Environment

Column: Are Global Warming Scare Tactics Reminiscent of a ‘Cult?’

Are man-made global warming supporters using cult-like doomsday messages to gain support for their theories? Ross Kaminsky, a Heartland Institute fellow, seems to think so.

In a post on The American Spectator, Kaminsky writes that many vocal global warming figureheads preach that disease and death will follow a warming planet, but notes that actual scientific studies are stating otherwise. Here are a couple of his examples:

This week’s five-alarm fire (literally) comes from the NY Times which warns us that “Across millions of acres, the pines of the northern and central Rockies are dying, just one among many types of forests that are showing signs of distress these days.” The article, which implies that the earth will die if we don’t stop climate change from killing trees, is at least honest enough to use “if” six times, “might” three times, “may” seven times, and other qualifiers of their doomsday view such as “not sure,“ ”possible,“ and ”could.”

While this particular Times story concerns North America, an actual study of African rainfall, done by scientists from NOAA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder (both hotbeds of climate change alarmism), concludes that changes in rainfall levels in both northern and southern Africa are due to changes in sea surface temperatures, and that those temperature changes are not human-caused. Furthermore, when the UN’s IPCC tried to model the change in African rainfall based on human causes, they failed: “The ensemble of greenhouse-gas-forced experiments, conducted as part of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, fails to simulate the pattern or amplitude of the twentieth-century African drying, indicating that the drought conditions were likely of natural origin.”

Or how about the association between global warming and a rise in malaria:

[...] a 2010 study led by scientists from the University of Florida concluded that “widespread claims that rising mean temperatures have already led to increases in worldwide malaria morbidity and mortality are largely at odds with observed decreasing global trends in both its endemicity and geographic extent.” Furthermore, they said that any increase in malaria cases from warming would likely be two orders of magnitude smaller than the reduction in cases due to “control measures” taken by humans, such as bed nets and anti-malarial drugs. (Two orders of magnitude means 100x, so 10 is two orders of magnitude smaller than 1000.)

[...]

The key point is not that malaria cases won’t increase, but that they won’t increase because humans are smart and adaptable.

Raminsky includes the long-term study by the Reason Foundation, which reviewed the trends in global mortality associated with extreme weather over a 111-year period (1900 to 2010), as further evidence that global warming is not increasing death rates. The study found that “aggregate mortality attributed to all extreme weather events globally has declined by more than 90 percent since the 1920s, in spite of a four-fold rise in population and much more complete reporting of such events.”

Decreased mortality rates in the three following areas of extreme weather events, which are pillar examples for conditions in a changing climate, are what contributed most to this overall decrease:

  • Deaths and death rates from droughts, which were responsible for approximately 60 percent of cumulative deaths due to extreme weather events from 1900–2010, are more than 99.9 percent lower than in the 1920s.
  • Deaths and death rates for floods, responsible for over 30 percent of cumulative extreme weather deaths, have declined by over 98 percent since the 1930s.
  • Deaths and death rates for storms (i.e. hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, typhoons), responsible for around 7 percent of extreme weather deaths from 1900–2008, declined by more than 55 percent since the 1970s.

Kaminsky notes that people aren’t just skeptical of man-made global warming, but the solutions being proposed to help its victims. He includes Denmark professor of environmental economics Bjorn Lomborg as stating business-crushing regulatory policies is not the way to go, compared to simpler solutions like making clean water accessible in the third world.

Scientists and government officials are also challenging some of the “mad scientist” ideas that are being proposed to prevent global warming, like geoengineering experiment in the United Kingdom that will use a giant balloon and 12-miles of garden hose to send particles in the stratosphere to block some of the sun’s warming rays.

Global Warming Supporters May Use Death and Disease Probability Inaccurately to Gain Support for Warming Theorgy

This illustration depicts the British geoengineering experiment that would send deflecting particles into the atmosphere to reduce global warming. (Image via BBC)

A scaled-down version of this geoengineering experiment set to take place this month was postponed because officials need to discuss the potentially harmful impacts such a method would have, according to BBC.

