In 2009, Rolling Stone named Joe Romm to its list of ""100 People Who Are Changing America."" Romm is a climate expert, physicist, energy consultant, and former official in the Department of Energy. But it's his influential blog, one of the ""Top Fifteen Green Websites"" according to Time magazine, that's caught national attention. Climate change is far more urgent than people understand, Romm says, and traditional media, scientists, and politicians are missing the story.
Straight Up draws on Romm's most important posts to explain the dangers of and solutions to climate change that you won't find in newspapers, in journals, or on T.V. Compared to coverage of Jay-Z or the latest philandering politician, climate change makes up a pathetically small share of news reports. And when journalists do try to tackle this complex issue, they often lack the background to tell the full story. Despite the dearth of reporting, polls show that two in five Americans think the press is actually exaggerating the threat of climate change. That gives Big Oil, and others with a vested interest in the status quo, a huge opportunity to mislead the public.
Romm cuts through the misinformation and presents the truth about humanity's most dire threat. His analysis is based on sophisticated knowledge of renewable technologies, climate impacts, and government policy, written in a style everyone can understand. Romm shows how a 20 percent reduction in global emissions over the next quarter century could improve the economy; how we can replace most coal and with what technologies; why Sarah Palin wears a polar bear pin; and why controversial, emerging technologies like biochar have to be part of the solution.
The ultimate solution, Romm argues, is bigger than any individual technology: it's citizen action. Without public pressure, Washington and industry don't budge. With it, our grandkids might just have a habitable place to live.
The Web's most influential climate-change bloggera and Hero of the Environment 2009a 'Time Magazine
I trust Joe Romm on climate.a 'Paul Krugman, New York Times
America's fiercest climate-change activist-bloggera and one of The 100 People Who Are Changing Americaa ' Rolling Stone
One of the most influential energy and environmental policy makers in the Obama eraa ' U.S. News & World Report
The indispensable bloga 'Thomas Friedman, New York Times
One of the most influential energy and environmental policy makers in the Obama eraa ' U.S. News & World Report
The indispensable bloga 'Thomas Friedman, New York Times
Introduction: Why I Blog
Chapter 1. The Status Quo Media Chapter 2. Uncharacteristically Blunt Scientists Chapter 3. The Clean Energy Solution Chapter 4. Peak Oil? Consider It Solved Chapter 5. The Clean Energy New Deal Chapter 6. End of the Bush-Cheney Error Chapter 7. The Right-Wing Disinformation Machine Chapter 8. Diagnosing Someone with Anti-Scientific Syndrome (ASS) Chapter 9. Why Are Progressives So Lousy at Messaging?
Conclusion: Is the Global Economy a Ponzi Scheme?
"If you want to be culturally literate about climate change… you must read… Straight Up… presented so accessibly that even veterans of [ClimateProgress.org] will find it informative. No one in the public eye understands climate change, its solutions and its detractors better than Romm."
