EXTRAORDINARY NON-SCIENCE FROM A SCIENCE EDITOR

The global warming religion seems to addle brains in a way exceeded only by Islam. Article lifted from Roger Pielke

In this week's Science magazine editor Donald Kennedy opines that "Not only is the New Orleans damage not an act of God; it shouldn't even be called a "natural" disaster." Could it be that he sees the significance of millions of people and trillions of dollars of property in locations exposed to repeated strikes from catastrophic storms? Unfortunately, not at all.

Prof. Kennedy is a Johnny-come-lately to exploiting Katrina for political advantage on climate change. He writes, "As Katrina and two other hurricanes crossed the warm Gulf of Mexico, we watched them gain dramatically in strength. . . We know with confidence what has made the Gulf and other oceans warmer than they had been before: the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human industrial activity, to which the United States has been a major contributor."

I suppose one could make the convoluted case that Prof. Kennedy is [just a bad writer/only talking about statistics/dumbing-down the science/anticipating inevitable future research results] and didn't really mean to link Katrina's damage (or Katrina) with global warming. But he did, clearly. The current state of science doesn't support such claims. Let's review:

From Kerry Emanuel's homepage:

"Q: I gather from this last discussion that it would be absurd to attribute the Katrina disaster to global warming?

A: Yes, it would be absurd."

From Webster et al.(2005) in Science (PDF):

". . . attribution of the 30-year trends [in hurricane intensity] to global warming would require a longer global data record and, especially, a deeper understanding of the role of hurricanes in the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, even in the present climate state."

From RealClimate:

". . .there is no way to prove that Katrina either was, or was not, affected by global warming. For a single event, regardless of how extreme, such attribution is fundamentally impossible." (emphasis added)

From Rick Anthes at UCAR (who effectively used the "act of god" metaphor in his essay):

"Whatever the relationship between hurricanes and global warming turns out to be, it is not likely to be simple, and we will never be able to attribute a single event like Katrina to a changed climate."

If you want to read about Katrina not being an "act of God" I'd recommend this thoughtful essay by former national park service director Roger Kennedy. We criticized Donald Kennedy just last week for advocating policies related to extreme weather events that simply cannot work, and this week he backs that up with more of the same. If one actually cares about the impacts of hurricanes, it makes no sense to express concern about hurricane damage without at all mentioning coastal population growth and development. As I have written previously, our continuing focus on the issue of hurricanes and global warming is not simply about getting the science right. It is about advocating policies that can save lives and mitigate damage. Global warming is important, hurricanes are as well, but you can't kill those two birds with a single stone. You can't (PDF).

For an argument for policies that hold far more promise for dealing with hurricane impacts than those being advocated by Professor Kennedy, have a look at this op-ed (in PDF) that Dan Sarewitz and I had in the L.A. Times last fall. Reflecting upon Prof. Kennedy's recent editorials, I not sure what is worse - the repeated advocacy of really bad policy on the pages of the nation's leading scientific journal or the deafening silence of the relevant scientific community in the face of these arguments.






SAVING THE WORLD POSTPONED

A environmental awareness concert featuring MANIC STREET PREACHERS, THE DARKNESS and THE STROKES has been postponed. The One Earth Concert was scheduled to take place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, on 28 January (06), but organisers have mysteriously pulled the gig, promising to reschedule it later in the year. Rock fans who have bought tickets for the gig are entitled to a full refund. The concert was set to be broadcast internationally for charity Climate Change Now's campaign to save the earth.

Michael Mathres, of Climate Change Now, says, "We apologise wholeheartedly for any inconvenience caused by the change of date. "But we can assure those who have already purchased tickets that the event will still take place at the Millennium Stadium."

Source






THE DEEP LOVE OF THE GREENS FOR THE HUMAN RACE

By Melanie Phillips

The 'progressive' ideas of the green movement are truly a wonder to behold. Consider this article on BBC OnLine by Professor Chris Rapley, Director of the British Antarctic Survey. Prof Rapley is very worried by the collective 'footprint' of humankind on our planet's life support systems. The world's population, he says, which currently stands at about 6.5 billion people, is heading towards eight billion or so by mid-century. The optimum number for sustainable life on the planet, he goes on, is 'perhaps 2-3 billion':

With that number and a timescale as targets, a path to reach 'Utopia' from where we are now is, in principle, a straightforward matter of identifying options, choosing the approach and then planning and navigating the route from source to destination.

The only way to reduce the world's population from 8 billion to 2-3 billion would appear to be by genocide, nuclear holocaust, famine or plague. Just which of these options might the Director of the British Antarctic Survey be recommending to navigate us to utopia? I think we should be told.

Note to Melanie from Benny Peiser: There is another green proposal which is being adopted quite successful in most European countries and even more so in Russia. It's called the "The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement" and its key objective is quite simple: "Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health" (http://www.vhemt.org/). As Mark Steyn points out in his latest op-ed, "If the present rate [in the rise of sea level] continues, the Maldives will be under water by 2500. Of course, by then, if the present rate of demographic decline continues, most of Russia and Europe will be empty, and we could resettle the 350,000 residents of the Maldives on the Riviera."




RUSSIAN FREEZE GETS SERIOUS

It looks like the "global" in "global warming" does not include one of the world's largest countries



Arctic temperatures gripping most of Russia pushed the death toll across the frozen country towards 40 as weather forecasters warned that no significant thaw was expected before next month. In the capital, locked in a deep freeze since late Monday, seven people died overnight on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported. That brought the toll in Moscow to 18 and nationwide to 38 - but the true number is likely to be higher, because many regions have not reported cold deaths....

Moscow yesterday was slightly warmer than Thursday, when -31C was recorded in the early hours - the lowest since 1927. In Moscow, 22 people were being treated in hospital for hypothermia, the report said, quoting the municipal health service. Cities and towns in western Russia have reported deaths and hypothermia since the cold wave set in on Tuesday. A weather service official told Ekho Moskvy radio that temperatures in the capital were unlikely to rise above -20C before February.

Schoolchildren stayed home, vendors at Moscow's outdoor food and clothing markets shuttered their booths, and outdoor automatic teller machines reportedly froze up, while traffic was uncharacteristically light as drivers were reluctant to venture out or unable to start their cars.

More here

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

Global warming has taken the place of Communism as an absurdity that "liberals" will defend to the death regardless of the evidence showing its folly. Evidence never has mattered to real Leftists

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