Episode 6
What started the Climate Scare and Climate Alarmism where people really do believe we have to act right now, spend trillions of dollars, and if we don’t planet Earth could be uninhabitable for human beings in less than a decade? It started with James Hansen speaking to congress in 1988. Here are some highlights from his testimony…
four of the hottest years on record occurred in the 1980’s (this testimony was given in 1988).
in the entire century (start 1880) global temperature had risen a half of a degree (C).
there was an upward trend from to the early 20th, and then staying flat for several decades (for unknown reasons).
“Global warming ha reached with a level such that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause and effect relationship between greenhouse effect and observed warming.” He goes on, “It is already happening now.”
There wasn’t really anything alarming other than some scientists on the panel said action had to be taken on something that was not certain to contribute more than a degree or two on Earth’s temperature is anything.
But what Hansen would throw out there from time to time was the planet Venus. There might be a chance that Earth could wind up like Venus where Venus’s atmosphere is 130 miles thicker than planet Earth, the atmospheric pressure on the surface is something like 1,300 psi or over 90 bar, and the panet surface temperature is over 800 deg F!
Here is an example of the way Hansen throws this idea out there…. In this case he seems to indicate, it will never happen, but he is completely ambiguous about what specific danger he is talking about. Listening to this makes me never want to listen to him again. The feeling I get from him is he completely doesn’t know what he is talking about, or he just likes to lie and make stuff up.
Let me demonstrate with another example…his Ted Talk, and there he goes again, talking about Venus and a run away greenhouse gas effect. But, then he talks about Earth. And does he say there is any indication of a run away greenhouse gas effect? And does he talk about anything specific. He is considered one of the key scientific voices that climate activists point to to justify their need for action now and for the world to eliminate all carbon energy sources.
Why should I believe this guy that there is some need for urgency, when he hasn’t presented any facts? Hurricanes are getting more numerous and stronger? Sea levels are rising at a rate that is jeopardizing cities? Would 97% of scientists agree with this? What about the 3% of scientists that are climate skeptics. Since it has been estimated that there are 8 million scientists that would mean there are 240,000 scientists that don’t agree that mankind is increasing the temperature of the Earth. All 100% of scientistsagree atoms really do exist. This was not the case prior to Einstein’s paper in 1905.
Einstein on Brownian Motion and on the Existence of Atoms
Should we be worried about an ecological collapse caused by CO2? Should we listen to the people telling us we need to act now and spend trillions and trillions of dollars on solutions (that so far aren’t working)? Here is Alex Epstein the author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels” and “Fossil Future.”
You can find Alex Epstein’s web site here: Energy Talking Points.
Another person who has written on the subject and speaks all over the world, Michael Shellenberger, who prides himself on his environmentalism, and does the believe humans are warming the Earth, completely disagrees with the climate alarmists and the policy decisions they recommend. I recommend his book “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts us All.”
I find it amusing that he too sees Climate Change and in his point of view Alarmism as a religion and a religion that has as its ethos a hatred towards humanity.
The world is not a terrible place. Humans are miracles and buetiful in what they make and what they do. Capitalism has created bountiful supply and lives rich with challenge and art. So there is every reason why we should be optimistic and hopeful! It does not make sense to live in fear, because some people think the world is coming to and end or the climate is going to be destroyed, based on how we choose to live out our lives.
Speaking of our wonderful lives, we would not have such a wonderful life, if we didn’t have an ample supply of fossil fuels. We will be getting at in future episodes, why the proposed solutions and abandoned fossil fuel is a danger to our way of life and being a civilized society. Again, we find Greta carrying the alarmism torch…
The climate alarmists seem to be obsessed with destroying capitalism and fossil fuel. No wonder climate change is such a political hot potato.