[Rantman] Climate Ethics listed in Durban... a few books recommended.

[rPauli]

Many have asked about reading materials on global warming - it may first
be important to know how much the science and information has been
suppressed and knocked around.   These 6 books are highly recommended -
most have Kindle editions or paperback.

    The Inquisition of Climate Science
    <http://www.amazon.com/Inquisition-Climate-Science-Lawrence-Powell/dp/0231157185/ref=sr_1_1>
    by James Lawrence Powell, Columbia University Press, 2011,
    Global Warming and Political Intimidation, How Politicians Cracked
    Down On Scientists as the Earth Heated Up
    <http://www.amazon.com/Global-Warming-Political-Intimidation-Politicians/dp/1558498699/ref=sr_1_2>,
    Raymond Bradley, University of Massachusetts Press, 2011,
    Merchants of Doubt, How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth
    On Issues From Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
    <http://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Obscured/dp/1608193942/ref=sr_1_5>,
    Bloomsbury Press, 2010,
    Climate Cover Up, The Crusade To Deny Global Warming
    <http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Cover-Up-Crusade-Global-Warming/dp/1553654854/ref=sr_1_1>,
    James Hoggan, Greystone Books, 2009,
    Climate War, True Believers, Power Brokers and The Fight to Save the
    Earth
    <http://www.amazon.com/Climate-War-Believers-Power-Brokers/dp/B0043RT8GS/ref=sr_1_1>,
    Eric Pooley, Hyperion, 2010,
    Climate Change Denial, Heads in the Sand
    <http://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-Denial-Heads-Sand/dp/1849713367/ref=sr_1_4>,
    Hayden Washington and John Cook, Earthscan, 2011

They all describe the extent and the motives behind the unethical
behavior that we face in global warming and progressively destabilizing
climate change.
Humans have caused it.   It is Anthropogenic global warming.    It is
wrong to have done it, *and VERY wrong to continue doing it. 
*And there is a strong profit motive to continue and to promote deceit.

This week, while serious diplomats meet to discuss how to face climate
change - noticeably absent is the US delegation.   Here, both Democratic
and Republican parties have completely ignored the issue.    An ethical
lapse that is perhaps a crime against humanity.

All humans can do is to adapt and mitigate.
Adapt is just to hunker down and prepare to face heat, storms, drought,
floods and famine.   Each region faces different aspects of climate change.
Mitigate is to stop making the problem worse.   This means halting
greenhouse gases - that, unfortunately, come from carbon fuels such as
coal, oil and gas.

The science and the examples of denial are nicely presented at:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/temporarily-frozen-planet-permanently-frozen-objectivity.html

It is right that ethical charges be leveled to the world.  
Portions of the ethics arguments presented to the Durban Climate
Conference -below - edited snips:
=======================


   An Ethical Analysis of the Climate Change Disinformation Campaign: 
  Is This A New Kind of Assault on Humanity?

(edited for brevity and emphasis)
By DONALD A BROWN on December 2, 2011 9:47 AM| 
http://rockblogs.psu.edu/climate/2011/12/an-ethical-analysis-of-the-climate-change-disinformation-campaign-is-this-a-new-kind-of-assault-on-h.html















...following is an ethical and moral critique of the climate change
disinformation campaign made at an event at COP-17 in Durban, South
Africa on November 29th 2011....

Climate change must be understood at its core as an ethical problem because;

    (a) it is a problem caused by some people in one part of the world
    that are hurting poor people who are often far away and poor,
    (b) the harms to these victims are potentially catastrophic, and
    (c) the victims can't protect themselves by petitioning their
    governments- they must hope that those causing the problem will see
    that their ethical duties to the victims requires them to
    drastically lower their greenhouse gas emissions.

....
The organizations trying to undermine public support on climate policies
by exaggerating scientific uncertainty have expanded over the last few
decades to include think tanks, front groups, astroturf groups (that is
groups pretending to be bottom-up citizen responses), PR firm led
campaigns financed by fossil fuel interests and free-market
fundamentalists philanthropic funding organizations. Much of the funding
support for these efforts has come from some fossil fuel interests.

