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Bishop Hill Mar 15, 2016 Quotes The moment that we are denied the right to question a scientific theory that is held by the majority, we are not far away from Galileo’s predicament in 1615, as he appeared before the papal inquisition.
Clive Stafford Smith on shaken baby syndrome
Bishop Hill Feb 25, 2016 Climate: Models Climate: Statistics Quotes Even a fully deterministic system is fully unpredictable at climatic timescales when there is persistence.
From a Demetris Koutsoyiannis presentation.
Bishop Hill Jan 20, 2016 Climate: IPCC Quotes ...can you guys fill in the "look at the impacts we're already seeing" part with a bunch of examples? In addition to the scientifically sound examples you'll give it would also be good for me to get an updated list of extreme events that are plausibly climate related.
US climate envoy Todd Stern reaches out beyond the scientifically sound
Via Chris Horner.
Bishop Hill Jan 4, 2016 Climate: other Quotes In the UK, [El Nino's] impact is likely to be subdued, although past experience suggests that a colder winter could result.
Bill McGuire, Professor Emeritus in Geophysical & Climate Hazards at UCL
Bishop Hill Dec 4, 2015 Academia Civil liberties Quotes People who become intoxicated by the progress of knowledge, often become the enemies of freedom.
Friedrich von Hayek, quoted at No Tricks Zone.
Bishop Hill Dec 3, 2015 Climate: sensitivity Quotes Ridley and Peiser claim that research is increasingly showing climate sensitivity to be low. This is entirely the opposite of what has been happening. The most likely range of values of climate sensitivity (the amount of increase in surface temperature that eventually occurs as a result of the doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere) was established over a century ago. Recently revealed documents show that Exxon Mobil Corporation itself studied climate science as early as the late 70’s, and its findings were in clear agreement with the National Academy of Science 1979 report, which estimated a climate sensitivity of 3°C, plus or minus 1.5° C. Tables in Exxon’s 1982 Climate Change “Primer” for executives show predictions for 2015 markedly similar to contemporary estimates by NASA, and NOAA.
Greg Laden explains that a stream of evidence for low climate sensitivity cannot exist, because in the 1970s people agreed that climate sensitivity was high.
I gather that our friend ATTP found this a powerful and persuasive argument.
Bishop Hill Nov 30, 2015 Quotes [Politicians] have helped persuade us to spend billions on technologies that are never going to make much difference.
Dieter Helm on the state of the climate
Bishop Hill Bryony Worthington seems to want to reverse the tide of deindustrialisation her Climate Change Act has brought about.
[T]he Redcar situation... illustrates how important it is that we get our energy and industrial strategy right. There is a risk to dragging our feet and there is an urgency involved in sorting out our policies on how we are going to not just maintain but actively attract industrial players back to the UK to reindustrialise our nation.
I wonder if she goes to sleep at night thinking that all she has achieved in her life is to put thousands of productive people on the scrapheap. I really wonder.
Bishop Hill This moment requires we the people to rethink democracy as a global mechanism for enacting policy for and by the planet.
Environmentalist Daphne Muller goes all Che Guevara
Bishop Hill Jul 14, 2015 Climate: WG3 GWPF Quotes Pope Francis should certainly be commended for his desire to deal with poverty in the developing world, but it is hard to see how he hopes to do so without economic growth and fossil fuels, both of which he thinks are unnecessary evils.
The Bishop of Chester is unimpressed with the papal encyclical
Bishop Hill Apr 30, 2015 Quotes A genuine expert can always foretell a thing that is 500 years away easier than he can a thing that's only 500 seconds off.
Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Bishop Hill In a remarkably clear-sighted article at The Federalist, David Harsanyi seems to put is finger on why the illiberal left have failed quite so badly to convince anyone that they are right on climate change.
By declaring the conversation over, you’re done trying to convince anyone.
Bishop Hill Mar 5, 2015 Climate: Parliament Climate: Sceptics Quotes Mr. Grijalva’s letters convey an unstated but perfectly clear threat: Research disputing alarm over the climate should cease lest universities that employ such individuals incur massive inconvenience and expense—and scientists holding such views should not offer testimony to Congress. After the Times article, Sens. Edward Markey (D., Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) also sent letters to numerous energy companies, industrial organizations and, strangely, many right-of-center think tanks (including the Cato Institute, with which I have an association) to unearth their alleged influence peddling.
Richard Lindzen in the Wall Street journal
Bishop Hill As a social scientist and policy researcher with a particular interest and involvement in the media I’ve long been frustrated by the predominant tactics aimed at mobilising public concern. Phrases like “the science is finished” and “the greatest challenge facing humanity” have sought to enrol the public and politicians in a grand cause. But these approaches may alienate as many as they attract.
This comes from Joe Smith, in an article at the Conversation. Smith's career to date involves trying to get just these kind of messages on the BBC airwaves, preferably by stealth.
Bishop Hill
What I hope to do during the rest of the book is try to shift your belief from the [individualist] side of the global warming belief chart to the [collectivist]. Or, if you are already on the [collectivist] side of the chart, show you why your instinctive view of nature may well be correct.
Mark Maslin in Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction
(see p.42)
