Know the Enemies of Responding to Global Warming

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let me know.

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Happily, I came across a great site that's almost sure to find and publish anyone and everyone who, even if taken out of context, appears to question Global Warming and, more specifically, its cause being human activity. This great reactionary site is http://www.businessandmedia.org/. They trumpet themselves by citing this quotation:

“Finally there is an organized effort to put an end to the embarrassing media bias against the free market – and we can thank the folks at BMI for it. From oil price reality checks to the underreported success of the most recent tax cuts, Business & Media Institute gets it done.”

– Vicki McKenna, host, “Upfront w/Vicki McKenna”
News/Talk 1310 WIBA, Madison, Wis.

WIBA-AM radio in Madison Wisconsin? Vicki McKenna is an unabashedly conservative radio talk show host, hardly a bastion of objectivity. So an obscure conservative radio talk show host is proud of businessandmedia.org. That's the best they can do? What's wrong with this picture. Would you go see a new movie based on a review from WIBA-AM in Madison? No offense to the station (I'm an old radio guy), but this is pretty sad. Nevertheless, this is a great site to monitor to see what the "potential" (I'm being generous in using that word) disinformation promoters are saying to encourage us to laugh off Global Warming, shrug our shoulders, and just accept "Climate Change" as a normal procession of "another day at the office" on Planet Earth.

This site, thankfully, points out another site, Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com), "an indispensable on-line source for news as it should be reported – accurate, balanced, and unfiltered." And to show just how interested businessandmedia.org really is in objective news, get this:

TimesWatch, another Web venture of the MRC [right-wing Media Research Council...but you wouldn't know it by its name, eh?], follows The New York Times and exposes inaccuracies and glaring bias in news coverage.

That's a pretty fair objective. I wish the Media Research Council would hold the Washington Times' feet to the same fire. Nevertheless, this is good news. We can see how conservatives (not all conservatives, I'm quite sure) strive to tell us to "don't worry, be happy" when it comes to Global Warming.
So, I'll have to find a way to watch these sites and marvel at their "fair and balanced" view of the world, from the point of view of a right-wing group.

By the way, there's going to be no convincing some people, ever, that either "Climate Change" or "Global Warming" exist and that warming is accelerating faster than even the most dire predictions for it. The belief now is that our political leanings (e.g., reacting cautiously or openly to a political issue) have a genetic basis, according to a May 2005 article in The American Political Science Review and many other sources.

Climate Change Houdinis

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let me know.

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May 17, 2006: Big Oil Launches Attack On Al Gore. This posting on http://thinkprogress.org sums up so well how the fossil fuel industry muddies the waters around the proposition that both global warming is happening and it is caused by human activity, that I am reposting it here as a backup:

Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) will unveil two 60-second TV ads focusing on what it calls “global warming alarmism and the call by some environmental groups and politicians to reduce fossil fuel and carbon dioxide emissions.” The ad, which will be aired in more than a dozen cities across the country, is being released just a week before the May 24th opening (in LA and NYC) of Al Gore’s new movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.

Who is CEI? The Washington Post explains:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which widely publicizes its belief that the earth is not warming cataclysmically because of the burning of coal and oil, says Exxon Mobil Corp. is a “major donor” largely as a result of its effort to push that position.

CEI also gets funding from other oil companies through the American Petroleum Institute.

Exxon documents reveal the company gave $270,000 to CEI in 2004 alone. $180,000 of that was earmarked for “global climate change and global climate change outreach.” Exxon has contributed over $1.6 million to CEI since 1998.

CEI’s general counsel Sam Kazman said, “I think what attracted [Exxon] to us was our position on global warming.” CEI’s position? The Institute believes the dangers of global warming are akin “to that of ‘an alien invasion.’”

Exxon’s spokesperson Tom Cirigliano has explained why the company is so dedicated to funding CEI’s pushback on global warming:

We want to support organizations that are trying to broaden the debate. … There is this whole issue that no one should question the science of global climate change that is ludicrous. That’s the kind of dark-ages thinking that gets you in a lot of trouble.

The science is not questioned because the science behind global warming is indisputable. Science Magazine analyzed 928 peer-reviewed scientific papers on global warming published between 1993 and 2003. Not a single one challenged the scientific consensus that the earth’s temperature is rising due to human activity. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program concluded that humans are driving the warming trend through greenhouse gas emissions. And the EPA has said that the recent warming trend “is real and has been particularly strong within the past 20 years…due mostly to human activities.”

