I don’t think anyone can top this: Lots of snow falling outside. This proves whatever I believe. — Dan Gardner (@dgardner) February 9, 2013 Now I read that as a clever rejoinder to all sides in the climate debate. But since we’re already seeing stories that link global warming to the blizzard that has just…Continue Reading…
If you google Wind Turbine Syndrome, the first link will take you to a book by Nina Pierpont, an author with all sorts of impressive-looking medical credentials, who wastes no time in revealing “wind energy’s dirty little secret”: Many people living within 2 km (1.25 miles) of these spinning giants get sick. So sick that…Continue Reading…
On Twitter, people tend to mention and link to things that correspond to their own pet issues. So Bill McKibben tweets a lot about the weather and news of droughts, wildfires, and other natural disasters. Since these tweets are coming from a leading climate change activist, the inference is clear. Similarly, Robert Bryce, an energy…Continue Reading…
E. O. Wilson and Jared Diamond have a few things in common. Both are ecologists, popularizers of science, famous best-selling authors, meme creators, and lately, objects of ridicule and academic rage. Let’s recall that Wilson, before he became the bard of biodiversity, had withstood a furious assault on his reputation after the publication in 1975 of…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…
That is the wickedly clever title of a post by Kevin Folta, a plant geneticist at the University of Florida, in Gainsville. To make his point, Folta, as he says on twitter, uses logic “borrowed from the anti-GMO crowd.” That would be logic like this: Is it a coincidence that autism has risen since GMOs have…Continue Reading…
Do you remember the famous “just say no” public service ads from the 1980s–the commercials that urged kids to say no to drugs? (There was also a spin-off “just say no” to premarital sex.) I think many of us can agree that the basic idea was well meaning. And naive and simplistic. The just say…Continue Reading…
That’s not really a fair question, because they’re both vital. But if I was the administrator at a university and a foundation offered me funding to establish a program curriculum for one or the other–which would result in a mandatory class for all in-coming freshmen–I would choose news literacy. I’ll explain why in a minute….Continue Reading…
Let's Get It On
Okay, don’t get any wrong ideas here. I am just trying to set the mood for the new commenting system that I know will make our conversations flow much better. On the subject of comment threads, I suggest folks take a few minutes to read this excellent post by Bora Zivkovic, the blog maestro at…Continue Reading…