By Nadine Lymn, ESA director of public affairs  In honor of our national holiday, here’s a look at some current and past blog posts on the subject. The Chicago Botanic Garden’s blog earlier this week offered a reminder of the three Sisters—the three crops grown together by the Iroquois: corn, beans and squash.  According to [...]

  A ticking time bomb is set to go off in January that would cost millions of jobs, stifle discretionary spending investments in disaster response, conservation, education, research and innovation as well as increase taxes on millions and potentially  spur another recession – the fiscal cliff. Coinciding with the expiration of a series of tax [...]

By Nadine Lymn, ESA director of public affairs As the reports began coming in about the approaching “superstorm” known as Hurricane Sandy, the chatter about how and if it was connected to global warming was not far behind.  Indeed, it seemed that in the days following its devastating coastal landfall, attention on climate change was [...]

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Science Policy Analyst Terence Houston.  Read the full Policy News here. 2012 ELECTION: RESULTS PRODUCE SAME PLAYERS, ADDED POLARIZATION The 2012 elections resulted in the continuation of a divided government with both parties more or less playing with the same hand they held before the [...]

A Colombian coal mine opens a treasure chest of fossils. By Liza Lester Edwin Cadena and his 60-million-year-old giant “coal turtle” discovered in Cerrejón coal mine, Colombia, South America. Credit, Cadena. Used by permission. IT was large, that much was obvious. When Edwin Cadena first saw the fossil in 2005, he thought he might be [...]

by Liza Lester, ESA communications officer This fall has seen the endgame of the US Justice Department’s civil case against British Petroleum and eight partners in the matter of the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout, likely to be settled soon, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department is suing under the Clean Water [...]

This post contributed by Terence Houston, ESA Science Policy Analyst As noted in a previous EcoTone post, science plays an important role in hurricane monitoring efforts. The collaborative work of the US Geological Survey (USGS), the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) help to monitor water levels in our [...]

This post contributed by ESA member Sean Hoban, a post-doc in conservation genetics at the University of Ferrara, Italy. In the opening pages of his book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan quotes agrarian writer Wendell Berry in reminding us that, “Eating is an ecological act.”  Simultaneously, eating is also a political act.  Indeed, in the past [...]