Our second video blog from the Society of Environmental Journalist National Conference. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now asks George Schultz, former US Secretary of State, the question global warming or global warring?

Schultz claims that the Iraq war "has nothing to do with oil." As our friends at ThinkProgress say: Watch it!

 

 

There was a time, Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider said today, when that appeared to be what American journalists were doing: covering up climate change. Schneider was the lead speaker In an opening plenary of the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, entitled "Covering Climate Change," and he began by noting that all too recently, U.S. climate coverage had been dense and uncertain. Peer-reviewed papers endorsed by the best scientists in the world were given the same space and credence as the latest one-off report by the apologists for an oil-industry-funded think tank.

Sitting before 300-plus reporters currently working the environment beat, Schneider quickly added, "It's not that bad any more."

Here's our first video blog on the Society of Environmental Journalist's national conference with well-known Stanford climatologist, Dr. Steven Schneider, telling a story about how the media sometimes make life a little difficult for scientists.

 

The Society of Environmental Journalists, meeting this year on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, is once again delving into the issues that compromise science journalism.

At a breakout session this morning, Dr. Pat Conrad of the University of California at Davis, gave one effectively all-encompassing answer: scientists fear journalists because journalists are scary.

It's time again for the Society of Environmental Journalists conference and DeSmogBlog will be there covering all the action.

The SEJ conference is being held at Stanford University this year, bringing together top environmental reporters and writers from across North America.

Like last year, the DeSmogBlog team will be there blogging and doing video-casts. Check out the conference details and let us know if there is anything you would like to see us cover.

If you're attending the conference and want to get together for a coffee, drop us a line at desmogblog[at]gmail.com.

And speaking of Senator James Inhofe, many of our new readers might not be familiar with Inhofe's communications director Marc Morano. DeSmogBlog used to cover Morano's activities a lot closer until his boss's fall from grace as the chair of the powerful Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works.

So why am I bringing up Morano again if he is now nothing more than a spin-doctor for a low-ranking political dinosaur?

Well, because it's almost time for this year's Society of Environmental Journalist's National Conference.