environment Politics: Al Gore denialists false equivalency media irresponsibility
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 22: He Told You So
The Whittier Daily News reports approvingly on Al Gore’s 24-hour climate reality marathon:
NO one packs more information into a slide show than Al Gore, who won an Oscar for his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2006.
Gore, the leading voice on global climate change, was back at it last week with his 24-hour streaming video show “Climate Reality Project” (www.climaterealityproject.org) broadcast from 24 different locations in 13 languages Sept. 14 to Sept. 15.
While one right-wing blogger called it “death by PowerPoint,” I found it informative and worth a watch. If you missed it, you can catch re-runs on his website and on his Current TV channel. Not one fact will move you to act, but perhaps the avalanche of facts, quotes and paraphrases from just the “24th hour” presentation given by Gore himself from New York, will.
The link has an excellent set of bullet points that you would do well to copy and use over and over.
Sent September 18:
The corporate forces aligned to muffle Al Gore’s message are enormous. Through the misleading practice of false equivalency, in which two opposing sides are equated under the guise of journalism, many in our news and opinion media have abdicated their responsibility to the truth.
When the American public sees a one-to-one ratio of worried climate scientists and petro-funded denialists, it’s no wonder that there’s still “debate” on the veracity of climate change. But the correct proportion isn’t one-to-one; it’s more like ninety-seven to one. If ninety-seven heart specialists told you to quit smoking, and three said they wanted more tests…what would you do?
While some candidates explicitly reject science (or pretend to in order to curry the favor of primary voters), climate change’s terrifying consequences should remove this issue from the political arena. The vast majority of climatologists are telling us something important. Will we wake up and pay attention?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Arctic ice melt denialists idiots Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 16: There Is No Gravity — The Earth Sucks
The September 10 Christian Science Monitor notes the unsurprising but extremely scary decline in the Arctic ice cap:
While tropical cyclones, as well as record droughts, floods, and wildfires have kept several of the lower 48 states occupied this year, the Arctic appears to be elbowing its way on to 2011’s list of extremes.
On Thursday, the extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean fell to its lowest level for any Sept. 8 since satellites first began to monitor conditions there in 1979, according to researchers at the University of Bremen’s Institute of Environmental Physics.
Coming so close to the end of the melt season, the observation holds out the prospect that 2011 could replace 2007 as the toughest year for sea-ice survival at the top of the world.
I used it as a hook on which to hang a bashing of Republican idiocy. Sent September 12:
As Arctic ice dwindles ever more rapidly, the prospect of a climate-change denialist occupying the White House is unsettling at best and terrifying at worst. One wonders: what would convince Republicans that global warming is real, human-caused, and dangerous?
Apparently nothing will do the trick — not even unequivocal statements from Army intelligence or the CIA that climate change will be an exceptional security threat in the coming decades. Apparently, any expert opinions running counter to GOP shibboleths are immediately and contemptuously dismissed, no matter how authoritative their sources.
The ice cap’s precipitous decline is a grim omen for our planet’s future — and pretending it’s not happening is fatal foolishness. If our democracy is to successfully address the most severe threat our species has ever faced, Republicans must come to their senses and recognize the grim and frightening reality that climatologists in the Arctic measure, each and every day.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Al Gore denialists idiots scientific consensus
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 15: I’m Talking About YOU, Rush.
The September 11 issue of The Tennesseean runs a plug for Al Gore’s Climate Reality project:
Former Vice President Al Gore of Nashville leads a worldwide, live-streamed, climate change-focused event called “24 Hours of Reality” that begins Wednesday at 7 p.m., Central time, and ends with the last hour presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Eastern time. The first will be from Mexico City and in Spanish, followed by hour-long presentations — one after another — in different areas of the globe, moving west. Several are in English, as will be the final one in New York City. Broadcast by Ustream, it can be viewed at climaterealityproject.org.
