Monday, December 28, 2009

Green Notes 2009 Quotes

• The Bolsheviks have discovered that truth does not matter so long as there is reiteration. They have no difficulty whatever in countering a fact by a lie which, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes accepted by the people. (Winston Churchill, Brighton, October 4, 1947)

• “This study after a quick review does not inspired confidence. No dosimetry, no toxicology, no dose-response curves, no hard definition of "exposure", heavy reliance on anecdotal evidence…….As with natural radioactivity being pervasive in our environment, so too are the nominal 3500 natural pesticides in our environment too. Natural radioactivity has been part of the earthen environment for about 5 billion years and discovered by Bequerel 112 years ago. It’s past time when we began to learn about our environment. Every member of your audience next week will contain natural radioactivity, and if they were here or at most nuclear facilities we could easily measure them all! And so would their wives, husbands, children, dogs, cars, lawns, and shrubs, and the food and drink on their tables at the meeting, etc. And so would Ralph Nader and all of the loony greens. All living things plant and animal contain them. A lot of people would do anything to save the planet…….. except take a science class” - Mike Fox

• "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."- Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180). They must have had greenies back then too. RK

• The Holy Grail for most scientists is not truth but research grants. And the global warming scare has produced a huge downpour of money for research. Any mystery why so many scientists claim some belief in global warming? - Jon Ray

• Now Greenies don't like tidal power, either, it might upset the fish, you know. So: Coal, nuclear and hydroelectric are positively EVIL; windmills are no good; tidal power is no good. There's just no such thing as a happy Greenie – Jon Ray

• Green is a mixture of blue and yellow. That is the only factual definition of green that will stand the test of time. After that; any other definition is a corruption of a perfectly nice color. Rich Kozlovich

• For me, the laws of physics are not subject to change by virtue of a public consensus or declarations of highly placed politicians and government science bureaucrats. - James A. Peden , atmospheric physicist

• Credibility has to be earned, and once it’s squandered may never be recovered. by James Lewis

• It is impossible to reason a person out of positions they have not been reasoned into. - Former astronaut Walter Cunningham regarding James Hansen.

• What is the mission of the environmentalists? To spread the truth! No matter how many lies it takes. Green activists will always be outraged about something. What outrages them on any given day will depend on the emotions they are feeling on any given day. However, if you really want to generate outrage green activists…prove them wrong…there is nothing like proving to someone that everything they stand for is blatant nonsense to create outrage. - Rich Kozlovich

• "With discussions of climate change and human impacts, it's sometimes a matter of, 'Do you accept what the science is telling you?' or 'What do you believe, almost as a matter of faith or religious belief?'" Chip Groat, acting dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas

• "Evidence shows human influence is not detectable. And natural effect is quite large," - S. Fred Singer, the founder of the Science & Environmental Policy Project

• "We're under attack by a lot of alarmists."- Dan Miller, a publisher at the Heartland Institute

• “The environmental movement I helped found has lost its objectivity, morality and humanity. The pain and suffering it is inflicting on families in developing countries must no longer be tolerated. Eco-Imperialism is the first book I’ve seen that tells the truth and lays it on the line. It’s a must-read for anyone who cares about people, progress and our planet.” – Patrick Moore, Greenpeace co-founder

• Journalists have generally given up on seeking to understand science, but instead look for the next scientist who will say something strange so that they have a “story”. – Stephen Murgatroyd

• "This is where I really have a problem with modern-day environmentalism; it confuses opinion with what we know to be true, and disguises what are really political agendas with environmental rhetoric. Patrick Moore

• We have all been lied to by a shameless confederation of scientists, their professional publications, their formal organizations, and politicians seeking to use this big scare to advance their careers and agendas. The problem for all of them is that the real science does not support global warming and never did. Real scientists, branded dissenters, skeptics, and deniers, held true to the principles of science, knowing that it would eventually end this vast and terrible hoax. - Alan Caruba

