If-Then Knots ---------------------->

Myth: There's Two Sides to Every Story

Tom DeWeese has an article over at "Capitalist Magazine" called "Global Warming: The Other Side of the Story."  Before I respond, I'd like to share a link on recent conclusions of the US Climate Change Science Program:

"The observed patterns of change over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural processes alone, nor by the effects of short-lived atmospheric constituents such as aerosols and tropospheric ozone alone."
--Washington Post

Tom DeWeese ought to give full disclosure that he is not a scientist and that he is president of the American Policy Center, a front group for corporations like Exxon Mobile. He is funded by and speaking on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. They have every right to make their view known, but there should be full disclosure.

This article is full of misleading citations. First, there is an implicit suggestion that the Heidelberg Appeal was a reaction against climate science. In fact, the HA makes no mention of global warming or climate change. It is merely a statment of support for technological and scientific rather than luddite responses to our ecological challenges. I believe in global warming and support the statements made in the HA. It turns out that the HA was funded by industries like the tobacco, fossil fuel, and asbestos industries, though this was not disclosed to the signators. 49 of the 72 Nobel laureates that signed the HA also signed the Union of Concerned Scientists "Scientists Warning to Humanity," which begins with the sentence "Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course."

The article also mentions a petition circulated by the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine. The OISM petition is a famous fraud. The petition was circulated with a letter from Frederick Seitz who was once president of the National Academy of Science. The name would have been familiar to many who received the letter, but they might not have known that after holding that post Seitz grew rich working as a consultant for RJ Reynolds. Attached with the letter was an article that was formatted to look as though it was clipped from the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." In fact, the article had not appeared in that publication, was not a peer reviewed scientific article, and has been extensively refuted. The signators of the OISM petition were fooled into thinking that it was circulated by the NAS and nearly all of them were not climate experts. Any article that cites this petition has absolutely zero credibility. It was a fraud.

DeWeese's article is heavy on quotations and citations from more than a decade ago. The year is 2006 and climate science has advanced. The article makes the case that scientists only support the view of anthropogenic climate change because they want money. That is absurd. In fact, the more profitable route has clearly been climate change denial. It has been profitable for DeWeese as he has profitted as president of the APC. It has been profitable for Seitz who moved from denying the effects of smoking on the lungs to denying the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere. It has been profitable for Dr Lindzen, another scientist cited by DeWeese, who makes thousands of dollars per appearance consulting and giving speeches for the fossil fuel industry. Lindzen, btw, has even had a major speech underwritten by America's good friends, the OPEC oil cartel.

If you haven't seen them already, you will shortly see commercials attacking Al Gore's evidence-based movie on global warming from a group called the "Competitive Enterprise Institute." Just like the group DeWeese is president of, CEI is backed by the fossil fuel industry with funding from Ford, GM, Texaco, and Exxon Mobile. To anyone that is knowledgable about the climate change issue, the ads seem more like an SNL spoof, but some moght take them seriously. The CEI's second commercial cites studies that purportedly show that Arctic ice melts are exaggerated. Here is a quote from one of the authors of one of those studies in a press release:

"These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate. They are selectively using only parts of my previous research to support their claims. They are not telling the entire story to the public."
--Curt Davis, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence at the University of Missouri-Columbia

WWF Oceans Being Plundered

The BBC has the story on the World Wildlife Fund's fisheries report:

"Given the perilous overall state of marine fisheries resources and the continuing threats posed to the marine environment from over-fishing and damaging fishing activity, the need for action is immediate."

--Simon Cripps, director of WWF's global marine programme.

Visit www.seafoodwatch.org to make responsible seafood purchases that support sustainable fisheries and practices.

In other environmental news, one of the author's of a study cited in a "Competitive Enterprise Institute" commercial (they're a front for Exxon Mobile and some other corporations) has a press release blasting the misleading commercials:

"These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate.  They are selectively using only parts of my previous research to support their claims. They are not telling the entire story to the public."

--Curt Davis, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence at the University of Missouri-Columbia

The commercials argue that CO2 is not pollution because it is a product of human breathing; in which case I have a cup of steaming piss to add to some CEO's glass of water.  And I'm having asparagus for dinner.  Go see Al Gore's movie telling the truth about the effects of increased CO2 in the atmosphere.

