environment: assholes denialists extreme weather idiots
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 25: If They’ll Say “You Told Us So,” We Promise Not To Say “We Told You So.”
USA Today recognizes two new studies that offer even more robust correlation between global warming and extreme weather events.
John Fogerty once crooned “Who’ll stop the rain?” Not humanity, apparently, as new research shows that human-caused climate change has significantly increased the chances of extreme rain- and snowfall around the world, along with the deadly floods that follow.
This is according to two new studies published Wednesday in the British journal Nature.
While other studies have suggested that global warming may be partly responsible for an increase in heavy precipitation, what’s new in this study is the formal finding that human influence has “likely made intense precipitation stronger, on average, over the second half of the 20th century,” says study co-author Francis Zwiers of the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
“The observed change cannot be explained by natural fluctuations of the climate system alone,” he says.
Leaving aside the question of whether John Fogerty was/is capable of crooning, the rest of the article is pretty straightforward.
Read the comments for a hearty helping of stupid.
Sent February 16:
The two newly published studies serve to confirm what many people have been positing for years: the greenhouse effect causes global warming, and global warming is causally linked to extreme weather events. But even a brief glance at online comments on this subject shows that there is essentially no evidence that will serve to convince the climate-change deniers. Some cling to the notion that there was an equally robust scientific consensus in the 1970s predicting global cooling (no, there wasn’t). Some maintain that errors in the 3000-page IPCC report invalidate its conclusions (in which case a typo anywhere in this issue of USA Today would mean the whole newspaper was untrustworthy). Some conflate “climate” with “weather” and insist that global warming isn’t happening — because it’s snowing outside their windows. Some base their arguments on religion, claiming that “God won’t let humans change the planet’s atmosphere” (although He’s apparently got no objection to hydrogen bombs, a Texas-sized garbage patch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, or regional aquifers so contaminated by LNG extraction that tap water is flammable). The evidence is mounting, while the denialists have their fingers in their ears. Good luck to us all. We’ll need it.
Warren Senders
environment: Alaska glaciers National parks
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 24: Baked Alaska
The Anchorage Daily News notes that climate change is going to affect Alaska’s National Parks. So far the comments haven’t accumulated much in the way of stupidity. I wonder how long that’ll last.
Sent February 15:
It is ironic that Alaska owes much of its income stream to the same corporate forces that bankroll climate-change denialism. It’s ironic that Alaska owes much of its income stream to the same corporate forces that bankroll climate-change denialism. Rising global temperatures will devastate Alaska’s National Parks — retreating glaciers, vanishing sea ice, habitat losses and vitiated local ecosystems being just a few examples of what we can expect in the years to come. Once the evidence is too strong to ignore or discount, governments and corporations will have to move to mitigate the damage. Sadly, rapid recovery from environmental destruction on a planetary scale is impossible; scientific assessments of the long-term scope of global warming suggest that we may well be dealing with rising temperatures for centuries to come. With gradual changes of the sort found in the long-term historical record, there has been time for populations and ecosystems to adapt; the transformations effected by the greenhouse effect, however, are the environmental equivalent of driving into a wall at 100 mph. Climate-change denialists, meanwhile, are telling us we don’t even need to fasten our seat belts.
Warren Senders
Personal Politics: protests public action Wisconsin
by Warren
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Two Signs, Four Messages
Pictures of me at yesterday’s rally at the State House in support of the people of Wisconsin in their struggle against crazy governor Scott Walker are courtesy of Strategy And Pizza.
It was great to see hippies and hardhats on the same side of the issue.
Education environment Politics: denialists ignorance scientific consensus
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 23: Teach Your Children Well…
The San Francisco Chronicle describes the work of the Alliance for Climate Education, as they do workshops and assemblies for high-school students. It’s all a part of welcoming them to the reality-based community, you know, which is why the Republicans are so agin it.
The 200 engrossed students at Oakland Unity High School kept their eyes glued to the projector screen and hardly uttered a sound during the 45-minute presentation – the most striking exception coming at the part of the special school assembly that featured cow farts.
