Altering facts to fit your reality

MoonHowler

This page is being updated.

Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect EPA’s priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Pruitt. If you’re looking for an archived version of this page, you can find it on the January 19 snapshot.

(the above is from the EPA website)

Washingtonpost.com:

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday evening that its website would be “undergoing changes” to better represent the new direction the agency is taking, triggering the removal of several agency websites containing detailed climate data and scientific information.

One of the websites that appeared to be gone had been cited to challenge statements made by the EPA’s new administrator, Scott Pruitt. Another provided detailed information on the previous administration’s Clean Power Plan, including fact sheets about greenhouse gas emissions on the state and local levels and how different demographic groups were affected by such emissions.

The changes came less than 24 hours before thousands of protesters were set to march in Washington and around the country in support of political action to push back against the Trump administration’s rollbacks of former president Barack Obama’s climate policies.

Read More

Denial can be a savagely dangerous

MoonHowler

Neil deGrasse Tyson says that this video might just be the most important thing he has ever said.  That’s quite a statement considering his long, illustrious career as an American astrophysicist.

Often people aren’t comfortable with science and new ideas.  Some folks are still denying many components of evolution.  Parents are still attempting to dictate what is taught in science class across the nation.

Read More

Walker appointee suggests volcanoes are real culprit of climate change

MoonHowler

volcano

Huffingtonpost.com:

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?

National Weather Service Director attributes some extreme weather to climate change

MoonHowler

extreme weather

USAToday.com:

Wild weather in recent years — from Hurricane Sandy and deadly tornado outbreaks to extremes of drought and floods — likely can be traced, in part, to climate change, the National Weather Service director says.

The  onslaught of wild weather that has battered the USA in recent years — from Hurricane Sandy and deadly tornado outbreaks to  extremes of drought and floods — looks to be part of a “new normal” for weather patterns in the U.S.,  new National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini said Wednesday.

In comments to  the USA TODAY Editorial Board,  Uccellini also cited the “likely” contribution of global warming to the extreme weather.

Read More

Richard Leakey predicts the end of the evolution debate–soon

MoonHowler
 

Richard Leakey, son of world renown anthropologists Louis and  Mary Leaky,  tells us that fairly soon, the topic of evolution will be indisputable, even to its strongest critics.  Discoveries in anthropology and science are progressing along at such a clip that soon sceptics will have no choice but to accept.

huffingtonpost.com:

Sometime in the next 15 to 30 years, the Kenyan-born paleoanthropologist expects scientific discoveries will have accelerated to the point that “even the skeptics can accept it.”

“If you get to the stage where you can persuade people on the evidence, that it’s solid, that we are all African, that color is superficial, that stages of development of culture are all interactive,” Leakey says, “then I think we have a chance of a world that will respond better to global challenges.”

Read More

Ken Cuccinelli’s Witch Hunt

MoonHowler

Ken Cuccinelli’s witch hunt against climate scientist Michael Mann was stopped by the Supreme Court.  Good for UVA for failing to roll over and play dead.  However, in the wake of this law suit are a lot of unpaid  bills.  UVA had to raise about $600,000 to cover its legal costs .  Then there are the bills generated from the State Attorney General’s office.  Let’s hear Cuccinelli try to tell us to ‘stop the spending.’   He has lost his fiscally conservative street cred. 

This witch hunt was motivated by Cuccinelli’s own personal political agenda rather than from anything real that happened or any reasonable suspicion of wrong-doing while Dr. Mann was in residence at UVA. The newly elected attorney general  had a bug and he rashly wasted the taxpayers’ money pursuing his own silly paranoid  anti-scientific endeavors.

According to the Washington Post:

Mr. Cuccinelli’s inspiration appears to have been the conspiracy theorizing that emerged from the so-called Climategate scandal, in which global-warming opponents stole scientists’ e-mails — including a few of Mr. Mann’s — and then misinterpreted them to justify their activism.

Now that the Supreme Court has shut Mr. Cuccinelli down, what’s left is a range of consequences that can only hurt the commonwealth. The university had to raise nearly $600,000 for legal fees — money the cash-strapped university should have been able to use for something productive. On top of that are the public resources of the attorney general’s office that Mr. Cuccinelli wasted. Scientists in Virginia now have reason to wonder whether they will suffer similar pressure if they publish research government officials don’t like. And, because of some of the Supreme Court’s legal findings, the powers of the attorney general to pursue actual fraud have been clipped.

How many scientists will not want to work at UVA because of the climate of fear inspired by Cuccinelli?  Virginia has a long history of enlightenment that goes back to the time of Jefferson, Washington, and even further.  To have Cuccinelli try to ride his wave of anti-intellectual hocus pocus through the state at our expensive is simply unacceptable.  Mr. Jefferson would not like his school under attack and Virginians are tired of this administration causing them continual embarrassment. 

 

 

 

Andy Schmookler on Global Warming

MoonHowler

The August Free  Press:

Is global warming a real reason for concern? Sixth District Democratic congressional candidate Andy Schmookler doesn’t pretend to be an expert in climate science. He is smart enough to look at what those who are have to say.

“There are people who have been told that the way science works is that we have essentially a conspiracy of scientists from all over the world who are drumming up this hoax in order to frighten people so that they can get more research grants. That isn’t the world as it operates,” Schmookler said.

