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Study Links Pacific Coastal Warming To Changing Winds

tranquilidad writes: In a paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two authors ascribe the majority of northeast pacific coastal warming to natural atmospheric circulation and not to anthropogenic forcing. In AP's reporting, Ken Caldeira, an atmospheric scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science, says the paper's authors, "...have not established the causes of these atmospheric pressure variations. Thus, claims that the observed temperature increases are due primarily to 'natural' processes are suspect and premature, at best." The paper's authors, on the other hand, state, "...clearly, there are other factors stronger than the greenhouse forcing that is affecting...temperatures," and that there is a "surprising degree to which the winds can explain all the wiggles in the temperature curve."

207 comments

  1. That's Funny. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop global winding now!

    1. Re:That's Funny. by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      STOP IT!

      You can't TAX the WIND!!!

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    2. Re:That's Funny. by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 1

      They tell us that
      We lost our tails
      Evolving up
      From little snails
      I say it's all
      JUST WIND IN SAILS
      Are we not men?

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    3. Re:That's Funny. by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      Oh Al gores' been blowing wind up our global skirts for a while.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    4. Re:That's Funny. by ScentCone · · Score: 0

      Well here in our state, we've now got a rain tax. So all they have to do is tweak the law that makes guesses about how much grass you have (and this how much you should be charged each year when it rains X amount), and instead make guesses about how much wind-interfering surface area your house has, and how that might be disturbing, through turbulence, the mating habits of a special sub-species of gnats.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    5. Re:That's Funny. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Cool, what state?

    6. Re:That's Funny. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      And it caused the Artic ice region to melt; that's a fine wind?

    7. Re:That's Funny. by ScentCone · · Score: 2

      Maryland's rain tax is a fine monument to, and classic symptom of its lefty/progressive entrenched government monoculture.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  2. Most rational people never believe in AGW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    This is just confirmation of what most people knew all along - that human beings don't have anywhere near the kind of impact that the climate nutters claim we do. To think that people could have any measureable affect on a natural system as large as the entire earth is ludicrous. Now we just need to figure out a way to stop pissing away money with study after study showing the affects are random. The gravy train must end.

    1. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by bunratty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's an interesting thought process... "some warming is natural" means "no warming is artificial." It's like claiming at your murder trial that someone's death was natural, so therefore humans can't cause other humans to die. Talk about grasping at straws!

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're aware that changing wind patterns still don't mean squat for the global thermal energy balance? The winds are just moving the heat around a bit.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by radtea · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's like claiming at your murder trial that someone's death was natural, so therefore humans can't cause other humans to die.

      While this isn't a bad way to put the Denialist reaction to this paper, it is worth pointing out that these guys have done more than produce one number: they have also produced predictions for regional variation that a) match the data and b) can't be replicated by a global forcing model. Since a critical component of the evidence for ACC is the regional variation of the predicted warming, this should at least give one pause.

      Of course, letting it give one pause would be a disaster for members of the Warmist religion, whose mantra "The Science Is Settled" implies that any modification to the conclusion "almost all warming observed everywhere is the result of ACC" is equivalent to "the Denialists were right after all!"

      This is nonsense, of course: the Denialists are wrong. Doubling the CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere are almost certainly increasing the effective insolation by about 1.6 W/m^2, which will likely have appreciable consequences on the climate.

      However, how those consequences work themselves out is an extremely uncertain business, and no competent computational physicist puts nearly the trust in our unphysical climate models that Warmists do. This paper is a good example of how science (as opposed to politics and religion, which is what most of the public debate about ACC amounts to) works: they have squeezed a plausible hypothesis (that regional changes around the Pacific are explicable by global forcing) and found it questionable.

      I expect we'll see a lot of work in the next decade on the interaction of natural variations and anthropogenic forcings, with Warmists continually playing a game of catch-up and Denialists continually repeating that the manifest uncertainty in our conclusions proves that "humans can't possibly have doubled the CO2 level" (or something like that... why Denialists believe humans can't have a global impact is beyond me.)

      This is the damage to science done by Warmists: by claiming something that is not just false but actively anti-science ("the science is settled") they have encouraged their equally ignorant opponents to disbelieve science when it is working exactly as one would like it to.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    4. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      To think that people could have any measureable affect on a natural system as large as the entire earth is ludicrous.

      Why do you think it would not be measurable?

      Non-solar and non-solar derived human energy use is about 400 Quads/yr (about 12 TW). Total Earth insolation is about 10 PW. We have altered Earth's total energy flux by about 0.1%. It doesn't require cutting-edge methods in other fields to measure differences of that magnitude. Three sigfigs is child's play--literally. That's high-school level lab work.

    5. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by radtea · · Score: 4, Informative

      The winds are just moving the heat around a bit.

      "Moving heat around a bit" has a tremendous impact on global climate. This is why ENSO in the south Pacific is so important: by moving heat around it changes global circulation patterns, which changes the overall energy balance of the Earth. This is why the simple achievement of getting reasonable agreement that anthropogenic CO2 is adding about 1.6 W/m^2 to the Earth's heat budget is such a huge scientific achievement, and while that conclusion is still subject to significant uncertainty: because adding heat changes the winds and currents which themselves influence the radiative balance. There are even (very unlikely) models in which adding sufficient heat causes global cooling due to increased transport of energy to the poles, where it radiates back into space more efficiently.

      Climate is a non-linear, strongly coupled system. Treating it as if one could draw simple conclusions dismisses the complexity and difficulty of climate modelling. It also results in underestimating the uncertainties in models.

      Any competent computational physicist (me, for example, but other people a lot smarter than me as well: http://online.wsj.com/articles...) will tell you that climate models are far less certain than their public, political proponents are claiming. This does not mean that "global warming is a hoax" or any such Denialist gibberish. It means that models are uncertain, and we should not get bowled over when they are subject to correction, even significant correction.

      In the meantime, we can do some pretty universally agreeable things, like shift income and corporate taxes toward carbon taxes. After all, income and corporate taxes apply to something that is basically good--making butt-loads of money--while carbon taxes apply to something basically bad: burning irreplaceable fossil fuels and dumping garbage into the atmosphere. I guess anti-capitalist crusaders might oppose carbon taxes, but I can't think of any other reason to do so. If anyone is really in favour of keeping income and corporate taxes high, do feel free to make your case, though.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    6. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is just confirmation of what most people knew all along - that human beings don't have anywhere near the kind of impact that the climate nutters claim we do. To think that people could have any measureable affect on a natural system as large as the entire earth is ludicrous. Now we just need to figure out a way to stop pissing away money with study after study showing the affects are random. The gravy train must end.

      So are you:

      1. Rejecting the idea that atmospheric CO2 has increased?
      2. Rejectring the idea that the increase in CO2 is due to man?
      3. Rejecting the idea that CO2 is transparent to UV/visible light but will absorb IR?
      4. Rejecting the idea that energy tends to arrive at earth as UV/visible light, and then gets transformed into heat (aka IR)?

      I'm curious.

    7. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by MightyMartian · · Score: 0

      Good thing climatologists aren't members of a religious faith.

      But I do enjoy how you've cribbed Creationist thinking that "any day now we'll discover evolution is a lie" and neatly changed some words. Are you proud to be at the same intellectual level as your garden variety YEC?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    8. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Hussman32 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      One of the main problems is quantifying the energy in the ocean. The boundary conditions are poorly define, a detailed thermal profile is non-existent, and small changes in water temperature resolve to large changes in air temperature.

      --
      "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
    9. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by lazy+genes · · Score: 0

      Sea surface temperatures will increase relative to the amount of carbon that falls on the sea surface. It all moves to the poles and disrupts the upper atmosphere. Just try and imagine what the climate would be like if we filled the pacific ocean with blacktop.

    10. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by gmuslera · · Score: 1

      The fact is that the planet is trapping more heat due to more greenhouse gases. The actual manifestations of it may vary with time. But eventually all heat sinks will saturate. And that wont be nice.

    11. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by rahvin112 · · Score: 2

      Thermal expansion, ocean currents, how the heat uptake/loss changes as the ice melts, salt concentrations, etc.

      There are a LOT of variables here that we either have little to no data on or little to no understanding of how it will impact climate. The climate is very complicated. As with another poster I think the climate models are being a bit alarmist in their predictions but the fact is there is so much we don't understand about how it's going to be affected that we'd be remiss if they weren't alarmist because they could be vastly wrong, in the wrong direction! We could find out 20 years down the road that melting the north pole 50% dilutes the salt levels to the point that the ocean currents halt or speedup in some way that dramatically changes climate worldwide (what would happen if the desert band shifted 200 miles toward the poles?). We know almost nothing about the bottom of the ocean and these currents. And that's just one variable. There are dozens that there has been little to no research on.

      Maybe it won't be a gradual warming, maybe it will hold for a period as the oceans suck up energy then it will be like a cork popping and within a decade temperatures will jump several degrees (which would be far far more catastrophic than the models are predicting right now). I find global climate change rather scary, adding 1.6watts per m^2 is a tremendous amount of energy and we probably won't know exactly what it does until after we've done it.

    12. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by reboot246 · · Score: 0

      Has anyone taken into account the number of active underwater volcanoes? There are a few thousand of them and I'm sure that they must be a factor in changing weather patterns and climate.

    13. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by jrumney · · Score: 2

      Why must they be a factor in changing weather patterns? Do you have evidence that the numbers of them or the frequency or scale of their eruptions has changed over the past hundred or so years?

    14. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by xdor · · Score: 1

      In the meantime, we can do some pretty universally agreeable things, like shift income and corporate taxes toward carbon taxes.

      (If by universal, you mean everyone in the EPA and those who plan to profit from hedges on carbon credits: then I might agree.)

      But I digress, you said pretty universal, i.e. partially universal, which is pretty much a contradiction.

    15. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by neoritter · · Score: 1

      Any day now, we may find that it is a lie. That's how science works. The proven always has the potential to be disproven.

    16. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Enlightenment.

    17. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because all Face Painting Homers run away from contrary opinions.

    18. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by ScentCone · · Score: 0

      I see you wrote words after "Warmist religion" but, really, what's the point of reading them after that?

      Because "warmist religion" is indeed a convenient shorthand way to refer to the thought process of legions of people who opine on this topic.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    19. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Truth_Quark · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Since a critical component of the evidence for ACC is the regional variation of the predicted warming, this should at least give one pause.

      Really?

      When I looked at it, my understanding was that models reproduce the global mean surface temperature very well, but regional climate change is expected to be more affected by systems that originate on scales smaller than the cells of current climate models.

      Where do you get this claim that the regional variation is a critical component of the evidence for ACC?

    20. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by Truth_Quark · · Score: 2

      This is why ENSO in the south Pacific is so important: by moving heat around it changes global circulation patterns, which changes the overall energy balance of the Earth.

      Not directly. To change the energy balance of the Earth you have to move energy on or off the planet. Not around the oceans.

    21. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by dave420 · · Score: 1

      And all their pesky science which backs them up... Compare that to those who think it's bunkum, who at best have niggling doubts, scant criticism, and oft-played shrink-wrapped arguments which have been shown to be nonsense for years, but which still get trotted out as if they're the latest and greatest discoveries of mankind, worthy of Einstein himself.

    22. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by AlterEager · · Score: 1

      Has anyone taken into account the number of active underwater volcanoes?

      Yes.

      Next question?

    23. Re:Most rational people never believe in AGW by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      As opposed to the money we piss away on corporate subsidies - hint, it's more than we spend on climate research.

  3. Big Fans by neonv · · Score: 2

    What really need are some big fans to increase coastal winds and cool off the world. I recommend them in large quantities. We'll call them fan farms. Maybe power them from those reverse fan farms that generate electricity and drain our global wind supply causing global warming!

    1. Re:Big Fans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Raiders, Chargers, Lakers and Trojans all have lots of big fans. They generate mostly hot air and are generally a waste of energy.

    2. Re:Big Fans by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      So we basically just switch them from suck to blow?

  4. if the winds explains the wiggles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    then what explains the winds? Effect of AGW on ocean temperatures is well established by now.

