Nisbet’s data actually shows enviros were far outspent, especially where it mattered most: Lobbying, advertising, and election spending

Brulle’s letter of withdrawal is reposted with permission at the end.

UPDATE:   The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard just reposted my entire piece with this headline and lede:

Killing a false narrative before it takes hold

COMMENTARY | April 18, 2011 Busting an embargo, ClimateProgress.com’s Joe Romm blisteringly dismantles an upcoming academic report on climate change advocacy in hopes no reporters will be taken in.

Prof. Matthew Nisbet of American University has written an error-riddled, self-contradictory, demonstrable false report, Climate Shift: Clear Vision for the Next Decade of Public Debate [big PDF here].   The 99-page report’s two central, but ridiculous, claims are:

Read more

Again, Nisbet ignores his own data and citations that find a negative impact from ‘Climategate’ and conservative media

Media Matters’ debunking of Prof. Matthew Nisbet’s error-riddled report, Climate Shift, finds the same troubling pattern that two of its reviewers talked to me about.  MM shows that the body of the report [big PDF here], including its own data and citations,  simply doesn’t support the core conclusion in the Executive Summary:

“The era of false balance in news coverage of climate science has come to an end. In comparison to other factors, the impact of conservative media and commentators on wider public opinion remains limited.”

As I reported, Prof. Max Boykoff, a leading expert of media coverage of climate and a reviewer for the report, told me,  “This particular conclusion reaches beyond the findings in the study.” Environmental communications expert Robert J. Brulle — who had his name pulled off the report’s list of expert paid reviewer after he saw the whole finished report — told me, “I think this conclusion is bogus.”

I was intending to do a more extended refutation of Nisbet’s nonsensical claim.  But Media Matters has beat me to the punch.  And, just as Brulle demonstrated to me that the report’s financial data contradict its conclusions — which I’ll elaborate on a post tomorrow — MM shows that buried in the 99-page report (and its citations) is more than enough evidence that false balance still exists and that conservative media and commentators have a real impact.

Read more

At the Power Shift protest in front of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Washington DC, climate activist Tim DeChristopher explained why he’s put his liberty on the line to fight the fossil fuel industry. In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress, he discussed how extractive corporations like BP and Massey Energy — both powerful members of the Chamber — are destroying our nation and corrupting our politics, committing crimes and killing Americans without consequence:

No corporations have been prosecuted for killing 29 people in West Virginia in the Big Branch mining disaster last year. No corporations have been prosecuted for killing 11 people and destroying an entire ecosystem in the Gulf last year. Those are the big crimes that we need to be fighting.

Watch it:

In March, DeChristopher was found guilty for disrupting a Bush administration oil lease auction, in a trial even the judge admitted was flawed. As bidder 70, DeChristopher competed with oil companies for the tracts of pristine Utah wilderness, winning $1.7 million worth of bids in an auction held during the waning days of the Bush-Cheney administration. The auction, which included land within site of Arches National Park, was found later to have been in violation of federal law and withdrawn by the Obama administration. DeChristopher was not allowed to explain that — or his concerns about the destruction of our planet’s atmosphere from fossil fuel pollution — at his trial.

DeChristopher’s sentencing hearing is set for June 23.

“If we can pay as much attention to the Earth as we do to our beer, we probably wouldn’t need to worry about global warming”  Click to enlarge:

Read more

It is not a surprise for a major publication to point out how Republicans have become dangerously deluded in their denial of climate science.  One might even say it is a dog bites man story (see National Journal: “The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones”).

But what makes this a stunner is for this to come from Fred Hiatt — the Washington Post‘s Editorial Page Editor who in the past had printed multiple columns by George Will and Sarah Palin spreading disinformation on climate science and who has recycled Wall Street Journal op-eds from the likes of Bjorn Lomborg (see links here).

Hiatt has today published an amazing op-ed, “On climate change, the GOP is lost in never-never land,” that I’ll excerpt below:

Read more

While thousands of youth climate activists gathered in our nation’s capital to mobilize a clean energy economy at the Power Shift conference, the most violent stormfront in U.S. history delivered death and destruction, ripping “through 14 states and left at least 45 people dead over the weekend.” Wide swaths of the country look like bombed-out war zones, with homes and lives ripped asunder by our polluted, dangerous climate. After 22 people died in her state, Gov. Beverly Perdue (D-NC) declared a state of emergency but remains unaware about the nature of the threat we face:

I’ve seen a lot of damage in North Carolina over the years, but this is the most catastrophic I’ve ever seen. We always bounce back and we’ll be fine in the long run.

This stormfront shattered records as it destroyed communities. This was the “largest tornado outbreak connected to a single storm system in US history.” “The National Weather Service documented 12 tornadoes in northern and central Wisconsin, a record outbreak for the month of April.” “The same storm system that spawned more than 240 tornadoes to the South brought record rainfall to Philadelphia and other areas.”

While Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) is off campaigning for president, his lieutenant governor declared a state of emergency for at least 14 Mississippi counties. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R-VA) “declared a state of emergency on Sunday after spring storms killed at least seven people in the Commonwealth.” Gov. Robert Bentley (R-AL) has “declared a state of emergency for all Alabama counties after tornadoes and strong storms swept across the state,” killing one.

Barbour, McDonnell, and Bentley are global warming deniers, although Bentley has admitted that “we have to look for ways to reduce carbon emissions.”

Meanwhile, Texas continues to burn due to record-shattering drought. “In a letter sent to President Barack Obama late Saturday afternoon, Gov. Rick Perry requested a Major Disaster Declaration for the State of Texas as a result of widespread wildfires and continuing fire danger across the state.” Perry is suing the federal government over its finding that global warming pollution threatens the people of the United States.

Toxins found in gas drilling fluids

The drilling fluids used to recover natural gas and oil from deep shale formations contain substances identified as human carcinogens, or listed as hazardous under federal clean air or water rules, according to a report issued late Saturday by senior House Democrats.

Read more

All right, listen up. Very few people can ever say that they are in the single most important place they could possibly be doing the single most important thing they could possibly be doing. That’s you, here, now.

You are the movement that we need if we are going to win in the few years that we have. You have the skills now. You are making the connections. And there is no one else. It is you.

That is a great honor and that is a terrible burden. There is no one else.

Here’s the transcript and video of Bill McKibben’s fiery speech, reposted from 350.org:

Read more

This afternoon, hundreds of youth climate activists shut down a BP gas station with people power.  Brad Johnson has the story and video.

The flash mob contrasted a joyous and cheerful celebration of the beauty of the Gulf Coast “” beach balls, beach chairs, and palm trees “” with the devastation caused by the BP oil disaster. In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress during the protest, Tulane University student Stephanie Stefanski explains why she drove 20 hours from Louisiana to the 2011 Power Shift conference to help to shut down BP and make them pay to restore the Gulf:

Read more