Real Sceptic

Potholer’s Open Letter To Christopher Monckton

A while back Monckton sort of responded tot he videos Peter Hadfield (Potholer54) made about his misrepresentations and errors on the science of climate change. This eventually did leed to Monckton responding to the videos made about him. And the actual offer for a debate on Watts Up With That.

That article is well worth a read, especially the response Peter made to the claims.

But then silence from Monckton, and he doesn’t delivers on his promise to continue the debate. For which Peter has now called him out on:

Open letter to Christopher Monckton — Please return to the debate

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NASA Bonks Wacky 2012 Claims

A nice video about some of the 2012 nonsense that’s doing the rounds on the internet.

NASA Debunks Wacky 2012 Claims

After all that, you mean the world is NOT going to end on December 21, 2012? Listen up, 2012ers, it’s not really going to happen, hard as that is to bear.

The issue with Dec. 21, 2012 and the predicted disasters that some folks think will come, probably started with the so-called end of the Mayan calendar. Their calendar does not end on Dec. 21, 2012. It’s just the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new one. It’s just like on Dec. 31st, our calendar comes to an end but a new calendar for the next year begins on Jan. 1st .

Niburu is supposed to be a planet that’s four times the size of the Earth. It’s going to get very close to the Earth and cause all kinds of disasters. So this enormous planet is suppose to be coming toward Earth, but if it were, we would’ve seen it long ago and if it were invisible somehow, we would’ve seen the affects of this planet on neighboring planets.

Thousands of astronomers who scan the night skies on a daily basis have not seen this. And then there’s folks who think that NASA astronomers are actually hiding this information so as to prevent panic from the populous. Can you imagine thousands of astronomers who observe the skies on a nightly basis keeping the same secret from the public for several years?

Some folks think there’s going to be a solar storm associated with Dec. 21st of 2012. Now, solar storms do exist. The sun’s activity goes through a cycle that reaches a maximum every eleven years. The next solar maximum when you might expect enhanced solar activity will take place actually in May of 2013. It’s supposed to be fairly mild solar activity maximum and there’s no evidence that there’s going to be any solar storms.

And then we have planetary alignments. There’s a planetary alignment. The sun, the Earth and some of the planets are aligned and this is going to cause some tidal effects on the Earth that’s going to be catastrophic.

Well, first of all, there are no planetary alignments in December of 2012 and even if there were, there are no tidal effects on the Earth as a result. The only two bodies in the solar system that can affect the Earth’s tides are the moon, which is very close, and the sun, which is massive and also fairy close. But the other planets have a negligible effect on the Earth.

One of the myths for Dec. 21, 2012 is that the Earth’s axes are going to somehow shift. The rotation axis can’t shift because of the orbit of the moon around the Earth stabilizes it and doesn’t allow it to shift.

The magnetic field does shift from time to time but the last time it did was 740,000 years ago and it doesn’t do that sort of a shift but every half million years or so. But there’s no evidence that’s going to happen in December and even if it did shift, it’s not going to cause a problem on the Earth apart from the fact that we’re going to have to recalibrate our compasses.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since the beginning of recorded time, there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world and we’re still here.