    1. Re: if the winds explains the wiggles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If wind patterns were stable, people would have been able to sail across the oceans, and create routes of sea travel based on prevailing winds.

      On Earth we see nothing like that, people use motor boars, planes and trains to travel because the wind is not predictable.

  5. I remember this from university by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Clearly" means "I have no evidence for this, but it's plausible".

    1. Re:I remember this from university by bunratty · · Score: 2

      Daniel Dennett actually suggests that you should internally signal an alarm when someone uses the word "surely" in an argument. A statement prefixed by surely is quite often the weakest part of the argument, and if your surely alarm goes off automatically when you hear or read the word, you can know a good place to look for a flawed argument. I think that surely we can say the same for "clearly." Did your alarm go off just now with my use of "surely?"

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:I remember this from university by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      Don't call me surely, ginger.

      Ding ding ding

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  6. What I want to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What is *really* so bad about global warming? The majority of the world's population lives in warm climates, while the rest of us face like 9+ months of cold miserable weather and unable to grow food. The worst that could happen, maybe we lose California and gain Alaska. I won't complain, especially if there is beach-front property here in the central US :D Call me selfish if you want, but I for one, welcome as much global warmth as I can get!

    1. Re:What I want to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just in case this is genuine request for information:
                          1. Extreme drought & flooding will reduce availability of current farm crops & feed stock.
                          2. Areas which depend on glacial melt for fresh water will be needing to develop alternate supplies (roughly all of California).
                          3. Natural adaptations usually take hundreds or thousands of years to be successful in new climates, if the system changes too quickly, many plants / animals will just die off.
                        4. When one person wants to move, it's not a big deal. When 1 million people want to move, it tends to start wars.
                        5. Ocean acidification will cause a whole host of problems for aquatic life.
                        6. The arctic an be considered a natural air conditioner for the planet. What happens when you shut the air conditioner off in your house ?

    2. Re:What I want to know... by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      Wait till the big asteroid hits, then we'll be glad we have a warming bias to our system.

    3. Re:What I want to know... by St.Creed · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I can't find the reference right now, but if the average temperature of the planet increases by 4 degrees celsius, large swathes of this planet's real estate become uninhabitable. There's about 2 billion people living in that zone that have to get out, or die. Do you think an iron fence will stop them at the border? Not a chance.

      And if the temperature rises enough to release the methane gas in the seas in the arctic, the whole process will accelerate beyond our power to control it.

      Now, this may or may not happen. Chances are, if we do nothing it might not happen. The odds don't seem favorable though. In any case, gambling with the entire area of this solar system we can actually inhabit seems like a rather stupid proposition.

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    4. Re:What I want to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fair enough. But there are a few issues with this idyllic view.

      I agree--I like warm weather which is why I live where the weather is warm year-round. The problem is that I get my water from a place where it isn't warm year-round. It comes down from the mountains which usually are cold in the winter and all that water that falls during the winter months gets stored up there as snow. It then melts in the springtime, trickling down the mountain and restoring wells and things like that so that people can grow food for me and provide me with water to drink, wash my car, grow my roses, tend my lawn, and all those nice things.

      Now a four degree difference where I live is barely noticeable. But up there in those mountains, there's a big difference between 29 degrees fahrenheit and 33 degrees fahrenheit, in regards to water. That snow is now rain and rather than trickling down the mountain in the springtime, it careens down the mountain in the winter and is long gone by the summertime. So the people who grow food for me have no water. There's no water for me to drink, wash my car, grow my roses, etc.

      So what's the big deal? Build some dams and we'll have all the damn water we need! Fair enough--who pays for those dams to be built? Didn't you hear? The US Government is broke. We don't have the money to go around building dams--not and assist the poor, fight for freedom, and provide tax breaks to the rich and powerful "job creators."

      Add another angle--so we lose California and gain Alaska. How do we get the food that was grown in California and is now grown in Alaska down here to the continental US? After all, we've been growing food here in California for awhile and an infrastructure has built up to handle it over the last 100 or so years. Are we going to start building highways and railroads across Alaska? And who pays for those?

      If you want to get nationalistically paranoid, consider that global warming may turn the midwest--"America's Breadbasket"--into a dustbowl. But it may turn Siberia into a nice place to grow grain and wheat. Imagine the prices to import wheat from Russia. Hope you like an "Atkins Diet"...

      So, yeah, having grown up in Vermont, there are plenty of times that I'd've loved a warmer winter. But giving everybody a warmer winter is going to cause problems...

    5. Re:What I want to know... by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 0

      Historically a warm climate has been better for humans than a cold one.

    6. Re:What I want to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If we take AGW seriously and do something, the very wealthy, very well entrenched hydrocarbon industries might lose some profit. That action might however save millions of lives.

      OTOH, almost all of the scientists might be wrong, and AGW might not be real, and that loss of profit will have been in vain.

      Still, when you think about it, the bad AGW projections are for the end of the century, clearly an abstract issue for people making profit NOW.

      Blasted greedy climate scientists!

      If this sounds disconnected and irrational - it is.

    7. Re:What I want to know... by MacDork · · Score: 3, Funny

      What happens when you shut the air conditioner off in your house?

      I save the fucking planet, that's what. :)

    8. Re:What I want to know... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Define "warm", and compare it to the predictions. Then look at what you've done, feel embarrassed, slap yourself a couple of times for good measure, and resolve yourself to never post such drivel again.

    9. Re:What I want to know... by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      Not that it would be a good thing, but wouldn't the warming of areas that are currently less habitable due to cold offset some of that? Maybe portions of Canada, Greenland, Siberia?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    10. Re:What I want to know... by St.Creed · · Score: 1

      That's already happening a bit. Vineyards are starting to return to Northern Europe, for instance. But if we take Norway as an example, the main problem isn't just the cold, it's also the lack of useful real estate. In Siberia it could be very different but you'd have to want to live under Putin.

      Unfortunately, the size of the area under threat is rather larger than the area you could move to. And people would also have to move through inhabited areas that aren't really all that happy with the current influx of refugees. But I guess the Norwegians would be happy to have a bit warmer climate. Won't do much for the lack of light in the winter, though.

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    11. Re:What I want to know... by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

      Given how bad their predictions are I don't lose any sleep.

      I'll revisit when and if they actually have some track record of accuracy.

      Don't let me interrupt your panic, though.

  7. Quant Suff the scientific people roared. by geekpowa · · Score: 2

    Surely they know better than to not yield before the awesome explanatory power of AGW; which succinctly explains every possible and conceivable observation. I am relieved that more learned people than them are quick to point out that those causes have in turn their own causes and those causes are almost certainly where AGW manifests.

  8. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Northeast pacific coastal warming"..... WTF? How did that happen? Didn't know the Atlantic evaporated away.

  9. Deniers! by BobandMax · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is apostasy and can only be punished by academic death. They will never get a grant in this town, again!

    --

    "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
    -- Pablo Picasso
    1. Re:Deniers! by Optali · · Score: 1

      "They" haven't reached any academy yet and not because "they" have any lack of grants.

      --
      -- 29A the number of the Beast
  10. "Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's an interesting thought process... "some warming is natural" means "no warming is artificial."

    You're right of course, it's terribly flawed logic. Just as flawed as the logic in "The greenhouse effect is demonstrable in a test tube, therefore it is the primary factor directly controlling the temperature of Earth."

    Real scientists don't make such simplistic and unjustified steps in their logic. Unfortunately, because real scientists remain silent when they don't have verifiable mathematics and experiment to back a theory, we only get to hear the charlatans for whom contributory data is equivalent to understanding the whole thing.

    1. Re: "Belief" is not part of the scientific method by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Test tube being our own planet (we KNOW why our planet is not similar in temperatures to the moon) and other planets we observe (Venus).

      There is hardly a disconnect between theory, lab experimentation, and reality.

      We know the greenhouse effect exists... if it didn't, we wouldn't be here.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    2. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by bunratty · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's not the reasoning behind the statement that the greenhouse effect warms the Earth. There are calculations and predictions behind it. If you predict the temperature of the Earth without the greenhouse effect, you get far colder temperatures than we observe. When you add in the greenhouse effect, you do get the observed temperatures. That's the scientific method -- hypothesis, prediction, and observation. Arrhenius even used this reasoning to predict in the 1800s that burning fossil fuels would cause warming. Hypothesis, prediction, and observation. You know, actual science.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    3. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by MightyMartian · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Except, of course, what you just wrote has nothing to do with AGW models or theories.

      Par for the course for science deniers of all kinds; create strawmen of theories they're too emotionally retarded to accept, strike down strawmen and declare victory.

      Imagine being so infantile you cannot deal with reality.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 0, Troll

      Hypothesis, prediction, and observation. You know, actual science.

      Except for the prediction part, which is pretty bad.

      I would not want climate scientists as my investment advisers.

    5. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      That's the scientific method -- hypothesis, prediction, and observation.

      Funny, I always thought "experiment" was in there somewhere.

      Apparently, you should be at your most scientific (and smug) when you don't do experiments.

    6. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by tbannist · · Score: 2

      Funny, I always thought "experiment" was in there somewhere.

      Apparently, you should be at your most scientific (and smug) when you don't do experiments.

      Sigh. Experiments would be part of "observation", as in you conduct an experiment and observe the results.

      If you weren't so busy being a cynical jackass, you might actually have time to learn things.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    7. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2

      That's an interesting thought process... "some warming is natural" means "no warming is artificial."

      You're right of course, it's terribly flawed logic. Just as flawed as the logic in "The greenhouse effect is demonstrable in a test tube, therefore it is the primary factor directly controlling the temperature of Earth."

      Real scientists don't make such simplistic and unjustified steps in their logic. Unfortunately, because real scientists remain silent when they don't have verifiable mathematics and experiment to back a theory, we only get to hear the charlatans for whom contributory data is equivalent to understanding the whole thing.

      Obviously the conundrum is that if you wait to do anything until you have such proof it may be far too late to do anything about the problem. Death for everyone. On the other hand, if you take early action and there was no justification then you wasted some money. Money spent in some "green" sector vs some other one.

      The "conservative" choice is clearly to treat global warming as a legitimate threat.

    8. Re: "Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he's right. The sequence is:

      Observe, Hypothesize, predict, experiment.

    9. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1, Troll

      OK ... then how many spare earths have you run through climate change experiments?

      I just find it ironically amusing that people are the most publicly smug about science that they can't experimentally test.

    10. Re: "Belief" is not part of the scientific method by bunratty · · Score: 1

      So you perform the experiment and do not observe whether or not you get the predicted results?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    11. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by neoritter · · Score: 1

      Denying AGW is not denying science. This is not a religion...

    12. Re: "Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is correct. You just fit the results you expect to the hypothesis and publish. Once you have tenure, then you can have one of your grad students repeat the experiment, observe the results, and publish a conflicting study.

    13. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      The world could be on fire, and I wouldn't care. The big problem I have with AGW isn't the pursuit of science and research of the topic, but how everyone else including the politicians feel that everyone but themselves are the problem and must make due with less. Yeah, fuck that; belch the CO2 baby! I have zero tolerance for hypocrites!

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    14. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by pipedwho · · Score: 1

      OK ... then how many spare earths have you run through climate change experiments?

      The last one didn't go so well, so we are repeating the experiment here on this planet which is next in orbit and slightly more distant from the Sun.

    15. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Truth_Quark · · Score: 3, Informative

      "The greenhouse effect is demonstrable in a test tube, therefore it is the primary factor directly controlling the temperature of Earth."

      I think the line is more, from our knowledge of optics, discovered using experiments in labs, we know the optical properties of CO2. We would expect that increasing the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would therefore increase the global mean surface temperature.

      Observations confirm this.

