Romm's Rage Shtick Now Playing in Theatre 3

The worst thing about all this is that there are a certain group of people who, if this were a high school debate and you had them reverse all their positions, their tactics and tone would be completely predictable and the tenor of the debate would be completely unchanged.

Joe Romm is in that group.

Romm -- whose organization, let's remember, refuses to reveal its own funders -- just can't help himself. In a post whose very title says that civilization is imploding (actually it's fairly quiet here in Oregon, and it's even stopped raining for a few hours), Romm spends over 1500 words on excuses explaining that the climate debate is a street fight and THEY'RE WORSE! and "many immoral and unethical acts that regularly occur on a far less grand scale are condoned or winked at or simply ignored," before finally finding it within himself to write this one sentence:

But Gleick is right that he committed a serious lapse of professional judgment and ethics. He is right to regret his actions and make a personal apology.

before reverting back into his shtick of rage, spending another 1,000 words attacking Andrew Revkin because Revkin wrote this and smeared him and didn't retract that and owes an apology and on and on and on.

And when exactly will Revkin apologize for his various lapses, including his absurd and I think hypocritical response to Gleick’s post?

To review:

They're worse! ~1500 words

Gleick was wrong: 27 words

Journalist scum! ~1000 words 

Whatever keeps the talk shows calling, I guess, right?

--
Oh yeah: I was wrong when I guessed that Romm would ignore the Swart and Weaver article claiming that the Alberta tar sands will only add +0.03°C to future warming. Romm did mention it -- and calls it confusing, and then turns the tables and claims the paper "makes a strong case against the tar sands if we want to avoid catastrophic warming." That, people, is how this game is be played.