I was sent this press release by the Hannah-Beth Jackson campaign and have decided to run it in its entirety:In his continual effort to re-invent himself, Tony Strickland is desperately back-pedaling on a number of positions he has taken throughout his career.
One of Strickland's biggest flip-flops is global warming.
In December 2003, he joined with big oil companies in attempting to prevent the California Attorney General from implementing the state's global warming legislation. Strickland wrote a petulant letter to Attorney General Lockyer demanding he immediately stop trying to enforce California's law.
That astonishing letter can be found here:
Strickland_Letter_to_AG_Re_Global_Warming.pdf
Now, Strickland is trying to change his tune.
Here's what he told the Ventura County Star on September 21, 2008:
To the assertion that he is a "global warming denier," Strickland said his views on the issue have evolved since the 2003 incidents cited to document his belief at the time that there was no scientific evidence to support the notion of man-made climate change. "I do believe in climate change," he said. "Obviously, things have changed dramatically."
Still, he says he would vote again in opposition to the state law mandating a reduction in global-warming gases emitted from cars and trucks. "I think California cannot go it alone," he said. "It's a global economy."
But the question is not climate change per se, that the earth is warming is incontrovertible. The real questions are: Is the warming caused by human activities, and should we be doing anything to reverse it?
Strickland is clear. He voted against California's landmark global warming law (AB1493) - and says he would do it again!
In his letter, Strickland rudely suggests that the AG's lawsuit was nothing but a publicity stunt. He also opined that there was no chance that California would succeed in the case.
California, and Lockyer, won their suit before the United States Supreme Court.
Professor Paul Craig, a leading expert on global warming issues, reviewed Strickland's letter to the AG and made the following comments:
Assemblyman Tony Strickland's December 8, 2003 Letter to the California Attorney General makes grossly incorrect statements that human-caused global warming is not occurring.
Scientists and scientific organizations throughout the world have stated clearly and repeatedly that human-caused global warming is real and is getting worse.
Among these groups are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was awarded the Nobel Prize for its work; the United States National Academy of Sciences; the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the scientific honorary society, Sigma Xi.
If action is not taken we can expect to see more and stronger hurricanes and ever hotter summers. The Southwestern US will see greatly increased drought. The Sigma Xi report concluded: "The challenge now is to keep climate change from becoming a catastrophe".
In my judgment, Assemblyman Strickland's letter is not only wrong, but his call for inaction is dangerous. We need to act now to simultaneously decrease the impact on California of global warming and to strengthen our economy.
Fortunately California is ignoring Tony Strickland's bad advice and is implementing the Climate Change Action Plan which is moving us down the right path.
Paul Craig, Prof Emeritus of Engineering, UC Davis
PhD in Physics, California Institute of Technology
Former Staff Member, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Former Member of President's Science Advisor's Energy Staff
Presidential Appointment Nuclear Waste Technical Review board
Strickland is also flat out wrong in claiming that it is useless for California to "go it alone" in fighting global warming. California's landmark global warming law (the one Tony voted against) has been adopted by 17 other states and jurisdictions around the world - and helped spearhead the international response to the global warming crisis.
Furthermore, California has a special status on air pollution issues. Because of California's unique air quality challenges, the U.S. EPA gives California the right to adopt tougher regulations than federal standards, if the EPA grants a waiver. The EPA had granted 40 waivers, and denied none, until the Bush Administration attempted to block AD1493.
Other states can "opt-in" to the tougher California standards if the waiver is granted. That's why this litigation was so vital. The Bush Administration joined with the oil industry in an effort to strangle the global warming movement at birth - with Tony Strickland's active assistance.
Finally, Strickland made the assertion that "17,000 atmospheric scientists" had concluded that there is no proof of a human cause of global warming.
Strickland refers to a petition circulated by mass mail by Frederick Seitz, a solid state physicist and former Chair of the National Academy of Sciences. Seitz, who died this year at age 96, had been thoroughly discredited because of his long history of work for the tobacco industry and his controversial views as a prominent global warming denier.
An article in Vanity Fair discussed Seitz and the uncanny similarities between how the tobacco industry tried to undermine the science about the health effects of smoking and how the oil companies are striving to deny the scientific consensus on global climate change.
Seitz' petition has been thoroughly debunked. Here's what the Union of Concerned Scientists said about the petition:
The petition's organizers publicly claimed that the effort had attracted the signatures of some 17,000 scientists. But it was soon discovered that the list contained few credentialed climate scientists. For example, the list was riddled with the names of numerous fictional characters. Likewise, after investigating a random sample of the small number of signers who claimed to have a Ph.D. in a climate-related field, Scientific American estimated that approximately one percent of the petition signatories might actually have a Ph.D. in a field related to climate science.
