Climate science, Ecological change, Higher education

Climate change year-end review 2022

This is has been a terrific semester that has included some of the best students of my career. This is my year-end review of the lessons on climate change that have been presented in the three courses that I teach. I hope you find this useful. A correction: the CO2 concentration from NOAA just before the volcano shut down the Keeling laboratory at Mona Loa was … Continue reading Climate change year-end review 2022

Stephen Mulkey
Ecological change

No slack for UF and the methane power plant

Some have objected to my concerns about the new fossil-gas power plant at UF because they feel the administration’s options are financially limited due to the extreme expense of retrofitting the campus to remove dependence on methane to produce steam and chilled water. The new plant is budgeted at $200 million. Secondly, they point out the the new plant could easily be converted to hydrogen, … Continue reading No slack for UF and the methane power plant

Stephen Mulkey
Ecological change

Mission failure at the University of Florida

A version published in the Gainesville Sun 3 September 2021 The mission of higher education is the maintenance and renewal of civilization. This statement comes as an epiphany to many who hear it for the first time. Public higher education in the US has been diminished at the hands of legislatures and business interests who believe that higher education exists solely to serve the economy. … Continue reading Mission failure at the University of Florida

Stephen Mulkey2 Comments
Adaptation, Climate denial, Climate science, Ecological change, Trump damage to climate

The false summit of climate change progress

There are several reasons why the changes underway represent a false summit leaving an extremely steep climate landscape yet to be scaled. It is important to realize that most of these changes are promises, rather than anything close to becoming reality. In the US, we can count on GOP elected officials at the state and federal level to oppose most of the proposed changes to energy policy and climate change mitigation. The GOP will protect the fossil fuel industry in myriad ways that will leave the average voter at a loss to say exactly what is happening.
Continue reading The false summit of climate change progress

Stephen Mulkey
Ecological change

Hacking the planet so a few rich people can get richer

Published on Medium “Geo-engineering holds forth the promise of addressing global warming concerns for just a few billion dollars a year,” Newt Gingrich 2008 “Solar geoengineering solves everything! It’s great! We don’t need to bother to cut emissions.” President Trump 2017 “The main findings are that any implementation of stratospheric geoengineering could end catastrophically for many species. Although if geoengineering were ever done, it would … Continue reading Hacking the planet so a few rich people can get richer

Stephen Mulkey
Ecological change, Higher education

Courses by Stephen Mulkey on Climate Change at the University of Florida – spring 2021

All of these courses are are online and all have synchronous live components. Until classes begin on 11 January I am willing to make room for UF registered undergraduate students. BSC3307C Climate Change Biology can be taken as a graduate course with the permission of your graduate advisor and is mostly asynchronous. Contact me by email (smulkey [at] ufl.edu) if you want to enroll and … Continue reading Courses by Stephen Mulkey on Climate Change at the University of Florida – spring 2021

Stephen Mulkey