By Garth Paltridge
Global temperatures have not risen for 17 years. The pause now threatens to expose how much scientists sold their souls for cash and fame, warns emeritus professor Garth Paltridge, former chief research scientist with the CSIRO Division of Atmospheric Research.
Climate Change’s Inherent Uncertainties
…there has been no significant warming over the most recent fifteen or so years…
In the light of all this, we have at least to consider the possibility that the scientific establishment behind the global warming issue has been drawn into the trap of seriously overstating the climate problem … in its effort to promote the cause. It is a particularly nasty trap in the context of science, because it risks destroying, perhaps for centuries to come, the unique and hard-won reputation for honesty which is the basis of society’s respect for scientific endeavour…
The trap was set in the late 1970s or thereabouts when the environmental movement first realised that doing something about global warming would play to quite a number of its social agendas. At much the same time, it became accepted wisdom around the corridors of power that government-funded scientists (that is, most scientists) should be required to obtain a goodly fraction of their funds and salaries from external sources—external anyway to their own particular organisation.
The scientists in environmental research laboratories, since they are not normally linked to any particular private industry, were forced to seek funds from other government departments. In turn this forced them to accept the need for advocacy and for the manipulation of public opinion. For that sort of activity, an arm’s-length association with the environmental movement would be a union made in heaven…
The trap was partially sprung in climate research when a number of the relevant scientists began to enjoy the advocacy business. The enjoyment was based on a considerable increase in funding and employment opportunity. The increase was not so much on the hard-science side of things but rather in the emerging fringe institutes and organisations devoted, at least in part, to selling the message of climatic doom. A new and rewarding research lifestyle emerged which involved the giving of advice to all types and levels of government, the broadcasting of unchallengeable opinion to the general public, and easy justification for attendance at international conferences—this last in some luxury by normal scientific experience, and at a frequency previously unheard of…
The trap was fully sprung when many of the world’s major national academies of science (such as the … Australian Academy of Science) persuaded themselves to issue reports giving support to the conclusions of the IPCC. The reports were touted as national assessments that were supposedly independent of the IPCC and of each other, but of necessity were compiled with the assistance of, and in some cases at the behest of, many of the scientists involved in the IPCC international machinations. In effect, the academies, which are the most prestigious of the institutions of science, formally nailed their colours to the mast of the politically correct.
Since that time three or four years ago, there has been no comfortable way for the scientific community to raise the spectre of serious uncertainty about the forecasts of climatic disaster… It can no longer escape prime responsibility if it should turn out in the end that doing something in the name of mitigation of global warming is the costliest scientific mistake ever visited on humanity.
Full story here at: Quadrant Online
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Forwarded to Drudge as a “Tip”. IF EVERYONE HERE WERE TO DO THE SAME, this excellent piece might get some wide exposure.
“The ‘Pause’ of Global Warming Risks Destroying The Reputation Of Science”
Unfair. Most people know this is not science. It will only destroy the reputation of Astrology’s cousin, climatology.
Harry Passfield said @ur momisugly January 26, 2014 at 12:24 pm
Careful; I have known several women who farmed. One in particular had a problem with someone stealing her firewood. When complaining to the local policeman had no effect, she took matters into her own hands. The whole fireplace side of the cop’s house blew up! She’d plastered a detonator and half a stick of gelignite inside a log 🙂
[The mod’s quickly replace all firewood they may have “accidentally” taken, moved, or misplaced from Gail’s Comb’s woodstack. Mod]
Um, I think there’s a typo in Prof Paltridge’s name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Paltridge
davidmhoffer says:
January 26, 2014 at 8:47 am
“Costliest scientific mistake ever doesn’t begin to quantify the magnitude of the problem.”
—————–
The magnitude of the problem grows exponentially when one considers the US now has 20+ years worth of miseducated Public School and College students/graduates as well as a majority of Teachers and Professors, …… all of which have been nurtured to believe in the flim-flam scam of CAGW …. and it will not be an easy chore to re-nurture 3+- generations of the populace.
