Anthonares

[Politics, President Bush, Terrorism, Torture]

From the title I’m sure you can guess to what I am referring: yesterday the senate approved a bill on terrorism-suspect detainee treatment. For those of us who watched and applauded Governer Warner, John McCain, and Lindsay Graham stand up last week and defy the President on this issue, it is perhaps a more bitter dissapointment. The bill that passed yesterday contains very few of the safeguards those three had wanted, but it contains nearly everything the President did. If you haven’t gotten a chance to read through some of the key parts of this bill, read the summary in the NYTimes article linked to above, or perhaps even read the full text on Thomas.

Those who have been reading Anthonares for a while know that I am a heterodox on political issues, but that I tend to vote Democrat. I am not a Democrat, nor am I a liberal, but I more closely identify with those two positions than anything else out there in politics today.But it is not as a liberal or a Democrat that I say this: this is an extremely dangerous path down which we tread. Continue Reading »

[Antarctica, Global Warming, GRACE, Greenland, Research Synopsis]

Late last week I ran across an article that finally spurred me to write a Published Research Synopsis after a break of nearly 6 months. What got me so excited is not just the very important conclusion (Greenland is melting, and faster than measured before), but also the means by which that conclusion was reached.

Because of the enormous difficulty in measuring the mass of a continental ice sheet, Greenland’s ice mass budget has always been calculated indirectly. Some of the more exciting methods have involved using satellite radar interferometry (discussed here in this previous PRS) to measure the speed of ice sheet flow, but this requires several assumptions that can introduce significant errors. Other methods rely on spotty measurements of ice sheet thickness, snow accumulation, and meltwater discharge that also require lots of assumptions and extrapolation.

This week we take a look at a new result that measures the mass of the Greenland ice sheet by, well, by measuring the mass. The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) is a pair of orbiting satellites that measures the static gravity field of the Earth by precisely tracking the locations of each craft in relation to each other–but more on that later. GRACE has already turned out some amazing results including measuring the changes in moisture of large river basins, monitoring ocean currents, and measuring the rate of mass loss on Antarctica. This new set of data present what is essentially now a complete global picture of ice sheet melting, and it’s one that should make us all pay closer attention.

Citation:

Velicogna, I, and J Wahr (2006). “Acceleration of Greenland ice mass loss in spring 2004.” Nature 443(7109), pp. 329-331. [online at CiteULike.org]

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[1491, Charles Mann, Futurism, History, Native Americans]

The Coda at the end of 1491 is a brilliant cap on a work that presents ideas perhaps unpalatable to many. The dominance of Europe both technologically and culturally is greatly challenged by the revelations in 1491. The histories that we have all been told are to a great degree incorrect. And the pristine wilderness we once had is revealed to be largely a human invention. But at the end, Mann presents a beautiful theory, that the distinctively American liberties we cherish and seek to spread around the globe are largely a Native American invention.

I don’t want to elaborate too much on this idea because it is more eloquently developed by Mann than I could manage here. But here’s the basic idea, it was The Great Law of Peace, a codified document of the rights and liberties of the members of the Haudenosaunee that inspired the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iriquois, were a nation Indians peoples that traced their government back to the middle of the 12th century. Within the Haudenosaunee nation, individuals are sexes were treated equally in a way we may not even today replicate. The government was loose, and individuals frequently moved from sect to sect within a tribe if any given leader proved too onerous. The free Native was a powerful ideal for a people seeking to escape the stifling politics of the Old World. As an anecdote: Why did the participants in the Boston Tea Party dress as Mohawk Indians? It wasn’t to obscure their identities as our middle-school histories tell us, but rather it was to state that the American Colonists were free people.

Again, Mann presents his theory far better than I could, but if you would like to read it, please read the entire book. 1491 is important because it dispels myths, updates history, and provides all of us a window into our cultural and ecological heritage that we did not previously have. Not too many books have completely altered my perspective of the world, and even fewer so dramatically as this one. Even if some of the things that Mann presents are eventually found to be incorrect, the questions he raises and the issues he presents are so deep and important that the book should still be read. Only be understanding our history correctly can we intelligently discuss the future; we have to know who we were in order to understand what we seek to become.

