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He May Be Pope, But That Doesn’t Mean He Can Stop Climate Change

by Irvin6591s Posted on June 18, 2015

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Liberals should think twice before wishing that American Catholics would take their political cues from the pope. giulio napolitano/Shutterstock Liberals love nothing better than a religious figure who takes their side, and the media loves nothing more than the man-bites-dog story of a conservative force or figure staking out a progressive position. Consider all the hype given to pro-social justice evangelical Christians like Jim Wallis, or the statistically nonexistent“Creation Care” movement of green evangelicals. So the Monday leak of Pope Francis’s forthcoming encyclical on climate change naturally triggered triumphant statements from green groups. In the draft, Francis says that climate change is mostly human-made, and that a failure to mitigate it would be an abrogation of our responsibility to protect God’s creation and have “grave consequences for all of us.” He’s right, of course. But will it matter to the conservative political movements that stand in the way of taking climate action? Some greens certainly think so. 350.org declared that it will “add momentum and moral weight” to the fossil-fuel divestment campaign. Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental group, said in the same statement, “The pope’s encyclical will be a powerful game-changer.” Leading Senate climate hawk Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told Grist, “I think it’ll have a really profound impact … Not only does it have the clout of an encyclical, but I think this very, very charismatic pope intends to drive the message.” Unfortunately, there is little reason to believe that the pope’s position paper will alter the politics of the biggest, most problematic climate-polluting nations. None of the top four climate polluters — China, the U.S., India, and Russia — are majority Roman Catholic. Russia, India, and Japan have all sent worrying signalsabout their approach to the climate negotiations in Paris this fall. There is no reason to think the pope’s views matter to them at all. The European Union nations are heavily Catholic, but they are already committed to reducing emissions. The second-biggest emitter, the U.S., would therefore seem to be the most fertile ground for the pope to make inroads on the issue. The U.S. is 24 percent Catholic, and Catholic voters are an important swing constituency for both major political parties. But Democratic Catholics, like most Democrats, are already on-board to address climate change — just look at House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or Secretary of State John Kerry. The problem is the Republicans, regardless of their religion. Will the Pope’s words make any difference to them? No. Read the rest at Grist.

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He May Be Pope, But That Doesn’t Mean He Can Stop Climate Change

The Pope Thinks Climate Change Is a Major Threat. So Do American Catholics.
Good Luck Going After the Pope, Climate Deniers
There’s More Global Warming Coverage on Your Television
Pope Francis Calls for Urgent Action to Fight Climate Change
The Science of Why Republicans Are Dead Wrong About Climate Change and National Security
How To Convince Conservative Christians That Global Warming Is Real

Think the Climate Debate Is Settled? Jeb Bush Says You’re “Arrogant”

by Myrna Posted on June 15, 2015

You’ll be shocked to learn that the former Florida governor is “not a scientist.” On Monday, Jeb Bush is expected to officially launch his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. While some pundits are portraying the former Florida governor as a moderate, there’s at least one issue on which Bush appears to be just as far to the right as Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul: climate change. Back in December, we put together a video highlighting Bush’s past statements that he’s a global warming “skeptic,” that he’s “not a scientist,” and that the world “may not be warming.” Since then, Bush’s climate science skepticism has continued. “I don’t think the science is clear of what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural,”he said in May. “For the people to say the science is decided on this is just really arrogant.” Watch the updated video above for a sample of Bush’s climate rhetoric. Master image: Charlie Neibergall/AP Visit source: Think the Climate Debate Is Settled? Jeb Bush Says You’re “Arrogant” ; ; ;

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Think the Climate Debate Is Settled? Jeb Bush Says You’re “Arrogant”

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Florida and the Science Who Must Not Be Named

by Myrna Posted on March 18, 2015

Typing around Florida’s ban. wsfurlan/iStock The oceans are slowly overtaking Florida. Ancient reefs of mollusk and coral off the present-day coasts are dying. Annual extremes in hot and cold, wet and dry, are becoming more pronounced. Women and men of science have investigated, and a great majority agree upon a culprit. In the outside world, this culprit has a name, but within the borders of Florida, it does not. According to a Miami Herald investigation, the state Department of Environmental Protection has since 2010 had an unwritten policy prohibiting the use of some well-understood phrases for the meteorological phenomena slowly drowning America’s weirdest-shaped state. It’s…that thing where burning too much fossil fuel puts certain molecules into a certain atmosphere, disrupting a certain planetary ecosystem. You know what we’re talking about. We know you know. They know we know you know. But are we allowed to talk about…you know? No. Not in Florida. It must not be spoken of. Ever. Unless…you could, maybe, type around it? It’s worth a shot. The cyclone slowdown It has been nine years since Florida was hit by a proper hurricane. Could that be a coincidence? Sure. Or it could be because of…something. A nameless, voiceless something. A feeling, like a pricking-of-thumbs, this confluence-of-chemistry-and-atmospheric-energy-over-time. If so, this anonymous dreadfulness would, scientists say, lead to a drier middle layer of atmosphere over the ocean. Because water vapor stores energy, this dry air will suffocate all but the most energetic baby storms. “So the general thinking, is that that as [redacted] levels increase, it ultimately won’t have an effect on the number of storms,” says Jim Kossin, a scientist who studies, oh, how about “things-that-happen-in-the-atmosphere-over-long-time-periods” at the National Centers for Environmental Information. “However, there is a lot of evidence that if a storm does form, it has a chance of getting very strong.” Read the rest at Wired. Excerpt from: Florida and the Science Who Must Not Be Named

