Let's Change the Climate

[bonnie]

2014: Let's Change the Climate

By Clarice Feldman

I think it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the misadventures of Australian climate scientist Chris Turney, who headed that misbegotten adventure in Antarctica

Just as we are forced by federal law to give up incandescent bulbs for lesser alternatives to save carbon, fifty-two adventurers set off on a doomed expedition to prove a falsity: that the ice cap in the Antarctic is melting because of greenhouse gases.

Professor Turney, like many climate hucksters, has a financial stake in proving carbon fuels are frying the globe. As he describes himself:

"Professor of Climate Change at the University of University of New South Wales where my team and I are focussing our efforts on using the past to better understand the changes we are seeing today. To do something positive about climate change, I helped set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels."

Unfortunately for Turney, his family, two BBC reporters and a host of tourists who paid 8 grand each for the adventure, the icecap in the Antarctic is growing, not shrinking, and the Russian ship they chartered, the Akademik Shokalskiy, got stuck in it:

GRAINY film footage from Douglas Mawson's epic Antarctic survey and expedition provides lasting proof that when the adventurer's team reached Commonwealth Bay exactly 100 years ago, it was free of sea ice.

It is a historical fact that some people argue can only add to acute embarrassment for Australian climate scientist Chris Turney, the carbon entrepreneur and head of climate science at the University of NSW, whose Antarctic mission has come to a frozen dead stop.

Two icebreakers set out to rescue them and they, too, got stuck. Finally, the passengers were helicoptered out 12 at a time by a Chinese aircraft which presumably wasn't relying on green energy from Carbonscape or any other source on which we and other governments around the world have blown billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

NYT blogger Revkin was dismayed that the entire fiasco would "disrupt serious climate change studies."

Adrian O, State College, Pa., responds with a needed bit of reason:

Right now (Dec 31st) a French vessel couldn't approach them.

The Chinese ice breaker which carries a helicopter got stuck trying to approach them.

An Australian ice breaker had to give up too. Moreover its deck is too weak to carry the Chinese helicopter.

However the ice is so thick and fused that it is stronger than the icebreaker's deck, so the helicopter would land on ice.

Two big ice breakers, a Russian and an American, are crossing the equator, coming from the Arctic.

******

As this is going on, the expedition organizer, Climate Change professor Turney, speaks out

"Turney also responded to speculation from climate sceptics who have taken to social media sites in recent days to attack the scientific consensus on climate change, pointing out the apparent incongruity of there being so much sea ice around the Shokalskiy in the middle of the Antarctic summer.

"we are not trapped in new ice that's been created because its cold," said Turney. "This is very old, thick ice that's been remobilized."

That's the ice which is more solidly fused together than an ice breaker.

******

The Guardian counters with a big story

"Planet likely to warm by 4C by 2100, scientists warn

New climate model taking greater account of cloud changes indicates heating will be at higher end of expectations"

An attempt to link the two stories, as in the innocent question:

"Does that mean that we'll ALL have to vacation in the Antarctic?"

is met with an immediate lifetime ban.

The rescue was fortunate because this didn't seem to be a particularly hardy band of explorers. Andrew Bolt compared them with an earlier Antarctic explorer, Douglas Mawson, who ran into difficulties with ice:

Guardian journalist Laurence Topham on the "Spirit of Mawson" now demonstrates how that spirit lives on in this ship of warmists, awaiting rescue by helicopter after a week trapped in ice they'd assumed was melting away:

It is quite stressful... I miss banana and peanut butter milkshakes... I've got this really thin, small bed... I've hurt my back... I jammed my leg in the door last night... And it's only going to get worse... Stranded in ice. Oh, God I'm going mad.

As Tom Gelsthorpe observes, this batch of Antarctic watchers don't come near the intrepid and hardy men of the doomed Endurance:

Ninety-nine years ago, Ernest Shackleton, a dauntless son of County Kildare, set out on an Antarctic expedition that has become one of the most highly praised failures in history. His ship Endurance got stuck in summer pack ice in the Weddell Sea, was gradually crushed and had to be abandoned. Shackleton recruited his crew of 28 with the most famous classified ad ever written, titled "Men wanted for hazardous journey." The text did not sugarcoat the dangers. The success of the ad was proven when recruits endured one of the harshest ordeals ever documented.

Endurance sank, then the crew hauled three tiny lifeboats and what provisions they could manage across ice and rough water. For over a year they endured frostbite, blizzards and grueling labor, yet eventually reached Elephant Island, a Godforsaken scrap of land on the edge of the Southern Ocean. Defying death from hunger and exposure, one group stayed on Elephant while Shackleton and a chosen handful sailed one lifeboat through the dead of winter, across 800 miles of raging ocean to South Georgia, a remote, mountainous island the size of Long Island. They landed on the uninhabited south coast and hiked over the glacier-cloaked spine to the whaling station on the other side. When the explorers arrived, the station staff didn't believe their story at first because they'd been given up for dead long before.

A rescue party returned to Elephant Island and found every man still alive. Through the two-year ordeal, not one soul was lost. Bob Dylan's line, "There's no success like failure," could have been inspired by Shackleton's heroics.

