by Judith Curry
A year ago, who would have thought that 2021 would be crazier than 2020?
A quick post to end out the year with some random reflections
Covid
The new normal (for me, anyways) is to stay home, not travel. Greater ventilation, use of HEPA air cleaners (also a big help when the air quality in the U.S. west was horrible from the wildfires), outdoor social events, masking. I’m triple vaxxed (Moderna), haven’t even gotten a cold in the past two years, also taking a cocktail of supplements. My entire company is now working from home – surprisingly, younger employees don’t like this so much, but people with kids/dogs definitely like it. I’m fine with my new normal, although I realize this isn’t feasible or desirable for most. God bless the internet. Personal precautionary principle in action, with a clear and immediate target – I really don’t want to get sick from a communicable disease.
Missed opportunities in 2021 to deal with Covid: scarcity of Covid tests in the U.S., failure to systematically investigate the re-purposing of existing drugs for Covid treatment protocols, and the failure to rapidly approve and manufacture new drugs for treatment. Failure to emphasize the need for better ventilation in buildings. Mask fatigue by insisting that masks be worn outside (schools, etc).
Death of Expertise
“Follow the science” almost seems like a joke at this point. Attempts to create and enforce various covid ‘consensus’ statements on everything from its origins, masks, transmission mode, treatments etc. have mostly backfired. The WHO and the CDC (U.S.) have much egg on their faces.
The various Covid consensus fiascoes have had an adverse impact on the trust of experts and expertise in a variety of domains.
‘Fact checks’ in the media have been shown to be (mostly) partisan/political enforcement of dogma.
Scientists playing politics and politicians misusing science for political ends has become endemic.
Cancel culture
Further wounds to expertise are coming from within universities and the enforcement of dogma in many disciplines. Many academics have left academia, some involuntarily over such issues. The whiny woke-babies and the insane focus on victimhood, intersectionality, gender and diversity at the expense of traditional academic values has made many universities pretty dysfunctional and even scary places.
Within politics and popular culture, cancel culture has also run amok. The heroine in all this has to be J.K. Rowling in her defense of sanity related to gender and sex.
Recently there has been increasing blowback against such nonsense, which is particularly bad in the U.S. (doesn’t seem to be so bad elsewhere?)
Innovation
On the good news front, the urgent rush to develop Covid vaccines produced not only some innovative research but demonstrated how quickly research to applications to deployment can proceed. This seems to have spurred a spirit of innovation, looking to science and engineering to provide better solutions to our current problems. There is much venture capital and money from billionaires floating around towards these purposes (for a variety of applications including climate change), which seems to have been invigorated by the Covid vaccines.
Covid has also spurred the development of new (and cheaper!) online workflow, meeting and conference platforms that facilitate working and meeting remotely and also conference. The IPCC AR6 managed to complete its work without hordes of scientists traveling all over the world; the colossal loss of productivity from extensive travelling is, well, colossal.
Substack
The last few years have seen a massive decline in audience for the mainstream media, for good reasons. In the U.S., there is no longer any pretense of objectivity or real investigation by the mainstream media. A plethora of partisan news outlets has emerged, and investigation occurs randomly and is published on blogs or whatever.
About a year ago a new framework for publishing was launched, called Substack. Substack wooed some serious journalists to the platform and tons of others from many different fields have joined. One key to its success is that Substack has figured out how its journalists can actually make a decent living
I follow a bunch of writers on Substack, and have paid subscriptions to about a half dozen. The posts are mostly long form (there are also podcasts), and the people that I follow are writing some fascinating essays, many on topics that aren’t trendy or overhashed.
Let me know who your favorite writers are.
The rise of anarchy and federalism
Apart from anarchy and redefinition of what is mainstream media, we are also seeing broader hints of anarchy in the U.S. In the U.S. anyways, we have seen a resurgence of federalism in terms of power of individual states. Previously I was mostly aware of different levels of prosperity and different weather among the different states. Covid, and Trumps insistence that the individual states manage their own crises, revealed different modes and styles of governance, different levels of freedom, different priorities on law and order, different energy and environmental policies, differences in rights to abortion, different tax structures and different cultures. Governors are getting more media attention than Biden. There has been massive migration out of California, Illinois and New York, and particularly into Texas and Florida.
