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TechnoratiBROOKLIN, Canada - Colder than usual January temperatures in the United States have brought the climate change deniers out of hibernation, flooding websites, and opinion and letters pages about the 'great global warming hoax'. They even organised their own conference on denial in New York City this week.
'Global warming is not a global crisis' declared the Heartland Institute, organiser of the 'International Conference on Climate Change'. Heartland is a well-known right-wing lobby group which accepted more than half a million dollars from oil giant ExxonMobil between 1999 and 2005, according to Exxon documents disclosed by Greenpeace, and thousands of dollars more from the tobacco industry.
Not surprisingly, in a statement issued Tuesday, they insisted that all efforts 'intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith'.
'Manmade global warming is a total hoax. It has no basis in fact,' shouted Rush Limbaugh, a U.S. conservative radio host, on his Feb. 27 show, which draws as many as 13 million listeners.
'Record snows and cold are being reported from all over the northern hemisphere this winter,' Limbaugh claimed.
There is more to the northern hemisphere than the U.S. and Canada. Yes, it has also been cold in China and the Middle East, but it has also been very warm in Britain and most of Europe. In early February, it was balmy 14 degrees C in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the city's normal average temperature in July. In Moscow, Russia, the most northern capital city in the world, the forecast this week is rainy and about 3 degrees C, instead of the normal snowy and -10 degrees C.
These temperatures prove nothing. It is just weather. However, climate is completely different than the daily variations in temperature in any one place. Climate is the total of all weather occurring over a period of years in a given place. A cold January means it is winter in the U.S., nothing more.
But Limbaugh went on to claim that NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies latest data shows that 'global temperatures have dropped precipitously' in the last year, when in fact NASA reported that 2007 was the second warmest year on record.
Refuting this seemingly endless flow of erroneous information, not to mention outright lies, has become a no-win proposition. Most scientists no longer waste their time, feeling that giving any attention to these self-titled 'global warming sceptics' simply encourages them and their sponsors -- corporate interests in the fossil fuel industry, among others.
Far from fading away as the world struggles to come to grips with the reality of climate change, deniers in the U.S. are making their last stand. The Washington Post reported last month that a new group, backed by the coal industry and its utility allies, are waging a 35-million-dollar campaign to fuel opposition to U.S. legislation to slow climate change.
Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that Earth is warming, and fast, even respected newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and Canada's National Post continue to print opinion articles claiming an Ice Age or global cooling is imminent. Even though there is no science behind this, the 'facts' are often distorted and comments from scientists willfully misrepresented, which are then cited on websites and blogs for months and even years.
Those who deny humans are causing climate change will continue to do whatever they can to confuse and delay action. And they can be convincing, by citing well-known experts and twisting their views and findings. So here's a couple of common sense tips to add to your radar.
Denier Tip 1: It is relatively easy to check out a suspect claim with a simple Google search. A reader recently told this reporter that global warming is really caused by variations in the sun's activity. His proof was a 'science' article from Investor's Business Daily that said this was the conclusion of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, a well-known research centre in Germany. A quick check of the Institute's website revealed their actual conclusion: 'Solar activity affects the climate but plays only a minor role in the current global warming.' It's in English and still posted on their website.
Denier Tip 2: Follow the money. Who benefits from denying climate change? It's not too hard to figure it out. General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, the head of new product development, recently told reporters in Texas that global warming was a 'total crock of shit'. He had previously written a blog entry deriding efforts to force car companies to build smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles as 'like trying to address the obesity problem in this country by forcing clothing manufacturers to sell smaller, tighter sizes'.
Journalist Ross Gelbspan has documented the money trail from the automotive and fossil fuel industry to various right-wing organisations and institutes in his two books, 'The Heat is On' and 'Boiling Point'.
And how would scientists benefit by concluding that humans are inadvertently changing their climate? Deniers often allege they get grants to do research on climate change. Yes they do, but they could also get grants to research water pollution or the ozone layer.
When scientists conduct research, they are simply asking questions about something and then trying to find answers. They don't really care what the answers are. They are what they are: Humans are changing the climate. These are smart people. If they wanted to make tonnes of money, they'd work on Wall Street, wouldn't they?
© 2008 Inter Press Service
23 Comments so far
Show AllWhen debate stops so does science. This is where politics starts. Lots of money, bias and name-calling on both sides. Plenty of fear tactics to go around too. Anybody quoting Rush on any topic as some sort of authority has left science well behind them...my as well quote captain Kirk.
