Climate Change in the Social Imagiantion

 "Shinning Light on Settled Science: There is No Climate Crisis." by Dr. James Wanliss is a breath of fresh air ...how apropos. He finally says it like it is. The climate change narrative is changing. Why? Because, scientists are emotional imaginative human beings as all of us in the social imagination. Dr.Wanliss says that even scientists need to check their motives and remember the very human tendency to allow emotions to cloud better judgment. Unless, I am clouding my better judgement; hardly, since I wrote the book on the social imagination.

According to Dr. Wanliss, when the story about climate change began to break down the narrative changed. Global warming became climate change. Next, as the stall in warming continued (by the end of 2015 over 18 years without warming), climate change morphed again. Since relatively flat lines don’t fit well with the narrative of change, climate change is currently morphing into “climate crisis” and “extreme weather.” Never mind that all observational evidence indicates reduced variability in weather events.

We are now knee deep in the second decade of the twenty-first century, and it wasn’t supposed to be like this. CO2 emissions climb rapidly, and thus, global warming is accelerating wildly out of control. That is what all the computer models predict. We are supposed to see the sea level rise accelerating dangerously, more tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves. We were not supposed to have any more snow, and experts said the Northwest Passage would be completely open. Indeed, the media, movies, and politicians, including President Obama, all insist that “dangerous” carbon dioxide emissions are causing “unprecedented” global warming, “more extreme” droughts and hurricanes, and so on.

But the worldview motivating these actions is falsified by data. It’s over nine years since a Category 3 hurricane hit the United States. Tornado frequency is at a multi-decade low. Droughts are shorter and less extreme than during the Dust Bowl and 1950s. Sea ice is back to average. There is no crisis.The fact is, extreme weather events are less common now than in earlier eras, before global warming became a planetary emergency.

One has to remember, that scientists are people too, living their lives in their social imagination. The social imagination has two components: the everyday default mode and the concept creative mode. In the concept creative, we are always thinking of new ideas, exchanging them and trying to see if they work for us in some way. That's right, even the idea about there being a 'dangerous' climate change. So you say, well science says there is. And, let us not forget where science comes from... the concept creative aspect of the social
imagination. I oughta know, cause ...I wrote the book on it.

And, even if humans are significant contributors to CO2 emissions in the world, the earth has a means to balance what it takes in and gives off. You see, carbon dioxide has been/is constantly being exchanged among the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface as it is both produced and absorbed by many microorganisms, plants, and animals. Emissions and removal of CO₂ by these natural processes tend to balance out.

It is true that man has created things that generate CO2 but man himself a natural component here on earth as is any other creation is not 'the' cause. What man does is the problem. Yet, man-made measures are being taken to better add to the natural balance. In the United States, since 1990, the management of forests and non-agricultural land has acted as a net sink of CO₂, which means that more CO₂ is removed from the atmosphere, and stored in plants and trees, than is emitted. This sink offset about 11% of total emissions in 2014. You may say, its not much and yet it is more positive than the political narrative that we are experiencing unprecedented global warming.

I am all for ending all gas driven cars/buses/motorcycles and coal driven generators. The later we surely don't need, I already live by 10 nuclear power stations and wind turbines. The bigger concern is who will have to conform first - not the ruling elite. They won't give up their Harley or Yachts or private jets, or golf clubs spraying water night and day for their green fairways. They like to be the voice, the ones who care, right?

Heck, I'd love to ride my horse to Walmart! But, the ruling elite would not like it. It would not look nice now would it.


*Special Credit ~ James Wanliss, Ph.D., is Professor of Physics at Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed physics articles, has held the NSF CAREER award, and does research in space science and nonlinear dynamical systems under grants from NASA and NSF.

*Sources ~ http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/james-wanliss/shining-light-settled-science-there-no-climate-crisis

https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html

2011- "Exploring the Concept Creative Function in the Social Imagination"- Dissertation by Dr. EfGallion