SlowpokeBlog

I know, I'm late blogging about this week's cartoon. I'm still on vacation, and to be honest, I'll probably continue to be somewhat scarce until after the new year. But you shouldn't care, because it's the time of year to be drinking liqueurs and hunting for the "easter eggs" on the complete eighth season of The Simpsons (yes, Mr. Slowpoke and I received this for Christmas).

This cartoon sprang from a jotting in my notebook about how the most amazing high-tech gadgets eventually become junk. My old laptop was a mean machine back in 1999, and an object of ridicule in 2006. (I am attached to my old laptop, and still use it on occasion despite the wisecracks of those around me.) How swiftly -- and yet almost imperceptibly, not unlike the human process of aging -- our sexy technology turns into laughable kitsch. I find it all rather poignant.

Initial inspiration for this cartoon came from a post on Talking Points Memo about sci-fi author and global warming pooh-pooher Michael Crichton, who apparently put one of his critics in his latest novel as a child molester. Crichton's last novel, State of Fear, suggested that environmental groups are using global warming as a scare tactic to raise money. This meme, I have found over the past week, is astoundingly prevalent among right-wing websites and I have received several emails from people suggesting that global warming is merely a political ploy. I have been called a "populist cartoonist" who mimics the words of "actors, singers, and other non-scientists." Over and over, it has been suggested that I'm being naive about political and financial motives, and not on the side of sound science.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, no one mentions the massive political and financial motivations of global warming deniers (this includes people who admit global warming is real, but downplay or deny the scientific fact that humans are contributing to it, and that we urgently need to do something about it). I only wish they would take all that healthy skepticism and apply it to the right-wing think tanks and media spewing loads of BS about climate change.

I find it curious that the most prominent critics of efforts to curb global warming just happen to be market fundamentalists and libertarian groups who oppose any efforts to protect the public from the excesses of industry. "Crichton is Right!" beams a red button on the homepage of Chicago's libertarian Heartland Institute, which just happens to support "market-based approaches to environmental protection," not to mention "privatization of public services." The CATO Institute site is chock full of articles with Crichton-esque titles like "Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry About Global Warming." I'm sure they have every reason to be impartial about the science, given that they are funded by Chevron, Exxon, Shell Oil, the American Petroleum Institute, Amoco Foundation, and Atlantic Richfield Foundation. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which surely has no axe to grind, continues with their ridiculous "CO2: We Call it Life" campaign, though the CO2 has mysteriously disappeared from the header since the last time I checked the site. Hmm...

One of the most universally-quoted scientists among these groups is Patrick Michaels of the University of Virginia, who also happened to by my first-year adviser. Michaels is a libertarian and senior fellow at the CATO Institute. Harper's Magazine reported in 1995 that "Michaels has received more than $115,000 over the last four years from coal and energy interests." That means he's been on the coal dole since that day I sat in his office as an awkward teenager seeking advice about whether to pursue a major in science or the humanities. His answer, I recall vaguely, was a jocular jab at the humanities (or perhaps it was the English Department), that I didn't want to get caught up in all that BS. To be fair, he was a friendly guy, with maybe a hint of P.J. O'Rourkishness about him, and there's plenty of BS to go around in academia. But for global warming deniers to tout their position as pure, unbiased science in contrast to the cynical fabrications of greedy environmentalists does a clear 180 on the facts.

Here's a good, non-partisan PDF file from the Pew Center explaining the facts about global warming. The Pew Charitable Trusts, well-known to many in higher education, is a foundation started by the children of Sun Oil founder Joseph Pew which awards grants on the basis of "rigorous, non-partisan research." I used to work as a web designer for a Pew-funded institute whose only discernible bias was being pro-democracy.

The Pew document is a useful read even if you already accept the findings of the vast majority of the world's scientists. A quote:

Scientists studying the rapid rise in global temperatures during the late twentieth century say that natural variability cannot account for what is happening now. [Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001. In Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report, Cambridge University Press] The main culprit, they say, is emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Other human sources of these gases include deforestation, agriculture, and industrial processes.

