I don't think that they do. Several members of the House and the Senate have gone on record last night and this morning, after Scott Brown's historic victory, and have said that they need to "rethink the health care bill". That's not what I heard voters saying in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts. That's not what the tea party rally in Washington DC, in front of the Capitol building said when we filled the streets and the Memorial grounds with bodies holding signs. We didn't say "go back to the drawing board". We said "NO"!
Perhaps it's something in the liberal mindset which prevents them from connecting with the people they seek to rule? It's the old "we're better educated, better funded, and more experienced, so we'll tell you what to do" approach. And guess what? It's just been rejected thrice.
I'm sure a wiser man than I could draw a lengthy parable about Jesus and Peter's thrice-heard denial, and the the rejection of the policies of Barack Obama by the independents, and some conservative Blue-Dog Democrats. I won't.
I don't simply want Barack Obama to fail. I want him to go away, and take his Socialism with him. I think the people of Massachusetts feel the same way. I'm beginning to suspect that the Dems in both Houses of Congress might soon share this view too.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Climate Change: When It's Cold, It's Hot!
Winning the award, by a mile, for the stupidest "Climate Change Claim" I've ever heard has to be "All of this cold is due to Global Warming." Now, for those who follow the AGW craze, you already know that warm ocean currents control our climate. This is nothing new. Al Gore and his minions have all claimed that we've been warming the oceans, melting the ice caps, and causing unusually-severe weather world-wide.
Only we haven't. Yes, the El Nino/La Nina swings from warm to cool in the Pacific do drive changes in the Jet Stream, but it has always done this, and likely always will. Just because we've recently learned about a process doesn't mean it hasn't been doing it for years. But, according to AGW scientists, apparently THIS winter's Modiki (Japanese for "different") El Nino is not in the same location as past El Nino's were. So the Jet Stream has changed position wildly, bringing stinging cold and snowstorms to the US.
The AGW nuts are chanting "See, we told you so!" They're claiming "extreme weather" because, lately, there just hasn't been much of that. No crazy Category 6 hurricanes. No "Night of the Twister" tornado outbreaks. Just lots of cold air blowing down from the northlands. They're claiming this "cold" is because we're just "too hot".
I have observed, in my life, that it is the Sun which warms us. No Sun, no warmth. Now, if the Sun happens to be doing something funky (and it is at the moment, with the lowest solar output since we've been monitoring it) it would be prudent to perhaps examine the relationship between the Sun and the warmth on this planet.
Naw, that would just be too easy.
Here's my theory... As the Sun's output (and solar wind) has dropped, the upper atmosphere has contracted significantly. It's gone from 400 miles deep down to about 250 or so. Don't quote me on the exact figures. Sure the Sun's output has gone lower, but now the light has less depth to bounce through, and diffracts less, possibly warming the mid-latitude oceans more. Translation? Hot summers still, and freaky winter weather caused by the length of time it takes the ocean to cool back down as winter comes on. The El Nino pools cause the jet stream to go crazy, and it's the Jet Stream's path which scooped up the cold and brought it south. The Pacific is in a cool PDO (look it up) phase, as is the Atlantic's AMO too. This, if the sun continues to heat the oceans in the same way next year, could lead to a repeat of this year's winter.
And a general cooling trend for the planet overall. Hey, I didn't say it was a great theory, but it's miles better than saying "AGW causes harsh winters"!
Only we haven't. Yes, the El Nino/La Nina swings from warm to cool in the Pacific do drive changes in the Jet Stream, but it has always done this, and likely always will. Just because we've recently learned about a process doesn't mean it hasn't been doing it for years. But, according to AGW scientists, apparently THIS winter's Modiki (Japanese for "different") El Nino is not in the same location as past El Nino's were. So the Jet Stream has changed position wildly, bringing stinging cold and snowstorms to the US.
The AGW nuts are chanting "See, we told you so!" They're claiming "extreme weather" because, lately, there just hasn't been much of that. No crazy Category 6 hurricanes. No "Night of the Twister" tornado outbreaks. Just lots of cold air blowing down from the northlands. They're claiming this "cold" is because we're just "too hot".
