Guest Post by Steven Goddard
Over the last year or so I have been taking an informal survey of a key news metric – Google news searches for the term “global warming.” A year ago, the ratio of alarmist/skeptical articles was close to 100/1. About six months ago, the ratio was 90/10, Two months ago it was 80/20, and today it hit 50/50 for the first time – including the lead skeptical story “A Cooling Trend Toward Global Warming“. One thing that has changed is the rise of blogs written by informed citizens, complemented by the demise of corporate newspapers which make money from keeping people continually alarmed about one thing or another.
Congratulations to Anthony and all the readers for being a big part of this. Democracy in it’s purest form – hope and change we can all believe in.
The top two items from Google news “global warming” search today. The distribution of all stories through the first few search pages was similar in makeup as seen below:
A Cooling Trend Toward Global Warming
The New American – 1 hour ago
With the election of a president who is solidly in the global–warming-alarmist camp – and with many high-level appointees who are bona fide climate-change …
Global warming and climate change: facts and hype Examiner.com
UN global warming stand criticized Delta Farm Press
UN Con on Global Warming Nearly Foiled NewsMax.com
Opposing Views – Atlanta Journal Constitution
House Democrats release draft energy, climate bill
New York Times – 8 hours ago
By DARREN SAMUELSOHN AND BEN GEMAN, Greenwire Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee today unveiled a 648-page draft global warming …
House Democrats unveil sweeping plan to reshape energy in America MiamiHerald.com
Waxman’s clean energy draft includes cap-and-trade proposals Oil & Gas Journal
US lawmakers present draft bill on ‘clean energy’ AFP
Mark N (21:44:53) :
It`s the following I’d like to see change:
The Economist
New Scientist
Nature
I remember the Economist with pleasure when it championed Bjorn Lomborg and his Skeptical Environment book, while the other, so called, high class journals participated in a shameful campaign of denigration. I believe shortly after, the editor was replaced and sadly the Economist joined the rest of the bunch.
oh, wonderful, wonderful, thanks Steve for that *cool* piece of work!
time for another plug, as one of the websites who has been encouraging better info: click on my name for an ever-improving Skeptics’ Climate Science Primer – written by a warmist in recovery! – and tell others!
Sad I know.
A few years ago I would type in the Google search boxy thingy “Global warming myths and would get Robert Carter and other rationaist. In the uk the met office and local authorities had headlines or articles such as The ten myths of Global Warming and these then started coming up.
I have just tried Global Warming Myths and the majority are no longer supporters of global warming theory.
So is it the argument is being won or has Google done something with their search engine to filter out.
Who can tell?
Steve,
I wish I could agree with you but here in the UK, the usual culprits (BBC and Guardian), seem to be pumping out their “catastrophe agenda” louder than ever.
Either that or I’m paranoid. Could be the latter!
Sir Nicholas Stern, billed as a ‘climate change guru’ was on BBC Radio Five yesterday, one of the UK’s most listened to stations. I was expecting the usual and predictable responses from emailers to the show but was pleasantly surprised and encouraged. Of the ten or so listeners views that were read out, only two were pro AGW. One from an eighteen year old girl who blamed ‘men’ for the planet’s woes and one other brief comment, again from a woman.
All the other contributions were from seemingly informed individuals (all male if that has any bearing) who called Stern out on his proclamations. Stern’s repeated response was to say “They obviously don’t understand the science, if only they were to look at the data. . . things are going to get really bad . . . have to do something now before it’s too late . . .” Obviously I paraphrase.
The point is that the AGW proponents were easily outnumbered by skeptics. Something I’ve not seen, or heard before on UK MSM. Encouraging.
The programme is available as a podcast on bbc.co.uk/radio – look for Simon Mayo’s show on Five Live.
David Porter (00:34:44)
But here is something more encouraging from The Times in the UK:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/chris_ayres/article6011157.ece
Unreal Climate is jumping up & down about this, how 97% of scientists believe in AGW, but a mere 58% of the public do. The rest are “Scientifically Illiterate”.
I did put in my ha’porth and I think I may now be on their black list!
Apparently the “Denialists’ PR machine” is responsible for this public ignorance, but thankfully there’s the wonder that is Al Gore standing out as a beacon of truth & probity to guide the ignorant towards the light of truth.
The good Dr Schmidt seems to find it incredible that anyone disbelieves the output of the IPCC.
There was a pithy and rueful comment in today’s London Times about ‘we were trying to wean Americans off Saudi oil’ and how ‘democratic debate is more honest, and if it takes an awkward Brit to point this out, well that’s better than one of our own’ or something of the like….
I’m sure that wasn’t me and my comments at this site they were referring to.
