So\u2026..I\ntry to avoid talking about topics that people tend to find inflammatory, with\npolitics right at the top of that list. People are just too polarized these\ndays and frankly, political partisanship is a matter pf personal belief and\nopinion and there is little to be gained by a discussion that may be contrary\nto another\u2019s position \u2013 at least in such a forum as this. But there is a topic\nI want to touch upon that is a \u201chot button\u201d of late: climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just\n(finally) watched the movie \u201cSnowpiercer\u201d last night. The story is set in the\nnot too distant future; a dystopian SciFi tale of an earth with a warming\nclimate \u2013 science intervenes and introduces a chemical agent into the\natmosphere to \u201chelp\u201d the climate by cooling it. And as a result the planet\nfroze, killing everything except some number of people now riding a train that\ncircles the globe. The climate portion of the movie takes up all of 30 seconds\nin the start of the film, there mainly to reveal the story line; the results of\nthat action being the reason they are on the train. The bulk of the film\nfocuses on class and station in life, the passengers being a microcosm of\nsociety overall. It is a brilliant film and worth seeing if you enjoy this\ngenre. But it dovetails into this post\nfor another reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Climate\nchange is on everyone\u2019s lips these days it seems, and there appears to be only\ntwo camps, the most vocal of which are (of course) diametrically opposed; \u201cwe\nbroke the earth and all is doomed\u201d on one side and \u201cit\u2019s all made up and not\nreal\u201d on the other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With\nbasically everything else in this world, the extremes represent the far outer\nedges of the bell curve and the majority resides in the middle under the big\nold bell. But in this case, it is hard to find a middle ground; all I hear or\nread is from folks who have pitched their tents at the opposite edges. Like so\nmany other issues these days, this one seems to be pretty much a discrete one,\ndigital \u2013 one extreme or the other and nothing in between. And of course, that\njust isn\u2019t how these things work. But it is symptomatic of the polarized\nstances that our society is increasingly taking on issues. We ignore the\nempirical data, disregard the science, dismiss objective thought, willfully\ndisregard facts that contradict our opinion, dogmatically stand our ground, and\nwe concede nothing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfault here, is not with completely with society or with science \u2013 it is largely\nwith the media. They are ever increasingly sensationalistic, always angling to\nfind a way to provide greater shock and alarm to the stories that satisfy their\nagenda. Facts are disregarded or manipulated for those that contradict their\nagenda and fiction becomes fact for those that do. Disagree if you will, but\nfirst please stop and reflect on how many \u201cstorm of the centuries\u201d you\u2019ve heard\nshouted out from all the major news media in recent years. And up here in New\nEngland, they are no longer nor\u2019easters \u2013 they are bomb cyclones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nhype with the recent hurricane Dorian was the worst yet, a large and powerful\nstorm to be sure. Its impressive size and strength however, was not enough for\nthe news media, despite how frequently they drilled the Category 5 rating into\nus. Having overhyped every storm to come along in the last 10 years, the media\nis now piling climate change into each and every storm forecast; how the\nmanmade climate change has caused the new and next storm of the century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frankly,\nthere is a long and distinguished list of notable and respected scientists and\nclimatologists who are not just in disagreement with the connection between\nclimate change and hurricanes, but who are alarmed by how irresponsible the\nmedia has become in selling news for ratings, done with complete disregard for\nthe empirical scientific facts and data. I urge you to read a little of Judith\nCurry\u2019s work and her total disdain for the climate alarmists that insist the\nend is immediately here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Animal\nrights groups fell prey to this in their attempt to raise awareness to their\ncause. Their commercials became so melodramatic and over the top that they\nbecame almost laughable. And people who embraced animal rights deeply within\ntheir hearts and souls were outraged as the public laughed and ridiculed the\ncommercials due to their heavy-handedness and ended up missing the entire\nmessage about animal cruelty. To be clear here, I think everyone agrees that\nanimals should never be harmed and that they should be rescued from cruel\nconditions. But when the \u201cfacts\u201d become obfuscated with melodrama and\nhyperbole, the message ends up being lost and ultimately dismissed. And worse,\nthose delivering the message are left looking as foolish and alarmist with no\ncredibility. They end