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The Environment
Hill notes that in most cases the best response to sea level rise is not the extreme one of building walls or abandoning the coast, but of creating “hybrid edges" that blend "natural ecosystems and human-made infrastructure to help cities adjust to rising tides."
Label creep: a gradual broadening of a category, often changing its meaning.
The journal Nature just published a paper, "Mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2017," which documents accelerating ice loss in Antarctica over the last few decades.
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VIII: Climate Change: Moral Communities and Divisive Rhetoric Climate Change: Labeling People and Framing the Issues How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part VI How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part V Straw Men and Their Variations, Part II: Comment on 'The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels' How Not to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic, Part IV
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VII: Climate Change Consensus: Update from the 97% Folks Climate Change Consensus and Lessons from Social Psychology Climate Change Consensus: Digging Deeper Climate Change: Degrees of Certainty within the Consensus Climate Change: Exploring the Consensus
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part VI: Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part II Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part I Energy Efficiency über Alles What Does It Mean Not to be a Climate Change Skeptic?
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part V: The Carbon Footprint of Consuming Experiences Instead of Things Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part V Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part IV Estimating Economic Damage from Climate Change, Part III
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part IV: Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIb: Reduce Black Carbon Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIa: Reduce Emissions of Short-Lived Pollutants Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part II: Energy Efficiency Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part I Staying within a 1.5° C Rise by 2100 is Still Possible Plus the Obligatory Warnings
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part III Concerned Scientists, Climate Change and History as the Context of Trust Concerned Scientists, Building Trust, and Climate Change Explicit Persuasive Intent and Concerned Scientists Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIId: Reduce Methane Emissions from Anthropogenic Sources Mitigation Measures for a Less Warm Planet, Part IIIc: Reduce Wetland Methane Emissions
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part II: States of the Nation: Red States/Blue States and Environmental Policy, Part IV States of the Nation: Red States/Blue States and Environmental Policy, Part III States of the Nation: Red States/Blue States and Environmental Policy, Part II States of the Nation: Red States, Blue States and Environmental Policy - Part I Concerned Scientists, Climate Change and Why Some People Still Resist
This series consists of links and excerpts from my last 12 months of posts touching on the science and politics of climate change. Part I: A Framework for Finding Common Ground on Climate Change Psychology and Politics, Part IV: System Justification and Climate Change Psychology and Politics, Part II: Truth and Research Agendas First Step in Helping Farmers Help the Environment: Listen, Don’t Tell, Part II Environmental Politics The Science Behind the Headlines, Part II: Is the 2°C Target Beyond Our Reach?
“Members of the public with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change. Rather, they were the ones among whom cultural polarization was greatest.” Kahan, Peters et al (2012)
…survey evidence showing the number of Americans endorsing anthropogenic climate change fell during the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2009. The authors' basic theory is that when people sense economic threat, they are more likely to value order and stability, which motivates them to justify the existing economic system and downplay evidence suggesting the system itself is a problem.
There's something about psychologizing that's invalidating. As if psychology was the science of human error. But does it have to be so? Humans are pretty good at tracking reality, thanks to biases and heuristics that work well most of the time. Error can be an ally in the search for truth.
Up-front costs impede the adoption of sustainable practices and technologies. So we need to create incentives for farmers to make that initial investment. Want more farmers to adopt no-till cultivation? Allow farmers to deduct the entire cost of expensive no-till planters in the first year of purchase.
In the case of corn-soybean farmers in Michigan, winter cover crops can delay or complicate spring planting; land that is not tilled for years might be invaded by difficult-to-control weeds; reducing fertilizer, insecticide, and herbicide use may sacrifice crop yield and boost the risk of herbicide-resistant insects and weeds. These are real concerns in a low-margin business.
“…Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes understood that great revelations create great enemies. He once warned: “You never need think you can overturn any old falsehood without a terrible squirming and scattering of the horrid little population that dwells under it.”
More land for agriculture means less land for grasslands, wetlands, and forests. Looking at the Big Picture, "sparing" the wild things is better than "sharing" with them. Of course, there will always be exceptions, but that's the general rule.
Here’s the thing: yeah, what with pesticides, fertilizer run-off, and habitat encroachment, farmers haven't done birds any favors - but that's not the whole story of declining bird populations. Nature will not simply revert back to some pristine state if we give back what we took: sorry - the habitat is yours now - multiply and prosper!