To frack or not to frack seems like a good question to ask in the context of the climate debate. To ignore it or dismiss it out of hand won’t make it go away. And now that Michael Bloomberg and a leading environmental organization are teaming up to make fracking environmentally friendly, you can bet…Continue Reading…
If you follow climate-concerned bloggers and tweeters, as I do, you probably have noticed there is frequent mention of weather that implies a connection to climate change. Otherwise, what’s the point, right? By way of example, browse Bill McKibben’s tweets. He’s become a dutiful chronicler of weather-related bad news. If you want to know that…Continue Reading…
The contradictions in the climate debate make my head hurt. For years, we’ve been hearing that one of the biggest impediments to action is that people aren’t sufficiently alarmed and informed about global warming. And that this owes, in large part, to a collective media failing. Here’s Joe Romm in 2010: The dreadful media coverage simply…Continue Reading…
How inconvenient. I go away on vacation for a few weeks and during that time everybody, it seems, becomes convinced that global warming has struck the earth like the Ten Plagues of Egypt. So does this mean the message (unabated carbon emissions = climate damnation) finally–finally!–has been received by 1) the media, 2) all earthlings…Continue Reading…
Is there an example from human history of a culture taking action with the intended beneficiaries being two or more generations downstream, when there’s no benefit or maybe even sacrifice to the current generation? I haven’t been able to come up with one, and I suspect we’re just not genetically programmed to worry about two…Continue Reading…
As some might recall, the climate science community split into several camps in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I think similar fault lines are emerging in the global warming/severe weather debate. In my latest post at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media, I discuss this in the context of a popular new frame,…Continue Reading…
That’s the title of my latest post at the Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media. It’s about the pendulum swings of public opinion (in recent years), their connection to weather, and why this is problematic for journalists and climate communicators.
Before I get to that question, ask yourself this: What does the climate debate have to do with WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction) and the Iraq war? Tom Fuller offers an answer on this recent thread: One of the saddest consequences of 9/11 was the wholesale manipulation of both the media and public opinion to generate…Continue Reading…
Several weeks ago, global warming was debated on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher show. Now let’s first be clear on something: When it comes to science, Maher is a riddle of contradictions. He’s a fierce proponent of evolution (he’s been given an award named after Richard Dawkins) but he’s also a serial spouter of…Continue Reading…
A couple of weeks ago, Megan McArdle managed to hit the climate blogogphere jackpot with a post entitled, “Why We Should Act to Stop Global Warming–and Why We Won’t.” Her post triggered simultaneous eruptions at the polar ends of the climate landscape. I was rather jealous. It’s quite a feat when you get the Morano/Romm…Continue Reading…