Bill Foster and Climate Denialism
Bill Foster, Democrat from Illinois, is a physicist, and a decided climate-denier DENIER...
Watch this law professor try to convince a physicist that Greenland’s melt will cause seas to fall
In this July 19, 2011 photo, rows of pressure ridges stack up, foreground, before tumbling over the ever-collapsing calving 4-mile-wide front of Jakobshavn Glacier and into the Ilulissat ice fjord, background, in Greenland. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) [CLICK PIC]
And, you can hear Bill Foster on an Illinois Public talk show which was aired today: http://www.nprillinois.org/programs/21st or https://will.illinois.edu/index.php/21stshow/rss
NOTE: I watched, "Farenheit 9/11", the other night. It exposed the Nth degree to which the Bu$h administration lied, denied, and complicated Americans into the great web of death across Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Needless to say, these wars, and the burning of the Kuwait oil fields, and 9/11 itself, (an inside job), all interfered significantly with global climate - (Who knows, maybe they were even responsible for the temporary lull in warming some years back). Well, the obfuscation was thicker than the smoke itslef - thicker than blood and thicker than mud. One person being intervied said, "I don't know what it is about the Republicans, but they act in a very deceptive fashion!"
By now, I have seen that 'the Democrats' have been equally deceptive, now that they have become the polarising party of the elite-versus-the-disenfranchised. (In my estimation, the Bush's and their GOP cohorts and minions are now intricately ALLIED with the Clinton's and their DNC cohorts and minions, especially when it comes to issues of GUNS, PRIVACY and PROFIT). So, let's not forget the Democrats. However, it is well known that the Republicans have always had a problem when it came to the truth. If they couldn't steal it, privatise it, re-brand it, or blame it, they would try to hide it, kill it and/or bury it - just as so many of them have been trying to do with the fact of global warming, for so, so many frittered-away years.
We have the example above of a republican exclaiming that melting Greenland ice would be a GOOD thing, esp. for Nordic countries (?!), because Greenland would suddenly rise higher out of the sea after the ice melts. So, this is what Republicans call, "Good Science," somehow disproving the, "Bad Science." on global warming, done over many decades, from evidence extending over centuries, by a vast majority of climate scientists and scientists from other diciplines? A little man mouthing off nonsense because he's paid to lie by big oil and its handful of atmospheric whores? That's the good science? No - that is the game plan of many a Republican, (and establishment Dems, on some issues): To overpower the opponant, be he or she a conveyor of truth, by slander and bombast - because grade-school politics continues to be seen as the way to rule the world, and so get one's never-ending American Dream. And it is another of their habits to actually seek out aand attack those who walk free, (set free by the the actual truth), out of sheer, desperate ENVY. These are people who insist upon controlling, even the truth, because this is the evidence of how they 'care so much'. And, so many of them turn out to be good Christian abusers, molesters, or such, caught with their pants down. Because they cared so much.
So, these are the same people, shouting that climate change is a lie of BAD SCIENCE, who turn around and snarkilly announce that global warming doesn't exist because cold snow has suddenly fallen on their city! What kind of science is that? It's not science, it is superstition, and arrogance. They do this every winter - and it is pathetic - that brief, ignorant human lives should pronounce so authoritatively their truth-for-all, whilst, meanwhile, global warming indeed extends its reign, gradually, and then with great shocks, over the course of centuries. It is like a frog going to a warm beach one year, then another year, and another - and each year the water boils more and rises higher, but each year the frog announces, "Weather is wonderful, wish you were here," right up until the day he becomes cooked cuisine for the Frenchies.
Extreme heat increasing in both summer and winter
And this is the same way that some people acclimate themselves to THE BIG LIE, weat5her that be: "Global warming does not exist," or, "Bad science!" or, "It is OK for corpocracy to spy on us!" or, "America needs to fight communism everywhere!" or, "Russia collude with Trump!" or, "Iraq caused 9/11" or, "Iran is going to invade us!" or, "animals don't have feelings!" or, "It's OK for our corporations to move to China and createfgtvy7bh global warming from there" - lol - and so on.
The common-sense facts are these: Global warming is affecting the entire planet, especially the colder regions. These regions are becoming warmer faster than the other areas of the globe, (due to an averaging out, as the climate change becomes dominant over previously standard dynamics; and due to ice and snow reflecting more infrared heat back into the trap of greenhouse clouds; and due methane, a most potent greenhouse gas, rapidly escaping from melting permafrost and deep sea ice). This rapid warming is making the Jet Stream weaker and more variable, often looping deeper down south over the USA. What does that mean? Even while the Arctic warms, it is still cold, and this dip of the Jet Stream - now a common occurrence called an 'Arctic Vortex' - is allowing cold Arctic air down into the greater USA more often. THAT is one way global warming is causing extreme drops in temps around winter time, compared to the past. But, the fact is, overall global warming is increasing, and that includes winter temps. The problem with climate deniers is that they are so naive, or ignorant, or selfish that they seem completely incapable of allowing for some bigger picture, beyond the horizons which they so annoyingly survey.
