Guest Opinion by Kip Hansen
The New York Times continues to send out its little climate “newsletter” alerting the public to the most important news about the climate, every two weeks.
I look forward to it — because very little in the way of main stream media news about the climate offers so much comic relief. The first thing — it makes me laugh every time I come to it — is the ClimateFwd: newsletter’s editor. She is Kendra Pierre-Louis and always includes her Twitty-name: @KendraWrites — the link goes to her official page where she subtitles herself as “Kendra “Gloom is My Beat” Pierre-Louis” — honest — you can’t make stuff like this up. Every time I see her name in print, I think of this and laugh out loud.
She is great — well, she makes me laugh and that’s a good thing. In keeping with the Editorial Narrative on Climate Change at the NY Times, which calls for everything to have a climate change hook and to tell the world how bad things are because of, you know, Climate Change is already happening, Ms. “Gloom is My Beat” gives us a climate change story about the Winter Olympics.
It features a US Olympic Cross-country skier — “Jessie Diggins is a cross-country skier on the American women’s team and a favorite to win a medal at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. …. Diggins is also an advocate for climate action. I interviewed her to understand more about why she believes winter is worth protecting. “
Jessie says “…in places like Davos, Switzerland, where they normally have three feet of snow, they’ve been snow farming and saving it for the next year because they don’t even count on getting snow anymore. I’ve spoken to people in Switzerland who are losing their jobs because winter’s going away.” And goes on to say “….saving winter is something I believe in. It just breaks my heart because this is such a cool sport, and winter is so amazing and beautiful and I feel like we’re actually really at risk of losing it. And I don’t want my kids to grow up in a world where they’ve never experienced snow because we weren’t responsible enough.” [I’ve added emphasis. — kh]
Three things break my heart:
1) That the NY Times’ editorial staff apparently do not realize just how silly publishing things like this make them look to educated, knowledgeable readers.
2) That the ClimateFwd: editor, Ms. Pierre-Louis, apparently doesn’t read her own newspaper (maybe doesn’t read any newspaper?) or she never would have included the Davos quotes.
3) That a young American sportswoman can have been so poorly educated in high school that she does not, seemingly, know what causes the seasons and can be brainwashed into thinking that “winter is going away” and that there is any chance whatever that her kids will “grow up in a world where they’ve never experienced snow”.
Point 1: This is the third edition of ClimateFwd: and they have each been just as silly as the first.
Point 2: NY Times, JAN. 22, 2018 (almost three weeks ago), Heads of State and C.E.O.s in Davos Beware: 6 Feet of Snow in 6 Days
[Hey, give her a break, Mr. Hansen, maybe she reads the Washington Post. ]
Washington Post, 23 Jan 2018, Heavy snow and avalanches strand thousands at ski villages across the Alps
[Ok, maybe Reuters?]
Thomson-Reuters, 23 Jan 18, Heavy snow buries the global elite at Davos summit
[I give up.]
Good, because then there is this breaking news — Cold weather turning skis to garbage in Pyeongchang
Point 3: NASA Space Place: What causes the seasons? (yes, this site is for kids…but it is easy to understand, even if one doesn’t read very well yet.)
All of this makes me want to donate vast sums (of which I have none, btw) to foundations that are trying to sort out the US educational system, so our grandkids never have to experience the kind of cognitive meltdown exhibited by ClimateFwd:.
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Author’s Comment Policy:
This is an OPINION piece — so I won’t discuss hard science issues. It is meant to be amusing at the expense of NY Times — which used to be a newspaper and used to hire journalists.
I will actually make that donation as soon as the Koch Brothers or Big Oil sends me a nice fat check.
If you want to speak to me personally, and not just make a general comment, start with “Kip…” so I can be sure to see it.
This OpEd is not meant to be taken too seriously.
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A sad commentary on the state of intelligence.
At some point in the fairly recent past, many people’s brains fell out. I speculate it was because of software reducing the need to think and now most are completely dependant on them.
Actually, I think there may be some truth in that.
In my work as a production planner, I noticed that as software became more “sophisticated”, people lost the ability to think for themselves.
I fear that as “artificial intelligence” increases, human intelligence will decline. I already see evidence in the real world, in for example shop workers.
I suspect that as cars learn to drive themselves, humans will lose the ability to drive.
Humans will turn into zombies.
I’m not too worried about cars driving themselves until I see one cope with a blizzard, black ice, and 2 feet of snow. So far, the cars drive in California and Arizona. There’s probably good reasons for this.
Wow, that is a relief. I thought it was the onset of senile dementia.
A lot of truth in that – and it applies to me as well. I no longer memorize anything. I can check it on the internet, or copy and paste it into Word files for later reference. Ofttimes while writing comments I look up things real quick to ensure I have them right. I’m just lazy. And I can spend the time I save from not memorizing to writing unimportant comments here!
I have a physician friend who is very jovial and enjoys a good laugh with his patients – whenever appropriate of course. One of his pranks occurs during a physical exam when he is checking a patient’s ears with his otoscope. When looking in, say, the left ear, he will ask them to wave their right hand in front of their right ear. Invariably patients will do this because they are already in the mode of following whatever instructions the doctor has given them during the exam process. And then he will say something like, “Good! — I can see right through you! — No brains at all!”
