Do kindergarten teacher views on climate science really debunk those of the climate skeptics?
That’s what the American Geophysical Union reportedly says.
According to the Environmental News Examiner article “American Geophysical scientists strike back with climate change literacy online”:
American Geophysical Union (AGU) scientists struck back at climate change deniers yesterday at the 44th annual AGU meeting of earth scientists from around the world in step with global leaders’ discussion of solutions to climate change at the 17th U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban, Africa.
A representative from NASA announced “My guess is that it isn’t that there are a lot of climate change deniers in as so much as the few of them there are - are just loud.”
And how exactly did the AGU strike back a deniers? With a survey of K-12 teachers:
Further supporting the NASA position on global warming, a representative from the National Earth Science Teachers of America (NESTA) reported the results of 555 K-12 teachers in the United States who currently teach about climate change.
And what were the results?
On average, 89% of respondents indicated that they believe global warming is happening with the highest levels of agreement from respondents in Western states, younger teachers, urban teachers, and females.
Only 6% of respondents indicated that they did not believe global warming is happening. On average, only 13% of respondents attribute climate change to mainly natural causes with the highest rates of this response among male and Southern respondents.
Apparently as far as the AGU is concerned, climate skeptics - including top scientists like Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson, hydrogen bomb architect Edward Teller, MIT atmospheric physicist Richard Lindzen, space science pioneer S. Fred Singer, first president of the National Academy of Sciences Frederick Seitz and more than 31,000 other American scientists - are wrong because their views differ with those of 494 K-12 teachers.
Words fail us.
Icecap Note: Of course these young teachers have been brainwashed by the environmental professors who have taken over the schools and the science textbooks that present the failied global warming theory as fact. The AGU has fallen so far, it may never recover.
Jean Chemnick, E&E reporter, Greenwire: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
DURBAN, South Africa—The United States has abandoned the international effort to curb global warming and will never again consider legislation that would limit heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, the Senate’s chief climate skeptic told the U.N. climate conference here in a brash video message today.
“The message from Washington to the U.N. delegates in South Africa this week could not be any clearer: You are being ignored,” Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe told negotiators and environmentalists in a small meeting room on the sidelines of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP).
“And you are being ignored,” he added, “by your biggest allies in the United States—that’s President Obama and the Democratic leadership in the Senate.”
Two years ago, Inhofe noted, Obama and several members of Congress traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the U.N. talks. Though that meeting didn’t yield a new treaty on emissions, the president was instrumental in brokering a voluntary agreement on national emission-cutting targets and funding known as the Copenhagen Accord.
But Obama stayed home this year, as did all members of Congress and the president’s Cabinet, citing busy year-end agendas. And expectations for the U.N. gathering are low, with some expecting it to lead to the death of the Kyoto Protocol—the only binding multilateral treaty on climate change. Many here are blaming U.S. domestic policy and negotiating stance for the treaty’s demise.
Inhofe—sounding a bit like Hanoi Hannah, a radio personality known for her propaganda broadcasts during the Vietnam War—pronounced efforts to pass U.S. climate legislation “done, gone, dead forever.” And gone with them, he said, is the Kyoto Protocol.
“You should know that global warming skeptics everywhere wish we could be with you celebrating the final nail in the coffin on location in South Africa,” he said. “And tell Al Gore hello for me.”
Congressional Democrats have been relatively quiet on the Durban talks, but Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer released her own statement today from Washington in which she said climate action is vital.
The California Democrat, who was involved in several failed attempts to win Senate passage of a climate change bill, only mentioned the U.N. climate talks once. She wished the negotiators good luck.
Instead, Boxer focused on instances of extreme weather that some link to climate change and on efforts Democrats and her home state have made to ratchet down emissions.
“It is our moral obligation and legislative responsibility to address this enormous global challenge,” she said. “I pledge to do everything I can to stand up to climate change deniers, to shine a light on the truth, and to build support for taking common-sense steps to address this critical global problem.”
