A letter from Glen Leis of Newmarket Ontario (a northern suburb of Toronto) was very insightful. Mr. Leis responded to this column in the Financial Post and his comments are worth sharing.
Climate change (the commonly used euphemism - I prefer global warming) is an ideal cause célèbre because it cannot be observed or measured in real time (you won't see: "Breaking News - Global warming is happening RIGHT NOW!"). No honest scientist would suggest that the record snowfall in the US north east this winter (2010-11), or the very mild Vancouver Olympics (2010) were actually caused by global warming. Those were weather events, not to be confused with climate. However, as Mr. Leis points out, because global warming cannot be definitively measured (in real time), (more and more) money needs to be sent to allow scientists to find a way to do just that.
The media (and Al Gore) however, are not scientists and they have no compunctions about saying that every hurricane, snowstorm, cold weather event, hot weather event, swarm of tornadoes, flood, every weather extreme, is somehow related to the ongoing crisis that is climate change. For them its like the War-on-Terrorism without the Jihadists, an ongoing story that can be milked day-in-and-day-out. Everyone knows who the culprits are, it's understood that global warming always underlies the event. To push that agenda, CNN now has "Extreme Weather" reports. And all of it sells TV time thank you very much!Mr. Leis continues, the global warming scam, "creates a partnership between industry and government, paid for by the average taxpayer."
In Ontario we are blessed with government-subsidized solar and wind power generation, subsidized hybrid, and electric cars, in fact an entire green industry created by government fiat that could never exist without the crutch of subsidy it's so uncompetitive.
Climate change is a marketer's dream. It plays on fear as well as a person's desire to do the right thing. Put a hybrid label on a car, and people will buy it without thinking about the large expensive battery that will need to be exchanged within the car's lifetime. Call yourself a "green-politician," and people will blindly vote for you regardless of qualifications. That's how powerful the confirmatory bias has become.
Leis concludes by saying that this is "activism spoon-fed to the masses by corporations and governments." "Any movement that espouses massive transfers of wealth to the likes of Robert Mugabe and Communist China must be questioned."
I'm certain I have not convinced the followers of the Gorical, so strong is their zealotry. My real purpose is to save you and me a lot of misdirected expense. In Ontario election day is just nine months away.
First, the scientific consensus is on climate change, not global warming. That's what the 'CC' in the IPCC report means. The consensus is that the climate is changing (has already changed) and a change in climate drives a change in weather.
ReplyDeleteIf Mr. Leis refers to climate change or global warming as a 'scam' then Mr. Leis is an idiot. If I were to observe the temperature on a thermometer, that is sitting in a large pot of water over a flame, twice in five seconds, I could conclude that the water isn't warming. It takes a long time to warm the climate and the data has shown a clear warming trendline.
Now, if Mr. Leis' objection is that governments and industry are using the fear of climate change to sell products and policies, well, it's their right to do so. It's up to the consumers or voters to decide if they will take part in the rhetoric. However, the non-biased, non-political, non-profit science has laid out the facts: the climate is changing as a result of our warming atmosphere.
(Oh, and I've never seen Mr. Gore's documentary. I prefer to get my information from primary sources or from those trained in science who have summarized it. You should try it.)
If the UN was going to investigate the sun rise they would form a committee called the International Protocol on Sun Rise - IPSR. I prefer to call it dawn. Don't tell anyone but the earth rotates - the sun does not rise, dawn is more accurate. So it is with the climate, it changes, always has, always will - it warms in this case, ergo global warming - call it what it is. Someday they may form to study cooling, the good news is, they can use the same damn committee.
ReplyDeleteForming a committee to investigate the fact of climate change and keep it from happening, is about as ridiculous as my first 2 statements.
As for Glen Leis, whom I don't know, I'm not going to throw him under the bus - I was the idiot that called global warming a scam - because it is. Climate change happens, I'll give the scientists who are perpetrating this ruse on all of us, the credit for naming it properly.
BTW, you'd like Gore's movie I did. I thought it was a great powerpoint presentation and I learned stuff about presentation. I also found it to be a great teaching tool about distortion, exaggeration……..