A strong analogy exists between over/under consumption of energy at the level of the human body and of the industrial metabolism of humanity. Both forms of energy consumption have profound implications for human, environmental, and global health. Globally, excessive fossil-fuel consumption, and individually, excessive food energy consumption are both responsible for a series of interrelated det...

VALENTÍ RULL,∗†† TERESA VEGAS-VILARRÚBIA,† SANDRA NOGUÉ,∗‡ AND OTTO HUBER§∗∗ ∗CSIC-Botanic Institute of Barcelona, Palynology & Paleoecology, Pg. del Migdia s/n, 08038 Barcelona, Spain †University of Barcelona, Department of Ecology, Av. Diagonal 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain ‡Autonomous University of Barcelona, Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, Campus Bellaterra, 08193 Bar...

The subject of this paper is an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of processes needed to construct and maintain representative Swiss asphalt, concrete, and composite pavements (including subbase layers) applicable for the Swiss national road network over a period of 75 years. The environmental indicators analyzed are the global warming potential indic...

Many WUWT readers will remember that last year we presented evidence of what we thought was a "solar imprint" in globally averaged temperature trends. Not surprisingly, given the strong interest and passion in the subject of climate change and global warming, our results were greeting with both praise and scorn. Some problems were pointed out in our original assessment, and other possible inter...

Although people are quite aware of global warming, their beliefs about it may be malleable; specifically, their beliefs may be constructed in response to questions about global warming. Beliefs may reflect irrelevant but salient information, such as the current day's temperature. This replacement of a more complex, less easily accessed judgment with a simple, more accessible one is known as att...

Because microorganisms are sensitive to temperature, ongoing global warming is predicted to influence microbial community structure and function. We used large-scale warming experiments established at two sites near the northern and southern boundaries of US eastern deciduous forests to explore how microbial communities and their function respond to warming at sites with differing climatic regi...

Although the science of global warming has been in place for several decades if not more, only in the last decade and a half has the issue moved clearly into the public sphere as a public policy issue and a political priority. To understand how and why this has occurred, it is essential to consider the history of the scientific theory of the greenhouse effect, the evidence that supports it and ...