Tomorrow, Sunday, April 22, is Earth Day 2018
By Mark J. Perry, Ph.D. writing for the American Enterprise Institute
In the May 2000 issue of Reason Magazine, award-winning science correspondent Ronald Bailey wrote an excellent article titled “Earth Day, Then and Now” to provide some historical perspective on the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. In that article, Bailey noted that around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, and in the years following, there was a “torrent of apocalyptic predictions” and many of those predictions were featured in his Reason article. Well, it’s now the 48th anniversary of Earth Day, and a good time to ask the question again that Bailey asked 18 years ago: How accurate were the predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970? The answer: “The prophets of doom were not simply wrong, but spectacularly wrong,” according to Bailey.
Here are 18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around 1970 when the “green holy day” (aka Earth Day) started:
1. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
2. “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner in the Earth Day issue of the scholarly journal Environment.
3. The day after the first Earth Day, the New York Times editorial page warned, “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
4. “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich confidently declared in the April 1970 issue of Mademoiselle. “The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
5. “Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born,” wrote Paul Ehrlich in a 1969 essay titled “Eco-Catastrophe! “By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
6. Ehrlich sketched out his most alarmist scenario for the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, assuring readers that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”
7. “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” declared Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for Earth Day, in the Spring 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness.
8. Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor, wrote in 1970, “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
9. In January 1970, Life reported, “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
10. Ecologist Kenneth Watt told Time that, “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
11. Barry Commoner predicted that decaying organic pollutants would use up all of the oxygen in America’s rivers, causing freshwater fish to suffocate.
12. Paul Ehrlich chimed in, predicting in 1970 that “air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” Ehrlich sketched a scenario in which 200,000 Americans would die in 1973 during “smog disasters” in New York and Los Angeles.
13. Paul Ehrlich warned in the May 1970 issue of Audubon that DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons “may have substantially reduced the life expectancy of people born since 1945.” Ehrlich warned that Americans born since 1946…now had a life expectancy of only 49 years, and he predicted that if current patterns continued this expectancy would reach 42 years by 1980, when it might level out. (Note: According to the most recent CDC report, life expectancy in the US is 78.8 years).
14. Ecologist Kenneth Watt declared, “By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’”
15. Harrison Brown, a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, published a chart in Scientific American that looked at metal reserves and estimated the humanity would totally run out of copper shortly after 2000. Lead, zinc, tin, gold, and silver would be gone before 1990.
16. Sen. Gaylord Nelson wrote in Look that, “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
17. In 1975, Paul Ehrlich predicted that “since more than nine-tenths of the original tropical rainforests will be removed in most areas within the next 30 years or so, it is expected that half of the organisms in these areas will vanish with it.”
18. Kenneth Watt warned about a pending Ice Age in a speech. “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
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http://www.capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/2009/04/earthdaylenin.jpg
With the exception of maybe Lenin….all the rest of them taught school……that should be the wakeup call
Interesting. When union activists and others took over the Wisconsin state house a few years ago, staging a sit-in, they all wore red shirts. The media tried to provide cover for them, saying, ‘Oh look, they’re wearing Badger red, isn’t that harmless and cute’. (U of Wisc. school colors.) Every thinking person knew better.
Hardcore environmentalists don’t care what the Jury thinks. They have already reached a verdict, and intend to ban Juries along with everything else they don’t like and any people who disagree with them.
Not just his birthday but the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Let us not forget to give credit to one of the principle founders of Earth Day, Ira Einhorn, the man who a little later murdered his girlfriend for saying she might leave him, and put her body in a trunk in his apartment for 18 months. Then he fled to Europe for 20 years or so before he was finally located and extradicted back to serve prison time here, where I believe he still is.
Yes, a perfect representative of the Environmental movement – he believed people should be turned into compost, and he started with those closest to him.
I seem to recall that he eventually composted his victim.
No, he left her in the steamer trunk, right up until the police, armed with a search warrant, found her there and arrested Einhorn, who claimed he did not know where she was, had not seen her in months, etc.
Even though the odor of her rotting corpse was noticed by neighbors and passer’s-by.
How he was ever let out on bail is the big mystery to me.
He fled to a country which was well known to refuse deportation of accused murderers to countries with the death penalty. It took years to get him deported even after he was found, living a cozy life with his new girlfriend, who for some unGodly reason stuck with him even after learning the truth…although it seems she knew who he was from the start.
Yes dear Ira is rotting in a Philly prison I worked for the Co. who managed his apt. in the late 70’s he really creeped me out before Det. Chitwood discovered Holly’s body badly
decomposed.
Those who can do,
those who cannot attempt to teach,
and those who cannot even muster the knowledge to teach attempt to administrate.
and the most worthless become activists
Those who can do, those who can’t teach and those that can’t teach consult 🙂
There was a great Dilbert cartoon years ago with the Dogbert character musing “I love to con people and I love to insult them … I’ll be a CONSULTant”
Happy keep the lights on day/night everyone!
“By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
6. Ehrlich sketched out his most alarmist scenario for the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, assuring readers that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”
7. “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” declared Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for Earth Day, in the Spring 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness.
8. Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor, wrote in 1970, “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
Well of course they weren’t taking into account of the increase in Carbon Dioxide which has enabled increased food production on our planet, in spite of some foolish efforts to eliminate the increase.
We are our own worst energy. We are more likely to engineer our demise by ruining our capitalist economies and succumbing to the left. Think of Venezuela!
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
Actually, you can thank Norman Borlaug for the green revolution more than any other single cause. I wonder if the doomsayers hated him.
I predict that this kind of prediction will not stop as long as mankind is around.
in other words: stupidity is ubiquituous and never ending.
It isn’t stupid. It was and currently is part of a marketing campaign to enrich themselves and their cause through hysteria. That campaign has been quite successful over these last 50 years. So while their predictions went horribly wrong, the real goal was met nevertheless. It’s always about the money.
The stupidity is that of the general public:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/30/what-happened-to-the-armchair-environmentalists-and-climate-alarmists-when-the-hurricanes-hit/comment-page-1/#comment-2624888
[excerpt]
The political reality is that most people are far too stupid to vote, as evidenced by the energy debacle in Ontario under Doltan McGuinty and Kathleen Wynn, and the election of Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and Rachel Notley in Alberta. Global warming alarmism is promoted by scoundrels and supported by imbeciles – there is no real global warming crisis.
Cheap, abundant, reliable energy is the lifeblood of society – it IS that simple. Most politicians are too uneducated to even opine on energy, let alone set energy policy.
It’s not just about the money, There was an old Soviet term Upravleniye that was about setting collective goals and then steering towards those goals. CAGW turns that desire for an organized, steered society and supposedly makes its use a necessity. Suddenly, human institutions become ‘systems’ and politicians have a field day with all those needed plans.
