Tuesday, September 24, 2013

What, No Warming?



I've been seeing references lately to some interesting climate news.  A case in point is this recent article in Der Spiegel.  Contrary to the predictions of the climate models, warming has plateaued over the past 15 years.  What does that mean.  Well, I have an opinion, but then I tend to inherently distrust the UN no matter what they're involved in.  The fact that their goal seems to be to place the burden of climate change remediation on large, developed countries while largely giving developing countries a pass makes me suspicious that this is nothing more than another UN program attempting to mandate transfer payments from the US to the rest of the world.  But then, I'm what the climate folks derisively refer to as a climate change denier, so my opinion won't be worth much to the green fanatics who seem to own the microphone on this topic.  Most of them have as little knowledge of climate science as I do, but that doesn't stop them from chiming in as experts. 

But no matter how you feel about the subject, these quotes from the aforementioned article should concern you:

"In the lead-up to this week's conference, tensions have been high between the IPCC's climate researchers and the IPCC's government representatives,...The conference's participants will negotiate the creation of a 30-page summary for policymakers from the 1,000-page full report. Governments send representatives from their relevant ministries in order to have a hand in what message that summary will contain. "

"Despite resistance from many researchers, the German ministries insist that it is important not to detract from the effectiveness of climate change warnings by discussing the past 15 years' lack of global warming. Doing so, they say, would result in a loss of the support necessary for pursuing rigorous climate policies. "Climate policy needs the element of fear," Ott openly admits. "Otherwise, no politician would take on this topic."

Why do we need government bureaucrats tinkering with the summary of the researchers' findings?  You don't mean to tell me that politics plays a role here, do you?  I suspect politics has played a role in this from the very start, but then what do I know?  I'm in denial.