Articles by Andrew Dessler

A dispatch from Gore’s climate training sessions

I'm blogging from Nashville, where I just spent two days hanging with Al Gore and shooting the sh-t about climate change. OK, it wasn't just me and Al -- there were about 200 other people there.

This meeting is part of Al Gore's effort to train 1000 people to go out and deliver his Inconvenient Truth talk.

The meeting started off on a low note when I found out that Cameron Diaz had been in the session before mine. Damn. My session was actually devoid of anyone well known. The closest we got was Dennis Kucinich's wife, who it turns out is actually quite a babe.

It muddles the science and policy debates together

The darling of the the climate blogosphere for the last two days is an article by Andy Revkin on the silent middle ground in the climate debate. Since I am nothing if not a blogosheep, I felt compelled to follow the pack and weigh in.

The problem I have with the article is that it confuses two separate debates, one scientific (is climate change real?) and one value-based (what should we do about it?). By putting these two issues into the blender, the article confuses rather than clarifies.

Let's consider the first question: is climate change real?

Robert Novak does it on purpose

A recent Gristmill post discussed an op-ed by Robert Novak on climate change.

One argument Novak makes against environmental regulations is that they're extremely expensive. Turns out when Novak's not outing CIA agents, he's getting his facts wrong.

Novak says:

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that [the McCain-Lieberman climate bill] would reduce gross domestic product by $776 billion annually.

However, if you read the report he quotes you'll see that $776 billion is the cumulative and undiscounted cost of the program. $776 billion is not the cost per year.

The report actually says:

From the U. of Arizona

The U. of Arizona put together an impressive seminar series on climate change this past fall. There were seven talks by different U of A professors, covering almost all important aspects of the "climate change problem." The talks are now online.

I have a video iPod, and I downloaded the seminars and watched them during my recent trip to the AGU meeting. It's a worthwhile way to pass a 4-hour plane trip. If you want to learn more about climate change, I recommend you check them out. (They also have audio-only versions.)