Jump to content

Joe Romm

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Joseph Romm)

Image
Joe Romm, 2007

Joseph J. Romm (born June 27, 1960) is an American researcher, author, editor, physicist[1] and climate expert.[2] He advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency and green energy technologies.[3] In 2009, Rolling Stone magazine named Romm to its list of "100 People Who Are Changing America",[4] and Time magazine named him one of its "Heroes of the Environment (2009)", calling him "The Web's most influential climate-change blogger".[5]

Romm is a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media.[6] In 2019, he founded and served as the first editor-in-chief of progressive news aggregator Front Page Live. He has written for various energy and news sources, and he was the chief science advisor for the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, which won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.[7] At the Center for American Progress, where he was a senior fellow, he founded the blog Climate Progress in 2006, which became part of the Think Progress website. Time magazine named Romm's blog one of the "Top 15 Green Websites".[8] In 2009, Thomas L. Friedman, in The New York Times, called Climate Progress "the indispensable blog",[9] and Time included it in a list of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010".[10] In the 1990s, Romm served at the U.S. Department of Energy including, for six months, as Acting Assistant Secretary.

Romm has published ten books and many articles on global warming, clean energy and communications.[6] His 2006 book Hell and High Water summarized observations and forecasts of climate change, discussed technology and policy solutions, and criticized political disinformation used to undermine climate science.[11] His 2015 book, Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know, covers basic climate science in a Q&A format.[12] He has also written books on how scientists and activists can communicate more persuasively to explain science and policy to the public. His 2012 book, Language Intelligence, concerns the effective use of rhetoric, and his 2018 book, How to Go Viral and Reach Millions, discusses how to tell scientific stories in ways that draw attention and connect with people emotionally. His 2025 revised edition of The Hype About Hydrogen decries what he calls "false promises" made by the fossil fuel industry and sets forth the solutions that Romm says can save the climate.

Biography

[edit]

Early life and career

[edit]

Romm was born and grew up in Middletown, New York, the youngest of three sons of Al Romm (1926–1999), managing editor of the Times Herald-Record newspaper,[13] and Ethel Grodzins Romm, an author, journalist,[14] project manager,[15] CEO of an environmental technology company[16] and, later, chair of the Lyceum Society of the New York Academy of Sciences.[14][17] His uncle is physicist Lee Grodzins,[18][16] and his aunt was library science expert Anne Grodzins Lipow.[19] Romm graduated from Middletown High School in 1978.[20]

Image
The campus of MIT, where Romm earned his Ph.D in physics in 1987.

Romm attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1982 and a Ph.D. in 1987, both in physics.[21][22][23] In 1987, Romm was awarded an American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellowship for the U.S. House of Representatives, where he provided science and security policy advice on the staff of Representative Charles E. Bennett.[22]

From 1988 to 1990, Romm worked as Special Assistant for International Security at the Rockefeller Foundation. From 1991 to 1993, he was a researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute.[24][self-published source?] He co-authored the 1994 Rocky Mountain Institute Report, Greening the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through Energy-Efficient Design.[25] For the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, he performed the first environmental analysis of a system integrating cogenerating fuel cells, fly wheels, and power electronics aimed at achieving very high-availability power.[26][self-published source?]

In 1992, Romm published The Once and Future Superpower, a book about America's economic, energy and environmental security.[27] In 1993, he wrote Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects, for the Council on Foreign Relations.[28] His 1994 book, Lean and Clean Management, discusses management techniques that can reduce the impact of manufacturing and other industries on the environment while increasing productivity and profits.[29][30] [31] The same year, he co-authored a paper for the ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings on "Policies to Reduce Heat Islands".[32] In 1999, Romm published Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions.[33][34]

U.S. Department of Energy

[edit]

Romm served as Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, in charge of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy for six months in 1997, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the rest of the period from August 1995 through June 1998, and Special Assistant for Policy and Planning from 1993 to July 1995.[35] Romm's projects there included supervising a 1997 comprehensive technical analysis of energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively, titled Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions.[36]

1998 to 2006

[edit]

Romm was, for several years, the executive director and founder of the non-profit Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, which developed strategies for saving energy and cutting pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.[24] He was also a principal of the Capital E Group, which consulted on technology assessment and sustainable design services for clean energy technologies.[3][26]

Image
Romm has written that hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, BEVs and PEVs, are more effective in reducing greenhouse gases than hydrogen cars.

During these years, Romm wrote widely on global warming and energy technology solutions. His 2004 book, The Hype about Hydrogen (expanded and updated in 2025), argues that delaying the implementation of current green technologies in favor of waiting for technological breakthroughs in hydrogen cars is a dangerous distraction from reducing greenhouse gas emissions.[37][38] The book was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal.[39] In reviewing the book, Daniel I. Sperling, then a member of California Air Resources Board, offered dissenting views.[40] Also in 2004, Romm wrote the National Commission on Energy Policy's report, "The Car and Fuel of the Future",[41] which was rated the #1 Hottest Article on Energy Policy by ScienceDirect.[42] He was also the principal investigator for the National Science Foundation project, Future Directions for Hydrogen Energy Research and Education (2004).[43] Romm is interviewed in the 2006 documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car?, in which he argues that the government's "hydrogen car initiative" was a bad policy choice and a distraction that delayed the exploitation of more promising technologies, such as electric and hybrid cars that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase America's energy security.[24][44]

