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Climate Scientists Defense Fund – Please Help

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 11, 2011 at 7:45 pm

Click to donate via PayPal. Thank you for your generosity.

See updates below if you have problems donating.

by Scott A. Mandia in a repost

Dear Colleagues,

Climate researchers are in need of immediate legal assistance to prevent their private correspondence from being exposed to Chris Horner and the American Tradition Institute who are using Freedom of Information (FOI) to harass researchers.   (For context please see: http://wapo.st/pQg0JC and http://wapo.st/oiua7V.)

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has recently stated: “the sharing of research data is vastly different from unreasonable, excessive Freedom of Information Act requests for personal information and voluminous data that are then used to harass and intimidate scientists.” The complete AAAS statement is available at http://bit.ly/p04sIq

Many scientists do not enjoy the institutional support necessary to fight attacks from well-funded science-denying groups.  We need to help scientists to defend themselves.   If ATI succeeds in this case, it would set a terrible precedent for scientists at public institutions across the country. But if they are turned back here, it will send a clear message to climate deniers that scientists are willing to stand up to them and fight for their rights.

A donation button has been set up at http://profmandia.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/donation/.  So far we have collected almost $2000 of the $10,000 needed to file the legal papers.

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Yglesias

An Anniversary Post

By Matthew Yglesias on Sep 11, 2011 at 2:26 pm

I’m back online! And it seems like the thing to do today would be to write a 9/11 anniversary reflection.

Mainly, I’d like to second the argument that Spencer Ackerman makes with more care and detail here. Terrorism is a weapon of the weak. A political movement that lacks the human and material resources necessary to inflict major practical damage can, if it’s clever, use stagey acts of murder and destruction to terrorize its adversaries. The ideal response is to refuse to be terrorized, to put the risk in perspective, and to subject proposed countermeasures to roughly the same kind of cost-benefit scrutiny that’s used for other proposed life-saving policy interventions.

Politics

Nevada Candidate Mark Amodei’s Lobbying Group Supports Eliminating Minimum Wage, Opposes Anti-Meth Bill

By Lee Fang on Sep 11, 2011 at 1:15 pm

Mark Amodei, GOP candidate for the special election in Nevada's second congressional district.

Nevada GOP Chairman Mark Amodei, the Republican candidate for the special election to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV), who now serves in the Senate, has received a great deal of press for some of his votes from his time serving in the state legislature. But Amodei’s day job, as an official with a lobbying group for retail companies in the state, might deserve more scrutiny.

Amodei currently works for the Retail Association of Nevada (RAN), a trade group representing big box retailers like Wal-Mart as well as companies like Family Care Home Health & Hospice. On behalf of their business members, the RAN has lobbied to push a number of radical bills in Carson City:

– Amodei’s RAN supports eliminating the state minimum wage. According to the RAN’s legislative website, the lobby group has supported a bill by Assemblyman Joe Hardy (R) that would “amend the Nevada Constitution to repeal the constitutional provision requiring the payment of a minimum wage.” The bill did not pass this session. The bill would have moved Nevada back from paying a $8.25 minimum wage to the federal minimum of $7.25.

– Amodei’s RAN opposes a bill to require a prescription for some cold medicines, an effort to curb meth use in the state. According to RAN’s legislative website, the lobby group opposed a bill by State Senator Sheila Leslie (D) that “revises provisions relating to the classification and dispensing of certain precursors to methamphetamine.” RAN is supported by drug store companies, and fought the bill, which died in the legislature.

According to disclosures reviewed by ThinkProgress, Amodei currently receives a $96,000 retainer from the RAN lobby group. Surprisingly, Amodei makes no mention of his RAN job on his campaign website.

Climate Progress

Scorched Earth Strategy: Perry Wants to Bring All America the Texas Miracle, Firefighters Paying for Gear, Engine Fuel

By Joe Romm on Sep 11, 2011 at 12:50 pm

The morning after the GOP debate, the nation and the world woke up to the reality that an unabashed climate science denier could be the next president of the United States.  The UK’s Guardian warns its readers of Rick Perry:

The world needs to prepare for a climate sceptic defeating Obama

A year or so ago, the very idea that the most powerful person on the planet could, within just a couple of years, be someone who refuses to accept the science that underpins our knowledge of anthropogenic climate change was almost laughable.

They discuss Gov. Rick Perry’s debate performance and conclude:

Sadly, it now appears that Obama’s brief window for action is over and he is unlikely to ever regain the political capital he needs to implement any serious climate policies. But, most alarming of all, the whole world – not just the US – needs to start seriously preparing for the very real possibility that a staunch climate sceptic could, within 16 months, have his cowboy boots under the desk in the Oval Office.

Perry is indeed a hard-core climate science denier and a Tea Party extremist.  It is hard to know how bad the Texas climate would have to get before he would concede that climate scientists were right:

This year’s scorching Texas summer heat, in a dubious honor, broke a national record once held by Oklahoma that had stood since the Dust Bowl changed the face of the country in the 1930s.

The Texas months of June through August were the hottest three months ever recorded in the history of the United States…..

“It has been scary hot from one end of Texas to the other,” [state climatologist John] Nielson-Gammon said….  “The dryer it is, the hotter the ground gets during the summer, and it becomes a cycle that feeds on itself….”

The 12 months ending on August 31 were the driest 12 months in Texas history.

Heck, it’s hard to know how bad the climate would have to get before Perry would even take even the most basic adaptation measures, like, say, adequately funding firefighters, rather than, so, just praying for rain.

Climate Progress has noted that the Texas Drought Now Far, Far Worse Than When Gov. Rick Perry Issued his April Proclamation Calling on All Texans to Pray for Rain.  And the month after adopting that futile adaptation strategy, Perry signed a budget that devastated the state’s ability to fight fires:

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Politics

New York GOP Exploits 9/11 Anniversary, Sends Islamophobic Mailer To Voters In NY Special Election

By Tanya Somanader on Sep 11, 2011 at 12:01 pm

Republican candidate Bob Turner

Today, the nation gathers together in memorium of the countless Americans from all walks of life who lost and gave their lives on — and after — 9/11. In anticipation of this somber day, the New York GOP sent out “a kitchen-sink mailer in the hotly-contested Queens congressional special election depicting a mosque superimposed over the scarred Ground Zero site on one side, and Democrat David Weprin alongside President Barack Obama on the other.”

The incendiary flierwas sent out on behalf of Republican businessman Bob Turner who is seeking to take former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D) seat. As seen below, the front of the flier features a gold-domed mosque rising out of the ruins of the World Trade Center site with a quote from Weprin stating “I support the right of the mosque to build.” The other side places Weprin next to Obama and reads “Weprin stands with Obama — and they stand together in support of the mosque at Ground Zero”:

Registered voters in New York congressional district 9 received the mailer “in the past week, landing in the days leading up to the 10th anniversary” of the attacks. It was intended as a “chaser” piece to Turner’s TV ad that blasts Weprin for his support of Park51. Calling it “a purposeful and confrontational act of provocation,” the TV narrator says, “It’s been 10 short years. Everyone remembers. Some, though, want to commemorate the tragedy by building a mosque on Ground Zero.”

It is important to note that several Republicans like Gen. Colin Powell, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Ted Olson — whose wife died in the attacks — support the construction of the Islamic Center. They join most religious leaders, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, and families of the 9/11 victims in support.

Climate Progress

Climate and Energy Week in Review

By Joe Romm on Sep 11, 2011 at 11:38 am

http://abirdersnotebook.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/orangereview.pngSome readers have told me they wanted a weekly “Best of Climate Progress.” Apparently they don’t have time to check out the site every day.  Hard to believe but true!

So I’m starting a new feature, and if it is popular, I will continue it.  Please feel free to add links to stories or blog posts from the week that you think deserve attention.

