environment Politics: climate zombie idiots Ken Buck
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 23: Election of the Living Dumb
Colorado senate candidate Ken Buck is a climate zombie, reports the Denver Post, although not quite in those terms. I figured I’d better insert the meme.
Ken Buck is a fine specimen of a “climate zombie,” a politician permanently possessed by the idea that climate change cannot be caused by humans. Buck’s mentor in this is, of course, the ur-Zombie, Oklahoma’s James Inhofe, whose mistrust of expertise has made him a worldwide laughingstock. With Colorado’s forests in grave danger from the side-effects of global warming (droughts, fires, beetles), one would hope that both parties’ Senate candidates could acknowledge the very sturdy relationship between scientific predictions and observable facts. While climatologists deliver warnings in the language of science (a phrase like “robust correlation” translates as “we’re facing a world of hurt unless things change PDQ”), politicians mock them in the language of ignorance (a freak snowstorm in Washington invalidates decades of research and analysis). As compelling evidence for anthropogenic global warming mounts, climate zombies like Ken Buck threaten to derail the action we desperately need.
Warren Senders
environment: climate change economics Gulf of Mexico
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 22: Sticker Shock?
Business Week ran an AP story on the anticipated costs of climate change in the Gulf of Mexico over the next few decades. Trying to submit letters to print magazines is often problematic, simply because the contact information for LTEs is not easy to find. But I’m persistent. The flood/sandbag motif is new; I’m going to try and use that one more in the weeks to come.
I hope you are all planning on VOTING. For Democrats.
Looking into the future, it’s obvious to everyone but the tea-partiers and the conservative corporatists who fund them that climate change is the most significant threat humanity has ever faced. The scientific evidence is unequivocal; anthropogenic global warming is real and dangerous. Whether describing it in quanta of human misery (hundreds of millions displaced; millions of acres of cropland devastated) or in the dollars-and-cents language of the business sector, there can be no doubt that even if we act quickly, we’re in for a world of hurt. While action is going to be expensive, the short-term orientation of many in the business world leaves them unable to apprehend the costs of inaction. Those, it turns out, are orders of magnitude greater than the economic impacts of responding realistically and robustly to an imminent threat. When a flood is coming, only idiots quibble about the cost of sandbags.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: idiots Tea Party
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 21: Idiocracy, Here We Come
The New York Times runs a scary scary scary article on Tea Partiers and their “Skepticism” on climate change. Misleading word, that. These people aren’t skeptics. Skeptics look at evidence. These people are dogmatic, cocksure idiots. Big difference.
The Tea Partiers and their Republican enablers are of one mind when it comes to denying the impact of climate change on our country and the world. And what a mind it is. Joining a reflexive American distrust of intellectuals with an incoherent Biblical literalism into a word salad of libertarian tropes, their opinions on global warming don’t need no stinkin’ logic. Meanwhile, of course, they are thinking and doing exactly what their corporate funders want them to do: elect Republicans who will put the kibosh on any attempt to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. These frightened men and women have been suckered. The Koch brothers and other greedy and short-sighted oil barons are manipulating them into voting against everyone’s best interests — even that of the oil companies, which will surely experience a sharp drop in profits, should our species fail to survive the coming centuries of climate chaos.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Koch Brothers Proposition 23
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 20: Small-Town Paper Makes Good?
A column in the Marysville, California Appeal-Democrat outlines the issues facing Californians and includes a paragraph on Proposition 23. The Appeal-Democrat is a small paper with a daily circulation of 23,000. Maybe they’ll print this. If anyone is in their circulation area, please keep an eye open.
It’s harrowing, watching corporate groups spend millions of dollars to pass Proposition 23 and neutralize California’s powerful emissions law. The strongest such law in the country, AB 32 is a model for other states to emulate. The arguments made by Proposition 23’s proponents are full of fear-mongering and faulty logic, but that hardly matters — they’re backed by the unlimited financial resources of oil billionaires who are unwilling to sacrifice a few points of profit in the interests of the planet. Yes, this election is an important one, all right. As a Massachusetts resident, I have no voice in California’s politics — but as an environmentally aware citizen, I am watching this election with considerable apprehension. To end AB 32’s effectiveness with a spurious economic argument would be a devastating blow to hopes for similar legislation elsewhere in the country. That’s what the Koch brothers believe, too.
Warren Senders
humor Personal: Personal sex tortoises
by Warren
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True Tale Of A Tortoise (NSFW)
The following is a true story. I first posted it in a discussion on the USENET group alt.callahans; about six or seven years later it appeared under my name (WarrenS) at Daily Kos. Now I’m finally bringing it home, as it were.
It was in the mid-70s, and I was young and foolish, in the middle of what turned out to be a two-year gap between high school and college. I’d moved out of my mother’s house, and set up an apartment with two other friends whom I’ll call Simon and John. This joint was in a run-down section of Somerville, Massachusetts, and the three of us devoted as little time as possible to mundane activities like making the absurdly low rent, and as much time as possible to music-making and freelance botanical research, if you get my drift.
