Monday, April 14, 2008

Shocking science news

Remember the hoo-hah created by the Gore crowd over researcher Kerry Emanuel's 2005 paper linking hurricane strength with global warming? It was responsible for the urban legend that Katrina was caused by man and became part of the undergirding of Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth".

Have you heard the news about Mr. Emanuel? Seems he's been hard at work researching how computer models model hurricanes, or don't, and has come to a startling conclusion:
One of the most vocal scientists in the field of hurricane prediction has backed away from his earlier certainty of a link between global warming and stronger hurricanes after developing a new forecasting technique that suggests a moderate increase – or even decline – in storm activity over the next 200 years.
He explains:
"There are various interpretations possible, e.g. a) The big increase in hurricane power over the past 30 years or so may not have much to do with global warming, or b) The models are simply not faithfully reproducing what nature is doing. Hard to know which to believe yet.
Uncertainty is an integral part of science, or at least it used to be. No doubt this news will not seriously deter Gore and the climate glitterati, though.

As to whether sites like stopglobalwarming.org and fightglobalwarming.com will adjust their narratives--both use the global warming-hurricane link to make their case--well, that's up in the air. Perhaps they'll add disclaimers to indicate the nature of the ongoing research. Perhaps pigs will fly. And just consider how many schools have presented Gore's movie as gospel under pressure from Laurie David.

Nevertheless, the "hurry up and change the way you live" mantra will not be shaken regardless of whatever inconvenient evidence pops up, such as no warming in the last 10 years or links to hurricane strength. Some people still will still feel compelled to do outlandish things in the name of the cause, like demanding journalists change headlines or suggesting that anyone who refuses to accept consensus belongs in the nearest nut hatch. All I can say is thank Gore for the internets! Speaking truth to power is a good thing.

With that, how about a reprise of this....

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

From a personal point of view, I can hardly wait until Mr. Gore addresses the real issue confronting Americans today, which is the day of doom on 21 Dec 2012. It is at that point when the earth's polarity will shift, and we're all going to die. I'd be interested to know, for example, at what point in time I can begin charging up my credit cards without worrying about making any payments.

Coach Mark said...

You haven't done any posts lately on Saddam and terrorism. I miss those. How about another?

A.C. McCloud said...

Mustang, I didn't know there was a date certain for the pole swap. Doesn't the Mayan calendar also end during 2012?

Heck, the way things are going in the middle east we may not get there anyway.

A.C. McCloud said...

What's up, ikez? How about Nadhmi Auchi? You got anything on him regards the Baathists? I've also been wondering about the fate of 93 WTC bomber Abdul Rahman Yasin, since he's now officially disappeared from view. We also haven't heard much from ole Izzat and the health of Tariq Aziz seems to be holding up.

BTW, visited your site and was surprised not to see anything about the mystery Syrian facility the Israeli media says was holding Iraqi WMD material. Judging from the reaction on some message boards it wouldn't matter if they had video of Saddam helping unload the crates, so maybe a moot point anyway. ;-)