11/25/2009

Althouse, Knee Jerk, Follows Wildly Misleading Ideological Dogma, Once Again

We wrote yesterday about the rather grand disparity between the underlying science facts of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and the so called "climategate" scandal.

And we wrote today about the ideologically driven illogic of the overly popular law professor blog, Althouse (In some ways mirroring the even more popular, law professor blog, Instapundit. See here, here, here, and here.)

Not suprisingly, here is Althouse's saracastic take today on this same "climategate scandal:"
That solemn editorial about global warming looks pretty silly...

... with all those comments about Climategate.

Newspapers just aren't what they used to be, when the readers can instantly talk back.
Of course Althouse's link is to the same "Newsbusters" column cited by her major promoter, Instapundit.
As for the fact that "newspapers aren't what they used to be, when readers can instantly talk back," Althouse is correct, but not exactly how she intended.  Now, newspapers can be filled with all sorts of wildly erroneous assertions in comments; unchecked, untested, unchallenged. And relied upon by Newsbusters for its own analysis, which then in turn is relied upon, knee jerk dogma style, by Instapundit, and Althouse, etc.
 
From that original post, let's recap:  

So here is one of the quotes provided to show how alert, informed readers are pushing back in this "hilariously bizarre situation" [note, this is the exact same link that Althouse smugly links to in her Post today to show that newpapers can now be criticized and "corrected" online by readers] where "climategate" is not being given enough "mention" by the media (emphasis added):
You are kidding me. Over the weekend we learned a server at East Anglia was hacked and emails were distributed that contradict Global Warming. In addition, they discuss how to overstate the findings in order to further their agenda. Yet, The Chronicle still blindlly pushes the Global Warming agenda. If that is not enough, [temperatures] have not risen over the last ten years. In fact, they have dropped slightly. How can any reader take a publication seriously when they refuse to report facts.
So the article is all about how some scientists may have tried to push some selective data years back, and how it is bizarre that the media largely ignores this as it examines the actual scientific issue of increasing heat trapping gas concentrations in our atmosphere. And it does this how?  By citing things that are simply made up, and diametrically incorrect.  [Nowithstanding the fact that the hacked emails did little to contradict global warming, as opposed to a shred of potential data in support of it amongst a sea flood of otherwise correlative information.]

Here are some facts, which to Newsbusters -- even in a piece with the express purpose of making much ado about some purposefully selected facts (by trying to quash contradictory data) years ago --apparently otherwise have less relevancy than "climategate."

The last ten years have not gotten cooler, but warmer.  Graphs here
The two hottest years on record; 2005, and 2007. Both in the last ten years.  And from a geologic perspective, it is remarkably accelerated, as would be expected -- with some lag and general mid range variance -- from dramatically increased greenhouse gas concentration levels.

From Bloomberg News:
In 2003, 62 percent of the ocean’s ice cover was older, thicker ice, with 38 percent in seasonal layers, the researchers found. Five years later, 68 percent of the ice cap was made up of seasonal ice.
That is, in five years, the amount of non seasonal, constant ice was reduced by about half.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA):, the world’s ocean surface temperature just this past summer was "the warmest for any August on record, and the warmest on record averaged for any June-August."

More importantly, "breaking heat records in water is more ominous as a sign of global warming than breaking temperature marks on land.”

Additionally, over the past ten years, "daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States":
If temperatures were not warming, the number of record daily highs and lows being set each year would be approximately even. Instead, for the period from January 1, 2000, to September 30, 2009, the continental United States set 291,237 record highs and 142,420 record lows, as the country experienced unusually mild winter weather and intense summer heat waves.
"Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then."

And so on, ad infinitum.

But all this really does not matter that much. What does matter is the basic science, unpolluted by desire, ideological bent, politics, or fear of misplaced economic implications due to the glaring need for smarter energy development and agricultural practices.  

Heat trapping gases make life as we know it on earth possible; without it the earth would be a largely lifeless ball of ice slowly circling the sun.  Heat drives climate.  Atmospheric concentrations of heat trapping gases (aka "greenhouse gases") are rising dramatically, and from a geologic perspective, at lightning speed, due to specific and easily identifiable anthropomorphic activities.

But that's okay.  To a smug Althouse, Newspapers are "not like what they used to be" because now readers will take them to task prompted by their own ideological leanings, instead.  And this is only making newspapers better and better, as they increasingly bend to criticism and mischaracterization from the far right, prompted on by such highly misleading sites as Instapundit, and Althouse.