Category: This is Not Cool

The stories that we tell ourselves about the world shape our perception of reality.
And the way we tell our stories in the modern world, is through movies.
My most recent video about climate science in 1956 made the point that the science has been clear for a long time.
I started out with the famous Bell Telephone hour clip, which has been floating around the web for a while, but amazingly, a lot of people have not yet seen.
Then it moves on to a number of blockbusters and not-busters, which may or may not have had climate as a theme, but where a sense of climate change informs the view of man’s future.
It’s an interesting,and sometimes infuriating, exercise to see how the climate change paradigm has evolved in the collective consciousness – while we’ve only gone backwards in terms of dealing with it the “real world”. If you can think of films, tv shows or other media that have referenced climate change, send links here. We’ll review and revisit again in a future video.

This video has been floating around on the web for a while, but I thought it was time I included it in my uploads, since so many people have come to rely on these videos.  It’s still amazing how many people have not seen this – the whole presentation, “The Unchained Goddess”, which comes as a two-fer with “Hemo the Magnificent”, which was part of the same series – is worth viewing. (Netflix has it)  For one thing, Frank Capra directed. It’s not clear who came up with the idea of speaking to and dialoging with mythical beings on topics of modern science – but it certainly resonates in the post Joseph Campbell mind.  There were some pretty wild ideas floating around in the 50s. We just thought they looked normal because of the cute animation.

Despite the fashionable meme going around about public resistance to wind farms, the reality is, that is for the most part a shuck and a sham.   Outside of a few well publicized instances of NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) movements around wind development – by far public reaction has been more of the PPIIMBY (Please Put It In My Back Yard) variety.

Here in Michigan, one of the primary epicenters of onshore wind development, the agricultural thumb region, has seen several medium sized wind farms already, and is gearing up for even larger developments.  A referendum in last week’s election asked voters if they approved of new development in the Huron County area, and voters responded with a 59 percent approval. Continue reading “Resistance to Wind Development – Really? Not in My Back Yard…”

Many climate deniers still seem to think global warming was invented by Al Gore, in 2006.  As this recently uncovered recording from 1956 shows, the outlines of climate change science have been clear for many decades.

I showed this to my 25 year old son, who happened to be home from school. He watched in silence, but I knew what he was going to say. “It makes me angry. They’ve known about this for all these years.” I don’t have a good answer for him. I hope I have an answer for his children. Continue reading “This is your Father’s Climate Science: A Climate Crock Blast from the Past”

The more deluded climate deniers are, the more certain they seem about their information.  I see it every day.  But it’s not limited to the climate denier community. We have a larger problem – the cancerous growth of a self reinforcing, right wing echo chamber media that has no anchor in reality, and no rationale other than political expediency in deciding which rumors, factoids, falsehoods and conspiracy theories it spreads.

Moreover, what, I am sure seemed like merely a great venue for disseminating one sided political propoganda, the Fox news, talk radio axis – has become over time an overwhelmingly powerful reality distortion field. It insures that not only are we as Americans divided by ideology, but that we functionally live on different planets in terms of what is accepted as true and false accounts of history and current events. Saddam attacked us.  Those WMDs are still out there.  Obama is a Kenyan smuggling muslims into the country. There is no climate change.

Ronald Reagan said you were entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. In 2010 America, those who claim to honor him have decided that, no, you are entitled to your very own fabricated reality.

The caption on this YouTube posting reads:
“On The Eve Of His First Organized Protest, Former BP/P2S Employee Turned Activist Tosh Peters Demands Answers From Oil Spill Claims Csar Kenneth Feinberg As To Why All Claims By BP/P2S Employees Are Being Rejected When Temporary And Migrant Workers Are Being Paid. Peters Also Discusses Seafood Safety And The Cleanup.”

Seafood Inspections continue.

Meanwhile, the picture below, said to be of a fish recently caught in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida.

NO on 23.

Very useful debate between Andrew Dessler and Richard Lindzen.
Warning to liberal arts majors. It’s long, and there are numbers. I’ll be rewatching this one a lot.

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