The Week That Was: 2022-10-29 (October 29, 2022)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified — how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You only think you know, as a matter of fact. And most of your actions are based on incomplete knowledge and you really don’t know what it is all about, or what the purpose of the world is, or know a great deal of other things. It is possible to live and not know.” — Richard Feynman, [H/t William Readdy]
Number of the Week:$3.8 Trillion
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: Among the issues discussed are the following: One of the perplexing issues coming from satellite measurement of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific is the realization that there are two distinct types of what is called El Niño events. One type is the traditional El Niño, with a warming occurring off the coast of Peru stretching westward. It is followed by a La Niña, a cooling. These changing patterns give rise to the concept called the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), naturally occurring events which change weather worldwide. The normal phase (neutral) is La Niña. A three-month period during the average temperature is more than 0.5°C off normal is called an El Niño if positive, a La Niña if negative
The second type of El Niño is the Warm Pool El Niño, a warming of part of the Pacific which is not followed by a La Niña. In a lecture to the Irish Climate Science Forum (ICSF) and the Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL) Professor Wyss Yim of Hong Kong University explains the two types of El Niños are distinctly different events, with the warm pools formed by underseas (submarine) volcanoes, not changes in atmospheric and ocean weather patterns.
Last week, TWTW discussed Ralph Alexander’s report on how Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports are exaggerated beginning with the IPCC Summary for Policymakers. In response, AMO physicist Howard Hayden pointed out that IPCC reports do not get the basic science correct in discussing the greenhouse effect. So, the exaggerators are exaggerating the IPCC science which is based on an exaggeration of the greenhouse effect.
Jim Steele has a thoughtful presentation on how bad analyses produce bad government policies.
A group called Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council (CHECC) filed litigation in the US Court of Appeals for the Washington DC Circuit against the EPA for its Endangerment Finding. CHECC is ably represented by Francis Menton (Manhattan Contrarian) and Harry MacDougald. The clerks at the DC Circuit rejected the initial filing on the ground that it used an excessive number of acronyms. Key parts of the brief are discussed, and the science issues presented by William Happer and Richard Lindzen will be discussed in the upcoming TWTW.
The Royal Society B published a paper the plasticity of corals in adapting the change ocean pH. Lowering pH is falsely called acidification. The oceans remain alkaline (pH above 7), except for highly localized conditions. In CO2 Science, Craig Idso covered plasticity, the ability of organisms to adapt to changes in its environment. It is good to see that the Royal Society B recognizes this important characteristic.
The UN is beating its war drums in preparing for its 27th annual Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 27) demanding a war on climate change. There is an outpouring of reports from many UN entities. A few of the more outrageous absurdities are discussed.
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Ring of Fire: In addressing changing climate, often confused with changing weather patterns, Professor Wyss Yim of Hong Kong University notes that we must consider various patterns in order of importance. The first order of importance is astronomical forcing and the sun which give rise to global changes such as glacial/interglacial cycles, regional changes such as monsoons seasons and day-to-day changes such as changing temperature in the course of a day, and in the course of the seasons.
The second order of importance is geothermal heat/plate climatology which can change climate locally, regionally, and globally. Short term events, such as major volcanoes can change weather conditions for several years. The 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, the most powerful volcano in recorded human history disrupted weather patterns and temperatures globally, resulting in a “year without a summer” in North America. It resulted in epidemic of diseases and death in Europe. It is estimated that average summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere cooled by 0.53 °C (0.95 °F), resulting in failed harvests and famine. This shows why cooling is more dangerous to human health than warming.
According to Yim, human induced climate change is of third order of importance. We have to fully understand the first two before we can attribute change to human causes, and we do not.
There are three types of volcanoes which send plumes penetrating to the stratosphere. One, the widely recognized terrestrial volcanoes for which the volcanic eruption index (volcanic explosivity index, VEI) has been developed. The classifications are on a scale of zero to eight, zero, with negligible injection of material into the troposphere and eight, with vast injection of material into the stratosphere. (The last VEI-8 volcanic eruption was Taupo in New Zealand 26,500 years ago.) Generally, terrestrial volcanoes result in a cooling, but release water vapor, which causes warming in arid regions, such as deserts and the polar regions.
A second type of volcanoes is submarine, which occur below the surface of the oceans. As geologist Ian Plimer writes in heaven and earth, these are not well understood. The third type are mixed, resulting in the formation of new islands, usually in the Pacific along geological plates, “The Ring of Fire.”
The 1982 eruption of El Chichón in Mexico (VEI of 5, as was Mount St. Helens in 1980) resulted in Hong Kong having the second wettest year on record. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo (VEI 6) resulted in a drought year with the change in atmospheric circulation. The volcanic cloud disrupted a tropical cyclone. These prompted Professor Yim to study volcanoes.
Fortunately, we now have advanced instrumentation to study volcanoes we cannot see, such as the coordinated group of earth observing satellites that cross the equator northbound about 1:30 pm on the local solar time. It is called the Afternoon Constellation, the A-Train. Also, there is the ARGO ocean network of floats observing temperatures, salinity, and currents of the oceans starting this century.
Unfortunately, the ability to observe the effects of submarine (subsurface) volcanoes in the oceans gives rise to many false claims from individuals and organizations, including the IPCC, who do not understand the greenhouse effect. The infrared radiation radiated downward by greenhouse gases cannot penetrate the oceans beyond one millimeter (less than 1/16th of an inch, 0.04 inches). Thus, greenhouse gas warming cannot cause significant ocean warming without significant, persistent, atmospheric warming raising global temperatures. Yet, the IPCC and many of its followers insist that it does with no basis for the claim.
