Cherry-Picked Facts Heat Up Climate Debate

Albuquerque Journal ^ | February 18, 2009 | John Fleck

[neverdem]

There is an old canard of the political debate around climate change that goes something like this: How can scientists be believed about global warming today when back in the 1970s they predicted global cooling?

The argument, reprised in Sunday's Journal by syndicated columnist George Will, sounds reasonable, and gets good traction in the political debate.

It is wrong.

There was no widespread belief among scientists in the 1970s about a coming ice age. Will engages in an egregious case of cherry-picking, plucking quotes that seem to support his assertion while ignoring a vast body of literature that does not.

To give but one example: Will quotes a 1975 Science News article as predicting "a full-blown 10,000-year ice age".

The 1970s were an interesting time in climate science. Global temperatures were cooling at the time, and some scientists were struggling to understand why. Was it variations in solar radiation caused by oscillations in Earth's orbit? Could aerosol pollution be blocking the sun?

Meanwhile other researchers were piecing together the story of greenhouse gases being emitted by fossil fuel burning, and considering the possibility that they could warm the planet.

If you read the full 1975 Science News article, rather than Will's hand-picked quote, you get a different picture. "The cooling trend observed since 1940 is real enough, (C.C. Wallen of the World Meteorological Organization) says, but not enough is known about the underlying causes to justify any sort of extrapolation."

The article goes on to say: "Stephen H. Schneider of the National Center for Atmospheric Research says that by the turn of the century, enough carbon dioxide will have been put into the atmosphere to raise the temperature of earth half a degree."

In other words, the 1975 Science News article, rather than predicting...

[neverdem]

Sea Ice Sensor Degradation Hits Cryosphere Today

Satellite sensor errors cause data outage

Welcome

More than 70 of the world’s elite scientists specializing in climate issues will confront the subject of global warming at the second annual International Conference on Climate Change in New York City March 8-10, 2009.

They will be joined by economists, legal experts, and other climate specialists calling attention to new research that contradicts claims that Earth’s moderate warming during the twentieth century primarily was man-made and has reached crisis proportions.

The conference expects to draw 1,000 attendees including private-sector business people, state and federal legislators and officials, policy analysts, media, and students.

Headliners among the 70-plus presenters will be:

• American astronaut Dr. Jack Schmitt—the last living man to walk on the moon.

• William Gray, Colorado State University, leading researcher into tropical weather patterns.

• Richard Lindzen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world’s leading experts in dynamic meteorology, especially planetary waves.

• Stephen McIntyre, primary author of Climate Audit, a blog devoted to the analysis and discussion of climate data. He is a devastating critic of the temperature record of the past 1,000 years, particularly the work of Michael E. Mann, creator of the infamous “hockey stick” graph. That graph--thoroughly discredited in scientific circles--supposedly proved that mankind is responsible for a sharp increase in greenhouse gases.

• Arthur Robinson, curator of a global warming petition signed by more than 32,000 American scientists, including more than 10,000 with doctorate degrees, rejecting the alarmist assertion that global warming has put the Earth in crisis and is caused primarily by mankind.

• Willie Soon, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

• Roy Spencer, University of Alabama at Huntsville, principal research scientist and team leader on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

The Heartland Institute, a 24-year-old national nonpartisan think-tank based in Chicago, said all of the event’s expenses will be covered by admission fees and individual and foundation donors to Heartland. No corporate dollars or sponsorships earmarked for the event were solicited or accepted.

---

Click here for the full proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change -- including audio and video for more than 100 speakers.

[Habibi]

“.....but not enough is known about the underlying causes to justify any sort of extrapolation”

It was true in ‘75, and it’s true today. I sat through lectures in meteorology class where the prof swore up and down that we were going into an ice age (in fairness he did not say that the time for debate was over). The only difference between then and now is there wasn’t a nutty pol (who had trouble making it through most any of his science classes), who’s been boosting his warming fantasy for 20 years. That, and funding his accolytes in academia with public money to back him up. There’s the real difference between then and now.

