The Great Global Warming Swindle (BBC)

[MechAg94]

"When you see ten problems rolling down the road, if you don't do anything, nine of them will
roll into a ditch before they get to you."
----Calvin Coolidge

I love that quote.  A good response to media hysteria in general.  Also why I like the fact that the Texas state legislature only meets for 6 months every other year.  I think Congress ought to do something similar.

[RJMcElwain]

" Also why I like the fact that the Texas state legislature only meets for 6 months every other year.  I think Congress ought to do something similar.

Now that would solve most of our problems. We should bribe them to stay home. They all know what bribes are anyway.

Bob

[MechAg94]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20070321/cm_ucac/thecomingassage
This is a pretty entertaining read.

Ann Coulter
THE COMING ass AGE
Wed Mar 21, 6:21 PM ET

No matter how much liberals try to dress up their nutty superstitions about global warming as "science," which only six-fingered lunatics could doubt, scratch a global warming "scientist" and you get a religious fanatic.
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These days, new religions are barely up and running before they seize upon the worst aspects of the God-based religions.

First, there's the hypocrisy and corruption. At the 1992 Democratic Convention in New York,
Al Gore said: "The central organizing principle of governments everywhere must be the environment." The environment would not, however, be the central organizing principle of Gore's own life.

The only place Al Gore conserves energy these days is on the treadmill. I don't want to suggest that Al's getting big, but the last time I saw him on TV I thought, "That reminds me -- we have to do something about saving the polar bears."

Never mind his carbon footprint -- have you seen the size of Al Gore's regular footprint lately? It's almost as deep as
Janet Reno's.

But I digress. As has been widely reported, Gore's Tennessee mansion consumes 20 times the energy of the average home in that state. But it's OK, according to the priests of global warming. Gore has purchased "carbon offsets."

It took the Catholic Church hundreds of years to develop corrupt practices such as papal indulgences. The global warming religion has barely been around for 20 years, and yet its devotees are allowed to pollute by the simple expedient of paying for papal indulgences called "carbon offsets."

Americans spend an extra $2.2 billion on gas a year because they're overweight, requiring more fuel in cars to carry the extra pounds. So even with all those papal indulgences, Gore may have a small carbon footprint, but he has a huge carbon butt-print.

Further proving that liberalism is a religion, its practitioners respond with the zeal of Torquemada to any dissent from the faith in global warming.

A few years ago, Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg wrote a book titled "The Skeptical Environmentalist," disputing the hysteria surrounding global warming and other environmentalist scares. Lomborg is a Greenpeace anti-war protester -- or, as he is described on liberal Web sites, he is a "young, gay vegetarian Dane with tight T-shirts." His book was cited favorably in The New York Times.

But for questioning the "science" behind global warming, Lomborg was brought up on charges of "scientific misconduct" by Denmark's Inquisition Court, called the "Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation." I take it Denmark's Ministry of Truth was booked solid that day.

The moment anyone diverges from official church doctrine on global warming, he is threatened with destruction. Heretics would be burnt at the stake if liberals could figure out how to do it in a "carbon neutral" way.

Climatologist Dr. Timothy Ball is featured in the new documentary debunking global warming, titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle." For this heresy, Ball has received hate mail with such messages as, "If you continue to speak out, you won't live to see further global warming."

I'm against political writers whining about their hate mail because it makes them sound like Paul Krugman. But that's political writers arguing about ideology.

Global warming is supposed to be "science." It's hard to imagine Niels Bohr responding to Albert Einstein's letter questioning quantum mechanics with a statement like: "If you continue to speak out, you won't live to see further quantum mechanics."

Come to think of it, one can't imagine the pope writing a letter to Jerry Falwell saying, "If you continue to speak out, you won't live to see further infallibility."

If this is how global warming devotees defend their scientific theory, it may be a few tweaks short of a scientific theory. Scientific facts are not subject to liberal bullying -- which, by the way, is precisely why liberals hate science.

A few years ago, The New York Times ran an article about the continuing furious debates among physicists about quantum mechanics, which differs from global warming in the sense that it is supported by physical evidence and it doesn't make you feel good inside to "do something" about quantum mechanics. It is, in short, science.

Though he helped develop the theory of quantum mechanics, Einstein immediately set to work attacking it. MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark called the constant testing and arguing about quantum mechanics "a 75-year war."

