Letters to the Editor
WeedWacker
Published Letters: 4 Editor's Choice: 1
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My Nomination ...
[Read the article: Climate warriors and heroes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The "problem" with nominating a small group of individual "Climate Warriors" is that you leave a bunch of people out by agreement. I would like to nominate the team at Lamont-Doherty Earth Institute.
The institute houses the research wing of Columbia University's DEES or Department of environmental and earth sciences and is associated with CIESIN ( I think that's how the acronym goes ) and the Earth Institute which is the applied, policy wing of the economics department. This is run by the star economist Jeffrey "The End of Poverty" Sachs. It's an interesting concept, have a bunch of scientists figure out the science. And have an economist help explain these ideas to the world at large in real economic terms. Global warming is one of these problems and its economic consequences suggest we address that problem.
There are hundreds of people here studying the world's development problems and how science can help us address those problems. I suspect that many of the "heros" you have interviewed would privately talk about how they are like a very smart "brand name" for the very hard working, intelligent teams they represent.
It would be intersting to see some other people's nominations. My understanding is that the IPCC represents the contributions of thousands of well-intentioned, smart people.
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Some Comments ...
[Read the article: Bush's betrayal of history]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Good Day,
With the exception of the Supreme Court choices I was wondering why the democrats wanted to win the last election. As events from the last couple of weeks have shown Bush's right wing base makes it very hard to appeal to the American center. The only thing that made it possiblefor Bush and Rove to rule was September 11th. Remember China and the trifecta comment from years gone bye. People forget how broke our foreign policy was before September 11. Bush's comment about the trifecta shows how he understood America's short memory.
People are beginning to understand the depth of this administration's breathtaking duplicity. The key word is beginning. It is interesting that they see it correctly through hurricaine Katrina. A little story to illustrate.
Currently I am waiting for a visa to leave. My job is meaningless. Ahh, but my girlfriend. She's a scientist who works in oceanography. Her department has been killed by NSF cutbacks. As a result:
- her boss M. returned to Germany to rebuild a program there.
- a coworker is returning to Canada
- we are going to Australia
This leaves this proud univerity without a physical oceanography department. And by the way a year and a half after M. returned to Germany, the position still remains unfilled after an exhaustive worldwide search!
In short I think a major portion of the people who study natural sciences are leaving. The proud American scientific tradition that studies global warming is quickly being disassembled because budget priorities demand we pay for this god-forsaken war.
I was against this war from the very beginning. But as soon as I saw Clinton come out for the war on late night tv I knew it was a done deal. He also told us how easy it would be. ( I think it was Letterman. ) But those of us were of a similar mind were voices protesting in the wilderness. Why did I think it was wrong? I looked at the Isreali experience in the occupied territories and thought we would end up in a similar situation, but with our very economy at stake.
I guess now conservation is our only way out.
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Newt's Thin Skinned Spokesman
[Read the article: Bush's betrayal of history]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If Blumenthal read all three of Newt's books, kudos to him. He would be the first. God, who could stand that drivel.
Now let's get to the "war". We Democrats would like to thank the 'elves' for pushing the Whitewater investigations. This slowed down Clinton so he couldn't push the Democratic agenda as he was elected to do. If this wasn't a war against Clinton than it was a war against the popular Democratic ideals he supported.
What about the Sudan affair. Clinton was again lambasted by the Republicans even though he inherited that mission from Bush I. Was dear old Newt calling for restaint in dealing with Clinton. Was he calling for reasoned discourse? Did newt say that those people calling for American troops' withdrawl were 'unpatriotic'? No he accused Clinton of 'nation building'. That might not have been war, but it certainly wasn't patriotically supporting Clinton.
How about the cruise missiles aimed at Bin Laden? What position did Newt have then? How about wag the dog? Did Newt advocate a serious evaluation of the threat Al Quada posed to the US? Did Phd Newt seriously advocate a platform where we studied the threat to our national security? Naw, he waved the flag and pandered to his conservative base. Some might consider this a war against our common American defense.
Despite his Phd Newt is either a doofus, or he is a politician who doesn't care about our common needs. He should stay where he belongs ... collecting money from his friends safely in retirement. I hear the Republicans are looking for some talented lobbyists.