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.[45] 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."[46] Technology Review wrote that Hell and High Water "provides an accurate summary of what is known about global warming and climate change, a sensible agenda for technology and policy, and a primer on how political disinformation has undermined climate science."[11]

Climate Progress and later years

[edit]

In 2006, Romm became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress,[47] where he founded their climate blog, Climate Progress, which focused on climate science, policy and reporting.[48] 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. ... Romm occupies the intersection of climate science, economics and policy. ... 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."[8] 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."[10] Romm contributed to the site until 2019.[12][49] He also wrote for other energy and news sites, including The Huffington Post,[50] Grist,[51] Slate,[52] CNN,[53] Salon.com[54] and The New York Times.[55]

Romm has testified before congressional committees about how government action can curb global warming.[56] In 2007, he testified before the House Committee on Science and Technology on the subject of "Fuels for the Future", specifically the use of liquid fuel from coal and its potential to accelerate global warming.[57] He lectures on energy technology, global warming and how the media portrays climate change.[58]

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."[59][60] 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."[61][62] 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.[63] 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.[64]

Romm was the chief science editor for the documentary TV series Years of Living Dangerously, about the impact of and solutions to climate change. The first season of the series in 2014 on the Showtime network[65] won the 2014 Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.[7] Romm wrote "Climate Change 101: An Introduction", for the series' website.[66] A second season ran in 2016 on the National Geographic Channel.[67] In 2015, The Weather Channel included Romm as one of "the world's 25 most compelling voices" on climate.[68][69] That year, Romm also wrote the book Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know, a primer on the topic.[12][70] Ralph Benko in Forbes magazine wrote that the "book ... lucidly presents the case both for deep concern and optimism".[71] In New York magazine, David Wallace-Wells cited the book as an "authoritative primer".[72] 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".[73]

In June 2019, Romm founded a progressive news aggregator, Front Page Live, together with Carl Cameron, Laura Dawn, Sunny Hundal, Helen Stickler and others. Romm was its first editor-in-chief.[74][75] In 2023, he became a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media.[6] He received a 2024 Ban Ki-moon Award for Environmental Leadership.[76] Romm began a weekly podcast in 2025, together with his daughter, called Decoding Taylor Swift: A Storytelling Revolution, analyzing Swift's storytelling techniques and the use of poetic rhetoric in her lyrics to communicate and persuade.[77][78] It has ranked as high as number two in the music category on Apple Podcasts.[79] The same year, he was lead author on the study "Are Carbon Offsets Fixable?"[80] The study found that 90% of carbon credits fail to achieve real-world carbon reduction, and the credits' "intractable problems have persisted despite more than two decades of efforts at market reform and seem unlikely to be resolved"; it suggests that because they create a false sense of progress, they serve to delay policy action to reduce emissions.[81][82]

Media comment

[edit]

Romm has been cited in The Economist on clean investments,[83] The New York Times on the political use of climate policy,[84] the Charleston Gazette on biomass[85] and MSNBC on natural gas hydrates.[86] In 2009, he was featured on 60 Minutes discussing the scientific evidence that "clean coal" is not clean.[87] 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;[88] Guernica Magazine interviewed him on the science and politics of global warming;[89] The New Yorker asked him to comment on the Koch-funded exhibit on evolution and climate change at the National Museum of Natural History;[90] 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.[91]

In 2011, The Washington Post included a link to Romm's review of the scientific literature on climate change.[92] Time magazine explored Romm's critique of Matthew Nisbet[93] and praised his analysis of the decline of media coverage regarding climate change.[94] National Geographic quoted him about the part that the media has played in the dearth of information about climate reaching the public.[95] The same year, Technology Review quoted Romm regarding the relationship between government-assisted deployment and rapid innovation in energy technologies,[96] and the Toronto Star quoted him regarding President Obama's 2011 State of the Union address.[97] In 2012 in The New York Times, economist Paul Krugman cited Romm on the connection between drought and Climate change,[98] and The Atlantic interviewed and cited him on the reluctance of the Democrats to discuss climate change.[99] National Geographic quoted him about disappearing arctic ice and the effect of climate change on the polar bear,[100] and Current TV's Bill Press interviewed Romm about record-breaking heat.[101]

In 2014 Businessweek quoted Romm regarding the lack of commercial viability of hydrogen fuel cells for cars,[102] and The Guardian quoted him concerning international cooperation on climate change.[103] In 2015, The Guardian quoted Romm about historic high global temperatures,[104] and MarketWatch quoted him on actions that Donald Trump might take concerning climate agreements if he were to be elected president.[105] Later that year, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists interviewed Romm about nuclear power and climate change.[106] The Wall Street Journal quoted him in 2016 about the cost and pace of change in clean energy technology.[107] In 2017, Mother Jones listed Romm's reading recommendations for "understanding in this age of rancor".[108] The same year, Huffington Post said that Romm's 2017 appearance on Sam Harris's podcast "over the course of two hours unpacks the scientific case for climate change like only Romm can."[109]

In 2018, Tucker Carlson interviewed Romm on Fox News about the threat of global warming.[110] Later that year, Romm was quoted by Alaska Public Media regarding Lisa Murkowski's record on climate change[111] and in The Guardian about President Trump and the Clean Power Plan.[112] Friedman cited Romm in The New York Times in 2019 regarding the proposed Green New Deal.[113] GQ Britain quoted Romm in 2020 criticizing carbon offsets.[114] William S. Becker, writing in The Hill, cited Romm's 2023 white paper on carbon offsets.[115] In 2023, Peter Coy, in The New York Times, quoted Romm concerning carbon markets and carbon capture.[116][117] In 2025 Michael Barnard wrote in CleanTechnica: "Romm ... one of the clearest-eyed analysts of carbon policy and energy technologies ... dismantles the case for BECCS with forensic clarity. ... He shows how BECCS not only diverts policy and funding away from real decarbonization, but also opens up dangerous land-use pressures that displace food, ecosystems, and people."[118] The same year, Romm was quoted in Chemical & Engineering News discussing green hydrogen.[119]

Political views

[edit]
Image
Romm argues that rapid deployment of current carbon-reducing technologies is essential to mitigate the worst effects of global warming and preserve both the world economy and a comfortable climate.