It was, after all, the 70s, and we were all a little too late for the 60s — so we put in quite a bit of time playing catch-up. The locality was very tough indeed. One day I accepted a ride home from a guy I met in Harvard Square, who wanted to tell me about his ‘philosophy.’ Turned out he was a Satanist — and as we peaked the hill and drove down to my street, I saw my entire neighborhood enveloped in dense, choking black smoke…turned out the *tire warehouse* next door had caught fire. *That* was interesting — sitting at home with an Alistair Crowley follower while inhaling sulfur and brimstone.
But I digress. Simon was a pet person, and had a couple of cats whom I recall only dimly. But it was the other pet which lingers yet in my memory.
environment: false equivalence media failure
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 19: Clueless?? Clueless!!
PC Magazine ran an article on the Yale Study which showed (surprise!) that Americans generally don’t have a clue about climate change, although they’re sorta kinda worried about it anyway.
It took me almost as long to find the magazine’s LTE email as it did to write the letter, which is a standard “false equivalency” screed enlivened by my new catchphrase, “Symmetrical Stenography,” which I think is sorta kinda clever.
It is unsurprising that the Yale study shows that Americans are confused and misinformed about climate change. For many decades, our print and broadcast media have failed to do their jobs. The role of a free press in American society should be crucial to the development of that fine Jeffersonian ideal, a “well-informed citizenry.” Instead of pursuing the truth by doing genuine research and asking hard questions (e.g. “Cui Bono?”), our news outlets have chosen the far easier path of Symmetrical Stenography, in which a statement by a group of scientific experts is “balanced” with a counter-statement by an industry-funded spokesperson. This necessarily gives the impression that the “jury is still out” on climate change, since at least as many deniers as advocates are seen on television, heard on radio, and read in print. But the scientific jury came back in a long time ago, and its verdict is unequivocal: anthropogenic global warming is real, it’s dangerous, and humans are causing it. If our media presented climate denialists in proper proportion, we would be hearing from ninety-seven very worried climatologists for every glib, dismissive, industry shill.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Dave Reichert Gene Karpinski Joe Lieberman League of Conservation Voters
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 18: Idiots In High Places Rewarding One Another
The League Of Conservation Voters endorses a Republican, Dave Reichert (WA-08).
The LCV Press Release includes these words:
“We are proud to endorse Congressman Reichert for re-election because he supports policies that will not only build a clean energy economy that gets Washington’s workers back on the job, but will also reduce our dependence on foreign oil and curb harmful pollution,” said LCV Action Fund President Gene Karpinski.
You may recall that the League of Conservation Voters also endorsed Joe Lieberman in the 2006 election. Granted, Lieberman has been better on climate than he was on healthcare…but fact remains that he helped legitimate huge chunks of the Cheney administration’s acts of destruction — which surely should count against him on the environmental-good-guy-o-meter.
I go into this every time one of the LCV people call me. They sigh; it is my hope that I’m not the only one telling them this.
After I heard about the Reichert announcement, I was moved to send the following to Gene Karpinski, le grande fromage du LCV.
Gene Karpinski
League of Conservation Voters
1920 L Street, NW Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036Dear Mr. Karpinski — I’ve been wanting to get this letter off my chest for a long time — since 2006, to be exact. I’ve repeated its words fairly often; I do so every time I speak to a fundraiser from the League of Conservation Voters (at least once every three months).
I want to explain to you, just as I explain to them, why I have chosen not to give any money to the LCV. I was bitterly disappointed when your organization chose to endorse Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Connecticut Senate race. I now see you’ve done something similar in your endorsement of Washington congressman Dave Reichert.
That is to say, you’ve shot yourselves in the foot. I imagine that there are more such instances, but I don’t want to look for them; I feel soiled enough already.
There are profound flaws in your procedure for candidate endorsements, which is based on tallying the number of “pro-environment” and “anti-environment” votes by a particular legislator. But how on earth could you miss the fact that by 2006, Joe Lieberman’s panderings to the Bush Administration had allowed them to claim the blessings of bipartisanship upon their wars, their financial chicanery, their ineptitude, their environmental irresponsibility (nay, criminality)? And how on earth could you miss the fact that Dave Reichert, at a May gathering of Republican strategists, bragged that his “pro-environment” votes were just cynical gamesmanship?
To be fair, Mr. Reichert could actually be a secret environmentalist double-agent lying to his own party’s strategists. But I think it’s more likely that (as he admitted to the “Mainstream Republicans” group in 2006, speaking of his “pro-environment” votes), “…when the leadership comes to me and says, ‘Dave we need you to take a vote over here, because we want to protect you and keep this majority,’ I do it.”
