environment Politics: assholes CIA denialists idiots Navy Republican obstructionism scientific consensus
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 21: Rep. Upton? It’s David Koch For You, On Line Seven.
The Boston Globe runs an AP piece on a recent study that defines the task of the Navy in coping with a post-global-warming planet:
WASHINGTON—The Navy and Coast Guard need to prepare for more missions in the Arctic, and plan for potential damage to bases from rising sea levels, as global warming increases, the National Research Council said Thursday.
“Naval forces need to monitor more closely and start preparing now for projected challenges climate change will present in the future,” Frank L. Bowman, a retired Navy admiral who was co-chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said in a statement.
The new analysis noted that ocean sea lanes could be regularly open across the Arctic by 2030 as rising temperatures continue to melt the sea ice. It said the Navy needs to increase its cold-weather training and operations programs so it will be able to protect U.S. interests in the region.
Sent to the Boston Globe (my hometown paper!) on March 12:
As evidenced by their recent travesty of a hearing on the future of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is immune to scientific evidence on the critical issue of climate change. Apparently they are also unaffected by the opinions of experts from the CIA experts, which last year began including global warming and its epiphenomena in its analyses of potential political trouble-spots. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to predict that the GOP will also discount the National Research Council’s advice to the Navy on preparation for a drastically hotter world. In fact, there’s only one source of authority that could transform their reflexive hostility to science. If international oil corporations changed their positions to favor reality-based climate policies, a Republican turnaround would follow as the night the day. Until that day comes, sadly, we can expect more of the same: denial and delusion.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes EPA idiots Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 20: A Little Knowledge May Be A Dangerous Thing, But It’s Better Than A Lot Of Republicans On A House Subcommittee
As of March 11, the dingalings in the House have voted to defang the EPA. The Times:
WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee voted on Thursday to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate greenhouse gases, chipping away at a central pillar of the Obama administration’s evolving climate and energy strategy.
The sharply partisan vote was preordained by the Republican takeover of the House. Republicans and their industry allies accuse the administration of levying taxes on traditional energy sources through costly environmental regulations, threatening the economic recovery and driving jobs overseas.
Many Republicans also argue that global warming is an unproven theory and that no action is needed to combat it, and they are backed by lobbies representing manufacturers; small businesses; agriculture; and the chemical, coal and oil industries; all of which have a big financial stake in hamstringing the E.P.A.
Bitter. Bitter and mordant. That’s me.
Sent March 11:
It is a sad irony: as polar icecaps melt faster and faster, as freak weather events seem daily less freakish and more the norm, our House of Representatives escalates its own fight against “climate change.” Note the quotation marks — this is not a battle against a concept rather than a genuine enemy. Rather than develop strategies to ensure that our nation is prepared to cope with the compounding crises triggered by the runaway greenhouse effect, Republican legislators are developing strategies to ensure that we are protected from the dangers of climatological expertise. Just as George W. Bush’s post-9/11 advice was to “go shopping,” our petroleum-controlled congress wants us all to keep buying, driving, and consuming, securely confident that all those heat waves, anomalous storms and rising sea levels are unrelated to our warming atmosphere. Scientific ignorance is a short-lived bliss; our eventual national awakening will be ugly and painful.
Warren Senders
environment: assholes denialists idiots
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 19: Just Because You’re Deluded And Stupid, That Doesn’t Make You Right
The San-Diego Union Tribune runs an article discussing the connections between global warming and all the wacky weather everyone’s been, um, enjoying recently. Reading the comments prompted this letter, sent March 10:
Increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are certainly linked to the crazy weather everywhere around the globe. And while it’s scientifically impossible to attribute a single weather event to a single cause, the facts have been in for a long time: by contributing ever more to the greenhouse effect, we are “loading the dice” to make extreme weather ever more likely. Global climate change is also linked to another kind of crazy: the increasingly complex mental contortions of denialists attempting to negate mountains of corroborative evidence and an overwhelming worldwide scientific consensus. The online comments to any article on global warming offer glimpses of a bizarro world where President Obama wants to outlaw SUVs, Al Gore heads an international cabal of climatologists, scientific expertise is rejected when it doesn’t fit ideological preconceptions, and the world’s petroleum industries act from altruistic motives, untinged by any trace of greed or avarice.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots truth-telling
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 17: Truth Is A Drug
A regional paper in Florida, the Biscayne Times, runs a fabulous editorial by a guy named Jim W. Harper:
The Sun Orbits Our Flat Earth
Written By Jim W. Harper
OH, AND “CLIMATE CHANGE” IS JUST LEFT-WING PROPAGANDA
Wake up, Sen. Marco Rubio. And Gov. Rick Scott, too. You got elected after pretending that climate change doesn’t exist, but that fairy-tale position can’t last. What’s next? Are you going to deny that smoking causes cancer?
The majority of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives likewise wobble in skepticism about climate change. At least Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen got it right in 2009 when she stated that “global warming is real and man-made.”
If you won’t listen to her, ask any elementary school child, because they have ears to hear the truth. They can probably tell you these facts:
Last year was the warmest and wettest year on record.
