Media
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Film Review: "The Yes Men Fix the World"
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One in Three "Obama Czars" Has Congressional Approval
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O'Reilly on Van Jones Affair: 'Communism no longer a threat'
How to Fail at Climate Change Journalism
Published September 01, 2009 @ 12:36PM PT
When does reporting on climate change become reporting fail?
When The Washington Post, one of the nation's most important national newspapers, leaves off sifting for useful facts and dialogue on climate change, in favor of republishing a lot of lowest common denominator yammer.
This is what veteran reporter Doug Feaver did when he lifted around two dozen reader responses to a story, published in yesterday's print and online editions, about how environmentalists are coping with oil lobby tactics for defeating climate policy reform this year. The article focused in particular on the lobbies' efforts to fend off establishment of a carbon dioxide emissions cap, as well as a market for trading carbon emissions credits -- both included in the House-passed climate and energy bill.
As the Senate prepares to take up its versions of the House bill, reporter David Fahrenthold writes, oil and coal lobbies are organizing astroturf rallies. They're also running TV ad blitzkrieg campaigns in the Mountain West, the region that's home to several crucial Senate swing votes.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, are staying largely inside the Beltway, and in his analysis "are struggling in a fight they have spent years setting up."
[Environmentalists] are making slow progress adapting a movement built for other goals -- building alarm over climate change, encouraging people to "green" their lives -- into a political hammer, pushing a complex proposal the last mile through a skeptical Senate.
Even now, these groups differ on whether to scare the public with predictions of heat waves or woo it with promises of green jobs. And they are facing an opposition with tycoon money and a gift for political stagecraft.
"Progressives and clean-energy types . . . made a mistake and slacked off" after the House of Representatives passed its version of a climate-change bill in June, said Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who blogs on climate issues. "And the other side really kept making its case."
[Then again]..."People have been naysaying all year long," said Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club. But, he said, "We got a bill through the House, and you know . . . all signs point to yes" in the Senate.
That's not to say it's a level playing field: climate change activists are by and large not sitting on the giant pools of money available to fossil energy lobbyists and campaign operatives.
Still, this is a provocative and useful bit of reporting. My own professional observations often support it: When it comes to a substantial "national dialogue" on energy policy and climate change action, I still hear crickets chirping.
Video to Watch: "A Warming Web: The Blogosphere and Climate Change"
Published August 27, 2009 @ 05:12PM PT
Once upon a time, I volunteered to organize a discussion about blogging and global warming. Several excellent journo-bloggers agreed to participate. Then, I couldn't actually make it to the meeting in Pittsburgh. So I asked a keen fella to replace me as moderator, and everyone else showed up too, and had a scintillating discussion was had.
Thanks everyone, for carrying on without me in such fine style. Dave says there might be spanking somewhere in there; you're just going to have to watch the whole thing to find out.
- Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog
- Brentin Mock of The American Prospect (and elsewhere)
- Brad Johnson of Think Progress
- Dave Roberts of Grist
- Kate Sheppard of pure awesomeness
- Tim Lange, aka Meteor Blades of Daily Kos
- Miles Grant of National Wildlife Federation
See it all for yourself:
Five Eco-themed Movies for a Rainy Summer Weekend
Published August 22, 2009 @ 08:45AM PT
Contemplating a summer weekend weather report featuring clouds and thunderstorms, like I am?
Here's the upside: It's the perfect excuse to forego all that virtuous outdoor exercise we're supposed to be getting this time of year, and hang out at home watching movies instead.
If you'd like to program some global warming-tinged or otherwise eco-themed flicks (some more broadly than others, admittedly), here are some of my favorites:
In yet another post-eco-apocalypse scenario, it's "Year of the City" 2274. Lawman Logan tracks down "runners" trying to escape the rule that prevents overpopulation: Euthenasia at age 30. Until he suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the hunt...
Okay, dark. But "Logan's Run" is more fun than it has any right to be, thanks to being a near-perfect gem of 1970s dystopic sci-fi: big environmental and ethical themes, a few goofy set pieces, and zappy guns -- all wrapped up in scenes of braless, minidressed female and male beauties cavorting with a youthful Michael York. It's set to a great minimalist score by Jerry Goldsmith (years before Philip Glass became Hollywood's go-to minimalist composer).
2. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
In this gorgeous, suspenseful, and child-friendly animated film, a bright, brave girl uses all her wits, intelligence, and athletic skills to face down dual crises. One is the invasion of her peaceful homeland valley by a rampaging army that's determined to suck the kingdom dry of natural resources. The other is the mystery of how the grotesque giant insect creatures in the world beyond, which has long been contaminated and ruined by toxic pollution, are none-the-less crucial to her people's survival.
The most outright environmentalist of Japanese anime master Hayao Miyazaki's eco-manga oeuvre.
3. Atanarjuat | The Fast Runner (2001)
This is a myth-meets-thriller art house film; if you like that sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you're going to like.
The first feature film written, producted, directed and performed by Canadian Inuit, Atanarjuat is eco-related mainly because the gorgeously photographed Arctic landscape, and the traditional Inuit culture featured in the story, are both are under threat global warming's destructive impacts.
The lives of CIA agents, sheiks from oil-rich nations, their impoverished guest workers, DC politicians and ambitious oil industry insiders cross and weave in one of the decade's most powerful political thrillers. Features George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer, and even a glance of William Hurt.
WALL-E is a very funny, modestly hopeful vision of one logical endpoint to our use-it-and-forget-it (and in the case of our bodies, use-it-or-lose-it) consumer culture.
This kid-friendly choice seamlessly mixes Buster Keaton-inspired physical comedy, social satire, an eco-preservation parable, space opera of a sort, and a love story into one and a half very enjoyable hours.
Video: Rachel Maddow dissects the anatomy of astroturf; You can, too.
Published August 19, 2009 @ 04:48AM PT
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Rachel Maddow dissects the particulars of astroturf campaigns: Public relations campaigns designed to influence public policy. They're funded by corporations, but made to look like the work of "average citizens."
She ends with a look at Energy Citizen, the corporate funded fake grassroots effort to undermine climate change policy, which I've been covering here at Stop Global Warming.
Update, 12:04 pm: As Maddow notes, anyone can do it! When you encounter one of these web sites purporting to be a grassroots campaign against enactment of a reform policy, go to the bottom of the screen and click on the "about us" link (or its nearest equivalent). Then find the names of the entities and/or persons sponsoring the site, and begin digging back until you figure out exactly where the money's coming from and who's created the astroturf.
Some good resources to aid your efforts include:
SourceWatch: A collaborative wiki-based guide to the people, organizations, and companies behind the news, particularly public relations firms and professionals "engaged in managing and manipulating public perception, opinion and policy." A project of the non-partisan Center for Media and Democracy, which also publishes PR Watch.
LittleSis, another collaborative wiki documenting the "key relationships of politicians, corporate executives, lobbyists, financiers, and their affiliated organizations. (Why "Little Sis"? Because she's a watchful eye on "Big Brother.")
Climate Activist to Stephen Colbert: "We're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb
Published August 18, 2009 @ 12:54PM PT
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Bill McKibben | ||||
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Related post: Bill McKibben: 'There finally is climate change activism' and anyone can join
350.org founder and co-director Bill McKibben wisely opted to play it straight last night on The Colbert Report.
Colbert's quips and numbnuts neo-con questions were gentler than usual -- but no matter what, it's a rare guest that can out-funny Stephen.
Under Colbert's purposefully obtuse barrage of questions, McKibben described how during the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrank so dramatically (to a new known low), that to many researchers, it signaled a dramatic shift in the climate.
The situation moved some scientists from abstractions to alarm. In early 2008, NASA senior climatologist James Hansen and colleagues released a draft paper stating that given the climactic instability already being observed, the world needs to get back to 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. (We're now at around 390 ppm, and at the anemic levels of current action, we'll be lucky to level out at 490 ppm.)
[[The final version of this paper is available at arXiv.org, an open access repository of scientific research sponsored by Cornell University and the National Science Foundation.]]
350 ppm is a concentration at which the oceans and forests of the globe could probably continue to pull and store enough carbon out of the atmosphere, explained McKibben, to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
Colbert: Can I steal your thunder and start 349.org? Mine's one better.
McKibben: Science isn't like politics, you know. Chemistry and physics don't bargain that way. We know know now what the bottom line for the planet is.
Colbert: Chemistry and physics doesn't bargain?
McKibben: They don't haggle.
Colbert: Well then I refuse to talk to them, until they reconsider their position!
McKibben: And they to you! They're just gonna do what they're gonna do.
And that's why, around the world now, there are people coming together in this 350.org movement, to try to get our leaders to take the steps that we need.
Colbert: Now you're calling for action on October 24. On October 24 you want people to what, screw in florescent bulbs? What do you want people to do?
McKibben: That would be nice. But we're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb at a time.
