As the leaders [sic] at the APEC (yes, Bushnev called it OPEC) meeting dither and deceive, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the sh-t is h-tting faster than models have predicted as the hard-to-model positive feedback loops kick in. The time to act was two decades ago. Now it's just a matter of how bad it gets before we wake up and how much we can stop at that point.
Showing posts with label Dubya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dubya. Show all posts
Saturday, September 08, 2007
APEC, OPEC, It Doesn't Matter
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
How New Orleans Anger Helps the Busheviks
Just watched Oprah's actually very well done review of the horrendous failure to rebuild New Orleans, an hour-long commercial for how government can't do anything right so don't vote for those who tell you it can.
Friday, August 24, 2007
David Roberts Watch
At Grist. He has some very good posts up on the Busheviks’ evisceration of the nature and cultures of mountain tops all in the name of short-term coal profits, the media once again doing a story on renewables and standards for them without hitting the major points, and the framing necessary to get the emissions reductions requirements approved (along with intelligent conjecture on whether it will be harder to get the first or the last 20% of emissions. Typical good stuff.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Let that 'tussin get on down to the bone...
One of my favorite Chris Rock bits is where he talks about Robitussin.
When I was a kid, we didn't have no insurance. We didn't have a damn thing. You had to be damn near dead to see the doctor. You had to be way past Robitussin. That's all we had when I was a kid: Robitussin. No matter what you got, Robitussin better handle it.I was thinking of that when I read this WaPo article. Bushnev thinks corporate tax cuts will fix absolutely anything...
"Daddy, I got asthma." "Robitussin."
"I got cancer." "Robitussin."
I broke my leg, Daddy poured Robitussin on it.
"Yeah, boy, let that 'tussin get in there. "Yeah, boy, let that 'tussin
get on down to the bone. The 'tussin ought to straighten out the bone. It's good."
If you run out of 'tussin, put some water in the jar, shake it up! MO' 'TUSSIN! MO' 'TUSSIN!
President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.Budget surplus? Robitussin! Budget deficit? Robitussin! Losing jobs? Robitussin! Losing world standing? Robitussin! MO' 'TUSSIN! MO' 'TUSSIN!
...
With most of his second-term domestic legislative agenda in tatters and his strategy in Iraq under bipartisan fire, Bush appears eager to return to familiar issues that animated the beginning of his presidency and might rally disaffected Republicans behind him again.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Randomness...
- From the ??? Department: US Authorities will know the sexual habits of Brits flying to the US now. I’m sure that’s just infinitely useful for homeland security purposes.
- From the What Are Those 25% Thinking? Department: Dubya’s approval rating hits record low. Meanwhile, Americans blame Republicans for just about everything. Okay, not everything...just war, global warming, prejudice, poverty, corruption, and crime.
- From the We’re All A-holes From Vermont Department: The best reason yet why a Hillary candidacy scares the crap out of me? All that grassroots progress in 2006? Eradicated.
- From the In Case You Missed It Department: Olbermann’s Special Comment from last Thursday. I don’t want Hillary to win the Dem nomination, but I don’t want her to be unfairly targeted by an extra-politicized Pentagon either.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Sir, you're going to have to give back your 'Decider' decoder ring...
Lord knows if you're not strong enough to actually stand up to a subordinate (and the Vice President is indeed a subordinate to the President), then you're not The Decider...no matter what your aids tell you while you're jogging and clearing brush...
Uncharacteristically, Bush himself delved into the details. He was especially keen to know if there was compelling evidence that might contradict the jury's verdict that Libby had lied to a federal grand jury about when—and from whom—he learned the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of Iraq War critic Joe Wilson. But Fielding, one of the advisers tells NEWSWEEK, reluctantly concluded that the jury had reached a reasonable verdict: the evidence was strong that Libby testified falsely about his role in the leak.Nobody stands up to Darth Cheney, I guess...not even his 'boss'...and no, I don't think anybody is shocked by this...
The president was conflicted. He hated the idea that a loyal aide would serve time. Hanging over his deliberations was Cheney, who had said he was "very disappointed" with the jury's verdict. Cheney did not directly weigh in with Fielding, but nobody involved had any doubt where he stood. "I'm not sure Bush had a choice," says one of the advisers. "If he didn't act, it would have caused a fracture with the vice president."
