deniers

More “It’s Snowing So Global Warming Must Be a Hoax” Headlines

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Last month when the U.S. and Europe were brought to a standstill by brutal winter weather, there was a proliferation of posts on the blogosphere of contrarians shouting “It’s cold! It’s cold!  Whatever happened to global warming??”.  The eastern U.S. has just been slammed with snow again, and it seems these same people are at it again,too.  As I wrote then:

Some of these denialists really don’t get it!  Well, some of them do know better and just want to obscure the issue (check out the DeSmogBlog for more info on this); but a lot of them just haven’t done the research that is required to become better informed on this issue.  This is what scares me about their nonsense – these “it’s unusually cold therefore climate change isn’t happening” people are simply trying to out-shout the scientists who have studied this topic in depth.  It’s the Fox “News” approach to the most important issue humanity has ever faced – don’t do your homework, just shout louder than your opponent.

What is important to remember is that as more and more climate change-inducing emissions accumulate in our atmosphere (such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) and form a warming “blanket” on the earth, our climate will become more and more unstable and unpredictable. The result will be more and more instances of extreme winter weather like parts of the world are now experiencing.  There will also be more droughts, hurricanes, etc.  That is one of the reasons that Former World Bank chief economist Lord Stern, recently revised his initial estimate that failure to act urgently on climate change would cost between 5 to 20 percent of global GDP, up to 50 percent or higher (a third of the world’s wealth).

Meanwhile, in the Arctic, The National Snow and Ice Data Center recently reported that “Arctic sea ice extent at end of December 2009 remained below normal, primarily in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. Average air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean were much higher than normal for the month, reflecting unusual atmospheric conditions”.

Click here to read the full post from January 7th,  “Cold Snap “Proof” that Climate Change Not Happening?”.

  • But in the “good news” column, amidst the snow storm, the Obama adminstration has announced that it will be forming a new agency to monitor climate change. The announcement was made jointly by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Jane Lubchenco.  NOAA will set up the new Climate Service to operate in cooperation with NOAA’s National Weather Service and National Ocean Service. Locke said at a news conference this week:

“Whether we like it or not, climate change represents a real threat. Climate change is real,  it’s happening now.”

Locke went on to say that  climate information is vital to the wind power industry, coastal community planning, fishermen and fishery managers, farmers and public health officials.

Click here to read more on Huffington Post.com

  • Another piece of good news is that the British Columbia government has rejected pressure from mining companies and announced this week that no mining, oil or gas development or coal-bed gas extraction will be allowed in the Flathead Valley in southern British Columbia.  The pristine area borders on a World Heritage Site, B.C.’s Waterton Park and Glacier park in Montana.  The government has said it will, instead, build a new “creative economy” around clean technology, innovative forestry industries and tourism.

Click here to read more.

Here’s a neat time lapse video of the recent snowfall in Washington D.C . posted by YouTube user “amandareckonwith“. Although for those of us on the Canadian prairie a snow storm is not as much as a novelty as it is, perhaps, for those folks in D.C.!

The Climate Killers

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Check out this excellent article from last week’s Rolling Stone magazine, The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming. Author Tim Dickinson lists, for example, “The Profiteer”  (Warren Buffet), “The Disinformer” (Rupert Murdoch whose News Corp empire includes Fox ‘News’), and “God’s Denier” (Senator James Inhofe).

One response to the disinformation and lies being spread by the deniers is suggested on “Climate Change Advocates of Cincinnati” blog. It advocates a “climate change info war offensive” be initiated.  Here’s some of the article;

We are at war.  We are at war with the fossil fuel lobby.  We are at war with the climate change deniers and liars who are getting paid by the fossil fuel lobby.  The existence of humanity is at stake.  We can’t win a war on the defensive, which is how NGOs and scientists have tried to wage this war for the most part.  As someone trained by the US Army in psychological operations, my suggestion is that we take the battle to the deniers and liars.

