They warn that the results may floor you. Strap yourself in. The National Centre for Science Education (NCSE) surveyed 1500 teachers across the US, and were shocked that a third bring dangerous climate material in to the class.
“At least one in three teachers bring climate change denial into the classroom, claiming that many scientists believe climate change is not caused by humans” says NCSE programs and policy director Josh Rosenau.
Frankly I am amazed. After twenty years of repeating the consensus message how is it that so many teachers are still unable to recite the permitted phrasing? (And especially in a survey where everyone knows what the right answer is!).
Put on your helmet. As many as half of US teachers actually allow students to discuss the controversy. Unthinkable!
Worse, half of the surveyed teachers have allowed students to discuss the supposed ‘controversy’ over climate change without guiding students to the scientifically supported conclusion.” Scarier still: three out of five teachers were unaware of, or actively misinformed about, the near total scientific consensus on climate change.
Sorry, did I say controversy? I meant “controversy” (any resemblance this debate may have to a real debate is purely coincidental).
Students are obviously too immature to be allowed to make decisions on something so complex. Indeed, after years at teacher’s college and nightly reminders from NBC even 60% of teachers are not old enough either. (Get ye a double degree. Send them back to university!)
Scarier still: three out of five teachers were unaware of, or actively misinformed about, the near total scientific consensus on climate change.
The consensus is total. Scientists who think differently to most other scientists are not scientists, of course, but bloggers, shills or Republicans.
If half the teachers are allowing children to talk about issues, things really are grim. The indoctrination program is not succeeding. Free speech still exists somehow in the USA.
Luckily, at least there is no independent thought left at the National Centre for Science Education.
Repeat after me: Science is the study of opinion polls.
Climate Denial is the ugly state where people claim that the Earth has no climate. It should not be allowed in schools. Children will not know what air is.
The press release about climate science education in US schools is at Science Daily.
Thank God
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Meanwhile, in one outlet of the US mainstream media, there has been a near 100% exclusion of ‘climate denial’ from their broadcasts, going all the way back to 1996: “PBS NewsHour continues its biased global warming coverage“.
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The betrayal by the Fourth Estate – the very linchpin of the “Green” movement.
The Inconvenient Truth – Principles of Journalism
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four legs good, 2 legs bad…..
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…”All animals are equal; some are more equal than others.”
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Better not ask agronomists (“extension educators” with at least a Master’s degree in agronomy sciences) or “agricultural advisors” either. Only 19% of agronomists and 12% of agricultural advisors agree that humans primarily cause climate change. Compare that to 53% of climate scientists.
—
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00172.1
In 2012, a total of 22 state and extension climatologists were selected through a purposive sample to represent main outlets of publicly available and location-specific climate information in the region. Nineteen of these climatologists completed a pre-interview survey that included the climate change question (see Wilke 2013). Consistent with the many disciplinary scientists in the two USDA-NIFA projects, over 90% of the climatologists agreed that climate change is occurring while none believed that it is not occurring (Table 1). Fifty-three percent [10 of 19] attributed climate change primarily to human activities.
An online survey of about 1600 private and public agricultural advisors was conducted in 2012 in four states (Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Nebraska) in the Midwestern United States. Three-quarters of these advisors believed that climate change is occurring, with 12% [197 of 1,605] of them believing that it is mostly caused by human activities (Table 1).
Extension educators are a unique set of agricultural advisors who serve to connect and translate research from universities to farmers in order to decrease risk to the farm enterprise and increase productive capacity and resilience. Typically, Extension educators have at least a Masters degree and are trained in agronomic sciences, which may not include climate sciences. Almost 75% of the Extension educators [239 respondents] believed in climate change, with over 19% [46 of 239] attributing climate change to human activities (Table 1).
—–
http://oss.sagepub.com/content/33/11/1477/T1.expansion.html
We better not ask professional engineers, geologists, and geophysicists either. Just 36% of these professionals “express the strong belief that climate change is happening, that it is not a normal cycle of nature, and humans are the main or central cause.”
http://oss.sagepub.com/content/33/11/1477.full
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Another small crack in the edifice…
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For those familiar with UK politics, the concept of edifice came to life with the Edstone, which was so blatantly ridiculous it may have been the single most important factor why the Labour Party so resoundingly lost the last general election.
I am always puzzled by the concept of ‘climate denier’, other than in the context of denying that a bunch of second rate supposed scientists should be allowed on such an unbelievable scale to twist and distort raw scientific data in order to perpetuate their comfy lifestyles through the peddling of unfounded scare stories.
There is something really sick in our society when teachers get demonised for demonstrating how there are always two sides to any argument. The fact that Obama believes in the tooth fairy and imminent Thermageddon does not mean he is right, even though the former is much more likely than the latter.
Teachers allowing their pupils to look at both sides of an argument? Perish the thought, as this could lead to freedom of thought and expression; both being concepts abhorred by the majority of the klimate faithful.
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Peter, one of the Lefts main tactics is to take a innocuous phrase ( e.g. “gay” – which means happy ) and hijack it for other purposes. The unspoken threat is that gay = homosexual = happy and woer betide anyone who says otherwise…..or in other words a mechanism to redefine “normality” and twist it to suit their own purposes.
Likewise, by the Left attempting to hijack the concept of “right thinking” by using the loading the bases concept , namely redefining “normal” = “believe the lie of man made climate change” or else….
PC is another example – PC allows stomping all over peoples opinions by stacking the unis and schools with leftists who love PC as its basically neo-Marxism. Control the language and you control thought, control thought and you control the population. Its also a form of basically forcing people to toe their twisted concept of “normal”…..
Its just standard Leftist thuggery.
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33.33% and climbing!
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Normality factor 33.33% and climbing
30
Ha ha …I was wondering when someone would post this…..
30
Interesting. No mention of Global Warming at all? No mention of CO2?
2011 “People who believe there is a lot of disagreement among scientists about global warming tend to be less certain that global warming is happening and less supportive of climate policy”
A total of 9 mentions of Global Warming in a short article. Now nothing. Clearly Global warming has stopped and CO2 is irrelevant but (Man Made) Climate Change is still true even without warming? How does that work? Where is ‘the Science’?
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Honestly, where is this Climate Change? This is getting infuriating. Where is the Ocean Acidification? In a lifetime I would say the climate where I live is as near as I can tell, exactly the same, a land of droughts and flooding rains. How on earth does 0.8C in an average change anything from night to day, summer to winter? The tropics are 32C each day and Antarctica -25C to -50C. Where has the Climate Changed? What exactly is the problem and why are we putting windmills everywhere? The only thing which is certain is that wasting billions on preventing Climate Change is not sustainable.
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If anything, TdeF, it is actually cooler this summer in Victoria. Except for a few days, I’ve had no need for the air-conditioning. Climate change? I can’t see it, or feel it. CO2 pollution? The skies are blue, the air smells sweet, the rain falls clean and very wet, and life goes on.
You asked, ‘where is the climate change?’
I agree, I can’t see or feel it.
