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...]
Why Capitalism?
No one makes a trade unless he considers what he will receive more valuable to him than what he will pay. That’s why voluntary trades are always win-win: each party ends up with something more valuable than he’s traded away. Sometimes the benefit is simply a good feeling, such as when someone buys something from a poor salesman just to encourage him, or when she donates money. Here the good feeling and personal benefit are worth more than the money given. This helps us answer the question, … [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...]
Appalachian Astronauts
Over in Harlan, Kentucky, last month, I asked a coal miner if he dreaded heading to work in the mine each morning. No, he said. It was an adventure, sort of like being an astronaut, “going where no man had gone before.” Later in the day, a half-mile underground near Pikeville, other miners talked to me about their work. (I was there gathering material for a Southern Baptist Seminary course on work and leisure.) The four men had been at it 10, 21, 25, and 40 years. One spoke of his satisfaction … [Read more...]
Why I love Fossil Fuels
I am going to make and defend a bold and possibly controversial statement, a statement that makes me a pariah in my hometown of Seattle, where such a thing is considered the ultimate sin. What could be this outrageous statement? It is that I love fossil fuels. That right, I like the dirty and evil things that are supposedly causing Global Warming (or is it Climate Change, or is it Anthropogenic Global Climate Change). Whatever the term for that nonsense, I still love fossil fuels. I like … [Read more...]
Fear Not, Climate Alarmism Unfounded
In my position as environmental manager for one of the largest university systems in the U.S., I regularly make it a point to ask scientists and engineers working in the real world, solving real day-to-day problems and stewarding our natural resources and environment, about their professional views on the issues of climate and energy. Their responses almost uniformly reflect disagreement with, practically a disdain for, the climate alarmists’ and sustainability activists’ premise that manmade … [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...]
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