Chicago Climate March – April 29th
Imagine your doctor deciding to remove a mass in your
abdomen without benefit of an MRI or even an X-Ray. “I’ll find it,” he says, “and we don’t need
all that information anyway. Just feel
around in there. My kind of medicine has been
removing stuff for hundreds of years.”
Or how about you airline pilot deciding to get you to
California by pulling out a magnetic compass mid-flight and heading in a
westward direction.
“Attention, passengers, if you look out the right side of the plane, you’ll see north; and the left will see south. That’s really all we need to know to get safely where we want, isn’t it?”
“Attention, passengers, if you look out the right side of the plane, you’ll see north; and the left will see south. That’s really all we need to know to get safely where we want, isn’t it?”
Ignore science, disregard research information, and flout
empirical findings at your own peril. On
the national as well as personal level.
The office of science advisor for the current occupant of
the Whitehouse has not been named. The
actual title is White House Office of Science and Technology Policy or
OSTP. And the previous staff, which
helped Obama craft, revise and research over 30 studies of subjects as varied
as advanced manufacturing and cyber-security was the most active in our
nation’s history (Atkins).
Now? The office remains empty or seriously compromised.
But President Trump promises to name a new leader for the
office soon. Very soon. So fast it’ll
make your head spin. Bigly.
Of course, this may not be good news. Take for example Michael Pruitt, Trump’s
choice to lead the EPA, an office that now disregards once held “science based
decisions” in favor of pursuing “economically and technologically achievable
standards” (according to Emily Atkin’s article in the New Republic). “Among other things, the office’s mission
statement no longer reads that the office provides the president with ‘accurate, relevant, and timely scientific technical advice.' Now, it just reads
“advice.”’
And, the names to fill the office once held by Obama's Science
Advisor John P. Holdren, previously professor of environmental policy at
Harvard University, are not likely to
give you any desire to inhale without concern.
One of Trump’s monetary and influential alt-right backers
has been the Mercer family. They have
strongly promoted and endorsed sheep rancher/biochemist Arthur Robinson, a
strong climate change denialist, according to Jane Mayer in the May 2017 New
Yorker. Trump has been coy in regards to
selecting Robinson despite the influence of his alt-right backers, but Robinson
has not been fully eliminated from the list – short or long. Robison calls himself a Jesus plus-nothing –
else Christian and his research includes a factory of freezers with fourteen
thousand samples of human urine that careful examination will help illuminate new
ways of extending our lives. He remains
skeptical of global warming and contests the Kyoto Accord. He sells a self-designed
curriculum for schools (and his home-schooled children) which refutes the
possibility of evolution.
Another possible choice for Science Advisor to the President
(Trump) is Dr. William Happer. Happer is
an often called-upon expert for Breitbart and a retired Princeton physicist who
dabbles in climate policy. He remains infamous for his analogy that our
“demonization” of carbon dioxide is little different than Hitler’s demonization
of the Jews. Attempts to have Dr. Happer
flesh out his connection often end in profanities or admonishments Happer theorizes that more carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere is actually a benefit to our world, encouraging the growth of
plants and the greening of our deserts ( a good thing). “With our without Happer’s help, the Trump
administration, like the Republican Party, is already steeped in climate
denial; the Mercer family, Trump’s biggest financial backers, recently spent
two days at a Heartland Institute Conference, the theme of which was
essentially , “more CO2 in the atmosphere is essentially great.” Like the Koch’s, with whom Happer is
associated, he falls in line with their assessment of global warming. Yes, it is warming, but in a very "mild, and
manageable way."
Finally, and most likely, is David Gelernter, an
anti-intellectual computer professor at Yale being considered as well. Gelernter, who was injured by uni-bomber Ted
Kaczynski while opening an envelope, is a hard right anti-Obama author who
decries the liberal influence in government and education. Gelernter doubts any credibility in science’s
pointing to man-made climate change. He also finds the liberal elite culpable for the loss of family values and the disintegration of
patriotism. He expects participation in the Science Advisor's Office as a given. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/01/18/david-gelernter-fiercely-anti-intellectual-computer-scientist-is-being-eyed-for-trumps-science-adviser/?utm_term=.b7e5d8831aa5)
Meanwhile, according to NASA satellites sea
ice has shrunk to its least amount at both poles.
2016 was the third
year in a row that marked global temperature increases and records.
Major storms were recorded
for the last year (2016) beyond expectation and a 6% level of increased moisture
in our atmosphere contributes to flooding and downpours.
Biologists are
documenting multiplying numbers of mammalian species lost as many water levels rise in oceans
surrounding smaller islands and land projections.
CO2 passed the 440
ppm level in our atmosphere last fall, and scientists doubt that it can return
to anything less. Have we reached the
tipping point?
People’s Climate March
April 29, 2017 at 12:00 PM
Federal Plaza 230 S Dearborn
Chicago, IL 60601
See you there.
Even though the people in that march cannot see me because I live a thousand miles away, I am at your side.
ReplyDeleteI will be marching here in Florida with one of two groups in our county.
And I with you, Ken.
Delete