those members of the human race born after 1985 have not experienced a single month where the average temperature did not exceed the historical trend. This population of people includes yours truly, and I intend to draw inspiration from this to continue to motivate my studies and outreach involvement.
I recently partook in the Northeast Regional Town Hall meeting for the National Climate Assessment, which included faculty and students from SUNY ESF as well as a panel of authors involved in the NCA, as well as a few local residents. I sat in on the Energy topical discussion group, which both helped to magnify the political unpalatability of modifying existing energy policy, as my general impression was that the NCA shied away from really engaging in the energy discussion and its implications for further climatic forcing, and also to frustrate my attempts to reconcile their addressing the impacts of changing climate on energy infrastructure without discussion of the contributions to the forcing mechanisms of said infrastructure!
It is getting late, so I will attempt to put together some more coherent thoughts, and another sourced article, soon. Until then, keep in mind that I am once again a busy student, and I plan to leverage that to improve the quality of information here, as well as provide some (hopefully) unique insights into the current state of climate science and the energy policy discourse.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Organic Clothing Saves the Ocean?
Home Activist Alert: Selecting Clothing Made With "Natural" Fiber Can Help the Ocean
According to a study released in the Environmental Science and Technology Journal, clothing made from plastic fibers can release alarming amounts of microplastic particles into your sewer, which then find their way downstream to the ocean, contributing to the increasing challenges microplastics are creating for ocean ecosystems, and also finding their way back to your body via seafood.
" “It seems obvious in hindsight that fibers are leaving clothes in washing machines and ending up in the waste stream, but it hadn’t been considered as a source up until this point,” said Kara Lavender Law, a research oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass. “This is eye opening.” " (from "Discovery News," http://bit.ly/rmMnTF)
This appears to be a new category of "low hanging fruit" for the workaday environmental activist. Selecting clothing constructed of natural fibers not only tends to yield a longer-lasting and more comfortable wardrobe, it helps reduce the stresses that microplastics, dies, and hydrocarbon processing place on those ecosystems that they are located within. Your decisions can and do make a difference. Consider clothing made of 100% cotton, hemp, or wool. You may just find an easy and enjoyable way to help the environment!
According to a study released in the Environmental Science and Technology Journal, clothing made from plastic fibers can release alarming amounts of microplastic particles into your sewer, which then find their way downstream to the ocean, contributing to the increasing challenges microplastics are creating for ocean ecosystems, and also finding their way back to your body via seafood.
" “It seems obvious in hindsight that fibers are leaving clothes in washing machines and ending up in the waste stream, but it hadn’t been considered as a source up until this point,” said Kara Lavender Law, a research oceanographer at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass. “This is eye opening.” " (from "Discovery News," http://bit.ly/rmMnTF)
This appears to be a new category of "low hanging fruit" for the workaday environmental activist. Selecting clothing constructed of natural fibers not only tends to yield a longer-lasting and more comfortable wardrobe, it helps reduce the stresses that microplastics, dies, and hydrocarbon processing place on those ecosystems that they are located within. Your decisions can and do make a difference. Consider clothing made of 100% cotton, hemp, or wool. You may just find an easy and enjoyable way to help the environment!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Excerpt from the NYT:
" “A country the size of the U.S. is almost never hot everywhere, all at once,” said Dr. Trenberth. The most significant thing about the NOAA climate report is that it tells of so many all-time records for heat being broken, he said, adding, how hot it is on a given day is not as important as the historical records that are being consistently broken [this year]." "
It would appear to me that anthropogenic global warming is underway full force. My attention will be to the arctic permafrost and the gas hydrates frozen in the arctic sea bed. One positive economic benefit is that oil-from-tar sand, courtesy of your Canadian government's friendliness to the industry, will become cheaper as it will take fractionally less energy to melt through the filthy stuff. This industry, emitting alarming amounts of carbon right at the weakest point in the system, may have a measurable impact in the near future on the thawing of the north. The conventional science points to the movement of carbon-laden gases through the atmosphere as having important effects on climate, so I can't imagine this point-source pollution right in the vulnerable arctic can be a positive activity in regards to climate change mitigation.
Something I've been trying to remain conscious of, myself, is how much I'm running the AC. Fans are far less expensive to run, both in the amount of electricity used and the cost of your bill! I have a window fan that is nice and quiet right next to my desk, and it can do wonders for cooling down a room housing a computer and two monitors. Unless it pushes above 80 outside, I can be very comfortable with just the fan, so you can, too!
" “A country the size of the U.S. is almost never hot everywhere, all at once,” said Dr. Trenberth. The most significant thing about the NOAA climate report is that it tells of so many all-time records for heat being broken, he said, adding, how hot it is on a given day is not as important as the historical records that are being consistently broken [this year]." "
It would appear to me that anthropogenic global warming is underway full force. My attention will be to the arctic permafrost and the gas hydrates frozen in the arctic sea bed. One positive economic benefit is that oil-from-tar sand, courtesy of your Canadian government's friendliness to the industry, will become cheaper as it will take fractionally less energy to melt through the filthy stuff. This industry, emitting alarming amounts of carbon right at the weakest point in the system, may have a measurable impact in the near future on the thawing of the north. The conventional science points to the movement of carbon-laden gases through the atmosphere as having important effects on climate, so I can't imagine this point-source pollution right in the vulnerable arctic can be a positive activity in regards to climate change mitigation.
Something I've been trying to remain conscious of, myself, is how much I'm running the AC. Fans are far less expensive to run, both in the amount of electricity used and the cost of your bill! I have a window fan that is nice and quiet right next to my desk, and it can do wonders for cooling down a room housing a computer and two monitors. Unless it pushes above 80 outside, I can be very comfortable with just the fan, so you can, too!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Environmental Awareness column has been updated! Check it out: Health of Great Lakes and Finger Lakes Threatened
Thursday, June 7, 2012
The job market appears to be going through a bit of a rally! Economy shows signs of progress, check out the current events page: http://craigsphere.blogspot.com/p/current-events.html!
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