The U.S. federal government has recently seemed impotent to do much of anything. In the Trump administration this seems to have been a feature not a bug; in the Biden administration, this is definitely a bug. The devolution of power from the federal government to the states has been characterized as anarchy; to my mind, there are elements of this that are very positive.
Climate
A few weeks ago I spotted this quote:
” “Climate change” is just a mental tattoo — a phrase we invoke with an air of scientific sophistication to give some sense of knowledgeability about the unknowable.”
That statement pretty much sums up the whole thing. Climate ‘science’ has become boring, mostly dotting i’s and crossing t’s (or worse yet, crossing i’s and dotting t’s). Even if we assume the science is ‘settled’, the policy discussion is even more boring – infeasible solutions that even if successfully implemented would very possibly leave us worse off than doing nothing (such has having inadequate electricity and fuel for heating during the winter).
My book
How we can break out of this rut is the topic of a book that I am working on. I’m about 70% finished, hope to submit it to my publisher before June. This is being published by an academic press, so the book needs to be scholarly. The challenge is to write it in a way that passes scholarly muster while at the same time being readable/interesting to a broader audience.
Stay tuned.
Weather and climate biz
My company, Climate Forecast Applications Network, continues to take up most of my time, while providing an endless source of interesting ideas and applications.
On the weather side of the business, growing vulnerability to extreme weather events is spawning new insurance vehicles and Insurance Linked Securities funds. The insurance sector is a rapidly growing part of my company’s business.
Traditionally, energy companies have been the biggest consumers for private sector weather forecasts, for natural gas trading and load management for electric utilities. The renewable energy boom (particularly wind, to a lesser extent solar) is increasing the demand for wind and solar energy forecasts.
The whole private sector weather enterprise is becoming more competitive as there is more and more information freely available online and from apps that generates revenue from advertising or from inexpensive subscriptions. My company focuses on major businesses that desire customized forecast products, innovative forecast products, and analyses in forecast reports.
A growing part of our business is in the climate sector. Until a few years ago, the requests I received were related to interpreting climate model outputs and advising lawyers regarding litigation. After one project of bias correcting and downscaling climate model simulations, which I felt was a fairly worthless exercise, I no longer accept such projects. For a few years there was a burst of litigation cases that I was consulting for, but most of these have been mired for years in procedural and jurisdictional issues.
Over the past few years I’ve been getting some more interesting projects related to renewable energy, potential insurance losses, scenario projections to 2050, and development of worst case scenarios for specific locales. I’ve also been asked to provide reality checks on climate impact assessments provided by other groups. I suspect that this will become a growing part of the business.
Books
Far and away the best book I’ve read this year (or in recent memory) was The Dawn of Everything – A New History of Humanity. From the blurb:
“A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.“
This book was an instant NYTimes Bestseller, there are tons of reviews out there. Overall, a fascinating and exhilarating read that changed the way I think about the past, present and future.
I can only aspire to accomplish something like this with my own book that is in progress.
On the lighter side, my favorite reads this year were the Hawthorne and Horowitz mysteries, by Anthony Horowitz. This interview with the author gives you a flavor.
Climate Etc.
Thanks to all who have participated at Climate Etc. over the past year, especially the guest bloggers. Between my book and running the company, blogging takes a back seat. Both in principle should provide fodder for blog posts, but it takes time.
The blog has been sluggish, I think it is too big. I will be culling some of the old inconsequential posts to lighten the load a bit. Also, the moderation queue has been out of control. I think I have fixed one of the problems, we’ll see.
My very best wishes to each of you for a happy, interesting and healthy New Year.
Arctic air is heading south to Texas.
Temperature in C.
Temperatures have dropped about 20F in the last couple of hours here in Oklahoma. It is predicted we will hit about 12F over the next few days.
Then we get a warmup.
It looks like the coldest air on this side of the world is in eastern Canada right now.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/500hPa/overlay=temp/orthographic=-100.69,43.23,264
Eeyou Istchee James Bay Regional Government, Quebec
-41 (C and F).
Current Minnesota temperature.
I share your solidarity with JK Rowling and applaud both her courage in standing up to bullies and her wonderfully creative imagination.Is a Muggle a binary gender choice. I am sure she doesn’t give a fig
The gender idiocy is the Gorgon of our time. If you chop one gender of two new ones appear.
Agreed. It’s XX and XY. That’s it.