Too much religion stops a thinking mind.
(Or the hard-to-kill mindset of manifest destiny).
Too many people believing that progress is real and irrevocable. Too many people believing that the party lastsforever. Too many people who'd rather fight than switch.
The most serious issue is, due to global warming the Arctic's tundra is thawing. There are millions of tons of methane gas trapped in the frozen tundra. When they release we will all die. That includes our children, as Bugs Bunny noted.
The funny thing is; you get contradictory stories out of the mouth of a single denier. He will argue, on the one hand, that the Antarctic ice cap is not melting because global warming is not occurring. And in the next breath, he will say that global warming is occurring as a result of increased sun activity (as demonstrated by the melting of the Mars ice caps.) A perfect example of Orwellian "Doublethink" that Lambaugh listeners are especially receptive to.
To elmysterio ...
What is a mystery to you about my comment? Is it that I point out that an old fringe idea, which had no scientific basis, was recently resurrected (30+ years later) merely to try and sow doubt or confusion BECAUSE the real scientific data showing global warming is so overwhelming?
Or is it that I used a little sarcastic humor at the end to further heighten the absurdity of the deniers?
Or is it really that you live in Vancouver which is coincidently very near Bigfoot country? Are you in fact a secret operative of the Bigfoot forces in their ongoing campaign against the forces of Nessie?
You are as much a mystery to me elmysterio as my attempted humor was to you. Your slur however stoops low. Such drama... what a joke!
Remember: the deniers have one thing right - whatever humans do has little effect on climate. I should add: in the short term. But we've been 'pushing' on the ocean-atmosphere system for 150 years now, and its beginning to move. The oceans are the key: their heat capacity is so huge they 'anchor' the system in one place, refusing to budge, even after 150 years of thermal pushing.
The downside of this is: if they DO move, that huge heat capacity means NOTHING we do, for 50-100 years, will have any effect in making things right again. For example, if Antarctica suddenly melts (W ice shelf) (and I mean suddenly, because solids only react in that way, unlike liquids), and half of Florida, half of London and Manhattan go underwater, NOTHING we as humans do, for 50-100 years, will make any difference. That's what heat capacity means.
That's why global warming needs to be taken seriously now. NOT because its a slam dunk that its happening or that the consequences are serious. But because, if they turn out to be serious, there's not a GOD-D*MN anyone can do about it, and its better to err on the side of caution when you're talking about your childrens lives.
Just as the tobacco industry used "scientists-for-hire" to counter an ever increasing case against their product, so too do polluting industries who contribute inordinately to climate change. Said polluting industries have seen what has become of the tobacco industry (a corporate pariah that had to relocate their company headquarters to Switzerland for a measure of legal protection from torts and edicts) and want to at least forestall, if not prevent, that happening to them for the foreseeable, near term future (so that their stock options are still worth something).
Where has there been "record cold"?
The northern Teir of US states and Southern Ontario and Quevbec, have gotten above average snowfall, but temperatures have been generally average to above average. Snow and temperature have nothing to do with each other in areas where average January temperature is far below freezing anyway. The snowy days are often the warmer days.
And why are they getting so much snow? Because midwest storms that would normally distribute snowfall further south, are taking unusually northerly tracks. Normally, these areas would be to the north of the heavy snow band in colder, dry air. Meanwhile, it appears that the winter of 2008 will end without a single nor-easter - No strong cold fronts have made it far enough southeast to trigger any.
So think; is this a sign of warming or cooling?
Here in Pennsylvania, on the warm south side of these storm tracks, January broke daily high temperatures about six times, and only on one or two of the coldest days was the average daily low reached. February was probably about average, but without any of the normal sub zero F cold snaps. It has been the most snowless winter, with the fewest days of continuous subfreezing weather I can recall. Heavy rains with thunder - something that used to be unheard of in winter, ocurred three times in January. Lake Erie continues it's trend of remaining practically ice free through the winter - something formely unheard of.
Do I need to continue?
The climate change deniers always point to global cooling to discredit global warming warnings. Global cooling was supported by maybe .01% of scientists at the time. Global warming is supported by 99.99% of scientists today. Which argument carries more weight?
The amount of hot air that drug addicted hypocrite Rush spews out is enough to heat the world 1 degree a year.
Corporations make money hand-over-fist by making products that pollute, and in the process trash the environment. Cleaning up their own messes would cut into the bottom line.
