A question about climate change/global warming.

Americans are more likely to attribute the increased severity of natural disasters to global climate change than to signs of apocalyptic biblical prophecy.

• Nearly 6-in-10 (58%) Americans say that the severity of recent natural disasters is evidence of global climate change, compared to 44% of Americans who say that the severity of recent natural disasters is evidence of what the Bible calls the 'end times.' -White evangelical Protestants and Republicans are an exception to this pattern:
• Among White evangelicals, 67% believe that natural disasters are evidence of what the Bible calls the 'end times' compared to 52% who see it as evidence of global climate change.
• Among Republicans, 52% believe that natural disasters are evidence of what the Bible calls the 'end times' compared to 41% who see it as evidence of global climate change.

http://www.publicreligion.org/research/?id=519

i guess i'm supposed to be happy that overall, slightly more Americans attribute the increased severity of recent natural disasters to science rather than Catbeast, but http://www.bbc.co.uk/leicester/content/images/2006/10/19/dmu_head_in_hands_315x420.jpg

Sorry to spam multiple threads, but if I can even get one person to participate in this I think it's worth it.

Some of you may have heard about the Tar Sands protests at the White House, running every day from Aug 20th - Sept. 3rd. 322 arrests have been made so far.

The media coverage is starting to pick up steam:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/08/tar-sands-xl-keystone-pipeline-protest.html
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/08/why-far-off-canadian-tar-sands-have-become-a-make-or-break-issue-for-obama-with-enviros.php?ref=fpb
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61837.html#ixzz1W4D5RzZZ

If any of you are willing to join me on Sept. 3rd, here's a pretty detailed account of what you're in for:

http://www.tarsandsaction.org/adam-maynard-we-shall-overcome-tar-sands/
http://www.tarsandsaction.org/update-from-legal-support-team/

"Processing once we arrived at the jailhouse was relatively painless. One by one they snapped off our plastic cuffs and led us to a long table staffed with officers who had us fill out paperwork for our release. Because of the low severity of our crime – we were charged with failure to obey a lawful order (aka get off the sidewalk) – and the benevolence of the Park Police, we were granted a “post and forfeit” release. Under these terms we could pay a $100 fine instead of staying overnight in jail and arranging a date in court. Thankfully we were instructed to have cash on us beforehand, and we were all out of police custody by 2:00 or so. Not so bad considering arrests had started around 11:30. I also want to make a point of saying that the DC Park Police were courteous and professional throughout the process, and I hope they spend my $100 wisely."

After being relative assholes on the first day (the Park Police decided to try to deter future protesters by holding them for 2 days overnight in jail), all of the protesters are now getting charged with "Failure to Obey" (a traffic charge less than a misdemeanor) and a "post and forfeit" release, which entails a $100 fine and an immediate release.

Sept. 3rd is the last day of the protests, and will probably have the most people and the most coverage. If any of you want to kick it in the paddywagon with me for an hour or so on the 3rd I'd welcome your company. Or, of course, if you can make it on any other day, even just to register your support (no arrest/fine), please do.

Join your friends on the right wing in interpreting the interpretations of'Climategate II'.

Jesus fucking christ. Reading stuff like that makes my head explode. I've want to bitterly rant at length but I'm iphoning it so I'll save it for later.

*sounds of people removing bookmark from thread*

Wow, it didn't even take them 24 hours (via Washington Monthly/Steve Benen)

A Koch-financed study of climate data, which many on the right agreed to accept no matter the outcome, just concluded that global warming is real and the scientific consensus is legit.

But it snowed yesterday in parts of the Northeast, so we once again have to deal with nonsense like this:

From Eric Bolling’s Twitter feed:

“Hey A Gore…earliest snow in NYC since the Civil War…where’s your global warming now, see?:

Last night on his Fox Business program, Bolling also pointed to the snowstorm to try to rebut climate change. On-screen text during the segment read, “Global Warming: A Scam?”

Ari Fleischer, recently hired by CNN to be one of the more respectable Republican voices, went there, too.

“This is freaky. The temp is dropping & the snown is sticking like crazy. Al Gore - get rewrite”

Does every freak snow storm have to bring out the worst in climate deniers? Is all of this really necessary?

People (including my dad, who does the same) need to have the difference between "climate" and "weather" tattooed on their faces

Well, the Daily Mail is certainly an unbiased and trustworthy source.

peepee in Canada

Well, isn't this just dandy...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/04/greenhouse-gases-rise-record-levels

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount, according to the US department of energy, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.

The figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, the co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/01/01fotos/Newspaper-550.jpg/image_large

sure is a graph

well tbf they're shitty newspapers on every other subject in the world too

it's the trend of increasing shittiness that's annoying

2011 the 9th warmest year on record in last 130 years. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-temps.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoOrtvYTKeE

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/02/15/breaking-news-a-look-behind-the-curtain-of-the-heartland-institutes-climate-change-spin/

i wonder if this will get 1/1,000,000th of the coverage that the Climategate non-scandal received

hey my generation, you suck

In 2011, the largest chunk of respondents, 67 percent, said they aren't certain global warming is happening. Meanwhile, 23 percent were concerned or alarmed, and at the other end, 10 percent are not worried or don't believe it is happening.

excuse me for a second.

http://www.getgreatcodes.com/graphics/funny/16/funnypic171.gif

Political affiliation also mattered. Zero conservative Republicans were alarmed, while only 10 percent were concerned.

excuse me for a second.

http://www.getgreatcodes.com/graphics/funny/16/funnypic171.gif

Going to have to kill me some people

Climate scientist Michael Mann lets National Review Online and Mark Steyn know that they're facing a defamation lawsuit.

been so depressed since reading that McKibben piece

i'm really glad that his article is reaching a somewhat wider audience, but there wasn't much in there that was new, right?

not really, it's just the starkness of the math and the lack of progress/lateness of the hour

i confess that this isn't an issue that worries me, but maybe a pressing urgent fear isn't a pre-req for policy change?

why doesn't it worry you

lack of urgent fear hasn't worked out so well so far tbh

i kinda feel like if it weren't such an emotionally charged issue, people could accept pro-environment policy changes as just normal and sensible things to do.

ah yes, normal, sensible humanity

so eager to give up things that make their lives easier

I think I've already accepted that we won't change any of this and I'm just kind of preparing myself for living in a radically different world in 10, 20, 30 years.

i can easily imagine some really fucked up scenarios for 30 years out, biased toward sustaining the privileges of the developed countries and grotesquely unfair to poor people.

like, maybe in 30 years there will be children born with fins composed of billions of microscopic small ridges that will allow them to dissipate heat at an extraordinarily high rate, also they will be able to subsist on algae and alfafa, the only two viable crops farmed by humans then, or will we even be called humans? maybe heat-ans

^and everyone drinks their own pee, of course

naturally!

the best way to spur action on this front would be to outlaw air conditioners, imo

Especially scary combined with the growth in population. The LA Times just started a series on world population by 2050 - Africa will double (including 390 million in Nigeria, to the US's 400M), India will have more than China. I suspect the carrying capacity of the planet will prevent these projections from coming true.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/population/

Over 80 percent of the U.S. is now under drought conditions.

http://www.examiner.com/article/70-percent-of-people-u-s-now-believe-climate-change

gonna set up a kickstarter for my stillsuit company

from the LA Times article:

William G. Lesher, a former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the brightest minds in the field haven't figured out the solution.

"We're going to have to produce more food in the next 40 years than we have the last 10,000," he said. "Some people say we'll just add more land or more water. But we're not going to do much of either."

Most of Earth's best farmland has already come under hoof or plow, and farmers are losing ground to expanding cities and deserts. Soil erosion, chemical contamination and salt buildup from irrigation are despoiling prime acreage.

Climate change will make all of these challenges more daunting. Higher temperatures and violent weather will stunt or destroy crops. Increased flooding will imperil millions living in low-lying regions. More severe droughts could displace masses of people, leading to conflict.

By 2050, the United Nations predicts, there could be as many as 200 million "climate refugees."

Despite these trends, population growth has all but vanished from public discourse.

OneOrdinaryCitizen at 7:15 AM July 23, 2012
Just one little problem with this article. How can falling fertitlity rates lead to a population explosion? In fact, world population growth rates have been falling since 1970. The current population growth rate of 1% per year is down from over 2% per year in the early 70s. While an additional 1% or 70,000,000 people per year is enourmous and presents many challenges, Nature has a way of dealing with populations that exceed the capacity of their environment.

once again, the inability for some people to understand subjects that require even a little bit of math/science education is such a limiting factor. the article explained, at length, with various analogies, why population could continue to rapidly grow even as overall fertility rates decline.

Well isn't this news just dandy?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/24/greenland-ice-sheet-thaw-nasa

also:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/earth-from-space-whats-floating-down-the-fjord-today-dear/260296/

been so depressed since reading that McKibben piece

― the alternate vision continues his vision quest! (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, July 23, 2012 11:57 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i know what will cheer you up! you can watch this important discussion on environmentalism that the good folks at the American Enterprise Institute are hosting tomorrow!

Humanity once looked in the mirror and saw something precious, worth protecting and fighting for -- indeed, worth liberating. But now we are beset on all sides by propaganda promoting a radically different viewpoint: that humans are endangering the earth’s natural order.

“Merchants of Despair,” by leading thinker Robert Zubrin, traces the pedigree of antihumanist ideology and exposes its deadly consequences in startling detail. The book names the chief prophets and promoters of antihumanism over the last two centuries and exposes the worst crimes perpetrated by the movement, including eugenics campaigns in the U.S. and genocidal antidevelopment and population-control programs around the world.

Please join us for a lunch discussion of this important new book.

http://www.aei.org/events/2012/07/26/merchants-of-despair-radical-environmentalists-criminal-pseudo-scientists-and-the-fatal-cult-of-antihumanism/

there was a Sunday NYT opinion piece this week about how ppl simply can't imagine a drastically different world. until it arrives.

title was something like "we are all climate idiots"

Man, that's some spin. "Antihumanism" -- who could possibly find fault with THAT?

Zubrin's change in course from pro-Mars/Space Exploration guru to anti-climate change zealot is even more depressing to me! I have always been a huge proponent of getting into outer space.

if anything, climate change scenarios make me want to get off this stupid planet even more

http://haysvillelibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/how-to-live-on-mars.jpg