The New York Times "Dot Earth" column reviewed Romm's views on global warming solutions on November 24, 2008, including his belief that, to combat global warming, humans cannot wait for new technologies and scientific breakthroughs; that instead we must "deploy existing and near-term low-carbon technologies as fast as is humanly possible".[120][121] The New York Times also quoted Romm as stating that, to solve the climate crisis, "We will need a WWII-style approach". 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. In particular, the press should explain how current news stories, such as hurricanes, droughts and insect infestations are related to global warming.[120]

According to U.S. News & World Report, Romm believes that global warming "is advancing more swiftly than most people think and than the mainstream media usually report. He has called for significantly ramping up government spending on clean energy technology, halting the construction of new coal plants, rapidly increasing the use of energy-efficient technologies, and imposing a cap and trade system to sharply limit carbon dioxide emissions".[122] In 2006, in a radio interview, Romm stated, "Global warming is going to transform this country and our transportation and the way we live our lives. If we don't act pretty soon, in an intelligent fashion, then change will be forced upon us by the radically changed climate... global warming is the issue of the century".[123]

In 2011, Romm wrote that "Feeding some 9 billion people by mid-century in the face of a rapidly worsening climate may well be the greatest challenge the human race has ever faced."[124] Romm's 2010 book, Straight Up argues: "the bottom line is that the economic cost of action is low, whereas the cost of inaction is incalculably greater". 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. He also asks in the book, "will the United States be a global leader in creating jobs and exports in clean energy technologies, or will we be importing them from Europe, Japan, and the likely clean energy leader in our absence, China."[125] In 2005, with respect to the U.S. Congress's actions on climate, including its votes on the XL Pipeline, Romm told The Guardian: "Future generations suffering from the consequences of our inaction will be bewildered that the legislative body of the richest country in the world could devote so little effort to ameliorating the climate problem and so much effort to making it worse."[126] He believes that carbon capture and storage and other carbon removal efforts are not scalable solutions, and "'net zero' is just a dangerous myth" used to excuse inaction on the climate crisis.[127][128] In 2025, Romm wrote that small modular reactors are a "pipe dream" and the most expensive form of electricity generation, while wind, solar and batteries have become the cheapest.[129]

Romm has been critical of media coverage of global warming. In his 2010 book, Straight Up, he wrote that newspapers have most often repeated the views "of U.S. scientists ... receiving funds from the fossil fuel industry [instead] of the world's leading climate scientists. No surprise that much of the public has ended up with a misimpression about the remarkable strength of our scientific understanding and the need for action" and "more and more pieces are being written by senior political reporters, who know very little about global warming".[130] Romm also believes that scientists and politicians need to be more effective communicators about climate change.[131]

Reception

[edit]

In 2008, Romm was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for "distinguished service toward a sustainable energy future and for persuasive discourse on why citizens, corporations, and governments should adopt sustainable technologies".[132][133] 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. A deep knowledge of technology, policy and science along with genuine moral passion."[4] Former Houston, Texas, mayor Bill White called Romm "the nation’s leading expert on energy efficiency."[134] U.S. News & World Report featured Romm as one of eight "key players" who were "Driving Public Policy in Washington", calling Romm an "oft-cited expert on climate change issues, and a go-to witness at congressional hearings".[122] Time magazine named Romm one of its "Heroes of the Environment (2009)", writing, "He combines ... intellect with a strong sense of moral outrage. He also possesses a Jon Stewart-like quality for pointing out the absurdity of his opponents."[5] Time named his blog as one of the "Top 15 Green Websites" in 2009.[8] The same year, Thomas L. Friedman, in The New York Times, called Climate Progress "the indispensable blog".[9]

In 2010, Time included Romm's blog in a list of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010"[10] and one of the "Top Five Blogs TIME Writers Read Daily".[135] The same year, TreeHugger named Romm's blog the "Best Politics Website", adding, "this is the art of blogging at its best".[136] The UK's The Guardian ranked Climate Progress at the top of its list of blogs in its "Top 50 Twitter climate accounts to follow".[137] Reviewing Romm's 2010 book Straight Up, Bill McKibben wrote that Romm "has been a persuasive voice [warning that] global warming ... is a far worse problem than either politicians or the general public understand [but] that we have much of the technology necessary to at least begin tackling the problem." He called Romm "a tireless foil to the 'right-wing disinformation machine' that has [delayed] 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 [and] talent as well."[138] In 2011, The New York Times called Romm "one of the country’s most influential writers on climate change".[139] In 2012, Planetsave wrote that Romm is "considered the world's best blogger on climate science, and politics related to it."[140]

Personal life

[edit]

Romm lives in Washington, D.C. From 1994 through 2007, he was a regular contributor to The Style Invitational, a weekly humor contest run by The Washington Post. Among his submissions was the winning entry of what was later declared to be the best overall week's results of the Style Invitational's first decade.[141]

Bibliography

[edit]

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. His articles have been published in Nature,[124] U.S. News & World Report,[142][143] Technology Review,[144] Issues in Science and Technology,[145] Forbes,[146] Foreign Affairs,[147] The New York Times,[55][148] the Los Angeles Times,[149] The Guardian,[150] The Washington Post, Science,[151] Scientific American,[152] Physics Today,[153] Physics World,[154] The Economist,[155] Time magazine,[63] Grist magazine,[156] Businessweek[157] and Mother Earth News,[158] among other publications.

