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Knight Science Journalism Tracker Home Suggest Stories About Us Staff Contact Us Log In Register to Comment AP, etc: USDA gardening map adjusted. PR lady says global warming!? No nothing like that ha ha. But it is..

A little announcement at the National Arboretum in DC, about a new version of the handy climate zone maps that the USDA and its Agricultural Research Service publishes to help home gardeners and others know whether figs, peonies, or passion flower vines will do well in the yard, included a delightful round of fast-talking. That is, if the AP‘s Seth Borenstein got it right, and he’s a diligent reporter. AP has a video by Lee Powell on the news, too.

Now, he could have written portentiously that the affair reflects recognition by a federal agency that global warming is making a practical impact, and compared the kibosh laid down on such revisions when they were considered during the administration of George W. Bush.

Instead, one gets a delightful vignette in which a USDA spokeswoman insists that the map should not be taken as evidence of global warming (was she also there during the Bush administration and still feeling the sting? Yes, if this

Inter Press Service: Biodiesel far worse on climate than the regular kind?

At IPS a service devoted to climate change news, Canadian crusading journalist Stephen Leahy reports a surprise, if it’s true. But one sees in the story an element of bait and switch. It’s not enough to refute the main point, which could well be perfectly valid. But the brush is broad.

Compare the lede, “The only green in biodiesel fuel is the money producers make from it, new research has revealed,” with the followup: “Biodiesel from palm oil plantations may be the world’s dirtiest fuel – far worse than burning diesel made from oil when the entire production life cycle is considered.”

Thus the target is just one way of making biodiesel. It is a widely used and still-growing one to be sure. It would be no surprise that clearing vast natural forest tracts to grow palm oil makes biodiesel overall a product that accelerates rather than retards global warming. But the story ought to tell readers whether there are are some biodiesels that are as [...]

New Scientists: Woops. One radio telescope way to detect constants that aren’t, doesn’t

Y’ see bloke, here’s a way by which one might pass himself off as a true son of England. Not only study up on yousel’s accent, East Midland will serve, but you best toss in mention o’the occasional damp squib. Well! That sentence is all made-up English in rhythm and I don’t mean the Queen’s English or wots you hear on the Beeb. So no need to tell me I’m a pathetic linguist, as that’s sort of the point. This is entirely a syntactical lark unhinged from reality, excluding the damp squib, wot is the real deal. This Britishism means something that was heralded in some quarters as great and impactful but in the event fell way short, sort of like the big solar storm that swept the planet the other day. Not recalling ever encountering the term before, I looked it up. And I did so after coming upon this tidy yarn:

New Scientist – Stuart Clark: Fight over changing constants reaches stalemate ;

The [...]

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