Last night The Colbert Report gave us one of those episodes that pivot in the middle from comedy to that transcendent, swooning, oh-my-god-real-life-is-more-absurd feeling. This took place when GM Chariman Bob Lutz (pictured below) informed Colbert’s fictional persona that 32,000 respected scientists shared his view that climate change is caused by “sunspot activity.”
If you’re done mourning David Foster Wallace, a literary ally of environmentalism, you might consider getting started on mourning Philip Clapp, who spent his career refuting ridiculousness of the Bob Lutz variety. The United States does not have an environmental lobby the same way it has a tobacco lobby, but Clapp’s National Environmental Trust was the closest thing. As its director, he pressured Clinton, Bush, and even Gore, to take serious action on climate change, advocating in vain for the Kyoto treaty. He later moved to the Pew Charitable Trusts, where he lampooned Bush’s weak, late, concession to some form of American involvement in an international treaty on emissions. Let’s take a moment to remember that environmentalism needs pinstriped Capitol Hill operators with integrity, as well as the rumpled journalists/artists/farmer types.
Image: flickr/Rockershirt
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Please spare me your righteous indignation and attempted humor on the subject of so-called “global warming.” I also like how your magazine and the rest of the media has now taken to calling it “climate change” instead of “global warming.” What a convenient and disingenuous change of rhetoric – now you can have it both ways, eh? If the climate fails to get warmer, and instead gets colder, you can then say, “See? Climate change! We were right!” Give me a break! Climate change has been happening throughout Earth’s long history – millions and even billions of years before mankind came on the scene, and began burning petroleum products for fuel. Climate change IS caused by sunspot activity and other astronomical events, and Bob Lutz is right! Your leftist “political correctness” on this subject is truly disgusting. Global warming is a giant HOAX, perpetrated by socialists/communists who want to use it as an excuse for their social engineering projects, and their attempted control of the masses: “What’s your carbon footprint, you evil industrialized human??? You should die off so the planet can survive!!!” The climate data actually suggests that if anything, we are entering another ICE AGE, because the average global temperature has been getting steadily cooler every year. The fact that Discover is toeing the communist party’s line on global warming is a discredit to your magazine. Enough with the lies, already!!! And please explain why your magazine and the rest of the media are now generically calling it “climate change” instead of “global warming.” Could it be because you are now trying to back away from your own lies, and have it both ways? I think so.
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September 25th, 2008 at 12:59 am
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We have a fraction of the world’s biomass as forests that existed two hundred years ago. These giants (see Redwoods, Brazil, West Virginia, American Chestnut, etc.) of the plant world removed carbon from the think veil of atmosphere and stored the carbon from the air into cellulose, etc. Even larger stores of carbon existed in the ocean sediments. It took millions of years to store those unique collections of organic chemicals but we are removing them from the ground and putting the carbon into the atmosphere. It is difficult for a hillbilly like me to imagine how long the time period was to store the coals, natural gas, and oil, but it really bogles my mind to think that we may have released 30-40% of those carbon-rich energy stores during the last 130 years. Who are you calling a socialist/Communist? You must be calling Revelle a Communist. He’s the researcher who contradicts your average global temperatures are getting steadily cooler. ANd it you are right, are you comfortable with that?
November 11th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
[...] not fond of domestic cars either. Remember when GM Chairman, Bob Lutz, told Stephen Colbert that climate change is caused by sun spots? Yeah, that’s the guy that ran GM into the ground. [...]
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I don’t see how socially progressive ideas, especially those aimed at using more efficient/cleaner energy sources, are an attempt to control the masses. To me, most of them seem to be aimed at improving the efficiency of industry itself.
CO2 isn’t the only byproduct emmitted by burning fossil fuels. Smog isn’t attractive; I don’t care who you ask, they’ll agree.
While solar cycles and variation are know to have a major effect on the climate, the greenhouse effect is also well understood. This idea wasn’t introduced by Al Gore. It was introduced by scientists. Arguing that an increase in greenhouse gases doesn’t affect the environment is like arguing that the world is flat. And that’s ridiculous, no matter what religion or political ideology you (however overzealously) follow.
It’s obvious the GM Chairman has a vested interest and would benefit from supporting the idea that global warming is a hoax. It’s a threat. But that’s what this is all about.
“You can’t sit on the lid of progress. If you do, you will be blown to pieces. “
-Henry J. Kaiser
http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse.htm
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