• The Environment

    Drop the Rifle and Pick up the Bear Spray

    By Posted on 3.26.2008 7 Comments

    Brigham Young University bear biologist Thomas Smith says that guns aren't necessarily your best option when facing down one of the beasts. Smith and his team analyzed 20 years worth of incidents in Alaska, and found that the wilderness equivalent of pepper spray effectively deterred bears 92 percent of the time, whereas guns only did the trick one-third less often. (He studied polar bears, too, hence the picture, at left, of an unconscious mother and her cubs. And yes, he did get away before everyone woke up.)

    3.26.2008 at 05:11pm - Comment by Harvey Levy

    It's great to know that bear spray works so well but I'll still keep my trusty rifle, thank you. In the article you mentioned that 98% of close encounters occur in forest and with Black or Brown bears. Only 2% were encounters with Polar bears, the most dangerous of the species. If, for some reason that I don't foresee, I was anywhere near Polar bear country there's no way that I would exchange bear spray for a rifle. Harvey Levy http://harveylevy.blogspot.com/

  • The Environment

    Breaking Down the Bad Stuff in the Air

    By Posted on 3.24.2008 1 Comments

    In a new review article in Nature Geoscience, two scientists say that black carbon, the stuff that gets kicked up into the air from biomass burning and diesel engines, among other things, could account for as much as 60 percent of the warming effect of carbon dioxide. That's three to four times greater than most estimates, and more than that of any greenhouse gas save CO2.

    3.24.2008 at 04:43pm - Comment by Harvey Levy

    I keep on reading report after report of the effects of global warming on such diverse things as the declining population of polar bears, the reduction of corals, the melting of snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro, so on and so forth. Now it's the effect of soot and it's relations with snow melting in the Himalayas. You guys are supposed to be scientist and you still print stuff like this as if it was a foregone conclusion!!! This global warming hysteria is based on nothing but hype. Temperature readings over the past 10 years demonstrate that earths atmospheric and ocean temperatures have decreased while CO2 emissions are still increasing. Get it! The two scientist who's findings this article highlights admit that previous findings - and a consensus, mind you - were wrong. Now, if - according to the two guys - previous findings were wrong maybe, just maybe, there is more stuff that is wrong.



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