The New York Times is failing to properly report the threat of man-made climate change, in part because its science section is corrupted by skeptics of global warming’s reality. In a piece about climate communications, former Scientific American writer John Horgan relates that “a majority of the section’s editorial staff doubts that human-induced global warming represents a serious threat to humanity”:

Two sources at the Science Times section of the New York Times have told me that a majority of the section’s editorial staff doubts that human-induced global warming represents a serious threat to humanity.

This unfounded skepticism flies in the face of the warnings of essentially every major scientific body on the planet, based on the broad corpus of scientific research conducted by the past few generations of natural scientists.

The reported anti-climate bias of the Science Times’s editorial staff is reflected in its coverage, which has grossly ignored the reality of climate change and its implications in its weekly Tuesday section. Between June 1, 2008 and June 22, 2009, out of 1,563 stories by the Science Desk, only 80 stories had any reference to climate change — and 13 of those were about climate skeptics — a highly disproportionate number:

New York Times Science Desk articles from 6/1/08 to 6/22/09. From LexisNexis search of “climate OR carbon OR greenhouse OR ‘global warming’.”

The editorial positioning of the stories was even more biased, as 28% of the Page 1 Science Times stories on climate were skeptical. The vast majority of climate science stories were buried, with two-thirds of the stories appearing either on Page 3 or Page 8. A quarter of the climate stories printed were merely excerpts from Andrew Revkin’s Dot Earth blog. John Tierney’s contrarian columns questioning climate science, such as “The Aria of Prince Algorino,” are a regular feature in the Science Times. The New York Times even managed to completely ignore relevant climate change research in some stories, such as a 2008 piece about bark-beetle infestation of western forests.

In contrast, over 15% of stories on ScienceDaily.com, which produces a stream of science stories on all topics based generally on press releases from scientific organizations, were about climate science.

Recent science editors at the New York Times include top editor Laura Chang, health editor Barbara Strauch, James Gorman, restaurant critic David Corcoran, and Cornelia Dean.

Research contributed by former ThinkProgress intern Ben Bergmann.

Okay, it’s not a ‘stunner’ for CP readers that the NY Times doesn’t get it.  Still, it’s nice to see independent confirmation.  What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t say, “I told you so”?

In an otherwise silly article criticizing efforts to improve climate science messaging, John Horgan, a former Scientific American staff writer who directs the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology, reports:

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Reducing America’s dependence on imported oil will not only enhance our national security; it will create substantially more jobs than continuing on our current path of waste and unsustainable resource use.  CAP has teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council and the United Auto Workers to produce a new study on the clean car revolution that is already underway. The executive summary is below, and you can access the full report here. In the photo, Workers in a Detroit, Michigan plant stand by a newly produced Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

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Storms across the globe (l-r): North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa

Record warmth on sea and land is fueling killer weather around the globe. As man takes over from nature as the primary driver of climate, the need to eliminate global warming pollution and mobilize for increased climate disruption grows.

NORTH AMERICA Weeks after some of the strongest snowstorms ever to hit the East Coast, another powerful winter storm drenches the Northeast, kills eight people, and knocks out power for hundreds of thousands. Record warmth in North Dakota and Minnesota threatens another year of catastrophic flooding.

SOUTH AMERICA Tropical Storm 90Q, also known as Anita, the “second known tropical cyclone to form in the cooler South Atlantic Ocean,” is circling off the Argentina coast. The first known South Atlantic tropical cyclone, Catarina, was in 2004.

EUROPE “Hurricane-force winds and widespread flooding battered vast swathes of western France and left more than a million homes without power,” as the storm named Xynthia “killed at least 62 people across western Europe” in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, and Germany en route to Scandinavia.

AFRICA The death toll has risen to 36 people “and nearly 38,000 left homeless when tropical storm Hubert smashed into Madagascar this week.” Last month, stormy weather wreaked havoc across Egypt, as twenty-foot waves crashed into Alexandria and a hail storm killed four people in Cairo.

ASIA “A severe sandstorm hit Xinjiang’s Hotan Prefecture in northwest China on Friday, reducing visibility to zero.” The sandstorms are sweeping across China, and “are expected to hit Taiwan Tuesday.”

AUSTRALIA-PACIFIC Tomas, a Category Four cyclone, is plowing through Fiji, forcing thousands to evacuate. A “beast of a storm” ripped through Melbourne, Australia last week, “bringing with it hailstones the size of tennis balls” and causing $200 million in damage. Meanwhile flooding “which has smashed all the records known” in Queensland peaked in the country’s northeast, “parts of which have been in drought for almost a decade.” Category Four cyclone Ului now hovers off the Australian coast after the Solomon Islands narrowly escaped its wrath.

ANTARCTICA Okay, so Antarctica has enjoyed a sunny and balmy summer. Unfortunately, with the pleasant skies have come accelerated melting of the ice shelves, causing sea levels to rise, the U.S. Geological Survey and the British Antarctic Survey have found.

Instead of confronting this threat, however, America’s politicians are crying that limits on this deadly pollution could hurt the economy.

Montana entomologist on bark beetles: “A couple of degrees warmer could create multiple generations a year. If that happens, I expect it would be a disaster for all of our pine populations.”

Climate change inherently favors invasive pests.  On the one hand, milder winters since 1994 have reduced the winter death rate of beetle larvae in places like Wyoming from 80% per year to under 10%.  On the other hand, hot-weather uber-droughts — aka  “global-change-type droughts” — have made trees weaker, less able to fight off beetles.

Forest Ecology and Management just published a major new study by 19 researchers around the word, “A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests.”  Its key conclusion — that human-caused climate change is already killing forests, releasing carbon, and amplifying warming — will be a shock only to the anti-science crowd:

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The anti-science crowd isn’t satisfied with merely spreading disinformation about climate scientists (see “Error-riddled articles and false statements destroy Daily Mail‘s credibilty“).  Now many, like Marc Morano, are unrepentantly calling for violence against them (see The rise of anti-science cyber bullying:  Morano says climate scientists “deserve to be publicly flogged“).

Peter Sinclair, our favorite climate de-crocker, has a new video on the subject:

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Nevada Wind Turbine Factory to Create 1,000 Jobs, Backers Say

A consortium of Chinese and American renewable energy firms said last week that they had chosen Nevada as the location of a 320,000-square-foot wind turbine manufacturing and assembly plant.

The turbine plant, whose precise site has yet to be announced, will create an estimated 1,000 long-term manufacturing jobs in the state and is expected to be up and running by 2011.

Two companies leading the development of the Nevada facility, A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese renewable energy technology manufacturer, and the U.S. Renewable Energy Group, a private equity firm, are also key players in a controversial $1.5 billion, 600-megawatt wind farm project under way in West Texas.

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I came across these answers to frequently asked questions from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.  There’s some good information on emissions and conversion factors:

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Campaign ad created by Inhofe’s nephew (!) mocks notion that climate change is a national security threat

In pursuing the California GOP’s nomination for the 2010 Senate, Carly Fiorina has become a world-class flip-flopper.  Following the endorsement of Senator Jim “the last flat-earther” Inhofe (R-OIL) in November, she challenged climate science “” unlike the company she once ran. Now she’s abandoned her support for cap-and-trade legislation, as Brad Johnson discusses in this repost.

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I almost let the Ides of March slip by without reexamining Marc Antony’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech.  It is a model of rhetorical brilliance “” and a model for “The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.”  Both speeches were built around one of the most important figures of speech:  irony

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