Lots of people are amused by this tweet from former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer: Question to @gov: how come @BarackObama ‘s last tweet was more than 140 characters? Does he play by different rules??? — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 24, 2013 Many are chortling that Fleischer has a math deficiency. Actually, I think the recent…Continue Reading…
Too often the ugly, conflict-ridden side of the climate debate is what dominates the blogosphere and news coverage. To a great extent, that’s an expression of human predilection, which the media mirrors. So it’s refreshing when I can hang out with a group of super-smart people who are at the forefront of new approaches to…Continue Reading…
The findings from this new study “reveals the downside of our hyperconnected lives,” writes Jonah Lehrer. Social media, he says, may be facilitating “new forms of collective action,” but it has also enabled new kinds of collective stupidity. Groupthink is now more widespread, as we cope with the excess of available information by outsourcing our beliefs to celebrities,…Continue Reading…
In 2009, a cover story in The New York Times magazine titled, “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?” opened this way: Two days after Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States, the Pew Research Center released a poll ranking the issues that Americans said were the most important priorities for this year. At the…Continue Reading…
At what point will climate change advocates wake up to the fact that they are chasing their tails? At what point will the various camps reassess the dominant assumptions that inform their positions, namely: 1) It’s a communication problem. If only scientists would get some media training, if only journalists didn’t do such a crappy…Continue Reading…
It’s our evolutionary brain. When will climate advocates get this? Bill McKibben, perhaps the most eloquent climate change communicator, is at his wit’s end. Like James Hansen, it’s become obvious to McKibben that, Copenhagen notwithstanding, politicians are treating climate change as “just another political problem.” That’s the real impediment, he insists. Thus, facing down man-made…Continue Reading…
A few weeks back, I bet the Seed magazine editors pounded their desks when they saw this sunday New York Times article on climate change and social scientists. Not to worry guys, your piece in the June issue, while covering much the same ground, examines one important obstacle to climate action the Times ignored: the…Continue Reading…
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