Having watched a program on E4 about the ‘The Global Warming Scandal’ I was gobsmacked, while I believe both sides of the argument tend to cherry pick the data, and that I believe that no-one has yet put all the environmental variables into a proper simulation of the environment (a simulation not a model) There was one point that I got out of this program. That the Africans are being suppressed from exploiting their own resources, coal and oil and that they are being denied their own industrial revolution and western prosperity. That they are forced to rely on unreliable Solar and wind-power for their electricity. And to this I want to rebuke.
First off the example of solar and wind power is presented from one of the worst and most incompetent installations of a solar panel I have ever seen. The presentation indicated that they had only the ability to run a refrigerator or a lightbulb. The first question you should ask is this, why do you need a light bulb in the day, the second is why only one solar panel, and then where is this an example of wind power. A very poor example altogether. But beyond this is another issue, and one that will completely underline the real purpose of this program. Economic viability!
Lets assume that these poorer countries did exploit their resources. The first issue is who will mine their coal, since these countries will either have to borrow money to finance the effort, or that some private firm will exploit this effort. This done, they will have to finance the building of power plants to burn the coal, building them near the major population centers is common. Or they will have to have a private industry build them.
Now one, any loan for these countries will require payment for loans, repayment in what ever resource the country might have, this falls squarely on the one resource that they were intended to exploit for the benefit of the country in question. Building the power generation facilities fall under this same problem.
Two, mining and generation provided by private industries will seek profit. And while mining will provide a re-sellable resource, it’s mostly not going to be profitable selling to the countries that need it. So power plants will either be small, located near large population centers, or non existent. And even if electricity were abundant in the cities, there would never be a power-grid built to supply electrify to this poor medical facility which was used as an example of poor solar installation. Because it would not be profitable! SO this would not solve the energy crisis for this instance.
Beyond this, the likelihood of a single lump of coal ever reaching an African power-plant is nearly zero. As the economics of energy predicates that the most willing to pay, will drive the price. And the western world will always be the ones to pay. This will drive the price of coal beyond the ability of the Africans to buy their own resources back from the mining companies.
Therefore the purpose of this program is to exploit African resources for the western world. Nothing else could be so clear. It completely removes creditability from this program. Forget the scientist’s and experts presented in this program, the underlining meaning is not to preserve the jobs and careers of Global Warming researchers (a poor point as they did not present any wealthy researchers), but to prevent the loss of jobs in the oil, gas and coal energy industries. To prevent any disturbance to the status quo in the wealthiest industry on the planet.
UPDATE:
UPDATE 2: ‘No Sun link’ to climate change is another nail in the coffin of this film.
Update 3: it just keeps coming Prominent Skeptics Organizations and their funding sources.
Update 4: The Truth About Global Warming
The fact that pro-fossil fuel companies can finance this kind of propaganda as well as make INSANE profits in a year is testament to the way we are dependent.
Biggest issue with wind and solar is ignorance and most definitely a desire on the part of solar and wind installers to keep everything secret. They want to keep being the high priests and that’s slowing adoption here.
I saw this as well but the main thing that I got out of it was that CO2 was a LAGGING indicator, yes it does side with warming but unless the scientist was outright lying it is about 800 years behind. I watched Al Gore’s movie and wondered why his graph was over hundreds of thousands of years. Apparently if they scrunch the axis enough it looks like a driver rather than a follower.
For the Africa issue, yes there will be people that have lots of money to be had and there is a danger real danger of countries being fleeced by the western world. However if they use their resources wisely it will channel more money into the country, jobs for locals taxes on the companies for their mines / plants.
MJ, have you seen the video? The experts all say that they wish they were on the payroll of private companies but there is no private climate research dollars to speak of compared to the public grants. One of the main points in the video is that no one wants to bite the hand that feeds them.
I cannot believe that someone who actually watched the Great Global Warming Swindle wouldn’t spend at least a modicrum of time researching some of the facts before blurting out a bunch of bitter retoric.
