climate

Peking Man, a group of Homo erectus discovered in the 1920’s near Beijing (then Peking), China, has been back in the spotlight over the last few days. A new estimate from American and Chinese scientists dates the fossils (and their associated population of Peking men and women) 200,000 years older than earlier measurements. The researchers reported their finding on the cover of last week’s Nature.

The good news is that the ozone hole over Antarctica is slowly healing, thanks to controls on ozone-depleting substances that were once widely used in products such as refrigerators and aerosol cans. Stratospheric ozone protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause problems such as skin cancer and crop damage.

As far as TV history goes, public service announcements will go down as a small but memorable slice of the great broadcast pie. The weeping Native American, brought to tears by the garbage strewn across his great country's highways. "Knowing is half the battle." "This is drugs; this is your brain on drugs." And so on.

Now, Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection group have begun a privately funded PSA of their own with hopes of rallying the general public to the cause of preventing a global climate crisis.