climate change – Page 12 – Southern Fried Science

Ethical Debate: Clean Energy and the State of the Union

February 1, 2011January 30, 2011 David Shiffman 7 Comments

Uncategorized

I’ve been critical of President Obama’s policies concerning science, technology and education in the past. I think he uses a lot of great-sounding rhetoric, but I have yet to see very much in the way of actual results. Despite lofty promises about climate change, we remain without a cap-and-trade system or any sort of meaningful response plan. To make things worse, the administration recently fired their primary adviser for climate change policy. Is all hope lost? Perhaps not.

Grading President Obama on science and conservation

November 17, 2010 David Shiffman 6 Comments

Conservation

Earlier this week, Dr. M of Deep Sea News evaluated President Obama’s science and conservation policies and awarded him a B-. I gave President Obama a C+ overall after his first 100 days in office, noting that some things haven’t had enough time to be given a fair grade, and I think things have gotten much worse since then. I was a little shocked at how high this grade was, and I left Dr. M a snarky comment (sorry, Craig).

In the interest of fairness, I wanted to find a way to objectively grade these policies. The best that I can find is the Obameter, run by non-partisan fact checker Politifact. Basically, they record every promise that President Obama made during the campaign and since he’s become President, and they keep track of how each is progressing. Each is rated “promise kept”, “compromise” (something similar happened though not exactly what was promised), “in the works” (not done yet but actively being worked on), “stalled” (no work being done but it may happen at some point), and “promise broken”.

An open letter about climate change to soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner

November 10, 2010November 12, 2010 David Shiffman 46 Comments

Conservation

Dear Representative Boehner,

Congratulations on your party’s recent election victories. Your speech at the end of the night was particularly touching, and your personal story is inspirational. The election results do seem to signify that many Americans are not happy with how the Democratic party has been running Washington, and some change will likely be good for the country. As a scientist, however, I am deeply troubled by some of what I’m hearing about the new Republican House majority, particularly about global climate change policy.

Altered sea turtle sex ratios: Can global warming harm warm-water animals?

October 12, 2010 David Shiffman 5 Comments

Conservation, Science

When most people think of an animal threatened by global warming, images of a polar bear drowning because of lost ice habitat come to mind. Few know that climate change can also threaten animals used to living in environments much warmer than the Arctic. Even when you’re used to heat, too much heat can be a serious problem- particularly in vulnerable early life history stages.

One example of this phenomenon is the sea turtle. Though one species (the leatherback) often ventures into Arctic waters, the other species are largely confined to tropical and temperate climates. All seven species are threatened or endangered due to decades of bycatch mortality and habitat destruction, and they are in serious trouble as a result of warming beach temperatures.