Environment

How Do You Estimate The Economic Value Of A Clean Beach?

Millions of Americans head outdoors in the summer, whether for a day at a nearby lake or a monthlong road trip. For environmental economists like me, decisions by vacationers and outdoor recreators offer clues to a challenging puzzle: estimating what envi ...

Article - The Conversation - Jul 24 2018 - 7:38am

Better Standards Of Living Have Led To Marine Pollution, Not Too Many Straws

American cities nationwide, riding a wave of populism brought about by media attention, are looking to ban straws, claiming they will save the planet doing so. Companies are naturally following suit- companies always will, because consumers pay the cost an ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 27 2018 - 12:34pm

Diversity Of An Ecosystem Is Important, Not Size

Though countries like the United States and Ireland have far more forest than they did a century ago, professional environmentalists insist there needs to be more. From butterflies to bees, some groups insist more of the modern world must be reverted to na ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2018 - 5:55am

Not As Scary As It Seems: Planet At Risk Of Heading Towards “Hothouse Earth” State

This is scaring some people- because they describe dramatic things that could happen like floods tens of meters deep, and the world too hot for humans. Most of this is for far into the future. The sea rising 10s of meters would be thousands of years into ...

Article - Robert Walker - Aug 8 2018 - 12:49am

Yes, We Can Rise To The IPCC Target To Keep Global Warming Within 1.5°C (2.7°F)

The basic message of the IPCC report is that we need to act now before 2040, to avoid more expensive mitigation measures in the last 60 years of the century. The worst effects are for 2100. And that if we aim for 1.5°C, it is far better than 2 °C. ...

Article - Robert Walker - Jul 30 2019 - 9:40am

Like Fewer Wildifires In The US? Thank Europeans

Before the arrival of European immigrants to the western United States, up to 12 percent of it would burn each year. Somehow, even though science is well aware of that fact, political media today claim that wildfires are unprecedented and we are doomed.  A ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 30 2018 - 11:53am

Global Warming May Be Damaging Sperm

A new study in Nature Communications suggests that climate change could pose a threat to male fertility by increasing the number and severity of heat waves which damage sperm. The authors contend that climate change is already having an impact on species p ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2018 - 5:01am

Why Activists Changed Their Tunes On Dams And Reservoirs

Dams keep the boom and bust of flooding from being too severe, they prevent water shortages, they make human existence better. But they clearly change nature. Why is a human building a dam unnatural but a beaver building a dam natural? Only an environmenta ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Nov 14 2018 - 8:01am

What The IPCC Scientists Really Said- NOT 'All Going To Die'- Key Points, Press Conference And Some Highlights From The Report

Many journalists have penned exaggerated, click baity but inaccurate articles about the IPCC report on climate change. One of the worst is the one published in the NY Times. It doesn’t have that many out and out mistakes, but it is a highly respected sour ...

Article - Robert Walker - Nov 27 2018 - 9:22pm

Opening The Refrigerator Door Is Not Making Your Milk Spoil Quicker

Two weeks after people were sickened by E. coli on romaine lettuce, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control told the entire country to throw theirs out, which alarmed people for little reason and cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars. People shouldn� ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Nov 26 2018 - 12:01pm