Well, that was nice to read. Those papers are 20 years old, interesting they still have some life in them.

Welcome to CA, Dr. de Leeuw! Unfortunately, Steve McIntyre is on the road for the next 2 weeks or so, but I am sure other regular readers will have comments for you.

The consequences are being felt already. The birth rate will drop. Who feels romantic after reading papers about the psycho-grip of eco-religion that you mention?

Let’s lay out the bare bones here:

1) GCMs are unreliable and cannot parse the distribution of energy from increased CO2 forcing through the climate.

2) The IPCC itself actively misrepresents certainties and ignorance.

3) Paleo-temperature reconstruction is a circus of almost clownish negligence.

4) The surface air temperature record rests on poorly maintained weather stations.

1-4 have been demonstrated. And so,

5) There is zero scientific evidence that increased CO2 has influenced Earth climate at all.

And so now we have activists, eco-psychologists and psycho-sociologists presuming to lecture gravely on the pathological mental state of “deniers” who, by all scientific accounts, are actually those adhering most closely to the knowledge of the matter. I wonder how many of them have read the primary literature; or even read past the executive summary of the 4AR SPM.

The real lesson here is the loss of rational sight to the blinding light of pious certainty. One day, maybe, some psycho-sociologist will find a career path in describing the fatuous nonsense that resulted from the psycho-grip of eco-religion.

http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/UWENews/article.asp?item=1438

George Marshall, Director of Climate Outreach Information Network, and one of the conference keynote speakers said, “The knowledge of the problem is remarkably well established yet we clearly refuse to recognise the implications of that knowledge.”

Does anyone have a suggestion for a single link which Mr Marshall should be pointed towards that may give him another perspective? The Wegman Report? Other?

Sceptics are mad as well as bad, John Naish writes in The Ecologist

THE past 20 years have given our culture ample chance to understand that spiralling consumption imperils the planet. But even in the midst of the credit crunch, mainstream opinion seeks only to return to the norm of perpetual expansion. It’s a prime case of what psychologists call cognitive dissonance, believing one thing but doing the opposite: like a 60-a-day smoker, we know our behaviour will kill us, but we can’t stop. Why?

Medical-scanning science makes the answer increasingly clear. Our culture overstimulates the wrong parts of the human brain — the primitive areas that are bewildered by modern life — into feeling beset by famine and poverty. This creates great fodder for consumerism, but it threatens to send us knuckle-dragging into ecological disaster.

This grey-matter crisis results from the way our neocortex, the intelligent brain we evolved in the Pleistocene era, runs alongside far older systems driven by primordial instinct. American neuroscientist Paul MacLean calls this the triune brain, a structure resembling an archeological site inhabited by successive civilisations. At its core is the reptilian brain, responsible for arousal, basic life functions and sex. The old-mammal brain, which learns, recalls and emotes, surrounds it. The new-mammal neocortex sits on top.

Press release from the University of the West of England:

THE Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England is organising a major interdisciplinary event — Facing Climate Change — the first national conference to specifically explore climate change denial. It will bring together climate change activists, eco-psychologists, psychotherapists and social researchers who are uniquely qualified to assess the human dimensions of this human-made problem. Professor Paul Hoggett said: “We will examine denial from a variety of different perspectives: as the product of addiction to consumption, as the outcome of diffusion of responsibility and the idea that someone else will sort it out, and as the consequence of livingin a perverse culture (that) encourages collusion, complacency (and) irresponsibility.”

In my mental instability I have forgotten when the next full moon shall appear and cause me to make wolf noises.

The ‘too sour to be a squash player’ one to quote Steve.

KevinUK

I’m intrigued. What do you mean by ‘too sour to be a squash player’. Do you mean that he’s a poor loser? By chance I was just preparing a light hearted reply to your #63 comment above about “I learned that sometimes you have to read between the lines.” (I presume you are talking about absorption lines?) when I came across this useful link about water vapour absorption lines.

PhysicsWorld article

The article documents the many problems that exist in attempting to understand the ‘real’ greenhouse gas i.e. dihydrogen monoxide. I think the last paragraph is particularly important and should be borne in mind by all climate modellers.

“It is clear that the absorption of radiation by water vapour determines many characteristics of our atmosphere. While we would not try to provoke any worldwide movement that was aimed at suppressing water emissions, it would seem that the climatic role of water does not receive the general attention it deserves.”

KevinUK