It’s good to write something in support, rather than in opposition. Sent Sept. 11:
Al Gore’s clarity of purpose is one of America’s most important assets. The former VP’s upcoming “Climate Reality” campaign deserves our respect and attention. Unfortunately, the denialist contingent has chosen to reject sound scientific conclusions for a variety of specious reasons, most of which boil down to, “because we don’t want to believe it.”
Well, the evidence has been in for a long time. Despite a series of contrived and debunked non-scandals, the scientific consensus on global climate change is overwhelming: humans cause it, it’s happening right now, it will affect our lives very significantly, and we — all of us — need to take action rapidly if we are to avoid catastrophe. Mr. Gore’s prescience is all the more important for this reason — he’s been warning us about this for well over a decade, despite the mockery of the uninformed, the professionally ignorant, and the selfishly greedy.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: EPA Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 13: The Hunting Of The Snark
The Wednesday 7 San Francisco Chronicle discusses the Republican antipathy for environmental regulations:
The Republican prescription for job growth, shared by tonight’s presidential debaters and Republicans in Congress, is to dismantle regulations proposed by the Obama administration, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming these are a key culprit in widespread unemployment.
The antiregulation campaign joins deficit reduction as the foundation of the Republican economic program.
The campaign is heavily backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and small business groups that contend regulations are destroying jobs. It follows more than a year of intense verbal attacks launched by Republicans in the House against everything from the Endangered Species Act to new rules on light bulbs.
I enjoyed writing this letter. Sent Sept. 9 (2nd one today, putting me currently 4 days ahead of the game):
Our Republican friends have it exactly right: those pesky EPA regulations are definitely a drag on the economy. It’s just mindboggling to think of all they jobs they kill.
Preventing irresponsible corporations from releasing carcinogens into the environment in the first place is certain to trigger massive private sector unemployment. For example, pulmonary care doctors and respiratory specialists will have fewer opportunities if air pollution is more heavily regulated — and waste abatement experts would be out of work if there were sufficiently robust penalties for illegally dumping toxic chemicals. And think of how many jobs will be lost in the insurance industry alone!
It seems clear enough to me. If those regulations are lifted, America’s employment crisis will end almost immediately. After all, there’s nothing that spells “jobs” like cancer, asthma, and ecological devastation.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama EPA Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 12: Who?
The President gave his September 8 speech on jobs, and it was a good one. There were even some en passant words about environmental regulation, as Daily Kos diarist roubs makes clear in this piece.
The Boston Globe ran an article on the speech, and I used that as the hook for a LTE as suggested in the DK piece (which it turns out was partially inspired by a diary I wrote a little while back). Cool.
Sent September 9:
President Obama’s jobs speech to Congress was noteworthy in many respects. Particularly noteworthy was his statement that America “shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards.” Implicit in this sentence is the notion that short-term economic gains must not come at the expense of the environment; trading jobs for environmental degradation is unacceptable.
Well said, Mr. President! Respect for the planetary ecosystems that support us all is essential to a sustainable Ameican future — a vision that is impossible if polluters are given free rein.
Last week’s suspension of new EPA regulations on air pollution, and the possibility of administration approval for the environmentally devastating Keystone XL project, are indicators of an unfortunate disconnect within the administration when it comes to environmental issues. President Obama should heed his own words, and block the tar sands pipeline.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists idiots Republicans scientific method
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 10: How’s That Pray-For-Rain Thing Working Out?
Anne MacQuarie has an excellent op-ed in the September 7 issue of the Carson City-based Nevada Appeal. It’s great:
…it’s been interesting to watch the Republican presidential candidates refine — if I can use that word for so blundering a process — their views on climate change.
Current wisdom — backed by some polls — is that the Republican base thinks human-caused climate change is a bunch of hooey and that we can’t do anything about it anyway. Candidates are falling all over themselves to, instead of lead, agree. Here’s a rundown of some of the candidates’ views, including current frontrunners Perry and Bachman.
Rick Perry believes “the issue of global warming has been politicized” and “scientists have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling in to their projects.”
Regarding doing anything at all to alleviate or halt climate change, Perry says he doesn’t want America “to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question.”
