The Week That Was: 2021-08-07 (August 7, 2021)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “’The exception proves that the rule is wrong.’ That is the principle of science. If there is an exception to any rule, and if it can be proven by observation, that rule is wrong.” – Richard Feynman, The Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist (1998)
Number of the Week: – Down 38%
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
A Philosophy Or An Institution: On July 23, the Wall Street Journal published a contemplative interview of Matt Ridley by Tunku Varadarajan. It dealt with issues such as COVID, climate science, and biology, but TWTW will focus on those parts that may apply to climate science as practiced today. Ridley, an English Viscount from Northumberland (on the border with Scotland) trained as a biologist and has written books as diverse as The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature; The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves; and How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom.
With the Canadian molecular biologist Alina Chan, Ridley is finishing a book called “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19,” scheduled to be published in November.
“As Mr. Ridley worked on the book, he says, it became ‘horribly clear’ that Chinese scientists are ‘not free to explain and reveal everything they’ve been doing with bat viruses.’ That information has to be ‘dug out’ by outsiders like him and Ms. Chan. The Chinese authorities, he says, ordered all scientists to send their results relevant to the virus for approval by the government before other scientists or international agencies could vet them:”
The article begins with: [Boldface added]
“’Science’ has become a political catchword. ‘I believe in science,’ Joe Biden tweeted six days before he was elected president. ‘Donald Trump doesn’t. It’s that simple, folks.’
“But what does it mean to believe in science? The British science writer Matt Ridley draws a pointed distinction between ‘science as a philosophy’ and ‘science as an institution.’ The former grows out of the Enlightenment, which Mr. Ridley defines as ‘the primacy of rational and objective reasoning.’ The latter, like all human institutions, is erratic, prone to falling well short of its stated principles. Mr. Ridley says the Covid pandemic has ‘thrown into sharp relief the disconnect between science as a philosophy and science as an institution.’”
If we consider that the branch of philosophy called epistemology is the systematic study of knowledge and how it is acquired, then physical science must include physical reality. It is not the study of an imaginary world tied up in computer modeling without frequent testing against all the physical evidence available. The imaginary world appears to be the realm of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its followers. The article continues:
“In the U.K., he has also noted ‘a tendency to admire authoritarian China among scientists that surprised some people.’ It didn’t surprise Mr. Ridley. ‘I’ve noticed for years,’ he says, ‘that scientists take a somewhat top-down view of the political world, which is odd if you think about how beautifully bottom-up the evolutionary view of the natural world is.’
“He asks: ‘If you think biological complexity can come about through unplanned emergence and not need an intelligent designer, then why would you think human society needs an ‘intelligent government’?’ Science as an institution has ‘a naive belief that if only scientists were in charge, they would run the world well.’ Perhaps that’s what politicians mean when they declare that they ‘believe in science.’ As we’ve seen during the pandemic, science can be a source of power.
“But there’s a ‘tension between scientists wanting to present a unified and authoritative voice,’ on the one hand, and science-as-philosophy, which is obligated to ‘remain open-minded and be prepared to change its mind.’ Mr. Ridley fears ‘that the pandemic has, for the first time, seriously politicized epidemiology.’ It’s partly ‘the fault of outside commentators’ who hustle scientists in political directions. ‘I think it’s also the fault of epidemiologists themselves, deliberately publishing things that fit with their political prejudices or ignoring things that don’t.’”
In shifting from the pandemic to climate science the article states:
“…. ‘The modeling of where the pandemic might go,’ he says, ‘presents itself as an entirely apolitical project. But there have been too many cases of epidemiologists presenting models based on rather extreme assumption.’
“One motivation: Pessimism sells. ‘You don’t get blamed for being too pessimistic, but you do get attention. It’s like climate science. Modeled forecasts of a future that is scary [sic] is much more likely to get you on television.’ Mr. Ridley invokes Michael Crichton, the late science-fiction novelist, who hated the tendency to describe the outcomes of models in words that imply they are the ‘results’ of an experiment. That frames speculation as if it were proof.
“Climate science is already far down the road to politicization. ‘Twenty or 30 years ago,’ Mr. Ridley says, ‘you could study how the ice ages happened and discuss competing theories without being at all political about it.’ Now it’s very hard to have a conversation on the subject ‘without people trying to interpret it through a political lens.’
“Mr. Ridley describes himself as ‘lukewarm’ on climate change. He accepts that humans have made the climate warmer, but doesn’t subscribe to any of the catastrophist views that call for radical changes in human behavior and consumption. His nuanced position hasn’t protected him from attack, of course, and the British left is prone to vilify him as a ‘denier.’
“Climate science has also been ‘infected by cultural relativism and postmodernism,’ Mr. Ridley says. He cites a paper that was critical of glaciology—the study of glaciers—’because it wasn’t sufficiently feminist.’ I wonder if he’s kidding, but Google confirms he isn’t. In 2016 Progress in Human Geography published ‘Glaciers, gender, and science: A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research.’
“The politicization of science leads to a loss of confidence in science as an institution. The distrust may be justified but leaves a vacuum, often filled by a ‘much more superstitious approach to knowledge.’ To such superstition Mr. Ridley attributes public resistance to technologies such as genetically modified food, nuclear power—and vaccines.”
After a discussion of the beginning of vaccination in England and America from practices used in Ottoman Turkey, for which early advocates were pilloried, the article concludes:
“Vaccines have been central to the question of ‘misinformation’ and the White House’s pressure campaign against social media to censor it. Mr. Ridley worries about the opposite problem: that social media ‘is complicit in enforcing conformity.’ It does this ‘through ‘fact checking,’ mob pile-ons, and direct censorship, now explicitly at the behest of the Biden administration.’ He points out that Facebook and Wikipedia long banned any mention of the possibility that the virus leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.
“‘Conformity,’ Mr. Ridley says, ‘is the enemy of scientific progress, which depends on disagreement and challenge. Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts, as [the physicist Richard] Feynman put it.’ Mr. Ridley reserves his bluntest criticism for ‘science as a profession,’ which he says has become ‘rather off-puttingly arrogant and political, permeated by motivated reasoning and confirmation bias.’ Increasing numbers of scientists ‘seem to fall prey to groupthink, and the process of peer-reviewing and publishing allows dogmatic gate-keeping to get in the way of new ideas and open-minded challenge.’
