Denialism, it ain’t just on the right

Peter Daou has an excellent post up about the climate change denialists, how they are predominantly rightwing, and how their denialism may very well kill this planet. I have no disagreement with him there.

He quotes Bill McKibben who points to the right’s distrust of government and scientific authority:

 . . . But while oil and coal contributions track remarkably close to political alignment for many senators, they are not the only explanation. Money only exerts political influence if it can be connected to some ideological stance—even Inhofe won’t stand up and say, “I think global warming is a hoax because my campaign treasurer told me to.” In fact, some conservatives have begun to question endless fossil-fuel subsidies—since we’ve known how to burn coal for hundreds of years, it’s not clear why the industry needs government help.

No, something else is causing people to fly into a rage about climate. Read the comments on one of the representative websites: Global warming is a “fraud” or a “plot.” Scientists are liars out to line their pockets with government grants. Environmentalism is nothing but a money-spinning “scam.” These people aren’t reading the science and thinking, I have some questions about this. They’re convinced of a massive conspiracy.

I’ve got news for Bill, this isn’t a right-wing failing. We on the left have got our deniers too. I’ve just finished reading Michal Specter’s Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Harms the Planet and Threatens Our Lives in which he takes on the denialists of all stripes and concludes:

I neglected the first law of denialism. The truth is NOT going to get in the way of people who are moved by faith, greed, fear, or desire to deny what they see. I should have known that. I’ve been watching and writing about this kind of behavior for years. It would be nice to chalk it all up to right-wing nuts with parochial economic interests, but that wouldn’t be accurate.

And that brings me to the second truth of denialism: denialism transcends politics. Yes, opponents of evolution attack science, progress, and reality from the right. But the growing army of organic food fundamentalists, so eager to cast scientific data aside in their certainty that organic foods will save the world, hail from the other side of the political spectrum. The dietary supplement industry, propelled by the conviction that every American has the right to swallow any pill he or she can get his hands on, no matter how useless or damaging, represents the counter-cultural left and the libertarian right in equal measure. I wish I could argue that the most maddening denialists of all — those who see vaccines as threats to their children’s health rather than bulwarks agains terrible disease — were poorly educated. They are not. I’ve had more arguments with Ivy League graduates about whether measles shots can cause autism (no connection has ever been demonstrated) or whether multiple vaccines can overpower an infant’s immune system (they can’t) than I care to recall. Sadly, the vaccine activists so willing to deny reality are some of the best-educated, most caring, thoughtful, and misguided people I have ever known.

This is what my inbox tells me. It frustrates me to no end to see intelligent people on the left crowing about how stupid and science-denying the right is when it comes to things like evolution and climate change and then turn around and insist that the government,  big pharma, the NIH, yada yada yada, are in cahoots to either “keep us all sick” or “kill us all.”  That cell phones will give us all cancer. That apricots will cure cancer. (Does that mean I should be munching on an apricot while on my iPhone, just to balance things out?)

Sadly, I doubt that this blog post will do much, if anything, to change their minds. But I keep on trying.

A tale of two countries

Wear your school tie to the meltdown (Prairie2 News)

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany dropped in on President Obama today, they had dinner in the Rose Garden and he gave her the Medal of Freedom for her life‘s work. If they talked about their respective views on economics or science they didn’t mention it publicly. Merkel grew up a Communist in East Germany and her school tie was Red. She has a PhD in Physics and speaks fluent Russian. Merkel now leads a united Germany from the center right. Obama who was raised by New Deal liberals from Kansas went to Ivy League schools with a lot of rich kids who now run Wall Street. He became a Constitutional lawyer and governs from the center right despite being an anti-colonial Mau-Mau Muslim commie liberal.

Merkel’s response to the world economic meltdown caused by Obama’s school chums down on Wall Street was a full blown New Deal style / Keynesian Economics take over of Germany’s economy by their government. Germany operates on economic principles put in place by Truman and his Marshal Plan and doesn‘t believe in letting the markets decide the fate of Germany.  Obama’s response to the economic meltdown was a half hearted stimulus package dependent on tax cuts based on the VooDoo economics of Ronald Reagan without Reagan‘s massive government spending or his tax increases.

More at link.

But how do they get from Lake Mead to here?

On someone’s boat?

Quagga mussels discovered at Lahontan and Rye Patch reservoirs (RGJ)

Invading mollusks that have overrun Lake Mead have been found in two Northern Nevada reservoirs, Nevada wildlife officials report.

