Climate alarmists turn back the clock
To the Editor
Climate Conversation
6th January 2015
Three centuries ago, the world ran on green power. Wood was used for heating and cooking, charcoal for smelting and smithing, wind or water-power for pumps, mills and ships, and whale oil for lamps. People and soldiers walked or rode horses, and millions of horses and oxen pulled ploughs, wagons, coaches and artillery.
But smoke from open fires choked cities, forests were stripped of trees, most of the crops went to feed draft animals, and streets were littered with horse manure. For many people, life was “nasty, brutish and short” (Thomas Hobbes).
Then the steam engine was developed and later the internal combustion engine, electricity and refrigeration. Green power was replaced by coal and oil. Carbon energy powered factories, mills, pumps, ships, trains and smelters; and cars, trucks and tractors replaced the work-horses. The result was a green revolution—forests began to regrow and vast areas of crop-land used for horse feed were released to produce food for humans. Poverty declined and population soared.
But new environmental problems emerged. Smoke pollution from burning cheap dirty coal in millions of open fires, old boilers and smelters produced massive smog problems in cities like London and Pittsburgh.
London smog could kill you.
The solution was improved technology, sensible pollution-control laws and the supply of coal gas and coal-powered electricity to the cities. “Clean Coal by Wire” at the flick of a switch and “Piped Coal Energy” at the click of a gas-lighter, cleared the air. In some places use of hydro, geothermal and nuclear power also helped.
In recent years, however, affluent urban alarmists have declared war on the carbon dioxide produced by burning coal, oil and gas. They claim it is a pollutant and it causes dangerous global warming.
The pollutant claims are easy to refute.
The worst air pollution in the world today is the Asian smog.
Smog is very visible – but carbon dioxide is a transparent gas that is exhaled by all living creatures. Smog is air polluted with particulates and noxious gases – but there are no particulates or noxious components in carbon dioxide. Therefore carbon dioxide plays no part in creating smog.
Smog consists of ash particles, unburnt fuels and noxious gases produced by the inefficient combustion of anything, usually in open fires or obsolete boilers, engines or smelters with no pollution control equipment. Wind-blown dust and volcanic ash add to the haze. Modern coal-fired power stations with efficient pollution controls do not release detectable particulates or noxious gases. They can help to clear the smog of Asian cities.
All gases in the atmosphere have an effect on global climate, usually a moderating one, reducing the intense heat of the midday sun and reducing the rate of cooling at night. But only in theoretical climate models does carbon dioxide drive global warming – real evidence contradicts them.
The unrelenting war on carbon fuels has far greater risks, with some zealots advocating “zero emissions” while also, incredibly, opposing nuclear and hydro-power. They would take us all back to the BC era (before coal).
Already urban environmentalists are polluting city air by burning wood and briquetted paper in stoves and home heaters, and trying to prevent millions in Asia and Africa from getting cleaner energy. Other misguided nations are clearing forests and transporting low-energy wood chips to burn in distant power stations. The high costs of green energy are already forcing some poor people to burn old books and strip parks and forests for firewood.
In addition, crops that once fed people are now making “green” ethanol to fuel cars and native forests are being cleared to make way for more fuel crops. Our modern “iron horses” are eating the crops again.
The use of carbon fuels in the production, fertilising, transport and storage of food has been a major factor in allowing the world population to grow by several billions since the industrial revolution. If climate alarmists succeed in turning back the clock, food and energy will again become reserved for the rich and powerful, and billions of poor people will die of starvation and exposure.
Viv Forbes
Rosewood,
Queensland,
Australia.
forbes [at] carbon-sense [dot] com
Views: 89
‘W.Va. education board wades into climate change debate’
By Jessica Farrish REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER. January 6, 2015 5:42 pm.
One original ninth-grade science requirement challenged students to “analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.”
Board members voted to change the objective to read, “analyze geoscience data and the predictions made by computer climate models to assess their creditability [sic] for predicting future impacts on the Earth System.”
