Tag Archives: Baloney Detector

Anthropogenic Global Warming as Organised Religion

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Posted by JJ on January 24, 2010 – 1:08 pm
Filed under Global Warming, The Demise of Democracy and Freedom
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The UN, its environmental propaganda unit (the IPCC) and the organisers want us to believe that man-made CO2 and methane emissions are the cause of global warming.  They and their supporters refer to anyone who is skeptical of that claim by the derogatory term “Denier”.  They wish us to feel guilty about the perfectly natural twentieth century warming, and blame ourselves for it.

This is organised religion at work – massive manipulation on a scale not seen since the Dark Ages.  Its purpose is the increase and entrench the power and wealth of the UN.  If it is not constrained it will impoverish us all – while the developing nations continue to develop, financed by our CO2 carbon-credit taxes.  Think about this:

From the time of Constantine until after the Renaissance, the dominant organised religion of the Western world set up the most enduring bureaucracy of all time to build and maintain its power.  It had it all – Fear of mortality, original sin, guilt about sexuality, the seven deadly sins, blessings, indulgences, tithing, the inquisition, the priesthood, cathedrals, the Swiss Guard and more.

It still exists, but its power is but a shadow of what it was in the Dark Ages.  Sadly, nature abhors a vacuum, even a power vacuum.  So, now we have the UN.  It already has many of the infrastructure elements of the old church.  But it has lacked the driving religion that is needed for really comprehensive power.

Until now.  Now, it has Anthropogenic Global Warming.  I have seen the priesthood (the IPCC) and that’s bad enough.  I am not keen to see what the UN will do for an inquisition.

The Key Components of Organised Religion:

Organised religion purports to bring us enlightenment, universal truth, knowledge of God and salvation.  It does nothing of the sort – it’s about control, wealth and power.  It achieves this by feeding us baloney, fostering fear and guilt, positioning itself as the sole path for forgiveness of our sins,  and charging us for that “service”.

It also builds infrastructure to support its aims.  The organisational infrastructure includes bureaucracies to maintain our fear and guilt, punish us when we don’t comply with their rules, collect our payments and recruit us as disciples to promote and enforce their views.  It also always includes a priesthood whose duties include propaganda to promote the baloney that is central to its control.  Some organised religions even maintain military and security organisations.  The physical infrastructure includes imposing cathedrals, churches and temples to which we are required to come for our regular indoctrination sessions and express our gratitude.

A key element of most organised religions is fostering of hatred for non-believers and dissenters.  Those who do not believe are branded as heathens.  Any expression of dissent or disagreement from believers is branded as heresy or blasphemy, and severely punished.

Green Companies vs Global Warming

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Posted by JJ on January 19, 2010 – 9:56 pm
Filed under Global Warming
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Green technologies posed the investment opportunity of our lifetime, according to Kevin Parker, Deutsche Bank’s global head of asset management, in a study published on Thursday 14 January 2010.

“The shift to a low-carbon economy to mitigate global warming will require the creation of new technologies, industries and jobs on a massive scale.  The absolute imperative to prevent climate change is therefore also, I believe, the economic and investment opportunity of our lifetime.  Climate change is not merely an investment sector that may hold future promise; it is a sector that has already delivered and is continuing to deliver,” said Parker.  “That is why we believe institutional investors should be shifting their asset allocation towards climate change.”

Dear oh dear, we are emerging from a credit crisis and we see this example of the kind of advice given to investors by  a leading bank.  Deutsche Asset Management had USD 695 billion in assets under management as of September 2009.  I guess that makes Deutsche a leading bank.  Seems they have learned nothing!

The reason for the strong performance of “Green” business is the same as the reason for the previous strong but short-lived performance of dot coms, and before them, ostrich farming.  For those ventures, the bubbles burst, leaving investors all wet and cold.

It’s flavour-of-the-month.  Fashion.  Whatever is strongly promoted to the public.  Whatever they believe in at the time.  The stronger the hype, the more publicity they are given, the more valuable their shares are perceived to be.  Until they go out of fashion, or the abysmal or non-existent dividends lead to panic selling, and the share values collapse.

And these ventures are due to collapse in a spectacular fashion.  We are in for up to thirty years of global cooling – even the IPCC (belatedly) admits that!  Long before then, voter dissatisfaction with the expensive climate control policies of their governments will lead to a reversal of support and removal of subsidies from “green” companies.

Good investment?  Unless a really good energy storage system is developed, these companies will be good investments only in the very short term.

Not that I am happy about it. We really do need to develop good systems to generate energy from renewable resources – after all, oil and coal are finite.  But the kind of nonsense arising from the global warming hype is leading to premature investment in technologies of limited value.  Instead of pouring funds into cap-and-trade nonsense, and subsidising inefficient power generation without continuity of supply, we should be funding efforts to develop realistic renewable power sources. Without risking the life savings of small investors hoodwinked by hype and carefully cultivated fear.

Seems I have revealed myself somewhat.  Yes folks, the Grumpy Old Man is an environmentalist and a conservationist.  But he also has a built-in baloney detector, and AGW is five-star, ocean-going baloney.  Sadly for investors, so is Deutsche bank’s advice.

Carl Sagan the Skeptic

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Posted by JJ on December 15, 2009 – 11:31 am
Filed under Global Warming
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Why do people who want us to believe that we cause global warming and can avert the end of the world only by drastically cutting CO2 emissions insist on appealing to Carl Sagan and to “scientific consensus” as supporting evidence for their beliefs?  Why the hell don’t they read Sagan’s Baloney Detection kit before talking about his theories?

The astrophysicist Carl Sagan was also a prominent scientific educator, whose TV series and books informed us not only about the cosmos but about the nature of science itself – how it works and why it is so effective.  He was a strong and consistent advocate of scientific skepticism, and an opponent of pseudo-science.  His book “The Demon-Haunted World” is but one example of his determination to promote scientific reasoning over superstition and credulity.  The book provides a “Baloney Detection Kit” to be used when assessing arguments.  You can read it here.

Carl Sagan is also widely credited as one of the originators of the theory that man causes global warming by CO2 emissions.  His authority is used as evidence supporting that theory, and those who are skeptical about it are cast as opposing Carl Sagan.  Oh come on – he would be appalled by that reasoning!  “Appealing to Authority” is the number two fallacy on Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit list.  (The number one fallacy in that list is ad hominem.)

Understandably we are in awe of Carl Sagan.  Men of his intellect, eloquence and commitment to the truth are rare.  Yet in his own writings, he warns us against awe-inspired credulity.  He clearly demonstrates that all theories and postulates, including his own, should be viewed with scientific skepticism.

This is what he said in his book “The Demon-haunted World”:

It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion….  Superstition and pseudoscience keep getting in the way, providing easy answers, dodging skeptical scrutiny, casually pressing our awe buttons and cheapening the experience, making us routine and comfortable practitioners as well as victims of credulity. The tenants of skepticism do not require an advanced degree to master, as most successful used car buyers demonstrate.

For crying out loud, Chicken-Licken was no scientist.  But some scientists have become Chicken-Lickens.  They seem to have forgotten the fundamentals of science.  More and more of them use the “We must act now before it’s too late” line.  You know – the time for skepticism has passed.  Don’t oppose us, else we delay and fail to prevent catastrophe!  That is not only alarmist, it is also a logical fallacy.  Sagan calls it “Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an “unfavourable” decision)”.  It is listed as number three fallacy in his Baloney Detection Kit.