Back in 1954 journalist Darrell Huff published How to Lie with Statistics. The book exposed many different ways in which people use statistics, even true ones, to foist off falsehoods.Today while looking for data on trends in the numbers of operating coal- and natural gas-fired power plants in the United States I came across an interesting example of lying with statistics, this one promulgated by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA). The discussion that follows is rough; I don't claim … [Read more...]
Inflation and “Inflation”
The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that year-on-year “inflation” through June was 9.1 percent, meaning the basket of goods constituting the “consumer price index” (CPI) that cost $100 a year ago cost $109.10 last month.That’s bad news, for several reasons.First, of course, it’s bad news because it means life gets tougher for everybody whose income isn’t enhanced by precisely those things that drive such “inflation”—meaning the vast majority of people.Second, it’s bad news … [Read more...]
Sri Lanka: Canary in the Environmentalist Coal Mine
Last year the Cornwall Alliance reported on our blog that Sri Lanka was headed for serious trouble. Now, sadly, our prediction is coming true.The Associated Press (AP) calls Sri Lanka “a country hurtling towards bankruptcy, with hardly any money to import gasoline, milk, cooking gas and toilet paper.” In late June its prime minister said its economy had “collapsed.” Both he and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed to resign in the face of mass protests that included crowds occupying their … [Read more...]
Could Glacier Melt Cause a Pandemic?
“Bacteria species found in glacial ice could pose disease risk as glaciers melt from global warming.”Such was the headline at Phys.org for an article announcing that Chinese researchers obtained snow, ice and cryoconite from several glaciers; attempted to grow the bacteria they scraped up; and sequenced all the DNA they found. The article went on to identify four potential threats that could lead to a new pandemic:I think the risk of glacier melt causing another pandemic is greatly exaggerated, … [Read more...]
Scientific Code of Values: Do Climate Alarmists Measure Up?
A few days ago I began reading Harold J. Berman's Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (1983). It's a scholarly tour de force covering an amazing range of subjects in law, history, theology, ecclesiology, and even the rise of science (particularly how Christian thought generated that).These paragraphs, from pages 155--6 and 157--8, particularly caught my attention:Although science, in the modern Western sense, has usually been defined only in methodological terms, … [Read more...]
Taxing Sheep and Cow, Uh, Burps
Get ready, farmers. The climate catastrophists are after you!New Zealand's Ministry for Environment on June 8 released a draft plan to tax farmers for the methane their sheep and cattle produce---because, of course, that methane causes climate change, aka global warming, and we all know that's an existential threat to humanity.Except that the moderate warming actually to be expected from rising greenhouse gas levels will bring benefits as well as costs, and it's entirely possible that the … [Read more...]
States’ Opposition to Federal Social Cost of Carbon Use Survives Supreme Court Decision
For years the federal government, especially its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has sought to use “social cost of carbon” (SCC) as justification, at the cost of billions of dollars, for regulations making it more difficult to drill for and use fossil fuels. That practice can continue—for now.On May 26, the Supreme Court declined a request from 11 states to block the Biden Administration from using the estimated SCC in regulatory activities. The states had argued that the modeling to … [Read more...]
Claim: Great Barrier Reef Devastated by Manmade Warming
In the last few weeks various media have reported that Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR), the world's largest coral reef system, is experiencing a "sixth mass bleaching" that threatens lasting devastation. NPR, CNN, and The Guardian, with many others, all told essentially the same story.But actual experts on the GBR challenge the narrative.In Quadrant Online marine biologist and reef specialist Leonard Starck writes:Contrary to the incessant bleating of office-based Great Barrier Reef … [Read more...]
A ‘Plan B’ for addressing climate change and the energy transition
I have a new article published in the latest issue of International Affairs Forum. The topic of this issue is Climate Change and Energy. Mine is one of twenty papers. A range of topics are covered. My article is the least alarmed among them. You may recognize several of the authors, which include Don Wuebbles and Bill McKibben.Here is the text of my article:Climate change is increasingly being referred to as a crisis, emergency, existential threat, and most recently as ‘code red.’ Climate change … [Read more...]
Playing Telephone with a Climate Report: Politicians Obscure Science, Media Fall in Line
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released its latest big report, this one titled Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (a mere 2,913 pages). Practically nobody will ever read it. (I confess haven't.) Its Technical Summary is just 142 pages. (No, haven't read that yet, either.) Its Summary for Policymakers is a mere 64 pages. (Still nope---though this one I might actually try to read in the next week or so.)Why would I write about a report of … [Read more...]
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