“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land” Aldo Leopold (1886-1948), U.S. Naturalist, Conservationist and Philosopher Conservatism may be defined as reluctance in accepting abrupt changes while… Read more »
CSAG student blog
A changing Arctic
Currently, there is a huge debate on the state of the Arctic and the concentration of sea ice over the area. Greenpeace are pushing for action on issues of future oil drilling, industrial fishing and the conflict that will undoubtedly ensue. But these are not the sole issues that need to be addressed. This blog… Read more »
Climate Change Scenarios – Where are we headed?
For over a decade, future climate change impacts have been assessed using a number of standardised emission scenarios. These scenarios assume different future states of the world’s population and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions – from really optimistic to really grim. For more information on these scenarios, please see IPCC SRES Scenarios and RCP Scenarios. It is important… Read more »
A New Revelation in Geophysics
There has always been evidence supporting the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean and the interdependence of the two, so no declaration of such findings is going to come as any sort of shock. However recently findings by Durack et al 2012 that were published in Science that presented the relationship between the… Read more »
What Happened to the Power of Science?
―The truth is that promoting science isn‘t just about providing resources—it‘s about protecting free and open inquiry. It‘s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics. It‘s about listening to what our scientists have to say even when it‘s inconvenient— especially when it‘s inconvenient — President Barack Obama, December 20,… Read more »
Background on carbon taxation and the automotive industry
In 2010 the number of registered cars in the world hit the 1 billion (10⁹) mark (see Ward’s Auto, or, if you want to try some Dutch, Autoweek). This equated to 1 car for every 6,75 people, whereas in the United States (with the largest number of cars at 239.8 million, way ahead of China,… Read more »
Automotive carbon taxes: help or hinderance?
In 2010 the number of registered cars in the world hit the 1 billion (10⁹) mark (see Ward’s Auto, or, if you want to try some Dutch, Autoweek). This represents a major concern in climate change mitigation. While carbon taxes on private and company cars have been implemented in many places (including in SA), I… Read more »
Why we should be concerned about what’s happening at SAWS
pdf version: blog2 I have an admission to make: I’m a weather freak. I find the daily weather bulletin (dwb) as riveting a read as Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and browsing through climate statistics as exciting as watching the IPL final. There was a time when watching the evening television weather forecast was the highlight… Read more »
Medicine for the planet… or ourselves?
So far, several geoengineering options have been proposed to counter the effects of global warming. Anders Sandberg, an ethicist at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, recently considered a ‘safer’ route: although (admittedly) not entirely serious about the idea, he thinks that human engineering poses less danger than altering our planet through radical geoengineering options…. Read more »