Environmental Science and Skeptical Challenges
In the last few years most people have accepted that Global Warming is the most important issue that we face (see poll). However, scientists have been telling us this for a decade or more. In part, our skepticism may be the result of the perception that "tree-huggers" care more about nature than jobs/people, and that their doomsday warnings in the past have been overblown (see below for examples such as The Population Bomb). But much of the doubt has been deliberately created by arguing that even scientists don't agree, so why should we worry? How is it possible that a small number of people in industry, politics and public relations fooled so many of us for so long? By investigating this issue, you can learn how to protect yourself from propaganda ("tune your crap detector" Tom Wolfe) and learn to make more effective arguments yourself:
This page is mostly about the debate itself. See also Global Warming page for more data.
Rob Dunbar hunts for data on our climate from 12,000 years ago, finding clues inside ancient seabeds and corals and inside ice sheets. His work is vital in setting baselines for fixing our current climate -- and in tracking the rise of deadly ocean acidification. TEDtalk
Excellent video overview of our current status: Human growth has strained the Earth's resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems. TEDtalk
The debate summarized/visualized. related, a phone app
The MIT Climate Collaboratorium allows you to come up with plans, or vote on existing ones.
Contents
Global Warming Skeptics
Climate Deniers elected to Senate11/10
Representative website: http://www.friendsofscience.org/
Conservative think tanks have had a huge impact on global warming debate. The Heritage Foundation hosts the authors of Eco-Freaks video.
Sen. Inhofe's (Former longtime Chair of Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works) list of 400 examined. Much of the Senator's information is actually produced by his staffer Marc Moreno.
The Usual Suspects: Willie Soon co-authored a bogus polar bear study along with other long time climate deniers: Sallie Baliunas, David Legates and Tim Ball. Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas have a documented history of receiving money from oil interests.Link. More venerable/formidable, Seitz and Singer.
Bill McKibben's analysis of skeptics' success.
The Deniers (book review by Kevin Kelley)
GreenMan Blog debunks Climate Denial, and features video, including Crock of the Week (Soundbites and rebuttals).
Global Warming is Real
Mark Hertsgaard has a new book, Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth Excerptreplay of live video chat 1/11
New ice island breaks off (audio) 8/10.
255 members of National Academy of Sciences rebuke climate skeptics, especially the attacks on legit scientists. 6/10 Full NAS site
New Scientist comprehensive site
Climate Connections NPR and National Geographic team up to provide great info on climate change.
The Climate Desk, a unique journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impacts—human, environmental, economic, and political—of a changing climate. Climate Desk participants include Mother Jones, Slate, Wired, The Atlantic, PBS’s Need to Know, Grist, and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
NASA's Goddard Center, global temperature data 1/10.
New Interactive maps and images 4/10
Real Climate.org info from actual climate scientists.
Climate Watch Blog, with special focus on California (see recent reports)
The coming Mega-Drought pdf 10/10
Video
The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See Great video on global warmingPart II How It All Ends is slightly refined version of Part II?***
UC Historian of science Naomi Oreskes recently gave a talk(video) based on her new book, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. review/summary Link also to 2007 talk. Original article in Science Magazine 2004. Review/summary of book at Grist.
The Story of Cap and Trade and some analysis.
What we know About Global Warming 10 min 1/10 from Climate Progress
The Skeptical Environmentalist and The Sierra Club: Lomborg and Carl Pope Tackle Climate Change Commonwealth Club debate10/10
Copenhagen talks YouTube channel
UCTV has a wide range of videos on global warming and its effects.
Gov. SCHWARZENEGGER 09.26.08 "Keeping California Cool" Commonwealth Club talk on CA taking the lead on global warming.video Realplayer audio
TEDtalk on solutions by David Keith (video)
Photographer James Balog shares new image sequences from the [Extreme Ice Survey, a network of time-lapse cameras recording glaciers receding at an alarming rate, some of the most vivid evidence yet of climate change.TEDtalk 9/10 update audio)
Gore talk at TED conference (video) . 2008 Followup
Heat PBS Frontline documentary 2008 (full video)
James Hansen 2008 Q&A. 60 Minutes interview on being gagged by Bush Admin.
In Carbon Nation, "director Peter Byck covers an impressively wide range of ground within his film's compact running time as he introduces us to a stirring cross-section of pioneers, researchers and innovators committed to helping the world reduce its carbon footprint."
