Submitted by D.B. Stealey
This article went viral when it was first published. Well worth reading:
“Our planet has been slowly warming since last emerging from the “Little Ice Age” of the 17th century, often associated with the Maunder Minimum.
Before that came the “Medieval Warm Period”, in which temperatures were about the same as they are today. Both of these climate phenomena are known to have occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, but several hundred years prior to the present, the majority of the Southern Hemisphere was primarily populated by indigenous peoples, where science and scientific observation was limited to non-existent.
Thus we can not say that these periods were necessarily “global”. However, “Global Warming” in recent historical times has been an undisputable fact, and no one can reasonably deny that. But we’re hearing far too often that the “science” is “settled”, and that it is mankind’s contribution to the natural CO2 in the atmosphere has been the principal cause of an increasing “Greenhouse Effect”, which is the root “cause” of global warming.
We’re also hearing that “all the world’s scientists now agree on this settled science”, and it is now time to quickly and most radically alter our culture, and prevent a looming global catastrophe. And last, but not least, we’re seeing a sort of mass hysteria sweeping our culture which is really quite disturbing. Historians ponder how the entire nation of Germany could possibly have goose-stepped into place in such a short time, and we have similar unrest. Have we become a nation of overnight loonies?
See full story here:
Considering the current political climate, it’s a great time to move out to the country and become more self-sufficient. That’s what we did. Now we are teaching our children how to raise animals and grow their own food. We do not pay the electric or gas companies. For now it’s freedom, but for later it could mean survival.
Charlie Foxtrot says:
June 6, 2011 at 6:32 pm
…
The denier label has been applied to the wrong side of the debate.
True dat.
That is a really, really long entry. I’ll sumarize an important part:
“Man-made CO2 doesn’t appear physically capable of absorbing much more than
two-thousandths of the radiated heat (IR) passing upward through the atmosphere.
And, if all of the available heat in that spectrum is indeed being captured by the current CO2 levels before leaving the atmosphere, then adding more CO2 to the atmosphere won’t matter a bit.”
This is what I’ve said for years….
CharlieFoxtrot says, “I happened to see about 5 minutes of the Weather Channel today, which I normally don’t turn to for any weather information. The tripe that the weather channel spouts is just incredible. According to them, all weather that is not average is due to global warming caused by CO2. ”
And who is a large owner of the Weather Channel (majority owner)?
The very same owner has a large piece of The Economist.
Both are a mouthpiece for the CAGW hypothesis.
Please Google it if you are interested because I would rather not name the owner in case it causes offense.
What the agenda is I do not know. Possibly CAGW diverts attention from issues in our western political system (corruption) that have allowed banks to become too powerful. Possibly there may be another motive such as increasing taxes and “world government” or control of all activities by the elite.
Whatever the motives, one cannot but be worried that our media might be subject to manipulation.
Does anyone have data on exactly how much heat is trapped by the atmosphere as a percentage. The reason I ask is that if it is greater than 8% CO2 is not a greenhouse gas, and the numbers I have seen from Pro-AGW websites all hover around 50%. Which unless the past four years of science have failed me an atmosphere of pure CO2 would be a lot like Mars, oh wait they do have an almost pure CO2 atmosphere already.
Editor’s Science Bio
James A. Peden
D.B. thought that was me, but sadly it’s not.
The warmista seem to believe that cold, hungry and angry people will just lie down and die.
I’m into my eighth decade and might just live long enough to see the start of Hell on Earth.
An excellent article 7th June 2011 in Financial Post. Please take the time to read it
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/04/07/climate-models-go-cold/
David Evans consulted full-time for the Australian Greenhouse Office (now the Department of Climate Change) from 1999 to 2005, and part-time 2008 to 2010, modelling Australia’s carbon in plants, debris, mulch, soils, and forestry and agricultural products. He is a mathematician and engineer, with six university degrees, including a PhD from Stanford University in electrical engineering. The comments above were made to the Anti-Carbon-Tax Rally in Perth, Australia, on March 23.
—-I wouldn’t agree that the Little Ice Age began to ease in the 17th century. I have been reading a book (A natural History of Selbourne by Gilbert White) which is a collection of letters by a vicar of a small village in southern England to a couple of friends over 20 or so years. It’s mainly about the wildlife over the seasons in the area but it also mentions the weather at that time, which is the late 18th century.
For January 1768 he mentions that it was so cold that the thermomenter reached -14F INDOORS, and that the snow reached the tops of the hedgerows.
As well as this record, there were Frost Fairs held onn the River Thames until 1814, and don’t forget that Christmas Cards were ‘invented’ in the mid-19th century and always depicted heavy snow at Christmas.
—-PS — I notice that the minus sign was on one line and the 14F on the next: it was supposed to be ‘minus 14 Farenheit indoors’ in January 1768.
[Reply: It depends on your browser. On my screen it’s all on one line. ~dbs, mod.]
Good post, Tallbloke!
