Janelle Irwin Taylor
A group of local activists descended upon Congressman Ross Spano’s Brandon office Monday morning to deliver some light reading material on climate change.
The group dropped off two books — “Global Warming for Dummies” and “Environmental Science for Dummies.” They also left a children’s book titled “What is Climate Change?”
“At the end of the day, who’s at fault matters less to me than actually addressing the climate issues we face,” said Hillsborough Democratic Environmental Caucus chair Russ Conn. “Rep Spano’s refusal to educate himself does a disservice to the county and his community because his refusal to listen to established scientific facts.”
The move came after more than a week of ongoing criticism toward Spano, the Republican incumbent in Congressional District 15, after an interview in which he denied climate change was caused by human activity.
He also questioned the science behind climate change in general. Spano rejected the consensus among 98 percent of climate scientists who say climate change is a human-induced problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
The book titles delivered to Spano mock his statements, especially considering Spano himself argued people shouldn’t call those who question the validity of climate change “idiots.” But it also served as an impromptu lesson for the conservative lawmaker.
In “Global Warming for Dummies,” readers are expected to learn to “understand the science behind climate change, recognize the causes of global warming, consider the consequences for the planet — both immediate and long-term and reduce your carbon footprint.”
The book also includes the top ten myths about global warming.
“We wrote this book assuming that you know zero, nil, zilch about global warming. You don’t have to look up the definitions of big, ridiculous words or drag out your high school science textbook to read this book,” the book’s introduction reads.
That’s good news for climate activists delivering the message.
“We also assume, however,” the book continues in not-so-good news. “That you know global warming exists, that you recognize humans contribute to this problem, and that you want to understand why global warming is happening.”
“Environmental Science for Dummies” takes a slightly different approach to the issue. It aims to teach readers to apply concepts of environmental science to life, supplement classroom learning with confidence, explore issues surrounding natural resources and sustainability and understand how the choices people make impact the environment.
It does not exclusively focus on climate change or global warming, but does include relevant chapters including a chapter entitled: “Is it getting warm in here? Modern Climate Change” with sections on how to recognize human influence, how to mitigate human influence and a look at how climate change affects human society.
Other sections include pro-climate environmental policy and information on how to measure human impacts on the environment.
13 comments
Ray Blacklidge
August 12, 2019 at 3:46 pm
More than one thousand scientists disagree that human activity is primarily responsible for global climate change. In 2010 Climate Depot released a report featuring more than 1,000 scientists, several of them former UN IPCC scientists, who disagreed that humans are primarily responsible for global climate change. [55] The Cook review [1] of 11,944 peer-reviewed studies found 66.4% of the studies had no stated position on anthropogenic global warming, and while 32.6% of the studies implied or stated that humans are contributing to climate change, only 65 papers (0.5%) explicitly stated “that humans are the primary cause of recent global warming.” [54] A 2012 Purdue University survey found that 47% of climatologists challenge the idea that humans are primarily responsible for climate change and instead believe that climate change is caused by an equal combination of humans and the environment (37%), mostly by the environment (5%), or that there’s not enough information to say (5%). [173] In 2014 a group of 15 scientists dismissed the US National Climate Assessment as a “masterpiece of marketing,” that was “grossly flawed,” and called the NCA’s assertion of human-caused climate change “NOT true.” [56]. I will also state that Overwhelming scientific consensus says human activity is primarily responsible for global climate change. The 2010 Anderegg study found that 97-98% of climate researchers publishing most actively in their field agree that human activity is primarily responsible for global climate change. The study also found that the expertise of researchers unconvinced of human-caused climate change is “substantially below” that of researchers who agree that human activity is primarily responsible for climate change. [7] The 2013 Cook review of 11,944 peer-reviewed studies on climate change found that only 78 studies (0.7%) explicitly rejected the position that humans are responsible for global warming. [1] A separate review of 13,950 peer-reviewed studies on climate change found only 24 that rejected human-caused global warming. [5] A survey by German Scientists Bray and Von Storch found that 83.5% of climate scientists believe human activity is causing “most of recent” global climate change. [172] A separate survey in 2011 also found that 84% of earth, space, atmospheric, oceanic, and hydrological scientists surveyed said that human-induced global warming is occurring. [6]
Ashley Young
August 12, 2019 at 4:16 pm
You have a significant amount of copy/paste here. Climate Depot is founded by a denier and funded in part by Exxon Mobile. Later in your quote you show that majority of scientists surveyed agree on man-caused climate change. Check out these simplified books and educate yourself.
Ray Blacklidge
August 12, 2019 at 5:56 pm
I simply posted both sides of the issue. Your conclusions are not as black and white as you say they are. Ashley, you will need more than simpleton books to understand the differences in opinions of the leading scientists. I suggest you take a few years of post college level classes to begin your road to understanding.
gary
August 13, 2019 at 1:54 am
@Ashley
You can misdirect all you want. But you can not escape the fact that scientist preface everything with one simple truth! There is no such thing as SETTLED SCIENCE! The very definition of science leave room for more debate!
climate voter
August 13, 2019 at 7:44 pm
Next your going to say gravity is only a theory and there’s not enough data to extrapolate….if you jumped off a cliff it would feel very real, but please if you doubt gravity…..
gary
August 13, 2019 at 1:51 am
@Ray
You hit it out of the park with this fact based comment! Sadly, the people that buy into it are brainwashed by media and Disney!
J F
August 13, 2019 at 10:22 pm
Gary, great point. Climate change is based on flawed data. The most educated climatologists say that the science (models that show temperature change) is over estimated temperature rises by flawed models. Climate change like the gun control debate is another tool to exercise control over the masses.
Robert (Bob) Rigby
August 12, 2019 at 3:50 pm
What cost to the United States, or trying to correct climate change would there be? If we embarked on this effort, would China and India also make the seam effort?
gary
August 13, 2019 at 1:49 am
Global Warming For Dummies … It’s Fake! No book needed!
gary
August 13, 2019 at 3:02 am
@Ray
You hit it out of the park with this fact based comment! Sadly, the people that buy into it are brainwashed by media and Disney!
Jose R
August 13, 2019 at 8:23 am
Those books are available in the Fiction section of your local bookstore.
Russ
August 13, 2019 at 6:08 pm
I guess we riled up the Trolls, that’s fair. but the issue is not a joking matter. manmade or not (it is man made). No one can argue the climate is changing…I mean for god’s sake the arctic is on literal fire.. Sticking your head in the sand will not stop it.
Ray Blacklidge
August 14, 2019 at 3:35 pm
What do wildfires have to do with the price of bread in Siberia?
Comments are closed.