Co-chairs Artur Runge-Metzger and Kishan Kumarsingh during Day 4 at the Bonn climate talks.
Many environmentally related posts appearing at Daily Kos each week don't attract the attention they deserve. To help get more eyeballs, Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The most recent Wednesday Spotlight can be seen here. So far, more than 19,860 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this weekly collection since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
Day 4 at the UN climate talks in Bonn—by
TierneySmith: "There are just two days of negotiations left, and much work remains. On Thursday afternoon, the talks’ two co-chairs took stock of how far the negotiations had moved since the start of this session, offering government negotiators a stern reality check. Their main tasks were to deliver clarity of what countries’ climate action commitments should include, and clarity on how to ramp-up climate action before those commitment periods take effect (ie between now and 2020, or ‘pre-2020 ambition’). But with time quickly running out, co-chair Artur Runge-Metzger acknowledged that the 'ambition to finalise the two decisions is no longer possible in Bonn, they will have to be finalised in Lima'; when countries meet again at COP20 in December. He stressed that while 'extensive exchanges' had taken place on many issues, countries had 'not touched on many important things' and that co-operation must accelerate in the coming days. Much of the current frustration in Bonn focuses on delegates attempts to find common ground on the pledges they will submit as part of the 2015 global climate agreement - their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs). After discussions yesterday were characterised by some as 'demoralising,' divisions between countries remained strong throughout the morning. Frustrated, co-chair Kishan Kumarsingh called on delegates to 'look yourselves in the eye; ask yourself if we are on track.'"
BP's Politico puff piece wasn't just shady journalism ethics—it was mostly a lie—by
Stuart H Smith: "BP, with a huge assist from the popular Beltway-insider website Politico, stirred up the muddy waters of the Deepwater Horizon spill aftermath this week when it published a corporate-love-letter-disguised-as-news entitled, "No, BP Didn't Ruin the Gulf." Anyone expecting humility from a firm whose court-certified wanton negligence killed 11 people and seriously polluted America's most precious natural resource clearly hasn't followed the story lately. The story hit the Internet Wednesday morning and caused an immediate stir—but mostly on the topic of journalism ethics. For one thing, the story initially had the trappings of a news article, without the large label of 'Opinion' that such an op-ed is expected to carry (that changed after the outcry); readers got to the bottom of the piece before learning it was written by BP's in-house spin-doctor-in-chief, corporate spokesman Geoff Morrell. [...] But the ethics controversy wasn't what troubled me the most. What bothered me about the piece—and should bother all readers—is that the claims by Morrell are sometimes dubious, sometimes misleading, and much of the time just an old-fashioned lie. Those of us who've followed the story for the last four years can feel pretty confident in saying this: Yes, BP actually did ruin the Gulf."
Big Oil spends big money to stop fracking ban in Santa Barbara County—by
Dan Bacher: "The struggle by proponents of Measure 1 the initiative to ban fracking and other extreme oil extraction techniques in Santa Barbara County, is a David vs. Goliath battle that parallels the No on Proposition 1 campaign. Big oil companies are dumping millions into the coastal county to defeat the measure, just like corporate agribusiness, billionaires and oil companies are spending millions to pass Governor Jerry Brown's water bond. The Yes on Measure P campaign had a war chest of about $284,000 as of October 16, 2014, largely from hundreds of individuals and county residents, according to the Santa Barbara Independent. This amount notably mounts to only a small fraction of anti-Measure P funds. The same article reported that Measure P opponents have raised $7.6 million. 'Californians for Energy Independence' has funneled over $5 million of its $7.6 million war chest to the 'No' side."
Worse Than Those Boy Scouts That Tipped Over a Rock—by
ban nock: "Remember those overweight adult Boy Scouts that tipped over a rock in Utah? Well, a woman from NY has gone one better. Traveling to many National Parks throughout the country she has painted on rocks then taken selfies and posted to various social media sites. Some paintings are just graffiti [...] Others are in more visible places [...] She paints in acrylic so it doesn't come off with the weather. Below the fold for some photos where she shows some skin. The National Park defacer has the where with all to travel to most National Parks you might have heard of. Below she is in desert country. She hit Rocky Mountain National, Zion, Canyonlands, J Tree, Yosemite, Crater Lakes, Bryce, Grand Staircase, I love the photos where she is crawling all over the petroglyphs in J Tree to get her selfie. Probably she is in karmic touch with those other artists hundreds, or thousands of years ago."
