At the recent convention of the Western Governors' Association, Nick Bridge, British counselor for global issues, stated that the earnestness of global warming is like "driving towards a cliff at high speed and [you] have a 30 percent chance of brake failure. Would you get in the car? Nobody would get in the car."Well, no, actually, I'd do a computer model simulation to ensure that the 30% chance of failure is a correct estimate.
;-)
Mr. Bridge's verbal faux pas indicates the inanity of the claims of those involved in crying global warming wolf. He can't even think through the process of evaluating risk. If I had a car whose brakes had a 30% chance of failure, I would test them thoroughly--under actual conditions--to find out what percentage of the time they actually did fail. If they actually failed at all, I'd get them fixed.
Global warming criers, however, think that delving in theory, simulating risk, and crying wolf is all that is needed in order to make a determination to mortgage the comforts of life of everyone on earth. I'd rather be 70 percentage points surer about something like that than 30%.
At least, with Jon Huntsman moving off to "greener" pastures, not as many at the WGA are on the wolf-crying bandwagon. I am pleased with Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert's response to the WGA convention's discussion about global warming.
Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert challenged the reality of climate change during a Western Governors' Association panel discussion Monday on combatting global warming.This is a much more intelligent approach than that of Utah's former governor, Jon Huntsman, whose ability to think for himself on such issues seems to have been affected by his affinity for various elite friends he has in various high places, who stand to benefit from participating in the top-down control that will accrue if we believe in computer model simulations that refuse to take the historical reality of climate variability into account.Herbert, who sat quietly through most of the discussions during the past two days, spoke up after presentations that included the statement that the debate on climate change was over.
"I've heard people argue on both sides of the issue, people I have a high regard for," Herbert said. "People say man's impact is minimal, if at all, so it appears to me the science is not necessarily conclusive."
Bon voyage, Mr. Huntsman, the environmental cosmopolite. Welcome, Governor Herbert. We finally have found ourselves with a governor who has some environmental common sense.
In this morning's paper, there's a lot bunch of people distancing themselves from Governor-in-Waiting Herbert's climate change denialism. They all know it's real, in policy terms. Whatever politicians say.
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