My local newspaper editor lowers the boom on "climate change" as a catch-all

Thank you, David Little of the Chico Enterprise Record. Readers please note: I had nothing to do with his Sunday column opinion piece, it is as much a surprise to me as I’m sure it will be to you.

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David Little: It’s all the fault of climate change

I have a couple of flaws when it comes to believing anything I’m told.

First, I’m old. Second, I’m a journalist. Both of those unalterable traits make me worse than just a skeptic. I’m a skeptic squared.

I see things like Gov. Jerry Brown’s dog-and-pony show Monday in Sacramento and think more about his motivation than I do about his message. Brown spoke at a conference about climate change, and the media in attendance relayed his concern that global warming threatens our state.

He said California is at the “epicenter” of global climate change. He said the state must prepare for longer fire seasons, for rising oceans and for extended droughts. And he had charts and graphs to prove his points, so it must be true.

If I wasn’t on the downhill side of my journey up and over the hill, I’d be very worried — because while going up the hill, I remember a similar warning. I’m old enough to remember the ’70s, a truly forgettable decade. Growing up back then, there was talk about a “Mini Ice Age” that was coming. It scared the heck out of me. As an impressionable young lad with a love for swimming in creeks and running around in cutoffs during the hot Northern California summers, I didn’t want to give that up.

Here’s the problem I have with the global warming boogeyman: It gets blamed for everything. Only now it’s called climate change, because it needs to encompass more than just hot weather.

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May 25, 2014 10:30 am

As of 10:30 am 5/25
This article is the:
#1 most-clicked of the hour
#1 most-clicked of the day
#1 most-clicked among opinion articles today

Paul Vaughan
May 25, 2014 10:35 am

At interdecadal timescale:
California rainfall relates to the IPO.
Could it stay negative for another decade?
I’ve tried a lot of forecasts and most of them suggest it certainly could.
I don’t show the forecasts in this new article (that would be irresponsible at the current stage of exploration), but I do concisely introduce some multivariate background that can help community leaders here understand Mann’s recent push to artificially realign the US Pacific & Atlantic coasts with Trenberth’s deep ocean “missing heat” theory:
ERSST EOF 1234
Regarding California rainfall: Follow the link I give to Dai (2013). Quantitatively advanced readers can compare the EOFs I present in the appendix with Dai’s and figure out the (amusing) trickery that’s going on with his EOF1 start date.

Brian H
May 25, 2014 10:41 am

Stephen;
Beat me to it.
Zombie;
How do you get to see the comments? Do you have to be a subscriber?

Jimbo
May 25, 2014 10:44 am

It’s one heck of a scapegoat, an explanation for anything unpredictable. But that’s the thing — the weather is unpredictable.

All over the world there are people just like this, but dare not speak in case they are hounded, lose jobs and sent nasty emails.
It’s always been just the weather and not the climate. Well, that’s what Warmists USED to tell me until the surface standstill became too obvious to ignore. Then they forgot what they said and point to every bad weather event ans positive proof of man’s eeeeeevil, satanic gasses.

Jimbo
May 25, 2014 10:47 am

The bottom of the article says now.

This article is the:
#1 most-clicked of the hour
#1 most-clicked of the day
#1 most-clicked among opinion articles today
http://www.chicoer.com/columnists/ci_25830288/david-little-its-all-fault-climate-change

I hope the author, David Little, has a job to go to tomorrow. I’m not joking.

papiertigre
May 25, 2014 11:31 am

In California we have the best representation that hedgefund conmen/windmill merchants/bullet train pushers could buy.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/25/6430454/election-2014-bloomfield-munger.html
In that article it says Tom Steyer became obscenely wealthy by managing hedge funds.
I had just a vague idea what a hedgefund is, so …
Wikipedia – “Hedge fund” : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment vehicle administered by a professional management firm, and often structured as a limited partnership, limited liability company, or similar vehicle.[1][2]
distinct from mutual funds as their use of leverage is not capped by regulators[3]
and from private equity funds as the majority of hedge funds invest in relatively liquid assets.[4]

