Report From The Greenway

Yesterday at the Niagara River Greenway Commission meetings, I saw Western New York’s political, civic and development personality encapsulated in two and half hours of meetings. Its like a microcosm of all of our well-meaning potential and infuriating self-induced implosions: Bureaucratic delays. Millions of dollars available but unspent. Legal hurdles and shackles. Environment vs development. County vs city. Toothless advisory boards. Well-meaning and frustrated politicians. Studies to study studies.

The Buffalo News reported today on the votes for “consistency” for four proposed projects. To me, the four unanimous non-legally binding votes that confer no money were the least interesting part of the meeting.

Some highlights:

1) The Commission thinks its broke: monetarily, politically and practically. It has received $55K of its $400Kish budget for the year. But the check is in the mail from the state Environmental Protection Fund for the rest. In the meantime, the Commission’s planned advertising efforts are on hold. But more interestingly, Chairman Kresse on several occasions noted that lack of “traction” the Commission has, due to the legislation that created it. Their board approves no projects – legally, they only need to be consulted. Projects are funded and approved elsewhere. In fact, at least one project deemed “inconsistent” was funded anyway. The Commission’s solution? Bring back former commissioners, the ones who helped write the legislation and the plan five years ago, to form an advisory board for the current Commission. Yes, an advisory board for an advisory board. Please note that the members of this Commission are mayors, high ranking officials of state agencies, and respected philanthropists, and that this is a Public Benefit Corp, not some random 501(c)(3). I think they have more power than they think they do.

2) Bureaucracy and legalities, not intention, are keeping project data from the public. Robert Daly, the NYPA representative on the Commission, was very forthright about the funding and data providing process. The Commission determines consistency, and then its out of their hands. The NYPA Standing Committees provide funding, but then, per the relicensing agreement, only need to provide funding (not project status) updates once a year. The municipalities spend the money, but don’t report project statuses back up to anyone. The audits make sure the money is spent, but not that the projects are done. No one has a legal obligation to report back to the advocacy group, the Commission, so they don’t. And that is why the public doesn’t know. Satisfied? Me neither.

3) Mayor Dyster gets it. I broke the fourth wall of impartial journalism and spoke to the Commission. I relayed my frustration at trying to get project status information, or determine where money is being spent. I noted that its hard for the public to get involved (a goal mentioned earlier in the session by Chairman Kresse) if they are in the dark. I asked that the Commission see itself as the clearinghouse for information about the Greenway. I got knowing head nods all around the table. Chairman Kresse noted that a newsletter will be forthcoming as soon as they get funds to spread the word on projects. I chose not to get into a debate about the merits of printing 10,000 paper newsletters versus the much cheaper option of simply putting the info on the website.

Mayor Dyster sought me out afterward, commiserated that he agreed with my sentiment, and then ASKED ME what the ideal solution would look like. My answer: a Google Map GIS mash up on the website, where I can put my mouse on a red/yellow/green icon and get two pictures and five sentences on the project. He then asked what the less expensive version was. I relayed that a power point slide with arrows or a chart was better than what was currently available. That would cost someone three hours and a dollar cup of coffee to do right now. 

Locally, the Ere Canal Harbor Development Corp has set the standard recent for project status information: the live streaming video from the Aud site. Want to know what the status of the project is? You don’t have to trust us – see for yourself. Mayor Dyster gets that the public needs to know whether its legally required to do monthly updates or not. The fact that the Commissioners are often the spenders of the money (in their role as head of a municipality) is both a boon and curse: they know the status of the project, but would hardly be eager to provide the bad news of why something is behind schedule. I am not optimistic this will be solved soon: the public has raised this point before at other meetings, and the Commission has been talking about this issue for some time.  

On a side note, Mayor Dyster gets it for other reasons too. He is leading a charge to get the community ready to welcome tourists (and $$$) for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812. The governor doesn’t want to set up a special 1812 commission, with the associated costs, because of the state financial crisis. Dyster’s solution proposed and agreed to at this meeting: have the Greenway Commission, already created and paid for, act as an ad hoc War of 1812 pass-through and planning entity. Most of the events will be on the Greenway anyway. Save the state taxpayers a couple $100K. Common sense: not that common.

