Chupacabra Report

News that Gets My Goat..

Sundays Chronicle had an op-ed by three climate change deniers; surprise, they’re all retired oil company execs, each of whom has held leadership positions in such trade groups as the American Petroleum Institute, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. One of the authors, H. Leighton Steward, wrote a book titled “Fire, Ice, and Paradise,” from which they quote extensively.

Here’s Steward’s “Ten Myths about CO2."

Myth 1: The planet Earth will be healthier with lower CO2 levels.
Myth 2: Rising CO2 levels cause temperatures to rise.
Myth 3: Sea levels will rise 20 feet by the end of the century.
Myth 4: Scientists unanimously say that CO2 caused by humans is the dominant cause of global warming.
Myth 5: The United States is the largest contributor of human-caused CO2.
Myth 6: Storms are more frequent and intense because of global warming.
Myth 7: Polar bears will go extinct if this warm period continues through the 21st century.
Myth 8: CO2 is a pollutant.
Myth 9: As Earth warms, the climate will become much drier and windier.
Myth 10: Higher levels of CO2 than the current 385 parts per million in the atmosphere are not harmful to humans.

-Frankly, I’m not qualified to dispute all his points, but they sure don’t jibe with other sources I’ve been reading, such as James Hansen’s “Storms of our Grandchildren.”

When Steward says that solar intensity variation is the most significant climate forcing, I wonder that NASA scientists say we’re experiencing the hottest year on record during the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. And when he says we could do fine with twenty times the current CO2 level, or that marine oil spills are harmless, and that the ocean can clean them up by itself, I lose patience with him.

You see, I agree with that line from Upton Sinclair about how "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” The oil and gas industry has been very good to these guys, and they are never going to see outside their own paradigm until the surf is lapping at their country place.

Native Texas had mixed forests, bountiful grasslands, and fecund bay waters. With settlement and civilization these were exploited to near extinction. If we are to leave more than a wasteland for those who come after us, we need to be careful about who we listen to.