rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • The consequences of climate change

    The science journalist, Peter Hadfield (aka Potholer), has a great new youtube video about the consequences of climate change (in our lifetimes). I have to give credit to Moth from New Anthropocene for bringing it to my attention. This to me is good science communication: it’s simple, clear and interesting.   Here’s a quote from the very end…

  • The impact of climate change on human health

    Chapter 11 of the IPCC report (yes, I’ve skipped a few chapters since my last post on this topic) is about Human health: impacts, adaptation and co-benefits. This is all about us so I think it deserves a post all on its own. Climate change will affect human health in three ways: Weather: Directly through…

  • Cycling in Auckland part 2

    Cycling on the footpath sucks. It really does. I’ve just returned from cycling Elizabeth to kindergarten and I’ve started cycling on the road for parts of the trip now. In fact, when I’m on my own cycling home I use the road almost the whole way. Why? Because the footpath is difficult to navigate. It’s…

  • So this is it, we’re all going to die

    Ok, so we’re not really all going to die – not yet anyway – but the IPCC did release Part II of report number 5 last week and there’s lots in it which should be cause for concern. The first part – released last year – was about the science of climate change. This one…

  • Cargo bikes

    A friend sent me this cool video of cargo bikes in action:   It’s no secret that people who get to work under their own steam by walking, running or cycling are apparently happier than those who drive or take public transport. But did you know that people who drive or take the train during…

  • Cycling in Auckland

    Today is a great day. For the first time ever, I was a commuter cyclist in Auckland. I finally overcame my fear and cycled Elizabeth to kindergarten, a round trip of about 8km. It was hot! But it was a good ride, easier than I was expecting and no lives were lost. Auckland is very hilly…

  • Roads, traffic and Braess’s paradox

    I understand that we all have differing ideas about what we find beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but is there anyone who would choose the first photograph below over the second? The two photos are before and after pics from the Cheonggyecheon Stream restoration project in Seoul, South Korea. The concrete highways were built…

  • Can we trust scientists?

    I saw this video on New Anthropocene recently and think it’s worth sharing. It is mostly about climate change but also science more broadly and why people don’t always trust the scientific consensus whether it be a consensus about climate change, vaccinations or evolution. Many years ago I lived next to a young woman who…

  • How many times can I embarrass myself in one week?

    This morning at 6am I had a job interview; at least I thought I did. My instructions were to be online at 5pm GMT on March 26th. I spent so much time checking and double-checking that 5pm GMT was indeed 6am New Zealand time that it didn’t occur to me that 5pm on the 26th…

  • What we know

    I’ve just found this great interview with Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, and he is a delight to listen to. If I were making a movie about some impending catastrophic event which included a part for an honest and dedicated scientist whose role was to alert the human population, I would pick…

  • Spring rolls

    I grew up with a Thai chef and did not take as much advantage of this as I probably should have. One thing she did teach me though was how to roll spring rolls and I am very grateful for that. Spring rolls are fairly quick and easy to make and also very, very cheap.…

  • Another post on blog moderation

    There’s not really any good resource on the web for how to moderate blogs; at least, not that I can find and I have looked. But I have come to learn a few things over the past few months which I want to write about for my own benefit and for anyone else who may…

  • Crop yields expected to decline earlier than previously thought

    For me, the security of our food supply is one of the most significant of all the climate change impacts. Food shortages lead to famine which leads to mass migration and conflict. It is therefore important to predict how the warming planet will affect the yields of crops that we eat. A paper published this…

  • Opinions are great, except when I disagree with them

    Opinions are great. I love listening to people’s opinions more so than the boring nothings of fence-sitters. Ok, so I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes people’s opinions rile me but there’s something challenging about that as it forces me to question what I think. For this reason, I like listening to RadioNZ’s The…

  • Cyclone Lusi damage, warnings and false alarms

    Here’s the damage in our backyard after Cyclone Lusi: After almost a week of warnings from media and the Metservice as well as two separate notifications sent to my iPhone from Civil Defence, Cyclone Lusi was a bit of an anti-climax. Auckland produces more damaging storms on a semi-regular basis that don’t generate any warnings…

  • Naked cycling

    Let’s see whether this title generates more traffic than my bikini photo did. The Automobile Association of Britain has launched a campaign on cycling safety and they’ve produced this video clip of a naked cyclist. It’s very good. Coincidentally, my 7 year old has been asking questions about nudity this morning. He said, “When did…

  • Running vs cycling

    I have injured my heel while running and so have had to abandon this activity for the past few days while I hobble around and hope it gets better soon. This has been disappointing because I was starting to semi-enjoy running. Not wanting to become slothful, I decided to head out on my creaky old…

  • Is climate change responsible for recent flooding in the UK?

    I’m not going to answer this question because I can’t but you can help to answer another question which is has climate change made extremely wet winters like the last in the UK more likely? Oxford University early this month launched the weather@home project which seeks to answer this question. The winter of 2013/2014 was…

  • Delayed gratification, spiders and bikinis

    Elizabeth was watching a TV advertisement this morning with two children on it who were both offered a chocolate fish and told that if they waited a short while before eating it they could have another. It was the classic marshmallow experiment of delayed gratification except using chocolate fish instead of marshmallows. Ben decided to…

  • LOOK: a pic of me in a bikini!

    Don’t be daft! As if I’d post a photograph of myself in a bikini on the web for all to see. I just wanted to see how many perverts there are out there and whether my stats increase with this title. We did go to the beach today though – to Takapuna beach – where…