Category Archives: climate

Los Angeles Times fires climate reporter at work in Arctic

Just when you think the Los Angeles Times can't stoop any lower…they fire their climate change reporter while she's on a story in the Arctic. Yes, while camping in the snow. Believe it or don't.  Here's how Margot Roosevelt relayed the story, from her farewell to her colleagues, via the LA Observer: It was aContinue reading “Los Angeles Times fires climate reporter at work in Arctic”

Why deniers cling to the “global cooling” myth: a theory

At Boing Boing, Maggie Koerth-Baker does an excellent job of retelling the myth that global climate change deniers adore. That's the myth that scientists widely feared global cooling in the l970's. According to the standard version of this story, everybody in the 1970s thought that the Earth was actually getting colder, and that we were inContinue reading “Why deniers cling to the “global cooling” myth: a theory”

Socrates, Environmental Working Group: Eat Less Meat!

The Environmental Working Group brought out a report recently that definitively showed the high cost of meat. Not the cost in the store, but to the planet, and to our health. (Indeed, the one statistic I wish the report had that it didn't would be the full calf-to-plate cost of meat.) Much remarked was theContinue reading “Socrates, Environmental Working Group: Eat Less Meat!”

It’s not the heat, it’s…

From Rob Rogers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: In some cases of denial, it's stupidity. In some cases, it's insanity. But as Rogers said: The heat dome that has been gripping the nation has been unbearable. It is almost as unbearable as people who still refuse to believe in climate change. While one hot summer isContinue reading “It’s not the heat, it’s…”

Television and the weather: some good news

Television for decades has been considered a vast wasteland, as public television advocate Newton Minnow famous characterized it in the early l960's, but these days television is, well, cliche defying. It's often surprisingly good.  This is true both for dramatic mini-series such as the much-lauded Glee and Mad Men (which are far more ambitious andContinue reading “Television and the weather: some good news”

Ghost forests of the 21st century

Some have wanted to label the pika, a charming little mountain creature, as the first species likely to be driven to extinction by climate change, but a typically excellent story by Elizabeth Shogren of National Public Radio lays out a much more horrifying possibility: the whitebark pine. SHOGREN: Do you think it's a forgone conclusionContinue reading “Ghost forests of the 21st century”

Americans increasingly doubt global warming: Harris Poll

A Harris poll on disasters released yesterday shows that fewer Americans than ever believe in global warming: just 44%, down from 75% ten years ago.  Harris tries to see the positive in this, pointing out that: These numbers do not suggest, however, that a majority now do not believe in global warming—just over one-quarter say theyContinue reading “Americans increasingly doubt global warming: Harris Poll”

Saving the climate by stopping the tar sands pipeline

Many of this country's most illustrious poets, writers, scientists, and preservationists  are calling for volunteers to come to Washington D.C. this summer to risk arrest to stop construction of a massive tar sands pipeline from Alberta to Texas. This pipeline, the Keystone XL, could destroy any chance we have of preventing runaway global warming.  How muchContinue reading “Saving the climate by stopping the tar sands pipeline”

A Republican compares climatologists to doctors

A nice piece in the Columbia Journalism Review's science writing blog — The Observatory — looks at the reluctance of the Republican field to utter the word "climate" in their most recent debate.  If none of the presidential candidates mentioned climate, it is likely because they have already made it abundantly clear that they areContinue reading “A Republican compares climatologists to doctors”