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Bill McKibben: Even Industry-Funded Climate Change Deniers Can’t Ignore Planet’s Warming
Democracy Now! / Video Interview
Published: Thursday 2 August 2012
Responding to climate skeptic Richard Muller’s reversal on global warming, McKibben says: “It’s scientifically not very interesting because most scientists figured it out 20 years ago.”
Hundreds of new U.S. counties were declared disaster areas on Wednesday amidst the country’s worst drought in decades. We’re joined by famed environmental activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben, whose new article for Rolling Stone magazine is called "Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math: Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe — and that make clear who the real enemy is." Responding to climate skeptic Richard Muller’s reversal on global warming, McKibben says: "It’s scientifically not very interesting because most scientists figured it out 20 years ago, and all [Muller] has done is confirm their work. Politically, it’s interesting because we’re reaching the point where even industry-funded deniers can’t with a straight face say that [the earth] is not warming."
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ABOUT Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 900 stations in North America. She is the author of "Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.
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6 comments on "Bill McKibben: Even Industry-Funded Climate Change Deniers Can’t Ignore Planet’s Warming"
August 02, 2012 5:06pm
There’s no global warming say the ½-wits. There’s nothing under their skulls either.
August 02, 2012 3:54pm
And only the AWG alarmists want to keep searching for the global thermostat so they can set it on Goldielocks rather than try and solve REAL problems. They do not want to face the facts and truth that we must adapt or perish. Nope, it is much more fun and unproductive to shout slogans and call people names.
Of course the planet warms and cools; it always has and always will. Every single life form on the planet impacts the dynamic systems. DUH. 5th graders know this. But still these alarmist will scream they sky is warming and 'warmest summer EVER', when the records this rant was based off from end in 1940 and the station data is not acceptable due to its placement.
Here's were the AWG alarmists need to change:
1. Stop babbling garbage. You may know what you mean, but the science illiterate media takes Ever to mean forever and always, not 'ever as in the span of our records which only go back to 1940 and comes from a station that does not meet placement specs'.
2. Add into your rants Pollution and Energy reductions. CO2 is the LEAST of our worries and even the IPCC says so.
3. Put energy usage reduction and energy conseration in terms of economic growth. The same goes for alternative energy, which is never going to be viable until we convert all of our structures over to Zero Electric building. Hmmm, more economic growth and jobs. Conservatives will understand this and listen.
Lastly, many deniers are not stupid knuckle draggers who don`t believe in science. It is quite the opposite. They have picked up on the media`s misquote and misunderstandings and now don`t believe a word that is said. They also would like to have their questions answered in simple easy to understand terms. Instead, they are greeted with hostility from the alarmists.
Richard Muller is not a climate scientist nor an expert. Much more is being made of this than there should be.
August 03, 2012 3:59pm
You sound like someone who would tell a person building a bonfire around himself in the forest to adapt to the heat or perish and then you turn around and criticize the people who are warning the person not to create the bonfire.
You suggest that scientists can't have decent ideas about the historical temperatures of the planet because we weren't carefully making world measurements using decent thermometers until this last century. But that's like saying we know nothing about dinosaurs because we weren't there to videotape them with a camcorder.
Muller is not a climate scientist, but climate scientists have been criticized by web fools for not being real scientists (as if the fools making the claims were). Muller's background is in "hard physics" and he used a team of other physicists and statisticians and they merely came to excellent agreement with what climate scientists have been saying for years. The team certainly addressed the question of "placement specs" and many others and still got data showing the rising trends. ..I get the feeling you are not a climatologist and perhaps not even a scientist who has carefully looked at much data and real research at all.
CO2 is not the least of our worries, although there are many other serious concerns. We've hardly gotten a taste of the future weather (thank goodness we still have lots of polar ice) and you would call the predictions of much worse environment to be "the least of our worries"? I challenge you to quote the IPCC saying this. Their 2007 report can easily be found online via google.
The jobs angle has been hit a lot. Many "deniers" perhaps have been preoccupied denying there is even a concern to have noticed.
I agree with you that many "deniers" appear to have backgrounds in technical fields (and you've probably have heard that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"). The media might be bought by "Big Oil" and purposely obscures the problem, let's suppose. The media is not science. The scientific community have made their statements of support. Cal Tech, Harvard, MIT, and many others offer courses you can take if you want to understand better why most climatologists believe what they do. [In particular, MIT has opencourseware you can exploit for free online.]
I sympathize with your position of not wanting to trust blindly and of finding faults in the media. Journalists aren't scientists for the most part. Most people who don't give a good answer in online forums just aren't in a position of knowledge to do so. You may want to go to the more technical websites and/or read the scientific literature along with taking advanced classes.
August 03, 2012 3:11am
All the deniers are stupid knuckle draggers.
And you are a paid defender of the fossil fuel status quo.
August 02, 2012 3:34pm
The climate change deniers are politically conservative, amygdala-dominant, blind, obedient, unquestioning authoritarians who have a total disdain for Facts and TRUTH. As long as the billionaire Kochroaches and ExxonMobil are stuffing wads of obscene amounts of cash into their pockets, they will continue to promote the dishonest idiocy of Big Oil because it's in their financial self-interest to do so.