Confession: Climate Scientist Says He Was ‘Extrapolating Too Far’, Outs Others as Alarmists Too
- Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:00pm by
Liz Klimas
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James Lovelock has said some of the conclusions he made in this book about the effects of global warming went too far. (Image: Amazon)
The Gaia hypothesis states essentially that “Earth’s physical and biological processes are inextricably bound to form a self-regulating system”. The Gaia theory website goes on to say this is “more relevant than ever in light of increasing concerns about global climate change.” But today, one of the first people to expound upon this theory, James Lovelock, has admitted to being a “climate alarmist” and is now reversing his stance on the extremes he once thought man-made global climate change would lead us to.
MSNBC reports the 92-year-old scientist has not only said that some of his theories as to the effects of climate change was “extrapolating too far,” but he also has named other notable proponents of man-made climate change as alarmists as well. Al Gore is one of them.
This is not to say climate change is not happening, MSNBC reports Lovelock noting. Lovelock is writing a new book in which he will explain how climate change has not affected the environment as he had thought it would and will detail how “humanity can change the way it acts in order to help regulate the Earth’s natural systems,” according to MSNBC.
Here’s more of what Lovelock told MSNBC in a phone interview:
“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said.
“The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.
“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.
He pointed to Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and Tim Flannery’s “The Weather Makers” as other examples of “alarmist” forecasts of the future.
MSNBC reports Lovelock, who is noted as “fallen out of the green movement,” does not consider himself a denier of man-made climate change. He thinks the climate is still warming but “it’s been deferred a bit.”
MSNBC points out that Lovelock is a “loner,” meaning he is not associated with a university, agency or other research institution. The former NASA employee told MSNBC he believed it is this status that makes it easier for him to say “I made a mistake.” If he were associated with any of the previously mentioned sectors, he said that admitting a mistake could be harder to do if it was viewed with the possibility of a loss in funding.
The Guardian reported as early as March 2010 that Lovelock was “warming to the efforts of ‘good’ climate skeptics.” He said at the time:
“What I like about sceptics is that in good science you need critics that make you think: ‘Crumbs, have I made a mistake here?‘ If you don’t have that continuously, you really are up the creek. The good sceptics have done a good service, but some of the mad ones I think have not done anyone any favours. You need sceptics, especially when the science gets very big and monolithic.”
Here‘s what MSNBC reports other climate scientists saying of Lovelock’s admission:
Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the U.K.’s respected Met Office Hadley Centre, agreed Lovelock had been too alarmist with claims about people having to live in the Arctic by 2100.
And he also agreed with Lovelock that the rate of warming in recent years had been less than expected by the climate models.
However, Stott said this was a short-term trend that could be within the natural range of variation and it would need to continue for another 10 years or so before it could be considered evidence that something was missing from climate models.
MSNBC reports Lovelock saying he still holds that the Gaia theory is true but that some of the information he spread in the “Revenge of Gaia,” published in 2006, went too far.
Read more of MSNBC’s interview with Lovelock and other climate change experts here.
Updated: There were a couple instances where the Blaze wrote “Loveland” instead of “Lovelock”. Those have been corrected.
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Comments (75)
spirited
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:31pmAnyone catch Bob Beckel’s slide show & commentary on man-made pollution disasters and death today? Ya, he even managed to sneak in a little of that blame Bush thing.
The other four all basically ganged-up.
>Dana not only defended Bush, she admonished him for ommiting facts.
Report Post »beachj11
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 1:39amMore and more scientists coming out all the time. Will the left ever let this go?
If anyone is interested in a good read, I highly recommend Sen. Inhofe’s book: “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future”
http://www.amazon.com/The-Greatest-Hoax-Conspiracy-Threatens/dp/1936488493/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335245655&sr=8-1
Report Post »neverfinal
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 8:58amThe thing that woke me up to their ECO, scam plan. Was when I found out how many scientists they had killed. Over 150 to date. Look it up. Willing to kill for their goal of World Domination and your slavery.
Report Post »Follow the money, it doesn’t go to help the planet it goes into their bank accounts. The lies of evil men and women. They count on the good nature of humans to be the tool to take them out.
woodcellar
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:28pmOne of you mentioned acid rain. It gone. I raise corn. I now hqve to apply 25 pounds of sulfer per acre with my fertilizer for corn be cause It no longer falls from the sky for free. Thank alot EPA.
Report Post »PaxInVeritate
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 6:58pmAwwww
Report Post »texasbeta
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 11:20pmPoor guy. Little did they know, the entire world is comprised of your corn farm. ******.
