environment: false equivalence Financial Times NOAA
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Month 7, Day 29: False Equivalence — Variations on a Theme
According to the Financial Times (behind a subscription firewall, so I won’t link to it)…
International scientists have injected fresh evidence into the debate over global warming, saying that climate change is “undeniable” and shows clear signs of “human fingerprints” in the first major piece of research since the “Climategate” controversy.
The research, headed by the US National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration, is based on new data not available for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of 2007, the target of attacks by sceptics in recent years.
The NOAA study drew on up to 11 different indicators of climate, and found that each one pointed to a world that was warming owing to the influence of greenhouse gases, said Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the UK’s Met Office, one of the agencies participating.
The article quotes three climatologists. Then it quotes four so-called “skeptics,” presumably in the interests of balance (they include people from the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute, a “blogger” and a financier who “follows climate change as a hobby.”). This shit makes my blood boil.
The evidence keeps coming in: climate change is real, it’s caused by humans, and it’s likely to cause enormous amounts of damage to the world we live in in the decades to come. The latest reports from the N.O.A.A. confirm what climatologists have been saying for years. 2010 is well on track to be the hottest year on record; storms and extreme weather are hammering places all over the globe; oceans are acidifying far faster than scientists’ rather conservative predictions — if we are to escape the direst consequences of global warming, we need concerted worldwide action, not cosmetic measures. But instead of helping people understand the dimensions of the crisis, our media choose to maintain a specious policy of false equivalence, as witness the ratio of climate scientists to denialists in Fiona Harvey’s article: three to four. To properly represent the scientific consensus, of course, the ratio should be around forty-eight to one. The Financial Times has abdicated its responsibility to the truth, and we are all the worse for it.
Warren Senders
environment: false equivalence washington post
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Month 7, Day 28: Guess What’s Coming To Dinner?
There was a big storm in Washington, DC — so I combined yesterday’s letter to the Times with the one I sent to the Hartford Courant a few days back, and sent it off to the WaPo.
The recent storm that knocked out power systems and claimed lives in Washington over the weekend is a preview of coming attractions. As the temperature increases, more water enters the atmosphere, giving us more rain, more snow, more storm damage, power outages, and destroyed property. While no single storm is “caused” by global warming, the greenhouse effect makes these devastating storms more likely. And yet a significant portion of the American public thinks anthropogenic global warming is a “hoax.” Why? Because our news media have abdicated their journalistic responsibilities, hewing instead to a policy of false equivalence that “balances” a climatologist with an industry-funded “skeptic,” misleading the public that there really is a significant “debate” on this issue. There is no debate; if the scientific consensus on global warming was represented accurately, we’d hear from forty-eight scientists for every denier, and our nation’s citizens would be demanding meaningful action on climate change.
Warren Senders
environment: climate bill false equivalence media New York Times
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Month 7, Day 27: Can I Get In Three Times This Year?
I’m about due for another round at the New York Times. They had a trifecta of editorials this weekend; I chose to respond to Lee Wasserman’s, but the other two are worth reading — Ross Douthat’s because it’s always good to know what people who aren’t thinking are thinking (the comments on his piece are excellent and a real relief to read), and Paul Krugman’s because he’s right, as he usually is.
As Lee Wasserman points out, the “loudest voices” in the climate debate won this round, to our collective detriment. But it is essential to note that our national news media helped make the collapse of a climate bill inevitable, by upholding a reportorial policy of false equivalence in which every climatologist’s scary prediction was “balanced” by a denialist’s dismissal. Unfortunately, the laws of physics don’t listen to TV news or op-ed pages. Anthropogenic global warming is recognized as a major threat to the human species by an overwhelming majority of climate scientists. To properly represent the “debate” over climate change, our media should show ninety-seven scientific authorities for every three industry-funded “skeptics.” A well-informed citizenry would have been better able to assess the true risks and rewards of meaningful action on climate. In this respect, the Fourth Estate has abdicated its responsibilities; we are all the losers for it.
Warren Senders
environment: carbon sequestration LA Times
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Month 7, Day 26: Once We Make Nanobots That Eat CO2 and Shit Diamonds, Our Problems Will Be Solved!
A CCS project in Billings, Montana has been shut down because of lack of funds. The LA Times ran the AP version of this fairly minor story, and since I was tired of decrying our failure to act on a climate bill, I thought I’d send them a little reality check.
