A global warming denier sent me a message listing two videos I needed to watch.
The path of least resistance for me would have been to simply delete the message, and certainly not spend any time watching videos that proclaim global warming a "hoax." The problem is that (even now) the lurching denial industry is not going to simply vanish anytime soon in the U.S.
In a country where a sizeable number of Americans believe the Sun circles the Earth, according to a survey I saw not long ago, and the Earth itself is supposedly less than 10,000 years old, and Intelligent Design ought to be taught in a science classroom, foolishness is all too frequently accepted as fact.
From the very beginning of the Bush presidency there has been a deliberate policy to create confusion about climate change and give the impression that profound disagreement exists among actual climate scientists.
George Bush and the assorted gangs that have surrounded him in and outside of government have a great deal to answer for it seems to me, especially those individuals who knew they were deliberately misleading Americans regarding climate change. We have lost eight valuable years.
I can't help wondering how many well paid Sunflower Electric executives, who want the construction of two coal-fired power plants in Kansas, know full well that "clean" coal is an oxymoron and steadily increasing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere could very well lead to a global catastrophe.
Senators McCain and Clinton have recently offered a proposal to temporarily suspend the gas tax this summer because of rising prices. This seemingly innocuous recommendation is a metaphor for what too many Americans are not willing to face--which includes climate change.
I don't know what is worse, a politician running for the most important office in America, who is clueless (McCain), or one who will say or do anything to get to that office (Clinton).
While the video is now two years old, it provides a good historical perspective on how the fabrication unfolded. Go to The Denial Machine.
One of the videos I watched was presented by CNN's Glen Beck, a person I'd barely heard of five or six months ago, but subsequently learned is one of the lesser known info-entertainers, presumably paid a lot of money to promote various "conservative" beliefs.
The latest denier pronouncement is that the planet is supposedly getting cooler--not warmer, I assume proof that climate scientists don't know what they're talking about.
This in part is what the "Beck" video is claiming, with the usual supporting cast, many of whom made their "bones" years before claiming that cigarettes were harmless.
As New York Times environmental writer Andrew Revkin has succintly pointed out, climate scientists using computer simulations believe a slight cooling will occur in Europe and North America. It is temporary and does not change the overall ominous trend of global warming.
The video presents the usual half-truths and obfuscation, with this Glen Beck excitedly indignant over the awful "climate hoax." One denier states that there was a consensus among climate scientists in the 1970s that global cooling was occuring. There was no consensus about any such thing.
Even 30 years ago with far less sophisticated technology, scientists believed global warming was taking place, a fact quite discernable by the late 1970s. The rest of what is offered is the same old denial claptrap.
The second video, from Canada, claims that a photographer apparently took a picture of a polar bear in the summer and supposedly passed it off as a polar bear in the winter in order to demonstrate the effects of global warming. And then it was passed on to Al Gore, and we of course know what that "purveyor of untruth" did with the picture, anyway.
I'm not sure what this video has to do with climate change, other than perhaps suggesting that some climate change proponents indulge in sleazy practices like the deniers ... I guess that's what it means. Enjoy the videos. I never want to see them again.
Climate science has come a long way since a Swedish scientist in 1896 discovered that burning fossil fuel like coal added CO2 to Earth's atmosphere and could raise the planet's average temperature. We are still learning about the climate more than a hundred years later, but with a lot more urgency today.
Some excellent sources for anyone who really wants to learn more about climate change:
Global Warming Facts and Our Future
The Basics of Climate Prediction
"Name-calling is the retort of those ill-prepared to debate."
Thing is, there's no debate. Human caused clmate changed is documented fact.
You can lead a horse to water, but it's quite apparent that you can't make it pull its head out of its ass and drink.
I liked how Quad had no response to the article on the Royal Society's debunking of the sun/global warming connection.
Good post, Walter. Keep publicizing facts.