environment: assholes denialists idiots
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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: computer models deforestation denialists scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 3, Day 8: And We Shiver When The (Hot) Winds Blow
The Seattle Times runs an AP story detailing a new study co-authored by Richard Waring, a tree expert. Climate change is going to destroy the habitat of the lodgepole pine, one of the most important trees in the Pacific Northwest:
Scientists have developed a computer model that predicts the lodgepole pine – one of the most common trees at high elevations in the Cascades and Rockies – will be largely driven out of the Northwest by 2080 due to the warming climate.
A more extensive version of the same article can be found at greenwichtime.com. Sent February 28:
The “skeptics” who continue to obfuscate and deny the ominous realities of global climate change will respond predictably to the just-published study showing the decimation of Lodgepole pine habitat within the coming century due to increasing temperatures. Some will claim that computer models cannot be trusted, some will simply say, “Who cares about trees?”, and some will claim it’s part of a widespread conspiracy to imprison SUV drivers on behalf of a New World Order. A scientifically literate reader could respond as follows: 1 – we trust computer models all the time throughout our civilization, 2 – those trees form important habitat for thousands of animal and plant species and have played important roles in human history as well, and, 3 – aside from being a paranoid delusion, such a worldwide cabal of research scientists is exponentially more improbable than the idea that human greenhouse emissions are drastically affecting our atmosphere, our climate and our lives.
Warren Senders
environment: denialists media irresponsibility scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 3, Day 7: Is Dis A System?
The Oakland Daily Tribune (that’s Oakland, Michigan, not Oakland, California) runs an article heavily featuring climate denialist Christopher Kobus, who makes a statement that is so wacko I cannot believe he believes it:
He believes the debate boils down to funding.
“(Advocates of global warming) are well-funded and have deep connections with the media,” he said.
“So-called skeptics (of global warming) are neither well-funded nor organized via advocacy organizations. It is a one-way debate.”
A little research on Kobus suggests that he was taken in by the “Climategate” non-scandal and has continued to base his belief system on this series of unfortunate events.
Sent February 27:
Professor Chris Kobus’ claim that climate change “skeptics” are poorly funded does not stand even a cursory examination. The few climatologists who dismiss the overwhelming scientific consensus on Earth’s climatic transformation are almost without exception supported by petroleum-funded “think tanks” and “institutes.” Conversely, many climate scientists face extraordinary obstacles, including smear campaigns, hate mail, death threats and legal harassment in addition to the ongoing struggles for funding that are part of every scientist’s daily work. Professor Kobus states that “climate-change advocates” have “deep connections with the media.” Which media? Surely not our TV, radio or newspapers, which inevitably “balance” every genuinely alarmed expert with an oil-industry spokesman. Meanwhile, there’s snow in California, golfball-sized hailstones in the Midwest, and freak rainstorms in Australia — an increase in freak weather events which climatologists have predicted for decades as a consequence of the greenhouse effect. Denying a problem won’t make it go away.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists false equivalency idiots Koch Brothers RGGI
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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 Bobby Jindal denialists idiots IPCC volcano monitoring
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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: computer modeling denialists scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 2, Day 26: SunSpots..
The Sun (UK) reports on the Oxford studies establishing a definite link between England’s severe flooding and climate change.
Sent February 17:
The results of the Oxford studies are unsurprising to those who’ve been paying attention to the threat of global warming; climatologists have predicted almost exactly these results for several decades, with greater and greater precision as their computer modeling tools became more sophisticated and the data they were analysing became more extensive and precise. And yet it is precisely the nature of the research tool that now has climate-change denialists sputtering and fuming. “Why,” they ask, “should we trust computer models of something as complicated as the earth’s climate?” At first blush, the question seems valid, but there are many reasons for using these tools — the first being, simply, that if we wait until the Earth itself displays incontrovertible evidence, it will be far too late to do anything about the problem. The second reason is that we trust these same technologies in countless other areas of our lives; apparently computer modeling is invalid only when it will negatively impact the profit margins of the world’s biggest oil companies.
Warren Senders
environment: assholes denialists extreme weather idiots
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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
Education environment Politics: denialists ignorance scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 2, Day 23: Teach Your Children Well…
The San Francisco Chronicle describes the work of the Alliance for Climate Education, as they do workshops and assemblies for high-school students. It’s all a part of welcoming them to the reality-based community, you know, which is why the Republicans are so agin it.
The 200 engrossed students at Oakland Unity High School kept their eyes glued to the projector screen and hardly uttered a sound during the 45-minute presentation – the most striking exception coming at the part of the special school assembly that featured cow farts.
It turns out bovine flatulence contributes to greenhouse gases. That was just one of several topics covered in the assembly, which was offered by the Alliance for Climate Education, an Oakland nonprofit that is trying to educate students about climate change one school at a time.
Since fall 2009, Alliance for Climate Education has visited 1,100 high schools in the United States, putting on assemblies for nearly 700,000 teens.
This was sent on Valentine’s Day, with Love to the Alliance For Climate Education!
Despite the frenzied conspiracy theorizing of denialists obsessing over an imaginary Socialist New World Order, climate change is a very real and significant danger — not just to Americans, but to all the world’s people. A secondary danger is that the anti-science veriphobes in the Republican party will succeed in convincing the American public that this threat (one perhaps greater than anything humans have yet faced) isn’t real. In 2004, an anonymous Bush administration official told Ron Suskind that “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” By opposing any meaningful climate policy, the GOP is attempting to create its own reality — based not on verifiable facts, but on superstition, hubris and ignorance. Unfortunately for us all, even the most powerful empire cannot defeat the laws of physics. Which is why the work of the Alliance for Climate Education is so essential.
Warren Senders