global warming
tlambert | August 7, 2006In January Chris Mitchell, editor in chief of The Australian, was named one of the "dirty dozen", the twelve people who have done the most to mislead Australians about climate change:
As an illustration of how news values now take second place to ideology, The Australian in January ran an anonymous anti-greenhouse news story - note, not an opinion piece - by someone identified as a 'special correspondent' employed by the fossil fuel lobby.
Now David Tiley has uncovered The Australian's latest effort.
Here's how they describe their latest hire:
Matthew Warren returns to The Australian as…
nisbetmc | August 4, 2006
Gallup has released a poll report detailing trends in Gore's favorability ratings, indicating that despite the speculation that Inconvenient Truth has morphed the image of the VP in the public's mind, there has been little change in public evaluations. (Go here and watch an ad, to access the report.)
Why has there been little movement in the VP's favorability ratings, despite a juggernaut media campaign? As has been the case with most previous political documentaries, they draw a strong like-minded audience. Viewers of Truth are already predisposed to favor Gore and to be concerned about…
grrlscientist | August 4, 2006What is global dimming? It is a cooling effect that appears to have partially masked the effects of global warming. Global dimming is caused by a reduction in the amount of sunlight hitting the earth due to the presence of aerosolized particulate pollution, such as jet contrails. These airborne particles reflect sunlight back into space before it hits the surface of the earth, reducing warming and thereby masking the effects of global warming.
This streaming video (below the fold) by Nova shows how the average temperature range in the United States jumped by more than one degree celsius (two…
nisbetmc | August 4, 2006
A study released this week by the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning British think tank, criticizes the UK media for engaging in a dominant "alarmist" interpretation of global warming. This alarmist interpretation is characterized by an inflated sense of urgency and "cinematic tones" according to the study, which used discourse analysis of a sample of 600 news articles to reach its conclusions.
The problem with this lead media interpretation, concludes the report, is that it likely leaves readers "without a sense of agency," giving the impression that "the problem is…
tlambert | August 4, 2006DCI Group, a PR company that specializes in astroturf operations has been revealed by the WSJ as the group behind a youtube video mocking Al Gore:
Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." But who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com? In the video, Gore appears as a sinister figure who blames the Mideast crisis and starlet Lindsay Lohan's shrinking waist size on global warming. (See the video.)
The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills in…
cmooney | August 3, 2006Next Tuesday I'll be appearing at the following event at the Century Foundation:
Drop It Like It's Hot: The Politics of Global Warming
SUMMER POLICY BROWN BAG LUNCH FORUM FOR NEW YORK CITY INTERNS*
Featuring:
Brenda Ekwurzel--Climate Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Union of Concerned Scientists
Emily Figdor--Director, Clean Air and Global Warming programs, U.S. PIRG
Chris C. Mooney--Author, The Republican War on Science; Senior Correspondent, The American Prospect
Robert B. Semple--Editorial Board Member, The New York Times (moderator)
When: Tuesday, August 8, 2006 12:30 p.…
nisbetmc | August 3, 2006
With Chris Mooney, over at Skeptical Inquirer Online, we have a lengthy article evaluating coverage of the hurricane-global warming debate. We interviewed the major science writers, columnists, and political reporters who have written about the topic, we also interviewed several of the major scientists in the area. We conclude with recommendations on how journalists and scientists can work together to improve coverage. The article was originally intended to appear this summer at a print magazine, but got bumped at the last minute. So we decided to get it up on the Web with timeliness and…
grrlscientist | August 1, 2006
Nacreous clouds above McMurdo Station in Antarctica.Image: Matt Thompson.
Nacreous means pearlescene or pearl-like, and these clouds are commonly referred to as "mother of pearl clouds".
These rare clouds form at altitudes of 15,000-25,000 meters (50,000-80,000 ft) above the earth's surface only when the sun is several degrees below the horizon, so other clouds at lower altitudes appear black. Their dazzling iridescent colors result from refraction of sunlight through tiny water-ice crystals that are carried by very strong, extremely cold winds in the stratosphere.
But because the…
purepedantry | July 31, 2006Gov. Schwarzenegger and Tony Blair are endeavoring to create a California and Great Britain global warming pact, to pool their efforts in lowering CO2 emissions:
Britain and California are preparing to sidestep the Bush administration and fight global warming together by creating a joint market for greenhouse gases.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plan to lay the groundwork for a new trans-Atlantic market in carbon dioxide emissions, The Associated Press has learned.
Such a move could help California cut carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping…
tlambert | July 31, 2006Andrew Dessler sent me a copy of his book The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change. So far I've read a couple of chapters and they've given a pretty good summary of the issues.
Dessler has also started a blog on Climate Change. In the latest entry we learn that the AEI is offering $10,000 for a "review and policy critique" of the 4AR.
