Alarmists Cite Mythical Weather Events to ‘Prove’ Global Warming Crisis

Published April 20, 2012

Climate Change Weekly #47

Question: How do you manufacture a global warming crisis when real-world data show only modest warming and no increase in extreme weather events?

Answer: Ask people about their subjective impressions of recent weather events and then, using those subjective impressions, claim the sky is falling.

The Yale Project on Climate Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication have released a joint survey about Americans’ impressions of recent extreme weather events. Much like the phenomenon where millions of people claim and apparently believe they were actually at the 1969 Woodstock music festival, a ridiculously high percentage of people claim to have personally experienced severe weather events like hurricanes and tornadoes during the past year.

Twenty-one percent of survey respondents say they personally experienced a tornado last year. This is astonishing. Unless the survey was conducted almost exclusively in Joplin, Missouri or Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I am guessing the Woodstock effect is occurring here.

Even more remarkably, 16 percent say they personally experienced a hurricane last year. Not a single hurricane struck the United States last year. Tropical Storm Irene, often mislabeled as a hurricane, came the closest, with 70 mph winds striking small portions of the minimally populated North Carolina Outer Banks. So how did 16 percent of Americans personally experience a hurricane last year? Perhaps they were all together on a cruise ship off the Mexican coast in October when Hurricane Rina spun around in the Caribbean Sea for a few days.

While the Yale/George Mason survey showed people are prone to imagining they have experienced mythical extreme weather events, this hasn’t stopped global warming alarmists from waving the survey as “proof” of an asserted global warming crisis. Appropriately enough, alarmists are using people’s imaginations about mythical extreme weather events to justify their call for emergency action to fight a fictitious global warming crisis.

As alarmist Steve Zwick writes in Forbes.com, “A recent poll by Yale and George Mason Universities shows that most Americans are at or near that point on climate change, with 72% of us seeing a link between extreme weather and our own actions. It’s a link that climate models have long predicted, and with the benefit of hindsight we see that even the earliest models have proven accurate over time.”

So here we have the alarmist playbook: Climate models predict catastrophes. Objective data show catastrophes do not materialize. Call an audible by asking people if they believe they have experienced a catastrophe. Take the patently ridiculous subjective survey results to claim the catastrophes actually did occur. Assert these reconstructed memories as proof that your models were correct after all. Repeat these steps as necessary. There you have your global warming crisis.

SOURCES: Yale Project on Climate Communication and Forbes.com


IN THIS ISSUE

Zwick calls for skeptics’ houses to burn down; ‘make them pay’ … NASA chief scientist accuses skeptics of restricting discourse … Heartland Institute invites Abdalati to speak at ICCC-7 … Karakorum glaciers defy alarmist predictions … Polar sea ice exceeds 30-year average … Global warming discriminates against women

ZWICK CALLS FOR SKEPTICS’ HOUSES TO BURN DOWN; ‘MAKE THEM PAY’

In his Forbes.com column mentioned above, Steve Zwick follows up his strained asserted proof of a global warming crisis by rooting for skeptics’ houses to burn down. “We know who the active denialists are,” writes Zwick. “Let’s start keeping track of them now, and when the famines come, let’s make them pay. Let’s let their houses burn.”

SOURCE: Forbes.com


NASA CHIEF SCIENTIST ACCUSES SKEPTICS OF RESTRICTING DISCOURSE

In response to a letter by 49 former NASA scientists and astronauts calling on NASA to stop spreading global warming alarmism, NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said, “we encourage them to join the debate in the scientific literature or public forums rather than restrict any discourse.” Abdalati did not identify any occasions when the former NASA scientists and astronauts restricted discourse.

SOURCE: Watts Up With That?


HEARTLAND INSTITUTE INVITES ABDALATI TO SPEAK AT ICCC-7

The Heartland Institute has invited NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati to speak at the Seventh International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC-7), scheduled for May 21–23 in Chicago. Abdalati recently wrote (see item above) that skeptical former NASA scientists and astronauts should “join the debate in the scientific literature or public forums rather than restrict any discourse.” Several skeptical former NASA scientists and astronauts already have accepted invitations to speak at ICCC-7.

SOURCE: The Heartland Institute


KARAKORUM GLACIERS DEFY ALARMIST PREDICTIONS

Alpine glaciers in the Karakorum Range of the Himalayan Mountains are growing rather than receding, scientists report in the journal Nature Geoscience. The Karakorum Range contains approximately half the snow and ice mass of the Himalayan Mountain glaciers.

SOURCE: Fox News


POLAR SEA ICE EXCEEDS 30-YEAR AVERAGE

Despite alarmist claims that global warming is melting the polar ice caps, satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show polar sea ice is currently more extensive than the long-term average. Satellites began precisely measuring polar sea ice in 1979. Polar sea ice extent currently exceeds the satellite-era average.

SOURCE: Cryosphere Today


GLOBAL WARMING DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN

Global warming discriminates against women, according to papers authored by the United Nations and various activist groups. European Union politicians have scheduled a vote on whether the EU should respond to such alleged discrimination by mandating that women comprise at least 40 percent of the EU’s international climate negotiators and at least 40 percent of all committee members who allocate climate aid to EU member states.

SOURCES: Daily Mail and The United Nations

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