So much happened this week from reaction to Obama’s caving on the ozone rule to amazing climate extremes to the emergence of anti-science extremist Rick Perry as the GOP front runner.  The biggest story may be the redoubled attacks attacks on clean energy by the right wing just as  the Chinese are  putting in place policies to achieve permanent supremacy in what will almost certainly be the biggest high-wage job creating sector of the next few decades.

So the post of the week is “Top 10 Reasons Why Clean Energy Jobs Are Vital to Our Economy.”

Here is  the week in review as told in the most popular Climate Progress posts:

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Security

McCain Falsely Claims All ‘Military People’ Support Large U.S. Troop Presence In Iraq Past 2011

By Ben Armbruster on Sep 11, 2011 at 10:36 am

Various media outlets reported last week that the Obama administration plans on keeping only 3,000 troops in Iraq past 2011. While top officials denied that a decision has been made, and the Iraqis have yet to agree to any U.S. troop presence in to 2012, the Iraq war cheerleaders came out swinging, calling the reported decision a “boon to the Iranians,” and a “political decision being managed out of the Chicago campaign headquarters.”

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) piled on, saying in a statement that 3,000 troops is “dramatically lower” than what military leaders had told them they want. Today on Fox News Sunday, McCain went a bit further, saying “no military person” supports having such a small U.S. force in Iraq past 2011:

McCAIN: On the issue of the troop withdrawals, I try to support the president as much as I can, these are important issues. … There is no military person that doesn’t believe we need a residual force in Iraq far in excess of the size that apparently is being planned. In Libya, that conflict could have been over a long, long time ago if we had used the full weight of American air power. You can’t lead from behind in this country. And the fact is is that there is a perception in the world, rightly or wrongly, that the United States is in decline and that we are in many ways withdrawing to fortress America. We can’t afford to do that.

Watch it:

Apparently, McCain hasn’t talked with former top U.S. commander in Iraq and now Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno:

The new U.S. Army chief warned against leaving too large a force in Iraq after a year-end deadline, saying on Sept. 8 that it could feed the perception of an American “occupation.”

Gen. Ray Odierno, former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq until last year, told reporters the United States had to carefully balance how many troops were needed to assist Iraqi forces while scaling back the U.S. profile.

“I will say when I was leaving Iraq a year ago, I always felt we had to be careful about leaving too many people in Iraq,” said Odierno, who took over as Army chief of staff on Sept. 7. [...]

Odierno said “the larger the force that we leave behind …(the more) comments of ‘occupation force’ remain. And we get away from why we are really there – to help them to continue to develop.

Odierno wouldn’t say whether 3,000 troops was the right force size but he said that “there comes a time…when it (U.S. presence) becomes counter-productive.”

Climate Progress

The New Arctic Abnormal: Record Low Sea Ice Volume, Area and Extent*

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 11, 2011 at 10:22 am

AFP:  The area covered by Arctic sea ice reached its lowest point this week since the start of satellite observations in 1972, German researchers announced on Saturday….

“This is a new historic minimum,” said Georg Heygster, head of the Physical Analysis of Remote Sensing Images unit at the University of Bremen….

The Arctic death spiral continues.  We are reaching the climax of the Arctic sea ice melt season.  I asked Neven of the must-read Arctic Sea Ice Blog to set the scene for the finale (with some cool animations):

Records
– by Neven of Arctic Sea Ice Blog

The incredible has happened. In the past week the 2011 melting season has started to surpass record year 2007. First, the good people from the Polar Science Center informed us of the fact that their PIOMAS model is showing a new sea ice volume record (as discussed here on Climate Progress).  A day later a new all-time low on the Cryosphere Today sea ice area graph was reached. And two days after that the same thing happened on the University of Bremen sea ice extent chart.  See figure above.

In a sense this isn’t so incredible, as we have been well aware that this could happen from the start of the melting season. The winter maximum and of course sea ice volume were both relatively low. But what does make it incredible, is the way that freak melting season 2007 has been equaled and even surpassed in some data sets.