Hot Politics FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today. 2007. Heat 2008 on energy and Global Warming.
Books
The Climate War by Eric Pooley, deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, profiles heavyweights in this saga -- including two members of the Nicholas Institute Board of Advisers, EDF President Fred Krupp, and Duke Energy Chairman and CEO Jim Rogers, among other leaders in the now years-long campaign to bring climate policy to Washington. NYT review and Grist review audio interview 30 min. Climate One interview and video excerpts
How to Cool the Planet on geo-engineering. Video overview from Hack the Planet
The Carbon Age by Eric Roston, Duke Univ.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Thomas L. Freidman, author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and The World Is Flat, explains how America can lead the green revolution in the 21st century (audio and video too).
2006 Overview and review of several books (NY Review of Books) by Jim Hansen, Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Here is a followup discussion with the author. 60 Minutes interview (video).
The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back - and How we Can Still Save Humanity (2006) is a book by James Lovelock.
Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning by George Monbiot
review
The Heat is On by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ross Gelbspan see on skeptic scams Newer book is Boiling Point; here's an excerpt. Here's a video of the author at the World Affairs Council, moderated by Hertsgaard (Sponsored by Exchange, founded by a slug, and others).
Bill McKibben The End of Nature
Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition, by Alastair McIntosh
Soul of a Citizen by Paul Loeb tells many stories of activism. The first excerpt here is on the powerful journey of evangelical global climate change activist Rich Cizik. The second is on Gandhi, King and the traps of the perfect standard. The third is how a self-described party girl became a global warming activist. See also his anthology The Impossible Will Take a While. Audio and video interviews (Realplayer) Here's a sort of Overview.
Audio
Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, sorts fact from fiction regarding climate change. PBS 8/10.
"Climategate" and video response has damaged the credentials of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and decades of science on global warming. But as scientists push back against efforts to dismiss the threat of global warming, some media watchers say journalists aren't balancing their coverage of climate change with the scientifically-sound other side of the story - that the impacts of a warming world could be worse than the IPCC predicts. LOE.org talks with media experts and scientists about the fallout of the hacked email scandal, and how to repair damage. (12:00)3/10 text and audio. Greenpeace tracks major players back to Koch Industries, an oil co, the second largest privately held co in US. Guardian UK article on Greenpeace research. Article and video on lack of press coverage on vindication.
NPR/PBS audio series on CA water supply and Global Warming.
The Weather Makers author Tim Flannery interviewed on Democracy Now (audio) A more recent book is Now or Never audio interview
On the Debate and Public Relations
UC Historian of science Naomi Oreskes recently gave a talk(video) based on her new book, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming. Link also to 2007 talk. See above in video section for more links.
PR Watch Climate Change Portal tracks current developments as well as skeptics and their funding, as does:
Mark Hertsgaard's political analysis
The Skeptical Environmentalist and The Sierra Club: Lomborg and Carl Pope Tackle Climate Change Commonwealth Club debate10/10 Video
Union of Concerned Scientists in-depth study on how skeptics have spun the debate, using tobacco company tactics (and even personnel/PR firms). 2007
Stanford Statistical study of climate scientists shows how skeptics have little expertise. 6/10
"The Truth About Denial" Newsweek 2007 nice overview of background, including treaties.
Michael Specter's new book, Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens Our Lives,(NYT review) dives into a worrisome strain of modern life TEDtalk video. NPR interview and short excerpt
James Hoggan writes for deSmog blog, and co-authored Climate Coverup: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming. Here he is interviewed in a video segment about Koch Industries, (More at Opensecrets.org) a larger funder of climate skeptic PR than even Exxon.
DeSmog Blog overview cites a 2003 study that shows US press’s adherence to balance actually leads to biased coverage of both anthropogenic contributions to global warming and resultant action. Also "University of California, San Diego science historian Dr. Naomi Oreskes had published an analysis in Science in which she had combed through 928 peer-reviewed climate studies published between 1993 and 2003 and found not a single one that disagreed with the general scientific consensus."
TV Weathermen have had a great deal of undue influence on the debate. TOTN SciFri panel discusses 7/10
Excellent collection and refutation of skeptics' arguments ****
Study shows that worries about economy affect environmental thinking. 7/10
UCSC graduate Maxwell Boykoff has worked in North America, Central America, South Asia and Europe. He was a Peace Corps volunteer when Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras, where he continued to work for a week before being evacuated by helicopter. This sparked his research in climate change policy at UCSC,the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, Colorado-Boulder Environmental Change Institute (ECI) as well as the Oxford University Centre for the Environment. He co-authored an important study on how press misrepresented climate change.
