Wednesday July 18th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😊. Here is today’s main climate change post related hot topic:
Tangling With Climate Trolls…Or Not
When the United States was fighting in the Pacific during WWII it was decided that one of the best ways to win the war was to island hop, or not to engage the enemy on every Japanese held island. Rather, U.S. generals decided to fight for control of strategically necessary pieces of geography to attain ultimate victory. It would have been a waste of precious men and resources to fight the Japanese on every atoll and small island, so these areas were bypassed. The strategy did work. So too now in the “climate war” for writers and scientists most find that it is not worth the trouble or energy to engage what I’ll term small “climate trolls.” No, we aren’t fighting with guns but with logic and information to sway enough people that climate change is occurring to prevent almost unimaginable future suffering of mankind.
On this site I have stated over and over that any debate on whether or not man is behind increasing climate change is passé. Now any meaningful scientific discussions here are about “how soon and how bad” any future change will be. Personally I just don’t engage denialists since leaving The Weather Channel. I learned my lessons about engaging denialists all to well in my 30+ career there. Others still wish to sensibly debate doubters thinking that by doing so positive results will happen. Perhaps for open minds, but not “climate trolls.” Propaganda from trolls does need to be addressed and engaged when it’s deemed strategically important to win the climate war, which I’m leaving to others for now. When one does decide to engage a climate troll, or the “willful ignorant” on Twitter or some other social media platform, what is the best course of action, engagement to show their ignorance or ignoring them altogether?
You can see here who the troll was that instigated a long Twitter thread yesterday:
Fraser MacLeod @FraserMacLeod5
Ignoring the trolls is what got us into this Trump mess, isn’t it? Should people who lie in a public forum not be confronted with truth and facts?
Robert Fanney @robertscribbler
For example, the myth that the science is a ‘liberal fraud’ aimed at ‘world dominance’ through the ‘UN’ is comparable to similar myths spread about Jews and other targeted groups. Its aim is to demonize and spread false fear.
Just to add — I don’t want to be here. I’d rather be able to have unexploited open conversations about real facts. But that’s not our present reality. And in this one where there’s nasty targeting of scientists going on, I just can’t in good conscience stand by.
Fraser MacLeod@FraserMacLeod5
There are professional trolls who fool many people because people have confirmation bias. They need to be confronted. Whereas, the angry, silly trolls should be encouraged to speak as much as possible, and should be given the last word.
Dan Satterfield@wildweatherdan
Yea, you need to block that dude and move on. He is not worth the time and will have no impact on anyone. If he is even real.
NWS WPCVerified account @NWSWPC
The #FergusonFire has burned 17,319 acres and the fire is 5-percent contained. 108 structures threatened and 70 of them are homes.
: CW McGowen
It’s no wonder that heat advisories have been greatly expanded in the central and southern Plains:
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The Climate Guy