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Newsletter (March 12, 2010)
Above the FoldUniversity of Delaware Climatologist David Legates speaks on The Climate Debate: Change or Crisis? Well-known Christian philosopher Nancy Pearcey, author of Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity, will speak on Competing Worldviews in the Environmental Debate. Cornwall Alliance National Spokesman E. Calvin Beisner will speak on The Evangelical Debate on Global Warming: An Overview and Assessment.
Pastors’ Gathering: Nancy Pearcy, Calvin Beisner, and other nationally-recognized experts on Christian worldview and environmental stewardship will discuss how to train church members to think Biblically about these issues. Pastors and their spouses are welcome.
Read more and register online.In this issue
Featured- Video: Beautiful but Dangerous 'Avatar' and More Indoctrination
- UK Physicists on Climategate
- House Members Introduce Resolution Condemning EPA's Carbon Dioxide Endangerment Finding
- Why India is Turning to Coal
Debate- Lysenkoism and James Hansen
- Stopping the Green Police
- The Sickness of the West
Science- Contiguous U.S. Temperature Trends Using NCDC Raw and Adjusted Data for One-Per-State Rural and Urban Station Sets
Economics- Easy, Cheap 'Green' Energy? Just the Reverse!
- Book: 'Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence"'
Upcoming Events
Briefly Noted
Meet the Critics: J. Scott Armstrong, Ph.D.
Landmark Documents from the Cornwall Alliance
Featuredby Ann McElhinney
Director and Producer, Not Evil Just Wrong
Speech at Conservative Political Action Conference, February, 2010
Back to top by Andrew Orlowski
Columnist, The Register
March 1, 2010
Intolerance, sub prime stats, wider enquiry needed
The body representing 36,000 UK physicists has called for a wider enquiry into the Climategate affair, saying it raises issues of scientific corruption. The Institute of Physics doesn’t pull any punches in the submission, one of around 50 presented to the Commons Select Committee enquiry into the Climategate archive. The committee holds its only oral hearing later today.
The IOP says the enquiry should be broadened to examine possible "departure from objective scientific practice, for example, manipulation of the publication and peer review system or allowing pre-formed conclusions to override scientific objectivity."
It deplores the climate scientists’ "intolerance to challenge" and the "suppression of proxy results for recent decades that do not agree with contemporary instrumental temperature measurements."
The physics institute observes that "unless the disclosed emails are proved to be forgeries or adaptations, worrying implications arise for the integrity of scientific research in this field and for the credibility of the scientific method as practised in this context". More here. . . .
Read the rest.
Related items:
The Disclosure of Climate Data from the Climatic Research Unit
Boiling Over
by Daniel James Devine
World Magazine, March 13, 2010
Prof Phil Jones, Climate Scientist, Admits Sending 'Awful' E-Mails
by Ben Webster
Environment Editor, Times Online
March 2, 2010
The Real Reason for AGW: Post Normal Science
by James Delingpole
Writer, Telegraph
February 27, 2010Back to top House Energy and Commerce Committee - Republicans
- The Resolution of Disapproval introduced today will prevent the implementation of the economy- killing regulations posed by this administration. With the support of Republican Leader Boehner, House Minority Whip Cantor, and House Conference Chairman Mike Pence, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, introduced the resolution with the co-sponsorship of U.S. Reps. Ralph Hall, R-Texas; Darrell Issa, R-Calif.; Frank Lucas, R-Okla.; Lamar Smith, R-Texas; and James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., among others.
- The EPA’s endangerment finding is a back-door attempt to institute a national energy tax that will cap our economy and trade jobs.
- The Resolution of Disapproval would prevent the EPA from engaging in job-killing behavior. The resolution would prevent the cascade of anti-growth rules and requirements that flow from the EPA administrator’s controversial endangerment finding.
- The endangerment finding, rushed by this administration and the EPA without regard to its overall economic impacts despite EPA’s acknowledgement that the finding will cause job losses in the United States, represents a clear-and-present danger to our economy and to all of our efforts to provide the conditions for job growth and prosperity.
