This aired on WUWT.TV on November 14th in response to Al Gore’s “dirty weather report”. Engineer and aviation pioneer Burt Rutan gives his presentation on why he doesn’t think global warming/climate change is a problem, by presenting the data that convinced him it is a non-issue from an engineering standpoint. Burt gets a bit fired up in this presentation, saying to me afterwards by email that “it was fun!”.
It was my honor, Burt. Burt has been in the business of assessing data for years, and in his case he always had to get it right, or people died. Engineers don’t get second chances when designing mission critical aerospace systems. If only climate science had the same rigor.
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I still say we are dealing with a religion, a faith. You can provide all of the contradictory evidence you want, they simply ignore it and carry on.
Great piece of work Burt and thanks to you and Anthony for the post.
Still digesting – might have some questions or comments later
thank you both
bill
In the upper left graph at 18:58 Rutan says the data points were not accurately measured in the pre-Mona Loa period and that we don’t know the precision of that data. In fact, in the early 1800s tools for measuring CO2 were actually quite accurate. I don’t have the data in front of me, but much progress was made in measuring CO2 at that time.
DO take a close look at the data points in that graph, and look at the note about cherry picking of the data. This is Callendar’s total data, with the circular data being his cherry-picked data with which he derived the 290ppm that is commonly mentioned as the average for the 19th century (1938). Slocum very politely ripped Callendar a new rear end hole in showing (1955) that Callendar cherry picked his data.
Note how many data points are above 400ppm.
Also, Rutan shortly after this stated that CO2 is very evenly spread out around the globe, saying that you could measure it at Moana Loa or anywhere and get about the same value. I would argue with him on that. MANY (over 20,000) German and Italian readings around 1880-1930 were taken and averaged about 438ppm. That was much higher than most other places at that time. That was a time when temps were both falling (1880-1910) and rising (1910-1940), so it also supports the argument that the CO2 level is not correlated with higher temps at all.
Rutan missed spelling any of this out in this presentation. But it might be part of his longer presentation.
Steve Garcia
I’ve linked this on G+ for all of my circle mates. 😉
cheers,
gary
Great presentation. Every day we entrust our lives to the work of engineers. CAGW science is about as sound as these:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9_Y2sfPMjo
Anthony, I have not noticed the audio delay yet, but if it does occur, it is easy to fix: http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/fixing-audio-sync-with-ffmpeg/
This was one of the presentations that I missed and really wanted to see. The presentation was rich in facts, clearly presented and very easy to listen to. The charts should be made available in a clearer format are they are so excellent and are rather blurry on the video. Burt Rutan is a brilliant speaker and so knowledgeable of the effects of reality. You don’t get clear thinking like this from the CAGW Mob. Burt Rutan would be an ideal presenter for all school kids to counter CAGW propaganda.
Mike Nystrom says:
November 26, 2012 at 11:59 am
“Burt Rutan has spoken. It’s over :)”
We have to wait for Chuck Norris.
Great stuff. Keep up the good work.
The message gathers traction:
http://principia-scientific.org/supportnews/latest-news/71-the-courts-hans-jelbring-and-the-kiwis-bring-joy-for-greenhouse-gas-deniers.html
It was nice to connect Rutan’s actual delivery with the the presentation I had long had bookmarked.
And the timing was fortunate for me, since I had just been directed to this http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/ostp/press_release_files/holdren_email.pdf supercilious, content-free drivel from John Holdren, to which Rutan’s fact-rich presentation provided a stark contrast. Anyone who has seen the background facts Rutan lays out is missing something if he can still contend, as Holden does, that the burden of proof of the catastrophic-anthropogenic-global-warming question should be on the skeptics.
Anthony, thanks for taking the time to upload these segments, and especially for uploading them in HD. It makes all the difference when looking at chart details. It is very much appreciated.
Great presentation.
WUWT-TV should be a regular feature.
Could even recruit volunteers to do interviews with scientists and shoot footage from presentations and seminars across the planet.
There are plenty of us who would be willing to contribute.
Wonderful, Burt.
Thank you, Anthony.
Great work thanks author for taking the time I appreciate your efforts.
Great presentation.
Only one quibble: where Burt attributes greater crop production to higher CO2 levels.