One of the prolific vandal's acrylic drawings. That is Crater Lake in the background.
You can find more rescued green diaries below the orange garden layout.
Climate Chaos
28 EU countries agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and ask U.S. and China to match—by HoundDog: "Barbara Lewis and Alastair MacDonald report the good news that the EU Agrees To Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cuts. The new goals amount to a 40% cut below the benchmark 1990 levels by 2030 after the EU has already mostly achieved the previous goal of a 20% cut by 2020. In the end, an overall target was agreed for the 28-nation bloc to cut its emissions of carbon in 2030 by at least 40 percent from levels in the benchmark year of 1990. An existing goal of a 20-percent cut by 2020 has already been nearly met, in part due to the collapse of communist-era industry in the east. EU leaders challenged the U.S. and China to step up to the plate and commit to this level of cuts by the next climate summit in France in December of next year. This is an encouraging step in the right direction but all countries are going to have to become more ambituous than this pretty darn quickly."
The best awards are the ones you give yourself—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "This past summer the Heartland Institute—recognizing that their stable of climate contrarians is severely lacking in real accolades—gave out a number of awards. At the time, most people ignored it, but now the reason for this sham is painfully obvious. Part of Heartland's current strategy is to push out its 'Featured Speakers Bureau,' which involves encouraging people to request that one of Heartland's contrarians come and speak at their events. Thanks to the awards it gave out this summer, Heartland can now send email pitches offering readers the chance to 'Book an Award-Winning Climate Expert" for their next event, while neglecting to mention it was Heartland that created and then gave the awards! While the pitch email (rehosted here) says the recipients won the awards at the Ninth International Conference on Climate Change, the email doesn't mention that said conference is a Heartland product! Dr. S. Fred Singer was given the 'Lifetime Achievement in Climate Science Award' (which we feel grossly neglects his years of faithful service denying the risks of smoking for the tobacco industry). Dr. Willie Soon received the 'Courage in Defense of Science Award' (well warranted, since most scientists wouldn't have the courage to risk their professional reputation by accepting over a million dollars from oil and coal interests to push climate denial). And finally, Dr. Roy Spencer won the 'Outstanding Evangelical Climate Scientist Award' (since he is a creationist they were apparently willing to overlook decades of wrong analysis.)"
Tabloid Denial—by ClimateDenierRoundup : "The deniersphere and tabloid press are in a tizzy over an open letter to the IPCC written by John Coleman, famed for being a co-founder of the Weather Channel. The UK's 'Express' covers the story featuring a number of quotes from Coleman's letter (for those that don't know, the Express is like the National Enquirer, but with far-right politics instead of Sasquatch). Interestingly, the article mentions that Coleman based his views on the findings of Heartland's NIPCC, and it describes Heartland by pasting its self-description as an 'independent second opinion of the evidence reviewed by the IPCC.' Given Heartland's industry ties, this really, really stretches the meaning of 'independent.' The claims themselves are nothing new: temperatures haven't risen (even though this is shaping up to be the hottest year on record) and polar ice isn't melting (even though the Arctic's at its 6th lowest extent in 1,450 years), etc. Frankly, Sasquatch would have been more believable."
How to fix climate change for free—by dannym999: A TedX talk.
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
Bárðarbunga: Mist Back In Reykjavík, Mass Evacuations Near Cerro Negro, Unrest in Japan—by Rei: "Busy times. Today I was runninng around from place to place - trying to chase the shadow of my no-show architect, checking on pricing on roof waterproofing, hunting for parts for a 30 year old Swedish welder, etc, all the while looking uncomfortably at the sulfuric blue mist that's back in town. Levels at the meter near my land were only about 100 µg/m³, so even if I had been doing more than surveying, it probably wouldn't have caused serious symptoms; today I only got a minor but persistant headache that I haven't had since the Mist left (connected to the SOx or just random? I have no way to know). Levels are far worse in other parts of the country. But I'm still hoping this Blue isn't going to go back to being a daily event of varying intensities higher than this. On the other side of the world, however, there's fresh volcanic activities having a more profound, immediate effect on people's daily lives, and there could be more to come."
