Maybe it's a coincidence that not only this past week a lot of people celebrated the biggest pot smoking holiday (unofficial, of course) of the year, but prior to everyone lighting up at 4:20 on 4/20, a capital hill premier showing of a new documentary entitled Climate Hustle took place at the Rayburn Office Building just in time for Earth Day.... another coincidence, I'm sure. The new film focuses on skepticism some scientists have on the view of climate change. It seems that not only did these two topics, weed and global warming, share the same week in the news, they also have something else in common.... Both are met with resistance and denial. I have to admit that the notion of legal, recreational marijuana is becoming more accepted among public opinion, but is still looked down upon by most moral majority circles, so is booze.... it must be hard for them walking around straight all the time...oh well... not to worry. At the end of the day, the argument for or against legalization is a matter of personal choice. What's troubling is that people seem to have less of a concern about climate change than they do about whether or not members of their town council are sparking a Captain Hooter in their off hours. Not only do most dismiss the current data that has been collected, some outright deny something that even a hard core stoner has the ability to realize... climate change is real and humans are the most responsible for it.
In a discussion panel before the showing of Climate Hustle, featuring Marc Morano, publisher of a climate change skeptical website, Sarah Palin stated that " There is defiantly a political agenda behind all this. People who are involved in this issue, they are not stupid. They have studied this stuff. They have studied the data that they are erroneously delivering to the public to make us think that we can somehow change the weather and how they do that is to grow government and allow the government to have more control over us, our homes, our businesses, our families, our lives and it's quite unfortunate because these people must be purposely doing this. Because they are smart enough to know better."
Wow.....WOW!....and here I thought she was a wacko when she claimed she waved at Russia every morning from her back yard.... and more recently, backing Trump. This, however, opens up a whole new can of worms with crazy on the label... even for her. Where do I begin with this, my fellow Observers? First off, climate change has no political agenda whatsoever. It affects everyone from kings and queens to the scum of the earth we call politicians to the common person that has to put up with the aforementioned. I see absolutely no connection between what 97% of climate scientists believe is happening to our atmosphere and politics... unless your talking about oil. That's not politics... that's corruption. Even though the two go hand in hand, climate change is an issue that must be addressed alone. I find it hard to accept that the scientific community dedicated to climate research is dog piling on big oil for no good reason. I more readily believe and understand politicians who greatly benefit from oil company lobbyists having issues with their findings. Second, climate change has nothing to do with changes in the weather. Climate is an averaged total of the weather Observed across the earth. Weather, although a means to measure climate change, is a regional study. The two must be distinguished as separate forms of information in order to understand how both relate to one another. Sarah did get one thing right in her outrageous statement though. These "people" are smart, they study this "stuff" and we should listen to them, not her.
At the podium that night Palin also criticized Bill Nye, an advocate and supporter of mainstream climate science who debated Morano in Climate Hustle, by saying "Bill Nye is as much of a scientist as I am." and "is using his position of authority to harm children by teaching them that climate change is real and man made.". She also urged parents to "teach their children to doubt climate change" and "not just believe what Bill Nye the Science Guy is telling them".
This woman is like the Energizer bunny of close mindedness, misinformation and denial. She keeps going and going and going and talking and talking..... In her defense, she is just staying on track with her misconceptions. She is nothing if not consistent in her uninformed stupidity, so you might as well rely on your strengths. Once again, my loyal reader.... First.... Bill Nye holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Cornell and has six honorary doctorate degrees including Phd's in science. He has held several positions as an engineer including designing 747 mechanics for Boeing, designing equipment to clean up oil spills and worked on the NASA Mars exploration rover. He also holds three patents for a redesigned ballet toe shoe, a digital abacus and an educational lens. In short, Mr. Nye is a scientist. Moreover, Bill Nye is more of a scientist than Sarah Palin is a judge, but that's not stopping her from playing one on TV in a new "judge" show she is working on with a Montana based company, due out in 2017 despite her lack of something as insignificant as a law degree. Palin holds a bachelors in communications journalism from the University of Idaho. So why shouldn't she be a judge? I guess someone forgot to tell her that the glass house she's living in is in close proximity to a stone quarry, along with that $150,000.00 clothing budget she had in 2008. Second and most confusing to me, is what "position of authority" is she talking about? I didn't realize that having a TV show aimed at kids for five years automatically put you in a position to rule over us peasants in an authoritative manner. I haven't gotten any orders from or heard of any law handed down from Bill... have you? Maybe I missed it. We should all be thankful that Sarah is around to point these things out to all us simple people. Third and probably most important, we are not "harming" our children by telling them the truth. Such as in 2014 and 2015 our planet set consecutive global temperature records and 2016 , so far, has been higher than 2015 already. We, in fact, do more "harm" to our children's ability to comprehend the world around them by child rearing the "Palin way" in teaching them to disregard facts of scientific research and follow leaders with ulterior motives blindly.
What a lot of critics of climate change don't seem to want to accept is that this is not he first global warming rodeo that the earth has been to. It is a relatively simple concept and in order to understand it the only thing one really needs to know is that the more carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere, the warmer it gets. As I said... simple... that's all there is to it and it doesn't take a stratospheric scientist with degrees up the wazoo to realize that the only difference in the large amounts of carbon dioxide being introduced into the air of modern day is the source of the delivery. Instead of the volcanoes that did it over 50,000 years ago, now it's cars, energy plants, factories and waste incinerator facilities, to name a few. People can argue that it's going to happen anyway and I wouldn't attempt to debate them because I happen to agree with that theory, but that concession does not discount our part in the problem and certainly does not absolve the guilt in our ignorance or denial thereof. There will always be people like Palin and Morano to lend distrust of established science or any theory or ideal that would bring about change in our lives, but opinion must never be allowed to overrule undeniable fact. In the end, it really doesn't matter who is telling us that we are creating or accelerating a problem that effects us all. What matters is that we acknowledge it. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, my ice cream is melting.
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