Climate change is good for Putin. The Russians get new trade routes when the arctic sea ice melts. And Russian winters become a lot more tolerable, opening up Siberia even more. Trump knows what to give him.
7
This is the sort of pernicious 'deep state' we've been so often warned about, finally realized and weaponized by the team that was to drain the supposed swamp, much as Orwell anticipated. This is a mutant and dangerous form of the original deep state, exemplified by the hundreds of federal employees who volunteered to work in the South to help public hospitals comply with non-discrimination provisions that, if violated, would have cut off federal funds. This sort of 'public servant' adds a new definition to the term 'corruption,' for it involves both the undermining of statutory enactments and a level of intellectual corruption that requires its own category.
12
The guy is an electrical engineer. He has no scientific credentials or authority to speak to or influence climate issues and policy. You’ll get as much or better understanding from your local bartender or barista.
8
This is INSANITY. Are we in the twilight zone? How is this possible?
3
Given that Mr Trump cut a health infinitive that saved lives and could had done more now, only further proves this administration and their paid liars need to be voted out of office.
3
When I first saw this, I held off commenting because this particular Administration action I found disproportionately upsetting, and could think of nothing I could uniquely add beyond what I was sure others would say. They did.
Stretching to find something positive, I came up with some, which--under a better Administration, could be put to much better use.
The greater emphasis on “Uncertainty” can be a good thing, again on the right circumstances—and, of course, not if transparently used selectively to support an agenda. Uncertainty is present in all policies, but is often minimized in the cultural/political necessity to project confidence. I’d like to see it as part of all policy pronouncements, along with commitments to learn from early implementation, with appropriate revisions.
In combination with the new recognition, a political cycle ago, of noble federal State Department employees, it is valuable and usually rare to ever notice that federal employees play major roles; beneficial ones in their cases, and not in this one. Still, it shows they can make a difference. We’re going to really need the former. I bet there are a number of them just waiting to show it.
Finally, before this, there were misleading mindsets that policy/politics/science are separate, and it is more obvious than it really is what “science-driven policy” means. The damage shown here helps to more clearly show that as we’re re-building, we can aim higher to re-construct things with more holistic views.
4
Donald J. Trump -- "Dismantling the administrative State" as promised and the more his base hears about these things the more enlivened and happy they are.
Trump absolutely must be removed from office And, as the saying goes "All the rest is commentary."
3
The Department of the Interior was founded to protect the physical part of our country from predation, not inflict it.
Anybody who thinks ideology and science can mix is almost by definition more interested in thre former than the latter.
9
We must remember this prevarication any time the Department of the Interior reports that an action will not harm our nation's lands or waters, any time the EPA indicates that toxic substances are not polluting our air and water, or any time the Agriculture Department reports on the status of our farms, ranches and rural economy. The administration's disregard for research findings and scientist's advice is coming home to roost with their missteps on the corona virus. With tens of thousands of lies under his belt, who can believe the President on any matter affecting our security in a time of crisis?
11
As usual, I’m completely disgusted by the actions and policies of the Trump Administration.
8
Fire the person. File federal charges against them if they have violated any of our laws. We cannot permit things like this to happen if our government is to be respected/trusted.
7
A laudable comment. But I’m not sure if you got the memo from the US Senate: America is not a country of laws anymore. So, do what you must, but that is our reality. Laws do not matter. The are just suggestions to be ignored when the dictator says so.
5
Excellent, the warmers have long ago abandoned the scientific method so a bit of reality is a good thing
6
Is that the best shot you have?
4
Please feel free to point us at an instance of scientists abandoning the scientific method.
8
I believe in climate change, it’s been changing since the dawn of time, just unsure on the man made part. I also have 2 degrees in science. I am just skeptical that the same saving grace for the climate also happens to be the same saving grace proposed by the left to cure bigotry, homophobia, (insert any injustice here), etc in the form of socialism sprinkled in with communism. In order for the left to supposedly save the world it has to bring down capitalism and take away rights. I’m sorry but that sounds like snake oil to me. Too many leaders of the supposed movement are not scientists, they are radicals wearing Castro shirts and what not. If you’re actually serious about the issue make nonpartisan proposals and include all scientists for an open debate. Not just scientists backed by leftwing activist money. And not Bill Nye the fake science guy.
5
@JOSEPH since the Earth was on average gradually cooling for the 6,000 years leading up to the Industrial Revolution it is easy to say how of the rapid warming since is due to human activity.
More than all of it.
17
Adding disinformation into the mix is not a recipe for an open debate; it is false equivalence. A rhetorical fallacy. I'm sorry, but the science is quite clear that the global climate is warming at a faster rate than it would without anthropogenic causes, and it will cause tremendous harm to humanity. It's all out there, backed up by mountains of verified, peer-reviewed scientific evidence. The science is not partisan, only the response.
24
What are your two degrees?
12
Roger Cohen described the world we currently live in perfectly in a column a month ago: (my wording may not be precise)
"Truth? Oh that's just so 20th century!"
7
This is excellent reporting!
One point that could put an even finer point on what has unfortunately now become the "manufacturing uncertainty" strategy:
Note how the "Gok uncertainty" language mentions "Stakeholders". What that really means is the industry lawyers, lobbyists, and hired scientific guns are invited into the halls of government agencies - behind closed doors most of the time - and allowed to "negotiate" not only the policy outcomes, but the underlying science upon which the policy is based.
Often these "Stakeholder" meetings become the venues for transmission of industry science and lobbying into the policy process.
I urge the NY Times and this reporter to dig deeper into these industry dominated "Stakeholder" shams. At a minimum, they illustrate "agency capture". But the reality is far more like corruption. I have 35 years as a professional in these settings and know first hand.
11
The laws of physics are a hoax. Everyone knows that.
We are getting to a point where it won’t matter how correct the climate scientists are, the *fix* by GOP oligarchy is in. Too much infrastructure is geared toward fossil fuels.
The younger generations better step up and hit the voting booths in November.
18
I agree that climate change is a concern and that humanities' role in it and what we can do about it should be examined and debated. But sadly, this article places blame instead of advancing the debate. The true scientific method is based in a healthy skepticism of the accepted status quo, not "consensus". If it were as simple as consensus, all scientific issues would be handled by a vote! Thank goodness for the advancement of science, they are not.
The scientific method questions what has been accepted as facts, considers alternative explanations and all view points, and responds to them professionally. And true science concedes where there is uncertainty. Thank goodness this is being done with most medical issues.
Science does not respond to contrary scientific arguments with canned talking points. It does not try to intimidate those who ask uncomfortable questions. Galileo and Darwin suffered from that kind of treatment and their situations show that advancement of science has always suffered when doctrinaire proponents of a particular politically correct position take the current "consensus" approach, push positions for political (or theological) reasons, and try to block alternative considerations by name calling and black listing.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Open up the climate debate to all sides and have a true debate of the science. Don't stifle one side.
6
@MJ
The debate among climate scientists about the basics ended long ago.
We know adding greenhouse gasses rapidly warms the planet dangerously fast.
The only debate now is about the rate and amplitude of coming impacts.
21
No, scientists don't vote to attain a consensus. But after a certain point, after ruling out many alternate possibilities, the basic theory becomes clear and predictable. That doesn't mean they know everything. But it is intellectually dishonest to frame this as one side being shut out. As soon as deniers can recognize that certain things are known, then they can join in a truly open debate about the response.
18
@MJ - sunlight is good - so let's all see the emails from this guy. Let's see all the emails and other communications that led to this government employee getting a sudden promotion to where he can insert language in studies.
In fact, let's shine a light on all of the documentation for the job searches, offers and hiring of every single lobbyist Trump's put into his Administration.
Here's the climate debate:
How bad will the effects of x be? (for each item below)
- sea level rise
- shifts in precipitation
- increases in temperature
- destabilization of polar systems
- acidification of oceans
- loss of ice in Arctic and permafrost and glaciers
- decline in oxygen as lakes and oceans warm
How can we best mitigate the future changes to above?
How can we adapt to changes already cooked in?
Those are the debate questions. Not "is it happening". Not "is it from our actions". That stuff is as clear as gravity.
12
Should you find yourself keeping some social distance in the next little while, here's a good read that covers the Klamath River Basin controversy: Wet Growth: Should Water Law Control Land Use? edited by Craig Anthony Arnold et al.
We don't have a vaccination for the coronavirus just yet. However we do have on against ignorance and that is education.
6
If this is what draining the swamp looks like, give me more swamp.
8
This age of anti-science and authoritarianism that is spreading throughout the world could lead to so much damage that the earth will survive, but humans will be significantly diminished if not extinct in time. We will also experience a mass extinction of native flora and fauna throughout the world. It's already started, while Trump and others like him blithely assume their money will insulate them from the effects of their foolish policies.
12
Time for scientists across the globe to unite for humanity's sake, and sharply and emphatically rebuke this Trump puppet, Mr. Goklany.
"Mr. Goklany inaccurately claims that there is a lack of consensus among scientists that the earth is warming."
"The final language states inaccurately that some studies have found the earth to be warming, while others have not."
7
While most people accept that human activity creates increased atmospheric temperature, there rationale varies (actual understanding, tendency to obey, magical thinking, others).
Among those who accept it, the level of their hysteria aligns inversely with how much they actually know. Those who know nothing about hard science, or associate a vision of apocalypse with religious omen are out in the streets with signs or planning to "escape the social meltdown." Conversely hard scientists & people with huge costs to be incurred (like insurers) are giving practical advice and warning, or working to change things like building standard in likely flood zones.
So while climate change exists as an environmental issue in real terms, it also exists as a social clamor akin to Revelations end times pronouncements. Unfortunately for societies the media bias is always toward the biggest noise, the call of outrage, over common sense or the boring work of adaptation.
3
Sure. Who cares about Florida, New York City, and San Francisco anyway?
1
@CK - Typo 1st sentence, "the" not "there."
Forget Trump and his sheer ignorance for a minute. How long do other Republicans expect to be able to deny reality? What kind of a country (and planet) do they intend to leave their progeny? Do they care so little about their kids and grandkids that they are willing to sell the future to today's highest bidders?
I am not talking about Republican politicians - they are a lost cause. I am talking about rank-and-file Republican voters - the ones who are not feeding at the lobbyists' trough. Is what they're getting today worth selling out their kids' future for?
7
I’m doing my part: I do not have kids. Frankly I feel sorry for friends and family that have children. I only hope I can squeak out the next 50 years in my lifetime. Because frankly, the current generation will be the last one to experience a peaceful and livable world. War, famine, catastrophe. The born-again Christians must be so excited.
3
Trump's Justice Department is launching an effort to repeal the law of gravity.
3
Shhh...
They've got their "alternative facts."
Welcome to the new Dark Ages.
9
Selling the future of their children for the hatred and division of Trump.
Deplorable was a perfect word choice.
11
It is very helpful to know someone, many someones, are keeping their eyes to the keyhole. Congressional accountability and DOJ accountability may both be dead, but an informed public still has power.
1
An informed public has power? Not unless they do something to cause change, no they don't. Knowledge is powerless unless you DO SOMETHING with it. The people in power won't do anything different unless you force them. Power concedes nothing without a demand.
8
Just another Trump stooge.
2
A moment ago I watched a news conference devoted to COVID-19 led by VP Pence and felt encouraged that he repeatedly said he and the President would rely on "the experts" to fight the spread of COVID-19 and also let "the experts" lead the way in vaccine development and the protection of public health. At first, I thought how wonderful to hear Pence saying he would rely on experts to provide decisions. Then reality caught up with me. Shouldn't we expect Presidents, Vice Presidents, cabinet members and other government leaders to always rely on people with expertise to inform their judgments about identifying the causes of and solutions to scientific matters of widespread importance. But I have become immune to such thinking because of Trump's repeated assertions that Trump alone can solve our problems. He has convinced about 40% of US voters and 100% of his remaining administration that he alone can save us from the evils of his enemies (mainly Democrats and the free press). To that end, Trump's attitude toward climate change being a hoax has created a very dangerous situation that even experts might not be able to repair once Trump leaves office. Gok holds office because he tows the Trump line and Gok sows some of Trump's most dangerous seeds by speaking a language close enough to science to convince some people he knows what he's talking about.
2
The alternate reality world without boundaries. Nothing safe nothing sacred just spin everything. Exhausting and frustrating time for a change Senate and White House.
5
Reminds me of those "studies" that purported to show tobacco wasn't dangerous when the entire industry knew it was.
20
@Teresa - Oh, you know (cough, cough). It's un(cough) certain that second-hand (cough, hack, cough) smoke is ... (long pause for breath)
... dangerous. (wheeeze)
Many of the same cast of characters who fought the rear-guard to preserve tobacco profits at the expense of public health and well-being are doing the same for the fossil industry.
3
It reminds me of the Soviet Union under Stalin, when Soviet genetics was almost destroyed due to the great leader’s support for Trofim Lysenko’s view that acquired characteristics can be inherited. It’s beggars belief that this is happening in the United States.
14
He also endorsed the steady state theory over the Big Bang theory, essentially making it (steady) state policy.
1
Science offers the best current natural explanation for currently observed natural phenomena based upon the best currently available natural data.
Science is always provisional and refutable and testable. By better explanations, observations and data.
Americans are generally abysmally ignorant about how science does and does not work to explain the natural world. And scientific consensus may or may not be entirely wrong. Misunderstanding the nature and meaning of scientific theory is particularly acute
Scientific revolutions are wrought by those who challenge the status quo. Like Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Wallace, Einstein and Watson.
See ' The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' Thomas J. Kuhn
5
It is not much of an to note that there is uncertainty in science, but that is hardly grounds to dismiss the empirical findings of an overwhelming number of climate scientists that the planet is warming due to human activity, and there is a pressing need to address those harmful behaviors before the increase in global temperatures causes irremediable damage to the Earth.
Indur Goklany might do well to acquaint himself with the epistemology that governs research; he will discover uncertainty is always present; science is never finished; what we know is always open to emendation and dispute, reasoned disputation is part of the give and take of the scientific method, but such collegial discourse requires offering an empirically grounded argument to might disprove, or emend, what is presently accepted as factual by the scientific community.
Mr. Goklany has apparently not provided such an empirical argument and his efforts to confound the overwhelming scientific consensus on the reality of global warming would therefore be without merit. He sounds more like a dogmatic political functionary than a practicing real world scientist. Perhaps he should find another line of work more suitable to his bureaucratic talents.
6
@EDJ
I doubt if Goklany cares one whit about the science - he is just a political toady trying to get brownie points by doing favors for the political hacks above him, who are in turn trying to get brownie points from Trump or Pence or whatever special interest faction they support.
5
@Grainy Blue "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
There is no scientific consensus about "overall effects" of increasing carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is a necessary ingredient for photosynthesis, and if sunlight and water are abundant more carbon dioxide means more photosynthesis and productivity. Some greenhouses add carbon dioxide to their air for that reason.
Warming, produced by increased carbon dioxide, lengthens growing seasons in temperature climate. That also increases agricultural productivity.
A warmer ocean evaporates more water, leading to more rain and less drought.
There are negative effects, too---some crops require a cold winter. But there is no consensus that there will be "severe disruption". That isn't even a scientific question.
3
@Jonathan Katz
From the world’s largest general scientific association, The American Association for the Advancement of Science:
"The range of uncertainty for the warming along the current emissions path is wide enough to encompass massively disruptive consequences to societies and ecosystems: as global temperatures rise, there is a real risk, however small, that one or more critical parts of the Earth’s climate system will experience abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes.
Disturbingly, scientists do not know how much warming is required to trigger such changes to the climate system."
http://whatweknow.aaas.org/get-the-facts/
If you look at things like the rate of loss of sea ice, shrinking glaciers and ice sheets, melting permafrost and changes to the northern polar jet stream and deep ocean circulation, it could be argued we are seeing the beginning of such changes now.
14
@Jonathan Katz - How much agricultural productivity was there last growing season in the submerged Midwest, Jonathan?
There is no serious scientific basis for assuming, with the current trajectories of CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases that the climate will maintain the relative stability global agriculture and infrastructure is built around.
The expected outcome of increased intensity of storms, increased strenght of droughts, loss of mountain snowmelt that sustains small-plot farming around the world, is that society will become increasingly urbanized since the ability of many to sustain themselves off of a small patch of land will become too uncertain.
It was record drought in Syria that drove millions of farmers into the cities. How'd that turn out?
It was record droughts in Russia in 2010 that crashed their export crop (and killed tens of thousand of people there). The spike in international food prices was one contributor to the Arab Spring uprisings and follow-on violence.
We are leaving behind the relative stability of climate that's marked most of the Holocene. Instability isn't great for societies - especially when the bulk of human populations are clustered along rising seas and increasingly flood-prone lowlands.
4
EF, your quote just says basically, "we don't really know, but there's at least a small chance of unexpectedly fast changes". Not really "settled science", is that?
Until Republicans can learn to love their own children more than money and power this is what the future holds for all of us.
15
@jaco—A wage slave to those causing the climate apocalypse is what most of us have become in this country.
2
What is the remedy to this behavior and misrepresentation? Will it be allowed to stand? I hope there is a hue and cry within the department, among scientists and in Congress demanding the excision of false information. Please follow up. This outrageousness is exhausting me.
3
When the new Democratic administration takes office, they'll have to put together a no-nonsense team of real scientists to do a moron purge of the Dept. of Interior and the EPA.
6
Is it any shock that the "deep state" is actually being implemented by the person claiming there is a deep state?
11
If only science and ethics weren't mutually exclusive.
1824 Fourier says the surface of the Earth is warmer than it should be, it must be doing something like a greenhouse.
1859 Tyndall says, hmmm, CO2 is doing it.
1896 Arrhenius says hey if we burn fossil fuels we're raising CO2, we're going to warm the Earth and this is how much and he was pretty close.
1940s the modern quantum version with the US Air Force right after WWII. They weren't doing global warming, they wanted sensors on heat-seeking missiles to shoot down Soviet bombers before they incinerated their cities.
The CO2 absorbs infrared whether it’s coming from the engine of an enemy bomber or the Sun warmed Earth.
The idea scientists don't know what they are talking about is completely absurd.
6
@jaco Dyson's area of expertise was not climate.
6
@jaco - if Dyson was right about models (he wasn't, models are doing a pretty good job) he'd still have had to explain why sea levels are rising, ice sheets and glaciers are shrinking, permafrost is melting, rainfall is becoming more intense, insect pests are spreading to ranges that used to be protected by deep winter cold.
None of those things reads about the results of climate models - they're just nature acting naturally.
Dyson was really smart and was good at a lot of things. That doesn't mean he's correct about areas he didn't spend a career looking into.
If he was correct, he'd have been able to contradict the basic physics in the models, or point to the observations not supporting the models. But all three legs are in agreement. He publicly doubted one, without strong evidence.
Linus Pauling had a bee in his bonnet about vitamin-C megadoses as a cure-all. He wasn't right, but he sure felt he was.
By the way, the overall effects of greenhouse-induced climate change are expected to overwhelm any benefit of the real CO2 fertilization effect. For example, protein and other nutrient yields are declining in rice. The lowered nutrition also means insect pests eat more to sustain themselves - and longer seasone means more generations.
It all ties together - so you can't just look at one effect and say "we'll just take that one".
4
There is a failure among many to understand the level of threat climate change poses to humanity.
A population of a few million human hunter-gatherers was apparently beyond the carrying capacity of the planet as most places where we showed up the megafauna disappeared.
Around 10-12,000 years ago, when large climate oscillations settled down, we developed agriculture which allowed us to double our population many times into the billions.
But agriculture faces big challenges if we don’t change our ways soon (1), as do our fisheries, and if they both decline significantly, forcing us back to being largely hunter-gatherers, history tells us that out of every 1,000 people you see maybe one survives.
Except this time it won’t be meat on the hoof with mastodons, large flightless birds and picking lobsters off of New England beaches. Going back to trying to hunt and gather during the 6th mass extinction isn’t the best timing so one in a thousand may be wildly optimistic.
1 IPCC Western N America drought 1900-2100
http://icons.wxug.com/hurricane/2013/drought-western-us-1900-2100.png
5
Do we need a law that says that public officials cannot intentionally mislead, misrepresent, and lie to the public?
Or is this the result of the domination of and an over-reliance on the private sector business-advertising model being imposed on the public, scientific, medical, and academic-research sectors?
The quest for profits, investors, and business "opportunities" should not take precedence over truth telling--but in the Trump Administration, they really are. So what? Who cares, as long as business is being done, and there are jobs and money to be made?
We should! Look how the pharmaceutical companies lied about the safety of opioid drugs, the fossil fuel industry has gotten media and politicians to staunchly insist that climate change is a hoax, and we have a self-proclaimed (though often bankrupt and fraudulent [Trump U.}) businessman as president who has lied to the public more than 14,000 times about matters small and large.
The business of government is not business; it is to protect the viability of the nation and to serve the people and the public with honest, reliable information that many crucial organizations and professions rely on to make decisions (NOAA, FDA, GAO, HSHS, EPA, DOJ, etc.).
Those aiding and abetting President Trump in his multifarious schemes, propaganda, lies, cruelty, and destruction have no shame--and that is the problem.
7
While all of this is going on behind the scenes at the Department of Interior, Trump is using his rallies to get his message out that water conservation rules are unnecessary and harmful to our everyday lives in terms that his supporters can readily understand. That's why he's been ranting about toilets that you have to flush multiple times and faucets that don't deliver the water you need to wash your hands, and the crowds just love him for it. Who needs scientists to preach their nonsense to us when we can see the truth with our own eyes?
In so many ways "Make America Great Again" really means to take America backwards to a time when we weren't any wiser, except now all too many of us should know better but choose not to.
2
Of course increased CO2 has benefits as well as downsides. All plant life depend on CO2 to live and grow. Increased temperatures and CO2 will expand plant life in sub-tropical and temperate regions at least. As for the nonsense that CO2 is poisonous - if that were true we'd all be dead as that is a component of what we breath out. Don't let those who treat climate change as a 'religion' convince you that everything will be worse if temperatures and CO2 rise (hopefully not too much). For instance, at present, in Britain, 15 people die of cold each year for each person who dies of heat - so a lot less will die of cold even if a few more die of heat.
2
@Gary
From the world’s largest general scientific association, The American Association for the Advancement of Science:
"The range of uncertainty for the warming along the current emissions path is wide enough to encompass massively disruptive consequences to societies and ecosystems: as global temperatures rise, there is a real risk, however small, that one or more critical parts of the Earth’s climate system will experience abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes.