@quaesoveritas
That’s nonsense. “Stupidity”, groupthink, and blind faith are nothing new. Just look at the witchhunts. And if cars learn to drive themselves then of course people will lose the ability to drive. But not because they become “stupid” or anything, but simply because they don’t need to do it anymore. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. Most people today, even the smart and educated ones couldn’t repair a cartwheel, but that doesn’t mean that they are stupid. If “human intelligence” (sounds like some kind of a hive mind) is truly in decline then why there are so much sophisticated technology, inventions etc. today than ever before? And of course it’s always the other guy who is stupid, and you yourself are always wise and enlightened. I mean the alarmists say that we are the stupid ones!
Besides, what does “stupidity” even mean? I feel like it has lost its meaning and became a mindless accusation people use against other people they disagree with. Kinda like “nazi” or “fascist”. And I don’t think stupidity is determined by how many things you can do. I don’t know how to drive a car for example. I never really needed one. Does that mean i’m stupid? A drooling imbecile?
In case of climate alarm, many of these things have more to do with trusting the institutions than stupidity. And I can’t really blame them, even if I think they are wrong in their beliefs. No one can know everything so trust is important. Come on, leave the pessimistic alarmism to leftist liberals.
@ noaaprogrammer
Next time i’m visiting a doctor, i’m going to question everything he says and make the visit as difficult as possible for me and for the doctor. It’s going to suck for everyone, but atleast he can’t say that i’m a mindless sheep.
Your point is a good one, but let’s not paint with an over-broad brush. Of course there are times when accepting learned or professional opinions is wisdom. But part of INTELLIGENCE is having a very good idea about when something doesn’t pass the smell test.
Yes, and precious few cashiers can make change today without a register that tells them how much to give back to the customer.
Sports people are generally (not always) renowned for having below average intelligence and have not had time for a proper education.
Phillip ==> The sad thing is that this young skiier is not the exception for her generation. The AGW propganada machine has been running 30 years! It’s all they have ever heard, from kindergarten on up, it’s in their school curriculum.
Kids focused on sports do often skimp on the others parts of their education — but not because they lack the ability, they are just sometimes too focused on their sport.
It would be unkind to say they focus on their sport because they are too stupid to do a regular education. We all hear about American college students doing the ‘jock’ curriculum.
From http://jessiediggins.com/
“Fun facts: I like raspberries and pickles. Separately, not together. I love adrenaline-filled adventures like cliff jumping, bungee jumping and skydiving. Reading a lot of books on the road is fun and so is camping, canoeing, gardening, and creative projects.
After moonlighting as a dancer, soccer player, violinist, swimmer, and track runner, I finally settled on Cross Country skiing as a full-time job. I really enjoy traveling and the experience of seeing new places and racing around the world. But most of all, what I love about skiing is the chance to push my body to the limit, to be training outside on beautiful trails, and the chance to find something new about myself with every race!”
And;
“I attended Stillwater High School and skied on their team for 6 years, loving the team environment and camaraderie of the sport. I found so many friends on the team and we had so much fun! I also learned that I loved the competition side of skiing, and started taking the racing more seriously. I joined summer training programs, and eventually began training year-round for XC skiing.”
Jessie appears to be a nice young woman dedicated to many active pursuits but does not seem qualified to discuss complex scientific hypotheses even when interviewed by Ms. Pierre-Louis who openly states, “My opinion should be yours.” at medium.com, which is assuredly sarcastic. But the sarcasm excuse does not nullify seeking out and quoting a non-scientist who spent six years skiing in high school.
As an aside, Kip is much braver than me because I considered subscribing to NYT’s Climate Fwd. newsletter, hovered over the ‘Submit’ button and chickened out.
Six years on the igh skiing team!
I’m impressed she found a high school with a skiing team
Found a way to stay eligible for six years on a high skiing team.
Found a way to get a job skiing after skiing for six years on a high school skiing team!
(Then again, I did earn several scholarships to college by competing in 2 years as a slide rule and science competitor ….
Yes, Virginia, this was before there were calculators.
Pagers.
Car phones.
Cell phones.
Flip phones.
Or today’s dumb phones. (Er, smart phones.)
RACookPE1978 ==> I suspect that she went to a combined Jr/Sr High School, which accounts for the six years.
I bought the first HP35 on the Portland State University campus; $395 on a college budget! Couldn’t finish vector analysis on a slide-rule.
After her comments I assume she went to a three year high school twice.
But then she probably heard about this pdf from some group with an unpronounceable name, in the pub, cause the drinking age in Switzerland is 16. They actually are trying to ‘Farm Snow’ in Davos, the wazzucs. You guys will love this, full of charts, graphs, and bamboozily what’s its. It appears to be about maintaining decent snow pack but even they can’t help themselves and mention GW.
http://peakinnovation.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Sn%C3%B6seminariet_FabianWolfsberger.pdf
Gareth ==> Hey, Great find! Luckily I can read most the the German in the illustrations.
The main point is that in the present they use snow making and snow farming to ensure enough snow to be able to have a good Christmas ski season — which is considered “early season”.
