The Week That Was: 2023-07-15 (July 15, 2023)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “I don’t think there is a climate crisis. I think the key processes are exaggerated and misunderstood by a factor of about 200.” — John Clauser, Nobel Co-Laureate, Physics, 2022, June 26, 2023
Number of the Week: Ten times moredeaths
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This Week will focus on data in AAAS Science analyzed by Geoscientist Tom Gallagher.
Also discussed is the censorship of Nobel Laureate in physics John Clauser. Recent papers and presentations on changing solar influence will be delayed. However, changing surface-air temperature records will be discussed as well as the foolish assertions of the hottest day in history. The awardee of SEPP’s annual April Fools Award is presented.
***********************
Message from The Abyss: On September 11, 2020, the journal, Science, by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) published an article written by Thomas Westerhold and over 20 European scientists titled, “An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years,” A summary states:
“Deep-sea benthic foraminifera preserve an essential record of Earth’s past climate in their oxygen- and carbon-isotope compositions. However, this record lacks sufficient temporal resolution and/or age control in some places to determine which climate forcing and feedback mechanisms were most important. Westerhold et al. present a highly resolved and well-dated record of benthic carbon and oxygen isotopes for the past 66 million years. Their reconstruction and analysis show that Earth’s climate can be grouped into discrete states separated by transitions related to changing greenhouse gas levels and the growth of polar ice sheets. Each climate state is paced by orbital cycles but responds to variations in radiative forcing in a state-dependent manner.”
Deep-sea benthic foraminifera are small marine creatures living on the bottom of the oceans at all depths including The Abyss, the deep ocean. Most are smaller than 1 to 2 millimeters, but some can grow to over 5 centimeters (2 inches). The larger ones were observed in the limestone that once covered the Egyptian pyramids. They were from the Eocene Epoch (about 33.9 to 56 million years ago. Britannica states:
“Foraminiferans inhabit virtually all marine waters and are found at almost all depths, wherever there is protection and suitable food (microscopic organisms).
“An important constituent of the present-day planktonic (floating) and benthic (bottom dwelling) microfaunas, foraminiferans have an extensive fossil record that makes them useful as index fossils in geological dating and in petroleum exploration. The word foraminiferan does not refer to the external pores found in some species but to the foramina (openings or apertures) between adjacent chambers after a new chamber envelops a previous one. When the foraminiferans die, their empty calcareous tests sink and form the so-called foraminiferal ooze that covers about 30 percent of the ocean floor. Limestone and chalk are products of the foraminiferan bottom deposits.” [Boldface added]
The Abstract of the paper states:
“Much of our understanding of Earth’s past climate comes from the measurement of oxygen and carbon isotope variations in deep-sea benthic foraminifera. Yet, long intervals in existing records lack the temporal resolution and age control needed to thoroughly categorize climate states of the Cenozoic era and to study their dynamics. Here, we present a new, highly resolved, astronomically dated, continuous composite of benthic foraminifer isotope records developed in our laboratories. Four climate states—Hothouse, Warmhouse, Coolhouse, Icehouse—are identified on the basis of their distinctive response to astronomical forcing depending on greenhouse gas concentrations and polar ice sheet volume. Statistical analysis of the nonlinear behavior encoded in our record reveals the key role that polar ice volume plays in the predictability of Cenozoic climate dynamics.
The Cenozoic Period goes from today to 66 million years ago. Isotopes of oxygen are commonly used to estimate surface temperature of oceans and ice sheets, such as Greenland and Antarctica. Having fewer neutrons, thus less dense, O16 evaporates more easily than O18 which has two more neutrons. Similarly, O18 condenses more rapidly than O16 and falls out earlier as rain or snow. Thus, temperature trends can be determined by ratios of O18 to O16.
Isotopes of Carbon are used to determine the likely source. Volcanoes have a higher ratio of C-13 to C-12 than plants (wood) or fossil fuels. Thus, one can determine if the source of carbon dioxide is volcanic or from fires. [Carbon 14 is ignored because, although it is regularly created in the atmosphere by protons ejected from the sun, it has a half-life that is very short compared to geologic time.]
The data was taken from the multinational Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) running from 1985 to 2004. It was funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and 22 international partners with the purpose of conducting basic research into the history of the ocean basins. The summary of one segment, called Leg 198, begins: [Boldface added]
“The mid-Cretaceous (~125-85 Ma) and early Paleogene (~65-34 Ma) were characterized by some of the most equable climates of the Phanerozoic and are among the best known ancient “greenhouse” climate intervals. In addition, these intervals contain some of the most abrupt and transient climatic changes in the geologic record, including the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the mid-Maastrichtian deepwater event (MME), and the early Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event (OAE1a). These critical transitions involved dramatically modified oceanic circulation patterns, profound changes in geochemical cycling, and abrupt turnover in marine biotas. Recent ocean drilling efforts have led to profound advances in our understanding of the ocean and climate dynamics of a warm Earth; however, we have yet to gain a firm knowledge of how atmospheric or deep-ocean circulation operates in the apparent absence of substantial thermal gradients, how rapid removal of important elements such as nutrients in some of these events is maintained for a long period of time, and exactly how environmental changes cause extinction and speciation of marine biotas.”
When TWTW first reviewed the paper, it found the data screening vague and the data presented in confusing clumps, but there was clearly an increase in temperatures from the Paleocene (ending about 56 million years ago) to the Early Eocene Climate Optimum (ending about 45 million years ago). Then came a general decline in temperature trends with the East Antarctic forming about 34 million years ago, a long period of stable temperatures ending in the Miocene Climate Optimum (about 14 million years ago) when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet began to form. The temperatures continued to decline, with variation until about 3.5 million years ago with the formation of the Northern Ice Sheet. In general, temperatures have fallen since, with even stronger variation.
Willis Eschenbach plotted a timeline showing these four different levels of temperature more clearly. However, the data was still not clear. Further, the claim that carbon dioxide from volcanic activity was responsible for the warm periods was weak. For example, the carbon dioxide concentrations reached a peak about 59 to 57 million years ago called the Paleocene Carbon Isotope Maximum, but the temperature did not reach a peak until 54 to 48 million years ago called the Early Eocene Climate Optimum, after C13 had fallen to levels approximately that of the last major glaciation. Clearly, something was missing but the paper gave no indication of what. TWTW noted that there was no attempt to describe ocean currents, even though the paper covered a time frame in which there were significant changes in land masses. For example, the extinct Pakicetus, a four-legged land-based mammal roamed around water in what is now Pakistan about 50 million years ago. Thought to be the ancestor of modern whales, Pakicetus is amusingly called the Whale of Pakistan.
