Archives for March 4, 2007

Hi Jennifer,

Have you been to church today? No? Well you have if you believe in the Global Warming summary as purported by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN IPCC) because the result is based on faith, just like religion, and not science.

Indeed according to Michael Crichton:

“The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance.

We must daily decide whether the threats we face are real, whether the solutions we are offered will do any good, whether the problems we’re told exist are in fact real problems, or non-problems. Every one of us has a sense of the world, and we all know that this sense is in part given to us by what other people and society tell us; in part generated by our emotional state, which we project outward; and in part by our genuine perceptions of reality. In short, our struggle to determine what is true is the struggle to decide which of our perceptions are genuine, and which are false because they are handed down, or sold to us, or generated by our own hopes and fears.”

Would you take medication that says “most people who take this medication will very likely not die”? The medication wouldn’t be on the shelves in the first place because it wouldn’t have passed the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee requirements. However, assuming it is, I doubt whether most of us would take it. But we are willing to take the IPCC summary “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic [man made] greenhouse gas concentrations”

This brings us back to faith with the “Believers” and the “Sceptics” (or “Deniers”). The Believers whole faith lies on the two words “most likely” and, once you believe, the path is defined. Al Gore has given us the physical “Hell and Damnation” scenario with his movie (an Inconvenient Truth) that is up there with Von Danikin and the Chariots of the Gods. We have the Stern Report that sends us to economic purgatory based on the worst case scenario of those two words. Now we have the fundamentalist Believers who say we should ban the export of coal. Take that further and we will be shutting down coal mines, closing power generation plants and outlawing carbon base fuels. This would then leave you in your grass hut, hunting and gathering, as you would be unemployed with no transport, communication or man-processed foods. Just like everyone else on the planet. At least we wouldn’t have Global Warming as defined by the Believers.

Then there are the moderates who believe that replacing your light bulbs with low-wattage bulbs will reverse the trend. Even if all of the 20 million people in Australia performed this task, we would be outweighed by the 231 million (July 2002) people of Indonesia, let alone the 1.2 billion (July 2002) people in China.

The Believers have been told that the IPCC summary is the consensus of 2500 scientists, 450 lead authors and 800 contributors with the result being a consensus of sound science. What has been omitted is that not all of the scientists are in agreement with the summary. Also, scientific research that does not agree with the summary is ignored, or worse still, the opposite view is given (Ross McKitrick – “What the U.N. won’t tell you”). This comes about because the end result is filtered by politicians and bureaucrats. To see the end result of analysis by scientists, look at the Oregon Petition which is a consensus of some 17,000 verified scientists. Going back to our medication, imagine a politician filtering your Doctor’s analysis; are you really going to take that medication now?

The Sceptics, on the other hand, are saying that there is not enough evidence to say that the planet’s climate is behaving outside the bounds of what has happened over the past millions of years, let alone man’s part in influencing climate change. Most of the internet discussion is on the specifics of what is right and wrong with the IPCC summary but the polarisation boils down to those two little words, “very likely”.

So how did this situation get so out of hand that the dying in Africa are put on the back burner while we throw billions at providing a solution to a problem that doesn’t need fixing? There is the premise that “we caused it, we can fix it”. We believe that this situation was bound to happen because of our decadent western lifestyle of forsaking nature. Now nature is getting even and only we can redeem ourselves (by cutting greenhouse emissions) to return to Eden. Consider this; the radiative process (by which we lose heat to space) only accounts for 25% of our heat dissipation (the other 75% is spread between convection and conduction) and the man-made greenhouse gases only account for 2% of all greenhouse gases (Global Warming: The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus – Richard Lindzen). 98% of the greenhouse gases comprise water vapour and but since they aren’t man-made they are ignored in the process. Perhaps there are a few interactions going on that we don’t know about yet? After all, the planet has been looking after itself for millions of years (as well as several ice-ages), so maybe it knows something we don’t know?

Also that media has seen a good story and replayed all the sensational parts to scare the children, Politicians have been inundated with constituents who can’t sleep at night and want them to do something about it, and now we are at the stage where if you want publicity for a product, connect it with Climate Change. Al Gore is at it again with a Climate Concert covering half the globe. If he really believed his own movie, he would do it without electricity or transportation as those two will add tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The question is: where is the science behind all this? Politicians aren’t scientists and the media certainly aren’t. You, the reader, aren’t a scientist. Again it comes down to faith in what we are being told is correct.

There are just as many analysis of the IPCC summary that show it to be a hypothesis but not a scientific fact (IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007, Analysis and Summary – Christopher Monckton for one), but this point is not relayed by the media as strongly as the original summary. Where is the investigative journalism that gives us the other side’s point of view? My own research has made me question the information being constantly fed to the public by the media and has led to the following:

Fact: The Climate is changing and will always change.
Fact: The earth has been heating up since the last ice-age. It hasn’t been at steady x degrees per decade but it has been increasing.
Fact: We need to know more about the complexities of climate and our influence (as an inhabitant of earth) on climate, but also appreciate that there are some things we cannot control.
Fact: We, as inhabitants of this planet, should take more time to understand for ourselves at how a point of view is arrived. We seem to take the word of everyone else instead of making up our own mind.

So if you want to find a cause that will make your existence relevant, help the poor, the hungry and the disadvantaged. Do not take the funds that could help alleviate their suffering to placate your own fears as planted by people who are masters of the game. Also, do not expect everyone to change their lifestyle because of your point of view. Wouldn’t that make you a terrorist?

Regards
Roger Burke
Brisbane,
In Australia

PS

The main site for Michael Crichton’s speeches is here http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speeches/index.html and the one about “Environmentalism as religion” is here http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speeches/speeches_quote05.html .

There is also a great excerpt from his book ‘The State of Fear’ about Politicized Science called ‘Why Politicized Science is Dangerous’ (http://www.michaelcrichton.net/fear/index.html) that parallels the old theory of eugenics with that of climate change. It was his book (The State of Fear) that initially got me thinking that maybe we have been misled by the global warming hysteria.

Some other links I used:
‘A climate of alarm’ by Richard Lindzen in 2007 http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/20/2/2/1
‘Climate Change? Don’t believe it.’ by Christopher Monckton in 2006 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/05/nosplit/nwarm05.xml (and a link to download his report)
‘Global Warming: The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus’ by Richard Lindzen in 1992 http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv15n2/reg15n2g.html
‘What the U.N. Won’t Tell You’ by Ross McKitrick in 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16948233/site/newsweek/