Does this make Warmists “Climate Doomists”? The original title was Heartland Institute: Climate Change Conference “Optimism is the new denial”
(Slate) It’s tempting to find irony in the spectacle of hundreds of climate change deniers staging their convention amid a drought of historic proportions. But, as the conference organizers are quick to tell you, they aren’t actually climate change deniers. The majority of this year’s speakers readily acknowledge that the climate is changing. Some will even concede that human emissions are playing a role. They just think the solutions are likely to be far worse than the problem.
Most think Man plays a small role. Some, like Anthony Watts, believe Man plays a big role. We just don’t see the doom in Warmist prognostication.
“I don’t think anybody in this room denies climate change,†the Heartland Institute’s James M. Taylor said in his opening remarks Monday. “We recognize it, but we’re looking more at the causes, and more importantly, the consequences.†Those consequences, Taylor and his colleagues are convinced, are unlikely to be catastrophic—and they might even turn out to be beneficial.
Don’t call them climate deniers. Call them climate optimists.
OK. Will do. And we’ll call you bat shit crazy apocalypse believers, who whine about fossil fuels (linking of the fossil fuel industry is in paragraph 6) but won’t give them up yourselves.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that the evidence on both sides is equal. There’s a reason the climate deniers are losing the scientific debate, and it isn’t because academia is better funded than the energy industry. All of which helps to explain how climate optimism might be a more appealing approach these days than climate denial. Models of how climate change will impact society and the economy are subject to far more uncertainty than the science that links greenhouse gas emissions to the 20th-century warming trend. The costs of mitigating those emissions are more readily grasped: higher energy bills, government spending on alternative energy projects, lost jobs at coal plants.
Except, as poll after poll shows, Warmists are losing the debate. Most want nothing to do with the Warmist solutions, and typically find that climate change is dead last or next to last in lists of concerns.
Have some fun reading the entire article. It really is a difference between people that are optimistic (Conservatives) and people who are always miserable and see the worst in everything (Progressives)
Deniers are winning the political debate but have already lost the scientific debate. As predicted, many Deniers finally accept the overwhelming evidence that the Earth is warming from human-generated CO2 added to the atmosphere. Now they’re shifting to arguing that either global warming will not be so bad and/or that the solutions are worse than the problem. Again, predictable. Similar to the old days with the tobacco Deniers. It’s interesting that the Heartland Institute used to lobby for Big Tobacco and now shill for Big Oil.
The World Council of Churches (500 million Christians) just decided to divest themselves of their fossil fuel investments.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/11/3459111/wcc-christians-divests/
“Losing the scientific debate…” Not by a long shot, J. How could one be losing a debate when almost 100% of the “predictions” by their “experts” turn out to be false? That’s a funny definition of losing. Also, more evidence comes almost daily on NOAA’s past temperature adjustments. Strange, they all come out the same way- they cool the past and warm the present. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
j,
I said “lost” the scientific debate, not “losing”. Even your own side has been changing their stories lately. They’ve dropped any pretense of a scientific argument and are talking about the politics now. It’s the smart thing for them to do.
Do you really want to be the last person in America denying global warming based on nothing more than your ideology?
Teach says it’s warming and you deny that it’s warming. Do you think Teach is wrong?
The guy is talking about some elements of my own take on things, which is:
1> The earth’s climate is changing. It always has and always will. The earth has been both very much hotter and very much cooler in the past. 10,000 years ago my state was covered with a mile-thick layer of ice.
2> The causes of climate change are natural and poorly understood. Science is nowhere near able to accurately model global climate and may never be able to.
3> Man’s effect on global climate is miniscule at most.
4> To link the complexities of long-term global climate variation to a single cause (the trace gas CO2) is ridiculous.
5> Consequences of a warming earth would be beneficial in many ways.
6> No one can produce any accurate temperature measurements of any spot on the globe outside of about a 50-year window. Estimates of temperatures and climate before that are exactly that – estimates.
7> The essence of the scientific method is the accurate and repeatable prediction of events based on the theory. AGW fails miserably on this score.
8> I’ll believe that it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me that it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis (GHR). For the most part, Climate Alarmism is just another manifestation of something as old as the human race itself – the desire for some to have power and control over the lives of others.
1> The earth’s climate is changing. It always has and always will. The earth has been both very much hotter and very much cooler in the past. 10,000 years ago my state was covered with a mile-thick layer of ice. — But now the Earth is warming rapidly because of increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Global warming will disrupt human society.
2> The causes of climate change are natural and poorly understood. Science is nowhere near able to accurately model global climate and may never be able to. — The climate responds to what climate scientists call “forcings”, changes in orbit, changes in albedo, changes in greenhouse gases. The current forcing is atmospheric CO2.
3> Man’s effect on global climate is miniscule at most. — That’s not what the evidence says.
4> To link the complexities of long-term global climate variation to a single cause (the trace gas CO2) is ridiculous. — The trace gas CO2 is responsible for the Earth not being ice covered.
5> Consequences of a warming earth would be beneficial in many ways. — Yes. But overall, the effects would be harmful.
6> No one can produce any accurate temperature measurements of any spot on the globe outside of about a 50-year window. Estimates of temperatures and climate before that are exactly that – estimates. — If that’s true, how do you know the climate is always changing and that it’s been colder and warmer before?
7> The essence of the scientific method is the accurate and repeatable prediction of events based on the theory. AGW fails miserably on this score. — Not so much. The theory of AGW says it should be warming. It is.
8> I’ll believe that it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me that it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis (GHR). — No you wouldn’t. A more logical approach would be to base your opinions on evidence and climate scientists, not on how others conduct their lives.
Bummer Teach the World Council of Churches the largest Christian umbrella group on the planet just voted to divest from all fossil fuel companies the WCC represents about 500 million christians
Last year the number of North American huuricNes was close to average you are selecting to make a point