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Climate change
From SourceWatch
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This is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's climate change project. |
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The term climate change is used to refer to changes in the Earth's climate. Generally, this is taken to regard changes in temperature, by monitoring averages, extremes, durations, and geographic coverages. 'Climate change' is caused by natural forces including, but not limited to, human activities.
"When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities. --U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [1]
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Examples of climate change
In the August 30, 2005, Boston Globe article "Katrina's Real Name," Ross Gelbspan wrote:
- "When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause was global warming.
- "When 124-mile-an-hour winds shut down nuclear plants in Scandinavia and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland and the United Kingdom, the driver was global warming.
- "When a severe drought in the Midwest dropped water levels in the Missouri River to their lowest on record earlier this summer, the reason was global warming. Note: "worst drought since 1988".
- "In July, when the worst drought on record triggered wildfires in Spain and Portugal and left water levels in France at their lowest in 30 years, the explanation was global warming.
- "When a lethal heat wave in Arizona kept temperatures above 110 degrees and killed more than 20 people in one week, the culprit was global warming.
- "And when the Indian city of Bombay (Mumbai) received 37 inches of rain in one day -- killing 1,000 people and disrupting the lives of 20 million others -- the villain was global warming."
Climate change programs in the United States
Global Warming Controversy
Global Warming's Deadly Denial
Reviewing the continued campaign by climate change skeptics, David McKnight, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales (Australia), notes that there several reasons why companies such as Exxon have had some success playing the global warming denial card. "First, the implications of the science are frightening. Shifting to renewable energy will be costly and disruptive. Second, doubt is an easy product to sell. Climate denial tells us what we all secretly want to hear. Third, science is portrayed as political orthodoxy rather than objective knowledge, a curiously postmodern argument," he writes. While the tobacco industry is often referred to as the template for the fossil fuel industry's campaign, McKnight argues that there is an important distinction. "There are no 'smoke-free areas' on the planet. Climate denial may turn out to be the world's most deadly PR campaign," he concludes. [1]
Related SourceWatch & Congresspedia Resources
References and further reading
The links below present differing opinions regarding the extent and existence of various causes for climate change.
Documents & Reports
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- Chris Mooney, "Some Like It Hot," Mother Jones, May/June 2005: "Forty public policy groups have this in common: They seek to undermine the scientific consensus that humans are causing the earth to overheat. And they all get money from ExxonMobil.
Articles & Commentary on Climate Change
Resources on Climate Change
Articles and resources
Related SourceWatch articles
References
- ↑ "The Climate Change Smoke Screen", Sydney Morning Herald, August 2, 2008
