Obama Guru Resets Record, Not All Climate Change Dire

Not all the news coming out of Obama’s climate warming clique is dire, writes the WSJ’s Holman Jenkins in “How a Physicist Became a Climate Truth Teller.” In a lengthy analysis he describes how Steven Koonin, after a stint at the Obama Energy Dept, “reclaims the science of a warming planet from the propaganda peddlers.”

Mr. Jenkins recalls how “Barack Obama is one of many who have declared an ‘epistemological crisis’, in which our society is losing its handle on something called truth…[so] an interesting experiment will be his & other Dems’ response to a book by” Obama’s chief scientist at the DOE. Not that it argues against today’s climate science, but it does argue that “what the media & politicians & activists say about climate science has drifted so far out of touch with the actual science as to be absurdly, demonstrably false.”

Take for example the claims that the “magnitude & frequency of extreme events are increasing.” On closer inspection of the cited data, he notes there’s been “no increase in the rate of new record highs since 1900, only a decline in the number of new lows.” Consider, too, the unquestionable faith Mr. Koonin sees put into “climate modeling” which “masquerades as objective science but is written as … propaganda…[Fact is:]…The world isn’t going to be able to reduce [global] emissions enough to make much difference.” Note, that’s neither good nor bad news since today’s many models vary wildly as they should since “climate is a natural phenomenon [that’s] going to do whatever it’s going to do.” Mr. Koonin’s lesson may be summed up thusly: Take off the climate change gurus’ un-rosy colored glasses, then, smell them for what they are.

Davd Soul