Eric Pooley discussion paper

In How Much Would You Pay to Save the Planet? The American Press and the Economics of Climate Change, a discussion paper researched and written during the Shorenstein Center's fall 2008 semester, Fellow Eric Pooley looked at coverage of the climate-change issue by the American press, focusing on the run-up to the vote on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.

Pooley concluded that the press misrepresented the economic debate over carbon cap and trade, failed to perform the basic service of making climate policy and its economic impact understandable to the reader, and allowed opponents of climate action to set the terms of the cost debate. He also concluded that editors had failed to devote sufficient resources to the climate story, shoving it into the "environment" pigeonhole.

The paper, published in January 2009, prompted a response from Washington Post energy reporter Steven Mufson, one of the journalists whose work Pooley analyzed. To see Mufson's letter and Pooley's response, click here.