timeimmortal

mike b writes in with his thoughts on the 31,000 scientists who recently put forth a petition rejecting the concept of anthropogenic global warming and urging the U.S. government not to adopt or ratify the Kyoto protocols or any agreement that is derivative thereof.

Simply put.

Why haven’t these scientists spoken up before? Because they quietly go about their day to day doing GOOD science. Good, refereed, peer-reviewed science. The Global warming people are shrill, loud, and misinformed….Earth History has demonstrated that neither climate nor sea level are constant, two important and completely erroneous precepts of the GW argument. Now we scientists are just fed up at the hot air.

I have to admit that I’ve always been skeptical when people raise alarms over the concept of climate change — given that I live in Alberta, I’m quite used to the idea, actually. The Earth’s climate is not a static thing, and it’s preposterous to argue against changes in it.

Now, the obvious rejoinder might be to point out that it’s not the fact that change happens, but the quality and nature of the changes that are happening that are the real issue for climate change alarmists.

Which would, I suppose, be a legitimate argument, if in fact there were real, demonstrably harmful shifts happening in Earth’s climate. There is not exactly a great body of evidence for this, and what little evidence may exist more or less vanishes with the observation that mike b makes above: when considered in the context of history, what changes have been observed are, in essence, normal. The Earth has had periods where its average temperature has been higher than it is now, and the Earth has also had periods where the average temperature has been lower than it is now.

Within recent history, the global average temperature is basically at where it was a decade ago, and that same average temperature is expected to drop. That drop will probably be followed, at some point, by a rise. That is because such a thing as the global average temperature, imprecise metric of the relative “health” of the ecosystem that it is in the first place, fluctuates over time. Climate does as well, and what fluctuations in climate have been perceived of late seem to be within normal parameters.

The alarmism over these apparent non-issues is not driven by good science as much as it is by groupthink and backslapping. Now other scientists, those not so interested in harvesting a few “green” dollars along the way methinks, are speaking out against the alarmism, and it’s a good thing.

~ by Kenneth on May 22, 2008.