Will Happer Testimony on Climate Change, and a message for the Carbon Sense Coalition.
“Many of my fellow Americans and I have been following the debate in Australia and New Zealand over what to do about climate change. It has been a pleasure to read the clear-thinking discussions of this issue by the Carbon Sense Coalition. I fervently hope that good sense will win the day down under. You are not alone, and a growing number of Americans support you and are willing to stand up and be counted as opposing the attempts to demonize carbon dioxide.
“As in your countries, those who would condemn most of the world’s population to a bleak, impoverished future, are motivated by reasons ranging from sincere but mistaken belief in the rightness of their cause, to completely cynical goals of profit and increased tax revenue. I am persuaded that the best defence against this threat is an educated populace, and there is no better engine for education than the Carbon Sense Coalition.
“Attached below is testimony I gave earlier this year to the United States Senate, where I attempted to educate at least a few of our fellow Americans.”
I read that the UK government is proposing to price airfares so as to ration air travel to reduce carbon emissions.
Our experience is that they already practice a form of rationing for “tourists.”
Last year my best friend and I stopped in England on our way home from Italy. We were so looking forward to it as we have been to England twice before and we both, especially as we are historians, enjoy each and every “adventure.” It will be, alas, our last time.
I had already made all the arrangements and when I went to book the England leg of the trip, I was told that there would be a $585 +/- charge for coming into the country and staying. That charge was for both of us, but we were horrified that we were being charged to spend money in England, as that was what we were doing. And it was too late to change our hotels and airline tickets. Thus we were trapped.
It greatly limited our chances at exploring new areas as our funds were limited. Thus we spent two days in London and two days in York. The shopping we had planned to do was taken off our list, as were the bookstores and the restaurants. We purchased items from a deli and ate in our room. We walked everywhere and we were so disappointed that we would no longer be coming to England.
Yes, government control is a wonderful thing, but it is also a truly indiscriminate, destructive power.
Kind of like a hurricane or a tidal wave. It cannot be diverted and destroys everything in its way.
News has come from the Duluth office of the National Weather Service that both International Falls & Hibbing broke their records for low temperatures on the morning of September 17. The Falls got to 23°, breaking the old record of 24° set in 1959, and Hibbing to 24°. We shouldn’t be surprised because the Canadian prairies have been cooling for decades now. Also, President Trump, while in California on September 14, had predicted cooling, saying “It’ll start getting cooler. You just watch.” Three days later a new cold record is set at the iconic International Falls weather station. Either President Trump actually has some control of the weather or he is getting very good advice. (more…)
Two great sequestration periods occurred since the mid-Paleozoic and both appear to coincide with evolution of plants. The first woody plants and trees arose in the Middle Devonian and fueled the large coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period. Later explosion of the flowering plants (angiosperms) occurred in the Cretaceous. All the while additional C was being locked up in limestones. Also in high TOC (Total Organic Carbon) muds that were converted to the shale/mudrocks that we are now liberating with fracking.
This document aims to contextualise the scientific debate concerning Climate Change (CC) and Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). Examining Earth history, it is indisputable that CC has been operating for many hundreds of millions of years, in cycles that span many different time-scales (millennial-plus to decadal), all without human influence. Understanding the causative factors in past CC provides a solid basis for framing the present debate. AGW is a notion which says that human activities, notably the addition of CO2 to the atmosphere, are causing an increase in the global heat budget. That higher-energy state of Earth’s environment it is argued sets the stage for damaging CC effects. Political and economic decisions have been influenced by this claim. Some of those decisions harm efforts to better the health and welfare of the world’s population, including both the poorest and those who are better off. If the CC and AGW arguments are incorrectly based, as we outline here, there is a need to re-consider those decisions.
CC in Earth History
Paleo-temperature (of atmosphere and ocean) is taken as a proxy indicator of climate, since climate is a complex concept that includes precipitation amounts and patterns, wind, etc whose history and future cannot be extracted or classified in a satisfactory way
Earth’s equatorial region has had a consistent temperature during the climate swings over hundreds of millions of years, but the polar areas have varied, thus altering the pole-to-equator gradient of heat energy, which is the principal driver of climate on the planet
Causes of CC (changes in temperature gradients) are dominated by orbital and solar effects, with added signals from volcanoes (both dust and chemicals), tectonics and plate motions, and biological feedbacks
Oceans (which cover ~70% of the planet) are the main heat reservoir, but with patterns of warmer and colder water distributions that reveal decadal and longer cyclicity that is not understood
Global Warming
Earth’s temperature has been generally rising since the end of the last ice age, with an apparent acceleration during the last century, but not since
Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have also been rising more uniformly, now reaching 410ppm or 0.04% of atmosphere
CO2 has been identified as a ‘greenhouse gas’, based on an argument that it traps and reflects heat
The physics of CO2 heat retention are over-stated, as only a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (wavelengths of heat energies) can be captured by this molecule
Because CO2 concentration is rising and is implicated in global warming, and because CO2 is a by-product of combustion, energy sources from fossil fuels have been demonised – via social and political suppression of their use, and a push towards 100% renewable energy
There are three key challenges to the idea that CO2 is the primary cause of GW:
Long-term records of CO2 and temperature show good correlation, but the CO2 concentrations lag behind temperature increases by thousands of years. Thus, CO2 increase is the consequence of rising ocean temperature, not the cause
Numerical models of climate systems, which involve simplifying assumptions and methods that are associated with serious artefacts, consistently fail to ‘predict’ the known past temperature patterns. Such models cannot justify the suppression of hydrocarbon fuels.