[1491, Charles Mann, Conservation, Environmentalism, New Environmentalism]

The final chapter in Charles C. Mann’s 1491 entitled “The Artificial Wilderness” elaborates his vision of the New World as having been thoroughly shaped by its Indian peoples. In the previous chapter, “Amazonia”, Mann suggests that as much as 1/8th of the Amazonian dryland forests may be in fact abandoned orchards. But the people of the Amazon basin were not the only ones that modified their environments in dramatic fashion.

Prairie Indians, such as those in the North American Central Plains, or in the high plains of South America, regularly burned vast swaths for a variety of reasons. Forest Indians acted similarly, keeping down underbrush growth and creating a woodlands more park than wilderness. Mountain Indians terraced the sides of mountains, carving out new arable lands. All Indian peoples either farmed the landscape or hunted and herded prey and predator alike. The combined effect of these actions undertaken by a population more numerous than Europe was continental-scale garden. The New World encountered by Europeans, though vast and seemingly so wild, was never a wilderness.

As I’ve mentioned before, I believe that there are two types of environmentalists: conservationists and pragmatists. For 30 years, these two groups have had a common goal, but that unity may not last too much longer because deep down, these two types are motivated by very different visions of the world and humanity’s role in it. This new history of the Americas that Mann and others are just beginning to tell will be hard for conservationists to accept and may hasten that split. But if it’s true that there never was an American wilderness as such, it’s time to think differently about conservation and the environment we are attempting to preserve. It’s time for a New Environmentalism.
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[Capitalism, Corporations, Ethanol, Ford, Futurism, Hybrid]

While listening to NPR’s Science Friday, the radio host announced that the program is supported by Ford, and then said something akin to: “who has sold over 1 million hybrid ethanol vehicles.” My first reaction to this is probably best put as OMGWTF?!?

I laughed. What brilliant marketing! Then I thought, wow, that’s so close to a lie. A lie is something that is said (or omitted) with the intent of deception. In this case, Ford wants to decieve listeners into believing that it is offering environmentally-friendly vehicles by attaching the word “hybrid” to its flex-fuel vehicle line. Technically speaking, they’re right. The FFV cars are hybrid E85/gasoline vehicles. But the word “hybrid” has a very specific meaning in today’s auto market. It means hybrid gas/electric; a hybrid drive train, not hybrid fuel sources.

I’m not suggesting Ford be slapped with a fine by the FTC or anything, but this made me think, if I person were to go around making a statement like that, what would his/her neighbors and friends think? That person would be laughed at because what they are saying is ridiculous. That person would be SHAMED into speaking a bit more honestly. If an individual is shamed, their “bottom line” is harmed because we all care quite a lot about what others think of us. Corporations (and politicians, shady marketing like this is very much like political spin) have no shame, however, because there is currently no feedback mechanism between shady marketing slogans and the bottom line.

The lack of feedback mechanisms between corporate bottom lines and what we would consider “bad” activity is a significant part of the justification for government regulations. Continue Reading »

[Alternative Fuels, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Oil, Resource Scarcity]

This week’s crude-oil price spike got me thinking a bit more about a future that will, by and large, be without oil. I’ve thought about this subject for a long time, as I’m sure many folks have, and the thought used to scare me. Even five years ago it looked like impending oil shortages would fundamentally disrupt our way of life. Oil is not only used to drive vehicles, it’s used to produce virtually every consumer product you own. But now, synthesis of long-chain hydrocarbons from gas and vegetable sources is coming out of the lab and onto the workbench. And the alternatives to oil-fueled vehicles exist and are viable, if expensive.

Nevertheless, the oil shortage will not be painless, there will be losers, lots of losers, and there will likely be violent international conflict. But, as I am reminded by a great Op-Ed contribution to the NYTimes by Dr. Stephen Sass (Cornell), there will be winners too. You see, scarcity drives innovation. And innovation drives progress. Without scarcity, progress must come from combined political action. With it, the much more powerful forces of economics take the lead. But, a key difference between the two is that political action is a meditative process that presumably seeks the best route for all members of the polity. Economic change is largely a blind process that seeks only to maximize benefit to the entrepreneur, which is not necessarily in the best interests of everyone else.

