Here is an excerpt from his text:
We now turn to Kaufmann’s fourth mode of reading, dialectical. Here, the word “dialectical” is used in a specific sense not derived directly from Plato, Kant, Hegel, or Marx. For Kaufmann, it is a way of capturing a “deep experience” of reading. He says that dialectical reading is distinguished by the fusion of three crucial elements. The first is called Socratic, “because it harks back to Socrates’ dissatisfaction with the unexamined life” (p. 61). This element ask the dialectical reader to be open to the different culture manifested in a text. The second element is dialogical, a “deliberate exposure to alternatives” (p. 64). And the third is historical-philosophical, attempting to understand the work in its larger contexts.
CLOSER TO THE CENTER OF DISCUSSION:
The Nature Conservancy:
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/issues/
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 star
Credible Connections: 4 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 3 stars
The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Nature Conservancy is joining with policy makers, community members, businesses, scientists, industry leaders and others to slow the pace of climate change. We work to reduce the accumulation of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere and help natural areas adjust to the impacts of climate change.
This website does not make any direct statement as to the cause of climate change, but instead shifts its focus to the impacts of climate change in various biomes around the globe. The website directly states that it is working to address climate change by reducing deforestation emissions, helping natural areas adapt to climate change, and supporting policies to reduce emissions.
NASA:
http://climate.nasa.gov/causes/
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 5 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 4 stars
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA was started in 1958 as a part of the United States government. NASA is in charge of U.S. science and technology that has to do with airplanes or space. NASA uses remote-sensing data from satellites to ake determinations about changes in Earth’s climate.
Most NASA scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the “greenhouse effect” — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. NASA feels that humans are affecting the Earth’s greenhouse effect. NASA believes that solar irradiance is partly to blame for increased levels, but not more than 10%.
American Institute of Physics:
http://www.aip.org/gov/policy12.html
Author Transparency: 4 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 star
Credible Connections: 1 star
Presentation in a Larger Context: 2 stars
In April 2004, the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics endorsed a position statement on climate change adopted by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Council in December 2003. The statement follows:
“Human activities are increasingly altering the Earth’s climate. These effects add to natural influences that have been present over Earth’s history. Scientific evidence strongly indicates that natural influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century.
Global Hot Map:
Author Transparency: 3 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 1 star
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
The map of early warning signs clearly illustrates the global nature of climate changes. In its 2001 assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that, “an increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system.” This website is supported by organizations such as the Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, National Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. The map claims to show the local consequences of global warming. There are two types of events featured on the map: fingerprints, which are “direct manifestations of a widespread and long term trend towards global warming”; and harbingers, noted as “events that foreshadow the types of impacts likely to become more frequent and widespread with continued warming.”
National Geographic:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-impacts-interactive/
Author Transparency: 4 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 3 stars
National geographic believes that climate change has already been set in motion. They provide an interactive map that provides information about, “threatened cultures, changing yields, heat waves, reduced snowpack, etc…” There’s also a “Global Warming Quiz,” where users can test their knowledge of global warming.
The US Government:
http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts/key-findings
Author Transparency: 4 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 1 star
Presentation in a Larger Context: 2 stars
This web page will introduce and lead you through the content of the most comprehensive and authoritative report of its kind. The report summarizes the science and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. It focuses on climate change impacts in different regions of the U.S.and on various aspects of society and the economy such as energy, water, agriculture, and health. It’s also a report written in plain language, with the goal of better informing public and private decision making at all levels.
In addition to discussing the impacts of climate change in the U.S., the report also highlights the choices we face in response to human-induced climate change. It is clear that impacts in the United States are already occurring and are projected to increase in the future, particularly if the concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to rise.
http://www.globalchange.gov/component/content/article/67-themes/154-publications
Climate Progress.org:
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
Climate Progress is dedicated to providing the progressive perspective on climate science, climate solutions, and climate politics. It is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. Dr. Joseph Romm is the editor of Climate Progress and a Senior Fellow at the American Progress. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of the “Heroes of the Environment″ and “The Web’s most influential climate-change blogger.”
In 2007, TIME named Climate Progress one of the “Top 15 Green Websites,” writing that “Romm occupies the intersection of climate science, economics and policy…. On his blog and in his most recent book, Hell and High Water, you can find some of the most cogent, memorable, and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming.” In 2009, Rolling Stonenamed Romm #88 on its list of The 100 “people who are reinventing America” calling him “America’s fiercest climate-change activist-blogger.”
FARTHER FROM THE CENTER OF DISCUSSION:
False Alarm
Author Transparency: 4 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 stars
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 2 stars
Paul MacRae is, as he describes himself on his website “an ex-journalist who has worked as an editor, editorial writer and columnist for several newspapers over the past 40 years, including The Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Bangkok Post, and Victoria Times Colonist. In 2002 [he] switched to academia and now teach[es] English and professional writing at the University of Victoria and University Canada West, a new private university in Victoria, BC.” The website reports on all information that says that the data on global warming is misleading or wrong. Most recently, the website reports on the IPCC report that is reconsidering the amount of global temperature change. The links all lead to websites of the same focus, ie “global warming” is not really something to worry about.