In 2006, Romm and Prof. Andrew A. Frank co-authored "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", published in Scientific American, in which they argue in favor of Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.[152] The same year, Romm published "California's Hydrogen Highway Reconsidered" in Golden Gate University Law Review.[159] In 2007, he co-authored "Plugging into the Grid: How Plug-In Hybrid-Electric Vehicles Can Help Break America's Oil Addiction and Slow Global Warming" in the Progressive Policy Institute's Policy Report.[160] Romm contributed a chapter to the 2007 book Energy and American Society: Thirteen Myths, disputing that "The Hydrogen Economy Is a Panacea".[161] 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."[162] 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.[124]

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?",[163][164] "Why direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) is not scalable, and 'net zero' is just a dangerous myth" and "Why scaling bioenergy and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is impractical and would speed up global warming".[127]

Books

[edit]

Selected journal articles and reports

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. Begley, Sharon. "Climate Pessimists Were Right", The Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2007
  2. Garber, Kent. "Joe Romm, Influential Liberal Climate Change Expert and Blogger", Archived 2010-06-09 at the Wayback Machine U.S. News & World Report, March 31, 2009; and Lloyd Robin. "Geoengineering wars: Another scientist teases out a surprising effect of global deforestation". Scientific American, October 19, 2009
  3. 1 2 About Us: Joseph Romm Archived 2006-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, Cleanhouston.org, Citizen’s League for Environmental Action Now, Houston, Texas, accessed July 14, 2016
  4. 1 2 "The 100 People Who Are Changing America", Rolling Stone magazine, March 18, 2009
  5. 1 2 "Heroes of the Environment 2009". Time magazine feature with quote, September 2009, linking to full article: Walsh, Bryan. "Heroes of the Environment 2009 – Activists: Joe Romm", Time magazine, September 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 "PCSSM Welcomes Senior Research Fellow Dr. Joseph Romm", University of Pennsylvania, June 27, 2023
  7. 1 2 "Creative Arts Emmys Doled Out in Hollywood", CBS Local, August 16, 2014
  8. 1 2 3 Roston, Eric. "Green Websites: Climate Progress". Time.com, April 17, 2008 (originally published in Time magazine in 2007), accessed November 29, 2010
  9. 1 2 Friedman, Thomas L. "The Inflection Is Near?", The New York Times, March 7, 2009
  10. 1 2 3 "Best Blogs of 2010". Time magazine, June 28, 2010
  11. 1 2 Talbot, David. "Hell and Hydrogen" Archived 2012-04-14 at the Wayback Machine. Technology Review, March/April 2007 issue, accessed October 29, 2015
  12. 1 2 3 Doniger, David. "Clean Air and Climate Change: Two Books to Get You Going", The Huffington Post, January 2, 2016
  13. Al Romm was managing editor of the Times Herald-Record newspaper from the 1950s into the 1980s. Bedell, Barbara. "Record's First Editor Dies" Archived 2000-04-21 at the Wayback Machine, Times Herald-Record, December 1999
  14. 1 2 "The Workmen's Circle to Honor Activists Ethel Grodzins Romm & Joe Romm at 2016 Winter Benefit", BroadwayWorld.com, October 20, 2016
  15. Kawasaki, Guy. Hindsights: The Wisdom and Breakthroughs of Remarkable People, Beyond Words Publishing (1994) ISBN 0941831957; and Belludi, Nagesh. "Ethel Romm on Building Consensus", RightAttitudes.com, April 1, 2007, accessed July 12, 2016
  16. 1 2 Thomson, Elizabeth A. "Lead detector wins R&D award", MIT News, December 13, 1995, accessed July 12, 2016
  17. "#IAmNYAS: Ethel Romm", The New York Academy of Sciences, October 24, 2016
  18. Obituary: Ethel Grodzins Romm, Times Herald-Record, December 4, 2021
  19. "Lipow, Anne Grodzins", Obituary, SFGate.com, September 12, 2004, accessed July 12, 2016; and "Obituary: Anne Lipow", UC Berkeley News, October 14, 2004, accessed November 22, 2016
  20. Epilogue yearbook, 1978, Middletown High School, p. 95
  21. Romm, Joseph Jacob. "Applications of Normal Mode Analysis to Ocean Acoustic Tomography", American Doctoral Dissertations, Source code: X1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1987 (title information for Romm's Ph.D. dissertation), accessed November 29, 2010
  22. 1 2 Directory of APS & AIP Congressional Science Fellows: 1987–88 Archived 2010-11-26 at the Wayback Machine APS.org, accessed November 28, 2010
  23. "Serial No. 110-10 (House Hearing) - Voluntary Carbon Offsets: Getting What You Pay For". GovInfo.gov. U.S. Government Printing Office. 18 July 2007. pp. 30–40. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  24. 1 2 3 "Joe Romm" Archived 2016-05-15 at the Wayback Machine, EcoSpeakers.com, July 8, 2016
  25. Lehrer, David. "Measuring Workplace Productivity: Key Variables and Future Directions", Center for the Built Environment, May 15, 2019
  26. 1 2 Profile of Romm, Capital E, accessed November 29, 2010
