Joe Romm
[31][32] He co-authored, with Charles B. Curtis, "MidEast Oil Forever," the cover story of the April 1996 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, which discussed alternative energy strategies.
[33] The same year, he co-authored a paper for the ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings on "Policies to Reduce Heat Islands".
[37] This office, with an annual budget at the time of $1 billion and 550 employees, assists businesses in the industrial, utility, transportation and buildings sectors to develop and use advanced clean energy technologies to cut costs, increase reliability, and reduce pollution.
Among other projects, he initiated, supervised, and publicized a comprehensive technical analysis in 1997 by five national laboratories of how energy technologies can best reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively, titled Scenarios of U.S.
[26][45] Romm's 2006 book Hell and High Water projected a limited window of opportunity to head off the most catastrophic effects of global warming by using emission-cutting technologies.
[46] Tyler Hamilton, in his review of the book for The Toronto Star, wrote: "Romm's book presents overwhelming and disturbing evidence that human-caused greenhouse gases are the primary ingredients behind global warming [and] alarming detail on how the U.S. public is being misled by a federal government (backed by conservative political forces) that is intent on inaction, and that's also on a mission to derail international efforts to curb emissions.
[49] In 2008, Time magazine named his blog one of the "Top 15 Green Websites", writing that it "counters bad science and inane rhetoric with original analysis delivered sharply.
... On his blog and in his December 2006 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.
"[9] In 2010, Time magazine wrote, "Viewing climate change through the prism of national security, Romm analyzes breaking energy news and the relevant research ... he challenges the beliefs and conclusions of the mainstream media on climate-change issues.
[56] After Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, Romm urged Charles III to continue his climate advocacy as a non-political, moral imperative.
[63] TreeHugger describes Romm's 2010 book, Straight Up, as "a whirlwind tour through the state of climate change, the media that so badly neglects it, the politicians who attempt to address it (and those who obstruct their efforts and ignore [the] science), and the clean energy solutions that could help get us out of the mess.
"[64][65] His 2012 book, Language Intelligence, concerns persuasion and the effective use of rhetoric, presenting "Solutions the reader can use for speeches, social media, or just winning the debate around the kitchen table.
"[66][67] Romm's August 2012 article for Time used the research from Language Intelligence to analyze whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama was the more effective communicator.
[68] Romm encourages scientists to use the principles of effective communication outlined in the book (instead of their accustomed, technical, neutral style) to better explain the dangers of, and solutions to, climate change to non-scientists and the media.
[69] Romm was the chief science editor for the documentary TV series Years of Living Dangerously, about the impact of and solutions to climate change.
[77] Romm's 2018 book, How to Go Viral and Reach Millions, "teaches everything from word choice to how to recast your scientific stories in ways that connect with people emotionally".
[78] In June 2019, Romm founded a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, together with Carl Cameron, Laura Dawn, Sunny Hundal, Helen Stickler and others.
[81] In 2010, MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann program interviewed Romm on how the military is taking action on climate change to improve national security;[82] Guernica Magazine interviewed him on the science and politics of global warming;[83] The New Yorker asked him to comment on the Koch-funded exhibit on evolution and climate change at the National Museum of Natural History;[84] and The Atlantic and CBS News each reviewed a media call by Romm concerning the relationship between the January 2010 snowstorms in Washington, DC and global warming.
[86] Time magazine explored Romm's critique of Matthew Nisbet[87] and praised his analysis of the decline of media coverage regarding climate change.
[93] National Geographic quoted him about disappearing arctic ice and the effect of climate change on the polar bear,[94] and Current TV's Bill Press interviewed Romm about record-breaking heat.
[104] Later that year, Romm was quoted by Alaska Public Media regarding Lisa Murkowski's record on climate change[105] and in The Guardian about President Trump and the Clean Power Plan.
The article noted Romm's belief that "credible people" and the press should publicly support the notion that government action is needed to help solve the global warming crisis.
Romm calculates that deployment of existing technologies on the massive scale that can save the climate can be accomplished at the cost of 0.12 percent of global GDP per year.
[127][128] In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine named Romm to its list of "100 People Who Are Changing America", quoting journalist David Roberts as follows: "Joe combines two qualities you don't often find together.
He called Romm "a tireless foil to the 'right-wing disinformation machine' that has tried – with great success ... to delay action by confusing and disheartening Americans about global warming.
It requires a thick skin to take on the daily task of dealing with the disinformers, but Romm has the taste for this kind of blood sport, and the talent as well.
[136] In addition to his books and other publications listed below, Romm has written or co-written numerous articles and lectured widely on global warming effects and solutions, clean technologies, business and environment issues and distributed energy.
[156] In 2008, Nature published Romm's article "Cleaning up on Carbon", in which he advocated "accelerating the deployment of the 11 wedges ... originally modelled by Socolow and Pacala.
"[157] In 2011, Nature published Romm's article Desertification: The next dust bowl, exploring the dangers to the world economy and populations of droughts that are projected to be caused by climate change, such as food insecurity.
[120] In 2023, Romm released several white papers for the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media: "Are carbon offsets unscalable, unjust, and unfixable – and a threat to the Paris Climate Agreement?
