[Coral-List] Approaching game over

Isaac Westfield seymour47 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 21 13:10:49 EDT 2012


Sarah,

The problem here is that your email is sheer sensationalism.  These are the
types of statements that climate change deniers live off of.  They see a
scientist making wild, dramatic claims and when these claims don't
instantly come true it becomes more fodder for their own claims.  These
statements continue to hurt and degrade science and scientists in the
public view.  In their eyes we become the maniac on the street corner,
wearing a tin foil hate, proclaiming the end of the world at the top of our
lungs to every passerby.  Making arguments based on scientific evidence is
what we do best.  So, lets continue to do that and let the climate change
deniers and Fox Newses of the world throw out baseless hyperbole with no
facts to back it up.

Isaac Westfield
Ph.D. Candidate
UNC-Chapel Hill
Department of Marine Sciences



On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Sarah Frias-Torres <
sfrias_torres at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Mel,thank you for your comments.
> I don't expect to be called to testify.
> That gives me the freedom to say things the way they are.
>
> Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D. Schmidt Ocean Institute Postdoctoral FellowOcean
> Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) 1420 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce,
> Florida 34949 USA Tel (772) 467-1600http://www.teamorca.orghttp://
> independent.academia.edu/SarahFriasTorres
>
>
> > From: Mel at briscoe.com
> > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:55:16 -0400
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Approaching game over
> >
> > "Once the Keystone pipeline is operational, it will be game over for
> Earth's
> > climate and for the coral reefs."
> >
> > I doubt that the extreme hyperbole is a good way to communicate your
> > concerns to decision makers.
> > They simply do not listen to Chicken Little.
> >
> > "initiate a conversation with someone who still has a working brain in
> > there"
> >
> > A truely wonderful way to get someone to listen to you.
> > Sarah, your emails are now in the (permanent) public record.
> >
> > Given your stated attitude, I doubt that you will be called to testify!
> This
> > squanders your knowledge and passion.
> >
> > Sorry.
> >
> > - Mel
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Sarah
> > Frias-Torres
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 10:22 AM
> > To: coral list
> > Subject: [Coral-List] Approaching game over
> >
> >
> > Dear Coral-ListersI think we are approaching game over.
> > President Obama will announce tomorrow the permit approval for the
> southern
> > portion of the Keystone XL
> > pipelinehttp://
> www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/03/21/exp-early-myb-k
> > eystone.cnn
> > This is a pipeline operated by TransCanada, that will connect the oil
> sands
> > in Canada with U.S.  oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. While the
> > approval is still pending for the portions of the pipeline that go
> through
> > the U.S. heartland (and one of the most valuable aquifers in the
> country),
> > approval of the southern portion of the pipeline means that, unless
> > something dramatic happens, the pipeline will become a reality.
> > Once the Keystone pipeline is operational, it will be game over for
> Earth's
> > climate and for the coral reefs.
> > When you follow the debate about this project, it's interesting to see
> that
> > scientists are almost non existent. Reporters talk about
> "environmentalists"
> > and use the words "believe" to frame the consequences of using the
> Canadian
> > oil sands and the pipeline. As if environmentalists are running around in
> > some mystical trance, playing with crystals, singing kumba-ya, and using
> > their believes to "stop the progress of America". Whereas the statements
> > from the oil companies are framed as facts. They even go to the extend of
> > saying "Canadian oil sand use will diversify the country's energy
> > resources".
> > Where are the climate scientists, the marine scientists, the coral reef
> > scientists in this debate? Are any of the top scientists on those
> research
> > areas talking to government officials, warning them against using the oil
> > sands?I don't know if Canadian scientists have approached the Canadian
> > government asking to reconsider the use of oil sands. If they had, it
> didn't
> > work.
> > Considering the U.S. is the largest fossil fuel consumer in the world,
> you
> > would expect top scientists have approached the government and
> demonstrated
> > this madness has to stop. I'm not aware of a commission of top scientists
> > speaking up... the Union of Concerned Scientists seems missing in action.
> > What can we do?
> > July brings the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium. I wonder if this
> > will be the last ICRS held while there are still living coral reefs out
> > there. Besides the many activities during the Symposium, those attending
> > should think about the 13th ICRS, in 2016. If nothing changes, the
> Keystone
> > pipeline will be operational, the Canadian oil sands will have had 4 more
> > years to burn, and so all the other fossil fuel burning all around the
> > world.Maybe the 13th ICRS will be renamed as the "International Coral
> Reefs
> > We Used to Have Symposium"
> > Perhaps the world renowned scientists attending the upcoming ICRS could
> > draft a letter to both the U.S. and Canadian governments, explaining the
> > major environmental damage of oil sand usage, for land and marine
> > ecosystems, willing to provide their scientific expertise to answer
> whatever
> > questions politicians might have... maybe it can be signed up by those
> > attending the Symposium.
> > Or perhaps, some of you in this list can get into the power circles in
> > either government (or knows someone who can), and initiate a conversation
> > with someone who still has a working brain in there.
> > Or maybe someone in this list has a better idea on how to deliver the
> > message.
> > Think about it. Imagine if scientists could really change the world.
> > Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D. Schmidt Ocean Institute Postdoctoral
> FellowOcean
> > Research & Conservation Association (ORCA) 1420 Seaway Drive, Fort
> Pierce,
> > Florida 34949 USA Tel (772)
> > 467-1600http://www.teamorca.orghttp://
> independent.academia.edu/SarahFriasTor
> > res
> >
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> >
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