GOP false talking points and lies on BP oil spill continue

The thousand of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP oil well didn’t take a break for the 4th of July holiday, and neither did Republican lies in an attempt to blame President Obama for the response to it.

A perfect example of that appears in a letter to the editor in Sunday’s edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus by someone named Randy Knibes called “Leadership lacking on Gulf oil spill.” It contains every single false Republican talking point the party of BP has put out. I’m not sure if the letter is part of the Livingston County Republic Party’s letter writing campaign or it’s a case of the Republican strategy of if you tell a lie often enough people start to believe it, and this guy has bought into it.

First, there is no such person as Randy Knibes. However, there is a Randy Kniebes, a Brighton Township Republican.

From the opening sentence we see that Kniebes is full of crap and we see we are going to get a bunch of GOP talking points when he writes, “President Barack Obama's lack of leadership, gross incompetence and self-serving decisions on this oil-spill situation in the Gulf of Mexico have been appalling.”

There has been no lack of leadership, no incompetence on the President’s part and I have not seen a single “self-serving decision.”

Right after that we get the first false and debunked talking point:

“Shortly after the original oil spill began, 17 foreign nations and four international groups with expertise in controlling oil spills offered their help to Obama to contain this large spill. This included the Dutch, who offered Obama the services of an entire fleet of the world's most advanced oil skimmers. He told them all "no."“

Simply not true. According to Factcheck.com, “

To date, 25 countries and four international organizations have offered support in the form of skimming vessels, containment and fire boom, technical assistance and response solutions, among others. A chart provided by the State Department shows that as of June 23 offers from six foreign countries or entities had been accepted. Fifty more offers were under consideration — including multiple offers from a single country or entity. One offer had been declined: France offered a chemical dispersant that is not approved for use in the United States.”

But here is the big lie that is on the lips of every single Republican:

“Why? Because Obama was unwilling to waive the Jones Act, which regulates foreign-vessel operations in U.S. waters, ever mindful that he did not want to upset his union cronies. Former President George W. Bush waived the Jones Act after Hurricane Katrina to speed recovery efforts, but President Obama apparently decided his personal political relationships were more important than protecting America's shoreline.”

This follows the GOP strategy, if you’re going to tell a lie, you might as well tell a big one,

“Some critics have charged — falsely — that Obama’s refusal to waive the Jones Act has kept foreign vessels from assisting in cleanup efforts.”
“In reality, the Jones Act has yet to be an issue in the response efforts. The Deepwater Horizon response team reported in a June 15 press release that there are 15 foreign flagged ships currently participating in the oil spill cleanup. None of them needed a waiver because the Jones Act does not apply. The Jones Act is a trade and commerce law that was enacted in 1920 as part of a larger Marine Merchant Act. It requires all trade delivered between U.S. ports to be carried in U.S. flagged vessels constructed in the United States and owned by American citizens. The law states its purpose is to develop a merchant marine for national defense and commerce.”

Then Mr. Kniebes takes a few shots at the president for not talking to the BP CEO, claming:

“For 56 days after the spill, President Obama could not find the time to even talk with the CEO of BP — although he did find the time for multiple fundraisers, Earth Day celebrations, golf games, vacations, hosting various sports teams, shooting hoops and attending concerts by big-name entertainers.”

Apparently, Mr. Kniebes has not heard about President’s Obama’s securing of a $20 billion escrow account from BP to pay for the clean up and compensate Gulf Coast residents who have lost their livelihoods and way of life. He talked to him when it counted.

Mr. Kniebes then has a problem with the moratorium on offshore drilling. Apparently, he’s unaware that there is no plan or technology to stop another leak. But his facts are all screwed up on production. He claims “ Oil production from the Gulf represents nearly a third of U.S. domestic production.” Now, that may be true, but oil production in the U.S. only accounts for about 12 percent, and it all goes to the world market.

Then Mr. Kniebes the President of “trying to use this environmental tragedy to advance his previously doomed "cap and tax" legislation.” The “cap and tax” is a talking point from GOP linguists. After the latest oil spill, it makes you wonder what it’s going to take to start the process of getting us off a dirty, dangerous and fast disappearing energy source. Here is one of the most ridiculous claims among many, “Since the scientific evidence for global warming has been widely discredited.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The simple fact is global warming is without a doubt man-made and a threat.