It will take years n’ years to retrain/replace the CAGW teaching Teachers and Professors and in the meantime, guess what? Said miseducation continues.
Pippen Kool says January 26, 2014 at 12:04 pm:
Hmmm. Pippen, at my mature age I find that I have just achieved the 30th (or so) year of the tallest year I have ever achieved in my lifetime (thus far). Now, I am either – by your reckoning – going to become a giant, or – by my rational reckoning – at the peak of my height and will not grow any more.
I contend, we are not in a pause, we are more likely at a peak.
It is worthwhile to once again post the statement from Eisenhower’s farewell address that directly addressed this issue..
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm
____________________________________________________
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
Harry Passfield says at January 26, 2014 at 12:29 pm… Correct. You won’t get 6 marks for the right answer as the right answer takes only two sentences.
1 Reliable energy or freeze to death.
2 Dead farmers are not sustainable.
The rest f the paper is about as bad. It starts with how to insulate a house. Which is nice to know but is that the level of physics knowledge you expect for a 16 year old?
Remember, this is the higher paper not the basic exam.
And some schools in England and Wales do combined science: Chemistry, Physics and Biology all mixed into one subject worth two GCSEs.
My country’s industrial policy has been murdered by its education system.
When there are billions of dollars of free money handed out with no accountability for results and these are given out with no strings attached decade after decade and all you have to say to get you share is “it is worse than we thought” and blame all weather events on man generated greenhouse gases ,who would turn down such a lucrative offer . The problem is that we the taxpayers vote in these liberal and democratic Policymakers who dole out this free money for this questionable and flawed science, while we are too busy watching the football games or worshipping the celebrities or participating in all the consumer black Fridays If we want change we must change first ourselves and then actively stop all this free money by voting in new policymakers. Any thing that comes from free money or subsidies often becomes corrupted .
There are three broad spheres modern society, which has sprung from the West but is pervading the entire world by now, is based on.
– science
– business
– politics
There is a delicate balance between them and they should be kept apart as much as practicable if they are to attain their very different individual goals, which are truth for science, profit for business and justice for politics. History has taught us if any of them was impeded, especially by the other two, it was a serious setback for society as a whole.
Therefore in a broad sense it is best to handle them in a way checks and balances is implemented in constitutional political systems, where legislative, executive and judicial branches of power are supposed to act independently while checking each other.
Much is told about the interrelation between politics and business and the ills following from the fact if one overpowered the other, so I would rather not extend to that direction right now, but would stick to relations between science and the rest.
First of all, science is not a small thing in our world. Proper business methods or the right political environment can improve productivity up to two or threefold, but only science can bump it a thousandfold or more. That is, in this respect it is in an entirely different ballpark than the other two. In this sense it is the most important one, but it is also vulnerable, because lacks all direct devices of power like money or statutes, guns and verdicts.
Still, both politics and business need science badly to promote their respective ends. We have ample experience by now that the best way to do it is to leave science alone. For science, on its own is utterly useless, it is neither profitable nor just. The only reason it deserves funding from both businesspersons end taxpayers is the occasional spinoff, which may prove to be invaluable for either everyday life, extending power or both. However, in science one can never know in advance what contribution may come out of any individual line of enquiry. When Austrian botanical physiologist Friedrich Reinitzer has observed in 1888 that cholesteryl benzoate had two distinct melting points, at 145.5°C it melts into a cloudy liquid, and at 178.5°C it melts again and the cloudy liquid becomes clear, and later that year on his notice Otto Lehmann, a physicist, has found crystallites in the intermediate phase, they certainly did not have LCD displays, tablets or smartphones in mind.
Therefore I would restrict leeway in taxpayer sponsored government funding of science along with tax deductible contributions from business to gross sums marked out for sponsoring research with no further labels whatsoever. Its distribution between fields should be the internal business of scientific institutions, never to be interfered with in any way from the outside. The only restrictions being all results are to be published and made available to anyone and whoever in science claims her research produces useful results as opposed to true ones, commits a major offense.
