Salon.com Delves into Global Warming
A new trio of articles on Salon.com does a nice job of laying out the current state of play on global warming, though its conclusions will come as no surprise to regular Grist readers: President Bush has been playing what the National Wildlife Federation’s Jeremy Symons calls “whack-a-mole” with federal scientists, trying to obscure their consensus opinion that human activity is driving climate change. He promotes technological miracle fixes like hydrogen cars while refusing to rein in the extractive industries that have given him record amounts of money. John Kerry is more forthright about the science and the problem, but on the campaign trail he has muted his support for CAFE standards and trumpeted his support for “clean coal,” mainly as a sop to swing state West Virginia. The press, meanwhile, generally refuses to report on climate change in a way that might enlighten readers. And in northern climes like Alaska, cold seasons are shrinking, glaciers are melting, flora and fauna are either growing out of control or dying off, traditional forms of life are being lost, and oil and gas exploration continues merrily on. Whoopee!
