An email I received this morning included in its thread one from someone saying this: This morning I got out my little toy telescope and watched Mercury transiting the Sun. The striking fact was not the little black image of Mercury but the total absence of sunspots. I have seen many transits before this one, but never without sunspots. It seems the sun has gone to sleep as it did in the Maunder Minimum in the seventeenth century. In the seventeenth century we had the Little Ice Age and now … [Read more...]
How Theology Can, and Should, Contribute to Scientific and Public Discourse about Anthropogenic Global Warming
A paper presented to the Round Table on Theology, Climate Change, and Politics, University of Western Ontario, May 29, 2012 Paleoanthropologist and philosopher Loren Eiseley (1907–1977), who though religious in the tradition of American Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was certainly no orthodox Christian theist, on reflecting on the kind of soil in which science could flourish, wrote, “In one of those strange permutations of which history yields … [Read more...]
Finding Nemo Suffocated?
One hardly knows where to begin in assessing the sanity of the recent claim that "climate change" (aka dangerous manmade global warming renamed to hide the fact that far less warming is happening than predicted) could suffocate---yes, suffocate!---sea creatures by reducing ocean oxygen levels. The scary story comes mainly from popular reports. Take, for example, how blogger Cat DiStasio ("a writer, storyteller, and community architect" who "holds a B.A. in Ethnic, Gender, and Labor … [Read more...]
How Economically Competitive is “Renewable Energy”?
Condemnation's always most credible when issued by a supporter. That's what the renewable energy sector got from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's U.S. Renewable Portfolio Standards 2016 Annual Status Report, which states right in its highlights: "More than half of all growth in renewable electricity (RE) generation (60%) and capacity (57%) since 2000 is associated with state RPS requirements." In short, non-hydro renewable energy---wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass---cannot … [Read more...]
Modern mavens and maxims of meteorological mayhem
Here’s a bit of earthy mirth for Earth Day 2016. Inspired by the atmospheric angst of the November-December 2015 Paris climate change conference, late last year, we proposed new weather wonkery c our versions of popular meteorological anecdotes like the witticisms of old that folks frequently used to stay ahead of storms. For example, one of the most familiar traditional axioms is “red sky in morning, sailors take warning; red sky at night, sailors delight.” We proffered alternative, … [Read more...]
Does Demonizing the Other Side Promote Constructive Debate Over Climate Change?
Who are “climate skeptics”? Greg Garrard, Associate Professor of Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, thinks he knows. In fact, he believes “environmentalists” generally “know who climate skeptics are: oil company shills, religious fundamentalists and neoliberal cheerleaders.” With that courteous and respectful opening, Garrard issued a call for papers for the symposium “Who Do They Think They Are? Cultures of Climate Skepticism, Anti-Environmentalism, and … [Read more...]
Attorney Generals Attack First Amendment Rights of Climate Skeptics
It’s hardball time, and things are going to get rough. That’s the current state of the desperate attempt of climate alarmists and their allies in the Obama Administration and sympathetic state pols. Failing to motivate significant public concern about manmade global warming, failing to get even those who express concern to be willing to make significant sacrifices to mitigate it, these political operatives and politicized scientists are resorting to brute force—the very opposite of … [Read more...]
Interfaith Climate Change Statement—An Exercise in Absurdity?
In preparation for the signing of the Paris climate treaty Friday (Earth Day), 16 religious organizations presented an "Interfaith Climate Change Statement" to the United Nations in New York today. The 724-word statement urges heads of state to sign and ratify (Do they know the difference? In the U.S., the "head of state" can only propose, not ratify, a treaty. Without Senate ratification, President Obama's signature won't bind the United States.) the Paris climate treaty, claiming "Humanity … [Read more...]
Why You Should Mourn Implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement
The climate agreement reached in Paris last December will become effective on Earth Day, (Friday, April 22) with a ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. We’ll all hear of heroic world leaders who joined together in Paris to ensure the planet’s survival. The Obama administration will try to enforce the agreement (which meets all the legal criteria of a treaty though the President chooses not to call it that to evade Senate disapproval) by imposing the Environmental … [Read more...]
“Climate Change”: A Leap of Faith?
Tonight at Duke University there will be a panel discussion titled “Climate Change Not a Leap of Faith.” Among the event hosts is the group Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, an offshoot of the Evangelical Environmental Network. They and the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Kenan Institute for Ethics are bringing in the Nicholas Institute’s Amy Pickle, the Nicholas School’s Megan Mullin, the Kenan Institute’s David … [Read more...]
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