Science under Attack. Who is a spacefaring nation? And a comment on the future of work.

View 824, Thursday, May 15, 2014

It is unseasonably hot in Southern California, and of course many say that’s evidence of global warming. That’s possible, I suppose, although the unseasonal snow in Colorado earlier this month was not seen as the return of a new Ice Age.

In any event, it appears to be dangerous to defect from the community of Climate Change Believers. I post the following summary from professional Deniers – that is, they are paid to promulgate arguments against the Believer “Consensus”. As most of you know, my position is a great deal less positive about either side: I don’t think we know, and I am not sure we will ever have the means to discover past climate trends at the accuracy (0.1 C) claimed by the Consensus Believers.

I’m sure the Earth has been warming since about 1800; that it was still cold enough for the Thames to freeze solid enough to support markets on the ice up to the 1830’s, and has been warming about 1 C a century ever since. I am also sure that the Earth was warmer in the Viking period, and had been warmer during the early Roman Empire, only to suffer a cold snap in the Dark Ages. And I am sure that much of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere was covered with ice about 20,000 years ago, and I am damned sure I am more afraid of the return of the Ice than of the consequences of the current warming trends.

We can now take good measurements of temperatures and keep those records. We can possibly spot trends now. I doubt we will ever know the average annual temperature of the Earth for years before 1900 to any tenth degree accuracy.

Anyway, I have errands, and this is a good time to summarize the attacks on science. Degrading science into a high school clique food fight is not a good thing.

No Dissent Allowed! 79-Year old Skeptical Climate Scientist Victim of Witch-Hunt – Fears for his ‘safety’ after declaring himself a skeptic

A (Warmist) German physicist compared Bengtsson’s joining of skeptic group to joining the Ku Klux Klan.

Rupert Darwall: ‘In their persecution of an aged colleague who stepped out of line and their call for scientists to be subject to a faith test, 21st-century climate scientists have shown less tolerance than a 16th-century monarch. There is something rotten in the state of climate science. –Rupert Darwall,

Judith Curry: ‘We have also seen a disgraceful display of Climate McCarthyism by climate scientists, which has the potential to do as much harm to climate science as did the Climategate emails.’

‘Are you now or have you ever been a climate skeptic?’

Climate Depot Round Up

‘Science As McCarthyism’: Lennart Bengtsson Blames U.S. Climate Scientists For McCarthy-Style Witch-Hunt – Worried for his ‘safety’ – His joining skeptic group compared to ‘joining the Ku Klux Klan’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=7a3276dae8&e=e57bd7cb9d>

‘Science As McCarthyism’: Lennart Bengtsson Blames U.S. Climate Scientists For McCarthy-Style Witch-Hunt – Worried for his ‘safety’ – His joining skeptic group compared to ‘joining the Ku Klux Klan’<http://scienceblogs.de/primaklima/files/2014/05/bengtsson_welcome.jpg>

Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry on Lennart Bengtsson: This ‘has the potential to do as much harm to climate science as did the Climategate emails’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=cf5260ec1d&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Curry: ‘We have also seen a disgraceful display of Climate McCarthyism by climate scientists, which has the potential to do as much harm to climate science as did the Climategate emails.’

‘Reminds me about the time of McCarthy’: Climate scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson — who converted from warmist to skeptic – resigns from skeptical group after ‘enormous group pressure’ from warmists – Now ‘worried about my health and safety’ – ‘Colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3b68bf9fd6&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Lennart Bengtsson: ‘I have been put under such an enormous group pressure…Colleagues are withdrawing their support, other colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship.’ – ‘I would never have expecting anything similar in such an original peaceful community as meteorology. Apparently it has been transformed in recent years.’ – ‘Reminds me about the time of McCarthy.’

[Climate Depot note: The ‘McCarthyism’ was named after Sen. Joe McCarthy. A thorough reading of history may indicate it is an unfair depiction. See here <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=b2b937efb2&e=e57bd7cb9d> .]

Climate McCarthyism: “Are you now or have you ever been a climate skeptic?”. <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=b2a5fa44da&e=e57bd7cb9d> Bengtsson: ‘Science is under pressure because everyone wants our advice. However, we cannot give the impression that a catastrophe is imminent. The greenhouse effect is a problem that is here to stay for hundreds of years. Climate experts should have the courage to state that we are not yet sure. What is wrong with making that statement clear and loudly?’ – ‘The IPCC prediction that with a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere the temperature on Earth would rise by two degrees should be taken with a grain of salt.’

