Sent to Blog, WS, indivs
OMNI
Corporate Campaign to Deny the Human, Corporate Causes
of Climate Change and Necessity of Sustainable Energy (Well-financed Disinformation,
Manufactured Deception and Ignorance, Cover Up, Scam, Denial, Chicanery,
Bribery), Newsletter #1, April 26, 2015.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace,
Justice, and Ecology
What’s at stake: The necessity of totally
restructuring our global energy economy and quickly if we are to avoid a
catastrophic disruption to life as we know it. Lester Brown. The people of the world have not demanded
this radical renovation of unregulated capitalism mainly because of the control
of information by corporations.
Newsletters
Index:
Contents
of Corporate Campaign Against Sustainable Energy Newsletter #1
Kimberley, System Change to Reduce Climate Change
The
Deniers
Merchants of Doubt, Book and
Film
FILM SHOWING IN FAYETTEVILLE, AR 2015 AT FIESTA THEATER APRIL
24-
Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway, Co-Authors of Merchants of Doubt Book
Robert Kenner, Filmmaker, Fight Back Against Attacks on Merchants of Doubt Film
Clay Naff’s Interview of Oreskes in The Humanist 2015
Zasloff, Oreskes and the Anti-Communist Origins of Climate
Denial
TomGram, Michael Klare, Big Oil’s New Disinformation Campaign
Deniers in Their Own Words
Denier Willie Soon, Scientist for Hire
Pierce
Christian Scientist Katherine Hayhoe Threatened
David Suzuki, Global Warming Deniers Growing Desperate
Naomi Klein, Capitalism
vs. the Climate
Who Funds Deniers?
Donors Trust
Defenders
of Reason and Science vs. Well-Financed, Manufactured ignorance and Paranoia,
the Corporate Manipulation of Misology, Misoneism, Greed
Michael Specter, The
Denialists, the Many Kinds of Denial and Escape in Our System
President Obama
Rockstroh, Escapisms Prevent Change
The
Nation, Four
Essays May 2014
Hassall, Stopping Climate Change Denial in the Classroom 2013
Zegart, Law vs. Fossil Fuels Industry
Dick on Sherman Frederick in the Las Vegas Review Journal and NW
Arkansas Times 1-12-14
Dick on Local Officials
Art Hobson Outs Climate Change Deniers
Art Dismantles Charles Krauthammer
Los
Angeles Times Bans Denial Letters--and
First Amendment?
Senator Whitehouse Denounces GOP Denial
Michaels, Doubt Is Their
Profession, to Undermine Truth and Reality
Dan
Farber
SYSTEM CHANGE TO
REDUCE CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate Change –
Point of No Return
By Margaret
Kimberley. August 07, 2014
By Black Agenda Report
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/08/07/climate-change-point-no-return
Time’s up, or so planet
earth seems to be telling humanity. Extreme weather conditions around the
globe, including rising temperatures, droughts, crop failures, melting sea
ice, rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers and the loss of plant and
animal species all point in only one direction. The tipping point towards the
sixth great extinction is taking place right now.
It is clear that these
problems are all human made. Rising carbon dioxide levels caused by fossil
fuel emissions are creating a series of catastrophes in ecosystems around the
world. The processes are clear to anyone who pays attention.
Two large craters, one
more than 200 feet in diameter, were recently discovered in the remote Yamal
peninsula of northern Russia. In an extreme case of irony, Yamal
is said to mean “end of the world” in the local Nenets language. Scientists
have concluded that the holes were formed when a mixture of salt, water and
natural methane gas exploded underground. They theorize that rising
temperatures made the permafrost unstable and released methane, the key
ingredient in the explosions. A temperature rise of only two degrees
centigrade is enough to make permafrost thaw and begin a chain of terrible
events.
“The tipping point towards the sixth great
extinction is taking place right now.”
All of the bad news is
relevant as the United Nations prepares to host a Climate Summit on
September 23, 2014 in New York. Past climate conferences haven’t provided
much in the way of relief, as the United States and other industrialized
nations subverted the
2009 Copenhagen climate accords. The supposedly environmentalist president
Barack Obama and his European cohorts forced an agreement that allowed a two
degrees increase in temperature. This seemingly small amount will kill humans
and other species and brought the giant holes to Siberia and now more
dangerously, methane from the sea. Climatologist Jason
Box recently made this pithy comment on Twitter. “If even a
small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere,
we're f'd.”
As the situation is dire,
so must the solutions be truly radical. The free for all of capitalism
is deadly in so many ways as
financial collapse, exploitation and wars bring misery to millions of people.
Money is the problem and not individual decision making. We may feel useful
when recycling trash or driving hybrid vehicles but these are bandages when the world
needs major surgery. “Green capitalism” is doomed because capitalism
can’t be green. The imperative to maximize profits is in direct
conflict with environmental and human sustainability. The profit motive must be eliminated in
favor of managed economies that limit growth, fairly distribute resources,
regulate the polluting industries and activities, and end the gross
inequalities of this gilded age.
Money is the elephant in
the climate change room. Corporations are beholden to no one but themselves,
only claiming to be like human beings when they really want to get their way
with governments and citizens around the world. “Corporate personhood” is a one
way street and everything from income inequality to planetary destruction is
the proof. [See Naomi Kline’s This
Changes Everything; Lester Brown, The Great
Transition; Magdoff and Foster, What Every
Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism. –Dick]
“Green capitalism is doomed because capitalism
can’t be green.”
Recently residents of
Toledo, Ohio and southeast Michigan literally had no water
to drink for three days. A combination of sewage, live stock
manure, and fertilizer run-off create algae blooms which spread more rapidly
because of rising temperatures. If the amount of algae grows enough it
contaminates drinking water from lake Erie. The causes of this recurring
problem are well known but the obvious solution of regulating the businesses
responsible for the problems doesn’t happen and the inaction is a direct
result of corporate power flexing political muscle. The Fertilizer
Institute is the industry lobby which makes sure that neither
federal nor local regulators restrict the use of fertilizers which deprived
500,000 people of drinkable water. Acquiescence to corporate interest makes
life itself untenable.
Unfortunately, the elites
will not suffer in the collapse as much as the rest of us will. Poor Detroit
residents live with the threat of a privatization plan which begins with the
loss of access to water, while golf courses and publicly financed stadiums
owe the city $30 million inunpaid
water bills without facing any loss of this resource. On the
very same day that struggling people were forced to accept pension cuts, the
wealthy owners of the Detroit Red Wings hockey team unveiled plans for a
publicly financed stadium and said nothing about paying the overdue water
bill at Joe Louis arena.
The 1% will make the rest of us suffer slowly
before suffering at all themselves. They will still get plenty of water, or
energy, or land or whatever the rest of us lack. The end will not come as
Hollywood tells us, with a sudden cataclysm. It is moving surely but slowly
enough to keep some people safe while others suffer."Maintaining the
status quo means the end of life on the planet."
