You might think it would be news when MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel, who has influentially linked global warming to stronger hurricanes, reconsiders his views in light of new evidence.
Two respected climate journalists – Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle and Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times – thought so. But few other traditional news outlets seemed to find time for the story.
An impressive YouTube video has been making its rounds over the past week, appearing at first glance to show high-resolution satellite images of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
Rather than images from space, however, the Vulcan Project is actually a revolutionary new model of CO2 emissions building on and extrapolating from existing models of more conventional pollutants. The project, funded by NASA and the Department of Energy, is the work of a team at Purdue University in Indiana.
“A hopeful book in a discouraging time.”
It’s how Antioch University Professor David Sobel characterizes “How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming,” co-authored by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch.
Last summer, when Oregon high school teacher Greg Craven wanted to tell young people about the Earth’s warming climate, he went to where many of them live – on the Internet.
It wasn’t long before his Red Bull-fueled burst of creativity, “The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See” became a YouTube hit. More than four million people worldwide have seen the video – an argument for action that breaks down the IPCC’s lengthy analyses into two choices and four possible futures.
CAMBRIDGE, MA. – Mass media coverage of climate change has suffered from a hostility to science, a failure to vet biased sources, and an adherence to a warped sense of balance, two prominent academics said at a recent MIT event on climate change.
The remarks, made at a conference titled “Disruptive Environments” and held on April 10-11, came as part of an opening panel discussion on “communicating climate change” featuring New York Times science reporter Andrew C. Revkin. Some 100 MIT and other Boston-area university faculty members and students and others attended the opening session.
Making climate change a presidential campaign story is harder than it looks – though a lot of journalists tried to do so at the National Press Club April 11. There was no contest. That was the story.
The world’s green technology labs are bubbling with brave new ideas that aim to help invent our way out of climate change disaster. Spraying sulfur particles in the sky. Creating artificial trees. High-voltage batteries engineered by viruses. Tidal and geothermal plants. Generators in the jet stream to harness the wind.
