By Lindsay Abrams25 February 2014 (Salon) – Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer published a head slapper of a column last week, in which the conservative pundit managed to spew an enormous number of misinformed, misleading claims, all couched in this “disclaimer” of an opening graf: I repeat: I’m not a global warming believer. I’m […]
February 2014 (UCS) – Back in 2012, after the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Review each published pieces that likened climate scientist Michael E. Mann to a child molester and called his work a fraud, Mann fought back with a lawsuit, charging them with libel. Now, in a preliminary ruling, a Superior Court Judge […]
By D. R. Tucker4 February 2014 (Coffee Party USA) – I appreciate your courage in having Mr. Inglis on The Matt Lewis Show — and I do mean courage, since I recognize that it’s far easier to ridicule Inglis as a RINO (Republican in Name Only) than it is to engage with his arguments. You […]
[Yes, Desdemona is indulging in a little anticipatory schadenfreude.] By Damon Linker30 January 2014 (The Week) – National Review, founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955, has had an enormous impact on the nation’s politics. Its writers formulated the ideology that animated the quixotic Barry Goldwater campaign of 1964, and then Ronald Reagan’s successful […]
By Ken Silverstein27 January 2014 (Christian Science Monitor) – Instead of pushing into the future, the embattled US coal industry has reached into the past with a new public relations assault, emphasizing how its product powered the Industrial Revolution and can do the same for today’s emerging nations. The pitch: The economic and social benefits […]
By Michael Hiltzik20 January 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – Aaron Carroll today offers a graphic depiction of the toll of the anti-vaccination movement. (H/t: Kevin Drum.) It comes from a Council on Foreign Relations interactive map of “vaccine-preventable outbreaks” worldwide 2008-2014. A couple of manifestations stand out. One is the prevalence of measles in Europe […]
23 January 2014 (Climate Science Watch) – Accusing a scientist of conducting his research fraudulently is a factual allegation that can be proven true or false, not mere hyperbolic opinionating. If it is false it is defamatory, and if it is made with actual malice it is actionable. So said DC Superior Court Frederick Weisberg […]
By Brian Clark Howard8 January 2014 (National Geographic News) – The most severe cold snap in the U.S. in 20 years (see pictures) has some people questioning whether the Earth’s climate is in fact warming. The conservative website Breitbart.com has called the cold snap evidence of a global warming “hoax,” while Donald Trump recently tweeted: […]
[cf. Graph of the Day: Total foundation funding distribution to U.S. climate change countermovement organizations, 2003-2010] By George Zornick 27 December 2013 (Washington Post) – In his speech at Georgetown University this year, President Obama made it clear that tackling climate change will be one of the key priorities for the remainder of his term. […]
20 December 2013 (PhysOrg) – A new study conducted by Drexel University’s environmental sociologist Robert J. Brulle, PhD, exposes the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the powerful climate change countermovement. This study marks the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the sources of funding that maintain the denial effort. Through an analysis of the […]