The People’s Climate March scheduled
to take place on September 21 in New York cannot be just a feel good
precursor to the United Nations meeting. It must have as part of its agenda a
critique of the world financial system. The criminals who must be exposed
aren’t just in New York and London either. India and China poison the air and
their citizens in a mad dash to catch up with the other industrial polluters
of the world.
There are many villains in this story but there is only one important
point. Maintaining the status quo means the end of life on the planet. The 1%
will limit their exposure for a time but eventually the end will come for
them too.
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Dear Dick,
When I wrote the book Merchants of Doubt in 2010, I only wanted one
thing: to uncover the truth about who was behind the widespread, and sadly
effective, campaigns to undermine the established science of climate change,
and why they were doing what they were doing.
I never imagined that, a few years later, Sony Pictures would
release Merchants of Doubt, a captivating feature film
that exposes the ugly world of climate denial like never before.
Thousands are about to see this movie, and when they do,
they’ll be fired up and anxious to take action — let’s make sure they do.
Together, let's create a surge of people power strong enough to
bring down climate denial.
Forecast the Facts members were way ahead of the game in
recognizing and exposing climate denial. Your very mission speaks to heart of
the problem: disinformation. Many Americans still believe that there is
"no solid" evidence of global warming — a result of the organized
and well-funded campaign to confuse the public on climate. Worse, a powerful
portion of our political leadership continues to promote the canard that
there’s no consensus, we don’t really know, and therefore we can’t do
anything.
Merchants of Doubt is about to spread our message wider than ever
before. The national premieres begin next week — now’s the time to
really build the buzz.
Sincerely,
Naomi Oreskes
Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor
of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
“Merchants of Doubt,” http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/956?t=6&akid=698.194520.jtkPSZ
Forecast the Facts is a grassroots organization that empowers
people to fight climate change denial and promote accurate information about
the climate crisis. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. Help us end climate denial once
and for all by contributing here.
Fight
back!
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Dick,
Robert here. I produced and directed a documentary
called Merchants of Doubt to reveal how climate deniers have misled the American public.
Right now, climate deniers are
attacking the film. News just broke that Fred Singer, who's profiled in the
film, lobbied high-profile deniers to bring legal action against the movie.
It’s no surprise that they don’t want this film seen — Merchants
of Doubt has shown how the same “playbook” has been used on
everything from tobacco to toxic chemicals to climate change. But these
climate deniers have lots of fossil fuel money at their disposal — and that
means, if we don't fight back now, they'll continue to go after the
film and distort climate science in the media.
Sincerely,
Robert Kenner
P.S. For more information on this campaign, check out the
original email below.
MORE INFORMATION
"Climate skeptics attempt to block Merchants of Doubt
film," The Guardian, 3-11-2015
http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/971?t=3&akid=735.194520.EDt7AP
http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/971?t=3&akid=735.194520.EDt7AP
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The message below is from Robert Kenner, a producer and
director known for films such as “Food Inc.” and “Merchants of Doubt.”
Dear Dick,
People who mislead the public on climate change should not be
on TV. Period.
That’s one big reason why I produced Merchants of
Doubt, a film that lays bare the greedy, shameful world of climate denial
and the journalists who broadcast it. That’s also why, right
now,we’re launching a people-powered national campaign that could keep
climate deniers out of the news for good.
Merchants of Doubt premieres in U.S.
theaters today, and it will invite thousands of energized viewers to sign
this petition and join our campaign.Let’s lead the charge!
In 2013, one-third of the climate coverage on CNN and over a
half of the climate coverage on Fox News was misleading. In 2014,
every Sunday show except CBS’ Face the Nation hosted
a climate denier. It’s true: our mainstream news networks book fake experts —
often paid by the fossil fuel industry — and those “experts” use the
opportunity to confuse the public understanding on climate.
Forecast the Facts has successfully held the media accountable
before.One year ago, over 100,000 of us pushed The Washington
Post to improve its climate reporting, and we won. Now we can do it
again with our TV news.
Merchants of Doubt gives this
community a special chance to make our issue — climate denial — the national
issue it should be. Let’s make it count.
Sincerely,
Robert Kenner
MORE INFORMATION
"Science or Spin?: Assessing the Accuracy of Cable News
Coverage of Climate Science," Union of Concerned Scientists
http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/962?t=9&akid=735.194520.EDt7AP
http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/962?t=9&akid=735.194520.EDt7AP
"Study: How Broadcast Networks Covered Climate Change in
2014," Media Matters, 1-28-15
http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/963?t=11&akid=735.194520.EDt7AP
http://act.forecastthefacts.org/go/963?t=11&akid=735.194520.EDt7AP
Forecast the Facts is a grassroots organization that empowers
people to fight climate change denial and promote accurate information about
the climate crisis. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. Help us end climate denial once
and for all by contributing here.
INTERVIEW
OF NAOMI ORESKES
TheHumanist.com
Search for:
25 APRIL
The
Humanist Interview with Naomi Oreskes
Applied
Science and the Merchants of Doubt
BY
CLAY FARRIS NAFF • 23 APRIL 2015
Naomi
Oreskes is a professor of the history of science and an affiliated professor
of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard University. She is the coauthor,
with Erik M. Conway, of Merchants of Doubt, a book that lays bare the massive
disinformation campaign surrounding climate science. The 2010 book has just
re-emerged as the basis for a documentary of the same name, now opening in
theaters across the nation. Just before its debut, I asked Oreskes about the
book and its subject. The interview, conducted by email, has been lightly
edited.
TheHumanist.com:
You’re a scientist and a historian of science—how then did you become
interested in the relatively recent phenomenon of what you call the
“merchandising of doubt”?
Naomi
Oreskes: In the early 2000s, I was working on the history of oceanography (a
book I am now trying to finish!) and came across the work of oceanographers
who were concerned about anthropogenic climate change as far back as the
1950s. I started to learn more about it, and one thing led to another and I
wrote my 2004 article on the scientific consensus on climate change. After
the 2004 paper came out, I started getting attacked, and, well, one thing led
to another and I ended up putting aside oceanography and writing, with Erik
Conway, Merchants of Doubt.
TheHumanist.com:
The book makes it clear that casting doubt on lifesaving science is not
exactly new. What’s changed since the tobacco industry began its stealthy
campaign to undermine the Surgeon General’s report on smoking?
Oreskes:
The big change is the role of the media, think tanks, and the Internet. When
the tobacco industry first began its campaigns of confusion, there was no
Internet and few think tanks. Indeed, they invented the Tobacco Institute as
a means of hiding their disinformation work under the guise of scientific
research. Today, there are dozens of think tanks that do this work, and it is
spread far and wide by cable news and the Internet.
