NEWS NOTES

7 NEWS
News Shorts * Mining leaves nasty legacy in Zambia * Texas: where the wind comes sweepin' down the waves * Did volcanic eruptions kill the dinosaurs? * Cow manure adds to arsenic epidemic * Good to drink, not good for crops * Toxic gas caused the Great Dying? * Environmental disasters follow oil spills * Major oilfield found off Brazil * Teen pregnancy in dinosaurs a good thing * Putting time constraints on the Triassic * Oil exploration waning? * Pyrite carves Arctic landscape * Bacterial fuel: it’s a gas * Mineral resource of the month: arsenic

VIEWS

58 A POLITICAL COMMENT ON...
The New Upside-Down Politics of Climate Protection
Politicians are all talking about climate change and trying to enact their own bills, but the politics of energy and climate, like politics in general, tend to be local. Will 2008 mark the “tipping point” in climate policy?
Bryan K. Mignone

59 A COMMENT ON...
Climate Change: Teaching a Moving Target
Consider the changes that have taken place in the climate debate over the last 10 to 20 years — in the 1980s, “global warming” had hardly been heard of and today, there are mainstream movies about it. How can a textbook writer or a teacher keep up?
William Ruddiman

60 GEOLOGIC COLUMN
Nuclear Power Is No Michael Jordan
Can nuclear power make a Michael Jordan-caliber comeback in the United States? Only time will tell.
Fred Schwab

DEPARTMENTS

4 FROM THE PUBLISHER
5 LETTERS: Perspectives from readers
6 WHERE ON EARTH?

40 TRENDS & INNOVATIONS
Nuclear in a Carbon-Based World
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received the first in an expected flood of permit requests to build new nuclear reactors in the United States — something that hasn’t been done since the 1970s. The nuclear energy industry hopes it marks the turning tides from a carbon-based to a nuclear-based country.
Nicole Branan

42 EDUCATION & OUTREACH
Trying a Toxic Case in a Classroom
The 1982 Woburn toxic water case became a best-selling book and blockbuster movie, and is now used in a mock trial format in a classroom at Ohio State University, much to the benefit of the students who participate.
Nicole Branan

44 GEOMEDIA
Museums: A Fresh Look at Dinosaurs in Their Time
On the Web: Chef Mario Batali Goes Green
Books: Soil Can Bring Down Society: A Review of Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

48 GEOMARKETPLACE
50 CLASSIFIEDS: Career opportunities

56 BENCHMARKS
January 2, 1960: The solar system gets a date

57 DOWN TO EARTH WITH...
Meteorologist and Scrabble-Player Marshall Shepherd

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