Heat Waves, Floods, & Fires – Proof That Man Is Causing The Climate To Change?

Flopping Aces ^ | 08-14-10 | Curt

[Starman417]

Roger Pielke Jr writes about scientists, and reporters, who attempt to link recently seen weather to evidence that man-made global warming is true: (h/t Tom Nelson)

Let's see if I can make this simple.

What happens in the weather this week or next tells us absolutely nothing about the role of humans in influencing the climate system. It is unjustifiable to claim that a cold snap or heavy snow disproves or even casts doubts predictions of long-term climate change. It is equally unjustifiable to say that a cold snap or heavy snow in any way offers empirical support for predictions of long-term climate change. This goes for all weather events.

Further, it is professionally irresponsible for scientists to claim that some observed weather is "consistent with" long-term predictions of climate change. Any and all weather fits this criteria. Similarly, any and all weather is also "consistent with" failing predictions of long-term climate change. The "consistent with" canard is purposely misleading.

Knowledge of climate requires long-term records -- on the time scale of a decade and longer. Don't look to the weather to learn about climate, unless you have a long time to watch. Using the weather to score cheap political points in the climate debate appears to be a tactical area of agreement among those who otherwise disagree about climate change.

Examples of cheap political points in just the last few days:

"We're setting climate records at a record-setting pace," David Orr, a professor of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College, told HuffPost. "More hottest hots, driest dries, wettest wets, windiest wind conditions. So it's all part of a pattern. If you ask is this evidence of climate destabilization, the only scientific answer you can give is: It is consistent with what we can expect." Orr is the author of "Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse" and five other books on politics and the environment.

Another:

When temperatures rise as a result of smokestack and tailpipe emissions, droughts, heat waves, and floods become more frequent and more intense. The temperatures create "more and more hot extremes and worse unprecedented extremes and that's what we're seeing," said Neville Nicholls, a climate scientist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

And the pièce de résistance:

Read more at floppingaces.net...

[EGPWS]

Heat Waves, Floods, & Fires – Proof That Man Is Causing The Climate To Change?

Men...MEN???

We ain't no stinkin' men, we are Gods!!! /s

[aimhigh]

When I was a child, there were no Heat Waves, Floods, & Fires. /sarc/

[sappy]

I drove my suv to the store and caused a glacier to melt. true story/

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[SteamShovel]

From "the pièce de résistance:"

"Indonesia’s special envoy for climate change has lashed out at skeptics, saying they threaten to derail ongoing negotiations for climate change mitigation."

We can't have real debate now can we.....

.....It jeopardizes the progressive anti-freedom agenda don't you know.

[palmer]

The catastrophists who claim that extremes are increasing have painted themselves into a box. Extremes (increased convection, concentrated heat, heavy precipitation, etc) are all ways that the earth cools. The more of these we have (or are claimed), the lower the sensitivity is to the CO2 warming, slight as it might be. This means while there might be more of these “extremes” (i.e. it’s weather, deal with it), there will be no catastrophic warming (Greenland melting, etc).