Hypothetical: Road Gritting and Global Warming

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Monday September 24, 2012 · 2:26 AM PDT

2012/09/24 · 02:26

I am (at least by degree) a scientist. By that same degree, however, I am a biologst, or perhaps an ecologist, rather than a meteorologist. Compounding my error, my following musings are based on bits and pieces of random information I accumulated in haphazard fashion and then attempted to relocate and double-check, not on long and sober perusal of the literature. That said, I tried to make sure it held together coherently, so it should at least be a sensible discussion. So, on with the reasoning...

EcoMorph

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Tuesday August 14, 2012 · 11:55 PM PDT

2012/08/14 · 23:55

I live in the South West of England, and have for as long as I can remember.

Something else that's been a staple for as long as I can remember: Mosquito bites and being to hot to sleep are both things that only happen when visiting Europe.

Well, not any more.

EcoMorph

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Monday June 18, 2012 · 6:22 AM PDT

2012/06/18 · 06:22

An interesting fact I learned: An intact mangrove forest is worth more than a shrimp farm.

I don't mean this ethically, although an intact mangrove forest is of course worth more than a shrimp farm from an environmentalist point of view. I mean ... economically, the mangrove forest is worth more. The kicker is that this value is both indirect and 'invisible' (more on that in a moment).

Our professor showed it to us like this. A hectare of shrimp farm is -- from the direct, economic point of view -- worth a net value of $2,000. From this traditional point of view, the only thing you can do with a hectare of mangroves is to cut it down, yielding timber worth $90. Clearly, the only economically sensible activity is to hop down the mangroves and convert them to shrimp farms post-haste.

Follow me over the fold to find out why that's not quite true...

EcoMorph

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Sunday April 22, 2012 · 10:42 AM PDT

2012/04/22 · 10:42

My sister is no fool; she's a hard-working and clever medical student. My uncle is undeniably intelligent; we've had interesting and informed discussions on any number of topics. But they share one trait that drives me batty: Neither of them is really willing to accept that human activity is causing climate change.

Neither of them is Republican. (Because ... we're all British.) Neither of them has any logical reason that I can see to dislike the topic. My sister apparently avoids it because it makes her uncomfortable; my uncle is willing to accept that the climate changes, but thinks that such changes derive from natural causes and that human activity could not cause a shift.

As someone who believes that anthropogenic climate change is one of the greatest threats that we as a species will ever face, along with it being the death knell for countless other strange and wonderful species, this tendancy of theirs drives me up the wall. I love them both. But they drive me crazy.

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