I agree, Robin. Climate change isn’t about the environment. It’s about establishing a common human goal, and the global government allegedly necessary to deal with it.
The goal is global government. Climate change is another schtick to get people to accept it.
Global government, with themselves in control.
It’s been around forever – the Bible has whole books devoted to the doomsayers.
There is something in some people that makes them predict the worst unless everybody does what they say. It’s not only Greens though – Hitler, Mao, Marx, all predicted that unless drastic action was taken, terrible things would happen. As with the Greens, terrible things had to happen to prevent the other terrible things though.
the frisson of gothic horror has a market and people do not want less of it. it’s what the pay taxes for.
if the pope suddenly declared there was no hell- nobody would cheer; disappointment would reign.
gnomesh: “if the pope suddenly declared there was no hell”
Ummmm . . . .
The Pope declared there is no Devil just a few weeks ago.
Personally I do not think he is even a real Catholic.
And the beat goes on as those we compete against or consider enemies continue to use academia and activists to try and quash US economic growth.
1. Foreign Firm Funding U.S. Green Groups Tied to State-Owned Russian Oil Company
http://freebeacon.com/issues/foreign-firm-funding-u-s-green-groups-tied-to-state-owned-russian-oil-company/
2. Russian funding of U.S. environmental groups shows how collusion is done
https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/2018/03/russian-funding-of-us-environmental.html
3. Nato claims Moscow funding anti-fracking groups
https://www.ft.com/content/20201c36-f7db-11e3-baf5-00144feabdc0
etc, etc, etc.
It’s also very, very profitable for those who are willing to take advantage of other people’s stupidity.
Yes, I can make a prediction with confidence. Anyone making a confident prediction about the future will look stupid in the future. Predicted with a 90% confidence level.
I can safely predict that the climate and environment scare will be used to suppress and control the commoners until something better comes along, be it real or contrived.
Wait until the Dolphins leave.
Well, they have been trying to warns us for a long time! 😉
I thought they were just thanking us for the fish.
“Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support
What on earth is ‘theoretical evidence’?
A computer model??
“Theoretical Evidence”: I think it’s something I thought.
And “Demographers agree almost unanimously…” which means just about all demographers were wrong. Strange how consensus doesn’t mean a thing.
Evidence that evidence may be true, or not true, or partly true, or is this a possibility, maybe.
“Theoretical evidence” is a statement of high confidence in a fact yet to be proven, justified by a complex mathematical presentation where most people are not trained well enough to detect its fundamental sophisticated errors.
A “known unknown ” then?
Maybe it’s evidence of confirmation bias?
I think “Doctrinal evidence” is synonymous.
Theoretical evidence is the projection of popular truism as fact which is supported by circular reasoning.
It is the antonym of “empirical evidence”.
The same as every one of these pronouncements or imminent doom…then and now:
Made up jawing, invented on the spot or contrived ahead of time, written down, and optimized for dramatic effect.
None of these were accurate predictions, but they were also not even true statements as far as they represented mainstream views.
Even when they said these things, it was just lying liars doing what big fat lying liars always do: Lie!
the only good they did was in cleaning the rivers up and some good came from pushing better emissions controls on cars and cleaner fuel, i do remember seeing some pretty nasty rivers n air pollution pics from usa back then.and limiting the chemical abuse on farms etc
as for the rest..Im glad im old enough to remember a lot of this and enjoy a laugh
Yet here at the confluence of the Mississippi Missouri and Illinois rivers, we are dealing with the unintended consequences of restoring crystal clear springs and creeks. Simulium meridionale, the Turkey Gnat,
http://api.fmanager.net/files/fossils/alive/AI3102_turkeygnat_1.jpg
was nearly extinct in the region until a decade or so ago, and has made a ferocious comeback in our cleaned up environment. Now the local Turkey population is taking a big hit because these buggers bite all around the face and nostrils of any animal and cause anaphylaxis in newly hatched fowl of all kinds as well as newborn animals.
Our over burgeoning deer, raccoon, coyote, bobcat, and skunk populations attest to a better managed environment in the US heartland.
Sounds like we need to restore some balance by bringing back some predators.
Oz, you raise a great point!
If my memory serves, the first Earth Day organized teams to parol the river banks and collect garbage. That continued the next FEW years, expanding to litter pickup on highways.
They mobilized what I would call conservationists (like myself) who valued action, and the first order (cleaner roads and rivers) and second order results (fines for littering, deposits on bottles) were beneficial. These were organized mainly by private Conservation groups (BTW, many of those groups were focused on hunting and also had gun ranges – shock!!).
The next phase was “marches” where participants collected sponsors for the pure (and useless) act of walking. (At the time I wondered why they couldn’t get sponsors for picking up trash rather than just strolling down a highway.)
Today people are organized by an invisible chain of social justice groups and the objective is VIRTUE SIGNALING. (When was the last time you saw that “concerned” group walk river banks or highways collecting trash? More to the point, look at how they leave their protest area when the demonstration concludes.)
As others have pointed out, these “modern” demonstrations no longer limit themselves to the supposed “cause of the day”; instead you will see signs for every socially conscious group (anti-gun, “gender equity”, immigration etc) marching side by side (I may not give a damn about your cause but we will make more of a splash if we all march together at every opportunity. Besides we all have the same paymaster. /sarc, /cynicism)
Please not bottle redemption, they doubled it here in Orydumb because people were putting their recycles in the recycle bin at home and not generating CO2 to bring it back to the store. The state then put in a redemption center where a porno store used to be. Everytime I go to Washington, I’m buying soda in aluminum cans and throwing the empties into the trash now.
Surely there have been some successes. California led the nation in regulating pollution from vehicles. They must have the cleanest air in the world by now.
A quick google shows that California actually has the most polluted air in the nation. link
We look back at previous screw-ups and think we’re somehow immune. Actually, we should look back and despair. We’re no smarter than ‘they’ were. We should learn from ‘their’ mistakes. But no … we have an endless succession of experts telling us how we should conduct our affairs. Those experts have no more chance of being right than dart-throwing monkeys. Their bad advice costs us huge amounts of money and kills lots of people.
Actually research shows the experts do worse than the monkeys. Part of the problem is pinning these experts down to what they actually mean and putting dates and numbers by their predictions. the book “Superforcasting” is quite good on that.
Ronald Reagan was actually RIGHT! It turns out that much of California’s smog comes from Volatile Organic Compounds, i.e. trees and other plants. I remember reading an article in “Science News” on this subject back in the 1970s or 1980s. I’m sure President Reagan either read those same articles, or based his information on the reply he got when he asked, “What makes the Blue Ridge Mountains Blue?” and was ridiculed for his knowledge.
http://www.californiaagnet.com/2018/02/07/central-valley-soil-emissions-a-large-source-of-states-nitrogen-oxide-pollution/
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1574&context=theses
https://www.popsci.com/trees-air-pollution
I remember reading years ago that the Indians called the area around Los Angeles, “The valley of smoke” long before the appearance of Europeans are the automobile was invented.
Even more expensive has been the Federal Government’s so-called “War on Poverty” which has never been winnable because the methods and means that were devised and implemented with which to fight made winning a natural impossibility…..And it seems to me that some of the names who have been mentioned in this article were prominent in the planning for the war on poverty…………
Every major sport has statistics on everything that can happen in the game, no matter how unlikely.
It’s too bad we can’t have an “earned prognostication average” for pundits’ predictions.
The first Earth Day in 1970 is certainly a date for the history books, but so too is the year 2000 date of the Bailey article, roughly the date when the MSM stopped science journalism and switched to deploying science for political purposes.
And why not?
The are in the business of selling eyeballs, and did very well in the Y2K scare.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/20/from-the-the-stupid-it-burns-department-science-denial-not-limited-to-political-right/comment-page-1/#comment-2615837
The essence of science is the ability to predict, and the IPCC and its minions have a perfectly negative predictive track record – NONE of their scary predictions have materialized. That means that the IPCC has NEGATIVE scientific credibility, and nobody should believe anything the IPCC or its minions say.
I have two engineering degrees in earth sciences and have studied this subject since 1985, and I have found NO evidence of dangerous humanmade global warming, and ample evidence that it does NOT exist.
The debate on global warming alarmism concerns one parameter – the climate sensitivity to increasing atmospheric CO2 (“ECS”). Global warming alarmists falsely suggest that ECS is high, yet their estimates of ECS have been declining for the past decade and are still far too high to be credible. There is ample evidence that ECS is low, probably <=1C/(2*CO2) and possibly much less than 1C.
Here is just one of many lines of evidence that ECS is low:
The ~35-year global cooling period that commenced in ~1940, even as fossil fuel consumption sharply increased, adequately falsifies the hypothesis that increasing atmospheric CO2 is a significant driver of global warming. The CAGW hypo is further falsified by the current ~20-year “Pause” in global temperatures, as atmospheric CO2 continued to increase.
That is why the global warming alarmists have more recently been falsifying the temperature data records to minimize the ~35-year cooling period and increase their alleged warming during the Pause.
There was a ~22 year period of global warming starting about 1975, but much of that warming period was a natural recovery from two major volcanos, El Chichon in 1982 and Pinatubo in 1991. Real global warming probably did occur after the Great Pacific Climate Shift, circa 1977.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/09/15/report-ocean-cycles-not-humans-may-be-behind-most-observed-climate-change/comment-page-1/#comment-2613373
Conclusion:
Since 1940 there has been ~22 years of positive correlation of temperature with CO2, and ~55 years of negative or ~zero correlation. The global warming hypo is contradicted by a full-Earth-scale test since 1940. CO2 is NOT a significant driver of global warming.
Regards, Allan
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/looking-warm-forecast-heres-one-2022
“Watching for the next El Niño”
At least the prediction is not for a century or two and has a basis. The marine biology literature shows the fixation on the effects of warmth, cannot immediately recall a cool effect paper or analysis this millennium. Just like about lowering but not raising pH. These will be other major failures of science (physiology), regardless of what happens. It is cold in the ocean even in the tropics.
I was also around at (and long before) the first Earth Day. It was somewhat like the March for Science.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/MarchForScience?src=hash
I have no problem believing scientists or their predictions. I have a big problem deciding which scientists and which predictions to believe. Mostly I just decide to ignore them all and in the case of climate science, just look out the window.
Allan, when the “greenhouse” effects that are produced by water vapor are included into the analysis, are we not seeing at least the amount of CO2 produced warming that should be expected? According to what I can find by searching various www sites, The amount of H2O molecules in the atmosphere ranges from maybe 20 to more than 100 times greater then the amount of CO2. Additionally, I find comments to the effect that H2O molecules are more capable of producing atmospheric greenhouse effect.
This whole thing has gone more than a little bit bonkers in my opinion.
While water vapor has a larger GHG effect than CO2, the other effect water has is clouds which both reduces total solar input by reflection and like GHG’s, slows down surface cooling. The warming effect of water (GHG + clouds) is almost completely offset by the cooling effect from albedo. The IPCC obfuscates this with its definition of forcing which is is incremental input power at TOT (or TOA). As this boundary is above the clouds, the effects of cloud (and ice) albedo are effectively cancelled out of the baseline forcing and the corresponding sensitivity.
Yes thomasjk. Bonkers is the word. You only have to look at the Steam Tables to work out that at water phase change the Sensitivity (ECS?) is a big fat ZERO. and there is a lot of water up there in the clouds.
Also if one does one’s homework you will realise that the global temperature is primarily controlled by the combination of gravity, the vapour pressure of water and the partial pressure; all at the prevailing conditions. The reason why all this works is that gaseous water is lighter than dry air and rises up past pesky CO2, dissipating all that 680 WattHrs/kg of Latent Heat into the atmosphere and space. It is called the Rankine Cycle and the IPCC does not appear to know much about it.
I could waffle on; for there are many side issues here; but don’t want to bore everyone.
Regards. Alasdair.
Alasdair, could you please clarify how the Rankine cycle works outside of a boiler-turbine system for this dummy? I’m having trouble visualizing it even though I know it has to have something to do with it.
Never mind, I get it after rereading a few times. It’s about vapor pressure.
The most convincing evidence of a low ECS is the absolute absurdity of a high ECS relative to the laws of physics.
The IPCC’s nominal ECS of 0.8K per W/m^2 is equivalently stated as 4.3 W/m^2 more surface emissions arising from the next W/m^2 of solar forcing. In the steady state, surface emissions must be offset by incident energy. This means that 3.3 W/m^2 of input to the surface above and beyond the 1 W/m^2 of forcing is required to offset the incremental emissions by the surface.
They claim that the extra 3.3 W/m^2 of offsetting input comes from feedback, which mathematically is added to the forcing and must have the same units as the forcing. By contorting the required W/m^2 of feedback as ‘temperature feedback’, the IPCC obfuscates this obvious failure, for if positive feedback is larger than the forcing, the system becomes unconditionally unstable.
Data manipulation predicting impossible trends not withstanding, among the failed predictions the IPCC’s absurd ECS makes are as follows:
1) COE dictates that all Joules are equivalent, thus each W/m^2 of forcing must have the same effect. If each of the 240 W/m^2 of accumulated solar forcing resulted in net surface emissions of 4.3 W/m^2, the surface would be emitting an amount of power corresponding to a temperature close to the boiling point of water.
2) Again considering COE, each of the 240 W/m^2 of accumulated solar forcing equivalently results in 1.6 W/m^2 of surface emissions and predicts that the next will result in no more than 1.6 W/m^2 of emissions owing to the T^4 relationship between emissions and temperature and the 1/T^3 dependence of the sensitivity. It’s absolutely impossible for the next W/m^2 to result in the predicted 4.3 W/m^2 of incremental surface emissions.
3) The linearity assumption led to the presumed nominal sensitivity by dividing the average surface temperature by its emissions 288K / 390W/m^2 = 0.74 K per W/m^2 which is close to the presumed nominal value of 0.8K per W/m^2. The first 10 W/m^2 of forcing results in a temperature of 115K, yet the IPCC presumption of linearity claims the first 10 W/m^2 of forcing would result in a temperature of only 8K.
It only takes one failed prediction to falsify a hypothesis. The fact that the widely falsifiable hypothesis of an absurdly high ECS is still considered valid is a clear and present danger to all scientific disciplines.
Seems a low ECS is well observed during the “pause”, as long as ENSO and MJO are factored in.
…Which led me to consider that since these two factors have shown consistent teleconnections to global weather, and climate is considered 3 decades of weather, how does CO2 play into this at all, especially when it remains a trace gas at under 1%? In what way does CO2 steer ENSO and pressure variations, kelvin waves, trade winds, Hadley cells, etc.?
It is not just under 1%.
It is under one half of one tenth of 1%.
Wow another topic the Allan is an expert on because he has two engineering degrees.
One of the reason I am a skeptic is the certainty that people know things that can not be know to any measurable certainty.
The second is the obsession with the insignificant. When I was young, air pollution was a real problem. Of course in the context of polio and cars without seat belt, there were some really scaring things and things we should have been scared of.
Retired Kit P………………..Likewise……………I am also retired ……………….but your “nit-picking” of Allan’s
article seems somewhat inappropriate. (I seemingly have the SAME LEVEL of expertise as yourself in that
I am also retired ! ) I guess that it depends to some extent what it is or was that you retired from .
Professional wrestling , car salesman , ???? Probably teaching ! They SEEM to know everything that there
is to know……….except how to use the word KNOWN correctly.
At least Allan is offering “an INFORMED OPINION” together with evidence that backs his opinion.
I find it hard to believe that you rated “air pollution , polio and a lack of seat-belts in cars as “really scaring
things” while at the SAME TIME we lived CONSTANTLY with the threat of NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION.
Cherry picking ? Willful blindness ? Perhaps , a mere oversight !?
Good thing that that poor delusional excuse for a president , the washed-up B Movie actor , Ronald
Reagan ( who at 69 should have been retired ) got elected and together with Mikhail Gorbachev
and eventually George Bush Snr managed TO END THE COLD WAR !
Apart from getting involved in a lot more “hot” wars since , the presidents since then haven’t made much of
a contribution it SEEMS to me ! Perhaps it is a good thing that a fading TV star and property tycoon and
even older unlikely candidate has been elected recently ! These poor old coots just NEVER KNOW
when to retire do they ! Obviously they bring THEIR uninformed opinions to office with them !
I guess time ( not the magazine ! ) will tell !
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/06/nasa-reports-massive-hole-in-suns-atmosphere/comment-page-1/#comment-2784977
meteorologist in research wrote:
“If the temperature of the planet goes down for a statistically meaningful amount of time then AGW will be falsified.”
Agreed m-i-r, but this has already happened, when Earth cooled from ~1940 to ~1977, even as atmospheric CO2 accelerated, so the CAGW hypo is already falsified.
The CAGW hypo is also falsified as follows:
The upper-bound estimate of Transient Climate Sensitivity of ~1C/(2xCO2) by Christy and McNider (2017) is highly credible for the satellite era from ~1979 to mid-2017. This upper bound was calculated assuming (conservatively, for the sake of simplicity and clarity) that ALL the observed warming in the satellite era was due to increasing atmospheric CO2. This maximum climate sensitivity is so low that there is NO credible global warming crisis.
https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/2017_christy_mcnider-1.pdf
I have searched and found NO credible evidence that catastrophic human-made global warming exists in reality. None!
Incidentally, using the same assumptions as Christy and McNider, the TCS for the period ~1940 to ~1977 is about MINUS 1C/(2xCO2).
Furthermore, I proved in 2008 that the velocity dCO2/dt changes contemporaneously with global temperature, and its integral atmospheric CO2 changes ~9 months later. This clear signal can only exist if TCS is very small. See also Humlum et al (2013) for a similar observation.
Practically speaking, if TCS exists at all in significance, it must be very low, probably a positive number less than 0.5C/(2xCO2), or even lower.
In summary, the catastrophic human-made global warming crisis has already been disproved.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/27/new-report-reveals-a-23-year-long-pause-in-stratospheric-temperature/comment-page-1/#comment-2775898
Olé Ole! a very good report.
From page 18 of the Humlum “State of the Climate 2017” report at
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2018/03/State-of-the-Climate2017.pdf
“It is instructive to consider the variation of the annual change rate of atmospheric CO2 together with the annual change rates for the global air temperature and global sea surface temperature (Figure 16). All three change rates clearly vary in concert, but with sea surface temperature rates leading the global temperature rates by a few months and atmospheric CO2 rates lagging 11–12 months behind the sea surface temperature rates.”
In January 2008 I published that changes in global atmospheric CO2 lag about 9 months behind changes in global atmospheric temperature. I still have the scars on my back for this “climate heresy”, which effectively disproves the myth of catastrophic humanmade global warming. [If you disagree, please show me how the future can cause the past.]
Paper at http://icecap.us/images/uploads/CO2vsTMacRae.pdf
Excel sheet at http://icecap.us/images/uploads/CO2vsTMacRaeFig5b.xls
Humlum et al reached similar conclusions in 2013 here:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921818112001658
“Highlights:
– Changes in global atmospheric CO2 are lagging 11–12 months behind changes in global sea surface temperature.
– Changes in global atmospheric CO2 are lagging 9.5–10 months behind changes in global air surface temperature.
– Changes in global atmospheric CO2 are lagging about 9 months behind changes in global lower troposphere temperature.
– Changes in ocean temperatures explain a substantial part of the observed changes in atmospheric CO2 since January 1980.
– Changes in atmospheric CO2 are not tracking changes in human emissions.”
Here is a version of Figure 16, from Humlum’s monthly update:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1551019291642294&set=a.1012901982120697.1073741826.100002027142240&type=3&theater
Global warming alarmists could not be more wrong. These are the true facts, which are opposite to false alarmist claims:
1. CO2 is plant food, and greater atmospheric CO2 is good for natural plants and also for agriculture.
2. Earth’s atmosphere is clearly CO2-deficient and the current increase in CO2 (whatever the causes) is net beneficial to humanity and the environment.
