Summary of my gypsy van expedition

10th Dec leave Queensland
– climb in Blue mountains; Christmas in Victoria, Falls Creek walks; Arapiles climbing; Grampians walks; march Shepparton Fruit pick, then up rapidly via Newell Highway to Coonabarbaran, then Qld. in april 09


4.5 months of travel…. On a few thousand dollars, with a 3 thousand dollar van.
And some life-changing experiences in the Warrumbungles etc.
2.5 weeks fruit picking , 1 week kids camp.
I met French backpackers who were working 12 hrs a day, 17$ per hr, free accommodation, on a farm just nth of Qld border (a better deal than most fruit picking farms). So if I ever want to take a year off, travel, sea kayak etc and do casual work , I know it’s possible.

It gave me a big sense of freedom (eg driving on deserted highways with huge plains), and reminded me of one of my top enjoyements in life – mystical communion with nature, and getting away from the predicability and routine of suburban life.

Joining the Army

1. King Leonidas, of the Spartans, in full warrior mode

2. Mosley – the British Nazi leader, barracking for Hitler and “Peace”… or slavery and brutality under a fascist regime.
3. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
4. The Boating party – Renoir. If we want this kind of peace and insouciance, we need to fight wars from time to time to protect just that.
5. The great Massoud – leader of the Northern Alliance against the Russians, then the Taliban. Assassinated just after sept 11 by Al-Quaeda men posing as journalists.
6. –
7. Joan of Arc

“We believed without proof that peace was the natural state and the substance of the universe, that war was only a temporary agitation on its surface. Today, we recognize our error: the end of war was merely the end of this war.”

- Jean Paul Sartre, commenting on WWII.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

- Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy - January 20th 1961

“War is horrible, but slavery is worse.” -Churchill

"We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf." (George Orwell)


I have joined the Army, Infantry corps. In a few days, I start the Army recruit course.

After my epiphany when I almost died with a ruptured appendix (see Jan 08), I realized I had to use my potential in a fuller way. And then I found out that I was not too old to Join the Defence forces.
Many of the skills (navigation, camping, carrying a big pack…) I got from being an outdoor instructor can be crossed over into the infantry. And I was motivated to be part of the force that was tackling terrorism worldwide. So I applied.

I applied in Jan 08, and got final confirmation in Jan 09, after a battery of tests – IQ, Psych, medical… and big delays in getting paperwork for my former Army reserve service. Then I had to wait for the next Rifleman recruit course.

I am no spring chicken, but am fit for my age. During the waiting time, I increased my cross-country running frequency and performed series of pushups afterwards, with a clear goal motivating me to push myself. I had a special black diary in which I noted what I did sport-wise. Eg
Run uphill. Pushups: 10,20,20
I would run from 30 minutes to 1 hour – more would have been overtraining.
And at falls creek, I decided to see what I was capable of and ran 15km with a small backpack at 1700m.

I continued working as an outdoor instructor, getting increasingly professional . I found the cross-country running helped me be a better and happier instructor – I had more stamina, and more reserves in what is quite a draining job.

Missions in East Timor and humanitarian relief (eg Bandah Aceh after the Tsunami) etc would be good to take part in. The defence force is actually the most efficient and equipped humanitarian organization, as was demonstrated after the tsunami, much to the jealousy of some NGOs.
It remains to be seen if I do get posted overseas, but even if I stay in Oz, I will at least be a cog in the machine.

I have met a few serving members, and was impressed by their humanity and strength. I am looking forwards to serving whith such people.

I know I will sometimes chaff under restrictions, and no organization is perfect.
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As others have remarked, contrary to some stereotypes, defence force personnel are amongst the most selfless and compassionate people there are.
Now, I don’t mean “compassion” for mass murderers, or sentimental /Marxist compassion for terrorism as being “the revolt of the oppressed”. The latter is merely the projection of rich country left-wing beliefs onto people who act out of religious hatred and a desire for global radical Islamic domination. - As it is clear from the speeches of their radical preachers ( to cite one example, the London preacher who wanted the death penalty for homosexuality, and the imposition of Islamic law in the UK). Or to cite a terrorist after a French tanker was bombed in the Gulf:

We would have preferred a US ship, but that’s ok, they are all infidels anyway.

