New Year Resolution: help adults help children banish fear about CO2 and climate change

Looking Back
2019 was remarkable for those of us interested in the extensive, and utterly unjustifiable, panic over climate variation and our impact on it.  Two features stand out to me:

(1) The exploitation of Greta Thunberg, a troubled youngster whose troubles were increased when she was misled by a schoolteacher who told her that polar bears were dying out.  Of course, that 'fact' is not at all true - the polar bears have been doing relatively well for decades now, and their numbers have increased quite dramatically.  But truth does not really matter much in the CO2 Scare  - speculation, naive extrapolation, avoidance of inconvenient facts, and the dominance of emotive catch-phrases are all far more important.  Greta was but one of countless victims of decades of propaganda in schools, and elsewhere.  She went on to be pushed out front as a figurehead to produce even more such victims.  Ben Pile and Jaime Jessop have each written penetrating essays on what has been happening these past 12 months:

Ben
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/12/30/2019-the-year-of-peak-green-bullsht/
'The only truly new thing that has emerged over the past year or so has been the phenomenon of Greta Thunberg and her school-strike movement. For years, the ‘green blob’ network of campaigning organisations, corporations, academics and UN agencies has fantasised about mobilising the young as a political force. After pumping billions of children full of green propaganda, a climate avatar has arrived in the form of the Swedish truant-cum-activist. There could be no doubting the sincerity of the teen who bore the emotional scars inflicted on her by the movement that she was to lead – she had been so traumatised by green propaganda that she had not spoken, not eaten and had refused to go to school. Environmentalism is nothing if not a cult of self-harm.

Political, cultural and religious leaders fell over themselves to be seen being scolded by the child. Unlike Harry and Meghan, Greta refused to fly. Instead of private jets, European royalty, millionaires and superstars loaned her their sailing yachts and Teslas. To keep her own personal carbon footprint down, sailing crews and her entourage had to fly across the Atlantic.

Politicians and campaigning organisations may have found it useful to hide their political ambitions behind children. But to many people, the emotional manipulation of impressionable minds is unconscionable. It has now emerged that the false stories that many of the children have fallen victim to – such as the claims that charismatic creatures like walruses and polar bears face extinction or that the world’s rainforests face imminent collapse – are distressing young children and causing real harm.'

Jaime

https://cliscep.com/2019/12/28/2019-the-end-of-a-decade-when-climate-change-alarmism-tipped-abruptly-into-climate-crisis-hysteria/

'2019 – The End of a Decade When Climate Change Alarmism Tipped Abruptly Into Climate Crisis Hysteria

In the final days of 2019, there is much to reflect upon events of the past year and, with the closing of the second decade of the 21st Century, much to reflect upon how climate change alarmism has itself alarmingly morphed into something much more dangerous, visceral, urgent, ideologically driven and immediate as regards public perception and societal impact. A decade during which global warming faded into obscurity (on account of the fact that there wasn’t any from 1998-2013) to be replaced almost universally by the more politically correct term of ‘climate change’, which has itself now been largely displaced in activist circles and the media by the terms ‘climate emergency’ and ‘climate crisis’. Ironically so, because, bereft of an actual climate crisis, alarmist scientists and activists have proceeded to invent one, linguistically, as in the case of the Guardian’s newly introduced style guide and by co-opting extreme weather events and their impacts into the general narrative.'

(2) An increase in scientific papers, and many excellent blog posts with a scientific focus, that undermine the climate panic, and the dreadful, degrading corruption of schools, universities, media, and governments.  Kenneth Richard and Pierre Gosselin have perhaps done more than most to collate and summarise these 'contrarian papers':

https://notrickszone.com/2019/12/31/2019-science-refutes-climate-alarm-on-every-front-shrinking-deserts-growing-islands-crumbling-consensus-weaker-storms-cooler-arctic-etc-etc-etc/
'2019 saw a great amount of new science emerge showing that there’s nothing alarming or catastrophic about our climate. 

