The latest round in the Global Warming Awareness Wars has been a series of videos by an actor who thinks that with a lot of "cramming" and caffeine drinks, he can pass judgement on people who have a life-time worth of learning, experience and expertise in their various fields. Ironically, Topher, has no experience with science or economics that I can make out - it seems he has spent his life trying to become an actor and break into show business.
It's called the "50 to 1 Project" where the creator is arguing that trying to slow down CO2 emissions will cost 50 times more than ignoring the problem and dealing with the damage as it happens.
What else would explain folks sending TW bunches of money to support his transparent effort to distract attention away from the issues we need to be facing.
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I would suggestion the important lessons could be summed up as. . .
~ ~ ~
LESSON ONE - Greenhouse Gases are holding in more heat and warming our planet.
LESSON TWO - Energizing our Global Heat Distribution Engine {read climate} will radicalize weather patterns that had attained a most particular equilibrium over the past thousands of years
LESSON THREE - Climate change has always radically disrupted and destroyed systems and patterns that had developed under the previous climate regime
LESSON FOUR - WE the people ARE THE ONES DRIVING our Global Heat Distribution Engine into these more energetic realms - they will have impacts we can't fathom, since the coming conditions had never existed before.
LESSON FIVE - One doesn't bitch about the paint job on the Life Boat that's about to get one's person off a sinking ship ! {OK so this last one is a bit weak - I'm trying to say a weak plan that can be improved upon is better than ignoring the problem and having no plan at all.}
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
For more substantive information regarding Topher's claims here is some further reading suggestion:
The first isn't really about Topher's video, but since he bases his numbers on the work of the Lord Monckton, this link to Collin Maessen is worth checking out since Collin has written a number of articles that take a closer look at Monckton's numbers and claims.
Climate Changes, But Facts Don’t
~ ~ ~
Is the cost of preventing climate change 50 times higher than the cost of adapting to it?
{The specific claim is that mitigation is 50 time cheaper than avoidance, even on current, widely agreed assumptions. Are their sources correct? are the calculations reasonable?}
~ ~ ~
Fifty to One Moncktonian Codswallop!
~ ~ ~
50 times more expensive! Don’t make me laugh!
~ ~ ~
My advice to Topher Field - take the money and run!
~ ~ ~
Here's a couple final links that brings home what folks like the Lord and Topher and Watts want everyone to ignore:
National Climate Data Center - NOAA
Explaining Extreme Events of 2012
Global warming, or just the weather?
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
http://www.climate.gov/news-features/features/global-warming-or-just-weather
"NOAA's Thomas Peterson answers questions about the climate detective work behind a newly published collection of studies into several extreme events from 2012. Climate scientists describe this kind of analysis as event attribution: figuring out how much, if any, of a given event should be attributed to human-caused climate change and how much should be attributed to natural weather or climate variability. ..."
8 comments:
Having just watched Topher's sad YouTube interview with Watts, and criticized it at some length, I agree with your intro, but please - proofread!
"he can sit judgement"
"a life-times worth"
"what he want's"
"the least appreciate"
"someone obvious to"
Then there's the punctuation...
No offence intended: it's about credibility.
Guilty as charged.
Recently my days have been in a particularly crowded phase and I didn't spend the time I should have. ;-( unfortunately, even at the best of times my writing leaves room for much improvement.
Thanks for the advice.
Graham, you say you've done your own critique of Topher's intro. - could you share a link?
opps, Topher's interview with Watts, I mean.
It's just the most recent YouTube comment, as klondike444, at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiuHOzykxC0
Thanks for taking my comment in the intended spirit.
Actually, I thank you for taking the time to point out those goofs {hopefully I've fixed them up appropriately}.
I may not be a good writer, but I do take it seriously and appreciate that 'writing is a contact sport' ~~~ without tough-love critique all I'd be doing is spinning my wheels.
Your YouTube comment is worth sharing:
klondike444
Watts: "Severe weather for the most part is on the downturn." All those record high and low temperatures? Imagination.
He waves away loss of Arctic sea ice, referencing 1922, with no figures, and mentioning "a prediction" of no sea ice in 2013. What will he say when it does disappear?
Ask about the frequency and intensity of storms, he talks about tornadoes.
Subsidies for renewables are bad, but ignores those for fossil fuels.
Finally, "Produced in association with: Lord Monckton Foundation"
Thank you for bringing the 50 to 1 Project to my attention! In this I found your article very informative.
You may find these articles looking into the '50 to 1 Project' even more interesting:
50 times more expensive! Don’t make me laugh!
My advice to Topher Field - take the money and run!
Post a Comment