      The proportion that the global mean surface temperature change is attributable to AGW is known from a very wide range of evidence.
      We know from first principles that the greenhouse effect will cause warming, and we can compare that to the other things that change the radiative forcing on the surface of the planet and find that the greenhouse effect is the largest one.
      We observe the effect of changing radiative forcing from volcanoes, and calibrate out understanding of how much changes in radiative forcing affect temperature.
      We look at the distribution of the warming in time and space: We see a warming that is occurring mostly in winter and at night, showing the current warming to be a slowing of heat loss to space, not an increase in solar energy in. We can reach the same conclusion by observing the cooling of the stratosphere. We see greatly enhanced warming at the poles, and see the predicted feedbacks to greenhouse warming.

      Climate models, too are an important tool for understanding and attribution of climate change, and these also provide evidence that the current warming is anthropogenic.

      And even if you don't believe any physics whatsoever, and just throw all the observables into a neural net and get it to try to reproduce the global mean surface temperature by any functions of those variables, you still get that the current warming is primarily due to enhanced greenhouse effect.

      Real scientists don't make such simplistic and unjustified steps in their logic.

      Agreed. And they don't. Why are you making the simplistic and unjustified step of claiming that they do?

    16. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Truth_Quark · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except for the prediction part, which is pretty bad.

      Stott el al, back in 2000 performed a high profile attribution study using models. I remember the paper, because its the one in which I realized that AGW was a real thing that needed responding to.

      You'll notice from figure 1, that they let one of the models run on into the future. The warming trend has been bang on the nose, and there is even a couple of decades of hiatus in that model's run. (Starting a bit later than the observed one, and ending about 2020, but demonstrating that events such as the current one are reproduced by models of even that time. (Being an early paper from HadCM3).

      Do you have an example of a paper that demonstrates this poor prediction from climate science?

    17. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by towermac · · Score: 1

      "The "conservative" choice is clearly to treat global warming as a legitimate threat."

      Very correct. And yet, we seem completely locked out of considering conservative solutions. Conservative solutions that actually make things better, even if AGW turns out to be NBD. Easy solutions that make us better off in either case, and nobody has to make do with less.

      1. Carbon Tax. This is how to tell a true conservative from, what do you call them, 'Neocons'? Libs prevent a carbon tax from happening in two ways: The tax burden now is as high as the economy will sustain (a bit higher actually, as we see businesses flee the US, and the only real growth is from inflation.), so to get a carbon tax, we would have to back off some income taxes somewhere. But now that the welfare state is so inextricably wound into our tax returns, any real tax reform is not an option. The only 'debate' on the subject is asking if the 39.5% rate for the rich is too high/high enough, and how should capital gains be taxed. Both completely irrelevant, tiny issues, but continually harping on it does keep the poor stirred up against the rich.

      2. Modern Nuclear. The sane policy when trying to eliminate one form of energy, is to make it up with another. Windmills and solar farms are nice (well if you're not a bird, or almost any other animal, or actually any creature other than a human living in a city), but there are two forms of power stored on this planet besides carbon; nuclear and geothermal. (Which are sort of the same power source). In my conservative utopia, where everyone is rich; electric power is too cheap to meter. Nobody does without, in fact; everybody has more. You're never going to get that with windmills and solar. (And if you could, how much land are you talking about?) And before you try to say you could, remember; I'm a conservative. Thus, I love people, and look forward to 20 billion of them on the planet, all using more power than the average American does now. At least that should illustrate why windmills do not appeal to me.

      Libs can't have that, because if everybody gets more, then the rich's more will be more than the poor's more, and that is unfair. Also, if you're the party of the downtrodden and oppressed, then you can't have your members doing better just because everything is actually getting better. I liked Democrats better when they were the working man's party. They got some shit done at least.

    18. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by dave420 · · Score: 1

      And I find it pathetically depressing that people can drown in smugness when all they've actually done is show everyone how ignorant of science they are. You are one of those people, by the way.

    19. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by AlterEager · · Score: 1

      So, we don't have a parallel where we can go run experiments, although I have had some interesting discussions with people about using Mars for this purpose.

      -- Dr William Collins, before the American Physical Society climate change statement review subcommittee.

    20. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      The tax burden now is as high as the economy will sustain (a bit higher actually, as we see businesses flee the US, and the only real growth is from inflation.)

      https://ibeconomics.wordpress.com/2011/04/ Other sources seem to indicate it as it historic lows, so maybe you're completely wrong. The only reason you see manufacturing leaving is because other countries have a slightly more lax attitude to slave labour. If it makes you feel better maybe you should campaign for that, at least you'd be being honest.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    21. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      I think you mean conservatives because they are the ones who oppose any changes to the status quo.

    22. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by entrigant · · Score: 1

      Bleeding heart socialist liberal here, I want your vision of the future of energy. I'm not alone. I want it right beside state run health care, basic income, cultural recognition of the fallacy of trickle down economics, complete nuclear disarmament, and a pure diplomatic approach to world affairs.

      Bring on the geothermal nuclear power! Bring it on, then use the abundance of power to start engineering the damn climate and distilling the ocean.. What water shortage? While we're at it, might as well pull some extra nuclear fuel from the distillation waste. Food shortage? Shit, now we have tons of water and an engineered climate... make the deserts green and build the biggest hydroponics facilities the world has ever seen! Middle east being douchebags again? Fuck them, we don't need 'em anymore.

      So ya.. fucking hippies..

      (I'm honestly being quite serious.)

    23. Re:"Belief" is not part of the scientific method by towermac · · Score: 1

      My God man, really?

      "In the 1960s, corporate taxes amounted to about 22 percent of overall tax receipts, and averaged 3.9 percent of gross domestic product. In the most recent decade, the figures are about 12 percent of total taxes and 2.2 percent of G.D.P."

      Your link backs me up. And too bad they don't tax on percentage of GDP, but rather, profits, which are even lower than their lowered GDP percentage would suggest. Well, except for the very big corporations, who are still making decent profits globally, but don't seem to be in a hurry to bring that money back to the IRS. And I didn't say manufacturing; I said business.

      Re-read your article, while trying to ignore the tea bagger hating stuff, and ask yourself: If we were crushing the life out business here in the US, what would I expect to see? Could it be, lowered tax revenues, and lower percentage of GDP?

  11. Two new deniers are born... by dtjohnson · · Score: 1

    Denier: anyone who does not agree that the earth's climate is being significantly warmed by the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.

    1. Re:Two new deniers are born... by geekoid · · Score: 1, Informative

      If you don't think excess greenhouse gasses, (CO2, tc) are cause an increase in trapped energy, then you are an idiot. This is proven science.

      anthropomorphic global warming (AGW) is a fact.
      In fact, it's so simply even you could devise a test.
      1) Visible light strikes the earth Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      2) Visible light has nothing for CO2 to absorb, so it pass right on through. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      3) When visible light strike an object, IR is generated. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      4) Green house gasses, such as CO2, absorb energy(heat) from IR. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      5) Humans produce more CO2(and other green house gasses) then can be absorbed through the cycle. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes

      Each one of those has been tested, a lot. You notice deniers don't actual address the facts of AGW? Don't have a test that shows those facts to be false?
      So now you have to answer:
      Why do you think trapping more energy(heat) in the lower atmosphere does not impact the climate?

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:Two new deniers are born... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Proven in that the increase of CO2 has not had a statictically significant increase in temperature.

      So, its settled proven fact, unless you actual observe the actual data of no warming for 18 years. So other than the predictions of your hypothesis not matching expected results, it is fact.

      Whats it called when you perform an experiment, don't get the expected result, and call anyone who points it out names instead of modifying your theory and experiment?

    3. Re:Two new deniers are born... by dtjohnson · · Score: 2

      I sense a teachable moment. Carbon dioxide molecules certainly absorb infrared radiation leaving our beautiful planet. They have been doing that for most of the 4 billion years that the Earth has existed and had an atmosphere of gases. Fortunately for the planet, though, those same co2 molecules do not 'hold on to' (or store) the IR but, instead, 'release' it via collisions with other, far more abundant molecules in the atmosphere (O2, N2, H2O) or re-radiate it. Someone has noticed that the carbon dioxide concentration has increased in the atmosphere by 84 ppm since 1958 to its present concentration of approximately 400 ppm and they are concerned that that increase will result in a net decrease in heat being radiated into space thereby leaving our planet warmer. They believe that the carbon dioxide concentration should be held to a constant value by limiting the combustion of fossil fuels. To support this belief, they have modeled the planetary climate with computer software and have determined that a continuing increase in carbon dioxide concentration will lead to a much warmer climate which will, in turn, lead to melting of the polar ice caps in antarctica and greenland resulting in a dramatically higher sea level that will inundate a large portion of the human population. However, the maximum atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration possible if we combust all of the known reserves of fossil fuels at our present rate of combustion is about 550 ppm and it appears likely that a re-tuning of the computer model will show that a concentration of 550 ppm will not result in a any of the catastrophes that the earlier computer runs predicted, as TFA is alluding to. The climate changes, is changing, and will change...yes. But...due to carbon dioxide concentration...no. Capiche?

    4. Re:Two new deniers are born... by neonv · · Score: 2

      The paper does not imply that CO2 is not a greenhouse gas. Rather it implies that the estimates of the effects of CO2 may be overestimated. Since meteorologists tune their models based on past weather data, this would mean that the predictive models are tuned wrong and give too much weight to greenhouse gases in temperature predictions. The criticism of the paper also brings up valid points that should be investigated.

    5. Re:Two new deniers are born... by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 0

      You missed one "fact" and test for AGW 6)As CO2 in the atmosphere rises, temperatures will rise in some proportion to that rise. Testable? Yes Tested? Yes Could anyone devise a test? Yes Of course that is because even thought that is testable and tested, the results of the test is that it does not actually work out that way. Observed changes in temperature do not match what any of the projections based on the theory said they should be in relation to observed changes in CO2 concentration. This suggests to any rational observer that there are some serious shortcomings in the theory that should be worked out before people start surrendering freedom in order to combat the predicted problems (especially when the result of surrendering that freedom is projected to have almost no impact on the problem it is supposed to combat).

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    6. Re:Two new deniers are born... by bunratty · · Score: 2

      No warming for 18 years? Then how could we have just had the warmest summer ever recorded with continued melting of ice worldwide and rising sea levels? I think this was all predicted by the hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming, and is now being observed. If we see the warming stop, and the melting and sea level rise slow significantly, then we can talk about rethinking the hypothesis. Let me know when that happens.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    7. Re:Two new deniers are born... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No warming for 18 years? Then how could we have just had the warmest summer ever recorded with continued melting of ice worldwide and rising sea levels? I think this was all predicted by the hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming, and is now being observed. If we see the warming stop, and the melting and sea level rise slow significantly, then we can talk about rethinking the hypothesis. Let me know when that happens.

      "Continued melting of ice worldwide"?

      WRONG!!!!!!>

      Don't you hate it when reality intrudes?

      Oops!

      ...

      “All the climate models say it should be going down and it’s actually going up, and it’s making news,”

      ...

      Wait? The models say Antarctic ice should be shrinking, yet it's GROWING!?!?!?!

      Get this - THE MODELS ARE WRONG.

    8. Re:Two new deniers are born... by bunratty · · Score: 2

      Nope. Antarctic ice is melting, at an accelerating rate no less. You are referring to the temporary sea ice that forms each winter. The ice melting off the land makes the ocean less salty, and fresher water freezes at a higher temperature than saltier water. But even though there is a bit more sea ice in the winter, the overall effect is that the ice is melting at an accelerating rate. Yeah, those pesky facts, huh?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    9. Re:Two new deniers are born... by Anguirel · · Score: 1

      So you're saying we'll run out of all known sources of fossil fuels fairly soon (even assuming a linear instead of geometric or exponential rise, that's ~25 years to reach 550 ppm and completely exhausting all known reserves), and should therefore move to other technologies as soon as possible to ensure a smooth transition. So without regard for whether the climate is changing or not, the results of pursuing policies which have tended to originate from the climate change movement and that would cap (and eventually end) the use of fossil fuels is a good thing.

      --
      ~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
      QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
    10. Re:Two new deniers are born... by MacDork · · Score: 1

      I wonder... do you actually believe your spiel or do you just keep copy/pasting it to karma whore? Last time, I pointed out that there are significant unknown sinks of CO2. Yet here you are, lobbing the same half truths at the audience. So, tell us oh wise one... if you were in charge of the planet today, what would you do to reduce atmospheric CO2, given that the real climate scientists don't even know where it is all going now? I'd love to hear your plan, glorious leader.

