Revkin in the Times today: “The role of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood,” the coalition said in a scientific “backgrounder” provided to lawmakers and journalists through the early 1990s, adding that “scientists differ” on the issue. But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked…
Apparently, Tom Yulsman has been on the “climate beat” for quite some time. Anyway, he has a collection of interesting observations about communicating climate science from various participants. Unfortunately, no compelling position emerges from it. Sometimes I suspect that it is exactly the purpose of conventional journalism, to avoid influencing the reader’s position at all….
A few of my favorite things, courtesy wordle.net : That “Revkin” thing looms just a little too large, perhaps…
Looking back, I see I was a Jay Rosen replacenik before I had any idea of the extent of the angst in the newspaper business. What’s really astonishing is to recall Andy Revkin saying some of the same things I have been saying, but missing the extent to which the media shift changes the rules.
This is something of a rant about science journalism and my place in it. The core of the matter is this. In our peculiar circumstances, science writing has an ethical component. Although speech is free in a free country, individuals or corporations aren’t free of ethical responsibility for what they write. The problems we face…
The mantle of lovable old coot of liberal persuasion who thinks global warming is hooey has been passed to a new old generation. I tried to avoid saying anything nasty about Reid Bryson while he was around. Reid was, no doubt about it, a very nice man. He was also the founder of the department…
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Note, to make matters clear, the horizontal axis above refers to an unconstrained emissions (“business as usual”) scenario. The vertical axis is roughly proportional to the probability of finding that an expert’s opinion is matched at that point on the…
It’s time we faced the facts: The world is overpopulated, near or beyond its long-term carrying capacity for modern humans Resources are being depleted and environmental supports weakened Energy usage is getting tangled in supplies of water and fair weather Economic systems designed for none of the above are misfiring for various reasons including but…
The following is what I call Mamet’s Principle: “Law, politics and commerce are based on lies. That is, the premises giving rise to opposition are real, but the debate occurs not between these premises but between their proxy, substitute positions. The two parties to a legal dispute (as the opponents in an election) each select…
If there is a sidewalk on either side of a busy street, you may argue whether to walk down the east side or the west side, but it’s not a useful compromise to walk out in traffic. There is more than one question we need to solve, so there are lots of ways of looking…
For the second day in a row Mark Morano has issued a press release from Senator Inhofe’s office essentially reporting that I make an equivalence between criticizing Al Gore and responsibility for 1000 deaths. Unfortunately for me I said something vaguely like that, but it’s being oversimplified. How did Morano make a second press release…
Prometheus: Tobis asks later in the exchange: I’d sure like to know how I “gave ammunition to my enemies”. Anyone care to give him an answer? (And please focus on the arguments being made not the people making them. Thanks!) I reply: Well, Roger, you certainly successfully demonstrated how my words could be used against…
I am selectively quoted in an article on Prometheus to make me look like a maniac. Oh, well. Welcome to the big leagues I guess. My Prometheus login is stubbornly not working and I am late for something… Will try to effect some repairs later. For what it’s worth I have already withdrawn my attaching…
Much, much, much more… All tolled, (and not yet all told) this is the first major league blogstorm emerging from the non-denialist climo-blogosphere and is thus a historical event regardless of your position on it. If there’s one thing you should understand about this event it is this one: Jonathan Schwarz tells an old Noam…
An interesting and sympathetic take on Roger Pielke Jr. comes to us from from Dylan Otto Krider. One of the first comments on this blog was what I took to be a sincere welcome to the fray from RP Jr, and I’ve been torn about how to deal with him from well before I took…
Revkin falls into his old habit of splitting the difference between lies and truth, and then offers some lame justification on his blog. This is not acceptable. Revkin should take a hint from Joe Romm on what the actual climate news is this week. I am also 100% behind Joe Romm on his take on…
The Colorado Independent asserts: The Bush administration and the Bureau of Land Management are pushing relentlessly ahead with plans to fast-track Colorado’s long-dormant oil shale industry, but a study released this fall exposes one factor that could put a big damper on the boom: a serious lack of water. The report, prepared for key government…
Andy Revkin is taking bait set by Ron Rosenbaum in a ludicrous article on Slate. Here is my response. Well, I’ve been advocating you cover dissent too, but from a sociological perspective. You should report on Naomi Oreskes’ work uncovering the roots of the pseudoscientific footdragging that bypasses the scientific community entirely and goes directly…
John Fleck has an interesting article about confusing the two questions: 1) is there significant AGW? and 2) should very much be done about it? I missed it when it came out but fortunately Revkin linked to it. John argues (presumably somewhat under the influence of RP Jr.) that the latter question is legitimately an…
Deltoid reports on a complaint to the UK’s media watchdog commission about the unfairness of the infamous Great Global Warming Swindle swindle. The outcome appears to have been somewhat marginal; if I understand correctly the commission agreed that the program was egregiously misleading, but somehow not in violation of the letter of the law. Actually…