A common refrain from skeptics of the severity of humanity’s contribution to climate change over the past year is “I’m not a scientist.” During his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama responded to that sentiment head on, suggesting climate skeptics should actually get to know some scientists and suggested a few places they could go to find them,…
Read More
Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read the full Policy News here. DEFENSE: GAO REPORT CONCLUDES MILITARY NEEDS TO IMPROVE CLIMATE PLANNING On June 30th, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report finding the Department of Defense (DOD) can improve infrastructure planning and processes for climate change impacts. DOD manages a…
Read More
A panel of domestic federal agency personnel and military officials discussed the various impacts of climate change in the Southeastern United States (US). Each entity is currently working to address climate change impacts. Entitled “Losing Ground: Managing Climate Risks in the Southeast,” the congressional briefing was sponsored by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Representing the United States Geological Survey…
Read MoreBy Nadine Lymn, ESA director of public affairs Yesterday’s second town hall meeting of the Non Defense Discretionary (NDD) coalition, drew an audience of 400 and featured two representatives from the Obama Adminstration. Jon Carson, who does public outreach for the White House and Robert Gordon, Acting Deputy Director of the White Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The two…
An octopus that mimics toxic sea creatures, the tobacco plant sends out an SOS when attacked, the genetic differences between ant social castes, unusually high records of jellyfish swarms this summer and Simon Levin discusses the evolution of ecology and where it is headed next. Here are stories in ecology wrapping up the month of August.
Eastern Fence Lizards are rampant across the American southeast but, in recent years, they’ve begun to coexist with invasive red fire ants from South America. Because the lizards and the ants have similar requirements (terrestrial areas with abundant sunlight), they often find themselves occupying the same space. And the ants don’t like it. Tracy Langkilde of Penn State University studies…