3. Increased atmospheric CO2 does not cause significant global warming – regrettable because the world is too cold and about to get colder, imo.
Regards to all, Allan
Kit P,
It is not degrees from a university that makes a person correct or incorrect.
It is whether they are correct or not, and nothing else, that makes them correct or incorrect.
If degrees were all that mattered and such degrees as made someone an “expert” in a given field also magically imbued them with the quality of always being correct, we would not be here, and the global warming alarmism fiasco would not and could not exist.
I knew global warming alarmist was nonsense the first time I heard it, and my reasons for the belief have been increasing and being strengthened and reinforced ever since.
Even if not a single shred of other evidence was available, why would any rational person believe people who have invented fake data, and then used charts of that fake data to convince people that they are correct?
Regarding successful predictions, WE TOLD YOU SO, 16 YEARS AGO:
We confidently wrote in 2002:
“CLIMATE SCIENCE DOES NOT SUPPORT THE THEORY OF CATASTROPHIC HUMAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING – THE ALLEGED WARMING CRISIS DOES NOT EXIST.”
Result: By the time the cooling after the recent El Nino is completed, the ~20-year “Pause” will have been re-established and there will continue to be no real global warming crisis, despite large increases in atmospheric CO2 – the sensitivity of climate to increasing CO2 will continue to be small and any minor warming will not be dangerous.
We also confidently wrote in 2002:
“THE ULTIMATE AGENDA OF PRO-KYOTO ADVOCATES IS TO ELIMINATE FOSSIL FUELS, BUT THIS WOULD RESULT IN A CATASTROPHIC SHORTFALL IN GLOBAL ENERGY SUPPLY – THE WASTEFUL, INEFFICIENT ENERGY SOLUTIONS PROPOSED BY KYOTO ADVOCATES SIMPLY CANNOT REPLACE FOSSIL FUELS.”
Result: Green energy schemes have proven to be excessively expensive, unreliable, intermittent and in summary, a costly debacle. Fully 85% of global primary energy is still provided by fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal), with nuclear and hydro providing almost all of the remainder.
Source:
DEBATE ON THE KYOTO ACCORD
PEGG, reprinted in edited form at their request by several other professional journals, THE GLOBE AND MAIL and LA PRESSE in translation, by Dr. Sallie Baliunas (Harvard-Smithsonian), Tim Patterson (Carleton University) and Allan MacRae, P.Eng., (McGill, Queen’s and University of Alberta)
http://www.apega.ca/members/publications/peggs/WEB11_02/kyoto_pt.htm
http://www.friendsofscience.org/assets/documents/KyotoAPEGA2002REV1.pdf
Tens of trillions of dollars of scarce global resources have been squandered on the global warming scam, enough money to corrupt countless politicians, government officials and academics. The result has been an avoidable huge increase in electrical costs, the destabilizing of electrical grids due to intermittent wind and solar power, and the suffering and premature deaths of millions due to dysfunctional energy policies.
In addition to the corruption of science, the many trillions of dollars misallocated in the global warming scam could have been used to alleviate enormous human suffering and save millions of lives.
It is long past time that the scientific community stopped this charade, and soundly condemned and ended the ~35-year old global warming scam.
MacRea sez:
“I have two engineering degrees in earth sciences
and have studied this subject since 1985,
and I have found NO evidence of dangerous
human made global warming, and
ample evidence that it does NOT exist.”
My comment:
You may be qualified to talk about REAL science,
MacRae, and I certainly think you are … but …
“modern climate science” is completely different:
(1) Faith in government bureaucrats
(2) Wild guess predictions of the future climate
(3) Ignore wrong past predictions.
(4) Ignore the wonderful current climate.
(5) Claim that supercomputer models are
all the proof you need.
(6) Never show doubt about anything
(7) Refuse to debate anything
MacRae, be honest with us now:
Did you learn any of the seven points
above when you were going to school?
My own climate blog:
http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com
No Richard Greene – I missed that particular lecture. I heard that the self-proclaimed “climate scientist” was a raving lunatic, who actually howled at the full moon – so I decided to skip that lecture. I cannot recall his name for sure, but I think it was Piltdown – yes that’s it – Dr. Piltdown Mann. 🙂
And I was the guy who sits front and center for every lecture, but got kicked out of this one (a first) for heckling the lecturer: Asking inconvenient questions, and being generally and impertinently skeptical.
97% of all climate scientist agree that you’re already dead.
Including 97% of climate scientists.
Only 3% of Climate scientists left. We have a consensus from the grave. Most everybody else is dead too. The adjusted data is evidence of that but nobody left to analyze it. Most of my friends are dead but until now I thought it was because I am old and they were too. The environment spared me. I will drink to that.
Well, in the long run, we are all dead. At least according to Keynes, we are.
Damn that stinkin’ long run!
Most inconvenient.
#stillhopingforawaiver
97% of all climate scientist who believe in global warming alarmism are already brain dead. 🙂
Last month we read in the newspapers that some luminary had figured out that drinking wine was very bad for you and that umpty glasses a week would cost you a year of your life. Needless to say this ludicrous news was countradicted about a fortnight later, but I already new that. I had made a quick calculation based on the numbers provided and found that I had died almost 15 years ago.
It is an example of the failure of society that you weren’t notified of your death.
More adjusted data.
I reported my father’s death in 2015 to all the proper agencies and he still continues to receive mail. All of it soliciting donations.
If I were you, Ed Zuiderwijk,
I’d avoid open mike night
at any local comedy club.
We have an insatiable desire for forecasts about the future, and always have had, so we use whatever we have, whether it’s the entrails of goats or the biggest supercomputer. And in most ways, we haven’t got any better at it. For some deep psychological reason, we find uncertainty difficult, and making decision with uncertainty very hard. The story about D-Day (I think) illustrates that: a statistician looked at the accuracy of long range weather forecasts being used for planning, and showed that they were worse than random, but Eisenhower (I think) said “but I have to have something!”
So we use what we probably know deep down are guesses or worse, and tell ourselves they are better than nothing. Of course that allows us to be manipulated by the unscrupulous and those with an agenda, which is why scepticism is such a vital tool, and why its near-death is such a problem for our societies and economies.
“We have an insatiable desire for forecasts about the future,…”
That’s because forecasts about the past, such as those listed here, simply aren’t satiating.
/grin
I had an excellent dinner with a fine wine last night. I don’t think eating it the second time around would be very satisfying.
Phoenix44
April 21, 2018 at 4:51 am: Luckily for civilasation, Britain had a good and honest Weather Office in those days, and command of the North Atlantic. From whence that weather came.