Report Post »bigspike
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 5:51amtxbonehead: perhaps you might consider that woodcellar‘s corn farm does more good per acre for the people of this planet in one season than you’ve accomplished in your entire lifetime
Report Post »ZeitgeistBuster
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 2:35pmHey clueless ones. WOODCELLAR’S POINT is: IF it was GOOD for my corn crop, It is also good for plant life in general.
Higher CO2 is the same story of good for the biosphere.
225ppm CO2 is the shutoff limit for photosynthesis. The world was down to 320ppm at the start of the century. (1900). If we want a truly lush environment that consumes less water to produce, then we should try to force the concentration up to 800 – 1200ppm.
CO2 is not toxic at those levels. Heck it isn’t even an IRRITANT until it reaches 8000ppm!
Time to calm down and cease being victims of tax-scheme propoganda.
Report Post »thx1138v2
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:24pmThe best study I’ve seen says that the global climate modeling prograns used for predictions can be proven to be 30% accurate. Yet these nitwits want to destroy ecnomies and redistribute wealth based on these models.
Here’s my suggestion for the climate change extremists: play Russian Roulette with a 6 shot revolver loaded with 4 bullets. Then get back to me. You have as mush chance of surviving as the accuracy of you climate prediction models so what’s the problem?
Report Post »johnjamison
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 9:00amThe dumba55e5 haven‘t a clue the Earth changes it’s done it for billions of years,ice ages and tropical ages throughout history. And if it’s going to change there nothing man can do to stop it. However Man has one great advantage the ability to adapt naturals and through innovation. So instead of trying to label a cause we should realize it’s part of a cycle and be figuring out how to survive it warming or ice age.
Report Post »disenlightened
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:02pmWhy, it’s hot enough outside to bake a dog . . . ummm . . . don’t tell our President.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:26pmLOL .. just got my dog a t-shirt ..
Romney for President … Not a dog eater
http://www.cafepress.com/+mitt_romney_for_president_not_a_dog_eater_dog_t,638387776
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:56pm@JZS,
Things just are not going your way lately, are they?
Don’t worry……..just “chill”
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:25pmObviously JZS isn’t old enough to remember that there was going to be Man-Made Global Cooling, possibly a Man-Made(Conservatives and R’s only) Ice Age beginning around 1970. The DEMOCRAT chicken littles can change directions on a dime, someone else’s dime.
Report Post »bigspike
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 5:54amaround the time of the first ‘earth day’, we heard that ‘the science is settled; an Ice Age is imminent’…caused by the SAME things that are now being blamed for ‘global warming’
Report Post »ginger3350
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 8:27amI’m old enough to remember the Ice-Age fear mongering that prattled on during the 70′s. One “crisis” after another is all that these people know. What used to be the environmental conservation movement which tackled littering and pollution and wildlife management was hijacked by radicals who saw it as an opportunity to control others. I don’t even pay attention to “climate change” theorists anymore because they are just political at this point. When your work or research is funded by a government or agency that counts on a specific outcome, what kind of outcome do you think will be found? Climate change is happening but not as a result of mankind. That’s an excuse to manipulate others and their behaviors.
Report Post »Teaparty-grammy
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:56pmCharles Fort was a man who devoted his life to showing how scientific “theory” works, and how any evidence that could not be explained by a given popular scientific theory is often simply discarded. His illustration of this was the refusal of the Academy of Science to accept that meteors were rocks that fell form the sky, until one of the academy members narrowly missed being hit in the head by one. Prior to that, the “acceptable” theory was that they were rocks buried in the ground that had been uncovered when they were struck by lightening, which also expained why they were so hot . . .
Almost a century ago, Fort observed that as soon as a scientist espouses a theory, he has a vested interested in protecting that theory, and will lie, throw away evidence–whatever is needed–to ensure the theory stands accepted as scientific “fact”. All this climate change chicanery only proves that he was right, and not the dotty old man his detractors claimed.
Report Post »thx1138v2
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:15pmI’ve been studying Nikola Tesla lately and it has occurred to me that somewhere along the line the whole process of practising scientific inquiry has been turned on its ear. At one time scientisists performed experiments, record the observations, and then developed their theories. Now scientists develop theories first and then peform the experiments. I think it probably happened in physics around the time Einstein was doing his work – develop the math and then go out and make observations.
