Dear Rachel Maddow \u2014 I write to thank you for your genuine journalistic integrity on the subject of climate change. The issue of global warming and the devastating consequences to Earth\u2019s capacity to support humanity (and the web of life upon which we all depend) are obscured by highly paid denialists, and our media almost without exception refuse to address the subject with respect for scientific method and integrity. Instead, the professional pundits hew to a doctrine of false equivalency in which two contradictory statements are given \u201cequal time,\u201d regardless of their actual truth or falsehood. <\/p>\n
Which makes your show of February 10 a landmark by any standards. Your ability to explain the sometimes counterintuitive concepts behind climate change is virtually unique in the world of broadcast journalism; while I\u2019m glad you\u2019re doing what you\u2019re doing, it\u2019s a tragedy that you\u2019re virtually the only person in broadcast journalism who\u2019s doing it.<\/p>\n
Thanks to an ADD-afflicted media and an utterly mendacious opposition party, the number of Americans who don\u2019t believe climate change is happening has increased; fewer and fewer of our population are ready to address these problems head-on, and that\u2019s making a terrifying and dystopian future for our grandchildren and their grandchildren in turn. Please keep highlighting climate issues. There is nothing more important for America and the world in the long run, for if we get this one wrong, there won\u2019t be any chance for a \u201cdo-over.\u201d You reach millions of people each day, and your calm and careful voice inspires confidence \u2014 while your readiness to skewer liars and hypocrites inspires trust. <\/p>\n
At the beginning of 2010, I made a resolution to write a letter a day to politicians and\/or media on climate-change issues. My daughter is five years old; I want her to grow up in a world rich in nature\u2019s possibilities, a world where humanity\u2019s accomplishments are not vitiated by our endless production of toxic trash. Most of my letters are scolding ones, for there is a lot of scolding that has to be done. Every so often, though, I get to write a letter like this one \u2014 thanking someone for doing the simple but difficult work of telling the truth. It is a pleasure to see you doing what you do. I hope you do it for a long time to come.<\/p>\n
Let me close by offering you an analogy that I used in a recent letter addressing the same idiocy you discussed on your February 10th broadcast: the idea that heavy snow disproves global climate change. Perhaps you\u2019ll be able to use it sometime. I wrote: \u201cTo say a freak snowstorm disproves the reality of global climate change is as misguided as saying the swollen belly of a starving child disproves the reality of world hunger.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nMy daily letters often feel like shouting into a hurricane; your voice is a crucial one. Thank you again for your important work. Don\u2019t give up!<\/p>\n
Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n
Warren Senders<\/p>\n
P.S. – Thanks also for your devastating takedown of James Inhofe. That man gives dishonesty and hypocrisy a bad name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you haven’t watched Rachel Maddow explaining why a day or two of heavy snow doesn’t mean that global warming is a lie, you owe it to yourself. Take ten minutes and savor her graceful, clear and funny exercise in truth-telling: I get a little worn down from constantly chastising the denialist idiots in our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,6,44],"tags":[261,262,260],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-environment","category-politics","tag-gratitude","tag-intelligence","tag-rachel-maddow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":747,"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.warrensenders.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}