And another:

In 2005, the United States National Academy of Sciences joined a group of 10 other science academies from around the world in a statement calling for "prompt action" on global warming by government leaders... It stated: "Action taken now to reduce significantly the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will lessen the magnitude and rate of climate change."

As for the argument that "We can't predict what will happen, so why worry?", the document details the very real risks, as well as things that are happening right now.

I would also point you to this essay written by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in which he discusses a debate with Patrick Michaels.

Think about it for a moment. If ideological groups like CATO were truly serious about science, why would they cherry-pick writings only by a tiny minority of scientific outcasts? You'd think they might mention the overwhelming majority of scientists who do find global warming a cause for concern.

The deniers' conspiracy theory about environmentalists, promulgated through well-funded think tanks and media outlets, is nothing less than a conspiracy in itself. They have a glaringly obvious profit motive; for them to suggest the conspiracy lies with environmental groups who need to fund their offices is absurd. The deniers have created an intellectual trap from which there is no way out: if scientists concerned about global warming are merely partisan alarmists, how can we ever know the threat is real?

The only way out of this hall of mirrors is, in a word, science. More specifically, deniers must overcome the mistrust they have of "the other side" and accept the findings of the majority of the world's scientists, however much they dislike those findings. You can accept the research of the 2,000+ members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and NASA, to name a few, or you can keep thinking global warming is a ruse by Greenpeace to get better office furniture.

I realize I haven't checked in here very often lately, but I have multiple good excuses. First, I had food poisoning from something I ate at a restaurant, I think. Then I flew out to Seattle, where hundreds of thousands are still without power from last week's windstorms -- including the family members I was staying with (though they did have a generator which kept the house from becoming Ice Station Zebra). The damage was pretty significant where I was, lots of downed trees and power lines. Anyway, I'll be back soon to talk about this week's strip.

Perhaps somewhat appropriately, I drew this holiday-themed cartoon slightly hung over from the C-VILLE Weekly holiday party. This strip continues with last year's adventures of Mr. and Mrs. P at the mall, still searching for that special gift for Auntie Perkins.

Speaking of products fulfilling invented needs, yesterday I came across a lemon wedge-shaped teapot drip catcher. Just slide it over the spout of your teapot for drip-catching action! Why, not to have one would be positively uncivilized.

At some point, Hickory Farms changed their logo from the campy font I tried to approximate in the cartoon to a blander brandmark, but the happy old logo -- which I took in at the Park City Mall in Lancaster PA throughout my youth -- remains permanently etched in my brain.

Holiday promotion being sent in Bank of America credit card statements advertising a very temporary low APR:

Are you ready for the Holidays? We can help.

This season give yourself holiday freedom by taking advantage of the enclosed checks and your Platinum Plus credit card account. You can start your holiday spirit by bringing family and friends together from near and far or make your holiday shopping and travels special. This is just what you need to help keep everything straight around the holidays.

(snip)

Holidays are near... be CASH ready.

Or your children will hate you forever.

I recently switched to Blogger Beta, which may result in some temporary screwiness with the feed, particularly the timestamps. Let me know if you encounter any other problems over the next few weeks. Thanks.

The NY Times had an editorial last week about a study showing that Philip Morris's anti-smoking ads actually encouraged teen smoking. The editorial is now behind the TimesSelect wall, but you can read about the study here. They actually used the slogan "Tobacco Is Whacko If You're a Teen."

The third panel is loosely based on a Johnny Thunders album cover (So Alone). Thunders wasn't smoking in that shot -- he was probably on something much worse than nicotine.

I realize my movie recommendations are usually about two years out of date, but I recently saw Street Fight, a documentary about the 2002 race for mayor of Newark which shows you just how dirty politics can get while the media looks the other way.

Sadly, Cory Booker has since tainted his image as the anti-corruption good guy by campaigning for lobbyist tool Joe Lieberman this past summer.

Labels: movies, politics