Red And Green

Sherwood Boehlert, a former House Republican and chair of the Science Committee, deplores the current Republican party line on global warming:

Watching the raft of newly elected GOP lawmakers converge on Washington, I couldn't help thinking about an issue I hope our party will better address. I call on my fellow Republicans to open their minds to rethinking what has largely become our party's line: denying that climate change and global warming are occurring and that they are largely due to human activities.

...

Why do so many Republican senators and representatives think they are right and the world's top scientific academies and scientists are wrong? I would like to be able to chalk it up to lack of information or misinformation.

I can understand arguments over proposed policy approaches to climate change. I served in Congress for 24 years. I know these are legitimate areas for debate. What I find incomprehensible is the dogged determination by some to discredit distinguished scientists and their findings.

I doubt it is misinformation.  I think the statists who were always looking for new excuses to expand the role of government hijacked the environmental movement a long time ago.  Unfortunately that doesn't change the science. 

Republicans ought to focus on opposing daft policy measures, which is easy enough to do (E.g., Kyoto, which excluded India and China, never made sense.)

Comments

[Captain Hate]

Why do so many Republican senators and representatives think they are right and the world's top scientific academies and scientists are wrong?

When did Manbearpig change his name to Sherwood?

[Bruce]

The "Science" says it should be warming now, and it will keep warming until it stops and then it will cool and this warm period within the current ice age will come to an end.

All you have to do is look at the 400,000 year Vostok ice core record (which is only disputed by con men like Michael Mann).

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/last_400k_yrs.html

In fact it is cooler than the last peak.

[daddy]

If he wants it color coded, perhaps he could start by reading Mr Delingpole:
">http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100064423/on-the-anniversary-of-climategate-the-watermelons-show-their-true-colours/"> On the anniversary of Climategate the Watermelons show their true colours.

[Clarice]

I so agree, TM. Pols and science go together like phlogiston and phrenology.The science of those things was definitely settled long ago.

[mockmook]

I'm ready for someone to point me to a definitive paper/study that "proves" AGW.

A study not tainted by Climategate. A study supported by data, not just models.

[A Bean Counter's bean counter]

So, Maguire adds 'Science' to his list of misinformation, because teh Scientists are just conspiring with the Left Wing to jiggle the numbers.

Who CAN one trust, these days.

Oh yeah. Tom Maguire.

[sbw]

Sherry was our congressman. Nice guy, but incorrigibly RINO. Came the the job through being chief of staff to his predecessor.

His successor, Mike Arcuri, a reliable Steny Hoyer Democrat and friend of Rahm, just got put out to pasture by a Republican of an independent stripe, Richard Hanna. Business background.

Sherry was deeply involved in the house science and technology committee. Needless to say, Sherry has confused politics with science. He needs to face the fact that it ain't science unless the results can be independently reproduced.

[sbw]

Do I hear the hiss of unsubstantiated diss in the background. Typical. The avatar says it all.

[matt]

why is it that those who unquestioningly believe the consensus on global warming ignore the very legitimate questions about the methodologies and ideologies of those proposing the theory?

why is it that it is no longer called Global Warming, as it was until last year, and is now called climate change? If true, why would the nomenclature change?

Why is it that the single greatest proponent, Al Gore, has remained utterly silent for over 1 year after his conflict of interest amounting to millions of dollars was exposed?

Why is it that one office, David Fenton's, has been the central clearing house for virtually every major organization when publicizing and influencing the agenda?

Why is that "science" needs a publicist?

Why is it that the Cancun conference has virtually fallen off of the radar?

Why is it that carbon offsets have been exposed as one of history's great grifts and the scientific community has remained silent?

need I go on?

[Danube of Thought]

We saw the administration's devotion to science in the offshore drilling fiasco.

[PD]

I think it'd be Nobel-winner-level science to paint streets and everyone's roof white.

[PD]

'Dancing with the Stars' voting hacked for Palin?

Get yer tinfoil hats right here.

[PD]

Watching the evening news, I see that there were rallies around Wisconsin to "Save the Train!" This is in reference to the high-speed rail that would be built by $810m in stimulus money. Gov.-elect Scott Walker wants to spend the money on other infrastructure, but in any case *not* on a rail boondoggle.

The interesting thing about the rallies is how they focus on needing to "save the train" (which doesn't exist to be saved, but I digress) because of the jobs the project will create. Jobs, jobs, jobs.

