Glaciers melting, protesters in the state of Denmark where developing and developed nations are pointing fingers, AP says unruffle already on all those e-mails – and more. Climate news is popping. Here are a few samplings of what has the world’s press busy on the topic today, starting with a few of the larger outlets reporting from the UN conference in Copenhagen. Much news there, but not all, stems from developing nations’, especially from Africa, determined not to permit any agreement that mandates specific greenhouse gas limits on them (just as the old Kyoto agreement did not).

• BBC – Richard Black: Developing nations return to Copenhagen climate talks ;
• Bloomberg – Gelu Sulugiuc, Jeremy van Loon;  UN Climate Talks Resume After Delay Over Kyoto ; Bloomberg has the commendable habit of re-running stories with an “update’ notice in the hed, tipping readers to fast-changing stories.  It’s a brief account, but one can sense exasperated reporters trying to squeeze news, context, and what happened five minutes ago all into one dispatch.
• Christian Science Monitor – Peter N. Spotts : Copenhagen global warming talks suspended over rich-poor divide: This was filed just before the two above it – and one iteration earlier in the Copenhagen news cycle. Gives an idea what covering breaking news within the meeting must be like.

Meanwhile – Water in Bolivia runs short as glaciers shrink:

• NYTimes – Elizabeth Rosenthal : In Bolivia, Water and Ice Tell of Climate Change ; Rosenthal is a pro, describes what she learned, and puts the UN talks in as essential background. Plus the Times’s photographer got a superbly framed image. I thought to myself boy, this sure is a genuine no doubt about it water shortage to be blamed on global events and the collective us – but see the next bullet for a different perspective.
• Boing-Boing – Maggie Koerth-Baker (Nov. 16) : Is There Really a Water Crisis? ; Two things of interest here. First is that, after reading this, I re-read Rosenthal’s and noticed many aspects and nuances that had blurred past me the first time. Her source’s idea is that while newly dry taps may often be due proximally to a change in the weather – there is more to it than that. I am not entirely convinced by the arguments, but they give one pause. Second is a new journalism lesson. Koerth-Baker reports to us more evidence that thereis a living to be made on the web by real, enterprising journalists. She has a contract with the site for two 400-word features (?) weekly, other small items, etc. She refused previously to write blogs as they don’t pay a living wage. But at BB she says she is paid acceptbly and is able to do original reporting.  Good luck with all that.

On the undead climategate, or felonious hacking, Associated Press put three reporters on the e-mails from the UK’s Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia. Seth Borenstein, Raphael  Satter, and Malcolm Ritter have their report on the wires today. (CORRECTION: AP style allows just three bylines, but also on the project were Justin Pritchard and Jeff Donn). They read more than one thousand of the e-mails, not just the ones getting all the attention. They came up with – not much. There is anger and intemperance and pettiness among researchers, but nothing that suggests the e-mail writers actually got anybody fired for not toeing some line or other, distorted anything, or beat anybody up as one msg threatened. Nor, the wire service reports, does the e-mail stash suggest what some critics have called a “culture of corruption” among climate scientists. But, it appears, the scientists had developed a deep and abiding loathing for a few of their critics on the skeptical-denialist-whateveryouwanttocallit side of discussion.

And from the Antarctic Peninsula: Ten years ago The Tracker visited with Bill Fraser, an authority on ecosystem dynamics and Adelie penguins in particular, at Palmer Station. He saw tragedy coming for the birds. Now, it’s happening in a rush:

• New Yorker – Fen Montaigne: Audio Slideshow, The Last Penguin.  Accompanying story Abstract.

More on Copenhagen, the science side with political context:

• AP – Charles J. Hanley: Scientists: Climate talks aim too low for target ; It’s built on one IPCC scientist’s remarks to reporters, with a short rehash of some reasons that greenhouse gases might be set for acceleration. Hanley lets readers see the irony – that for all the fuss among diplomats the measures discussed may be too feeble – for themselves without him hammering the point too bluntly. He closes with a metaphor, however, that may be losing its pop via over-use.

Here’s a Q & A about Copenhagen and other climate questions with a well-regarded journalism professor and environmental thinker:

• Boulder Daily Camera – James Collector: 5 QUESTIONS for CU-Boulder associate professor Tom Yulsman, designer of the “Covering Climate Change” online course ; Yulsman, one learns, says parts of what he said got mangled in translation (darned media!). But it reads sensibly enough from here.

And finally, from the professor of framing:

• Framing Science (blog) Matthew C. Nisbet: Protests in Copenhagen Unlikely to Be An Effective Communication Strategy ; Interesting and somehow ought to be in the news – the backfires typical of protest marches. The Tracker would put it differently – there is hardly a peaceful protest that one might plan without vulnerability to hijack by nihilists, anarchists, and other opportunists who can give almost anybody a black eye.

- Charlie Petit

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm and is filed under About Journalism, Environment & Energy Stories, Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.