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Francisco J. Ayala pulls open the top drawer of a black cabinet and flips through nearly a dozen files, all neatly titled by publication and due date. These are the essays on evolution he has been churning out over the past six to eight weeks for popular books and magazines. “Hack jobs,” he calls them with a smile, bragging that each one takes only a day or two to complete. After some 30 years of proselytizing about evolution to Christian believers, the esteemed evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Irvine, has honed his arguments to a fine point. He has stories and examples at the ready, even a shock tactic or two at his fingertips. One out of five pregnancies ends in spontaneous miscarriage, he often reminds audiences. Next he will pointedly ask, as in an interview with U.S. Catholic magazine last year, “If God explicitly designed the human reproductive system, is God the biggest abortionist of them all?” Through such examples, he explains, “I want to turn around their arguments.” [More] "Voluntourism": See the World--And Help Conserve It Rain forests and tundra, deserts and savannas, mountaintops and undersea reefs. No spot on the planet is too remote for the movement that has changed the face of leisure travel. Ecotourism, in all its various guises--green tourism, sustainable tourism, adventure travel--has gained traction as enthusiasts seek to experience the earth’s wonders while treading lightly on them. Lately a new subset of this boom has emerged. “Voluntourism” ramps the ecological impulse up a notch, providing ways for vacationers to help save the world’s sustainable resources. The trend has been described as a kind of mini version of the Peace Corps. Depending on your interests, you could find yourself repairing trails leading to Old Faithful, tracking sharks in the Atlantic, or mixing cement for housing in the Andes. Voluntourism is becoming a significant growth sector of the travel industry. Online trip planner Travelocity, for example, now partners with tour operators such as GlobeAware, Cross-Cultural Solutions and Take Pride in America, which specialize in launching voluntourists on service-oriented vacations. [More]

Tags: evolution, voluntourism, travel, world, tourism

Rain forests and tundra, deserts and savannas, mountaintops and undersea reefs. No spot on the planet is too remote for the movement that has changed the face of leisure travel. Ecotourism, in all its various guises--green tourism, sustainable tourism, adventure travel--has gained traction as enthusiasts seek to experience the earth’s wonders while treading lightly on them. Lately a new subset of this boom has emerged. “Voluntourism” ramps the ecological impulse up a notch, providing ways for vacationers to help save the world’s sustainable resources. The trend has been described as a kind of mini version of the Peace Corps. Depending on your interests, you could find yourself repairing trails leading to Old Faithful, tracking sharks in the Atlantic, or mixing cement for housing in the Andes. Voluntourism is becoming a significant growth sector of the travel industry. Online trip planner Travelocity, for example, now partners with tour operators such as GlobeAware, Cross-Cultural Solutions and Take Pride in America, which specialize in launching voluntourists on service-oriented vacations. [More] New Homes on the Range: Species Shift Across Yosemite Pioneering ecologist Joseph Grinnell in 1914 began a seven year survey of the animals living in Yosemite National Park in California. Even then, human impacts such as the transformation of the Central Valley into an agricultural oasis were changing the landscape and the animals who lived there. [More]

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[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]  For accurate weather forecasting and climate analysis, researchers need the best models possible about how the air circulates above the earth. And a new study is challenging the conventional picture of the planet’s air movements. Previous theories pointed to two large circular systems--air rises at the warm equator and then travels toward either pole, where it chills and falls. But the new study posits that there are actually four distinct air masses, two north of the equator and two south. The work appears in the August 21st issue of the journal Science.  [More] Fewer April Showers for U.S. Southwest as Climate Changes The already parched U.S. Southwest is drying up even more, at least in early spring, because of climate change. A new study in Geophysical Research Letters shows that since 1978, the jet stream that brings rainstorms from the Pacific over the western U.S. has been shifting northward--and so has the rain and snow. [More]