4) Funding is disjointed and unaccountably slow. One Standing Committee, the Buffalo and Erie County Greenway Fund, that has $2M a year at its disposal, has yet to spend a dime in over two years. Projects on hold: $1.2M improvement for Scajaqueda Creek, $650K for La Salle Park, $205K in signage and improvement for 14 miles of the Riverwalk trail, $400K Fisherman’s Landing Park on Grand Island,  $866K for the City of Tonawanda’s Niawanda Park, and the $302K Minnow’s Pool project in Riverside.  The hold up? It took two years to find a “Trustee” to disperse the money. It actually came down to fielding a Request For Proposal (RFP) to hire an outside group (a partnership of Bank of America and Community Foundation) to spend the money. That structure is supposed to be in place now, two years late. Why did this committee, and this committee only, decide it couldn’t spend its money on its own? More to come. 

Untying these knots will take some time, and I’ll continue to talk to the personalities in the process as I focus on various projects and issues illuminated by a little homework and investigation. More to come on specific projects and each standing committee, and why available money is either not being spent or is behind schedule.

With $9M of yearly grants, the NYPA relicensing agreement funding is the equivalent of a $200M Foundation being dropped into Western New York. That would make it the second largest foundation in the area, behind only Oishei (barely), and more than double either The Community Foundation or Wendt. Big money deserves at least a little scrutiny.

Niagara River Greenway Commission: Remember That?

A major barrier, perhaps the major barrier, to the redevelopment and enhancement of Western New York is capital. Buffalo is not a rich city and we are not the home of many major corporations, rich families, venture capital investment funds, or large foundations. M&T Bank is our only (sometimes) Fortune 500 company. Our major publicly traded investment capital firm, RAND Corp, has a total portfolio of $25M. The $100M for the Statler is no where to be found. We know the major families by name and can count them on one hand: Jacobs, Rich, ehhhh, who else? The Goodyears and their contemporaries moved away decades ago. Our sports teams are owned by billionaires who live in Florida and Detroit. We have a tenuous connection to Warren Buffet, but when he thinks about Buffalo, it is to complain about his investment here.

In cities like San Francisco, Toronto and New York, there is so much capital sloshing around they can afford to take risky ventures. Some work out. Some don’t. Some overflows in the form of additional condo-towers on the QEW. There is a bucket of cash that needs to be spent one way or the other. These are problems Buffalo doesn’t have – our new firms have to partner with Russia to get experimental cancer drugs to market.

All this means we have to fake it and be creative to maximize the reinvestment opportunities we do have. We can’t afford to be wasteful, slow or clumsy with our investment cash. The State Comptroller uses the pension fund as venture capital start up funding for businesses around the state. The local non-profit Wendt Foundation is funding a for-profit redevelopment project in a major commercial corridor downtown to increase the public’s perception of downtown in the short term and the overall tax base in the long term. And when the New York Power Authority signs a new 50 year relicensing agreement, we wring $450M in concessions from them for Niagara River Greenway development.

Remember that? The Niagara River Greenway? How many blank looks around town would that question generate. Let me refresh your memory. Five years ago, way back in 2004, New York creates the Niagara River Greenway and a special Commission (NRGC) to identify and define a natural boundary of the Niagara River from Buffalo to Old Fort Niagara and then act as an advocate and clearinghouse for development and ecological restoration projects along it. Continuous bike trails. Boating and hiking opportunities. New and restored parks. That ubiquitous interpretive signage. You get the idea. Try biking from Art Park to Niagara Falls, or from the Inner Harbor north to Scajaquada Creek,  now and you’ll see why its needed.

What started out as a unfunded mandate got a major boost from the NYPA relicensing agreement in 2007, which promised to inject $9M a year for 50 years into the Niagara River Greenway. It took three years, but the NRGC did develop a final plan to outline spending options in 2007. Like all plans in Western New York, it won planning awards and then . . . . well, we don’t know.

