Jun 29 2009
EPA Tries to Hide a Report That Questions the Science of Global Warming
I know that my dad will probably write more on the but, Sen. Inhofe has ordered an investigation of the EPA. An analyst wrote a report saying that the EPA was using out of date science. Read more here.
And then there’s the one about the polar bear conference in Copenhagen that refused to allow attendance by a polar bear expert who has been studying the bear populations for years. His data show that the bears are at maximum populations in all but two regions. Highest population numbers ever measured. Probably because seal hunts are much lower than they used to be providing more food for them.
This is the biggest power/money grab since …. well …. ever?
Completely unwarranted, completely irresponsible, completely destructive, completely dishonest.
Tell everyone you know to focus on the Senate ….. tell your Senator that if they vote for this you will not vote for them, and you’ve got a long memory.
It’s that simple, and it’s that important.
I’ve made these comments before, but why should THAT stop me? 🙂
My biggest problem with global warming is the absolute certitude of some of its’ proponents (Example: Al Gore stating that “The science has been settled!”).
Let’s try for some perspective, time-wise.
For those comfortable with the metric (S.I.) system, imagine a line about 4.6 kilometers long (a bit under 3 miles). That would represent the 4.6 billion year age of the Earth at 1,000,000 years/meter; 1 mm (about the thickness of a paper clip) would represent a THOUSAND years.
That line would span the downtown area of quite a few large cities, with some to spare. Here in Houston, the downtown streets are 16 to the mile, making their spacing about 100 meters. Thus, that line would be about 46 blocks.
The reign of the dinosaurs ended around 65 million years ago (65 meters, about 2/3 of a city block down that line from today).
The first of our ancestors verging on intelligence may have emerged from 2 to 4 million years ago (2 to 4 meters, say 6.5 to 13 feet; your living room could be around 4 meters in one of its’ dimensions).
What we call “modern” man may go back 40,000 years or so (40 mm, TWO finger-widths on that line).
Written history goes back 6000 years (six millimeters, 1/4 inch on that line).
Fahrenheit’s thermometer is around 300 years old ( 0.3 mm, you’re approaching the thickness of a business card now, or the diameter of a grain of salt).
The portion of that time-line during which precise temperature measurements were recorded would be literally microscopic.
And from that portion, we dare to make really long range climate predictions, and mandate actions based on them?
I live about three miles west of some of Houston’s major downtown buildings, so I can easily visualize that line.
Looking at that time-line of Earth’s history (the universe’s may be four times that), and the flyspeck of our own existence upon it, the notion of asserting that ANY science has been “settled” strikes me as arrogance beyond comprehension (as in “only a politician could possibly believe that”).
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Paul, as glaciers receded in the Swiss Alps, they exposed 5,000 year old wood. That means that 5000 years ago, those valleys were not glaciated but were forested. Climate always changes and overall, we have been in a general cooling trend for about the past 4 or 5 thousand years. The warmest part of the period since the last ice age was about 7,000 years ago when sea levels were about 2 meters higher than they are today. It has been slowly cooling since. We have warm periods and cool periods but generally, each warm period is a little cooler than the one before.
We aren’t anywhere near as warm as we were during the “medieval warm period” and the “little ice age” might have been the coldest time since the “younger dryas”
No argument, Crosspatch.
The main thrust of my comment was aimed at those zealots who seem to feel that the science indeed HAS been settled and thus there’s really NOTHING to debate about it.
From the perspective I’ve attempted to show, that just doesn’t seem very likely to me.
I haven’t come across anyone Fisking the comments, pointing out what’s wrong with them.
I HAVE got replies about my being a “denier”, among which included:
“If you are conservative, you must fall in line and believe: global warming is a scam and is part of a larger Marxist conspiracy. There are no shades of gray, it’s as simple as black and white. That’s the way they think“.
)I’m afraid my response to that reply was:
I consider myself conservative.
And so, with all due respect, “B*LLSH*T!!!”).
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But it is they who are the “deniers’. They deny that global warming is the result of “adjustments” to raw data. Lets say you have one urban recording station and 10 rural stations around it. The urban station reads a degree higher than the rural stations. Rather than adjusting the urban station down, they adjust all the rural stations up … and there you have it … man made global warming.
They deny that polar bear populations are increasing. They deny that sea levels stopped rising in 2006, they deny that there has been no warming in North American since 2000 and it has been cooling since 2006. They are the “deniers”.
I had a personal view of the UHI effect a couple days ago. Had to go over to DFW for the day to do some work there. Couldn’t get out till about 10:30 at night – as I was driving out, I noticed my outside air temp reading was flatlined at 92 all the way across Dallas. (just fyi, I have been surprised how accurate that uncalibrated instrument has been over the years – generally has matched local weather reports for both the highs and the lows) Daytime peak that day had been about 102.
(Not a record – Texas gets hot in June)
Anyway, as I headed out of Dallas and into the farms and fields of East Texas, it was amazing how quickly the temp dropped to 86. Took only 15 minutes (15 miles) Sure, it was night so temp was dropping, but 6 degrees in 15 minutes with still air is a heck of a drop. Of course, it wasn’t a matter of time, it was a matter of distance.
So, which is the “real” temperature? The cooler farms and fields of the countryside, or the official temperature station at DFW, which is at the center of a UHI that extends for at least 30 miles in each direction?
Well we know that airport measurement is “official.” So of course, add 6 degrees to every other measurement to make up for the “error” of the natural setting.
Daytime peak that day had been about 102.
(Not a record – Texas gets hot in June).
Don’t it, though?
We’ve had a couple of hundred-degree days here in Houston, and the local stations treat it like the Apocalypse. You’d never know (from them) that we’ve had them before.
I was born and raised in San Antonio (further inland, but same latitude), and such days were very common; we just called it “Summer”.
Of course, back then in the ’50s, we didn’t have a national weather service pushing an agenda. The newsreels in the theaters NEVER let a summer pass by without a demonstration of an egg frying on a sidewalk somewhere.
But now, HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars, and dictatorial control of your life hang on what they say in news and weather reporting, so you can’t help wondering who benefits from what you’ve heard.
It’s almost enough to make one cynical.
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