Thank you, David Little of the Chico Enterprise Record. Readers please note: I had nothing to do with his Sunday column opinion piece, it is as much a surprise to me as I’m sure it will be to you.
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David Little: It’s all the fault of climate change
I have a couple of flaws when it comes to believing anything I’m told.
First, I’m old. Second, I’m a journalist. Both of those unalterable traits make me worse than just a skeptic. I’m a skeptic squared.
I see things like Gov. Jerry Brown’s dog-and-pony show Monday in Sacramento and think more about his motivation than I do about his message. Brown spoke at a conference about climate change, and the media in attendance relayed his concern that global warming threatens our state.
He said California is at the “epicenter” of global climate change. He said the state must prepare for longer fire seasons, for rising oceans and for extended droughts. And he had charts and graphs to prove his points, so it must be true.
If I wasn’t on the downhill side of my journey up and over the hill, I’d be very worried — because while going up the hill, I remember a similar warning. I’m old enough to remember the ’70s, a truly forgettable decade. Growing up back then, there was talk about a “Mini Ice Age” that was coming. It scared the heck out of me. As an impressionable young lad with a love for swimming in creeks and running around in cutoffs during the hot Northern California summers, I didn’t want to give that up.
…
Here’s the problem I have with the global warming boogeyman: It gets blamed for everything. Only now it’s called climate change, because it needs to encompass more than just hot weather.
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It looks like Mo, Larry and Curly have been replaced by Barry, Kerry and Jerry.
Good for David Little!
Brown has no choice. He has to plug the Climate bandwagon to shore up the California Air Resources Board (CARB) mess. Note: a survey done by the AB32 implementation group found a majority of California residents do Not support a Carbon Tax in any form. CARB et al. ignored the survey results.
Slow site but lots of articles about CARB:
http://calwatchdog.com/?s=CARB
Now I’ve got major Mayor Envy. The Mayor of Salt Lake City recently hosted an “eminent climatologist” in our fair city. One local newspaper covered it this way:
“Michael Mann, professor of meteorology and director of the Earth Systems Science Center at Penn State University, spoke at a Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah’s annual spring breakfast about the big money behind the effort to squelch climate science.”
So far, neither the Honorable Mayor or my City Council representative will tell me how many tax dollars were spent on Mann’s pearls of wisdom.
Make that “major local newspaper editor envy”!
So far, the comments at http://www.chicoer.com/ seem to be quite sympathetic. I hope it stays that way. A person can get crucified for writing an editorial like that these days.
“Unfortunately they’re getting it rammed down their throats in government schools (and some “private” ones too, no doubt). The indoctrination is continuing apace”
Onlooker,
I’m the chess coach for 4 local schools here in Indiana and this is true.
I gave a talk related to this to a couple of groups of children in grades 4 and 5 at one of the schools earlier this year.
They had been studying glaciers in science class and the teacher thought it would be cool to have a meteorologist talk to them. I discussed climate and how it effected glaciers and brought them up to 2014.
Already aware of what they’ve been taught about the environment and carbon pollution, I tried to just present some stuff that showed that our climate changed naturally too and that carbon dioxide was actually good for plants even if it is a greenhouse gas.
This one little boy got pretty upset. He kept raising his hand and saying “but isn’t it a good thing to plant a tree???”
When you’re in 5th grade and your entire life, been taught that CO2=pollution and is ruining the planet, hearing something different for the first time was probably like the first time you found out there was no Santa Claus (:
Only thing, is that after finding out that there is no Santa Claus, the “cat was out of the bag” and adults didn’t try to get you to believe anymore.
Mike,
Yep, I cringe to think about what they’re being taught these days. And that kind of indoctrination is very powerful at that age, as we all know. And the nature of this in particular is a lot of religion (some would say exactly like it; and I’d agree), making it all the more powerful.
Growing up back then, there was talk about a “Mini Ice Ace” . . .
Make that “Mini Ice Age” . . .
[Done, thank you. .mod]
I actually voted for Jerry Brown once: for mayor of Oakland when he was the most conservative one on the ballot by a long shot. And to be honest, he did a pretty good job when you compare him to all the ones before and after. Ron Dellums, for example . . .
“Dog and pony show . . . ” sums it up nicely, particularly when you extend it to the worldwide stage.
As Tony Soprano might say, “California is dead to me now.”
I’ll be gone within the year.
“I see things like Gov. Jerry Brown’s dog-and-pony show Monday in Sacramento and think more about his motivation than I do about his message.”
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nailed it
pottereaton says:
May 25, 2014 at 6:40 am
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Potter,
Tell me I misunderstand your ominous prediction. Please.
excellent! breath of fresh air co2 included:-)
Excellent common sense wisdom from David Little. Hopefully he has a thick skin to deal with the ugly creepy attacks which will now come his way.
They may look a little alike and be pronounced a wee bit alike but ‘epicenter’and ‘eccentric’ do not mean the same thing Jerry.
Sent David an email thanking him for his article. Everyone should…his email is available in the article.
