Friday, July 17, 2009

Confusion over Earth's Temperature

This is a bit too funny...
Last month, NOAA had May 2009 to be the 4th warmest on record globally. Meanwhile NASA UAH MSU satellite assessment showed it was the 15th coldest May in the 31 years of its record. This divergence is not new and has been growing. Just a year ago, NOAA proclaimed June 2008 to be the 8th warmest for the globe in 129 years of record keeping. Meanwhile NASA satellites showed it was the 9th coldest June in the 30 years of its record.
You can read more on this posting from the Watts Up With That web site.

It is pretty clear to me that there needs to be more science and less politicking. Instead of spending hundreds of billions on de-industrialization, I would think spending that money on basic science and technology to (a) understand climate and (b) work out new technologies to avert whatever the science discovers.

I remember the doom-and-gloomsters in the 1970s telling everybody that they needed to give up their cars, tighten their belts, because oil was running out and there was no hope. There was some talk of alternative energy, but it wasn't sustained. Consequently, 35 years later the argument has come back with the added doom-and-gloom of CO2-induced global warming. My response is the same as it was then. Don't tell the poor to tighten their belts while the elite flit around in jets to lecture us on our "bad habits". Instead, invest in science and technology.

Human inventiveness can solve the problem. Not an era of austerity pontificated over by corrupt overseers who secretly flout their mandated rules and indulge their fantasies. Human history is littered with political and religious leaders "preaching" to the populace while they indulged themselves behind the veil of secrecy.

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