A few good reports on climate change / denial were aired on WBUR's "Here and Now" yesterday and today. My computer cannot dig them up for you right now, but you might find them via: Here and Now or Here and Now or Here & Now
Should we stop, or keep going? OK. It is called the North Atlantic conveyor belt. It is a massive oceanic 'river' of water, many times larger than the volume of the Amazon. It normally brings up warm water from the south, up into the North Atlantic, so England and much of Europe can experience temperate climes. Now that so much cold fresh water is melting off of Greenland and Canada, this is thwarting the warm salt water of the conveyor, also pushing it deeper because salt water is heavier than fresh water. The result? More cold water on the surface of the North Atlantic - leading to cold snaps in Eurpoe, which we have seen. Not only this, but a complete collapse of the conveyor is still possible, and would be certain should Greenland's ice completely melt. (Deep melting is occurring on a grand scale beneath Greenland's glaciers). A complete collapse would result in a new age of ice in Europe, similar to the end of the Neanderhals' reign there. That is not an exaggeration: It is a conservative prediction.
"Weather is wonderful, wish you were here!"
Keep going? OK. Never mind the possibility of a complete collapse: Slowing of the North Atlantic conveyor belt is occurring, bringing tropical species up the USA eastern seaboard, (including manatees), and helping to kill off crustaceans and fish around New England and Nova Scotia. What does this mean for climate? It means heat is not only building up in the tropical and temporate areas of the ocean directly due to global warming, it means that the slowing conveyor belt is tending to keep that heat from moving northward. Therefore, that building heat, building even further now, is producing bigger and stringer hurricanes. Shall I name only the last 5? I think we all know these hurricanes are becoming more massive than in the known past. Many of us bicker about Donald Trump or Clintons in Haiti or Bush in New Orleans, and so forth. A few of us see how sad this bickering is. And, meanwhile, what more is happening because of all this rising heat?
Moisture. Unimaginable amounts of moisture are lifted up into the atmosphere by these bigger and stronger hurricanes. But more than these outstanding examples - all the oceans are emitting more and more moisture simply as a matte4r of course, with overall rising temperatures. This water turns into more rain, more floods, more flash floods, more hail, more atmospheric electromagnetic disturbances and tornadoes AND, in cold snaps, INTO LOTS AND LOTS OF SNOW. How many more times do we have to explain this? Until the last bastard is clasping his profits from oil, warming, and insurance - and the GDP and stock market reach stratospheric heights because of all the money from clean-up, hospitalisations and WAR - and the country has been overrun by 600 billion warming refugees from South America, Mexico and China?
So, these climate deniers who accuse scientists of bad science, then launch into anecdote, confabulation, superstition, anger and blame as their authoritative snowflake form of 'good science' - these god-loving narcissists - who are in love with the man's manna that Big Oil and Big Coal will bring them - generally also go on tirades over how, "Man did not cause global warming," - and by illogical extension, ergo glabal warming does not exist. Every time they hear about climate chaneg they take it as a personal attack, a tax, a tyranny - because all they see are the petty politics of people blaming people. Since man is a blessed Steward oif all land and animals, then man could not have caused global warming, ergo, "I DID NOT CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!!!' To identify the cause as man, it means you are blaming them.
But, the funny thing is this: Despite their rants and raves about man not causing global warming, they DO often tend to keep this idea simultaneously in their heads: THE EVIL GOVERNMENT IS GEOENGINEERING OUR WEATHER!
See what I'm saying? There is this continuing contradiction going on in many of these people's skulls, which is adamant in never resolving itself, and which only seems to fuel the denial and the hate on and on. Remember when they said that God created Katrina to punish gay people? Well, how about this one: The incessantly flaming brains of these climate-deniers' hot heads is causing global warming!!! So neener neener, right? And they wonder why a lot of Dems don't want them to vote.
And, even now, they complain that liberals are blaming carbn dioxide for global warming, when carbon dioxide is a wonderful thing that trees like to eat! So how can it be pollution? They don't see that the pollution is their own denial. Or ignorance. Sometimes it's ignorance. And sometimes, it's this:
Donald Trump, on the 4th Assessment on Climate: "Well I read the report, and I don't believe it." Oh, how nice for you. To sit in a bathtub full of bllions, and deny whatever you like, causing more harm to billions upon billions with every second that goes by, and every breath you take. Check the news and you will see that a female Congress person chided Trump, with my own sentiments: "Gravity (like climate change) exists whether you deny it or not."
