You wouldn’t think so if you read recent press reports. Just like this time last year, the global press is bombarding the public with alarming reports coming from the bottom of the world. From the Discovery Channel on April 28th, 2009 “Huge Ice Shelf Breaks From Antarctica, Fractures.” From National Geographic News on April 30th, [...]

Droughts are a farmer’s worst nightmare: Crops meant for the dinner table wither away in the dry heat leaving people hungry and farmers broke.
Not all plants are as sensitive to drought, though, and it is the genetic makeup of these more resilient plants that is of interest to scientists who feel the need to develop [...]

As a physicist, my belief is that one of the reasons that intelligent energy policies have not gained sufficient traction is that we are allowing those with political agendas to define some key energy terms.
Probably the most significant concept that we have unwittingly gone along with is the definition of the word “renewable.” Giving some [...]

Environmentalism, ideally, is a broad and pluralistic movement that embraces diverse ideologies and myriad disagreements, unified only by a shared and sincere concern for the health of the natural world. Aside from this core value, how individuals and organizations practice their environmentalism must and should display infinite variety, because how love for the natural world [...]

A recent article in New Scientist by Fred Pearce entitled “Rainforests may pump winds worldwide” describes a new meteorological theory wherein vast forests play a critical role in generating winds that pump water around the world through the atmosphere. Here is how Pearce summarizes this theory:
“How can forests create wind? Water vapour from coastal forests [...]