environment Politics: Ben Nelson climate bill Harry Reid idiots U.S. Senate
by Warren
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Month 7, Day 18: Keep The Pressure On!
Not much to add to this. Asking Harry Reid to throw a few punches and twist a few arms. Not feeling too hopeful about that.
Dear Senator Reid,
As you move towards bringing the upcoming climate bill to the Senate floor, please take some time out of your schedule to try and talk some sense into your colleague, Senator Ben Nelson. His announced readiness to vote against cloture goes against the grain in multiple ways.
He has previously supported climate legislation on the Senate floor, as happened in 2008, when he voted to proceed on a bill authored by Senators Lieberman, Warner, and Boxer. He has also voted for cloture on a Boxer substitute amendment which would have established a carbon trading system and capped greenhouse emissions. His cited reason is a fear that Nebraskans’ utility bills will go up.
Well, as I’ve written Senator Nelson, everyone‘s utility bills are going to go up, whether we like it or not. And they’re going to go up catastrophically if we don’t do something about the greenhouse gas buildup in our atmosphere — which a recent Purdue University study concluded will lead to a dramatic increase in “killer heat waves” in the American West and Southwest, within a few decades.
Senator Nelson’s obstructionism is short-sighted, selfish and terribly destructive to what may be our nation’s last chance to secure an environmentally sustainable future. Please do not allow him to hijack climate/energy legislation; we have already procrastinated for more than four decades, and now is our time to act.
We can no longer afford to live wastefully, and first off, that means we have to stop wasting time.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Claire McCaskill idiots
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Month 7, Day 17: Rightly Is They Called
There is a reason I use the tag “idiots” when I write to politicians.
Dear Senator McCaskill,
When you made an analogy between climate legislation and the half-century of work that laid the foundation for our recent health-care bill, you said the following: “I think it’s still a work in progress. You know, it took 50 years on health care…”
Which seems to imply that you think getting a climate bill passed could take fifty years, and that isn’t such a bad thing. And y’know what? In fact, we’ve got fifty years to get it done. Except for one thing: our fifty-year window of opportunity opened in 1960, when scientist Dave Keeling first developed a method of accurately measuring the carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. It was around that time that climatologists began to develop projections of the effects of global warming, and the idea started circulating that maybe, just maybe, this might not be a very good thing for all of us in the long term.
Nobody took them seriously enough to do anything. But if we’d started then, we could have made quite a difference. We could have headed off some of the most immediate problems, such as the likelihood that the next several decades will see a huge spike in the number of so-called “killer heat waves” affecting the American South-West (according to a new study from Purdue University scientists). Or the fact that temperatures in Lake Superior were recently measured at twenty degrees higher than normal for this time of year. Or the catastrophic loss of Arctic sea ice. Or the release of frozen methane on the Arctic seabed into the atmosphere. Or the acidification of the oceans, which threatens the food chain for easily a sixth of the world’s population.
But, as I said, nobody took the climatologists seriously. And the scientists kept making their discoveries over the ensuing decades, and time and time again the following things happened: scientific predictions came true, but were ignored; scientists made more predictions, and were ignored. Other nations began trying to integrate the burgeoning awareness of climate change into their policies; the United States refused. As George H.W. Bush said at the Rio Climate Conference in 1992, “The American way of life is not up for negotiation.”
Instead of listening to our scientists, we mocked them.
And now we’re at the end of that fifty-year window, and it’s closing rapidly in our faces. Are we going to advance genuine climate legislation, or are we going to offer our descendants a blighted future full of heat waves, water wars, catastrophic weather, and crippled agriculture?
We can’t take fifty years. We’ve already taken it.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Ben Nelson climate bill idiots
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Month 7, Day 16: You Can’t Always Say What You Want…
My original draft of this letter to Ben Nelson led off with the phrase, “you unspeakable turd,” but I decided to be more polite.
