environment Personal Politics: morale boost washington post
by Warren
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Heh.
The Washington Post prints my letter. Apparently my clever disguise worked!
If anyone in the DC area sees it in the paper, please let me know. I’d love to get a clipping.
environment Politics: United Nations
by Warren
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Month 11, Day 25: Curiouser and Curiouser
The Independent (UK) runs an article on the newly issued UN climate report. The comments are a huge pile of stupid.
When it comes to global climate change and the possibility of a genuinely robust treaty on carbon emissions, it is depressing to realize how hard we have to work to achieve — nothing. After months of international name-calling and internecine disputes, the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases seem locked in a Red Queen’s race in which any agreement will fall short of what is really needed. It’s easy to understand why; governments are set up to dampen the impulses of rapid change, since a society undergoing constant radical transformations would be difficult to live in. But climate change is different; what we hear from scientists is equivalent to a cardiologist’s unequivocal statement to a heart patient: change your habits immediately, or die. And from our climate negotiators? Denial and bargaining. Just as you can’t make a deal with coronary artery disease, there is no bargaining with the greenhouse effect.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama climate zombies
by Warren
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Month 11, Day 24: Climate Zombie Apocalypse Warning
Struggled to find an article to use as a hook for tomorrow’s letter. Finally gave up and wrote POTUS.
Dear President Obama,
As the 111th Congress enters its lame-duck phase, Republican legislators are already telling their supporters to expect hearings and inquiries. I imagine they’d probably subpoena your dog, Bo, if they could find a pretext.
It is folly to imagine that compromise is possible with this group of nihilists. While I applaud your bipartisan instincts, they are useless against the incoming GOP caucus.
There is no area in which a willingness to compromise is more dangerous than that of climate change. With “climate zombies” like Joe Barton, John Shimkus and Darryl Issa all eagerly anticipating opportunities to subject climate scientists to hostile questioning and intimidation, we can look forward to a profoundly depressing couple of years — years in which one climatic “tipping point” after another will come and go, leaving us as a nation and a species with fewer options for our survival.
There can be no “middle way” between species extinction and survival. The actions of the United States in the upcoming Cancun conference are of critical importance — and yet we hear over and over again that we shouldn’t expect too much.
My daughter will be six this coming January. She expects to live happily in a world filled with life and beauty. Is that too much?
These destructive, thoughtless, anti-science, anti-reality forces have declared war on you, and on all of us — please fight them with all the strength and resources you have. We are depending on you, and we’re getting pretty worried.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes climate zombie idiots
by Warren
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Month 11, Day 21: Republicans Cause More Pollution Than Trees AND Automobiles
The Washington Post runs a column by former Republican congressman Sherwood Boehlert, decrying the outbreak of climate zombie-ism among the incoming GOP Congress.
Once these people are out of office, they show refreshing signs of independent thought and scientific awareness. Apparently, among Republicans, power stupidifies, and absolute power stupidifies absolutely. Or something.
Because the WaPo rules out letters that have been published online, I am going to make random changes to particular letters (replacing “s” with a dollar sign, for example). That may prevent them from finding this, should they deem it worthy of publication. After a few days have gone by, I’ll replace the text with the original, unaltered version.
$herw00d B0ehlert finds inc0mprehen$ible the 0b$tin@te @dherence t0 @ $cience-blind ide0l0gy 0n the p@rt 0f hi$ fell0w Republic@n$. Hi$ @ttempt to buck the prev@iling $entiment in the G0P i$ c0mmend@ble, f0r the f@ct$ 0f clim@te ch@nge @re inc0ntr0vertible @nd the thre@t it pre$ent$ i$ terrifyingly re@l. B0ehlert cite$ R0n@ld Re@g@n @$ @ Republic@n pre$ident wh0 “embr@ced $cientific under$t@nding of the envir0nment and p0llution.” Well, um, n0. Th@t w0uld be the $ame R0nald Reagan wh0 f@m0u$ly 0pined that “tree$ cau$e m0re p0lluti0n than @ut0m0bile$ d0,” and wh0 in$talled J@me$ W@tt and Anne G0r$uch, 0ne @ biblic@l r@pturi$t wh0 $aw n0 need t0 pre$erve the envir0nment ($ince the End 0f Time$ w@$ imminent), the 0ther @n EPA chief wh0$e @ttempt$ t0 gut the Cle@n Air Act t00k C0ngre$$ ye@r$ to und0. Wh@t I find inc0mprehen$ible is Boehlert’$ @ttempt t0 $@nitize the Republic@n p@rty’$ multi-dec@de hi$t0ry 0f denying ide0l0gic@lly inc0nvenient f@ct$.
