Monday, December 21, 2015

"...as the evidence for anthropogenic global warming grows ever more certain, and the political costs for Republican...

"...as the evidence for anthropogenic global warming grows ever more certain, and the political costs for Republican presidential candidates of openly questioning science rise, conservatives have shifted their emphasis from denying the science to denying the possibility that policy can change it."

Fascinating.

h/t Jennifer Freeman 
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/12/climate-change-isnt-real-also-cant-be-stopped.html

16 comments:

  1. اووو تطقون لو قلت أحبها وربي واللي خلقكم امووووووت فيها حياتي هي 🌷

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yup:

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/sep/16/climate-change-contrarians-5-stages-denial

    If I was cynical, I'd say the plan was to intentionally run out the clock, then yell "too late!" Oh wait, I am cynical.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Of course. After years of denying it, now they have to say we just can't do anything about it, and we should just keep doing business as usual.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And yeah. This thought also came to mind when I read all the carping about voluntary agreements being meaningless: since countries are sovereign, “mandatory” agreements have no world police to enforce them. There's reason to believe that this agreement might actually be a good start, because it's now impossible to deny the seriousness of the issue. Chinese leaders in particular see the problem daily.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Eli Fennell I got tired of your pointed ambivalence. You don't "believe" in climate change -- we've had this discussion several times -- I'm not going to have it again with you. Please unsubscribe from my Climate Science collection if you find that you are unable to resist objecting to these facts. That's why I put them in a collection. Thanks.

    p.s., Remember that if I was willing to delete one comment, I'm probably willing to delete more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Craig Froehle I think this is not inside a collection though...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sordatos Cáceres It is. I suspect you're using the new G+ app, which doesn't reliably show that a post is in a collection or a community.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Eli, how does "the left handle it"? The U.S. is virtually the only place in the world where climate change has become an ideological issue, and the ideological pressure is entirely on the right, from lunatics like Ted Cruz and Jim Inhofe, who insist that climate change is a gigantic conspiracy dreamed up by the world's scientists. The reality based world (not simply "the left", but the non-insane across the political spectrum) just wants to discuss facts and rational responses.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stages of grief, stuck between denial and anger?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I actually kind of agree that unilateral agreement on "goals" doesn't actually help.

    What we REALLY need is not carbon taxes or other financial comoditisation of the environment but commitments to the following.

    A) reducing deforestation.

    B) increasing the growing of new green belts which are not to be burned. Used for timber is fine (as that's a carbon sink) as long as it is replaced at the same rate. In fact young trees probably sequester more carbon than old trees.

    C) a commitment to fusion research investment for global common good.

    D) enforced accurate monitoring of environmental forcing gasses. Focussing on CO2 isn't enough. What about water vapour, methane, etc.

    This is a scientific problem which although it requires political support, cannot be solved by politicians. We need "climate engineers".
    These skills will be useful for terraforming other planets at some later stage.

    What im saying is we need Actual solutions rather than political circle jerking.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Let's plant some trees just to piss then off.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What we need is Bernie Sanders with a newly elected super majority of progressive Liberals in House and Senate.
    Anything short of that will mean nothing gets done

    ReplyDelete
  13. What we need is a pony. But in the absence of a pony it probably makes sense to do as many non-pony things as possible in the same direction.  (Yes, I know there's a big split between the people who think that incremental measures make "real" reform more difficult and those who think incremental measures enable "real" reform. Non-incremental measures tend to require pretty horrible catastrophes, though.)

    ReplyDelete
  14. paul wallich​ ponies bite and hence suck. I say we round up all the ponies and turn them into dog food.

    ReplyDelete

Now I'm doubly intrigued!

Now I'm doubly intrigued!