Some 2019 scientific findings

Need to make a presentation showing there is no climate alarm? The following findings we reported on in 2019 will put many concerns to rest.

Hundreds of peer-reviewed papers ignored by media

What follows are some selected top science-based posts we published here at NoTricksZone in 2019. These new findings show there is absolutely no climate alarm.

Hundreds of new peer-reviewed papers, charts, findings, etc – which the IPCC, activists and media ignore and even conceal. No wonder they’ve gotten so shrill.'

Looking Forward

There is a clear need for calmer voices to be heard, and for a wider appreciation of just how flimsy the case is for alarm over our CO2 and our other impacts on climate.  Roughly speaking, more of item (2) above and less of item (1) are needed.

I am planning a series of posts that will be aimed at adults who want to help themselves and their children develop informed, apolitical, non emotive, fact based perspectives on climate variation that they can call their own thanks to their own efforts to learn more about what all the fuss is about.

There is plenty of evidence for the harm being done to young people thanks to their accepting 'off-the-shelf' scary opinions as if they were gospel truths.  Donna Laframboise has written of a recent example:

https://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2019/12/16/young-people-distressed-about-climate-change/
'A few days ago, a 20-year-old who resides in the UK sent an e-mail to American climate scientist Judith Curry. This young person describes themselves as miserable, fearful, and petrified. Frequently sick to their stomach, unable to eat or sleep, they’re genuinely worried that “climate change is going to kill me and all my family.”

Donna wants to help such youngsters:
'If you are a young person in distress about the climate, please read one or more of the three books listed below. I promise you, your world will be different by the time you finish any of them. If you read all three, I guarantee you’ll see the universe with completely new eyes.'  See the link  for more details of these excellent books.

It is, of course, no wonder that young people are so distressed.  Here is a recent, and abysmal, video produced, believe it or not, to raise votes for a Senate candidate in the USA:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eyJevf-Blg  A disgraceful effort, but it provides insight into the tormented imaginings of climate scare victims and those who wish to exploit them.  The same can said of the video contained in this link showing German children trained to treat their grandmothers with contempt for not toeing the line on the CO2 Scare:   https://notrickszone.com/2019/12/29/gretas-generational-supremacists-indoctrinated-german-girls-sing-grandmother-is-an-environmental-scumbag/

And here is a mother, who is herself a victim of the scaremongering, looking at all sorts of  probably unhelpful ways to help her own kids:   https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-18/climate-change-and-how-to-talk-to-kids-about-it/11686900   This mother needs to fix her own fears first, and I hope my forthcoming posts might prove helpful to people just like her.

In the meantime, here is a pretty good video to start things off in 2020:

Source: https://www.justfactsdaily.com/climate-change-fears-of-teen-activist-are-empirically-baseless/
(hat-tip: https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/12/22/gretas-fears-of-climate-change-are-baseless/)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY READERS - here's hoping for more progress in the spreading of a calmer, better-informed  view of climate variation.

Note added 03 Jan 2020
Predictive skill is the acid test for good science.  The CO2 Catastrophists fail it time after time after time.  More links on their failures can be found here:
https://www.c3headlines.com/2020/01/doomsday-existential-threat-climate-change-disruption-emergency-predictions-unmitigated-total-failures.html

Note added 30 Jan 2020
'A new roundup of scientific papers published in 2019 that do not toe the morally and intellectually bankrupt lines of the CO2 fanatics: 
'Over 440 Scientific Papers Published In 2019 Support A Skeptical Position On Climate Alarm

By Kenneth Richard on 30. January 2020'

 https://notrickszone.com/2020/01/30/over-440-scientific-papers-published-in-2019-support-a-skeptical-position-on-climate-alarm/

Three cheers for Kenneth Richard.  May he continue to spot and publicise the work of real scientists.