Organic vs Local? Doesn't Matter.

Grist makes a convincing case in this article for not fretting too much about the relative benefits of local vs organic produce.  Excerpt:

Which brings me to a final point: How we shop. Venues like Whole Foods are not fully organic because people are often unwilling to spend more than a small portion of their grocery budget on organic foods. It's too expensive. This is one reason why organic food accounts for just 2 percent of food sales -- 1 percent if you include eating out. Similarly, local foods, though important, total 1 to 2 percent. So arguing over local or organic is a bit like two people in a room of 100 fighting over who has the more righteous alternative to what the other 98 people are doing. It doesn't really matter, because the bigger issue is swaying the majority.

Energize America Draft 5

The Energize America (draft 5) national energy plan developed collaboratively by hundreds of people on the blog DailyKos is exciting on a number of levels.  First, it is a comprehensive and detailed national energy policy focussing on security and sustainability that has the attention of Democratic Party leaders.  I firmly believe that America's long, and perhaps even short, term economic outlook demands energy independence.  Furthermore, this plan wil accomplish a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, mitigating the damage of global warming.  That is absolutely necessary.  The cost is a fraction of the nation's military spending and the return in energy independence alone will do alot for national security.  This plan continues America's legacy of scientific and technological leadership and will put us ahead in the renewables race. The 5th Draft is under review and the final version should be out in early June.

The plan confronts the nation's fundamental challenges, but as significant is how it has been devised.  The initiative came from a handful of bloggers at Kos.  Leaders with expertise jumped in.  Importantly, the initiative would never have gotten anywhere without the support of the Kos community.  Anyone can post at the Kos blog, but only the front-page posts of a select few go on the blog itself.  The rest, called "diaries," go onto a sidebar.  If a diary on the side-bar gets enough "recomendations" from readers then it goes on a recomended diaries list and sometimes even goes on the frontpage.  Frankly, the diaries are the reason I go to Kos because the variety and quality of diaries beats any blog hands down. 

The relevance of all this is to underscore the fact that this initiative would have gone nowhere if the diaries had not gotten picked up on and recomended.  From the start this has been a participatory project.  It has gone through 5 drafts based on feedback from hundreds of readers to scores of diaries on specific aspects of the plan.  Now the plan has the attention of leaders in the Democratic Party.  Truly, the adoption of these policies by the Democratic Party would be a radical step toward a more open and participatory democracy.  Compare this process with Dick Cheney crafting policy behind locked doors with un-named oil executives.  Open and participatory processes of drafting legislation are now possible with the internet. 

Perhaps I am enthused, but I see this process as opening new frontiers for democracy and wiping out corruption and right now I just need to feel idealistic.  Enough cynicism.  I'm practically moved to tears by the notion that I have participated (in a small way, but significantly) in developing proposals that the Dems could turn into legislation that secures a sustainable future for my country when they win in 06.  Idealism feels better than cynicism.  Participatory democracy means "we the people" have involvment in crafting policy and right now I am tremendously optimistic about that prospect.

Tibetan Plateu Melting

Ecological consequenses may seriously effect the lives of Asian populations:

Global warming is rapidly melting the ice-bound roof of the world, and turning it into desert, leading scientists have revealed.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences - the country's top scientific body - has announced that the glaciers of the Tibetan plateau are vanishing so fast that they will be reduced by 50 per cent every decade. Each year enough water permanently melts from them to fill the entire Yellow River.

They added that the vast environmental changes brought about by the process will increase droughts and sandstorms over the rest of the country, and devastate many of the world's greatest rivers, in what experts warn will be an "ecological catastrophe".

--The Independent, 07 May 2006

Feds Report More Wetlands

Devil's in the details.

New Head of the Dep. of Interior

Dick Kempthorne SUCKS:

Boise was pertinent for another reason. Idaho's governor, Republican Dirk Kempthorne, helped finance his re-election by receiving about $86,000 — about 8 cents of each dollar — from timber, mining and energy industries that could benefit from greater access to national forests in his state.

Fox, henhouse, etc.

Perfectly Safe

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will leave a small footprint and not threaten the wildlife or ecology one bit.  It's all perfectly safe.