Monthly Archives: April 2012
Nature Conservancy Scientist Says “Nature is often resilient, not fragile”
| April 24, 2012 | Posted by Admin under Issues |
We’ve written before about scientists accused of fabricating data (*cough*Ann Maest*cough*) to “prove” their radical agenda, so it’s only right to highlight those scientists who look at the data and do not try to manipulate it to fit their particular world view.
Meet Dr. Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy. With a master’s degree in environmental biology and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology, Dr. Kareiva has worked in academics and conservation for over thirty years.
What makes Dr. Kareiva and his work stand out in the scientific community is his willingness to follow the data, question long-held beliefs that were based on assumptions and speak out about what is actually happening in the environment today.
“We love the horror story,” Kareiva said. He was dressed in New Balance running shoes, a purple sweater and rumpled tan trousers. “We just love it. The environmental movement has loved it. That, I think, is … [a] strategy failure. And it’s actually not supported by science.”
This is not some vague hypothesis, he added to murmurs. He’s seen it in the data.
“The message [has been that] humans degrade and destroy and really crucify the natural environment, and woe is me,” he said. “The reality is humans degrade and destroy and crucify the natural environment – and 80 percent of the time it recovers pretty well, and 20 percent of the time it doesn’t.”
Of course, this makes him wildly unpopular with those who do not actually take the scientific approach. He’s been called a “know-it-all,” a “bomb-thrower,” a “provocateur.” Early writings of his at The Nature Conservancy so outraged fellow scientists they wanted him reprimanded and TNC to forbid him to write articles like it ever again.
So how DOES The Nature Conservancy feel about this? Well…
On the Gulf Coast, for example, it recently planned a mile and a half of oyster reef. Rather than just scouting for the most ecologically vital spot, though, the conservancy also accounted for low-income towns that could most suffer from a storm surge and gain from having a reef to help block it. One of those vulnerable regions got the reef.
How refreshing – a scientist and an organization that understand that people are also a part of nature and take us into account.
Dr. Kareiva is an excellent model of what his profession should be about—following the data—rather than activist-scientists trying to promote their own political agenda.
EPA Announces Plan to Use Clean Water Act to Preemptively Strike Down Pebble Mine Project Permits
| April 24, 2012 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Energy |
Last month the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suffered what should have been an embarrassing defeat when the Supreme Court ruled that Mike and Chantell Sackett could bring suit against the EPA. That Supreme Court decision was the culmination of a costly 3-year battle between the Sackett’s and the powerful Obama Environmental Protection Agency which used the Clean Water Act in an attempt to prevent the couple from building their home on their property in Idaho.
Apparently the Sackett ruling might not have been such an embarrassment to the mega-bureaucratic government agency because just last week the EPA announced plans to use the Clean Water Act to preemptively prevent the Pebble Mine Project from being built in Alaska. This battle has also been going on for about three years.
It seems that many of the well-heeled in Alaska and Oregon don’t want the Pebble Mine Project built close to an area they consider their personal playground, Bristol Bay, Alaska. And so, under the guise of environmentalism, the powerful few help finance astroturf campaigns and environmental activists in an attempt to ‘Keystone’ the Pebble Mine Project without concern for the Native populations of the area and the much needed jobs and the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be infused into the depressed economy both directly and indirectly.
These NIMBY activists (Not in My Back Yard) have shut down projects across the country. The most famous recent case is the Keystone Pipeline. Now, through the EPA’s announcement last week, it seems the next Obama Administration ‘Keystoning’ will be focused on the Pebble Mine Project.
The question is, what does anyone have to gain by preventing mining, transporting oil or even a couple from building a house in Idaho? Why is there an entire large government agency focusing its attention and spending tax-payer money on preventing these projects that would only help the economy, give people jobs and lower energy prices?
By all appearances it has mostly to do with returning political favors and asserting power, both over those attempting to get the permits and those who are having to pay the price of having to buy energy from places like China, Chile, Venezuela and who knows where else. Those countries are reaping the profits while Americans are paying the price.
NASA Scientists Call Out NASA for Unsubstantiated Climate Science
| April 11, 2012 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Issues |
Forty-nine former NASA scientists issued a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolton asking the NASA administration to refrain from using ‘unproven and unsupported remarks’ about climate science in their communications. This letter comes shortly after Jim Hansen, the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies likened global warming to slavery.
Here is the full text of the letter:
March 28, 2012
The Honorable Charles Bolden, Jr.
NASA Administrator
NASA Headquarters
Washington, D.C. 20546-0001Dear Charlie,
We, the undersigned, respectfully request that NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites. We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data. With hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists publicly declaring their disbelief in the catastrophic forecasts, coming particularly from the GISS leadership, it is clear that the science is NOT settled.
