A Minnesota engineering professor takes aim at what he considers vacuous arguments and what constitutes proper handling of a series of online comments and jags going beyond the point of fair and serious commentary and analysis.*
Posted inCommentary
On Blogging, Comments … and Online Civil Discourse
A Minnesota engineering professor takes aim at what he considers vacuous arguments and what constitutes proper handling of a series of online comments and jags going beyond the point of fair and serious commentary and analysis.*
Posted inThis Is Not Cool
Margaret Thatcher, Others: Neither ‘Murderers, Tyrants, nor Madmen’
Peter Sinclair’s monthly Yale Forum video uses historical footage to debunk an assertion that the most well-known climate change ‘advocates’ are … ‘murderers, tyrants, and madmen.’
Posted inCommentary
How long will global warming remain center stage?
Earlier this year, more than 100 European researchers and policy experts convened at the University of Copenhagen to discuss an issue that used to be in the headlines regularly — biodiversity. The University issued a press release after the meeting titled, “The biodiversity crisis: Worse than climate change.” The statement that followed was not so […]
Posted inCommentary
Changing the Cultural Climate … on Climate Culture
In 2010 and again in 2011, I was a solitary speaker for the scientific consensus at the Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change. More recently, I’ve been shocked and deeply disappointed by Heartland’s ugly “Unabomber” billboard campaign. Nevertheless I would consider attending the meeting again, and want here to consider the merits of rhetorical […]
Posted inCommentary
Lines in the Sand
Two respected voices articulate where the climate debate stands.
Posted inFeature Article
Competing Narratives in U.S. Television News
Content analysis of TV news coverage from 2001 to 2010, reflecting six basic narrative lines, shows striking on-air differences between cable coverage on Fox and CNN and broadcast news on ABC and other traditional networks.
Posted inFeature Article, Policy & Politics
Mind-Blowing Heartland Street Poster Fiasco
Few institutional climate change communication blunders compare with that of a recent short-lived Heartland Institute street poster initiative. What could they have been thinking?
Posted inClimate Science, Feature Article
High School Climate Education Highlighted in PBS NewsHour Segment
A Colorado high school science teacher offers a poignant definition of ‘theory’ as seen differently by the scientific and popular cultures and rebuffs some parents’ complaints about her reliance on NASA and NOAA data sets as being tantamount to ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ of a liberal conspiracy. A May 2 Public Broadcasting Service/NewsHour segment provides an informative […]
Posted inClimate Science, Feature Article
Alley Points to His ‘Personal Milestones’ and Dog Walking …
Key dates during his 55 years on Earth — and the image of a leashed dog zipping after a squirrel or ‘sniffing here and there’ — help a prominent climatologist make his point in debunking an all-too-common climate myth. His tongue planted “somewhat in cheek,” Penn State climatologist Richard Alley gets real in pointing to […]
Posted inCommentary
Localizing Climate Change Stories
An enterprising journalistic endeavor is a welcome change of pace from the standard media fare.
Posted inClimate Science, Feature Article
Scientific Consensus Stronger than Scientists Thought?
An innovative sampling of a small group of climate scientists’ perspectives suggests their views may be more commonly shared among their science colleagues than they had thought.