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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2019)
OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager PRO-CON Will President Trump’s new climate change panel give him good advice? AP Photo/Noah Berger Firefighters monitor a backfire while battling the Ranch Fire in 2018 near Ladoga, Calif. The years with the most acres burned by wildfires have some of the hottest temperatures, an Associated Press analysis of fire and weather data found. As human-caused climate change has warmed the world over the past 35 years, the land consumed in flames has more than doubled. PRO: Climate science needs critical review by skeptical experts CON: Trump has ignored every warning about climate change W W ASHINGTON — Is global are derived from highly unrealistic sce- narios; and positive impacts, such as less warming a looming catastro- phe? President Donald Trump ferocious winter storms, are minimized has often said he doesn’t think so, even or ignored. What would a more honest while his administration continues to accounting of all the possible impacts of release official reports warning that it is. climate change look like? The president will soon find out who is Third, surface temperature data sets right by convening a high-level commis- appear to have been manipulated to show sion to do a critical review of the fourth more warming in the past century than has National Climate Assessment issued last occurred. The new commission should November and other government reports. insist that the debate be based on scrupu- lously reliable data. Surprisingly, most of the climate sci- ence funded by the federal government Since news of the proposed review has never been subjected to the kind of leaked out in February, a furious campaign rigorous and exhaustive review to stop it has been mounted by the that is common practice for other federal climate bureaucracy and important scientific issues and their allies in the climate industrial major engineering projects. complex. For example, when NASA was On the surface, this seems puz- zling. If the alarmists are confi- putting men on the moon, every dent that the science contained piece of equipment and every cal- culation were scrutinized from in the official reports is spot on, Myron every possible angle simply they should welcome a review that Ebell because if anything went wrong would finally put to rest the doubts the mission would fail. that have been raised. Serious problems and shortcomings On the other hand, their opposition sug- gests that the science behind the climate with official climate science have been consensus is highly suspect and cannot raised repeatedly in the past by highly withstand critical review. In other words, qualified scientists such as Princeton’s they’ve been peddling junk and are about brilliant physics professor William Hap- per, only to be ignored or dismissed by the to be found out. federal agencies in charge of producing A press release from one alarmist pres- sure group was headlined: “58 Senior the reports. Yet the conclusions and predictions Military and National Security Leaders made in these official climate science Denounce NSC Climate Panel.” reports are the basis for proposed energy Denouncing an expert review seems policies that could cost trillions of dollars a most inappropriate response, and espe- cially to one that is designed to be open in less than a decade and tens of trillions and subject to further review by other of dollars over several decades. Given the magnitude of the potential experts, such as the National Academies costs involved, taking on trust the bureau- of Science. cratic processes that have led to offi- I wonder if environmental pres- sure groups have ever denounced doing cial consensus is simply foolish. Thus the another environmental review of projects review to be undertaken by the proposed President’s Commission on Climate Secu- — for example, the Keystone XL pipeline rity is long overdue. — they are trying to stop. To mention only three major issues Myron Ebell is a prominent climate among many that need to be scrutinized: change denier and director of the Cen- ter for Energy and Environment at the First, the computer models used have predicted far more warming than has Competitive Enterprise Institute, which occurred over the past 40 years. Why have is financed in part by fossil fuel compa- nies. He was appointed in 2016 by Pres- such models failed and why are they still ident Trump to lead the transition team used are important questions. Second, predictions of the negative for the U.S. Environmental Protection impacts of warming, such as sea level rise, Agency. ity will be ignored by this panel and this ASHINGTON — Donald Trump has ignored every warn- administration. ing about the dire threat that The likelihood of fossil fuel-funded, climate change poses to our nation. climate-denying Happer accurately advis- ing Trump on the security threats of cli- Whether alarms have come from top mate change are the same as Joe Camel climate scientists, our military, national security leaders, businesses or the millions telling you to quit smoking — it’s not going to happen. of grassroots activists demanding action, Consider Happer’s long record of deny- Trump has buried his head in the sand, ing the reality of the climate crisis while ignoring all the evidence. taking money from the fossil-fuel industry. That’s why every American should He is a former chair of the board of look skeptically at the new panel Trump directors at the Exxon-funded George C. claims will analyze the threat of climate Marshall Institute. He was caught in a change to our national security. sting accepting payment of $250 When you look closely at the an hour to produce a pro-fossil fuel climate denier Trump has named report. His CO2 Coalition raked in to lead this panel, it’s clear that thousands from coal companies. it will be nothing more than a With all this corporate-polluter front for continued inaction and money, it’s no surprise that Happer ignorance. is parroting their talking points. After a historically strong hur- ricane and wildfire season, we’re In 2015, he told Congress that Rob already witnessing the devastation the world has too little of the car- Vessels bon pollution that fuels the climate climate change can cause — and crisis and claimed it is too cold, this is just the beginning. Report after report has detailed the food even as we shatter all-time temperature records. shortages, droughts and global turmoil to And that’s just part of Happer’s pat- come as climate change gets worse. tern of denial. He has even gone so far The National Climate Assessment as to say that carbon pollution should be found that if we don’t take action, cli- mate disruption poses a major threat to our viewed as an asset rather than a pollutant health, safety and economy. and compared climate science that saves The Intergovernmental Panel on Cli- lives to the “demonization of poor Jews mate Change’s report shows that we have under Hitler.” 12 years to act decisively to prevent the It doesn’t make sense, but denial of most catastrophic effects of the climate reality never does. Given this, the odds crisis. of this panel accurately informing Trump Furthermore, Director of National about the many threats of climate disrup- tion are slim to none. Intelligence Dan Coats released a threat We should instead expect Happer to assessment that identified climate disrup- tion as a significant security risk. try to enable Trump to tear down the As a veteran, our national security is military and national security agencies’ important to me, and that’s why I took him sound assertions that climate change at his word. Yet, Trump turned his back on poses a serious, immediate national secu- these warnings and instead relies on deny- rity threat. ing the fact that the climate is changing. The science is already clear. Our mil- itary leaders have spoken. As histori- In theory, if Trump’s newly created cally cataclysmic hurricanes and wildfires panel took the existing science and mili- tary analysis into account to advise him on occur, we need action, not a sham com- mittee headed by a climate denier acting how “a changing climate could affect the in the interest of the people who created security of the United States,” it could be this crisis in the first place. a step in the right direction. An Army veteran who fought in Iraq But, in reality, he has enlisted a notable and Afghanistan, Rob Vessels heads the climate denier, William Happer, to lead Sierra Club’s Military Outdoors Initiative. the committee, which ensures that real-