Photo
courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Photo
courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
TheHumanist.com:
Has inducing public doubt of science itself become an applied science?
Oreskes:
Yes, indeed. One of the things we discovered in doing our research was the
amount of research these folks do! Market research, focus groups, and so on.
They are very smart and organized and even scientific in the way they study
and apply what works and what doesn’t.
TheHumanist.com:
You and your co-author start your book with the story of the slandering of
Ben Santer, a government scientist who has done much to establish the human
causes of global warming. Yet, Santer is hardly alone. James Hansen, Michael
Mann, and many climate scientists have had their reputations savaged in the
media, and, as you point out, the slanders remain just a Google search away.
Is there any precedent for these kinds of attacks on scientists?
Oreskes:
As we say in the book, science has always had the capacity to disrupt the status
quo, and therefore disturb those in power. We all know of Galileo more
because of the way the ruling authorities of his day tried to suppress his
work more than most of us know what work he actually did. In the 1950s,
Robert Oppenheimer was attacked because of his ambivalence about the hydrogen
bomb. So this is not new. But again, the Internet, cable TV, and certain
aspects of American culture have made it far easier to attack scientists and
harder for scientists to undo the damage when it occurs.
TheHumanist.com:
Some might argue that there was a time when science had too much
authority—that people simply accepted government claims that nuclear bomb
tests posed no health threats, or that a Swine flu epidemic was imminent, for
example. Do “doubt campaigns” gain traction because of healthy public
skepticism?
Oreskes:
There are two different issues here. Certainly, it is possible for scientists
(or any experts) to have too much authority, and sometimes scientists have
lacked humility. Erik and I have never argued that citizens simply have to
passively accept what scientists tell us to do. We think there are important distinctions
to be made between scientific findings, policy recommendations, and political
action.
The first
is the domain of science, the last the domain of democratic politics, and in
the middle there is a complicated and difficult grey zone. But you also have
to remember that just because a warning does not come to pass does not mean
it was false. Sometimes people say, “Oh, scientists warned us about the ozone
hole, but now everything is fine!” as if this were a reason not to worry
about climate change. Things are fine with respect to ozone because we
listened to scientific advice and acted upon it.
And as
for nuclear bomb tests, while it’s true that government officials and some
scientists closely linked to government gave false reassurances, it is also
true that other scientists warned us strongly. This is why the issue of
consensus is so important. If scientists are divided, or telling us that
something might not be right with government or industry assurances, that is
something to which we need to pay attention.
TheHumanist.com:
Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth was influential in alerting the
non-reading portion of the public to climate change, but in the end it became
part of the political sorting that grips our nation. Will the documentary
Merchants of Doubt have a different trajectory?
Oreskes:
We certainly hope so. One reason the film features Bob Ingliss, former
Republican congressman from South Carolina, is because he is such a powerful
spokesman for why conservatives need to take this issue seriously and not
fall into denial. Denying the problem does not make it go away. This is why,
at the end of the film I stress that if you want to avoid big government
interventions, you should be very concerned to make sure there is no further
delay, because the longer we wait to address this problem, the more difficult
it gets to solve with individual or private sector initiatives.
TheHumanist.com:
Have attacks on you for positions you’ve taken had any deleterious effects on
your career or personal life?
Oreskes:
The attacks have not hurt me professionally, but they did take up time, and
they were personally hurtful, especially at first. At one point I became ill
from the stress. But once I started doing the research that led to Merchants
of Doubt and understood the situation, that made all the difference. That,
and support from colleagues like Sherry Rowland, Stan Glantz, Ben Santer, Mike
Mann, and others who have been the target of similar attacks, or Don Kennedy,
who has been a witness to this for many years. Indeed, I am in some pretty distinguished
company there.
TheHumanist.com:
Looking beyond the book and film, recent research suggests that the effects
of climate change will soon amplify and make themselves even more apparent.
What are your expectations for the response of our nation and others?
Oreskes:
It’s very hard to say. We’ve already had several climate-related extreme weather
events, but so far those have not moved the political needle very much. I
certainly hope that it doesn’t take a disaster to wake us up from our
slumber. But only time will tell.
Published
in the May / June 2015 Humanist
Tags:
Climate Change
Clay Farris Naff is a freelance science journalist based in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is
the Humanist magazine’s science and
religion correspondent. He is the author or editor of numerous books,
including his latest, Free God Now!
-
From: Legal Planet <noreply@legal-planet.org>
Date: March 16, 2015 at 10:30:29 AM CDT
To: noreply@legal-planet.org
Subject: [Legal Planet] The Anticommunist Origins of Climate Denial
Reply-To: Legal Planet <noreply@legal-planet.org>
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Attachments area
THE NEW FOSSIL
FUELS COMPANIES’ DISINFORMATION
CAMPAIGN: THEY ARE THE MORAL LEADERS
Tomgram: Michael
Klare, Perpetuating the Reign of Carbon.
Posted by Michael Klare at
7:00am, January 8, 2015.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175940/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_perpetuating_the_reign_of_carbon/
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter
@TomDispatch. ArchiveAuthorsBooksPressAboutContactSupport Us Archive
Think of it as the uncertainty
principle. By the nature of things, doubt, the unknown,
and uncertainty are naturally part of the big picture in science, especially
when it comes to creating “models” of the future. As Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway showed in their blockbuster book, Merchants of Doubt, the giant oil companies (following the playbook of
Big Tobacco) proved adept at taking advantage of the uncertainty principle to
protect their positions as the most profitable corporations in history. They funded a small group of scientists to
not quite deny the reality of climate change, but to emphasize the element of
doubt in its science, as in all science.
Major fossil-fuel producers used their money both to create a network of
outright climate deniers and a subtler if no less dismissive attitude toward
climate change based on uncertainty.
Think of them as the Yo-Yo Ma’s of doubt. And proof of their success at this effort is
evident in a new Congress in which few self-respecting Republicans would dare
claim (“I’m not a scientist...”) that there's any reality to human-produced
climate change, while the leading “environmental” figure in the party, Senator
Jim Inhofe, dismisses the world’s climate scientists as part of a gigantic plot
against the free market.
It hardly matters that climate change is, by now,
an obvious reality or that the evidence piling up indicates that it will prove
devastating for us and the planet unless the burning of fossil fuels is in some
way significantly curtailed and most fossil fuel reserves are somehow kept in
the ground. And here’s another point not
to remember: uncertainty is actually a two-way street. The oil companies, not surprisingly, placed
their bet on the direction that headed toward doubt that climate change was a
serious issue for humanity. That part of
the street is now largely blocked.