For example, volcanic activity off El Hierro of the Canary Islands caused the Atlantic Ocean to boil immediately above that location, cooking fish. As Yim states, this was quickly blamed on carbon dioxide (CO2) warming. Further, the volcanic warming was transported to the Arctic, causing a reduction in sea ice, also blamed on CO2 warming.
In 2012 to 2016 a highly localized ocean warming occurred in the Pacific northwest, cooking crabs and other ocean life, and when broadened became known as the Pacific Blob. Again, CO2 was immediately blamed. As Yim states, underseas volcanic eruptions can cause prolonged changes in local climate that is falsely attributed to CO2. Sea water temperatures off the US west coast from Portland to Mexico were warmer in 2015-16 than in 1997-98. CO2 was blamed. However, when these events are over, the warming disappears but the false claims remain.
Professor Yim concludes by stating that polar sea-ice changes can be explained by ocean heat waves caused by volcanic activity, rather than by CO2-caused warming. Climate modeling needs to be improved to account for influence of volcanic eruptions on atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Missing heat attributed to CO2 in the oceans is better explained by geothermal heat from submarine eruptions.
“Volcanic eruptions as a natural cause of climate variability (both cooling and warming) is underestimated … Earth is dynamic.”
Yim’s explanations of volcanic warming provide a better understanding of the peaks found in the atmospheric temperature record, particularly the peak of 2016. They also provide a better understanding of the variability of Arctic Sea ice melt and the pulse of warm water that was observed going through the Bering Strait, resulting in alarming reports in 2018. The IPCC blamed it on increasing CO2. The IPCC and its followers are so ideologically driven that physical evidence means nothing to them. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_explosivity_index, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(oceanography), , and https://atrain.nasa.gov/.
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Getting the Basics Wrong: In using basic physics to develop a simple energy constraint equation, AMO physicist Howard Hayden cited the excellent work of Wijngaarden and Happer for the calculation the effects of greenhouse gases on earth’s temperatures for the five widely considered greenhouse gases. In order of significance, water vapor is most important, CO2 is secondary, and the other gases, including methane, are insignificant. Hayden’s essays on the model are found on the SEPP website.
As last week’s TWTW was being finished for distribution, Hayden pointed out a major error in the main body of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6, 2021). Hayden wrote:
“SSP2-4.5 (Shared Socio-economic Pathway #2, TOTAL radiative forcing of 4.5 W/m2 — [from] all changes in greenhouse gases from all gases, all changes in albedo, no changes in solar output), supposedly results in 2.7ºC temperature rise. This is physically impossible.
“This graph [SSP2-4.5 not shown] comes from the TECHNICAL section, so the problem does not lie entirely with the SPM, the political hacks, and the media. The ‘climate scientists’ do not apply Stefan-Boltzmann to their projections, and they utterly fail to understand the Planetary Heat Balance.”
According to the Stefan Boltzmann law, a warming of 2.7ºC requires an increase of 14.8 W/m2 (watts per square meter) in surface IR (infrared) emission and the IPCC range requires a range: 11.3 to 19 W/m2 increase in surface IR emission. There is no physical evidence of such a drastic increase. So, the entire IPCC report is based on an erroneous exaggeration of what is actually occurring. Also, Hayden wrote:
“The projected temperature rise in the graph [Shared Socio-economic Pathway #2] allegedly occurs by 2080-2100 and is not necessarily the equilibrium situation. Assuming that all numbers are true, then we have disequilibrium with more heat going to space than is absorbed from the sun. The surface must therefore be cooling.
“How in thunder does IPCC get to that overheated state?
“They clearly do not understand basic physics.”
So much for the climate scientists who claim that their models are based on “First Principles.” See http://www.sepp.org/science_papers.cfm
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Bad Analysis, Bad Policy: Ecologist Jim Steele produced another thoughtful video how on field trips to meadows, his students immediately insisted that examples of bad land-use policies were examples of the evils of CO2-caused climate change.
“In contrast, as an ecologist I had to consider landscape changes, geological history, changes to hydrology, biological interactions, as well as weather and natural climate changes. And I had been observing those effects for 15 years.”
Steele goes into other poorly understood concepts such as wildfires, flooding, changing weather, and thoughtless “solutions” to these problems. Some of the problems are human caused but unrelated to increasing CO2. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
Into the Pit: Ably represented by Francis Menton (Manhattan Contrarian) and Harry MacDougald, a group called Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council (CHECC) filed litigation in the US Court of Appeals for the Washington DC Circuit against the EPA for its Endangerment Finding. The DC Circuit Court is loaded with judges who consider bureaucratic decision-making as infallible. Thus, the suit has little chance of success. But it may lead to an important paper trail. Mention writes in his blog, the Manhattan Contrarian:
When you take a look at the brief, you will see that we are directly and openly challenging the fake science of predicted catastrophic human-caused global warming from GHGs..(No rule on excessive use of acronyms here at MC.).In this we join our amicus the CO2 Coalition, whose brief was filed on October 21, and discussed here in this post on October 22..Both the Coalition and CHECC follow the basic precept of the scientific method of looking to see whether there are observational data that are inconsistent with and therefore invalidate the hypothesis put forth by the proponents. Both the Coalition and CHECC find such data. Both briefs then quote the famous line of physicist Richard Feynman, ‘If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong.’ Nothing very complicated about that.