79-year old skeptical scientist worried about his ‘safety’ – Climate scientist claims he has been forced from new job in ‘McCarthy’-style witch-hunt by academics across the world <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=380988bb4c&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Bengtsson believes one of the reasons for this is the US Government’s expanding role on climate change. ‘The public are concerned that recent weather phenomenon have been as a result of climate change. But it is a natural occurrence,’ he said.

UK Times: ‘Witch-hunt’ forces out skeptical climate scientist – ‘The pressure had mainly come from climate scientists in the US, including one employed by the US government who threatened to withdraw as co-author of a forthcoming paper’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=653a795c08&e=e57bd7cb9d>

‘The Cleansing of Lennart Bengtsson’: Climate Scientist Who Defected To Skeptics Forced to Resign: ‘Reminds me about the time of McCarthy’ – Worried about his ‘safety’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=777f7b540f&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Climate Audit’s Steve McIntyre reacts: ‘Bengtsson’s planned participation in GWPF seemed to me to be the sort of outreach to rational skeptics that ought to be praiseworthy within the climate "community". Instead, the "community" has extended the fatwa. This is precisely the sort of action and attitude that can only engender and reinforce contempt for the "community" in the broader society.’

Prof. Roger Pielke Jr.: ‘The elite in this community – including scientists, journalists, politicians — have endorsed the climate McCarthyism campaign, and are often its most vigorous participants’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=5fcf650a0f&e=e57bd7cb9d> – ‘For experts in the climate issue, there is enormous social and peer pressure on what is acceptable to say and who it is acceptable to associate with. My recent experiences are quite similar to Bengtsson’s’

Climate bullying echoes the expulsion of Mitch Taylor from Polar Bear Specialist Group <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=6e0f928782&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Dear Lennart: A Letter In Support Of Professor Bengtsson <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ca1a29fb3e&e=e57bd7cb9d> – David G. Gee – Professor Em. Orogen Dynamics – Department of Earth Sciences – Uppsala University, Sweden: ‘The pressure on you from the climate community simply confirms the worst aspects of politicized science. I have been reprimanded myself for opposing the climate bandwagon, with its blind dedication to political ambitions; it needs to be exposed, globally.’

Warmist apostasy: the climate jihadists strike <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=f38d022036&e=e57bd7cb9d>

The 97% In Climate Science: McCarthyism Is Alive & Well In 2014 <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ca2337f22b&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Climate Science: No Dissent Allowed <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=4602e05266&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Background:

Award-Winning Former UN IPCC Scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson Dissents: ‘We cannot yet separate well enough the greenhouse effect from other climate influences’ – Declares climate models ‘more a matter of faith than a fact’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=4177c6f68c&e=e57bd7cb9d>

<http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/Breitbart/Breitbart-London/2014/05/14/bengtsson.jpg>

Dr. Lennart Bengtsson: ‘We cannot yet separate well enough the greenhouse effect from other climate influences <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=fcbde1ebb9&e=e57bd7cb9d> .’ – ‘Although the radiative forcing by greenhouse gases (including methane, nitrogen oxides and fluorocarbons) has increased by 2.5 watts per square meter since the mid-19th century, observations show only a moderate warming of 0.8 degrees Celsius…high values of climate sensitivity, however, are not supported by observations…Thus, the warming is significantly smaller than predicted by most climate models…since there is no way to validate them (models), the forecasts are more a matter of faith than a fact.’

Full Interview here: http://www.thegwpf.org/lennart-bengtsson-the-science-and-politics-of-climate-change/ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9b38acfc7d&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Related Links:

Top Swedish Climate Scientist Says Warming Not Noticeable: ‘The warming we have had last a 100 years is so small that if we didn’t have climatologists to measure it we wouldn’t have noticed it at <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=af5de25470&e=e57bd7cb9d> all Award-Winning – Dr. Lennart Bengtsson, formerly of UN IPCC: ‘We Are Creating Great Anxiety Without It Being Justified…there are no indications that the warming is so severe that we need to panic…The warming we have had the last a 100 years is so small that if we didn’t have had meteorologists and climatologists to measure it we wouldn’t have noticed it at all.’