Tags: air, climate, study, southwest, equator

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]  For accurate weather forecasting and climate analysis, researchers need the best models possible about how the air circulates above the earth. And a new study is challenging the conventional picture of the planet’s air movements. Previous theories pointed to two large circular systems--air rises at the warm equator and then travels toward either pole, where it chills and falls. But the new study posits that there are actually four distinct air masses, two north of the equator and two south. The work appears in the August 21st issue of the journal Science.  [More] Fewer April Showers for U.S. Southwest as Climate Changes The already parched U.S. Southwest is drying up even more, at least in early spring, because of climate change. A new study in Geophysical Research Letters shows that since 1978, the jet stream that brings rainstorms from the Pacific over the western U.S. has been shifting northward--and so has the rain and snow. [More]

Tags: air, climate, study, southwest, equator

Wildfires wreaked havoc across southern California last year, resulting in billions of dollars in irreparable damage. Not surprisingly, land managers and agencies this season have mobilized fire crews and equipment to stop the flames before they spread. In the meantime, however, researchers studying the amount of carbon that forests and vegetation harbor have stumbled on a finding that presents an added quandary to fire management: suppressing fires means that less carbon is stored in trees. The team, led by Michael L. Goulden of the University of California, Irvine, compared the biomass of California’s wild forests in the 1930s with those in the 1990s using data compiled by two forest census takers: the Wieslander Vegetation Type Mapping Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis program. In evaluating the two sets of data, the scientists found that the density in midaltitude conifer forests increased by 34 percent during the 60 years that elapsed. Yet contrary to conventional wisdom--that more trees mean additional carbon storage--they found that the amount of carbon held actually decreased by 26 percent in the same period. [More] Working Knowledge: Home Heating Pumps That Warm and Cool As the costs of oil, natural gas and electricity to fuel conventional heating and cooling systems rise, homeowners are increasingly installing heat pumps. By extracting warmth and coolness from the outside air or ground, heat pumps can provide greater efficiency and lower cost over the long haul. Two basic options predominate. In air-to-air designs, a unit outside the house relies on air as a source of heat or a place to dump heat. In ground-based designs, fluid in tubes laid in the ground provides the heat transfer. In each case, a refrigerant travels in pipes from outdoors to an inside unit, and a blower sends the resulting warmed or cooled air through ductwork into various rooms. The systems are often likened to a reversible air conditioner that can stream cool air or exhaust warm air throughout the home. “When the season changes, you just flip a switch and the flow reverses,” says Leo Udee, account manager at Alliant Energy in Madison, Wis. [More]

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It is hard to credit just how wrong the computer modeling techniques, the IPCC and the High Priest of Global Warming, James Hansen, have to get wrong before the media sits up and takes notice. One of their biggest scaremongering predictions was that 'by the end of the century Bangladesh would be 'under the waves' . But it seems Bangladesh is actually gaining in landmass because their computer predictions - shall we say kindly - left a few thing out? Here's what scientists (that's real ones as avers to the alarmist variety receiving millions of dollars to 'save the planet') now report: New data shows that Bangladesh's landmass is increasing,contradicting forecasts that the South Asian nation will be under thewaves by the end of the century, experts say. Scientists from the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and GeographicInformation Services (CEGIS) have studied 32 years of satellite imagesand say Bangladesh 's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres (eight square miles) annually. Maminul Haque Sarker, head of the department at thegovernment-owned centre that looks at boundary changes, told AFPsediment which travelled down the big Himalayan rivers -- the Gangesand the Brahmaputra -- had caused the landmass to increase. The rivers, which meet in the centre of Bangladesh, carry more thana billion tonnes of sediment every year and most of it comes to rest onthe southern coastline of the country in the Bay of Bengal where new territory is forming, he said in an interview on Tuesday. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)has predicted that impoverished Bangladesh, criss-crossed by a networkof more than 200 rivers, will lose 17 percent of its land by 2050because of rising sea levels due to global . The Nobel Peace Prize-winning panel says 20 million Bangladeshis will become environmental refugees by 2050 and the country will lose some 30 percent of its food production. Director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, professor James Hansen , paints an even grimmer picture, predicting the entire country could be under water by the end of the century. But Sarker said that while rising sea levels and river erosion wereboth claiming land in Bangladesh, many climate experts had failed totake into account new land being formed from the river sediment. "Satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier thanthat show some 1,000 square kilometres of land have risen from thesea," Sarker said. "A rise in sea level will offset this and slow the gains made bynew territories, but there will still be an increase in land. We thinkthat in the next 50 years we may get another 1,000 square kilometres ofland." Surely the IPCC and Hansen must get something right one day? Even headless chickens make 'some ground' before  finally falling over. Top Japanese Scientist Refutes CO2-Warming Link Dr. Takeda Kunihiko is vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan. His most recent 2008 book “Hypocritical Ecology,” has been flyingoff shelves at the speed of 100,000 a month since being published thisJune 2008. Kunihiko is one of the world's leading authorities on bothuranium enrichment and recycling and is a member of just about everyprestigious academic and governmental entity, he has stayed independentand made a career out of challenging the establishment. Here's a pithy taster: Global warming has nothing to do with how much CO2is produced or what we do here on Earth. For millions of years, solaractivity has been controlling temperatures on Earth and even now, thesun controls how high the mercury goes. CO2 emissions make absolutelyno difference one way or another. Soon it will cool down anyhow, onceagain, regardless of what we do. Every scientist knows this, but itdoesn’t pay to say so. What makes a whole lot of economic and politicalsense is to blame global warming on humans and create laws that keepthe status quo and prevent up-and-coming nations from developing.Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’sseat and developing nations walking barefoot. For a press report in the Japan Times go here . For more detail go here . 