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Florida and the Science Who Must Not Be Named

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Watch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warming

by Myrna Posted on February 27, 2015

“I ask the chair: You know what this is? It’s a snowball.” The Senate’s most vocal critic of the scientific consensus on climate change, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, tossed a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday as part of his case for why global warming is a hoax. Inhofe, who wrote the book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, took to the floor to decry the “hysteria on global warming.” “In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, ‘You know what this is?’” he said, holding up a snowball. “It’s a snowball, from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.” “Catch this,” he said to the presiding officer, tossing the blob of snow. Read the rest at The Huffington Post. Master image — Screenshot: Slate/CSPAN Original post – Watch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warming

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Watch a US Senator Use a Snowball to Deny Global Warming

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There’s More Global Warming Coverage on Your Television

by Myrna Posted on January 29, 2015

But that’s not always a good thing. A 2014 debate on NBC’s Meet the Press between Bill Nye and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a climate change denying Republican Screenshot: NBC News Here’s some good news: According to a new study, the major broadcast news networks are covering climate change more than they have in years. Now here’s the bad news: Much of that coverage includes misleading arguments from commentators who reject the scientific consensus that humans are warming the planet. The new analysis is set to be released Wednesday by the liberal group Media Matters for America. (Disclosure: I used to work there.) Media Matters reviewed 2014 climate coverage from the evening newscasts and Sunday morning talk shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Company. All told, the networks devoted 154 minutes to global warming last year—up 19 percent compared to 2013 and far more than any year since 2009. That increase is a big deal. Millions of Americans watch the networks’ evening news shows. And the Sunday shows—ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, and Fox News Sunday—frequently set the agenda for the week’s political reporting elsewhere in the media. The networks have been under pressure in recent years to pay more attention to the climate. After Media Matters reported last year that the Sunday shows had aired a combined total of just 27 minutes of climate change coverage in all of 2013, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to network executives calling for a greater focus on the issue. They got their wish: In 2014, the Sunday shows tripled their global warming coverage to a combined total of 81 minutes. Each of the shows devoted about 20 minutes to climate. Among the evening news shows, CBS led the way with 35 minutes of climate reporting, followed by NBC with 25 minutes, and ABC with just 13 minutes. (Fox’s broadcast network, which is separate from the Fox News cable channel, doesn’t have an evening news program.) Of course, sheer quantity isn’t the only—or even the most important—measure of climate change reporting. For years, news outlets have been plagued by a tendency to balance the scientific fact that we’re warming the Earth with the very unscientific arguments of those who disagree. That was certainly the case on the Sunday shows last year. Nearly two-thirds of the climate coverage on NBC’s Meet the Press featured discussions that Media Matters classified as “false balance.” That included a debate between science educator Bill Nye and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who used the opportunity to argue that there is no scientific consensus on global warming. Both Nye and moderator David Gregory pushed back against Blackburn’s claims, but many viewers may have been confused by the segment. A far worse discussion aired on Fox News Sunday, where Washington Postcolumnist George Will and Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel rattled off a series of climate denial talking points, with little pushback from anyone on the panel. “Of course the climate is changing; it’s always changing,” said Will. “[Global warming] became climate change when you couldn’t prove that there was much global warming anymore…as the temperature didn’t change,” said Strassel. In all, nearly half of the 2014 climate coverage on both Fox News Sunday and ABC’S This Week featured false balance, according to Media Matters. Of the four Sunday shows, only CBS’s Face the Nation managed to avoid false balance entirely. “The networks continue to provide a platform for climate science deniers—despite the fact that 97 percent of climate scientists agree human activities are causing global warming,” said Andrew Seifter, the director of Media Matters’ climate and energy program, in a statement. “We hope that the networks will better inform their viewers by putting an end to this false balance in 2015.” More here – There’s More Global Warming Coverage on Your Television

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There’s More Global Warming Coverage on Your Television

