Bravo Mr. Dyson

[Sinatra]

Please read this fantastic article on one of the brightest minds of the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the world of academics - Dyson is among the giants - and once loved among the liberals for his long standing crusade against nuclear weapons. (I heard him speak on this subject in the early 90's)

Now he is being villified by the global warming junta - an attack that is far beneath the quiet dignity and enormous intelligence of this remarkable man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

 

[xsited1]

Please read this fantastic article on one of the brightest minds of the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the world of academics - Dyson is among the giants - and once loved among the liberals for his long standing crusade against nuclear weapons. (I heard him speak on this subject in the early 90's)

Now he is being villified by the global warming junta - an attack that is far beneath the quiet dignity and enormous intelligence of this remarkable man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

Wow. Thanks for posting this.

“His mind is still so open and flexible...”

 

[Old Rocks]

Yes, Freeman Dyson is a legend. And wrong on this issue. The oceans are acidifying. The Ice Caps are melting. We will see a significant drop in food production this year because of droughts, in precisely the areas that the climatologists were worried about.

I wish Dyson were correct, but he is not. The real time events are proving that the scientists are correct, we have a real problem, one that is going to get far worse.

 

[Sinatra]

Yes, Freeman Dyson is a legend. And wrong on this issue. The oceans are acidifying. The Ice Caps are melting. We will see a significant drop in food production this year because of droughts, in precisely the areas that the climatologists were worried about.

I wish Dyson were correct, but he is not. The real time events are proving that the scientists are correct, we have a real problem, one that is going to get far worse.

I do believe Mr. Dyson knows that water vapor is far and away the most significant of greenhouse gases, unlike some, who stated CO2 as being so.

Just saying...

 

[Old Rocks]

Yes, Freeman Dyson is a legend. And wrong on this issue. The oceans are acidifying. The Ice Caps are melting. We will see a significant drop in food production this year because of droughts, in precisely the areas that the climatologists were worried about.

I wish Dyson were correct, but he is not. The real time events are proving that the scientists are correct, we have a real problem, one that is going to get far worse.

I do believe Mr. Dyson knows that water vapor is far and away the most significant of greenhouse gases, unlike some, who stated CO2 as being so.

Just saying...

Keep on just saying. Anyone that understands the relationship between the GHGs and water vapor understands that you are a fool.

 

[Sinatra]

Please read this fantastic article on one of the brightest minds of the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the world of academics - Dyson is among the giants - and once loved among the liberals for his long standing crusade against nuclear weapons. (I heard him speak on this subject in the early 90's)

Now he is being villified by the global warming junta - an attack that is far beneath the quiet dignity and enormous intelligence of this remarkable man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

,,,

 

[Missourian]

When I read this article it was titled "Dyson, pre-eminent physicist, challenges consensus on climate change" in the March 27, 2009 issue of the International Herald Tribune.

It is now titled "The Civil Heretic" at The New York Times website.


These excerpts are not quoted in the order they appear in the article for the purpose of continuity:

FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson has quietly resided in Princeton, N.J., on the wooded former farmland that is home to his employer, the Institute for Advanced Study, this country's most rarefied community of scholars. Lately, however, since coming "out of the closet as far as global warming is concerned," as Dyson sometimes puts it, there has been noise all around him. Chat rooms, Web threads, editors' letter boxes and Dyson's own e-mail queue resonate with a thermal current of invective in which Dyson has discovered himself variously described as "a pompous twit," "a blowhard," "a cesspool of misinformation," "an old coot riding into the sunset" and, perhaps inevitably, "a mad scientist." Dyson had proposed that whatever inflammations the climate was experiencing might be a good thing because carbon dioxide helps plants of all kinds grow.

Then he added the caveat that if CO2 levels soared too high, they could be soothed by the mass cultivation of specially bred "carbon-eating trees," whereupon the University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner looked through the thick grove of honorary degrees Dyson has been awarded - there are 21 from universities like Georgetown, Princeton and Oxford - and suggested that "perhaps trees can also be designed so that they can give directions to lost hikers."

Dyson's son, George, a technology historian, says his father's views have cooled friendships, while many others have concluded that time has cost Dyson something else...

IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO that Dyson began publicly stating his doubts about climate change. Speaking at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, Dyson announced that "all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated."

Since then he has only heated up his misgivings, declaring in a 2007 interview with Salon.com that "the fact that the climate is getting warmer doesn't scare me at all" and writing in an essay for The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin, that climate change has become an "obsession" - the primary article of faith for "a worldwide secular religion" known as environmentalism.

