Last night in the SOTU address, Obama made this pronouncement about climate change:
But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.
To that, I say this:
There’s never been any assertion that climate didn’t change, the idea that somehow this is something new to the 21st century is absurd. For example, this graph illustrates just that fact:
Click image for a full sized print (3000 pixels wide, suitable for printing) or choose the PDF below. Note the blip in the top line at the far right, that’s our climate change today. Source: Andy May
Younger_Dryas_to_Present_Time_Line (PDF)
And, as science itself has demonstrated through history, it is never settled, it is always searching for new information, retesting, and sometimes discarding old ideas based on new knowledge.
Saying “the science is settled” is as ridiculous as this famous quote attributed to Lord Kelvin who reportedly said in 1900*
“There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement”.
* This quote is reputed to be Kelvin’s remark made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1900). Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Kelvin#Pronouncements_later_proven_to_be_false
Equally preposterous (now) is this statement from Kelvin:
In 1898, Kelvin predicted that only 400 years of oxygen supply remained on the planet, due to the rate of burning combustibles.[62][63] In his calculation, Kelvin assumed that photosynthesis was the only source of free oxygen; he did not know all of the components of the oxygen cycle. He could not even have known all of the sources of photosynthesis: for example the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus—which accounts for more than half of marine photosynthesis—was not discovered until 1986.
Kelvin’s pronouncement, which he believed to be true at the time based on the facts he had at hand, were later disproved by new science and obviously discarded. But, imagine if there were a panic movement then to conserve oxygen, with “oxygen taxes” applied, massive government funded research implemented, and reams of NGO’s feeding on the frenzy demanding a host of new laws and changes in human behavior to avert the crisis.
They’d look pretty stupid to us in the context of science knowledge today, wouldn’t they?
Eric Worrall says: @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 9:28 am
….The sad thing, if Obama wasn’t so arrogant and ignorant, he would realise there is a way he could create a memorable political achievement –
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Eric,
Obama could have put racism to bed. He had that chance the first time the media played the race card. He could have said, that era is behind us it is time to move on as Americans. Instead he continued to act the Black Community Organizer even going so far as to go after some poor Hispanic in Florida and a rodeo clown in Missouri.
Obama could have helped the economy by leading reform of the regulations written by the departments under his control. Regulations that strangle the small businesses that account for over half the economy and new jobs. This would have stimulated the economy without the ‘Stimulus Bill” or the Feds quantitative easing. There is much Obama could have done and did not. He has not been any kind of leader. He rather play golf.
Just in case you are wondering why I hammer the regulations/business point, the US Small Business Association estimates that existing government rules, regulations and mandates consume $1.75 TRILLION in compliance costs/yr.
FROM: The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms
archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs371tot.pdf
That is money that we as customers pay. Money that comes out of the economy as complete waste.
POTUS SOTU: O HAI THERE STOP TEH AGW IZ STOP SO STFU STOP
AN WHEN R CHILDREN’S CHILDREN LOOK US IN DA EYE AN ASK IF WE DID ALL WE CUD 2 LEEF THEM SAFR, MOAR STABLE WURLD, WIF NEW SOURCEZ OV ENERGY, I WANTS US 2 BE ABLE 2 SAY YEZ, WE DID.
AND CAN I HAZ 4 MOAR YRS PLZ?
herkimer says: @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 9:40 am
….. Large areas are running out of fuel [natural gas and propane ] that should have had their stocks raised before the start of the winter given the past 15 years of growing colder winters .But if the officials say that the science is settled and to expect only global warming , who is going to raise the fuel stocks ?
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The best think that can happen is brown outs and running out of fuel [natural gas, propane, kerosene] to the point it makes a huge number of Americans very uncomfortable with out killing anyone. Hopefully that will happen for a couple of winters in a row along with a very nasty wintery cold October/November of 2014. Only the shock of continued cold water straight in the face is going to wake the Sheeple up and with luck Ma Nature will do so.
(Brownouts nation wide in the summer would be nice too.)
I am mostly concerned that women didn’t learn anything from this Obama fiasco and are going to put that nasty snake Hillary in office so that she can finish the damage Nobama has started. Horrible president but he’s black followed by horrible president but she’s a she.
Michael J. Dunn says:
January 29, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Talk about stretching!
Maybe to you the passage is consistent with the Arctic & a spherical earth, but not to anyone who has actually read Job in Hebrew (probably originally Ugaritic) & its Septuagint Greek translation, knows what the words translated as “north” & “empty place” really mean & is interested in the truth rather than special pleading, phony exegesis.
