Burt Rutan on AGW alarmism 7

[GregLocock]

http://rps3.com/Files/AGW/EngrCritique.AGW.Science.pdf

It's all a bit Death by Powerpoint, and I wish he'd provided references throughout, but it seems a reasonable meta-analysis of the current state of play.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[FeX32]

Yes, reasonable. And somewhat funny at times


Fe

 

[berkshire]

I hope somebody sends Al Gore a copy of this.
I realise of course that he would ignore it.
But the thought is there.
B.E.

 

[rb1957]

whilst on the whole i think it was good, thx greg, burt needs an editor ...
chuck out the stuff about humans being a tiny part of the planet's bio-mass ... so what, we can have an impat greater than our proportional representation.
chuck out the various cCO2 levels "% in an average house", etc ... so what ... the CO2 level outside my house has a bigger impact on the planet, this is not about personal survival due to CO2 poisoning.

for me the two main messages are ...
1) climate in complex, and our computer simulations aren't
2) in this politics seems to have trumped science

 

[owg]

The fact that he had an EV1 put me off a bit. However I did get through the slides. Electric cars will be great just as soon as we get power generation off fossil fuels. However by then we will have learned there is no anthropogenic global warming.

HAZOP at

http://www.curryhydrocarbons.ca

 

[cranky108]

Electric cars off fossil fuels?
Just put solar panels on you electric car roof. After all your car usually just sits most of the day.

I agree with Bert. However, it's still a good idea to reduce our foot print. But because we want to, not because we have to (death by taxes).

So if added CO2 makes plants grow more, then talking to plants probally also makes plants grow more.

 

[swertel]

So if added CO2 makes plants grow more, then talking to plants probally also makes plants grow more.

Which has been found to be true. I don't know if it has been proven yet, but there is enough anecdotal evidence to at least warrant a hypothesis.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[oneintheeye]

sorry to put a spanner in your thoughts guys but you are dismissing one view of the argument based on one persons assembling of a raft of charts. Who knows how accurate he is. I am pretty sceptical about AGW but flicking through the pages he criticises the scientists approaches and then makes an arguement that could be dismissed on the same grounds. He says they use only small data sets etc then bases his theory on small data sets. To be honest this 'paper' means nothing really on its own merits. Good for the anti brigade but nothing for determining the actual facts, which are we don't know.

 

[cranky108]

Maybe that's the point, we don't know.

He uses the same data to disprove AGW, that these guys use to prove AGW.

He also added data the AGW people don't use.

And he makes the assertion that it may not matter anyway. Not the assertion it's real start taxing now.

 

[zdas04]

I thought that the essence of his theses is that Al Gore and his pet IPPCC have presented cherry-picked data in a manner intended to frighten people (the "hockey stick" graph repeated 6 times in the report was just blatant). He then presented the same data without the cherry picking and there was nothing scary there.

I did love the slide with the global temperature sensors 10 ft away from air conditioner waste heat air flow.

David

 

[TheTick]

I think we need to reverse global warming. Half of America was once covered by a mile-thick ice sheet. Where did it go? It disappeared shortly after those invaders crossed the Bering Strait.

 

[BJC]

Rutan builds great planes.
His expertise on Global warming is no more informed than the 3 or 4 thousand posts that appeared in this form.
Engineers are not any more informed than movie stars but people listen more to Movie Stars. A lot of them sound more intelligent than engineers.
Routan is good at Powerpoint.
IF all 6,693,000,000 people on earth were ground up and put in a plywood box 1 mile high and one mile square - how high would they fill it? I get 375'. IF you removed the water that would be less that 40'.
The meaning? IF aliens come to earth humans could easliy be stored in some side canyon of the Colorado or the bottom of numerous lakes, in a cave, an old mine etc, etc.

 

[FeX32]

what in the dragbat are you talking about


Fe

 

[zdas04]

No really, if all the people on earth were ground up and dessicated then who would measure the box?

FeX32,
You have to work your way through 92 PowerPoint slides to understand. If you didn't do the work, you don't get the answer.

David

 

[TheTick]

If you took all of the hman beings that nodded off while listening to Al Gore and laid them end-to-end...
they would be much more comfortable.

 

[rb1957]

"... then who would measure the box?"

the aliens, of course

"Engineers are not any more informed than movie stars ... A lot of them sound more intelligent than engineers" ... only goes to show, doesn't it. IMHO i think engineers are more informed than movie stars, that we can understand (and take the time to understand) alittle of what the experts are saying, that we generally understand alot more about the fallability of models (not the movie star type). i'll give you that i think we are generally more opinionated than most ... but that's 'cause we're right
and i'll certainly give you that their communication skills are generally Way better than ours.

 

[monkeydog]

rb they are not called "aliens", they are called "undocumented visitors".

 

[ornerynorsk]

Just couldn't get through the whole thing, I guess it's Monday morning. I'm glad some higher profile people are beginning to come out and affirm what so many of us already know, that global warming is pure unadulterated tripe.

Alarmism always has been, and always will be, an engine by which those "in the know" seek to use it as a mechanism by which to empower themselves politically and financially ahead of the mean. Just a big game of king of the hill, if you really stop and think about it.

 

[btrueblood]

Movie stars...argh. Rb beat me to it, a star for him.

 

[YoungTurk]

I'm with BJC. Except the part about the aliens. And the plybood box. I'm not even sure if you can get mile size sheets of plywood.

Routan is a great aerospace engineer. I'm not sure who is a great climate scientist, but I probably don't want to ride on a plane designed by that guy.

I did enjoy his comment in his interview for The Big Think (I think that was the name), where he said he was OK with importing oil now because its only going to get more expensive and that we can sell our oil back later when the price goes up.