With one of them two genders possessing both “ribs”, the Y shape and the X shape… of course, naturally speaking!
😝
Thorry, tho thorry!🥴
Could not resist it.
cheers
What ARE you talking about?
A refreshing and sane review of the past year. Judith Curry once again demonstrates her ability to chart her own path.
I received an email from my brother by the northern coast of the state of Washington. He reported record cold temperatures this past weekend. Since the temperatures there are pretty much controlled by the nearby ocean and prevailing westerlies, that doesn’t say much for global warming.
The cold air reported in Puget Sound came off the Canadian Mountains, down the Fraser River Valley and crossed the BC/WA border without a mask.
I’m in Central Washington State where it is colder.
Here in Liverpool it’s a bit less cold than usual this time of year, by 4 or 5 degrees C.
There are people who worry about that, the silly sods.
As we’re still in period of lowest manufacturing and office activity of the year and it’s mild and windy there is a high contribution to electical supply by wind.
Currently at 12.78GW of 29.37GW demand, This date last year demand was in excess of 42GW rising to over 47GW on 7th of January
Standby for Griff windbagging
A bit less cold? I think you mean around double the average for the time of year, don’t you?!
Wot? What temperature scale are you using?
I hope not absolute!
Celsius, as we use in the UK.
The average for Liverpool in December is 7.5C, whereas the end of December/beginning of January was 14/15C.
The current cold airmass didn’t come from the west.
It came from the NE at the surface and from the north aloft..
Brought by a PJS blowing south from Alaska.
See this chart.
The HP to the north of Washington State has winds blowing clockwise.
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/dailywxmap/
The airmass is now pretty much stagnant.
https://www.meteociel.fr/modeles/gfse_cartes.php?ech=6&code=0&mode=14&carte=2
State’s Rights come in handy when you have an overbearing federal government.
In my particular State, I have not been subject to lockdowns or mask mandates for the entire time the Wuhan virus pandemic has been active.
There are currently 28 U.S. States run by Republicans and 22 States run by Democrats. More than half the States are more free than the other States because of State’s Rights. Rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
States have Rights.
In two weeks, when the new Virginia governor takes office, that should become 29 and 21. One of the platforms he ran on was reducing or eliminating the mask and vaccine mandates.
Switching to a green economy requires extra energy to build the new economy. This will increase emissions – not reduce them – as we do not have a green economy to supply this extra energy.
We see this plainly in Canada where attempts to escape the Carbon Tax have led to increasing – not decreasing – emissions.
And some of the States that have Democrat governors also have majority Republican Houses and Senates.
Republicans at all levels, won big last election, except for Trump. Funny that.
Expect Repubicans to increase their numbers in the next election, in federal, state and local elections.
Trump just pissed off too many voters. Too brash, too much invective, no need to insult so many, though I know it came from his rough and tumble background in NYC, where every punch had to be returned. He did a lot of good things and I wish he had a second term.
But he needed to heed his advisors and didn’t, especially about staying off Twitter. Every time he tweeted I would cringe (though every time Hillary tweeted I would throw up).
Really too bad he lost, but I agree that he was just too much over the top for too many suburban women, a key constituency the polls showed, and something he tried to address at the very end, but too little, too late.
I’m not sure Trump lost.
Federalism is a feature, not a bug. But I think that Dr Curry in the above article agrees.
I don’t know what Dr. Curry’s opinion on State’s Rights is, and I wasn’t criticizing anything she said, I was just elucidating State’s Rights and the benefits, thereof.
“I’m triple vaxxed (Moderna).”
Sorry, really really sorry to hear that!
Vaxxed or unvaxxed, it makes no difference to me. Do what you feel is right.
My sentiment exactly….with truly informed consent and not based on the massive propaganda campaign being waged against the world to force everyone to accept this depopulation gene therapy as a Covid “vaccine.”
Gimme a break.
How so? A break like the Australians are getting?
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/01/01/interesting-shift-australian-government-now-casually-saying-they-will-pay-for-adverse-reactions-to-vaccine-in-booster-phase-media-calls-79000-the-rare-few/
Interesting Shift – Australian Government Now Casually Saying They Will Pay for Adverse Reactions to Vaccine in Booster Phase, Media Calls 79,000 “The Rare Few”January 1, 2022
A couple of things are a little, well, shall we say, odd about this. First, is the casual nature of how the Australian media just slip this little stunner into their broadcast as if it’s just an ‘oh, and by the way‘ type of message.