Friday, July 06, 2007
Thank God for the Death Clock
I know some of the smarter, cooler blogs are dissing the idea that the Busheviks would monkey with the 2008 elections. (These tend to be the same people who diss impeachment on the grounds that it can’t work, even if just against Cheney, while they applaud withholding funds from Bushnev as if that would stop him or his court(s) wouldn’t back him in the resulting court cases. Please. Recent experience should have us way too far past this naïve silliness by now.) Meanwhile, we “conspiracy theorists” look at the coverage given the failed UK bomb attacks (“one of them talked about getting jobs over here!!!!”), consider the hype that would follow another Middle Eastern “devil” war, notice the Constitution MEANS NOTHING to the people in power (especially when the Supreme Court will endorse “unitary power”), and marvel that the new “kewl” kids have the megaphone. God, I’m glad my “death clock” says I don’t have more than a couple of more decades left.
Monday, July 02, 2007
That Bust is Snorting and Scoffing at You, Sir
It’s been well-covered just how much Bushnev a) loves Winston Churchill and b) sees himself in Winston Churchill. However, someone who’s actually studied Winston Churchill says, simply...not so much...please, nobody tell him about this...he'd crumble into little pieces if he knew...
Unlike Bush and Chamberlain, Churchill was never in favor of his country going it alone. Throughout the 1930s, while urging Britain to rearm, he also strongly supported using the newborn League of Nations -- the forerunner to today's United Nations -- to provide one-for-all-and-all-for-one security to smaller countries. After the League failed to stop fascism's march, Churchill was adamant that, to beat Hitler, Britain must form a true partnership with France and even reach agreement with the despised Soviet Union, neither of which Chamberlain was willing to do.And though I don't know for sure which one--Chamberlain or Churchill--would have been more likely to commute the sentence of a convicted felon on his staff, but I have my guesses...
Like Bush, Chamberlain also laid claim to unprecedented executive authority, evading the checks and balances that are supposed to constrain the office of prime minister. He scorned dissenting views, both inside and outside government.
...
Churchill almost certainly would look askance at the Bush administration's years-long campaign to shut down public debate over the "war on terror" and the conflict in Iraq -- tactics markedly similar to Chamberlain's attempts to quiet his opponents. Like Bush and his aides, Chamberlain badgered and intimidated the press, restricted journalists' access to sources and claimed that anyone who dared criticize the government was guilty of disloyalty and damaging the national interest. Just as Bush has done, Chamberlain authorized the wiretapping of citizens without court authorization; Churchill was among those whose phones were tapped by the prime minister's subordinates.
Will a 20-Year Nap Be Enough?
So Bushnev follows President Cheney's orders and lets Scooter off. Law means nothing to these people. I’m sorry but when will Dems and the “reasonable” people waiting for the 2008 elections to change everything figure out that, between the threat of terrorist attacks as shown now in the UK and the likelihood of more (un)provoked war in the Middle East, these guys who have shown they will stop at nothing to get and keep their power, even blatant violation of the Constitution and the legal system, are highly unlikely to let those elections meekly happen and that there is now a fully armed Supreme Court that will uphold any of its actions (with “Justice” Kennedy supplying the fifth vote in his usual vacillating but oh-so-considered way)? Sure, maybe a disastrous economic downturn might undercut any power. ORRR, it might give their illegal power even more urgency and base from desperate people seeking certainty from authoritarian tough guys. It’s not even like watching a slo-mo car wreck anymore. It’s like watching a slo-mo pile-up . . . with all the cars still moving toward a cliff. With fire below. I’ve been watching this for over 30 years, it’s made me a very frustrated and cranky person, and even our best bloggers (and I definitely don’t mean the sites with the most traffic) don’t fully get how long or how bad it is, much less “leaders” and pundits. Can I find out where Rip Van Winkle fell asleep please?
Monday, June 04, 2007
Weather, Water, Energy 6-04-07
We always emphasize here that fighting global warming can be a new economic boom if properly seen and acted upon, but also that the insistence that “economic growth” will not be sacrificed is the surest way to sacrifice economic growth in what’s coming. So, when China comes out with this “plan” to fight warming with a commitment to keep doing what’s it’s been doing only with alternatives if/when they come available and no commitment to developing the new economic infrastructure to bring on the possible boom, you know that it’s pointless. Especially when it refuses to cooperate with a proposed cap of only a 2 degree Celsius increase on global temps (that’s 3.6 of our natural, all-American degrees). IOW, let the planet burn while we crazily think we can develop under these conditions and pretend the developed world should do it all when we’re becoming the world’s leading emitter. (And in case you’re thinking, “Where’s India in this tirade?,” well, here it is, self-serving as ever.) What immoral tools. At least the article nails our own pointless little leader:
US President George W Bush - whose country is the only industrialised nation apart from Australia not to ratify the protocol - has proposed uniting a group of big emitters who would set non-binding targets by the end of next year.
