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Patriot Games
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http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/NY_Times:_Global_Warming_/2008/01/01/60981.html
NY Times: Global Warming Claims Bogus
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Critics are calling it clear evidence that the climate of opinion on alleged
global warming is shifting in favor of skeptics, especially since it comes
from the New York Times, until now a fervent acolyte of climate change guru
Al Gore and his doctrine of ongoing and disastrous climate change.
In his Times column for the first day of the new year, "In 2008, a 100
Percent Chance of Alarm," columnist John Tierney took a close look at the
global warming debate and found that the climate change scenario being
peddled by Mr. Gore and his legion of followers is anything but the settled
scientific fact they claim, with the sole doubters being the equivalent of
those who believe the earth is flat. Tierney, critics say, has nailed the
climate alarmists and exposed their propaganda!
Tierney begins his myth shattering column by telling his readers: "I'd like
to wish you a happy New Year, but I'm afraid I have a different sort of
prediction. You're in for very bad weather. In 2008, your television will
bring you image after frightening image of natural havoc linked to global
warming. You will be told that such bizarre weather must be a sign of
dangerous climate change - and that these images are a mere preview of what's
in store unless we act quickly to cool the planet."
Tierney cautions that he cannot be more specific. "I don't know if disaster
will come by flood or drought, hurricane or blizzard, fire or ice. Nor do I
have any idea how much the planet will warm this year or what that means for
your local forecast. Long-term climate models cannot explain short-term
weather."
Noting that "there's bound to be some weird weather somewhere, and we will
react like the sailors in the Book of Jonah. When a storm hit their ship,
they didn't ascribe it to a seasonal weather pattern. They quickly
identified the cause (Jonah's sinfulness) and agreed to an appropriate
policy response (throw Jonah overboard)."
Those interpreting the weather nowadays, Tierney explains "are what social
scientists call availability entrepreneurs: the activists, journalists and
publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for
newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness -- burning fossil fuels."
Tierney recalls that last year British meteorologists made headlines
predicting that the buildup of greenhouse gases would help make 2007 the
hottest year on record. At year's end, however, he writes that "even though
the British scientists reported the global temperature average was not a new
record - it was actually lower than any year since 2001 - the BBC
confidently proclaimed, '2007 Data Confirms Warming Trend.'
"When the Arctic sea ice last year hit the lowest level ever recorded by
satellites, it was big news and heralded as a sign that the whole planet was
warming. When the Antarctic sea ice last year reached the highest level ever
recorded by satellites, it was pretty much ignored. A large part of
Antarctica has been cooling recently, but most coverage of that continent
has focused on one small part that has warmed."
He cites claims by Global warming theory promoters that 2005's Hurricane
Katrina was supposed to be "a harbinger of the stormier world predicted by
some climate modelers." To the contrary, he recalls "when the next two
hurricane seasons were fairly calm - by some measures, last season in the
Northern Hemisphere was the calmest in three decades - the availability
entrepreneurs changed the subject. Droughts in California and Australia
became the new harbingers of climate change (never mind that a warmer planet
is projected to have more, not less, precipitation over all)."
Slow warming, he explains "doesn't make for memorable images on television
or in people's minds, so activists, journalists and scientists have looked
to hurricanes, wild fires and starving polar bears instead. They have used
these images to start an "availability cascade," a term coined by Timur
Kuran, a professor of economics and law at the University of Southern
California.
The "availability cascade," Tierney writes, "is a self-perpetuating process:
the more attention a danger gets, the more worried people become, leading to
more news coverage and more fear. Once the images of Sept. 11 made terrorism
seem a major threat, the press and the police lavished attention on
potential new attacks and supposed plots. After Three Mile Island and 'The
China Syndrome,' minor malfunctions at nuclear power plants suddenly became
newsworthy."
Once such a cascade is under way, he adds "it becomes tough to sort out
risks because experts become reluctant to dispute the popular wisdom, and
are ignored if they do. Now that the melting Arctic has become the symbol of
global warming, there's not much interest in hearing other explanations of
why the ice is melting - or why the globe's other pole isn't melting, too."
While Global warming has an impact on both polar regions, he explains, "they're
also strongly influenced by regional weather patterns and ocean currents."
He cites two studies by NASA and university scientists last year that he
reports "concluded that much of the recent melting of Arctic sea ice was
related to a cyclical change in ocean currents and winds, but those studies
got relatively little attention - and were certainly no match for the images
of struggling polar bears so popular with availability entrepreneurs."
Tierney writes that Roger A. Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental
studies at the University of Colorado, "recently noted the very different
reception received last year by two conflicting papers on the link between
hurricanes and global warming. He counted 79 news articles about a paper in
the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and only 3 news
articles about one in a far more prestigious journal, Nature.
"Guess which paper jibed with the theory - and image of Katrina - presented
by Al Gore 's 'Inconvenient Truth'?"
The answer: "the paper in the more obscure journal, which suggested that
global warming is creating more hurricanes. The paper in Nature concluded
that global warming has a minimal effect on hurricanes. It was published in
December - by coincidence, the same week that Mr. Gore received his Nobel
Peace Prize.
Tierney recalls that in his speech accepting the Peace Prize, Gore "didn't
dwell on the complexities of the hurricane debate." Nor, did he mention how
calm the hurricane season had been in his roundup of the 2007 weather.
Instead, Tierney notes, "he alluded somewhat mysteriously to 'stronger
storms in the Atlantic and Pacific,' and focused on other kinds of
disasters, like 'massive droughts' and 'massive flooding.'
"In the last few months," Mr. Gore said, 'it has been harder and harder to
misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter.' But he was
being too modest," Tierney says, adding, "Thanks to availability
entrepreneurs like him, misinterpreting the weather is getting easier and
easier."
