Business editors and reporters over the past few years have found themselves covering climate change implications as policy makers and the public move beyond the science of whether and why the Earth is warming to the policy issues: what the impacts will be, how they might be mitigated, and costs and benefits. Climate change scientists […]
Posted inClimate Science, Feature Article
HOW I DID THAT STORY: Covering Climate At Nearly 20,000 Feet
Ten breaths. Ten steps. Ten breaths. Ten steps. In tortured fashion, I struggled to follow Ohio State glaciologist Lonnie Thompson up the steep, scree-strewn slopes of Naimona’nyi, a brooding massif that rises 25,242 ft. in the far corner of southwestern Tibet. By this time, Thompson himself was no longer in sight, having vanished over a […]
Posted inClimate Science, Feature Article
A LEADING SCIENTIST’S PERSPECTIVE: The Scientist/Journalist Experience On Remote Mountain Research Expeditions
How does journalism mix with science on an expedition to remote mountain glaciers? In the end the answer really depends on the character and expectations of the individuals involved. So far our experiences with journalists have been very positive and productive, and I believe the same can be said for their experiences with us.
Posted inFeature Article, Policy & Politics
Rhetoric as an Effective Political Tool: Journalists Need to Beware, Focus on Real Issues (Pt.2 of 2)
Pete Du Pont, chairman of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis (see Note), rails in The Wall Street Journal against “the global-warming establishment” and “the Gore globalists.” Fred Singer in a column originally published in the Washington Times writes that “global warming has become an article of faith for many, with its own theology […]
Posted inAnalysis
1970s ‘Global Cooling’ Concerns Lacked Today’s Scientific Rigor and Relevance
Journalists covering the climate change issue for any period of time quickly run across arguments that the big concern just a few decades back had involved global cooling and not global warming. They will do well to step back and look hard at those claims to see if they really hold up.
Posted inAnalysis
CO2 as a feedback and forcing in the climate system
A fundamental misconception about the role that carbon dioxide plays in glacial transitions has helped fuel the argument that the lag time between temperature and CO2 in the paleoclimate record casts doubt on carbon dioxide as an important greenhouse gas. It’s crucial that media reporting on climate change understand an important distinction between the dual […]
Posted inEnergy
Is YouTube Your Information Source on Carbon Offsets?
Search under the keyword term “carbon offsets” on the popular youtube.com web site, and you’ll find 209 or so entries. You’ll also find that few have cracked into the “big numbers,” with most having fewer than 1,000 views after several – or more – months online.
Posted inClimate Science
U.S. Media Largely Avoid Misreporting Claim of Accelerated Greenhouse Gas Levels
It’s the kind of near-miss collision which in the past may have led some reporters – too many – down a mistaken path of sensationalizing climate change with inadequate understanding of what lay behind their coverage.
Posted inFeature Article
New York Times’ Revkin Launches Dotearth Blog Site
If there’s a “rock star” in the climate science journalism community – and for the sake of outstanding journalism, we might all hope that there were not – it’s unquestionably The New York Times‘ science writer, Andrew C. Revkin, viewed by many as having the world’s best daily newspaper venue for reporting news on climate […]
Posted inAnalysis
Independent Audit Supports Official U.S. Surface Temperature Record
Measuring the temperature of an entire country is no easy undertaking. Numerous factors such as the heat island effect of urban areas and poor quality measuring sites mean that any aggregate temperature calculation must adjust for potential biases. A recent effort by Anthony Watts and a team of dozens of volunteers at SurfaceStations.org succeeded in […]
Posted inCommunicating Climate
NPR’s Year-Long Climate Connection Series: Focus on Climate Change as it Affects Peoples’ Lives
Four years ago, staff editors and producers at National Public Radio began plans for an expansive series of reports showing how climate change has worked its way into every aspect of life around the globe, from the poorest coastal citizen to the largest industrial leader. Then Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and dominated environmental […]
Posted inEnergy, Feature Article, Jobs & Economy
Top News Executives Turn to ‘Solutions’: Energy, Costs, Feasibility, and More (Pt.2 of 2)
Their minds full from an all-morning briefing on climate science from some of the nation’s leading experts, 18 top news executives from some of America’s leading news organizations reconvened after an outdoor lunch at Stanford University’s on-campus Dohrmann Grove, where they sat under the redwoods and an observant red-tailed hawk perched nearby.