The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and oil executives have consistently claimed that the dirty Alberta tar sands oil is a boon to U.S. energy security. Here are seven reasons why this isn’t the case: 1. Tar sands cannot break the power of OPEC. The oil cartel, the
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DeSmogBlog: US Chamber Rejoices As Courts Rule For Polluters
dirty-air.jpg Earlier this week, an appellate court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had overstepped their authority with their Transport Rule that was put in place to reduce the amount of air pollution being spewed from coal burning plants. The rule would have put stringent
Continue readingLeft Over: Pussy Riot? Can you Say Assange?
A well-known British politician, who is considered a bit of a ‘radical’ in the best sense, in the UK, has launched a defence of Julian Assange, pointing out that, should Assange be convicted of what he is accused of, there would be no penalty in Britain, since his alleged acts
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: See No Evil, Speak Little Truth, Break Rules, Blame Others
pinoccio.shutterstock_77732134.jpg The "Wegman Report", led by Edward Wegman of George Mason University (GMU) got criticized in 2010's Experts claim 2006 climate report plagiarized. Experts called it "obvious" even "shocking" plagiarism. GMU's incompetent handling, mistreatment of complainants and flawed rulings were mostly documented in March, but recent FOIAs expose more untruths. Is
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Grieving Father Struggles to Pay Dead Son’s Student Loans
Article by Marian Wang | ProPublica, June 14, 2012, 10:05 a.m. A few months after he buried his son, Francisco Reynoso began getting notices in the mail. Then the debt collectors came calling. “They would say, ‘We don’t care what happened with your son, you have to pay us,’” recalled Reynoso, a
Continue readingCanadian Progressive: Does Cybercrime Really Cost $1 Trillion?
As the Senate considers a bill to strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity, some questionable numbers keep creeping into the discussion.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Are Conservatives Inherently More Biased than Liberals? The Scientific Debate Rages On
Republican Brain.jpg In the first round of critical reactions to my book The Republican Brain, there wasn’t much to impress. As I related at AlterNet, the general conservative response to the book was to misrepresent its arguments, rather than to engage them seriously. (The book predicted this, incidentally.) But now that
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Conversion Fever! Why The Media Adores Former Climate Skeptics
Muller001.jpg If you’ve been following the science of global warming for over a decade—as I have—you might find the recent conversion of Berkeley physicist Richard Muller into a climate believer kind of underwhelming. That’s certainly the reaction of many longtime climate scientists, with whom Muller now, finally, agrees. “At this rate, Muller should
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Latest Pro-Keystone XL Website Backed by GOP Special Interest Group
kerpin.jpeg This morning, the latest in pro-tar sands spin went live. KeystoneXLNow.com takes aim at President Obama for failing to approve the Keystone XL project (even though the White House just announced approval of the southern leg today), calling it "an affront to millions of Americans out of work and an
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: If Conservatives Were Really “Conservative,” They Would Want to Do Something About Global Warming
kerry-emanuel.jpg Originally, when I asked MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel to be a guest on the Point of Inquiry podcast, my goal was simple. I wanted someone who could give an expert take on the relationship between climate change and all the freakish weather we’ve been seeing. As for having
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: It’s the Weather, Stupid: Slowly Re-Awakening the Public About Climate Change
drought monitor.gif The Yale and George Mason Centers on Climate Change Communication, collaborators on the well-known “Six Americas” studies of how the public views global warming, are out with their latest report, the fifth in the series. And it hints at an underlying theme discernible in many of these surveys:
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Ed Wegman Promised Data to Rep. Henry Waxman Six Years Ago – Where Is It?
shutterstock_62905804.jpg George Mason University’s Edward Wegman and Yasmin Said are back in the news, having just silently disappeared as Editors of a Wiley journal in which they had authored two plagiarized articles. But now, FOIA information shows that Wegman first misled Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and then never released code and data
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: No Place In Canada For Russell Williams TV Movie
Any Canadian citizen or resident who cares about gender-based violence, equality and women’s rights should condemn “An Officer and a Murderer”. The new TV movie dramatizing the real-life horror of the crimes of the former commander of CFB Trenton airs on the U.S. network Lifetime on July 21. I never
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Anthony Watts Is Right Because He’s Older Than Me
anthony-watts.jpg Last week, the leading climate skeptic blogger Anthony Watts criticized my writing based upon my age and looks—and other, er, observations: For the record, it is now official; Chris Mooney is a paid political hack disguising himself as a science writer. I’m going back to calling him a “kid blogger”, because
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: More Evidence That Republicans Are More Factually Challenged Than Democrats
pinocchio.jpg In writing The Republican Brain, I had a problem to solve. You see, it was one thing to cite all the psychological research suggesting that liberals and conservatives just think differently, because they have different personalities and cognitive styles. Sure, one could infer on this basis that certain conservatives,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Right to Work, again
In case anyone was wondering about the effectiveness of right to work laws in suppressing unionization, here is a chart of Union coverage by U.S. State (the percentage of all employees that are covered by a collective agreement) as of 2010. Right to work states have an asterisk, and are outlined
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Politics of Ice and Fire
High_Park_Wildfire_Arapaho_and_Roosevelt_National_Forests_June_10,_2012.jpg In late June of 1988, just under 24 years ago, NASA’s James Hansen testified before the U.S. Congress about global warming. He noted that the Earth had been remarkably warm in the months leading up to that moment, and said he was 99 percent certain that the overall warming
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Indisputable Proof of Climate Change
The Harper government is muzzling government scientists to stop them from interpreting extreme weather phenomena like record-shattering heatwaves, freak storms, drought and wildfires. Luckily, in this modern age of the Internet and global connectedness, Canadians can still access scientific information and knowledge. Still, the climate change-denying corporate media is another
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Study: Climate Deniers Are Emoting–Especially the Conspiracy Theorists
Im-as-mad-as-Hell.jpg Anyone paying attention these last few years will have noticed that global warming denial simply isn’t a rational phenomenon. And it’s not just that if there were any reason involved, then denial it would have decreased in prevalence—rather than increased—as climate science grew more firm and certain over the
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay”
A couple of years ago, a friend swore to me that the CNN’s Anderson Cooper was gay. And that it was a matter of time before he came out. I argued that Cooper would be gay only after he’d publicly confirmed that he was gay. The essence of the conversation
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