I should know better than to post “hot” stories late at night. Yesterday, I reposted an article from the Observer that claimed to leak a “secret Pentagon report” warning about catastrophic sudden climate change.

A commentor on Metafilter managed to put this in much better and more accurate context than the so-called-reliable media.

1) the thing called a “Secret Pentagon Study” (I’m quoting the thread title, check it yourself) [...] by The Observer and by Greenpeace is not in fact secret, it was reported in Fortune weeks ago, and discussed to death on mefi at that time; and is available as an MSWord file here…. 2) The report was not written by the pentagon, it was written for the pentagon by outside consultants. The pentagon commissions reports about a virtually endless list of “scenarios,” including (as mentioned above) senarios in which we invade Canada. 3) The people who wrote the report are not scientists. Peter Schwartz is a “futurist,”, a scenario-dreamer-upper for Global Business Network, and the author of a pre-dotcom-bust book The Long Boom. Amazon review: Among its predictions are a formulation of a “glass pipeline” that seamlessly tracks manufacturing and production processes, creation of a volunteer Global Corps to aid developing nations, the dawning of a true Space Age, and the birth of a unified worldwide society with “well-off people who share certain values that are transcending borders.” Heh heh heh. Doug Randall is another scenario-dreamer-upper with Global Business Network. In short, both these dudes are science-fiction writers, not scientists.

I shoulda picked this up from the Observer article. But damn it, the Observer should have pointed this out in their own freaking article. Shame on me, shame on the media.

My take-home lessons:

1) Context, context, context. So often lacking, so valuable. In today’s media environment it’s increasingly the role of the blogosphere to provide the critical context that the mainstream media accidentially or intentionally fail to provide.

2) A lot of people will propagate nonesense, if it fits their existing frames. Even well intentioned people like (ahem) myself.

3) Understanding who tells you a lot about what.

4) There’s a lot of shoddy journalism out there.

In this absolutely stunning story, headlined Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us Mark Townsend and Paul Harris of the Observer reveal that a secret Pentagon planning report concludes that catastrophic climate change is a plausible threat to national and global security.

You read it right: the Pentagon thinks that climate change is an urgent national security threat, on a par with terrorism.

This is the kind of story that should have every major environmental group in the world ripping up its annual workplan and hammering on this. I want to see videos, graffitti, pamphlets, house parties, video games, movies all hammering on the idea that CLIMATE CHANGE the national security issue of the 21st century.

Although the news stories covering this are already forecasting that this may push environmental issues to the forefront of the presidential race, the reality is that getting a Democrat in the White House will be only the first baby step towards breaking our dependence on carbon.

BTW, it’s also worth reminding oneself that all the available polling data show that people already believe that climate change is real; now we have to start providing credible solutions.

Incidentally, this story scares the sh*t out of me.

The Seattle PI has a solid article on a recent report from a group of world-class scientists and science organizations that charges the Bush administration with systematically suppressing science that conflicts with its political goals.

Dr. Gordon Orians, UW Zoologist and primary author of the report, is quoted extensively. Northwest environmental advocates will also note that he is a board member of the Brainerd Foundation. He’s also the dad of my college ecology professor Colin Nichols-Orians.

Asian air pollution can reach U.S., study says. Cheap manufactuered stuff is not China’s only export.

Keyhole looks like a really kewl thing — it lets you build “flyovers” of the earth based on 7 terabytes of high-res satellite photos.

What a great tool for enviros to use in presentations!