Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Climate Change III… Not quite more of the same…

Opinion poll taken by the Daily Caller, September 30, 2015:
 Is Climate Change a hoax?
          94% responded yes; 4% no; 3% not sure.

 
Hotly debated by both sides, with claims of deception and downright falsehoods by both parties, is there no consensus to be had? Unfortunately, No … and this is the most deceptive part of the entire debate. If anyone dares disagree with the scientific community that supports the theory that Climate Change is the result of man’s actions they are deemed "Deniers". 

 

Contradictory evidence is ignored, rejected as outside the discussion or denied a fair hearing. Is this the way to conduct serious scientific discussion?"… again NO!


"To acquire wealth is difficult, to preserve it more difficult, but to spend it wisely is the most difficult of all", English editor and literature, Edward Parsons Day.
Even after spending billions to validate their claims, no negligible effect has been noticed in the distribution of GHGs, nor can they point to a decline in these gases. To justify spending with no negligible results is dishonest and only leads to more distrust of those individuals that claim Climate Change as being detrimental to mankind.

Has Climate Change has become the new religion of the left? Webster’s dictionary defines "Idolatry" as the "Excessive love or veneration for anything". Are they so wedded to this mantra that differing opinions are rejected out of hand? The intransigence they display speaks volumes about their inability to accept differing opinions.


Herr Gore’s prediction that the Arctic would be ice free by 2013 did not happen. To justify the statement the goalposts have been advanced to the 2030s. How disingenuous is this? An article in the Daily Mail puts the warming over the past 150 years at 0.8 degrees Centigrade.

To put this in perspective, earlier this year a US Coast Guard ice breaker was unable to open a channel in the Canadian arctic to allow a number of yachts to complete a journey through the "North West Passage". The Coast Guard’s inability to break through was due to thick ice conditions.


To be clear, the thickness of ice has much more to do with the ability of ice breakers to open sea lanes than the extent of ice coverage.


The earth has experienced many changes. To wit; tropical plant fossils found on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian arctic and glacial deposits within 10 degrees of the equator. Is this definitive proof of global changes? To be honest, NO!! Is the disparity due to plate tectonics? Possibly, this is one explanation for the dispersal of tropical vegetation in the arctic and glacial deposits near the equator.

Global Warming is at one end of the scale, while Snow Ball Earth is the other end. We keep hearing what we must do to prevent Global warming but they are mute on the subject of Snow Ball Earth. Is it more plausible that a warming earth is coming than the theory that another ice age is coming? The trigger mechanisms for a cooling earth are many. Among them are: a super volcano eruption, a possibility; a real reduction in GHGs, not very likely; less solar output, again, possible and finally, perturbations of the earth’s orbit, which has happened in earth’s history. Unfortunately, the mantra is always towards warming when cooling is just as plausible.



Records, those damnable things that dispute so much of the narrative are shunted aside with little recognition of their validity. 1936 was to see 14 record highs ranging from a low of 109 degrees in Cumberland and Frederick, Maryland, to a high of 121degrees in Steele N.D. and Alton, Kansas. Not only did this heat wave linger for some time, (with record high temps beginning July 5 and ending August 10) but it was to spread from the high plains to the Gulf States and eastward to the upper reaches of the Chesapeake.

Death Valley, Cal. holds the record for the highest temperature with 134 degrees set in 1913. The year 1994 was to post a series of 4 records in late June ranging from 128 degrees in Lake Havasu, Arizona to 120 degrees in Oklahoma.

Abnormally high temperatures are no more reliable than record lows when the over-all temperature scale is used as a guide to determining whether we are experiencing a warming or cooling trend

"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency". H. L. Mencken

Honest and open debate would do much to foster an understanding between the differing points of view, but it is not possible without these ingredients.

Walter M 2015

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Climate Change: Reality or Hoax

Hurricanes ravage the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, tornadoes sweep across the plains leaving death and destruction, drought conditions revive worries of a return of the "Dust Bowl". A depleted Ogallala aquifer only adds to the worry; add in the marginal lands that have been turned to corn production to satisfy an EPA ethanol requirement and the possibility is raised exponentially. While the southwest suffers yet another severe drought and outbreaks of Arctic cold dip to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 



"Lurid Headlines" do not begin to tell the story of climate and the cyclical nature of weather events and trends. Nor do they reflect the realities of scientific studies that do not agree with the claims of dire consequences that will occur unless man desists in creating the so-called "Green House Gases".

"Skeptical, I am." This sums up my stand on the subject, my reasons for skepticism are many. Based on my own powers of observation and looking at historical weather events, what I see is simply the planet going through normal climatic cycles. I certainly do not deny that weather can be wild; a Colorado squall that contained "Thunder Snow" with the lightning strikes less than a ¼ mile away, suffice it to say I have a healthy respect for Mother Nature.

The one biggest contributor to the Earth’s weather is the Sun. More sunshine, more warmth, less sunshine, less warmth; yes, I know, it’s a little more complicated than that. BUT, and it is a BIGGIE, the sun has more to do with Earth’s weather than man and his actions.

 


What makes me so sure? Consider this; accounts of the winters Washington’s Army spent at Morristown, NJ and Valley Forge PA were just as brutal as the storms sweeping these same areas today. Going further back in history, the Anasazi abandoned their pueblos and cliff dwellings around 1200 AD due to a severe drought, just as the Southwestern US is suffering today.

Water, the life blood of civilization, a must have commodity that is overlooked until shortages occur. Lest we forget, Los Angeles purloined water from the Owens River to support its growth in the 1920’s leaving a parched desert in its wake. Over allocation of water from the Colorado River does not bode well for the cities of So. California and could be a death knell for much of its agricultural economy.

Tree ring studies (dendrochronology) of Bristle Cone Pine, some of the oldest living organisms in North America bear out the cyclical dry to wet cycles with some regularity. With living BCP’s as old as 5,000+ years, and dead trees adding an additional 5,000 years of tree ring history to verify the ebb and flow of climatic cycles, the hypothesis that man made pollution is driving climate change, excuse the pun," just does not hold water".

Weather patterns are changing, of that there can be little doubt, but do these changes rise to a level needful of catastrophic adjustment by humankind? I think not, how about you??

Walter Mow 2015