This makes a lot of sense if you are a rational thinking person. I thought I’d alert WUWT readers to it. Below is a table from the front page of Spaceweather.com today, operated by NOAA and Dr. Tony Phillips.
And this week, we saw what can happen when PHA’s come calling:
So in light of that, I thought this article was rather interesting.
Death from the Skies = Boring, Sweat from GHGs = Sexy [Jonah Goldberg]
Published at The Corner, part of NRO
From a longtime reader:
Dear Jonah,
I thoroughly enjoyed your article today, and not just because you touched on an area where I worked – at least tangentially – for over a decade. You are right, virtually nobody is doing the leg work on keeping track of all the debris and potentially nasty sized rocks out there compared to the number of people shrieking about our impending slightly warmer earth. The big reason is that it isn’t very sexy work, unlike being a proponent of Anthropocentric Global Warming (AGW). If you work on space debris, minor planet orbits and earth crossing orbits about the best you can hope for is getting to name a new rock nobody else saw, or maybe getting your name in the paper while being misquoted by some reporter who doesn’t have a clue about what preliminary results or margin of error means when he says that your recently discovered rock will destroy the earth in 2029.
By comparison if you use your computer model to predict that according to your model the earth might possibly warm by somewhere between 0.9 and 3.5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100 you get to hang out with Al Gore and Bono and morally scold the ignorant proles for driving their SUVs to pick up the kids from daycare as you jet off to Switzerland for another speaking engagement. Of course there is one other distinction. The guy cataloging rocks is actually doing science, and that’s hard work.
One of the problems many people, especially scientists, are starting to have with the AGW proponents is their use of shrill tone and authority of numbers to try to stifle debate. Science is not consensus, and though there can be a scientific consensus that doesn’t constitute science either. Computer models predicting conditions 50 years from now in a system as complex as the earth aren’t within spitting distance of science. To be science something has to be testable and falsifiable. It must produce a predicted data point, interaction or outcome that is unique to the theory and can be verified or falsified. Would you bet your future on the accuracy of day seven of a seven day weather forecast? That is essentially what we are being told by the AGW proponents we absolutely must do without delay. Of course I think the without delay part has more to do with “We must pass the stimulus without delay” or “We must pass healthcare without delay” considerations than any notion that waiting three or four years will actuall make any long term difference.
read the rest of the article at The Corner
h/t to Planet Gore
Report: Deflecting a Hazardous Near-Earth Object
April 2009
This short report on Near-Earth Object (NEO) hazard mitigation strategies was developed in response to a request for information by the U.S. National Research Council’s Space Sciences Board on December 17, 2008 and for the Planetary Defense Conference that took place 27-30 April 2009 in Granada Spain. Although we present example simulations for specific techniques that could be employed to deflect an Earth threatening NEO, our primary goal is to discuss some of the general principles and techniques that would be germane to all NEO deflection scenarios. This report summarizes work that was carried out in early 2009 and extends an earlier, more detailed study carried out in late 2008.
The complete report is available here (Word Document – 316K)
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/pdc_paper.html
@ur momisugly Belaji:
No, don’t kill yourself. That’s part of the goal. Fewer humans are easier to herd. Why do you think the Commies usually kill off so many of their own people?
Magnus: Annette was being facetious.
@Julian Flood (02:32:30) –
I think you’d find a better market at Analog SF for that, not F&SF. Looks interesting – I’d like to see the whole story, myself.
It might well take something like a nuclear-bomb powered interceptor to whack a PHA…
G.Karst said :
“The reason we missed the jupiter impact is because Eugene Shoemaker is no longer with us.”
Gah! But we still have David Levy. Spotting these tiny objects at the distance of Jupiter (~630 million km at closest) is extremely difficult. Even Shoemaker-Levy 9 was only detected through a fluke.
OUTSTANDING!
Magnus A (10:23:51) :
Annette (07:57:53) :
“GHG’s are so much more important because we humans are causing them.”
