I’m not sure there is such a thing, but it’s probably good to know what your objective is. In this contentious thread, perspectives ran the gamut. One commenter observed: As difficult it is in this era of “Tea Baggers vs Marxists”, “Denialists vs. Warmistas”, “Conservatards vs. Mann-Made Glo-bull Warmists” or whatever other dumbass portmanteaus each…Continue Reading…
Fans of smashmouth science communication have not been disappointed by the response to Texas Governor Rick Perry’s recent statements on evolution. Richard Dawkins, the brilliant evolutionary biologist who is also famously combative, has slugged away in the Washington Post: There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and…Continue Reading…
To paraphrase a famous remark used against a certain Democrat in the 2004 Presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was for global warming before he was against it. Romney’s waffling on climate change is sure to reinforce his already well-earned reputation for flip floppery. UPDATE: New York magazine says the waffle is more subtle: It’s not a…Continue Reading…
Evolution, Climate Change, Could Divide the Republican party That’s the headline to Ron Brownstein’s piece at The Atlantic. Like I was saying…
Earlier this month, Fox Nation prominently featured a NY Post story, which began: Every day it seems new evidence emerges that the “evidence” for global warming has been exaggerated, manufactured or just plain wrong. Coincidentally, Texas Governor Rick Perry echoed this same theme last week, which was summarily refuted by the Washington Post’s resident factchecker. On…Continue Reading…
So this past week many of us have been feeding at the trough where religion, politics, and science is ground up. It’s not been a pretty sight. In this Poynter article, a truism is observed: [Tom] Yulsman, the Colorado professor, noted that a [Presidential] candidate’s positions on scientific wedge issues tend to serve as a proxy…Continue Reading…
Jon Huntsman’s callout of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s controversial statements on evolution and climate change has garnered much attention and highlighted what Andrew Revkin at Dot Earth calls “the fundamental Republican science problem.” Meanwhile, in a similar vein, but flying under the radar of the national media, another Republican governor has recently said Huntsman-like things about climate change that…Continue Reading…
This one is from the left, and it was laid out last week by Bill McKibben in a Washington Post op-ed, in advance of the climate protests now underway in Washington DC: The issue is simple: We want the president to block construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would carry oil from the tar sands…Continue Reading…
In Saturday’s Washington Post, Roger Pielke Jr., a University of Colorado professor and the author of The Climate Fix, was quoted as saying: Climate change has become a wedge issue. It’s today’s flag-burning or today’s partial-birth-abortion issue. I’m not sure how Roger intended this to be construed–as a commentary on the larger, endlessly politicized climate debate…Continue Reading…
Serious, science-based climate skeptics have a chance to separate themselves from the foaming-at-the-mouth lunacy that defines their public image. I mention this because I know that some of you skeptics chafe at the buffoonish antics of Christopher Monckton and the sweeping declarations of Republican Senator James Inhofe. As science writer David Brin has written (which I…Continue Reading…