However, the other direction is unnervingly open -- and it leads into
uncertainty about whether the effects of climate change will be more
devastating than presently predicted by, for instance, the consensus science of
the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
With that grim uncertainty increasingly possible,
the big energy outfits, ever ahead of the rest of us when it comes to keeping
themselves in business, are -- as the invaluable Michael Klare, author of The Race for
What’s Left, tells us in his latest
dispatch -- polishing up a new pitch for our future confusion. There are so many ways, after all, to foster
uncertainty about our world. Until
recently, the big energy outfits focused largely on an essentially negative
approach to climate change with remarkable success. Now, it looks like they may put their energy
(so to speak) into propagating a dazzling dreamscape of life on Earth in the
decades to come (in which oil, natural gas, and coal will, of course, play
enormous roles and climate change essentially none at all). Those fretting about the future of our
children and grandchildren on a planet that could be heated to a crisp for the
immediate profits of Big Energy and the oil states that are really just an arm
of the same enterprise had better listen up.
If their vision really proves to be our future, I offer you one
certainty: we’re in trouble. Tom
Carbon
Counterattack: How Big Oil Is Responding
to the Anti-Carbon Moment By Michael T. Klare
Around the world, carbon-based fuels are under
attack. Increasingly grim economic
pressures, growing popular resistance, and the efforts of government regulators
have all shocked the energy industry.
Oil prices are falling, colleges and universities are divesting from
their carbon stocks, voters are instituting curbs on hydro-fracking, and
delegates at the U.N. climate conference in Peru have agreed to impose
substantial restrictions on global carbon emissions at a conference in Paris
later in the year. All this has been
accompanied by what might be viewed as a moral assault on the very act of
extracting carbon-based fuels from the earth, in which the major oil, gas, and
coal companies find themselves portrayed as the enemies of humankind.
Under such pressures, you might assume that Big
Energy would react defensively, perhaps apologizing for its role in spurring
climate change while assuming a leadership position in planning for the
transition to a post-carbon economy. But
you would be wrong: instead of retreating, the major companies have gone on the offensive,
extolling their contributions to human progress and minimizing the potential
for renewables to replace fossil fuels in
just about any imaginable future.
That the big carbon outfits would seek to
perpetuate their privileged market position in the global economy is, of
course, hardly surprising. After all,
oil is the most valuable commodity in
international commerce and major producing firms like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and
Shell regularly top lists of the world’s most profitable enterprises. Still, these companies are not just employing
conventional legal and corporate tactics to protect their position, they’re
mounting a moral assault of their own, claiming that fossil fuels are an
essential factor in eradicating poverty and achieving a decent life on this
planet.
Improbable as such claims may seem, they are being
echoed by powerful officials around the world -- typically, the leaders of
carbon-producing nations like Russia and Saudi Arabia or the representatives of
American energy-producing states like Texas and Kentucky. Count on one thing: this crew of fossil fuel
enthusiasts is intent on ensuring that any path to a carbon-free future will,
at best, be long and arduous. While
you’re at it, add top Congressional leaders to this crew, since many of the
Republican victors in the 2014 midterm election are from oil and coal-producing
states and regularly laud carbon production for its contribution to local
prosperity, while pocketing contributions by Big Oil and other energy firms.
Unless directly challenged, this pro-carbon
offensive -- backed by copious Big Energy advertising -- is likely to attract
at least as much favor as the claims of anti-carbon activists. At this point, of course, the moral arguments
against carbon consumption are -- or at least should be -- well known. The oil, gas, and coal companies, it is
claimed, are selfishly pursuing mega-profits at the expense of the climate, the
environment, our children and grandchildren, and even possibly a future of any
reasonable sort for humanity as a whole.
“Basically [the big energy companies have] said, we’re going to wreck
the planet, we don’t care what you say, we think we can, and we dare you to
stop us,” observed climate activist and 350.org cofounder Bill McKibben in a
recent interview. This outlook was
reflected in many of the signs carried by the estimated 400,000 demonstrators
who participated in the People’s Climate March in New York City last September.
The fossil fuel industry is often also portrayed as
the nucleus of a global system of wealth and power that drags down democracy
and perpetuates grotesque planetary inequalities. “Fossil fuels really do create a hyper-stratified
economy,” explained Naomi Klein, author of the bestselling
book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate.
“It’s the nature of the resources that they are concentrated, and you
need a huge amount of infrastructure to get them out and to transport
them. And that lends itself to huge
profits and they're big enough that you can buy off politicians.” MORE
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175940/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_perpetuating_the_reign_of_carbon/
Michael
T. Klare, a TomDispatch regular, is a
professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and the
author, most recently, of The Race for
What’s Left. A documentary film version of his
book Blood and Oil is available from the Media Education
Foundation. Links to his work can be found at michaelklare.com. Copyright 2015
Michael T. Klare .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check
out the newest Dispatch Book, Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things
to Me, and Tom Engelhardt's
latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State
in a Single-Superpower World.
CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS IN
THEIR OWN WORDS
|
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ZNET: TOP LEVEL CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTIC—WILLIE SOON--
IN THE PAY OF ENERGY COMPANIES. Moyers
& Co., Morning Reads. 2-14-15
We’ve finally found a corrupt climatologist –> Greenpeace obtained documents showing that over the past 14
years, Willie Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who insists that changes in solar activity are responsible for
global warming, received over $1 million from “Exxon Mobil, Southern Company,
the American Petroleum Institute (API) and a foundation run by the
ultra-conservative Koch brothers,” according to The
Guardian’s Suzanne Goldenberg. AND: Justin Gillis and John
Schwartz report for the NYT that “Dr. Soon, in
correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as
‘deliverables’ that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.”
MORE ON SOON
Willie Soon is a major global warming skeptic, one of the most
“prestigious” of the lot. Senator James Inhoff, for example, quotes him
all the time. Now a funding scandal is erupting around him and his
position as a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics researcher. He
has received major funding from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute,
and the Koch Brothers, and his testimony to Congress and published papers seem
to have been done in return for this support. He thinks the sun is responsible
for global warming effects, and that the Arctic is not warming. Here is
one report about the controversy: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-change-denier-willie-soon-funded-energy-industry.
Peace – Art 3-6-15
Charles Pierce, The Drought - A Slow-Motion
Meteorological Catastrophe
Charles Pierce, Esquire,
July 26, 2012, RSN
Excerpt: "Am I just a slow person, or doesn't knowing what
causes something actually help you prevent that thing's happening again, or at
least, doesn't it help you prepare yourself better for when it does? I begin to
wonder if climate change is going to be one of those issues like gun-control [D:
and WARS] where well-financed paranoia and heavily subsidized ignorance wear
the political process down to the point at which people simply give up trying
to fight them."
DENIAL BECOMES HATRED
BECOMES DEATH THREATS: CO-AUTHOR OF A CLIMATE
FOR CHANGE, KATHARINE HAYHOE, THREATENED.
Hate mail threatened HAYHOE with
public execution after Rush Limbaugh targeted her and published her email
address.
