Climate of Fear

The Opinion Journal ^ | April 12, 2006 | RICHARD LINDZEN

[libstripper]

There have been repeated claims that this past year's hurricane activity was another sign of human-induced climate change. Everything from the heat wave in Paris to heavy snows in Buffalo has been blamed on people burning gasoline to fuel their cars, and coal and natural gas to heat, cool and electrify their homes. Yet how can a barely discernible, one-degree increase in the recorded global mean temperature since the late 19th century possibly gain public acceptance as the source of recent weather catastrophes? And how can it translate into unlikely claims about future catastrophes?

The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism. Ambiguous scientific statements about climate are hyped by those with a vested interest in alarm, thus raising the political stakes for policy makers who provide funds for more science research to feed more alarm to increase the political stakes.

[libstripper]

The enviro-nuts discover that, when they can't legitimatelhy win an argument, intimidation pays off, just as it did for the Harvard Feminazis.

[libstripper]

"M. Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT."

This is the last line in the article.

[DustyMoment]

The answer has much to do with misunderstanding the science of climate, plus a willingness to debase climate science into a triangle of alarmism.

No, the answer is that leftists and their fellow travelers, the MSM, have portrayed this as a doom and gloom scenario to the dumbed-down psuedo-intellectual "progressives" who are clueless about the fact that this is a natural cycle that the earth and the sun go through.

People who can't add 2+2 and consistently come up with 4 are making energy policy by ignoring the fact that the sun has been heating up in recent solar cycles and that a warmer sun means a warmer earth!!! How hard is that concept to understand??

When you have loony lefty Al "the gore-on" Gore shrieking about "global warming", his loony lefty enviro-whackos think he must know what he's talking about . . . . . . . (because they sure as h*ll don't, but he's a former VP, and it's Wednesday, not much to do, no school, no job, no career prospects, nothing good playing on TV or at the movies, so why not run around like Chicken Littles proclaiming that the sky is falling?? After all, Al "the gore-on" said it was!!)

[yer gonna put yer eye out]

" Al "the gore-on"

LOL....hope that name sticks....

[Always Right]

Some whacky scientist could come out and blame 9-11 on global warming, and the MSM would headline the story as the lead story of the day, and it the UN IPCC would take the story seriously and include it in their report.

[wolfcreek]

MSM is all about alarming the public on a daily basis. Bird flu, global warming, some new disaese that 3 people came down with, civil war there and here, gloom and doom over the economy, it never seems to end. Thank God, MSM isn't our only source of info.

[NHResident]

"M. Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT." - Mr. Lindzen must find himself awfully lonesome when he sits down to lunch with ANYONE in Cambridge that might agree with him. Having had multiple MIT graduate engineers working for, and with, me over the last 10 years - even the engineering schools are loaded with enviro-wacko nutcases. Sample opinions from these idiots: 'the invention of the internal combustion engine was one of the worst catostrophes of the last 100 years', 'no one should drive alone', 'recycling is the only way to save the earth'.....you get the drift....

[spintreebob]

Climate of Fear?

Try CLIMATE OF SUPERSTITION that results in fear.

A couple thousand years ago the Vikings sailed to warm, sunny Iceland and Greenland... and allegedly all the way to Minnesota. Those Vikings enjoyed a warm climate, long growing season, etc.

Then the weather changed. Temperatures declined. It was called the DARK AGES for a reason. The cold, clouds and snow made it seem dark. Maybe they actually did have less sunlight than previously and it actually was dark.

Did this occur because man invented fire and put smoke in the air? Did this occur because mother earth erupted in volcanoes to express her displeasure with man's invention of fire? We'lll never know. But we do know that during the dark ages superstition ruled the day. Fear of the power of black cats and ladders and broken mirrors and all types of curses dominated.

Eventually Guttenberg invented the printing press and Martin Luther nailed a paper to the church door and the dark age was replaced by an age of enlightenment, the age of reason emerged and ruled for about 450 years.

Now we are entering another dark age where we reject the age of reason and again ascribe magical power to inanimate objects. Good condom, bad SUV, good electronic voting machine, bad hanging chad, etc, etc.

The convenient thing about superstitions is that the ying proves the yang. Dialectical proof is everywhere. Thus, during the time of J Edgar Hoover, homosexuals were perverted, repressed, Republicans and Catholic priests. But by 1970, just a few years after Hoover's death, the "logic" is flipped and homosexuals become almost saints of the new superstition.

Events are now moving so fast that good electronic voting machines become bad before their power for good is sufficiently exploited. The only way to keep up with these rapid changes is to understand dialectical thought. The negative proves the positive. The inverse proves . . . . . my agenda.

[webstersII]

"But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis."

Wow. I'm amazed that this might be happening.

After all, the professors who are evolution religionists on the Crevo threads have repeatedly told us that scientific research is self-regulating and self-cleansing.

They say that no one in academia would be intimidated into keeping their doubts quiet on a topic like evolution, so I just assumed that this high level of integrity applied to all areas of research.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure it only applies to climate science. No doubt the research into evolution is immune from these influences.
</sarcasm>

[webstersII]

"Now we are entering another dark age where we reject the age of reason and again ascribe magical power to inanimate objects. Good condom, bad SUV, good electronic voting machine, bad hanging chad, etc, etc."

Good point. It's not about bad behavior by people anymore, it's all about the bad objects that are doing the bad thing.

[DuncanWaring]

Either that or "al-Gore".

[mlc9852]

"After all, the professors who are evolution religionists on the Crevo threads have repeatedly told us that scientific research is self-regulating and self-cleansing.
They say that no one in academia would be intimidated into keeping their doubts quiet on a topic like evolution, so I just assumed that this high level of integrity applied to all areas of research.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure it only applies to climate science. No doubt the research into evolution is immune from these influences."

LOL - I thought the same thing. Selective scientists ping.

[Larry Lucido]

No, it's pronounced "climate of fee-ah."

~Tim Robbins

[groanup]

bttt

[libstripper]

Your reply shocks me. After all, complete academic freedon exists in the modern groves of academe, as shown by the Ward Churchill and Larry Summers cases. The only small caveat is it's complete freedom to spout Feminazi and Marxist orthodoxy, with nothing else for anybody else, even a respected scholar with impeccable liberal and establishment credentials like Larry Summers.

[Dan Evans]

Conversation fragment I heard in an elevator at ERL, a branch of NOAA:

"...so I asked him if he knew what this lab was doing. He said, I'm not sure what this lab is doing, but what I think this lab is doing is going out to get money to keep their people employed."

[rellimpank]

--liked your article so well I reposted it , mid-day--

[libstripper]

Thanks.

[Reeses]

there is a strange reluctance to actually find out how climate really behaves.

The $1.7 billion/year should given to the Department of Defense to develop weather control as a weapon. Defense contractors will master the mechanics of weather and develop technologies to make the climate whatever we want. Almost all major technology leaps throughout history come from the war makers. Metal alloys, computers, internet, atomic energy, aircraft, jet engines, rockets, most everything is developed for war. Why not extend the formula to climate control technology?

[NormsRevenge]

What is the half life of a "gore-on" in an unstable political climate anyway? :-}

Thanks for posting.

[Milhous]

Indeed, the success of climate alarmism can be counted in the increased federal spending on climate research from a few hundred million dollars pre-1990 to $1.7 billion today.

With all due respect $1.7 billion seems extremely light. The early 1990s probably marked the last time American taxpayers saw a mere $1.7 billion thrown away on Climate Change AKA Global Warning. Today the EPA alone allocates $1.9 billion to Climate Change. [1] American taxpayer funded bureaucracies such as the Department of State seemingly deploy Climate Change [2] as a buzzword to justify ever bigger budgets. Some conservative ought to apply for a grant to actually compute the total taxpayer dollars wasted on Climate Change across all agencies.

But there is a more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear

But there is an even more sinister side to this feeding frenzy. Plain vanilla bureaucrats who dissent from the alarmism will see their budget funds disappear.

[1] Environment Fact Sheet--FINAL.doc

[2] Appendix - Department of State and Other International Programs