These days several global warming scientists are probably wishing they could get a way for a while. Since the scandal of the global warming hoax broke, warming conspirators have been taking a lot of heat, and some who have been complicit in the cover-up are even considering suicide. Before doing anything rash, scientists should take time to relax and, like the earth has been doing, cool down. Now would be a good time for them to take a second look at the Maldives. The Maldives are a collection of beautiful islands in the central Indian Ocean. The shimmering coral sand beaches and the turquoise waters have made them a popular destination for vacationers for years.
The Maldives also became popular some year ago with global warming scientists. The reason they became enamored with the islands was not for their tropical paradise, few actually visited the islands themselves, but it was their topography which interested them. The islands at their highest elevation above sea level are only just over 6 feet. This geological detail proved irresistible for scientists seeking to prove anthropogenic global warming, and several years ago they trained their complicated, though inaccurate, computer climate models on the islands.
The scientists comfortably nestled in their armchairs thousands of miles away easily tweaked the data for their models and got the results that they wanted. Their findings were then published in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2001. What the scientists determined was that the sea level had been rising around the islands, and they predicted the Maldives would disappear in the near future due to flooding as a consequence of global warming. Some scientists claimed the islands would be gone as early as 2030.
They based their claim for rising sea levels on two effects of global warming temperatures: 1) thermal expansion of the sea water, and, 2) melting glacial ice adding to the sea volume. Clearly, something had to be done to save the world from global warming, and that meant that something had to be done to save the Maldives, too.
The remedies that were suggested are two in the standard global warming playbook. They are: 1) the discontinuance of fossil fuel use, and, 2) the imposition of global restitution taxes on industrial nations who caused global warming in the first place.
To stop fossil fuel use, Jim Hansen of NASA called for taxing the oil companies out of existence. Hansen played with our expensive equipment over at NASA, and he was sure sea levels were rising even faster and higher than the IPCC report forecasted. Only last year, Hansen gave an interview in which he claimed President Obama had only four years to save the planet by following Hansen’s advice.1
To make reparations to the citizens of the Maldives for sinking their islands, an organization by the name of Bluepeace called for all industrialized nations responsible for global warming to pay to build new islands for the Maldivians (no kidding).2 These are examples of how ridiculous and absurd the policies of global warming theorists are; aside from the ludicrous notion that humans can actually control the climate. It seems, however, that the only problems facing the theory of global warming are the facts.
The sea level at the Maldives isn’t rising; it’s falling. A particularly large sea level fall took place in the late 1970s early 1980s. The scientists who discovered this were not relying on computer models, but actually spent time accumulating field evidence on the Maldives. The main reason for this sea level fall is an “exceptionally high rate of evaporation” over the Indian Ocean.3 Interestingly, this evaporation is linked to the monsoon rains that can bring up to 60% of India’s annual rainfall. One might expect such a strong climate correlation to be accounted for in original climate models relied upon by global warming researchers, but significant climate data is always missing from models when it doesn’t support warming theory.
While it can’t be said the warming scientists are quick to acknowledge evidence that falsifies their theory, they can be very swift to spin that evidence if it somehow leaks out. After the Maldives hard evidence study on falling sea levels was accepted in 2004, warming scientists soon adopted regional evaporation and falling sea levels as proof, again, of global warming.4 The incredible interpretation these scientists posit is that two opposite reactions, one predicted and the other actually occurring, that happen in the same place simultaneously, prove global warming. What this really proves is that warmists live in a parallel universe with laws that are opposite of reality. If they would confine themselves to its vacuum we could spend less time ridiculing them, and less money suffering them.
Notes:
1. Robin McKie, ‘We have only four years left to act on climate change – America has to lead“Gaurdian.co.uk,January 18, 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/18/obama-climate-change
2. Chris Morris, “Seeking solutions for sinking Maldives,” One World South Asia, April 6, 2009.
http://southasia.oneworld.net/opinioncomment/finding-solutions-for-sinking-maldives
3. Nils-Axel Morner, Michael Tooley, Goran Possnert, “New perspectives for the future of the Maldives,” Global and Planetary Change 40, 1 – 2 (2004): 181.
4. Al Gore, “We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change,” Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times, February 27, 2010.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/opinion/28gore.html
