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Round-up on Gore NYT editorial

There was lots of coverage of Al Gore’s “The Climate for Change” editorial in the New York Times on Monday. Gore takes the opportunity of Obama’s victory to pin together as tightly as possible climate change with energy security. It’s argument for action summed up is this:

Here’s what we can do — now: we can make an immediate and large strategic investment to put people to work replacing 19th-century energy technologies that depend on dangerous and expensive carbon-based fuels with 21st-century technologies that use fuel that is free forever: the sun, the wind and the natural heat of the earth.

A couple of U.S. bloggers, notably Skeptics Global Warming, annotated the editorial with their own opinion as rebuttal.  For example, More »

Tags: America, comment, coverage, energy security, Gore, news, Obama, politics, scepticism, US

‘Smart children likely to vote green’

On this fine morning for democracy, something to warm the hearts of the Green Party, and its leaders and principal speakers, Caroline Lucas and Derek Wall. This story in The Times from Monday:

Cleverer children are more likely to vote for the Green Party or the Liberal Democrats in a general election than other parties when they become adults, research suggests. The study, by the University of Edinburgh and the UK Medical Research Council and published in the journal Intelligence, indicates that childhood IQ is as important as social class in determining political allegiance. The IQs of more than 6,000 subjects were recorded at the age of 10, before any secondary schooling. Twenty-four years later they were asked about their voting habits.

Wonder how that would play out in the U.S. in the future? Derek Wall in particular has been highlighting the campaign of Cynthia McKinney, the U.S. election’s green candidate. Wall quotes Sanda Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, saying: More »

Tags: campaign, Caroline Lucas, Cynthia McKinney, Derek Wall, green, Journalism, politics, research, video

Lomborg on half-baked climate ideas

On the Guardian this morning, Bjorn Lomborg argues that politicians using the line that the cost of action on climate change “is low compared to the high price of inaction” are, in fact using an “almost fraudulent” argument. Lomborg believes politicians are getting away with this because “we assume that the action will cancel all the effects of inaction, whereas of course, nothing like that is true.” He asks:

Why, then, should we tolerate such fallacious arguments when debating the costliest public policy decision in the history of mankind?

The problem with this argument is that CO2 emissions reductions programmes are are the only ones with a very long-term solution in mind, and one that is equitable for the planet. As Nicholas Stern’s 2006 and 2008 reports show, most of the 8bn of the 9bn people on the planet by 2050 will have contributed little to climate change, but suffer most of the effects. More »

Tags: climate change, global equity, Lomborg

They Work For You… supposedly

Theyworkforyou.com is a superb project, and is a useful tool for journalists and political commentators alike. I’ve been using it to track climate change and global warming mentions in parliament for a few years now. This just dropped into my email, a typical exchange from Scottish parliamentarians George Foulkes and Richard Lochhead, and of no major use other than to promote the tool as a means of tracking what politicians are saying on our behalf:

George Foulkes (Labour) says:

Is the cabinet secretary aware that the average person’s carbon emission is 5.5 tonnes per year? I have used the National Energy Foundation’s carbon calculator to do some calculations on the First Minister’s carbon footprint. On travel alone—without taking account of any of his household emissions—his footprint is over six times that amount. Since he became First Minister, Alex Salmond has travelled by train only once and takes regular trips by limousine from Bute house to Holyrood. Should he not also set an example or, as is usual with the First Minister, is it another example of, “Do as I say and not as I do”?

Riveting stuff. But there’s been more important words captured by the project. The site is part of mysociety.org, which also runs Whatdotheyknow.com for Freedom of Information requests, and a number of other projects using new media to make democracy more transparent and inclusive.

Tags: climate change, democracy

Climate change: how to balance freedoms

Thanks for all the comments so far. The post in reply, and new comments have moved on to the new post, over here.

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Earlier this week, one of the key sceptical blogs, Jennifer Marohasy, re-listed a collection of quotes to do with scepticism, denial and free expression. There are pegs on which denial–denial, and not scepticism–finds itself hooked. For example, picking up on inaccuracies in the politicized science. Interestingly, Mahorasy’s list came on the same day as a leaked email from the US Environmental Protection Agency, which has ’silenced its employees on climate change’. What’s going on in relation to climate change and freedom of expression, particularly online? More »

Tags: climate change, denialists, freedom of expression, global warming, scepticism

C4 Mykura’s half-right contradiction on climate change

Hamish Mykura, Channel 4’s head of documentaries, has published his reply to Monbiot’s claim that Channel 4 has harmed action against climate change.

Mykura’s central tenet is that the vehemence of people such as Monbiot do more harm to the ’cause’ of global warming than a dissenting documentary that is seen by 2.7m viewers. In Mykura’s words:

It is arguable that it is not the Great Global Warming Swindle that has bred public scepticism, but the desire of some environmentalists – evidenced by the identikit complaints orchestrated against the film – to stamp out dissenting voices. This intolerance undermines confidence in the rightness of the cause.

This one’s going to get some comments alright. Maybe aiming for the 1,500 that accumulated under the New Scientist Lynas/White debate at the beginning of the year. Some early comments on the CIF site under Mykura’s article:

• Pretendingtocare: ‘2 more articles like this and we’ll have balance’
• TheLoonyfromCatford: ‘Impact? well it sure got a lot of US right-wing bloggers talking’
• Commander Keen: Hamish, you are a (quoting Durkin) ‘big daft cock’

And isn’t that fulfilling all the promises of new media? More »

Tags: Channel 4, climate change, GGWS, Mykura, Ofcom

Third of Conservatives don’t accept climate change

Yesterday the Guardian published figures showing that a third of Conservative MPs don’t believe, or don’t know what they believe about, climate change. This on the same day that Gordon Brown gave the keynote speech to the Guardian’s ‘Climate Change Summit: how to beat Green Fatigue’ conference.

Writing in yesterday’s Guardian, Brown says climate change “is a challenge that inspires rather than daunts me.” Currently critical columnists (there’s a mouthful of cs) of Brown agree: Jonathan Freeland agress that “Brown sees this vast horizon: Cameron and the others can barely glimpse it.” Yet Cameron is for the Guardian “Britain’s most influential politician”.

Another view, this morning in the New Statesman, is that Labour would do better by leaving the coming economic downturn in the hands of Cameron, as it could mean another 20 years of Labour if the Conservatives get it wrong. More »

Tags: climate change, David Cameron, environmental reporting, media, politics