by Anthony J. Sadar
Certified Consulting Meteorologist
Washington Times, May 10, 2010

"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted," boasted Vladimir Lenin, as quoted by Brian Sussman in his new book, Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam. Mr. Sussman, a former television meteorologist, is now a popular talk-show host on KSFO Radio in San Francisco.

His accessible, somewhat historical account in Climategate lands the first blow against the insidious march of Marxist and socialist ideas as they eventually merged with the green movement to overtake rational thinking worldwide, but particularly in the United States. . . .

The most potent jab Mr. Sussman delivers relates to the cap-and-trade scheme, under a section titled "Carbon Rich." Mr. Sussman explains that a certain few will be skimming a transaction fee from the trading of carbon dioxide - the new currency of the nascent Chicago Climate Exchange. Then he states sadly, "While perfectly legal because the law will allow it, as it always does when immorality is legislated, these greedy, conscienceless investors will rape and plunder our once-great nation with hearty political approval." . . .

Roy W. Spencer, principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and former NASA senior scientist for climate studies, joins the fray next with his striking The Great Global Warming Blunder: How Mother Nature Fooled the World's Top Climate Scientists.

While Mr. Sussman shows how the climate-change ruse puts the "con" in the confiscatory policies infesting cap-and-trade and other socialist global-warming politics, Mr. Spencer reveals how climate scientists have performed a kind of self-deception relative to climate "forcings" and "feedbacks."

Mr. Spencer explains in quantitative and qualitative terms throughout his new book that "climate researchers have not accounted for clouds causing temperature change (forcing) when trying to estimate how much temperature change causes clouds to change (feedback)." . . .

Read the rest.

3. Carbon Is the World's Best Friend

by David Bellamy and Jack Barrett
Plant Ecologist; Presenter, BBC (Bellamy); Chemist (Barrett)
Science & Environmental Policy Project

History has it that an apple fell on Isaac Newton's head allowing him to realise why, "what goes up must come down" and go on to formulate the basic laws of physics. Revisiting those laws in the infrared glow of the global-warming debate forces the realisation that when it comes to radiant heat, "what comes down must go up" -- for if it didn't, the Earth would overheat.

Some 50 years after the end of the Little ice age, in a time we now call the pre- industrial age, the world appeared to be well content with an atmosphere containing 285 ppmv of CO2 and the average amount of water vapour.

Since 1992 we have had a special UN-supported Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning the world that we are heading for real trouble, if the concentration of carbon dioxide, one of the five so called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere doubles its pre-industrial value.

Here are ten, let us call them Newton's Apples, that sow real seeds of doubt about the science behind the IPCC's conclusions.

(1) Measurements prove that the pre-industrial damp blanket trapped 94.7% of all the infrared radiation as it escaped into space leaving a mere 5.3% to warm the great interstellar sink directly. All this thanks to the fact that the spectral escape window was partially blocked by what we now call the greenhouse gases that kept the Earth warm.

(2) If we took no notice of the IPCC's warnings and burned all the known reserves of natural gas, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would rise to 454 ppmv.

(3) Now throw caution to the wind and burn all the oil reserves we know about -- and the CO2 concentration would go up to 489 ppmv. Still nowhere near the dreaded doubled value of those "halcyon" pre industrial days. . . .

Read the rest.

Economics & Energy

4. Some Possible Consequences of Cap and Trade

by John Swayze
Retired Organic Chemist; Guest Blogger, Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
May 14, 2010

Whichever of these bills becomes law [the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed last July in the House the Kerry-Lieberman "American Energy Act" recently submitted in the Senate, or a compromise between the two], I anticipate multiple unintended consequences, especially if mirrored globally:

In order to avoid onerous taxes on and bills for coal, petroleum, gasoline, and electricity, there will be a vast increase in combustion of self-harvested and black-market materials, like wood, garbage, building materials, (and dried dung?). Forests will be denuded, soil erosion will increase vastly, and airborne particulates from inefficient combustion will cause respiratory illnesses to proliferate.

Atmospheric CO2 will increase at a GREATER rate because of this burning, especially when combined with the decrease in vegetative mass to consume it.

Further denuding of forests and increases in soil erosion and water consumption as more people attempt subsistence agriculture to offset increases in food costs, which reflect production and transportation costs.

A vast increase in diarrheal deaths, particularly among the young, elderly, and poor, because of a drop-off in food preservation through refrigeration.

