Tattoos, Treason, and Strangulation

Richard Glover knows that the Earth is warming. In fact, he is so confident of it he believes those who disagree with him should be tattooed, Hester Prynne like.

Surely it's time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies.

Not necessarily on the forehead; I'm a reasonable man. Just something along their arm or across their chest so their grandchildren could say, ''Really? You were one of the ones who tried to stop the world doing something? And why exactly was that, granddad?''

On second thoughts, maybe the tattooing along the arm is a bit Nazi-creepy. So how about they are forced to buy property on low-lying islands, the sort of property that will become worthless with a few more centimetres of ocean rise, so they are bankrupted by their own bloody-mindedness? Or what about their signed agreement to stand, in the year 2040, lashed to a pole at a certain point in the shallows off Manly? If they are right and the world is cooling - ''climate change stopped in the year 1998'' is one of their more boneheaded beliefs - their mouths will be above water. If not …

OK, maybe the desire to see the painful, thrashing death of one's opponents is not ideal. But, my God, these people are frustrating. You just know that in 20 years' time, when the costs of our inaction are clear, the climate deniers will become climate-denial-deniers. ''Who me? Oh, no, I always believed in it. Yes, it's hard to understand why people back then were so daft. It's so much more costly to stop it now.''

That's why the tattoo has its appeal.

AccuWeather recently posted an article: "Coolest March Since 1994." (How can you not trust something from a source with "Accu" in its name?)  I know it's hot out there right now, but based on satellite temperature readings, March turned out to be relatively cool. The fine folks at AccuWeather even put a chart at the bottom of their article. Unfortunately, they failed to label their axes. I presume we're simply supposed to notice the trend line is still sloping upward and we're supposed to conclude that we are doomed to melt, assuming we don't first drown or return to our pre-industrial ways.

The article did, however, link to the data used to construct the plot. I commend the fine folks at AccuWeather for that. (Seriously, I commend them for that.) I refer you to their article if you would like to fondle the data yourself. I have used the data to create two plots which I present below. Click on either to have the pair appear enlarged in a separate window.

The upper plot is a reproduction of the plot provided in the AccuWeather article. Mine differs only in that I cluttered them by labeling the axes. I also colored the data a scary red to indicate things are getting hotter and hotter.

In the lower plot, I split the data roughly in half. It seemed to me that something significant happened near the beginning of 1998. As before, the first half of the data shows the temperature to be increasing, though the increase is not as steep as in the upper plot. I colored it scary red anyway.

The second half of the data represents the global temperature trend for the last twelve years, since 1998.  In honor of Richard Glover, I'll call these the boneheaded years. The data may come as a shock to you, and to Richard Glover if he would bother to look at them, but those data suggest we have not had any global warming for the last twelve years. I therefore colored those data in a comforting, earth-friendly green.

I don't know what the temperature will be next month, next year, next decade, or next century. Some people claim to know, and those people want to make energy more expensive. They want to further restrict our liberty. At least one of them wants to forcibly tattoo those of us who might disagree. Others take a more aggressive position.

NASA's James Hansen has argued that we should imprison oil company executives for denying the Earth is warming.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. wants global warming deniers to be treated as traitors.

Clinton Administrator Joe Romm suggested that deniers be strangled in their beds.

Not only do these people know, they know with such confidence that they will inflict harm on those who do not.