Besides, they have to spend money to hire the scientists who will tell them what they want to hear; they can then wave their own "science" in our faces.
No use to point out that they will die along with everyone else---they don't care about that---as long as they die with the most toys.
These characters along with their ultra right wing apologists have created an alternate reality in their own heads. It is not life but profits that is important. At least they are consistent. Their own lives have no more value to them than mine.
The sociopaths of the world (a small but powerful group) have harnessed the media (a small but powerful group) to recruit an army of idiots (an unbelievable large and powerful group) to destroy and rip asunder any hope of intelligent discourse, and civilization itself.
Those who hold absolute faith in isolated catch-phrases in the Bible know that they cannot prevent the Meek from Inheriting the Earth. The only course of action remaining for them, as real men, is to leave behind a huge smouldering crater for the Meek CommieFaggotLiberals to inherit. Says so, right in Revelations. (until you actually read it.)
Oh, and to print up scads of money and siphon it to their friends along the way, just in case.
Hmm, grumpy today.
You know? I have an idea that..well..I live in Humboldt County, California..and I live in a rural location..I have seen FIRST HAND the ...total destruction caused by IRRESPONSIBLE logging practices..Slash piles SO DEEP that they cannot be traversed on foot..these piles of Limbs and even other fir trees and other species that come off the logs that they keep..most people don't know that a clearcut technique favored by slash and burn logging is to cut smaller tree's to make a cushion for the larger trees as they fall..this Slash as it's called prevents the little fir trees and basically ANY OTHER growth from coming up after a cut..AND is of course a HUGE fire hazard...
Okay..that was the intro, here's the idea..
After seeing this I thought..what if the logging companies were forced to..HEDGE THEIR BETS... and by this I mean specificaly that IF their claims that CLEARCUTTING IS NOT DETRIMENTAL TO THE ENVIRONMENT PROVE TO BE FALSE, AND THERE IS LONG TERM IRREVOCABLE DAMAGE..THEN THEY PAY!
For example a TRUST would be set up BY THE LOGGING COMPANIES that would be of course UNTOUCHABLE in bankruptcy etc...and that would be paid to the ..LOCALS or to the NATION if the damage proves to be PERMENANT..
So in other words..what if ALL CLIMATE DENIERS, POLLUTERS, COAL MINING OPERATIONS ETC..ALL THOSE WHO CLAIM THAT THEY ARE NOT DOING THE DAMAGE THAT WE KNOW THEY ARE...HAD TO PAY..IN ADVANCE...AND WILL ONLY SEE THEIR MONEY RETURNED 20-30 YEARS LATER WHEN THE DAMAGE IS BEYOND DEBATE..EITHER WAY IT GOES..IF THE LAND RECOVERS..HEY.THEY HAVE A SWEET WINDFALL AND BOASTING RIGHTS AND WE CAN ALL REST EASY..OF COURSE THEY ARE DEAD WRONG..
Again, I have seen the reality first hand..my property boarders a cut made by one of the more HEINOUS(sic?) types of logging operations..THE REALTOR/LOGGER/BROKER..these are real slash and burn artists..scumbags in the worst way..ruin neighbors water, aggressive, and in it for such little actual "Profit" that it really often appears to be just some actual "personal" problem that they have and the desire to destroy something more beautiful then they are...some kind of inner demaon..and again..the land DOES NOT RECOVER..I have watched a parcel for more than 20 years..Doug Fir just hardens..it does not rot in decades..and the earth under the piles is SO DAMAGED that it ..well..basically dies...dust boal..just poison oak (which by the way can be killed very effectively by URINE..alway's piss on poison oak..it's deadly to everything..chokes tree's..) anyway..SO..PALCO..a MAXAM company..NOW BANKRUPT...should have had to pay for the damage as their claims were FALSE..
And they should ALL PAY...at least then they would shut up...becasue they KNOW that they are full of shit..they KNOW that the damage is REAL and LONG LASTING...and yet they procede...for money..make them put their money where their mouths are...that is probably the only way it will ever come to a reasonable conclusion..although it's probably moot as it is ..well..to late..sorry..but it's true..and don't think you can have any of our water..we ants are ready to protect our stream from all city dwellers and grasshoppers...so wake up..
God, I hope the LIZARD or some other Neo-Con troll don't show up here on this thread. He posted 75 comments denying global warming on a thread here Feb the 23rd.
Any who cannot see with their own eyes the results of the global warming disaster and the subsequent greenhouse effect, are either blind or as stupid as Rush Limbooo.
