The burning truth

Global warming deniers like to suggest that they are like the free thinkers who used science to challenge the teachings of the Catholic Church, which held that Earth was the center of the universe.

But the chorus of disbelievers is more akin to the old church adherents, because the preponderance of empirical scientific data prove climate change is rapidly occurring.

Even before the devastating fires erupted in Southern California last week, "60 Minutes" ran a segment by reporter Scott Pelley about how a warming planet is already turning typical Western fires into megafires.

They are becoming 10 times as large as typical fires, and nobody in fire services denies that global warming is, in fact, helping to spawn such monsters. They might technically be caused by lightning or arson or careless campers, but they don't consume 475,000 acres without a little help from the increased winds, bone-dry brush and longer fire seasons.

Pelley asked Tom Boatner, chief of fire operations for the federal government about people who don't believe climate change is occurring.

"You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," he said. " 'Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last 10 or 15 years. We know what we're seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought, that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetime."

But when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada dared to call a spade a spade last week, he was immediately ridiculed by the right.

When asked about the devastation in California last week, Reid said: "One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming."

He didn't say global warming started the fires. He said it was a factor.

And there are few people next door who would disagree. Not the thousands who lost their homes, not the thousands who battled the blazes and certainly not the governor, who has sued the federal government for failing to protect the environment.

Any defense of Reid is good for a few dozen phone calls and barely literate e-mail diatribes in response. But this is one situation where Reid deserves some credit.

He's currently pushing for passage of an energy bill that could actually start to address our dependency on foreign oil and fossil fuels. Reid has also stated unequivocally that three planned coal power plants by Nevada Power's parent company won't be built.

The states have to go around the federal government on climate change because the Bush administration has only now started to admit it might be real.

Last week, Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prepared a 14-page report on global warming's potential impact on human health. The Bush administration let her share six pages with Congress.

Gone were any mention of risks to humans from pollution, violent weather and waterborne and food-borne diseases. The only thing more frightening than Dr. Gerberding's full testimony and a similar report by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Panel on Climate Change is that the Bush administration still doesn't want you to hear about it.

You may not believe that enough glacier melt could put many Eastern U.S. cities under water. You may not think Al Gore's models are anything other than devices to whip the left into a feel-good, tree-hugging frenzy.

But you can't deny that the polar ice caps are melting or that the Northwest Passage is now a fully navigable waterway.

Shortly after Reid made his global warming remark, KXNT-AM 840 morning host Alan Stock said the senator had put both feet in his mouth. I was a guest on the station's "R-J Headliners" segment and was asked about what Reid's statement will mean to him politically in Nevada.

This was shortly after being asked about why Sen. Barack Obama didn't wear a flag pin or put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance once.

There's a reason right-wing radio and the chorus of naysayers want the average American to think climate change is somehow in dispute. It's the same reason why conservatives focus on things like lapel pins as a test of character for a presidential candidate.

If you don't talk about real issues, you don't have to confront them. It's easier to complain about a symbol than to talk about Obama's plan for Iraq.

It's easier to discount the overwhelming scientific evidence than to enact a carbon tax, say, that might actually prompt the private sector to come up with some eco-friendly solutions.

Nevada's fire season isn't getting any shorter. There's less snow in the mountains, less precipitation and drier brush. Last year was the worst fire season in the state since records of such activity have been kept.

Maybe in a year or so, after a few more brutal Western fire seasons, elected leaders won't just be out front discussing the impact from climate change. By then we can only hope they'll be enacting real solutions.

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.