Just as though the left didn’t need another reason to hate Israel, Netanyahu has decided to give Kyopenhagen a pass. A good idea for a number of reasons, not least of which he was likely to be simply abused there, anyway, despite the leadership of his nation in many green energy technologies.
Category Archives: Science And Society
And You Thought The Science Of Climate Fraud Was Bad?
Check out the economics of it.
Don’t Panic!
Thoughts on global warming, and cooling, from JoSH:
From the perspective of the Holocene as a whole, our current hockeystick is beginning to look pretty dinky. By far the possibility I would worry about, if I were the worrying sort, would be the return to an ice age — since interglacials, over the past half million years or so, have tended to last only 10,000 years or so. And Ice ages are not conducive to agriculture.
What’s the environmental impact of the Great Lakes region being under a mile of ice?
The Fallout Continues
Several physicists are asking the American Physical Society to rescind its 2007 endorsement of AGW:
In 2007 the APS Council adopted a Statement on global warming (also reproduced at the tinyurl site mentioned above) that was based largely on the scientific work that is now revealed to have been corrupted. (The principals in this escapade have not denied what they did, but have sought to dismiss it by saying that it is normal practice among scientists. You know and we know that that is simply untrue. Physicists are not expected to cheat.)
If I were a working scientist, I would be most insulted by the insinuation, which seems to be their current main defense, that “everyone does it,” and “this is the way that science works.” I’ve seen blog commenters try this game, and I think it’s an outrageous slur on the thousands of scientists who actually do science with integrity.
[Update a few minutes later]
Roger Simon has a plausible theory as to why the president delayed his trip to Copenhagen. It buys him time to decide not to go at all, as the whole enterprise (finally and thankfully) begins to unravel.
[Another update a couple minutes later]
Like me, Eric Raymond is popping the corn. I think we’ll see a lot more of this:
My favorite recent entry on the CRU mob is a screed from a professor of mathematics in Canada: “All of my colleagues have had to endure these bullies and criminals for a very long time.”
Now that the curtain has been pulled back, and the great Oz revealed as a fraud, expect a lot of previously cowed people to speak up, and even pile on. It’s not going to be pretty, but it’s no less than they’ll deserve.
[Update a few minutes later]
The (still) faithful gather in Copenhagen:
…it’s already clear that being here during the next few days is going to be very much like attending some kind of massive religious gathering. The faithful — over 16,000 strong — are here, of course, for the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, a.k.a. COP15 (“COP” as in Copenhagen), at which they supposedly hope to achieve a provisional international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus rescue our beloved blue planet from the fate envisioned in any number of bad Roland Emmerich movies.
I say “supposedly” because at this point, lacking a polygraph, it’s hard to know for sure what any of these professional climate folks really think or believe or aspire to.
Oh, I think we can guess.
More Evidence That These Are Religious Fanatics
After doing yeoman’s duty in going through the CRU emails, Steve Hayward notes:
How is it possible for a group of smart people to write over 1,000 e-mails over the course of a decade without a single shred of wit or humor in any of them?
As the title says…
And as Mark Steyn notes at the link, the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin has been excommunicated.
Scientists Behaving Badly
Steve Hayward has a long, but useful piece on Climaquiddick. He’s been reading a lot of the emails. While it’s not clear whether or not AGW is happening, it’s very clear at this point that the field has been completely discredited, even if those promoting it don’t realize it.
Speaking Of Climate Change
…not to mention Jim Hansen. Is it the new Nazism? Thoughts over at AdamSmith.org.
Climaquiddick Doesn’t Matter
Because there are so many better reasons to scuttle the nonsense in Copenhagen:
While it’s great fun — and entirely worthwhile — to make a big stink about Climategate, it would be a shame if people believed that Copenhagen’s inevitable failure hinged on this one scandal. Even if the CRU researchers were the model of scientific dispassion, these schemes are pointless. Indeed, even if global warming is the threat the alarmists claim it is, it makes no sense to waste trillions of dollars on “fixes” that will do little to fix the alleged problem.
I like the reference to Canada as the Richie Cunningham of the UN.
Who Needs Coal?
It’s a gas, man:
Just a few years ago, the industry didn’t have the technology to unlock these reserves. But thanks to advances in horizontal drilling and methods of fracturing rock with high-pressure blasts of water, sand and chemicals, vast gas reserves in the United States are suddenly within reach.
As a result, said BP chief executive Tony Hayward, “the picture has changed dramatically.”
“The United States is sitting on over 100 years of gas supply at the current rates of consumption,” he said. Because natural gas emits half the greenhouse gases of coal, he added, that “provides the United States with a unique opportunity to address concerns about energy security and climate change.”
Recoverable U.S. gas reserves could now be bigger than the immense gas reserves of Russia, some experts say.
But it doesn’t require us to tighten our hair shirts, so it’s off the table.
A Few Good Scientists
Temporary scientist Frank J. says that we can’t handle the truth:
Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to have scientific equipment on them to gather data, and that data studied by men with computers. Who’s going to do it? A layman like you? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the global warming skeptics and curse the climatologists. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know — that the crushing of data contrary to global warming, while tragic, probably saved grant money. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to the layman, creates scientific consensus. You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about on Twitter, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall studying those measurements you can’t even begin to comprehend.
I’m ashamed to have questioned such noble and selfless people.