Top Swedish Climate Scientist Lennart Bengtsson (former IPCC) Also Confirms No Sea Level Acceleration…Desperate UN IPCC’s Pachauri Insisting No Acceleration ‘Is An Acceleration’! <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ee011d2ebf&e=e57bd7cb9d> – – Lennart Bengtsson: ‘We now have satellite measurements for 20 years which indicate a steady rise of about 3 mm per year, and during that time no acceleration, See: http://sealevel.colorado.edu/ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=30a5d02c5c&e=e57bd7cb9d> … 20 years is certainly enough. On Monday I was involved in a public panel discussion with Pachauri who insisted that this is an acceleration. I found that I think I know more about this than Mr. Pachauri. The reference above appears to me quite compelling.’

Skeptical Swedish climatology: Dr. Lennart Bengtsson: Global warming only visible under a microscope <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9f90852a1a&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Dr. Bengtsson: ‘The Earth appears to have cooling properties that exceeds the previous thought ones, and that computer models are inadequate to try to foretell a chaotic object like the climate, where actual observations is the only way to go’

Top Swedish Climate Scientist Dr. Lennart Bengtsson: CO2”s ‘heating effect is logarithmic: the higher the concentration is, the smaller the effect of a further increase’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=349997cdbd&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Dr. Lennart Bengtsson, formerly of UN IPCC: ‘The sea level has risen fairly evenly for a hundred years by 2-3 millimeters per year. The pitch is not accelerated’

‘Climate change has become extremely politicized. The issue is so complex that one can not ask the people to be convinced that the whole economic system must be changed just because you have done some computer simulations’

#

Background on intimidation of climate skeptics:

‘Execute’ Skeptics! Shock Call To Action: ‘At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers’ — ‘Shouldn’t we start punishing them now?’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=7c21fdcb1c&e=e57bd7cb9d>

A public appeal has been issued by an influential U.S. website asking: “At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers.”The appeal appeared on Talking Points Memo, an often cited website that helps set the agenda for the political Left in the U.S. The anonymous posting, dated June 2, 2009, referred to dissenters of man-made global warming fears as “greedy bastards” who use “bogus science or the lowest scientists in the gene pool” to “distort data.”

The Talking Points Memo article continues: “So when the right wing fucktards have caused it to be too late to fix the problem, and we start seeing the devastating consequences and we start seeing end of the World type events – how will we punish those responsible. It will be too late. So shouldn’t we start punishing them now?”

The article also claims the “vast majority” of scientists agree that man-made warming “can do an untold amount of damage to life on Earth.”

…

If the promoters of man-made climate fears truly believed the “debate is over” and the science is “settled”, why is there such a strong impulse to shut down debate and threaten those who disagree?

Small sampling of threats, intimidation and censorship:

NASA’s James Hansen has called for trials of climate skeptics in 2008 for “high crimes against humanity.” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=dc4a0ff8d2&e=e57bd7cb9d> Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lashed out at skeptics in 2007, declaring “This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=068b323c78&e=e57bd7cb9d> In 2009, RFK, Jr. also called coal companies “criminal enterprises” and declared CEO’s ‘should be in jail… for all of eternity.” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=6f1cf5ef42&e=e57bd7cb9d>

In June 2009, former Clinton Administration official Joe Romm defended a comment on his Climate Progress website warning skeptics would be strangled in their beds. <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=db55a06877&e=e57bd7cb9d> “An entire generation will soon be ready to strangle you and your kind while you sleep in your beds,” stated the remarks, which Romm defended <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=a28560a781&e=e57bd7cb9d> by calling them “not a threat, but a prediction.”

In 2006, the eco-magazine Grist called for Nuremberg-Style trials for skeptics <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3bf6f15040&e=e57bd7cb9d> . In 2008, Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki called for government leaders skeptical of global warming to be thrown “into jail.” <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=34520f9acc&e=e57bd7cb9d> In 2007, The Weather Channel’s climate expert called for withholding certification of skeptical meteorologists <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=ab4631177a&e=e57bd7cb9d> .