ICECAP NOTE: No Senator, if California chooses to self destruct over a phoney cause, don’t expect the rest of the states to follow. Spain led the way in Europe to renewables for carbon control and their unemployment is over 24%. Since CO2 has NO effect on climate, but is a plant fertilizer, I advocate cranking up fossil fuel plants and driving sensible cars that I don’t have to plug in twice a day.
Skeptics parachute into Durban
Inhofe’s triumphant mood was echoed by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the skeptic group whose members arrived here yesterday by landing on North Beach in brightly colored parachutes bearing slogans like “Climategate 2.0: Science Not Settled.”
“Climategate” is the name given to the scandal in 2009 in which emails were stolen from a British university and posted to the Internet just ahead of the Copenhagen talks. Skeptics said the emails, written by prominent climate scientists, showed researchers were colluding to manipulate data to show human activities are changing climate patterns. Subsequent independent investigations of those emails found that that was not the case.
A similar bunch of emails surfaced last month, but they appeared to be leftovers from the first event. This is the “Climategate 2.0” referred to on the parachute.
Marc Morano, a former Inhofe staffer who now maintains the skeptic blog Climate Depot, taunted the audience that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the only candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who had maintained that man-made climate change is occurring, has “bailed,” citing the second batch of emails.
“The only Republican you had hope for has bailed on you,” he said. “So that’s the good, cheery news I bring you.”
A British heckler in the audience pointed out that in appearances announcing his shift, Huntsman said the University of East Anglia—where the emails originated—was located in Scotland. East Anglia is a county in England.
Morano was joined on stage by Leon Louw, executive director of South Africa’s Free Market Institute, who said that climate change was inevitable, but could be better dealt with by strong economies run on cheap, high-carbon fuels.
The Kyoto Protocol keeps African countries poor, he said, “and the best that can be done for them is that they can have some kind of alternative way of being poor.”
“What I think anyone who is decent wants to see is for Africa, and Asia, and other poor parts of the world to have cities like New York, Tokyo and Paris,” he said.
Also speaking were prominent international climate skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton and Kelvin Kemm, an African nuclear physicist who said that the current trend of warming was no different than historic events like the mini-ice age that froze the Thames River in Shakespeare’s time.
Monckton answered the only questions entertained by the group, in which he explained that the oceans are not becoming more acidic as most climate scientists have claimed. Monckton himself is not a climate scientist, but was a domestic policy adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Morano said after the presentation that the group would meet with South African activists, but would not bother meeting with U.N. delegates.
“We’re here to deliver the message, because this is a vast echo chamber here where they never hear from the outside world—except essentially falsehoods about how the whole world is waiting breathless for some kind of agreement,” he said, “where they think the United Nations is somehow going to somehow be able to pass some kind of regulation that’s going to control the floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts.
“This is now getting to the level of medieval witchcraft, where they think the U.N. can control the weather.”
On Wednesday, 7 December at 15:30 CFACT will cosponsor a press conference with U.S. Senator James Inhofe in Room Kosi Palm (ICC level 2).
On Tuesday, CFACT conducted a highly publicized parachute drop which called attention to Climategate 2.0 (details including usable video of the drop and Lord Monckton jumping from the plane at www.CFACT.tv).
The Wednesday press conference will feature an analysis from Senator Inhofe of the prospects of a new climate treaty in the U.S. Senate. The conference will also feature the release of Marc Morano’s (editor in chief of ClimateDepot.com) new report “From A-Z” which details troubles and failings in what has been falsely proclaimed by global warming advocates to be a “settled scientific consensus.”
Many of the proponents of man-made global warming are now claiming that climate change is worse than they predicted. According to an October 18, 2011 Daily Climate article, global warming activists claim that the “evidence builds that scientists underplay climate impacts” and “if anything, global climate disruption is likely to be significantly worse than has been suggested.”