Energy & Conservation
Open thread for night owls: Massachusetts comes in first again as the most energy-efficient state—by Meteor Blades: "How does your state stack up when it comes to energy efficiency? The nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has just issued its eighth annual State Energy Efficiency Scoreboard, which assesses states based on policies that encourage energy savings, efficiency investments and jobs in the clean energy sector. So you can look it up. 'Conversations about energy use in the United States often revolve around the need to support the growth of our national economy by expanding the energy supply,' said ACEEE. 'In fact, however, we have a resource that is cleaner, cheaper and quicker to deploy than building new supply—energy efficiency. Energy efficiency improvements help businesses, governments and consumers meet their needs by using less energy. Efficiency saves money, drives investment across all sectors of the economy, creates jobs and reduces the environmental impacts of the energy production system.'"
Big Oil Lobby Group: "Lift U.S. Crude Export Ban"—by Zadatz: "Even though U.S. consumers (and indeed, a significant portion of U.S. foreign policy) are still basically under the thumb of energy producers in the volatile Middle East, and one of our primary crude oil suppliers is America-hating Venezuela, the oil industry wants to start shipping domestically produced crude offshore? Depending on the source that you believe, the United States imports roughly 40% of the oil we consume. I've got an idea—Not a drop of crude oil produced in the U.S. leaves the country until the country is completely weaned off of oil imports, and we are 100% self sufficient in meeting our own needs. Lifting the crude oil export ban is an incredibly bad idea that progressive activists, economists, and politicians need to squash like a bug before it has a chance to grow legs. When we are not importing a single barrel of oil from a repressive Middle Eastern regime like Saudi Arabia or a sworn enemy of the U.S. such as Venezuela, come talk to me. Until then, no lifting the crude oil export ban."
Illinois Wasting Millions on Another Coal-to-Gas Pork Project—by
Willinois: "The state of Illinois is throwing millions of taxpayer dollars at another coal-to-gas plant just two years after a similar project ended in failure. The Coal Development Fund has so far given Homeland Fuels two grants totaling $4.25 million in taxpayer dollars. The first grant was awarded in 2013 to fund a study for the proposed "Coal to Diesel Pilot Project" next to their coal supplier, which will apparently be a nearby Chris Cline-owned mine in central Illinois. The company moved addresses from Hillsboro to Litchfield before receiving a second grant for $3,500,000. There's no indication of how the plant would limit their global warming emissions or other environmental impacts. [...] Handing out millions in taxpayer funds with few questions asked means there's little risk for companies to begin far-fetched projects that may never be completed. That was the case with a coal-to-gas plant that failed in 2012."
Aging reactors: a failure to plan that will come back to haunt nuclear utilities—by nirsnet: "One reason that giant nuclear utilities like Exelon, Entergy, Duke and others are so aggressively taking extraordinary steps to force ratepayers to keep their obsolete, aging reactors operating at any cost is that these utilities have failed to adequately plan for the reality that reactors have a limited operational life and at some point will have to be retired. The issue is global, it isn’t confined to the U.S., but the ramifications of this failure to plan, or perhaps to accept the reality that no machinery lasts forever–especially not the kind exposed to the tremendous heat and radiation levels that nuclear reactors are–will have its greatest impact in the deregulated states of the U.S. Two recent articles on the idea of extending reactor licenses even further than they already have been (and far further than is reasonable from a public safety perspective), one in The New York Times and one from the U.K., bring the fundamental issue to some light—even if perhaps unintentionally."
Renewables
Hurricane Gonzalo's tail breaks new UK Wind Power Records—by peterfallow: "Yesterday (Tuesday) the UK generated more electricity with wind than with nuclear power for the first time. This was due to a combination of high winds from the tail end of Gonzalo and a significant chunk of UK nuclear power offline for maintenance. Wind farms made up 14.2 per cent of all power generated, while nuclear power contributed 13.2 per cent. This follows on from a record breaking Saturday when one fifth of the UK's demand was supplied by wind. The 24-hour triumph of wind follows a similar landmark on Saturday, when stormy weather allowed wind turbines to generate a record 6,372 megawatts—supplying a fifth of the UK’s energy needs, although at a time when demand was low."
