CHANGING CLIMATE ON CLIMATE CHANGE: CLIMBING OFF THE HOCKEY STICK by Mark Steyn, Steyn Online, March 31, 2014 A couple of weeks back my old newspaper The Independent previewed todays IPCC report as follows: OFFICIAL PROPHECY OF DOOM: GLOBAL WARMING WILL CAUSE WIDESPREAD CONFLICT, DISPLACE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE AND DEVASTATE THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Richard Betts (of the often hilariously alarmist UK Met Office and Hadley Centre) pronounced this cringeworthy. There are only so many times you can do the old time-is-running-out routine, especially when the end of the world has been nigh for as long as the IPCC has been claiming. As the graph at the right shows, the global temperature rise for the entire millennium so far is zero degrees: In Michael Mann terms, its a hockey stick with no blade. Unlike The Independent, the IPCC gets that. The actual report seems (Ive not yet read the full thousand pages) a somewhat tortured attempt to reconcile the needs of the transnational alarmism industry with reality… Fred Pearces assessment: “But careful readers will note a new tone to its discussion of these issues that is markedly different from past efforts. It is more humble about what scientists can predict in advance, and far more interested in how societies can make themselves resilient. “In other words, instead of utopian global schemes to reverse climate change and return the planet to some Edenic state, why not do what enterprising humans have always done in changing circumstances - adapt?” Mr Pearce continues: “The reason for avoiding precise forecasts is twofold. First, overly precise predictions got the authors of the 2007 report into trouble. The most famous faux pas was the claim that Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035, when 2350 is a more likely date.” [Marc Steyn continues:] Right numerals, wrong order. Could happen to anyone. Another reason for the more measured tone is that hopes that better science and greater computer power would allow more precise forecasts than seven years ago have often proved wrong. For parts of the world, model forecasts of regional climate change are diverging rather than converging. The more we know, it seems, the less we know for sure. So, to put it in Michael E Mann terms again, the IPCC is moving further away from the cartoon certainties represented by the hockey stick. This is a problem for Mann: His stick is easily graspable by James Cameron, Jessica Alba, Matt Damon and his other celebrity chums, but its blade is diverging from the direction everyone else is headed… As to the upcoming trial of the century, over the weekend Mann Tweeted: Climate Science Deniers Wrap Themselves in the First Amendment As Max Waters helpfully Tweeted back: “Dude, EVERYONE is wrapped in the 1st Amendment. Even people who lie about having a Nobel Prize.” Just so. Every human being is wrapped in the right to free speech. Some of us accept that, and those who dont -- whether firebreathing imams in Riyadh or global-warming climate mullahs at Penn State -- should be called out for it. Not surprisingly, Manns Tweet links to the respected climate-science site Daily Kos, whose correspondent dislikes the fact that extremist pundit Mark Steyn and his New York Super Lawyer, Daniel J. Kornstein think that Dr Manns attempt to shut down open debate on a critical public-policy issue is fairly obviously a free-speech issue. The Daily Kos chap doesnt have much to say and doesnt seem to know what a constitutional tort is, but he does quote a lot of chunks from my countersuit against Mann that I must say I enjoyed re-reading. However, this bit of attempted analysis by him isnt right: “The case is basically frozen, procedurally, because the bad guys got a stay during an appeal of two rulings against them that would otherwise have allowed Dr.Mann to begin discovery and preparation for trial.” [STEYN AGAIN:] Not true. I like to think Im the baddest of the bad guys and, if the Daily Kossack reads this court filing, hell see: “5. Because the charge of defamer is so damaging, Defendant Steyn has taken this process seriously... On February 12th, he responded to Dr Manns Requests for Discovery, and is looking forward to Plaintiff reciprocating. He is preparing to depose Mann.”… The trouble with Judge Combs Greenes statement is that its rubbish. It would have been the work of moments for Her Honor to look at the original reports - as Steve McIntyre did - and determine that they had absolutely nothing to say about Plaintiffs research and conclusions. But she couldnt be bothered. In fact, Mann has been investigated by just one body - Penn State. Penn State... Penn State... Hmm, where have I heard that name before? Oh, yeah, todays news: “HARRISBURG, Pa. – Former Penn State president Graham Spanier is asking a federal judge to halt his prosecution for an alleged criminal cover-up of complaints about Jerry Sandusky.” Oh, right, THAT Penn State: “Spanier is awaiting trial in Dauphin County along with former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley”… This regime is the only one to have conducted a so-called investigation into Michael Mann - the general worthlessness of which was the subject of my allegedly defamatory post. Which brings us back to that new IPCC report, which represents a continued move away from Mann, climate alarmism, and the devices required to advance it. “As Judith Curry wrote a month ago: ‘Its time to let Michael Mann sink or swim on his own. Michael Mann is having all these problems because he chooses to try to muzzle people that are critical of Manns science, critical of Manns professional and personal behavior, and critical of Manns behavior as revealed in the climategate emails. All this has nothing to do with defending climate science or academic freedom. ‘The climate science field, and the broader community of academics, have received an enormous black eye as a result of defending the hockey stick and his behavior’... As even the IPCC appears to understand. I can assure Dr Mann that his industrial-scale misrepresentation of those transatlantic reports is over…. MY RESPONSE: It’s getting more difficult to “weather” all the claptrap continuing to emanate from “deniers” of the age-old scientific discovery … that earth has been warming & cooling in predictable cycles since the per-dinosaur age. And even more stomach-turning is to see the environmentalist lobby attempt deny the free-speech rights of opponents. Will this climate cabal ever go away, and simply leave it to each individual citizen to decide for his or herself?
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 13:06:31 +0000
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