Republicans root against American technology and know how

LANSING – The recent snow storm has led to a rash of ridiculous right-wing jokes about global warming from global warming deniers, like Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-OK, who is making a dig deal out of his family building an igloo on the National Mall and calling it “Al Gore’s New Home.”

They should look up the difference between weather and climate, as well as that climate change means just that. It will lead to unstable and unusual weather occurrences and more severe weather, exactly what we are seeing. Scientists have been warning for decades that global warming would increase the severity of winter storms, and those in Washington, D.C. are seeing that.

But the reaction yesterday from a certain Michigan Senator, who shall remain nameless to protect me, on the Senate floor was perhaps the most outrageous. He was gleefully talking about the wind turbines in Minnesota freezing in place. Rightwing blogs and other climate change deniers have also been all over this.

“Oops, so much for electricity in Anoka, Chaska, and other communities in that part of Minnesota,” he said. “Eleven wind turbines frozen in place. Oops, so much for wind turbines versus coal-based electric generation. It all has to do with a media mandate. Renewable Portfolio Standard? Oops, no electricity.”

Unbelievable.

You will recall that a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) mandates that a certain amount of power be generated by a renewable source. There are lots of new energy sources out there, but they are all, at least for now, more expensive than pollution-filled fossil fuels. The purpose of an RPS is to create a demand for alternative fuel sources. In 2008 the Michigan Legislator adopted an RPS mandating that 7 percent of a power company's supply to consumers is generated from renewable fuel sources by 2015. It was so ridiculously low as to make it almost useless.

I’m just amazed at the short-sightedness of climate change deniers, despite the majority of the world’s scientists in agreement that global warming is occurring.

Even if they want to hang on to that debunked belief, what good will come from continuing to spew pollution into the air and water?

How about national security? We invaded a sovereign country over oil, and for the U.S. to remain a world power, we will need reliable fuel sources. Fossil fuels will disappear soon, or they will be too expensive to get out of the ground. Why let a Third World country with oil reserves hold us hostage?

I’m also appalled that a Michigan Senator thinks so little of American technology and know-how that he cheers for its failure. We put a man on the moon more than 40 years ago, but a Senator thinks we don’t have the technology to make the U.S. energy independent?

This is also a new industry. I guess he believes the Wright Brothers should have given up on powered flight because it only lasted for only 12 seconds? Or that we should have given up on the space program when the Apollo 1 spacecraft caught fire and burned, killing the crew of three during a training exercise on the launch pad in 1967? That’s a lot more serious than a wind turbine freezing, but the future of alternative is even more important to the long-term health of the U.S. than putting a man on the moon.

The only regret I have is that the majority of wind turbines are being made in China and not the U.S., which may surpass us as a superpower based on their work and research on alternative and renewable fuel sources.

Climate change deniers have more to distort to deny a scientific fact

Global climate change deniers have some more evidence to deny the scientific fact of man-made climate change after climate scientists blew the whistle on themselves.

In a front page AP story in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus on Thursday that did not appear in the online version, errors were discovered in a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N.-affiliated body. “All the mistakes appear in a subsection that suggests glaciers in the Himalayas could melt away by the year 2035” instead of 2350, that number was apparently transposed as 2035.

The mistakes were found not by climate change deniers, but by climate scientists themselves, including one who is an IPCC co-author. “The climate panel and even the scientist who publicized the errors said they are not significant in comparison to the entire report, nor were they intentional. And they do not negate the fact that worldwide, glaciers are melting faster than ever.”

Here is the bottom line people like right-wing radio host Frank Beckman will ignore, “However, a number of scientists, including some critics of the IPCC, said the mistakes do not invalidate the main conclusion that global warming is without a doubt man-made and a threat.”

The errors were found in a half-page section of the Asia chapter in the 838 page report.

"It is a very shoddily written section," said Graham Cogley, a professor of geography and glaciers at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada, who brought the error to everyone's attention. "It wasn't copy-edited properly."

Still, Cogley said: "I'm convinced that the great bulk of the work reported in the IPCC volumes was trustworthy and is trustworthy now as it was before the detection of this mistake." The AP said “a number of scientists pointed out that at the end of the day, no one is disputing the Himalayan glaciers are shrinking.”

This mistake comes just a few months after climate change deniers jumped on 13 years of stolen personal emails to take one word out of context and ignore all the data from other agencies, like NASA, to make their case that climate change is a hoax.