  27. Romm, Joseph (1992). The Once and Future Superpower: How to Restore America's Economic, Energy, and Environmental Security. New York: William Morrow & Co. ISBN 9780688118686. (ISBN 0-688-11868-2)
  28. Romm, Joseph (1993). Defining National Security: The Nonmilitary Aspects. Washington: Council on Foreign Relations. (ISBN 0-87609-135-4)
  29. Hardin, Judy. Review of Lean and Clean Management. Whole Earth Review, Fall, 1995 (reprinted by BNet, CBS Interactive), accessed November 29, 2010
  30. Wernick, Iddo K. "Book Review, Lean and Clean Management, Romm, J.", International Journal of Environment and Pollution 5(2/3):314-6 1995
  31. Allenby, Braden R. "Environmental Security: Concept and Implementation", International Political Science Review, Sage Journals, Volume 21, Issue 1, January 2000
  32. Budhiraja, Bakul, et al. "Studying Surface and Canopy Layer Urban Heat Island at Micro-Scale Using Multi-Sensor Data in Geographic Information Systems", International Journal of Applied Geospatial Research, Volume 9, Issue 4, pp. 36–56, October 1, 2018
  33. Profile of Romm, Capital E, accessed November 29, 2010; Biography of Romm and list of publications, Buildings.com, February 25, 2004,accessed November 28, 2010
  34. Reviews of Cool Companies can be found here. See also Hertsgaard, Mark. "Corporate Greenhouse" Archived 2007-12-08 at the Wayback Machine. The Nation, July 26, 1999, accessed at markhertsgaard.com, November 28, 2010
  35. "Bio of Joseph Romm, Ph.D", Buildings.com, February 25, 2004
  36. Report: "Scenarios of U.S. Carbon Reductions: Potential Impacts of Energy-Efficient and Low-Carbon Technologies by 2010 and Beyond" Archived April 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Interlaboratory Working Group, The Technology Evaluation Modeling and Assessment Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, September 1997 (click on "Acknowledgements"), accessed November 29, 2010
  37. Romm, Joseph J. "The Hype About Hydrogen", Island Press, accessed July 14, 2016
  38. Romm, Joseph J. "The Hype About Hydrogen, Revised Edition", Island Press, accessed April 25, 2025
  39. Lautemann, Eva. "The Hype About Hydrogen – Book Review", Library Journal, April 1, 2004, accessed May 3, 2013
  40. Ogden, Joan, D. Sperling, and Anthony Eggert, "Is there hope for hydrogen?", Chemical and Engineering News, Volume 82, Number 41, pp. 48-49, October 11, 2004.
  41. The Car and Fuel of the Future Archived 2009-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, 2004, reprinted in Energy Policy, vol. 34, issue 17 (November, 2006) pp. 2609–14, accessed 11 March 2009.
  42. "Top 25 Hottest Articles" Deprecated link archived 2012-07-15 at archive.today, ScienceDirect.com, January–March 2007, accessed 11 June 2009.
  43. 1 2 Award Abstract, NSF.gov, January 29, 2004
  44. Curry, Andrew. "Berlin Rallies for a Tricky Oil Alternative". National Geographic News, May 12, 2010
  45. See Publisher webpage, and Review of the book.
  46. Hamilton, Tyler. "Fresh alarm over global warming", Toronto Star, January 1, 2007, accessed 22 October 2009
  47. "Joseph Romm: Senior Fellow". Center for American Progress, accessed August 10, 2016
  48. Romm, Joseph (ed). Climate Progress blog. Climate Progress, Thinkprogress.org, accessed November 29, 2010
  49. Romm, Joe. "'Only you know if we did it': Scientists write dire letter to the future about climate change" Archived 2020-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, ThinkProgress, August 18, 2019
  50. Romm, Joseph. "Can Obama Stop the Nuclear Bomb in the Senate Stimulus Plan?" The Huffington Post, February 2, 2009; "Bill Gates Is Wrong About 'Energy Miracles'", The Huffington Post, 15 February 2010
  51. Romm, Joseph. "First five steps to a greener home...." Grist, March 16, 2009; "Stop the madness!: Congress reverses Chu's decision, flushes $100 million down the toilet pursuing hydrogen cars", Grist, July 23, 2009; and "Saudi Arabian reserves overstated by 40 percent, global production plateau imminent", Grist, February 11, 2011
  52. Romm, Joseph. October 2007 article by Romm in Slate
  53. Romm, Josephhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/09/16/opinions/king-charles-environment-climate-change-commonwealth-romm "Opinion: The one political issue Charles should keep speaking out on"], CNN, September 16, 2022
  54. Romm's Salon.com articles include "We're breaking all kinds of temperature records", May 17, 2010; "Real science comes to Washington", January 26, 2009; "Anti-science conservatives must be stopped" Archived 2008-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, June 30, 2008; "The technology that will save humanity", April 14, 2008; and "The car of the future is here", January 22, 2008.
  55. 1 2 Romm, Joseph. "Without Carbon Controls, We Face a Dust Bowl", The New York Times, 25 July 2012
