Obama’s Science Czar Channels H.G. Wells on Climate Change
How often have we seen the picture of Galileo Galilei facing the Office of the Inquisition in 1632? Galileo is held up as a scientific martyr today, because he fiercely defended the Copernican solar system against the Inquisition, which finally ordered him to stop publishing those ideas. Cardinal Bellarmine denounced Copernican theory as “a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false.”
Today we have a radical role reversal. Climate heretics like Dr. Fred Singer and MIT’s Prof. Richard Lindzen are telling truth to power — and they are bitterly criticized by our science politicians, just as the pope criticized Galileo. Singer and Lindzen are our Galileos, telling a truth that the leftist establishment and its organs of propaganda do not want to hear.
Today we have our own official science czar in the White House. John Holdren is a true believer in the imaginary faith of global warming. We even have an office for the propagation of the faith, spearheaded by NASA’s James Hansen. It is Hansen who goes around saying that the oceans could rise by 20 feet and that heretics — like oil company execs — deserve to be put on trial for “high crimes against humanity and nature.” This witch-hunting talk apparently passes for normal scientific discourse in Dr. Hansen’s mind. Hansen has not yet proposed burning oil company execs at the stake, but he is no longer a scientist — he is a true believer, just like a Scientologist. Real scientists don’t know the answers before the evidence is in. Hansen and Holdren know the answers — their faith passeth mere human understanding.
Now John Holdren has spoken up in an interview with the Associated Press, itself a big propaganda outfit. AP tells us that “Holdren outlined several ‘tipping points’ involving global warming that could be fast approaching.” (Notice the weaseling here. Anything could be fast approaching, like maybe a screaming intergalactic turtle, all ready to crash into the earth. Prove to me it ain’t so!)
The AP continues: “Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of ‘really intolerable consequences,’ he [Holdren] said.” But wait! This just in from the excellent skeptical site Watt’s Up With That? Steven Goddard writes:
The WUWT Arctic Ice Thickness Survey … is collected from the US military web site. All of the active military buoys show significant thickening ice over the past six months to a year.
Hmmm. I wonder if Dr. Holdren knows that the Arctic ice is actually getting thicker? Or maybe he just doesn’t care? Well, whatever. Holdren is convinced that doom is about to come upon us. As the AP tells it, “Twice in a half-hour interview, Holdren compared global warming to being ‘in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog.’” He forgot to add, “with a hallucinating driver conjuring up imaginary dangers.” But that’s closer to the truth. Our real problem is not the earth or the CO2; it is the human beings who are now in power, fully prepared to scare the daylights out of us to squeeze out more power and more money for themselves.
Dr. Holdren knows he can’t just repeat the old cliches. If he wants big headlines around the world, he has to give the AP a new angle — the media beast demands to be fed. So Dr. Holdren obliges by holding out the hope of geoengineering, super-gigantic-expialidocious projects to give the earth a kind of aluminum foil layer, able to reflect the sun’s rays and thereby cool the earth. In the AP’s fawning prose:
The president’s new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air. … John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. …
“It’s got to be looked at,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.”
Needless to say, this is so total science fiction. Nobody has ever done anything like it, but H.G. Wells could have thought it up a hundred years ago.
Real engineering is based on good science, but there is no good science here. Climate modeling is baby science — still crawling around in wet diapers. There is a huge difference between settled science, like the solar system, and baby science. Climate modeling has no track record of solid performance. That is why climate predictions have to be made for a hundred years from now, because that makes them impossible to disprove. Nobody is going to wait 100 years to find out. But the money has to be taxed now, to empower science frauds and hype-mongers who promise to save our hides in 2100. Give me your money now to save the earth in 2100!
“Global warming” is more Scientology than science. It is an act of pure imagination. The only thing climate models have in common with real science is the word “science.” All the climate prophets are playing on public ignorance. If you confuse Scientology with science, you can confuse climate modeling with real science.
The key is that the science establishment, like any power class, wants to control the media narrative. That is why our Galileos today are told to shut up by hype peddlers like James Hansen and John Holdren.
Political establishments haven’t changed since Galileo. They don’t care if they are defending theology or secular ideology; they just want more and more power. Obama didn’t appoint our new “science czar” to ensure honesty and integrity in the climate debate. On the contrary, this guy was appointed for political loyalty, exactly the reason why the pope appointed Galileo’s inquisitor.
The very idea of a science czar is Stalinist.
True science always respects the skeptics. Einstein disagreed profoundly with Nils Bohr about quantum mechanics, but can you imagine Albert Einstein demanding that Bohr be put on trial for his beliefs? Or vice versa? But that’s what James Hansen has been saying.
