I’m not going to call Jim D insulting names. I wish others would also resist the ugly temptation.
Nevertheless, we’ve gone from consensus assertions of near-absolute certainty over CO2 impacts to admissions that great uncertainty remains. I suppose that is progress.
Unfortunately, their proposed response is the same for each tail of this uncertainty curve. I suppose that is to be expected of policy advocates.
I think funding is overrated. In most cases, elbow grease does the job faster and better.
Surprise: it’s going to start raining (or snowing) this year sometime around late November and it’ll keep raining (or snowing) ’til March, 2017.
“JC comment: This brings to mind the attempt to usurp all of the UN millennial development goals in favor of futile attempts to change the climate by reducing global carbon emissions.”
Ahh, but this is why the argument about the time it takes for the CO2 to abate from the atmosphere has been hypothesised. If we were to actually bring about the banning of burning carbon based fuels, and the temps keep climbing, well it is because of the sins of our fathers.
We are warm now and the ice is being replaced more than gets replaced every year.
That should read:
We are warm now and the ice is being replaced more than melts every year.
The Blade Runner pair-o-docs.
Murphy’s law in a new dress, but I do like pink flamingos.
As an engineer I am amazed that there are folks who consider “climate change” to be mankind’s largest challenge, equivalent to a war, and are prepared to march into battle against an entity not yet proven to be an enemy, a hypothetical black swan, using weapons which are socially expensive and largely ineffective.
The political aspect of climate change has all of the characteristics of a religious call to war. In that vein I am reminded of these words from Mark Twain’s “The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories”.
“There has never been a just [war], never an honorable one–on the part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many as half a dozen instances. The loud little handful–as usual–will shout for the war. The pulpit will–warily and cautiously–object–at first; the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, ‘It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it.’ Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity. Before long you will see this curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men who in their secret hearts are still at one with those stoned speakers–as earlier–but do not dare say so. And now the whole nation–pulpit and all–will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open. Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
Jesus. That’s it.
I agree, the warmunistas believe the sea is going to rise. I’ll take the contrary position and buy beach property. Where’s the cheap beach property? What about land alongside the Hudson? The Potomac? ???
As usual, Dr. Judith, another fascinating paper. I do like your use of insights from different fields to illuminate climate science.
I particularly liked your comment:
I am still waiting for a robust explanation for the substantial global warming from 1905-1945, why the globe has been warming overall for the past 400 years, and what caused the little ice age. Failing to even try to understand climate change during these periods in the recent past is a recipe for fooling ourselves about what has caused the recent warming, and how the future climate will evolve.
Indeed. I have been beating this drum for a while now. We don’t know what caused the Medieval Warming. We don’t know why it slid into the Little Ice Age. And we don’t know why it has gradually warmed for a few centuries since then.
And in my book at least, until we understand the climate changes of the past, the idea that we can predict the changes of the future is hubristic nonsense.
Keep up the good work, your blog is an unending source of wonderment.
w.
What does this mean about who we are today?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/nation/2014/05/02/military-sexual-assault/8630871/
I still have problems with their numbers but that only makes it worse.
I think that the skeptical organizations supported by Exxon over the years are shocked, shocked, that Exxon never really believed them the whole time. They need to be asking Exxon questions too.
You got it, harry. Please repeat this comment on every thread.
opluso, yes, something may happen anyway because now people are aware of the negative consequences of GHG emissions, but the UN reaffirms that this is a common goal and can make laggard countries feel more compelled than they otherwise might be to do something.
when the opponent demands debates, go asymetrical and use a pen and phone instead.
Harry said
‘The depth polling on climate change always comes back with the same answer…the American public wants to fix climate change…and they are willing to pay $10/month…basically an additional 1 cent/KW.’
Unfortunately America is completely irrelevant to the climate circus as the co2 merry go round has moved on to China and India.
US citizens can claim they will pay 10$ a month but will they squeal when fuel costs soar and home energy costs rise and businesses close down as their own energy costs make them uncompetitive?
The chickens are coming home to roost here in the UK as the Govt has deliberately inflated energy costs with the result many people can’t afford to adequately heat their homes. Our steel industry is collapsing as we speak largely due to energy costs and our power station buffer dwindles to almost zero which will have severe repercussions if we have anything but a mild winter as renewables don’t perform as expected and these grown up fossil fuel power stations are closed down in order to meet EU co2 directives.
Cheap and plentiful energy costs are the bedrock of a healthy economy
Be careful what you wish for.
tonyb
CG, there are communities on the west coast that only allow schools to be built above a tsunami inundation level. You may think that is just too precautionary. Different people have different opinions on what they would risk.
