Dr. Richard Lindzen, scientist as fiction writer

Or, Science By Rhetoric As Opposed To Science By Evidence and Learning.

Based on the YouTube video short "Lindzen - Why you should not worry"

After watching this video, I went through the comments and discovered that Dr. Lindzen and the fiction writer Michael Crichton were pals.  What an interesting insight, the cynical scientist and the master of science fiction story telling.  Given Lindzen's performance in this video, and every other one I've watched, I can see how the pupil learned his lessons well.  

Look at this, or any other, YouTube performance of Dr. Lindzen mocking climatologists and you will see echoes of rhetoric over evidence reinforced by drama substituting for substance.  Hallmarks of the successful science fiction fantasist.  

But, Dr. Lindzen, what does that have to do with understanding what is happening within our atmosphere and the greater global heat distribution engine?

I wish I could ask Dr. Lindzen a few questions such as, please explain why he ignores so much important Earth observation information in his various performances?

Surely you're joking Mr. Weingarten!

This article seems so popular I felt compelled to add an invitation to Mr. Weingarten:  Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Surely you're joking Mr. Weingarten - updated with invite

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2014/09/youre-joking-mr-weingarten.html

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{edited 1/29/14 evening}

If you are trying to understand the "right wing" approach to learning about critically important climate science issues and the concept of an "even playing field" - well, here's an article for you.

It relates to Dr. Mann's lawsuit against author Mark Steyn, the National Review and Competitive Enterprise Institute for claiming he's guilty of scientific fraud.  In response to another ruling in the plaintiff's favor, one Ben Weingarten wrote an artfully crafted plea for sympathy, wherein he transforms the perpetrator(s) into the victim(s).  But, do his claims stand up?

Here's my review, along with links to further information.

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"CLIMATE CHANGE VERSUS FREE SPEECH"

Ben Weingarten | Jan. 27, 2014

Canada's Stephen Harper's War On Science

A couple weeks back I shared two news reports about the hideous things going on up in Canada these days.  You see, Stephen Harper's administration's has unleashed an attack on serious science in order to "re-focus" the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to get in line with his government's "core mandate" - such as subsidizing the fossil fuel-dominated energy sector to the tune of $26 billion in 2011.  He and his puppet-masters want to "transformation" the DFO  to a more "modern, streamlined, efficient department" that will stop interfering with their money making schemes.  After all, Harper and his pals see no need to protect the environment and natural resources, no matter that we're talking about our life support system.  Their vision can't get past their personal greed.

Today I'm posting to share another informative article {along with some other information sources}, this one by Peter Rugh - Scientists Speak Out Against Canada's "War on Science"  published January 26th at truth-out.org.

Why trust Roy Spencer?...or the "NASA 50"…or the Oregon Petition for that matter?

{edited 1/22/12 afternoon}

This post was inspired by a couple comments I received from a character who goes by "opit".  His comments and links are text book examples of ideology driven willful ignorance overriding honest curiosity and a desire to learn about our home planet.

opit writes: You say it is quibbling about minutae to argue about warming when it is not feasible to measure the aggregate of such ? Science is based on measurement. 

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Science may be based on measurements, but our planet's geophysical processes are not!  Science tries to portray the natural world to the best of it's abilities.  It's never 100% accurate so your insistence on perfection is setting up impossible expectations, not a smart way to treat the real world around us! 

Harper's Gov't, the moral equivalent of burning Library of Alexandria

This is news to me and I'm still in shock that something like this can happen and feel compelled to share it.  I knew things had gotten a bit ugly up in Canada, but had no idea how crazy, that is self-destructive, the Harper Agenda really was.

Why is it that learning about our planet has become such an enemy to the Right Wing power structure?  Why is it so hard for these people to appreciate that our "environment" is the only life-support system we have, and we absolutely depend on its health?   

I'll let Andrew Nikiforuk tell the rest of the story by quoting from his articles.  Although please visit the TheTyee.ca and read the full story because there's much more than I've shared here.

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Dismantling of Fishery Library 'Like a Book Burning,' Say Scientists

Harper government shuts down 'world class' collection on freshwater science and protection.

By Andrew Nikiforuk, 9 Dec 2013, TheTyee.ca

Are Climate Science Skeptics new age Galileos ?

{Update -  if the topic interests you, here's a link to a must read article by Bart Verheggen:
John Christy, Richard McNider and Roy Spencer trying to overturn mainstream science by rewriting history and re-baselining graphs
February 22, 2014 by Bart Verheggen
http://ourchangingclimate.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/john-christy-richard-mcnider-roy-spencer-flat-earth-hot-spot-figure-baseline/

Who are the Flat Earthers?

Before the advent of modern climatology, common wisdom had it that we tiny humans couldn’t possibly influence climate. Modern science shows we can. Yet John Christy and Richard McNider claim the exact opposite in a recent WSJ op-ed, in which they claim that their outdated views on climate somehow make them modern-day Galileo’s (or in their words: Why they are the ones declaring that the earth is round while the vast majority of the climate scientists persist in thinking the earth is flat). ...}

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One of the tactics denialists use to avoid facing facts is diverting attention from the real issues with all sorts of irrelevant diversions.

An excellent example of this tactic is resorting to the Galileo Defense, in order to prop up scientists who have lost their legitimacy within the international community of scientists and experts - rather than focusing on discussing why these scientists have lost the trust of their colleagues.

As it happens I just heard this tactic used once too often, so have decided to do my little part in setting the record straight by sharing an interesting review of what the real issues were in Galileo's battles with the Catholic Church.

Research Confirms Global Warming Has Accelerated

I appreciate bringing this up while much of the nation is still in the grips of the coldest Arctic Blast in memory may seem weird, but remember we are talking "global warming" and that's never meant it would warm equally over the entire planet.  

Our weather is the product of a global network of circulating patterns in oceans and well as the atmosphere.  Our climate had reached a fairly stable equilibrium over the past ten thousand years.  What has changed is that society has been injecting ever greater quantities of Greenhouse Gases into our thin atmosphere, this in turn has been the equivalent of donning ever more sweaters on a warm day.  

This in turn has added more heat to our planet's virtually closed climate system.  Add heat and energy to a closed system and it will be energized to a higher activity state.  Of course, weather patterns are complex and we don't understand all the ways this higher energy state will manifest itself - but we can be sure those changes will damage a society that has never had to contend with non-stop extreme weather events, be they deep freezes or extended heat waves and drought conditions.

Man it's cold! What happened to global warming?

Climate Science "skeptics" have been having great fun with this past week's cold wave that has many US states basking in record Arctic low temperatures.  Thus it's been hardy laughs all around the blogosphere for those who refuse to take climate science seriously.  It's a shame they don't dare look past their neighborhoods to examine the global picture.

What these folks hide from themselves and their audience is that our planet is a huge global heat distribution engine.  

The equator get's most of the sun's heat, this in turn get's moved out of the tropics and into northern latitudes through currents, both in the troposphere and the oceans and through weather patterns and storm systems.  Here are a few links to more information on how that works: