Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
A new clearing house Web site on global warming skepticism is up, called The Chilling Effect, and along with its sister site Gored Earth, says it will produce a new political cartoon that addresses the issue every week. The first two look very promising.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
I just spent two days in Detroit and Lansing talking about the fairly new Michigan Climate Action Council, where I was hosted by the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy. As usual the local mainstream media showed little interest, but I did get some coverage by the state's (subscription only) political news service, Gongwer ("Group Charges Climate Panel Rigged"):
Michigan, and other states, have hired the Center for Climate Strategies to assist state climate councils in determining how best the state can respond to global warming issues. But what they are getting is a pre-packaged set of recommendations that have no proof of effectiveness, Paul Chesser of Climate Strategies Watch told those gathered Tuesday for a luncheon hosted by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
State officials said the Michigan council is developing its own plan based on Michigan findings and needs, not being served a pre-determined set of recommendations.
Compare that to what the MCAC process memo — basically the ground rules — say about the commission's procedures and sources of recommendations:
The MCAC process will follow the format of CCS policy development processes used successfully in a number current and completed state-level climate action planning initiatives. To facilitate learning, collaboration, and task completion by the MCAC members, CCS will provide a series of decision templates for each step in the process, including: a catalog of state actions with ranking criteria, a balloting form for identification of initial priorities for analysis, a draft policy option template for the drafting and analysis of individual recommendations, a quantification principles and guidelines document for each TWG, and a final report format. CCS will also provide meeting materials for each MCAC meeting and TWG teleconference call, including: a PowerPoint presentation of the discussion items, an agenda and notice of the meeting, a draft summary of the previous meeting for review and approval, and additional handouts as needed. Materials will be provided by CCS in advance through website posting and email notice with a goal of seven-days advance notice. CCS will provide and manage a project website (www.miclimatechange.us) in close coordination with the DEQ. All website materials are reviewed by the DEQ prior to posting. Examples of CCS project websites can be found at www.climatestrategies.us.
But other than that, Michigan is unique! More from the Gongwer report:
Mr. Chesser argued the state climate councils, such as the Michigan Climate Action Council, should be open to discussions of the science supporting global warming findings as well as policies to address it. But he said CCS-run councils do not allow such discussions.
DEQ spokesperson Robert McCann admitted the Climate Action Council was not discussing the reality or causes of global warming. "They're starting point is what science is telling us," he said. "There's really is no scientific debate at this point."
That's because the alarmists are afraid to debate!
But Mr. McCann said the council is not being led to pre-determined recommendations that CCS may have offered in other states. "That's certainly not how it's working here," he said. "They are really taking an open book look at what's happening here."
And CCS is the author.
Mr. McCann argued the recommendations expected from the Climate Action Council will not only help to improve the state's environment, but will also help to improve its economy by creating incentives for alternative energy and energy efficiency. "They'll help us protect the environment and carve a path to those next alternative energy jobs," he said.
Some locals are not thrilled.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
This morning Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, speaking at a meeting held by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, repeated the oft-heard mantra (Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter claims his government will create a New Energy Economy — his capitalization!) that going green (and halting new coal-fired power plants) will create jobs and grow the economy:
“If Massachusetts gets clean energy right, the world would be our customer,” Patrick said at a packed breakfast sponsored by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce….
“Massachusetts has what it takes to lead a clean energy economy,” he said, “because in the age of clean energy, power will come not from fossil fuels but from technology, innovation and skill.
“Those are resources we have in abundance – and they are infinitely renewable,” he said….
Energy efficiency, he said, is “the cleanest energy of all, and the ultimate defense against rising energy prices.”
An impressive discovery, and I hope Gov. Patrick lets everyone else in on the Massachusetts secret. You no longer need raw material to burn, blow or flow to generate power — you simply need brain power (waves?) and reduced usage to keep yourself warm in the winter and to transport yourself long distances. Amazing!
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
USA Today reports today that China has become the world's top industrial source of carbon dioxide. But you'd think the newspaper had dragged over their crime reporter to do the write-up, considering the headline: "China Now No. 1 CO2 Offender." More:
China has overtaken the USA to become the world's No. 1 industrial source of carbon dioxide, the most important global-warming pollutant, according to a scientific study to be published today….
Unless China sharply cuts its emissions, "the situation is pretty bleak," says Richard Carson of the University of California, co-author of a study in today's Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. "There's a lot less time to do something than people previously thought."
Clearly this perpetrator needs to be found, read his rights, and then have the book thrown at him. He's become addicted.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
According to one of the authors of that Nature paper, the cooling is not only consistent with global warming — it confirms it:
The authors stressed that the pause in warming represented only a temporary blunting of the centuries of rising temperatures that scientists have projected if carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases continue accumulating in the atmosphere.
“We’re learning that internal climate variability is important and can mask the effects of human-induced global change,” said the paper’s lead author, Noel Keenlyside of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany. “In the end this gives more confidence in the long-term projections.”
