Wisconsin, which has been in the news this week for voting to bar staff of the state public lands board from talking about climate change, is getting a new state official who is skeptical of human contribution to climate change.
Gov. Scott Walker (R) recently appointed Mike Huebsch to the state Public Service Commission, and Huebsch was asked about his views on climate change during his confirmation hearing this week. The Public Service Commission oversees utility issues in the state, including electricity, gas and water.
“I believe that humans can have an impact to climate change, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near the level of impact of just the natural progression of our planet,” Huebsch said, according to the Wisconsin Radio Network. “You know, the elimination of essentially every automobile would be offset by one volcano exploding. You have to recognize the multiple factors that go into climate change.”
Scientists have studied this issue fairly extensively, and concluded that emissions generated by human activity — specifically, the burning of fossil fuels — far surpass volcanoes when it comes to warming the planet. Human activities generate about 35 gigatons of greenhouse gases per year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, while all the world’s volcanoes combined spew something in the range of 0.13 to 0.44 gigatons per year. That means the human influence on the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is 80 to 270 times greater than that of volcanoes.
I don’t think there is THAT much geothermal activity going on. Why do people say things like this regarding climate change? I believe the readers will have something to contribute on this issue.
Will the ban be lifted? Will state employees be allowed to say “climate change?” I guess not talking about something will make it go away?
Carbon tax. The science seems settled that burning fossil fuels is detrimental to our long-term survival. We burn fossil fuels as a cheap form of energy simply because energy consumers do not pay for the pollution they cause nor do they pay for the military expense to manage the middle east to keep those energy prices low. A carbon tax gradually implemented over a decade would leverage the market to switch us over to an electric economy fueled by a collection of energy sources that are sustainable and less damaging to the environment.
Scott Walker is owned part and parcel by the Koch Brothers. He doesn’t have an opinion and neither do his appointee’s. They’re parrots.
It sounds like the spokesman may have gotten a little confused. Large volcanic eruptions that spew ash and sulfur dioxide can produce cooling for a couple of years that could indeed counteract warming due to CO2 emissions. A famous example of climate impact by a volcano was the eruption of Mount Tambora, which caused the “year without a summer” in the 1800s.
It may be wise for public officials to avoid commenting on climate change. Much of what both the proponents and critics say is likely to be wrong.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
That Mt. Tambora eruption happened in what year? Krakatoa also produced a dark-out of sorts too didn’t it?
Let’s don’t forget about methane, which accounts for about 9% of the green house gases here in the U.S. The petroleum industry, cattle industry (including animal farts and methane from manure), methane from landfill decomposition all add methane to the atmosphere. Here is an EPA report: http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html
As of September 17, 2014, there were 34 volcanoes erupting around the world. I don’t know where that is on the scale of things but it does seem like a goodly number. CO2 and SO2 are the two major gases coming from volcanoes and they do contribute to the level of greenhouse gases.
If I’m not mistaken, the year without summer was not due so much to gases as it was particulate matter at high altitude. This 1883 eruption of Krakatao generated the loudest sound ever reported in history. It was heard as far away as Perth in Australia (around 1,930 miles away) and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius – a whopping 3,000 miles from Krakatoa!
When the volcano erupted, the explosion fired up hot ash 50 miles into the air. The force was about 13,000 times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.
Official records held that 165 villages and towns surrounding Krakatoa were destroyed and 132 more were seriously damaged. Nearly 36,500 people died, and many thousands injured, mostly due to the vast tsunamis which occurred following the explosion.
More than you ever wanted to know. As to Scott Walker-Forrest Gump said it best: Stupid is as stupid does.
I’d sure like to get all of you climate change chicken littles into my weekly poker game…
I thought it was a pretty good discussion. I saw no chicken littles. Furthermore, there are just some things you can’t ignore.
Additionally, some things you have a little control over. Volcanoes, not so much. Try stopping one of those bad boys.
Anyone who talks about this issue without addressing the “overpopulation” factor that drives emissions is just tinkering around the edges on the issue.
But the good news is, we are quite capable of putting particles into the atmosphere that will reflect sunlight outwards, and cool the planet.
The volcano thing is a hoax though. For this guy to be putting this misinformation out in a hearing speaks to him being an imbecile, mindoctrinated by right wing bs. http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=31313
Good man, Scott Walker. Tough. A fighter. Doesn’t back down. Has beaten down the Wisconsin Democrat sore losers several times.