Christmas Greetings to all who come here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBIazkBB9K4

Wonderful hymns are part of the beauty of Christianity.  This one, in the video, sings of the beauties of nature, of weather, and of farming.  All good in these days of a continued growth in world food production,  We can also note and appreciate the dramatic reduction in poverty and starvation over the last 30 years or so.  Truly, things have never been better for so many people, and there is no good reason to doubt further great progress is within our reach.

Here's another video, by an expert in CO2 and its effects.  This would make good holiday viewing for any youngster, or indeed adult, badly troubled by all the shameless, mindless scaremongering about CO2 and climate:

And here is some reinforcement from an extremely distinguished physicist who has specialised in the interaction of radiation with matter:

Merry Christmas to one and all, and here's hoping for a calmer perspective on airborne CO2 to keep on spreading round the world in 2020!

PS.  More scientists are getting through into the scientific literature with results in conflict with the scaremongers' demented visions:   https://notrickszone.com/2019/12/12/the-list-grows-now-100-scientific-papers-assert-co2-has-a-minuscule-effect-on-the-climate/

Layers of Climate Incompetence - a quote for the classroom wall

'It takes layers of incompetence to wind up an atmospheric spectral change into Death To Billions. Mass delusion and catastrophic hyperbole just doesn’t come from nowhere — it’s starts with incompetent scientists who never ask each other hard questions, not even in the tea rooms. They tell journalists ambiguously phrased, cherry picked lines which are then amped up by the media, who also ask no hard questions and go on to misquote and exaggerate. By then it’s a junkyard of science communication, and that’s when attention-seeking zealots get hold of what they thought were scientific pronouncements and turn them into bumper stickers of enviro-biblical jello.'

Jo Nova, http://joannenova.com.au/2019/12/takes-layers-of-incompetence-to-create-mindless-catastrophic-hyperbole/

What a neat summary of this dreadful, destructive fiasco.  How  much longer can it continue?  Alarmism science is bankrupt, but the political alarmism forces may yet cause even more massive damage than they have already done before their momentum and their madness is stopped.

Here is a real scientist dismissing the climate alarmism:

Good overview by Prof. Happer in Dec 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8KxVQFoyT0&feature=emb_logo

(hat-tip: Climate Depot )

Here is a sickly-funny take on the totalitarianism that seems part of humanity's make-up and which has found new succour in the CO2 Scare:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GNDyBlKdxg&feature=emb_logo

(hat-tip: NotaLotofPeopleKnowThat )

PISA Survey finds only 9% of 15-year olds can distinguish fact from opinion when reading

'Only 9% of 15-year-olds can tell the difference between fact and opinion'

'In the US, 13.5% of 15-year-olds can distinguish between fact and opinion when trying to interpret a complex reading task. In the UK, it’s just 11.5%.

Those results are both better than the OECD average of 9%, according to the latest results of PISA, or the Programme for International Student Assessment, an international test of math, science, and reading which is administered by the OECD every three years.'

Read the rest here: https://qz.com/1759474/only-9-percent-of-15-year-olds-can-distinguish-between-fact-and-opinion/

No wonder, then, that youngsters are so vulnerable to CO2 Scare propaganda!  As well as pointing to failings in education, this also points to the value of good teachers and parents who help their children make better sense of the world.  The recent waves of publicity for Extinction Rebellion's and Greta Thunberg's ill-informed opinions add some more urgency to finding ways to help parents and teachers, and to help the children themselves, see the lack of substance in the CO2 Scare.

For the Climate Classroom Wall, and for Christmas gifts: the Josh 2020 Calendar, and his new book

Josh's calendar for 2020 may be his best yet, and that is saying something.  Glorious colours, great wit, and lots of insights, and reminders of stuff and nonsense from afflicted (aka 'anointed') ones of the CO2 Scare.

You can buy it here: http://cartoonsbyjosh.co.uk/

For the classroom wall, or the staff-room wall, or your kitchen wall - several conversation pieces each month - all with charm and even compassion, not least for the afflicted ones and their self-anointed leaders.

