Climate Change Think Global, Act Local in Northeast Wisconsin
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OF NORTHEAST WISCONSIN j C ELEBRATING 34 YEARS OF WORKING TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN N ORTHEAST W ISCONSIN i SPRING 2019 Climate Change Think Global, Act Local in Northeast Wisconsin You are here Introduction by CWAC President Dean Hoegger In August of 2016, the EPA released What Climate Change President Donald Trump recently escalated his denial of Means for Wisconsin and the WDNR co-authored Wisconsin’s global warming with a Tweet in which he quoted a noted Changing Climate: Impacts and Adaptation. Both note we climate change skeptic who stated that climate change is “fake will see more negative than positive impacts on human science.” Yet, according to the government’s National Climate health and the environment. Clearly, it is time to prepare for Assessment, we are already feeling its impacts in the U.S. The climate change, and it is time to reduce our personal impacts President’s response was, “I don’t believe it.” The Pentagon on global warming. Learn more about climate change in NE and the intelligence community have also released reports Wisconsin in this issue. that warn climate change poses a threat to national security. n Clean Water Action Council News j 1 Merchants of Doubt are Losing Their did conduct research didn’t get their work peer-reviewed. All legitimate research is subjected to peer review, an exhaustive Battle with Climate Change examination of their research by their scientific peers to By Charlie Frisk determine if the research is without bias “Doubt is our product,” a cigarette or errors. An unwillingness to submit executive once observed, “since it is the their research to peer review is an best means of competing with the ‘body admittance that their research would not of fact’ that exists in the minds of the withstand the rigors of the review. general public. So, how can a few individuals, This is a story about two guys named most of whom have been on the wrong Fred Singer and Fred Seitz. Both men side of every scientific debate, have began their lives as highly respected such an impact on public opinion? physicists, and both were instrumental To start, they have huge amounts of in the Manhattan Project to develop the money behind them. In the case of atomic bomb. Unfortunately, they spent Singer and Seitz, their experience in the the latter decades of their careers using Manhattan project gave them contacts their reputation to get very wealthy as in the highest levels of government and hired guns for the industry. industry. George H.W. Bush referred to Singer and Seitz as “my Seitz and Singer started their pseudo-science careers scientists”. working for the tobacco industry. Seitz received $45 million Secondly, the press bends over backward to present both from the R.J. Reynolds Corporation to conduct “research” to sides of an issue. Even if there are thousands of scientists who create doubt that cigarette tar causes cancer. Singer worked believe that climate change is happening, and only a handful for both Phillip Morris and the Tobacco Institute on creating of deniers, the press presents it as if there is a robust scientific doubt that second-hand smoke had any deleterious effects. debate over the issue. Then, we have news stations such as Fox They both moved on from their work with tobacco News that only present the viewpoint of the deniers. companies to work for the power industry trying to create Fortunately, it appears that the “merchants of doubt” are doubt that sulfur dioxide from burning coal was the major losing their battle for the minds of the public. A recent study cause of acid rain. After that failed attempt, they worked by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication for the CFC industry trying to convince the public that the found that 73% of Americans believe in climate change, and 72 thinning ozone layer was caused by volcanoes rather than the % believe it is personally important to them. Just a few years indiscriminate use of CFCs. Seitz and Singer have been on the ago those statistics were hovering around 50%. The Yale study wrong side of every scientific debate they have weighed in on, determined that the extreme weather events of the past few but there is always another corporation ready to hire them. years are most responsible for driving the change in opinion. More recently they have been the two scientists best Unfortunately, most members of one entire political party known for being “global climate change deniers”. are on record as officially being deniers. Only when the public The scientific consensus that global climate change is is close to 100% agreement on climate change can that party to happening and is driven primarily by human activities is be forced to do anything about it. about as close to 100% as scientists ever get on anything. The What can you do to help? The next time someone says to ‘deniers’ have never been more than a dozen individuals, and you that they believe there is legitimate scientific debate on they have all been paid employees of either the power industry climate change, be prepared to counter with these points. or conservative think tanks. In the case of Singer and Seitz, they were almost always receiving paychecks from both. Seitz • The scientific community has reached a consensus that recently passed away, Singer is still working for the Heartland climate change is happening and is caused by human impact. Institute, a right wing think tank funded by Exxon and the The consensus on climate change is as strong as on the “germ Koch brothers. theory of disease”. Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to • The denier “scientists” have never been more than the understand something when his salary depends on his not handful of individuals, never more than a dozen. understanding it.” Most of the hired guns don’t even try to • The deniers have all been very well paid by industry and understand real science; they accept that they are paid shills for conservative think tanks such as the Heartland Institute, the power industry. a right-wing think tank funded by Exxon and the Koch Most deniers have no actual training in climate or brothers. meteorology. These deniers have done almost no original scientific research on any of the issues they weighed in on, • Climate change is moving more rapidly than even the top their focus surrounds writing opinion papers attacking the researchers had predicted, we do not have time to waste if we research and opinions of the real climate scientists. Those that want our descendants to have a decent world to live in. 2 i Clean Water Action Council News Global Climate Change and the Affects DNR has projected that many of Wisconsin’s white water rivers will be consistently too low for paddlers all summer unless we It Has on Wisconsin turn this global climate change thing around. By: Charlie Frisk I enjoy grouse hunting, although I can rarely hit them. When I think about global climate change, I usually focus Grouse run on a ten-year cycle between high and low on global impacts; after all, global is in the name. However, populations. The falls of 2018-20 grouse were supposed to be there are many impacts already being felt right here in at the peak of their cycle. This was going to be perfect for me. Wisconsin. My bird dog is 10, and although slowing down a little, I figured My favorite winter recreation is cross-country skiing. she still had three good years in her. Unfortunately, West Nile When I moved to Wisconsin in 1983, most winters provided Virus, a disease transmitted by mosquitos, decimated the good skiing conditions from at least December through Midwest grouse population. It appears that there will be no February. Now, cross-country skiing is more hit or miss. peak in the cycle. This year there was little or no skiing through the New Year, It is very difficult to prove that West Nile Virus is depending on where you were in Wisconsin. Then we had becoming more of a problem in the Midwest because of global great snowfall, followed by the Polar Vortex, and it looked like climate change, but I believe the circumstantial evidence is there would be good conditions for the rest of winter. strong. According to Kim Knowlton, senior scientist and No such luck. The extreme cold was followed by deputy director of the Natural Resource Defense Council, “A temperatures in the 40s and the beautiful snow turned to slush. longer warm-weather season and changing rainfall patterns Winters like what we had in December and January are are allowing the insects that can transmit disease to humans now more the rule than the exception. To have consistently and wildlife to thrive for longer periods each year, and to good skiing, I might have to move to Canada. simultaneously move into broader areas.” As the climate In the summer, my favorite recreation activity is white- warms, we can expect diseases and pests that were formerly water canoeing. Climate change is impacting this as well. found further south to move into Wisconsin. When I lived in Rivers are becoming a lot flashier, meaning that their high- Southwest Iowa in the late 70s-early 80s, we had cockroaches water levels are higher, and their lows are lower. The late Herb and termites. When I moved to Northeast Wisconsin I left Buettner, pioneer of the rafting industry on the Wolf River, told them behind. I will not be one bit surprised if they catch up me he could never remember a summer in the early decades with me in the next couple of decades.