Biodiversivist’s Posts

• WWF, Global Warming, and the Point of No Return 0

  Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago

  
  
  I put together a Microsoft Excel interactive pie chart that can be opened or downloaded (file downloaded from this link is guaranteed not to have a virus) that may help people to put into perspective various efforts (like doubling the efficiency of the US car fleet, or the elimination of coal for electricity generation) to reduce greenhouse gases.
  
  I read the WWF study last night. At first I was a little shell-shocked, but as I read on I grew Read More

• A2B verses A123 0

  Posted 4 weeks ago

  

  I've seen a couple of these A2B machines running around town. I finally spotted one on display at a scooter store. That's my electric bike parked next to it. Some yahoo wanting to purchase an electric scooter to drive from his yacht at one end of a dock to the mailbox at the other end had waylaid the proprietor so I never got a chance to test ride it. You can find a video of a test ride done by the WSJ here.
  
  From the above video:
  
  "…after people ride it for a while… Read More

• Bicycles, Trauma Centers, and Injury Severity Scores 0

  Posted 4 weeks ago

  
  Two recent articles have motivated me to do another biking post. First up is this one, from Science Daily
  

  Despite the wide-spread attention paid to the importance of wearing helmets, helmet use did not change during the time period of the study, and more than 33 percent of 329 bicycle injury victims had a significant head injury. Even more alarming, the number of chest injuries increased by 15 percent and abdominal injuries rose three-fold over the last five years. “We were astounded by that data,”
  
  “We’re talking about injured spleens and livers, internal bleeding, rib fractures, and… Read More

• Transgressing identified and quantified planetary boundaries 0

  Posted 1 month, 1 week ago

  Apparently, we've punched through three of those boundaries already, two of them big time. See here. You can read the entire paper in the journal Nature here.

  Now, largely because of a rapidly growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized forms of agriculture, human activities have reached a level that could damage the systems that keep Earth in the desirable Holocene state.

  
  
  Note that of the two causes listed, one of them is industrial agriculture, which is also wholly dependent on fossil fuels. I don't have the answer but it surely isn't mixing the products of industrial… Read More

• Corn Ethanol Hoses Police Fleet 0

  Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago

  According to Green Inc., lab tests have confirmed that a high ethanol blend was to blame for taking about 70 police cars out of service in Baltimore. At first it was suspected that diesel had contaminated the fuel. Here is a video of the mechanics flushing out the fuel injectors. According to the maintenance supervisor in that video the cars were misfiring and some were running on only two cylinders resulting in low power. If you have ever fantasized about escaping from the police in a high-speed chase, you just missed your chance. I suspect that the ethanol… Read More

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Biodiversivist’s Recent Comments

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  Listened to an interesting study on NPR the other day. The government on some island increased subsidies to coconuts in an attempt to get citizens to stop fishing so much. It backfired. They fished even more because the didn't need to spend so much time farming coconuts. It turns out that guys like to go fishing. To me, it looks a lot like a gambling habit. Even buy-out programs fail to stop fishermen. They often use the money to buy another fishing boat and start fishing for another species.On So long and thanks for all the fish posted 4 hours, 17 minutes ago 42 Responses

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  "...Immigration is causing most of our population growth..." Immigration slows "world" population growth by increasing population density in urban environments where fertility rates tend to drop. The word "overpopulation" is not a synonym of "population density."On Tackling population rise would fight climate change posted 1 day, 3 hours ago 3 Responses

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  Worse than random chance? That's almost funny. I'll wager that the analysts on investment shows are also well below 50%. I have never understood why people tune in to them. There have always been oracles and prophets. So, maybe there is something instinctively soothing about predictions (better than a total void). I looked the word's origin up in wiki: "..The term originates from the Sanskrit (a language from ancient India) term paṇḍitá, meaning "learned" (see also Pandit). It refers to someone who is erudite in various subjects and who conducts religious ceremonies and offers counsel to the king..."On Reflecting on the lameness of my profession posted 1 day, 3 hours ago 9 Responses

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  Aquaculture is no answer. We are living witnesses to the sixth great extinction event.On So long and thanks for all the fish posted 1 day, 20 hours ago 42 Responses

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  The third comment on Revkin's Dot Earth blog sums it all up: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/group-warns-of-failure-on-managing-tuna-sharks/ A very recent study by Oryx: The International Journal of Conservation had this to say: "..The report examined the impact of consumer guides to ocean-friendly seafood, and noted that one of the first such programs, wallet cards produced by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, had resulted in no overall change in the market and no decrease in fishing pressures on the at-risk species it targeted..." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gQ7DjyozW-Q3pUZ5ZEXEv6KjKcLA ...and I think I know one reason why: http://biodiversivist.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-exercise-in-futility.htmlOn So long and thanks for all the fish posted 2 days, 15 hours ago 42 Responses