Solving Global Warming

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Utah State, Global Warming, and Google

Google generated these ads while I was trying to read about the Global Warming conference at Utah State (the article itself seemed to have expired). Here's what Google added to the screen:

Ads by Google
Global Warming
www.WillYouJoinUs.com Join Chevron's energy debate. Discover. Discuss. Debate.
Help Sen. Boxer Fight EPA
ga6.org/campaign/epa_censored Tell EPA: Stop Censoring Documents and Help us Fight Global Warming!
Impact Global Warming
SpectraFund.com Invest in a Greener World. Spectra Green Fund. No Load.
Global Warming Facts
www.GetEnergyActive.org Are you worried about climate change? Get the facts.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Global Warming and the Shame of Misleading Think Tanks

OK, more than two months have gone by since I began my "crusade" to uncover organizations that want to muddy the waters about Global Warming or, for the politically correct or politically cowardly, "Climate Change," I'd like to point to a resource that lists objective, democratic-sounding (small D) organizations that are trying to calm the storm of how to address Global Warming, and how to address it now. Clearly debate on issues of public importance is to be encouraged, but when is it necessary to debate whether or not the sun rises in the east and sets in the west?

There is clearly nothing "wrong" with the concept of "think tanks" in which experts form an organization to investigate political, technological, or other controversial topics of the day. The problem comes when the think tanks are deliberately deceptive in their motives, their actions, and even their names. The BP logo noted below is really an "in your face" depiction of a very environmentally friendly image fronting for a company involved in an industry that is the source of the problem.

When Michael Moore produces a film, only those completely unfamiliar with his work would be surprised at his liberal, pro-labor perspectives. (I personally wasn't quite sure what to make of the connections Moore implied between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family and other friends from Saudi Arabia in Fahrenheit 9/11, but knowing Moore's perspective, I wasn't blind-sided by this portion of his expose and I did not accept them at face value.)

There is a directory of think tanks from a Japanese organization called NIRI, the National Institute for Research which, according to Wikipedia, is "Its objective is to conduct independent research to contribute to the resolution of contemporary complex social issues in many areas, including politics, economics, international affairs, society, new technologies, and administration." It also maintains a list of think tanks around the world including those in the United States from 2005 (suggesting that some think tanks specific to Global Warming or Climate Change may have formed after this directory was published):

