The Action Distraction

by William S. Becker

The Obama Administration’s early leadership on global warming seems to have stirred up the climate skeptics, cynics and deniers again. Now they’re trying to discredit not only climate science, but the climate scientists President Obama has appointed to advise him.

But when it comes to what President Obama, the Congress and all the rest of us should be doing, none of the squabbling matters. Outside our laboratories and classrooms and scientific journals, the chronic arguments about global warming have very little to do with the fundamental challenge ahead: Making the fastest possible transition to a green economy. Why? Because climate change is an issue where you don’t have to agree on the problem to agree on the solutions.

First, some background on the latest media debate. The Washington Post allowed George Will to waste some perfectly good ink to argue that Obama’s science advisors are “dark green doomsayers”. The New York Times followed suit, publishing a column by John Tierney, who featured a book by Dr. Roger Pielke, a researcher at the University of Colorado who objects that some climate scientists are engaging in “stealth issue advocacy.”

He singles out Obama science advisor John Holdren. Pielke also has blasted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. While other critics have said the IPCC is too conservative in its assessment of the seriousness of climate change, Pielke has posted a piece on his web site accusing the IPCC of being more about politics than science. Continued...

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