Among those he considers true believers, Dyson has been particularly dismissive of Al Gore, whom Dyson calls climate change's "chief propagandist," and James Hansen, the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adviser to Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth." Dyson accuses them of relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models that foresee a Grand Guignol of imminent world devastation as icecaps melt, oceans rise and storms and plagues sweep the earth, and he blames the pair's "lousy science" for "distracting public attention" from "more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet."...

The film continued with Gore predicting violent hurricanes, typhoons and tornados. "How in God's name could that happen here?" Gore said, talking about Hurricane Katrina. "Nature's been going crazy."

"That is of course just nonsense," Dyson said calmly. "With Katrina, all the damage was due to the fact that nobody had taken the trouble to build adequate dikes. To point to Katrina and make any clear connection to global warming is very misleading.

"Now came Arctic scenes, with Gore telling of disappearing ice, drunken trees and drowning polar bears. "Most of the time in history the Arctic has been free of ice," Dyson said. "A year ago when we went to Greenland where warming is the strongest, the people loved it."

"They were so proud," Imme agreed. "They could grow their own cabbage."

Dyson is well aware that "most consider me wrong about global warming." That educated Americans tend to agree with the conclusion about global warming reached earlier this month at the International Scientific Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen ("inaction is inexcusable") only increases Dyson's resistance.

Dyson may be an Obama-loving, Bush-loathing liberal who has spent his life opposing American wars and fighting for the protection of natural resources, but he brooks no ideology and has a withering aversion to scientific consensus.

Dyson says it's only principle that leads him to question global warming: "According to the global-warming people, I say what I say because I'm paid by the oil industry. Of course I'm not, but that's part of their rhetoric. If you doubt it, you're a bad person, a tool of the oil or coal industry." Global warming, he added, "has become. a party line."

There are another two articles at the Washington Post

Freeman Dyson, Global Warming Heretic

Freeman Dyson, Global Warming Heretic

And NY Times Climate Story Stirs Controversy

NY Times Climate Story Stirs Controversy


NOTE - The above excerpts, while lengthy, constitute less than 8% of the article cited.

 

[Sinatra]

When I read this article it was titled "Dyson, pre-eminent physicist, challenges consensus on climate change" in the March 27, 2009 issue of the International Herald. Tribune.

It is now titled "The Civil Heretic" at The New York Times website.


These excepts are not quoted in the order they appear in the article for the purpose of continuity:

FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson has quietly resided in Prince*ton, N.J., on the wooded former farmland that is home to his employer, the Institute for Advanced Study, this country's most rarefied community of scholars. Lately, however, since coming "out of the closet as far as global warming is concerned," as Dyson sometimes puts it, there has been noise all around him. Chat rooms, Web threads, editors' letter boxes and Dyson's own e-mail queue resonate with a thermal current of invective in which Dyson has discovered himself variously described as "a pompous twit," "a blowhard," "a cesspool of misinformation," "an old coot riding into the sunset" and, perhaps inevitably, "a mad scientist." Dyson had proposed that whatever inflammations the climate was experiencing might be a good thing because carbon dioxide helps plants of all kinds grow.

Then he added the caveat that if CO2 levels soared too high, they could be soothed by the mass cultivation of specially bred "carbon-eating trees," whereupon the University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner looked through the thick grove of honorary degrees Dyson has been awarded - there are 21 from universities like Georgetown, Princeton and Oxford - and suggested that "perhaps trees can also be designed so that they can give directions to lost hikers."

Dyson's son, George, a technology historian, says his father's views have cooled friendships, while many others have concluded that time has cost Dyson something else...

IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO that Dyson began publicly stating his doubts about climate change. Speaking at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, Dyson announced that "all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated."

Since then he has only heated up his misgivings, declaring in a 2007 interview with Salon.com that "the fact that the climate is getting warmer doesn't scare me at all" and writing in an essay for The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin, that climate change has become an "obsession" - the primary article of faith for "a worldwide secular religion" known as environmentalism.

Among those he considers true believers, Dyson has been particularly dismissive of Al Gore, whom Dyson calls climate change's "chief propagandist," and James Hansen, the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adviser to Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth." Dyson accuses them of relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models that foresee a Grand Guignol of imminent world devastation as icecaps melt, oceans rise and storms and plagues sweep the earth, and he blames the pair's "lousy science" for "distracting public attention" from "more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet."...

Dyson is well aware that "most consider me wrong about global warming." That educated Americans tend to agree with the conclusion about global warming reached earlier this month at the International Scientific Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen ("inaction is inexcusable") only increases Dyson's resistance.