The tactics deployed by this campaign are now all well documented
including in the six books mentioned above.  .. tactics include:

*A. Lying.* Some of the claims made by some of those engaged in the
disinformation campaign have been outright lies about such things as the
claim that the entire scientific basis for human-induced climate change
is a hoax or that there is no evidence of human causation of climate
change ... clearly a lie to assert there is no evidence of human
causation of observable warming.

*B. Focusing On An Unknown While Ignoring the Known.* Frequently those
engaged in the disinformation campaign stress what is unknown... This
tactic is often referred to as cherry-picking the evidence.
*
C. Specious Claims Of Bad Science.  * ... insisting on absolute proof
creates a burden of proof that can't be met. This is not reasonable
skepticism but an ideological assumption that would make protective
action impossible.
*
D. Creation of Front Groups.*   ... sometimes have held fake conferences
attended by scientists that never or infrequently publish in
peer-reviewed journals. These front groups then publish the results of
these conferences and send them to the media as if they were entitled to
the same respect as peer-reviewed science.

*E. Creation of Misleading Lists of Climate Skeptics*  ... that are
highly misleading because they often are comprised mostly of people who
have questionable, at best, scientific credentials and who infrequently,
if ever, publish in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

*F. Think Tank Campaigns*. Fossil fuel interests and right-wing,
anti-regulatory philanthropic organizations have funded think tanks that
have held forums or published non-peer reviewed reports on climate
change science or economics. These reports are then widely circulated to
the press and legislators as if they were entitled to the same respect
as peer-reviewed research. 
*
G. Public Relations Led Campaigns to Convince the Public That There is
No Scientific Basis for Climate Science*. Fossil fuel related interests
have sometime hired public relations firms to create a campaign to
convince citizens that climate change science is deeply unsettled and
therefor any action taken is a waste of money.
*
H. Astroturf Groups*.. ...designed to give the impression that there is
wide-spread, bottom-up opposition to climate change policies that
disguise that the funding and organization of these efforts ...

*I.Cyber-Bullying Scientists and Journalists.*..  that publicly claim
that human-induced climate change is a significant threat. In this
effort, they have sometime posted the picture and email on climate
denial websites of scientists and journalists who are viewed to be
supportive of action on climate change and encouraged followers to send
nasty, threatening emails to the target journalists and scientists. 
This is shear intimidation not reasonable skepticism.
*
None of these tactics constitute reasonable skepticism. In fact, given
the potential catastrophic harm from climate change, these tactics
constitute some kind of new assault on humanity. In fact, these tactics
are likely to have been the cause for failure of the United States and
several other large emitting countries to enact strong greenhouse gas
emissions reductions policies.*

...We are not trying to limit free speech but encourage people to see
that lying or misinformation is ethically problematic particularly in
cases when deception can lead to immense harm ...we would like to
encourage civil society and the press to engage in deeper reflection on
a few of these matters including:
*
A. How do we classify this troublesome behavior: although its is
obviously unethical, is it also criminal or civilly actionable?*
*
B. What does reasonable skepticism look-like?*

In conclusion we encourage civil society to turn up the volume on the
highly unethical and deeply malicious tactics of the climate change
disinformation campaign. We believe we need a new word for morally
irresponsible behavior that attempts to undermine through disinformation
political action needed in response to very threatening human activities.

By: Donald A. Brown
Associate Professor Environmental Ethics, Science, and Law,
Penn State University

In addition to Donald A. Brown, editor of this blog, a number of
philosophers, scientists, and lawyers who work on the ethical dimensions
of climate change participated in this event. They included Stephen
Gardiner from the University of Washington, Jon Rosales from St.
Lawrence University, Katherine Kintzell from the Center for Humans and
Nature and the IUCN Environmental Law Commission Ethics Working Group,
Kenneth Shockley from the University of Buffalo, and Marilyn Averill
from the University of Colorado at Boulder



   COP17/CMP7

The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of
the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties
(CMP7) to the Kyoto Protocol, are now in progress in the sunny city of
Durban, South Africa.


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