One simple sentence shows what climate change needs

Or a single word:

Honesty.

The lede on this New York Times Sunday story gets to the heart of climate change issue: 

Global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases is having clear effects in the physical world: more heat waves, heavier rainstorms and higher sea levels, to cite a few.

As do the next few simple sentences which take readers into deeper content:

In recent years, though, social scientists have been wrestling with a murkier question: What will climate change mean for human welfare...?

Now comes another entry in this literature: a prediction that in a hotter world, people will get less sleep.

It's an interesting report, to be sure - - but I was struck by the clear and factual approach to climate change without the doubts and even outright hostility intentionally injected into the issue by ideological partisans obeisant to the very corporate interests actively undermining the discussion, including:

*  The 'chamber of commerce mentality' managers whom GOP Gov. Scott Walker has running the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and who scrubbed climate change language, science and facts from the agency's key climate change page.

Climate change censors driven by science denial and obeisance to polluters these days at the GOP-managed, Scott Walker-redefined "chamber of commerce mentality" Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are at it again.

Not content with having already stripped content and links from an agency webpage about climate change - - deletions I documented some years ago and which I have frequently referenced - - the ideologues intent on scrubbing science off these pages and sowing doubt and confusion about the consensus view of experts worldwide about climate change have edited, deleted and otherwise compressed to whitewash long-standing concepts and facts off a climate change page about the Great Lakes - - the same way, I will add, that Walker edited and watered-down the Wisconsin Idea, which has for decades had been the University system's historic mission statement

And, for the record, just as I predicted in 2015 they'd do:

Its [the key DNR] website is still noting that there are indeed present-tense impacts of climate change and "Human activities that increase heat–trapping ("green house") gases are the main cause."

So look for more heads to roll at the agency, and since the Walker DNR deleted most of what the Doyle administration left on the agency's climate change pages, don't be surprised if this current language about climate change and Wisconsin gets edited or deleted because it lists what "scientists agree" about:

Climate Change and Wisconsin's Great Lakes

Earth´s climate is changing. Human activities that increase heat–trapping ("green house") gases are the main cause. 

Earth's average temperature has increased 1.4 °F since 1850 and the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 1998. 

Increasing temperatures have led to changes in rainfall patterns and snow and ice cover. These changes could have severe effects on the Great Lakes and the plants, wildlife and people who depend on them. While no one can predict exactly what climate change will mean for our Great Lakes, scientists agree that the following changes are likely if climate change patterns continue.

• Increased summer and winter temperatures will cause increased evaporation, lower lake water levels and warmer water, resulting in reduced habitat for cold water species and a loss of critical wetland areas.
• Decreased winter ice cover will also contribute to increased evaporation and lower lake water levels which could have severe economic consequences for our valuable shipping industry, lakeshore recreation, and coastal businesses.
• Changes in rain and snowfall patterns (including more frequent and severe storms) could change water flow in streams and rivers and increase stream bank erosion and runoff pollution.
• The good news is that we can all work to slow climate change and lessen its effects. To find out more about climate change and how we can all help, please visit the following links.

That scrubbing of crucial climate change information in the face of known facts was carried out to backstop Walker's disbelief in a warming climate, his efforts to keep greenhouse gases flowing, and openly juvenile behavior when asked on national stages to address these of globally-significant matters:

“I’m an Eagle Scout. We were taught a long time ago, your campsite should be cleaner when you leave than when you find it,” Walker said.

*  Our new Climate Change Denier-in-Chief who campaigned on this famous Tweet:

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

*  The fossil fuel industry ally now in charge of the US science agency with the expert staff to address climate change now facing massive budget cuts: 

Scott Pruitt, the nation’s top environmental official, strongly rejected the established science of climate change on Thursday, outraging scientists, environmentalists, and even his immediate predecessor at the Environmental Protection Agency.

We'd go long way towards cleaning the atmosphere cleaner and leaving a healthier planet to our grandchildren if these Republicans would end their self-interested obstruction to climate change science, but it looks like we're being led in the opposite direction: 

In the Trump White House, the momentum is against the Paris climate agreement