Never mind the threat of nuclear war, asteroid and comet impacts, a super volcanic eruption, robot overlords, or a global pandemic…no these aren’t all that threatening according to Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert of Oxford, one of the founders of “Real Climate”. No, it’s “climate change”.
Climate Challenge is “Humanity’s Final Exam”
From the description of the interview:
After a couple of decades of studying climate change and teaching at the University of Chicago, Raymond Pierrehumbert has been named the new Halley Professor of Physics at Oxford University. On a recent visit to The New York Times, he capped a fascinating interview with this sobering thought.
It is instructive to view the list of 12 biggest threats to humanity from this story at the Washington Post
They give just a 0.01 percent chance of extreme climate change happening in next 200 years. they rank Artificial Intelligence, Unknown consequences, and Synthetic Biology higher.
I’d say humanity has a lot of “final exams”, and climate change is the least of our worries.
And who can forget this story about Raymond Pierrehumbert?
The wit and wisdom of ‘Real’ Climate scientist Dr. Ray Pierrehumbert
![RayPierhumbert[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/raypierhumbert1.jpg?quality=83)
Or how about this one, where he calls coal “Satan’s Rock”
But it’s the climate skeptics who are labeled the crazy people, not esteemed paragons of “sensibility” like Dr. Pierrehumbert.
I for one remember Dr. Pierrehumbert’s reaction to the original “Climategate” leak. Give the man credit for a sense of humor, at least!
Climate Craziness is humanity’s “final exam”. How whacko are we as a species, to punish an entirely beneficial, life-giving gas at our own expense, thus lowering living standards and dooming many millions? Clearly, Ray-Ray Pierrehumpty-dumpty has already flunked.
A final exam might include the question, how does higher levels of CO2 cause colder winters?
Obama needs the correct answer:
“On January 8, 2014, the White House posted a controversial video claiming that global warming causes more severe winter cold.”
http://lidblog.com/judge-orders-white-house-to-stop-hiding-its-bogus-global-warming-proof/#
linked from:
http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/
Only a lifelong academic would use the analogy “final exam”. I had to think for a moment what he was trying to say. In my limited experience, being a lifelong academic means having a very good chance of being out of touch with the real world. That was certainly one of the things that made me glad to get away from the ivory-tower world to try and scratch a living doing stuff.
In 1816 there were 2 universities in England and Wales (although there were 4 in Scotland)
In 1916 there were 12 universities in England and Wales
In 2016 there are 105 universities in England and Wales
Can they all be putting out valuable, leading-edge research? Somehow, I doubt it.
Quick note: I sent a comment with 4 links so I believe it is in moderation.
One of the links was to this article (Steven Barker et. al, 2011) which I quote from:
“Our formulation of the thermal bipolar see-saw concept is qualitatively analogous to that of (9) in that it implies the existence of a heat reservoir that convolves the northern signal, producing a southern signal with a longer characteristic time scale. Our approach is slightly different in that we relate the rate of Antarctic temperature change directly to the northern temperature anomaly. Indeed, we note that for some long stadial events, particularly those associated with glacial terminations, Antarctic temperatures appear to rise unabated until an abrupt warming event occurs in the north (19). On the other hand, our formulation does not imply that Antarctic temperatures must continue to rise indefinitely when-ever Greenland is cold, only while it is cold with respect to background conditions (defined by the orbital time scale component). We also note that northern temperature (regardless of background conditions) is not always constant throughout stadial events. For example, Greenland warmed significantly during cold stadial 21 (Fig. 2D). By our formulation, the rate of Antarctic temperature rise during this event would decrease correspondingly, in line with observations (Fig. 2A) (20).”
I speculate that their unknown “heat reservoir that convolves the northern signal” may be the “blob” as it grows ever bigger with left over El Nino waters that travel there on the gyre current and instead of continual circulation, splits off into an often reappearing or even stable warm pool off the North American coast, setting up a blocked jet stream loop that leads to extensive southward glaciation, invading North America to the 45th parallel and even beyond. Will the blob get any bigger than we have witnessed so far? Haven’t a clue other than to say, based on 800,000 year reconstructions, we are nearer the slide down to frozen drought than we are to rising out of one.
Pierrehumbert- a Professor? At Oxford?.
They must have gone stark, raving bonkers- just like their new bearded employee.
From global warming to climate change to extreme weather and now climate challenge?
Hmmm…a climate challenge might work-
Beats dropping polar bears off skyscrapers and blowing up schoolkiddies I suppose.
My comment with 4 links must still be in moderation or is being buffered by my server due to bandwidth limitations.
Anthony, is my comment with 4 links still in moderation bin? Or is it even there?
Looks like a normal intelligent human being….? Not!
The “Satan’s Rock” bit comes from Andrew Revkin’s song — Liberated Carbon.
Pierre plays accordion on Revkin’s album: A Very Fine Line. I own a copy.
Revkin has a terrific voice.
Final exams are a dime a dozen. The only final final exam is Darwin’s adapt and survive.
Raymond doesn’t seem to get out much. He should read his fellow physicist Luboš Motl more often, today for example he has a nice article about the history of science. Including this quote:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2016/03/weinberg-is-right-historians-are-wrong.html
Certain scientists are failing their own “final exams” right now.
Sad that Oxford has not gone to the dogs it has been handed over to to ignorant or dishonest pigs. Will this fake pseudo academic allow climate change science to be evaluated on performance of prediction by a panel of engineers in the light of the end of the hundred months to doomsday prediction? Of course no. No crook chooses to be externally policed.
I suppose like the no snow the hundred months predictions will be quietly removed from the public domain and we will never get the apology we are owed from low life self opinionated aristocrats like prince Charles who abuse their privileged positions to insult their betters who correctly said the climate scientists were at best over selling a case and at worst knowingly defrauding us.
People like him are devaluing the efforts of other Oxford graduates who worked hard to get qualifications from a once great university.
I would love to see the Oxford union have the guts to debate the motion that the claims of climate scientists are a violation of the ethics and integrity of science. won’t happen of course, Climate science is about power not integrity and I am getting more and more convinced they have now exceeded the power threshold of invincibility as they are able to remove even internet evidence for all practical levels of accessibility..
“No crook chooses to be externally policed”
Intuitively obvious but powerful statement. Thanks for the simple reminder.