The week that was, 12/20-26/2009
Mariele Neudecker, '400 Thousand Generations,' 2009, from "Earth: Art of a Changing World," Royal Academy at Burlington Gardens, London, through January 31, 2010. Click on the image to be taken to the gallery website.
China played an important constructive role in promoting the attained achievements at the conference and demonstrated the greatest sincerity and the greatest efforts. — State Premier Wen Jiabao interviewed by the Xinhua news agency, BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, December 22, 2009, via Proquest
Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful “deal” so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen. — Mark Lynas, …
The week that was, 12/13-19/2009
"River 2, Position 4," July 2008. Photo: Olaf Otto Becker from "Above Zero" at the Amador Gallery in New York through January 9, 2010. Click on the image to be taken to the gallery website and other images of the summer rivers of Greenland.
These pictures are … about the rivers of meltwater that form on the surface of the glaciers in Greenland during the summer. In the summer heat, the ice melts, and the little rivulets flow into bigger and bigger streams until eventually they become rivers. The water is a deep aquamarine. It wends its way through a landscape of white ice with blue tints, and of small black holes formed by atmospheric soot. The sky is crowded with low-hanging white clouds and only occasional breaks of blue or gray. There are no trees or telephone poles or anything, really, to give a sense of scale. How wide …
The week that was, 12/6-12/2009
A man watches an animated projection showing the different acidity levels of the ocean. Photograph: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images. Click on the image to be taken to the London Guardian's "Copenhagen in pictures: Day two."
Most of us aren’t chemists, but it’s not hard to understand that a more acidic ocean will change what can live there. — Dave Kubiak, retired teacher and fisherman from Kodiak, Alaska, “Increasingly acidic ocean threatens fish,” Alaska Daily News, December 9, 2009
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The week that was, 11/29/2009-12/5/2009
"Untroubled waters," 1931, from "Behold the day: The color block prints of Frances Gearhart" at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Click on the image for more prints by Gearhart, a link to the gallery and the curator's essay on the show, which runs through January 31st. Listing via Deborah Netburn at latimes.com.
“The dinosaurs didn’t know it was coming. We do. … Scientists might think that the right information in the right place is enough to move people to moral action, but that’s a logical mistake.” — philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore, “Water — Do we have any moral obligation to the future?” WaterWired, December 4, 2009…
The week that was, 11/15-21/2009
“It is the court’s opinion that the negligence of the corps, in this instance by failing to maintain the MR-GO properly, was not policy, but insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness.” — Federal District Court Judge Stanwood R Duval, Jr on the US Army Corps of Engineers’ management of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, aka “Mister Go,” in advance of Hurricane Katrina, New York Times, November 19, 2009
In the 24 hours up to 12.45am yesterday, the Environment Agency recorded rainfall of 314.4mm (12.3in) in the area, thought to be an all-time record for England. — “Cumbria floods: ‘Once in a thousand years’ deluge swamps defenses,” Daily Telegraph, November 21, 2009
Sacramento supports the Delta as long as we don’t have to do anything to make it better. — Phil Isenberg, former Sacramento mayor and chairman of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, opinion piece “Delta …
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