But this exclusive Climate Depot exhaustive A-Z Climate Reality Check report on the scientific reality of the failure of man-made global warming shatters any such illusions that the climate is “worse than we thought.” As the real world evidence mounts that global warming claims are failing, the climate activists have ramped up predictions of future climate change impacts to declare that it “worse than we thought.” But a prediction or projection of 50-100 years into the future is not “evidence.” Recent scientific data and developments reveal that Mother Nature is playing a cruel joke on the promoters of man-made climate fears.
The scientific reality is that on virtually every claim—from A-Z—the claims of the promoters of man-made climate fears are failing, and in many instances the claims are moving in the opposite direction. The global warming movement is suffering the scientific death of a thousand cuts. This Climate Depot special report categorizes and indexes the full range of climate developments in a handy A-Z reference guide. The A-Z report includes key facts, peer-reviewed studies and the latest data and developments with links for further reading, on an exhaustive range of man-made global warming claims.
Full PDF of A-Z Climate Reality Check.
“Climate Depot’s new A-Z report reveals that the great man-made global warming catastrophe that was predicted - has been cancelled.” Morano said. “The scientific reality is that on virtually every claim - from A-Z - the claims of the promoters of man-made climate fears are failing and in many instances going in the opposite direction. The global warming movement is suffering the scientific death of a thousand cuts. This Climate Depot special report categorizes and indexes the full range of climate developments in a handy A-Z reference guide from the Antarctic to Polar Bears to Mount Kilimanjaro to Sea Levels to Global temperatures to hurricanes and tornados.”
Nobel Prize nominee, Leon Louw, Executive Director of South Africa’s Free Market Institute, will discuss the devastating impact climate policy has had on the economies of both the developed and developing world and the crippling hindrance it poses to the poor.
South African nuclear physicist Dr. Kelvin Kemm will discuss global warming policy providing a unique South African analysis.
Lord Christopher Monckton, freshly rested from his parachute jump to call attention to Climategate 2.0, will explain exactly why it would be a mistake to adopt a new treaty in Durban along the lines of the failed Kyoto Protocol.
“Secretary Figueres is telling the COP that she can obtain a new commitment period in Durban.” Said CFACT Executive Director Craig Rucker. “After she hears what Senator Inhofe has to say, she may want to reevaluate her wishful thinking.”
Go to www.CLIMATEDEPOT.com for details on Climategate 2.0. More information on CFACT’s mission to Durban at www.CFACT.tv. Also at www.CFACT.org, & www.CFACT.eu.
In the US, in a speech delivered at Osawatomie High School in Osawatomie, Kansas, on Tuesday, President Barack Obama argued that while a limited government that preserves free markets “speaks to our rugged individualism” as Americans, such a system “doesn’t work” and “has never worked” and that Americans must look to a more activist government that taxes more, spends more and regulates more if they want to preserve the middle class.
“‘[T]here is a certain crowd in Washington who, for the last few decades, have said, let’s respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. ‘The market will take care of everything,’ they tell us,” said Obama. “If we just cut more regulations and cut more taxes - especially for the wealthy - our economy will grow stronger.
“Sure, they say, there will be winners and losers,” Obama continued. “But if the winners do really well, then jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everybody else. And, they argue, even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, well, that’s the price of liberty.
No Mr. Pressident Jack Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton demonstrated that it works. What doesn’t work and won’t work is your approach modelled after the failed socialist experiemnts in Europe that promises trickle up poverty. And if you want to help the middle class, approve the Keystone Pipeline project as your union supporters ask and tell the enviros to stuff it. That will create 20,000 jobs, make us more energy independent, drop the cost of energy by 30%, one of the biggest drains on the economy and expenses for the low and middle classes. Forget the green job agenda which is partially responsible for the economic woes and unemployment and even higher energy costs in Europe. Global warming is a farce, green jobs just a liberal fantasy that has never worked, won’t work and could ultimately destroy our economy.