And that’s the point. The NYPA has pumped out $18M at least, and perhaps already $27M, into the Niagara River Greenway. Can you name a project that has been completed? The fact that I couldn’t either led me to start tracking it down.

In Buffalo, $9M a year is not chump change. It’s the equivalent of a new Rocco Termini warehouse redevelopment each year. It’s more than the yearly investment of the Buffalo Economic Renaissance Corp ($7.7M) or the Hauptman Woodward Research Institute ($$6.9M). Its roughly the yearly budgets of the Darwin Martin House ($4.5M), Burchfield-Penney ($3.6M) and Historical Society ($1.3M) combined (all numbers from Business First’s Annual Report on Non-Profits). The capital budget for the City of Buffalo is only $22M. The Erie County Arts and Culturals budget, that gets so much scrutiny in the news, is $5M. 

It is important to note that the NRGC does not actually fund anything itself. It determines “consistency” of proposed projects, which means it determines whether requests for funding fit into the 2007 Final Plan. Minutes of meetings indicate few rejections. After the NRGC determines consistency, it is up to four Standing Committees of the NYPA to actually spend the money. While consistency is the main factor in funding, this may be a formality, but is another level of bureaucracy that makes tracking down project information difficult. The NRGC will tell you what has been determined “consistent,” but not what has been funded. The Standing Committees, which each seem to have their web master based on the scattershot info available, may or may not tell you what has been funded, but provide no status updates. Much of the information posted consists of press releases from 2008.

So I plan on tracking down myself where this money is or is not being spent and reporting it to you. Step one is attending the quarterly meeting of the NRGC tomorrow, at 2:00pm, at Beaver Island State Park on Grand Island. Most of you will not be able to attend, so please post what questions you would ask if you could attend. I plan on speaking and asking the board why they do not act as the clearinghouse for project information on their website, so the public can track progress and hold their own local officials accountable who are supposed to be spending the money. Please let me know what else you’d like me to ask. I’ll be reporting back and following this going forward.

For homework, you can read the final plan, and the 2007-2008 Annual Report, and the 2008-2009 Annual Report. First bad sign: the annual reports are nearly identical, including pictures and the opening statement of Bob Kresse, Chairman of the Board.

The New Political Spectrum

The evolving political landscape is a constant source of chirping in the chattering classes. Lately, the focus has been on the teabagging of the Republican party, the rise of Sarah Palin, and the soon-to-be permanent minority status of the fringish GOP. What’s ignored in this analysis is not only how quickly political fortunes change (remember the talk of Dems as the permanent minority party when Bush won in 2004 and brought Congressional seats along on his coattails – in two sets of irony from ‘04, here is sage Joe Trippi extolling the Grassroots to save Democrats, and Pelosi pushing for a Minority Party Bill of Rights), but also, more importantly, how divergent the movements (thanks Ethan) are from the parties.

For the last forty years, the political spectrum has been pretty stagnant.

With the turbulent Sixties over and Baby Boomers more eager to snort coke and make money than dance in the streets, American politics settled in for a long blah. Dixiecrats, McGovern and Goldwater no longer tickled the mainstream fancy, Vietnam dwindled to a bloody whimper, and the country chose a stodgy pile of Republican Presidents and Democratic Congresses. Watergate, the winning of the Cold War, the first Gulf War, impeachment, and 9/11 did little to upset this apple cart. The Republican take over of Congress in 1994 was the exception that proved the rule that the American people wanted divided, centrist, boring government. In this period both Democrats and Republicans decided they liked high deficits, high spending, expanding government, and an ever-cushy ride.

Break to 2008. Cushy government increasingly looks like incompetent government. We can’t win our wars, we can’t clean up hurricanes, and we can’t get a job. People are back in the street, first to elect an inspirational black man President, and then to protest everything that man does for the next year. Here is our spectrum in 2009.

The fundamental mistake currently made by commentators is equating the anger of the Right with the Republican party. The recent NY-23 race should be proof of that. Republicans wish they spoke for the right, but they increasingly do not, as Conservatives take a more independent track. In seeking to purge the Republicans of all RINO’s, they are actually forming a separate organization.