Eco-Justice & Eco-Activism
Bangladesh: Please Don't Turn Away ... Support People vs. Coal—by boatsie: "I won't be in Bangladesh tomorrow, when folks take to the streets to protest plans to construct a coal-fired power plant in Rampal, which borders the Sundarbans - a UNESCO world heritage site and locale for the world’s most pristine mangrove forest. But I have met and spoke with the people of Bangladesh at these huge climate conferences. Their desperate determination is palpable. Their fear, so primal, you can almost smell it. And so I dream of a day when millions of people will stand with them. Will cheer them on in their brave acts of defiance. In their desperate call to be acknowledged."
Agriculture, Food & Gardening
Problems with antibiotics in livestock getting worse: 9 out of 10 doctors are concerned—by VL Baker: "Civil Eats is reporting on a study published yesterday called Prescription For Change [PDF]. The report documents the results of a new poll organized by Consumer Reports (CR) National Research Center which polled 500 primary care and internal medicine physicians. The poll is evidence that the US medical establishment is acutely aware of the dangers presented by our corporate industrialized food system. [...] When the Consumer Reports (CR) National Research Center polled 500 family practice and internal medicine physicians last month, 97 percent said they were concerned about the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant infections, or “superbugs,” and 93 percent drew a direct connection to livestock production, which accounts for 80 percent of antibiotics use here in the U.S."
New California Pesticide spray regulations?—by nils o: "I've just been asked by a family member to look into proposed California regulations that, according to some, would give the California Department of Food and Agriculture the authority to spray whatever, whenever and wherever they want if they have a determination that an outbreak of a pest dangerous to agriculture has OR MAY occur. Comments are due Friday, Oct. 31 at Calif Dept of Food and Agriculture. This does sound serious: but the main document is almost 500 pages long and I suspect the devil is in the details. Does anyone know more about this proposal? Have an assessment of the power it would give CDFA? How well it balances the need to control pest outbreaks with the health of the people and environment? Would children, pregnant women, farmworkers et al be protected?"
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 10.35—by Frankenoid: "We're running a good 10° above normal highs for this time of year. Maybe it's the hot air from all the campaign ads. I will be so glad when the election is over. But the long 2nd Summer has given us some great romanesco broccoli, just in time for Halloween. And a lot of annuals that hadn't done much over the summer have come into glorious bloom. It's just that it's October! I have bulbs to plant! I need the ground to cool down."
Transportation & Infrastructure
Driving Ass-backward - Commuting Wastefully (Part 1 of 2)—by John Crapper: "Analysis of data from the American Community Survey, gathered in 2005 found nine out of 10 workers, or 87.7 percent, drive to work with most people, 77 percent, driving alone despite rising fuel costs. At a nationwide average drive-time of about 24.3 minutes, Americans now spend more than 100 hours a year commuting to work. That's more than the average two weeks of vacation time (80 hours) taken by many workers during a year. [...] We need to search for ways to do things differently. We also need to jump out of the box in our thinking and go beyond the usual solutions. We need to approach this problem in an ass-forward waste-end first Church of the Holy Shitters way. First of all we need to face facts. This nation isn't about to embark on a massive program to build a light rail system. Most cities aren't planning on dramatically expanding their public transportation options. The percentage of people voluntarily car pooling or taking the bus isn't going to rapidly increase. People aren't going to magically start riding their bicycles 20 miles to work."
Would the Deer Have to Pay the Toll Too?—by jpmassar: "In what is surely one of the stupidest ideas since the San Francisco 49ers moved to Santa Clara, a bunch of Very Important People are considering levying a toll on bicycles and pedestrians who wish to cross the Golden Gate Bridge."
Eco-Related Candidacies, DC & State Politics
NY-21 - Elise Stefanik Has Received Thousands from Gas, Oil, Fracking & Energy Interests—by Upstate Blue: "The recent October quarterly FEC filings reveal that gas, oil and energy interests increasingly are contributing to the congressional campaign of Elise Stefanik, the Washington D.C. Republican Party political operative and former Bush aide who is now running for Congress in New York's 21st Congressional District, which contains most of the state's North Country, Adirondack and Upper Hudson Valley regions. Stefanik's itemized receipts from the October filing show that Stefanik received $12,000 from oil and gas interests, with the Chevron Employees PAC and Marathon Petroleum PAC both contributing $5,000 to her campaign, while Exxon Mobil's PAC contributed $2,000 to her campaign."
