Fox Boss

Media Matters has the scoop on an issue that should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the environmental discourse. The head honcho at Fox ordered his people to question climate change.

From: Sammon, Bill
To: 169 -SPECIAL REPORT; 036 -FOX.WHU; 054 -FNSunday; 030 -Root (FoxNews.Com); 050 -Senior Producers; 051 -Producers; 069 -Politics; 005 -Washington
Cc: Clemente, Michael; Stack, John; Wallace, Jay; Smith, Sean
Sent: Tue Dec 08 12:49:51 2009
Subject: Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data…

…we should refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period without IMMEDIATELY pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. It is not our place as journalists to assert such notions as facts, especially as this debate intensifies.

Best part about this memo? The ambiguity in the final sentence. So they finally agree that their view is that journalists are to play the role of asserting such notions as facts.

Almost done with the book, which means that I’ll soon be blogging a little more frequently.

 

Carbon Pricing

Pachauri is speaking on carbon pricing right now. I had intended to blog a little more aggressively here, but honestly, the internet connections are completely terrible, so there’s no guarantee that what I type will ever make it onto the intertubes.

At any rate, Pachauri thinks that there must be some set of incentives and disincentives that lead to mitigation get rewarded in the marketplace. What he really thinks is that academics have been remiss in not attending to these sorts of questions.

For instance, if the EPA or any other arm of the US government were to regulate construction standards associated with new buildings, we could somehow make great ground… which he mentions even though this has very little to do with climate finance or carbon pricing.

Bryce Rudyk from NYU speaking now on climate finance.