Mr. Ross - Catch a Clue!

Regarding this offering from Tom Ross (who does far better when he avoids politics):

1) Mr. Ross, if you are truly naïve enough to believe that a government directed “Greening of America” will revitalize our economy, I HIGHLY recommend some FAR better reading!

There are plenty of good ideas out there. But, as we learned from the Ethanol debacle, the LAST thing we need is for government bureaucrats to predetermine winners and losers through utterly corrupt and completely counterproductive GIANT subsidies at a time when the big spending Dems are already driving us into the poor house!

2) I’m not impressed by the Pulitzer Prize:

Winning The Pulitzer, much like winning the Nobel Peace Prize, is often little more than certain evidence that the subject is an accomplished propagandist for the Far Left:

A) Walter Duranty won one (and, apparently, The Old York Times is still proud of that).

B) Maureen Dowd won one (and, shockingly, is still carried by The Old York Times even after she blatantly, deliberately and unapologetically distorted the words of a wartime President to suggest the polar opposite of what he said).

3) Hot?

According to purely political propagandists? Of course. With “more than $US50 billion” and counting doled out already, there are plenty (“journalists” included) who, in my view, are willing to sell their soul to get a slice of that pie.

According to peer reviewed science? Nope.

4) Flat?

Well, we are living in a time of a global economy. But, that’s nothing new.

5) Crowded?

Come on! When will the hysteria mongers, posing as “journalists”, give up on that old meme?

Pollution from Coal Fired Power Plants

Quoting Steve Lewis:

“Coal pollution is causing asthma related illnesses
in cities and acid rain in forests.”

Let’s fact check that assertion.

Yes, the EPA identifies SO2, NO2 and Particulate Matter as
coal related pollutants contributing to both asthma and acid rain.

But, the following EPA chart shows that SO2, NO2 and PM
are FAR below the National Standards and are
DROPPING LIKE A ROCK!
Click here for the entire report.
Click the image to enlarge:

These pollutants have dropped substantially even as
the amount of coal consumed for electricity generation has increased.
Click the image to enlarge:

I personally created and uploaded the above chart.
The data used in the above chart are found in
this spreadsheet (Summary Statistics for the United States)
downloaded from this page.

And, there is a regulatory program in place
which promises to further reduce these pollutants.

Coal is BY FAR our most economical way to generate electricity.
This is becoming more true with every passing year.
Click the image to enlarge:

I personally created and uploaded the above chart.
The data used in the above chart are found in
this spreadsheet (Summary Statistics for the United States)
downloaded from this page.

The United States has TREMENDOUS Coal Reserves.
Click the image to enlarge:

I personally created and uploaded the above chart.
The data used in the above chart are found in
this spreadsheet (International Data, Coal, Reserves)
downloaded from this page.

The truly “smart” idea is to CONTINUE the
remarkable progress in clean coal technologies.

Click the image and read about ongoing
advances in clean coal technologies:


We should, however, abandon the absurdly expensive and utterly unnecessary efforts to sequester CO2. Anyone who does not yet understand why, should click the next image and thereby begin their deprogramming process.

Worried about Climate Change? Don’t!
Click the image and learn the facts as described by
directly cited peer reviewed science, IPCC Scientists and more:

To blindly embrace “a totalitarian political religion” which requires us to abandon all
hydrocarbon based energy sources is FAR from being a “smart” approach (as Steve Lewis alleges)!

Click here to learn more.

Global Weirding? Seriously?

It is refreshing to see Mr. Wallace acknowledge:
“The absence of absolute scientific proof that
human activity is changing the climate”.
It’s a start.

Click the image and read the rest of
the latest letter to the editor from
William Wallace:

“overwhelming evidence and credible scientific opinion”?
Where? From whom? The Purely Political IPCC? James Hansen? So-called “journalists”? Don’t make me laugh!

“Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method”?
Mr. Wallace, with a false air of authority, asserts that:

“Henry is employing a tactic that the literature calls the Scientific Certainty Argumentation Method — SCAM for short”

A Google search is pretty revealing as regards the level of authority this SCAM allegation carries.