Of course, anyone, including government and business are free to hire experts, basically in engineering roles, who, having access to the scientific literature, are supposed to turn bits and pieces found there to useful solutions or advice. However, these roles are to be kept apart from genuine scientific ones strictly, including lack of feedback to funding, as their end differs.
The flawed system started during WWII and refined in the course of the Cold War is a misunderstanding, it should be discontinued ASAP.
crosspatch says: @ur momisugly January 26, 2014 at 10:20 am
…They gambled and they lost. To get to the root of this you have to go all the way back to Kyoto.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Actually you have to go back a lot further than that.
This has been in the planning since the 1930s and even before.
John Dewey was one of the Founding Members of the American Fabian Society.
Sounds a bit like Agenda 21 doesn’t it?
H. G. Wells was another early member of the Fabian Society.
So the educated elite socialists have had the idea of changing the world and creating “a new world state” for over a hundred years and have been quietly working towards that goal for a century.
Pippen Kool says:
January 26, 2014 at 10:22 am
Meanwhile we just had the highest year ever that was not associated with a positive ENSO event, a fact that no one at this website has really noticed….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That is because you are incorrect. The Climate Optimum had warmer temperatures.
A more recent paper looking at glaciers in Norway.
The authors of BOTH papers state that most glaciers likely didn’t exist 6,000 years ago, but the highest period of the glacial activity has been in the past 600 years. This is hardly surprising with ~9% less solar energy.
Ladies and gentlemen including Antony Watts
The worst fraud and great , ,muddy disease of cherry- picked and politically falsified data, that most of you have been cheated and fooled to sink into and to smear up yourseves with and to slosh and throw around from the ship of fools of the denial moovement….
……..is the classical LENIN poker dogggggg- ma of “Psi-” and the proudly commercial political Perpetuum Mobile for the flat earth blind believers in the scriptures………, your confusing of heat and temperature.
To my enlightment and standards, that typical behaviours is ugliest Blasphemia.
I repeat……!
Because:
It is severely typical of the Perpetuum mobile advocates and inventers that they sell Voltage for being current and effect for instance, and pressure and even vacuum for being energy, and temperature for being both warming and heat (or lack of the same)
That very characteristic style on board of the ship of fools or sitting up together on The Grand Waggon of monoculture on the broad way where the coachman is mad………
………..does show up very regularly here at the WUWT..
Just think of that all you fools and blind believers here, who have submittet to the false doctrines of Heat = Temperature.
And further that Ice Area = Ice Volume.
What a ridiculously superfiscious wiew for the fanatic blind believers assembled on the ship of fools who call themselves “sceptic”.
My wife has told me for years that the amplifier has been invented. Thus, Why can`t I simply “amplify” that electricity from the net, and make it much stronger so we don`t have to pay so high electricity bills?
“Wife, your hair is long but your understandings……..” I say then.
In that way I keep her under strict control and regiment. I have to chop, but she is very eager on sawing, and of heating even before it is dry. And I have bought her very fine saws and shown her also how to oil also when sawing wood.
But some time ago a jolly editor of the astronomical magazine wrote that “Since pressure is energy, Vavuum is also energy (you know those idiotic rumors..)” and prooved it by stating that “E = m C^2” and explained the universe by that means.
That was jolly editorial bluff of course, because pressure is not energy..
If presure being energy, if temperature being heat or “warming” or lack of the same, then I shall brush the cat and just lift my hand a bit and touch a lead that goes over into to the 5 Kilovolt lead there out in the street, and cash the electrical bill from Hafslund, the company.
Or I can do it even easier. I can take a transformer and transform and “amplify” that 240 volts here in the house up to 5010 Volts, connect it to Hafslunds only 5000 volts out there through a rather thick copper lead,…. and cash from Hafslund instead of paying for them..
Conclusion:
Neither voltage nor pressure is energy, and temperature is not heat or heating. What kind of silly fools is that, who ride that silly crooky political decision on that ship?
Thus it is highly due for Roy Spencer and for Anthony Watts to stand up here slaying the slayers further in regard to that trixing with the data and hiding of the decline, and make a cathastrophy also of that quite obvious Climategate, Himalayagate and Amazonegate of temperature = heat.
