Jul 20, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
Several years ago, a friend of mine presented a paper at a law school whose faculty is known for its conservative ideological bent. The paper described a regulatory agency’s analysis showing that the public health benefits of a particular regulation far exceeded its...
Jul 5, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate, Partisanship, Elections and the Energy Transition
In 1980, a country music artist named Mac Davis had a hit with a song called “It’s Hard to be Humble.” The opening lines were “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble / When you’re perfect in every way.” The song was obviously tongue-in-cheek, but when it comes to...
Jul 1, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
In March of 2024 the Breakthrough Institute’s Ted Nordhaus published an article entitled “Did Exxon Make It Rain Today?” The gist of the article is his claim that most media coverage of climate change catastrophizes the issue, and that climate scientists are complicit...
Jun 10, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
The grandson and great-grandson of U.S. presidents, Henry Adams, wrote his famous statement about politics being “the organization of hatreds” as an expression of his disillusionment with politics, especially the political effectiveness of whipping up contempt for...
May 30, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
Chapter 4 of Climate of Contempt discusses the academic literature on Internet “filter bubbles,” and how and why they wind us up emotionally. They close our minds to information and arguments that challenge our beliefs by making that information too...
Apr 20, 2024 | Blog, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate
There is an old axiom (sometimes attributed to Carl Sandburg) that trial attorneys know: “When the law is against you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law.” The 1990s courtroom/family drama “Picket Fences” featured a...