up getting labeled as Chicken Little or some such\nmoniker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whatever the impetus behind their agenda, the media are locked into a rhetoric intended to associate climate change with any and every weather event. And that behavior is intended to incite. I would love to be an optimist and believe that they are merely trying to draw our collective attention on the issue. It certainly deserves our attention. But they are so heavy handed and unrepresentative of the facts that people turn away in disgust and disbelief. Hyperbole can be an effective tool, but not on issues as critical as this; using it in conjunction with something as grave as climate change has a deleterious effect on the subject with many people and is actually irresponsible journalism. They, seemingly intentionally, drive a wedge in between fact and fiction, ever widening the gap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nproblem \u2013 or rather, one of the problems \u2013 with this tactic is the predictable\nreaction of people. Think of Newton\u2019s laws of motion; one of them states that\nfor every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Push someone and they\nwill push back equally as hard. Try to force people to hear and believe your\nperspective (that magic word once again) and they will push back. Human nature\nand while not the intent of Newton, at least partially explained with his law.\nAnd you can actually witness this behavior, howsoever difficult. Take a trip\nonto Facebook or your choice of social media and once there do two things: focus\nsolely on posts concerning politics and try really hard to forget your position\non the issue. Rather than reading them as informational, read the posts as\nintent \u2013 what the write is trying to do with their words. And study the\ninteractions between posts; the exchanges. One pushes and the other pushes\nback; one lies and the other lies back. It is truly fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My\npersonal take on the subject is simple; scientific data indicates that our\nclimate is changing. The average temperature of the planet has risen over 1.5\ndegrees in the last 135 years with the greatest rise in the last quarter\ncentury. The oceans are (empirically) warming, the ice sheets are shrinking,\nthe glaciers are retreating, the snow cover has decreased, and the sea levels\nhave risen \u2013 a full 8\u201d in the last 100 years. You simply cannot deny what is\nhappening. But you need to temper how you frame and attempt to explain what is\nhappening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nplanet is \u2013 according to the best science available \u2013 over 4.5 billion years\nold. We\u2019ve only been keeping temperature records for 135 years. So we don\u2019t\nhave a strong baseline for understanding natural and cyclic temperature\nvariations. But we do have solid and accurate data on carbon dioxide levels.\nAnd that data shows that carbon dioxides levels on our planet are now at far\nabove levels ever seen in the last 800,000 years with basically all of the\nincrease taking place in the last 100 years or less. One simply cannot ignore\nthe fact that we have altered our atmosphere \u2013 accidentally, unintentionally,\nand blindly \u2013 but altered for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually,\nI hope, the hyperbole will yield to cold hard objective presentations of facts\nand data. And finally everyone (well, most everyone) will come to recognize\nthat we need to take action. But what I fear more than anything else is the\nkneejerk reaction; the \u201cSnowpiercer\u201d movie response with a complex,\ncomplicated, and completely manmade plot to control our climate and cool our\natmosphere. The earth is a marvelously constructed, incredibly intricate,\nbrilliantly engineered compilation of a myriad of different systems, all of\nwhich work seamlessly together. Every hair on the back of my neck and every red\nflag I have all go up when I think about man trying to intervene and interrupt\na natural function of earth. We are a bright species, but we are dust on the\nbottom of the shoe of the universe when it comes to understanding the universe;\nwe are simply not that smart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please\nconsider the \u201cfacts\u201d that society has accepted as fact over just the last 500\nyears: the earth is the center of the universe and the sun revolves around the\nearth, the earth is flat; bloodletting to cure most any disease; tomatoes are\npoisonous; eggs are good for – no, wait \u2013 they are bad for you \u2013 no, sorry \u2013\ngood for you; and countless others. We gullible humans have swallowed\nspeculative scientific fodder as factual for thousands of years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\ntoday\u2019s society is an overwhelmingly digital one; yeah or nay, yes or no, right\nor wrong. And each group has an amazingly steadfast tendency to not only pitch\ntheir tents at either of the two opposite polar ends of the bell curve, but to\nallow fiction and misinformation to replace any factual evidence that contradicts\ntheir beliefs. We have become a society that is