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Not much climate change in Australia this century.
http://s19.postimg.org/539zid2yb/Australia.jpg
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gigdiary,
and the CFA’s prediction of a long, hot, bush fire prone summer has come to naught. They cry wolf yet again.
R-COO- K+
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Thanks for the link: the grauniad at its most shameless.
As I understand it, the Zika virus is believed to be spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same one that was previously isolated as the carrier of yellow fever. It’s called Aedes aegypti (“Egyptian House”), because it has a flat, horizontal back, like the roof of a traditional Egyptian dwelling **, rather than the arched back associated with most mosquitoes. Yellow fever was a notorious killer in the Caribbean. In the eighteenth century, sugar plantations in the West Indies were vital to the economies of Britain, France, the Netherlands, even Denmark… Being sent to garrison any of those islands was virtually a death sentence.
If the Aedes aegypti mosquito was there in 1763, for instance, it’s not a huge surprise to find it still there in 2016. One of my more surreal experiences was to see a Nicaraguan TV soap opera, where the commercials were basically warnings about dengue fever, another gift from Aedes aegypti and something that is far from new in Central America.
I see that the Gradyawn piece also tries to revive the daft notion that malaria has been historically confined to hot countries. The name of Aigues Mortes, in southern France, possibly refers to malaria. When Shakespeare refers to the “ague”, he is almost certainly talking about malaria. Oliver Cromwell, who never travelled further afield than Ireland, died of malaria. Must have been something to do with all those 4×4 horses the Ironsides used, to get around the countryside.
** Shouldn’t climate science have analysed by now how unsuitable the traditional Egyptian house is to resist the “extreme weather”, which we must all expect on a daily basis, now and for evermore?
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The meme is shifting – it is a bit like a virus – it adapts.
Climate change is no longer about just CO2, and temperatures, but about anything that is produced and emitted into the atmosphere as a result of human civilisation.
A horse race on the beach will throw sand and dust and salt and decaying plant matter into the air, thus affecting, and changing, the immediate climate. Enough beach races, around the world, including camel races in Oman, will irrepairably alter the climate.
Anything that goes BUMP in the night just has to be a bogie-man.
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And the legacy media were never going to wait long before trying to link global warming and the zika virus, were they?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/11/climate-change-zika-virus-south-central-america-mosquitos
Call John Brignell!
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My commment (number 4.1.1.3), was meant to be a reply to yours.
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Rereke,
Far more serious is that your horses hooves can set off the butterfly effect.
It is entirely anthropomorphically driven of course
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Nice one, centurion….
20
Why are we putting windmills everywhere? To replace coal/oil/gas generated 24/7 electricity with intermittent expensive “clean” energy around 25% of the time which still requires reliable back-up the other 75% of the time, or have black-outs. If coal generated electricity is used for back-up the stations still use the same amount of coal in spinning reserve.
In summertime in Southern Aust. with the high pressure systems there isn’t much production from the wind turbines, looking at the King. Is. site (KIREIP) a few minutes ago the islanders were enjoying 100% diesel produced electricity.
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At the AEMO site the wind turbines have been averaging about 10% production for the past 9 hours; at most of the weather station sites in S. Aust the windspeed is 5-10 kph. Seriously, how can run anything apart from a few light bulbs on this production?
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I was in a big German factory in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India last October. The lights went out. The factory stopped. The wind had stopped. It’s better than nothing, which is the next level but that is not a real factory. You cannot have the power go off randomly with machinery and stay off indefinitely. Windmills were abandoned in Europe for good reason, the moment steam engines were available and with all our technology, the Greens are putting them back. There is only one word for that, but it would be moderated.
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Look at this link for wind power generation here in Australia.
Wind Energy Production During 12 February 2016
When the link opens, see that chart in front of you there. Press the MW button at the top right.
This shows the total power generation for every wind plant in Australia (Well, East of the WA Border anyway) and this is for yesterday Friday 12th February 2016.
The total Nameplate is just under 3700MW, and there’s around 2000 towers, two thousand of them.
Now look at the total power output for around Midday, on a work day, when total overall consumption is around 30,000MW, around the daily maximum.
Note that the total output for all those wind plants is just on 50MW. So then, that’s around 25 of those towers actually with the blades turning and delivering power to the grids across all of Eastern Australia.
25 towers spinning, out of two thousand of them. Not just at one wind plant, but for ALL of them, across the WHOLE of the Country. 25 lousy towers with the blades turning.
The Capacity factor for wind power at that time is 1.36% and all up, wind is supplying 0.16% of Australia’s total power consumption.
Okay then, wind supporters everywhere are right now saying that I’m cherry picking one time out of all the time, but hey, I don’t care.
If all you have is wind, if wind is all there is going to be ….. what the hell are you going to do when this happens at times like this?
Are you just going to tell everyone to be patient, it’ll blow again soon.
What do you do?
That’s why wind power is useless.
There’s going to be times when it’s not delivering. Power is required ALL OF THE TIME.
Note also the pretty typical delivery for wind power. It’s relatively okay from midnight through till around 8AM, and then, when power consumption is actually rising, wind power has dropped right off.
On this day, during peak consumption from 6AM till 10PM, all it can average is around 300MW, which is a CF of 8% and only 1% of the total consumption.
That’s for 16 hours.
What do you do when that happens if wind is all you’ve got?
Tony.
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Tony,
I only just realised that the same site you linked to, also has “fossil fuel”, solar, and hydroelectric generation charts too…
Sometimes I am very slow on the uptake.
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Just for an exercise, at that site, open up the three screens, Fossil, wind, and solar, and for each three change the date (top right in that top black bar) for all three to yesterday 12Feb2016. The links for these three are in the area at right titled About the Australian Electricity Grid.
Then, on all three, press the MW button.
Now, here I have selected 3PM, because wind is contributing a little, solar is contributing a little, and fossil is contributing, well, lots and lots and lots.
Total power consumption would be a bit more than fossil, so around 26,000MW, which makes fossil 96%, wind 1.15% and solar 0.4%. Hydro does the rest.
So, 1.6% for all renewables of choice, wind and solar.
Labor wants to get to 60% and The Greens want to get to 100%.
What’s going to happen when renewables are all there is.
Simple really.
Australia shuts down. Full stop. The end. No correspondence will be entered into.
If you seriously think this will be allowed to ever happen, then you are out of your tree.
Tony.
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The point here when looking at all three screens is that it shows pretty much conclusively that when those two renewables are so low, then all that can be used is RELIABLE fossil fuels, because here where it says fossil, then that means coal fired and Natural Gas fired plants.
Now coal fired power in Australia makes up around 82/85% of all power generation, so here, where fossil fuel is so high, then that effectively means that all the rest taking it up to that figure of 96% is Natural gas fired power.
The coal fired power just lumbers along supplying the vast bulk of power as it always does, and wind and solar kick in their little bit. When the wind fails and the Sun goes down, then those fast response NG plants (well, faster than coal fired anyway) are called upon at a moments notice to spin up and supply.
This proves once and for all that when the renewables go down, then backup MUST be ready to supply.
