While the world waits for a vaccine to give us relief from the pandemic, global warming and the climatic consequences are accelerating. This rapid pace of change required that our research on the subject, first completed only in 2018, be fundamentally rewritten. Here is a brief summary of what we learned.

(882 words, four-minute read)

Speaking to a congressional panel made up primarily of baby boomers, 17-year-old climate activist Jamie Margolis said, “The fact that you are staring at a panel of young people testifying before you today pleading for a livable earth should not fill you with pride, it should fill you with shame.” As one of the boomers, I admit that hurt. But we own this, don’t we? Let’s try to be fact-based and rational.

Critics have pounced on presidential candidates’ climate change proposals, ridiculing everything from the aggregate cost to the banning of things like meat, straws, and offshore drilling. Are these sensible objections? Let’s try to be fact-based and rational.

Democratic presidential candidates have sweetened their plans to fight climate change with promises of economic growth and job creation. Bernie Sanders most recently said his plan would create 20 million jobs. Can this be possible? Let’s try to be fact-based and rational.

There has been no shortage of vitriol launched on supporters of the Green New Deal, most of which achieves nothing except to impede fact based rational debate.  Our launch point today is Peggy Noonan’s editorial of 2/17 entitled “The Buck Stops Here” in which she dismisses the Green New Deal as “an extreme to the point of absurdist plan.”  At a time when Gallup polling finds that across Democrats, Republicans and Independents, 61% of Americans “Worry a great deal/fair amount about global warming,” 61% “Believe global warming is caused by human activities,” and 42% “Think global warming will pose a serious threat in their lifetime,” and given the daily torrent of record flooding, drought, temperatures, coastal erosion, and the like, why can’t we at least talk about it? Let’s try to be fact-based and rational.

Climate Change Canard: How can it be so cold if the earth is getting warmer?

Following the Senator’s announcement that she is running for President, President Trump tweeted: “Amy Klobuchar...talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard of snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Bad timing. By the end of her speech she looked like a Snowman (woman)! This commonly repeated canard, a particular favorite of the President, demonstrates ignorance of the issue of climate change. Let’s try to be fact-based and rational.