Climate Change Skepticism

TIME TO TOON IN

Climate psychology in cartoons: clues for solving the messaging mystery 2
Posted 3 days, 4 hours ago Getting Americans to wake up to the reality of climate change is no easy task. But experts at Columbia University believe a mix of psychology, anthropology, and behavioral economics can help, and they've written a guide with cartoons showing how.
It begins...

The big stories out of Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Kerry-Boxer 3
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee -- the first of three days of hearings on the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill -- didn't contain any big surprises. As Keith Johnson notes, Senators generally played their appointed roles. There are four stories out of today that seem notable.
Pretty words

Obama energy speech contained few policy specifics, but shaped forward-looking narrative 1
Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago Obama delivered a speech on energy at MIT on Friday, marking the kick-off for what is likely to be a protracted effort by the administration and Democrats in the Senate to pass the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill.
They mean well

What does the Pew poll mean? 5
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago A Pew poll shows declining belief in climate change. Don't panic.
Don't pewk, but...

Poll finds sharp rise in global warming skepticism 31
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago A new Pew poll finds a significant drop in the number of Americans who believe global warming is happening, is human-caused, and is a serious problem. Some possible explanations.
CEI eats brains

Climate Cover Up reveals how zombies are made 4
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago Ever wonder what keeps bringing those zombie climate skeptic arguments to life? A new book reveals the money and players behind the climate denial movement.
FAQ YOU

Ask Umbra on combating climate denial 55
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
This summer's cool weather has some people scratching their heads and wondering if climate change is real. Umbra explains the difference between one crazy summer and a global trend, and offers resources for understanding the finer points of the climate "debate."
CoC block

Chamber of Commerce keeps stepping on rakes 2
Posted 2 months ago

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce can't catch a break these days. It has pretended to agree with the goals of climate legislation while recommending changes in the means so drastic that they would gut the bill. But there's a problem: many, many business see enormous opportunities in the shift to clean energy. And many of those businesses happen to be members of the CoC.
Notable quotable

Sen. Tom Coburn has scientific document reading training 9
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
"I am not the smartest man in the world, but I have been trained to read scientific documents, and [climate change] is malarkey."

-- Sen. Tom Coburn, who also explained why Jesus would oppose a public option in health care reform
Blowing smoke out his Grassley

Chuck Grassley does not believe in the threat of anthropogenic climate change 11
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
In a Tuesday conference call with Iowa agricultural reporters, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) offered some state-of-the-art Republican doubletalk on climate change. This is worth reading in full, in part to admire the blithely inconsistent muddle of it all, but also in part to marvel at just how second-nature this line of dissembling has become. These talking points are echoed almost verbatim up and down the conservative food chain, all the way from bottom-feeders like Marc Morano to U.S. Senators. No conservative has to think on his feet about it, or craft his own careful line on it.
*But don't cite me no scientific evidence!

“Can you PROVE to me that global warming is being caused by mankind?”* 25
Posted 3 months ago
The deniers believe in "science," they just don't believe in scientists, or hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific articles, or scientific "evidence."
Why I LIke to Do Battle With the Deniers

The climate science fight club 14
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
I like to engage in the fight with global warming deniers every once in a while as a sort of bloodsport, a fight club. It gets the blood flowing, like a good workout at the gym or a big cup of coffee.
Like splitting hairs with bald people

Sarah Palin, George Will, and Potemkin debates 21
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Debating climate policy with conservatives is a surreal exercise because, as a movement and as a party, conservatives do not believe anthropogenic climate change exists. But the mainstream media refuses to notice.
It Could Be Verse

Climate-news poem: George Will edition 0
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
The conservative Washington Post columnist goes at climate change like a dog worrying a bone. Except the dog believes the bone exists.
The tale of two Jims

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, ACES edition 38
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
A curious thing happened at Tuesday's meeting of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee: famed climate-change skeptic James Inhofe (R-Okla.) cited NASA climatologist Jim Hansen in his screed against the House climate bill.
Jeb and flow

Jeb Bush still skeptical about climate change 5
Posted 4 months ago
As bad as George W. Bush's environmental record was, W. at least got around to acknowledging that climate change is real and human-caused before leaving office. Yet his little brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, remains a global warming skeptic.
Glowing on us

Nuclear + cap-and-trade = bipartisan climate bill? 16
Posted 4 months ago
Four members of the Obama administration appeared before the Senate committee charged with crafting climate change legislation on Tuesday in support of passing a strong bill out of the upper chamber. The hearing marked the Senate's first venture into climate policy this year.
Dept. of Misinformation

No, Jeff, there’s not a debate about the science of climate change 13
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
Following on our in-depth series, How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic, Grist is launching an occasional feature that tracks the latest global warming denialisms and skeptics garbage, making sure to point readers to the real story.
Compromises, what compromises?

The new Senate global warming deniers 2
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
In the aftermath of the House vote, right-leaning Senate Dems and right-wing Republicans acted as if Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey hadn't spent the last three months painstakingly piecing a compromise with Dems sympathetic to coal companies, power companies, and agribusiness. These Senators are the new global warming deniers: Not denying the climate crisis is happening, but denying the climate bill compromises that just happened.
One-Way Bleat

Do as Heartland says, not as it does 1
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
If you're a green blogger who wants to cover a Heartland Institute event, you better pony up hundreds of dollars in entrance fees or you're not allowed inside. But if you're a Congressman holding a hearing on global warming and you don't invite a spokesman from the Heartland Institute to testify, you're a fascist who silences dissenting voices.