That said, it doesn’t surprise me that so much of we “know” seems to be untrue. I love this quote from MIB – “1500 years ago, everybody ‘knew’ that the earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody ‘knew’ that the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you ‘knew’ that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you‘ll ’know’ tomorrow.” – Agent K
Report Post »Teaparty-grammy
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:28pmCharles Fort’s books – the last published in 1932 — make entertaining reading. For information about this interesting man and his unconventional beliefs, see http://www.skepdic.com/fortean.html
Report Post »Inlightofthings
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:30pmTHX:
Report Post »You missed the initial step…develop an agenda – then develop the hypothesis….then manipulate experiments to support the theory / hypothesis. This apologist can be viewed in the same way as that guy Arthur at NYT.
Teaparty-grammy
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:31pmI guarantee once you have read a little of what he wrote, and see how ‘unexplainable” data is dealt with by the scientific community and by the media, you will never look at the world–or scientific “breakthrough” theories–in quite the same way again.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:43pmYou forgot the “Apply for Federal Grants” (TAXPAYERS Stolen Money) part of the equation.
Report Post »ruoncrack
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 4:34pmYea, imagine, not that long ago inteligent people thought the earth was made in 7 days by some old guy in the sky. It’s a riot the crazy stuff educated people used to believe.
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:52pmOne word describes this… FRAUD
Report Post »CatB
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:28pmALGORE and these phoney scientists should be in JAIL! And all the money they have made surrendered.
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:49pmWho was it that went around looking for an honest man? Well we may have found one-or at least honest enough to admit he was alarmist. There are things we could do that would destroy the world, but pray God they will not happen. There are things we can do as stewards of this great world, and we should do them, and we are. Then there are the crazys who like the planet, like animals, and hate the reason it was created-us. They want us to self destruct, and if that won’t work they will give us laws, regulations that will eventually starve us to death, or keep us in tiny cement cubicles. Oh, that sounds almost communist!
Report Post »Longing for Change
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:57pmJenny I believe that you are using tooooo much extrapolation in your analysis, however honest and true it may be. lol
Report Post »thx1138v2
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:19pmRegarding the laws and regulations: The country that had the most strict environmental laws in the world during the 20th century was the USSR. The country that polluted the planet the most in the 20th century was the USSR.
Conclusion: Environmental laws are for controlling people, not protecting the environment.
See Agenda 21.
Report Post »Onesimus
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:27pmDiogenes of Sinope
Report Post »A Doctors Labor Is Not My Right
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:48pm“Lovelock is writing a new book in which he will explain how climate change has not affected the environment as he had thought it would and will detail how “humanity can change the way it acts in order to help regulate the Earth’s natural systems,” according to MSNBC.”
Notice that the implication is that humans aren’t part of the “natural systems”, even in THEIR worldview.
Indeed, check out these quotes from around the time of the first Earth Day.
See here.
Genocidal Green Quotes
Report Post »http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/04/genocidal-green-quotes.html
SocialDeviant
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:46pmI wonder if they ever forgot to add water vapor to their climate models? After all, they are “models” and something needs to make it all stick together besides just saying “believe us”. Where’s the acid rain, smog so thick you can cut it with a knife, total melting of the ice caps by now, the mini-ice age… all the global catastrophe the scientists promised us in the 1970-1980′s???
Report Post »Man has no control over the weather nor can we accurately predict Mother Nature. If that were the case, we’d be “modeling” Venus or Mars by now… also “science fact” they said we’d be doing by now in order to escape the collapsing environment of the Earth. Hmmmmmm?
Skutt
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:44pm“it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.”
At least he is right on one point, more CO2. That’s good since with the coming cooling we will lose a lot of northerly crop land but the southerly crop lands should be able to easily sustain man through the coming times. Plants just do better with more CO2.
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:39pmThis Blaze is going to hell half my posts dont show up
Report Post »A Doctors Labor Is Not My Right
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 5:05pmThe Blaze’s Filter Nazi (BFN) can be brutal.
The BFN will not allow you to do the following, it seems:
- Have 3 or more of what it considers to be URLs in your post; Just change it so it no longer displays as a hyperlink.
Report Post »- Use more than ~1407 characters, even though it says you can use 1500.
- Use the following characters in succession: “cu”+“m”; including when used in the following arrangements: “docu”+“ment”, “curcu”+“mference”, etc.
Mikev5
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:38pmNice admission but doesn’t go far enough he still is saying the same thing just that the timeline is way off.
Once an alarmist always an alarmist he is not giving up much is he.