    11. Re:Two new deniers are born... by dave420 · · Score: 1

      Post a paper, not a YouTube video - then maybe people will listen to you.

    12. Re:Two new deniers are born... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The article you linked states that there has been an increase in Antarctic sea ice with no distinction made among sea ice area, sea ice extent, or sea ice volume/mass. Sea ice extent can easily increase without any additional ice, just by scattering the ice over a wider area and/or thinning the same volume of ice.

    13. Re:Two new deniers are born... by dtjohnson · · Score: 1

      It would actually take about 75 years to combust all known reserves of fossil fuels at current combustion rates. In that scenario, prices would remain constant until that last chunk of coal was burned. However, the more likely scenario would be that fossil fuel prices would increase as they become more scarce and difficult to extract and the increased prices would lead to lower rates of use which would extend the life of fossil fuel reserves out to perhaps 2 or 3 centuries. In that scenario, the atmospheric co2 concentration would never reach 550 ppm (which requires 75 years of combustion at current rates) but would instead remain below 500 ppm and then decline as combustion rates dropped below the rate necessary to maintain the current atmospheric concentration. Approximately 80 percent of the carbon dioxide released from current combustion ends up as calcium carbonate in ocean sediments rather than co2 in the air.

    14. Re:Two new deniers are born... by MacDork · · Score: 1

      Wait. Do my ears deceive me? You are denying a well known scientific observation because it doesn't fit with your AGW doctrine? You think the OCO-2 sat is a 280 million dollar conspiracy to debunk AGW? Denier! Denier!! dave420 is in a denier of teh science!!11!ONE!

      You guys are idiots. You want to know why there are so many people who are skeptical about AGW? Look in the mirror. If you don't know anything about climate science, keep your opinions to yourselves please. You aren't helping your side of the argument. Here's a quick list of papers I found with google. You could find hundreds more in no time at all.

      1. [1] Broecker, W. S. et al., 1979: Fate of fossil fuel carbon dioxide and the global carbon budget, Science, 206:409-418
      2. [2] Siegenthaler, U. and H. Oeschger, 1978: Predicting future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, Science, 199:388-395
      3. [3] Siegenthaler, U. and J. L. Sarmiento, 1993: Atmospheric carbon dioxide and the ocean, Nature, 365:119-125
      4. [4] IPCC (1994) Climate Change 1994, Radiative Forcing of Climate Change and an Evaluation of the IPCC IS92 Emission Scenarios eds. J. T. Houghton, L. G. Meria Filho, J. Bruce, Hoesung Lee, B. A. Callander, E. Haites, N. Harris and K. Maskell for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Great Britain
      5. [5] Joos F., 1994: Imbalance in the budget, Nature, 370:181-182
      6. [6] Hesshaimer V., M. Heimann and I. Levin, 1994: Radiocarbon evidence for a smaller oceanic carbon dioxide sink than previously believed, Nature, 370:201-203
      7. [7] Broecker, W. S. and T. Peng, 1994: Stratospheric contribution to the global bomb radiocarbon inventory: Model versus observation, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 8:377-384
      8. [8] Dale, V. H. and H. M. Rauscher, 1994: Assessing impacts of climate change on forests, Climatic Change 28:65-90
      9. [9] Kheshgi, H. S., A. K. Jain and D. J. Wuebbles, 1996: Accounting for the missing carbon sink with the CO2 fertilization effect, Climatic Change, in print
      10. [10] Hulme, M., S. C. B. Raper and T. M. L. Wigley, 1995: An integrated framework to address climate change (ESCAPE) and further developments of the global and regional climate modules (MAGICC), Energy Policy, 23:347-355
      11. [11] Manne, A., R. Mendelsohn and R. Richels, 1995: MERGE: A model for evaluating regional and global effects of GHG reduction policies, Energy Policy, 23:17-34
      12. [12] Peck, S. C. and T. J. Teisberg, 1994: Optimal carbon emissions trajectories when damages depend on the rate or level of global warming, Climatic Change, 28:289-314
      13. [13] Keller, A. A. and R. A. Goldstein, 1994: The human effect on the global carbon cycle: response functions to analyze management strategies, World Resources Review, 6:63-87
      14. [14] Hudson, R. J. M., S. A. Gherini and R. A. Goldstein, 1994: Modeling the global carbon cycle: nitrogen fertilization of the terrestrial biosphere and the "missing" CO2 sink, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 8:307-333
      15. [15] Dregne, H., M. Kassas and B. Rosanov, 1991: A new assessment of the world status of desertification, Desertification Control Bulletin, UNEP, 20:6-18
  12. But - what's changing the winds? by mveloso · · Score: 0, Troll

    But - but - what's changing the winds so the coast is warming? Global warming! Duh!

    Warming is warming, unless there's no warming. Then it's still warming, but a different kind of warming than the other warming. I mean change.

    1. Re:But - what's changing the winds? by geekoid · · Score: 0

      You are so attached to your provably(and proven) wrong belief that you don't even read the abstract before spew you emotional based nonsense and polluting the comments.

      Nothing in the study refute the fact that excess greenhouse gasses are trapping energy.

      Unless you are ready to overturn 100+ years of science the proves greenhouse gasses trap energy?

      anthropomorphic global warming (AGW) is a fact.
      In fact, it's so simply even you could devise a test.
      1) Visible light strikes the earth Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      2) Visible light has nothing for CO2 to absorb, so it pass right on through. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      3) When visible light strike an object, IR is generated. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      4) Green house gasses, such as CO2, absorb energy(heat) from IR. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes
      5) Humans produce more CO2(and other green house gasses) then can be absorbed through the cycle. Testable? Yes. Tested? Yes. Could anyone devise a test? Yes

      Each one of those has been tested, a lot. You notice deniers don't actual address the facts of AGW? Don't have a test that shows those facts to be false?
      So now you have to answer:
      Why do you think trapping more energy(heat) in the lower atmosphere does not impact the climate?

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:But - what's changing the winds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The FACTS are there hasn't been any statistical warming in nearly 20 years which the C02 concentrations have been going up consistently.

      So far,there are about 52 guesses as to why, none of them any better than the others and all unproven.

      Face it, your doom and gloom prognostications are bunk and there is no need for more government taxes and controls, which is really your agenda.

      To put things into perspective, 400ppm is 0.0000004 percent of the atmosphere.

    3. Re:But - what's changing the winds? by dave420 · · Score: 1

      And to put things into perspective even more: That 0.0000004 is responsible for all the plant life on the planet. Trying to make numbers feel insignificant is pathetic. Stick to science - leave emotion out of this.

    4. Re:But - what's changing the winds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trying to make such insignificant numbers feel significant is what's pathetic.

      Worse, trying to make a mere 100ppm spell doomsday is pathetic.

  13. I barely read the abstract by Overzeetop · · Score: 0

    but that's better than most. My takeaway - these two have shown that they can curve fit a simulation which shows 60-70% of the warming noted *could* be the result of natural process using a random number based analysis (multiple runs with variables in the rage of recorded data). I take this to mean that it's within the range of a theoretical model to account for as much at 60-70% of the warming. The don't indicate what the minimum amount of heating that could be attributable (or even tempoerature loss) was in the abstract. We must, of course, presume that a net temperature loss due to natural factors should be possible within the realm of the stochastic analysis model unless then mean of the simulations is so high as to exclude several standard deviations from falling below net zero.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    1. Re:I barely read the abstract by geekoid · · Score: 2

      no.
      They have shown that a local effect, pacific northwest, might have had a bigger impact on local winds. The fact tat ther wind changes can be do yo e;levate GLOBAL energy trapping isn't addressed in any clear way.

      The fact that they used global model and tried to apply them to a local event is suspect.
      No matter, it's one study. Lets see follow up.
      NOTHING in the study refutes the fact that the lower atmosphere of the earth is warming do to excess CO2 trapping energy.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:I barely read the abstract by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      This is simply showing a new climate driver that has not been factored in before. There is still much to learn. It kind of makes those that claim local extreme weather is a result of GW look silly. At this point, there really is no model that ties weather patterns to GW with any confidence. Certainly there are theories on the long term impacts, but there are great uncertainties involved. Ultimately, with advance GW, wind shifts in a warmer climate could carry more water to presently drier areas, or something totally different could happen. We don't have the models to really know at this point. Ice melt and ocean level changes would seem much easier to model and predict.

    3. Re:I barely read the abstract by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so you love the useless fucking models when they say what you want them to say.

      But when used to show the opposite you moan they did it wrong.

      Suggest you try pulling your head out your arse!

  14. The simple fact that we can't talk about this... by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... Underscores the real problem here. This is far too politicized to be judged scientifically anymore. There are very few open minds left and those few that are open are not listened to by anyone.

    Consider for the sake of argument if everything you know about this issue is wrong. Just for the sake of argument. Now reexamine these little niche issues one at a time to see if they have anything interesting to say WHILE in that frame of mind.

    This is something I do every time I get new information. I take all my opinions, convictions, and beliefs... and I put them in neutral. Then I read it all IN that frame of mind. Often I will be reading something that contradicts my previous understanding. And unless I kept that frame of mind I would probably prejudge and discount it without properly considering it.

    Everyone does this from time to time. The best scientists in the world have been caught doing this occasionally. You never stop being human.

    What is so distressing about AGW for me is that we're all so polarized on the issue that we can't even talk about it anymore without breaking into our little factional camps can calling each other names.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  15. Off with their heads! by mi · · Score: 1, Troll

    In a paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two authors ascribe the majority of northeast pacific coastal warming to natural atmospheric circulation and not to anthropogenic forcing.

    People questioning Global Warming — and the humans' responsibility for it — are traitors and war-criminals, contemptible human beings, who ought to be punished.

    Science is settled! People demand show trials NOW!!

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  16. So, you are saying... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    AGW is a self-correcting problem.

  17. Demanders! by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 0, Troll

    There are those, who, in spite of evidence to the contrary, DEMAND that there be global warming, and DEMAND that it be caused by man.

    --
    Chaos maximizes locally around me.
  18. Straw men aren't part of the scientific method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You're right of course, it's terribly flawed logic. Just as flawed as the logic in "The greenhouse effect is demonstrable in a test tube, therefore it is the primary factor directly controlling the temperature of Earth."

    No one says the greenhouse effect is the primary factor controlling the temperature of the Earth. It is, however, a significant factor. Have you ever done the black body radiation calculation for the temperature of the Earth given the radiation from the Sun? It significantly undershoots the actual mean temperature of the Earth even if you account for heat due to radioactive decay and residual primordial heat from the formation of the Earth. The greenhouse effect is necessary to explain the current surface temperature. It would be about 255 K without it.

  19. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by hondo77 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You are wrong. I am not a climate scientist. Almost all the people here are not climate scientists. However, if 97% of climate scientists around the world agree on something, it tends to sway me into their favor. Arguments to the contrary are always welcome but, from what I've seen, they aren't credible (because they are so easily debunked in ways I can understand). When the community of climate scientists is swayed, those of us with open minds will be swayed, too. Same goes with relativity, evolution, and whatever else. I have an open mind but if the overwhelming majority of the experts in a field agree on something, it gets my attention. It seems that what gets the attention of deniers is only what they want to hear.

    --
    I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
  20. Doesn't matter, too late, Methane melting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will deniers become interested in trying to control the climate to mitigate the damage or will they block attempts to do something about it?

    1. Re:Doesn't matter, too late, Methane melting by Isaac-1 · · Score: 1

      It is my experience that it is the believers that mostly try to not do anything to control the climate, they instead concentrate on efforts that will primarily cripple modern civilization.

    2. Re:Doesn't matter, too late, Methane melting by volmtech · · Score: 1

      That is the plan. We can not have modern civilization without fossil fuels. If you look for any plan to continue without them all you can find are some vague suggestions about solar panels, conservation and maybe composting and organic farms. Great for a few hundred million healthy people. What are the other seven billion going to do?

