Tuesday, January 6, 2009

He who knows does not speak, he who speaks does not know.

The Way of Lao-tzu
Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

In 2005, the crisis was at hand. The call for immediate handwringing was deafening. The ‘Save your Mother,’ Love it or Leave it,’ bumper sticker, green campaign was in full force.

Two articles caught my attention today. Prceeding the two is an article from the UK Independent in 2005 for perspective.

The second is an editorial from Investor’s Business Daily today. The last is from the Huffington Post. All articles have been abbreviated. I recommend following the links for the full articles.

I should note that there is a significant difference between Arctic and Antarctic. That’s obvious to most but, the explanation between ice formation in the arctic and Antarctic are complex. In short, it’s not the same. But the points are well presented.

Global warming 'past the point of no return'

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

Friday, 16 September 2005

A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. Scientists fear that the Arctic has now entered an irreversible phase of warming which will accelerate the loss of the polar sea ice that has helped to keep the climate stable for thousands of years.
UK Independent

Everything's Cool


By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Monday, January 05, 2009 4:20 PM PT


Global Warming: We're supposed to be living in fear of our coastal cities drowning because we refuse to give up oil and the modern machines it powers. Yet today's sea ice levels match those of nearly three decades ago.

According to DailyTech blogger Michael Asher, "Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close." This isn't Asher's opinion, but fact based on data from the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center.

News about growing sea ice isn't exactly what environmentalists who predicted the North Pole would be free of ice in 2008 want to hear. Al Gore and his fellow alarmists have been telling us for years that melting sea ice and glaciers will dramatically and dangerously increase sea levels.
In his 2006 movie "An Inconvenient Truth," he needlessly stoked fear by claiming that global warming could cause sea levels to rise 20 feet "in the near future." It was one of three dozen misstatements made in the Oscar-winning propaganda film that was promoted as a serious scientific documentary.

We would expect global warmongers to note, as Asher did, that because sea ice freely floats around the oceans, it has no effect on sea level. (Unless, of course, the sea ice is melting. When that makes the news, the public is barraged with stories about how selfish humans are destroying their own planet as well as the critical habitats of many beloved animals.) As Asher explains, "Sea ice responds much faster to changes in temperature or precipitation and is therefore a useful barometer of changing conditions."

Could the unexpected increase in sea ice, then, be a signal that the Earth is cooling? We can't say with any degree of certainty. But then, neither can the alarmists argue with any measure of assurance that man is causing the planet to warm. Yet they say it anyway, as they tar skeptics as flat-earthers who reject science and contend that the debate is over. And indeed in one sense it is, because the alarmists have declared the case closed and refuse to discuss the matter with opponents.

Gore, for example, incessantly lectures believers in friendly settings. He has turned down at least three invitations to debate his theories.

That seems to be OK with his followers, but his refusal to emerge from his protective cocoon and face skeptics speaks louder than all the tedious hectoring he's done on the subject over the years.

Investors.com

And a final article from the Huffington Post, the Huffington Post you say?

Mr. Gore: Apology Accepted

You are probably wondering whether President-elect Obama owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming. The answer is, not yet. There is one person, however, who does. You have probably guessed his name: Al Gore.

Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind.What is wrong with the statement? A brief list:

1. First, the expression "climate change" itself is a redundancy, and contains a lie. Climate has always changed, and always will.

2. Mr. Gore has gone so far to discourage debate on climate as to refer to those who question his simplistic view of the atmosphere as "flat-Earthers." This, too, is right on target, except for one tiny detail. It is exactly the opposite of the truth.

3. What the alarmists now state is that past episodes of warming were not caused by C02 but amplified by it, which is debatable, for many reasons, but, more important, is a far cry from the version of events sold to the public by Mr. Gore.

4. This mechanism has never been shown to exist. Indeed, increased temperature leads to increased evaporation of the oceans, which leads to increased cloud cover (one cooling effect) and increased precipitation (a bigger cooling effect).

Many solar physicists anticipate that the slumbering Sun of early 2009 is likely to continue for at least two solar cycles, or about the next 25 years. Whether the Grand Solar Minimum, if it comes to pass, is as serious as the Maunder Minimum is not knowable, at present.

The ocean-atmosphere system is not a simple one that can be "ruled" by a trace atmospheric gas. It is a complex, chaotic system, largely modulated by solar effects (both direct and indirect), as shown by the Little Ice Age.

To be told, as I have been, by Mr. Gore, again and again, that carbon dioxide is a grave threat to humankind is not just annoying, by the way, although it is that! To re-tool our economies in an effort to suppress carbon dioxide and its imaginary effect on climate, when other, graver problems exist is, simply put, wrong. Particulate pollution, such as that causing the Asian brown cloud, is a real problem. Two billion people on Earth living without electricity, in darkened huts and hovels polluted by charcoal smoke, is a real problem.

So, let us indeed start a Manhattan Project-like mission to create alternative sources of energy. And, in the meantime, let us neither cripple our own economy by mislabeling carbon dioxide a pollutant nor discourage development in the Third World, where suffering continues unabated, day after day.

Again, Mr. Gore, I accept your apology.

P.S. One of the last, desperate canards proposed by climate alarmists is that of the polar ice caps. Look at the "terrible," "unprecedented" melting in the Arctic in the summer of 2007, they say. Well, the ice in the Arctic basin has always melted and refrozen, and always will.

More to the point, 2007 happened also to be the time of maximum historic sea ice in Antarctica. Why, I ask, has Mr. Gore not chosen to mention the record growth of sea ice around Antarctica? If the record melting in the Arctic is significant, then the record sea ice growth around Antarctica is, too, I say. If one is insignificant, then the other one is, too.

For failing to mention the 2007 Antarctic maximum sea ice record a single time, I also accept your apology, Mr. Gore. By the way, your contention that the Arctic basin will be "ice free" in summer within five years (which you said last month in Germany), is one of the most demonstrably false comments you have dared to make. Thank you for that!

See the rest here:

Huffington Apology


BTW: If you want to see the University of Illinois-Urbana information and graphics, they are here:

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/

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You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.

Harlan Ellison