Current party affiliation statistics are a constant moving target, but here’s a bunch. A rough average says one third of the electorate is Democratic, twenty percent are Republican, and over 40% are Independent. Other analysis has shown that Americans call themselves 40% Conservative, 30ish% moderate, and 20% Liberal. We live in a center-right nation, but its not a Republican nation. Its an increasingly angry right-wing nation.

I had the realization recently that the teabagging fringe may still be fringe, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need to be denounced constantly. I still don’t think they make up a huge percentage of the electorate. But a general unsettled right-wing movement does.

The Dems, in the 2008 election, did a good job expanding their reach. They put much-maligned conservative Blue Dogs in traditionally Republican seats, and turned Red states Blue for Obama. They got the big tent they always wanted, and are now discovering the governing perils of that tent. Meanwhile, their Netroots, to their left, grouse that their liberal agenda isn’t getting passed, and what good is a majority if there is no discipline. Its a legitimate question (and one reason I’m still a pragmatic if disgruntled Republican).

The Republicans in 2008 lost ground in the center, and are losing ground on the right to the fringe. Who does John Boehner speak for now? He speaks for the Republican wing of the Republican party. Its a sliver of what it once was. In another source of irony, the only “Republicans” left may be the RINO’s – Olympia Snow is certainly more Republican than Rush Limbaugh.

Which leaves us with the largest part of the electorate. There are certainly wacko teabaggers, Limbaugh ditto-heads and Palinites in this group. There are also scared-of-change Southern conservatives, who are more bothered by a black President taking away their healthcare than they thought they’d be. There is also the strong-dollar Ron Paul crowd, deficit hawks, and foreign policy hawks, all disgusted with the free-spending, non-war-managing Bush administration that just left office. But the largest group may be simply disgruntled independents, who wanted Change but aren’t sure what they got. The economy is still bad, the healthcare is a mess, and the wars are still going on a year later. They aren’t Republicans, but they are increasingly willing to vote for “the other guy.” Statistically, in 2010, that means voting against Democrats.

What’s the point of all this? The political spectrum is more complicated that it used to be. The Dem and Republican labels are increasingly inaccurate. And when you’re complaining about teabaggers, don’t confuse them with the Republican party.

The Pointlessness of Local Parties

We’re now a week separated from election night. Amherst Republican’s are celebrating their sweep, Collins is claiming credit for snagging three more R seats in the county legislature, and Dems are somehow counting the win of a technocratic office as their major victory.  

These headlines substitute for the actual story of this election: the extremely low voter turnout, and the unprecedented unopposed re-election of Mayor Byron Brown.

Which leads me to my point: local political parties are, at best, utterly pointless, and at worst, bad for Western New York.

There are no atheists in a foxhole, and there are no principled ideologues at the local level. The problems are too immediate, the issues too clear, and the constituents too close. National politicians in Washington have the luxury of principled stands: they apply a broad brush to fifty states and 300 million people. Bush’s Immigration Reform might work better in Arizona than Colorado. Who cares? Bush doesn’t need his policy to work everywhere – he just needs a general policy for everyone. The current healthcare reform may bomb in rural areas (where there isn’t the critical mass for exchanges) but succeed in urban areas. Who cares? Washington policies apply everywhere and no where at the same time.

Not so at the local level. The City of Buffalo doesn’t have a hazy fluffy goal of “fixing failing schools.” They have specific schools with specific students and specific problem principals and staffs to deal with. My wife, who works in the healthcare industry, likes Buffalo because she says everyone treats you (medically) like they know your cousin, because they probably do.

In addition, most ideological problems have no local equivalent or relevance. Do you know Chris Collins’ stand on abortion? Do you care? Does it matter? How about Paul Dyster’s opinion on how to fix the war in Afghanistan? Lynn Marinelli’s plan on stem cell research? The questions are ridiculous, and so are the party affiliations.

The "R" is the least of the problems. . .