There he vastly underestimates the incredible work geneticists do. For instance, the genetic improvement in pigs is such that selected stock are improving growth rates by 10 to 20 grams per day per year, for the last twenty years, and that is accelerating with the use of sophisticated computer systems.
ie If a particular breed was growing at say 650 grams per day in 1995, under a normal modern breeding program the same line of pigs were growing at 750 grams per day by 2005. That is a 15% improvement. And at the same time the geneticists and breeders were reducing fat levels and improving feed use efficiency.
The progress in plant breeding is even more impressive, with not only production traits being pursued, but also traits to allow growth in particular temperature or climate regimes, and disease and pest resistance. Add to that the wonderful advantages of genetic modification (GMO) and we can see where a lot of the improvement has come from.
Additionally we have ongoing improvements in farming methods, but the genetic gains are by far the largest contributor.
I think it is these geneticists who will save the world, and the human race, by feeding the billions as we reach peak populations in 2050, not our mouthy warming worriers.
Great stuff! I have been reading in Aviation press about this guy since the Vari-Viggen.
We owe Burt a great debt. Many thanks.
.
Several years ago Gordon Brown (you remember, he was the one who saved the world) said that sceptics were anti-science and flat-earthers. Burt Rutan built the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop, an amazing achievement. And yet, according to Brown, this same Burt Rutan is a flat-earther. Brown also insulted several Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin and Harrison Schmidt in the same way.
In other words, Brown seemed to think that astronauts who watched the earth from the moon, and the man who built the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world, are all flat-earthers. That just about sums it all up. That some apparently civilised and educated people can descend into such ignorant and superstitious nonsense is almost beyond belief. Sadly, Brown, and all the others, is probably incapable of understanding the irony of his words.
Chris
more soylent green! says:
November 26, 2012 at 7:37 am
“Anthony — Are any of these presentations or segments from WUWT-TV available on Youtube?”
In the middle of the image posted there is a white triangle with a black background. If you right-click on that a window opens that allows you to “Copy video URL.” Next paste this info into a document to be saved on your computer and into a new Tab line at the top of your browser. You can use the ‘paste and go’ option on Chrome.
Note that the URL includes this: “youtube”
Several others have already been posted. Go back and find them and paste the URLs into that document mentioned above. When Anthony has completed the process and you have followed the copy and paste directions, you will have a list of all the WUWT-TV presentations for 2012.
You are welcome!
Hi Anthony,
Congrats on your TV presentation. Although a few glitches it should have made an impact.
This comment is to refer you to a post I just came across. Wondering if you or one of your associates would like to debunk it?
http://climatechange.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/Turn_Down_the_heat_Why_a_4_degree_centrigrade_warmer_world_must_be_avoided.pdf
Pretty heavy stuff, obvious from where it is coming. How does one combat such garbage presented as a truthful document? Obviously the public accept such publications as the truth.
Regards, Ken.
Excellent presentation. I thought I had heard it all but that snippet about Russian sites being paid by the cold was hilarious.
Always interesting to hear the opinion of someone who has had to base their career on producing results that matter rather than just clocking up hours and churning out waffle.
What an excellent presentation. Anthony, one thing that grabbed me was Mr Rutan’s comment at 1h 04 where he referred to the email he had received from Lovelock and the statement contained therein that the ozone hole debacle had been an even bigger swizz than global warming, with CFCs receiving hugely unjust treatment as part of that deceptive project. (Well, in roughly those words ) The super-quiet about the Antarctic ozone hole over recent times has been unmissable. However those people in the refrigeration industry who have used this as a wealth-grabber have not let up in their efforts in the least of displacing the ‘good’ refrigerants. The ‘good’ refrigerants are remaining crucified. Is there any hope of getting substantial factual elaboration on all this–maybe a full posting on the latest developments?
Has Burt suffered an earthquake recently? I like that diagonal shelves detail, might patent that Homer Simpson style.
Re bookshelves:
A good idea which avoids the problem of books falling over.
A good idea which avoids the repetition of the relatively boring bookshelf aesthetic.
However, maybe they simply just fell down the day before?
🙂
A most instructive presentation, ably anchored. Thank you very much.