That’s the theme of this bizarre confab soon to roll into Los Angeles. Featured speakers include numerous climate skeptics, such as Lord Monckton, Benny Peiser, and Richard Lindzen. The organization sponsoring the conference, the American Freedom Alliance, has a few other other notable obsessions. Leo Hickman at the Guardian reports that the group has promoted…Continue Reading…
Is Thomas Friedman, the influential, globe-trotting NYT columnist, undergoing a metamorphosis? Because I think the guy who was a champion of economic globalization a decade ago is not the same guy who wrote this column earlier in the week, which is mostly a platform for Paul Gilding, author of a new book called, “The Great…Continue Reading…
In recent weeks, disaster porn has mutated with concerns about climate change to produce an orgy of writhing, conflated arguments. People, I know you have a lot of pent-up frustration. It’s been a rough couple of years: a global recession, climategate, the failed promise of Copenhagen and Obama. I know how you’ve been yearning for years…Continue Reading…
Can people who doubt the phenomena of biological evolution be persuaded by a better demonstration of the evidence? Alan Rogers, an anthropologist at the University of Utah, thinks so. He has authored a newly published book called, “The Evidence for Evolution.” Rogers discusses what motivated him to write the book in this release by Lee…Continue Reading…
Over the weekend, NASA climate scientist James Hansen wrote on his website (my emphasis): The U.S. Department of State seems likely to approve a huge pipeline to carry tar sands oil (about 830,000 barrels per day) to Texas refineries unless sufficient objections are raised. The scientific community needs to get involved in this fray now. If this…Continue Reading…
The climate debate is so politicized that rational dialogue is virtually impossible between warring sides. A complicating factor is that there are also hostile camps within the same factions. The climate blogosphere, in particular, is like the island in Lost, where the plane-wrecked survivors had to constantly determine who was on which side. (I loved…Continue Reading…
It drives my mother crazy that I won’t take a multi-vitamin. The woman raised me on a steady diet of Ring Dings and Yoo-hoos and now she knows what’s best for my health. I get the mantra every time she visits: “You’re run-down, you don’t get enough sleep, you need to take a multi-vitamin.” “Yeah,…Continue Reading…
Bill Keller, the top NYT editor, goes exploring: Humans live along a continuum from doubt to faith. Wander far enough in the direction of faith and you reach the land of Nostradamus and of the Rapture (recently postponed). Wander too far in the other direction, past cynicism, through misanthropy, and you get to more or…Continue Reading…
As some of you may have noticed, the site was down for a few hours. I apologize for the inconvenience. There were some server problems. This blog is due for a makeover and that includes finding a more reliable web host service.
So Mitt Romney is the latest high profile Republican to believe that global warming is real. With apologies to Buffalo Springfield, There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. Indeed. As New York Magazine notes: Denying that human activity is making the Earth warmer, despite the opinion of people who spend their lives studying these…Continue Reading…