Indur Goklany is one of my favorite scholars on the interplay of people, resources, and our natural environment. Few are more thorough and careful to root their ideas in solid empirical research. And what his research reveals, again and again, is that people's creativity is making the world a better and better place to live, not just for people but also for plants and animals. In a day when Greens everywhere demonize people's use of fossil fuels as imperiling the planet, Goklany demonstrates, … [Read more...]
Is There a “Balance of Nature”?
Environmentalists, including the advisors responsible for the content of Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si', and even many of their critics, routinely refer to a "balance of nature," a concept that elicits visions of fragile nature knocked off balance by crossing "tipping points" that lead to catastrophes--concepts fundamental to global warming alarmism. Veteran ecologist Daniel Botkin finds that thinking common in Laudato Si' and niftily nullifies it from a scientific standpoint. Botkin … [Read more...]
Validation of IPCC’s Global Warming Forecasts would Require More than Tripling Warming Rate
At +0.11C per decade rate, Global Average Temperature would rise 1.1C in a century, not the ~3C generally predicted by IPCC without CO2 emission reduction. Actual increase in the 36.5 years since 1978 is 0.407C. To wind up with 3C increase in the century from 1978 through 2077, we'd need to add another 2.593C in the remaining 63.5 years, i.e., 0.41C per decade, 3.7 times the rate so far. Anybody got a good idea what's going to drive that more-than-tripling of the rate of increase? Or might it … [Read more...]
What Planet Does Pope Francis Live On?
Steven W. Mosher expresses dismay at Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' not because it embraces fears of dangerous manmade global warming (though he points out those baseless fears in it, too) but because many of its ecological claims are just plain wrong. "Having read through Pope Francis’ new encyclical, I am dismayed at how many groundless assertions it makes. From a strictly scientific point of view, Laudato Si is an embarrassment." Examples: On the issue of water, for example, the … [Read more...]
Bishop’s “Call to Action” on Climate and Fossil Fuels May Be Less than Meets the Eye
Paul Etienne, Catholic Bishop of Cheyenne, with jurisdiction over the Diocese of Wyoming, was cited recently in Inside Energy as calling Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' "a call to action" for Wyoming, the nation's largest coal-producing state. But there might not be quite so much to what Bishop Etienne said as Inside Energy would wish. The sole quote from him is this: I know this document is going to disturb many people in this state," he said, "because it is very much an energy-driven … [Read more...]
Getting Down to Nitty Gritty: Why Wind and Solar Threaten Electricity Grids and People’s Health and Safety
Rud Istvan has a very instructive article at Judith Curry's Climate Etc. blog about the challenges of bring wind and solar power into use through electricity grids. Bottom line: Their intermittency greatly increases the costs of electricity while reducing its reliability, bringing threats to people's health and safety wherever they begin to make up a significant percentage of total power supplied to the grid. The higher the renewable penetration, the greater this intermittency burden becomes. … [Read more...]
Ice Ages: Our Real Climate Catastrophe
While attention worldwide focuses on manmade global warming, the risks from which are fairly small compared to the benefits of the energy use that allegedly drives it, the real risk to humanity (and the rest of the biosphere) is, as it has been throughout geologic history, from nature-made global cooling. Atmospheric physicist S. Fred Singer reflects on that in a recent article in American Thinker: What drew my attention to ice ages is the manuscript (Climate and Collapse) by agricultural … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Vindicates Cornwall Alliance on Mercury Emissions
Monday, July 1, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the law by imposing regulations on mercury emissions from power plants without first doing thorough benefit/cost estimates. Nearly four years ago the Cornwall Alliance published a study by environmental regulatory economics Dr. Timothy Terrell, The Cost of Good Intentions: The Ethics and Economics of the War on Conventional Energy, that made that very point. Dr. Terrell comments on the … [Read more...]
Why do I Think Climate Alarmists Are Overreacting?
Religion Dispatches posted Jacob J. Erickson’s interesting article “Falling in Love with the Earth: Francis’ Faithful Ecology,” about a week ago, and one follower, “Whiskyjack,” chastened Catholic Republican Presidential candidates for hypocrisy on the grounds that they accept his authority on abortion and homosexuality but not on climate change. I replied: Catholic dogma holds that papal authority is only in matters of faith (doctrine) and morals. It doesn't extend to science, economics, or … [Read more...]
Estimates of climate sensitivity falling
Just came across this, and it's stunning. Those who charge CAGW skeptics with being anti-science need to take a look at this and consider carefully: Who's been trending right about how much warming comes from adding CO2 to the atmosphere? For in-depth discussion, see Nicholas Lewis, "Pitfalls in climate sensitivity estimation," Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Featured image from https://landshape.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/6921/. … [Read more...]
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