And further because:
Every now and then the University have festivals. Then they walk barefoot on a long bed of red hot charcoal to show The People that temperature is not equal to heat.
If making festivals, which he indeed should, I suggest to Anhony Watts that he arranges that very magic show. A long bed of red hot charcoal on the University grounds, and walk barefoot from the one end to the other. There ought to be a bitty of water at the other end for the case that you have walked to slowly resting too long on each step, But that is really all you need.
Walking barefooted on red hot charcoal is very impessing, but it is quite elementary because temperature is not heat.
I have to know about this and many people have, because I have to handle red hot irons and charcoals with fingers. The art of having “Blacksmith fingers” is to know of the difference, and to be further quite experienced with temperature and heat.
The old Blacksmiths went to Hell too early, else they could have been here and told us the truth. But if we know them right, they were refused in Hell because they knew too much about heat and temperature.
Thus, care to learn and to grasp the difference of heat and temperature in time all of you, because when coming Hell it is too late.
When or if you are out in the forest or at the shores and you have a fire, you have to pick and throw back red hot charcoal right with your fingers. Further in the house, at the chimney and at the stove you have to know of and to be ready for the same quite quickly and at any time..
Thus politically sick and fanatically decided and missioned confusion about this is actually dangerous and actually devlish.,
Is n`t that so Anthony Watts?
They were silly quite exactly on that point in the Cernobyl reactor also, wherefore it blew up, Simply because of dia- lectic materialism learnings also on temperature and heat.
We hate it.
Until that is thorroughly grasped and brought to your religious consciousness by deep meditation and worshipful prayers and exercises, stay off from any discussion of eventual global warmings and heatings.
Temperature is measured and discussed in terms of Kelvin or Celsius or even Farenheit degrees, As you all can see I discuss it further in terms of glow- colours radiation and light, but for that you need Spectrum.
For Spectra, you can check up by the reflection in a CD- disk whether it is a continous or a dis- continous spectrum. The sun, the incandescent lamps, the candles, red hot irons and coals have got continous spectra. LED and furter fluorescent light and Aurora borealis has not. Explain why that is so..and be aware of the difference.
On eventual dis- continous spectra we must further discuss material sciences and quantum mechanics different from Dia- lectic materialism.
For my further personal, quite necessary obedient and worshipful studies, I have a small incandescent lamp standing up on a 2 mm iron wire with an adjustable power supply under it to make myself really aquainted and convinced and calibrated to what I rather ought to disuss..
Further, you need candles. The candles should allways stand on a proper metal disk for safety, like all orderly folks did with the old kerosene lamps and with Aladdins oil lamp that even works wonders if properly brushed up.
Those large copper and brass and even silvered discs hanging on the wall in the museums, that were to be polished quite shiny for every christmas, were for candles and for the oil and kerosene lamps before the invention of electrical light. Combined with white Stucca or white painted canvas under the ceiling, they made the whole situation quite bright by so called “back- radiation”.
I have secured and I use the large old copper discs furher in the lab and at the forge and wherever there is danger of fire , for my Pyro- trope and pyro-phile activities, because that is what they are meant for. Spiritus lamps etc should only be lit, standing on those large old metal disks.Aluminium is further a really very proper metal for the same purposes. Also learn abourt fireproof stones in nature and artificially made. Mankind would not have survived the stone age without proper enlighted ideas of heat and temperature
Secure those really fashionable basic alchemistic remedies, . conscider them and use them, then you can discuss heat and temperature even as convincingly as I can.
Berényi Péter
the farmer first plows the soil, then plants the seed, then later he harvests, threshes and grinds.
THEN – after he has demonstrated the virtues required to achieve his values – only then does he bake and eat. This is how it works in the real world. Get to know it. Deal with it.
So- NO FREE MONEY FOR NOBODY NOHOW. There is no such a thing. It’s a mystical notion.