Hat tip: John Fleck.
tlambert | July 28, 2006A leaked memo from the Intermountain Rural Electric Association (IREA) gives us inside view of how some of the Global Warming disinformation campaign is financed. There's this:
We decided to support Dr. Patrick Michaels. ... In February of this year, IREA alone contributed $100,000 to Dr. Michaels. In addition, we have contacted all the G&T's in the United States ... and obtained additional contributions and pledges for Dr. Michaels' group. We will be following up the remaining G&T's over the next several weeks.
and this, on the ludicrous CEI ads:
[CEI] has been running two ads in…
cmooney | July 27, 2006On my last weekday here in England, I'm heading to the UK Met Office to interview some of their scientists. Then, I head back to the US Monday morning. I doubt I will blog again before then, although I suppose it's possible. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit deSmogBlog, which broke the latest news about apparent industry efforts to influence the climate debate. ABC News has more. Ok, I'm outta here....
nisbetmc | July 27, 2006
Ten climate scientists who disagree about the linkages between global warming and more intense hurricanes have released a joint statement warning that regardless of the resolution of the scientific debate, hurricanes remain a serious threat, and that policymakers need to rethink coastal development. On Tuesday, Andrew Revkin of the NY Times contributed this story on the announcement.
The joint statement is a leading example of how scientists can work with journalists to "negotiate" news about the policy relevance of science. It's a shift in thinking about public communication that is…
tlambert | July 26, 2006
After repeatedly make the same "up is down" blunder Tim Blair has at last switched from talking about An Inconvenient Truth's average take per theatre to the total take:
Nathan Goulding discovers an inconvenient fact: "You may not have heard, but the film WordPlay is the only movie on this BoxOfficeMojo chart that's been out for 4 weeks or longer and has grossed less money than Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth."
This can mean only one thing -- the average take per theatre has increased. And sure enough, the weekend take per theatre increased from $2,044 to $2,273. And on a per…
tlambert | July 24, 2006Judd Legum at Think Progress reports some outrageous claims by Inhofe:
Yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) attacked Al Gore and global warming science, claiming that Gore was "full of crap" on global warming.
Appearing on Glenn Beck's radio show and CNN television program, Inhofe said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which concluded that global warming was real and caused by humans, used "one scientist." Inhofe added: "[A]ll of the recent science...it confirms that I was right on this thing. This thing is a hoax."
Legum corrects Inhofe's misrepresentation of the…
cmooney | July 24, 2006From the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan:
During the past week's heat wave--it hit 100 degrees in New York City Monday--I got thinking, again, of how sad and frustrating it is that the world's greatest scientists cannot gather, discuss the question of global warming, pore over all the data from every angle, study meteorological patterns and temperature histories, and come to a believable conclusion on these questions: Is global warming real or not? If it is real, is it necessarily dangerous? What exactly are the dangers? Is global warming as dangerous as, say, global cooling would be? Are…
cmooney | July 23, 2006In my book, The Republican War on Science, I noted that James Inhofe in a 2003 speech had included a "harsh attack on science blogger and journalist David Appell." The phrase "sheer lunacy" was used. You can see for yourself here. (Why I'm defending Appell I don't know, as he hasn't been particularly kind to me lately, but whatever, he's part of the tribe.)
Anyway, now Inhofe and his staff are at it again, with attacks on two very respected science writers, Seth Borenstein of the AP and Andy Revkin of the New York Times. Much of this has been reported in Greenwire, for which you unfortunately…
purepedantry | July 23, 2006Roger Pielke Jr. from Prometheus has posted his recent Congressional Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee. I am big fan of him simply because I think he is genuinely looking for solutions in a debate that is stuck in an impasse.
Here are some choice morsels:
Take Home Points
1. Human-caused climate change is real and requires attention by policy makers to both mitigation and adaptation - but there is no quick fix; the issue will be with us for decades and longer.
2. Any conceivable emissions reductions policies, even if successful, cannot have a perceptible impact on the…
tlambert | July 23, 2006January 2006:
In several interviews with The New York Times in recent days, Dr. Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet."
Guess what happened in February? Coby Beck has the answer.
tlambert | July 20, 2006
PZ Myers writes
Time's former "Blog of the Year," the execrable PowerLine blog with which I share a state, has done it again: said something so stupid and so palpably false that I'm feeling a bit embarrassed about ragging on Oklahoma in my previous post--I should feel ashamed by association at being a Minnesotan. Check out Deltoid: down is up in the world of the Hindrocket.
I feel PZ's pain. I share a state with Tim Blair, who has now made exactly the same blunder as Hindrocket: "An Inconvenient Truth continues cooling". We'll see a correction from Blair sometime around never...
Oh what?…