Canadians Mourn The Untimely “Death of Evidence”
“The Harper government is the most environmentally hostile one we have ever had in Canada.” – Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians About 1,500 scientists, lawyers, students and…
science
Announcing Bad Science Watch
The promoters of science-based policy in Canada have a new defender. Bad Science Watch, a new Canadian science advocacy group, has issued a challenge to the Canadian government: stick to…
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…
Hot Enough For Ya? Extreme Weather Events Consistent With Climate Change Science
temperature map.gif Large portions of the U.S. are on fire. Record droughts currently encompass massive swaths of America. The areas not experiencing droughts have been inundated with flooding. Winter weather…
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…
The God particle, and what it has to do with God
Oh how I wish the recently demonstrated Higgs Boson, which bestows mass on particles, had never acquired the moniker the ‘God Particle’. I suppose there is one benefit: it increases…
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…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Michael Harris slams the Cons for their attacks on science: How far has the government been prepared to go to smother the…
A Court’s Scientific Smackdown: The D.C. Circuit Trashes Science Deniers on Global Warming and the EPA
800px-Meade_and_Prettyman_Courthouse.jpg Tomorrow, we may see a court—the highest in the land—flout precedent for partisan ends in its ruling on President Obama’s signature health care law. However, in the meantime, we…
Climate Denial in Brazil: A Translation
ricardo augusto felico.jpg This is a translation of the May 2, 2012 “Programa do Jo” on Globo, a half hour interview with the climate skeptic geographer Ricardo Augusto Felicio on…
Scientists warn, politicians ignore
The Global Network of Science Academies, representing 105 science academies around the world, issued a press release last week highlighting what they referred to as “two of the most profound…
Climate Denial Hits Brazil
ricardo augusto felico.jpg Last year, I wrote about how journalists in developing nations were doing a better job of covering climate change, largely because denial hadn’t really taken root in…
ConCalls: 3% Reduction in Voting
I think it’s rather clever how these researchers, Tom Cornwall & Anke Kessler, realized that the individual polling stations within a riding could be used to determine the effect of…
Rio-Inspired Optimism (If Not Optimism About Rio)
Rio de janeiro.jpg If the goal was to get the world focused on sustainable development, then this definitely counts as terrible timing. With global leaders pressured by the unending European…
The Normalcy of Hypocrisy: From Clean Energy to Health Care, Conservatives Flip Flop in Support of the Team
go team.jpg One striking feature of the liberal psyche is how it is simultaneously outraged by hypocrisy on the conservative side of the aisle—and yet also morbidly fascinated by it.…
Earth May Reach Tipping Point
* More links: Scientists Uncover Evidence Of Impending Tipping Point For Earth Carbon Targets Need Strong New Measures, Panel Argues
The New ExxonMobil: Has the Tiger Changed Its Stripes?
Private-Empire-ExxonMobil-and-American-Power-by-Steve-Coll.cover_.jpg For a decade, now, I’ve been a reporter on climate science. And one of my earliest stories was a Mother Jones cover, exposing ExxonMobil’s funding of think tanks that…
Mann Handled: A Decade Ago, Conservatives Attacked a Scientist—And Created a Leader
hockeybookmann (1).jpg This is a review of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From the Front Lines, by Michael Mann. I first became familiar with the name Michael…
God Created Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve
I’m really not sure why religious right wingers always seem to use this phrase in reference to the Adam and Eve story (as well as other Old Testament references) to…