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Articles by Curtis Brainard | Email the Author

 

1. The Observatory

   USA Today’s oily, gassy rainbow

   May 17, 2012 06:50 AM

   USA Today sees an oily, gassy rainbow on America’s energy horizon. “Energy independence isn’t just a pipe dream,” read a large, bold headline on Wednesday’s front. It was draped over an image of oil drums stamped “Made in USA,” laid... Continue reading

2. The Observatory

   Attachment parenting, detached debate

   May 15, 2012 02:15 PM

   Time touched a nerve this week with its provocative cover photo of 26-year-old Jamie Lynne Grumet and her 3-year-old son standing on a chair next to her, nursing her left breast while both stare directly (and unapologetically) at... Continue reading

3. The Observatory

   The ice melt cometh

   May 11, 2012 03:45 PM

   A variety of news outlets has covered two papers published this week indicating that the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica might be susceptible to faster-than-expected ice loss, but most went astray in one way or another. The most troublesome of... Continue reading

4. The Observatory

   Biotech bogeymen

   May 9, 2012 02:30 PM

   If you’re worried about pesticides, then the San Francisco Chronicle has a sweeping indictment of genetically engineered (GE) crops to sell you. At the end of April, the paper published an article by its Washington correspondent, Carolyn Lochhead,... Continue reading

5. The Observatory

   Mad cow, sane coverage

   May 3, 2012 12:35 PM

   A few days after the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement last month that it had discovered a case of “mad cow disease” in California—the first in the US since 2006—its media liaison took a swipe reporters, says the website... Continue reading

6. The Observatory

   Brain waves

   May 1, 2012 12:13 PM

   From advice about “exercising your mind” to treatises on “the gay brain,” media coverage of neuroscience in the UK often pushes “thinly disguised ideological arguments” and reinforces artificial divisions between social groups, according to a new study. A team of... Continue reading

7. The Observatory

   Obama promises climate talk

   April 26, 2012 05:26 PM

   Three cheers to Rolling Stone cofounder Jann S. Wenner for getting President Barack Obama to utter the words “climate change” for the first time in a long time. In a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday, Obama used... Continue reading

8. The Observatory

   NYT Obscures Wal-Mart, EDF Link

   April 25, 2012 06:59 AM

   A recent New York Times article about the Environmental Defense Fund’s efforts to help Wal-Mart “cut waste” painted an incomplete picture of the group’s relationship with the retail giant, offering an instructive lesson in “green business” coverage in the process.... Continue reading

9. The Observatory

   Equivocal Efficiency?

   April 18, 2012 12:30 PM

   A new report outlining regional differences in electric cars’ contribution to climate change is drawing a lot of media attention, but a few articles have overlooked some important context about how the electric cars compare to all-gas vehicles.... Continue reading

10. The Observatory

    Titanic Proportions

    April 16, 2012 03:00 PM

    You can’t sink a good story. The past few months have produced countless articles, columns, photo galleries, videos, and sundry media clips about the 100th anniversary of the RMS Titanic striking an iceberg and foundering in the frigid North Atlantic... Continue reading

11. The Observatory

    Nutrition Coverage Under Fire

    April 9, 2012 02:30 PM

    The incessant coverage of nutritional studies that make tenuous claims about the harms or benefits of consuming various foods and beverages has come under heavy fire from critics in recent months. On Thursday, science writer Gary Taubes launched... Continue reading

12. The Observatory

    Q&A: The NYT’s Justin Gillis

    April 2, 2012 11:00 AM

    At the end of March, Columbia University awarded the 2011 Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism to New York Times reporter Justin Gillis for his ongoing multimedia series, Temperature Rising, examining the fundamental tenets... Continue reading

13. Swing States Project

    Little Context for Obama Energy Speech in Ohio

    March 27, 2012 05:43 PM

    Unchecked accusations about gas prices and oil production defined local coverage of President Barack Obama’s speech at Ohio State University last week, the final stop on a four-state tour promoting his administration’s energy policy. The president’s address—which followed a visit... Continue reading

14. The Observatory

    Reporter’s Toolbox: Oil and Gas Prices

    March 22, 2012 02:00 PM

    Every year, news stories about US gasoline prices appear in the early spring and remain popular until the end of the summer driving season in September. But “pain at the pump” takes on special significance during presidential election years, as... Continue reading

15. The Observatory

    Heartland, Gleick, and Media Law

    March 1, 2012 02:00 PM

    When, if ever, are deceptive tactics legally or ethically permissible in journalism? An old debate over that question has raged anew for the last week, following a prominent scientist’s admission that he duped a libertarian think tank into giving him... Continue reading

16. The Observatory

    Q&A: Eric Roston, Bloomberg’s sustainability editor

    February 16, 2012 01:00 PM

    At the end of November, Bloomberg News launched a Sustainability section “to uncover what businesses are doing, or what they need to be doing, to thrive as global competition intensifies for strategic resources.” Under... Continue reading

17. The Observatory

    “Economy Class Syndrome” Debunked

    February 10, 2012 04:55 PM

    Telling a first-person story about a health problem is a popular frame in medical writing, and it can be effective as long as the author adheres to the principles of high quality, evidence-based reporting. An article on the... Continue reading

18. The Observatory

    What Drives Public Opinion About Climate Change?

    February 8, 2012 12:00 PM

    The media influence public opinion about climate change, but not as much as national politicians and the state of the economy do, according to a new analysis of eight years of polling data. Over time, activists have pointed their fingers... Continue reading

19. Currents

    Florida Roots

    February 2, 2012 06:00 AM

    On any day, there are six novels hiding in the pages of The Miami Herald, says Carl Hiaasen, the green-minded columnist and author. One example: in the 1990s, the Herald covered a string of tourists who paid... Continue reading

20. The Observatory

    The Presidential Energy Narrative

    January 27, 2012 05:30 PM

    In the last week, President Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, focused his first campaign ad on clean energy, visited the Environmental Protection Agency for the first time, devoted seven minutes to energy in his State of the Union... Continue reading

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