The unbridled advocacy of CO2 being the major cause of climate change is unbecoming of NASA’s history of making an objective assessment of all available scientific data prior to making decisions or public statements.
As former NASA employees, we feel that NASA’s advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate. We request that NASA refrain from including unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites on this subject. At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA’s current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself.
For additional information regarding the science behind our concern, we recommend that you contact Harrison Schmitt or Walter Cunningham, or others they can recommend to you.
Thank you for considering this request.
Sincerely,
(Attached signatures)
You can see a list of the 49 signatories here.
It seems that every aspect of American life has been taken over by environmental activists in the name of the new religion of environmentalism. The areas in which the United States has excelled in the past have been regulated out of existence. It is certainly affecting our energy production and the cost of everyday products that we are now having to buy from other countries, but that is not all. Even our beloved space program, NASA, is being stymied because of EPA regulations.
Hollywood Goes After Fracking: Matt Damon in ‘The Promised Land’
| April 7, 2012 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Issues |
Matt Damon
Like most people, I like to go see movies to be entertained, not to get lectured. Unfortunately, it seems that Hollywood is more in the business of promoting whatever issues any particular star or producer has rather than in providing entertainment. No wonder movie attendance has declined in recent years!
Case in point is an on-going assault on obtaining natural gas through what is called fracking. First there was the movie Gasland (I know, you never heard of it, but it was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary in 2011). That anti-fracking movie was answered with FrackNation, a pro-fracking movie. Now, another anti-fracking movie is being produced, ‘The Promised Land’. Hollywood star Matt Damon co-wrote the movie and will be the star.
And so the Hollywood fracking propaganda wars continue while the rest of us are struggling to pay our energy bills.
From Politico:
Movies about fracking have been springing up ever since the Josh Fox-directed film “Gasland,” catapulted the practice into the national spotlight. It was nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2011.
News about the plot of “Promised Land” was posted Monday by the directors of “FrackNation” — a pro-fracking movie that is being funded through Kickstarter.
“We want to make FrackNation because we want the truth about fracking to be told,” the directors wrote on the fundraising site. “But it will not be easy getting the message out with a sequel to ‘Gasland’ in the works and now a big budget Hollywood movie concentrating on scare stories rather than true stories. Now, we recognize Hollywood movies don’t have to be truthful — they just have to be entertaining, but it’s likely that PROMISED LAND will increase unfounded concerns about fracking.”
Americans for Prosperity Protest a Success at the EPA Hard Rock Mining Conference
| April 6, 2012 | Posted by Beth Shaw under Issues |
With signs declaring the American worker is the real endangered species, Colorado’s Americans for Prosperity showed up to protest the EPA Hard Rock Mining conference in Denver. After pressure from sources like Resourceful Earth News and others, disgraced scientist Ann Maest withdrew from the conference panel. Read more about it below and see related photos and a video.
Americans for Prosperity
Last month we reported that Dr. Ann Maest was scheduled to be a part of the EPA’s Hard Rock mining conference in Denver, Colorado. The problem is that Dr. Maest had been caught fabricating data to support her environmental activist point of view. Very naughty not to mention unprofessional.
Dr. Maest was replaced on the conference panel after an email campaign and pressure from Resourceful Earth and others.
Unfortunately Stratus, the group she represents, was not replaced. Instead, Stratus replaced Dr. Maest with a less well-known and less controversial representative. Naturally, this implies that the EPA is still embracing questionable, agenda-driven scientific ‘findings’ that support the Obama Administrations apparent attempts to over-regulate the mining industry out of business and Americans out of jobs.
“Ann Maest and Stratus Consulting are poster children for the kind of questionable, agenda-driven ‘science’ that federal regulators and their green allies outside government use to block energy production, increase consumer costs, kill jobs and smother the American economy in unnecessary red tape,” said AFP-CO State Director Jeff Crank. “We hope this Give Red Tape a Rest Rally will remind the rogue regulators at EPA, and their masters in the White House, that the American people are losing patience with, and just can’t afford, this regulate-everything, costs-be-damned attitude at EPA.”
The Americans for Prosperity-Colorado held a protest rally called ‘Give Red Tape a Rest’! The protest was a success with over 100 protesters who received support from on-lookers. Even while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works behind the scenes with regulations to attempt to stop America’s energy independence, the average American wants American oil and coal along with the jobs retrieving those resources supplies!
We are pleased with the success we’ve had with having Dr. Ann Maest exposed as a fraud, but there is more work to do. We will continue working to expose the EPA’s over-regulation practices and the Obama Administrations attempts to demonize and stymie American energy independence!
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