“The World Health Organization is a particular offender: ‘We had a dozen Western scientists go to China in February and team up with a dozen Chinese scientists under the auspices of the WHO.’ At a subsequent press conference they pronounced the lab-leak theory ‘extremely unlikely.’ The organization also ignored Taiwanese cries for help with Covid-19 in January 2020. ‘The Taiwanese said, ‘We’re picking up signs that this is a human-to-human transmission that threatens a major epidemic. Please, will you investigate?’ And the WHO basically said, ‘You’re from Taiwan. We’re not allowed to talk to you.’’
“He notes that WHO’s primary task is forestalling pandemics. Yet in 2015 it ‘put out a statement saying that the greatest threat to human health in the 21st century is climate change. Now that, to me, suggests an organization not focused on the day job.’
“In Mr. Ridley’s view, the scientific establishment has always had a tendency ‘to turn into a church, enforcing obedience to the latest dogma and expelling heretics and blasphemers.’ This tendency was previously kept in check by the fragmented nature of the scientific enterprise: Prof. A at one university built his career by saying that Prof. B’s ideas somewhere else were wrong. In the age of social media, however, ‘the space for heterodoxy is evaporating.’ So those who believe in science as philosophy are increasingly estranged from science as an institution. It’s sure to be a costly divorce.”
The UN has lost its way. It has become an organization for acquiring power and world influence, while ignoring its actual purposes. The IPCC is an example. The IPCC has abandoned the scientific method in favor of extremely pessimistic stories and its followers demand conformity to these stories. Politicians are taking advantage of this conformity claiming “science says” which has little more meaning than the donkey brays. See Article # 2 and links under Seeking a Common Ground.
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A Bit Too Pessimistic? For twenty-five years AAAS Science has been a leader in climate pessimism, refusing to publish articles that show that the world is not warming dangerously. According to Our World in Data, during this period humanity has experienced the biggest drop in those living in extreme poverty ever, led by South Asia, East Asia, and Pacific regions. In a large part, this enormous benefit to humanity comes from the use of fossil fuels. The great improvements to humanity give no reason for poor countries to act on the predictions of climate pessimists such as those covered by AAAS Science.
Thus, it was somewhat surprising to read about an editorial in Science by staff writer Paul Voosen titled: “U.N. climate panel confronts implausibly hot forecasts of future warming.” However, the article itself demonstrates that AAAS Science has not changed.
There are two sources for extreme hot forecasts of future warming. One is extreme scenarios, story lines, of future carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The second is high sensitivity of the globe’s temperatures to increased CO2. Roger Pielke, Judith Curry, and others have demonstrated that IPCC’s most extreme scenario (RCP8.5) for CO2 emissions is not feasible. Yet, it is the basis for thousands of papers claiming climate disasters.
The new climate models have been run and according to the article in AAAS Science the extreme results may be a bit too extreme to be considered plausible, even by the most gullible. A graph in the article shows that the unadjusted forecast of the highest temperature increases by 2080 to 2100 is almost 7°C (12°F). The raw forecast has been constrained to about 5.5°C (10°F). The median estimates are 5°C (9°F) raw and 4.25°C (7.5°F) constrained. The article also quotes some modelers that they will do better next time.
The sensitivity of the globe’s temperatures to increasing CO2, the other source of extreme forecasts, is not discussed. But this is the most important one. Over forty years of measurement of atmospheric temperature trends shows since January 1979 the atmosphere has warmed by 0.14 C/decade (0.25°F/decade) or 0.55°C (1°F). Projecting this out to 2100, the globe will warm by about 1.1°C (2°F). Given the enormous benefits humanity has experienced over this period, this increase is hardly a cause for concern.
The article in AAAS Science may have expressed that the newest global climate model results are a bit too pessimistic, but AAAS Science and the IPCC remain highly pessimistic about the future without physical evidence that CO2 is causing dangerous warming. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, Defending the Orthodoxy, Measurement Issues – Atmosphere, and https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty
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Upcoming Pessimism: The Physical Science Basis of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR-6) is due out this week. As discussed above, it is doubtful it will be based on physical science, but more likely on imaginary forecasts from global climate models that have not been tested against evidence such as temperature trends in the atmosphere, where the greenhouse gases are.
David Whitehouse, Science Editor for the Global Warming Policy Forum, discusses the recent data in the HadCRUT5 surface global temperature database maintained by the UK Met Office. [Note this database was used by The Right Climate Stuff Team which recognized the latest version increased the warming bias, but it is superior to that of NOAA and NASA-GISS because it does not infill data were data do not exist.] Whitehouse questions whether the new IPCC report will acknowledge reality. He writes:
“The data for this century shows several features; a long hiatus (2002 – 2014) that was acknowledged by the IPCC (but later denied by some scientists), an intense multi-phased El Nino event and its aftermath (2015 -2020) and now a recent decline to levels where they were when the IPCC published its last report. Unequivocal is not a word to describe this data.”
“So, when you read the new IPCC report and take in the alarmist headlines it will undoubtedly generate, bear in mind that since its previous report in 2014 global temperatures have barely changed and have declined from their El Nino-inspired peak of a few years ago.” See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Tiny Storage: As TWTW has expressed, the true cost of unreliable electricity generation to the consumer is not realized until the cost of making such generation reliable is realized. At this time there is no proof of concept of a utility scale storage system that relies on wind or solar.
A great deal has been written about battery storage such as the “Big Battery” in Victoria, Australia, which caught fire. The write-ups revealed how puny the “Big Battery” is. Paul Homewood wrote:
“In fact the “Big Battery” is rated at 300 MW, and can only store 377 MWh of usable energy. Average load on the Australian grid is 30 GW. In other words, in theory it could supply Australian demand for less than a minute. This battery, and even many more like it, cannot store enough electricity to fulfil demand as claimed, for instance at night when there is no solar power.
But what it will not do is store energy to cater for intermittent renewables.”