[Gigantor]

I remember my parents had an alarmist pamphlet in the 1970's entitled "The Coming Ice Age." There was also a Newsweek article about it... The Coming Ice Age, Newsweek, 1975

[Tex Pete]

Here’s another fact I cherry picked: the Vikings used to farm in Greenland.

[Dan Zachary]

Time had one also http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914,00.html

“However widely the weather varies from place to place and time to time, when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe they find that the atmosphere has been growing gradually cooler for the past three decades. The trend shows no indication of reversing. Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age.”

[neverdem]

The Post-Heller Fight for Second Amendment Rights in Illinois Proceeds

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Who Are the Big Spenders?

Stem Cells: Ideology Or Science? Tests indicate at least two human baby/fetal implants

Some noteworthy articles about politics, foreign or military affairs, IMHO, FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[grey_whiskers]

Pardon my French, neverdem, but WTF are you doing up at this hour?

I've got Martian death flu and my body won't produce any heat.

And it's 19 degrees outside.

What's *your* excuse? ;-)

Cheers!

[grey_whiskers]

Here’s another fact I cherry picked: the Vikings used to farm in Greenland.

Yeah, back when they went to the Super Bowl, too.

Thanks for reminding me of that painful fact, guy.

Cheers!

[VeniVidiVici]

Some quotes I pulled from a 1975 article on “New Ice Age” or more benign weather:

Some climate experts believe a new Ice Age is coming, partially caused by man’s interference with the atmosphere. Others beleive the world’s natural climate cycle is shifting and we are about to enter a long period of adverse weather.

In effect we are in a warming period following what is known as the Little Ice Age of the 16th to 19th centuries.

All over the world temperatures appear to be going down. Armadillos are moving south....Iceland has dropped 2.7 degrees since 1945...views as nonsense the idea that massive climate changes can take place in a short period of time...

[steelyourfaith]

 

Global Warming Scam News & Views

• Competitive Enterprise Institute
• GlobalWarming.org
• Popular Technology/The Anti "Man-Made" Global Warming Resource
• Heartland Institute
• James Hudnall's Global Warming/Climate Change Page
• FightGlobalWarmingLies
• THE GLOBAL WARMING HERETIC
• Beam me to Planet Gore !
• WeatherQuestions.Com (Dr. Roy Spencer, Official Climatologist, EIB Network)
• Reasoned Thinking Comes From Cooler Heads
• Schnitt's Global Warming Files
• Rush Limbaugh's E-Stack "Global Warming Hoax & Religion of Environmentalism" (Rush 24/7 subscription required)
• Craig James 24 Hour News 8 Blog
• Icecap
• Watts Up With That?
• Space Weather (monitor sun spots daily)
• Climate of Fear(a book available free on line in .pdf form by Thomas G. Moore of the Cato Institute, via the Hoover Institution at Stanford)

Entrepreneur's Compilation of
The Best Global Warming Videos on the Internet

• Part I ............. Documentaries
• Part II ...................... Lectures
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[gusopol3]

widespread belief among scientists in the 1970s about a coming ice age.

if this is a canard, what's a hockeystick?

[xcamel]

FReepmail me to get on or off

Climate Research News

Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown

GREENIE WATCH

Ping me if you find one I've missed.

---

[facedown]

if this is a canard, what's a hockeystick?

A statistically manipulated lie.

[beebuster2000]

the Vikings used to farm in Greenland.

they had a quarterback and coach then as well

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[Thickman]

This editorial by the Albuquerque Urinal is just part of its AGW campaign. They have a staff reporter who keeps getting front page articles that proclaim things like “most scientists agree . . .” and “the majority of climatologists warn . . .”. It use to be that the ABQ paper let the AP content do its news propaganda - now it has staff writing junk science too.

Very poor journalism from a newspaper that is dying almost as quickly as the NY Slimes. It continues to lose advertising volume and the number of pages keeps dropping month-by-month.

[Names Ash Housewares]

“American astronaut Dr. Jack Schmitt—the last living man to walk on the moon.”

Gene Cernan is quite alive still.