Read more. I also am smart enough to go to people who know more answers than I do.

Climate Change-the new wedge issue

MoonHowler

 

Melting Glacier in Glacier National Park: Before and After

The Washington Post:

“Climate change has become a wedge issue,” said Roger Pielke Jr., a University of Colorado professor who has written extensively on the climate debate. “It’s today’s flag-burning or today’s partial-birth-abortion issue.”

Historically, climate change has ranked near the bottom of issues that voters care about as they evaluate presidential candidates. It wasn’t a factor in 2008’s primary season or general election. The major parties’ nominees endorsed the scientific consensus and believed that the government should curb carbon emissions.

In fact, John McCain, back in 2007  clearly said to voters,

“I do agree with the majority of scientific opinion, that climate change is taking place and it’s a result of human activity, which generates greenhouse gases.” He made global warming a key element of every New Hampshire stump speech.

So what has changed?  It appears that some Republican candidates are trying to  out-conservative each other.  Others have stuck with scientific thought.  Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have both indicated  that they  agree with the majority of scientific opinion, that climate change is taking place.   It’s a result of human activity and that green house gases are a by product of this human activity:

The nominal GOP front-runner, Mitt Romney, drew sharp fire from conservatives when he said in June that he accepts the scientific view that the planet is getting warmer and that humans are part of the reason. Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) on Thursday tweeted: “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

Read More

Sea levels rising at fastest rate in 2100 years

MoonHowler

From Huffingtonpost.com  :

WASHINGTON — Sea level has been rising significantly over the past century of global warming, according to a study that offers the most detailed look yet at the changes in ocean levels during the last 2,100 years.

The researchers found that since the late 19th century – as the world became industrialized – sea level has risen more than 2 millimeters per year, on average. That’s a bit less than one-tenth of an inch, but it adds up over time.

It will lead to land loss, more flooding and saltwater invading bodies of fresh water, said lead researcher Benjamin Horton whose team examined sediment from North Carolina’s Outer Banks. He directs the Sea Level Research Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania.

The predicted effects he cites aren’t new and are predicted by many climate scientists. But outside experts say the research verifies increasing sea level rise compared to previous centuries.Read More

C.I.A. Is Sharing Data With Climate Scientists

MoonHowler

     Polar Ice from Satellite view

According to the New York Times, data sharing between the C.I.A. and leading scientists  has resumed. 

The nation’s top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests.

Basically speaking, US top scientists are receiving top security clearances to have access to C.I.A. reconnaisance material.  This program was shut down by the Bush administration.  It has the strong approval  of the director of the C.I.A. and of leading scientists. 

In the last year, as part of the effort, the collaborators have scrutinized images of Arctic sea ice from reconnaissance satellites in an effort to distinguish things like summer melts from climate trends, and they have had images of the ice pack declassified to speed the scientific analysis.

The trove of images is “really useful,” said Norbert Untersteiner, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in polar ice and is a member of the team of spies and scientists behind the effort.

Scientists, Dr. Untersteiner said, “have no way to send out 500 people” across the top of the world to match the intelligence gains, adding that the new understandings might one day result in ice forecasts.

“That will be very important economically and logistically,” Dr. Untersteiner said, arguing that Arctic thaws will open new fisheries and sea lanes for shipping and spur the hunt for undersea oil and gas worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

Read More

Climate Change Alterations: Catnip for Debunkers

MoonHowler

Without apology, another Jon Stewart video–this time about the climate change hoaxes.  For those who think Jon Stewart always takes the liberal side, you might want to listen to this one.  I found it hilarious. 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Scientists Hide Global Warming Data
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

 

Just out of curiosity, why would anyone take the word of a computer hacker regarding climate change?  Do I smell an axe to grind out there?

Apple Quits US Chamber of Commerce over Climate Change Position

MoonHowler

Apple, the tech behemoth, has resigned its membership in the US Chamber of Commerce, effective immediately because of the position taken on climate change by the organization. Apple follows on the heels of Nike who also just resigned.

According to the New York Times:

The New York Times reports that Apple’s resignation is effective immediately. Catherine Novelli, vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, called the chamber’s stance on climate change issues “frustrating” in aletter addressed to its president and CEO.

“We strongly object to the chamber’s recent comments opposing the E.P.A.’s effort to limit greenhouse gases. … We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis

.

Several energy companies have also left the Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, Bill Maher spoke explicitly and irreverently , as usual, on Friday night over the climate change issue:

Beyond a Reaonable Drought

According to Huffington Post, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), mentioned by Maher and known as the King of Global Warming Deniers, announced on C-Span over the weekend that he will go to Copenhagen later this fall to enlighten the scientists and he will present:

another view.” “I think somebody has to be there — a one-man truth squad,” he said. Throughout the program, Inhofe went through his tattered global warming denier claims: that climate change is a “hoax,” that CO2 is not a pollutant, and — latching on to the latest false right-wing talking point — that clean energy legislation will cost American families $1,700 a year

Bill Maher might be on to something. Forget science. Has anyone else noticed that the flowers and plants now last well in to November. Our 5 senses should be telling us something is different. When I was a kid, the growing season ended much earlier. Forget being a kid, when I was right out of college the growing season was shorter than it is now. Forget politics. Are there differences? Even if you don’t believe most of the scientists, are you willing to take the chance?

.