Dear Senator Nelson,
I was distressed to read that you plan on voting against cloture on the upcoming climate bill. Leaving aside the question of the political implications of a failure to support your own party in a simple cloture vote, I want to say that your unwillingness to support meaningful climate legislation is based on faulty reasoning.
You are quoted as saying that “A carbon tax or trade piece would significantly increase the utility rates in Nebraska for businesses, agriculture and individuals,” and thus make it clear that you are placing the interests of your state above the interests of the nation as a whole, and the world as a whole.
Fine. That’s your prerogative. But your stated position is remarkably shortsighted. A recent study by Purdue University scientists predicts that because of the effects of climate change, the upcoming decades will see a dramatic increase in so-called “killer heat waves” in the Western and Central United States. Let’s say your state gets through the 2030s with only three or four crippling heat waves (fewer than expected for your neighbors to the South); that doesn’t mean the following years are going to get better.
They’re going to get worse. A lot worse. And it won’t just be in the Western United States. Everywhere around the globe people are recording the hottest temperatures they’ve ever seen, and not just on isolated occasions, but day after sweltering day after sweltering day.
We are at a point in history where only strong action today can prevent a catastrophic future for our children and their children. No matter how you look at it, that’s more important than this year’s utility bills. If we don’t act now, our great-grandchildren may not be alive to curse us for our inaction.
Please change your mind, and support cloture on climate/energy legislation.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: filibuster idiots John Kerry Republicans
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Month 7, Day 10: Yes, I Know It’s A Sucking Chest Wound, But Please Fill Out These Forms. In Triplicate.
We really really really need to change the way the filibuster is used in the Senate. You should write to your senators (if you’ve got some Democrats) and tell them something along these lines. The emergency-room analogy in this letter pleases me; I’m going to try and use it some more.
Dear Senator Kerry,
The Senate needs filibuster reform, for all our sakes.
Despite having one of the smallest minorities in recent history, the Republicans are making it impossible for us to move forward. Every bill is watered down, every policy initiative is gutted, every noble impulse turned into a tepid and uninspiring porridge.
This is most appalling and damaging in the case of climate legislation. We are asked to wait. And wait. And wait. And give up the things that might actually make a tiny bit of difference to humanity’s next century, in the hope of appeasing Olympia Snowe, or Lindsey Graham, or Scott Brown — or some damn Republican or another who will end up voting against the bill anyway.
The United States Senate is like the admissions clerk in an emergency room; someone is brought in bleeding to death, and rather than receive treatment, is forced to spend hours filling out insurance forms. That’s what the US Senate does, thanks to the abuse of the filibuster by the Republicans.
And if Democrats want to keep a majority, they’d do well to enact meaningful filibuster reform at the beginning of the next congress. Senate Democrats must overcome the timidity that has kept them quivering and cowering at the threats of their Republican colleagues, and this must begin with ending the most egregious abuse of Senatorial process in the past century.
With Arctic sea ice at its lowest level yet, with methane bubbling up out of the ocean floor, with BP’s toxic cocktail destroying the Gulf of Mexico, with the ocean becoming more acidic, with atmospheric CO2 at 394 ppm and rising…learned helplessness is a luxury we can no longer afford. We need a strong climate bill, or we may not have any descendants to curse us for our inaction.
There is no time left to waste in appeasing a group of anti-science, anti-environment, anti-humanity opportunists who are guaranteed to oppose anything you do. Reform the use of the filibuster. Advance genuine climate legislation.
That’s all.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: Boston Herald heat wave idiots
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Month 7, Day 7: It’s Too Darn Hot
We’re having a heat wave up here in Boston, as the Boston Herald helpfully reports. But since as all of us climate alarmists kept pointing out in December, local weather events aren’t proof of anything. Look for that to be the new meme of the idiocracy, if they’re ever called upon to comment on our blistering high temperatures. Which they won’t be.
Sheesh. If it’s 100 degrees here in July, what will August be like?
