So I’m at the annual AAAS conference and the first session I attended Friday morning was called “Why climate Scientists are from Mars and Science Reporters are from Venus.” I made that up. The thrust of the session mostly focused on the state of science journalism in the rapidly changing digital media landscape. But in…Continue Reading…
The huge annual gaggle of scientists starts gathering today in Washington D.C. There are a bunch of climate change-related sessions, some of which I’ll be attending and writing about at collide-a-scape. I’ll also link to ongoing press coverage of certain events and paper presentations.
Is the stale and stagnant environmental movement on the cusp of being transformed by foodies? That’s what Bryan Walsh chews over in this story for Time magazine: Even as traditional environmentalism struggles, another movement is rising in its place, aligning consumers, producers, the media and even politicians. It’s the food movement, and if it continues…Continue Reading…
As I noted yesterday, the recent fiery debate over the merits of energy efficiency is becoming increasingly acrimonious. The latest public skirmish was triggered earlier this week when Jon Koomey, a consulting professor at Stanford University, wrote on his blog: Over the past few weeks I’ve been engaged in an email conversation with about 30…Continue Reading…
Mark Bittman, the popular NYT food writer, has offered up a column chock full of biotech scare mongering. It’s such a half-baked concoction that I can’t imagine he’d ever serve a meal based on such flimsy ingredients. Let’s inspect just a few of the numerous questionable assertions. He writes (my emphasis): G.E. [genetically engineered] products…Continue Reading…
A fierce debate on the merits of energy efficiency, triggered last month by David Owen’s article in The New Yorker, has perhaps entered an ugly phase today, with this post by Joe Romm. And that’s too bad, because the thorny questions raised in Owen’s piece deserve to be judged on the basis of reasoned argument….Continue Reading…
It’ll be interesting to see if this new solutions-oriented documentary finds an audience. The trailer is definitely pretty cool. (I’ll go see any movie that includes a former CIA director and a one-armed Texas hillbilly.) A guy who looks like Mr. Clean in a business suit utters my favorite soundbite: This is no longer the…Continue Reading…
Anybody who remembers their wise-ass high school days will recall playing the dozens–a verbal contest of put-downs between two people (usually guys) that degenerates into an x-rated volley of insults about family members. It’s not for the meek. I’ve noticed that the raunchy tradition is alive and well on some climate blogs and presumably carried…Continue Reading…
This story in the Guardian, which reports that UK energy companies have been carrying out covert intelligence-gathering operations on environmental activists is sure to make U.S. climate activists paranoid. Of course, corporate espionage, be it employed against competitors or perceived opponents, is nothing new. If I was the head of a major climate advocacy group,…Continue Reading…
Steve LeVine at Foreign Policy discusses a near-term scenario that Big Oil deems all too plausible: Royal Dutch/Shell says that in 2020, energy supplies will be so tight that they will tip the world into a full-blown crisis in which governments will force their populations to reduce driving, use less electricity, and pay an extremely…Continue Reading…