Policy
tlambert | February 7, 2008John Mashey points me to a video of Naomi Oreskes' talk on "The American Denial of Global Warming":
The first part ("TRUTH") outlines the history of climate science
research, and the unpoliticized acceptance thereof that lasted until the
early 1990s. The second part "DENIAL" describes the George C. Marshall
Instiute's role in creating confusion and politicizing the issue, using
tactics from the cigarette wars.
Naomi knows her topic well, and is a lively speaker - I heard an earlier
version of this about a year ago, and this talk is well worth watching.
TRUTH
00:00 Introduction
02:00 Frank…
cmooney | February 6, 2008
Recently, my inbox has been filling up with emails about new online resources that bring you up to speed on the science policy positions of the candidates. The AAAS has a website, as does Popular Mechanics, Physics Today, and Scientists and Engineers for America (the SHARP Network, which also looks at congressional candidate science policies).
And I'm sure there are other ones out there that I've simply missed.
In my latest Science Progress column, though, I canvass these sites and find, understandably, that most are based on information from campaign websites, candidate speeches, press…
mikethemadbiologist | February 5, 2008On his campaign website, Romney has listed ten incidents that supposedly mean McCain is unstable. Let's review them:
1. Defending His Amnesty Bill, Sen. McCain Lost His Temper And "Screamed, 'F*ck You!' At Texas Sen. John Cornyn" (R-TX). "Presidential hopeful John McCain - who has been dogged for years by questions about his volcanic temper - erupted in an angry, profanity-laced tirade at a fellow Republican senator, sources told The Post yesterday. In a heated dispute over immigration-law overhaul, McCain screamed, 'F--- you!' at Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who had been raising concerns about…
purepedantry | February 5, 2008The average age of the world population is getting older, and this is very likely to have serious social and economic consequences in the countries and regions where it is most severe. However, I feel like this is very rarely discussed in politics. Politics seems to be rather specialized at not discussing the issues that are most likely to be relevant.
Anyway, I caught two articles on the aging population in the last week, and in honor of Super Tuesday I thought we should discuss the demographic trend that is most likely to shape the world over the next 100 years.
The first is by Lutz et…
tfk | February 5, 2008Seven score and three years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood and repeated his oath of office. His election four years earlier was plenty contentious, "all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it." As he took the oath the first time, "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war."
His victory drove South Carolina and then the…
cortex | February 4, 2008This video is shamefully manipulative. It's just a bunch of celebrities, from Scarlett to John Legend, harmonizing over a particularly eloquent Obama speech. The rhetoric is beautiful, poetic and vapid. The camera work is a little too artful. The crescendo at the end is a little too obvious.
And yet, it works. The short video manipulates you even though you know you're being manipulated. I'm not a big fan of celebrities mixing with progressive politics, but I still got shivers at the end of the song, right when the "Yes we can!" chorus picks up speed.
Those shivers are the sole message of…
nisbetmc | February 1, 2008
I am in Italy until Wednesday of next week participating in an expert workshop on the scientific and societal dimensions of climate change. Organized by the Earth Institute's Urban Design Lab at Columbia University and the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, the workshop will turn into an edited volume released as part of the Ecopolis conference to be held in Rome in April, 2009.
The workshop features experts analyzing almost every major dimension of climate change. I am on a panel that kicks the workshop off by focusing on "Politics, Public Opinion, and Communication." Here are the questions that…
tfk | January 31, 2008It's pretty hard to see how McCain could fail to romp through Feb. 5, especially if Romney isn't running any ads in the 22 states holding primaries or caucuses.
As Steve Benen notes, this creates an opportunity for the Democratic candidates to break the circular firing squad and start showing who can better beat McCain. Benen explains:
As far as I can tell, the basic pitch from Obama's perspective will be: He appeals to more independents and frustrated Republicans than Clinton; he represents a better contrast (old vs. young, new vs. stale); and he unites the left and divides the right,…
tfk | January 30, 2008One of the things that impressed me about Obama when I met him in 2006 was his nearly palpable intellect. In a situation like that interview, a five-minute session with a little blogger in Kansas, wedged between a private chat with Governor Sebelius and an address to the state's Democratic powerbrokers, it'd be easy for him to have gone on autopilot, giving canned answers with his mind elsewhere. Nonetheless, I got the genuine feeling of the gears whizzing, working through my questions, turning them around in his head and genuinely engaging me and them as he answered.
It's possible that…
sb admin | January 29, 2008In his last state of the union address, President Bush glossed over the seriousness of some of the most pressing problems facing our country, and suggested they could be solved with something thatâs been in short supply during his tenure.
âGlobal climate changeâ got one brief mention, as something that the nation is committed to confronting with cleaner and more energy-efficient technology. Unacceptable rates of uninsurance and spiraling healthcare costs were obliquely referenced with a stated goal of âmaking health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans.â Bush invoked…
jjacquet | January 29, 2008Posted by Jack Sterne, jack@oceanchampions.org
So my question to those of you out there in science blog land is this: does politics matter to you?