For the oil industry, Al Gore’s film exposing the truth is perceived as a threat, and they have no shortage of funds to try to distort it.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/17/attack-on-gore/, accessed 13 October 2007, © thinkprogress.org Please credit http://mynews.in/ for the image above, acccessed 28 June 2008.

Planet in Peril: Environmental Coverage - Special Reports from CNN.com

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite my ideas as © 2007, Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let me know!

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FYI, CNN will be presenting documentaries in October 2007 related to the topic of, among others, Global Warming. Fox News has emerged as an unabashedly right-wing commentary rather than a news network. This has encouraged many conservative voices who see the "News" in "Fox News" as proof that it is a "fair and balanced" network to "prove" that CNN is liberally biased. While not a new claim, when compared to Fox News, any other mainstream television news show or network is going to look quite liberal, indeed. Viewers of the BBC know that it has reported on Global Warming for years now, and it clearly does not see any debate left in the issue. Al Gore wisely has positioned "Climate Change" as a moral and ethical issue, not a political one.

I am in the process of trying to find sources that question what conservatives call "Climate Change" (and yes, many liberals have sneaked away from "Global Warming" because "Climate Change" doesn't blame human activity for the unprecedented changes in our environment). Interestingly, all of the projected changes of wild swings in the weather including exceptionally cold periods, are happening. The shocking truth is that even with an updated version of "An Inconvenient Truth", the apparent increases in temperature and even something as "in your face" as record-setting wild fire activity around the world are coming to pass faster than expected, and the pace of that change is accelerating. Incredibly, these changes (including 2007 becoming the hottest year on record) are emerging faster than the most dire predictions that have been made as recently as this year, 2007.

American media have been very slow to accept the Global Warming or even Climate Change premise is a valid one. Video of wild fires and temperatures in the U.S. over 100 degrees in most of the eastern U.S. for about 10 days this past summer have allowed mainstream U.S. media to begin to look at what's going on. Nevertheless, there is a pushback from conservative groups that may or may not constitute themselves under names that may be "objective" as well as others who choose "environmentally friendly" sounding names.The BP (British Petroleum) logo has "1984" written all over it as the company created a logo that looks about as earth-friendly as any logo you might find. They also have an advertising campaign extolling the virtues of BP in doing something about the impact of the use of its products on the environment. My guess (Klopfenstein © 2007...yes, you are allowed to chuckle) is that BP sees this is more of a marketing ploy to attract customers than great devotion to creating alternative sources of energy (which, as Al Gore kept emphasizing in the 2000 presidential race, could make the energy companies even more money as they invent new ebergy technologies). I hope someone from BP challenges me on this, but that would bring attention to this blog...not a good idea if you are BP.

Global Warming from ScienceDaily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/global_warming/ is a web site with nearly daily news about Global Warming. If anyone reading this knows of a site that lists the Global Warming antagonists, I'd like to list them here. Often (always?) they choose names that would allow the reader to "ass"ume that they are just the opposite: sites like this one that assume the global warming debate is over and the only questions are, where do we go from here? I know, for example, that there is a site that I thought might have been backed by BP Oil, not sure, but it talks about the good things Global Warming will and/or is doing for Canada. Surely a warmer Canada must be a good thing as vegetation and animal species continue their march northward. Right? Well, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in ecology to know that the earth is made up of ecosystems, and by definition any warming of Canada will mean a change to its ecosystems. (Moving to Georgia from Ohio has shown me an example of this unrelated to Global Warming: Kudzu (see below).) Speaking of ScienceDaily:

Researchers have long debated the consequences of introducing non-native species into ecosystems. Recently, these debates have centered upon the effects of invasive exotics, and dramatic pictures of grasslands filled with leafy spurge, water pipes clogged by zebra mussels, and forest trees killed by kudzu vines have fostered the public's understanding of the issue. But now, two Canadian scientists are suggesting that even the introduction of some less aggressive species may have far-reaching negative repercussions. Source: ScienceDaily accessed 12 September 2007, originally published 29 October 1999 by the Ecological Society Of America.

Interestingly, it turns out Kudzu (a vine that was introduced in Georgia to help control soil erosion) is falling victim to a new disease that also affects farmers' crops in the southeast United States: Asian Soybean Rust Disease. Note, there is nothing here intended to link this disease to Global Warming, but to publicize the parallel changes in ecosystems as the climate changes.