Communications Director and Regional Manager, Citizens Climate
Lobby
·
Email
·
·
Climate Deniers Hit New Low With Vicious Attacks on
Scientists http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-valk/katharine-hayhoe-gingrich_b_1202490.html
Posted: 01/15/2012 3:47 pm EST Updated: 03/16/2012
5:12 am EDT
The climate deniers are kicking
puppies now.
That was my reaction when I heard thatKatharine Hayhoe was being deluged with hate mail
after stories surfaced that she had written a chapter on climate change for
Newt Gingrich's upcoming book, a chapter quickly dropped when conservative
commentators began making a big fuss about it. Similar attacks have been
leveled against MIT scientist Kerry Emanuel following
his speech at a forum for Republicans concerned about climate change. The
"frenzy of hate" he's received include threats to his wife.
Anyone who has ever listened to
Hayhoe would be as sickened as I was over the vitriolic attacks she has endured
in the past week. Being both a climate scientist and an evangelical Christian,
Hayhoe speaks to faith communities, explaining the science of climate change in
easy-to-understand language and also offering the spiritual perspective on
global warming: What would Jesus do about climate change?
"My own faith is the Christian faith and in the Christian
faith we are told to love our neighbors as much as ourselves," Hayhoe
recently told theToronto Globe and Mail. "And our neighbors,
especially the poorer ones, are already harmed by climate change."
She's co-authored a book with her minister husband, Andrew
Farley, titled A Climate for Change:
Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions.
On our conference call with Citizens Climate Lobby
volunteers last November, she came across as one of the sweetest and likable
persons you'd ever hope to meet (You can listen to that call here). The mother of
a two-year-old who's married to a minister and works on climate science at
Texas Tech University, Hayhoe never has a harsh word to say about anyone,
especially those who disagree with her on the science of climate change.
Like a true Christian, she's done an
inordinate amount of cheek-turning lately. News that her chapter was being
dropped from Gingrich's book came not from the candidate or his staff, but from
the media seeking her reaction. She, however, has been more than gracious. I
immediately thought to approach her about posting the "missing
chapter" on our Website, but she declined our offer, saying she did not
want to demonize Newt or be mean-spirited.
Did I mention that Hayhoe put in 100
unpaid hours on that chapter?
I'm sure Gingrich wasn't aware of it. Not that it would
matter. The former House Speaker has been too busy backpedaling on the climate
issue in order to appease the anti-science wing of the GOP that currently calls
the tune. When his presidential campaign started picking up steam in December,
Mitt Romney went on the attack over Gingrich's ad
with Nancy Pelosi on climate change. Before the cock had crowed
three times, Gingrich vehemently disavowed the commercial ("I tell you, I
don't know the woman!").
The trouble with flip-flopping on an issue, though, is
that it's hard to cover all your tracks. Four years ago, Terry Maple, who
co-authored A Contract With the Earth with
Gingrich in 2007, approached Hayhoe to write the opening chapter of their next
book. Word got out about the collaboration in December, and before you could
say "Ditto," Rush Limbaugh was blasting Gingrich for working with a
non-denying climate scientist, even if she was a Christian.
The disappointment of being dropped from Gingrich's book,
though, is nothing compared to the onslaught of hate mail that Hayhoe has
endured. Though she's too polite to repeat the words used in those messages,
one gets a sense of it from this quote in the Globe and Mail:
"The attacks' virulence, the
hatred and the nastiness of the text have escalated exponentially. I've gotten
so many hate mails in the last few weeks I can't even count them."
It's been the same for MIT's Emanuel since a video --
"New Hampshire's GOP Climate Hawks" -- featuring him was posted on Mother Jones' Climate Desk. His remarks were
subsequently distorted by right-wing bloggers, some of whom published his email
address. He described the emails in a Mother Jones interview:
"What was a little bit new about
it was dragging family members into it and feeling that my family might be
under threat... I think most of my colleagues and I have received a fair bit of
email here and there that you might classify as hate mail, but nothing like
what I've got in the last few days."
Are there new depths to plumb in this
"debate"? Physical violence?
I certainly hope not. I'm sure that
the Republican candidates for president, even the ones who vociferously deny
the existence of climate change, are appalled at the turn the discourse has
taken. They should be speaking up and calling for a halt to the hate mail, to
keep the conversation civil.
It could start with Gingrich stepping
up to condemn the attacks on Hayhoe. As his prospects for the Republican
nomination rapidly wane, I hope he'll feel less compelled to appease the vocal
and volatile climate deniers. I hope he'll reinstate Hayhoe's chapter in his
book with a heartfelt, "My apologies. You shouldn't have been treated this
way."
If there's anything positive to come
from the attacks on Hayhoe and Emanuel, it's the realization, hopefully, that
the deniers have bottomed out. As anyone in a 12-step program can tell you, there's
nowhere to go from here than up.
Follow Steve Valk on Twitter: www.twitter.com/citizensclimate
MORE:
EnvironmentPoliticsKatharine HayhoeClimate ChangeNewt GingrichClimate ChangeNewt Gingrich Global WarmingGingrich 2012Newt Gingrich Climate ScienceNewt Gingrich Climate ChangeNewt Gingrich Environment
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Global Warming Deniers Become More Desperate By the...
The Heartland Institute's recent conference in Las Vegas
illustrates climate change deniers' desperate
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View on ecowatch.com
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David Suzuki, Global Warming Deniers Become More Desperate by the Day. EcoWatch, Reader Supported News, August 6,
2014.
Suzuki writes: "A who's
who of fossil fuel industry supporters and anti-science shills variously argued
that global warming is a myth; that it's happening but natural-a result of the
sun or 'Pacific Decadal Oscillation;' that it's happening but we shouldn't
worry about it; or that global cooling is the real problem."
READ MORE
MORE BOOKS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
DENIAL
Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything, 2014
Chap. 1, “The Right Is Right,” which discusses barriers to
life-saving climate truth and action, including deniers and their
organizations; and other chapters.
Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens
Your Health by David Michaels
Oxford UP(OUP). 23 April 2008. 384 Pages.
Overview
Description
Table of Contents
Author Information
Reviews and Awards
Cover for
Doubt is Their Product
In this eye-opening expose, David Michaels reveals how
unscrupulous product-defense consultants have increasingly shaped and skewed
the scientific literature, manufactured and magnified scientific uncertainty,
and influenced policy decisions to the advantage of polluters and the
manufacturers of dangerous products. He proves, beyond a doubt, that our
regulatory system is broken and offers concrete, workable suggestions for how
it can be restored by taking the politics out of science and ensuring that
concern for public safety, rather than private profits, guides our regulatory
policy.
WHERE DO THESE GREEDY MISOLOGISTS
GET THEIR MONEY?
