As the planet rapidly heats towards catastrophic temperatures that threaten all life on the planet, Donald Trump has decided to decimate the solar industry in America. While ostensibly protecting the few solar firms that make panels in the US, Trump has slapped huge tariffs on ...read more
In yet another completely schizophrenic episode of Donald Trump's presidency, he told journalists at a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg that the United States could “conceivably” re-enter the Paris climate agreement. From Politico: Trump spoke during a ...read more
In a telling sign of how utterly chaotic, dysfunctional and idiotic the Trump White House is, 13 federal agencies unveiled today what the New York Times called an "exhaustive scientific report" that states humans "are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has ...read more
There's no way of knowing for certain whether Hurricanes Irma and Harvey would've been as destructive had it not been for the climate crisis, as Al Gore calls it. At the very least, however, these and other similarly monstrous weather events are surely a preview of what we can ...read more
You really couldn't make this up (via The Daily Beast): Rush Limbaugh will evacuate his South Florida residence in advance of Hurricane Irma, despite his previous claims that the news media had intentionally overhyped the storm to boost ratings and gin up fear about climate ...read more
We are an odd species. With highly advanced technology that can monitor weather patterns, analyze complex climate change data and make stunningly accurate predictions, we are still pumping billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere faster than we ever have in history. Reported ...read more
EPA director and climate change denier Scott Pruitt told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord because the president's primary concern was "American jobs", not climate change. Citing a provably false list of statistics, Tapper's guests that ...read more
Let’s play a game. Imagine just for a moment what the front pages of newspapers or home pages of websites would look like if we removed articles about the hacking of emails in the 2016 election. Now go even further and imagine how a cable news hour and its line up of stories ...read more
Like a fucking moron who can't wait to see how happy Putin's going to be after this one, Donald Trump did his usual farting out of words with limited basis in reality while announcing his decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement. Because the Pro-Life Party is more concerned ...read more
What kind of a person likes to dangle the threat of human extinction in front of the people he has sworn to protect? That would be the current President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. This morning multiple news organizations have reported that White House officials say ...read more
If there’s one thing you can always rely on Senator John McCain for, it’s doing his best to scare the American public. The Arizona Republican’s penchant for supporting aggressive military action against a variety of menacing actors overseas, or at the very least, consistently ...read more
Politico published an article discussing how erratically Trump consumes news and how easy it is to slip him bullshit that he will then regurgitate on Twitter if left unattended like a four-year-old:Just days earlier, K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, had given ...read more
As if Trump's presidency couldn't get more surreal, Politico is now reporting that the Energy Department's international climate office has been told not to use the phrase "climate change". Yes, really:A supervisor at the Energy Department's international climate office told ...read more
It is easy to demand an industry that doesn't pay your mortgage and feed your family stop whatever it is doing for the sake of the environment. I work in the media, so it makes no difference to me whether the coal industry survives or not. If my business negatively impacted the ...read more
The Washington Post reports on a profoundly disturbing effort that somehow manages to still be a silver lining:Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration, scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of ...read more
While president elect Trump has been busy sending the media into a tailspin over his incessant tweeting, behind the scenes he continues to amass a team of incompetent lobbyists, extremists and racists to run the White House in 2017. Latest in this ongoing horror show is the ...read more
During his sit down with the New York Times, Donald Trump was asked about his stance on global warming by columnist Tom Friedman. The answer he gave should terrify anyone with the vaguest understanding of the science surrounding climate change and anyone who believes the ...read more
Pointing to the barely mentioned World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report delivered at the international conference on climate change in Morocco on Nov. 8th, Noam Chomsky contrasted the findings with the platform of the Republican Party. "The WMO reported that the past five ...read more
Human impact on the environment is now so severe that we are set to lose two-thirds of all wild animals by 2020 -- just 3 years away. Reports the Guardian:The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass ...read more
In a column titled The Clinton Agenda, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman lays out the case for why Hillary needs to not just win, but win big and what happens if does.First, the most obvious part: A landslide win gives us the Senate. That, in turn, gives us the Supreme Court. ...read more
It isn't sexy, and our ancestors have known this for thousands of years: the key to a healthy environment comes down to having healthy soil. And we can have healthy soil by changing the way we farm. Yes, it really is that simple. In a fascinating article in the Guardian, ...read more
While much of the news regarding climate change has been overwhelmingly depressing and frustrating, California Gov. Jerry Brown is extending his state's plan to make huge carbon emission cuts over the next 10 years. The bills signed by Brown are some of the most progressive ever ...read more
There is no doubt for anyone who has followed Barack Obama's presidency that, in years to come, he should be looked upon with great, great regard. He was the first African American president, a phenomenal speaker and one of the most cerebral politicians America has ever ...read more
These past few weeks have not been great for the human race. Deadly police violence in America, political turmoil in Europe, rising xenophobia in Britain, a renewed civil war in Sudan and increased violence in Iraq have created a climate of anxiety and fear over our future. ...read more
IF you happened to catch any of Sarah Palin's panel at this weekend's Politicon, you probably had to shut it off after five minutes of wanting to punch James Carville for wasting an hourlong shot at the dipshit from Wasilla by being barely more comprehensible than she was. Those ...read more
