David Poulson, associate director of MSU’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, has started a new blog about the challenges of covering a rapidly changing planet in a rapidly changing media landscape.

Poulson is a 22-year veteran of the newspaper business and has blogged for the Great Lakes Town Hall and The Poynter Institute. His new blog, Cover the Planet, revolves around the same basic questions he’s pondered on those sites: With newspapers tanking left and right, how can quality journalism continue? And how can reporters best communicate the often complex environmental risks we face?

In a recent post, Dave points out something we were excited to find yesterday. Andrew Revkin of the New York Times, on his Dot Earth blog, linked to a video we took at the AAAS conference in a post about a minor controversy concerning Al Gore’s climate change slide show. The chain of Andys grows! We’re anticipating a phone call to announce a Webby nomination any minute now.

-Andy McGlashen

A few of the presenters at AAAS made quick plugs for organizations and Web sites they’re affiliated with.  None of these promotional moments were egregious or annoying, all were made in the interest of promoting public understanding of science, and it so happens that some of the sites are really quite cool, so I thought I’d share these free info-goodies.

Maybe the coolest is Earth Portal, which calls itself “the first free, expert-driven, massively scaleable information resource on the environment.”  I say it’s what would happen if Wikipedia and National Geographic had a baby who grew up to be a scientist.  It features a tidy environmental news page, a forum where scientists can discuss the big issues and, my favorite, an Encyclopedia of Earth where you can get scientific information on a huge range of places, thinkers, critters and earthly phenomena.  But be warned: The portal sings quite a siren song, so don’t forget you have classes, research, a family, etc.

Last weekend was also the first time I’d heard of the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS).  It’s just what it sounds like: a group of individuals and organizations trying to help Joe the (insert non-scientific occupation) understand what science is and isn’t, and why it matters.  And as it turns out, the Kellogg Biological Station and MSU Museum are participants in the coalition.

It’s no surprise that climate change was a major point of discussion at AAAS, and among other things I learned about a recently launched site called Climate Central.  Its purpose is to get good climate science in the hands of policymakers and the general public, and it has the weight of some scientific heavy-hitters behind it (Gus Speth, Jane Lubchenco and John Holdren all sit on the Board of Directors).  The site is a bit sparse for now, but is expected to fill out this spring.  And until then, the videos are worth a look.

OK, I’m starting to rethink my statement about Earth Portal being the coolest, because for me, it’s hard to beat LandScope America.  It’s a collaboration between NatureServe and National Geographic that promotes conservation through public education.  The site is full of great photos and information about conservation priorities, and there’s an interactive map with stories and videos about ecosystems throughout the United States.

Enjoy!

-Andy McGlashen

Here are some more gadgets on display at AAAS 2009 in Chicago.

Featured below is the “Tactile,” an advanced structure set, two-slit interference and the hand crank Van de Graff generator.

The “Tactile” is about the size of a dinner table and maps the geological path of rainwater drainage in a given region. Notice how easily it changes focus and depth.

Pasco’s advanced structure set allows for stunningly accurate engineering simulation. Unlike most “toys,” the parts do not snap together but are bolted. This allows for more accuracy and durability of the simulation. The only difference between the structure featured below and a real bridge, the representative said, was that the model wasn’t steel.

Most of the gadgets featured in both posts are for sale.

The thing about a major conference like AAAS is that it’s humongous, and you can’t see it all. There are always a bunch of interesting things going on simultaneously, and you have to miss a lot of good stuff.

Truth is, we missed presentations by some of MSU’s best. Maybe that’s ok, since we were there to gather information from the wider world and bring it back here, but we still feel like bums.

But all is not lost - you can learn more about Spartan goings-on at the conference here.

As the past tense indicates, we’ve returned from the Windy City, and are glad to say that all of our luggage came with us. We also brought home a renewed sense of purpose as environmental journalism students, if I may speak for the other Andy. Much of what we heard was grim and challenging, and it didn’t come from some wacko with an agenda. The folks telling us about the very real dangers of climate change, biodiversity loss and a host of other problems were expert observers of our planet whose only agenda, it seems, was that life may go on. And when scientists sound such dire warnings, the rest of us had better listen up, and tell a friend.

-Andy McGlashen

After long, busy days of running from seminar to session to symposium at the AAAS meeting, it was a treat to attend two plenary lectures at the AAAS meeting that were a bit friendlier to the scientific dilettante.

On Friday, Sean Carroll, a well-known molecular biologist and geneticist from the University of Wisconsin, talked about the great intellectual and physical adventures that gave rise to the revolutionary idea of natural selection.

