Opinion
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Just the Facts: Phonics Software
Opinion -Until the mid-twentieth century, American schools taught youngsters to read using phonics, which formalizes the process by breaking down words into letters and their sounds. -
Looking ahead: Carbon sinks in 2100
Opinion -But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage The gentle Thetis, and anon behold The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut, Bounding between the two moist elements Like Perseus’ horse. —Wm. -
No rest for the wicked
Opinion -The failure of COP-6 at The Hague last November was not really bad news for the sophisticated U.S. environmental pressure groups that see CO2 as a pollutant rather than a plant nutrient. -
Recreation access groups win legal fight
Opinion -On December 22, a federal judge gave pro-access recreation advocates a stunning victory when he ruled against a national preservationist group's legal effort to ban off-highway vehicle (OHV) use on millions of acres in Utah. -
Scientist says CO2 not main cause of warming
Opinion -A leading Canadian researcher recently published a study in the British science journal Nature that found carbon dioxide (CO2) is not the prime cause of global warming. -
Teacher Union Will Hire Edison Schools
Opinion -In October last year, the American Federation of Teachers issued a report that had little praise for the performance of public schools managed by Edison Schools Inc. -
U.S. dodges bullet at Hague
Opinion -Last issue, we speculated that the timing of two important articles in Nature magazine was no accident. -
U.S. Supreme Court puts EPA to the test
Opinion -The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on whether the United States Environmental Protection Agency may consider compliance costs, as well as health effects, when it sets national ambient air quality standards for ozone and -
Whole Language Packaged as Phonics
Opinion -Reading researcher Louisa Cook Moats recently identified "lack of rigor and disrespect for evidence in reading education" among the reasons for the persistence of the ineffective whole language reading instruction method. -
Records show drop in Atlantic hurricanes
Opinion -A science reporter’s ominous voice intones, “Global warming imminent . . .” as a parched desert landscape fills the screen. “Industrial pollutants the cause of . . . -
Who will be the new EPA administrator?
Opinion -The tumultuous election of 2000 will cast its shadow over the American polity for years to come. As these lines are being written, Texas Gov. George W. -
Getting climate forecasts in line
Opinion -The climate forecasting business is always couched in uncertainty. One model shows this, another shows that. One federal scientist says one thing, another from XYZ subagency PDQ (Federal Building J, subbasement G-5c) says something else. Blah blah blah. -
Esteemed science journal bows to politics
Opinion -When the United Nations held its second meeting of the "Conference of the Parties" (COP-2) in Geneva in July 1996, the big question was whether or not our models of climate change were good enough to support eventual restrictions on the combustion of -
Opposition mounts to new arsenic rules
Opinion -The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new drinking water standard that would lower the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to five parts per billion. -
Grasslands Roundup: Several new papers confirm CO2’s benefits to savannah regions
Opinion -Most studies of carbon dioxide’s effect on plant life are fairly short in duration—a year or two at most. But one research team stayed with their experiment for six years. -
The cost of regulation
Opinion -In fiscal year 2000, some 54 federal departments and agencies and over 130,000 federal employees will spend over $18.7 billion writing and enforcing federal regulations. Center for the Study of American Business Regulatory Budget Report No. -
The Future of Nuclear Power
Opinion -Certain article titles appear, reappear, and re-reappear. After each Presidential election, the question asked is, “What will the new President do?” After a contentious sports event, the headline often is, “Coaches criticize referees. -
Scientists assail climate treaty
Opinion -In the midst of international negotiations on how to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, “dissident” scientists vocally objected to the underlying premise that individual and industrial human activities influence nature's -
Environmental extremists destroying National Forests
Opinion -The year 2000 will be remembered in forestry circles as the year of the Big Burn. At no time in our previous record-keeping has the total acreage burned in our National Forests approached the levels of last year. -
Sprawl for me, but not for thee
Opinion -Perhaps the oddest political coalition in America today is the alliance between anti-suburban intellectuals and suburban "slow growth" activists. -
Regulatory Reform Act Becomes Law
Opinion -Without adequate fanfare, The Truth in Regulating Act of 2000 became law on October 17, 2000. -
Learning Is Like Eating Strawberries
Opinion -When her daughter Susan started kindergarten in Virginia in 1972, Jessie Wise quickly heard complaints from Susan's teacher that the child would become a social misfit because she wanted to read during free time instead of playing. -
CO2 as antifreeze?
Opinion -Plants grow faster. Photosynthesis increases. Root systems improve. Yields jump. Water-use efficiency rises. Drought resistance becomes stronger. Countless stresses are minimized. An ideal biosphere? Maybe. An attainable one? You bet. -
Climate models can’t get precipitation right
Opinion -Apparently, the hotly awaited U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change for the Nation is not worth the CO2 growth-enhanced paper it’s printed on.