 Preliminary tests indicate quagga mussels exist in both Lahontan and Rye Patch reservoirs, according to the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

The tests need to be confirmed but represent a worrying development, said Ken Mayer, NDOW’s acting director.

“We intend to keep the public informed about this troubling development and to do whatever we can to stop the spread of this very damaging species,” Mayer said.

Quagga mussels disrupt a lake’s ecosystem, cover water intakes, docks and boats and there’s little that can be done to eradicate them once they are established, experts said.

Reno e-Waste Collection Event this Saturday

It’s spring, and that means spring cleaning. Lightening the load. Cleaning out closets. Easy to say, not so easy to make happen. You see, I’m married to a computer & electronics geek. Believe me, it definitely has it’s upside. He tends the network and makes sure we are always up-to-date on all things computer and electronic. On the other hand, it can also mean a lot of extra hardware laying around gathering dust.  Hope springs eternal that some how, some way, some day, some one will be able to “use” what we no longer want. Yeah. Right.

I think I whined about the mounting junk one too many times and Sweetie let it slip that he’d heard that there was an e-waste event coming up one of these weekends.  So I kept my eyes and ears open . . .

That day has arrived!  We’ll finally be getting rid of the geek detritus by hauling our stash down to the annual Community e-Waste Collection Event held this Saturday (tomorrow) at Park Lane Mall from 9am until 2pm.

Reno’s annual Community e-Waste Collection Event for 2011 will be on Saturday, April 23. Round up your old electronics gizmos and bring them to the site of the old Park Lane Mall (corner Plumb Lane and S. Virginia Street), between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., for proper disposal and recycling. The traffic flow is to enter from Plumb Lane, exit to Virginia Street. One of this event’s primary sponsors, New2U Computers, recycles computers by providing free refurbished units to local residents with disabilities and low-cost computers to the community at large. This event is for residents only. Businesses should make arrangements directly with New2U Computers for recycling and disposal of their electronics.

A donation of $10 per vehicle is requested for disposal of electronics at the Community e-Waste Collection Event. The fee goes to cover the cost of proper electronic recycling. Vouchers are available in advance from New2U Computers, 50 E. Greg St., Suite 103 in Sparks, and from Whole Foods Market,, 6139 S. Virginia Street in Reno. It will be $15 on the day of the event. Donations are tax-deductable and a receipt will be provided. New2U Computers follows Department of Defense regulations and will provide a certificate of data destruction upon request. For more information, call New2U at (775) 329-1126.

Pretty much anything in the way of electronics can be disposed of at this event. Many items can be recycled and put to good use helping people right here in our community. Furthermore, by participating in the Communitye-Waste Collection Event you are helping reduce illegal dumping and keeping toxic materials out of the landfill. 

Here is the full list of acceptable items.

CPUs/Towers Laptops Monitors Fax Machines UPS’s Office Supplies Telephone Systems Ink & Toner Cartridges Cell Phones Cables PDA’s Scanners Speakers Switches/Hubs Server Equipment Video Game Equipment Printers Software Books

Computer Parts/Components Laptop Bags DVD/CD/VCR Players/Receivers Satellite Receivers Misc Electronics Televisions Stereo Equipment Washers Dryers Refrigerators Microwaves Metal Shelving Car Parts Dishwashers Empty Metal Containers Misc Metallic Items General Scrap Metal

Will going to a ZERO Charger really lessen my carbon footprint and save me money?

I got an email from AT&T today: Turn your iPhone green with a new ZERO Charger

Now you can remain powered, without wasting power. With an exclusive built-in switch, the AT&T ZERO Charger makes sure that if you’re not charging your phone, you’re not using any power.

Plus, the AT&T ZERO Charger works with other small USB chargeable devices, including other mobile devices, so you can travel more lightly.

Well, I was intrigued! Okay, not really, as I have a pretty good understanding of how much power my iPhone charger really is using when not in use, but I clicked through to AT&T’s accessories web page and clicked through to the ZERO charger to see how much it would cost me to reduce my iPhone’s carbon footprint.

Cost of the charger: $12.00. ($18.00 if I wanted the kit with the additional micro-USB Charging cable.) Note: this cost is 40% off the regular price (limited time only!)

I selected the lower-priced model, clicked through to my shopping cart and calculated my taxes. Depending on whether I select free shipping or overnight shipping the cost ranges between $12.85 and $28.86

Alrighty then. There is my starting point. I can pay $12.85 – $28.86 for a “green” charger to replace the energy sucking charger I already own.