Because the reason you build a train isn't, you know, to provide rail transportation. It's to create jobs.

[RichatUF]

Ecofascism comes in many forms. He is an advisor to "Project on Climate Science" a group that seems to have been created after the Climategate files leaked. I found this clip as part of their agenda: "Today the Project on Climate Science released a nifty timeline highlighting the exoneration of climate scientists..." He cashes he paycheck from Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection (if his wiki is to be believed).

"Hide the decline!" We can't make people believe in global warmingclimate change if temperatures are decreasing.

[narciso]

No, PD, it's so Homer can drive the monorail, everyone knows that. They've been trying the light rail gimmick down here for ages,

[sbw]

Well, Tuesday's editorial is all written.

[MarkO]

Barf.

[Arcadian]

Science means nothing if it's hijacked for an agenda.

[Boatbuilder]

In the unlikely event that Sherwood ever gets back to Utica between October and May, he should look out the window once in a while.

[Threadkiller]

Sherwood Boehlert is also on the">http://www.trcsolutions.com/AboutUs/Leadership/Pages/default.aspx"> Board of Directors for Green energy giant TRC Solutions .
In their ">http://www.trcsolutions.com/NewsRoom/Articles/Documents/Environmental%20Quality%20Management_Winter%202009.pdf"> Securing Executive Support for Sustainability Programs Through Integrative and Partnering Skills, you find these pearls of wisdom.

”The global economic downturn has made environmentalism harder to sell to corporate management. As Daniel Franklin, editor of The World in 2009, an Economist publication, wrote recently, “In these harsher circumstances many companies will tone down their loud green initiatives and instead quietly emphasise value for money.”

As a result, he noted that 2009 might turn out to be “the year of unsustainability,” in which many organizations abandon sustainability efforts due to economic conditions.
Importantly, however, Franklin concluded that companies can benefit from maintaining their commitment to “going green” during the current recession, demonstrating that their sustainability efforts will not be jettisoned when they hit economic turbulence. He noted that, despite recent economic problems, “The forces that have pushed companies to fret about sustainability— the scrutiny from the internet, multiplying lobby groups, popular concern about global warming, the threat of lawsuits for misbehaviour on human rights—are not about to disappear.”

I wish Halliberton was in on the Climate scam. Then we will have some eyes opening.

[PD]

“In these harsher circumstances many companies will tone down their loud green initiatives and instead quietly emphasise value for money.”

Imagine that. Business concerned about economics. The horror!

[DrJ]

because of the jobs the project will create. Jobs, jobs, jobs.

And this sort of talk drives me to distraction.

Some time ago I attended an event put on by Michigan for its west coast alumni. It was very well done, actually, but a recurring theme was job creation. Over lunch I talked with the head of the art museum, who said that this or that program would create this or that number of jobs.

I told him that I was tired of the talk about jobs. One could hire people to dig and fill holes for jobs. I told him that a much better metric was creating wealth, which creates real sustainable jobs (and taxes).

The look on his face was priceless. He did not talk with me the rest of the day.

I'll be a heretic and claim not to be the slightest interested in jobs. At least not as an end it themselves, particularly if they are the Pelosi sorts of jobs.

[PD]

"Jobs" ends with "BS".

[middyfeek]

The very idea of ANTHROPOGENIC global warming is preposterous. If A. Einstein came back from the dead and told me it was true I wouldn't believe it.

[Threadkiller]

How come the ">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Boehlert"> Wiki on Sherwood fails to mention his position with TRC? No need to answer.

PD, that whole quote should have been put in Bold. Sickening.

[Boatbuilder]

If I were currently heading a major corporation (heh) I would launch an ad campaign stating that we believe that "green" initiatives are bogus and an incredible waste of resources; and that we are plowing an amount equivalent to the average of what the 50 largest corporations are spending on "green" initiatives into more worthy areas--education, veterans, employee pensions, etc. Or maybe if I'd had one more scotch I'd say we were simply lowering all of our prices by the amount which reflected the elimination of "green" spending.

[PD]

Or maybe if I'd had one more scotch I'd say we were simply lowering all of our prices by the amount which reflected the elimination of "green" spending.

Ditto for the recent proliferation of "do good" programs that companies have started. ("x amount of each purchase goes to [insert meritorious charity here]").