• In 1900, the world supported 56 billion human life years, notes climatologist John Christy: 1.6 billion people times a 35-year average life span. Today it supports 429 billion life years: 6.5 billion people times a 66-year average life span – and they live far better than anyone in history. - Paul Driessen

• When you dance with the Devil you won’t call the tune, you won’t choose the dance, you won’t lead, you can’t change partners and you may not be allowed to leave the dance. Rich Kozlovich

• Why are American fuel prices so high? Why are food and electricity prices on their way to doubling? Why are economic conditions chaotic? The reason is simple. Americans no longer possess the freedom to produce the goods and services required to maintain their former standard of living. Taxation – both direct and indirect through currency inflation – runaway government regulation and government-sponsored-and-encouraged litigation have reduced the productivity of Americans below that required to maintain their way of life. This tyranny – this economic slavery – has been produced entirely by the federal and state governments of the United States. - Arthur Robinson, Ph.D., energy expert and scientist.

• Langmuir's Laws of bad science
- 1 .The maximum effect that is observed is produced by a causative agent of barely detectable intensity, and the magnitude of the effect is substantially independent of the intensity of the cause.
- 2. The effect is of a magnitude that remains close to the limit of detectability, or many measurements are necessary because of the low level of significance of the results.
- 3. There are claims of great accuracy.
- 4. Fantastic theories contrary to experience are suggested.
- 5. Criticisms are met by ad hoc excuses thought up on the spur of the moment.
- 6. The ratio of supporters to critics rises to somewhere near 50% and then falls gradually to zero.

• Americans give more to charity than any country in the world, and they are perfectly willing to help out, when there is a REAL crisis. They are not so crazy about supporting those who profit off of imaginary ones. - Dr. Roy Spenser

• Those who talk about climate change are the same ones who occupy the tenth circle of Hell for many Americans: Politicians, the Media, Scientists, Educators, Hippies, and Showbiz types. So it’s a moral imperative to be against what they’re for. - Dr. Roy Spenser

• Losing liberty over a theoretical threat is the main concern here (no one has ever been killed by manmade global warming. because there is no way to distinguish manmade warming from natural). - Dr. Roy Spenser

• "Think about the things that have improved our lives the most over the past century – medical advances, the transportation revolution, huge increases in consumer goods, dramatic improvements in housing, the computer revolution. The people who created these things – the doers – are not popular heroes. Our heroes are the talkers who complain about the doers." – Thomas Sowell

• “Make no mistake: Living green is really about someone else micro-regulating you -- downsizing your dreams and plugging each one of us into a brand new social order for which we never bargained.” - Steve Milloy

• When the corporate Neville Chamberlains ultimately forfeit their salaries, bonuses and their jobs thanks to their spineless leadership and the anti-capitalism cabal that now inhabits wine and cheese bars in the District of Columbia, I hope to be around to ask this simple question: “So, how’s that hope and change working out for you?” Nick Nichols

• Newspapers should think about the damage they are doing to many persons, particularly young kids, by spreading the exaggerated views of a human impact on climate .... As far as I can see the IPCC 'Global Temperature' is wrong. Temperature is fluctuating but it is still most places cooler than in the 1930s and 1940s ... it will take about 800 years before the water level has increased by one meter" Changes in solar irradiation have been the dominant causes of changes in climate. Volcanic eruptions can have caused some cooling events and greenhouse gases may have contributed to the increase in temperature over the last decades. However, the influence of solar variability has been the major forcing factor and will probably also remain so in the future.- Dr. Wibjorn Karlen Emeritus professor, Dept. of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm University, Sweden.Every totalitarian regime needs its defining myth. With the Nazis, it was the “Aryan” fantasy of racial purity. With the USSR, it was the dictatorship of the proletariat. With secularised, semi-pagan Western societies in historic decline, it is global warming. - Peter Mullen

• Being insatiable curious is its own reward and its own punishment. Rich Kozlovich

