This page is more for me than for readers. I need a public location to quickly look up and store information regarding my possible involvement in climate change stuff.
From Michael Foster
- The Conversion of a Climate Change Skeptic
“That’s the most important real scholar for the “Deniers” switching teams one year ago, still a great skeptic, but no longer in doubt. After he coordinated an expensive exhaustive “definitive study”, (funded by the Koch Brothers, he called it the B.E.S.T.) corroborating all temperature records everywhere, with the express purpose of finding plausible explanations for the changes we’ve witnessed to date better than the “CO2 theory” — solar forcing, population growth, everything — and then he wrote this interpretation of his results in the NYT a year ago, after a career built on trying poke holes in anthropogenic warming, to his great credit, a true skeptic who did not bury or adjust his own findings when he completed his B.E.S.T. work. That’s good science. And a powerful statement of science trumps belief. And now he says we need to act.” - NASA’s Climate Change Site
- NOAA’s Climate Page
- EPA’s Climate Change Page
- Forcast The Fact’s Page
- Weather Underground’s Climate Page
- CO2Now’s Page
- Books by Peter Ward
“He looks at the long game, viewing centuries and millenia, not decades, which gives a more accurate scientific picture of climate change than trying to predict whether we’ll be at 4 or 6 degrees Celcius looking to 2100.”- The Flooded Earth
- Under A Green Sky
- A look beyond 2100 – http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2010/100504HuberLimits.html
- Bill McKibben’s Article in Rolling Stone
“Bill McKibben, wrote article in Rolling Stone last year, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math”, which can be picked apart on exact numbers (maybe it’s 3x past the point of no return, maybe it’s 5x, but what are we arguing about? how many times we’ll pass the point of no return?) and the fundamental thesis holds, which is that carbon industries have too much money on the table to play fair, so they change the “debate” in public, buy the lawmakers, and will keep burning the stuff as long as it is profitable regardless of how many ways science proves global warming is near (or past) any apocalyptic tipping point.” - Skeptical Science’s Page
“Climate change “Deniers” in more polite circles are often called “Skeptics” which is really sad to me, because scientists are by nature skeptical, and question their results, which is how we get science.To reject science in favor of non-science is not skepticism, it’s denial, and when it’s paid for by the fossil fuel industry it’s propaganda to confuse us while we attempt to keep the biosphere going for life as we know it.” - Article in the Guardian in the UK on Climate “Skeptics”
“Yes, there are plenty of people who have healthy skepticism about climate change science, but they are not the ones making the most noise, by far. So using the polite term “Skeptic” to describe a noisy science “Denier”, seems like an insult to the world of skeptics.” - Chris Jordan’s Climate Change Art
- Kind of a “Pascal’s Wager” of climate change:
“A thought experimentIf we do all this work to stop burning carbon and we find out in twenty years we were wrong about global warming, then we’ve done no harm.If we don’t do anything to stop burning carbon, and we find out in twenty years we were wrong, it’ll be too late to go back and we’ll have done unimaginable harm.”
- Philosophical Viewpoint on Climate Science
“Philosophy is not hard science, but this NW philosopher has been making waves with her personal brand of ethical advocacy.” - Obama’s Underwhelming Climate Change Efforts
“Waiting for the President to act has been one psychological trap that has kept scientists and environmental groups in America stuck (since Reagan took Jimmy Carter’s solar panels down off the White House). The news cycle doesn’t allow us to deal with a long-term effort like climate. When the President finally does act, prepare to be underwhelmed. This is about changing personal behavior to change social behavior to change political behavior to change the President’s behavior. Is the President going to take action on climate change soon or was it just a slow news day? I welcome the President’s leadership, but my kids can’t wait for him to get started.” - Seattle Mayor’s Testimony on Capitol Hill, June 19, 2013 PDF, Video
“The Mayor of Seattle was called to testify on Capitol Hill yesterday regarding” Energy Abundance: Regulatory, Market, and Legal Barriers to Export”, because he created a coalition of local leaders to oppose coal exports all along the West Coast. The House was not happy with him for interfering in our “Energy Renaissance” which involves selling our Coal and Liquefied Natural Gas around the world as fast as possible.” - House Committee on Energy and Commerce Ruling After Above Hearing
“Today the committee’s press release starts “The House Committee on Energy and Commerce today advanced four pieces of legislation that seek to improve environmental regulations, increase state authority in certain regulatory programs, and protect jobs.” A cynical use of language. “To improve environmental regulations” in this case means to eliminate them! stripping the EPA of it’s ability to act or supersede state regulations, which are inconsistent, weak, and under attack from ALEC, the group working efficiently to protect commerce from “red tape”.” - “On PBS tonight, “Coal” aired. a good piece on the NW coal export terminal proposals, including Cherry Point.
- The Greatest GenerationA few months after we entered WWII no more automobiles were made in this country. Imagine that! Our middle class was built on automobiles, but no more! Imagine making windmills and solar panels with half the intensity we put into building tanks and planes to stop the Germans and Japanese. That’s the kind of resolve, and unity of purpose that will transform the economy once we reach our “human tipping point” but it’s up to (skeptical, science-minded) people like you and me to create that action as quickly as possible. To talk intelligently every day about the actual difference we are making and how much more we need to do.
A week after my talk, after looking into this further, it might be hard to feel like a hummingbird, impossible in fact, if you’re still standing “transfixed watching the fire burn” as Wangari Maathai said. We’ll have plenty of time for bad news and shock later. The only way to be a hummingbird who makes a difference is to take a drop of water from the nearest stream, “without wasting any time.’ Put it on the fire. And don’t be shy when the other animals confront you.
From my day job as a therapist, I know that what happens when you start to act can be truly revolutionary in the physical brain. On the inside, you cross a psychological threshold that turns despair to joy and purpose. Your entire organism can be realigned. When we do something about an overwhelming problem, like Felix the boy in Germany, somehow the critical side of the brain that says “nothing can be done, we’re all screwed” has to admit, “well, something can be done. It might not be enough to put out a wildfire, (then again it might, if we get a billion wealthy hummingbirds) but something can be done because I’m doing something.” - Plant For The Planet’s Site
“The City Council invited the new Plant-For-The-Planet Climate Justice Ambassadors to come brief the Energy and Environment Committee on July 9th at City Hall. The children will present the 3-Point Plan worked out by children across the globe to stop global warming. Then they will ask the council to do what science says their planet requires if they are to have a habitable future. I hope that story makes the papers. My grandkids would like to see that one.” - 350 Seattle’s Site