One of the country’s leading journalists has written a searing critique of the media’s coverage of global warming, especially climate economics.

How Much Would You Pay to Save the Planet? The American Press and the Economics of Climate Change is by Eric Pooley for Harvard’s prestigious Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. Pooley has been managing editor of Fortune, national editor of Time, Time‘s chief political correspondent, and Time‘s White House correspondent, where he won the Gerald Ford Prize for Excellence in Reporting. Before that, he was senior editor of New York magazine.

In short, Pooley has earned the right to be heard. Journalists and senior editors need to pay heed to Pooley’s three tough conclusions abut how “damaging” the recent media of the climate debate has been:

1. The press misrepresented the economic debate over cap and trade. It failed to recognize the emerging consensus … that cap and trade would have a marginal effect on economic growth and gave doomsday forecasts coequal status with nonpartisan ones…. The press allowed opponents of climate action to replicate the false debate over climate science in the realm of climate economics. Read more

Rip-offset price for a metric tonne of CO2 on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

For many years, I was the go-to scientist for the media when they wanted a quote dissing hydrogen cars, thanks to my book, The Hype About Hydrogen. Now that hydrogen is fading faster than the Y2K bug, I get more press calls on the next big green scam, rip-offsets (see “Question from WSJ blog: Are Bogus Carbon Offsets Really That Bad?“).

Case in point: “Landfills generate ‘green’ cash in northern Utah” in last week’s Salt Lake Tribune.

Weber County and Wasatch Integrated Waste Management System not only make money by turning methane gas generated in the trash heaps into electricity, they’re also selling carbon offset credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange….

While energy and environmental activists applaud such efforts, some are not so enthusiastic about the markets, like Chicago Climate Exchange, that let those curbing emissions trade on their own good deeds.

I am the unenthusiastic “some” here:

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