Increase renewables by whatever, who cares, there will always be times when they cannot supply. If renewables are all there is, then what happens?
And the meme that if you put in enough wind power, then there will always be wind supplying somewhere, well that is also now effectively put to the sword as well, as here we have a case when you have a fleet of them, spread across an area almost the size of mainland U.S.A. and they still cannot supply.
Wind and solar will always ONLY be a niche market, and a very costly one at that, because backup will ALWAYS be required.
Tony.
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Actually Robert O, the back-up is required 100% of the time because you never know which 25% will produce anything worthwhile from wind.
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I think that wind power can be appropriate for remote sites where the only alternative is diesel power. When there is wind, it directly saves fuel. Whether the overall cost of the wind turbine is less than the fuel savings in the long term is another matter though. But the drive to use unreliable wind & solar for grid power is just crazy.
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The Greens have the answer.
In an ABC article regarding the delay in finding the fault in the Bass Link, “Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O’Connor is urging the Government to release plans for energy security beyond the short-term solutions to the current power woes.
“To fire up the diesel generators, to fire up Tamar Valley, they’re very quick fixes, they’re not a plan to ensure energy security in the medium to long term,” she said.
“And we think that one of the best, most efficient and effective things that the Government can do right now is help Tasmanians reduce their power consumption, and contribute to helping in this situation, is to invest in free energy efficiency to households,” she said.
So there you have the GREEN solution. It is not affordable, reliable electricity at all, but “free energy efficiency”.
Of course she neglects to mention that the 200 Mw of diesel generation would have been supplied from wood waste by the Tamar Valley pulp mill had her stupid tribe not opposed it.
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Rod mentions this: (my bolding here)
To households.
It’s a real pity that part of the political process should be to ensure that representatives are aware of what they are actually commenting about.
To households.
The Residential sector consumes around 20 to 25% of all power consumption. These so called efficiencies are literally just fiddling around at the edges, and to make even 10% efficiencies in total household power consumption is pretty much a radical and large change, so even that radical 10% change is barely 2.5% at best of total power consumption, so it takes overall power consumption down from 100% to only 98%, effectively zero change really.
Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor. Open mouth, change feet. Politics brought to you by Pixie Anne Wheatley!
Tony.
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It’s really history re-visited. In the mid 1960’s Tasmania had a dry spell; no Lake Gordon, no wind turbines, no greens. Saving measures included daylight saving, no streetlights, no neons, and a diesel electric ship to the Bell Bay wharf for the Al. smelter.
30
The main reason for the demise of the Tamar pulpmill was if it went ahead the “Greens” would have lost the political control the forests. Four million tonnes of pulpwood is a lot of wood, but within the capacity of the Tasmanian forests and plantations.
It was going to be a Kraft mill and the black liquor from the pulping process is used in a recovery boiler to recover the pulping chemicals, and at the same time provide steam (electricity) for the mill and grid.
There is some odour due to sulphur compounds, mainly mercaptans, but modern mills are pretty clean.
Anyhow, it didn’t go ahead and Tasmania is much poorer for it. The Bell Bay area is an industrial site with existing industry so really it was a false premise and the vineyards etc. were put in after. Whether it would have made a lot of difference is debatable since the farms, housing, are west of the proposed mill and the winds are predominantly westerly.
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Give it a thousand years or so, you’ll see. 😉
10
TdeF, presumably a /sarc tag is missing?
It is established in all but the most deliberately adjusted temperature records that ‘Global warming’ ceased in a statistically meaningful way in approximately 1998. Whether this La Nina phase will ‘break’ the pause remains up for grabs as I understand it. As for the AGW ‘hypothesis’, that has always been a politically correct construct desperately seeking both science and evidence.
The Machiavellian UN provided THEIR DEFINITION of “Climate Change” in 2000, when it was realised the catastrophic warming predicted by the IPCC models was a failing mirage of smoke and mirrors.
The UN pre-definition and subsequent installation of the term ‘climate change’™ was essential. It has also been successful in that it perfectly conflates its use in the vernacular with its institutional definition, much as the UN have also been attempting to achieve (less successfully) with their ridiculous term ‘civil society‘, deliberately conflated with civilised society.
The ONLY way ‘climate change’™ can cease is when ALL anthropogenic influences are removed from land usage and atmospheric composition. It is therefore nothing short of a shackle willingly worn by those either with their gaze fixed on the end game – power and control – or the hapless.
There always remains hope, particularly when teachers depart from the politically correct, while the internet blogosphere remains largely free and uncensored and while we have electable representatives and a functional democracy. It is by [no? AZ] means clear that the latter two can persist under the daily assault of the [snip] Fourth Estate.
We are very, very fortunate we (still) possess the tools for our time in the form of the WWW.
[Better to avoid the term I snipped. I think you meant to include the word, no, where I put it with a question mark. If not, I or another mod can change it back to nothing in that spot.] AZ
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Thanks AZ, for the typo fix. Understand re.[snip] – sigh. Forewarned is forearmed.
30
Just what Shiva would say.
10
As I said before. If you have children or grandchildren at school withdraw the child from the science curriculum for the duration of the indoctrination and home-school them on the topic if the school refuses to teach the null hypothesis. My problem with this whole thing is that cAGW isn’t even a hypothesis it’s just a speculation since hypotheses aught to be disprovable but AGW is not seemingly disprovable. Schools are teaching what barely amounts to a hypothesis as a fact, they teach certain factoids (like West Antarctica melting) which blatantly violate the law of conservation of energy – and that’s just wrong.
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In New Zealand, there is a dire shortage of Science and Maths teachers, according to news reports.
Apparently, some schools have not had a qualified Science or Maths Teacher for over two years, and Principles are phoning around to try and entice retired science teachers to come back to work on (presumably lucrative) contracts. It is little wonder then, that the non-scientific consensus continues to survive?
If kids are not exposed to science and maths at school, they will be much more likely to choose the humanities over science, when they go to university.
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The thing about a great teacher is you always remember their name, the crap ones you forget. They’re the ones who could not only teach you, but they took their own way outside whatever was the current educational orthodoxy. What you learnt from them passed the test of the subsequent years.
https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/teachers/
Pointman
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I had a really crappy instructor and he made sure we knew his name. He wrote it on the chalkboard, and said “my name is D. R. xxxxxx. The D R does not stand for Doctor, although I am one.” Things went downhill from there. That was an intro-biology class. I refused to take another class in his department and, to this day, blame him for a big hole in my formal education.
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At times I look over my shoulder and wonder why I continue to be a skeptic, when so many say there is no doubt except the doubt created by evil white men. But then I force myself to remember that the assumptions and data I questioned from first principles of uncertainty (and smell) are as equally questionable (and smelly) today as they were in 1988. And so I continue my unhappy walk, hoping that either the questions will be answerable in a reasonable way or global temperatures will decline against all forecasts before complete social disasters are regulated onto us.
