A lot of dumb things get printed about climate change in newspapers and on serious websites. People put forward dubious arguments on why it isn’t happening, isn’t caused by people, or isn’t a problem. They misrepresent policies like carbon taxes, which could play an important role in mitigating it. They make dubious moral arguments, such as saying that having emitted greenhouse gasses in the past gives you the right to do so in the future.
In order to help counter this, and advance the resistance agenda, I encourage readers to submit letters to the editors of publications that print such claims. Please include any that you write as comments here, with links to the original article and any situations in which your letters actually get published. Having a bunch in one place could serve as a useful archive of pithy rejoinders to common climate change fallacies and misrepresentations.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
A couple of previous letters to the editor I’ve written:
To the Chilliwack Times
To the Edmonton Sun
Huh… I don’t remember this picture being taken at all. You’re good!
My letter to The Edmonton Sun is on their website. I don’t know if it was in the physical paper.
While it is true that emissions from oil sands mining and upgrading are smaller than the emissions that ultimately result from burning the fuels produced, this does not make exploiting the oil sands environmentally acceptable (“Oilsands emissions not so bad, says study,” 18 June 2009). The amount of climate change the world will experience depends on the total quantity of greenhouse gasses humans put into the atmosphere. Since capturing greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles is infeasible, producing vehicle fuels from the oil sands inevitably adds to that quantity. If we are to avoid dangerous global climate change, we need to accept the need to leave most of the carbon in remaining fossil fuels underground.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
Sir,
Your article (“Beyond oil,” 9 July 2009) contains two misrepresentations that ought to be addressed.
Firstly, it claims that wind cannot “compete with the cheap and dirty coal” because it has variable output. By combining energy from wind farms in varied locations, using energy storage technologies such as pumped hydroelectricity, and practicing demand management with a smart grid, it will be possible for the variable output of wind to be corrected for. By definition, the United States and rest of the world will eventually need to move entirely from non-renewable to sustainable forms of energy.
Secondly, the article refers to so-called ‘clean coal’ as the “holy grail” for environmentalists. Even if a coal station could safely capture and store 100% of its greenhouse gas emissions, it would be far from environmentally benign. Air pollution from coal is a major cause of death and illness around the world, and coal mining takes an awful toll on both human beings and the natural world. Far from being a holy grail, ‘clean coal’ is the aspiration of those who want the future to resemble the status quo to the greatest possible extent, namely coal-fired utilities.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
Sir,
Your recent article (“Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites,” 29 July 2009) is a disappointing misrepresentation of the key facts about climate change. The scientists who have developed our understanding of climate change and raised the alarm about it aren’t ‘ayatollahs’ defending some holy truth. Rather, they are methodical and intelligent people who have done much to uncover the complex workings of our planet’s climate system, and identify the serious consequences that human activity is having upon them.
The factual claims contained in the article are broadly false or misleading. We know from ice core samples and other sources that carbon dioxide concentrations are at their highest level for more than 600,000 years. Further, the fact that a carbon cycle exists – in which the roles of plants and animals in producing and consuming oxygen and carbon dioxide are balanced – does not mean that the unbalanced introduction of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels into the atmosphere will have no effect. Indeed, the key physical and chemical properties of greenhouse gasses have been known for more than a century. Simply attributing factual claims to Ian Plimer without evaluating them independently is sloppy journalism that elevates the spreading of rumour over the evaluation of fact.
Climate change is a very serious challenge facing the human race: one that calls upon us to profoundly alter where we get our energy and how we treat the planet’s ecosystems. Giving attention to those who are misleading the public about the nature and seriousness of the issue is a poor way of serving those who rely upon The Vancouver Sun as a source of accurate and useful information.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
If anything, climate change predictions understate the case
Vancouver Sun
July 30, 2009
I was disappointed to read Jonathan Manthorpe’s July 28 column, “Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites.” It is unworthy of a distinguished foreign affairs reporter.