A vast increase in deaths, particularly among the young, elderly, and poor, from cold. These already exceed heat-related deaths by a large proportion.

A significant increase in heat-related deaths, particularly among the young, elderly, and poor, in regions which previously benefited from air conditioning.

A vast increase in deaths, particularly among the young, elderly, and poor, from the aforementioned respiratory diseases.

A huge increase in government-coerced redistribution of wealth in an attempt to offset the above symptoms of artificially-induced (also through government coercion) resource scarcity.

Market--followed by societal--collapse to a new form of medieval feudalism, now aided by technology held in the hands of a few.

The makings of a novel (suggested in part by Mark Steyn's America Alone): Since China won't cooperate it will prosper, eventually annexing eastern Russia and its neighbors for their resources, and making deals for energy resources with OPEC, which the West can no longer afford. As part of its new-age diplomacy, China will cede Europe and North America to militant Islam in return for a promise of reduced incursion into China and its satellites.

5. Book: 'Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future'

Review by Jon Boone
Developer, www.stopillwind.org
MasterResource, April 27, 2010

In his brand new book Power Hungry, energy journalist and Austin apiarist Robert Bryce marshals many numbers to plainly show how modern culture exacts power from energy to save time, increase wealth, and raise standards of living. Bryce also dispenses common sense to citizens and policy makers for an improved environment, a more productive economy, and a more enlightened civil society.

Inspired by enegy writings of Rockefeller University’s Jesse Ausubel, and the University of Manitoba’s prolific Vaclav Smil, he makes the case for continuing down the path of de-carbonizing our machine fuels—a process begun two hundred years ago when we turned from wood to fossil fuels and huge reservoirs of impounded water. As the world’s population continues to urbanize, people will inevitably demand cleaner, healthier, environmentally sensitive energy choices. . . .

Read the rest.

6. Kerry-Lieberman Equals Lost Jobs

by Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Contributing Editor, RealClearMarkets; Adjunct Fellow, Manhattan Institute
May 13, 2010

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (IND-CT) claim that their new energy bill, the American Power Act, would save the environment. What they don't tell you is that it would powerfully destroy jobs.

The Congressional Budget Office is more honest. Last week it issued a report entitled "How Policies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Affect Employment." The report concluded that "job losses in the industries that shrink would lower employment more than job gains in other industries would increase employment, thereby raising the overall unemployment rate." . . .

The bill requires that the country's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2013 be 5% lower than 2005 levels and that levels in 2020 be 17% lower - even as the economy, one hopes, has been expanding - and that by 2050, emissions be 80% below the 2005 baseline. . . .

Indeed, it's not technologically possible to meet these goals now without radically reducing the American standard of living. The bill's sponsors appear to believe - or hope - that passage of the law will inspire technology to appear as needed. The bill contains numerous grants to "eligible partnerships" to develop such technology, as well as to study the fields of clean and renewable energy. . . .

Read the rest.

Politics & Debate

7. The EPA's Shocking Power Grab

by George Allen and Marlo Lewis
Former U.S. Senator and Governor, Virginia; Chairman, American Energy Freedom Center (Allen); Senior Fellow, Competitive Enterprise Institute (Lewis)
Forbes, May 18, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is carrying out one of the biggest power grabs in American history. The agency has positioned itself to regulate fuel economy, set climate policy for the nation and amend the Clean Air Act--powers never delegated to it by Congress. It has done this by declaring greenhouse gas emissions a danger to public health and welfare, in a proceeding known as the "endangerment finding."

On Tuesday the U.S. Senate will debate and vote on Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski's resolution of disapproval to overturn the endangerment finding. The resolution is absolutely necessary to restore democratic accountability in climate policymaking.

If allowed to stand, the EPA's endangerment finding will trigger a regulatory cascade through multiple provisions of the Act. America could be burdened with a regulatory regime more costly than any climate bill Congress has rejected or declined to pass, yet without the people's representatives ever voting on it. . . .

Read the rest.

8. Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli Challenged for Demanding Mann-Related Documents (PDF)

The Week That Was, Science & Environmental Policy Project, May 8, 2010

When Ken Cuccinelli, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia, filed a Civil Investigative Demand for documents from the University of Virginia relating to the work done by Michael Mann while he was at the University, SEPP expected that Cuccinelli would ignite a firestorm of protest. He has.

