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Thursday 22 March 2012

Straws in a cold wind


Nobody knows where global temperatures will go over the next thirty years. Frankly I prefer warming. Yes we’d get a new deluge of lies about CO2, but I’d go for it given a choice. I'm used to the lies.

However, my guess is that many of those interested in climate change are more worried about cooling than warming. The focus of anxiety has shifted even among many former believers because the world is not warming and little hints of cooling just keep mounting up, particularly from the sun. There have been numerous reports of imminent cooling over the past few years.

For example here, here, here, here, here and here. Straws in the wind maybe, but easy to find and they just keep coming.
  • The sun is much less active with respect to sunspots. 
  • Global temperatures have been static so far this century. 
  • The Arctic is not melting as predicted. 
  • Sea level rises seem to have slowed. 

So what is the best response?
  • Do northerners move south? 
  • Or is it better to emigrate to somewhere warmer? 
  • Or downsize to a house with small, easily heated rooms? 
  • Buy a 4x4? 
  • Buy a multi-fuel burner? 
  • With plenty of solid fuel storage space? 
  • Think about winter food supplies in case of disruption? 
  • Don’t live on a steep hill? 
  • Rent rather than buy to stay mobile? 

Okay, but at what point does global cooling become a good bet? At what point do we actually do something? Because that’s what it amounts to. If we enter a phase of significant global cooling, then those who placed their cooling bets early and successfully will be better off than those who left it too late. If it happens, cooling may not be severe enough to warrant doing much about anyway – but that’s a bet too.

The great unknown of course is the climate itself – what clues we should watch for, how they change the odds, when to lay your bet or just sit tight and hope for the best. Those who claim to know the answer are all liars. Currently it's just a bet with unknown odds.

So the bet is  down to you – it always was.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"So the bet is down to you – it always was."

The bet might be but not much else. The HAFs (Hot Air Fanatics) have for the last 25 years been running the show and taking the decisions on our behalf whether we agree or not. Soon they will shrivel away to be replaced by the CADs (Cold Air Dictators) who will boss us all around and spend zillions of our money on totally useless projects which will fail to alter our climate by even a fraction of an iota! However, it will all help their over-riding project which is to establish sooner rather than later a World Government. I shall be dead before that happens but you may hear my ghostly cackle if you listen carefully.

Rant over, now I'm off to lie down for a bit!

A K Haart said...

David - I agree, but I think sustainable development is next and the waste and insanity will be even more extreme than global warming.