Read This Now - Environmental Takes

I almost called this post Things Are (Not) Getting Better All The Time, but that isn't really the point.

The point is to mention a couple of new articles from the past week...

The NYT has the continuing saga of the Pacific Garbage Patch or Trash Gyre or what ever the nom de jour is these days. Bottom line: it's getting bigger, which given the amount of waste we produce as a planet is too be expected...

The research team has not tested the most recent catch for toxic chemicals, but the water samples show that the amount of plastic in the gyre and the larger Pacific is increasing. Water samples from February contained twice as much plastic as samples from a decade ago.

And just when you thought the fuss had subsided Elizabeth Kolbert, who has been doing yeomen's work on the environment beat at the New Yorker, takes down the Superfreakonomics crew. Hard.

To be skeptical of climate models and credulous about things like carbon-eating trees and cloudmaking machinery and hoses that shoot sulfur into the sky is to replace a faith in science with a belief in science fiction. This is the turn that “SuperFreakonomics” takes, even as its authors repeatedly extoll their hard-headedness. All of which goes to show that, while some forms of horseshit are no longer a problem, others will always be with us.

Update:

HTWW chimes in, recommending Kolbert's piece and trashing the DCMA take down notice served to Brad DeLong when he posted the Superfreakonomics climate change chapter (which can still be found out there on the internets if you know what you're doing).

Also DeLong has announced that in response to the take down notice served by HarpersCollins he will also be taking down his praise for and links to any HarpersCollins published works and will no longer recommend anything from the publisher.

(Kolbert will be discussing climate change in a live chat today at 3)

(NYT via EK, NY'er via kottke)