10 Reasons Why John Kerry Deserves a Magna Cum Laude in Climate Pseudo-Science

Photo Credit: Boston College Chronicle Speaking at the graduation ceremony of his alma mater Boston College, he said:

“If the US does not act and if it turns out that the critics and naysayers and the members of the Flat Earth Society – if it turns out they’re wrong, then we are risking nothing less than the future of the entire planet.”
He claimed:

“Recent reports, one from the UN and one from retired US military leaders warn us, not just of the crippling consequences to come but that some of them are already here. 97 per cent of the world’s scientists tell us that this is urgent. Why? Because crops can’t grow there’ll be food insecurity; if there’s less water because of droughts, if there are stronger and more powerful storms, things will change in a hurry and change for the worse. Climate change is directly related to the potential of greater conflict and greater instability. I’m telling you that there are people in parts of the world today in Africa, they fight each other over water, they kill each other over it. This is not a matter of politics or a matter of partisanship. It’s a matter of science and stewardship. And it’s not a matter of capacity it’s a matter of willpower.”

Hmm. Let’s fisk those statements, shall we?

1. Flat Earth Society. Lazy, inaccurate ad hom directed at people whose only desire that climate science and climate science policy should be evidence-based, rather than derived from modelled forecasts which bear increasingly little resemblance to observed, real-world data.

2. If it turns out they’re wrong… (aka the Precautionary Principle) This presupposes that there are no costs to doing what Kerry wants and acting on climate change now. But, of course, the costs of trying to combat climate change have already run into the trillions of dollars – with no evidence that they have made any difference.

Read more from this story HERE.