And if you want to know where to turn when you reach the fork in the road, the answer is "yes!" They all lead to catastrophe.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
I'm a bit tardy with this, but the latest critique of state climate change commission recommendations from the Beacon Hill Institute came out last week, this one for Montana. Of course, since every state commission is producing nearly the same 50 or so ideas thanks to the predictable Center for Climate Strategies, it's gotten to the point where BHI can do these things almost in their sleep:
For policy makers, there is no worthwhile guidance in the MCCAP report. Its cost-savings estimates cannot be believed. Moreover, it fails to quantify the monetary benefits of reduced carbon emissions. As a result, policy makers are left with no basis on which to judge the merits of the MCCAP recommendations on how to mitigate the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Repetition makes work so much easier, doesn't it?
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
The Beacon Hill Institute, the economics think tank that has written peer reviews of global warming policy recommendations coming out of the state climate commissions (as advanced by the Center for Climate Strategies), has now done some of their own analysis — for North Carolina. The results are pretty ugly and contradict the economic fantasy promoted by CCS and the NC Climate Action Plan Advisory Group:
North Carolina would lose more than 33,000 jobs and face a $4.5 billion hit to its Gross State Product by 2011, if lawmakers adopt just a fraction of the policies under consideration now to address climate change. A Boston-based economist who has analyzed the policy proposals will deliver that message Tuesday to a legislative study group.
The policies studied also would cost the state more than $502 million in investment, lower real disposable income by $2.2 billion, and reduce state and local revenue by more than $184 million, said David Tuerck, chairman of the Suffolk University Department of Economics and executive director of the department’s research arm, the Beacon Hill Institute. Tuerck is scheduled to testify to the N.C. Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change during its meeting 11 a.m. Tuesday in Raleigh.
The climate commission is considering 56 policy proposals developed by the Climate Action Plan Advisory Group. The proposals aim to limit global warming by cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Supporters contend those policy proposals would help North Carolina’s economy. A report from the Appalachian State University Energy Center suggests the policies would generate more than 300,000 jobs by 2020 and boost Gross State Product by nearly $1.5 billion.
Tuerck explains further CCS's and ASU's disconnect from reality here, for the John Locke Foundation.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
A "Statement on Climate Change" released in October by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey — the research unit of the College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma — spouts the IPCC line on likely dire consequences absent greenhouse gas mitigation:
The continued warming of the climate averaged across the globe will create a cascade of climatic shifts which could impact Oklahoma’s climate….Across the globe, a warming climate will be beneficial to some and detrimental to others. Anticipating how this climatic shift will impact Oklahoma is of vital importance to state decision-makers. One of the greatest impacts will be the exposure of Oklahoma’s growing population and economy to water stress.
Motivating OCS to make strong recommendations for action:
OCS recommends that Oklahoma aggressively pursue four initiatives to address the risks of both climate variability and climate change. First, the state should undertake a comprehensive assessment of Oklahoma’s social and economic vulnerability to climate variability as well as climate change…Second, OCS recommends immediate funding of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s Comprehensive Water Plan study to identify existing as well as projected needs for water. Third, OCS encourages efficiency programs to reduce our growing demand for energy. Fourth, OCS recommends investment in renewable energy technology and production.
So much for sticking to your expertise…which by the end of their statement seem to hedge on their certainty:
Even if climate does not evolve as expected, these steps will yield long-term benefits to Oklahoma’s society and economy through reduced losses to existing climate and weather threats and cost-savings through reduced energy use. If climate does evolve as expected, Oklahoma will be better positioned to adapt to those changes without rapid social upheaval.
Just ask the experts!
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
In Durham, N.C. our state Blue Cross and Blue Shield is boasting about the groundbreaking of a new "100,000-square-foot building that will use 65 percent less energy and half the water per square foot of typical office space." Good for them, if it improves their bottom line, efficiency, service to customers, whatever.
But the director of our State Energy Office, Larry Shirley, was excited as well, although for different reasons:
"If North Carolina were a country, it would be the 24th biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world," he said. "If we just have a one-foot level rise in sea level, it would devastate eastern North Carolina. We're very vulnerable. The only state more vulnerable is Florida."
It's not clear whether Shirley was even asked about global warming, but as we often see, in many instances it doesn't matter what the question is, because the answer will always be global warming.
I'm always amused by the alarmists' "if (insert state name) were a country…" argument and the computer-modelized "if we have (insert disastrous measurement)" argument. Why can't we ask the reverse questions, like "what if the EU countries, or even China and India, were states?" Where would North Carolina rank then?
What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub? What if Superman grew up in Germany?
Hat tip to my colleague Paul Messino.
Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch
I like how Roy Spencer characterizes this modern-day dastardly criminal:
And all of this assumes that mankind is the primary cause of global warming anyway. You might be surprised to learn that there has never been a single scientific paper published which has ruled out natural climate variability for most of our current global-mean warmth. Not one.
Instead, since Mr. Carbon Dioxide was found at the scene of the crime — albeit without the murder weapon — there is no need to search for any other culprits or accomplices. The circumstantial evidence has convicted him. Even though Mr. Carbon Dioxide is necessary for life on Earth, we are now calling him derogatory names, like “pollutant.”
I guess you could call Mr. C.D. the reincarnation of Richard Jewell.
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