Posted by
Doc Stephens on Friday, April 03, 2009 12:02:22 PM
"Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear.” (President-Elect Barack Obama, November 19, 2009)
I’m also reminded of our President’s promise during his long campaign, that he would somehow stop climate change and lower the seas to their rightful level. I know these were not his exact words, but it is clear from his many utterances that our new president lacks any serious scientific knowledge or even awareness. Like presidents before him, he relies on advisors for guidance, and even words. Like presidents before him, he panders to his base, obviously with the strong encouragement of his advisors. There are many people in his base who honestly believe the sky is falling, figuratively of course, and his confident, even arrogant pronouncements play to his enraptured audiences. The President is obviously unencumbered by the facts.
Climate change is natural. More precisely, atmospheric conditions are constantly changing over time. Actually, the notion of "climate" is a statistical invention of man to describe the typical atmospheric conditions of a specific area or region over a defined time period. In the natural world, there is no such thing as "climate." You cannot go out and find one anywhere. The idea that humans, or even Americans, must "combat" climate change is both ludicrous and an amazingly ignorant statement.
Americans, and all living things, must adapt to changes in the climate, and in the world, as they have in the past, and most certainly will have to in the future. If we don't, we will become extinct as have 99 percent of all living species who have ever inhabited this planet. Adapting is not a passive process, and some attempts at adaptations are unsuccessful. We need to be wise stewards of our environment and planet. And this requires education--learning about our environment and our planet. Our future depends upon our knowledge, and even more upon our wisdom. Spending our very limited resources trying to prevent the climate from changing, or trying to prevent the seas from rising or falling, is a fool's venture and maladaptive behavior.
There is nothing particularly "urgent" about adapting to our changing world, unless we are hit by a large meteorite or a solar plasma storm.
Science is never "beyond dispute" and facts may be both "clear" and at the same time quite disputable.
Was there anything in the President's quotation that makes sense?