  56. See, for example, his September 2000 testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce Archived 2008-06-25 at the Wayback Machine; his March 2004 testimony before the House Science Committee Archived 2008-06-25 at the Wayback Machine; his July 2007 testimony before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming; his 2012 testimony before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and the House Energy & Commerce Committee; and his 2010 testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.
  57. "Fuels for the Future: Romm’s Testimony to Congress" AmericanProgress.org, September 5, 2007, accessed August 25, 2016
  58. See, e.g., "UHC Climate Change Series" Archived 2014-03-07 at the Wayback Machine, University of Pittsburgh, April 2013; "Energy Symposium: The Rosenfeld Effect". UCAL Berkeley, 2006; "Climate Expert to Discuss Global Warming Solutions" Archived 2007-02-24 at the Wayback Machine. Yale University, 2006; and "Unruly Democracy: Science Blogs and the Public Sphere". Harvard, April 2010.
  59. Merchant, Brian. "Straight Up Tackles Climate in the Blog Era". Treehugger.com, April 22, 2010
  60. Hamilton, Tyler. "Wente continues to mislead, misinform Canadian public", TheEnergyCollective.com, April 11, 2010
  61. Markey, Ed. "Friends With Words: A Review of Joe Romm's New Book Language Intelligence, Huffington Post, August 13, 2012
  62. Mooney, Chris. "Joe Romm – Language Intelligence", Point of Inquiry, August 13, 2012; Masters, Jeff. "Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga: a Book Review", Wunderground.com, November 21, 2012
  63. 1 2 Romm, Joseph. "Who Is the Better Communicator: Romney or Obama?" Time magazine, August 14, 2012
  64. Cowan, Emery. "Why climate change communication isn't working", Arizona Daily Sun, April 24, 2015
  65. "Joseph Romm, Ph.D., Chief Science Advisor" Archived 2014-04-18 at the Wayback Machine, Years of Living Dangerously, Showtime, accessed April 18, 2014; Howland, Kara. "Years of Living Dangerously Premiere Preview ... FAQ by Joe Romm, Ph.D.", TV Goodness, April 13, 2014; and "Years of Living Dangerously: James Cameron, Matt Damon, Harrison Ford in TV Climate Change Series", Democracy Now!, April 11, 2014: Interview with Romm begins at 32:35, and full transcript is linked.
  66. Romm, Joseph. "Climate Change 101: An Introduction", Years of Living Dangerously, Showtime, accessed April 18, 2014
  67. "Years of Living Dangerously", World Resources Institute, accessed November 21, 2016
  68. Home page for The Climate 25, The Weather Channel, accessed June 15, 2015
  69. "Joe Romm: We can save the world from hundreds of years of misery", The Weather Channel, accessed June 15, 2015
  70. Abraham, John. "Book review: Climate Change, What Everyone Needs to Know", The Guardian, November 17, 2015; and Whitney, Jake. "The Climate Change Book the GOP Needs to Read", The Daily Beast, January 11, 2016
  71. Benko, Ralph. "Happy Earth Day: How to Use Capitalism to Bring Us Abundant, Cheap and Emission-Free Energy", Forbes magazine, April 22, 2016
  72. Wallace-Wells, David. "The Uninhabitable Earth", New York magazine, July 9, 2017
  73. Abraham, John. "Trump should inspire us all, but not in the way you might guess", The Guardian, June 27, 2018
  74. Wemple, Erik. "Ex-Fox Newser Carl Cameron takes his 'unfinished business' to progressive startup", The Washington Post, June 24, 2019
  75. Wise, Justin (24 June 2019). "Former Fox News reporter says he left because of 'partisan misinformation'". The Hill. Retrieved 14 May 2026.
  76. "Gala 2024", Asia Initiatives, September 25, 2024
  77. "What Taylor Swift can teach us about talking about climate change", Yale Climate Connections, September 15, 2025
  78. Romm, Joseph and Antonia. "Decoding Taylor Swift: A Storytelling Revolution", Apple Podcasts. Retrieved July 24, 2025
  79. Moser, Erica. "Taylor Swift, storytelling, and climate communication", Penn Today, October 10, 2025
  80. Toussaint, Kristin. "It’s official: 25 years of evidence proves carbon offsets don’t work", Fast Company, October 8, 2025
  81. Zinin, Andrew. "Carbon offsets have failed for 25 years, and most should be phased out", University of Oxford via Phys.org, October 14, 2025
  82. "Carbon offsets have failed for 25 years, and most should be phased out", Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, October 6, 2025
  83. "Betting on green", The Economist, March 10, 2011
  84. Revkin, Andrew C. "A final campaign focus: Coal and CO2", The New York Times, November 3, 2008
  85. "Much ado about biomass co-firing with coal", Charleston Gazette April 2009
  86. "A new energy frontier?" MSNBC's Cosmic Log, August 20, 2009, accessed May 30, 2011
  87. "60 Minutes: Is China The Real Problem?" 60 Minutes, CBS News, April 26, 2009. See also "The Dilemma Over Coal Generated Power", pp. 3–4, 60 Minutes, CBS News, April 23, 2009
  88. "Video of my MSNBC interview" Archived 2010-04-24 at the Wayback Machine. Countdown with Keith Olbermann (Lawrence O'Donnell, guest host), April 22, 2010
  89. Whitney, Jake. "The 700 Club" Archived 2010-04-18 at the Wayback Machine. Guernica Magazine, April 2010. See also Kapur, Sahil. "Climate expert: Energy bill doomed without ‘all-out push’ from White House". The Raw Story, May 12, 2010
