Since the release in mid-February of a series of documents related to the internal strategy of the Heartland Institute to cast doubt on climate science, there has been extensive speculation about the origin of the documents and intense discussion about what they reveal. Given the need for reliance on facts...

In the 1800s America supported an incredible variety of animal life at densities now almost impossible to imagine. Mega-flocks of passenger pigeons containing billions of birds stretched a mile wide and 300 miles long. Millions of bison roamed the Great Plains.

The passenger pigeon is now extinct, wiped out by hunting...

A private company, Cadiz Inc. (Cadiz), has revived plans to mine groundwater underlying land in the delicate Eastern Mojave Desert. This project raises fundamental questions about how we manage our precious water resources, and in particular, whether in the 21st century it is appropriate, or even necessary, to use renewable...

[*B.S. means "Bad Science." What did you think it meant?]

The Earth's climate continued to change during 2011 -- a year in which unprecedented combinations of extreme weather events killed people and damaged property around the world. The scientific evidence for the accelerating human influence on climate further strengthened, as...

Anti-science mania is sweeping parts of the United States. This isn't new -- there is a long history of irrational, pseudoscientific, or downright anti-scientific thinking and political culture here -- ironic, given how much our founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin valued science. Examples include creationism, moon-landing denialism, claims linking vaccines...

The remarkable president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen for their work on women's rights. This award is rightful recognition of the commitment and dedication of these women to strengthening the rights...

When I go to water meetings, there are serious scientific discussions about climate impacts on water systems, international conflicts over water, water quality and contamination threats, new technologies and strategies for providing basic water and sanitation for the world's poor, and much more. But in the hallways between meetings and...

Texans and the rest of the country are getting a preview of the future of water when national and local leadership on climate and water policies fails.

Texas is in the throes of its worst one-year drought on record according to the Texas State Climatologist Texas A&M...

Today's (August 3) edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends included a remarkable exchange on the issue of SpongeBob Squarepants, climate change science, and the state of science education in the U.S. Apparently, using cartoons to teach children about important science issues of the day raises hackles at Fox, especially...

Holy crap it's hot. People, animals, and crops are dying.

But not only is it hot, it's hotter than it used to be. And it's our fault. Welcome to the future of climate change.

Let's keep this simple: we know the Earth is warming up -- the data are unambiguous.*...

On July 1st, I published a blog entry here about climate distortions and misrepresentations at Forbes, which regularly publishes biased and misleading opinion pieces on climate issues. That entry described a remarkable piece by serial climate science conjurer Patrick Michaels and showed his clear misrepresentation of data on...

Forbes, which regularly publishes biased, misleading, and distorted opinion pieces on climate issues, has just published a remarkable one by Patrick Michaels. Michaels is well known for his regular misleading statements about climate. And while his statements are mostly worth ignoring, this one contains a particularly...

A new analysis from the Pacific Institute (Municipal Deliveries of Colorado River Basin Water, authored by Michael J. Cohen) documents real changes in population and water deliveries for 100 cities and water agencies in the U.S. and Mexico that deliver and use water from the Colorado River basin....

We've known for a long time that bottled water costs far more than safe, reliable, municipal tap water systems, with those costs falling on individuals, communities, and the environment. But there is new and growing evidence that the failure to provide safe drinking water, or the fear (or reality) of...

Triage: the process for sorting victims into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from immediate treatment, when limited resources must be allocated.

The delay in acting to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases means that more and more anthropogenic climate changes are now unavoidable. Climate impacts are...

Violent tornadoes throughout the southeastern U.S. must be a front-page reminder that no matter how successful climate deniers are in confusing the public or delaying action on climate change in Congress or globally, the science is clear: Our climate is worsening.

More extreme and violent climate is a direct...

A grotesque and expanding anti-science mania is sweeping parts of the United States. This isn't new -- there is a long and dismaying history of irrational, pseudoscientific, or downright anti-scientific thinking and political culture here -- especially discouraging given how vital America's scientific and technological strengths are to our economic...

Our legislators have a tough job. They have to balance competing interests of their constituents. They have to work to ensure the health and well being of their region in the face of conflicting challenges. They have to weigh in on complex topics about which they know little, or nothing.

As the climate science continues to strengthen, and as the observational data around the world continue to accumulate, those who deny the reality or severity of human-induced climate change are getting increasingly desperate. As evidence piles up and as our weather worsens, their positions get weaker and weaker and their...

A group of the nation's leading climate scientists recently sent an open letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate about the importance and urgency of addressing climate change in the new 112th Congress and about the strength of climate science. The letter was delivered...