Charles Darwin ushered in a new era of thinking where change was expected and necessary. Our species as are all others, is the product of ongoing environmental change and adaption to varying conditions; the constancy of change. In the last 15 years or so however, we have seemingly reverted to a pre-Darwinian mode of a fixed ‘immutable Earth’ where any change beyond some sort of ‘norm’ is seen in some quarters as unnatural, threatening and due to our activities, usually with the proviso of needing ‘to act now to save the planet.’ Honest scientific discourse and debate is often rendered impossible in the face of the ‘new catastrophism.’
A great read, and worthy of sharing.
The only criticism I have of this refreshing rebuttable to Catastrophic Climate Change is that the authors should not look to current scientists to change the “crisis-driven funding model” for climate science. It has proven to be very effective (and lucrative).
As one simple example, the Chair of the Geological Society of America (from where this article was originally published in 2014) Bill Ruddiman says (at 8:01 in the comments section):
“Temperature changes from 7000 years ago to 1850 were small and gradual, in striking contrast to the abrupt 0.85oC fossil-fuel warming since then.”
What Ruddiman does not say is that prior to 1850 high resolution temperature measurements were not even available and any comparison between pre- and post-1850 is an unfair comparison of low and high resolution data. Further, Ruddiman is even wrong in his statement regarding the abrupt warming since 1850. From the 1940s to the 1970s the temperature records show abrupt cooling. Prior to the 1940s the rate of warming is similar to the more recent warming where now the CO2 levels are much higher.
If the Chair of the Geological Society of America can’t even get the basic facts right on Global Warming, the rest of us have no chance.
A good basic common sense read. Not surprising that the UofT would sate at the top that the ideas expressed in the articles don’t necessarily agree with the university I guess we should give them credit for being willing to print an article that would be thought of as “climate denier material”.
You would think the Left would jump with joy over planetary destruction.
They’re always whining about something, I suppose it’s their inherent RACISM that fights for only one race of people to be wiped off the face of the earth.
“A great read, and worthy of sharing.”
I have often thanked Kate over these many years for SDA, what I have called an oasis of sanity in a vast desert of MMGW hysteria.
Thanks to the many quality links provided over these years, I have been able to pull most of my friends and acquaintances back to reality and at least have them questioning the quality of science and political motives involved. I still have some leftist in-laws who refuse to believe ANY of my “denier BS” and they now don’t invite me over as much, so it’s definitely win-win.
It looks like this article is from October 2014, but at least it’s seeing the light of day again. Glad you found it.
I added a comment anyway. Maybe it will get posted. In case it doesn’t, here it is:
It looks like this article is from October 2014, but at least it’s seeing the light of day again. Glad you found it.
I added a comment anyway. Maybe it will get posted. In case it doesn’t, here it is:
You’re absolutely right, Knight. Yesterday’s “Day 6” show on CBC Radio was all about “adapting to climate change”, and part of it was devoted to northern Yukon. It’s a good thing that people there adapted to climate change and crossed back and forth from Siberia; otherwise, there would have been a ten-minute gap in the program.
@Atomic:
“Whatever the reality, the political claptrap has poisoned the issue for me, and I think many others. To dismiss them as ignorant Luddites simply reinforces the desperate appearance of deliberate fraud.”
I am one of the “many others”.
And if it’s possible to point to one particular thing that “poisoned the issue” (there are many)for me it would have to be the vids of children at school and ordinary people at their workplace having their heads blown off because they did not unquestioningly agree with the Global Warming thing. Fanaticism at it’s worst.
Sounds like he is saying, Climate Change is normal, we should prepare to adapt to whatever possibilities the changes may bring.
I think that is what humans have been doing for many thousands of years. AND WE ARE STILL HERE, SOMEHOW …
What has changed about this period in climate history is that lunatics and opportunists are running the planet, so all things are scam now.
Happy New Year Kate!
Thanks for the great article. Will definitely be passing this one along. Ironically, just the other day I had sent the following response to yet another request for donation from Jeremy Nixon @ Wildrose. (See especially my Question No. 3)
“Dear Jeremy,
When Brian Jean and the Wildrose are prepared to question the NDP Government on the basis of their commitment to the “science” of Climate Change rather than just question the negative economic consequences of the carbon tax (i.e. implying that Wildrose accepts the “science”, but disagrees with the policy to address), I’ll be prepared to start donating to the party again.
In the meantime, here’s a few questions Brian could ask Rachel Notley in Question Period (you can work out the specific wording, but trust you’ll get the idea);
1) It has been noted in the media that the premier has worn a (watch?, braclet?) celebrating the Marxist (very important to get “Marxist” into the question) murderer Che Guevara. Is the premier aware that the Marxist, Che Guevara, is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent people in Cuba and Bolivia, including many people he personally executed? Yes or No?
Follow-up: In light of the 1000s of murders for which Che Guevara is responsible, can the premier explain why she wears a piece of jewelry that appears to celebrate his evil?
2) The vast majority of the senior ministerial advisors are people the government has brought to Alberta from other provinces (then list them all and where they are from). One can only imagine the reaction of the people in other provinces, say Quebec, for example, if their government brought in a similar proportion of people from other provinces to fill senior positions. Can the premier explain why there were not Alberta residents chosen to fill each of these positions?
3) The earth is currently estimated to be 4.8 billion years old. During that time, there have been very warm periods (dinosaur bones have been found on Baffin Island) and very cold periods (commonly referred as Ice Ages). Not sure if the Premier is aware, but the current “science” indicates that the earth has been in “Ice Ages” 70-85% of the time. The last Ice Age ended only approximately 10-12,000 years ago. At that time, Western Canada and the mountains all the way from present day Alberta to the Pacific coast were covered with a huge sheet of ice estimated to be 2-3 kilometers thick (this was far above the mountain tops we see today). So, in a period of only 7-8,000 years (a relative nano second in the context of the earth’s 4.8 billion year life), virtually all of this ice melted. There were no internal combustion engines, there was no industrial revolution, there were no coal fired power plants, and there were hardly any people (compared to today) to be responsible for “mankind” contributions to the change to a warmer climate. Given these facts, can the premier explain for us what caused all of this ice to melt?
Thank you for your consideration.”.
Have a great 2017!
The hoax of AGW/Climate change is DOA. The total rejection of the Paris accord is the END.. No money = No scientific support.
What is next in the bag of scientific Black Magic deployed by the UN/EU.. “The Computer Hacking of all Control Systems”…Robots gone wild, Planes with the glide path of a rock, Cars that kill pedestrians & Occupants..Home appliances that self explode…. Unlimited scientific plots..
JMHO
When opinions on science coincide with political inclination one has to question the boundaries and sources of influence. When the annual global expenditure of $1.5 trillion mostly from those (politicians) pimping hysteria and directed at rent seeking benefactors and reinforcement of an hypothesis guaranteed to complete the circle, the science can’t be anything but compromised. Real science in such an environment must be either flow from independently funded sources or from those few brave souls within and despite the will of the monster.
The comments there at the article’s site are great. Typical pro-warmists are out and about.
ABout that nothing reporton Russian hacking in ArsTecnica http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/did-russia-tamper-with-the-2016-election-bitter-debate-likely-to-rage-on/
Today, January 1, 2017 is the day the Earth starts to cool and the ocean levels start to recede.
The Alberta carbon tax kicked in today.
It’s all about the MONEY and both provincial and the federal gov’t don’t care about the people. We as the people need to rise up and do something about this problem let your words be heard write your local MP’s and MLA’s and then cc the a trustworthy Media e.g. Rebel outlet. NO TO PROVINCIAL AND FEDERAL CARBON TAXES!!