Chevron: Global Bandit, Local Bully—by Bill Berkowitz: "In the coming weeks, all sorts of political ephemera will likely flood Richmond residents; from billboards to door hangings, from glossy mailers to paid-for phone banks. Some people question whether being a Chevron candidate is a good thing, given how often the company's environmental mishaps have sent residents running to hospitals and health care providers. 'The curse is that they will also become, for the next two months, the 'Chevron candidates,' a moniker that impresses some and scares the hell out of others,"'Tom Butt, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran, and Richmond City Councilman who is running for mayor, wrote in his newsletter. 'I'm going to run my campaign the best I can, probably with a budget of around $60,000,' Butt said. 'At the end of the day, what this comes down to is whether the people of Richmond want to vote for Chevron's candidate or an independent candidate.'"
Oceans, Water & Drought
Tribal Chief, River and Groundwater Protectors Oppose Prop. 1—by Dan Bacher: "Water Bond would destroy fisheries; harm north state rivers, groundwater. Redding – Area tribal leaders, river and groundwater protection advocates announced today they will oppose Proposition 1, the State Water Bond, at a Redding news conference on Monday, Oct. 27. 'The Sacramento River and the tax payers of California deserve better than this water bond. This bond does little for fisheries, little for multi-benefit flood protection projects needed in Northern California, and little to provide short or long term solutions to the water problems in our state,' said Lucas Ross-Merz, of the Sacramento River Preservation Trust."
Governor Reveals True Intent of Prop. 1 - the Brown Water Plan—by Dan Bacher: "After months of misrepresenting the true purpose of Proposition 1, Governor Jerry Brown inadvertently undermined his own message at a recent Stanford water conference, according to a statement from Prop. 1 opponents. Brown, one of the worst governors for fish, water and the environment in recent California history, claimed the measure would provide components missing from the State Water Project 'enacted by my father.' These components, Brown ominously intoned, would 'deal with the Delta.' Jerry Brown had attempted to 'deal with the Delta' once before. That was during his first tenure as governor in the 1980s, when he tried to push through the Peripheral Canal, a fiscally irresponsible and environmentally destructive trans-Delta water conveyance scheme that was soundly rejected by voters."
Critters & the Great Outdoors
Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris Musina Mafia - Rhino Killers—by mimi: "It doesn't get any sicker than that. I have no words. U.S. Indictment Accuses South African Brothers of Trafficking Rhino Horns—Safari outfitters allegedly duped hunters into paying extra to illegally shoot rhinos U.S. authorities today announced the indictment of the alleged kingpin of a South African rhino poaching and trafficking syndicate, Dawie Groenewald, and his brother, Janneman, and their company Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris on multiple charges, including conspiracy, money laundering, and wildlife crime. [...] The Groenewalds and Out of Africa also offered Americans the chance to conduct 'green' hunts, when the hunter would shoot a rhinoceros with a tranquilizer gun and then pose for photographs with the sedated animal. After photos were taken, the Groenewalds or their staff would cut off the horns with chainsaws or knives and sell the horns in Asia. In essence, they earned profit twice: once for the sale of the hunt and again when they trafficked the horns."
Very harrowing months are ahead for the big, bad wolf—by Samuel Vargo: "Many families rely on the autumn to stock their freezers with meat to make it through the winter, and if there’s a good harvest to the fall hunt, maybe well into spring. Times are tough and meat prices are high. Bagging a couple of deer, some wild turkey, along with ducks, quail, and even rabbit, puts food on the table and helps feed a family. And in many American families, hunting is a tradition that goes back for generations. If grandfather used to hunt and taught your father this outdoor sport, there’s a good chance that you’re a hunter, as well. And if you have children, you're probably teaching them how to hunt. But is killing wildlife for the sake of killing a good thing? Certain types of human prey really should be left off the hunting list. Particularly species that have just been taken off endangered species lists. And in North America, hunting wolves, particularly in regions where they’ve been reintroduced within the past few decades, is just not a good idea. Although some claim that there are too many wolves and gray wolf populations need to be downsized, having gray wolves just reintroduced in the past few decades, they just have not developed a sustainable population yet. Hunting and trapping them might not just lead to gray wolves being put on an endangered species list, they might wind up extinct."
