Biodiversity Conservation Can Reduce Poverty

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of traveling to London to help give a presentation at the Zoological Society of London for the symposium: Linking Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction: What, Why, and How? Since December, I have been working with Craig Leisher at The Nature Conservancy on drafting a knowledge review that was commissioned specifically for the symposium. We presented our report, “Biodiveristy as a Mechanism for Poverty... Read More

Planes, Volcanoes, and Climate

Too often we forget that humanity is fundamentally at the whim of nature. Someone must have angered Vulcan, because the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull ground Europe to a halt last week. I was following the eruption quite closely as I was set to fly to London for a conference. I was relieved last week when I heard that airspace was being opened – just in time for my flight. Source: NASA Earth Observatory What I found most interesting about the... Read More

10 New Nukes Announced in the UK

Earlier this week, the UK government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change announced plans to build 10 new nuclear power stations in an effort to both meet future electricity demands, and help meet its commitments regarding climate change mitigation (an ambitious 30% reduction by 2030). Currently the UK gets about 20% of its electricity from nuclear energy, and its existing aging fleet of power stations is set to be retired by 2030. New reactors... Read More