Answer by The Logo
Hardly:
1. The predictions made by the "Inconvenient Truth" school of climate change have proved false.
- From 1995 to 2010, the global population has gone up 20.4%, CO2 levels have gone up 7.9%, and temperatures have been statistically flat. One of the most prominent global warming researchers, Dr. Phil Jones, admits the lack of warming, although he calls this a "blip."
2. New, upending discoveries are made all the time. Examples:
- In a press release titled, "Climate models get energy balance wrong, make too hot forecasts of global warming," NASA researcher Dr. Roy Spencer describes how much more heat was lost to the atmosphere from 1999-2010 than the IPCC models predicted.
- One set of scientists found that doubled atmospheric CO2 will have "a lower probability of imminent extreme climate change than previously thought" Science, December 2011.
- Norwegian scientists are predicting that local temperatures will decrease by 3.5 degrees Celsius from 2009 to 2020.
- Last year, even the IPCC admitted (p. 9) the following: "Projected changes in climate extremes under different emissions scenarios generally do not strongly diverge in the coming two to three decades, but these signals are relatively small compared to natural climate variability over this time frame. Even the sign of projected changes in some climate extremes over this time frame is uncertain." In other words, it won't be noticeable, and they don't even know it temperatures will go up or down.
3. There is no consensus, even if one were relevant. As the late Michael Crichton noted in 2003, "There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period."
- Over 700 were listed in a Senate Minority Report as opposing theories of man-made global warming. Given the scandals among global warming theorists since then, that number is probably a lot higher in 2012.
Related Ricochet Conversations:
Rob Long: Brace Yourself: Climate Change from CO2 May Not Be a Big Deal." Dec. 21, 2011
Blue Yeti: "Radio Free Delingpole #3: The Last Word on Climate Change," Nov. 29, 2011
Adam Freedman: "Not that the Climate Change Brigade is Hysterical...," Jun. 9, 2011
Mollie Hemingway: "Climate-Change Doomsayers Need To Put Up Or Shup Up," May 31, 2011
Tommy De Seno: "Hey Ricochet! Help an Undergrad: Why Are You A Climate Change Skeptic?" Apr. 25, 2011
George Savage: "Global Warming Is So Over," Jan. 15, 2011
Rikipedian: 700 seems like pretty small potatoes, particularly up against the 3146 "Earth scientists" who responded to a survey sent out by the "Climate Change" magazine. 82% believe that "human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures."
The Logo: There are a number of problems with this survey. First, most geological researchers and geoscience faculty probably know next to nothing about the effects of atmosphere on climate. Second, the preceding question frames the temperature increase as from the pre-1800s to the present. Given that all of the climate change skeptics I recall acknowledge temperatures increasing due to the end of the "little ice age" (c. 1550-1850), the question hardly seems differentiating. Third, at no point does it ask about the severity of future increases in temperature due to human activity.
The surprise may be that 69.3% of the sample didn't answer such slam-dunk questions, and that 18% of those who did said, "no."
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