In 2009, a study led by NOAA and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) carried a sobering title: Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions The media pounced with equally sobering headlines, like this one from NPR: Global Warming is Irreversible, Study Says Since then, there have been similar (sometimes…Continue Reading…
Earlier this year, I wrote a piece for Slate that probed the argument for nuclear power, which, in a nutshell, is based on the climate change imperative. I didn’t sugarcoat the serious obstacles to a nuclear build-out. I also said that solar and wind should be ramped up. At the same time, I sided with…Continue Reading…
If I were a coal executive I wouldn’t worry about a solar and wind revolution (see Germany’s Energiewende) or President Obama putting me out of business. I’d be worried about the shale gas revolution (and I’d hope environmentalists were successful in stopping it). If I were a coal executive, I’d want fear to continue dominating public discussion of nuclear…Continue Reading…
Depending on whom you ask, Fiona Fox is either saving science journalism or destroying it. That’s the lead in a Nature story on the person who heads up Britain’s Science Media center, which believes that scientists can have a huge impact on the way the media cover scientific issues, by engaging more quickly and more effectively with…Continue Reading…
Several years ago, well before Mark Lynas made his famous public apology for being an anti-GMO activist, I asked him in an interview to explain his change of mind. What prompted it, I wondered. His response: There was no “Road to Damascus” conversion, where there’s a sudden blinding flash and you go, “Oh, my God,…Continue Reading…
No doubt you saw the big, history-making news out of England yesterday. No, not this: I’m talking about the pro-GMO piece in the Daily UK’s Mail, (by David Rose, of all people) titled: The great GM food hysteria: Do you believe eating genetically modified crops is like dining with the devil? No wonder- that’s exactly what apocalyptic eco-zealots…Continue Reading…
When protests against the Keystone XL pipeline were heating up several years ago, some highly respected environmentally-friendly commentators scoffed (ever so politely). Opposition to the pipeline was “shortsighted” and counterproductive, Michael Levi wrote in a 2011 New York Times op-ed. The singular focus on Keystone was misplaced, Jon Foley has argued. Climate change-concerned greens disagree. “Keystone…Continue Reading…