Snarky videos debunk climate deniers talking points

Climate change skeptics have gotten some ammunition with the recent stolen emails by taking a few sentences out of context gleaned from 13 years of private correspondence.

However, Midland resident Peter Sinclair has been debunking the deniers lies, myths and talking points for a number of years, and most recently he has produced a series of snarky Youtube videos called "Climate Crock of the Week." Sinclair was recently featured in The Michigan Environmental Council’s (MEC) quarterly magazine.

The videos are both educational and entertaining, and they use lots of graphics, snark and sarcasm. He explains climate science in layperson’s terms, and he also uses lots of sources to back up his presentation. He compares deniers to cartoon character Bevis and Butthead. He also debunks the Beck/Limbaugh talking points.

"Like P.T. Barnum said, ‘if you want to draw a crowd, start a fight,’” He told the MEC. ”If it’s going to be on Youtube, it’s got to have an edge.”

His latest work that blows holes in the deniers’ arguments is called “Deniers love the ‘70s.” In it, he debunks the latest denier talking point that science predicted global cooling in the 1970s. Sinclair was one of the people personally trained by former Vice-President Al Gore to present a special slide show of his Academy Award winning movie "Inconvenient Truth.”

The Michigan Environmental Council (MEC) is a coalition of more than 70 organizations created in 1980 to lead Michigan’s environmental movement in achieving positive change through the political process.

Rogers continues to deny the fact that global warming is a fact on behalf of Big Oil masters

After some nine years of Mike Rogers in Congress, the only thing we know for sure about the Brighton Republican is that he toes the GOP line until its no longer popular to dos so. His press release on the stolen emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia that critics have dubiously claimed undermine the scientific consensus on climate change is just one more example.

Rogers backed every single Bush position until the approval ratings of the worst president in U.S. history plunged like a rock, and Rogers abandoned him like a rat from a sinking ship. Now, he has sunk to the role of just criticizing and blocking every solution to the problems his party created.

His press release printed almost verbatim in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is parroting the rightwing lie that global warming is a hoax. “He joined fellow congressional Republicans who raised questions about leaked e-mails from the researchers.”

First, they were not “leaked e-mails” they were stolen. Global warming deniers are basically taking one word out of context among 13 years of personal emails to prove their point. They ignore all the data from other agencies, like NASA, to make their case.

For years, thousands of scientists working at climate research centers throughout the world have carefully and rigorously reached a consensus on the extent of climate change, the urgency of the problem, and the role of human activity in causing it. A few distorted e-mail exchanges do not change that consensus.

In fact, last month Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, supported that claim: "There's nothing in the e-mails that shows that global warming is a hoax. ... There's no funding by nefarious groups. There's no politics in any of these things; nobody from the [United Nations] telling people what to do. There's nothing hidden, no manipulation. It's just scientists talking about science, and they're talking relatively openly as people in private e-mails generally are freer with their thoughts than they would be in a public forum. The few quotes that are being pulled out [are out] of context. People are using language used in science and interpreting it in a completely different way."

Rogers is a very good friend of big oil, and, in fact, he voted against ending taxpayer-funded subsidies for Big Oil and creating a Strategic Energy and Renewables Reserve. Is it any surprise he is a global warming denier? The right-wing groups leading the charge in attacking the science are the same old Big Oil-backed naysayers and their allies in Congress -like Rogers- who have been attacking climate science and fighting clean energy for decades.

The U.S. Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency have identified climate change as a threat to our national security and have developed specific efforts to combat climate change.

The real indicator is the results of global warming. How to you ignore or lie that away?

According to a recent article by the Associated Press, “Since 1997 climate change has worsened and accelerated – beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.”
The world's oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.

Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide, from the U.S. West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa. Species now in trouble because of changing climate include, not just the lumbering polar bear which has become a symbol of global warming, but also fragile butterflies, colorful frogs and entire stands of North American pine forests. Temperatures over the past 12 years are 0.4 of a degree warmer than the dozen years leading up to 1997. Even the gloomiest climate models back in the 1990s didn't forecast results quite this bad so fast.

Scientists have uncovered a large expanse of "corrosive" water in the Canadian Arctic due to carbon pollution that is putting the marine food web at risk. "Unprecedented" rainfall in the United Kingdom has led to flooding of "biblical proportions" – a predicted consequence of global warming. "Unprecedented" heat, drought, and winds are causing "catastrophic" wildfires to sweep across eastern Australia – a predicted consequence of global warming.

