The chief
publicity stunt this year was performed by Nature, the
weekly magazine that was once the world’s most distinguished
science publication (and together with Science, the U.S.
weekly, probably still is). It was in the form of a big paper
on Atlantic thermohaline circulation. Read: what if the Gulf Stream
slows down? Eh? Eh? The authors’ conclusions were modest.
The magazine’s own published news commentaries were coy.
An embargoed press release was suggestive. The linked website
article bordered on promiscuous. And the world’s media have
now duly reported: “Mini ice age!” Or, “Ice
age!”
Given the
timing, and a memory of the big teasing refereed papers Nature
published to coincide with previous global climate conferences,
it looked to this jaded old hack like a classic set-up. J’accuse!
Nature’s editors knew exactly what they were stoking.
So far as
I can see, Nature magazine has been sliding into an ideological
chant since John Maddox retired from the editorship almost a decade
ago. Not that he was above a little entertaining sensationalism
from time to time, nor that he should have been. He went on many
scientific vendettas. But he indulged scepticism, not credulity.
He had what every scientist and journalist alike most need, a
sensitive "bullshit indicator" -- an ability to be irritated
by voguery and self-interest, and in Maddox’s own case,
a solid grasp of the proposition that the world’s leading
scientific organ must resist the proliferation of junk science.
Meanwhile,
the Kyoto Agreement -- the stick with which the international
bureaucratic left has been beating an anti-American tattoo for
many years now -- has fallen to pieces. This is what makes it
so necessary for its supporters to suggest the sky is falling,
instead. Look out for more big climate scare stories, coming to
a newspaper near you. Do not expect them to be coherent.
Kyoto is
now being disowned by one European state after another -- on grounds
it is utterly impractical, and seriously counter-productive --
led by the little England of Tony Blair, that is about to fire
up the coal generators again, in the face of looming power shortages.
The politicians have hardly resolved to get out of the environmental
regulation business. But neither have they suddenly decided to
advance the heat death of the universe, instead. They just need
to spread their bureaucracies in a way that will contribute less
to the strangulation of their tax bases.
They still
buy into the possibility that human acts might be contributing
to a global warming trend that either is or is not happening,
on a time scale that might be short, medium, or long. They just
realize that if something must be done about greenhouse gas emissions,
there have got to be more intelligent ways to do it, than by suppressing
economic activity throughout the Western world.
And there
are. They consist mostly of getting the bureaucracies out of the
way of technological innovation. Which could mean, for instance,
letting oil prices soar to levels where competing methods of generating
heat, light, and motion kick in, of their own free market accord.
Just in case
you were curious about the big picture, carbon dioxide levels
remain significantly below their average for the last 100 million
years, at least on this planet. And I’ll tell you a little
secret. Plants love the stuff, trees especially. The more you
give them, the faster they grow. This is one of several elementary
facts, the suppression of which was at the heart of the Kyoto
climate scares. For were the CO2 levels rising, a solution would
be, “let a million arbours bud”. That was among the
U.S. suggestions, for how to actually reduce CO2 accumulations.
It wasn’t acceptable to the Kyotans, who insisted on turning
out the lights instead. Which is how Kyoto defeated itself. And
will continue to defeat itself.
These people
will not give up, however. There is too much money and power to
be grabbed.
