Sophrosyne Radical: Reflections, provocations & obsecrations from a sapiosexual.

Power through Incredulity & Ignorance through Faith -

Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire. (Independent)


The threat of “global warming” is apparently enough to justify arson. If the arson were aimed at toppling the oligarchs, do you think said provisions would still apply?


Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh
Phil Chapman

THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.

All four agencies that track Earth’s temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.

[...]

The interglacial we have enjoyed throughout recorded human history, called the Holocene, began 11,000 years ago, so the ice is overdue. We also know that glaciation can occur quickly: the required decline in global temperature is about 12C and it can happen in 20 years.

The next descent into an ice age is inevitable but may not happen for another 1000 years. On the other hand, it must be noted that the cooling in 2007 was even faster than in typical glacial transitions. If it continued for 20 years, the temperature would be 14C cooler in 2027. (The Australian)


Disproof of Global Warming Hype Published
2008-07-18

A mathematical proof that there is no “climate crisis” has been published in debate on global warming in Physics and Society, a scientific publication of the 46,000-strong American Physical Society.

Christopher Monckton, who once advised Margaret Thatcher, demonstrates via 30 equations that computer models used by the UN’s climate panel (IPCC) were pre-programmed with overstated values for the three variables whose product is “climate sensitivity” (temperature increase in response to greenhouse-gas increase), resulting in a 500-2000% overstatement of CO2’s effect on temperature in the IPCC’s latest climate assessment report, published in 2007.

The article, entitled Climate Sensitivity Reconsidered demonstrates that later this century a doubling of the concentration of CO2 compared with pre-industrial levels will increase global mean surface temperature not by the 6 °F predicted by the IPCC but, harmlessly, by little more than 1 °F. Lord Monckton concludes –

“… Perhaps real-world climate sensitivity is very much below the IPCC’s estimates. Perhaps, therefore, there is no ‘climate crisis’ at all.

[...]

“To me the value of this paper lies in its dispassionate but ruthlessly clear exposition – or, rather, exposé – of the IPCC’s method of evaluating climate sensitivity. The detailed arguments in this paper, and, indeed, in a large number of other scientific papers, point up extensive errors, including numerous projection errors of climate models, as well as misleading statements by the IPCC. Consequently, there are no rational grounds for believing either the IPCC or any other claims of dangerous anthropogenic ‘global warming’.”

  • The IPCC’s 2007 climate summary overstated CO2’s impact on temperature by 500-2000%;

  • CO2 enrichment will add little more than 1 °F (0.6 °C) to global mean surface temperature by 2100;
  • Not one of the three key variables whose product is climate sensitivity can be measured directly;
  • The IPCC’s values for these key variables are taken from only four published papers, not 2,500;
  • The IPCC’s values for each of the three variables, and hence for climate sensitivity, are overstated;
  • “Global warming” halted ten years ago, and surface temperature has been falling for seven years;
  • Not one of the computer models relied upon by the IPCC predicted so long and rapid a cooling;
  • The IPCC inserted a table into the scientists’ draft, overstating the effect of ice-melt by 1000%;
  • It was proved 50 years ago that predicting climate more than two weeks ahead is impossible;
  • Mars, Jupiter, Neptune’s largest moon, and Pluto warmed at the same time as Earth warmed;
  • In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years

(Mens Daily)


Bureaucrats at the American Physical Society (APS) have issued a curious warning to their members about an article in one of their own publications. Don’t read this, they say – we don’t agree with it. But what is it about the piece that is so terrible, that like Medusa, it could make men go blind?

It’s an article that examines the calculation central to climate models. (The Register)


The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming “incontrovertible.”

In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,”There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.” (The Daily Tech)


[A] new study out of NASA … determined that “not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming.” (Newsbusters)


The major premise of “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore is that carbon dioxide is the major greenhouse gas that drives the temperature of the earth.” According to scientific data studied by scientists such as Dr. Ian Clark, “Carbon dioxide gas (CO2) lags behind temperature changes in history by 800 years; CO2 doesn’t cause temperature change.” And according to Professor Tim Ball, Dept. of Climatology at the University of Winnipeg, “Based on the evidence of ice core studies at the polar ice caps, it shows that CO2 follows temperature, not the opposite. So the fundamental assumption of the whole theory of climate change by human intervention of CO2 emissions causing temperature changes is wrong.”