No, I mean real compassion – active compassion that entails actually doing something at some cost to oneself, such as rescuing someone from a burning house (or from a mountain in the French Alps, as I have done) or tending to an injured enemy. And which sometimes means putting one’s life at risk.

I have Compassion for the Afghans, who are tired of war and now are attacked and tortured by the Taliban. Compassion for the moderate muslims and others worldwide from Malaysia to Holland to the UK, who are intimidated and killed by the radical branch of Islam, which is a thuggish mafia, worse again than Hitler, and sharing many of his hatreds: Jews, Capitalism, Modernity, the Open society, America.

Although paradoxically enough, Islamic radicals use the Internet, email, You-tube to diffuse their messages of bile and hate… all of which are very modern and invented in… the great Satan USA, with the help of freely available credit and capital. Can you imagine a start-up company inventing You-tube in a stifling medieval Islamic dictatorship like Afghanistan under the Taliban ? Neither can I. They use to even beat people up for listening to music.

If I make it through the training in one piece, my aim is to be as close to the point of the sword as possible. My sword will flash and the heads will roll. I will let them know there is still life left in western civilization. And they will feel my “rage divine”.
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On the Nature and Danger of Terrorism:

Consider an editorial published in a Lebanese paper on August 20, 2003, the day after a bomb-laden cement truck destroyed the United Nations’ center of operations in Baghdad:

“Yesterday’s operation against the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations exemplifies this mentality of destruction. Expel all mediators. Banish every international organization. Let things collapse. Let electricity and water be cut off, and the pumping of oil cease. Let theft prevail. Let universities and schools close. Let businesses fail. Let civic life cease. And at the end of the day the occupation will fail. ‘No!’ protests Joseph Samara, ‘at the end of the road, there will be a catastrophe
for Iraq. . . . The attack against the United Nations’ headquarters in Baghdad belongs to another world: it is a form of nihilism, of absurdity, and of chaos hiding behind fallacious slogans, which proves the convergence among those responsible for this action, their intellectual limitation and their criminal behavior.’ ”

Andre Glucksman (french intellectual) on the new warfare:

We have entered another world. The threat of a new Ground Zero, small or great, advances behind a mask. The human bomb claims the power to strike anywhere, by any means, at any time, spreading his nocturnal threat over the globe, invisible and thus unpredictable, clandestine and thus untraceable. The terrorist without borders makes us think about him always, everywhere. Without an accidental delay on the tracks—just a few minutes—the pulverization of two trains in Madrid, at the Atocha station, would have claimed 10,000 victims, three times more than in Manhattan. Then there was London. Whose turn is next? Each of us waits for the next explosion.

The business of terrorists, after all, is to terrorize—so said Lenin, an uncontested master in the field. The ultimate refinement lies in the inversion of responsibility. Operating instructions: I take hostages, I cut off their heads, I show them on video; those who beg for mercy must address themselves to their governments, who alone are to blame for my crimes: my hubris is their problem. The less the terrorist’s restraint, the more he causes fear and the sooner you will yield in tears, or so he believes.

Recall the cries of hostage Nick Berg, agonizing as his torturers persisted laboriously over his bent body. “You know, when we behead someone, we enjoy it,” one of them informs us. “We did not kidnap to frighten those we hold,” another corrects him, “but to put pressure on the countries that help or might help the Americans. . . . It is not a good thing to decapitate, but it is a method that works. In a fight, Americans tremble. . . . Besides, I tried to negotiate an exchange of prisoners for Nick Berg. It was the Americans who refused. They are the ones truly responsible for his death.” Terrorist hubris bases its arguments on uncontrollable drives: I can’t help myself—give up! A similar strategy shows up on playgrounds: Stop me or I’ll do something terrible! The terrorist refines this rationale; he draws out his pleasure, prolongs death, cuts the throat slowly, goes beyond physical torture.

To resurrect the dead, if only by video, in order to execute them a second time: this compulsion prolongs war infinitely from the other side of life. It is pure hatred. A traditional war, however savage, comes to an end. Terrorist war, given over to limitless fury, knows no cease-fire. For the demonstration of force it substitutes the demonstration of hatred, which, nourished by its own atrocities, becomes inextinguishable.

The fight to avoid the Somalization of the planet is just beginning, and it will probably dominate the twenty-first century. If they resist the sirens of isolationism, Americans will learn from their mistakes. Europe will either resolve to help them or abandon itself to the care of the petro-czar Vladimir Putin, who stands ready to police the old continent, while preaching antiterrorist terrorism, with his devastation of Chechnya as a case in point. The borderless challenge of emancipated warriors allows us little leisure for procrastination .

