OpEd:

There Is No Debate On Climate Change

December 21, 2009 by Kyle Brady
Tags: America, Climate Change, Congress, Copenhagen, Obama, Politics
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics

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The climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark has been the talk of the last two weeks, where countries argue over what limited emissions targets will be agreed to and how it will be financed, not to mention on what baseline the changes are calculated.  But this entire argument between nations has underlined a point that needs to be made, and has been largely ignored by most parties worldwide:  while the world’s leaders and their representatives decide how to respond to the growing problem of climate change, the United State is still arguing amongst itself about whether it’s real or fabricated.

To say that there are skeptics in terms of climate change would be a severe understatement, since those that find the evolving, global ecological problem to be questionable do not so much as question its premises as deny its very existence – this is why the label “climate change deniers” has developed.  These arguments range from the facts being falsified or manipulated as part of a mass global conspiracy run by scientists (seen in the recent dustup) to the variations in climate being part of normal earthly cycles, with deities occasionally used in the defense of hazardous activities such as burning coal.

Much like the current struggle to wrangle any sort of reform or progress for healthcare in the United States, climate change has become a highly politicized issue that Congressmen are using to grandstanding and appeal to constituents, rather than doing what is so obviously necessary for the betterment of not only the nation, but the world.  A majority of the media, however, is not making the situation any more amicable, as they give equal attention to legitimate scientists and bought-and-paid-for individuals that practice pseudo-science at best.  Even worse are headlines like “Snow?  What about global warming?”.

The point, it appears, has been lost on Congress and a worrisome number of American citizens:  climate change is not about temperatures rising across the board for all time, but rather a disruption of normal weather patterns that results in swings to extremes at both ends of the spectrum.  Snow, cold temperatures, and other events that are not considered “warm” do not invalidate the existence of climate change as an issue, and yet they are championed as evidence for venerable scientists worldwide to be the ultimate of liars.

It is embarrassing, to say the least, that the United States government, at least on a federal level, has not only been ignoring the pressing issues of climate change and its effects for the last eight years, but have also participated in denying its existence.  This behavior has led to the present situation:  America is in talks with the world’s nations about a topic that a significant portion of its legislators do not believe is important or relevant and, as a consequence, cannot sign any binding treaties.  The rest of the planet has recognized the threat for what it is, and seems to be interested in taking initial measures as soon as possible, and the leader that they expected to set the tone for the negotiations is the very country that cannot participate heavily or credibly.

The time is nigh for politicians to leave science, along with scientific reasoning and judgment, to actual scientists and stick to acting on the credible interpretations of data given to them – this is, ironically, what lobbyists claim as the purpose for their existence.  The scientific data behind climate change is real and legitimate, no matter how much those without the education or disposition to say otherwise claim that it is not, and the media would do well to realize this.  If the media and politicians do their job correctly, defined as reporting and acting on facts rather than attempting to fabricate them, America can regain its lost credibility within the realm of climate change, and the same principles of rationality apply to what some see as a debate over evolution as well.

There is no debate on climate change, and the arguments need to stop.  The only valid debate is on what actions need to be taken, how quickly, and at what cost - all in terms of the continued, hopefully healthy, existence of humanity.

OpEd pieces are published up to twice a week, and usually have to do with politics or other pressing and relevant issues in America.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.