Disturbingly, scientists do not know how much warming is required to trigger such changes to the climate system."
http://whatweknow.aaas.org/get-the-facts/
If you look at things like the rate of loss of sea ice, shrinking glaciers and ice sheets, melting permafrost and changes to the northern polar jet stream and deep ocean circulation, it could be argued we are seeing the beginning of such changes now.
2
No one says CO2 is poisonous.
It’s about what’s the balance.
2
An unknown risk, "however small", doesn't sound like the "settled science" activists keep touting.
As questionable as Richard Nixon was when in office, at least he understood the importance of protecting the environment and keeping it safe which resulted in his creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Based on today's actions by most Republicans, it's extremely ironic that the EPA was created by not only a Republican, but a Republican President.
My head just spins and my heart continues to break at the concerted efforts of the Republicans to destroy this planet with their reckless and dangerous behavior and mindset.
I swear my cat with sight issues has more sense and greater vision than these knuckleheads at the Department of the Interior.
8
So Mr Trump's administration continues its war on the environment. Never mind the facts, just do the bidding of the moneyed folks.
November cannot come soon enough.
VOTE. Get the Trump Party out of government.
1
History, if written by objective observers, will be very unkind to Trump's Administration and the radical right of the Republican Party (the majority, nowadays). The human costs of this denial are going to be steep, very steep.
2
This is the new "tobacco is good for you" talk. These people will be hugely embarrassed some day. I just hope their damage to the environment won't be to bad and can be reversed.
2
Could he update me as to whether smoking Marlboro cigarettes promotes healthy lung function?
2
Maybe smoking strengthens lungs because they have to work harder
Cue the movie Sleeper
2
The amount of cheating that goes on by the right wing is proof alone that they are wrong. When you're right, you don't need to cheat.
4
Roger Cohen described the world we currently live in perfectly in a column a month ago: (my wording may not be precise)
"Truth? Oh that's just so 20th century!"
3
No matter what you believe or write it doesn’t change the chemistry or physics.
4
He's got a year or less in his current job. Four at the most.
Electrical engineer as a climate scientist. He'd be be more use learning how first peoples of the Alaskan coast deal with everyday life.
2
Climate change and COVID-19 both represent major threats to the health, safety, survival and economic well-being of us all, in every nation. The Occupant's response to both is identical in its dishonesty, incompetence, denial, scientific ignorance, and wholesale gaslighting.
Serious as the corona virus is, The Occupant and his GOP enablers actually present a greater existential threat to us all.
2
Misleading language is bad but check out this press release published today by the EPA:
WASHINGTON (March 2, 2020) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its annual Automotive Trends Report, which provides the public with a single source of information about new light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fuel economy, technology data, and auto manufacturers' performance in light of the agency’s GHG emissions standards.
“Today’s auto trends report provides insights into consumer choice and current market trends. Once again we see marginal improvements in fuel economy, but they are yet a far cry from the unfeasible Obama Administration’s standards,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.
I wonder where (or how) EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler or Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt think their children and grandchildren are going to live?
4
On Mars, of course. Or maybe the moon. Thank you for making me choke on a laugh! The last line was what got me, as it's so meaningful. The actual existence of the Trump Administration is pure insanity. My husband is still thinking about voting for Trump again and I'm still thinking that it's past time for me to take my dogs and flee.
1
This administration is an epic tragedy and a farce for our country and government. It resembles the corrupt governments of the countries that pretend to be democratic. I have lived in those countries and this kind of corruption is insipid and extremely difficult to disrupt once it takes hold. The damage Trump & Company have done will take years and years to correct. Our venerable government institutions that have worked to protect Americans for decades have been infected with Trump & Co’s twisted and probably compromised (Russia) world view. I am so heart broken and angry that I could scream! Save our country. Vote this plague out!
3
I'm right there with you. I have to take a lot of deep breaths to even get through the day. I'm outraged that this is being allowed to happen to the country and citizens that I love so dearly.
2
This country is being run(into the ground) by an emotionally challenged toddler and his play-mates--and nobody seems to care.
2
Less than 700 people responded to this important information. Do American’s care that our present WH is rewriting all our important science based laws and regulations. We are entering a time of information darkness. Everything you read and hear has to be fact checked. As the rest of the world scrabbles to combat climate change, American’s go about the day ignoring the dying planet and believing in politically based fairy tales.
17
Increasing atmospheric CO2 poses direct human health risks.
Our government is now in the hands of an authoritarian regime and with it a large and influential propaganda apparatus and Republicans cheer.
3
Reminds me of the Reagan era with James Watt as Secretary of the Interior. Basically, mine and drill and cut because the rapture is coming in 2000 and we won't be here anyway.
Rapture all right except it was Bush, not Jesus, continuing the policy.
2
The GOP are not just the party of climate change denials and health care destroyers, they are the anti-democracy and anti-freedom group.
1
The Trump election has ruined our country. Seems almost God’s will to punish us for it, and especially the minority who wrongly voted for him.
This type of undermining of science and rational though is taking place in every department and is dramatically under reported while the press obsesses over tweets and rhetoric.
1
How many of these "scientists" have been employed by the CATO institute to disseminate fallacies dressed up with scientific clothing? The first time I had to endure one of them denying climate change was in 1990 during a dinner. I have never forgotten his stubbornness, tenacity and incapacity to discuss arguments and evidence
3
Ignorance rises to the top in the Trump Administration. Again.
It would be more newsworthy if someone — anyone — in this deplorable excuse for an executive branch actually did something in accord with science and the rule of law.
2
Goklany will next explain that the carbon dioxide left behind after Trump takes all of the oxygen out of the room is really good for the plants in the White House.
So here is just ONE example of Mr. Goklany's "work"
. . .“ My edits are on the attached,” Mr. Goklany wrote in the email, sending a marked up draft that contained the misleading references
to the benefits of higher carbon dioxide levels and that questioned the widely accepted scientific research projecting the future course of
climate change. He also included an abstract of a paper, indicating, he wrote, “that CO2 may have increased the water use efficiency of
plants globally.”
The basis element of Denying the reality of Climate Change (and its subset, Global Warming) is to deny ANY link at all between the level of CO2, expressed
in Parts Per Million (PPM) and the Average Global Temperature. The History of Climate Change Science goes back almost 200 years to 1824, when the
French Scientist Joseph Fourier was the first person to calculate that the Earth's temperature was too hot, considering its distance from the Sun. Fourier
was the first to theorize that something in the air was trapping heat, but he did not know what it was.
Where the Deniers fail to make a case is that, since 1780, the CO2 PPM has continued to increase, from 280 PPM in 1780 to around 410 PPM today.
And the Average Global Temp (AGT) was inexorably increased along with it. You really have to be blind NOT to see any correlation.
In a modern day version of "A Tale Of Two Cities", we have had "A Tale of Two Realitys".
NOT ENOUGH ROOM!
2
Mr. Goklany waited to hatch until his science denial would be rewarded by a corrupt djt administration. He should be shown the door.
Crimes Against Humanity.
More egregious, malicious cruelty by the most evil administration in US history.
Driven by greed to fill the space in what should be a soul.
This man should be sued. Removed. Prosecuted.
America needs "geeks" in our EPA not "goks!" Dangerous and deceitful, a lethal combination. And a Trump loyalist.
The denial of climate science by lawmakers will kill more people than the Nazis ever dreamed of.
And we had trials for the Nazis after WWII. (at least for those we didn't help escape to S America in return for help in hunting Communists).
The crime this time isn't just related to human suffering and death but also to a large fraction of extant species and ecosystems.
It is a crime without parallel yet they go unpunished.
2
When Trump said he'd drain the swamp, he just took the nasty water, continually adding his own muck, and made his own swamp.
Sonebody needs to go in the file and delete whatever doubts Koklany is trying to sow.
I wonder if the world will survive the Trump Administration? Or will Donald Trump from The Apprentice kill us all?
From both sides of the fence comes so many contradictory findings, it’s seems impossible to logically separate climate-change fact from fiction. So, instead, we’ve taken the ‘my way or no way’ approach.
Being a chemist and computer scientist- having to defend my work in the federal courts for nearly forty years- I can tell you that nothing will happen, here, until we, collectively, agree on a set of corresponding, weighted, facts driving climate-change and then use those corresponding, weighted, facts to set climate-change policy. It would be in our best interest to find a way to cooperate; once and for all deprecating the ever-ineffective, plus 50-year-old, ‘my way or no way’ approach to climate-change.
1
The confluence of climate catastrophe, of denial of climate change in general and the Trump administration in particular makes Blaise Pascal's famous quote exquisitely and horrifyingly appropriate: "We run headlong into the abyss after having placed something in front of us to prevent us from seeing it."
9
Perhaps there is less basis for concern than many here would appear to believe. Is there any reason for definitively concluding that the hideous Mr Goklany actually exists? (After all the author was not granted access to to him in the flesh).
The uncertainty gambit was the invention of the tobacco industry--and "science has yet to prove that cancer is a health hazard.
3
The denial of the clear science over the last several decades has already done so much damage with much more in the pipeline.
There are parts of the system that are already out of our hands. And those parts are related to the ocean. Because we know that we’ve already put a lot of heat content into the ocean.
And in the case of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, regarding the marine based ice which is very sensitive to ocean temperatures—West Antarctica 3.3 meters sea level rise equivalent of ice and East Antarctica 19 meters—we are committed to some response of the ice sheet to the heat that has already gone into the ocean. And Greenland has around 3 meters worth of marine based ice as well.
How much response? According to the paleoclimate record, at 1.5-2 degrees C above preindustrial temperature, 6-9m sea level rise.
At 3 degrees C, tens of meters eventually, so the longer we take to make changes, the more changes we will see.
3
@Erik Frederiksen : Eric. Its seems that you are looking at the outlandish claims but for some reason haven't been closely checking the data.
Supposedly, our climate has increased ~1.2 C over that last 150 years (as if anyone would know). During that time, the rate of increase in sea level has been almost constant and is currently (as of August 2019) about 1.36 mm/year (if you doubt this, look at the actual data and do the calculations yourself - ignore the hype).
As for the Antarctic, it has been warmer in the past than at present (e.g. 1 000 years ago).
If you check out NASA's web site, you will see that even despite the numerous volcanoes under the ice (heating the water), the ice in the Antarctic is actually increasing.
You may not want to accept their view because of their increasing political slant, nevertheless, you will see that the claimed loss of Antarctic ice is not quite as it seems.
1
@Dale
The trend in sea level rise doesn't bode well for coastal areas.
1870-1924 0.8mm per year
1925-1992 1.9mm per year
1993-2012 3.1mm per year
Currently around 4.4mm per year according to this paper. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/104007/meta
When you graph the above it looks very much like the beginning of a very non-linear upward curve.
graph of sea level rise through 2012 https://robertscribbler.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/hansen-sea-level-rise.png
graph of post glacial sea level rise, http://vademecum.brandenberger.eu/grafiken/klima/post-glacial_sea_level.png , note the curve at Meltwater Pulse 1A.
Ice sheet mass loss, notice the lines curve downwards indicating acceleration.
http://www.columbia.edu/~mhs119/IceSheet/IceMass.png
1
EF - since any substantial melting will take many hundreds to thousands of years if it happens, there are more pressing societal concerns for this century to address.
“might have mentioned that warming may increase the water requirements for plant growth, which counters the CO2 impact on water-use efficiency.” In other words, like any political advocate does, Goklany lied by omission. The problem for climate scientists, though, is that they have become advocates themselves. If they would only restrict themselves to the science -- this is our best estimate of warming, this is our best estimate of effect on crops -- and stop advocating that those effects need to be avoided, never mind even how to do so, they would be more trustworthy to the public. By advocating, they put themselves in the same box as this other embarrassment to science.
1
False equivalency, perhaps?
Taking a moment to recognize our scientists who have been studying this issue and communicating their findings to the public. While doing this work they are faced with an onslaught of depressing news while being attacked by the fossil fuel company operatives.
The Scripps Oceanographic Institute marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson said it was fun studying corals for the first 10 years (1970s) until he realized everything he cared about was disappearing.
I read of an oceanographer suffering depression because she knew what she would see every time she went out to the reefs. More dead corals.
Recently from David Griggs, former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scientific assessment unit:
"I think we are heading to a future with considerably greater warming than 2 degrees centigrade, and when the world doesn’t do something about it it brings a whole range of emotions into play, depression is clearly something.
You get days you are down, because what you know, and what you can see coming, is not good."
https://youtu.be/jIy0t5P0CUQ?t=213
4
Didn't you just write that we can dismiss posts without scientific references?
Gok’s uncertainty language reminds me of this quote:
“In climate research and modelling we must recognize that we are dealing with a coupled, non-linear, chaotic system, and that the prediction of future climate states is not possible”.
Can’t blame Goklany, though, as this statement was made by the IPCC and included in the detailed science section of an IPCC report, though it does not appear in their Summary for Policymakers. Reading the detailed IPCC reports is very much worth the effort. I’d even encourage journalists to give it a try.
4
@JFB
As predicted the Earth is warming rapidly, ice is melting and sea level rise is accelerating.
Note, taking quotes out of context is not an effective debating strategy.
15
Trumpism is all about cooking the books. His financial life is all about choking the books. His public life - remember Stormy? Yup. Science giving inconvenient answers? Cook 'm!
I call it lying.
20
@Some Dude
Lying is a good word, short and to the point. Journalists should not fear to use it in regards to what the Republican Party does every time it opens its mouth to speak.
2
The only people why deny or disparage climate change are right wing Republicans. Trump and his loyal administration officials are motivated to promote junk science by political considerations; namely the large donations and political support received from businesses who are heavily invested in fossil fuels.
Pay Trump, he’s on your side.
Pay the Republican Party, they’ll shill for you.
7
How wrong you are. However like many on the extremes of any debate no open discussion that differs with your views is accepted.
1
Anti-science = recipe for disaster.
4
Well, it will all be ok because it protects the interests of rich people, so they will be able to afford astronomic food prices & private interventions to protect their waterfront properties
2
The mercenary hacks in our midst. “For what profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul.”
Life in the current Reagan Restoration era is sweet.
1
....rising carbon dioxide is beneficial because it “may increase plant water use efficiency”. Great. That is like saying Cancer is good for you because you will lose weight and look more handsome .... well till you die. Is this wilful misconduct or gross negligence ? We need some lawyers and judges to figure this out.
7
Misleading language inserted in scientific papers.
Trickle-down economics
Voter suppression
WMDs in Iraq
Corporations as People
Money as Speech
Demonstably unqualified (per ABA) lawyers with no trial experience appointed to district courts.
Blatant lies about crowd sizes.
Obama's citizenships.
People, vote every single
5
Any researcher who will succumb from pressure to stifle findings, or to report intentionally misleading results, not to mention offering validity to debunked claims (of ridiculous, clearly profiteer-driven proportions) doesn’t deserve to be called a “scientist.” This may seem harsh; however, if we consider that scientific research is our last and final bastion of sanity in this war against the massive propaganda machine, with main operators inspired by the likes of Goebbels and Beria, this turncoat behavior is inexcusable. Resign. Make the interference public. Anything — but this betrayal of the most fundamental principle of what is still know as Science.
4
You’re referring to those climate science “experts” that follow the research money, right?
1
Trump is not a rational person and the Republicans are avoiding a problem that means more government interventions, more taxes and regulations, and delayed profits as existing energy systems become worthless and great indebtedness is assumed to replace them. But in the end humans can not alter natural forces and this silly magical thinking that amounts to hoping that the problem will just go away is silly.
4
Just another example of Trump's War on Science.
4
You can thank Bloomberg for funding republicans for congress like Lindsey Graham.
Elizabeth Warren Rips Into Michael Bloomberg for Funding Republican Campaigns - Mother Jones
3
Vote Trump: he’ll deny everything except the fact that he might be Jesus, and the richest man in the world.
Those were some terrible slides.. Indur M. Goklany presented slides that were the epitome of the Correlation does not Imply Causation Fallacy...
1
Dems need to defeat Trump, take the senate and keep the house and get to work cleaning up the conspiracy theory ridden Trump admin run by a lying carnival barker con man . Send Mitch and AG Barr packing to Fox news and let's deal with reality by ending the manic tweets of a mad king .
2
This is indeed criminal behavior. How can Goks be stopped?
3
The problem here is that the consequences of this sort of thing will be visited upon one and all. In a just world the corona virus and climate change would only affect Republicans. But sadly everyone will suffer for the foolishness of the minority that support this corrupt administration.
3
Thank god the pentagon has more sense than to go by the ridiculous “facts” used by Trump cult. Trump himself will believe the facts once the waves breach the inevitable taxpayer funded wall around Mar a Lago.
3
Trump's climate denial is bad (terrible), but get your facts correct. My family has lived in the Klamath River drainage basin of No Calif for 60+ years and I don't believe any of the Klamath water goes into the Central Valley or further south for farming. Local irrigation for sure, but no big transfer outside the basin. Locals have fought the dam removal but it's more a concern for flood control.
2
Climate change is a Chinese hoax.
Covid-19 is a hoax. Fake news is trying to make me look bad. They all hope people due to make me look bad, listen here, my son will tell you all about it on cable TV.
The convicted felons in Trump’s inner circle are very good people who were treated so unfairly by our courts.
Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election, by manipulating social media and other underhanded means, in an effort to elect Trump. ‘Russia, if you’re listening...’
‘No quid pro quo.’ Well, ok, maybe - but ‘I have an absolute right.’ It was ‘perfect.’
That hurricane was too headed to Alabama - watch my Sharpie!
The crowd at my inauguration was the largest in history - no matter what those photographs show.
The fires in California were caused by ecoterrorist socialists who didn’t keep the forest floor swept clean.
All of those people didn’t really die in the hurricane in Puerto Rico. Fake news just says that to make me look bad.
U.S. manufacturing didn’t really contract in 2019, and U.S. mining employment has not remained unchanged since 2017 - we’re opening up the factories and opening up the mines and there are millions and millions of new jobs!
GDP did not really creep along at a 2% rate of growth in 2019 - this is the most fantastic economic boom in history!
Where, pray tell, does it end? How does Trump get away with this - and what kind of deep-rooted, willful ignorance and sheer stupidity is afoot that tens of millions will buy into this garbage?
6
Whenever I see the words of a trump administration official I remember those images of Eichmann in the glass cage, when so many people thought that when he spoke they would hear the rantings of an evil man and all they heard were the words of “regular working guy just trying to do his job for his boss.”
H. Arendt used the words “thought-less person ” and “banality.”
2
@steven Also, (what Arendt did not catch), it was all an act like reality TV. Eichmann was a fanatic Nazi who did his job zealously and meticulously. He constructed a small-fry image in court.
@Tara,
I am not familiar with the specifics of your comment, if you can post a source as a reply here I would be interested to read it.
Thank you.
Rather than "misleading" Gok's insistence on science being uncertain could be characterized as "false," which would, I suppose, expose nytimes to litigation it might lose.
An easy online search shows Indur M. Goklany is paid by the Heartland Institute, the same institute that has employed the young German woman, Naomi Seibt, who denies climate change. Funders of the institute include the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. Is anyone surprised?
16
@Julie Who pays the travel. lodging, expenses, etc. for the 16-year-old mentally ill (read her mother's book - Scener ur hjärtat) high school drop-out from Sweden to travel the world spreading climate alarmism and scientifically unsupported claims, while frightening children and encouraging them to skip school?
Perhaps you can provide a link to the claim that Naomi is being employed by the Heartland Institute?
1
Does anyone believe a single word uttered by this administration of crackpots? Utter garbage.
Very sad to see such continued damage to our institutions like Interior Dept, EPA, and others.
8
Who is going to fund the eventual Wasteland Institute?
2
The sad part is that poll after poll over many years show the clear majority of Americans believe climate change is a significant problem, and getting worse. They by and large want it dealt with by the government, not debated exhaustively in its fundamental aspects -- in perpetuity giving deniers equal footing in the name of "fairness". It's the minority in charge for sure.
5
The point, of course, is to create doubt and anxiety and suspicion of ALL scientific information. Science is based on skepticism and inquiry, both of which are anathema to autocrats. It is easy to control with fear a populace that is awash in doubt and confusion.
17
The politicization of climate change information is baleful, but the science on this is also rapidly evolving. Lorenzo Polvani at Columbia University and an international team of scientists recently published an article in “Nature Climate Change” showing that fully one half of all Arctic warming and no less than one third of global warming between 1955 and 2005 was caused by ozone depleting chemicals like CFCs, HFCs and nitrous oxide, and a mounting body of other work is showing that these potent greenhouse gasses are accumulating in the atmosphere at double the levels assumed by the IPCC and climate modelers. These chemicals have many 100s to 1000s of times more warming capacity per molecule than CO2. The silver lining is that a great deal of warming could be mitigated by drastically cutting the production and use of these chemicals. But that doesn’t fit the catastrophic climate narrative with CO2 as an evil gas. Good news does not sell.
4
@Erik Grimmer-Solem
From NASA:
“Carbon dioxide (CO2). A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is released through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric CO2 concentration by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution began.
This is the most important long-lived "forcing" of climate change.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/climate.nasa.gov/causes.amp
@Erik Grimmer-Solem I think you misunderstood the implication of the paper. Ozone depleting substances are very potent greenhouse gases that can persist for up to a century and regulations on their emission per the Montreal Protocol are incredibly important. That does not at all contradict the consensus that CO2 is also a potent greenhouse gas. No one characterizes co2 as “evil,” gases are not endowed with subjectivity and moral agency. It is, however, a principal determinant of global temperatures, and Polvani himself would probably take issue with your poo pooing the contribution of CO2 to global warming.
Could you please reference these studies that show that ODSs are accumulating again? Since the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, we moved away from these chemicals and their levels in the atmosphere peaked in the late 20th century.
The recently deceased (RIP) world renown genius of mathematical modeling Freeman Dyson is on record observing that climate change hysteria is akin to a religion. He is on record rating the mathematical models for climate in general including weather, and climate change in particular as poor, with respect to future predictions. He is on record noting that we do know the most clear effect of atmospheric CO2: increased greening of the plant life on the planet.
Clearly while any model that simply increases temperature in a simple closed container has predictable effects, the Earth is too complex for the models we have today. Climate change catastrophe is a fearsome conjecture feet of clay, and all the concurrence of all the scientists you wish to list does not change the fact that the math is just not there, according to one of the greatest mathematicians who has ever lived, who had no dog in the fight, who's job did not depend on supporting a hysteria.