The Precautionary Principle
As the peer reviewed scientific evidence against any catastrophic human caused warming continues to pile up, alarmists, including Mr. Wallace, are increasing turning to “The Precautionary Principle” as their new rationale for promoting drastically destructive measures.

The new argument is essentially this:
Okay, the peer reviewed science increasingly does not support the fear mongering (and never has). But, IF it WERE true, it would be really, really bad. So, we need to take all these drastically destructive measures just to be on the safe side.

First, we know, with increasing certainty, that we could burn all the hydrocarbons on the entire planet and never suffer any meaningful consequences from atmospheric CO2. If anything, the very slight additional warming would be a net positive for virtually all living things.

Second, The Precautionary Principle was applied with respect to DDT. The result was that about 35 million Africans died needlessly from Malaria. More recently, the World Health Organization has FINALLY understood the serious mistake and has lifted the DDT ban.

For more on DDT, click here and here. To begin to understand the parallels between the consequences of DDT hysteria and the consequences of Global Warming hysteria, click here.

In an effort to bolster his Precautionary Principle argument, Mr. Wallace mentions hurricane Katrina. Well, here are some “inconvenient” United States hurricane facts:

1) Deadliest US Hurricane - Galveston, 1900

2) Most Intense US Hurricane - Florida Keys, 1935

3) Decade with the most “major” US hurricanes - 1941-1950, 10

4) Most “major” US hurricanes in a single year - 1950, 8

Furthermore, quoting this source, describing yet another leading alarmist who is coming around to the side of reason (emphasis mine):

“One of the most influential scientists behind the theory that global warming has intensified recent hurricane activity says he will reconsider his stand.

The hurricane expert, Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveiled a novel technique for predicting future hurricane activity this week. The new work suggests that, even in a dramatically warming world [IF that were to happen], hurricane frequency and intensity may not substantially rise during the next two centuries.”

The published study can be found here.

The Temperature Data
Mr. Wallace questions the temperature trends asserted by Dr. Savage to have occurred since 1998 and 2001.

The accuracy of each assertion from Dr. Savage can be verified here. From that link, readers can easily trace the data back to the original source.

Current mean temperatures are further put into context in this post.

Atmospheric CO2 is put into context here.

The Credentials of the Skeptics
The credentials of the most notable 32,000 skeptics can be found right here.

If Mr. Wallace suffers from the delusion that all scientists listed as having participated in any given IPCC report are in agreement with what the IPCC politicians publish, he should watch these videos featuring interviews with former lead authors for the IPCC.

Paul Hawken & “global weirding”?
It is ironic that Mr. Wallace questions the credentials of climate skeptics and then cites Paul Hawken as someone he finds credible.

In his own biography, Mr. Hawken mentions absolutely nothing about any formal education.

A brief search for what Paul’s education might be revealed only this from Wikipedia:

“At age 20, he moved to Boston to study macrobiotic philosophy under Michio and Aveline Kushi.”

So, Hawken is representative of the credentials Mr. Wallace requires in order to embrace something like Mr. Hawken’s “global weirding” religion? Somehow, I am not surprised!

Isn’t “global weirding” nothing more than what the planet has experienced for billions of years?

GIMMIE A BREAK!
Click here to learn more.

Is Strobe Talbott a Climate Expert?

SP&T alleges (without quotes) that Clintonista Strobe Talbott said:

“Only quick, decisive action can prevent carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere
from reaching a tipping point where climate change is irreversible”

Click the image and read the story:

REALLY?

The following chart was copied directly from Geocarb III (page 20, as Adobe Acrobat sees it). Geocarb III was originally published in the American Journal of Science, Vol. 301, February 2001, P.182-204.

Click the image to enlarge:

Note that both Geocarb III and the older Geocarb II are graphed.

The raw data from Geocarb III are found in this file downloaded from this NOAA page.

According to Geocarb III, “RCO2” is:

“the ratio of mass of CO2 in the atmosphere at time t divided by the mass at present”

In plain language, the above chart shows how many times higher than today CO2 was how many millions of years ago.

According to the above chart from Geocarb III, past CO2 levels have been at LEAST 11 times higher than today (more likely 26 times higher than today). Why did this mythical “tipping point” not occur then?

