Mr. Obama, here are three points to consider during your Alaska trip this week: 1. Roughly 70% of Alaska is federally owned, and much of that is off-limits to any kind of economic use of natural resources. Compare that with 10% or less in most of the original 13 U.S. colonies. Instead of “helping” native Alaskans by changing the name of Mt. McKinley to Mt. Denali, a better idea might be to either 1) reduce the percent of federal land or 2) open more of it up for job-producing natural … [Read more...]
Curry Deals Another Blow to Climate Consensus
Georgia Tech climatologist Judith Curry dealt a serious blow to the appeal to consensus on climate change in her paper "Climate Change: No Consensus on Consensus," three years ago. She pointed out (among lots of other valuable things) that, whatever value consensus might have in science (as opposed to politics), consensus is significant only if it arises spontaneously, but the alleged consensus on climate change had been assiduously manufactured by the IPCC. She's followed the subject a good … [Read more...]
Methane Monster—Not
Been hearing about the methane monster that's going to cook the planet? The Independent, Salon, Mother Jones, Alternet, Arctic News, and the Arctic Methane Emergency Group have all trumpeted it, and the methane message becomes the more dire as we approach Paris, with 5-alarm fires raging at TruthOut and Real News Network. Irreversible positive feedback loop: warming Arctic releases methane that warms the air that releases more methane that warms the air that releases more methane until we all … [Read more...]
Climate Change Industry Doesn’t Live on Chicken Feed
For all those climate alarmists who are up in arms about what they consider the billions of dollars supposedly supporting CAGW skeptics, here's a bit of reality therapy: The money supporting alarmism amounts to about $1.5 TRILLION a year, according to an expensive 200 page report on the climate change consulting market that came out in April, summarized by Don Jergler in his July 30 Insurance Journal article "Is Climate Change Now Its Own Industry?" Jergler reports, "The $1.5 trillion global … [Read more...]
It’s Official: July 2015 Is, and Isn’t, the Hottest Month on Record!
NOAA breathlessly reports, "July 2015 was warmest month ever recorded for the globe." CNN, USA Toady---oops, that's USA Today---, BBC, and lots of other mainstream media lapdogs all obediently reported it. But laymen need to pause for a deep breath before panicking. First, "ever recorded" means back to 1880 (conveniently leaving out the Holocene Climate Optimum, Minoan Warm Period, Roman Warm Period, and Medieval Warm Period, all of which exceeded modern temperatures), and "recorded" means by … [Read more...]
A Mere Couple of Degrees, a Mere Single Thermometer–and a Matter of Integrity
Climatologist Patrick Michaels detected an error in the temperature record at Reagan National Airport recently, and reported it to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang, which confirmed the error and duly reported it to the National Weather Service, which acknowledged the error and replaced the instrument (which for the last year and a half has been reading 1.7 degrees F too high). So far so good. But then, as Michaels reports and comments: ... the National Weather Service told the Capital … [Read more...]
Extra! Extra! Missing AGW Intensifies California Drought!
The Old Gray Lady's (aka New York Times) perennial climate alarmist reporter Justin Gillis eagerly reported a new paper, “Contribution of anthropogenic warming to California drought during 2012-2014,” published in Geophysical Research Letters, claiming that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) might have intensified the current California drought by 15 to 20 percent. Alas, nasty facts get in the way, like these: The drought started in 2012, but there's been no statistically significant global … [Read more...]
Fur and the No-Need Argument
Animal rights activists and so-called animal protectionists regularly argue that the public shouldn’t buy or wear fur because it is no longer needed. Fur may have been necessary in the olden days, they concede, but for modern, civilized, and presumably technologically advanced humans, fur is a cruel and gratuitous clothing choice. The puritanical nature of the argument can be seen easily by reading sample letters created by The Humane Society of the United States, a prominent animal-rights … [Read more...]
Lions, Babies, and Moral Outrage
Properly aligned morals requires that weightier matters deserve more care and justify greater umbrage when violated. If one wanted a classic example of the upending of the moral hierarchy, one need look only at the juxtaposition of two stories, Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of baby parts and the killing of Cecil, a lion in Zimbabwe. Note the irony in how the two events are discussed. First, the dentist claims that he thought the hunt was legal. So if we take his reported comments at face … [Read more...]
Focusing on Low Carbon Development to curb climate change will hurt cities
In addition to economic growth, should improving the climate be an important goal of government policy? The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate offers ten recommendations designed to help countries of all income levels achieve these two goals. Their first recommendation is that cities “commit to developing and implementing low-carbon urban development strategies by 2020.” This includes prioritizing investments in non-motorized transport and renewable energy. Policy to achieve this goal … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 170
- 171
- 172
- 173
- 174
- …
- 181
- Next Page »