FoxNews:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/16/white-house-global-warming-global-climate-disruption/
Author Transparency: 2 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: N/A
Credible Connections: N/A
Presentation in a Larger Context: N/A
Fox’s take on why the Obama adminsitration has changed the terminology from ‘global warming’ to ‘global climate disruption.’ Includes opinion and rhetoric on the administration as a whole and includes ideas upon why the current congressional session has not completed work on a climate bill.
Ex-Astronaut Says Global Warming is Bunk
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,493624,00.html
Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming.
Author Transparency: 2 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 star
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
Rush Limbaugh:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_021609/content/01125109.guest.html
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 star
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
A Rush Limbaugh transcript about a story with Harrison Schmidt, former astronaut and US Senator who believes that any change in climatic data is not caused by humans. Limbaugh goes on to explain that data shows that the earth has actually stopped warming since 1998 and that in the subsequent years, has actually seen a cooling trend. No sources for data are given.
Al Gore:
http://www.climatecrisis.net/the_evidence.php
Author Transparency: 2 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 star
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 2 stars
Carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising.
We’re already seeing changes. Glaciers are melting, plants and animals are being forced from their habitats, and the number of severe storms and droughts is increasing.
There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now.
The evidence provided is in the form of photographs.
John Lott for Lew Rockwell:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lott/lott59.html
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 1 star
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
John Lott is the author of Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t. Lott warns that cooling temperatures have eliminated the 1 degree Celsius increase that we saw over the previous 100 years. He suggests 4 questions to find out whether or not we should really be pushing this topic of climate change, setting regulations, and taxing carbon emissions at this point (2008). Lott points out that we’ve been taxing gasoline for years and usage has only gone up. He also points out that setting MPG levels seem to be arbitrary, not rooted in scientific evidence that shows 35 mpg is anything but “more” than 30 MPG.
Butler Shaffer for Lew Rockwell:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer191.html
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 1 star
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
The organization posting the site is headed by Lew Rockwell. He is (according to Wikipedia) an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Lew Rockwell’s web site features a selection of articles, including opposition to war and imperialism along with occasional articles criticizing the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.[16] The site also carries essays which argue against the participation of the United States in the Second World War, speculation about an end of the United States as a cohesive union and assertions the Western world is threatened by an intersection of fascism and socialism alike as politicians and states centralize their power.[17][18][19] These writings are sometimes controversial and have brought harsh criticism from some on the political right.[20][21] His web site also provides podcasts featuring Rockwell’s interviews of various scholars and writers, including many affiliated with the Mises Institute.
Butler Shaffer teaches at the Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of the newly-released In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918—1938 and of Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival. “The volcanic activity that has introduced great quantities of gasses into the earth’s atmosphere must be attributed to the planet itself, and not to the presence of organic life. This conclusion is even more compelling when one considers the cause of most of the disruptive conditions that occurred during the Precambrian period (i.e., before life emerged on Earth). Thus, living systems cannot be held to blame for all “wrongs” to the planet in the environmentalists’ growing bill of particulars.”
Global Warming Lies:
http://www.globalwarminglies.com/
Author Transparency: 1 star
Exposure to Alternatives: 1 star
Credible Connections: 2 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
Global Warming Lies seems to be a personal webpage dedicated to the fact that “when you do an internet search on global warming 99% of what you find is how the Earth is doomed and we are all going to drown from global warming.” Site looks crude and does not have the author’s name located anywhere throughout the site.
Dr. Roy Spencer:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2010/05/misinterpreting-natural-climate-change-as-manmade/
Author Transparency: 5 stars
Exposure to Alternatives: 2 stars
Credible Connections: 3 stars
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
Dr. Roy Spencer is a former NASA scientist who is now a published author and full time climatologist. He wrote the book The Great Global Warming Blunder. HIs website is full of graphs and charts that are at a very high level and not very easy to read. This website includes a “Globlal Warming 101” page where Spencer explains what global temperature change is and how it is causes. He points out that there are many variables at play and it is virtually impossible to isolate one in a complex system like the Earth. The site also claims that global climate change will happen “with our without our help.”
UK Telegraph Article:
Author Transparency: 0 stars
Exposure to Alternatives:
Credible Connections: 1 star
Presentation in a Larger Context: 1 star
UK Telegraph article covering the news story that 194 countries are coming together to discuss putting emissions and waste limits on developing countries.
UK Telegraph article covering the news story that 194 countries are coming together to discuss putting emissions and waste limits on developing countries.
The discussion following the article looks directly at “sourcing of information.” One reader matthewofaustralia 12/04/2010 06:42 AM writes “If you google the claimed “quotes” in this article, ALL of the hits ultimately come back to this page. Every single instance of those quotes that I can find are source from this one place. Nobody else has seen these press releases.”
Critical Literacy @ FQMS 