When I was a kid my Grandmother used to lecture me about ‘the road to hell being paved with good intentions’. I used to think that this old maxim was applicable to Warmista, but now I seriously doubt the good intentions and instead see malicious intent behind the remorseless erosion of freedoms. A couple of years ago, I become involved in the ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ scheme in our part of suburban London; I was amazed at the high level of surveillence that the London Police deem to be reasonable and a normal part of their anti-crime and anti-terror strategies. While I must admit to being nervous of terrorists, particularly the homegrown variety, and not at all sympathetic to the criminal class in general, it seems to me that the authorities here use an authoritarian strategy as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff rather than a humanist one which would put fences at the top of the cliff, in that the level of deprivation which are normal for many of the teenage kids I taught in suburban Comprehensives (High Schools) seems a sure way of ensuring a good supply of anti-social behaviour, anti-Brit attitudes and just plain old common-or-garden deviant behaviour and does not seem to be seriously addressed by any politicians. The violent, criminal and irresponsible behaviour by students that I witnessed in classes on an ongoing basis opened my eyes to the incredibly low levels that sections of a so-called civilised society can sink to when no-one cares enough to do something positive about their lot in life. Municipal authorities with shrinking incomes that prefer to close libraries and close down facilities for the very young and the very old in favour of hiring ‘climate change managers’ is a symptom of a society that has lost both its way and its humanity.
In my view, the ruling elites have taken the cynical view that the techniques of former Comunist regimes should be applied in the UK to enforce the laws and curtail the hard-won rights and freedoms of the ‘peasantry’. The global warming scam is a convenient device that enables those elites to tax the populace in order to make up the shortfall in the economy caused by the majority of the ruling elites’ own collective stupidity and old-fashioned greed. Most of that group here are apparently uninterested in science, ethics and morality but most interested in pursuing their accustomed easy money and unending priviledge, as witness the apallingly inept and incredibly expensive Climategate whitewashes. The criminality exposed in the Parliamentary Expenses Scandal and the (small) number of members of both Houses who are now serving jail sentences for various financial crimes is telling of their attitudes and their overweaning sense of entitlement.
When the previous UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his environmental lieutenant Ed Milliband scorned sceptics as ‘flat earthers’ and ‘deniers’ after the watershed events during and after the Copenhagen environmental debacle, I suspected immediately that they were using those tactics to prop up a Marxist-style con. I have seen nothing that convinces me otherwise.
Oh, but the science IS settled. It says that despite the continued steady rise in CO2 concentration global tempertures have been steady (if fluctuating) sine 1995. My authority is none other than Professor Phil Jones of the Climate Research Unit (courtesy of one of his emails).
The MWP was warmer than today by 2C and recent research shows that it was a world wide event. (See CO2 science web site for list of papers. http://www.co2science.org)
A previous warm period, the Roman Optimum, was warmer still. Evidence? Red grape vines were grown to the north of York in the UK. The same grapes now grow as far north as Dijon in France some 300 miles south and several degrees warmer than York today.
It is easy to use good proxies for past climates no need for anyone to actually do measurements at the time.
What is needed to counter the Warmista assault is organization. Look at all of the existing formal organizational structure they have going for them. I’ve seen nothing equivalent from the rational people inhabiting this rock.
Have we become a nation of overnight loonies?
No, I think if you look back in history you will find the Human race have always been loonies. Clever loonies I grant you, but loonies none the less.
Curiousgeorge says:
What is needed to counter the Warmista assault is organization. Look at all of the existing formal organizational structure they have going for them. I’ve seen nothing equivalent from the rational people inhabiting this rock.
The Warmista are organized by individuals at the top who stand to gain personally and politically. Who would you nominate to organize the skeptics? (And would the nominated organizer accept?)
TonyG says:
June 7, 2011 at 8:47 am
Curiousgeorge says:
What is needed to counter the Warmista assault is organization. Look at all of the
The Warmista are organized by individuals at the top who stand to gain personally and politically. Who would you nominate to organize the skeptics? (And would the nominated organizer accept?)
That’s a very good question, which I have no answer to. Hopefully, someone will step up who embodies the following qualities. Measure the candidates for public office by this.
GOD, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
Josiah Gilbert Holland
Carl Chapman, I happened to order Hayak’s ‘Road To Serfdom’ only today. And there is a groundswell of sceptical opinion here in Australia despite Socialist ABC and Fairfax media. Our government is sinking fast in the polls. Only got in with the support of the minority Greens.
Curiousgeorge says:
That’s a very good question, which I have no answer to. Hopefully, someone will step up who embodies the following qualities. Measure the candidates for public office by this.
Problem is this:
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Nobody wants to hear the truth, whatever the truth may address. We’re happier electing leaders who tell us the lies we want to hear and blame the opposition for everything that goes wrong, while all the while it matters little which “side” is in charge.
As for a skeptic leader, I would nominate Anthony, but I suspect he would decline.
Gilberts poem is idealistic, no doubt. But if we do not have some standard by which to judge those who would lead, then we may as well throw in the towel right now.