Book: The Trouble with Islam

I read bits of “the Trouble with Islam” by Irshad Manji (a gay woman , from a Muslim family, living in Canada) and realise that there are rifts and contradictions and obsessions within Islam. I have met and worked with decent muslims – I do not make a blanket accusation, but as she says:

Rather than own our dysfunction, we reflexively blame America, Israel, Christianity, materialism, MTV, McDonald’s, and the ever-convenient Jews. An equally popular coping mechanism is to remain mute about our self-inflicted shortcomings, for fear of damaging relations with our higher-ups — be they parents, imams, or even secular leaders of our communities.
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Respected Ms. Manji, people like you serve as a source of energy for the ones like me, living in Muslim states, who cannot afford to ’speak out loud’. I tried to, but I was made to realize that I would offend many and win almost none, with harassment being the cherry on the top. May Allah always bless you with the best. And bless me with the courage to stand up, like you have chosen to.” - Muhammad Khurram Yaqub, Lahore, Pakistan.


http://www.irshadmanji.com/

My path since 9-11-2001

Sept 11, 2001

I am in Canada – in a backpacker’s hostel on the West Coast
I have just hitched a ride to this small town, and watch the scenes of sept. 11 being played over on the Hostel TV.

I take a shower, in shock. Then I find myself sobbing in the shower, under the water.
I sob for the victims in the towers, for the terrorists brainwashed by radical texts into their hatred for the infidels, who died committing such a crime.
It strikes me at the time that they were like a child breaking another child’s toy in spite “I envy you your toy, so I’m going to break it, so there”. An infantile rage of primitive Islam against the far more successful and opulent modern western world.

Later I learn that 100 different nationalities including Muslims, artists’ lofts, import-export companies, bankers, philanthropic societies were present in the towers – a Babel of modern enlightenment, artistic and business creativity and diversity.

In Islamic radicalism, a new satanic death-cult of grunting gargoyles has risen, foaming with hatred and rage and vowing to destroy everything that does not convert to it’s zombie culture.

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New York: the metropolis which prefigures the future: a multi-ethnic melting pot, all citizens under a simple constitution, which enforces democracy, the rule of law, accountability of rulers, the right to eject them from rule, using militias in the last recourse – should the ruler become a dictator. And which elevates the freedom to pursue one’s fancy , whether it takes one to riches, or to rags – “the pursuit of happiness” as above the state’s diktats, or comfort, or predictability, or the stifling pursuit of a levelling equality which has sapped the spirit of the French and done so much harm (and has led it to the the-state –owes-me-a-living and stuff everyone else , suicidal chaos which it it presently experiencing).
As one French entrepreneur living in NY at the time said:

No state safety net here, but that very fact is a statement: we believe in you; you can do it, providence and your hard work will see you through.

The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. And try again.

The USA is the melting pot of the world – a new world consciously created by the founding fathers to be the freest country in the world – a misunderstood quantum leap away from old Europe, it’s wars, it’s ideological death machines: Nazism and Communism. And it’s attempt to enter stasis (no change) via nanny-state smothering socialism which ends up making many of it’s citizens feel as alive and self-directed as Zombies.

And now the death-cult of radical Islam, which worships suicide as a weapon.
Which challenges the last man standing to a high noon confrontation. Will Bush follow the Europeans’ advice and not respond ? should he follow their advice and be like the beaten wife who seeks to be nicer to her ogre so that he might beat her less (fat chance) ?
He does not, and the vitality and backbone of the US and some allies will be on display in the years following 9/11. Much to the hatred and bile of those in the west who purport to be sophisticated in their contempt of western civilization (whose branch they are sitting on and cutting off) , and particularly that independent entity which does not bow to their elitist pseudo-thought – that entity which values personal freedom above enforced equality, the USA.

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I spend the next few years reading articles and books, trying to understand the enemy and how we can defeat him.

