19 Replies to “This April Was the Cruelest Month (Or at Least the Hottest)”

1. Prof. Farber, the truth is that a great many peoples around the world need to “Wake up!” with the greatest sense of urgency since WWII.

   The question is, how do we make the right things happen in time to protect long-term future quality of life on earth?

   This blog is doing a great job informing people at UC, but motivating peoples around the world to take actions in time is an entirely different thing and there don’t seem to be any leaders like Churchill and FDR around today when we need them more than ever before.

   What actions do you folks at Legal Planet recommend that we can implement today!?

   1. P.S. Dan, my wife and I just got back from taking our four year old granddaughter to the San Diego Natural History Museum where I had a most guilty feeling while studying some dinosaurs and realizing that the way we are failing to protect our planet today, we shall most certainly be on exhibit for another species in the future that shall most certainly judge us much more harshly than we can the dinosaurs.

      We could have prevented our self-destruction with the brain, opportunities and resources we have now but we totally failed to overcome hate, greed and the power of money.

      Hopefully you can unite your colleagues to make the right things happen in time to prevent this ultimate nightmare from happening because the legacy we are leaving our newest and all future generations today is totally unacceptable and unforgivable.

      1. Anthony said:
         “…..I just got back from taking our four year old granddaughter to the San Diego Natural History Museum…..”

         Dear Anthony,
         You and your wife are fortunate to have a precious granddaughter. Going forward, this young girl will face problems, difficulties and choices that are far more serious and imminent than hypothetical climate paranoia. Get real, teach this child to love God and she will be loved and protected always.

         1. BQRQ, humans have a brain that enables us to produce and perpetuate an acceptable quality of life on earth.

            If we do not control our most negative character elements such as hate, greed and the power of money, then humans can become extinct.

            1. Dear Anthony,
               Those of us who place our trust in God have the strength and grace to control our negative human characteristics such as hate, greed and lust. Pray to God (not to Dan) and you may discover there is no need for us to worry about the temporal calamities of this earthly life which we all must endure.
               May God Bless

2. @BQRQ

   Your comment above is a common refrain from Christian conservatives in their attempt to delegitimize stewardship of our planet. It stands in stark contrast to the directive given in Genesis 2:15 for man to “dress and keep” the garden of Eden. Using your religious beliefs as a way to shirk our duties to care for our home is moral cowardice, and any Christian should be ashamed to do so.

   Not to mention the fact that the church has spent two thousand years believing that the world was going to end any minute now. Your comment betrays a fatalistic disregard for the Earth that often comes with such belief. Even if you choose to embrace a Christian worldview, history shows that it would be foolish to assume that we don’t have another two thousand years on this planet to concern ourselves with.

   It also shows a myopic view of how history views those who unrepentantly make grievous mistakes. The great great great grandchildren of those who adamantly denied the necessity of abolition live in shame of their ancestors actions, as do the grandchildren of yesteryear’s Germans. If you have or plan on having kids, how do you think your great great grandchildren will look back on you? Will you be the ancestor that is seen as having been part of causing the problems that your descendants are saddled with, or will you be seen as the ancestor who fought for what was right in the face of the status quo? Or do you not care?

   1. Dear BBQ
      We have always supported environmental progress, especially for the poor who suffer the most from pollution. Clean air, clean water, clean food, sanitation, shelter and healthcare are the major environmental problems throughout the developing world. These are far more important environmental issues. Climate paranoia is a contrived pseudo religion that repudiates sound science and advocates socialism, atheism and public fraud.

      1. It is rather incredible how you can have that so entirely backwards. It is denial of AGW that is the fraud perpetrated by the oil industry and it has managed to fool an entire swath of right-wing America.

         (I tried to include links to a couple of Scientific American articles addressing this fraud but they are awaiting moderation. However, they will be the first two links to show up if you google: scientific american exxon denial)

         Conservatives in America often have a black and white view on certain issues, namely gay rights and abortion. They decide who the “good” and the “evil” politicians are based on these issues, and then they trust the good ones to tell them the truth on more complex matters like climate change. This of course works in the politicians’ favor: depend on social conservatives for the votes, depend on big business for the campaign donations. In other words, the oil industry is using your religious views to protect their pocketbooks.

         Calling belief in AGW a “contrived pseudo religion” tells us that you have fallen deep within the extreme reaches of the right-wing echo chamber. The idea that thousands of scientists around the world speaking a hundred different languages are all part of an elaborate hoax is the pinnacle of right-wing delusion. It is sad to see that political tribalism can lead otherwise intelligent people to believe such a childishly preposterous narrative.

