#26 3 Good Questions by Bob Carter in 2009
Climate Claptrap X

3 Good Questions by Bob Carter in June 2009
- I decided to check what Bob Carter is doing. I found excellent opinion pieces on Bob Carter's webpage . There are links to audio and video
- God he's a very good speaker : sticking to logic and always able to answer the other persons point ..usually while they deteriate into low tactics like name calling, personal attacks etc.

- one good 2009 article : "The three simple questions that were posed to the Australian Environment Minister’s advisors were:

- 1. Is it the case that CO2 increased by 5 per cent since 1998 whilst global temperature cooled over the same period? If so, why did the temperature not increase; and how can human emissions be to blame for dangerous levels of warming?

- 2. Is it the case that the rate and magnitude of warming between 1979 and 1998 (the late 20th century phase of global warming) were not unusual as compared with warmings that have occurred earlier in the Earth's history? If the warming was not unusual, why is it perceived to have been caused by human CO2 emissions; and, in any event, why is warming a problem if the Earth has experienced similar warmings in the past?

- 3. Is it the case that all GCM computer models projected a steady increase in temperature for the period 1990-2008 ?, whereas in fact there were only eight years of warming were followed by ten years of stasis and cooling?

- As independent scientists, we found that the Minister’s advisors were unable, indeed in some part unwilling, to answer these questions."

- "We were told with respect to the first question that it needed rephrasing, because it did not take account of the global thermal balance and the fact that much of the heat that drives the climate system is lodged in the ocean. Que? What is it about “carbon dioxide has increased and temperature has decreased” that the Minister’s science advisors don’t understand?" .. I disagree the govenments advisors argument has some logic, but this is not an idea that they put forward before, they never said "some of the 1979-98 warming was caused by oceans giving up some of their heat" POST HOC

-'The second question “was the late 20th century phase of warming unusual in rate or magnitude” was effectively dismissed with the comment that climatic events that occurred in the distant geological past are not relevant to policy that is concerned with contemporary climate change. Try telling that to Professor Plimer.' ... maybe not the most important, but still relevant I would say

- And regarding the third question, and the matter of the accuracy of the IPCC’s computer models, we were assured that the models are improving all the time .... if they assured we had to act on the basis of their old models and they proved to be wrong, why should we believe them today"

- By Bob Carter, David Evans, Stewart Franks and Bill Kininmonth. 22 June 2009

criticism for getting $20K/year from Heartland

- Carter is coming in for criticism for getting a ‘’monthly payment’’ of $US1667 ($A1550) from Heartland .

- Green websites quote his own website back at him
"He receives no research funding from special interest organisations such as environmental groups, energy companies or government departments."

- I guess he would argue that no "vested interest" funding influences his research, but that he does receive money when he writes or reviews reports like for Heartland's NIPCC project, just like all scientist are paid when they do peer review & magazine work. So it's not cash for opinion. The work is not secret, are the greens arguing that they thought people give all that time & receive no money ?

- The government & multinational eco-charities basically pay warmist spokesman to appear on TV so something has to be done to redress the balance

- Maybe people could be tempted to change opinion for lifestyle changing amounts of money, but in Carter's $20K/yr is chickenfeed. If Tim Flannery lost his $180K/yr, then his lifestyle really would fall apart if he expressed a different opinion.

Drought BS here in Lincolnshire
- Today the radio news is banging on about possibility of summer drought ...Jeez anything could happen in the next 6 months. Never mind the fact that it rains more in the summer anyway. It's just sometimes the rain comes in June other times in August. They hype that the water authorities are making big plans for summer drought, which almost certainly means they are going to get caught out by floods that they haven't prepared properly for.

- Before Christmas our local news reported "if it doesn't rain enough before the summer, there will be a drought". What a stupid story it tells you nothing; first of all it's about something way in the future; secondly it may or might not happen. Jeez anything could happen in the next 6 months.

- BUT Inside-Out reported after last years dry period, (which wasn't a super drought) many farmers have installed their own reservoirs so they should be OK. But that leads to some areas right now having low water cos the water has been diverted to reservoirs.

- THEN Countryfile tried to inject urgency into the matter by showing film of some ditches that are pretty dried up right now, when in normal winters they are full flow. But I don't think that is enough of impending disaster. For a start there has been a reasonable amount of rain/snow since they filmed. There are millions of such streams, so a few dry ones aren't a big deal. Some will be dry cos water has been diverted, others cos nature doesn't stand still, over long amounts of time rivers do move position.

- Today in the middle of February when there has still been a reasonable amount of rain still the news is hyping up a drought summit. Non-story, of course the water authorities make preparations for drought, they also make preparations for floods 7 months in advance aswell.

- Still doesn't predict what will actually happen in the summer, maybe it will rain a lot before then maybe not. The news said "25% of famers reservoirs are not currently full" ... So what they mean is "already 75% of famers reservoirs are currently full" They talked about the public conserving water, which is BS of course. It's the Patient vs the Impatient
"I'm standing on the site of a half empty resevoir" : this means "when it's full up in 4 months time, I won't be here to report it, I'll have moved on to another panic"

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