The CBS Evening News had one of the best segments ever on manmade global warming. The piece is headlined on their website, “Assessing the risk of climate change” with this description:
The past 12 months were the hottest on record, and forecasters are predicting high temperatures across the U.S. this summer. Science and environment contributor M. Sanjayan explains the risk of climate change.
Watch it:
Kudos to CBS News for running this segment with Sanjayan, who is “the lead scientist for The Nature Conservancy.” Let’s hope CBS makes it a regular feature.
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This is progress, but Sanjayan wimped out by saying “it almost doesn’t matter what the cause is”. Yes it does. We must reduce greenhouse gases that are causing radiative forcing. “Sink or swim moment” has to include aggressive solutions.
I strongly agree, Mike.
We have to make the point relentlessly that if we stay on a business as usual, short term market driven path, things will get extremely ugly for humanity, far worse than the impacts we can’t dodge because of the GHG we already emitted.
The problem is getting people over the sizable education hump so that they understand and accept that it will take far more than easy and comfortable changes. In this context, “easy and comfortable” to the average American means buying brand X instead of brand Y of something, and not buying a different kind of thing entirely.
If you tell someone who lives in a place where the electricity supply is very low in carbon emissions that he can dramatically reduce his carbon footprint by replacing his household’s aging second car with a Nissan Leaf instead of the full size pickup truck he wants (and at several thousand dollars more in initial purchase price, even taking into account the tax kick back), you won’t get far. I’ve waged and fought this battle or a similar version many times. I know hard core greenies who ignored my advice to buy, say, a Honda Civic, and opted instead for a mid- or full-size SUV.
Until that fundamental psychological dynamic changes, these discussions are all balloon juice and people like us typing at each other.
Mike, Listen again. He says “whether or not we understand or accept the SCIENCE behind climate change is immaterial.” That is entirely different than how you (mis) quoted him.
It matters. His point is, regardless of whether you believe the SCIENCE, climate change is HERE in our DAILY lives now. The evidence is all around us. Sanjayan is moving the conservation forward — by showcasing how this isn’t some future reality but our reality today. You should post a correction to your comments since they are based on a misquote.
Jenny, my quote was a bit sloppy and not verbatim, but your direct quote and my version of it say exactly the same thing. Don’t try to bail him out here.
It’s obvious that warming is already here. The point that people need to realize is that we are not dealing with random natural fluctuations or solar forcings. The essence of climate science is its demonstration of the sources of our problem, which are the burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests.
Your quote of Sanjayan actually makes my point better than my own. He is just another network TV happy face, albeit better than most- at least he admits it’s getting warmer. We need scientific truth, and CBS is a major laggard here.
Mike, A misquote is a misquote. I think the piece moves the conversation critically forward. We can all debate how DIRE things are going to be or we can use evidence to show what is already happening. The people who deny the science can’t deny the reality. I think it is a respectable and worthy contribution to the cause.
Jenny wrote: “The people who deny the science can’t deny the reality.”
Unfortunately, that’s not at all true.
The very same people who deny the science of anthropogenic global warming are, in fact, very busily denying the reality of its ongoing effects.
In fact, as those effects get worse, more costly and destructive, the deniers are increasingly focusing their efforts on denying that any harmful effects are occurring, and/or denying that they are caused by global warming.
The problem is, that as soon as you say “Even if you don’t accept the science …” you have legitimized denialism.
And the people who deny that CO2 is a greenhouse gas will just as readily deny that any unusual or extreme weather is even occuring, and will just as readily deny that any extreme weather that does occur is related to global warming.
It’s not good enough that CBS is catching up to science that was demonstrated 15 years ago. CBS ran a show on melting glaciers in Greenland, and featured islanders who were happy about the increase in tourism. CBS has been one of the worst networks in rarely discussing global warming, and in providing fora for deniers.
Media failure is a big part of our problem. Incremental progress won’t work- TV network execs need to have personal epiphanies, and awaken to the global emergency that all creatures are facing. Admitting that it’s warmer, and that it’s causing problems, is a small step- we need much more.
That’s misquote. That isn’t what he says at all.
I stand by my comment. We need to hold the TV networks to the standard of current science, not congratulating them when they finally concede observations that have been verified for a decades.
Humanity is in it’s final examination for graduation from a Type 1 civilization (self-concerned-with-self-ruthlessly-exploiting-Universe) to a Type 2 civilization (comprehensively-integrated-self-concerned-with-all-selves). We are 60 minutes into a 90 minute examination and so far we’ve only completed 40% of the questions and we’ve gotten 40% of them wrong.