I will not, in addition, take the warmists’ anti-fossil fuel and anti-consumption stance seriously until Al Gore, David Suzuki and Naomi Klein give up their jets, multi-room mansions, $5,000 suits and more than 2.1 children. I cannot jump on the bandwagon while the bandwagon is following a fleet of limousines whose occupants are sipping Dom Perignom and smoking Cuban cigars.
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It is only necessary to remember that all of the above are Progressivists of the worst kind, and only exist to push their political beliefs down your throat. After that it is easy to ignore all of them knowing any thing they publish or say is tainted by their political beliefs. After that we simply need to clean up after ourselves in each generation and Earth will do what it naturally does. We are capable of adapting as a species to almost anything nature has in store for us.
110
One should never drink Dom Perignom whilst smoking Cuban cigars. The subtlety of the Champagne will be lost in the sheer pleasure of the cigar. Now a good Napoleon Brandy, on the other hand …
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I was going to mention that quaffing Dom Perignom in a mild state of anxiety, given that the Green delusion is a purpose built affair, while seated in the back seat of a limo is almost guaranteed not to ensure savouring enjoyment. After all, it can be distracting keeping an watchful eye out for the odd resentful sheeple not keeping their respectful distance or brandishing a weapon with an inconvenient armor piercing capability.
And then I thought, is it any wonder that Marie Antoinette made the suggestion, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” — let them (the peasants) eat cake. Her own anxiety may have been getting the better of her taste buds.
When Naomi, Al and David et al. suggest we drink the Dom Perignom, we’ll know for sure, the game’s finally up.
The tricky question then becomes what to do with the “hundreds of thousands” of Borg-like slackivists around the World?
20
Spoken like a true Sybarite.
10
😉
10
On the CSIRO again on their State of the Climate page, looking for something more concrete than some things have changed a little since 1910, the earliest date used by the BOM.
About us
At CSIRO we shape the future. We do this by using science to solve real issues. Our research makes a difference to industry, people, and the planet.
We ask, we seek, we solve. We are CSIRO.
What real issue have they solved? What difference has their research made? What is an industrial research organization doing duplicating the work of the BOM?
Page after page of Climate Change but no actual insights or solutions anywhere? Just some waffle about Extreme Events. Where is this Climate Change? How can anyone be certain the climate has changed without using the data prior to 1910, especially the massive Federation drought? How do they separate Climate Change from the new science of Natural Variation? How much exactly is man made? How can so many scientists just waffle?
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Ammunition for Obama to regulate national education content. I wonder where they find these so-called “scientists” to commentate on survey material. Survey comes from Penn State. Hmmm, isn’t there a renowned Nobel Prize winning alarmist at the same institution?
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If you look at the polls taken in the U.S. it is clear that a majority of us are passing our skepticism on to our children about climate. Furthermore, for most of us weather and climate are the last thing we worry about. Meanwhile, of course, the Progressivists running our government get all the press, which gives a false picture of where the average American stands on climate change. Also, there is a strong belief about the real purpose of the 2nd Amendment of our Constitution.
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Spot on! The progressivists running our government. There is the real and present danger right there.
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[…] is bad, and only certain viewpoints are allowed. Can’t have Wrongthink, you know (via Jo Nova) (Science Daily) “At least one in three teachers bring climate change denial into the classroom, […]
00
Maybe the teachers and he National Centre for Science Education (NCSE) should be teaching ethic and morality.
Misconduct, poor research practice, duplicate publication, and plagiarism along with incomplete, uninformative or misleading research papers are being uncovered through the entire length and breadth of science. The ‘soft sciences’ are in the forefront of this deluge of dross but the ‘hard sciences’ are not far behind. See here and here
So skepticism from teacher and pupil alike should be the correct response to any new research.
Daniel Sarewitz, director of the Consortium for Science at Arizona State University, arguing that consensus science actually hurts science, wrote (Sarewitz, D., The voice of science: let’s agree to disagree, Nature 478(7370):7, 2011)
The problem, he notes, is that
In contrast to consensus, a vigorous disagreement between experts would provide decision-makers with well-reasoned alternatives that inform and enrich discussions as a controversy evolves, keeping ideas in play and options open.
Furthermore, the problem is that the scientific consensus claims seeks to create a public expectation of infallibility and this, when found wrong, undermines and erode public confidence in science. The idea that science best expresses authority through consensus is at odds with robust scientific endeavors because science depends for progress on meeting, and struggling with, the continual challenges that our imperfect state of knowledge throws up.
Science will provide improved merit to politics if it voices the broadest set of possible interpretations, options and perspectives, as imagined by the best experts in the field, rather than forcing convergence to an alleged solidly unified opinion.
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I used to be a member of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). I’ve met Eugenie Scott, their previous director.
I was a member for years, and supported their efforts against teaching creationism in public schools. It was a shock when the NCSE turned down the AGW route; they did it without consulting or even notifying the membership.
I emailed Eugenie Scott about their support of AGW, expressing dismay. Her response was as dismissive and arrogant as the worst sort of religious ideologue. All she had was appeal to authoity. Concerning creationsim, Eugenie Scott and the NCSE is professionally competent in opposition.
About climate science, they are incompetent and rely strictly on partisan testimony. NCSE’s corporate decision was blindly made and prejudicial in content. It is perhaps for that reason they are so adamant in it.
Twice, I tried to publish critical articles in their journal NCSE Reports. Declined both times on manufactured grounds that Eugenie supported; some of it described at WUWT here.
Concerning climate, the NCSE has come to be exactly the sort of inflexibly prejudiced people they used to oppose.
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From your last line it seems that what the NCSE felt impelled to oppose concerning creationism in schools was zealously embraced via their own belief in CAGW, can they not see the irony?
I’m no creationist but at least the validity of the idea is left up to the student to rationalize unlike CAGW which demands conversion.
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They can’t see the irony at all, Yonniestone, because they’re blinded by their belief.
It is amazing to see, in the US, that every single organization dedicated to principled skepticism has failed their ethic the very first time their own beliefs were challenged.
00
There are many examples of confused educators. Thus, the “first directive” should be to tell students “We are not too sure about anything.”
Examples include such things as “Columbus showed Earth was not flat”; “Mars has irrigation canals”, and more significantly from geology the issue of Catastrophism versus Uniformitarianism. This last influenced the non-acceptance of the flood-hypothesis for the formation of the Channeled Scablands in Eastern Washington, USA.
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For info on “the flat earth” see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Community_Church#Wilbur_Glenn_Voliva
Along with many banned things …
“… globes (as they challenged Voliva’s flat-earth cosmology).“
40
My pet hate but not because of people like Voliva, rather the fairy tales of people like Washington Irving.
50
In 1903 Idiot brothers ignore important scientists and try to fly a machine heavier than air:
“One reason why nearly everyone in the United States was disinclined to swallow the reports about flying with a machine heavier than air was that important scientists had already explained in the public prints why the thing was impossible.
When a man of profound scientific wisdom of Simon Newcomb, for example, had demonstrated with unassailable logic why man couldn’t fly, why should the public be fooled by silly stories about two obscure bicycle repairmen who hadn’t even been to college?”