Hedge funds invest in a diverse range of markets and use a wide variety of investment styles and financial instruments.[2]
The name “hedge fund” refers to the hedging techniques traditionally used by hedge funds, but hedge funds today do not necessarily hedge.[5]
Hedge funds are made available only to certain sophisticated or accredited investors and cannot be offered or sold to the general public.[5]

As such, they generally avoid direct regulatory oversight, bypass licensing requirements applicable to investment companies, and operate with greater flexibility than mutual funds and other investment funds outside the law.[6] (note – I added “outside the law” to clarify the situation.)
Hedge funds have existed for many decades, but have become increasingly popular in recent years, growing to be one of the world’s major investment vehicles and sources of capital.[7]
Many hedge fund investment strategies aim to achieve a positive return on investment regardless of whether markets are rising or falling (“absolute return”). Hedge fund managers often invest money of their own in the fund they manage, which serves to align their own interests with those of the investors in the fund.[8]
As of June 2013, the estimated size of the global hedge fund industry was US$2.4 trillion.
Because hedge funds are not sold to the general public or retail investors, the funds and their managers have historically been exempt from regulation that governs other funds and investment managers with regard to how the fund may be structured and how strategies and techniques are employed. Regulations passed in the United States and Europe after the 2008 credit crisis were intended to increase government oversight of hedge funds and eliminate certain regulatory gaps.[11]
In 2008, Tom Steyer “retired” from hedge fund management, rather than submit to government oversight. Same time he became a “progressive” environmentalist , using pocket change [for him] to buy elections and push the global warming scam.

leo danze
May 25, 2014 11:39 am

It should be stated over and over that “climate change is normal”. By their exaggerations, Alarmists are denying natural climate change.

May 25, 2014 11:44 am

One should always remember that the obligation of the media–as one candid editor let slip after a couple of cocktails–is not to report the truth, but to report liars, accurately.

Joel O'Bryan
May 25, 2014 12:07 pm

Climate Change is seen as vehicle to justify new taxes. Democrats and the public unions who buy them, are salivating at the thought carbon tax revenues from businesses and industry.
yes, the eco-nuts truly believe, but for the Dems like Moonbeam and Obama, it is the taxes that animates their Climate Change claptrap.

Jimbo
May 25, 2014 12:20 pm

After 17 years of a surface temperature standstill and global sea ice at ‘normal’ – IT’S WORSE THAN WE THOUGH!