In a one hour, forty-five-minute video presentation, Geoscientist Tom Gallagher took the work of Westerhold, et al. and Eschenbach and applied his knowledge of a changing Earth including changing ocean currents. These efforts gave considerable significance to the deep ocean sediments. Oceans are the primary mechanism for storing solar energy on Earth. When the Earth warms, the oceans warm. Conversely, when the Earth cools, the oceans cool.
Gallagher explains that the principal change in ocean currents was changing of the Earth land masses. During the warmest period, the Eocene, the warmest epoch in the past 66 million years, the equatorial currents ran strongly, indicating little divergence to the north and south. Heat accumulated from the tropical sun. Neither polar region had ice, and the North Pole was covered by an isolated, fresh-water lake. Antarctica had not yet formed, and the South Pole was ice free.
What changed was the gradual blocking of the equatorial currents that led to a decline in Earth’s temperatures. The Tethys Sea was blocked, about 66 million years ago, followed by a blocking of the Pacific-Indian ocean current, and finally the Panamanian Seaway was blocked about 3.5 million years ago. This led to a north-south flow of ocean currents, bringing more warm water towards the poles. The work by AMO physicists van Wijngaarden and Happer shows that over the Antarctic more radiant energy is lost to space than radiated by the surface. (See Graph: Figure 10, p. 29) [The radiation from the atmosphere to space at the poles is greater than surface radiation because warm air from the tropics has moved poleward; the warm air increases top of atmosphere radiation above the poles.]
But in themselves, the oceans currents do not cause warming or cooling. They are a means of transporting heat, just like the atmosphere.
Gallagher explains the four distinct periods in the Westerhold paper as Four Climate States:
- Hot house: 56 to 47 million years ago (Mya) more than 10 C above today
- Warm house: 66 to 56 Mya and 47 to 34 Mya
- Cool house 34 to 3.3 Mya Warmer than today
- Icehouse: 5 C below with beginning of the Pleistocene (closing of the Panama seaway 3.3 million years ago).
In short, the changing land masses caused the current Thermohaline Circulation. He points to the age of the ice masses as evidence of the Icehouse Earth. The oldest ice found in various locations is:
- Canadian Arctic and Greenland, 120,000 years
- Himalayas 600,000 years.
- Antarctica 800,000 to 1.2 million years
It was not until the Panamanian Seaway was blocked, that the Earth experienced dramatic changes in glaciation, coinciding with the Milankovitch Cycles. The ice record over the past 900,000 years shows that the dominant periods of the cycles have changed with maximum duration of severe ice stretching from about 41,000 years long to 100,000 years long.
To Gallagher, the following cause Climate Change:
- Solar cycles – The sun controls the energy system; Solar cycles govern longer-term timing of climate change.
- Oceans control energy storage
- Water in all phases drives the energy cycle of Climate.
- Continental Drift has shaped major steps in climate change over the past 67 million years.
- CO2 and Temperature proxies do not correlate in paleoclimate data.
- Until recently, CO2 was produced by volcanoes and oceans, with volcanoes heavy in C-13
- Catalysts such as Clouds (Albedo) and vegetation modify cycles.
To TWTW, if governments claim their policies address causes of climate change, then their policies must include all these factors, and then CO2 will be relegated to a bit player.
As Gallagher states there have been two states of climate for the past 3.5 million years:
- The Default Condition: Dry, Dusty, Cold, and Glacial
- The Current Condition: Wet, Warm, Non-glacial Times when Vegetation and Civilization thrive.
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, http://www.sepp.org/science_papers.cfm?whichyear=2022 for Hayden’s essays, https://www.britannica.com/science/foraminiferan and http://www-odp.tamu.edu/publications/198_IR/chap_01/chap_01.htm for discussion of the ODP program.
***********************
Changing Sun? The failure of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its followers to consider all forms of solar variation is perplexing. Over the past several weeks there have been new papers or presentations on solar variability in different time periods, ranging from 500 million years to a century or so. TWTW will delay discussing these papers and presentations until it is ready to discuss them in context of Gallagher’s changing Earth and changing Ocean Currents. See links under Science: Is the Sun Rising? and Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
***********************
Intolerance: Freedom of inquiry is a mark of science. Different ideas are tested against data (physical evidence in physics). Intolerance of different ideas is a mark of politicization to totalitarianism. Yunsu Kim writes in the Seoul Economic Daily:
“Dr. [John] Clauser received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to experimentally identifying the quantum entanglement phenomenon, which is the theoretical foundation of quantum cryptographic communication.”
At Quantum Korea, ‘the largest quantum technology-related international event in Korea’, John Clauser gave a keynote lecture on quantum entanglement. In it:
“He emphasized that ‘the true truth can be found by observing natural phenomena’, citing his past research experience in digging into the controversial topic of quantum mechanics and finding answers. ‘Scientists obtain information through careful observations and experiments and have prevented the dissemination of misinformation (by other scientists) through papers and peer reviews.’ We need this kind of refereeing role,’ he added.”
These statements were promptly censored by the popular press and entities such as Facebook and LinkIn. See links under Censorship.
***********************
Change the Data You Don’t Like: The July 1 TWTW discussed an important essay by Patrick Frank who did a careful analysis of the surface data used in “Global Temperatures” and used in Global Climate Models. Regardless of the start date, the data are simply unreliable. The best one can expect is accuracy within 1 degree C (1.8F). There were no realistic global data until the calculation of atmospheric temperature trends beginning in 1990 with data going back to December 1978.
Now Chris Morrison and Paul Homewood report that the once distinguished UK Met Office is changing local temperature data going back to 1659, the oldest instrument data in the world. Morrison writes:
“What a difference a year makes at the Met Office. In just 13 months, the 15-year temperature warming trend in the U.K. has doubled to a helpful 0.2°C. In the process it changes an inconvenient flat-lining trend, with warming of around 0.1°C, to the more Net Zero-friendly hike of nearly 0.2°C.”