Pitiful
…if everyone ignored her she might go away…
I appreciate both your attempt at levity and your determination to correct the record.
Unfortunately the brainwashing exemplified by Jessie Diggins appears to be so pervasive and so widespread that I suspect you’re preaching only to the converted (or rather, the independent-minded who don’t accept orthodoxy because “so many people tell us it’s true.”)
I constantly run into young people online who not only unswervingly believe what they’re told, citing what “nearly all the world’s scientists tell us,” but refuse utterly to even do so much as take a peek at alternative sources of information.
“You believe a blog instead of what science says?” is the typical retort. I reply it doesn’t matter what I believe. I’m only trying to let them know there are alternate sources of information. But I waste my time.
This is religion to them.
I reply that I read the research papers. Would they please quote the research papers they are reading.
Sheri, that just flashed back a memory of a ‘greenie’ remarking to me that I must not be reading National Geographic if I don’t understand the science.
To Bill- You have described almost perfectly a friend of mine who believes the MSM and find it impossible even to read what WUWT and the others have to say. And this person had a successful career as a mechanical engineer……
Maybe he sees it as a religion different from the one he has chosen.
One of the frailties of mortals is the need for something to believe in.
The climate crusade replaces the traditional god-entity with the idea that the current over-population of humanity has become the prevalent force of global change, deciding the ultimate fate of itself (and the planet) by altering the concentration trace gases in the troposphere
I once had a discussion with a green that was extremely left in his views. He was extremely concerned that I had seen an alternative to the orthodoxy and thought it shouldn’t be allowed.
The NY Times’ editorial staff do not care how silly publishing things like that makes them look to their readers, as very few of its readers are either educated or knowledgeable about anything
It is incredible that NYT used that nonsene about snow in Davos, they must know the recent stories of the snow-bound summit there. No more cheering for Diggins from this side of the Atlantic.
Henning ==> Oh, come on — don’t blame Diggins, she’s a victim of her education and social forces. I hope she wins a medal, I’m sure, despite her unfounded thoughts about winter and Climate Change that she has trained hard and loves her sport.
Go Diggins!
Kip she is not a victim. Unless you think she is incapable of choice 🙂
Doug ==> You don’t have kids? Never seen kids be the victims of misinformation in school? Never seen people who honestly [mistakenly] think that newspaper and newscasters are automatically giving them the straight facts?
While everyone is responsible for their own choices, ultimately, that doesn’t mean we can just ignore the fact that many people are victims of the environments too.
Ms. Diggins will probably grow up just like the rest of us did, and her views will become more real.
Give her a beak. Just virtue signaling.
texasjim, I bet not, I bet she actually believes this gloom.
NYT’s printed weekday circulation dropped by 50 percent to 571,500 copies from 2005 to 2016. Does that mean that 50% of its readers used to be educated or knowledgeable?
CG ==> Just be glad your retirement fund wasn’t heavy on newspaper stocks.
-Reminds me of the old Joke: “How do you keep a WASP uninformed? Hide his Readers Digest. How do you keep him mis-informed? Find it for him.” These days, you can substitute any of the marques of MSM and almost anybody under 40.
ditto guardian they have a greenlight climate mail i keep getting..and same result, i should quit as having numbers keeps them thinking people take them seriously and care..
but i also, like Kip, get it for the laughs it provides me and friends;-)
Much the same with the ABC in oz , doesn’t matter if it’s true or not when it comes to CAGW .
Nice post! You made me chuckle, …unlike Ms. Pierre-Louis’ posts and others that make me gasp in disbelief that such garbage gets printed in the NYTimes or force-fed to America’s students
Jim ==> Glad — always good to have a bit of humor to lighten things up….btw, I want to write about the Birds (the State of the Birds report) and Audubon’s fund raising, spent maybe 40 hours researching but got bogged down trying to fact check the mess. Any suggestions?
I’ll take a look and email you.
I haven’t had time to read that report. Among other endeavors, I am on the Pacifica Sea level Rise Community Working Group and have been devoting a lot of research time to the causes and models regards sea level change, a topic I will post about shortly.
Kip, you mean the 2016 version? as in:http://www.stateofthebirds.org/2016/overview/methods/
Birds are one of my main things (50+ years birding and not just for fun). There are so many things wrong with the way they attempt to link ‘climate change’ to real and imagined effects on bird populations that it is both laughable and sad.
I just took a very quick skim of this 2016 report (link) and the first problem I noted was this:
“The relative abundance estimates visualized in the Species Abundance Maps were based on bird observation data from eBird (Sullivan et al. 2014) , a rapidly growing citizen-science program administered by Cornell Lab of Ornithology.”
I’m a big fan of eBird and have plugged thousands of records into it but it simply is not suitable for this purpose except as an approximate indicator. There is no rigor or systematic data collection in most of it and tons of erroneous data, particularly for the more common species.
There are also serious problems with Breeding Bird Survey data when used to calculate population trends.
So lots of material to expose there.
Extreme, where do you bird?
Jim – Mostly in British Columbia.
Jim ==> Look forward to your findings on Pacific (?) SLR.
EH ==> I am an early adopter of eBird and have used it all up and down the East Coast and in the Northern Caribbean.
