onsdag 9. oktober 2019

The War on science / How the science of climate science got politicized.


Tired of the "the science of climate science is so political" argument from climate deniers? Well, it's true, but not for the reason deniers believe.

  • The goal of the fossil fuel industry is to keep its profits rolling in without interference by government or by new, competing energy sources. The polluters know they dont have any science to back up their arguments. So instead they use the best defence method they can. Which is to polarize and politicize the science.
  • They hid their self interests in ideology and politics to cater and pander to their tribe. Thus it’s the Denial for profit movement which is activist and political, not the science of climate science.
  • To keep their money flow going they need the public embroiled in doubt and suspicion; they need to degrade public confidence in science and scientists; they need to harm America’s future—and the world’s future—so that one of the wealthiest industries on Earth can glut and engorge itself in even more wealth.
  • The Professional Climate Denial for Profit Movement is really just free enterprise fighting regulations. It’s that classic old battle between unfettered capitalism and governments. Between free marked fundamentalists and taxes. And The Climate Denial for Profit Movement have put the science of climate science into that bag only because this science can lead to regulations. That’s it. There is nothing more to it. It has nothing to do with the science being wrong. It’s a matter of ideology and world view only. And greed. And blood money. And they’ll fight anyone and anything which interrupts their money flow.
  • It’s all about ideology. The corporate polluters have used the “it's leftist”, “it's socialism” and “ it's a tax scam” arguments since day one. NOT because such silly paranoid claims are true, or because the science is wrong, but simply because they cater to the tribe and worship right-wing conservative belief systems and unfettered anarcho capitalism and a free-market libertarian ideology -and they dont want regulations on their ability to pollute us / make money.
  • If you’re a corporate polluter and tell your tribe that something will lead to taxes, regulations and socialism, they will believe anything you tell them. If their built-in government hatred can be stimulated, they will believe in anything. They are programmed for it. Just hide your self interests in ideology and they’ll swallow your message like a dog will swallow a pill hidden in its food. It’s group think - tribalism. They will sacrifice science on their Ayn Rand altars.

The second National Task Force report on the Rule of Law & Democracy outlines how to curb political interference in government science and fix a broken appointments process.

"Objective data and research are essential to effective governance and democratic oversight. But over the last few decades, the safeguards meant to keep government research objective and publicly accessible have been steadily weakening. Recent administrations have manipulated the findings of government scientists and researchers, retaliated against career researchers for political reasons, invited outside special interests to shape research priorities, undermined and sidelined advisory committees staffed by scientists, and suppressed research and analysis from public view — often material that had previously been made available. In many cases, they have appeared to pay little political price for these missteps. This trend has culminated in the efforts of the current administration not only to politicize scientific and technical research on a range of topics, but also, at times, to undermine the value of objective facts themselves.
Now, we are at a crisis point, with almost weekly violations of previously respected safeguards."
  • The acting White House chief of staff reportedly instructed the secretary of commerce to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — a part of the Department of Commerce — issue a misleading statement in support of the president’s false assertion about the trajectory of a hurricane, contradicting an earlier statement released by the National Weather Service. The secretary of commerce reportedly threatened to fire top NOAA officials in pressuring them to act.
  • The Department of Agriculture relocated economists across the country after they published findings showing the financial harms to farmers of the administration’s trade policies.
  • The Interior Department reassigned its top climate scientist to an accounting role after he highlighted dangers posed by climate change.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted rules that prevent leading experts from serving on science advisory boards and encourage participation by industry-affiliated researchers.
  • The White House suppressed a report showing a toxic substance that is present in several states’ water supplies endangers human health at levels far lower than previously reported by the EPA.

Six whistleblowers and ex-government scientists describe how the Trump administration made them bury climate science – and why they won’t stay quiet



Takeaways
  • Because there is a very powerful industry who, like tobacco, uses billions of dollars attacking the science, protecting their money flow.
  • “Ive been listening to “dire predictions” all my life, is a common denier argument. Well, maybe, and do you know why?


Oil and gas industry rewards US lawmakers who oppose environmental protections – stud

Companies spent $84m on congressional campaigns in 2018, analysis of votes and political contributions shows"
We could have fixed it by now, like we did the ozone hole and acid rain problems.
Because of global actions we see restoration of ecosystems damaged by acid rain worldwide and we are also about to recover the ozone layer as well.
“The acid rain problem in Europe and North America has largely abated because of stronger SO2 and NOx emission controls, such as the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970, the Canada–United States Air Quality Agreement in 1991, and similar measures in Europe. In the United States the first phase of emission reductions took effect in 1995, and subsequent reductions followed”.
After Decades Of Global Action, The Ozone Layer Is On The Road To Recovery
And probably to the shock of all climate deniers out there; It was done without the installment of a global socialist illuminati dictatorship out to turn the world into a huge wind park.
In a rare — and much-needed — environmental win, a UN report says parts of the ozone layer could be fully healed by the 2030s.
THE CORRUPT REPUBLICAN PARTY:
Most republican politicians are puppets for the fossil fuel interests.
What is the current state of affairs after 70 years of this climate denial machine? In the US, at least 180 congressional members and senators are declared climate deniers. They’ve received more than US$82 million in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and its partners.
How US climate machine has left 180 deniers in Congress - Michael West



