Via social media, I’ve just come across this 2007 cartoon by Clay Bennett. As a commentary on the human tendency to avoid unpleasant realities, it works. But the cartoon also seems to misunderstand why we go to the movies. For that, let’s go to the legendary Pauline Kael: Movie audiences will take a lot of…Continue Reading…
When Al Gore said last week that scientists now have “clear proof that climate change is directly responsible for the extreme and devastating floods, storms and droughts that displaced millions of people this year,” my heart sank. That would be the heart of Myles Allen, an author of this recent paper. His sentiment is candidly expressed in this Guardian piece published…Continue Reading…
There’s an intriguing new website/blog devoted to sustainability issues, which one admirer describes as thus: Planet 3.0 is attempt to do something genuinely useful and different in facilitating discussions about sustainability, and I am greatly encouraged to see it launched. Me too! Eager to learn more about this fledgling endeavor, I clicked on the “About”…Continue Reading…
In a column published today, a scholar challenges the legitimacy of the climate security frame and suggests it is distracting from the real climate concerns that need to be addressed. But before I get to that, some quick background. In recent months, a flurry of highly publicized papers have explicitly linked climate change to war…Continue Reading…
The headline of this long feature in Rolling Stone suggests an epitaph: Climate Change and the End of Australia I’m generally a fan of Jeff Goodell’s work, but everything I find frustrating about the climate debate is on display in this paragraph: In the past year ““ one of the hottest on record ““ extreme…Continue Reading…
According to the Guardian, a UK report finds that despite householders’ efforts to switch to energy-efficient products, we are actually consuming more energy than five years ago, with almost a third of all the UK’s carbon emissions coming from the home. Hmm, where have I heard about this phenomena before? As highlighted in the Guardian’s subhead,…Continue Reading…
I’m not sure what to make of this story in Foreign Policy. It seems like a textbook case of China’s nationalist capitalism trumping U.S. security interests. On the other hand, the writers of the piece might have a bad case of sour grapes (but they are upfront about their advisory role to a Western oil &…Continue Reading…
This is rich: So after being bombarded with all the news stories about how offensive this term is, and noting that some of the same people doing reporting lambasting Perry over the name of a ranch called “niggerhead” have absolutely no trouble at all calling people like me and the readers of WUWT “deniers” (Think…Continue Reading…
In recent years, some influential writers have been making noises about the staleness of the green movement. At the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, I take stock of an emergent narrative that challenges foundational environmentalist precepts. Will it take hold? Let me know what you think over there.
If Ken Burns lives long enough, he should be able to do a documentary on what life was like before cable TV and the Internet. Meanwhile, here’s what he thinks: Burns says the proliferation of cheap production and distribution technologies for creative expression is a cause for optimisim but worries about audience fragmentation. “When I…Continue Reading…