not just stubborn; we have\nbecome a stupidly and strongly stubborn society. We no longer see the truth if\nit\u2019s lit up with flares and dancing in front of us, if that truth is in\ndisagreement with our perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be\nso limited in our knowledge, and simultaneously arrogant, creates a dangerous\ncircumstance. We are simply not qualified or capable to attempt to change any\nof earth\u2019s systems. Consider the recent uproar when the President suggested we drop\na nuclear bomb into a hurricane to disperse it (an idea that has been thrown on\nthe table at least once a decade going back over 50 years). That uproar was\njustified \u2013 we can\u2019t just go running off willy-nilly trying to alter nature\nwith our feeble manmade objects. Think back over how many thousands of times\nsomeone in a position of authority became convinced we could alter the path of\nnature by intervening; we\u2019ve introduced plants and animals into non-indigenous\nsituations in a misguided attempt to stop something we deemed dangerous or\nundesirable. And in almost every single case, what was introduced became the\ndominant species and turned into an invasive force dominating the ecosystem and\ndestroying it. This is because we do not have the prerequisite knowledge\nnecessary to understand and intervene in nature. We always get it wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But\nthat is not to say we should do nothing and I am surely not forgiving those who\ndismiss the issue; those who ignore it and sticking their heads in the sand.\nThe climate is changing, whether because of us or because it is merely time for\nthe earth to once again morph. If there are things we are doing as inhabitants\nof this earth that are harming the earth, we absolutely need to change and stop\nthose behaviors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nbest example I can offer at this moment is the American Bald Eagle; on the\nprecipice of extinction due exclusively to the actions of humans: a DDT\npesticide. We stopped the use of DDT and that, along with new laws and\nregulations further protecting them, removed them from the endangered species\nlist. Of course, it was the smug arrogance of man that determined we were\nperfectly OK in the first place in developing and spraying that insidious\nchemical pesticide throughout nature that caused the problem. And there, in all\nits glorious duality, is the crux of the matter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For\nthose things we know, empirically, that we are doing which are harming the\nclimate, we need to stop. Immediately. But much like the eagle commentary\nabove, we need to focus on the things we are doing that we know, factually, are\ncausing issues. We need to stop any and all of those manmade actions that we\nstarted, initially oblivious to the eventual harmful outcome. There should be\nno argument about that. If aerosols are proven to be depleting the ozone layer\nand causing climate change, we need to stop using them, or at the very least,\nchange propellants. If we are polluting the air or water with something, we\nshould stop that \u2013 change the process. That\u2019s just responsible stewardship of\nthis planet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we\nshouldn\u2019t do however, is blame every single weather anomaly, every single\nstorm, and every single strong wind event on climate change. We can\u2019t let the\nmedia develop new \u201cexplosive\u201d adjectives designed to incite wild fear. We can\u2019t\nlet them \u201cinvent\u201d facts and disseminate them as factual and create a grotesque\nmisunderstanding of reality. And we can\u2019t allow anyone to begin taking drastic\nintervening actions using our technology in a foolish attempt to change nature.\nWe just are not smart enough to meddle in the systems of nature and will end up\ndestroying the planet far more rapidly than the current climate change will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those\nin the \u201caction now\u201d camp are playing their hand as \u201call in\u201d; that is pedal to\nthe metal, full throttle, we need to make massive change now. Meanwhile, the\nother camp is yawning, looking the other way, and ho-humming the whole topic as\nan insane alarmist theory; and doing absolutely nothing. And of course the\ntruth is that neither position will benefit humanity or the earth. We need to\ndrop the \u201cI\u2019m right and you\u2019re wrong\u201d attitude and admit that we need to have a\nrationale and intellectual, factual discussion. So go plant a tree\u2026.plant a lot\nof them; God knows we\u2019ve cut down far too many. Just another disgruntled growl\nfrom this old Wolff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So\u2026..I try to avoid talking about topics that people tend to find inflammatory, with politics right at the top of that list. People are just too polarized these days and frankly, political partisanship is a matter pf personal belief and opinion and there is little to be gained by a discussion that may be contrary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanity","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\n