What does an appointment to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission have to do with the debate over climate change? Oh, I see —- it’s from the Huff Post. Got it.
I saw what Scott Walker tried to do to public employees. I was not impressed. Basically, he set out to bust up any rights held by public employees. He will reap what he sowed.
As for his appointment–it is important because he appointed a know-nothing moron. Why would someone shoot off their mouth and show how little they knew? Silence is golden. Now the world knows. Besides, everyone really knows it was caused by dinosaur flatulence. [sarcasm button is on]
Ah, now it is clearer. There is a current battle in Wisconsin (and a dozen other states) over electrical rates and solar power. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission, an independent organization responsible for regulation of energy, telecommunications, gas, and water, has a rate decision coming up on the solar power issue , apparently, as far as I can understand it, concerning the sale of excess solar power using the existing power company grids for transport. Some call it a battle between the climate changers and the power industry, one pushing alternate energy and the other trying to protect its turf. The climate changers claim that the industry is trying to use rates to sabotage any increase of alternative energy sources. The PSC has three full-time commissioners. Looks to me like the climate changers caught Mr. Huebsch in a “gotcha moment” during his confirmation hearings.
Did the Huff Post bother to explain the actual circumstances, or were they just trying to use the volcano comment as a larger partisan stick against Scott Walker? Too bad Mr. Heusch didn’t exclaim at the hearing: “What difference does it make?!!!!” Heh, heh.
Alors, it very well may not. This looks to me like something that will go to court. And by law the PSC is forbidden from having contacts with parties which have substantial interests in the outcome of a court case.
Wisconsin officials not allowed to say “climate change”? Is that like members of the Obama administration not being able to include “Islamic” and “terrorism” in the same sentence? Or like some climate change proponents recently suggesting that climate change “deniers” should somehow be punished?
Check out Section 44.16.896 of Wisconsin Senate Bill 11, which reads–
(1) Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).
What this says is that the State of Wisconsin can sell or contract out management of state-owned heating, cooling and power plants without the requirement that bids for such a sale or leasing be solicited so as to maximize what the government can pocket through such an arrangement.
Put another way, the state can pick who they want and make whatever deal they want without anyone else having a chance to bid on the deal.
The three largest companies in Wisconsin capable of making a deal are ALL SUBSIDIARIES OF KOCH INDUSTRIES.
So, Wolve, Wisconsin officials are not allowed to say climate change because David and Charles Koch OWN Wisconsin.
Lyssa — I thought this thread was about the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and the allegedly “blasphemous” Mr. Huebsch. From the bill you cite, it looks like Mr. Huebsch and his fellow commissioners get cut out of the action there also. Meh. I guess the Huff Post had to look somewhere else for distracting political meat since Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton have been on the negative side of the national news.
The Koch brothers own Wisconsin? Wisconsin seems to be doing rather well since Scott Walker took office. Personally, I’d be more worried about how the liberal Dem owners of California have royally screwed up the Iron Pyrite State.
Walker is a tool of Koch. That’s how he was elected. I could care less about the Koch Bros politics. Americans should be concerned about their tactics. They are mercenarys – no allegiance.
My uber conservative brother in law runs his family business in Wisconsin. He’s been “invited” to functions where Koch Bros soldiers have been present and involved in business deals. Repugnant. Yes, they own Wisconsin. It’s no secret there.
You can play politics about this if that’s the only argument you can make in their defense but that’s masking the problem. The least of my concern about Koch is their politics. And that concern should be all of ours.
Lyssa — Are the Koch brothers the only “villains” then? No mention of George Soros, et al, in the Dem liberal camp? I understand that, in reality, there are more big 1% bucks on the Dem side than on the Republican side. Can we add then that McAuliffe of Virginia is a tool of Tom Streyer on climate change and other environmental issues? Seems only fair. It also seems that this portrait is not much different than that of almost all the previous eras of the Republic, with the takings shared by all sides regardless of ideology. They used to call it graft. Now they call it “bundling.”
McAuliffe is too in bed with business to be a tool of the environmental groups. IN fact, he is being criticized by democrats for that very fact.
As for George Soros, I don’t think he owns Wisconsin. You rarely hear his name any more since Glenn Beck stopped obsessing over him.
