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Rick Perry Is Right: CO2 Is Not the Control Knob of Climate
To listen to the corrupt, know-nothing mainstream media, Energy Secretary Rick Perry really stepped in it when he said human emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) is not the major driver of global warming. And, as usual with the MSM, it’s not true. The story is merely fodder for a false narrative about Perry, and the state of climate science.
On Monday, CNBC “Squawk Box” host Joe Kernen asked the secretary whether he believes carbon dioxide “is the primary control knob for the temperature of the Earth and for climate.” Perry’s answer:
No, most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in. … The fact is this shouldn’t be a debate about, ‘Is the climate changing, is man having an effect on it?’ Yeah, we are. The question should be just how much, and what are the policy changes that we need to make to effect that?
Perry’s answer is miles ahead, and smarter, than his predecessors in the Obama administration – who merely parroted the bromides of the climate alarmism industry, and never looked under the hood of the science.
Is CO2 the “control knob” of the climate? No. Are the oceans? Well … that’s complicated. No serious scientist, uncorrupted by the CO2-is-to-blame racket, would say there is a single “control knob” that controls the climate. So, on this point, Perry is 100 percent correct. And CNBC is not the ideal place for a deeper discussion of how the earth’s oceans absorb and release heat and CO2 as part of a very complex planetary ecosystem that we are decades away from fully understanding, if ever. Perry had 15 seconds to answer. Give him a break – and points to him for getting closer than any Obama-era cabinet official.
Yet, of course, HuffPost and other MSM outlets made a phony big deal about Perry’s answer. They lifted up a ridiculous outrage letter by Keith L. Seitter, executive director of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), which said it is “critically important” that Perry understand that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are, indeed, the “primary driver” of climate change.
“This is a conclusion based on the comprehensive assessment of scientific evidence,” Seitter wrote. “It is based on multiple independent lines of evidence that have been affirmed by thousands of independent scientists and numerous scientific institutions around the world. We are not familiar with any scientific institution with relevant subject matter expertise that has reached a different conclusion.”
Well, if Seitter considers the AMS a “scientific institution,” and I’m guessing he does, he’s misrepresenting his own organization. According to a 2013 survey of the AMS:
Barely half of American Meteorological Society meteorologists believe global warming is occurring and humans are the primary cause, a newly released study reveals. The survey results comprise the latest in a long line of evidence indicating the often asserted global warming consensus does not exist.
Hmmm. A signatory of that AMS report is none other than Keith Seitter. Strange. Let’s dig deeper.
The central question in the survey consisted of two parts: “Is global warming happening? If so, what is its cause?” Answer options were:
Yes: Mostly human
Yes: Equally human and natural
Yes: Mostly natural
Yes: Insufficient evidence [to determine cause]
Yes: Don’t know cause
Don’t know if global warming is happening
Global warming is not happening
Just 52 percent of survey respondents answered Yes: Mostly human. The other 48 percent either questioned whether global warming is happening or would not ascribe human activity as the primary cause.
So … the “conclusion based on the comprehensive assessment of scientific evidence,” according to Seitter’s own organization, is that there is no conclusion that human-emitted CO2 is the “control knob” of climate.
Now, is The Heartland Institute misinterpreting the data? Not according to climate scientist Judith Curry, who is no “denier.”
In summary, Heartland’s interpretation is not a misrepresentation of the actual survey results, although the authors and the AMS are interpreting the results in a different way. A better survey might have avoided some of the ambiguity in the interpretation, but there seems to be no avoiding the fact that the survey showed that 48% of the AMS professional members do not think that most of the warming since 1850 is attributable to humans.
When you know what’s going on – and know the science – you realize that it’s Keith Seitter who has some explaining to do, not Rick Perry.
Published in Environment
I’m continually dumbfounded as to how this claim has gained such credence. I am forced to conclude it is a manifestation of the prediction that once you stop believing in God, you will believe anything.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher asked Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy what percentage of the Earth’s atmosphere was carbon dioxide back in 2015.
McCarthy “didn’t have the calculations.”
