It takes a thief

If it takes a thief to catch a thief, perhaps it takes a PR expert to catch others at work to create and fuel the well-funded and so-far successful campaign to bamboozle the public about climate change.

James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore, with the respected Vancouver PR firm Hoggan & Associates, have done the spadework and present it in the form of a well researched, fact-based page-turner. In Climate Cover-Up they unveil, name-by-name and dollar-by-dollar the coal, oil and other deep pockets behind the cover-up, and the spin doctors, well-paid mouthpieces, and willing politicos who have convinced much of the public that there is a scientific controversy about climate change, and have successfully blocked national and international action to protect the planet for the last two decades. You can read my full review of Climate Cover-Up on Suite101.

Denial runs deep


Zerospinzone co-founder Les Adler has published an essay on denial on the blog of the Whitman Institute that is well worth reading. He provides a historical and linguistic analysis of the powerful river of climate change denial that is being fomented and exploited by special interests, most notably the fossil fuel industry. His conclusion is that the presentation of facts and reasoned arguments will not be sufficient but that instead, ". . . attention also must be paid to the slow and careful psychological work of bringing unconscious fears and feelings to consciousness in order to promote creative change."

Science is not a four-letter word


Zerospinzone co-founder Lou Miller takes Senator James Inhofe and other climate change deniers to task for demeaning climate science and science in general at a time when the U.S. is more in need than ever of home-grown scientists and scientific expertise. His critique appears in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat of 1/28/10.

December's Deadly Forest Fire in Israel Confirms Climate Change Predictions in 2000 Report

Smoke from Mt. Carmel fire, from Haifa, Israel

A raging forest fire early this month killed 42 people, destroyed hundreds of homes, and consumed much of the forest that carpeted Mt. Carmel, near Haifa, Israel. The deadly fire was a predictable--and clearly predicted--effect of human caused global warming and climate change, according to the author of an official climate change report that was submitted to the U.N. in the year 2000.

The 2000 report said that rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases would create overall hotter and drier conditions around the Mediterranean, with delayed winter rains and a shorter rainy season, but also cause more extreme climate events such as heat waves, heavy downpours and floods. Combined, the predicted changes would significantly increase the risk of severe fires, like the one of December, 2010, threatening the survival of many forests in the Mediterranean region.

More about the 2000 report and the current comments of its co-author, Guy Pe'er at Ben Gurion University, at this Suite101 page.

In my opinion, it's long past time for climate change deniers worldwide to shut up. But even for those of us who have been following the climate change research and "debate" for years, it's time to stop piously saying that we need to act now to protect our children and grandchildren. We need to act now to protect ourselves.

Robert Adler
for the institute

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Wake-up call for climate change doubters

Maybe climate change skeptics, most of whom seem to be of the conservative persuasion, would think twice if they knew that many of the biggest countries and industries in the world are taking climate change very seriously.

We're not just talking dotcoms like Google, which have invested heavily in sustainable enterprises, but great grey eminences including major insurance companies and banks. I guess being realistic about the risks from global warming and climate change, and being alert to the enormous growth potential in conservation, green energy and sustainable businesses makes sense when you're responsible for billions or trillions of dollars of investments.

One of those financial heavy hitters, Deutsche Bank,commissioned an independent study from a group of climate experts at Columbia University. The bank asked the experts to look at the scientific evidence for or against the major arguments raised by climate change skeptics in recent years. You've read or heard most of these arguments, for example in George Wills' influential columns in the Washington Post.

The Columbia Unversity team basically concluded that although it's true that Earth's climate is extremely complex and the scientific community's ability to predict exactly what will happen as we continue to pump greenhouse gases and aerosols into the atmosphere, cut down forests, etc., is necessarily imperfect, human-caused climate change is real and serious.

The implication is that any enterprise that wants to succeed in the real world needs to take climate change seriously.

You can read more about the Deutsche Bank study in a recent Suite101 article here.

Thinkin' about Climate Change Risks

I recently had the opportunity to interview George Backus, a nuclear engineer, systems researcher and economics expert who leads a team at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whose job it is to evaluate and detail the risks to the United States from climate change.

Bachus has a deep and unique understanding of complex systems, not just Earth's climate, but how climate changes could interact with our equally complex -- and probably much more fragile -- economic system.

I recently posted two stories about Backus and his team's work on Suite101: "Rethinking Climate Change Risks -- National Lab's Approach," and "National Lab Calculates State-by-State Climate Change Risks."

Climate change skeptics often argue that the uncertainties in even the most advanced climate models mean we should do nothing about climate change -- no investments, no new regulations, no new laws, no new treaties; just business as usual.

Bachus turns that argument upside down. The greater the uncertainty, he says, the greater the risk. If climate scientists could tell us that sea levels would rise by no more than six inches by 2050, every region could know if it was at risk and take appropriate steps. However, if the best models can do is tell us that a six-inch rise is slightly more likely than any other number, but that the actual change could be anything from one inch to three feet, planners have to take into account the unlikely, but potentially catastrophic impact of that three foot rise.

Like a scorpion, it's the tail end of the distribution of possible climate change outcomes -- the Katrinas and the ten-year droughts, plus their impacts on the economy, jobs and security -- that really stings.

For the details, please take a look at those two stories.

Robert Adler
for the institute

avandia recall

Global warming threatens the American West

This week two climate researchers warned of a particular threat to the western United States from global warming.

Writing in the 25 June, 2010 edition of the journal Science, Jonathan Overpeck, at the University of Arizona, and Bradley Udall, at the University of Colorado,say that the impacts of global climate change are already being felt throughout the West,as shown by soaring temperatures, the worst drought since systematic records were started, reduced spring snowpack, reduced river flow and reduced water storage in the region's reservoirs.

In addition, they point out that tree ring data show that America's West is prone to episodic mega-droughts that can last not for years but for decades.

Rather than waiting for more studies and more data to determine if the current drought conditions are natural, man-made, or a witch's brew of both, Overpeck and Udall say that planners and decision makers throughout the region need to identify and develop ways to adapt to significantly hotter and drier conditions.

A "no regrets" approach to planning requires that steps be taken soon to make the region and its burgeoning population sustainable within the likely range of climatic conditions during the next decades.

On a more positive note, the authors cite the region's vast potential for solar, wind and geothermal power production. Tapping these green resources, they say, may help the region pay for the inevitable costs of adapting to years or decades of drought.

For more details, click here to see my Suite101 story on this subject.

Robert Adler
for the institute

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