But some analysts say this has been interpreted as a way of undercutting other initiatives - for example by the G8 or United Nations.
I love “non-binding targets” by “the end of next year” (which coincides with the end of his presidency. . . maybe). More countries have been done in by venality than perfidy, but Bushnev has pulled them both together in a really toxic combo. Of course, big surprise, his home state is the leading emitter of all the states. And you think it will get better with Georgi gone? Here’s Fred Thompson comparing what’s happening here with a warming Mars and Jupiter and making fun of scientists who don’t believe it’s all just “solar.” . . .
Meanwhile, while all these “leaders” dither with “voluntary” (that is, who know what will happen?) plans to promote economic development, the folks responsible for that development, the business leaders, are begging the politicians to give them some clear structure of policy plans so they can start doing their own planning for, you know, that economic development. Here’s what they’re telling the G8 leaders:
"To finance the solutions and manage the risks we need a strong policy framework that tackles carbon emissions effectively while providing transparency and stability for investment decision-making" said the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. . . .
Oh, and as the dithering crescends, we have Australia with its hottest autumn ever (which is our spring, but they’re upside down, literally), we’re warned the Himalayan glaciers could be gone in 50 years, Indonesia looks at rising sea levels the same way CA’s Delta Island folks do (that is, uh-oh), a UN report calls on nations to pay more attention to the effects of warming on animal species and their possible extinction, and another UN report lets us know that the loss of heat-reflecting ice during global warming may speed things up beyond what we’re prepared for. But, as that idiot NASA head said the other day, how arrogant of us to think that these things will be bad. (See his employee James Hansen's masterful takedown of the fool here.) . . .
Here is some truly positive news, though: GE Energy Financial Services has announced that it would double its renewable energy investments by 2010, and has become one of the first financial institutions to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions from its power plant equity investments. . . .
This news could be good or bad, I guess, depending. Turns out that rising sea levels affect the earth’s rotation, speeding it up, meaning that days will get shorter. Before you decide if it’s good or bad for you, note that the shortening will be .12 of a millisecond two centuries from now. But maybe you can still fit in that extra lesson of whatever you’ve been wanting to learn. . . .
But here’s unequivocally good news, via Grist. The Economist has an entire issue devoted to business waking up on the right side of the bed with global warming, complete with free links to all the articles. Go read.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Tuesday Blogroll!!
I’m off work today (Happy Harry Truman Day!), so it’s time to see what our impeccable (and growing) blogroll is coming up with...let’s get to it!
Being that it is Harry Truman’s birthday, I guess we should mention that not everybody agrees on, shall we say, the level of his greatness (Existentialist Cowboy).
For a second or two, I actually thought this was real (Skippy)...that’s a bit of an indictment of myself, but that’s an even bigger (I hope) indictment of how much I think of my president’s decision-making abilities.
Garance Franke-Ruta’s horrid “You can’t lift up your shirt till you’re 21!” proposal is getting justifiably slaughtered. Roy at Alicublog is happily up to the task of addressing this stupidity, as is Avedon, and Mannion (for that matter, so is non-blogroller Jon Swift). Echidne takes a more measured tone. So does Scott at LG&M. Me? I’m just glad that the country has started to realize that electing people who would create laws based on what makes them feel all icky inside might not be a good idea. Still a ways to go, of course, but...yeah. How about we enforce the laws we have (i.e. underage drinking) and see what that does first? Just a thought.
I knew I was going to link to somebody’s post about how the Kansas National Guard (and equipment needed to help repair the Kansas town that was 95% wiped off the map this weekend) is in Iraq and unable to help with the full force they normally would...I just couldn’t decide who would get the honors. We’ll give the honor to Steve Soto at Left Coaster.
What’s worse...a) that we have something that could be even reasonably considered concentration camps, or b) that we won’t let the UN in to take a look at them (Alter Destiny)? USA! USA!
Oh, and those levees? 100% fixed. Honest (Attytood).
House Dems unveil their new Iraq plan (BooMan). Not bad. No mandatory withdrawal date, but it requires the issue to come back onto the table soon, which I’ll take. Talk Left shares some thoughts as well.
And speaking of ‘not perfect, but not too shabby,’ Grist discusses Obama’s recent speech about CAFE standards.