Last decade was the hottest on record.
Last century the planet warmed by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Got it? The earth has been getting measurably warmer since modern record-keeping began in 1880. Global warming is a fact. Don’t waste the nation’s time and money debating ideas that have been settled.
And that’s just the beginning. He sounds completely DFH, and genuinely outraged. I figured I’d get his back on this one.
Sent March 8:
Jim Harper’s op-ed is a refreshing dose of truth-telling. Future generations will look back with incredulity on the complacency of our current crop of politicians; rather than recognize what is certainly the gravest threat humanity has faced in recorded history, they’ve abdicated their responsibilities as leaders. Actually, imagining future generations looking back on this era now requires a faith in our species’ survival potential that is no longer automatic. We of the carbon-burning countries are moving the entire planet toward conditions that human beings have never before experienced. Some profess confidence that we can adapt to a radically transformed climate. Sure, given enough time, and a climate that changed gradually over many millennia. Instead, our radical energy consumption has us headed for the geological equivalent of a sudden and catastrophic impact — a planetary car crash, as it were. And the climate-change deniers in our political and media systems are making sure that none of us will be wearing our seat belts.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes idiots Renewable Energy Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 10: An Insult to Clowns Everywhere
The Christian Science Monitor runs a pretty good article pointing out that the Republicans’ economic alarmism about environmental regulation is utter bullshit.
Sent March 2:
Given the gross fiscal irresponsibility of the current crop of Republican legislators, it should be utterly laughable to hear them pontificating that action on global climate change is somehow going to be a “job-killer.” Remember, these people recklessly squandered a massive budget surplus on tax breaks for the very wealthy and a completely unnecessary war — they couldn’t be less concerned about middle-class jobs. Their opposition to environmental regulation has nothing to do with any economic concerns; it is, rather, a long-standing political phenomenon known as “hippie-punching.” A favorite Republican activity, it’s also common among Democrats seeking to establish their conservative bona fides. In this case, however, those hippie liberals have a point. The scientific evidence is crystal-clear: if we don’t regulate greenhouse gases, we (all six billion of us) are going to face a world significantly less hospitable to our species. Republican obstructionists are playing a very dangerous game.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists false equivalency idiots Koch Brothers RGGI
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 5: We Don’t Need No Steenkin’ Evidence!
The Nashua Telegraph (New Hampshire) discusses the move in that state to stop participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. They’ve got climate zombies in the state house and misleading robo-calls from the Koch Brothers. What could possibly go wrong?
Americans for Prosperity, an conservative group with financial support from the oil industry, made automated robocalls over the long holiday weekend, attacking RGGI as guaranteeing further increases in electricity bills.
Studies had concluded that RGGI has added 6.5 cents per month to an average consumer’s bill.
Rep. Sandra Keans, D-Rochester, attacked AFP’s calls as “sleazy” and deliberately false.
“I have never seen such a cowardly perpetration pulled on the citizens of New Hampshire,” Keans said.
AFP Executive Director Corey Lewandowski defended the group’s lobbying against RGGI.
“Constituents should be able to call their elected officials to register a concern. Nobody forces people to run for office if they don’t want to hear from those who elected them,” Lewandowski said. “We’re delighted by the strong House vote for consumers.”
Rep. Beatriz Pastor, D-Lyme, said that even if there were questions about climate change science, it’s wise for the state to take preventive measures like RGGI.
“Noah got intelligence (that) a natural disaster was about to occur,” Pastor said of the Bibilical account. “He could have looked out the window and said ‘it doesn’t look like it is going to rain’.”
But Deputy Majority Leader Shawn Jasper of Hudson disagreed.
“Neither man nor cow is responsible for global warming,” he added.
Mr. Jasper seemed like an excellent hook upon which to hang a letter. Sent February 25:
Representative Shawn Jasper is an excellent example of an increasingly prevalent species of Homo Politicus: the “climate zombie,” a politician whose denial of the facts of global climate change is so ideologically rooted that no amount of factually-based argument will change his mind. Our nation used to regard scientists with respect; after all, they were responsible most of our major technological advances and noteworthy achievements (the Apollo program, anyone?). There should be nothing unusual about the idea that when you need expertise in a particular area, you ask experts and take their advice very seriously. But in the world of today’s Republican party, scientists are only to be listened to when their opinions are ideologically convenient. Representative Jasper’s pronouncement that “neither man nor cow is responsible for global warming” has no factual foundation, as author Kevin Landrigan could have ascertained with a few minutes’ worth of research. The fact that this “climate zombie” has been given an unrefuted last word in a supposedly objective article about the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is an unfortunate dereliction of journalistic responsibility.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes coal EPA idiots
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 4: And The Straw Boss Hollered ‘Well Damn Your Soul!’
The Courier-Press (KY) runs an article about another House Republican who’s gunning for the EPA. Because Kentucky is a coal state, this guy is in their pocket, and he wants to remove the EPA’s authority to regulate emissions in order to make the lives of the mining companies easier. Easier for Kentuckians who’re part of the profit chain from Big Coal, too — at least in the short run. In the long run? Don’t even ask.