“Announcing the fifth revision, the Met Office said HadCRUT5 was now “in line” with other datasets. True, they are all at it with huge retrospective adjustments made at NASA and the U.S. weather service.”
This “changing actual history” is typical of the tactics employed by many who routinely destroy science integrity while claiming that they simply reflect it. See links under Measurement Issues – Surface and http://www.sepp.org/twtwfiles/2023/TWTW%207-1-23.pdf
***********************
Sins of Emission? Among others, NOAA has forecasted a significant El Niño this year, which would result in a warming of the Eastern Central Pacific. El Niños are marked by a general warming of land-based surface temperatures as well as lower atmospheric temperatures (with a four-to-six-month lag (delay)).
Jumping the gun, many sources are reporting the hottest temperatures in recorded history or the hottest in human history. ICECAP has the explanation by the CO2 Coalition:
“It was widely reported recently that July 4th, 2023, was the hottest day in Earth’s recorded history.
“Paulo Ceppi, a climate scientist at London’s Grantham Institute stated: ‘It hasn’t been this warm since at least 125,000 years ago, which was the previous interglacial.’ And, of course, it was reported that it was our fault due to our ‘sins of emission.’” [Boldface added]
As Paul Homewood writes:
“’Currently — July 6, 2023: Earth’s hottest day in recorded history’
“‘July 4th was Earth’s hottest in at least 125,000 years.’
“Do they think we are really so gullible?” [Boldface added]
Those who report such nonsense have glaring deficiencies in their knowledge of human history and knowledge of climate history. As Jo Nova points out, most of the Holocene (past 11,700 years) was warmer than today with the Little Ice Age extremely cold. The Little Ice Age ended about the same time the Industrial Revolution with its use of hydrocarbon fuels started, about 1880. See links under Questioning the Orthodoxy, Measurement Issues – Atmosphere, and Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
***********************
SEPP’S APRIL FOOLS AWARD – THE JACKSON
SEPP presented the coveted trophy at the 41st annual meeting of the Doctors for Defensive Preparedness on July 9.
Early in the voting the leaders of the National Science Teachers Association appeared to be the clear winners. They prudently demanded that representatives of the CO2 Coalition and their displays be removed from a conference of science teachers. The troublemakers espoused the radical idea that carbon dioxide is necessary for all green plant life, thus all life. Horrors!
But at the end of the voting there was a tremendous surge for one man. He was an honors student in physics and electrical engineering. He began his professional career teaching systems theory and telecommunications. But politics called.
As he climbed the political latter, China abandoned its policy of strict control of economic activity and prosperity flourished, in part driven by fossil fuels. Much of South Asia followed. Our World in Data reports that since 1990 we have seen the most remarkable decline in extreme poverty ever. Also, China produces more carbon dioxide than the US and the EU combined. India is following suit.
But our April Fools recipient has declared that fossil fuels are the enemy of humanity, and he intends to lead the world’s premier international organization, founded in a hope for humanity, against the use of fossil fuels regardless of consequences.
The 2023 recipient of April Fools award is – UN Secretary General António “Leave it in the Ground” Guterres.
Mr. Guterres did not attend. Apparently, he could not get enough renewable fuel for his plane.
***********************
Number of the Week: Ten times more deaths. An article in the medical journal The Lancet by Pierre Masselot, et al. is titled “Excess mortality attributed to heat and cold: a health impact assessment study in 854 cities in Europe.” The authors report:
“We included urban areas across Europe between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 12, 2019, using the Urban Audit dataset of Eurostat and adults aged 20 years and older living in these areas.”
“Across the 854 urban areas in Europe, we estimated an annual excess of 203,620 (empirical 95% CI 180 882–224 613) deaths attributed to cold and 20,173 (17 261–22 934) attributed to heat.” [Boldface added.]
And the EU is demanding that Europe shift to expensive, unreliable wind and solar power to prevent global warming? See links under Health, Energy, and Climate.
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Global Societal Crises of the 17th Century: Perspectives from Research on Sun-Earth Relations
By Willie Soon, DDP Meeting, July 8, 2023
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpGrfxWiiUE
ECS over the Phanerozoic
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
Link to study: The Phanerozoic climate
By Nir J. Shaviv, Henrik Svensmark, and Ján Veizer. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2022
Scientists: Cosmic Ray-Cloud Connection Explains Million-Year Climate Changes Far Better Than CO2
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, July 3, 2023
Understanding the role of the sun in climate change
By Nicola Scafetta, Via Andy May, His blog, July 6, 2023
Link to version of record paper (June 20, 2023): Empirical assessment of the role of the Sun in climate change using balanced multi-proxy solar records
By Nicola Scafetta, Geoscience Frontiers, Nov 2023
“Decadal and longer-term changes in historical solar activity are unknown because total solar irradiance (TSI) reaching Earth can only be accurately measured by satellites, and these records are only available since 1978. However, these data remain controversial, as different trends emerge depending on the combination and processing of records provided by different experimental teams.”
Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
Solar Activity: Solar Cycle 25 Surpasses Cycle 24
By Javier Vinos, Climate Etc, July 4, 2023
Cosmic rays, clouds and climate: evidence from Svensmark
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
From the CO2Science Archive:
Clintel Report: Sundown on the IPCC
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
“A long time ago the IPCC paid attention to the sun and its possible influence on climate, but as we showed in our video on the subject, that was then. Now it’s all CO2 all the time and, according to the IPCC insiders, there’s no reason to think the sun has anything to do with temperature or rainfall or anything else.”
Censorship
Don’t Get The Idea That Internet Censorship Is Diminishing
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 3, 2023
Link to: “In the age of AI, scientists should play the role of referees who cover truth and lies.”