It was only a few months ago that climate-change deniers were trumpeting the unusual snowfall in Washington, DC as proof that global warming was a hoax. Senator Jim DeMint said, “It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries ‘Uncle,’ “ and Senator James Inhofe built an igloo with Gore’s name on it. And at the time, people who understood even a little bit about science knew that climate scientists had predicted exactly what was happening: more extreme weather events, everywhere. Extreme snow, extreme rain, extreme heat. Now an early-July heat wave is debilitating cities throughout the Northeast. Is the heat wave proof of global warming? No — local weather doesn’t prove anything by itself. But the fact that more places all over the globe are experiencing unusual and destructive weather than ever before is a confirmation that climatologists had it right all along. When will the rest of us pay attention?
Warren Senders
environment: Boston Herald idiots Martin Feldman offshore drilling
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Month 6, Day 24: Another Day, Another Dullard
The Boston Herald ran the same AP story on Feldman’s ruling blocking the drilling moratorium. For a dose of idiocy, check out the comments. The Herald has yet to run one of my letters. Or maybe they have, and don’t bother to call or confirm. How would I know?
Judge Feldman’s opinion is logically flawed. The government wants to stop exploratory drilling until it figures out what caused the catastrophe in the Gulf — and the judge decides that the platforms are safe, because nothing’s happened to them yet. Well, maybe that’s it’s done in Louisiana, but I learned that if something’s broken, you stop using it until it’s fixed. If my mechanic thinks my brakes are bad, it’s irresponsible to go back on the road, even if I haven’t had an accident. We don’t know all the factors that brought about the catastrophe on the Deepwater Horizon, and it’s a grotesque blunder to assume that because other drilling platforms haven’t yet exploded and sunk, they must be safe. I suspect the judge’s substantial investments had an influence; I have observed that oil, among its other malign side effects, appears to make people in positions of power act stupidly.
Warren Senders
environment: British Petroleum idiots
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Month 6, Day 21: Lies and Lying Liars…
Well, this one pretty much wrote itself. BP’s British stockholders are claiming the company misrepresented its safety record to them, thereby artificially inflating the value of its stock (well, duh!)….and they are threatening legal action. IIRC, this is the first time I’ve written to a UK newspaper. It’s a little long, but it has a classical allusion and some rather archly constructed sentences. I forgot to change the spelling of “behavior” before I sent it off. Ah, well.
It comes as no surprise that British Petroleum is accused of misleading its stockholders by misrepresenting its safety record. We already know that BP misrepresented its safety record to the U.S. Government and to the general public. Why should the company’s own investors be treated any differently? Looking at the behavior of oil companies in general (and BP in particular) it is increasingly evident that oil is dirty in more than the physical sense. It appears to engender both corporate and individual behaviour that could accurately be described as sociopathic. BP’s malfeasance is only the most recent and grotesque example; a few moments’ search turns up an appalling roster of inexcusable acts committed by major oil companies, often in parts of the world with inadequate legal and logistical mechanisms for dealing with the consequences of environmental criminality. Even if climate change were not a Damoclean sword over our heads, the unique combination of malignity and incompetence that has characterized Big Oil’s collective actions over the past half a century should be a more than adequate reason for us all to end our dependence on fossil fuels. Why give money to a rude, destructive, irresponsible boor?
Warren Senders
environment: idiots Jonah Goldberg let's play "really bad analogies"
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Month 6, Day 17: He’s Not Useful — He’s Just An Idiot.
I was in the mood for a fight with an idiot, and lucky me! Jonah Goldberg has an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune.
Jonah Goldberg asserts that “If you remove the argument over climate change from the equation,” fossil fuels are environmentally friendly and economical. Indeed. Let’s follow his example. If you remove the argument over lung cancer and emphysema from the equation, cigarettes are healthy. If you remove the argument over lifelong emotional and physical trauma from the equation, child abuse is just another way for adults and kids to bond. If you remove the argument over radioactive fallout, mutations and millions of deaths, nuclear holocaust is just a good fireworks display. With the devastating effects of climate change manifesting globally, and the scientific evidence for anthropomorphic global warming now completely incontrovertible, there are only two reasons for Goldberg to “leave it out of the equation” — foolishness or knavery. Neither makes a convincing argument.