The 2000s are on track to be nearly 0.2°C warmer than the 1990s. And that temperature jump is especially worrisome since the 1990s were only 0.14°C warmer than the 1980s. The world’s glaciers shrink for the 18th year. According to the University of Zurich ’s World Glacier Monitoring Service report in 2006 and 2007 the world’s glaciers lost 2 meters (2000 mm) of thickness on average. They note, “The new data continues the global trend in accelerated ice loss over the past few decades.” The rate of ice loss is twice as fast as a decade ago. Greenhouse gases, which are believed to be responsible for global warming, reached record highs in the Earth’s atmosphere in 2008, according to the U.N. weather agency.

The simple fact is Global Warming is real, and a few words taken out of context from thousands of stolen emails cannot change that fact. Even if you wanted to impeach the results from the CRU at the University of East Anglia, there are plenty of other respected scientists above reproach who hold the same position reached by independent and undisputed research and data. Here are a few:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Global warming of the climate system is unequivocal and most of the observed increase in global temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

National Academy of Sciences: Even if carbon dioxide emissions were halted today, the world would continue warming with “irreversible” effects — including rising temperatures and sea levels—that will last for a millennium.

American Association for the Advancement of Science: The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.

U.S. Global Change Research Program: Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.

American Physical Society: Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth’s climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide as well as methane, nitrous oxide and other gases. They are emitted from fossil fuel combustion and a range of industrial and agricultural processes. The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.

American Meteorological Society: Despite the uncertainties noted above, there is adequate evidence from observations and interpretations of climate simulations to conclude that the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are warming; that humans have significantly contributed to this change; and that further climate change will continue to have important impacts on human societies, on economies, on ecosystems, and on wildlife through the 21st century and beyond.

American Geophysical Union: The Earth’s climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system—including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons—are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century. . . . Evidence from most oceans and all continents except Antarctica shows warming attributable to human activities.

American Quaternary Association: Few credible scientists now doubt that humans have influenced the documented rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.

The national science academies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa: It is essential that world leaders agree on the emission reductions needed to combat negative consequences of anthropogenic climate change at the UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.

A group of 18 leading scientific organizations recently sent a letter to Senators affirming that climate change is happening.

Global warming debate at MSU heats up climate change question

Despite the world’s scientific community agreeing that climate change and global warming are occurring, there are still people who claim climate change is not happening. That will be the subject of a debate set for Wednesday, Feb. 6.

Students for a Free Economy will host the debate set for 7 p.m. Feb. 6 in Room 105 of South Kedzie Hall at Michigan State University. The event is free and open to the public.

The featured speakers are Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. and attorney who has represented members of Congress on environmental issues before the U.S. Supreme Court. Horner is a frequent guest on national conservative talk shows speaking about global warming, and he is also the author of the book, “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism.”

On the other side is Peter Sinclair, creative director of Greenman Studio, a multimedia production company in Midland and presenter for former Vice-President Al Gore's Climate Project. The former Vice-President personally trained some 1,000 presenters in 2006 in Nashville who traveled across the country with copies of his 330-slide climate slide show customized to the state the presentation is held in based on his Academy Award wining film "Inconvenient Truth." The unpaid volunteers set up projectors in living rooms, church sanctuaries and VFW halls to show the presentation.

The event will begin with the two speakers' opening statements, followed by questions from the audience, and then the two speakers will give closing remarks.

Students for a Free Economy is a “nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to promoting the benefits of free markets, civil society and individual liberty” sponsored by the conservative Michigan think tank, The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, also located in Midland.

Step it up 2007 to reduce Carbon 80 percent by 2050

Join hundreds of Americans across the nation on Saturday, April 14 for National Day of Climate Action, and there will be hundreds and hundreds of rallies all across the country. It’s being called “Step it Up 2007,” and the group hopes to focus attention on global warming and climate change by having gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

Rallies will also be held outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps. Every group will be saying the same thing: "Step it up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80 percent by 2050." As people gather, the group will link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web.

There are 40 gatherings in Michigan, and here in Howell volunteers will be available at Recycle Livingston, 70 Catrell Dr., from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. to offer free tire pressure check and filling, information on at least 50 ways to reduce energy consumption and a chance for people to write their congressman. Call Recycle Livingston at (517)-548-4439 for information or to RSVP, or you can RSVP on line.

