The GOP vs. a Climate Scientist

You can pretty much guess the outcome of this contest:

So, this last guy says he won't believe what climate scientists have to say about climate science because they are professional climate scientists. Can anyone explain to me why that makes sense? And who exactly does he think he can trust on these issues, the oil companies financing his campaigns?

Funding Climate Change Deniers

The Bible "Proves" Climate Change is a Hoax

The Religious Wrong: Using the "God Excuse"

Fox Attacks Science. Is Anyone Surprised?

Mount Everest Is Melting

From Huffington Post:

For years, scientists have worried about the impact of climate change in the invaluable Himalayan region. Recent research seems to confirm worries that a warming world is melting one of Earth's most iconic, not to mention tallest, summits: Mount Everest. 

The research was presented this weekduring a conference co-sponsored by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Cancun, Mexico. Co-authored by Sudeep Thakuri of the Graduate School of Earth, Environment and Biodiversity at the University of Milan in Italy, the study says glaciers on Mount Everest have decreased by 13 percent over the past 50 years, while the snowline has shifted upward several hundred feet. 

Man-made greenhouse gasses may be responsible for these changes, though a direct link has not yet been ascertained, Thakuri said in statements released by the AGU. 

Thakuri's team used satellite imagery and topographic maps to track the region's glacial movements, and used hydro-meteorological data from the Nepal Climate Observatory and Nepal's Department of Hydrology to examine temperature and precipitation changes. Their data shows that the temperature in the Everest region has increased by sightly more than 1 degree Fahrenheit, with a 3.9 decrease in precipitation during the pre-monsoon and winter months in the past two decades. 

Discovery notes that even small increases in temperature can have large consequences on the mountain, where melting glaciers could lead to flooding, rock slides and avalanches that could damage the ecosystem.

2012 Was America's Hottest Year On Record

From Think Progress:

According to NOAA’s latest “State of the Climate” report, the average temperature for the lower-48 states was 55.3°, which is 3.2°F above the 20^th century average, and 1.0°F above the previous record-year of 1998.

Last year was marked by an historic drought, above-average wildfires, multiple freak storms that wiped out power to millions, and multiple severe heat waves. According to the U.S. Climate Extremes Index, 2012 was the second most extreme year on record — coming in below 1998, the previous hottest year on record.

Precipitation was also down significantly in 2012. Average rainfall for the lower-48 states was 2.57 inches below average, contributing to the severe drought that gripped the nation and helping make the wildfire season the third most destructive on record.

Craziest GOP Legislative Proposals Of 2012

From Think Progress:

1. Outlawing the dollar.

Washington state lawmakers introduced a bill that would have outlawed the paper dollar, because “only gold and silver may be recognized as government legal tender.” This is just part and parcel of the extreme right’s continuing fascination with goldbuggery, a fascination to which the Republican party’s presidential candidates gladly pandered.

2. Striking the words ‘sea level rise.’

In Virginia, the Republican-led legislature commissioned a study to determine the impacts of man-made warming on the state’s shores, only to ban terms like “climate change” and “sea level rise,” deeming them “liberal code words.” And North Carolina Republicans voted to ignore studies that predict rapid sea level rise due to global warming.

5. Allowing citizens to shoot at cops.

The NRA pushed Republicans in Indiana to pass a law that allows any citizen to open fire on a “public servant” for “unlawful intrusion.” Police fear this means a citizen could shoot at a cop, then claim the cop was trying to enter his or her property.

Virginia's Todd Akin: Ken Cuccinelli

From Think Progress:

Virginia’s Republican Party appears poised to nominate state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to be its candidate for governor in 2013 — embracing a man whose extreme political views bear striking resemblance to those of unsuccessful 2012 Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO).

With his fervent anti-science, anti-choice, and anti-LGBT, anti-federal government activism, Akin’s extreme positions were well known long before his infamous August pronouncement that victims of “legitimate rape” are unlikely to become pregnant helped derail his 2012 U.S. Senate campaign. Cuccinelli’s views closely mirror Akin’s in all of those areas.

Over seven-and-a-half years as a Virginia state senator and three years as the commonwealth’s attorney general, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II has been, in the words of the Washington Post’s editorial board, “the most overtly partisan attorney general in Virginia’s history.” Though he claims he is “best known for his efforts to preserve liberty and defend the US Constitution,” it is his opposition to liberty for women and LGBT Americans and his frequent court losses based on his flawed constitutional theories that have defined his political career to date...

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2. He does not believe LGBT people deserve legal protections. Cuccinelli has made it clear that he believes same-sex relationships are immoral. In 2009, he told a Virginia newspaper, “My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong...

3. He is a climate-change denier. As part of his efforts to cast doubt on climate-change science, he used his position to launch an inquisition against a former University of Virginia climate scientist. Citing possible “fraud against taxpayers,” Cuccinelli demanded the university provide him with a wide range of records relating Dr. Michael E. Mann’s grant applications. A circuit judge and then the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the Attorney General was incorrect in believing he had the legal authority to undertake such a fishing expedition...

4. He suggested President Obama stole the 2012 election. In a radio interview, Cuccinelli told the host he completely agreed with her assertion that investigations are needed to determine why President Obama lost “every one” of the states with photo identification requirements for voting, yet won re-election. Though studies have shown Americans are more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud, he told the host she was “preaching to the choir” with her unfounded theory.

The Wrap-Up: December 16, 2011

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins

Apparently, U.S. postal offices have a ban on Christmas caroling. Cue the outrage from Tony Perkins.

A Virginia board has officially given adoption agencies license to discriminate based on, among many other things, sexual orientation.

It was reported earlier this week that most of NOM's money comes from a handful of large donors (making it NOT a grassroots organization). That, combined with other financial issues, has apparently pressed NOM to plead for more donations.

Those controversial provisions of the NDAA may have been insisted on by President Obama.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Tax holidays, which politicians propose in order to help with job creation, don't create jobs. Ad this to the list of things Republicans don't know about economics, as if the list wasn't already a mile long.

The European Union is  not looking to kindly on some anti-LGBT moves made by Russia. 

Herman Cain thinks he would be a great Secretary of Defense. I get that he ran Godfather's Pizza, but seriously...

Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA)

Do you know anyone with homophobic parents? Do you have homophobic parents? Have them give this a read.

Republicans beware! Anti-incumbent sentiment is at an historic high. 

What does Governor Jerry Brown (D-CA) have to say about climate change deniers?

And lastly, Jon Stewart took aim at Lowes, TLC, the Florida Family Association, and Islamophobia on "The Daily Show."