Aug 12, 2008
Climate Change Debunked
So, how’s that for a blog post title? Catchier even than last Saturday’s New Harry Potter Trailer, right? So, is it just another spurious headline designed to grab attention or is there something in it? Well, you will no doubt have read about the recent APS debacle over the paper from Lord Monckton in which he stands up the anthropogenic climate change straw man and, pardon the pun, burns it down.
If you’re in the UK, or have figured out the BBC iPlayer hack to let you use that tool outside the UK, you may have seen the recent global-warming-coming-oil-crisis-we’re-all-doomed drama Burn Up. You probably also heard about a little fella called Al Gore and his inconvenient movie and the Channel 4 documentary that attempted to shred it, perhaps a little conveniently ignoring some key facts as it did so.
Meanwhile, power companies report massive profits and price rises for gas and electricity. They simultaneously pump up prices from well to wheel as the oil price bounces like a proverbial vulcanised rubber ball and everyone is looking to save gas.
I’ve published several items about alternative energy sources recently and still stand by the didact: waste not, want not. It’s important that we cut pollution and it’s important that we reduce the amount of energy we waste. We should be looking at what we are planning for the world, especially in light of madcap schemes like adding lime to the oceans, before it’s too late.
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September 25th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Barry, science is not based on proof…it s based on observation and the construction of a hypothesis based on that evidence. Enough observations in support of the hypothesis can allow science to build a theory to explain those observations. A single result demonstrating that the hypothesis is wrong will wreck a theory.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Hmmmnn. I didn’t know that science was based on consensus, or that consensus was even a word associated with science. I’m not a scientist, but I thought you had to be able to prove things or disprove them as the case may be.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
@Kamal Happy to let your comment stand, but I couldn’t leave in the personal remarks. As to whether there is a consensus. It’s a scientific fact that there never is a consensus on any subject, however, there are thousands of scientists and decades of work that do indeed suggest that anthropogenic pollution is causing changes in our climate.
August 26th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
It may well be true that the human race is failing to recognize itself as harbingers of our own doom, it is certain to me that we as a race have embarked on a potentially disaster prone course of action in regards to our abuses of the physical environment, but sharing this world view with you, and having a moral and ethical concern that we should conduct our affairs in a more sustainable manner, is entirely different than brazenly, blithely, and ignorantly, claim there is a scientific consensus on the specific issue of anthropogenic global climate warming.
There is no scientific consensus on this issue, the only consensus is ideological and political. There were hundreds of high ranking scientists, many of whom have environmentalist credentials, some of whom were Nobel prize winners, some ow whom were MEMBERS of the UN IPC, who have openly stated that the claim of a scientific consensus is a lie.
Some of these people have had their careers affected. Earlier this year a majority of the largest scientific organization in America completely broke rank with their president over his claim of a Scientific consensus on the issue in an interview.
All of these things are facts. The question is NOT answered, it IS in debate, there IS no consensus on the issue and several scientists who once supported human caused global warming theories have later recanted this.
The earth will survive us, we may not survive our own stupidity.
Remolding society globally in ways that could economically entire communities of the poor all on the basis of a theory that is far from being established as fact in scientific circles, no matter what you think you have heard and read, and moreover instituting global carbon tax schemes that will harm millions and possibly billions of people, could be a grave mistake.
These very schemes – investigative research has shown – could very well end up massively financially benefit certain of the public figures now claiming that a consensus exists (such as Al Gore who has clear financial and investment ties that will benefit greatly under carbon credit trading schemes) all of this is evil.
Evil prospers when the good do not challenge it. Human caused Global warming COULD WELL be a fact, but there is no consensus on it, and both sides of the issue deserves to be heard.
Follow the money, there are people who are exploiting your fear, and your honest sincere concern for the environment, law, and order, in order to make money off you and impoverish entire societies. Your ignorance of this possibility does not make it less potent.
December 18th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Craig,
Congratulations on your red herring colony and straw man farm. They seem to be thriving.
Let me lay this out simply: The Earth will survive us. But, as it stands now, we may not survive ourselves. The issue is not that we will turn the Earth into Neptune, the issue is that we will change the planet enough that the population now living on it will not be able to survive the resultant accelerated changes. We are not hardy Vikings, grown hale and strong over time; We are a more vulnerable (and enormous) population which will not weather a rapid radical change well. In short, it’s about us surviving and not hastening inevitable climate change which will significantly alter our world.
There is much “stupidity bordering on arrogance” that we manifest in our lives. But failing to recognize ourselves as the harbingers of our own doom should not be one of them.
Science and the consensus of the scientific community is still against those who would deny our effect on the global climate. That has not changed.
December 17th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Anytime politicians take up the banner for another crisis I reach for my wallet and guard my freedom.
Climate change alarmists ignore climate history. Why is that? Are they too stupid or deliberately obtuse to read Caesars memoirs, a great peak into the climate when he lived. Or, deliberatly forget that the Vikings occupied Greenland at a time when it was warmer than today? Or, ignore the sunspot cycles of the sun? Any peak into climate history shows wide and sometimes alarming variation having nothing to do with man. It is stupidity bordering on arrogance to think we can terraform the earth (deliberately or inadvertently).
When it comes to climate change follow the money. Carbon footprint trading will become big business and produce nothing but wealth for the privileged few and a monstrous burden for the rest of us.