By Tim Ball, Canada Free Press

“But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.”

Amid the rhetoric of President Obama’s speech to the United Nations September 22 conference on climate change in New York he repeated the same few points. They’re identical to those in Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Trouble is they are wrong. So, what is the President’s culpability? If he doesn’t know they’re wrong he and his advisors are incompetent. If they know, they’re deceiving.

ICECAP NOTE: Sorry John Keery and Barbara Boxer, renaming it the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act doesn’t change the fact, it endangers our energy future, IS a tax and as John Dingell (D. MI) says a huge one on industry and the American families, with the greatest impact on the lower and middle income families already reeling from the worst economy in many decades.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon organized the conference to boost flagging support for the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference 2009. Copenhagen organizers define the objective; “In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming runs out. To keep the process on the line there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol. At the conference in Copenhagen 2009 the parties of the UNFCCC meet for the last time on government level before the climate agreement needs to be renewed.” It’s the last chance?

Obama began with a reverse consensus argument. “That so many of us are here today is a recognition that the threat from climate change is serious.” No it isn’t! Ban Ki-Moon invited representatives from over 140 countries because it’s the issue he chose as the centre of his tenure at the UN and it is failing: “The summit on September 22 on climate change will be the largest ever gathering of heads of states and governments on climate change. The proposal is to focus minds and generate action.” Number or importance of attendees does not change the facts.

Moon said, “Climate change is happening much faster than we realized,” No it isn’t! It’s an unsupportable claim designed to stampede leaders and the public. Of course, once you scare the public you must promise action. “Our summit is about building the bridge to Copenhagen. We want world leaders to show [that] they understand the gravity of climate risk as well as the benefits of acting now.”

False Information
Obama’s speeches follow a pattern. Invoke a big name from the past: here he used John F Kennedy, “Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man.” The problem is global warming or climate changes are not man-made. Next he presents a few ‘facts’ to substantiate the threat. Then he exaggerates the situation to justify draconian intervention. Here he repeats Moon’s inaccurate message. The “threat from climate change is serious, it is urgent, and it is growing.” Throughout he repeats a claim for emphasis; in this case it’s the false claim that CO2 is a pollutant. He makes seven references.

The few ‘facts’ start with; “Rising sea levels threaten every coastline.” No they don’t! Actually, there are many areas where land is rising and sea levels falling. Sea level rise is the centerpiece of Gore’s movie. It has risen steadily and naturally over the last few thousand years as we emerged from the ice age, but the rate of increase has decreased.

Figure 1: Sea level Rise 20,000 years to present.

Decrease will continue with current cooling. Gore predicts a 4 to 12 meters rise but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) disagree significantly. Lord Monckton says, Gore has accordingly exaggerated the official sea-level estimate by approaching 10,000 per cent.

Then Obama claims, “More powerful storms and floods threaten every continent.” No they don’t! They are not increasing in numbers or intensity. Here’s a plot of US landfall hurricanes for 154 years and a plot of severe tornadoes for 57 years.

Figure 2: US Hurricanes 1851-2005. Source: National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

There’s no increase in either plot and there won’t be any if warming occurs. Warming theory says polar air will warm more than tropical air thus reducing temperature contrast, the main driving force of severe weather.

Figure 3: Severe Tornadoes 1950-2007. Source: National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Next he claims, “More frequent drought and crop failures breed hunger and conflict in places where hunger and conflict already thrive.” This is scientifically illogical. A warmer world means more moisture evaporates to the atmosphere increasing precipitation potential. It’s also a questionable link. Hunger and conflict thrive in these regions mostly because of political, economic and development failures.

The last claim is related to sea level rise. “On shrinking islands, families are already being forced to flee their homes as climate refugees.” This is more Gore nonsense. As Lord Monckton observed in identifying 35 major errors in Gore’s movie, There have been no mass evacuations of populations of islanders as suggested by Gore, though some residents of Tuvalu have asked to be moved to New Zealand, even though the tide-gauges maintained until recently by the National Tidal Facility of Australia show a mean annual sea-level rise over the past half-century equivalent to the thickness of a human hair. In addition, about the most quoted island situation he writes, In the Maldives, a detailed recent study (by Nils Axel Morner) showed that sea levels were unchanged today compared with 1250 years ago, though they have been higher in much of the intervening period, and have very seldom been lower.

Here is Morner’s plot of Maldives sea levels changes, which parallels the curve in Figure 1. Humans have occupied the islands since 1500 BP and survived previous higher levels. 

Figure 4: 5000 year sea level curve for the Maldives compared to present level. Source: Nils Axel Morner, “The Maldives Sea Level Research Project”.

Exclusions Are as Telling as Inclusions
Obama uses Gore’s arguments so comments about them in the ruling of a United Kingdom Court judge are appropriate. Speaking of “An Inconvenient Truth,” “It is built round the charismatic presence of the ex-Vice-President, Al Gore, whose crusade it now is to persuade the world of the dangers of climate change caused by global warming. It is now common ground that it is not simply a science film - although it is clear that it is based substantially on scientific research and opinion - but that it is a political film, albeit of course not party political. Its theme is not merely the fact that there is global warming, and that there is a powerful case that such global warming is caused by man, but that urgent, and if necessary expensive and inconvenient steps must be taken to counter it, many of which are spelt out. Paul Downes, using persuasive force almost equivalent to that of Mr Gore, has established his case that the views in the film are political by submitting that Mr Gore promotes an apocalyptic vision, which would be used to influence a vast array of political policies,”

Obama repeats the errors. In addition, he ignores exposure of the “hockey stick” fraud after its authors were forced to disclose data and method. He ignores the fact the scientist who claimed a global temperature rise of circa 1 degree C since pre-industrial times refuses to disclose his data or method. He ignores recent global temperature decline as CO2 levels increase in contradiction of IPCC assumptions. IPCC is the sole source of his claim of warming and sea level rise, but all previous predictions have been wrong. He repeats errors already exposed and ignores newly exposed errors. If he is unaware of this information, he displays incompetence. If he is aware, he is perpetuating a massive deception.

Right for the Wrong Reason
Ironically, Obama made one accurate comment, “The security and stability of each nation and all peoples - our prosperity, our health, our safety - are in jeopardy. And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out.” It’s true as long as leaders ignore the evidence and accept incorrect corrupt science to destroy economies with disastrous, unnecessary policies. Disseminating and repeating false information for political purposes is the definition of propaganda.

Oh, by the way, the opening quote is from Chapter 6 of Mein Kampf.

See full post here.