The ‘green crap’ hits its fans

Sorry, David Cameron - you're now stuck with the green policies you yourself advocated. Last week, the Sun and the Daily Mail reported a Downing Street insider’s claims that David ‘vote-blue-go-green’ Cameron now wants to ‘get rid of all the green crap’. Whether this...

What is Science?

The previous post here made the point that the IPCC serves much less to inform debate than as a vehicle for any number of political ambitions or prejudices, few of which can be justified on the basis of the IPCC's reports -- assessments of what 'science says'. The...

What is the IPCC?

Apparently some scientists have written some kind of 'Assessment Report'. There's lots of comment about it all over the web, media, and politics, and this probably the last climate blog to comment on the story. But perhaps there has not been as much comment as there...

Battling the Environment

The Institute of Ideas' annual Battle of Ideas meets again next weekend, at the Barbican Centre in London. On the Sunday, I'll be discussing 'What is Environmentalism' with Mark Lynas, Joe Smith, and Caspar Hewett, and with Timandra Harkness in the chair. What is 'new...

Whither 'Extreme Weather'…

David Whitehouse and I have produced a few films for the GWPF on the subject of 'extreme weather'. There are two versions -- one shorter, a second longer with more detail. Short version: Longer version: The videos centre around interviews between David Whitehouse, and...

Greenpeace: talking out of a polar bear’s arse

A recent Greenpeace protest only demonstrated that environmentalism is not a mass movement. Earlier this month, around 3,000 Greenpeace members and supporters marched from Parliament to Shell’s London offices to protest against what they claim is the oil giant’s...

The Guardian’s ‘Scientists Warn…’ Meme

In today's Observer, Robin McKie channels scientists... Climate change: IPCC issues stark warning over global warming Call to 'stop dithering about fossil fuel cuts' as expert panel warns entire globe is affected This is now part of the ritual established by the...

Australian Elections – a Test of Climate Politics?

Over at the new-format Spiked, Rob Lyons has a short piece on the Australian elections. One of the biggest issues in Saturday’s Australian election will be the ‘carbon tax’. Coalition leader Tony Abbott said this week: ‘If the Coalition wins the election on Saturday,...

A wind of Change – or an Unchanging Windbag?

Amongst a number of things going on in the climate debate, two things caught my eye last week. The first is this video from 350.org 350 want to use the names of prominent climate sceptics, rather than an list of names in alphabetical sequence, to refer to tropical...

Science without an Object

In my post at the Nottingham Uni's Making Science Public blog, I discussed the possibility of an empty consensus: The consensus referred to by Davey and Nuccitelli, then, is what I call a consensus without an object: the consensus can mean whatever the likes of Davey...