Personally I would allow the intelligent planning and adjustments as needed to address the conjecture of climate change. No more development on US coasts, fine! But I would reject the hysterical mob that has a little red book of rules and mores by which they will try to tell us to live our lives to calm their hysteria. To say "beware the religious mob" is to simple repeat a wise lesson from history, it's a better understood threat than climate change.
4
@CK Dyson’s expertise was not in the field of climate.
Enough said.
6
Actually, his expertise was in evaluating mathematical models such as those which underlying all predictions of near - term dangerous climate change.
2
@CK - Couple typos in there, please forgive! I think the position comes across, last line should be clearer: "... the 'religious mob' is a better understood threat to humanity than climate change."
3
It's almost ordinary now to hear of another Trump Administration official engaging in climate change denial.
It's their ideology. They won't let science stand in the way of their beliefs no matter the consequences.
Americans put these people in power. Americans have the capability to remove them. I'm not holding my breath waiting....
1
The Republican Party is simply doing whatever it can to stay relevant and going to great lengths to deliver its message.
3
I personally think the sun revolves around the earth. After all it starts in the east, goes to the west and the next morning is back in the east. Surely that scientific mumble jumble is "fake news" after all, I can believe what I want. I wish Trump and his ilk had been president back in the day when I was required by my teachers to answer questions with facts.
3
From the looks of his Wikipedia page, it appears that the majority of Mr. Goklany's educational background is in the field of electrical engineering and nothing in climatology or environmental science. He seems quite unqualified to have any input on reports concerning climate science.
6
This fellow's theories have always bent to the very industries whose presence and mode of business increases the poverty he claims to want erdicated.
His underlying premise is that strong democratic economies will naturally enact laws towards safeguarding the environment.
What rock has this guy been living under?
Looking at the evolution of environmental law in this country, the slog that still goes on to pass/enforce laws, bring offenders to mediation, to use environmentally sound methods; given the recent gutting of those laws in an economy proclaimed by the President as the best in the history of America, why does this man have a voice let alone the power to change our laws?
4
All future predictions have uncertainty, but that uncertainty is quantifiable.
My advisor once told me "an estimate without a measure of uncertainty is worthless."
As is Mr. Goklany.
4
Actually much uncertainty is not quantifiable. Remember the unknown unknowns.
First, I'd suggest that the non-Trump media spend the next 2 weeks referring to the GOP as Gokkers. Do it consistently to make the point. With us facing amorality and criminality on the Trump level, there needs to be hope for a unified pushback.
Second, there's a pretty easy way to tell the difference between honest opinion, on the one hand, and lies that aim at social harm. Trump trolls were allowed in here last week, to trumpet the line: "Corona is as harmless as a cold, and old people don't suffer overly from it."
There comes a point where a harm-seeker bares his teeth. Can the moderators not filter it out?
2
We are now in the "believe nothing, challenge everything" era. Misinformation is rampant, lying is just fine, and we are at the mercy of would-be tyrants. Vote.
2
The people who are posting about Trump being anti-science are the same people who think that in 25 years we can transition the American economy to 100% renewables. Yes, 150 million electric cars, heat and electricity will be powered by wind, solar, hydro and biomass.
So who is more anti-science, Trump, or the environmental extremists?
5
@Erik
More to the point, who is more against civilization and humanity. Big fossil is subsidized in the $trillions, and is doing us no good. Working together to solve this problem is our only hope.
14
@Erik Erik pretending to be the grown-up by pushing the idea that it is too hard and unrealistic to try to convert entirely to renewables in the next 25 years so we should just give up and die. The average power plant lasts less than 40 years - in the next 25 years most of the power production in this country will be replaced - the question is what we choose to replace it with. New production has been primarily wind and solar - do we put investment into encouraging this change or allow the fossil fuel industries continue to lobby their way to obstructing this transformation? What's weird is the it's too big a project people don't realize that that big replacement project is going to happen anyway - whether with fossil fuel or renewables.
19
I’m sorry, but why are you terming others to be environmental extremists? At this point only a tiny minority hold an extreme denial position, and it is your side.
11
I see nothing wrong with this uncertainty language.
I am a Caltech engineer with over 4 decades in the oil patch.
And if there is an uncertainty out there - our industry knows a lot about it.
Just start with the so called 'peak oil' theory which advanced a proposition that after about mid 70's - America will be running out of oil in a few decades.
Now, almost 5 decades later - we are awash in oil.
The climate scientists themselves know uncertainty - after all, the famous Eisenberg principle of uncertainty is just that.
It basically states that when you try to precisely measure something - more uncertain the measurement becomes.
And this official - having spent decades as a career bureaucrat - I suspect - has seen a lot of uncertain predictions in scientific reports of his agency.
And to be brutal - elections have consequences.
Rather than joining the hit parade of previous administrations - I am glad we have a tax payer paid servant who says 'really, isn't there the rest of the story?'
4
@Neil Peak oil was based upon data at that time. Fracking changed the whole equation-maybe for the worse. The oil was there but couldn't be recovered.
Climate change is completely different. It could be mitigated with enough money spent but would the fossil fuel politicians allow it?
Elections do have consequences The last presidential election if not changed could destroy humanity.
5
Tax payer? Talk about uncertainty.
I'm not sure you remember your CalTech classes very well. It's the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and it only applies to quantum measurements, not the physical world as any carpenter who "measures twice and cuts once" can tell you.
5
" Climate Change " , nee : AlGoreWarming , is the most destructive of both human and ecological welfare anti-science useful ( in the sense ascribed to Lenin ) cult ever .
What's the biggest lie one can imagine to keep the serfs miserable and obedient to the State's gatekeepers ?
That the molecule they are made of , because every bite of food they eat is , because all life is built on , the source of the carbon which defines ` organic , is , in addition to its indisputably measured by satellite spectacular greening of the planet and increasing agricultural yields , is also warming the planet a little -- altho it has never in geological history going back to when before photosynthesis it was ~ 300,000 ppm , not 400 .
A paradigm perhaps unique in the history of science in having NO quantitative testable fundamental classical physical equations nor experimental demonstration of its trapping of a temperature gradient by spectral means -- because it's false . The paradigm literally violates Conservation of Energy by dening by omission Newton's 330 year old universal Law of Gravity which explains how much hotter bottoms of atmosphere are than their tops .
How many more landscapes must be despoiled by economically unsustainable bird choppers before the determined ignorance joins other global statist stupidities on the ash heap .
1
Isn't it easier and more correct to say "lies" instead of "misleading language"?
4
A look at Goklany’s academic and professional history reveals a man with contrarian views but not someone that is an extreme climate change denier. This Times report is biased and incomplete because it leaves out some of Goklany’s extensive publishing record and infers that he has laced Interior Department reports with inaccurate information. He questions some of the conclusions of other scientists. A more objective evaluation of his long research and investigative record would be more appropriate than the report presents.
3
And on it goes .... the barrage of misinformation and non-science drivel.
3
Climate, Trump does not know what climate is. He spends his time in ecological deserts, the towers of New York, the White House, and golf courses. I wonder if he is fake news, just a pigment of our imagination.
2
The gop PC police at it again. Republicans are elevating hypocrisy to new levels, as they move to scrub language from scientific reports that may be offensive to their snowflake base. The world sees us for the fools we are. Unfortunately, as the world’s largest generator of green house gases, we will bring down everyone with us.
5
How is it the NY Times relegates this to below Coronavirus? Which is the greater threat to humanity? I'm fairly sure it's climate change and, by extension, climate change denialism.
Regardless, both are bad, and de-funding legitimate climate and disease science equally so.
3
I wonder what job Mr. Gok will have in ten years. In a dem administration he might acheive deputy secretary for recycling strofoam cups!
1
The stench of this administration will take decades to eliminate it is so foul.
4
What is amazing is this is an attack by those with wealth to attack science, education, liberalism, immigrants and an inclusive society.
It would be wise that people with wealth counter these corrupt white nationalists. They will eventually steal you wealth by abusing regulatory capture to destroy competition in favor of their political connected friends.
1
Who on this earth believes anything Trump or his employers say. The article should have been written in one paragraph. They are liars, period.
2
Trump and his surrogates have totally redefined the words greedy and self-serving…………
They would destroy the environment, the world simply to enrich themselves………
This administration is not humanitarian by any stretch - they are destroyers by any means possible………
In the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”……
Could Donald Trump be jealous?……….
2
Minitrue in action. Big Brother is smiling.
1984 was not an instruction manual.
1
Another giant step backwards for mankind.
4
It's clear that the trump crime family despise facts and those who support facts-- from global warming to viral pandemics, the imbeciles are in charge. That should make every American very concerned.
4
Trump's Big Brother Ministry of Truth hard at work.
2
Look, it comes down to greed and selfishness. Period. We don't care because they don't affect us in this moment and to plan ahead means to spend more now, and we prefer money now to keeping humans we don't know alive. I got told it wasn't that simple, but it very much is. If you believe a human life has value beyond the profit it could give you, then you fight to tax fossil fuel companies for the pollution they make. You regulate the environment harder, and fine violators more. You fix immigration so it recognizes climate refugees (because we will have many, many more), and you stop pretending that we won't see even more pandemics, since warm weather actually helps those viruses get the right food they need to mutate. Humans need to decide humans matter more than money, and fast. I doubt that they will tho. Things are shiny, and the only way to know you're a better person than the one next to you is to know your bank account has more money than theirs.
2
Dishonesty at the U.S. Interior Department will have serious long term consequences.
In Canada right now, we have a major dispute in progress between the Wet'suwet'en Nation and the government of British Columbia. On the surface, this is about the rights of the hereditary chiefs to determine how a proposed gas pipeline should cross their traditional lands. However, the chiefs have attracted support from across Canada and around the world. Clearly there is much more at stake here.
The disputes that are now taking place around oil and gas pipelines in Canada would not be taking place if the environmental reviews required by law had been carried out honestly and competently. Alternatives would have been found, and the projects with significant external costs would not have been approved. One can only have the “rule of law” on environmental issues if the law itself is based on facts.
The credibility of the Interior Department is essential to America’s future. Hard choices lie ahead, and they all require significant new infrastructure and cooperation. Make the right choices and America remains a leader. Make the wrong choices and others will step to the front.
2
Climate denial on the part of Trump et al. is no surprise. I'm glad you have revealed this instance, but what I find striking is the sentence "Mr. Goklany has been employed by the Interior Department since the 1980s." That is, no matter how hard it may have been for him to prevail in past years, his divergent viewpoint has remained, rather than being eliminated due to unwillingness to conform. Deep state, indeed...
I cannot fathom how this can possibly be justified in the name of public institutions providing a public service. If this were done during a global pandemic...oh, wait.
1
Many of the illegal acts being perpetrated by DJT and his team will fall well within the statue of limitations for prosecution.
This is an election year.
Very soon DJT will loose any immunity from prosecution.
He has made no friends in the federal intelligence or law enforcement communities during his time in office and all would be within their jurisdiction to go after him criminally when his time in DC is over. (See Mueller).
Justice moves slowly, but it will find its way to those that do harm to our nation.
Vote 2020.
1
Up to now, it was only a hint of corruption behind the no-policy on climate. Now we know better. Trump does not just hate science. He strives to sideline it. Not good.
Why do some seek to use the credibility of others to support what they, themselves, are unable to credibly prove by other means. Good faith is to be cherished.
1
Though this is nothing new for the GOP, it seems to have become more brazen under Trump. The cynicism is breathtaking — help a chosen few get richer in the short term, and when the actual effects rain down upon us all just as the science said they would, profit from the aftermath with a “who knew?” shrug and a knowing wink. The rich won’t really be affected, they can just build taller houses and drive around in nice boats.
At the going rate, one day soon Mar-a-Lago will be fully submerged.
I just hope DJT is there to see it.
Its (beyond the) time to vote like the the planet depends on it.
In the book, A Very Stable Genius, somebody (I forgot who) said that Putin wakes up every morning and wonders what problems the United States is having and how can he make them worse. He's making them worse by supporting Trump who is unable to care about the health and safety of Americans. Trump has done everything he can to make the air, water, and land dirtier, and the population sicker.
4
It's no different than the party apparatchik's in Wuhan China that in December squelched physicians raising the alarm on COVID-19. And how did that play out? I despise these political hacks that falsify science because their twisted sense of purpose is promote ideology over addressing truths that will impact all of humanity.
1
It would appear that the Russian influence on American politics has also entered the administration's scientific community. Mr. Goklany most certainly is an acolyte of Trofim Lysenko. History is repeating itself as farce.
1
The forthcoming Democratic administration will have an Herculean task in cleaning the Trumpean stables not just of the inept political appointees, that is obvious, but from the recently promoted and implanted Goklanys of the Trump administration. Such civil servants are a disgrace to their profession of predominantly dedicated, honest and apolitical functionaries. The task is challenging because government employees have considerably more job protection than the average private sector worker.
4
Trump has probably never set foot in one of our national or state parks or seen the majestic beauty of the untamed land in this country. He cares not a whit about diversity - human or otherwise. He only has eyes for gaudy buildings, walls and faux green golf courses. If climate change were to affect the overcooked beef he likes to eat, maybe he'd listen. But ain't nobody got time for that - HE HAS TO GO!!!!
4
I wonder how long it will take to purge our government of the conspiracy theories, and bogus information that the republican party has spewed all over for the past few decades.
2
The next non-GOP administration must ensure the public sees the full veracity and link between Trump's policy shop and Republican greed and moral cowardice. Purging every government hall of anti-science hacks and GOP henchmen must be high on the next president's to-do list.
5
We will be watering our crops with Gatorade soon enough.
2
Starting in the 80's we began to see some societal changes, particularly in think tanks and other educational institutions, where a general moral degeneracy and lassitude was breeding something never before seen, gangs of youthful superpredators. We are now seeing the impact of these now grown youths. Mr. Goklany is a key example. With initial funding, indoctrination and support from the Competitive Enterprise Institute he has been able to rise through the ranks in the Interior Department where is wrecking havoc and instilling terror. He is not alone. Gangs of middle-aged, often white, superpredators, many of them born and bred in the amoral Federalist Society, are pillaging our courts. Others superpredators suckled by the Heartland Institute are destroying other agencies, such as the Department of Education. Something must be done before they ruin us all.
3
Do these people (i.e. the climate science deniers) have children? Grandchildren? Loved ones?
1
@Ka
Climate deniers and skeptics generally do have offspring just like most of us. They just don't believe in the evidence. I have this issue with one of our family members. The smarter ones quote the likes of Freeman Dyson, an eminent physicist who just passed away this week (read his obituary in the NYT), who was not an actual denier, but believed that CO2 increases and the consequential global warming would be beneficial to food production, but dismissed the conclusions of climate models that predict rising seas, devastating weather events, droughts and wildfires that negatively impact food production and overall livability of humans on the planet. Dyson was also an eminent mathematician who was dismissive of the alleged predictability of models of overly complex and insufficiently defined systems such as the earth's climate. He was partially correct in that warming of the polar region was actually under-predicted by climate models. Other skeptics claim inaccurate measuring processes, or that the onset of rapid global warming was just another warming cycle due to natural causes, yet every possible cause has been scientifically disproved, such as increased solar emission. Conservative think tanks use these arguments to spread doubts on climate change to the general public. Note that such think tanks, like Heritage Foundation and the Heartland institute are financed by the fossil fuel industries. So depending on your political leaning you are either a believer or skeptic.
2
And why does an employee who maliciously and knowingly falsifies data still have a job? In a normal company Goks would be marched out the door by Security. But, Oh right, this is the Trump Administration where mere fraud and criminality are considered good qualities as long as you're loyal to Trump. Another day in bizarro world.
3
The utter hypocrisy of the Trump regime shows up everywhere. Republicans in general, and Trump in particular, care not one whit for environmental regulations; and have done everything in their power to weaken protections and sabotage the science of global warming.
Yet in spite of their disdain for government regs, the Administration goes out of its way to embed junk science into seemingly innocuous water regs. It's like you run over your enemy, back up, and run over him again.
We've seen this before, haven't we, when governments begin imposing their set of facts in opposition to widely accepted scientific consensus. The same activity is evident in racist, homophobic, extremist propaganda, which questions the very notion of true equality among different races, creeds and cultures.
We simply can't let this happen.
1
Carbon emissions are "good" for the environment.
Cigarettes used to be touted as being healthy and good for people.
1
Covid19 is not spread by human contact. The number of Covid19 cases has been overstated. Scientists disagree on the impact of Covid19. There are benefits to getting Covid19. Sound familiar?
Selective scientific acceptance by our administration.
15
After their ill-conceived work is done, there will be nothing left that is whole, natural or wonderful. Who needs enemies when your own president and his cronies, are leading the internal assault?
15
The more dangerous damage is not obvious: bullying climate scientists will make them more cautious and they will start underestimate the rate of climate change to avoid obstruction from politicians like Trump and his Party. And in the end mankind may face abrupt and substantial climate change totally unprepared to it hoping that they have a time.
11
@Stanislav
The MIT atmospheric physicist Kerry Emanuel wrote a great article addressing this titled Tail Risk vs Alarmism:
“given the corresponding distributions of rainfall, storms, sea level rise, etc., the 5% high-end may be so consequential, in terms of outcome, as to be justifiably called catastrophic. It is vitally important that we convey this tail risk as well as the most probable outcomes.
But there are strong cultural biases running against any discussion of this kind of tail risk, at least in the realm of climate science. The legitimate fear that the public will interpret any discussion whatsoever of tail risk as a deliberate attempt to scare people into action, or to achieve some other ulterior or nefarious goal, is enough to make almost all scientists shy away from any talk of tail risk and stick to the safe high ground of the middle of the probability distribution.
The accusation of “alarmism” is quite effective in making scientists skittish in conveying tail risk, and talking about the tail of the distribution is a sure recipe to be so labelled.”
Meanwhile our emissions and the planet's response are following the worst case scenarios.
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2014/04/mit-scientist-an-obligation-to-take-on-tail-risk-vs-alarmism/
5
This is the result of a belief that capitalism is the answer to all ills for our nation. If government can allow the forces of Industrial America continue to tap, mine, cut, drill, and plow our natural resources without regard to anything other than revenue generation and increased shareholder equity, the quality of our air and water will be seriously and perhaps, irrevocably, compromised.
10
The lag time built into history means that most of the comments about this piece should have been written twenty or more years ago. Make it fifty.
But no, we were all being lulled into a complacency that made it possible for Donald Trump, a reality TV star, to ascend to the highest office in the land.
The damage is done. Whether or not it's reparable is the only remaining question.
As we all preach to the choir, we can start to imagine just how scuffed up we are willing to get to rescue our own hides from the unfolding tragedy.
7
Not a big surprise. Trump and the GOP want all of us to believe that digging up and burning coal is good, pumping up and fracking oil is also good, eating lots of meat is good, and driving around in the biggest SUV is good.
When the Arctic is ice-free, Trump and the GOP will point out how much this helps world trade. The first signs of flooding of low lying areas are now in the news. Maybe, just maybe, when Miami Beach is below the water level, some will realize what is happening.
Nothing will happen until the US federal government takes the lead. There are plans to stop global warming by spreading fine dust particles in the upper atmosphere. So there is a plan, at least in theory. However, politicians need to take the lead. Trump will never do this, but Nov 4 is coming. I hope that Trump and the GOP are crushed. Bigly.
14
It is time for the Union of Concerned Scientists and other concerned citizens to sue the government for misinformation and leading the populace astray. In this time of Legalism it is only the codification of this crime that will make any difference, otherwise its all "he said , she said" and "fake news". I for one will add my name, but it must come from a mass showing of concerned experts who can stand up in court and clearly define and defend the science for all to understand. This is imperative.
12
With the Trump agenda of denying and suppressing science, he may well usher-in the start of a new dark ages. It may sound like hyperbole but suppression of information is a gradual event and tied into undermining institutions such as the free press, the FBI or the intelligence community. Trump has told people not to believe what they see and that what they hear is fake news. Now with the coronavirus spreading here and worldwide, Trump's absence of credibility matters. If there was any doubt we now know with a certainty that Trump is incompetent and an existential threat to our national health and security. Trump must be voted out of office along with all the Repubican senators who have been his enablers and coconspirstors.
13
In its omnivorous compulsion to control and manipulate Americans’ minds, Trumpism more closely resembles totalitarianism than fascism. A Hobson’s choice of political nomenclature few could ever imagined becoming our new reality, especially with such disorienting speed.
13
You know, maybe there are a few things we can learn from Trump.
Like, the very public firing of this guy a few days after the inauguration, with an added spice of public insult by the new president.
Before, that would have been just unacceptably vulgar and unprofessional, no president would stoop to dealing with somebody six levels below.
But I think there would be value in emphasizing to the whole civil service that there's a difference between supporting a "policy direction" and supporting "outright lies".
The intelligence community never got that well-deserved spanking after the Iraq War lies. What did it get us? Gina Haspel running the CIA, confirming to all below her that you can lie, break the law, defy direct orders from courts, and still prosper. Now they'll all do it.
The new president needs to not just fire this guy and dozens of others that crossed the "lie" line, he or she needs to actually arrest people that broke the law; we established that "only following orders" is not an excuse, at Nuremberg.
Starting with Steve Mnuchin for not handing over the tax returns, as the law requires.
11
Mr. Goklany has written two books published by the libertarian climate-denying Cato Institute. The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet (Cato Institute, Washington, DC, 2007). The Precautionary Principle: A Critical Appraisal of Environmental Risk Assessment (Cato Institute, Washington, DC, 2001).
Source: Indur Goklany webpage
Mr. Goklany has published works with the conservative Reason Institute, an organization that denies the cause and effects of climate change. Misled on Climate Change: How the UN IPCC (and others) Exaggerate the Impact of Global Warming, Reason Foundation, Policy Study No. 399, December 2011. Wealth and Safety: The Amazing Decline in Deaths from Extreme Weather in an Era of Global Warming, 1900–2010, Reason Foundation, Policy Study No. 393, September 2011.
Source: Indur Goklany webpage
4
Why would anyone elevate this man’s opinion? He’s not even a climate scientist. At all. He holds a degree in electrical engineering.
Plus he has a degree in electrical engineering but zero background in climate science.
After voodoo economics, voodoo science. So yes, Trump is totally right about that witch hunt. Time to build that pire!
4
Had climate change been an issue in George Orwell's day, his novel "1984" might have had the following catchphrase:
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
Pollution is healthy.
10
This is the priority evidence that Americans should vote blue.
6
" ...he gave a presentation at the Interior Department promoting the benefits of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide to human and environmental well-being..."
That's like saying that the climate in Australia and California is good because, clearly, the landslides put out the fires!
