The Northwest Passage

In all of recorded history, the Northwest Passage has been blocked by arctic ice making the route unnavigable. It is now open for business, a cause for great concern.

Allowing the Extinction of Species

Under the Bush Administration's "interpretation" of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, species need only be listed as endangered whose existence is threatened in its current viable range, not its traditional range. So far 38 prominent scientists have signed a letter of protest.

The Economics of Climate Change

In fall 2006, the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change,a British government commissioned study, was released. Most scientific or economic criticisms have said that the review did not go far enough in assessing the effect of climate change, although it did present extremely stark warnings for the future. Martin Weitzman has a upcoming book review of the Stern Review in the upcoming Journal of Economic Literature. Brad DeLong also has a great post on this topic. Combined with UN reports on climate change, the evidence for highly destructive global climate change is conclusive and undeniable. The solutions to this crisis are clear, and yet the corruption and inefficiency of the geopolitical system allows the perpetuation of such egregious harm to life on Earth and human well being. How and when will it end?

Progress in Environmental Protection

No thanks to Republican appointed Supreme Court justices, the Supreme Court ruled April 2 that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate the emissions of greenhouse gasses. Enforcement of this obligation will still be an uphill battle with Republicans controlling the Presidency, but the precedent of this decision could have positive lasting consequences. The dissenting viewpoint of the Republican judges that this type of ruling exceeds the limited authority of the courts in a democratic society if anything undermines the legal authority of the Constitution of the United States itself. How can the Supreme Court have no authority to rule on the necessity to regulate a pollutant which exacerbates a mass extinction event? NY Times opinion.

A Warning

Recently, Winnipeg scientists have resurrected the H1N1 influenza virus of 1918 which killed 50 million people with a death rate of 2%. The procedure by which the virus was resurrected was impressive and hopefully will lead to a defence against H5N1 or other future influenzas. Nothing against the Winnipeg scientists nor their research, but it is reminiscent of a very dangerous scenario which must be addressed:

In the brilliant Terry Gilliam film '12 Monkeys' (torrent), a lab scientist working silently develops a virus to wipe out 95% of mankind while making the surface of the Earth uninhabitable. There is a sizable population of humanity who in light of the continued and seemingly inevitable destruction of Earth's biodiversity caused by one single species, would support a mechanism to eliminate that species and the threat by whatever means necessary. The only practical means of carrying this out would be the development of an airborne, highly infectious and deadly virus with a long incubation period. While your average misanthrope is not determined enough to wipe out mankind, a motivated biologist who not so abnormally values non-human life on the same scale as human life could very easily rationalise and carry out the decision to develop the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. I have met several people who in principle are not opposed to such an idea leading me to completely reconsider the likelihood of this event.

Biological science should not be stopped for fear of this scenario. While oversight should be strengthened especially where virus work is concerned, security and oversight in the field should not interfere with scientific progress.

Life on this planet will go on with or without humanity. Humanity surely has many thousands more species to eliminate forever, but the real question is whether humanity itself will survive. Ultimately, humanity's probability of survival is directly proportional to its degree of conservation and stewardship of other life on the planet. Given our current direction, I am betting on 12 Monkeys, this time without the time travel.