Just to get you started, here´s the etymology of the word mistranslated as “north”. It originally referred to the mountain marking the traditional northern limit of the Levant, which was also a home of the god Baal. In the Ugaritic texts, the word still means that mountain, not its later use as shorthand for the direction.
http://books.google.cl/books?id=LW8XieaBETIC&pg=PA436&lpg=PA436&dq=job+26:7+north+mountain&source=bl&ots=fWqLqexlqD&sig=OBkC-viUapLX-iSwOi6prSAHbhE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gWnpUva7NbKksQTEp4GABg&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
Studying the etymology of the rest of the passage will further explicate its original meaning for you. Biblical scholars considered it obscure if not mystifying until discovery of the Ugaritic texts.
RCP POLL AVERAGE — President Obama Job Approval
43.1% Approve
51.6% Disapprove
Time for the men in white coats to come for Obama if that’s the level of his understanding after six years as POTUS.
He’s not even going to be made a Fellow at this rate, all he’ll have to show for his time is a Nobel Peace Prize. What did he get that for again?
Wait…. there was debate?!
Politicians don’t actually know anything, few actually have any real world experience in any background. So they listen to boneheads with common ideals and activists with an agenda. They last thing they want to do is listen to an opinion that proves them to be wrong or leads them to second guess themselves and their ideals. Politicians are all essentially arrogant paternalistic asshats.
“We’ve got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.”
– Timothy Wirth (D)
“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
– Paul Watson, Greenpeace
The climate does, has and will change. His opinion doesn’t, will never change, and everyone else must change theirs as it it they that are wrong because his advisor’s say so. Everyone else has to just get on board for the sake of humanity.
“A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States…De-development means bringing our economic system (especially patterns of consumption) into line with the realities of ecology and the global resource situation…Redistribution of wealth both within and among nations is absolutely essential, if a decent life is to be provided for every human being.”
– John Holdren, President Obama’s science czar
Obama needs a war to leave a legacy. He long gave up on Afghanistan, Libya was a mess and even he isn’t stupid enough to touch Syria.
“I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.”
– James Lovelock
What better than one that has no casualties on the evening news, against an imaginary enemy, in a conflict that he can define and announce a winner through data manipulation and media coercion? He can ramp up the rhetoric and blame it all on something that cannot be seen, but has a financial effect when natural misfortune hits and affects all to so a minor degree and some to a major degree.
“I would freely admit that on [global warming] we have crossed the boundary from news reporting to advocacy.”
– Charles Alexander, former Time Magazine science editor
“The science is settled”.
I imagine that an obscure patent clerk in Switzerland heard those same words back around 1905.
http://www.shmoop.com/albert-einstein/annus-mirabilis.html
Good thing he ignored them and went on to turn the science world upside down.
So the learned president is telling us that climate did not change in the past? And they accuse US of believing the Earth is flat!
2soonold2latesmart says:
January 29, 2014 at 1:11 pm
Science always advances against the settled consensus.
To take a few examples from the first 124 years of modern science, Copernicus challenged the settled consensus in cosmology in 1543 & Vesalius in anatomy in that same year of miracles. In 1609, Kepler could not convince even Galileo, who had overturned Aristotelian physics, that planetary orbits are not circular. Harvey furthered Vesalius’ overthrow of Galen in 1628 with his description of the circulation of blood. Lutheran convert to Catholicism, then bishop Steno showed that fossils were the remains of actual living things in 1667.
Every century since has provided similar victories of science over settled consensus.
For those who do not follow U. S. politics closely, State of the Union Messages to the Congress are mandated by Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution: “He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;”
In modern times this annual buffoonery has morphed into nothing more than a self pat on the back by each POTUS. The message carries no legal authority and is viewed by many of us as an annoying waste of time. (thankfully I was able to watch the Lightning instead even though they lost to the Maple Leafs).
I thought his speech was; “I’ve got my pen and magic phone”
As in Bugs Bunnies version of Sword and magic helmet.
Next the man will be taking credit for discovering sunrise.
Tom in Florida says:
January 29, 2014 at 1:35 pm
SOTU speeches are a fairly recent invention, started by Wilson, but not always annually. The Constitution doesn’t require a speech, let alone annually, just an occasional report..
