The Warming Debate is Over - And I've Lost...
Believers versus Deniers. The debate of the century. The prize is the Future - money, power and the hearts and minds of the voting public(s). The issue - did we burn too much carbon and trigger our Planet towards Armageddon? Is it too late to stop it - or better yet reverse it - and get back to Utopia?
In case you haven't figured it out by now - I'm a "denier". This comes out of my Science background and my insatiable curiosity about how things work. I spent a lifetime working within the realms and boundaries of the Scientific Discipline and I learned a lot in the forty years I spent applying it to solving problems within my trade. One thing I dealt with constantly was basically "cause and effect" situations - determining the source of problems or aberrations within an industrial setting and then figuring out ways and means to correct or eliminate them.
One thing I did find was there was really never a situation that was a "perfect straight line". Life was simply too complex to be able to say that one thing affects another so reliably and repeatedly that you could create a "law" that described the relationship and then rely on that law for future actions. There really is no black in white in the practical world of chemistry, biology and practical engineering - more a world of "grey" where trends could be determined but caution was required when making judgements or taking actions on these perceived trends.
Make sense? To be more specific - the world of climate change began with the invention of a phenomenon called the "greenhouse effect". It matured over time and with the encouragement of biased scientists to become the core villain in a huge range of weather variations - wind, sea and land based. Social Science brought this to the masses and political science manipulated it into movements that used carbon reduction as their main platform. We are now in the process of rewriting our political and societal "narratives", creating a new vision and structure of society for our future generations.
All based on carbon dioxide, reduction or elimination of C02 producing mechanisms and creation of new technologies that we consider non polluting and "green". Social media has embraced these concepts with a passion and done everything in its power to convince the masses that the theories and models are true and is rich in advice as to how lifestyles will have to change in order to survive the damage we are causing by our lifestyle habits. At the same time, it has been attacking anyone who does not conform to the lore of the day and seeks to shut down their efforts to make people be critical of the stories they are being told and to demand that proper science back them up or discard them.
I'm one of them. I'll admit it. I'm a denier. My training just can't convince me that adding 1/33 of .04% carbon dioxide to the atmosphere can cause such a dramatic and radical effect. I question the methodology used, the assumptions made to create models of coming disaster, and the basic theories that say C02 can even create an insulating blanket significant enough to actually cause our earth's climate to change, especially in such dramatic fashion. I've studied the science of C02 based warming and find it simplistic and infantile. Straight line relationships don't apply to such a complex system as the Earth's climate and rhe changes are so minute that they bring real question as to they really have had any effect.
I have tried to speak out, to bring some form of logical argument or questioning to the so called "debate" but really, I am pragmatic enough to know that
WE HAVE LOST THE DEBATE - AND THE FUTURE IS BEING AWARDED TO THE BELIEVERS !
So, I'm going to sit back and watch it play itself out. What the hell - I'm old and really got to grow up and live in probably the best period in history and in the best country within the world community. I'm sorry if my grandkids have to take up where I'm leaving off, but that's kind of a generational responsibility isn't it? They'll probably get that Tesla I never could talk my wife into.
Anyway, I was thinking of what kinds of things are coming our way (yes, I know I'm still here) as the believers construct their plans forward and arrange the parameters for the new societies that will form around this "green" narrative. Here are some of the things I've noticed:
1.) Cda. Green Party - Media news outlets just presented the Green federal party's day platform (which is pretty typical of all the others) which appears to include dramatic conversion to clean energies by 2030. ALL dwellings in Cda. to be created or retrofitted to be carbon neutral by 2030. All cars to be converted to electric by 2030 and complete elimination of internal combustion power by 2040. No need for a hydrocarbon industry nor for pipelines to transport anything so they will disappear. Note the special government committee to control the progress of the conversions (pigs 1, barnyard animals 0).
2.) Refining of the Global Terminology - the terms are getting scarier. We're walking away from climate change and global warming and climate denier and a bunch of other terms such as climate crisis, global heating and climate science denier. We also add "climate breakdown, climate crisis, climate emergency, ecological breakdown, ecological crisis and ecological emergency".
Here is a great expanded description of the future climate science "Newspeak" (1984 / James Orwell).
3.) Shifting of power and priorities towards the younger generations and a reduction in power and control in the older generations as they age out. So what? - you may say - this happens with every generational shift. The boomers had their day and now the milleniums will have theirs. In doing so, I expect the new overriding political narrativse that defines our societies will be "Green" oriented and that old style traditional religions used to prop up present societies will be replaced with arguments and structures which give moral support for people to conform to "Climate Compatibility" in their daily activities and lifestyles. We see signs of this now with our new politicians and the movement of young people into controlling positions within our economies and political structures. It will only grow.
4.) Maturation of our relatively crude AI industry - unfortunately the shift to AI replacement of human control in our social systems is inevitable and it will continue to grow in size and influence coincident with a reduction of the importance of human beings in the overall management of those systems and social services. The oncoming generation's newly gained political power will slowly disappear as it loses its relevance to data control and computer algorithms. I really talked about this in another blog and drew heavily on books written over several decades, all of which are readily available in social media. Even more depressing detail can be accessed with the button below. In the meantime enjoy the novelty of your electronic organizers - Alexa, Siri, Assistant, Cortana, etc. -2.5 billion in use now and 8 billion in use by 2023.