mainstream media
illconsidered | April 20, 2009I'm sure most of us remember how incoherent Sarah Palin was about climate change (well, okay, about most things), but John Boehner seems to have his sights set on out doing the master!
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos (partial transcript here) his mangling of anything even remotely resembling an intelligent thought is really quite astounding!
His answer to climate change incredibly includes:
we need American-made oil and gas
Because foreign CO2 has such a higher greenhouse potential than good ol' American CO2.
Boehner offers this boner about the recent EPA ruling:
the idea that…
illconsidered | April 17, 2009This just reported today from the Washington Post:
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposal today finding greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a determination that could trigger a series of sweeping regulations affecting everything from vehicles to coal-fired power plants.
In a statement issued at noon, EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson said, "This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations."
She added, "This pollution problem has a solution -- one that will create millions of green jobs…
illconsidered | April 8, 2009So, George Will and the Washington Post are at it again, head over to Things Break for the details.
These institutions are oblivious to their own impending demise, a demise that articles like George Will's show they fully deserve.
[Update: Grist notes that Will is called out by name by his own paper for making claims contradicted by the facts...and let's call a spade a spade, given that he has been loudly and repeatedly informed of his factually incorrect claims and yet repeats them, he must be stupid or a liar.]
illconsidered | March 25, 2009I may be very late to the party, but I would still like to refer readers to Chris Mooney's Op-Ed response to the recent George Will fiasco.
Congratulations, Chris, it is very well presented and important material. I can't however share your warm fuzzies for the WaPo's change of heart, because, well somehow presenting two sides to a debate, you know, bat-shit crazy versus intelligent reality, still falls a little short for me!
illconsidered | March 19, 2009If tribal cultures could consider the seventh generation, we with our much greater power should be considering the seventieth. The thirty year horizon that economists and politicians consider very long range is just a blink in the geological history of our planet. Now that we dominate surface processes of the earth we have taken over the responsibility for its sustenance. Our obligation to our descendants and our world doesn't end when the discount rate kicks in.
That's Michel Tobis
Believe in something! Even if it's wrong, believe in it.
That's Glenn Beck.
Sometimes being ridiculed is…
illconsidered | March 16, 2009Elizabeth Kolbert, journalist and author of "Field Notes from a Catastrophe", is interviewed by Yale Environment 360 editor Roger Cohn.
The interview was put on their site mid-last week and readers might find it quite interesting.
Kolbert discussed a wide range of issues: how the media and scientists are both responsible for the lack of public understanding on climate change; the Obama administration's chances of passing climate-related legislation; and the prospects of geoengineering the planet to mitigate the effects of warming. On whether there is a moral or ethical dimension to this issue…
illconsidered | March 2, 2009Just while we are on the subject of George Will and lying with impunity...
illconsidered | February 21, 2009The emergence of China as a dominant economic power is an epochal event, occasioning the most massive and rapid redistribution of the earth's resources in human history. The country has also become a ravenous consumer. Its appetite for raw materials drives up international commodity prices and shipping rates while its middle class, projected to jump to 700 million by 2020, is learning the gratifications of consumerism.
A very sobering read.
illconsidered | February 5, 2009I know I said I would do a weekly "Climate Science for the iPod" feature on A Few Things, but the week after just one edition, I left for a business trip to Tasmania, Australia. So...not a good start!
I am not back yet, I am writing this in a hotel near Melbourne Tullamarine airport(ok, that's a boring link) on my way home (yea!) so still can not check all my podcast subscriptions to see what is fodder for blogging BUT in the meantime I would like to draw your attention to a three part series from CBC Radio called "Climate Wars" by Gwynne Dyer. There is a page here where you can down load…
illconsidered | February 2, 2009In setting out to construct an environmentally advanced building to replace the trio of connected brownstones that they now call home, the Episcopal sisters of the Community of the Holy Spirit were taking a giant step in their decade-long journey to weave ecological concerns into their daily ministry. While they have long tried to reduce their carbon footprint at 113th Street, the new convent, for which construction will begin in March, will help them be green from the ground up.
