Climate Climate & Energy

Join me for some navel gazing!

There is sometimes a fine line between opposing something and not supporting it; between believing that something should be advocated against and believing it should not be advocated for; between believing that something is bad and believing that there are several better options. Two examples come to mind. One is adaptation, as opposed to mitigation, […]

Is it a communications failure?

Recent news articles have pointed out that we in the U.S. do not consider global warming a critical threat. Some bloggers have argued that this is the result of a communications failure (e.g., here or here or here).

The decision whether to worry about a looming issue is a value judgment, not a scientific one. You and I could agree entirely on the science of climate change, but disagree about whether it's something for our society to address.

For example, one argument against us worrying about climate change is that our descendants will be much richer than we are, so they will be better able to address whatever climate change occurs -- thus, we should leave the problem for them. At its heart, this is a moral choice.

On a Bing and an Err

Stanford and U.C. Berkeley criticized for partnerships with Big Oil Movie producer Steve Bing has yanked a promised $2.5 million donation to Stanford University in response to several TV and print ads wherein ExxonMobil touts its partnership with the school. Exxon is funding up to $100 million of Stanford’s climate and energy research; Bing, whose […]

Why Broad’s NYT piece isn’t all that important

[ed. note from David Roberts: It appears everyone in the climate world was writing about this piece at once! My response is here; RealClimate's is here; Tim Lambert's is here. Now take it away, Andrew.]

William J. Broad writes today on the complicated relationship between Al Gore and the scientific community in the New York Times.

Here's the thesis of the article:

But part of his scientific audience is uneasy. In talks, articles and blog entries that have appeared since his film and accompanying book came out last year, these scientists argue that some of Mr. Gore's central points are exaggerated and erroneous. They are alarmed, some say, at what they call his alarmism.

The gray lady gets it woefully, laughably wrong

Yesterday, Drudge breathlessly reported a coming “hit on Gore” from The New York Times. Today that hit has come, in the form of a state-of-the-art piece of slime from Bill Broad. This may be the worst, sloppiest, most dishonest piece of reporting I’ve ever seen in the NYT. It’s got all the hallmarks of a […]

He Believes in Miracles

Former Jamaican bobsled team founder seeks energy independence as mayor It’s a career crisis we’ve all faced at some point: what comes after you’ve created the Jamaican Olympic bobsled team? For George Fitch, now the mayor of Warrenton, Va., the answer stinks. Fitch wants to make the 8,000-person town energy independent by 2010 by building […]

Get Me Rewrite!

Part two of intergovernmental climate report no sunnier than part one No Monday would be complete without a dash of grim global-warming news, so here goes. Part deux of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is due out in April, and according to a draft, things are looking quite the opposite of good. The […]

Biofuels on Science Friday

For those who don't listen to Science Friday, shame on you. It's one of the best science shows around.

This week, they had an interesting segment on biofuels. Listen to it in mp3 format, Real Player, or Windows media.

2020 Vision

E.U. adopts ambitious renewable-energy goal It’s a banner day for the European Union: wrapping up a two-day summit, its 27 member states have agreed on an ambitious green-energy goal. The plan — to use 20 percent renewable energy by 2020 — will “establish us as a world pioneer,” says German Chancellor and summit chair Angela […]

CSM investigates

Mark Clayton at the Christian Science Monitor looks into it. This describes my position quite well: But for those energy experts who have done life-cycle analysis of nuclear power, the big concern is that policymakers may be misled into believing that just because nuclear CO2 emissions are low, the cost of nuclear as an option […]