Scottish Sceptic

As I sit and watch the trees bellowing dramatically in the wind and the bit of the chicken house that always flies off … flying off, I realised that our internet goes through the trees and if it got worse we could be cut off.
Which is a catch 22. If the storm does prove to be bad enough to cause damage, I may not be able to post an article about the damage, but if it isn’t bad enough, I won’t post an article cause no one ever writes about something that didn’t happen!
Either way there can’t be an article on storm!
 
 

For the last five years I’ve felt very isolated in my circle of friends. Global warming was not an easy subject and led to many arguments; it was best avoided. This weekend I was sitting with a group of (unrelated) people I’d known since a child, and the subject of wheat farming and weather forecasts came up and almost without prompting someone else mentioned their dislike of the politicisation at the Met Office, the way the forecasts were always wrong and their suspicion about what we are being told about global warming. And, then the rest of the company agreed with them. Continue reading →

I’ve been wondering how long it will be before “the end”, when I realised I really didn’t know what “the end” meant. He’s some thoughts:

1. When who(?) admits that the climate multipliers aren’t “well supported”?
2. When Wikipedia admits that the climate is not currently warming?
3. When the BBC issues an apology for its treatment of global warming sceptics.
4. When the UK/Scots/US government scale back their CO2 reduction targets by what 50%?
5. When the Met Office admit that solar activity affects the climate? (And that it couldn’t forecast global temperatures even one year ahead!!)
6. When there is an inquiry that concludes that there were systematic failures in teh way science dealt with climate and that action should be taken against individuals and universities and that changes have to be taken to make the system of peer review more robust and less susceptible to bias.
7. When some world leader or David Cameron, says that mistakes were made?

Addendum
After a bit of thought, I’ve realised that few people have any reason to admit they were wrong, or make a public statement that would amount to an admission.
However, one group stands out: that is the weather forecasters. At some point they are going to have to start using solar activity in forecasts. As the Met Office and BBC have been so vehemently opposed to solar activity and so pro-CO2 as a cause of “climate/weather”, the clearest indication of “victory” must surely be when either of these two finally admit the solar link and that they are now using solar activity in their forecasts.
On that basis, I’m now going to make a forecast: that one or other of the above will by the end of 2012 or at latest 2013, make a statement or comment to that effect.

I’d heard on the Grapevine that the International Panel of Climate Clowns was about to write it’s obituary in the form of a report on extreme climate events.
So, I had a look to see when that was due and apparently there is a report on extreme events due for publication around 14-17 November (or whenever a handy bit of world news is available to “bury the bad news”) Continue reading →

I’ve just come across the most unusual article ever mentioning global warming. Apparently the author of the film: “the Day after tomorrow” which was a global warming propaganda film:

That information given to Strieber by the mystery man formed the basis of a book co-written in 2000 with legendary radio talk show personality Art Bell, “The Coming Global Superstorm,” which evolved into the 2004 apocalyptic film “The Day After Tomorrow.” (Huffington post)

Apparently, Strieber was visited by a stranger one night in a hotel. Who told he all kinds of strange and wondrous things from the dangers of artificial intelligence to the concept of Multiple Universes. Now I’ve got a friend like that, and when he’s drunk he does go on … but apparently Strieber

“… has never fully concluded who or what his 1998 visitor was. As hard as he tried to find the unusual man, Strieber never saw him again after that night. “It’s possible that this was no ordinary human being.”

In other words it was an alien!
See also: “Scientists” completely loose it … aliens to destroy earth

The University of East Anglia who were at the heart of climategate have apparently complained to a very pro-global warming paper because the paper stated in an article the University broke FOI law. Or as the tweet put it:

@newsbrooke Heather Brooke

The UEA have lost touch with reality. The fact is that the UK information commissioner stated that the evidence showed there was a breach of freedom of information law but they could not be prosecuted because it was over the six month time limit. Then the University have the gall to say they didn’t break the law … because they couldn’t be prosecuted, much in the same way as they “lost” the data which they said supported their assertion of warming. Or that following the inquiries that found wrong doing they were exonerated.
And to attack the Guardian!! Talk of biting the hand that feeds you. The UEA have scraped the bottom of the barrel. They are denying reality and they are starting to attack their only remaining support.

Looking at the news, it suddenly occurred to me how different the news coverage is now. Gone are the “global warming could …” End species/destroy civilisation/cause panic/cause extremes of whatever is your favourite fear. In comes: Editor Resigns Over Global Warming Paper, Blames Forbes‎, Gerald Warner: Inconvenient CLOUD rains on the global warming parade‎, Politics Overtaking Science in Global Warming Debate, and on a related subject: Environment policy reforms to add £300 to energy bills

Household energy bills will rise by more than £300 a year as a result of the Coalition’s green policies, a senior Downing Street adviser has told David Cameron.(Telegraph)
Continue reading →

I’ve been looking at Scottish history around the Maunder minimum (1645 – 1715) and the following is very interesting:
After a partial resolution of the English Civil war, Charles I negotiated a secret treaty with the Scots (1647), that they would invade England on Charles’ behalf and restore him to the throne. A series of uprisings led to a Scottish invasion in 1648. On Tuesday 30th January 1649 Charles I was taken to his execution in Whitehall. Outside there was frost and snow.
In the 1690s Scotland’s economy suffered from the “seven ill years“ which resulted in severe famine and depopulation and generally the economy suffered.
Attempts were made to compete with England in America, however the Darien Scheme on the Istmus of Panama suffered from devastating epidemics of disease, and increasing shortage of food and was abandoned in 1700. As the Darien company was backed by about a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the nobles and landowners – after the 1690s run of bad harvests – almost completely ruined and led directly to the 1707 the Act of Union with England.