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Here’s a simplistic idea: could we save the planet by reducing our focus on how business must occur face-to-face?

By now you’ve probably heard about or seen or have some context around this new climate change report, which was fairly dire. At the same time, the percentage of Americans who care about the issue is essentially the same as… Continue Reading

Can we generate electricity from the oceans? Well, for damn sure China is going to try.

Actually this does happen around the world, but very rarely is it ever successful. Here’s the essential challenge: Their quest has been to create a machine that’s tough enough to withstand the constant pressure of surging water, yet sensitive enough to harness that… Continue Reading

72 percent of the Earth is covered by ocean. So desalination seems like a logical answer to drought, right? Not so fast.

California droughts right now might be the worst in 100 years, and Lake Mead’s at a fairly dangerous level (which threatens tourism mecca Las Vegas), so clearly we’re moving to the “answers” stage of our water problem. It would seem… Continue Reading

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Brief thought exercise: if you knew conclusively what happened when you died, would you treat the world better right now?

This isn’t a full-fledged post by any means; ’tis just a thought exercise. If you believe that things like overpopulation and peak oil and food supply and over-dependence on fossil fuels and the future of the oceans are all concerns we could be addressing more now, then… Continue Reading

Could Jose Salvador Alvarenga really have survived 13 months or so floating at sea?

I used to read all those Alive books as a kid, because I thought there was a chance I’d be in an avalanche (I’ve never been skiing, in all honesty) or have to save my family from a fire (a small kitchen… Continue Reading

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Because we’re getting more liberal about marijuana laws, we may have to sacrifice a bit on the salmon front

In 2013, we saw a shift in marijuana legalization viewpoint — more people approved it than not. That led to legalization in Colorado, which led to the first person ever to buy it legally in Colorado, which led to this epic… Continue Reading

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Our three options with the oceans might come down to ‘migration, adaptation or extinction’

This article is from August 2013. This one is from yesterday. (In more positive news, this is also from yesterday, and puts a lot of the ocean warming discussion into proper context — namely, that the newest studies provide incrementally rich data,… Continue Reading

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On humpback whales and communication

Last night, 60 Minutes did a piece on humpback whales. Two quick side notes before I get going here: (a) with the amount (and the distances) that Scott Pelley travels for his long-form features, how does he ever host the nightly news?… Continue Reading