Colbert: Good, 'cause I hate those things.
Five Videos to Watch This Week: From Climate Denial to Keen Electric Sportscar
Published August 11, 2009 @ 07:41PM PT
Okay, I know it's summer. But look away for just a few minutes from Darth Vader dancing to Hammer and Mean Kitty vs FlippyCat and check out this week's haul of nifty and informative videos about global warming:
1. Climate Denial Crock of the Week
Peter Sinclair's "Climate Denial Crock of the Week" is an ongoing and very enjoyable video series that debunks global warming myths. This installment, which mentions Anthony Watts of the prominent global warming denial blog wattsupwiththat.com, was temporarily taken down by YouTube after Mr. Watts complained it had violated some copyright rules.
Coal Lobby Group Faked Grassroots Opposition to Climate Bill
Published August 04, 2009 @ 11:52AM PT
Last week news broke that one of the most prominent coal lobby groups, the cheerfully named "American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity," was responsible for forged grassroots letters to Congress in opposition to the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the clean energy and climate action bill sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman and Edward Markey.
Now, as Politico reports, Rep. Markey (D-Mass.) is calling for an investigation into ACCCE's fraud, part of its $45 million media and lobbying campaign to support coal-based electricity.
Mr. Markey, whose House Subcommittee on Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has subpoena power, has sent an investigative letter to Bonner & Associates, which contracted with ACCCE with Hawthorn Group, a "grassroots contractor" hired by ACCCE to do campaign work, listing 12 detailed questions about the fraudulent letters.
At least 3 Representatives received 12 forged letters prior to the ACES vote in June, purporting to come from 8 grassroots groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which in fact is calling for strong action by Congress on stopping global warming and promoting green economy jobs.
"The letters, replete with letterhead and made-up identities, purported to be from Virginian minority organizations including the NAACP," writes ThinkProgress, which has put copies of the letters online.
"My organization Creciendo Juntos represents minorities in your district. You are about to vote on important environmental legislation (the Waxman-Markey bill)," reads one to Rep. Tom Perrielo. "We ask you to help protect minorities and other consumers in your district from higher electricity bills." It's signed by "Marisse K. Acevado, Asst Member Coordinator."
"Perriello was not the only congressman to receive forged letters urging him to oppose the so-called cap-and-trade legislation," reports The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Va. "Reps. Kathy Dahlkemper and Christopher Carney, both of Pennsylvania, also received falsified letters that originated at Bonner & Associates, the clean coal advocacy group said."
ACCCE's put responsiblity on Bonner & Associates, which has used underhanded tactics before to undermine health policy reforms that threatened corporate profits. "This incident demonstrates the incredible lengths that the vested interests of health care and energy are willing to go through to undermine reform. With Congress going on recess soon, more of these astroturf tactics will undoubtedly occur as corporate backed anti-reform groups gather in Congressional districts throughout the country to obstruct health care and clean energy reform," writes Think Progress, which lists several of B&A's past astroturf frauds.
The Institute for Southern Studies' Facing South blog notes that ACCCE has itself been pretty hands-on with the misleading lobby techniques:
Last year, we reported that the group was behind phone calls urging recipients to oppose an earlier version of the climate legislation -- and that at least one of the calls misrepresented the organization.
Last May, Pete MacDowell with the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network reported receiving a call from a woman who identified herself as being from Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, which a month previously had merged with the Center for Energy and Economic Development to form ACCCE. MacDowell said the caller asked to add his name to a fax to Sens. Lieberman and Warner, the legislation's sponsors:
When I asked who ABEC was, I was told that they were individuals concerned about utility rates. When I asked if they were an environmental group, the answer was "yes." When I asked whether they were related to the utilities, the answer was "No."
After publishing our story about the deceptive call, we heard from Steve Gates, ACCCE's communication director. He blamed a new staff member who decided to "wing it" when asked some off-the-script questions and said the person was "no longer working on this project," as we reported in a follow-up story."
History repeats: Bonner is trying to shunt culpability for the more recent fradulent letters onto a temp employee gone rogue.
Believe it if you like. But just as a counterpoint, watch as Jon Stewart and The Daily Show nail the workings of the "outrage-generating ecosystem," when it comes to blocking health care reform:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Master Rebators - The Crank Cycle | ||||
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If these reforms are so awful on the merits, why do industry lobby groups spend tens of millions and invent popular opposition to try and defeat them?
Enviroknow has a good timeline of developments in this story, with lots of links.