I was in my 20s in the 70s, so yes, Mr. Little is probably over 50. Definitely on the down slope, if not so terribly old. I am in my mid-sixties, now. I lived in California when Governor Moonbeam was governor the first time, and I couldn’t believe it when people were stupid enough to elect him again. Fortunately, I left the Golden State last month for Texas, never to return.
I am impressed that Mr. Little had the guts to call attention to the climate idiocy espoused by Brown and the rest of his ilk. I hope the rest of the “panic now and avoid the rush” crowd doesn’t bludgeon him into a retraction. It does make one wonder what will happen when it becomes painfully obvious that they were running a scam on the rest of us and bilking us out of anything and everything valuable to us (life, liberty, sanity, money, etc) to protect reputations and keep the grant money flowing, but that is a subject for another time.
In the meantime, kudos to Mr. Little. And thanks for bringing his article to our attention, Anthony.
Nice little article. Interesting grammar note: he (correctly) says “couple of flaws” in the opening sentence and then incorrectly says “couple hundred” in the last paragraph (rather than “couple of hundred”). Sort of illustrates English grammar evolving, from the top to the bottom of one article.
I think if I were still living in California I would be so depressed. There was a time when I thought living in California was really the coolest thing, and then I grew up. I was there for Jerry’s first governor gig, all I can remember now are the flies and night time helicopter assaults. It was a foggy time in my life but this too passed. Just like the droughts, it came to an end. I remember when the mid 80’s drought broke there was so much water coming off the Berkeley hills that it blew the storm drain covers off the manholes at the bottom of Solano Avenue. The water running under the house where I was living looked like a Colorado trout stream. That was when they were saying: “whoever is still praying for rain, please stop.” Thank God there are people still in California like David Little. If I recall correctly, there was a lot more sanity as you track more to the east and north so there may be hope in some parts of the state, but for the Bay Area, it will remain a disappointing struggle. Unfortunately, and as a cultural defect, those who believe they are at the epicenter of everything tend to do things ’till they hurt, and even then they have difficulty stopping. So, even with the glimmer of insight from David Little, I don’t see much relief for poor ol’ California both from the climate change insanity and their political “rock stars”. Like an addled divorce, you hope she finds someone who can help her get on with life, but she just keeps finding the same old losers.
@ur momisugly Tom in Florida
I love the Three Stooges but unlike Barry, Kerry and Jerry they were creating lots of fun, not making Stoopid policies. Thanks Tom.
Bernie
David Little is a youngster! I grew up in the Fifties in South Africa and have been a journalist for the past 40-odd years – and I’m still going strong. One thing I’ve learned in all this time is never to trust the written word as it appears in newspapers and magazines (and these days, in blogs and other electornic media). The main purpose of these publications – without exception – is to hype bad news to present the world as a dangerous place – which, in fact, it is not!
“epicenter”
Gov. Moonbeam was channeling the ABC TV movie in the 70s about the “Big One” that everyone in LA was afraid of but never happened – the Northridge earthquake in 1994 was not the “Big One” in the TV movie !
Ha ha
Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah’s annual spring breakfast about the big money behind the effort to squelch climate science.”
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Mann, the science is settled. Why spend a penny more on a question that has already been answered? It makes no sense.
Spending research dollars on a settled question is a pure waste of money. Once the science is settled it is time to spend the money on engineering to solve problem.
The time has come to stop spending money on climate research and spend it on engineering. Fix the roads, bridges, sea-walls, electrical grid, etc. etc., to deal with all this extreme weather we keep hearing about. Insulate houses, cut the cost of heating and air-conditioning. Stop studying and start doing.
Because unless you can get the people in China and India to agree to return to a lifestyle of poverty and starvation, and convince the rest of the world to join them, there is no way in the world you are going to be able stop CO2.
One thing I’ve learned in all this time is never to trust the written word as it appears in newspapers and magazines
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“Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.”
― Benjamin Franklin
My favorite is the shortage of Bulgarian prostitutes and the over abundance of cats in Germany.
Number watch has a whole section devoted to the idiotic things attributed to climate change.
David Little says “I’m old enough to remember the ’70s, . . .
Just a youngster, then! Hope he sees 2050 and reports back.
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Allan Stellar commented on the news site “Global warming has been studied for 40 years, always with the same conclusion: the earth is warming and the consequences of that are profound.”
The last major glacial advance, peaking about +/- 17,000 years ago, gave way to a somewhat warmer World. Long studied. Even in basic school textbooks from the early 1900s. Things have cooled and warmed (repeat) since then. Try a little history, Allan. If the meaning is CO2 warming – that’s a joke or scam or fraud – designed by others to control your life and make everybody equally poor.
But the really funny part of Mr. Stellar’s comment is that the “40 years” of study he means has lasted longer than the 25, or so, years of the temperature rise (manipulation?) he is so worried about. Also, studies have not arrived at the “same conclusion.” And, insofar as a warmer climate is better, one could argue that will be consequential.
[I will try to post on the newspaper site.]
An excellent article. The comments were mostly positive, too.