“For the record, Australia still gets 79% of its electricity from fossil fuels, and just 14% from wind and solar:”
Compared with the “Big Battery,” the Bath County (Virginia) Pumped Storage Station has a rated capacity 10 times as large (3,003 MW), with a total capacity of 63 times as large (24,000 MWh (Megawatt Hours)). It is replenished by thermally generated electricity, fossil fuel and nuclear. By comparison, the “Big Battery” is miniscule. Without massive storage, claims that wind and solar can replace fossil fuels are great exaggerations. See links under Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy – Storage
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Who Does the Mining and Processing? Donn Dears discusses key points in a report by the Biden Administration: “Building Resilient Supply Chains, Revitalizing American Manufacturing and Fostering Broad-Based Growth: 100-Day Reviews under Executive Order 14017.” The report highlights three minerals needed for battery powered vehicles: Class-1 Nickle, Cobalt, Lithium. Add to that the increased need for Copper and Manganese, and we see the “green revolution” will need massive increases in mining and processing of these minerals. As with nuclear energy replacing fossil fuels for electricity generation, it is doubtful the green industry will support a “green revolution.” See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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The Great Melt: Each summer ice in Greenland melts. The green group EcoWatch put the melt in an alarmist perspective: “Extreme Ice Melt in Greenland in One Day Was Enough to Cover Florida in Two Inches of Water.” The headline was picked up by other examples of yellow journalism such as The Hill.
Tony Heller pointed out that Greenland is more than ten times larger than Florida and that according to Polar Portal, run by the Danish science institutions which keeps records on Greenland and started this yellow journalism, the sudden drop was an extreme event, and the ice mass in Greenland is increasing, not decreasing. Even in 2019, which had the greatest summer loss, the ice mass increased. See links under Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?, Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?, and Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice.
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Additions and Corrections: Reader Bryan Leyland wrote that the July 24 TWTW was not quite correct in stating what happened at the Oroville Dam in California. Leyland writes:
“The spillway chute of the main spillway was damaged by relatively low discharges, so they shut the spillway gates and the water tipped into the emergency spillway. The emergency spillway was designed for 10 feet of overtopping but when it reached about 1 foot in the water started eroding into the base of the embankment and would have released a major flood if it failed. They called for an evacuation of 20,000 people downstream. They reopened the main spillway gates and accepted that the chute downstream would be seriously damaged.
“The flood was not anywhere near the design flood.”
Leyland cites an interview with Robert Bea (a leading forensic engineer who was long concerned with the dam), and with a colleague wrote “Root Causes Analyses of the Oroville Dam Gated Spillway Failures and Other Developments.” Root Causes Analysis was used by the late Hal Dorian, a leader of The Right Climate Stuff Team. See: https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2017-07-27/bob-bea-takes-us-deep-dive-through-his-dire-oroville-report,
TWTW appreciates additions and corrections to its commentary.
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14th ICCC: The 14th International Conference on Climate Change presented by The Heartland Institute will be October 15 to 17, 2021, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. See https://climateconference.heartland.org/
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SEPP’S APRIL FOOLS AWARD
THE JACKSON
At the 39th Conference of the Doctors for Defensive Preparedness, SEPP announced that the winner of the 2021 April Fools Award was the entire Biden Administration for its declaration of a climate emergency in complete disregard for the scientific method and the fact that this is the most prosperous time in the history of humanity [prior to COVID].
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Number of the Week: – Down 38%. For over a month, TWTW has followed wind power at the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) which demonstrates that load balancing is a difficult task. An electric grid is an energized system and load balancing is needed to assure there is sufficient current to meet consumption, without overloading the system to the point of damage. With the exception of a few extreme spikes, since July 22, after days of running below 500 MW (megawatts), often near zero, on the afternoon of August 5, wind power jumped to over 2500 MW and bounced between 2500 and 1500 MW to August 7.
The great variability in wind power requires that BPA operate its dams so that hydro power varies from almost 10,000 MW to 4,000 MW placing stress on the hydro-turbines in the system.
As cited in the July 17 TWTW, in 2012 BPA realized that the hydro system was at its limits for balancing wind power. Since then, BPA has curtailed the capacity of the wind power it supports by 38%, from slightly above 4700 MW to 2930 MW. How do wind power advocates plan to balance the grid when wind power fails?
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Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
Climate Scientist Warns ‘Next 20-30 Years Will Be Cold’
By Thomas Williams, Breibart, July 28, 2021
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/07/28/climate-scientist-warns-next-20-30-years-will-be-cold/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=daily&utm_campaign=20210728
How a sudden stratospheric warming affected the Northern Hemisphere
By Nancy Wolfe Kotary for MIT News, Boston MA (SPX), Jul 24, 2021
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/How_a_sudden_stratospheric_warming_affected_the_Northern_Hemisphere_999.html
link to paper: Impact of September 2019 Antarctic Sudden Stratospheric Warming on Mid-Latitude Ionosphere and Thermosphere over North America and Europe
By Larisa P. Goncharenko, et al. Geophysical Research Letters, July 16 2021
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021GL094517
Ye sun spottes
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
“Since the Little Ice Age, people have noticed that solar activity fluctuates, and that those fluctuations affect weather conditions on Earth. How did we ever get to the point that the scientists-who-say deny what Adam Smith blurted out a quarter of a millennium ago?”
Censorship
Science Journal Demands “Hate Crime” Laws to Shield Scientists from Public Criticism
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Aug 5, 2021
Link to article: Mounting antiscience aggression in the United States
By Peter J. Hotez, Plos Biology, July 28, 2021
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001369
“There is a troubling new expansion of antiscience aggression in the United States. It’s arising from far-right extremism, including some elected members of the US Congress and conservative news outlets that target prominent biological scientists fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“The President of the United States, together with science leaders at the federal agencies should prepare and deliver a robust, public, and highly visible statement of support. The statement would reaffirm the contribution of scientists across United States history.”
[SEPP Comment: Will the “Hate Crime” Laws apply to “Climate Change Deniers,” will this be the theme for Plos Climate?]
Sky News Australia Suspended By YouTube
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 2, 2021
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Climate-Change-Reconsidered-II-Fossil-Fuels-FULL-Volume-with-covers.pdf
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
Home
Download with no charge:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
Challenging the Orthodoxy
How Climate Scenarios Lost Touch With Reality
By Roger Pielke Jr and Justin Ritchie, Issues in Science and Technology, Summer 2021 [H/t WUWT]
“A failure of self-correction in science has compromised climate science’s ability to provide plausible views of our collective future.”
