CHAPTER 21—Part 2
THE THIRD SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
Milanko opened the conference by calling the educators to task. “It is hard for me to comprehend how far our once enlightened educational faculties have drifted away from the Scientific Method. We now know the geological history of the earth based on the work of many scientists in the past to include my own father, Epler. But you have not discussed the importance of geologic timeframes with your students. We have confirmed the past hypotheses of continental drift and plate tectonics. The theories of Ortellihog, Wegenhog and Hesshog have been validated.
We have determined the cyclical behavior of uneven heating of the earth and the causes of ice formation and its disappearance, the growth and recession of glaciers, and the cycles of solar activity. We have even determined the frequencies of global ocean currents to a reasonable degree of accuracy. But you have not taught any of this to your students. Instead, you have embraced the propaganda of climate alarm hucksters and political power brokers. You have told your students that correlations are proofs of causations. You have even agreed that there is such a thing as a scientific consensus. Of course, there is no such thing. It is contrary to the Scientific Method. We have seen one contrarian view after another shatter the ‘consensus view’ as well they should.
Many of you were students when my father used the Scientific Method to convince you and your professors at the time that the earth was indeed round, the earth circled the sun, and the earth’s crust was moving about. You surely remember the proofs of continental drift and plate tectonics. Perhaps you have forgotten the ‘scientific consensus’ at the time was contrary to that now proven science. Now I want to take you back to that time of pure scientific progress. Consider the onion.”
MILANKO’S ONION
Milanko held a large onion in the air for all to see then placed it on a carving table. He carefully cut the onion in half and held up one half. “Please observe the layers of this onion. The outer layers represent the various sections of the atmosphere, next the earth’s crust, the mantle and finally the core.” Then Milanko picked up another onion. “Let’s remove the outer skins, the atmosphere if you will.” Then he took a pen knife and carved some curved lines on the onion, each cut was about an eighth of an inch deep. Using the pen knife, he carefully removed one intact piece of the onion. “This piece of the onion is a continent.” Then he removed another piece of the onion. “This is another continent. Of course, you can see how they fit together. You just saw me create them. Now the continents are pieces of Nature’s jig saw puzzle. That was our first clue on continental drift, the apparent fit of the continents.” He set the pieces back down on the table. “Now, we know that fossils on the various continents show us which continents were connected at one time in the geological past. This has also been confirmed by the pattern of mountain ranges which were broken when the continents moved apart.”
Milanko stopped and asked for a drink of water which a shaking student brought to him. After a short swig, he continued. “Now we also know that some of these continents moved from the equator to the polar regions. We have both fossil records of animals and also plants in the form of black rocks that are in the polar regions now but could have only been alive in the equatorial tropics. Later on, we would discover the mechanics involved with these moving continents. We would see the clues provided by volcanic eruptions that formed islands, separations on the seafloor, and the collisions of continents with different effects. Sometimes mountains were created at the point of the collision while sometimes one continent would be turned downward into the mantle while the other continent would rise. In some cases, one continent would move alongside another creating a line of significant seismic stress. All of this causes a changing landscape and would, of course, create different climate conditions. But let me remind you, these changes were in a geological timeframe. Now let’s take a lunch break and resume in an hour. We will focus on climate modeling in our next session.”
After the lunch break, Milanko began once again with an onion. “Now let’s look at the onion as a model of the earth that we can describe in mathematical terms. We have written all the equations pertinent to the movement of the earth in its orbit around the sun. We have calculated the gravitational effects of the sun, the moon and other planets. Using our understanding of continental drift and plate tectonics, we can move the continents around the globe, mathematically speaking of course. Using fluid mechanics and phase behavior analysis, we can describe the atmosphere and oceans with the calculus and differential equations. How should we proceed?”
Now Milanko took a larger carving knife and started to make evenly spaced, quarter inch deep cuts around the circumference of the onion that formed little square sections. Then taking the pen knife, he plucked out one of the little squares, actually a little cube, right out of the onion and placed it on the table. “This is how we do it. We write the equations for this one little cube first. Then with the help of super computers, we expand these equations to all the other cubes that make up the surface of the onion. Keep in mind that each cube has multiple layers that represent the difference zones of the atmosphere, the land areas and the oceans. The computer output should be presented as an actual visual representation of the earth showing clouds, wind currents, ocean currents and other effects.” Then Milanko paused to let the idea sink in. Then he issued a warning. “Do not try to simplify the computer output to a set of computer graphs of a single variable versus time. The idea is to present the data as a real time dynamic, animated version of the earth’s weather and climate patterns. This scientifically-based visualization should exactly match the latest meteorological data, accurately hind cast the last millennia where we have actual data, and it should give a reasonable approximation of the climate for the past several millennia as determined by the ecology and paleontological experts who have been researching those timelines. Only then should we use the models to produce projections of future climate conditions.” Milanko glanced at Drs. Pencer and Risty. Both were grinning from ear to ear. For a pig, that is a very big grin.
Milanko then continued with his warning to the educational faculty members, many who were frowning and moving uncomfortably in their chairs. “The scientific community has been called upon to develop projections of climate change that can be used to set government policy that will be useful to the public. But, while this seems noble on its face, it can lead to the danger of having special interests manipulate the political community which is itself in charge of the research purse strings. This creates an unlevel playing field between researchers. Now we have the alarmism of the Urasian scientists that has focused on one single component of the climate system, Carbon Dioxide. And unfortunately, we have seen the scientific community succumb to the temptation of governmental research funding that may be politically driven. The purse strings themselves have strings attached. I urge you to be wary of this possibility as you plan your school curriculums and determine your research areas and goals.” With that final challenge from Milanko, the Conference adjourned.