It speaks volumes that a process that is “considered key for addressing climate change” rests on “a largely unproven concept.” The problems involved in economical carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) from burning coal are immense, and the technology is still in its infancy. It’s important to fund research and development in CCS, because it may lead to methods of removing carbon dioxide not only from coal plants, but from our atmosphere itself, where the greenhouse gas has built to dangerous levels. But it is both bizarre and tragic that we consider a yet-to-be-developed technology as an integral element of our response to an immediate crisis; if your house is on fire, you don’t have time for the fire department to invent a new kind of pump. There is an excellent way to keep the carbon in coal from entering the atmosphere: leave it in the ground. We Americans must radically transform our consumption habits, and recognize that our nationality conveys no inherent right to waste the Earth’s resources, further accelerating the climate crisis.
Warren Senders
environment: Daily News idiots
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Month 7, Day 25: Nothing’s Happening Here — Move Along, Move Along, Move Along…
It’s really really hot in New York City. The NY Daily News (a Murdoch fishwrap) had a headline which read:
Today’s forecast: Hell! Soaring heat will turn New York City into a baked apple
But of course everyone knows that Al Gore is fat.
Gosh. Whether or not Saturday turns out to be the all-time heat record in New York City, perhaps it is time for the Daily News to examine its editorial policy on the subject of climate change. The types of weather we are now experiencing all over the country and all over the world are exactly what climatologists have predicted as consequences of global warming: more extreme temperatures, more heavy precipitation, and more unexpected events. And this is just the prelude; the climatic orchestra is just tuning up, and in years to come we will see record-breaking days become record-breaking weeks and months, with devastating effects on health, infrastructure and the natural environment — not to mention our agricultural system, which is perilously close to climate-induced breakdown already. And yet our news media is unable to acknowledge the obvious truth: global warming is real, it’s caused by humans, and it represents the gravest threat humanity has ever faced in all our years as a species. How many more days of Hell does the New York Daily News require before it will start advocating meaningful action on the climate crisis?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Barack Obama climate bill fury idiots
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Month 7, Day 24: Half as Tired, Twice As Infuriated
Gosh. Who knew that it was environmental groups that are to be blamed for the failure of climate legislation?
Dear President Obama —
I was prepared to write a letter expressing a modicum of sympathy for your administration after climate legislation failed to make it to the Senate floor. But what did I find when I caught up on the news this morning? An unnamed “administration official” blaming environmentalists, saying that groups like the Environmental Defense Fund “weren’t able to get a single Republican convert on the bill.”
Well. That’s certainly going to motivate the base.
Instead of blaming the people who have been pushing day and night to get the best bill possible, who have been donating, calling, writing and working — why don’t you blame the people who are actually to blame: the Republicans? With a strategy of calculated obstructionism, these political nihilists have carried out the wishes of their financial masters in the corporate sector — the planet be damned.
For one of your officials to attribute this defeat to a failure on the part of environmental groups is a disgusting, demoralizing and infuriating abdication of responsibility on the part of this administration. I would point out that Harry Reid’s inability to get members of his own caucus even to agree on a cloture vote has far more to do with a climate bill’s failure than the EDF’s inability to persuade Republican Senators to vote against their short-term political interests.
I’ve been a Democrat all my life; my family is through-and-through Democrat — and make no mistake, I’m going to be working all-out to get Democrats elected this fall. But it’s sure as hell not because I have a lot of confidence in my party and its ability to do the right thing. We elected you to help turn this dysfunctional political system around, and we have been working as hard as we can to support you.
To have one of your officials deprecate our efforts in public is to spit in the faces of those who care the most.
Credit where credit is due; blame where blame is due.
Yours Bitterly,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: climate bill fury Wall Street Journal
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Month 7, Day 23: Tired & Angry. How ’bout You?
It’s very late. I’ve been cleaning the house all night…leaving for Toronto tomorrow mid-morning, where I will help celebrate my father’s 90th birthday…and meet up with my wife & daughter, who are at this moment flying back from two months in India.
My fury at the Senate’s abandonment of climate legislation is muted by my exhaustion. Usually I write this letter about 11:40 at night; I’m two hours behind. The Wall Street Journal ran an article about it, so I sent them a screed on the media’s failure to do its job. Think they’ll print it?
