David Bidstrup: If one problem is too hard to solve try another one
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/01/16/david-bidstrup-if-one-problem
Back in the 1970’s the big climate scare was the “impending ice age”. Temperatures had fallen since the 1930’s and Arctic sea ice was in abundance. All the “scientists” and the “scientific bodies” agreed that we would freeze. There was “concensus”.
The main problem with global cooling was it could not be attributed to anything “anthropogenic”. Carbon dioxide was supposed to heat us up and the Milankovitch cycles and sunspot activity were outside mans “control”. There was nothing we could do except to prepare to become extinct as agriculture failed and mass starvation culled us from the earth.
Fortunately temperatures began to rise and by 1988 the climate problem became how to stop us all from frying. This was a better problem because the fanciful notion that carbon dioxide, with its magical property of “trapping heat” and “radiating it back towards us”. The magical “greenhouse effect”,( that is nothing like a real greenhouse), became the culprit and that gave them a means of “control”. They could “stop climate change” if only we gave up having cheap reliable electricity and glass in the windows. I wonder when they will work out how to control volcano’s – that’s a hard one so they will probably let it go through to the keeper.
There was also a moral dimension to the story. All of the “advanced counties” who had benefited from the dreaded CO2 and advanced their standard of living had done so by “causing climate change” that would affect outer bong-bong land. We were guilty of eco-terrorism and had to atone.
For some reason that is beyond rationality, the task of co-ordinating the “science” and sorting out the method to make reparations for our sins was given to the United Nations, one of the most ineffectual organisations in the world. In the best bureaucratic tradition the IPCC became the 300 kg Gorilla that sat wherever it wanted to. Meetings were held in exotic places and attended by thousands of “dignitaries”, “scientists” and hangers on. Our recently departed Premier attended one of them with a film crew in tow so that his virtue was captured for posterity. While all this happened the state electricity supply was trashed and the state debt increased.
In the late 1990’s the temperatures plateaued and have stayed about the same for the time since then. This violated the CO2 theory so mad animal panic attempts were made to “find the missing heat”. Was it “in the oceans” or in the cupboard under the stairs? This is when “global warming” became “climate change”. It did not matter then if temperatures did not increase; there were plenty of things that could be blamed on CO2 given the right propaganda – “extreme weather”, sea level rise, coral reefs dying, Arctic/Antarctic ice melting, glaciers melting. Imagination was the only limiting factor.
When it became obvious that practice was widely divergent from the theory other scientists who were not so gullible began to voice contrary views that were backed up by research. This heretical behaviour could not be tolerated so a concerted campaign started to vilify these people and call them offensive names. This continues today. Some really rabid green types want to throw them in jail.
“Climate change” is manna from heaven for politicians who compete in the stupidity stakes to show which side is more capable of “saving us”. No plan is too outlandish or expensive as long as it will “save the planet” and guarantee a bright future for the grandkids. People whose main skill is to kiss arses without cringing and who possess pathological egos become instant experts aided by economic modelling and urged on by special interest groups. Anyone who challenges the status quo, particularly if they indulge in engineering solutions, become “coal lovers” and therefore highly suspect. The fact that they have years of experience and know what to do has no value.
It is also the best thing for the purveyors of “renewable energy”. With the assistance of policy that gives them first call to supply electricity, (if they can), and a guaranteed subsidy for every megawatt hour delivered, (paid for by consumers), these useless projects have proliferated, blighting the landscape, killing birds and causing health problems for near residents while traditional generators using coal have been sent to the wall. Here in good old SA we even blow power stations up and send the scrap to China. That’s OK because “carbon is bad” even though we are a carbon based species and carbon dioxide is necessary for all living things.
What used to be simple and cheap is now complex and unreliable. New bureaucracies have popped up to “run” the system and administer the biggest joke of a “market” imaginable.
Consumers are screwed at every opportunity. Some may remember my post titled “the summer rip-off” documenting eye watering costs in January 2018 when the system was on the edge of failure. This will happen again this summer.
Funnily enough, global cooling is again on the agenda backed up by some science on solar cycles and past climate events like the “little ice age”. The Arctic ice refuses to die even though the climate change boosters have been giving it another year to disappear every year for the last 15 years. Greenland is amassing ice, glaciers are growing and Europe and the USA are enduring horrifically cold winters with “record” snow. This is apparently caused by carbon dioxide. The Great Barrier Reef is ok and Australian summer temperatures are normal despite all the “scientists” telling us they are not.
The media are in climate frenzy with dire stories every day about “heat waves”, “extreme temperatures” and other twaddle which can be challenged by looking at past records. Even an old bloke like me can spot it. The first rule of holes says that when you find yourself in one you stop digging.
At this time it seems that there is no end to this insanity. Perhaps we need to really fail badly before people start chasing these charlatans down the streets brandishing pitchforks. In less enlightened times the mob would string them up on the nearest lamppost or tree.
(Footnote: If anyone has not heard of Tony Heller I recommend that you acquaint yourselves with him and look at some of his video presentations. His website is realclimatescience.com.)
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