“Wow, 25 degrees below zero, record cold and snow spell. Global warming anyone?” ~Donald Trump 2015
In their Clean Energy Momentum: Ranking State Progress the Union of Concerned Scientists rank Vermont number two in the country. One in sixteen Vermont workers are employed in the clean energy sector. Clean energy is vital to the future of forestalling the negative impacts of climate change.
Nevertheless, if I were to depend solely on my own observations, I would say that I see no evidence for climate change. It’s because of my overall ignorance of the scientific observations, methods and measurements of meteorology that I’m left with some kind of belief to depend on only. Belief, however, in and of itself, is woefully inadequate to the task. But I feel I know why someone would doubt the human causes of climate change.
Most people only live day-to-day. They cannot see the increments much less accurately measure the patterns necessary to gauge the larger and therefore longer picture of human effect on our climate and environment. We can’t see the forest for the trees.
Yet, in today’s world too many people have the audacity to say that science doesn’t know everything. It’s no accident that those same people will put their faith in how true their beliefs are, than they do in the acquisition of knowledge.
Any scientist will tell you that the study of science begins with the understanding that science does not and could not know everything. That’s how science begins. It is the quest for knowledge that matters, not some illusive know-it-all truth like so many people believe.
Moreover, science is the most self-correcting discipline known to all branches of knowledge. The process of self-correcting is science at its best. It’s dependent on the peer-review process that evaluates scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field.
Therefore, when it comes to the vagaries of climate change, a very small minority of educated people are working very hard to understand the patterns of changing climate to help us prepare for the possibility of severe consequences.
You and I can pick any single day in winter, spring, summer or fall and wonder what the fuss is about. But if we can’t learn to trust that science tries to work for our best interests, will things ever be “as right as rain” again? ….
Vidda Crochetta
Main Body of Text Also Published:
Brattleboro Reformer
Letter: Trust in science
Posted Thursday, August 10, 2017
http://www.reformer.com/stories/letter-trust-in-science,516448?
The Times Argus
Letter: Belief falls short
Posted Thursday, August 10, 2017
https://www.timesargus.com/articles/belief-falls-short/
Hypocrite
Tell us Vidda, how do you reconcile your hard nosed support of science with your ludicrous support of 911 conspiracist theory? It was an inside job, right? I”ll take my response offline as I know a fruitful discussion with you is not possible.
It’s as plain as the nose on your face…
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 disaffected Arab men armed with boxcutters and directed by a man on dialysis and living in a cave halfway around the world, using a satellite phone and a laptop, directed the most sophisticated penetration of the most heavily-defended airspace in the world, overpowering the passengers and the military combat-trained pilots on 4 commercial aircraft before flying those planes wildly off course for over an hour without being molested by a single fighter interceptor.
These 19 hijackers, devout religious fundamentalists who liked to drink alcohol, snort cocaine, and live with strippers, managed to knock down 3 buildings with 2 planes in New York, while in Washington a pilot who couldn’t handle a single engine Cessna was able to fly a 757 in an 8,000 foot descending 270 degree corkscrew turn to come exactly level with the ground, hitting the Pentagon in the budget analyst office where DoD staffers were working on the mystery of the 2.3 trillion dollars that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had announced “missing” from the Pentagon’s coffers in a press conference the day before, on September 10, 2001.
Luckily, the news anchors knew who did it within minutes, the pundits knew within hours, the Administration knew within the day, and the evidence literally fell into the FBI’s lap. But for some reason a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists demanded an investigation into the greatest attack on American soil in history.
Makes sense to me!
Toxic Soup - The World Trade Center Exposure Zone
Moreover, because of the expert demolition and pulverization of three massive WTC Towers 1, 2 and 7, tons of hazardous, toxic materials was released into the atmosphere, even months after the 9/11 attack.
On top of the nearly twenty-eight hundred who were murdered that morning, first responders, subsequent clean-up crews and tens of thousands of people, in and around New York City have been exposed to toxic wastes.
The EPA under the previous Republican administration of George Bush, took air, dust and water samples and consistently denied there were any pollutants of toxic concern to the workers and the general public.
ABC News report “9/11 First Responders Battle Toxic Exposures 15 Years Later” http://abcnews.go.com/Health/911-responders-battle-toxic-exposures-15-years/story?id=41981426
LOL!!
Well, Jamie, you call me a hypocrite, hardnosed, ludicrous, and you’re worried about not having a “fruitful discussion” with me? lol!
If you had actually read any of my articles to engage me in a “fruitful” discussion you would know that my 9/11 theorizing is based on it being an inside and outside job. http://ibrattleboro.com/sections/oped/towering-deceptions-attack-within-and-without
Since, you like to engage in “fruitful discussions” I did a search for your name on this site, but I found no references about any articles or comments from “Jamie.” Perhaps you could help me with some examples of your “offline” (or online) fruitful discussions. I would like to hear or read some of those.
Freedom of expression
A friend of mine called to check up me this morning. Among the things we discussed was this science article. She wondered why I didn’t just “flag” Jamie’s comment to me as offensive. One of the reasons is that I didn’t was the possibility of it being removed by the “moderators.” I am a lifelong proponent of freedom of speech. Even though (his/her) comment is offensive and only meant to be a personal attack “hit and run” it would take a lot of personal harassment for me to attempt to suppress someone’s free speech.
National Brain Drain
Unlike other headline grabbing stories about the misdeeds of the Trump administration, his head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, is working low-key as he dismantles EPA regulations and enforcement provisions that protect our environment. The NYTimes recently reported that, “As he works to roll back regulations, close offices and eliminate staff at the agency charged with protecting the nation’s environment and public health, Mr. Pruitt is taking extraordinary measures to conceal his actions, according to interviews with more than 20 current and former agency employees.”
With Trump dismantling the administrative capabilities and authority of the EPA the agency will lose the “professional capacity and the brain drain that is already starting to affect the EPA.” Gone would be the ability to manage and protect the science, technology and compliance needed to sustain our environment.
On the other hand, it falls to the states, like Vermont and others, to take up the professional slack created by the federal agency’s new, secretive decision-making. In Vermont, the Department of Environmental Conservation is very proactive to help protect our state’s natural resources. (http://dec.vermont.gov/about-dec)