The Last Stand - Summary to Date

After two entries, my reading of the SP&T series titled “The Last Stand” confirms my prediction that SP&T would attempt to present the current Mountain Pine Beetle infestation as a glaring example of the allegedly unprecedented harm done by allegedly unprecedented Man Made Global Warming.

To summarize my critique to date of this series, I offer the following summary of “Inconvenient Truths”:

1) SP&T Assertion (emphasis mine):

“Throughout the continent, beetles are thriving in some altitudes and climes like never before because of higher temperatures.”

Inconvenient Truths:

A) Quoting NASA Goddard (home to Al Gore’s pal James Hansen):

“1934 is the warmest year in the contiguous states”

B) NCPA better describes what Hansen only grudgingly admits:

“Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.”
(Note: I assume this applies only to “the contiguous states”)

C) Peer reviewed Ice Core Data suggest there were many, MANY times in the last 10,000 years (and beyond) which were warmer than today.

Notably, there was a period of AT LEAST 257 years (from 4,452 years ago to 4,295 years ago) when temperatures appear to have been consistently higher than today. (Any number higher than 0.2 in the rightmost column of this file indicates a temperature higher than the current mean temperature.) More details here.

2) SP&T Assertion (emphasis mine):

“mountain pine beetle will kill approximately 76 percent of mature lodgepole pine by 2015”

Inconvenient Truth (directly related to the first set of Inconvenient Truths):

Click the image to view a quote
from this source (page 3, Summary):

Click here for the rest of my observations on the SP&T series “The Last Stand”.

Click here for the primary arguments against Man Made Global Warming Hysteria.