The failure of the US Senate to move forward on meaningful climate legislation represents the continued triumph of ignorance in our country — a triumph enabled by our news media. The scientific consensus is overwhelming that climate change is real, it’s dangerous, and it’s caused by humans. But the spurious doctrine of false equivalency requires that any climate scientist must be “balanced” by an opposing voice — actual fact-based reporting be damned. This is a sad day for America and a sad day for the world. Global warming’s effects are real and they are only going to get worse: more storms, more droughts, more displaced populations, more shattered ecosystems. By procrastinating (again!) on this most important of all issues, our senators demonstrate that short-term political exigencies count for more than the long-term good of the nation and the planet. Shame on them, and shame on the media which has abdicated its responsibility.
Warren Senders
environment: severe weather Thunderstorms
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Month 7, Day 22: It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…
Taking a brief break from Senators. Connecticut got badly whacked by thunderstorms that did a lot of damage. I sent this letter to the Hartford Courant.
The thunderstorms that have battered Connecticut are part of a new and rapidly-increasing trend of severe and unusual weather. As the greenhouse effect increases the overall temperature, water evaporates and enters the atmosphere — which means more rain in the summer and more snow in the winter. Which in turn means more storm damage; more power outages; more downed cables and disrupted traffic; more destroyed property; more insurance bills. While we can’t say that any single storm is “caused” by global warming, climate scientists have been predicting for years that carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere will affect overall weather in just this way. Another recent story in the Courant notes that a severe tropical storm has disrupted cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. How much worse must it get before Americans wake up to the reality of climate change and the urgency of action?
Warren Senders
environment Politics: climate bill Scott Brown
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Month 7, Day 21: A Pound For A Brown on The Bus
Continuing to write to Senators this week.
Dear Senator Brown,
The CBO scores are in, and it’s been confirmed that the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill will reduce the deficit by nineteen billion dollars.
Which means that “deficit hawk” arguments against the bill are irrelevant.
Meanwhile, July 2010 is on track to be the hottest July ever recorded in the world. Scientists at Perdue University just concluded a study which predicts a significant increase in so-called “killer heat waves” in the American Southwest. The lobster population in Southern New England has diminished so much because of climate change that a five-year moratorium on lobster fishing may be necessary. Lake Superior is twenty degrees warmer than usual for this time of year. Arctic glaciers are breaking apart, and mountain glaciers that provide water for billions of people around the world are vanishing rapidly.
It was in the early 1960s that scientists began predicting problems brought about by global warming. We have had fifty years’ worth of warnings, and we’ve chosen not to act. Senator, if we don’t act now, the problems we’re going to see a few years from now will make many of our current crises seem trivially insignificant. Since the deficit argument has been rendered moot by the CBO scoring, you have only a few possible reasons to vote against a climate bill:
1. You’re afraid of what Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and James Inhofe will say;
2. You think scientists are just making it up because they like scaring people;
3. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the big oil companies will pay you well to help scuttle climate/energy legislation;
4. You really don’t understand the problem — after all, didn’t it snow heavily last winter?Whereas there is one overwhelmingly good reason to vote for climate legislation: our future and the future of our children and our world depend on it.
Please, Senator Brown. Do the right thing. Vote for a strong climate bill.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: 350 Global Work Party John Kerry
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Month 7, Day 20: Two Hundred and One. But Who’s Counting?
I figured I’d invite John Kerry to be part of a work crew on October 10, 350.org’s Global Work Party. Are you planning on doing something?
Dear Senator Kerry,
I am hopeful something will come of all your hard work on putting together a meaningful climate/energy bill. If you can find a way to persuade Ben Nelson that the security of America’s agricultural, forest and water resources are even more important than next year’s utility bills (even for Nebraskans), I would be very happy.
But this letter is to ask you something else. I’m writing to ask you to commit publicly to joining a work party on October 10 — the international Global Work Party sponsored by 350.org. People all over the world will be pooling their resources, putting their sweat equity into their communities by helping with weatherization, solar panel installation, bicycle repair, tree planting and countless initiatives. As of today’s date, there are at least thirty separate work parties already planned in Massachusetts, and over twelve hundred actions in 116 countries around the world. They’re all listed at the 350.org website (www.350.org).
I’m not officially affiliated with this group, but as an ardent citizen activist, I think that what they are doing is tremendously important. I hope that you are already aware of their work and accomplishments.
It would be enormously meaningful if you were to come to one of these actions and pound a few nails. If you were to encourage members of your staff to get involved, that would be even better, and if you were to make a public statement of support for the October 10 action (which is, after all, exactly what citizens are supposed to do: get involved)….it could have a profound impact on the thinking of our fellow citizens.
I know that you and I agree on the urgency of the climate crisis; I hope that we’ll see you on October 10.
Thank you for all that you’ve done.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders