Comedy: Science By Decree, Washington Tries To Declare A Science Settled And A Debate Over

The President of the United States stepped up to the podium and announced to the land that he was hereby officially declaring climate science settled and the debate as ended. Unfortunately, science is never settled, and the remarks will go down in history as being among the most naïve ever expressed by the office of the President.

Naïve and just plain stupid. Washington thinks it can declare a science as settled. Photo: US government, public domain

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The Latest List of Lies

By Ed Caryl

On Tuesday, June 25, in advance of President Obama’s Climate speech, David Simas, a White House presidential advisor, sent an email to the press corp outlining the governments position on climate change. This missive was so unabashedly full of lies dressed as irrefutable statements that it would have made the most notorious dictator propagandist proud. The refutation is absurdly easy. Let’s break down each paragraph:

The carbon pollution that causes climate change isn’t a distant threat, the risk to public health isn’t a hypothetical, and it’s clear we have a moral obligation to act.”

He is talking about CO2. A CO2 molecule is one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. By weight, CO2 is about 73% oxygen and 27% carbon. He calls it “carbon pollution”, not “oxygen pollution”, because to most people, carbon is a dirty, black substance commonly called soot, and oxygen is life giving for animals. Carbon-soot is what one sees from the exhaust of a poorly tuned diesel truck. That isn’t CO2. CO2 is colorless and odorless. Pure carbon also exists as graphite and diamond.

CO2 is not pollution. It is 0.04% of the atmosphere. If the concentration in the atmosphere falls below 0.02% plants die. CO2 is plant food. It is life for plants. It is fertilizer. It is essential to vegetation. It is harmless to humans until it reaches 1% to 4% of the atmosphere.

CO2 and water vapor are responsible for keeping the earth’s surface habitable. Without CO2 and water vapor, the earth would be much colder. Does too much CO2 increase the temperature? Perhaps, but water vapor is a much larger influence. Water vapor, from the bottom to the top of the atmosphere, is the earth’s thermostat.

Is climate changing? Climate changes all the time; it is called “weather.” Is it a threat? Severe weather has always been a threat. Is it a threat to public health? Sure, but it has always been that way. Recent weather has actually been less extreme than periods in the past. Cold kills more people than heat, so we should be welcoming warmer weather if that is what is happening. Rome expanded during a warm period. Medieval castles and cathedrals were built during a warm period.

We have a moral obligation to act? In what way? Primitive tribes used rain dances. We throw government money at alternative energy companies that promptly go bankrupt. These are equally efficacious activities.

The 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15 years, and 2012 was the hottest one we’ve ever recorded. When carbon pollutes the air, the risk of asthma attacks increases. When the Earth’s atmosphere fundamentally changes, we see more heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and floods.”

The first sentence is half true. 2012 was not the hottest year, 1998 was, according to HADCRUT4 and all the other temperature data sources. There were 7 years out of the last 15 that were hotter than 2012. We are now past the peak of the current temperature cycle, so, of course the hottest years are recent years.

CO2 in the air has no effect on asthma. Other pollutants increase asthma, not CO2.

The earth’s atmosphere has not fundamentally changed. There are not more heat waves, or droughts, or wildfires, or floods. The facts are that all these things either cycle up and down over time, or are decreasing. Wildfires are caused by things that man does like arson, building in pine forests, “controlled” burns, and forest management practices. Floods are caused by urban pavement, levees, and poor flood control dam management, as well as nature.

These events also create an economic imperative to act. When farms wash away and crops wilt, food prices go up. Last year, we saw 11 different weather disasters that each cost the United States more than $1 billion.”

What events? Farms have not washed away in any unusual number, and floods don’t normally wash them away anyway, a flood just makes them very wet for a time. In the 1930’s Dust Bowl they blew way, but this was before the CO2 rise. CO2 makes crops more drought resistant. Food prices have gone up because an area equivalent to Iowa and New Jersey combined are now devoted to corn used to produce ethanol rather than food for beef, chickens, and hogs. This has been a government mandated disaster.

Weather-related losses happen every year. As time passes, more things get built that can be destroyed, and inflation increases the dollar cost.

And confronting this challenge isn’t just about preventing disaster — it’s also about moving America forward in a way that creates hundreds of thousands of good, new, clean energy jobs. It’s about wasting less energy, which saves money for every business and every family in America.”

Of course he is not talking about jobs for oil field workers, pipeline constructors, miners, or gas drillers. He’s talking about government subsidized jobs building bird-blenders (wind-turbines) and bird-incinerators (solar power towers). He’s talking about government loans to “green” companies that then lose it. He’s talking about CFL light bulbs made in China that will be causing mercury pollution for years to come. He’s talking about LNG powered cars and trucks that will explode on impact or during refueling.

So the debate’s over. It’s time for action.”

You don’t get out of the debate by declaring it over and walking away. The debate has just begun. We now have the MSM beginning to let the truth be heard.

Here’s what President Obama is announcing today. Check it out, then help to spread the word.”

Help spread the lies. But don’t think for yourself or investigate.

First, he’s laying out a plan to cut carbon pollution in America — by working to cut pollution from power plants, protect the health of our kids, boost clean energy, and revamp our transportation sector for the 21st century. Second, he’s preparing the United States for the impacts of these changes — by building stronger, safer communities and developing resources to make our country more resilient. And finally, he’s leading international efforts to combat global climate change.”

Raise the cost of energy. Raise government spending on more losing Alternative Energy Schemes. Make a case for more gun control. Give DHS more power. Raise the cost of health care. Make big government even bigger, and charge at international windmills.

We’ve put together a graphic that breaks this all down — from the effects we’re already seeing to the specific actions we’re going to take to lead this fight.”

The effects: food prices taking off, energy prices skyrocketing, and now more efforts to enhance both of those effects.

No single step can reverse the effects of climate change, but that’s no excuse for inaction. We have a moral obligation to leave our kids a planet that’s not broken and polluted.

None of those steps will have any affect on something that happens naturally. They will, however, increase costs, put more downward pressure on jobs, and further depress an already depressed economy. In the end, it will leave our kids a planet with poor job prospects, food prices they can’t afford, and energy prices that will reduce their standard of living, restrict mobility, and make it harder to heat their hovels. And that will really be a broken planet.