Menton goes into the similarity between this fight and the problems Galileo and Kepler, who insisted that planetary movement was heliocentric, had with those who insisted it was geocentric. The main points in the CHECC brief are:
- “EPA uses certain official ‘surface temperature’ records, derived from government agencies NOAA and NASA, as its temperature history. CHECC shows that EPA had no data for these series for most of the world prior to 2000, including none for the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere oceans (about 40% of the earth’s surface right there)..To fill the gap, it simply fabricated data by computer algorithm to create a record consistent with its desired results.
- “EPA claims that the warming in its (flawed) temperature records can only be explained by human influences. But CHECC shows that a structural analysis of credible temperature series from satellites and balloons, after backing out influences only from certain enumerated natural factors (ocean currents, volcanoes, and solar variations), leaves no statistically significant warming left to be explained by human influences.
- “EPA claims its hypothesis is supported by a distinctive warming pattern in the tropical troposphere, known as the ‘hot spot.’ CHECC shows that the tropical ‘hot spot’ does not exist in the real-world data.”
The next TWTW will discuss the brief by Professors Happer and Lindzen and the CO2 Coalition. See link under Litigation Issues.
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Bandwagon Rolling: Parents who raised teenagers may have encountered the dilemma that when many teenagers are caught in a fib, they tell a bigger fib. So, it is the case of the IPCC and other UN entities. To build up to the upcoming COP 27, UN entities and its supporters are releasing reports that are approaching absurdity. The list is impressive. It includes:
UN Environment Programme claims “The Emissions Gap Report 2022 finds that the world must cut emissions by 45 per cent to avoid global catastrophe. Solutions to transform societies exist, but the time for collective, multilateral action is now.” TWTW asserts that by eliminating its increased emissions, China can stop the “global catastrophe” all by itself. Who will force it?
Carbon Brief claims: “If countries meet their 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the terms of the Paris Agreement global temperatures would likely end up around 2.2C to 2.4C, while achieving ambitious net-zero pledges would limit warming to around 1.7C.”
“Elsewhere, a joint analysis from several research institutes, such as Climate Action Tracker and the World Resources Institute (WRI), finds that the world is not doing enough to reach its 2030 climate targets across 40 different indicators, ranging from red-meat production and deforestation through to climate finance and green hydrogen production.” In contrast, TWTW asserts that none of the temperature claims from increasing CO2 are supported by physical evidence that CO2 is the cause.
UNICEF claims almost every child on Earth will face frequent heat waves by 2050 and that this year and that this year is “coldest year of the rest of their lives.” TWTW asserts that the influence of increasing CO2 cannot prevent another Ice Age.
The International Energy Administration reports: “World Energy Outlook 2022 shows the global energy crisis can be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure future.” TWTW asserts there is nothing secure about unreliable electricity.
See links under: Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science.
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Plasticity: CO2 Science produced a number of reports of plasticity of ocean life. For the plasticity of corals published by The Royal Society B, see links under Acidic Waters,
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Number of the Week: $3.8 Trillion: TWTW has been unable to track the massive subsidies and other spending going into alternative electricity generation, namely solar and wind power. According to reports, Jeff Currie of Goldman Sachs claimed it has been $3.8 Trillion over the past ten years. The percentage of fossil fuels used dropped from 82% of total energy used to 81%. Yet the total use of fossil fuels continues to expand. The foolish leaders of western Governments have claimed that their jurisdiction will go Net Zero in a few years? See link under Funding Issues and Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Censorship
Elon Musk buys Twitter “to empower citizen journalism”. No wonder the left is scared.
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Oct 28, 2022
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
Challenging the Orthodoxy
Brief of Amici Curiae Dr. William Happer, Dr Richard Lindzen, and the CO2 Coalition in Support of Petitioners and Reversal
USCA Case #22-1139, Filed Oct 21, 2022
Volcanic Eruptions, a Driver of Natural Climate Variability – ignored by IPCC
By Professor Wyss Yim, ICSF and CLINTEL, Oct 28, 2022
Climate Fear Mongering: Bad Analyses Produce Bad Remedies
By Jim Steele A Walk On the Natural Side, Oct 26, 2022
Text: https://perhapsallnatural.blogspot.com/2022/10/climate-fear-mongering-bad-analyses.html
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZIlMwGIVCI
Facts and Lies about Cattle and Methane
By Walter Starck, Quadrant, Oct 25, 2022
Climate Debate Belmont RSL 25th October 2022
By David Archibald, The Wentworth Report, Oct 28, 2022
Defending the Orthodoxy
Reducing demand is the best response to OPEC’s oil production cuts
By Matt Catsale and Tony Dutzik, The Hill, Oct 22, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Authors ignore that US can be independent of OPEC.]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Emissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window
By Staff, UN Environment Programme, Oct 27, 2022
https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2022
[SEPP Comment: By eliminating its emissions, China can stop the “global catastrophe” by itself. Who will make it?]
UNEP: Meeting global climate goals now requires ‘rapid transformation of societies’
By Multiple Authors, Carbon Brief, Oct 27, 2022
“Elsewhere, a joint analysis from several research institutes, such as Climate Action Tracker and the World Resources Institute (WRI), finds that the world is not doing enough to reach its 2030 climate targets across 40 different indicators, ranging from red-meat production and deforestation through to climate finance and green hydrogen production.”
