Friday, 6 March 2009

The green/left can relax now...

...it's business as usual. The honeymoon with the Obama presidency is over, and normal warfare can resume immediately....Hostilities re-commenced after Todd Stern, chief US climate negotiator in the State Department announced a split (read full text of Stern's speech here) between the US and the IPCC...
"...He argued that pushing for overly ambitious midterm targets is not required by the science and would undermine the political goal..."
NB. Climate Debate Daily featured this article from Quadrant in November 2008 predicting this split...
While we mustn't get too excited and read too much into this inevitable encounter with realism and discord, I predict that this schism marks (as Churchill said) "the end of the beginning."
What strikes me as particularly significant is the sentiment from Stern that the IPCC's mid-term goals were "not required by the science"... Hang on Sir...We have been led to believe that "the science" is settled, the scientists unanimous, and that "the science" predicts the end of the world as we know it, and furthermore that the Obama administration agreed with all the catastrophic scenarios...
Well they still do but.....as Prometheus points out...
...While many people have pointed to the fact that the science of climate change has advanced since the 2007 IPCC report, far more importantly, the ongoing discussion of policy options has rendered the IPCC obsolete. Pachauri has criticized the Obama Administration for its climate policies, so it will be interesting to see how the broader IPCC community reacts to the scaling back of expectations being set forth. This will be especially interesting as many IPCC scientists gather in Copenhagen later this month to “influence policy.” Will the Obama Administration be criticized by the scientists?
The second important point to take from this passage is a realization that climate policy must be governed by common sense and what is politically “possible” and “feasible.”
...so, the debate revolves around ongoing scientific advancement since 2007 and "common sense"and what is "politically possible"(ie, not everyone's fooled by this global warming/climate change BS) ...
...and meanwhile, the mainstream news media ignore the cooling planet...
...Temperatures have plummeted to record or near-record lows in 32 states this winter. On March 2, a global warming protest in Washington, D.C. was buried by nearly a foot of snow. And a new study warns that the Earth could be in for a 30-year cooling trend. Reality is not cooperating with the network news’ global warming theme, yet reporters are unwilling to even discuss the possibility that the Earth is cooling...more here...

2 comments:

MathewK said...

Thanks for that link, most useful. Must spread the word.

Ayrdale said...

Keep an eye on Prometheus...