2014: Year of Futility in the Fight Against Climate Change

Heartland ^ | 12/31/14 | Steve Goreham

[Libloather]

**SNIP**

The Obama administration continued its attack on coal-fired power plants, which provide about 40 percent of US electricity. In June, the EPA proposed new restrictions on carbon emissions that would make it vitually impossible to build a new coal-fired plant in the US. At the same time, more than 1,200 new coal-fired plants are planned across the world, with two-thirds to be built in India and China.

In his 2007 Noble Prize acceptance speech, former Vice President Al Gore warned that the arctic ice could be gone in “as little as seven years.” But arctic sea ice rebounded in 2014 and antarctic sea ice has been growing for decades. According to the University of Illinois, satellites measured global sea ice area at above the 30-year average at the end of 2014.

In September, the United Nations held a climate summit in New York City to urge the world to conserve energy and reduce emissions. Spokesman Leonardo DiCaprio stated, “This disaster has grown beyond the choices that individuals make.” Mr. DiCaprio neglected to mention his frequent flights on carbon-emitting private jets or his ownership of the world’s fifth largest yacht, purchased from a Middle East oil tycoon.

[Libloather]

Count on the Kenyan to continue pimping the hoax.

[MrB]

arctic sea ice rebounded in 2014 and antarctic sea ice has been growing for decades

---

“No it hasn’t”
(response from a libinlaw when this fact was brought up)

[hlmencken3]

“I paid for an argument, but you’re just contradicting!”

[MrB]

“No I’m not”

[FatherofFive]

“No it hasn’t”

ARTHUR: Now stand aside, worthy adversary.
BLACK KNIGHT: 'Tis but a scratch.
ARTHUR: A scratch? Your arm's off!
BLACK KNIGHT: No, it isn't.
ARTHUR: Well, what's that then?
BLACK KNIGHT: I've had worse.
ARTHUR: You liar!
BLACK KNIGHT: Come on you pansy!

[az_gila]

arctic sea ice rebounded in 2014 and antarctic sea ice has been growing for decades

“No it hasn’t”
(response from a libinlaw when this fact was brought up)

---

It's often a losing battle, but sometimes printing out actual data from not a “right wing” site helps...

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/S_stddev_timeseries.png

Note that their first response will to associate your data with Fox News/Koch brothers/Big Business - check your source first...:^)

[MrB]

Something like that happened...

I asked how many sources she needed to be convinced that the polar caps were growing, and the response was “one good one” (meaning something left wing).

So, LA Times, here I come.
Basically, the article in the LA Times said
“the growth of antarctic ice will have to be explained within the accepted fact that the earth is warming”.

Basically, global warming is a “given”, and all data must be interpreted as supporting that given.

[Pearls Before Swine]

“No it hasn’t”
(response from a libinlaw when this fact was brought up)

My libinlaws, too, are resistant to facts and reasoning. They are hard-core members of the lib-church. Anything else would be heresy.

[PROCON]

[MrB]

Actually, that IS it.
They actually have a soteriological view of their environmentalism.

They are “good people” (worthy of salvation) because they care about the earth.

And, if the earth isn’t actually in danger, then their source of righteousness goes up in smoke.

[Vince Ferrer]

There are a lot of good charts here if that may help:

Sunshinehours

[MrB]

You don’t think actual data is going to convince anyone, do you? :)

[Iron Munro]

Destroying the coal industry and raising energy prices are just about the only promises that King Obama has kept.

He said he would put coal fired electric out of business and drive up the cost of energy when he ran for office in 2008 and people still voted for him.

I guess they didn’t figure it would be their jobs that would be lost and their energy costs that would go up.

[EEGator]

[Vince Ferrer]

You don’t think actual data is going to convince anyone, do you? :)

Unfortunately, no. But it might make them stop bothering others if they realize they are not being agreed with.

[MrB]

I don’t think they’re trying to convince you/us, either.
It’s a matter of expressing their moral superiority.

[zeestephen]

The Warmist argument about less ice in the Arctic is that the surface area of ice has grown, but the thickness has declined.

If true, that would be a reasonable argument.

Conservative websites have many reports about the growth of surface ice, but I have not seen the thickness issue discussed.

As for the Antarctic, the Warmists now claim that ice below the continental surface ice is melting and runs off into the surrounding sea. That flow of ice melt, according to the Warmists, chills the sea, causes more sea ice to form, but, the net result is less total ice, just more surface ice.

I haven't seen a Conservative discussion about that idea, either.

I am personally an anti-Warmist and a fully certified “Denier,” but I have been avoiding ice discussions because I don't have a counter argument, or a data link, for the “thinner ice” ice issue.

Any enlightenment or suggestions on this issue will be welcomed.

[Ouderkirk]

My usual pput-down to my Lib-in-laws is

“I know I shouldn’t confuse you with facts because your mind is already made up.”

That sends them into orbit, and me headed for the garage.

[zeestephen]

Re: “I guess they didn’t figure...[that] their energy costs would go up.

For those receiving federally sponsored heat assistance, they were right.

[SunkenCiv]

DiCaprio neglected to mention his frequent flights on carbon-emitting private jets or his ownership of the world's fifth largest yacht, purchased from a Middle East oil tycoon.