It also makes for a good gift, as does Josh's new book: 'All You Need to Know About Climate Change - in cartoons'

Here is Matt Ridley, writing in his foreword to this book:

'Nobody does a better job of exposing with wit the shaky foundations on which these predictions of doom are built than Josh.  In these pages are real scientific, economic and political arguments expressed in ingenious cartoons, their background explained in paragraphs of pithy text.'


Couldn't have said it better myself.

A great present for young and old, and it could especially help any teenagers you know at high school who may be deeply troubled thanks to the wicked propaganda they have been subjected to all their days.

You can buy it here:  http://cartoonsbyjosh.co.uk/books

And it is also on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/need-about-Climate-Change-cartoons/dp/0955005981

Ideas for High School Projects on Climate Alarmism and the CO2 Scare

Lots of ideas for high school projects on the CO2 Scare could be plucked from this video by discerning teachers: three penetrating thinkers and analysts on climate variation (and the current alarmism around it) - Ross McKitrick, Steve McIntyre, and Anthony Watts talking good sense, aided and abetted by Mark Steyn, a penetrating thinker and analyst of current affairs - as well as a lively chairman of this discussion:

See:  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/27/apocalypse-deferred/

And from the comments on that post, here is a link to a video with more explicitly highlighted ideas here for senior pupils doing projects on climate alarmism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUVqZKBMF7o&feature=youtu.be

(hat-tip: CO2 is Life,  https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/11/27/apocalypse-deferred/#comment-2856368)

And for pupils doing a project on English lit and climate change, or journalism and climate, might well find inspiration here:

https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2017/07/Clive-James.pdf

And to mark the recent passing of Clive James, here is a relevant poem of his:

Imminent Catastrophe

The imminent catastrophe goes on
Not showing many signs of happening.
The ice at the North Pole that should be gone
By now, is awkwardly still lingering,
And though sometimes the weather is extreme
It seems no more so than when we were young
Who soon will hear no more of this grim theme
Reiterated in the special tongue
Of manufactured fright. Sea Level Rise
Will be here soon and could do such-and-such,
Say tenured pundits with unblinking eyes.
Continuing to not go up by much,
The sea supports the sceptics, but they, too,
Lapse into oratory when they predict
The sure collapse of the alarmist view
Like a house of cards, for they could not have picked
A metaphor less suited to their wish.
A house of cards subsides with just a sigh
And all the cards are still there.
Feverish Talk of apocalypse might, by and by,
Die down, but the deep anguish will persist.
His death, and not the Earth’s, is the true fear
That motivates the doomsday fantasist:
There can be no world if he is not here.
        -- Clive James, The Times, 17 March 2016

[This grand wee poem was also published on this blog in March, 2016:
https://climatelessons.blogspot.com/p/climate-culture-poetry-and-song-from.html]

Climate Sense from a Politician - let your children see this

Aussie MP Rubbishes Climate Emergency Myth.

That invaluable blog, 'Not a Lot of People Know That', has an embedded video of an Australian politician making some telling points about a climate emergency which has become as fashionable as it is unfounded:

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/11/21/aussie-mp-rubbishes-climate-emergency-myth/

More of this please.  Will schoolteachers dare use this short video clip in class?  Let us hope there are still some in that profession who value reality over ideology, and dislike scaremongering about CO2.

Addenda
For more by way of chapter and verse, with lots of illustrations, about there not being a 'climate emergency' try:  https://realclimatescience.com/2019/11/there-is-no-climate-crisis/
'There is no climate crisis, but there is a crisis of climate superstition, fraud, incompetence, and censorship.  And it is being used to terrify children and threaten the future of western civilization.'
(hat-tip: http://climatescience.blogspot.com/2019/11/there-is-no-climate-crisis-and-heres.html)

Or, if you prefer video, here is a good one on this topic by the same author:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8455KEDitpU&feature=youtu.be
(hat-tip: Greenie Watch)

We need to protect children from Climate Chicken Littles

Jim Steele: 

'By perpetuating bogus claims of a world ending in 12 years, the Chicken Littles are doing far more harm than blinding children to scientific evidence that many species, from polar bears to Adelie penguins, are thriving. Our children miss the “important lesson” that a “climate crisis” is only a theory supported by scary narratives, not facts. So how do we protect our children from Chicken Littles who seek to enroll vulnerable minds into their doomsday cults? How do we motivate our children to be good critical thinkers, and not blind group thinkers mesmerized by fear and ‘end of the earth’ scenarios? 