180
So, for the same reason climate change is an established fact, it must still be impossible to fly in a heavier than air machine. An expert said so. And it’s better if a consensus of experts says so. And if they’re 97% certain, so much more the better.
The next time you fly in one of those big shiny jets that’s not really flying (because it can’t fly), think of the experts and smile.
You gotta love ’em. They’ve “expert opinioned” so many things right out of existence we can’t count them. 🙁
90
So, there is an upside to tenure in the U.S. schools system? Wow!
80
The system is all rigged for economic reasons and will never be corrected.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CmrF909nFQ
Economic suffering is government imposed with the banking system.
Governments are businesses and not governing bodies anymore.
60
Well, I just received notification that my alma mater is promoting fearless debate on climate change /sarc.
“Eminent scientist David Suzuki, University of Melbourne Professorial Fellow and former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, and best-selling climate author Naomi Oreskes are three leading international voices on the subject of climate change. In this latest For Thought event, they will discuss the changes we need to make in order to combat climate change. Each will share their individual perspective on hope for the planet, followed by a panel discussion on people, planet and optimism.”
“For Thought is the result of a partnership between three great Australian institutions – the Sydney Opera House, the Wheeler Centre, and Australia’s leading research university, the University of Melbourne – working together to support a series of public conversations, involving some of the world’s finest thinkers. International in scope, For Thought presents an opportunity for audiences in Melbourne and Sydney to join great thinkers from around the world as they immerse themselves in the particulars of a topic; discussing the latest cutting-edge research, the newest theories, or the history of how something came to be”.
I wonder whether anyone in the audience will ask some thoughtful questions about the credibility of these speakers?
David Suzuki bombs on Q&A, knows nothing about the climate. (from an earlier post by Jo). Three times in Q&A he admitted he didn’t know — he didn’t know there was a pause in warming for the last 15 years, he didn’t know how global temperatures are measured, and he didn’t know that cyclones were not increasing over the Great Barrier Reef. He wants politicians jailed for “denying the science”. “You bet!” he exclaims, but then admits he hasn’t thought that through either.
Tim Flannery. James Paterson of IPA reported: “In an interview with The Guardian newspaper in April, Flannery laid out some of the beliefs of this new climate religion, including his conception of ‘Gaia’ in very human terms:For the first time, this global super-organism, this global intelligence will be able to send a signal, a strong and clear signal to the earth. And what that means in a sense is that we can, we will be a regulating intelligence for the planet, I’m sure, in the future … And lead to a stronger Gaia, if you will, a stronger earth system.”
Naomi Oreskes. Oreskes pushes forth a sense of great urgency. “Scientists are worried. We’ve lost 20 years. If this keeps up as we’re going, we’re looking at a 6- to 10-foot rise in the sea level by 2100.” Global warming is going to “wipe out” every Australian man, woman and child, according toNaomi Oreskes, the much-quoted Professor of the History of Science at Harvard.
110
They seems to have a problem with the number of people on the planet, which is odd thinking because all of humanity could fit comfortably inside the Grand Canyon.
70
You can either teach ( the computations of ) physics or the uncomputable and never experimentally demonstrated GHG trapping of energy on the side away from a radiant source between a filter and a surface .
That’s an exclusive
or.70
Recently a teacher asked my opinion on AGW (which is rare as I’ve become an isolate with pariah status) so I told him what was happening: the plateau in temps for almost 19 years and the massive model failure.
Making a clear point that teaching flawed science in the interest of a bogus cause is propaganda and should be stopped immediately.
At the end of the conversation he said: ‘Well that’s interesting, always good to get another point of view.’
In other words, he thinks I’m a nutter.
150
So do we. 🙂
50
At least I’m not as crazy as some:
“Noah is commanded by God to take into his ark at least two of every living species in order to save them from the Flood. Perhaps God’s instruction had a new relevance for those who share Noah’s faith in this time of another worldwide catastrophe, this time one of our own creation?”
Al Gore
80
In these times of political correctness, two or more LGBTI folks is acceptable, though, the objective might be a little muddled.
50
As would the idea of animal husbandry, at least the contingencies for breeding can be crossed off that list…of course they still have the right to have babies.
20
But the revised version?
http://metro.co.uk/2015/05/27/there-is-something-unexpected-about-this-bible-picture-of-noahs-ark-5217541/
40
It’s true! Al Gore could stuff two of everything in his mouth alone…..
30
Once again it is satire that that hits the target:
Christian Groups: Biblical Armageddon Must Be Taught Alongside Global Warming
60
That is just too perfect! Perfectly stupid, that is. But I love the way it so effectively puts the two groups in the same boat. We also need Tim Flannery to get carried away with Gaia a bit more, to show how completely weird he is.
90
Hockey Stick Busted or settled science?
Late Antique Little Ice Age 1,500 years ago
“Dendroclimatologist Ulf Büntgen and his fellow researchers were able for the first time to precisely reconstruct the summer temperatures in central Asia for the past 2,000 years.
This was made possible by new tree-ring measurements from the Altai mountains in Russia.
In light of this, the researchers refer to the period from 536 to around 660 CE for the first time as the “Late Antique Little Ice Age” (LALIA). This was triggered by three major volcanic eruptions in 536, 540 and 547 CE, whose climatic impact was prolonged further by the retardant effect of the oceans and a minimum in solar activity.
According to the team of naturalists, historians and linguists, this period bore witness to a whole series of social upheavals. After famine, the Justinian plague established itself between 541 and 543 CE, killing millions of people in the centuries that followed and possibly contributing to the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire.”
50
‘Hockey Stick Busted or settled science?’
Sir … sir…
Tree rings are dodgy on their own and should be used with other proxies.
The volcanic hypothesis has been getting an airing of late, putting the solar effect in the shade, but the science on that is not settled. It appears more likely that it had something to do with a 1470 year climate cycle.
There is no doubt world temperatures were warmer late last century, but there is obviously some disagreement on the matter. There are some who think it was caused by a harmless trace gas, while others believe it has more to do with our variable star.
50
Silly science pushed as fact by NASA experts. This morning in the Sun Herald in Melbourne,
RISING SEAS SOAKED UP.
“As Glaciers melt due to Climate Change, the increasingly hot and parched Earth is absorbing some of that water inland, slowing sea rise, NASA experts say…
“This has temporarily slowed the rate of sea level rise by about 20 per cent.”
This is how to write (temporary) good news as a disaster story. It could have been written equally
SEA RISE SLOWS SUDDENLY
The seas which have been rising very steadily since the Little Ice Age have slowed suddenly by about 20%. Scientists have no explanation except to suggest that the oceans are cooling quickly. This may lead to a drop in CO2 levels which will threaten agriculture world wide. Worse, it could be the harbinger of a new ice age in which the glaciers return to cover the area where 60% of humanity now live.
