Piggybacking off Megan’s earlier post, that PEJ report shows that, spurred on by passage of climate change legislation in the House of Representatives, global warming was the fifth-most-linked topic in the blogosphere last week (ahead of Michael Jackson, but well behind Billy Mays).
Readers interested in the subject may want to check out Washington Monthly’s new package on deforestation, which can be both a product and a cause of global warming. An article by Paul Brown spells out how this vicious cycle can occur: Rising sea temperatures, one of the early signs of climate change, helped cause a 2005 drought in the Amazon. The drought, in turn, caused dieback in the rain forest. And that turned the Amazon, that year, from a net absorber to a net producer of carbon–accelerating climate change.
Brown’s word for this news? “Sobering.” A few stronger ones come to mind as well. But while it’s not encouraging reading, it’s a piece that’s well worth your time.
Greg Marx is an associate editor at CJR. Follow him on Twitter @gregamarx.