Collide-a-scape

There’s no resisting a great headline, so thanks to Michael Tobis for pointing me to this bit of hilarity via his Google reader. But if you absolutely must take James Cameron seriously, then head over to Revkin’s place. As for Cameron’s walk-on role in the gulf oil gusher epic, my brain tells me that Andy’s right to have noted that,

given Cameron’s proven skills in assembling specialists to solve daunting technical challenges in deep water, I can’t see much of a downside in any of this.

But I’m having trouble getting past my own bias, because I loathed Avatar.

On the subject of disasters and headlines, let me return the favor to Michael and suggest this post from David Rothkopf, which an editor at Foreign Policy had the good sense to highlight as:

We should just be glad Obama’s not curled up on the floor weeping

There is a simplistic way to talk about the link between climate change and catastrophic wildfires and other natural disasters:

The science makes clear that many extreme weather events have increased in recent years — and that there is a link to climate change.

You can  shout from the rooftops:

CNN, ABC, WashPost, AP, blow Australian wildfire, drought, heatwave “Hell (and High Water) on Earth” story–never mention climate change

NBC News ignores climate change, blows bark beetle story

The NY Times Blows the Wildfire Story

The NY Times Blows the Drought Story, too

USA Today ignores the Link Between Extreme Weather and Climate Change

AP Blows the Extreme Weather Story

Or, you can be grounded firmly in science and still be declarative, as demonstrated by RealClimate in this post on the recent Australian wildfires:

So, did climate change cause these fires? The simple answer is “No!”

And you can still be nuanced and mature at the same time, in the same post:

While it is difficult to separate the influences of climate variability, climate change, and changes in fire management strategies on the observed increases in fire activity, it is clear that climate change is increasing the likelihood of environmental conditions associated with extreme fire danger in south-east Australia and a number of other parts of the world.

It’s your choice. In the next post I’ll talk about why the environmental community is going to have to decide on which which approach to take.