Pat Sajak: Gl_b_l W_rm_ng D_n_ _ r ( _ssh_l_!)

Well, the man who needs a ditzy blond to help him spell words has come out of the woodworks.  Pat Sajak is a strong-worded Global Warming Skeptic.

Sadly, Wheel of Fortune’s host probably has a greater voice than the thousands of IPCC scientists with a segment of the American public … hopefullyu that segment isn’t highly represented in the voting public.

But, while Sajak’s denier attitude might be worth rejection, he raises an ethical and moral challenge that should make us all restless at night.

NOTE:  Giving credit where credit is due.  I lifted this great title from Steve Caratzas over at Ecotality Blog.  Kudos Steve — Truly, plagiarism is intended as the highest compliment …

And, in thanks for the great title, Steve chose to promote this Global Warming site (which I hadn’t seen before and which looks pretty good). 

Faux News: “Most Republicans crazy like a man stuck in a toilet”

Truth be told, the title isn’t an exact quote, but it isn’t far off.  

Yesterday on Fox News, anchor Shep Smith was recounting the story of a man in Pennsylvania who was stuck in a port-a-potty. According to the York Daily Record (PA), the man was “drunk, naked and wedged up to his waist in the hole of the toilet.” Toward the end of the segment, Smith compared people who get stuck in toilets to “people who deny the whole global warming thing.” “They’re just a little crazy, you know?” said Smith. “What do you do?”

Where do the Republicans come into this? The majority don’t believe that humanity is driving Global Warming.

Will-fully Ignorant

We could easily ask: Washington Post editors, are you idiots? In publishing George F. Will’s Carbon Power Brokers, the Post editorial board is complicit in the dissemination of deceptiveness and falsehoods surrounding policy making on what likely will be the most significant issue of the 21st century. The Post published this deceptive drivel the day before the US Senate begins debating the Lieberman-Warner Climate inSecurity Act. While, clearly, I have quite serious problems with the CiSA and do not support its passage, this debate and discussion should be on the basis of fact and truth, rather then deceit and truthiness.

As an example of a direct falsehood, Will writes that John McCain supports the bill. Oops, BUZZ, false.  John McCain has mouthed some strong words on Global Warming but has managed to be AWOL on every vote that matters when it comes to clean technology and environmental issues in the past year. His staff has already announced that this won’t be an exception to that rule.  John McCain doesn’t support Lieberman-Warner (his two biggest Senate supporters) and won’t be there to vote on the bill. McFlip McFlop McSame McCain‘s deceptive sleight of hand continues: listen to what I say, don’t watch what I do when it comes to the reality of Global Warming. That is, unless you’re in the reality-denial world, then ignore what I say and watch what I do. There seems to be an expression for this. What is it? Oh, yeah, “McCain wants to have his cake and eat it too.”  To share that cake with George W Bush no matter what storms hit America’s shores.

Join me for a stroll through Will’s willful ignorance …

The Shocking Analysis of Lie-berman-Warner

Next week, Senator Harry Reid is going to bring the Lieberman-Warner Coal-Subsidy Act to the Senate floor for debate and votes.  Even after modification by Senator Boxer, Lieberman-Warner remains grossly inadequate in face of the challenges we face.  Even so, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce, and global warming deniers are attacking it as too high cost.  Let us be clear, absolutely clear, these are dishonest claims, claims that insult the term truthiness.  To be clear, dealing with global warming is not just an absolute necessity, but a necessity that will leave us far ahead economically (and otherwise) than simply allowing the problem to worsen.

Environmental Defense Fund has put together Get America Working to providea a shocking path to force an industry lobbyist to tell some truth when it comes to Global Warming issues. 

Alaska as a State in Denial?

Forget Katrina and Louisiana (where there are many other man-made factors, such as bad river management/flood protection), Alaska is the state most affected by Global Warming. It is also on the front lines of continued Republican efforts to confront reality directly … and deny it!