Will the IPCC report acknowledge reality?
By David Whitehouse, GWPF Science Editor, GWPF, Aug 6, 2021
US Strategic Minerals Deficiencies
By Donn Dears, Power For USA, July 27, 2021
Link to: Building Resilient Supply chains, Revitalizing American Manufacturing and Fostering Broad-Based Growth: 100-Day Reviews under Executive Order 14017
By Staff, The White House, June 2021
Unsettling the apple cart III: Koonin on hyping heat
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 28, 2021
“Continuing University of Guelph professor Ross McKitrick’s look at Steven E. Koonin’s landmark book Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What it Doesn’t, and Why it Matters.
“The middle chapters of Unsettled cut through the rhetoric around extreme weather like a tornado. It is one of the most important topics for someone like Koonin to tackle since he links important scientific information about trends in weather hazards with the glaring dysfunction of the mechanisms by which the public get informed about them.
Unsettling the apple cart IV: Koonin on tempest terrors
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
See link immediately above.
World of Hurt from Climate Policies-Part 3
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Aug 6, 2021
A New Crisis for Climate Science?
By Steven Hayward, Power Line, Aug 2, 2021
See article in Science below:
Science magazine blows the whistle on climate model failure
By Graham Lloyd, The Australian, July 30, 2021
See article in Science below:
Science Magazine, climatologists: models overstate temperature changes by a factor of two or more
By Lubos Motl, The Reference Frame, July 28, 2021
https://motls.blogspot.com/2021/07/science-magazine-climatologists-models.html
“Great, in 2021, the Science Magazine finally admits that indeed, the (late) Fred Singer and Luboš Motl (whose names are suppressed) have been right all along and the greenhouse-with-feedback prediction for the tropopause above the equator contradicts the observations. The observations don’t produce any significantly elevated warming there.”
Defending the Orthodoxy
U.N. climate panel confronts implausibly hot forecasts of future warming
By Paul Voosen, Science, July 27, 2021
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/07/un-climate-panel-confronts-implausibly-hot-forecasts-future-warming
Earth’s energy budget is out of balance – here’s how it’s warming the climate
By Scott Denning, The Conversation, Aug 4, 2021 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://phys.org/news/2021-08-earth-energy-climate.html
Link to paper: Radiative forcing by well-mixed greenhouse gases: Estimates from climate models in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4)
By W. D. Collins, Journal of Geophysical Research, July 28, 2006
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2005JD006713
From abstract: In general, the LBL models are in excellent agreement with each other. (benchmark line-by-line (LBL) codes)
[SEPP Comment: Since the models are in agreement and contradicted by observational and experimental data, they are all wrong.]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Climate emergency: Tipping points are already here, scientists warn
Limited time available to shift priorities to alleviate climate crisis
By Susan Chacko, Down To Earth, Aug 2, 2021
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/climate-emergency-tipping-points-are-already-here-scientists-warn-78236
Link to petition with 13,000 signatures: World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency
By William Ripple, et al. BioScience, Nov 5, 2019
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/1/8/5610806
Update: World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021
By William J Ripple, et al. BioScience, July 28, 2021
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biab079/6325731
[SEPP Comment: More livestock (4 billion), Amazon forest logging, economic growth, energy use, greenhouse gases and temperatures, melting ice, ocean changes (average pH second lowest since 2012), etc.]
Energy Independence Doesn’t Mean What It Used To
And here’s why that’s a national security issue.
By Parker Bolstad, an active duty military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, and Jordy Lee, the program manager for the Supply Chain Transparency Initiative at the Payne Institute for Public Policy. Foreign Policy, July 26, 2021 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
More of earth’s population at risk of flooding, research shows
By Celine Castronuovo, The Hill, Aug 4, 2021
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/566349-more-of-earths-population-at-risk-of-flooding-research-shows
Link to paper: Satellite imaging reveals increased proportion of population exposed to floods
By B. Tellman, Nature, Aug 4, 2021
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03695-w?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=146486857&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8UtOefC2JERY7pV-AfZL1ubfSyhb52tumemMNLD1e5T1bNeNyiGdDyzT4SyywgSIjZXKrRM405WrD7qRH_7vBBAxbyag&utm_content=146486857&utm_source=hs_email
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Britain, climate change and the reality of extreme weather events-Ross Clark
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 29 2021
“What is interesting is that Ross Clark has homed in on my two key points:
1) There has been no rise in temperatures in the last decade.
2) The increase in rainfall is largely confined to Scotland, with little long term changes in the south and east.”
Environmentalists have got it wrong – we’re not facing an insect apocalypse
By Matt Ridley, Rational Optimist, July 29, 2021
https://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/were-not-facing-an-insect-apocalypse/
Flash floods will be more common, say climate scientists right after flash floods happen
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 28, 2021
“In the Great Pagan Tradition of neolithic fortune telling, modern climate witchdoctors predict everything right after it starts
“Last year it was droughts and bushfires. This year its floods. If only the climate models worked, they could have warned the people of Europe, China and India that there would be rampant flooding before it happened.”
After Paris!
The climate scaremongers – Part One
By Paul Homewood, The Conservative Woman, Aug 6, 2021
“As the next climate conference, COP26 in Glasgow, gets closer, the media are ramping up their climate propaganda to intimidate the public who are becoming rightly concerned how much the Net Zero agenda is going to cost them.”
Change in US Administrations
9 Things to Know About Senate’s $1.1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill
By David Ditch, et al. Daily Signal, Aug 3, 2021
Lack of Infrastructure to Hinder Biden’s 2030 Offshore Wind Target
By Staff, Power Engineering International, Aug 2, 2021
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Gratitude for CO2: It Continues to Feed the World
By Vijay Jayaraj, Real Clear Markets, Aug 4, 2021
https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2021/08/04/gratitude_for_c02_it_continues_to_feed_the_world_788506.html
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Let’s divide the European Union
By Dr Jiří Weigl, The Reference Frame, posted July 25, 2021
https://motls.blogspot.com/2021/07/lets-divide-european-union.html
Will the Green Deal destroy the EU’s destiny?