Second, is the evolution of this official government narrative from “it’s just a jab”, perfectly safe and fine, to, well, only a “rare few” will have adverse reactions to the perfectly safe jab… and, oh yeah, boosters now. By “rare few” we, um, mean around 79,000 people approximately, n’ stuff. Might be costly, but… whatevs.
According to 7News Australia, “Doctors say that the benefits far outweigh the risks, but as the COVID vaccine rollout ramps-up through the booster phase, there are a rare few who suffer severe side effects. The federal government is now offering compensation for anyone who becomes seriously ill after having their COVID shot.” WATCH:
https://youtu.be/pYFUHQJXjdo
Why is the Australian government having to pay this out? Where’s the vaccine company liability? Oh wait, yeah.
For scale, the entire population of Australia is essentially the same as the state of Florida. Imagine if Governor Ron DeSantis mandated the jab, and told all Floridians 80,000 of you will likely suffer severe adverse reactions, but it’s in your best interest… oh, and you don’t have a choice. Wait… wha, huh?
The article you reference, TEWS_Pilot, is BS. It bears no resemblance to anything that is happening or has happened in Australia since covid-19 began (and I live there). Where the figure of 79,000 comes from is a mystery. Someone’s rear end perhaps?
I’m fine with people whinging and venting about the virus and our response to it but it’s not OK to make stuff up or circulate fact-free rubbish from unhinged sources.
There’s a big difference between “adverse reaction” and “severe side effects”. “Adverse reactions” ranged from a red spot on the arm where the injection was to a day or two with aches, pains, and some fever. Those “adverse reactions” are common to other vaccines, too.
Rarely are there “severe side effects”, but they do occur, unfortunately, and also with other vaccines. For years we heard about those claims regarding autism and vaccines, which turned out to be junk science.
The concept of getting vaccinated is that the chances of having the most severe side effect of the virus, i.e., death, are much lower than whatever side effect the vaccine itself creates. You get to choose which chance you want to take, hopefully taken with reliable information.
What’s not reliable are claims of the mRNA vaccines being “gene therapy” or “messing with DNA”, stuff I’ve heard repeated from normally intelligent people.
Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” gave a limited immunity to the makers of vaccines so they could proceed as fast as possible to bringing reasonably effective vaccines to market. By definition they weren’t going to have the years of testing and verification done by a normal process. From the data I’ve seen, it has been a success, and anyone who wants to be vaccinated can get a large degree of protection from a killer virus, especially the elderly and chronically ill.
No doubt some will have problems with them, likely those the virus would kill.
Link to Australian Government vaccine safety report. https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-23-12-2021
Ok…
The “right”, or wrong must be now weighted or valued by how one feels about, for that matter… init!
No wonder fear is getting so much “right” and “good” done, in massive scale…very speedily…
Glouubully.
When one unable or incapable to just do what is right, or at least refraining from doing harm and wronging… one will hide behind the excuses of feelings and supposed good (feeling) intentions.
cheer
We are clearly in the minority, but I thought the same thing when I read her proud acknowledgment of having bought the lie that the Poison Jab is a “vaccine.” It does NONE of the things an actual vaccine does, and every country in the world is reporting far more VAXXED becoming ill than the UNVAXXED. My own adult grandson had to work three extra shifts in December to replace “Fully VAXXED” coworkers who are too ill to come to work, yet he, an “UNVAXXED PUREBLOOD” has weathered the full onslaught of “COVID” and every “variant” they can create for some two years now without even so much as a “Positive” Covid test…and now we learn that the PCR test is GARBAGE. I have lost ONE person in my entire sphere of acquaintances and extended family WITH “COVID,”and I believe the true cause was his advanced diabetes and overweight condition, no one in my family has died OF it or WITH it, but I have lost 11 from the Poison Jab, including two in my extended family and one who now needs a heart transplant thanks to the Poison Jab.
There is NO FDA approved “COVID Vaccine” in the world to date, the “approved” COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) has not even completed clinical trials, only the experimental Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the previously-authorized indication and uses being MANDATED on unwilling people using an Emergency Use Authorization. Adverse effects are going exponential, mostly myocarditis and blood clotting and including death, according to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) government website (which is only listing a tiny fraction of the actual count). They are now in the millions and are irreversible. Dozens of young, healthy professional athletes, many of them soccer players, are collapsing and dying on the pitch.