Almost every child on Earth will face frequent heat waves by 2050: UNICEF
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Oct 26, 2022
Link to report: The coldest year of the rest of their lives
Protecting children from the escalating impacts of heatwaves
By Staff, UNICEF, October 2022
Climate change-fueled heat waves have cost the world’s economy trillions: study
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Oct 28, 2022
Link to paper: Globally unequal effect of extreme heat on economic growth
By Christopher “Callahan, and Justin Mankin, AAAS Science Advances Oct 28, 2022
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add3726
““Almost no country on Earth has benefitted from the extreme heat that has occurred,’ Mankin said.”
[SEPP Comment: Decline of deaths from starvation is of no benefit?]
Higher gas prices could lead to cleaner energy: report
By Julia Mueller, The Hill, Oct 27, 2022
Link to report: World Energy Outlook 2022 shows the global energy crisis can be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure future
For the first time, global demand for each of the fossil fuels shows a peak or plateau across all WEO scenarios, with Russian exports in particular falling significantly as the world energy order is reshaped
By Staff, IEA, Oct 27, 2022
https://www.iea.org/news/world-energy-outlook-2022-shows-the-global-energy-crisis-can-be-a-historic-turning-point-towards-a-cleaner-and-more-secure-future
https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2022
World is in its ‘first truly global energy crisis’ – IEA’s Birol
By Emily Chow and Muyu Xu, Reuters, Oct 25, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/global-lng-markets-further-tighten-next-year-ieas-birol-2022-10-25/
Pledges to cut emissions are insufficient to tackle climate change: UN
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Oct 26, 2022
Link to report: Nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. Synthesis report by the secretariat
By Staff, UNFCCC, Oct 26, 2022
https://unfccc.int/documents/619180
From the report: “106. Most Parties (75 per cent) provided information related to gender in their NDCs and some (39 per cent) affirmed that they will take gender into account in implementing them.”
“107. Many Parties (52 per cent) referred to relevant policies and legislation, and some (28
per cent) affirmed a general commitment to gender equality, while some (38 per cent)
included information on how gender had been or was planned to be mainstreamed in NDC
implementation, and many (46 per cent) on specific tools and methods, such as gender
analyses or assessments, gender indicators, gender-disaggregated data, and gender responsive budgeting, and a few (6 per cent) included gender as a criterion for prioritizing
activities.”
[SEPP Comment: The gender of CO2 is important in determining its warming effects?]
Climate Questions: How do we know humans triggered warming?
By Seth Borenstein, AP, Oct 24, 2022
https://apnews.com/article/science-climate-and-environment-099266b36d6e637d405dead6f0914a0f
“But carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is now trapping heat to the level of 2.07 watts per meter squared, more than 20 times that of the changes in the sun, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Methane, another powerful heat-trapping gas, is at 0.5 watts per meter square.”
[SEPP Comment: No carbon dioxide before human use of fossil fuels? Plants disagree.]
Climate change threatening global health–Lancet
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 28, 2022
“Yes, it’s that time of year again. With COP27 looming, the Lancet publish their latest fraudulent study:”
Link to press release of the report: The 2022 Global Report of the Lancet Countdown
By Staff, Lancet Corporation, 2022
“And as they do every year, the Lancet totally ignore their own study which shows that cold kills about 20 times as many people than heat [kills]. This is even the case in what we would regard as hot countries:”
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Big Climate Brother Coming Your Way (voluntary now, mandatory later)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Oct 27, 2022
Fake Science Fuels Climate Extremism
By David Barker, American Institute for Economic Research, Oct 25, 2022
“The best economic model, validated by a Nobel Prize for William Nordhaus, shows that if nothing is done to reduce emissions, warming will reduce world GDP by about three percent by the year 2100. If global GDP continues to grow at the rate it has been growing, then the world in 2100 will be five times richer than it is today. A three-percent reduction in GDP would make us 4.8 times richer instead of 5.0 times.”
The mysterious thing worse than warming
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
Link to: The freakish winter that turned Europe into a wasteland
“People ice-skated on the canals of Venice, church bells broke when rung, and travelers could cross the Baltic Sea on horseback. The winter of 1709 ultimately claimed the lives of a vast number of Europeans and disrupted two major wars—but to this day, there is no conclusive theory for its cause.” Subscriber Exclusive
https://email.nationalgeographic.com/H/2/v600000183f25db2ddba1777f4bbcf6cc0/13d10b7f-2f0a-4523-bc41-dcc635c5e8ff/HTML
WMO: “More bad news for the planet: greenhouse gas levels hit new highs”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 27, 2022
In case you were thinking it can’t keep getting worse
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
“’ “It would be one thing if there was a viable option to accelerate a transition to, but the choice isn’t between dirty oil and some clean, plentiful and reliable unicorn fuel. It is a choice between expanding the increasingly efficient extraction of oil and gas, supplemented by renewables, on one side, and a world full of shortages and higher and higher fuel costs on the other.’”
Put Mining to Work Despite Objections From Greens
By Dan Ervin, Real Clear Energy, Oct 26, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/10/26/put_mining_to_work_despite_objections_from_greens_861398.html
Natural gas ban threats spark fear for restaurants
“This is an issue that particularly, uniquely impacts restauranteurs in that it impacts the very product that we’re serving.”
By Gianna Melillo, Changing America, Oct. 25, 2022
https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/energy/3702129-natural-gas-ban-threats-spark-fear-for-restaurants/
[SEPP Comment: Induction baking?]
