Environmental and Earth Sciences

Arctic Science, Geography, Geology, Oceanography, Hydrology, Glaciology, Seismology, Meteorology, Climate Science, Limnology, Remote Sensing, Natural Resources, Mining, Green Tech, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Development, Archeology, Paleontology

Pseudoarchaeology, Comics, and Conspiracies: The 2021 Virtual CAA Conference

Steph Halmhofer Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences, General Science
Wow, it has been a long time since I last wrote a blog post. It doesn’t feel like it has been that long, but in that time I have wrapped up an entire semester of classes and presented at two conferences (the CAAs and an interdisciplinary conference about Star Wars)! And as I write this blog post I’m actually attending a third conference (about right-wing extremism). So that’s why it has been four months between…

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Writing Drought

Sarah Boon Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences
I’ve written previously about how the drought in the US southwest is more appropriately called aridification, seeing as it’s been going on for 20 years now and is the second most intense drought in the last 1200 years. I feel like something similar is going on in my writing life—a drought due to depression that has turned into aridification, as I go another day, another week, another month without writing. It’s not that I don’t…

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Marin County and Beyond! What this naturalist got up to in April

chloevanloon Biology and Life Sciences, Communication, Education and Outreach, Environmental and Earth Sciences
For the month of April we lived in a quiet nook of Mill Valley tucked into the branches of a Bay Laurel, Coast Live Oak and Coast Redwood trees.  So we continued our pattern of exploring nearby our temporary abode during the week and camping or short road trips during the weekend. We were so lucky to have Mt. Tamalpais in our backyard and only a short drive up to the Rock Springs area. But…

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In the Trees

Sarah Boon Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences
I have a bit of an obsession with trees. I can recite the names of the trees we’ve replanted on our property like a rosary: pine, cedar, hemlock, spruce, fir, oak, maple, ash, apple, cherry, dogwood… I’ve written a 5000-word essay about trees and forests that I can’t seem to place anywhere, and am writing an essay about our relationship with individual trees for Aeon/Psyche as we speak. I just reviewed Dr. Suzanne Simard’s new…

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Canadian Mountain Podcast: Mountain research through Indigenous and Western knowledge systems

Chenoa Sly Environmental and Earth Sciences, General Science
How do we gain knowledge about mountain systems? Historically, our understanding of mountains has predominantly been studied using Western scientific methods of research. However, Indigenous knowledge and ways of thinking have often been underappreciated, and in some cases, even excluded from mountain research, which leaves an important part of mountain heritage and knowledge unlearned. This is beginning to shift as more scientists and researchers working in mountains embrace and engage with traditional forms of knowledge…

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How "Eco-Friendly" is the Suez Canal?

savi Environmental and Earth Sciences, Technology and Engineering
In the past month, the 1300 feet long Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal for six days. This event caused a huge setback in shipments and international exports, but how did it affect the environment? More generally, is the Suez Canal “eco-friendly”? After reading some articles about the environmental impact of the Suez Canal, I came across mixed opinions and captivating information which had to be shared. The building of the Suez Canal began…

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Survival of the fittest or overcrowding?

Matt Hall Environmental and Earth Sciences
If you’ve been involved in drilling boreholes in your career, you’ll be familiar with desurvey. Desurvey is the process of converting a directional well survey — which provides measured depth, inclination and azimuth points from the borehole â€” into a position log. The position log is an arbitrarily finely sampled set of (x, y, z) points along the wellbore. We need this to convert from measured depth (distance along the borehole path) to depth in the earth, which…

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Nostalgia, or Pining for the Mountains

Sarah Boon Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences
A few weeks ago I wrote about the road trips that we used to take when we lived far from the Coast. There was definitely some nostalgia in that post – a recollection of past enjoyable times on the road. But nostalgia can take other forms, too. Think about the music you enjoy – scientists say we are most connected to music from our formative years. I have an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of music from…

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Small Things

Sarah Boon Biology and Life Sciences, Environmental and Earth Sciences
Lately – if, by lately, you mean the last 18 months – I have been in the grip of a depression so fierce it blasts anything good around it to smithereens. I sleep a lot, I can’t make decisions, my brain is empty of ideas, thoughts, and feelings, and I feel like I go through life like a sleepwalker. My counsellor says I should celebrate the small things. Like getting up in the morning. Or…

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The rape of our lands

Elisabeth Kosters Environmental and Earth Sciences, Science in Society
Second essay for Nova Scotia Premier @IainTRankin and Minister of Environment and Climate Change @KeithIrvingNS on the issue of the government’s theft and illegal sale of Owl’s Head Provincial Park This is a myth When the city of Rome was founded, its founder Romulus advertised the settlement as a safe haven for anyone who wanted to start a new life. In a short time, the new town, soon the iconic eternal city on seven hills…

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