I did not buy into the self-flagellating ideas that were bandied around by some, that 9-11 was punishment for… what exactly ? stopping the genocide of the Kurdish Muslims in Kosovo ? Stopping Saddam H. invading Saudi Arabia (one of his ambitions) ?

or helping that tiny country , Israel – if 10 of thousands of arabs jews were fleeing persecution in arab lands and other jews from Russia etc were also fleeing persecution, where exactly were they supposed to go ? onto Mars, maybe. And the arabs have never cared much for the Palestinians – Egypt refused to give them part of the Sinai, which is huge. No, the real problem with Israel is that it is not a tribal Islamic society: it is cosmopolitan, women wear shorts and fight in the army ! imagine that! And it is successful – as Egyptian president Nasser said in the 70s:
how can we tolerate that they make the desert flower when we can’t even get close ?

Envy and tribal hatred, nourished by the radical islam of Hamas and company, which even Palestinians are become tired of. And the national socialist (Nazi) Baath party in Syria. (and in Irak under Saddam)

And say Israel was handed to the lions, what has that conflict got to do with the persecution of Buddhists , Hindus and Christians worldwide by radical muslims ? or blowing up a secondary school in Beslan (Russia is not exactly an ally of Israel) Or the Mumbai attacks ? or some UK preachers saying they are in favor of the death penalty for homosexuality ?
or… the thousands of death threats, bashings, murders worldwide.

It was clear to me we were up against some sort of conquering ideology, but I wasn’t quite sure what they wanted to impose on us.

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Over the years, I link other events together – the destruction of the Buddhist statues by the Taliban, The beating up of gay queens in Amsterdam’s gay pride day by groups of Muslims, the killing of Theo van Gogh in Holland, the Beslan massacre where radicals blew up a secondary school with kids in Russia (which led me into cold fury), the Bali bombings, the civil war against radical Islamists I remember occurred in nearby Algeria in the 90s, the riots in Paris in 2005, where mostly Muslim rioters torched schools and buses with cries of “Allah akbar” – “God is great” , the muslim enclaves in Sweden where no-one dares to go…
I read “Londistan” by Melanie Philips, and see how radical preachers start the conveyor belt which led middle-class cricket-playing British Muslims to hate the modernity and diversity of their country and blow themselves up in the tube in 2005.

And of Sayyid Qutb, who wrote in the 1930s, mixing Islam with Marxism, and was the inspiration for the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, and then of Al-Quaeda, together with Wahab (founder of Wahabism – Saudi-style radical Islam).

Should I travel to America, and become flimsy, and ordinary, ... Is there other than Islam that I should be steadfast to in its character and hold on to its instructions, in this life amidst deviant chaos, and the endless means of satisfying animalistic desires, pleasures, and awful sins? [23]

Finally, Qutb offered his own explanation in Ma'alim fi-l-Tariq, arguing that anything non-Islamic was evil and corrupt, while following Sharia as a complete system extending into all aspects of life, would bring every kind of benefit to humanity, from personal and social peace, to the "treasures" of the universe.[24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayyid_Qutb

On returning from a trip to the USA, Qutb said “the world is one big brothel !”.

I read arab-american writers such as Faoud Ajami, who point out that Irak is far more important to Al-Quadea than Afghanistan. The latter being just out of the stone age, and having few resources, whereas irak has the oil, and is the historic seat of the Muslim kingdom (Baghdad).
(Hence Obama is being simplistic when he says that we should have just focused on Afghanistan. Once the war in Irak became a fight against al-Quaeda, pulling out would have been suicidal – as Bernard Kouchner ex-boss of doctors without borders (MSF) was bold enough to say from France).

I read of Somalian-born Ayan Hirsi Ali, who speaks out against the radicalisation of Muslims in Holland, and against the non-intervention of the law in Muslim enclaves where women are beaten (and form most of the population in Dutch women’s shelters) and are even killed in Honor killings.
The killer of film-director Theo van Gogh pins a note on him, addressed to her. And now she is under permanent death threat.

The gentle and cultured Europe I grew up in has become a civil-war zone.


Grenoble 1999: I watch in rage as on the football pitch below, a young fit muslim 14 yrs old or so, kicks a be-spectacled jewish looking lad in the shins, down to the ground, makes him beg , then kicks him again to make him get up. And repeats, encouraged by a small crowd of other young muslims.

I realise years later this is a age-old religious hatred of jews playing itself out. He has probably heard his father talk of jews as pigs and apes.

A short while later, this alpha male stops kicking his ball for a moment to kick a young Peruvian-looking lad in the shins. The jew was serious fun to hate, but social Darwinism, Nazi-style is always fun.

