Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Day the Debate Died (With Apologies to Don McLean)

Several years ago there was an Intelligence Squared PBS debate on global warming. On the skeptics' side was Richard Lindzen, Philip Stott, and Michael Crichton and on the warmists' side was Gavin Schmidt, Richard Somerville, and some lady from the Union of Concerned Scientists. They polled the audience before and after and it was (and, please, keep in mind here that this is a PBS audience) 29% (global waring isn't a crisis) - 58% (global warming is a crisis) - 13% (not sure)  - before and 46% - 42% - 12% - after................................................................................Yep, folks, the skeptics made the more compelling argument and even in a setting such as PBS were able to significantly sway the audience. Of course, it was also the beginning of the end in terms of these warmists actually wanting to defend their "science" and positions publicly. At the recent International Conference on Climate Change 7, for example, the event coordinator there, James Taylor, invited 57 warmists to speak and not a single one consented to...................................................................................It's kind of like with Gore. The dude refuses to debate Bjorn Lomborg. He refuses to debate Lord Monckton. He refuses to debate John Coleman. He even refused to debate his erstwhile friend and supporter, Michael Crichton. It's like, yeah, of course the debate is over if you refuse to sit down and debate people.

8 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

Define crisis.

dmarks said...

I think Gore might be willing to debate Crichton now.

dmarks said...

And it is also easy to have a consensus if you categorically exclude those who refuse to drink the cool-aid.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Crisis as defined by the IPCC models of the '90s and Al Gore's idiotic film, "An Inconvenient Truth".......Exactly, dmarks. Thankfully the skeptics are utilizing a different playbook and encouraging a discussion.

Jerry Critter said...

Some great definition of crisis - twenty year old models and an ex Vice President. And you want us to,take you serious?

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Dude, Schmidt, Somerville and that lady from the union of concerned scientists posited (and, yes, the models were way, way, WAY off), yay! They take it seriously.......And the crisis is what I had stated in previous posts; a positive feedback loop that will somehow cause a runaway greenhouse effect and eventually a "tipping point". It has never happened before and it isn't happening now because a) the feedbacks by every calculation have been negative and b) CO2 is a trace gas that has a logarithmic effect on warming (it has something to do with the wavelengths) and, hence, by its very nature, couldn't produce such a calamity.

dmarks said...

Jerry said: "... twenty year old models and an ex Vice President...."

Make that ex President, and you have a Clinton scenario right there, Jer.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

One can never go wrong with a good Clinton (who I still maintain was a half decent President) models joke, EVER!