My definition: Power is the ability to lie and get away with it.
Well, my astute opinion is that Trump is playing for time, until he gets through the next election. That is the plan. So, he is tendering this big lie, in order to get him and his backers, his base, through 2020. Then, he will attack climate change, saying, like Nixon, the evidence is convincing.
Well, some might say that these are ultimately good intentions: Trying to get the whole country behind an agenda unpopular to the climate-deniers, eventually. But this political maneuver is called PUTTING ENDS BEFORE MEANS. Assuming I am correct, Trump is committing unethical behaviour - arguably evil behaviour. This would not be surprising since he, like most politicians, is an amoral, opportunistic money-chasing, attention-seeking bully who never grew up.
Is the World is Run by People Who Are Acting Out Childhood Trauma?
But, if I am incorrect, then Trump is genuinely speaking from ignorance or stupidity, being just another climate-denier. We won't know until it all comes out in the books and memos and so on - could take up to 50 years. mmmm... Do we have 50 years? The issue is climate change, not Trump. Politicians sway when the people shake.
That's about all I have for ya right now. 'Denialism' is a word I penned several years ago but it is now becoming a common word as the reality of our age sinks in, and can be found in articles in the NYT, etc. In my view, it certainly is a word that is 'bipartisan' if you will. You can find my journal's tag for denialism HERE.
Watch this law professor try to convince a physicist that Greenland’s melt will cause seas to fall
In this July 19, 2011 photo, rows of pressure ridges stack up, foreground, before tumbling over the ever-collapsing calving 4-mile-wide front of Jakobshavn Glacier and into the Ilulissat ice fjord, background, in Greenland. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) [CLICK PIC]
- Two Fools and a Scientist | Open Mind
https://tamino.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/two-fools-and-a-scientist/
Sep 17, 2016 ... If the Greenland ice sheet melts, says Mitrovica (and trust me, he knows ... committee member, the one with a PhD in Physics, Bill Foster (D-IL). - Rep. Foster, Tom Skilling: Denying climate change like denying ...
https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20170506/rep-foster-tom-skilling-denying-climate-change-like-denying-smoking-dangers
May 6, 2017 ... Bill Foster joined WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling on Saturday in comparing ... Foster built off Skilling's cigarette analogy to explain why Congress has not ... on the Greenland ice sheet warmed by around 8 °C over 40 years. - There's a Science Advocate in the House (of Representatives ...
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/theres-a-science-advocate-in-the-house-of-representatives/
Jan 6, 2017 ... One is Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois and a former physicist. As a member of the Committee on Science, Space and ... - Political Science: Physicist Bill Foster Heads Back to Congress ...
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/11/political-science-physicist-bill-foster-heads-back-congress
Nov 14, 2012 ... When he was in Congress before, Bill Foster took time during a 2009 press conference at Fermilab to explain-not ask-how a piece of ... - Lone physicist in Congress joins science panel | Science | AAAS
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/02/lone-physicist-congress-joins-science-panel
Feb 27, 2015 ... When he was in Congress before, Bill Foster took time during a 2009 press conference at Fermilab to explain-not ask-how a piece of ...
And, you can hear Bill Foster on an Illinois Public talk show which was aired today: http://www.nprillinois.org/programs/21st or https://will.illinois.edu/index.php/21stshow/rss
NOTE: I watched, "Farenheit 9/11", the other night. It exposed the Nth degree to which the Bu$h administration lied, denied, and complicated Americans into the great web of death across Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Needless to say, these wars, and the burning of the Kuwait oil fields, and 9/11 itself, (an inside job), all interfered significantly with global climate - (Who knows, maybe they were even responsible for the temporary lull in warming some years back). Well, the obfuscation was thicker than the smoke itslef - thicker than blood and thicker than mud. One person being intervied said, "I don't know what it is about the Republicans, but they act in a very deceptive fashion!"
By now, I have seen that 'the Democrats' have been equally deceptive, now that they have become the polarising party of the elite-versus-the-disenfranchised. (In my estimation, the Bush's and their GOP cohorts and minions are now intricately ALLIED with the Clinton's and their DNC cohorts and minions, especially when it comes to issues of GUNS, PRIVACY and PROFIT). So, let's not forget the Democrats. However, it is well known that the Republicans have always had a problem when it came to the truth. If they couldn't steal it, privatise it, re-brand it, or blame it, they would try to hide it, kill it and/or bury it - just as so many of them have been trying to do with the fact of global warming, for so, so many frittered-away years.
