Global Warming: is a liberal orbiting the earth?
What are we to make of news reports trumpeting “Earth bears scars of human destruction – astronaut” when the Canadian astronaut is no more qualified to make such assertion than the average man in the street?
Reuters is reporting …
“Earth bears scars of human destruction – astronaut”
“A Canadian astronaut aboard the International Space Station said on Sunday it looks like Earth's ice caps have melted a bit since he was last in orbit 12 years ago.
Wow! What a memory, that he can remember the size and configuration of the polar ice caps from 12 years ago.
“Bob Thirsk, who is two months into a planned six-month stay aboard the station, said he is mostly in awe when he looks out the window, particularly at the sliver of atmosphere wrapped around the planet.
’It's a very thin veil of atmosphere around the Earth that keeps us alive,’ Thirsk said during an in-flight news conference. ‘Most of the time when I look out the window I'm in awe. But there are some effects of the human destruction of the Earth as well.’"
Considering the greatness of nature and the likelihood that
man has little or no effect on the global climate, one wonders if this is simply one of those opinions that is pre-conditioned by government-funded employment or by the preponderance of articles in the mainstream media?
"This is probably just a perception, but I just have the feeling that the glaciers are melting, the snow capping the mountains is less than it was 12 years ago when I saw it last time," Thrisk said. "That saddens me a little bit."
If Thrisk needs a sympathetic ear, he has 12 crewmates with him, at least until Tuesday, when visiting shuttle Endeavour astronauts are scheduled to depart.
This is not to say that Bob Thrisk is not a well-educated specialist as well as an astronaut.
“Thrisk received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary in 1976, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1978, a Doctorate of Medicine from McGill University in 1982, and a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1998.”
Why I am commenting on one man’s opinion …
It is still one man’s subjective opinion that is being reported. And it has little or nothing to do with his scientific credentials or his position as an astronaut. My objections have nothing to do with Thrisk personally, but with the media’s incessant drumbeat of factoids and tidbits which lodges in the minds of less-critical thinkers and often leads to an overwhelming acceptance of the specious scientific facts that will condition voting on the issue of anthropogenic global warming.
Nobody should underestimate the power of the media to condition public opinion in both social and scientific matters. Especially when the mainstream media has lost its journalistic integrity in its pursuit of ideological and corporate goals. In this case I believe that the mainstream media has bought-in to the notion of global warming mainly to advance a political ideology and agenda with which they agree.
Want to really see what is going on for yourself …
If one were truly serious about measuring the extent and cyclical variations of the polar ice caps and reporting the results in a peer-reviewed scientific publication, they might want to look at a web site that features information about our so-called cryosphere. The site features the ability to compare the side-by-side images of Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent for any two dates in the satellite record from 1979 to the 2008.
Dr. Thirsk flew as a payload specialist aboard space shuttle mission STS-78 in a 17-day mission in June and July of 1996. So we looked at two pictures: one on June 15, 1996 and one on June 15, 2008. (The 2009 data was not available and I did not want to use earlier 2009 pictures which might have shown seasonal variations.)
Could you even remember a comparison between sites such as …?
“Caveat: Historic snow cover data not displayed on these images. Sea ice concentrations less than 30% are not displayed in these images. Snow cover data is displayed only for most recent dates.”
In addition, and without reference to the Thirsk comment, it should be noted that our scientific records that are being used for modeling purposes might be less than perfect …
“February 17, 2009 - The SSMI sensor seems to be acting up and dropping data swaths from time to time in recent days. Missing swaths will appear on these images as missing data in the southern latitudes. If this persists for more than a few weeks, we will start to fill in these missing data swaths with the ice concentration from the previous day or switch over to the higher resolution AMSR-E sensor. Note - these missing swaths do not affect the timeseries or any other plots on the Cryosphere Today as they are comprised of moving composites of at least three days.”
This is not to say that the scientists are not doing their very best to obtain good data, but that the data used for modeling may have been prepared for model runs by being “replaced, averaged, interpolated or estimated.” And when one considers the tweaking of the model’s numerous parameters, it is my opinion that the output of these models cannot be accepted as scientific observations, scientific fact and thus should not be used to make far-ranging public policy which will have the consequences of severely impacting the economy, raising our taxes, curtailing our freedoms and choices – and all for a political agenda to increase government control over the citizens of the United States.
I believe that government funding comes with a stiff price – conditioning many people to shade their findings in order to secure additional funding or maintain favor with the “powers that be.” Just as one side derides research being funded by the evil oil companies, might I remind you that the government-funded projects overwhelmingly influence the research that is being offered up by the so-called energy companies.
Who can you believe?
I believe myself.
- I believe that nature’s impact on the universe cannot be mitigated, halted or reversed by man’s puny efforts at this time.
- We cannot alter our planet’s position in relation to the Sun which determines the amount of solar energy heating our planet?
- I do not believe we can alter the weather anymore than I believe that we can alter the output of volcanoes, stop earthquakes or change deep ocean currents.
- I do not believe that man’s influence on our ecosphere is so great as to portend a global calamity affecting our race.
- I do believe we should be responsible stewards of our natural resources and clean up pollution wherever it is found.
- I do not believe that we can curtail pollution by selling government indulgences to allow gross polluters to continue polluting their corner of the planet by purchasing forest lands in another part of the planet. Especially when such credits will be purchased with taxpayer money or from increased energy prices.
- I do not believe in a “politically correct” energy policy that features windmills and solar farms – to the exclusion of clean, cheap nuclear energy which has been demonized by our enemies (primarily the socialists, communists and anarchists) who want our country to crank back its industrial output and reduce our population growth that we can be assimilated into another political state by fast-breeding foreign influences.
And I believe that mankind will continue to adapt to Earth’s climate changes by doing what they have since the appearance of man on Earth – following the availability of natural resources (water, food and shelter) and use the elements of nature to further insulate us from the consequences of nature.
I do my best to stay current with the scientific literature and comment in my blog. If you disagree, you are free to challenge me by entering comments below or sending me an e-mail using the link below my picture.
Like I have stated before, this blog represents my personal experiment in communication and beats yelling at the television or pounding the dash of my car.
Be well, be safe and take care of yourself and your family first.
-- steve
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OneCitizenSpeaking: Saying out loud what you may be thinking …
Reference Links:
Earth bears scars of human destruction - astronaut | Reuters
The Cryosphere Today: a webspace devoted to the current state of our cryosphere
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“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius “A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell “Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar “Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS