Me? A happening person?

{Last edit: 10.12.08 10 pm. Cutting to the chase.}

According to the Eugene Weekly, yes, I'm happenin'.

I am honored to be a member of the "happening people club". Thanks to EW for telling some of my story. (More here.)

Overall, nice piece. But I have a couple of concerns.

First, one of the quotes attributed to me does not represent my view of climate change. Given the seriousness of that issue, I'll belabor this.

In particular, this quote raised my eyebrows,
& even my blood pressure for a few minutes:

“Climate change will alter the course of life on this planet,” says Fuller. “We need to plan to adapt,
rather than try to change it.

The first part is accurate, but the clause "rather than try to change it" is not. In fact, it doesn't even make sense. When speaking about climate change, I choose my words carefully. I am confident that I would not have said that.

Mistakes happen. To be human is to err. But this is why, IMO, writers should check quotes before publishing. I requested that the author allow me to "fact check" - especially quotes. My request was denied.

I made that request because my position on climate change was not accurately represented in a story in the Weekly on May 29. (My response is here.)

So, for the record, my view that I've consistently stated publicly for two years is, "We need to plan to adapt to climate change in addition to (not "rather than") doing everything possible to slow it, even if it is almost certainly too late to stop it."

Why do I recommend that we plan for adaptation? Come to one of my climate change lectures & I'll explain why.

The basic argument, explained in short form here & in Fred Pearce's With Speed & Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, is that climate change is FAR further along than most recognize. Within decades, Earth will look & feel like a different planet with a climate that hasn't existed since the PETM 55 million years ago, characterized as hot, extreme, chaotic & violent.
______________

{File this part under the category
"mostly pointless rant just because I feel like it".}

Second, I dislike the author's photo choice for that piece. It's not the one I'd have chosen to represent who I am, or what I look like: squinting in the sun, silly off-guard grin while telling the photographer how much I dislike photos of ... silly off-guard grins. They're fun around friends, but not for a public photo. Just not me. I'm not really the happy-go-lucky, jovial chap that picture suggests. I tend to be fairly serious, especially when discussing an issue as serious as climate change.

So, I did a little creative editing on the story. Below is a photo of the story with the quote fixed & a different photo.

It's nice to be able to edit one's own story & photo op.
Too bad print media doesn't allow that.