Doomsaying is a noteable feature of the medical world – report after report telling us for instance that cholesterol was a bad thing as it clogs up arteries and results in heart attacks. However, in recent months we have just got used to the idea that there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol – and we must not eat this or that, especially certain kinds of fats. Now we have news that bad cholesterol might not be so bad after all – and is an essential of a healthy life (see www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110505142730.htm ).
Doomsaying is especially prevalent in climate science and environmentalism in general – and we are constantly bombarded with largely irrelevant stories about the dire straights this species is in or that place is being polluted etc. The blast of useless nonsense seems to stream across the media ad nauseum – we should cut back on red meat and eat more greasy white meat for example, and one day red wine is touted as having beneficial effects on us and the next day red wine is being treated as noxious. However, it is fairly easy to get beneath the medical doomsaying simply by looking at who is pushing the propaganda and what their agenda might be. In environmentalism the doomsaying gushes out constantly like a fountain that can't be switched off. Sometimes it is obvious that brains have not connected before mouths have been opened. For example, yesterday a government minister is quoted in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian as doomsaying that in coming years global warming will effect WiFi and buckle railway lines, among other things. As WiFi seems to work perfectly in warmer climes at the moment why shoud global warming in the UK cause it not to work in the future? Also, railway lines are desigbned so that the steel contracts and expands with the temperature – and there are lots of railways in hot countries such as Australia and India. This story has given a lot of mirth on the blogosphere especially among the silver surfers whiling away their evenings but climate science also has a dark side – a very dark side in which data is being manipulated in order to keep the young on board the alarmist bandwagon. EM Smith at http://chiefio.wordpress.com in a post on 9th May, 'Regime Change in Alaska' which is a nice bit of sleuthing on Arctic temperatures as they are exploited by NASA GISS to show a warming trend when in fact no such thing is happening – on the other side of the Bering Straits, a stone throw away from Alaska. Arctic temperatures are what lie behind the so called record warming in 2010 and the modern era in general – going back to 1975. EM Smith explores the temperature stations on both sides of the divide – in Alaska and in the far NE corner of Russian Siberia, and comes up with some interesting answers.