Probably the most reasoned protest came from Steve McIntyre. He strenuously objected to the demand by Cuccinelli and stated the target should be the National Science Foundation, which also funded Mann. However, Cuccinelli has a limited purview; he can only file in regard to those funds Mann received from the Commonwealth, and not those from the Federal Government.

More striking objections come 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences in the form of a letter published in Science, and from newspapers such as the Washington Post. . . . Also, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors are soliciting signatures for petitions urging the University to fight the Demand.

Since those objecting raise issues such as academic freedom and scientific advancement, it is important to recap a bit of history. . . .

Read the rest (PDF).

Religion & Ethics

9. Ecocide: A Crime Against Peace?

by Wesley J. Smith
Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Bioethics, Discovery Institute
Weekly Standard, May 10, 2010

Environmentalism is growing increasingly antihuman. Having left Teddy Roosevelt-style conservation and Earth Day consciousness-raising behind, the cutting edge of the movement is pursuing utopian “save the planet” agendas while angrily castigating mankind for supposedly sucking the life out of Gaia.

Such environmental misanthropy used to be confined to the fringe. For more than three decades proponents of Deep Ecology have urged “environmental egalitarianism” and radical depopulation to beat back the human “invasion” of nature. Alas, in recent years such advocacy moved from the flanks toward the center of environmentalism—to the point that some of the world’s leading global warming warriors now echo the radical depopulation agenda as an urgent imperative to protect polar bears and keep glaciers from melting. . . .

Read the rest.

10. And Environmental Justice for All - But Liberty Comes First

by Spencer Banzhaf
Associate Professor of Economics, Georgia State University
Property & Environment Research Center, Summer, 2009

In 1982, some 450 activists were arrested protesting the construction of a hazardous waste facility in Warren County, N.C., a primarily poor, black community. Since that time, the “environmental justice” movement has shined a spotlight on the disproportionate environmental burden borne by minorities and the poor. Researchers have confirmed that poor people and minorities do indeed live in polluted neighborhoods more often than other groups do. This pattern has been found in numerous contexts. For example, disadvantaged groups live closer to hazardous waste facilities and landfills and live in communities with more air pollution. . . .

But before resorting to political and legal remedies for environmental inequity, it is crucial that we understand the social mechanisms underlying it. Such mechanisms determine the nature and locus of any injustice, how a policy affects the demographic pattern of exposure to pollution (if at all), and who bears the costs and reaps the benefits of any cleanups.

WHY THE POOR LIVE NEAR POLLUTION

There are at least four mechanisms that potentially explain the disadvantaged groups’ higher exposure to pollution. . . .

Read the rest.

Briefly Noted

Whelan and Miller: Precaution Without Principle

Ambler: Dr. Rajendra Pachauri and the IPCC - No Fossil Fool (PDF)

Asma: Green Guilt

Meet the Critics

Meet the Critics gives you basic information on 64 of the leading critics of dangerous manmade global warming. Today's critic:

Richard S. Courtney

Independent consultant on environmental issues and contributing editor of CoalTrans International and Energy & Environment, scientist Richard S. Courtney is a technical advisor to several members of Parliament, having been called by the same as an expert witness, and is a founding member of the European Science and Environment Forum. "No convincing evidence for anthropogenic global warming has been discovered. And recent global climate behavior is not consistent with anthropogenic global warming model predictions," says Courtney, an expert peer reviewer for the IPCC. "Global temperature has not increased since 1998 because, while the northern hemisphere has warmed, the southern hemisphere has cooled. Global warming was supposed to actually be global, not hemispheric." A few articles by Courtney, along with his 2008 ICCC speech Limits to Existing Quantitative Understanding of the Past, Present, and Future Changes to Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration, are Global Warming: How It All Began, 'Renewable Energy Technologies Can't Hack It in the Market Place, Climate Fear-Mongering to Get Worse, and Biofuels: a Solution Worse Than the Problem They Try to Address.

Landmark Documents from the Cornwall Alliance

An Evangelical Declaration on Global Warming (2009) and Prominent Signers

A Renewed Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Examination of the Theology, Science, and Economics of Global Warming (2009)

The Cornwall Stewardship Agenda (2007)

An Open Letter to the Signers of "Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action," and Others Concerned About Global Warming (2006, superseded by Evangelical Declaration)

A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming (2006; superseded by Renewed Call to Truth) and Endorsers

The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship (2000) and Prominent Signers

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.