W@rren$ender$
environment Politics: denialism false equivalence media irresponsibility
by Warren
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Month 11, Day 17: Just Don’t Tell Them!
The Washington Post runs an article by Meg Bostrom, noting that Republicans who secretly know climate change is happening may be able to vote for good policies as long as the word “climate” isn’t attached. She also notes the new scientific SWAT team’s formation. This letter addresses both points.
It is tragic that environmentally attentive Republicans are no longer politically allowed to acknowledge the facts of global heating, and can support good climate policies only if they’re disguised as something else. The fact that decreasing numbers of Americans accept the scientific reality of global warming and the catastrophic changes it will bring is a testimony to the power of our media, which for years have promoted several false and misleading narratives: climate change isn’t happening; even if it is happening, humans aren’t responsible; humans might be to blame, but it won’t be that bad; even if it’s going to be bad, it’ll cost too much to do anything about it; the science isn’t “settled”; Al Gore is fat. It’s encouraging to see that climatologists are girding their loins to enter the media circus in order to combat the misrepresentations and misunderstandings. I wish them luck. They’ll need it.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Arnold Schwarzenegger idiots Proposition 23
by Warren
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Month 11, Day 16: Die Voise Uff Sveet Reason
I find it somehow depressing that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the only person available to fill the role of the Reasonable Republican.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is alone among contemporary Republican politicians in accepting both the scientific reality of global climate change and the economic necessity of doing something about it. For environmentalists, the electoral failure of the anti-climate Proposition 23 in California is one of the few signs of hope in an otherwise desolate and depressing vista of climate denialism. The current crop of GOP legislators includes a record number of so-called “climate zombies,” whose minds are made up and impervious to facts. And who can blame them for resisting? The facts of climate change are very scary. It’s far easier to pretend that “the science isn’t settled” (although it is) and that addressing the problem “costs too much” (it will be a fraction of the costs of inaction). Our political leaders need to understand that our approach to climate change cannot hinge on electoral exigencies if we are to survive as a species.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: glacial melt scientific literacy
by Warren
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Month 11, Day 15: Do You Believe In Magic?
The New York Times profiles the scientists who are measuring water temperatures and ice melt in the glaciers.
Shit:
While the United States is among the countries at greatest risk, neither it nor any other wealthy country has made tracking and understanding the changes in the ice a strategic national priority.
The consequence is that researchers lack elementary information. They have been unable even to measure the water temperature near some of the most important ice on the planet, much less to figure out if that water is warming over time. Vital satellites have not been replaced in a timely way, so that American scientists are losing some of their capability to watch the ice from space.
The missing information makes it impossible for scientists to be sure how serious the situation is.
“As a scientist, you have to stick to what you know and what the evidence suggests,” said Gordon Hamilton, one of the researchers in the helicopter. “But the things I’ve seen in Greenland in the last five years are alarming. We see these ice sheets changing literally overnight.”
As a scientifically aware layperson, I wish to point out that when these people use words like “alarming” it means something very different from the day-to-day interpretation we put on the word. “Alarming” is what an exobiologist would say if Chthulu appeared over a city in all His blood-curdling glory.
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, kids. It’s been fun.