April consumer credit is way up (CorrenteWire). But everything’s fine. Nothing to see here.
George Soros is one of the most FEARED MEN IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!! (C&L)
Overton Window = the Scientology of think tank strategy (Demosthenes).
Conservatives have only been feminizing liberals for 200 years (Digby...and FDL)...let’s keep being really reasonable with them and hope they end up seeing things our way. Isn’t that right, mainstream media? And speaking of media, the KC Star takes some, shall we say, creative liberties (Fired Up! Missouri) with a McClatchy story and makes it just a wee bit more GOP-friendly. And nobody so vividly illustrates the media’s faults better than Glenn Greenwald. You mean Brit Hume isn’t a serious journalist?? Wha??? So...why exactly does the media suck (Dana B.)?
So how long until people notice that Afghanistan is no longer under our control (First Draft)?
Tom Wolfe says Bushnev is relatively well-read (Wolcott). Well that settles that!
Liberal Oasis has your Sunday talk show wrap-up. You’ve been warned.
Phoenix Woman at Mercury Rising talks about the past, present, and future of the progressive blogosphere.
David at Debate Link details yet another way that a Democratic DOJ will have to make significant repairs.
And you knew I couldn’t go without at least one link to the fact that 3 of 10 Republican presidential candidates don’t believe in evolution (Pandagon), didn’t you? And one who does believe in evolution doesn’t really believe that having a BFF with mob ties is really a problem.
The discussion thread in this Upyernoz atheism post is very much worth reading. I don’t consider myself an atheist (I know what I’m not more than I know what I am), but most of the atheists I’ve known/read have explained their position very well. And I’ve seen too many examples of them trying to win anybody over until confronted. I respect that too.
Let your asthma flag fly (Susie Madrak). I like this.
And finally, this is fantastic (TBogg). Never say liberals are too shrill for humor.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Happy Mission Accomplished Day!
Maha Barb has been doing some high-quality writing recently, and today's Mission Accomplished Day post is pretty much the only one you need to read.
Iraq has become, for us, a nearly perfect lose/lose situation. If we stay and fight, we serve bin Laden’s interests. If we retreat, we serve bin Laden’s interests. The only Iraq policy we might have adopted that didn’t serve bin Laden’s interests would have been to leave Saddam Hussein where he was.It's gotten to the point where I was happy to see Bushnev go on TV to 'justify' his veto of Iraq funding this evening. Every time he opens his mouth to justify his decisions, he justifies the opposite. His squinty, 'looks concerned, but is really just struggling to read the teleprompter' delivery, polished off by his cocky, 'heckuva job, Brownie' smirk, just reaffirmed to 60+% of the country that the Democrats are the ones on the side of truth and, well, logic. It would be encouraging if the whole thing weren't so disgustingly depressing.
Those are among the several thousand reasons why talk of “winning” in Iraq is absurd. Even if we destroyed every single militant in Iraq who so much as hurls raspberries at us or the Iraqi government, that would not accomplish the purported “mission” of making America safer from terrorist attack.
As retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom says, “The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place.”
In today’s New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jeff Zeleny write that Democrats are planning a special ceremony this afternoon when they send the timetable-laden Iraq war funding bill to President Bush, who will veto it.
And if you decide to read a second MA Day post, try this one from digby:
He truly believed that he could force the rest of the world to come in and help pay for his misdaventure after the fact with troops and money. I don't know why any country would want to take on such a moral hazard, and they very obviously didn't, but Bush had so bought into his own hype that he believed he was not only the undisputed and sole leader of America, he thought he was Emperor of the world.As if the problem was that the world didn't think he meant it. The problem was, the world knew he meant it.The American people must understand when I said that we need to be patient, that I meant it. And we're going to be there for a while. I don't know the exact moment when we leave, David, but it's not until the mission is complete. The world must know that this administration will not blink in the face of danger and will not tire when it comes to completing the missions that we said we would do. The world will learn that when the United States is harmed, we will follow through.
The world will see that when we put a coalition together that says "Join us," I mean it. And when I ask others to participate, I mean it.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Oh good god...
...we keep lowering the bar for The Decider, and he keeps making us lower it further (via Cookie Jill, whose "Gore won an Oscar Award, Dubya almost won a Darwin Award" comment was absolutely fantastic).
Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation.I'd make the "Next time, don't try so hard" joke, but it basically makes itself. Has the President of the United States ever been claimed by 'survival of the fittest' before?
