In 2009, a study led by NOAA and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) carried a sobering title: Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions The media pounced with equally sobering headlines, like this one from NPR: Global Warming is Irreversible, Study Says Since then, there have been similar (sometimes…Continue Reading…
There is much to recommend this article in the New Republic by Nate Cohn, starting with the sub-headline: Grappling with climate change nuance in a toxic political environment It is an ungrateful task to interrogate the complexities of climate change (which extend to the policy side of the equation) so props to Cohn for taking…Continue Reading…
Sometimes I think the climate debate remains stalled because those who are most concerned refuse to ask the pertinent questions. Instead, they keep refighting old battles that are no longer relevant to a constructive discourse. The latest example is this survey by John Cook et al that is getting a lot of undeserved attention in…Continue Reading…
The Guardian reports that Prince Charles is standing up for climate science and criticizing the forces of climate change denial. If you know about the Prince’s GMO fear-mongering and falsehoods about GM crops and his dangerous promotion of alternative medicine (such as homeopathy), then you know he is not the best emissary for science. Indeed, one well-respected scientist…Continue Reading…
Here’s a trick question: Is climate journalism slanted? Before you answer, let’s look at a series of tweets by atmospheric science researcher Ryan Maue, who clearly has an opinion on this. We’ll start with this one from today: Every AP story on weather starts fine then at end includes climate change advocacy … it’s “left…Continue Reading…
Does it matter if a social movement hitches its wagon to the wrong horse? For the food movement and its embrace of the GMO labeling cause, I argued yes in Slate, because it is predicated on junk science and blind, simplistic mistrust of multinational corporations…The pro-labeling camp wants people to believe that eating “frankenfood” is dangerous…Continue Reading…
A panel at this year’s American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting was summarized afterwards in a AAAS press release: Cable news junkies, take heart: if you love wall-to-wall coverage of hurricanes, wildfires and superstorms, your future viewing schedules will be jam-packed. Researchers at the AAAS Annual Meeting said that wild weather events…Continue Reading…
In his State of the Union Address last night, President Obama spoke forcefully about global warming. He said that, “for the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change.” Notably, the President framed his case this way: Now, it’s true that no single event makes a trend. But…Continue Reading…
It appears that certain media moguls and self-important, publicity-addicted narcissists are in good company when it comes to confusing climate and weather. Yesterday, I was alerted to this press release, which starts off: A University of British Columbia study of American attitudes toward climate change finds that local weather – temperature, in particular – is…Continue Reading…
I’m such a piker that I always think it’s neat when 10 or 20 people retweet me. Occasionally, when the planets are aligned, several dozen will retweet a piece of mine or something interesting I may have said in 160 characters. I mean, it’s not like I’m Donald Trump, who has over 2 million followers….Continue Reading…