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) / Washington, DC, United States
American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) / Washington, DC, United States
American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) / Washington, DC, United States
Asia Society / New York, NY, United States
The Aspen Institute / Washington, DC, United States
Association on Third World Affairs, Inc. (ATWA) / Washington, DC, United States
Atlantic Council of the United States (ACUS) / Washington, DC, United States
Atlas Economic Research Foundation / Fairfax, VA, United States
Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE) / Berkeley, CA, United States
The Brookings Institution / Washington, DC, United States
California Budget Project (CBP) / Sacramento, CA, United States
Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (CCEIA) / New York, NY, United States
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace / Washington, DC, United States
The Carter Center / Atlanta, GA, United States
Cascade Policy Institute / Portland, OR, United States
Cato Institute / Washington, DC, United States
Center for Defense Information (CDI) / Washington, DC, United States
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) / Washington, DC, United States
Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) / Washington, DC, United States
Center for National Policy (CNP) / Washington, DC, United States
Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues-Institute for Public Policy Studies, University of Denver (CPPCI) / Denver, CO, United States
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) / Washington, DC, United States
Center of International Studies, Princeton University (CIS) / Princeton, NJ, United States
The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) / Chicago, IL, United States
Committee for Economic Development (CED) / New York, NY, United States
The Commonwealth Institute / Cambridge, MA, United States
The Consensus Council, Inc. / Bismarck, ND, United States
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) / New York, NY, United States
DEMOKRITOS SOCIETY OF AMERICA (DSA) / Alamo, CA, United States
Discovery Institute / Seattle, WA, United States
Earth Policy Institute / Washington, DC, United States
East-West Center (EWC) / Honolulu, HI, United States
EastWest Institute (EWI) / New York, NY, United States
Economic Growth Center (EGC) / New Haven, CT, United States
Economic Policy Institute (EPI) / Washington, DC, United States
Economic Strategy Institute (ESI) / Washington, DC, United States
The Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University / Washington, DC, United States
Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) / Washington, DC, United States
Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) / Washington, DC, United States
Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) / Philadelphia, PA, United States
The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies / Notre Dame, IN, United States
Henry L. Stimson Center / Washington, DC, United States
The Heritage Foundation / Washington, DC, United States
Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace / Stanford, CA, United States
Hudson Institute / Washington, DC, United States
The Independent Institute / Oakland, CA, United States
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) / Washington, DC, United States
Institute for the Future (IFTF) / Palo Alto, CA, United States
Institute for International Economics (IIE) / Washington, DC, United States
Institute for Research on Poverty (IPR) / Madison WI, United States
Inter-American Dialogue (IAD) / Washington, DC, United States
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) / Washington, DC, United States
International Research Center for Energy and Economic Development (ICEED) / Boulder, CO, United States
Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies / Notre Dome, IN, United States
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES) / Washington, DC, United States
The Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs (MCPA) / Washington, DC, United States
The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation (MMMF) / Washington, DC, United States
Milken Institute / Santa Monica, CA, United States
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) / Cambridge, MA, United States
National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) / Dallas, TX, United States
National Health Policy Forum (NHPF) / Washington, DC, United States
Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development / Berkeley, CA, United States
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government / Albany, NY, United States
New America Foundation / Washington, DC, United States
The Nixon Center / Washington, DC, United States
Northeast-Midwest Institute / Washington, DC, United States
OMB Watch / Washington, DC, United States
Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies / Washington, DC, United States
Population Council / New York, NY, United States
Project for the New American Century (PNAC) / Washington, DC, United States
Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) / San Francisco, CA, United States
The RAND Corporation (RAND) / Santa Monica, CA, United States
Regional Research Institute (RRI) / Morgantown, WV, United States
Resources for the Future (RFF) / Washington, DC, United States
The Rockford Institute / Rockford, IL, United States
Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) / New York, NY, United States
Social Science Research Council (SSRC) / New York, NY, United States
The Southern Center for International Studies (SCIS) / Atlanta, GA, United States
Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP) / San Diego, CA, United States
Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), U.S. Army War College / Carlisle, PA, United States
United States Institute of Peace (USIP) / Washington, DC, United States
The Urban Institute / Washington, DC, United States
US-Japan-China Comparative Policy Research Institute (CPRI) / San Jose, CA, United States
Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies (VIPPS) / Nashville, TN, United States
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy / Washington, DC, United States
Weatherhead East Asian Institute (WEAI) / New York, NY, United States
Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy (Weidenbaum Center) / St. Louis, MO, United States
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) / Washington, DC, United States
World Peace Foundation / Cambridge, MA, United States
World Policy Institute (WPI) / New York, NY, United States
World Resources Institute (WRI) / Washington, DC, United States
Worldwatch Institute / Washington, DC, United States

Accessed 30 December 2007, http://www.nira.go.jp/ice/nwdtt/2005/IDX2/index8.html#UnitedStates, © 2005, National Institute for Research's World Directory of Think Tanks, Japan, ISBN: 4-7955-6024-2 C3002.

When is green really green? Debunking the tricky "think tanks"

As 2007 winds down as the hottest year on record, it's time to rekindle why the conclusion that global warming is occurring and human activity clearly is playing a part in that well-documented phenomenon versus the unexpected (?) maelstrom of discontent that has been ignited ever since Democrat (gasp!) Al Gore was awarded both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize for his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Dispassionate observers have concluded that Gore's breakdown of recent changes in weather patterns or, more cautiously, "climate change" (which somehow makes weather disasters associated with Global Warming more acceptable because they are not "our" (humans) fault) is a slam dunk, a no brainer, yesterday's news. But the scientific investigation into what we are seeing before our various eyes courtesy of television and widespread video documentation of current weather events, has been turned on its head as, fairly portrayed, reactionaries have been successfully turning scientific "fact" into a debate paralleling that of evolution "versus" intelligent design.

Why is this happening? Who stands "win" or somehow believe the status quo is a far better path to take than investing in new technologies that can begin to remove carbon from the air? Why did this "mom and apple pie" story of one year ago suddenly become a, well, a controversy?

Without a dissertation on what British Petroleum is or isn't doing in this arena, their logo is instructive. Rather than showing an oil rig, for example, instead the BP logo invokes images of a sun flower. This is a bit ironic considering that their business involves, in large part, polluting the air by providing the carbon-based fossil fuels that run our millions of motor vehicles, and more. Is this a reincarnation of George Orwell's 1984? Of course, inorganic farming might benefit from pesticides and herbicides derived by petroleum products refined by BP, but is growing sunflowers really that large a portion of BP's business?