Parasitism may well be sustainable – but civilization is the process of liberating men from other men. Supernatural money such as you wish to redistribute – it means stealing from the productive.
That route has but one destination. It goes nowhere else. I’ll take liberty. Stop talking about giving away money that is not yours and you might not be part of the disease that killed civilization.
Genosse M.Courtney
I have a recepy also for philological pedanteria.
Your severe religious and political problem together with others I think, is that you have set on a recent anti- scientific system of sales propmotion and political propaganda rather for naive laymen out there where the eath is quite flat,…..
……..able to actively exchange temperature for warming and heat, and to sell that propaganda to the public in order to cheat them.
It is as characteristic as extreemly well known trick that further goes hand in hand with the selling of surface for being content, volume, and weight.
Such hat- tricks , when also quite obviously highly and professionally trained,…..
…….does betray and disqualify what I can only recognize as the typical Party and its KADRE missionaries.
I call it Dia- lectic materialism, Wissenschaftliche Sozialismus, Cernobyl style, Communist manifesto with o, Chicago Gangsters, or Palast der Republik. / thinktank / asbestos palace behind the iron curtain right at the Stalin- alley.(now taken down because it was not sustainable)
no pause in seeking more funding:
Chris Turney’s boss Sherwood involved:
27 Jan: J-Wire: Jerry Barach: Australia working with Hebrew University on climate change
The University of New South Wales has been involved in a joint project with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem dealing with greenhouse gases.
The warming effect of human-induced greenhouse gases is a given, but to what extent can we predict its future influence?
That is an issue on which science is making progress, but the answers are still far from exact, say researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the US and Australia who have studied the issue and whose work which has just appeared in the journal Science…
(Prof Daniel) Rosenfeld wrote this article in cooperation with Dr. Steven Sherwood of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Dr. Robert Wood of the University of Washington, Seattle, and Dr. Leo Donner of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…
http://www.jwire.com.au/news/australia-working-with-hebrew-university-on-climate-change/40049
Science Daily: Picture of how our climate is affected by greenhouse gases is a ‘cloudy’ one
Date: January 26, 2014
Source:Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Journal Reference:
1.D. Rosenfeld, S. Sherwood, R. Wood, L. Donner. Climate Effects of Aerosol-Cloud Interactions. Science, 2014; 343 (6169): 379 DOI: 10.1126/science.1247490
Recently, however, researchers have been able to create groundbreaking simulations in which models were formulated presenting simplified schemes of cloud-aerosol interactions, This approach offers the potential for model runs that resolve clouds on a global scale for time scales up to several years, but climate simulations on a scale of a century are still not feasible…
While it is unfortunate that further progress on understanding aerosol-cloud interactions and their effects on climate is limited by inadequate observational tools and models, achieving the required improvement in observations and simulations is within technological reach, the researchers emphasize, provided that the financial resources are invested. The level of effort, they say, should match the socioeconomic importance of what the results could provide…
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140126134615.htm
Other JJ (posting at January 26, 2014 at 11:56 am) –
Anthony and the moderators require that we each choose a unique handle and stick to it. I have been posting on this site under the handle “JJ” for several years. You need to change your handle.
This is the fourth time in the last week I have made this request. Mods, please communicate the rules to the recalcitrant. TYIA.
JJ
Harry Passfield says: @ur momisugly January 26, 2014 at 12:24 pm
M Courtney: (re: Exam question) I got as far as “A farmer plans to generate all the electricity needed on her farm,…” and nearly choked at the PC in the question…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well this (female) farmer looked at windmills and gave them a big thumbs down and is considering the bio-methane generator…
But I agree what an idiotic question.
And in honor of the real physicists.
Down load Songs from 1947 by Arthur Roberts
http://www.haverford.edu/physics/songs/roberts/roberts1947.htm
The Cyclotronist’s Nightmare (or Eighty Millicuries by Half-Past Nine) is a favorite of mine. (Those guy can really sing!)
Bob Tisdale says:
January 26, 2014 at 10:07 am
The complete article by Garth Paltridge is worth spending the time to read and absorb.