- Under the endangerment finding – and the regulatory and legal red tape that flow from this expansion of government into our economic lives – the pace of U.S. economic growth will be stifled by the EPA and its controversial enforcement of environmental laws. The American public, its business owners and workers, want a clear and quick path to a robust, growing economy, not a thicket of new job-destroying regulations. . . .
Read the rest.
Related items:
Proposed Joint Resolution Rejecting Carbon Dioxide Endangerment Finding
Senate Version of Joint Resolution
More Lies from American Values Network, Catholics United on EPA 'Endangerment Finding'
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, March 3, 2010Back to top by Frank Clemente
Author, Energy-Facts.org; Professor, Pennsylvania State University
March 4, 2010
“India has more people without adequate access to energy than any country in the world.” -- National Resources Forum, 2008 The extent of energy deprivation in India is difficult for most Americans to comprehend. Almost 40 percent of the population on the subcontinent lacks access to electricity and has no linkage whatsoever to the benefits such access brings to an improved quality of life. For tens of millions of other Indians, availability of power is extremely limited, e.g. they have electricity for only a few hours a day.
The World Bank has stated: “India needs much more power in a short time frame to continue its economic development" and has concluded that the bulk of that electricity will come from coal.
To meet projected demand, and replace projected incremental coal-based electricity generation, India would have to do one of the following:
- Obtain more than 14 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas;
- Build 250 nuclear power plants, or;
- Construct the equivalent of 450 Hoover Dams.
"India still must rely on (coal) to meet growing demand...Gas-based power is not a viable alternative ...not enough natural gas is available ...and the power it generates is too expensive.... Wind power still has limited reliability and its higher cost ...makes it unsustainable for meeting large scale demand.” -- The World Bank . . . Read the rest.Back to top Debateby Robert M. Carter
Paleontologist, Stratigrapher, Marine Geologist, and Environmental Scientist; Research Professor, James Cook University
Quadrant Online, March 3, 2010
On June 23, 1988, a young and previously unknown NASA computer modeller, James Hansen, appeared before a United States Congressional hearing on climate change. On that occasion, Dr. Hansen used a graph to convince his listeners that late 20th century warming was taking place at an accelerated rate, which, it being a scorching summer's day in Washington, a glance out of the window appeared to confirm.
He wrote later in justification, in the Washington Post (February 11, 1989), that "the evidence for an increasing greenhouse effect is now sufficiently strong that it would have been irresponsible if I had not attempted to alert political leaders".
Hansen's testimony was taken up as a lead news story, and within days the great majority of the American public believed that a climate apocalypse was at hand, and the global warming hare was off and running. Thereby, Dr. Hansen became transformed into the climate media star who is shortly going to wow the ingenues in the Adelaide Festival audience.
Fifteen years later, in the Scientific American in March, 2004, Hansen came to write that "Emphasis on extreme scenarios may have been appropriate at one time, when the public and decision-makers were relatively unaware of the global warming issue. Now, however, the need is for demonstrably objective climate forcing scenarios consistent with what is realistic".
This conversion to honesty came too late, however, for in the intervening years thousands of other climate scientists had meanwhile climbed onto the Hansenist funding gravy-train. Currently, global warming alarmism is fuelled by an estimated worldwide expenditure on related research and greenhouse bureaucracy of more than US$10 billion annually. . . .
Read the rest.Back to top by James Tonkowich
Scholar and Former President, The Institute on Religion & Democracy; Senior Fellow, Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
WorldNetDaily, March 5, 2010
"Paper or plastic?" the attractive, young checkout girl asks her customer.
"Plastic," he replies.
Out rush men in uniform. Busted by the police – the Green Police. "You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem, Plastic Boy."
The Audi advertisement that debuted during the Super Bowl was just getting started. The Green Police root through trash cans in a suburban neighborhood. "Battery!" calls an officer holding up a D-cell. "Let's go. Take the house."
