Climate Climate & Energy

How not to inform readers about cap-and-trade

Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson has long impressed me as one of the most hackish economic columnists not associated with the Wall Street Journal and not named Ben Stein, but today’s piece on cap-and-trade is dismally, embarrassingly stupid. Its essential premise is that consumers and producers of energy don’t respond to price signals, something so […]

Airlines, cargo ships increasingly desperate due to rising fuel costs

Globalization was built on cheap oil. As that era draws to a close, so will the current phase of global integration, whether Thomas Friedman, Wal-Mart, and all those involved in intercontinental trade like it or not.

The current transportation infrastructure is based on cars, trucks, airplanes, and cargo ships, which together consume about 70 percent of the gasoline used in the United States. While the greatest focus has been on cars, trucking and airline companies are facing collapse.

The International Air Transport Association just published a new report in which they call the situation of many airlines "desperate." According to The N.Y. Times:

If price of oil, which is now just below $130 a barrel, averages $107 over 2008, the aviation industry would lose $2.3 billion for the year, the chief executive of the group, Giovanni Bisignani, said. Should it hold at $135 a barrel for the rest of the year, the industry will lose $6.1 billion.

NASA inspector general: NASA suppressed climate science

Remember when James Hansen made a big fuss, saying NASA has been distorting, downplaying, and outright censoring climate science? And conservatives launched a wave of personal attacks against him? Well according to NASA’s inspector general, Hansen was right.

Yet another international climate meeting gets rollin’

Yet another round of international climate talks has kicked off, this time in Bonn, Germany. More than 2,000 delegates from 162 countries will chit-chat over the next two weeks about the details of an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. But no significant steps forward are expected out of Bonn; most major decisions on the […]

The real reason conservatives don’t believe in climate science

Part I discussed the odd anti-science part of Krauthammer's screed, "Carbon Chastity: The First Commandment of the Church of the Environment." I ended by asking, Why does he break faith with so many conservatives and worship at the altar of evolution science, but stick with them on climate denial? My book discusses this general question at length, and offers the answer:

Let’s shoot a little higher

Charles Blow says “we need to declare a coordinated war on climate change akin to the wars on drugs and terror.” Surely we can do better than that.

Ocean acidification to weaken coral reefs, make islands more vulnerable to storms

Acidification of the ocean could make low-lying island nations like the Maldives and Kiribati more vulnerable to storms since it can significantly weaken coral reefs, according to a new report. When the oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, carbonic acid forms, which makes it more difficult for sea critters like coral and starfish to […]

The latest sorties in the war over nuclear power

There have been several good entries in the never-ending nuclear debate lately. I’m pulling several together into one post, so all the vicious arguing can center in one comment thread. Fun! In a long, detailed, and devastating cover story in The Nation, Christian Parenti asks, “What Nuclear Renaissance?” Peeling away the hype and PR, he […]

Global warming is no Mickey Mouse

“Really, who cares about Mickey Mouse … But if we can’t get global warming right? An easy question as fundamental as global warming? Then we’re really fucked.” — Creative Commons founder, intellectual property rights theorist, and political reform advocate Laurence Lessig

Bizarre talking points of WaPo columnist Krauthammer

Sir Isaac Newton is one of the towering geniuses in all human history. Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer? Not so much.

Krauthammer has written a classic anti-science screed, "Carbon Chastity: The First Commandment of the Church of the Environment," that recasts many favorite anti-scientific denier memes in odd terms. You still hear and see all of these today, so let me touch on a few of them. And as I will discuss in Part 2, the article is most useful because it is a very clear statement of the real reason conservatives don't believe in climate science: They hate the solution.

As a physicist, my favorite denier talking point is his strange version of the old claim that "scientists are flip floppers, constantly changing their theories." He writes: