Here's where to hear a replay of the gubernatorial debate on the environment. To the no-shows: Click on the link and hear how candidates with courage sound!

Wednesday night’s environmental forum for gubernatorial candidates at Central Michigan University was a great dialogue, at least for the three candidates who cared enough about the Great Lakes and our other natural resources to show up: Virg Bernero, Tom George and Rick Snyder.
You can listen to it here: http://bit.ly/cqFxez

To the four candidates afraid to take the microphone and defend their records and/or ideas on protecting our natural resources: Bad form guys. You should have strapped on a pair and got in the ring last night.

I have serious reservations about supporting candidates who are only willing to appear before adoring audiences. Voters should want a governor who shares their views, yes. But we should also demand a governor with the courage and self-confidence to engage with people whose ideas and world views differ from theirs. It’s a big, sprawling state with a diversity of people and opinions. Our next chief executive needs to represent all of us….including the 45 percent or so who will vote for someone else in November.

State Sen. Tom George, as an example, stood his ground on several issues that were at odds with the majority of the audience. He clearly understands the issues. Kudos to Tom.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and businessman Rick Snyder were sharp on the issues, especially Snyder whose answers plainly showed that he has invested time in understanding – in far more depth than talking points --  how Michigan’s natural resources are integrally linked to the economy and the health of Michiganders.

Mike Cox – whose views differ fairly dramatically from the environmental community on many issues – spoke with my colleagues at the Michigan Environmental Council early in his campaign. He gets credit for engaging. But where was he Wednesday?

Mike Bouchard, Pete Hoekstra and Andy Dillon? AWOL. Pathetic.

The forum was sponsored by Michigan Radio, the Detroit Free Press, and the Michigan League of Conservation Voters among others.

A shout out to MichiganLiberal.com for good coverage of the forum, even if one of their posters declared me a “jobs killer” http://bit.ly/dnayQk MichLib’s counterpart, RightMichigan, carried no mention of the forum.
See you at the primary election in August.

Again, Mitten State’s views are my own, not those of my employer, the Michigan Environmental Council. As a 501c3 nonprofit, MEC does not endorse or promote individual candidates. MEC, as an aside, is willing and able to educate all candidates on issues affecting our natural resources. We will be doing so vigorously through November.

I CAN'T HEAR YOU: Climate skeptics find their own scientist too inconvenient to acknowledge

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Conservative columnist George Will and a horde of climate change skeptics in the blogosphere have weighed in gleefully in recent days regarding climate scientist Phil Jones’ “admission” that there has been no statistically significant global warming since 1995. The argument popped up last week on the RightMichigan blog. It’s a variation on a common argument that typically uses 1998 as the year that global temperatures supposedly stopped going up.

So I did something a little outrageous, and actually read the interview where Jones made the statement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8511670.stm

There, we learn that “statistically significant” for scientists means at a “95 percent confidence level.” We also learn that the global temperature rise during the period in question was very close to that 95 percent confidence level, with a trend of 0.12C temperature rise per decade. That’s LOT different from saying there was no temperature rise.

But wait, there’s more!

Dr. Patrick Michaels is a climatologist in the employ of the free-market-is-the-answer-to-everything Cato Institute. He is one of the climate skeptics’ poster boys. A credentialed climatologist who is regularly trotted out to defend the status quo.

I talked with Dr. Michaels in January at a Detroit News-sponsored climate debate during the Auto Show in Detroit. He wore lime green tennis shoes with his coat and tie. But I digress.

At the Detroit debate, Dr. Michaels agreed that the planet is warming, and that manmade emissions have something to do with it. He also said the old argument that global warming stopped in 1998 is scientifically invalid and should be tossed on the scrap heap of discredited arguments. 

It was a fascinating statement that, not surprisingly, the Detroit News did not see fit to include in the edited video clips of the debate they posted online.

But it turns out that Michaels said essentially the same thing to a gathering of right-wing Heritage Foundation folks in 2008. He said the data do not back up the “no warming since 1998” contention, and warned the audience that using the argument erodes their credibility. “Make an argument that you can get killed on, and you can kill us all,” he lectured them. 

You can listen to his explanation and admonishment here, starting at about the 1:20 mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwnrpwctIh4

It is a bizarre and pathetic commentary when climate skeptics begin finding that even the truths of their own heroes are too inconvenient to acknowledge.

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