‘Global warming as new religion?’ Give me a break — climate change is serious
By Jim Hoggan, Special to the Vancouver SunJuly 30, 2009
There is a strange conviction, in certain circles, that the world’s environmental community has grown superhumanly strong — an idea that, with the cock of an eyebrow or the curl of a lip, any leading environmentalist can strike fear into the hearts of academics, politicians and businesspeople around the globe.
As the chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, the leading environmental organization in Canada, I wish that it were so. To borrow the fiery rhetoric of Vancouver Sun columnist Jonathon Manthorpe, I would be delighted, if only for a day, to be one of the “ayatollahs of puritan environmentalism” or the “Torquemadas of the doctrine of global warming.”
29 July 09
Vancouver Sun Gushes Over Denier Book Eviscerated by Climate Scientists
In contrast, here’s the book reviews by real scientists of Plimer’s pot-boiler. Imagine if these found their way onto the back cover…
“Naive, and reflected a poor understanding of climate science, and relied on recycled and distorted arguments that had been repeatedly refuted.” – Professor Barry Brook of Adelaide University’s Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability. He also described the book as a case study “in how not to be objective”.
“Given the errors, the non-science, and the nonsense in this book, it should be classified as science fiction in any library that wastes its funds buying it. The book can then be placed on the shelves alongside Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, another science fiction book about climate change with many footnotes. The only difference is that there are fewer scientific errors in State of Fear.” – David Karoly, a meteorologist at Melbourne University and a lead author for the IPCC
“Largely a collection of contrarian ideas and conspiracy theories that are rife in the blogosphere. The writing is rambling and repetitive; the arguments flawed and illogical.” – Michael Ashley, an astronomer at the University of New South Wales
“Fails to establish his claim that the human influence on climate can be ignored, relative to natural variation.” – Ian G. Enting, a mathematical physicist at University of Melbourne
“A cacophony of climate skeptic arguments that have been discredited by decades of research… statements that are at best ambiguous and in many cases plain wrong are repeated, figures purporting to demonstrate climate change is all natural are erroneous, time and spatial scales are mixed up . . . the list goes on. Plimer’s thesis of inaction is a course we follow at our peril ” – Chris Turney of the University of Exeter’s Department of Geography, a past winner of the inaugural Sir Nicholas Shackleton Medal for his research into prehistoric climate change.
“Sloppy…not a work of science; it is an opinion of an author who happens to be a scientist.” – Dr. Kurt Lambeck, president of the Australian Academy of Science
Ian Plimer Watch: Monbiot Forces Denier Back into His Hole
Denier darling Ian Plimer, author of the thoroughly debunked book, Heaven and Earth: Global Warming – the Missing Science, has done a runner in the face of a challenge to participate in a climate change debate with UK Guardian columnist George Monbiot.
Plimer had originally challenged Monbiot to a face-to-face debate, and Monbiot declined. These are the sorts of publicity stunt that deniers are often keen to initiate because they can stand up and say any darn thing they please, putting at a real disadvantage a debating partner who is committed to telling the truth about science.
Plimer’s homework assignment
Some of you may be aware of George Monbiot’s so-far-unsuccessful attempt to pin down Ian Plimer on his ridiculous compendium of non-science. In response to Monbiot’s request for explanation and sources for some of Plimer’s more bizarre claims, Plimer has responded with a homework assignment that is clearly beyond even his (claimed) prowess. This is quite transparently a device to avoid dealing with Monbiot’s questions and is designed to lead to an argument along the lines of “Monbiot can’t answer these questions and so knows nothing about the science (and by the way, please don’t notice that I can’t cite any sources for my nonsense or even acknowledge that I can’t answer these questions either)”. (Chris Colose and Greenfyre have made similar points). It’s also worth pointing out as Andrew Dodds has done that each question is actually referencing a very well known contrarian and oft-debunked argument, but dressed up in pseudo-scientific complexity.
