07/19/2017
Here is another example of the outrageous conduct of the Trump administration: reassigning climate scientists to a nothing/nowhere job to take them away from expressing themselves-- and allowing their expertise and dedication to go right down the toilet.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/im-a-scientist-the-trump-administration-reassigned-me-for-speaking-up-about-climate-change/2017/07/19/389b8dce-6b12-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.017f497ceccf
Opinion | I’m a scientist. I’m blowing the whistle on the Trump administration.
I was reassigned to an unrelated job in the accounting office that collects royalty checks from fossil fuel companies.
04/30/2017
Here are some photo's from the People's Climate March. Much of the crowd's mood seemed hostile to our administration, including the protester's shouts of "SHAME" as they walked past the DC Trump Plaza.
04/27/2017
Remember the People's March for the Climate is THIS SATURDAY in Washington DC!!
03/27/2017
Made a comment to the Star's article about Trump suspending the Clean Power Plan this morning: two hours later it was off of the website!
http://www.winchesterstar.com/associated_press/washington/epa-chief-trump-to-undo-obama-plan-to-curb-global/article_1ccd4269-87bd-5be4-a38a-0fd04a649dce.html
EPA chief: Trump to undo Obama plan to curb global warming
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says President Donald Trump in the coming days will sign a new executive order that unravels his predecessor's sweeping plan
03/10/2017
My letter in The Star today:
Coffin nail
Last July, Kip Rutherford, a CPA practicing in Wi******er, gave The Star an entertaining and informative article about climate change based on the data available online from the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport at Martinsburg.
With an expert eye for the numbers and nearly 90 years of available temperature data, Mr. Rutherford concluded that our average mean temperatures showed a cooling trend from 1926 to 1975, with a mild warming trend from 1976 to present, but the trend for the entire 90 years was relatively flat. He concluded that “the Northern Valley — our “little piece of Heaven” — has been blessed and has escaped thus far the well-publicized pattern of global warming.”
What a difference the new year makes! NOAA reports that 2016 was the warmest year in their 137-year series, and the third consecutive year a new global annual temperature record has been set. Data from the Martinsburg airport shows that the February average maximum daily temperature was 56° Fahrenheit, a stunning 10 degrees above the February average monthly maximum temp for the previous 10 years and the highest February value ever recorded.
While surely one swallow does not a summer make, these events serve to drive yet another nail into the coffin for climate-change deniers. Far from being the ‘hoax’ described by local contrarians and our new president, climate change is a real, tangible, and significant threat to our planet and to humanity.
The insidious but ultimately apocalyptic changes that are so apparent now in the more northern latitudes are at last coming to the Shenandoah Valley.
Charles Hagan
Wi******er
02/07/2017
What was the 'worst case scenario' for the passengers of the Titanic on their transit of the North Atlantic on this 'unsinkable' ship? What did the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum feel was the worst possible outcome when Vesuvius began belching smoke and ash in 79AD?
It's hard to estimate what the worst possible outcome could be when you do not, or can not, have all the facts. My latest contribution to Conservation Price William explores the possible worst scenario regarding our climate future. Hope you enjoy it--and the beautiful photos by Steve Tabone & Ernie Sears!
http://www.cpwtoday.com/carbonpocalyspe.html
Carbonpocalyspe
By the fall of 2016, conservationists had a good idea of what the future of global environmentalism would look like after the election of Hillary Clinton. The Democratic campaign had given commendable deference to the urgency and necessity of a national commitment to fight climate change and enact…
01/24/2017
https://medium.com//trump-putin-and-the-pipelines-to-nowhere-742d745ce8fd?ICID=ref_fark #.ae7zx8pwx
This is the article by Alex Steffen that is the subject of my Forum letter in the Wi******er STAR today. A very interesting perspective on recent politics and should be required reading!!!
Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere
You can’t understand what Trump’s doing to America without understanding the “Carbon Bubble”
01/23/2017
Here is Nick Snow's letter that ran in the STAR on Jan 16th.
Excellent!!!
"FOLLOW THE MONEY"
NICK SNOW
Max Totten correctly writes that “ following the money” can separate “ fake news” from facts. Trust Max on this as he says he “ represented the chemical industry regarding hazardous materials” (Open Forum, March 9, 2013) for years.
Max correctly reports that in the 1960s the sugar industry paid three researchers thousands of dollars. Stanford scientist Stan Glantz concluded these payments were “ to derail the discussion about [the harmful effects of] sugar for decades.” Science understands transparency in research requires “ following the money.” Since the 1980s, most prestigious scientific and medical journals require funding source disclosure. Unfortunately, bloggers and “fake news” outlets do not.
Like the sugar industry in the ’ 60s, the to***co and fossil fuel industries have “ derailed the discussion.” Glantz has “followed the money” on these industries. Max’s scientist concluded that the to***co industry, “ engaged in antitrust activities, fraud, covering things up.”
By “ following the money,”Glantz concluded, “ the same people and companies that the to***co companies hired to create doubt and confusion about the dangers of smoking subsequently went to work for the petrochemical companies to do the same.”
Exxon was one of the leaders of published climate research in the 1970s. According to Scientific American, their then senior scientist, James Black, “warned Exxon that doubling CO2 gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees [C].”
A decade later, when Rex Tillerson became general manager of ExxonUSA, “ Exxon became a leader in campaigns of confusion ... question[ ing] the scientific basis for concern about climate change.”
Scientific American continued, “Since then, Exxon has spent more than $ 30 million on think tanks that promote climate denial.” By “ following the money,” Exxon, like the sugar and to***co industries, paid “ to derail discussion” of carbon pollution for decades.
Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax. Barbara Comstock’s House Science Committee recently tweeted a blog post claiming that climate change is not happening because some “ cherry- picked” regions of the earth’s surface were cooler in October than the previous month. This blog post neglected to say this “cherry-picked” region was, in fact, warmer in November. Facts matter.
Previous Republican presidential candidates campaigned accepting climate change. For example, George H. W. Bush, declared, “Those who think we’re powerless to do anything about the greenhouse effect, are forgetting about the White House effect.” Since 1988, the then warmest year, the earth is more than a degree Fahrenheit hotter.
“ Following the money,” is it surprising that Trump and the Comstock House Science committee deny the scientific consensus on climate change? “Following the money,” is it surprising they would reject the Paris climate-change accord? “ Following the money,” is it surprising they would abolish the EPA? Will Max “ cherry- pick” Glantz’s sugar-industry paper, denying his other conclusions?
Nick Snow resides in Millwood.
05/18/2017
03/27/2017
03/04/2017
01/24/2017