The only uncertainty, at this point, may be regarding Mr. Goklany's continued employment at the Interior Department. This level of intellectual dishonesty should not be tolerated.
5
This is terrific, and is exactly why people voted for the President. For once, an administration is standing behind their publicly stated views on a serious policy issue, and putting that into print. What did you expect exactly with this administration? It's only in the minds of their opposition and the mainstream press that the climate change debate is over.
3
@David Godinez
Out of the roughly 70,000 currently publishing researchers in the field of climate name just 10 who don’t think we are largely responsible for the current warming and that it entails risks.
16
A minority of American voters elected Trump. A majority of Americans realize climate change is a real threat to the environment per Gallup
Polls in 2019. It’s in the long term interests of the USA to begin policies to reduce fossil fuel use, develop new energy sources, develop less methanogenic agriculture, and mitigate the damage from warming, ocean acidification, and sea level rise (which have begun and will continue for hundreds of years just from previous industrial combustion and agricultural practices).
3
No, the debate IS over. You can stick your collective heads in the (ever warming) sand as much as you’d like, bit that still won’t change the fact that there there is clear consensus. And yes, human actively is a primary cause. End of story,
“Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities, and most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position.”
Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
4
In fact, there is considerable uncertainty about the impact of climate change. But that's a reason to do more, not less. Greater uncertainty means a wider range of possible outcomes, from better than expected to apocalyptic. In recent years both natural scientists and economists have emphasized the horrific danger of the worse-than-expected range of scenarios, and the reasons they give us for precautionary action.
3
This sort of behavior - the deliberate falsification of data, records, and reporting - is the kind of thing that college students get expelled for, that faculty members are fired for. Reputable and respected scientific associations and organizations should track and blacklist Goklany and others involved in deliberate misrepresentation of established science and distribute those lists to news outlets, state legislatures, and others.
10
It’s a crime to falsify scientific data, but I’m not sure it’s a crime to push a false interpretation of data. It ought to be. It’s deeply immoral and destructive to society.
1
So sure, let's deny the overwhelming evidence with very small uncertainty factors. This would be akin to scientists failing to reject null hypotheses with p-values less than 0.01.
9
I hope that the Dems win this fall for if they do they can actually have each Trump member, including both the government appointees he has made as well as those in his family, who had misrepresented the truth, in many areas, charged for the massive damages which this approach will create. It will take a good accountant to do the present value tabulations on the long-term ramifications which will result from this approach. So, they better not use a Trump family accountant for these calculations.
2
It's an attempt by this individual to protect profit, but when are we all going to understand that there is no profit in climate change, either if you are for or against.
6
"Gok's uncertainty language", and all other efforts to make science conform to Trump's politics call to mind the Soviet experience with Lysenko. Briefly, Lysenko championed agricultural theory that pleased Stalin; but wreaked havoc on agricultural production, causing widespread starvation, and banishment (or worse) of scientists who disagreed.
"Lysenkoism" set Soviet agriculture back a generation; Trump's minions will do the same for American science.
Goklany's work may not be funny enough to win the Ig Nobel Prize; but it certainly deserves a Lysenko Award.
30
Either we make radical changes very soon to our energy sector or the Earth will radically change on us and we won't like it.
The last time CO2 levels in the atmosphere were this high was several million years ago when sea levels were high enough that today they would force around 10 percent of the human population to move.
That's 700 million refugees from that impact alone, never mind heat waves and extreme drought. It just takes time for sea level and temperature to equilibrate with our current climate forcing.
How difficult is that for politicians to figure out?
11
Confirmation Bias and Wishful Thinking (aka magical thinking) are powerful forces in American politics today. People want to hear things that fit easily with their opinions, and distrust news, evidence, and experts that say things that make them uncomfortable. 44 years of doing science has certainly shown me that scientists do that too.
Ancient science began with smart folks developing theories that were testable. From geometry and trig to bridges and aqueducts. From Pythagoras to Archimedes to Plato and Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Hypatia, they accomplished amazing insights. A thousand years later their books and new techniques and maths sparked modern science. Yet, from Roger Bacon to Galileo to Newton and Leibniz, a new element was present, proof through experiment. Theory and opinions are nice, but prove it experimentally.
Goklany may be uncertain, but it is not expert opinion that proves the earth is warming. Massive amounts of data shows strong correlation between rising CO2 and rising temperature. Data is never absolute (Heisenberg), but it is Evidence, not opinion!
Knowingly lying in federal publications may not be a crime, but it is malfeasance and should certainly be grounds for dismissal, probably of him and his supervisors.
20
Of course, correlation is not evidence, and neither are models.
1
Of course they’re evidence. They may not be definitive but evidence nonetheless. Before causation can be proven correlation must be established. It’s the scientific method!
5
@Mondo Man
Is a witness's description of the perp evidence? Is a 95% correct evidence that the patient likely has Lyme and thus a basis for treatment?
Yes, correlation is not causality, and 12 jurors can be wrong. But science is either bound by what the data shows ("The data is consistent with the hypothesis that ...") or it is not modern science. Continuing to insist the earth is flat does not prove it is. I may wish I am a billionaire, but the data indicates I am not.
Newton's Models ('Laws') of Motion do not correct for friction or relativity, and do not get rockets to Mercury, but they work great from Venus to Neptune and Pluto. As Prof. Box put it, "In essence all models are wrong, but some are useful."
1
Wondering how deep the corruption will be exposed after this administration leaves office.
Wonder, although some known, how much the Trump criminal enterprise will reap in emoluments and business ventures hatched on Federal time.
Wondering who is enriching themselves as our government's rules and regulations are being obliterated by this administration (besides, fossil fuel businesses).
Wonder, who else is capitalizing on Trump's tweets and call outs for and against American businesses.
While we wonder how much Trump is worth, there is little doubt that he will leave the office of the president far richer and more connected to other bad actors around the world.
20
@Michael Piscopiello
If one could get a look at Trump family, kushners, Wilbur Ross, Mnuchin portfolios we'd not only knowthe answer, we could see what'scomingnext.
2
We are going to have to do massive, far ranging cleanup when we get Trump and his gang out of office. The elections cannot come soon enough.
Vote like your life, all life, depends on it.
25
A presentation from Mr. Goklany states that while climate change will not lower the next generation's welfare below that of today, we need to prepare for climate-sensitive problems - he lists "malaria, hunger, water scarcity, coastal flooding, threats to biodiversity" as those that might be exacerbated by future climate change. Why not pull the lynch pin to these problems and attack climate change, then? Such cognitive dissonance is the norm in this administration, and we will all suffer for it.
9
This is governing malfeasance. This is the very definition of Trump's world view; malevolent malfeasance. It defines his views on climate change, science, immigration and healthcare. When will this country say "enough"?
11
We are completely asleep at he wheel; how could this man who barely reads, lead us down such a path of destruction to our environment and ultimately to generations ahead. What are our representatives doing to combat this lunacy? They sit on their hands and support all his choices by not speaking out and voting against his every move.
9
We're not asleep. We're rabbits caught in the headlights, paralysed by such a thorough paradigm-sift. We're like chess players, confronted by a cage fighter.
1
What I don't understand is why? This is abetting a crime against humanity.
11
Why? Just follow the money! It's the American Way!
Just more confirmation that trump and his administration hack simply lie and therefore neither trump nor his political appointees in the administration can be trusted. The truth, transparency and honesty do not matter to these people. All that matters is the ideology and greed on behalf their campaign supporters and certain industries who control them (fossil fuels, pharma, etc.).
They simply do not care about truth and trust. The coronavirus, climate crisis, tax cuts (for the wealthy), you name it - these people are destroying the bedrock of truth and trust. This must not stand!
9
A note to the next president:
Dear Mr/Ms President,
Your first order of business must be to purge all Trumpists from the department's of Federal agencies. They constitute a deep state of corruption and are incapable of formulating or effecting policy in the public interest.
Thank you, sincerely.
14
I agree. Trump made the mistake of letting many of them stay when he took office and they became spies and leaked information that was derogatory to Trump.
These people understand only one language. The money. Let the stock market lose 75% of its value and let it stay there for a couple of years. All chickens will come home to roost.
7
Excellent article and information. How does the disinformation get removed when the current administration is gone?
7
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let's hope it is based on the best real evidence and research available. Republicans have made a habit of invention any fairy tale that fits their propaganda efforts.
7
No surprise here; Trump and his cronies only care about money, not the planet. As he would say, "SAD!"
4
Well, this casts a whole new ray of light on the idea of the “deep state” that Trump has claimed is so pernicious to his success. Seems he has a bit of a “deep state” of his own.
2
If there ever was an argument to limit presidential powers this is it.
6
Note to Gok: science is true, whether you believe it or not.
10
Big brother's spirit lives on in these ideologically driven
delusionals, committed to using fantasies to justify
a policy that rewards biggly contributors to campaigns. It
is no surprise that the backstory herein is who gets first dibs
on western river water and aquifers.
This is a story rooted in the west's settlement history. It goes back decades. The essential narrative just keeps on repeating itself from generation to generation. Bad water management policies always reward campaign contributors, i.e. big ag owners, ranchers, resource extractors, etc., who buy their political support to insure the needed access to the region's dwindling water supply.
The current story adds the twist that egregious distortion of science in the context of global warming will also be used to help justify water allocation policy. And why not? It doesn't matter how ridiculous the "reasoning" is to promote new policy. When you have the power, which is what these sociopaths now have, you use it to reward your allies, with no apologies needed to anyone who loses out in the allocation formulae. In the arid west, this is because those whose interests are being coddled have no interest in losing their quotas of water.
Only nature will have the final word since it seems highly implausible that the majority that hasn't bought into the delusions will be unable to vote out these sons of goebbels in an election that will be both very close and riddled with irregularities.
1
Would it be illegal to insert deliberately falsified information into a federal government report or document? This sounds like such information was cleverly disguised, but false nonetheless.
Does this mean that the supervisors and maybe some colleagues knew what was going on and looked the other way, or actively colluded with the perpetrator?
Are there any ramifications for his keeping this federal job? Can similar acts be forestalled?
Thx to the folks who brought this act to light!
7
Salt is necessary for life- Too much and you get sick and die. CO2 good for plants but too much and they cannot handle so the temperature goes up, droughts occur, insects increase and plants die. less plants, more CO2. More CO2 and more warming , more plants die and it goes on.
This is beyond ignorance they know exactly what they are doing. lying to deceive for their supposed interests.
4
"including debunked claims that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial"
Oh really? Why doesn't that person sit in a closed garage for an hour with the car running and see how beneficial that is.
Do these people have no souls?
6
@Coots
Just to be accurate, in that closed garage it would be carbon monoxide. A totally different substance.
that will expose you to carbon monoxide not carbon dioxide.
I’m, those are two different gasses. The stuff that comes out of the tail pipe is carbon monoxide, not dioxide.
In his address to the 16th Congress of the Russian Communist Party, Joseph Stalin stated:
“We are for the withering away of the state, and at the same time we stand for the strengthening of the dictatorship, which represents the most powerful and mighty of all forms of the state which have existed up to the present day. The highest development of the power of the state, with the object of preparing the conditions of the withering away of the state: that is the Marxist formula. Is it "contradictory"? Yes, it is "contradictory." But this contradiction is a living thing and wholly reflects the Marxist dialectic.”
For most of the 20th Century, Republicans cited such language as the evil of communism, from the first Red Scare of the 1920’s, through the second Red Scare of Joseph McCarthy’s witch hunts, to Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire.”
And yet now we find such doublespeak being promoted by a Republican president, supported by a Republican Senate, a Republican Court and a bunch of drooling, slack-jawed Yahoos, who think the President is the Second Coming.
Pogo was prophetic. “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
5
The same question comes up for me whenever I read about the climate change deniers:
"WHY?"
1
Climate change denial is science denial. So to put science and climate change denial together is an oxymoron.
Is that how this government is going to face the coronavirus pandemic? So instead of tackling the crisis, is the government writing conspiracy theories about coronavirus too. Thinking like Maduro?
1
Google Trofim Lysenko. The world's object lesson about the misuse of science. But it pleases Stalinists like Trump.
1
Trump continually takes pages from the Putin playbook but our country is afraid of electing someone who vaguely leans toward democratic socialism.
3
It is not new information that the Republican PR machine has embedded nonsensical oratory disguised as fact and sucessfully sown doubt to obliterate the truth to citizenry disinclined to discover reality for themselves. They even manage to break the law with no repercussions. The questions are, how does the 'other side' become just as skilled in the propaganda arena, and WHY is flouting the law A-OK for these propagandists? I am stunned that, after the last couple of decades in particular, no one who has factual information can seem to pop that far-right propaganda balloon. What gives? Is the collective American public that boneheaded or uneducated? Is everyone so focused on their day-to-day existence that the bigger picture doesn't seem to matter? We 'fiddle as Rome burns'. Who can get a different narrative out there?
3
@ tm, honestly, it’s mind boggling to listen to educated people contort themselves to justify supporting this clown show administration. It’s a testament to confirmation bias and propaganda in the guise of news.
This constitutes crimes against humanity.
4
But so-called educated people like Brett Stephens will vote for Trump. We read it here.
5
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
CO2 is beneficial (for the atmosphere).
7
Climate change deniers, climate change delayers, climate change obstructionists - particularly the loathsome Republican liars and disinformationists - will all pay a heavy price in the years ahead as the catastrophe unfolds. We will have Nuremberg like tribunals, and Nuremberg style penalties - for those who knowingly and criminally delayed any possible response to climate change until it was too late; solely so they could squeeze another dollar out of the fossil fuel industry that is destroying the planet.
2
I wonder what these republican types will tell their children and grandchildren about our dying planet and diminished resources?
2
There’s a word for what Trump Administration officials are doing: *gaslighting*.
2
Goklany has sold his soul to many devils and is now a shill for Trump, not to mention various think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and Heartland Institute, the latter receiving contributions from the Kochs and Mercers. I hope the next president can smoke these cockroaches out of the federal woodwork and hire legitimate scientists who are not in the back pocket of the fossil fuel industry.
6
Does anyone doubt that this guy is getting some kind of financial benefit from his position?
6
Gentlemen and ladies, you should be resisting, not complying. The future of mankind is depending on your product. If refusing to lie gets you fired, then so be it.
2
Trump has created, from the top down, a sociopathic administration with a willingness to stoop to any sort of manipulation to serve its ends that is killing us all. The only hope is to get them all out of office. I wonder why no scientists blew the whistle on this. It should be made against the law to impose political interference in science. Tampering with or coercing changes to scientific reports should be chargeable as fraud.
A new word is about to enter the popular lexicon. To Gok is to deny climate change. Gokker-one who promotes debunked theories against climate change. Gokking, gokked.
2
Would he deny acidification if the oceans as well? Just wondering. These people should read Darwin—if they know how to read.
1
The real deep state at work.
1
Republicans really stop lying and just say it, “Science gets in the way of or donor’s profits.” Dubya had a misinformation czar who “reviewed” all governmental scientific reports until the “fake news” agencies reported that the man had falsified his own resume.
2
We put people in prison for smoking marijuana. But the fossil fuel industry can destroy the world with no repercussions.
Yes, the industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on climate change denial and bought an entire political party. They are criminals. Do we have to wait until half of Florida is under water and hundreds of millions of people worldwide are displaced before we can even give them a slight slap on the wrist.
3
“ Both scientists and environmental groups are concerned that Mr. Goklany’s campaign will start to build a body of evidence that will undermine the agency’s response to climate change ... .” :
Evidence is the wrong word, as it implies a degree of veracity. To be accurate, the Times should have said “official statements”.
2
Amazing that people are willing to stake their lives, their name and their legacy on a few extra bucks... Whoever this Indur M. Goklany guy is, he's now famous for being a shill. I'd imagine this isnt exactly what he was after when he sold his soul for a political appointment but its exactly what he got... I wonder what his kids think about this?
2
How many decades will it take to clean up- and clean out the destruction of this one-man wrecking crew? Virtually every aspect of quality of life in this nation has been tainted with wrong headed thinking and actions. Unfortunately, a vast number of citizens are too ignorant, incurious to realize the damage done because the decisions do not (as yet) impact their lives.
"has inserted misleading language about climate change — including debunked claims that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial — into the agency’s scientific reports, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times."
This is called "propaganda."
Remember when the US government accused governments of other countries of "propaganda"? The accusation was intended to undermine that government's legitimacy. Then, the effort to delegitimize was often successful. Why is it failing now in the US, when at least a third of the US adult population supports the trump junta? Just shy of half think he should not be impeached.
1
ok, all you science devotees out there, Charles Murray is a scientist, highly respected. Do you believe him?
That’s an inverse tu quoque logical fallacy. It’s a disingenuous attempt to derail relevant conversation. Do you have a serious question about climate change?
I don't think you understand the tu quoque logical fallacy. I'm saying that climate alarmists who scream about the end of science etc. etc. only believe in the science they like, they really dig climate science because it supports many of their policies. However, the reject the science which shows that IQ has a huge genetic component because it doesn't fit their world view. So I'm not saying anything other than the alarmists who embrace climate science and are aghast because Trump thinks it is garbage and then trumpet their fears of science being attacked -- are being very selective. They only embrace science they like. And most have no idea what the climate science actually says.
But if you insist that the experts are always right and that science is sacrosanct then you have to embrace even science when the results don't support your world view.
Anyone that is surprised – please raise your hand.
So who in the Democratic field do you trust takes this serious enough? Joe? Bernie? Liz? or Mike? Vote accordingly. I trust the progressives.
2
This is just a case of alternative facts or perhaps something picked up by the fake news media ..... you know, the enemies of the people. The fact is that The New York metropolitan area has seen virtually no snow all winter, and the temperatures have been mostly in the temporate area, not typical of our downstate region at all. So our winter weather is proof of global warming along with the melting of polar ice caps and elevated temperatures in Antarctica. This administration is not just ignorant and regressive, but it is leading us down a very destructive path. This affects our very lives, and the president expects us to accept these lies as facts? What kind of fools does he take us for? But, more importantly, what kind of fools would we be to keep such subversive liars in the White House? It’s up to you ...,, us........ to correct the mistakes of 2016.
4
You can lie, cheat, or spin the truth. Nature doesn't care. The laws of physics (in this case, mostly non-equilibrium thermodynamics) just happen. Doing stupid things has consequences and Trump and all his flat-earther toadies (Goklany?) will be sweating along with the rest of us. That's reality.
3
This is sinister sabatage of Planet Earth and all life.
2
Good luck getting publication in a halfway reputable peer-reviewed journal, Gok.
2
Lies, obfuscation, willful ignorance, deliberate misinterpretation, and more lies. Oh, and did I mention lies? Par for the course for the worst administration in U.S. history.
4
You know; just once one would think all these pathetic Trump sycophants would actually tell the truth just to see if anyone might notice. Then again they are too terrified of making their lord and master angry to ever engage in truth telling; lest they incur the wrath of Trump the Magnificent and his unholy quest to rid the U.S. of anything resembling scientific fact over Trump fiction. If this was not so disgusting, it would be amusing.
1
Can this official be impeached??? And how soon?!
1
Speaking of insidious viruses; ignorance.
3
Genuine skepticism is integral to the scientific method. In fact, it’s healthy; until it’s not. The disregard, if not outright hostility towards science harks back to the attacks on “Jewish science” in Nazi Germany, when the principle of “Gleichschaltung,” or coordination, aligned science, literature, and art along racially pure and political lines. When will this Kafkaesque nightmare end?
3
Exactly - and the use of the Holocaust-tinged epithet "denier" is more sad evidence of this.
Yet another reason on the very, very long list of reasons why this administration must be sent packing asap.
3
Unfortunately, the government is lying to us and it appears that we all know it, but no one is challenging this information except for Greta Thunberg and perhaps a few others. More power to the young people that are not afraid to speak their mind and stand up for what they believe. It is apparent that when someone in the govenrment challenges trump, they lose there job. Very sad.
1
I imagine this article is entirely true; but it would be a lot more compelling if the writer took the space and the trouble to include complete quotations demonstrating the points, rather than stringing snippets together with characterizations. We are told, for instance, that two assertions misrepresented a consensus: well, okay, maybe, but it would be better if we saw the offensive language for our own judgment.
It is better not to write in the style you are criticizing, unless you are trying for parody.
6
The article directly cites the report. what were you reading?
There is experimental evidence which shows that while Increased CO2 can promote plant growth in the short term, over the long term it can lead to depletion of other resources. This can make CO2 fertilization a short lived effect. Never mind the fact that it tends to increase water consumption and that overall damage from more extreme temperature and weather will more than offset any increase in growth.
6
@DWes
Scientists are aware that increased CO2 can be of benefit to plants.
But plants also care if it is too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry, if they lose pollinators or get hit by an invasive.
Heck, I’ve killed my wife’s flowers by over-fertilizing them.
3
Increasing CO2 levels help plants deal with lack of water, because they don't have to open their gas - exchange stomata as much and so they lose less water vapor.
1
Increased pCO2 benefits a few plants but harms many. Some plants are likely to go extinct due to rapid temperature increases. Pollinators are suffering due to climate change and pollution, and some plants are beginning to bloom out of sync with pollinators. It can make trees grow faster but with lower quality less dense wood. It can make some plants and oceanic algae sick with excess sugar. It can make fruits and vegetables sweeter, but lowers their mineral and nutrient content. Wine growers have already had to adapt grapes growing techniques to compensate for higher temperatures. Droughts, wildfires, and flooding are on the increase. Plants photosynthetic removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is clearly unable to keep up with our industrial emissions of the gas. While we can’t predict everything, what we know about plants and climate change is deeply troubling.
I think this article is missing a point: When the earth was recently (geologically speaking) warmed, and the land bridge from Siberia to Alaska was in place, there was an abundance of plant life.
The issue for us today is that global warming will dramatically impact our existing infrastructure and ecology. A warmed earth will survive and perhaps thrive, but it will be a giant challenge for humans to adapt.
Today we are trying to forestall the changes, perhaps to no avail. I think we need to make greater efforts toward adaptation; stop thinking high water barriers, and start thinking moving inland . . .
3
Flooding is one issue, but the real challenge will come from trying to maintain food production, and I'm not just talking about plants, a warming ocean which is gettong more acidic will be hard for crustaceans to live in which is going to impact the food web heavily.
5
@Penchant
From a 2013 paper by NASA's former lead climate scientist James Hansen:
“Burning all fossil fuels, we conclude, would make most of the planet uninhabitable by humans, thus calling into question strategies that emphasize adaptation to climate change.”
