GLOBAL WARMING NEWS
Global warming news and global warming science leave little doubt we’re experiencing global warming. Rising sea levels, climate change and violent weather all point to the same conclusion: the planet is warming. Yet we still have global warming skeptics. Are man-made greenhouse gases to blame. Or is it just Earth's natural weather cycles? Global Warming News separates the hot air from the melting polar ice caps on this contentious topic.
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Feckless Pols Follow Desperate
Voters’ Lead 01.10.12
Which one would you bay a used car from?
The deals with the
devil today’s politicians are willing to make might disgust those
of us more willing to sacrifice our own ambitions for the sake of
generations to come. But in our disgust, it’s important every once
in a while to examine our own little deals with apathy and excuse,
whatever our good intentions. That’s NBN’s take on this Time
magazine article which
leads off with the only two Republican candidates previously willing
to admit global warming is a reality. As they article points out, both and now starting to salt their
opinions on the subject with the global warming skepticism that has
become a staple of Republican politics in the 21 century.
Gingrich’s
strict allegiance to his ambition has left little doubt no infidelity
is off limits. However, Huntsman’s recent backing away from his
strident support of global warming science, stated in the first GOP
debate, is disheartening for anyone still wanting to believe in our
political system. How is it possible that an apparently well educated
and informed fellow like Huntsman can abandon reason so readily on an
issue that could substantially impact every aspect of our lives and
those of generations to come? Doesn’t he have to look at himself in
the mirror each morning? How do you one day say, “I’m going to
stand up for my beliefs” and the next day start shopping around for
a different strategy on an issue where error is not an option?
We pledge allegiance to whomever listens.
NBN would love to
believe it’s just the corrupting
influence of
the petroleum industry producing a political party this
election cycle unusually
willing to plunder principle to push up poll performance. It’s so
tempting to vilify bogeymen like the Koch brothers as maliciously
misleading a country full of desperate, unemployed voters. However,
the Time article has NBN thinking the blame spreads a little further
afield. It seems increasingly clear these desperate voters are
ignoring global warming science as willfully as the Koch brothers do
so maliciously. A large percentage of this country wants
to believe global warming isn’t a looming disaster demanding a
total turning away from fossil fuels to prevent, and our friendly GOP
candidates are all too willing to oblige them.
That’s
because fossil fuels are guaranteed to work economically, if not
ecologically. Say what you want about the horrendous inefficiency of
mining energy from the Alberta tar sands and then schlepping it down
to the Gulf of Mexico, the numbers behind it work. So private
industry is happy to invest. No tax dollars, jobs, jobs, jobs and
less dependence on foreign oil. Ditto for the new fossil fuel
industry called hydrofracking. It’s promising
total
economic salvation in
areas
of the country full
of this country’s most desperate voters.
Why is it the most religious candidates are most opposed to climate change?
Toward that end, the Time article makes an excellent point. This
ignorance of science by those wanting to believe—despite the
horrendous cost of being wrong—is being helped in part by those
believing in every aspect of global warming science and its
horrendous costs. If global warming believers really believe, it’s
not enough to cite reams of facts in order to convert a country full
of fans of fossil fuels. Particularly when you have political leaders
telling them such skepticism is not just healthy but
possibly holy. Trying to counter such “leaderships” with a
string of science stats is as likely as not only going to harden any
skepticism embraced in ignorance.
One day soon, we all must do this.
Global
warming believers have to put our money where our mouths are. It’s
a lot easier to just demonize folks like the Koch brothers than it is
to go out and buy solar panels for our roofs and electric vehicles
for our garages. But who has $40,000 to spend on something that’s
going to possibly save the planet in the long run but only save $10 a
week in the short run? Isn’t this where our political leaders are
supposed to step in? Sadly, as John Hunstman so clearly showed, these
politicians will tell us whatever
we want to hear to
get elected, and right now a lot of Americans don’t want to hear
about global warming. Leadership is going to have to come from
opening our pocketbooks and being the change our future depends on,
and not just talking about it.
Please click here to add your two cents. Or two bits.
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The
Last Words on Hydrofracking, for Now 11.22.11
Kudos
to Robert Kennedy, Jr. for this
2,500-word synopsis of
the New York Times’ 10,000-and-counting-word investigation into the
issues surrounding the natural gas extraction process called
fracking. Even though it’s nearly impossible to get to the end of
Kennedy’s piece, getting through the bullets, which are all
footnoted, leaves you thinking the whole idea of fracking is insane.
The process is clearly deeply flawed. This article linked above is
must reading if you think there’s a future in
fracking.
Then
we’ve got another piece by Bloomberg
News that
attempts to be the definitive argument on the hope the fracking
industry presents for this country. Two important points to note
about this piece. First it links to this
website which
permits for voluntary disclosure of fracking water chemicals by the
companies using them. It’s scary. Second, the article covers the
issue of disposal of used fracking water with this statement by a
joint industry/environmental group commission studying ways to make
fracking safer: “the need for…more careful disposal of wastewater
that comes up from wells”
Disposal
of wastewater is the single biggest problem facing this industry and
Bloomberg dedicates about .01 percent of an 4,500 word, eight-webpage
article to the topic. (Yes, NBN read the whole thing.) In an
otherwise well-reported piece, that’s an inexcusable, if not
deliberate omission. While a third of the article details the
personal and career histories of the industry players who took this
technology from drawing board to drilling derricks, lip service is
paid to what this landmark New York Times piece identified as the
single biggest problem facing the industry: disposal of the used
fracking water.
About a quarter of the article makes an affective argument that contamination concerns of drinking water supplies through leaks of natural gas and fracking water through the wells themselves are over blown. But what about the fracking water once it’s returned from those wells? Increasingly it seems that’s the Achillies heel for this industry. Still, the Bloomberg piece does a remarkable job detailing the economic promise of this industry and for that reason alone, anyone wanting to argue one way or another about this industry needs to read both these pieces.
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