John Cook, one of the authors central to the claim of a massive scientific consensus behind an urgent, man-made warming crisis, has a new video out insisting that it is real. But it’s a massive straw man. And what’s so distressing is that he’s bypassing the debate. It’s a straw man because, as we pointed out in our original rebuttal to the 97% myth, almost nobody denies that humans have some impact on climate via CO2, and all Cook and those like him ever demonstrated is that the vast majority of scientists think so. And he’s bypassing the debate because critics claim he and others twisted this uninteresting consensus into a claim that most scientists think that humans are primarily responsible for climate change and that it’s a crisis. And in his latest video, he doesn’t address this criticism. Does he not know about it, or not care about it? Or can’t he answer it so he tries hard to change the subject?
Cook even excerpts the crucial clip from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in which Gore twists Naomi Oreskes’ already dubious findings into a preposterous claim that not one of 928 scientists disputed the supposed consensus. But he doesn’t mention that Gore misrepresented Oreskes, let alone that Oreskes misrepresented the literature. Instead after showing Oreskes laughing at the notion of a conspiracy among scientists, he argues that deniers are engaged in… a conspiracy.
Cook also brushes aside all manner of experts because they are not “climate scientists”, as though “climate science” were some discrete and highly specialized discipline rather than an effort to come to grips with a very complex problem involving atmospheric physics, fluid dynamics, biology, geology and a huge number of other disciplines (yes, including history). He just won’t come to grips with alternative views. Instead he makes a giant argument from authority and heckles those who don’t share his interpretation.
It's a very disappointing video. Climate is a complex subject and there’s a lot to say. But he doesn’t say it. Instead he reaffirms the same four papers that have been the target of critiques while ignoring the critiques in a weirdly obtuse performance.
For our part, we invite you to watch our existing video on the 97% myth. Not because we have nothing to say about Cook’s arguments, but because we already said it, and it applies as much to his new video as to his earlier writings.
Nobody believes in climate change. Those who allege it exists, do nothing about it until they impose themselves on everyone. If they truly believed in it, they would start right away.
Re: the comment that "almost nobody denies that humans have some impact on climate via CO2" . . . actually, quite a few notables do, as, for example: “The Sun defines the climate, not carbon dioxide,” says Russian space scientist Habibullo Abdussamatov. “The so-called ‘greenhouse effect’ will not avert the onset of the next deep temperature drop, the 19th in the last 7500 years, which without fail follows after natural warming,” warns Abdussamatov, who adds: “We should fear a deep temperature drop — not catastrophic global warming. Humanity must survive the serious economic, social, demographic and political consequences of a global temperature drop, which will directly affect the national interests of almost all countries and more than 80% of the population of the Earth.” Oxygen, Nitrogen and Argon make up 98% of atmosphere. Of the other 2% water vapour comprises 95% of that diminished amount. And still smaller is CO2—a building block of all life — which comprises about 4% of that 2%. A clearer picture, perhaps, is that there are four (4) CO2 molecules in the atmosphere for every ten thousand (10,000) molecules of the other gases. And for every molecule of human-generated CO2 Mother Earth generates 85,000 such molecules. The human-produced carbon dioxide numbers are so infinitesimal as to be impossible to affect the global climate.