6
This sounds congruent with the idea, or even impending feeling, that the earth is preparing to eject the pestilent human species from its face so it can breathe easy again, at last, after putting up with it for long enough. We act with the erroneous attitude of know-it-all, can-do-anything, we-own-the-world-and-every-creature-thereof, when the truth may be that we are just not paying the rent anymore for inhabiting the planet, and the Marshall is on his way over to evict us altogether from the earth, acting in its own full right of survival mode. Maybe the Trump’s administration is a way to facilitate our beloved earth’s liberation from the human species. Maybe it was The Earth’s idea to adopt the “Make America Great Again”, but the earth meant “Make The Earth Great Again”. “Accelerate this process so we can vomit you out of our mouth and be great again, without you”.
We know that the brightest dawn comes after the darkest night; it’s just that the bright dawn for the earth may not include humans in It.
Factually correct. A closer look at these assertions yields surprising results, but only to those who don’t want to believe the science.
3
Keep in mind the terrifying fact that this is the same Administration that is managing our country's response to coronavirus -- which must also involve serious scientific input.
26
"The effort was led by Indur M. Goklany, a longtime Interior Department employee who, in 2017 near the start of the Trump administration, was promoted to the office of the deputy secretary with responsibility for reviewing the agency’s climate policies."
Once again a loyal follower and not an intellectual with knowledge. How will all these loyalists breathe, eat and stay cool when they've underestimated the rate of global warming? I'd like one to share their long term views.
11
Anyone is free to ignore the facts, but sooner or later these deniers will be faced with the unavoidable consequences of those facts. It's going to become pretty difficult to deny global warming when Mar a Lago is underwater, when deserts expand across the west, and when there's no more ice at the north pole in summer.
25
The Trump administration is working against what is best for the country and the world. They do this to help profit a small portion of our country. Socialize pollution and privatize the costs.
25
Some deniers and delayers complain about the cost of addressing climate change, but the cost of inaction is much greater.
From the Nobel Laureate Yale economist William D. Nordhaus: "the expected loss from certain risks such as climate change is infinite, and standard economic analysis cannot be applied."
https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d16/d1686.pdf
Nordhaus also noted recently that ”A target of 2½ °C is technically feasible but would require extreme virtually universal global policy measures."
https://www.scribd.com/document/335688297/Nordhaus-climate-economics?
If he is right then without those measures we will be taking this climate well beyond human experience and likely also our adaptive capacity.
15
This is the real swamp at work, preserving the money flow for the American energy companies who have steadily promoted disinformation through right-wing organizations about the research and the science behind describing the ongoing warming.
This is yet another very good reason why the GOP and Trump must go the way of the dinosaurs, who too had to eventually face up to the reality of their peril.
64
@Ronn
Alas.,where is the kindly roving chunk of celestial rock that will liquidate the political Science deniers but leave the rational humans unscathed? The dinosaurs had no such choice.
I haven't seen anything in the past two years or so about people taking actions such as organizing, etc.
Uncertainty cuts both ways. Climate change could also be much *worse* than the current consensus estimate. Why is that aspect always overlooked when these people talk about uncertainty?
35
@David
Uncertainty only works because people don't understand that the uncertainty makes the risk higher because things could be worse than we think.
From Michael Mann recently in a discussion with Richard Alley:
“uncertainties in many cases seem to be cutting against us, as we resolve them, as we learn more we are finding that the rates of change are potentially even greater than what we had predicted just 5 or 6 years ago”.
https://youtu.be/l2yclMcDroQ?t=48m8s
12
Goklany's statements may indeed have nefarious political motives, but many of the specific claims are supported by evidence. There is substantial uncertainty regarding climate sensitivity to CO2 increases, a matter which is covered in the IPCC reports. There is also credible literature on changes in net primary productivity in semi-arid regions, and on plant growth and water use generally as CO2 increases. There is also still uncertainty in modeling feedbacks in the climate system, and in regional effect downscaling.
Critics ought to be careful about detials to avoid iving more ammunition to their opponents.
5
@Frank Knarf
Good points.
But that's not what's happening here.
"Inserting" contradictory views, imposing alternate interpretations is not what science does. It doesn't matter in this context if the substance of Goklany's statement has merit or not.
If he wishes to be heard and understood, to take opposition viewpoints (if that's how he interprets this process), there is a theoretically and methodologically correct way to go about it. Cramming opinions down the throats of scientists whose careers depend on his good will is not one of them.
Whatever the value, or not, of Goklany's opinion, he has reduced science to just one more arm of his political machine.
And, to be clear, until he does the research, engages in the debate, opinion is all Goklany has to offer.
16
@Frank Knarf, are you sure that the respected scientific institutions you no doubt reference, without references , CATO and the Heartland Institute, do not have a dog in the fight, do not cater to their supporters, the industrial and invester money men who see climate change controls as a drag on thier bottom line?
2
First, there is absolutely ZERO doubt that we’re warming the planet to a degree that will have serious consequences.
Second, these “uncertainty,” fake arguments are really tiresome, as they all rely on taking things like the diff between 1.5 degrees and 2.5 degrees as “proof,” that we’re not warming the planet after all. The only real question is whether denier types understand scientific uncertainty as badly as they understand the concept of randomness in evolution, or if they’re simply deliberately lying.
Third, the “CO2 makes plants grow,” theory is a) kinda stupid, and b) not what this guy’s claims are.
Maybe step out from the sheeple a little, actually read the article?
1
Scientific research and scientists must be protected, by law or this will continue to the detriment of us all.
46
Science is not a “belief “
Early in his presidency, I remember Trump tried to sneak very misleading statements into the presidential record to be archived.
Thank you to these vigilant reporters who are keeping an eye on such details in this very corrupt administration---especially since these things slip under the radar given current disasters.
74
AGW denial is the single best example of why conservatives think the way they do. It is a remnant of evolution that is really obvious, yet so few people grasp. What differentiates people along the political spectrum is fear. It is on a continuum and the more you have, the further right you go. Academics might call this "sensitivity to threat" to be politically correct, but it is really paranoia. The most common symptom is the sense that everyone is out to get you and government is obviously one of those things out to get conservatives. THAT is the root cause of AGW denial. It is unconscious, (they were born this way) automatic "thinking". If you think people take in information, process it and come up with a rational conclusion, you are wrong. Conservatives should not be in positions of public policy because they unconsciously prioritize their fears over the well-being of the people, country and yes, the planet. NEVER vote for one. The President is one of the biggest offenders.
42
The greatest fears are among the warming alarmists - your analysis is contradicted by the facts.
@Mondo Man There is a distinct difference between data based facts as a threat and one made up in your mind.
The problem with the climate models is that they lump all greenhouse gasses together and make assumptions about their cumulative climate forcings and amplification feedbacks. But you can’t have it both ways. You can’t assume high water vapor amplification feedbacks for CO2 to model climate in line with average warming hindcasts and then suddenly discover that, well, it was actually CFCs, HFCs, and nitrous oxide that did half of the arctic and one third of all the global warming between 1955-2005. Amplification feedbacks from water vapor would operate with those gasses too, but at much higher rates given their far greater sensitivity to infrared radiation. If Lorenzo Polvani’s team’s work is confirmed, it suggests that something is fundamentally wrong with our understanding of CO2 radiative forcing and that we have dropped the ball on much more dangerous chemicals for global warming. This is not a “climate denier” position. It is what is being published right now in the climate science field.
6
@Erik Grimmer-Solem Since when have CFCs and HFCs been implicated in warming? Ozone depletion is not warming, unless I have somehow missed this relationship.
3
Your first statement is false. The climate models I have seen differentiate among the various GHGs in terms of effect.
CFCs, HFCs, and nitrous oxide are some of the most potent greenhouse gasses on earth with warming potential per molecule 100s to many 1000s of times greater than CO2. Look it up. They are also ozone depleting chemicals. Read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0677-4
"“but we strive to be fully transparent in recognizing and sharing appropriate uncertainties in the information we use to make decisions.”
"The Interior Department declined to make Mr. Goklany available..."
Um, if there were a Nobel for stand-up humor, would the Times split it with the Trump Department of the Interior?
10
The Soviets were real good at this.
22
@Alan Dean Foster
Last I heard, they still are.
Sort of like science fiction, but in a scary way, huh?
1
@Alan Dean Foster: It is always a good time to relate the damage done to science and agriculture in the Soviet Union because Joseph Stalin promoted the pseudo-science of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko and his Lamarckian anti-science and anti-genetics theories. This Goklanyan science is as misguided and injurious as Lysenkoism. I also noticed that our taxpayer funded CDC scientists and doctors are now silenced by an order making Vice President Pence the sole spokesman for the government on the coronavirus outbreak. Next up is the creation of a Ministry of Truth.
1
trump is doing this because it's California....that's how petty and vindictive he is
12
Fake News! (If you define "fake news" as reporting about fakers.)
2
Climate science denial, Covid-19 epidemic denial,...
See the pattern yet?
26
How typical of the Trump administration to seek out individuals with similar irrational beliefs as the President and put them into positions of power. Disinformation and manipulation of facts is a classic ploy of authoritarians attempting to promote uncertainty.
Are Trump supporters oblivious to this or are they completely willing to abandon life in a democracy?
The article explains how "the language takes very specific and isolated pieces of science, and tries to expand it in an extraordinarily misleading fashion.” This is an old ploy used to great success by Rush Limbaugh and the Fox propaganda machine. They use a particle of a fact and then add commentary that deliberately obscures the context and meaning. How can any rational being fall for this? The actual facts can be verified with minimal effort, but followers just take it in and spew it back out completely bypassing any logic or higher thought functions.
11
" . . . nothing is real, nothing to get hung about . . . "
Yes, more evidence of further diminishing the value of consensus science and the need for conservation of resources.
Just follow the dollars and the incentives to deny any need to begin real conservation, not only of resources, but as conservation relates to our modern lifestyle and consumption.
3
Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down.
1
Wonderful. As long as Trump keeps putting people who love him in important positions in the government we have to live in fear. How many more of these incompetents is he going to drag out ? I foolishly thought that there was something in the government called "advise and consent" so the president would not be in complete charge of everything. Trump simply declares he is the voice of everything and no one stops him. The only way to stop this harm is to vote him out of office. I fear what he will try to do in the time still allotted to him in his office.
15
Nature cannot be altered by humans’ misrepresentation of facts. This little game by Republicans is just going to make the impact upon the U.S. of not addressing global warming reasonably dire.
9
@Casual Observer One thing that continues to bother me is the opportunity cost of this administration. Over three years, years we can never get back, have been thrown away, as the choices for wrong action and no action, on climate and conservation issues, were made.
Those wrong-headed, ignorant and obtuse decisions have compounded the problems we will still have to address.
1
It’s been nearly 30 years since the first report by the IPCC. Nearly 30 years during which we could not plead ignorance yet global emissions have increased by 60 percent since then.
The carbon cycle for the last 2 million years was doing 180-280ppm atmospheric CO2 over 10,000 years and we’ve done more change than that in 100 years.
The last time CO2 went from 180-280ppm global temperature increased by around 5 degrees C and sea level rose 130 meters.
Here’s a graph of the last 400,000 years of global temperature, CO2 and sea level http://www.ces.fau.edu/nasa/images/impacts/slr-co2-temp-400000yrs.jpg
We’re quickly running out of time to avoid the worst consequences of our atmospheric experiment with our only planet.
19
"A Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial in Scientific Research"
That is not the first and will not be the last time that Trump insiders alter scientific research to make their boss campaign contributors happy. Just wait for reports on Coronavirus to come out and Mr. Pence "coordinators" get their hands on them.
7
There is little reason to believe anything emanating from Pence or his office about COVID19. He can be counted on to give our info supporting Trump’s positions and denials—after all , the country knows that most of Trump’s pronouncements have provably been lies since his inauguration.
Better probably to rely on epidemiologists’ reporting at the state level, at least those in states not in thrall to Trump.
This is criminal behavior; this story should be a major headline of the day.
The repeated denial of science and the manipulation of alternative facts for personal and corporate gain at the expense of the earths future is reprehensible. But am I surprised? This administration will stop at nothing for short-term and short-sighted political/financial gain.
Vote Dem this Fall and make climate change a major issue in 2020!!
10
This is part of a Kremlin-like attack on public confidence in the authority of data and facts. If all our government agencies are discredited, if the media are unreliable, and if science is just another set of elitist opinions, who is to be trusted but the very stable genius?
6
If you don't like facts, create alternatives.
1
How to kill any remaining trust in government.
7
The sad part is that Climate Denial is a pretty popular subject among the Hannity crowd. The base will eat this news article up, as they share with all their willfully ignorant friends how the fake news is in a tizzy because Goks truth made it into a government report.
Topping that list of deniers will be some of my old degreed college buddies. Talking with them about climate change is like trying to teach gravity to a rooster.
9
@Mark B
I dare say that roosters probably have an instinctive grasp of gravity and other physical laws/forces that far surpass the comprehension of Limbaugh, trump, and their ilk.
I also have no doubt that with a little practice a rooster could explain it all with a Sharpie and whiteboard underfoot better than the anti-science true believers.
It takes about .1 seconds to research the Heritage Foundation, where he worked, which is one of the many Koch/Mercer funded climate denier think tanks. The ideology driving this disinformation campaign is insidious, and requires intense diligence. It's exhausting, but necessary if we are to save our planet from the interests of the fossil fuel industry.
32
Knowingly changing the facts on a federal government document or report is a crime. Trump administration Officials need to be prosecuted if having done so.
39
Please, please, !please! vote these people out in November! So much damage done in four years, we simply can't take another term of it.
26
Very much like Lysenko, who set back agriculture in the Soviet Union by decades, and as such was responsible for an untold number of deaths.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko
23
Embed is another word for sneak!
Another DJT appointee who must slither behind the scenes because they cannot have their actions made public due to their defiance of logic.
DJT made very discreet moves to defund or remove the infrastructure needed to handle global virus threats.
Simple examples of the GOP’s willful ignorance of science.
The election of DJT is literally costing American lives and damaging our planet.
Its time to vote like your life depends on it
27
"Goklany holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering. His B.Tech degree is from the Indian Institutes of Technology and his M.S. and PhD are from Michigan State University."
So how do his degrees in ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING make him an expert on climate change? Ignore the SCIENTISTS because the ENGINEER said so?
19
If he bothered to learn and retain what he was taught, it should help him to understand scientific facts, but there will always be knuckle heads who prefer to confine their reason to one subject while thinking magically with respect to all others.
2
@Kirsten: On the other hand, very few of us have degrees in climate science, and yet we can recognize what's going on. The problem isn't that he isn't trained in the field, the problem is his dishonesty.
7
I was gonna say. I also like the parts where he’s been screaming at environmental and international groups that encourage and support population control.
It seems that, “population isn’t the problem, poverty is,” as though one had zero to do with the other.
I can’t say I’m surprised, but it does get tiresome watching pet “scientists,” trying to rationalize right-wing stupidity away, and wiping agribusiness’, uh, fundament.
1
Mr. Goklany,from what I can see, is educated as an electrical engineer. Why should his opinion about climate science or plant biology be given any weight?
18
At the risk of sounding “elite”, starting this November, we MUST elect leaders who are smarter than a virus...this populism thing has got to stop.
12
In other words, we need to disregard and throw away every "scientific" document generated by this administration as soon as possible.
9
Apres près moi le déluge. Or the drought. Or the firestorm. Or the hurricane. Whatever. D. Trump touted "alternative facts" during the 2016 campaign, and Sean Spicer's disputing the size of Trump's inauguration crowd wasn't a harbinger; it was a manifestation of exactly how misinformation would be vigorously forced on the public by the Trump administration. Contemplating the effects of global warming is frightening, and debating what we can do today to arrest climate change is fraught with possibilities of miscalculation and failure, but we all know how to blindly exploit our natural resources to make money, and the government can facilitate money-making by easing or eliminating protective regulations. That's the D. Trump administration's bottom line.
4
I wish I could comment as an environmental hearing officer (I can't), but as a longtime civil litigator, I can say that this kind of rhetorical sleight-of-hand is disturbingly common. Litigants and hired experts do this all the time.
Perhaps most troubling is the outsized impact of this kind of subtle lying on the convictions of laypersons, who of necessity must rely in good faith on experts to understand the natural world and inform their decisions about reconciling their moral values with how to live their daily lives.
Here, the government should be acting like the court, prompted by a 'Daubert' hearing, where the parties push for a decision on the legitimacy of the methodology (and often the credentials) of experts. But where the fox is guarding the henhouse, and certain natural resources are a zero-sum game (water) or where the balance between nature and industry is critical to our civilization's viability (global warming), it is nothing short of criminal for the government to put its thumb on the scales.
21
Trump wants only what he or his "acting" appointees say to be accepted as the truth, and he viciously attacks anyone questioning or saying anything to the contrary - a behavior that screams for the need of psychiatric intervention.
4
It's doubtful that our president could pass an 8th grade science test. His appointment of inept, bumbling, non-scientists to important positions puts us at great risk, and he must be replaced soon. If you have been too disgusted by our politics to vote, please change your mind and vote against Trump. It's really a life or death decision.
11
and this makes America great?
7
From the Trump Administration, I expect nothing less than this brazen defiance of widely-accepted science that global warming is a reality, and that if we don’t proactively work to retain the natural habitats of our country, today’s residents - and in larger numbers future generations - will pay the price.
4
Elections have consequences.
6
It is true that without CO2 in the atmosphere we would not have life on this planet. I'm more than concerned about the causes of CO2 - too many people taking too many resources and wasting the majority of those resources. We're cutting down old forests, and rain forests, and clearing land and damming up rivers and basically consuming the earth. The problem isn't CO2, it is but a symptom of the real problem; too many people and a lack of regulations in most of the world that are not enforced if they exist. The US does not control the rest of the world.
3
@Ma Well, that's not really true. Without C02 in the atmosphere we would still have life - it would just be microbes, however.
I continue to marvel at what Trump supporters are willing to do to keep him in office. "Gok's uncertainty language" is shameful no matter how you look at it. I wonder how he sleeps at night.
6
Why do Trumpublicans hate the Earth and it’s environment so much? Sincerely, why?
6
@TDD
Ardent belief in the Rapture and living in the end times? Don't discount the fantastic irony of religious zealots like Pence and others.
3
Truly, sickening selfish behaviour, not just from Goklany and the Trump administration, but from the farmers, too. Their livelihoods are nowhere near as important as they appear to think.
3
What do you expect? The problem is not with the leadership, thoroughly corrupt though they are, but with us, the citizens. We have accepted the mantra of growth, development and more toys for our ever-larger homes as we despoil the climate, leave people living on the streets and engender situations in which people at opposite ends of the wealth strata have decades of difference in life expectancy. The situation will only get worse before - or if - it gets better.
8
When, when, when will voters ever understand the damage they are doing to the futures of our children and grandchildren? Trump's buffoonery, incompetence, and ignorance apparently knows no boundaries.
4
Science by decree. Great. We really need this right now. As disturbing as this is--after all it is our money funding this research--it is not unique. This has become part of business as usual for the wireless industry and others. Find the sweet spot between acceptance and complete denial and park your language there. It's allowed many a deceptive industry to wiggle through a lot of legal challenges regarding safety so far. It's a solid strategy of the Disinformation Playbook.
4
Californians could think about further reducing the number of acres they dedicate to heavy water using crops like almonds. Salad greens also require heavy watering.
It's worth noting that the whole of the Central Valley, including the northern wetter stretch, averages only 18.25 inches of rain a year.
5
Those of us who have dedicated years to developing intellectual honesty and rigorous application of scientific methodology should be deeply offended by this type of behavior.
25
In the presidential debates with Trump, the Democratic nominee needs to specifically list the many great accomplishments of science & medicine of the last 100 years, and ask the American people if they would be okay if, because of politicians like Trump, they had never happened.
Would you be okay with no vaccines? No viable cancer treatments? No remedies for heart disease? No effective weather forecasting? No computers?
It’s okay to be retrograde about your own affairs, I just don’t want you making policy for the rest of us!
28
Whenever I argue with climate deniers, I bring up the Greenland core ice samples that show the exponential lead increases in the atmosphere after 1924 when leaded gas was first introduced into gasoline. This added to the increase in pollutants that suddenly started to increase at the dawn of the industrial revolution. The record hot temperatures, along with the melting of the ice caps, smog over Tuscon, and the Great Smokey Mountains, mean little to the under educated. Trump was born to lead an army of these people.
21
It isn't only the uneducated who support Trump. I have friends with Harvard MBAs who think he's doing a great job. I'm currently vacationing in Indian Wells, CA where most of the people are well educated and wealthy, and love Trump and are proud of it. They routinely introduce themselves as Conservatives and invite speakers to their Country Clubs the likes of Carl Rove, Tucker Carlson, Ken Starr....and their reasoning typically is that he's doing a great job for the economy. When I try to probe their values, it all comes down to not wanting any public policies that take away from their wealth.
15
@richie flay
Waaaay too many actual facts to make it into the brains of most people, especially people who don't want to listen in the first place.
2
From David Griggs recently, former head of the IPCC science working group secretariat, in a conversation with four Australian climate scientists discussing their fears for the future and where they are moving their families to to minimize coming impacts:
"You can say you don’t believe in gravity, but the apple will still hit you on the head.
You can say you don’t believe in climate change, but that’s not going to stop it getting hotter.
I think we are headed to a future with considerably greater warming than 2 degrees C. … that means a lot of people will suffer. A lot of people will die."
https://youtu.be/jIy0t5P0CUQ
9
This type of right wing propaganda - anti-science mixed with pro-corporate interests (remember the Big Tobacco "research" into how harmless cigarettes were?) is the true "deep state". Between November 2016 and January 2017, many researchers scrambled to save and move copies of existing scientific data and research offsite, for fears that the Trump administration would go about deleting, destroying or changing this information. It appears their fears and precautions were well realized.
This group of thugs in control of the government is dangerous at all levels and ways. Undoing their damage will take a generation or more -to the extent is in reparable at all.
24
In Canada, when the Conservatives under Stephen Harper were in power, exactly that occurred. He muzzled climate scientists, destroyed 5 or 6 science libraries with little opportunity to save the knowledge and shut down a lake project that had gone on for decades.
An unrelated issue, he fought the first supervised injection site, Insite, started to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS all the way to our Supreme Court. BTW Stephen Harper, a Canadian Republican, is an evangelic.
I hesitate to use the word Christian to apply to these people.
1
It's up to the scientific community to police the Censor himself. That too is science.