Foxy Loxy invites Chicken Little into the "safety" of his den

We tell children fairy tales to alert them to the real dangers, such as Crying Wolf. In the original Chicken Little tale,  Foxy Loxy offered Chicken Little and friends the shelter of his den so they would be safe from the falling sky. Once inside Foxy's den, they were never heard from again!'

Source: http://perhapsallnatural.blogspot.com/2019/10/chicken-littles-vs-adelie-penguins.html   This post also contains details of climate-scare-deranged 'science' about Adelie penguins.

Jason D Hill's OPEN LETTER TO GRETA THUNBERG

I usually put open letters on climate matters on this Page only:
https://climatelessons.blogspot.com/p/climate-wisdom-open-letters-and.html

But in view of poor Greta's impact on young, and other vulnerable or poorly informed people, I think it deserves a post of its own.  Some extracts follow:

An Open Letter to Greta Thunberg

You are not a moral leader. But I will tell you what you are.

Mon Nov 11, 2019 

Jason D. Hill

 

385

Greta Thunberg:

You have declared yourself a leader and said that your generation will start a revolution. You have comported yourself as a credentialed adult and climate change activist who has fearlessly addressed politicians and world leaders. You have dropped out of school and declared that there isn’t any reason to attend, or any reason for you to study since there will be no future for you to inherit. You have, rather than attend your classes, been leading Friday Climate Strikes for all students in your generation across the globe. Your attendance at oil pipelines has been striking. There, you unequivocally declare that all oil needs to remain in the ground where it belongs.

I shall, therefore, against the backdrop of your activism, address you as an adult rather than as a child.

...

There are a few things that we, the rational adults of the world who are not bowing to you like guilt-ridden obsequious Babbitts need to say to you, Greta.

First, we did not rob you of your childhood or of your dreams. You are the legatee of a magnificent technological civilization which my generation and the one before it and several others preceding it all the way to the Industrial Revolution and the Renaissance, bequeathed to you. That growth-driven, capitalist technological civilization has created the conditions for you to harangue us over our betrayal. It is a civilization that eradicated diseases such as small pox from the word, and that lifted millions out of abject poverty in a universe you think is dying and decaying. It assured you a life expectancy that exceeded that of your ancestors. Most likely by focusing on economic growth which you demonize, and scientific advancement, that civilization will further enhance a robust quality of life and health for your descendants.

Here is a hard truth to ponder, Greta: if the great producers of this world whom you excoriate were to withdraw their productivity, wealth and talents—in short—their minds from the world today, your generation would simply perish. Why? Because as children you have done nothing as yet, with your lives besides being born. This is what we expect of children until such time as they can be producers by learning from their elders. You are understandably social and ecological ballast. You are not yet cognitively advanced to replicate the structures of survival of which you are the beneficiaries.

Children are important installments on the future. We have invested in you. It is you and your smug generation which think they have nothing to learn from the older ones who are failing themselves. Whom do you expect to employ the majority of you if you have neither the job credentials or life competency skills to navigate the world? The future unemployable-skipping- school-on-Friday obstreperous children?

The truth, as one anonymous blogger aptly put it, is that your generation is unable to work up to forty hours per week without being chronically depressed and anxious. Its members cannot even decide if they want to be a boy or a girl, or both, or neither, or a “they.” They cannot eat meat without crying. I might add that your generation needs “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” as pre-conditions for learning in school. Its members have a pathological need to be coddled and protected from the challenging realities of life. Your generation is the biggest demander and consumer of carbon spewing technological gadgets and devices. An hour without any of them and too many of you succumb to paralyzing lethargy. Your generation is the least curious and most insular set of individuals one has ever encountered. Your hubris extends so far that you think you have nothing to learn from your elders.

