Freeman Dyson Interview on Environment 360

I just read an interview with Freeman Dyson on Environment 360. You can check it out here:

http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2151

I became interested in Mr. Dyson after reading the article about him in the New York Times here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html

The first thing that comes out in E360 that Mr. Dyson was a little too modest about his environmental credentials. It turns out he was working on these problems back in the seventies.
Russell Seitz has posted a copy of a paper Dyson wrote about controlling carbon dioxide back in 1976.

http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/files/Dyson_Energy_1977.pdf

The interesting point of the article is where he talks about working with climate modelers in Oak Ridge in the seventies. Back then it was actually both biologists and physicists trying to understand how the world works. At some point the physicists took over and the biologists went away.

It is important to keep in mind that when you look at climate models today, that you looking at models of a dead planet and not a living one. Maybe that explains why the Waxman climate bill I mentioned below is cutting down trees and burning them for fuel instead of planting more trees to sequester CO2.

http://joelupchurch.blogspot.com/2009/06/waxman-climate-bill-and-war-on-trees.html