Can the artists save the Salton Sea?
The artist, John Baldassari, has a new book out called “The Last Days of America,” which purports to be a “non-fiction” book about America’s future, a warning about the dangers of climate change. He seems to believe there are two sides to every story, that the science that is “fact” is flawed, and that there was a conspiracy to cover up these realities. Baldassari has also done work on the history of oil in the Salton Sea, which has had significant oil deposits.
His position is that he is a “researcher” just like everyone else, meaning he is a scientist and an art critic. He has been asked numerous times if he believes there is a conspiracy to hide the facts about climate change. His reply is that it is a conspiracy to deceive the public. He argues that the most powerful people are the scientists, so they are able to hide the truth.
In this case, they have succeeded.
What science has proven is that climate change is a reality, that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is steadily rising. If that number keeps rising, then we are in for some serious problems. It is true that the people who have lived in the area for generations (and are now the majority population) will be the first to suffer from the changes, because the climate is already changing. But everyone else will suffer, and be a part of the changes that are already beginning to happen.
The “Conspiracy”
Baldassari says that as a “researcher”, he is able to study the “data” used by “conspiracy nuts” like Bill Nye. He then dismisses this data as “nonsense”, so as all the data used by these “conspiracy nuts” is “nonsense”, we shouldn’t believe in Climate change.
That is, the climate is changing (it has been changing ever since the earth was formed), but we can control it. That should be obvious to anyone who has read about the earth’s history (and not just the history of the earth. Look at the history of the sun and the history of the stars and you will see how the earth is the engine of the universe. It is the change in the earth that makes all the other changes possible.)
The idea that the temperature is not