We are winning the battle on climate change science

[n2doc]

The deniers are squealing like stuck pigs


The Political Assault on Climate Skeptics
Members of Congress send inquisitorial letters to universities, energy companies, even think tanks.

By RICHARD S. LINDZEN
March 4, 2015 6:50 p.m. ET

Research in recent years has encouraged those of us who question the popular alarm over allegedly man-made global warming. Actually, the move from “global warming” to “climate change” indicated the silliness of this issue. The climate has been changing since the Earth was formed. This normal course is now taken to be evidence of doom.

Individuals and organizations highly vested in disaster scenarios have relentlessly attacked scientists and others who do not share their beliefs. The attacks have taken a threatening turn.

As to the science itself, it’s worth noting that all predictions of warming since the onset of the last warming episode of 1978-98—which is the only period that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) attempts to attribute to carbon-dioxide emissions—have greatly exceeded what has been observed. These observations support a much reduced and essentially harmless climate response to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/richard-s-lindzen-the-political-assault-on-climate-skeptics-1425513033?mod=trending_now_3


Delusional to the end...


Also see:


The Insiders: Republicans move from denial to despair on climate change

Ed Rogers’s piece last week on global warming is timely in a number of respects and worth reading to see how the Republicans, having lost their argument that global warming is not real and man-made, have shifted to a new argument: Global warming may be real, but the solutions cost too much and won’t work anyway. The new Republican argument against doing anything to combat global warming has moved from denial of its existence to despair of its mitigation. This is what passes for progress today in the Republican Party.

Workers install solar panels on a rooftop on February 20, 2015 at a home in Palmetto Bay, Florida. Florida is widely known as the Sunshine State but when it comes to harnessing solar power, lots of customers find it just doesn't pay off because electricity is already cheap and there is little incentive to make the change from fossil fuels. AFP PHOTO /KERRY SHERIDANKERRY SHERIDAN/AFP/Getty

Of course, not all Republicans share this “progressive” new outlook: In 2011, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection banned the terms “global warming” and “sea-level rise” from its reports. There is, perhaps, no state in our union more vulnerable to global warming’s impacts, which have already begun to threaten Florida’s coasts and aquifers. It’s a little more difficult for a governor than a pundit to say global warming is real but that we can’t fight it. Property owners in Miami might not like to hear that. Better to stick to denial.

Rogers’s piece is timely, too, because this weekend The Post reported on an ongoing utility-led and Koch brothers-funded effort to stop homeowners from installing solar panels and selling excess energy back to the grid. Solar energy has taken on aspects of a grass-roots movement to free customers from the grip of high fossil-fuel utility bills. Large coal and oil interests are afraid of the trend, so they are working to impose new burdensome regulations and fees to make it much more difficult and expensive to compete with them. Yes, the same people who continually bash Democrats for regulatory overkill are at it themselves. All this underscores what we know: Republicans’ disdain for solving global warming isn’t because the cause is hopeless; it’s because the solutions threaten the fossil fuel industry, which has long been a mainstay of the party’s support.

For years, on global warming, Republicans pushed denial, at least until the water was up to their knees and most realized they looked ridiculous. Now they will sell despair and try to put Americans back to sleep. Their line will be something like, “Yeah, it may be happening, but we can’t do anything about it, so why worry?” But their marketing of despair reveals their fear: concern that Americans, having seen through their denial, won’t accept their fatalism either and will move even faster and further to shift from old energy sources to new ones in a race to save the planet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/03/09/the-insiders-republicans-move-from-denial-to-despair-on-climate-change/?tid=rssfeed

[riversedge]

1. maybe. I think a slow yes....Yet..

if Republicans gain more ground, we are doomed:


Florida’s Not The Only State Where Officials Censored The Term ‘#ClimateChange’ http://thkpr.gs/3631465 #p
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[Kelvin Mace]

2. Perhaps, but the victory is moot

The damage is already done, the tipping point is past. Methane is starting to vent in the oceans and in Siberia. The ice caps are collapsing and even *if* the public opinion war is being won, the public has ZERO influence on the issue. The oil/gas industry will continue to destroy the environment for the next decade at least, probably longer. Even if we reduced carbon emissions to zero tomorrow, the planet will continue heating for decades to come.

The time for action was 10 years ago. The bell cannot be unrung.