Climate Science

Do Australian lorikeets have a drinking problem or a mysterious disease problem?

Red-collared lorikeets—a type of parrot—show up every year in Australia acting like they've been hitting the fermented fruit juice a little too hard. Locals report symptoms like "falling over" and "difficulty flying" and "running into things" and "act[ing] friendlier than normal," which will be familiar to anyone who’s ever gone to college. (Don’t ask about “difficulty flying.” That was a bad night.)

Ok, but less funny ...

Colbert: 'I know global warming is real, folks'

When everyone's favorite fake Tea Partier acknowledges the reality of climate change, maybe we're getting somewhere.

Critical List: Nebraskans ‘debate’ Keystone XL; Yellowstone temps could rise 10 degrees

Are Nebraskans really “split” over the Keystone XL pipeline, as Canada’s ambassador says? Sounds like a whole lot them know what they want, which is not tar-sands oil running through their state.

Homeowners who want solar panels but don’t want to pay a $30,000 installation cost could start paying utility bills to Google instead.

The EPA’s pushing back the deadline for releasing fuel efficiency rules.

The U.K. could have commercial tidal power within the next four years.

Climate Dog voting

I'm impressed: You guys really brought it. The competition was fierce. The paws are tired. But I've finally narrowed down the finalists. Now it's time to pick some winners.

Fareed Zakaria, Daniel Yergin, and the elite disdain for clean energy deployment

In the New York Times Book Review, Fareed Zakaria has a review of Daniel Yergin's new book, "The Quest," that reads like a capsule summary of current elite conventional wisdom on energy.

Atlas error overstates Greenland's (still significant!) ice loss

Here's the good news: Greenland did not lose 15 percent of its ice cover in the last 10 years, as the Times [Usually] Comprehensive Atlas of the World said it did. This is, in fact, really good news, since this amount of melting would raise sea levels three to five feet. The publisher, HarperCollins subsidiary Collins Geo, has retracted the 15 percent figure but says it's "reviewing" the map -- but in the meantime, a whole bunch of scientists went "whoa whoa whoa there." 

How to save rhinos and tigers: Shoot the crap out of poachers

In India's Kaziranga National Park, rhinos and tigers are thriving, because poachers are dying instead. When it comes to poachers, the park's rangers have a license to kill, and they do. It gets results:

In 2010, only five rhinos were shot in Kaziranga, while nine poachers were killed, the first time poacher deaths surpassed rhinos. (For comparison, in South Africa, where rangers fire only in self-­defense, five poachers were killed in 2010, while 333 rhinos were poached.)

These guys were breaking the law and killing endangered species. But the moral calculus here isn't so clear-cut. In the park's region, jobs are scarce. Park animals eats crops and kill farm animals, and poaching pays better than any other pursuit. Shooting poachers on sight is apparently the most effective way to conserve the park’s threatened animals, but how does that stack up against human injustice? It’s a complicated calculation.

Critical List: Wangari Maathai passes away; NASA satellite didn’t kill anyone

Wangari Maathai, who won the Nobel peace prize for her work planting trees, passed away. She was the first African woman to win the prize and the first Kenyan woman to earn a Ph.D.

Around the world, thousands of people met in more than 2,000 demonstrations to rally for a Moving Planet.

That massive NASA satellite managed to plop back to earth without killing anyone.

Strong public support for EPA efforts to reduce carbon emissions

A new poll finds widespread support for the EPA requiring reductions in carbon emissions.

Save the whales, put them in the Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is just sitting around making ships and planes disappear. Why not put it to work for something useful, like a whale sanctuary? Because when you want to save something, you definitely store it in a place where stuff mysteriously vanishes. That's why I keep my passport in the dryer.