Whoa buddy.
Read the rest of what she says! I suspect your sarcasm/humour detector needs recalibrating.
DaveE.
“That’s why the gravity tractor idea is so appealing.”
1. How many “gravity tractors” do we have right now ready for launch?
2. How long would it take to get a gravity tractor ready for launch if we decided we needed one right now-ish?
3. How many vehicles are there currently ready to launch said tractor?
I am not interested in deflecting asteroids with the combined fantasy of a few million people. If we are actually going to deflect one, we better start building/testing something, otherwise all we are doing is piping sunshine.
When have we built and tested something to learn how to operate a “gravity tractor”?
You can’t deflect an asteroid with a report, though seeing the size of government reports, it might serve well enough as a “gravity tractor”.
PHAs are natural. GHG-induced global warming is blamed on man. Of course GHG is the bigger threat!
Ron de Haan (09:59:08) :
Gail Combs (07:14:03) :
“..Thanks for your posting Gail.
Do you believe there are still people who do not believe AGW is part of a conspiracy that will put us in (Green) Shackles?..”
Unfortunately yes. They are either those who truly believe the democratic party /socialists have our best interests at heart and there is no need to worry, after all socialism is the best system…. or those with their head in the sand who do not want to wake-up. Trying to get people to understand there are very intelligent evil people in the world can be very difficult.
I grew up with one who was truly evil. He had an IQ over 200, now owns a corporation and has murdered at least 8 people. (3 attempts were made on my life while he was a kid and he succeeded in killing my father) The authorities will not touch him not even the IRS, believe me I tried. Money and Power are his gods, and oh yes he is a Marxist.
Socialists can not believe someone would actually use their believe in Marxism to trick them into slavery despite several recent examples.
Alarmism is bad. Unless its space rock alarmism.
OPEN QUESTION FOR ALL Sorry to be off topic but CO2 is not a disaster, it is a benefit. Does anyone know if any agency has done an economic report on the benefit of increased CO2 in the atmosphere?
I have seen it estimated that the world crops currently grow about 15% more efficently due to the aerial fertlization of the planet.
What would the global cost be in dollars to increase the worlds fresh water supply 15%? This is what would be required to grow the same amount of food we now produce if we had 280 ppm CO2 compared to the 380ppm we now have.
“Would you bet your future on the accuracy of day seven of a seven day weather forecast?”
Given the number of times this sumer where the forcast that morning was for high 80’s and 90’s and sun, and the real weather of the day was 70’s and low 80’s and cloudy, no I don’t think I put lot’s of stock in models. Now it has cooled off enough in Omaha that some of the trees have decided to pack it in for the year and the leaves are changing.
Around the time Carl Sagan was running around touting The Next Ice Age (TM) he was also plugging the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, or SETI. As home computers became more popular, their owners were urged to leave them on and allow SETI’s computers to tap into them on background.
I’ve asked this question before but never on this website: is it possible to set up a network similar to the SETI network but tasked to watch for NEO’s? Can computers be used in that fashion after Energy-Star has put them to sleep? Could such a network be made secure enough to satisfy interested yet identity-conscious people?
Maybe we’ll have gravity tractor pulls someday .
G. Karst and NoAstronomer: Permit me to point out Carolyn Shoemaker is given equal credit for the discovery of Shoemaker-Levy 9 and in fact has discovered more comets than any other person. A quick scan of online sources has failed to reveal whether she is still committing astronomy at the age of 80. I certainly hope so.
The biggest threat may be from those who are trying to save us from GHGs.
I’m going to make it my life’s work to save us from those who are trying to save us.
Gail Combs
A remarkable post.
Have you ever googled Agenda 21 and Sage? (the educational sidekick)
That gives a fairly good summary of how the IPCC fits into the global picture.