Dear company, how about you reduce the cost of your product, and I'll decide where my charitable giving goes?

[DrJ]

Dear company, how about you reduce the cost of your product, and I'll decide where my charitable giving goes?

Bingo. Make a good product or service, grow, and invest in R&D to be sustainable. We customers can take care of donations, thank you very much.

[Janet]

Matt's list of questions is wonderful.

[Boatbuilder]

Another scotch and I'd say we are distributing it to the shareholders.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I have to post this somewhere, just too good.

[Danube of Thought]

Can't make it up: Joan Baez injured in 20-foot fall from treehouse.

[Ignatz]

--I think the statists who were always looking for new excuses to expand the role of government hijacked the environmental movement a long time ago. Unfortunately that doesn't change the science.--

Huh? have you been listening to the revelations of Climategate and the IPCC, Tom?
Many if not most of the top guys running the national programs and the IPCC (Michael Mann, James Hansen, Gavin Schmidt, Phil Jones, etc) are committed statists and it most certainly has changed the science.
It hasn't changed the basic physics of CO2 or water vapor but those basics tell you about as much about where the climate will be in one hundred years as community organizing tells you how to be president; maybe even less, if that's possible.

[Clarice]

Isn't that lovely, DoT? The treehouse lacked sides because she didn't want to interfere with her view of the birds.

God bless her/

[PD]

Joan Baez injured in 20-foot fall from treehouse.

If I were feeling uncharitable, I'd say I hope she has gov't healthcare.

[Clarice]

Ignatz, TM is toying with us again.

He knows

[narciso]

Are you sure you didn't go to law school, because this seems like another socratic
jibe

[Janet]

Did anyone hear from Pofarmer about the chili cook off? Didn't JiB win a chili cook off too?

[Neo]

I think the trouble for "climate science" began when they started to use the oxymoron "scientific consensus"
Science has no consensus except in regard to theories .. and theories are yet to be proved.

[Jack is Back!]

Janet,

I won one but I had to beat a bunch of priests who tried to stack the deck by promising no Penance at confession.

[Threadkiller]

Nobody wants to see my confession after a chili cookoff.

[Neo]

TRC Companies, Inc., latest 12 mos sales of $168 million, secured Sherwood Boehlert's services for a mere $35,000 and $50,000 in stock.

[Jim Ryan]

What is the basic reason for the closure of the CCX? That people with bucks now doubt that the science supports AGW? Or merely that they doubt the Senate will pass Cap and Trade?

[Zombie Stalker]

Joan Baez fell out of a tree house without walls. She wanted to sleep among the birds (or something like that). Most interesting thing in the article was her relationship with "rocker Bob Dylan."

[PD]

As I understand it, CCX's success was predicated on the passage of Cap and Trade. Those darn Tea Partiers, standing in the way of a good honest scam.

[Zombie Stalker]

There was a "scientific consensus" in physics after Isaac Newton, too. Physicists thought they knew everything about physics there was to know.

[Jim Ryan]

PD, right, but you'd think that people with money who believed the science strongly enough to bet on it might think it was sound enough to compel the Senate to see reason and pass the law eventually. Evidently not.

Either

(a.) They were hucksters and never really believed the science.

or

(b.) They believe the science but, much to their chagrin, believe the law will never be passed.

Hmm.

[MarkO]

Was she in the same tree as Keith Richards?

[Porchlight]

Ol' Joanie's been milking that Dylan "relationship" for nearly 50 years. She owes her career to it.

[PaulY]

Beware the Global Warming Pseudo Science-Green Industrial Complex

[boris]

Joan Baez was one of few Viet Nam war protesters to admit the communist takeover in SE Asia didn't work out so well.

[Janet]

I won one but I had to beat a bunch of priests

Hahahaha..a win is a win!

[MarkO]

How is it that so many people assume that because God gave you a clear singing voice you know anything about anything? Same with jump shots, acting, and throwing hard.

One of the things I love about the Internet is that one's idea is all that matters. For me it is a good thing that I have very little resume of anyone who posts here. I take good ideas and discard lame ones.

