Endangered Speciousness
The Senate Environment & Public Works climate hearing on December 6 was the swan song for James Inhofe (R-OK) as Committee Chair, so we would expect the specious arguments to fly. University of Oklahoma Professor David Deming did not disappoint. He began his closing statement claiming:
As far as I know, there isn’t a single person anywhere on earth that’s ever been killed by global warming. There is not a single species that’s gone extinct. In fact I’m not aware, really, of any deleterious effects whatsoever. It’s all speculation.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
As we learned in articles anticipating the release of Camille Parmesan’s “Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change,” climate change is happening at a rate so fast that species are unable to adapt and many have, in fact, gone extinct. That includes at least 70 species of tropical frogs.
Like our atmosphere, ecosystems and their inhabitants are highly delicate entities. No matter the vehemence with which some deny climate change, the ecological consequences are evident. In the words of Professor Douglas Futuyma, speaking with the Associated Press, “we are staring crisis in the face“.
It is speciousness–not species–that humans need to make extinct.
December 12th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Not one person has died from Global Warming? How’s about those Typhoons in the Philippines?
December 12th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Man this Inhofe is such scum. Why has nobody directly confronted this worm-tounge and his lies?
Thats what Id like to know.
December 13th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
I hate to sound naive and idealistic at the age of 25, but I was hoping the whole “direct confrontation” thing would take place during this next term.
Of course, I don’t know what will make this next term any different from the ‘93 and ‘94….