By Yunsu Kim, Seoul Economic Daily June 26, 2023
https://www.sedaily.com/News/NewsView/NewsPrint?Nid=29R07JMSQ2 [English]
Big Win against Big-Tech Censors in USA shows Australians need a different Referendum — one for Free Speech
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 7, 2023
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
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/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:
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
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
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
Another skeptical Nobel Laureate of Physics — “Climate science has metastasized”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 13, 2023
Paleoclimatology, Part 1
By Tom Gallagher, Video, Accessed May 17, 2023
Link to paper: An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years
By Thomas Westerhold, et al. (over 20 co-authors), AAAS Science, Sep 11, 2020
Atmosphere and Greenhouse Gas Primer
By W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, AMO Physicists, March 3, 2023
Defending the Orthodoxy
Climate change spells ‘terrifying’ future: UN rights chief
By AFP Staff Writers. Geneva (AFP) July 3, 2023
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
In years after El Niño, global economy loses trillions
Study finds that global downturn after Pacific climate pattern persists
Press Release, NSF, July 5, 2023
Link to paper; Persistent effect of El Niño on global economic growth
By Christopher Callahan and Justin Mankin, AAAS Science, May 18, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Typical of AAAS Science, the El Niño variability has been identified since the 1700s, with causes unknown. Yet, with no evidence, the paper assumes that it will increase with increasing CO2.]
National Academies “Climate Junk Summit” 7/11-7/12 is open to all
By David Wojick, CFACT, July 7, 2023
Oh ship
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
New Study: Neither Global Warming Or CO2 Radiative Forcing Were A Cause Of Past Mass Extinctions
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, July 10, 2023
Link to latest paper: Mass Extinctions and Their Relationship With Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration: Implications for Earth’s Future
By W. Jackson Davis, Earth’s future, July 3, 2023
The Grip of Culture: The Social Psychology of Climate Catastrophism
By Andy May, Climate Etc. July 13, 2023
Musings on Forest Fires, Fuel Load, Dr. Ehrlich and the CO2 Fertilization Effect Upon U. S. Forests
By Don Healy, WUWT, July 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment: The Carbon dioxide Fertilization Effect (CFE) is real. So is recent government failure to reduce fuel loads to control burns.]
Hottest Year Misdirection June Report
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, July 14, 2023
Hottest day “in human history” was cooler than most of the Holocene
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 6, 2023
Beware the habitual El Niño hype
By David Whitehouse, Net Zero Watch, July 12, 2023
Clintel Report: sense and sensitivity
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
“In chapter 7 of the new Clintel Report on the IPCC AR6, the Clintel authors go over the tortured reasoning employed by the IPCC to avoid admitting they were wrong. In short, the IPCC says, OK maybe we got it wrong before, but one of these days the data will change and then we’ll be right. So we’ll just skip a step and say we’ve been right all along.”
How much warming can we expect in the 21st century?
By Hakon Karlsen, Climate Etc. July 8, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Long post. To TWTW, the principal issue is not the overestimate of carbon dioxide emissions in the IPCC reports, but the great overestimate of the influence of carbon dioxide concentrations on Earth’s temperatures.]
Hottest day ever… since 1979… models say
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
“Provided you learn to measure and compare. Otherwise it’s just more babble.”
Are floods really increasing? A case study from Krishna River Basin, India
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 5, 2023
Link to paper: Are floods really increasing? A case study from Krishna River Basin, India
By Pakhale, Khosa, and Gosain, Natural Hazards Research, June 26, 2023
It’s always hot somewhere
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
Energy and Environmental Review: July 3, 2023
By John Droz, Jr., Master Resource, July 3, 2023
Change in US Administrations
Arati Prabhakar set to become Biden’s science adviser and his pick to lead science office
Applied physicist would bring wealth of policy experience as successor to Eric Lander
By Jeffrey Mervis, AAAS Science, Update June 22, 2023
“And if Republicans regain control of one or both chambers of Congress in this fall’s elections, the Biden White House will likely need to rely on executive orders to implement its agenda rather than on any new legislation.”
Biden-Harris Administration Announces $135 Million to Reduce Emissions Across America’s Industrial Sector
40 Projects Across 21 States Will Advance Technologies to Decarbonize American Industry and Help Create Good-Paying Jobs
Press Release, Department of Energy, June 15, 2023
China Schemes, Biden Dreams
By William Balgord, Cornwall Alliance, June 15, 2023
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Carbon Dioxide
By Ron Barmby, ICECAP, July 7, 2023
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/how_i_learned_to_stop_worrying_and_love_carbon_dioxide/
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Bye Bye Paris: Chinese CO2 Emissions are Skyrocketing
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 10, 2023
“Every time the Yangtze dries up, it reveals countless inscriptions written by people who endured previous severe droughts, like the inscription below which was written in the year 1086.”
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
“From the ‘but not for thee’ file: Canada’s Governor General burned nearly 25,000 litres of jet fuel to deliver a trite anti-climate-catastrophe speech in Finland in February in which she said we must ‘act now’ but presumably not like she just did. Heaven forfends that such potentates should Zoom instead of zooming. Like the bit where UN Secretary-General António Guterres just called fossil fuels ‘incompatible with human survival’ after some 400 private jets flocked to the UN’s 2022 climate summit.”
Seeking a Common Ground
Adaptation needs greater focus in climate policy
By Ross McKitrick, MacDonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa, June 2023
What if We Just Stop Oil?
Young activists deserve better from wealthy funders and scientists
By Roger Pielke Jr. The Honest Broker, July 6, 2023
Science, Policy, and Evidence
Waiting to Declare the Climate Emergency
By Staff, Government Accountability and Oversight, Accessed July 14, 2023
An Infinite Number Of Days To Flatten The CO2 Curve
I & I Editorial Board, July 11, 2023
“What we should have learned from the COVID lockdowns is that tolerating petty tyranny leads to absolute tyranny. We’re not there yet, but we’re well on the road to it and it has been paved with malicious intent.”
1898 Fires In Colorado
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 11, 2023
Model Issues
New 2023 INMCM RAS Climate Model First Results
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, July 13, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Previously, the INMCM model from the Russian Academy of Science ran close to actual observations of the lower troposphere. This may have been “fixed.”]
Climate models: A glimpse under the hood
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
Link to paper: Climate Models and Climate Muddles
By Willis Eschenbach, Net Zero Watch, 2023
“Pay no attention to that Mann behind the curtain, or his pals at the computer keyboard, or the digital ravings of their GIGO machines.”
[SEPP Comment; FORTRAN is a good language for numerical modeling. But the assumptions and data in the models need to be up to date. They are not.]
Downward atmospheric longwave radiation in CMIP5 models
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
From the CO2Science Archive
[SEPP Comment: Greenhouse gas molecules cannot direct the direction of a photon when it is emitted, but the net effect is not downward.]
WMO’s Weather Station Classifications
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 7, 2023
Link to: Guide to Instruments and Methods of Observation
Volume I –Measurement of Meteorological Variables
By Staff, World Meteorological Organization, 2021
“Class 4 (additional estimated uncertainty added by siting up to 2 °C)
(a) Close, artificial heat sources and reflective surfaces (buildings, concrete surfaces, car parks, and the like) or expanse of water (unless significant of the region), occupying:
(i) Less than 50% of the surface within a 10 m radius around the screen;
(ii) Less than 30% of the surface within a 3 m radius around the screen;”
Met Office Doubles Recent U.K. Warming Trend in Just 13 Months, Abolishing 15-Year Flatlining Trend
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, July 12, 2023 [H/t Paul Homewood]
CET Adjustments
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 2, 2023
[SEPP Comment: What is the justification for adjusting historic data since 1659?]
Monday world’s hottest day on record, initial measurements show
By AFP Staff Writers, Paris (AFP), July 4, 2023
Erasing The Heat In Colorado
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 11, 2023
“On July 11, 1888, Bennett, Colorado was 118F. That record was erased sometime between August 22, 2020, and September 29, 2020, and changed to 115F in 2019.”
Record Heat July 12, 1933
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 12, 2023
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
UAH Global Temperature Update for June 2023: +0.38 deg. C
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, July 5th, 2023
Link to: Global Temperature Report, June 2023
By Staff, Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, June 2023, July 10, 2023
Map: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2023/June/202306_Map.png
Graph: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2023/June/202306_Bar.png
Text: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2023/June/GTR_202306JUN_1.pdf
“The linear warming trend since January, 1979 remains at +0.13 C/decade (+0.12 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land).”
“*A note about the global temperature trend. For several years now the trend has been extremely close to +0.135 °C/decade (it’s at +0.1341 now). In all likelihood we will see that threshold between 0.134 and 0.135 crossed soon, and we shall indicate the global trend is +0.14 °C/decade by rounding up. In truth, the shift will be very slight.”
[SEPP Comment: In order, the highest temperatures occurred in 2016, second highest in 1998, and third highest in 2020.]
Changing Weather
Hot June? Blame It On The NAO, Not Global Warming
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 3, 2023
Wind and Wildfire
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, July 9, 2023
July 9, 1936 – Hottest Day On Record In New York City
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 10, 2023
A Warm-Dry Summer without Drama
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, July 12, 2023
Changing Climate
The Canonized 100,000- And 41,000-Year Glacial-Interglacial Climate Cycles May Never Have Existed
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, July 6, 2023
Link to paper: The inter-glacial cycle is not a 100,000-year cycle, it is a shorter cycle with missing beats
By Michael Oldfield Jonas, World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2022
Changing Seas
What’s causing the extremely warm temperatures in the North Atlantic?
By Jim Johnstone and Judith Curry, Climate Etc. July 2, 2023
Scientists discover new clues to devastating coral disease
Biologists examine stony coral tissue loss disease causes
Press Release, NSF, July 5, 2023
Link to paper; Stony coral tissue loss disease induces transcriptional signatures of in situ degradation of dysfunctional Symbiodiniaceae
By Kelsey M. Beavers, et al., Nature Communications, May 22, 2023
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
New Study: Maps Of Ice Mass Loss Show Geothermal Heat Flow Explains 2003-2019 Antarctic Ice Melt
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, July 13, 2023
Link to paper: Geothermal Heat Flow and Thermal Structure of the Antarctic Lithosphere
By Haeger, Petrunin, and Kaban, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geoscystems, 2022
[SEPP Comment: A new model on geothermal heat flow agrees well with location of volcanoes, but uncertainties remain. Contrary to popular myths, well mixed atmospheric CO2 cannot cause warming of specific locations.]
Early sea ice breakup in W Hudson Bay caused by “record breaking” warmth in 2023 but not 2015?
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, July 4, 2023
Natural flexibility explains W Hudson Bay polar bear movements at breakup better than climate change
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, July 9, 2023
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
War, Covid and climate change push 122 million more people into hunger-UN
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 13, 2023
Link to UN Press Release: Environmental and Health Impacts of Pesticides and Fertilizers and Ways of Minimizing Them
By Staff UN Environment Program, Jan 24, 2021
Link to report: Synthesis Report on the Environmental and Health Impacts of Pesticides and Fertilizers and Ways to Minimize Them: Envisioning a chemical-safe world
By Staff, UNEP, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and World Health Organization, 2022
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/pesticides%20(1).pdf
“It is sad to see a once serious newspaper descend to publishing UN propaganda, with no attempt to do any factchecking first.”
[SEPP Comment: More UN hypocrisy! It claims the natural plant fertilizer, carbon dioxide, is destroying life; then, claims that synthetic fertilizers are not suitable for life.]
Climate Alarmist War On Nitrous Oxide Threatens The Global Food Supply
By Jerome R. Corsi, American Thinker, July 11, 2023
Claim: Climate Change Threatens “Synchronised Harvest Failures” Worldwide
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 14, 2023
Lowering Standards
Alarming deterioration of US National Weather Service tornado warnings
By Mike Smith, Climate Etc. July 11, 2023
“Research by Dr. Kevin Simmons demonstrates that 13 to 15 minutes of “lead time” (the interval of time from when a tornado warning is issued to when the tornado arrives) is ideal. From 2005 to 2011, National Weather Service tornado warnings averaged 13.3 minutes and tornadoes were detected in advance 73.3% of the time. At that same time, the radars were being “dual-polarized” to allow detection of tornado’s lofted debris for better tracking. Plus, the new generation of GOES weather satellites, the first that could sense lightning rates (which are sometimes very useful in determining in advance which thunderstorms will go severe or tornadic) was in operation. All of this should have resulted in new levels of tornado warning accuracy.
“They did not. The quality of tornado warnings is deteriorating at an alarming rate!”
BBC Ignore Cold Weather Deaths
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 1, 2023
Catastrophising Summer Weather
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 2, 2023
“The Met Office was quick to call this even before the month had ended!”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Wild Weather News Spreads Like Wildfire
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, July 14, 2023
Don’t Fall For Justin Rowlatt’s Global Heatwave Con Trick
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 11, 2023
“Although average global temperatures may have increased because of the warm air brought to the Antarctic, the overall heat content of the Earth’s atmosphere has not changed.”