DONORS TRUST
Going through old papers, I
found a Free Weekly article that
claimed the Donors Trust was the main source of funds for climate denial
groups--donating far more than the Koch Foundations or Exxon Mobil put
together. (Source: Greenpeace)
DT
although a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization gives a lot of $ to political advocacy groups. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DonorsTrust
So
it seems the laws supposedly preventing tax-free organizations from political
advocacy are toothless. As long as you have the umbrella organization, you can
do anything you want except to directly campaign for a candidate.
This should be cried out in
letters to newspapers and guest columns. Relates to the IRS "scandal"
of last year.
ACTION: FORM A GROUP TO
EXPOSE ALL FUNDERS of LIARS. An
investigative book—series of books!—is needed to expose this corruption.
Dick
DEFENDERS OF REASON AND SCIENCE vs. UNREGULATED GREED, MISOLOGY,
MISONEISM, PERVERSITY, AND STUPIDITY
BARACK
OBAMA: Stand up for science
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11:33 AM (9 hours ago)
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A nice message from President Obama. Go to the suggested
web site and type in “Arkansas” for info on two politicians from our
state. - Art
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Friend --
When it comes to fighting climate change, the single biggest obstacle we face isn't scientific or economic. It's political. Right now, in Congress and across the country, too many of our elected officials still publicly deny the science of climate change. That needs to change. You're part of an important team with OFA, with a mission of holding climate change deniers' feet to the fire. OFA put together a site highlighting deniers across the country, and the impact of climate change on your state. Every year, the effects of climate change are felt in more of our communities -- consider the consequences of extreme weather like historic droughts and record-breaking storms. It jeopardizes the future we'll leave for our children. This shouldn't be a controversial opinion. We need to listen to our friends at NASA and the 97 percent of climate scientists who agree that climate change is real, man-made, and happening right now. Now is the time for serious action, not excuses or outright denial. But that requires lawmakers all across the country to face the facts and work together to find smart, science-based solutions. You can help us get a little closer to that goal today: http://my.barackobama.com/Learn-About-Climate-Change-Deniers Thank you for doing your part to make progress possible -- I couldn't do any of it without you. Barack Obama |
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A SURVEY
OF THE MANY KINDS OF DENIAL
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific
Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives. October 29,
2009 by Michael Specter .
In this provocative and headline-making book,
Michael Specter confronts the widespread fear of science and its terrible toll
on individuals and the planet.
In Denialism, New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter reveals that Americans have come to mistrust institutions and especially the institution of science more today than ever before. For centuries, the general view had been that science is neither good nor bad—that it merely supplies information and that new information is always beneficial. Now, science is viewed as a political constituency that isn’t always in our best interest. We live in a world where the leaders of African nations prefer to let their citizens starve to death rather than import genetically modified grains. Childhood vaccines have proven to be the most effective public health measure in history, yet people march on Washington to protest their use. In the United States a growing series of studies show that dietary supplements and “natural” cures have almost no value, and often cause harm. We still spend billions of dollars on them. In hundreds of the best universities in the world, laboratories are anonymous, unmarked, and surrounded by platoons of security guards—such is the opposition to any research that includes experiments with animals. And pharmaceutical companies that just forty years ago were perhaps the most visible symbol of our remarkable advance against disease have increasingly been seen as callous corporations propelled solely by avarice and greed.
As Michael Specter sees it, this amounts to a war against progress. The issues may be complex but the choices are not: Are we going to continue to embrace new technologies, along with acknowledging their limitations and threats, or are we ready to slink back into an era of magical thinking? In Denialism, Specter makes an argument for a new Enlightenment, the revival of an approach to the physical world that was stunningly effective for hundreds of years: What can be understood and reliably repeated by experiment is what nature regarded as true. Now, at the time of mankind’s greatest scientific advances—and our greatest need for them—that deal must be renewed.
In Denialism, New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter reveals that Americans have come to mistrust institutions and especially the institution of science more today than ever before. For centuries, the general view had been that science is neither good nor bad—that it merely supplies information and that new information is always beneficial. Now, science is viewed as a political constituency that isn’t always in our best interest. We live in a world where the leaders of African nations prefer to let their citizens starve to death rather than import genetically modified grains. Childhood vaccines have proven to be the most effective public health measure in history, yet people march on Washington to protest their use. In the United States a growing series of studies show that dietary supplements and “natural” cures have almost no value, and often cause harm. We still spend billions of dollars on them. In hundreds of the best universities in the world, laboratories are anonymous, unmarked, and surrounded by platoons of security guards—such is the opposition to any research that includes experiments with animals. And pharmaceutical companies that just forty years ago were perhaps the most visible symbol of our remarkable advance against disease have increasingly been seen as callous corporations propelled solely by avarice and greed.
As Michael Specter sees it, this amounts to a war against progress. The issues may be complex but the choices are not: Are we going to continue to embrace new technologies, along with acknowledging their limitations and threats, or are we ready to slink back into an era of magical thinking? In Denialism, Specter makes an argument for a new Enlightenment, the revival of an approach to the physical world that was stunningly effective for hundreds of years: What can be understood and reliably repeated by experiment is what nature regarded as true. Now, at the time of mankind’s greatest scientific advances—and our greatest need for them—that deal must be renewed.
EXPOSES THE ESCAPISM ENCOURAGED BY THE SYSTEM
http://greedylyingbastards.com/
In the Land of Never Was: The Last, Desperate Hours
of Climate Chaos Deniers and Capitalist Rah-Rahs
Phil Rockstroh, Op-Ed, NationofChange,
July 27, 2012: “The winners/losers mythos of capitalism renders people sick with shame while its tendency
towards class stratification promotes feelings of powerlessness and unfocussed
rage; hence, many develop a compulsion to displace their frustrations. Withal,
they evince the mindset of embittered slaves who have been told, and worse insist,
that the corporatist/militarist boot on their necks is better termed a Liberty
Massage.” READ | DISCUSS
| SHARE http://www.nationofchange.org/land-never-was-last-desperate-hours-climate-chaos-deniers-and-capitalist-rah-rahs-1343394544
THE NATION, Earth Day and May 12, 2014.
The Nation celebrated Earth
Day 2014 with “wall-to-wall coverage of the climate challenge.” And its May 12 number contains 4 essays on
climate change. The following
Introduction by Mark Hertsgaard to the May 12 essays presents a quIck history
of the climate movement, with good and bad news. The essay by Christopher Hayes, “The New
Abolitionism,” explains the magnitude of the conflict: the fossil fuel
companies must part with a t least $10 trillion, the estimated value of slaves
at the commencement of the Civil War. In
“The Change Within,” Naomi Klein confronts the new way of thinking required by
climate change: totally restructuring the global energy economy quickly. And Dan Zegart in “Paying the Price” asks
whether the law can hold the “carbon majors” accountable.”
