Posts
(From Democracy Now! 2/2/11):
Extreme Weather: U.S. Gripped by Massive Winter Storm
Extreme weather is the story of the day across much of the United States. A massive winter storm has affected 100 million people from New Mexico to New England. Thousands of flights have been canceled. The National Weather Service issued storm watches, warnings and advisories in more than 30 states and blizzard warnings for eight. States of emergency were declared in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. Many scientists have linked the extreme winter weather patterns to climate change. A recent study by the U.S. Global Change Research Program found the amount of very heavy precipitation on the eastern seaboard from Washington, D.C., to Maine rose by 67 percent between 1958 and 2007.
Keep in mind that this winter has been wetter than 2007. Last month had the most snow of any January in the historical record.
People who are paid by Big Oil and Big Coal to deny Global Warming have tried to saw that all these snowstorms disprove it. They hope people don't know how these storms work. All the big snow storms in NYC start as rain storms in the Pacific or the Gulf Mexico. Then, they feed off moisture in the Atlantic that starts as rain and freezes to snow as it approaches land. So, if the ocean temperatures are warmer, their will be more moisture to feed these storms than there otherwise would be.
Global Warming isn't just here and human made. It's already a major pain in the ass.
So much of the junk science pushed by corporations from fields as divergent as Global Warming, to tobacco health risks, to the very real dangers of genetically modified foods get way too much traction because science education is so poor.
For instance, claims that genetically modified foods are the "same" as non modified foods are pure marketing fluff. If you know how many different kinds of biochemicals are present in food, there simply isn't an economically feasible way to test for all them. Then, there is the other problem of the effects that genetic modifications might have on how organisms absorb, store, and metabolize pesticides, herbicides, and pollutants that they encounter.
Meanwhile, the corporations' bought politicians divert attention from real educational reform towards scams like vouchers, charter schools, and anti union hysteria which have nothing to do with improving education in science or any other field.
I hope some of those Global Warming enablers with their junk science get stuck in a blizzard. It would be poetic justice.
Image: ssoosay
Yeah the old Koch brothers,BP and the rest are at it again. For awhile they were low key after the Gulf disaster but now their B a c k. or is that Beck. Greenland is disappearing, the ice caps are alarmingly going away.
It's something that can be measured, yet it's still denied. What a world.
I fully agree. The Crotch brothers have bought far too many politicians.
Yes, if only our climate could stay exactly the same as it's always been. I mean, there was no such thing as climate change before man built the SUV, right? It's always been 72 degrees and perfect, until those damn corporations came along.
Tim and Tomcat: The Koch brothers certainly are funding a bunch of the anti science jihad being pushed by the right. Other Big Oil and are buying a ton of propaganda too.
THR: If you would take the trouble to inform yourself on the issue from reputable, honest sources instead of parroting talking points that are being funded by Big Oil and Big Coal, you would be aware of the following facts.
1) Global Warming exists.
2) Global Warming is the result of human activities.
3) The pace of climate change is far greater than has happened in our planet's geological history except for cases where it was hit by asteroids.
4) Global Warming has resulted in a dramatic and predicted increase in brush fires in Mediterranean climates throughout the world (e.g. Greece, California, and parts of Australia).
Denying the facts about Global Warming at this point is as willfully ignorant as espousing Creationism or joining the Flat Earth Society. The right has been at war with science for centuries, and that may never change.
I've seen these same efforts to discredit global warning and environmental concerns among the Religious Right too. Google "Resisting the Green Dragon" or wander around the Cornwall Alliance website to see what I'm talking about.
This has got to stop. Too much is at risk for us to ignore human impact on the environment.