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It is hard to credit just how wrong the computer modeling techniques, the IPCC and the High Priest of Global Warming, James Hansen, have to get wrong before the media sits up and takes notice. One of their biggest scaremongering predictions was that 'by the end of the century Bangladesh would be 'under the waves' . But it seems Bangladesh is actually gaining in landmass because their computer predictions - shall we say kindly - left a few thing out? Here's what scientists (that's real ones as avers to the alarmist variety receiving millions of dollars to 'save the planet') now report: New data shows that Bangladesh's landmass is increasing,contradicting forecasts that the South Asian nation will be under thewaves by the end of the century, experts say. Scientists from the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and GeographicInformation Services (CEGIS) have studied 32 years of satellite imagesand say Bangladesh 's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres (eight square miles) annually. Maminul Haque Sarker, head of the department at thegovernment-owned centre that looks at boundary changes, told AFPsediment which travelled down the big Himalayan rivers -- the Gangesand the Brahmaputra -- had caused the landmass to increase. The rivers, which meet in the centre of Bangladesh, carry more thana billion tonnes of sediment every year and most of it comes to rest onthe southern coastline of the country in the Bay of Bengal where new territory is forming, he said in an interview on Tuesday. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)has predicted that impoverished Bangladesh, criss-crossed by a networkof more than 200 rivers, will lose 17 percent of its land by 2050because of rising sea levels due to global warming . The Nobel Peace Prize-winning panel says 20 million Bangladeshis will become environmental refugees by 2050 and the country will lose some 30 percent of its food production. Director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, professor James Hansen , paints an even grimmer picture, predicting the entire country could be under water by the end of the century. But Sarker said that while rising sea levels and river erosion wereboth claiming land in Bangladesh, many climate experts had failed totake into account new land being formed from the river sediment. "Satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier thanthat show some 1,000 square kilometres of land have risen from thesea," Sarker said. "A rise in sea level will offset this and slow the gains made bynew territories, but there will still be an increase in land. We thinkthat in the next 50 years we may get another 1,000 square kilometres ofland." Surely the IPCC and Hansen must get something right one day? Even headless chickens make 'some ground' before  finally falling over. Top Japanese Scientist Refutes CO2-Warming Link Dr. Takeda Kunihiko is vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan. His most recent 2008 book “Hypocritical Ecology,” has been flyingoff shelves at the speed of 100,000 a month since being published thisJune 2008. Kunihiko is one of the world's leading authorities on bothuranium enrichment and recycling and is a member of just about everyprestigious academic and governmental entity, he has stayed independentand made a career out of challenging the establishment. Here's a pithy taster: Global warming has nothing to do with how much CO2is produced or what we do here on Earth. For millions of years, solaractivity has been controlling temperatures on Earth and even now, thesun controls how high the mercury goes. CO2 emissions make absolutelyno difference one way or another. Soon it will cool down anyhow, onceagain, regardless of what we do. Every scientist knows this, but itdoesn’t pay to say so. What makes a whole lot of economic and politicalsense is to blame global warming on humans and create laws that keepthe status quo and prevent up-and-coming nations from developing.Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’sseat and developing nations walking barefoot. For a press report in the Japan Times go here . For more detail go here . 

