HH Lamb On The 20thC Climatic Changes
May 4, 2020
By Paul Homewood
After yesterday’s bit of fun about March 1947, it is worth looking at what HH Lamb had to say about pre and post war period.
The first page concerns the early 20thC up to around 1950:
HH Lamb: Climate, History & The Modern World
There is probably a certain amount of parochiality in it, but the period up to the 1940s was widely regarded as one of benign warming. Equally, the cooling trend which followed definitely raised a lot of alarm bells, both within scientific circles and government.
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Modern science has become over-obsessed with curve fitting and modelling as computer power has become available to all. Experimentation and investigation (as with HH Lambs work) are very much more difficult and don’t produce as many publications as one model.
I am reminded of a poem that I cannot fully remember (or recall the author):
A line is a curve is a bend,
But where and how does it end,
Does if fall and die,
Does it shoot to the sky,
Or, does it just asymptote at the end?
This explains the post war hysteria with trends I think!
Its the way it was addressed that is so significantly different to taday. Then it was subject of study, trends that need understanding. Now its sensationalised hype.
Ditto the way virus epidemics were dealt with.
We have developed a technological society, but at what cost? We seem to have lost any sense of perspective.
And I do think that computers are increasingly being used as a tool of oppression and evil. On balance the internet is decisive and destructive, when it could have been a wonderful thing for humanity.
A large number appear to have lost the capacity for critical thinking, in favour of outsourcing to a third party along with associated responsibility – that being the state in most cases. The foundation of Critical thinking has to be Education. Education appears very focused on what people think as opposed to equipping people with tools to think. I am not full of optimism.
Good post, exactly so, Redrich.
“There is probably a certain amount of parochiality in it, but the period up to the 1940s was widely regarded as one of benign warming. Equally, the cooling trend which followed definitely raised a lot of alarm bells, both within scientific circles and government.”
Climate Scientist Mark Maslin, and Englishman, says that it what lies ahead that counts because his climate models have determined that human activity has turned this interglacial into a super interglacial such that without climate action, the next glaciation will be pushed forward by 500,000 years leaving humanity to cook and roast in 500,000 years of hotter and hotter global hearing.
https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/05/03/the-co2-theory-of-everything/
heating not hearing, sorry
I do like a scientist who talks of ‘benign’ trends instead of ’emergencies’.
I went through a phase of reading about climate stuff while in Norway in the late-90s, John Houghton’s book was a real nightmare, “we’re all doomed”… But then I purchased HH Lamb’s book and have been a confirmed sceptic ever since. The historical perspective is essential to any rational understanding of the climate issue. Cannot recommend HH Lamb’s book highly enough, the ultimate antidote to the modellers’ fantasy world. A must read, if you’re fortunate to be able to get a copy.
“Climate change since 1950.”
Paul – 1950 thru about when, if you would please?
Think I’ll purchase the book – does it have glossy pics in it?
The book was published in 1982.
Definitely worth buying, but the pics are black and white