{"id":13519,"date":"2023-08-25T01:53:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/?p=13519"},"modified":"2023-08-25T01:53:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:53:10","slug":"what-do-climate-denialists-do-when-the-facts-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rationalemagazine.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/25\/what-do-climate-denialists-do-when-the-facts-change\/","title":{"rendered":"What do climate denialists do when the facts change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Maynard Keynes is widely believed to have said: \u201cWell, when the facts change I change my mind. What do you do?\u201d It was probably actually Paul Samuelson, although Keynes did say something vaguely similar.<\/span><\/p>\n

The quote always comes to mind when you consider the state of the climate debate in Australia and parts of the rest of the world. The Earth is boiling rather than warming, yet the denialists keep on keeping on. The facts are clear, but they are not changing their minds \u2013 just shifting to new denialist positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Tony Abbott joined the UK Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) Board of Trustees in 2017, <\/span>he said that we needed more \u201cgenuine science\u201d<\/span><\/a> and less \u201cgroupthink\u201d, and added that he was pleased to join GWPF because it \u201cconsistently injected a note of realism into the climate debate\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a speech to the GWPF in 2017, Abbott said: \u201cMore than 100 years of photography of Manly beach in my electorate does not suggest that sea levels have risen despite frequent reports from climate alarmists that this is imminent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Who needs science when you can use anecdotes?<\/span><\/p>\n

In a recent article in the <\/span>FT Weekend<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Camilla Cavendish<\/span><\/a> pointed to similar views from Rudy Giuliani and former Tory Minister Lord David Frost, who said we shouldn\u2019t worry because more people died of cold than heat.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cavendish also pointed out that Margaret Thatcher \u2013 well before Al Gore\u2019s <\/span>Inconvenient Truth<\/span><\/i> \u2013 had warned about the growing peril of carbon emissions in a 1989 speech to the UN General Assembly. She noted that modern Tory Thatcher disciples hated being reminded of her comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

The depressing thing is the extent to which the same old arguments get deployed. Over the years, they have been wide ranging \u2013 <\/span>as documented by the BBC Reality Check team in 2021<\/span><\/a> \u2013 and have included: a \u2018Grand Solar Minimum\u2019 will halt global warming; global warming is actually good because it will make more of the world habitable; climate change action will make people poorer; and renewable energy is dangerously unreliable and kills birds and wildlife.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ever-predictable Danish political scientist Bjorn Lamborg tweeted recently, pointing to a study:<\/span><\/p>\n

Climate alarmists scare us of ever more fire<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

But satellites show the world is burning ever \ud835\ude61\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude68\ud835\ude68<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In 2022, the world burned the least ever in the satellite era<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Why haven’t you seen this?<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Up to a point, Lord Copper one might say. The lead author of that study, Professor Louis Giglio, and Dr Grant Williamson, a Tasmanian bushfire expert, <\/span>confirmed that Lomborg\u2019s claim was \u2018misleading\u2019<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

And there is always the Murdoch media to come to the denialists\u2019 rescue. In July this year, Adam Creighton, <\/span>The Australian<\/span><\/i> Washington correspondent, said that most Americans were just getting on with life during the heatwaves and had relied on \u201cthe plentiful supply of air-conditioning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Graham Readfearn pointed out<\/span><\/a> in response that more people die from heat in the US than any other weather-related event. He quoted Dr Sameed Khatana of the University of Pennsylvania that 1300-2000 people die from extreme heat every year in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creighton also cherry picked data from the US EPA website heatwave index to suggest that heatwaves were more common in the 1930s than today.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Climate alarmists scare us of ever more fire<\/p>\n

But satellites show the world is burning ever \ud835\ude61\ud835\ude5a\ud835\ude68\ud835\ude68<\/p>\n

In 2022, the world burned the least ever in the satellite era<\/p>\n

Why haven't you seen this?https:\/\/t.co\/lrDbIM0eQD<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/lJY9tXDbeI<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/ymx5GmuokV<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/clMzYSSIVI<\/a><\/p>\n

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n