A test of gullibility

Vincent J. Curtis

15 May 24

RE: Last summer was the warmest in 2,000 years, records show. AP story by Seth Borenstein. The Hamilton Spectator 15 May 24.

The headline and story were actually tests of gullibility: if you believed them, you’re gullible.  They can’t possibly know what they claim to know.

First, there are no temperature records that go back 2,000 years; and there are no trees scattered around the world that are 2,000 years old.

Second, there is no theory that connects tree-ring thickness to average annual temperature. What kind of tree these “researchers” relied on goes unstated.  Anyone who’s actually seen a tree-ring, knows that they can vary considerably in thickness as you trace it around the trunk.

Third, before the hockey stick graph, a theory was proposed (DA Graybill & SB Idso 1993) that CO2 fertilization could thicken tree rings: and the very same tree ring data were used in 1998 to make the famous hockey-stick graph, which is based on temperature!

Lastly, what was going on 2,000 years ago that made it hotter than last summer?

These alleged studies are all faked to wipe from memory the Roman and Medieval Warm periods, the Dark Ages cold period and the Little Ice Age to protect the hockey stick graph, which doesn’t show them.

So, how gullible were you?

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They still hate Harris

Vincent J. Curtis

13 May 24

RE: ‘Common sense’ was anything but. Editorial written by John Cartwright, Chair of the Council of Canadians. The Hamilton Spectator 13 May 24

When the Left fixes its hate on someone, that hate is undying.  The Left fixed its hate on former Ontario Premier Mike Harris, and to this day it can’t let it go, as the article written by the Chair of the pretentiously named “Council of Canadians” amply demonstrates.

Harris became hated by the Left because he proved that taxes could be lowered, government could be made smaller, and budgets could be balanced; and to the Left that demonstration is an unforgivable crime, for it explodes all their myths of government.  That Cartwright still goes out of his way to slime Mike Harris only proves that Harris and his “Common Sense Revolution” are consequential to this day.

Although they are different men, in different times, and in different levels of government, Pierre Poilievre and Mike Harris are confounded together from their common phraseology of common sense government; and the alleged evils of one are smeared on the other by the Chair of the Council of Canadians, out of fear that treasured myths may get busted again.

The hatred of the Left endures forever; just as their errors never get admitted.

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The psychological sadism of climate nuttery

The psychological cruelty of climate nuttery

Vincent J. Curtis

13 May 24

RE: Climate anxiety is more common than you think. Op-ed by Maliha Ibrahim, Trevor Lehmann, and Natalie Thomas.  Ibrahim is a professor of counselling psychology at Yorkville University and member of the Climate Psychology Alliance – North America, Canada Chapter.  Lehmann is a career counsellor and founding chair of the Climate -Informed Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Thomas is a professor in the college of arts at the university of Guelph-Humber, and Conestoga College. The Hamilton Spectator 13 May 24.

(To summarize the above credentialled pretentiousness: they’re activists, and therefore untrustworthy.)

Nobody suffers from “climate anxiety” while taking a trip to Florida.  Many sane people from northern climes move to Florida.  People go to Florida from colder climates for the warmer climate offered by Florida.  So, how could “climate anxiety” arise in people as a result of a warmer climate?

It turns out, if you read the article, that it’s the fearmongering over climate change that causes “climate anxiety.”  “The impacts of climate change are profound, affecting everything from extreme weather events to changing ecosystems, to volatility on farms (what?) and in food production” they say.  None of this is true, of course, but such claims can alarm the uninformed, and I can imagine a constant diet of this fearmongering nonsense could cause anxiety in the young.

To the extent that, since 1979, there’s any warming at all, it is found in milder winters and in the high latitudes.

It’s not climate change per se that’s causing anxiety because, for practical purposes, it’s not detectible by people; it’s the fearmongering by the psychological sadists of the climate-nutter movement that’s responsible.  And if you go deeper, the anxiety is found among people who are pre-disposed to say they have it in the first place.

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Microplastic dust: the cause du jour

Vincent J. Curtis

6 May 24

RE: Microplastics: a mega problem. Op ed by Tricia Clarkson, who is co-chair of the Peterborough Alliance for Climate Action.

That a story on microplastic dust would be written by the head of a “climate action” committee merely proves that “microplastics!” is replacing climate as the woke-progressive cause du jour.  She can claim that “scientists are finding these harmful fragments in every part of our bodies” all she likes, but it’s still bunkum. She can claim that some “study” found heart disease patients with microplastics in the blood vessels on either side of their necks” (which would be in the carotid arteries) and this too is bunkum. And all the rest about microplastic dust particles raining down on us and in our drinking water.

If microplastic dust particles existed, they would refract light. We could see them, just as we see ordinary dust; we could see white particles in water, floating on top, on the bottom of the container, or turning the clear water murky, depending upon the density of the plastic in question.  Our bodies do not absorb indigestible solid particles like dust: they pass out the digestive tract unabsorbed. If somehow microplastic particles were floating around the bloodstream like tiny blood clots, they would immediately induce strokes and thrombosis whenever they blocked a capillary.  Yet, none of this is observed.  And never mind that the mechanism by which microplastics are created in such enormous volumes remains a mystery.

Microplastics is just the latest in a long line of scares in the attempt to force modern society to stop using wonderful, healthy, and inexpensive modern materials.

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Plastic fairy dust

Vincent J. Curtis

1 May 24

In its editorial of April 30^th, the Dogs Nest Dispatch casually asserts that “plastics are clogging our waterways” and speaks of the “microplastics raining down on us all.” Neither claim is remotely true. Which of Canada’s waterways are “clogged” with plastics? I don’t know of any.  And as to the statement that microplastics are raining down: I see no evidence of such a phenomenon.  This microplastics business is nothing more than yet another global scare campaign against those mysterious “chemicals” which have proven so useful to mankind.

Plastics refract light.  If plastics, micro or otherwise, were literally “raining down” as is the claim, we should be able to see it, just as we see snow fall and stay on the ground. If they were in our drinking water, they would be seen floating on top, sunk to the bottom of the glass, or giving the water a murky cast. But none of this is in evidence, anywhere.  And wishing doesn’t make it so.

The Dispatch has sold its soul to woke-PC causes, and that’s precisely what this anti-plastics campaign is all about: the woke-PC cause of ridding the world of something good and useful. Hence, the Dispatch pretends as if microplastic rain were “consensus science.”

If unicorns and fairy dust became the new woke-PC cause, would the Dispatch speak of them approvingly, as the “consensus science”?

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