Dr. John Christy, Atmospheric Physicist at the University of Alabama and leading author of IPCC report now says “human intervention accounts for a small fraction of CO2 of the atmospheric gases in the atmosphere; that water vapor accounts for about 97% of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. CO2 accounts for 1.9%. Therefore, man is responsible for less than 3% of all greenhouse effect in the atmosphere globally.” (Epoch Times)


Recent observations of phenomena such as glacial retreats, sea-level rise and the migration of temperature-sensitive species are not evidence for abnormal climate change, for none of these changes has been shown to lie outside the bounds of known natural variability.

The average rate of warming of 0.1 to 0. 2 degrees Celsius per decade recorded by satellites during the late 20th century falls within known natural rates of warming and cooling over the last 10,000 years.

Leading scientists, including some senior IPCC representatives, acknowledge that today’s computer models cannot predict climate. Consistent with this, and despite computer projections of temperature rises, there has been no net global warming since 1998. That the current temperature plateau follows a late 20th-century period of warming is consistent with the continuation today of natural multi-decadal or millennial climate cycling.

In stark contrast to the often repeated assertion that the science of climate change is “settled,” significant new peer-reviewed research has cast even more doubt on the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming. But because IPCC working groups were generally instructed to consider work published only through May, 2005, these important findings are not included in their reports; i.e., the IPCC assessment reports are already materially outdated. (Rense)


The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to the fundamental theory behind global warming – the greenhouse effect. (New Statesman)


When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.

The evidence was not conclusive, but why wait until we were certain when it appeared we needed to act quickly? Soon government and the scientific community were working together and lots of science research jobs were created. We scientists had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet.

But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” (The Australian)


Swedish polar researchers that there is in fact very little concrete proof tying global warming to climate changes in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Some indeed argue that there is more change in today’s political rhetoric than there is in the environment. (The Local)


Meanwhile, the glaciers in Norway and Alsaska are growing despite the fact that they were shrinking in the 80s. If shrinking glaciers point to global warming what do expanding glaciers point to?

The founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, has called global warming a “total myth” and a “scam.” Coleman and 30,000 other scientists (including 9,000 PhDs) may sue Al Gore and others selling carbon credits for fraud. Coleman says the manipulated hysteria over global warming has become an “environmentalist religion.” (Energy Publisher)


A spokesman for Al Gore has issued a questionable response to the news that in October 2007 the High Court in London had identified nine “errors” in his movie An Inconvenient Truth. The judge had stated that, if the UK Government had not agreed to send to every secondary school in England a corrected guidance note making clear the mainstream scientific position on these nine “errors”, he would have made a finding that the Government’s distribution of the film and the first draft of the guidance note earlier in 2007 to all English secondary schools had been an unlawful contravention of an Act of Parliament prohibiting the political indoctrination of children. (Science and Public Policy)


Mythical UN IPCC ‘Consensus’ Continues to Crumble: Top UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Turns on IPCC. Calls Warming Fears: ‘Worst scientific scandal in the history’. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist who specializes in optical waveguide spectroscopy from the Yokohama National University, also contributed to the 2007 UN IPCC AR4 (fourth assessment report) as an expert reviewer. Itoh, a former lecturer at the University of Tokyo, just released his new book Lies and Traps in the Global Warming Affairs.

Itoh’s new book includes chapters calling man-made global warming fears “the worst scientific scandal in the history.” “I also cited the opinions of Dr. Akasofu (Professor Emeritus, University of Alaska) in the last part of the book. He sincerely advises us‚ “When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists,” and says, “IPCC should make appropriate comments before G8.” I sincerely think he is correct,” Itoh wrote. (Cure Zone)


Global Warming has become the core belief in a new eco-theology. The term is used as shorthand for anthropogenic (or man made) global warming. It is closely related to other modern belief systems, such as political correctness, chemophobia and various other forms of scaremongering, but it represents the vanguard in the assault on scientific man. (Numberwatch)


Question: How many scientists does it take to establish that a consensus does not exist on global warming? The quest to establish that the science is not settled on climate change began before most people had even heard of global warming. (National Post)

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Freeman Dyson’s tongue-in-cheek petition


“I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” – Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical.” – Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” – UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” – Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.