It is my sincere wish that no harm comes to Dr. Curry, not just because she is much too valuable to the cause of science, but because she is a human being who should be allowed to live out her life to the fullest and not have it shortened by unwittingly participating in a worldwide gene therapy depopulation clinical trial.
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The latest
Thank goodness for a comment reflecting life out there in the real world. I wonder if Dr Curry, like so many of her fellow scientists, perceives any doubt expressed about official Covid policy as a doubt about “science” generally and therefore on her own profession. Many experts in their field don’t have time to acquaint themselves with vital developments in matters extraneous to their expertise. Clearly, were she aware of the hundreds of thousands of vaccine adverse events worldwide, she would surely not be so sanguine in her view.
I wonder how she would react to the entire Joe Rogan podcast with Dr. Robert Malone, whose Twitter Account with 500K followers was shut down because he exposed the Vaccine Scam. Here is a link to the Cliff Notes from the podcast.
Joe Rogan- never heard of him until a few months ago- then I’ve watched most of his stuff on YouTube and Netflix- he’s something else- a very powerful personality fun to watch.
She lives in a world different to mine. I carry a blue pencil sharpener in my pocket and it keeps me safe from covid.
No side effects from my treatment.
While I don’t necessarily agree with all that you say, I definitely agree with this.
Everyone I know who has been vaccinated has had a nasty reaction to it. They got the exact same reaction the second time. This makes it obvious that the ‘vaccine’ is definitely not improving the body’s defence against even the vaccine, let alone the virus itself.
I suffered no effects at all from either dose (I need it because I want to travel), and nobody knows why there’s so much disparity. It’s quite possible that I’ve already had the virus and never noticed.
When I list something that meets the definition of a vaccine, let me know.
Wrong, just plain wrong.
When you list something that is correct, let me know.
You have confirmed that, like millions of others who do not need to be vaccinated against COVID or any of the “variants,” you are submitting to a worldwide clinical trial of an experimental and clearly dangerous serum simply to be allowed to participate in all of the activities that free people were allowed to participate in BEFORE Covid was unleashed on the world and tyrants took control of world governments.
“Everyone I know who has been vaccinated has had a nasty reaction to it. They got the exact same reaction the second time.”
“I suffered no effects at all from either dose.”
I see “climate science” level logic there.
Did you ever get vaccinated for smallpox or polio? I got both, as a child.
Nearly everyone got a “pox” or two on their arm where the vaccine was administered, and some suffered severe reactions. Some, rarely, died. Would you call any of those “a nasty reaction”? I guess the world should have stopped that smallpox vaccination crap right then and there?
How about polio. Polio is almost eradicated, but in 2017 there are actually more polio cases caused by the vaccine than occurred naturally.
These are not “true” vaccines, then? If they are not 100% effective, with zero side-effects, “nasty reactions”, or deaths world-wide, and effective forever, they’re somehow not really vaccines? The smallpox vaccine, no longer given, had a 3-5 year effectiveness after which you might need a booster. The Covid vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) required two administrations some weeks apart. I don’t know how or why that should make them somehow suspicious, considering they don’t use any real virus in them.
Roughly 40% of the Covid deaths so far were of Nursing Home patients, increased considerably by New York’s Governor Death. Do you believe that had they all been vaccinated they would still have perished? Very, very, doubtful.
Oh, just stop it!
Hear! Hear!
The only thing I’m against is compulsory medical interventions on anything for anyone.
As someone who escaped a rendezvous with the Grim Reaper 68 years ago with 4 months in an isolation hospital; and having known people who didn’t escape or whose escape wasn’t as impact free as mine I do take precautions against another premature crossing of the Styx with both conventional western medicine and some not so conventional preventative measures.I’m happy for anyone to do as much or as little as they feel is right.
Perhaps it’s Judith’s way of “culling” some of people who follow only some of the science. I think it’s quite brave of her to make a statement regarding her vaccination status, she’s not telling anyone what they should do themselves or making any unsubstantiated claims.
I read articles on the WeatherAction website but I don’t think Piers Corbyn is doing the climate debate any favours by his actions in his anti-vaccination protests. It just makes him and his climate arguments an easier target for AGW protagonists.