A 2008 report found that ‘climate blasphemy’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=548d905b74&e=e57bd7cb9d> is replacing traditional religious blasphemy. In addition, a July 2007 Senate report <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=417ffd0600&e=e57bd7cb9d> detailed how skeptical scientists have faced threats and intimidation <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=54da9630fd&e=e57bd7cb9d> .

In 2007, then EPA Chief Vowed to Probe E-mail Threatening to ‘Destroy’ Career of Climate Skeptic <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=1a2c4c832c&e=e57bd7cb9d> and dissenters of warming fears have been called ‘Climate Criminals’ who are committing ‘Terracide’ (killing of Planet Earth) <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=f2659eb1ef&e=e57bd7cb9d> (July 25, 2007) In addition, in May 2009, Climate Depot Was Banned in Louisiana! See: State official sought to ‘shut down’ climate skeptic’s testimony at hearing. <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=514a08cbd4&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Below are many more examples of the threats, name calling and intimidation skeptics have faced in recent times.

November 12, 2007: UN official warns ignoring warming would be ‘criminally irresponsible’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=70efacd0d5&e=e57bd7cb9d> Excerpt: The U.N.’s top climate official warned policymakers and scientists trying to hammer out a landmark report on climate change that ignoring the urgency of global warming would be “criminally irresponsible.” Yvo de Boer’s comments came at the opening of a weeklong conference that will complete a concise guide on the state of global warming and what can be done to stop the Earth from overheating.

September 29. 2007: VA State Climatologist skeptical of global warming loses job after clash with Governor: ‘I was told that I could not speak in public’ Excerpt: Michaels has argued that the climate is becoming warmer but that the consequences will not be as dire as others have predicted. Gov. Kaine had warned. Michaels not to use his official title in discussing his views. “I resigned as Virginia state climatologist because I was told that I could not speak in public on my area of expertise, global warming, as state climatologist,” Michaels said in a statement this week provided by the libertarian Cato Institute, where he has been a fellow since 1992. “It was impossible to maintain academic freedom with this speech restriction.” (LINK <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=59734031b8&e=e57bd7cb9d> )

Skeptical State Climatologist in Oregon has title threatened by Governor <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=38c1ee6cd9&e=e57bd7cb9d> (February 8, 2007) Excerpt: “[State Climatologist George Taylor] does not believe human activities are the main cause of global climate change…So the [Oregon] governor wants to take that title from Taylor and make it a position that he would appoint. In an exclusive interview with KGW-TV, Governor Ted Kulongoski confirmed he wants to take that title from Taylor.

Skeptical State Climatologist in Delaware silenced by Governor <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9b318698b5&e=e57bd7cb9d> (May 2, 2007) Excerpt: Legates is a state climatologist in Delaware, and he teaches at the university. He`s not part of the mythical climate consensus. In fact, Legates believes that we oversimplify climate by just blaming greenhouse gases. One day he received a letter from the governor, saying his views do not concur with those of the administration, so if he wants to speak out, it must be as an individual, not as a state climatologist. So essentially, you can have the title of state climatologist unless he`s talking about his views on climate?

October 28, 2008: License to dissent: ‘Internet should be nationalized as a public utility’ to combat global warming skepticism – Australian Herald Sun <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=e9fd0ed9a9&e=e57bd7cb9d> – Excerpt: British journalism lecturer and warming alarmist Alex Lockwood says my blog is a menace to the planet. Skeptical bloggers like me need bringing into line, and Lockwood tells a journalism seminar of some options: There is clearly a need for research into the ways in which climate skepticism online is free to contest scientific fact. But there is enough here already to put forward some of the ideas in circulation. One of the founders of the Internet Vint Cerf, and lead for Google’s Internet for Everyone project, made a recent suggestion that the Internet should be nationalized as a public utility. As tech policy blogger Jim Harper argues, “giving power over the Internet to well-heeled interests and self-interested politicians” is, and I quote, “a bad idea.” Or in the UK every new online publication could be required to register with the recently announced Internet watchdog…

November 5, 2008: UK Scientist: ‘BBC SHUNNED ME FOR DENYING CLIMATE CHANGE’ – UK Daily Express <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=56bf50bc85&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Excerpt: FOR YEARS David Bellamy was one of the best known faces on TV. A respected botanist and the author of 35 books, he had presented around 400 programmes over the years and was appreciated by audiences for his boundless enthusiasm. Yet for more than 10 years he has been out of the limelight, shunned by bosses at the BBC where he made his name, as well as fellow scientists and environmentalists. His crime? Bellamy says he doesn’t believe in man-made global warming. Here he reveals why – and the price he has paid for not toeing the orthodox line on climate change.