“The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC “are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” – Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” – U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” – . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

“After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri’s asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it’s hard to remain quiet.” – Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society’s Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?” – Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” – Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.

“Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” – Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.

“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” – Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

“CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” – Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.

“The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds.” – Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata. (US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works)


Do you still think “global warming” a foregone conclusion endorsed by the ‘consensus of empirical science’?

Additional Rabbit Holes -

  • I find too much "noise" and unanswered questions here. Comparing environmentalism to religion, for example, is simply an appeal to prejudice. It establishes nothing. In the same article, the author commits the naturalistic fallacy in his approach to CO2.


    There is a long list of assertions by individuals whose affiliations are unknown to me, beyond a title or a degree. It sounds like an appeal to authority, which is the weakness of the "consensus" argument in the first place. Two instances of the same fallacy in opposite arguments basically just confuse the issue.


    Many of these read in similar manner as the "intellegent design" arguments: deconstructions or critiques on science rather than reporting of results. Some do not, but there is simply too much chaff here to find the wheat.

  • I'm with you on this one, and I could compose a contrary post to this one with just as much information.


    There is, currently, neither CONCRETE proof of global warming nor CONCRETE proof that it isn't happening.


    This is a new science, and there are lots of ways that people are approaching it. I suspect it'll be another decade, barring a huge discovery, before we get enough information for one side to say "Look at this, motherfucker, you cannot deny my conclusions any more."


    Also: "...lags behind temperature changes in history by 800 years..."?


    I'd douubt anybody on either side who makes so bold of a statement. You have 800 years of research on C02? Really?

  • I could compose a contrary post to this one with just as much information.


    I've no doubt you could make a 'contrary post' that is qualitatively and quantitatively superior. That would only serve to demonstrate that there are at least two healthy positions of contention.




    There is, currently, neither CONCRETE proof of global warming nor CONCRETE proof that it isn't happening.


    I dunno. I think there's pretty good evidence for global climate change, and I think there's ample evidence suggesting anthropogenic causes contribute to this process. But there's a great gulf of difference between this understanding and C02 doomsaying.




    This is a new science, and there are lots of ways that people are approaching it.


    Do you hear this diversity of approach represented in the media? Among colleagues?




    Also: "...lags behind temperature changes in history by 800 years..."?


    I'd douubt anybody on either side who makes so bold of a statement. You have 800 years of research on C02? Really?


    We've got millions of years of CO2 history. Ice cores are the most typical resource. You might question the validity of this data, but that's rather taboo. In the same sense, you might question how it is that astrophysicists "know" the composition of extra-solar bodies.


    But I'm in complete agreement with the skepticism... especially when I see lots and lots of evil fascist fucks getting excited over the same political agenda.

  • Comparing environmentalism to religion, for example, is simply an appeal to prejudice.


    I'm not sure I'd agree. There are valid correspondences between some expressions of fundamentalist religion and the "global warming" cult, and Brignell does a decent enough job of illuminating several of them. 'Establish' seems a bit static for me, but these parallels seem strong enough to anticipate similar fervor when questioning entrenched faith-based orthodoxies. The Inquisition-like authorities who govern the realm of ideas just add icing, but still don't 'establish' anything concrete.




    There is a long list of assertions by individuals whose affiliations are unknown to me, beyond a title or a degree. It sounds like an appeal to authority, which is the weakness of the "consensus" argument in the first place. Two instances of the same fallacy in opposite arguments basically just confuse the issue.


    If I posted quotes from people without titles and degrees, there would be criticism for a lack of professional representation. Either way, someone might interpret it as an "appeal to authority". As for myself, I interpret it as a valid demonstration of a lack of consenus. Quotations don't necessarily make valid critiques to orthodoxy, but they can corroborate informed dissent.




    Some do not, but there is simply too much chaff here to find the wheat.


    If conclusions are hastily advanced or are shown in error, deconstructions and critiques are supremely valid. It'd be a shame if all science did was make pronouncements that were never revised...


    As for separating the chaff from the wheat, I don't aim to settle the "debate". One of my primary intentions is to demonstrate that there may be valid reasons for questioning this particular faith-based scientific orthodoxy.

  • Do you still think "global warming" a foregone conclusion endorsed by the 'consensus of empirical science'?