It turns out bovine flatulence contributes to greenhouse gases. That was just one of several topics covered in the assembly, which was offered by the Alliance for Climate Education, an Oakland nonprofit that is trying to educate students about climate change one school at a time.
Since fall 2009, Alliance for Climate Education has visited 1,100 high schools in the United States, putting on assemblies for nearly 700,000 teens.
This was sent on Valentine’s Day, with Love to the Alliance For Climate Education!
Despite the frenzied conspiracy theorizing of denialists obsessing over an imaginary Socialist New World Order, climate change is a very real and significant danger — not just to Americans, but to all the world’s people. A secondary danger is that the anti-science veriphobes in the Republican party will succeed in convincing the American public that this threat (one perhaps greater than anything humans have yet faced) isn’t real. In 2004, an anonymous Bush administration official told Ron Suskind that “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” By opposing any meaningful climate policy, the GOP is attempting to create its own reality — based not on verifiable facts, but on superstition, hubris and ignorance. Unfortunately for us all, even the most powerful empire cannot defeat the laws of physics. Which is why the work of the Alliance for Climate Education is so essential.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes denialists EPA idiots James Inhofe Lisa Jackson
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 22: The Terrible Threat of تغير المناخ
The Newberg Graphic (OR) has a guest editorial with a good strong statement in favor of the EPA’s authority, and a good chastisement of the Republicans’ behavior.
I figured it would be a good idea to provide some additional moral support. This letter’s not as coherent as some; I’m just too damn tired. Sent Feb 13:
The intersection of coal and petroleum money with the electoral process has produced a breed of politicians far more cognizant of the short-term requirements of their cash suppliers than of the long-term well-being of their constituents. While West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller is a Democratic case in point, the majority of anti-environmental voices in Congress belong to Republicans. Less than two months into the 112th Congress, these GOP stalwarts have rejected decades of scientific evidence and publicly insulted EPA Chief Lisa Jackson. The coming decades of climate chaos will bring enormous disruptions to our agriculture, infrastructure, public health and political stability; when we face a threat far greater than any terrorist organization, we need thoughtful preparation and mitigation, not the GOP’s kindergarten-level squabbling. It’s too bad climate change wasn’t represented by a scary dictator and the possibility of an expensive war; the Republican caucus would have been beside themselves with enthusiasm.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: assholes EPA idiots Lisa Jackson Republican obstructionism
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 21: Sock It To ’em!
The Las Vegas Sun quite elegantly takes the Republicans in the House to task for scientific illiteracy, bad manners and general douchebaggery. This editorial was a real pleasure to read.
Sent February 12:
The behavior of the Republican members of the House of Representatives is a disgrace to our country and to its institutions of governance. Their reflexive, ideologically-driven hostility to the facts of climate change is both foolish and perilous. While the GOP has routinely positioned itself on the side of industry, its current allegiance to the most extreme corporatist interests has led it to abandon even lip service to scientific expertise. It is quite evident that the Republican legislators who questioned EPA administrator Lisa Jackson not only couldn’t understand the science behind the policies she’s implementing — they brought no understanding to the discussion at all, and her testimony became an occasion for petty theatrics of the most immature sort. These modern-day “know-nothing” politicians would be comical if the threat posed by climate change was not so grave. As it is, their childish petulance poses a danger to us all.
Warren Senders
humor India: commercials vanity
by Warren
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Wow.
Just wow. Wildstone is apparently a brand of male body products in India. Their TV spots are clearly pushing the boundaries.
Note that according to at least one customer, it’s not entirely satisfactory stuff.
Politics: democracy rants Republicans righteous indignation
by Warren
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On the floor of the Wisconsin House of Representatives
Republicans tried to pull some rotten business. I’ll let Representative Gordon Hintz tell you about it:
By all accounts the Tea-Party counter-demonstrators experienced EPIC FAIL today; the “support Walker” demonstrations were outnumbered 35:1.
environment: denialists idiots James Inhofe
by Warren
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Year 2, Month 2, Day 20: I’m Too Young To Marry
The Tulsa Beacon’s publisher is Charles Biggs. He writes a long screed on why global warming is bunk a: because it’s snowing, and b: because scientists aren’t willing to give out certificates of causation. And Al Gore is fat, most likely. He finishes with some unrelated jokes, of which this one was the best:
• There was once a man from the city who was visiting a small farm, and during this visit he saw a farmer feeding pigs in a most extraordinary manner.
