Settled science, climate change and Charles Krauthammer

This past Friday the Washington Post published an opinion piece by Charles Krauthammer titled “The myth of ‘settle science.'” In it Krauthammer takes the position the he is neither a global warming believer nor a global warming denier. But then he spend almost the entire piece attacking claims of global warming. Perhaps he feels that by taking the high ground of neutrality that someone will actually believe he has an unbiased position.

His undoing comes in the third sentence of the piece where he says:

I’ve long believed that it cannot be good for humanity to be spewing tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

He has made that statement in previous pieces. But if he believes it is so bad to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere then why is not proposing that we do something about the problem? His problem – doing something plays into the hands of those who believe in global warming. But again why should he care it that happens if all that carbon dioxide is a problem. Thing is he does not say why he thinks it is a problem and he does not propose a solution to the problem he agrees exists.

The rest of the opinion piece goes on with bad science and poor logic to say the least. He talks about a “pause” in global temperature rise over the last 15 years. Do a simple search on “up the down staircase” and you will see that any increase comes in fits and starts. When temperatures have be rising for 100 year looking at any 15 year period is ill advised. That is Statistics 101.

Krauthammer take joy in claiming that when any storm hits, think tropical storm Sandy, or any tornado hits that climate change enthusiasts blame global warming. I don’t know what papers he reads by what I see most times is the media asking the question and the climate change researches repeating again and again and again that no one event can be specifically be linked to global warming.

But even worst he turns around and uses the same logic he criticizes when he points out that only one hurricane hit the US in 2012, and that in 2013 the Atlantic saw the fewest hurricanes in 30 years. At the very least he should avoid using the types of arguments that he so dislikes others using.