Energy and Environmental Review: October 24, 2022
By John Droz, Jr., Master Resource, Oct 24, 2022
After Paris!
UN COP27 Blueprint: More Government, More Debt, More Taxes
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 28, 2022
Flop 27: UN Climate Summit Heading for Geopolitical Hurricane – Ukraine War Has Set the Stage for Backsliding
By Marc Morano, Via WUWT, Oct 27, 2022
COP27 — the Camel’s nose of Loss and Damage enters the talks
By David Wojick, CFACT, Oct 28, 2022
https://www.cfact.org/2022/10/28/cop27-the-camels-nose-of-loss-and-damage-enters-the-talks/
Give Us The Money
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 26, 2022
New UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak skipping COP27 climate summit
By Julia Mueller, The Hill, Oct 27, 2022
Somalia Say Drought Is Due To Climate Change, As They Demand Billions
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 27, 2022
“Undoubtedly the fact that La Nina is now in its third year has exacerbated the drought, but population growth, a ten-fold increase since 1950, is the main reason why droughts like these, which are perfectly natural and common events, now have such a human impact. The long running civil war, of course, has hardly helped matters either.”
Change in US Administrations
Joe Toomey’s Searing Indictment of President Biden’s Energy Policies
By Robert Bryce, Real Clear Energy, Oct 26, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/10/26/joe_toomeys_searing_indictment_of_president_bidens_energy_policies_861133.html
Link to report: Energy Inflation Was by Design
By Joseph Toomey, Real Clear Energy, Sep 2022
“Indeed, Toomey lays out his case right at the beginning, saying the current energy supply and price crisis ‘was a deliberate outcome of a policy that Biden promised to implement, the same one that Obama had supported during his time in office…It will review how and why we arrived here, why record energy prices were not happenstance, why domestic conventional energy supplies are inadequate in relation to levels of demand seen in recent years, and how the entire thrust of Obama’s—and now Biden’s—energy policy was designed to deliver these results. It’s not a bug but a core feature of his program.’”
Biden to attend COP27 global climate summit
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Oct 28, 2022
[SEPP Comment: How much will his pledges cost the US taxpayer?]
Learning All the Wrong Lessons From America’s Energy Crisis
By Jakob Puckett, Real Clear Energy, Oct 23, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/10/23/learning_all_the_wrong_lessons_from_americas_energy_crisis_860422.html
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Wind farm in Germany is being dismantled to expand coal mine
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 26, 2022
“Am I the only one to feel insulted by the BBC, Committee on Climate Change, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and the rest of the green mafia, who constantly tell us that Britain is lagging behind the rest of the world in fighting climate change?”
Russia Ships Record Volumes of Gas and Steelmaking Coal to China
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 26, 2022
Seeking a Common Ground
Meridional Transport, the most fundamental climate variable
By Andy May, WUWT, Oct 25, 2022
Science, Policy, and Evidence
Bad Energy Policy Ideas Never Die
By Michelle Michot Foss & Lucian Pugliaresi, Real Clear Energy, Oct 25, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/10/25/bad_energy_policy_ideas_never_die_860905.html
Sunak’s ‘ban’ on domestic shale gas is an economic blunder that will worsen Britain’s energy crisis
Net Zero Watch today expressed dismay and profound regret that the incoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has caved in to pressure from eco-activists and the green wing of his own party, and reinstated the ‘ban’ on shale gas exploration in England.
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, Oct 26, 2022
Measurement Issues — Surface
New Study: Southeastern US Cooling Since The 1800s Associated With Increased Precipitation
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Oct 27, 2022
Link to study by Christy and McNieder: Time Series Construction of Summer Surface Temperatures for Alabama, 1883–2014, and Comparisons with Tropospheric Temperature and Climate Model Simulations
By John R. Christy and Richard T. McNider, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Mar 1, 2016
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/apme/55/3/jamc-d-15-0287.1.xml
Link to latest paper: Southeastern United States Hydroclimate During Holocene Abrupt Climate Events: Evidence From New Stalagmite Isotopic Records From Alabama
By Martín Medina-Elizalde, et al. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, February 2022
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358009710_Southeastern_United_States_Hydroclimate_During_Holocene_Abrupt_Climate_Events_Evidence_From_New_Stalagmite_Isotopic_Records_From_Alabama
The progressive increase of the Urban Heat Island’s influence on temperature records
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
From the CO2Science Archive.
Changing Weather
Drought-Stricken Mississippi River slows or halts grain barge traffic
By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, ICECAP, Oct 24, 2022
“The drought was expected in this third year of La Nina. Note in this plot of US drought and El Nino (red) and La Nina (blue), drought coverage in the US spikes in La Ninas, especially multiyear and strong ones.” [Plot not shown here]
“But you will notice the yields these recent drought years was much higher that 2012 and especially 1988. The reason is increased irrigation in places like Nebraska and western Kansas and drought resistant corn and also increases in the critical natural fertilizer, CO2. BTW, 1993 dropped because of record flooding in a strong El Nino with help from seeding from Pinatubo.”
