Anti-Science: Leftists Freeze Climate Cooling Research

ETC Group's merry band of luddites

If global warming ever becomes a real threat, wouldn't it be nice to have a variety of technological solutions at our disposal? Global warming fear mongers aren't sure. In fact, they've successfully shut down an important research project in the UK:

Political opposition to technologies that could artificially cool the planet is in full swing. A field test of geoengineering, planned for October in Sculthorpe, UK, has been postponed for six months. Meanwhile, the European Parliament has passed a resolution that "expresses its opposition to proposals for large scale geoengineering".

The delayed field test, led by Matthew Watson of the University of Bristol, UK, involves a kilometre-long hose that will pump water into the atmosphere. Larger versions of the device could pump sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere, creating a sunshade that would cool the Earth.

We've seen this sort of bullying before. Who shut down the science this time? Left wing activists, that's who:

The decision follows a concerted campaign by a Canadian NGO, the ETC Group. Last month they issued an open letter to the UK government calling for the project to be suspended. "We believe there should be a ban on all field experimentation until there's an international agreement," says programme manager Diana Bronson.

Could it be that global warming enviro-radicals are afraid that advances in climate cooling science will hinder their fear mongering? I think so:

Helena Paul, co-director of environment group EcoNexus, said she was "really pleased" at the latest news.

"We are certainly not ready to carry out experiments, and this project should not just be delayed, but should be cancelled immediately," she told BBC News.

"This is particularly important because while the scientists involved keep saying that reducing emissions is the primary necessity, they risk distracting attention from that necessity at a crucial moment."

Why cancel a simple science project? The plan is a very modest one: to pump 50 gallons of water droplets into the air at a level a little more than half a mile above the ground. But Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC group* believes that any progress in climate cooling research poses a grave threat to global warming puritanism:

AMY GOODMAN: What are the forces behind [climate cooling geoengineering]?

PAT MOONEY: Well, it’s a great excuse. You don’t have to do anything. If you can simply say to your populations that, “Don’t worry, folks. You can keep on driving your SUVs, you can keep on flying. We’ll take care of this through a technological fix for you” — so there’s this magic bullet that will solve the problems, and we can all go back to business as usual...

And tragically, it’s a bunch of rich guys in rich countries sitting around together, saying, “We can risk the planet. We can make the decision for everybody else. We can put our hand on the thermostat and decide for everybody else what has to be done.”

Mooney et al. make no secret of the fact that they are afraid of scientific progress in the area of geoengineering. They fear that discoveries in climate cooling will open minds to the possibility of attractive alternatives to traditional enviro-austerity:

We believe that such research is a dangerous distraction from the real need: immediate and deep emissions cuts.

Liberals have propogated the "right wing is anti-science" meme relentlessly, but left wing activists have clearly demonstrated that climate science is a threat to their agenda.

The debate rages on.

MORE:

*ETC group enjoys support from Ben & Jerry Foundation, Rockerfeller Foundation, HKH Foundation, Marin Community Foundation, CS Fund, Ford Foundation and an assortment of other left-leaning organizations.

The test would pump water droplets 1km above the ground.

x-posted

Losing Faith in God Particles

The "God Particle" is (almost) dead:

A few years ago, celebrated British physicist Stephen Hawking was widely reported in the press to have placed a provocative public bet that the LHC (along with all particle accelerators that preceded it) would never find the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle” believed responsible for having imbued massive particles with their mass when the universe was very young...

...informal polls of physicists over the last decade have shown that an overwhelming majority believed that the existence of the Higgs was a foregone conclusion and that all that was needed was simply to run the LHC long enough...

But the Higgs boson never appeared...

And yesterday, August 22, ... CERN scientists declared that over the entire range of energy the Collider had explored—from 145 to 466 billion electron volts—the Higgs boson is excluded as a possibility with a 95% probability.

...there is still a 5% chance that the Higgs is hiding somewhere ... But the Higgs is quickly running out of places to hide.

Fortunately, particle physics isn't nearly as politicized as climate science, so Higgs boson skeptics probably needn't worry about being likened to racists. But the possibility of erosion of faith in science causes some to fret:

Another, less profound, but far more obnoxious, outcome is that people who choose to dismiss science altogether simply because it doesn’t have the all the answers (in this case, the answer to, “How did we come to exist in the first place?”) will have new ammunition for their arguments. So, don’t be surprised when CERN’s troublesome admission that Higgs boson is likely a myth is cited as a reason that global warming doesn’t exist.

I don't know anyone who's "dismissing science altogether," but the fact of the matter is that the hard work of science can be a miserably difficult and disappointing endeavor.

And science isn't democratic in the sense that it can be settled by comfortable consensus. Fueled by skepticism, science is never "settled."

