Global Warming on Free Republic
Posted on 06/22/2012 10:54:05 PM PDT by grundle
Two months ago, James Lovelock, the godfather of global warming, gave a startling interview to msnbc.com in which he acknowledged he had been unduly “alarmist” about climate change. (Link: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/23/11144098-gaia-scientist-james-lovelock-i-was-alarmist-about-climate-change?lite )
The implications were extraordinary.
Lovelock is a world-renowned scientist and environmentalist whose Gaia theory — that the Earth operates as a single, living organism — has had a profound impact on the development of global warming theory.
Unlike many “environmentalists,” who have degrees in political science, Lovelock, until his recent retirement at age 92, was a much-honoured working scientist and academic.
His inventions have been used by NASA, among many other scientific organizations.
Lovelock’s invention of the electron capture detector in 1957 first enabled scientists to measure CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and other pollutants in the atmosphere, leading, in many ways, to the birth of the modern environmental movement.
Having observed that global temperatures since the turn of the millennium have not gone up in the way computer-based climate models predicted, Lovelock acknowledged, “the problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago.” Now, Lovelock has given a follow-up interview to the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which he delivers more bombshells sure to anger the global green movement, which for years worshipped his Gaia theory and apocalyptic predictions that billions would die from man-made climate change by the end of this century. (Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jun/15/james-lovelock-fracking-greens-climate )
Lovelock still believes anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that mankind must lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but says it’s now clear the doomsday predictions, including his own (and Al Gore’s) were incorrect.
He responds to attacks on his revised views by noting that, unlike many climate scientists who fear a loss of government funding if they admit error, as a freelance scientist, he’s never been afraid to revise his theories in the face of new evidence. Indeed, that’s how science advances.
Among his observations to the Guardian:
(1) A long-time supporter of nuclear power as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which has made him unpopular with environmentalists, Lovelock has now come out in favour of natural gas fracking (which environmentalists also oppose), as a low-polluting alternative to coal.
As Lovelock observes, “Gas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They’ve gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it … Let’s be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.” (Kandeh Yumkella, co-head of a major United Nations program on sustainable energy, made similar arguments last week at a UN environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, advocating the development of conventional and unconventional natural gas resources as a way to reduce deforestation and save millions of lives in the Third World.)
(2) Lovelock blasted greens for treating global warming like a religion.
“It just so happens that the green religion is now taking over from the Christian religion,” Lovelock observed. “I don’t think people have noticed that, but it’s got all the sort of terms that religions use … The greens use guilt. That just shows how religious greens are. You can’t win people round by saying they are guilty for putting (carbon dioxide) in the air.”
(3) Lovelock mocks the idea modern economies can be powered by wind turbines.
As he puts it, “so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel … We rushed into renewable energy without any thought. The schemes are largely hopelessly inefficient and unpleasant. I personally can’t stand windmills at any price.”
(4) Finally, about claims “the science is settled” on global warming: “One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don’t know it.”
The amount of money the Obama Administration wasted on “green energy” is criminal,
Indeed any amount by any administration should be considered picking life’s winners and losers and ought to be worth of criminal prosecution.
High time for concentration on all things related to spending, before we go over the cliff, and the word renewable gets an entirely new definition unrelated to energy sources.
This has got to be a huge blow to the greenies’ morale.
I am not she, but my guess would be Rock Port, Missouri.
Sunlight and wind are indeed free - just like the coal, oil, gas and (uranium) below your feet. Converting sunlight and wind into consumable energy is extremely expensive.
The object of energy production is to obtain, store and transport that fuel or energy to the final user. In this regard, solar and wind “power” is simply not feasible on a grand scale in our lifetime, if ever, unless you legislate the other sources out of existence.
“so-called ‘sustainable development’ … is meaningless drivel
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It’s the ‘law’ here .. Thanks to aRnie, Moonbeam, the
NRDC, Sierra Club, thug unions, and many more too stupid to balance their checkbooks much less understand science.. but they can roll a joint in their sleep.
Global Warming on Free Republic
Toronto Sun poll at the link:
Poll
Do you think global warming is a real threat?
6%
Yes
475 votes
92%
No
7705 votes
3%
It won’t be my problem
221 votes
One would think that such a place would be highly publicized by the environmentalists. I wonder where it is, too.
There’s no problem with wind power as long as it isn’t being subsidized by Taxpayers. The problem occurs when Gov’t starts picking winners and losers in industry.
Good one...
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