Carbon offset ablaze
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 05, 2023
Catastrophising Summer–The Bird
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 5, 2023
“Adam Hart is yet another of the young breed of journalists who would rather just write stuff because it fits their worldview, rather than actually do a bit of research.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Fire burn and ocean bubble
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
“Another major item in the alarmist arsenal lately has been boiling oceans. OK, not lately. They can’t get enough of them, from James Hansen’s overheated Venusian comparison (in a video now curiously removed from YouTube, Hansen claimed that ‘you can get to a situation where, it just, the oceans will begin to boil and the planet becomes, uhh, so hot that the ocean ends up in the atmosphere, and that happened to Venus’) to Al Gore’s Davos rant that CO2 is ‘what’s boiling the oceans’ that aren’t boiling to The Economist’s ‘Boiling point’. Now it’s that there was a sudden, brief, mysterious spike in temperature in the North Atlantic. Though if you actually go stick your hand into the ocean, you discover something odd: It’s still very chilly. Even there.”
Jusssst trusssst us
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
Link to study: Communicating future sea-level rise uncertainty and ambiguity to assessment users
By Robert E. Kopp, Michael Oppenheimer, et al. Nature Climate Change, June 19, 2023
Abstract begins: “Future sea-level change is characterized by both quantifiable and unquantifiable uncertainties.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
The Last Gasp of the Anthropocene?
By David Middleton, WUWT, July 13, 2023
Hottest Day Evah!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 6, 2023
“’Currently — July 6, 2023: Earth’s hottest day in recorded history’
“July 4th was Earth’s hottest in at least 125,000 years.”
Homewood: “Do they think we are really so gullible?”
Hotter Than the Fourth of July???
By CO2 Coalition, Via ICECAP, July 6, 2023
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/new-and-cool/hotter_than_the_fourth_of_july/
World records hottest day for third time in a week?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 8, 2023
Hottest Evah June!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 4, 2023
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach Accused Of Making Up “Tens Of Thousands Of Heat Deaths”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 9, 2023
Every month seems to be the hottest, the driest, the wettest, or whichever record-breaking event it is.
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 3, 2023
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Lies, Ad Homs, Silly Faces & Wild Ranting–Dale Vince
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 13, 2023
Video of a “debate” with comments.
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Last Generation Climate Hypocrites Glue Themselves to German Runways
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 14, 2023
Expanding the Orthodoxy
It’s Biblical climate fire and brimstone, except the UN wants to be God
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 4, 2023
“The UN is the dystopia Orwell warned us about. Time to end it and give us our money back.”
New EPA Methane Regulations Could Cost Families, Businesses, and the Environment
By Kaitlin Hammons, Real Clear Energy, July 09, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Ignorance of the temperature effect of methane in Earth’s environment (atmosphere) is inexcusable for the EPA.]
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
“From the ‘but not for thee’ file: Canada’s Governor General burned nearly 25,000 liters of jet fuel to deliver a trite anti-climate-catastrophe speech in Finland in February in which she said we must ‘act now’ but presumably not like she just did.”
Questioning European Green
European Energy Policy –Economic Suicide?
By David Horgan, Irish Climate Science and CLINTEL, June 19, 2023
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgoPuGFeleg
I’ll be buying a brand-new petrol car just before the 2030 ban: Matt Ridley
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 8, 2023
Britain should place a big bet on the petrol engine
By Matthew Lynn, The Spectator, July 12, 2023 [H/t Paul Homewood]
Questioning Green Elsewhere
KEVIN MOONEY: The Push For ‘Net Zero’ Isn’t Clean Or Green
By Kevin Mooney, Daily Caller, July 11, 2023
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
“So apparently the smooth, glittering green energy transition is going so well that “The European Union will join an international effort to assess whether large-scale interventions such as deflecting the sun’s rays or changing the Earth’s weather patterns are viable options for fighting climate change.” And given their success so far, what could go wrong?”
Non-Green Jobs
Nuclear Phaseout, Green Energy Transition Causing German Industry And Power Production To Leave
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 7, 2023
Funding Issues
Just Stop Oil Donor Received £110 Million in Green Subsidies from Taxpayer
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 13, 2023
“Alternative energy companies run by Just Stop Oil and Labour Party paymaster Dale Vince have collected taxpayer subsidies of around £110 million over the last 20 years.”
Other people’s money
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 5, 2023
“’Trillions of dollars of investment are required annually in emerging markets and developing countries to make adequate progress towards climate goals, to manage the risks of climate change, and to tackle poverty. The scale of this challenge requires the private sector to play a significant role alongside the World Bank Group and other development institutions.’”
Litigation Issues
CHECC Has Petitioned The DC Circuit For Rehearing As To Its Standing To Challenge The Endangerment Finding
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 12, 2023
Energy Appliance Victory! (DC Circuit vs. DOE)
By Mark Krebs, Master Resource, July 10, 2023
Link to Opinion: American Public Gas Association v. DOE
US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, July 7, 2023
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
As predicted, wind industry blackmails the UK – demands yet more subsidies
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, July 5, 2023
EPA and other Regulators on the March
EPA proposes stricter regulations on lead exposure in residential buildings
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, July 12, 2023
“The new draft rule from the EPA would lower its lead dust hazard level to any level greater than zero — meaning any amount of lead found in a building would be considered hazardous.”
[SEPP Comment: More deadly than nerve agent VX?]
EPA finalizes rule furthering 40 percent phasedown of planet-warming hydrofluorocarbons
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, July 11, 2023
Energy Issues – Non-US
FES 2023–The Emperor Still Has No Clothes!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 13, 2023
Link to report: Future Energy Scenarios
By Staff, The [UK] National Grid, July 2023
Homewood examines the two middle scenarios: “In both scenarios, dispatchable capacity (excl I/Cs) is woefully short of what is needed.” [Peak demand at 98 to 73; while dispatchable is only 40.7 to 43.3]
“The only way to ensure security of supply with these increased electrification scenarios would be to treble our existing CCGT fleet, if necessary modified to burn hydrogen. In the longer term, a tranche pf new nuclear might help to plug the gap, but that would likely take many more years to come about.