  21. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Isaac-1 · · Score: 0

    The catch 22 is in order to be a climate scientest you have to basically sign on to beleiving in AGW, so it is a bit like saying 97% of Catholic preists believe in god.

  22. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Consider for the sake of argument if everything you know about this issue is wrong. Just for the sake of argument. Now reexamine these little niche issues one at a time to see if they have anything interesting to say WHILE in that frame of mind.

    This is something I do every time I get new information. I take all my opinions, convictions, and beliefs... and I put them in neutral. Then I read it all IN that frame of mind.

    This is such a great idea.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  23. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    When the community of climate scientists is swayed, those of us with open minds will be swayed, too

    That's not what is meant by being open minded.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  24. wind is caused by temperature not the reverse by RichMan · · Score: 0

    Wind is flow from high pressure to low pressure. Remeber physics PV = NrT. Local pressure is proportional to temperature (in Kelvin).

    "somewhat surprising degree to which the winds can explain all the wiggles in the temperature curve"
    Interesting that the paper author can have it backwards.

    PV=NrT explains a lot. It explains why hot air rises. At the same pressure, left hand side if T is bigger than N is smaller (r is constant). So a specific volume of air at the same pressure the hotter air has less N, or less component atoms so weighs less.

    1. Re:wind is caused by temperature not the reverse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also surprising that you didn't read the article, which addresses what you said.

    2. Re:wind is caused by temperature not the reverse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and yet thermal inversions happen. Even if it is because of specific geography, it is reckless to dismiss the possible states of a highly complex system.

      "somewhat surprising degree to which the winds can explain all the wiggles in the temperature curve"

      Do you suppose the wind was only generated in that region? Let's try it with context:

      "What we found was the somewhat surprising degree to which the winds can explain all the wiggles in the temperature curve," in the region studied, regardless of where the winds came from (Probably not just the region studied).

      Wow. The researcher isn't idiot. He's just limiting his verbiage to the scope of the paper.

      I suspect some of the winds were influenced by the rotation of the planet and therefore not purely thermal in origin.

  25. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by mean+pun · · Score: 1

    The catch 22 is in order to be a climate scientest you have to basically sign on to beleiving in AGW, so it is a bit like saying 97% of Catholic preists believe in god.

    There are plenty of people and institutes that are willing to fund research to disprove AGW, so someone with a sufficiently convincing theory could easily have a good career as a climate scientist. So what's the catch 22?

  26. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    You're just proving my point.

    This issue can't be discussed rationally unless you're able to be unbiased for five seconds.

    And no... science is not a democracy.

    ONE scientist can be right and every single other one on earth can be wrong. Science is not a popularity contest and it is not a democracy. YOU are thinking politically. Science is not politics.

    If you can't grasp that then you have no value to any scientific discussion because you don't know what science is in the first place.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  27. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by radtea · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This is far too politicized to be judged scientifically anymore.

    The problem is that Warmists have politicized the science almost from the word "go". You can tell this because prominent political organizations like Greenpeace say on the one hand that climate change could be a civilization-ending event, and on the other hand we must not ever even think about using nuclear power to solve it, even though nuclear is the only proven, sustainable, economic and practical alternative to coal (this is even more true since the Japanese demonstrated practical extraction of uranium from sea water.)

    Greenpeace says the only acceptable solutions to the problem of ACC are reduced consumption, de-industrialization, and various command-economy initiatives of a kind that would represent a massive expansion of government control. This is not surprising, because Greenpeace is a far-left political organization with no interest in the environment whatsoever (it was founded as a science-based organization, but changed to politics after a few years when some of its leaders recognized that politics was a lot more lucrative.)

    So having made "the solution equal to the problem" in the public discourse, Leftist political organizations are now upset that Rightwingnutjobs are denying there is a problem. The rightwingers aren't responding to the science, they are responding to the Left's insistence that if there is a problem, it only has far-left solutions. That's obviously stupid (what the Righties are doing) but hardly surprising. Politics has always been a game of power and opposition, and the Right is taking the role of opposition in this case.

    Me, I care primarily about the science, and defending the integrity of science from both sides. I acknowledge ACC is a problem, and I've arranged my life so my carbon footprint is tiny. I work at home in a mild climate, don't drive, almost never fly, etc. I support carbon taxes because the data show pretty clearly they work and have some nice side benefits, like reducing CO2 emissions. By "they work" of course I mean "they work to reduce income taxes and corporate taxes", which surely anyone who isn't some socialist nut-job would be in support of. But I also support the development of nuclear power and research into geo-engineering, because it would be utterly evil to believe we are risking the end of industrial civilization and not be open to all possible solutions.

    But because the issue has been politicized since the '80's, I get accused of being a Denialist by Warmist nutjobs. It isn't enough that I agree a) there is a problem and b) support some economically defensible solutions. I have to quack the mantra of "the science is settled" (which it isn't and never can be) and "97% of climate scientists agree!" (which they don't and it's irrelevant) or I'm the enemy.

    If Warmists cared about science, they would discuss the science, and reasonable policy alternatives. Instead, they rally people against pipelines and oppose nuclear power and complain that the science has become politicized, to which I say: they have only themselves to blame.

    --
    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  28. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    That isn't productive either. You can't just say "well those people did it first"... I don't really care.

    Both factions can go fuck themselves. No one can have a rational discussion with those two four year olds poking each other, pulling each other's hair, and calling each other names. Its impossible to have a rational discussion on the issue with either group or possibly ANY group because if they are GROUPS they're not being scientists. They're fighting petty political battles at everyone's expense.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  29. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by bware · · Score: 1

    ONE scientist can be right and every single other one on earth can be wrong. Science is not a popularity contest and it is not a democracy.

    But that's not the way to bet.

    Especially if you're not an expert in the field.

  30. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by PPH · · Score: 1

    have a good career as a climate scientist.

    But one has to be ordained as a climate scientist first. Not many of their seminaries are going to graduate non-believers.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  31. Heretics! by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

    Burn them at the stake!

    --
    "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
    --- Jerry Garcia
    1. Re:Heretics! by messymerry · · Score: 1

      We have to extract a confession first. Shall I convene the inquisition?

      --
      Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
  32. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by binarylarry · · Score: 1

    97% of anthropologists thought piltdown man was the missing link and he turned out to be a human skull attached to a monkey jaw bone. The real missing link ended up being found by a guy those assholes mocked.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  33. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

    You are wrong. I am not a climate scientist. Almost all the people here are not climate scientists. However, if 97% of climate scientists [nasa.gov] around the world agree on something, it tends to sway me into their favor.

    That again? 72 people. Do you know exactly what it is those 75 people actually agree on?

    --
    "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
    --- Jerry Garcia
  34. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 0

    Science isn't gambling either.

    Can you morons stop being political fuckpuppets for five seconds and actually grasp what science is at its core?

    It is not politics.

    It is not gambling.

    It is not a popularity contest.

    It is not a vote.

    It is not your fucking opinion.

    Collectively... the education system has apparently failed millions.

    And while I'm sure some waste of oxygen is going to say "oh you're just being mean now." I will point out that it didn't start that way.

    It started out like this:

    1. Everyone needs to drop the silly factions of US vs THEM and just discuss the events, data, and science like rational people.

    Then the predictable cavelcade of fucktardry responded:

    2. No we should break into hateful factions and turn everything into a flame war.

    To which I tried in vain to respond:

    3. You're missing my point, by doing that we can't have a discussion and everything is just about insults and pissing on each other.

    To which now you are saying:

    4. But I think I have more dicks on my side and some of these guys drank a lot of water... so I'm in favor of just unzipping and spraying it all over the place.

    Which leads us to where I am here:

    5. Resorting to insults mostly because I find it personally cathartic to call a duck a duck... or in your case... a fucking retard.

    Happy now? Is this what you want? Because this is all these STUPID environmental discussions will EVER be until people can get over their pathetic ideological rivalries for five seconds and just talk about it. If you can't do that... you have NOTHING to contribute to the discussion. Literally a waste of bandwidth and bandwidth is fucking cheap.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  35. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You climate change howling libtards are grasping at straws now.

  36. Global by Livius · · Score: 1

    Why is the word 'global' so hard for people to understand?

    Hint: 'coastal' means something different from 'global'.

    1. Re:Global by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Shhh....don't tell anyone, it messes with their narrative....

  37. Arrhenius was right, the second time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    His first calculations for the effects of CO2 were off. He corrected the figure later and came up with a lower value. Look it up. Then combine his later figure, which the IPCC value is getting closer and closer to, with the fact that the effect is for a doubling of CO2 and AGW is not so scary.

    Now consider that we are still in an interglacial and you should be happy that it's not 'worse than we thought'.

    I could go on, but really, the basic science is all you need. That and a cursory glance at the main spokesmodels for the pro-AGW crowd ('Litigious' Mann and 'Often Wrong' Al) should be more than enough to at least warrant a consideration that the science and political ramifications are not settled.

    1. Re:Arrhenius was right, the second time by Truth_Quark · · Score: 2

      That and a cursory glance at the main spokesmodels for the pro-AGW crowd ('Litigious' Mann and 'Often Wrong' Al) should be more than enough to at least warrant a consideration that the science and political ramifications are not settled.

      There are about 600,000 hits on google scholar to the search phrase "Global Climate Change", excluding patents.

      Are you suggesting that Mike wrote them all, and you only know about them because Al Gore has publicized his work?

      There are tens of thousands of primarily climate science researchers on the planet. You'll need a *much* broader ad hominem that that.

  38. 97%, so FU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Basically all that is left of the hockey stick, its worse than we thought, chicken little crowd.

    Even the 97% number is based on a biased, non-scientific survey of papers. Even a casual mention of AGW theory, no matter how tenuous, was used to arrive at that 97%. Sad, really sad, that this lie gets repeated so often. Even the great Obama has repeated it.

  39. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can you look up where that 97% claim comes from? It comes from 0.3% of AGW papers reviewed. Also the first scientist on that list of 97% I found claimed he made no such statement and they used his name without permission and misquoted him.

    That 97% is a fake number, pure and simple. If that is the only reason you believe in AGW you are a fool.

  40. The 97% claim is political (pro-AGW PR) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There have been MANY examinations of the claim given the way the alarmists cling to it like drowning men clinging to life rafts. In the REAL world, you rarely encounter so many voices making shrill claims using the exact same percentage number for ANYTHING. It does not matter if some political people at NASA echo the claim (James Hansen, after all, was famously working for NASA at Goddard while hustling for AGW...)

    Let mey point out a just one of the many dissections of that claim. If you do not want to read that in its entirety, try this brief summary.

    Of course, if the Forbes link is too "right wing" for you, you might prefer the get the 97% bubble popped by a left-leaning source

    Be VERY wary when lots of political activists all start chanting a slogan with a very-specific number like "97%"... it's rarely honest and usually scripted propaganda no matter WHAT party you think might be behind it.

    1. Re:The 97% claim is political (pro-AGW PR) by AlterEager · · Score: 1

      Of course, if the Forbes link is too "right wing" for you, you might prefer the get the 97% bubble popped by a left-leaning source

      I'd hardly describe Richard Tol as a "left leaning source". Do you think that leftiness is catching? That just by getting published in the Guardian you become a lefty?

      Richard Tol disagrees with the 97% figure, but what does he think the real figure is?

      The consensus is of course in the high nineties.

      So, not 97%, maybe it could be 95%, or 99%.

  41. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Answer me one simple question: How do you know one specific scientist is right, and the others are wrong?

    Fact is, for any question outside our own fields of knowledge, only those suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect can answer that with any certainty, What may seem obvious to you or I could be completely wrong, if we aren't aware of other evidence, or of all the details and factors and nuances and caveats that underlay any moderately-complex scientific statement. This is why we rely on those who have specialised in that field to make those judgements for us.

    Science isn't done by consensus - but correctness is certainly decided that way. In mathematics, your new proof may look bulletproof to you, but it's not accepted as fact until your peers have examined and judged it. A single study won't overturn a whole field of knowledge until it's accepted by the majority in that field. This is an essential aspect of the scientific process, and is crucial for weeding out plausible-sounding studies that turn out, on closer examination, to be wrong.

