Saving the planet has never been such a thankless task. It began with the demonization of Al Gore, continued with the railroading of Van Jones, and now it’s trickled down to James Cameron, whose eco-minded Avatar is drawing the Right’s wrath. One pundit dismissed the film as “socialism-disguised-as-nonsense enviro stuff,†and in the same motion dismissed the whole green......read more
The cover story of this week's New York Times Magazine is a piece by Paul Krugman on the economics of climate change. In it, the Nobel Prize-winning economist makes a compelling case for the use of market-based tools to limit greenhouse emissions. Crucially, Krugman addresses the economic effects of installing a cap and trade model, presenting a persuasive argument against the idea that......read more
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released its 2010 Arctic Report Card, and things aren't looking good. The report warns that the Arctic is warming at such a rate that it's becoming increasingly unlikely that "normal" Arctic conditions will return in the near future. The first half of 2010 saw average Arctic temperatures 7 degrees higher than normal, the......read more
Al Gore is pissed. The former vice president and climate change crusader has taken aim at the Obama administration for failing to take "bold action" on climate change and energy policy. In a scathing 7,000 word essay in the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Gore calls out Obama for lacking the forceful leadership required to address a warming planet. President Obama has never......read more
In spite of political apathy in Washington — and a disturbing lack of recent concern from the general public — climate scientists keep calling for urgent steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. A new, 19-page report from SF's ClimateWorks Foundation lays out the issue in understandable terms, offering a clear explanation why scientists......read more
Richard Muller, a prominent physicist and global warming skeptic, spent the last two years studying the earth's surface temperatures. In the end, he reached the same conclusion most climate scientists have held for years: the world is warming. That a notable climate change skeptic has "seen the light" is significant in and of itself, but what's more interesting is that the study was backed in......read more
For telling proof that something is awry with global temperatures, one need look no further than recent headlines about devastating forest fires in Colorado or severe drought across the midwestern plains. If you're still not convinced, Bill McKibben offers up some numbers that will stop you dead in your tracks. In a sober piece written for Rolling Stone, the veteran activist and......read more
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which left a devastating trail of destruction, power failures and flooding in its wake, people all over are wondering whether the "Frankenstorm" is related in any way to climate change. Has global warming helped create the conditions that make freak storms like Sandy happen? Writing for Climate Desk, Chris Mooney asked a handful of climate scientists this......read more
Tom Zeller for The Huffington Post: Public opinion on the topic of climate change is notoriously fickle, changing -- quite literally sometimes -- with the weather. The latest bit of evidence on this: Yale's April 2013 climate change survey, which found, among other things, that Americans' conviction that global warming is happening had dropped by seven points, to 63 percent, over the preceding......read more
Economist Jim Barrett for The Huffington Post: In case there was any remaining doubt that mainstream Republicans have abandoned mainstream science, look no further than the House Republicans' recent crusades against their own scientific ideas. According to The Hill: "Lawmakers voted 234-178 ... to prevent EPA from factoring the "social cost of carbon" into rules unless a federal law is enacted......read more