Max Boykoff quoted in ClimateWire

How media pushed climate change ‘pause’ into the mainstream
by Stephanie Paige Ogburn

Hot topic’ got warmed in ‘conservative circles’

Even the Union of Concerned Scientists, whose position on global warming sits in the human-caused camp, called IPCC’s forthcoming explanation of the pause a “hot topic” in a blog post on what to look for in the report.

IPCC scientists discussing the pause said it was mostly media attention that made it “hot” in the first place.

Initial attention to the pause came from those who have long questioned the underpinnings of climate science.

In 2009, the issue was highlighted in congressional testimony by William Happer, a physicist and climate contrarian at Princeton University. Around that time, it made the rounds in climate skeptic blogs and was mentioned in a column by conservative writer George Will.

It’s not uncommon for issues like the pause to be championed in media subcultures and eventually bubble up into the mainstream surface, said Max Boykoff, a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who researches how climate change is portrayed in the media.

“Particularly in that case in the global warming pause, that had been cropping up in some of the conservative circles first and is something that got grabbed on to more in the mainstream media,” Boykoff said. Read more …

Max Boykoff’s media and climate change work referenced in Mother Jones

4 Reasons You Should Worry About Another Sandy
One year after the destruction, here’s what we know about climate change and storms

by Chris Mooney

One year ago, when Superstorm Sandy devastated much of New Jersey and New York City, the event sparked an intense national discussion about an issue that had gone mysteriously un-discussed during the presidential campaign: climate change. According to research by media scholar Max Boykoff of the University of Colorado, there was actually more media coverage of climate change in leading U.S. newspapers following Sandy than there was following the recent release of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report.

Why? According to NASA researchers, Sandy’s particular track made it a 1-in-700 year storm event. It was, to put it mildly, meteorologically suspicious.

So now, with a year’s distance and a lot of thought and debate, what can we say about climate change and Sandy—and hurricanes in general? A lot, as it turns out. Read more …

Roger Pielke, Jr. quoted in Philly Inquirer on extreme weather

Long-term forecast sees more-damaging storms
by Anthony R. Wood and Sandy Bauers

The historic cyclone that made landfall on this date last year was so powerful and devastating that it was designated a “superstorm,” had its name retired, and entered the tropical storm hall of fame.

But hurricane experts fear that something far worse than Sandy, blamed for $50 billion in damage, is brewing. In the next two decades, the nation could experience a $500 billion storm.

The sea level is rising, and global warming might affect future storms. But even if the world’s temperature stops rising before you finish this paragraph, hurricanes far more damaging than Sandy are all but a certainty, they say.

Despite unprecedented forecasting, monitoring, and warning abilities, and a record period of hurricanes avoiding landfall, the disaster remains one of the nation’s most robust growth industries, with almost unlimited potential. Read more …

Roger Pielke, Jr. referenced in a Play the Game article on sports policy

Brazilian and FIFA top people engage in debates at Play the Game 2013
Brazil’s Deputy Minister of Sport Luis Fernandes is ready to debate with critics of the country’s mega-events this Thursday at Play the Game 2013

The challenges for a huge nation struggling to consolidate its democracy while hosting some of the world’s most demanding and expensive global events have become very visible in Brazil within the past years.

Mass demonstrations against corruption, targeting not only domestic issues, but also FIFA and the World Cup. Harsh words from FIFA’s top administrator against the host country because of delays. Long-lasting debacles over prohibition of beer sale on World Cup stadia. The Rio mayor saying it is a shame that his city must host the Olympics.

And this week a surprising legal action against FIFA from Brazil’s public prosecutors who want more than 100 million US-dollars reimbursed for temporary structures at stadia for the Confederations Cup.

The popular and political turbulence may set a new benchmark for such events: A benchmark by which nations have open discussions about the events already in the bidding process, and by which the big sports organisations show much more concern with democratic and social legacy of their billion-dollar events. Read more …