Bob,
Concur. Garths essay is thought provoking.
I’m headed out for a long walk. I’ll read it again when I get back.
Mac
Carbomontanus says at January 26, 2014 at 1:28 pm…
Such complete b*llocks that he must be taking the Michael.
But he may be trying a Lew-style research experiment on sceptics; if so, he should try earlier in the thread.
Yet I must rise to the bait for I am weak:
Degrees Kelvin?
Gail Combs, please accept my apologies for any offence inadvertently caused.
I saw nothing wrong with the farmer being feminine. That didn’t burn me.
My complaint about British education was:
1 It’s not physics.
2 It’s too simple for a 16 year old.
3 It teaches that the right answer is cultural not physical.
You have said to me before that you are a farmer but I had not realised how my comment could be read.
Please accept my apologies. This was not about gender in my mind.
I’m afraid it’s not solely science who is responsible, it’s actually Governments, media organisations and big business.
Governments are supposed to be capable of challenging all experts in a realistic manner. Not every politician can challenge every expert, but the body of expertise in national Governments and Parliaments should be capable doing precisely that. If they can’t, they are not fit for purpose in representing the people.
Media organisations are supposed to hold those in power to account. To do that, they must be skeptical about everything. When they become advertising agencies for political messages, they are responsible for misinformation, misdirection and altering profoundly the checks and balances which are a feature of stable and functioning societies.
Big business is amoral about truth. If it can make money through distorting reality, it will do so. By convincing Governments to give them no-risk free bets in ‘renewable energies’, they were responsible for crass misallocation of public finances for spurious reasons.
It takes a powerful constellation of action across the globe to challenge and defeat an enemy comprised of scientists, governments, media behemoths and multinational corporations.
The fact that it is going to happen is one of the most remarkable events of the 21st century.
The whole set of 20th century global societal structures proved themselves totally unfit for purpose.
It opens the door for radical, peaceful revolution through incontrovertible proof of catastrophic, unacceptable failure.
Richard
you said,
Thermometers do not measure temperature. They measure the difference in thermal expansion of glass and e.g. mercury which must then be inferred to obtain indirect indications of temperature at a few places which are then mathematically interpolated to obtain inferences of global temperature.
RSS or even UAH temperature data is much less biased than GISS or even HadCRUT temperature data due to its almost complete measurement over the Earth by use of satellites.
which just goes to show how far you are really reaching if you want to compare the utilization of satellites in a constantly decaying orbit and their master’s algorithms that produce a temperature reading.
And pretend that this is somehow equal in weight to a DIRECT measurement of surface temperature, utilizing equipment that can (and has!) been continuously re-evaluated and whose verifiable results show actual temperatures.
your pro-coal bias is showing. . .
I certainly hope that the destruction of sciences integrity does not last for centuries as Professor Paltridge fears and I do not think it will.
Once genuine consensus is achieved that it was all an orchestrated beat up by a coterie of self interested, self important, scientific spivs and spin doctors if a representative sample of the dirtbag conspirators are publicly outed and held to account for their arrogant and dishonest behaviour then the damage should be contained.
Bring on the formal commissions of enquiry in various jurisdictions ( forget the UN though) and bring on the recommendations of criminal and civil charges for fraud for the worst of them. The rest can just be sent to a long period of counselling or take early retirement. We will then be able to press the flush button and the words “climate scientist” be consigned to the historical sewage treatment plant.
gnomish says: @ur momisugly January 26, 2014 at 1:31 pm
…. That route has but one destination. It goes nowhere else. I’ll take liberty. Stop talking about giving away money that is not yours and you might not be part of the disease that killed civilization.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I will add to that that money/wealth stolen by governments is always wasted on bureaucracy. Much better if the wealth is left in the hands of those who earned it to do as they wish. Many of us donate to our colleges… or did.
M Courtney says: @ur momisugly January 26, 2014 at 2:04 pm
Gail Combs, please accept my apologies for any offence inadvertently caused.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I was pulling your leg. I have a warped sense of humor and that question tickled it since we had been looking at alternate energy.