Some rare good news for Arctic researchers and the region they study: an annual $1 million prize to be awarded to up to five research teams in Canada so they can move the knowledge they’ve produced into action. In announcing the Arctic Inspiration Prize at the International Polar Year conference in Montreal, founder Arnold Witzig explained that he and his partner Sima Sharifi were inspired by the concept “From Knowledge to Action.” That’s also the theme of the conference, which opened today and marks five years of research in the Arctic and Antarctic since the opening of the ... Read More
Will Japan Follow Germany’s Path to Green Energy?
April 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Japan is shutting down the last of its nuclear power plants. While the closure is slated to be temporary, popular opinion has shifted, and no one is certain when or if the reactor will be brought back online. Prior to the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, Japan counted on nuclear generation for 30 percent of its electrical needs. After the disaster, they turned off 53 nuclear plants, with the last one scheduled to go offline this month. Miranda Schreurs, professor of comparative politics and director of the Environmental Policy Research Centre at the Freie Universitat Berlin, says Japan ... Read More
Adding People to the Climate Change Equation
March 30, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Research scientist Gail Osherenko is blogging for Miller-McCune from the Planet Under Pressure Conference in London. For other posts from her, click here. Changing how business and government operate can be a slow and difficult process. But altering the way science is done is even stickier and more ponderous. Nonetheless, scientists from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds at this week’s Planet Under Pressure Conference moved a step closer to creating a new, integrated entity to coordinate and advance research on global environmental change. A key aspect of the integration is ... Read More
Governing Geoengineering: Hot Topic For a Warming Planet
March 28, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Research scientist Gail Osherenko is blogging for Miller-McCune from the Planet Under Pressure Conference in London. For other posts from her, click here. As I walked out of a panel on geoengineering governance this morning at the Planet Under Pressure Conference taking place in London, I was handed a flyer calling on governments to “Act Immediately to COOL THE ARCTIC.” I do not take the dire warnings of the Arctic Methane Emergency Group lightly, but a call to use geoengineering among other means to cool the Arctic is both premature and scary. As the panel’s experts explained, ... Read More
Entering a Dangerous Epoch — The Anthropocene
March 27, 2012 • By •
Research scientist Gail Osherenko is blogging for Miller-McCune from the Planet Under Pressure Conference in London. For other posts from her, click here. According to scientists studying global environmental change, the Earth is moving out of the Holocene — the period of remarkably stable climate that began roughly 12,000 years ago — into the Anthropocene, an era in which a single species, humans, are driving the Earth’s systems. “Can we return to the nice, steady Holocene stage where we know humanity can survive or will we be able to transition to a new, much hotter state?” ... Read More
