I was lucky enough to be invited to the “Climate Challenge” conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. The aim of this small two-day conference was to throw a challenge to the science of the main Copenhagen conference. We had a few experts who presented their views and evidence.
Niklas Morner, world expert on sea level, showed that sea levels are not rising at an alarming rate anywhere, including the Maldives and Tuvalu. (more…)
There is nothing unusual about current climate and today’s warming is not significantly different from past warming eras.
Earth and its oceans have be coping with prodigious quantities of carbon dioxide from volcanoes since the world began. Oceans are not threatened by carbon dioxide – they are very efficient at removing excess carbon dioxide into massive deposits of limestone and other carbonate rocks.
Earth has about 1,000 active volcanoes above the sea and far more beneath the sea. Most measuring stations for carbon dioxide on land are sited near volcanoes, which makes calculations of figures on average atmospheric content suspect. It is likely to be lower than reported.
Even earthquakes release large quantities of carbon dioxide, and all of this carbon dioxide is identical to the small amount generated by puny humans burning coal, oil and gas.
Because these volcanic and earthquake releases of CO2 are not monitored and are identical to carbon dioxide formed by burning of hydrocarbons, there is thus no basis for estimating the proportion of CO2 attributable to humans. It is likely to be far lower than the computer models have assumed.
For a summary of these matters by Professor Plimer see his presentation to the European Institute for Climate and Energy, December, 2010:
Blowing Away Money: Wind Energy – fables, fallacies and failures
by Mark Lawson
There is some evidence from power grids overseas about the use of wind and alternative power on a large scale and, as far as alternative energy advocates are concerned, none of it is good.
Wind advocates can point to a number of studies saying that 20 per cent penetration of wind energy will increase wholesale electricity costs by 10 per cent. This implies that wind energy is 50 per cent more expensive than conventional, but a closer look shows that the studies are theoretical and don’t say anything about how much carbon would be saved. It is a safe bet that 20 per cent penetration will not result in 20 per cent savings, and some reason for thinking that it might not result in any saving at all.
The Carbon Sense Coalition today claimed that the Rudd Resource tax was just another in a long line of taxes helping to depopulate rural Australia.
The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that depopulation of the outback started with the fringe benefits tax and the removal of accelerated depreciation, both of which penalise companies who provide housing for employees.
“Every government since then has accelerated the drift to the coastal and capital cities.
“The heavy burdens of excessive fuel taxes, coal royalties, rail freights and infrastructure bottlenecks have for years restricted the development of the outback resource industry. Only deposits that are rich or close to the coast can pay their way, which is why the Galilee Basin has been undeveloped for so long.
“The vegetation control bans, water mismanagement and growth of carbon credit forests are depressing agriculture and will depopulate rural towns.
“Humans and their industries are also prohibited from vast areas of our land and sea sterilised by a confusing mixture of exclusion zones. And the lack and high cost of outback infrastructure has fed the fly-in mentality of industry and governments.
“Had the money wasted just on roof insulation been spent on new infrastructure, Australia would be a more decentralised and productive place.
“The climate alarmists urge still more carbon taxes and force the usage of expensive alternative energy. All outback industry relies almost totally on carbon fuels for motive power. None of our quad bikes, cars, trucks, road trains, tractors, dozers, trains, planes or ships are powered by solar panels or wind turbines – they need diesel, petrol, gas and electricity (from coal). And our biggest outback industries are focussed on exploring, developing, supplying or transporting carbon products. Coal, gas, oil, beef, sheep, dairy and timber are all threatened by more carbon taxes.
“The Rudd Resource tax is yet another centralising force, depressing outback industry and stimulating the population of drones around the government honey pots in Canberra. It increases the risk that the belated rush to build infrastructure will leave new trains without freight and new ports without ships.
The Carbon Sense Coalition today called for Sunset Clauses to be inserted in all past and future Global Warming legislation.
The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that even though the Ration-N-Tax Scheme is on ice, Governments are still wasting billions of dollars to create an artificial global warming industry.
“As an example, the Australian government is spending $800 million per year on climate change research and probably more on carbon geo-sequestration. And every state has its own bloated climate change and energy bureaucracies.
“Next we are promised the “Mother of all Renewable Energy Schemes” to cost untold billions.
“There is no doubt that some enlightened or distressed future government will have the distasteful job of taking the well chewed subsidy bones off these greedy and unstainable industry dogs.
“There is no evidence that man is causing global warming, no evidence that the natural warming we have experienced is dangerous or even unusual, and no chance that politicians can control the climate.
“It is thus essential that every piece of global warming legislation is subjected to an annual cost-benefit analysis and a sunset clause which triggers repeal within five years, or sooner once it becomes obvious to all that man-made global warming is not a problem.
“Such a cautionary clause is needed to warn investors and promoters relying on subsidies, market mandates, tax benefits, ethanol subsidies, carbon credits, renewable energy targets or research grants that unsustainable industries are high risk and can only create sub-prime assets.
“As we have seen with the government roof insulation disaster, it is easier to inflate an artificial industry balloon than it is to let it down gradually.”
“We think that, by 2020, the cost of electricity will be threefold what it is today, given the current policy of large amounts of renewables being forced into the system, un-costed charges for those renewables given the current policy settings and a substantial increase in transmission and distribution costs.”
Personally I look at the stupid notion of Blackout Night, in honour of the planet.
We left our caves, our sod houses of the past to enjoy modern homes. I enjoy the thought that if I’m sick and require an operation the hospital has electricity 24 hours per day, seven days per week so that the surgeon and his team can fix me or my loved ones. I enjoy the thought that at 7pm at night I can turn on a television and watch it, in the comfort of my single family dwelling home. I enjoy the thought that if I want a beverage I can go to my frost free fridge and grab a beer. I enjoy the thought that my employer has electricity and indoor plumbing so that I can defecate in the safety of my closed off cubicle.
These modern fools of Mother Earth and modern Environmentalism want to return to the yesteryears of cave dwelling pre-human existence. All I’ve ever read about pre-modern living, and that’s not all too long ago, just 100 years ago. Most men died before the age of 50 years. Children died by the thousands because of infections, and poor health quality. You were considered old when you were over 40!
Turning out the Lights glorifies stupidity, and glamorizes the progressive liberal mentality about the so called “global village”. You know what, its one village I don’t want to belong too. I’ll take living in a single dwelling home, with electricity, and my beer fridge powered by coal fired plants with modern precipitators and scrubbers installed in the gas path cleaning up the grime.
Today’s environmentalist aren’t cleaning up the stacks – they’re socialists who can’t get elected at the ballot box but are hell bent to destroy our western society so that we fit into their social activist world of stupidity and failure.
1. Gambling our Future on Sunbeams and Sea Breezes
2. The Great Kyoto Land Grab
3. The Iceland Volcano and Climate Change
4. Oceans, Volcanic Heat and Ice
5. Emissions from Nature
6. No Time for Resting
Dr Howard Hayden, Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Connecticut has studied the 19 or so Global Circulation Models relied on by the IPCC to forecast world temperatures for the century ahead.
To date, not of them has got a forecast right, and they do not agree with one another. As Dr Hayden says:
“I have Just One Question: Which one of these models settled the science so that we can discard the rest and quit funding them?”