FUD

I donate money to the Cursor news feed, partly because it has a good local angle (Rob Levine), but also because it regularly highlights energy issues. The top of the list Cursor narrative reads as follows for today:

Climate scientists have reportedly "reacted with alarm" to evidence of "an ecological landslide" in Western Siberia, and a "probably irreversible" 'Tipping Point' which "could dramatically increase the rate of global warming." Plus: Summer in the cities.

Analyzing what he calls 'Bush's Energy Disaster,' LA Weekly's Joshuah Bearman writes that "when barely derailing a raid on ANWR is considered a Democratic victory, it only shows how much the Republicans have been able to set the agenda."

Twenty-four House Republicans called the budget process "an inappropriate venue" for a provision that would "clear the way for oil drilling" in ANWR, preferring to debate the issue "outside the budget process."

As an online sports book introduces wagering on gas and oil prices, a columnist at a Michigan newspaper claims that he was fired for criticizing American cars. Plus: 'The pickup truck with 'roid rage.

About global warming, pay heed to what SW says.

The climate is a complex nonlinear dynamic system. Our models are primitive. The inherent uncertainty in these systems, far from an excuse for inaction, is potentially the most dangerous aspect of the irresponsible terraforming experiment we are engaging in. Pimps and whores for the fossil fuel industry like James Schlesinger, and the Wall Street Journal's editorial staff who attempt to use this uncertainty to discourage any action that may impact the profits of their masters should be shunned as the low-life motherfuckers that they truly are.

For several years, I did research centered around experimental data that I could most easily describe with nonlinear dynamics models. I know first-hand how unpredictable the outcomes of mathematical simulation (no matter how simple the model) could result in. As SW correctly notes, this becomes a two-edged sword. Chaos becomes uncertainty becomes doubt, which the righties point to as weakness and flip-flopping on behalf of the left-leaning academics engaging in climate science. Replace Chaos with Fear and you have FUD, which the right uses to fuel their rhetorical political engines.

FUD on thou, yet predictably, the right thrives on steely-eyed steadfastness in portraying themselves to the outside world. So all we can ask: In the end, will they flip right before they fry? Or will they become the proverbial boiled frog? Either way, the rest of us will get dragged, kicking and screaming, into the chaos.