Monthly Archives : March 2011

About That Russian Heat Wave

So, let’s take a short stroll down memory lane, when we saw headlines like this last summer: Climate Experts Agree: Global Warming Caused Russian Heat Wave Now, let’s hop over (it’s not far, either) to this place, where the owner was upset that the NYT wasn’t connecting the Hell and High Water dots to the…Continue Reading…

Who Are You?

A couple of months ago, I started thinking about a way to deal with anonymous commenters who are regulars at this site. This is mainly because I like to engage in comment threads but I’ve also become annoyed that many of the people I interact with are unknown to me. It’s made me feel increasingly…Continue Reading…

The Cabbie & Climate Change

Grist’s ace climate writer does some reporting in New York City…well, actually, he pulls a Thomas Friedman and talks to a taxi driver, who then becomes the symbolic Everyman in ace climate writer’s post. (For those not familiar with this device, Thomas Friedman, when parachuting into European capitals or Middle Eastern cities, is fond of…Continue Reading…

Climate Follies

Climate blogger Eli Rabett, presumably in response to this recent post of mine, let off some steam at his site. He begins: Kloor, Randy Olson and to an extent Andy Revkin, but a whole lot of other people appear to think that scientists are lousy communicators, and indeed, a whole lot of scientists agree and…Continue Reading…

Time to Embrace Shallow Journalism?

Those who pine for an idealized form (and era) of journalism that never existed (and never will), which would transform a nation of Snooki fans into a rationalist, scientifically literate citizenry, are going to looove this new article by James Fallows in the April issue of the Atlantic. At his media blog, Romenesko captures one…Continue Reading…

Coal: The Reigning and Future King

In a reality-based world, stories like this (and it seems there are a few each week) should act like smelling salts to those who blame climate “deniers” and the media for lack of action on global warming. Here’s The Guardian’s lede: Vast reserves of coal in the far west of China mean it is set to become…Continue Reading…

The Pale Blue Dot

H/T: Andrew Exum

Climate Hand Jive

The latest Congressional climate science hearing should be fun. Well, not as much fun as this. Tom Yulsman has a perspective well worth reading. In keeping with the spirit of my own superficial gloss (Have you noticed yet that I’m a Dennis Potter fan?), I’ll just add this.

Why It's Called News

Bud Ward has a nice dispatch on the AAAS session I wrote about last month, including this revealing back-and-forth I had wanted to follow up on: Another exchange involving an audience member “” in this case Peter Gleick, the head of the Pacific Institute “” also helped illustrate fundamentally different approaches distinguishing the media and…Continue Reading…

The Daily Climate Bummer

Has Glenn Beck peaked? In his NYT column today, David Carr thinks so and here’s why: The problem with “Glenn Beck” is that it has turned into a serial doomsday machine that’s a bummer to watch. There’s a lesson there for some climate bloggers.