Clean coal?

Dr Jessica Allen.

Truly clean coal technology is not a myth, argues University of Newcastle chemical engineering researcher Dr Jessica Allen.

It does exist, but you probably haven’t heard of the technology that allows it to be a reality.

Recorded as part of a live Ockham's Razor event at The Edwards in Newcastle.

Listen to Ockham’s Razor on Radio National - “Clean coal?”

Eyes show that stress reduces climate concern

An eye movement study suggests that
organisations campaigning to raise
 awareness of climate change should
 think carefully about where and
when they broadcast their messages.

People who are stressed pay less attention to climate change images and struggle to be receptive to messages about its impact, a study has found.

Researchers from Switzerland used eye tracking to measure how much attention a group of test subjects paid to images illustrating climate change. The goal of the study, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, was to find out how everyday stress affects the attention that people pay to global warming, even when generally they  have a pro-environment stance.

“The results of our study suggest that individuals might be more receptive if they are in a relaxed and unpreoccupied state,” says Silja Sollberger, a researcher at the University of Zurich’s department of psychology.

Read the climate news network story - “Eyes show that stress reduces climate concern.”

Champion of science warned of climate change risk

The late Ralph J. Cicerone - a warning
about the grave potential  risks
of climate change.

Ralph J. Cicerone, who as a researcher and the president of the National Academy of Sciences issued an early warning about the grave potential risks of climate change, has died at his home in New Jersey. He was 73.

In 2001, while he was the chancellor of the University of California, Irvine, Cicerone headed a panel commissioned by President George W. Bush that concluded unequivocally that "greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise".

The 11 leading scientists who composed the panel, including some who had been climate-change sceptics, were unanimous in reaffirming the mainstream scientific view on global warming just as Bush was preparing to join talks with European leaders who were outraged that he had recently rejected the global warming pact known as the Kyoto Protocol

Read Ralph Cicerone’s obituary in today’s Melbourne Age - “Champion of science warned of climate change risk.”

We can't always help, but we can certainly cannot do any harm



Anthony Williams.

Anthony Williams is a consultant, researcher, and author said:

“Not everyone is in the position to help other animals, but everyone is in the position not to harm them.”

E.O.Wilson worried we are 'pushing the rest of life off the globe'

Edward O. Wilson.

Edward O.Wilson is an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and author, whose biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert said:

“Humanity, in the desperate attempt to fit 8 billion or more people on the planet and give them a higher standard of living, is at risk of pushing the rest of life off the globe.”

Our tenure on Earth depends on the health of our insects

E

dward Osborne Wilson, or “E.O. Wilson” as he is better known said:

“If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.”

E.O. Wilson - our tenure on earth
hinges on the health of our insects.

The American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and conservationist, is known to many for his remarkable books.

His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert.

The life of the ant and its impact of wellbeing on the world finds its way into his many of his wonderful books.

Wilson is known for his scientific career, his role as "the father of socio-biology" and "the father of biodiversity", his environmental advocacy, and his secular-humanist and deist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.