Ammonia as a fuel

by Bill Schlesinger It is not often that environmental scientists get to weigh-in on a new technology before it is implemented.  Usually we end up complaining about the aftermath.  But,…

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Wildfires and Air Quality

by Bill Schlesinger A couple of years ago, being a weather-hobbyist, I added a particle sensor (Purple Air PA-II) to our rooftop weather station to measure the ambient concentration of…

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The Invisible Birds

by Bill Schlesinger The number of species in a given area, what is often called alpha diversity or species richness, sounds like it would be easy to measure.  Make a…

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A Requiem for Roundup?

by Bill Schlesinger Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the United States with applications ranging between 250 and 300 million pounds per year during the past 10 years,…

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The Downsizing of Nature?

by Bill Schlesinger In the mid-1800s, a German biologist, Carl Bergmann noticed a tendency for the individuals of bird and mammal species to be larger at higher latitudes, and he…

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Nature’s plant hardiness zones

by Bill Schlesinger Most seed catalogs tell amateur gardeners what to plant each spring by including a map of plant hardiness zones.  Developed by the USDA, these maps show where…

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Rethinking Recycling

by Bill Schlesinger Recycling remains the easiest way for the average citizen to help achieve a closed-loop economy, in which all waste is reused to generate new products. Recycled materials,…

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Electric or gas?

by Bill Schlesinger With the increasing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs), several readers have asked me to evaluate the net benefit of EVs for the mitigation of climate change.  I…

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Too Darn Hot

by Bill Schlesinger "Too Darn Hot," Cole Porter, 1948 In 1992, then Senator Al Gore hosted an informational hearing on climate change, where I was honored to participate.  One of…

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Watering the lawn

Summer means attention to lawn care.  Mid-summer drought leads to frequent repositioning of garden hoses to ensure a green lawn.  Water bills skyrocket.  Is this mindless? Just how much water…

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