These people are totalitarians in spirit. But healthy science must stay open, because nature always comes up with big surprises — as Einstein found out about quantum mechanics. Skeptics are just as necessary to healthy science as passionate advocates; neither one can presume to know the truth before the evidence comes in. Look at Science or Nature magazine any week and you will find both confirmation and negation of leading-edge hypotheses. To close one’s mind prematurely is to attack science itself.
The only real sin in science is to apply totalitarian methods to punish free and open debate. That is a sure road to disaster. What’s alarming today is not hypothetical global warming, but a very real infiltration of Stalinist thinking into universities and research institutions.
The Associated Press is as phony as global warming. They were made for one another
It is unfortunate that our science education is so poor in this country that the falsified predictions of incomplete modes (with many free parameters) are accepted as revealed truth.
…geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays.
I (vaguely) recall that when this proposal was first put forward several years ago (allegedly by a Nobel winning scientist?) that it was considered a hoax.
Assuming it worked, assuming reflecting/deflecting the sun’s rays was a good idea, how long would it last, a week or two ?
It certainly sounds ludicrous.
The MSM laughed at Pres. Reagan about the Anti-missile defense system, otherwise known as “Star Wars” as too expensive and science fiction. Now we have this clown saying, “shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere,” like some Harry Potter magical incantation and they take it seriously. I am officially living in the United States of Insanity, another ward in the World Wide nutcase Asylum.
Not too many years ago the powers-that-be were telling us that particulate matter from cars and industrial activity were going to cause global cooling, so factories spent billions of dollars to put in smokestack scrubbers! Why don’t we just take them out? Ditto for the catalytic converters on our cars–same principle!
As Don Easterbrook noted recently, “…cool water in the Pacific that extends from the equator all the way up the west coast of North America into the Gulf of Alaska is still firmly entrenched. This is the cool water phase of the PDO and it isn�t going to change for at least 2-3 decades (at least it never has in the past)and it is unaffected by atmospheric CO2 as shown by the three PDO switches this century that occurred before atmospheric CO2 increased significantly…[thus]no matter what the cause of global warming and cooling, we cannot escape the conclusion that the Earth is in for global cooling for the next 2-3 decades and will bring increasing energy and resource demands at a time of rapidly escalating population growth.”
Demands that “green” stuff won’t begin to supply. So: Drill Now!
intergalactic turtle?
Glad to see someone here has been reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. (For the uninitiated The Discworld is a flat disc that rests on the back of four giant elephants as they are in turn carried on the shell of a giant turtle that swims through endless space. Hilarious readinf for poeople who like surreal humour.
We need to stop laughing at the Goreists of the world (although their screeching does provide us with a few chuckles) and get serious about removing them from any elected position they hold. This fantasy cannot be allowed to progress any further and its’ adherents need to be public ridiculed to (hopefully) bring them back to reality.
I am old enough to remember the scary predictions of global cooling during the 1970s.
Henny Penny is alive for every generation.
You know, these ding-dongs are just dangerous enough to start putting stuff into our atmosphere with no understanding of the consequences. This situation is turning from stupid to dangerous. These people are going to be the death of us with their junk science and knee-jerk solutions. Environmentalism is the new Communism.
The anology with Copernicus and Galileo is valid in that it was about a rift between science and religion which was also used as political power. What may be in order is the parallel of separation of church and state with the separation of science and politics.
Science would enjoy the purity of objectivity if it wasn’t being used as a side-whore for the politicians. Government grants and funding are the cat calls to prove the politicians’ truth.
We are seeing the corruption of science. Why does the left corrupt everything it touches? Everything becomes political, reality be damned.
There will be a time when Climate Science will be seen as an oxymoron like Central Intelligence.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64e6aed6e1/eco-commando-episode-3
Environmentalism is the new Communism
With the so called “fall” of Communism and the fact that there is something about it, when and wherever applied, however incompletely, that grates against the aspirations of man…
…it’s not too hard to imagine much about the modern Global Warmism Movement as a replacement vehicle for bringing down the nasty capitalist hegemons.
The Warmism movement also serves as a kind of religion for atheists.
All of which totally distorts any unbiased/unaffiliated understanding of climate & climate change. (the UN’s IPCC seems equally ideologically bent)
Unfortunately, “scientists” like John Holdren have the ear of the MSM and the administration. Despite a dismal record of predictions and gloomy forecasts, Holdren was placed at the pinnacle of the science totem pole – a farce headed for a tragedy?
There are a number of sites and blogs that try to counter the large megaphone of Holdren and like-minded alarmists. Here is a list of blogs/sites that are putting up the ‘good fight’ by pushing back and debunking the pseudo-science:
http://www.c3headlines.com/favorite-climate-blogs.html
plus our very own, http://www.c3headlines.com/
C3H Editor
An article full of lies, as is typical of AGW denialists.
Arctic ice is actually thinning, and drastically. The WUWT article mentioned is another lie article, using military buoys that do NOT measure ice thickness – instead of satellite results that show pronounced thinning.