“Every year I raise this problem. And every year a new FES comes out, which totally ignores the disaster staring us in the face. There seems to be a naive belief that all of that wind and solar capacity will somehow always provide the power we need. Is it just me? Am I missing something?”
Pylons to be forced on public to hit net zero goal
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 2, 2023
Pylons ae are tall, high-voltage transmission lines.
Energy Issues — US
Electrifying Democracy
Rural electrification is America’s greatest infrastructure achievement
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, July 4, 2023
“She [Violet Cauthon] continued, ‘I remember visiting Cherokee relatives in eastern Oklahoma who were without electricity in the WWII years. They shared a nice stone springhouse built into the side of a hill with a Cherokee neighbor. That’s where butter and milk was stored on benches. The cold spring water flowed over the benches keeping food cool.’”
American Energy Independence Is a National Security Priority
By Gentry Collins, Real Clear Energy, July 13, 2023
New York’s ISO Issues A Warning
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 10, 2023
Link to: Power Trends 2023
By Staff, New York State ISO, 2023
“’Across upstate New York, energy intensive microchip manufacturing facilities are developing in several locations. Together, these elements are increasing demand for electricity. However, pursuant to public policies, fossil fuel generation is retiring faster than renewable resources are entering service, leading to declining reliability margins across the state, but most acutely in the New York City area.’ Bold in original.”
Tomlinson’s Narrative on the (Wounded) Texas Grid: More Misdirection from the Houston Chronicle
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, July 13, 2023
“Comment: Since the 1880s when coal first generated electricity, and in the last half-century when natural gas joined in, reliability has never been in issue in electrical generation in Texas, the U.S., and worldwide. So, what has changed in the last decade in particular? Why does Texas’s grid now have statewide conservation orders and close calls during the winter and summer peaks?” Italics in original.
Air Conditioning: Thank You Fossil Fuels
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, July 5, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Before air conditioning, in older homes people opened windows at the bottom and top floors for airflow;, older homes often had tall ceilings and transoms, large windows, porches, reflective roofs, and thick walls, particularly in the South and Southwest US.]
Washington’s Control of Energy
Don’t Pass Me By – With Many Steps Required, Mining Projects Face Trickiest Path To Approval
By Jason Lindquist, RBN Energy, June 30, 2023
“Development: The stage where permitting is handled (much more on that in a bit), mining operations are developed and the mine itself is constructed. A report prepared for the National Mining Association (NMA) estimates the permitting process alone can take 7-10 years in the U.S. (By way of comparison, the average permitting time is two to three years in Canada, where the roles and responsibilities of the agencies involved in permitting are identified and timeline-based targets are agreed to and published at the start of the application process. It should be noted that Canada is also looking for ways to further streamline the process.)”
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Oil giant Shell warns cutting production ‘dangerous’
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 6, 2023
Oil Spills, Gas Leaks & Consequences
Chemical irritant polluted air after Ohio train derailment: study
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, July 12, 2023
Link to “study”: Air Pollutant Patterns and Human Health Risk following the East Palestine, Ohio, Train Derailment
By Oladayo Oladeji, et al. Environmental Science Technology Letters, July 12, 2023
From the article: “But the team only detected vinyl chloride levels below what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers an unsafe long-term level.
“However, the researchers found atmospheric concentrations of acrolein were up to six times the normal level near the crash site on Feb. 20 and 21, nearly two weeks after officials cleared evacuees to safely return home. Acrolein, which was not among the chemicals spilled in the derailment, is an irritant to the eyes, skin and nose that has been linked to increased cancer risk.”
[SEPP Comment: Is there a manufactured chemical that is not linked to increased cancer risk?]
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Glowing example of sanity
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 12, 2023
“Yes, we will begin consultations to assess the possibility of approval to undertake a feasibility study. In the process you can bet that they’ll hear from the usual tin-foil-hat candidates who can’t tell a nuclear plant from a nuclear bomb and believe all sorts of nonsense about the danger and difficulty of handling nuclear waste from a modern facility, because the very word nuclear gives a lot of people the vapours.”
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Austrian Biochemical Engineer: “No Energy Production Method Is More Damaging Than Wind Turbines”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 14, 2023
“Hammer explains that one problem with wind turbines is that they extract a massive amount of kinetic energy from the wind, which in turn leads to a windspeed reduction downstream from the wind park and air layers getting mixed. The higher layers of wind end up getting mixed with the layers near the surface. ‘Colder layers are getting mixed with warmer layers and that is having dramatic effects on the temperature, humidity, and on evaporation,’ which leads to ‘drier conditions and even drought.’”
Wind Turbine Power and Land Cover Effects on Bat Deaths
By Guess Blogger, WUWT, July 6, 2023
“Among all wind turbine features and land cover characteristics, wind turbine power is the most significant factor associated to bat deaths. Wind turbines located within 5 km buffer comprised of natural land cover have substantial higher deaths and should not be licensed. More wind turbine power will result in more deaths. Unrecorded deaths are > 500% higher than the recorded ones.”
The whale killing study the Feds are afraid to do
By David Wojick, CFACT, July 11, 2023
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Limitless White Hydrogen!!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 14, 2023
“He’s away with the fairies again!” [Ambrose Evans-Prichard of The Telegraph]
[SEPP Comment: Not green?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Green New Deal’s Unaffordable Mobility…Nissan Head Warns E-Cars Too Expensive For Many
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, July 4, 2023
The electric car ‘revolution’ is a disaster before it’s begun
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 4, 2023
This rush to electric cars is a colossal mistake
Only China and the rich will benefit from this hasty transition to an all-electric future.
By Joel Kotkin, Spiked, July 3, 2023
“The average price for a brand-new EV is over $60,000 – about $12,000 more than the average four-door sedan.”
UK Government Report: The Automobile Industry Does Not Know How to Repair EV Batteries
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 10, 2023
The EV market is on fire
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, July 05
“Even the New York Times has written about ‘How E-Bike Battery Fires Became a Deadly Crisis in New York City’, adding that ‘City leaders are racing to regulate battery-powered mobility devices, which have been the source of over 100 fires so far this year.’ Good thing fire trucks are still allowed to run on gas.”