Climatologists should now agree to a warning statement, something like this: "Caution. Since 2016, Federally-released reports on Carbon Effects on Climate have been subject to politically motivated intervention, in their summaries of findings. Where they cast doubt on man-made climate change, do not cite them without carefully examining the data or consulting lead researchers in each study."
The scientific community is global, not Trump-American. Has everyone forgotten that? Oh by the way, how's the Boeing Test Lab doing these days?
9
Just another example of how dangerous the President is to our safety. The question is, how does this administration suborn federal employees to the point of dishonesty? What allows long time, public servants to endanger everyone, in the interest of a maintaining the Trump administration? Don't they realize that when it comes to climate, we are all in this together, that dishonesty is our greatest danger, and likely, only science can save us.
5
And as we focus on the daily lies and ignorance of our "president", this is the damage that this administration is doing not only at the Interior, but at EPA, FDA, Energy, Agriculture, HHS, etc.
Trump has been very effective at deregulation and forwarding devastating policy for corporate interests and we and the mainstream press have not been recognizing it.
Another example of our need to prevent 4 more years of this horror.
No matter who, just vote blue.
18
Our planet is warming.
It's us.
We're sure.
It's bad.
We can fix it.
https://350.org/science/
6
Government employees are a cross-section of our society - they aren’t holy saints. We Americans take responsibility for our SELF-serving spheres: me, my family, my employer. We take little responsibility for our town, nation, planet (except kid’s sport teams!).
Social and enviro abuses abound. Maybe we talk/watch/read about them, but we punt the responsibly to government departments. And, it’s this cultural punting of responsibility that leads youth to feel a meaningless life.
Goklany was probably paid off to create scientific doubt and got extra money for his family. So he’s just like the rest of us. We are no saints.
2
Altruism and an interest in the greater good still exist, just not enough. In reality the greater good IS self-interest - simply with a little longer time horizon.
2
This should be considered criminal behavior, punishable by jail time.
18
This is a result of Democratic administrations allowing Republican political appointees to slide into civil service positions after their patron is gone. They continue to do damage. Gok needs to terminated after 2020.
3
Trump supporters know this is wrong. Legally and morally wrong. They cheer for it anyway. Why?
5
@Dave
Perhaps a variation on the Lemming Effect. Except they're taking all of us over the cliff with them.
1
This is Exhibit 9,767,767 as to why Republicans and Trump are enemies of mankind, the planet Earth, our system of governance, and everything we hold to be dear and worth having in life.
10
First, you are wrong: these are not scientific reports.
They have nothing to do with science.
Their authors are not acting as scientists, no matter their methodology, their theoretical grounding, their analytical acumen.
This, like everything out of Right Washington these days, is propaganda. Only fools will believe an analysis of the economy, a report in corporate activity, commentary on investments, or health, or the environment.
It would take an idiot to accept any word at all about the impact or effectiveness of policy.
These scientists, so called, have my sympathy, but they should be black-listed and shunned.
If any of them manage an academic appointment, that would be one school I'd never want to hear from again.
This is dangerous stuff. Lethal, life changing, prone to memorializing lies and half-truths in ways that will negatively impact the nation and its people for years and decades to come.
Mr. Goklany is a pariah, hopefully confined to pushing fries through filthy windows when this is over; real concern is the snappy dressers, flashy speakers, arrogant apparatchiks at the top of agencies.
They are dangerous people, criminal minds gifted with money and power. They do not deserve to live in polite society, any more than their woebegone leader.
These are people criminally assaulting society, and they need to banished.
But, again, we're not talking about science here. NYT does great harm characterizing these fantasies as "scientific reports".
7
The man must not have children to consider - besides the complete lack of ethics and morality. Uugghh...
5
The ides of March is coming, Senators do your job!
2
@db2 They had the chance, but, with what we recently witnessed, it's clear we have no repub Senators. They betrayed the country.
Ignoring climate science is overt stupidity. Countering it for self aggrandizement is the epitome of evil.
9
"Goks uncertainty language". How Orwellian. An argument could be made for the bit about some crops in some places might benefit were the language placed in a context of overall damage to crops from climate change.
The coming scarcity is water; water wars are in the planet's past, e.g., upstream downstream conflicts but the new struggle is what motivates the prominence of "Goks unceratainty" in the framing language for decisions about Western water rights.
If we get a new President next year, he/she will get rid of this pre-Copernican thinking but the next administration may be tempted to neglect water because most of the possible Presidents, except apparently Joe Biden, will be so engaged with limiting carbon loading in the atmosphere.
The terrible thing is that Mr. Golkany is almost certainly sincere, which makes him a willing accessory to the greed which motivates his superiors to insert "Goks uncertainty" in their schemes.
"Water. water everywhere, nor any drop" for fish, wildlife or ordinary people.
The Republican organization is the most dangerous in human history.
An outrageous statement?
Consider that that are uniquely dedicated to the destruction of organized human life through their denial of climate science.
7
Everyday, the Trump administrations confirms the fact they are spreading falsehoods and garbage.
Yet, so many believe - or want to believe.
This is scary.
4
1984 revisited but with high tech tools and a corrupt President that between them eliminate even rational debate over policies by destroying careers, installing "tool-bits" to high government posts, and subverting the rule of law at all costs. Sadly, we face four more years due to our fragmented Party. If Supreme Court gets 1 or, God forbid, 2 more conservative 19th century thinkers, it will end many sane laws and policies for real progress in climate change, social justice, voting rights, etc. Pray for the USA and VOTE!
6
More and more like Putin.
In their greed, the Trump- supporting Elites are eating their seed corn. When they have hallowed out the middle and lower classes, they can as Malthus said....
3
To be Republican is to reject the fundamentals of science.
10
This is not only highly irresponsible, it is criminal. The Trump "insider" should be prosecuted.
9
Trump and his lackeys makes almost everything on the internet true, except of course everything that has Trump origins and overtones.
I wonder what George Orwell would think about this.
2
Ah yes, more winning, one would presume.
2
Here is a bio and list of articles from Dr. Goklany’s webpage at the Heartland Institute (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heartland_Institute), which is dedicated to denial of global warming.
https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/indur-goklany
A few titles show that his work is beyond the fringe:
Carbon Dioxide: The Good News
Humanity Unbound: How Fossil Fuels Saved Humanity from Nature and Nature from Humanity
6
There is a much larger cost than the already enormous cost of misrepresenting facts, or lying, whether it be science, the Corona virus, or "he got caught, and has therefore learned his lesson, so I vote to acquit him of a serious crime". The cost of destroying trust in the credibility of the American government, due process, and the rule of law, is the destruction of American influence, and thereby its power, leadership, ability to influence the globe to benefit our well being, our economy, and our security. One key reason the world trades predominantly in dollars, flees in a crisis to American stocks and the dollar, is because it trusts that it will get a fair shake in America. That laws are not only fair, but also will be applied without fear or favor. Outside of the West, there may be good laws on the books, but the risk of laws being flouted or not being enforced is high. Lose our credibility, and we lose our well being, wealth, and leadership. Few politicians today understand that. The POTUS casts a long shadow.
5
Fossil fuel industries' profits and pollution over our planet's and every organisms' livelihood.
3
Trump and his gang of science-deniers must have been asleep during elementary school. I learned in 5th grade how C02 as a greenhouse gas warms the atmosphere. If it wasn't for C02's heat-trapping effect, we probably wouldn't have a habitable earth.
The same basic science also explains that the concentration of C02 is correlated to changes in earth's temperature, and that humans are adding megatons of C02 to the atmosphere, increasing C02 concentrations, trapping more heat, etc.
We also must remember that sourcing and burning fossil fuels puts megatons of manmade poisons into the atmosphere, and contributes to anthropogenic mass extinction.
It appears that Trump and his gang are enemies of life on earth.
5
@Steve Davies the key word you use is "correlated" -- which merely means that two things move in the same direction -- it may be causal, but it doesn't tell you which thing causes which thing -- and it doesn't tell you if it's really a third unmeasured thing that is causing the other two to move, and if you partial out the third thing you may find that things 1 and 2 aren't related at all.
1
Covfefe-19
The damage being done to our health, our environment, our economy, our democracy and our society is encapsulated in the Republican regime's denial of science (i.e. empirically proven truth) reflected in this article, and also in their elimination of agency wherewithal to anticipate, prepare for and respond to the new coronavirus.
15
"the Bureau of Reclamation, the office that oversees the nation’s dams and water resources "
This is not accurate. USBR is a large water-supply agency that operates in 17 states (North Dakota down to Texas, and states farther west), but does not have any regulatory authority over other water. It oversees only its own 300+ dams (although it does provide technical assistance to other Interior agencies with dams, like Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service).
Yet another example of how much damage Trump is doing to government, science, and the environment. It’s going to take decades to dig out from under the corruption and incompetence.
858
@Deutschmann,
"It’s going to take decades to dig out from under the corruption and incompetence."
If ever...
57
@Deutschmann
These administration officials should all be charged with criminal negligence. Like the virus, this is a disaster not of the administration's making, and it is demonstrating that their antipathy towards science and it's solutions causes needless death and destruction
86
@Deutschmann
Your comment is almost exactly what I was about to type.
Thank you for "getting there" first.
34
Not only is this incompetence but willfully doing damage to our common resources. This is criminal behavior.
915
@Carol S. This. Absolutely criminal behavior.
Why, when and how are we going to stop this?
Seems like the ballot box is far too humane for what
45 is doing. Maybe a revolution?
11
@Carol S.
"This is criminal behavior."
It is shamelessly criminal behavior. Can we avoid the question of what we ought now to do about it? No, we MUST each do something, or we would scarcely deserve the label human being. But what?
Let me invite you to scan the link below, which includes the following words: "From an energy perspective, subconscious neurological energies bound up in the reactions by which we survive traumas rigidify our personalities with character traits that often bias team problem-solving. At a global species level, I suppose we must now begin to acknowledge that no matter how successful some people appear, everyone has at least some unresolved shame. If so, then this will be a factor successful people will sometimes have to acknowledge as limiting the efficacy of our efforts as a species to resolve social conflicts. Leading protagonists are likely to be insensitive to the smaller issues of big decision-making, and following agents are likely to fail to think rationally about the implications for big decision-making of multiple instances of small-minded behavior. We can see this clearly in the traditional fault lines of conflict between 'left' and 'right' ideologies. Today additional fault lines are deepening between the approaches of 'Eastern' and 'Western' civilizations to democracy and authority, between the feelings of 'North' and 'South' economies about how to respond to climate change ..."
http://www.authentixcoaches.com/Remorse.html
7
@Carol S.
There IS in fact a great deal of uncertainty about future climate predictions. That is really indisputable.
There ARE in fact benefits of increased CO2. Ask any indoor hydroponics grower. It is why so many increase CO2 concentrations.
What you are wanting to criminalize is heresy from an establishment dogma.
I wish I knew what it was that made American conservatives so utterly terrified of climate change that its existence must simply be denied. Our best pathway is to reduce production of c02 while beginning the long process of adaptation to climate change instead of deny, deny, deny and then panic, panic, panic, the most expensive and least efficient response. Rick Scott, former governor of Florida banned the use of the words "Climate change" in any state government papers as seawater was coming out of Miami storm drains at spring tides. This denial is becoming more refined in tactics but will be louder when Trump is gone
7
@Buoy Duncan,
What they are afraid of is the power of the oil industry and the slippery slope of requirements to radically cut back the use of cars, airplanes, and every form of fossil fuel use. For those whose income and investments are dependent on fossil fuel production, processing, sale, and use, it is profoundly threatening to hear of cutbacks. Huge swaths of the economy are involved.
But, like buggy and buggy-whip manufacturers in the last century, these businesses will indeed eventually shut down and be replaced.
4
Thanks, likely there are 100's of similar incidents throughout the government that the press generally overlooks, because of Trump's outstanding misdirection skills... covering anything Trump says about coronavirus, for example, is simply surrender to his misdirection skills. Every minute of reporter time and dram of ink would be better spent uncovering more incidents like this one.
12
Republicans have long practiced forms of scientific sophistry but under Trump, it seems to permeate their entire world view. They remove the meager regulations controlling release of toxins into the environment in the name of general prosperity. They even deny the explanatory power of evolutionary forces on biological systems and organisms. Now we have this little gem of misrepresentation that CO2 concentration alone will increase crop yields.
I did a single search and easily found a Scientific American article reviewing the debunked claim. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ask-the-experts-does-rising-co2-benefit-plants1/. If you don't have time for the link, the short version is that the claim is extreme cherry picking used to create a false conclusion.
This technique is exactly what the tobacco industry used to inject "doubt" into the science behind smoking studies. Government employees who use reasoning like this should not be retained. It is incompetent, both on the part of the employee and on the entire agency allowing it.
The incompetence runs through the entire government under republican control. It's not just Trump. This election is about calling republicans to account for their lies.
11
@Some Dude CO2 in isolation incontrovertibly increases crop yield . your linked article confirms this: "Doubling CO2 from pre-industrial levels, she adds, does boost the productivity of crops like wheat by some 11.5 percent and of those such as corn by around 8.4 percent." And globally crop yields are in fact increasing and have been for decades, though not because of CO2 concentrations (credit belongs with GMOs and fertiliser) Obviously crop yields are affected by many factors beyond climate change, which this article obscures.
1
@S
You correctly point out the isolated effects of CO2 concentrations on plants in laboratory conditions. My point is that using that fact to conclude that climate change predictions are wrong is invalid. Climate change deniers create a field of obfuscation by singling out isolated effects and drawing invalid conclusions from them. That is not science. It is sophistry, or worse.
Actually, increased plant growth with increased CO2 concentrations has also been shown outside the laboratory, and is evident in fossil remains from past time periods with higher CO2 levels.
1
All the more reason California needs Diablo Canyon’s nuclear power, which can be adapted to desalinate seawater to feed crops.
And before it’s too late, the San Onofre generating station in San Luis Obispo should be restored, not torn down.
Carbon-free nuclear power is highly regulated and incredibly energy-dense. Despite its undeserved bad press and public misunderstanding and ignorance, it’s here to help.
6
@Keith
Indeed - it is the only technology that has the scale to generate the power needed for 7+ billion population. There is no "perfect" technology (no magic), but this is where we are today.
2
Amen! Nuclear is the only reasonable way out of this mess.
1
@Keith
I grant your point that we need to develop nuclear power generation. However, the plants you mention are not safe, nor do they employ safe technology.
There are inherently safe reactor technologies, such as liquid sodium fast reactors. They all have a life cycle due to neutron bombardment metal embrittlement. They also beg the question of long term radioactive waste storage. Even so, nuclear power is an important component of a de-carbonized energy system.
The Book of Revelation ends with the prophecy of a new heaven and a new earth. Trump's most devout supporters actually look forward to the end of days, and are doing their worst to destroy the earth so that God moves up his timetable. At the very least their attitude seems to be, why husband the earth and all life on it when the second coming is imminent. Religion may be humanity's greatest flaw. If we want to survive as a species religion must go. No new earths, just this one.
26
I just checked. It is 8:30 CST and trump has already posted 11 tweets. This is what he basically does all day every day. Watches TV and tweets. All of the nefarious behavior being blamed on trump actually belongs to the Republican party and Mitch McConnell. trump does not have the time nor the ability to grasp intelligent scientific research or understand the consequences of global warming. If it were not for Mitch McConnell, trump would be gone. This is the ultimate quid pro quo. Mitch protects trump so the Republican party has free reign with agenda.
49
@Chris
To be fair, that's not quite all he does. Apparently he spends a lot of time flushing his toilet.
1
Hard to believe so many good things over the decades have been given this planet by USA science and ingenuity. Then, along came GOP and Trump.
20
Yet another reason that Michelle Obama's site, whenweallvote.org, needs to get more attention. Too many Americans aren't voting. And too many Trump insiders are dangerous.
10
As a non republican, I never thought I would see the day where I would say “I don’t trust the government” but more and more, as the Republicon Deep State sinks it’s ugly fangs into us, I do.
Can’t trust Interior now.
8
While predictably awful, the willful ignorance and deliberate obfuscation doesn’t really matter.
There’s plenty of reliable information to absorb for those with the inclination and curiosity.
Heck, the government still recommends consumption of dairy, which is positively correlated with a host of health problems.
The nice thing about educating oneself about the climate is after a while, you see the damage is done, and we’re not going to recycle our way out of our fossil fuel induced omnicide.
1
This is an outrageous crime whose victims are numberless — and apparently the only consequence to those committing these crimes is to vote them gone. Unfortunately the damage they are doing will survive them.
5
Don't you think this action should be against the law? Sorry, I forgot. King Trump now has the power to do anything he wants.
5
They're all doing it. EPA is the same. All the government agencies have been compromised by Trump, open door to lobbying by big business.
11
As with the Coronavirus, Nature will have the final say. Uncertainty does not exist in Nature; it exists in the human mind. Used assiduously uncertainty pairs with probability to produce useful data (chance of tornadoes in the area, 70%; chance of hurricane hitting Alabama, .0001%).
The uncertainty principle applied correctly to the Coronavirus will result in sensible, aggressive steps that will help forestall its spread and do no damage if a best case scenario plays out. Trump initially used the principle incoherently to claim all will be well when the weather warms. A non-uncertainly dead victim in the Pacific Northwest changed the calculation, even for the administration.
Uncertainly unmoored from probability but anchored to a political objective leads to a Limbaughesque claim that the virus is a "common cold," that a Sharpie pen can trace a hurricane's path, that whatever benefits the president is what's true about this pestilence.
Expunge scientists from scientific discourse, and this is what you get. I'm glad cardiologists were not removed from the discussion of the best way to proceed after my sudden heart attack. Sure, there was uncertainly, but that didn't mean I should have turned to the maintenance staff for guidance on how to proceed.
5
Climate change views alone should sway most voters to the candidate who is most likely to save mother Earth no matter who it is.
3
Questioning the climate change orthodoxy is a good thing.
2
@M
It's not orthodoxy, it's facts and reality. Time to open your five senses and realize that uncertainty is not your friend.
6
@M
Orthodoxy is a term better suited for discussions of religion, not science.
Besides, he's not questioning anything, he's sneaking inaccurate information into scientific studies and impact statements. How very orthodox.
3
A lively scientific discussion is good. Twisting and suppressing information for political reasons is not so good. Your comment misinterprets this article in the same way this bureaucrat misrepresents the science.
2
The guy referenced in this article has degrees in engineering, not science. He should NOT be in this position and has no business making important decisions and opining on topics which he knows nothing about.
3
Why would scientists allow themselves to be pressured to include misleading information in their reports? Is there no one left in this administration that will say no to Trump and his lackeys? How disappointing to read that men and women who supposedly devote their careers to science and knowledge are so easily influenced. No information coming from any branch of Trump's government can be considered accurate and competent. We can't even depend on Trump to provide Americans with information about coronavirus. He won't stop lying even to possibly save lives. Shameful.
5
@Ms. Pea Actually it's not a matter of "influence". If you work in a Federal agency and write a report, it must be cleared for publication (approved) typically by a senior official in the chain of command (sometimes career folks but more often political folks). The report cannot be published without clearance. This terrible person is changing the narrative in scientific reports and the scientists who wrote them actually have little or nothing to say about it. Please don't blame them.
4
@Ms. Pea
Sorry to say, they've been removed and/or fired. Don't blame the victims. The scientific community immediately started archiving the data they knew would be removed by the Trump administration as soon as he was elected, for example.
1
Is there anything anyone can do to turn back Republican attacks on air, water, science and democracy itself? If not, we're all going down with Trump's 'Chinese style' cultural revolution.
4
@DaDa
Vote. Call your friends and get them to vote. Choose a candidate and volunteer for them. Pick a republican senator who is up for re-election and donate to his/her opponent's campaign.
Do not just sit and worry.
1
@DaDa
Yes we can all vote Trump and the Republicans out of office come Nov. 3, 2020. VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO AND THAT INCLUDES ALL DOWN BALLOT VOTES AS WELL. If done there will be no republican sycophants left in Federal, State and local governments. It can be done.
1
One of the saddest things about all of this is that Trump's cult doesn't care. A lot of them believe in an invisible man in the sky who cares about what we do and all of this is climate change is "God's will." All Trump cares about is money and making money for his cronies. "The love of money is the root of all evil." No truer words were ever spoken.
8
Of you need just one more reason to vote blue in November, here it is.
7
This is what you get when you live under a sham democracy. The lies that fuel our actions and the profits of the rich will be our own undoing in disastrous fashion.
5
My Hope is that reversing the policy of this dystopian Administration to change the narrative on Climate Change in order to not only continue but accelerate the decline in Earth’s ability to support life is the 1st Plank of the Democratic Platform for the 2020 election. Trump’s base may willingly accept these lies, however, those voters,18 to 35, know the truth, and it is a very powerful motivation for them to vote, as the policies of the present Administration, bolstered by deception and outright lies would leave their generation struggling to survive, along with the rest of us in a severely compromised World.
2
What on earth do the Trump Republicans have to gain by destroying the planet?
9
And yet Trump expects us to believe anything and everything that comes out of his mouth regarding the corona virus. How do you know he is lying? He exists.
4
This is completely outrageous! I am furious that my hard-earned money is going to pay the salaries of people like this who are actively working to destroy
the future of our children and grandchildren.
Fire the liar!
8
As executive director of the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS), Kathleen Rest did a recent book review (Feb. 14 2020) on this very subject entitled "The Triumph of Doubt. Dark Money and the Science of Deception" . See for résumé:
https://blog.ucsusa.org/kathleen-rest/book-review-the-triumph-of-doubt-exposes-the-disinformation-playbook-in-action
7
Pretty soon Trump will roll out a new business venture named Trump's Underground and Mortuary Services. It is reserved for white nationalists only. They will receive a fake ticket to heaven. Witch hunters welcome. Did I miss anything?
6
Greed.
4
For those tempted to think there's more reason to doubt, two bits of advice:
Look around, check the world's weather. Look at the trends over decades, and notice the increase in extremes. Just because it hasn't reached your dooryard doesn't mean it won't.
Uncertainty is not your friend. Most of them are actually stronger evidence of climate change/global warming, since science is careful and tends to understate and avoid exaggeration.
12
@Susan Anderson
in pararaph3, I meant Most uncertainties are stronger evidence.
For anyone thinking this doesn't matter, please note that phony "skeptic" posts are increasing everywhere, and gaining some traction, despite being the opposite of real world evidence and science. Lies are being equated with the truth. Even if you ignore what the Trump machine is establishing, as they dismiss reality and science, this is not good. Everyone wants an excuse for inaction.
Apathy and despair are just laziness in action. We have only one chance at life, and we need to work together to solve problems rather than blaming outsiders and victims.