One of the best fish advocates in Congress could go down (If you don't believe me see today's Washington Post).
Gilchrest could be replaced by an anti-environment zealot.
Do you care?
Congress controls whether federal dollars get directed at ocean-related research.
Key members of Congress work to get science projects funded.
Do you believe that building relationships with these members makes a difference in funding, and to your work?
I can…
nisbetmc | January 22, 2008Tomorrow, I will be appearing on WAMU's Kojo Nnamdi show for a segment called "A bi-partisan approach to environmentalism." The show starts at noon EST and you can listen live or to the audio archive here. I will post more details on the other guests when they become available. To preview my take on the environmental agenda in the 2008 election, see my recent column on "Going Beyond Gore's Message."
Late last year I appeared on the same program to discuss science policy and communication. Listen here.
tfk | January 21, 2008Glenn Greenwald has questions about an Obama brochure explaining that the Senator is a "Committed Christian":
Finally, just to underscore the point (again), I'm not arguing that Obama has done anything wrong here. As I said, I thought much of the criticism of Huckabee for making overt religious appeals was overblown because that's become the norm for our political culture. My point is simply that, with regard to this specific tactic of appealing to voters based on shared religious beliefs, Huckabee and Obama seem to be engaged in more or less the same exercise, and therefore, it's irrational…
mikethemadbiologist | January 17, 2008Other than Atrios, I'm the only one who thinks Romney would be the hardest Republican for Democrats to beat. Here's why.
The Somerby Effect. One thing to keep in mind is that the traditional media narratives, while trivial for all politicians, are strongly biased against Democrats ("Obambi", obsessive hatred of the Clintons, "The Breck Girl"). Second, on a factual claim, a counter-argument always receives less attention than the original argument because political reporters are stupid and ignorant (not necessarily true of beat reporters), and after adding in the bias, if a Democrat has to…
mikethemadbiologist | January 14, 2008Certain political acts are beyond the pale, such as cutting a teen suicide hotline. Unless they're gay, then it's called positioning. In light of the Great Orange Satan's and others' calls for Michigan Democrats to muck up the Republican race by voting for Romney, I thought revisiting his cuts for a gay suicide teen hotline would be in order (be very, very careful, he just might win...). About the cuts, I wrote:
Let's leave aside decency and morality and try to forget that Romney eliminated funding for a gay teen suicide hotline to curry favor with the theopolitical Right. Let's not plumb…
cmooney | January 10, 2008In my latest DeSmogBlog item, I try to explain the gap between what science says we need to do to stabilize the climate system, and what U.S. politics is currently capable of:
On the one hand, we've now got people like Bill McKibben and James Hansen talking as if 350 parts per million of atmospheric CO2 was the actual tipping climatic point. Which means we've already passed it, and completely radical changes will be necessary if we're to save the planet.
But over in the U.S. Congress, right now we can't even pass Lieberman-Warner, a cap-and-trade bill that would reduce atmospheric carbon…
mikethemadbiologist | January 10, 2008Here's one example, unintentionally brought to you by NY Times columnist Frank Rich, of how writing political narratives instead of discussing data leads to unsupported conclusions (italics mine):
The continued political import of Iraq could be found in three different polls in the past six weeks -- Pew, ABC News-Washington Post and Wall Street Journal-NBC News. They all showed the same phenomenon: the percentage of Americans who believe that the war is going well has risen strikingly in tandem with the diminution of violence -- from 30 percent in February to 48 percent in November, for…
nisbetmc | January 9, 2008Out of all the suggestions that have been thrown around about who should be the next Presidential science advisor, I think Bora over at A Blog Around the Clock might have hit on the best choice and that's Harold Varmus.
As I noted in a previous post discussing the possibility of Francis Collins as presidential advisor, the government's chief science policy person can also be an important public ambassador. In that role, and in dealing with a diversity of constituents and stakeholders, the science advisor needs to be able to communicate science in a way that connects with religious Americans…
tfk | January 8, 2008Well, Hillary came in two points ahead of Obama in New Hampshire, and 22 points ahead of John Edwards. Edwards insists that he's still in it for the remaining 48 states, but I have a hard time imagining how he will do any better in those states than he did in Iowa, where he camped out for the last 3 years. I wish him luck, though.
I'm inclined to agree with the general consensus that Hillary won a lot of support from the asinine obsession various folks (including Edwards, alas) had with her tears the other day. But like publius, I don't think that sexism is ultimately behind Hillary's…
clock | January 8, 2008Following his (excellent) article in Seed on the topic, my SciBling Chris Mooney blogs about the future of the position of the Science Advisor to the President, suggesting some potential names, and Matt Nisbet, RPM, Blake Stacey, Brian Switek, Scott Hatfield, Lila Guterman, Larry Moran, Mike Dunford, Flavin, c4chaos, Gordon Watts and PZ Myers chime in with their own opinions on the potential candidates.
For some reason, all the bloggers are focusing on popularizers of science and charismatic figures. But the job of a Science Advisor to the President is not really that public (unless the next…