Earth getting warmer or colder is irrelavent.
My issues with the Global Warming Zelots is that they dont' want to actually do anything productive. They whine about oil taxes and population control but not toward actually improving the situation. They attack the oil companies and defend the governments role in this energy enslavement.
My issue with the Global Warming Doesn't Exist Zelots is that they spend all their energy arguing that everything is just 'dandy' when we can all see its not. They attack the government and ignore the role of big business oil in this energy enslavement.
If Chesterton were around today he'd famously quote it this way:
"The world is fast dividing to Global Warming Fear Mongers and Global Warming Deniers.
The job of the Fear Mongers is to keep making mistakes.
The job of the Deniers is to keep those mistakes from being corrected."
Hence we have an energy policy on an escalator that only goes in the down position.
Yes, and it's amazing how the deniers appear all over the world again, simultaneously, spouting the same rubbish, almost as if, oh, I don't know, it was being orchestrated globally? But there is a second trend (http://www.blognow.com.au/mrpickwick/83656/Oh_Captain_my_Captain.html) to pretend to accept global warming but to use it as the pretence to push nuclear power, extraction of oil from shale, biofuels, "clean coal". It's as if they can't decide where they are going to make the more money - by preventing action on climate change, or by pushing spurious (but profitable), solutions.
Rush Limbaugh recently made a statement indicating that God would never have created a being capeable of destroying itself with a compound that is exhaled with every breath.
One would hope that God never made a human whose breath of life mattered so little for others, but then there's Rushie
So, according to Rush's (il)logic, God apparently did not create the cow or any other farm animal who is capable of destroying the world with a compound that is excreted through the hindend orifice multiple times every day.
And the populace of this country is too stupid to question Rush about any of the dribble that he spouts.
Next generation's children will be even more dumbed down than this generation's. Very sad.
The war on science and the war on drugs are going great! US Prisons: being in one or working in one is the greatest growth industry we've got.
We're keeping the kids out of college where they might learn enough to resist this corporate propaganda. Mission Accomplished! I certainly trust Limborg's wisdom on organic chemistry just as Hillary trusted Dubyuh's invasion of Iraq.
Not!!
People have gotten so used to warmer weather that it almost seems to have come as a surprise to them that it is cold in winter. And not all that cold either except when compared to the string of warm winters we have had.
As to the 'coming ice age' nonsense that was supposedly believed decades ago? Oh really? By whom? Where are these scientists from back then who supposedly supported such a theory and the dates of their published articles and reports? One might think they'd be named or even asked to comment on such a theory now. We have UFO articles too and ones about Nessie and Bigfoot too. Yeah so?
Why is there a 30 to 40 year lag in between when those 'theories' were suggested then and now? Yes the answer is that there had been a lack of scientific evidence in support of it, so this fringe idea was soon dropped.
Was there a nonconspiracy involved? Boy was that sneaky.
In fact, was it really a conspiracy of nonconspiracies that conspired? Oh that makes me so mad! Beware the nonconspiracies to...um...to... well the important thing is that Nessie was in contact with UFO's to have them kidnap Bigfoot and subject the hirsute fellow to rectal probes... just out of spite for the popularity he has enjoyed over the last 30 years. Similarly this New Ice Age theory was also DROPPED!
So now you know... Nessie is really really sneaky.
As the article states, its the deniers last stand. 1998 (Its just the solar cycle!) all over again. The solar cycle should now be going from min to max as in 1998. Combine that with the current CO2 level and an El Nino year, and we cook.
Limbaugh with his lies, spin and phony faith is shameless. What does he do it for? A pat on the head from Dubya? Doesn't he realize that nature doesn't care who wins any particular climate debate?
BugsBBunny III: What the hell are you talking about? Did you drop acid or something?
Ok... a couple things...
1) This year's weather is more caused by a la nina rather than global warming. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114085128.htm
Where I live (Vancouver), We've seen a fairly warm winter, VERY wet with more snowfall than normal. This is classic la nina. Now I have a relative that lives up in Whitehorse Yukon, and she's really noticed the effects of global warming up there in the last few years. In fact, permafrost that has been frozen for a millennium, is melting... quickly.
2) WHY in the hell would these short-sighted individuals put making money BEFORE dealing with climate change? It's highly illogical. Do these people think that they will survive when the planet becomes inhospitable to human life? Is their money going to mean anything when the planet can no longer support our existence? Personally, I'm a strong believer in the concept of Gaia's Revenge.