A look at two new studies and how the media has misled both the public and the sloppy authors of the Nature study

There are many reasons why the public doesn’t understand how dire the climate situation is.  We have a well-funded disinformation campaign, generally poor messaging by scientists, and many progressives and environmentalists who have been persuaded to downplay talk of global warming risks.

And we have dreadful coverage by the status quo media.  The media fails in countless ways, but one of its most insidious failings is to play up the occasional study that seems to suggest the threat of human caused global warming has been overblown.

Much as the media has been providing a false balance in its choice of experts to quote, creating the misimpression that there is a much greater debate among climate scientists on key issues than there really is, the media has been providing a false balance in its choice of articles to write about — and then, typically, utterly misframing the results.  Such is the case with the big malaria study in Nature.

In a AAAS presentation this year, William R. Freudenburg of UC Santa Barbara discussed his research on “the Asymmetry of Scientific Challenge“:

New scientific findings are found to be more than twenty times as likely to indicate that global climate disruption is “worse than previously expected,” rather than “not as bad as previously expected.”

But you’d never know that from the coverage by the status quo media.

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In my post last night, I noted that  many people are expecting the President to pivot from the BP oil disaster to the climate and clean energy bill.  But how exactly should he do that rhetorically?  I’m writing a piece on that subject and would love to hear your thoughts.

Also, I have been mostly calling the unfolding disaster in the Gulf the “BP oil disaster,” which certainly beats the President’s “BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.”  Guest blogger Dominique Browning has some  thoughts about the name and messaging below.  Again, I’d love to hear your ideas.

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My colleague David Roberts at Grist has a provocative post, “Leaning forward: Why the American Power Act is worth fighting for.” It is sort of the climate change equivalent of Lori Gottlieb’s even more provocative best-seller, “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.” The perfect climate bill that could get 60 votes in the Senate simply doesn’t exist.

I think Roberts’ message is an important one for progressives to hear, so I am reprinting it in its entirety:

The Kerry-Lieberman climate bill is out now, and with it comes a fateful decision for the political left in the U.S.

If the left’s institutions and messaging infrastructure succumb to internal squabbling or simple indifference; if the public is not actively won over and fired up; if President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stick their fingers in the wind to see which way it’s blowing … the bill will fail. The default outcome now is failure. Very few people in Washington, D.C., today believe the bill has a chance of passing.

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Plus exercise bikes that turn human power into electricity

Summer is right around the corner. This means that the time to make good on that New Year’s resolution to get in shape for the summer is upon us. But while planning your routine to achieve those killer glutes and abs, don’t forget about the effect your workout has on the environment. This CAP repost has some simple tips to keep getting fit earth friendly,  including how you can generate clean electricity during your workout.

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