The lecture was based on Carroll’s new book, Remarkable Creatures, and offered a fascinating look at the intersection of science, history and biography. It told the story of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates, all avid collectors of wildlife specimens (”They grabbed, pinned or pickled every bug or bird they ever saw,” Carroll said) who became close friends after years of toil, shipwrecks and fever-induced scientific epiphanies in godforsaken jungles.

While not as engaging a speaker as Carroll, Saturday night’s plenary speaker, Susan Kieffer of the University of Illinois, gave a talk that brought home the profundity of the human-wrought changes our planet faces, and how sudden they are when considered in the context of deep time (for an incredibly effective visual representation of that idea, scroll down a few slides in this PDF of her presentation).

Videos of these lectures, as well as the AAAS President’s Address and another plenary we couldn’t attend, are available here.

-Andy McGlashen

You’re sadly mistaken if you think AAAS is just a conference full of esoteric lectures and bar room hobnobbing.

Tucked away in the basement of the Hyatt Regency this year was some of the world’s brightest showing off their newest gizmos and gadgets.

Below are inventions used to catch illegal immigrants, measure the CO2 of a given point on earth and detect charges. There’s also a g-force measuring device used as the basis for Nintendo Wii remotes.

Enjoy.

— Andy Balaskovitz

When you’re a high caliber public speaker, you can deliver the same speech for weeks, months or even years with consistent interest and engagement.  It’s the same for a great Broadway play or Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Former Vice President Al Gore has this knack.

For anyone that has seen An Inconvenient Truth, the following videos are mostly facts you’ve already heard.  Yet, like a great concert, you can hear it over and over again without it getting old or redundant.

In his introduction (below), Gore reflects on a new administration and the side effects of getting old…

He then frames climate change as one of three crises America and the world faces. About five minutes into the clip below, his iPhone goes off…

From here Gore jumps into his signature (but updated) Powerpoint slideshow. In the clip below is a simple breakdown of how greenhouse gases work, both on Earth and Venus…

Part two of the presentation shows the Arctic represented as a beating heart and also some video footage of Dr. Katie Walker from the University of Alaska performing some risky methane experiments in the Arctic…

This next segment provides dramatic images of natural disasters, their increased frequency as part of global warming and how the Maldives has a portion of its government budget devoted to buying a new island…

Gore completes his slideshow with a look at American coal companies’ controversial clean coal advertising campaign, America’s history of stepping up in dire straits and the need for excellent science communicators…

In his closing remarks Gore makes a formal call to climate change action, questions science ethics and references an African proverb: ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’

“We have to go far, quickly,” he said.

— Andy Balaskovitz

Tired of slaving in a lab or compiling endless research?  Want to influence the scientific direction of the next Steven Spielberg film because you’re sick of baseless “Hollywood science” in entertainment?

Friday’s AAAS session “You Ought To Be In Pictures: Science as Entertainment in Movies and Television” explained how to meld your scientific research with the visual arts.

Science and technology is rapidly growing in the entertainment industry and there is a significant push to have these issues fictionalized in a “responsible” manner.

The National Science Foundation funds research that studies the portrayal of science in TV and film.

“The bar is certainly raised in how accurate science is portrayed in entertainment,” said Leslie Fink of NSF.

Coupled with the NSF’s commitment to “broader impact activities” (research) and the changing media landscape, TV and film serve as educational tools when it comes to scientific fact.

Fink also mentioned that the end of science and environment desks at places like USA Today, CNN and the Washington Post lets entertainment pick up that slack.

David Kirby from the University of Manchester also spoke and has a book coming out that looks at consulting work scientists have done for film and TV.

Some of that includes research, checking set authenticity and character development in line with real scientists.

Shows like CSI, The Big Bang Theory and the Sopranos regularly consult(ed) with scientists.  In most cases the scientist is standing over the shoulder of the director, he said.

Kirby’s number one advice for scientists working on sets: “have fun.”

Fink and Kirby encouraged scientists to contact them if they are interested in working with films.

– Andy B.

Jeremy Jackson’s black clothing and unruly ponytail were a good fit for the presentation he gave yesterday on the state of our oceans.

“This is not a very happy talk,” warned Jackson, a professor of oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  “Everything I’ve studied in my career no longer exists.”

The lecture was part of a symposium at the AAAS conference called “Emerging Threats and Research Challenges for Global Ecosystems.”

