Environment

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 postulated that this reduced the surface-area to body volume and ...
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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 certain species are likely to grow best. Those that flourish ...
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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, like aluminum and glass, require less energy to process into ...
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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 first addressed this in a blog five years ago (Life-time ...
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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 the highlights was a presentation by David Rind, a NASA ...
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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 does a lawn use?  Noortje Grijseels and her collaborators have examined ...
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by Bill Schlesinger Enacted in 1972, the Endangered Species Act is widely regarded as having saved various species with low population numbers from extinction. The number of individuals necessary to preserve an endangered species is variable, depending on fecundity, genetic ...
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by Bill Schlesinger The current heated debate about the importance of saving old-growth forests is muddled by confusion about what constitutes an “old-growth” forest. Is old growth a forest that has never been cut? That definition is not perfect because ...
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climate change map by Bill Schlesinger As warm-blooded organisms, humans and other mammals have a normal body temperature that is slightly above the average temperature of their evolutionary environment. The fact that our body temperature is high (98.6 F) reflects ...
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Close up image of a young skunk walking toward the camera. Summer in Wisconsin by Bill Schlesinger When I see a road sign for Quail Run Lane in a new suburban development, I rest assured that no quail have run ...
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