That's how a real scientific theory operates. That's even how a real religion operates. Only a false religion needs hate mail, threats, courts of inquisition and Hollywood movies to sustain it.

[MechAg94]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_gWgs4InRE&eurl=

[Iain]

I see. For Ann Coulter it works like this one guy (who is presently in court over his climatology credentials) claims that he has received a death threat over his rejection of global warming. Ergo, global warming is a religion that all of its devotees feel so strongly about that they issue such threats.

So wrong. There's enough logical leaps there to make my legs tired. You know, if you're going to try and hold a reasonable debate with (as it appears) the one guy here who doesn't think seem to automatically think that global warming is a farce you could try and post reasonable critiques of it. I could post stuff that is that pointless and vicious about global warming sceptics, but I don't because I think it's pointless that it was ever written, and pointless to disseminate it.

For Ann to cite the people that she does only indicates to me the continuing reliance on certain chosen authorities because they suit. It's all 'liberals this', 'liberals that', which she makes good money out of, and I've previously expressed admiration for making such good money. It's not only 'liberals' that are concerned about this, but it suits to paint it that way, I understand.

jfruser - I'm sorry, perhaps I'll detail it more later, but global warming as moneymaker and global warming as religion are two very tired arguments. I'll accept that possibly the religion thing applies to those whose understanding of global warming is as deep and complex as the usual attack pieces that get posted here. But those aren't the people doing the research, same as the people doing the research aren't the ones issuing death threats, I'd put money on that.

Recently I've been investigating what it would take to build a lapsteel. I've been trying to find a source of wood that is both inexpensive, thicknessed and of good quality. This hasn't been all that easy. So I've started to read about alternative woods to the usual guitar making woods. I've been reading a forum for a couple of years now, participants include some very famous luthiers, some of whom are really in to the science of the process.

In my search for other woods I came across a website that had some useful information, but also contained some 'guitar heresies'. It claimed some things about wood and taptones that ran counter to everything I had read from these luthiers and elsewhere. I had no basis with which to judge these claims, but for a moment I was fascinated by the new claim, it meant cheaper wood, it meant not worrying about some complex aspects of construction and final sound.

That's the appeal of contrarianism. It says exactly what people want to hear - cheaper wood, keep using your car, nothing to worry about. Me choosing to believe that website is like choosing to believe in this documentary. It would be a choice between two different authorities, and choosing outright and utterly the one that suits me better based on no valid reason. Listen to both, but err towards expert opinion that represents a consensus. It ain't perfect, but it's what us non-experts have to do in order to avoid being cranks.

That's why statements like

When I look at the data*, the closest I can get to human-caused global warming is, "inconclusive."  That is granting the GWers a few points as a gimme, just to keep it interesting

without 'my years of study (even amateur) of climatology' at least as a qualifying statement for such an opinion really grates.

"When I look at different guitar woods, I reject your mahogany, ash and alder. I choose balsa for my first guitar."

If you'd said:

When I look at the data*, the closest I can get to human-caused global warming is, "inconclusive."

we'd be on the same page. Almost exactly on the same page.

[richyoung]

1.  Balsa IS used in guitars - its just called "Chromite" to hide the fact.
2.  A good luthier can use almost any kind of wood - I've seen a perfectly intonated and playable guitar built by a luthier class out of a shipping pallet left by the dumpster.  It was a great guitar.
3.  With a few exceptions, almost all on acoustic guitars, wood selection is more about cosmetics and esthetics than the sound or playability of the instrument.

If you have any further guitar questions, please feel free to ask me Iain - I worked in a gutiar store for 5 years, and my best friend's father hand-built Dobros and other guitars from salvaged wood.  In fact, he was always buying old upright pianos that were "beyond saving", and harvested most of his wood from them - that and old solid-walnut furniture like television consoles.  Hope that gives you a few ideas.  When I have more time, I'll document my points against GW - agin.  For now, I have to go play Blue, instead of Opfor for a change.

[RJMcElwain]

No matter what kind of debate I might be engaged in, Ann Coulter is the last person I'd want on my side.

Bob

[Iain]

That's new information to me. Seems Gibson build some of their Les Paul Studio's out of this chromite stuff. Balsa isn't exactly ideal though, bit soft, a hardness ranking I was looking at yesterday gave it 0.4 out of 20.

