The Copenhagen Protocol

The Montreal Protocol went bust when it became apparent that ozone depletion over polar regions was part of a natural cycle and not man made. Thereafter, the Kyoto Protocol was necessary to ensure continued funding for the Montreal Protocol fearologists. Now that the Kyoto Protocol is about to expire without result, these scaremongering scientists have set the stage in Copenhagen for yet another round of fear-based extortive funding to support the lavish lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Global warming impacting Greenlanders' daily lives, Bangkok Post, July 29, 2009

The global warming article about ice fishing in Greenland ("Global warming impacting Greenlanders' daily lives", Bangkok Post, July 29, 2009) is yet another in a long series of fluff AGW press releases put out to ratchet up the hype ahead of the Copenhagen meeting. Fluff AGW articles surreptitiously imply but do not show that choking our economy to reduce CO2 emissions will have any effect on the problem being described. It is sinister propaganda.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Study confirms rising sea levels, Bangkok Post, July 27, 2009

After sustained criticism from skeptical scientists the global warmists have revised their forecast for the rise in sea levels by the year 2100 from several meters to 38 cm give or take 20 cm (Study confirms rising sea levels, Bangkok Post, July 27, 2009). In releasing the rather innocuous new figure the warmists had to try extra hard to maintain the scare level saying that the lower figure does not mean we are safe and that things could turn out to be much worse and we should maintain our fear level and stay scared. Their motivation is that a loss in the fear level could put at risk their economically suicidal mitigation programs that they expect to sell in Copenhagen during a time of economic stagnation.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Why the media likes global warming scare stories

In his book "Myths, lies, and downright stupidity", reporter and media man John Stossel writes as follows: "The people who bring us story ideas are alarmed. Then we get alarmed, and eager to rush the news to you. We know that the scarier and more bizarre the story the more likely it is that our bosses will give us more air time or a front-page slot. The scary story, justified or not, will get higher ratings and sell more papers. Fear sells." So there it is right from the horse's mouth. Now we know the genesis of a media awash with global warming scare stories and insufficient reference to inconvenient scientific details and rational debate.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Flash floods from heavy monsoon rains claim 36 lives, Bangkok Post, July 21, 2009

Since the beginning of this year global warmists have been warning us that climate change will weaken and delay the monsoon in South Asia with devastating results including crop failure and hunger (Climate change to affect monsoon in South Asia, USA Today, February 27, 2009; Bangkok Post, March 20, 2009) and yet the 2009 monsoon in South Asia is right on time and not at all weakened and whatever devastation there is in it is in terms of heavy rains and floods not droughts (Flash floods from heavy monsoon rains claim 36 lives, Bangkok Post, July 21, 2009; Heavy monsoon rain claims 26 lives in Pakistan, Bangkok Post, July 20, 2009). Somebody ought to point out to the Secretary of State now visiting Asia to peddle the climate change agenda that global warming scientists have made many short term forecasts that can be checked with subsequent weather data and none - not one - of these forecasts has been proven true. Asians are rightly wary of her message as it is unlikely that they would want to commit economic suicide just to play the flawed climate change game of the rich nations.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Ireland in dire straits, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009

Earlier this year columnist Paul Krugman wrote that Ireland had been hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis and that it serves as a canary in the coal mine for the rest of the world to see what's coming down the pike as this crisis unfolds (Ireland in dire straits, Bangkok Post, April 21, 2009). If that is true, I have bad news for those on their toes awaiting an allegedly imminent recovery. At the time Krugman's column was written, the Bank of Ireland's GDP growth forecast for 2009 was 4%, up from -3% in 2008 and heading for recovery. Since then, the Bank has progressively reduced this estimate in stages back into negative territory and all the way down to -8.5% with five months of growth forecast revisions yet to come. The Bank's forecasters are now saying that their economic growth rate will stay in the red through 2011. The alleged imminent recovery has now been postponed even by forecasters who have a history of making rosy forecasts and then revising them downwards. The canary appears to be telling us that the much awaited economic recovery is not imminent and we really don't know how long this thing is going to last or how deep it's going to get.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Energy and earthquakes, Bangkok Post, July 15, 2009

Your article on geothermal energy states that interest in this technology is driven by the Obama adminstration's support for renewable energy (Energy and earthquakes, Bangkok Post, July 15, 2009). The economically feasible rate of heat extraction in geothermal plants, given the high cost of drilling and the high cost of insurance against environmental damage, will greatly exceed the rate at which the site can be naturally re-heated and therfore these sites will eventually become functionally depleted. The total amount of energy that would be available worldwide with this technology is rather large and geothermal energy could theoretically provide all our energy needs for hundreds of years but it is not renewable. An exhaustible energy source, no matter how long the useful life, cannot be considered to be renewable. The issue is a deeply sensitive one mostly because it determines whether the geothermal industry can benefit from funds that have been earmarked by the US federal government for renewable energy development.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand

Reference: Argentinian glacier defies global warming, Bangkok Post, July 8, 2009

A climate change scientist evaluates the rapid advance of a glacier in Argentina as follows: "We are not sure why this happens. But not all glaciers respond equally to climate change" (Argentinian glacier defies global warming, Bangkok Post, July 8, 2009). In other words, they don't take data to test the hypothesis because their hypothesis is deemed correct by definition. They take data to test the data. If the data support their theory the data are deemed to be good. Otherwise the data are deemed spurious and additional theories are needed to explain how these observations could occur in the age of global warming. In this kind of science, the man-made global warming hypothesis cannot be proven wrong no matter what the data.

Cha-am Jamal

Thailand