Comments (33)

  • Jack of Hearts
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:59am

    This is the same Heartland Institute that in the 1990s, worked with the tobacco company Philip Morris to question the science linking second hand smoke to health risks, and to lobby against government public health reforms.
    Oil and gas companies have contributed to the Heartland Institute, including over $600,000 from ExxonMobil between 1998 and 2005.
    Nice to see the continuing tradition – and the success they’ve had with this site.
    I see they’ve also quoted Reason magazine. Reason magazine’s science writer Ronald Bailey wrote a column declaring that climate change is both real and man-made. He wrote, “Anyone still holding onto the idea that there is no global warming ought to hang it up. All data sets—satellite, surface, and balloon—have been pointing to rising global temperatures.” You won’t see that quoted here.
    In 2006, Bailey wrote an article titled “Confessions of an Alleged ExxonMobil Whore: Actually no one paid me to be wrong about global warming. Or anything else.” In the article Bailey explains how and why he changed his mind on climate change.
    Not all the propaganda from climate change deniers is paid for, but the majority is, and it’s all dangerous.

    Report Post » Jack of Hearts  
    • Russell C
      Posted on October 6, 2011 at 7:44pm

      “…Not all the propaganda from climate change deniers is paid for, but the majority is,”

      How predictable, yet another worn-out accusation that’s nothing more than a 15-20 year-old shell game intended to distract the public from finding out that the IPCC’s underlying science is flat contradicted by skeptic scientists. If it isn’t that excuse, it’s any number of other shell games.

      Instead of having a tobacco industry-style conspiracy with a ‘small’ cadre of skeptic scientists pushing fabricated claims and aided by a media that gives them ‘too much equal balance’, it may very likely be that we have just the opposite: a cadre of enviro-activists who created a campaign to portray skeptic scientists as corrupt, based on literally unsupportable claims of corruption, aided by a mainstream media saying they give skeptics ‘too much balance’ when has not actually ever happened. Please see my two articles on this, “The Great Global Warming Ponzi Scheme – how the mainstream media keeps it alive” http://www.redstate.com/russellc/2011/08/17/the-great-global-warming-ponzi-scheme-how-the-mainstream-media-keeps-it-alive/ and ” ‘Media Too Fair to Climate Skeptics’, say reporters who’ve been unfair to skeptics” http://www.globalwarming.org/2011/06/02/media-too-fair-to-climate-skeptics-say-reporters-whove-been-unfair-to-skeptics/

      Report Post » Russell C  
  • drago
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:28am

    Those that believe in global warming, must be decendents of those that believed the Titanic was unsinkable……

    Report Post »  
  • 100 Million Patriots Standing
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:24am

    Is it rubbish that Maurice Strong, perhaps the single most initiator of the UN’s push into environmental concerns and a plan of eventual global control….Maurice Strong who co-authored ‘The ’Earth Charter’, Maurice Strong, a very intense Socialist/marxist…

    Maurice Strong….a Giai worshiper…. HELL yes it’s a cult….and has infiltrated the UN…and is the driver of global warming scam….after all most cults need a boogy man…to help control the people and keep them in line/

    Look up the Earth Godess Giai….then go to the un.org website a do a search there on Giai….then Google in “Maurice Strong, Giai” –

    Translation of findings = the cult of Giai is the source of the UN plan of global dominance by changing societies into sustainable places where all live in peace and harmony and community.

    guns, fires, cars, religion, population, free will, are all unsustainable under the Giai doctrine as currently defined by the UN plan of Implementation…

    and all this current crap about going socialist….is all connected to that plan….including the FED, the DEMS, and many REP’s….as well as MEDIA and CFR…..

    Report Post » 100 Million Patriots Standing  
    • vennoye
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:13am

      Pagan goddess worship goes back to Babylon..nothing new except the names they give it. Started out as Semiramis then down through time became Rhea, Ashta, Nin, Juno, Isis, Astarte, Diana, Aphrodite, Mary, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, Gaia, on and on. Nothing new under the sun! Just don’t want their pagan beliefs to be considered “science”!!

      Report Post » vennoye  
  • tifosa
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:24am

    Romney on climate change: “I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer,” he said. “I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that. I don’t know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past, but I believe we contribute to that.”
    America would NEVER put anyone in charge who doesn’t comprehend this issue. We’d be a global laughing stock.

    Report Post » tifosa  
    • thegodfather
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:30am

      Global warming…a religion…nothing more

      Report Post » thegodfather  
    • drago
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:35am

      @tifosa aka encinom, go back to to playing world of warcraft and get ready for school, the short bus will be there soon…..