NY Times: Global Warming Claims Bogus
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Critics are calling it clear evidence that the climate of opinion on alleged
global warming is shifting in favor of skeptics, especially since it comes
from the New York Times, until now a fervent acolyte of climate change guru
Al Gore and his doctrine of ongoing and disastrous climate change.
In his Times column for the first day of the new year, "In 2008, a 100
Percent Chance of Alarm," columnist John Tierney took a close look at the
global warming debate and found that the climate change scenario being
peddled by Mr. Gore and his legion of followers is anything but the settled
scientific fact they claim, with the sole doubters being the equivalent of
those who believe the earth is flat. Tierney, critics say, has nailed the
climate alarmists and exposed their propaganda!
Tierney begins his myth shattering column by telling his readers: "I'd like
to wish you a happy New Year, but I'm afraid I have a different sort of
prediction. You're in for very bad weather. In 2008, your television will
bring you image after frightening image of natural havoc linked to global
warming. You will be told that such bizarre weather must be a sign of
dangerous climate change - and that these images are a mere preview of what's
in store unless we act quickly to cool the planet."
Tierney cautions that he cannot be more specific. "I don't know if disaster
will come by flood or drought, hurricane or blizzard, fire or ice. Nor do I
have any idea how much the planet will warm this year or what that means for
your local forecast. Long-term climate models cannot explain short-term
weather."
Noting that "there's bound to be some weird weather somewhere, and we will
react like the sailors in the Book of Jonah. When a storm hit their ship,
they didn't ascribe it to a seasonal weather pattern. They quickly
identified the cause (Jonah's sinfulness) and agreed to an appropriate
policy response (throw Jonah overboard)."
Those interpreting the weather nowadays, Tierney explains "are what social
scientists call availability entrepreneurs: the activists, journalists and
publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for
newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness -- burning fossil fuels."
Tierney recalls that last year British meteorologists made headlines
predicting that the buildup of greenhouse gases would help make 2007 the
hottest year on record. At year's end, however, he writes that "even though
the British scientists reported the global temperature average was not a new
record - it was actually lower than any year since 2001 - the BBC
confidently proclaimed, '2007 Data Confirms Warming Trend.'
"When the Arctic sea ice last year hit the lowest level ever recorded by
satellites, it was big news and heralded as a sign that the whole planet was
warming. When the Antarctic sea ice last year reached the highest level ever
recorded by satellites, it was pretty much ignored. A large part of
Antarctica has been cooling recently, but most coverage of that continent
has focused on one small part that has warmed."
He cites claims by Global warming theory promoters that 2005's Hurricane
Katrina was supposed to be "a harbinger of the stormier world predicted by
some climate modelers." To the contrary, he recalls "when the next two
hurricane seasons were fairly calm - by some measures, last season in the
Northern Hemisphere was the calmest in three decades - the availability
entrepreneurs changed the subject. Droughts in California and Australia
became the new harbingers of climate change (never mind that a warmer planet
is projected to have more, not less, precipitation over all)."
Slow warming, he explains "doesn't make for memorable images on television
or in people's minds, so activists, journalists and scientists have looked
to hurricanes, wild fires and starving polar bears instead. They have used
these images to start an "availability cascade," a term coined by Timur
Kuran, a professor of economics and law at the University of Southern
California.
The "availability cascade," Tierney writes, "is a self-perpetuating process:
the more attention a danger gets, the more worried people become, leading to
more news coverage and more fear. Once the images of Sept. 11 made terrorism
seem a major threat, the press and the police lavished attention on
potential new attacks and supposed plots. After Three Mile Island and 'The
China Syndrome,' minor malfunctions at nuclear power plants suddenly became
newsworthy."
Once such a cascade is under way, he adds "it becomes tough to sort out
risks because experts become reluctant to dispute the popular wisdom, and
are ignored if they do. Now that the melting Arctic has become the symbol of
global warming, there's not much interest in hearing other explanations of
why the ice is melting - or why the globe's other pole isn't melting, too."
While Global warming has an impact on both polar regions, he explains, "they're
also strongly influenced by regional weather patterns and ocean currents."
He cites two studies by NASA and university scientists last year that he
reports "concluded that much of the recent melting of Arctic sea ice was
related to a cyclical change in ocean currents and winds, but those studies
got relatively little attention - and were certainly no match for the images
of struggling polar bears so popular with availability entrepreneurs."
Tierney writes that Roger A. Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental
studies at the University of Colorado, "recently noted the very different
reception received last year by two conflicting papers on the link between
hurricanes and global warming. He counted 79 news articles about a paper in
the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and only 3 news
articles about one in a far more prestigious journal, Nature.
"Guess which paper jibed with the theory - and image of Katrina - presented
by Al Gore 's 'Inconvenient Truth'?"
The answer: "the paper in the more obscure journal, which suggested that
global warming is creating more hurricanes. The paper in Nature concluded
that global warming has a minimal effect on hurricanes. It was published in
December - by coincidence, the same week that Mr. Gore received his Nobel
Peace Prize.
Tierney recalls that in his speech accepting the Peace Prize, Gore "didn't
dwell on the complexities of the hurricane debate." Nor, did he mention how
calm the hurricane season had been in his roundup of the 2007 weather.
Instead, Tierney notes, "he alluded somewhat mysteriously to 'stronger
storms in the Atlantic and Pacific,' and focused on other kinds of
disasters, like 'massive droughts' and 'massive flooding.'
"In the last few months," Mr. Gore said, 'it has been harder and harder to
misinterpret the signs that our world is spinning out of kilter.' But he was
being too modest," Tierney says, adding, "Thanks to availability
entrepreneurs like him, misinterpreting the weather is getting easier and
easier."
