One has to look very hard to find Senators or Representatives in Washington or Governors in our states who seem to sufficiently understand and articulate the man-caused global warming problem. While I suspect than many of them do understand the underlying science, very few share such thoughts with their constituents. The reason for this is obvious. The fossil-fuel-based industries have a death grip on essentially all of our elected officials. That is, all of our politicians know that if they say the obvious – that global warming is being caused primarily by man’s emissions of carbon dioxide and methane – they would very likely be quickly replaced in our money-dominated election processes. For example, in my home state of Montana, even our Democrats do not dare to suggest that we consider reining in the massive exports of our fossil fuels, including the nastiest and most abundant of these, coal, to other regions of the world.
I was therefore most pleased to recently see a clear exception to this disappointing trend in the person of Elizabeth Warren. Warren is presently a Democratic candidate for US Senator in the state of Massachusetts, running against a popular incumbent. Warren is an unlikely candidate. A Harvard law professor who looks the part, she speaks naturally in well-constructed full paragraphs, rather than sound bites. Her carefully constructed thoughts have even caused her to cross the forbidden line I described above concerning the issue of climate change. That is, she is not afraid to state the scientifically obvious – we must do everything we can to reduce and then eliminate the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. Note that, in my strong opinion, it is not enough to simply support “all of the above” energy sources, as most Democrats do. Our support for energy sources based on fossil fuel extraction and combustion must be stopped.
From her prior interactions with the political leaders in Washington DC on other issues, she has shown that she will stand up to entrenched Democratic and Republican power brokers in her perceived quest for doing the right thing.
In short, her recent presence on the national political scene has been like the proverbial breath of fresh air to me and I will be most disappointed if she does not win and be allowed to enter the US Senate. If we could get a few other national and state leaders of this ilk on board, perhaps you present leaders will progressively dare to stand up to the fossil fuel lobby.
In the meantime, please follow and lend support to the efforts of Elizabeth Warren. Presently she appears to be our best hope for bridging the now gaping gap between scientific and public thought.
[Comment added by EPG on 11/7/2012: Horray, she won!!!!}
ericgrimsrud 
I see Eric that you only want to be ”massaged” on your blog site and will allow no dissenting views stand and that is typical with your far left mind set that dictates to you that since your ”believe” you just have to be right. I also notice how few people seem to visit your site or have their comments posted for over five seconds if they are opposed to your views and most would deem that to be very narrow minded.
To the subject: It appears to be consistent with the kind of people that you seem to support that the truth matters not, such as Elizabeth Warren claiming to be part Cherokee or Navajo or maybe even Bannock native American to have minority status to gain favor over honest people for certain positions. This is as demonstrative of the far left’s disregard for the truth and honor as Connecticut’s Senator Blumenthal claiming that he had served in Vietnam. I did serve in Vietnam and I take it as an affront to have some one such as Blumenthal lie about his service but mostly to find that the voters of Connecticut didn’t seem to be bothered about electing a liar to serve them in the halls of the Senate. That this all spills over into this debate about anthropogenic global warming is not a surprise since all of proponents of this scam are liberals, to include you.
I do thank you for one thing and that was to direct me to your knowledgeable neighbor, Ed Berry, who has actual training that qualifies him to take the position regarding this issue that he maintains and that is why, I well imagine, he has the opinion that he supports and is not like Al Gore and Steve Running of MSU, Missoula fame.
This is the education that Steve Running used to gain his share of the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore and then they criticize some one like Dr. John Christy because he shows how flawed their contentions are. This may be a shock to some that worship at this cathedral of their religion, global warming, but Al Gore has no scientific credentials and Steve Running, who holds a “B.S. in Botany; Oregon State University, Corvallis, 1972, M.S. in Forest Management; Oregon State University, Corvallis, 1973 and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecophysiology; {what ever that is}, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 1979.
“Plant ecophysiology is an experimental science that seeks to describe the physiological mechanisms underlying ecological observations.” At least he has been exposed to science but is a long ways from being a climatologist, but then again, how much difference do credentials make when the head of the IPCC is an economist?
Then we have Dr. John Christy, whom I’m sure you despise, because he tells the truth and knows what he is talking about without having to rely on flimsy conjecture:
“Ph.D., Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1987 M.S., Atmospheric Sciences, , University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1984; B.A., Mathematics, California State University, Fresno, 1969” and also
“Richard Siegmund Lindzen who is a Harvard-trained atmospheric physicist and Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lindzen is known for his work in the dynamics of the middle atmosphere, atmospheric tides and ozone photochemistry. He has published more than 200 books and scientific papers. He has been a critic of some anthropogenic global warming theories and the alleged political pressures on climate scientists” I tend to listen to Dr. Christy, Dr Spencer and Dr. Lindzen before paying much attention to Gore or Running. We shouldn’t forget James Hansen who ”cooks” the books at GISS to suit his distorted view of the climate, about like the CRU was caught doing in 2009.
Have a great day: J Doug Swallow
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EPG’s response:
Doug, in order to be more efficient and to include more “information”, you could have simply provided two lists, one under the title “good and honest guys” and the other “bad and dishonest guys”. But nevertheless thanks for your input and you can be sure I will give it all the attention it deserves.
We live in a great country in which we are all entitled to our own opinions, no matter what all of our country’s official scientific organizations suggest. And what do they know? They are all in on the BIG CONSPIRACY, right?, whose names might appear on your list of “bad and dishonest guys”.
Should you ever have some thoughts concerning either the specific science of climate change or the implications of, please visit us again. In the meantime, I will assume you think AGW all a big hoax or that Mother Nature pays attention to our economic and political preferences.
Gosh, I, too, wonder why I am not visited very often by the thousands of Deniers out there who tend to spend their entire day posting on various websites. Could it be that I do not give proper respect to foolish comments? I hope so.
By: jdouglashuahin on October 25, 2012
at 4:46 am