Another Carbon Dioxide Myth Shot Down
Posted By Philip Lehman
Posted 21 hours ago
In many of the letters to the editor, written by those who are down playing the seriousness of polluting our planet by excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, there is a recurring theme. That theme is, since CO2 is necessary for plant life it follows that more CO2 equals more and/or better plants and therefore this pollution is actually good. This seems to be one of those “last gasp” statements that gets flung out when all other arguments have failed to meet the test of objective, scientific merit. The “fertilization effect” of increased CO2 uptake was once hailed by some as evidence that the earth’s forests could take up more and more carbon dioxide as atmospheric levels increased. The equation was simplicity itself. The more CO2 you produce the better the plant life becomes; the healthier the plant life is, the more CO2 you can pump into the air and this goes on in an endless circle. Sort of like perpetual motion. Even the warming of the planet was seen as a good thing since the longer the growing season the more CO2 is taken up. If only nature were as simple and as uncomplicated as the Manhattan Conference on Climate Change promoters would have us believe.
We have seen atmospheric CO2 levels rise to record levels in the past decades but this level is only half the story, well, 57% of the story. The other 43% of the CO2 we’ve been pumping into the air doesn’t show up as it has been taken up by plants and by the oceans. So we’ve been getting about a 50% discount on our polluting but at a cost to the oceans of increased acidification and the resultant loss of coral reef formation and a severe negative effect on the shell formation of other calcifying organisms.
Even the intuitive idea that the longer the growing season the more CO2 uptake has been proven wrong. An international study of northern boreal forests found that they lose CO2 in response to lengthened autumn warming, offsetting 90% of the increased CO2 uptake that occurred in spring.
For countless centuries our planet has kept a fine balance, creating an optimal environment for its health and ensuring the survival of all its parts. Whether we like to admit it or not, we are altering this balance by pouring greenhouse gases into the air and simultaneously cutting down the very forests that could serve to mitigate this abuse. Even if plant CO2 uptake were the ultimate answer we can’t plant trees fast enough to offset the damage we are doing. Much is not understood about the complex interactions that make up our world and neither simplistic solutions nor convening pseudo-scientific confabs like the Manhattan Conference on Climate Change will make this problem go away. They just become sad attempts to gloss over a very serious problem.
Sir,
I found it odd that your recent article on drought in East Africa (“A catastrophe is looming,” 24 Sept 2009) didn’t mention climate change at all. It is quite possible that the warming that the planet has already experienced is connected to the changes observed in the region’s railfall. Furthermore, it is highly likely that continued unchecked climate change will further exacerbate droughts both there and elsewhere.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
Sir,
In a recent article on climate and ecology, (“Avoiding the heffalump trap“, 3 October 2009) you make the glib claim that “[b]ecause people are able to adjust their surroundings to meet their needs” there is “no doubt” that humanity would survive 4°C of climate change. This is potentially misleading for several reasons. For one, as readers of Jared Diamond will note, this capacity hasn’t been sufficient in all cases to prevent the collapse of ecologically stressed human societies. For another, we have no way of knowing that 4°C of warming would not generate positive feedbacks (such as melting permafrost) which would in turn generate much more warming.
One of the most dangerous ‘traps’ that humanity must avoid is the unjustified assumption that we can fail to mitigate climate change and continue to live with any kind of security or prosperity. Hopefully, that lesson will be learned quickly enough that we never experience anything close to the 4°C warming your article discusses.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
Sir,
In an especially misguided editorial, you argue that Canadians should “let out a huge cheer and a sigh of relief back home every time [Environment Minister] Prentice receives a [fossil of the day] award in Copenhagen.
That’s because it will be an indication he’s looking out for our interests.”
That statement only makes sense if the only interests you care about are those of the next few years. If you want high human welfare and prosperity for decades and generations ahead, dealing with climate change is not optional. The longer Canada waits to begin the process of going carbon-neutral, the more costly and painful that process will be.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
Sir,
In a recent editorial (“The changing climate and Canadian realities “, 7 December 2009), you claim that the oil sands are a “vital resource” and that “[p]roducts from the oil sands are necessary and desirable.”
