This morning, NPR broadcast an interview in which Michael Griffin, Bush-appointed Administrator of the NASA, stated that he did not believe climate change was a problem. His statements were less a denial of climate change and more an assertion that we should not do anything about it. Griffin told Steve Inskeep of NPR, “I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. I guess I would ask which human beings–where and when–are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.”
“Oh my,” writes K. Vranes of the Prometheus blog. “Griffin has absolutely no appreciation for the risk that anthropogenic climate change poses. Risk implies both knowledge and uncertainty.”
While many bloggers sound like those quoted above in their frustration with Dr. Griffin, a fair amount of others seem to agree. Take Macsmind, for instance, noticing that “the Al Bore worshipping left is bashing yet another Ph.D. who has the guts to tell them that Global Warming is bunk…of course Global Warming is the godless left’s new religion and those who commit blasphemy against the sect will be stoned.”
In support of Griffin’s claim, we also have Blue Crab Boulevard: “Earth’s climate has varied–widely–through the years. Greenland got its name because when it was discovered it was actually green. The original colonists there died off when the climate changed and it got very, very cold. It was not the ice-swept desolation it mostly is today. 10,000 years ago, the glaciers reached well into the heartland of America. 2,000 years ago, North Africa, now desert, was the grain basket for the Roman Empire. Who is to say this particular climate, at this very moment, is the be-all and end-all of perfection? Al Gore and his sycophants? The UN with its staggering record of incompetence? Really?”
Yes, according to liberal and centrist blogs.
On Balloon Juice, Tim F. labels Griffin’s claim “an ideological allergy to dealing with problems that he can no longer deny.” The site rails against Griffin’s claim: “Even a jaded cynic like me has to stop and stare at self-justifying stupidity like this…One moment they deny anything to do with global warming, the next they think that puny little people like us could never hope to influence such a terribly huge problem. Or, this is a new one, it might even be morally wrong to fix the problem that we created.”
Kos also noticed Griffin’s “astronomically stupid” idea. “There you go. Trying to stop global warming is arrogant. Who are you to say to folks in Norway that they can’t have palm trees! The part that Griffin seems to be forgetting is the billions of people who would die if our current economy collapses due to sinking cities and shifting growing regions. Might the future inhabitants of tropical Greenland be happy as they gaze southward over the swollen sea? Maybe. But I’m not anxious to sink Miami to find out. Idiot.”
Eric Hirsch is a Columbia Journalism Review intern.