Elsewhere in France:

And then the Muslim women I see being screamed at and sworn at by their husbands in public, as docile and passive as lambs.

I see teenage girls being intimidated.

In Paris, from my office window, I see a 5 yr old muslim girl walking along with 2 muslim boys her age, and an eastern-european looking mother with a pram. The 5 yr old girl is playful, and wants to play with the boys she does not seem to know well (I assume to be cousins or friends of her family). Then one of the boys wants her to know the score – to know that spontaneous fun is not what is expected of her, rather : fearful submission is what is expected. He punches her in the stomach in an uppercut movement. She bends over, winded, shocked, and shouts. He looks on with satisfaction. Then they move off, the woman wearing a perverse smug look – I assume she has gotten similar treatment.

In France, I see this kind of thing being played out on a street level, everywhere.

I also work and talk with decent and humane Muslims, but I realise there is something in Muslim culture which pushes some to these fascist and misogynistic behaviours.

I being to realize that if the US pulls out of irak, and hands a victory to Al-quaeda’s irak Chapter, the radicals in Europe and all over the world will become much emboldened and things will become much worse.

As a terrorist said after a French oil tanker was hit in the gulf:
We would have preferred a US tanker, but they’re all infidels anyway

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I become disgusted by the democrats in the US and the most of the chattering classes in Europe, who obviously want Irak to fail, and to hell with the millions of Irakis who want democracy, freedom and a decent life, so long as the defeatocrats can score points against Bush.
I want to grab them by their lapels and shake them out of their suicidal narcissism and blindness. If Irak is handed to al-quaeda, we are all in trouble ! this isn’t a game of point-scoring, your attitude can have disastrous consequences. I want to say to them.
As Bernard Kouchner said in 2007 or so:
The future of much of the world depends on what happens in Irak

In 2001-2003, I wanted to be part of it. I would have gladly volunteered to go and kick Saddam’s rotten ass in Irak. But I was in France, and I knew the French army would not go in. Not until Chirac had seen that the Americans and their allies had done the dangerous work, that is. I did briefly consider the UK army, but was concerned I wouldn’t fit in to the British culture, which I knew was fairly unique and not really me, having lived there in 2003.

I was beginning to realise I was not a European, in many ways – my way of thinking fit more into the New World : America, Canada, Australia. Pioneering, quick to adopt new and more efficient ways of doing things, unhampered by much historical baggage or a hankering for a once-was empire. Optimistic and forward looking.

And I was tired of the knee-jerk anti-Americanism I saw in Europe. The US was dammed for toppling a Stalin-like dictator in Irak, but then also dammed for not intervening in Sudan. But the Europeans, for the most part, intervened nowhere at all… not even in their own countries where entire urban sections were becoming violent Muslim enclaves.

They were like kids throwing small stones at builders working hard, risking their lives to build and protect a building which also protected the kids….

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I am encouraged by the small number of courageous Muslim leaders who are speaking out against terrorism:

Thursday, July 03, 2008
Saudi Grand Mufti speaks out on al Qaeda
Arab News:
...
Al-Asheikh called on young Saudis not to be enticed by militants. He further demanded coordinated action from Saudis and residents to uncover members of the group.
In a nine-point statement, the mufti said the criminal acts planned by the militants would not come from the mind of a true believer, adding that these militants were acting as tools in the hands of the enemies of Islam and Saudi Arabia. Al-Asheikh, who is the Kingdom’s highest religious authority, said Islam does not allow the killing of innocent people. He also cautioned Muslim youth against deviant ideologies whose proponents want to undermine the Kingdom’s security.

“You should be aware that these militants, who claim to work for the cause of Islam and defend Muslims, actually hide their vested interests and vicious objectives,” he said.
Al-Asheikh warned Saudis and residents against providing protection and refuge to militants.

Sea Kayak Bribie Isl. Qld

what a sunset !

Rented a Kayak for 2 days,

Then did a 2 day trip with Caz, sea kayaking along the inside passage of bribie island, just north of Brisbane. Great views of the glasshouse mnts (see above). And it reminded me how relaxing sea kayaking is. You carry all the weight in hatches , not on yr back , (eg 15 litres of water) and as a result you hardly notice it. We had a great sunset at the National park campsite. I could have continued for another 5 days or so more... up the coast, past Noosa.

