Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE InsideClimate News revealed in an investigative series released this fall that the oil superpower Exxon was briefly a paragon of scientific integrity. From 1978 through the ‘80s the corporation’s research headquarters were a buzzing hive of farsighted inquiry into the “greenhouse effect,” as the process of climate change […]
Climate change
Posted inOpinion
CNE syndrome strikes state governments
It’s well-known that harsh climate conditions can mess with your mind – from cabin fever to heat delirium. But America is now experiencing an even more dangerous mind-numbing disease called Climaticus Non-vocalism Extremism. Oddly, CNE syndrome almost exclusively afflicts a narrow segment of our population: Republican political officials and candidates. Scientific studies suggest that CNE […]
Posted inOpinion
Saving our ravaged planet … and ourselves
Earth Day cometh – the 43rd year of this national focus on the state of our globe. So, how is Earth doing? Should we be weeping … or cheering? Both. The first step to any recovery is recognition of the obvious: Earth has a problem. In fact, beaucoup of them. For example, despite the squawking […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Climate change
The next Paul Mickey Science Series lecture will to be held in the Illinois State Museum Thorne Deuel Auditorium on Jan. 9. Dr. Eric Grimm, ISM curator and chair of botany, will present, “The Science of Climate Change.” The presentation will focus on how scientists reconstruct past climate, how they understand the major natural and […]
Posted inOpinion
Going against the flow
My advice is, don’t ever invite the executive director of the Springfield Metro Sanitary District and a carp to the same party. Springfield, you see, is one of dozens of Illinois cities and towns that have a combined sewage system in which the same pipes that carry untreated sewage to the treatment plant also are […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s not the heat, it’s the corn
Here it is July again, and the General Assembly still hasn’t done anything about summer. Summers in the Midwest have never been pleasant, unless you own stock in a water park, but lately they have gotten worse – not just more unpleasant but more unpleasant in ominous ways. Windstorms have become so common that people […]
Posted inOpinion
Springfield joins global action for climate change
Glaciers that provide drinking water for hundreds of millions of people are disappearing more rapidly than originally predicted. According to the United Nations, 325 million people are already affected by drought, disease, floods, loss of livestock, decline of fish stock and loss of agricultural productivity. Ninety-eight per cent of the people who will be most […]
