The government doesn’t want you to panic because the risk is “hard to assess,” but…

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that 15 brands of powdered infant formula are contaminated with perchlorate, a rocket fuel component detected in drinking water in 28 states and territories. (Environmental Working Group)

Why shouldn’t that worry parents? Because, “the government requires that formula contain iodine, which counteracts perchlorate’s effects (Associated Press).” But, somebody must be worried about the effects on infant health because “[government] researchers would not disclose the brands of formula they studied (AP).” Haven’t we been here before?
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Many in the Republican “base” found John McCain an outrage, his policy views and perspectives abhorrent, not least of which that he deigns to consider reality in stating that Global Warming is a serious issue meriting attention (even if his policy prescriptions aren’t enough).

Well, what does the Glorious Leader of the Republican Party have to say about this?

“Despite the hysterics of a few pseudo-scientists, there is no reason to believe in global warming.” Rush Limbaugh, 1993

Ah, words that could warm the cockles of even the cold heart of George “Will-ful Deceit” Will.
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An unclassified “For Official Use Only” document attributed to the The Department of Homeland Security alleges that peaceful mainstream conservatiion groups (and Greens) provide cover for “ecoterrorists.” The May 7, 2008 document, posted on Wikileaks, defines ecoterrorists as “those individuals who independently and/or in concert with others engage in acts of violence and employ tactics commonly associated with terrorism to further their sociolpolitical agenda aimed at animal and/or environmetal protection.”

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As discussed in WashPost: Complicit in Disformation (or explicit collaboration)?, last Sunday’s George Will column was a disgraceful example of distorted discussion of climate change issues. This deceitful piece and the Washington Post’s seeming backing of it has created an uproar through the blogosphere that is seriously questioning what this sort of shoddy editorial management of opinion pages means for any Washington Post claim to journalistic integrity.

Now, this issue goes beyond this George F Will column to his serial stretching of fact to beyond the breaking point beyond truthiness. This issue goes beyond Will’s repeated will-ful deceit to the repeated Post publication of deception, often dishonest opinion pieces related to global warming and climate challenges. This is more than about Will’s deceit in Dark Green Doomsayers. Even so, it is worth returning to this specific deceitful piece to provide a simple summary of how it is deceitful with some quick references.

Here are just three of the explicit arenas of his deceit:

1. Claims that scientists (especially climatologists) were united in concerns over Global Cooling in 1970s. FALSE.
2. States that sea ice is same today as 1979. At best, misleading and disingenuous. And, his source disagrees with him.
3. States that there has been no global warming for a decade. At absolute best, misleading and disingenuous. And, his source disagrees with him.

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President Barack Obama is about to make his first trip to another nation flying aboard Air Force One. Traveling north in wintry weather isn’t necessarily the most comfortable choice, but Canada is a critical US partner, meriting being on the top of the list for foreign travel for many reasons.

When it comes to Canadian-US relations, there is one issue that lies amid the tangled heart of the intertwined economic, energy, environmental, and climate challenges: Canadian Tar Sands.

Now roughly accounting for 10 percent of the United States’ oil imports, the processes for transforming tar sands into fuel for America’s gas guzzlers makes traditional oil production (even into ANWR) look benign in comparison. Devastating for the local (water, forests), regional (air pollution, bird), and global (GHG emissions) environment, Tar Sands is the wrong answer to North America’s energy challenges.

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DOD’s Robert Gates, with help from other Republicans, is trying to kill whistleblower protections that were included in an amendment to HR.1, the stimulus bill. The protections were stripped from the final version of the stimulus bill at the insistence of Senator Susan Collins (R.-Maine). But, an attempt to revive the legislation is underway.

Opponents have support from the Washington Post, which published an editorial opposing the legislation that would give whistleblowers at intelligence agencies, as well as other federal agencies, basic due process rights to protect them from retaliatory investigations, dismissals, security clearance revocations, and other forms of reprisal that are common in the federal government. Today, the Post followed up its misleading editorial with a misleading feature story titled, “Obama, Gates at Odds Over New Whistleblower Protections.”

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Jerome a Paris’ Wind power set to decline under Obama? highlighted how the on-again, off-again federal renewable energy policies have created a boom-and-bust cycle, with 2009 looking to be perhaps a minor bust after 2008′s record-setting boom period. And, that this might occur despite the Administration and Congressional focus on renewable energy. And, despite our desperate need to get off polluting energy sources via energy efficiency and clean energy production as quickly as possible.

Yesterday, however, also saw another important item: the wind industry now employs more American’s than the coal industry! Wind: 85,000 workers. Coal mining/extraction: 81,000 workers.

And, looking to the future, wind produces more jobs per kWh than coal while producing far (FAR) less environmental havoc.

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Whether it is avoiding fatty foods, saving money for the future, or taking cod liver oil regularly, somewhat unpleasant actions today to prevent disaster tomorrow are a struggle against our very nature. This struggle extends from individuals to society, as present consumption and today’s concerns too often triumph over a ‘discounted’ future.

With climate change, this problem is taken to nearly the penultimate extreme. Either we (individually, collectively as a nation, collectively as a global society, collectively intergenerationally) get our act together or we’re discounting future into catastrophe.

Now that we have an Administration where scientists will be able to speak about science without fossil fuel lobbyists or 20-something ideologues taking red ink to their science, the US government will be speaking more forcefully about Global Warming. Overshadowed by the President’s statement on energy and Global Warming, we have news of a new NOAA report that paints a very ugly and dry picture for a 1000 years out if we don’t get serious about our societal spoons of cod liver oil.
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Amigos,

On Friday, my long-awaited book, NOTES FOR THE AURORA SOCIETY, was finally published.

Many of you have read excerpts from it over the past few years. Those are located here and here and here.

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