    --
    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  42. Beginning of the End. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are 99 comments as I write this. Most filled with desperate and condescending excuses why this is no in any way indicative that the Church of the Global Warming is in danger of having it orthodoxy overturned.

    This is merely a preview of the hysterical screeching when the "pause" continues and temps even begin to fall.

    Catastrophic Man Made Warming is a theory that's been over spun and has reached an RPM where parts are beginning to fly off.

    1. Re:Beginning of the End. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is merely a preview of the hysterical screeching when the "pause" continues and temps even begin to fall.

      Well that's certainly possible, but planning only for the best-case scenario isn't a very reliable survival strategy.

    2. Re:Beginning of the End. by Pino+Grigio · · Score: 1

      Why do you think falling temperatures are "best case"? Cold is far more detrimental to biological activity than warm.

    3. Re:Beginning of the End. by AlterEager · · Score: 0

      There are 99 comments as I write this. Most filled with desperate and condescending excuses why this is no in any way indicative that the Church of the Global Warming is in danger of having it orthodoxy overturned.

      What part of Global warming do you not understand?

      This shows that local warming can be caused by wind bringing heat from somewhere else.

      I assume that you are bright enough to understand that such a mechanism cannot explain global warming. On this planet we obey the law of conservation of energy.

    4. Re:Beginning of the End. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spare me your half-assed physics lessons. The *real* scientists don't really understand what's going on and you expect everyone to pay attention to some Slashtard quoting from skeptical Science, a site run by a cartoonist?

    5. Re:Beginning of the End. by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      It kind of reminds me of the Unicorns invited to Noah's Ark, their comments were pretty much the same.

    6. Re:Beginning of the End. by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Really? So, you'll be vacationing on Venus.....

    7. Re:Beginning of the End. by Pino+Grigio · · Score: 1

      Straw man argument. Venus atmosphere is 90% CO2 and it's much closer to the Sun than the Earth.

  43. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by pipedwho · · Score: 1

    And now the 97% consensus have updated their models to include the new data. Prior to that discovery, their assumptions were based on what they previously knew or thought to be true. Once including that new information, their assumptions have been updated and the vast majority now assume differently.

    But, most importantly, they are still aware the difference between what they hold as assumptions/beliefs and what has been observationally confirmed.

  44. Wind farms are to blame! by ulatekh · · Score: 1

    So the winds are slowing down, are they? What has mankind done that could possibly be responsible for that? Well, we put up lots of wind-turbines to extract energy from the wind...and because of conservation of energy, the winds can't blow as strongly afterwards...and slowly, wind turbines grind our planet's winds to a halt.

    Hey, I can dream...

    --
    "Once we've identified and embraced our sickness, we'll have strength...and that's when we get dangerous." - John Waters
  45. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Truth_Quark · · Score: 1

    Most of the research being done in the US at the moment is being done by post-docs.

    They're not ordained climate scientists, but many of them get published.

    You're going to need a broader reason why all the climate scientists have come to agreement. (I suggest, that's what all the evidence shows).

  46. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But one has to be ordained as a climate scientist first. Not many of their seminaries are going to graduate non-believers.

    And the beauty of science is that it only takes one scientist with good evidence to undermine those in the "seminary". Einstein, after all, was no graduate. But, then, he wasn't an outside in a real sense because plenty of people were non-believers in the ether. Well, today there's also plenty of non-believers in global warming. It's just a shame that they don't have, you know, evidence to back up that belief. They don't simply follow, what most scientists do, from the evidence to reconsider their previously held beliefs.

    No, deniers are fixated on excuses. The saddest part? Science is a lot more like Protestantism than Catholicism. Disagree with your minister? Fork a new religion. Form yet another denomination. Get a lot of people to agree with you on your own merits to preach. And paradoxically, if you believe in any sort of hell, be more likely to be damning yourself and others to it. Because one more fork and one more standard isn't likely to be in itself THE path to salvation. Thankfully science doesn't follow the path of dogma and most sane people know that repeating evidence as a basis to ignore others dogma isn't the same thing as dogma.

  47. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Clearly you don't know how science works.

    Let me expand this a bit because you seem to think science only applies in some situations.

    Lets say something is too complicated for the human brain to understand. Simply beyond us as a species. Then lets say scientists study this thing which is beyond us. Can they make up results or half ass it on the basis that they cannot understand it?

    No.

    See, if you actually valued science you wouldn't just accept what people say because they're experts. That isn't science. That is just the old "appeal to authority" fallacy followed by the just as old "ad verecundiam" which is basically the fallacy that because someone doesn't have certain qualifications their argument is inherently wrong and therefore should just accept whatever someone else says.

    Look, you can spout logical fallacies at me all day and they'll never get traction. I know them all. They're mostly done because people are lazy. They think "if I say this, I win, and I don't have to actually defend my position."... Well, you always have to defend your position. If you're not defending your position you are not defending your position. End of story.

    Which is fine. No one says you have to argue about this stuff on the internet. But if you want to argue about it then you have to argue about it. No shortcuts.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  48. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by marquisdepolis · · Score: 1

    "Can" is not equal to "is", or "is likely to be", or even "there's a high probability that" ...

    Your confidence in the 3% is not very scientific either. I shudder to think of the p-value at which that gets confirmed!

  49. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by mean+pun · · Score: 1

    have a good career as a climate scientist.

    But one has to be ordained as a climate scientist first. Not many of their seminaries are going to graduate non-believers.

    If you have complaints about the way climate science is evaluated, you will have to be more specific than this. Abstract references to religious institutions are insufficiently clear to discuss and address such complaints.

  50. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by AlterEager · · Score: 1

    The catch 22 is in order to be a climate scientest you have to basically sign on to beleiving in AGW, so it is a bit like saying 97% of Catholic preists believe in god.

    So Judith Curry is unemployed? John Christy is no longer at UAH? Richard Lindzen was forced to retire?

  51. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by AlterEager · · Score: 1

    97% of anthropologists thought piltdown man was the missing link and he turned out to be a human skull attached to a monkey jaw bone. The real missing link ended up being found by a guy those assholes mocked.

    Untrue in all particulars.

    Almost from the outset, Woodward's reconstruction of the Piltdown fragments was strongly challenged by some researchers. [...] G.S. Miller, for example, observed in 1915 that "deliberate malice could hardly have been more successful than the hazards of deposition in so breaking the fossils as to give free scope to individual judgment in fitting the parts together."

    There is, of course, no "real missing link".

  52. Let's play by rs79 · · Score: 1

    Spot the scientist that relies on climate grants.

    --
    Need Mercedes parts ?
  53. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The catch 22 is in order to be a climate scientest you have to basically sign on to beleiving in AGW, so it is a bit like saying 97% of Catholic preists believe in god.

    There are plenty of people and institutes that are willing to fund research to disprove AGW, so someone with a sufficiently convincing theory could easily have a good career as a climate scientist. So what's the catch 22?

    Only to be immediately dismissed out of hand as being paid off by big oil and other bogeymen.

  54. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, 'cause they'd never say something crazy like (for instance) you could tell a person's propensity for violence by the shape of their head. Or, Hey! Let's give these pregnant women Thalidomide to stop morning sickess, or any of the hundreds of other mistakes that have been accepted and promoted by scientists over the last few hundred years! Groups of people (because hey, scientists are people) are NEVER guilty of group-think, or trying to fit in.

    Scientists are people too! They make the same mistakes that normal people do, and for the same reasons. And then Mr Ego gets in the way, and they'll do everything they can to proooove that what they first stated was the truth!

    Emotional rant? Sure! Because we're all human, and emotions are a big part of how we think.

  55. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Except the 97% consensus is two orders of bullshit served up as one.

    First, it was 97% of a preselected group of papers published by a wide range of people, including non-scientists. To say that 97% of all credentialed Climate Scientists believe is at best a lie.

    Second, Consensus is NOT science and it irrelevant. Something else that is not science is a theory that cannot be falsified.

    Show us one credible scenario whereby you would be convinced that the doomsday prognostications are invalid. Some measurements, durations, etc.

    You can't, because the AGW crowd has staked out claims on all scenarios being due to Global Warming. Some nitwits here already ascribe the winds to Global Warming. Las Vegas bookies couldn't set up such a sure thing.

  56. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by sycodon · · Score: 1

    Seems to me that a single study, experimental result, etc. can overturn a whole field of knowledge. It's just that the majority of that field will take a while to understand that it's happened.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  57. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by sycodon · · Score: 1

    ... two four year olds poking each other, pulling each others hair, and calling each other names.

    Sounds like the majority of Slashdot discussions to me.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  58. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

    ONE scientist can be right and every single other one on earth can be wrong. Science is not a popularity contest and it is not a democracy. YOU are thinking politically. Science is not politics.

    Yeah, and think of all the money being channeled into funding anti-AGW theories. The fact that there's a LOT of special interests and few scientists to spend it on means they actually have a ton of money to throw around.

    People are spending millions trying to find a sound scientific basis to deny AGW. If there are credible theories, then the incredible resources available to do those studies should find it. And it's unlikely such a theory would consume all the resources, so it's possible to repeat the tests over and over again and come up with results that are convincing.

    Interests are such that if you're anti-AGW, grant money should be basically turning on a tap. And if the people really cared, it can be repeated over and over again for a number of years to prove the theory correct.

    Money available for AGW - a lot, but spread over lots of people.

    Money available for anti-AGW - a lot, but spread over less people and thus more resources to spend.

  59. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by tobiah · · Score: 1

    point

    --
    "The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
  60. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    Did you just get modded insightful for basically saying "some people have different opinions so let's sit down and listen to them all"? Do you think that would have worked with the moon landings? You could have sat all day listening to people discussing how terrified they were of setting the cheese on fire or you could launch a fucking rocket and go there because that's what the scientists say is right. Which technique will prove more successful?

    --
    If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
  61. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by PPH · · Score: 1

    If you have complaints about the way climate science is evaluated, you will have to be more specific than this.

    I first heard of Johnstone and Mantua's study on NPR. The overarching response from other climate scientists was 'This is wrong since it doesn't support current dogma'. Not 'Gee, we had better look at adding wind data to our ocean temperature models'.

    That something as critical as wind velocities effect on ocean evaporation and heat transfer have not been considered suggests to me that these climate models are nowhere near complete enough to provide any useful predictions.

    It's back to the drawing board, folks.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  62. Re:Neither is Policy. Just facts and repeatable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    results. Scientific Method has gone out the window when it morphs into public policy proposals, the realm of politicians. Also the global climate pause does not fit the current predictions, so SM should then permit legitimate sceptical inquiry - which has been largely banned.

  63. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    I can't say why I have been modded up or down. It is often puzzling why it goes one way or the other.

    That said, I would like to think that I was modded up because some people agreed with my statement that this whole AGW issue has been turned into a childish over politicized hissy fit between the two primary political factions.

    And as such that it doesn't really have anything to do with science anymore despite the protestations of both factions to the contrary.

    I'm not going to get into the misdeeds of one faction or the other because that just causes the partisans to get defensive which turns their brains off. You say X side did Y... and invariably X will say that Y was totally justified even though if the alternative side did Y it would be the worst thing ever.

    It is stupid and I'm tired of idiot partisans bringing their mindless "yes he did/no he didn't" bullshit into every discussion.

    Are there real issues here that can be scientifically examined? Absolutely. But it became totally impossible to do that the instant BOTH sides politicized the issue. Here some idiot partisan is going to say "but the other side did it first." First... that justifies nothing. And second it doesn't matter at that point. The point is not to be morally superior to your rival. I don't care which of you fuckwits started it. What matters is that it happened and there are consequences. It is like nuking a city... does it matter to the people living in the city who fired the nuke? Not really... they're extra crispy. And that's what happened. This argument has been under constant bombardment for years. And at this point even the partisans are so bored with it that they just reflexively gainsay the opposition without even bothering to listen to anything they have to say on the issue.