THe reflective foil and sulfate particle fixes have both been pushed by oil denialists as a way to prevent cap-and trade. They are disliked by those who actually would rather solve the problem.
It’s a shame to see lies like these, but then, the right wing blogosphere has little else on the subject.
There was the Eweing-Donne theory when I was in high school, which predicted glaciation due to warm waters breaking through the arctic. This same scenario is now used to predict the opposite conclusion.
The, in the space of one year shortly after the GW theory became a religion, Newsweek had a cover story on both Global Warming and Nuclear Winter!!!
Hey folks, this has nothing to do with the Earth and the climate. This is ALL about the Taxes. Money Money always follow the money because it will lead you to a greedy power hungry politician! These flimflam men are about controlling You the masses. Just like herding sheep! And you are letting them do just that.
AGW ‘denialists’? What’s to deny? Show me a study based on properly validated scientific data that demonstrates a causal link between CO2 and subsequent warming, and I’ll consider it.
Until then, you’re asking us to destroy the global economy based upon a long-range weather forecast. Probably not the behavior of rational people.
Which oil companies oppose cap-and-trade, by the way?
If you don’t believe in Global Warming, that’s your right.
But what you’re all doing here is ceding the issue of the environment, and the power that comes with it, to the left.
This is what the right tends to do, to run away from an issue when the left claims a foothold, and it’s making the GOP very weak.
When the left began asserting nfluence over public education, instead of getting engaged in teaching, the right decided to take their kids out of public schools and home school them. Now, the right is helpless to stop liberals from owning their kids education.
When the left began taking control of the media and technology, the right abandoned TV and film for talk radio. Now, the right is helpless as tech-savvy left wingers control debate on the Internet.
When the left made environmentalism a cause, the right wing abandoned environmentalism completely, and has tried to paint environmentalists as radicals and eco-terrorists. It denies the existence of Global Warming based not on science, but on the fact that is a “left wing” issue, and therefore ought to be either avoided or derided. Now, the right is unable to play a serious role in terms of protecting our environment because it has clearly cast its lot against environmentalism in general.
Every time you cede an issue, you cede a whole lot of voters who care about that issue. This is why the GOP has lost the hearts and minds of this country – it refuses to take moderate stances on anything. Instead of seriously engaging the Left on the issue of Global Warming, the right simply labels it a hoax in its entirety.
How can anyone expect an objective, rational person to remain committed to a political party that runs screaming from serious discussion?
John Holdren and James Hansen believe that science is a religion. Trouble is, their religion isn’t science.
cmb: good scientists do not talk about lies. They argue about good data and bad data, about proxy use and filtered results. There is some problem with satellite photos to measure ice depth – think about it. Satellite works well for ice extent. Buoys work much better for ice depth.
The best sites such as Climate Audit and WUWT have more science posted any day than the AGW Hysterics publish.
Hysterics promote stuff such as cap and trade and heavily subsidised programs for “alternative energy” – i.e. welfare for the wealthy. Why? Because they can make a great deal of money selling nothing in the first instance and save a whole lot of money in the second. As always, follow the money. Hysterics never actually cut back themselves – i.e. give up car use, move to a smaller house, stop travelling. But they are darn quick to impose their non-science on others.
Sadly Hysterics seem unable to question their theories. Since that is what science consists of, Hysterics only rarely use science. Fear mongering, ad hominems, threats, intimidation, yes. Skeptics questions theories all the time. They demand proof. That is why the Hysterics want to call us Deniers. Because it is so much easier than actually proving anything.
cmb:
An article full of lies, as is typical of AGW denialists.
Arctic ice is actually thinning, and drastically. The WUWT article mentioned is another lie article, using military buoys that do NOT measure ice thickness – instead of satellite results that show pronounced thinning.
The buoys measure temperature, but the temp differential between ice and liquid water gives a discernible indication of ice depth. If you know of sat data that measures ice depth I’d appreciate a link, since all I’ve seen only measure ice extent and not that well given recent problems with sensor drift. You might also want to drop a note to the folks at the Caitlin survey project who are doing their best to turn themselves into enviromartyrs to fill in the gap in our knowledge of ice thickness. They’ve been experiencing chronic hypothermia for a month and a half since it apparently never entered their minds that its still pretty cold in the Arctic [-35 to-50C]. You might also want to drop by the Cryosphere Today website,, where a quick scan of the graphs will show you that, between the Arctic and Antarctic, the planet has been losing and recreating an area of sea ice over two and a half times the size of the continental US annually since we’ve been able to measure it and probably for long before we were paying any attention to it at all.
