Climate Models = Climate Astrology

Climate scientists now expect California to experience more rain in the coming decades, contrary to the predictions of previous climate models. Most scientists agree that California, like most places, will get warmer through the end of the century. And until now, most agreed California would get drier. New research out of the University of California, Riverside, however, suggests otherwise. California’s future is likely to look more like the past two years, during which the state enjoyed record rainfall totals.  –Brooks Hays, UPI, 6 July 2017

Most previous research emphasized uncertainty with regards to future precipitation levels in California, but the overall thought was California would become drier with continued climate change. We found the opposite, which is quite surprising. –Robert Allen, University of California, Riverside, 6 July 2017

The Trump administration will soon begin a review that will question the veracity of the climate change science used by President Barack Obama’s administration as the basis for environmental regulations. The move by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to launch public debates among scientists on climate research, known as red-team, blue-team exercises, would be the first major effort by the Republican administration to challenge the long-standing scientific consensus on human-caused climate change. —CBC News, 6 July 2017

You’d think the 97 percent of scientists who supposedly all agree about climate change would eagerly line up to vanquish climate deniers—but apparently not. Now you would think the scientific establishment would embrace an opportunity to present their case to a wary, if disinterested, public. You would think the 97 percent of scientists who supposedly all agree human activity is causing climate change would eagerly line up to vanquish climate deniers, especially those in the Trump administration. You would think. But instead, many scientists and activists are expressing outrage at this logical suggestion, even advising colleagues not to participate. –Julie Kelly, The Federalist, 6 July 2017

Five days ago, Stephen Hawking – or someone who has hacked his computerized speech generator – has told us that Donald Trump is a supervillain who will transform the Earth to another Venus with temperatures at 250 °C and sulfuric acid rains. Just a few decades ago, a scientist who would say something like Stephen Hawking would mock himself so much that he would completely lose all credibility and become a joke everyone laughs at. But these days, saying nonsense like that is apparently normal. –Luboš Motl, The Reference Frame, 8 July 2017

The Australian this morning exclusively reveals an early draft of the leaders’ declaration from the weekend’s G20 summit: “We, the leaders of the G20 (and thousands of hangers-on), met in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7-8, at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of millions of euros. We remain amazed and grateful that the world’s media continues to cover this luxurious circus, unrivaled in the production of inanities, year after year. We, as the world’s premier body for economic discussion, are proud of our record in lifting waffle to levels of sophistication unimaginable in an earlier era. We have come together as one to make totally unverifiable undertakings in support of three appealing nouns that we agreed at last year’s Hangzhou summit in China: resilience, sustainability, and fun.” —The Australian, 10 July 2017