environment Politics: idiots National Research Council Republican obstructionism scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 5, Day 24: Just Put It On The Pile, OK?
USA Today notes a new report from the National Research Council makes the point that we need to act soon on climate change — and if we don’t, we’ll really be sorry about it:
A report released Thursday by a National Research Council committee cites “the pressing need for substantial action to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare to adapt to its impacts.”
Since the effects of greenhouse gases can take decades to come about, and then persist for hundreds or even thousands of years, waiting for impacts to occur before taking action will likely be too late for meaningful mitigation, according to the report.
Beginning emissions reductions soon will also lower the pressure to make steeper and costlier cuts later. “It is our judgment that the most effective strategy is to begin ramping down emissions as soon as possible,” said committee chair Albert Carnesale of UCLA.
A perfect hook for a letter about how stupid our Congress is. Sent May 13:
Sigh. That just-released report on climate change — the one that says the longer we wait to reduce greenhouse emissions, the worse things will get — you know the one? In a world where reason, factuality and expertise actually played a role in American politics, such a study would have a seismic effect on our Congress. Legislators would move to incorporate its recommendations into law, providing companies with governmental incentives to shrink CO2 footprints, providing states with funding to develop programs of their own, honoring individuals who developed new strategies for environmentally conscious energy usage. Why, if we lived in such a world, the NRC report could make an enormous difference in all our lives!
Unfortunately, in the world we actually inhabit, logic and factuality are political anathema — and the NRC study will likely join other similar studies in the Congressional dustbin. And the Earth gets hotter and hotter.
Warren Senders
environment: Arctic Arctic ice melt arctic methane IPCC scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 5, Day 13: Uh-oh.
The Barents Observer (Norway) writes about a new report issued by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) that predictably shows us in much worse trouble than we’d thought. Not that this is actually a surprise or anything:
According to the study, multiyear sea ice, mountain glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland Ice Sheet, which were once considered fixtures in the Arctic, shrank faster in the past decade than in the previous one. Their meltwaters contributed more than 40% of the global sea level rise, which averaged at 3 mm per year, between 2003 and 2008.
Sea ice cover has reached record lows every year in the past decade and is “now about one third smaller than the average summer sea-ice cover from 1979 to 2000.” According to the report, the decreased sea ice cover offers opportunities for increased shipping traffic and industrial activity. However, “threats from icebergs may increase due to increased iceberg production.”
My kid is growing up into this world.
Sent May 4:
Given that the IPCC has always tended to err on the conservative side, it’s not surprising that the recently released AMAP study is projecting sea-level rises that drastically exceed the earlier predictions. In fact, it is increasingly recognized that the effects of runaway climate change are happening both faster and more severely than any climatologists had expected. The introduction of methane clathrates into the picture is particularly alarming, as this gas has the potential to trigger greenhouse effects of devastating intensity; the IPCC’s analysis did not take this factor into account, which is one reason their estimates were significantly lower.
Looking at the likely effects of a climate catastrophe on worldwide political and economic stability, one wonders: how much longer can the world’s developed countries and multinational corporations continue to opt for a “business as usual” model? Industrialization’s virtues won’t matter much if humanity’s only available home is rendered uninhabitable.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: corporate irresponsibility denialists scientific consensus United Nations
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 4, Day 18: What A Wonderful World
The San Jose Mercury News runs an AP article on the halting, lurching progress of the world’s governments towards some sort of actual, you know, meaningful agreement on climate change:
World stumbles toward climate summit
By DENIS D. GRAY Associated PressBANGKOK—Nineteen years after the world started to take climate change seriously, delegates from around the globe spent five days talking about what they will talk about at a year-end conference in South Africa. They agreed to talk about their opposing viewpoints.
Delegates from 173 nations did agree that delays in averting global warming merely fast-forward the risk of plunging the world into “catastrophe.” The delegate from Bolivia noted that the international effort, which began with a 1992 U.N. convention, has so far amounted to “throwing water on a forest fire.”