U.N. official says it’s ‘completely immoral’ to doubt global warming fears <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3b1bfabd3d&e=e57bd7cb9d> (May 10, 2007)

Excerpt: UN special climate envoy Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland declared “it’s completely immoral, even, to question” the UN’s scientific “consensus.”

Former US Vice President Al Gore compared global warming skeptics to people who ‘believe the moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=f1410f9cfa&e=e57bd7cb9d> (June 20, 2006)

Gore Refuses to Hear Skeptical Global Warming Views <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=9e623d2eae&e=e57bd7cb9d> (Video)

UK environment secretary David Miliband said ‘those who deny [climate change] are the flat-Earthers of the twenty-first century’ <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=3fba9732b4&e=e57bd7cb9d> (October 6, 2006)

Weather Channel Climate Expert Calls for Decertifying Global Warming Skeptics <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=6f6295bc6d&e=e57bd7cb9d> (January 17, 2007) Excerpt: The Weather Channel’s most prominent climatologist is advocating that broadcast meteorologists be stripped of their scientific certification if they express skepticism about predictions of manmade catastrophic global warming. This latest call to silence skeptics follows a year (2006) in which skeptics were compared to “Holocaust Deniers” and Nuremberg-style war crimes trials were advocated by several climate alarmists.

Barone: Warmists have ‘a desire to kill heretics’ — Calls for capital punishment for ‘global warming deniers’ – DC Examiner – June 9, 2009 <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=2a8d2718fd&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Strangle Skeptics in Bed! ‘An entire generation will soon be ready to strangle you and your kind while you sleep in your beds’ – June 5, 2009 <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=498ced0d9a&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Follow on Twitter at @ClimateDepot <http://climatedepot.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=87b74a936c723115dfa298cf3&id=d0f17813d5&e=e57bd7cb9d>

Marc Morano

ClimateDepot.com

Temperature

You rightly keep mentioning the issue of the accuracy of the temperatures reported. Hardly have any disagreement since the official stations have been photographed with all their deficiencies; next to barbeque pits, air conditioner exhausts, down exhaust from idling jet engines at airports etc. To say nothing of the great purge of rural stations that eliminated much of the data from rural or northern outposts that didn’t exhibit the urban heat island effect.

But far worse in my estimation has been the systematic revision of the past. In pure 1984 style the temperature of the 1930s and 40s have been revised downward by Hansen at NASA Goddard (to correct for supposed observational errors) and the folks over in England. With lower temperatures in the past the new slope of the temperature is decidedly rising where it once was just level. And without checking each of the handwritten original records you have a hard time finding what occurred in the past.

As a retired engineer it distresses me to realize that our government is willfully altering the record of what has gone before to achieve a current political agenda. With the absolute control of the media in compliant hands we have a hard time learning anything that does not conform to the official position. No wonder the current students seem to be nothing more than drones, they are being taught not to think for themselves.

Earl

I find the attack on the very nature of science to be far more dangerous than the climate change trends.

West Antarctic glaciers past tipping point

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-148

West Antarctica glaciers past the tipping point; their eventual

collapse into

the sea is unstoppable; enough ice in those glaciers

to raise sea level 1.2 m = 4 feet; the process will take a few

centuries.

A slow process, but a big one, and unavoidable.

Paradoctor

West Antarctic glaciers past tipping point

And yet it has been avoided for a very long time. And there are record levels of ice forming in the Antarctic. You may not have seen all the feedback processes that nature has in store. You may have, and if you have low sea side property you may wish to sell out and move.

But take heart. The seas have been higher in historical times, and the earth has been warmer, and here we are..

Jerry Pournelle

Chaos Manor

Well the collapse of the West Antarctica glaciers will not be avoided for much longer – on the century scale. Therefore of course it’s Someone Else’s Problem. Specifically posterity’s; and what has posterity ever done for us? – aside from being a reason for us to exist?