Why The Left's Global Warming Agenda Is Wrong

A persuasive video:

Hat tip: Unlikely Hospitalist at Pundit Press

Delicious Irony: Redneck Global Warming Skeptics Terrorized and Killed By Tornados

When I drove to work on Wednesday night, I was buffeted by violent winds. I had left home early because the weather forecast called for tornadoes, and the in-motion radar images were ominous. The storm was headed for my path, but I arrived at my destination safely.

In the building where I work, dozens of people who lacked access to safe shelter spent the night huddled in the hallways. Back home, the rest of my little family spent the night in a closet while golf ball-sized hail bombarded the house and the booming sounds of exploding transformers could be heard in every direction.

When I made my way back home at daybreak, what I saw triggered a burst of expletives. The road was clear, but landscape was now barely recognizable. Guard rails were strewn around and crumpled like flimsy ribbons of aluminum foil. Homes and businesses had been reduced to piles of splinters and toothpicks. Cars where scattered along the side of the road like toys dropped from a toddler's clumsy hands. Several 18-wheelers had been pounded, mangled, and dumped in piles of their own contents.

In my home town, 95,000 EPB customers had lost power.

Hundreds of people across the South are now dead. Photographs cannot accurately capture the magnitude of the devastation. Fortunately for me, the lights are back on where I live, my home is in one piece, and all of my family members in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama are clean, dry and intact.

The roads where I live are now jam-packed with friends and strangers rushing in to help the victims and clean up the mess...

Meanwhile, the loathsome toads at Think Progress think they've drawn a clever connection between the weather's wrath and the political views of the victims:

Storms Kill Over 250 Americans In States Represented By Climate Pollution Deniers

Today, news agencies are still tallying reports of deaths from the most devastating storm system in the United States in decades...

The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

True to their grotesque form, left wing zealots are defending the indefensible in response to this unwashed tripe.

It's a new twist on the Pat Robertson model of Divine Justice... "Since the south has rejected the climate change hysteria, clearly they’re just asking for the wrath of Gaia, and should expect to be demolished."

Here's how you can help victims in need:

• Red Cross, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to relief efforts
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Text “Give” to 80888 to give $10 to Salvation Army relief efforts.

FLASHBACK:

“I root for hurricanes. When, courtesy of the Weather Channel, I see one forming in the ocean off the coast of Africa, I find myself longing for it to become big and strong — Mother Nature’s fist of fury, Gaia’s stern rebuke.”

– James Wolcott, “An Ignoble Confession,” Sept. 2004

Hat tip: McCain

X-posted at LCR

Tornadoes whipped up by wind, not climate

More discussion at Memeorandum

The Devastating Impact of Global Warming on The American South

Headline: Winter weather slams South with snow, icy roads...

Here's the early morning view from my neck of the woods, somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line:

Does anyone know where to get some carbon credits?

X-posted

INFO: This was at about 04:30 this morning. We have several inches of snow on the ground now. This may be our biggest snowstorm in almost two decades.

Update

ATLANTA (AP) -- Several inches of snow and freezing rain will make the Monday morning commute for those forced to venture out nearly impossible in parts of the South, including Atlanta, where countless cars are stuck on impassable highways and roads while the world's busiest airport canceled thousands of flights.

Global Warming, A White Christmas & Extreme Taxes

(Click to enlarge)

We don't get a lot of snow where I live, but today we're getting blanketed. The last time we had a white Christmas (with any accumulation) was in 1969. That was several years before I was born.

So naturally, that got me thinking about the looming global warming crisis.

William Jacobson has a good question: "At what point in time should global warming have stopped?" So far, no brave global climate warrior has managed to come up with an answer.

Along the same lines, a Swedish free-market economist muses:

So what is there to say that the pre-industrial era climate is really the optimal climate? That the benefits of a possible warmer climates wouldn't outweigh the disadvantages? I have asked that many times to Al Gore supporters and either gotten no answer at all, or some list of alleged (and exaggerated) disadvantages that completely overlooked the benefits.

Perhaps it's some kind of semi-automated Freudian slip, but it looks like Memeorandum has come up with the most believable global warming prediction I've ever seen:

“Expect more extreme taxes thanks to global warming, say scientists”

Maybe this will become the cardinal 21st century corollary to Ben Franklin's famous aphorism:

"In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes."

Whatever happens to the global climate, extreme taxes will almost inevitably follow!

X-posted

Global Warming Extremists: Alarmed & Dangerous

The violent imagery and invective of the radial political left was once largely confined to Obama's speeches. But it is now spreading, and it has infected the lives of crazed leftists all over the globe. Unfortunately, all it takes is a few self-styled “martyrs” to sow widespread havoc:

A seven-month-old baby girl survived three days alone with a bullet in her chest beside the bodies of her parents and toddler brother.

Argentines Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their children before killing themselves after making an apparent suicide pact over fears about global warming. Their son Francisco, two, died instantly after being hit in the back.

But their unnamed daughter cheated death after the bullet from her dad's handgun missed her vital organs...

Her parents said they feared the effects of global warming in a suicide note discovered by police.

It would be both glib and inaccurate to call Lotero and Coletti card-carrying Global Warming Marxists, but I won't be the least bit surprised if Joe Stack's confused Marxist followers create instant Facebook shrines to celebrate this family's martyrdom. And perhaps Frank Rich will write a glowing eulogy for the New York Times.

The left is loonier than ever before. Be careful out there.

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Obama Planning to Pollute

Apparently, in Obama's fantasy world, pollution could save the day:

The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

So let's get this straight.  The jury is still out on "costly, unproven" missile defense systems, but pollution particles are a good idea?

More

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Reading

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Andre Thomas, Texas Death Row Inmate, Pulls Out Eye, Eats it

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An Inconvenient Environment

You're an environmentally responsible individual, so you do your best to live greenly and leave a small carbon footprint.  But making green decisions isn't always easy. Is it greener to walk, ride or bicycle or take the bus? Should you use traditional diapers or disposables?  Should you use paper or plastic?  Are you helping the environment when you plant a tree?  Think you know the answers?  Don't be so sure...you may not be as environmentally intelligent as you think.

Don't worry, RightKlik is here to help.  Let's get to the heart of the matter.  Environmental responsibility boils down to one thing: reducing your carbon footprint.  In the U.S. we produce about 7.5 tons of carbon per human being per year.  So what's good for the environment and what's bad?  Glad you asked:

• Bad: Having children.  Another kid, another 7.5 tons of carbon per year.
  
• Good: Abortions.  Fewer kids, less carbon.
  
• Bad: Heterosexual marriage.  An ill-conceived institution that leads to increased carbon production through human population growth.
  
• Good: Traffic accidents.  Destroying carbon-belching automobiles and their human drivers simultaneously...what could be better?
  
• Bad: Health care.  Longer life equates to more carbon emissions.  Universal health care will be one of the biggest environmental tragedies of all time.
  
• Good: Hurricanes.  Kills people, destroys their communities, and shuts down local economies...a big win for the environment.

Human beings are the number one source of man-made carbon emissions.  Want to get serious about reducing carbon emissions?  Drop dead!  Literally.  I'm not kidding.

Interesting Links: A Jumbo Pack!

Global cooling, global warming, pesticides, alar on apples, falling sperm counts from endocrine disrupters, cancer from power lines, cancer from saccharine, cancer from cell phones, cancer from computer screens, cancer from food coloring, hair spray, electric razors, electric blankets, coffee, chlorinated water…it never seems to end!  A good article for the worriers, hypchondriacs and environmental alarmists in your life. 

A new spin on centrifugal force.

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Every child left behind.

Global Swarming: Is it time for Americans to start cutting our baby emissions?

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Walking to the shops ‘damages planet more than going by car’

Questions for the Global Warming Experts

We hear a lot about the global warming crisis.   We're told we're living on a planet in peril.  I freely admit that I'm too ignorant to put forth an authoritative opinion on the topic of global climate change.  I have no training or education in meteorology or climatology.  If Global Warming is a religion, I'm an agnostic. 

I know that hundreds of scientists from scores of countries have said global warming is a real threat. But I also know that science isn't determined by consensus.  At one time, it was clear to all but the most feeble minds that the sun rotates around the earth. Consensus changes. But maybe the scientists of today are correct.  Maybe the earth is in serious trouble.  If so, now is the time to ask some very important follow-up questions.

• How cool do we want the world to be?  What is the ideal temperature for the earth? 
  
• What are the criteria for determining the ideal temperature of the earth?
  
• Would a modest increase in the temperature of the planet necessarily be bad? Are there any potential benefits?
  
• How can we ensure that efforts to stabilize the earth's temperature don't backfire, resulting in a larger than intended drop in the earth's average temperature?
  
• At what temperature would the earth be too cold?
  
• Can we be sure that reductions in CO₂ emissions will result in a significant and helpful change in temperatures?
  
• What if industrial and automotive CO₂ emissions are cut to nearly zero and the earth continues to warm...what do we do then?
  
• How long should humans try to control the world's average temperature? 
  

A.  For the next hundred years? 
B.  For the next thousand years?

C.  Forever?

• Can we be absolutely confident that global climate changes aren't mostly the result of that giant fireball in the sky, you know, the sun?
  
• Scientists are very good at using statistical analysis to calculate certainty.  Approximately how certain are we that we have the correct answers to global warming questions?
  

A.  50 percent?
B.  80 percent?
C.  95 percent?

• Isn't it necessary to answer the questions above before we try to fashion solutions?

Someone who understands global warming, please provide answers.

More:

Two hundred whales prayerfully wait for the results of global warming.

Thinking globally but not clearly?

Global Warming? Hot Air. 

Let Cooler Heads Prevail.

An Inconvenient Price

Is Global Warming Always Bad?

Global Warming? Bring it On!