It looks to me like George Soros is very good at keeping a fairly low profile and hiding the stream of cash he pours into politics via liberal political mechanisms. There have been blogs devoted just to following that Soros money. Soros and the Koch brothers are sort of left hand and right hand in the same game. But they are just the top of the money iceberg.
Soros is a clever feller. When the SEC proposed to change the rules so that they could inspect hedge funds and stop some of the funny stuff being done in that top financial arena, Soros was a big supporter of the proposed changes. The new rules allowed the SEC to go after those hedge funds which managed other people’s money but not if a fund risked only the money belonging to its owners. Private investments only? No SEC nosing around. So, guess who cheered on the new rules and then avoided inspections by stopping its own management of money for outside clients?
I would guess that McAuliffe listens up hard when Steyer speaks. Tom put a lot of money into that campaign and similar campaigns elsewhere. If McAuliffe has any future plans in politics, he wouldn’t want to lose the support of a California billionaire with bottomless pockets and a readiness to spend on behalf of selected favorites anywhere.
I don’t disagree with you about as Soros (back to the political pointing) but his tentacles and intent are NOTHING like Koch. Please drop the auto political defensiveness and take a hard objective look. It’s in all of our best interest, We, as an educated society should be able to think things through – sadly I’ve seen that McThinking has evolved from McNews. Folks in Iowa became uneasy when faced with Koch. Even Americans for Prosperity Koch….
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/04/us/politics/koch-group-has-ambitions-in-small-races.html?_r=0
Apparently the Koch brothers’ father was a founding member of the John Birch society?
Yes, very anti-socialist. He accused Eisenhower of being a communist. Anti-socialists, anti-communist – whatever if that is their honest conviction. But when they use it or adopt it as a means to something personal – that’s wrong. And scary. I’m not happy with the devolution of this country – morals, crime….but I’m not for the kind of control Koch is after under the guise of reversing that. Those Iowans came face to face at the individual level and did not like what they saw. Unfortunately it has to get to that level for the easily led to see they’re being used. Donald or Charles Koch would not want to really rub shoulders with any of us.
It’s not the politics – it’s what they’re after and how they’re going after it.
I love how hard left partisans foam at the mouth when you say “Koch Brothers” or “corporations are people” and then immediately launch into how independent they are, and how it isn’t about political ideology. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
As far as I can tell, the Koch Brothers want pretty much the same thing I do, which is to make money and be left alone. Thanks for this thread though, it reminded me it’s time to stroke another check to AFP.
But at whose expense? The Kochs seem to not care who they run over in the process. That sort of tribal thinking simply isn’t very admirable in the minds of many people, regardless of the label you chose to hang on them.
PS
Corporations are corporations–legal entities, not people.
Cato – I’m not left. Just well read. Not everyone is so limited in their thinking. Hard to grasp?
Send them your money – fool.
@Lyssa
With all due respect, this has nothing to do with “auto political defensiveness” on my part. It is, rather, a question of fair play. There has long been a penchant in this country on the Dem side of the aisle for wringing hands and moaning about the “evil” Koch brothers and their flow of private cash into partisan politics for their own purposes. But never a mention by those same plaintiffs of what one finds on their own side of the fence: a host of 1 percenters with deep pockets and liberal sentiments pouring cash into the coffers of Dem candidates for their own purposes. The Kochs are not the only operators in the business of buying the loyalty of politicos. But it is always Koch this and Koch that, and conveniently no mention of the political mud on the shoes of the opposition. Why, we even have a Virginia Dem governor who has long had a reputation as a big-time political money collector, and he certainly didn’t get that reputation from standing on a corner with a tin cup. If a debate about excessive money in politics is to be made by any of us, let it be made with recognition that there are equal sins all over the political landscape.
There is no comparison. I don’t care if you go after Terry McAuliffe, but not as a foil of the Koch brothers.
McAuliffe does solicit money for others and he does his job well. You may not like him. Your right. But he isn’t the Koch brothers. I guess I get a little tired of always having another person to throw out there…like well look at what Soros does. Look at McAulifee.
How do you think McAuliffe is doing as governor? Good? bad?
@ Wolve Koch Bros have no comparison. This is the kind of reluctance they count on and what scares me and many others. Try to get past that and read. Perhaps you just can’t. 🙁
There are lots of nutcases in the GOP