The great Australian drought continues, except for all the rain
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
Britain’s Wild Weather – 1960
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 24, 2022
Texas Longest Heatwave
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Oct 27, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/10/texas-longest-heatwave/
Changing Climate
Let’s Talk About REAL Climate Cataclysms
By Paul Driessen, WUWT, Oct 26, 2022
Another Study Says Europe Was At Times Warmer During The Last Glacial When CO2 Levels Were 40% Lower
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Oct 24, 2022
Link to latest paper: Limnological changes and chironomid-inferred summer air temperature from the Late Pleniglacial to the Early Holocene in the East Carpathians
By Mónika Tóth, et al. Quaternary Research, 2022
Changing Seas
The Myth About Global Warming Killing Off Ocean Life
By Vijay Jayaraj, Real Clear Markets, Oct 28, 2022
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2022/10/28/the_myth_about_global_warming_killing_off_ocean_life_861672.html
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Greenland Mass Balance
By Andy May, WUWT, Oct 24, 2022
Antarctic ozone hole shrinks slightly
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Oct 26, 2022
Environment influences coral’s resilience to acidification
Study looks at how coral samples from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef fare in acidic conditions
Press Release, NSF, Oct 24, 2022
https://beta.nsf.gov/news/environment-influences-corals-resilience?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Link to paper: Environmental memory gained from exposure to extreme pCO2 variability promotes coral cellular acid–base homeostasis
By Kristen T. Brown, et al. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Sep 14, 2022
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0941
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
‘GMOs,’ Pesticides: Earth-Friendly Tools Environmentalists Should Love
By Cameron “English, ACSH, Oct 24, 2022
https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/10/24/gmos-pesticides-earth-friendly-tools-environmentalists-should-love-16621
Lowering Standards
The Warmists Cop a Plea
By Norman Rogers, American Thinker, Oct 28, 2022
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/the_warmists_cop_a_plea.html
“The global warming doom theory is more science fiction than science, but a fiction that is very good for the professors who invented the theory. Climate science was an obscure corner of academia until the professors got the idea that by burning fossil fuels and emitting carbon dioxide mankind will trigger a catastrophic change in the climate.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Unplug the fridge: UK gears up for hard cold winter and BBC secretly plans for a national blackout
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Oct 26, 2022
BBC Worried That Svalbard Is As Hot As In 1922
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 28, 2022
“In between [the record from 1920 to today] of course Svalbard went through a drastic cooling episode in the 1960s and 70s. And it is from this unusually cold base period that the BBC claim their 4C of warming.
“Only charlatans would play this trick.”
What Does The BBC Expect Svalbard To Do When Its Coal Mine Is Shut?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 28, 2022
From BBC: “if the fastest-warming place on earth can’t give up fossil fuels, what hope for everywhere else?”
If Global Warming Does Not Get You, The Space Debris Will!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 28, 2022
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Air pollution can amplify effects of climate change, new study finds
First research to simulate how aerosol pollution affects climate and air quality
Press Release, NSF, Oct 24, 2022
https://beta.nsf.gov/news/air-pollution-can-amplify-effects-climate-change?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Link to paper: Geographically resolved social cost of anthropogenic emissions accounting for both direct and climate-mediated effects
By Jennifer Burney, AAAS Science Advances, Sep 23, 2022
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn7307
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Overwhelmed By Junk Science
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Oct 27, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/10/overwhelmed-by-junk-science/
Renewable Energy
By Staff, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Accessed Oct 26, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Typical statistical tricks. Modern renewables are defined as hydropower, biomass, solar, geothermal, wind and ocean power. According to the graph, from 2009 to 2019 modern renewables went up from 8.7% to 11.2% of total final energy consumption while fossil fuels styed approximately the same, 80.3% and 80.2%. However, the total consumption of fossil fuels grew more than modern renewables. Precise numbers are not given. According to the EIA, in 2009 fossil fuels were 427,658 quad BTU and Renewables (and other) 41,348. Then in 2019 fossil fuels were 507,772 and Renewables were 68,856. Much of the growth in renewables has come from other (dung, gathered wood, etc.) and not reducing fossil fuels.]
https://www.eia.gov/international/data/world/total-energy/total-energy-consumption?pd=44&p=0000000010000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000u06&u=0&f=A&v=mapbubble&a=-&i=none&vo=value&&t=C&g=00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001&l=249-ruvvvvvfvtvnvv1vrvvvvfvvvvvvfvvvou20evvvvvvvvvvnvvvs0008&s=315532800000&e=1546300800000
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
2 in 3 say not enough is being done to fight climate change in US: survey
By Brad Dress, The Hill, Oct 25, 2022
Link to poll: People don’t think the government is doing enough to combat climate change
Amidst deep partisan divides on climate policy, only a third of the public think the Inflation Reduction Act will have an impact on combatting climate change.
By Staff, AP and NORC, Oct 25, 2022
Link to questions: The September 2022 AP-NORC Center Poll
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Shallow Warmists Strike Again
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Oct 27, 2022
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
The BBC’s Hurricane Unreality Checked
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 26, 2022 [with Net Zero Watch]
Video
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
NYC Hates Its Middle-Class Homeowners
By Jane Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Oct 28, 2022
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-10-28-nyc-hates-its-middle-class-homeowners
New Zealand farmers protest livestock ‘burp and fart’ tax
By Ryland JAMES
Wellington (AFP) Oct 20, 2022
https://www.seeddaily.com/reports/New_Zealand_farmers_protest_livestock_burp_and_fart_tax_999.html
“Blood on their Hands”: Two Women Die, including a Mother of Four, in Climate Protest Traffic Chaos
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 24, 2022
Monday Mirthiness #juststopoil funded by – oil heiress
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Oct 24, 2022
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Expanding the Orthodoxy
Biden signs climate treaty aimed at limiting greenhouse gases used in refrigeration
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Oct 28, 20222
[SEPP Comment: Air conditioning and refrigeration costs increasing!]
