Global Warming

Madison Joins "Fossil Free" Divestment Effort

by Harriet Rowan — April 26, 2013 - 11:00am

Mayor Paul Soglin threw his support behind 350.org's "Fossil Free" campaign, pledging to keep Madison free of fossil fuel investments and working to convince other units of local government to do the

Op-Ed

On Earth Day, ALEC Bemoans “Somber” Environmentalists

by Nick Surgey — April 22, 2013 - 6:43pm

Topics: Global Warming, Energy, Environment

Projects: ALEC Exposed

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which is centrally involved with pushing environmentally destructive legislation on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, today complained that "Earth Day has been a largely somber event" when it should be "a celebration of the wonderful achievements humankind has made in cleaning and greening the planet," wrote Todd Wynn, ALEC Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force Director.

News

Environmentalist Bill McKibben on Keeping a Strong Focus on Climate Change

by Sara Jerving — September 13, 2012 - 7:47am

Topics: Activism, Global Warming, Environment

Bill McKibben, founder of the international climate change group 350.org, is one of the world's leading campaigners on the climate change crisis. In 2010, the Boston Globe called him "probably the nation's leading environmentalist." The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) interviewed McKibben to ask about the status of the global climate change movement and the current priorities of 350.org. McKibben will be in Madison, WI to address "Fighting Bob Fest" September 15.

News

Tar Heel Lawmakers Put Global Warming on Hold! (or, a Rising Tide Lifts No Votes)

by Jonathan Rosenblum — July 16, 2012 - 8:52am

Topics: Global Warming, Environment

In a backward leap of anti-Copernican proportions, North Carolina's state legislature recently passed what may be the nation's first state-wide global warming denial legislation.

The legislature on July 2 effectively nullified the state's own science panel's report predicting a 20 to 55-inch rise in sea level. The statehouse also commanded scientists to wait until July 1, 2016, to make their next report (and only after it is approved/scrubbed by the powers that be).

News

Heartland Institute: Hoist With its Own Petard

by Jonathan Rosenblum — February 25, 2012 - 9:22am

Topics: Global Warming, Democracy, Environment, Media

It was not a happy Valentine's Day for the Heartland Institute's climate change denial campaigns. First, Heartland's plans for a $75,000 K-12 reeducation curriculum to turn America's children into climate change deniers was leaked to the DeSmog Blog along with Heartland's fundraising plan, which reveals support from the Charles G. Koch Foundation and a "free Koch summer intern."

Guest Contributor

ALEC Model Bill Behind Push To Require Climate Denial Instruction In Schools

by Steve Horn — January 26, 2012 - 12:09pm

Topics: Global Warming, Children, Education

Projects: ALEC Exposed

On January 16, the Los Angeles Times revealed that anti-science bills have been popping up over the past several years in statehouses across the U.S., mandating the teaching of climate change denial or "skepticism" as a credible "theoretical alternative" to human caused climate change came.

News

Denial and Delay Winning the Day in Durban

by Sara Jerving — December 9, 2011 - 1:00pm

Topics: Global Warming, Corporations, Environment

Amid difficult United Nation climate talks this week in Durban, lead climate change denier -- U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) -- sent a patronizing video message to delegates in South Africa celebrating what he called the "complete collapse" of the movement to fight climate change.

His message comes as delegates work night and day in a last-ditch effort to produce a legally-binding deal to restrict the damage already underway due to the rise of carbon content in the atmosphere. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said earlier in the week that a new international climate pact might be "beyond our reach" given the "great economic troubles" many countries are experiencing.

Study About Clouds' Effect on Global Warming Debunked

by Anne Landman — August 5, 2011 - 4:49pm

A small study by prominent climate change skeptic Roy Spencer is being dismissed by mainstream climate scientists as containing technical and theoretical faults that make it incorrect. The study, published in late July in the online, open-access journal Remote Sensing, examined the effects that cloud cover has on climate change, and concluded that clouds are more of a cause of global warming than an effect of it. Spencer is known for his views that climate change is not human-caused. His recent study concludes that the question of the role clouds play in global warming "remains an unsolved problem."

Main Source:

Associated Press, July 29, 2011

News

ALEC Exposed: Warming Up to Climate Change

by Jill Richardson — July 27, 2011 - 2:01am

Topics: Global Warming, Energy, Environment

Projects: ALEC Exposed

As the U.S. suffers through catastrophic tornadoes, heat waves, and other climate extremes -- no doubt just a small taste of what the climate crisis will bring in the future -- polluting industries and the politicians that serve them want to convince you that excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is actually a good thing.

Last December, almost like clockwork, Republican legislators in state houses across the nation sounded the alarm about an "out of control" Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). What had the EPA suddenly done to earn such criticism? The EPA had dared to take the first baby steps towards regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

By January 2011, Indiana became the first state to pass a resolution urging Congress to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions (by defunding the EPA if necessary), to impose a two year moratorium on any new air quality regulations, and urging the federal government to complete a study identifying all planned regulatory activity by the EPA and its impact on the economy, jobs, and American economic competitiveness.

The Kochs' Climate Change Denial Media Machine

by Anne Landman — February 4, 2011 - 6:21pm

Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, the second largest privately-held energy company in America, have poured millions of dollars into creating a web of media influence to increase their power to sow doubt about climate change among the American public. A network of bloggers, pundits, think tanks and foundations get funding from the Kochs, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received over $700,000, and the libertarian Cato Institute, which has received $13 million from the Kochs since 1998. The Manhattan Institute received $1.5 million, Americans for Prosperity has gotten $5.5 million, the Pacific Research Institute has gotten $1.2 million and the Federalist Society $2 million. This web of think tanks and foundations operates blogs and Web sites and house prominent writers who pump out climate denial writings that help spread the Kochs' anti-climate change ideology. The Kochs' influence isn't limited to fringe media, either. Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, who writes for the Weekly Standard and the Washington Post, Philip Anshutz, owner of the Examiner newspapers and the Weekly Standard, Stephen Moore, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member, are just some of the conservative media figures who attend the Kochs' exclusive, private annual gatherings.