You’re right that I don’t know all the feedback loops, negative and positive. That precisely is the problem; the unknown. Change makes planning necessary; the unknown makes planning difficult.

There are entire nations with low seaside real estate. The Netherlands, Bangladesh, various islands. Also there’s Florida. And let’s not forget every single coastal city. That’s a lot of piers to raise 4 feet.

I agree that it’s all doable, and Denver won’t mind, nor will Moscow.

But living in the San Francisco Bay area has made me conservative about climate and sea-levels; I like both of these things just the way they are.

But of course that is the error of attachment. Change happens, will ye nil ye. Here comes the Anthropocene.

Paradoctor

Can we agree that it is better to face the unknown rich than poor?  If we cripple the economy in anticipation of this, will we be able to do anything about it?

 

Do ‘climate change’ believers also believe in the existence of dinosaurs?

from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic>

—–

Mean atmospheric O2 content over period duration: ca. 26 Vol %[1] (130 % of modern level)

Mean atmospheric CO2 content over period duration: ca. 1950 ppm (7 times pre-industrial level)

Mean surface temperature over period duration: ca. 16.5°C (3°C above modern level)

—–

Roland Dobbins

 

How NASA Can Run The International Space Station Without Russia

http://jalopnik.com/how-the-us-can-run-the-international-space-station-with-1576359569?utm_campaign=socialflow_jalopnik_facebook&utm_source=jalopnik_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

James Crawford=

We have five years. Clearly we have the capability of restoring our access to space before the Russians cease to cooperate. It is not clear that anyone in power has the will or interest to do that, or even to allow free enterprise to do it. Incidentally, Solar Power Satellites are one answer to climate control. They add no CO2 to any part of the atmosphere.

Joe McCarthy

I have mixed feelings about this guy. The press regarding him is not trustworthy IMO, either the pro’s or con’s. I DO think the Red infiltration into our government was greater than we realized at the time, but maybe not so much as the Senator did.

It is plausible to me that Senator McCarthy’s drinking and overreaching was a symptom of his frustration at not being able to get people to listen.

You were old enough at the time and were active in politics then, right? Can you reflect back on those times and give an opinion?

B

I was an undergraduate in that time, and my views were unsound.  I should have had mixed feelings as you do now.  For those who want to see McCarthy in context, I think the best book on that subject is Bill Buckley’s historical novel, The Red Hunter.  It is partly fiction but that is in the presentation, not in the description of the era.   The times were dangerous, more so than most American understood, but McCarthy was not the solution to that.

 

The Future of Work

Dr Pournelle

Re: Eric Gilmer’s essay on The Future of Work and Everything Else and responses https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/the-centre-cannot-hold/

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/the-future-of-work-continued/

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/the-future-of-work-continued-2/

I find that Mr. Gilmer added nothing to the discussion. What he said was said before in more entertaining ways:

Philip Jose Farmer, Riders of the Purple Wage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_of_the_Purple_Wage

Frederick Pohl, The Midas Plague http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas_World

You yourself have trumpeted the warning of such a society:

Rudyard Kipling, The Gods of the Copybook Headings http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/gods_of_copybook_headings.html

     And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins 
     When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins 
     As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn 
     The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

For my part, I take solace and guidance from Ecclesiastes:

Vanity of vanities. All is vanity. What was will be again; what has been done will be done again; and there is nothing new under the sun. I know there is no happiness for man except in pleasure and enjoyment while he lives. And when man eats and drinks and finds happiness in his work, this is a gift from God.

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

You can find The Gods of the Copybook Headings at http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail269.html#copybook along with some interesting mail of those times (2003). And I have been posting that poem at intervals since  this daybook began.

 

But the question is, is there now something new under the sun? The productivity of man and machine seems to be going up exponentially. The labor theory of value is irrevocably ended for the modern era so long as the technology endures.  Does that change the ancient principles of political philosophy?  It is difficult to say. And will the next revolution truly make all men equal – but valueless?

And in looking through old mail I never got around to doing anything with, I came on this:

The Fight Over the Bundy Cows Will End as Civics 101, Not Fort Sumter II –

http://news.yahoo.com/fight-over-bundy-cows-end-civics-101-not-134743601.html

It has turned out to be the most perceptive comment on the subject I have found. 

 

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.