The Skeptics
The Heartland Institute organized a gathering of the clans this week in New York City. Skeptics of various shades and stripes sat in on panel discussions and heard speakers make pronouncements along a spectrum of opinion. “Registration for the event exceeded 550…” according to one of several press releases I received. I had hoped to go for a few hours, but other priorities won out – plus I’m under the weather, as it were, with a cold. Andrew Revkin, the “NY Times” climate change beat reporter (and the author of Dot Earth, the popular blog), wrote this article today: Cool View of Science at Meeting on Warming. (I’ve written about the skeptics before here. I reference a terrific article there by Sharon Begley at “Newsweek” - The Truth About Denial.)
Revkin writes that “The main targets at the meeting were former Vice President Al Gore, who has portrayed global warming as a ‘planetary emergency,’ and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has issued four sets of reports assessing the human impact on climate over 20 years.” You know how those uppity Nobel Peace Prize winners are. Al Gore truly is one of the most popular “targets” of modern times. I’ve also written that, at least as far as climate change goes, there are any number of prominent folks in the world, who will tell you what Gore tells you, and sometimes more. See If You Don’t Like Al Gore, Then …
Revkin’s story on the conference was preceded on Sunday by Skeptics on Human Climate Impact Seize on Cold Spell. The “hook” here is a blog post from one Marc Morano, communications director for the Republican minority on the US Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, in which he claims that Earth’s ‘Fever’ Breaks: Global COOLING Currently Under Way. Michael Schlesinger, a scientist quoted in the “NY Times” piece, is skeptical about the skeptics: “…any focus on the last few months or years as evidence undermining the established theory that accumulating greenhouse gases are making the world warmer was, at best, a waste of time and, at worst, a harmful distraction.”
‘Nuff said.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:50 am
If we don’t actively tackle the very serious problems that confront the world now, in terms of global warming, then there is a possibility that future generations might have to take refuge in polar cities. I never want to see these polar cities become reality. (See the images created by an artist collaborator of mine.) James Lovelock told me by email: “It may very well happen and soon.”
I hope polar cities are never needed for survivors of global warming in the far distant future. These images are meant to be a wake-up call for those who are still sleepwalking through the climate crisis.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Speaking of the Heartless, er. Heartland (sic) Institute, an oily think tank if ever there was one, GOOGLE, some people have created the new VACLAV KLAUS CLIMATE JOKE AWARDS here, with 5 honorees listed so far. It’s only humor: but humor helps. Sometimes.
http://climatejokeawards.blogspot.com/
The Vaclav Klaus Climate Joke Awards
To Help Combat Global Warming, These Awards Are Dedicated:
Now what exactly are the Vaclav Klaus Climate Joke Awards, you want to know? Or who is Vaclav Klaus and why is he being singled out here and so honored with his name on these satirical yet serious awards?
Aha, you see, Václav Klaus [pronounced ‘va : tslaf ‘klaus] is the honorable and distinguished president of the Czech Republic who is currently into his second 5-year term, so this awards blog has a long shelf life, at least for the next 5 years. But this awards blog is not about the good country of the Czech Republic, who citizens are good honest people who know a thing or two about global warming and climate change. No, this awards blog is named after Vaclav Klaus because he recently told a reporter for the Associated Press in New York City during the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change (sic) sponsored by the Heartland Insitute (sic) funded in part by the oil industry (no sic here), and this man, this human being, this leader of a country in Europe, he told the AP reporter and we quote his now infamous words:
“Climate is just a joke”, he told the AP. Instead of worrying about global warming, he went on, people should just go about their business and realize that any warming is just part of the natural process. [Associated Press report, March 5, 2008]
There’s more of the quote here: “I am afraid that global warming alarmists are tyring to kill the freedom of people and prosperity,” Klaus reportedly told the reporter in the report reported in newspapers worldwide that day.
So (stupid drum roll here), these newly-constituted Vaclav Klaus Climate Joke Awards will be given out through the year, and through out the years, any day of the week will do, just send in your nominations and we will clear them with the awards committee, and these awards will be given out to people espouse very stupid notions about the very real reality of global warming and the possible impact it may have on future generations of Earthlings (include the human species).
THEREFORE it is hereby instituted the very first Vaclav Klaus Climate Joke Award goes to:
VACLAV KLAUS, president of the Czech Republic, for his stupid comments to the Associated Press in New York City in March of the year 4,000,000,008 (that’s billon as in Four Billion and Eight, Cosmic Time).
Thank you, President Klaus, for inspiring these awards.