We can’t trust these people anymore they say what suits them and their agenda and nothing more.
We have been tricked and he is not apologizing in the least what worthless science they give us turning the world upside down costing us Billions if not Trillions and that’s his apology.
Report Post »captaincameron
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:35pmThe science did not seem “clear cut,” even back then.
Report Post »He’s 92. Even if his health is excellent, he is not long for this world.
He made a lot of money perpetuating what he knew was a hoax and now is trying to apologize for lying before he dies.
Mikev5
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:29pmWho is running this forum my posts dont show
Report Post »Jackie Rogers, Jr.
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:26pmThere is a more immediate problem than man made climate change that needs to be investigated and that is man made name change.
Report Post »HKS
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:26pmYa know Andy, “ I was just extrapolaten the other day that if everyone would send me a dollar I would soon be a millionaire”.
Report Post »Longing for Change
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:26pmI am shocked and horrified to just now be finding out that scientists can not determine what the climate is/was/and will be with only 90 years of data. We were lead to believe that science was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more advanced than what God might be doing.
And extrapolating, who extrapolates these days when science is the be all end all fact based reality? I have family members that are statisticians. They admit they can make “data” say anything they want. But when it comes to global warming/climate change the facts and number speak for themselves. They need be no “EXTRAPOLATING” (LYING). Science has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that humans are ruining the earth, right?
Now this story comes out….. I want to who is EXTRAPOLATING the data and which way. Communists in order to control the population. Or the Tea party in order to enjoy more freedom.
I would have to say the commies continue … one look at our President and the truth reveals itself. Commies use extrapolation!!
Report Post »ronin_6
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:26pmFinally somone who will admit that funding and not science are to blame for this mess. Hopefully this will allow other ‘scientists’ to unburden their souls and fess up to their miss deeds.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 6:24pmWe would hope. Note that Lovelock is 92. I don’t expect a “scientist” to come clean until he is within 2 or 3 years or retiring. They do have tenure, but if the machine (university administration and/or Gov. agency) wants to force them out, they will find a way.
For starters their grant money will dry up. Al Gore was never shy about defunding scientists whose research he didn’t like.
Report Post »cookcountypatriot
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:24pmnoooooooooo really…..i wonder if the progressive white slaves at msnbc started self mutilating when they heard the news…one can only hope
Report Post »RANGER1965
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:20pmIf our globe does significantly warm then I’m looking forward to a Greenland that really is green, and taking vacations in the lush jungles of Antartica.
MUAHAHAHA!! Another continent to exploit!!
RANGER
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:14pmAny Extrapolation… is Not Factual… rather a Prediction or Guess!
Report Post »AxelPhantom
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:22pmThe “forecasts” are based on “theoretical models”…garbage in garbage out.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 6:28pmAxelPhantom
Discover magazine had a cover article about how microbes affect rainfall & the climate. They are still trying to figure it out. Actually the initial discoveries were in the late 60s but the scientific community refused investigate very much. The were wedded to the theory it was all dust particles & that microbes were insignificant.
So did the wonderful computer models have that factored in?
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 6:30pmComputer models still haven’t figured in ionization of the clouds which is driven by solar weather. It is an inconvenient truth that will not die.
Is that in the computer models?
Well if the high priests of AGW (warmists) go out of their way to trash talk the skeptics, then you can bet your bottom dollar that they have not!
Report Post »AxelPhantom
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 9:22pmWalk about,
We agree. My point was that if a computer program is flawed based on a flawed premise, regardless of the numbers you put in your results will also be flawed.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 9:45amAxelPhantom
I was not disagreeing with you.
I just wanted to point out the April 2012 issue that had the cover story of “Life at the Edge of Space.” The divas of the AGW movement like Michael Mann have denigrated how cloud ionization or clouds in general affect the environment. Obviously the mavens of smart forgot to police an outlet like Discover to squash this inconvenient story.
I have a hard time buying Discover magazine. They are so “in the tank” for AGW. I think I bought my last one.
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on April 24, 2012 at 9:47amInconvenient stories for the Warmists of the AGW priesthood.
The Cloud ionization story form CERN
“Life at the Edge of Space” Discover magazine April 2012
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:13pmOoh, that reminds me. I gotta go extrapolate. (Science everyone can understand.)
Report Post »grimmy
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:10pmMost of us with any common sense, already knew this………
Report Post »HKS
Posted on April 23, 2012 at 4:05pmArrogance at it’s finest, man thinking he’s significant to the big picture.
Report Post »