While I personally don’t use the term “denier” in my writing on climate issues, I’m not moved by the crocodile tears of many who claim to be offended by it. Why? Well, I could point to a few loaded, pejorative terms commonly used at popular climate skeptic websites. But to understand the hypocrisy I’m getting…Continue Reading…
Of all the rhetorical excesses associated with the climate debate, I find the overt Nazi/fascist/Holocaust allusions the most offensive. Both sides are guilty. Christopher Monckton, the darling of climate skeptics, has become notorious for his Hitler references and use of swastika imagery. It almost seems like a tic he can’t shake. In a similar vein,…Continue Reading…
I’m not sure whether Naomi Klein’s big cover story in The Nation qualifies as a stink bomb or as the kind of straight talk that will help cut through all the posturing and subtext in the climate debate. But I do know that its thesis will be devilishly seized on by one of the camps….Continue Reading…
Ben Smith at Politico has picked up on something that speaks to why the (temporarily) successful anti-Keystone pipeline protest is meaningful to the climate debate. Smith noticed this: Whatever the objectives of protesters involved in Occupy Wall Street, they have succeeded in engaging the country in a conversation about income inequality. A quick search of…Continue Reading…
Yesterday’s announcement by the Obama Administration to postpone a final decision on the Keystone pipeline until after the 20012 Presidential has triggered much chatter and insta-analysis. There are two smart takes worth pointing out. The first is this NYT op-ed by Michael Levi, a climate and energy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, which…Continue Reading…
Six months ago, I would have said no. Now, I’m thinking there’s a good chance it may. I lay out the rationale over at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media. Also appearing today at the Yale Forum is Sara Peach’s meaty piece on the GOP’s dramatically changed stance on global warming. A…Continue Reading…
Michael Levi, a climate and energy analyst with the Council on Foreign Relations, shoots down Joe Romm and Real Climate in one post. I sense that it pains him to do this, especially with regard to the latter. More on that in a minute. First, I want to point out that Levi’s argument about the…Continue Reading…
That is the title of this trenchant Kevin Drum post, which nails an unfortunate dynamic that is corroding U.S. politics and public debate. The first important point Drum makes is about the dangers of spending too much time on the web, where the loudest and most extreme voices actually do have a disproportionate influence sometimes….Continue Reading…
Don’t bet on it. Sure, this AP story about the 2010 global emissions spike is quite the shocker. But as I discuss at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, it should not be surprising. And while the news may hang over the upcoming COP talks in South Africa, it won’t change the near…Continue Reading…
So it’s not surprising that lots of people got peeved with the way the BEST story played out in the media. People who feel strongly about climate issues are invariably disappointed with climate media coverage. Hence the perpetual effort to shape the climate narrative. It was perceived by some that Muller overplayed the BEST results…Continue Reading…