Guest Thinkers

Daniel Sarewitz, professor of science policy at Arizona State University, has an important op-ed at Slate today explaining why if we continue to frame the climate change debate in terms […]

Monday night, March 1, starting at 630pm, American University’s School of Communication will be hosting a panel discussion focused on “The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an […]

Last week I posted about the increasing problem of incivility at comment sections for blogs and news sites. As I noted at the end of the discussion thread that was […]

Last week I presented at a workshop hosted by AAAS on “Promoting Climate Literacy Through Informal Science.” There were a number of outstanding presentations and themes discussed including a plenary […]

The School of Communication at American University in partnership with the School of Public Affairs has established a new 2 year MA degree program in Political Communication. The program is […]

What does climate change mean to you? from Andrea Posner on Vimeo. Students in AU Professor David Johnson’s class on interactive media have created a social media and discussion site […]

More than 200 students turned out tonight for the AU Forum on climate change and youth and approximately 700,000 audience members in the DC area listened in via the live […]

Americans under the age of 35 have grown up during an era of ever more certain climate science, increasing news attention, alarming entertainment portrayals, and growing environmental activism, yet on […]

At last night’s AU Forum on The Climate Change Generation, one of the students asked what can be done to break public indifference on the issue.In the YouTube clip above, […]

I’ve long questioned the value of anonymous blogging or commenting. Much of the incivility online can be attributed to anonymity. And with a rare few exceptions, if you can’t participate […]

The Katzen Arts Center on the American University campus will be host to a discussion of the civic and personal challenges that college students face on climate change.Here’s a head […]

Last week the NSF Science Indicators report was released, triggering more dramatic calls to action and overstated warnings from commentators about the alleged decline of science in American society. This […]

For readers at Harvard, I will be participating in a panel discussion at the Kennedy School of Government on Thurs. Feb. 4 from noon to 2pm. Details are below and […]

Nature magazine ran an editorial last week arguing the need for new directions in climate change communication, reflecting directly many of the themes shared at this blog and in past […]

In the two days leading up to their annual conference in San Diego later this month, AAAS will be sponsoring a two-day workshop on improving climate change literacy through informal […]

Two surveys released this week provide more information on how public opinion may or may not be shifting relative to climate change and energy. I provide some highlights and quick […]

Much calamity has been made in popular books and by liberal commentators about the public’s scores on quiz like survey questions tapping basic knowledge of scientific facts or the public’s […]

In his State of the Union speech last week, President Obama called for significant government investment in nuclear energy, telling Congress that “to create more of these clean energy jobs, […]

A reminder for readers in Boston and Cambridge: Thursday this week I will be a panelist on a discussion about climate change and the media at the Kennedy School of […]

On Thursday, at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, I served as one of the panelists at the event “The Public Divide over Climate Change: Science, Skeptics and the […]

Below are text of the remarks that I opened with at the Harvard panel last week on “The Public Divide over Climate Change: Science, Skeptics and the Media.” To listen […]

UPDATE: Due to the weather, the Forum is postponed until the end of February or early March. When a date is finalized, I will post details.Tuesday night at 7pm, American […]

In my remarks as part of a panel at Harvard last week, I predicted that a new public accountability narrative about climate scientists had been locked in by the “ClimateGate” […]

ClimateGate: A now ubiquitous tagline that conveys a preferred storyline.In a paper published earlier this year at the journal Environment, I explained how claims and arguments relative to the climate […]

Over at the Columbia Journalism Review, Curtis Brainard and Cristine Russell file their first overview and analysis of Copenhagen coverage. Their daily round up of mostly mainstream news reporting promises […]

On Copenhagen, not surprisingly, ideologically driven media outlets are working overtime to brand themselves and appeal to their respective audiences. Not only do we have the expected conservative commentary and […]

Tomorrow at 130pm, I will be a guest on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show to discuss the communication challenge on climate change and strategies for overcoming political polarization.Also as guests from […]

Audio of yesterday’s discussion at WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show on science, religion, and the climate debate is now available online. I wish we had more time to focus in depth […]

One of the arguments I have been making in talking to journalists is to beware the hype over the relative impact of the climate skeptics movement in contributing to societal […]