• “The principle is a sound one — you don’t want to deceive your readers,” he said. “But I’m not all that convinced your readers are so deceivable. A lot of readers think we’re biased, and because we think we’re unbiased, we think they must be stupid. But they’re not. They’re just opinionated.” - Phil Bronstein, San Francisco Chronicle editor at large

• Why is it now everyone’s onboard for planet saving, nobody wants to vote for the green saviors? – Paul Taylor

• "...when it comes to light that the carbon scare was known to be bogus in 2008, the ALP (Australian Labor Party) is going to be regarded as criminally negligent or ideologically stupid..." - Dr. David Evans 18th July 2008, Consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office 1999 to 2005

• “Environmentalists-even mainstream environmentalists are less concerned about any crisis posed by global warming than they are eager to command human behaviour and restrict economic activity. Their true plans and ambitions: to stop economic development and return mankind centuries back. They are interested in their businesses and their profits made with the help of politicians”. - Vaclav Klaus, EU President

• "In science, refuting an accepted belief is celebrated as an advance in knowledge; in religion it is condemned as heresy". (Bob Parks, Physics, U of Maryland).

• To be green is to be irrational and misanthropic. Rich Kozlovich

• Show me someone who does not read books and I will show you someone lost in the fog of propaganda, manipulation, and the lies that pass for the news of the day. Books can tell you who you are, what you believe, and why. They always leave you changed in some fashion.- Alan Caruba

• "We're an advocacy group and we don't hold ourselves out as scientific researchers. We don't do peer reviewed science. Everybody knows that." - Linda Greer, National Resources Defense Council’s Director, Health and Environment Program

• “The reason universities are so full of knowledge is students come with so much and they leave with so little.” Marshall McLuhan

• The problem is that most companies go through a life cycle: They start small, become big, decline and eventually cease to exist. Of the 100 largest companies in 1900, 17 existed in the same form by 2000 and three remained among the 100 largest. - Eli Lehrer

• Like other occult techniques of divination, the statistical method has a private jargon deliberately contrived to obscure its methods from non-practitioners. -G. O. Ashley

• Climate change is not a scientific problem that found political support; this is about eco-activists and politicians who found a scientific issue they feel can leverage them into power and control. The environment is a great way to advance a political agenda that favors central planning and an intrusive government. What better way to control someone’s property than to subordinate one’s private property rights to environmental concerns. Dr. Jay Lehr

• If the congressional, administration and activist conspirators behind this massive deceit were in the private sector – peddling bogus drugs, rather than bogus science – they’d quickly become convicts. Instead of jail time, though, they’ll probably get bonus checks. – Paul Driessen

• We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depths of our answers. - Carl Sagan

• The sun, for example, is by far the biggest driver of the earth’s climate. But the intensity of solar radiation from the sun varies over time in ways that can’t be accurately modeled. Another example, water vapor is a far more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. [The media now calls CO2 a "pollutant". If CO2 is a "pollutant" then water vapor is also a "pollutant" – that's absurd, but I digress. Some scientists believe clouds amplify human CO2 forcing, others believe precipitation acts as the earth’s thermostat. But scientists do not agree on how to model clouds, precipitation, and evaporation, thus there’s no consensus on this fundamental issue. - Keith O. Rattie, CEO of Questar, a Utah gas company

• "The whole field of endocrine disruption is a conclusion in search of data." - Gail Charnley, former president of the Society for Risk Analysis

• If you’d asked any scientist or doctor 30 years ago where stomach ulcers come from, they would all have given the same answer: obviously it comes from the acid brought on by too much stress. All of them apart from two scientists who were pilloried for their crazy, whacko theory that it was caused by a bacteria. In 2005 they won the Nobel prize. The “consensus” was wrong. - Professor Ian Plimer,

• The moral relativist, by definition, is bereft of moral clarity. The only thing immoral is to reckon there are things immoral. The only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. No fixed right or wrong; no black or white; only shades of gray. - J. Matt Barber