We have the example above of a republican exclaiming that melting Greenland ice would be a GOOD thing, esp. for Nordic countries (?!), because Greenland would suddenly rise higher out of the sea after the ice melts. So, this is what Republicans call, "Good Science," somehow disproving the, "Bad Science." on global warming, done over many decades, from evidence extending over centuries, by a vast majority of climate scientists and scientists from other diciplines? A little man mouthing off nonsense because he's paid to lie by big oil and its handful of atmospheric whores? That's the good science? No - that is the game plan of many a Republican, (and establishment Dems, on some issues): To overpower the opponant, be he or she a conveyor of truth, by slander and bombast - because grade-school politics continues to be seen as the way to rule the world, and so get one's never-ending American Dream. And it is another of their habits to actually seek out aand attack those who walk free, (set free by the the actual truth), out of sheer, desperate ENVY. These are people who insist upon controlling, even the truth, because this is the evidence of how they 'care so much'. And, so many of them turn out to be good Christian abusers, molesters, or such, caught with their pants down. Because they cared so much.
So, these are the same people, shouting that climate change is a lie of BAD SCIENCE, who turn around and snarkilly announce that global warming doesn't exist because cold snow has suddenly fallen on their city! What kind of science is that? It's not science, it is superstition, and arrogance. They do this every winter - and it is pathetic - that brief, ignorant human lives should pronounce so authoritatively their truth-for-all, whilst, meanwhile, global warming indeed extends its reign, gradually, and then with great shocks, over the course of centuries. It is like a frog going to a warm beach one year, then another year, and another - and each year the water boils more and rises higher, but each year the frog announces, "Weather is wonderful, wish you were here," right up until the day he becomes cooked cuisine for the Frenchies.
Extreme heat increasing in both summer and winter
And this is the same way that some people acclimate themselves to THE BIG LIE, weat5her that be: "Global warming does not exist," or, "Bad science!" or, "It is OK for corpocracy to spy on us!" or, "America needs to fight communism everywhere!" or, "Russia collude with Trump!" or, "Iraq caused 9/11" or, "Iran is going to invade us!" or, "animals don't have feelings!" or, "It's OK for our corporations to move to China and createfgtvy7bh global warming from there" - lol - and so on.
The common-sense facts are these: Global warming is affecting the entire planet, especially the colder regions. These regions are becoming warmer faster than the other areas of the globe, (due to an averaging out, as the climate change becomes dominant over previously standard dynamics; and due to ice and snow reflecting more infrared heat back into the trap of greenhouse clouds; and due methane, a most potent greenhouse gas, rapidly escaping from melting permafrost and deep sea ice). This rapid warming is making the Jet Stream weaker and more variable, often looping deeper down south over the USA. What does that mean? Even while the Arctic warms, it is still cold, and this dip of the Jet Stream - now a common occurrence called an 'Arctic Vortex' - is allowing cold Arctic air down into the greater USA more often. THAT is one way global warming is causing extreme drops in temps around winter time, compared to the past. But, the fact is, overall global warming is increasing, and that includes winter temps. The problem with climate deniers is that they are so naive, or ignorant, or selfish that they seem completely incapable of allowing for some bigger picture, beyond the horizons which they so annoyingly survey.
A few good reports on climate change / denial were aired on WBUR's "Here and Now" yesterday and today. My computer cannot dig them up for you right now, but you might find them via: Here and Now or Here and Now or Here & Now
Should we stop, or keep going? OK. It is called the North Atlantic conveyor belt. It is a massive oceanic 'river' of water, many times larger than the volume of the Amazon. It normally brings up warm water from the south, up into the North Atlantic, so England and much of Europe can experience temperate climes. Now that so much cold fresh water is melting off of Greenland and Canada, this is thwarting the warm salt water of the conveyor, also pushing it deeper because salt water is heavier than fresh water. The result? More cold water on the surface of the North Atlantic - leading to cold snaps in Eurpoe, which we have seen. Not only this, but a complete collapse of the conveyor is still possible, and would be certain should Greenland's ice completely melt. (Deep melting is occurring on a grand scale beneath Greenland's glaciers). A complete collapse would result in a new age of ice in Europe, similar to the end of the Neanderhals' reign there. That is not an exaggeration: It is a conservative prediction.
"Weather is wonderful, wish you were here!"