         1. Black Pastors Rally in Support of HB2, saying LGBT rights are Not Civil Rights:

            “………About 40 preachers, mostly African-American, rallied on the State Capitol grounds on Tuesday to take offense at comparing the fight for LGBT protections to the civil rights movement of the 1960s…….”

            http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article79517162.html

            1. Huh?

               How does this, in your mind, relate to AGW?

               Or is this your cryptic way of admitting that you decide who is right about AGW based on who agrees with you on LGBT issues?

               You realize that you are illustrating exactly the point I was making, don’t you?

3. Regarding LGBT issues, BBQ asked;
   “…..How does this, in your mind, relate to AGW?…..”

   That’s a good question. We have known for years that there is strong affinity between climate change and homosexuality but I do not know the reason for this. It is axiomatic that if one is LGBT then they most likely believe in doomsday climate change. Likewise, if one suffers from climate paranoia then they are also likely to be homophilic. There must be a good explanation, can you explain why climate change and LGBT are connected?

   1. By the same reasoning, there is a strong affinity between being anti-war, being pro-choice, and being for a progressive tax system.

      What ties all of these issues together is progressivism. It is the advancement of society in a liberal direction on social issues and a leftward direction on economic issues. That is where big business has been so successful at hoodwinking religious conservatives: they buy Republican politicians that will serve their business interests, thus giving those politicians the funds to get out their socially conservative message. Take conservative hero Ted Cruz. Guess which industry he gains the most campaign contributions from? That’s right, the oil industry.

      Conservatism is fundamentally about keeping society the way it is, whether that means fighting against social security or against civil rights. Thus, as society moves forward on economic as well as social matters, conservatives are handed a common enemy to demonize.

      Of course it is a losing battle, whether we are talking about social security, civil rights, interracial marriage, medicare, abortion, gay rights, or climate change: the direction of history has been consistently progressive, with conservatives always failing to turn back the clock.

      I hope that you can open your eyes and see how your religious views are being manipulated in order to protect the pocketbooks of the oil industry.

      1. BBQ said;
         “……..gay rights, or climate change: the direction of history has been consistently progressive…..”

         Dear BBQ,
         I do not understand how gay sex could ever be considered “progressive” because it involves intimate physical contact with fecal material and infectious pathogens which cause injury, illness and death. On average, gay men die approximately twenty-five years sooner than the normal lifespan for normal men. Why should we allow our children to be indoctrinated with craven propaganda which portrays gay sex as somehow normal and healthy? It’s not progressive, in reality it is reprobate.

         1. Case in point.

            You care a whole lot about gay sex, and the oil industry (via their politicians) use that to protect themselves from a carbon tax. You have blocked out any information that does not agree with anti-gay-marriage politicians, and that includes the reality of AGW.

            Your comment is the success story of the oil industry.

            1. Dear BBQ,
               We settle our differences is by supporting leaders that share our values and beliefs. We only have one vote and I intend to use it wisely. You do the same. If Hillary wins then we will deal with it and move on.

               With more hope and mutual benefit; under a Trump Administration there would be less federal malice and legal coercion on moral values, babies and families. We also expect significant de-emphasis on climate change and solar energy, and more emphasis on abundant clean energy from low cost natural gas. This is a better vision going forward.

4. The most inconvenient truth is that the failure of academics to rally and fight for what they preach is doing more harm to our ability to control global warming than any other reason.

   1. Dear Anthony,
      The reason that academics fail to rally and fight for global warming is because they are well informed and they know that humanity cannot implement any policy or technology that would actually effect the global climate.This is why academics leave the “rally and fight” to less knowledgeable individuals. Educated people know that fighting about climate is abject futility and an enormous waste of time.

      1. BQRQ, again, your explanation is as good as any, except I would emphasize the power of money and the Ivory Tower imperium also make it impossible for them to speak out even if it is to save the human race.

5. Dan, as you have probably heard by now, I addressed the following comment to you on

   Ann Carlson’s “Trump, Sanders Voters and Climate Change” post today:

   Anthony St. John May 27, 2016 at 12:29 pm #

   “Dan, Bernie Sanders’ appointment of Bill McKibben to the DNC platform committee is awesome and greatly raises the visibility of the fight to save our civilization from Global Warming today.

   In addition, the DNC must magnify this effort by forming a special climate change committee at the convention with members like McKibben, James Hansen, Al Gore and Dan Farber to raise the fight to the highest level immediately, including immediate establishment of a climate change cabinet post during what is left of the Obama administration.

   Now that we have rocketed exponentially past 400 ppm, far exceeding McKibben’s grave 350 or Bust warning, we are running out of time faster than we know. We keep saying volumes on the subject but that isn’t working, we must focus on implementing immediate actions.”

   I hope you can do something with my recommendations for a DNC convention special climate change committee and a Climate Change cabinet post.

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