Tag Archives: climate change

Mike Pence–running on retrograde

The IBJ reports that Mike Pence is coming back to Indiana  “to fight Washington, D.C.”  The paper noted that Pence was light on specifics, but did promise to fight health care reform and federal climate change legislation.

In what alternate universe do candidates who’ve spent  a major part of the past decades as part of the Washington, D.C. establishment run on a platform to fight Washington? On what planet do candidates ask for votes on the basis that they’re against healthcare and the environment?  (Vote for me! I’m in the pocket of the insurance lobby and I’m a climate-change denier!)

You have to give him credit for consistency, though–he’s AGAINST abortion, AGAINST same-sex marriage, AGAINST providing healthcare to those who can’t afford it or who’ve been denied coverage for pre-existing conditions, AGAINST stem-cell research, and AGAINST efforts to stop environmental degradation.  Perhaps his slogan should be “Mike Pence: against progress and the people of Indiana.”

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Welcome to Never-Neverland

I know my posts sound increasingly frustrated these days. Here is just one example of why that is.

According to Talking Points Memo,

“Thirty-one Republicans on the House Energy And Commerce Committee — the entire Republican contingent on the panel — declined on Tuesday to vote in support of the very idea that climate change exists.

Democrats on the panel had suggested three amendments that said climate change is a real thing, is caused by humans and has potentially dire consequences for the future. The amendments came on a Republican bill to block the EPA from offering regulations to mitigate the results of global climate shifts. The global scientific community is in near unanimous agreement that climate change is real, and that humans contribute to it.

None of the 31 Republicans on the committee would vote yes on any of the amendments..”

I know that every legislative body and every political party has its nuts and ideologues. But thirty-one members of the GOP and U.S. Congress voting against reality really boggles the imagination. There are plenty of aspects of reality that I don’t like–beginning with the fact that science denial is making the world more dangerous for my children and grandchildren–but that doesn’t mean I can blithely pretend they don’t exist. Refusing to acknowledge facts in evidence is suicidal for individuals and societies alike.

The fact that these people were elected in what I can only assume were fair and free elections is infinitely depressing. But it really happened and their decisions have real consequences.

And whether they choose to ignore it or not, climate change is accelerating, and the consequences of their refusal to acknowledge that reality and deal with it will affect believers and nonbelievers alike.

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Where are the Men in the White Coats When You Need Them?

News flash! The Congressional Subcommittee on Energy and Power has recently voted that human activity does not cause climate change. The GOP majority was evidently unmoved by the scientific consensus to the contrary, so they simply voted to overturn it.

Reminds me of Indiana’s action (in 1897) to repeal the value of pi.

"Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of
     Indiana: It has been found that a circular area is to the square on
     a line equal to the quadrant of the circumference, as the area of an
     equilateral rectangle is to the square on one side. The diameter
     employed as the linear unit according to the present rule in
     computing the circle's area is entirely wrong, as it represents the
     circles area one and one-fifths times the area of a square whose
     perimeter is equal to the circumference of the circle. This is
     because one-fifth of the diameter fils to be represented four times
     in the circle's circumference. For example: if we multiply the
     perimeter of a square by one-fourth of any line one-fifth greater
     than one side, we can, in like manner make the square's area to
     appear one fifth greater than the fact, as is done by taking the
     diameter for the linear unit instead of the quadrant of the circle's
     circumference.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry......
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Snow, Ice and Climate Change

As predictable as it has been, it is discouraging to hear climate change denialists point to the massive amounts of ice and snow as evidence that “global warming” is imaginary. These are not folks who are conversant with science, so perhaps we should explain–very slowly and carefully–why global climate change, aka “global warming”–really is responsible for the bad weather.

As one climate scientist recently explained, there’s approximately four percent more water vapor in the atmosphere now than there was in the ’70s; that’s because the oceans and the air are warmer, and the added moisture in warmer air returns to earth as heavy rain and heavy snow.

This may not make sense to Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin, but most rational people can connect the dots, and understand why we need to limit carbon emissions. If we don’t, climate change will continue to cause extreme and unpredictable weather.

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If You Are Wondering….

why America can’t seem to make sane public policy, Steve Benen has a clue.

Kate Sheppard reported today on some recent Barton comments about climate change and wind power.

“Wind is God’s way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it’s hotter to areas where it’s cooler. That’s what wind is. Wouldn’t it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I’m not saying that’s going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can’t transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It’s just something to think about.”

 

Something to think about, indeed.

Barton is, of course, the same lawmaker who recently suggested that humans will “adapt” to climate change because we can “get shade.”

And as Matthew DeLong reminds us, Barton was, up until a couple of years ago, the lawmaker House Republicans made the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.”