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Ben Carmichael: OnEarth Editor

Ben Carmichael has been a regular contributor to On Earth since the fall of 2006. He has written on subjects ranging from declining marine biodiversity, to the UN headquarters, and eco-minded rock stars. He has contributed to Print and Portfolio magazine, The Yale Forum on Climate Change, and has worked for The New Yorker magazine. He also blogs for The Huffington Post on environmental politics.

While an undergraduate at Brown University, Ben was the founding editor of Watershed: A Journal of the Environment and Culture, where he had the privilege to publish such authors and artists as Robert Creeley, Alex Katz, Bradford Washburn and W. S. Merwin. He is currently studying at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute as a Marshall Scholar.

Ben is the editor of two histories of the Grand Cascapedia River, one of America's finest Atlantic salmon rivers: The Grand Cascapedia: A History, by Hoagy B. Carmichael, and Grand Cascapedia Giants, by Ronald S. Swanson.

Having grown up in Maine, Ben is an avid fly fisherman, with interests in skiing, cycling and food. He currently lives in Oxford, UK.

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Half-Baked Alaska: Palin’s Confused Vision of Energy & Environment

Now that Sarah Palin has announced her resignation as Governor of Alaska, you may wonder: What has she been doing? How will she fill her time? In an Op-Ed piece for The Washington Post, Palin kindly provided an answer. She's committed herself to a single task: confusing the American public on energy and environment.

On Tuesday, Palin's Op-Ed criticized Obama's cap and trade bill -- known as the American Clean Energy & Security Act, or ACES -- and refused to acknowledge the existence of climate change. The article so ...read full post

Comments (2) | July 16, 2009
Lessons From A River

This is a story of stories.

It is about one night on a river. It is a story about listening, about healing and about nature. This story is the reason I am here, now, talking to you.

A few weeks ago, I drove with my father up to the Catskill Mountains in northwest New York. We were to stay at The Brooklyn Club, an old fly fishing club tucked into the bank of the little branch of The Beaverkill River.

We had come with the expectation of chasing trout. And that we did. But it wasn't the fish that mattered; it was what happened in the quiet spaces in between.

...read full post

Comments (4) | July 6, 2009
Visualizing A World Without New Orleans, Bangladesh, the Bahamas

Adding to the new tools visualizing the impacts of climate change is this -- Sea Level Rise Explorer, an interactive map showing the land capture by potential long-term sea level rise around the world. The map, developed by Global Warming Art, and powered by Google Maps, uses a colored palette to show which areas will be affected by a rise between -10 and +70 meters.

It's long been a joke of those with an interest in real estate and a concern for climate change that now's the time to swap your beach house for a mountain cabin. For most areas, this is an exaggeration -- insurance premiums will rise faster than sea levels. For other areas, however, the threat is far more real.

Consider that the extent of the effected land is highly variable. In some areas, large swaths of land are at ...read full post

Comments (0) | May 14, 2009
Energy Boon or Dirty Boondoggle: Which Would You Choose?

Driving many conversations on energy and climate is a single question: What will the future look like?

Even if you're not interested in the environment, you've asked a similar question before. If you've ever wondered what the weather will be over your vacation, if you've ever filled out a sports bracket, or if you've guessed what gas prices will be like tomorrow, you've ventured a forecast.

Now, let me venture another guess -- hardly ever were you right. That was only one person, in one instance. In instances of collective forecasts, the problem can be worse. Consensus is rare. Opinions diverge, camps form and passions run hot.

When it comes to predicting the future of energy, this is especially true. For energy and ...read full post

Comments (2) | April 23, 2009
A Bad Economy Makes For A Bad Environment

As the markets have gone down, long-held assumptions have been thrown up and into the air. Economic theories, and not just the value of our homes and our retirement accounts, are coming undone. In some cases, that may just be a good thing.

Consider the argument that climate change solutions, no matter what you may think about the science, are simply too costly. This has long been a stock argument of the political right. Indeed, it was one of the publicly stated reasons President George W. Bush chose not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

The logic is fairly simple. Because greenhouse gas emissions are so deeply embedded in our purchases and productivity, people have argued that a strong climate response will require a weakening of our economy. ...read full post

Comments (4) | April 13, 2009
Gates Releases Mosquitoes. But What About Climate Change?
A recent, high-profile gesture has provoked wide ranging debate and has me plotting another, similar move.

At a recent TED Conference, a self-described conference of the world’s “leading thinkers and doers,” Bill Gates gave a speech on malaria. He described its effects, its history, and its treatments. In this story, two themes were prominent: mosquitoes spread the disease amongst only the world’s poor. More money, he said, is spent on baldness than malaria. And then, in a much-discussed gesture, he released small cloud of mosquitoes on his audience.
...read full post

Comments (0) | February 7, 2009

England: A Dusting of Snow, A Climate of Chaos

I went to bed last night with Oxford covered in a thin, quiet blanket of snow. I woke up to find the country in chaos.

The Telegraph ran a headline saying, "Britain paralyzed by worst snowfall for 20 years." Meanwhile, the usually reserved Times of London reported: "Chaos after huge snow blanket hits UK." The Guardian followed suit: "England wakes up to snow chaos."
I read these headlines with the shades still drawn. Outside my windows, where usually ...read full post

Comments (3) | February 2, 2009

Using Google to Combat Climate Change. (Part 2)

Since my last post about Google’s role in helping to solve climate change, two new polls have been released that cast a dark light on the public understanding of climate change.

According to a poll recently released by The Pew Research Center, the environment has declined for three consecutive years. This year alone it is down 15%. Global warming has similarly declined. It is now in last place, behind all other 20 national priorities.

As if that weren’t bad enough, another poll recently released by the ...read full post

Comments (6) | January 28, 2009

NOVA's "The Big Energy Gamble": The Challenge of Climate Narratives

Imagine, if you will, a story. In this story most of the characters are mute. The threats are abstract, the timeline long, the stakes high and the consequences still uncertain. Politics are present, and so, too, are heaps of money. There are enemies, but no battlefield. There is no climax. And there certainly is no discernable denouement.

A sleeper, right? You'd receive no objections here. But this is the problem of narrating climate change: it lacks the natural elements that make for a gripping story. Our earth's climate is a reality unfit for reality TV. Think about it: if a narrative of climate were to be scientifically accurate, it would be an uncertain drama spanning thousands of years. And that's only one episode.

You may think I'm joking, ...read full post

Comments (0) | January 23, 2009

Can Google Help Solve Climate Change? (Part 1)

Can Google help solve climate change?
It's a question that has been bugging me since I attended a workshop at Google's London offices. Here's why.

One of the main barriers to progress on environment and energy is information. It's not that we don't have the fundamental science -- it's that we don't always understand it and, when we do, we don't always trust it.

If we accept climate change as the common term for many complex environmental issues, then public opinion polls are revealing. Back in July, I wrote in a post that:
"According to a ...read full post

Comments (0) | January 15, 2009

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