SENIOR bureaucrats in the state government’s environment department have routinely stopped publishing scientific papers which challenge the federal government’s claims of sea level rises threatening Australia’s coastline, a former senior public servant said yesterday.
Doug Lord helped prepare six scientific papers which examined 120 years of tidal data from a gauge at Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour.
The tide data revealed sea levels were rising at a rate of about 1mm a year or less - and the rise was not accelerating but was constant.
“The tidal data we found would mean sea levels would rise by about 100mm by the end of the century,” Mr Lord said yesterday.
“However the (federal) government benchmark which drives their climate change policy is that sea levels are expected to rise by 900mm by the end of the century and the rate of rise is accelerating.”
Mr Lord, who has 35 years experience in coastal engineering, said senior bureaucrats within the then Department of Environment Climate Change and Water had rejected or stopped publication of five papers between late 2009 and September this year.
“This was very thorough research, peer reviewed and getting the highest ranking from various people, and one of the papers got a nine out of 10 for the quality of the work,” he said.
“You have to ask yourself why they were rejected, considering they had been peer reviewed, and the Fort Denison tide data is among the longest continuous data of its type available in the world.
“There’s never been a sensible explanation of why they have stopped these papers.”
Mr Lord left government work in 2010 but continued to co-author the tidal data papers with experts still working for the state government.
The latest incident came in September when organisers of the Coasts and Ports 2011 Conference in Perth accepted one of the studies, only to have senior OEH bureaucrats tell them it had to be withdrawn.
“They were able to do this because my co-author of this study, and the co-authors of the other rejected studies done after I left government work, still work for the government,” Mr Lord said.
“As far as I am aware the minister has not been made aware by her department that this has been happening.”
Icecap Note: I know of two other such papers also meeting the same fate. I was a reviewer on one such paper and approved it with minor suggested changes. The data is not controversial as in all cases it came from long history reliable gauges. The results made the government’s stand and the huge investment being made look bad. The coverup for the BIG LIE continues.
Universities get local AMS event that featured skeptics cancelled
The Oregon American Meteorological Society’s event featuring Meteorologist Chuck Wiese, Climatologist George Taylor, and me on November 29 at OMSI was canceled at the last minute today due to pressure from local universities and others who were apparently upset that our skeptical perspective on Global Warming would interfere with their climate agendas and Federal funding. Details will surely leak out as will whatever reasons they will cite as a cover story.
We suspected this would happen and would happen at the last minute to make it impossible to reschedule the event immediately. But we are grateful to the President of the local AMS chapter (Steve Pierce) and some members of his Board who have expressed a strong determination to reschedule this event in January. Even those Board members who may not support our position on Global Warming seem determined that this event WILL go forward. That should be a warning to those who orchestrated this power play. Most AMS members clearly want to hear both sides, without their organization taking any sides. I applaud their professional behavior. We are not seeking any endorsements, because that is not how science works.
We are seeking the opportunity to present the logic and evidence that are so crucial in objective science. That should not threaten ANYONE who supports real science.
Please be sure to mark your calenders for the January event when we have a specific date and venue that will be more difficult for Alarmists to scuttle.
BANNED BY OMSI, Portland State University, and others - Come and find out what they did not want you to hear!
Gordon Fulks writes the following:
In a conversation with Chuck Wiese a short while ago, he confirmed that Professor Phil Mote of Oregon State University is involved in the OMSI fiasco. That information comes originally from Planetarium Manager Jim Todd at OMSI. Phil Mote called them to express his reservations about OMSI allowing us to present anything, because he alleged that it would not be “peer-reviewed.” If OMSI had had any scientific expertise, they would have easily seen through that attack.
