Take that, deniers!

The following italicised text is taken from arstechnica.com At the end of this post there is a copy of the letter mentioned.

“Scientific societies warn Senate: climate change is real

A collection of scientific societies has sent an open letter to all US Senators, reiterating their individual statements on climate change, and offering to provide more information as legislation to limit carbon emissions moves forward.

Next week, the US Environment and Public Works committee is scheduled to begin debate on the Senate's version of a bill intended to begin limiting US greenhouse gas emissions, with a vote scheduled for early November. In advance of that hearing, a collection of 18 US scientific organizations has sent an open letter (click for link to letter) to members of the Senate, reminding them that climate change is a real phenomenon, and the best available evidence indicates it's being driven by human activities. The unusually blunt language is coupled with an offer: the US scientific community stands ready to provide assistance to anyone who is looking for further information in advance of taking legislative action.”

Anyone who follows climate change news will know that the always-active denialist movement have redoubled their efforts in recent months, as the scientific warnings have become more and more serious. Also they are doing this because we are approaching the Copenhagen Conference in December (dubbed “the most important meeting in human history” by Bill McKibben) – basically, it’s the denialists’ last chance to fool people - and they’re pulling out all the stops.

They have fooled up to 40% of the American public with their disinformation - curiously enough that is around the same number of the US public who believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. Die-hard deniers like Senator Inhofe (probably the most vociferous US Senator on this subject) and others appear to believe that somehow God is going to ride over the hill, like the US cavalry in a John Wayne movie, to save us all from ourselves! That is both very scary and funny at the same time. A long time ago, when I was having a meeting with a senior local Jersey politician of the time I encountered this attitude. Here’s a link to a post I did on Planet Jersey (message #23) describing the bizarre occurence. This anecdote may amaze you, because what happens behind closed doors can be oh-so-unlike what some of the Jersey public expects our glorious leaders to behave like!

The denialists/inactivists have been very fond, in the past, of releasing misleadingly worded petitions, such as the Oregon petition, the Heidelberg Declaration and the Leipzig Declaration so it’s good to see such an unequivocal statement by the largest and most respected scientific organisations in the USA.

Here are images of the template letter, including the signatories.

Yet another in the "Crock of the Week" series

The "crock" video embedded below is about the "Oregon petition" which was supposedly signed by 32,000 “leading scientists”. It goes into some detail about the background of the initiators of the petition and their dubious values. It also touches upon the past links that some major deniers have to the tobacco industry’s previous long term denial (and deliberate deception about) the risks of smoking. It does not, however, mention probably the most misleading aspect of the petition, the whole text of which follows.

“We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December, [sic] 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind. There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

Firstly, even the re-circulated (in 2007) petition still uses this text which is clearly severely out of date. Secondly, the major deceit comes in the misrepresentation of what can be called scientific philosophy in order to fool the public. When they use the term "convincing scientific evidence" in this way it should be taken to mean there is no final and certain proof that man made emissions will definitely cause catastrophic heating and disruption of the climate. This is true!! What deceitful denialist propaganda like this fails to tell the suckers is that only by "running the experiment", and seeing what actually happens, can there be final proof of the theories. By the time the theories are scientifically proved, if we are then undergoing catastrophic disruption, it will be a bit late to do anything about it.

Another crock that the author is probably working on is the "it's just a fallible computer model" canard. Senator Ferguson loves this one. I'll get around to commenting on that in due course but the basic riposte to this argument is this: seeing as we do not have perfect knowledge of how climate systems alter with varying inputs, nor could we without hundreds of years, possibly thousands, of actual experimental science, the computer models we have, flawed as they may be, are our very best idea of what may happen.

When the best available peer-reviewed scientific prognostication method states that there will be a problem that will range from moderate to catastrophic, it should be basic risk/benefit analysis that we use to show us what to do. Are you feeling lucky, punks?

It is not simply that there is one model anyway - there are at least twenty and they all broadly agree. Even if they are all wrong, policy makers and people generally, and deniers in particular, have to take into account that they can be wrong either way when deciding what to do to mitigate the risk. The models and majority science may be wrong and global warming could turn out to be benign, even ultimately beneficial, compared with our current climate - or it could turn out to be the end of our civilisation and the prelude to one of those mass extinctions of species that happen when some major outside disturbance assaults the planetary systems, like an asteroid slamming in. It would be pretty stupid of the so-called intelligent human race to do that sort of destructive planetary engineering all by itself wouldn't it? Acts of God are one thing but how much dumber would be this “Act of Man”? Jared Diamond would be able to write a much more dramatic sequel to "Collapse”!

ONLINE PETITION ABOUT FINANCIAL CRISIS

I just signed this online petition
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/press_for_change/global_greed_16412.html

The following article is lifted from the Friends of the Earth website

Call time on global greed

The past few months have seen one of the most significant financial crises to date.

A crisis caused by a greedy, reckless and under-regulated economic system. Biased against the poor and the environment.

The fall-out will have a damaging impact on millions of ordinary people in the UK, and billions in the poorest countries of the world.

But while those that created it have been bailed out with unprecedented sums of taxpayer money, the poor have received no such bail-out.

This weekend a select group of rich world leaders are meeting to discuss the problems facing the global economy. Poor countries have not been invited.
Time for change

It's time for a radically different economic system.

A system that reduces inequality, creates jobs, protects vulnerable citizens, preserves the environment, and works to eradicate poverty.

Such fundamental global reform needs to be agreed by everyone. The poorest of the world must have a full and equal say.

Agreeing a future economic system should not be done by the world's richest countries alone.
Press for change

Add your name to a national petition.

Ask Gordon Brown to ensure all governments are involved in creating a better and more-just economic system for the world.
Petition Gordon Brown

The financial crisis has graphically demonstrated to people in rich countries what those in poor countries have known for years: the current international economic system does not work.

We need a radically different economic system which puts people and the planet first.

The world's poorest people must have a full and equal say in developing this system - decisions must not be taken by bodies that only represent rich countries.