Global Warming in a Climate of Ignorance
15 February 2007
Global Warming in a Climate of Ignoranc
The hourglass shape is made visible in many beautiful planetary nebulae.
As for warming caused by mankind's production of so-called "greenhouse gases," Professor Nils-Axel Mörner wrote in a submission to the UK parliament on global warming, "The driving idea is that there is a linear relationship between CO2 increase in the atmosphere and global temperature. The fact, however, is that temperature has constantly gone up and down. From 1850 to 1970, we see an almost linear relationship with Solar variability; not CO2. For the last 30 years, our data sets are so contaminated by personal interpretations and personal choices that it is almost impossible to sort up the mess in reliable and unreliable data."
A final word about our place in the Universe. We live with the fable of Newton's clockwork solar system and the constancy of the Sun over past aeons. Scientists chart past climate and blithely assign periodicities to various warming and cooling episodes extending back millions of years into the past. All of the numbers and charts bestow the appearance of being in control of the facts. But it is mere wishful thinking. Here, science unconsciously takes on the mantle of religion—providing assurance in an uncertain universe.
Where does this powerful urge for certainty come from? Underlying the global warming debate is an unacknowledged fear—a subconscious, irrational fear of THE END OF THE WORLD. A few decades ago climate experts were warning us that we were facing another ice age. Now we are told that we face a catastrophe of global warming. All the while, there is a Greek chorus of scientists whipping up our innate fear of an apocalyptic cometary impact. All of these anxieties are irrational. We have no modern experience of them.
But there does seem to be an archetypal memory of doomsday. Fossil strata record several of them. Ancient myths and legends describe one or more at the dawn of civilization. The Earth sciences will remain hamstrung for as long as it takes to understand that we live in an electric universe and the solar system we see today is not as old as the human race. Meanwhile, human behavior will continue to be irrational until we understand our true history and place in an electric and sometimes catastrophic universe.
15 February 2007Global Warming in a Climate of Ignoranc
The hourglass shape is made visible in many beautiful planetary nebulae.
As for warming caused by mankind's production of so-called "greenhouse gases," Professor Nils-Axel Mörner wrote in a submission to the UK parliament on global warming, "The driving idea is that there is a linear relationship between CO2 increase in the atmosphere and global temperature. The fact, however, is that temperature has constantly gone up and down. From 1850 to 1970, we see an almost linear relationship with Solar variability; not CO2. For the last 30 years, our data sets are so contaminated by personal interpretations and personal choices that it is almost impossible to sort up the mess in reliable and unreliable data."
A final word about our place in the Universe. We live with the fable of Newton's clockwork solar system and the constancy of the Sun over past aeons. Scientists chart past climate and blithely assign periodicities to various warming and cooling episodes extending back millions of years into the past. All of the numbers and charts bestow the appearance of being in control of the facts. But it is mere wishful thinking. Here, science unconsciously takes on the mantle of religion—providing assurance in an uncertain universe.
Where does this powerful urge for certainty come from? Underlying the global warming debate is an unacknowledged fear—a subconscious, irrational fear of THE END OF THE WORLD. A few decades ago climate experts were warning us that we were facing another ice age. Now we are told that we face a catastrophe of global warming. All the while, there is a Greek chorus of scientists whipping up our innate fear of an apocalyptic cometary impact. All of these anxieties are irrational. We have no modern experience of them.
But there does seem to be an archetypal memory of doomsday. Fossil strata record several of them. Ancient myths and legends describe one or more at the dawn of civilization. The Earth sciences will remain hamstrung for as long as it takes to understand that we live in an electric universe and the solar system we see today is not as old as the human race. Meanwhile, human behavior will continue to be irrational until we understand our true history and place in an electric and sometimes catastrophic universe.