Pastor of Muppets:
The right did not cede education and the media to the left, they have been systematically excluded from these areas for decades, to the point where graduate schools of education now deny admission to those whose embrace of the leftist agenda is not complete and in Hollywood it is virtual career suicide to openly express conservative beliefs. Virtually none of the people who are classified as “deniers” claim the climate is not changing, on the contrary, most support the notion that it is, has been, and always will change. What is denied is the anthropogenic nature of the recent changes. The warmists continuing contention that the matter is “settled” is the very antithesis of science, since anything that presents itself as a scientific theory must accept as a prerequisite the possibility that it will be contradicted by further data. It’s hard to seriously engage the warmists in debate on the issue when none of their leading proponents will even agree to appear on the same stage with anyone who shares a contrary view and science that might lead to better understanding is systematically excluded from funding and publication.
Hey Holdren and AGW hysterics, why not just spray a huge stream of sea water on the sun. That ought to cool that old star (along with our our mother ship) right down!
“Holdren compared global warming to being ‘in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog.’” He forgot to add, “with a hallucinating driver conjuring up imaginary dangers.”
-Best comment in your article Mr. Lewis. Thank you for the chuckle.
‘How can anyone expect an objective, rational person to remain committed to a political party that runs screaming from serious discussion’?
Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer are doing just that.
If you’ve a chance, read Fred Singer and Dennis Avery’s, ‘Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1,500 Years’ to get some perspective.
Renown and respectable scientists (NASA, NOAA and other Government gimme funds not included.. sorry) have added their name/ reputation to the validity of the aforementioned book. I’ve been fortunate to work with 2 of the 10,000; Bruce Boe and Viktor Makitov.
The scientific community is well aware and spearheading, rationally to have their say in the matter.
It’s impossible to have a lucid discussion with AGW folks – emotion trumps all!
For these folks feel some kind of purpose, finality if it possible to control the Earth’s weather. SCARY group-think..!
In over 30 years in Hawaii, I have witnessed no signs of rising water levels. How could that be if all the ice fields are melting?
Environmentalism is a branch of the religion of the political left. But Lefty only truly believes in the ideals of collectivism, and he completely controls the dialog. He calls it science because he thinks he is too enlightened to think he could be religious. Our schools are turning out young adults by the millions, who have never been exposed to anything but collectivism. The days of trying to teach Lefty that there is a better approach are behind us. Lefty never needed to listen to us. He will eventually be destroyed by the collectivist ideal. But, because he has also been taught to believe in his own enlightenment, he will never admit to his folly.
Lefty will decide that freedom can only be possessed by an individual only if he thinks that idea is his own. Here is to Lefty’s lofty ideas.
“One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays.”
Is it just me or does this sound like the plot from a super hero comic or James Bond movie?
“It’s got to be looked at. We don’t have the luxury of taking any approach off the table.”
The fact this was even brought this up in public says to me they are not taking an indepth serious look at the problem if there is a problem in the first place (count me among the man-made climate problem doubters). This is something from an old DC comic book or the Batman TV show with Adam West. The unintended consequences of this approach could be catastophic if taken seriously. Let’s face it, President Obama just appointed Dr. Freeze as his chief science advisor.
A little personal experiment:
Look up the answer to the first two questions: 1) What percentage by volume of the Earth’s atmosphere is all C02 plus all other greenhouse gasses? 2) What percentage of THAT is MAN-MADE C02 and other greenhouse gasses? Then, 3) What do you think about the proposition that algore, Hansen, and Holdren should have to put these numbers on a big sign next to their podiums every time they make a presentation about global warming?
I have this silly recurring vision: John Cleese doing a Paul to Saul routine…walking backwards from Damascus to genuflect at the base of an Al The Sun God statue.
The Global Warming Alarmists remind me of my little sister, who fled the dinner table yelling “You’re lying! You’re lying!” one evening when I forcefully argued that there was no Santa Claus.
Recently we discussed that incident of 40-some years ago, and she confessed: “I always knew there was no Santa, I was just afraid that if I didn’t PRETEND to believe I wouldn’t get any more presents!”
Same thing really.
Pastor of Muppets has some very valid points about the “right” ceding the sociopolitical playing field to the “left.”
P.J. O’Rourke made similar comments recently.
What has happened is that those on the “right” (a domain that keeps getting bigger as the lefty powers-that-be continue to demonize an ever-increasing number of Americans) are becoming strangers in our own land.
This article has me asking the most profound questions of our time:
Does Al Gore have to pay for two tickets when he flies commercial?
If the left are dead-set on impoverishing us over the next several years, don’t we have a right to at least be warmer while doing so?
Would rising sea-levels get rid of the rat population bomb in NYC?
If oil is perpetually made by the earth through natural processes, does it not meet the definition of a renewable resource?
Do they make automobile luggage racks large and strong enough to carry a windmill?
What is the point of equipping a SmartCar with airbags? Or seatbelts for that matter?
James S.,
You are insulting the talented writers of comic books who at least ground their fantastical galactic tales in some semblance of scientific cause-and-effect. “In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night…”