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http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/08/05/global-warming-deniers-grow-more-
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Global Warming Deniers Grow More Desperate By The Day
David Suzuki & Ian Hanington.
Tue, 2014-08-05 17:45
Desmogblog
The Heartland Institute's recent International Climate Change
Conference in Las Vegas illustrates climate change deniers' desperate
confusion. As Bloomberg News noted, "Heartland's strategy seemed to be
to throw many theories at the wall and see what stuck." A who's who of
fossil fuel industry supporters and anti-science shills variously
argued that global warming is a myth; that it's happening but natural
-- a result of the sun or "Pacific Decadal Oscillation"; that it's
happening but we shouldn't worry about it; or that global cooling is
the real problem.
The only common thread, Bloomberg reported, was the preponderance of
attacks on and jokes about Al Gore: "It rarely took more than a minute
or two before one punctuated the swirl of opaque and occasionally
conflicting scientific theories."
Personal attacks are common among deniers. Their lies are continually
debunked, leaving them with no rational challenge to overwhelming
scientific evidence that the world is warming and that humans are
largely responsible. Comments under my columns about global
warming include endless repetition of falsehoods like "there's been no
warming for 18 years", "it's the sun", and references to "communist
misanthropes", "libtard warmers", alarmists and worse...
Far worse. Katharine Hayhoe, director of Texas Tech's Climate Science
Center and an evangelical Christian, had her email inbox flooded
with hate mail and threats after conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh
denounced her, and right-wing blogger Mark Morano published her email
address. "I got an email the other day so obscene I had to file a
police report," Hayhoe said in an interview on the Responding to
Climate Change website. "They mentioned my child. It had all kinds of
sexual perversions in it -- it just makes your skin crawl."
One email chastised her for taking "a man's job" and called for her
public execution, finishing with, "If you have a child, then women in
the future will be even more leery of lying to get ahead, when they see
your baby crying next to the basket next to the guillotine."
Many attacks came from fellow Christians unable to accept that humans
can affect "God's creation". That's a belief held even by a few
well-known scientists and others held up as climate experts, including
Roy Spencer, David Legates and Canadian economist Ross McKitrick.
They've signed the Cornwall Alliance's Evangelical Declaration on
Global Warming, which says, "We believe Earth and its ecosystems --
created by God's intelligent design and infinite power and sustained by
His faithful providence -- are robust, resilient, self-regulating, and
self-correcting, admirably suited for human flourishing, and displaying
His glory. Earth's climate system is no exception." This worldview
predetermines their approach to the science.
Lest you think nasty, irrational comments are exclusively from fringe
elements, remember the gathering place for most deniers, the Heartland
Institute, has compared those who accept the evidence for human-caused
climate change to terrorists. Similar language was used to describe the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a full-page ad in USA Today
and Politico from the Environmental Policy Alliance, a front group set
up by PR firm Berman and Company, which has attacked environmentalists,
labour-rights advocates, health organizations -- even Mothers Against
Drunk Driving and the Humane Society -- on behalf of funders and
clients including Monsanto, Wendy's and tobacco giant Phillip Morris.
The terrorism meme was later picked up by Pennsylvania Republican
congressman Mike Kelly.
Fortunately, most people don't buy irrational attempts to disavow
science. A Forum Research poll found 81 per cent of Canadians accept
the reality of global warming, and 58 per cent agree it's mostly
human-caused. An Ipsos MORI poll found that, although the U.S. has
a higher number of climate change deniers than 20 countries surveyed,
54 per cent of Americans believe in human-caused climate change.
(Research also shows climate change denial is most prevalent in
English-speaking countries, especially in areas "served" by media
outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch, who rejects climate science.)
It's time to shift attention from those who sow doubt and confusion,
either out of ignorance or misanthropic greed, to those who want to
address a real, serious problem. The BBC has the right idea,
instructing its reporters to improve accuracy by giving less air time
to people with anti-science views, including climate change deniers.
Solutions exist, but every delay makes them more difficult and costly.
--
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Mashable, 04 Aug 2014 17:18Z
Typhoon Halong, which peaked at a monstrous Category Five intensity during
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New York had deadliest tornado in the US during July
The Post-Standard, 04 Aug 2014 19:35Z
The only other fatal tornado last month hit in Virginia on July 24, killing
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tornadoes hit Central New ...
Hawaii Loads up on Supplies as 2 Major Storms Loom
ABC News, 05 Aug 2014 21:08Z
When a pallet full of bottled water ran out at a Honolulu warehouse store
Tue, shoppers loading up on supplies ahead of a hurricane and tropical storm
barreling toward Hawaii hovered around until a worker refilled it. Then, it
quickly emptied again.
Western states deal with extreme weather
MyNews3 Las Vegas KSNV, 06 Aug 2014 00:12Z
The weather in the western United States is either too wet or too dry, with
both extremes resulting in some destructive weather. Wildfires have spread
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