The UN has failed for a second time to pass legislation to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna from over-explotation and commercial extinction. The news came from a UN conference on endangered species, where the body also voted against ending the international trade in polar bear parts, shark parts and plans to vote to re-establish the [...]

George Monbiot has a nice article on “the unpersuadables” here.  I have been thinking about this a lot. Is there any point in public outreach, in blogging, etc?  Has everybody already made up their mind regardless of what the rationale science says?  Randy Olson thinks not. Neither does Juan cole. I change my [...]

Juan Cole, a professor of history at the University of Michigan, Middle East expert and high profile blogger has a piece on his site about whether and how scientists should engage environmental skeptics, in particular AGW deniers. His perspective is that we should and that it can be effective if done right but that [...]