The recent Republican attempts to defund or defang the Environmental Protection Agency are examples of short-term, politically-driven thinking at its most egregious. Rep. Whitfield knows perfectly well that the current Congress will never pass any legislation addressing the threat of global climate change, since a majority of its members were elected with the help of money from the petroleum and coal industries. The problem that we face is that the greenhouse effect is a result of the laws of physics and chemistry; climate change is inherently long-term and non-political. While muzzling the EPA may benefit Kentucky’s economy for a few years, does anyone seriously believe that the coal companies will really care about the state and its citizens once the coal’s all gone, the mountains are leveled and the streams poisoned? By carrying out the bidding of his corporate masters, Rep. Whitfield is doing a disservice both to his constituents and to the country as a whole; by treating the environment and its advocates as enemies, conservatives make a livable future for our descendants more and more unlikely.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes Bobby Jindal denialists idiots IPCC volcano monitoring
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Year 2, Month 3, Day 2: Eruptions of Ignorance
Missouri Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer is the guy who introduced the amendment to kill funding for the IPCC, which (given our all-new teabagger-friendly House) passed handily. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the story.
The guy’s a moron, but is that news? Anyway, I started remembering Bobby Jindal for some reason, and generated the following letter, sent 2/21:
Those of us who still recall Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal’s disparaging remarks about “something called ‘volcano monitoring,’ ” back in early 2009 will also remember that only a few weeks later, a real live volcano erupted in Alaska — and that the Government’s Volcano Monitoring service was credited with giving essential warnings that saved lives and property. Blaine Luetkemeyer is in a position analogous to Jindal’s; his hostility toward the I.P.C.C. has nothing to do with its essential work on the likely effects of global warming and everything to do with short-term political exigencies. As the scientific evidence mounts, climate-change deniers use multiply-debunked arguments to delay and weaken any action on the most significant threat humanity has faced in millennia. The smoke from Mount Redoubt made Governor Jindal’s mockery of volcano monitoring an embarrassment; one wonders: what sort of environmental catastrophe will bring Representative Luetkemeyer to regret his similarly ignorant grandstanding?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots mountain pine beetle
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 28: How Do You Handle A Hungry Man?
The Victoria Advocate (TX) runs an article on Joe Read,the loony in Montana who’s introduced a bill declaring global warming beneficial.
Imagine reading a few decades ago that a lawmaker had introduced a bill which not only designated tobacco as a foodstuff, but also defined lung cancer and emphysema as signs of overall health. It’d be pretty clear that the politician in question had either been paid off by the big tobacco firms, or had been fooled by them; looking back with the benefit of hindsight, we would have to choose: what motivated him — cupidity or stupidity? A few decades from now, exactly the same question will be asked about Rep. Joe Read, whose attempt to renegotiate the facts of climate change shows a similar unwillingness to remove ideological filters. A few seconds’ research on the phrase “mountain pine beetle” will demonstrate one of the many dangers posed to Montana by global warming. But perhaps Rep. Read is too busy eating a cigarette sandwich to care. Mmmmmm. Yummy.
Warren Senders
environment: assholes denialists extreme weather idiots
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 25: If They’ll Say “You Told Us So,” We Promise Not To Say “We Told You So.”
USA Today recognizes two new studies that offer even more robust correlation between global warming and extreme weather events.
John Fogerty once crooned “Who’ll stop the rain?” Not humanity, apparently, as new research shows that human-caused climate change has significantly increased the chances of extreme rain- and snowfall around the world, along with the deadly floods that follow.
This is according to two new studies published Wednesday in the British journal Nature.
While other studies have suggested that global warming may be partly responsible for an increase in heavy precipitation, what’s new in this study is the formal finding that human influence has “likely made intense precipitation stronger, on average, over the second half of the 20th century,” says study co-author Francis Zwiers of the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
“The observed change cannot be explained by natural fluctuations of the climate system alone,” he says.
Leaving aside the question of whether John Fogerty was/is capable of crooning, the rest of the article is pretty straightforward.
Read the comments for a hearty helping of stupid.
Sent February 16:
The two newly published studies serve to confirm what many people have been positing for years: the greenhouse effect causes global warming, and global warming is causally linked to extreme weather events. But even a brief glance at online comments on this subject shows that there is essentially no evidence that will serve to convince the climate-change deniers. Some cling to the notion that there was an equally robust scientific consensus in the 1970s predicting global cooling (no, there wasn’t). Some maintain that errors in the 3000-page IPCC report invalidate its conclusions (in which case a typo anywhere in this issue of USA Today would mean the whole newspaper was untrustworthy). Some conflate “climate” with “weather” and insist that global warming isn’t happening — because it’s snowing outside their windows. Some base their arguments on religion, claiming that “God won’t let humans change the planet’s atmosphere” (although He’s apparently got no objection to hydrogen bombs, a Texas-sized garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, or regional aquifers so contaminated by LNG extraction that tap water is flammable). The evidence is mounting, while the denialists have their fingers in their ears. Good luck to us all. We’ll need it.
Warren Senders