The Environment
Hurricanes vs. Typhoons
Hurricanes happen in the Atlantic and typhoons happen in the Pacific, it just that simple.
{hurricanes, rita, typhoon}
Houston’s Katrina Refugees?
It looks like Rita will spare Houston, but what has happened to all the Katrina refugees who were resettled in Houston? I can’t imagine the trauma of being moved again …
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New Orleans
I find it difficult to write about New Orleans. I’ve only visited the city twice, but really loved it. I especially loved the wonderful hospitality I received there. When I was there 12 years ago my friend (who I hope is OK!) told me about the potential for such a disaster. In 2002 I watched […]
Eat the Sun
A sixth of the world’s population lives on less than a dollar a day. Most of these 1.2 billion people are women, and they spend a significant amount of their day gathering fuel:
Because of their traditional responsibilities for collecting fuel and water, in many developing countries women and girls would benefit the most from access […]
Vikings
Alcoa, with help from Bechtel, is building a giant dam in Iceland which will destroy some of the last protected wilderness in Europe. The whole project is to create power for a smelting plant which will create aluminum. The saddest part of the whole thing is that better recycling programs could probably make such a […]
Pollution & Nationalism
Two protests, two Chinas, each explaining the other. And yet, I have to admit being somewhat overwhelmed and baffled by the whole thing. So please excuse the fragmented nature of this post.
First, the anti-Japanese protest in Shanghai:
Possibly as many as 30,000 people were marching through the streets of Shanghai today. Some of them smashed up […]
Mad Hatters
Listening to an NPR show on new legislation to regulate mercury, I heard this:
Mad as a hatter. Years ago mercury was used to stiffen fur in hat making, but it also got into the nervous systems of hatters and made many of them act crazy. Now in the face of evidence that even small amounts […]
Acehnese
Just about a year before the Tsunami struck, I wrote a post on Aceh, decrying human rights abuses in the region. A recent article in the Straits Times (sorry, no live link possible) made the point about how much the Acehnese have suffered:
This appalling disaster comes after more than a century of misery for […]
Ice Age
When I read this back in February, my first thought was “Oh s–t! We are all going to die.” My second thought was, “That would make a great movie!”
In quick summary, if enough cold, fresh water coming from the melting polar ice caps and the melting glaciers of Greenland flows into the northern Atlantic, it […]
Science Courts
Chris Mooney (who still doesn’t have an RSS feed) has an interesting post about how Republicans have undermined important public policy initiatives on issues such as the environment by claiming that too much scientific uncertainty exists on the topic. He quotes a 1996 report by George Brown, the former Democratic minority leader of the House […]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
