Letters to the Editor
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Biased Blathering on Climate Change
"My geology professor in college, in fact, asked me to consider geology as a career."
Oh dear. Methinks Ms. Paglia knows just enough to be dangerous.
The science of climate change is not borderline metaphysical. Nor is it politics. Nor does it matter that some people embrace it for dubious reasons.
What matters is the quality and testability of the science. One may be skeptical of, say, string theory, which is largely untestable. But one cannot be reasonably skeptical of rising temperatures, receeding glaciers, evidence from ice cores, etc.
The consensus among climate scientists -- that the Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate; that humans are largely responsible -- is indeed real, and sufficiently universal that its few critics (e.g., Lindzen at MIT) are increasingly viewed as cranks, not mavericks. (This, despite the impression one might get after reading a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed.) The basic ideas presented by Gore in his film -- in particular, the acceleration of warming caused by receeding polar ice cover -- are based on sound, well-grounded, science. Being skeptical about whether the earth will absorb more heat when highly reflective glaciers receed is like being skeptical of the effects of gravity.
The science doesn't care that Ms. Paglia has a libertarian streak, or where she grew up, or her opinion of Al Gore. Pagila's columns have long struck me as consisting of equal parts thoughtful commentary and biased blather. This bit of hers on climate change is a good example of the latter.
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'Ask a Democrat Intellectual'
DEAR WEIKUBOY: Why do so many Americans still not see the divine glory of George W. Bush's mission here on earth? It's almost as if they don't WANT the Rapture. April; Paris.
DEAR APRIL IN PARIS: As a Democrat Intellectual, I was sad that so many liberals voted against W even after He announced He is born again. He is a merciful but jealous unitary executive; and those whose hearts remain hardened to His Way verily shall be cast out onto the highway just as surely as His Army is smiting the Muslim unbelievers in Iraq.
DEAR WEIKUBOY: I want to own an Apache attack helicpoter, but the liberal elite in my condo are opposing a rooftop helipad. Don't gun owners have ANY rights? Hunter; NYC
DEAR HUNTER IN NYC: As a Democrat Intellectual, I imagine the Second Amendment as granting to all citizens, not just Sen. McCain, the right to walk the streets secure in the knowledge that the latest in helicopter gunship firepower is only a radio call away. It's too bad so many liberals think that what's good enough for Americans in places like Baghdad that have a long tradition of enjoying gun sports is somehow not right for New York City.
[That was another episode of 'Ask a Democrat Intellectual'. See you all next month!]
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Joan Walsh
I was reading Ms. Walsh's blog and came across this description of Camile Paglia:
a lousy writer, a third-rate thinker, a talent-free provocateur, or all of the above
Oh, wait. That's Michelle Malkin she's describing. And yet Salon publishes Paglia, Malkin's twin.
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Global Warming
Dear Camille
Nice to have you back at Salon. My favorite currently living classicist writing in English.
Warming as your comments always are, please do not dismiss the harmful changes occuring in/on/above the Earth as a partial result of mankind's over use of everything. Humankind owes a debt to all previous life for its gifts to us and to dismiss our harming over use of precious gifts is hubris and thoughtless.
Glad you are still thinking and writing.
Ciao Domenico
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How long will this continue to happen?
Fine. Every time you publish Paglia, I'll write in to say how empty and her obnoxious her columns are, and 90% of letter writers will agree with me. Is that really what you want, Salon? You got my clicks, but you lost my subscription revenue last month, exactly because of crap like this, and if you keep doing this you'll lose my clicks, too.
And while I'm here, I'll continue to say to Paglia's lamebrained defenders that we're not disgusted with Paglia because she's right wing and challenges our opinions. It's because she's a shallow, senseless and self-obsessed thinker and writer.
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Global warming is real, but....
Al Gore is full of it. I recently read two books (which I highly recommend) about climate. One is "Climate Change in Prehistory, the End of the Age of Chaos" and "Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum". There is no doubt that humans have strongly affected the climate for the last 10,000 years (Holocene). If humans had not cut down forests, and more recently burnt lots of fossil fuels, we would be entering an ice age. As "Climate Change..." points out ice ages are characterized by chaotic climate, dry, dusty, and cold. The Little Ice Age from about 1350 to 1850 might have been Gaea's most recent attempt to get us into an ice age, which we appear to have temporarily circumvented by making lots of greenhouse gases. In the last two million years there have been at least 50 ice ages, which covers the evolutionary history of the human race.
As you point out the Earth's climate is controlled by solar cycles, which includes variations in the shape of the earth's orbit around the sun, the tilt of the earth's axis and the precession of that axis. Those mechanisms are in the phase of a cycle which says the earth should be in an ice age now. Our intervention has temporarily prevented the inevitable ice age. Until 16 or so million years ago the earth had lots more CO2 and was much warmer. The only ice on the planet was the Antarctic ice cap. The crash of India into Asia created the Himalaya mountains, whose erosion created lots of rock dust which absorbed lots of CO2 and transported it to the sea. That se the stage for the ice ages.
Whether we like it or not the climate will change, mostly in ways that are inimical to our way of life. The Holocene is an aberration, perhaps unique in the history of the earth. It will not last no matter what we do. Since agriculture as we know it is impossible in an ice age, we will have to develop technologies that allow civilization to survive an "Age of Chaos". Lots of nukes, along with windmills, solar, and whatever our descendants will invent. Our present fixation of Global Warming is akin to the Neocons fixation on the Middle East, delusional.
Since humans evolved in an ice age we are well adapted to that environment, although if we lose technology it will require wearing lice-infested animal skins, and other fun things.