{"id":1420,"date":"2009-12-18T09:58:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T13:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/12\/18\/it-is-gasp-snowing-in-copenhagen\/"},"modified":"2009-12-18T09:58:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T13:58:00","slug":"it-is-gasp-snowing-in-copenhagen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/12\/18\/it-is-gasp-snowing-in-copenhagen\/","title":{"rendered":"It is (gasp) snowing in Copenhagen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
The intellectual dishonesty of leading global-warming deniers is summed up in this one photograph, now on the Drudge website, accompanied by this headline:<\/p>\n

Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming...<\/a>
More on the way; Temps set to drop even further...<\/a><\/b><\/tt><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This kind of nonsense follows on the trumpeted excitement of an early-season snow (snow!) in Houston.<\/p>\n

If those who hope to prevent real action to slow carbon pollution wish to be taken seriously, they need to avoid pure foolishness.<\/p>\n

I’ve had the same arguments with people who choose to disbelieve in evolution, in the vast age of the universe, and in the concept of a round earth (yes, I’ve actually met flat-earthers).<\/p>\n

You have to come to the table with real science, not one-line populist zingers.<\/p>\n

Anyone who understands even the basics of climate research understands that it doesn’t matter if we see an anomalous snowfall now and then.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t matter if we see winter arriving in…wintertime. (Duh.)<\/p>\n

What matters is that thousands of scientists cross-referencing and correlating decades of research — and, thanks to ice cores and other techniques, centuries of data — have reached a 95% consensus.<\/p>\n

What’s more, this consensus transcends disciplines. Chemists, climatologists, botanists, in a hundred different fields researchers are finding a universality in their data.<\/p>\n

The planet is warming. Carbon is to blame. Human production of carbon is the most significant cause of new carbon loading, and the amount of that pollution is escalating dangerously.<\/p>\n

None of this means we can’t have an open debate about the consequences and the proper actions to take.<\/p>\n

It’s perfectly fair — if not, in my opinion, reasonable — to say we should do nothing. Some economists argue that any significant action would just be too expensive.<\/p>\n

But to deny that the problem exists, without wrestling honestly with the science, is intellectually and morally indefensible.<\/p>\n

Those of you who respond on the “other side” of this debate, no zingers please. No one-liners.<\/p>\n

Try to honestly tackle the fact that 95% of our best scientists — the overwhelming majority honest and independent thinkers — are convinced that a clear and present danger exists.<\/p>\n

And if you believe that there exists some sort of massive global conspiracy, try to articulate sensibly what the motives for such an enterprise might be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The intellectual dishonesty of leading global-warming deniers is summed up in this one photograph, now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}