Sunday, September 18, 2011

Can We Really Call Climate Science A Science?


Soviet Politburo September 8, 1927
“Trotsky: Let us present our platform to the party congress. What are you afraid of?
Stalin: Comrade Trotsky demands equality between the Central Committee and his opposition group. In whose name do you speak so insolently?
Trotsky ally: Why are you trying to hide our platform? What does this say about your courage?
Stalin: We are not prepared to turn the party into a discussion club.”
George Orwell, Animal Farm, Chapter 7
“They had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing to shocking crimes.”
E-mails from  Phil Jones (East Anglia University)
July 8, 2004
“I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!”
March 11, 2003
“I will be emailing the journal to tell them I’m having nothing more to do with it until they rid themselves of this troublesome editor.”
There is no disagreement that the earth’s temperature has always changed over time. There are periods of warming and cooling. It appears we are in a period of warming. The debate between “warmists” and “skeptics” is about whether human Co2 emissions are the cause of warming, whether the relatively small effects of these emissions will compound into larger changes, and, if so, whether, the benefits of remediation outweigh the costs. By “warmists,” I mean  Global Warming Alarmists who believe that warming is caused by humans and will have disastrous consequences for humankind if unchecked by remediation, no matter how costly.
go to Forbes.com

4 comments:

  1. I think you have confuzed Trotsky with Zinoviev in your citations above. Otherwise a very nice article!

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  2. The public may not fully understand climate science (who does?), but they know self-serving shenanigans when they see them. As drastic and costly anti-emissions action draws nearer, they take a much closer look, and in this case don't like what they see (cf Australia).

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  3. Carl:

    Paul is correct. There is no confusion of Trotsky with Zinoviev. Please note that Paul is referring to "Trotsky ally" that is "Zinoviev" (i.e., Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky):

    "Zinoviev: What are you afraid of? Why are you trying to hide our platform? What does this say about your courage?
    Stalin: We do not want to turn the party into a discussion club."

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  4. Anonymous: I have the transcripts in Russian. On page 569, in the "Stenogrammy zasedanii Politburo" vol 2, edited by Gregory among others, there is no Trotsky whatsoever.

    Zinoviev: Chego zhe vam togda boyat'sya?.... [i.e. "What are you afraid of"...)

    Stalin: My ne khotim prevratit' partiyu v diskussionnii klub.

    ("We do not want to turn the party into a discussion club")

    There is no Trotsky in this conversation, unless my source is not correct.

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