Posts Tagged ‘global warming’

Banging the Drum on Science When It Fits Your Tune

In her last big superlative GMO story, New York Times reporter Amy Harmon wrote: Scientists, who have come to rely on liberals in political battles over stem-cell research, climate change and the teaching of evolution, have been dismayed to find themselves at odds with their traditional allies on this issue. Some compare the hostility to G.M.O.s…Continue Reading…

Severe Weather = the New Normal is a Fraught Meme

This week NPR asks: When can a big storm or drought be blamed on climate change? If you have been nodding in approval to everything that Bill McKibben and his fellow climate concerned advocates say on this subject, then you already have your answer. And if you are familiar with the “new normal” meme, which I…Continue Reading…

A Climate Debate I Would Like to See

Of the all the famous names associated with climate change, there are two I would love to see headlined in a debate–against each other. Both of these individuals believe global warming presents an existential threat, both believe Big Green is part of the problem, and both offer a radically different path to decarbonization of the…Continue Reading…

India and the Iron Law of Climate Policy

I have an idealistic streak that is increasingly tempered by real world events. So on Sunday I admired the enthusiasm of the hundreds of thousands of people who marched through the streets of Manhattan to sound their concern about climate change and other environmental issues. I tried not to let this article ruin the good…Continue Reading…

Distilling the Essence of Climate Change Complexity

I am teaching two journalism classes this semester, with climate change being a main focus these past few weeks. We had an obvious news peg in Sunday’s big climate march and the gathering of world leaders this week in NYC. Students in both classes have received climate change 101 lessons from me–where the body of…Continue Reading…

The People's Climate March

Everything you need to know about today’s climate march, in tweets. Climate change march rolls through NYC and other events in 150 countries http://t.co/q5Y0uA7KiR @npr #climatechange #climatemarch — KQEDscience (@KQEDscience) September 21, 2014   The NYC turnout was huge. .@foxnews on #PeoplesClimate : “March attracts more than 310,000 people” http://t.co/gwXpSOIEn6 — Eli Kintisch (@elikint) September…Continue Reading…

To Score Quick, Cheap Points, Label Someone as Anti-Science

When I was interviewing Robert Kennedy Jr. for my recent Washington Post magazine profile, there was one charge leveled against him that he deeply resented. “I am not anti-science,” he insisted on numerous occasions, and my suggestion a year ago that he was anti-science perturbed him more than anything. After all, Kennedy, like many greens, embraces…Continue Reading…

More Facts on Climate Change = What?

Climate concerned advocates received some welcome news yesterday: A new study finds that when they understand climate basics, some conservatives are more likely to accept that climate change is happening I continue to be amazed at how much time and resources are spent justifying attempts to win over the most ideologically entrenched demographic in the climate…Continue Reading…

Evangelicals and Climate Change

Nearly a decade ago, I wrote a profile of Richard Cizik for Audubon magazine. He was, at the time, a prominent lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals and a member of good standing among social and political conservatives. But Cizik’s views on a number of hot-button issues were evolving. In 2008 he was forced to…Continue Reading…

Roger Pielke Jr. on FiveThirtyEight and his Climate Critics

Earlier in the year, Roger Pielke Jr. was named as a contributing writer for Nate Silver’s newly re-launched FiveThirtyEight site. Shortly after that, Pielke, a climate policy scholar and political scientist at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, published an article at FiveThirtyEight headlined, “Disasters Cost More Than Ever–But Not Because of Climate Change.” Critics pounced immediately in…Continue Reading…