Yes, we have betrayed you: by capitulating the world of leadership to bored, attention-deficit children who spout bromides, platitudes and slogans that a rudderless and morally relativistic culture accepts because a significant number of its denizens have become intellectually bankrupt and morally lazy.

...

Read the full letter here:    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/open-letter-greta-thunberg-jason-d-hill/
(hat-tip: Instapundit)

Climate Scare Warning - New Assault on Children's Minds Imminent

'On Nov. 20-21, 2019, in schools around the world, for ages down to kindergarten, Al Gore's "Climate Reality" group plans to give presentations based on Gore's highly fraudulent "Truth in 10" slideshow. '

Tom Nelson is drawing attention to a new threat to the well-being of children around the world - a new Gore-developed presentation designed to alarm and to upset.  Here is some of the promotion for it on Al Gore's own blog:

'The climate crisis affects all of us. And it’s up to all of us to solve it.

That is why Al Gore created the Truth in 10 slideshow, a 10-minute presentation that will help you spread a simple message to your community: the climate crisis is urgent, but the solutions are at hand.

Download the presentation, personalize it, practice it at home, and then go out and deliver it. Start with your friends, your family, your school, your house of worship, your business or community center.'

Tom's reaction:  'I think as many skeptics as possible should check out the map here. If a presentation is scheduled at a local school, please take the time to write a complaint letter.  (Please let me know via DM, email, or comment here if you do some pushback).'

Given Al Gore's poor track record on climate, this is not good news.  I daresay he may be hoping to ride on the new waves of publicity being generated by Extinction Rebellion.  These are political initiatives employing blatant scaremongering, and as such should have no place in schools.

Note added 7/11/19.  A recent report on the harm being done to children by such people:   https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2019/09/17/epidemic-of-kids-treated-for-eco-anxiety-over-climate-change/

Parents of Climate-Scared Youngsters should Read This: 'there is no climate emergency'

Some children and young people are obviously genuinely scared by the climate propaganda they have been exposed to by their teachers and others who should've known better.   Being scared about the future is a rotten way to move towards the world of work and achievement.  These youngsters urgently need our help.  Getting them to read the declaration below would be an easy start to what may be a long process:

'There is no climate emergency

A global network of 500 scientists and professionals has prepared this urgent message. Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address the uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real benefits as well as the imagined costs of adaptation to global warming, and the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of mitigation.

Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming

The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming.

Warming is far slower than predicted

The world has warmed at less than half the originally-predicted rate, and at less than half the rate to be expected on the basis of net anthropogenic forcing and radiative imbalance. It tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.

Climate policy relies on inadequate models

Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools. Moreover, they most likely exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.

CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth

CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.

Global warming has not increased natural disasters

There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent. However, CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly. For instance, wind turbines kill birds and insects, and palm-oil plantations destroy the biodiversity of the rainforests.

Climate policy must respect scientific and economic realities

There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. If better approaches emerge, we will have ample time to reflect and adapt. The aim of international policy should be to provide reliable and affordable energy at all times, and throughout the world.'

This has been signed by hundreds of scientists and climate policy experts.  Monckton of Brenchley describes them as follows: 'The Global Climate Intelligence Group, whose objective is to put the science back into climate science, comprises scientists, professionals and researchers from many nations, has already attracted some 500 signatures for what began life scant weeks ago as the European Climate Declaration.

The group, and the declaration, are the brainchild of Professor Guus Berkhout, emeritus professor of Geophysics in the Delft University of Technology. Professor Berkhout is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences./

More details here:  https://clintel.nl/prominent-scientists-warn-un-secretary-general-guterres/

Hat-tip WUWT: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/09/28/global-climate-intelligence-group-founded/

What is it like to read calm, rational, highly-informed reasoning on climate? Try Prof Nir Shaviv for starters.

