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SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling (and some other stuff)?
William M. Connolley, Stoat
I liked Freakonomics, so I’m a bit sad to see the (inevitable) sequel being so hopelessly wrong. Probably this is a case of the old rule: whenever you see people write about stuff you know, they get it wrong. Joe Romm has a fairly characteristic attack; and just for a change I’ll agree with him; though he chooses odd bits to assault. It looks like the “global cooling” junk is just one chapter, but of course it is the only one I’ll pay any attention to.
Diagnosis, in brief: (1) they write about stuff they clearly don’t understand (2) they pick a catchy reverse-common-wisdom nugget as a headliner without the having the slightest interest in whether it is true or not (mind you, plenty of more respectable folk do the same) (3) they pick an expert to talk to, but since they don’t have a clue about the subject they don’t know how to pick a good expert, or even understand what the expert says (4) there is a grain of sense in there, but so badly wrapped in trash it is nearly unfindable.
The entire piece is riddled with errors. Reading it all would be tedious. So, before reading it in detail I decided to set myself a target of 10 major errors and then stop. Kindly, Romm has provided a PDF of the offending chapter, so you can play along at home.
(1) Global cooling. Alas, there are still fools who fall for this one. [[Global cooling]] on wiki is a fair place to start if you’re interested. That will point you to the definitive study on this issue, by Peterson, Connolley and Fleck. Still #1 on the AMS download lists, and this twaddle will keep it there a bit longer. This earlier post of mine will point you towards some other stuff. As I said in the intro, other people get this wrong – Iain Stewart did – and usually for the same reason: its a fun hook to hang a story on…
(13 Oct 2009)
related: Over at the excellent realclimate.org A warming pause? and the new book Climate Coverup, discussed here. -KS
Edward Burtynsky’s Oil (photo essay)
Foreign Policy
A decade of photographs exploring the impact of oil from the acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. The collection will be on display at Washington D.C.’s Corcoran Gallery through Dec. 13.
(9 Oct 2009)
Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food?
Tom Laskawy, Grist
With all the talk of Michael Pollan and Jamie Oliver lately, it’s easy to ignore the person who right now is, given her current address, the most influential voice on food policy in the country. Naturally, I’m talking about First Lady Michelle Obama. While she’s been exercising what diplomats would call her “soft power” for a while, i.e. planting a garden, making speeches on healthy eating, and so on, indications are that she’s quietly developing a set of policy recommendations to reform the food system. Obama Foodorama has been tirelessly reporting on these maneuvers, which have remained under the radar—even to the point of Mrs. Obama holding “secret meetings” between her policy team and USDA officials.
The speeches continue—she gave another one just the other day at the Department of Health and Human Services. But according to Ob Fo, the First Lady’s policy team—White House Food Initiatives Coordinator Sam Kass and Policy Director Jocelyn Frye—are currently fleshing out a new set of national food and health initiatives. And while nothing is imminent, it now appears that the White House is embracing the “addiction model” of food consumption as portrayed in former FDA chief David Kessler’s new book The End of Overeating:
[T]he book has become something of a bible for Mrs. Obama and her food policy team, and required reading in the White House. Dr. Kessler holds that our bodies and minds are completely changed when we consume sugar, fat, and salt and he maintains that there needs to be all kinds of behavioral changes focused on countermanding this. So while creating better food infrastructures in schools, and promoting educational programs that include cooking and gardening, and promoting better access to healthy foods for the general population through edible gardens and farmers markets, etc., ect., is crucial—these are only part of the very complicated dynamic that gets people to permanently embrace healthier eating. Mrs. Obama and her food policy team are fully aware of this, and they’re busily working on ways to encompass Dr. Kessler’s ideas in upcoming policy initiatives.
I’m very curious to hear how Mrs. Obama translates Kessler’s treatise into policy. Because not only are sugar, fat, and salt addictive, they are accompanied by billions of dollars in marketing designed to get you hooked in the first place…
(14 Oct 2009)
Good interview about the Kessler book at the Huffington Post: Dr. David Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, on why we can’t stop eating
Carolyn Steel on How Food Shapes Our Cities (video)
Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
Here is one of the best talks I saw at TED 2009 in Oxford, Carolyn Steel, author of the excellent ‘Hungry City’.
(9 Oct 2009)