Mulally told journalists at the New York auto show that he intervened to prevent President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of Ford's hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid at the White House last week. Ford wanted to give the Commander-in-Chief an actual demonstration of the innovative vehicle, so the automaker arranged for an electrical outlet to be installed on the South Lawn and ran a charging cord to the hybrid. However, as Mulally followed Bush out to the car, he noticed someone had left the cord lying at the rear of the vehicle, near the fuel tank.
"I just thought, 'Oh my goodness!' So, I started walking faster, and the President walked faster and he got to the cord before I did. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front," Mulally said.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
What are you looking at?
This video clip seems to have caught the Vice President lurking in his unnatural habitat – the White House bushes. While the poster took a little liberty in the final seconds, the rest is unedited.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
More Taibbi
The Boy writing about a Taibbi column?? Wha??? That never happens!
Writing for Alternet, Matt Taibbi alerts me to budget news that I had missed.
[T]he Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.Taibbi knows exactly how to make things sound just as outrageous as they really are. Granted, the longer Bushnev is in office, the more people develop that skill, but he's still the best.
Not only does it make many of Bush's tax cuts permanent, but it envisions a complete repeal of the Estate Tax, which mainly affects only those who are in the top two-tenths of the top one percent of the richest people in this country. The proposed savings from the cuts over the next decade are about $442 billion, or just slightly less than the amount of the annual defense budget (minus Iraq war expenses). But what's interesting about these cuts are how Bush plans to pay for them.
Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.
The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.
Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period.
...
Sanders additionally pointed out that the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who received a $400 million retirement package, would receive about $164 million in tax breaks.
Compare that to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which Bush proposes be completely eliminated, at a savings of $108 million over ten years. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.
I obviously knew how Bush/Republicans feel about the Estate Tax, but it’s always good to have numbers attached. I mean, damn. There’s no way in hell this should ever pass with a Democratic congress, but that doesn’t mean I have 100% confidence that it will fail. They’re likely overstepping simply to get some kind of awful meet-halfway compromise (anchoring, anyone?), and it’ll probably work.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Back in the USSR, Boy
When the Bolsheviks were establishing Party dominance over the government in the immediate post-Revolution days in the new Soviet Union, the way they took complete control of the existing government was by placing Party functionaries in every administrative office, overseeing administrators and requiring everything hew to the Party Line. Nothing that didn't fit the ideological "truth" that eventually led that nation to the glory it has today was allowed to happen or be released. Sort of like this.
People stab at historical analogies for the Bushnev Regime, but nothing shows better what Krugman called the "revolutionary party" aspect of this Politburo, complete with its party czars and Pravda media, than Georgi's actions to bring neutral, objective management to heel in DC. If you liked what they did to the scientists trying to inform policymakers about global warming, you ain't seen nothing yet. They aren't anywhere near the level of brilliance and extraordinarily competent extremism of Lenin or Stalin, but they have already rivaled anything Brehznev and his hapless, nation-destroying cronies could ever dream up. Cheneyov couldn't fit the type any better if he tried, because, well, whatever he actually tries, he screws up totally. Like Bushnev and the other Busheviks. History's judgment that Georgi keeps invoking will be that these guys have been our Commies, complete with all the corruption, incompetence, and self-delusion that those morons put their country through for all those unfortunate decades. The only question is, how much more can they do before (or if) they can be stopped?
They say up is up? Then up will be down.
Memo to Mr. Bushnev: simply acknowledging issues doesn't count if you refuse to take realistic solutions into account simply because your opponents have already laid claim to them.
You finally acknowledge that alternative energy sources would be a good thing to find right about now...and commie liberals are talking about wind and solar power...so coal power units go up all over Texas.
You finally acknowledge that health care is an issue...and commie liberals are talking about universal single-payer health care...so you decide we don't have enough privatization (you even fooled the media on that one)!
You finally acknowledge that global warming might not be a liberal plot...and commie liberals are talking about carbon footprints and efficiency appliances and hybrid cars...so you turn to giant mirrors in the sky. And you call it "global climate change." Brilliant.
Up will always be up. You can't actually solve problems (not that you actually want to) by insisting that up is down simply because commie liberals have already claimed the right answer. Part of me is amused by watching you try, but a much bigger part of me just gets horrified. So stop it.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
We also like Teddy Roosevelt...
...this quote of his, at least.
[The President] should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.This comes from a Greenwald post about the respect a "wartime president" should receive, partially in reaction to the repeated mention of Bushnev as "our commander-in-chief", and partially in reaction to the Dougy Pantload's hand-wringing about that darn disrespectful Democrat Party...