JCE Chemical Education Xchange
Hassell, et al. Climate Change Denial in the Classroom
SAT, 05/04/2013. "Climate Change Denial in the Classroom" by
Christopher Hassall, Chris A. Hebbern, and Carley J. Centen, Skeptical Inquirer May/June 2013, Committee
for Skeptical Inquiry, Saturday, May 4, 2013.
Universities should be
and are expected to be sources of truthful and unbiased information about
controversial subjects, especially in the sciences. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. Instructors at Carleton University in Ottawa,
Canada used "academic freedom" to present an egregiously biased and
unscientific course that misrepresented the facts of climate change. This was not a case of missing a few fine
points - the authors claim to have recorded 142 instances of equivocal or
incorrect scientific claims, from the video of twenty seven hours of the
course. Unfortunately, I am sure that
this documented instance of professors teaching climate change pseudoscience is
not the only such course or university where it has and does occur. it is not
easy to find remedies for instances such as this, where a tenured professor
abuses the trust implicit in the conferral of academic freedom.
Classroom chemistry teachers are sometimes challenged by
students to defend against arguments by climate change "denialists",
who claim either that the earth's atmosphere is not changing, that it is
changing is but the changes are not due to human activity, or even that the
changes are beneficial. Since most
chemistry teachers are not experts on climate change, they usually do not have
convincing, understandable, and science-based responses. I would recommend first that professors and
teachers take advantage of the excellent ACS resource, The Climate Science Toolkit,
portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_MULTICOLUMN_T2_50&node_id=819&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=8551c3ab-78c8-4909-93dd-8fcc8af2943c,
which is clearly-written, comprehensive, and referenced. However, many will
also find this May/June issue of Skeptical
Inquirer useful, because it includes a short article on pages 5-6,
"Battle of the Op-Eds: Scientists Defend Reality of Climate Change" written
by Dave Thomas, President of New Mexicans for Science and Reason on behalf of
seventeen members of NMSR, and by Kendrick Frazier, a science writer and editor
of the Skeptical Inquirer. They reply to some of the most common
denialist arguments, which had been published in an op-ed column of the Albuquerque Journal.
Skeptical Inquirer, Pick Attribution:
"Climate Change Denial in the Classroom" by
Christopher Hassall, Chris A. Hebbern, and Carley J. Centen, Skeptical Inquirer May/June 2013 37 40
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Saturday, May 4, 2013
LOG IN or REGISTER to post comments
Comments. Related review.
Submitted by Hal Harris on Mon, 05/06/2013 - 11:46
My review of Michael Specter's book, "The Denialists"
was published as a Pick in November, 2009.
[IN THE SAME MAY/JUNE ISSUE OF SI, see pp. 5-6, “Battle of the
Op-Eds: Scientists Defend Reality of Climate Change.” --Dick]
TAKE THE LIARS TO COURT
From HuffPost’s The Blog, May 2, 2014
Want To Stop Climate Change?
Take The Fossil Fuel Industry To Court writes Dan Zegart at The
Nation. [“Paying the Price,” May
12, 2014. I could not find this online soon after publication. -- Dick]
But I did find it via the Huffington Post. “A recent study concluded that 990
companies [a typo; the article gives 90] are
responsible for nearly two-thirds of the world's CO2 and methane emissions. Just like big tobacco, these companies can be
brought to court to be held accountable. Major green legal firms are taking
notice. "You really need the
science to do anything legally," says Sharon Eubanks, the former head of
the Justice Department's "tobacco team," ... [but] "You need a
legal theory that fits the facts and can survive attack in a real
courtroom."
Big Carbon
is thought to be taking this very seriously, too: a federal appeals court found
in 2005 that US cities and even individuals suffering damages from climate
change had standing to sue under the National Environmental Policy Act. Time to
balance those scales of justice! [See
Zegart’s book on the legal defeat of the tobacco industry: Civil
Warriors: The Legal Siege on the Tobacco Industry. The tobacco companies had science against
them and were found guilty of bad faith; the
same finding may apply to the fossil fuel companies. ]
IT’S NOT FREE SPEECH FOR AN
ELECTED OR APPOINTED GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL TO SPEAK FALSELY ABOUT WARMING. AT THE VERY LEAST, LET’S EXPOSE THEM.
Apparently some people, when they rise to
a position of influence, can be mistaken with impunity. Take columnist Sherman Frederick, formerly
publisher of the Las Vegas Review
Journal, owned by Stephens Media, which is part-owner of the Northwest Arkansas Times. In the opening paragraphs of a column on
global warming (published in the LRRJ and
the NWADG) he declares: “I am not a scientist. I admit that without regret.” Oh oh, I suspect there’s a “but” following,
that he will express opinions about scientific issues. “I also don’t know Jack about the science of
climate change.” Did I read the title correctly? He knows nothing about climate change but he
will discuss it? He has been too lazy or
too arrogant, or both, to read even one of the numerous authoritative books, or
even one of the articles, on the consequences of anthropogenic atmospheric
warming? How can a professional
newspaperman declare before all the world and his colleagues that he plans to
discuss something about which he is utterly ignorant? Lazy, arrogant, and reckless? So
let’s ask the newspaper editor, where were you or at least your fact-checker,
who might have saved Mr. Frederick from himself ?
“But because I’m a fully functioning human
being with opposable thumbs and some cognitive reasoning skills, I’m skeptical
of those selling the idea of man-caused global warming, especially those who
stand to gain from the fix.” I thought
his second sentence was as bad as it could get, but this third sentence reveals
a whole new panoply of confusion. Why
does he think that a person as ignorant as he loudly proclaims himself to be is
“a fully functioning human being,” particularly when the subject is the most
urgent issue confronting human beings today?
Does he think he is being witty by again exposing himself to ridicule,
this time, let’s grant him this, as a fully functioning primate? And how can he think that the scientists are
selling anything, or standing to gain from sharing their research with their
colleagues and the public? In fact, the
scientists, thousands of them in books and peer-reviewed journals, have been
telling us for over two decades against well-funded denial that the increasing
C02 in the atmosphere was a desperate danger to all species on the planet Earth,
if it were not stopped. But this service
to human beings and to all species Frederick denigrates as profit-seeking, as
though they were executives of the corporations that have created so much of
the C02 and warming, and he mocks as though the scientists were no different
than business hucksters who are making money and in the fossil fuel industry
truck-loads of it.
“But like I say, I’m not a scientist. Take it for what it is worth.”
LOCAL OFFICIALS AMONG DENIERS
Hello Amy,
I was glad to read in NAT (“Study Looks at Beaver Lake” by
Scarlet Sims, Oct. 27, 2013) about
the Beaver Lake climate change impact study, for several reasons, including the
revelation that you and other BL officials are informed about CC. The City’s Emergency Management officials
don’t believe it, or its human causation, nor do several County QC Beaver
Lake
Dick
LETTER TO OMNI’S BOOK
FORUM: LET’S STOP TALKING TO OURSELVWES AND BE SERIOUS ABOUT CHANGING THE
SYSTEM, 2013
We should continue to try to
enlarge our audience. We should publicize each book more, for
those who cannot attend, or even for those who don't read books.
