Climate Change itself, however, is as bad asย ever
The National Postโs Denier-in-Chief Lawrence Solomon has weighed in again with an irrelevant and inaccurate celebration that, in the U.S. at least, people are becoming LESS concerned about climateย change.
Of course, Solomon didnโt offer any actual evidence for this contention, other than vague references to unspecified public opinion polls. His strongest source was this: โAndrew Revkin, The New York Times reporter entrusted with the global warming scare beat, has for months lamented โthe publicโs waning interest in globalย warming.โ
As for actual climate change science – apparently of little interest to Solomon or his readers – he offered no sources whatever. Instead, he repeated the denier talking points (โNot only has the globe not warmed over the last decade but the Arctic ice is returning, the Antarctic isnโt shrinking, polar bear populations arenโt diminishing, hurricanes arenโt becoming more extreme.โ), ignoring such actual evidence as the new Nature article warning that Antarctic ice is, in fact, declining at historic rates, or the latest warning from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Dataย Center.
This kind of detail doesnโt traditionally appeal to Solomon, who wrote a whole book, called The Deniers, even though he admitted on page 45 of that tract that he had not found a single scientist – anywhere – who actually denied that humans are warming the earth in a dangerousย way.
Now he would like us to cheer that the climate change denial campaign is (apparently – still no actual evidence here) having its desired effect and that people are worryingย less.
Letโs imagine, just this once, that Solomon might actually be correct. People are worrying less. They are less enthusiastic about government taking action on an historic environmental threat. Government, irresponsible governments at least, might therefore be less inclined to take action. Thatโs great, for the oil industry flaks who likely sponsored Solomonโs book. What about the rest ofย us?
Letโs imagine, too, that someone came along and said: Great news! People are no longer afraid of AIDS.
Fabulous! One less thing to get anxious about. Unless, of course, AIDS is still a risk. (And the last time I checkedย โฆ.)
What Solomon is really saying is: Live dangerously. Thatโs stupid advice when it comes from a drunk 17-year-old. Itโs hard to imagine how a grown (and presumably sober) man could find itย otherwise.
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