“When something is free, you tend to use more of it. It’s true for buffets and open bars, and it’s the same with carbon,” says The Atlantic while advocating for a carbon tax to slow global warming.
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Newspapers–and their localized science and environmental coverage–might be in decline across the U.S., but new ethnic media outlets, many of them in languages other than English, are thriving. These outlets […]
A Gallup survey report released yesterday finds that a record 41% of Americans–and 66% of Republicans–now say that news reports of climate change are exaggerated. I first spotted this troubling […]
Kudos to the Obama administration for approaching one of America’s top science communicators for the position of Surgeon General. Not only could CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta be a visible and […]
Why is this couple smiling? Because Oprah might be the friend they need in order to win ultra tight elections.More than 8 million people watch Oprah’s show and more than […]
Imagine that the Journal ofHypochondriacal Cardiology reported that the incidence of fatal strokes aboard cruise ships was five times the national average. Should we conclude that the boat trips were […]
Bernhard Zand explains why a “frustrated Ankara is turning away from the West and looking east toward Hamas and Iran.”
As a first step, the government needs to put a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. Fossil fuel needs to pay the price for the damage it causes in the atmosphere.
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We all think we know what it means to be conscious, but it is hard to pin this down in a precise, scientific way—as USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio explains in our video. Every weekday in September, Big Think will offer a new insight into the human brain in our new “Going Mental” blog.
From restarting the economy to dealing with climate change, society’s biggest questions turn on how they are defined by advocates and the news media and acted upon by the public […]
Energy producers who met with skyrocketing food prices and international protests while using food crops to create large quantities of biofuels are now eyeing inedible waste.
A conversation with the director of the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution.
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At NewYorkTimes.com, Alex Kaplun of Greenwire reports on emails exchanged among several prominent climate scientists regarding possible plans to fight back against the “neo-McCarthyism” of political leaders such as James […]
Why is it so important to provide the wider American public with readily available and scientifically accurate “frames” that re-package complex issues in ways that make them personally meaningful and […]
Will futuristic energy solutions such as fusion and biofuels ever live up to the hype surrounding them?
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After the Copenhagen Climate Council was considered a failure, how should we prepare for COP-16 in Mexico? Big Think’s live roundtable on March 26, 2010 in Houston was moderated by […]
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Mark Levine of UC Irvine laments Obama’s pragmatic path where his empty promises to change America’s foreign and energy policies mark the way.
Has the rise of celebrity architects over the past couple of decades been good or bad for the design of buildings, generally? New Yorker architecture critic Paul Golberger says that […]
Wind is becoming a more viable (if still controversial) energy source, but effective solar power may have to wait until the nanotechnology boom.
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Few people have felt the muzzle of an automatic machine gun in their gut, let alone survived a kidnapping on their birthday. In January 1998, then-federal prosecutor Stanley Alpert was […]
By all officials estimates, the Earth’s population is scheduled to grow rapidly during the coming decades, but this long-term problem ill-suits short term political careers, says The Independent.
Not merely a nice flower, but also a political tool
If most maps are like meat and potatoes, these are like fruit and dessert
China’s investment in the clean energy sector nearly doubles that of the U.S., but its fossil fuel use is rising fast as well.
For Obama to turn Gulf oil spill crisis into an opportunity, John Heilemann thinks he may have to embrace the expansion of nuclear energy.
Sometimes I just don’t get it. Whether it is climate change, evolution, or vaccination, the more literal minded among science bloggers and pundits typically blame science journalists for breakdowns in […]
Over the weekend, Andrew Revkin at the NY Timeswrote a very timely and important peice detailing the growing unease among many scientists and policy experts with the new “normal’ in […]
In the wake of the Aug. 23 court decision that halted Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, Democrats are gearing up to use stem cell research as a wedge […]
When attempting to communicate effectively with the public about a science-related debate, which is more important, framing the message or conveying science-based facts about the topic? A forthcoming study (Word) […]
Oil leaking from a British Petroleum pipe under the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico has reached land slicking wildlife habitats on the Southern U.S. coast, as well as […]