This paper has an anomalous 125-word limit. Sent April 9:
It’s profoundly discouraging. Because the fossil fuel industries regard the threat to their profit margins as more urgent than the threats to human civilization posed by the greenhouse effect, they have successfully used their enormous resources to fund denialism, to sponsor politicians who will propagate a “don’t worry, be happy, keep burning oil” message, and to discredit actual scientific experts on the subject. “Stumbling” is an apt verb; our nation has been rendered almost unconscious by the toxic emissions of Big Oil and Big Coal. As they recover from our century-long carbon bonfire, our descendants will too busy struggling to survive on a newly hostile planet to do more than curse our memories. But curse us they will, unless we find the resolve to act.
Warren Senders
environment: climate science corporate irresponsibility denialists scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 4, Day 12: Listen To The Expert. Please?
Climate scientist Ray Johnson writes a regular column for the Plattsburgh (NY) Press-Republican. This month he reviews the facts of AGW and makes the case yet again that the clever apes are the guilty parties:
When scientists measure the different isotopes of carbon in the atmosphere today, they find that the relative amount of carbon-14 compared to carbon-12 is decreasing. Since fossil fuels have been buried in the earth for millions of years, all of the carbon-14 isotope has decayed. Thus when these fuels are combusted they release the stable form of carbon (carbon-12) into the air. These emissions dilute the levels of carbon-14 normally present, which tells us that the increased amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is coming from human activities.
Climate science and science in general, is not like a house of cards and is not based on a single line of evidence. There are many, many lines of evidence and data that collectively point to a single, consistent answer: namely, that rising carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel burning is the main driver behind global warming.
The data continue to come in. The graph here of “Arctic Sea Ice Extent” is current through March 22, 2011. Sea ice extent normally reaches its maximum in the period from Feb. 18 to March 31. This year the maximum extent, so far, was reached on March 7 and at 5,650,000 square miles is 463,000 square miles below the 1979-2000 average. This reduction in ice extent equates to an area larger than the states of California and Texas combined. That is a lot less ice.
Sent April 4:
In a country with fully functioning news media, Ray Johnson’s column on climate science would be old news. The facts about anthropogenic global warming have been known and widely accepted in the scientific community for years; Arctic ice melt caused by the greenhouse effect was discussed in the pages of a 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics! America’s problem is not that the facts are unavailable; it’s that in order to avoid surrendering one penny of their quarterly profit margins, the fossil fuel industry is willing to spend remarkable sums of money to sow confusion and delay meaningful action. As a result, remarkable and bizarre theories abound. Occam’s Razor exposes these paranoid visions; is it more likely that thousands of climate scientists all over the world are conspiring to promote Al Gore’s “New World Order” — or that the world’s most powerful economic actors don’t want to give up their enormous profits?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots Republican obstructionism scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 4, Day 9: Maybe They’re Just Waiting For The Rapture?
It’s March 31 as I write this; it’s supposed to snow heavily tomorrow, which is crazy. Boston weather is like that anyway, and as we enter the new Anthropocene Epoch it’s going to get more and more so.
There was an excellent article in the Miami Herald giving a good slam to climate change denialism. It’s well worth a read:
Recently, I went to Capitol Hill with members of Generation Hot (and the Sierra Club, our country’s largest grass-roots environmental organization) to confront the politicians whose denials and delay have done so much to land Generation Hot in this predicament. We wanted to know why my daughter and the other 2 billion members of Generation Hot have to suffer because Republicans in Congress refuse to accept what virtually every major scientific organization in the world, including our own National Academy of Sciences, has said: Man-made climate change is happening now and extremely dangerous.
Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who has famously called climate change “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” told our group that “the science is mixed” and his scientists know better than ours. Frank Maisano, a public-relations consultant for big energy companies, told us that “the science doesn’t matter”; what matters is what’s politically feasible.
“The science does matter,” Caroline Selle, a member of our group who works for the Energy Action Coalition, responded in a blog the following day. Selle added: “We face a climate catastrophe that will define our generation and the future of our country, and the solutions to this crisis will create jobs and improve public health. So why aren’t we acting? Unfortunately, the answer is simple: Capitol Hill is swarming with ‘climate cranks’ – politicians willing to trade our future for their own political gain.”
I’m very tired, sore and cranky today. Sent on March 31:
“Generation Hot” is a compelling phrase, and I’m indebted to Mark Hertsgaard for adding it to my lexicon. It is a sad commentary on the state of public discourse in America that the gravest threat our species has faced in millennia is treated as fodder for political grandstanding rather than informed discussion. The online comments on any article about climate change reveals the degree of emotional investment felt by climate denialists, who feel compelled to reject scientific expertise in favor of vague, implausible conspiracy theories (look out! Al Gore’s gonna take away your SUV!). In the 1950s and 60s, America’s positive attitude toward science led us to unimaginable heights of achievement; in the past few decades, ideological rejection of reality-based thinking has made us a nation of scientific illiterates — and led us to the brink of climatic disaster. “Generation Hot” will rightly curse us for our ignorance and irresponsibility.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: denialism scientific consensus scientific literacy
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 4, Day 7: Down Under De Nile
The Sydney Morning Herald has an excellent piece on the problems faced by scientists when they try and talk to politicians:
But scepticism, and outright denialism, is in the ascendancy since last November’s mid-term elections. So it was perhaps unsurprising that the expert pleas fell on deaf ears. A Louisiana Republican accused scientists presenting evidence of human influence on climate of holding ”elitist, arrogant views”. Another insisted that ”we should not put the US economy into a straitjacket because of a theory that hasn’t been proven”.
The scientific champions were equally vehement. One Democrat equated the bill to an attempt to repeal gravity, while another hauled a tower of published climate investigations to the meeting and argued that if Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein were testifying, Republicans would still not accept the science until Antarctica had melted.
Californian heavyweight Henry Waxman called Republicans a ”party of science deniers” and declared that they ”can’t cure cancer by passing a bill that declares smoking safe. And they can’t stop climate change by declaring it a hoax.
Yup. Got that right.
This letter gave me the chance to use the word “apothegm,” which always makes me feel rather grand.
Sent March 29:
The relationship between science and politics has always been confused and problematic, for the quest for truth and the quest for power are two very different things. Scientific integrity is built upon the willingness of each practitioner to change his or her mind when carefully examined evidence demands it. Political integrity, contrariwise, is summed up by Simon Cameron’s apothegm: “An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.” And nowhere in modern life is the science/politics equation more fraught with consequences than in the non-debate over climate change, currently happening both in the United States and Australia. The scientific evidence for anthropogenic global warming is overwhelming and universally accepted; a few contrarian voices are amplified by disproportionate media attention to create the impression that the “science isn’t settled.” And our petroleum-owned politicians can stay bought, maintaining their “integrity” by ignoring genuine evidence if it’s ideologically inconvenient.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists EPA idiots Republican obstructionism scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 3, Day 25: Rush Would Like That.
The San Francisco Chronicle documents the insanity in the House of Representatives. Like the BP oil spill, Republican denialism and stupidity makes letter-writing easy. I wish it were a lot harder. Don’t you?
Sent March 16:
If only the stakes weren’t so high, we could enjoy the spectacle of the Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee steadfastly denying politically troublesome reality. Forget about adopting a meaningful energy and emissions policy; these worthies not only won’t admit that climate change might present a problem to our country’s agriculture, infrastructure and public health, they’re unwilling to go on record as acknowledging that it even exists. For anyone who’s been following the scientific evidence over the past several decades, the human causes of global warming are undeniable. Unlike the urban legend of Alabama legislators declaring pi equal to three, today’s anti-science Republicans are all too real, and their readiness to ignore evidence and expertise when formulating policy is an embarrassment to America’s reputation, and a source of grave danger to our future as a nation. What will the GOP try to nullify next? Gravity?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes CIA denialists idiots Navy Republican obstructionism scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
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: denialism media irresponsibility scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 3, Day 18: I Know Nuzzink!
