Monday, February 08, 2010

Groundhog Day: six more weeks of climate change debates?

Thank you for sticking with Maribo during the unannounced hiatus over the past seven weeks or so.

This blog started a few years back as an effort to reach people who were not otherwise actively reading or thinking about climate change. I'd imagined the audience as people like the old friends and family that don't follow the climate news but do pepper me with questions about the state of the science or the politics whenever I'm visiting. Over time, Maribo, like most other climate-focused blogs became enveloped in the online game of whack-a-mole between the 20% of the internet-savvy population that is actively concerned about climate change and angry about the lack of action, and another 20% who see climate change as conspiracy cooked up by Al Gore. The battles may be necessary to stamp out the egregious mistakes and misrepresentations that permeate the internet and the daily news (*). The battles are also tiresome.

I'd like to get back to thinking about the other 60% of the population. I've been working on new ideas and venues for outreach which may involve a re-imagining of Maribo and/or a venture into other media. Keep checking Maribo for updates and feel free to send along ideas and suggestions.

Thanks,

Simon


* The mistakes and misrepresentations, I should add, can come from the "skeptics" and the irrational "alarmists" among the climate change activists; human-created emissions of greenhouse gases are warming the planet, despite what the "skeptics" might say, but it is not going to drive us to extinction, as I hear far too often.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good stuff. I've posted a comment linking to this page at mt's, who I think has similar ideas.

David said...

Not drive us to extinction, no, but create a good deal of human suffering, yes. In fact, it's already started, in Africa and other developing countries, and developing parts of developed countries (like New Orleans), where as elsewhere few people besides the spoiled and wealthy doubt the reality of climate change.

EliRabett said...

There is an asymmetry here which escapes you and a lot of other sensible people. Al Gore is a lot closer to your position that Chris Monckton. Treating them as symmetrically placed is a major mistake that folk like you and mt have consistently made.

Anyhow welcome back. I need to move somewhat in your new direction myself. Over time I have learned much from your posts on corals.

Simon Donner said...

Eli, we agree on the asymmetry. I should have been more explicit: when mistakes and misrepresentations "can come" from "alarmists" and "skeptics", I don't mean that it happens equally, or that the positions taken are equally irrational.

Nonetheless, we should call out the irrational value-laden "alarmism" when it happens. I have been to several events where the speakers talk of "the science" predicting the extinction of the human race. Not only are such statements complete hyperbole not based in any published results, it certainly does not help the cause of communicating the very real threats of climate change.