But beyond that, to write lines such as ‘The first question you should ask is this, why do you need a light bulb in the day,’ Really? You who wrote your article on a computer, in a heated or cooled environment, can sit here and say that? Let me ask you a question, have you ever gone to a clinic or hospital in North America during the day and sat there with all the lights off, because, after all, it’s day time? Should we ask the doctors, “Would you rather have lights or would you rather have a fridge to keep your drugs viable?”
Then you can completely discount anything that anyone has to say by this statement, ‘Forget the scientist’s and experts presented in this program,’ Because your focus isn’t actually about what they are presenting, it’s all about how you feel about the politics of the issues presented.
I read an interesting article the other day, where the reporter was writing about the fact that scientists have discovered that Mars was going through global warming because of the sun. After explaining the process and what was happening she went on to say that although Mars was being heated by the sun, the sun actually had nothing to do with the problems on Earth. Really? Mars is further away from the sun, doesn’t have the greenhouse gas issue, but can still be affected by it. Where as, the Earth, has a natural greenhouse effect going on and is closer to the sun. But it’s all about carbon emissions and nothing to do with the sun.
Okay people, let’s all put our heads in the sand and ignore science and get sucked into the politics of the situation. Are we such a bunch of media hype driven sheep that we take everything that is force fed to us as the truth and nothing but the truth? I say that Carl Sagan was correct in the Demon Haunted world. We are nothing but a hair away from falling back into the dark ages because of our lack of knowledge and our willingness to believe all the hocus pocus that everyone from the government officials to the media are spewing.
Ok, let’s pick at the data, Why not a skylight that takes no energy, why not two solar panels, one for the refrigeration , and one for the light. Where was the wind power? Was this not the worst solar installation you had ever seen? Was this a proper demonstration of ALL solar power? NO! Why, because it was a setup!
If Co2 is always a trailing indicator, why now is it a leading indicator? if we are spending too much money on the science of proving that there is global warming, how are we ever going to know if it is or not, by stick our heads in the sand. When are we going to get all of the facts, and not just the hand picked bits that only support one side or the other? No one is telling the whole truth.
And Yes, the sun is a major factor, as is our orbital pattern, solar dimming, pollution and Sun spot activity, But has anyone put them all together, NO!
This program was about cutting off the spending for research because it was ‘political’ not because it was lying about global warming.
Proof, and counter proof, theory and conjecture, you can never get too much information, or controversy. But this program was all about smearing global warming. NOT Science.
Are we running out of Oil and Gas? Yes! Is there anywhere else to find it, Yes! Is there anywhere else to look for more? Yes, Africa, if we can just get the Africans out of the way so we can find and exploite it. Is this about Global warming, NO!
You are 100% correct, it is all political. Let science prove or disprove the theories.
One of the most compelling reasons I had for giving this more weight than I normally would is because of the whole ‘heresy’ criers out there. Science has always been about challenging a theory and seeing if it will stand up to all the tests that anyone can throw at it. So let the scientists fling away.
Once you get people like Gore, who really only has one agenda in mind, and who is not a scientist, start to influence the world, then we are in big trouble. I actually heard that a senator described him as ‘a saint’…oh my.
I agree, the one solar panel, presentation was pretty pathetic and hurt their argument much more than it helped. Is all the other evidence completely inaccurate because of it?
I say allow both sides the right to present the facts. Lets not start burning people at the stake because they have the nerve to stand up and dispute the majority.
I find your points about African resources/economy unconvincing. I also find your rejection of the program as a scientific resource to be ridiculous. It features top experts (NOT EU funded ones) who are showing actual research and giving actual facts of the earths past temperatures.
