Climate Questions from the Minnesota GOP’s Tractor Pull Parson. Hilarity begins at about :35.
Don Shelby in the Minnesota Post:
The Minnesota Senate’s most notable authority on global warming comes from East Bethel. Michael Jungbauer was once its mayor. He is in his third term at the state Legislature and he has fashioned himself into a force of nature when it comes to the environment.
But Jungbauer doesn’t believe the planet is warming. In fact, he told me, “I think the earth is going to cool.” From his position on the Senate Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee, he has the power to change the way Minnesota approaches the issue. And his influence is apparent. The Minnesota Legislature has been busy undoing much of Minnesota’s nation-leading policies enacted to deal with global warming.
Sen. Jungbauer is fond of making pronouncements from on high regarding the scientific weakness of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He takes positions in direct opposition to 98 percent of published and peer-reviewed climate, atmospheric scientists and glaciologists. But the water and sewer treatment specialist by day is, apparently, quite knowledgeable on all manner of science. It certainly appears to be. He uses big words and cites studies in his lectures.
No scientist
The problem is, he is not a scientist. Even though his published biography lists his higher education credits from Moody Bible Institute, Anoka Ramsey Community College and Metropolitan State University and that he is working on his master’s degree in environmental policy and that he has a background in biochemistry, it turns out he has never graduated from college. He doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree.He is an ordained minister, of sorts. But, although his official biography says he has a degree from Moody, he does not. In direct answer to my question, Jungbauer responded: “No I did not graduate. But I have a certificate.”
The truth is that Jungbauer was ordained by Christian Motor Sports International out of Gilbert, Ariz. His Senate biography says the organization provides “chapel services, pastoral care, outreach and Christian fellowship at car races, car shows, cruise-ins and tractor pulls.”
He has said he has a major in biochemistry. That suggests he received a degree with enough credit hours to give him a major in that important science. But he does not have a degree in biochemistry. He told me that he is getting a master’s degree in environmental policy at Metropolitan State University, but that school doesn’t have a master’s program in environmental policy. When I asked him about that, he said: “Well, that’s what they told me.”
He tells people from his committee perch “in my tropospherical chemistry class they said there is no scientific evidence that would link CO₂ to higher temperatures.” I don’t doubt someone said that to Sen. Jungbauer, but whoever said it would be the only scientist in the world who thinks that.
But that is not the important point. What’s important is that there is no evidence Jungbauer ever took a “tropospherical chemistry” class. When I confronted him with that inconsistency, he said: “Well, it was part of a discussion in another class I took.”
What comes next? Alex Jones for president?
I’ve never heard of Sen. Jungbauer, but no rational Minnesotan would ever seek to make the climate colder. They’ve got about 8 months of winter up there. As of an hour ago, it is 14 F (-10 C) in Duluth, and 21 F (-6 C) in Minneapolis. <shiver!>
are you an ordained minister, too, Dave?
What do the experts know about their areas of expertise? After all, they’re only experts!
Dunning-Kruger effect fail!
What’s a “tractor-pull parson”?
I think that’s Don Shelby being creative.
The frigid temperatures up there don’t seem to freeze Minnesotans’ creativity:
And more proof of that point…
OH well, since that’s the standard of “proof”, here’s MY proof of global warming:
What’s wit de bandaid on his face, anyhow? And the bandage (or mask?) covering almost the entire face of that other guy at :52 and several other places?
it’s a climate denier with a divinity degree in motor sports. also an alliterative device for a headline.
Where does he get this “20 year” lag in temperature to CO2 increase? Does this have any credible source at all or is it total bull?
there is no instantaneous response to increase in co2. the temp increases we are
seeing now are from co2 released decades ago, the the increased heat only now working
its way thru the system where thermometers can detect it.
This guy is about as expert as his credentials indicate.
It’s a half truth, exactly what one might expect. It is of course a half-lie too.
Because he went to great lengths to deny a link between CO2 and warming, while claiming to have evidence, he never shared any of it.
Note that “That CO2 lags and amplifies temperature was actually predicted in 1990 in a paper The ice-core record: climate sensitivity and future greenhouse warming by Claude Lorius (co-authored by James Hansen):”
http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/1990/1990_Lorius_etal.pdf
Overview here:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-lags-temperature.htm
Perhaps he’d like to sit in on my class in a couple weeks? It’s only a five-hour drive away.
Each semester I do a demo that shows CO2 absorbing infrared energy. To be fair, it is quite complicated- it requires such exotic substances as vinegar and baking soda, and something called a “thermometer”…
fancy schmancey pointy headed intellectuals…..
Re thermometers, according to me, the thermometers are part of the conspiracy!
Oops! Typo!
According to some, the thermometers are part of the conspiracy!
I’m curious, SJ, about your demo. Will you tell us about it?
It’s pretty simple. Take a plexiglass tank that’s split in two. Make CO2 via a vinegar and baking soda reaction and dump the CO2 in one side of the tank. Drop temperature loggers in both sides, and point a heat lamp at it. It’s very imperfect (for a number of reasons), but the CO2 side will heat up at least 1 degree C more than the other.