...read more from the New York Times here.
illconsidered | January 8, 2009A video story from ABC news here tells how Glacier National Park has gone from somewhere between 120 and 150 glaciers 100 years ago to a couple of dozen today. Yikes! And a scientist they interview who has spent years monitoring them has gone from predicting they will be completely gone by 2050 to they will be completely gone by 2020.
It's an interesting video with some compelling before/after shots of some of the glaciers.
Then again, maybe it's just a side effect of NASA's fudging the temperature record....
illconsidered | November 25, 2008Okay, so this clip is a bit long (~10 minutes) and it is mostly Fox Noise, but it is really fascinating to watch this one guy, Peter Schiff, being dead on in his economic predictions and advice over and over and over again, and even more interesting to watch the the boobleheads laugh at him and wisely wag their fingers.
They even talk about what a bargain buy and how solid Meryl Lynch is, about one year ago!
But like New Orleans and Katrina, "no one" saw this mess coming....
illconsidered | November 25, 2008So it took me a long time to finally watch the last segment, but I did find this documentary from PBS to be very engaging and very informative.
Maybe not so encouraging though...
FWIW, In It for the Gold agrees you should go watch it.
The synopsis is here:
Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, fires, floods and droughts. On the eve of a historic election, award-winning producer and correspondent Martin Smith investigates how the world's largest corporations and governments are responding to Earth's looming environmental disaster.
illconsidered | November 18, 2008This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.
Objection:
In October, 2008, Al Gore's science advisor, James Hansen announced yet another "hottest" month on record. After all the alarmist banner headlines sank in, yet another "correction" quietly contradicted this, and October was not particularily warm after all. This is yet another example of why the temperature record can not be trusted.
Answer:
Wow. Where to begin with this one? There are many versions of this myth around already at the time…
illconsidered | September 18, 2008Anthony Watt's blog seems to be a rather high profile climate sceptic site that usually seems to at least try to have substantive content, but I can't see watt's so interesting about this article from The Province, a BC, Canadian newspaper.
The article starts off with this remarkable statement:
As evidence to the contrary started rolling in and one prominent scientist after another abandoned ship, the global warming brigade lost much of its sizzle in the past year.
I think I can guess what he thinks is "evidence to the contrary", probably the supposed huge temeprature drop this year, the […
illconsidered | September 5, 2008As if this and this weren't enough, below we have McCain himself applying the "Palin lives near Russia" litmus test for foreign policy experience.
Around minute 2:30:
GIBSON: Can you honestly say you feel confident having someone who hasn't traveled outside the United States until last year, dealing with an insurgent Russia, with an Iran with nuclear ambitions, with an unstable Pakistan, not to mention the war on terror?
MCCAIN: Sure. And one of the key elements of America's national security requirements are energy. She understands the energy issues better than anybody I know in Washington…
illconsidered | September 3, 2008I was just kidding about that Sarah Palin-osmosis-experience crack...but apparently Frank Gaffney at TownHall.com takes it all seriously!
As that state's governor, Sarah Palin would know more by osmosis - if nothing else - about the necessity for U.S. anti-missile systems than either Messrs. Obama or Biden.
(h/t to Science Avenger from the comments]
illconsidered | September 2, 2008Okay, when I first heard this about McCain's VP pick, Sarah Palin:
I figured it was just an unscripted blunder by a marginal participant. But now I see this:
After I stopped laughing, I realized it is actually going to be one of their wingnut talking points. Sarah Palin knows about foreign policy because she lives close to Russia! Could you be any more ridiculous?
Now excuse me, I am going to go put a few particle physics texts under my pillow so I can solve the mystery of Dark Matter in the morning....
[h/t to Dispatches from the Culture War]
illconsidered | July 30, 2008Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy is a new film from scientist turned filmmaker Randy Olsen ("Rediagnosing the Oceans", "Flock of Dodos") and rather than being a film about global warming, it is a film about the making of a film about global warming. Sizzle is also a self described "novel blend of three genres - mockumentary, documentary and reality." Olsen, as well as directing, is the main character who sets out to emulate Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth but this time featuring the actual scientists.
The challenge of combining three genres is avoiding failure three times. The film needs to…