All I do as a non-expert is to try and gain personal understanding by challenging those far more expert than me to explain things I simply can’t understand, given my aging faculties, lack of access to scientific literature and bemusement at the raft of contradictory messages that my brain is assaulted with on a daily basis……..
But who cares, eh?
The politicians are listening:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090401/D979IH4O0.htmlAnalysis: Dems punt hard choices on Obama budget…putting off crucial decisions on his ambitious plans to curb global warming…An expensive and highly controversial plan to combat global warming through a “cap-and-trade” scheme that calls for auctioning off pollution permits for nearly $650 billion.
They’re going around in circles, trying to have it both ways:
The Senate, during budget debate Tuesday, voted to instead devote any revenues from the scheme to help consumers pay higher gasoline and electric bills that energy companies will pass on to them.“
Also, don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy WUWT but if the weather had not cooperated things would be different. It will be interesting to see where the next two or three weather years will take us.
When enough of the public have swung over to the sceptical position the Politicians will show “Leadership” by jumping in front of the new demographic.
At the rate described – give it to the end of this year for the Politicians to start to waver.
Unfortunately – spending taxes and not having taxes, are mutually exclusive. The Politicians that have already committed to the scam of taxing carbon emissions may have to wait to the next election before they wake up as they are tossed out.
Giving the BBCs board has committed the BBC to being an AGW propaganda outfit in contradiction to the organisations own charter – I would expect them to be the last to jump ship.
Perhaps even heads will roll (figuratively).
Efforts to mitigate continental drift could be hampered if nations do not agree on steps to prevent disaster, warned scientists today.
Scientists say it is vital for leaders attending a key UN summit in December to find a way to halt catastrophic continental drift. Anthropogenic Continental Drift (ACD) accounts for about 60% of all tectonic activity, UN data shows, and if measures are not taken to prevent human movement the Earth could cave in beneath our feet.
Anti-footstep activist group Greenpace will outline its concerns during a public lecture in Central London on Friday. Greenpace is at the forefront of protecting the Earth’s crust from human activities such as walking, running and driving. Representatives flew in to the lecture using jetpacks to highlight greener methods of transportation.
“This year is the crunch time for earthquakes, plate tectonics and continental drift,” Greenpace’s head of research Durner Webb told BBC 24 News.
“We are hoping for big things from the Copenhagen summit at the end of 2009,” he added.
“If we can’t develop enough footstep-free methods of transportation, we will need to put people in shackles and restrict movement as much as possible as mitigation method for ACD. If not we will really have lost the battle to prevent catastrophic earthquakes and fragmentation of the planet.”
Despite the measures introduced by the UN’s Tokyo Protocol on Continental Drift, the number of human footsteps has continued to rise as a result of increasing energy consumption and the loss of forest cover.
“This year is going to be critical and we feel we need to raise public awareness about this issue as much as possible,” Webb said.
Hara Shanawat Dortmund, the UN secretary general’s continental drift envoy, said that among solutions to mitigate catastrophe was a real way to spread the wealth around.
“We must seize the opportunities this crisis offers us,” she told delegates at a UN Committee meeting in Palermo earlier this month.
“There has been very strong pressure to use footsteps in an unsustainable way.”
In order to tackle continental drift effectively, Dortmund said it was necessary to develop a regime that creates the necessary incentives for developing countries and the poor to act in the broader interest of the planet.
“We know that developed nations contribute more to continental drift than developing countries. Before the Industrial Revolution we all lived on one continent. We must now pay for our sins. It is in our planet’s interest to pay developing countries not to develop any further.”
Also present at the Palermo meeting was Al Gore who said, “We know that productive nations and people move around more frequently than the unproductive. The creation of a global reserve currency, Footstep Credits, based on movement could reduce poverty and prevent the planet from falling apart.”
Gore proposes a system of footstep trading in which everyone will be issued the same amount of Footstep Credits, or footsies as he calls them.
Individuals then spend footsies to move about. A pedometer will count the number of steps people take and when in a car or train a GPS system will do the same. At the end of the day an international tracking system will then subtract one footsie for each mile covered.
Individuals wanting or needing to walk or drive beyond permitted by their initial allocation would be able to engage in footstep trading and purchase additional footsies. This could encourage people to conserve their movement or use green methods of transport such as gliding, climbing or using jetpacks.
Conversely, those individuals who move about below that permitted by their initial allocation have the opportunity to sell their surplus footsies.
“Imagine what this could do for the poor, the unemployed and developing nations. They will be able to earn an income from doing nothing. Governments will no longer need to support welfare systems or lend money to poor countries.” Gore said.
To that end Gore has already set up a London based company to handle billions of expected transactions, each of which will be charged a small commission. Across the pond in the United States the visionary President Obama has been working with the Chicago Footstep Exchange, which he helped set up years ago, to do the same.
Gore warned: “If these types of schemes do not get up and running shortly, then we will have really missed the boat. We have no more than four years to save the planet.”