      Report Post »  
  • mikee1
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:14am

    Yeah, but cults are based on FACTS AND A REAL RELIGION,SATANISM. LOL. Global warming is a TOTAL FRAUD, BASED ON FRAUD SCIENCE. Everyone with the common sense of an ant knows that the Sun causes all warming and cooling on Earth. The Earth is actually now in a cooling period for about the last 10 years. Everything is GLOBAL WARMING TO THE GLOBAL WARMING CULT OF LUNCATICS.

    Report Post » mikee1  
  • thegodfather
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:12am

    I’m doing my part…I personally hold all my farts in…then pass gas into mason jars, which I seal and bury in my back yard. I already noticed temperatures dropping in my neighborhood since mid September. So far so good.

    Report Post » thegodfather  
    • BenInNY
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 11:32am

      How do you keep them from escaping between the initial fart and the placement of the cap on the mason jar. Haven’t worked though that one yet and I need advice.

      Report Post » BenInNY  
  • whitefield
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:09am

    http://youtu.be/ySV_NNKbWnQ

    Crichton wrote and spoke of this years ago. Read his novel, State of Fear, and then look into the annotations he put into the book to understand the concepts he presented in his book. He was, truly, one of the greatest critical thinkers.

    Report Post » whitefield  
  • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:08am

    Indeed these have becuome the usage of cult-like tactics, and now that their own beloved theories are more and more being shot to peices, the followers of the UN Hypocricy of Wealth Redistribution Church are running scared in a nearly blind panic. Recall that back in the 60s and 70s, there were the fears of GLOBAL COOLING, and ACID RAIN = GLOBAL KILL OFF….

    This is indeed the same thing concerning a cult:

    A. A central message hyped up to convince people of a major cause, but only you have the solution.
    B. Fabricate the evidence you need to support the message.
    C. Bundle it in a cute little package.
    D. Convince your following to follow you into the abyss.

    Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • tobywil2
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:05am

    Click on http://commonsense21c.com/images/GLOBAL_WARMING_SCAM.jpg to see a cartoon that exposes the objective of the Global Warming Scam.
    The proposals to combat “GLOBAL WARMING” have more potential to destroy our freedom and prosperity than any issue since WORLD WAR II. The cost of energy is increased by all these proposals. Energy is contained in all the products used to sustain our lives.

    These proposals will be devastating to the poor, where the cost of survival consumes all their income.

    Do you realize that these proposals are to combat an issue that has not even been proven to exist?
    AND YOU LAUGH AT DON QUIXOTE?

    THESE PROPOSALS WILL ONLY ENHANCE THE POWER OF THE “PEERS.” “CAP AND TRADE WILL DESTROY YOUR WEALTH AND FREEDOM!!

    BRACE YOURSELF, THOMAS PAINE, REJOICE YOU “PEERS” THE TYRANNY OF
    KING GEORGE III IS BEING RESTORED BUT UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!

    http://commonsense21c.com/

    Report Post » tobywil2  
  • GENEPAGLIARI
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:02am

    Any engineer (as well as many others) can and will tell you that the sheer weight of the water would pull the balloon back to earth. More than likely, just the weight of the garden hose would be enough to crash this project. Then, of course, there is the issue of the air temperature at altitude. The water would freeze before it was ever sprayed.
    But that is a far-fetched way to tinker with the environment. NO SUCH THING AS GLOBAL WARMING.

    Report Post »  
    • bilorites
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:11am

      MAN MADE global warming…. NATURAL cycles of warming and cooling have been happening for billions of years (that’s a really long time… before republicans for you libs)

      Report Post »  
  • Harold B
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:53am

    These stories do not mention how important these scientific studies are because they manage to keep otherwise unemployable politically correct scientists available to support costly enviromental regulations and legislation to be used against the American economy

    Report Post »  
    • HKS
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:00am

      It is hard to believe that some American people are dumb enough to believe this crap. Any fool can see that it’s a scam and some people are getting very rich from it.

      Report Post » HKS  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:10am

      @HKS — indeed it is a sham, and the fact that the very scientists who fabricated and distorted the data have admitted to it; with people still holding to a discredited and destroyed theories.
      http://artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm (cat folk gallery)

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • bilorites
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 8:14am

      @HKS… not that hard to believe…. see how many voted for the fraud-in-chief bho….
      how many still believe that this monster isnt trying to destroy the USA…
      sad

      Report Post »  
    • HKS
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 9:41am

      This whole deal is rich folks (millionaires and billionaires, per lefties) scamming the little people and getting filthy richer from it. One would think that lefties would be attacking such a scam since it’s rich folks behind it, instead they are eating it up, go figure.