Christian Aid Demand Climate Justice
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 25, 2022
“Demand justice for God’s Earth?”
Questioning European Green
How Dare They?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 24, 2022
“’ Sweden’s new right-wing government has sparked an outcry after scrapping the Ministry of Environment in a move the opposition has branded ‘devastating’.’”
Polish Leader Calls German Energy Policy “A Curse, Fiasco”…2/3 Of Restaurants Face Bankruptcy!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Oct 28, 2022
German Industry Concerned About Supply Of Raw Materials Needed For Green Transition
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 21, 2022
Nova Scotia touted its huge ‘green’ energy plant. Turns out it’s powered by coal
By Joan Baxter, The Guardian, Oct 26, 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/26/nova-scotia-green-energy-plant-coal-powered
“The ‘green’ hydrogen produced to deliver ammonia to Europe will be partly powered by the fossil fuel in the beginning, a joint investigation found”
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Net Zero Bombshell: The World Does Not Have Enough Lithium and Cobalt to Replace All Batteries Every 10 Years – Finnish Government Report
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Oct 22, 2022
Link to report: Assessment of the Extra Capacity Required of Alternative Energy Electrical Power Systems to Completely Replace Fossil Fuels
By Simon P. Michaux, Geological Survey of Finland, Aug 20, 2021
Non-Green Jobs
BASF To Downsize In Europe Because Of High Energy Costs & Overregulation
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 28, 2022
Destruction Of German Heritage…430 Year Old Family Craft Bakery Succumbs To “Green Revolution”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Oct 26, 2022
Funding Issues
Goldman Sachs’ Jeff Currie: ‘$3.8 Trillion of Investment in Renewables Moved Fossil Fuels from 82% to 81% of Overall Energy Consumption’ in 10 Years
By Marc Morano, Climate Depot, Oct 21, 2022
https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/10/21/goldman-sachs-jeff-currie-3-8-trillion-of-investment-in-renewables-moved-fossil-fuels-from-82-to-81-of-overall-energy-consumption-in-10-years/
Re-Finking the whole thing
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
“One great benefit of markets is that everyone doesn’t make the same mistake simultaneously, as they far too often do in politics. If most financiers think oil is a loser, it only takes one with the opposite view to start correcting the situation, as profits flow away from the mistaken herd to the perceptive maverick.”
Solving the shortage by prolonging it and vice versa
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
“And just as Margaret Thatcher famously said that ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money’ so the problem with the energy transition is that you eventually run out of other people’s energy… and their money.”
Litigation Issues
CHECC Brief Challenging CO2 Endangerment Finding Now Publicly Available
By Francs Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Oct 25, 2022
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-10-25-checc-brief-challenging-co2-endangerment-finding-now-publicly-available
Biden fends off challenge to climate accounting metric
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Oct 21, 2022
[SEPP Comment: No calculation of how much warming and increasing CO2 benefits society!]
Cap-and-Trade and Carbon Taxes
It Pollutes, So Tax It!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Oct 27, 2022
Link to report: It Pollutes, So Tax It
Need We Say More About Carbon Dioxide,
By Peter Hartley, With responses from Ross McKitrick and Robert Lyman, GWPF, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Who will enforce a tax bill on China?]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Emperor penguins join polar bears on ESA list of threatened species based on flawed climate models
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Oct 26, 2022
Energy Issues – Non-US
National Grid warns Britons of blackouts on ‘really cold’ evenings
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 27, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Who needs heat if it’s really cold?]
British Government Grants Itself New Powers to Cap Renewable Energy Profits
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 27, 2022
Energy Issues – Australia
The Australian Government Vision for Our Renewable Future
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 25, 2022
“The ambitious clean energy agenda, announced in Tuesday night’s budget, also includes a plan to have renewable energy provide 82 per cent of the electricity network by 2030, which the government promised during the election campaign would also cut power bills by $275 by 2025.”
[SEPP Comment: When it discovers that renewables are incompatible with reliability and reducing costs, which one will the government cut?]
Energy Issues — US
America’s energy crisis is mostly US Democrats’ fault
Had Democrats spent the last 3.5 years liberating US oil/gas investment, production, and transport instead of strangling them, energy would be far cheaper.
By Alex Epstein, Energy Talking Points, Oct 26, 2022
https://alexepstein.substack.com/p/americas-energy-crisis-is-mostly
Blackouts Threaten New England, Again
By Donn Dears, Power For USA, Oct 25, 2022
Doug Sheridan on the Growing Recognition of Fossil Fuel Morality
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Oct 28, 2022
Washington’s Control of Energy
Biden Is Destroying Our Strategic Petroleum Reserve
By William Duncan. American Thinker, Oct 26, 2022
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/biden_is_destroying_our_strategic_petroleum_reserve.html
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Philadelphia Freedom – Could A New LNG Export Terminal Be Coming To The Marcellus/Utica’s Backyard?
By Lindsay Schneider, RBN Energy, Oct 23, 2022
https://rbnenergy.com/philadelphia-freedom-could-a-new-lng-export-terminal-be-coming-to-themarcellus-utica
“But unlike the previous LNG projects proposed in Eastern Canada (see our You Still Believe in Me series), which remain unlikely to ever move forward, feedgas and pipeline infrastructure are an advantage to a Mid-Atlantic-area project, not a hurdle that needs to be overcome. In reality, the only thing standing in the way of more East Coast LNG capacity is the tough regulatory environment, but that should not be underestimated.”