The Newberg Graphic (Newberg, OR) runs an op-ed from a guy named Brian Doyle, who speaks considerable sooth on climate issues:
While the political winds blow hot and cold, the climate and the weather it drives are oblivious to politics. Political pronouncements aren’t going to affect the climate any more than they can affect the weather, the tides or sunrise in the morning.
Politicians should be deciding what, if anything, to do about climate change rather than debating or denying scientific facts. Nonetheless, some politicians, their appointees and various talk show hosts have presumed to know more about the earth’s climate than scientists with a lifetime of experience and study. It’s as though controlling the climate was the same as swinging the next election.
It’s one thing to spin or misrepresent a political issue and another thing to alter or ignore physical reality. While political victories are temporary (via death or the ballot box) climate change is permanent and the consequences of misrepresenting it are far more serious than an election’s results or next year’s profits.
So I generated the following. The Semmelweis reference is a new twist. With a little luck, I’ll be able to make it tighter and pithier in subsequent iterations.
Sent March 9:
Assuming that our species makes it through the imminent evolutionary bottleneck posed by runaway climate change, future generations will look back at this moment in history with utter incredulity. How is it possible that our media and our politics — the very systems responsible for informing us about problems and addressing them in a timely and cognizant way — have abdicated their responsibilities so completely? The politicization of every aspect of our national discourse has expanded to include scientific fact, as if physical laws could somehow be negated by the right combination of sound bites and photo-ops. In 1847, when Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that handwashing drastically reduced mortality rates in hospitals, other doctors disregarded him, refusing to believe they’d carried infections from freshly-dissected cadavers to living patients. And hundreds of people died needlessly. When it comes to climate change, today’s Republican politicians and media figures are the philosophical heirs to Semmelweis’ colleagues; easily offended, mentally inflexible, always ready to sacrifice the lives of others rather than admit error.
Warren Senders
environment: extreme weather media irresponsibility scientific consensus
by Warren
leave a comment
Meta
SiteMeter
Brighter Planet
Year 2, Month 3, Day 11: Never Bet Against The House; The House Always Wins
The Bangkok Post runs a story detailing some of the unambiguous links between global warming and our crazy weather. Newspapers in Asia are overwhelmingly more likely to just print the actual facts without a lot of he-said/she-said false equivalence to muddy up the argument.
*
Climate change is not only making the planet warmer, it is also making snowstorms stronger and more frequent, US scientists said on Tuesday.
“Heavy snowstorms are not inconsistent with a warming planet,” said scientist Jeff Masters, as part of a conference call with reporters and colleagues convened by the Union of Concern Scientists.
“In fact, as the Earth gets warmer and more moisture gets absorbed into the atmosphere, we are steadily loading the dice in favor of more extreme storms in all seasons, capable of causing greater impacts on society.”
Steadily loading the dice. Yup. And we are a species of inveterate and thoughtless gamblers. Hoo boy.
Sent March 3:
The scientific evidence linking global warming to the world’s increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather is accumulating almost as fast as the record-breaking snowfalls that brought large parts of the United States to a standstill over the past six weeks. But it is increasingly clear that there are some whom mountains of incontrovertible evidence cannot convince. With the world’s richest and most powerful corporations in positions of influence in print and broadcast media, a huge array of persuasive technologies is used to undermine the scientific truth of global climate change. It is both a tragedy and a crime, for the sooner the citizens and leaders of all nations are able to take meaningful steps both to slow global warming and to mitigate its effects, the more likely we (all six billion of us) are to survive. In their thirst for short-term profits, these corporate giants may ultimately doom themselves as well.
Warren Senders