Returns on big fossil lobbying $$ are in the neighborhood of 100:1. Nice work if you can get it!
2
You are correct. I checked the website that shows what the average temperatures were in 1960 and today and those temperatures have dropped two degrees over the 60 years. I wonder when the weather will start warming up.
I know I'm a pessimist, but I believe we have passed the point of no return. As individuals we can do our small parts, but pollutants continue to pour into the oceans, lakes, rivers, and ground waters and into the atmosphere. Our planet is changing and will continue to change. Life will continue, but it will be different, and on a personal and admittedly selfish level, I'm happy that I will be dead and not have to witness the worst. I grieve for our planet, the wildlife, and future generations.
17
Uncertainty cuts both ways. Warming could be on the low side of the best estimate, but with equal probability it could be on the high side. It's dishonest not to take the full spectrum into consideration.
Besides, the biggest uncertainty in climate projections is socioeconomic -- how much carbon the world will emit. This is why scientists speak of "projections" of climate change and not "predictions." Unless you are gifted with the ability to see the future, predictions are impossible.
1
In science, projections are likelihoods. They are not akin to guesses, which is what you are implying.
4
In science, projections are not guesses, they are likelihood’s.
1
@Simple Simon - No, I'm not. I'm saying any estimate of future warming has to assume the path of emissions we will follow. In reality we won't follow any particular assumed path -- so we can't make predictions (exactly what will happen) but projections (what will happen assuming X and Y and Z).
1
I had read in 2019 that Trump had teams of EPA lawyers pouring over language of environmental laws in the back rooms of the EPA. that the public does not see. Changing even one word of a law can change the entire meaning of the law.
Trumps goal in every single one of his Cabinet head appointments is not to improve the agency, itself but to destroy them from the inside out, beginning with anything that happens to have Obama's name on it.
37
@Cheryl
“Trump pouring over language “ that’s rich.
4
Oh, if only the information in this article could be shared with the American people using language that is clear, easy to understand and non partisan.
Somehow reach the ordinary American, the farmers, the workers, teachers, through local papers, and local TV stations.
Is this too much to ask?
13
@Bernie Clyne There is a lot of information about this harsh reality out there that is clear and simple and it has been out there for quite some time. Evidence also. Those who have chosen to not believe are not going to change their minds until it becomes personal.
6
@Bernie Clyne yes, because they don't care or want to hear anything that isn't spewed via fox news. Their minds are closed.
3
@MMNY ----Thanks MMNY - -and so I ask, how to make this information personal....
So many correlations can be made between this administration and the anti-science regime in the Soviet Union that ultimately turned the events at Chernobyl into a near global catastrophic disaster. Human beings are not above natural law; yet it seems the egos of the few will generate disaster for the many. Have we not learned our lesson?
21
it's only a matter of time.
2
Maybe it doesn't get published in the NYT, but there ARE agricultural benefits to climate change. See e.g. "Agricultural commodities and climate change," K Lewis, C Witham, Climate Policy, 2012. However, these are mostly from increases in arable land in northern countries, rather than the benefits of higher CO2 levels.
1
Well, that's good because large portions of Florida and the Atlantic coast will probably wind up under water as global warming continues. Think you can grow enough oranges and tomatoes up there in Ontario to replace us?
7
@Jeff So, you're ready to admit the millions of displaced subsistance farmers who are beginning to flee their drought-wracked countries, e.g. in Africa? Where ya gonna put them? How are you going to feed them, with the 4-month growing season in your own country.
To this day, I am infuriated by all the Green Party activists who claimed that there was no difference between Hillary Clinton and Trump.
152
@Kris BernieBros and foreign influencers are doing it again with Bloomberg. Anything to ensure non-conservative voters are as divided as possible...
10
@Kris
Or Gore and Bush II, thanks to Ralph Nader, who basically gave us the wretched Supreme Court we have now by adding Roberts and Alito. And then Trump topped it off with Gorsuch and perjurer Kavanaugh to join perjurer Thomas appointed by Bush I.
1
Although Goklany is a shameful science denier, considering all the evidence, he is just a Yes-man in Trump's deep ignorance (by choice)...and the prejudices it entails...and the arrogance it gave rise, to impose the most stupid denial of what is already biting our behind, a Climate crisis we shall have a hard time controlling, and already with dire consequences for the poorer countries, unable to defend themselves. The irony? That the richest countries are the main contributors to Climate Change...and the major insult, and injury, by a vulgar bully in-chief so eager to contribute to this catastrophe. Can you imagine four more years of this misrule and the trampling of this democracy?
22
Actually, it's China that has the biggest carbon emissions, double the next-biggest emitter.
2
@Mondo Man Understood, China is the main culprit, but these United States trail a close second (although you may claim India, if you wish).
Half and decreasing while China keeps increasing doesn't seem like "close" to me.
is there any way we can send the usa to planet crazy so they don't destroy planet earth?
9
why isn't this the headline. Again if we don't handle this the virus will look like small potatoes. This needs to be front page.
14
I am a scientist volunteering time on climate. This article is factual and comes as no surprise.
But science is not a job occupying so many hours each day. If you choose science you choose a way of life with honesty, truth, and even ethics guiding you each day. This article has no strong evidence that the scientific community has caved in to "Gok's uncertainty language", although that is what the administration my want.
I agree with Girish Kotwal that we do not care what climate deniers say. Scientific truth will prevail. And the evidence is that the general public knows this and shows it with each solar panel.
16
Adding uncertainty language to uncertain things is good science.
What's bad science is tyring to stop that.
I've said this before and will keep saying it: While I've not myself been involved with global warming research, I HAVE served on several Atmospheric Sciences PhD. finals committees for simulation research. Each and every one of them, while being OK by the standards of the field and the time, were pathetically inadequate by the standards of my field, chemical physics and in particular simulations done in it. The boundary conditions were never seriously considered as to accuracy. And the resulting papers never even discussed the resulting possible errors.
I have little doubt that global warming is similar .... it shows the bandwagon effect very clearly.
The NYTimes needs to make this clear: that the science
of global climate prediction is very very iffy. That's difference from saying that there has been no warming at all over the last 200 years ... that now quite clear. Its different from saying that "the CO2 to warming" idea is not likely true, which it clear is.
What matters for being good science is saying very very clearly that all the dire predictions are so far worthless as an aid to the draconian public policies proposed. That must be, over and over again, shouted as loudly as possible.
The Trump admin is doing an exemplary job.
4
Since “Global climate science is very very iffy” we have to depend on thousands and thousands of scientists for a consensus. Since it is extremely complicated, it is very easy for some scientists to manipulate it for their convenience (& God only knows what else!).
The global view is that human activity is contributing to the warming of the planet, I would rather side with them for the sake of my children and grandchildren than depend on the view held by few outliers.
5
Dude, the Arctic is melting.
7
@Doug McDonald
So you sat on some PhD committees in a different field? And this gives you the inside picture on the state of climate science?
When, exactly, was your committee service? 1986?
I'd suggest you read some climate science and spread your opinions about the great job you think Trump is doing AFTER you know what you are talking about.
There is so much evil embedded in the administration, much of which we may never know about
33
Ms. Tabuchi: Thank you for your good work. You are doing an important service.
17
I disagree. Reporting on people's worries without reporting the actual scientific errors claimed makes it difficult for we readers to evaluate the validity of the story. The uncertainty language excerpted in the story is unexceptional, so any scientific error must lie elsewhere, unreported.
@Richard Winkler it is the GOP that has let their true colors show through loud and clear.
At times like this, it’s reassuring to know we have top administration officials like Vice President Mike Pence who have a direct and very personal hotline to the Almighty. When science is disregarded and suppressed, there’s nothing like that old-time superstition to fall back on.
There are always alternative facts when reality is inconvenient. Faith is always there when we don’t know any better.
Now, don’t you feel better? And, look at that stock market! Well, not right now.
7
I wish every branch of media would put this story on their front pages & lead their broadcasts with it. It's exactly what people should know about the real risks of deep state. As our country's policies w/ Corona virus make us more vulnerable to it, it's an embrace of ignorance & puts us in peril in all aspects of life.
7
It is worth reading Richard Feynman's dissenting Appendix to the report on the Challenger shuttle disaster:
https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/51-l/docs/rogers-commission/Appendix-F.txt
It provides salutary lessons of how subversion of good scientific judgment for scoring political points is a recipe for disaster. The last sentence in searing in its directness:
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
The challenges of the shuttle program are nothing compared to the hardships and difficulties the cooking of the earth's atmosphere is going to present the next several generations. They will be global in scope and last for centuries. Hurricanes, droughts, fires, even snowstorms, will be more intense and unpredictable. Sea-level rise will imperil the entire country of Bangladesh and wipe out whole island nations. Dealing with these will require honest science, political fairness. Failure to do so will lead to crop failures, desertification, famines, mass migrations, and ultimately war.
Trump's venality and corruption are staggering. Woe is us that we cannot stop him.
18
Republicans in our state are more worried about the oil and a ridiculous wall than the water in the Rio Grande. Water stress is real, here in the Southwest. Right now 80% of our groundwater goes to municipalities, industry, and agriculture. This leaves little in case of drought. Global warming is real. And those of us on the edge of drought don't need the federal government blathering away about how beneficial carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere. The future with the Republican Party is not bright. For some of us it is precarious.
8
Antivaxxers, creationists, climate change deniers and snake oil salesmen are all committing the same assault on the well being of people. The crime is that they are steering people away from the kind of knowledge they need to make decisions on how to make themselves and those close to them safe. They are also robbing people of knowledge they need to make informed decisions about how to vote and what to advocate for as citizens.
That the leader of our country and his hand maidens would promote duplicity and disinformation is one of the many reasons to VOTE BLUE all the way in November and to work hard to get as many people as you can to do the same.
7
One day, God willing, climate denialists who wilfully obstruct all systematic attempts to deal with the threat of climate change will be charged in the International Criminal Court with crimes against humanity. Whether they are American, Australian, Brazilian, or anything else.
Of course, if they continue to have their way, that day will never come. They'll have made the future irrelevant.
6
What's interesting about this other than the continued attempt at de-legitimization and politicization of science by this Administration is that while denying the possibility of sea level rise, our president is at risk himself from that very same sea level rise by having a home and golf course basically on the beach. Boggles the mind doesn't it?
5
All is finite except the intentional avaricious duplicitous motives of the GOP.
7
I'd like to pose a serious question.
If First Amendment rights to free speech stop at the equivalent of:
(1) Yelling Fire! in a crowded venue when there is no fire, and (2) What can be called "fighting words" -- incitement to violence, then why can't Fox News and Rush, Hannity, etc., not be charged with conducting these dangerous infractions of Truth and inciting violence?
If what this administration is doing to our planet isn't Violence, what is? (I know, mass shootings and school massacres qualify too, but that's another story).
3
Dr. Goklany holds degrees in electrical engineering, he is not even a scientist.
12
Sounds like someone is angling for a big promotion or a lucrative lobbyist job.
If a President can use taxpayer money to try to bribe a foreign leader with the approval of the Senate's majority, surely that implies anything goes while his presidency continues.
7
To think this is happening today in the U.S. where you have top officials including our President denying climate change and promoting the destruction of our planet is irreprehensible, despicable and deplorable. Decades upon decades of self serving government and corporate corruption, it’s all about greed and profits…… the people and planet come in a dead last. One day this will all come to an end….when we no longer have a planet to live. What are they thinking?
4
Survival of the fittest. The planet will survive. It will just be a different one from what we have now. Thanks to humans, we have destroyed the environment which allows us to exist. In the grand scheme of things, we haven't been around that long anyway. A blip in time. So when we cease to exist, a new species which will have adapted to the new environment will inhabit the earth. Hope they do a better job than we did.
4
Re-read Ibsen's 1882 play, An Enemy of the People, for an early version of all this.
The attack on science is fundamental to Trumpism, not marginal. It seems to have 2 specific targets.
The first is to disarm scientific research by compromising existing report conclusions. This is like invading a Wikipedia page to sabotage it. It allows the Coal lobby to "use" official reports to advantage. That's obvious.
The second circle is more ambitious, and is aimed to provide content for self-styled "academic" (or "philosophical") journals that support Trump. The extreme right has been shunned by the academics for decades, so corrupted or tendentious science reports is their ammunition. For example, these journals have been touting the BellCurve theory for years, to buttress racist ideology on intelligence. So this is an easy pivot for them. Next up: Medical reports that doubt the theory that tobacco smoke causes cancer & a half-dozen other illnesses.
3
This is an excellent description of the GOP's dystopian approach to science and technology. Another reason why young scientists are crossing the federal and many state governments off their lists of potential places to work and develop careers in rigorous science.
2
This should be illegal and criminally prosecuted.
9
This investigative report reveals how this administration operates in the shadows to advance the commercial interests of its biggest donors, without regard for the health and welfare of the populace. Most of its undercover tactics are hidden from public scrutiny, while daily public attention gorges on Trump's antics: his incoherent declarations, his tweets, his insults, his swagger. The more he gins up media controversies, the less attention is paid to the subterfuge by which this administration operates to the detriment of the country.
17
Well said, thank you. Been hoping the media would ignore the everyday stupidity and focus on what’s going on behind the curtain since this whole charade started.
5
It will be in the mid-fifties today in NYC. Antarctica is replacing Miami as a winter vacation spot, where icebergs the size of Rhode Island are set afloat. Artic permafrost, glaciers around the world, snow which has capped mountains throughout history are all receding in the record heat. Wild fires, intense rain causing 100 year floods regularly, and other disruptive weather patterns all belie any imbedded denialism propaganda.
Trump’s Reign of Error is wreaking the same destruction on the functioning of our government that climate change is doing to our planet. So, who are you going to believe...any propaganda that emanates from lying Trump’s PR machine, or your lying eyes?
5
Seems easy to understand, the word "stakeholders" is clear in its meaning. . .those with a financial interest in continuing on without regard to the facts presented by "good" science. When this mini dark age is past, it will be necessary to make up for the greed and stupidity being demonstrated so openly today. Let's all hope it is not too late.
2
My advice? Move to a culture which doesn’t do this and would not permit it.
1
The WH and all the Trump appointees are discrediting themselves daily. Fortunately, the world is catching on and now know there is nothing to be gained by believing these people.
The world is learning to ignore them, and because of them, ignore the US and do what they have to do without America's leadership. It's a sad state of affairs that must end. November can't come soon enough.
4
If the study on oil and gas extraction in PA published by the League of Women voters it to be trusted, then our government is aware that oil and gas companies are putting carcinogens into our ground water and aquifers. Our local and state government is raising taxes on citizens (the people being poisoned) while Governor Wolf continues to subsidize oil and gas enterprises across the state. Even building a giant single use plastic factory for Shell (UK company) so they fracking can increase exponentially with a local outlet for the chemicals to produce plastic. This is a circular economy of death and no one is talking about it. Citizens are paying for the poisoning by continuing to pay taxes. How us this not a mass genocide? Because it will take a generation to see the deformities and unexplained concentrations of cancer? As Trump continues to knock down environmental protections, it’s not endangered species we can afford to worry about anymore - humans are paying with their wallets and their health today and for years to come.
5
I get it. This is part of the steady creep of authoritarian rule and newspeak. It also must be safe to assume that DeVos will be insisting that climate change denial be a mandatory part of course work in all public schools along side intelligent design. I mean, how else are they going to do the brainwashing?
4
It is criminal what is being said by trump accolates publishing falsehoods about climate change and in fact promoting further particulate pollution resulting in more deaths. The finacial and criminL liability of this nation will grow substantially with further loss of stature internationally for promoting false facts as truths that are not only NOT based on facts and sound peer reviewed science, but on tabloid level hearsay from others of their ilk found throughout the internet. It would be grand to see a crminal liability case get before the supreme court and see which of the justices support lies and falsehoods that promote the agendas of their "conservative" supporters. That vote would tell us which justices should be impeached on the grounds of flagarant judicial misconduct to promote personal rather than constitutional imperatives
3
Trump has declared war on the environment and on science, and he has won.
2
@ds1939
Right now battles are being fought, the most important of which awaits. It will occur in November of 2020 and it just may end in a 'winner take all' result.
How frightening things have become.
2
Democratic candidates should be Exposing these tactics of the trump administration during their debate instead of attacking one another.
The the debates are the best time to reach the largest audience of American voters. Instead of wasting time attacking one and other they should be attacking Trump And the unscrupulous Climate denial Techniques he uses to undermine a sane Approach to Protecting our planet.
6
I do not consider myself a "climate denier," but I do consider myself a scientist. I did not see anything here from Goklany that denies that the global mean temperature is increasing— it most certainly is. However, the specific examples of Goklany's "uncertainty language" provided in the article are essentially true statements. Just because these statements do not heel to the all-or-nothing dialog of climate alarmists does not mean that they are false.
2
@Jim Toscas I consider myself a scientist and data does matter. Unless you think there is a world wide conspiracy to change data the probability of climate change is overwhelming.
Every Trump decision is based upon immediate greed and power. Trump thinks he can benefit for his goals by supporting denial but he obviously knows nothing but how to lie and cheat.
3
@Jim Toscas
In what field is your scientific expertise? Because I'm not sure a Masters in Nuclear Engineering and a lifetime in concrete production and masonry qualifies you as an expert in climate change. It might be fair to point out your own professional interest Trump's proposed infrastructure projects, including your support of the border wall, before sounding off on environmental issues as a "scientist."
That conflict of interest aside, the article specifically points out that Goklany claims, incorrectly, that some studies have found that the Earth is not warming. That is, in contrast to your claim, a direct denial global mean temperature is increasing.
1
Telling lies about matters that have huge health and environmental consequences, like the climate crisis, the coronavirus, and endocrine disruptors when a consensus among scientists has been reached is not free speech; it is, in practical effect, murder. Suppose I put enough arsenic in a glass of water to kill someone and then I tell them that the consensus among scientists is wrong, that this dose of arsenic is actually good for you, and that you should drink it. Shouldn't I be held accountable? Wouldn't that be murder if you drank it?
The climate crisis will kill people, very possibly in huge numbers if the Trump administration gets its way. Same with the coronavirus, and with all the environmental pollutants that Trump is deregulating. We are past the point at which reasonable people can differ. It is time to call science denial what it is, murder, if not a crime against humanity.
9
"Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial in Scientific Research"
Why wouldn't they? It's like Netanyahoo establishing "facts on the ground.
Der Trumpf Insiders need to embed alternative facts (where are really opinions and interpretations of real FACTS) into everything so they can then turn around and possess "proof" that they can then use to do what they wanted to do in the first place.
It's insidious. It's a plague on Democracy. It's unethical. It's the way Bone-Spurs Two-Scoops Trump has always done things.
15
Please keep outing this dangerous incompetence coming from the Trump Administration. November 2020 is getting closer.
26
The large agricultural corporations that suck up California water are not farmers. They employ underpaid workers to grow “food” unsustainably across hundreds of thousands of acres. The misleading propaganda signs along interstate five say “farm water cuts equal higher food prices” —this is true if by food they mean, almonds, pistachios, pomegranates and other high dollar luxury crops. In no way is California agriculture sustainable in a world blighted by climate change. Science is real, numbers don’t lie and model predictions aren’t fungible playthings to put off because they are inconvenient.
17
Trump administration/GOP deniers of climate change assert that scientists are motivated by peer pressure, money, & falsify data to suppress different views. Toxic GOP politicians, the fossil fuel industry and other vested interests reject climate science and base their views on manufactured propaganda. Dismissing solid climate science on the basis of either no reliable evidence or evidence that has already been debunked shows an astonishing level of self-belief and political expediency.
They claim for themselves authority in climate change science otherwise vested in science. Beware of all those politicians and their supporters who assert that they know more about climate change (without showing any sign of ever having studied it) than the thousands of intelligent, professionally trained climate researchers who have spent their lives working on it.
GOP politicians, the Koch brothers and their fellow fossil-fuel industry, big money donors are responsible for short-sighted and dangerous climate change denial. Kansas-based fossil-fuel giant Koch Industries is appropriately labeled by environmental groups as “the Kingpins of Climate Denial". The Kochs and their political operatives have taken credit for obstructing the states and U.S. government from addressing climate change. Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs’ main political-advocacy organization, has boasted about their success in ending the careers of politicians who opposed the brothers’ anti-climate-change agenda.
10
A Crime Against Humanity.
6
From the top to the bottom, the Trump administration is filled with despicable people who just like to act like fools, break things and cause chaos. If Roger Stone is their role model I hope they all end up in the same place he is.
9
"Both assertions misrepresent the scientific consensus that, overall, climate change will result in severe disruptions to global agriculture and significant reductions in crop yields."
The same statement would have been made 20 years ago regarding what would be happening today. Meanwhile, crop yields today are fine.
And 20 years from now, when crop yields are still fine, they will be saying the same exact thing about what will happen in 2060.
2
@Erik 20 years ago we did not have the data available now. Every year the probability of climate change problems increase. Are you saying that the only thing that matters is crop yields?
1
The short uncertainty language quote shown in this story sounds fine from a scientific standpoint. The article mentions worries but doesn't actually show anything scientifically problematic. I'm disappointed in the frequent lack of rigor in such NYT stories these days.
Being anti-Trump is not a substitute for quality reporting.
1
If your doctor told you that the cancer spreading throughout your body might or might not kill you so let’s just sit and wait until it is too late, would she also be doing her job in your universe?
4
@Mondo Man the purpose of the uncertainty language is to stop all efforts to consider climate change in all government decisions. Are you willing to live with this as more and more data are reported by real non partisan scientists to validate climate change?
1
Let's hope that the Russians were better at moles--recall "The Americans"--than Trump administrators.
It's still liable to take an army of dedicated Times investigative reporters and several Democratic administrations to smoke them all out.
3
I did a search for "Goks" and found a report he had written with a forward by Freeman Dyson, whose obit was in NYT recently. I am not a scientist but did note this bio for Dyson in his forward to Goks book: Freeman Dyson, FRS, a world-renowned theoretical physicist, is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Physics and Astrophysics at the Institute of Advanced Study in Princeton where he held a chair for many years. Dyson is the author of numerous widely read science books. He is a member of the GWPFŚ's Academic Advisory Council. Might be worthwhile taking a look at his paper to understand the logic if any behind his opinions.
1
@Blue Guy in Red State : Despite his reknown in physics, Dyson was a well-known climate contrarian and relished his provocative role without ever justifying his climate positions scientifically. He said as much himself.