The fact of the matter is this – the planets climate is changing and its not because of us. It has changed and always will and we cant do anything about it. While we should all work to make our persoanl enviroments better and prepare for change we cannot alter sea levels and tropical storms by using Co2 efficient cars and turning electronics off when not in use. It is a campaign of fear and lies designed to control our lives and bombard us with new taxes. Al Gore, the biggest liar on the planet has used Global Warming as a platform to prevent his own crazed fascist control and win the nobel peace prize. He wants us all to sing to his tune without question, and all believers of global warming fail to look at both sides of the arguement. I believed in Global warming before seeing this program, and after i did firther research. EVERYTHING about global warming suits the government. They get to create more taxes to stop global warming, they get more voters if they say they will stop global warming and they get to keep the worlds economy ticking nicely in their favour with global warming. Its obvious and right in front of all of us. Global Warming is an unproven theory that has been taken too far. End the lies!
I’ll quote my favorite line with regards to your ‘fact’;
And it goes like this,
There is not enough data to make such a determination. One of the other points of this ‘drama’ called a documentary is that money is being ‘wasted’ on climate research. Yet another attack on Science by the Bush Government and republicans. Yet spending the time to find out the truth is under attack, who’s the ‘Fascist’ now. Suppressing inquiry is one of the signs of Fascism.
And under your ‘Controlling your life’ rant, well this falls under the heading of ‘I want my SUV and cheap gas’
To tell the truth any change we make to the cO2 levels will come too late, if we stopped everything today it would take hundreds of years to register a reversal.
As for Al Gore, he’s just a politician surfing the topic to gain notoriety. Any credit he might earn, like the Nobel, is for raising this subject to public (couch potato) awareness.
You are all missing the point here. If global warming is real and the planet is going to be destroyed and its all down to human activity then its a complete no brainer….stop that activity! If the choice is that simple as the pro movement would have us believe then why are we not banning cars, aeroplanes and anything else that produces carbon dioxide.
Whoever thought up carbon offsetting must be laughing. If your aircraft that takes you on holiday is producing planet killing co2 then how come it is ok if you pay a supplement. That aircraft will produce the same amount of carbon whether you pay extra or not as long as the flight takes place.
So now we come to the nitty gritty either you drive your car or fly on an aircraft or sail on a ship or whatever and the planet dies, or you dont and the planet survives! Maybe you can stop farting at the same time and stop animals farting too as they seem to be the biggest contributors.
The temperature of this planet has risen and fallen since its beginning and we have not been around all of that time so why are we so arrogant that we believe we are responsible this time. Or is it just that we love doom and gloom and it suits goverments as it allows them to justify higher taxes.
Its not so long since we worried about global cooling and another ice age, then the hole in the ozone layer. Then at the new millenium we had nothing left to worry about so we came up with the millenium bug. All of these things were going to change life as we know it in the worst possible way yet none have come to fruition and we are still here.
If climate change is the doomsday event that the so called experts say it is then why isnt life changing now in massive ways rather than carrying on as normal but paying more for it. What happens to all that money and what will it matter when life on earth stops?
If you haven’t noticed Will, the climate HAS changed, and will continue to change. More research MUST be done to identify the cause and a cure. As a side note the Planet will survive, no matter what happens, the question will be will it be habitable to human life when it does? We are risking human extinction not planetary destruction.
Branedy, in case YOU have not noticed I mentioned in para 3 of my last message that the climate has gone through many changes since its beginning therefor I dont need you to point that out to me thank you very much!
Also in case you didnt notice the overall tone of my statement suggests that while I agree there have been changes to the climate recently I believe this to be part of the cyclic pattern this planet goes through and not something manmade.
As for your statement that we are facing extinction, I am sure that the human race can take great comfort that the Earth still exists after mankinds demise. In any case I would regard a planet that is incapable of supporting human life or any other life for that matter as most if not all of the other inhabitants would also cease to exist could be classed as something akin to a dead planet.
Notwithstanding any of this I remain to be convinced that we are experiencing anything other than the planets natural cycles and those who would have us believe anything else are doing so for their own ends.
Yup, heard about them Ice Ages. Didn’t they make some movies about them?
Please explain the extraordinary CO2 levels, that have never occurred in history.
Dead planet, probably not, life will continue, it doesn’t require us at all.
As for experience, you should read more, since you have not banished your credentials I’m pretty sure you do NOT have one in Climate Physics or any other related field.