I enjoyed reading Dr. Judith Curry’s article, it was well balanced, succinct and honest.
We still enjoy some individual rights, whiten, and exercise them as we see fit.
Oh, well, who could argue with it.
But from my point of view, maybe a wrong one.
The only individual right left that you seem to enjoy and could exercise lately, seems to be the right of directly or indirectly participating, mainly through passive support and collaboration in crimes against humanity.
Please do keep enjoying it and also be proud that you still can exercise such as, as of your own and only proper left individual right.
Many others do not have even that luxury anymore.
It is really only persisting through what we call;
“As good as it gets”.
Oh well, maybe I perhaps misunderstood your point.
If that the case please be kind enough to let me know.
🙂
cheers
What on Earth are you talking about?
Sorry, you got to pose that question to Jim, first.
cheers
What on Earth are you talking about?
Oh, well, you keep posing the same question… the same silly stupid one.
Keep it up silly.
cheers
Clearly Judith Curry is not prepared to admit that covid and climate are two sides of the same coin: same owners, similar goals.
If I have to consider it! …honestly!
Judith Curry, is still good.
But, still, there is so much deception and crimes subjected over the masses and multitudes of people, that makes one wonder if there really any value to contemplate, as far as blood and life propagates… in merit of transcending from bestiality.
Oh, well, blind trust in authority as per means of fear, horror and terror, or the most fear porn, does not actually constitutes as faith…
in contrary…as per my understanding, such as consist as the very opposite of faith.
Well that is me, plainly… for the best or worse!
cheers
Really sorry that Judith Curry is peddling this dangerous hoax
You are being way too kind to the criminals that are deliberately misusing “science” for nefarious purposes. There is nothing new about pseudoscience being used to take money and control over people.
Cancel culture needs to be called out for what it is- flagrant denial of freedom of expression. Those that think they are sooooo clever by bringing out the crocodile tears to deprive others of freedom need a nice little dose of charges of crimes against humanity. Perhaps this should be one of our new years resolutions-stand up to the crybullies. Giving in to the crybullies emboldens them and gets those weak of mind regarding sacrificing freedom of speech as “the new normal.”
Best of luck with the book.
“Climate change” is just a mental tattoo — a phrase we invoke with an air of scientific sophistication to give some sense of knowledgeability about the unknowable.”
Yeah, I don’t know why Judith would pander to the phrase “climate change” as the climate liars, criminals, frauds, nitwits, crackpots and useful idiots use it. The climate changes without any help from the wonderful life giving molecule that is carbon dioxide. It’s a lie Judith.
Why do we let these parasites of humanity get away with stealing the meanings of words?
Progressive = Luddite
Liberal = totalitarian wannabe
Climate tackler = paid phony, pretend bedwetter
Black Lives Matter = making a cardboard sign to show how much you love black people
Some folks think we’re witnessing the collapse of Western civilization.
Lots of folks are fed up to the point where they’re migrating from Democrat run states to Republican run states.
On the other hand, look at the popularity of Jordan Peterson. He calls BS on the loony left and yet appears to be cancel-proof.
For the last couple of decades, young men have been told that their masculinity is a sin against the world. Everything evil has been attributed to the patriarchy. Jordan Peterson, on the other hand, tells them they can pick up the heaviest burden they can carry and go out and do something useful in the world. They are so glad to hear that. It changes their lives.
Similarly, Iain McGilchrist has described how the current insanity came to be. The loony left really does exhibit the symptoms of schizophrenia.
One useful thing that can be done is to rid the universities of all the grievance studies faculty. Then, restore academic rigor. University should not be for everyone. Most people would be much better off leaning a marketable skill at a community college.
Defund the universities.
Whether it is called science or the will of the god(s), it has always been the same old scam.
Thank you for the dose of sanity.
Thank you, Judith, for your balanced take on things.
Re 2021 negatives, if there’s one thing I am getting real tired of, besides the lies and delusions of the Left, is the anger and hatred-manufacture plus the viciousness of those in the extreme Right of politics. Done with both.
May 2022 have a lot less of both, that’s the main thing that would make 2022 so much better than 2021.
Just who do you consider the “extreme right” of politics to be, and what is this hatred they are supposedly guilty of.