It’s a fine thing to be able to slap Rick Perry around a bit. He must never be allowed anywhere near national governance. Think Bush was a disaster? Perry will make us nostalgic for Dubya. Sent Sept. 7:
When Republican politicians discuss climate change, the projection is thick on the ground. Rick Perry’s assertion that scientists have manipulated data for financial gain offers a window into the mindset of people who’ve specialized in greed-driven data-manipulation for years. These are the same folks who cherry-picked intelligence to sell the American public an unnecessary (albeit profitable) war, remember? That they ascribe the same motives to others should be no surprise.
Scientific method is the best tool we have yet found for arriving at verifiable truth in reporting and analysis. While there are unethical scientists who are driven by pecuniary motives, they are a decided minority; most researchers are propelled by intellectual curiosity — a state of mind completely foreign to the GOP mindset.
Let’s agree, however, that there are some climate scientists who are decidedly guilty of data manipulation for personal gain. They’re on big oil’s payroll.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: corporate irresponsibility fossil fuel idiots Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 9: The Rent Is High But It’s Not So Bad If You Don’t Pay It
The Sept. 5 Daytona News-Journal has a piece of predictable, mealy-mouthed, pipeline advocacy:
According to the Houston Chronicle, the pipeline builders have agreed to 57 provisions beyond federal environmental law that will enhance environmental protections. The Chronicle reports the extra provisions include dropping the pipeline to greater depth at river crossings and in the Ogallala Aquifer region.
Piping the oil is safer than deep-water drilling, as the spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 proves. Drilling on land and in shallow water allows for quicker resolution of spills and pipeline problems.
In Alaska, the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System has had minimal problems, transferring 16 billion barrels of oil since 1977.
Canada is already our No. 1 source of foreign oil, and our northern neighbor is booming with new finds of oil. If the U.S. turns away the 700,000 barrels a day from the tar sands, the oil is likely to be sold to China — and that won’t help the price of gasoline here.
It sounds really plausible for a moment or so. Then you remember they’re speaking on behalf of some of the world’s most notorious liars and criminals. Sent September 5:
Careful scrutiny of the claims made by advocates of the Keystone XL pipeline is revealing. For example, saying that “the project would decrease American reliance on Middle-Eastern oil” doesn’t make it so — according to a recent study from Oil Change International, the tar sands oil is destined almost entirely for overseas markets. Without stringent enforcement mechanisms, the pipeline builders’ “57 provisions beyond federal environmental law that will enhance environmental protections” is a meaningless cosmetic gesture. The oil industry’s history is chock-full of legal malfeasance, bad intentions and simple incompetence — why would any sane person trust their bland assertions that the pipeline will be completely safe? And then there is the statement, offered without qualification, that “America needs the oil.” Yeah, we need that oil — and an addictive smoker needs that cigarette. But what America (and the rest of the world) really needs is to kick the habit entirely.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: James Hansen Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 7: The Odds Are Better In Russian Roulette
Rebecca Buckham and Samuel Smith write in the September 1 Pennsylvania Patriot-News about their experience and motivation for committing civil disobedience at the White House over the tar sands issue:
We were arrested just before noon on Aug. 26 in Washington, D.C. What did we — two normal, law-abiding citizens — do to merit being handcuffed, searched and trundled into police wagons in front of hundreds of people at Lafayette Square?
We joined 57 other normal, law-abiding citizens in a nonviolent act of civil disobedience protesting the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline designed to bring toxic tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries in Texas. In the week before we were arrested, 322 other citizens were arrested for participating in this tar sands action.
Approving this pipeline will reflect a decision to commit our nation to deadly fossil fuels well into our future.The nation’s foremost expert in climate science, former NASA chief James Hansen, has said that going forward with toxic tar sands oil means “game over” for our planet. If we commit ourselves to toxic tar sands oil, we put ourselves on a trajectory to turn Earth into a Venus within a few centuries.