I have written twice about the Birds and
EH ==> I am an early adopter of eBrid and have used it all up and down the East Coast and in the Northern Caribbean — and think it is great — but what it will not do is (and can not do by design) is help with population estimates. It is terrific for determining WHERE differing species are found, but now how many.
I have written twice before about the earlier SoTBs report: About those claims of declining bird populations due to ‘climate change’ and
Update: About those claims of declining bird populations due to ‘climate change’.
My analysis so far is that the rating of concern by the Partners in Flight “Saving Our Shared Birds” report is very subjective (depending on opinion) especially as to the FUTURE threat from Climate Change — one of the five or six determination factors of threat — thus a lot of birds are incorrectly/unnecessarily included on the Watch List.
There are, of course, a lot of reasons for many species being threatened — evolution among them.
Kip – Great posts… which I somehow missed (I took a hiatus from following this blog for a while). The whole ‘blame it on climate change’ story falls apart when you look at the details!
Also good to hear you are a birder and an eBirder. Great system for collecting data and it can only get more useful as that data accumulates. But you also noted that “but what it will not do is (and can not do by design) is help with population estimates. It is terrific for determining WHERE differing species are found, but now how many.” With a very few exceptions – where repeated rigorous survey data are entered – I agree completely. Yet in that latest report they do seem to be trying to use it for population estimates, or at least relative abundance.
Look forward to your future posts on this topic and anything else related to birds.
I once worked in NYC. Read the Times on the way in each morning. To get my blood circulating. Boiling, that is. The Times has been a left wing rag since….ummm, forever. Remember Walter Duranty, the star reporter who praised the Soviet Union from dawn to dusk? I think he even got a Pulitzer for it. I believe nothing that is printed by that.*Y^((## so-called newspaper.
It is so sad, really. Way back in the last Century, the NYT was considered the “paper of record” and it was entirely too much for the average New Yorker to digest, especially as they never ran any funnies!
Pamela ==> I do miss the old journalistic NY Times — when I was in University (67-71) it was the official voice of America. Now thre front page contains nothing but thinly disguised political attacks and activism — from the DNC and further left.
Indeed Kip, things were very different in our youth. But we need to own a lot of how the world is today because we Baby Boomers planted the seeds that grew into Gen X and the Millennials. Again, a working time machine would be a fine thing to own….
Yeah, there’s a whole class of useful idiots, useless idiots and human-ish parrots who they don’t even have to say “climate change” to. Just the word “climate” does it. One day the human genetics of pickpocketing your fellow human being, and kleptomania will be solved, but it won’t be in any of our lifetimes. Just have to accept it and live a life around it.
Any rebuttal of this will be carefully read …..
“Just the word “climate” does it.”
Due to massive mental and emotional conditioning through relentless media messaging.
Or the word carbon
“and winter is so amazing and beautiful and I feel like we’re actually really at risk of losing it”
First, it does not take a great mind to be a cross-country skier.
Second, ha ha ha. Yes, winter is just so amazing dudette! And awesome too. Gnarly.
Third. I “feel.” Not think but feel. That’s a sign of the deliberately dumbed down indoctrination system that now erodes the West. China is now leading in super-computers. Did they need to import IT people too? No.
Fourth. I agree. These people are seriously “at risk of losing it,” if they even had “it” to begin with.
Fifth. Is anything in the NYT or Washington Compost other than sports scores credible these days?
Thanks for a laugh Kip.
“Extreme Hiatus February 9, 2018 at 7:03 pm
First, it does not take a great mind to be a cross-country skier.”
Or any other sport for that matter however, sporting personalities are held in awe by the masses and anything they say is taken as gospel.
Is chess a sport?
Jim ==> It is ‘like’ a sport.
EH ==> You are welcome….
And guess where the next winter Olympics will be? Yes, that’s right: Beijing. That will truly be a non-winter wonderland for NYT and Diggins, because the sking competitions will be held in an area where there is seldom snow at all.
Look forward to more gloom to brigthen your day.
I’m sure there will be plenty of snow where needed, given the number of shovels and amount of straw available. Our renewable generation amounts are testimony that unlimited dollars can accomplish anything.
I just listened to a talk by Naomi Oreskes on CBC radio on a talk she gave to UBC who said that all fossil fuel infrastructure construction should be stopped. She also said that carbon costs the world $ 3 trillion per year. Since CO2 actually has benefitted plants and has cost us nothing so far She really meant that pollution costs us $ 3 trillion per year. If that is true it is because of the effect on our health and the health of plants and animals. I wont argue the real number but until China gets its pollution under control that figure will always remain high . Dont forget that China’s pollution has polluted all its way even to the North Pole above Canada and all over the Arctic. Of course China isnt the only polluter but since their CO2 production is 30% of the world their pollution % must be nearly the same.
Carbon may cost us that, but it also benefits us multiples of that cost. That’s why we use it. Duh.
Naomi Oreskes is allowed to stop using carbon. I’d say she could start immediately.
Hugs ==> You do know that the human body is an organic carbon heat engine?
Kip, you awake?
Cube ==> Barely — did you address a comment to me?
The ‘progressives’ and yes….It does distill to to this…
Are WRONG.
And so now they of course become more increasingly absurd..
