Scientists claimed the algae bloom in the San Francisco Bay, which killed over 10k fish, was due to climate change. But it's now clear that it is due to the failure of local governments to upgrade the region's antiquated sewage treatment plants.
sfchronicle.com/climate/articl…
sfchronicle.com/climate/articl…
It's true that the Bay Area is experiencing high temperatures, but algae blooms are the direct result of the failure of governments to upgrade plants so they remove the nutrients that the algae need in order to grow and bloom in the water.
The rush to blame the climate for environmental change is a prime example of what psychologists call ideologically-motivated cognition.
People blame CC for fires, blackouts, and heat deaths caused by wood fuel, lack of electricity, and lack of AC.
michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/the-real-rea…
People blame CC for fires, blackouts, and heat deaths caused by wood fuel, lack of electricity, and lack of AC.
michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/the-real-rea…
The tendency to misattribute various environmental changes to climate change is, of course, one-sided.
People blame climate change for things we don't like, such as coral bleaching, but not for things we like, such as this year's 36 year-high in coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
People blame climate change for things we don't like, such as coral bleaching, but not for things we like, such as this year's 36 year-high in coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
If you don't want high-intensity forest fires, then you just have to reduce the amount of wood build-up in forests through selective logging and prescriptive burns. It's that simple. Our forests can survive higher temperatures.
If you don't want people to die in heat waves, then make AC more available, maintain reliable electrical grids, and keep electricity prices low. Mostly we have, which is why there are fewer deaths from heat waves, which haven't increased, since 1900.
As recently as a week ago, top scientists were quoted speculating, irresponsibly, that climate change was causing the algae blooms, even though everybody knew that the determinative reason was untreated sewage.
Because journalists, scientists, and readers are motivated to blame climate change, they wave away those who point out that the algae blooms & high-intensity forest fires *wouldn't have happened* without untreated sewage & wood build-up.
This is a deeply cynical strategy. Treating climate change and untreated sewage/woody build-up even as "equal causes" is grossly misleading: you can have climate change and not have algae blooms/fires, and you could *not* have climate change and still have algae blooms/fires.
I pointed out this crucial distinction at length, and in a series of columns, since 2020, but the woke climate mob viciously smeared me as a climate denier the whole time, while successfully intimidating other journalists into repeating misinformation.
forbes.com/sites/michaels…
forbes.com/sites/michaels…
Correction: I have been reporting the scientific reality of climate change and fires since 2019, not 2020.
forbes.com/sites/michaels…
forbes.com/sites/michaels…
I'm glad that the SF Chronicle implicitly acknowledged that untreated sewage, not climate change, is the main & decisive factor behind the algae bloom. It's time that it, and other news media, did the same for fires, blackouts, and other disasters.
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sfchronicle.com/climate/articl…
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sfchronicle.com/climate/articl…
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