The session’s other two presentations were excellent, and full of sobering facts.  Speaking on threats to temperate ecosystems, Bruce Stein, an ecologist with the National Wildlife Federation, pointed out that roughly 2 million acres of open space are lost each year in the United States, largely due to unwise development.  William Laurence of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute predicted high rates of extinction in the tropics in response to climate change, since many species there are adapted to unique habitats.

But they couldn’t compete with Jackson for the day’s Dark Prince award.

“We are pushing marine life back to the Precambrian,” he said.

Overfishing is a chief culprit in the decline of ocean ecosystems, according to Jackson.  He showed unsettling photos of a coral reef before and after a trawler was dragged over it, and said the flat, featureless area created by trawling is equivalent in size to all the forest land ever cut down.  He also said overfishing has caused a “shifting baseline,” whereby today’s fisherman considers prodigious a catch that would have been scoffed at decades ago.  “Nobody has a clue what the fisheries in the oceans used to look like,” he said.

Pollution, too, is a major threat to oceans, Jackson showed.  A 2001 report found 120 “dead zones” worldwide, but that figure is now at least 400.  There’s six times more plastic than plankton in the Pacific.  And climate change?  “Anything that makes a shell is in trouble,” he said.

In Jackson’s view, all of these threats must be addressed simultaneously and immediately.  And his prescriptions are about as politically palatable as those spiky puffer fish that kill you if you don’t eat them right.

“Gas needs to get to $10 a gallon tomorrow,” he said, and “we need to eliminate all agricultural subsidies, period.  Or the oceans will die.”

More generally, Jackson said that “scientists need to get off the sidelines and actually do something useful.”

That sentiment was echoed yesterday evening in a presentation by Al Gore, which we’ll post soon.

-Andy McGlashen

I’m happy to report that my esteemed colleague Andy and I have finally arrived in Chicago for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Luckily we are a placid duo who understand that the journey is the way, for, dear reader, the journey was a trying one.  I’ll only say it’s unfortunate that, while we share a first name, Andy and I do not share a pant size, and all his fancy duds are in Minneapolis, MN, in the care of Amtrak.  I leave it to him to elaborate on the day’s travel, if the wounds aren’t too fresh.

But the important thing is that we’re here in good health, and were able to attend the opening address by AAAS President James McCarthy.  His speech adhered to the theme of this year’s meeting, “Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures.”  He took a light poke at the theme (”I have a strong recommendation to future presidents to choose a theme with one word.”) but said its title was carefully chosen to reflect that humans have in effect made the planet ours, and that it’s up to us to steer it toward the best of numerous potential futures.

The word “origins” was an obvious nod to the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of his publishing “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.  But McCarthy said 1859 was also a year of origins with regard to climate change.  To wit: Sir John Tyndall discovered the heat-trapping properties of carbon dioxide in that year.  In Pennsylvania, Edwin Drake drilled the first commercially viable oil well.  Parisian Etienne Lenoir invented a gas-burning engine, a precursor to the internal combustion engine.  1859 also saw the birth of Svante Arrhenius, the Swede who would calculate the effect of carbon dioxide on earth’s climate.

After that surprising history lesson, McCarthy began looking forward.  “We know that our actions on this planet have changed conditions for life,” he said.  “And so it’s appropriate to ponder possible futures.”

Then came the part in any climate-related speech where the graphs start looking like hockey sticks and things get awfully bleak.  Arctic sea ice melted in 2007 at a rate nobody saw coming.  The IPCC’s predictions for greenhouse gas emissions have proven too conservative.  The sea level is rising.  More floods, more wildfires. 

Fortunately for those of us still planning to have an enjoyable weekend, McCarthy didn’t dwell on the familiar negatives.  Instead, he said more mayors and governors are getting aggressive about combating climate change.  He also had kind words for President Obama’s newly appointed science advisers. 

Regarding Obama himself, McCarthy made the now-familiar Lincoln comparison, but with a new twist.  Although the Civil War began shortly after his inauguration, McCarthy said, Lincoln remained committed to improving agricultural science, and signed the Land Grant College Act (Go Green!).  Similarly, he added, Obama must not lose sight of climate change, despite the urgency of the economic crisis. 

“We are again today at a moment when we need extraordinary leadership,” McCarthy said, adding that President Obama has the potential to provide it.

(We had hoped to post our photos from the opening ceremony, but then realized the necessary equipment is in the baggage car of the Empire Builder, hopefully to be returned tomorrow.  Until then, close your eyes and think of a scientist, and the image in your head almost certainly looks like Dr. McCarthy.) 

More tomorrow!

-Andy McGlashen