Human survival in danger zone, study confirms

By James Dyke, University of SouthamptonJanuary 16, 2015 The Earth’s climate has always changed. All species eventually become extinct. But a new study has brought into sharp relief the fact that humans have, in the context of geological timescales, produced near instantaneous

Opinion: From Lima, a Munich moment — Chris Wood

By Chris Wood, NATURAL SECURITY opinion columnist    There’s no pleasure in saying, ‘I told you so,” over the Lima climate conference. Unhappily, I did. International delegates meeting in the Peruvian capital reached a beyond-last-minute ‘agreement’ on reducing climate-disruptive greenhouse emissions by, in

$50 billion ‘moon shot’ targets Mississippi Delta restoration

This story is second in a two-part series on Louisiana’s rapidly disappearing coastline. Read part one, The Drowning of the ‘Amazon of North America’ By Bob Marshall, The Lens, Al Shaw and Brian Jacobs, ProPublica December, 2014 As Brig. Gen Duke DeLuca wrapped up

Facts and Opinions that matter this week

Facts and Opinions this week features two elegant pieces about people who mattered in the worlds of sports and music: E. Kaye Fulton’s tribute to “glorious gentleman” Jean Béliveau (open), and Brian Brennan’s Brief Encounter with conductor Mario Bernardi, who veered off the beaten path (subscription).

Tide turning against climate change deniers

TOM REGAN  November, 2014 In his book The Believing Brain author Michael Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, makes the following proposal: belief comes first, then the reasons for belief comes second. So to use an example, an individual might believe

A Week of Facts and Opinions

Our schedule at Facts and Opinions in the past week has been packed, with a special series each on the fall of the Berlin Wall and Remembrance/Armistice Day, in addition to our ongoing work. Here’s our stellar lineup, below. Next week, look for new columns

IPCC report sounds loudest alarm yet on climate change impacts

Climate change caused by humans will result in food shortages, mass extinctions and flooding, warns the world body of climate experts, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its most comprehensive report yet. The report, signed in Bonn today, says the science is now

Chris Wood on Canada’s Old Testament Economics

Outside Canada, writes Natural Security columnist Chris Wood,  dangerous magical thinking — what he calls Old Testament Economics — “is increasingly being called out for its error by economists more based in reality … a Reformation is sweeping the ecclesiastical strongholds of market