Hari Drama Hari Gaia

In Friday's Independent, Johann Hari has achieved a quite remarkable feat. How I wish that the global warming deniers were right Are you prepared to take a 50-50 gamble on the habitability of the planet? In just 1400 words he manages to cram in just about every...

Eco-Humanism?

At New Matilda, Sarah Burnside argues that: The simplest and most compelling argument for addressing climate change is humanist in nature. As human beings, we must take seriously our need to care for each other, whether at the specific level of provision of universal...

Astroturfers and Space Cadets

Poor George Monbiot is even miserabler than usual: On the Guardian's environment site in particular, and to a lesser extent on threads across the Guardian's output, considered discussion is being drowned in a tide of vituperative gibberish. A few hundred commenters...

A Big Fuss About Small Change

Bob Ward is at it again. In an article for the Guardian, he writes that - shock, horror - ExxonMobil continues to fund organisations he disagrees with, even though he has told them not to. A few weeks ago, ExxonMobil revealed that it made contributions in 2008 to...

Ward Loses Patience

Among the most absurd elements of climate change debates is the persistence of the issue of 'funding'. Absurd because at the same time that science is held to give uncorrupted and incorruptible instructions about how to respond to a changing climate, it is also held -...

Gore Mouthing-Off About Make-Believe Madoffs

Our last post concerned the New York Times article by Andrew Revkin, about allegations of a ‘tobacco strategy’ conspiracy to distort the climate debate in the interests of energy companies. The story was used by Al Gore in testimony to congress, in which he accuses...

Know Your Times

>> UPDATE: Gore uses the flawed NYT article in his testimony to congress. READ MORE. << New York Times journalist, Andrew Revkin, generally writes thoughtfully in the paper, and on his Dot Earth blog, even if we generally disagree with him. However,...

Psycho-Activists' Lack-of-Substance Abuse

Last month, we mentioned a conference at the University of the West of England, which set out to diagnose the debilitating condition suffered by those who fail to subscribe to the environmental orthodoxy. We suggested that it's a sure sign that environmentalism's...

The Psychology of the Psychology of Denial

Last week, we mentioned an academic conference at the University of the West of England about the psychology of climate change denial, which appeared to be rather lacking on the academic front. It was a gathering of a handful of higher beings - Jungian analysts,...

Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree

This weekend, the University of the West of England's Centre for Psycho-Social Studies is holding a conference on 'The Psychological and Political Challenge of Facing Climate Change'. According to conference organiser Professor Paul Hoggett: "We will examine [climate...