In a highly unusual response, NAS issued a statement disavowing Seitz's petition and disassociating the academy from the PNAS-formatted paper.
None of these facts, however, have stopped organizations, including those funded by ExxonMobil, from touting the petition as evidence of wide-spread disagreement over the issue of global warming.
Union of Concerned Scientists
Smoke, Mirrors, and Hot Air. January 2007
Tony Strickland may now claim that he "believes in climate change." But since he does not believe that his policy agenda should change as a result, the question has got to be: "So what?"
Democracy Watch is a blog devoted to debunking extreme right wing Republican rhetoric, media, printed material, blogs, videos and all campaign TV ads that are untrue.
There is no incontrovertible evidence that global warming is caused by human activity. There are many in the scientific community who disagree on this premise (J.D. Mahlman, noted geophysicist from Princeton University, for one). Just because Helen found one scientist who agrees with her, this does not make it so.
Tony Strickland is correct to challenge the conventional/politically correct assertions on global warming and climate change. However, there is no doubt that we should be moving more towards energy efficiency and cleaner burning sources of energy. You are quite right that Tony has led the way in developing new technologies that will help us move in this direction.
Interesting. Are you a Ron Paul supporter?
Mongo-Gibson is once again smoking that Phony Tony loco weed.
No, Helen, McCain all the way.
The only place McCain is going is to the bottom of the slate come election night; just like his buddy Mongo-Gibson went.
No MF. You sound like a Ron Paul supporter all the way and the vote is secret. McCain acknowledges global warming's scientific evidence. Incontrovertible evidence is against your position.
In my opinion, global warming is a scientific reality that occurs due to cyclical changes in the climate, but is not necessarily linked to human activity. There has been no definitive proof offered that supports otherwise. It's mere conjecture and speculation at this point.
Now, John McCain has acknowledged global warming as an occurrence, but I have not heard him take a definitive position on its causes, although I've heard him make a couple of contradictory statements about it, which is somewhat disappointing.
This one issue, however, doesn't come close to qualifying me as a Ron Paul supporter. If you ask me, the guy's a nut.
Be careful if you go sailing off your beautiful coast, Mongo-Gibson. If you go too far, you will fall off the earth at the end of the ocean. After all, you do believe the earth is flat, don't you?
CAP-834,
Instead of mere bluster, let's here some facts. Do you have irrefutable scientific evidence that global warming is caused by human activity? If so, I'd love to hear about it.
Name the scientist and his/her credentials, the title of the published study, and when and where it was published. Go ahead. I dare you...
As they say, keep it simple,stupid. Let's start with Sherwood Rowland who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery that the earth's ozone layer was being destroyed by fluorocarbons released primarily from aerosol cans. The valve on the cans were made nearly entirely by Precision Valves, a company owned by Robert Abplanalp, best friend of then President Nixon. Abplanalp spent millions trying to pay scientists and politicians to prove Dr. Rowland wrong. Ultimately, fluorocarbons were removed from the marketplace. You, Mongo-Gibson, are like Abplanalp, still a believer that the earth is flat or else just trying to make a buck at the expense of others. You must lay claim to either being stupid or just another minion of Phony-Tony.
Pssst, CAP-834, are you still with us?
You must have failed "paying attention" in school because, if you were, you would have noticed, perhaps, that the ozone layer issue was resolved long ago. We are now talking about a new and more current subject (global warming). The question was: Do you have irrefutable scientific evidence that global warming is caused by human activity?
Still with us? OK, good. My follow-on question to you then, since apparently it bears repeating, was name a current scientist and his/her credentials, the title of the published study, and when and where it was published.
It's OK. We've got plenty of time for you to study the question carefully and respond in your own time.
Hi there,
I'm new to this and would like to point out that ozone-depleting substances are also powerful greenhouse gases (which add to global warming).
They ozone layer issue hasn't really been "resolved" but it is a recognized issue and has had a lot of attention. As a result, many ozone depleting substances have been banned, but not all have not all been phased out.
The information on which products/gases with a high GWP, Global Warming Potential, are available at the following web address:
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/climate.html
If you would like to read more about this topic there is a wealth of information including the need to limit and further reduce these gases.
Ozone depletion does not cause global warming, but as are most things, there is a direct relationship between the two.
Thank you for an opportunity to be involved in this discussion.
Sorry about the typos, I hit the submit button too quickly. :-)