Only the anti-science idealogues want a world without fish

This video is from House testimony early this month by from Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States’ leading climate office.  You can find the full hearing online here.

Only anti-science ideologues want to embrace do-nothing policies that will leave us “A World without Fish.”  We now know that global warming is “capable of wrecking the marine ecosystem and depriving future generations of the harvest of the seas” (see Ocean dead zones to expand, “remain for thousands of years”).

And yet the anti-science crowd in Congress have a difficult time using the emails to explain how unrestricted emissions of carbon dioxide will not ruin our oceans.  As Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) said at the hearing:

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The fireworks should fly for this one.  It looks to be Sunday on CNN at 1 and 5 ET (click here for Info).  People should post a video when and if it goes up Sunday afternoon.  I’ll be winging it to Copenhagen then.

This debate is courtesy of Fareed Zakaria (international times below):

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The picture is of “an electron microscope image showing a particle of Black Carbon soot” (from NASA).  This guest article is cross-posted from Cruel Mistress‘s Dr. Benjamin Hale, assistant professor in the Philosophy Department and the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Of the many interesting venues offering side events, I’ve been most impressed by some of the events put on by the Bellona Foundation. You can actually stream and watch some of these events here. It’s a noisy little spot, so be warned. I’ll just give you a taste here of what a side event is like. Here’s video from the event on black carbon.

The upshot of the event is that polar and alpine regions are warming rapidly, so watching what’s going on in Russia is important. Moreover, since the arctic makes up one of the largest regions in Russia, watching black carbon is not just extremely important, it’s extremely important to Russia.

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Rep. Barton has praised him and had him testify

The long-time anti-science disinformer and self-parody, The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, has now moved far beyond the mainstream, beyond even Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

First, TVMOB was caught on tape calling activists who crashed a polluter-funded anti-science global warming event in Copenhagen “Hitler Youth.” You know you’ve left the mainstream when even “One of the most notorious climate change denial groups is Americans for Prosperity (AFP),” a pro-tobacco group, anti-climate, anti-clean-energy group “which is largely funded by fossil-fuel industry interests,” immediately runs away from your language.  Phil Kerpen, the policy director of Americans for Prosperity, distanced himself from Monckton’s comments as fast as he could — writing on Twitter, “DO NOT approve.”

But TVMOB has now posted on the Science & Public Policy Institute website where he is Chief Policy Adviser a piece filled with unbridled hate speech:

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Earth “CSI’s” — Climate Science Investigators — Have Publicly Proven Global Warming is Unequivocal

“Global warming has been proven real beyond any reasonable doubt,” said Chairman Markey. “Unless, of course, that last remaining doubt is completely manufactured by the defenders of the fossil fuel status quo. That is the case with these stolen climate emails.”

That is from a news release on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming website.

A new analysis debunks two of the principal myths generated by the manufactured scandal surrounding stolen climate science emails from the University of East Anglia. The staff analysis, written by the majority staff to Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, explains how two of the key phrases used by climate deniers to trumpet their views have previously been explained in publicly-available, peer-reviewed scientific literature.

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A Film by Robert Greene (2009, 92 minutes)

The following is a guest post by Hillary Berkowitz of 4th Row Films about “Owning the Weather,” which is being screened in Copenhagen, tomorrow, Sunday the 13th.

The desire to modify the weather has been around forever; but with the threat of catastrophic climate change, water wars, and intensifying hurricanes, a new breed of weather control has emerged.

OWNING THE WEATHER tells the story of weather modification in the United States, from Charles Hatfield’s infamous rainmaking days to modern plans to engineer the climate.

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International pursuit of low-carbon policies has the potential to create twenty million jobs between now and 2020 in low-carbon energy in eight of the world’s leading economies — including the United States, China, India, and the United Kingdom. The report—”Low-Carbon Jobs in an Interconnected World“—comes from the Global Climate Network, a unique alliance of influential think tanks, including the Center for American Progress, that is coordinated by the Institute for Public Policy Research in London. In the words of John Podesta, President and CEO of the Center for American Progress, Copenhagen can be where world leaders “create millions of jobs in a new green and clean economy”:

This report shows that the over 110 heads of state meeting in Copenhagen don’t have to make a choice between jumpstarting lagging economies and promoting a clean-energy policy. The Global Climate Network has shown that by transforming the global economy beyond dirty carbon energy, leaders can easily make the prudent choice to create millions of jobs in a new green and clean economy.

The report argues that if governments take positive and immediate action to expand low-carbon energy markets, the benefits in terms of job creation and the increased welfare that employment brings to economies will be felt worldwide:

— In India: Implementation of the Government’s National Action Plan on Climate Change could create 10.5 million jobs in wind, solar, and biofuels.

– In China: Government wind, solar, and hydro power targets could lead to the creation of 6.79 million jobs.

– In the United States: Out of a possible 1.9 million extra low-carbon jobs, new U.S. and export markets in smart electricity meter technology alone could generate 416,000.

To create these job opportunities, the report calls for sufficient financing to ensure that a transition to low-carbon energy takes place across the globe and that workers are in a position to benefit; low-carbon industrial strategies, or packages of government policy to stimulate low-carbon technology markets and create jobs to be introduced in all major economies to trigger a shift towards a low carbon economy, and support for workers in high-carbon sectors who may lose out in a new carbon economy so they can remain in work while they retrain or to be given assistance to help them prepare for work in a low-carbon economy.