As climate-concerned folks know, global warming hasn’t resonated with the average person in the U.S. because its impacts can’t be felt. That’s a big reason why there is no serious, sustained public debate about the issue. Most people just don’t care enough about it. A similar disconnect explains why there is no real public conversation…Continue Reading…
The role of narrative in politics is so well known that I wonder why it’s not discussed more in the context of climate and energy policy. So this interview with Michael Jones, a political scientist who is studying how stories shape public policy is interesting. He reminds us of an obvious human trait: I think…Continue Reading…
UPDATE: In the comment thread, a science journalist living in Pakistan weighs in with additional perspective. In an essential post examining some of the underlying causes of the recent horrendous floods in Pakistan, Judith Curry and Peter Webster note: Most of the response of the climate research community to this catastrophe has focused on the…Continue Reading…
There’s just something weird about this China envy that I keep hearing from liberal pundits and intellectuals. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around yesterday’s op-ed by Thomas Friedman, so I’m going to attempt to unpack it. Bear with me. Let’s start with Friedman’s opener: To visit China today as an American is to…Continue Reading…
Politics is the gruel that feeds The Daily Show and The Colbert Report with endless material. But science often finds its way onto both shows as well. In an interesting post, Matthew Nisbet wonders, to what effect? He asks what evidence is there for the potential of these programs””rich with satire and built on comedy””to…Continue Reading…
Or rather it’s the U.S. political system that worries Foreign Policy’s Steve Walt in this post about America’s rocky future. This is a theme that keeps coming up with pundits, especially those (such as Thomas Friedman and Mathew Yglesias) who are frustrated by the lack of policy action on climate change and other big ticket…Continue Reading…
The movie El Norte has stayed with me a long time. Anyone who has seen it will likely remember one horrifying scene when the two Mayan peasants from Guatemala–a brother and sister–cross the U.S.-Mexico border through a sewer pipe. It’s 1984. California is the border battlefront. And Guatemala, torn asunder by a long civil war…Continue Reading…
I continue to marvel at the parallels between WUWT and Climate Progress. Let’s examine recent comment threads from both blogs, in which the majority of commenters impugned the motives and character of their respective targets. Exhibit A is the festival of insults and accusations that Anthony Watts allows in this thread about Bill McKibben. But…Continue Reading…
There are two stories in the current issue of New York Magazine that are of great interest to me, particularly this one by Robert Sullivan, titled, “The Concrete Jungle.” I’m teaching an Advanced Reporting course this Fall at New York University, called Hidden New York: Where the Wild Things Are, and incredibly, Sullivan’s wide-ranging survey…Continue Reading…
If only the Sopranos stuck around long enough to cash in on this scheme with their Sicilian confederates. There’s even a character in the real story that is known as Lord of the Wind. Paulie Walnuts and the rest of Tony’s gang would be feasting on that nickname.