The Media Environment

A look into environmental news coverage var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-32232994-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

[themediaenvironment-blog]

And like a Phoenix rising from the ashes... 

Hope is beautiful.

[themediaenvironment-blog]

A leaked drafted of the next IPCC report shows the new mainstream view on where we're at with the climate. 

Among the changes, IPCC is using four new scenarios to predict where climate change is headed.  How is it different?

"They specify concentrations of greenhouse gases and work out how the climate will respond, rather than trying to predict how human activity will change to affect emissions."

In other words, the IPCC doesn't see a shift in our future that would change human impact.  It's not wrong.  It's just a little sad. 

[themediaenvironment-blog]

[themediaenvironment-blog]

No scientific conclusion can ever be proven, absolutely, but it is no more a 'belief' to say that Earth is heating up than it is to say that continents move, that germs cause disease, that DNA carries hereditary information or that quarks are the basic building blocks of subatomic matter. You can always find someone, somewhere, to disagree, but these conclusions represent our best available science, and therefore our best basis for reasoned action.

Naomi Oreskes, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

[fcons-deactivated20191230]

[themediaenvironment-blog]

Where is this shop located?!

[taestell-deactivated20181217]

This is the 332nd consecutive month with an above-average temperature.

Just a coincidence, I’m sure. The next 332 months will probably all be colder-than-average and we’ll call it even.

[sagansense]

Climate Reality, by Al Gore via Symphony of Science/melodysheep

A musical creation about the reality of global climate change from the live broadcast of 24 Hours of Reality - The Dirty Weather Report. The Symphony of Science is a musical project of John D Boswell, designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form.

[themediaenvironment-blog]

Cheesy, but strangely this auto tune pumps me up a little bit.

Though it kinda makes it sound like the answer to climate change is to argue and turn the thermostat down.

[kny111]

View of NASA’s Portrait of Global Aerosols

Click here to view original

High-resolution global atmospheric modeling run on the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., provides a unique tool to study the role of weather in Earth’s climate system. The Goddard Earth Observing System Model, Version 5 (GEOS-5) is capable of simulating worldwide weather at resolutions of 10 to 3.5 kilometers (km).

This portrait of global aerosols was produced by a GEOS-5 simulation at a 10-kilometer resolution. Dust (red) is lifted from the surface, sea salt (blue) swirls inside cyclones, smoke (green) rises from fires, and sulfate particles (white) stream from volcanoes and fossil fuel emissions.

[themediaenvironment-blog]

Amazing to see how this is all connected.  And it's so swirly!  

[themediaenvironment-blog]

The Ryan Choice

I admit I probably have a tinted world view.  I read environmental and progressive publication and keep up on coverage of environmental issues.  I also live in a world subject to weather and I feel the tension of the fragil ecosystem.  But to me, it seems we are on the prosperous of a tipping point - both in our environment and consciousness. 

That is why I am baffled by the Rep. Paul Ryan tap VP.  How can America as a society still tolerate a climate skeptic potentially rolling around in the White House?  

Ontheissues.org did a nice round up of some of Ryan environmental stances on energy and oil:

Voted YES on opening Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling.

Voted YES on barring EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.

Voted NO on enforcing limits on CO2 global warming pollution.

Voted NO on tax credits for renewable electricity, with PAYGO offsets.

Thinkprogress wrote a great article outlining Ryan's history as a climate denier, including accusing scientists of conspiring to “intentionally mislead the public on the issue of climate change.”   He also believes snow invalidates global warming.

A long and illuminating article in the New Yorker told the tale of Ryan's budget proposal and made allusions of his connection with Peter Ferrara, who is now at the Heartland Institute, and Ryan's attack on Obama's climate-change plan.

Forbes wrote an article called Paul Ryan: Standing up to Green Energy but Sitting down with Big Oil, which compared oil subsidizes to alternative energy, and Ryan's history of supporting former and rejecting the ladder.  “In energy, the President and his party’s leaders remain committed to a policy that blocks proven domestic energy sources while spending recklessly on uncompetitive alternatives,” said Ryan, in a moment that reveals a lack of awareness of trends. 

Politico wrote that Republican insiders see the Ryan tap as a risk at best and a disaster at worse - but the article goes into depth about fiscal policies and Ryan's polarizing nature.  Not a word about the environment or climate.  It seems, somehow, that is still not a political issue. 

How can America in this day and age still not prioritize this?  How can we still approach issues of inequity and the economy without recognizing the literal environment in which it is couched?  What more can we do?

[themediaenvironment-blog]

These high-resolution pictures from the Deepwater Horizon explosion look like an action movie.  For a news story this big, why weren't these pictures circulated more in 2010 when they were originally posted?

[clinejj]

[theatlantic]

Every photo in this collection is incredible.

[themediaenvironment-blog]

This world is beautiful. 

[themediaenvironment-blog]

Bill Nye: Knows a few things about a few things.

[themediaenvironment-blog]

Global warming: probably makes Al Gore feel as bad as the 2000 election times... 3

Remember when Al Gore made that movie and he said climate change isn't about right and left, it's about right and wrong?

What happened to that?  Was it because Al Gore said it?

Scientists released a report this week attributing 2011's extreme weather to man-mad climate change.  What's more, ever major news channel in the states got the story right and said we have to stop emitting green house gases.  

And at the same time, America is growing more polarized than ever - it's not just your imagination.  As recently as 2008, the climate change issue wasn't as politicized.  How can climate change be getting worse, the scientific community move closer to a 100 percent consensus, and fewer people believe it?  It is notable news when former Republican Rep. Bob Inglis (who was squeezed out by the Tea Party in 2010) launches action against climate change - and who knows how his fellow republicans will act.  

Meanwhile, rightwing US think tank are using Freedom of Information requests to pursue climate scientists, presumably to dig up embarrassing communications to repeat ClimateGate.  

GOP State Del. Chris Stolle from Virginia Beach tried to do away with climate change-related problems through politics, saying "sea level rise" is a "left-wing term".  

When scientists predicted a scary amount that the sea would rise off the coast of North Carolina, the House sent a bill NC-20 to the State Senate that would "limit sea-level rise to historical rates circa 1900" - that is to say, the outlawed global warming.  

The link between climate change and wild fires was even avoided by most media organizations.  Media Matters released a study saying only 1.6 percent of television coverage and 6 percent of print coverage on the wildfires even mentioned climate change between April 1 and June 30, despite the AP publishing a piece saying extreme weather was linked to climate change. 

So the question remains: can we get over our patrician divide long enough to save the world?  Gee, I hope so.  

[did-you-know]

[themediaenvironment-blog]

Former MP Ann Widdecombe told BBC Breakfast show Monday that she wants there to be a protection status for hedgehogs to preserve the species.

BBC received several e-mail from viewers disagreeing, saying we should let the species go extinct.  I wonder if those people know about this...

[themediaenvironment-blog]

This series of photographs shows the aftereffects of a 2010 toxic aluminum spill in Hungary.

[themediaenvironment-blog]

What's the take away for forests from the Rio+20 conference? Check out my blog for the Overseas Development Institute. 

[mothernaturenetwork]

[themediaenvironment-blog]

I imagine telling my grandkids about 'seasons,' times when weather was similar for months on end.