Climate
More carbon dioxide was added to the atmosphere in the past 200 years than between the last Ice Age and the Industrial Revolution.
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On Resilience
December 13, 2010
How much disturbance can a system withstand? With roots in ecology and complexity science, resilience theory can turn crises into catalysts for innovation.
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Tensions Rise in Cancún
December 07, 2010
Tensions rise into the second week of the UN climate meetings as the draft negotiating text receives mixed reviews. As the time to narrow down proposals dwindles, negotiators perform under heightened pressure to strike a deal.
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Knowing Sooner
December 06, 2010
Our world is an uncertain place where biological systems and financial markets can collapse in an instant. Powerful predictive models fueled by smarter data sets are the tools that will allow us to know sooner and adapt more quickly to the problems that define our complex age.
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Much At Stake In Cancún
December 02, 2010
As UN climate meetings started this week in Cancún, the deficit of trust between developing and developed countries is stunningly apparent. Overcoming this hurdle will be critical to COP-16 success—with political consequences that reach through the decade.
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Wealth of Nations
November 29, 2010
Shared natural resources underpin the global economy, but our current economic system does not acknowledge their worth. Can a major new effort to assess the costs of biodiversity loss force a paradigm shift in what we value?
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Building Science Leaders
September 27, 2010
Pop!Tech launches an initiative to cultivate a new class of science leaders—young researchers with the skills and drive to reach out, communicate their science, and lead society towards evidence-based solutions.
climate, communication, food, leadership, network, policy, politics, social science
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Ebbs and Flows
August 27, 2010
Alien-yet-familiar worlds are discovered around distant stars, extreme weather batters the Earth, stimulus spending energizes renewables, and the stem-cell debate reignites.
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Two Wrongs from the Right
July 23, 2010
The deaths of a climate scientist and of meaningful climate-change legislation bode poorly for a prosperous energy-independent future.
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Is Population a Problem?
June 10, 2010
Will 9 billion people max out the Earth's natural resources? Or is overconsumption the real planetary threat? Three experts discuss the Gordian knot of wealth, fertility, and environmental impact — and why making do with less stuff matters so much.
agriculture, climate, development, economics, environment, population, poverty
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Books to Read Now
June 01, 2010
June releases follow cave divers into the bowels of the Earth; chart the geography of hunger; and explore the science of false memories, inflated confidence, and distorted senses.
agriculture, climate, food, geography, innovation, neuroscience, psychology, technology
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A Distressed Asset
May 14, 2010
Volatility prompts rapid regulatory reform on Wall Street, while biodiversity crashes and a climate change bill flounders. What if we treated Earth like a company?
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The Other Inconvenient Truth
May 04, 2010
As the international community focuses on climate change as the great crisis of our era, it is ignoring another looming problem: the global crisis in land use.
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On the Horizon
April 30, 2010
As a disastrous oil spill spreads across the Gulf of Mexico, it also rekindles hope for renewed political action on climate change and energy.
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Our Planet, Ourselves
April 27, 2010
Two radically different environmental messages are taking shape in the world today…Does it matter which one we choose?
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Embracing the Anthropocene
March 19, 2010
The Earth has entered a new geological period in which human influence dominates the state of the planet, compounding uncertainty about the future.
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Zero-Sum Game
February 19, 2010
With two power-players—Bill Gates and Barack Obama—placing their bets on nuclear energy, another round of debate begins over its place in a carbon-free future.
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Getting Snowed
February 12, 2010
As major storms cover the northeast, the classic canard of conflating climate with weather takes on ridiculous new forms. But is it better to fight or ignore them?
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What a Water-Full World
December 18, 2009
The discovery of an ocean-covered planet prompts reflections on the purpose, cost, and value of our forays into the great unknown of outer space.
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Search Me
December 11, 2009
Amid a roll-out of a number of new features, Google’s biggest change went largely unnoticed, even though it could further fragment our shared pool of knowledge.
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Works in Progress
December 03, 2009
Whether it is climate change or life on Mars, revealing the hairy—and human—underbelly of how science is done means controversy for the public at large.
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Rethinking Light and Sound
November 23, 2009
The director of the Census of Marine Life on broadening the scope of global change to include illumination and noise.
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Pushing a Power Portfolio
October 30, 2009
As alternative energy funding plans are rolled out, a long-running debate over nuclear rages on Earth and in space.
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Brains and Storms
October 23, 2009
A pair of elegant experiments delve deep into the brains of animals, while a pair of authors stir up a storm over their take on global warming.
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The Dead Zone Dilemma
September 30, 2009
Is saving our atmosphere killing our seas? Biofuels may stifle global warming, but scientists warn that agricultural runoff causes new problems.
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The One that Got Away
September 25, 2009
A dead fish has caused a stink over false positives in fMRI studies, and while gloom and doom reign at UN climate talks, renting a movie you actually like has never been easier.
Now on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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Ideas
I Tried Almost Everything Else
John Rinn, snowboarder, skateboarder, and “genomic origamist,” on why we should dumpster-dive in our genomes and the inspiration of a middle-distance runner.
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Ideas
Going, Going, Gone
The second most common element in the universe is increasingly rare on Earth—except, for now, in America.
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Ideas
Earth-like Planets Aren’t Rare
Renowned planetary scientist James Kasting on the odds of finding another Earth-like planet and the power of science fiction.
