Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1105

George Will embraces Walter Russell Mead's risible anti-science revisionism

Walter Russell Mead has fabricated an anti-scientific revisionist history of the environmental movement, which is why the pundit king of the ultraconservative anti-science climate disinformers, George Will, loves it.

First, though, my favorite line in today's op-ed by Will begins

Mead, who says that he is a skeptic about climate policy rather than climate science….

That's like saying you believe in the science that says cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, emphysema, and cardiopulmonary...

Global warming science is still evolving — but not in the direction the disinformers think - Simon Lewis debunks another flawed Wall Street Journal editorial

The WSJ pushed a new meme in its editorial, "Climate of Uncertainty:  Global warming science is still evolving; will future IPCC reports reflect that?"  Ironically, if the WSJ actually followed the scientific literature, rather than the disinformation campaign's twisted version of it, they would know that global warming science is indeed evolving away from the 2007 IPCC report — but not in the direction they think.

In a AAAS presentation this year, William R. Freudenburg of UC Santa Barbara ...

Must-see: Bill McKibben on David Letterman - But Dave, though well-informed, gets one of his facts wrong

The founder of 350.org and the author most recently of the must-read book Eaarth — has a great interview with David Letterman.  Dave is more knowledgeable on climate and energy issues than the vast majority of 'real' journalists, though he makes one mistake:

Always amazing to see a person as well known as Letterman who sees the situation in more dire terms than a guy like McKibben (see Letterman rages on global warming: "We are so screwed!")

Letterman does make an inaccurate statement toward ...

Locavore: The new organic

Four women in San Francisco coined the term "locavore" in 2005, and since then many similar groups have popped up all around the country. Each has the same idea: eating locally helps the environment, improves health, stimulates the local economy, and simply tastes better. For these reasons locally grown and produced food has been called "the new organic." The New Oxford American Dictionary even named locavore their word of the year in 2007.

Today, the average conventionally grown...

Chuck Hagel says GOP is not "presenting any alternatives, any new options or any new thinking"

David Stockman recently explained "How my Republican Party destroyed the American economy." So you'll be delighted to know that the party has no new thinking at all on what to do now, as TP reports in this cross-post.call 1800

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), the chairman of the Atlantic Council, recently sat down for an interview with the Washington Diplomat. In the interview, the former senator touched on a variety of topics, including what he feels is the need for the United States to...

The dirty oil coalition behind the Proposition 23 effort to stop clean energy just got a lot dirtier - Koch Industries joins Valero and Tesoro to stop climate action

On Friday, September 03 Thomas F. Steyer, Co-Chair of the No on 23 Campaign and Paul Knepprath, Vice President for advocacy and health initiatives for the California chapter of the American Lung Association held a press call to discuss the latest donations to the Yes on 23 campaign to repeal California's key climate and clean energy laws.

"The dirty oil coalition behind prop 23 just got a lot dirtier," said Knepprath, referring to the $1 million contribution that Koch Industries made to ...

The big green easy

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans five years ago, the devastation was heartbreaking. Residents lost homes, schools, and churches, and in some cases entire neighborhoods were destroyed. The city was in ruins by the time the water finally receded, leaving the task of rebuilding to those whose homes and livelihoods had been swept away by the massive storm. The Crescent City slowly but surely crept back to life, and in the process, New Orleans 2.0 is becoming better, stronger, and...

Captain's log from the Chukchi Sea: "The water temperature is 7.5 degrees. If we weren't sailing, it would be a great temperature for a swim!"

Expedition Report:

It is obvious that the conditions met by the early explorers such as Vitus Bering, Fridtjof Nansen, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld and Roald Amundsen no longer exists. We passed through in a few weeks, while our...

Energy and Global Warming News for September 3rd: Amazon at lowest levels in 40 years; Water footprint calculator; 3,000 MW offshore wind for France by 2015

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The drop has been caused by a lack of rain and high temperatures.

Amazon at lowest level for 40 years

Officials in the Peruvian city of Iquitos said the river level had fallen to 14.4ft, a point not seen in more than four decades, and was predicted to drop further.

Low levels have brought economic havoc in areas of Peru that depend on the Amazon for shipping, by denying boats a navigable river as well as usable ports and harbors.

At least six boats are stranded because of the lack of river...

California's Prop 23 is bad news for Latino families

The upcoming November election contains a ballot initiative that will threaten all Californians' health and safety. But the Latino community will suffer disproportionate harm, as CAP's Jorge Madrid explains.

Proposition 23 will undo California's Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as Assembly Bill 32, or "A.B. 32," which has catalyzed billions of dollars in private sector investment in clean energy in the state—creating jobs, businesses, and new technologies that are leading the ...