The year 2018 has not been a happy one for the global warming lobby. President Trump took the US out of the Paris Climate Accord, but it is the US that has reduced its CO2 emissions, not the posturing signees of the Accord. Meanwhile the Trump administration has opened millions of acres of public lands in the US West to new oil and gas drilling and a section of the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to additional oil drilling. This follows the widespread ridicule that greeted the Fourth National Climate Assessment prepared by Obama administration holdovers in the Energy Department.
French President Emmanuel Macron, one of the European Union’s most fervent supporters of fossil-fuel cutbacks “to save the planet,” was forced to cancel his fuel tax hike in the face of nationwide protests by the “Yellow Vests.” And in Katowice, Poland, an international conference called to obtain unanimous endorsement of the latest report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), failed when four of the world’s major oil producing nations — the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait — refused to endorse the report. Coal exhibits were also widespread at the conference.
The year’s outcome must have been especially disappointing to the major media, which has been running article after article on dire developments supposedly attributable to the CO2 emissions produced by human use of fossil fuels.
Rising sea levels
Climate scientist Judith Curry has circulated a study showing that a good deal of what is being called sea level rise is actually land subsidence. Ironically, it’s an anthropogenic (human-caused) phenomenon all right, but not from fossil-fuel use but rather increased building atop the land and draining of the water table. Both produce land subsidence. The phenomenon has also been documented inland, notably in Tehran. Vertical land motion is also at play, for example, along the US East coast.
Other ocean blunders
The media also seized upon a Nature article claiming that the oceans were warming even faster than previously thought. The article’s findings were criticized by one of the media’s hated “denialists,” but he proved correct and a retraction had to be issued. Another “denialist” critic explains why so called “ocean acidification” can’t be linearly projected into the future, as the IPCC’s latest report incorrectly does.
No major 2018 tornadoes; hurricanes not more powerful
2018 is the first year in which no major tornadoes have touched down in the US. According to global warming advocates, tornadoes should be getting more and more violent because of increased CO2 emissions and the attendant global warming. Similarly, the data does not support the claim that hurricanes must be getting more and more powerful because of global warming.
Forest fires
Former California governor Jerry Brown blames global warming and deniers for his state’s forest fires. But the likelier explanation for the ferocity of recent fires is poor forest management practices and the role that misguided environmental policies have played.
What’s wrong with the climate alarmists?
Despite the ample evidence running at cross-purpose to their alarmism, Progressives simply refuse to look at the evidence. This amazes physicist Freeman Dyson, who unified the three versions of quantum electrodynamics.
The climate alarmists aren’t even consistent. If they wish to decrease CO2 emissions, why are they so opposed to nuclear power? Could it be that in advocating two technologies — wind and solar — that are inadequate to power modern industrial economies, they are proving correct those who accuse Progressives of being anti-progress, no-growth Malthusians?
Intellectually incurious as they may be, Progressives are showing enormous energy in trying to thwart fossil fuel use. They are blocking West Coast ports from exporting fossil fuels to Asia, and their sympathizing judges are continuing to block the Keystone XL pipeline. Their major international ally is China, the world’s greatest user of coal. China hopes that climate alarmists will make it the preeminent world power by undercutting Western growth and selling Chinese electric cars and solar panels to the West.
What’s wrong with the economics profession?
Much of the US economics profession has become the climate alarmists’ de facto allies by advocating a carbon tax and cap and trade schemes. This puts them in the position of preening themselves for advocating the most efficient way to implement bad economic policy. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem on the agenda of the Trump administration and most (but not all) Republicans. The Democrats are another story. In short, the climate alarmists may be down in 2018, but they are by no means out.
hat tip: Eaglebeak
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