Climate Policy

[--Pete]

Hi,

. . . we can see an event, like Mt. Saint Helen exploding, . . .

I actually did see that event. Well, almost. I was living in Pullman, Washington at the time, and on May 18, 1980 nightfall came from the West in the late morning. It had many effects, from a severe shortage of beer, to a large number of February births the following year. Most of our research was shut down because we wrapped our electronics in plastic to protect them from the volcanic dust that got everywhere. A humorous point: Magi had been a student janitor at WSU and the Friday before the eruption had been her last day. As the ash settled all around us, she remarked that she was very happy that it would not be her problem:)

. . . and then measure local atmospheric change and then observe how that effects the local and global climate. . . . The biggest problem is repeatability.

I think that's a toss up. The inability to control the other parameters is also a major problem. Unlike a controlled lab experiment, the best that observation of natural phenomena permits is to find correlations.

I thought this was a funny excerpt from the article; . . .

My personal favorite is, "But people don't appreciate that most documents on climate change are based around an international consensus that involves hundreds of scientists and publications." I somehow don't think 'international consensus' is adequate.

--Pete