Posts by rbw152

You've seen things people wouldn't believe – so tell us your programming horrors

UPDATE customers SET LastName='Smith'

3000 customers. All called Smith.

Thank god for backups.

Scientific consensus that 2014 was record hottest year? No

So how has the US reduced its CO2 emissions to below that which it would have been required to by the Kyoto Protocol, had it signed it?

The main point of the article is actually about the measures governments feel they should enact to 'combat' global warming. That's what most sceptics take issue with.

Yes we can all argue until we're blue in the face about stats but the fact remains that although record amounts of CO2 have been pumped into the air over the last few years the temps haven't changed much either way and certainly not in the significant manner they were predicted to by computer models. Models which we know are based on adjusted data with missing chunks and unreliability. So, there may be something wrong with them and since they are all wrong in the same direction i.e. upwards, it may be that some sort of bias has crept in.

And yet in the face of all this and in the name of the precautionary principle, governments have forged ahead with measures that by and large are futile and expensive. Wind turbines do not reduce CO2 and probably never will, unless many thousands are built in the countryside. These things have a very low energy density, are unreliable and intermittent, are supported by expensive subsidies on the gamble that energy prices will go up (which they obviously haven't) and need to be supported by large numbers of pylons which are also visually polluting.

This is this sort of thing that sceptics object to. On top of that, because 'alarmists' notionally reject processes like fracking out of hand, which would supply us with a fuel that would halve CO2 emissions, sceptics suspect something else is going on here - and let's face it - they're probably right.

Those on the left politically see a global, uniting, battle against the common enemy of climate change as the ideal way to introduce measures which appeal to them. As do deep-greens who don't like humans very much. There is simply no doubt that the debate is so highly politicised now that you can hardly believe anyone on either side.

Tie this with the demonstrably futile and expensive measures mentioned above and a seemingly wilful refusal to accept more efficient, cheaper measures such as shale gas - or anything involving fossil fuels at all - then there is no wonder that sceptics are suspicious.

If 'alarmists' would stop being so shrill, stop refusing to countenance alternatives that are logically more suitable and stop getting so nakedly excited about an issue they see as an ideal route to global socialism, then perhaps we could all move on in a more sensible manner.