If climate projections prove even partly correct in the coming decades, many areas of the planet will experience longer and nastier drought conditions. Let’s be clear: that won’t be anybody’s idea of fun in the sun. But as SciAm’s David Biello reports, for the last several years agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Pioneer and Syngenta have…Continue Reading…
Some regular readers might be surprised to learn that I think this latest National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report, called “America’s Climate Choices,” should inspire more than a collective yawn from the media. But as Charlie Petit explains, there are institutional reasons for this: The news business is about what’s new. If a prestigious body…Continue Reading…
If you’re Newt Gingrich, and you’re worried about your right flank, you’re thinking there’s an upside to all the grief Marc Morano is causing you: at least no family values conservatives are loudly pestering you to apologize for being a hypocrite of Olympian proportions.
This Washington Post op-ed by Senator John McCain, rebutting his fellow Republicans on the use of torture, is notable. Might it herald the return of the old McCain from the early 2000s? If so, he might also find his voice on the climate issue.
It’s coming. As Peter Whoriskey writes in the Washington Post: Over the next few months, regulators are scheduled to set the next round of U.S. fuel economy standards for [automotive] manufacturers. Among the proposals under consideration is one that would lift average fuel economy under the law to as much as 62 mpg by 2025. He…Continue Reading…
The curmudgeons and scolds are braying at WUWT over this Australian rap video. How crude! How offensive! How naughty! How…unsurprising. Once upon a time, lots of people got all riled up over this guy and his swiveling hips. Imagine. These were bad boys, too (and one of my favorite all time bands). Anyway, for Anthony or…Continue Reading…
Steve LeVine at Foreign Policy has a real interesting analysis (that doubles as a spanking of Michael Lewis, author of The Big Short,) on why the shale gas industry, in the face of increasing political pressure, is taking a don’t worry, be happy posture.
Nothing spreads awareness of an issue more than when it breaks through into Pop Culture. Here’s a new one from Australia’s New Zealand’s Hungry Beast. And in a similar musical vein (H/T: Bryan Walsh), here’s another, a neat collaboration between an NYU journalism class and an investigative journalism site.
UPDATE: Whoops! No sooner did I hit the publish button did I discover that the Coal Cares campaign is an elaborate parody. But it seems real if you know the history of various industry campaigns, which is what the rest of my post is about. Lots of people are shaking their heads over this Coal Cares…Continue Reading…
There is this assumption in environmental and climate circles that the Republican party represents (in the United States) the biggest obstacle to political progress on climate change. Recent developments certainly support this view. Since 2009, the GOP has become increasingly hostile to climate science. Republican presidential hopefuls are marching to this same Tea Party beat (even those…Continue Reading…