  90. Mayer, Jane. "Covert Operations", The New Yorker, August 30, 2010 Issue, accessed March 23, 2015
  91. Good, Chris. "Center for American Progress: Snowstorm Doesn't Disprove Global Warming!" The Atlantic, February 11, 2010; and "Snow Fuels Global Warming Debate", CBS News, February 11, 2010
  92. Plumer, Brad. "Global CO2 emissions rising faster than worst-case scenarios", The Washington Post, November 4, 2011
  93. Walsh, Bryan. "Battling Over the Climate War". Time magazine, April 25, 2011
  94. Browning, Dominique. "How Global Warming Fell Off the National Agenda", Time magazine, October 20, 2011
  95. Inman, Mason. "Big Businesses' Call for Climate Action: Strong Treaty, More Aid", October 20, 2011
  96. Rotman, David. "Praying for an Energy Miracle". Technology Review, March/April 2011
  97. Barmak, Sarah. "State of the Union: Sputnik moment or simply spin?" Toronto Star, January 28, 2011
  98. Krugman, Paul. "Loading the Climate Dice", The New York Times, July 22, 2012
  99. Mooney, Chris. "Why Aren't Politicians Listening to Joe Romm About Climate Change?", The Atlantic, October 10, 2012; "Is David Axelrod to Blame for Climate Change's Absence From the Election?", The Atlantic, October 17, 2012
  100. Ross, Jenny E. "Plight of the Ice Bear", National Geographic, January 2012
  101. Press, Bill. "Joe Romm on global warming and cruel summers ahead" Archived 2012-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, Current TV, July 6, 2012; YouTube link to same interview
  102. Martin, Christopher. "Hydrogen Fuel Finally Graduating From Lab to City Streets", Bloomberg.com, June 5, 2014, accessed August 25, 2016
  103. Abraham, John and Dana Nuccitelli. "President Obama gets serious on climate change", The Guardian, 3 June 2014
  104. Abraham, John. "The latest global temperature data are breaking records", The Guardian, June 15, 2015
  105. Farrell, Paul B. "[Opinion: Donald Trump’s USA Inc. will kill our climate, our economy and our democracy"], MarketWatch, August 25, 2015
  106. "Joe Romm: Why nuclear power will not be the whole solution to climate change" Archived 2015-11-17 at the Wayback Machine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 71, Issue 6, November 1, 2015
  107. Harder, Amy and Greg Ip. "Long-Term Costs of Cutting Emissions Grow Hazy", The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2016
  108. "Joe Romm's Resistance Reading", Mother Jones, May 7, 2017
  109. Bastian, Daniel. "Small Changes In Temperature Matter – Probably More Than You Think", Huffington Post, September 19, 2017, citing Harris, Sam. "What You Need to Know About Climate Change " Archived 2017-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, SamHarris.org, September 5, 2017
  110. Dicker, Rachel. "Watch a Climate Expert Totally Trap Tucker Carlson: If Global Warming’s Not Real, Why Call Out Private Jet Fliers?", Mediaite, January 24, 2018
  111. Ruskin, Liz. "Murkowski accepts climate change. What will she do about it?", Alaska Public Media, August 20, 2018
  112. Nuccitelli, Dana. "Trump’s Dirty Power Plan is much worse for kids’ health than for climate change", The Guardian, August 27, 2018
  113. Friedman, Thomas L. "The Green New Deal Rises Again", The New York Times, January 8, 2019
  114. Tong, Alfred. "Is there such a thing as ethical private flying?", GQ Britain, January 27, 2020
  115. Becker, William S. "Climate complacency is killing us", The Hill, August 10, 2023
  116. Coy, Peter. "To Fight Climate Change, We Need a Better Carbon Market", The New York Times, August 23, 2023
  117. Coy, Peter. "Carbon Capture Won't Save Us from Climate Change", The New York Times, December 8, 2023
  118. Barnard, Michael "Yara, Ørsted, and the €200/ton Mirage: What Northern Lights Really Teaches Us About CCS", CleanTechnica, April 13, 2025
  119. Bettenhausen, Craig. "Green hydrogen is still making gains", Chemical and Engineering News, May 8, 2025
  120. 1 2 Revkin, Andrew C. "Joe Romm on Hansen’s Mistakes, Cap’s Limits", Dot Earth, The New York Times, November 24, 2008
  121. Romm, Joseph. "The breakthrough technology illusion", Grist, April 6, 2009
  122. 1 2 Garber, Kent. "Driving Public Policy in Washington", U.S. News & World Report, p. 39, vol. 146, no. 3, April 2009 (online at "Top Energy Player: Joe Romm, Influential Liberal Climate Change Expert and Blogger" Archived 2010-06-09 at the Wayback Machine)
  123. "Earth & Sky interviews Joseph Romm about future cars", Earth & Sky transcript from Calcars.org, March 21, 2006, accessed 23 October 2009.
  124. 1 2 3 Romm, Joseph. Desertification: The next dust bowl, Nature, 478, 450–451, 27 October 2011
  125. Kreindler, Tony. "Joe Romm's Straight Up is a great resource for fact seekers on climate". Environmental Defense Fund, April 19, 2010
  126. Abraham, John. "With climate change, US presidents matter", The Guardian, February 25, 2015
  127. 1 2 Magubane, Nathi. "Carbon capture and common misconceptions: A Q&A with Joe Romm", Penn Today, November 8, 2023
  128. Romm, Joseph. "An Orwellian Outcome for COP28’s ‘Breakthrough’ Climate Deal", The Messenger, December 20, 2023