Really, 2/3 of the planet is water 3.4km deep. We are to believe that suddenly the last few mm is very porous? If the extra water was absorbed in a single km from the banks, the rise would be say 2mm x 8000 or 16 metres. Someone would notice. You would think the oceans were a very still lake and suddenly and simultaneously world wide hit a layer of very absorbent material? Someone is joking. It’s not April yet.
90
Oh and they say the vast amount of missing water is stored in soils, lakes and underground aquifers, as shown by satellite measurements.
Now I can understand that sea levels can be measured and lake levels by satellites but how do they know about soils and underground aquifers from satellites? Who decided this? NASA? Then surely the lakes, soils and aquifers would become noticeably much saltier? Has anyone done the calculations? Is it possible that the sea rise is just slowing and the water has not gone missing at all, or would that mean the glaciers and Greenland and Antarctica are not melting after all and the climate models are all wrong, again?
The appeal to authority is in NASA and’experts’ and Satellites. The appeal to the gullibility is in “climate change”, “increasingly hot”, “parched Earth”, “Temporarily”. This article should be labelled Advertising. Who said the Earth was ‘parched’? Oh, NASA expert scientists.
71
Sorry, Herald Sun. I remember them before they were joined so that people who only bought one did not stop buying.
40
‘and the water has not gone missing at all’
We have the missing heat, and now the missing water…!
Everything is missing, but the science about the missing everything is completely settled. Its just that everything is not quite there. I think I will go to my bank and make a scientific argument in favour of my missing funds.
80
Read all about it at http://phys.org/news/2016-02-parched-earth-sea.html. Read the comments for some real opinions of what NASA’s research indicates…
50
Thanks. A great example of random science. Yes, they have data from GRACE. Who said they have interpreted it correctly? They do. It is the absolute truth. The seas have risen, but the extra has vanished. The temperature has risen, but the thermometers do not show it. Who is a denier?
Why is a ‘climate’ scientist infallible in opinion, unlike a doctor or accountant or engineer or investor or anyone else? Surely people have to justify their conclusions? It is not enough for your friends (peers) to agree with you. You cannot just say the earth is ‘parched’ as if it is true, so it must be the answer because I believe it is. People who pass science exams do not pass a test where they have to think independently. Most times, higher eduction is just learning and being tested and while difficult, proves no ability at all for independent, essentially sceptical thought. This is assuming that the unnamed scientists do not have another objective in these stories, like extra funding. Then who ever heard of a scientist needing money, a job and job security? Why would a scientist lie or even distort the truth?
40
There are a few holes in the groundwater argument. One being the recent QLD/NSW drought bearing in mind the Reager data spans 2002 to 2014.
Their map shows positive land water gain to Australia, primarily Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Queensland’s largest drought-declared area ever
ABC Rural. By Cassie Hough and Eliza Rogers 11 Mar 2014, 6:50am
It is official – this drought is Queensland’s most widespread on record, with almost 80 per cent of the state now drought-declared.
Queensland’s Agriculture Minister has announced the largest drought-stricken area ever for the state, with 15 new shires added to the list.
This takes the number of drought-declared shires to 38, and it is the first time large sections of the Queensland coast have been included.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Queensland+drough+2014&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Also showing New South Wales drought areas March 2014.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-11/rainfall-deficiencies-april-1-2012-to-february-28-2014/5312042
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-12/tony-abbott-drought-severity-claim-checks-out/5295232
40
There were the 2010/11 floods. Quite a lot of that water made its way to the sea via the Murry-Darling system or drained from the Eastern side of the Great Dividing Range.
The rest went into the Great Artesian Basin. Funny that where there is a high run off it is blue but the SA part of the basin remained neutral (after years of drought).
30
Note that a lot of the extra water is too be found where annual flooding is greatest. Looking at the map of anomalies, the places that receive high annual rainfall or flooding from mountains, are the places that are storing more water. They are absorbing an extra 0.075Gt per 0.25sq degrees per year. I figure that to be about 750km2 or 1exp-4 Gt/km2. Thats about 100 kg/m2.
I’m guessing that since it lines up well with areas that periodically flood that the anomalies are figments of the poor calculations.
There is a big blue area in Botswana containing the Okavango Delta where the ground water is growing at 10cm/m2 per year from annual flooding of 1m of water per m2. After 10 years, one would think the system was water logged. Lake Ngami has grown in that period but equivalent to less than .01mm of sea level/year and the latest picture from Google Earth shows its back to being a marsh (it was full of water and 7 times bigger when found by Livingstone in the mid 18th C)
Also, another big blue pixel is over Lake Victoria.
“Experts Warn of Dire Consequences as Lake Victoria’s Water Levels Drop Further”
This work is so bad that I’m tempted to make an accusation that will see this comment tied up in moderation.
30
7 times bigger when found by Livingstone in the mid
1819th C10
The excess melt is being hidden in vast underground reserves, somehow. Hidden very well, as the world is also experiencing huge fresh water shortages!
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/2/e1500323
From the abstract “Freshwater scarcity is increasingly perceived as a global systemic risk. Previous global water scarcity assessments, measuring water scarcity annually, have underestimated experienced water scarcity by failing to capture the seasonal fluctuations in water consumption and availability. We assess blue water scarcity globally at a high spatial resolution on a monthly basis. We find that two-thirds of the global population (4.0 billion people) live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least 1 month of the year.”
They left the USAn Great Lakes off the maps, and it seems that some of the water shortages are along the southerly edge of where they should be. Also, the great dry central USAn dry spot comes pretty damn close to following the Mississippi River western edge. I don’t remember any news re the Mississippi drying up. Or the Great Lakes. (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Superior and Erie) (I live on the south side of Lake Erie, within sight of the lake, and it is still there. In fact it is helping to provide the white stuff we get falling from the skies each winter, and via an act of evil call Lake Effect causes huge increases in local accumulations of all sorts of precipitation.)
00
All I can say is that I had enough trouble teaching college. Nearly every class had someone who knew more than I did. They either said it outright or did their assignments in a way that said it in a very loud, clear voice. If I had to teach climate change I wouldn’t last longer than it took to tell off the resident expert.
Retirement looks better and better all the time. 🙂
40
Meaning: I don’t think it deserves any attention in grades preschool – 12. And I wouldn’t give it any. And soon the Good Ship Climate Change would have no wind left in its sails.
Let it be handled in secondary education where something like that belongs.
Dream on, Roy, dream on.
50
CAGW paradigm is part of the Liberal ethos as is spending more than a country takes in taxes.
CAGW and even AGW cannot be defended scientifically which is the reason why there has never been a formal written debate to discuss the observations and analysis. It is no fun to lose a debate hence there never will be a debate.
The natural response to accepting an incorrect scientific premise, accepting unsustainable economic policies, and accepting social policies that do not work is to ban discussion of the issues in question.
It is not politically correct to question or deeply discuss the Liberal tenets.
For example it is a fact that more spending on welfare has resulted in higher percentage of single parent families, higher crime, and higher dropouts from high school (US, African American in particular).
The same result (institutionalized welfare in Canadian case based on race) is observed for the Canadian ‘indigenous’ population who receive a stipple for life based on race.