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The non-partisan Capital Research Center's 'Foundation Watch' has published an in-depth assessment showing how much 'philanthropist' Al Gore is financially benefiting from his climate alarmist campaign - and the windfall in propspect should the Government take up the policies he advocates. Here's the summary from its forward: Al Gore says everyone will benefit when new government rules require companies to pay to reduce global warming. But some people will benefit more than others, as will some companies. Benefiting most are those like the ex-vice president who can set up and invest in companies that will profit from the federal regulations imposing heavy costs on others. And here is a closing paragraph which puts Gore's 'conflict of interest' in perspective: Gore and the global warming crowd are usually quick to challenge the credibility and sincerity of any scientist, climatologist or policy organization skeptical of man-made global warming. They call skeptics “shills” for Big Oil or, worse, “deniers,” invoking the term used against anti-Semites who deny the Holocaust. But they refuse to acknowledge their own growing financial interest in the carbon control industry. To download a PDF of the report go here . Bangladesh Gaining Landmass: IPCC and Hansen Wrong Again It is hard to credit just how wrong the computer modeling techniques, the IPCC and the High Priest of Global Warming, James Hansen, have to get wrong before the media sits up and takes notice. One of their biggest scaremongering predictions was that 'by the end of the century Bangladesh would be 'under the waves' . But it seems Bangladesh is actually gaining in landmass because their computer predictions - shall we say kindly - left a few thing out? Here's what scientists (that's real ones as avers to the alarmist variety receiving millions of dollars to 'save the planet') now report: New data shows that Bangladesh's landmass is increasing,contradicting forecasts that the South Asian nation will be under thewaves by the end of the century, experts say. Scientists from the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and GeographicInformation Services (CEGIS) have studied 32 years of satellite imagesand say Bangladesh 's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres (eight square miles) annually. Maminul Haque Sarker, head of the department at thegovernment-owned centre that looks at boundary changes, told AFPsediment which travelled down the big Himalayan rivers -- the Gangesand the Brahmaputra -- had caused the landmass to increase. The rivers, which meet in the centre of Bangladesh, carry more thana billion tonnes of sediment every year and most of it comes to rest onthe southern coastline of the country in the Bay of Bengal where new territory is forming, he said in an interview on Tuesday. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)has predicted that impoverished Bangladesh, criss-crossed by a networkof more than 200 rivers, will lose 17 percent of its land by 2050because of rising sea levels due to global warming . The Nobel Peace Prize-winning panel says 20 million Bangladeshis will become environmental refugees by 2050 and the country will lose some 30 percent of its food production. Director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, professor James Hansen , paints an even grimmer picture, predicting the entire country could be under water by the end of the century. But Sarker said that while rising sea levels and river erosion wereboth claiming land in Bangladesh, many climate experts had failed totake into account new land being formed from the river sediment. "Satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier thanthat show some 1,000 square kilometres of land have risen from thesea," Sarker said. "A rise in sea level will offset this and slow the gains made bynew territories, but there will still be an increase in land. We thinkthat in the next 50 years we may get another 1,000 square kilometres ofland." Surely the IPCC and Hansen must get something right one day? Even headless chickens make 'some ground' before  finally falling over.

