A Bid to Chill Thinking

[rodeodance]

Slimball tactics are all around us when it comes to greed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072102186.html?nav=hcmodule
A Bid to Chill Thinking

Behind Joe Barton's Assault on Climate Scientists

By David Ignatius

Friday, July 22, 2005; Page A23


In today's partisan political climate, science has inevitably become a political football. But I can't remember anything quite as nasty -- or as politically skewed -- as Rep. Joe Barton's recent attack on scientists whose views on global warming he doesn't like.

Barton, an 11-term Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and one of the oil lobby's best friends on Capitol Hill. Late last month he fired off letters to professor Michael Mann of the University of Virginia and two other scientists demanding information about what he claimed were "methodological flaws and data errors" in their studies of global warming.




......The strategy of Exxon Mobil and other business interests that resist action on global warming has been to maintain the notion that the scientific evidence is shaky. That strategy was outlined in a remarkable 1998 "Action Plan" prepared by business opponents of the Kyoto treaty, which argued: "Victory will be achieved when . . . average citizens 'understand' (recognize) uncertainties in climate science."
Barton's investigation may be a last roundhouse swing in this bash-the-science strategy. Perhaps it pleased energy and natural resource interests, which gave Barton $523,099 in his 2004 congressional race, and Exxon Mobil, which has given him $17,500 since 2001. But this battle is ending. A consensus is emerging among responsible Republicans and Democrats. The basic science on climate change isn't in doubt any more. The question is what to do about it.

[e-mail]

[wli]

1. sorry folks, it's a bit beyond that

We need to start working on evacuating soon-to-be-submerged coastal areas, unsustainable desert areas (due to lack of fresh water), migrating major agricultural operations, climatological disaster hardening (dealing with severe storms), non-petroleum energy sources, and "humane" population reduction methods (e.g. China's one child policy).

This bunk about "debating the science" and "oh, it'll be okay if we cut back on greenhouse gases" is far beyond complete bull, and these cockamamy denial stuff serves no greater purpose than creating huge numbers of starving refugees (presumably for the purposes of effective slavery).

[LaurenG]

2. Where would you suggest is the best area

to migrate our agricultural operations? The non petroleum energy sources are and have been available for many many years. Our problem is getting the greedy bastards to quit killing everyone that tries to market them. Opinions?

[wli]

3. some ideas are obvious

Clearly agricultural operations are going to have to migrate toward the poles.

Energy sources, on the other hand, are a much more difficult question and this late in the game I highly suspect an "energy collapse" and large-scale technological regression due to the unavailability of sufficient energy sources for both conversion to non-petroleum sources and sustained production.

[LaurenG]

4. Have you ever studied Tesla or Radio waves

I recently learned that in the 40's and 50's radio waves were experimented with to energize florescent bulbs just by being in the presence of the waves (not plugged into any power source). Also, the poles, are you thinking pole shift? The climate at this point is too harsh to sustain vegetation; the growing season is too short.

Edited for spelling

[wli]

5. I took some bonehead E-M

Anyway after solving a few PDE's things like that are no suprrise.

In any event, the "pole shift" is purely climatological. Agriculture can be sustained at more extreme latitides, it's merely less productive and has less land area to work with (and by virtue of such sustains smaller populations). The latitudes where agriculture now happens will become unsustainable due to drought and desertification.

[LaurenG]

6. Thanks for the clarification

I appreciate an action plan even if we aren't there yet. Thanks for your opinion. :)

[wli]

8. we're already there

The agricultural issues are being addressed with energy expenditure and importation of water to arid regions. When oil goes (as it surely will) so do the "naturally arid areas" as agriculturally fertile regions. There is no great mystery; it's a simple matter of irrigation requirements vs. energy costs. When the energy costs go up, the arid areas requiring heavy irrigation become useless for agricultural production.

[LaurenG]

9. Roscoe Bartlett republican representative from Maryland

Gives us two years if we are lucky. He basically stated that the world as we know will come to an end and many many of us will struggle just to stay alive. Unfortunately, no one with any power will grab this issue and move with it.

[wli]

10. sounds optimistic

I'm not ready to die, but I will anyway.

[LaurenG]

11. We're all going to die someday,

but not necessarily in the next 2-3 years. If those of us who are aware would work together we would have a much easier time of it.

Location, tools and fuel/energy source. It may be a long shot but I'm an optimist.

[cprise]

7. Read more here:

http://www.realclimate.org

[blindpig]

12. Sooner or later

the owners and managers of Oil inc will be introduced to some lamp posts. Along with their punks and fixers in government. By then of course it will be much too late to change much but some small justice.

[n2doc]

13. Don't count on it

They already have their fortified communities, money in offshore accounts, mercenaries ready to defend them. Look at how hard it was to try and capture the Nazi's that escaped Germany at the end of WWII- and that was with much of the world, but capitalist and communist, looking for them. Vast sums of cash will always protect these scum.

[MrTriumph]

14. Smokey Joe Barton honored by American Cancer Society

About 3 weeks ago Barton was honored. Guess the ACS needed the political chit rather than worry about their own reputation.