4 Years To Save Us!

18 Jan, 2009 by McQ

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If Al Gore is AGW’s “Hysteric-in-Chief”, James Hansen has to be the VHIC. And he’s out with the newest doomsday “runaway greenhouse effect” prediction in one of coldest winters in a few decades:

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama’s first administration, he added.

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said Hansen. “We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead.”

That’s right, folks, only 4 years. Convenient, wouldn’t you say? A perfect save at the end of his term if Obama acts now to counteract those effects. Pay no attention to the economy, it’s in the tank anyway. Instead, damn the deniers and a lot of science, full speed ahead.

And Hansen’s science? Well not so hot, no pun intended.

Hansen’s institute monitors temperature fluctuations at thousands of sites round the world, data that has led him to conclude that most estimates of sea level rises triggered by rising atmospheric temperatures are too low and too conservative.

But his published temperatures have been proven, multiple times, to contain the wrong data. In one case, Russian temperature data for September was copied on to the following month’s data thereby making the month appear much warmer than it was.

The error not only affected October data, but due to the complex algorithm GISS uses to convert actual temperature readings into their output results, altered the previously published values for several other months as well. The values for August 2008, for instance, changed by 0.11C and the global anomaly as far back as 2005 increased by a hundredth of a degree.

NOAA blows off the mistake by saying they are only responsible for the temperature data in the US. However they have had no reticence at all for using the data provided (without, obviously, checking it) to push their AGW alarmism.

But that doesn’t stop Hansen:

However, Hansen said feedbacks in the climate system are already accelerating ice melt and are threatening to lead to the collapse of ice sheets.

The ice sheet collapses he discusses are completely normal events having more to do with physics than any warming trend. And despite Hansen’s hysteria about such collapses leading to raised ocean levels, scientists (real ones) say that’s not the case. Ice shelves are floating to begin with, that’s how they eventually break off and floating ice does not raise sea levels when it melts.

Speaking of trends, ice growth at both polls is the ongoing trend. And Alaska’s glaciers have shown growth for the first time in 250 years.

But the VHIC has an audience including those who decided quite some time ago that all the science is in and all that can be learned about the climate is known. These “flat earthers” (hey, give me a better analogy and I’ll use it) are unfortunately in political power right now and are convinced they must do something to stop these natural cycles, even as it appears we may now be heading into a cooling period.

So this is another among many battles shaping up in the coming few years along with healthcare, massive government deficit spending, expansion of entitlements and the nanny state, plus, I’m sure a few surprises. All are economy cripplers. Taken together they’re economy killers. And as it’s shaping up now in Washington DC, it appears you can begin writing our economy’s obituary on Tuesday when a certain newly minted president’s pen becomes functional.

[Crossposted at QandO]