    Yup. ;}P>


    Sorry.


    I also don't think Oswald killed Kennedy, if that helps.

  • kitten_goddess

    Not commenting on global warming here. I wonder how many innocent people suffered harm because of those idiots that torched the power plant? (for instance, old people freezing to death because they had no heat in their homes. Canada is cold.) Would the judge still have ruled in their favor, or would they have been convicted of murder?

  • Intriguing question. Somehow I doubt the judicial system typically exerts that much foresight. ;)

  • RE: Expert Naysaying


    "There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." ~Albert Einstein, 1932.

  • Re: Expert Naysaying


    I'm fairly confident you've heard this before: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong." — Clark


    When you scratch the surface of the metaphor, it collapses. Many of the critiques of "global warming" aren't similar examples of personal bias.

  • Re: Expert Naysaying


    How many members of the American Phsyical Society are directly and indirectly funded by the oil and coal industries? That those industries have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into 'debunking' the idea of Global Warming makes all of the above statements deeply suspect at the very least.


    ~M~

  • Re: Expert Naysaying


    How many members of the American Phsyical Society are directly and indirectly funded by the oil and coal industries?


    Oh, I'm sure there are many more than I'm aware of. Much like I'm sure that much of the "global warming" orthodoxy is built around profit, I'm also well aware of how easy it is to find scientific prostitutes.




    That those industries have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into 'debunking' the idea of Global Warming makes all of the above statements deeply suspect at the very least.


    How much money do you think eco-fascists are making off scamming the public with carbon taxes and etc?


    Vested interests have engaged in disinformation campaigns to confuse the issues. That doesn't mean all critiques of the orthodoxy are disinformation any more than it means every postulation of the orthodoxy is disinformation.


    It's interesting how suspicious people can get over the interests of oil companies. It's also interesting how people can suspend that skepticism when politicos - known agents of fraud and subversion - propagandize effectively and target ethical sympathies.

  • Re: Expert Naysaying


    eco-fascist is a Right Wing buzz word. Careful with that. =)


    Frankly, all this pro/con noise is just that in my model of the world. The concept of Global Warming seems pretty plausible to me and if it pushes a general consensus toward new types of energy and better use of resources, then I'm just fine with it.


    The mass of humans are fairly ignorant if not down right stupid. Trying to create the level of changed needed by using reason is a fool's errand. First Terror, then Hope. Sorry, but that's how shit gets done.


    If you want a better working model, you're going to need better humans.


    ~M~

  • Re: Expert Naysaying


    eco-fascist is a Right Wing buzz word. Careful with that.


    Yeah, they've co-opted it in much the same way as Creationists have with "Intelligent Design". Nonetheless, I refuse to be passive with that type of semantic terrorism. Rationale aside, the phrase seems to accurately correspond with fascist ideals, as I understand them. Environmentalism in general and the "global warming" cult in specific fantasize over corporate-political integration and the sublimation of the individual within the ideal of the nation-state-mythos.




    Frankly, all this pro/con noise is just that in my model of the world. The concept of Global Warming seems pretty plausible to me and if it pushes a general consensus toward new types of energy and better use of resources, then I'm just fine with it.


    Anything will seem plausible, with the right massaging. You know what they say about Big Lies...


    In regards to a "consensus toward new types of energy and better use of resources", I don't see that as an agenda of the Global Warming Cult. We've got realistic "new types of energy" available NOW. All that's lacking is the will to implement. All that stands in the way of that is a global economy stilted in perpetuating artificial scarcity. The Global Warming Cult isn't pushing for this. They're pushing for hybrids, hydrogen and dirty fission.


    Likewise, "better use of resources" doesn't equate with public recycling campaigns or biodegradable packaging for foods. It means intelligent distribution. It requires cooperation and collaboration. The Global Warming Cult is lock-step with Neo-liberalism, with all it's implicit and explicit demons. With their coziness for corporatism, competition dominates their agenda.


    The public has been victimized by a pan-generational campaign of stupification. They can't be relied upon to come to any sustainable consensus. We need to enact sustainable governance, and we won't get there through demographic majorities.




    The mass of humans are fairly ignorant if not down right stupid. Trying to create the level of changed needed by using reason is a fool's errand. First Terror, then Hope. Sorry, but that's how shit gets done.