• “…..our examples lead to an inevitable conclusion: since the climate system is complex, occasionally chaotic, dominated by abrupt changes and driven by competing feedbacks with largely unknown thresholds, climate prediction is difficult, if not impracticable” and “Hence, it appears that one should not rely on prediction as the primary policy approach to assess the potential impact of future regional and global climate change. We argue instead that integrated assessments within the framework of vulnerability …offer the best solution, whereby risk assessment and disaster prevention become the alternative to prediction.” - Roger Pielke Sr.,

• There is one good thing about the lunatic "global warming" catechism now taught our youth in the mandatory government youth propaganda camps: When they are finally forced to admit that the globe has been cooling again, not warming, for the past decade, yet proceed to demand precisely the same remedies for "global cooling" (which they will cleverly dub "climate change") as they did for "global warming" -- that is to say higher electric bills, more government controls, taxes sufficient to cripple our industrial economy and generally lower our standard of living in keeping with the world socialist doctrine that America and particularly the "capitalist rich" must be "punished" and "made to sacrifice" in penitence for our former prosperity -- there is finally a decent chance they'll simply be laughed out of town. - Vin Suprynowicz

• Forbush decreases confirm Svensmark's cosmoclimatology. It's been known for over a century that sunspot activity correlates with weather changes on earth but nobody could explain why. In typical Greenie fashion, Warmists said that because they could not explain the correlation, therefore it does not exist. Svensmark has now however explained the correlation at length. Will the Warmists take notice? Don't hold your breath. Jon Ray SOURCE (See the original for links, graphics etc.)

• Recently I was foolish enough to try to reason with an environmentalist. But it became obvious that he had his mind made up and didn't want to hear any evidence to the contrary. The Pope is more likely to have read Karl Marx than an environmentalist is to have read even a single book that criticized environmentalism. – Thomas Sowell

• Pompous fools drive me up the wall. Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools -- guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus -- THAT, I CANNOT STAND! An ordinary fool isn't a faker; an honest fool is all right. But a dishonest fool is terrible! Richard Feynman

• Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us. Ludwig von Mises

• The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. (H. L. Mencken)

• Opposing this new authoritarian collectivist green offensive is "The Battle of Our Times". Viv Forbes

• Let all who are here remember that we are on the stage of history, and that whatever our station may be, and whatever part we have to play, great or small, our conduct is liable to be scrutinized, not only by history, but by our own descendants. (Winston Churchill)

• I have said more than once that history never repeats itself: what happens is that people keep forgetting it. - Gerard Jackson is Brookesnews' economics editor

• You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery. — Dr. Norman Ernest Borlaug (1914-2009)

• "It ain’t what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's the things you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

• “Today’s debate about global warming is essentially a debate about freedom. The environmentalists would like to mastermind each and every possible (and impossible) aspect of our lives.”- Vaclav Klaus, President of Czech Republic
• “It's a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice cream and a quart of dog feces and mix 'em together the result will taste more like the latter than the former.” Mark Steyn

• Everything we are told, everything we see on the news and everything that we read should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. RK

• For me, pragmatism is not enough. Nor is that fashionable word "consensus." To me consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects—the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner "I stand for consensus"? – Margaret Thatcher in a 1981 speech:

• Empiricism - empiricists restrict their task to something quite akin to science. They look for order and regularity in discourse and try to clear up what people are saying and implying when they say certain kinds of things.

• Existentialism - a philosophical attitude associated esp. with Heidegger, Jaspers, Marcel, and Sartre, and opposed to rationalism and empiricism, that stresses the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for the authenticity of his or her choices. There is no right and there is no wrong.