Dyson may be an Obama-loving, Bush-loathing liberal who has spent his life opposing American wars and fighting for the protection of natural resources, but he brooks no ideology and has a withering aversion to scientific consensus.

Dyson says it's only principle that leads him to question global warming: "According to the global-warming people, I say what I say because I'm paid by the oil industry. Of course I'm not, but that's part of their rhetoric. If you doubt it, you're a bad person, a tool of the oil or coal industry." Global warming, he added, "has become. a party line."

There are another two articles at the Washington Post

Freeman Dyson, Global Warming Heretic

Freeman Dyson, Global Warming Heretic

And NY Times Climate Story Stirs Controversy

NY Times Climate Story Stirs Controversy


NOTE - The above excerpts constitute less than 8% of the article cited.

The story has certainly created a bit of a stir.

I am uncertain how to take the altered title of "Civil Heretic" - but perhaps it is giving a nod to the notion that global warming has become a concept based so much on faith, and its proponents are in fact fanatical zealots who will protect their doctrine at all costs?

Regardless, it was a very interesting read on an incredibly interesting and astute scientific mind - among the greatest minds of the last century.

 

[Old Rocks]

Missouri, talk to the Inuit about global warming. You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

 

[JohnStOnge]

You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

Now THAT one you're going to have to explain to me. Surely you're not saying that what human kind is doing in terms of introducing gasses can influence when the sun "appears" in the spring at northern latitudes.

 

[Meister]

You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

Now THAT one you're going to have to explain to me. Surely you're not saying that what human kind is doing in terms of introducing gasses can influence when the sun "appears" in the spring at northern latitudes.

Yeah, I think the "fool" is trying to pander that one. Throws everything against the wall and see's what sticks.

 

[Sinatra]

Missouri, talk to the Inuit about global warming. You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

No words necessary on this latest gem of a contribution!

Old Rocks contemplates his next brilliant missive supporting his Inuit-based theory of man-made global warming...

 

[KittenKoder]

Missouri, talk to the Inuit about global warming. You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

Dude ... really? I suppose yeah they would if GW wasn't a myth ... but of course the Inuit are more of you "accredited scientists" now I assume? No, of course not, they have to take the word of others ... which means it's EASY to pass them a lie.

GW scientist fools will avoid 90% of the science, and you swallow it hook line and sinker, of course. You're like a minnow ... but with less use.

 

[Old Rocks]

You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

Now THAT one you're going to have to explain to me. Surely you're not saying that what human kind is doing in terms of introducing gasses can influence when the sun "appears" in the spring at northern latitudes.

Excellant, you asked a question instead of insulting me. That statement had me going also, untill it was explained.
Extreme Weather and Earth changes | Inuit complain that the sun is changing - global warming blamed |


Inuit complain that the sun is changing - global warming blamed


The Inuit are worried about changing actions of the sun, it appears to be rising earlier and faster than usual. Scientists see this as an optical effect owing to rising temperatures in the north.

Its interesting to see that so called 'primitive' people are aware that something is not right with the weather and the climate as well as 'educated' scientists.

Some Inuit say they hope scientists coming to Nunavut for research as part of International Polar Year can help shed light on changes they're seeing in the sun — particularly, how it's been showing up more often in the usually always-dark winters.

For the past several years, residents in the High Arctic have observed that the winter dark season is ending earlier than usual, with the sun coming up at a different place than what people are used to seeing.

"The people [are] talking about earlier sunrise, more light in the dark season, instead of being more total darkness than before," Grise Fiord resident Larry Audlaluk said Thursday, adding that he has heard similar observations from people in other Far North communities.

"There are notices of more daylight earlier, and the dark season is not the real dark season that we used to know."

A bit further south, Igloolik Mayor Paul Quassa said hunters have noticed the same phenomenon.

"This year, the sun started coming up so fast that it's almost like April when it's mid-February," he said.

Both Audlaluk and Quassa were part of an International Polar Year planning workshop Thursday in Iqaluit.

Wayne Davidson, who is the resident meteorologist in Resolute Bay, said the likely cause of this "rising sun" mystery is a temperature difference between the very cold air over the snow and the air above, which has been warmer than usual.

Glaciologist Dr. Roy Koerner, with the Geological Survey of Canada, agreed, comparing it to sticking a fork into a glass of water: the fork appears to bend where it enters the water, he said.

"So you get the same effect: you get this bent effect. Except in this case, the sun, which is just below the horizon, looks as if it's above the horizon, just a bit of it," he said.