    That means discourse is officially impossible... until the partisans get given some apple juice boxes and take a nap like good little 4 year olds. Short of that... madness is all you're going to get out of this issue.

    There is real science here and I would love to discuss it... but I can't because the political morons pollute every discussion on this issue trying to turn it to their political favor rather then just understand it.

    Disagree? Should we just skip right to the bit where we call each other terrible names and move on?

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  64. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    It doesn't matter who is spending money either.

    The most evil, corrupt, and stupid person on earth could say something that was scientifically correct and the most good, honorable, and intelligent person on earth could say something that was scientifically invalid.

    Science is not about moral virtue. Saying "the evil oil companies did X" is fucking irrelevant if you're talking about SCIENCE. If you care about POLITICS which is quite clearly your primary concern... then of course the actions of your political rivals is something you need to watch. However, science is not politics. It doesn't matter who says it.

    Consider if you will the fucking Nazis... you know them? Killed millions of people... tried to take over the world... terrible taste in mustaches? Yeah, well, they were pretty good scientists and engineers weren't they? So what does that tell you? It tells you that you can be a complete scumbag and be a great scientist at the same time.

    Morality, ethics, and politics do not make science good or bad. Science isn't an ideology or a belief system. It is a tool.

    Science is like a gun... or a pencil... or a fork. Any group of people can use it so long as they know how to use it. With the gun... you know that the bullets come out of the tube and generally you want to point it at the people you want to make holes in. And so on.

    So really, I don't care who is paying whom. It doesn't matter. There is no logical reason to conclude that the evil oil companies are wrong sans an argument that invalidates their argument scientifically. Now if you have that... then fine. But that argument won't be based on whether the oil companies made the argument or whether they were evil. That is at best ad hominem.

    The oil companies you would have to admit are very technically proficient. They do a lot of very impressive things on a regular basis that are the envy of nations and other industries. Some of their deep sea extractions are about as complex space programs. Seriously look at some of it. They have guys in pressurized apartments for weeks. They go below the ocean in what look like space suits... and weld pipes in conditions as hostile as anything you'll find in orbit. And is there any public fan fare over that? No. That's what the petro chemical industry likes to call Tuesday.

    These are not stupid people. Now you want to claim they're lying? Fine... prove that. But short of that you're just making political arguments.

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  65. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One side has listened to the science, the other is playing political games due to fear of changes to the status quo, changes which will be inevitable in a few short years anyway.

    I don't see how doing nothing is really a viable option at this particular point in time.

  66. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    All of it what you say is true though the blade cuts both ways.

    Are you willing to impale yourself on that blade? I am... the price will be that neither of can say what is going on definitively. Which means more study and examination.

    Which from my stand point is fine.

    Checkmate. *yawns and walks away*

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  67. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "When the community of climate scientists is swayed, those of us with open minds will be swayed, too."

    Here's how you sway 97% of them:
    1. Mr. Climate Scientist sitting in his office doing research, and minding his own business.
    2. Mr. Politician walks in and says "hey Mr. Scientist, we have this global warming thing going on and we think it might be a problem. We'd like to give you some grant money to do some research on it."
    3. Mr. Climate Scientist: "ok, sure I do love grant money."
    4. Mr Politician: "oh by the way, if you do your research and you find that global warming is a problem, we'll give you MILLIONS in additional grant money. BUT, if you find that it isn't a problem, we won't give you another dime."

  68. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Sure, my side is all about science... it is that other side that isn't scientific!

    *yawn*... both sides are massively politicized at this point. The only people that don't know that are the deluded.

    Both sides have senators yelling at each other. Both sides are arguing their bullcrap in the united nations. Both sides are throwing little protest marches. Both sides are releasing books and movies and giving people stickers.

    This is a media campaign, sport. It stopped being science around the same time Al Gore stood up and decided to make a political cause out if it. On that day... it became politics.

    Just like all the other stupid political fights we have in this country... about birth control or schools or the fucking budget. Science isn't on your side or the other side. Science doesn't take fucking sides. Science doesn't have your back. Science is a process. A methodology. A means. It isn't a fucking ideology and it doesn't bless one side or the other like some fucking made up god in some fucking holy war against some fucking evil enemy.

    I swear to god... why is my society filled with barbarian fuckwits? I'd very much like to have my peers be men and women of reason and not just another sad collection of tribalistic superstitious fanatics that listen to the mumblings of their various witch doctors, get high on the local boiled weed of choice, paint themselves blue/red, then run naked at the opposing tribe screaming.

    And whilst all this is happening... the fucking morons say "but science is on our side."... which doesn't mean what it sounds like... what they mean is "the heavens are with us"... the spirits... the gods... the fucking tooth fairies.

    If you actually knew what science was in the first place... and you clearly don't... then you'd know that science is the process evaluation and if you wish to honor that process... you actually have to do it. Not just support a side that says they're with science, paint yourself the tribal color, and attack.

    seriously, dude... you want to get scientific? Because its going to involve putting down the pointy stick, washing that shit off your face, and actually talking about this like rational people. Short of that... I have more then enough frothing fanatics to hide behind. I don't need to fight you. Fuck it... I'll make some sandwiches and enjoy the show from the sidelines. I can giggle as you crack each other's skulls open in one pointless clusterfuck after another.

    If you want to actually accomplish something. I you want to be more then a pawn in someone else's political game... you need to stop being a tool. The politicians don't care about the environment. They want to win their political fights because they want to win them. Right or wrong. They don't care. They want to win because winning is power. And you are more meat for their shield wall. Nothing more.

    I do not say any of this to support one side or the other. They're both contemptible. And until you grasp that you're just going to be a pawn. I refuse to be a pawn. And the only way to do that is to fucking walk off the chess board and do something more useful.

    Can you do that? Or are you going to tell me again "but the other side started it" or "they don't follow science but we do."... or other assorted nonsense?

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  69. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What do the scientists say again? Rant as much as you like about both sides being just as bad, it's a fallacy designed to deflect attention from the fact action is needed. Why are you so opposed to doing anything? Because politics?

  70. Local climate change fuled by natural winds by Optali · · Score: 1

    natural winds that yield a higher temperature do to Global Warming... The temperature in my fridge is very low, yet we are not in the ice age yet.

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  71. Reality of the situation by Immerman · · Score: 1

    And Mercury is much closer to the Sun than Venus, and yet is much cooler because it has no CO2 atmosphere trapping the heat.

    Observed atmospheric CO2 concentrations are increasing in line with our easily-calculated CO2 emissions, and we understand pretty well how much solar energy retention each additional unit of CO2 causes, and it works out to be that the CO2 from burning one gallon of gasoline will capture roughly one million times as much solar energy as was released by burning the fuel during it's time in our atmosphere. We're currently globally consuming about 450exajoules of fossil-fuel sourced energy per year - call it 1000exajoules to account for the horrible efficiency of combustion engines (and to make the math easier) So that translates to adding (on a delayed fuse) roughly 1,000,000,000 EJ of solar heating to the planet every year.

    To put that in perspective the "Little Boy" nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima released about ~65TJ of energy. The Tsar Bomba device, the most powerful device ever detonated, comes in at 210,000TJ. All nuclear testing as of 1996 combined comes in at 2,135,000TJ, or ~2EJ. An average sized hurricane supposedly releases ~50EJ of energy per day in the form of rain and cloud formation (wind is a negligible component of hurricane enerrgy).

    So basically humanity is directly releasing about 20 hurricane-days worth of energy into the atmosphere every year - not so bad, all in all. But we're also indirectly causing about 20 MILLION hurricane-days per year of indirect heating. That's ~55,000 hurricanes every day, all year round. The Earth's surface area is about 500,000,000 km2, so that's about 100,000 km2/hurricane, while the average hurricane is about 600 km in diameter (~300,000km2).

    So final verdict: our CO2 emmission are causing excess solar energy capture on the scale of 3x what would be released if the entire planet were permanently covered by average-sized hurricane.

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    1. Re:Reality of the situation by Pino+Grigio · · Score: 1

      Wow, all this extra energy coming into the system, no extra energy coming out. And not only can't you find it but it hasn't had a noticeable affect on the temperature for at least 17 years.

  72. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Whether or not action is needed is one question.

    What that action should be is another question.

    What the current situation is indifferent to actions needed or what they should be is another question.

    They are three separate questions.

    The third is the only one that is entirely scientific.

    That is "whether something is happening and what that thing is"...

    As to whether something must be done and what that thing is that must be done... that is political. Not scientific.

    Now let us ask a simple question here.

    Do you have China and India on board with your little plan here? Are they doing to agree to cap their carbon emissions?

    If the answer is no... then... what are we talking about here? Because at best it seems like all this AGW talk is simply exporting CO2 emitting industries to china and india... often where environmental controls are worse... and increasing the amount that has to be shipped which increases carbon emissions... and costs people in the west jobs as we shut down our industries in favor of the chinese and indians doing it.

    Do you feel like you're accomplishing something? Because simply exporting your CO2 to china accomplishes NOTHING. US CO2 emissions went down for yet another year... and I think we've been reducing emissions for over a decade. Global emissions are of course higher then ever.

    The fact of the matter is that by focusing on the politics and allowing partisian factions to use the environmental issue as a domestic political weapon... you've lost sight on the actual goal. The politicians don't care about CO2. They don't care about AGW. They care about winning elections. And the vast majority of people talking about AGW are utterly blind to the fact that they're being used for a cause that has no net benefit to the environment what so ever. If anything, the environmental movement is hurting the environment these days.

    If you want to help the environment... then you need to bring more industry back into the first world where it can have some pollution standards applied to it.

    That is going to mean relaxing those same standards. You've heard that you need to spend money to make money? You're going to need to attract dirty industry to reduce dirty industry. And there after you might be able to apply some international import export laws that apply a carbon debt to imports and exports.

    Short of that... you keep doing this... we'll just export all our dirty industry to china and you'll have accomplished less then nothing.

    Open your mind and think.

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  73. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    It's certainly possible, and has even happened.

    What happens far more often is that studies that claim to overturn existing knowledge simply turn out to be wrong - usually bad methodology, where other factors have not been sufficiently controlled for.

    Most of these get weeded out before publication by peer review. Most of the rest have their flaws pointed out by other scientists in the field. A few remain in limbo, where their evidence is unconvincing but not demonstrably wrong, and are not accepted until further studies add more convincing evidence.

    The point is, how are you or I to know which is which? What looks correct to us may simply be our ignorance of the mistakes in the study, which aren't obvious until they are pointed out by more experienced people. And if 9 out of 10 experienced people say that such-and-such a flaw is fatal to the study's proposition, are you going to believe the one who claims it's still OK?

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  74. Not news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's been known for a long time that the west coast of the Americas is very highly sensitive to conditions in the Pacific (el nino, la nina, etc) and therefore one of the regions least affected by AGW, by simple mathematics. This knowledge is probably what inspired these guys to start the study in the first place, as sane people don't just pick a random area and see if it's affected by a random causation.
    It's also been known for a long time that there are actually quite a few areas of the earth which are, surprisingly, not the west coast of the Americas.

  75. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    Clearly you don't know how the Argument from Authority works, if you assume it is automatically a fallacy.

    Nobody is claiming that the consensus view is 100% unassailably correct, just because it's a consensus. Like Occam's Razor, it's merely an aid to choosing between uncertain alternatives. Any rock-solid evidence could challenge the consensus view successfully - if you could be certain it was rock-solid.

    And therein lies the rub. Science is uncertain. 100% certainty does not exist, outside pure math. We will never see a study that is self-evidently absolute truth to any person who views it, because a study can only roughly approximate reality, and our ability to judge these approximations varies according to our expertise with that aspect of reality and the techniques used to approximate it. Failing to realise this is the hallmark of Dunning-Kruger.

    In the absence of certainty, the consensus view is more probably correct, and is therefore the best view to take, at least until better evidence comes along. And if you believe there is already better evidence, then why has it not changed the consensus view? I've yet to hear an answer for this that doesn't involve mass incompetence or mass conspiracy, either of which are far less probable than the remaining option of the "better" evidence not actually being better.

