Saturday, January 7, 2017

WI DNR says climate change "debatable," but not on warmed WI ski hills

At the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Scott Walker's fossil-fuel friendly managers scrubbed climate change information from public climate change science information and science pages because they say climate change's causes are still debatable.

North of the DNR's Madison headquarters, in the state which Scott Walker famously declared was "Open for Business" in his ideologically-driven right-wing state - - the same state with flat job growth and a stalled economy - - a different story is being shared:

Warming Slopes Send Skiing Downhill
In Wisconsin, winters are getting shorter and warmer. The state has seen some of the country’s fastest warming, with average winter temperatures up four degrees Fahrenheit since 1970...
In recent low-snowfall years, ski visits in Wisconsin have dropped by more than a third. Such a big decline in visitors hurts local economies, and has caused some ski areas and services to struggle to stay open.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scottie and company can say whatever they want. That is not the problem. He can only impose his will on the people when the MEDIA tells us that it is debatable. You know, that "2-sides of every story" lie that is the foundation of today's noooze.

Scientists overwhelming say the data demonstrates there is climate change. Scottie, a college drop out, says otherwise. It is the media that reports climate change as debatable and they only say this because oil interests like Exxon Mobile, Koch, and their lackeys like Scott Walker says it.

Nothing to debate except why there is the lie that it is debatable.

But here's the more important point that no one is talking about. Even if there was a "debate" on global climate change which would be irreversible and devastating, what would be the prudent course of action.

To a statistician or a highly-qualified business decision maker -- there are 2 types of errors: A false "positive", termed a type 1 and a false "negative, which is a type 2.

I will skip the technical stuff -- if we are not sure, but the consequences are potentially end-of-life scenarios (at least for humans) in the very long run, the prudent choice is to take action to stop climate change.

The burden of proof, and this is another media lie, is not on those claiming there is climate change. It should be on those claiming there is no climate change and the best they can offer us is "it is debatable".

The details of this analysis, if anyone wants to know more, are here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_I_and_type_II_errors

So not only is it our media that catapults the lie that there are 2 sides of this issue, both deserve equal merit, therefore the issue is "debatable", the the media is lying about who should actually have to demonstrate their case!

Anonymous said...

Good news! Scott Walker announced $20 million public give-away to his donors behind the CAFOs! His BFF MJS calls this pork barrel project an "initiative" to sanitize the pay-back to his financial backers.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reprinted his press release and talking points on this as nooooze with a fact-free report today that dies not even begin to tell the real story that this is just another way our grifter guv misuses public funds to bribe the folks that give him cash with public funds while proclaiming "we're broke."

Walker is ginning up another budget crisis in-time for the next budget and across the state today the media is giving is Big and Bold (tm) propaganda front-page coverage!

Anonymous said...

PROPAGANDA ALERT!

MJS is boasting in an editorial that "Walker's leadership is key to fighting heroin" [Big and Bold(tm)].

In fact, the economic havoc he has wreaked across the state has probably pushed some people to abuse all kinds of substance, but don't expect facts in a MJS editorial (or the rest of the noooozepaper either).

Walker's BFF runs this type of dishonest editorial so that when Scott Walker proclaims climate change is "debatable", they can catapult that lie and pretend it is coming from a credible source.

Massive free airtime and endless free publicity of Donald Trump and his insane Twitter rants is what created the most divided nation we have ever seen in the U.S. There are credible reports that Vladimir Putin and Russia played a role in this too.

And all of this is made possible by an endless stream of propaganda from the sources that scream anyone not part of the mainstream disinformation racket is FAKE NEWS!

Anonymous said...

Climate change will be very profitable for the oil, gas, and coal industries. When things get to a critical point where there is a need for action, they will sell us the fuel for our generators and emergency air conditioners.

They will see MORE gas for our cars as people try to relocate where it is more hospitable for human survival. When the coasts flood, they will see MORE energy as everyone takes emergency measures and finally high-tails it out of there.

They will finally no longer have those pesky democratic strongholds in California and the East Coast!

And this best part, to the oil industry, is that they can hasten this dramatic climate change by continuing to claim that this is a "debatable". This about it. They will make fortunes beyond avarice radically changing the earth's climate and killing many.

And then they will make EVEN MORE during the chaos that ensues!

Joe R said...

My gut tells me that the snowmobile community in Wisconsin is very friendly toward Walker and the GOP. Up-North reactionary reps such as Tom Tiffany enjoy the support of the snowmobile groups and the taverns that benefit from wintertime bar hopping. The legislature and Cathy Stepp's DNR reciprocate by opening quiet-sports areas such as Blue Mounds State Park to the noise and smells and speeds of the snowmobilers (as if they had nowhere else to go). How ironic, then, that these folks -- mostly climate-change deniers I'd expect -- won't have any snow to mobile on when things get much warmer.

By the way, the DNR Board at its January 25 meeting will reconsider its earlier (illegal) approval of snowmobile access to Blue Mounds. Please register your comments by 11:00 a.m. on January 13 to the Board. Email comments to laurie.ross@wisconsin.gov or send a letter to Laurie J. Ross, Board Liaison, Office of the Secretary, Wisconsin DNR, PO Box 7921, Madison WI 53707-7921. You'll be glad you did.