Both Koerner and Davidson said they believe a warming climate is responsible. They said they hope Inuit and scientists working during International Polar Year can work together on more in-depth analysis of the observations.

 

[Old Rocks]

Now, for the rest of you, glad to see more members of the Cyprinidea family here.

 

[KittenKoder]

Rockhead ... you're a block head.

 

[Old Rocks]

Rockhead ... you're a block head.

Hello, Ms. Sucker.

 

[KittenKoder]

Rockhead ... you're a block head.

Hello, Ms. Sucker.

Funny, I'm not the one easily conned into wasting billions on programs that hurt everything just because of junk science.

 

[Sinatra]

Missouri, talk to the Inuit about global warming. You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

No words necessary on this latest gem of a contribution!

Old Rocks contemplates his next brilliant missive supporting his Inuit-based theory of man-made global warming...

,,,

 

[Missourian]

You will find that they are not at all thrilled by it. Even to the point of having the sun appear earlier in the spring than it used to.

Now THAT one you're going to have to explain to me. Surely you're not saying that what human kind is doing in terms of introducing gasses can influence when the sun "appears" in the spring at northern latitudes.

Excellant, you asked a question instead of insulting me. That statement had me going also, untill it was explained.
Extreme Weather and Earth changes | Inuit complain that the sun is changing - global warming blamed |


Inuit complain that the sun is changing - global warming blamed


The Inuit are worried about changing actions of the sun, it appears to be rising earlier and faster than usual. Scientists see this as an optical effect owing to rising temperatures in the north.

Its interesting to see that so called 'primitive' people are aware that something is not right with the weather and the climate as well as 'educated' scientists.

Some Inuit say they hope scientists coming to Nunavut for research as part of International Polar Year can help shed light on changes they're seeing in the sun — particularly, how it's been showing up more often in the usually always-dark winters.

For the past several years, residents in the High Arctic have observed that the winter dark season is ending earlier than usual, with the sun coming up at a different place than what people are used to seeing.

"The people [are] talking about earlier sunrise, more light in the dark season, instead of being more total darkness than before," Grise Fiord resident Larry Audlaluk said Thursday, adding that he has heard similar observations from people in other Far North communities.

"There are notices of more daylight earlier, and the dark season is not the real dark season that we used to know."

A bit further south, Igloolik Mayor Paul Quassa said hunters have noticed the same phenomenon.

"This year, the sun started coming up so fast that it's almost like April when it's mid-February," he said.

Both Audlaluk and Quassa were part of an International Polar Year planning workshop Thursday in Iqaluit.

Wayne Davidson, who is the resident meteorologist in Resolute Bay, said the likely cause of this "rising sun" mystery is a temperature difference between the very cold air over the snow and the air above, which has been warmer than usual.

Glaciologist Dr. Roy Koerner, with the Geological Survey of Canada, agreed, comparing it to sticking a fork into a glass of water: the fork appears to bend where it enters the water, he said.

"So you get the same effect: you get this bent effect. Except in this case, the sun, which is just below the horizon, looks as if it's above the horizon, just a bit of it," he said.

Both Koerner and Davidson said they believe a warming climate is responsible. They said they hope Inuit and scientists working during International Polar Year can work together on more in-depth analysis of the observations.

I believe what you are referring to is the phenomenon known as the Arctic or Superior Mirage. While this optical illusion can be influenced by temperature (a layer of warm air over a layer of cold air), it has been occurring for thousands of years.

"The Superior Mirage allows sight beyond the horizon.

The superior mirage can make objects appear to be floating in the air or cause objects actually located below the horizon to appear above it (remember the setting-sun example), a condition called looming. The superior mirage can also make objects appear to be taller than they actually are, a condition called towering. The image often appears inverted as well. The weather conditions that form superior mirages are quite common at night when radiational cooling of the air near the surface, under clear skies and light winds, is strong. Mirages at this time are seldom noticed, however, since it is usually dark. But artificial lighting, particularly from buildings and vehicle headlights, can be lofted from their expected position."

"The superior mirage is as common in the polar regions as the inferior mirage is in the tropics and subtropics. In fact, if we look closely we can often see the influence of the superior mirage on the religions and legends of native northern communities. And there is ample evidence that Viking and other European polar explorers may have discovered new lands because they saw mountains looming above the western horizon, although in most instances they were really only seeing pack ice or small icebergs altered by mirage conditions appearing as mountains.

Historians believe that the voyages of Erik the Red to Greenland and his son Lief Erikson to North American shores were made possible because they believed they had seen great lands and mountains to the west, visions made possible by persistent and strong superior mirages."

Link http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc_1999/alm99jul.htm