Five days before the recent snowstorm rocked the Mid-Atlantic region, the ECMWF weather model had forecast more than 30 inches for portions of Delaware, coastal Maryland, and southern New Jersey. The model had overestimated snowfall by up to a factor of three.My criticism of the model will likely not anger many in the political arena. Why not? Because, as we are often told, weather is not climate. Weather is very difficult to forecast because it is highly variable, and weather models can … [Read more...]
Can the World Solve an Energy Problem Especially in Africa?
Those are two very different questions and need to be separated. But unfortunately, too many Europeans and their European cultural heirs prefer to conflate the two for cultural and economic advantages.Focus first on Africa. Africa needs electricity, affordable, reliable, and continuous energy to break the industrialization barrier. That means that coal must be the mandatory first step. As a fuel, it’s readily available, cheap, and requires minimum technology and capital investments. After all, … [Read more...]
Corona Crisis – Have hopes for the end of capitalism been dashed?
Since the dawn of anti-capitalism, the free-market system’s opponents have been waiting for the great crisis that will bring about its final collapse. Karl Marx thought he had discovered various economic “laws,” such as the “tendential fall in the rate of profit” and the “relative impoverishment of the proletariat.” For anti-capitalists, the prospect of crisis has always been, above all, a sign of hope – that capitalism would finally (and forever) collapse. But such hopes have been dashed again … [Read more...]
Global Agency Sows Fear With Misinformation
A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization claims that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of natural disasters over the last 50 years. According to the WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970 – 2019), there were more than 11,000 reported disasters attributed to these hazards globally, with just over 2 million deaths and U.S. $ 3.64 trillion in losses.The report claims that the number of disasters “has … [Read more...]
Alarmists Embrace Authoritarianism, Ignore Lessons of History
A rump group of the environmental movement has always been wedded to authoritarianism—primarily the movement’s intellectual leadership. Going back to the beginnings of environmentalism as a movement, progressive-era politicians such as President Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot (Roosevelt’s friend and choice to be the first head of the newly created U.S. Forest Service) believed democracy and markets were both ill-suited to manage natural resources. Progressives believed natural resources … [Read more...]
Environmental regulations can sometimes do more harm than good
Contrary to popular perceptions, all around the world, environmental conditions have improved dramatically in recent decades. There is less air pollution and more widespread access to clean water than ever before. Anyone who wants to learn more about this astounding progress should read Stephen Pinker’s Enlightenment Now and Hans Rosling’s Factfulness. These environmental performance gains are largely due to the global spread of economic freedom, because – as numerous studies show – … [Read more...]
Fossil Fuels Surge After U.N. Conference
It has been a little more than a month since the United Nations climate meeting at Glasgow, yet global use of fossil fuels has increased rapidly. For instance, U.S. President Joe Biden canceled domestic oil projects and vowed to stop funding for international fossil fuel projects. But as fuel prices rose, Biden responded to his self-induced energy insecurity by releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the reserves and even called for an increase in domestic oil … [Read more...]
Cornwall Alliance Scholar Demonetized by Google
DrRoySpencer.com has been demonetized by Google for “unreliable and harmful claims.” This means I can no longer generate revenue to support the website using the Google Adsense program.From a monetary standpoint, it’s not a big deal because what I make off of Google ads is in the noise level of my family’s monthly budget. It barely made more than I pay in hosting fees and an (increasingly expensive) comment spam screener.I’ve been getting Google warnings for a couple of months now about “policy … [Read more...]
China Surges Ahead While the West Self-Destructs
As China builds more and more coal-fired power plants, consolidates its stranglehold on rare-earth metals vital for 21st-century economies, and extends its influence into America’s backyard, “woke” Westerners are marching like lemmings toward the energy poverty cliff.CNBC reports that climate activists and campaign groups are demanding an immediate end to the burning of fossil fuels. The far-out have realized they were “betrayed” at the COP26 confab in Glasgow by India (but of course not by … [Read more...]
Science is in Trouble
Will 2022 be another year when scientists lament the public’s continued lack of trust in science?Editorials abound about the pushback scientists are experiencing when it comes to proposed science-oriented solutions to serious societal challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. Yet, science communicators can be their own worst enemy when they go on the offense with loutish language. Their offense becomes offensive and seen as arrogance.Labeling as “conspiracy theorists” … [Read more...]
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