If catastropharians are correct, their own antics are actively eroding any hope of coping with the headline-grabbing disasters they so frequently predict. Please, men and women of science, re-embrace genuine science by attempting to disprove, rather than confirm, your pet theories
It is difficult to get rid of the noise and concentrate on the facts on global warming. And the central fact is not to do with whether the Barrier Reef is as healthy as it should be, or whether sea levels are rising at a threatening rate, or whether storms, heatwaves and droughts are becoming more frequent or intense. The central fact is to do with whether the atmosphere is warming, by how much and through what cause. The rest is simply derivative.
The HadCRUT global land and sea series going back to 1850 shows a trend rise of 0.8 degrees Celsius from then until now. How reliable is this? I don’t think anyone knows. But it is the data we have. The two main satellite data series RSS and UAH which began in 1979 are presumably reliable and these show a trend rise in the temperature of 0.44 and 0.48 degrees respectively in the 35 years between 1979 and 2014.
On a climate scale it is clear that ‘untoward’ warming has been contained within a relatively short number of years dating from around 1975 until around 2000. However, this rise was sharp enough to justify speculation and investigation as to its cause; there should be no doubt of that. The problem has been the haste in establishing CO2 as the primary cause and the response to those with genuine doubts. No doubts have been entertained. Doubters have been shunned.
It has been beyond extraordinary. And it is this essentially unscientific paradigm around global warming that has made me sympathetic at times with those who regard the whole thing as a scam or hoax pedalled by loony-tune environmentalists, those seduced by research grants and academic group-think, and increasingly by main-chancers who see a buck in it
If scientists could only get back to being scientific and out to disprove rather than confirm their theories, the sooner we might all get our confidence back in climate science. But along the way we have to lose the no-nothing parasitical activists. We don’t need activists on either side of the question. We need objective science with all of its uncertainties and disputations exposed, and economically sensible solutions to deal with risks identified.
