environment: climate science corporate irresponsibility denialists scientific consensus
by Warren
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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 Barack Obama denialists idiots nuclear power timidity
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 11: Tearing My Hair.
The April 2 issue of the Boston Globe has a column by Derrick Jackson noting the seeming inability of our president to actually, you know, do or say something that might have an effect on the climate change front:
PRESIDENT OBAMA seems increasingly drained of the juice needed to power up a modern vision on energy. Completely absent from his address this week at Georgetown University was his promise as a candidate to go after windfall profits of oil companies and reinvest the money into wind, solar, and biofuels. Instead, he promised to expedite new shallow and deepwater oil drilling permits, even as top environmentalists say many questions remain after the BP spill disaster.
More than ever, he is wedded to pursuing “clean coal’’ and nuclear power. Meanwhile, radiation from the Japan nuclear disaster was measured thousands of times above safety levels in seawater and groundwater near the plant and in soil 25 miles away, at levels double those found in areas declared inhabitable around Chernobyl.
Most important, there continues to be no direct message to the American people that we are living in an unsustainable fantasy, consuming a quarter of the world’s energy. There was no hint of things that would instantly make Americans rethink consumption, such as a gas tax. For the moment, the road-blocking Republicans are winning the day with an ethos symbolized by Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a potential presidential candidate. Last week Barbour told Iowa Republicans, “We need more oil. We need more gas. We need more coal. We need more nuclear. We need more American energy.”
Jackson is one of the best columnists writing today; I’m very glad he’s at the Globe. This was sent April 2, and has been published:
The timidity of the Obama administration when it comes to the transformation of America’s energy economy is profoundly disturbing. The facts of climate change are firmly established, with only a few petroleum-funded contrarians on the fringes of a global scientific consensus. The economics of renewable energy look more attractive every day, as are the geopolitical ramifications of getting more of our national energy requirements from within our own borders. The long-term costs of fossil fuels are harder and harder to hide, as we confront the health effects and environmental impacts of our profligate burning of oil and coal. Why, then, is the President so leery of taking a strong stand? The pusillanimity of the present administration only makes sense when viewed diagnostically: the extent to which our politics is paralyzed on this issue is a measure of the disproportionate influence of big oil and big coal in our nation’s governance.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 10: Ignorance Is Very Expensive
The just-released Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study confirms what we all know:
Preliminary results from a controversial study of global temperature data confirm the overall warming trend long reported by government scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom, the study’s director told a House panel today.
The warming trend detected by scientists involved in the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study — a rise of 0.7 degree Celsius since 1957 — “is very similar” to the findings of independent analyses by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.K. Hadley Centre, study Chairman Richard Muller said.
“The world temperature data has sufficient integrity to be used to determine temperature trends,” said Muller, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Published by the New York Times. One hopes they’ll get on board and stop equivocating about climate change.
This letter took a long time to write for a “Republicans are idiots” motif. The idea’s shape was tricky, and I’m still not 100% satisfied. Nevertheless, this went to the NYT on April 1:
While the Berkeley study is another piece of evidence added to an overwhelming consensus on climate change, it’s probably too much to ask Congress’ denialists to pay attention. These same politicians have a long history of ignoring evidence first, and saying “who could have known?” later. Who could have known the levees would break, that there weren’t any WMDs, that management was cutting corners on the Deepwater Horizon? The increasing flow of scientific reports confirming the serious reality of global climate change should make it a little harder for Republican legislators to plead ignorance of the climate threat; perhaps in future decades their apologists will try and excuse their malfeasance by asking, who could have known it was a bad idea to so politicize scientific evidence that expert witnesses became props in a cynical theater of ignorance, and policy was crafted in utter disregard of facts? Who could have known?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots Republican obstructionism scientific consensus
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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: corporate irresponsibility Deepwater Horizon nuclear power
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 8: Trust Us.
USA Today notes that the public doesn’t feel very confident about nuclear reactors anymore. I thought it was worth making the point that it’s not just about Japan’s agony, but that all the energy corporations appear to be equally avaricious and incompetent.
Sent March 30:
As the natural and human-made disasters in Japan achieve a terrifying synergy, public support for nuclear power has understandably dropped off significantly. And for good reason. With countless examples demonstrating that the profit motive invariably trumps safety concerns, people see no reason to trust any of the world’s energy companies. BP’s mishandling of the Deepwater Horizon blowout led to the fouling of huge areas of ocean; in Fukushima, TEPCO’s sloppiness has likely led to a nuclear disaster of Chernobyllian proportions. While it is premature to forecast the end of nuclear power generation (when the alternative is burning coal, the specter of catastrophic climate change looms very large indeed), we need to recognize a hard truth: whether it’s oil, coal or uranium, the era of “cheap” energy is over. Conservation, once derided by Dick Cheney as merely a sign of personal virtue, must be the foundation of our national energy policy.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: denialism scientific consensus scientific literacy
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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: denialism extreme weather snowfall
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 6: The World Of Tomorrow
The Sierra Sun, out of Lake Tahoe (CA), runs an article by Adam Jensen, noting that scientists point out that global warming is going to make it snow more, not less. And, naturally, the comments section is full of denialist blather.