Then drove up to Noosa – paradise on the sunshine coast (apart from the occasional hoon on drugs). Aus’s California. To get my gear ready , and put the van in storage at a storage place at Eumundi. Staying with my mother, who as luck has it, is house-sitting a big house next to a mangrove lake.

now got a wireless internet modem (virgin) - so I can update my blog from almost anywhere. yay !

Jules since the Warrumbungles

0: Caz in front of Tropical Brisbane
1. Sunset in the Warrumbungles, NSW
2. Mt Mitchell path, scenic rim, Qld
3. The best of both worlds.. lake Moogerah, scenic rim, Qld
4. meeting Rosemary at campground, scenic rim, Qld
5. Sunset, lake Moogerah, scenic rim, Qld
6. Mt Barney lodge campsite, morning... life's tough in the van - Not.

Since Coonarbarbaran:

Drove up on the flat Newell Highway, past Silos, up to Goonwindi – first Qld town. Typical Queensland – with palms, big brash signs.
Then across to good old Mt Barney, did a recce day then a week later, did a 5 day camp with 15 yr olds. Great kids , great teacher, for a change. 2.5 days expedition walking up steep slopes, often in drizzle. Some leaches, good views, bush camping.
The 2 days getting 60 kids abseiling and climbing on small cliffs.

I really like the scenic rim area (border with NSW) rainforest slopes and eucalyptus areas, big steep mountains and lakes.

Spent a few days in Brisbane catching up with a friend.
When I looked over Brisbane city, after almost 4 months of travel in my van, it felt like home – the cosmopolitan city in the mangroves. There are still mangroves down on the river.

Let's roll back the 20th century, Not.

Graph Source: UN Panel on Climate Change, 1995

more from Jules on his crusade against the pseudo-science of global warming.

I would rather see poor countries get out of their poverty – have cars and air-con, CAT scans and cheap nrj. Also, it’s fairly evident that poor countries are the ones which take the least care of their environment – eg Indonesia fishing out it’s stocks, and deforesting it’s great forests.
The way out of poverty for 3rd world countries is trade with rich countries, cheap electricity, and industrialization (or and/or services if you are Switzerland). The sooner it becomes evident that man-made Co2 has nothing to do with climate change, the better.

When humanity is colonizing Mars and has Fusion-powered power stations etc, they will look back at the present hair-shirt back to the Hamish-farm movement with amazement.


some cut and paste:


Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said:

“future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”.

Dr Martin Hertzberg, a physical chemist and retired Navy meteorologist, sums up the climate - both intellectual and physical:
As a scientist and lifelong liberal Democrat, I find the constant regurgitation of the anecdotal, fear-mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming to be a disservice to science...From the El Nino year of 1998 until Jan., 2007, the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere near its surface decreased some 0.25 C. From Jan. 2007 until the spring of 2008, it dropped a whopping 0.75 C.

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in history …When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, environmental physical chemist.


http://wattsupwiththat.com/


Lord Monckton recently observed that the exponential forecasts of the UN simply don't match reality [PDF]:

"The IPCC's estimates of growth in atmospheric CO2 concentration are excessive. They assume CO2 concentration will rise exponentially from today's 385 parts per million to reach 730 to 1020 ppm, central estimate 836 ppm, by 2100. However, for seven years, CO2 concentration has been rising in a straight line towards just 575 ppmv by 2100. This alone halves the IPCC's temperature projections."


Roy Spencer argues that the reason there seems to be a consensus among scientists regarding "global warming theory" is that 1) most scientists don't actually conduct research on the forecasting models the theory is based on, and so, though they are scientists, are not any more knowledgeable than laypersons regarding this particular theory and 2) scientists are human too, and as humans, fall victim to group think. Spencer points out that the mathematical models used to predict future climate are NOT akin to the forecasting methods meteorologists use to forecast next week's weather. Some important points: Sure, we are good at predicting whether it will rain tomorrow or in two days, but the validity of even short-term weather forecasts shrinks to nearly zero when trying to predict 10 days ahead or more. Climatologists using mathematical models to predict future climate, say, 100 years from now are playing a whole other ball game.


Czech politician Vaklav Klaus :
Freedom, not climate, is at risk:

http://www.klaus.cz/klaus2/asp/clanek.asp?id=fmhiyKwAStnZ