      Report Post » HKS  
  • cemerius
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:50am

    A couple things that a Liberal bases fact on, feelings, emotions, and a little bit of sweat! Global warming todya is as debatable as Global Cooling in the early 1970′s!!!! Global warming cult like scare tactics have caused the world to panic into buying imagination i.e. carbon credits or to threaten to tax us for breathing carbon dioxide!!!! I am TIRED of subsidizing GREEN Jobs!!! I may just remove the muffler from my truck to make my “carbon footprint” MUCH larger…..

    Report Post » cemerius  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:37am

    .
    Global Warming is a NATURAL Process. Ya’ll if man had the power to change the weather we would all be dead……

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
  • tifosa
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:11am

    Uh, yeh. The cult of science.

    Report Post » tifosa  
    • Enciloon
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:30am

      It’s great how you comment so sarcastically about the headline but not a thing about how science seems to prove more that there is a lack of damaging man made global warming than anything else. Article is actually saying science is more and more showing that at best it’s debatable whether man causes harm. Implication is people like yourself are “cultlike” in your hope that we will do things to harm our economy and way of life based on your version of “science”

      Report Post »  
    • PubliusPencilman
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:54am

      HAHAHAHAA!

      Glenn Beck suggests that global warming activists are a cult because of scare tactics?!?

      “Find the exit closest to you and prepare for a crash-landing because this plane is coming down because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees! Most likely, it will happen sometime after Christmas.” —-Glenn Beck

      “And then they were told they were conspiracy theorists. They were told that it was wrong — that — they would even speak out. And then the beatings started. And then executions started. And then that argument just went away.” —-Glenn Beck

      “The reason I warned you about this is because they are injecting social justice poison into our churches and it is the last — this is the last dying breath of our churches if we don’t snap out of it.” —-Glenn Beck

      “I think we’re headed for a civil war.” —-Glenn Beck

      “Prepare yourself and your family for tough times, and if you have the money or the ability, prepare your neighbors, your friends. Put extra food storage, extra things because others are going to need to get into a lifeboat. But prepare yourself.” —-Glenn Beck

      “Listen carefully. I believe we’re approaching a last call: All aboard God’s train. Buckle up, because trouble is coming. Get behind the shield of God. That is the message… I think what God is telling us is get behind him — I think that‘s what he’s saying. Use him as a shield.” —-GLenn Beck

      Report Post »  
    • smithclar3nc3
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:59am

      Science that doesn‘t doesn’t want or tolerate review isn‘t science it’s a cult. And with all the evidence that has come out be it damning e-mail showing numbers being rigged,graphic studies showing the rates of ice melt at greatly lowered numbers,and Ice growth increasing in other region,or the recent NASA themal imaging showing heat is escaping the Earth at a much much faster rate than the climate cells they are using to prove their science,to state the debate is over only shows that climate science is a cult. True scientist would welcomes and openly support peer review from all scources not just those that support it. The climate scientist have set science back 100 years by pushing agenda over truth.

      Report Post »  
  • TxMadMac
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:57am

    No cult, just lies. As a Christian nation, we read our bibles and we know these things are to come to pass. There are no taxes or electric cars that will change the outcome. Only put your energies, trust and faith in the God who created it all. It is my belief however that these people think our society and the world in general are so ignorant of God‘s word that they would buy into anything they tell them just because it’s science or an ex-vp !

    Report Post »  
    • Sheepdog911
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:07am

      A Cult? No duh! They rabidly follow nonsense. They have drunk the koolaid of economic death and want you to enjoy it too.

      Report Post » Sheepdog911  
    • Dustyluv
      Posted on October 5, 2011 at 7:17am

      They foolishly think man can destroy an Earth that God created. More pollution comes from one volcano than anything man could ever do. The SUN controls all warming or cooling on the earth so unless they figure out where the thermostat on the sun is, they are just beating their gums…

      But the earth is full of useless idiots. God allowed morons on the earth to show the foolishment of man. I really don’t understand why he put most of them in California though…unless He plans on floating it out in the ocean one day….

      Report Post »  
  • Bowmaster
    Posted on October 5, 2011 at 6:46am

    Rubbish!
    These liberals are NUTS!

    Report Post » Bowmaster  

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