The appalling, unhinged demonstrations on climate by schoolchildren, and their tragically duped and exploited figurehead Greta Thunberg, are a bit wearisome to say the least.  So, by way of a break, let us have a read of a calmer, highly-informed climate commentary from a penetrating rather than a brainwashed mind - that of Professor Nir Shaviv:

'Political and corporate leaders gathered for the climate week in New York City have urged significant action to fight global warming. But, given the high costs of the suggested solutions, could it be that the suggested cure is worse than the disease?

As a liberal who grew up in a solar house, I have always been energy-conscious and inclined toward activist solutions to environmental issues. I was therefore extremely surprised when my research as an astrophysicist led me to the conclusion that climate change is more complicated than we are led to believe. The disease is much more benign, and a simple palliative solution lies in front of our eyes. 

To begin with, the story we hear in the media, that most 20th-century warming is anthropogenic, that the climate is very sensitive to changes in CO2, and that future warming will, therefore, be large and will happen very soon, simply isn’t supported by any direct evidence, only a shaky line of circular reasoning. We “know” that humans must have caused some warming, we see warming, we don’t know of anything else that could have caused the warming, so it adds up.

However, there is no calculation based on first principles that leads to a large warming by CO2—none. Mind you, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports state that doubling CO2 will increase the temperatures by anywhere from 1.5 degrees to 4.5 degrees C, a huge range of uncertainty that dates back to the Charney committee from 1979.

In fact, there is no evidence on any time scale showing that CO2 variations or other changes to the energy budget cause large temperature variations. There is, however, evidence to the contrary. Tenfold variations in CO2 over the past half-billion years have no correlation whatsoever with temperature; likewise, the climate response to large volcanic eruptions such as Krakatoa.

Both examples lead to the inescapable upper limit of 1.5 degrees C per CO2 doubling—much more modest than the sensitive IPCC climate models predict. However, the large sensitivity of the latter is required in order to explain 20th-century warming, or so it is erroneously thought.

In 2008, I showed, using various data sets that span as much as a century, that the amount of heat going into the oceans, in sync with the 11-year solar cycle, is an order of magnitude larger than the relatively small effect expected simply from changes in the total solar output. Namely, solar activity variations translate into large changes in the so-called radiative forcing on the climate.

Since solar activity significantly increased over the 20th century, a significant fraction of the warming should be then attributed to the sun, and because the overall change in the radiative forcing due to CO2 and solar activity is much larger, climate sensitivity should be on the low side (about 1 to 1.5 degrees C per CO2 doubling).

In the decade following the publication of the above, not only was the paper uncontested, more data, this time from satellites, confirmed the large variations associated with solar activity. In light of this hard data, it should be evident by now that a large part of the warming isn’t human, and that future warming from any given emission scenario will be much smaller.

Alas, because the climate community developed a blind spot to any evidence that should raise a red flag, such as the aforementioned examples or the much smaller tropospheric warming over the past two decades than models predicted, the rest of the public sees a very distorted view of climate change—a shaky scientific picture that is full of inconsistencies became one of certain calamity.

With this public mindset, phenomena such as that of child activist Greta Thunberg are no surprise. Most bothersome, however, is that this mindset has compromised the ability to convey the science to the public.

One example from the past month is my interview with Forbes. A few hours after the article was posted online, it was removed by the editors “for failing to meet our editorial standards.” The fact that it’s become politically incorrect to have any scientific discussion has led the public to accept the pseudo-argumentation supporting the catastrophic scenarios.

Evidence for warming doesn’t tell us what caused the warming, and any time someone has to appeal to the so-called 97 percent consensus, he or she is doing so because his or her scientific arguments aren’t strong enough. Science isn’t a democracy.'

Read the full essay here: https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-climate-change-pseudoscience-became-publicly-accepted_3093372.html

[Hat-tip, and for more links to writing by Prof Shaviv, see Climate Depot ]