“
From wWhence that weather came.”Have not gotten any better at it?
I can tell you why that is right off the bat: You are using goat entrails.
That will not tell you a darn thing, except what goat entrails look and smell like.
For accurate and up to date forecasts, you need to use a freshly slaughtered chicken.
Although rolling the dried bones will suffice in a pinch.
No mention of this conference ?
1975 `Endangered Atmosphere’ Conference: Where the Global Warming Hoax Was Born
Margaret Mead Ph.D gave the marching orders ( with consensus) :
“What we need from scientists are estimates, presented with sufficient conservatism and plausibility but at the same time as free as possible from internal disagreements that can be exploited by political interests, that will allow us to start building a system of artificial but effective warnings, warnings which will parallel the instincts of animals who flee before the hurricane, pile up a larger store of nuts before a severe winter, or of caterpillars who respond to impending climatic changes by growing thicker coats”
“artifical warnings,which will parallel the instincts of animals” ? I wonder what animals she meant, Could it have been you all , us?
CO2 is only one of the artificial warning series including ozone, plastic… It does not matter that they are shown to be false taken one-at-a-time, connecto, by induction, by creeping and crawling as animals do.
Who are those few that would cull our billions as animals?
Shades of Zeus’ anger at hearing Prometheus gave us mortals fire. Or much the same, Enlil’s, of the Akkadian Atra-Hasis, decision to cull mankind. Or Prince Philip’s wish to be reincarnated as a deadly virus to cull. Not to mention Sir Julian Huxley, or Prince Bernhard, the 3 WWF founders.
So no more creeping and crawling to the next scare, to the culling!
Bobbin
Can we start with the royal family first please; Philip at the front of the queue followed by his dorky son Charles, soon to be head of the Commwealth I believe. I would give the Queen a pass as she has remained dignified and kept her mouth shut. But please, let her be the last.
bonbon!!!!!!
Effing autocorrect!
The queen, and most Britons, recognize that Charles is a victim of the congenital “royal disease”. That is, he’s very dim-witted and is fixated on goofy theories, like stopping CO2 emissions and promotion of disastrous alternative energy scams. Him being on the throne would be a disaster for Britain and a huge family embarrassment. She’s determined to outlive him so that William succeeds her.
Climate scientist Stephen Schneider (IPCC) co-authored with Paul Ehrlich mentioned often in the Lead, on “carrying capacity” was at that conference along with John Holdren later Obama’s “advisor”. Small world.
Small minds!
The same Mead that faked her research data?
In February 1983, Derek Freeman, an Australian anthropologist, documented that Margaret’s account of life on Samoa was a complete hoax. There is a lot more there from Dr.Spock,LSD to marijana, cultural perversion …. Anthropology is a complete fraud.
In February 1983, Derek Freeman, an Australian anthropologist, documented that Margaret’s account of life on Samoa was a complete hoax.
Anthropology is a complete fraud?
I must write a paper about my field investigations into societies that feel it is not and contrast them with societies that feel it is. Additional insights are always helpful.
bonbon
April 21, 2018 at 4:52 am: Mead, who my polynesian neighbours made a twit of. By playing on her obvious preconceptions about mores…..Something we deplorables love to do to all snowflakes. None so stupid as those who think they know best, and now they aspire to rule us all. Ha!
The self-styled “Progressives”, the US Democrats, the Canadian Liberals and NDP, the British Labour Party and the Greens worldwide are pawns of the extreme left and have been so since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Here is some history:
“Surprisingly enough the second event that caused the environmental movement to veer to the left was the fall of the Berlin Wall. Suddenly the international peace movement had a lot less to do. Pro-Soviet groups in the West were discredited. Many of their members moved into the environmental movement bringing with them their eco-Marxism and pro-Sandinista sentiments.”
Source: “The Rise of Eco-Extremism”, by Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace (1994).
http://ecosense.me/2012/12/30/key-environmental-issues-4/
Many of these imbeciles don’t even know it, but they are following a covert Marxist agenda intended to damage our economies, cloaked in phony green rhetoric.
Marxism made simple:
The Groucho Marxists are the leaders – they want power for its own sake at any cost, and typically are sociopaths or psychopaths. The great killers of recent history, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot. etc. were of this odious ilk – first they get power, then they implement their crazy schemes that do not work and too often kill everyone who opposes them.
The Harpo Marxists are the followers – the “sheeple” – these are people of less-than-average intelligence who are easily duped and follow the Groucho’s until it is too late, their rights are lost and their society destroyed. They are attracted to simplistic concepts that “feel good” but rarely “do good”.
George Carlin said: “You know how stupid the average person is, right? Well, half of them are stupider than that!”
One can easily identify many members of these two groups in the global warming debate – and none of them are ”climate skeptics”.
Need more evidence? Read the quotations at http://www.green-agenda.com
Just a few examples:
“The goal now is a socialist, redistributionist society,
which is nature’s proper steward and society’s only hope.”
– David Brower,
founder of Friends of the Earth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If we don’t overthrow capitalism, we don’t have a chance of
saving the world ecologically. I think it is possible to have
an ecologically sound society under socialism.
I don’t think it is possible under capitalism”
– Judi Bari,
principal organiser of Earth First!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the
industrialized civilizations collapse?
Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
– Maurice Strong,
founder of the UN Environment Programme
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the
United States. De-development means bringing our
economic system into line with the realities of
ecology and the world resource situation.”
– Paul Ehrlich,
Professor of Population Studies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Odd the omission of the entire Frankfurt School of Comintern Lukacs, and Adorno, Marcuse, Arendt?
Lukacs’ of “Who will save us from Western civilization?” Fatal for Marxism is Leibniz’s demonstration that matter does not think.
Thank you bonbon for your comment – perhaps a reference would help?
I do not claim to know everything – just ALMOST everything – so I am always willing to learn. 🙂
I presume this website is NOT what you had in mind – it popped up when I searched:
Frankfurt School of Comintern Lukacs, and Adorno, Marcuse, Arendt?
http://www.energyenhancement.org/Satanic-Frankfurt-School-ADORNO-BENJAMIN-MARCUSE-LUKACS-BRECHT-WEILL-ECO-DERRIDA.htm
Please note that, in the UK, Global Warming was promoted by the British Conservative Party, not Labour.
Labour supported industry. It is the party of the political Left and so looked after the workers. They did not attack the coal industry in the ’80s.
Margaret Thatcher pushed Global Warming.
She was the driving force behind the formation of the IPCC. And she was on the political right.
For example, this speech to the UN creating the problems we have now.
Hello M,
I am not disagreeing with your comments about Maggie T, but:
I think most of the damage to the UK electrical grid was done my Tony Blair, who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007.