On WNYMedia blogs lots of commenters argue about the WNY FAILboat, and which party is to blame. Its the Dems fault for running the State Assembly for decades! No, its the Republicans in the County Legislature! But it was Democratic before it was Republican! Giambra was a Republican! Your mother is a Republican! Its all rubbish. The idiotic decisions made by NY politicians for the last sixty years have almost nothing to do with their party affiliation. Pataki made union concessions, and Brown screwed up HUD funding. Equal opportunity idiocy. Howards’ inability to run a jail is related to him being a Republican how? What about Glasgott being a Democrat made him a better sheriff candidate? The sniping between Poloncarz and Collins exists simply because they are in opposite parties – reverse their affiliations and the positions and bickering stay the same.

 There are better ways to subdivide our local politicians than simply Republican or Democrat. Reform vs status quo. Pro-special interest vs soon-to-be pro-special interest. Pro-development vs pro-entrenchment. Small thinking vs big idea. The two leading advocates of regionalism have been Giambra (R) and Gaughan (D). Party doesn’t matter.

Up to this point, I have broken little new ground. I’m hardly the first person to make this point. But instead of throwing up our collective hands, we need to recognize that there is a solution. And its not pie-in-the-sky – its actually been implemented on a state-wide scale: non-partisan primaries.

Our local political party system endures as it is, with minority parties wielding disproportionate fusion voting power and constant bickering among various factions of the Democratic Party, because of the primary system. It would be nice to simply eliminate all parties at the local level, but they exist because of the current election rules. The solution is to change those election rules to give more power to more of the electorate and ensure an actual choice on election day.

Paul Wolf has written about an example of nonpartison elections in Kinston, North Carolina, where many municipal elections are nonpartisan. Another great example is in the state of Washington. All state wide judicial offices, the state public education chief, and King County (Seattle) elections are nonpartisan. 

Under the King County system, all primaries are open, regardless of party affiliation. This keeps a small segment of the population (say, registered Dems in Buffalo) from effectively deciding the election. If one candidate gets over 50% of the vote, there’s is the only name that appears in November. If they don’t, then there is effectively a run off between the top two vote getters, regardless of party. In Buffalo, this would mean two Dems, probably, for the foreseeable future. But it allows all the Republicans, WFPers, Conservatives, Independents and unaffiliated voters to have a choice too.

As the bettercounty.org website shows, nonpartisan elections reduce the power of political parties, increase the power of all voters, and fosters partnerships between county and city levels of government. For all these reasons, it will be a much harder sell in politician-heavy WNY than progressive Washington. Fortunately, generally thoughtful and reform-minded Councilman Joe Golombek is starting the process in Buffalo. He wants a referendum by next November. I hope the reformers win out over the status-quoers.

Bias Amid Tragedy

I was stuck in front of the teevee again last night, as is the national habit when these types of things occur, watching the tragedy unfold at Ft Hood, Texas, where 13 are dead and 30 wounded in a mass murder shooting spree. I travel to Ft Hood frequently for business, and so perhaps I have an above average amount of interest. But what struck me, from a media perspective, is how deeply entrenched the bias at the cable news stations has become. This was not a debate about healthcare or immigration. It should have been a straight ahead news story. But once the most basic facts were covered, FOX and MSNBC might as well have been covering different incidents.

FOX chose to focus on AP Reports of investigations into Maj Hasan’s internet postings about the heroism of suicide bombers and disciplinary actions in his past record. They interviewed his past colleagues, who expressed shock at Maj Hasan’s anti-American statements and calls for Muslims to stand up for themselves against the US.

MSNBC, on the other hand, chose to focus on how PTSD is a bad thing, and as a psychiatrist, hearing stories from soldiers all day can be very stressful. One commentator even added dentists have the highest rate of suicide in the medical profession because they see people in pain all day. They interviewed reporters from Salon.com and Rolling Stone, who had previously reported on how PTSD has been linked to violence in the past, like the string of murders currently underway at Ft Carson, Colorado.

Shorter FOX: He’s an Arab and hated America.

Shorter MSNBC: Isn’t it terrible we inflict PTSD on our soldiers and then these tragedies happen.

What makes this so irresponsible is that we know almost nothing six hours, and one news conference, after the incident. The truth has yet to be determined. But clearly the truth is even less important than it used to be. Either “news” channel may be right, or both, or neither. And in this case, we have a rare opportunity to actually find out the truth, as the shooter is still alive. But to start spinning so early, and insert the bias so quickly, in a story like this is disgusting.