OMNI began the Ecology Book Forum
7 years ago, yet officials in responsible positions in the Quorum Court and
Emergency Management, and I suspect in other boards and agencies, continue to
deny anthropogenic CO2/warming/climate change. Ignorant of the science,
they cannot carry out their duty to plan for our future. Let’s try harder to bring them up to speed
(that climate change is already a global fact and increasing rapidly). Let's advertise in every way within
our power including spending money for ads, AND send materials and invitations
to the members of our governing boards and agencies.
Thanks, Dick
Global warming skeptic's article in NWA
Times
Art
Hobson 1-16-14omni cctf
[omni-cctf@googlegroups.com] riday,
January 10, 2014 11:07 AM
Hi friends - Today, the NWA Times published an opinion-page
article titled "Climate change skepticism healthy." It opposes
the scientific consensus that global warming is real, caused by humans, and
could be a disaster. It was originally published in The Daily Oklahoman, which is published in Oklahoma
City and calls itself Oklahoma University of Alabama
Art Hobson, Emeritus Professor of Physics, U Arkansas,
Fayetteville.
See my liberal-arts physics textbook.
WHY DOES KRAUTHAMMER ENJOY
ACCESS TO OUR STATE NEWSPAPER TO WRITE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE?
Climate Change
Criticism Falls Flat
KRAUTHAMMER CHERRY-PICKS DATA IN OPINION PIECE
(Washington Post 7-4-2013, reprinted in
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 7-8)
ART HOBSON
ahobson@uark.edu
Award-winning conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer writes a weekly Washington Post column that also appears in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Because I enjoy reading intelligent material with which I disagree, I usually read his articles. He’s interestingly unpredictable and often embraces good science. For example, he dismisses creationism as pseudoscience, opposes the death penalty, supports legalized abortion, and advocates radically higher energy taxes to induce conservation.
I was surprised, then, by his July 8 antiscientific blast titled “Global warming folly.” Offering absolutely no evidence, it castigates climatology as “naive” and “faith, not science.”
The article begins by dismissing global warming as unimportant. Scientists almost uniformly disagree with this. For one recent example, an article in the June 21 issue of Science presents detailed evidence that, during the Pliocene era 3.5 million years ago when there were about 400 carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules in the atmosphere for every million air molecules (400 parts per million, or 400 ppm), summer temperatures were about 15 Fahrenheit degrees warmer than today. Although CO2 levels have stayed below 300 ppm throughout the ice ages (the past 2.4 million years), industrial emissions and forest clearing have now raised that level to 400 ppm. High CO2 levels have generally coincided with high temperatures throughout Earth’s history. So current levels could put us back into Pliocene-like conditions, when temperatures were too high to support large polar ice sheets. If Greenland and
Krauthammer’s most egregious, indeed dishonest, mistake is his misleading use of data. He states “global temperatures have been flat for 16 years.” If you consult the graph my editors kindly provided, you’ll note 1998 — 15 years ago — was at that time by far the warmest year since global temperatures were first recorded in 1880. Furthermore, 1997 — 16 years ago — was also a warmest year. Thus, if you look at only the past 16 years, you might convince yourself “temperatures have been flat.” Choosing one’s “starting point” (1997) in this manner is a classic misuse of data. It’s really ironic Krauthammer derives his “fl at temperature” conclusion from this misuse of an enormously warm year, 1998. As you can see from the graph, 1998 is still one of the hottest years.
He’s cherry-picking the data in order to “prove” a preconceived opinion. He’s not seeking the truth. Such cherry-picking is characteristic of all pseudoscience.
For an unbiased view, the 10 hottest years on record, listed from hottest to coolest, are: 2010, 2005, 2009, 1998, 2007, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2011. Note that only one of these, 1998, occurs before 2000. Flat temperatures? Hardly.
Here are a few other unbiased statistics: 2001-2010 was the hottest decade on record, and 1.6 degrees warmer than the 1961-1990 average. In fact, each of the four preceding decades was the hottest decade on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracks daily high and low temperatures at about 5,500 sites. They report the ratio of daily record highs to daily record lows was about 5 to 1 during 2012. If temperatures were “flat,” as Krauthammer claims, this ratio would be about 1 to 1.
Krauthammer slams climate science as unable to explain his fictional “flat temperatures” and as “unsettled.” He slams President Barack Obama, who accepts climate science, as “naive” and a “flat-earther.” Such statements reveal the author as an anti-science extremist, akin to the creationists he has so wisely decried in previous columns. I’ve studied science for more decades than I care to count, and I’ve widely read climate science literature for the past 20 years. An enormous and increasing amount of effort is going into the study of climate change today, and its quality is as high as any science I’ve ever seen. The four previous reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are among the most impressive scientific documents I’ve ever seen.
It seems to me it is the essence of morality to seek the objective truth, draw rational conclusions from it and act on those conclusions. In other words, trust the universe. By trusting his conservative ideology rather than his brains and his senses, Krauthammer, along with many others who try to mislead us about climate science, are doing us and our descendants a great and immoral disservice.
ART HOBSON IS A PROFESSOR
EMERITUS OF PHYSICS AT THE
News
Flash: Major newspaper won't publish climate lies
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SEN WHITEHOUSE
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SEN. WHITEHOUSE CHALLENGES GOP ON WARMING
Here's an excerpt from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse given on the
U.S. Senate floor. The entire speech and video is on the link below: 6-5-13
Madam President, an iron curtain of
denial has fallen around the Republican Party. So let me respectfully ask my Republican
colleagues: what are you thinking? How do you imagine this ends?
More than 95 percent of climate scientists are convinced
that human carbon pollution is causing massive and unprecedented changes to
our atmosphere and oceans. You want to go with the five percent, and you
think that’s gonna be a winning strategy?
Moreover, it turns out a lot of those five-percenters
are on the payroll of the polluters. You know that. It’s public knowledge.
Some of those payroll scientists are the same people who denied acid rain,
who denied the dangers of tobacco.
You still like those odds? Those are the folks to whom
you really want to hitch your Republican wagons? You’ve got to know that they
aren’t telling the truth. So where does this go? What’s the end game?
Our planet has had a run of at least 800,000 years with
levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere between 170 and 300 ppm. That’s
measurement; not theory. Eight hundred thousand years. Homo sapiens have only
been around for about 200,000 years, so that 800,000 years—8,000 centuries—it
takes you back a ways. Eight hundred thousand years between 170 and 300 ppm,
and in just the last 50 years we’ve blown out of that range, and have now hit
400 ppm and climbing.
And you want to be on the side of “nothing’s going on”?
Really?
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