Ice Disappearing: Northwest Passage Nearly Open

Source: earthobservatory.nasa.gov:

For over 500 years, Arctic explorers have sought a passage between the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, often called the Northwest Passage, would connect Europe to Asia. Even in modern times, navigating from the Atlantic to the Pacific through Canada’s Arctic islands has been difficult. The summer of 2007, however, melted enough sea ice in Canada’s far north to open up this long-sought passage.


This image shows the islands north of mainland Canada adjacent to Greenland, as observed by the the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite on August 29, 2007. While the usual veil of clouds over the Arctic is visible through the scene, the sea ice pack that normally covers the water between the islands is absent. Areas often choked with ice at this time of year, but free of it in this MODIS scene, include the Parry and McClintock Channels and the McClure Strait. Larsen Sound and Victoria Strait are hidden beneath cloud cover, but they are also largely free of sea ice. This provided a nearly ice-free connection between Baffin Bay (a long body of water between Canada’s Baffin Island and Greenland that is regularly ice-free in summer) and the Arctic Ocean. An ice-free gap between the North American mainland and the Arctic sea, not shown here, extends all the way to the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia, creating a connection almost free of all sea ice from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific.

Environmentally-Friendly GreenPan Cookware Sells Out in Four Hours

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite the the PRNewswire, © 2007. I have expressed no opinions in this post--Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. It's interesting that this article suggests consumers may be "easily" persuaded to buy "green" products.
I certainly can NOT vouch for this product in any way, shape or form, but here is their news release that sounds good anyway:

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Environmentally-Friendly GreenPan Cookware Sells Out in Four Hours During the World Launch Exclusively on HSN
Issue: 08/27/07 | From: Backchannelmedia
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GreenPan(TM) cookware with breakthrough Thermolon(TM) non-stick coating made history on HSN and http://www.HSN.com when it debuted Thursday, July 26th and sold 24,000 pieces in just under 4 hours.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070214/CLW048LOGO-b )

HSN's "Mother of Invention" Joy Mangano and celebrity chef Todd English unveiled GreenPan(TM), the first environmentally-friendly, PTFE-free non-stick cookware, selling out 4 products during the live TV shopping debut. Sold out items included:

-- 6-piece GreenPan(TM) cookware set consisting of an 8 inch Fry Pan, 11

inch round Grill Pan, 11 inch Fry Pan, and 11 inch Steamer Insert

-- 8 inch Fry Pan

-- 12 inch Fry Pan

-- 3-piece Wok Set

"With GreenPan(TM), we are changing the future of cookware. This launch was the culmination of a remarkable year spent developing this incredible technology and applying it to everyday products," said legendary HSN on-air personality Joy Mangano. "Consumer response was heartwarming and encouraging. People are trying to do their part for the environment and thinking towards the future!"

GreenPan(TM) cookware with Thermolon(TM) non-stick coating was developed in partnership between HSN and manufacturing company, GreenPan(TM) LTD. Thermolon(TM) is the first patented, ceramic-based nano non-stick coating that performs at high temperatures without deterioration. It is PTFE-free, and uses no PFOA in manufacturing, making GreenPan(TM) cookware "green" in manufacturing.

Lowest Streamflow in 110 Years Recorded in North Carolina

You may use this content (better still, argue with me!), but please cite the the Environment News Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, © 2007. I have expressed no opinions in this post--Dr. Bruce Klopfenstein. Find any typos? Please let email me!

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Lowest Streamflow in 110 Years Recorded in North Carolina

RALEIGH, North Carolina, August 31, 2007 (ENS) - The lowest average August streamflow in 110 years of North Carolina recordkeeping was measured last month on the Tar River at Tarboro, in the east-central part of the state.

Streamflow figures released by the U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, on Friday show that the hot, dry days of August brought record lows to many of the state's rivers and streams amidst worsening drought conditions. People across most of eastern North Carolina are being asked to conserve as much water as they can.

Environment News Service, http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2007/2007-08-31-091.asp

The USGS and its federal, state, and local cooperators maintain 270 streamgaging stations and 39 monitoring wells throughout North Carolina.

These measurements show that the lowest average August streamflow on record occurred at 12 other monitoring stations in the state, but not compared to a 110 year period as on the Tar River.