This is Not Cool

In an interview published today, AP writer Steve Karnowski breaks the Monckton/Abraham dust up nationally. The article prominently mentions Monckton’s bizarre, paranoid ravings on a recent interview with the
equally bizarre Alex Jones, linked above.

“And he gave a scathing interview last month to syndicated radio talk show host Alex Jones in which he called Abraham a “wretched little man,” dismissed St. Thomas as a “half-assed Catholic Bible college” and called Dease “this creep of a president.” He also said he had been in contact with people he said were some of the school’s largest donors.

“Apparently in this Bible college lying is part of what they regard as their Christian mission,” Monckton told Jones. Monckton also complained he had received no response from the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt, saying he was “probably so busy sorting out the problems with little boys that he hasn’t got time to deal with this one.”

The article failed to mention Monckton’s hilarious diatribe, in which he first accuses Abraham of “ad hominem” attack, – thusly, “So unusual is this attempt actually to meet us in argument, and so venomously ad hominem are Abraham’s artful puerilities, delivered in a nasal and irritatingly matey tone (at least we are spared his face — he looks like an overcooked prawn)…” And then there are the boasts of inventing cures for AIDS, flu, and the common cold.

This is the man that Congressional Republicans chose to be their sole “expert” witness in hearings on climate science. I love this story. Long Live “Lord” Monckton!

Abraham presentation, highly recommended, here.

VoteVets has been doing some of the best work on showing the relationship between climate, energy, and security.

Reposting this one originally from 2010.
Above, trailer for a film about the Solar Panels that Jimmy Carter symbollically placed on the White House, harkening to a new direction for the US economy, one in which life on earth, and the well being of the next 50,000 generations of children, had value.

The rest is history.
Americans elected a Daddy who gave them everything they wanted and asked no responsibility or sacrifice from them, opened the Treasury to enrich the wealthy, while laying increasing burdens, both economic, and environmental, on future generations.
One of Ronald Reagan’s first acts was removing solar panels from the White House.

I got up from a brief nap to answer the phone yesterday, and was greeted by a young man who said “Your Senator Carl Levin is about to vote on a new tax on our energy supplies, that will cost Americans billions of dollars.  We’re asking people if they are in favor of this new tax on energy.” I said, “Well, yes, I am very much in favor of this bill. And what you are doing is wrong.” Pause. “So you think I’m wrong?” “Well, yeah. We’ve been addicted to fossil fuels for a century, we’ve got climate change, oil billowing out of the Gulf of Mexico, people dying in the middle east to fight over the last few drops of oil, and we need desperately to break this cycle and get off fossil fuels. What you’re doing is urging people to continue the oil companies agenda of war after war, pollution and climate change, and I think that’s bad for America, for the planet and for our children.” He said, “You know sir, you may have a point.” Pause. “You think, maybe I shouldn’t be doin’ this job?” “Look man, every body needs to do what they have to do to get by, if you need the job, do it.” He said, “I wonder if a job is really that important.?” “Well, everyone’s got to figure that out for themselves.” “Well, thank you sir, you may have just answered that for me.”

A lot of people still believe global warming is something Al Gore cooked up in 2006 to promote his movie.  The thousands of expert climate scientists whose work forms the consensus have no celebrity, no street cred with the average person. But for a lot of people, the archetypes of scientific expertise, are more popular media figures like Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan.
This came home to me once again, when I came across a recent posting on Yahoo Answers.

“I watched a Carl Sagan doc yesterday, where the late Mr Sagan was talking about Venus and runaway greenhouse effects. Also global warming. There seems to be a lot of recent debate over whether Global warming exists, (or that there’s evidence to support claims). Why was someone as well researched and genuine as carl sagan so convinced? Im very confused.”

As part of my effort to create postings that will appeal to diverse learning styles and ways of reasoning – I offer this to, once again, make clear again how wide and deep the consensus on this issue is.

This links to a stunning series of photos of a recent oil spill in China.  Go take a look. I’ll wait.

The spill was tiny compared to our own Gulf of Mexico disaster, but underscores how this phenomenon has been going on in the third world with horrifying frequency, ignored by most of the media until our recent experience sensitized us to what is happening.

A spate of recent stories has picked up on the meme, like this one from the New York Times.

And there’s this.

A recent, long form lecture by Stephen Schneider that is a good primer for beginners as well as a welcome review for climate buffs.  Pay attention to how big complex ideas are communicated in simple sentences and images.

We lost Stephen Schneider today.  More later.