History’s Lessons

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[Exploration, Manned, Mars, Moon, NASA, Robotic, Space, VSE]

Apparently, NASA’s facing a rather-paltry $100 million dollar budget shortfall for fiscal year 2007. So what is it considering cutting? Of course, “all options are on the table” which is to say “all low priority activities are on the table”. What is one of those low priority options? Why, ISS science research!

Scientists have said for years that the ISS research program is little more than an orbiting science fair, so this is probably just an admission of what has been painfully true for some time. The cut would only be for 2007 and would presumably not apply to research into the effects of microgravity and radiation on human health. But either way, microgravity research was one of the prime justifications for the ISS.

We’ve heard this story before, though, haven’t we? Launching and servicing expensive commercial and military satellites was one of the prime justifications for the Shuttle program. Some of the early shuttle flights did just that, but after a while it became clear that servicing them was just too expensive, and that there were far cheaper options available for launching.

Program- vs. Mission-Driven

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[Biology, DNA, Synthetic, Terrorism, Viruses, Weapons]

Today’s Washington Post has an article about how synthetically-produced pathogens may become a viable means of bioterrorism. The article itself is a fairly broad overview of an immense subject, and as such lacks some important details (like who the researchers are that are working on synthetic microbes, I wanted to download some of their publications). But otherwise it’s an important piece in that the capability for recreation of pathogens synthetically has not been widely covered by the lay press.

We are still at too early a stage to reproduce entire bacteria from their DNA, but we are capable of synthetically producing modified polio virus–and have been for years. Because of the simplicity of viral DNA and gene expression, one needs only to cobble together the strands of nucleotide base-pairs, drop them in a slurry of mashed up cellular proteins, and viola! You or I (unless you are a molecular geneticist or otherwise very careful biochemist) lack the skills, facilities, and motivation for such an exercise. But there may be many folks who don’t. And notice that “funding” was not one of the three requirements. Making synthetic viruses is cheap.

But there probably are many people out there that can satisfy those three requirements. Continue Reading »

[1491, Amazon, Archaeology, Charles Mann, Rainforest, Soil, Sustainability, Terra Preta]

Rarely does one see the words “Amazon” and “sustainable” in the same sentence, let alone the same title. To the modern mind, the Amazon is synonymous with two things: astounding ecological diversity and rapacious environmental degradation. As I’m learning from Charles Mann’s masterwork 1491, that view is not now as it was long ago.

But it wasn’t until just a few decades ago that archeologists began to set aside their views of the Amazon region as one peopled by primitives capable only of limited, unproductive slash-and-burn (or swidden) agriculture. Why the Amazon held on so long to its secrets is a complicated story darkened by the colonialist biases of past centuries, and frustrated by the apparent lack of written language amongst the peoples of that region. Nevertheless, our picture of those people and their history has begun to change. What we’re finding is that the people who once occupied the Amazon region, survived only in name by modern descendants, may have lessons for us today.

There is so much that can be said about the accomplishments of a people who carved out not only a subsistence but a flourishing civilization in an environment that today we deem virtually incapable of sustaining modern human existence. But because what I know of the subject comes from one page-turning chapter of 1491, I’ll just say one thing: Terra Preta de Indio.
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[Abortion, Bush, Embryonic Stem Cells, Ethics, Morality, Religion, Veto]

I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about the ethical controversy in the whole embryonic stem cell debate and have come to a conclusion: there are no non-religious ethical arguments against destroying embryos. That is not, of course, to say that such an argument is invalid. But, let’s be very clear, the embryonic stem cell debate is nothing like the abortion debate. As best as I can figure, from almost any perspective one can consider (even accepting the thesis that “life begins at conception”), supporting destruction of embryos for medical research is defensible and should be encouraged, in moderation.

Let’s clear up something about what is being destroyed in order to use embryos for medical research. Embryonic stem cells are extracted from the inner cells of a 4-5 day old blastocyst, containing perhaps 100 cells total. When these stem cells are extracted the blastocyst, and thus the embryo itself, is destroyed. At this point, none of the embryonic stem cells has differentiated. Thus, there are no organs, no neural pathways, no skin, fingers, toes, beating hearts, or anything else. Those 100 cells are incapable of producing life outside of the placenta, and thus cannot be themselves considered a living organism. There are part of a symbiotic organism, i.e. the pregnant mother.

The importance of that last paragraph is this: there is no slippery slope here. Continue Reading »