AlJazeera America – March 30, 2014
IPCC: effects of climate change ‘worse than we had predicted’
…”Things are worse than we had predicted” in 2007, when the group of scientists last issued this type of report, said report co-author Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at Independent University in Bangladesh.
“We are going to see more and more impacts, faster and sooner than we had anticipated.”….
—————
The Conversation – 8 January 2014
How clouds can make climate change worse than we thought
…Perhaps our result can serve as a reminder that not knowing everything does not justify complacency. Uncertainty may mean the problem is worse than you thought.
[Steve Sherwood – Director, Climate Change Research Centre at UNSW Australia]
—————
Think Progress – November 26, 2012
Nearly 3 years ago, the late William R. Freudenburg discussed in a AAAS presentation how new scientific findings since the 2007 IPCC report are found to be more than twenty times as likely to indicate that global climate disruption is “worse than previously expected,” rather than “not as bad as previously expected.”
[William R. Freudenburg , University of California, Santa Barbara, CA]
—————
Guardian – 26 January 2013
Nicholas Stern: ‘I got it wrong on climate change – it’s far, far worse’
Author of 2006 review speaks out on danger to economies as planet absorbs less carbon and is ‘on track’ for 4C rise
[Nicholas Stern – Economist]
—————
Science Blogs – May 20, 2013
Why Global Warming’s Effects Will Be Worse Than You Were Thinking
The story of climate change has always been more of worst-case, or at least, worser-case scenarios developing and less about good news showing up out of nowhere and making us unexpectedly happy….
[Greg Laden]
—————
Independent – 21 March 2014
Letters: Climate change: it’s worse than we thought
Contrary to your headline “Climate change: the official prophecy of doom” (18 March), it would appear that the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is a masterclass in understatement.
[Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director, Grantham]
—————
Guardian – 3 February 2007
Worse than we thought
· Report warns of 4C rise by 2100
· Floods and food and water shortages likely
Average temperatures could increase by as much as 6.4C by the end of the century if emissions continue to rise, with a rise of 4C most likely, according to the final report of an expert panel set up by the UN to study the problem.
[David Adam – Environment Correspondent for the Guardian between 2005 and 2010]
—————
WWF – September 2009
The Arctic in your back yard
Arctic warming affects us all – it can cause extreme global weather changes, widespread flooding and big increases in greenhouse gas emission that will in turn make global warming even worse.
We’ve also just published a new report called Arctic Climate Feedbacks: Global Implications, which lists dire global consequences of a warming Arctic – far worse than previous projections.
[WWF]
—————
Metro – 31 Mar 2014
War, hunger, disease… and worse to come: The impact of climate change all over the world
…Friends of the Earth said: ‘Droughts, floods and famines are just some of the devastating effects people are suffering as a result of extreme weather. Unless we take urgent measures, they will get far worse.’….
[Friends of the Earth]
—————
Guardian – 31 March 2014
Climate change report: ‘The worst is yet to come’ – as it happened
• Climate change ‘already affecting food supply
• Great Barrier reef, native Australian species in danger
• The poor will suffer most from climate change
• Hellish monotony‘ of climate change report
[Helen Davidson – reporter and Adam Vaughan – editor]
—————
Science Daily – February 15, 2009
Climate Change Likely To Be More Devastating Than Experts Predicted, Warns Top IPCC Scientist
…”There is a real risk that human-caused climate change will accelerate the release of carbon dioxide from forest and tundra ecosystems, which have been storing a lot of carbon for thousands of years,” said Field, a professor of biology and of environmental Earth system science at Stanford, and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment. “We don’t want to cross a critical threshold where this massive release of carbon starts to run on autopilot.”
[IPCC scientist Chris Field of Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science]
—————
Dallas Observer Blogs – Oct. 14 2013
Climate Scientists Predict a Texas Drought “Worse Than We Imagined” And a Changing Coast
….state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon told TCN. “The latest IPCC report is mostly just an incremental update of something we already knew. The [continuing] drought of 2011-20xx has taught us something we didn’t know: Rather than being a thing of the past, Texas drought can be worse than we imagined.”
[John Nielsen-Gammon – climatologist]
—————
Columbus Dispatch – April 1, 2014
Global warming heads ‘out of control’
…Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which issued the 32-volume, 2,610-page report here early yesterday, said: “It is a call for action.” Without reductions in emissions, he said, the effects of warming “could get out of control.”…
[Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – Head of the IPCC]

james
May 25, 2014 12:38 pm

the fix for global cooling was the same as the fix for global warming its all about energy and culling the masses.

papiertigre
May 25, 2014 12:50 pm

From the “let’s blame climate change for everything” school of journalism.
http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/23/6429002/drought-causing-tule-fog-to-disappear.html
Bogus on two counts. First they compare today’s tule fog to fog in the eighties. The 80’s were exceptional with regard to rainfall in California. So much so that the newspaper has taken to using the “last thirty” years only, as the “average” in their rainfall annual average. Climate science itself says clearly and often that thirty year is the barest minimum length of time to judge climatology. Absolutely under no circumstance are you to truncate a hundred and fifty year record down to the last thirty to show average climatology.
And yet that is what the Bee did on their weather page.
They are all in on the global warming bandwagon. Cheat, con, lie, steal, it’s all fairgame in service to the fraud at the Sacramento newspaper.
They actually canceled the comment feature in their online version, because their position is hopeless to defend any other way.

John F. Hultquist
May 25, 2014 12:54 pm

Jimbo at 12:20 provides a Think Progress link that says, in part, about global climate disruption (GCD):
more than twenty times as likely”
The 2007 AR4 was classed as “very likely” (VL) so we now need to interpret this:
GCD = VL x 20+
That is beyond my pay scale.

