Freshwater Boundary Exceeds Safe Limits (Stockholm Resilience Ctr):
Book Review > The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science
Book Review
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures from the Frontiers of Climate Science, by Paul Behrens, London, Indigo Press, 2020, 346 pp. ISBN: 978-1-911648-09-3.
Deeply researched, remarkably accessible and comprehensive, The Best of Times is a treatise of the deteriorating social and physical systems of our world. Particularly critical structures include climate, racism, politics, energy, economies, food, information, and the media. Uniquely qualified to address the cross-disciplinary threads of our planetary crises, Behrens categorizes a bundle of wicked problems now facing the human race. Providing context and perspective, this book points to several examples of where inequality has led to collapse of civilizations. A vast set of complex objectives are set out which we must meet in a crucially brief and shrinking timespan. As the author has stated on social media, he emphatically provides no “sugar coating.”
Book Review > Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet:
BOOK REVIEW
Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, by Johan Rockström and
Owen Gaffney, New York, New York, DK, 2021, 227 pp. ISBN: 978-0-7440-2813-3.
What is our destiny? As we look forward to COP26 (Glasgow) in the fall, this book makes clear what must be achieved. Our planet is in crisis. But we’re not only experiencing a climate emergency, we face massive ecological disasters on many fronts. Breaking Boundaries builds upon collaborative research, specifically highly cited scientific papers (2009, 2009, 2015, 2019) which introduced the novel concept of “planetary boundaries” ̶ irreversible and abrupt tipping points (non-linear changes) in our Earth’s systems. Not only has this ground breaking approach catalyzed a new area of academic research, over recent years, Rockström has clarified this model to a widening audience via TED Talks and other public formats (including a recent Netflix documentary).
Antilla Kellems: Book Review of Media and the Ecological Crisis (Public Understanding of Science):
Public Understanding of Science November 2016 25(8): 1023, doi:10.1177/0963662516670501
A diverse, well informed group of interdisciplinarians collaborate with academic editors based in Norway and the USA to explore an existential question: will we continue with unsound practices relating to communications technology and media production which run counter to balancing human culture with the natural world? Alternatively, are we capable of transforming global information and communication paradigms into more sustainable models?
Antilla Review of Painter's Climate Change in the Media
NYT + Denier John Christy:
Antilla Review of Boykoff Book:
George Will:
RealClimate Wiki: George Will
MediaMatters: Why George Will Is Wrong About Weather And Climate
NYT still quoting denialist Christy:
NYT > More Denialism:
Myths from Michaels:
DeSmogBlog.com: "Disinformation Database - Patrick Michaels"
ExxonSecrets.org: "Factsheet: Patrick J. Michaels"
PRWatch: "The Cato Institute's Generous Funding of Patrick Michaels"
Climate Science Watch: "Pat Michaels, Virginia 'State Climatologist?' A critical perspective on the issues"
RealClimate.Org Debunks Climate Nonsense:
Current Climate >> case studies of US media climate coverage > self-censorship and denial:
Antilla Journal Article: Self-censorship and Science
The Climate Con > media, misinformation & the masters of spin:
Despite climbing US greenhouse gas emissions and in the face of international consensus, the Bush administration—enabled by industry influence over both Congress and big media—continues to suppress and distort climate science while pushing regressive energy policies. A prime sponsor of the “Bush stance” is ExxonMobil.
The Counterbalance of Climate News:
In a Washington Post op-ed, David Ignatius observed:
Scientists believe that new habitats for butterflies are early effects of global climate change—but that isn’t news, by most people’s measure. Neither is declining rainfall in the Amazon, or thinner ice in the Arctic. We can’t see these changes in our personal lives, and in that sense, they are abstractions. So they don’t grab us the way a plane crash would—even though they may be harbingers of a catastrophe that could, quite literally, alter the fundamentals of life on the planet.… The failure of the United States to get serious about climate change is unforgivable, a human folly beyond imagining.
Excerpts from Open Letter to Washington Post Ombudsman: climate skeptics as sources
February 11, 2006
Deborah Howell, Ombudsman
The Washington Post
RE: Coverage of climate change news
Dear Ms. Howell,
I am a reader of the Washington Post and a human geographer with an interest in media coverage of science....
I have just completed a LexisNexis review of seven months of climate change coverage by the Washington Post. While I commend the Post on providing some fine reporting on this vital issue, I believe that there is one aspect of your coverage that should be reviewed. Articles that grant equal space to “climate skeptics” severely limit the understanding of readers by diverting their attention away from the fact that there is international scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change being a dangerous, current reality. I hope that you will share this letter with the science writers and editors at the Post so they might reconsider some of their reporting procedures.
NYT & Denier John Christy > abbreviated versions of 2 open letters to ombudsman:
December 27, 2005
Byron Calame, Public Editor
The New York Times
RE: Coverage of climate science news
Dear Mr. Calame,
I am a reader of the New York Times and a human geographer with research interests in science and the media. As you are aware, our nation presently faces many formidable challenges—not the least of which are the ramifications of our dependence on foreign oil and the well-documented changes in the earth’s climate.... As I present the below case study involving coverage of the issue of climate change by the New York Times, I ask that the same be brought to the attention of your science reporters and editors so that they might reconsider some of their procedures.
Antilla Journal Article > Climate of Scepticism:
Global Environmental Change 15(4): 338-352 (December 2005) Abstract:This two-part study integrates a quantitative review of one year of US newspaper coverage of climate science with a qualitative, comparative analysis of media-created themes and frames using a social constructivist approach. In addition to an examination of newspaper articles, this paper includes a reflexive comparison with attendant wire stories and scientific texts. Special attention is given to articles constructed with and framed by rhetoric emphasising uncertainty, controversy, and climate scepticism.