Quick Random Thoughts

I’ve been laid out the last couple days with a nasty swine flu & pneumonia mix, and therefore haven’t been eating, much less blogging. I’m still not totally with it, so here are just a couple quick ideas that have rattled through my fever soaked brain.

1) The Yankees are about to win the World Series. Sure, they’ll lose the next game in Philly so they can win it all t the new Yankee Stadium, but we all know where this going. How can anyone, even Yankees fans (I grew up as one) get excited about this? Seeing overpaid superstars on the most bloated lineup in any major sport merely do what they are supposed to do doesn’t fill me with warm feelings. Damon works a pitcher to a full count, A-Rod drives in two runs. . . seeing them get excited in the dugout is almost obtuse. That was a $250M hit, A-Rod. Its about time you showed up. Yay.

2) Is there a better example of the mess of Buffalo than the FAILed community block grant program? This is free money. We get to decide where it goes. And we get more, per capita, than just about anywhere. What do we do with it? Hand out patronage jobs, fire the couple overworked competent administrators as scape goats, award grants based on political affiliation, mis-spend huge chunks, and lose the rest. There is no one else to blame for this mess. This isn’t Albany, or New York City, or Washington, or anyone else screwing us. This is us screwing ourselves. Good job.

3) As Pundit points out, this may be one of the more boring and uninspired elections at the county level in some time. Its not like everything is all roses in Western New York – anyone got some ideas on how to do the job better? The only fireworks are self-inflicted implosions of Sherriff Howard and Michele Iannello. I predict low turn everywhere, not just in the city. And that bodes well for the union and special interest based candidates – their over-the-hill machines have more and disproportionate power when the general public doesn’t vote. Once again, we screw ourselves.

The Cost of Patience

President Obama has a reputation as a deliberate thinker. He considers all sides of the issue. He asks a lot of questions, and encourages debate. These all seem like more admirable qualities after a President who had a reputation for rash, and incorrect, judgments.

But lets be clear. There is a cost for deliberation. It is not free.

One hundred dead in Peshawar, Pakistan yesterday. Twenty four Americans dead in Afghanistan in the last two days, and eight dead in an attack on a UN guest house in Kabul. Bombings in Baghdad kill 147 and wound 700, the worst car bombing in over two years. By the time this is posted, there will surely be another example.

As this is going on, President Obama is playing golf. Twenty four rounds in nine months. More than GWB in nearly three years, who fancied himself a golfer but gave it up because he thought it would look bad. Let’s see, does it?

Obama also made a speech in Florida a couple days ago where he said he would not be rushed to judgment in adjusting his war plans.

“I won’t risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Too late. Already risked because we’re already there. This is not an academic exercise. You may wish we never went into Iraq, or that Afghanistan is not a hard slog, but we did and it is. It has to be dealt with. You fired one general and promoted another, the right one. He reviewed the situation and made a recommendation. If you don’t trust his recommendation, why did you ask for the review? Why do another White House review on top of the field general’s? I don’t think you want a reputation of picking bombing targets in the WH, a la LBJ.

McChrystal, Petraus and Odierno are as good of a leadership team as the US military has ever constructed. They all learned lessons the hard way on the battlefield, changed course, and found success. You’ve gathered information for nine months – it is time to make a decision. Be the CinC, not the ivory tower professor. While you dweedle, you aren’t inconveniencing  students waiting outside your door for office hours.  We’re losing soldiers being shot out of the sky.

You said a President should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Do it.

Our Competition . . .

. . . advertises on the cover of a phone book.

In related news, Chris Smith just asked me what a phone book was.

I Need Some Help, Srsly

I don’t normally troll the Letters to the Editor section of the Buffalo News, but one this morning caused me to spit out my coffee. My sarcasm meter is sometimes a bit off, so please help me, is this letter a joke?

This letter is in regard to the man who killed three people and was convicted of a home invasion in 1973. I am a resident of South Buffalo and I resent, like many others in the neighborhood, that Harvest House Center has the audacity to bring in ex-cons, drug addicts or individuals whose life represents tragic past events.