• Conclusions - Treatment options for cutaneous and systemic reactions from bed bug bites have not been evaluated in clinical trials and there is no evidence that outcomes differ significantly from those receiving no treatment. Evidence for disease transmission by bed bugs is lacking. Pest control and eradication is challenging due to insecticide resistance, lack of effective products, and health concerns about spraying mattresses with pesticides.
- Consequences of Their Bites - Bed Bugs (Cimex lectularius) and Clinical - JAMA. 2009;301(13):1358-1366 2009.405) - Jerome Goddard; Richard deShazo

• “The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.” --Paul Johnson

• Conservatives are not perfect; we simply ascribe to better ideas and truer values. - R.J. Moeller

• The EPA's muddled machinations should not come as a surprise, because the agency long has been a haven for scientifically insupportable policies perpetrated by anti-technology ideologues in career and appointed positions. It has a sordid history of incompetence, duplicity, and pandering to the most extreme factions of the environmental movement, all of which appears to be accelerating.” – HENRY MILLER AND GILBERT ROSS

• The environmental movement has become so radical as to be an easily identified hazard to American life, and the EPA is not on my list of favorite agencies. - Nancy Brown, Township Trustee in Clark County, Ohio

• Obama Science Czar John Holdren is directly involved in CRU’s unfolding Climategate scandal. In fact, according to files released by a CRU hacker or whistleblower, Holdren is involved in what Canada Free Press (CFP) columnist Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball terms “a truculent and nasty manner that provides a brief demonstration of his lack of understanding, commitment on faith and willingness to ridicule and bully people”.

• It is time to clean out the climate cesspool, and bring integrity, transparency and accountability back to science, law and public policy. Paul Driessen | Author Biography

• The malice, mischief and Machiavellian manoeuvrings revealed in the illegally hacked megabytes of emails from the University of East Anglia’s prestigious Climate Research Unit, for example, offers a useful paradigm of contemporary scientific conflict. Science may be objective; scientists emphatically are not. This episode illustrates what too many universities, professional societies, and research funders have irresponsibly allowed their scientists to become. Shame on them all. - Michael Schrage

• Fortunate is the person who can look back at his or her life and say, "I would do it all again, the same way." My dad once said that to me. Most of us mortals have made mistakes, sometimes too many to count. Some mistakes have to do with career. Some have to do with money. Some have to do with other poor decisions and poor choices – reconsidered, of course, with the benefit of hindsight. But the ones that cause the most regret and the most pain have to do with the treatment of other people – especially those who loved and trusted us. We finally discover the value and worth of what we once had and failed to appreciate. - Larry Elder

• Chemicals are remarkably consistent in their behaviour: They don’t “care” what product they are in. If the dose is sufficient to cause an effect, it will occur. Chemicals can interact with other chemicals, particularly those which strongly modify normal physiological processes, but it doesn’t change the fact that the dose is all-important. Some readers will ask: “What about cumulative effects?” These indeed can occur, but again, “dose” is the most critical variable; and risk assessors do evaluate cumulative effects when reviewing the hazards of chemicals. - Geoff Granville is president of GCGranville Consulting Corp. in Calgary

• "The climate modelers see from satellite data that warm years have fewer clouds, then assume that the warm years, rather than the other way around?' It turns out they didn't know. They couldn't answer that question." - Dr. Roy Spencer from The University of Alabama the warmth caused the clouds to dissipate. If this is true, it would be positive feedback and could lead to strong global warming. This is the way their models are programmed to behave. "My question to them was, 'How do you know it wasn't fewer clouds that caused

• Pompous fools drive me up the wall. Ordinary fools are all right; you can talk to them, and try to help them out. But pompous fools -- guys who are fools and are covering it all over and impressing people as to how wonderful they are with all this hocus pocus -- THAT, I CANNOT STAND! An ordinary fool isn't a faker; an honest fool is all right. But a dishonest fool is terrible! Richard Feynman

• Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us. Ludwig von Mises

• The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. (H. L. Mencken)

• Opposing this new authoritarian collectivist green offensive is "The Battle of Our Times". Viv Forbes

• Let all who are here remember that we are on the stage of history, and that whatever our station may be, and whatever part we have to play, great or small, our conduct is liable to be scrutinized, not only by history, but by our own descendants.

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