The Global Warming Alarmists are
hitting the guest editorial circuits again in the buildup to the next climate
talks. Dr. Michael E. Mann, the
ringleader of the Alarmists, has declared that 2014 was the hottest year on
record. What statistical level of
significance did these results have? How far back does the temperature record
go? If part of the temperature record is estimated using other data, what is
the statistical accuracy of the estimates used? We have a 36 year global
weather history based on satellite observations. Prior to that we have mercury
thermometer records for a few locations going back to what, 1800? Prior to that
we have the Climate Research Unit's estimates, for which they refused to
release their raw data and their methods in 2009. The CRU fought off a Freedom
of Information request by saying that they had "accidentally" erased
the data, the scientific equivalent of the dog ate their homework. There may or
may not be global warming, but the Alarmists have to prove that it's caused by
man or there's not much we can do. Their models involve solving huge systems of
difference equations, which require a massive amount of parallel computing
power. We have had enough power to do this for perhaps 30 years at most. Don't
you think Dr. Mann and his friends are being a little hasty to demand that
government take control of all energy sources? What is the statistical accuracy
of these models of the effect of carbon dioxide concentrations on global
temperatures? Is any of this worth totally reverting to an Amish paradise where
we get a meager output from renewable energy and do without carbon based energy
to make up the difference? Having grown up around horses, I can tell you they
are not much fun when you have to shovel up after them. The people who tell you
we can get the same amount of energy from renewable sources with no cost
increases are the same folks who told you, "if you like your doctor, you
can keep your doctor." I think the best way to look at this is as a real
world episode of Pinky and the Brain. The Brain has decided to use the scary
threat of melting ice caps to take over the world.
Whenever you ask these Global Warming
Alarmists for the statistical significance of their results, they start talking
about thousands of papers, but they want you to find them for yourself. If
they're so easy to find, why don't the Global Warming Alarmists find them and
provide links? The fact that they don't leads me to believe this is all an
exercise in Jonathan Gruber style over complication to conceal a huge power
grab without any real justification. Global warming alarmists are the guys
asking for big changes. The burden of proof is on them. Us rednecks are fine
clinging to our guns and private property. We already know we don't get to keep
our doctors and our plans. We don't believe the seas are going to rise 30 feet
and swamp both coasts. Besides, most of us don't live on the coasts anyway. Maybe the
rich folks who do live on the coasts should pay for dikes to protect their
property themselves. Most of the 1% live on the coasts anyway, so they should
have to pay and leave the rest of us alone in our SUVs with rifle racks.