One of the biggest rallies is being sponsored by the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, a non-partisan organization to educate voters about how their legislators vote on the environment and to hold those legislators accountable, in Ann Arbor.

The rally begins at noon at Ingalls Mall on the University of Michigan campus - between Burton Memorial Tower and the Michigan League. There will be a variety of speakers – including U.S. Rep. John Dingell and Ann Arbor mayor John C. Hieftje - and a group picture will be taken from the Clock Tower at 1 P.M.
Immediately following the picture, the group will trek down to Argo Park, and at 2 P.M. the group will float and paddle together on the Huron River to enjoy the peace that the waters provide.
For more details and to RSVP, please contact Pam Bierzynski at pam@michiganlcv.org or call 734-222-9650.

Rogers decides pollution is bad but there is no such thing as global warming

Apparently Mike Rogers has added scientist to his long and growing list of expertise and subject matter expert.

In a story in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus on the special slide show on Al Gore’s Academy Award winning movie "Inconvenient Truth" making an appearance in Republican-Livingston County on March 10 in Brighton, Rogers said pollution is bad, but the 400 scientists from 113 nations who say humans are causing global warming do not know what they are talking about. If pollution is bad, then how is it bad, Professor Rogers?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just released an authoritative and disturbingly scientific report in Paris a few weeks ago that said global warming is “very likely” caused by mankind and that climate change will continue for centuries even if heat-trapping gases are reduced. It was the strongest language ever used by the panel. The document was a collaboration of hundreds of scientists and government officials, and it was approved by 113 nations, including the United States.

Evidence is mounting every day, and more and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that humans are causing climate change. The words “very likely" means they agree that there is a 90 percent chance that global warming is caused by humans. The report issued in 2001, said global warming was "likely" caused by human activity. What will it take to convince Mike Rogers; the disappearance the Alpine glaciers?

Just a few days after the IPCC report came out, 45 nations answered France's call for a new environmental body to slow inevitable global warming and protect the planet. However, the world's heavyweight polluter, the United States, and booming nations on the same path as the U.S. — China and India - declined. Even though the U.S. agrees humans are causing global warming, they do not want to do anything to address it.

To show you the level of misinformation, lies and the political pressure that is trying to force scientists to alter their findings that global warming is occurring the article offers up one fountain of right wing propaganda: Dan Wholihan, who runs the Republican Michigander blog. Anyone who has ever read this guy’s misinformation knows he would not believe man landed on the moon if a Republican told him it never happened. He says Gore “…has an agenda and he wants to implement his agenda.” Of course he does, and so do the millions of other concerned people all across the world that care about the planet and do not want to see it disappear or be fouled.

Gore personally trained some 1,000 presenters last year in Nashville who are traveling across the country with copies of his 330-slide climate slide show customized to the state the presentation is held in. The unpaid volunteers are setting up projectors in living rooms, church sanctuaries and VFW halls to show the presentation.

Dr. Kathryn Savoie, environmental program director with the Dearborn-based Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), will present the slide show at 2 p.m. March 10 at the Brighton Education Center, 125 S. Church St., located just a couple of blocks south of downtown Brighton and about a quarter mile from the I-96 Spencer Road Exit.

Special presentation of "Inconvenient Truth" coming to Brighton

A special slide show on Al Gore’s movie "Inconvenient Truth" is making an appearance in Republican controlled Livingston County next month in Brighton.

According to the Detroit Free Press, a dozen Michiganders are helping Al Gore carry the message of his movie "Inconvenient Truth," preaching the gospel of global warming with his slides and their words.

Gore personally trained some 1,000 presenters last year in Nashville who are traveling across the country with copies of his 330-slide climate slide show customized to the state the presentation is held in. The unpaid volunteers are setting up projectors in living rooms, church sanctuaries and VFW halls to show the presentation.

The steep rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere is trapping more of the sun's energy and heating up the earth. The changes are most dramatic at the poles, where glaciers and sheets of ice are melting. Expected results in Michigan include hotter summers, and the levels of the Great Lakes are expected to fall by at least 5-feet.

The Brighton presentation is set for 2 p.m. March 10 at the Brighton Education Center, 125 S. Church St., located just a couple of blocks south of downtown Brighton and about a quarter mile from the I-96 Spencer Road Exit.

I hope to see a lot of people there. Also, "Inconvenient Truth" is also up for an Academy Award for best documentary this Sunday.