Author Archive

The KrugRomm Hybrid

Did Joe Romm ghostwrite Paul Krugman’s column in today’s NYT? Let’s look at the uncanny similarities between Krugman’s op-ed and an argument advanced by Romm in several of his recent posts. For example, Krugman writes today (my emphasis): After all, the big question about uprisings against corrupt and oppressive regimes in the Middle East isn’t…Continue Reading…

Birding and Counterinsurgency

Thomas Ricks at Foreign Policy finds some striking similarities between a bird-watching manual and a primer on how to spot bad guys. My old colleagues at Audubon magazine should go to town on this one.

The Other Climate Heretic

MIT Climate scientist Kerry Emanuel is becoming increasingly outspoken about his alienation from the Republican party. Yesterday, he was interviewed on NPR and he spoke candidly on many of the current hot button topics. Here he is, angst-ridden over the direction of the GOP: I’m very distressed that Republicans, and I have always been a…Continue Reading…

The Braying Wolves

In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately dept, I see that Fred Pearce is getting worked over by hysterics in the climate sphere. For the record, I’ve already stated several times (at my site) and over at Judith Curry’s blog that Pearce committed a boo-boo no-no in a recent blog post. Deltoid blows this up into “Pearcegate.” Stoat sinks…Continue Reading…

About That Trigger

As the saying goes, third time is the charm: Expert consensus grows on contribution of record high food prices to Middle East unrest I have to say, the “status quo” media does come in handy some times. For example, one day “Scientific American jumps the shark,” and another day they are cited prominently in a…Continue Reading…

The Collapse Meme

The paranoid flip side to Glen Beck is Civilizational Collapse hawker Michael Ruppert, the subject of this creepy 2009 movie. Like Beck, Ruppert has a loyal fanbase who share his dark worldview, which he now propagates on the web through…get ready for it: Collapse Network. Ruppert periodically posts videos on Collapse Network, such as this…Continue Reading…

Never a Miscommunication

Even atheists thank god for Stephen Colbert. The hilarious O’Reilly spoof starts at about the 3 minute mark. Colbert can barely keep himself from cracking up. The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Crisis in Egypt – Anderson Cooper & Bill O’Reilly www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video…Continue Reading…

Climate Whine Fest?

Fred Pearce’s verdict on the Lisbon climate reconciliation: Much time at the meeting was taken up bitching rather than conciliating. Gee, what a surprise. Doesn’t Pearce read climate blog threads? To be fair, this confab seems to have become Roshomon-like, according to Werner Krauss. UPDATE: There’s a dust-up related to Pearce’s New Scientist dispatch that…Continue Reading…

Why Do We Love the Suburbs?

That’s another way of framing this question from Kevin Drum: Why Do We Hate our Cities? But I’ll play along and just say there’s plenty of anti-urban bias to go around, including among nature-loving greens who have historically loathed cities. So the larger problem, I’d argue, is as much cultural as it is political.

The Egyptian Inkblot

The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt continue to be a fascinating ink blot. Peak oil is now another instigator being thrown into the volatile mix. (It’s not clear to me if declining oil reserves would count as as trigger or underlying cause.) As Andrew Revkin noted earlier this week, “everyone with an agenda seems to…Continue Reading…