Southern Fried Science

How not to save the environment: sharks as biofuel

April 12, 2011April 2, 2011 David Shiffman 3 Comments

Conservation

Successfully switching the global economy from oil and coal based energy to clean energy is one of the major goals of the modern environmental movement. No single idea will accomplish this -to succeed, we’re going to need a combination of technologies.

Many proposed solutions involve a trade-off. Reasonable people can disagree over whether the environmental benefits of wind turbines or nuclear power plants outweigh the risks, for example. Every once in a while, however, a completely ridiculous idea comes along.

Beneath the Waves Film Festival: Mini-Season

April 11, 2011April 2, 2011 David Shiffman

Conservation, Science

The latest 2011 Beneath the Waves Film Festival entry, Mini-Season, comes from University of Miami graduate student Erica Staaterman. It explains the culture and biological effects of lobster mini-season in the Florida Keys.

Spanning the Bordeaux Belt – what does local mean in a global economy

April 11, 2011 Andrew Thaler 8 Comments

Uncategorized

A small news article from Science has been taped above my desk for the last few years. I don’t remember who originally gave it to me, or why I even hung it up, but there it is, nestled between a couple XKCD cartoons. The article is titled “The Wine Divide” and it raises many questions about sustainability, inherent biases in conventional wisdom, and what the term “local” means in a global economy. And it’s about wine.

What steps have you taken to lead a more sustainable life?

April 11, 2011April 18, 2011 Andrew Thaler 3 Comments

Uncategorized

It’s the second week of Science and Sustainability month, and this time we want to know what you have done to lead a more sustainable life. Be as specific or as general as you want. Do you reuse items that you’d normally throw away, bike instead of drive, compost your trash? Have you made dramatic … Read More “What steps have you taken to lead a more sustainable life?” »

Science and Sustainability Comment of the Week

April 10, 2011April 10, 2011 Andrew Thaler 1 Comment

Uncategorized

We launched Science and Sustainability month with an open thread, asking our readers “What does sustainability mean to you?” We received several truly stellar comments, but can, unfortunately, only choose one to be our comment of the week. Congratulations to Mark Gibson, who said:

Is it time for a sustainable pet movement?

April 8, 2011December 3, 2013 Andrew Thaler 37 Comments

Conservation

The world is rapidly approaching 7 billion people and the challenges of food supply, security, and sustainability will, along with climate change, be the defining issues of the 21st century. While the issues of the wealthiest nations revolve around the quality of our food, the environmental impact or our farming practices, and the value we place on a perceived degree of “naturalness”, the rest of the world is simply concerned with having enough to eat. What we chose to value in our society affects the rest of the world, and perhaps the most visible, and most dramatic difference between the developing and developed world is the ways in which we treat our pets.

Weekly dose of TED: Hans Rosling and the Magic Washing Machine

April 8, 2011April 3, 2011 Andrew Thaler 2 Comments

Uncategorized

Hans Rosling has an important and often overlooked message about how the decisions made by the wealthiest affect the poorest and where we need to focus our goals when we talk about sustainability.

Beneath the Waves Film Festival: Sink Your Shucks

April 7, 2011April 2, 2011 David Shiffman 1 Comment

Conservation

The winner of “Best Conservation Message” at the 2011 Beneath the Waves Film Festival came from Laura Hutchinson, a graduate student at Texas A and M’s Harte Research Institute. Sink Your Shucks explains the ecological importance of oysters and how people can help to restore oyster reefs.

Donate to Bonehenge!

April 7, 2011 Andrew Thaler

Uncategorized

As part of our month of Sustainability and Science, we’re raising money to help complete Bonehenge. Bonehenge is the skeleton of a Sperm Whale that stranded on Cape Lookout several years ago. Over the last three years, Keith Rittmaster and an army of volunteers from the North Carolina Maritime Museum have been working to re-articulate the skeleton for a display at their Gallants Channel campus.

The protect is a shining example of outreach and community engagement. School groups tour the assembly facility regularly and get a first hand look at the process of reconstructing a full sized whale. Over the course of the project, several new discoveries about sperm whale physiology have been made, including the extreme degree of asymmetry that results in one side of the whale have fewer and smaller bones than the other.

During this month we will match all donations up to $250. There is a widget to your left to make donation through paypal. Even a couple of dollars goes a long way towards making this exhibit a reality.

Republican House leaders abandon Pelosi’s “green the capitol” initiative

April 7, 2011April 2, 2011 David Shiffman

Conservation

While I often disagreed with former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, her “green the capitol” initiative was admirable. Serving local foods in the cafeteria and providing diners with compostable utensils and cups helped make the House of Representatives a model eco-friendly workplace. Now that Republicans have retaken the house, they have decided to abandon these policies.