GLOBAL CLIMATE OXYMORONS AND OTHER MORONS

By ED REID Vice President, Marketing (Retired) / Executive Director (Retired) / President (Retired), 

Columbia Gas Distribution Companies / American Gas Cooling Center / Fire to Ice, Inc.

ENERGYCENTRAL - Nov 7, 2023 -  Oxymoron: (Merriam-Webster) : a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness) broadly : something (such as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements.

Members of the consensed climate science community, climate alarmists, politicians with an agenda and the compliant mass media have produced and promulgated a “veritable plethora” (HT: Howard Cosell) of oxymorons intended to “sell the science” and demean skeptics.

Climate Denier – Supposed “shorthand” for more complex descriptions, such as Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming skeptic or Global Climate Change skeptic. Ridiculous because there is no one who denies that the earth has a climate. Demeaning because of the intended association with Holocaust denial.

Scientific Consensus – Implying that what many or most climate scientists believe must then be true, even though science is not conducted by consensus. The whole concept is based on a cursory review of the abstracts of a small subset of scientific papers dealing with climate.

Settled Science – Implying that the scientific study is complete and the science is understood. This concept is ridiculous in climate science, since the sensitivity of climate to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations is not known, though it is asserted to fall within an identified range of values; and, since the magnitude of feedbacks is unknown, including whether the feedbacks are positive or negative.

Climate Model - Implying that a mathematical model exists which is capable of accurately simulating the function of the climate and also capable of projecting the future response of climate to perturbations. However, there remain numerous “climate models”, none of which accurately and completely simulate the function of the climate when compared to measurements and observations.

Instant Attribution – The claim that computerized climate attribution models can estimate the extent to which identified climate changes such as atmospheric or ocean warming contribute to changes in current weather events, such as the frequency, intensity, speed of movement and precipitation intensity and volume of precipitation associated with specific tropical cyclones. Some also claim attribution capability regarding tornadoes, droughts, floods and even wildfires.

Climate Crisis – The assertion that an increase of global average near surface temperature of 1(+/-0.2)°C over a period of 150 years, or the potential increase of an additional 1°C over the next 80 years represents a “crisis”, or an “emergency” or an “existential threat”. This despite the fact that the near surface temperature increases and decreases by ~10°C every day, or approximately 0.8°C per hour; and that the near surface temperature increases and decreases by ~25°C seasonally.

Carbon Pollution – Implying that CO2 is the same as carbon and is a pollutant rather than an essential factor in the health and growth of all types of plants, including the cereal grains which constitute a major component of human and animal diets. This oxymoron ignores the impact of increased atmospheric CO2 on global greening.

Inflation Reduction Act – The progressive fantasy that pumping additional money into an already inflating economy, also suffering from supply chain disruptions, to subsidize the sale of uneconomic products and the installation of redundant facilities would somehow magically reduce inflation.

These oxymorons are used by other types of morons to harass and vilify skeptics, to mislead the public on the status of climate science and to frustrate the advancement of climate science.

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This thought leadership article was originally shared with Energy Central's Energy Collective Group. The communities are a place where professionals in the power industry can share, learn and connect in a collaborative environment. Join the Energy Collective Group today and learn from others who work in the industry.

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