“I have to say, I think that we are in some kind of final examination as to whether human beings now, with this capability to acquire information and to communicate, whether we’re really qualified to take on the responsibility we’re designed to be entrusted with. And this is not a matter of an examination of the types of governments, nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with economic systems. It has to do with the individual. Does the individual have the courage to really go along with the truth?
Integrity of the individual is what we’re being judged for and if we are not passing that examination, we don’t really have the guts, we’ll blow ourselves up. It will be all over. I think it’s all the difference in the world.” – Buckminster Fuller
Andrew, Bucky got a lot of things right but not this one.
Human beings change their behaviour as their environments change. When they live and work in organizational structures which induce cooperation, they cooperate and work for the common good.
When they live and work in structures which induce competition, they are forced to look after their own interests and forget the whole. Most of our government, political and work organizations feature inequality and competition – they are inherently adversarial with the results you see around you, ME
I fully agree ME and this reminds me of a discussion that my wife and I just had. The real answer for humanity is to help each other but the capitalist system discourages this type of cooperation for the common good and instead encourages competition between us all in what becomes an all out fight for the last remaining resources.
We are living in a system that is less humane that that of wild dogs who will look after their weakest. It does little for your faith in humanity when that is the reality that we live.
Precisely. It is the global dominance of a certain type of human psychology, and the economic and ideological systems that they have imposed on humanity. We euphemise those individuals as ‘the Right’, and their characters are dominated by greed, fear and hatred of others, unscrupulousness, gigantic egotism and propensity to belligerence and violence to get their way. The system that they have created, capitalism, has manifested itself in centuries of theft, from the many, by the few, through mechanisms like colonialism, imperialism, class warfare, union-busting, outsourcing to cheap labour jurisdictions, financial chicanery and massive, now terminal, destructive exploitation of the natural world. These creatures have forced humanity to ruthlessly and desperately compete against each other, to ‘do unto others before they do it to you’ in the ‘bellum omnium contra omnes’ that so truly reflects the pathopsychology of the Rightwing genocidaires. In short, the Right and the ruling global parasite class have imposed their psychology and ideology on the rest of humanity. And this process that has immiserated billions, destroyed tens of millions, ravaged entire countries, spreading disease, suffering and hatred around the planet, is now entering its end-stage. Only by removing the destroyers and their evil genocidal mentality from human society, once and for all, can we hope top escape self-destruction. Everything else is merely a symptom-this is the root disease.
We are making progress- but is the public listening?
Wow, from Carter to CBS News in only …. 1977 to 2012 … 45 years!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmlcLNA8Zhc
Hey, I’m glad CBS news is showing the other networks it’s okay to come out in the cold.
I heard something similar on NPR radio he other day. But I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.
Isn’t it just possible that they’re bringing these stories out in time for Summer’s warm weather to come?
Actually, this is an entirely new format for CBS News and any other major network news broadcast. Most broadcasts don’t even dare mention climate change due to the backlash from the well-organized science-deniers. CBS News deserves kudos for giving Sanjayan the airtime to point out the evidence that is all around us.
Mike, Let’s try “it almost does matter what the cause is”. No, that doesn’t work. The adverb “almost” is incongruous.
Yes well the trouble with that is that Mike misquoted Sanjayan. He said, “whether or not we understand or accept the SCIENCE of climate change is immaterial.” He doesn’t say cause. The point is to move past the losing argument with science-deniers and point out the evidence that exists all around us. Don’t base your opinion on a misquote.
The science is all about cause, Jenny. Get back on track here.
This is it. This is when mainstream media speaks to the reality that Americans are ready to know and ready to act.
Act we must — in our most difficult trial — at wartime speed in a World War III fought with sonnets, with the most extraordinary vigor, persevere, restore, and ultimately prevail; amplifying beyond our wildest dreams the exquisite beauty of the natural world that supports all our people to ultimately prosper . . .
I hope this issue rises to the surface this year. As it happens, today I blogged about the urgency for action and noted that action is not negotiable. Nature isn’t a bank that may forgive our debts. Greece has it easy compared with the future that lies ahead of us if we don’t reduce carbon emissions urgently.
http://thisnessofathat.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/mother-nature-does-not-negotiate.html
Hottest 12 months on record in the US, not globally. No reason not to be accurate.
That’s what it says. The story is about the U.S.