Sadly, you and I both got downvoted just for asking. I upvoted you to bring you back to neutral. Too bad we can’t get an answer to a simple question and instead get downvoted…I doubt whoever downvoted us is on the “extreme right.”
…those in the extreme Right of politics….could you please list some of these or at least the organizations with which they are affiliated so I can make a concerted effort to avoid them?
I’m beginning to think that it’s anyone to the right of Stalin
Unfortunately, it is not exclusive to those on the right – it is behaviour exhibited by those on the left equally. It’s an inherent part of the recent trend to extreme polarisation in politics, with people seemingly at opposite ends of the political spectrum with little in the middle.
Is’nt it odd that as society loses its middle class, with 1% posessing the wealth of 99% this kind of polarization is called politics?
And is it not strange that the main anti-vaxxers are millionaires such as RFK, Jr while the most radical Extinction Rebellion moneybags is his sister Rory?
And when the worlds most powerful banker Marc Carney actually tells the truth about NetZero costing $100 TRILLION, people say BoJo and Biden can’t tell the truth?
How Davos and finance have totally blindsided society is a masterpiece of deception, I’ll say.
Perhaps you haven’t been to the UK lately, Dr. Curry. It’s really bad, particularly in Scotland
I would offer this article as at least worthy of an “Honorable Mention” for the year 2021.
The climate change panic mongers are suddenly being forced to deal with the alien concepts of math and science…and that inconvenient energy source the SUN.
December 31, 2021
The New Climate of Panic Among the Panic-Mongers
By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley
A new climate panic is gripping the far-Left profiteers of doom. Those few of Them who are climate scientists have made fame and fortune by telling us the world is toast unless the once-free West (though responsible for only a fifth of the world’s sins of emission) commits economic hara-kiri. The cost of placating climate Communism is already in the quadrillions.
However, They are becoming aware that Their official climate narrative is rooted in a grave error of physics – an error so elementary that it can be described here. At a vital point in Their calculation of how much warming we may cause, They forgot the Sun was shining….
…Read the rest of this article….
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/12/the_new_climate_of_panic_among_the_panicmongers.html
Sheep who will do whatever their masters order them to do…Milwaukee….Line for COVID testing
https://twitter.com/i/status/1477253367072272387
Sorry this nitpick: “Personal precautionary principle in action”. You are being rationally cautious. That is not the precautionary principle. The PP is horribly biased against progress and risk-taking. Please do not use it in a positive sense!
One of my blog entries on the topic here.
I’m reading your posts on the PP now, thanks for the links
“I’ve also been asked to provide reality checks on climate impact assessments provided by other groups”
I’d be interested to hear more details about these reality checks. Without knowing what they contain, I presume they’d contain the sort of info that our NZ MSM calls ‘misinformation’.
What a depressing read! Hard to fathom why anyone engaged in exposing the climate scam can’t see the parallels with the “pandemic” narrative: same owners; same suppression of facts; huge numbers of scientists in opposition ignored or demeaned.
Cancel culture is very bad in the UK.
Re “The Dawn of Everything”
It’s a biased disingenuous account of human history that spreads fake hope (the authors of “The Dawn” claim human history has not “progressed” in stages… so there’s hope for us now that it could get different/better again). As a result of this fake hope porn it has been widely praised. It conveniently serves the profoundly sick industrialized world of fakes and criminals. The book’s dishonest fake grandiose title shows already that this work is a FOR-PROFIT, instead a FOR-TRUTH, endeavor geared at the (ignorant gullible) masses.
Fact is human history has “progressed” by and large in linear stages, especially since the dawn of agriculture (http://www.focaalblog.com/2021/12/22/chris-knight-wrong-about-almost-everything ). This “progress” has been fundamentally destructive and is driven and dominated by “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room” (http://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html ) which the fake hope-giving authors of “The Dawn” entirely ignore, naturally. And these two married pink elephants are the reason why we’ve been “stuck” in a destructive hierarchy, and will be into the foreseeable future.
A good example that one of the authors, Graeber, has no real idea what world we’ve been living in and about the nature of humans is his last brief article on Covid where his ignorance shines bright already at the title of his article, “After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep.” Apparently he doesn’t know that most people WANT to be asleep, and that they’ve wanted that for thousands of years (and that’s not the only ignorant notion in the title). Yet he (and his partner) is the sort of person who thinks he can teach you something authentically truthful about human history and whom you should be trusting along those terms. Ridiculous!