Commentary by Alexander Tomský, The Reference Frame, July 25, 2021
https://motls.blogspot.com/2021/07/will-green-deal-destroy-eus-destiny.html
China to release updated climate plans ‘in near future’: envoy
By Staff, AFP, Aug 3, 2021
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210803-china-to-release-updated-climate-plans-in-near-future-envoy
‘Greenflation’ threatens to derail climate change action
Fossil fuels will be needed in the green transition but vital supplies are being squeezed
By Ruchir Sharma, Financial Times, Aug 2, 2021 [H/t WUWT]
https://www.ft.com/content/49c19d8f-c3c3-4450-b869-50c7126076ee
“Nearly 60 per cent of aluminium comes from China, which recently capped new smelting because of its fat carbon footprint.”
Seeking a Common Ground
Debate: Is Global Warming an Emergency
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Aug 5, 2021 (Audio)
Link to transcripts: Yes, the Climate Is Changing. No, It’s Not an Emergency | Opinion
By James Taylor, Newsweek, Aug 3, 2021
https://www.newsweek.com/yes-climate-changing-no-its-not-emergency-opinion-1615632
Climate Change Is the Biggest Threat We’re Facing—Period. | Opinion
By Heather Goldstone, Newsweek, Aug 3, 2021
https://www.newsweek.com/climate-change-biggest-threat-were-facingperiod-opinion-1615636
Just because they’re fools?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 28, 2021
“When people like President Biden say “I believe in science”, and when McParland says “the science” is legitimate, they don’t refer to the process of rational inquiry attempting to disprove hypotheses. They refer to an orthodoxy enforced by scorn and ritual humiliation of dissenters, something ordinary people find distasteful for obvious reasons including its hypocrisy.”
TGIF: How Science Becomes Religion
By Sheldon Richman, The Libertarian Institute, Jul 30, 2021 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://libertarianinstitute.org/author/sheldonr/
Science, Policy, and Evidence
GMO Drama: Philippines Approves Golden Rice, Greenpeace Demands Poor Children Go Blind Anyway
By Cameron English, ACSH, July 30, 2021
https://www.acsh.org/news/2021/07/30/gmo-drama-philippines-approves-golden-rice-greenpeace-demands-poor-children-go-blind-anyway-15701
State of the science on western wildfires, forests and climate change
Press Release, University of Washington, Aug 3, 2021 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210803175223.htm
Link to paper: Wildfire and climate change adaptation of western North American forests: a case for intentional management
By Paul F. Hessburg, et al. Ecological Application, Aug 2, 2021
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.2432
From the abstract: “Over the preceding 10 millennia, large areas of wNA (western North America) were already settled and proactively managed with intentional burning by Indigenous tribes.”
We must burn the West to save it
How an ancient American Indian practice can reduce the risk of massive wildfires.
By Umair Irfan, Vox, July 13, 2021
https://www.vox.com/21507802/wildfire-2020-california-indigenous-native-american-indian-controlled-burn-fire
Measurement Issues — Surface
Met Office UK Temperature Series Running Hot
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 5 2021
Unprecedented Heat Wave
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 3, 2021
Unprecedented Heat Wave
“The percent of the US to reach 95F sometime this summer has been the lowest on record.”
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
UAH Global Temperature Update for July, 2021: +0.20 deg. C
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, Aug 2, 2021
UAH Global Temperature Update for July, 2021: +0.20 deg. C
Map: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2021/july2021/202107_Map.png
Graph: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2021/july2021/202107_Bar.png
Changing Weather
Jet streams playing havoc — bringing snow to Brazil
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 1, 2021
[SEPP Comment: Good videos of temperatures and jet stream of the “coldwave” hitting Brazil.]
July 2021 A Month Of Extremes? The Archives Say Otherwise
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 6 2021
2020 Was Another Quiet Tornado Season
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 1, 2021
Extreme Weather In 1971
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31 2021
German Floods and Climate Change
By Donn Dears, Power For USA, Aug 3, 2021
So about those floods
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 28, 2021
Flash Floods Not Getting Worse In England
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 29 2021
Changing Climate
There Were 23 Global Warming Jolts Many Times Faster And Greater Than Modern During The Last Glacial
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, July 29, 2021
Link to latest paper: The anatomy of past abrupt warmings recorded in Greenland ice
By E. Capron, et al. Nature Communications, Apr 8, 2021
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22241-w
From the paper: “The D-O [Dansgaard-Oeschger event] climate variability is commonly linked to changes in the intensity of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), resulting in heat transport changes from the low to the northern high latitudes. However, no consensus exists yet to explain what triggers the abrupt warmings, characterized by Greenland surface temperature increases of 5–16 °C within a few decades to centuries.”
Running out of time in the Holocene…
At some point, the ice sheets want their land back
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 31, 2021
Changing Seas
Great Barrier Reef, RIP
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 28, 2021
The Western Pacific Has Continued Cooling Since The Little Ice Age Ended
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Aug 5, 2021
Link to one study: Sea surface temperature seasonality in the northern South China Sea during the middle Holocene derived from high resolution Sr/Ca ratios of Tridacna shells
By Pengchao Zhou, et al. Quaternary Research, Via Cambridge University Press, June 16, 2021
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research/article/abs/sea-surface-temperature-seasonality-in-the-northern-south-china-sea-during-the-middle-holocene-derived-from-high-resolution-srca-ratios-of-tridacna-shells/DED2FF2A30E43BBEC941547CE9D0A03B
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Alps app tracks treasures melting glaciers expose
By Christophe Vogt, Geneva (AFP), Aug 3, 2021
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Alps_app_tracks_treasures_melting_glaciers_expose_999.html
Polar bear attack in Greenland gratuitously blamed on recent ‘heat wave’
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Aug 4, 2021
A polar bear bit the hand of a member of a film crew near the Danish military base of Daneborg in East Greenland on Monday (2 August) and predictably, this has been blamed on recent warm temperatures in the region.
[SEPP Comment: Apparently the bear was not hungry.]
