Wilderness
by Bill Schlesinger "Don’t it always seem to goThat you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone" Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi, 1970 Humans have occupied all continents of…
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May 24, 2021
Legacy Phosphorus
by Bill Schlesinger Normally, we think of a legacy as a financial contribution or a policy that has a lasting impact on an institution. Alternatively, we may hear that a…
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May 12, 2021
Geoengineering Revisited
by Bill Schlesinger Late last month the National Academy of Sciences released a report recommending that the U.S. initiate a $200 million research program to understand the potential for and…
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April 26, 2021
Ocean Acidification
by Bill Schlessinger When certain oxidized gases, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), dissolve in water, they make it acid. When these gases are emitted as air…
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April 12, 2021
COVID and Air Pollution
by Bill Schlesinger While periodic shutdowns due to electric blackouts, athletic events, and governmental decrees against air travel have allowed us to ascertain the effect of certain activities on…
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March 29, 2021
Cats, revisited
the belled beast by Bill Schlesinger I’ve blogged before on the impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife (https://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/citizenscientist/songbird-its-whats-for-dinner/ ). In China, a new study estimates annual bird mortality from…
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March 15, 2021
The Size of Our Nest
by Bill Schlesinger It is a crowning manifestation of the dominance of Homo sapiens over nature that sometime in the past year, the total mass of materials produced (and in…
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March 1, 2021
Get Right with Whales
A humpback whale leaping, or breaching, out of the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) , Mexico, spraying water as it does so by Bill Schlesinger The Atlantic Northern Right…
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February 16, 2021
The Source of the Yellow River
by Bill Schlesinger For years, doctors have used an analysis of urine, including its color, to help recognize and diagnose certain diseases in humans. Similarly, ecosystem scientists can recognize subtle…
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February 8, 2021
Energy of Personal Transport
by Bill Schlesinger A long-standing belief is that buses and railroads use less energy for personal transport than passenger cars and airplanes. Several patterns emerge from a new analysis of…
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January 25, 2021