The unemployment rate for ‘Native’ Canadians (as if a child is different or better or worse based on race) is around 60%, alcoholism is around 30%, and fetal alcoholic syndrome is around 40%. The vast portion of the money that is sent to the Canadian ‘reserves’ disappears into corrupt band councils. The new Canada prime minister has vowed to stop the financial review which identified the comical third world corruption of the band councils.
The stipple for life enables the Canadian natives to live in remote regions where there are no jobs expect for government jobs which attempt to address astonishing high levels of alcoholism and social decay. It is a stupendous hopeless situation.
It takes courage to speak the truth. So far there have been few that have dared try.
90
I watched Viewpoint last night, with guest panelist, Mark Steyn. Brilliant!
Unfortunately, his talk in Perth is sold out.
I might watch his appearance on Q&A(heaven forbid). Maybe, he can wipe the patronizing smirk off Mr. Jones’s face.
50
Catallaxy will hold an impromptu “guess book” on the number of times Jones will rudely interrupt, in keeping with his modus operandi
The informed prediction would have to be that while Steyn is undoubtedly well aware of this, the combined weight of Jones, the other leftoid guests and the ever-groaning audience will eventually neutralise him
Q&A is really only soft left political porn
60
The producers will be keen to discuss the US election with Steyn and avoid climate change, using the excuse that its injudicious.
If that how it turns out, it would let Barnaby off the hook.
30
Barnaby( our member) has his lips sealed- and biting his tongue on this one.Go Barney! Rip Jones’ throat out. So to speak.
10
I have always marveled at this situation.
With all the world’s governments and major scientific organizations (not to mention banks and wannabe carbon traders) backing the story, with the ‘97%’ in there doing their bit, and with God, the Pope, and according to the marketing spiel, ‘the truth’ and ‘all the evidence on their side, how they hell are they not selling this one?
Many of the ‘buyers’ seem unconvinced.
This must be the worst marketing campaign, ever.
50
I like to argue that if God created Earth for Man, then he also put all the coal, oil and gas there for us to use once we became clever enough to.
If you are a believer in God, you must surely be honour bound to use what he has provided for us. 🙂
100
Not only honour bound by that implication but also under “orders” viz “… have dominion over the Earth and subdue it…”
The plain implication of the subduing bit is that it never was (post Eden according to the story) a perfect Earth but needed plenty of human activity to make it the improved habitation it is for we humans who these days are heirs of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions.
The alternative religion that credits human subduing activities with stuffing up the planet is that ancient competitor for theistic religion, Paganism. Which of course is the philosophical basis for the “science” of anthropogenic climate change. To which religion many imaginary “theists” including the Pope also give their allegiance.
30
If the physical universe is a close run thing He certainly has gone out the way on this rock.
10
The 97% was the percentage of those who in the survey of people writing in climate science and expressed an opinion were supporters of man made global warming. It’s where the money is.
However 60% of people in the Cook survey did not (dare) express any opinion and 4% were in total disagreement. You wonder if the 4% still have jobs.
20
12 Feb: ReutersCarbonPulse: Stian Reklev: Australian advisory firm seeks carbon aggregator role in ERF-driven offset market
The carbon advisory arm of consultancy Ndevr has teamed up with a global trading firm to offer early payments to project developers in exchange for ownership of carbon offsets.
Ndevr Carbon Reductions is seeking a bigger role in Australia’s offset market by offering upfront payment to project developers.
The government, the sole buyer of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) via its Emissions Reductions Fund, only pays for offsets on delivery, which often takes 12-18 months after a contract is signed.
“We take ownership of the ACCUS and conduct all technical works, reporting, commission audits, take a percentage of ERF revenue for our technical support, admin services and financial services,” Ndevr director Matt Drum told Carbon Pulse.
“When the ERF revenue comes through from the government, we will pass the lion’s share over to the project owner,” he said…
Funding will be provided by a global trading firm involved in a number of carbon markets and that holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), Drum said, declining to name the company…
“I think there is only a small risk for contracted projects, and over the next four years the ERF will be the primary driver of carbon reductions in Australia. Without it Australia wouldn’t have an active carbon policy,” said Drum.
http://carbon-pulse.com/15545/
LinkedIn: Matt Drum, Director, Ndevr
Summary: Matt established Ndevr’s Environmental Consulting division in May 2010 after a career with the Australian Government working on high profile carbon and energy policy reform and implementation.
Since 2010 the Melbourne based Environmental Consulting team has grown to a strong national team of policy, legal, engineering and IT professionals specialising the carbon, energy and broader sustainability fields…
Experience:
Policy and Regulatory Officer, Department of Climate Change
November 2007 – May 2010…
Policy and Regulatory Officer, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
January 2006 – November 2007
Member of the Exceptional Circumstances (EC) Drought Taskforce.
– assessing drought affected region’s climatic, production and economic conditions to determine if assistance required under the program…
https://au.linkedin.com/in/mattdrumndevr
20
btw yesterday was a very bad day for renewables’ stories – mostly in local MSM – and i posted some of the stuff on jo’s “Climate causes Heated Cats” thread for those interested.
10 Feb: Reuters: Spain’s Abengoa asks for loan of up to 750 mln euros -source
Spanish Abengoa has asked its creditors for a loan of up to 750 million euros ($843 million) to keep it afloat while its lenders discuss a financial plan to avoid it becoming Spain’s biggest bankruptcy, a source close to the talks said.
“Abengoa has asked for 650 million to 750 million euros in additional liquidity,” the source said on Wednesday, adding that this was on top of around 160 million euros Abengoa is requesting from bondholders…
The Seville-based company must agree on a full restructuring plan with creditors before the end of March, or enter into a full-blown insolvency process.
A source previously told Reuters that Abengoa aims to reduce its corporate debt to around 3 billion euros from 9 billion euros, implying creditors would have to accept a loss of about 70 percent on their investment and swap debt for shares.
A spokeswoman for Abengoa declined to comment…
Abengoa faces resistance from bondholders and creditors over either liquidity injection as the company has already used its most valuable assets as collateral against earlier loans…
http://www.reuters.com/article/abengoa-restructuring-idUSL8N15P2OF
11 Feb: SeekingAlpha: Solar stocks hammered again; SunEdison tumbles after lawsuit
The selloff comes a day after SolarCity plummeted…
Meanwhile, hard-luck SunEdison (SUNE -13.8%) is off sharply today following news shareholders of hydro/wind power developer Latin American Power have sued the company, stating they need a court order to protect SunEdison’s assets while they pursue a $150M arbitration claim. SunEdison struck a deal to buy Latin American Power in May, but the agreement was later terminated.