The Daily Bucket - natural ink—by
OceanDiver: "
October, 2014. Pacific Northwest. 'Tis the season for saprophytes! Fungi and Slime Molds emerge into view as we settle into autumn. Leaves are falling, fruits and flowers are done...now a diverse array of perennial and ephemeral decomposers is decorating dormant surfaces with strange colors and weird shapes. Conks and mushrooms, dog vomit and witch's butter, stinkhorns and toadstools....reports are flooding in from all over the country by Backyard Science observers. Cool temperatures and rainfall are common triggers for mushrooms, the 'fruiting' bodies of some kinds of Fungi. These creatures live invisibly below our feet most of the year, their long tiny threads branching and networking through the ground, feeding off expired plant and animal debris, recycling those nutrients. Here in the Pacific Northwest, our soaking autumn rains have invigorated the subterranean funguses, inspiring them to rise up and spread their spores."
Daily Bucket: Wild Florida--Coral Snake—by
Lenny Flank: "It has the most potent venom of any animal in North America. It is spectacularly colored, with bright red, yellow and black bands. It is lots more common than many people think. Yet few people in Florida have ever actually seen a Coral Snake. The Elapids are a large family of tropical snakes, containing about 325 species. They are distinguished from other snake groups by having short fixed fangs at the front of their mouth, through which they inject a venom that is largely neurotoxic and acts to paralyze their prey and kill it through suffocation. The best-known members of the family are the cobras, but kraits, sea snakes, mambas, and taipans are also Elapids. In most areas of the world, the Elapid species are outnumbered by the Vipers; Australia is unusual in having a larger number of Elapids. In Europe, there are no native Elapids at all. The Coral Snakes are a fairly large group within the Elapids. There are 16 different species of Coral Snakes in southern and southeast Asia, and 65 species in North and South America. DNA study has shown that they evolved first in the area of southeast Asia and spread from there."
Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste
Large cracks in sea ice is drawing mercury down into the food chain.—by pakalolo: "Like the swirling air around a pot of boiling water, washing machine like wind currents suck down mercury through cracks in the sea ice also known as leads. This happens when warm ocean water meets the frigid polar air. This turbulence causes a mixing up of the air allowing mercury to enter the ocean. NASA explains: Scientists measured increased concentrations of mercury near ground level after sea ice off the coast of Barrow, Alaska, cracked, creating open seawater channels called leads. [...] 'None of us had suspected that we would find this kind of process associated with leads,' said Son Nghiem, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Nghiem is the BROMEX principal investigator and a coauthor of a paper reporting the discovery published in Nature on Jan. 15. [...] "
Miscellany
Do Republicans Even Know What "Conflict of Interest" Means?—by hannah: "Below are the seventeen white men and two white women serving as the Board of Directors for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Presumably, they are exemplars of what it means to 'run government like a business'—i.e. to generate profits for the principals by exploiting our natural resources without, one hopes, destroying them entirely. [...] But, what occurs to me is that these people, obviously attuned to 'opportunities' and external 'prompts,' may actually lack the necessary self-awareness to know where their self-interest lies. If a person only acts in response to some demand or direction coming from outside (including the deity up above), then any obligation to disregard self-interest is beside the point. And that would actually account for why, in the long run, much of what they "accomplish" is actually self-defeating and generally destructive."
Making Republicans Own Science Denialism—by nuketeacher: "it seems to me that Democratic politicians can routinely shame Republicans for their use of the 'I am not a scientist' dodge. What they need to do on every question in debates and with reporters is to sarcastically preface their answer with the appropriate 'I am not a XXXXXX' where XXXXXX is the professional that would be appropriate in that context. For example: If asked about the spread of Ebola and what we should do about it, every Democrat should answer with, 'Well I am not an epidemiologist, but, in reading what they have to say, I understand that there is very little likelihood of the Ebola virus spreading in the United States on the scale that is has in Africa. Of course prudent measures can and are being taken to minimize the risk of Ebola becoming a significant problem in this country.' [...] Similarly, if asked about climate change, begin the statement exactly as the Republicans do with: 'Well, like my Republican colleagues, I too am not an expert on climate change. But I have read extensively the work of those that are and there is now widespread agreement that the global warming—it is an indisputable fact—is occurring because of man-made sources of greenhouse gases, largely the release of CO2 into the atmosphere from our burning of fossil fuels."