Yesterday I began a multi-part critique of a recent blog post by Evangelical Environmental Network board chairman Scott Rodin titled "As a Conservative, Evangelical Republican, Why Climate Change Can't Be True (Even Though It Is)." In that piece I pointed out that scientific data point the opposite direction from where Rodin thinks they do. I also mentioned that Rodin was using logical fallacies and rhetorical tricks to precondition readers to accept his conclusions despite his lack of sound … [Read more...]
Oh, No! Polar Sea Ice Extent Is …
... pretty much stable. That's according to the most recent NASA data on polar sea ice extent, shown in this graph, posted by the University of Illinois's Department of Atmospheric Sciences: James Taylor comments: Updated NASA satellite data show the polar ice caps remained at approximately their 1979 extent until the middle of the last decade. Beginning in 2005, however, polar ice modestly receded for several years. By 2012, polar sea ice had receded by approximately 10 percent from … [Read more...]
New Observational Evidence Supports Old “Infrared Iris” Theory
About seven years ago I read a fascinating paper by Roy Spencer et al. that argued that clouds respond to Earth's surface temperatures in ways that moderate them--cooling the surface in response to warming, warming it in response to cooling. It led me to an earlier paper by Richard Lindzen that argued that, at least in a major region above the Pacific, clouds respond to surface temperature changes in a way analogous to how the human eye's iris responds to light. In response to dimmer light, the … [Read more...]
If they Could Put a Man on the Moon …
A couple of years ago a group of engineers and other scientists involved in the Apollo space program took interest in the debates over global warming. They called themselves The Right Climate Stuff, and they set out to make as objective assessments as they could of the arguments pro and con on global warming, human influence on it, and proposals to mitigate it. Lots of folks wondered why astronautical engineers should have thought they had anything special to contribute to the debate. Over the … [Read more...]
World’s Poor Desperately Need Abundant, Affordable, Reliable Energy
Cornwall's "Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change" drove home multiple scientific and economic reasons for Pope Francis to send Ban Ki-Moon and Jeffrey Sachs packing last Tuesday. But most important is this: The world's poor desperately need abundant, affordable, reliable energy, and Sachs and Ban would deprive them of it. Pope Francis should protect the poor by ensuring that no policy he embraces on climate will delay their gaining access to abundant, affordable, reliable electricity. … [Read more...]
The Great Pause Lengthens to 18 Years 4 Months
There’s been essentially zero trend, calculated by the least squares regression method (the most relevant), in global average temperature as measured by the satellites, in 18 years 4 months. None of the computer climate models came even remotely close to simulating this. Consequently they’re wrong. Since they’re wrong, they leave no rational basis to fear dangerous manmade global warming, and therefore no rational basis for any climate-change policy whatsoever. Here’s the graph, by Christopher … [Read more...]
We Pray for Religious Leaders to Understand the Science and Economics of Climate Change and Energy Policy
Heavenly Father, I pray for religious leaders like Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, who with the best of intentions are urging their followers to embrace global warming alarmism, thinking that by so doing they will help protect the poor. Lord, please open their eyes to the strong scientific evidence that natural forces far outweigh human forces in determining Earth’s temperature and that reducing fossil fuel use will have little or no effect on temperature, … [Read more...]
To Divest or Not to Divest—That is the Question
“To be, or not to be? That is the question.” With those words Hamlet pondered suicide. That’s a question we should ask as we ponder shrill calls on various college campuses for divestment from fossil fuels – as took place this past weekend as part of Global Divestment Day. For with the end of fossil fuel use comes the eventual death of a significant portion of the human race. Yes, I just said that. And it’s true. 1.3 billion people live without electricity across the world, 2.6 billion lack … [Read more...]
Attacking fossil fuels doesn’t help the poor
In the debate over climate change, as in most things, it makes sense for politicians to appeal to a higher power. To wit: President Obama recently sent Environment Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy to visit the Vatican. Her mission was to convince papal officials, who are currently drafting a climate-change-focused encyclical for Pope Francis, that the president’s anti-climate change policies will help the poor and are thus a blueprint for similar international efforts. Hopefully … [Read more...]
Castrate All Boys at Age Ten to Save the Planet?
A friend posted on Facebook responses she had received when she announced she was pregnant with her second child. “Already?!” “Was this pregnancy an accident?” Reading many of them made me sad. Some chided her for having her children so close together, others for having them when she’s so young. (But she’s in her mid-twenties and happily married). Reading Katie Herzog’s “Why I’ll never have kids, and why you shouldn’t either” later that day made me even sadder. She thinks neither she nor … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- …
- 21
- Next Page »