2
Thank you for this important reporting. Gok and his enablers should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
9
Seems these days, legends of previously enlightened citizens have been swayed in the other direction by material gain, influence, confusion, need for recognition. Wonder if an election can solve our dilemma or must we “take to the streets” and burn stuff like our French and Asian bros.
Similar to the demand that schools teach creationism.
See, there ARE people out there with that belief, and since were not 10000000% sure, and everyone's entitled to their own beliefs, and ...
5
He should be fired immediately. We’re paying this guy’s salary? Unconscionable.
8
Thoroughly besotted with Russia and Putin's political techniques, Drumpf has installed the same apparatchiks in our government to work his will. This is what Republicans want - the complete takeover of the US government by Soviet style power brokers. How long before he literally poisons his opponents?
12
An insider? Wow! Not just an appointee. Yes, climate change is real. I recently read about a rise in earth’s temperatures by over 4 degrees in 100 years. Carbon dioxide levels increased. glaciers melted and oceans rose. But no one explained what humans did thousands of years ago to cause this to occur. Please don’t say that it was natural. There were no huge volcanoes or asteroids in play. Or is “natural” the only way to explain it when humans are not the easy answer?
3
Water use efficiency plus global climate change equals reduced crop yields. As a plant environmental biologist, I see water use efficiency, the ability of a plant to grow using less water, increases with increased carbon dioxide. However, the effect of carbon dioxide on the growing season, more extreme temperatures and precipitation leads to narrower growing seasons. Episodic events cripple growth such as heat or cold waves, drought or flooding, that all reduce crop yields or cause crop failure, especially with crops where seed or fruit are harvested. Less adversely affected are crops where vegetative parts are harvested.
2
Another case of politics over science and facts. I still can’t believe that the State Department was able to override the protocols of the CDC and repatriate some of the cruise ship passengers. Nobody should be able to overrule the CDC. That’s insane. Our lives are at stake.
9
When he promised to drain the swamp, some may have mistakenly assumed that he planned to end government corruption, incompetence, and inappropriate connections to private industry. Instead, he must have been planning to drain all the wetlands on the continent through mineral extraction operations, development, or evaporation caused by increasing temperatures. We have also learned that he thinks that disease is a political hoax, scientists should be muzzled, and political hacks should write policy. If this is part of making America great again, I would rather go back to the more science based future that we enjoyed when he hosted that TV show.
29
Trump believes in only 2 things:
1) money
2) his ability to market himself.
28
Consider the reports that have been preempted with distortion or lies from crowd size, to Mueller, to the "transcript," the corona virus, and now the Interior Department with reports about the basics of life: air and water.
Walk out on this horror movie on November 3, 2020. A second Trump term *will* be fatal .
As W.B. Yeats warns, "the centre will not hold."
30
“...the possibility of global warming could be beneficial to mankind. Melting polar icecaps and the subsequent rise of ocean levels could allow many tasty species of fish to prosper and provide jobs for dozens of surviving humans, who can harvest these nutritious fish and sell them to the handful of other survivors...”
“...people residing in northern climates will no longer live in fear of penguins and polar bears...”
“...dry land and oxygen are overrated... flooding and higher carbon dioxide levels could provide plants with all the water and CO2 they need to grow to epic proportions... who doesn’t want giant tomatoes the size of a Volkswagen?... nobody can prove it’s not a possibility...”
Just putting out a couple of helpful ideas to supplement the next report if they run out of imaginative ways of lying.
8
It is beyond me why so many Americans have chosen to be brainwashed by the never ending lies, conspiracy theories and blatant displays of ignorance coming from their current government. In an administration where “winning” is of utmost importance it is evident that greed has won and science is the big loser. With so many smart, educated Americans, how can this be? We, the citizens of the rest of the world, need to continue to call out the lies and ignorance before we too reach the same level of intellectual ignorance. Science matters.
22
Like most all our sins and corruptions, it goes back to slavery. That’s the main reason we still have the obsolete Electoral College insulating presidential candidates from the direct vote of the people, manipulating outcomes to favor rural, agricultural districts.
1
The Department of the Interior must now be known as the Department of the Inferior.
15
Paper shredders and the "delete" key will be used without hesitation once this cabal of neo-Luddites is banished, hopefully in months.
8
This president, for personal profit, allows mercury to spill into waterways as well as other dangers to our rivers, streams and oceans. In his fantasy of kingship, he sits on a throne in Mar a Lago, brown people in cages off in the distance, his hand being kissed by followers, profiteers and underlings as Melania is coifed and FOX Entertainment spreads the untruths. A frightening horror show of ignorance and greed, he must feed on killing us to keep himself alive. I look at his banners and flags and hats and t-shirts and know that they are pollution and will eventually fill landfills and oceans. What a sad use of this spectacular gift, the earth itself. I weep for the children.
25
Sadly Mr. Goklany is a liar and he should be fired whent he Democrats win.
8
More damage from trumpism’s.
5
Like many of those who commented, I would like to thank the NYT for this initial investigative reporting and am disappointed that the house committees with oversight of the Interior Department have not weighed in on this already if for nothing else than asking the IG to investigate his activities. Given the extensive corruption present in the Trump administration, identifying the Goks’ conflicts of interest statements to see if he is accurately reporting his involvement with outside lobbying organizations and financial compensation received would be interesting. This may be more difficult to prove, but how much of what he wrote was edited or even written by outside lobbying firms? I am also concerned about the trickle down of what he wrote into state and local governmental guidance publications.
28
@mjs79
How much of his disinformation made it into science textbooks, printed by corporate publishers who are also polluters?
@JD Athey good thought. Textbooks can vary a lot from state-to-state. As it takes a few years for science or policy changes to find their way into textbooks would be of particular interest in a few years to check textbooks is deep red states in a range of areas to see the depth of penetration of this pattern of the use of selective facts into primary school textbooks.
While I appreciate all the reporting on climate change and global warming and agree this is an important story itself, why don't we see more reporting on the local pollution (in all areas of the country) that has more immediate effects to more people? I realize this is a different subject but it should be a big part of the discussion of our environment. I've yet to hear one politician running for President mention it. What's even more ironic is that it could be used quite effectively to get some swing voters over to the Dems' side. It also makes for a great argument to counter any pro-lifers' arguments that Republicans want to protect the fetus/pregnant women. In that direction, it's very simple to make the point that they, in fact, are not the "party of life". Another angle that politicians on the left should be talking about.
4
The new book "The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception" by David Michaels is excellent reading on this subject.
5
We all know that this administration doesn't believe in climate change and will continue that while they are in office.
Once they are gone we will need to work twice as hard to assure future generations that there will be a planet to live on and safe to do so.
14
This information was gained through the public records laws. By yet another outside group. Yet our House of Representatives is being stonewalled again and again when asking for documents, appearances, testimony needed to legislate, and even more so when doing their Constitutional duty on impeachment.
What’s wrong with this picture. And why is it taking our court system so long to decide if we have an imperial presidency, or a republic/democracy. The one Supreme Court Justice, bemoaning Trump’s quick use of the courts for his actions- might have mentioned, that for balance, equal quick attention should be accorded that co-equal legislative uncertainty.
So along with using the power of the purse (as suggested in the appellate decision), perhaps the House could flood this administration with public records requests. But no, the House is just going to.....do nothing.
15
Is there anything Trump touches, and he apparently touches everything, that isn't irresponsibly corrupted to suit vested interests?
56
No, there is nothing touched by Trump that can be uncorrupted. If I were invited to an event with Trump in attendance, I'd decline. Wouldn't want to be anywhere near his utterly corrupt and arguably evil presence.
The is how a dictatorship operates.
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@Sang Ze: I'm convinced Trump is being tutored (or controlled )by his Russian patron. Remember, he talks to Vladimir Putin frequently and never releases a transcript.
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Information should contain the best facts we can find to include in any government publication or supported research.
There is absolutely no doubt that this is unethical, and immoral, no matter how strongly the person believes otherwise and is being traitorous to the country to promote their own position. But again Trump has been doing this every waking moment.
At least during WWII the departments doing this were properly labeled, Propaganda, and could be easily identified as having anything they said be suspect.
9
well, considering that the global temp data base is nothing but garbage (estimates, extrapolations and adjustments for most of the world) I would say that the climate scientists need to come forth with a bit of straight talk on what their data sets actually consist of. Remember, there were no temp stations above the arctic or below the antarctic circle in 1880,1900 or 1950. For most continents the only temp stations have been at the coasts for most of the period we've supposedly had a "valid" global data set.
I don't see why the left resists a red-blue exercise where alarmists and skeptics debate the actual data. Now if you come back and say the science is settled, then you clearly don't understand science.
2
@Ralphie They resist it because they view "the science" as holy scripture, such that anyone who would think to question it is inherently evil and deserving of rack, tongs, and flames.
On a related note, I suspect that Ralph F. Keeling is about to feel the hot breath of the Inquisition on his neck, since he seems to have allowed the Times to quote him (way down at the bottom of the article, of course) as saying that the uncertainty language was sufficiently balanced. It is hard to see how that degree of radical heresy could remain unpunished.
On a further related note, it is particularly sad to see the obituary of Freeman Dyson linked right below this wretched article, since he very publicly stated that increased CO2 was, on balance, likely beneficial to humanity, and is right now likely spinning in his grave.
1
Do I really need to point out that, to quote Dylan, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows”?
And you don’t need a thermometer to know historic temperatures of the planet.
2
If you demand flawless data before drawing conclusions, it’s you who doesn’t understand science. The natural world is complex, and every measurement contains error.
Just because “there were no X at time T” doesn’t mean climate science is invalid. What it does show is the persistent pernicious power of money to corrupt politics and undermine self-government.
1
Thanks for this revealing investigative research. It helps to know reporters are continuing to inform the public about the dangers the Trump administration poses to our country and the world.
7
The most evil, thoughtless, uncaring, crooked administration in my lifetime going back 67 years. Who increases auto emissions?Who defunds kids' school lunch programs? Who puts kids in cages? Who sidles up to the sworn enemy of the United States?
Who uses his position to increase his wealth? Vile grifters - the entire trump family.
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This another example of the frightening effect of Science deniers. One of the Republican principal tactics to bend minds of supporters is to instill Fear, Uncertainty, and Denial. (FUD). This is a clear example how they have sought and placed key people to imbed this in studies and other documents that will shape public decisions for years to come.
Thanks for publishing this!
16
Absolutely mind blowing. Criminal behavior, they should all go to trial for crimes against humanity. Also what is happening with the coronavirus and politicians trying to minimize the actual facts is so so dangerous. What is the rest of the world doing/could do about it ? Stay strong America ! And vote those guys out !
6
When they come for the climate deniers Indur M. Goklany’s name will be high on the list.
5
This is Trump's achilles heel---transforming the deep state into the lite state---which, in a crisis, is what it is..lite on knowledge, lite on strategy, and lite on execution.
2
With the trump administration, anything that enables bigger business is ok. Poison our waterways? No problem. Change scientific reports to mislead? Sure. Use more coal? Excellent. Confound all efforts to limit semi-automatic weapons? Yippee! Trump has followed in the footsteps of the worlds biggest thugs. Put dim-witted people in positions of major responsibility. They will do anything to stay in power. They are utterly without moral compasses.
17
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
Valery Legasov
5
Anyone actually surprised?
I didn’t think so.
4
These people need to do jail time for defrauding the public. Charge him!
4
Since they believe carbon dioxide is beneficial, they should pump massive amonts of it into the White House and see who it benefits.
9
This is criminal. There is no other word to describe deliberately substituting opinion for fact in research publications. This undermines both science and trust in v
To put it bluntly, “Goks” is using the government to spread lies. Spreading disinformation to serve a political agenda is official policy of the Trump administration. They lie about everything.
3
Anyone who has followed the “creation science” movement will not be the least bit surprised by this development.
Trump’s now empowered evangelical base is simply expanding their “teach the controversy” nonsense to include climate change in the many inconvenient scientific facts they must deny in order to keep the Bible inerrant.
8
This is criminal. There is no other word to describe deliberately substituting opinion for fact in research publications. This undermines both science and trust in government.
To put it bluntly, “Goks” is using the government to spread lies. Spreading disinformation to serve a political agenda is official policy of the Trump administration. They lie about everything.
4
When this presidency ends the country will need to review their entire output;
The lying and disinformation that is coming from the top has been filtering down throughout all the agencies.
3
Are we starting to see the unraveling of the trump administration? With the corona virus, we are starting to see how this slippery administration is undermining truth at the nation's peril. I am shocked to see the depth the republicans have gone to let this go on and the destruction it will cause in the world if stupidity is allowed to rot all the protections we have in place to make our country what it was. If people don't start to wake up and wake up soon, I think we are going to end up as the next Venezuela.
2
After 3 years of the openly and clandestinely (but always shamelessly) criminal administration helming our nation's institutions, how is it possible that the collective "we" STILL have no recourse -- beyond waiting for the next election, by which time more damage will have accrued -- to get rid of each and every last one of these dishonest brokers?
6
Climate deniers.... Trump gets a pass as long as his team thinks they are winning. Just like the depression, recession or virus it's going to be the least informed and most vulnerable that will pay the price for willful ignorance. Some say its all gooood as long as they're making money. Well the ship is turning. Maybe some of the passengers will admit they've been promoting misinformation. Lessons in history show that even the christians turned on Jesus when he threw out the money changers in the church. History will repeat. Once they've used him they will kick him to the curb.
2
“We treat nature the way we would if we were illiterate and could only see a library as a stack of firewood.”
- Dan Janzen, Univ. of PA
As usual, many commenters blame GoodBrain, the (R)s, Exxon, the Chinese, yada, yada, for failing to act. How many will then leave their McMansion (heat on and lights burning), hop in the urban, 4wd SUV, drive to the airport (dropping off the recycling on the way, of course) and fly to one of the NYT's "52 places" for a badly-needed 36 hour vacation?
We are the Fossil Fuel addicts. We are the ones who are making Our Only Home unlivable for us by burning more and more Fossil Fuels. Nothing will change until we each step up and do our part.
We don't just constantly feed our addiction, we do so Wastefully! We Waste 2/3 of the energy we produce, 75% of transportation energy, half of our food. National Geographic reports that Waste 65% of the "resources" we rip from our planet. We Waste it!
What's your Carbon Footprint??
1
Head in the sand is no way to run away from reality. I used to think, “how bad could it get in four years?” Now I worry if we can survive to November. Vote in the primary for things that matter: climate change. Vote in November for a Democrat.
2
There is enormous amounts of work to be done to clean, reorganize, and restore America when the Trump animal house party concludes. Their fling will be costly in terms of time and money, but the antics and disrespect by the adolescencents and pre adults are telling and informative. The parents in the room and true owners of the house - in this case, the Department of the Interior, will have to lower the boom on the offenders. The electorate must show loudly and strongly their displeasure and will, to never allow punks and partiers like Trump and his minions as host, and the GOP as shameful guests and enablers to have privileges again for some time. Changes to rules and guard rails must be enacted to protect America from assaulters and traitors within. Vote BLUE November 3rd.
Here is yet another example of trump’s pernicious influence and why he and his supporters need to lose their connection to leadership level influence and power over the policies of the federal government. What truly was unheard of 4 years ago because it was so outrageously wrong and unhinged has become increasingly common across all aspects of trump’s ability to spin and influence. This can’t go on.
It matters who our president is...trump must be defeated decisively come Election Day next November.
Science deniers like the Trump weaken his crediabiltiy in dealing with this virus. Does this administration also think the world is flat?
It's amazing that someone who knows nothing about anything continues to deny what has been going on for a long time. He (trump) the self-proclaimed stable genius thinks he knows more than the scientists. Meanwhile he said if any of the schools he went to releases his grades he will sue them. With him everything is a hoax to be blamed on the Democrats. Actually, he is the hoax and will be gotten rid of in the upcoming election.
3
First a hurricane sharpie, now muddy water over climate science and this while we are trying to get some clarity over a virus that has killed almost 3% of those who had confirmed illness.
The delay and confusion caused by this type of action only helps the ultra rich redeploy their money before the rest of us can catch up.
1
This is "1984" all over again, "double think", "double speak", the government creating its own reality, even its own vocabulary, to the sole benefit of the government, certainly not the people. Yes there are other major issues (health care, immigration) but they'll all be rendered meaningless if our planet become uninhabitable.
And you ask why we read the NYT. Your slight raise in cost matters only that your advertisers do not see what an impact you have with people who still seek truth. Stay the course an continue to be our lifeline. Journalism is alive here, no matter what the liars write.
What a brilliant misinformation technique. This fits in beautifully and seamlessly with the rest of the Republican onslaught of doublespeak, misspeak, misinformation, and lies that have been poured down the throats of Americans over the last 50 years.
1313
@Madeline Conant:
When the misinformation campaign is deliberate, "disinformation" is more apt. And while the Republicans have been misinforming the public for over 50 years, their disinformation efforts are a more recent development.
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@Madeline Conant
Brilliant is not the word I’d have used, - sinister, subversive, reckless, dangerous, callous, even unserious, are better in my view. Not brilliant because the deniers will not escape the consequences simply by denying the facts, so stupid could also apply.
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@Madeline Conant - I guess I can put up with the political shenanigans, the corona-virus, tariffs, huge budget deficits and trade wars, etc. One thing I can't tolerate is the destruction of the environment and the failure to address global warming. Why? Because it is the overall issue that will destroy the world as we know it.
For that reason, while I find Donald Trump and his administration utterly contemptible, I hold George W. Bush, the compassionate conservative, who hoodwinked the moral majority into believing that he would do something positive on the environment and global warming as ultimately responsible for the failure to get us on the path to solving global warming. He and the GOP did nothing in eight years.
Can you forgive, compromise, or reach across the aisle to those that would kill you, kill civilization or the planet as we know it? Never!
60
Recently several large Wall Street investment banks have announced they are no longer providing funding for large fossil fuel projects. They see the future, and it’s not oil. This large ship turns slowly, but it is turning.
2
Citing a study that plants may have increased their uptake of CO2 as an offsetting factor for climate change thus nullifying its effects is like saying because people develop scar tissue after receiving traumatizing injuries we should continue to inflict traumatizing injuries upon ourselves.
Scientists do not like having their studies weasel worded this way. Lawyers do it for politicians sure, but this is the same approached force fed to our best thinkers.
4
For all the talk of STEM, it’s pretty clear that the US will lose the race for scientific supremacy. Scientists across the country should go on strike now to prevent the politicization of their efforts.
2
The plan is to make government science an unreliable source of information and thereby negate its impact when big oil gets sued over climate chane the same way big tobacco was over lung disease. No official science, no Surgeon General's report, no way to verify facts results in no legal judgement that cannot be challenged on the basis of opinion. It's just the sort of cheap sleazy tactic the GOP has become famous for of late and in my opinion the main reason Trump was allowed to win in 2016 by the actual deep state.
3
Some people. including Trump, have no concept of the wilderness where fauna and flora do not synchronize with human aspiration.
Trump is trying to get the wild to conform to his limited consciousness of it.
Good luck.
2
Amazing - the 20th century success of the US was based on science. With today's attitude we would have missed the moon, and pundits could claim the 'sichle' was too small to land on.
While the Climate crisis is most urgent, maybe deniers can be convinced with economic arguments? Such as: if we really want to 'make America great' - move on to the 21st century. (Others are already on the way)
3
Perhaps this uncertainty language comes from the fact that Trump and his appointees have almost certainly not bothered taking the time to read and understand any of the scientific evidence for climate change.
14
I am afraid that as the sun continues to circle the flat earth, we will get warmer and warmer.
14
@Michael
Sarcasm is appreciated, but watch out: you've just qualified for Trump's next EPA pick.
5
@mja Thanks for the vocational warning. I will try to contain my angry humor.
2
Hooray, no climate change!
In Superman's mythography there was a Bizarro World where up was down; inside was out, and the Bizarro Superman looked like a stitched up Frankkenstein's monster with a tattered cape and was not too smart.
Welcome to our new world order.
5
More Orwellian every day.
10
There is only one way to respect science:
Vote for Democrats.
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The news media created this problem when, in an effort to sell papers, they allowed politicians to politicize climate change.
1
Yeah it’s always the media’s fault never reality.
5
The war on science by the right fits neatly into the authoritarian's handbook, and it is the logical outcome of their perceived war on religion, at least their religion. And yet here we are crying out for science to save us from a pandemic. Hypocrites.
4
When his boss gets away with blatant abuse - drawing with a sharpie on a hurricane map for example, this fellow simply follows suit. He'll probably get a medal.
8
This is an existential threat to civilization and these foolish people seem to think that by tweaking language in obscure journals that nobody knows of much less reads they’re fighting the good fight.
2
And, as is usually the case, the Trump administration is back in the “full-on” fact reversal business. If the king is a liar, all the knaves follow suit brazenly and blindly.
This doesn’t bode well for anyone save the folks he’ll-bent on destroying our environment. If you weren’t keeping score, this administration is rife with them.
5
One wonders if once again we will choose to re-elect a rehash of the “ know nothing” party of 2020 who’s heads are buried firmly in the sand.
2
Trump's lies have corrupted the entire federal government structure. It is doubtful the world will ever recuperate from his scorched-earth destruction.
2
Trump through his well placed surrogates in every Department in the government will distort the truth to his liking. Fox will amplify these alternative realities and the rural folk at his rallies will be directly spoon fed these lies through a wild chorus of gospel chants of the brainless.
7
Climate denial, refuse to accept scientific proof, misleading language, blunt lying: isn't that what the Trump "leadership" is all about?
20
And we're supposed to believe this administration about the coronavirus? They have no less contempt for honesty and openness than do the Communist Chinese
18
Without a free press, who would ever know this? The motto of this rotten administration seems to be "If science doesn't support your policy, lie about the science."......and everything else.
2
Party over country. Party over science. Party over humanity itself. Trump above all else.
5
War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength... 1984 is not too far off. The US government is sliding into alternative truths again.
4
this should surprise no one. All we can hope is that these lies are being tracked and when there is a new adminiatrarion, all this offensive and incorrect language can be eliminated and correct scientific facts inserted.
1
This is why we so so need the NYT!! Great investigative reporting on something that otherwise is completely buried and not on the daily screen for most of us. We need to see the nuts and bolts(literally) of how this insidious administration is controlling information and altering the scientific message.
20
Trump appointees have infected every inch of our Government Institutions with their outright lies, never mind "misleading information".
4
Visit Northern Latitudes and see climate change in real time .
1
Visit the tropics and see climate change in full force
Keep voting republican! Amazing that we have lost the ability to actually have power in our government. Don’t be worried about a dictatorial state...we live there now. Just eat your soylent green quietly and get along.
2