Climate Progress

Okay, so it isn’t breaking news, or at least it shouldn’t be. A 2004 study in Nature examined the role of greenhouse gas emissions in the deadly 2003 heat wave that killed 35,000 Europeans. It concluded that human influence more than doubled the risk of such a heat wave. On our current emissions path, more than half of European summers will be hotter than 2003 within the next four decades. By the end of the century, “2003 would be classed as an anomalously cold summer relative to the new climate.”

But most U.S. coverage of our recent heat wave ignores the subject. I was interviewed by ABC Evening News last week because of my work on urban heat islands, whereby dark roofs and asphalt pavement and the loss of shade trees have made cities much hotter than they would otherwise be. Although I discussed how global warming is making this kind of deadly heat wave more likely and more intense—and combining with the heat island effect to make cities increasingly inhospitable in the summer—they omitted all of these comments. They wanted only a story on heat islands.

Fortunately, a few articles have begun to appear on the subject, even if they don’t make the front page like the scenes of people sweltering. The Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin wrote one of the best articles on the subject, “More Frequent Heat Waves Linked to Global Warming,” for a page 3 story last week.

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What to call those who deny that global warming is an urgent problem or who seek to delay strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, people like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) or President George W. Bush or Michael Crichton, author of State of Fear, a deeply flawed novel that attacks climate science and climate scientists? This is a question that everyone who writes on climate change must grapple with.

The most commonly used term is “skeptic.” But that term is misplaced. All scientists are skeptics. Hence the motto of the Royal Society of London, one of the world’s oldest scientific academies (founded in 1660), Nullius in verba: “Take nobody’s word.”

Skeptics can be convinced by the facts, but not the Deniers. Skeptics do not continue repeating arguments that have been discredited. Deniers do.

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One of the main themes of Climate Progress is that we have the technologyies available to avoid the worst of global warming–but only if we start using them now. So it was heartening to see the recent cover story, “It’s Not Too Late,” in one of the country’s leading technology magazines, MIT’s Technology Review, drive this theme home from its very first line: “The energy technologies that might forestall global warming already exist.”

Conservatives, led by the Bush administration, try to convince the public we can’t act now by arguing that we must wait for new technologies, as in this recent quote from John H. Marburger III, the president’s science adviser: “It’s important not to get distracted by chasing short-term reductions in greenhouse emissions. The real payoff is in long-term technological breakthroughs.” No, let’s not get distracted by the actual solution to the problem.
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Climate Progress is a web site dedicated to providing the progressive perspective on climate science, climate solutions, and climate politics. Like Think Progress, Progress is a project of the American Progress Action Fund. The American Progress Action Fund is a nonpartisan organization.

Joseph Romm is the editor of Climate Progress. I am a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy during the Clinton Administration. You can learn entirely to much about me at my Wikipedia entry. You can expect to see posts mostly from me at the beginning, but also from other Center staff and guest posters.