Global Warming My Ass!

Global warming is a MYTH! It snowed a LOT in Chicago yesterday, and if global warming was true, then that totally would not have happened... am I right?!

*high fives conspiracy theorist and walks out of the room fist pumping*

In all seriousness though, climate change is the driving force behind my interest in alternative energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable practices. The science is sound when it comes to studying the long-term trends of global temperatures rising in relationship to carbon emissions, but it is still surprising to see articles focusing on how easy it is to manipulate the public.

The New York Times states:

Now, new research suggests that people’s opinion on global warming can be influenced not just by the weather, but even by the temperature of the room they’re sitting in.

The study, by Jane Risen, a behavioral scientist at the University of Chicago, and Clayton Critcher, a marketing professor at the University of California, Berkeley, found that university students placed in a heated room expressed higher confidence that global warming was a proven fact than those placed in a neutral control room.

I just find this interesting because even though I would like to believe that today the public generally believes that there is a relationship between our consumption levels and the rise in global temperature, that simply is just not the case. The sheer fact that people can be manipulated into giving certain answers by adjusting a thermostat and feeding them salty food is surprising/upsetting.

So I apologize for the relatively unexciting post today on a topic that I hope you are already familiar with, but I feel it is good to touch on the subject of global warming to keep it in the public domain.

Now if you will excuse me, I was NOT joking about the amount of snow we got yesterday, and now I have to go dig my Jeep out of a 4' snow drift.

Climate Change Is Real, Dummy

This is the only time I am going to write an article on this because I personally find the topic of climate change to be a no-brainer and it has honestly been boring to talk about since 2007.

But apparently this new wave of politicians are attempting to make the topic of climate change sexy and trying to bring it back.  (YEP!)

Shhhhhh... Be quiet, climate change.  The politicians are talking.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, there is a good chunk of politicians that don't believe in the science of climate change and now are trying to challenge everything that apparently 97% of the scientific community accept as fact (holy fuck, that is greater percentage than most dentists agree on what type of toothbrush you should use).

Do these politicians believe that there is no scientific proof of climate change? Probably not, but they do recognize that by challenging these findings, they are stalling the government backing of many green energy and sustainable projects - many of which they believe are wastes of money...(Editors Note: WHAT?!)

The reason that it will hold up many of these projects is that the constituents that these politicians represent believe that many of these projects were necessary solely because of the threat of climate change, and by smearing the science of these findings, the constituents will no longer be as enthusiastic about investing into new technologies and energy sources.

American voters need to recognize the potential that these new technologies and sources have in terms of generating money and the potential costs of continuing down the path that we have been on.

By focusing on money, I'm not saying that climate change is no longer an important driving issue behind these sustainable practices...because it definitely is.  However, if politicians are going to attack climate change, then voters need to recognize that politicians are also attacking potential job markets as well as setting up the nation for higher energy costs down the road.

Green ($) Technology

There is a great article over at Grist talking about the progress that has been taking place in America at the state level regarding alternative energy and efficiency initiatives.

I encourage everyone to read the entire article here, but the main point of the article is that despite all the positive movement, the clean-energy sector is at risk of being crippled by certain politicians running for governor of their respective states.

I know, I'm shocked as well.

My favorite excerpt is:

"Of the 37 Republicans running for governor this fall, 22 reject the science of climate change..."

I'm going to go ahead and ignore the part of my brain that is screaming at people ignoring simple scientific trends and current events and instead present another argument:  Alternative Energy presents an opportunity to make and save (a lot of) money.

Are you kidding me?!?!?!!

Money is good.  This is something that most people can agree upon no matter what their political views are.  So, even if you don't believe that the climate is going to shift due to our continually increasing carbon emissions (duh*), it would be politically irresponsible to ignore the opportunity to create jobs and make money off of these technologies.

Job creation is one of the biggest issues today and alternative energy has the potential to help mitigate this issue.  To simply dismiss these technologies due to political reasons is short-sighted and backwards.

There are countless examples of alternative energy and sustainable living programs popping up all over the country (many of which I am listing on Sustainabili-city's Twitter page), politicians just need to wake up and realize the money making potential of these programs.

Oh yeah, and while the money is being made and saved, there is a side-effect of making the world a cleaner place...if living in a clean environment is your sort of thing.



*I rarely say 'duh,' which should give you an indicator of how I feel about climate change.