Chamblee54

There is a bit of common sense on the climate today, from an unlikely source (thanks). It seems like James Lovelock, a much revered elder statesman of climate science, gave a pair of interviewsin the UK. Merry Olde England is the home of the University of East Anglia, whose Climate Research Unit was embarrassed recently by some hacked emails.
The Guardian printed a transcript of it’s interview with Mr. Lovelock. There are some good quotes.
“Fudging the data in any way whatsoever is quite literally a sin against the holy ghost of science. I’m not religious, but I put it that way because I feel so strongly. It’s the one thing you do not ever do. You’ve got to have standards.”
(Regarding the data fudging scandal ) “I was utterly disgusted. My second thought was that it was inevitable. It was bound to happen. Science, not so very long ago, pre-1960s, was largely vocational. Back when I was young, I didn’t want to do anything else other than be a scientist. They’re not like that nowadays. They don’t give a damn. They go to these massive, mass-produced universities and churn them out. They say: “Science is a good career. You can get a job for life doing government work.” That’s no way to do science.”
“The good skeptics have done a good service, but some of the mad ones I think have not done anyone any favours. Some of them, of course, are corrupted and employed by oil companies and things like that. Some even work for governments. For example, I wouldn’t put it past the Russians to be behind some of the disinformation to help further their energy interests. ” ( PG muses that many of the climate change skeptics are old anti communists, Now, they are playing on the same side as the Russians they once were so fond of hating.)
“I think the skeptic bloggers should worry. It’s almost certain that you can’t put a trillion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere without something nasty happening. This is going to resolve itself and global heating is going to come back on stream and it’s these bloggers who are going to be made to look weird when it does.”
(On how humans will ever manage to tackle climate change:)” We need a more authoritative world. We’ve become a sort of cheeky, egalitarian world where everyone can have their say. It’s all very well, but there are certain circumstances – a war is a typical example – where you can’t do that. You’ve got to have a few people with authority who you trust who are running it. And they should be very accountable too, of course.
But it can’t happen in a modern democracy. This is one of the problems. What’s the alternative to democracy? There isn’t one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.”
And so on and so forth. According to this esteemed scientist, global warming is real, but mankind may be too collectively stupid to deal with it. Or it might not become manifest for another thousand years. The more we learn about the climate, the more we realize that we don’t know.

As is often the case, the comments to the transcript made more sense than the primary text.
“I am surprised that in all of this article the actual problem we have is not mentioned or addressed. That the earth contains a finite resource, oil , gas , coal , minerals food which we treat as being infinite. Even if global warming did not result at all in any way from this.. we would still be heading for a complete disaster as we consume every last resource.. consumerism and capitalism will be the roots and engine of our downfall.. “
“The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stone. We might grow more food,recycle our minerals and metals and develop alternative sources of energy. As we get richer,population drops and there will be plenty for all. Don’t worry, be happy. You are only here once, and remember : What has the future ever done for you?”
“Good point. The American Dust Bowl wasn’t caused by too much democracy, was it?! It was caused by rapacious financial interests in the form of farmers trying to get too much out of the environment for profit. That was 80 years ago & we have learnt nothing since.
Capitalism has destroyed agriculture because farmers are put under such financial pressures that they sacrifice good farming practice for profit. So it is capitalism that needs “put on hold” not democracy, Dr Strangelove….I mean Lovelock.”
” Lovelock is an arrogant old bastard who will never own up to a fundamental mistake he made many years ago. CO2 is a trace gas in the atmosphere and a poor absorber of IR compared to water vapor which is not only seven times better at getting energy from sunlight, but has 200 times as many molecules to do it! It’s effect is 1400 times that of CO2, but it is ubiquitous, cannot be be controlled or taxed so the elected class ignores it. It is just that simple.
Carbon is 84% of all petroleum fuels and natural gas. The controlling and taxing of carbon will give more political and economic power than anything that has happened in 800 years, the signing of the Magna Carta.
If CO2 were increased to 10,000 ppm it would just become significant in the atmosphere system. That would be a 2600% increase from the present 380 ppm. Give us a break.”