Some recent comments by Charles Krauthammer and Ted Cruz got me thinking about stupidity and climate change.
Take this gem of a quote from Charles,
I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier. I’ve long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. I also believe that those scientists who pretend to know exactly what this will cause in 20, 30 or 50 years are white-coated propagandists.
or this one from oracle Charles.
A prediction:
In 20 years, when nobody thinks about "global warming" anymore, the leftist-published textbooks will blame "corporate conspiracies," especially "big oil" and "multi-nationals" for creating the global warming hoax to increase their own profits by getting the taxpayers to subsidize their non-functioning windmill projects and to dupe the public into buying their expensive boutique "green" products.
And then we have Ted's recent gems of wisdom he shared with
Dana Bash on CNN.
Here is his thoughts when asked about the Arctic melting.
"Other parts are going up. It is not -- you know, you always have to be worried about something that is considered a so-called scientific theory that fits every scenario. Climate change, as they have defined it, can never be disproved, because whether it gets hotter or whether it gets colder, whatever happens, they'll say, well, it's changing, so it proves our theory."
And his well-thought out comment on Kerry's recent speech he gave in Indonesia where he equated climate change to that of a terrorist threat.
It is ironic that he sees a greater threat from your SUV in your driveway than he does from the nation of Iran, with their radical Islamic jihad and -- and their stated desire to obliterate, to annihilate Israel. He sees a greater threat from your SUV than he does to Iranian nuclear weapons.
These quotes are just a couple of the most recent examples of stupidity being uttered by our political leaders and media figures of late on climate change. I could easily provide numerous other examples but that is not the point of this diary.
A couple of days ago I read an article entitled What Americans Don't Know About Science appearing in the Atlantic. Here is a headline from that article.
On a recent survey, just 74 percent of Americans said that the Earth revolves around the sun.
Being Poop John the First of the Church of the Holy Shitters I must admit when I read that my immediate reaction was to blurt out "Holy Shit"!
So the question I want to pose is this. Do you think the scientific or the science denial argument is currently winning in the court of public opinion?
Follow me below for more.
First here is a quick glance at the state of education in America overall.
NBC News:
Students in the United States made scant headway on recent global achievement exams and slipped deeper in the international rankings amid fast-growing competition abroad, according to test results released Tuesday.
American teens scored below the international average in math and roughly average in science and reading, compared against dozens of other countries that participated in the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which was administered last fall.
The numbers are even more sobering when compared among only the 34 OECD countries. The United States ranked 26th in math — trailing nations such as the Slovakia, Portugal and Russia. What’s more, American high school students dropped to 21st in science (from 17th in 2009) and slipped to 17th in reading (from 14th in 2009), according to the results.
Now back to climate change.
Sixty-one per cent of Americans consider themselves 'cautious', 'disengaged', 'doubtful' and 'dismissive' on climate change. Photograph: www.memphisflyer.com
A study done at
Michigan State University in 2013 found that
“the more people believe scientists agree about climate change, the more willing they are to support government action, even when their party affiliation is taken into account,” McCright says. “But there is still a political split on levels of perceived scientific agreement, in that fewer Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and liberals believe there is a scientific consensus.”
The results reaffirm the success of what McCright calls the “denial machine”—an organized movement to undercut the scientific reality of climate change during the past two decades.
And make no mistake about there being an organized movement to discredit the science.
The inner workings of the Heartland, a thinktank working to discredit the established science on climate change, were exposed by a leak of confidential documents detailing its strategy and fundraising networks.
DeSmogBlog, which broke the story, said it had received the confidential documents from an "insider" at the Heartland Institute, which is based in Chicago. The blog monitors industry efforts to discredit climate science.
The scheme includes spending $100,000 for spreading the message in K-12 schools that "the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain - two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science", the documents said.
Looking at the current state of public opinion on climate change we find the following.
According to
Pew Research:
Two-thirds of Americans (67%) say there is solid evidence that the earth has been getting warmer over the last few decades, a figure that has changed little in the past few years.
The national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Oct. 9-13, 2013among 1,504 adults, finds that most people who see solid evidence of global warming – 44% of the public overall – say it is mostly caused by human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. Just 18% say it is mainly caused by natural patterns in the earth’s environment. (emphasis mine)
Among the 26% of the public who say there is no solid evidence of global warming, about as many say “it’s just not happening” (13%) as say “we just don’t know enough yet about whether the earth is getting warmer” (12%).
Right now there is something you can do to fight back on this misinformation and the bad decisions that result from it.
Submit a comment urging President Obama to disapprove the KXL Pipeline. See details below.
|
Keystone XL Pipeline "Public Comments" Blogathon: March 3-7, 2014
Diary Schedule - All Times Pacific
Let your voice be heard by opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The deadline for submission of comments is 11:59 pm on March 7, 2014.
This Daily Kos blogathon team is part of a coalition seeking public comments to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline. More details are in this diary posted on Monday, March 3 by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse - Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, Van Jones, Winona LaDuke in DK Blogathon XL Comment Campaign, .
Please tweet all diaries posted during the week, feel free to link to your Facebook pages, and remember to republish each diary to your DK Groups.
8:00 am: FishOutofWater.
11:00 am: Van Jones, President & Co-founder of Rebuild the Dream.
Noon: Sen. Barbara Boxer
1:00 pm: catilinus.
3:00 pm: James Wells.
|
XL Pipeline "Public Comments" Blogathon: March 3-7, 2014
Let your voice be heard by opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The deadline for submission of comments is March 7, 2014.
Writing public comments in opposition to the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is as easy as posting comments at Daily Kos. This is your opportunity to make your voice heard directly to the White House without interference by the media, lobbyists or the GOP. We have until March 7 to express our views on whether or not building the big tar sands pipeline is in the vital national interest of the United States.
You can write your own comment to post at regulations.gov. Or, you can copy from one of the comment templates available from the list below. It's preferrable to tweak the template a little with your own words so that it does not resemble a boilerplate comment.
In the past, public comments have absolutely made a difference. Please don't delay as it is the last opportunity to affect this public debate. Submit your comments today.
For more helpful tips, please consult "Tips for Submitting Effective Comments" at regulations.gov, the website where you will be posting your comments. Additional details about some of the guest diarists are in this diary by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse.
|
|
The Church of the Holy Shitters will post articles on our holy S.H.I.T. day ( So Happy It's Thursday)
Last week: 2/27/14- Our Perception Blinders
Next week: 3/13/14 - Methane - It's a Gas
Hoping to add some humor, provoke thought, spark debate, deepen understanding, and shed some light on the fecal side.
Remember: "If we really want to straighten out all this crap we really need to think about shit." ( Shitbit by Poop John the First of the Church of the Holy Shitters)
Church of the Holy Shitters
A secular environmental religion, scientifically based, with a focus on the psychology of it all. Our ego is the culprit when it comes to dealing with climate change. We cannot save the planet. We can only save ourselves. Our current egotistical self-perception makes that prospect a dubious one at best. Meekness, humility and a realization that our shit does stink, guides us on our path to true sustainable living and climate equilibrium.
Cross posted at http://holyshitters.com/