Well, I had to figure it out. Is the energy savings worth coughing up $12.00 (plus tax), not to mention the additional energy cost of the UPS truck bringing it to my door? Let’s see!

Colony Collapse

Madamab is back from her vacation to Aruba and she’s been doing a lot of thinking. Go take a look-see.

When I was at the Butterfly Farm in Aruba, I asked the owner about what’s happening to the bees. He said that the bees are dying from a massive dust mite infection, as well as a bizarre virus that causes bees to act like individual insects, and not members of a hive. When this virus infects a bee, it eventually causes “colony collapse,” as the bees separate from each other and fail to build hives, make honey or do anything that helps them cross-pollinate, which is their primary function in the evolutionary chain. We both stated our belief that humankind was having its own type of “colony collapse” disorder, as we seem to fail to realize that as a species, we’re all in this together. Sure, we can keep smugly congratulating ourselves that OUR location is the best, and that all others are clearly inferior; or we can realize that  we are all on track to becoming inhabitants of a toxic, dying planet, desperately scrabbling with each other for that last drop of clean water and air. All our differences, red and blue, black and white, will come to naught in the end. Ain’t that a kick in the head?

Gulf Oil Kill, Anderson Cooper: “We are not the enemy”

So much for transparency.  Edict from the Coast Guard: Media not allowed access within sixty-five feet, punishable by $40,000 in fines or prosecution as a Class D felony. Anderson Cooper lays it out.  

But Cooper, you ARE the enemy of the state. The state that is held lock, stock and barrel by the corporations. You are the enemy.

Who the hell are their Ad Men? Oh wait, maybe that’s it.

You have got to be kidding me. From my inbox.

Spirit Airlines unapologetically released an offensive new advertising campaign that shockingly managed to simultaneously exploit women AND the biggest environmental disaster in North American history.

Unfortunately this is just par for the course for this discount airline. For years they’ve spent their advertising dollars demeaning, objectifying, and exploiting women in their promotional materials.  Here are just a few:

*The company’s “Many Islands, Low Fares” deal was promoted on its web site and in other promotional materials using an acronym regularly used in popular slang to demean women.

*For its “Big Spirit Deals” the company again promoted a coded acronym (and text animation on the web site) that equated power with male anatomy.

*Flight attendants protested the use of the acronym DD to simultaneously promote “Deep Discounts” and refer to the airline’s staff’s bust lines.

*And the way the airline pushed its “Many Unbelievably Fantastic Fares to Diving Destinations” is too obscene to even try to describe.

Now Spirit Air feels as though it can integrate its lack of respect for women with the disregard for those who are suffering from the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast.

Sign the petition. Better still, don’t give them your business. Ever.

(Doncha just love the magical floating suntan lotion?)

More on the Gulf Oil Kill – The relief wells and echoes of Australia

Via McClatchy

 

From McClatchy: 

Today, BP announced that it has begun using sensitive electronic equipment to detect differences in the rock’s electromagnetic field in an effort to pinpoint the metal pipes inside the wellbore. Based on what they find, they’ll make adjustments every few hundred feet in an effort to intercept those pipes and kill the gusher by pumping it full of tons of heavy drilling mud and then concrete. 

The stakes riding on those adjustments are enormous, and the chance of failure, at least on the first try, is huge. 

“The engineers will tell you that they have a 95 percent chance of success” in killing a runaway gusher with a relief well, said Bruce Bullock, the director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “But that depends on how you define success. It’s quite unlikely they’ll hit it on the first stab.” 

“They’re aiming at a salad plate thousands of feet down,” Bullock said: a 7-inch pipe buried in concrete, 12,000 feet below the seafloor. 

Every time a relief well misses, its crew must back up the drill bit and try again. Last year, a relief well aimed at capping a blowout in the Timor Sea off Australia* missed its target four times before connecting. Each new effort took an average of another week of drilling, for a total delay of 27 days after the drillers began closing on their target. 

A similar delay at the Deepwater Horizon site would mean as much as 1.62 million barrels more crude dumped into the Gulf — more than 68 million gallons — if the latest government estimates of the flow are accurate. 

Many obstacles lie in the way of the relief well, not least of which are the same vagaries of subsurface strata and gas pockets that put the Deepwater Horizon 43 days behind schedule before bad decisions and equipment failures sent it to the bottom of the Gulf. 

[...] 