Polar bear habitat update for end July 2021 compared to previous years
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, July 29, 2021
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Organic food isn’t better for us – or the environment
By Matt Ridley, Rational Optimist, July 24, 2021
https://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/organic-food-isn-t-better-for-us/
“Surveying the problems of traditional farming in his native India, a friend of mine, Professor Channa Prakash, once remarked: ‘Sure, organic agriculture is sustainable: it sustains poverty and malnutrition.’”
Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ larger than normal, NOAA says
By Celine Castronuovo, The Hill, Aug 8, 2021
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/566184-gulf-of-mexico-dead-zone-larger-than-normal-noaa-says
[SEPP Comment: Feeding marine life elsewhere?]
Meanwhile back at the ranch
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 28, 2021
“In Cows Save the Planet, Judith Schwartz writes (p. 12) ‘Oil, coal, and gas represent one source of emissions, but over time the greater culprit has been agriculture. Since about 1850, twice as much atmospheric carbon dioxide has derived from farming practices as from the burning of fossil fuels (the roles crossed around 1970).”
Money talks
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 28, 2021
“ ‘as a general rule, the sincerity that governments bring to any multilateral agreement is inversely proportional to the number of governments that sign it.’”
Lowering Standards
Met Office’s State of the UK climate report misleads
By David Whitehouse, GWPF, July 29, 2021
“Also the table in the Met Office’s press release detailing 2020 ‘climate extremes’ is as big a non sequitur as one could find in climate science. What happens in one year is not climate.”
AGU – Floods in Germany And China Caused By Global Warming
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 3, 2021
AGU – Floods in Germany And China Caused By Global Warming
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Heatwave causes massive melt of Greenland ice sheet
By AFP Staff Writers, Copenhagen (AFP) ,July 31, 2021
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Heatwave_causes_massive_melt_of_Greenland_ice_sheet_999.html
Link to: Polar Portal
By Staff, Danish Arctic research institutions
http://polarportal.dk/en/news/news/
From the article: “The melting of the ice sheets started in 1990 and has accelerated since 2000. The mass loss in recent years is approximately four times greater than it was before 2000, say the researchers at Polar Portal.”
[SEPP Comment: The article is typical yellow journalism. The data started in 1990-91, so the articles states: “The melting of the ice sheets started in 1990.” Melting began only after data collection started? GRACE was launched in 2002.]
Scientists fear a critical Atlantic Ocean system might collapse, triggering ‘extreme cold’ and sea level rise
Brigid Kennedy, Contributing Writer, Yahoo News, Aug 5, 2021 [Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-fear-critical-atlantic-ocean-214801130.html
Link to paper: Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation [AMO]
By Niklas Boer, Nature Climate Change, Aug 5, 2021
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01097-4
[SEPP Comment: If the AMO stops, ice will accumulate on land in the Arctic regions, and this will lead to higher sea levels?]
Is You House Ready For Sub-Tropical Britain?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 30 2021
[SEPP Comment: “Pulp journalism” from the UK Telegraph.]
Summer gets it
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Debate ends… again
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
“In the Guardian Ed Miliband, whose tenure as head of Britain’s Labour Party was a spectacular display of failure to persuade anyone, says ‘our biggest enemy is no longer climate denial but climate delay.”
Extreme Melt In Greenland
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 3, 2021
Extreme Melt In Greenland
Fire freezes planet, plume at 11
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Phony Climate Trends: Alarmists Caught Hiding Large Quantities Of Historical Data
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 28, 2021
“A German YouTube video reveals a number of charts prepared by Tony Heller illustrating how climate alarmists hide data in order to produce an alarming impression of the globe’s climate.”
Removing The 1940s Blip
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 5, 2021
https://realclimatescience.com/2021/08/removing-the-1940s-blip-2/
[SEPP Comment: Can’t have warming in the 1940s!]
2012 All Over Again!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 6 2021
This just in: your house is not on fire
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
“But also ‘This section includes data analysis conducted by the Resource Watch team within the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research organization.’ Which is definitely taking sides, because the WRI says of itself ‘With focused effort and bold action, we can drive systemic change that will improve lives, drive economic growth, reduce inequity, and ensure the natural world can thrive.’”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Media Ignore The Science & Peddle Climate Propaganda
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 1, 2021
Questioning European Green
GWPF calls for pause and rethink of unaffordable Net Zero plans
Press Release, GWPF, Aug 6, 2021
“In fact, natural gas prices in Europe are more than three times as high ($13/MMBtu) as they are in the US ($4/MMBtu) where fracking is allowed and shale gas is cheap and abundant.”
Lord Lawson warns Boris Johnson over real costs of Net Zero
Press Release, GWPF, Aug 2, 2021
Link to paper: The Workable Alternative to Net Zero: A plan for cleaner, reliable and affordable energy
By John Constable and Capell Aris, GWPF, 2021
How YOU are going to pay for Boris’s Net Zero Green dream – COMMENT
By Benny Peiser, Express, UK, Via GWPF, Aug 4, 2021
What is the National Food Strategy and how could it change the way England eats?
By Kelly Parsons, University of Hertfordshire and David Barling, University of Hertfordshire,, July 25, 2021
Germany Remains A Coal Hungry Polluter, Despite “Green Agenda”
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 5 2021
Forest Degradation A Major Climatic Warming Driver, Study Finds. CO2-Induced Tree Growth Cools?
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 30, 2021
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Renewable Isn’t Always Green
By Brenda Shaffer, Real Clear Energy, Aug 2, 2021
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2021/08/02/renewable_isnt_always_green_788231.html
Green Jobs
Boston Ties “Green” Jobs to the Pandemic and Future “Climate Shocks”
By Gordon Evans, WUWT, Aug 3, 2021
“I’ve been an environmental professional for over 40 years and have yet to figure out what is a ‘green’ job, unless it is one guaranteed to lose money and fail or be kept afloat by other people’s money. Jobs are jobs. They have no color. Either they contribute productively, or they are a burden. If you have any ideas, you can help out those poor, woke Bostonians at the RFI link shown above.”