Warren Senders
environment Politics: idiots Ken Salazar minerals management service offshore drilling
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Month 6, Day 13: I’m Told That Fish Rot From The Head.
Crooks and Liars had a very depressing piece about our Interior Secretary and his continued enabling of a Bush-style culture of corruption. Grrrrrr.
Their piece links to Rolling Stone magazine, which is the original source. I haven’t read the full RS piece yet, because I’ve been dealing with the benefit concert (which went fabulously, by the way).
Anyway, this goes off to the President tomorrow.
Dear President Obama,
When you announced a “moratorium” on offshore drilling, I was delighted. But as the details emerged, it began to look less and less like a really robust piece of environmental policy. What we need is a way to prevent future disasters; what we get is a halt of exploratory drilling at thirty-three deepwater rigs. Total number of deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico? Five hundred and ninety-one. Total offshore drilling rigs? Over fifty-one hundred. Thirty-three is a very small number — less than one percent. It should be the job of the Interior Secretary to regulate and control the oil industry, but Secretary Salazar is on record that the moratorium won’t affect production.
The culture of corruption at the Minerals Management Service has continued; Secretary Salazar has long been an advocate of offshore drilling (going back to his time as a senator), and he is abusing his position in multiple ways. The BP Atlantis rig is located in waters 2,000 feet deeper than the Deepwater Horizon, only 150 miles from the Louisiana coastline. Congressional documents reveal that the Atlantis lacks required engineering certification for almost every one of its underwater components; British Petroleum’s own internal documents suggest that this failure of certification could lead to “catastrophic” errors. Why has the Atlantis not been shut down? Why has the MMS failed to address the safety risks of this platform since the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe?
According to the executive director of PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), workers in many agencies inside the Department of the Interior (not just the Minerals Management Service) describe the culture as the “third Bush term.” The same managers are implementing the same policies. Is that the environmental legacy we need from the Obama Administration?
I recognize that much of this is not, strictly speaking, your fault. President Bush and his cronies have planted many of their ideological allies in key bureaucratic positions throughout the government, and it is difficult to root these people out and to transform the bureaucratic culture appropriately. But it is increasingly clear that Ken Salazar isn’t interested in effecting this transformation at all.
At a time when we urgently need a genuine climate and energy policy that builds the infrastructure of the future, the last thing we need is a relentless advocate of big oil, a proponent of offshore drilling, an ethically challenged enabler of corruption. Ken Salazar needs to go, and the Minerals Management Service needs to be dissolved.
This is no time or place for compromise.
Yours Sincerely,
Warren Senders
environment Politics: EPA Howie Carr idiots Lisa Murkowski Scott Brown
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Month 6, Day 12: Upper-Class Twit of the Year!
My junior Senator is an idiot. The Boston Herald had a piece about the efforts of us Liberals to convince him to vote No on the Murkowski abomination. I used that as a hook for this letter, which is largely based on the Think Progress piece.
Well, despite the efforts of thousands of Massachusetts citizens (including this writer) to persuade him to move away from Republican lockstep, Scott Brown voted for Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to strip power from the Environmental Protection Agency. His reasons for voting against the wishes of his constituents became clear when he appeared on Howie Carr’s radio program and called the EPA a “non-governmental agency.” Now, the EPA can be called many things, but “non-governmental” is not one of them. Brown further claimed the Agency has the ability to “regulate churches and restaurants…the very smallest emitters…,” ignoring the fact that the EPA has so-called “tailoring rules” that limit regulations to amounts over 75,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year. Churches generally emit quite a bit less — about 100 tons. Fortunately, the Murkowski resolution failed. Unfortunately, Scott Brown is an embarrassment to the Senate and to the Commonwealth.
Warren Senders