If we continue on our present course, by 2100 we MIGHT wind up with an RCO2 of 2 (twice the pre-industrial level of CO2). We are currently at an RCO2 of about 1.28 (28% increase relative to pre-industrial levels).

According to the above chart from Geocarb III, about 460 million years ago (during the late Ordovician), CO2 levels were at LEAST 8 times higher than today (RCO2 of 8). And yet, at that very same time, quoting this source:

“the Ordovician ended in a brief (300-500 ky), but severe, ice age… As a natural consequence, a good deal of attention has been focused on the causes of the Ordovician Ice Age. In fact, it is not easy to see how an ice age could have occurred. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are believed to have been 8 to 20 times their current values.”

Actually, as the Geocarb III chart clearly shows, the CO2 levels at the time of the Ordovician Ice Age were more like 8 to 30 times (or MORE) their current values!

There is, by the way, very broad agreement that a severe ice age took place about 460 million years ago in the late Ordovician.

In the previous link, readers will find various assertions that this contradiction has been resolved. But, any application of critical thinking proves those assertions to be pure bunk! Any way you slice it, you STILL wind up with a severe Ice Age taking place when CO2 levels were at LEAST 8 times higher than today!

The answer to this apparent contradiction is pretty simple. Once one looks past the propaganda and examines the peer reviewed science as published in the peer reviewed science journals (especially the most recent examples) it is glaringly obvious that CO2 is a very MINOR bit player among the various other forcing factors which drive Climate Change. And, it is glaringly obvious that there is no such “tipping point” where CO2 causes “runaway global warming”!

All of the above points are driven home more clearly by the following chart.
Click the image and learn more:

Again, the CO2 data in the above chart comes from Geocarb III (aka Berner, 2001)
and can be found in this file downloaded from this NOAA page.

The temperature data comes from The Paleomap Project by Dr. C.R. Scotese,
a PhD geologist at the University of Texas at Arlington.

When I followed the instructions contained in Geocarb III for translating RCO2 into ppm,
the chart which I created (using the Geocarb III data file downloaded from this NOAA page) showed the exact same pattern as the above chart, but it showed even higher levels of CO2 ppm than the above chart!

This so-called “tipping point” IS A PURELY FABRICATED ALARMIST FANTASY!

Click here to learn more.

The Last Stand - Summary to Date

After two entries, my reading of the SP&T series titled “The Last Stand” confirms my prediction that SP&T would attempt to present the current Mountain Pine Beetle infestation as a glaring example of the allegedly unprecedented harm done by allegedly unprecedented Man Made Global Warming.

To summarize my critique to date of this series, I offer the following summary of “Inconvenient Truths”:

1) SP&T Assertion (emphasis mine):

“Throughout the continent, beetles are thriving in some altitudes and climes like never before because of higher temperatures.”

Inconvenient Truths:

A) Quoting NASA Goddard (home to Al Gore’s pal James Hansen):

“1934 is the warmest year in the contiguous states”

B) NCPA better describes what Hansen only grudgingly admits:

“Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.”
(Note: I assume this applies only to “the contiguous states”)

C) Peer reviewed Ice Core Data suggest there were many, MANY times in the last 10,000 years (and beyond) which were warmer than today.

Notably, there was a period of AT LEAST 257 years (from 4,452 years ago to 4,295 years ago) when temperatures appear to have been consistently higher than today. (Any number higher than 0.2 in the rightmost column of this file indicates a temperature higher than the current mean temperature.) More details here.

2) SP&T Assertion (emphasis mine):

“mountain pine beetle will kill approximately 76 percent of mature lodgepole pine by 2015”

Inconvenient Truth (directly related to the first set of Inconvenient Truths):

Click the image to view a quote
from this source (page 3, Summary):

Click here for the rest of my observations on the SP&T series “The Last Stand”.

Click here for the primary arguments against Man Made Global Warming Hysteria.

It Depends on What The Meaning of "Never" is!

Updated & Revised on 8/3/08
This is Part II of my commentary on the SP&T series titled “The Last Stand”.
Part I of my commentary is found here.

Quoting Mr. Brandon Gee (with emphasis mine):

“Throughout the continent, beetles are thriving in some
altitudes and climes like never before because of higher temperatures.”

Never? Really?
Please, Mr. Gee, stop with the alarmist hyperbole!

Quoting NASA Goddard (home to Al Gore’s pal James Hansen):

“1934 is the warmest year in the contiguous states”

NCPA better describes what Hansen only grudgingly admits:

“Six of the top 10 hottest years occurred before 90 percent of the growth
in greenhouse gas emissions during the last century occurred.”

If you wonder why so-called “journalists” have not
told you that, then you need to read this book.

The Next Four Charts WILL FURTHER
Put This MYTH to Rest.

Click the image to enlarge:

Click the image to enlarge:

Click the image to enlarge:

Click the image to enlarge:

The data used in the above charts are found in:

Ice Core Data to more than 420,000 years ago:
this file downloaded from this page (Petit et al. 1999 to 3310m).

The past 41 years at the same location as the Ice Core studies (Vostok):
This page.

To verify that the reference point for the Vostok Ice Core study is -55.5C, click here,
then click on “click to view full summary”.

Today, the mean temperature at Vostok is -55.3C,
0.2C warmer than the mean at the time of the study (1999).

The Holocene is the name for the current interglacial warming period.

The interglacial warming period which immediately preceded
the Holocene is known as the Eemian.

Some 8,000 years ago, the temperature was 2.06C warmer than
the mean temperature at Vostok at the time of the study (1999)
and 2.04C warmer than the present mean of -55.3C.

But, we can see from the second chart that there were many, MANY times
in the last 10,000 years when the climate was apparently warmer than today!

In this file, ANY number in the rightmost column greater than 0.2 indicates
a temperature which is higher than the current mean.

We can see that the temperature at Vostok was higher than the current mean
as recently as 190 years ago!

The highest known temperature during the Eemian was 3.23C higher than
the mean temperature from 1999 and 3.21C higher than the present mean.

The bottom line?
Unless the Mountain Pine Beetle first appeared sometime
AFTER 1934, then “never” is NOT the correct word in this case!

Of course, we KNOW this is NOT the case!
AND, we also KNOW that this beetle did MORE DAMAGE in the 1930’s!

Click the image to view a quote
from this source (page 3, Summary):

Click here for a search on countless sources verifying
that the Eemian produced warmer temperatures than today.

Click here for a search on countless sources verifying
that the Eemian produced higher sea-levels than today.

P.S.) We are currently experiencing one of the
3 coldest Ice Ages in the last 600 million years!

The Last Stand

SP&T is doing an interesting series titled “The Last Stand”. This is a very relevant topic and most certainly an issue of concern (primarily as it relates to fire and safety issues). One upside is that campers and backpackers will have much more fuel for their campfires!

So far, the SP&T reporting on this appears to be slightly more balanced than the CO2-centric propaganda offered by NPR on the same subject. But, I am not convinced that the reporting and associated commentary is entirely accurate and objective.

Click the image and read
the associated commentary
which I am commenting on here:

Image from Flickr and photographer Harley Mac

Is the pine beetle “epidemic” “unprecedented in its scope”
and not “the latest iteration of a cyclical natural phenomena”?

If so, where is the proof?
Or is this just more unproven alarmist rhetoric?

Click the image to view a quote
from this source (page 3, Summary):

Misguided forest management policies may (or may not) have resulted in larger absolute quantities of beetle killed trees. But, as a percentage of the overall total? Maybe. Maybe not. Show me the data!

Anybody concerned with the “gradual warming of the Earth’s temperatures” and what impact that may or may not have on the pine beetle issue should note the following per NOAA:

1) 2008, year to date, the mean temperature in the lower 48 was 48.42F.

2) From 1895 to 2008, the average mean temperature in the lower 48 for the same YTD period was slightly HIGHER at 48.47F.

3) The winter of 2007/2008 saw a mean temperature in the lower 48 of 33.18F.

4) From 1895 to 2008, the average mean temperature in the lower 48 for the same winter period was 33.06F (0.12F colder).

Perfectly natural forces result in the climate changing all the time. From 1934 to 1979 we saw a cooling trend. From 1979 to 1998, we saw a warming trend. Since 1998, we’ve been in another cooling trend. All this and more can be verified at this NOAA page.

For additional climate change observations,
click the image below: