Chez Chesler

Attribution of polar warming to human influence : Abstract : Nature Geoscience: "We find that the observed changes in Arctic and Antarctic temperatures are not consistent with internal climate variability or natural climate drivers alone, and are directly attributable to human influence." Maybe I'd have to read the article, but I don't see how "The Antarctic is getting warmer" distinguishes between "The Antarctic is getting warmer from human causes" and "The Antarctic is getting warmer from natural causes." It seems at best they've ruled out natural causes they've considered, if their models are right. Maybe if I stopped hearing "It's been 90 degrees all week, damned Global Warming", and if someone explained to me why spending less on heating oil, having a longer growing season, and living a little closer to the beach are such bad things, this topic wouldn't annoy me so much.

Remember when oil prices spiked in the summer? At the time, the blame was placed on speculators. (Other sources did not blame speculators.) I didn't understand this. A speculator doesn't make the market, the speculator is betting on the market. (I've noticed that every time the weatherman says it's going to rain, we get rainly weather. I wish he'd stop saying we're getting rain.) For everyone who commits to buying oil at a certain price, for a price, there is someone who takes that price now, betting that he'll be able to buy the oil to sell at that price at a lower price. I was wondering who those speculators were. Now I know, because the Boston Globe said I'm supposed to feel sorry for people who locked in their home heating oil contracts at $4 per gallon.

Labels: contracts, free markets, laissez-faire, oil, speculators, zero-sum