Billy Liar
May 25, 2014 1:00 pm

Jimbo,
Hellish monotony‘ of climate change report
You made that one up, didn’t you – just to see if anyone would notice! 🙂

CRS, DrPH
May 25, 2014 1:02 pm

Be sure to read the comments to the story as well! I found this gem:

This is one of the worst pieces I’ve ever read regarding climate change. David Little doesn’t even muster the courage to quote our local skeptic guru (Anthony Watts) or any of the other laughable skeptics.

pottereaton
May 25, 2014 1:40 pm

Alan Robertson:
May 25, 2014 at 6:53 am
You do misunderstand. I’ll be moving from California. Thanks for you concern.

jones
May 25, 2014 2:14 pm

Jimbo, bloody hell mate, we can’t take you anywhere can we?!!!
I’ve said before, this lot are just trying to get by in a cut-throat world.
On your coin of course.
Alms for the poor, alms for the poor…………………………………

M Seward
May 25, 2014 3:40 pm

“He said California is at the “epicenter” of global climate change.” I am from the great big State of Western Australia ( referred to as “WA” in Oz), about one third of the Australian continent, a bit under 1,000,000 square miles of it. As a WA buddy of mine once said to me on his return from the US, that the WA capital Perth has the weather LA thinks it has so there is no lack of self confidence, hubris and even chutzpah in WA.
If anywhere should be at the “epicenter” of global climate change, its WA because much of the iron ore and bauxite driving Chinese industrialisation comes from there. I have never heard such a loony claim as that made about WA (or Queensland for that matter which exports vast amounts of coal and gas to China – and if you want pure, hillbilly chutzpah, go to Queensland).
It seems to me that Jerry Brown thinks he is the epicentre of California. Better check the wax on Icarus Brown’s wings folks, methinks the sun is getting to his head. Either that or its just Beverly Hillbilly chutzpah.

cba
May 25, 2014 3:49 pm

GCD, Global Climate Disruption, could possibly be the worst calamity ever to befall humanity – IF we consider GCD is the disruption to modern society caused by lunatic climate alarmists from the Carbon Cult. OTHERWISE, one is faced with merely a slight improvement in conditions if one defines GCD as effects associated man’s creation of carbon dioxide.

Truthseeker
May 25, 2014 4:12 pm

RoHa says:
May 25, 2014 at 2:02 am
He should say he’s old, and he’s an old-style journalist. I’m not convinced that new style journalists do anything but repeat the press releases they are handed by governments and powerful or fashionable groups.
——————————————————————————————————————-
That is why they are no longer journalists, but churnalists …
http://churnalism.com/

Jimbo
May 25, 2014 4:26 pm

Billy Liar says:
May 25, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Jimbo,
Hellish monotony‘ of climate change report
You made that one up, didn’t you – just to see if anyone would notice! 🙂

I wish I did make it up but it really is worse than we thought! 😉

Guardian – Monday 31 March 2014
• Climate change ‘already affecting food supply’
• Great Barrier reef, native Australian species in danger
• The poor will suffer most from climate change
• ‘Hellish monotony’ of climate change report
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/31/climate-change-report-ipcc-governments-unprepared-live-coverage

Remember Billy, it’s always worse than you can possibly imagine. Trust me.

May 25, 2014 5:03 pm

Tom in Florida says:
May 25, 2014 at 5:59 am
It looks like Mo, Larry and Curly have been replaced by Barry, Kerry and Jerry.

Utter hilarity!!
Begs the question: Are they the “epicenter” of buffoonery?

Neil Dunn
May 25, 2014 5:24 pm

I ran across this link in which the House has voted that the Defense Dept can not use Climate Change as reason to fund “National Security Threats”:
http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/05/house-votes-ban-pentagon-claiming-climate-change-national-security-threat/

Eamon Butler
May 25, 2014 6:14 pm

Sent him an email of support, and encouragement.
Eamon.

May 25, 2014 8:04 pm

The Chico ER puts the LA Times to shame.