The Inbox By Steve Stockmar sstockmar@prescottaz.com Courier City Editor Steve Stockmar keeps an eye on dCourier.com’s article comment traffic. He plays referee, examines the best of the big mouths, puts out some fires and starts others.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Nothing says Thanksgiving like a political and cultural intersection of Gotcha! and Wait Let Me Explain. Oh, make that scientific as well.
It’s hard to say whether the recent stolen emails between climatologists will change peoples’ opinions or merely increase the strength of already invested viewpoints on both sides of the ongoing outbreak that Will Ferrell-as-George-W.-Bush calls, "the warming of the globe."
Unless you missed it while riveted by the Browns-Lions game on Sunday, climate change critics found the missing JFK films from Dallas wrapped up in Roswell UFO photos and a caged Loch Ness. 1,000 pirated emails from climatology scientists, some of which date back 13 years, circulated the world faster than you can say Copenhagen.
I certainly have an interest in climate change, and I’m thankful for the unrelenting support of the public in this conviction.
First, let’s fess up. The emails are damaging. Greenhouse gasses have nothing on the current earthbound fumes of fury in the emails’ wake – on both sides of the discussion. Those scientists who suggested in personal emails that they would deliberately diminish dissent prove another mathematical fact: that every cause, study, laboratory, courtroom and corner of society has its share of fringe loons. Whichever side you think the good guys are on, there are loons among you.
Of course, the lingering effects of the emails can pose as long-term a risk as carbon dioxide emissions. Let’s talk about those for a minute.
The Copenhagen Diagnosis, a report written by 26 international scientists released Tuesday just before the global summit on Dec. 7, offers data that proves global carbon dioxide emissions are rising fast, that global temperatures continue to climb at a pace in line with projections, and that polar regions are losing ice faster than climate models have projected.
Let me repeat that for those lost in the gaseous emissions of AM radio: more than two dozen of the world’s leading climatologists, including 14 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued a report based on hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers analyzed over three years. The study featured – among others – the leader of the Ice Ocean Atmosphere and Climate program in the Australian Antarctic Division; a professor of environmental physics in Zurich; and American Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, who is chair of the World Climate Research Program’s climate and cryosphere project, and once spent 18 consecutive springs installing weather stations on the Greenland ice cap.
In the new diagnosis:
• Arctic sea ice is melting 40 percent faster than the panel estimated just a few years ago.
• Over the past 25 years temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.19°C per decade, in very good agreement with predictions based on greenhouse gas increases.
• A wide array of satellite and ice measurements now demonstrate beyond doubt that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass at an increasing rate.
• The IPCC’s prediction for average sea-level rise this century is 13 inches.
"Science doesn’t work because we’re all nice," Gavin A. Schmidt, a climatologist at NASA whose e-mail exchanges with colleagues over a variety of climate studies were in the exposed cache, told The New York Times. "Newton may have been an ass, but the theory of gravity still works."
If Al Gore wants to profit off these scientists, that doesn’t interest me (I’ll repeat, as I have earlier, that I have never seen An Inconvenient Truth and have no plans to, nor did Gore get my vote in 2000). What interests me are the findings of the scientists and how we can all live more responsibly and protect our environment. I won’t be here 100 years from now, but that doesn’t mean I want my trash to outlive me.
Even the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal’s news department, in a display of journalistic objectivity, offers a disclaimer to the phony fury. "Most climate scientists argue that the earth’s temperature is rising and nearly all of those agree that human activity is likely to be a prime or at least significant cause," writer Keith Johnson noted this week. "But a vocal minority dispute one or both of those views."
A vocal minority. Like a few loons with email.
Reader Comments
Posted: Sunday, November 29, 2009
Article comment by:
algour
Will everyone opposed to our gathering in Copenhagen please calm down. The MSM is on notice not to rock the boat. This just can't be postponed. It's about redistributing wealth among countries and into the pockets of a select few Co2 czars. Oh, I know it appears now that there is much uncertainty into man’s contribution to climate change now that the CRU research has been uncloaked. What is certain by my calculations is that billions of $$$$ will change hands and a fortunate few will become instantly wealthy beyond imagining if this can be rammed down everyone’s throat before real investigations are made into the CRU allegations. Since Phil & I are a couple of the lucky ones who orchestrated, er, organized this charade, er conference, please (be quiet) until after Copenhagen. Sincerely, algour
Posted: Thursday, November 26, 2009
Article comment by:
Tom Cantlon
I'm glad the emails came out and those who tried to spin the public debate in unethical ways should be punished. But a few bad apples making a few dumb moves doesn't change the overwhelming weight of the basic sceince and the agreement among the vast majority of those involved in the field. Cleaning house of a few bad actors just strengthens the message.