Keep going? OK. Never mind the possibility of a complete collapse: Slowing of the North Atlantic conveyor belt is occurring, bringing tropical species up the USA eastern seaboard, (including manatees), and helping to kill off crustaceans and fish around New England and Nova Scotia. What does this mean for climate? It means heat is not only building up in the tropical and temporate areas of the ocean directly due to global warming, it means that the slowing conveyor belt is tending to keep that heat from moving northward. Therefore, that building heat, building even further now, is producing bigger and stringer hurricanes. Shall I name only the last 5? I think we all know these hurricanes are becoming more massive than in the known past. Many of us bicker about Donald Trump or Clintons in Haiti or Bush in New Orleans, and so forth. A few of us see how sad this bickering is. And, meanwhile, what more is happening because of all this rising heat?
Moisture. Unimaginable amounts of moisture are lifted up into the atmosphere by these bigger and stronger hurricanes. But more than these outstanding examples - all the oceans are emitting more and more moisture simply as a matte4r of course, with overall rising temperatures. This water turns into more rain, more floods, more flash floods, more hail, more atmospheric electromagnetic disturbances and tornadoes AND, in cold snaps, INTO LOTS AND LOTS OF SNOW. How many more times do we have to explain this? Until the last bastard is clasping his profits from oil, warming, and insurance - and the GDP and stock market reach stratospheric heights because of all the money from clean-up, hospitalisations and WAR - and the country has been overrun by 600 billion warming refugees from South America, Mexico and China?
So, these climate deniers who accuse scientists of bad science, then launch into anecdote, confabulation, superstition, anger and blame as their authoritative snowflake form of 'good science' - these god-loving narcissists - who are in love with the man's manna that Big Oil and Big Coal will bring them - generally also go on tirades over how, "Man did not cause global warming," - and by illogical extension, ergo glabal warming does not exist. Every time they hear about climate chaneg they take it as a personal attack, a tax, a tyranny - because all they see are the petty politics of people blaming people. Since man is a blessed Steward oif all land and animals, then man could not have caused global warming, ergo, "I DID NOT CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!!!' To identify the cause as man, it means you are blaming them.
But, the funny thing is this: Despite their rants and raves about man not causing global warming, they DO often tend to keep this idea simultaneously in their heads: THE EVIL GOVERNMENT IS GEOENGINEERING OUR WEATHER!
See what I'm saying? There is this continuing contradiction going on in many of these people's skulls, which is adamant in never resolving itself, and which only seems to fuel the denial and the hate on and on. Remember when they said that God created Katrina to punish gay people? Well, how about this one: The incessantly flaming brains of these climate-deniers' hot heads is causing global warming!!! So neener neener, right? And they wonder why a lot of Dems don't want them to vote.
And, even now, they complain that liberals are blaming carbn dioxide for global warming, when carbon dioxide is a wonderful thing that trees like to eat! So how can it be pollution? They don't see that the pollution is their own denial. Or ignorance. Sometimes it's ignorance. And sometimes, it's this:
Donald Trump, on the 4th Assessment on Climate: "Well I read the report, and I don't believe it." Oh, how nice for you. To sit in a bathtub full of bllions, and deny whatever you like, causing more harm to billions upon billions with every second that goes by, and every breath you take. Check the news and you will see that a female Congress person chided Trump, with my own sentiments: "Gravity (like climate change) exists whether you deny it or not."
My definition: Power is the ability to lie and get away with it.
Well, my astute opinion is that Trump is playing for time, until he gets through the next election. That is the plan. So, he is tendering this big lie, in order to get him and his backers, his base, through 2020. Then, he will attack climate change, saying, like Nixon, the evidence is convincing.
Well, some might say that these are ultimately good intentions: Trying to get the whole country behind an agenda unpopular to the climate-deniers, eventually. But this political maneuver is called PUTTING ENDS BEFORE MEANS. Assuming I am correct, Trump is committing unethical behaviour - arguably evil behaviour. This would not be surprising since he, like most politicians, is an amoral, opportunistic money-chasing, attention-seeking bully who never grew up.
Is the World is Run by People Who Are Acting Out Childhood Trauma?
But, if I am incorrect, then Trump is genuinely speaking from ignorance or stupidity, being just another climate-denier. We won't know until it all comes out in the books and memos and so on - could take up to 50 years. mmmm... Do we have 50 years? The issue is climate change, not Trump. Politicians sway when the people shake.
That's about all I have for ya right now. 'Denialism' is a word I penned several years ago but it is now becoming a common word as the reality of our age sinks in, and can be found in articles in the NYT, etc. In my view, it certainly is a word that is 'bipartisan' if you will. You can find my journal's tag for denialism HERE.