Guardian: We must restart the fight against global warming

[Elmore Furth]

There is a whole industry of climate change denial out there we have to fight against. This industry is injecting misinformation into the debate at every turn just as the tobacco industry did 20 years ago:

"In each case the tactics are identical: discredit the science, disseminate false information, spread confusion, and promote doubt. As the authors state: "Small numbers of people can have large, negative impacts, especially if they are organised, determined and have access to power"

A dark ideology is driving those who deny climate change

Scepticism is a healthy attitude to adopt to many, if not all, untested propositions. Sceptics throughout history, by applying their reasoned judgment and hard-headed critical faculties, have exposed lies, delusions and superstition.

Which is why scepticism is entirely the wrong word to apply to those who deny that emissions of carbon dioxide from human activity are leading to rises in average global temperatures, with potentially disastrous consequences. True sceptics respond to evidence.

Last week more evidence was published to support the established case for man-made global warming. Research, led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, drew on data from 11 possible indicators of climate and found that each one suggested warming consistent with expected effects of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases. Snow cover in the northern hemisphere is shrinking, glaciers are retreating, sea levels are rising, oceans and the atmosphere are warming. As it was put by Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the Met Office, which participated in the study: "The fingerprints are clear".

The data in this study were not included in the 2007 UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that has been the main target of attack by climate change deniers. The IPCC's authority was badly damaged by "climategate" – the leak of emails between scientists at the University of East Anglia, purporting to show a conspiracy to suppress inconvenient data.



We must restart the fight against global warming

[NC_Nurse]

1. RE-start? This country hasn't started the first time, not seriously anyway.

Too many jerks like Imhoff holding up real discussion and progress.

[Stuckinthebush]

2. The corporations were successful in getting the RR on their side

The religious right is made up of a bunch of gullible loons who can be manipulated easily with the right imagery. The reason that climate change denial became so powerful was because corporations will lose money if laws are enacted to curb global warming. At that point it was packaged as anti-american and some brilliant corporatist got the evil Jerry Falwells of this world involved to make it anti-god. Global warming? God would never allow that. Man has dominion over this earth!

Once again, the monied interests have succeeded in getting the masses to do what is not in their best interest.

[RevStPatrick]

3. I don't think we have to fight anything.

I think we simply have to behave the right way. We just need to behave, as individuals, and as communities of like-minded people as if we are doing damage to the environment, and as if we want to stop.

That means we need to stop patronizing corporations that do not act with our collective best interest at heart. If a company seems to be doing its damnedest to increase profit at the expense of the climate, we need to stop being their customer. We need to behave in our personal lives as if our actions have consequences. Turn off the damned lights when you're not in the room! If I talk to people in my life about the impact that I am having, and how I am altering my behavior to lessen that impact, then maybe those people in my life will change their behavior as well. The minute I say to someone "you are doing something wrong and you should change," is the minute that person thinks I'm a judgmental asshole and that I should mind my own business. However, when I say that I am doing something wrong and here is what I am doing to change, that other person will then examine their own behavior.

It works, trust me! And really, most people want to do the right thing.

[Lorien]

4. We need to demand that government invest in green energy, that auto manufactuers

build affordable electric vehicles, that we invest in a National high speed MagLev monorail system, that we legalize industrial hemp, and so much more. The government MUST be involved. Individuals cannot do enough on their own, period.

[northernlights]

6. exactly

we can forget about TPTB taking action -- they know what is coming and they are prepared to take care of their own.

The best way to fight climate change is to take our own action.

If you can bike or walk to work, do so.
If you can reduce your oil consumption at home, do so. Something as simple as $15 in shop towels, rolled up and laid along windows, closing off unused rooms in winter, dropping the thermostat a few degrees and wearing a heavy sweater and hat (I was reasonably comfortable and my exotic birds showed no concerns at 55 last winter) can cut your fuel use.
Buy locally grown food as much as possible -- a large part of the cost of supermarket food is the cost of transporting it.
Grow as much of your own as you can -- organically again to reduce use of fossil fuels.
Reduce the number of showers you take -- go European and take birdbaths in between.
Consolidate tasks that involve driving as much as possible.
And forgive yourself if you slip -- far better to start over than give up.

A week ago my new solar cooker, the Hotpot, arrived. My propane use should drop dramatically now, as I am cooking and freezing the results on every sunny day I can between now and when the sun is too low to cook.

With all the steps above, I'll probably have cut my fuel use in half or better.

[MisterP]

5. of course, many skeptics have been thoroughly wrong:

in the 18th century they ascribed Spanish reports of Tenochitlan's splendor to delusion and the fact that the Spanish were damn Papists; Enlightened scientific travelers and unbreakable natural laws of social evolution proved that the Indians were incapable of civilization beyond huts

and Marcello Truzzi got quite mad at the data-poisoning and other antics of his former skeptical fellows (who, I may add, are the same ones writing history of the intellecual life as a march from "lies, delusions and superstition" to Shining Positivist Fact)

so they can be "that kind" of skeptic, sure