Provocative headline, no? Actually, I would dearly love to provoke a global warming advocate into lecturing me about the difference between “climate” and “weather.” I mean, it’s not like every heat wave, or hurricane, or tornado outbreak that occurs isn’t followed immediately by calls by climate change believers for swift action to prevent catastrophe.
There’s only a difference between climate and weather when skeptics are making the claims of proof.
I bring this up because in the midst of one of the most severe winters on record, climate change advocates are warning us that global warming is happening even faster than they originally thought.
As the planet marked its fourth hottest year on record, a study published in the journal Nature found increasing levels of carbon dioxide will lead to thinner ocean clouds and reduce their cooling impact, causing temperature rises of at least 5.6F (3C) over the course of the century.
The team of scientists said the findings show some climate models have been too “optimistic” and previous estimates of a minimum temperature rise of only 2.7F (1.5C) could now be discounted. The optimistic models did not properly assess the impact of water evaporation, which sometimes rises only a short distance into the atmosphere and causes updraughts that reduce cloud cover, the study found.
”These models have been predicting a lower climate sensitivity but we believe they’re incorrect,” Professor Steven Sherwood, from the University of New South Wales, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
”The net effect of [climate change] is you have less cloud cover.”
The study comes amid a controversy in Australia over claims by Maurice Newman, Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s top business adviser, who said the world had been taken “hostage to climate change madness”.
Mr Newman said the climate change establishment, led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, remained “intent on exploiting the masses and extracting more money”.
“The scientific delusion, the religion behind the climate crusade, is crumbling,” he wrote in The Australian. “Global temperatures have gone nowhere for 17 years… If the IPCC were your financial adviser, you would have sacked it long ago.”
Mr Newman, a former chairman of the Australian Stock Exchange, was criticised by the opposition and pilloried by scientists, who said he was expressing “flat earth” views and should be sacked.
“His piece is a mix of common climate change myths, misinformation and ideology,” said Professor David Karoly, from the University of Melbourne, in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
“I would not choose a person who believes that the Earth is flat to advise Australian shipping or airline businesses on how to plan routes to travel around the world. It is clearly not sensible to have a person who believes that climate change science is a delusion as leader of the prime minister’s Business Advisory Council.”
The prediction of even more apocalyptic climate change represents a doubling down by some scientists who may feel the argument getting away from them. With no appreciable rise in temperature for at least 17 years and models predicting the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere wildly off-target, the “in for a penny, in for a pound” group of climate experts have apparently decided we aren’t sufficiently scared enough to force our politicians to act.
Poor Mr. Newman. If he had known he was going to suffer ad hominem attacks for taking an opposing view on global warming, he probably would have kept his mouth shut. The truth is, advocates like Professor Karoly have clearly demonstrated their dedication to cutting off debate about climate change and favor smearing opponents into silence.”Flat earthers,” indeed. How wedded is the good professor to the principles of scientific inquiry when he seeks to silence those with whom he disagrees?
The professor’s methods do not reflect well on science in general, and global warming supporters specifically.
Meanwhile, I’ve got another six inches to shovel off my sidewalk and my back is killing me. A few more demonstrations of climate change like this and I may need back surgery.
Maybe I could put in a claim that I was “injured” by global warming?
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