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As we move further into the Climate Change Bottleneck, where our planet heats up more and our past environmental abuses (pollution, loss of biodiversity) catch up with us, we should transition quickly to clean energy sources. If you’re trying to visualize what a Climate Change Bottleneck looks like, check out this recent interactive article in the New York Times that reveals a world steadily getting impacted by climate-related disasters. “Christina DeConcini, the director of government affairs at the World Resources Institute, said that federal programs do not adequately emphasize adapting to the risks posed by climate change.” ( The Places in the U.S. Where Disaster Strikes Again and Again , May 24, 2018 New York Times) Many people agree with the moral proposition that we must change to a clean energy paradigm. Not doing so means a miserable future for all, which of course, is immoral. But many folks also doubt whether we can actually move to 100% renewables on a scale and time frame ...

In The Truth About Animals , author Lucy Cooke explains how incredibly wrong our ancestors got the facts about many animals because of our prejudices. The animals—sloths, bats, vultures, beavers, and many more—are still around and are now understood quite well. But it’s difficult today to imagine how strongly our ancestors believed the most ludicrous myths (migrating birds flew to the moon in winter) about these creatures. A little objective reasoning and keener observations would have relieved many people of their wild untruths about even the most common of animals. Will those for whom we will someday be their ancestors wonder in jaw-dropping incredulity at our unbelievable intransigence on Climate Change ? Why, might they ask, were we not convinced by the science of the day and the facts staring us right in the face? The answer is that we too still hold prejudices about reality. In our case, it may be because the implications of our admitting the enormity of the crisis keeps putting ...

From which side of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s mouth should we understand Climate Change ’s role in the rapid spreading of tick and mosquito infections? Our public health officials should offer more clarity about Climate Change and public health when communicating to the public. The report’s abstract does not mention Climate Change, nor does the CDC public information page on the study: “ Illnesses on the rise From mosquito, tick, and flea bites ”. In two of our major publications, the same CDC official seems to highlight the importance of Climate Change in the recent spread of vectorborne diseases in one paper and in the other paper shies away from this position. ·          From  The Washington Post : “Climate change, which experts say can exacerbate many public health threats, also plays an important role, allowing mosquitoes and ticks to thrive in warmer temperatures, said Lyle Petersen, director of the CDC's Di...

The French president’s call to “ Make our planet great again ” is more likely to occur if we renew efforts to make the Paris Agreement work.   Emmanuel Macron Takes Aim At Trump On Climate Change In Congressional Address  Some people care more about job growth than the survival of future generations, he said. French President  Emmanuel Macron  extolled the Franco-American relationship on multiple fronts but issued a stern warning about the need to address climate change during his address to a joint session of  Congress  on Wednesday.  Speaking entirely in English, Macron laid out the numerous ways ― human rights, trade, terrorism ― in which both the U.S. and France must strengthen multilateral ties in order to confront what he called a “new world order” marked by violence and conflict.  His most forceful comments came in the form of a veiled rebuke against President  Donald Trump  on climate policy. Macron has emerged as a leader in the...

As Earth Day rolls around again, there are historic concerns about our environment still to be solved and new concerns we hadn’t even anticipated back at the first event in 1970.   Old environmental issues are still with us including Climate Change . Climate Change has brought some very inconvenient facts and sense of great urgency to Earth Day. One of the most dramatic moments in the efforts to communicate Climate Change was the ‘hockey stick’ graph authored by Dr. Michael Mann and some colleagues demonstrating a major spike in greenhouse gases in the 20 th century. Check out this 20-year update by Dr. Mann: Earth Day and the Hockey Stick: A Singular Message  On the 20th anniversary of the graph that galvanized climate action, it is time to speak out boldly Two decades ago this week a pair of colleagues and I  published the original  “hockey stick” graph in Nature, which happened to coincide with the Earth Day 1998 observances. The graph showed Earth’s temp...

Presidential tweets, however colorful, do not provide the core reasoning upon which societies make policy—it has and will continue to be science.  Science and the respect for science in human growth are hard-won processes that helps free us from a Stone Age mentality. Evolutionary psychology rests on the observation that most of our modern brain traits are still wired for fighting nature, predators, and anyone who gets in our way. Our ‘gut’ reactions to background stimuli (like a rustle in the grass) are an example.   Now, with over seven billion of us still growing on a planet filled with our infrastructures (roads, bridges, pipes) and the repercussions of our growth ( Climate Change , pollution, loss of biodiversity, over consumption), science is a fundamental necessity for humanity moving quickly to address most of our environmental and technical challenges ahead. Science gives our minds a solid frame of reference that helps keep our paleolithic brains in check and adapt ...

One of the biggest problems in trying to communicate the urgency of addressing Climate Change is that most people think it will only happen far into the future and someplace else. Neither is true. Climate Change is hitting home now . However much US partisan politics are split on the scientific consensus on Climate Change, 97% of climate scientists around the world agree that Climate Change is happening, and we are causing it. “A synthesis of this research – a survey of surveys – concluded that the expert consensus on climate change is between 90 to 100%, with a number of studies converging on 97% agreement. Among peer-reviewed studies examining expert agreement on climate change, there is consensus on consensus.” (Page 2, “ The Consensus Handbook, Why the scientific consensus on climate change is important ”) How do we get the public to understand and appreciate that Climate Change is happening now, here in Rochester and everywhere else (because it’s a planetary phenomenon)? We have ...