The March 1, 2017 memo, signed by Murray and addressed to Vice President Mike Pence, lists 14 requests, including the elimination of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan; a United States withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement; and at least a 50 percent cut to the staff at the Environmental Protection Agency. Other major overhauls include “a withdrawal and suspension” of the endangerment finding, a landmark EPA determination requiring the agency to regulate carbon emissions, and eliminating a federal tax credit for windmills and solar panels.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-coal-executives-action-plan-for-trump-is-made-public/

THE GOVERNMENT SOCIALIST SUBSIDIES TO FOSSIL FUELS
Taxpayers currently subsidize the oil industry by as much as $4.8 billion a year, with about half of that going to the big five oil companies—ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips—which get an average tax break of $3.34 on every barrel of domestic crude they produce.
Once intended to jump-start struggling domestic drillers, these incentives have become a tidy bonus for some of the world’s most profitable companies.
With Washington looking under the couch cushions for sources of new revenue, oil prices topping $100 a barrel, and the world feeling the heat from its dependence on fossil fuels, there’s been a renewed push to close these decades-old loopholes. But history suggests that Big Oil won’t let go of its perks without a brawl.
Why are taxpayers subsidising the oil and gas companies that jeopardise our future?
Instead of hoping market forces solve the climate crisis, the government needs to stop giving tax breaks to polluters
Global fossil fuel subsidies totaled $544 billion in 2012, compared to only $101 billion for renewables. The International Monetary Fund estimates fossil fuel subsidies for 2015 to be $5.3 trillion - an amount equal to 6.5% of global GDP. More than 40% of this represents subsidies for coal, the most environmentally damaging of all fossil fuels. Although not good news on its face, the disproportionate funding for fossil fuels represents a tremendous opportunity to shift funding to renewable energy without an overall increase in costs.
A new paper published in Climatic Change estimates that when we account for the pollution costs associated with our energy sources, gasoline costs an extra $3.80 per gallon, diesel an additional $4.80 per gallon, coal a further 24 cents per kilowatt-hour, and natural gas another 11 cents per kilowatt-hour that we don’t see in our fuel or energy bills.
How Big Oil Clings to Billions in Government Giveaways
Corporate polluters always attack environmental laws.
These laws are made so that you and I can enjoy clean air and waters. These same laws are called “tax scams” by the polluters. The term “tax scam” will very likely be embraced by anyone who doesn’t like “the government” in the first place.
The EPA was created to protect citizens from pollutions and environmental hazards. But he EPA is now a joke in Trumps America. It’s been hijacked by fossil fuel puppets and climate deniers. FFS, their new chief is a former coal lobbyist.
Trumps America is fossil fuels America. How proud deniers must be. Let them eat mercury, as they did lead, asbestos, DDT, mercury nicotine and C02, you know, those other "hoaxes" science warned about. And as usual, these environmental laws will be renamed "tax scams" by the fossil fuels front group propaganda machine, to pander their bent over tribe of gullibles who, as usual, will swallow any anti-governmental lie they design, just because they believe being pro-government makes you a socialist.
And when fossil fuel interests get bogged down in the candy store alone, this is what happens:
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to change the way it calculates the health risks of air pollution, a shift that would make it easier to roll back a key climate change rule because it would result in far fewer predicted deaths from pollution, according to five people with knowledge of the agency’s plans.
More:
President Trump has announced sweeping changes to the Endangered Species Act, changes that will benefit big polluters at the expense of America's most vulnerable animals.
Donald Trump has announced a replacement for the Clean Power Plan, one that would create hundreds of millions more tons of carbon pollution
Trump officials weaken protections for animals near extinction
Changes to how Endangered Species Act is implemented come as world scientists warn biodiversity crisis will put humanity at risk


_____________________________________


Et partiuavhengig arbeidsutvalg, bestående av tidligere embetsmenn tilknyttet regjeringen, rapporterer om «nesten ukentlige brudd» på retningslinjer som skal beskytte objektiv forskning.

Forskningsfunn manipuleres for egen politisk vinning, særinteresser har altfor høy innflytelse, og forskere blir gjort til skyteskiver for ideologiske grunner.

Det mener et parti-uavhengig arbeidsutvalg bestående av tidligere embetsmenn i regjeringen.

Tiltak ment å sikre at offentlig forskning holdes objektiv og tilgjengelig for folk flest har blitt «stadig svakere» under de siste regjeringene, og har nådd et bunnivå under Trump, ifølge en ny rapport fra National Task Force on Rule of Law and Democracy.

Det er nå «nesten ukentlige brudd» på de tidligere så høyt verdsatte retningslinjene, heter det i rapporten.

Videre sies det at dagens regjering forsøker «ikke bare velger å gjøre politikk ut av forskning innen rekke felt, men til tider også forsøker å undergrave verdien av objektive fakta generelt sett».

https://www.abcnyheter.no/nyheter/verden/2019/10/09/195616983/trump-administrasjonens-krig-mot-vitenskapen-har-nadd-et-kritisk-punkt

http://online.fliphtml5.com/qydua/baaf/?fbclid=IwAR3foQ8iOch9fHctZHKiZwOXgOJQjgkFU0-9LbVQ5SFiWmD4risZ5EzQpd8#p=3

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