WASHINGTON, DC, May 6 — It’s raining cats and dogs. Not really. It’s just a saying, and, like many figures of speech, they are not to be taken literally. Rather they are intended for use in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect. Some might say that climate change and global warming are figures of speech, but Dr. Steven Koonin’s new book simply describes them as being “profoundly misleading.”
Koonin is the director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University, and he was Undersecretary for Science in the US Department of Energy under former President Barack Obama. He’s come a long way since those days of climate change frenzy.
His book, Unsettled “dispels popular myths and unveils little-known truths: despite a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures actually decreased from 1940 to 1970. What’s more, the models we use to predict the future aren’t able to accurately describe the climate of the past, suggesting they are deeply flawed.”
According to Koonin, he agrees that humans are responsible for the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Still, he adds it doesn’t seem to have impacted the weather except that average temperatures may have warmed by about two degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years. And, as for global warming, he points out that heatwaves aren’t as common today as they used to be. Go figure.
He questions the so-called scientific consensus about climate change, noting that what consensus there might be falling short of measuring the role of human impact.
Koonin was something of a climate change believer back in the day, particularly during his tenure in the Obama administration. Since then, he has taken an open-minded view– a view that led him to pen his new book despite the fact that many of his peers have taken him to task on his outspoken presentation of his findings.
He’s not alone. Commentator Doug Casey chimed in on the Global Warming issue some time ago, calling out the apostles of climate change in an in-depth opinion article.
He challenged the climate scientists who insist that their doomsday scenarios reveal just how close-minded they can be. Casey pulled no punches, declaring that “those who blame climate change for every storm or forest fire are silly. Equally silly are those who claim that a particularly cold day proves that climate change is a farce.”
Casey went on to expose the fallacy of their mantra that 97 percent of climate scientists are on board with the climate change scenario. It’s certainly a big number, but if the truth be told, he says, it’s not 97 percent of all climate scientists; it’s 97% of those who have written in scientific journals.
His observation is that “journalists now manage to stick a scary line about climate change in any article they can. Bees, birds, ticks, human migration… it’s all climate change. This continual exposure to unsubstantiated statements from journalists will bamboozle many readers.”
So, beware. You can bet that Koonin’s book is very likely to receive very negative reception among those reporting on climate science. But, we can hope that it will also encourage open-minded researchers to begin thinking out of the box.