Newsbusters notes that 98 percent of media stories simply ignored the fact that the ship was in the Antarctic to prove Turney's point that the Antarctic ice was melting.

And I found only one article, from National Review Online, by Greg Pollowitz cited above, that even mentioned Turney had an entrepreneurial interest in proving the Antarctic ice was melting.

Aside from the loss of face and perhaps future business, the crew had to make a humiliating appeal to climate warming sceptic Anthony Watts for more up-to-date weather data to aid the rescuers.

The truth is Turney and his pals could have saved a lot of time, money and embarrassment if they had acknowledged the truth ahead of this disaster.

"Basically, according to Turner et al. (2013), the current generation of climate models cannot simulate the annual seasonal cycle in Antarctic sea ice extent, and the climate models show a decrease in Antarctic sea ice extent since 1979, while satellite-based observations show an increase in sea ice extent there.

The closing clause of Turner et al. (2013) is worth repeating and expanding: "...the processes responsible for the observed increase [in Antarctic sea ice extent] over the last 30 years are not being simulated correctly [by the current generation of climate models]."

Obviously, all of the model-based predictions of gloom and doom about sea ice have no basis in the real world."

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/2014_lets_change_the_climate.html#ixzz2pXPY6JBf

[olger]

I firmly believe that Global Warming is being caused by Baby Boomer women having hot flashes.

[Gregory Matthews]

O.K. Females only:

How many of you believe that the above post is funny?

[Gerr]

Are the satellite pictures of shrinking Arctic and Antarctic ice all lies? And some glaciers have either disappeared or glacier foot have moved hundreds of feet higher?

[bonnie]

O.K. Females only:

How many of you believe that the above post is funny?

I have to confess,I did think so

[bonnie]

Are the satellite pictures of shrinking Arctic and Antarctic ice all lies? And some glaciers have either disappeared or glacier foot have moved hundreds of feet higher?

Climates change,they always have.Many don't believe the automobile will be the death knell of old planet earth or the cause of the climate changing.

That doesn't give a license to pollute at will and without regard

to the damage that can cause

[Tom Wetmore]

I firmly believe that Global Warming is being caused by Baby Boomer women having hot flashes.

Or maybe all the hot air from all those climate change denial crowd...

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

O.K. Females only:

How many of you believe that the above post is funny?

I didn't think it was funny at all.

[bonnie]

I didn't think it was funny at all.

I may be wrong but I do think it was meant as a joke.Not to demean women.

Growing up with three brothers and raising four sons that doesn't offend me in the least.

We can look for things to be offended by in almost anything that is said

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

yes, I understand olger intended it as a joke.

It just wasn't a very classy joke.

[CoAspen]

Those that feel others can/should be subject of jokes, in particular women, leaves one to wonder about their true feeling toward women.

Posting such when not face to face with the person, means a lot of humor is lost.

[bonnie]

Those that feel others can/should be subject of jokes, in particular women, leaves one to wonder about their true feeling toward women.

Posting such when not face to face with the person, means a lot of humor is lost.

Why "in particular women"? Are we somehow a special species that are incapable of taking some good natured ribbing.

I have more concern over what men think of women if they are afraid to do so,as if we are so fragile that we need to take offense at everything except glowing remarks or be offended.

In my house my husband and a couple of my sons take a lot of ribbing about "men being unable to or unwilling to follow directions" from my DIL's and myself.Does that mean we think less of them or are demeaning them in some way?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

perhaps it has to do with how one is brought up... I was brought up where the men in the family were chivalrous, i.e, behaving in an honorable, respectful, and polite way especially toward women.... (lots of good definitions in the many dictionaries out there)

Chivalry isn't "dead"...but it sometimes seems as as if it's becoming a "lost art"....

[Igakusei]

Originally Posted By: CoAspen

Those that feel others can/should be subject of jokes, in particular women, leaves one to wonder about their true feeling toward women.

Posting such when not face to face with the person, means a lot of humor is lost.

Why "in particular women"? Are we somehow a special species that are incapable of taking some good natured ribbing.

I have more concern over what men think of women if they are afraid to do so,as if we are so fragile that we need to take offense at everything except glowing remarks or be offended.

In my house my husband and a couple of my sons take a lot of ribbing about "men being unable to or unwilling to follow directions" from my DIL's and myself.Does that mean we think less of them or are demeaning them in some way?

If I were to guess what he meant by that, it would be that we should be extra careful in making certain types of jokes about some of the less-privileged groups in society. There is a long history to the line of thinking that women shouldn't be allowed the same responsibility as men to make decisions because of a view that they are the irrational sex.

I personally know that's not true, and certainly men are every bit as capable as women at being irrational, but given the very real way in which the "hysterical women" trope has been used to deprive women of power at all levels of society in this country, I feel like it's not very sensitive to drag it out there again. Sort of how it's not considered couth to make slavery jokes around black people.

"[insert large-scale societal problem] is due to [aspect of female hormonal cycle]" just really isn't very classy.

[bonnie]

perhaps it has to do with how one is brought up... I was brought up where the men in the family were chivalrous, i.e, behaving in an honorable, respectful, and polite way especially toward women.... (lots of good definitions in the many dictionaries out there)

Chivalry isn't "dead"...but it sometimes seems as as if it's becoming a "lost art"....

Different opinions are what makes the world go round.A man being chivalrous has a different meaning to me. I would have found it a very dull household growing up or having four sons and a husband if they had to tread softly at all times so I would not be offended. It is not difficult to find something to be offended about if one is determined to be offended.

I always have had the respect of my brothers and my own family. Were they or I for that matter always polite? Nope.

I don't expect or would put up with obscene jokes about women or men for that matter.Nor the thought that women were slightly less because they happen to be female or less capable,but good natured ribbing isn't something that I find offensive.

I did not expect my brothers or my sons to see it as a sign of disrespect when I tell them they are behaving like a bunch of Neanderthals or my husband to be offended when I tell him he would make a better monk than a mechanic.

There are many women that are offended at any remark unless it is glowing and full of praise.

Chivalry isn't "dead" again depends on what that means to a person.

[olger]

It was a joke. My sisters and wife thought it was hilarious.

Greg I-like-to-make-mountains-out-of-molehills is trying to drum up some phony outrage over it. Good luck, friend !!

:^]

[olger]

As to "Global Warming" alarmists, they seem to be getting more shrill - as if that were possible - as their predictions have failed so dramatically.

Have you seen the Russian boat permanently stuck in the ice in Antarctica? Sounds like the coast guard are going to try to help them out of their...wait for it.."cold pickle."

Ps. That was a joke, GREG, with no intention of offending pickles around the world. No big dill, dude.

[Tom Wetmore]

Moderator Note:

Here's is the problem. Mixed company of any sort seems to suggest a bit of discernment on things you and your immediate friends and family might find quite amusing in the context of friends and family. But strangers may just think you are a bit off and hardly funny. Not everyone sees life reflected back in the same funhouse mirror you might. And then there are people that are funny in their own mind, but not so much to everyone else.

Humor is a tricky thing. What some find hilarious others see as quite something else. I know people who find obscene language and vulgar jokes most amusing. I suspect few here would appreciate that sort of humor. Some in my family are quite amused by bodily function noises like burps and farts. The rest, not so much. And then for some it's just not acceptable at the dinner table.

A good approach among people you do not know well enough to be sure of their sense of humor is - if in doubt, don't. And then there is that whole idea of a time and place for everything. So if not sure if it is the right time or place, best hold off on the funny business until you are sure.

And then there is perception of making light of serious topics that comes across as disrespectful and mocking. That seems to be more of what is at the heart of this misunderstanding. Climate change and menopause are not funny to a lot of people. To make light of either or both is not well received.

[bonnie]

Moderator Note:

Climate change and menopause are not funny to a lot of people. To make light of either or both is not well received.

Tell me,were you making light or just a little tit for tat with this.......Or maybe all the hot air from all those climate change denial crowd...

I would think if it is not a joking matter,those that feel that way would lead by example.

Altho,did think it a good comeback

I think most people realized with the absurdity of the statement

that it was a joke.Not meant as contempt or disrespect for women.

We can work overtime at finding things to be offended about,we will never run short.

Maybe menopause is a sacred "condition" to some women but it hardly warrants taking such offense.It happens and yes,has it's humorous aspects at times.My SIL ended up with the nickname "Flash" for quite some time. She thought it was funny and fairly accurate.

Regardless of what the topic may be,some will not find anything humorous about something.

[LifeHiscost]

Quote:

Regardless of what the topic may be,some will not find anything humorous about something.

This morning I read a full chapter from the book of Leviticus about how important the King felt about taking care of women's "customary impurity". It seems as if He placed some of the same importance Tom expressed, that could preclude any appropriate humor over the topic.

Of course the condition of present society makes it difficult for some to ascertain what might be the most appropriate offering on almost any topic.

God cares! Jesus saves!

[LifeHiscost]

Seems to be an appropriate response. My response to your response was more like this response.

God saves! Jesus cares!

[LifeHiscost]

I firmly believe that Global Warming is being caused by Baby Boomer women having hot flashes.

I'm uncertain as to my response to this post as it may not cut any ice.

Just sayin'

God cares! Jesus saves!

[bonnie]

This morning I read a full chapter from the book of Leviticus about how important the King felt about taking care of women's "customary impurity". It seems as if He placed some of the same importance Tom expressed, that could preclude any appropriate humor over the topic.

Of course the condition of present society makes it difficult for some to ascertain what might be the most appropriate offering on almost any topic.

God cares! Jesus saves!

Not sure which chapter you are referring to or that this is the appropriate topic for this particular discussion but I have read Lev. “When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.”

An awful lot of unclean men running around,I would think almost all of them. Don't touch your wife in passing,don't kiss her goodbye when you go to work and by all means sleep separately

as you might touch her accidently and then you are unclean.

Maybe she could just stay in the garage for seven days

[Bravus]

https://theconversation.com/an-icebreake...rm=points%20out

[phkrause]

Actually that sounds good to me!! I'd like to change the weather back to the way it was 40/50 years ago.