I have observed, in my life, that it is the Sun which warms us. No Sun, no warmth. Now, if the Sun happens to be doing something funky (and it is at the moment, with the lowest solar output since we've been monitoring it) it would be prudent to perhaps examine the relationship between the Sun and the warmth on this planet.
Naw, that would just be too easy.
Here's my theory... As the Sun's output (and solar wind) has dropped, the upper atmosphere has contracted significantly. It's gone from 400 miles deep down to about 250 or so. Don't quote me on the exact figures. Sure the Sun's output has gone lower, but now the light has less depth to bounce through, and diffracts less, possibly warming the mid-latitude oceans more. Translation? Hot summers still, and freaky winter weather caused by the length of time it takes the ocean to cool back down as winter comes on. The El Nino pools cause the jet stream to go crazy, and it's the Jet Stream's path which scooped up the cold and brought it south. The Pacific is in a cool PDO (look it up) phase, as is the Atlantic's AMO too. This, if the sun continues to heat the oceans in the same way next year, could lead to a repeat of this year's winter.
And a general cooling trend for the planet overall. Hey, I didn't say it was a great theory, but it's miles better than saying "AGW causes harsh winters"!
Monday, January 4, 2010
The Hubris of Mankind
It dawned on me the other day that we really have not seen what sort of weather this planet is capable of unleashing. How do I know this? I'm not a "climateologist" or highly-trained meterologist. I'm just an orginary guy, not that much different from the rest. So, what makes me so certain that we haven't seen the whole picture yet? Three words; ice core data.
You see, in case you didn't know this, we've been drilling cores of ice out of the ground in Antarctic and Greenland for years. Each year's new layer of ice tells us a great deal about the climate of the Earth, going back millions of years. It's, in fact, the ONE reason we should know that we have nothing to fear from the "global warming craze". This link reveals some interesting charts: http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/ice-core-graph/
Forget the 800-year lag in CO2 results, that's just a red herring. Look instead at the temperature. The bottom of the page shows the entire 420,000 year record from the 1998 Vostok ice cores (Vostok is the Russion Antarctic station near the South Pole). Notice how the temperature goes up briefly every 100,000 years? There's a total of 5 peaks on the graph, including our own brief modern history in the last 8,000 years. The peaks are ALL warmer than out modern phase! Every single interglacial period has been AS WARM or SIGNIFICANTLY WARMER. They've also always been followed by a rapid decline in temperatures once more. Always.
So... to sum this up succinctly. The last 8,000 years have been an unusual abberation in our climate. All of the weather patterns we've observed in the history of mankind have been a part of this abberation. If each interglacial period is roughly 10k years in length, and there have been five in the last 420k years, then we've not witnessed 370,000 years worth of weather patterns which CAUSE ice ages.
Yet, somehow, we're supposed to believe that we're the "kings of the Earth" as far as weather and climate predictions go? I do believe that we're in for a very rude awakening some day.
You see, in case you didn't know this, we've been drilling cores of ice out of the ground in Antarctic and Greenland for years. Each year's new layer of ice tells us a great deal about the climate of the Earth, going back millions of years. It's, in fact, the ONE reason we should know that we have nothing to fear from the "global warming craze". This link reveals some interesting charts: http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/ice-core-graph/
Forget the 800-year lag in CO2 results, that's just a red herring. Look instead at the temperature. The bottom of the page shows the entire 420,000 year record from the 1998 Vostok ice cores (Vostok is the Russion Antarctic station near the South Pole). Notice how the temperature goes up briefly every 100,000 years? There's a total of 5 peaks on the graph, including our own brief modern history in the last 8,000 years. The peaks are ALL warmer than out modern phase! Every single interglacial period has been AS WARM or SIGNIFICANTLY WARMER. They've also always been followed by a rapid decline in temperatures once more. Always.
So... to sum this up succinctly. The last 8,000 years have been an unusual abberation in our climate. All of the weather patterns we've observed in the history of mankind have been a part of this abberation. If each interglacial period is roughly 10k years in length, and there have been five in the last 420k years, then we've not witnessed 370,000 years worth of weather patterns which CAUSE ice ages.
Yet, somehow, we're supposed to believe that we're the "kings of the Earth" as far as weather and climate predictions go? I do believe that we're in for a very rude awakening some day.
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