    If you want a better working model, you're going to need better humans.


    This basically anticipated my previous comment. However, I'm not so sure the key is something so drastic as "better humans". Maybe, in the end, you'll be right.

  • I'm not so sure the key is something so drastic as "better humans". Maybe, in the end, you'll be right.


    If you look at my LJ Bio, you'll see that 'better humans' has been my goal all along. =)


    ~M~

  • On the American Physical Society story, for the record: APS Reaffirms Position on Climate Change:

    The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007:


    "Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate."


    In fact the author of the Daily Tech article has now posted this correction to its conclusion:


    Updated 7/17/2008: After publication of this story, the APS responded with a statement that its Physics and Society Forum is merely one unit within the APS, and its views do not reflect those of the Society at large.

  • I was aware of the "correction" - I'd consider it more an addendum than correction, but nonetheless - when I cited the article. I didn't see it as relevant. I'm not expecting the APS to outright refute "global warming" hype. I'm more interested in demonstrating that within the APS there's informed dissent.




    "Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate."


    This seems like mechanistic thinking, which would be anachronistic and irresponsible. Nowadays most informed folks have adopted complexity. For them, things are less cut-and-dry. I tend to think complexity and emergence do a much better job of explaining most transphenomena than simplistic mechanistic reductionism.


    That aside, if the statement read something to the effect of, "Many unnecessary human activities are negatively impacting the ecosphere", I would have NO contention.

  • " I tend to think complexity and emergence do a much better job of explaining most transphenomena than simplistic mechanistic reductionism."


    I just found your journal. I get your point about the lack of consensus among experts about global warming. The majority of people I meet/read/speak to do not get complexity in any area. It's refreshing to read your posts. Thank you.

  • Do you still think "global warming" a foregone conclusion endorsed by the 'consensus of empirical science'?


    No, I accept that global warming -- or global climate change, or the coming vat of boiling shit in which all our futures will stew -- is all but inevitable because of scientific consensus. How damaging this thickening CO2 blanket will prove is the only question yet left to science.


    I ignore those that refer to science as a religion, even though I have met those that would embrace a science as a religion in a heartbeat. They just have too much hatred for the religion with which they were raised. How bad could this get? Personally, the most recent actual science sources I have read and heard tip me into the <a href=" http://peristaltor.livejournal.com/98129.html">..., very hot shit stew camp.


    Bring on the carbon taxes. Make them high and escalating, with the revenues given to those that produce non-carbon energy. People don't notice a problem until it costs them personally.


    Here's a quick tip: Every time you meet a "skeptic" against consensus science, ask him or her what models he or she has created based on his or her theory, and what conclusions these models have inferred. Ask then to what degree these models matched empirical observation, if at all.


    Deniers don't have models, because they don't produce anything but bilious denial. They're more worthless than film critics that can't make a movie.

  • Deniers don't have models, because they don't produce anything but bilious denial.


    You've stereotyped based on ignorance.




    Every time you meet a "skeptic" against consensus science, ask him or her what models he or she has created based on his or her theory, and what conclusions these models have inferred. Ask then to what degree these models matched empirical observation, if at all.


    I would argue that the inferences suggested by "global warming" alarmists have not matched empiracle observation, and so would many others within the scientific community.




    How damaging this thickening CO2 blanket will prove is the only question yet left to science.


    CO2 'blanket', eh? Isn't that the theory that suggests there should be Hot Spots in the atmosphere? Haven't those predictions consistently proven to be false?

  • Hahaha, you're such an idiot. Oh well.

  • Hrm... drive-by posts from random anonymous-types are typically vacuous. Do you think yours an exception?


    In the classic sense of the term, "idiot" refered to a person who did not participate in politics - practically and philosophically. This certainly doesn't describe me, as anyone who has known me for more than five minutes would know. In the contemporary version of the term, "idiot" refers to a foolish, stupid person. If you took the time to browse my profile you'd note that long list of schools. This might, on the surface, be an indication I'm something other than stupid. In both the contemporary and classical sense of the term, I am no "idiot".


    Generally speaking, it's typically a good idea to be careful of your prejudices. They can make you come across as rude and certainly won't facilitate any collaboration of ideas among authentic peers.

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