[Andrew_M_Garland]

Not Just One Rotten Climate Apple

A complication in the story of Climate Change. Unmodified temperature records from ice cores DO show a recent warming. But, that warming over 80 years (0.7 F, 2/3 degree) is not unusually rapid, or large, and is only a blip when compared to past and distant past temperatures. See the story at the above link, or the graphs directly at WattsUpWithThat

This recent increase in temperature is only alarming when you cut off the graph to ignore past temperature changes, or change the data to do the same thing, and expand the scale to make .7 degree look like a ski slope.

The email phrase "hide the decline" (from the ClimateGate emails) did not refer to global temperature. That has indeed increased slightly, probably from solar variation. It referred to the tree ring data itself. The tree rings indicated lower recent temperatures, despite slighly higher measured temperatures in the same time period. This invalidates the tree ring data, since it is measurably out of agreement with known, modern temperature records.

By the way, even the tree ring data is alarming only when manipulated. You must include just the right trees, or even just one "special" tree, to fraudulently push the Warming story.

So, the confusion. Global temperature has increased slightly, but this is only part of a natural, unpredictable fluctuation. Tree ring data is invalidated by comparison to real temperature measurements, but is pushed as the evidence that the Earth was cooler for all of the last 2000 years.

More simply put, we don't get upset by winter and summer because we recognize the natural fluctuation and we adapt. Trees are highly variable plants that react to many factors, of which temperature is just one. Do you want to pay more for gasoline because the trees are growing well?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Andrew, dear, you need to read, and get out, more.

And while you're at it, get that ruler for your timeline fixed. You're a bit off on the past minimum's period.

G'night all.

(And wait'll kim shows up, if you think I'm being cruel.)

[Boehlert's just trying to revalue the ash heap he finds himself upon.]

Heh, Mel, you must be tired. AMG is right on.
=====================

[BR]

And the Cancun Climate Clowns say: "Shhhhh."

[Danube of Thought]

Keith's was a coconut tree.

It is fundamental that "scientific consensus" is a delusion. What really got me steaming was when Al Gore went one better, and expressed his regret that the scientists hadn't reached such a consensus about ten years earlier. In a single sentence he asked us to accept that (a) a consensus existed, and (b) it was the duty of scientists everywhere to come to a consensus as quickly as possible.

It is a pity that this corpulent fraud can't simply be gibbetted.

[Ignatz]

--AMG is right on.--

Concur kim.
Only slight quibble might be "probably" in front of solar variation.
"Possibly" might fit the evidence better.

[Clarice]

Listen, DoT, the demand for my gibbets is almost exhausted already--ahead of Gore this week is Geithner, Bernanke, and Napolitano.

You can't just conjure those things out of thin air, you know.

[Danube of Thought]

Dammit, Clarice, what are you doing up at this hour? I'm toddling off to slumberland right now, and you'll probably be here when I get up tomorrow.

Good night and God Bless.

[PD]

DoT, she's probably putting the finishing touches on tomorrow's Pieces!

[narciso]

Variation is the spice of life, however assuming that a) the change has been on way,
b) it ia solely attributable to a gas that comprises 0.03 % of the world's outputs, and then basing energy policy on that seems lunacy

[Pofarmer]

I' d like to rhank everyone here at JOM. We got "best booth" in our little chili cookoff, epwhich, together with 2 bucks will buy you a cup of coffee. Thanks for the fpgreat ideas, and, I'll try to post a picture of us in costume.

[Porchlight]

Congrats, Pofarmer! Would love to see a pic.

[Pagar]

"she's probably putting the finishing touches on tomorrow's Pieces!"

Clarice's Pieces are up. It's a great article.
Clarice, your clear reasoning and writing ability is amazing. Thank you for letting us share it.

[Extraneus]

Once upon a time, there was a scientific consensus. For almost two hundred years, physicists spoke of the luminiferous ether as the substance through which light propagates. (The thinking was that because light, heat, and other electromagnetic radiation can propagate through a vacuum, there must be some other substance acting as a medium.) I have a physics book from around 1900 that talks about the ether as if its existence was an established fact. The ether explained much of what physicists didn't otherwise understand about the propagation of electromagnetic radiation.

Of course, it was all wrong. From the wikipedia entry:

By the early 20th Century, aether theory was in trouble. A series of increasingly complex experiments had been carried out in the late 19th century to try to detect the motion of earth through the aether, and had failed to do so. A range of proposed aether-dragging theories could explain the null result but these were more complex, and tended to use arbitrary-looking coefficients and physical assumptions. Lorentz and Fitzgerald offered within the framework of Lorentz ether theory a more elegant solution to how the motion of an absolute aether could be undetectable (length contraction), but if their equations were correct, the new special theory of relativity (1905) could generate the same mathematics without referring to an aether at all. Aether fell to Occam's Razor.