“The Dawn” is just another “scientific” fantasy served lucratively to the gullible ignorant underclasses.
Don’t confuse anarchy with disorderly behaviour or diversity. The essential characteristic of anarchy is not knowing when to stop. Kids messing about are anarchic because they don’t know when to stop until someone tells them. Activists are anarchic because they have no idea when to stop pushing their bugbears through our throats, the thought doesn’t even remotely occur to them.
It is the US federal government that is anarchic because it doesn’t know when or how to stop with its taxation, with its climate agenda and with its meddling. The difference between federal and feral is only two letters.
Bill Gates has announced that he is investing in nuclear power plants. Obviously he understands that nuclear (Uranium or Thorium) energy is the only way to produce emissions free reliable essential baseload electricity cost effectively and is the future in electricity generation.
But look at the funny side, anti-vaccination people claim vaccinations are a cunning plot to remove people, to therefore get rid of consumers. So why invest in electricity supply if there will be a greatly reduced population of consumers?
no mention of UAPs? Big article today in the Boston Globe about Dr. Avi Loeb and his Galileo Project- for UFO buffs, this was a big year, the biggest in decades- and no, it’s not that Joe Biden turns out to be an alien, though we’re not sure about that :-}
Belief in the efficacy of masks is unscientific and based primarily on hysteria. It has become a sort of religion, making people feel “safe”, like a security blanket. As far as Covid tests, I believe there has been hysteria involved with those as well. Many wanting to be tested probably don’t need to be. And it contributes to inflated case count numbers.
How does testing contribute to inflated case numbers? From what I understand, there are relatively few false positives, but more false negatives.
“Failure to emphasize the need for better ventilation in buildings.”
This was a great missed opportunity during the anti smoking mania – it probably would have been better to mandate that air circulating systems be made so that anyone can smoke anywhere in a building WITHOUT any other person being able to smell the smoke. That would have made buildings much more “healthy” and probably greatly reduced colds and flu during the winter. Too bad the zealots, instead of logical scientists, control the debate, just like now with Al Gore’s climate scam.
Having served on a US Navy ship in the early 70s, when smoking was common, and having stood on a more or less open bridge, I can safely say that ventilation does not prevent you from smelling people smoking.
It went from potentially hazardous to “eew, the smell” in a heartbeat. (And there’s that problematic “potentially” word again.)
Looking forward to the book.
Hello, reblog. I imagine most wuwt subscribers already have read Judith Curry’s Climate etc. blog ?
Actually I find the cross-posting to be interesting, a totally different set of comments and perspectives at WUWT versus Climate Etc. The point of my essay is to stimulate dialogue
“Personal precautionary principle in action, with a clear and immediate target – I really don’t want to get sick from a communicable disease.”
COVID and communicable disease: Is this anything like climate change and weather? I don’t want to get hit by a tornado, either. Actually, the precautionary principle is visible in a lot of the issues addressed in the article. Just saying, fear – excited concern – is a motivator and puts the emotion in the definition of demagogue: “A leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace.”
Precautionary principle is useful when a near-term clear and present danger is perceived. Taking personal precautions is different than state mandated precautions. Taking precautions against a tornado that is observed on radar is different from living your life in a basement in case a tornado wanders by.
But that’s not the precautionary principle. The principle is entirely one-sided and allows no cost-benefit analysis or trade-offs
Yeah, a mental tattoo based on institutional totems.
Oh. THAT Anthony Horowitz. That will be a treat! Thankt for the tip, Courage-eh!
“Climate change” is just a mental tattoo — a phrase we invoke with an air of scientific sophistication to give some sense of knowledgeability about the unknowable.”
The basic scam is the argument from not knowing or to put it another way… what is the difference between creationism and climate change hysteria?
Creationism uses the argument: “because nothing (we accept) can explain how animals evolve … there must be some ’cause’ and so that cause must be the hand of god”
Climate change hysteria uses the argument: “because nothing (we accept) can explain the (natural) changes in climate …. there must be some ’cause’ and so that cause must be the hand of man”.
Both argue “because we do not know what causes X… you MUST accept that there is a “hand” that is driving the process. So, the reality is climate hysteria is really just a form of creationism.