"When our political leaders can't agree on whether climate change is a threat, the majority of people can't either. The public is divided because our political leaders are polarized."

This is the upshot of a recent study on U.S. public attitudes towards climate change according to one of...

When it comes to the international climate negotiations, skeptical science is a non-issue. The last time I recall a government trying to make it one was in 2009, right before the Copenhagen climate summit.

The lead negotiator for Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Al-Sabban, told the BBC he thought the...

Once every 10 or 20 years, something remarkable happens. World leaders take note of the perilous state of our planet and its poorest inhabitants and think, "Good heavens, someone ought to do something about this."

And looking around they realize, "Oh... that would be us." So they have a Summit....

The Canadian government and its vested oil interests should have realized that in a year that produced the Arab Spring and the Occupy movements, business as usual is no longer good enough. Just last month the head of the International Energy Agency, an institution renowned for its promotion of fossil...

The British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead died more than 60 years ago, but he could have been talking about the Durban climate conference when he said, "Necessity is the mother of invention is a silly proverb. Necessity is the mother of futile dodges is much nearer the truth."

Reactions to...

And so it begins.

The United Nations climate negotiations re-opened today in South Africa, and the gloves are off. With the echo of the opening gavel still reverberating in the Durban International Convention Center, acrimonious political differences are already playing out in the media.

Rumors about rich...

A recent comment by Maldives President Mohammad Nasheed exemplifies the communications challenges that will arise when representatives of 194 countries meet in Durban, South Africa, as parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The current negotiation process is stupid, useless and endless. It is based...

What a difference a year can make in the World Energy Outlook (PDF). Released just last week, the International Energy Agency's press release led with an attention-grabbing clarion cry:

"The World is Locking Itself into an Unsustainable Energy Future Which Would Have Far-Reaching Consequences..."

What consequences...

Am I going mad, or are climate politics becoming as weird as the weather itself? Based on developments over the last week, I'd say the latter.

Less than a month before the annual climate conference begins in Durban, confusing signals from a series of international meetings make it harder to...

The skeptic case against climate change is unraveling before our eyes like someone walking away from an old sweater, thread in hand.

For those who have ever put the skeptic arguments to the test, it has always been clear that their criticisms rarely stand up to even the most...

Climate change skeptics would have you believe that global warming is an abstract theory, a dispute between scientists with differing interpretations of computer models, temperature data and ice measurements. So when the conversation turns to real people facing real hardship on the frontlines of climate change, it's no surprise that...

Negotiations are underway in Panama, the last gathering of climate diplomats prior to the big Durban Climate Conference at the end of the year.

Last June Yvo De Boer, former head of the UN climate convention and for years THE stalwart champion of the negotiating process, commented that "this process...

Last weekend thousands of people around the world came together at more than 2,000 Moving Planet events to call for a future free of fossil fuels. I celebrated the day with my best friend in Amsterdam, my trusty old bike with the back-pedal brakes.

When it comes to transportation,...

The Beatles' 1968 song "Revolution" has become firmly stuck in my head of late. It's the bit that goes: "You say you got a real solution, well you know, we'd all love to see the plan..." that did it. In the space of two weeks' time, three such plans pertaining...

Watching Irene from our small cabin in the New Hampshire woods was a sobering experience. Even though it was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit us, trees were swaying dangerously, the water in the lake was rising and the proverbial babbling brook which normally carries the...

Last week's independent review of the BBC's science coverage was a major setback for climate denialism, concluding as it did that the BBC has given far too much weight to unsubstantiated claims. But one point has been largely overlooked in the extensive news coverage and commentary about the report: climate...

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone called Al Gore an alarmist.

The dictionary definition of an alarmist is "someone who is considered to be exaggerating a danger and so causing needless worry or panic," "a person who habitually spreads alarming rumors, exaggerated reports of danger, etc."...

When I arrived in London last Tuesday, everyone was talking about the News of the World phone hacking scandal. While unscrupulous invasions of celebrity privacy was the tabloid's signature modus operandi, this time it had sunk to a level of unrivaled depravity. Investigators for the paper had hacked into the...

The European Court of Justice is set to hold its first hearing today on the legality of the European Union's emissions trading plan for the airline industry. The Air Transport Association and several of its American member airlines are suing to overturn it. If they succeed, the first and only...

UPDATE 6/23/11 Outcome of IPCC meeting on Geoengineering:
The IPCC just wrapped up a high level "expert meeting" in Peru to explore "the scientific foundations for an assessment of geoengineering." In a press conference after the controversial meeting (which included representatives from the nascent geoengineering industry) the IPCC co-chairs...