The farmer would lift a pig up to a nearby apple tree, and the pig would eat the apples off the tree directly. The farmer would move the pig from one apple to another until the pig was satisfied, then he would start again with another pig.
The city man watched this activity for some time with great astonishment. Finally, he could not resist saying to the farmer, “This is the most inefficient method of feeding pigs that I can imagine. Just think of the time that would be saved if you simply shook the apples off the tree and let the pigs eat them from the ground!”
The farmer looked puzzled and replied, “What’s time to a pig?”
Because Tulsa is part of Oklahoma, I added “James Inhofe” to the tags. Sent February 11:
Dear Mr. Biggs,
May I try?
Let’s start from the beginning. Picture a puddle of water on a hot sunny day. It disappears quickly, doesn’t it? That’s because it evaporated, which means the water turned into water vapor and became part of the air. Air with a lot of water in it is “humid.” Now, what happens when it’s really, really humid? It rains, of course — but only if it’s above freezing. And when it’s below freezing? Well, you know the answer: it would snow. Heavily. You can’t have precipitation without humidity, and you can’t have humidity without evaporation, and you can’t have evaporation without heat.
The term “climate change” is now preferred to “global warming” simply because it is a better description of people’s experience. Ask around; everybody’s talking about the weather (including you!). Big heat waves in Europe, droughts in South America, huge floods and a cyclone in Australia, lots of floods in Pakistan, a massive, paralyzing blizzard in the US. Sure, all of these things have happened before. But never all at once, which is why it might be a good idea to listen to what people who study the climate closely have been predicting about atmospheric CO2 and the greenhouse effect. Since the 1950s, by the way.
Mr. Biggs, you’re wrong about climate change — but I really liked your joke about the pig.
Warren Senders
And a day and a half later, he wrote me back:
Mr. Sanders,
You may be right and I could be wrong. Words have meaning. We just set a record for snowfall AND record low temperatures in Oklahoma. And yet many people (you not included) cling to global warming and that’s what they teach in science classes in high school.
I think you may give mankind too much credit for affecting the weather. A volcanic eruption can affect weather patterns for years and yet we still can’t predict accurately if it will rain Tuesday.
Thanks for your thoughtful remarks.
Charles Biggs
I haven’t responded yet, but I will.
Kudos to anyone who can identify the provenance of the headline.
India Indian music music Personal Warren's music: concerts
by Warren
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Khyal update
The Chinmaya Center concert went well, I thought. I did a 90-minute set:
Maru Bihag: “Unhi se jaaye” in vilambit ektaal; “Kaahe bajaaye daayi ho Shyam” in tintaal; “Sun sun tori batiyaa” in drut ektaal.
Paraj: “Chandani raat ati bhaave sakhi” in tintaal.
Desh: Tarana in tintaal
Surdaas bhajan: “Ankhiyaan Hari darasan ki pyaasi”
Bhairavi thumri: “Jamuna ke teer”
Chris Pereji played tabla, George Ruckert was on harmonium and Vijaya Sundaram on tamboura and supporting vocals.
This was the longest span of time I’ve sung in quite a while, as I’ve been gradually (veeeeerrrrrry gradually) recovering from an acid reflux condition that’s damaged my vocal chords over the past couple of years. I’m definitely on the mend, which is tremendously cheering.
Chris gave nice supportive theka; George was his usual preturnaturally alert self; Vijaya’s vocal sangat felt lovely. People liked it. I liked it.
The good news is that I got a recording off the PA board.
The bad news is that it (WTF?) has my voice mixed so low as to be inaudible. People in the hall said they could hear me clearly, and I was coming through the monitors nicely, so I’m baffled as to what mix the PA guys were giving me. Dammit. I’m told there was a video recorded; I hope that at least turns out properly.