EV Fantasia hits multiple speed bumps
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 5, 2023
After an accident, electric cars need to social distance in case they blow other cars up.
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 9, 2023
Carbon Schemes
Louisiana environmentalists push back against Biden’s carbon capture initiative: ‘Do it where you live’
Residents fear it will pose a health risk to the nearby Black community already grappling with elevated cancer risks
By Yael Halon, Fox News, June 25, 2023
The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage in Enhancing Oil Recovery
Exploring the Role of Carbon Capture and Storage in Enhancing Oil Recovery
By Staff, Energy Protal.EU, July 3, 2023
Americans Have Never Been Less Threatened by ‘Extreme Weather’
By David Harsany, Heartland Daily News, June 30, 2023
Save lives, give us global warming: Even in cities, cold kills ten times as many people —
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 14, 2023
Link to paper: Excess mortality attributed to heat and cold: a health impact assessment study in 854 cities in Europe
By Pierre Masselot, et al, The Lancet, April 2023
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Carbon Capture Follies
Before we lock it up, even CO₂ deserves a zealous defense. Humor – ?
By Will Bates, His Blog, June 23, 2023
“‘Dr. Foote,’ I ask. ‘Where exactly is this Tyndall gas thing happening?’
‘Where in the atmosphere?’
‘Yes.’
Foote looks toward the jury. ‘The best analogy I’ve heard is to think of it as a fog.’
‘A fog?’
‘Yes. An infrared fog. So, it’s not visible, of course.’
[SEPP Comment: Long, amusing post with good graphs. Of course, the fog has a window.]
“In case you missed it.”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 11, 2023
“’In case you missed it. The temperature soared as high as 100 degrees in the Northwest Territories on Saturday, the hottest temperature ever measured north of 65 degrees latitude in the Western Hemisphere.’ Tough keeping up with all this climate chaos.” By Jeff Berardilli “Weather Prof”
“Fort Yukon, Alaska was 100F north of the Arctic Circle in 1915 at 66.6º latitude.” From state records, Tony Heller
“Millions of top scientists” agree
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 14, 2023
‘Underground Climate Change’ Threatens to Destabilize Buildings
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 12, 2023
Justin Rowlatt’s Fishy Tale
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, July 3, 2023
[SEPP Comment: So hot fish are dying that have never died before!]
Now scientists say climate change is making us BLIND
University of Toronto researchers looked at 1.7million adults over 65 years old
Those in warmer areas were up to 44 percent more likely to have vision problems
READ MORE: Gene injection could stop sight loss in older eyes
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, July 7, 2023
[SEPP Comment: UV radiation has nothing to do with it?]
Study: COVID spread from deer to humans multiple times
By Jared Gans, The Hill, July 11, 2023
Link to paper: Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in free-ranging white-tailed deer in the United States
By Aijing Feng, et al. Nature Communications, July 10, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Should we eliminate all white-tail deer or mask them?]
Watch: Morano on Fox & Friends on Biden admin attempts to block the sun in fight against climate change – ‘Radical, risky, unproven’ & talks gas-car bans
By Marc Morano, Climate Depot, July 3, 2023 [H/t Bill Balgord]
“Joe Biden’s science advisor and team apparently think they can control “climate change” by injecting insolation blocking aerosols into the stratosphere to counter their unproven CO2 radiative forcing calculations that they claim is dangerously warming the Earth.
ARTICLES
1. A Wind Boondoggle in New Jersey
Expect more legislative and behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the governor.
Letter By Jonathan Lesser, Manhattan Institute, Continental Econ., Via WSJ, July 14, 2023
TWTW Summary: The letter begins:
Your editorial ‘New Jersey’s Wind Giveaway Gets Worse’ (July 10) understates the costs to New Jersey consumers. According to data published in March 2022 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average construction cost for offshore wind, ignoring financing costs, was over $6,000 a kilowatt. That doesn’t include the cost of the offshore cabling needed to bring the electricity the project will generate to the New Jersey shore.
For Ørsted’s 1,100-megawatt Ocean Wind project, that implies a cost of about $7 billion. The company, which is owned by the Danish government, will thus reap an investment tax credit of around $2 billion—more than the original estimated construction cost of $1.6 billion. That average residential customer would have to write a check for $200 to the Danish government. Industrial customers will hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars, just the ticket to improve their competitiveness.
The Ocean Wind II project, which has also been approved by the state, will double those costs. Moreover, consumers and businesses will have to pay for the backup generation needed to compensate for all the hours when those wind projects won’t be generating electricity—typically when electricity demand is highest.
The letter concludes with speculation on future political maneuvering to drive the costs higher.
*******************
2. Judges Defy Congress to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline
A three-judge Fourth Circuit panel blocks a permit even after the debt-ceiling bill stripped them of jurisdiction.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, July 11, 2023
TWTW Summary: The article begins:
“Three judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals are doing the legal equivalent of lying down in front of tractors to block the Mountain Valley Pipeline. For the umpteenth time, a three-judge panel on Monday halted pipeline construction even though Congress and President Biden have stripped the court of jurisdiction.
“The 304-mile pipeline to deliver natural gas from Appalachia to the Southeast is 94% complete. But the final parts have been stuck in permitting purgatory as the same three Fourth Circuit judges—Stephanie Thacker, James Wynn and Roger Gregory—nit-pick environmental reviews and order regulators to redo them.
“A Republican intercession in the debt-ceiling legislation promised to liberate the pipeline from limbo by requiring the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue all necessary permits. The law also exempted government approvals from judicial review and gave the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals exclusive jurisdiction to hear legal challenges to Congress’s rubber-stamp.
“The Wilderness Society nonetheless challenged a federal permit for a three-mile pipeline segment through the Jefferson National Forest. The outfit argues that Congress overstepped its authority by stripping the Fourth Circuit of jurisdiction to hear challenges and ‘compelling findings or results without supplying new substantive law.’
“But Congress is well within its authority to impose substantive limits on lawsuits that judges can hear under its laws, including the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Congress often limits the scope of judicial review over regulatory actions. The Inflation Reduction Act barred judicial review of challenges to the government’s drug price controls.”
The article concludes by pointing out that constitutional challenges are possible but should be brought in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
via Watts Up With That?
July 17, 2023 at 04:33AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 
