Collide-a-scape

Some stuff that caught my eye this week:

Bryan Walsh at Time attempts to sort through the frack-off at Cornell.

Biotechnology to the rescue? Shhh, don’t tell the anti-GMO crowd about this one.

Steve Silberman tweets:

Between them, Gingrich and Limbaugh have had 7 marriages. And they want to abolish my one.

Did you know Israel was at war with itself?

An evangelical climate scientist (much in the news lately) explains what it will take for conservative evangelicals to really get on board with the climate concerned community:

Environmental issues and climate change carry a lot of baggage in evangelical circles. If you can dissociate the issue from Al Gore, if you can dissociate the issue from the Democratic Party, if you can dissociate it from hugging trees, from pro-choice, from evolution vs. creation, if you can strip away all of those ties and only talk about the issue of taking care of the planet God gave us and loving our neighbor as ourself, then there is hardly anyone who will not accept that message. It’s not about theology, it’s about baggage.

Jerry Coyne, picking up on that scientists-are-clueless-about-journalism Guardian article, ask his readers:

What are your complaints about science journalism? Who, in particular, doing you think is doing a really good job or a really crappy job?

We learn that Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science, can envision himself being a Republican in the Make Love-Not War era. Maybe he would have penned a book called The Democratic Brain on Acid.

Richard Betts wants to widen the climate conversation. Good luck with that!

Finally, courtesy of Charles C. Mann, I’ve been made aware of this excellent essay by a geographer who looks back at his own famous 20-year old essay and an ensuing body of work by scholars that deflated the “pristine myth.” The humanized landscape theme and some of the authors (and their books) mentioned in the essay have previously been discussed at Collide-a-Scape (see here and here, for example).

Have a nice weekend.

Reading Jon Huntsman’s new-found equivocation on climate change reminded me of Bill Clinton’s flexible definition of the word “is.” There’s just no way you can be a politician and keep your soul from rotting. But hey, at that level of the game, how much soul can they have left?

So why has Huntsman suddenly become squishy on climate science? I think James Fallows pretty much gets it here:

And remember back when Jon Huntsman bragged about his “call me crazy” status for believing scientists about climate change? Ah, those were the days — before he apparently sensed that his chance for the Bachmann->Perry->Cain->Newt->??? conservative vote might be at hand.

Yes, it appears that Huntsman thinks his turn in the very fluid Republican contest will come after the inevitable Newt flameout. So instead of positioning himself as the sane Republican in 2016, he’s gambling what’s left of his soul on the fickleness of conservative primary voters in 2012. What a shame, if not a surprise.

The only thing that’s missing is a tweet from Rick Perry to Huntsman, saying: “Welcome to crazyville. What took you so long?”

In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’ve embedded my twitter feed at the right sidebar. More of me for you to love or loathe.

Seriously, in between wise cracks and indecipherable chatter, you’ll probably come across some useful reading links.

There’s an intriguing new website/blog devoted to sustainability issues, which one admirer describes as thus:

Planet 3.0 is attempt to do something genuinely useful and different in facilitating discussions about sustainability, and I am greatly encouraged to see it launched.

Me too! Eager to learn more about this fledgling endeavor, I clicked on the “About” category at the site. It reads (my emphasis):

Welcome to the Alpha release of Planet 3.0 a new effort in sustainability journalism.

We are currently an invite only site, and are only sending invites to a select group of scientists and communicators.

If you don’t have an invite, check back later.

Oh. I’ll move along, then.

So an online site that presumably wants to get more people to think about and embrace sustainability concerns is an exclusive club. And some wonder why climate change remains a niche issue.

[UPDATE: Michael Tobis explains in the comments that the About page was "stale" and he has since removed its original content. He also expands on his explanation here for the selectivity of the site's hoped-for community.]

Sorry for the inconvenience. My blog host is no dream. Evidently they’ve had major server issues today.

It looks something like this.

As Jeffrey Goldberg puts it:

Pamela Geller has a new book coming out, about what she sees as the central challenge of our time, called “Stop the Judaization of Germany.” Oops, sorry, it’s called “Stop the Islamization of America.” Same general theme, though.

Yes, indeed, as I’ve pointed out here, about this odious demagogue.

Let’s just say that Marc Morano will not be pleased.

As some of you may have noticed, the site was down for a few hours. I apologize for the inconvenience. There were some server problems.

This blog is due for a makeover and that includes finding a more reliable web host service.

The events in Louisiana have prompted The New Yorker to display this classic (freely accessible) from John McPhee on its home page.

This Washington Post op-ed by Senator John McCain, rebutting his fellow Republicans on the use of torture, is notable.

Might it herald the return of the old McCain from the early 2000s? If so, he might also find his voice on the climate issue.