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IN recent years, a major advance in our understanding of the physical dynamics of the climate process has come from the work of Ferenc Miskolczi.   A summary of this important work is now available at the Science and Public Policy website:

The Earth’s atmosphere differs in essence from that of Venus and Mars. Our atmosphere is not totally cloud-covered, as is Venus: globally, about 40% of the sky is always clear. Also we have huge ocean surfaces that serve as a practically unlimited reservoir of water vapour for the air.

With the help of these two conditions, the Earth’s atmosphere attains what the other two planets cannot: a constant, maximized, saturated greenhouse effect, so that adding more greenhouse gases to the mix will not increase the magnitude of the greenhouse effect and, therefore, will not cause any further “global warming”.

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originals/co2_cannnot_cause.html

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/Saturated%20Greenhouse%20Effect%20Theory.pdf

Previous blog posts on the saturated greenhouse effect:

https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2009/05/the-climatically-saturated-greenhouse-effect/

https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2009/05/the-work-of-ferenc-miskolczi-part-1/

https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/2008/03/new-theory-of-the-greenhouse-effect/

AUSTRALIA’S national broadcaster, the ABC, has recently started a new online blog site called The Drum.  Very unusually (for the ABC), it then sought a contribution from a climate rationalist (me) for the site, which I provided – deliberately making it more opinion than science.

The response was a surprising rush of emails (more than 500 in 24 hours), most of which condemmed either the ABC or the article, or both. Out of this hive of activity then emerged the Queen Bee – in the form of former Labor government Science Minister Barry Jones, who proceeded to launch a fairly robust attack on my original article.

In turn, this provoked my colleague Alan Moran, of the IPA in Melbourne, to write a retort, which commented on the fact that the ripples of Climategate are running up on even Australia’s distant shores – in the form of Willis Eschenbach’s expose of probable tampering with the Darwin temperature record.

Overall, an astonishing number of more than 2,000 blog postings were made regarding these three articles, with the conversation also spilling over onto other blogs as well.

In order to try to restore some science into the conversation (silly, naive me), I have now written a reply to Mr. Jones, which is posted at Quadrant Online, at:

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/12/why-barry-jones-is-wrong

This article contains links to the various The Drum pieces.

As a taster, one of my conclusions, with which I am sure some of your readers will agree, is:

“The practice, promulgated by the IPCC, of endlessly analysing short trend lines fitted in carefully selected ways through temperature data that is inherently cyclic has nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics.”

Finally, though on an apparently unrelated (but actually quite closely related) topic, The Drum has also published an extremely thoughtful and insightful piece by experienced ABC journalist Jonathan Holmes, on the problems of separating “fact” and “opinion” in news and current affairs programs.

I suspect that Holmes’ article will be of even more interest to your readers than yet another cat-fight “he says, she says” squabble over AGW! It’s at:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/08/2764585.htm?site=thedrum?site=thedrum

With seasonal greetings 

Bob Carter

Web home page: http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/ <http://members.iinet.net.au/~glrmc/

Global warming skeptics from CFACT (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow) yesterday pulled off an international climate caper using GPS triangulation from Greenpeace’s own on-board camera photos to locate and sail up long-side of the infamous Greenpeace vessel, Rainbow Warrior. Then in Greenpeace-like fashion, the CFACT activists unfurled a banner reading “Propaganda Warrior” which underscored how the radical green group’s policies and agenda are based on myths, lies, and exaggerations.

Earlier in the day the activists daringly boarded Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise with neither stealth nor force, but by baffling the crew with doughnuts, and unfurled a banner that read “Ship of Lies” off the starboard side.

“Greenpeace has been using these kinds of tactics for decades, and now they can find out what it’s like to have a little taste of their own medicine, “ said CFACT executive director Craig Rucker who masterminded the operation.

CFACT unfurled the banners for two reasons, CFACT president David Rothbard explained. “Greenpeace ships, like the Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise, have become global symbols for radical environmentalism, and we wanted to call attention to the harm these groups are causing. And second, it seemed appropriate to use one of Greenpeace’s favorite tactics to make this point.”

Greenpeace protesters frequently hang banners from factories and office buildings, paint slogans on smokestacks, and employ other publicity stunts. Some are relatively harmless, but others reflect a willingness to lie or even destroy property to make a point.

In 1995, Greenpeace launched a $2-million public relations campaign against Shell Oil, claiming the company was planning to dump tons of oil and toxic waste in the ocean by sinking its Brent Spar platform as an artificial reef. It was a full year before the group issued a written apology, admitting it knew all along that there had been no oil or chemical wastes on the platform.

Greenpeace has frequently destroyed bio-engineered crops, wiping out millions of dollars in research efforts designed to develop food plants that are more nutritious, withstand floods and droughts better, and resist insect infestations without the need for chemical pesticides. It has also waged an unrelenting campaign against insecticides and insect repellants that could prevent malaria, a vicious disease that infects 500 million people a year, kills over 1 million and leaves millions more with permanent brain damage.

“Greenpeace employs the same deceitful tactics in opposition to nuclear, hydroelectric and hydrocarbon energy, even though 1.5 billion people still do not have electricity – and thus don’t have lights for homes, hospitals and schools, or power to purify water and run offices, shops and factories,” Rucker says.
Rothbard acknowledged Greenpeace was launched for the best of reasons. “But it radicalized its mission. The more power it acquired, the more it abused that power,” he said. “Some of Greenpeace’s original cadre has left, feeling they can no longer associate themselves with its current agenda.”

Greenpeace claims that human carbon dioxide emissions are causing “dangerous global climate change.” Hundreds of climate scientists and thousands of other scientists disagree with that assertion, as frequently noted by Lord Christopher Monckton, former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and a CFACT advisor.

“The continuing scandal over falsified and destroyed temperature data, manipulated climate models, and a perverted scientific and peer review process further demonstrates that there is no valid basis for this anti-energy, wealth-redistribution, global governance Copenhagen treaty,” said Rucker.

Anti-energy policies represent a “clear and present danger to the health and welfare of billions,” he added. Mandates for wind and solar would send energy prices skyrocketing, sharply constrict economic opportunities and destroy jobs.

“People in developing countries simply want to improve their living standards, and give their children a chance to live past age five,” Rothbard said. “Greenpeace is diametrically opposed to giving them access to the modern technologies that would help them do that.”

Greenpeace is one of the “most unethical and irresponsible corporations on Earth,” said Christina Wilson, a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. “It’s time to expose it for what it is, and help promote real environmental justice. So I was really excited to participate in this human rights effort.”

“The ‘Ship of Lies’ and ‘Propaganda Warrior’ banners are part of CFACT’s long-term effort to bring sense and balance back to the environmental debate,” said Rothbard.

Marc Morano
http://cfact.org/a/1674/CFACT-drops-the-banner-on-Greenpeace-ships-in-daring-land-and-sea-raids