Qatar’s Strategic Bets: LNG, U.S., and Europe
By Ivan Sascha Sheehan, Real Clear Energy, Oct 26, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/10/26/qatars_strategic_bets_lng_us_and_europe_861400.html
What Environmentalists Don’t Know About Petroleum (that last 30 percent)
By Allen Brooks, Master Resource, Oct 26, 2022
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Europe Importing $35.77 Billion of Solar Panels – And they Still Have an Energy Crisis
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Oct 24, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Doubt solar panels will help on cold, winter nights.]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Replacing Peaking Power Plants with Battery Energy Storage Systems
By Roger Calazza, Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York, Oct 24, 2022
“Everyone wants to do right by the environment to the extent that they can afford to and not be unduly burdened by the effects of environmental policies. This requires a pragmatic approach. The purpose of this blog is to describe the environmental tradeoffs associated with energy production and use in New York.”
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Everybody knows: electric vehicles are the wave of the future
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
California Dreaming
Gavin Newsom and California Have the Worst Energy Policies in the Country
By Rick Whitbeck, Real Clear Energy, Oct 24, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/10/24/gavin_newsom_and_california_have_the_worst_energy_policies_in_the_country_860893.html
Environmental Industry
Major green group on track to spend record $100M in midterms
Analysis by Maxine Joselow with research by Vanessa Montalbano, Washington Post , Oct 27, 2022 [H/t Jim Karlock]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/27/major-green-group-track-spend-record-100m-midterms/
Other Scientific News
Where do high-energy particles that endanger satellites, astronauts and airplanes come from?
New research shows how and when solar particles are accelerated
Press Release, NSF, Oct 3, 2022
https://beta.nsf.gov/news/where-do-high-energy-particles-endanger-satellites?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Link to paper: Ion and Electron Acceleration in Fully Kinetic Plasma Turbulence
Luca Comisso and Lorenzo Sironi, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Sep 13, 2022
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac8422
[SEPP Comment: No mention of the solar wind influencing cloud formation.]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
A new theory of budgeting
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
“U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, aka Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg, Rhodes Scholar graduate of Harvard and Oxford where incredibly he studied economics, along with politics and philosophy, recently intoned that ‘A lot of Americans could be saving a lot of money by owning an EV, but only if they could afford it.’”
Can’t say we didn’t try
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Oct 26, 2022
“Or we try to give someone credit in the spirit of positive discussion only to be cruelly let down. And this week it’s a two-fer, as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blabbers that ‘the move off of fossil fuels … is going to happen much faster because of Russia’. So much for his deputy PM’s attempted move toward geopolitical energy sanity, or a sober appreciation of what’s really happening in the energy sector.”
I have never felt shame like this as we keep ignoring climate change
By Tanya Gold, Evening Standard, Oct 25, 2022
https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/climate-change-just-stop-oil-vincent-van-gogh-activists-protestors-shame-b1034775.html?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Weekly%20Briefing&utm_content=20221028&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Weekly
“We are heading for a rise of 2.5 degrees, and when we hit it we hit tipping points that will destroy our ability to live on the planet. That is not speculative. We will burn and we will drown: first the Southern Hemisphere, and then the Northern.”
ARTICLES
California’s Climate Policy Gets Burned
Wildfires in one year erased a decade and a half of greenhouse gas declines.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, Oct. 23, 2022
https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-climate-policy-gets-burned-study-greenhouse-gas-wildfires-11666386506?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s
TWTW Summary: The editorial begins:
“Two decades of greenhouse gas emission reductions in California went up in smoke in 2020—literally. So finds a new study on Golden State wildfire emissions that highlights the folly of Sacramento’s climate priorities.
“University of California researchers calculated that wildfire emissions in 2020 alone were two times higher than the state’s greenhouse gas reductions from 2003 to 2019. That’s in a single year. Incredibly, wildfires in 2020 were the state’s second largest source of CO2 emissions after transportation and generated double the greenhouse gases of all the state’s power plants.
“While vegetation will regrow and suck carbon out of the air, the study says ‘this is unlikely to occur on the time scale necessary to meet near and medium-term emission targets needed to avert passing the 1.5 degree C threshold’ by 2050. So thanks to California, the world is doomed. Or so liberals say if the 1.5 degree warming threshold that is supposed to signal climate Armageddon is exceeded.
“The study says higher temperatures and drier conditions have exacerbated wildfires in recent years. Maybe, but as the study also notes, much of the blame goes to ‘decades of fire suppression and underinvestment in preventive measures such as mechanical clearing or prescribed burns.’
“’Wildfire emissions have not received nearly the same level of societal investment or attention as emissions from other sectors,’ the authors note. The state focuses on a futile effort to stop temperatures from rising instead of doing what is achievable and mitigating the impact from whatever warming does occur.
California has spent tens of billions of dollars on electric vehicles, renewable power, biofuels and even methane digesters for dairy farms. But only after several horrific wildfire seasons that caused tens of billions of dollars in economic damage—not to mention smoky skies that harm public health—did Democrats substantially boost spending on wildfire prevention.
After discussing the efforts to increase electricity from so-called renewables, the editorial concludes:
“Democrats in Sacramento seem incapable of political self-reflection. But it’s deeply ironic that their monomaniacal focus on cutting greenhouse gases emissions has resulted in more greenhouse gas emissions.”
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