Science. New studies were done, new findings emerged. See Parts 1 and 2. Monarch counts at overwintering sites were called into doubt by the California Monarch Rebound of 2021-2022 –…
Search Results for: "by Kip Hansen" Monarch
Modern Scientific Controversies 2024: The Monarch Wars — Part 2
It takes a lot of nerve to do research and publish findings that are contrary to long-standing shared viewpoints in any field. Kudos to those mentioned above who have done…
Modern Scientific Controversies 2024: The Monarch Wars — Part 1
Guest Essay by Kip Hansen — 4 February 2024 – 1000 words/5 minutes When we say that “science is never settled”, we mean that there are always new things to…
Catching-up on Monarch Butterflies
It is the time for the Great Journey South for the Monarch butterflies of North America. The super-generation of monarchs, who are the great-great-grandchildren of the monarchs that left overwintering…
Monarch Update: Early Spring 2023
The Marvelous Mysterious Monarch butterfly has been in the news again – some good news and some not-so-good news – at least, I think so.
California Monarchs — Too Much Activism
“Arthur Shapiro, a UC Davis professor who has studied monarch butterflies for the past six decades, described the rationale behind the bans as “hogwash.”
No, children, the Monarch Butterfly is Not Endangered
Monarchs are officially, even by the overly cautious IUCN, considered to be of Least Concern of being endangered or going extinct.
2022 Monarch Butterfly Update
“This last March I reported that …the usual annual census of overwintering Monarchs in Mexico had either nor been completed or had not been reported. Finally, the annual report has been…
2022 Monarch Butterfly Report: A Mystery
The magical marvelous Monarch Butterfly is surging – they are ramping up – populations numbers are skyrocketing! That is to say, according to Monarch censuses, the numbers of migrating Monarchs…
Monarch Migration: 2019
Guest Essay by Kip Hansen The 2019 Fall Monarch butterfly Migration has begun and is in full swing. Here in the Central Hudson Valley of New York, monarch caterpillars are…
The Marvelous and Mysterious Monarch
Guest essay by Kip Hansen The marvelous Monarch Butterfly is an icon of biological mystery. When I was born, circa 1950, monarchs were known to fly north into southern…
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #588
There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science [pseudoscience]…It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind…
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #587
Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” — Benjamin Franklin (1722)
Weaponizing ‘The Science’
Pielke Jr. argues like this: “The notion of consensus-as-truth has been operationalized in various forms: journalistic “fact checkers,” academic “misinformation” researchers, and content moderation on social media platforms. The practical…
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #576
Doubt is clearly a value in the sciences. Whether it is in other fields is an open question and an uncertain matter.” “…it is very important to doubt and that…
Are Butterflies Wildlife?
“A legal quirk leaves officials in at least a dozen states with little or no authority to protect insects. That’s a growing problem for humans.”
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #514
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is…
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #507
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent…
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #500
“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” – Richard Feynman, conclusion to his report on the Challenger disaste
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #446
“The first people totalitarians destroy or silence are men of ideas and free minds.” Isaiah Berlin — Naturalized British philosopher
Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #397
The Week That Was: 2020-02-01 (February 1, 2020) Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org) The Science and Environmental Policy Project Quote of the Week: “”Facts are stubborn things; and whatever…
Why You Shouldn’t Draw Trend Lines on Graphs
Guest essay by Kip Hansen What we call a graph is more properly referred to as “a graphical representation of data.” One very common form of graphical representation is “a…
Buggy Weather Radar
Guest Essay by Kip Hansen Weather radar is a wonderful thing — and many of us depend on it to know such important facts such as “When will that…
Numbers –Tricky Tricky Numbers: Part 1
We find ourselves reading articles and essays and journal papers filled with abstractions about abstractions about ordinary phenomena.