Geek Drivel

Hm…

I thought the whole point to science was questioning assumptions to find the truth?

I hate to be classed as a Global Warming denialist (there seems to be some decent evidence that it’s happening), but there’s a distinctly over-ripe odor around the subject.

A lesson in Bad Science from NASA (predictably on Global Warming again): if the facts get in the way of your favorite theory, ignore the facts.

More information on NASA’s temperature data, and why it points to a major global warming trend despite the Earth actually being in a twenty-year-long “cooling period.”

A look at the systematic and dishonest fiddling that has been done with climate data to make us think that there is a global warming problem, followed by a reminder that none of this is new:

Bear in mind that warming and cooling concerns are nothing new, as this alarming bulletin reminds us -

The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consul Ifft, at Bergen, Norway. Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers, he declared, all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met with as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes. Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared. Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts, which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.

A RealClimate blogger? No, that was the US Weather Bureau in 1922.

We saw a global cooling scare in 1924, a global warming scare in 1933, another global cooling in the early 1970s, and another warming scare today. The changes the USHCN promised Watts won’t help resolve anything for another decade or so, but perhaps future generations will be able to reduce the alarming increase in the number of climate alarms.

Maybe global warming is a real problem — but having dishonest scientists lie about it isn’t going to convince people of it.

“The Kentucky legislature holds hearings on global warming, and forgets to invite any actual scientists.” Un-freakin’-believable.

Is no one allowed to have or express a politically incorrect personal opinion anymore? I tend to buck group-think myself on a regular basis — it’s part of how intelligent people think, and it’s very useful, even if the thoughts often aren’t politically correct.

Yes, it appears that global warming is a reality, and the evidence suggests that we humans could be at least partly responsible for it. But he’s absolutely correct when he says “I am not sure that it is fair to say that is a problem we must wrestle with.” No one is sure of that. It would be foolish for us not to try to do something about it, whether we’re sure or not, but he’s not arguing against that. His opinion is equally valid, and he shouldn’t feel any need to apologize for holding it.