Our middle-class neighborhood, so rich in family history and upbringing, is being undermined by these less desirable individuals. It’s a shame that a non-profit organization will go to any extreme to secure funds or make money by this type of conduct. Not only that, but this center also brings in others from outside the area and the state.

This is one reason why I have given up my Catholic faith. The Catholic Church and Diocese of Buffalo work hand in hand with this center to promote its agenda and carry out these programs. If I were a parent, I would have reservations about sending my children to this center for any spiritual guidance or exposing them to unscrupulous individuals.

Can you believe the audacity of a social services organization offering social services to undesirable ex-cons and former drug users in a residential setting?! Can you believe the audacity of a non-profit seeking to secure funding to do this work?!? Can you believe the AUDACITY of the Catholic Church also seeking to help these unscrupulous people?!?!? How can we possibly expose our children to scenes of adults helping other adults? You know what would fix this – giving every criminal a life sentence. Then we wouldn’t have ex-cons, and wouldn’t have to worry about any of this! On a related note, I also have a modest proposal to eat children.

BTW, if you are curious, the triple murderer this letter refers to is Gerald Balone, who did 33 years and now talks to students about making better choices to stay out of jail. The AUDACITY of it!

Bad Sales Job on Climate Change

Today is the International Day of Climate Action. Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know either.

Thousands of Canadians burn tons of fossil fuels to travel to Ottawa to protest climate change . . . only to tragically freeze to death in this pose.

Buffalo had a protest/teach-in today at D’Youville College to spread the word that, like, climate change is totally bad. 

I poke fun not because climate change isn’t a problem, but because the local representatives unfortunately did nothing to break any stereotypes. The Western New York Climate Action Coalition (didn’t know we had one of those either) sponsored the event, titled Buffalo 350, meaning 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Never mind for a second that the 350 number is completely arbitrary, with nary a shred of scientific evidence that 350 is “better” than 300, or 400, or any other number (this is what passes for proof -”science” and Desmond Tutu say 350!). Also ignore for a second that our current CO2 count is 385, that we passed 350 in 1998, and none of us alive will see 350 again.

The problem to focus on right now is the awful, terrible job climate change protestors or environmental activists do selling climate change. Or more specifically, getting the public excited enough, or scared enough, or both, about climate change that they stop throwing out cereal boxes and start recycling them.

The protestors today made the classic mistake: explaining that hurricanes, droughts and blizzards are the product of current levels of CO2, and just you wait, things will get worse. Call it the Inconvenient Truth mistake. I wish I could prove this to you, but unfortunately YNN Buffalo (where I saw the WNYCAC rep on the teevee) does not yet have a website 6 months after creation. But that’s another story.

Everyone repeat after me. “Weather is not climate!” Weather is today. Climate is long term. Climate change did not cause the droughts in the south east last year. Global warming did not cause Katrina. Climate change may be causing massive snowpack melt and the melting of the ice caps, but even that is tricky – pack ice has been increasing lately. The point is, you can’t look at any specific thing today to see proof of climate change. We need to look long term.

Climate change may well be bad, and has some man-made component, but when Al Gore said the earth would heat up, massive hurricanes would hit, and the seas would rise, people checked the thermometer. This summer, they discovered it was 1) cold, and 2) we had no hurricanes. The lack of hurricanes was the biggest non-story story this year.

This all comes on the heels of a new poll that show fewer and fewer Americans believe there is evidence of global warming. Said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:

“It’s a combination of poor communication by scientists, a lousy summer in the Eastern United States, people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public.”

Yeah, I think its more the former. And the people mixing up weather and climate include the advocates. The problem with selling climate change with hurricanes is that when there are no hurricanes, then there must not be climate change.

The cause is not hopeless. Think how easily the frame “climate change” has been substituted for “global warming.” Because, of course, not everywhere will get warmer. Some places will get colder. Glaciers on Iceland today grow while glaciers in Glacier National Park shrink. But while we are still fighting the change, rather than preparing for its coming, the sales job has to get better.