By short-sightedly structuring your endorsement policy around the sole criterion of counted votes, you enable cynical politicians to manipulate the system. The mechanism is obvious; waiting until the majority of votes have been counted on a bill often allows an unscrupulous legislator to cast a politically expedient vote (one that, perhaps, makes him likelier to get endorsed by a leading environmental group) which appears to run counter to his party’s platform. Thus Dave Reichert gets your endorsement, despite the fact that his 90/10 Republican voting record has been part and parcel of the “Party of No” strategy (a strategy that has now fostered a whole Republican subculture of anti-science denialists who threaten to derail progress on climate completely). And thus Joe Lieberman got your approval.
And that’s what I tell your fund-raisers, and it’s what I’m telling you.
I’ll give you a pass on Lieberman and start donating again — if you repudiate Dave Reichert, and make a significant change in the LCV’s endorsement process.
I’d love to give you some money. I don’t have much, but you’re welcome to some of it. But I’m damned I’ll give a dime to an organization that — when it comes to the environment — can’t tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
If anyone wants to contact the League of Conservation Voters to tell them something similar, here’s their contact info.
environment Politics: cap and trade Dana Milbank geo-engineering media irresponsibility
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 17: If Only You Could Geo-Engineer Stupidity Out Of The Atmosphere
Dana Milbank at the Washington Post writes an obituary for cap-and-trade, and instead recommends that Democrats try and interest their Republican colleagues in geo-engineering as a coping strategy for the coming climate apocalypse.
The Post has been instrumental in creating and fostering a level of scientific ignorance in our political class that is directly responsible for much of our current predicament (see: Will, George). And, as usual, the comments on Milbank’s article are a demonstration of the prevalence of dumb.
Cap-and-trade, originally a Republican idea, may indeed be dead in the water due to inflexible opposition in the Senate. And, as Milbank suggests, a huge geo-engineering program may be more attractive. The image of huge cannons firing sulfur into the atmosphere will appeal to politicians of both parties who are enthusiastic about big guns. But the central question is simply this: how can we as a nation accomplish any necessary actions on climate when conservatives wholeheartedly embrace a vehemently anti-science position? Of the current crop of Republican candidates, those accepting the scientific factuality of global climate change can be numbered on the fingers of one hand. What gave rise to this intransigence? Alas, our print and broadcast media, ever reluctant to undertake difficult explanations (when facile misrepresentations are easier and cheaper) must bear much of the blame for the nation’s appalling ignorance of the gravest threat humanity has ever faced.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Art Robinson climate zombie idiots
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 16: Nyte Ov De Livveng Dedd
Recently I have just typed the phrase “climate change news” into my search bar to find topics. There’s a limit to how much you can find in the Times.
So I found a column in the Eugene, Oregon newspaper, the Register-Guard. The columnist concerns noted loony and Congressional candidate Art Robinson, whose spectacular flameout on Rachel Maddow’s program is worth a watch. Bob Doppelt notes Bjorn Lomborg’s reversal on climate change, then asks Robinson if this shift by an authority he’d previously cited would make him change his mind.
Ha.
Fortunately Robinson is very unlikely to prevail in this district. But it seemed like a good theme for a letter addressing the general rise of climate zombies.
Art Robinson is distinctive among the current crop of climate denialists running for public office only in that his academic background arms him with a repertoire of useful scientific phrases, the better to misrepresent and misinterpret the work of actual professional climatologists (who agree overwhelmingly on the human causes of global climate change). Other Republican candidates, for the most part, do their misrepresenting and misinterpreting without the benefit of advanced degrees in unrelated scientific fields. Robinson is an extreme example of an increasingly prominent national phenomenon, the “climate zombie” — a politician with an ideological commitment to ignore scientific evidence and expertise when it’s inconvenient. The number of such “zombies” running for office around the country is a disturbing reminder of how far the G.O.P. has fallen; Republican candidates now are unable to address an inconvenient reality: anthropogenic global warming is settled science, and we ignore it at our peril.
Warren Senders
environment: IPCC Rajendra Pachauri
by Warren
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Month 10, Day 15: One Of The Good Guys…
It is good news that Rajendra Pachauri is going to retain his position as head of the UN Climate Panel. While Pachauri’s tenure has been marked by controversies, none are of his own making, and he should not be compelled to leave a position for which he is eminently suited because of a spurious publicity campaign. The oft-cited errors in the 2007 IPCC report no more invalidate the bulk of that document than a reportorial mistake in the Times negates the rest of the paper’s news. The barrage of ginned-up “scandals” aimed at reducing the credibility of the IPCC and of climatologists in general has crippled our ability to sustain a reality-based discussion on climate issues (as witness the Republican party’s comprehensively anti-science stance, unthinkable a decade ago). Here’s hoping that Dr. Pachauri can help us wake up to the reality of global climate change before it’s too late.
Warren Senders