I’ve been using that quote for a while now…and I started thinking about it a little differently. Sent September 3:
James Hansen is an exceptional public figure — a scientist of recognized integrity and towering intellectual achievement, and an unimpeachable sense of ethics and responsibility. But his recent statement that burning the oil of the Canadian tar sands would be “game over” for Earth’s climate is profoundly wrong.
Why?
Because a game can be replayed if the outcome is unsatisfactory, while a shattered climatic equilibrium will require recovery times on the order of tens of thousands of years. Dr. Hansen’s words are perhaps an attempt to convey a terrifying truth in language that’s easier for our politicians and media figures to grasp — and for that he is to be commended; America’s ADD-formed political culture is ill-equipped to deal with long-term threats. But if Earth’s future is a “game,” then our lives and those of countless generations to come are at stake — and our opponents are cheating.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: aquifers corporate irresponsibility Nebraska pollution Tar Sands
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 4: My Hen Has A Tooth.
Nebraska’s Governor is a Republican, Dave Heineman. He appears to have a modicum of sense, according to the August 31 Lincoln Journal-Star:
Gov. Dave Heineman is calling on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to deny a permit to TransCanada to build a 36-inch petroleum pipeline through the Nebraska Sandhills.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, Heineman cited concerns about potential oil spills and contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer as grounds for denial.
“I want to emphasize that I am not opposed to pipelines,” the governor said. “We already have hundreds of them in our state. I am opposed to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route because it is directly over the Ogallala Aquifer.”
Perhaps this will give President Obama the necessary “bipartisan” cover to do the right thing. We can hope. Sent August 31:
Governor Heineman is right on target. The Keystone XL pipeline has no business in Nebraska. While the Governor specifically cited issues of aquifer contamination and the potential for oil spills in his letter to President Obama, there are so many other arguments against the tar sands oil project it’s mind-boggling: the destruction of vast areas of Canadian forest along with its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide; the devastating environmental impact of the extraction processes; the long-term consequences for Earth’s climate (Dr. James Hansen has stated flatly that the pipeline’s impact would be irreversible and catastrophic); America’s urgent need to end its addiction to fossil fuels; the oil industry’s long history of malfeasance, incompetence and venality (why trust a proven liar?) — the list goes on and on. On the other hand, there’s exactly one argument for the pipeline: money. It’s going to make a few extremely wealthy people even richer.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: denialists idiots Republicans
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Year 2, Month 9, Day 3: If wishes were horses, there would be lots of wish-poop on the street.
The August 30 Kansas City Star reprints a column from the LA Times by Eugene Linden, called “Betting The Farm Against Climate Change.” Good stuff:
Leon Trotsky is reputed to have quipped, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” Substitute the words “climate change” for “war” and the quote is perfectly suited for the governors of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, all of whom have ridiculed or dismissed the threat of climate change even as their states suffer record-breaking heat and drought.
In his book, “Fed Up!” Texas governor and presidential aspirant Rick Perry derided global warming as a “phony mess,” a sentiment he has expanded on in recent campaign appearances. Susana Martinez, the governor of New Mexico, has gone on record as doubting that humans influence climate, and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma dismissed research on climate change as a waste of time. Her solution to the extraordinary drought: pray for rain (an approach also endorsed by Perry).
Heh heh heh. Sent August 30:
The exigencies of Republican electoral politics have been biased toward the surreal for decades, but the current season is by far the most bizarre. Even at their most anti-intellectual moments, GOP aspirants have always offered some form of glib lip-service to American scientific achievement and technological progress. No more; the new standard is a vehement rejection of anything that requires logic, analysis or the interpretation of facts. The irrelevance of actual data to conservative philosophies of governance is unsettling; traditionally, politics is called “the art of the possible” — surely a reality-based way of putting it.
While these politicians don’t believe humans are influencing the earth’s climate, they’re absolutely certain that the inconvenient reality of catastrophic global warming will vanish if we deny it strongly enough. If refusing to accept facts actually makes them go away, perhaps we should all deny the existence of Republican politicians.
Yeah. That oughta work.
Warren Senders