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Hateful Little Cannibal Squirrels Could Help California Drought

by Myrna Posted on January 20, 2015

Farmers hate Belding’s ground squirrels. But they may be an essential piece of the state’s ecosystems. Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife/Wikimedia Commons Among alfalfa farmers in Northern California, Public Enemy No. 1 is a promiscuous, photogenic fur ball that weighs only half a pound and spends most of its life asleep. But with the critter helping the state weather its worst drought in 1,200 years, that perception may soon be a thing of the past. The diminutive Belding’s ground squirrel, an important link in the food chain for coyotes, bobcats, foxes, weasels, and raptors, has a long and troubled history as a major agricultural pest. Blame the squirrel’s voracious appetite for alfalfa. Blame its fleas, which can carry plague. Above all, blame the complex network of burrows it digs, which trip up livestock and damage farm machinery. All told, there are few animals in greater need of an image makeover than the rodent known to biologists as Urocitellus beldingi, and to detractors as pot gut, sage rat, and picket pin. But now, courtesy of climate change and California’s record-setting drought, Belding’s ground squirrels may be on the brink of a reversal of fortune. The same rodents responsible for millions of dollars’ worth of lost crops and damaged equipment might just turn out to be highly valuable ecosystem engineers, a designation reserved for organisms that modify their habitats, improving ecosystem stability and health. Read the rest at Grist. Link: Hateful Little Cannibal Squirrels Could Help California Drought

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Hateful Little Cannibal Squirrels Could Help California Drought

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8 Romney GIFs That Will Make You LOL

by DwightBowlin Posted on January 12, 2015

Mother Jones

1. Mitt

New York

2. Mitt Romney

Huffington Post

3. Mitt Romney is

Giphy

4. Mitt Romney is running

Giphy

5. Mitt Romney is running for

Giphy

6. Mitt Romney is running for Spiderman

Buzzfeed

7. Mitt Romney is running for Spiderman president

Giphy

8. Mitt Romney is running for Spiderman president (probably)

Giphy

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8 Romney GIFs That Will Make You LOL

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Climate Change Takes A Village

by Myrna Posted on December 16, 2014

As the Planet Warms, a Remote Alaskan Town Shows Just How Unprepared We Are. It’s obvious that something is wrong in Shishmaref. Kate Sheppard/The Huffington Post The cockeyed wooden building visible upon landing in Shishmaref belongs to Tony Weyiouanna Sr., 55, who uses it to preserve fish and render seal oil. Weyiouanna is the president of the board of the Shishmaref Native Corporation, which manages the land and resources allocated to the community under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. When the village first voted to relocate, he was tasked with heading up the effort as the technical staff assistant for the relocation coalition, which included representatives from the city council, the native government and the native corporation. At the time, Weyiouanna was working as the transportation planner for Kawerak, the regional economic and social development association, where he dealt with roads and other public works projects. Transportation planning is one thing. Planning to move a town is another. “I was like, ‘How the heck am I going to do this?’” remembers Weyiouanna. We’re sitting at his kitchen table drinking coffee as he recalls the relocation effort’s early days. He pauses occasionally to check a reindeer roast in the oven, and the smell, rich and earthy, fills the small house. One of his three children lounges on the couch in the adjoining living room, watching television. The coalition put together a detailed action plan, laying out for the community and for state and federal agencies what an “orderly relocation” would entail. Step one was to identify high-potential relocation sites, sizeable enough to accommodate the town’s growing population, with access to land and water and the hunting and fishing grounds on which the residents’ ancestors had relied for generations. The geography, hydrology and environmental suitability of the sites would be studied. The town would determine infrastructure needs for the new community, like an airport, roads, a clinic and a school. Finally, they would salvage what they could from Shishmaref and clean up the island after they left. Read the rest at The Huffington Post. Link: Climate Change Takes A Village ; ; ;

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Climate Change Takes A Village

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Conservative Lobby Group ALEC Plans Anti-Environmental Onslaught

by Myrna Posted on December 3, 2014

Bills will reportedly aim to expand offshore oil drilling and cut EPA budget. wellesenterprises/Thinkstock The corporate lobbying network American Legislative Exchange Council, commonly known as Alec, is planning a new onslaught on a number of environmental protections next year when Republicans take control of Congress and a number of state legislatures. The battle lines of ALEC’s newest attack on environmental and climate measures will be formally unveiled on Wednesday, when the group begins three days of meetings in Washington DC. ALEC, described by its opponents as a corporate bill mill, has suffered an exodus of tech companies from its ranks recently because of its extreme positions – especially its promotion of climate denial. Read the rest at the Guardian. This article: Conservative Lobby Group ALEC Plans Anti-Environmental Onslaught

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Conservative Lobby Group ALEC Plans Anti-Environmental Onslaught