Tags:

The non-partisan Capital Research Center's 'Foundation Watch' has published an in-depth assessment showing how much 'philanthropist' Al Gore is financially benefiting from his climate alarmist campaign - and the windfall in propspect should the Government take up the policies he advocates. Here's the summary from its forward: Al Gore says everyone will benefit when new government rules require companies to pay to reduce warming. But some people will benefit more than others, as will some companies. Benefiting most are those like the ex-vice president who can set up and invest in companies that will profit from the federal regulations imposing heavy costs on others. And here is a closing paragraph which puts Gore's 'conflict of interest' in perspective: Gore and the global warming crowd are usually quick to challenge the credibility and sincerity of any scientist, climatologist or policy organization skeptical of man-made global warming. They call skeptics “shills” for Big Oil or, worse, “deniers,” invoking the term used against anti-Semites who deny the Holocaust. But they refuse to acknowledge their own growing financial interest in the carbon control industry. To download a PDF of the report go here . Bangladesh Gaining Landmass: IPCC and Hansen Wrong Again It is hard to credit just how wrong the computer modeling techniques, the IPCC and the High Priest of Global Warming, James Hansen, have to get wrong before the media sits up and takes notice. One of their biggest scaremongering predictions was that 'by the end of the century Bangladesh would be 'under the waves' . But it seems Bangladesh is actually gaining in landmass because their computer predictions - shall we say kindly - left a few thing out? Here's what scientists (that's real ones as avers to the alarmist variety receiving millions of dollars to 'save the planet') now report: New data shows that Bangladesh's landmass is increasing,contradicting forecasts that the South Asian nation will be under thewaves by the end of the century, experts say. Scientists from the Dhaka-based Center for Environment and GeographicInformation Services (CEGIS) have studied 32 years of satellite imagesand say Bangladesh 's landmass has increased by 20 square kilometres (eight square miles) annually. Maminul Haque Sarker, head of the department at thegovernment-owned centre that looks at boundary changes, told AFPsediment which travelled down the big Himalayan rivers -- the Gangesand the Brahmaputra -- had caused the landmass to increase. The rivers, which meet in the centre of Bangladesh, carry more thana billion tonnes of sediment every year and most of it comes to rest onthe southern coastline of the country in the Bay of Bengal where new territory is forming, he said in an interview on Tuesday. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)has predicted that impoverished Bangladesh, criss-crossed by a networkof more than 200 rivers, will lose 17 percent of its land by 2050because of rising sea levels due to global warming . The Nobel Peace Prize-winning panel says 20 million Bangladeshis will become environmental refugees by 2050 and the country will lose some 30 percent of its food production. Director of the US-based NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, professor James Hansen , paints an even grimmer picture, predicting the entire country could be under water by the end of the century. But Sarker said that while rising sea levels and river erosion wereboth claiming land in Bangladesh, many climate experts had failed totake into account new land being formed from the river sediment. "Satellite images dating back to 1973 and old maps earlier thanthat show some 1,000 square kilometres of land have risen from thesea," Sarker said. "A rise in sea level will offset this and slow the gains made bynew territories, but there will still be an increase in land. We thinkthat in the next 50 years we may get another 1,000 square kilometres ofland." Surely the IPCC and Hansen must get something right one day? Even headless chickens make 'some ground' before  finally falling over.

Tags:

As the costs of oil, natural gas and electricity to fuel conventional heating and cooling systems rise, homeowners are increasingly installing heat pumps. By extracting warmth and coolness from the outside air or ground, heat pumps can provide greater efficiency and lower cost over the long haul. Two basic options predominate. In air-to-air designs, a unit outside the house relies on air as a source of heat or a place to dump heat. In ground-based designs, fluid in tubes laid in the ground provides the heat transfer. In each case, a refrigerant travels in pipes from outdoors to an inside unit, and a blower sends the resulting warmed or cooled air through ductwork into various rooms. The systems are often likened to a reversible air conditioner that can stream cool air or exhaust warm air throughout the home. “When the season changes, you just flip a switch and the flow reverses,” says Leo Udee, account manager at Alliant Energy in Madison, Wis. [More] Picking a Green Candidate Dear EarthTalk: What are the major environmental issues that our next president, be it Obama or McCain, will have to confront?-- Melinda Barnes, via e-mail [More]

Tags: air, heat, pumps, ground, heating