Similar changes were made to other curriculum standards in a move to encourage student debate on whether humans’ greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change, according to statements by state board members.
http://www.register-herald.com/news/w-va-education-board-wades-into-climate-change-debate/article_9dde47df-6934-576c-bd36-670c2d4b882b.html
Makes a refreshing change from the propagandized approach of indoctrination.
Interesting. I read recently of a university professor (can’t recall his name) who asked his students to find evidence in the literature that human CO2 emissions were causing measurable climate change
Apparently some of them started crying when they realised the couldn’t complete the task assigned
Mashable reports 2014 as the warmest year on record
http://mashable.com/2015/01/05/japan-2014-warmest-year/
Well, according to the Japanese anyway, and also a link to Marcott et al for good measure.
DROUGHT IN NEW ZEALAND.
WELLINGTON (N.Z.). Tuesday.—It is reported from Auckland that the drought in northern New Zealand is the worst known in the history of that region, and is creating a serious situation. A pessimistic spirit prevails among the farmers. Dry weather is also having a serious effect on the Auckland city water supply. In some parts factory outputs have been reduced to a quantity never before known at this season of the year. Dairy herds are being dried off, and the cattle are being turned into the scrub to take their chances.
———-
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957)
Wednesday 14 May 1919
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/1467574?searchTerm&searchLimits=l-publictag%3DRecord+drought
Andy,
I was born into an agrarian family, so have some background in the effects of weather.
Most traditional farmers know very well that the climate in their region operates within fairly-well defined boundaries, but ‘outlier’ years are always a possibility. Most current farmers ‘push’ their stock-feed crops (grass, fodder beets, etc) to their limits and a significant number of these risk-takers will be caught out by outlier seasons. Every experienced farmer is aware of the possibility of droughts, of excessively wet years and of seasons when the sun appears to sulk. What is new are the professional doomsayers who use ‘climate science’ as a weapon of fear. The only thing that has changed radically is the IPCC-promoted witchcraft. The UN is not our friend!
>”Most current farmers ‘push’ their stock-feed crops (grass, fodder beets, etc) to their limits and a significant number of these risk-takers will be caught out by outlier seasons.”
Yes and on top of that for young and new entrant dairy farmers, financial leveraging (financial ‘push’) and milk payout cuts to below good season budget levels:
‘Stress too much for farmers’ – Jan 11, 2015
Four deaths in December as rural sector feels financial pressure
“On December 10, the dairy giant [Fonterra] dropped its payout forecast for 2014-15 to an eight-year low of $4.70 a kilogram of milk solids. That’s nearly half the $8.40 paid in the 2013-14 season and is estimated to mean an income drop for farmers of $6.6 billion.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11384751
Except if you pull down an Example Annual Cash Budget from Dairy NZ:
http://www.dairynz.co.nz/farm/financial/budgets/annual-cash-budgets/
Budget payout is $4.50/kgMS in the example. So all that has happened is a return to long-term normality and the whim of a fickle market; the string of good seasons were really the outliers and bonuses but not to be expected necessarily and built into budgets.
I too was brought up on a farm Alexander. A drought was when you could put all your hand down the cracks in the ground.
>”The UN is not our friend!”
No, but there are some who think so:
“The United Nations is the chosen instrument of God; to be a chosen instrument means to be a divine messenger carrying the banner of God’s inner vision and outer manifestation. One day, the world will…treasure and cherish the soul of the United Nations as its very own with pride, for this soul is all-loving, all-nourishing, and all-fulfilling” – Sri Chinmoy, UN Interfaith Meditation Group
Personally, I’m not convinced.
Neither am I.
’12 people die in Mexico due to cold [also burns and intoxication]’
The State Coordination of Civil Protection of Chihuahua issued an alert due to low temperatures, rain and snowfall in the higher areas, specifically in the municipalities of Temósachic and Balleza, where temperatures have dropped to -14C (6.8F).
