Writer, commentator, news source, and most of all critic, James Howard Kunstler combines an unforgiving disdain of America’s fossil fuel-based way of life with a scalding rejection of modern architecture, suburban zoning laws, and what he sees as much of the media’s complicity in the whole thing. A news junkie and major force behind the nascent “beyond the oil age” movement, Kunstler pulls no punches with his sharp tongue and engaging prose damning Americans’ over-reliance on their automobiles. His seemingly endless cheerless scolding doesn’t make him a pessimist, however, and certainly not a shy and retiring one. It’s just that the future he sees is a lot different from the one we have and the one that so many of his fellow citizens seem unable to see beyond.
The U.S. Voluntary Carbon Offset Market (Pt.2 of 2)
A voluntary market for carbon offsets has emerged in recent years in the United States that in many ways parallels the global compliance carbon market in countries that have signed onto the Kyoto Protocol. In contrast to the strict regulatory framework governing offset markets under Kyoto’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), however, a voluntary offset market […]
No Bombshell in Academics’ Analysis: Skeptics/Conservative Think Tanks Linked
There’s a really strong connection between conservative think tanks and books taking a “skeptics” approach to environmental issues.
Shifting storm tracks
A shifting storm track to the northern latitudes of the U.S. is expected to leave the Southwest increasingly parched during the spring season, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters and covered by Scientific American August 20.
Plug-In Hybrid Advances Focus Of Utilities/G.M. Collaboration
The electric utility’s Palo Alto-based research and development arm, the Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, in July announced that 34 major utilities will work with it and with General Motors “to facilitate integration of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the grid.”
Offshore drilling gears up
As lawmakers and presidential candidates debate whether to open new areas to offshore oil drilling, energy companies in late August bid $487.3 million to win rights to drill 319 tracts covering 1.8 million acres below the Gulf of Mexico.
Cracking glaciers
A chunk of ice covering 11 square miles is poised to break away from the Petermann glacier in Northern Greenland and melt into the ocean, scientists reported on August 21.
Ball State Researcher Finds Improved – But Still Lagging – Coverage
Media in the U.S. appear to be expressing more certainty about the principal causes and effects of climate change since the United Nations’ December 2007 climate change conference, but U.S. newspapers “still lag behind” those in the United Kingdom “in terms of the amount of coverage, the presence of climate contrarians” and other metrics.
Brookings Researchers Point to Factors Shaping American Views on Climate Change
Survey results published by the Brookings Institution, a prominent Washington think tank, offer insights on factors most likely to influence public attitudes on climate change.
Scientists/Media Interactions Said More Frequent … and ‘Far Smoother’
A ‘Sea Change’ in Findings from 1,300 Researchers? Research scientists and journalists may be interacting lots more than generally thought, and the scientists’ experiences, at least, may be “far smoother” than generally thought. That’s the gist of a new research report based on a survey of more than 1,300 researchers in the U.S., France, Germany, […]
Natural Gas Firm Going On Line With ‘Shale.tv’ Programming
With the mainstream commercial media companies eliminating many hundreds of journalists’ jobs, new ventures such as the nonprofit Pro Publica, the New York-based investigative reporting organization, are trying to pick up some of the slack. Now comes something really different: A for-profit energy corporation is starting an online video channel as “a brand-new media source,” […]
Dire Predictions: Unique, and Uniquely Illustrated Addition to Climate Science Communications
View larger image Climatologist Michael E. Mann might be forgiven for having wondered if yet another book on global climate change was warranted. Whether yet another global warming book could make a significant contribution to the field, could be different from the many – and many of them excellent – that preceded it.