Climate Change Weekly #115
New polling data show the American public is growing increasingly skeptical of an asserted climate crisis. Alarmists have responded by claiming Americans are not smart enough to make proper decisions on climate policy.
The Yale University Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication released a survey showing only 15 percent of Americans are “very worried” about global warming, compared to 23 percent who believe global warming is not happening at all. A plurality of Americans – 38 percent – believe global warming is happening but are only “somewhat worried” about it.
Most Americans don’t expect to be personally affected by global warming. Only 38 percent of Americans believe they will personally be harmed a “great deal’ or even a “moderate amount” by global warming.
Survey author Edward Maibach bemoaned the results and claimed Americans do not understand global warming issues.
“Our findings show that the public’s understanding of global warming’s reality, causes, and risks has not improved and has, in at least one important respect, gone in the wrong direction over the past year,” said Maibach.
Meanwhile, Christiana Figueres, executive director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, blamed America’s democratic institutions for blocking progress on global warming. Figueres said political gridlock in the U.S. Congress is “very detrimental” to reducing America’s carbon dioxide emissions. On the other hand, Figueres praised China and its totalitarian regime as “doing it right” to address global warming.
According to the U.S. Energy Information administration, Chinese carbon dioxide emissions have tripled since 2000. U.S. emissions, by contrast, have declined by nearly 10 percent since 2000.
SOURCES: Yale University Project on Climate Change Communication and Daily Caller
IN THIS ISSUE
Lukewarmist Curry: IPCC cannot explain pause in warming … Democratic Senators pressure media on global warming … Phil Jones admits adding warmth to ocean temperatures … Antarctic sea ice already setting records in 2014 … EPA coordinates activities with activist groups, FOIA emails show
LUKEWARMIST CURRY: IPCC CANNOT EXPLAIN PAUSE IN WARMING
Prominent “lukewarmist” climate scientist Judith Curry told the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has “no convincing or confident explanation” for the ongoing pause in global warming. Curry also noted sea level rose faster during the early twentieth century than during recent years, Antarctic sea ice is defying climate models, Arctic temperatures are currently no warmer than in the 1930s, and U.S. heat waves were more frequent and severe during the 1930s.
“The science of climate change is not settled, and evidence reported by the IPCC AR5 weakens the case for human factors dominating climate change in the 20th and early 21st centuries,” Curry observed.
SOURCE: Climate Depot
DEMOCRATIC SENATORS PRESSURE MEDIA ON GLOBAL WARMING
Democratic U.S. Senators are attempting to bully independent media sources to devote more time and resources to the Senators’ asserted global warming crisis. Threatening to obliterate the safeguards of a free and independent press, the Senate’s informal Climate Action Task Force is gathering signatures for a petition to submit to the nation’s major media outlets.
“Sunday news shows are obviously important because they talk to millions of people, but they go beyond that by helping to define what the establishment considers to be important and what is often discussed during the rest of the week,” said Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who caucuses with Senate Democrats.
SOURCE: National Journal
PHIL JONES ADMITS ADDING WARMTH TO OCEAN TEMPERATURES
Prominent global warming alarmist Phil Jones admitted government overseers of temperature databases arbitrarily add warmth to sea surface temperatures to avoid “great differences” in sea surface versus land temperatures that “couldn’t happen naturally.” The admission is startling given the ongoing debate on accurate temperature datasets. Satellite data and surface thermometer readings show only modest warming over the past several decades. Government overseers, however, ignore the satellite data and add fictitious warming to the surface thermometer readings, claiming the surface temperature readings are too cold without the adjustments. Rather than view the impossibly divergent ocean and land temperatures as an indication that perhaps the satellite and surface thermometers measurements are accurate, government overseers add arbitrary warming to the sea surface temperatures so they will not contradict the arbitrary warming added to land temperatures.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?
ANTARCTIC SEA ICE ALREADY SETTING RECORDS IN 2014
It took exactly two weeks for Antarctic sea ice extent to set its first record in 2014. Arctic sea ice, meanwhile, is only modestly below the long-term average. Globally, polar sea ice spent the first two weeks of 2014 above the long-term average.
SOURCES: Ice Age Now and Cryosphere Today
EPA COORDINATES ACTIVITIES WITH ACTIVIST GROUPS, FOIA EMAILS SHOW
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency collaborates with environmental activist groups to gather petitions for restrictive environmental rules and present unified messaging on global warming and other topics, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) emails reveal. The Energy and Environment Legal Institute obtained the emails, which show EPA officials requesting strategic messaging plans from environmental activist groups so EPA can coordinate its own messaging with those of the environmental activists.
SOURCE: Washington Free Beacon