Several Republican members of the Alaska State Legislature drove through, almost beneath the radar scope, a $2 million funding for a conference on Global Warming. This conference, however, is not intended to be an honest discussion about Global Warming’s impacts on Alaska and what Alaskans might do in the face of these impacts (both in terms of changed energy/other usage to reduce contributions to Global Warming and amelioration measures to help Alaska/Alaskans deal with Global Warming). No, instead, it is an effort to put together a lavish environment to fete and give prominence to pseudo-scientists that seek to obfuscate reality and inhibit action to deal with Global Warming.

Chambering a round against future commerce

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce continues its deceptive campaign tour to fight any meaningful efforts to deal with Global Warming.

Last week, the USCOC joined up with Senator George Voinovich in Columbus, Ohio, for the session deceptively entitled “Comprehensive Approach to Energy and Climate Change“. From the speech by USCOC President Thomas J. Donohue, he described the USCOC opposition to the Lieberman-Warner Coal-Subsidy Act because:

“its targets and mandates are simply not realistic or achievable.”

I might agree that they are not realistic. Lieberman-Warner’s targets are not realistic because they do not do what is required to give a chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change.

“Not … achievable.” That claim is beyond ridicule and disgust. It is willful deceit. Achieving much stronger reductions that outlined in the CISA is achievable, it simply requires the will (political) to set serious targets and work toward them.

Skeptical about Skeptics? Check this out …

Being skeptical about Global Warming skeptics’ arguments has proven, to date, to be a healthy and sensible way to deal with their truthiness claims and arguments.  The Heartland Institute‘s distribution of a list of scientist supposedly doubting Global Warming yet again verifies the value of being skeptical about Global Warming skeptics.

DeSmogBlog decided to take a look at Heartland‘s list: emailing the scientists to ask them about the situation. From 500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares:

• The Heartland “article purports to list scientists whose work contradicts the overwhelming scientific agreement that human-induced climate change is endangering the world as we know it.”
• “DeSmogBlog … emailed 122 of the scientists … calling their attention to the list.”
• “in less than 24 hours – three dozen of those scientists had responded in outrage, denying that their research supports Avery’s conclusions and demanding that their names be removed.”

Hmmm, maybe Heartland should change the title from 500 scientists to 464 scientists maybe have documented doubts of man-made global warming scares until, of course, they are asked whether they agree with this article’s assertion.

Dominion CEO Disconnected from Reality

“Those who seek to demonize coal or eliminate its use are, quite honestly, disconnected from reality.”  Dominion Resources CEO Thomas F Farrell, II 

What is the reality that we are disconnected from?

• The 3.5 million tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide, 10 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 48 tons of mercury, 56 tons of arsenic, 134,000 tons of hydrochloric acid and 130 million tons of toxic-laden waste from US coal-fired electricity plants each year?
• A warming planet?  And, the quite likely possibility that we need to figure out how to reduce not our emissions, but how to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere?
• Mountain-top removal’s devastation?

I’d ask “what planet do you live on, Tom”, but really the question is: 

What planet do you want my and your children to live in?

Antarctic is NOT cooling!!! … expanded

Global Warming “Deniers” and “Skeptics” trot out any and every true item in twisted truthiness discussions that are neither true nor truthful. With areas getting more snowfall and uncertainty over data (after all, how many penguins are sitting and checking the thermometer every morning?), “Antarctica is cooling” has been a frequent denier/skeptic truthiness line to try to sidetrack substantive discussions about Global Warming/Climate Change and what to do about it.

Well, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. This one, aggragating ten years of data, is worth far more than that. Thank you NASA.

Not misrepresenting, but lying about evidence …

Bjorn Lomborg has taken some real heat for his misrepresentations within and truthiness permeating his fantasy work Cool It. Over at SolveClimate, the typically excellent David Sassoon has taken the time to pull the string on the “evidence” for one of Lomborg’s key claims, that cold kills some 1.5 million Europeans each year and that extreme cold is more dangerous than extreme heat. At the end of the process, David finds: nothing there.