Headlines

Cuomo scrambles to stamp out Cynthia Nixon revolt

US-China trade war could cause bear market, stress test shows

Immigrants cited in theft of 39 million Social Security numbers ...

... Terror content remains on social media 17 years after 9/1

White House planning second Trump-Kim summit

The hurricane that's about to hit the Carolin as could be the worst in 60 years

100 Bangladeshi nationals apprehended near Texas [border] ...

Pope Francis compares Vatican whistleblower to Satan

Gov. Brown: Trump administration's rollback of methane rules 'insane'

Trump told Gary Cohn to 'print money' yo lower national debt, according to Woodwatrd book

Job openings climb to record 6.9 million ...

Media expert: Big tech monopolies are going to be a problem more and more

A Convenient Culprit

Let me try explaining things one more time.

Yesterday at a party I was engaged in conversation with a well-educated man. The subject of global warming came up and I asked him what percent of our atmosphere was carbon dioxide? He answered, "3 or 4 percent." When I told him he was 100 times too high he was shocked. "You mean it is 0.04%?" I answered in the affirmative and added that plants on Earth are on a starvation diet of CO2 relative to the past when levels were ten or more times higher ... see Earthguide Article -- the source of the above chart. And levels were even two times higher when, exactly where we were then sitting, 650 thousand years ago we would have been covered by ice a mile thick.

The global-warming mania around the world exists because of ignorance ... ignorance of history and ignorance of science. Yes, according to recent satellite data (ground-based temperature measurements are now useless), our planet's temperature has increased a bit during our Industrial Age with the burning of fossil fuels. But this has only increased CO2 levels by at most 10 parts per million (+33%) over the last 150 years ... a mere bagatelle. And global temperatures have not increased at all for the last 17 years. This is embarrassingly known by scientists as "the pause" and is only discussed sotta voce. Politicians who claim that we are now hotter than ever are lying ... because they are conveniently basing these claims on ground-level measurements which are seriously biased by the recent effects of urbanization ... or, even worse, they are using altered raw data ... a scientific taboo.

My sincere hope is that, over the coming election year, politicians who wring their hands over global warming or climate change or climate extremes need to be asked the question I asked my party friend ... and, if they answer incorrectly, should be laughed off the stage. If they get it right, then should be asked what five other things might ever contribute to our planet's warming (like back when the Ice Age retreated)? And, if they can't name at least five other things (hints: solar cycles, slight changes in Earth's orbit, wiggles in the Earth's tilt, altering ocean currents, atmospheric particulates from vulcanization, methane level changes, water vapor changes, changes in our solar system's place in the Milky Way, tectonic plate shifts, any many more), they should again be ridiculed. If they can list five or more things, then they should be asked why carbon dioxide is then the primary suspect? This question can only be truthfully answered by the admission that it is the only convenient culprit that man might possibly control ... obviously a reducto absurdum and shows how unscientific the current climate science is  ... at which point this pol's eyes should brighten and his/her mind be changed ... otherwise he/she is a charlatan.

Wouldn't that be a seminal moment?

Fart Tax

Methane Sources

Will the religious zeal to counter global warming have no limit? Now the Obama administration wants to stop cows from emitting methane gas via belching and flatulence … see: Daily Caller Story. The methane gas produced by bovines as they digest their plant foods is a “green-house gas” and is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in its warming effect. Of course other plant eaters (elephants, buffaloes, rhinos, termites, old men, etc.) also produce copious quantities of methane gas … but somehow may escape this intrusion of big government.

The cited article doesn’t specifically say how the government is going to get cows to stop emitting methane … but, living under these bozos for over five years, I have a pretty good idea of what they have in mind. No, it isn’t feeding them massive amounts of Gas-X … or hooking up their south ends to gas-capturing devices. I’m pretty sure that our heavy hand of government will impose a levy on farm animals. Yes, PETA and the vegetarian lobby in Washington will, if they have their way, go in the back door (so to speak) to reduce the American consumption of meat and dairy products. This will make it more expensive to so consume and therefore, as per Economics 101, curb this disgusting habit … and at the same time save our planet … a win-win.