As we discover continuely how much more nakedly absurd they (it?) actually is-:)
“Jessie says “…in places like Davos, Switzerland, where they normally have three feet of snow, they’ve been snow farming and saving it for the next year because they don’t even count on getting snow anymore.”
She actually said this? And how can you farm snow and store it for when needed? She really needs to stick to cross-country skiing, leave weather related issues to the educated and informed.
The snow farmers had a bumper crop this year. Apparently double the normal three foot
harvest.
Well, apparently they actually do, but the purpose is to start ski season earlier:
https://www.davos.ch/en/winter/activities/cross-country-skiing/snowfarming/
Greg ==> Excellent find, thank you. And yes, they do not do it because “winter is going away” or “there is no snow anymore”. They do it so they can open the cross-country skiing course in the late Autumn, long before the normal season for natural snow.
People! Snow farming is big business! At least for the last 10-plus years at Davos and surrounding areas.
Locally, they mound and cover winter snow with straw for use the following year to “groom” cross country trails. They then rent out those trails to competition-level athletes prior to the normal training periods of later winter. [Apparently, rich kiddies get a chance at off-times.]
Any twit that thinks it has anything to do with global warming deserves their 15 minutes at the New York Times.
Also, how do you think ice “houses” worked? Put big chunks (blocks) of ice in underground chambers and pack with straw to preserve stuff until the next winter.
The U.S., having a wider range of climatic and topographic conditions, doesn’t have to do that. Although the various ski areas “make” snow to extend their profitable season.
Wish they had done this in WA state many years ago. Ruined a couple of skis on Mt Baker because spots of bare rock were incompletely covered by the straw strewn over them to replace snow. That is the same year, I think, that Alpental was virtually unskiable (is that a word?) after I had bought family tickets for the year.
Ever ski Mt. Hood in the rain, Tex?
I guess the trick is refrigerated silos to store the crop, eh?
Hey don’t mock. If global warming allows you to farm snow …….
Just do it.
Poor Jessie may not know they groom the trails – it only looks like farming. I suspect this a made up comment by the gloomy reporter. She has to crank out another Stale offering next week. Actually the weather has been quite cold all over the NH this year and even snow to be farmed in southe4n Morocco .
Gary ==> Another reader found that they do “snow farm” (save snow one season to the next) and provided the promotional page for the Davos ski area that does it.
They do it so that they can get the cross-country ski trails open in the Autumn before natural snow-time.
Doesn’t “grooming trails” require fossil fuels? The page with the snow farming showed a fossil fuel powered piece of equipment. Or else maybe it runs on magic….
Snow melts very slowly, if kept under cover in the shade, also in mild weather. Even uncovered mounds of snow are stubborn and refuse to go away, as one can see in summer, when the snow depots from the city streets are still surprisingly intact.
Henry David Thoreau addressed this in his book, “Walden Pond”, written in the 1850s.
The ice trade was a big deal in New England prior to the advent of refrigeration. Simply put, the region had bitterly cold winters and lots of lakes. Ice was cut in blocks and hauled to ice houses where they were stacked and insulated (often by being covered in sawdust), and then sold throughout the warm weather months.:
The company I work for was a major player in the “Frozen Water Trade” as referenced in a book by that name. It was big business.
There is something in the human spirit that craves what we commonly call “religion,” something greater than oneself, an exercise of faith in things that one cannot see or prove, but which “feel right” to us and allow us to see form where otherwise there is only chaos.
The “postmodern” western world – at least the intelligent part – has deliberately done away with traditional deistic religion wherever possible and substituted a political religion that has a great many quirks, easily as many as you’d find in the discourses of medieval theologists ruminating on the number of angels able to dance on the head of a pin.
For instance, “religion is superstition,” but that doesn’t apply across the board. Muslims, Buddhists, “pagans’ and such are given respectful place because to do otherwise would be “racist” and “intolerant.” It is typically the Judeo-Christian faith that is scorned and given the blame for all the world’s ills.
But that sense of longing for a spiritual fulfillment cannot remain unfulfilled, so they adopt humanistic philosophies to take its place.
Western Christianity focused on the sojourn on earth as a temporary estate and confidently saw the afterlife as the state in which all ills will be remedied and perfection attained. The postmodern humanistic religion sees this life also as imperfect, but rather than sin and sorrow being the common lot, blames it on “isms” such as racism, sexism, homophobia and the whole host of Leftist tropes of evil.
And the good news of the postmodern humanist gospel is, WE CAN FIX IT! Yes, through the establishment of a benevolent world government, all the woes of this world will eventually be addressed, and we will achieve perfection right here on the very globe benighted Christians saw as the vale of sorrow. They are confident in it, no matter how often you point out the failures of the very recipes they prescribe (Venezuela and North Korea just go right over their heads).