Sourcewatch shows where funding comes from. Climate Change Portal ****. See also Integrity in Science.
PRwatch article on corporations altering Wikipedia including Chevron deleting the entire article on bio-diesel, and Exxon rewriting the history of the Valdez oil spill.
Argument map on global warming based on Copenhagen conference **** another dynamic map
Info-mural/argument maps by Robert Horn at Stanford.
Censoring Science: Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming by Mark Bowen.
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity by James Hansen of NASA.
Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate by Stephen H. Schneider. Click here for Stephen Schneider's video interview about Science as a Contact Sport, how to find reliable information about climate change and what we can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming our planet. Sadly, Dr. S passed away in July 20120, a remembrance.
Energy Sec. Stephen Chu weighs in. 3/10
Attempts to intimidate Climate Scientists Link. Attempt thwarted by newspapers 5/10, defense of Michael Mann, famous for the "hockey-stick" graph. Here he is completely vindicated. Several different investigations have cleared everyone in so-called Climategate scandals. Related videos.
Newsweek article (editorial?) on better behavior in the debate. 2/10
Hot Politics 2006 PBS Frontline documentary on the PR and politics (includes timeline and links)
Sourcewatch.org is an excellent site for finding out whether a person or organization is credible or not.
A new video on cap and trade from Annie Leonard, creator of the fine anti-consumerism video/book The Story of Stuff. David Roberts of Grist says, "It’s being billed as a definitive debunking of cap-and-trade, but it’s more like a perfect representation of all the confusion and misplaced focus that plagues the green left right now."More analysis
Rough draft of a dynamic map of how the global warming debate has been influenced by powerful economic and political players.
Oil and Gas Interests Set Spending Record for Lobbying in 2009. NYT
Follow the oil money in politics. Also a dynamic map ***
Opensecets.org tracks political contributions. Interactive network map ***
A fun video history of oil company propaganda
Unfluence is another way to track who in general is financing politicians. Also a dynamic map
Freeman Dyson vs Alun
Paul Loeb argues that the corporations have merely recycled their tactics that worked so successfully for the tobacco companies for so long: create the impression that the science is in doubt. He has a link to a 66 page report
NPR interview with New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin about coverage of climate change.
Fox News Attacks Global Warming from Brave New Films (partisan)
Columbia Journalism Review article on influence of conservative pundits.
Climate Change Lobbying and Media Use (video of talk). Link 1/09. Dan Weiss talked about using paid media as an advocacy campaign tool.
Interesting short editorial on why different metaphors lead to different POV/strategies.
Scholarly analysis on the role of "think tanks" on debate. 2003
General works on Corporate Public Relations and Examples
See also Public Relations page
Trust Us, We're Experts:
How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future
by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber
excerpts
Toxic Sludge is Good for You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton Common Courage Press, 1995 book excerpts video online video preview Full preview version
Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business by Roland Marchand Long excerpt from Ch 1
PR!: A Social History of Spin By Stuart Ewen. Basic Books, 1998 UCSC McHenry HM263 .E849 1996
Greenpeace study: "Exxon's Weapons of Mass Deception" Excerpt
Grist editorial/overview on history of fear, uncertainty and denial tactics.
Tactics: Greenwashing and Astroturf
NPR story on how products pretend to be green. (Audio)
Greenwash Watch on Guardian UK newspaper.
Brief article on greenwash with links
Big Box stores greenwash editorial
Chevron makes fake 60 Minutes segment
"Astroturf" is the creation of a fake grassroots organization. Here's an example of one by coal industry using stock photos. In a new documentary Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham went undercover to investigate astroturfing (trailer)(warning: could be interpreted, presumably, as partisan).
Third Party technique defined by one public relations (PR) executive as, "putting your words in someone else's mouth." This can involve think tanks or front groups/astroturfing.
See PRwatch article on corporations altering Wikipedia including Chevron deleting the entire article on bio-diesel, and Exxon rewriting the history of the Valdez oil spill.
| Course Themes |
| Ecological and Social Utopias |
| Literature, Art, and the Environment |
| Environmental Science and Skeptical Challenges |
| Activism and Entrepreneurship |
