SXSW Eco: Climate Change Panel

Watch Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait Talk About Climate Change LIVE at 5:30 p.m.

Watch Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait Talk About Climate Change LIVE at 5:30 p.m.

Bad Astronomy
The entire universe in blog form
Oct. 8 2013 5:15 PM

SXSW Eco: Climate Change Panel

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South by Southwest (or SXSW as hipsters call it) is a well-known meeting in Austin, Texas, covering a lot of different aspects of culture. Over the years they have added various, more focused meetings centered on different topics, including SXSW Eco, which deals with “the complex challenges facing civil society, the economy and the natural world” [though apparently not the Oxford comma].

Phil Plait Phil Plait

Phil Plait writes Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker, science evangelizer, and author of Death From the Skies!  

One of the topic threads at SXSW Eco is climate change, and I’ll be participating on a panel with other science communicators to talk about how the media is handling this critical topic. Other panelists are Kiera Butler (Mother Jones), Suzanne Goldenberg (The Guardian), John Metcalfe (The Atlantic Cities), and Kate Sheppard (The Huffington Post). My friend and fellow science writer Chris Mooney will be moderating.

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We’ll be covering a lot of ground during the panel, and of course I’ll be railing about the climate change deniers and their enablers.

The panel will be today, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013, at 4:30 p.m. Central time. It’ll be live-streamed for your viewing pleasure at Slate and several other places, including sxsweco.com, motherjones.com, and climatedesk.org. You can read more about the panel at Mooney’s article on Mother Jones. Watch the livestream here: 

This should be fun, if also a bit aggravating, because even talking about this stuff makes me want to bang my head against the wall. It honestly feels like arguing with people who swear the Earth is flat, and that all those scientists are too stupid or making too much money from Big Sphere to tell you the truth. The science of climate change is pretty much just as conclusive as the Earth being round. Yet here we are.

I’m looking forward to hearing from the other panelists, though, and learning more about the media aspects of this. I hope folks who read me here will tune in. And if you want background info, here is a list of my previous posts outlining the sort of nonsense we have to deal with over climate change.