When I have engaged for long with one of these idealistic young ones, and am able to point out to them with any success that the horrible predictions of climate change that have been made for the past half-century haven’t even vaguely come true, they will ultimately retreat to “what’s wrong with trying to make a better world?” Ultimately to them, that’s what this is all about. They don’t even think about the FACTS, just the “fear, uncertainty and doubt” that is the warning given for what will happen if western humans continue to be western humans (that’s really who is always to blame; they hardly ever seem to flinch at the notion that India and China together, both of whom have no intention of “stopping climate change,” have more than a third of the world’s population between them),
So as with all “true believers,” engaging in factual and honest conversation just will not work. Eventually you come to the edge of the map beyond which is the land of make-believe where the perfect human world exists, that has never even shown any possibility of achievement but which they are convinced will happen if we will just accept the immediate need to rescue polar bears, the undeniable fact of 62 genders, and the urgent need to stop capitalism and start government redistribution from each according to his capacity to each according to his need.
That this is way, way less likely than anything St. Augustine may have seen in vision just doesn’t register with them.
“…at least the intelligent part…”
Sorry, obviously that should have said “the INTELLECTUAL part.”
Man, can’t we just keep to climate-related stuff? Religion and philosophy have a bad reputation. You haven’t helped in any way, Bill.
Time to grow up, Dave. Bill’s piece is great. The only problem I have with it is the narrow view about how a global governance scheme ‘must’ work. He only admits a communist alternative, then rails against it.
Global governance of an unrepresentative sort has existed since the international law of the sea was penned. I wish readers would take a less binary view of a global federation of nations. There are a huge number of operational treaties that function at the global level and they are very good for everyone. Deciding on a global currency, for example, would disempower the transnational banks greatly in their exploitation of the entire population and make war much more difficult to conduct.
Tell it to the CAGW true believers.
Like I said, Bill.
“Deciding on a global currency, for example, would disempower the transnational banks greatly in their exploitation of the entire population and make war much more difficult to conduct.” Which would only be replaced by some other method of control and waging war. You can’t fix basic human flaws with global currency or treaties.
We just need to find the Right Leader to save us all !
/sarc
Memoirs of Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds should be mandatory reading in schools
“We just need to find the Right Leader to save us all !”
I nominate Kim Jong On;
the glorious leader has given his people one of the lowest carbon footprints & single handed has generously removed Global Warming from the entire northern hemisphere (so even skis snap in the cold), & he has a nice haircut !
Alternatively I’ll do the job (well someone has to),just send money.
I have been personally recommending that one for years, all over the place.
Not in my spirit, mate. P’raps I’m not very human.(a failing that I have been accused of from time to time)
OTOH there seems to be something in my spirit that craves what we commonly call “truth” and “knowledge” and “understanding” and “enlightenment”
Probably that’s why I was drawn to science, and why I enjoy doing it, even applied science in the service of industry.
It’s also why it’s so distressing to see what we used to call the scientific method replaced by predetermined conclusions, cherry-picked data and circular argument, all in the service of a political agenda.
I’m not arguing with you Bill P. Just saying.
Science can serve the same purpose as religion. If it gives order to your life, gives rules and regulation by which to live and makes you part of something larger (which science does), then it can be a religion. Humans just want something to provide order and meaning.
Heck, I already miss the glacier skiing I would have been able to do if man (and my ancestors) had been around during the last glaciation period about 30,000 yrs ago [plus or minus 100,000 or so]
On the other hand maybe they did and failed to leave me a note!
I can live with NYT editorials, and opinions slipped into news stories. My big problem is sloppy writing and editing. A few weeks ago there was a business story about a company with declining profits — like from $100 down to $80 down to $60. The reporter then referred to the “widening losses.” More recently there was an article about Mersenne prime numbers. In order to explain what a Mersenne prime was, the reporter wrote something like, “Three is an example of a Mersenne prime.” This was in the print edition. I just looked up the article on the Internet and there is a more complete definition. Anyway, it seems like the quality of the writing is declining. Accelerating? What gerund do I use for the third derivative?
Kip, did you have to subscribe to that or was it part of another link to the times? Do they allow comments in any way? Just curious if there are any rebuttals that she can actually see, aside from perhaps twitter.
Regardless, thanks for chuckle, albeit a sad one in a way. ….
ossqss ==> ClimateFwd: has a page on the online version — on that page their is a chance to subscribe to the news letter.
I am uncertain about the overall NY Times subscription issue, I am a subscriber, so I don;t know what the non-subscribed experience is — here’s the Current issue of ClimateFwd..
Kip,
A heads up that I responded to your question, in your previous contribution, about UV flux monitoring.
Clyde ==Thanks, got it.
I suspect that “gloom is her beat” and almost everyone else’s in the CAGW promotional field these days. We only hear from the main players now in snarky op eds and the occasional smear paper, like the one the polar bear group, along with guest authors Michael Mann and Stephen Lewandowsky cobbled together (what do they know about polar bears) to insult Susan Crockford. It could only have been publishable because things are slow in the meme.
Do Trenberth, Schmidt and other formerly busy climate folk do any research nowadays? They had already suffered through the Pause and then Trump came on the scene. Sad end game for alarm researchers and meme journalists. The ‘no more snow’ plaint is a recycled worry from 2000 (Dr Viner’s prediction debunked by nature). They don’t seem to have their hearts in it.
The politicians have their hearts in it Bleeding hearts Bleeding us of all of our money through carbon taxes. We have a long way to go before the hoax of global warming is over
Wish they had done this in WA state many years ago. Ruined a couple of skis on Mt Baker because spots of bare rock were incompletely covered by the straw strewn over them to replace snow. That is the same year, I think, that Alpental was virtually unskiable (is that a word?) after I had bought family tickets for the year.