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NET (New English Translation) Notes (Job 26:7)
15 sn The Hebrew word is צָפוֹן (tsafon). Some see here a reference to Mount Zaphon of the Ugaritic texts, the mountain that Baal made his home. The Hebrew writers often equate and contrast Mount Zion with this proud mountain of the north. Of course, the word just means north, and so in addition to any connotations for pagan mythology, it may just represent the northern skies – the stars. Since the parallel line speaks of the earth, that is probably all that was intended in this particular context.
16 sn There is an allusion to the creation account, for this word is תֹּהוּ (tohu), translated “without form” in Gen 1:2.
17 sn Buttenwieser suggests that Job had outgrown the idea of the earth on pillars, and was beginning to see it was suspended in space. But in v. 11 he will still refer to the pillars.
To get back on topic (and hopefully stay there), have you ever had plans that have gone “south” as Obama’s?
(My reference to “going south” was a reference to “global warming” and “Winter Storm Leon”.8-)
john says: @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 12:52 pm
I am mostly concerned that women didn’t learn anything…
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Most women can recognize a back stabbing B!T$h when they see one and you just don’t get the closing of ranks you do with blacks. Studies have been done and women are more likely to be aggressive and not supportive to other women ie not promoting or hiring them.
With OB you had all the blacks voting because he was black and all the progressives because it was ‘Politically Correct’ (And besides he was a progressive.) and all the rig voting machines.
With Hillary she has been pretty much out of sight for eight years and she has BENGAHAZI hanging round her neck like a big white albatross.
The Repubs haven’t pushed Bengahazi much yet…. I think they are waiting.
…..
Rasmussen Reports January 27, 2014 Generic Congressional Ballot: Democrats 42%, Republicans 37% So it is the Independents that will swing elections.
These are the more telling polls:
January 27, 2014 59% Say Less Government, Not More, Would Help Close Income Gap
January 21, 2014 21% Think Federal Government Has Consent of the Governed
November 08, 2013 56% Think Their Congressman Likely to Have Sold a Vote
January 08, 2014 8% Think Congress Doing a Good or Excellent Job “Sixty-six percent (66%) rate its performance as poor, but that’s a noticeable improvement from 75% in November”
Can you say a vote of no confidence?
September 27, 2013 70% Think Government, Big Business Often Work Together Against Consumers, Investors
January 14, 2014 53% Rate Economic Growth As More Important Than Economic Fairness
December 17, 2013 New High: 66% View U.S. Economy As Unfair to the Middle Class
April 24, 2012 66% Think Most Government Contracts Go To Those With Political Connections
I think the Sheeple may not be as stupid as I first thought.
And a cop in Boston. And . . . ?
philjourdan said @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Himem.sys accessed 64 KB of the High Memory Area starting 16 bytes before the 1 MB mark—FFFF:0000 (0xFFFF0) to FFFF:FFFF (0x10FFEF). DOS 5 and later allowed loading of parts of the OS into the HMA freeing up to 46 KB of conventional memory.
@The Pompous Git – My mistake. My memory and math are not so hot these days. Thanks for the correction.
Kelvin also computed that earth was only some tens of millions of years old, based upon the rate at which iron loses heat. Then Rutherford discovered the energy source of radioactive decay, which still heats the planet’s interior…..
TIME OUT! Backfield not in motion… The amount of radioactive material in magma, and estimated by gamma emissions from the interior, are BELOW the amount needed to heat the Earth, as measured by IR generation from the surface.
The “unknown” energy providing that is still UNKNOWN!
rogerknights says: @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 1:59 pm
…And a cop in Boston. And . . . ?
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Isn’t it interesting that in all three cases he ended up looking like the hind end of a donkey at least to a neutral party.
I am so very very sick of the race card…. MMphmuph (I just swallowed the rest of the sentence to spare Anthony from banning me)
@pompous git. Apologies. Looks like I inadvertently re-introduced an urban myth. Gates denies ever saying 640kb is enough memory for anyone and there is no evidence he said that. I have reprogrammed my memory banks.
If we are running short of oxygen, we’d better not sequester billions of tonnes of CO2. Over two thirds of CO2 is oxygen.
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Perhaps the missing heat is Gore’s hot air?
milodonharlani said @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Mostly agree, though Steno was rather late to the party. Aristotle (384–322 BCE) noted that fossil seashells from rocks were similar to those found on the beach, and therefore once living animals.
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519) agreed with Aristotle:
jaymam says: @ur momisugly January 29, 2014 at 2:16 pm
If we are running short of oxygen, we’d better not sequester billions of tonnes of CO2. Over two thirds of CO2 is oxygen.
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If we do sequester billions of tonnes of CO2 it should all be sequestered under Washington D.C. It should also be done by government employees.