Perhaps the greatest failing of our national discussion is our systemic reliance on magical thinking; American politicians honestly seem to believe that if we don’t acknowledge something, it doesn’t exist. Thus the inevitable default choice: do nothing and hope for the best. Later, we hear, “Nobody anticipated…” Nobody, we’re told, anticipated the breach of New Orleans’ levees; the hijacked airplanes and collapsing towers; the missing Iraqi WMDs. Those who did were ignored, because believing in magic is easier than dealing with facts. Now we learn that our capacity to measure ice depletion in the Poles has been degraded by funding cuts, making it impossible for anyone to anticipate the effects of glacial melt until it’s too late to respond effectively. In the coming years, the catastrophes of climate change may finally teach us that facts are ignored at our peril. Alas for our species, Earth is unmoved by our magic.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes Chris Christie idiots scientific consensus
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Month 11, Day 12: Idiocracy, Here We Come
The Newark Star-Ledger runs an AP article about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s “skepticism” about climate change:
Asked by a man attending the event whether he thought mankind was responsible for global warming, Christie says he’s seen evidence on both sides of the argument but thinks it hasn’t been proven one way or another.
Christie says “more science” is needed to convince him.
Moron.
I figured I’d offer him a list of resources.
So Governor Christie needs “more science” before he’s convinced that human beings are causing global warming? Okay. Perhaps Mr. Christie didn’t know that the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Physics, the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Meteorological Society, the International Union for Quaternary Research, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and hundreds of other scientific societies and associations have issued position papers asserting that the evidence for anthropogenic global warming is indisputable. But wait! But wait! Perhaps the evidence the governor really wants is in the dissenting 2007 statement from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the only scientific body in the world to dispute human causes of global climate change, and, unsurprisingly, an organization heavily subsidized by the oil industry. Mr. Christie is no “skeptic.” Rather, he is a so-called “climate zombie” — a politician for whom denial of scientific fact is an article of faith.
Warren Senders
Month 11, Day 11: Just Ask The Navajo!
The Wall Street Journal notes that UN Climate Chief Figueres expects America to, you know, follow through on our stated obligation to reduce our GHG emissions significantly by 2020. While the seventeen percent figure is still too small, it’s the best we could hope for given the disastrous condition of our current politics.
Given the somewhat spotty record of the United States when it comes to actually living up to the responsibilities it has assumed, the comments of the United Nations Climate Chief are entirely apposite. Merely announcing plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions isn’t going to do the job; we need to make significant economic and infrastructural changes in the way we live and do business if our country is to prosper in the coming decades and centuries. While it’s tempting for our politicians and business leaders to grandstand for the sake of electoral expediency, our struggle to mitigate the effects of climate change cannot be carried out in the rhetorical and political arenas. Mother Nature cannot be swayed by negative ads or elaborate misinformation campaigns. Christiana Figueres isn’t alone in wanting more details on how we’ll cut our emissions by seventeen percent; a lot of us want to know.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes good guys idiots media irresponsibility
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Month 11, Day 8: High Noon!
The Cleveland Plain Dealer runs an McClatchy article about climate scientists preparing to enter the media circus.
“This group feels strongly that science and politics can’t be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists,” said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.
“We are taking the fight to them because we are . . . tired of taking the hits. The notion that truth will prevail is not working. The truth has been out there for the past two decades, and nothing has changed.”
Poor bastards. I’m going to send them all some letters of support; they’ll need all the help they can get.
It is terrific news that climatologists are preparing to challenge climate-change denialists. With the GOP takeover of the House, we can look forward to a long two years of anti-science theatrics, like Representative Darryl Issa’s promised hearings on the “climategate” non-scandal. Climate denialism is a linchpin of Republican ideology; these politicians insist (despite mountains of evidence and an overwhelming scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic global warming) that the problem either: A – doesn’t exist, B – exists but isn’t caused by humans, C – was fabricated by Al Gore and an international conspiracy of climate experts, or D – is too expensive to address. Each of these positions has been debunked many times over, but the minds of GOP politicians are, alas, closed to persuasion. I hope that the members of the proposed “climate rapid response team” are ready for the most exasperating and baffling arguments they’ll ever experience.
Warren Senders