With some people yes, with others they have gone so far they will lose face if they back down, and others like politicians think if they shout about it loud enough and long enough, the public will believe them even when they are shivering with cold.

I can make almost anyone sound crazy if I twist what they say.

For example, "alarmists" aren't saying "the pause isn't happening, and here's why it is happening". They're saying "The pause is only in surface temperatures, the total heat content of the Earth is still going up. Here's why there's a pause in surface temperatures." You may occasionally get *different individuals* just saying "The pause isn't happening" and "Here's why the pause is happening", either because they don't fully understand the situation, or because they're glossing "The so-called pause doesn't accurately reflect what's actually happening on the planet" into "there is no pause".

Antarctica is... strange. Because of various factors, we would expect Antarctic sea ice (which is, by the way, *only* present in winter, it all melts during the summer) to increase in extent with warming, as the *total* ice mass declines and makes the surrounding water colder and less salty. Different factors are in play in the Arctic, where there is no central land ice mass, and there (at least for now) is permanent sea ice all year. There, there's a pretty simple relationship between warming and melting, where warmer temperatures = less ice.

Predicting weather is hard. Weather and climate are very chaotic systems, that we don't fully understand yet. And they can be influenced by other things that we can't necessarily predict, like volcanic eruptions, or changes in pollution. So, if a prediction is wrong, but we can pin down exactly *why* it was wrong, and it would have been right if that unexpected factor was included, we can pretty reasonably call it as "the underlying theory was right, even though the actual prediction was wrong".

Any more distortions you'd like me to clear up for you?

Don't be so hard on alarmists. These end of the world scenarios have always captured the imagination of a certain number of people. There were those who built bunkers for the nuclear holacost in teh 50's and 60's, some prepared for the food and/or water shortages predicted in the 70's. Religious "end timers" have always been with us. There was the millenium crisis. Disease and a breakdown of the power grid are also causes to prepare for the end of the world.

I, for one, am willing to undulge them. Since public opinion has turned against their cause, there is little chance of any real limits on CO2 emissions. Their little obsession is harmless.

These alarmists are fine. They are normal people who just believed in what they believe. There is really no serious effect, at least for me. Let them do their ways and I, personally, will continue doing what I think is right and fair - in life. Everyone has freedom and this is one the many things in life that you can do for free. So let them be, I don't think they've harmed anything big time, or did they?

Hypochondriacs see everything as a sign of disease. Climochondriacs suffer the same mental disturbance.

Nothing they forecast has come true. All they have left are busted theories, tampered NOAA and GISS data, and fraudulent John Cook surveys.