“Cold weather turning skis to garbage in Pyeongchang”
i caught this quote in the article so I clicked it. It is cold enough in Korea that the Olympic skiers are throwing away $1000 pair of skis after every run because the skis deteriorate in the cold conditions. Imagine, the world is watching (and most of them believe in AGW) a competition where it is too cold to keep a pair of skis for more than 1 run. The people back home watching the competition on tv are sitting in their homes heated by fossil fuels and railing against global warming , meanwhile the skiers that are throwing away these skis after 1 run do so because even though the damage is little, every microsecond counts. And those skiers are taxpayer supported in most of the countries that are competing. What a world of OZ we live in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What color of wax do they use? I don’t know if there is one for such cold weather.
Maybe white fastwax.
Kip, while Kendra Gloom is funny in her climatic way of writing talking points, and manages to select comical examples due to her apparent ignorance of (or secret sarcasm on) recent events, I must admire the poetic and political rhetoric she manages to put forward and spin on.
I also admire people who can keep their job with such an abysmally small factual content. They must be really good in filling the expectations while not quite addressing any technical questions, like when Texas or Davos is supposed to finally be snow-free. They have also the very admirable skill to put their own goal, own opinion, what they want to say, in mouth of somebody relevant sounding, at the same time so that were the interviewee dramatically wrong, that is not actually news at all.
The result is what I’d call deliberate bullshit except I’m not sure if she thinks it is. What an intriguing position!
I’m not sure it took much effort to put words into that skier’s mouth.
I’m sure it takes a lot of effort to find people who drop exactly the most horrendous cliches for your paper. She’s not making things up, I hope. She just finds someone gullible enough to say what she liked to hear. In effect, she makes the story and puts the words in mouth despite the fact they probably were uttered to some accuracy by the interviewee, as depicted.
I realized this after I was interviewed by the local paper and did not say what the journalist(tm) wanted me to say. Haha, they interviewed somebody else.
Hugs ==> Interesting point — of course, most ‘journalism’ today is Googling a phrase and copying what someone else has already said somewhere else and re-writing it to avoid plagiarism. Almost no actual reporting.
Our local news director told me the reporters go out and interview “experts” and then report this. Even when presented with evidence that their report was materially incorrect, the station refused to consider they erred. I am always amazed when there is a retraction or correction—I figure lightening struck close to the studio and scared them! It’s basically just “professional” YouTube videos. No research, etc.
Lucky for Kendra that gloom rhymes with doom.
This is marketing for a media outlet.
AGW has been pushed in schools so aggressively that it has now become a children’s subject. It fills that time between Barbie dolls and employment hassles.
So try re-reading Fwd as a children’s section of the paper.
•It has the latest pre-planned soft news story (the Winter Olympics) as a hook.
•It has simple arguments with no counterpoint.
•It’s extreme! No Winter at all, not warmer or shorter.
Don’t blame the writer for aiming at here target audience. And don’t worry about the audience. They will grow up.
If nothing else, when they are freezing to death with no wind and no sun, they may be jolted into the real world.
“…winter’s going away.”
This is true as right now it is below zero ONLY from the Himalayas to Texas and ONLY all of Russia is below zero and ONLY all of Canada is below zero. Winter really is going away
Oh I see that Russia is the largest country and Canada the 2nd largest. And look at that, Greenland is also all below zero and is the largest island on earth.
Australians might disagree with you on Greenland being the largest island on earth. And under all that ice, Antarctica is in the running for second largest.
Uh, David: Australia and Antarctica are continents, not islands. I’d beware of the ‘thunder from down under’ engendered by your slight.
Stephen ==> Alright, maybe Winter just went on a short vacation?
Kip,
You mentioned the poor high school education of Jessie Diggins. It would seem she could have been indoctrinated by her teachers in Neomarxist dogma such as Diversity, Inclusivity, Equity of Outcome, Systemic Racism, White Privilege & Multigenderism. As such, she has had no opportunity for critical thinking. Becoming psychologically unstable due to cognitive dissonance is poor preparation for her Olympics.
Abiogenesis ==> I agree that we can’t blame young Diggins — she has been ‘brainwashed’ by 30 years of AGW propaganda.
Today I spent a couple of hours (well it is the weekend and its raining outside) encouraging people to think for themselves instead of accepting that everything they read on the internet, and in particular Wikipedia, as the truth. I wasn’t trying to indoctrinate them in any view about any subject, just promote critical thinking not blind acceptance. As this was in multiple internet areas (e.g.blogs and chats) which are fairly left skewed politically it was interesting to see the reaction. Without exception numerous individuals came out of the woodwork to insult me, point out that there were, for example, “no errors on wikipedia of significance” and suggest that I suffered from some kind of mental disorder, etc. Not a single comment in support of critical thinking or thinking for yourself, not one! Shame Richard Feynman is not still around to say something!
“Climate Change” may not be occurring now, but “Idiocracy” certainly appears to be.
