Lomborg’s book came out a year ago (or was it later), and surprisingly, I find his moderate efforts have become scientifically dated.

First came ”The Great Global Warming Swindle,” broadcasting the fact that paleoclimatology shows that CO2 rises follow after temperature rises, contradicting Al Gore. In other words, climate science does not show that temperature is sensitive to CO2 flux.Then came rapid drops in measured global temperature 0.63C (1.13F), back to 1997 and maybe 1988. In other words, again, if there is temperature sensitivity to added CO2, it isn’t showing up in today’s data. Over the past ten years, global temperature has dropped while man-made CO2 has increased by about 4%. And third, in a series of four papers (among others), NASA meteorologist argues that recent satellite data shows that the atmospheric sensitivity is negative – NOT the positive forcing that the IPCC trumpets worryingly. (Here is s simplified version of his latest forthcoming paper http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/10/19/new-paper-from-roy-spencer-pdo-and-clouds/)

In addition, Spencer has added natural climate variability to other alternative explanations for climate change, especially the solar-cosmic ray-clouds hypothesis.

Finally, I am moved by the fact that such fundamentals of Anthropogenic Climate Warming (AGW) theory such as accounting for the global carbon budget remain seriously unknown, despite decades of research, and AGW has to be called a theory in jeopardy. It doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

So, what remains of Lomborg’s concessions? That AGW is happening? Very much in doubt.
Lawrence Soloman’s ”The Deniers” is an excellent survey of doubt, except for Spencer’s vital more recent contributions.

Look, anyone who raises Chernobyl as even vaguely related to Modern Nuclear Power Generation In the West (“Modern” in the sense of “by the mid-60s”) is either too ignorant to have an opinion or a flat-out lying, two-bit charlatan.

The system used at Chernobyl (and throughout much of the USSR) was the exact same system used in the original pile — graphite moderation.

Graphite moderation has never been used at ANY commercial nuclear plant in the West. It was written off as a technique back in the 1950s as “unsafe”. Yes, even in the 50s, with their “Nukes’r'Good” attitude, theey did not consider this as a safe technique.

Why? The answer to that is obvious, when you replace the word “graphite” with the word most people commonly experience it as: charcoal.

Yes, the pile at Chernobyl was surrounded by the same stuff you use in your backyard barbecue… Is it really, really a surprised that, after all the abuse and failed training and so on that Chernobyl was subjected to, that a screwup happened?

But the system used in The West, which has never actually had anything resembling a serious accident (sorry, TMI suffered no release of radioactivity detectable at the property boundaries) cannot have that kind of event happen — because there is little to no chance of anything resembling a fire happening at any nuke plant, and certainly nothing resembling a sustained fire, like a mass of overheated charcoal is capable of.

As far as “nuclear safety protocols” in the USSR go, I suggest you read the rlated wiki article on Mayak aka “Kyshtym”.

The USSR, like most socialist systems, were not wealthy enough to actually expend any of their efforts towards safety, nor did they care substantially about the quality of human life enough to place any value in that issue, either.

In other words, “It’s not my fault! It’s the system!” That sure brings me back to my undergraduate days 35 years ago.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Whatever bug caused the problem you experienced was temporary. These things happen occasionally.

Warning: unlink(/usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-content/cache/wp-cache-d60c8b098a588d9b260a7d51c42a9ac2.html) [function.unlink]: No such file or directory in /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php on line 297

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php:297) in /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-comments-post.php on line 67

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php:297) in /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-comments-post.php on line 68

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php:297) in /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-comments-post.php on line 69

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php:297) in /usr/www/users/chicagob/blog/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 694

Welcome to the Brave New postmodern World of progressivism. Everything is subject to ideology. Neutrality is oppressive. Long live liberating bias and favoritism!

Good point.

What really shocked me was when the moderator stepped in and accused Lomborg of shifting his position! I thought that moderators were supposed to just shut up and make sure the two sides didn’t go over their allotted time.

James