Lars Larson thinks global warming is an Oregon joke. That isn’t funny.

Oh, Lars, you're so funny. But only in your own right-wing mind. Today I heard Oregon's contribution to uninformed talk radio (Lars Larson has both a national and local show) praising global warming and today's record breaking heat wave.

"Oh, sure, global warming is going to turn southern California into a dust bowl," I recall Lars saying. "But it's going to be great for Oregon. Just look at the terrific weather we're having. Global warming, bring it on."

First of all, Lars, my daughter and her family live in Hollywood. Real people live down there, like they do elsewhere in the southwest. And all the other parts of the world that are facing long-term drought largely because of global warming.

Lars, you live in the city. You turn on a tap and water comes out. Spend some time in the country. People like us rely on a well for our water. Drought is no joke to country folk. And farmers. There's plenty of both in Oregon, Lars. You need to get out more.

Then there's Victoria Taft on Portland's KPAM, another conservative talk show host who is spectacularly ignorant about global warming. And the status of Oregon State's weird and wacky weather guy, George Taylor. It's a fact: he isn't the official state climatologist.

But recently I heard Victoria say that he was, before Gov. Kulongoski stripped him of his position. Wrong. He never had it, because no such beast as "Oregon state climatologist" exists.

She also believes that humans have nothing to do with global warming, a spectacularly wrong conception that Taylor shares. Along with extremely few reputable scientists.

Taft and Taylor are prone to spouting climate myths. I doubt that they're open-minded enough to expose themselves to the facts about these myths, but they're readily available on the New Scientist web site.

I just read one of those articles, "The 7 biggest myths about climate change." See, I'm a subscriber to several science magazines. I've got this strange (to Lars and Victoria) notion that truth is better than falsehood, and facing reality is preferable to blind faith in political or religious dogma.

Truth. Reality. Some paragraphs from New Scientist:

Our planet's climate is anything but simple. It depends on the interplay of many factors, from massive events in the sun to microscopic creatures in the oceans.

Yet a clear picture has emerged, supported by an overwhelming amount of evidence: the world is warming, this warming is due to increasing levels of greenhouse gases caused by human activity, and if emissions continue unabated the warming will too, with ever more serious consequences.

True, there are big uncertainties in some predictions, but these swing both ways: the response of clouds might slow warming or could speed it up instead, for instance.

With so much at stake, the last thing we need is for the real issues to be obscured by discredited arguments and wild theories. We must act now to avoid the worse effects. So for those who are not sure what to believe, here's our guide to climate myths and misconceptions.

Decide for yourself.

Lars and Victoria, you're being spoken to. Could you stop talking and start listening? The truth is out there. It just takes opening your mind's eye and removing those right-wing blinders.

Comments

[Becky]

Great piece and you are so right. People like Lars want to live in the beautiful Northwest, but don't seem to realize that it takes a lot of cool, wet weather to make this place so beautiful. We start having warmer weather on a regular basis and we're going to look like California. Lars used to be a reasonable guy. I can't figure out what happened to him. Victoria, on the other hand, has always been lost in right-wing fantasyland.

[Rain]

Good article and so true. The bad part is people have misunderstood what global warming means and think of it as everywhere gets warmer. It's global climate change that it will lead to and that can spoil lifestyles many places. It's wilful ignorance

[Barny R.]

Brian,

At this point, what we need to realize is that the Greenhouse Effect is Grade 5 science - very simply the more greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere the more warming. For anyone with a modicum of logic or common sense, this is very easy to understand and is irrefutable.

However, not everyone is so enlighted, and the remaining global warming skeptics fall into 2 camps:

1. The truly ignorant (often Christain fundamentalists) who don't understand basic physics, who believe Earth is 6000 years old, and believe god controls the climate with his "holy thermostat". Many of these types are likely attending the opening of the creation "museum" in Cincinnatti, which talks about how Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark (of course, he kept having to discipline the Velociraptors for eating the other animals).
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2621240720070526

2. Those with a vested interest (usually financial) in the petroleum status quo - These are generally people, including executives, of the "Carbon Club" who work for the oil, nat gas, coal companies, as well as their paid shills (eg. George Taylor, "Dr." Fred Singer, Sallie Ballieunas, Senator Inhofe).

It appears that Lar Larson falls into the latter camp. He is relatively articulate, and I believe he is no idiot, but that he is paid to increase doubt about the scientific concensus on global warming amongst those who can be easily swayed (often those from the first group). I'm willing to bet that if you follow the money going into Lars' pocket to it's source, you will find oily, coal-stained hands shelling it out.

Unfortunately, there will always be ignorant, intellectual challenged individuals willing to be swayed by people like Lars. For chrissakes - 70% of Americans don't know that plastic is a PETROLEUM PRODUCT!!
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070420/20070420005536.html?.v=1

At this point, public opinion has turned to believing and understanding the simple physics of global warming. Unfortunately, judging by number of SUV ads, the larger numbers of monstrous vehicles on the road, and the ongoing record profits of the oil companies, the Carbon Club is winning the war - the climate and the environment be damned. Though technology exists today to have mass-produced electric cars that get the equivalent of 200-300mpg, the oil companies will fight to prevent these cars from hitting the markets in any meaningful way.

Read "Internal Combustion" or see "Who Killed the Electric Car" for examples of how they have done this in the past, and will continue to do this in the future. As for me, I will continue to travel by bus or bike, for the little that it is worth.

[Robert Paul Howard]

What?!? Not use a Prius?

Robert Paul Howard

[BOB]

AL GORE AND THE PIED PIPER. WOW, WHAT A PAIR!

[GPS Devices]

Global warming isn't the issue. There have been ice ages and global warming throughout much of the history of the planet.

The issue should be about doing the right thing. About cleaning up the air quality and the water quality. It's about being good stewards and caring about who and what is living downwind and downstream of you. It is about conserving resources and about protecting environments.

Because it is the right thing to do.