Dear W.A. – 24 October was “350 International Day of Climate Action”. According to the 350.org website there were more than 5200 events in 181 countries. The aim was to convince politicians, meeting in Copenhagen in December, that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels should not rise above 350 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to prevent catastrophic man-made global warming. There were various 350 activities in my hometown. They say that the 350 safe level is based on science. Is this so? Signed: Low Carbon Footprint.
Dear Low Carbon Footprint. Don’t worry, it Ain’t So. Climate scientists in our organization have not been able to find any scientific evidence that 350 ppmv is a critical level. This idea seems to come from NASA’s Dr James Hansen. He is a well-known propagandist of the catastrophic man-made global warming dogma. The number 350 is based on ideology, not science. At the G8 meeting in L’Aquila in Italy last July, government leaders suggested that a level of 450 ppmv was required to prevent warming to go beyond 2 degrees Celsius. Like the 350 level, this was an arbitrary figure, not based on science. At best it may have been based on some climate computer models. But such models are just “what if” exercises. That such models cannot predict future warming is born out by the fact that the range of temperature increases predicted for a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere obtained by different models varies from 1.4 to 11 degrees Celsius!
It is sobering to study carbon dioxide levels over geological time. For instance, about 170 million years ago (during the time of the dinosaurs) levels were about 2,500 ppmv. Since that time levels have been steadily decreasing to the present low level of about 385. As carbon dioxide is essential for plant growth (it is NOT a pollutant), some botanists even think that plants are now starved of carbon dioxide.
W.A. members have been attending 350 climate action events in our local town in New Zealand. The two photographs above this posting were taken then. What struck us was the participation of groups like vegans, vegetarians, Morris dancers and the like. We did not come across anybody we knew. This seems to confirm what many observers have been commenting on, that the man-made global warming hysteria is being driven by groups collectively know as the “Liberal Left”. Under this umbrella can be found organizations such as peaceniks, flower people, vegans, (some) vegetarians, new agers, organic food growers, Greenpeace members, Green parties, some feminist elements, etc. They are the “foot soldiers” being manipulated by unscrupulous politicians like Al Gore and unscrupulous scientists like James Hansen.
We found a very good description of “Liberal Left” characteristics on the Internet, written by TYSK:
“Most individuals afflicted with a liberal mindset would be unable to name any particular goal for their beliefs. It is in many ways like a religion … a set of pre-defined attitudes and opinions by which they make decisions in life. Most often these attitudes and opinions are not of their own formation or arrived at through considered thought. Instead, they are learned from others’ repeated pronouncements of them. Those making these statements often have come to learn them in the same way. Much the same as fables and the Bible stories are passed down from generation to generation. Unfortunately many of the “proclaimers” are entrenched in the schools and colleges and their views are imbedded in impressionable minds not yet skilled in giving these ideas critical examination.”
“The key to the successful spread of liberalism is specifically its lack of critical thought on the results of liberal ideas and solutions for society’s problems. In fact, to be judgmental or to offer analysis of liberal prescriptions is in itself considered being anti-liberal. Just as a critic of any religious denomination is labelled a heretic, so too critics of liberalism are labelled uninformed or unenlightened. In other words, you must take their beliefs and accept them even if they are contradictory or counterproductive.”
The biggest threat from liberal leftists in the context of the man-made global warming dogma is to democratic freedoms. Many of liberal left organizations would like to control all aspects people’s lives. And all this is done under the guise of “saving the planet”. Incidentally, the planet is well able to look after itself. It has done so for about 4.5 billion years.