SunEdison acquisition target Vivint Solar (VSLR -12.1%) and SunEdison yieldco TerraForm Power (TERP -6.4%) are also among today’s casualties, Other major solar decliners: SunPower (SPWR -6.2%), Canadian Solar (CSIQ -7.6%), Enphase (ENPH -6.1%), and Solar3D (SLTD -5.7%)…
http://seekingalpha.com/news/3102386-solar-stocks-hammered-sunedison-tumbles-lawsuit
SeekingAlpha has a new 5-page SunEdison article today, but most of the article requires registration. however, it begins:
“For a company that was trading above $30 six months ago to now be trading in the mid-$1 range is nothing short of a complete and utter collapse…
The last time I wrote about SunEdison was two months ago in the aftermath of its revised Vivint Solar (NYSE:VSLR) deal…”
40
Confucius once said, well paraphrasing because I forgot what he actually said, that the best government officials were people who didn’t want to be government officials.
Not surprising as its important to weed out the control freaks first. What is the modern enlightened society doing? We are filling up positions with people who have an obvious character flaw.
We’re doomed.
40
The figures might even be higher, there must be a percentage unwilling to speak so honestly in a survey they know will be read, analysed and damned by the consensus crowd.
It feels like there may be a way out of the green era after all and it’s not that far away. I love it when good news comes along.
Good on every teacher and every student who rebels. More power to them. They are indeed our future.
80
11 Feb: UK Telegraph: Welsh village to sue government over ‘alarmist’ rising sea level claim
Residents of Fairbourne, in Gwynedd, say predictions of that the sea level will rise by a metre a year have hit house prices and investment
A Welsh village is to sue the government after a climate change report suggested their community would soon be washed away by rising sea levels.
The document says Fairbourne will soon be lost to the sea, and recommends that it is “decommissioned”.
Angry villagers say predictions of that the sea level will rise by a metre a year are alarmist, and have hit house prices and investment in the village.
At a local meeting they voted overwhelmingly in favour of pursuing legal action over the controversial Shoreline Management Plan 2 (SMP2), saying it had “blighted” their community.
The plan for Fairbourne, in Gwynedd, surrounded by the Snowdonia National Park, was commissioned by Pembrokeshire and Gwynedd local authorities and signed off by the Welsh Government. It is not yet clear who would foot the bill should the legal campaign be successful…READ ALL
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/12152240/Welsh-village-to-sue-government-over-alarmist-rising-sea-level-claim.html
20
11 Feb: Syracuse.com: Elizabeth Doran: 113-foot blade falls off windmill that previously toppled in Madison County
The blade appears to have fallen off at about 9:30 a.m. today, and town officials think it may have been caused by a bolt failure, said Paula Douglas, Fenner town clerk.
Town officials didn’t think the wind had anything to do with the incident.
Fenner town officials said it’s the same 187-ton windmill – No. 18 of 20 – that collapsed in December 2009. It was replaced with a new wind turbine, Douglas said.
Enel Green Power-North America officials said they are working with the turbine supplier to investigate what happened, but said it’s too early to determine the cause.
EGP-NA also said there is no threat to the community, and asked that residents keep a safe distance away from the site to allow workers to conduct their assessments…
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2016/02/120-foot_blade_falls_off_windmill_that_previously_topped_in_madison_county.html
20
12 Feb: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Eric Heyl: Saturday Q&A: Military analyst takes aim at climate change directive
Dakota Wood is The Heritage Foundation’s senior research fellow for defense programs. Wood, who spent two decades in the U.S. Marine Corps, spoke to the Trib regarding the Pentagon recently ordering commanders to prioritize climate change in military actions.
Q: What prompted this directive?
A: It’s important to keep in mind that senior civilian officials are political appointees and they’re enacting the administration’s legislative or policy agenda…
Q: So the directive ultimately might not have much impact?
A: This is a clear articulation of an administration’s policy preferences — you know, putting them into writing so you can score that as a policy win to tout your credentials for a particular constituency. But in terms of meaningful impact and improving what the military does or what the Department of Defense does, it will have zero value.
http://triblive.com/opinion/qanda/9886427-74/policy-military-administration
it’s all a pretense anyway:
11 Feb: Utilities-ME: Saudi solar dream far from reality, says report
A recently-released report by Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP) said it is unlikely that Saudi Arabia will, in the current global economy, meet its scheduled renewable energy targets…
The report added: “Policy uncertainty and the lack of an efficient regulatory framework are mainly responsible for slow progress [in those countries].
“In 2012, the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KA CARE) announced plans to invest $109bn (SAR408.7bn) to produce 41GW of solar by 2032 in the Kingdom.
“But little progress has been made so far…
Qatar’s, Oman’s, and Bahrain’s investments were also recognised by the report.
However, the study lamented that “no significant additions” can be expected anytime soon from the three countries.
http://www.utilities-me.com/article-4094-saudi-solar-dream-far-from-reality-says-report/
10
12 Feb: Financial Post: Lawrence Solomon: It’s ‘game over’ for global warming activists
http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/lawrence-solomon-its-game-over-for-global-warming-activist
10
seeking control?
12 Feb: NYT: DEREK J. KOEHLER: Why People Are Confused About What Experts Really Think
(Derek J. Koehler is a professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo)
Indeed, critics argue that journalists too often generate “false balance,” creating an impression of disagreement when there is, in fact, a high level of consensus. One solution, adopted by news organizations such as the BBC, is “weight of evidence” reporting, in which the presentation of conflicting views is supplemented by an indication of where the bulk of expert opinion lies.
But whether this is effective is a psychological question on which there has been little research. So recently, I conducted two experiments to find out; they are described in a forthcoming article in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Both studies suggest that “weight of evidence” reporting is an imperfect remedy. It turns out that hearing from experts on both sides of an issue distorts our perception of consensus — even when we have all the information we need to correct that misperception…
For instance, a large majority agreed that a carbon tax would be an efficient means of reducing carbon-dioxide emissions (93 experts agreed, five were uncertain and only two disagreed), but there was more disagreement about whether increasing the minimum wage would make it harder for low-skilled workers to find employment (38 agreed, 27 were uncertain and 36 disagreed)…ETC
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/why-people-are-confused-about-what-experts-really-think.html?_r=0
00
How teachers are getting it wrong on climate change
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/02/11/how-teachers-are-getting-it-wrong-on-climate-change/
A major new survey of U.S. middle school and high school science teachers has found that across the country, a majority are teaching about climate change in their classrooms — but a significant percentage are also including incorrect ideas, such as the notion that today’s warming of the globe is a “natural” process.
[More than 5 million people will die from a frightening cause: Breathing]
The study, published in Science Thursday by Eric Plutzer of Penn State University and a number of collaborators from Wright State University and the National Center for Science Education — which supports the teaching of evolution and climate change in schools — consisted of a mail survey of 1,500 teachers nationwide. They included both middle school science teachers and also high school biology, chemistry, physics and Earth sciences teachers, since it wasn’t entirely clear which classes might cover the subject (unlike evolution, which clearly belongs in biology class, climate change stretches across many disciplines)…
==============
These folks must be DNC super delegates. /s
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Saw this article on the ScienceAlert FB page and commented “Maybe they just want to teach science? Or at least bring balance to the debate”.
Then I had to put on the nomex suit as the flame barrage started.
Lesson learnt: don’t try to play in the religious nut camp or you will get burnt at the stake.
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