An Inconvenient Driveway
As you probably heard, between 40 and 50 inches of snow fell in the
Washington, D.C., area in early February. The record snowfall brought the
entire mid-Atlantic region to a halt — paralyzing the government, this
time for snow.
A Washington Post online headline captured it: “Senate climate change
hearings canceled because of storm.”
The people most inconvenienced by the blizzards weren’t the residents of
this region, or the senators — it was the proponents of man-made global
warming. Scientists and activists insisted that people on this side of the
Atlantic ignore the evidence in their driveways and, instead, trust their
computer models.
Not only did they tell us that this winter’s weather didn’t disprove their
global warming data, they told us that the record snows were caused by
global warming. Really!
Of course, 10 years ago, they told us that, on account of the same global
warming, “snow is starting to disappear from our lives.” We were told
that, because of all that nasty CO2, British children “just aren’t going
to know what snow is.”
Ten years later, they most certainly do. Not only British children, but
children in every state except Hawaii. All of Britain, much of the rest of
Europe, and the United States have experienced snowfalls this winter. The
data suggests, in fact, that “snow is coming earlier and heavier than it
used to.”
If all of the white stuff hasn’t left you doubting those computer models,
maybe Phil Jones can help you. That would be ironic since, until recently,
Jones was the director of the Climate Research Unit at Britain’s East
Anglia University. He was the keeper of the data upon which the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) based its predictions—data
that has been, to put it mildly, called into question.
In an interview with the BBC, Jones acknowledged that there has been no
significant warming since 1995. Let me repeat that. One of the world’s
leading global warming advocates says there has been no significant
warming since 1995. Fifteen years.
He also indicated that there is nothing exceptional about the warming the
occurred between 1979 and 1995. He even admitted that is was possible that
it might have been warmer during the pre-industrial Middle Ages than it is
now.
If all of that sounds familiar, it ought to. Those very points have been
made by global warming skeptics and reported frequently on BreakPoint. If
there has been no significant warming during a period when the models
predicted exactly that, or if the world was warmer 1000 years ago before
we started burning fossils fuels, then maybe these models, just maybe, are
wrong.
And threatening us with global catastrophe and upsetting children with
pictures of drowning animals becomes unconscionable.
Of course, neither Jones nor his fellow advocates will admit that. As
Jones also acknowledged, the IPCC tends to leave “inconvenient findings”
out of its reports.
Why? It’s a matter of worldview.
Activists and scientists have too much invested in human-caused global
warming. For activists, it’s the threat by which they can create their
version of a better world, and scientists have staked their careers and
reputations on the accuracy of those computer models.
Given what’s at stake, inconvenient snow and cold has to be explained
away. Assuming, that is, the people who do so can get out of their
driveways.
Washington, D.C., area in early February. The record snowfall brought the
entire mid-Atlantic region to a halt — paralyzing the government, this
time for snow.
A Washington Post online headline captured it: “Senate climate change
hearings canceled because of storm.”
The people most inconvenienced by the blizzards weren’t the residents of
this region, or the senators — it was the proponents of man-made global
warming. Scientists and activists insisted that people on this side of the
Atlantic ignore the evidence in their driveways and, instead, trust their
computer models.
Not only did they tell us that this winter’s weather didn’t disprove their
global warming data, they told us that the record snows were caused by
global warming. Really!
Of course, 10 years ago, they told us that, on account of the same global
warming, “snow is starting to disappear from our lives.” We were told
that, because of all that nasty CO2, British children “just aren’t going
to know what snow is.”
Ten years later, they most certainly do. Not only British children, but
children in every state except Hawaii. All of Britain, much of the rest of
Europe, and the United States have experienced snowfalls this winter. The
data suggests, in fact, that “snow is coming earlier and heavier than it
used to.”
If all of the white stuff hasn’t left you doubting those computer models,
maybe Phil Jones can help you. That would be ironic since, until recently,
Jones was the director of the Climate Research Unit at Britain’s East
Anglia University. He was the keeper of the data upon which the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) based its predictions—data
that has been, to put it mildly, called into question.
In an interview with the BBC, Jones acknowledged that there has been no
significant warming since 1995. Let me repeat that. One of the world’s
leading global warming advocates says there has been no significant
warming since 1995. Fifteen years.
He also indicated that there is nothing exceptional about the warming the
occurred between 1979 and 1995. He even admitted that is was possible that
it might have been warmer during the pre-industrial Middle Ages than it is
now.
If all of that sounds familiar, it ought to. Those very points have been
made by global warming skeptics and reported frequently on BreakPoint. If
there has been no significant warming during a period when the models
predicted exactly that, or if the world was warmer 1000 years ago before
we started burning fossils fuels, then maybe these models, just maybe, are
wrong.
And threatening us with global catastrophe and upsetting children with
pictures of drowning animals becomes unconscionable.
Of course, neither Jones nor his fellow advocates will admit that. As
Jones also acknowledged, the IPCC tends to leave “inconvenient findings”
out of its reports.
Why? It’s a matter of worldview.
Activists and scientists have too much invested in human-caused global
warming. For activists, it’s the threat by which they can create their
version of a better world, and scientists have staked their careers and
reputations on the accuracy of those computer models.
Given what’s at stake, inconvenient snow and cold has to be explained
away. Assuming, that is, the people who do so can get out of their
driveways.
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