The Climate Denial Zoo – A Letter to The Guardian Environment

Dear The Guardian Environment,

I had to rub my eyes in disbelief at the article abstract entitled
“Global cooling?” for James Randerson’s 5th December piece “2008 will
be coolest year of the decade” :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/05/climate-change-weather

I also found myself astonished at the picture text “Warming up?” for
James Randerson’s article “Coolest year since 2000 but trend still
shows global warming” on 16th December :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/16/scienceofclimatechange-climatechange

I think it is completely irresponsible to rattle the bars of the cages
the denial “monkeys” have locked themselves into, and wave choice
nibbles in front of them.

By dangling these “maybe, baby” tidbits just out of reach, whilst
affording them the prospect of something they can get their teeth
into, you are causing foaming at the mouth in many quarters, I
suspect.

As Grist spreads out, in careful, sane detail, nothing is getting any
cooler, generally, see “The aughts are hot” :-

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/12/8/21147/4058

and as Real Climate is at great pains to point out, any number of
mythical hairy monsters can be constructed from real, complex data, so we should be careful not to get trapped by fact-challenged, virally
transmitted, denial non-arguments, see “2008 temperature summaries and spin” :-

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/12/2008-temperature-summaries-and-spin/

The NASA, NOAA and Hadley charts and reports should make it clear to any creature with sufficient analytical perception skills that Global
Warming is the Big Angry Gorilla in the Room.

I think journalists at The Guardian should take a firm stand and a
clear stance, and certainly not tease the “chattering chimps” in the
Climate Denial zoo.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/climatereport.html

http://hadobs.metoffice.com/

James Randerson should, in my view, have his, one could say,
pre-Neanderthal, knuckles rapped, for keeping “the debate” alive, his
evolutionary genetics PhD notwithstanding.

It’s time we evolved. The fact is, there is no “debate” left to be had
about the existence and manmade-ness of Global Warming, and it is time we all moved on to more productive, engaging, inclusive questions, like “how are we going to cut Carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 ?”

Less monkeying around, please,