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The Heat Is On: Bjorn Lomborg on the Summer’s Record Temperatures
The summer of 2022 saw record temperatures recorded all over the world. Bjorn Lomborg acknowledges that climate change is here, it’s real, and humans are largely responsible for it. He also says that it is survivable and manageable. In other words, climate change is not the extinction-level event it is often characterized as. Lomborg also discusses practical ways to lower our carbon footprint and emissions, pointing out why “carbon free by 2050” probably isn’t achievable and why we should make no massive changes to our economies or lifestyles to achieve it.
Recorded on August 18, 2022.
Published in General
Excellent! Two of my favorite people talking about one of my favorite topics. I’ll be listening to this one this evening.
I haven’t listened to the interview yet but what’s this about “record temperatures recorded all over the world?” The latest satellite measurements show the beginning of September to be only 1/4 of one degree Celsius above normal (the baseline). And that is up from the previous Summer months which were cooler. One year ago they actually got a July reading that was 1/100th of a degree cooler than normal.
https://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
For some reason (and we all know why) the Global Warming people ignore the satellite readings, which measure nearly all the Earth’s surface and more accurately, in favor of the primitive ground-based measurements where half of the measuring stations are in the U.S. which comprises only 2% of Earth’s surface. The other measuring stations are similarly concentrated in a few Western countries and none are in the oceans which comprise 75% of earth’s surface and is tremendously more stable temperature-wise than land masses.
Even if you stipulate the ground-based measurements, they are only talking fractions of one degree. That hardly constitutes “record-breaking.” In fact nobody would ever notice such a change if it weren’t for Scientists publishing these insignificantly small measurements.
I still say the whole thing is a hoax.
Watt’s in Watt’s Up With That? Did an extensive survey of the land based temp sites. Hugh majority near asphalt or other surfaces absorbing usual amounts of heat. Never forget our great former Gov. Jerry Brown going ape over temps at a Lake Tahoe site one summer. Was 4 feet from a charcoal cooker. Satellite temps show about a quarter of temp increases of the cool “models”.
Innovation, as promoted by Lomborg, is the kind of thing that has made America so successful. It recognizes the value of human capital in the freedom to think outside the box. This kind of thing is precisely what those who would be the ruling class do not want since they can’t control it.
Anything labeled as science welcomes refutation, if reputation is silenced, or denied, it isn’t science.
Strictly speaking, an increase (or a decrease in the case of time measurements for running events) does not need to be large to constitute a record-breaking event.
Oh dear, humans are responsible for climate change? CO2 is a trace gas in the atmosphere – about 0.04% – and we are at a low point of concentration in the earth’s history. What is the point of trying to lower carbon in the atmosphere? Believing that CO2 controls the climate is like believing in magic. This is a political game, not a scientific one, one of the biggest scams ever.
And very cleverly executed, since all these prognosticators of climate doom will be dead in the timeframe they’ve allotted to verify or disprove their claims.
The unaccountability smells like /sniff sniff/ socialism.
Well, when you compare these tiny fractional measurements to what paleoclimatologists tell us happened 13,000 years ago in the Younger Dryas Event, they are essentially insignificant background noise. The same people who try to tell us that the current warming trend is “unprecedented” also tell us that the Earth cooled down and warmed back up by 4 – 10 degrees Celsius, each time within a matter of just a few years to a decade. That would make the cooling and warming trends about a hundred times more rapid and severe than the minuscule fluctuations they detect today. And 13,000 years ago is barely a blink in geologic history. Earth’s estimated 5.4 Billion year history can be divided into roughly 346,154 segments, each 13,000 years long.
Right-on! What’s even more maddening is that the rises or declines in temperature do not even track well with the rise or fall of CO2 in the atmosphere, either in modern measurements or in the estimated paleo measurements. The idea that CO2 causes Global warming is essentially just an educated guess or conjecture.
The way I understand it, CO2 in laboratory experiments, shows a very modest warming effect that dissipates extremely quickly the more CO2 is pumped into the air. It is the only Global Warming gas to exhibit this property of diminishing returns. The “serious” Global Warming scientists do not believe CO2 concentrations by itself causes any significant warming. Their theory is that this trivial warming effect will eventually trigger something esle that will cause real Global Warming. That something esle has yet to be identified.
We in Northern Calif experienced a very strange heat wave starting on Monday Sept 12th.
It is odd to be told by National Weather Service that temps would be between 107 and 113 degrees during this time of year. (After all the sun is setting around 7:15 Pm each night, so it cools off for a longer nighttime.)
Anyway, here is my observation:
Monday Sept 12th: we had a recorded temp of 101 degrees on our little outdoor weather station.
Had I wanted to record a higher version of that temp, I would have captured a reading from a mini weather station installed on an outer, west facing wall of some local bank. Surrounded by thick black asphalt, most bank buildings offer up temperature readings a good 5 degrees more than than what is real.
It is only going to get worse. Sooner or later, computer genius and health expert Bill Gates could devise an outdoor thermometer that can exist in the hot coals of a summer BBQ grill. Then temps of 850 degrees can be recorded.
Anyway Steven, the gullible Climate Crisis crowd will be even harder to convince after that happens.
I really appreciate the clear discussion.
The waste of resources and all of the suffering this is causing is out of control.
Fantastic interview. Appreciated some of the facts about how many people have died of climate in the past v. now, people dying of cold, etc.
You are right, the ruling class does not want any style of critical thinking.
There has been a huge and successful effort to convince people that consensus is the main principle that governs science. real independent scientists understand consensus is the last thing one would desire regarding most scientific matters. (Possibly the fact the sun rises in the East and sets in the West for most of the earth is a principle. But other than that one, modern matters like the safety of toxic chemicals, the safety and nutritional value of GMO foods, and the current topic of climate up’s and down’s should be up for debate.)
Bill Gates is now postulating that our aim should be for zero CO2. I do not know if he means zero further rise in CO2, or no CO2 at all. In either case, it is a ridiculous position to bandy about, but then he has the power and the money to control the legacy media and non profit media, through investment and donations. (Without his participation in keeping the media in line, the two years of COVID hoaxing the public across Western Societies would not have been possible.)
Forget about CO2 and global warming. The real crisis is in the beer industry.
At least it will win back the college kids from the climate hysteria.
Terrific interview. I don’t mean to take anything away from Peter when I point out that Mr. Lomborg is a sure-fire guest: he is simply too sensible, balanced, informed, and clear to do other than come across well. (Jay Bhattacharya is another such guest.)
Mr. Lomborg adroitly does something in this interview — indeed, in pretty much every interview — that Alex Epstein, author most recently of Fossil Future: Why Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natura Gas — Not Less, describes in detail. He rejects the orthodox rejection of fossil fuels as inherently bad, and instead focuses on the positive effects, particularly in terms of global prosperity and resilience, that inexpensive energy provide. (The peculiar refusal on the part of climate alarmists to acknowledge anything positive about inexpensive energy is a glaring weakness, as Epstein points out.)
This is better than simply arguing against the very idea of anthropogenic global warming (AGW): whether or not we really have compelling evidence that it’s happening, we certainly don’t have compelling evidence that it is not happening. Overstating the case against AGW opens one up to a (sometimes justified) accusation of rejecting the science, and that’s a weak position from which to try to persuade normal people. On the other hand, acknowledging the possibility that we are warming the planet but then pointing out that there are enormous benefits to growing prosperity — prosperity in large part fueled by energy — that will easily outpace any plausible cost of climate change both embraces “the science” and puts forth a compelling argument in favor of plentiful energy and sensible energy policy. (It also leads with an admission against interest, a useful rhetorical device.)
Lomborg’s False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet (mentioned in the podcast) is also worth reading, as are Lomborg’s earlier works.