    Also, you dodged the question: How do you (personally) know one specific scientist is right, and the others are wrong?

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  76. And what is changing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "_two authors ascribe the majority of northeast pacific coastal warming to natural atmospheric circulation and not to anthropogenic forcing_."

    My question is ... what is causing the *change in the atmospheric circulation*?

    There are a chain of events happening here, you can just stop at the first link!

  77. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    You don't need to have someone onboard for a plan that makes sense, ever heard of leading by example? China are going to be selling the backwater US green tech at this rate because partisans you are supporting with your "do nothing listen to every halfwitted opinion" tactic refuse to believe in the need for change. I'm not focusing on politics, just the science, which says pretty much irrefutably "burning fossil fuels is a problem and we're going to run out anyway, so lets change asap".

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  78. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    You're not leading by example. you're exporting industry to china which has no net postive impact on global CO2.

    The global atmosphere is global. Moving industry to another country doesn't solve your problem. The US is not its own planet. If you want to have any relevance in this issue what so ever then you need to have a global impact by not merely moving CO2 industries from one country to another. They either have to be outright reduced GLOBALLY or they have to be made more efficient globally.

    Forcing these industries out of the US did neither thing. What it did was forced them into a less environmentally efficient situation with lower environmental regulations.

    You made the situation worse by failing to recognize that the a global problem is global.

    End of line.

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  79. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Wrong.

    1. You cannot say something is right because X people agree.

    2. You cannot say something is right because the people that agree have X qualifications.

    3. it might be more LIKELY that they are correct, but it does not mean they are correct.

    4. As to one thing or another more probably being correct... that is fine... however that doesn't mean you're scientifically correct. It merely means you probably are correct. Science is not merely saying "well this is probably going on in absence of actually knowing what I'm talking about."

    And really I have no interest arguing this issue when really what I wanted to talk about is the polarization and factionalization and politicization of the issue.

    You want to say that you are justified in being factional, politicized, and polarized because science is "probably" on your side. In effect, you're saying you don't want to be open minded and methodical on the issue because you think your supposed consensus gives you license to politicize the issue.

    It doesn't. It never will. That isn't science. That's just politics and political games. And the only people that push this line of reasoning are first and foremost political creatures.

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  80. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    FALSE FALSE FALSE! All that needs done is adjusting import taxes to reflect the true cost, your house of strawmen must be very flammable, fortunatley it takes less than a wolf to blow it down.

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  81. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    ... I think I brought up that as one option actually. Try again.

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  82. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    Try again, every argument you have is ludicrous, why don't you step up and explain what your policies are exactly? Bring manufacturing back to the US because it's doing so well on the environment? Immediate rise in CO2 production because it is not adequately regulated in America either. Do nothing until we have heard the opinion of every last naysayer? Good luck with that. As for your "reduce environmental regulations to save the environment" argument, that takes the biscuit as the stupidest thing I have heard this year. Congratulations.

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  83. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    Yes... someone suggests that the issue is too factionalized and polarized and of course that is threatening to the factional tribalized participants of the discussion.

    So some moron like you says "hey, I don't know how to deal with you... take a side so I know whether you're on my side or their side."

    I am on neither of your stupid sides you completely witless asshat. I want to actually discuss articles about new scientific discoveries without having them polluted and ruined by dancing twits that think every discussion revolves around their pathetic ideolgoical rivalries.

    Think about how many discussions people like you have ruined utterly with your insistence on politicizing everything... seriously.

    I've had enough of it. Either just discuss the issue as itself without bringing all your stupid baggage into it every single fucking time... or we can't even talk about this stuff any more. Seriously... not another environmental article ever again. Pick one. Because the alternative is that every time one is posted all anyone will be able to see is you fools slapping your bellies together and calling the other side a bigger fucktard then your side.

    It was amusing at one point... But it has palled. Kindly just stop it.

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  84. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    No, you said we should do nothing because the issue was too "polarised" and "politicised", which is absurd. I'm sure you think you're a free thinking rebel, in actuality you're an apologist for the deniers. I'd be the first to celebrate if you stopped commenting on environmental arguments, your logic has bigger holes than the ozone layer in the 80s. It's good to see you showing your true colours though, lay it on me, I can take it.

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  85. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    You're just admitting that you're incapable of seeing this as anything but a political dispute. And that is sad. Because what you've just done is admit that you can't discuss environmental issues scientifically. You can't discuss the data. You can't discuss the theory.

    All you can do is be an activist. Which I think anyway is pretty sad because you probably could have been more at one point before you were brainwashed.

    I don't want to tell you what to believe or what to support. I don't really care. I just want discussions about science to be about science and not about the politics and the activism.

    People like you make that impossible. You turn everything into an US vs THEM shit storm where no one can even start to examine anything because everything is covered in smug assholes that know nothing and yet presume to tell everyone what to believe despite often not even reading the fucking article in the first place.

    It is sad. You could have been more then you are but you probably won't ever change... You are one depressing piece of shit.

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  86. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Stuarticus · · Score: 1
    It is not a political dispute, I have never claimed it is - YOU DID!

    This is far too politicized to be judged scientifically anymore

    You argue yourself into knots then get insulty when it's pointed out to you. I'd think you were a troll if you weren't so obvious.

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  87. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    No, you merely insisted that everyone be labeled ideologically which is an implicit political classification... you completely brain dead waste of oxygen.

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  88. Re: The simple fact that we can't talk about this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At which point? Another false argument.

  89. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    So we agree on 1, 2 & 3. Is that "wrong"?

    As for 4, I don't disagree, but my point was there is no easy way to determine absoutely if any given study is "scientifically correct" - particularly if you are not an expert in the field. That being the case, "probably" right is usually all we can determine (as most scientists themselves will tell you). And the science in question has well over 30 years of peer-reviewed observation to back it up, so climatologists do have some knowledge on the subject.

    In effect, you're saying you don't want to be open minded and methodical on the issue because you think your supposed consensus gives you license to politicize the issue.

    I'm not sure why people feel compelled to drag politics into this issue in the first place. I certainly have no interest in doing so. And I'm happy to be open-minded to new evidence - if it's solid enough to pass peer review, for a start (peer review: consensus in action).

    I have little time for anecdotal arguments however, and less for people that dismiss peer-reviewed studies (and authors of same) for being "politicised", particularly if they can't offer any more reason than "this is the same thing as said by other, politically-leaning people".

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  90. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    As to 1-3, we appear to agree. This will have implications for 4.

    As to "all we can determine." that is again fine. However, in taking that short cut you lose the ability to say you are backed by science. You are rather backed by your opinions and guesses ABOUT science.

    Now those opinions might be reasonable and the guesses could be educated... but they are not science. What this means is that if you DO take these shortcuts whether you had a choice or not you must show a bit of humility in stating your case.

    Science as per 1-3 doesn't care if you had a hard time figuring something out or if it was impossible to get good information. Science isn't about what is and is not convenient. It is a process. You follow the process or you did not follow the process. Either/or. And if you didn't follow the process you're going to have be upfront about that, honest with yourself, and try to work with people and peers in a manner that reflects the common understanding that shortcuts were made.

    Beyond this we both reserve the right to listen to whom we choose. However, if you aspire to cooperation from the public at large it is not in your interest to browbeat people for merely pointing out that you have overstated your reasonable degree of confidence on issues for political gain. This has been done repeatedly which is why many of the IPCC reports have come under such savage criticism and several of them have been sent back for massive reediting.

    Beyond that, let us get to the real heart of the issue here. It is not the science and it is not whether or not the planet is warming. The heart of the issue is what some propose to do about it. It is THAT which is ultimately causing most of the controversy. Not the science but rather the political solution to the science. If you admit that point then we can talk about what we might be able to do to bring about a meeting of minds. The conceit of many that the opposition is stupid is in error. Neither side is stupid. They merely disagree on some things and have mutually enough power to prevent the other from acting without their consent. Regardless of what you think in this matter you must admit to that political reality. Which means if you care about the environment... you must either successfully suppress hundreds of millions of people in a democracy... good luck there... Or you must sit down and talk about solutions we can all find palatable. This compromise is possible. The politicians don't like it because they find factional rivalries to be better for getting voters to show up on election day. But if you care about the issue and not whether the blue team or the red team wins... you'll talk.

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  91. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    You are rather backed by your opinions and guesses ABOUT science... Now those opinions might be reasonable and the guesses could be educated... but they are not science.

    They are not "opinions" or "guesses". They are probabilities, backed by a great deal of evidence - like virtually everything in science. Higgs Boson existence? Probability. The Big Bang? Probability. Quantum mechanics? Yeah, a lot of that. To be scientific, a theory does not have to be a certainty at all; the probability just needs to be carefully quantified, and backed by observation and/or experiment.

    ...you have overstated your reasonable degree of confidence on issues for political gain. This has been done repeatedly which is why many of the IPCC reports have come under such savage criticism

    Citation needed. The IPCC reports all state their conclusions in probabilities, which are carefully quantified, and are backed by citations of peer-reviewed studies at every stage. The vast majority of the evidence presented in the IPCC reports has proved under very close examination to be solid (NOT absolutely certain, but of sound scientific methodology). This is why they are accepted as, not the gospel truth, but the best information on the subject that we have, by every major scientific institution and government, as well as by the great majority of scientists (and nearly all climatologists).

    It is THAT which is ultimately causing most of the controversy. Not the science but rather the political solution to the science.

    I do agree that this is the source of the controversy. Solutions are indeed often political, but unfortunately all too often, peoples' political views about some of the solutions contaminate their views of the science, which usually leads to claims that the science itself is being politicised. I disagree with that.

    Or you must sit down and talk about solutions we can all find palatable.

    If only we could do that. Unfortunately, there are still far too many strident voices still trying to undermine the science, which blocks any reasonable discussion of solutions. If those voices actually had any peer-reviewed evidence of a quality that could convince a reasonable number of experts, that would be fine, but sadly these dissenting voices tend to rely on volume instead.

    I'm also of the opinion that many people misunderstand the solutions that have been proposed (for example, see all the claims that a phased transition to a carbon-neutral economy would be a disastrous burden on society, whereas many economists are seeing it as an opportunity for actually reducing the many existing external costs of carbon emissions).

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  92. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    the distinction between an educated guess and a probability is zero.

    In any case, you can't call your position science unless you're willing to put down the activism and just be coldly detracted about the whole thing.

    That is what science demands. Detachment. You either have it or you don't.

    The instant you get sucked into a cause... that goes out of the window.

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  93. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    the distinction between an educated guess and a probability is zero.

    If you want to put it that way, then all of science is educated guesses. Engineering too. Only maths is certain.

    That is what science demands. Detachment. You either have it or you don't.

    The scientific method recognises that absolute detachment is difficult, if not impossible, and endeavours to minimise that. Again, the "you have it or you don't" black & white viewpoint doesn't at all match what we see in the real world, where few if any scientists can claim to be absolutely detached from their work - but we've still been getting useful science done for centuries, despite that. Plenty of good science has been done regardless of attachment to the results - if you can be rigorous enough about your methodology. If your methods are beyond reproach, your results are too, despite any personal investment.

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  94. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    The difference is that in science, unlike this discussion, there should not be axes to grind or political riviarlies. Rather it should be a detached search for the truth with no stake or interest in what the eventual outcome could be.

    While I might be impartial, I am at least appologetic about it and trying to avoid my biases. While you are outright defending biases which render your claim to scientific superiority laughable.

    Look, my point in posting in this thread was to point out that the politicization of the issue has rendered it non-scientific. You have "heard" my argument and I can't force you to agree if you do not, will not, or cannot agree for any reason.

    I have made a good faith effort to make myself understood and beyond that I really don't see what else I can do here.

    Good day.

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  95. Re:The simple fact that we can't talk about this.. by Namarrgon · · Score: 1

    There's a lot of things there you're attributing to me which I really don't think I've ever claimed or even mentioned. I don't appear to be speaking your language, and you seem to be ignoring the points I'm trying to make, so yeah, another unproductive "discussion" on the internet. All the best.

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