What's Natural about Steele's Sea Level conundrum? Pacifica Tribune 3/20/2019

In his March 20th What’s Natural? column, Jim Steele winds up in a conundrum because he’s obsessing on Greenland while trying to figure out California’s sea level rise.  It got me to thinking about those six blind men grappling to make sense of an elephant while focusing on individual parts.  

Steele’s conundrum will never get resolved until he pulls back and starts taking in the whole of our Global Heat and Moisture Distribution Engine.

The biggest problem is that Steele’s confusion is deliberate.  See, Jim’s no teacher, he’s a performance artist who has become skilled at taking bits and pieces of true facts, ignoring great swaths of important information, then concocting just so stories to entertain and sooth, rather than inform and prepare.  

He gets away with it because his audience wants to be deceived - and because rationalists fear to confront such belligerent self-certain willful ignorance. 

Why do I care?  Because I love this planet and truth matters! 

Because someone needs to be a Witness for honesty and defender of We The People’s right to learn about this wonderful fantastical planet Earth that created us >>> without the constant cross screaming of malicious dedicated liars!

I’ve dissected March 20th’s Pacifica Tribune’s What’s Natural? because it offers me another opportunity to examine ‘libertarian’ fraud in action, while giving me an excuse to share a treasure trove of related links to solid educational resources for the curious.  

REPRINTED UNDER PROTECTION OF FAIR USE COPYRIGHT LAWS.  

My intention is a point by point review of 'libertarian' deception in action.

Click on image for better viewing and comparing.

Peter Hadfield made an easy to follow overview of the meme Jim’s parroting.

potholer54  |  Published on May 15, 2017

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

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What's Natural about Sea Level Rise? - Jim Steele - Pacifica Tribune - EXAMINED

We The People of the United States have a moral, ethical, and pragmatic right to learn what scientists have learned about this planet's biosphere and climate engine without constant dishonest crossfire.  We should not tolerate serious scientists constantly being drown out by amoral, ruthless and frankly ignorant arguments - that an astoundingly ruthless GOP PR factory repeats over and over again, without ever learning a damned thing from the evidence in front of us.  {This post last edited at 8:00PM- 2/19/2019}

In "What's Natural?" Steele serves up his advice:  

“I urge local planning commissions to wait at least 20 more years for more data before giving up on our coastal cities of the world and moving inland.”

While offering me another opportunity to consider Constructive Learning versus Science by Rhetoric and Slander.

Here you'll find a paragraph by paragraph examination of Jim Steele’s suggestions and claims as they appear in his “What’s Natural?” column, “Changing Sea Levels, Part 1” (2/13/19), published in the Pacifica Tribune.

I’ll admit the following is aimed at rationalists, children of the intellectual enlightenment so to speak, since I’ve found that trying to engage in a constructive debate with Jim Steele is a fool’s errand.  He hides.  Thus I settle for this informative Virtual Debate format.  

There is value in exposing and understanding the tactics of libertarian deception, so I continue to strive to share my discoveries and learning curve with anyone interested in confronting the lies and deceptions being broadcast about our planet’s physical reality.

My reasoning is clearly laid out, as are my supporting links - ready for any challenger to pick up and dispute in a civil constructive manner.  First, my short response to Editor Frederick, then Mr. Steele's column, followed by my detailed review.  
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Dear Editor of the Pacifica Tribune,

Jim Steele’s February 13th, Changing Sea Levels column is an example of propaganda rather than informative enlightenment. 

43 discombobulated sentences of admittedly (somewhat)* factual tidbits and anecdotes, but with raging omissions.  All artfully spun to keep the self-certain GOP crowd within their comfort zone.  

Along the way Steele devotes some 7 sentences to maligning Dr. Michael Mann, twice using the term “Mann’s followers” which, me thinks, is a bit of projection considering the Trump phenomena amongst today’s right wing.  

Incidentally, Dr. Mann works on paleoclimate and interpreting proxy data, so naturally he doesn’t write about local land movement, but to imply he is unaware of it or ignores it, is ludicrous. 

Why does Steele feel the need to destroy Dr. Mann’s reputation in the eyes of his audience?  That's not serious constructive dialogue, it’s political theater.   

In a talk about changing sea levels, our planet’s cryosphere is mentioned five times, all with a dismissive spin, finishing with “there is still no consensus”. 

In reality our planet’s Cryosphere is melting at an accelerating rate, alarmingly beyond what any experts anticipated.  Really!  Look it up.  We’ve already squandered the past 20 irretrievable years yet Steele’s advice is to squander yet another 20.  Really?

(* This letter was written after my first impressions.  Closer examination revealed how artfully deceptive many of Steele's sentences actually were. ) 

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REPRINTED UNDER PROTECTION OF FAIR USE COPYRIGHT LAWS.  

My intention is a point by point review of libertarian deception in action.

(please click on image for sharp view)