This site, my own blogging specifically, tends to dwell on breaking news and herd journalism. For one thing, both are important lenses on science journalism, and second, have another appeal to the demands of this job. Search engines find them easily, and the stories tend to be short enough to skim through fast without spending all day on just one or two bylines worth.
Today I got a note from an editor, Celeste Bernard, at the magazine Conservation, one of a scad of magazines I’d like to read regularly but don’t get around to (and right over there is my pile of New Yorkers that I’m behind on as it is). Her message in essence: Hey! Look over here!
It is, of course, an advocacy magazine, editorially on the side of those who want to see much more aggressive policies to preserve examples of as many expressions of the natural world as possible. I wrote that sketch, not the magazine’s “about” explainer, but I think it’s fair. But as you will see (or may disagree with), the magazine goes well beyond merely congratulating tree-huggers for being on the side of the angels. It dares to suggest that being green at heart is not the same as being free of error. Some of these articles confront common misconceptions among greenies head-on. Now, that’s progressive thinking.
There are some good ones, with bylines many of us know very well. In fact, a confession – this is a self-referential post, in a way, because rushing along this morning I gravitated to stories by writers I happen to know, or at least have met. If I missed a few pals, sorry, just missed, that’s all. Here’s a quick is somewhat biased sampling:
- Carl Zimmer : Black is the New Green ; Complete with footnotes, a history of “biochar” and on how this ancient method of essentially making charcoal and then burying it to enrich the soil could be a substantial weapon against global warming. It may also be a boon for agricultural and wildland productivity. I’ve read about this before. This is a more complete take, complete with some paleohistory of the Amazon.
- Madeleine Nash – Up Up And Away ; Two things to note. Nash, a Time Magazine veteran, does a great job explaining how a standard trope on climate change and mountain “islands” may have missed the mark in declaring mountain pikas a species at immediate risk.
Also important is that the magazine ran it, even though it may deprive the conservation and global warming-worried crowd (eg, the magazine’s readers) of one of its talking points. - Chris Mooney: We Have Met the Enemy – and It Isn’t Ignorance ; Ah. I knew it. This is why my brother in law, a terrific and kind fellow in most regards, is incapable of thinking that little ol’ mankind is able to change the climate of a whole planet. And he’s no fundamentalist, either. Just conservative, distrustful of gov’t programs, and sure that scientists have somehow managed to mislead themselves.
- Charles Alexander: Beyond an Unreasonable Doubt ; A partner, and contrast, to Mooneys’ piece one bullet up. It’s a book review. I’m pretty well convinced that, overall, the science writing press has not done much false-balance reporting on climate change for years now. But there’s a lot more to mass media than us. This article, and the book, dissect the forces that keep the debate over global warming so hot.
- Erik Vance – Genetically Modified Conservation: GMO, it says here, may be just the ticket (but maybe not if Monsanto or other big-ag companies are calling the shots). Vance, by the way, is in my town, Berkeley, an outdoorsman, a kayak-toting kind of fellow.
- Douglas Fox – Power on Sail: Ships with kites for propulsion – we’ve heard about those – but that also divert some of the energy from pushing the vessel along to turbine-generated electricity to make methanol fuel via hydrolysis. Holy Rube Goldberg, if not perpetual motion, but who knows? Fox is a San Francisco writer (and like Vance and Nash, Northern Calif Science Writers Assoc. regular).
Gotta go -have a great weekend. The entirety of Conservation Magazine for your own exploration is here.
Pic- biochar, source.
– Charlie Petit
Leave a Reply