Other regions with low temperatures are Chihuahua and Ciudad Juárez (-4C/24F), Ocampo (-10C/14F), Janos (-7C/19F) and Nuevo Casas Grandes (-6.5C/20F).
In Chihuahua, four people froze to death, three died due to burns and two more for intoxication, while in Sonora one died for intoxication in Nogales and two for hypothermia in Huatabampo and San Luis Río Colorado.
http://iceagenow.info/2015/01/12-people-die-mexico-due-cold/
No doubt consistent with “a warming world” (well, the burns and intoxication anyway).
I can still hear my Dad, born in 1900 and a private soldier during two world wars, railing about “the bloody UN”, which he saw as an evil plot designed to subvert the necessary capital flows to make the world function in a sane fashion. He had no problems with wealthy industrialists and those who drove the progress to supply the world with cheap power that enabled the poor to enter the world of books and ideas and to better themselves through their understanding of how ‘stuff’ worked and through their own efforts. Even though he left school at fourteen, he educated himself through his voracious reading and his habit of never admitting he couldn’t do something until he had tried to master that something. A convinced Atheist, he could quote scripture by the yard thanks to early and enforced attendance at Sunday School, he would not be convinced or impressedby the current UN.
I’m sorry he’s gone, Alexander.
The propaganda machine never lets the truth get in the way…
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/kerry-gets-it-wrong-climate-s-impact-new-zealand-s-dairy-farmers
John Kerry really is a buffoon
NZ had to kill “all” its dairy cattle and sheep. Er, no John
John Kerry is no mere buffoon, he is a serial liar, whose BS never seems to catch up with him, no matter how seriously in error his tall tales are.
Tom Nelson has moved to Twitter but he has John Kerry’s COP20 speech up on his blog:
‘Kerry’s COP20 speech was packed with misinformation’
Snippet:
“The science of climate change is science, and it is screaming at us, warning us, compelling us – hopefully – to act. Ninety-seven percent of peer- reviewed climate studies have confirmed that climate change is happening and that human activity is responsible”
http://tomnelson.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/kerrys-cop20-speech-was-packed-with.html
Kerry first met his wife, Teresa Heinz, at a 1990 Earth Day rally. They met again at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio after Teresa Heinz’ husband, Senator Henry John Heinz III, an heir to the H. J. Heinz Company, died in a plane crash in 1991.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Heinz
See: Environmental programs and advocacy
In 1992, she was a Delegate to the Earth Summit, representing Non-Governmental Organizations.[12][13] In 1993, with Kerry and environmentalist academic Dr. Anthony Cortese, she co-founded Second Nature, which brings “Education for Sustainability” to college campuses.[14] In 1993, she founded the Heinz Awards, including a category for Outstanding Contributions to the Environment.[15] In 1995, with a $20 million grant, the Heinz Endowments provided initial funding for The Heinz Center,[10] “a nonprofit institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic foundation for environmental policy through multisectoral collaboration among industry, government, academia, and environmental organizations.”[16] Since 1996, Heinz has hosted an annual “Women’s Health and the Environment” conference series.[17] She founded Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research, which annually awards eight $10,000 awards for doctoral dissertation support and eight $5,000 awards for Masters’ thesis support for research having “public policy relevance that increases society’s understanding of environmental concerns and proposed solutions.”[18] Heinz is a board member of the Environmental Defense Fund.[19]
Check out this piffle:
‘Which countries will suffer the most from climate change?’
THESE are the startling maps which appear to show the countries most at risk of facing an apocalypse of cataclysmic proportions.
The maps, compiled using the ND-Gain Index, a project of the University of Notre Dame in the US, reveal the places around the world facing the biggest threat from the effects of climate change.
Unsurprisingly, poorer nations faired the worst with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Burundi and Chad facing the biggest risk, according to the index.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/which-countries-will-suffer-the-most-from-climate-change/story-fnjwvztl-1227184516158
But:
According to the University, nations with the best overall score face moderate exposure to climate change but also have the best capacities to deal with any potential climate risks.
This includes access to basic needs such as clean drinking water and electricity.