The Green Police shine a searchlight in a kitchen window: Compost orange peels or else. They make an arrest for "possession of an incandescent light bulb" and pursue a Speedo-clad Austin Powers wannabe for keeping his hot tub at 105 degrees. Finally, a regular, run-of-the-mill policeman – you know, the sort that tracks down and arrests real criminals – gets nabbed for coffee in a foam cup.
Green Police? This is the Green Gestapo. . . .
Read the rest.Back to top by Paul Johnson
Historian; Author, A History of the American People, Intellectuals, Modern Times, and more
Forbes, February 25, 2010
. . . Since the days of Sir Humphry Davy and Charles Darwin, scientists in Britain have been held in the highest regard. Lord Kelvin and Sir Alexander Fleming were treated as secular saints. Nobel Prize winners were honored like prophets in ancient Israel.
Now, as the theory of man-made global warming unravels, scientists are suddenly and devastatingly revealed as fallible, mendacious, self-seeking, criminally secretive, furtively trying to hide their errors, debasing the system of peer review of scientific papers and conspiring to conceal the truth from once highly respected professional publications. The image of the scientist who puts the pursuit of truth before anything else has been shattered and replaced by a man on the make or a quasi-religious enthusiast who wants to prove his case at any cost. Science is becoming the tool of campaigning warfare, in which truth is the first casualty.
But the fall of the scientist is as nothing compared with the self-degradation of British politicians. I can remember a time when most people would regard it as an honor to shake the hand of their Member of Parliament. Today the initials MP after a surname are a badge of shame. Thanks to the corruption that has spread across the English Channel from the EU bureaucracy in Brussels and the European Parliament in Strasbourg, we now have the most debauched Parliament in the whole of British history. . . .
Read the rest.Back to top Scienceby Edward R. Long
Retired NASA scientist; Consultant on Radiation Physics for Space Flight and on Energy and Climate
Science & Public Policy Institute, February 25, 2010
. . . Summary
Both raw and adjusted data from the NCDC has been examined for a selected Contiguous U. S. set of rural and urban stations, 48 each or one per State. The raw data provides 0.13 and 0.79 oC/century temperature increase for the rural and urban environments. The adjusted data provides 0.64 and 0.77 oC/century respectively. The rates for the raw data appear to correspond to the historical change of rural and urban U. S. populations and indicate warming is due to urban warming. Comparison of the adjusted data for the rural set to that of the raw data shows a systematic treatment that causes the rural adjusted set’s temperature rate of increase to be 5-fold more than that of the raw data. The adjusted urban data set’s and raw urban data set’s rates of temperature increase are the same. This suggests the consequence of the NCDC’s protocol for adjusting the data is to cause historical data to take on the time-line characteristics of urban data. The consequence intended or not, is to report a false rate of temperature increase for the Contiguous U.S.
Read the rest (PDF).Back to top Economicsby Kenneth P. Green
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Writer, MasterResource
February 26, 2010
In December 2009, economists Hector Pollitt and Chris Thoung of Cambridge Econometrics published a self-described “short” modeling exercise on an 80 percent greenhouse-gas emissions reduction by 2050 in the United Kingdom. Pollitt and Thoung used the Energy-Environment-Economy Model of Europe (E3ME), which they observe has been “used for a variety of analyses including greenhouse-gas mitigation policies, incentives for industrial energy efficiency, and sustainable household consumption.” The E3ME model covers 29 European countries and uses detailed data on 42 economic sectors, 41 categories of consumer goods, 12 types of fuel, and 14 emissions, including the six major greenhouse gases.
Surprisingly, the study estimates that prices for most goods would rise by less than 1 percent. The highest price increases would be found for carbon-intensive fuels, such as natural gas, gasoline, and electricity. But it would be affordable overall. . . .
We disagree. Our prior research into the costs of indirect energy—that is, the energy used to produce, package, and distribute consumer goods and services—suggests that the Cambridge Econometrics numbers are unrealistically low. In a series of papers and studies conducted by us and coauthored with colleagues, we show that even a $15 permit price (one-fortieth of what Pollitt and Thoung model) would cause prices of most goods to rise by 1 percent or higher. So hold on to your wallets.