And these scientists were real scientists, without a political agenda or associated grant money on the line, just simply struggling to understand nature.

[Yeah, he's a dancing boy.]

Newsweek forgot the putter in one hand, driver in another.
=============

[Clarice]

Thanks,paha.

Exavtly Ext..just like phlogiston and phreneology

[Threadkiller]

">http://www.americanthinker.com/shiva.jpg">

It is funny that Newsweak would have a cover photo like that Clarice. Maybe they got the idea after the TSA made him empty his pockets.

">http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6GJqe6_dkd0/SXn4pXE6qSI/AAAAAAAAD3w/Nnrt-VR9uNw/s400/obamaMM.jpg">

Great Pieces!

[Janet]

Really enjoyed Clarice's Pieces today...esp. the paragraphs on what makes America exceptional (I had copied Clarice's post here at JOM). To read that about individuals, & then see Threadkiller's picture above..???? just don't even know what to say. Obama "God of All Things"???? What a joke. He is a god of nothing & isn't even a particularly talented mortal.

Congrats for the booth win Pofarmer!!

[The Heart of a Goof.]

Well, they did capture him trying to put English on the ball.
==============

[Threadkiller]

He put British in the White House, he may as well put English on the ball.

I think he is actually spinning America out of the world view.

[Neo]

I saw Joan Baez at Live Aid. She was the second act to an audience that either was still asleep or didn't know who she was.
It was sad .. and that was 25 years ago.

[Clarice]

*paGAR*

[Jim Ryan]

Climategate 1-year anniversary at WUWT, for example this summary.

Kim, I axed some questions about CCX closure above. What do you think?

[Jack is Back!]

Great pieces, Clarice.

Always the perfect way to start a Sunday with cup of coffee before getting ready for church. Today, especially, with the reminder of our collective experience as Americans and our collective appreciation for the founding fathers and their belief in God and man.

For those who want to foresake church today but need a to hear a good story. Here is the story of Jonah at LUN:)

[narciso]

Excellent pieces, and I'll grant you their cover piece is as clueless about reality, as they were a year ago, at first I thought that
was some kind of photoshop, they're on the river of Denial, longer than Willard was looking for Kurtz

[Boatbuilder]

Pofarmer--you can buy a cup of coffee for 2 bucks? I thought you lived in California.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Well done on your Pieces.

(In case no one has posted the link, yet.)

[Jane (get off the couch - come save the country)]

Hi kids!

Clarice, you are really going to hate it, but I really really won this time. Evidence to follow. So what did I miss?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Jim-

The CCX was dead by the close of trading on Monday, November 22, 2009. The value of every Carbon contract had been sold to the minimum offer of a nickel. They didn't know what hit them.

And a lot of that founding capital was gone to dust, not to mention some reputations that went south as well.

I watched the contracts collapse, that Monday, because I knew what I would do if I were a member of that exchange.

Sort of like watching the Duke Brothers meltdown.

[And quietly, I might add. Are you sure you're not being sold down the River?]

Yes, Iggy, on 'Possibly' instead of 'Probably'. It would be nice if we had a mechanism for Solar action; Svensmark's even if on the right track, probably oversimplifies.

JR. I think green investments have taken a huge worldwide hit secondary to the skepticism creeping into politicians' minds over the settled science. China is leading the way in the new RealPolitik that encumbering carbon hampers economic development and social improvement.

For sure, Obama and the Chicago gang expected to clean up big time with the CCX. Lots of very high rollers are hoping to buy the bank in Cancun. They are certainly bidding high and mighty.
============

[Melinda Romanoff]

And it took cap 'n' trade off the table, completely.

[Melinda Romanoff]

And Andrew, sorry about the snark last night.

[Pagar]

"What is the basic reason for the closure of the CCX?"
I would hope that the reason for closure of the CCX would be that the authorities are about to arrest every single one of those responsible for the CCX fraud. Madoff was arrested and sentenced to many years in prison for much less fraud than has been conducted in the name of CCX.