The answer is o.o4%. The “97% of climate scientists agree” twaddle is maybe the most thoroughly debunked statistic in the history of statistics, making it fitting that it was a particular favorite of a president who thought that the solution to our energy woes was for everyone to properly inflate their tires.
Manipulation of the language is the key to understanding how the left attempts to control the debate. The term Global Warming became out of fashion as soon as there was no continuous trend of warming. At that point, and out of nowhere, came the term Climate Change as a substitute. Well they can’t go wrong with that term, can they? Of course there is climate change. The climate has been changing for 4.5 billion years…since its formation…and will continue to do so until it ceases to exist. So then my question is what’s the ideal temperature? Maybe the ideal is actually warmer than we are currently experiencing. It has been warmer in the past than now, and colder as well. The human race has certainly advanced during warmer periods compared to colder ones. If CO2 was poisonous than every mammal including the human race, emit poison by just breathing. I don’t buy it. And then there’s that little thing called The Sun….
If Climate Change didn’t exist it would be necessary to invent it.
The biggest greenhouse gas is moisture – i.e. CLOUDS.
Junk science with data manipulated by junk scientists and “edited” computer models.
The junk scientists are mostly paid by interests that benefit from the hysteria.
Thank you Mr. Perry. Turn up the volume. I want to hear more from you. Let the debate rage. Anthropomorphic global warming is a sham.
So….what is the deal then? An elaborate hoax perpetrated by the Chinese? Complete with planted ice core samples in Anatartica and bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef?
wow the Chinese are clever!
Yep, that’s about it. How did you figure that out so quickly. Pretty impressive Admiral.
The bogus ice core stuff was debunked almost as soon as it came out. A scientist postulated that some of the CO2 was being absorbed by the ice as opposed to remaining in the air bubbles. He conducted what is known in the non-delusional scientific community as an experiment, where he made his own ice with bubbles, using air with known quantities of CO2. He subjected the ice to pressure approximating that which the ice cores were subjected to, then measured the CO2 remaining in the bubbles, and guess what? The bubbles had less CO2 in them than the air that was used to make them, meaning the CO2 had been absorbed. That is why you almost never hear anyone bring up the ice cores anymore.
Well you could explain it that way @percival. But I prefer the explanation this guy I know who heard from his source deep inside the loop who needs to remain anonymous for obvious reasons that it was the North Koreans that are behind this entire hoax.
I do not think Kim Jung Un has the infrastructure to pull off this worldwide hoax. Must be George Soros then. Or the pizzagate people.
Or the Australians. They just want as many tourists dollars as possible.
Yea those darn greedy Australians…certainly could be them alright.
I wish Rick Perry had done better in the primaries. That was such a better answer than most politicians give to the question (on either side of the issue).
It is to be expected, Jim, that as your OP states: HuffPost and other MSM outlets made a phony big deal about Perry’s answer. They lifted up a ridiculous outrage letter by Keith L. Seitter, executive director of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), which said it is “critically important” that Perry understand that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are, indeed, the “primary driver” of climate change.
The Democrats who run their Party love the continual insertion of “We have it right on Climate Change.” They have continual headlined articles that indicate how today or yesterday or last week, yet another Dem governor put together a huge 1,000 pages or more of legislation aimed at correcting Global Climate Change. If the tens of thousands of pages of such legislation could end Climate Change, it would have ended by now.
Until government programs that utilize fleets of planes painting our skies with thick clouds of barium, strontium, ammonia, aluminum and siliconates are banned out right, the climate will continue to act goofy. Very little in the way of human activity over the same amount of time has had the negative effective that our long drought here in Calif has had with regards to wildfires. When millions of acres burn up in a four year period, that is a huge carbon footprint. The fires that impacted Napa and Santa Rosa on Oct 8-9th 2017, would not have occurred if such black ops programs had not so effectively dessicated a heavy duty rain storm system some three weeks prior to the fires’ outbreak.
Folks on the Left can eat all the granola they feel they need, walk to the store rather than drive, and none of that matters as long as the obvious continues to negatively alter the weather.