Is Global Warming a Neurosis?

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Bret Stephens writes about global warming, and the fact that since it was first discovered 20 years ago, much of what was said has been discredited.

Recent evidence of a cooling pattern, including cooler sea surface temperatures, expanding Antarctic sea ice and colder North American winters has caused some global warming advocates to postulate that we are in a temporary break from the warming, and that it will resume after 2020. But, as Stephens notes,

If even slight global cooling remains evidence of global warming, what isn’t evidence of global warming? What we have here is a nonfalsifiable hypothesis, logically indistinguishable from claims for the existence of God. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist, or that global warming isn’t happening. It does mean it isn’t science.

Stephens then goes on to discuss several theories as to why the AGW crowd continues to believe as it does. Well worth a read.

This morning’s low of 62 degrees in Atlanta (and 58 degrees in my more suburban location here in Lawrenceville) was one of the lowest seen for a July morning in quite a while. It looks like the last time Atlanta saw a temperature that low in July was back on July 12, 1999. It was the lowest July reading I’ve recorded since I got my weather station back in 2002.

Tomorrow looks like a possible record breaker, especially in Macon, where the record low is 58 degrees, set in 1937, and a low of 56 is predicted. For Atlanta, there’s still a possibility, although the low record of 58 degrees is still three degrees above 1961’s record low for July 2. Enjoy it while you can, because more typical July weather comes back just in time for the Independence Day weekend.

Meanwhile the first real sign of possible tropical activity in the Atlantic basin is being tracked by the National Hurricane Center. There’s a low pressure system off the coast of Africa that is moving west, and may gain strength over the next few days. In the Pacific basin, Tropical Storm Boris continues its westerly track into nowhere, and is not likely to bother anything before it dies out this weekend.

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2 Responses to “Is Global Warming a Neurosis?”

  1. Mitsu Says:

    That article is filled with distortions and misinformation. The author works for one of the most partisan global warming skeptic think tanks in existence; his bias shows. The NASA data he’s talking about only refers to the warmest years *in the United States* — if you take global temperatures (which really are the only relevant measure, since there are always transient local variations in temperature), the hottest year on record is 2005, and the ten hottest years (globally) are all after 1994. It’s laughable to suggest, furthermore, that the fact that some areas are getting colder in any way discredits the science —- the models all predict that, while the planet is warming overall, some areas will get colder, because of changes in weather, currents, etc. The North Pole is showing unprecedented warming, and many ice shelves in Antarctica have broken up — all events that haven’t been seen in a hundred years or more of observations, and as I mentioned before, the global temperature, measured in many different ways, has been the warmest in recent years by a large margin. Finally, the ocean sensor data only covers the last five years, and it’s a new experiment —- it’s not even remotely “discrediting” the science.

    This article is woefully wrong on the science and nothing more than an attempt at political spin. It’s disgraceful that a major newspaper would print such a blatantly false “opinion” piece from a wholly unreliable think tank.

  2. Jon Richards Says:

    You state that Stephens “works for one of the most partisan global warming skeptic think tanks,” however a quick search for biographical information indicates that prior to working for the WSJ, Stephens was editor in chief for the Jerusalem Post. No mention of a think tank in a bio I could find.

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