Sent March 28:
The scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming has been overwhelming for quite some time, despite what the professionally ignorant pundits in our news media would have us believe. Arctic ice melt due to the greenhouse effect was predicted in 1953 (in the pages of Popular Mechanics magazine). In the 1960s, “2010” meant a distant future full of technological wonders (I’m still waiting for my personal jetpack!), and a 1962 oil company ad bragged that they supplied “…enough energy to melt seven million tons of glacier.” Since then, science advisers to eight successive presidents predicted that increasing CO2 emissions would lead to climate trouble in the future — only to have political advisers, considering the short-term repercussions of wise long-term policies, decide to ignore the problem instead. We’ve squandered sixty years’ worth of advance notice and wound up with a climate change problem that’s probably already out of control. Buckle your seat belts, folks. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.
Warren Senders
environment: consumption Earth Hour waste
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 5: Never Mind, I’ll Just Sit Here In The Dark
The Pampanga Sun-Star (Philippines) notes that important local figures participated in the worldwide observance of “Earth Hour,” turning off lights and appliances in order to foster environmental awareness and better conservation practices:
ANGELES CITY – Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan has called on for a continuous campaign to protect the environment and reverse global warming.
Pamintuan said during the observance of Earth Hour at the SM City Clark Saturday night that people should always be conscious about the environment.
“Sana ay ipagpatuloy natin itong mga ganitong programa para mapangalagaan natin ang kalikasan,” Pamintuan said.
Thousands of cities, towns, and landmarks around the world switched off lights in observance of the Earth Hour.
“When we turn off our lights, let us use it is as an opportunity to reflect about what we can do to contribute in fighting climate change,” Pamintuan said.
Observance of Earth Hour is commendable. But it’s just the merest tip of a (rapidly melting?) iceberg.
Sent March 27:
While a worldwide Earth Hour is an important initiative, the fight against climate change is going to require more from all of us than turning off electrical appliances for a tiny fraction of a year. We need stringent conservation measures to eliminate inefficiency in power distribution systems, and to develop new frugality in our habits of energy usage. Nowhere, of course, is this more necessary than in the United States of America. While the USA is not solely to blame for the planetary climate crisis, its per capita contribution to the slow-motion disaster of global warming is the most significant in the industrialized world. America has for decades made profligacy a point of patriotic pride — a national delusion which has done extraordinary damage to the world’s environment. Reversing this attitude and the habits it has bred will do more to combat climate change than a worldwide hour without electricity.
Warren Senders
environment: denialism deserts National parks
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 4: A Horse With No Name?
The Riverside, CA Press-Examiner notes an upcoming conference on the effects of climate change on desert flora and fauna, which are really going to get it in the shorts as things start hotting up:
“This year’s conference is going to examine the fate of Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park. It’s going to look at our potentially drier southwestern climate, and we’re also going to look at how migrating birds might be affected by climate change.”
The southwestern United States, including the park and Mojave National Preserve, are expected to be some of the hardest hit areas under climate change models, which predict temperatures could jump as much as 7 degrees over the next century.
Scientists already are seeing evidence of warming, including the migration to higher elevations of the iconic Joshua trees and desert tortoises, said Shteir, whose group is endorsing the Desert Protection Act of 2011.
Sent March 27:
In 2011, most Americans had never seen an automobile, and the thought of a nation of motorists driving everywhere would have been considered a fever dream. To humans, a century seems a very long time. But ours is not the only timescale. From the perspective of our planet’s five billion years, a hundred trips around the sun is just a geological eye-blink. Which is why the news about global climate change is so alarming. Climatic transformations in the Earth’s past have taken place over thousands of years, allowing ecosystems a chance to evolve and adapt to changing temperatures and weather patterns. When this happens gradually over millennia, it’s like using the brakes to bring your car to a controlled stop; the same changes over a century are more like driving full-speed into a concrete wall. It’s time for the climate-change denialists to buckle up; we’re headed for a crash.
Warren Senders
environment: denialists idiots
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Year 2, Month 4, Day 3: Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds
The Centre Daily Times, based in the improbably named State College, PA, runs a column by Amitabh Pal, noting that for several decades the US has been pretty much useless when it comes to meaningful governmental action on climate change. Not that this is a big surprise or anything.
There aren’t a lot of comments but most are of the “you-libs-are-gonna-get-what’s-coming-to-you-algore-is-fat-you’ll-get-my-SUV-when-you-pry-my-cold-dead-hands-off-it” variety.
Sent March 26:
Future generations will look back on this time with incredulity. As they contend with unpredictable weather patterns that render large-scale agriculture increasingly ineffective, our descendants won’t understand why — when we knew for decades what was going to happen to the Earth’s climate — we failed to stop our species’ profligate ways. As rising sea waters force them to relocate further inland, they’ll wonder: since Arctic ice melt as a consequence of the greenhouse effect was predicted in 1953, why did it take us well over half a century…to do nothing? From the next century, this era will seem utterly bizarre; how could the world’s most powerful economic actors decide it was in their best interest to ignore climatic reality and fund massive misinformation campaigns? How could ordinary citizens be so deceived that they ignored the evidence while it accumulated in front of their eyes? Future generations will surely ask these questions — when they’re not cursing us for our lassitude, apathy, and willful ignorance.
Warren Senders