The Holy Church of Climatology

In May 1969, almost exactly 50 years ago, the Soviet space program made history. The planetary exploration probe Venera 5 sent a lander into the atmosphere of the planet Venus. It was not the first such lander as they tried to land a probe in 1967. At the time they experienced far greater than assumed atmospheric pressure. This had surprised them. Venera 5 should withstand 25 bars, which for comparison is 25 times the pressure on Earth at sea level.

Venera 5 survived until 53 minutes and made it down until 18 km before the surface of the planet. The scientists monitoring the project were gobsmacked. The atmospheric pressure on Venus was able to kill the lander. It should withstand 25 bars 18 km before it even reaches the surface. What must the real surface pressure be like?

They found out in August 1970. Venera 7 reached the surface and transmitted data for 35 minutes after landing. The average atmospheric pressure on Venus is about 92 bar. This corresponds to the aquatic pressure 910 meters under the surface in an Earth’s ocean.

Since ancient times, Venus is being considered to be the planet of love. The ancient Romans called it the Evening star as it was so beautiful in the evening sky. Imagine the shock of scientists to find out what a hellhole Venus actually was.

I was born in 1969 and I grew up with tales of space exploration. During my childhood, the plot around Venus thickened. And while I became a teenager, a new term made it into the public conscience. Runaway greenhouse effect.

You might ask now – why is this story about Soviet space exploration important to today’s energy world? It’s not by itself, but to me, it is to be the origination story of what Climate Change is today. And if you don’t think that Climate Change is important to energy today, you must have been living under a rock.

I almost hear you say it: oh man, another blog post on Climate Change. Hasn’t everything been said? Ain’t this matter settled? Shouldn’t we put in place the solutions we know now?

Before the inner judgmental neurons fire, let me nail down who I am. And also where I stand with regard to the current Climate Change scare.

• I am not a Climate Scientist
• I am not even a scientist or an engineer
• I am not an energy executive
• I am an avid environmentalist
• I am a father and I do care about how we leave this planet behind

OK, here is the gist of what I am convinced of. To me:

• Climate Change is real – there is not even shred of a doubt in my mind that Earth’s climate changes as we breathe.
• Human activities most likely have some impact on the climate of our planet.
• It looks like CO2 has a heat-trapping property and that this feeds back into the atmosphere.

What’s the big deal now – you might ask.

Well, I doubt that any of this matters. To me, there is a long list of much more pressing matters for us to resolve than this issue called Climate Change. For one because we can’t do anything about it. For another because I am sure that it won’t make a huge difference in the future. Finally, because I know that giant scares are almost always giant businesses. Doomsday is an opportunity for many. From sly entrepreneurs, scientists, politicians to all kinds of other professions. They all make a great living out of selling us snake oil.

Besides, the most popular solutions such as wind and solar energy are not only ineffective. They are tools of destruction. They are not only making things rather worse than better. They also bring social pain and suffering upon us. Because they are wrecking the economies that adopt such measures.

Before your inner judgmental switch flips, let me make some things clear. No matter how you understand what follows, I am not what a Climate Activist would call a Climate Skeptic. Yet, many of my views might give this prejudice nourishment.

Climate Change is a natural process. This planet – since it has formed about 4500 million years ago – has not seen a moment when the climate was not changing. From Volcanoes to Asteroid impacts. From changes in solar luminosity to changes in Earth’s orbit. And finally the emergence and the development of life itself. They all were potent drivers in this process and we are not done by a damn sight.

Right now it seems as if the planet enters a cold period. If CO2 caused Warming, we will need it as we are going to get our nuts frozen off. True real warming is insignificant and in line with centuries of historical observation. Data is being adjusted all the time.  That’s another term for “it is being made compatible with desired results”. Artificial consensus in the scientific community is being established. When in reality there is no such thing. When we ask the apostles of such theorems to provide raw data, they always balk.

What irks me is the quasi-religious nature this whole thing has taken. We may not even discuss Climate Change under any circumstance. Those asking innocent questions are immediately labeled Climate Deniers. In popular imagination has morphed into some sort of quasi-child-molester. And those that take a stance and reject the dogma are heretics. The Alarmist fraction bends over backwards to stamp all dissent out.

The Church of Climatology has tried all sorts of things to silence its critics. One of the latest brushes involved one of their foremost paragons –  Dr. Mann. He lost his court case against Dr. Ball trying to silence him through legal action. Shut up or I sue you! This has become a staple of the environmental movement.

I have been looking up a list of points that allow you to recognize a cult. I must confess that I got a plethora of lists so I condensed them down to my own little list.

Cults exert pressure – there is no time, you need to decide now. Climate Catastrophists never tire repeating that we need to act now. They don’t provide evidence. They give us mathematical models that have so far always turned out wrong. But what if – they say – what if they are right? Are you ready to destroy the future of your children on a one percent chance?

A cults leaders claim to have special powers – we all remember when Greta claimed she could actually see CO2. That’s scientific nonsense as CO2 is a translucent gas and hence is invisible. Most leaders of the Climate Cult enjoy a god-like following. They have maniacal worshippers and they do nothing to bring balance to the issue.

Cults have a culture of secrecy – the inner core ensures that the leaders are never exposed to question. And the leaders will not provide the facts that build the foundation of the belief system. Dr. Mann is the most recent example. A court threw out his case and now he has to pay the legal cost of the defense team as he was not ready to share his data. Never mind that this data is the basis of their claims to spend trillions of USD.

Cults brainwash their members – when you join the inner circle. You must internalize the dogma so you can repeat it ad infinitum to wear opponents down. Cult members shun their old social circles. They only rub flesh with their kin. This way they ensure perfect conformity and avoid strange new thoughts to germinate.

The dogma is superior to all facts – Climate Catastrophists will besmirch outsiders. They never tire of citing science. They will also call those questioning the dogma science deniers science. And they will not even discuss scientific a counter that flies flat in their face. Most people are usually open to what they can see and experience. Their inner logic does a good job of telling them what’s right, and what’s wrong. Climate Catastrophism has built up a lot of societal pressure. Many people don’t even look at facts anymore. They will repeat their sayings like automatons. Don’t ask questions – cults hate that. Try asking a Climate Catastrophist a question they don’t like. Then decide if they check that box.

There are other signs and this list is what I extracted from other sources. But, I challenge anyone to apply those (or other) points. Show me that they don’t apply to Climate Catastrophists.

Those people distract us from issues that matter. Issues such as poverty, smog, rampant crime or debt levels that will come crashing down on us.

Not long ago, I did not question the core tenets of Climate Catastrophism. I had not looked into the issues at the time. When I started to do so, I met the crazy and shrieking reaction of Catastrophists and that got me curious.

As long as it was a little quiet cult, Climate Catastrophism thrived. Now they want to control the world and the world is going to react as it always reacts to extremists. It has turned a blind eye onto Islamist extremists for a very long time as well. But when those extremists started to impact our lives in brutal ways, we started to respond.

I am not a Climate Denier, but I sure am a Climatology Denier.

Image by JamesDeMers on Pixabay