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
And yet the Democrats for the most part sat on their hands, refusing to applaud, never mind rise in favor of such statements from a wartime president.Because you know Republicans would have been standing on their seats and clapping for John Kerry...
Friday, January 26, 2007
We don't like people who kick dogs.
For those of you who are tired of hearing "Yeah, you were right...but you were right for the wrong reasons," Lance Mannion has a post for you. Dog-kickers, backstabbing department heads, awful contractors, liberals, Bushnev, and the look-down-their-nose media. Good times.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Weather, Water, Energy 1-25-07
They just don't get it. Okay, the Australia PM has finally signed onto climate change, maybe, you know, because politics there clearly indicate that the public is getting tired of his act in opposition. Get this quote from idio . . . Mr. Howard: "I regard myself as a climate-change realist. That means looking at the evidence as it emerges and responding with policies that preserve Australia's competitiveness and play to her strengths." Please. Realist, my ass. What if the reality and climate don't allow AU to “preserve its competitiveness”? What then? This gets at my current sore point about how politicians and their apologists are framing this, as if climate change will allow them to direct what's going to happen, as if we even know what's going to happen enough to plan for anything other than everything being unpredictable. In the last 3 decades we've gone from "climate change? that's extremist" to "climate change, but by humans? that's extremist" to "climate change by humans but drastic changes in economies and lifestyles beyond our technology to control? that's extremist." Sense a pattern here? Paths stop, I know, but isn't it time to ask who's "extreme" here? Those who have consistently seen what's happening or those who refuse to (sorta like those who knew Iraq would be a disaster and those . . . never mind, that didn't happen). Could "nothing unusual's going on" be right? Sure. But we don't have previous records of this under these known conditions (such as today's CO2 levels). Could "yes, but it won't be that bad" be right? Well, maybe, but we've been working with that supposition for several years now. It's a little old and worn now. My point is, yes, the Kuntslers and other "extremists" portray futures beyond our willingness to grant. Therefore, they must be wrong. I agree. Maybe they are, but what if they're being too optimistic? This never gets considered, probably because it doesn't fit the "two sides, reasonable middle, rational center" construct that guides so much reporting and rhetoric on this. But the other end of this nonlinear, ahistorical situation is not necessarily Kuntsler. It's open-ended, it could be anything, because WE DON'T KNOW. Consider these quotes from a couple of other articles today:
"It is very likely that the ecology of the Arctic will change dramatically over the next decades. These changes will occur and are occurring to an ecosystem that we know very little about," said Richard Bellerby, a researcher at Norway's University of Bergen.
According to the director of the Norwegian section of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Rasmus Hansson, the change "is happening so extremely fast, much much faster than we have seen in thousands and thousands of years. It could have an unpredictable result."
Pascale Delecluse, deputy director of research at Meteo France, says models are also crimped by a newly-discovered phenomenon called "positive feedbacks."
These, in essence, are vicious circles. For instance, warming will thaw the permafrost in northern latitudes, releasing methane that had been stored for millennia in the frozen soil. The methane, a potent greenhouse gas, thus stokes the warming.
Other likely feedbacks include saturation of the oceans, whose plankton also absorb CO2, and loss of snow and ice cover in high latitudes and altitudes (snow and ice reflect the Sun, so when they disappear, the uncovered ground warms quickly, thus melting more snow on neighbouring ground).
"Most scenarios work with the state of the Earth as we know it today. Models are still incapable of factoring in the effects of feedbacks," admits Delecluse.
We have no mental constructs ready to explain and manage the future world these folks are describing. No human who could leave a record has lived through CO2 levels and the other things that we're doing. Do I think things will be even as bad as what Kuntsler predicts? No. BUT I'M JUST GUESSING. And so is anyone else who pretends they can predict. Those who use evidence-based models are likely closer, but as the quotes reveal, those folks really sound more confused than anyone. So, when Howard or Bushnev or any "reasonable" MisterRogers type expounds on "balancing" and not sacrificing our way of life as we deal with climate change, keep in mind that they are worse than fools. . . . And as proof, turns out Bushnev's global warming plans, by emphasizing ethanol, will actually likely add to greenhouse gas emissions. C'mon. Not really surprised, are you? . . . Also, if we actually reduce gasoline use, poof! there goes the funding of our highways. . . . OTOH, some people do get it. Alaska actually have a climate impact assessment commission doing planning to be prepared to address the problems as they come and be proactive in meeting in them. So let's leave on that message of hope. Maybe someday the whole nation will have leadership.
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