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Security

The $1.2 Trillion Trap: What America Gave Up For 10 Years Of War Since 9/11

By Zaid Jilani on Sep 11, 2011 at 8:00 am

Today is September 11th, the tenth anniversary of the horrific and inhumane Al Qaeda-led terrorist attacks that killed approximately 3,000 innocents. As Americans pause and reflect on how these attacks changed our country and the world, we should reflect upon one of deceased terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden’s primary goals: bankrupting America. In an audio tape from 2004, Bin Laden explained that Al Qaeda had adopted a “policy” of “bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy” through provoking it into engaging in perpetual warfare in the Middle East and South Asia.

Nearly ten years after the United States sent our military forces into Afghanistan, our country has spent $1.2 trillion engaging in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the National Priorities Project (NPP). The wars are expected to cost much more than that by their conclusion, with some estimates ranging up to $3 trillion for the Iraq war alone.

By spending this much money on wars that ended up being America’s longest in history, the United States in some ways fell into Bin Laden’s trap. This money could’ve been used in ways that would’ve invested in America — securing access to health care, a decent education, and infrastructure for alternative energy. Using NPP metrics, ThinkProgress has assembled ten alternative policies that the United States could’ve pursued instead with this money that has been spent on the wars so far:

– Provide 63.3 Million Scholarships For University Students Every Year For Ten Years

– Give 58.9 Million Children Low-Income Health Care Every Year For Ten Years

– Give 23.6 Million People Access To Low-Income Healthcare Every Year For Ten Years

– Provide 20.68 Million Students With Pell Grants Worth $5,500 Every Year For Ten Years

– Provide 15.12 Million Head Start Slots For Children Every Year For Ten Years

– Provide Veterans Administration Care For 14.7 Million Military Veterans Every Year For Ten Years

– Hire 2.01 Million Firefighters Every Year For Ten Years

– Hire 1.76 Million Elementary School Teachers Every Year For Ten Years

– Hire 1.73 Million Police Officers Every Year For Ten Years

– Retrofit 69.4 Million Households For Wind Power Every Year For Ten Years

– Retrofit 26 Million Households For Solar Photovoltaic Energy Every Year For Ten Years

These numbers reflect only the monetary costs of the wars. The human costs are much more difficult to calculate, both because it is it impossible to quantify the value of a human life and because calculating the death toll among Iraqis and Afghans is very difficult. But over 6,400 American soldiers have perished in Iraq, Afghanistan, or supporting theaters and death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan combined are in the hundreds of thousands.

The cost in blood and treasure of these wars since 9/11 demonstrate that they enacted a heavy toll on our country, and this data should inform our actions in the future.

Related Posts

Climate Progress

McKibben: “Constantly and Disastrously” Leaking U.S. Pipelines Are the Mess in the Middle of the Keystone XL Debate

By Joe Romm on Sep 11, 2011 at 7:52 am

NY Times:  “Since 1990, more than 110 million gallons of mostly crude and petroleum products have spilled from the nation’s mainland pipeline network” [see figure, click to enlarge].

by Bill McKibben, in a DailyKos repost

Yesterday, the front page of the New York Times carried one of those stories that reminds you why it’s a good thing we have reporters.

Two weeks after a State Department report, speaking in the hermetically sealed tones of bureaucrats, predicted ‘minimal environmental impact’ from the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the Times investigation found that in fact pipelines already crisscrossing America are leaking constantly and disastrously, that the federal agency assigned to protect them is so chronically understaffed, and that as a result they’ve left the “too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators themselves.”

Not surprisingly, this  “self-regulation” works about as well as fox oversight of the poultry industry. For instance, in Michigan a 35-mile stretch of the Kalamazoo River “once teeming with swimmers and boaters, remains closed nearly 14 months after an Enbridge Energy pipeline hemorrhaged 843,000 gallons of oil that will cost more than $500 million to clean up.”

And, “this summer, an Exxon Mobil pipeline carrying oil across Montana burst suddenly, soiling the swollen Yellowstone River with an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude just weeks after a company inspection and federal review had found nothing seriously wrong.”

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