NewsRack: demo/Climategate

The IRS Tea Party Scandal, Explained - Mother Jones

Andy Kroll — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

On Friday, May 10, a top official with the Internal Revenue Service dropped a bombshell. IRS staffers had singled out conservative organizations with "tea party" or "patriots" in their name that were seeking tax-exempt nonprofit status, subjecting them to extra scrutiny to see if they were abusing the tax law as it relates to political activity. They grilled these conservative groups about their members, their donors, their public statements, and who they employed. And there is no evidence yet that the IRS systemically treated non-conservative groups with the same level of attention. Speaking to a group of tax lawyers, the IRS official, Lois Lerner, who oversees the agency's exempt organizations division, publicly apologized for the IRS's actions. Ever since, Democratic and Republican politicians have been falling over themselves to condemn the IRS. President Obama said that, if the allegations are true, "there's no place" for such behavior. Members of Congress have pledged to investigate any ...

Experts: CO2 record illustrates 'scary' trend - Star Tribune: Latest

SETH BORENSTEIN — Sat, 11 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The old saying that "what goes up must come down" doesn't apply to carbon dioxide pollution in the air, which just hit an unnerving milestone.

The Most Controversial Chart in History, Explained - Mother Jones

Chris Mooney — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Join us for an in-person conversation with Michael Mann at Climate Desk Live on Wednesday May 15 at 6:30 p.m. in Washington DC. To attend, please RSVP to cdl@climatedesk.org . Back in 1998, a little known  climate scientist named Michael Mann and two colleagues published a paper that sought to reconstruct the planet's past temperatures going back half a millennium before the era of thermometers—thereby showing just how out of whack recent warming has been. The finding: Recent northern hemisphere temperatures had been "warmer than any other year since (at least) AD 1400." The graph depicting this result looked rather like a hockey stick: After a long period of relatively minor temperature variations (the "shaft"), it showed a sharp mercury upswing during the last century or so ("the blade"). The report moved quickly through climate science circles. Mann and a colleague soon lengthened the shaft of the hockey stick back to the year 1000 AD—and then, in 2001, the UN's ...

How Shutterfly and Other Social Sites Leave Your Kids Vulnerable to Hackers - Mother Jones

Dana Liebelson — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT

This spring, with millions of kids across the United States participating in sports leagues and other activities, coaches and harried parents are turning to social sharing websites to keep everything running smoothly. The most popular option is Shutterfly, which boasted around 5 million visitors per month as of March 2012. Shutterfly's free "Team" service allows users (which includes anyone over 13) to upload photos of kids, home addresses, emails, gender information, phone numbers, school names, jersey numbers, and game schedules—all in one place. The American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) has a partnership with Shutterfly, and coaches actively encourage parents and coaches from over 50,000 soccer teams to utilize the service. But there's a catch: Even though Shutterfly's privacy policy claims that the whole site is protected with SSL—a strong form of Internet security used to prevent websites from being hacked into—it isn't actually using the encryption for much of the ...

EPA methane report further divides fracking camps - Twincities.com: News

By KEVIN BEGOS Associated Press — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

PITTSBURGH—The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?

EPA report that lowers methane-leak estimates further divides fracking camps - Star Tribune: Nation

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

EPA methane report further divides fracking camps - Seattle Times: Business & Technology

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?

EPA methane report further divides fracking camps - AP Top News

By KEVIN BEGOS — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change?...