Average temperatures are no longer increasing despite the inexorable rise of CO2
Human activities are not the driver of global warming (or cooling). Earth’s systems are governed by processes that operate over a wide range of time- and length-scales, many of which far exceed the usual scope of human perceptions. The demonization of carbon is scientifically unjustified.
Notwithstanding a data gap from 1791 to 1859, there appears to have been little or no change in the trends of monthly maximum and minimum temperatures for a period of 230 years, from 1788 to 2018, based on comparisons of two data sets—one recorded by First Fleet officer William Dawes, and one from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).
Gergis et al 2009, authors of a major study and compilation of the data, conclude that “Remarkably, the records appear comparable with modern day measurements taken from Sydney Observatory Hill, displaying similar daily variability, a distinct seasonal cycle and considerable inter-annual variability.”
This runs counter to the climate alarmism normally published by these authors.
As we watch the disturbing daily images of a dry Darling River, parched Menindee Lakes, millions of dead fish, and outback towns without drinkable water, both bush and city are screaming – Why?
Who is responsible they ask? Name the scapegoats and brand them criminals is demanded.
Any lesser response would be shameful, but some reactions, while understandable, are not rational.
Before we look more closely at why and how these unacceptable events have occurred, we need to put to rest some misconceptions about this river and recent claims made by some aboriginal people that the Darling was previously a “Mighty River” that always flowed.
It wasn’t. After discovery by English explorers Stuart and Hume in 1828, history kept at Menindee tells us it was bone dry there at least 48 times up to 1960 – something that no doubt also happened for hundreds of years before.
The paddle steamer NILE on the dry bed of the Darling River, near Bourke, about 1898. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository (more…)
Bushfires are normal events in this season in tropical and sub-tropical latitudes of the southern hemisphere – in Australia, Africa and South America. Even Captain Cook noted many fires in Eastern Australia in 1770, long before the era of “global warming” hysteria.
What is unusual is the number and ferocity of recent Australian fires.
Destructive bushfires need three things – a big load of dry fuel, hot dry winds and a point of ignition.
A big load of dry fuel, close to towns and buildings, in this season, is a sign of gross mis-management (seen most commonly in public lands). That fuel should have been raked, dozed or burnt in safer weather conditions.
Hot dry winds are not unusual in this season in these latitudes – no use whinging.
But how do 100+ bushfires start suddenly? Machinery occasionally starts fires but not 120 fires in a short time. There have been no lightning storms so who are the arsonists or idiots starting these fires?
Viv Forbes
Viv Forbes and his wife Judy have spent a lifetime in the bush of Queensland and NT. They were both volunteers in a rural fire brigade for over 25 years. They have fought many bushfires and have seen several fires lit – some deliberately, some naturally, some carelessly. One careless fire burnt out their exploration camp in Arnhem Land, another accidental “fire with nine lives” threatened their grazing property in SE Qld, and a deliberate fire on another property cleared a lot of lantana and leaf litter from their property and also made the adjacent National Park a much safer neighbour.
Below is a true unpublished story about one fire we fought on our grazing property during the Millennium Drought. We hope you find it interesting:
“The Fire with Nine Lives”:
The Green-ants said “You can’t burn coal” – so we sent our coal to China. Then our factories and our smelters closed and followed the coal to China.
The Green-ants said “You can’t eat beef” – so we sent our beef to China. Then burger chains and canneries closed and followed the beef to China.
The Green-ants said “Protect the trees” – so our grasslands went to weeds. Then China’s wool cheques disappeared and graziers went on welfare.
The Green-ants said “Don’t mention nukes” – so we shipped those fuels to China. Then Chinese power costs fell while ours just kept on soaring.
The Green-ants said “You can’t frack gas” – so we sent our drills to China. Then geologists and engineers were fired and followed the rigs to China.
Then blackouts came and jobs got scarce, so our kids chased jobs in China.
Today we import what we need and our cash is shipped to China.
And now we sit in flickering light, dreaming of times when factories and smelters flourished, work was honoured, explorers and builders were heroes, miners and farmers paid the nation’s bills, electricity was cheap and reliable, and to produce things was no crime.
It’s time we sent all of our Green-ants to China – there should be lots of work for them there.
There has been NO significant sea level rise in the harbour for the past 120 years, and what little there has been is about the height of a matchbox over a century.
Along the northern beaches of Sydney, at Collaroy there has been no suggestion of any sea level rise there for the past 140 years. Casual observations from Bondi Beach 1875 to the present also suggest the same benign situation.
A rush to judgement by local councils and State Governments by legislating harsh laws and building covenants along our coastlines now seems misplaced.
The falsehoods and mendacity of the IPCC and climate alarmists should be rejected out of hand, and efforts be made to ensure that science, not propaganda, defines our school curricula in matters of climate and sea levels
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