Unfortunately, the Conservatives have been almost as destructive since then with their own disastrous green energy follies.
The problem with grid-connected green energy is intermittency, and neither Labour or the Conservatives seem to be able to grasp the concept that the wind doesn’t blow all the time; neither does the Sun shine 24/7.
When idiot politicians fool with energy systems, real people suffer and die.
Best personal regards, Allan
ALLAN MACRAE, I do not disagree about the damage done to the UK grid by adding intermittent renewables. And I do not disagree that that mainly happened under Tony Blair (Lab).
But I do think that this policy was chosen because of the political norm created by Thatcher.
It wasn’t done for economic or energy independence reasons.
We should probably blame the Civil Service. They have consistently failed to use their degrees in Classics to plan the nation’s Engineering since demobilisation at the end of WW2.
The irony is, of course, that there is only one system that has proven to be able to deliver a better environment. Free market capitalism. It generates the wealth without which any clean environment would remain a pipe dream. And it encourages creative solutions to whatever problems arise. The great socialist experiment of the old Soviet Union and its empire was one of the dirtiest places on the planet. Ask any Pole or East German. The city of Leipzig was, when the wall came down, the dirtiest most polluted place in Europe. It took decades and billions to clean it up.
Only ignorant idiots and charlatans claim that socialism will be environmentally beneficial.
China continues the tradition started by the Soviet Union.
Too true Ed Z:
In July of 1989 I entered East Berlin and East Germany through Checkpoint Charlie. The dreaded communist Honecker regime was still in power then; it was just four months before the Wall fell.
I wrote the following long ago and I didn’t keep track of dates then – probably about 2010.
THIS FEARFUL, REPRESSIVE SCENARIO IS WHAT THE LEFTISTS WANT FOR AMERICA.
____________________________
I had the privilege and misfortune of travelling into East Germany in July of 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
We were on a business mission to West Germany, and somehow our bosses had committed us at the last minute to a brief detour into the East.
One of our group refused to go, saying it was a despicable totalitarian sh!thole, so we agreed to meet him in Cologne.
We flew to Tegel airport in West Berlin, and were escorted by a Stasi driver though West Berlin. It was Friday night, and West Berlin looked exciting, electric..
We travelled though the Berlin Wall at Checkpoint Charlie, and the world changed. I had been sitting in the front seat beside the driver snapping photos, but when I tried to take one of the East German checkpoint, I felt resistance as I tried to lift my camera. The Stasi driver’s hand was on my camera holding it down, even as he looked the other way, talking through his window to the East German border guard.
We took a sharp left and then a sharp right onto the main street, called Unter den Linden. The majestic Brandenburg Gate was visible just behind us. As we passed the Reichstag, I lifted my camera to snap a picture. The driver stopped quickly to assist my photo, and it was suddenly obvious that there were no other vehicles on the street, and no pedestrians either.
We stayed at the Metropol Hotel that first night, and went for a walk after dinner. I had asked my dinner hosts if I could go for a jog in the morning, and was cautioned that “We do not jog in East Berlin” I then asked if I could go for a long walk, and was assured, with a telling look, “You can walk anywhere in East Berlin – you will be perfectly safe, not like your London and New York”.
We soon found out what he meant – every block had eight small kiosks staffed with police, two on each side of the street. At any time we were within easy view of perhaps ten such police posts. Again, we were the only people on the street. The police talked quietly with each other on their telephones, and seemed to know that we were no cause for alarm. Their primary job to prevent any attempts by East Germans to defect to the Western embassies located on Unter den Linden.
In our brief stay, we visited a mine to view some equipment, had interminable meetings in a very hot room, learned that the local cola beverage was called Prik Cola, and found that our business colleagues in East Germany were pretty human, much like ourselves.
I also had sufficient liberty to get away from our group, and was able to observe that East German infrastructure was crumbling, the roads, buildings, sewage systems, cars, trains, heavy equipment, electrics, electronics, etc. etc. etc. were fifty years out-of-date and falling apart. Environmental degradation by industry was severe and disgusting.
More significantly, the East German people were a fearful lot – frightened to death of me, lest someone think they were communicating with me and report them to the dreaded Stasi. Those condemned to the Stasi, and there were many, would lose their jobs and could wind up in prison – their lives would be ruined.
My friend was right – East Germany was a vicious totalitarian state, and worse. We all decided that we had seen enough, and agreed to leave a day early.
We took a taxi to the Wall, and negotiated our way through Checkpoint Charlie again, this time without the assistance of our Stasi driver, and spent the extra day walking around West Berlin.
We saw a memorial to those who had been killed trying to escape through the Wall. The last death took place a few months earlier in February 1989, when Chris Gueffroy died trying to escape into West Berlin. Gueffroy was hit in the chest by ten shots and died in the border strip. He was 20 years old.
Several months later the Wall fell, and I stayed up all night watching the celebrations on CNN.
Now that was a good day!
Epilogue:
I recall our Canadian NDP leaders extolling the virtues of East Germany to the Canadian public, and their stories being dutifully reported by the Canadian press – how East Germany was the “Economic Engine of the Soviet Union”, “The Workers’ Paradise”, and all that other BS. I shall never forgive the Canadian left for these self-serving lies, and I will never believe a word they say.
A few years later, I was back in Berlin on another business trip. Although I no longer jogged, I walked to the Brandenburg Gate. Then, I broke into a slow jog, and ambled my way through the Brandenburg Gate and down Unter den Linden.
You see, now, we do jog in East Berlin.
MacRae
An extremely entertaining post,
with the right message.
When economic growth under socialism
looks bad, you have to sell socialism
in a new way that makes slow economic
growth good news — you claim slow growth
will save the world from CO2 “pollution”
and catastrophic global warming !
Did you invent the terms:
“Groucho Marxists ” and “Harpo Marxists” ?
I just wanted to know who I was about
to steal them from.
Yes Richard Green – I think I did invent the terms – but it was over 50 years ago, so I may be mistaken.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/08/19/climate-philosopher-demands-a-tax-on-children/comment-page-1/#comment-2281977
Marxists come in many packages with many labels – for example:
Trotskyites, Leninists, Maoists, Stalinists, Shachtmanites, etc.
When I was at McGill in the 1960’s. there were about a dozen different Marxist groups – so many that their group names were extremely long – just to differentiate them.
In general, we observed that they fit into two groups:
1. The make-love-not-war, dope-smoking Harpo Marxists,
and
2. The nasty, angry, violent Groucho Marxists.
Most climate alarmists have embraced a Harpo Marxist approach and a few are Groucho Marxists – they just do not realize it – they think they are “Progressives”.
Regards, Allan 🙂
I think there is a complete misunderstanding here. Those weren’t predictions, it was wishful thinking.