We know who the most effective, consistent, and popular deniers and liars are:  Inhofe, Patrick Michaels, George Will, etc.  My suggestion is to have all the civil society groups who attended COP15 agree on a list: ‘Ten Most Wanted Climate Change Deniers and Liars for Crimes Against Humanity’ (and yes, I think ‘deniers and liars’ should be branded to these people’s names every time civil society groups refer to them).

Once this list is compiled, these climate killers should feel the heat, through emails, faxes, phone calls, letters, and protests:

from every corner of the globe, every waking moment, the ‘Ten Most Wanted Climate Deniers and Liars’ need to feel the pressure,…

If these people, who are motivated by greed, can put the huge effort they are into spreading lies and disinformation, surely members of civil societies across the globe who are motivated by “the passionate desire to tell the truth in an attempt to prevent pain and suffering on a scale and scope, and for a time span, never before imagined”, can also put as much or more effort into telling the truth?


Hope from Africa: Whatever Happens, Don’t Ever Give Up

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Tcktcktck – 5 days until Copenhagen.  And the global warmer deniers continue to be hot and bothered.  They persist in their focus on the hacked emails from the University of East Anglia which I wrote about on Monday. Senator James Inhofe is one of the people leading U.S.’s denial lobby; and he also happens to be the U.S. senator who receives the most money from the oil and gas industries.  Inhofe thinks that “global warming is debunked everytime he drinks a slushie and gets a brain freeze” (Jon Stewart).

As Copenhagen gets closer, if you are anything like me, you might be feeling the need for a dose of encouragement. Here’s some:

William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer’s book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind has made it to Amazon’s top 10 Best Books of 2009, as well as Publisher Weekly’s Best Book of the Year.  It tells about how Kamkwamba, “a simple farmer in a country of poor farmers” built a windmill about of bicycle parts and other scrap pieces when he was 14, after being forced to drop out of school because of a severe drought in Malawi. He built his windmill to pump water and generate electricity for his home. Now every home in Wimbe, Kamkwamba’s hometown, has a solar panel and a battery to store power. His message to  “all the people out there – to the Africans, and to poor people” is to never give up.

“Trust yourself, and believe.  Whatever happens, don’t ever give up.”

Click here view a video of Mr. Kamkwamba speaking at the TED Global Conference this past July.

The situation that we are in is too important to let the deniers sidetrack us. Let’s take Mr. Kamkwamba’s words to heart, and keep up the good fight for a real, fair and binding treaty on global warming. Check out the links on my blogroll and take action.

Climate skeptics Have Heyday with Hacked Emails

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Climate change deniers are getting a lot of press out of hacked emails from East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit last week.  They claim that the leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists to suppress evidence that global warming isn’t really occurring.

The timing of the illegal email hacking is very interesting, coming as it does days before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Most of us won’t read the 13 years worth of emails that have been released, but there are several of the emails in particular that the skeptics are jumping on as “proof” of this world-wide conspiracy of scientists.  To read more details, check this link or this one, or to read the emails themselves click here.

As anyone who has ever written an email will know, publicized and taken out of context, we all have emails that could damage our professional and/or private reputation.  Although the emails do not provide any scientific evidence that would counter the scientific consensus that human emissions are altering the climate system, because they suggest the appearance of impropriety in the scientific process, they may be politically damaging. This is ironic, because the deniers have been subverting and distorting the scientific and public debate on this issue for years. As James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore write in “Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming”, the story of denying man-made climate change is

..a story of deceit, of poisoning public judgement- of an anti-democratic attack on our political structures and a strategic undermining of the journalist watchdogs who keep our social institutions honest.

The perilous situation that we are in is too important to let the deniers sidetrack us at this point.  As Greg Craven asks in “What’s the Worst That Could Happen: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate” : What is the wisest thing to do, given the risks and consequences of this question?

In other words, what mistake would you rather risk, the possible harm to the economy that the skeptics warn us about, or the possible global disaster and upheaval that scientists warn us about? What is the more acceptable risk – the risk of not taking action or the risk of taking action?

To take action now, check out the 10:10 Campaign,which is encouraging citizens to show governments by example and cut their personal emissions by 10% in 2010.  Read more here and here about this UK initiative that is going global!