A reader here sent me this excellent letter, which definitely deserves to be shared, and widely. Enjoy! – Jo

A Guest Post by the Clipped-Wing Warrior

Hi, there.  I’m a Global Warming sceptic.  By that I mean that I am sceptical of all but the first of the Ten Tenets of the Church of Global Warming, which are;

1.  The globe warmed over the course of the 20^th century.
2.  The globe is warming right now.
3.  The global warming is going to continue in the future.
4.  This warming is unusual, unnatural, and unprecedented.
5.  This warming is an overall bad thing.
6.  This warming is caused mainly by increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
7.  Human CO2 emissions are responsible for most of the warming.
8.  Humans are capable of reducing their global CO2 emissions.
9.  A significant amount of warming could be avoided if humans reduced their CO2 emissions.
10.  The amount of CO2 emissions reductions that would be achieved by bringing in a CO2 tax will reduce the amount of global warming by a large enough amount as to be worth the economic pain that would come with the application of a CO2 tax.

Apparently, to be a true Warmist you must confirm your belief in every one of the Ten Tenets.  Declare your scepticism in just one of these and you risk being banished from the Church as a heretic.

I concede the globe warmed approximately 1 degree Celsius over the course of the 20^th century, but I have my doubts about the other nine Tenets.  But if you are a devout believer in Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (CAGW) and want to convert me to your religion then I’m going to tell you how you can do it.

The fourteen easy steps

• Step 1 – Stop making predictions that don’t come true.
• Step 2 – When you make a prediction, don’t just say something “might” happen.
• Step 3 – Don’t live your life like you don’t believe a word you’re saying.
• Step 4 – Stop the hate.
• Step 5 – Stop avoiding debate.
• Step 6 – Answer questions.
• Step 7 – Stop enjoying catastrophes.
• Step 8 – Don’t use invalid arguments.
• Step 9 – When you are wrong, admit it and apologise.
• Step 10 – Stop claiming that 97% of scientists agree that humans are warming the globe significantly.
• Step 11 – Stop lying.  If you think it is okay to lie if it’s for a good cause, you are wrong.
• Step 12 – Rebuke your fellow Warmists if they act in an unscientific way.
• Step 13 – Stop blaming everything on Global Warming.
• Step 14 – Why are the only solutions always big-government “progressive” policies?

 Step 1 – Stop making predictions that don’t come true

Like in 2006 when Kenneth Davidson said “Within a decade, most of us on spaceship Earth will face the prospect of choking, freezing, burning or drowning, and all of us are likely to be extremely uncomfortable unless measures are taken to reduce greenhouse gases now.”  Well it is now 2014, 8 years into Kenneth’s 10-year prediction, and we didn’t reduce greenhouse gases, we actually increased them, and are most people on Earth choking, freezing, burning or drowning?  Hardly.  Conditions today are little different to 2006.  There are thousands of similarly exaggerated ludicrous predictions that can be found on the internet if you bother to look.  When you make a prediction and it doesn’t come true, it makes me sceptical of your position.  So stop it.

 Step 2 – When you make a prediction, don’t just say something “might” happen

The word “might” in that context just means a chance of more than 0% and less than 100%.  Not very helpful.  It is plainly transparent what you are doing when you say something “might” happen.  If it happens, you will triumphantly declare that you were right, and if it doesn’t happen, you will defensively declare that you only said it “might” happen, not that it definitely “would”.  If you say something “might” happen, you need to follow that up with something more specific, like “very likely” or “a slim chance” or “50/50″, otherwise I will write you off as a flake.

 Step 3 – Don’t live your life like you don’t believe a word you’re saying

Don’t say that the oceans will rise 10 metres this century, and then buy a house beside the beach.  Don’t say that we need to reduce emissions, and then fly around in a private jet.  If you say we should all live like the Amish, then you should live like the Amish.  Don’t complain that the Earth is overpopulated, and then father 6 children.  Yes, I’m looking at you, Sting.  Practice what you preach and you will gain my respect.

 Step 4 – Stop the hate

A. A. Gill once said “What is stopping vast numbers of perfectly decent concerned folk getting with the programme is the eye-rolling, dismissive loathing of the people yelling at them to get with the programme.”  Heed his words.  Assume I’m a good person.  Call me a bad person because I haven’t yet converted to your religion and you will all but guarantee I never will.

 Step 5 – Stop avoiding debate

On any issue, if I see that one side is willing to debate but the other side isn’t, I instinctively gravitate to the side that wants to debate.  It seems logical that the side that wants to debate believes they have a strong position with supporting arguments that will convince most listeners.  The side that refuses to debate does so because they know their position is weak and they can’t tolerate the thought of losing the debate.  So stop trying to think up reasons to not debate.  There are no good reasons to not debate.  Any time you start a sentence with “I’m not going to debate because…” I guarantee you the rest of that sentence is going to make you sound like a half-wit and a coward.  So debate.  Fairly.  Give your opponent equal time and respect.  And if, at the end of the debate, most listeners side with your opponent, don’t throw a tantrum.  Just go away and work on your arguments and be better prepared for the next debate.  Then you’ll have my respect.  Try to violate your opponent’s right to free speech and you become my enemy.

 Step 6 – Answer questions.

Any time I see a politician or commentator refuse to answer a question I reasonably conclude it is because the answer would be embarrassing and/or damaging.  So I assume the worst.  I think of the worst possible answer and assume it’s the case.  So just answer the question, even if the answer damages your case.  You can’t do any more damage than by not answering.  At least you’ll gain my respect for being honest.  So when somebody asks you “How much cooler do you think the globe will be on 1 January 2100 as a result of the introduction of Australia’s carbon dioxide tax?” give the honest answer which is “By an imperceptibly small amount.”  Everybody knows that is the truth so just say it.  And then when they ask “So what’s the point?” you can explain to them how it is a symbolic gesture, and symbolic gestures are important, they raise awareness and understanding and can alter behaviour, and hopefully it will cause us to use less coal and oil, and it shows the world we care, and maybe the rest of the world will get on board and do the same and then the effect on global temperatures will be more substantial.  See, it’s not that hard.  It’s better than hissing and spitting at the questioner and generally acting like a petulant child.  And by the way, trying to justify your refusal to answer on the grounds that the questioner is not a qualified climate scientist doesn’t work.  Just answer the bloody question, whatever it is (unless it is something inappropriately personal, like “what colour undies are you wearing?”).

 Step 7 – Stop enjoying catastrophes

When you hear evidence that the globe may not be warming as much as we thought, don’t react like this is terrible news.  Take Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, who said “If anything, I would like to see the climate change happen, so the science could be proved right, regardless of the consequences.”  Kudos to Phil for having the courage to admit what I’ve long suspected about many Warmists, that they actually want the globe to warm.  Catastrophically. It follows they would feel tremendously disappointed if millions of people aren’t killed as they predicted.  If I predicted some catastrophe I would follow that up with “…but I really hope I’m wrong.”  When you tell a Warmist that since 1998 it appears that global warming is slowing down or maybe even stalled entirely, they could say “Yeah, that’s great.  Maybe things won’t be so bad after all.  I really hope I was wrong and maybe those millions of deaths I predicted won’t happen.” Instead, mostly they become angry, defensive, abusive, and insist that global warming is going to kick into gear any time now.  Can’t you see that when you give people the impression that you want millions of people to die just so that you can gloat and say “Ha, ha, I told you so” —  it’s a bit of a turn off?

 Step 8 – Don’t use invalid arguments.

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