Down to minus 45 - Hindu: Opinion

Vladimir Radyuhin — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

A freezing Russian spring has reignited the climate change debate

The Power of False Narratives - ConsortiumNews.com

Consortiumnews.com — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The Power of False Narratives

Al Gore Is Fat, Therefore Global Warming Doesn't Exist - Mother Jones

Chris Mooney — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Ever notice that when conservatives want to attack the science of global warming—or the idea that we ought to do something about it—they almost always find a way to rope in Al Gore? Occasionally, they even try to debunk the science by denigrating Gore personally, in a kind of guilt-by-association gambit. One of the most striking examples came from Ann Coulter, who wrote in a column in early 2007: The only place Al Gore conserves energy these days is on the treadmill. I don't want to suggest that Al's getting big, but the last time I saw him on TV I thought, "That reminds me—we have to do something about saving the polar bears." Never mind his carbon footprint—have you seen the size of Al Gore's regular footprint lately? It's almost as deep as Janet Reno's. Funny stuff, huh? Coulter's attacks on the former vice president's weight were extreme—but new academic research on conservative syndicated columnists and their writings on global warming suggests that ...

Feelin' queasy: More air turbulence over Atlantic - Boston Globe: Latest

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Feelin' queasy: More air turbulence over Atlantic

Study: More pollution means more air turbulence - Seattle Times: Top stories

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Buckle up.

Study: More pollution means more air turbulence - Seattle Times: Business & Technology

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Buckle up.

Study: More pollution means more air turbulence - Boston Globe: Latest

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Study: More pollution means more air turbulence

Economix Blog: Another Look at Natural Gas - NY Times: Business

By EDUARDO PORTER — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Whether the natural gas boom could reduce the threat of climate change by fostering a switch from coal depends in part on how much gas leaks out in the course of hydraulic fracturing.

MoJo's Running Coverage of CPAC 2013 - Mother Jones

—By the Mother Jones news team — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Read on for dispatches from the Mother Jones DC bureau at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. This weekend, the stars of the GOP will be at the Conservative Political Action Conference ( CPAC ), the notorious meet-up in Washington DC. DC bureau chief David Corn discusses the first day of CPAC, including Mitt Romney's oddly warm welcome from his fellow Republicans, with the Washington Post 's Eugene Robinson and Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball : —By Andy Kroll FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe speaking at CPAC 2012.. markn3tel /Flickr As it does every year, the conservative movement has turned out en masse for the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, an annual Washington confab. Everyone's here: activists, operatives, Rand Paulites, politicians, Mitt Romney, think tank wonks, big-wig donors, fundraisers courting the big-wig donors, and so on. But there's one big name glaringly absent from the CPAC schedule : ...

The GOP Knows Power - ConsortiumNews.com

Consortiumnews.com — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The GOP Knows Power

Dot Earth Blog: Scientists Find an Abrupt Warm Jog After a Very Long Cooling - NYT > Environment

By ANDREW C. REVKIN — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT

An exploration of new work putting abrupt recent warming in long-term context.

Washington state's governor says 6 underground tanks at Hanford nuclear reservation leaking - Star Tribune: Nation

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Retrofitting War to Global Warming - ConsortiumNews.com

Consortiumnews.com — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Retrofitting War to Global Warming

10 Things to Know for Tuesday - Star Tribune: Nation

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Secret funding of climate sceptics in the UK - Guardian: Environment

Bob Ward — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT

In the UK, wealthy rightwing donors also finance campaigns against policies to reduce greenhouse gases The spectacular exposé by the Guardian of the hidden funding network for US climate change sceptics reveals a set-up that also exists in the UK, where wealthy rightwing donors secretly finance a highly professional campaign against policies to reduce greenhouse gases. The main lobby group for suchsceptics in the UK is the Global Warming Policy Foundation, established by Lord Lawson, a Conservative peer. The foundation was officially launched with an article by Lawson in the Times on 22 November 2009, just three days after emails that had been hacked from the University of East Anglia were posted on the web in a bid to scupper the United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen that December. Lawson used the article to accuse climate scientists of "manipulating" records of global temperature and of refusing external scrutiny of their raw data, while also calling for a "an ...

The hackers hunting for clues about you - BBC: Front Page

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The hacking group which uses social networks to attack firms

Reality Bites Back - ConsortiumNews.com

Consortiumnews.com — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Reality Bites Back