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Georgia Asks for National Disaster Declaration Due to Drought

In my own neck of the woods, Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue, has just asked President Bush to declare the area north of Georgia including Lake Lanier, a key source of water for the Atlanta metro area, a federal disaster area.

We went from relatively normal soil moisture last winter to a 100-year-drought in a matter of months thanks both to the lack of rain and to the evaporating effects of 10 or so days of sunshine and temperatures over 100. In fact, what's lost in that statement is the weeks of upper 90s F we also experienced this summer. No one seemed to notice how quickly lake levels were dropping, and many probably thought it was a temporary thing. Needless to say, we were hoping for a tropical storm or two to find their way to North Georgia to help alleviate the situation as it has in the recent past. Such was not the case this hurricane season, which technically isn't over.

Global Warming Backlash: Here Are Our Experts

Well, I decided to make this a secondary post to the earlier one. One are there so many names on Wikipedia of Global Warming skeptics? I can see two obvious reasons: 1) to the novice, the sheer number of names at first glance is impressive; 2) this is an easy way for Fox News and the Drudge Report, among many other right-leaning "news" organizations to easily find a skeptic to debunk the latest scientific research on Global Warming; mainstream journalists in the U.S. are trained to offer both sides of an issue on the assumption that citizens are wise enough to see the truth (I ought to know, I'm in a journalism college and have been affiliated one way or another with journalism, since I was 18 years old). So, the mainstream media can go to Wikipedia for sources if they so choose, and if any of those listed are articulate and know how to give a complete yet terse 30-second "sound byte" are far more likely to get on the air than those who don't.

The Lengths Global Warming Skeptics Go to Villify Al Gore

In fairness to Wikipedia (no pun intended), it also has a comprehensive area about Global Warming, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_controversy. Of course, mainstream scientists might argue that there is no controversy, the issue has been settled. Yet those with a political agenda to "Do Not Disturb" the fossil fuel industry work every day to frame Global Warming as a controversy. The extreme weather all over the globe this year (and it's continuing with severe weather in mid-October in the Midwestern United States where October is usually one of the most beautiful times of the year). Ironically, those who don't want to get into the controversy of Global Warming may very unscientifically look at the weather this year and agree Global Warming is upon us and it's time to do something about it.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Global Warming Skeptics: They Are Taking Names!

Because I am interested in addressing Global Warming, it's good to know who refuses to believe it or actively try to muddy the waters. It's no secret that members of the fossil fuel family, rather than invest in profitable new technologies to reduce emissions and even clear the air, get "hired guns" as is done in higher profile legal proceedings to uses their expertise to cast doubt on, in this case, Global Warming.

Wow! What a surprise. When I did a Google search for

global warming skeptics

I found that Wikipedia is taking names! The address is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Global_warming_skeptics.

Needless to say, out of curiosity I will check on global warming enthusiasts, advocates, experts, I'm not quite sure what the best word to use would be. What is the antonym of skeptic? Well, it is interesting to note that it was not easy to find an antonym for skeptic, but the on I did find seems OK: "believer." We have beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, and belief does seem reasonable. Beliefs are we perceive to be true.

However, when I went to Wikipedia, I found believer is the subject of songs, films, literature. I expected to see things related to religion. Nevertheless, I will attempt to find a list of global warming believers. I could use some help on this one. I suppose the last U.N. summit on the subject would be a good place to look.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

"The Heartland Institute" Cover for "What Global Warming?"

I've taken time today to look for resources about Global Warming. I personally accept the term "Climate Change" to be a political run around the term "Global Warming." Climate change sounds more like an act of God, while environmental scientists agree that the earth is warming and human activity is one of the elements feeding Global Warming. But there are those out there who cannot accept this whether it be to protect the oil and auto industries or because they have framed this as a "Global Warming = Liberal Agenda" political ploy that does not fit their politically conservative view of the world.

The mom and apple pie sounding "The Heartland Institute" has a video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRaeEIN5Sh8 that pans Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Here is a still image from that video (my comments are in white letters, italicized):

It's hard for me to make out what the people (person?) behind "The Heartland Institute" are trying to prove, that Al Gore has a slide showing steam instead of smoke? Hired guns in the video say that the earth heats first, and then that raises CO2 levels. Hmmm..... Maybe those jokers who said we never landed on the moon were right after all.