We use just as much “peer-reviewed” science and government climate data as Mote does. In fact I was going to present some of my own work that was published in the Journal Of Geophysical Research, because it is highly pertinent. Other material and conclusions would have come from some of the most respected scientists in the world today, including Professor of Meteorology Richard Lindzen at MIT, Professor of Physics Freeman Dyson from the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, Professor Physics Will Happer at Princeton University who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor of Theoretical Physics Gerhard Gerlich of Germany, Professor of Advanced Physics Antonio Zichchi who is president of the World Federation of Scientists, and Nobel Laureate in Physics Ivar Giaever, to name a few.
Sorry Professor Mote, we are not the amateurs you suggested to OMSI.
Again, I call on OMSI to come clean and tell the entire story, including who made the decision to pull the plug on the Oregon AMS and why they waited until the very last minute. Their press release from Middleton was a disgraceful attempt to spin this story. Honesty is the only approach that will work here. We will get the entire story, whether or not OMSI cooperates. See TV-12’s Mark Nelson’s excellent summary here.
As a FOOTNOTE:
OMSI recently held one of their “Science Pub” events on Global Warming. It featured a ‘climate hysteria’ scientist from Penn State who must have been a colleague of Professor Michael Mann. His message was apparently heavily alarmist, but I only found out about the event after it had occurred. Did OMSI seek to schedule an opposing viewpoint with us or with other skeptics? Have they sought “balance” on this topic in the recent past? Those are, of course, completely absurd questions! There is only one “approved” perspective at OMSI, and it isn’t ours.
Icecap Note: It is obvious Mote is running scared, afraid to be exposed. His peer review paper in the AMS BAMS was panned. It had cherry picked study interval which showed a decline of western snowpack which he attributed to global warming. Other scientists in the Northwest like George Taylor and Mark Albright showed had he looked at the full period of record, you would see cyclical changes but no trend. Mote chose 1950-2000 period which had 26 years of cold PDO (and heavy western snows from more La Ninas) and ended with 23 years of warm PDO and more El Ninos where the stormn track is suppressed south and east). For his opposition to Mote, Albright, the assistant state climatologist behind Mote was relieved of his duties. Mote replaced Taylor as OR state climatologist at uber-liberal OSU. When your research is on shaky grounds like Mote (and Mann), you work extra hard to preserve your position and undeserved reputation.
The Oregonian editoral staff, no skeptics took on the museum here.
See more examples here.
-----------------
Students against coal would benefit from more research and facts
The Nov. 20 article “Advocates: Coal an unhealthy choice for UVa” by Kurt Walters documents the Sierra Student Coalition’s “Beyond Coal” campaign. It probably pains them to be reminded that “coal” is the first part of the word “coalition.”
The source for their concerns about particulates and nitrous oxides is unspecified “environmentalists.” No evidence is presented documenting levels of these two byproducts in the vicinity of the power plant at the University of Virginia. The relation to triggering asthma is taken as a given. Similar linking of automobile exhaust to childhood asthma was presented at recent Albemarle County Board of Supervisor meetings related to the U.S. 29 Western Bypass project.
The November 2011 issue of “Pediatrics” article by J.T. McBride, MD, presents scientific evidence for a strong link between acetaminophen use and the current asthma epidemic. The association holds up when measured across countries, double-blind studies, and environmental changes. The journal report contains the recommendation that children at risk for asthma avoid the use of acetaminophen. Perhaps the students might better spend their time in spreading this information.
The UVa plant operator notes a mercury emission of 4.6 ounces for the past year. Rounding upward, I get the equivalent of 130 grams of mercury. The ubiquitous compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) contains about 5 milligrams of imported Chinese mercury. If there are 26,000 such bulbs in the city and county, and they wind up in trash dumps, some significant portion of that mercury is released into our environment. Beloved mother nature releases an estimated 9,000 to 10,000 tons of mercury per year.
The lack of scientific basis for the student concern is captured in their quote: “Much of the opposition to the UVa plant is symbolic.” Concern for communities harmed by mountaintop removal does not appear to extend to concern for the economic well-being of such communities.
Charles Battig, MD
VA-Scientists and Engineers for Energy and Environment
Albemarle County