Posted: Thursday, November 26, 2009
Article comment by:
What is this guy, a second grader?
Steve takes a page from his buddy honkybrujo's book: Anybody that dares to disagree with him is a "loon" (and probably a member of the Klan also). This is what we can expect from the "professional" jounalists? Childish name calling. Find a new line of work Steve, you are unsuited for this one.
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
Hopeful
It must feel pretty strange to now know beyond any doubt that you've been fooled so massively. Perhaps you'll now consider some of your other misguided ideological notions with a more mature perspective. Don't think that global warming/climate change was the only fraud being perpetrated by the left in this world. There are other shinning lights of truth out there for you if you'll just open your eyes. We can hope.
The foundation of all the accessments are seriously flawed by unethical manipulation of the data. Even in our liberal court system second had evidence is not allowed unless the speaker is dead - dead much like your patron saints were gleeful about the death of a prominent skeptic. Until these frauds are dead they have to produce the the source data(cherry picked) and methods (mispplied) they used to create the hockey stick - which has turned into a boomarang.
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
China knows about the hoax.
It is over.
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
The loons are droiving us all crazy!!
Steve:
Right on. A few loons with e-mail. Jury is still out as to the usefulness of the internet. The Loons now have an audience and a bigger circulation. I’m not sure that is good!!
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
Kim Peart
At the 350 event in Burpengary, Queensland, Australia, the message was that the solution to climate change depended on the whole community getting behind it. For this message to be effective and win the whole human family, it needs to be matched with a vision of hope that will inspire participation in building a better world. I believe that such a vision needs to include space and securing a sustainable presence beyond Earth through space development. A sustainable presence in space will be when no further resources will be needed from Earth and the wealth of space will flow to Earth. I call this the Liberty Line, beyond which the wealth of the Solar System is essentially free. The move toward this is already happening, with Japan preparing to build a solar power station in space by 2030 and the Royal Society in England suggesting that an adjustable sunshade could be built in space at La Grange 1 to help cool the Earth. Rather than blow all our resources on stuffing our pockets, should Australia get serious about space development? From a confident position in space, we will be in a position to deliver a healthier Earthly environment and ensure our future survival in the Solar System. The fact is, if we embrace a robust vision for space now, that we intend to achieve, we can work toward that goal now and the benefits will begin to flow in the early stages. With a confident vision for humanity's future, it will be much easier to sell the need to draw down greenhouse gases and fight for a healthier Earthly environment. In the process and looking toward the wealth of space, we can also deliver a healthy and creative life for all Earth's children and in the process create a more peaceful world. The danger lies in keeping all our eggs in one basket and gambling on getting though climate change without messing up the Earthly nest and running the risk of falling from the evolutionary tree of life and breaking our silly necks. You only have to interview a dinosaur to find out what happens when there is no space program and disaster strikes.
Kim Peart
kimpeart@iinet.net.au
Posted: Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Article comment by:
ehmoran
Amazing!
The data (e-mails) are right in your face and you still refuse to see the evidence.
These same scientists threatened my job as a scientist with the US Geological Survey because I tried to publish a study showing with higher confidence that global temperature changes were completely natural caused solely by Earth's physical processes.
Additionally, these same scientists would not even discuss or refute the science and facts presented. Instead, they took two days to personally attack me and my family.
I always knew that when man-made global climate change was showed to be insignificant that people would lose faith, note the word "FAITH", in science. But this event and exposure is way worse for the science community as a whole. Remember: "Truth is the daughter of Time (Francis Bacon)".
Several USGS scientists got fired for the same thing when discussing data manipulation for models developed for the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.
But no outcry and defense for those scientists?
IF you can't see any problem with this and you don't wonder if there's been some misleading of the public by these scientists, then you definitely are not scientists, you're in denial and would buy any bill of goods sold, and you have no moral principles to stand on.
On 25 November 2009 at 12:15 PM, I tried to post comments on RealClimate.org concerning this matter. That website obviously refused to post my comments because they know me, which is another attempt to silence objective parties on this subject and since they were the ones that threatened my job.....
Now, think about this. Al Gore PUBLICLY states that the Earth’s Mantle temperatures are MILLION of DEGREES. The man doesn't even have the morality, decency, and/or courage to publicly admit he was WRONG. WHY SHOULD these scientists admit they are wrong? They can't, because if they do, the gig is up.......
Matter of fact, LET ME LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL DATA! If there's a problem with the data, I'll find it.......
