[BOBPARKS-WHATSNEW] What's New Robert L. Park 5 Dec 09
Garrison L. Hilliard
WHAT's New Robert L. Park 5 Dec 09
1. CLIMATE CHANGE: WHICH SIDE IS BOB ON IN THE CLIMATE WAR?
Ientitled to know. But first, Iscientist. I rely on information
gathered and interpreted by other
scientists, everybody does. My source on climate is the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established by the United Nations in 1988,
soon after I began writing WN. Along with most scientists, I concluded
that anthropogenic warming is real and dangerous; 20 years later I still
do. If warming is caused by human activity, and we have taken no steps
to
modify our behavior, the result will be catastrophic. A long-term
solution
calls for two changes throughout society: higher efficiency and lower
fertility. If warming turns out not to be caused by humans, we will still
have left our progeny with a better world.
2. CLIMATEGATE: WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE THAT DID THE HACKING?
Last week someone broke into the e-mail files of the Climate Research Unit
at the University of East Anglia, and posted the results on the web for
the
world to see. The Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily are
having a field-day writing about "criminal conspiracy" and "scientific
blacklisting." There were a few embarrassing comments about global
warming
deniers in a mountain of e-mails. I would hate to see some of my private
e-
mails on the web. The suffix was added to invite comparisons to the
infamous break-in at the Watergate Hotel by Nixon's goons, but in this
story the unnamed burglars are treated as heroes. No one wrote even a
line about what was probably the only criminal offense in this sordid
affair: hacking into private files. There are angry demands in Congress
for an investigation of the affair. So far the only effect has been to
shift the focus away from bad news about rising oceans and stranded polar
bears to climate scientists more interested in scoring points than
advancing science. All that's left is to figure out who paid for the
break-
in. That book has already been written.
3. FUEL : THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK YOU HAVENWhen the ClimateGate story
broke I immediately began digging through piles
of paper on my desk to find my copy of "Doubt Is Their Product: How
Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health," a 2008 book by David
Michaels, an epidemiologist at the George Washington University School of
Public Health. When scientific evidence of a threat to public health
becomes overwhelming, government intervention can still be delayed for
years by simply manufacturing uncertainty. That's where of the global
warming debate is right now. The fossil fuel industry is doing a job on
us.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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