Have you wondered about the environmental credentials of our current batch of presidential nominees and hopefuls? Well, look no further, as Mother Jones covers this subject, courtesy of The League of Conservation Voters. Apparently Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have pretty high ratings, while John McCain’s is appallingly low. When he isn’t voting against environmentally friendly measures, he isn’t even bothering to vote at all.

• McCain No Environmentalist

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I found the News Trust website through Scientific American, and their announcement of a collaboration designed to better aggregate environmental news reports. In fact, you can submit articles, rate them and even write your own articles to be reviewed by your peers.

• News Trust

• Scientific American

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The Bush administration is now infamous for its efforts at suppressing and censoring science. This is bad for all of the obvious reasons, and we can only hope that this horrible trend can be stopped, and the damage inflicted be remedied. Information, data and scientific results must be free from political attack, or we in the United States will suffer greatly in this modern world. Hear this, President-to-be, it will be one of your most important mandates.

• Governmental Science Suppression

• The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney

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Ok, so who doesn’t know the Bush administration’s agenda for the environment, seriously? It’s all about doing everything they can to facilitate business, at any cost. They have watered down the ‘clean water act’, and diluted ( clean air regulations). They dragged their feet in improving auto fuel mileage, fighting California all the way. Although, to be fair, the American public has not really stepped up and demanded more fuel-efficient cars, and seem to be willing to put up with the air pollution they are themselves adding to the air. The Bush Administration has opened up the American west to extensive drilling for oil and natural gas and mining for coal, without regard to the damage this has caused to water tables in that parched region. They have delisted creatures from the endangered species list for reasons of profit and private land ownership, while trying to use bogus ’scientific’ reasons for doing so, and when that didn’t work, they just censored the science. Climate change, anyone? Hey, I’m a scientist, and the way science gets done is by having researchers vigorously test each other’s scientific ideas and data, over and over. Careers are made by being tough, by proving things very meticulously and certainly not by simply accepting whatever any scientist publishes in a journal. We challenge, then challenge some more.

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The environmental cost of producing and eating meat has been something I’ve been reading and thinking about for a long time now. I understand that, as a person deeply concerned about the environment and the conservation of our natural resources, I need to make my lifestyle work in harmony with those concerns. I try to run an energy-efficient household, try to use natural products around the house and try to clean it using environmentally friendly solutions. I understand that each time I go out and buy something that can’t be easily recycled, I’m giving my personal OK to the industries that produced those products without any concern for how it may add to the growing junk piles and landfills here on our Earth.

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One of the two favorite subjects of this blog is conservation and water, so we get to do two for the price of one today. The drought in the southern United States is very bad these last few years (see the blog entry on Atlanta, Georgia), and it looks like it may be even worse in 2008, if something big in the precipitation department doesn’t come their way. Yes, for the skeptics, droughts do happen naturally, but, come on, it’s pretty much common knowledge that most Americans don’t conserve water, or energy for that matter. We embrace profligate waste, and the only time we begrudgingly consider being more modest with water and energy is if we are absolutely forced to do so. This usually means that the price goes up, and we try a little, but so most of us haven’t been really challenged with respect to our usage to the point where we radically change our lifestyle in order to get by. I believe most Americans simply do not want to contemplate the idea that our natural resources aren’t infinite, or that a very convenient technological fix won’t come along and give us everything we need, and fix all of our environmental damage as a side benefit. We want to believe in a miracle. Well, we shall see, but meanwhile, extinctions are happening, and they are significant, so that miracle has to come very, very soon.

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Plant conservation is a topic that rarely makes the news, but it should! We do not know all of the vital plant life that has been expunged due to human destruction of habitat and environmental pollution. We do know, however, that a significant portion of pharmaceuticals were and are originally modeled from plants. We also know that the advancement of the biological sciences relies on the huge biodiversity on our planet, with many species providing one piece of the genetic puzzle that is life here on Earth. The answer here is simple, but vital, CONSERVE!

BBC Article on Plant Diversity

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I joined ‘The Wilderness Society” today. So, who are they, what are they about, and why should you give them your support? It’s simple, really. It’s all about conservationists with energy and attitude, to quote: “We’re spirited people protecting America’s Wilderness since 1935 through the potent combination of science, advocacy and education”. Science, oh yes! As any thinking person will agree, life isn’t very black and white, and that means we need to think all that much harder about how we live our lives and how we treat our planet. The grey areas are everywhere, places where the applications of science have led to environmental problems, but also where scientific applications have been the solutions to those same problems. As a scientist, I love many of the places that science has taken us, but, I also understand that the best way to responsibly roll out our innovations is with a scientifically well-educated public, one that understands how the scientific method works, is well-read on scientific current events, and one that cares how we humans are affecting the environment.

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The EPA has released a tool that shows pollution emissions using Google Maps. You can trace sources and amounts of carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and sulfur dioxide in your area. Examples of point sources that can be identified through the EPA maps are:

* Cement Facilities
* Chemical Manufacturing
* Electric Generating Units
* Natural Gas Pipelines
* Oil and Gas Production
* Petroleum Refineries
* Pulp & Paper Industries

Go and seek out your pollution nemeses.

• EPA Google Earth Emissions Tool

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The UN has released a dark picture with regard to the state and availability of our future global natural resources. This is a serious issue, and I believe that humanity is still struggling to understand the ramifications of our effect on the air, fresh water, oceans and non-human life of the Earth. Some completely reject the idea that we have collectively had a negative influence over our environment. I think this is simple wishful thinking, and I think this is seductive because consciously or sub-, the implications are that our lifestyles are in for some big changes, and that is not what we want to contemplate. A simple example would be the drought being suffered by Georgia and its bordering states. Of course, naysayers would say it’s simply an act of nature, there have been droughts before and there will be again. Try to bottle up those words and drink them, why don’t cha? Many parts of the world have suffered from drought, and the terrible consequences wrought by it, including environmental destruction and human fatality. It happens. Supply and demand is a very simple concept, and fresh water supplies are not unlimited.

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