If you need a good reason to compost your food waste, Kenneth Weiss provides it an article he wrote for Science magazine in May (Vancouver’s Green Dream, Science 20 May 2016, Vol. 352, Issue 6288, pp. 918-921, DOI: 10.1126/science.352.6288.918). Weiss describes Vancouver’s efforts to combat climate change, among other environmental initiatives, by capturing methane generated in … More Compost.
Walking around the Apex Reservoir this afternoon I noticed a lone Double-crested cormorant paddling along. I kept an eye on him as I figured he’d soon be diving, and I was curious how far he’d go underwater. Sure enough he submerged, and I looked ahead five, ten yards to catch where he came up. I … More Hungry Birds
The following letter appeared in the January 1, 2016 edition of the News and Observer, Raleigh, NC News and Observer Letter It’s deja vu all over again reading George Will (“Another false ‘turning point’,” N&O, 12/17) and Charles Krauthammer (“Obama’s legacy of fiction,” N&O, 12/18) whine about efforts to address climate change. Neither one considers … More The Ozone Protocol: A Climate Change Precedent
Several weeks ago there was a big splash in the media about astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) eating lettuce they had grown in Earth orbit. Having once spent ten weeks on a faculty fellowship at Kennedy Space Center working on potential problems associated with growing plants in space, I was curious about the … More Plants in Space
One of two Prius’s (Prii?) owned by my daughter and her husband! As the owner of two hybrid vehicles (a Prius and a Honda Civic hybrid), I take exception with Donald van der Vaart and his comparison of North Carolina to a Prius among old gas-guzzling Cadillacs. I love the old north state, and we’ve … More We (North Carolina that is) can do better!
As a general aviation pilot, a story about increasing conflicts among fliers sharing the skies overhead carries an intrinsic interest with a safety overtone. As a biologist and a birder, realizing the story is about wildlife-human aerial interactions awakens quite a different interest, still with a safety overtone. Sergio Lambertucci, a wildlife ecologist at the … More AIRSPACE CROWDING
Luna moth resting on a screen at the Len Foote Hike Inn in north Georgia This was one of a few luna moths we saw while we were hiking this May in Amicalola Falls State Park in the north Georgia mountains. With apparently little to do in the daylight hours, these huge specimens mostly just … More The Evolution of Aerial Combat
The U.S. Department of Energy has for the second time decided to terminate its financial support of the attempt to demonstrate carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The concept of “clean coal” depends on the ability to capture and inactivate or permanently store the carbon dioxide emissions and other contaminants otherwise released when coal is burned to produce … More CLEAN COAL: A COLLAPSE OF CHICANERY?
Sunset’s shadow fell about two-thirds of the way up the wall of tall pine trees lining the eastern shore of the lake. I thought it would be neat to get the rising shadow on video, but realized it would progress too slowly to enjoy in real time, perhaps a time-lapse would work. A blustery northwest … More February’s Bird-of-the-Month
Heard this red-shouldered hawk somewhere in my backyard a couple days ago. Difficult to triangulate his location, but after a while I recalled these guys are often lower than you think, so I aimed closer to the ground and found him, only about 20 feet up on a branch, just biding his time. He looked … More January’s bird-of-the-month
this view of earth 