  129. "Small nuclear reactors are no fix for California’s energy needs", Los Angeles Times, April 18, 2025
  130. Romm (2010), Chapter 1
  131. Mooney, Chris. "Joe Romm on why climate change is a winning political strategy", The Guardian, October 10, 2012
  132. "AAAS Members Elected as Fellows", Science, December 19, 2008, Vol. 322, no. 5909, pp. 1806-10
  133. "News Archives: AAAS Members Elected as Fellows" Archived 2010-03-14 at the Wayback Machine, aaas.org, 19 December 2008, accessed 21 February 2010.
  134. McDonald, Erika. "An Evening with Joe Romm, Author of The Hype About Hydrogen"[permanent dead link], Citizen's League for Environmental Action Now, 2004, accessed 23 January 2010.
  135. Walsh, Bryan. "Top Five Blogs Time Writers Read Daily", Time Video, 2010, accessed April 10, 2012
  136. McDermott, Matthew. "Best Politics Website: Climate Progress" Archived 2010-04-12 at the Wayback Machine. TreeHugger.com, April 8, 2010
  137. "Top 50 Twitter climate accounts to follow". The Guardian: Environment Blog, May 11, 2010
  138. McKibben, Bill, "Climate of Opinion", Washington Monthly, reproduced in TheFreeLibrary.com, July/August 2010
  139. Broder, John M. "House Panel Votes to Strip E.P.A. of Power to Regulate Greenhouse Gases". The New York Times, March 10, 2011
  140. Shahan, Zachary. "Joe Romm Slams NYTimes Climate Journalist Andrew Revkin (& Contextualizes Heartland-Gleick Volcano)", Planetsave, February 22, 2012
  141. The Washington Post, March 9, 2003, p. F5
  142. Romm, Joseph. "Global Warming Is Fact, and Denial Won't Change Climate Back", Opinion, U.S. News & World Report, March 23, 2010
  143. Romm, Joseph. "Two Takes: The U.S. Needs to End Its Energy Dependence", Opinion, U.S. News & World Report, July 10, 2008
  144. Romm's articles in Technology Review include: "Stimulating Green Energy", May/June 2009; "The Last Car You Would Ever Buy—Literally", June 18, 2008; "Greenhouse Gas", Vol. 108, no. 5, pp. 81–81 (review of Michael Crichton's State of Fear), May 2005; and "Painting the Town White and Green" Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine (with Rosenfeld, Akbari and Lloyd), February/March 1997
  145. Romm, Joseph. "The Hype about Hydrogen", Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2004
  146. Romm's articles in Forbes include: ""Digging Into The Senate Climate Bill", May 13, 2010; "Japan's Flying Geese", November 23, 1992 and "The Gospel According to Sun Tzu", December 9, 1991
  147. Romm, Joseph and Amory Lovins. "Fueling a Competitive Economy", Foreign Affairs, Winter 1992, accessed August 25, 2016
  148. Romm, Joseph. "Fix Now, Save Later", The New York Times, January 11, 1993
  149. Romm, Joseph. "Lots of Hot Air About Hydrogen", Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2004, pp. M.3–7
  150. See Romm, Joseph. "How extreme weather could create a global food crisis", guardian.co.uk, February 4, 2011; and Romm, Joseph. "Genuine hope on climate change", guardian.co.uk, 22 September 2009
  151. Romm, Joseph, Mark Levine, Marilyn Brown, and Eric Petersen. "A Road Map for U.S. Carbon Reductions", Science magazine, January 30, 1998
  152. 1 2 Romm, Joseph. "Hybrid Vehicles Gain Traction", Calcars.org, 2006; and "The Verification of Compliance with Arms-Control Agreements" (with Hafemeister and Tsipis), Scientific American, March 1985, pp. 39-45
  153. Romm, Joseph (with Rosenfeld and Kaarsberg). "Technologies to Reduce U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions by 2010", Physics Today, November 2000
  154. Romm, Joseph. "Publicize or Perish", October 1, 2009
  155. Romm, Joseph. "The Economist" Debate Series: Global Energy Crisis", August 19, 2008; and Romm, Joseph. "Economist Debates: Carbon Control", The Economist, November 22–30, 2011, p. 23
  156. Romm, Joseph. "Be unprepared: the GOP war against climate adaptation", Grist magazine, 2 August 2011, accessed May 6, 2013
  157. Romm, Joseph. Article on Hurricane Katrina and global warming, Businessweek online, September 2005
  158. Romm, Joseph. "Energy Conservation in Agriculture" and "Heating Up", Mother Earth News, July 2016
  159. Romm, Joseph. "California's Hydrogen Highway Reconsidered". 36 Golden Gate U. L. Rev. (2006), vol. 36, issue 3
  160. Romm, Joseph and Peter Fox-Penner. "Plugging into the Grid" Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine. Progressive Policy Institute, March 2007, accessed November 29, 2010
  161. Sovacool, Benjamin K.; Brown, Marilyn A., eds. (2007). Energy and American Society – Thirteen Myths. doi:10.1007/1-4020-5564-1. ISBN 978-1-4020-5563-8.
  162. Romm, Joseph. "Cleaning up on carbon", Nature Reports: Climate Change, June 19, 2008, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, accessed November 29, 2010
  163. Romm, Joseph. "Are carbon offsets unscalable, unjust, and unfixable – and a threat to the Paris Climate Agreement?", University of Pennsylvania Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, June 2023
  164. Hanley, Steve. "Carbon Offsets Are Unscalable, Unjust, & Unfixable – Joe Romm", CleanTechnica, August 5, 2023
[edit]