Main Blog   |   Bartenders   |  Rant Blog   |   Photo Blog   |   Odd Blog  |   Bill Ayers  |  Obama Letter  |   

Cooling Down the Cassandras

By George F. Will - Washington Post

In this headline on a New York Times story about the difficulties confronting people alarmed about global warming (note the word "plateau") it dismisses the unpleasant (to some people) the fact that global warming is maddeningly (to the same people) slow to vindicate their apocalyptic warnings about it.

The "difficulty" and the "intricate challenge" the Times says, is "building momentum" for carbon reduction "when global temperatures have been relatively stable for a decade and may even drop in the next few years." 

That was in the New York Times first paragraph.

In the fifth paragraph, a "few years" became "the next decade or so," according to Mojib Latif, a German "prize-winning climate and ocean scientist" who campaigns constantly to promote policies combating global warming. Actually, Latif has said he anticipates "maybe even two" decades in which temperatures cool. But stay with the Times' "decade or so." By asserting that the absence of significant warming since 1998 is a mere "plateau," not warming apogee, the Times assures readers who are alarmed about climate change that the paper knows the future and that warming will continue: Do not despair, bad news will resume.

The Times reported that "scientists" (all of them?) say the 11 years of temperature stability has "no bearing," (NONE!) on long-term warming. Some scientists say "cool stretches are inevitable." Others say there may be growth of Arctic sea ice, but the growth will be "temporary." According to the Times, however, "scientists" say that "trying to communicate such scientific nuances to the public -- and to policymakers -- can be frustrating."

The Times says, "A short-term trend gives ammunition to skeptics of climate change."

Actually, what makes skeptics skeptical is the accumulating evidence that theories predicting catastrophe from man-made climate change are impervious to evidence. The theories are un-falsifiable, at least in the "short run." And the "short run" is defined as however many decades must pass until the evidence begins to fit the hypotheses.

The Post recently reported the theory of a University of Virginia professor emeritus who thinks that, many millennia ago, primitive agriculture (burning forests, creating methane-emitting rice paddies, etc) produced enough greenhouse gases to warm the planet at least a degree. The theory is interesting. Even more interesting is the reaction to it by people such as the Columbia University professor who says it makes him "really upset" because it might encourage opponents of legislation combating global warming.

Warnings about cataclysmic warming increase in stridency as evidence of warming becomes more elusive. A recent report from the United Nations Environment Program predicts an enormous 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit increase by the end of the century even if nations fulfill their most ambitious pledges concerning reduction of carbon emissions. The U.S. goal is an 80 percent reduction by 2050. But Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute says that would require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the 1910 level. On a per capita basis, it would mean emissions approximately equal to those in 1875.

That will not happen. So, we are doomed. So, why try?

(Article continued...) America needs a national commission appointed to assess the evidence about climate change. Alarmists will fight this because the first casualty would be the carefully cultivated and media-reinforced myth of consensus -- the bald assertion that no reputable scientist doubts the gravity of the crisis, doubts being conclusive evidence of disreputable motives or intellectual qualifications. The president, however, could support such a commission because he is sure "there's finally widespread recognition of the urgency of the challenge before us." So he announced last week at the U.N. climate change summit, where he said the threat is so "serious" and "urgent" that unless all nations act "boldly, swiftly and together" -- "time . . . is running out" -- we risk "irreversible catastrophe." Prince Charles agrees. In March, seven months ago, he said humanity had 100 months -- until July 2017 -- to prevent "catastrophic climate change and the unimaginable horrors that this would bring." Evidently humanity will prevent this.

Charles Moore of the Spectator notes that in July, the prince said that by 2050 the planet will be imperiled by the existence of 9 billion people, a large portion of them consuming as much as Western people now do. Environmental Cassandras must be careful with their predictions lest they commit what climate alarmists consider the unpardonable faux pas of denying that the world is coming to an end.

georgewill@washpost.com 

Everything you need to know about the current climate debate:

Hydrogen - American Energy in 2010 and Beyond
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog3.php/2010/01/08/hydrogen-american-energy-in-2010-and-bey 

What If All the Ice Melts? - Myths and Realities 
http://tobuds.com/blogs/full-story/myth.htm 

Kill the Polar Bears! - They're Destroying Our Planet!
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2010/01/03/kill-the-polar-bears-they-re-destroying 

Cooling Down the Cassandras - By George F. Will - Washington Post
http://tobuds.com/blogs/full-story/myth2.htm 

Carbon Emissions, Human Population, and Ice Ages - What it Really Means
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/12/20/carbon-emissions-human-population-and-ic 

Evidence Surfaces from 1782 Disputing Global Warming
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/12/19/more-evidence-surfaces-disputing-global 

New York Times Reports Global Cooling!
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/12/18/new-york-times-reports-global-cooling 

Copenhagen: Scamming the American Taxpayers with "Climate Change"
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/12/12/copenhagen-scamming-the-american-taxpaye 

Climategate Scandal - "Harry Read Me" File - Cap and Trade Farce
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog5.php/2009/12/01/climategate-s-harry-read-me-file-is-a-mu 

Al Gore's Fear Mongering on "Climate Change" - Cap and Trade Scam 
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/11/10/obama-s-and-al-gore-s-fear-mongering-on 

Obama - Intergovernmental Panel on "Climate Change" (IPCC) - Climategate
http://tobuds.com/blogs/blog1.php/2009/12/06/obama-intergovernmental-panel- 

DETAILED HISTORICAL DATA (from other posts)

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carboniferous_climate.html 
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1806245/posts 
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/cycles.htm#L_0252 
http://www.carbonify.com/carbon-dioxide-levels.htm 
http:// www.climateaudit.org 

Original source for this post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093003569.html