Nelson Otto
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
I read the “Monster storms” article in the “Views” section of the Oct. 13 edition of the NT. As I read, I could instantly see how the alarmist and realists would respond.
The alarmist would be “OMG the storms are getting worse, climate deniers have to realize that this is serious and we need to take action now, we need a carbon tax/dividend, we need to quit eating red meat, we need to take drastic measures now.”
The realist on the other hand will see this and remember many articles, reports and studies that say hurricanes are not getting worse nor more frequent. Realists will also note in the article itself and Kerry Emanuel’s quote. Then realists would also note Michael Mann’s comments and remember he has several lawsuits against realists. He has been losing those cases. His most recent case was against Dr. Tim Ball who stated that Mann “belongs in the state pen, not Penn State.” Not only was the case dismissed but the court ruled that Mann had to pay the legal costs to Ball. For those who don’t remember, Dr. Mann was the one who created the now discredited hockey stick chart. A Canadian study found it an “artifact of poor data handling, obsolete data and incorrect calculation of principal components. When the data was corrected it showed a warm period in the 15th century that exceed warmth of the 20th Century.” Tim Ball has written a damning book of the 30-year back story of the great climate fraud titled “The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science.” So even though the article was more fear-mongering for the general population and fuel for the alarmist.
We realists saw the normally overlooked truth, the truth that even the scientists admit, and that is they don’t know. They are estimating, guessing, playing with flawed computer models, but when it comes down to it, they don’t know. Do we really want to tear apart our entire social, economic system on a “We don’t really know?” I’m not.