Friday, April 3, 2009

Climate versus Weather


The above is the expected temperatures for the first week of April 2009. Lots of below normal temperatures. Funny how global warming (climate) doesn't line up with expected temperatures (weather).

I accept that greenhouse gases imply higher temperatures. But I think the climate modelers have been working under perverse incentives like Wall Street. If you want to get funding for research you need to push a hot button and Global Warming has been a big red button that pretty well assures you of funding. Any scientist who wants to investigate issues that don't line up with the message -- e.g. investigations into mechanisms not leading to warming or questions about data gathering, data interpretations, modeling techniques, and physical mechanims that don't fit "the story" -- get shunted aside.

If you really want to rationally deal with the underlying science, I recommend Bjorn Lomborg's Cool It. (Here's my previous bit about this book.) He does a rational benefits versus costs analysis. That's what is needed. Not heated rhetoric.

No comments: