Year 2, Month 5, Day 26: Breaking — CO2 Linked To Ignorance!

The Spokane (WA) Register-Guard notes the recently issued NRC report with some stern words, in an op-ed titled, “Heed Warning on Climate.”:

The effort to combat global warming has waned in this country, as many Republicans express skepticism about the science of climate change. The federal debt and other issues have preoccupied lawmakers and the American public. A new report by the National Research Council makes a powerful argument that putting off the problem any longer would be folly.

The council, which represents the nation’s scientific establishment, warns that global warming is real and that action should be taken “as soon as possible” to reduce carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

Contrary to the claims of climate skeptics, the report emphasizes that warming trends cannot be explained by natural factors such as changes in incoming energy from the sun or natural climate variability. The report says the effects of climate change on human and natural systems will intensify as warming continues.

Sent May 15:

As the NRC report makes amply clear, the crisis of climate change is no longer something that belongs in a conjectural future, but a clear and immediate danger to our civilization and our way of life. Whether the study’s message will be received is another question, however, for the slow-motion catastrophe of global atmospheric warming has been paralleled by a disaster of a different sort: the gradual exclusion of science, and indeed factual evidence of any sort, from our national discourse. For a first example, let’s look at the contemporary Republican party, populated entirely by anti-science zealots; any member of the GOP who’s ready to admit the factuality of climate change will soon run afoul of the tea-party’s determining influence on primary elections. For a second example, let’s look at our national news media. When he-said, she-said stenography becomes synonymous with objectivity, then reportorial accuracy and analytical insight are irrelevant.

Warren Senders