May 3-7, 2010 was Air Quality Awareness Week
Here is a welcome tool that can provide you with an easily-accessible indicator of your local air quality.
Go to the AIRNow Web Site to get national air quality information.
From its Earth and Climate section, ScienceDaily reports on research that indicates, “. . . people generally do not act on information about the effects fossil fuel-based products . . .
Question: Given the prevalence of media reports and supposed attention given to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, what do you make of these findings published in 2007?
Climate Change Choices for the U.S.
The National Research Council, on Wednesday, May 19, 2010, released three reports within its America’s Climate Choices suite of studies. The reports were requested by the U.S. Congress—to inform responses to climate change.
Question: How useful do you think these reports will be in addressing climate change at global scales of spatial resolution?
President’s Cancer Panel: Environmentally caused cancers are ‘grossly underestimated’ and ‘needlessly devastate American lives.
“The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated,” says the President’s Cancer Panel in a strongly reported report that urges action to reduce people’s widespread exposure to carcinogens. The panel today advised . . .
Q: How do you see this report impacting the public’s understanding of the interface of health and environmental quality?
Climate Change Indicators
in the United States
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that “Collecting and interpreting environmental indicators play a critical role in our understanding of climate change and its causes. An indicator represents the state of certain environmental conditions over a given area and a specified period of time. Examples of climate change indicators include. . .
Q: It has been reported that this report confirms that climate is changing. What are your thoughts on this contention?
A report from the Science and Technology Innovation Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars defines the criteria for a new technology assessment function in the United States.
Q: Do you believe that scientists (or other “experts”) are ready or able to entertain the opinions or concerns of laypersons?
The Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health (IWGCCH) has prepared a report outlining the range of research needs on the human health effects of climate change titled “A Human Health Perspective: On Climate Change“. The IWGCCH states that:
ScienceDaily reports on research conducted at the University of Minnesota. The research acknowledges that “Environmentally friendly products are everywhere one looks. Energy efficient dishwashers, bamboo towels, the paperless Kindle and, of course, the ubiquitous Prius are all around.” But, . . .
Q: How do you see the need for status as influencing desires for green products?
Humberto Blanco-Canqui of Kansas State University reports in Agronomy Journal that:
“Crop residues, perennial warm season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops are potential biomass sources for cellulosic ethanol production. While most research is focused on the conversion of cellulosic feeedstocks into ethanol and increasing production of biomass, the impacts of growing energy crops and the removal of crop residue on soil and environmental quality have received less attention. Moreover,
Jinglei Yu and co-authors report in Environmental Science and Technology on proposed regulations, now under debate in the U.S. Congress to ban the export of electronics waste. The authors say in their policy analysis that the regulations would likely make a growing global environmental problem even worse.
Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development, gave the keynote address at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society noting that for the emerging field of green chemistry “Everybody wins with
Are new biofuels the ethical answer?On SciDev.Net on 10 March 2010, Joyce Tait and Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka offer that:
New biofuels offer a sustainable source of energy but we must consider the ethical and social implications.
Q: What do you expect will be the major ethical dilemmas posed by increased need for and use of biofuels?
ScienceDaily reports on March 5, 2010 that “California’s dirty air caused more than $193 million in hospital-based medical care from 2005 to 2007 as people sought help for problems such as asthma and pneumonia that are triggered by elevated pollution levels, according to a new RAND Corporation study.”
Mike Hulme writing on SciDev.Net on 3 February 2010 notes that “The claim about the Himalayan glaciers has taken on symbolic significance.”
Q: What outcomes do you foresee concerning current claims about IPCC science and about the process of peer review?
National survey research done at Yale University and George Mason University discloses that “Public concern about global warming has dropped sharply since the fall of 2008.”
The survey found: Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” about global warming, a 13-point decrease.
Q: How do you characterize your understanding of the issue of global warming, in light of the findings of this study?
A Science Daily article published this week asks: “Would you pay more for certain products to save the planet?
Q: Where do you stand on this issue?
The National Science Foundation has prepared a Special Report on “Predicting Seasonal Weather“
The National Science Foundation has posted on-line a multimedia Special Report about:
The National Academies’ National Research Council has released a report (Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use) that:
This year, World Food Day occurs on October 16. This year’s theme is. “Achieving food security in times of crisis”.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945.