Mark Landsbaum: OC Register's Resident Climate Science Denier
June 26, 2012 9:30 am ET by Salvatore Colleluori
The Orange County Register's stance on climate change and efforts to contain greenhouse gases that contribute to the current warming trends isn't exactly in line with widely accepted scientific data. This is due in part to the presence of climate change contrarian Mark Landsbaum on its editorial board. Landsbaum, who had a previous stint at the Los Angeles Times before joining the Register, has penned numerous columns for the Register attacking climate science and cap-and-trade initiatives going as far back as 2008.
Landsbaum seems to deny basic physics in his columns. He calls carbon dioxide a "so-called greenhouse gas" and claims that it is a "harmless" gas that "every human being creates with every exhale." In 2008, Landsbaum wrote:
Follow this logic: "The sun rises every morning. We wake up every morning. Therefore, our waking up causes the sun to rise." Baloney, right?
Then why do so many people believe this: "Temperatures have increased. Man-made greenhouse gases have too. Therefore, global warming is caused by man." Sadly, most of the media and public have jumped to the conclusions that man is causing dangerous global warming, and unless we "do something," we'll all be toast.
Yes, Landsbaum apparently believes that the vast majority of climate scientists are basing an entire body of science on a logical fallacy. In fact, scientists established the greenhouse effect over a century ago: greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap more of the heat from the sun, raising temperatures on Earth. And contrary to Landsbaum's assertions, the National Research Council has stated:
There is a strong, credible body of evidence, based on multiple lines of research, documenting that climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities.
As for Landsbaum's claim that every human breathes CO2 and therefore it can't be a pollutant, he fails to take into account what scientists are saying -- that excess discharges of CO2 are what harm the environment, not people breathing.
In addition to attacking the scientific evidence of global warming, Landsbaum has also attacked measures -- such as California's greenhouse gas reducing AB 32 -- which decrease pollution in the atmosphere and seek to reduce the harm to our environment. However, it's no surprise that his anti-science viewpoints echo those of his editorial board. Landsbaum, like the board, continually misinform their readers about the 'consequences' of the AB 32. In fact, AB 32, and the cap-and-trade program specifically, are extremely cost effective and successful ways of reducing harmful greenhouse gas levels.
As California's cap-and-trade program nears implementation in January 2013, AB 32 is sure to return to the editorial pages of the Register. However, don't expect the editorial board or its resident climate change denier Mark Landsbaum to discuss the harmful impacts of global warming or the successes other cap-and-trade programs have had in improving our environment.
To read our full report on the Orange County Register Editorial Board's attacks on AB 32 click HERE.
1. The earth has been going through warm and cold spells for millions of years
This is an insane argument because it really is saying, well it might becoming, but we don't have any cause or effect on it. This argument is so full of holes it isn't even funny.
2. Humans have nothing to do with global warming.
Yeah? Tell that to all fish and birds who are dying in our polluted water ways.
3. Well, China and India do it even more than us.
This is another case of the school yard argument defense of "He did it, so can I."
4. Al Gore.
This is the weakest of all their arguments because I personally don't give a hoot what Al Gore or any other politician says. I look at the data from scientific evidence, not a film show by Al Gore
5. They were saying it was going to get cold back in the 1970's and it never did.
UM...I never know where to begin with this argument other than the fact that when polar regions start melting at a rapid pace, it will get cold for a decade or so because melting ice is cold!
I could go on, but I think you get the point. Everyone of their arguments is severely flawed. They show no data to back up their claims, and this Thursday in Chicago it is supposed to reach 100 degrees, perfectly normal I am sure.
All I can say about the science deniers is that there is no depth to their ignorance.
Today he was talking about some film or TV show called The Newsroom ( if I heard right), and it was one of the most bizarre examples of projection and self-hypnosis I've ever heard.
In the course of this rant, he talked about this show re-writing history regarding the BP/Gulf oil spill. He told his audience he was right all along, that the spill was "the equivalent of a thimble", and that the ocean just naturally fixed it.
And in the middle of this critique of revisionist history, he mentioned his Operation Chaos. For anybody that heard it at the time, he was encouraging his sucklings to vote for Hillary Clinton in the primaries as the less electable candidate. His story now is that he was just trying to prolong the nomination process.
And he also used this program as a jumping off point to describe the media as a place where delusional liberals go to attack imaginary conservatives. He pinpointed Real Time with Bill Maher, a show that regularly has prominent Republicans as guests, and he did this from his isolated bunker, the place where he never has a debate opponent.
But what connected his babbling to your point was in his criticism of that Newsroom show. He was complaining that it included a bunch of "liberal cliches", one of which he said was Global Warming.
"Science" is a "cliche". In the same way that crazy right wing conspiracy theories become more plausible with less evidence ( very suspicious), established scientific theories get boring and cliche as they become more solid.
And the word "racism" has lost all meaning, according to them, because so much of their racism has been pointed out.
If you've got a better word than "Orwellian" for the current GOP base, I'm all ears.
Is he supposed to be writing for a newspaper?
It starts with the flawed view that rather than the Earth rotating around the Sun, the entire Universe rotates around themselves.
YET AGAIN, THE SAD TEA BAGGER FANS OF ANDREW BREITBART PROVE BEYOND A DOUBT THAT THEY LIVE IN A HYPOCRITICAL, AND DELIBERATELY DISHONEST CUT AND PASTE REALITY!!!!!
They dont just deceptively edit online video to destroy innocent lives, they are also thieving plagiarists. Not to mention, the shamltzy image of Breitbart in the link above is pretty much a parody of itself.
THe photo-shopped painting(so called, when its actually a print,) was selling on Patriot Depot for nearly 4000 dollars!
I dont know if anyone was stupid enough to buy it, but its been pulled, probably because they are going to get a big fat lawsuit from the company that owns the plagiarized image. (tsk tsk... what would Breitbart say about ripping off corporations?)
Between that and getting James Okeefe out of a 50,000 dollar credit card debt, I dont know how these idiots could ever assume the pretense of being fiscally conservative.
In another sense, I guess the foolishness over the Breitbart painting does echo much of the Rights absurd denial over the subject of global warming.
Both are examples of the nearly comical depths of self deception to which the current political Right will sink, just to force nation to swallow their cancerous, toxic and completely irresponsible program.
And all this, despite the reality that stares them right in their collective face.