Climate blogger Joe Romm has published one of his worst misleading opening sentences: The New York Times has published one of its worst climate science pieces. Yes, I’m being playful, but also dead serious. Romm’s latest post knocking The New York Times coverage of global warming is about this John Broder article–which itself was about a…Continue Reading…
A plea: If those who worry about what would happen if we burned all the fossil fuels and those who worry that we will blow ourselves up deciding a “˜fair and equitable’ distribution of those resources could just sit down and agree that burning fossil fuels is a problem, then maybe, just maybe a solution…Continue Reading…
Over at Ecological Sociology, a supposition is put forth that the politicization of environmental matters has taken a new twist. Call it “everything good is bad for you reporting.” This is reporting that takes conventional wisdom about environmental matters — energy efficiency is good, recycling is good — and turns it on its head by…Continue Reading…
If David Mamet were to pay attention to the climate blogosphere, he might conclude that certain parts of it were stagecraft. And he might write a devilish story along the lines of this masterpiece. Just to be clear: I’m referring not to climate science, but the machinations of assorted players (major and minor) across the spectrum.
So, let’s take a short stroll down memory lane, when we saw headlines like this last summer: Climate Experts Agree: Global Warming Caused Russian Heat Wave Now, let’s hop over (it’s not far, either) to this place, where the owner was upset that the NYT wasn’t connecting the Hell and High Water dots to the…Continue Reading…
A couple of months ago, I started thinking about a way to deal with anonymous commenters who are regulars at this site. This is mainly because I like to engage in comment threads but I’ve also become annoyed that many of the people I interact with are unknown to me. It’s made me feel increasingly…Continue Reading…
Grist’s ace climate writer does some reporting in New York City…well, actually, he pulls a Thomas Friedman and talks to a taxi driver, who then becomes the symbolic Everyman in ace climate writer’s post. (For those not familiar with this device, Thomas Friedman, when parachuting into European capitals or Middle Eastern cities, is fond of…Continue Reading…
Climate blogger Eli Rabett, presumably in response to this recent post of mine, let off some steam at his site. He begins: Kloor, Randy Olson and to an extent Andy Revkin, but a whole lot of other people appear to think that scientists are lousy communicators, and indeed, a whole lot of scientists agree and…Continue Reading…
Those who pine for an idealized form (and era) of journalism that never existed (and never will), which would transform a nation of Snooki fans into a rationalist, scientifically literate citizenry, are going to looove this new article by James Fallows in the April issue of the Atlantic. At his media blog, Romenesko captures one…Continue Reading…
In a reality-based world, stories like this (and it seems there are a few each week) should act like smelling salts to those who blame climate “deniers” and the media for lack of action on global warming. Here’s The Guardian’s lede: Vast reserves of coal in the far west of China mean it is set to become…Continue Reading…