Leo-blog–The-Heartland-I-007.jpg The Heartland Institute’s jaw-droppingly ill-advised, and now withdrawn billboard campaign—pictured here—has drawn a huge volume of denunciations in the last week. There’s not much more to say substantively about the campaign, or the fallout from it, which has included a number of Heartland funders heading for the hills. But it is
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DeSmogBlog: A View From Nowhere? The Case Against Knee-Jerk Centrism When It Comes to Politics and Science
n_hayes_gopuniteso_120505.jpg Debate over The Republican Brain is mounting, as emotional (and highly extraverted?) conservatives fling meaningless attacks at the book—attacks so off target it’s doubtful in most cases that the critics read the book—but scientists admit that it represents the research on ideology accurately. That’s what just happened Saturday morning
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: A Genetic Justification For Liberalism
It’s little wonder that liberalism endorses science when no other ideology is more endorsed by it. Foundational liberal principles have been recently strengthened by new research, solidifying the ideology not just in abstract philosophy but empirically in human nature. The liberal belief in equality and that government has a role
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Got Framing? Why Scientists Must Pay Attention to Communication Science, and Not Just as an Afterthought
dont_tread_on_me.jpg There was the Tweet, from Andy Revkin: “Scientists Call For Stronger Global Governance To Address Climate Change.” Revkin linked to a Forbes story, that, in turn, linked to a new paper in Science by the “Earth System Governance Project,” described as “the largest social science research network in the
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Opposing Labour & Other Bad Driving Habits
Nowadays people oppose strikes like they drive a car. It’s not about the all the people going forward anymore, it’s only about one person getting where they want to go. Decades ago when unions went on strike the average joes not only put up with it, they supported it; today
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Don’t Blame the Victims: Why Public Outreach By Climate Scientists is More Vital Than Ever
speakout.jpg In the last few years—and especially in the wake of the ClimateGate pseudo-scandal—climate researchers have become much more politically engaged. They’ve sought to become better at communication, and to have a greater influence on public policy. They’ve tried to establish rapid response capabilities, and also, better ways of protecting
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: We All Lose In BC Teacher Labour Dispute
Who will win in the latest labour dispute between BC teachers and the provincial government? It doesn’t matter, we are already losing. Now a politician isn’t going to tell a province this, a union representative isn’t going to hold a press conference to point it out, and people aren’t going
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: A Call to Support Michael Mann
hockeybookmann.jpg I've been a great ally of my latest Point of Inquiry guest Michael Mann, and even called him a climate hero. I've blurbed his new book, saying the following: "Although not initially of his own choosing, Michael Mann has been the most important, resilient, and outspoken warrior in the climate battle—responding to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: In Which Climate “Skeptics” Drop the Lysenko Bomb. No, I’m Not Kidding….
Lysenko_in_field_with_wheat.jpg There has been a much justified uproar over last week’s Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which a group of scientific “skeptics” reiterate the old line that we don’t have to worry about global warming, and that those who do so are engaging in climate “alarmism.” Ample refutations have been
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Slack-tivists All
People who click “like” on Facebook to show support for a cause are slacktivists, you on the other hand with your “Support Our Troops” bumper sticker, breast cancer ribbon fleece and poppy laden dashboard are not. Slacktivism is a pejorative term that refers to easy and simple gestures, relatively symbolic
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Who’s Afraid of Kerry Emanuel? Why Republicans Are Attacking a Republican Climate Scientist
kerry emanuel.jpg Last week, MIT climate scientist and hurricane specialist Kerry Emanuel received email threats for his view on climate change. These were quickly and appropriately condemned by the progressive and environmental blogosphere—as they are condemned by me—but I want to go a bit further and contemplate why Emanuel’s views
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: How to Get a Liberal to Deny Climate Science (Yes, It Can Happen)
geoengineering_diagram1-660×439.jpg Regular readers of my posts will know that I’ve often focused on the work of Yale’s Dan Kahan and his colleagues, who have published fascinating research on how our political and cultural views about how society ought to be ordered skew our perceptions of scientific reality. In particular, Kahan
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Climate-Media Paradox: More Coverage, Stalled Progress
who speaks for the climate.jpg For those of us who care about global warming, 2006 and 2007 felt like pretty good years. Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for An Inconvenient Truth, sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Media attention to the issue soared, and it
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Science of Debiasing: The New “Debunking Handbook” Is a Treasure Trove For Defenders of Reason
dbh_large.gif For quite some time here at DeSmogBlog, I’ve been writing about the growing science of irrationality—in other words, our ever-better scientific understanding of why people reject clearly correct information. I believe we can’t possibly get to a better place, in debates over issues like global warming, until we understand
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Why Ethical Oil’s Deceptive ‘Women’s Rights’ Defense of Tar Sands is Insulting and Wrong
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EthicalOil.org’s new spokesperson, Kathryn Marshall, authored an insulting piece this week on the Huffington Post titled "Care About Women's Rights? Support Eth…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Why Hard Core Climate “Skeptics” Don’t Change Their Minds
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I’ve been watching with interest the blogosphere uproar over the release of results from the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project centered around physicist Richard Mulle…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Why Communicating Science is So Money
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I’ve been meaning to thrown in my congratulations to Gavin Schmidt of NASA and RealClimate.org, who is the first recipient of the American Geophysical Union’s new…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Want to Sway Climate Change Skeptics? Ask About Their Personal Strengths (And Show Pictures!)
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Readers of my posts over the last half year will be familiar with the phenomenon of motivated reasoning, in which people’s subcons…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: Why Questionable "Science" Gets Published, Pounced On in the Media, Retracted, Causes Resignations…Rinse and Repeat
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An editor resigns after a journal publishes a paper that seems to trash the scientific consensus on climate change—but is heavily criticized by top scientists. Where…
Continue readingDeSmogBlog - Clearing the PR Pollution that Clouds Climate Science: What’s Up With Conservative White Men and Climate Change Denial?
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They come at you at public events, wanting to argue. They light up the switchboards whenever there’s a radio show about climate change. They commandeer your blog comments …
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