Meanwhile, the fraud continues at the RGGI
Site
where their next auction is scheduled for 1 Dec 2010.

[My point, that ClimateGate allows the ordinary bloke to understand why he was fooled about climate, is borne out more and more with every new voice.]

Yeah, Mel; Andrew had a pretty nice comment last night. He used to contribute more frequently here, but I've seen him elsewhere, always reliable. Interestingly, I've not seen him in the climate wars, before.
=================

[Time Travel ain't even in it.]

In a fatigue jacket, I caught Joan at a precious venue in a Blue Heaven, just a coupla years ago, or so.
==============

[Gmax]

an audience that either was still asleep or didn't know who she was.

Well if these reports are correct, it may well be that the old bird does not recognize herself these days! Seriously, communing with the sparrows at 20 feet without a net? Did she never attend a circus?

[Jim Ryan]

Mel, Kim, I met Cuccinelli a few weeks ago and thanked him for dogging UVa. He da Mann. Any predictions as to whether he'll get UVa to show Mann's data?

[The Court of Historical Opinion names him 'The Piltdown Mann']

Yes, I think he'll get Mann's emails. Unfortunately, I also believe they won't show fraud.

Mann is diabolical. Steve McIntyre won't say it in public, but the Piltdown Mann's 'censored' file for his MBH '98 proves to me a guilty conscience. He knew he had his thumbs on the scales.

So Mann is a slick criminal. A court of law is where he belongs.
======================

[Jim Ryan]

The local reporter here is covering it fairly, which has me reading her. I said to myself, "Gee, an actual reporter."

[PD]

Clarice's Pieces are up.

Yay!

[boris]

"It would be nice if we had a mechanism for Solar action;"

Nice but not strictly required. Phenomenoa can be characterized to mathmatical precision even lacking proper explanation ...

... to try to detect the motion of earth through the aether, and had failed to do so ... Lorentz and Fitzgerald offered ... a more elegant solution to how the motion of an absolute aether could be undetectable (length contraction) ...

The lorentz equations were mathmatically correct but the explanation had to wait for Einstein Relativity.

The data should be allowed to speak for itself wrt solar influence and making "mechanism" a requirement for considering that data would not be a scientific criterion but a political one.

[PD]

The CCX was dead by the close of trading on Monday, November 22, 2009. The value of every Carbon contract had been sold to the minimum offer of a nickel. They didn't know what hit them.

Did Algore lose a lot of money, I hope?

"2009"?

[PD, 'BIG' people lost 'BIG' money secondary to the ManBearPig's flawed advice. What's the cure?]

Yes, boris, the gigantic analog computer that is the heat engine of our climate simply dwarfs the digital simulacrums pointlessly aping it. Still, a mechanism would be nice.
============

[Captain Hate]

Regarding Joan Baez, to give the devil her due, she was much better known initially than "rocker" Bob Dylan (what sort of dimwit would write that?) at least in the folkie circles. After all, Al Capp wouldn't create a "Joanie Phony" character if nobody knew WTF he was talking about. That changed over time, of course, but at a point in time was absolutely correct.

Unlike a lot of the commie symps in the folk movement, she had a more nuanced viewpoint than your run of the mill idiot; and a beautiful voice. But she still can be stunningly wrong about how things work and would have been well advised to shut up and sing.

[Extraneus]

What I read was that Algore was partners with the economist who started the climate exchange, and that partner cashed out a week or so ago for something like $90M. No word on what Algore ended up with.

Well, whaddya know, here it is:

Gore Pocketed ~$18 Million from Now-Defunct Chicago Climate Exchange

[Gmax]

Did Algore lose a lot of money, I hope?

Why heavens no. The mark of the grifter is always to do it with other people's money, not your own. The key to scam is to leave the mark so embarassed by their gullibility, that they wont raise a stink with the authorities.

[So Cancun is inevitably wrong. Whatever they do there will be shown to have been an error.]

Furthermore, boris, with this pending invisibility of the sunspots, there is a chance that we may get the kind of data that we need in order to derive the sun's effect, and that may inform a more complete theory.

CO2 has a radiative effect, that theoretically warms the atmosphere. And it does......in the laboratory. In the earth's atmosphere, because of the presence of so many feedbacks, some of which we don't even know yet, the bottom line action of increased CO2 is simply unknown.

We don't know it. Therefore, policy inaction is the only rational course.
===========