Sixty Canadian scientists and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, dispute "alarmist forecasts" about global warming. But these are just a few stray voices.Overwhelmingly, scientific consensus is that, not only are we experiencing global warming, but we are the chief culprits. That's the opinion of 2,500 scientists at The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. International science academies, The American Meteorological Society, The American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Geophysical Union all express similar sentiments.
What the hell do they know?
Rush Limbaugh snorts, "This hysteric global warming is unsupportable by facts." He and others like him needlessly politicize a question of scientific fact having nothing to do with liberal or conservative ideologies.
Fortunately, the Lehigh Valley is taking a very proactive approach. The U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement was endorsed last July by Mayors Ed Pawlowski of Allentown, John Callahan of Bethlehem and Phil Mitman of Easton. Mitman's words at the time, "It's a no-brainer, right?" By October, Don Cunningham and John Stoffa, the execs in Lehigh and Northampton County, had a similar, county-level, agreement. And for the first time in years, heavy hitters from all sides of the political spectrum are looking seriously at some form of rail transportation.
The latest forward step is a series of two area presentations this week by Lance Simmens, Special Assistant to the Governor. Lance is one of 1,000 people selected and trained to promote awareness and education by The Climate Project. What I like is that there are things we can do, individually, that really help.
“The easiest thing I found that makes a huge difference is properly inflated tires. You can cut out 250 pounds of carbon dioxide emission per year and save $840 in gas if your tires are inflated properly. If everyone did it, nationwide, pollution would come down by two percent in one year.” What's so hard about that? Nothing very political there.
On Tuesday, Cedar Crest College will host Simmens at 7:30 PM in the Alumnae Hall Auditorium. On Wednesday, 7 PM, in Moravian College's Foy Hall, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan will introduce Simmens.
10 comments:
I hope they're not planning to blame bloggers for all the hot air we are putting out online!
As always, I enjoy reading your blog and always learn something from your articles. I'll be checking my tires tomorrow.
What a very nice thing to say! Looks like our mechanics have been right all along!
I'm glad the mayors of the Valley's three biggest cities have signed the Climate Protection Agreement and SAY how concerned they are, but I haven't heard about any policy changes on their part that would actually DO anything to reduce the area's carbon emissions.
For example: Bethlehem is about to witness one of the largest building projects in its history. Mayor Callahan could be the catalyst to make sure that "green" building standards are put in place before construction is started. The same is true of the sizable development projects proposed for Easton and Allentown. New government buildings have been erected in both Northampton and Lehigh Counties. What environmentally friendly building techniques do they demonstrate?
If all of these leaders—at the city, county, and state level—would get together and demand smart regional planning to manage sprawl, instead of encouraging us to be a magnet for further CO2-producing traffic, that would be a giant step toward curbing our emissions.
Incidentally, I applied to The Climate Project to be trained, but was turned down because there was such a plethora of qualified presenters in our area. This speaks well of the willingness of people in the Valley to confront this issue. If only our "leaders" were so willing...
Rad, This is where we come in. Cunningham and Stoffa have both started making changes on the county level. We have a legal basis for insuring that Bethlehem's casino project is environmentally friendly. I don't think things will happen overnight. But they have to happen soon or we won't be around to complain.
One of the most heinous lies Ruah and all the mindless robots tell is that 'we have more trees now than we did over 200 years ago'.
Rush could tell 20,000,000 imbeciles that the Emporer is 500 feet tall and they would say: "The Emporer is 500 feet tall."
yeah, but what about only using one square of t-paper like that waco Sheril Croooooow is talking. If you ever meet her, don't shake her hand.
Hey, at least it's biodegradable.
Global warming is a hoax. How do we know that? Well, in a number of ways. Get a global warning advocate to explain the Jurassic period to you. Check the UN IPP report and see how they discovered a huge mistake pertaining to the rising of the waters. Look at the change in words. It is no longer Global Warming it is Climate Change. When the bad guys are losing, they change the name,eg. abortionists are pro-choice, liberals are now progressives. Note also that ethanol will not solve our problem for a number of reason one being that you have to burn a hundred gallons of petroleum to get ninety gallons of ethanol, a product that will make $3 a gallon gas look good.
It's a mistake to view global warming as a liberal or conservative issue. It's a matter of scientific theory. It's not universally accepted, but it's pretty damn close. I'll say this much. Scientists can be wrong. They'll readily acknowledge that because ... well, they're scientists. Just in the past few years, we've learned all sorts of things about animal behavior that were previously considered absurd. Or the native population in America, we've recently learned, is much older than was commonly though just ten years ago.
Right now, the scientific consensus is that we are undergoing global warming, and that human behavior is the chief cause. Global warming is important because it results in climate change. Nobody is changing terms, as you suggest. If these predictions are true, it is prudent to take steps to prevewnt some of the more dire consequences. It might save the planet for our grandchildren. And that's not rocket science.
Speaking of name changes, what do you call people who oppose abortion - why they're prolife. So far as I know, liberals have always been called progressives, so I don't really get that point.
Your comments about ethanol are valid. There are no magic bullets that will suddenly solve everything. We've gone from the bronze age to the iron age, and right now, we're in the oil stage. It won't last. We'll adapt to something better or die.
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