Funding Issues
Your Tax Dollars At Work
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, Aug 5, 2021
The Political Games Continue
Energy and Climate Policies, Cronyism Don’t Belong in Bloated Senate Infrastructure Bill
By Katie Tubb, the Daily Signal, Aug 03, 2021
“Perhaps most significantly, Section 11403 requires states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from highway transportation by developing state “carbon-reduction strategy” plans that must be approved by the Department of Transportation and updated at least every four years.”
Cap-and-Trade and Carbon Taxes
How much is enough?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Aug 4, 2021
“There is, or was, widespread agreement on the use of carbon pricing to fight GHG emissions.”
“How high should carbon taxes be to overcome the inelasticity of demand? Because if you don’t know, or won’t say, or those long words make your head hurt, you’re no use to anyone.”
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Offshore power ‘will fail without subsidies’
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 26 2021
EPA and other Regulators on the March
EPA announces new members of science board after firing Trump appointees
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Aug 2, 2021
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/565996-epa-announces-new-members-of-science-board-after-firing-trump
Save the Penguins!
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Aug 4, 2021
Link to: Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad
By Staff, The White House, Jan 27, 2021
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/
“’The decisions made by policymakers today and during the next few decades will determine the fate of the emperor penguin.’ During an announcement that US FWS was proposing listing the Emperor Penguin under the protections of the Endangered Species Act.”
[SEPP Comment: They are really endangered in Florida!]
Energy Issues – Non-US
German Wind Power Consumption Plummets 20% In First Half 2021… Coal Power Consumption Jumps 38%!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 27, 2021
“The reason for the steep drop, according to the findings, was due to unfavorable weather conditions. ‘This year, especially in the first quarter, the wind was particularly still and the sun output was low.’”
Power Grid Expert Warns: “Signs Being Ignored” As Europe’s Grid Teeters On The Brink
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 3, 2021
“It was the second major disruption in the last 7 months.”
Energy Issues — US
Does the Infrastructure Bill Spell Doom for Residential Natural Gas?
By Ben Lieberman, Real Clear Energy, Aug 04, 2021
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2021/08/04/does_the_infrastructure_bill_spell_doom_for_residential_natural_gas_788622.html
Pokalsky, Borlick: Capacity Markets Now Essential in Texas (central planning rethink)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Aug 5, 2021
https://www.masterresource.org/texas-blackout-2021/puct-ercot-capacity-market-pokalsky/
“’I have stated earlier that the ERCOT market’s reliance on scarcity pricing did not foresee an environment with high penetration of zero-marginal cost resources. Back in 2005 I generically simulated an energy-only market to demonstrate how scarcity pricing would work. I never anticipated the mass introduction of renewables at that time.’ – Robert Borlick,”
Ten Years Ago Today In Texas
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 4, 2021
Ten Years Ago Today In Texas
“Texas has the most wind power in the country, but the wind does not blow during the summer.”
Return of King Coal?
China Will Restart Coal Mines Including in Xinjiang as Power Demand Surges
By Staff, Bloomberg News, Aug 5, 2021,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-05/china-to-restart-coal-mines-amid-climate-versus-growth-debate
Eskom’s Medupi Power Station’s last unit achieves commercial operation [South Aferica]
By Jessica Casey, World Coal, Aug 3, 2021 [H/t Dennis Ambler]
https://www.worldcoal.com/power/03082021/eskoms-medupi-power-stations-last-unit-achieves-commercial-operation/
“The Medupi Power Station uses direct dry-cooling systems due to the water scarcity in the Lephalale area, and is the fourth largest coal-fired plant and the largest dry-cooled power station in the world.”
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Clean, Green and Absolutely Sustainable
By Walter Starck, Quadrant, Aug 3, 2021
Fuel Loading Only Major Milestone Left for Vogtle Unit 3 Nuclear Project
By Aaron Larson, Power Mag, July 30, 2021
Problems Mount Up For EDF Nuclear Power
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 1, 2021
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
A Little Arithmetic: The Costs Of A Solar-Powered Grid Without Fossil Fuel Back-up
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 29, 2021
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-7-29-a-little-arithmetic-the-costs-of-non-fossil-fuel-back-up-for-solar-power
[SEPP Comment: A few calculations showing that those claiming solar can be fossil fuel free in California are in fantasy land.]
Baden-Württemberg Government Announces Plans To Clear Cut State Forest, Build 1000 Turbines
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Aug 6, 2021
Denton, TX: Grid Reliability Sinks Renewables
By Wayne Lusvardi, Master Resource, Aug 4, 2021
“The promise of cheap, clean renewable power without disclosing the true cost of reliability is an example of Pareto’s Principle: 80 percent of the consequences come from 20 of the cause. The cost-avoidance of reliability will not be known until an extreme weather event.”
Intermittent solar and wind power can DISPLACE coal but cannot REPLACE it
By Rafe Champion, Rite-On! No Date [H/t Jo Nova]
The levelised cost of floating offshore wind
By Andrew Montford, Global Warming Policy Forum, July 29, 2021
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
1.2-GW Dedicated Hydrogen-Fired Power Plant Starts Taking Shape in Texas
By Sonal Patel, Power Mag, Aug 3, 2021
“Hydrogen is already widely used in industrial processes, including by a number of Entergy Texas’s large industrial customers in Southeast Texas, an area characterized by petroleum refineries and chemical manufacturers, the company noted. In Beaumont, and nearby Houston and Freeport, 48 plants already extract hydrogen from natural gas, producing 3.6 metric tons of hydrogen a year for refineries and industrial plants, according to market analytics company Prescient & Strategic Intelligence.”
Clues to the levelised cost of tidal stream
By Andrew Montford, Global Warming policy Forum, July 30, 2021
Hydrogen Boilers Greater Risk Than Gas
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Aug 5, 2021
“Hydrogen more explosive than gas? Who would have thought!”
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Victoria’s Big Battery
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 31 2021
The Tesla battery fire burned for longer than it operated for
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Aug 3, 2021
See link immediately above.
Communities Benefit from Microgrid Milestones
By Darrell Proctor, Power Mag, Aug 2, 2021
“The town of Onslow, located in the state of Western Australia, was powered for about 80 minutes solely by solar-plus-storage thanks to advanced microgrid technology that determined the best time and conditions to draw energy only from the town’s solar resources supported by a battery energy storage system (BESS).”
