Monday Links: The Health Industry's Big Lie, Atmospheric CO2 Thickens, and the DSM's Dangers

I recently discovered Patrick Mustain through a guest piece on Scientific American. He’s also written a more in-depth piece on how the consumer fitness industry disguises the actual causes of America’s problems with obesity. I recommend giving it a read.

On Scienceblogs, alarm over our contribution to global warming increases. Earlier this month, the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere passed 400 parts per million. This is nearly one and a half times the CO₂ density of the atmosphere in pre-industrial times, just over 200 years ago. And according to Peter Gleick at Significant Figures, CO₂ levels haven’t been this high since three to five million years ago—before humans even evolved. For those of you inspired to political action, Greg Laden has a letter template you can modify and send to your congressman, senator, or other state or federal representative.

Finally, the Economist runs an article with a brief critiqueof the psychiatric profession, arguing that reliance on only one book (the DSM-V) to diagnose mental illness is a dangerous game.

Runicfire Recap: April 25 – May 6

I've been crunching for finals the past few weeks, and have slipped on my Google+ and Facebook announcements. My apologies. I have, however, been continuing to pump out content here on Runicfire, and I'd like to catch up any readers who follow me on Facebook or Google+ on what they might have missed. Recap begins beneath the jump:

The Case for Global Warming, Part 3: How Bad Can it Get?

In my previous posts, I established, as is accepted in the scientific community, that global warming is a real phenomenon, and that human activity is what drives this warming trend. However, as alarming as the data appears, it makes sense to question what this actually means. What does a warming world look like? Would it truly have a negative effect, and if so, how severe would it be?

Monday Links: WiFi to Replace Cables, Global Warming Denialism, and the Longest Sunset

The Economist predicts that 60-GHz range WiFi will quickly replace cables for transferring large amounts of data between home electronics. The obvious objection to using WiFi to connect your computer to monitors, keyboards, phones and printers is that others can eavesdrop on those signals and hack into them. Oddly enough, engineers have a solution for that. While the article in The Economist lacks specifics, I’m curious to see if its predictions pan out.

On Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait discusses global warming denialism and disinformation in politics and the media. His recent post delves into the origins of the term “climate change” as a politically correct euphemism, which ironically happens to describe the effects of global warming pretty accurately. Another post from last week highlights a video lambasting Republicans’ refusal to acknowledge the facts of the matter, as well as a link to a study confirming the accuracy of the “hockey-stick” graph.

And on a more serene note, this week’s “What if?” on xkcd tries to figure out how long the longest sunset on Earth can be.

The Case for Global Warming, Part 2: How We Know It's Us

In Part 1 of “The Case for Global Warming,” I presented an overview of the evidence that the Earth is indeed warming, and at a rate unprecedented in over 10,000 years. Today, I cover the evidence that we are its primary cause, and how, as a species, we manage to accomplish such a task.

There is no doubt that the globe is getting hotter, and at a brisk pace. But what is the underlying cause? The evidence points unambiguously towards human interference. Nonetheless, how are we, weak, half-naked apes that we are, able to affect climate on a global scale? Isn’t it a little arrogant to think we have so much power?

Biodiesel:An Alternative Fuel With a Foothold

Seeing the effect we’ve had on the world through industry—in particular, the burning of fossil fuels—can be depressing. With the world’s temperature increasing faster than it has in millennia, and our continued, voracious consumption of our rapidly depleting fossil fuels aiding that rise, despair seems the natural recourse. Nonetheless, countermeasures exist, and to my surprise one of them—the use of biodiesels as a fuel source—is gaining traction.

The Case for Global Warming, Part 1

This is the first in a series of blog posts on anthropogenic global warming, or global warming caused by humans. Today, I introduce the subject and establish the existence of a sudden, unprecedented warming trend. I will discuss the subject in more detail in future installments.

I have not always believed that global warming was real, or of concern. For a period spanning my late elementary school days to the freshman year of college, I regarded the idea with a heavy dose of skepticism. In fact, I suspected it was false, and either a hoax or, more likely, an overreaction.