We all have our different interests, I myself can endlessly flog the religion of AGWDenial.

So as the cryosphere continues melting, there’s another brush-fire that the denialist echo-chamber is milking for all it’s worth.  One Fritz Vahrenholt has written a book blaming the sun for the past decades of increasing global warming.

Recently at another board I was handed an interview in Der Spiegel with the man, and it was an appalling piece of misdirection, misrepresentation, and personal ego run-amuck.  In my spare time I decided to try writing a paragraph by paragraph review.  We’ll see how that goes, many unfinished neglected projects on this here computer… just not enough hours in the day.

Now I discovered to my delight that those fine teachers over at SkepticalScience.com have just posted a beautiful review of Vahrenholt’s false claims regarding IPCC, the state of CO2 knowledge, the impact of the sun cycles and cosmic rays.  So for you students of the debate out there, here’s another valuable review and take-down of denialist’s talking points.

One thing not mentioned in the SkS article that bugs me more and more is that denialists, er “skeptics” constantly harp on correlation is not causation when talking about CO2, though it’s physical properties are well understood, yet constantly rely on correlation to make their cosmic ray theories… incidentally those correlations break down in a hurry when examined closer… but that’s beside the point to ideologues.

Fritz Vahrenholt - Duped on Climate Change
Posted on 15 February 2012 by dana1981
http://www.skepticalscience.com/fritz-vahrenholt-duped-on-climate-change.html

Even scarier, I clicked on the “climate myths from politicians” site and they were ALL republicans! These naysayers represent us in Congress and at home. What’s even scarier is that their constituents will believe them because they don’t like the alternative, namely legislation designed to curtail exaust emmissions from autos and industry. Also, while there appears to be evidence of phenomena such as the NAO oscillations it is being pushed along by artificial means including methane emmissions from cattle. Just finished a book by Fagan, “The Little Ice Age” and he addresses this issue by showing the warming trends from 1300 C.E. to 1850. He does include the sun’s input but states that there’s not enough evidence to pin the warming trend on changes in the sun’s patterns.

Cap’t Jack

Well I finished it and since I was huffin about it, thought I share that it’s up and posted, though I’ll continue refining it for a while.

Examining Fritz Vahrenholt’s
answers in his Der Spiegel’s interview

‘I Feel Duped on Climate Change’

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2012/02/fritz-vahrenholt-der-spiegel-i-feel.html
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The outgoing German electric utility executive Fritz Vahrenholt recently published a book “Die Kalte Sonne” (The Cold Sun) that put him at the top of the media circuit for a while.


I was given Vahrenholt’s interview with Der Spiegel {Germany’s premier news magazine} as a supposed eye opener.  Instead I found a man way too convinced of his own infallibility, who described the science with appalling deceitfulness.  Olaf Stampf and Gerald Traufetter do a nice job of interviewing getting Vahrenholt to open up.  Still answer by answer he says things I know are blatantly false.  Then Vahrenholt’s constant disingenuous complaints about the IPCC went so over the top, they demanded a rebuttal.

By the end of it I was angry enough to start all over again, to consider and research Vahrenholt’s answers.  My intention was to document his nonsense answer by answer.

And so I did.  

Thevillageatheist - 14 February 2012 08:18 AM

Even scarier, I clicked on the “climate myths from politicians” site and they were ALL republicans! These naysayers represent us in Congress and at home. What’s even scarier is that their constituents will believe them because they don’t like the alternative, namely legislation designed to curtail exaust emmissions from autos and industry. Also, while there appears to be evidence of phenomena such as the NAO oscillations it is being pushed along by artificial means including methane emmissions from cattle. Just finished a book by Fagan, “The Little Ice Age” and he addresses this issue by showing the warming trends from 1300 C.E. to 1850. He does include the sun’s input but states that there’s not enough evidence to pin the warming trend on changes in the sun’s patterns.

Cap’t Jack

Actually there is plenty of evidence to show the Sun’s variation is not causing climate change. It is a tricky subject, because the Sun is obviously the source of our planet’s energy, but the Sun’s output does not vary quickly enough to cause the warming we have seen in the last 30 years. If the Sun’s output was driving climate change we would be getting cooler right now, as the Sun has been unusually quiet for the last decade and the current sunspot cycle is less powerful than normal.

And CC, great job on that article. I need to get my butt in gear and design my new website so I can link to yours. In the meantime, I just shared a link to your site on my Facebook page. Maybe you’ll get a few curious people your way.

Thevillageatheist - 14 February 2012 08:18 AM

Even scarier, I clicked on the “climate myths from politicians” site and they were ALL republicans! These naysayers represent us in Congress and at home. What’s even scarier is that their constituents will believe them because they don’t like the alternative, namely legislation designed to curtail exaust emmissions from autos and industry.

Also, while there appears to be evidence of phenomena such as the NAO oscillations it is being pushed along by artificial means including methane emmissions from cattle. Just finished a book by Fagan, “The Little Ice Age” and he addresses this issue by showing the warming trends from 1300 C.E. to 1850. He does include the sun’s input but states that there’s not enough evidence to pin the warming trend on changes in the sun’s patterns.

Cap’t Jack

Don’t know about the book but if his lecture on UCTV is any indication it’s not worth much.
http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=5885#comments
Brian Fagan: The Little Ice Age; How Climate Made History 1300-1850

To begin with it’s a pleasant talk reviewing what’s known about climate change effects on European culture, but he brings nothing new or interesting to the discussion.  His blessedly few comments on the science of global warming show a complete unfamiliarity with the topic.  For instance the North Atlantic Oscillation pushes heat around, it is not involved with warming our planet. Admittedly it has a whole bunch to do with keeping UK temperate and moderating the weather for Europe, but that is not the globe. 

Cap’t if you had any specifics that impressed you about Fagan’s book, I’d love to hear them.  Though I will be listening with a skeptic’s ear.  Although his bottom line message is worth contemplating, climate change can be a real bitch on the people living through it.

{PS Doug sorry about the double Vahrenholt threads, I got a little over-excited there}