The Biden administration wants America to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve "net-zero" by 2050. Other advanced nations have similar goals. They all need a bucket of cold water in the face.The New York Times Company is as unlikely a source of that icy bucket as you can imagine. Call it Climate Alarmism Central.But last month, it dashed that bucket of cold water in the face of millions of climate alarmists. In New York Times Magazine it published an interview with Vaclav … [Read more...]
Increased Plant Productivity: The First Key Benefit of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment
This article is the second in a series. You can read the first post here.“Based on the numerous experiments listed there, I can tell you that, typically, a 300-ppm increase in the air’s CO2 content … will raise the productivity of most herbaceous plants by about one-third, which stimulation is generally manifested by an increase in the number of branches and tillers, more and thicker leaves, more extensive root systems, and more flowers and fruit.”Perhaps the most well-known and significant … [Read more...]
The Many Benefits of Rising Atmospheric CO2 — An Introduction
This article is the first post in a series. You can read the second article here.Atmospheric carbon dioxide: you can’t see, hear, smell or taste it. But it’s there—all around us—and it’s crucial for life. Composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms, this simple molecule serves as the primary raw material out of which plants construct their tissues, which in turn provide the materials out of which animals construct theirs. Knowledge of the key life-giving and life-sustaining role played by carbon … [Read more...]
The Nature of Things: Trees Shed Leaves, Coral Bleaches
Contrary to the incessant bleating of office-based Great Barrier Reef “experts” (who visit the Reef a couple of weeks in a year), the reported incidents of coral bleaching are nothing new, unusual or threatening. They are common natural events no more threatening than trees shedding their leaves with the changing seasons, or occasionally in response to a dry spell.Some readily verifiable relevant facts:1/ Tropical ocean waters are generally nutrient-poor and the symbiotic algal cells which … [Read more...]
The climate scaremongers: An open letter to the Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph regularly publishes articles by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, its International Business Editor, which eulogise renewable energy and claim that fossil fuels will soon be a thing of the past. But they never seem to tell the other side of the story. Here is that other side.***Fossil Fuels v Renewable Energy?Let me start by stating that I am not pro or anti anything. In a free market, the best technologies, solutions and products automatically come to the fore without the … [Read more...]
America’s Natural Gas Juggernaut
America can fuel the world’s needs for clean-burning natural gas for many decades and have plenty left over for our own domestic requirements. The vast majority of our nation’s undeveloped gas supply is found in the Appalachian Basin of the eastern United States. The size of the resource is stunning and largely unknown outside of the teams of geologists and engineers that are responsible for its discovery and ongoing development.Gas fields with more than 3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of … [Read more...]
Electric Cars Are Not Ready for Showtime
It seems that no one can ever do quite enough to satisfy the demands of professional complainers. Not even Elon Musk, a world-famous promoter of electric vehicles. He was met rudely by protesters at the grand opening of his Tesla assembly plant, just outside Berlin, during recent ceremonies: "...it [the plant] has faced opposition and some environmental activists blocked the factory’s entrance while displaying banners flagging its high water use…”All said and done, it should … [Read more...]
New Federal Fuel Economy Standards Wrongly Calculated, Says Petition
Based on a recent court ruling and the law, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) says updated nationwide corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards imposed by U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2021 relied on an invalidated metric.Because of this the CEI filed a formal request in February with Michael Regan, EPA administrator, to place the new standards on hold and reconsider them.The new CAFE standards, which apply to vehicles from model years 2023 through 2026, … [Read more...]
The Battle for 1.5 Degrees of Warming Is Already Lost, So What’s Plan B?
Climate activists’ current stated goal is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. To achieve this goal, according to the latest IPCC report, atmospheric CO2 levels must peak by 2025. But this battle is already lost, so what is their Plan B?The above statement is not a critique of the desirability of the 1.5-degree goal, which I am not competent to evaluate. The unhappy truth, though, is that not all good goals are achievable. Not even … [Read more...]
Supreme Court Should Cancel the Latest “Witch Hunt”
In the 1690s, a mass panic at Salem, Massachusetts, led to 20 people being executed for witchcraft and 150 being jailed. Then in the 1950s, another mass panic gripped the United States and thousands of lives were wrecked as many were falsely accused of being communists. Yet another in the 1990s wrecked the lives of many preschool teachers with false accusations of sex abuse in the classroom.Having written about these sad episodes in an engineering journal a few years ago, I would be … [Read more...]