Uncertainty waits even once the drillers pierce the Deepwater Horizon pipe. That’s when they’ll try to plug the well with drilling mud and concrete. The idea is that the heavy mud will counteract the pressure that’s forcing the oil up the well pipe. 

However, such plans have failed before, according to studies of previous relief well attempts, either because the mud didn’t weigh enough or the drillers didn’t have enough of it. 

Officials also acknowledge that the plan could be defeated if the well was seriously damaged by the explosion of methane gas that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and took a mile of pipe down with it.

*That would be the Montara Oil Spill.   

The Montara oil spill was an oil and gas leak and subsequent slick that took place in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea, off the northern coast of Western Australia. It is considered one of Australia’s worst oil disasters.[1]. The slick was released following a blowout from the Montara wellhead platform on August 21, 2009, and continued leaking until November 3, 2009 (in total 74 days), when the leak was stopped by pumping mud into the well and the wellbore cemented thus “capping” the blowout. 

And how familiar it all sounds. 

A leaking Australian oil well is likely to pour oil into the Timor Sea for nearly two months before it can be stopped, the operator said on Sunday, as environmentalists expressed grave fears for rare wildlife. 

Rig operator PTTEP Australasia said it planned to drill a relief well and pour mud to stop the leak, which began on Friday with a blow-out more than three kilometers (two miles) deep. 

It would take 20 days to bring a new offshore drilling rig by barge from Singapore, plus four weeks to drill, the company said in a statement. 

Asked if this meant the well would flow for nearly two months, a company spokesman told Reuters: “That is pretty much the estimation.” 

The Oval Office as a stage prop

This shit makes my head hurt.

As the BP oil spillcatastrophe drags on into its ninth week with no clear end in sight, President Obama personally decided to make his first ever nationally televised address from the Oval Office, to be delivered live at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday.

That would be 5:00 pm for us westerners who will just be getting off work and fighting traffic. I’ll miss the live version.

On Air Force One en route to Biloxi, Miss., on Monday, Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the president wanted to use the historic setting of the Oval Office because “what we’re seeing in the Gulf is a catastrophe the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”

[...]

That Obama has yet to use Oval Office for a speech, as other presidents have on issues that have gripped the nation, demonstrates how devastating the White House views the oil spill and how its response, for better or worse, may define the Obama presidency.

So he must be really, really serious, huh!

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, in an interview with Politics Daily, said Obama’s decision on addressing the nation is significant because “the Oval Office provides the aura of huge national importance.”

“This is his fourth visit to the Gulf and he is making many speeches in the region,” Brinkley said. “What he has to do is show he has collected anecdotes, facts and eyewitness accounts and bring them back to Washington and use the ultimate bully pulpit, the Oval Office prime time address to the nation as his venue.”

I’m with John Smart on this. 

When it’s stated that Obama is powerless this should be seen as what it is: a lie. No, he has no power to stop the oil – he does have the power to galvanize the nation, to direct our attention, to insist we will get through this and somehow, some way, we will learn and be better. He had the power to speak frankly and openly. To address his countrymen and women as adults. This opportunity does not seem to have occurred to him until very recently.

I don’t get it. I really don’t. His skill set ought to cover moments like this expertly. There was a way to thread the needle of the people’s rage and anguish and his own real powerlessness regarding the particulars of gushing oil a mile under water. Churchill had no power to stop Nazi bombers, Clinton could not revive the hundreds who had died in the Oklahoma City bombing. Yet both men contextualized the horror in ways that elevated the psyche of the nation.

The two examples I use are not directly analogous. If anything the Oklahoma City bombing is a weak example. The gulf catastrophe is a paradigm shifter. It is huge in every way. It will change us. Many people knew this early on. Obama should have. He may have but did not act on his knowledge in a way that let us know that he knew. This is failure of leadership on a grand scale. It should not be shoved aside with snarking about Obama’s emotional state. I don’t care about Obama’s actual emotional state about the spill anymore than I care what Meryl Streep is actually feeling when I watch Sophie’s Choice. I want Streep to do her job since I paid to see the movie. Much more importantly: I NEED to know Obama understands the gravity of the situation. I need to know he gets it. The ability to convey this is a core element of leadership.

The question is, does he?  Or his just checking his poll numbers and has decided that he better do something? And to show us he’s really, really serious, he’s going to make a speech from the Oval Office. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

What Obama needs is bullhorn moment (ala GW Bush circa 9/11/2001), unfortunately I think his window of opportunity for that has passed. It should have happened weeks ago.

So forgive me for feeling like this is all so much stagecraft.