Paul Ehrlich is still at it …
Stanford’s Paul Ehrlich on the problems of the modern jaw
Paul Ehrlich wants you to shut your mouth – for your health. According to Ehrlich’s new book, mouth breathing, among other modern habits, has led to an epidemic of small jaws and many troubling health consequences.
https://news.stanford.edu/2018/04/10/paul-ehrlich-problems-modern-jaw/
Stanford researcher declares that the sixth mass extinction is here
Paul Ehrlich and others use highly conservative estimates to prove that species are disappearing faster than at any time since the dinosaurs’ demise.
https://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/june/mass-extinction-ehrlich-061915.html
Re Ehrlich’s ‘shrinking jaws’… Lysenko would be proud his legacy is being carried on!
John P. A. Ioannidis is also of stanford so there is at least one sensible researcher there.
How many of these alarmists are still alive today, and has anyone been able to find out how they try to explain away their predictions?
Some are, in the image of ancient Enlil, Zeus. Why bother explaining to the herd on the way to the cull? The explanation won’t save you. They move onto the next artificial scare. It is a fatal mistake to believe it has anything to do with science. The NOAA Climategate II whistleblower realized when the science is challenged the Malthusian population overriding ideology pops up.
At the time they were written #2 and #3 made sense. For example the Cuyahoga river caught fire in 1969 and the Potomac river was so polluted it was one of many drivers of the 1972 Clean Water act.
So we ended up with the EPA, established by Richard Nixon, to fix a real problem at the time. Unfortunately the EPA is a real problem now.
Pruitt, under massive attack, is fixing EPA.
Re: people born since 1946: Yeah, well, I was born back in Them There Olden Times (1946), so my response it thus:
Hey, Ehrlich, you conspicuous sugar consumer, I’m still here and I’m going to outlive you, you bloated, self-important helium bag!
Re: By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.
I could invite these twinkie-munchers to take a hard look at my pantry, cupboards and stocked shelves, but that would waste my time and energy. It’s much more beneficial to our souls to rebut every single thing they’ve said, because I knew it wasn’t true in 1970 and it’s even MORE UNTRUE NOW.
While I’m at it, the 1785 “Cookery” cookbook by Hannah Glasse is a very worthwhile expenditure for your household. You never know when the power will go out, right?
Oh, I did mean to add that I can make more accurate predictions with a deck of tarot cards than these guys ever thought of making.
And a lot more fun when mellowed by a little wine.
It would be great if the people running “Earth Day” had to keep track of all their predictions and annually report them on Earth Day.
Is the message here, “People who worry about keeping a clean house(planet) are ridiculous — just look at the silly predictions they make (subtext: the rest of us are sane)”? Or is it, “People, because we’re people, sometimes tell ourselves wild and scary stories — like these environmental ones, and like [insert Planet X predictions, Mayan calendars, various religious prophecies here]”?
That is, are you laughing at Them — or at Us?
Earth Day ?
There was a time when the countless tribes of
men, though wide-dispersed, oppressed the surface
of the deep-bosomed Earth, and Zeus saw it
and had pity, and in his wise heart resolved to
relieve the all-nurturing Earth of men, by causing
the great struggle of the Ilian war, that the
load of death might empty the world. And so the
heroes were slain in Troy, and the plan of Zeus
came to pass.
Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Hugh G. Evelyn-White, ed., July 2008.
Today some few relish the thought of a thermonuclear confrontation in this ancient oligarchical genocidal mode.
In honor of Earth Day, or if I just want to laugh, I watch Carlin’s diatribe. He surprisingly has many accepted geological and biological references that appear well-accepted.
If you can stand the f-bombs and don’t have little ones behind you, take a shot. You have been warned.
His initial point about the arrogance of the Earth Day proponents is right on and I wish he would have been around long enuf to do a skit on Global Warming.
Gums sends…
Our culture is becoming unhinged. It seems like a lot of people are becoming preoccupied with these dystopian predictions. Personally, I think people are increasingly socially isolated and find some odd solace that all of us, not just them, are doomed.
Everybody has new rights. Nobody has old responsibilities.
And that, my Friend, is the root cause of the problem.
Everybody insistently claims their ‘rights’… but most refuse to accept their direct responsibilities.
I agree, Grant. I like to blame the “TV” for short-circuiting the reciprocity of human relationship…sadly, people bond with the fictitious characters they watch in movies and sitcoms, characters that don’t relate back to them. Human identity is negotiated between people by what we know about each other and in today’s “pc” social environment they’re scared of losing what little humanity they have left to claim. Watch TV and “who” knows you? You don’t even know you.
Sorry, but that is bunch of nonsense. Dystopian predictions are nothing new. People have been predicting the world’s end for thousands of years. Pessimism is deeply ingrained in humans.
@Mairon62
I don’t even understand what you are trying say here. Do you have any actual evidence or is this just feelings and, ironically, pessimistic assumptions? After all, if if the world isn’t doomed then our technology and way of life is. It’s amusing how you then read history and see people saying exact same thing as today.
This is a fantastic twitter account. I recommend reading it: https://twitter.com/PessimistsArc You learn that people used to hate reading and writing, claimed that books made us stupid, etc.
I think that more people are more vulnerable than ever to being swayed by doomsday predictions. Thank you internet, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, iPhones, etc.
We’re getting fatter and more informed with garbage. … prime pickin’s for marketeers who want to make lots of $$ from our fears. The technological platform for pushing the advertising to capture those dollars is very well established. We’re fattened into sedentary lifestyles to sit before these devices and digest everything that these advertisers say to get our $$.
Well done, civilization.
Yeah, let’s get rid of all technology and get back to the middle ages with famine, poverty, brutal life, diseases, war, death, slavery. It will be tough but atleast there won’t be any lunatics proclaiming the end is near or any misinformed people at all… oh, wait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
Like I said in earlier post, pessimism is deeply ingrained in human psychology. Writing, reading, books, technology of any kind, pretty much everything have been claimed to be bad. Do you honestly think that we would be better off without those services and devices? Without them people would just get their info from books and that didn’t stop doomsday predictions. Heck, first Earth day was in 1970 long before Facebook, or any of those things. Maybe we should burn the books and ban education. Nobody would be able to read, but it would be absurd to claim that this would be a good thing. Though maybe someone would agree with this, afterall people have claimed in the past that books and writing were making everyone “stupid”.
1970 was before the inane global warming scare got traction, but it’s clear that the same green insanity drove all of these other failed predictions.
Stephen Schneider, founder of the journal Climate Science said:
“Scientists should consider stretching the truth to get some broad-base support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention about any doubts we might have.”
Proof we should ignore what scientists say, and pay attention only to what science says.
Didn’t Kristi just tell us that making scary pronouncements was something that only skeptics do?