CROCUS researchers crossed Chicago’s Michigan Avenue as they collected data on how buildings, streets, and greenspaces impact temperature and air quality. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.) Topics: Civilization, Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Thermodynamics CROCUS’s Urban Canyon campaign captured data on heat islands and air quality while also helping scientists understand how to conduct aContinue reading “Urban Climate Science…”
Category Archives: Civilization
The Matter of Methane…
Image source: https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/methane-molecule Topics: Chemistry, Civilization, Climate Change, Entropy, Environment, Global Warming The “good news”: you can download the PDF for free by registering an email, or read the report from the National Academies of Science and Medicine here. Citizenship takes work and effort to be informed. It would be nice to carry on aContinue reading “The Matter of Methane…”
Post-Trauma Citizens…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Democracy, Existentialism September 11, 2001, was on a Tuesday. We were a year from a contested election decided by the Supreme Court. We were scrambling to make sense of the senseless, and trying mightily, not to individually, or collectively go insane. I remember President George W. Bush being told thatContinue reading “Post-Trauma Citizens…”
Authenticity…
James Carter, the 39th President of the United States, https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/james-carter/ Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Climate Change, Democracy, Education, Existentialism, Nobel Peace Prize, Nuclear Power James Earl Carter Jr. was the 39th President of the United States. In 1980, I voted for the first time as an eighteen-year-old for his re-election. He lost to Reagan,Continue reading “Authenticity…”
Retreat and Aftermath…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Climate Change, Democracy, Existentialism Like many people after the election, I retreated from corporate media, which is anything on television and in print now. GE/Comcast, News Corps/Fox, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS: six corporations control 90% of what we passively consume after long hard days of work on whatContinue reading “Retreat and Aftermath…”
40 Years To Now…
Image Source: University of Notre Dame Topics: African Americans, Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Existentialism Update on what I’ve been doing: I was on the workgroup out of Washington for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) on this project. Perchloroethylene (Perc) is a common solvent for dry cleaning, selected for its low flashContinue reading “40 Years To Now…”
Entropy and Empires…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Climate Change, Entropy, Existentialism The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival, Sir John Glubb, Abe Books In these inspiring essays, Sir John Glubb examines the human race over 4,000 years and finds the same patterns of rise and fall of national greatness on the same timescale. I. Pioneers –Continue reading “Entropy and Empires…”
The End of History…
Topics: African Americans, Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Democracy, Existentialism, Fascism, History “The End of History and the Last Man,” by Francis Fukuyama “a 1992 book of political philosophy by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama argues that with the ascendancy of Western liberal democracy—which occurred after the Cold War (1945–1991) and the dissolution of the SovietContinue reading “The End of History…”
Wages of the Thermal Budget…
Topics: Applied Physics, Astrobiology, Astrophysics, Civilization, Climate Change, Existentialism, Exoplanets, SETI, Thermodynamics Well, this firmly puts a kink in the “Fermi Paradox.” The Industrial Revolution started in Britain around 1760 – 1840, and there was a colloquial saying that “the sun did not set on the British Empire.” The former colony, America, cranked up itsContinue reading “Wages of the Thermal Budget…”
Antarctic Greenbelt…
Hummocks of moss cover Ardley Island off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Dan Charman Topics: Antarctica, Civilization, Climate Change, Existentialism, Global Warming A fast-warming region of Antarctica is getting greener with shocking speed. Satellite imagery of the region reveals that the area covered by plants increased by almost 14 times over 35 years — aContinue reading “Antarctic Greenbelt…”
Physics and Nano 