Tonyb
:bear: :rofl: 😡
IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Jul 30, 2009
The New Bluff in Climate Alarmism
By Dr. David Evans
Summary for Policymakers
* Air temperatures have been falling for years. Satellites show that 1998 was the warmest recent year and that a cooling trend started in 2002.
Even the land-based thermometer data, which is corrupted by artificial heating sources close to 89% of its thermometers and which is heavily “corrected”, now shows a cooling trend developing from 2006.
Adjustments applied by NOAA to surface data.
* The alarmists recently switched to ocean temperature to measure global warming.
* The alarmists claim the world is still warming, that heat is building up in the oceans, and that the ocean temperature is rising and rising fast. These claims implicitly depend on a time period to say what a “trend” is, because temperatures fluctuate. The alarmists provide the context by showing trends of 20 to 50 years. This is a clever trick to reframe the debate, and essential to their case.
* Ocean temperatures have only been measured properly from mid 2003, when the Argo network became operational. Over 3,000 Argo floats cover all the world’s oceans. They dive down to measure temperatures, then resurface to radio back the information. The previous XBT system did not monitor huge areas of ocean, did not go as deep, and was much less accurate.
* Ocean temperatures are dropping slightly. The Argo data shows that the oceans have been cooling slightly since mid 2003. Our best data, from satellites and Argo, shows that the air and oceans have not warmed for at least five years. The world is now cooling slightly, so there is no heat accumulating. Some natural cooling force is currently stronger than the warming due to human emissions.
* Short-term trends contradict the alarmist claims. Our best data, from satellites and Argo, shows that the air and oceans have not warmed for at least five years. The world is now cooling slightly, so there is no heat accumulating. Some natural cooling force is currently stronger than the warming due to human emissions.
* Long-term trends contradict the alarmist claims. The world has been recovering from the little ice age, warming at a steady trend rate since 1750 with alternate warming and cooling oscillations of about 30 years. The pattern suggests we have just finished the last warming, and have entered a cooling period until about 2030.
* The latest alarmist claims are a bluff. The alarmist claims only appear credible if trends shorter than 10 years or longer than 50 years are ignored. But it will take time to inform the public and politicians that the alarmist�s claims are baseless. With the US climate bill now being debated and the Copenhagen climate conference coming up in December 2009, they only need to make the public believe their schtick for a few months.
* Problems with alarmist graphs of ocean heat. They omit Argo data by stopping in 2003, or contradict it by showing ocean warming continuing through 2006.
The Latest Alarmist Claims are a Bluff
The claims of the alarmists about rising ocean temperatures and accumulating heat are wrong in the short term and wrong in the long term. They appear credible only if you ignore trends shorter than 10 years and trends longer than 50 years. They crumble under analysis. But it will take time to inform the public and politicians that the alarmist�s claims are baseless. With the US climate bill now being debated and the Copenhagen climate conference coming up in December 2009, they only need to make the public believe their schtick for a few months. This is a bluff. See PDF here.
http://www.icecap.us
I wonder whether the “Anthropocentric” in the original post was deliberate or a Freudian slip?
TonyB (14:55:26) :
“…Have you ever googled Agenda 21 and Sage?…” Yes but I wanted to keep it fairly simple without sounding like a tin hat type.
All you need to do is look at the bills introduced in Congress in the last decade, World Bank SAP and WTO to know someone really IS out to get us and the UN/WTO is backing them all the way.
Checkout “guide to good farming practices” and “global diversity treaty” any military commander will tell you First secure the food and water supply….
“As for the title “Which is the bigger threat?”
Try these: Democrats, Republicans, the Administration, the State Department, the EPA, the Energy Dept., The Dept. of Education, the . . .”
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Plans are to find an asteroid to use as a launch pad for a exploration of Mars. If PHAs and AGW are such threats to man kinds survival, they had best find a Mars bound asteroid big enough for all of us.
One thing’s for sure. If we get hit by an iron meteorite it will be very ironic…