Oct 30, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism, Partisanship, Elections and the Energy Transition
One of the recurring themes in Climate of Contempt is that while modern media doesn’t change human nature, it does amplify the worst aspects of human nature in powerful ways. The book recommends extended political dialogue across ideological and partisan boundaries, a...
Oct 25, 2024 | Blog, Democracy and Transitions to Authoritarianism, Journalism, Bias & Censored News
In chapter 4 of Climate of Contempt I summarize the academic literature showing how (1) online platform algorithms mislead and anger us, and (2) political persuaders use that anger to push us toward ideological extremes and increasingly intense partisan animosity....
Oct 20, 2024 | Blog, Partisanship, Elections and the Energy Transition
No matter what happens on Election Day, members of the climate coalition can use it to recalibrate their sense of how energy transition politics works, and to better understand the modern GOP’s growing opposition to clean energy and greenhouse gas regulation....
Oct 15, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
Chapter 5 of Climate of Contempt opens with a discussion of the ubiquitous presence of petroleum products in modern society. Some readers find that discussion provocative because it asserts that (i) even though the oil industry has benefited from the glogal north’s...
Oct 10, 2024 | Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
[Reader warning: This is a wonky post that is aimed at people who have read Climate of Contempt or who otherwise have a deep and granular understanding of how electricity markets work.] —— Chapters 3 and 5 of Climate of Contempt discuss expert disagreement...
Oct 5, 2024 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
The word “shpilkes,” which refers to a state of agitated anxiety, is probably unfamiliar to most non-Yiddish speakers. I am not a Yiddish speaker, but like many of us above a certain age I learned the word watching Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s. Shpilkes is a...
