With apologies to the late great Yogi Berra, who surely would have something to say about this climate inanity, and via Bishop Hill, we have this reminder of the ghost of alarmism past:
Sir John Houghton once famously said:
Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen.
Except actually he didn’t say that. His real words were:
“If we want a good environmental policy in the future we’ll have to have a disaster.”
Now, in an eerie echo of the learned Sir John, we have the words of Robert Stavins, the head of Harvard’s Environmental Economics program:
It’s unlikely that the U.S. is going to take serious action on climate change until there are observable, dramatic events, almost catastrophic in nature, that drive public opinion and drive the political process in that direction
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I believe Yogi Berra is alive and doing well for an 85-year-old.
REPLY: Well that’s what I get for not double checking. Thanks for setting me straight – Anthony
Good old Yogi is still alive and well. 🙂 In fact he has his own website.
http://www.yogiberra.com/
REPLY: Well that’s what I get for not double checking. Thanks for setting me straight – Anthony
And then it will be prudent to act, not before.
No one knows what form disasters will take, why prepare for heat when cold is just as likely?
Of course the reverse is not true. If there are no dramatic events and the AGW is proved to be bunk, they will not come out and say that we are sorry to put everyone through environmental hell and sorry to have made people spend Billions of Dollars on losing environmental technologies.
Tsk, tsk … not too many steps removed from making Tom Clancy’s book, Rainbow Six, published in 1998, prophetic. In it, zealous environmentalists plan to release a super virus that is hyper contagious and would only leave a few hundred million survivors to marvel as the planet changes with the absence of mankind.
In other news , AMAP has released a report declaring that Arctic ice is melting at an even faster rate than previously thought . I don’t have a link , but it has been on the Fox news ticker this pm . Someone may have posted it in T&N , but it might be worth a main page posting .
From http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-29/disaster-needed-for-u-s-to-act-on-climate-change-stavins-says.html
“Stavins, an economist, is a member of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said in 2007 that scientists are more than 90 percent certain that humans are causing global warming. ”
That’s all I needed to know.
You can ask Yogi here about what he thinks about his premature demise.
http://www.yogiberramuseum.org/about-yogi/ask-yogi
He’ll probably answer that “It’s not over till It’s over”.
I would not worry about it; I think a lot of people are dead who aren’t.
Never let a crisis go to waste. Rahm Emanuel must be advising Harvard on their issuing of climate policy.
“until there are observable, dramatic events, almost catastrophic in nature, that drive public opinion and drive the political process in that direction”
Isn’t that as it should be?
Isn’t that applicable to every field of human activity?
If action is not necessary then it is necessary not to take action.
As if there haven’t always been disasters caused by climate.
I’m not sure I disagree with Stavins. In fact, I hope he is correct: namely, that unless and until there is an actual major catastrophe that is unequivocally linked to CAGW, people won’t be inclined to spend large sums on the matter.
“Sir John Houghton once famously said: Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen.”
Spoken like a true communist. Rational people, of course, just get people ready to laugh or prep people to get ready to save money . . . both of which, of course, is a disaster for any communist: People happily saving money.
Be careful not to jump to Harvard bias conclusions. I know Stavins. He’s as clear thinking, articulate and as bright as they come. Interpret his words as stated. As of today, those words are accurate. And should not be problematic to anyone that visits WUWT.
“Robert Stavins, the head of Harvard’s Environmental Economics program:”
What he really meant to say was: “We will not have a robust academic department with lots of new professors, lots of cute graduate students, and lots of that ever so delicious tenure with all of its incredible perqs, the last noble employment of mankind, until there are some ferocious disasters that we can loudly and professorally blame on climate change!” /sarc
Environmental Economics = Pretend Discipline
It sounds like Stavins is becoming the perfect politician–one can interpret what he says either way: 1) He’s absolutely sure that nothing should be done until we understand what should be done, or 2) He’s hedging his bets, hoping to capitalize on doublespeak so when things go north or south, he’ll have sufficient resources ($grants$) in place to expand his intellectual kingdom.
We’ll just have to wait and see, but if weather is any indication of climate, I’m seeing very little proof that Mother Nature thinks it’s global warming.
If you don’t have a good climate disaster to point to, then make one.
Perform a clever trick and bend the numbers. It’ll be worse than we thought. By a factor of 3.
I do quite a bit of temperature control engineering and keeping as tight a proportional band as the Earth has is nearly impossible.
Off topic but the last big tornado swarms in the USA was in the seventies and was blamed on global cooling. Make the data fit the theory and follow the money.
The one thing that is not mentioned by the climate hoaxers is that a warmer climate is infinitely preferable to having a colder global climate.
“Sir John Houghton once famously said: Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen.”
No, he didn’t. The quote was made up by Piers Akerman. Were you ignorant of that, or did you know that and decide to spread falsehoods anyway?
REPLY: Are you blind? Are you unable to read the full post? Sheesh! READ THE WHOLE POST BEFORE ACCUSING PEOPLE – Anthony
Back when Berra was managing the Astros, we chartered the team back to Houston from San Diego, and he came up to the cockpit and chatted for a while. No Yogi-isms, but a nice guy. The crew all got team autographed baseballs out of it.
Bloke down the pub says: May 3, 2011 at 2:36 pm
As if there haven’t always been disasters caused by climate.
Lots by weather, few by climate.
“…until there are observable, dramatic events, almost catastrophic in nature, that drive public opinion and drive the political process in that direction…”
Hey. Wasn’t the 9.0 quake and tsunami enough?
“we’ll have to have a disaster.”
Good Lord….
They’ve tried to make every weather event a disaster and claim it’s global warming…
…since day one
Including earthquakes and tsunamis
Even though it makes them look like morons, they keep doing it.
Our Hoser contingent should be congratulated for helping their country come to its senses. Great job, eh? The West needs a leader like Canada.