Category Archives: climate change

“Climate change” redacted from U.S. Geological Survey press releases

July 10, 2019 – 9:00 am

I’m rereading Orwell’s novel 1984, and so this new report from Science reminded me of the Party’s attempt to change language into “Newspeak” and, by purging old words, creating a new language with a new ideological slant. (That, of course, derived from Orwell’s earlier but superb essay Politics and the English Language.) The Science article relates, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in climate, science journalism, Trumpiana | Comments (38)

Templeton gave big money to climate-denialist organizations

May 29, 2019 – 12:00 pm

Reader Robert called my attention to a 2013 paper in Climatic Change (described by Drexel University as “one of the top 10 climate science journals in the world”) that tracked the source of money given to American climate-denialist organizations. While the results may be out of date, it shows that over at least seven years, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Templeton, Templeton at it again, Templeton's shenanigans | Comments (31)

Maybe people will listen to David Attenborough about climate change

December 3, 2018 – 9:15 am

Right now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. —David Attenborough Some research has shown (I can’t be arsed to find […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Comments (95)

New report again raises the alarm about climate change

November 23, 2018 – 3:00 pm

Trump’s own government’s study shows him to be a mendacious moron. Click on the screenshot below to go to the CNN story, and you can find the government report it mentions at this site. (Note: the report is very long.) An excerpt from CNN: The report’s findings run counter to President Donald Trump’s consistent message that […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Trumpiana | Comments (104)

When offense trumps truth: the demonization of “inconvenient ideas”

March 16, 2018 – 12:00 pm

The Conversation site has featured a lot of stinkers lately, but occasionally a good piece manages to sneak in. One of these is by my old friend, philosopher and writer Russell Blackford: “Don’t shoot the messenger when confronted with inconvenient ideas“. As we know, there are certain ideas that, in many political circles—and Blackford is […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in politics, sex and gender issues | Comments (77)

Bill Nye excoriated for attending State of the Union address with Trump’s proposed NASA chief

February 1, 2018 – 10:15 am

I’ve made no secret about my lack of affection for Bill “The Science Guy” Nye.  Although at one time he may have been a great promoter of science for kids, he seems unable to survive out of the limelight. The result is that he’s engaging in all sorts of activities to keep himself in the […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in science education, science literacy, scientists | Comments (42)

Readers’ wildlife photographs

October 23, 2017 – 8:30 am

For some reason, when I’m traveling I’m reluctant to publish readers’ photos that I’ve saved on my computer. That may be because it requires some time to put them up properly, resize them, look up species IDs and so on. But when photos arrive when I’m traveling, I somehow lack that reserve. (That means, by […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in landscapes, photography | Comments (19)

New Mexico, with input from science and public, doesn’t water down its science standards

October 19, 2017 – 10:30 am

UPDATE: I have an email from Glenn Branch, who works for the National Center for Science Education, correcting the news report (and therefore the post below). I quote with his permission, and with thanks: The US News and World Report version of the AP story on New Mexico’s science standards leaves out a lot of […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in creationism, science education | Comments (8)

Scaramucci does the fandango—on climate change and Earth’s age

July 25, 2017 – 12:30 pm

Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s new Communications Director, isn’t off to a good start, at least to rational people. This David Pakman Show video shows Scaramucci, in a CNN interview with Chris Cuomo last year, claiming that we “don’t know” whether the climate is warming because, after all, science always changes and, anyway, he’s “not a scientist”. […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in creationism, Trumpiana | Comments (65)

How to make America take global warming seriously

June 17, 2017 – 7:15 am

Over at the Far Corner Cafe, reader Pliny the in Between offers a good suggestion (click cartoon to enlarge): Text in the balloon: “Dust kicked up in drought stricken areas and salt spray from rising sea levels will increase barrel wear and corrosion.”

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in climate | Comments (16)