Climate 411

In South Pacific
Two islands, encroaching sea,
Life as known is lost.*

*Kiribati and Tuvalu, two inhabited islands near two uninhabited islands that have already sunk, are preparing for disaster.

In my 30 years as a university professor before coming to Environmental Defense (2 years ago today!), I gave a lot of lectures in a lot of classrooms. But last Thursday I had one of the strangest lecture experiences of my professional life.

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Guest blogger Jim Marston is an attorney, and the Director of the Energy Program in the Texas Office of Environmental Defense.

Who would have thought that, almost a month to the day after the USCAP initiative was announced, coal-enamored TXU would come on board? But today’s big news is victory in Texas, thanks to an unusual buyout agreement.

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Glaciers in Andes mountains
frozen for 5000 years
now melting.

ignoratio elenchi n.
A logical fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but has nothing to do with the proposition it purports to prove. Also known as “irrelevant conclusion”. [Lat. ignorance of refutation.]

On Monday, an article appeared in the Washington Times that offers so many outrageous examples of the logical fallacy of irrelevant conclusion (formally, ignoratio elenchi) that I’m beginning a new series of posts – the Ignoratio Elenchi Awards – for the most flagrantly misleading arguments against curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

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This post is dedicated to the two great Americans we will honor on Presidents’ Day this Monday.

Everybody knows about Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg Address; they are a big part of why Lincoln’s birthday is honored. Most people don’t know that Lincoln also established the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

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