RR16/science

From the page: "It will take a lot of time and effort to restore the scientific method to its former fame and glory. This is a measure of the destruction postmodern thinking is capable of. Just as Kant devised "Pure Reason" to corrupt non-contradictory (or proper) philosophy, his heirs just did the same for science. This always was a Counter-Enlightenment operation.

Their method of "True Science" turns the scientific method on its head: the outcome is dictated by ideology and the perception of science is used to make the facts fit the outcome. Rather like 'scientific' Marxism/Leninism ... remember that? Some things don't change, by nature."

From the page: "WHAT a mess. In the space of four months Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull will have burdened the nation with an ill-advised renewable energy target and a flawed and questionable emissions trading scheme, both in the name of saving us from an allegedly imminent global warming disaster, which they won't.

As a result we have seen the return of economic rent-seeking - the lobbying of government for taxpayer support - on a scale not matched since Australia's tariff wall was dismantled in the latter decades of the 20th century, and the economic and social costs will not be negligible."

From the page: "No Comments Comment on this article

Climategate: still an astonishing lack of coverage in the MSM, the only major UK exception being the Mail which, after years of agnosticism now seems to have decided to come down firmly in the climate sceptics� camp �" here, here and in this article today by the mighty Booker. (Nigel Lawson is able to slip in a mention, too, in today�s Times).

But is that because �" as some of the commenters below my post are so eager to tell me �" it�s a complete non-story which deserves to get me the sack for being such a rubbish journalist (with innumerable websites dedicated to telling the world just how crap I am, apparently)?

Or does it have legs? (Hat tip: Watts Up With That)

This interview with retired climatalogist Dr Tim Ball offers quite a useful perspective."

From the page: "Scientists Now Say Global Warming Fears Fading Away �" Claim Warming Consensus Never Existed

By Andrew Revko �" New York Times Environmental Reporter

As the Earth continues to cool, UN scientists now concede that CO2 was never the climate driver many made it out to be. The entire multi-trillion dollar global warming movement now appears to have been a result of massive funding, media hype and group think.

The UN IPCC claims it never really promoted man-made climate fears and instead urged media outlets to cover its new environmental claim, the scarcity of oxygen on Earth. The UN issued a warning last week declaring it was �oeimmoral” to question the new consensus that the Earth was fast running out of oxygen. "

From the page: "Professor Ian Plimer, a geologist from Adelaide University, argues that a recent rise in temperature around the world is caused by solar cycles and other "extra terrestrial" forces.

He said carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, widely blamed for global warming, is a natural phenomenon caused by volcanoes erupting. "

From the page: "The ice chunk, measuring some 2,300 feet long with an estimated depth of more than 1,000 feet, caused a stir when it was sighted by experts based on Australia's remote Macquarie Island.

"I've never seen anything like it - we looked out to the horizon and just saw this huge floating island of ice," said fur seal biologist Dean Miller. "

From the page: "In a speech to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900, the most famous scientist of the day, Lord Kelvin, declared, "Physics is essentially complete".

"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now," he said. "All that remains is more and more precise measurement."

He did note a couple of "dark clouds on the horizon" but expected they would be erased without much trouble.

One cloud was the puzzle about the constancy of the speed of light; the other how matter absorbed and emitted light. Just five years later Albert Einstein's theories about both would shatter Lord Kelvin's world view.

Einstein wasn't as arrogant as Lord Kelvin. He was to say of his theories, "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong"."

From the page: "A number of readers wrote in to express surprise at the recent letter from the US scientist Dr Michael Mann claiming that his famous "hockey stick" graph, showing temperatures having suddenly soared at the end of the 20th century to unprecedented levels, had been endorsed by the US National Academy of Sciences. Neither of the two Congressional inquiries involving the NAS did anything of the kind. Both found that the computer model used to create Dr Mann's "hockey stick", completely rewriting climate history, was fundamentally flawed. "