For the Love of the Weather
I will be in Las Vegas for the 9th International Conference on Climate Change July 7-9. I enjoy attending these because everyone I come in contact with is someone I can learn from. My father and mother taught me to surround myself with people I could look up to. I adapted that attitude in my training, in my work, and in the person I married. And when I go to these events, I am in awe of the people I get to talk with. I bring some of them up quite often in these pages. One has to be careful, given the situation today, to not let your reasons for doing what you do stray. I often feel bad for a lot of people in the anthropogenic global warming camp. How can they possibly walk back their position? It’s the reason why, no matter what metric goes the other way, they either ignore it or create a reason they never had before because they did not forecast it to happen. But what else can they do? Look at the people from their camp that have started to disagree. They are chastised and demeaned. There is a simple reason: Their goal, whatever it is – be it self-esteem, money, power, control, or all of the above – is their god. It’s what they are forever in pursuit of. And when it becomes your god, you can not defy it.
I will be in Las Vegas for the 9th International Conference on Climate Change July 7-9. I enjoy attending these because everyone I come in contact with is someone I can learn from. My father and mother taught me to surround myself with people I could look up to. I adapted that attitude in my training, in my work, and in the person I married. And when I go to these events, I am in awe of the people I get to talk to. I bring some of them up quite often in these pages.
Given the situation we’re in today, we all must be careful to not let our reasons for doing what we do go astray. I often feel bad for the people in the anthropogenic global warming camp. How can they possibly walk back their position? It’s the reason why no matter which way a metric goes, they either ignore it or conjure up another reason for it happening — because they did not forecast it to begin with. But what else can they do? Look at the people from their camp who have started to disagree. They are chastised and demeaned. There is a simple reason: The Climate Ambulance Chasers’ goal, whatever it is — be it self-esteem, money, power, control, or all of the above — is their god. It’s what they are forever in pursuit of. And when something becomes your god, you cannot defy it.
I constantly analyze anything that is important to me. (I drive my wife nuts. If I have a bad workout, or get a cold, I have to figure out why it happened.) And I always analyze my motives. For years I felt like Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire. This line hits me hard because I know exactly how he feels:
I’m forever in pursuit and I don’t even know what I am chasing.
I try to be more like Pastor Eric Liddle, the other character of prime importance in the movie. To paraphrase: God made me for a purpose, but he also gave me a love for the weather. And I see His majesty in it every day.
What strikes me most about the Heartland Conference is that I am with people who are in love with the weather, climate, and their country, and many of them have loved these things longer and stronger than I have.
My stance on global warming is a product of my love for the weather. There is no goal. It’s about having another chance to do what I was made to do. And when I’m with people who I sense have the same ideas, it somehow makes me stronger and more able to run toward what I was made for.
As one gets older, one can get tired. But only when your heart gives out does your strength give in. For me, all this is an affair of the heart.
Its for the love of the weather.
Joe Bastardi is chief forecaster at WeatherBELL Analytics, a meteorological consulting firm.