Almost every so-called “Environmental Reporter” matches Kendra i.e. “zero science background”, writing emotionally filled articles full of nonsense, usually from some wealthy liberal family, For Example:
Tatiana Schlossberg is a reporter covering climate change and the environment for the Science section of The New York Times. (Kennedy family from Massachusetts)
From the article: “And goes on to say “….saving winter is something I believe in. It just breaks my heart because this is such a cool sport, and winter is so amazing and beautiful and I feel like we’re actually really at risk of losing it. And I don’t want my kids to grow up in a world where they’ve never experienced snow because we weren’t responsible enough.”
She must think the Earth is getting ready to turn into the desert planet Dune.
The world must be a really scary place to her. Alarmists have scared millions of people like her with their CAGW propaganda.
TA ==> Yes, you got that right: NYT’s Maggie Astor @MaggieAstor misdirects the Arrow of Cause
So many warmnist targets to ridicule, so little time. Thanks for this, Kip.
ristvan ==> You are welcome — Ms. “Gloom is my Beat” always cheers me up!
@Kendrawrites. She does not read.
How Do You Know Climate Alarmists Are Lying? Their Lips Are Moving
Let me begin by thanking the bipartisan group of U.S. governors who convened this meeting. Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen record drought, spreading famine, and … Continue reading
https://co2islife.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/how-do-you-know-a-climate-alarmist-is-lying-their-lips-are-moving/
She is suffering from “future present tense”: because we believe climate will happen in the future (no snow), therefore it is already happening, never mind those photos of deep snow.
Why would anyone with sense read the New York Times?
Even if it was free?
If you want to laugh, watch the Three Stooges.
Both Kendra and Jessie remind me of this person:
When late night TV comedy shows become a major source of information to an entire generation, what else can you expect?
[snip]
MODERATOR ==> THIS is an unnecessarily crude thing to appear here about a young American Olympian.
Kip,
Your post doesn’t seem to be very flattering to “a young American Olympian”. You brought her “perspective views” here for the world to see. Do you have no consideration for such a gentle soul with such an important and forward thing outlook that should be read and revaeled by YOUR and
Allow me to finish due to erroneously hitting the post button:
Kip,
Your post doesn’t seem to be very flattering to “a young American Olympian”. You brought her “perspective views” here for the world to see. Do you have no consideration for such a gentle soul with such an important and forward thinking outlook that should be read and revealed by YOUR posting and The New York Times’ climate “newsletter” alerting the public to the most important news about the climate, every two weeks.
Perhaps you could offer cover for the ‘kneelers’ in the professional football leagues, bless their gentle and understanding hearts.
Kip,
Furthermore, why did you write this:
“This OpEd is not meant to be taken too seriously.”
“Kendra “Gloom is My Beat” Pierre-Louis” When I read that I damn near did a ‘Danny Thomas spit take!’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZCm4T7AXEo
Kendra Gloom — What happens when science reporting is turned over to Bachelor of Arts degrees who’ve been indoctrinated rather than trained in the tools of critical thought and skepticism.
The mid-winter future looks bleak indeed — always Christmas, never winter.
The New York Times used to be a respected paper, I subscribed to it for many years, until drivel like this began to appear under its name. Professional journalists used to think critically, now they are just parrots for selected sources and don’t think at all. Thanks Kip, this is an important issue and sites like this must keep hammering away at the dreadful MSM science coverage we see.
Andy ==> You welcome — it’s a pleasure.
Unfortunately for the amused author and commenters, that Olympic cross skier DOES know what she’s talking about. The snow season in Switzerland starts later and ends way earlier over the last few decades. Same for snowfall line. One story about Davos this year does not change the facts. It’s an actual problem for the sport.
Of course if this particular climate change is human induced or permanent, that is another discussion.
John, could you please provide us the data sources for your “The snow season in Switzerland starts later and ends way earlier over the last few decades. Same for snowfall line.”
Thank your ahead of time.
I agree. Would love to see that data re snow in Switzerland.
John Dowser ==> Pierre-Louis and Diggins would have been on solid ground had they discussed that the Swiss ski resorts, built at lower and lower altitudes to take advantage of the phenomenal growth in sport over the last 130 years, were enjoying somewhat shorter reliable natural snow ski seasons recently. The 1970’s were a time of cooling across Europe and higher winter snow accumulations — and more avalanches destroying whole villages.
Snow patterns change naturally over the decades and change back again. 2017 was a lousy year for Alps skiing — yet they had snow in Sicily!
Overall, nothing much has changed in average snow depths — 1960-1983 or so had 7 exceptionally high snow years, otherwise the rest — right to present — are flat — in all decades there have been some really poor snow years.
One thing you can be sure of — Winter is not going away.
The new story point is one doesn’t point out the terrible snow drought in Davos two weeks after huge snowfalls threaten devastating avalanches and trap world leaders at a Davos ski resort.
The ski season for most Swiss destinations doesn’t begin until well into December — they all hope for early snows so they get a big Christmas crowd. Hasn’t been coming in time for Christmas the last few years.
Snow farming is done so cross country runs can be open in the Autumn…Oct and November — when they don;t normally have natural snow.
Less hard winters is viewed as a Good Thing for most places — just not so for Ski Resorts for the Top 10%.
Of course, Davos is for the 1%.