UPDATE: Sandra Tsing Loh has the ultimate putdown for eco-snobs.
And yet there is the exquisite pleasure of eco-stalking those who used to eco-stalk you. “Good news!” I now enthuse to formerly smug Prius-driving friends of mine. “Right this second, a SolarCity engineer and I are studying a live Google Earth picture of your house! Little shade, south-facing — how ’bout I send them over for an estimate?”
It will be about $40,000. Next step ? Loss of interest.
Sniped a scientist friend of mine: “Instead of solar, why don’t you spend the money on something less self-aggrandizing — like offering $50 to anyone with an old refrigerator?”
There you are.
The utter fatuousness of the next Time magazine issue is staggering. This interview shows just how far gone they are.
“We are experts in what we do.”
Veterans of Iwo Jima are not amused.
I have previously posted on some of the ignorance of economics so clearly demonstrated by the Time editor.
Here is more on the Time cover story that points out how the environmental activists are ignoring both science and economics. The planet has been warming for the past 60 years but the warming trend may have ended or flattened out.
For example, satellite measurements of temperatures aloft show no warming trend. Surface warming measurements may be affected by urban heat islands and, while NASA tries to avoid skewing data in the US, there has been a scandal in the placing of temperatures sensors in China. The scientist who was supposed to be ensuring that rapid urban development in China did not affect the sensors, was found to have falsified some of his data.
The data came from only 84 stations, 60% of which had no history whatsoever, and the report claims “details regarding instrumentation, collection methods, observing times … are not known.” Of the 35 remaining, over half had moved large distances (one station moving as many as five times) or had serious, known inconsistencies in the record. The report specifically contradicts Wang’s claims, concluding that “even the best stations were subject to minor relocations or changes in observing times and many have undoubtedly experienced large increases in urbanization.”Keenan immediately filed a formal allegation of fraud against Wang, a charge which is pending investigation at this time.
China is a big place with lots of land area and a rapidly industrializing society. How much did that development affect global warming ? Especially since the measurements were affected by urban heat islands. What we are seeing is a huge extrapolation of data from very shaky sources.
I’m currently reading a book titled The Deniers about scientists who are resisting the lockstep march of the anthropogenic global warming crowd and many who are paying a price.
Tags: China, economics, global warming, satellite data, science
Hey, Dr. K. Remember? The debate is over. Anyone who says differently is the equivalent of a Holocaust denier.
Of course, the people who said and wrote that have *NO* background in science. But I would much rather determine how to live from Laurie David and Al Gore.
Oh, my aching head.
I think you should post this right next to the image above:
http://www.nationalcenter.org/Time-Ice-Age-06-24-1974-Sm.jpg
And how about:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,980050,00.html
Not to mention:
http://denisdutton.com/newsweek_coolingworld.pdf
What’s next?
I got The Deniers on my reading list. The author of that bookLawrence Solomon, wrote an interesting column on his battle with Wikipedia to tell the truth about Global Warming. Seems the editor at Wiki keeps deleting his comments as they refute the Wiki editor’s biased view that man made Global Warming is a fact. Solomon says that this is common practice at Wikipedia, to push views with liberal slants and delete comments to the contrary.
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_paper/story.html?id=440268&p=1
Sorry about the numerous grammatical errors. In a hurry as it is bath night for my 2 year old twins.
Dr. K ~
You are very well read. You had already posted my above link in your science story below. You beat me to it. Sorry about the redundancy. I should have known you would have seen that article. I guess I’d better read past posts before commenting in the future. (sheepish grin)
I can’t get past the cover, let alone what’s between the pages. The level of disrespect is incomprehensible. And Bryan Walsh’s declaration that ‘green is the new red, white and blue’ would be laughable if common sense still mattered. Instead we have the Richard Stengels of the world with the unfortunate ability to reach the masses encourage fools and do-gooders to jump on the bandwagon in spite of a severe lack of conclusive evidence.
This whole debate, in a way, is an effort by the left to avoid the harsh realities of the war with militant Islam. Religion, to them, is an anachronism. They cannot imagine anyone in the 21st century willing to throw away his, or her, life for a religion. Therefore, the motives of the Islamists must be something else, such as defense of their society from invaders like us. If you believe that, withdrawing from Iraq will result in less anger at us and then the whole thing will go away.
Environmentalism, and the anthropomorphic delusion of a living earth (Gaia), has substituted an alternative for religion. It doesn’t matter that recycling, for example, is not economic. It is a form of liturgy. Children are taught this new catechism in school to make them see how the earth and its preservation is more important than anything their parents might try to teach them about life.
Anti-Capitalism is part of the new religion and that is why it doesn’t matter if efforts to reduce carbon emissions will be destructive. I previously listed some contents of a working paper produced for the new PM of Australia about global warming. One of his points is “depopulating the planet.” These people sound like characters from aTom Clancy novel but they are real and have influence with the left.
I wonder which branch of the military the editor who chose that cover served in?
Nancy, that would be the Jack Murtha wing of the military.
Murtha is being described over at Blackfive as one of the few “ex-Marines”. There is an old saying that “once a Marine, always a Marine.” There are a few exceptions and Murtha is one.
Agreed, Dr. K. There is only so far that the honor of being in the armed forces can take you. Jeremiah Wright is one example of the limitations of this. Murtha is another.
Time magazine has been parroting environmentalist propaganda for the better part of two decades, and not one of their dire predictions has come true. It is easy to succumb to cynicism about the future of our nation when so many Americans have bought into this pseudo-scientific nonsense.
Hi, Dr. L.:
You are very right. It is a weird displacement for religion, I think.
Look at the number of times Paul Ehrlich gets quoted on environmentalism, and he has been…well, lavishly wrong more times than I can count.
But what he writes has resonance to the Eternal Truths of the Progressive Left (money is bad, development is bad, anything people do is bad, nature is kind and peaceful…). This is just another example, I think.