Yes, dear readers brace yourselves … its coming … a fart tax?

I Told You So

Climate scientists are beginning to behave like scientists … and are now looking at other factors that contribute to global warming and global cooling (aka, climate change).  Now, volcano emissions are suspected in the contribution to the 15-year hiatus in global warming … see: Wattsupwiththat Blog.  This is not just progress; it is the scales falling from the eyes of climate researchers. This should have happened years ago as we were being led by the nose into believing Al Gore’s global-warming manifesto.  Here are two important quotes in this article from real climate researchers:

“This is the most comprehensive observational evaluation of the role of volcanic activity on climate in the early part of the 21st century,” says co-author Susan Solomon, the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Science at MIT. “We assess the contributions of volcanoes on temperatures in the troposphere — the lowest layer of the atmosphere — and find they’ve certainly played some role in keeping the Earth cooler. There are many components of the Earth’s climate system that can increase or decrease the temperature of the globe. For example, while greenhouse gases cause warming, some types of small particles, known as aerosols, cause cooling. When volcanoes erupt explosively enough, they enhance these aerosols — a phenomenon referred to as “volcanic forcing.”

and:

Alan Robock, a professor of environmental sciences at Rutgers University and a leading expert on the impacts of volcanic eruptions on climate, says these findings are an important part of the larger climate picture. “This paper reminds us that there are multiple causes of climate change, both natural and anthropogenic, and that we need to consider all of them when interpreting past climate and predicting future climate.”

Both emphases I have added ... as this is the point I have been making for many years.  (Apparently as often stated, there is not really a scientific consensus on carbon dioxide being the bete noire of global warming ) Way back in 2006 I said the following in one of my blogs:

[T]he world has gone through many natural warming and cooling cycles. These cycles have apparently been caused by one or more of the following events (roughly in order of potential effect): 

1) Changes (wiggles) in the amount of the orthogonal offset in the Earth’s rotational axis relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun. (This offset is what causes our world’s seasons.)
2) The periodic cycle of sunspot activity (and other solar dynamics) causing a change in the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth.
3) Enormous emissions of Earth’s gasses and particulates naturally and during cataclysmic geological events like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
4) The Earth’s on-going global chemistry which creates and destroys massive amounts of inorganic compounds.
5) The periodic small perturbations of the Earth in its orbit … closer to and further from the sun
6) The evolving structure of the Earth’s upper atmosphere (magnetic, chemical, and electrical) which filter out or permit in the ethers of space.
7) Shifts in the Earth’s ocean currents caused by intercontinental plate tectonic movements and other poorly-understood factors.
8) The effect of the Earth’s biomass and mankind on the composition and proportions of our atmospheric gasses (carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, etc. -- e.g., early plants converted enormous amount of naturally occurring carbon dioxide into oxygen … which then enabled the evolution of animals … who then reciprocated by converting oxygen back into carbon dioxide). By the by, methane has 20 times the atmospheric warming effect as carbon dioxide … and is mainly produced by nature, not by man.

The notion of a change (caused by the burning of fossil fuels) in the relatively small proportion of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere (from 310 to 370 parts per million during the last 40 years) is responsible for our current warming cycle seems to me to be the essence of human species egocentricity. If one truly comprehends the scope of the above-outlined possible reasons for global warming, then one has to conclude that politics must the driving force behind our current environmental hysteria. I think that any “scientist’ who lays global warming totally at the feet of the increase in carbon dioxide must first quantify the effects (positive and/or negative) of all the above possible causes. 

To see this quote in its original situ, please go to: Junkier Science.

I hate to gloat, but in this one case I will … I told you so.

Afterward: Global-warming zealots are trying to gag Charles Krauthammer. They want the Washington Post to stop publishing his columns because of his open-minded attitude toward global-warming "science" ... see: Fox News Story. Since I am also exhibiting an equivalent skepticism with apparent impunity, should I be insulted?