[SEPP Comment: 80 minutes does not a day make.]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
You Were Warned: Automakers Team Up With Biden To Force Electric Cars On Consumers
By I & I Editorial Board, Aug 6, 2021
“In other words, massive taxpayer subsidies. Biden wants to dump $174 billion – with a B – to pay for subsidies, grants, and tax incentives to car buyers, to build electric charging stations, and to replace the entire federal fleet of cars and trucks, including all those used by the already financially desperate U.S. Postal Service.”
Carbon Schemes
Carbon Capture fails again: Chevron spends $600 a ton to bury fertilizer under the NW Shelf
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 25, 2021
“Stuffing a useful gas into holes under the ocean is harder than they thought”
California Dreaming
California Electricity Woes: More Intervention, Higher Prices, More Emissions (the back side of wind and solar)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Aug 3, 2021
Newsom issues emergency proclamation to free up extra sources of power
By Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, July 30, 2021
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/energy-green/story/2021-07-30/newsom-issues-emergency-proclamation-to-free-up-extra-sources-of-power
Link to: Proclamation of a State of Emergency
By Staff, Executive Department, State of California, July 30, 2021
The Triumphant March Toward 100% “Renewable” Electricity: Germany and California
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 28, 2021
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2021-7-28-the-triumphant-march-toward-100-renewable-electricity-germany-and-california
Health, Energy, and Climate
Mainstream Media Silent on New Study Showing Deaths Associated with Temperature Extremes Declining
By Staff, Icecap, July 31, 2021
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/mainstream_media_silent_on_new_study_showing_deaths_associated_with_tempera/
Oh Mann!
DC Superior Court Rules in Favor of CEI in Michael Mann Lawsuit
By Kent Lassman, CEI, July 22, 2021
https://cei.org/news_releases/dc-superior-court-rules-in-favor-of-cei-in-michael-mann-lawsuit/
You’re Once, Twice, Three Times a Loser…
Michael E Mann, Loser (Again) (and Again)
By Mark Steyn, Steyn on line, July 26, 2021 [H/t WUWT]
https://www.steynonline.com/11508/youre-once-twice-three-times-a-loser
Other News that May Be of Interest
Time To Assume That Health Research Is Fraudulent Until Proven Otherwise?
By Richard Smith, British Medical Journal (BMJ), July 5, 2021 [H/t WUWT]
There Are Far Better Ways to Clean the Environment Than Taxpayer Handouts
By Ross Marchand, Real Clear Energy, Aug 05, 2021
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2021/08/05/there_are_far_better_ways_to_clean_the_environment_than_taxpayer_handouts_788602.html
Part 3 of 3
What Gives The Ocean Its Wonderful Smell? A Vile Chemical
By Josh Bloom, ACSH, July 20, 2021
https://www.acsh.org/news/2021/07/20/what-gives-ocean-its-wonderful-smell-vile-chemical-15667
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
In The 1970s Climate Modification Proposals Included Purposely Melting Arctic Sea Ice With Black Soot
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Aug 2, 2021
“In his 1975 book The Genesis Strategy, the late climate scientist Dr. Stephen Schneider reviewed contemporary climate modification proposals to reduce the severe 1960s and 1970s droughts, floods, and extreme weather…which were at that time associated with the ongoing global cooling.”
Only Six Countries To Survive Global Warming
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Aug 4, 2021
Only Six Countries To Survive Global Warming
New Zealand, Tasmania, Ireland, Iceland, UK, and US and Canada (tie).
Saved by a pyroclastic-winter? Man-made Mega wildfires cause climate cooling
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 30, 2021
Your CO2-laden breath is killing people…science says so! STUDY: ‘Three Americans create enough carbon emissions to kill one person’ – Claim: ‘For every 4,434 metric tons of CO2 produced, one person globally will die’
By Marc Morano, Climate Depot, Aug 4, 2021
ARTICLES
1. A New National Climate Army
Democrats want to pay young Americans to tell you how to behave.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, July 26, 2021
https://www.wsj.com/articles/civilian-climate-corps-democrats-ed-markey-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-sunrise-movement-evergreen-action-11627337295?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
TWTW Summary: The editorial begins:
“As the U.S. recovers from a pandemic, with workers in services and manufacturing in short supply across the economy, here’s what no one sensible thinks America urgently needs: a huge new federal Civilian Climate Corps.
“Yet that’s exactly what Democrats want to create as part of their plan to expand government into every corner of American life. It isn’t enough to lecture Americans about the supposed perils of climate change. Now they also want to tax you and other Americans to pay your children to spend years lecturing you.
“President Joe Biden has requested $10 billion for the climate shock troops in his American Jobs Plan. Like so many other ideas in this Administration, the idea comes from the Democratic left, specifically the Sunrise Movement and Evergreen Action. Their idea was adopted by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who have proposed a Climate Corps that employs 1.5 million Americans over five years.
“The precedent is FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, which paid Americans to work when the jobless rate was more than 20% in the Depression. But Sunrise says that program had ‘deep flaws, including exclusionary racist and sexist practices of hiring almost solely white men and its nonconsensual development on stolen Native American land.’ Evergreen Action says the Climate Corps would ‘confront the interlocking crises of climate change, environmental and racial injustice, and economic inequality.’
“If that mission sounds grandiose, you’re understating things. ‘The climate crisis is impacting every aspect of our lives,’ so ‘the only way we are going to fully combat it is if we fully transform every aspect of our society and economy as we know it,’ says Ellen Sciales, a Sunrise spokesperson.
“The White House says the Climate Corps would ‘put a new, diverse generation of Americans to work conserving our public lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, and advancing environmental justice.’ Democrats envision a Corps that’s part green-jobs program, part behavioral hectoring squad, part social-justice brigade, and part union-recruitment effort.”
The editorial concludes with support by other politicians.
***********************
2. How Science Lost the Public’s Trust
From climate to Covid, politics and hubris have disconnected scientific institutions from the philosophy and method that ought to guide them.
By Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, July 23, 2021
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-china-media-lab-leak-climate-ridley-biden-censorship-coronavirus-11627049477?mod=trending_now_opn_pos1
TWTW Summary, Discussed in the “This Week” section.
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