Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Godfather of Global Warming Theory Abandons Hysteria-Makers

By Douglas V. Gibbs

It is funny. The global warming nuts say that consensus proves global warming to be the truth. Was that the case when the consensus was that the world was flat? Or that oil is a fossil fuel (evidence building that oil is abiotic)?

Science is not about consensus, but about the pursuit of truth.

Over global warming, the claim of consensus, and the hysteria that accompanies it, has even turned off James Lovelock, the man known to be the godfather of global warming. He, in an interview on MSNBC, admitted that even he had been a bit of an “alarmist” about climate change.

Lovelock uses a New Age idea, and formulated the Gaia theory, which supposes that the Earth operates as a single, living organism.

His theories were a large influence on the development of global warming theory.

As time has passed, global temperatures have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted. Lovelock admits “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.”

Though still a proponent that humanity must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, he says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.

In the interview, to my knowledge, he did not address the idea that global temperature changes are a natural phenomenon, largely influenced by sunspot and solar flare activity.

The problem is, these scientists are motivated by money, and fear losing government funding if they admit they are in error. Global warming scientists have, according to emails, manipulated the data to make sure it comes out in favor of their claims. Lovelock states that he is unlike those scientists, willing to revise his theories in the face of new evidence.

Among his observations to the Guardian:

(1) A long-time supporter of nuclear power as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which has made him unpopular with environmentalists, Lovelock has now come out in favour of natural gas fracking (which environmentalists also oppose), as a low-polluting alternative to coal.

As Lovelock observes, “Gas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They’ve gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it … Let’s be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.” (Kandeh Yumkella, co-head of a major United Nations program on sustainable energy, made similar arguments last week at a UN environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, advocating the development of conventional and unconventional natural gas resources as a way to reduce deforestation and save millions of lives in the Third World.)

(2) Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion.

“It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,” Lovelock observed. “I don’t think people have noticed that, but it’s got all the sort of terms that religions use … The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can’t win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.”

(3) Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines.

As he puts it, “so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can’t stand windmills at any price.”

(4) Finally, about claims “the science is settled” on global warming: “One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don’t know it.”

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary



No comments:

Post a Comment