In an interview with the Huffington Post at the Reason Rally, Bill Nye the 'Science Guy' argued that conservatives and Donald Trump are going to have to change their position on climate change at some point. “Built into the system is change, and I think the conservatives are ...read more
The Democratic primary is now over. Hillary Clinton has enough delegates to wing the nomination, and despite Bernie Sanders pledging to carry on, there is no conceivable way he can win. This is not something I am particularly excited about, because despite the perception of other ...read more
The greatest challenge humanity faces is not an environmental one. It is a challenge that goes deeper than the intellectual acknowledgment that the earth is currently in a state of great crisis -- it is a challenge to understand the very meaning of what it means to be a human. ...read more
If Fox News Channel's prepubescent street troll Jesse Watters announced the death of his own child, he'd probably do it with that stupid grin plastered across his face. As we've witnessed too often, Watters can't stop grinning like Private Pyle, even while discussing topics that ...read more
Rightwing hate site Breitbart.com is vying to become one of the major sources of anti climate change propaganda with its regurgitation of lies spread by prominent media figures like Sarah Palin and ludicrous documentary films like "Climate Hustle". Breitbart's latest foray into ...read more
Although it should go without saying that climate change is the deadliest threat to human civilization, sadly in American in 2016 it is still apparently necessary to dismiss those who deny its existence and danger. Sarah Palin, for reasons no sane person can truly comprehend, is ...read more
Speaking on a panel at the premiere for a right wing propaganda documentary 'Climate Hustle', Sarah Palin inexplicably went after Bill Nye the Science Guy over his lack of scientific credentials. “Bill Nye is as much a scientist as I am," Palin told the audience that had gathered ...read more
Just when the world needs more anti-global warming nonsense, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) - an organization funded by an extremely shady far right donor group - has put together a film called Climate Hustle. The film apparently "exposes" climate change for ...read more
In this week's issue of Banter M:It's All Over But The Drowning - Chez Pazienza writes about the prospect of his hometown Miami succumbing to rising water levels due to catastrophic climate change, and wonders how his now oblivious seven year old daughter will navigate a planet ...read more
The conservative opposition to the concept of manmade climate change is perplexing to many of us on the liberal/progressive side of the ideological aisle. Their arguments are often contradictory and--more often than not--come across as ad hoc debate points or quasi-religious ...read more
Media outlets have been running headlines claiming the Paris climate talks are humanity's last chance to save the planet -- a bold claim that sounds absurdly hyperbolic if it weren't basically a scientific fact. Overwhelming data conclusively shows that humanity is on the brink ...read more
Well there's a surprise, Senator Ted Cruz isn't just an unpleasant bigot -- he's also an idiot. In an unbiased assessment of all the major presidential candidates' scientific accuracy, eight climate and biological scientists reviewed statements made in debates, interviews and ...read more
Trying to get your average citizen to understand the dangers of climate change and the radical destruction of the earth's eco systems is not an easy thing to do. In our work obsessed, productivity focused culture, environmental issues take a back seat to the relentless onslaught ...read more
If you want to understand the science behind climate change, don't waste your time listening to actual scientist who almost unanimously agree that rising CO2 emissions are a direct result of human activity. Instead, listen to an obese, pill popping loudmouth who makes his living ...read more
It appears to have escaped much of the western media that right now, one of the gravest environmental crimes this century is taking place in the rain forests of Indonesia. Due to slash and burn agriculture that clears land for new plantations, an unusually long dry summer and the ...read more
In a slyly worded, selectively sourced article in the Daily Caller, self proclaimed climate change expert Michael Batasch wants readers to know that there is little convincing evidence linking global warming to the most powerful hurricane ever recorded hitting Mexico today. How ...read more
One of the major reasons environmental issues fail to capture the attention of the public is because economic ideology has conditioned people to believe that our environment and economic system are not intrinsically linked. In the world of economic voodoo, infinite material ...read more
President Obama concluded his historic Alaska trip yesterday by visiting the remote village of Kotzebuein, a community in the Arctic circle struggling with the effects of climate change and contending with coastal erosion caused by rising sea levels. He called their predicament a ...read more
Shep Smith, one of the very few sane people at Fox News probably didn't run this one past the bosses. In a segment discussing the New York Timesrevelation that Coca-Cola is funding scientists who dispute the link between how many calories you eat and how obese you become, Smith ...read more
According to certain Republicans, the fact that it snows sometimes in America means global warming must be a liberal conspiracy. Yet global temperatures keep rising, on chart to make half the planet uninhabitable for humans in the not to distant future while helping eradicate ...read more
Dismantling the lunacy of right wing morons takes up an inordinate amount of time here at the Banter - so much so that the staff often suffer from 'Jon Stewart Fatigue Syndrome' (JSFS). The legendary comedian decided to end his nightly show because he got ground down from ...read more
Potential GOP Presidential candidate Jeb Bush thinks climate change is happening, but doesn't know whether it is man made. Likewise, over 40% of Americans think it is a myth made up by liberal scientists. Meanwhile, Pope Francis - the head of the Catholic Church no less - is ...read more
Here we go again. The GOP's 'serious' candidate for 2016 is hitting the pre-campaign trail pacifying the crazies with what can only be described as outright lies about climate change. Despite the overwhelming evidence and virtually unanimous scientific consensus that climate ...read more
Reading a weather forecast doesn't take a huge amount of skill and doesn't require a meteorology degree, but it is an important job. Your daily mini presentation lets the public know whether it's safe to drive, a good idea to go to the beach, or if they need an umbrella to get to ...read more
The Guardian has launched a massive campaign this week urging dramatic action on climate change with one very simple action point: keeping fossil fuel in the ground before we roast ourselves to death. The campaign centers around an email petition asking the the world's two ...read more