Ok people. I don’t know if you consider it a part of my ranting to keep you educated on all the stuff that’s going on, but lucky for you I don’t really give a shit.
I’m going to do it anyway.
And for THIS installment, I’ll be demolishing everything you probably believe about Climate Change.
First things first:
There is no consensus among the scientific community that increased CO2 levels directly correlate to increased temperatures.
“But Matt how can that be true! I’ve based my ENTIRE BELIEF ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING on that consensus because everyone says there is a consensus!”
No, there isn’t.
“You’re just another climate change denier! You’re evil and stupid and I hope your pets die because of how horrible you are as a person!”
Hey that’s not cool bro.
“Yeah but it’s the CLIMATE! Don’t you want to leave a better planet for your grandchildren and blah blah blah WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!?!”
(sorry)
Ok, we’ll start here: there is no consensus.
The reason everyone thinks there IS a consensus is because of a man named John Cook. Here’s his website:
www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus-intermediate
The paper he released that reviewed 12,000 published scientific papers on the subject said that 97% of them agreed global warming was happening, and that humans were the primary cause.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s agree that “primary” means somewhere above 50% of the responsibility.
Now for the fun part: that’s not what they said.
In order to easily categorize all those papers, he created several categories for people that fall into that 97%.
The first category was the easiest. He called it “explicit endorsement with quantification” or whatever. What this category means is that Earth is warming up and human emissions of greenhouse gases are the main cause.
So that’s the one everyone fell into obviously. Right?
Nope.
A handful of those 12,000 papers fell into that category.
“We find that 66.4% of abstracts expressed no position on [man-made global warming], 32.6% endorsed [it], 0.7% rejected [it] and 0.3% were uncertain about the cause of global warming. Among abstracts expressing a position on AGW, 97.1% endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming.”
That’s from the ABSTRACT PARAGRAPH OF COOK’S PAPER.
So right off the bat we’re knee deep in bullshit.
They reviewed 11,944 papers and 66% of them didn’t take a side AT ALL. So that’s not 97% of scientific papers.
66% of 11,944 is 7,883.
So out of 11,944 scientific papers on Global Warming, 4,061 took a position on whether or not humans were the cause. That’s 34%. Not 97%.
BUT, there’s also a follow up on that abstract. Of the papers that DIDN’T take a side, John Cook called the authors and ASKED them to take a side.
NOW. It’s very important to note something here.
Not following the perceived consensus in the scientific community is career suicide.
You would think that scientists would be at the forefront of fighting groupthink, but you would be mistaken.
If you want an example, Google Judith Curry. She is arguably the world’s leading climatologist, and she has been “tossed from the tribe” for daring to question “consensus”.
But, many of the scientists took a side- either because they truly believed in it, or they weren’t sure and chose the safer side.
Of those 7,883 that DID NOT take a side in their papers, 97% endorsed the consensus after being asked by John Cook.
Now you add those two numbers together, and you get 97%.
But you start digging into the other categories and you’re going to find a lot MORE bullshit in there.
I could walk you through it, but we’ve got some more to talk about and you need to be Googling your own stuff sometimes, padnah.
The next problem we have is about temperatures.
For some reason there’s this HUGE push to believe that global temperatures are entering uncharted territory, blah blah blah.
Absolutely not true.
If you look at Earth’s temperature by epoch, going all the way back to the planet’s formation, you’ll see that we are currently in a VERY cold time in Earth’s history.
There’s a chart that shows global temperatures (blue line) and levels of CO2 in the atmosphere (purple line).
So there’s no correlation long term. And global temperatures are pretty damn cold compared to the average.
Now a more accurate statement is to say that we’re entering uncharted territory FOR HUMANS.
That’s true.
Here’s a pretty blue line I drew with my Note 9.
That’s when human’s came along. Now go back and look at the big pic. Yeah.
If (and pay attention to this “if”) there is a direct correlation between CO2 in the atmosphere and global temperatures, we’re in pretty deep shit.
Humanity has been around for about 200,000 years, and in a few centuries the CO2 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere will be as high as it was 800,000 years ago.
That’s bad. It was HOT back then.
BUT- and this is a Sir Mixalot sized BUT- the more we learn about the relationship between CO2 and the climate, the more we are learning that there is no direct correlation.
I would type that again, but you’re an intelligent person and you’ve read this far so I assume you understood that.
The climate is too complex to blame one single thing for the temperature increase.
That’s not me talking.
My specialties are smartass comments, Madden 19 and Star Trek trivia.
That’s scientists, homie.
Here’s a paper that says that.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25450
The authors:
- A professor of climate system dynamics within mathematics and computer science at the University of Exeter
- A climate modeler at the British Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
- An assistant research fellow at the University of Exeter with a specialty in assessing the impacts of climate change above 2oC global warming- specifically at tipping points in the climate system.
These aren’t keyboard warriors or Facebook professors.
These dudes are SCIENTISTS. With degrees and stuff.
“Morons” you say! The science is settled! I heard them yelling about it within my bubble at laughing at those who DARED to laugh at such convincing science!
Dr. Spencer is a meteorologist, a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. He has also served as senior scientist for climate studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
He calls bullshit too.
Nir Joseph Shaviv is an Israeli‐American physics professor, carrying out research in the fields of astrophysics and climate science. He is a professor at the Racah Institute of Physics of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, of which he is now its chairman.
He also calls bullshit.
I could go on, but I’m pretty sure you get it.
SMART PEOPLE, who SCIENCE FOR A LIVING IN THE FIELD OF CLIMATE do not agree with your “consensus”.
Are you smarter than them? I’m not. Not smarter than the fuckers who say its real either, but I know what the word “consensus” means.
Oh and here’s my disclaimer: if you have read something I haven’t, or have information I don’t, which clearly and definitively shows a consensus regarding Global Warming, please tell me.
But also- PLEASE make sure you’ve checked it for yourself. Where did they get the information, how did they get it and are there any critics of the information?
None of that will dismiss it outright, but they are questions that need to be answered.
NOW!
Since we’ve talked about all that nonsense.
Let’s talk about the Green New Deal. Here’s some of my favorite parts. I made up NONE of these.
– every building in America must be upgraded for energy efficiency
– expand electric car manufacturing, build charging stations everywhere, and expand high-speed rail to a scale where air travel stops becoming necessary
– guarantee a job for everyone with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security for all Americans
– High quality health care for all Americans
Ok, so that would cost TRILLIONS of dollars. Probably more than that.
It would also put so many requirements on businesses and citizens that we may as well just be a socialist country.
This is why politics is bullshit.
This is why the media is bullshit.
This is why people coming onto Facebook and regurgitating the things they heard in their bubble on the news, on the radio, on social media and from their teacher is bullshit.
Be better than that.
Learn what you’re talking about and educate others (including me) if they are wrong.
But don’t just regurgitate what you’ve heard.
Look into it.
Dammit.
Nonsense from a crazy man 