Articles by JMG

This is sure to end well

What is it that we learn from history again? Oh, right, nothing:

Out on the farm, the ducks and pheasants are losing ground.

Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government's biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

I'm reading J.K. Galbraith's book on the Crash of '29 -- uncomfortable to start reading again about pulling conservation reserve land into production ...

Your used fry grease or your life

And so it's come to this -- Mad Max is after used fry grease.

A Nobelist speaks

This talk (about 85 min) by Prof. Steven Schneider (of the IPCC) is titled "Climate Change: Is the Science Settled Enough for Action?" That turned out to be a bit of a trick -- the talk is actually more of an exploration of what "settled enough" would mean, and why we need to be acting.

It's a little slow in spots, but it picks up towards the end, and he really shines during the Q&A. There's something in here for almost all the regular Gristies who post or comment about the subject, and an interesting response on the "mitigation vs. adaptation" question.

Think globally by thinking locally

A new study bolsters the importance-of-place arguments made by people like Wendell Berry: the strongest way to get people to engage with the problems and to act responsibly for the global environment is to focus on the threats to their own place).

This doesn't really surprise me -- but it does prompt me to change my signature line to "Save your community -- cut greenhouse gas emissions 5% per year."