SCIENCE

Shenandoah: Daughter of the Stars

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Photos by Jane Cappe – There’s an ancient Native American legend of dubious history about a Great Spirit which allegedly made the world and gathered the morning stars together on the shores of a quiet, silver lake bordered with blue mountains, the most beautiful place on Earth. Hovering above the quiet waters and lighting the…

Oh Shenandoah in Spring: How the Fawns Escape the Bears

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“Oh-skan-ohn-doh in Oneida.” – Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BIG MEADOWS, Va. – Finally. It’s 1:47 on a Sunday afternoon. Me and my loyal dog Jefferson are taking a break in the camper van, aided by a little afternoon air conditioning — and an April shower on the mountain in May. It’s been…

An Awesome Responsibility: Respect and Protect Shenandoah

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Virg. — It’s an incredible feeling sitting here at 3,500 feet above sea level on the hill looking out over the Big Meadows campground, watching a spring shower roll through the mountains. I can’t think of a spot east of the Mississippi where I…

Blinded by the Delight: Missing the Baltimore Grit and the Gulf Oil Escape

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Thoroughbreds charging around the final turn and down the homestretch. Blinders strapped on the sides of their faces to keep their attention on the finish line straight ahead. Preakness Stakes at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore. Second leg of the Triple Crown later this week. Delegations of civic leaders…

Full Corn Planting Moon in Maryland

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – PATAPSCO VALLEY STATE PARK, Md. – As the sun went down on Sunday, May 3, I was walking my dog Jefferson around the outer loop of the campground along the ridge top and noticed the full moon coming up over the horizon. It was so orange it looked…

Earth Day in the Nation’s Capital

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will celebrate the 45th annual Earth Day April 17-22 with a variety of live and online activities to engage the public in the agency’s mission to better understand and protect the planet. The agency uses the vantage point of space to increase understanding of the planet,…

NASA Asteroid Hunter Spacecraft Images Now Available to Public

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Millions of images of celestial objects, including asteroids, are now available to the public online from NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft. “NEOWISE is a vital asset in NASA’s program to find objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth,” Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA…

New NASA Mission Launched to Study Environmental Changes on Ocean Health

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NASA is beginning work on a new satellite mission that will extend critical climate measurements of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere and advance studies of the impact of environmental changes on ocean health, fisheries and the carbon cycle. Tentatively scheduled to launch in 2022, the Pre-Aerosol Clouds and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission will study Earth’s aquatic…

Noam Chomsky Comments on the Future With Climate Change

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By Glynn Wilson – I woke up Sunday morning thinking about something besides aphrodisiacs and Valentines Day, same sex marriage and Mardi Gras. While everyone else seems to be focused on these things, including the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, I am still wondering when the devastating news about the rapid pace of climate change…

The People Lead on Climate Change

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Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – Earlier this month, almost every Republican in the U.S. Senate went on record that “climate change is real and not a hoax.” All but a handful, however, balked at agreeing that humans are contributing to that change. The “not a scientist” club has a new line in the…

Mobile Residents Say No to Canadian Tar Sands Crude Oil Tank Farms

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Will the City Government Side With the People or Industry? By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The citizens of Mobile, especially those in the historic Africatown community along with members of the Mobile Bay Sierra Club, have held public meetings and spoken up: They do not want the Mobile Planning Commission and the City…

Studies Show 2014 Was the Warmest Year On Record

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By Glynn Wilson – The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest on record since 1880, according to two separate analyses by scientists from NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000, they say in a release just out…

Today Feels Like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’

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Could a Massive Climate Shift Really Happen? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – LURAY, Va. — It’s been so cold the past couple of days that I’ve felt like a character in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” I woke up just before dawn this morning and the iPhone weather said it…

Climate Change Comes to Shenandoah

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Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The Shenandoah salamander is no endangered polar bear, cuddly panda cub or playful dolphin the American public may warm up to in the cause of fighting global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet it is the latest poster child from…

Racing to the Top with China

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Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – What a difference a week makes. This morning we awoke to the news that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have negotiated a historic joint announcement on climate change and clean energy cooperation. Coming from the world’s two largest economies and two biggest carbon emitters, the new…