Articles by David Roberts

Skeptics

One problem with being a slacking blogger is that by the time you get around to writing about something, everyone else has already covered it. So I don't have much new to say about Joel Achenbach's crucial Washington Post piece on the remaining climate-change skeptics.

Some folks are angry that Achenbach gave the skeptics a microphone and refused to pass judgment on them. Others say that by simply giving the skeptics room to make their case in their own words, he skewers them better than any direct attack could, since these wackjobs discredit themselves.

Matt McIrvin and Brad Delong are in the former camp. John Quiggin and Kevin Drum are in the latter camp. As, I suppose, am I. I never trust my perceptions of these articles in the popular press, though. To folks who have followed the debate, these skeptic outliers look like clowns, yes -- we don't need that pointed out. But what about "normal people"? I have no idea.

(See also Achenbach's discussion of the piece and his segment on bloggingheads.tv wherein he discusses it.)

One thing I will say: I don't think it will matter much if the far right's token scientists are finally and totally discredited (much in the way I don't think it matters much that conservative intellectuals have abandoned supply-side economics). These token experts are useful but not necessary. The far right has built a completely insulated, impervious alternate media universe (FOX, talk radio, etc.) through which information is filtered. It doesn't matter if global warming is accepted by all the experts; as long as conservative commentators, radio hosts, and talking heads are willing to spread disinformation -- and have we found any limits yet? -- the disinformation will keep circulating. If experts could quash this stuff once and for all, it would have happened long ago.

More Gore lies!

Details here.

(Yes, you need to have seen the movie to know what I'm talking about.)

Americans and Climate Change: Incentives: Environmentalists

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Ah, now it gets personal! Below is what I consider an extremely astute diagnosis of the reasons professional environmentalists haven't engaged the subject of climate change very well.

God

Check out this story in The Guardian on the tensions emerging on the religious right. It's got lots of juicy stuff, but like everyone else, I'm going straight to the money quote: