Chicken Little According to Nathan Rott at NPR, we all owe Al Gore an apology because there has been severe flooding in Arkansas, and of course that must mean catastrophic climate change is true. After all, our intrepid reporter conducted a scientific poll of nearly two dozen people in Oklahoma and Arkansas (that's twenty-four, for those of you living in Alabama, Tennessee, or Rio Linda) and all of them said they agreed the climate is changing, so that makes it unanimous, right? The general gist of the story by Mr. Rott at NPR is that Al Gore has always been right, and anyone who doubted him about the reality of the threat from CO2 to our planet should be ashamed of themselves, and owes Mr. Gore an apology. Fat chance. There's a snowball's chance in hell Mr. Gore would ever get an apology from me for my past criticisms. His ego has surely been stroked by honorary doctorates, an onstage appearance at the Oscars, and even a little slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet none of his most dire predictions have come true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXinJIvpPOo There's a problem when a "journalist" tries to reshape facts to fit a certain narrative--other facts must be omitted. In his article, Mr. Rott tried to use emotional reactions and cherrypicked anecdotes instead of facts and statistics as the foundation for his argument. Why has it recently flooded in Arkansas? Could the floods have anything to do with record late snowfall this past spring? No one can look at images of destruction from floods, earthquakes, tornados, or other natural disasters and … [Read more...]
Climate change, evolution, and irrational scientism
Climate is what we expect. Weather is what we get. -- Mark Twain I believe in climate change -- at minimum, the climate in Georgia where I live changes four times per year. I call the phenomena "seasons." However, I don't consider "climate change" as something humans understand anywhere near well enough to control. Neither do I believe the sky is imminently about to fall because of human consumption of fossil fuels. Oil and natural gas seem to exist for a reason. Why shouldn't we efficiently put our natural resources to good use? As someone with a couple of decades worth of experience and formerly considered as something of an expert in the field of software development, I can say with complete confidence that only sheer hubris allows climate science experts to insist with any degree of certainty that their computer models can predict the future. The problem is simply too complex. There are far too many unknowns. For example, the forecast in Atlanta today is calling for between 3 and 7 inches of snow...quite a margin of error, wouldn't you agree? Now if the weather experts can't even accurately forecast how much snow is going to fall later today, how can they possibly say with total confidence they know what the weather will be like several years into the future? The butterfly effect is part of the chaos theory of mathematics. The term was coined by Edward Lorenz to describe his discovery that very slight changes to the input data for his weather models could produce a significant variations in the outcome, as if the flapping of a butterfly's wings in a … [Read more...]
Schadenfreude
I've got to admit to a guilty pleasure. Sometimes, schadenfreude does appeal to me--on occasions like this morning, for example... As I was reading numerous stories of people complaining about the decrease in their first paycheck of 2013, I must confess that I found myself softly chuckling. Seriously, why is there surprise? Actions have consequences. President Obama got re-elected. He promised the rich will now pay more of their disposable income in taxes, and he's keeping his promise. But you will pay higher taxes, too. What did you expect? Our nation just voted to re-elect this president, the most prolific spender in the history of the United States. There should be no surprise. The really scary thing is that, in stark contrast to reality, President Obama just informed Speaker Boehner that he doesn't believe we have a spending problem. That can only mean he still thinks the current fiscal crisis in America is caused by an insufficient revenue stream to the federal government. The Treasury obtains revenue through taxation, so that can only mean that Obama plans to demand even higher taxes. Here's a news flash for those who might celebrate that idea--even if you pay zero taxes and live on government support, you're about to take a big hit in your personal spending power. Your standard of living can only decline as our currency continues to lose value. Your future entitlement dollars also will buy less because inflation has been continuously driving retail prices higher. Remember Quantitative Easing I, II, and III? Actions have … [Read more...]