I thought this must have been an April Fools
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7968745.stm
“We have seen winter becoming drier and drier in the last three or four years, but this year has set the record”
Nirmal Rajbhandari
Department of Hydrology and Meteorology
Why doesn’t the BBC and Rajbhandari understand that the dry Nepalese winter was from a lack of precipitation caused by global cooling, not warming?
Boudu (00:44:12) :
Thanks for the link to Nicholas Stern – His dulcet, pompous patronising tone serves particularly well as a soundtrack to pictures of Hollywood notables strutting their stuff with G20 protesters.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jh5jm/Simon_Mayo_31_03_2009/
about 1:48 in
Aron (02:28:26) :
Cute…’runaway’ ACD.
Perhaps this site offers an opportunity for real input from citizens to congress,
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/03/31/have-your-say-about-global-warming/
“Through April 17, everyone has the opportunity to provide input to the committee. Send questions and comments to to ACCInput-main@nas.edu. “You can suggest questions you hope the study will address or submit literature or opinion pieces you would like considered during the study process,” the invitation says.”
After feeling so powerless and hopeless about this global con, do I dare hope this is real?
I find the similarities between the ‘case for WMD’ and the ‘case for AGW’ amazing. One main difference was that only in USA and UK were the WMD sceptics in the minority. In both cases I became sceptical by first having an open mind, but reading the evidence for myself, and judging the plausibility.
– Change of name: (i) from ‘chemical weapons’ to ‘weapons of mass distruction’. This would allow the gullable to think this included nuclear weapons. (ii) from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’
– “The experts all agree”. Any sceptics have an agenda (i) lefty pacifists who will have “blood on their hands” (ii) right wing anti-environmentalist deniers
– propaganda. If you know you are right, its ok to use fear and extreme examples in order to get the public to agree with you.
– From time to time, I have self-doubt due to the bombardment of conviction from the media and politicians. The fact that my scepticism was proven more than 100% correct with WMD gives me great confidence now.
– The gradual dawning of the truth (i) failure of weapons inspections in Iraq to find ANYTHING (ii) the tipping of the balance for AGW as reported here
– the growing desperation of the faithful (i) Blair and Bush saying ‘we just need a little more time’ (ii) AGWers saying ‘we just need a bit more time before we seen temperatures start to rise again.
– and to come? (i) motive changed from stopping WMD to ‘regime change’. What ever the ‘case for war’, it was right to get rid of Saddam (ii) what the AGWers will say is that ‘global warming’ is being overtaken by ‘global dimming’ (from China, India’s industrialisation, etc), and thus we are still to blame, and its still due to over-zealous industrialisation.
– If really stuck, they will blame the ‘experts’ for getting it wrong. We need to review how data were processed and ‘make sure this never happens agains’.
Maybe there is hope after all!
This interesting report comes from St Andrews University Debating Society, written by Dr.Richard Courtney
http://www.grumpyoldsod.com/global%20garbage%2016.asp
“Hansen and Gore will be portrayed as well-meaning advocates for a cleaner environment, and they will not be held to account for their repeated extreme statements (cf. Paul Ehrlich, the Club of Rome, and their ilk). In the meantime, those who challenged AGW early on will be treated as being “accidentally correct” and largely ignored (cf. Julian Simon). ”
I agree. Also, organizations like the NAS and the IPCC (and their constituents) will claim that they were skeptical all along and simply presenting valid concerns. If you look carefully at what they are saying now, there is plenty of wiggle room in their statements.
This is good news indeed. Especially as it begins to dawn on people how much this swindle has cost society.
The billions paid out to propogate this ruse could have solved many of the problems that activists continuously cry about.
Still, science is not settled by a media majority.
But the media can provide a service by delivering facts, and not a bunch of hyped up alarmism, as the case has been for 2 decades now.
Thanks to people like Anthony, Steve McIntyre, Richard Lindzen, the Heartland Institute and the 1000s of other scientists who have demonstrated courage in standing up to a highly arrogant class of elitists.
Schnurpp,
I expect a lightweight El Nino this year, followed by a moderate La Nina. That is, some warming, but then another cooling like in 2008. In general – a cooling trend.
I expect to see the global warming moderates jump ship soon. Once the exodus of scientists goes into full swing, the whole house of cards is going to fall on the holdouts left inside…like Nature, Gore, GISS, NYT, etc…
Aron: I’m still laughing. ACD…brilliant.
More media publishing for science, not hype:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5067351/Rise-of-sea-levels-is-the-greatest-lie-ever-told.html
Aron (02:28:26) :
Aron – thanks! That was really funny, and quite appropriate for April 1 :^)
I guess I better not run that marathon I signed up for in May – imagine what effect THAT will have on the ACD…