|
Columnists
Sustainability
and Sustainable Development
Nicholas
R. Hild, PhD Professor ASU
Polytechnic
Nicholas
R. Hild, PhD., Professor, Environmental Technology Management, Arizona
State University College of Technology and Innovation, has extensive
experience in Environmental Management in the southwestern U.S. Dr. Hild
can be reached at 480-727-1309 and by email at DrNick@asu.edu.
"...
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own
facts!" Sen.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-NY
Dec/Jan
2007/8
We
are beginning to see a lot in the press about the Hollywood set—‘stars’
like DiCaprio, Penn, Redford, and a few others— and rock and rollers
like Coldplay and even Paul McCartney who are touting the many ways we can
reduce our own personal carbon footprint. Global climate change has, in
fact, become the latest glitz-crowd campaign mantra.
But,
what really tripped my trigger was the recent news that former VP Al Gore’s
‘undocumented’ documentary, An Inconvenient Truth,
was awarded an Oscar! Of course, the Academy had to invent a whole new
category just to recognize the film—something about Creative Extreme
Global Fighting, maybe?…(the competition in that group was limited,
for sure).
Well,
OK, we can chalk that up to the campaign mantra. But wait! Now the man
behind the film himself has been awarded the Nobel Prize, you say? Isn’t
that supposed to be an award that has substantial scientific credibility?
What’s next? The Da Vinci Code?
While
the film was beautiful in a haunting sort of way, there is a
paucity of ‘documentation’ used to substantiate claims made that the
(carbon-clouded) sky is falling. Even the projections that increased
warming will melt Greenland’s coastal ice and raise the oceans by as
much as 20 feet, were thrown out with nary a credible source to back it
up. No wonder the glitz-crowd are righteous when they pontificate their
mantras—they’re operating only on faith in Gore’s prognostications;
forget all that scientific stuff!
There
is also a complete lack of anything about the positive benefits
that increased CO2 levels have had in greening the forest lands in the
northern hemisphere, which, in turn, evaporates water faster than at
cooler temperatures. Resulting clouds that form from all that evaporation,
cool the surface lands which has enhanced agricultural production and
benefited every consumer with better produce, foods, and lower prices at
the grocery store. Just ask Greenland farmers about that—but, of course,
the film wasn’t designed to show positives; only scenarios that make
good press for the doomsday crowd.
The
fact is, global climate change is happening. But, the ‘jury’
(of global climate scientists) has yet to come to an
agreement on 1) the cause(s); 2) the accuracy of the models used to make
predictions; 3) what variables to use in the models; 4) how much of the
carbon is human-caused; and/or 5) in the end, what amount of warming can
we reduce if we successfully reduce all human-caused carbon
emissions (even if we could)?
It
has been said before: statistics lie and liars use statistics (or not) to
prove their own points. That’s another reason why the Hollywood set
probably eschews statistics. Or, at least it’s a good excuse for NOT
citing any.
Our
esteemed ETM Professor and mathematician Dr. Danny Peterson once noted
that 72.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot anyway—or maybe
that was 71%—but, who’s counting. The point is, you have to dig deeper
into the science to know whether (and how) we need to take any given
action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—especially when we are
bombarded with so much ‘mis-information’ that we tend to just
dismiss anything after awhile, and that isn’t the right response either.
We all need to do our part but we just need to know what that is!
It
is not my purpose to be a nattering nay-bob of negativity (to quote
a former VP), when it comes to our need to address global climate change,
but the advent of internet "bloggers," radio talk shows hosted
by Rush Limbaugh-types, and movie bully pulpit-teers— have allowed so
many people to become legends in their own minds that we really need to be
reminded that, when it comes to this latest environmental crisis, there
are just not many known "facts" that we can count on.
In
next issue, I will conclude this discussion with some enlightening pearls
of wisdom, But, for now, I will leave you with these few thoughts until
then:
…our
Children’s, Children’s, Children ——
2008/1234
|