CBS deserves praise for airing this and will surely get plenty of flack. But it’s cowardly to sound the alarm and then dodge the crucial question of what’s causing it and what we need to do about it. There is no place for the “we may not all agree on the cause” wimp-out. How can a problem be solved whose root cause remains debatable? What should people actually DO? Confusion and paralysis prevail in the land.
The only way most people are going to do anything is if they are lead into doing it – we need aggressive leadership. We need some carrot and probably more stick. We are not going to be able to get most people to give up things like SUVs and flying holidays and over consumption unless the cant afford it and they accept that situation. But we need to do it faster than democracy will allow….
Excellent points Paul. To win at this point we need the public to see this as a true war like emergency, pushing asside the powers preventing action in Washington and willingly participating in war like actions & sacrifices (WW2 like sacrifices) to scale solutions fast enough to solve the problems in time. Things will have to get much worse to get to that point…but this glimmer of MSM visibility is heartening to see…we need more.
Paul, that is because people have been suffering from ‘leadership’. Our top down authoritarian systems have separated people into ‘leaders’ and followers, but all people are purposeful and the end result of our rush into authoritarian structures, everywhere, is a choice between dependency on the ‘leader’, taking on the ‘leader’ or trying to replace the ‘leader’. None of these dynamics addresses any of our problems because they are focussed on the dynamics and the fight, and not the problems.
We don’t lead more ‘leadership’, we need concerted, cooperative global action – well fat chance at the moment – and draw your own conclusions, ME
Hear Hear, yeah you said it!
Leader and gov have to start getting the courage to nationalize fossil fuel industries and ramping back on their output.
It is the only sane way forward now.
We need to mitigate rather urgently, but we also need to adapt. It is far too late for mitigation alone.
How and where we build infrastructure, how we organise our food production and distribution will all take considerable planning and time to change smoothly. We need to know what to abandon early and what to reinforce.
Acknowledging the problem this late in the day is but a tiny start.
Anyone interested in a political reorganization which could allow for quite radical democratic change should consider the ideas at http://www.foundationcanada.ca
It is too late to solve many of our problems now but not too late to mitigate them at a global level using this kind of leverage.
Carl Joudrie
The analogy of ‘global fever’ is deadly accurate. Every living species carries and tolerates (sustainable) colonies of bacteria and viruses, when we contract a fever, it is because those bacteria or viruses multiply to excess and attempt to overcome our functioning bodily system.
Potato blight or bubonic plague, the result is exactly the same, either the host dies or the virus dies.
When that happens we have two choices, either we rid ourselves of what’s causing the fever, or we die. What we face really is that stark.
On a global scale, humanity is an infection that is causing a global fever, climate change is the sneeze that will get rid of most of us.
While the piece is interesting, it fails in its analogy, possibly because the speaker does not really understand what is causing global warming. Fever? No, an incurable, fatal disease treated by witch doctors and shamans who hope for the best but think only the patient will die.
Time was never on our side, and now we have trifled too long.
Once you really appreciate the physics and chemistry combined with radiative energy transfer, the prospects for the future effects of global warming – roasting – are entirely bleak. There is literally nothing which can be done to stop an INCREASING accumulation of energy into the planet’s systems – the atmosphere being the tiniest part of the overall process. At current CO2 levels, the increases will continue for a century. During the next 20 years, we are working on extending the duration for 250 years – followed by a 1000 years. When MIT predicts a 9 degree increase, all bets are off.
Cows are being moved north. Fever. Insurance. Yes, all indications and symptoms. However, the basic fact of unstoppable energy accumulation into Earth’s environment, oceans, ice and atmosphere leads to a very ugly place where drought, crop losses, famine, social unrest, and destruction occur at a pace far too rapid and too unendurable for adaption. When Jim Hansen and others warn of the end of civilization, they are not kidding. Hungry people are difficult. The house is on fire and we are pounding our keyboards.
Losing Texas for cattle ranching? Do Texans really not understand what is causing this to occur. More important, the whole of northern Mexico, which is south of Texas, is experiencing profound heat and drought, so much so, the country is finally reacting with strong legislation. Mexican leadership knows what is causing the problem and they are trying to do something out of self-preservation.
By the way, in a contrary move, the San Diego County Planning Commission delayed a decision on a 200 MW wind farm because of concerns of a few people over views and noise. Really, talk about fiddling while Rome burns. No amount of evidence can overcome the need of a few “environmental” conservationists to block or delay any and all non-carbon energy projects – because there is a better way. Yes, a better way which no one has yet found.