Catastrophic Global Warming: The Hammering Sound You Hear...

…is the nails going into the coffin.

A bit of background. Russia and China never really bought into the catastrophic global warming hypothesis (CAGW). The European Union and the British Commonwealth nations went for it hard. The U.S. tilted in that direction but never ratified the Kyoto Treaty and never imposed a carbon tax as Al Gore wanted.

Now, after embracing alternative energy, Europe wants out:

Der Spiegel, hardly a conservative outlet, goes on to report,

But now it seems that the climate is no longer of much importance to the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, either. Commission sources have long been hinting that the body intends to move away from ambitious climate protection goals.

And, now from Australia, where they embraced a carbon tax and other measures, the former Chief Scientist of Australia's Division of Atmospheric Research writes [bold emphasis his, green link is to data posted on my blog that support his contention about no warming],

…there has been no significant warming over the most recent fifteen or so years…

In the light of all this, we have at least to consider the possibility that the scientific establishment behind the global warming issue has been drawn into the trap of seriously overstating the climate problem … in its effort to promote the cause. It is a particularly nasty trap in the context of science, because it risks destroying, perhaps for centuries to come, the unique and hard-won reputation for honesty which is the basis of society’s respect for scientific endeavour…

The trap was set in the late 1970s or thereabouts when the environmental movement first realised that doing something about global warming would play to quite a number of its social agendas. At much the same time, it became accepted wisdom around the corridors of power that government-funded scientists (that is, most scientists) should be required to obtain a goodly fraction of their funds and salaries from external sources—external anyway to their own particular organisation.

The scientists in environmental research laboratories, since they are not normally linked to any particular private industry, were forced to seek funds from other government departments. In turn this forced them to accept the need for advocacy and for the manipulation of public opinion. For that sort of activity, an arm’s-length association with the environmental movement would be a union made in heaven…

The trap was partially sprung in climate research when a number of the relevant scientists began to enjoy the advocacy business.

He concludes:

It [climate science] can no longer escape prime responsibility if it should turn out in the end that doing something in the name of mitigation of global warming is the costliest scientific mistake ever visited on humanity.

Why are the Europeans and British Commonwealth nations waking up faster than the U.S.? Two reasons.

The first is that they bought into CAGW and unreliable, costly, alternative energy sooner than the U.S. They have lost their tolerance for the costs and more frequent power issues. With global warming "paused," why bother?

The second is that their media never bought into CAGW as a moral crusade rather a news story, at least not to the extent of the U.S. media. There are too many science 'reporters' in the U.S. that are advocates writing stories in the guise of reporters.