When all the social and environmental harm generated by the oil sands is taken into account, it is far from clear that they produce a net benefit for Canadians. The most important of those harms is the increased risk of catastrophic climate change that comes from extracting, processing, and burning those fuels. Even if it proves safe and effective, carbon capture and storage will only be able to address a minority of those emissions – certainly not the large fraction generated when the fuels are actually burned. For the sake of future generations of Canadians, the best policy for the oil sands is to leave all that high-carbon fuel safely underground.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa
Another letter to the Pembroke (Ontario) Observer commenting on a Lorrie Goldstein column that was equating the movie 2012 with the concern over climate change
Climate Skeptic Science
Posted By Philip Lehman
Posted Nov.28/09
It was interesting reading Lorrie Goldstein’s latest bout of hysteria in last weeks paper. Goldstein, a fervent climate change denier, oh sorry, they’re no longer called deniers since no one is any longer denying that the climate is warming. Now they are called skeptics, a nice tactical retreat. Goldstein was trying to link the seriousness of global warming with a movie who’s target audience seems to be young adults looking for a good adventure film and the tin foil hat set. No doubt the people who are phoning NASA in fear for their future on the basis of a movie are the same people that are scoffing at real scientific research in favour of crystal readings and blandishments from right wing think tanks that are primarily funded by petrochemical industries and are the source of most sceptic information.
He takes Dr. Hansen to task for some intemperate remarks and then twists one of his statements to make it read as though Hansen is predicting the world will end in four years. He also makes it sound as though Hansen were the first scientist to warn about increased CO2 and global warming. That honour belongs to Suante Arrhenius, circa 1900. Then there was G.S. Callendar in 1938 and C.D. Keeting in the 1960’s. A little bit of research would have given him these facts but then research isn’t a deniers strong suit. I notice that he does not even try to refute any of the science behind global warming as that would require quoting credible research done by scientists with an opposing view and that research is difficult to find.
I’m sure that the skeptic crowd will deny my claim of no studies so let’s look at one bit of research done by a denier scientist. This man was listed as an honoured member on the handout I received when I attended the skeptics travelling road show that breezed through town last September and filled Festival Hall with like minded people. Well okay it didn’t fill the hall but it did fill the first four rows, almost. Being a botanist our skeptic decided that glacier research would be a good fit and so published a paper claiming that since 1980, 555 glaciers out of 625 being studied were not melting but actually advancing. This was an incredible bit of news and when asked how he came up with this figure he eventually admitted he’d meant to type in 55% but missed the shift key and came up with 555. Even with this admission of an error the climate denier crew ran with the better sounding figure and for years this was held as proof that climate change was all bunk. Then he was asked how he got the 55%. This he got from a climate deniers web site that claimed since 1980 fifty five percent of the studied glaciers were advancing and quoted a paper to prove it. Unfortunately for them what the paper they referenced actually said was that in one year only, the 1979-1980 season, that 55% of 446 mid-latitude glaciers advanced. So everything about his paper was wrong. Of course the only place it got published was in a pro-denier publication but it’s still part of the denier lexicon and to this day you will still have people writing into newspapers claiming the glaciers are advancing. To read more about this Google – David Bellamy Glaciers. While you’re at it Google – Spain’s wind turbines. You don’t even have to read the full articles, just peruse the headlines to get an idea of what the Spanish people and government really think about their wind turbine program.
And one last thing. A writer to the paper claimed that England would be hard pressed to come up with 296,000 acres to put wind turbines on. I don’t know how small the writer thinks England is but it’s bigger than it looks on a map. Honest. At present England has 457 million acres of farmland and since the footprint of each turbine is one percent of the four acres needed per turbine the other 99% can still be farmed, So that means about 3,000 acres would be lost to wind turbines. To put that in perspective it is less than one third of farmland lost to Edmonton’s urban sprawl from 2003-2007.
Sir,
You recently described how Canada’s Environment Minister wants to clean up the international image of the oil sands (“Time to clean up the oil sands, Prentice says“, 1 February 2009). This is an exercise in public relations, not in sound environmental policy-making. In reality, Canada needs to recognize that the massive amount of carbon in unconventional sources of oil cannot be allowed to enter the atmosphere and put the planet at greater risk of catastrophic climate change. For the sake of future generations of Canadians, we need to leave that carbon in the ground.
Milan Ilnyckyj
Ottawa