Assumptions and models, naturally, explain the differences between our estimate than theirs. Let’s consider the major ones. . . .
Read the rest.Back to top Review by William L. Anderson
Associate Professor of Economics, Frostburg State University; Writer, The Freeman
. . . Bryce is an oil expert, and he gladly passes on much of his own knowledge and expertise in his book. He provides a good history of oil production both in the United States and abroad, giving this book a vast scope.
Two crucial points leap out, however. One is the fraud of “alternative” fuels, and especially corn-based ethanol, which Bryce rightly calls a “scam.” The other is the larger issue of understanding our economically dependent world.
Most important, Bryce writes that the mantra of “energy independence” is ignorant at best and delusional at worst. “Energy independence,” he shows, is just a cheap political slogan to con people into accepting a terribly interventionist stew of policies to subsidize alternatives to oil. . . .
Read the rest.Back to top Upcoming EventsThe purpose of ICCC-4 is the same as it was for the first three events: to build momentum and public awareness of the global warming “realism” movement, a network of scientists, economists, policymakers, and concerned citizens who believe sound science and economics, rather than exaggeration and hype, ought to determine what actions, if any, are taken to address the problem of climate change. Speakers will include over a hundred scientists, economists, and other scholars from around the world.
Register online.Back to top Dennis Avery, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and co-author with S. Fred Singer of Unstoppable Global Warming--Every 1,500 Years will speak for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy at Delta Bow Valley Hotel. Now, as the scandal of leaked emails, non-peer reviewed material in the IPCC report, and shifting temperature reporting stations has spread across the world, the public is finally becoming aware of "the rest of the story" on the Greenhouse Theory. Avery will address the latest "hot topics" including the hidden reality of the earth's recent cooling. What is truth and what is politics behind the push to destroy the energy systems that have provided abundant food and economic stability to most of the world? . . .
Register online.Back to top Friends of Coal Tennessee and the Tennessee Mining Association are hosting Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer for a screening of their documentary, Mine Your Own Business on April 7, 2010, at 7:30 p.m. at the historic Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, Tenn. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and a brief panel discussion will begin at 7:00 p.m., followed by the movie starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $5.00 plus a small processing fee on the Belcourt Theatre website. Proceeds from the event support Friends of Coal Tennessee. . . .
Register online.Back to top Briefly NotedLewis: Bully Boys Waxman and Markey Promote 'Endangerment' of Economy, DemocracyBack to top Meet the CriticsHave you ever been at a loss for words when challenged by the alarmist's claim of scientific "consensus," or that dissenting scientists are unqualified? Not only does consensus prove nothing, but the very idea of "consensus" among scientists on catastrophic manmade climate change is simply unfounded. The Cornwall Alliance's Meet the Critics gives you basic information on 64 of the leading critics of dangerous manmade global warming, one of them being:
J. Scott Armstrong, Ph.D.
Forecasting pioneer Scott Armstrong is a founder of the Journal of Forecasting, the International Journal of Forecasting, and the International Symposium on Forecasting, is a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and is an author or editor of numerous books, papers, and websites. "Claims that the Earth will get warmer have no more credence than saying that it will get colder," insisted Armstrong, explaining that "of 89 principles [of forecasting], the IPCC violated 72." A few of Armstrong's many works are Validity of Climate Change Forecasting for Public Policy Decision Making, Polar Bear Population Forecasts: A Public-Policy Forecasting Audit, and (at the 2008 and 2009 ICCC's) Strengths and Weaknesses of Climate Models and A Forecaster's View of Climate Change: Methodology Also Counts.Back to top Landmark Documents from the Cornwall Alliance
E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D., National Spokesman
Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, http://www.cornwallalliance.org/
Information in this newsletter is for scholarly and educational use only and may not be copied or reproduced for any other purposes without prior permission of the copyright holders.
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