Friday, February 20, 2004

Cassandra Predicts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth Heidelberg Scarred, part 4 Dr. Leon Lederman is one of the signatories to the Heidelberg Appeal,  further, he is one of the those who have spoken out against the misuse of science by the Bush Administration  (plunkit).  He now finds himself in the position of having his words misused against him. The question arises, how many others who signed the Heidelberg Appeal would agree with its use as a bludgeon against those who are concerned with global warming?   Each time we are told that thousands of scientists including scores of Nobel Laureates have said that "the facts are not clear" on global warming, what is being referred to is the Heidelberg Appeal. In that the Appeal never addresses the question of green house gases or global warming, and in that many of those who signed are now dead and unable to speak for themselves, isn't it time that that document is either used honestly or retired altogether?  3:55:13 PM    comment []

Cassandra Predicts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth Heidelberg Scarred, part 3 We have just received one reply to our inquiries: "My name is misused.  The Heisenberg appeal should not be used for the purpose indicated below. Nicolaas Bloembergen" (note: By "below" Dr. Bloembergen refers to the body of the email which quotes the assertion that the Appeal warns "industrialized nations that no compelling scientific consensus exists to justify mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cuts.") 2:14:02 PM    comment []

Cassandra Counts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth Heard                                                                Frequency "Same-sex Marriage (plunkit) is a threat to the institution of marriage.   437  Explanation of the nature of that threat.                                                         0 1:06:28 PM    comment []

Cassandra Predicts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth Heidelberg Scarred, part 2 OK, the story so far. A petition (the Heidelberg Appeal (plunkit) ) was circulated which basically said:     we must take care of the world     knowledge is good     fake science is bad     science and technology have made the world better     poor nations should be helped to become richer nations Who could disagree? Not the 4,000 or more scientists and scholars who signed the petition. But when they signed did they intend to say: "no compelling scientific consensus exists to justify mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cuts?" Those words don't appear in the Appeal. But supporters of Bush Administration's environmental policy are claiming that that is precisely what the Appeal says. (plunkit)  Cassandra is attempting to contact signatories of the Appeal to discover if they intended their names to be used this way. While there are many references to there being thousands of signers (and that number may be correct) nowhere can we find a list of more than a few dozen names. Many on that truncated list are dead (the petition is 12 years old). We have sent queries to a number of the living signers but as yet have received no replies. We have also sent a request to the Science and Environmental Policy Project, circulators of the petition, and asked for a fuller list of names. We will keep you updated. 11:25:29 AM    comment []

Cassandra Predicts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth Truth Emerges At White House Briefing A close reading of yesterday's give and take between Scott McClellan and the White House press corps reveals that an actual fact slipped out. The party responsible for this odd occurrence was not McClellan but an unnamed reporter: Q Two questions, please. The Democratic candidates for the nomination have stopped attacking themselves and have been attacking -- MR. McCLELLAN: People are attacking themselves? (Laughter.) Q It's a jungle out there -- MR. McCLELLAN: I wish you would attack yourselves instead of me. (Laughter.) Q We love ourselves 10:43:30 AM    comment []

Cassandra Predicts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth How To Lose friends and Influence Voters Who says that President Bush can't delegate? While Gale Norton and her Interior Department have managed to alienate a great many NRA-card-carrying hunters who don't wan't to see the Tongass National Forest undergo large doses of clear-cutting, John Ashcroft has made himself the subject of most of the unhappy reports coming out of the Cato Institute decrying the erosion of individual rights. 3:17:24 AM    comment []

Cassandra Predicts Forced By The Press of Events To tell the Truth Heidelberg Scarred In 1992, at the Earth Summit at Rio a group of 46 scientists circulated a petition  (plunkit) that called for an avoidance of Luddite rejection of technology and asked for environmental policy to be based on sound science.   It also said that Third World nations deserved help in attaining "a level of sustainable development which matches that of the rest of the planet, protecting them from troubles and dangers stemming from developed nations, and avoiding their entanglement in a web of unrealistic obligations which would compromise both their independence and their dignity." These are all defensible, even laudable positions. The petition had no trouble attracting thousands of signatures from scientists who agreed that science, in and of itself, is not the enemy and that the poor nations deserve the opportunity to develop." What those thousands of signatories may not have been aware of was that this petition would then be used to muddy the water (and foul the air). Those opposed to constraints on green house gases now had what they needed in order to say "there is no scientific unanimity on global warming." That is exactly how the Bush Administration and other opponents of the overwhelming majority of environmentalists are using the Heidelberg Appeal. The question is, how many of those who signed had this intention? Here is one such use of the Appeal.  (plunkit)  Note the summary:      "The Appeal warns industrialized nations that no compelling scientific consensus exists to justify mandatory        greenhouse gas emissions cuts." No language in the Appeal suggests any such thing. 12:24:50 AM    comment []