Luthiers can and do use almost any kind of wood, and I agree that in part it is about aesthetics. There are good reasons why certain woods are used though, especially woods salvaged from pianos or old furniture, good quality and easy enough to work with and strong and stable enough. You can even use some flatsawn wood to make necks from I read, but it has to be good stable stuff. I should have checked before I said balsa, but perhaps you'd agree that balsa wouldn't be a great choice for a lap steel that will have to withstand string tension and get beat on. Check out Asher lap steels if you're interested in my vision.

There's the famous Benedetto pine guitar, apparently it sounds great, despite being full of knots. Benedetto would strongly disagree though that tap tones are useless, or that any wood is fine. There is an article out there suggesting that acoustic guitars should have a maple top, and Taylor makes one, but years of luthiery would suggest spruce, cedar and a couple of others as more mainstream choices. As a newbie if I were making an acoustic I'd probably pick up a bit of cheap cedar or spruce for the soundboard. The other forum warns against reinventing the wheel as a beginner - when I first got interested what I wanted to build was a nylon strung archtop, a long conversation with someone who had done it persuaded me to start elsewhere, curtate cycloids was when he lost me.

Anyway, although this seems off topic it strikes right at the heart of my interest in the subject - the public's opinion on complicated subjects. A good luthier can make a good instrument out of old scrap partly because of his expertise, the beginner is well advised to stick to what is known (which does include using salvaged woods of known qualities) and experiment and be unorthodox down the road. If I argue this point with luthiers and don't respect their opinion they will come to ignore me. There's a thesis in public perception of, and participation in, scientific debate.

I don't want to go through global warming any more, I'm sort of sick of it. In the last few months all I've been arguing for is what I believe is a genuinely sceptical position - the position that those of us who don't know shouldn't act like we do. And that this debate is so heavily tinged with politics, on both sides, that it is important that we at least try and separate the science from that, which the general public debate is failing to do.

We should talk guitars rich.

RJMcElwain - I find myself agreeing. I still have endless respect for her ability to shift books though.

[MechAg94]

Dang, I just read Ann because she is funny, not because she is some authority on anything. 
Especially this line:  "Heretics would be burnt at the stake if liberals could figure out how to do it in a "carbon neutral" way." 

The Religion argument applies mainly due to the True Believer types.

Iain, you don't need years of study to be suspicious when someone is trying to get something from me.  I don't need to study GW for years to know that something is up when the GW advocates stop relying on facts and scientific research and turn to politics and politicians to push the issue and turn it into a media circus.  A lot of the researchers are probably honest and hardworking people who want to deal in facts alone, but there are a lot of political groups pushing this issue and I am not stupid enough to believe it is because they want what's best for mankind. 

Personally, my opinion is to wait and see.  Let the research continue.  10 years or more from now we might have a more definite understanding of things.  I haven't seen anything that makes me believe we absolutely have to do something right this minute.  Maybe in that time the politics and media circus will blow over a bit.

[Iain]

I do think that essentially most of us are near enough the same page. 'Wait and see' is not a bad approach, although I would suggest that Wunsch's argument based on a precautionary principle has some significant merit. If this is one of these 10 problems rolling down the road, climate scientists will tell you that it isn't one of the nine that is going to roll off before it gets here.

I understand the suspicion of political solutions. In that recent debate (which Lindzen and Crichton won by the way) Crichton had a go at Blair and Merkel for seeming to be involved in an argument about who could deliver the least climate change. It is laughable to some degree, and ripe for satire. That does need to be separated from those guys who are trying to figure what is going on, and what might need to be done.

[richyoung]

Would love to talk guitars any time, Iain - although my expertise is more in the area of solid-body electrics than anything else.  Still, its the neck thats the heart of the instrument - get that right, and the body can be (and sometimes is) a toilet seat.  Depending on the wood you want to use, you might find some nice mahogany via marine scrapping/salvage if there is any in your area: otherwise, old tables, doors, fireplace mantels - even residential and commercial demolition can suprise you sometimes.  Just keep an open mind.  As for the GW stuff, I'm ready for a rest from from it myself - my one last observation is that if they want me to dramaticlaly reduce the standard of living I enjoy, they are gonna need much more solid proof than they've demonstrated so far.

[MechAg94]

If this is one of these 10 problems rolling down the road, climate scientists will tell you that it isn't one of the nine that is going to roll off before it gets here.

I wouldn't expect anything less from people who depend on research funding to keep the lights on.   

One action I wouldn't mind seeing now is more and better nuclear power, but more from an energy independence standpoint than anything else.