Climate Change Weekly #22
Al Gore’s “24 Hours of Climate Reality” focused almost exclusively on extreme weather events. According to Gore and his movie, global warming is making extreme weather events more common and severe, resulting in a rapid acceleration of human misery and deadly weather events. Of course, anecdotes and Hollywood theatrics only go so far when we have access to cold, hard facts – and the cold, hard facts reveal a truth that is far removed from Gore’s theatrics.
Indur Goklany, a science and technology policy analyst with the U.S. Department of the Interior, has published a new study documenting a dramatic decline in deaths from extreme weather events during the past century, as our planet warmed. According to the study, “Aggregate mortality attributed to all extreme weather events globally has declined by more than 90% since the 1920s, in spite of a four-fold rise in population and much more complete reporting of such events.”
Writes Goklany, “To put the public health impact of extreme weather events into context, cumulatively they now contribute only 0.07% to global mortality. Mortality from extreme weather events has declined even as all-cause mortality has increased, indicating that humanity is coping better with extreme weather events than it is with far more important health and safety problems.”
SOURCES: Reason Foundation and Watts Up With That?
IN THIS ISSUE
EPA violated review process for endangerment finding … Corn drought tolerance improves with more CO2 … Global warming causes cold winters, researcher claims … 20,000 Ugandans made homeless to generate carbon credits … Is emissions-free shale oil production near? … Alarmist says Texas burning up may be a ‘good thing’ … ClimateWiki update
EPA VIOLATED REVIEW PROCESS FOR ENDANGERMENT FINDING
The inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a report concluding EPA’s “endangerment” finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to human health and welfare “required a more rigorous EPA peer review than occurred. EPA did not certify whether it complied with OMB’s or its own peer review policies in either the proposed or final endangerment findings as required.” The inspector general’s report is fueling calls for rescinding EPA’s endangerment finding.
SOURCE: Washington Post
CORN DROUGHT TOLERANCE IMPROVES WITH MORE CO2
World Climate Report brings good news regarding global warming and crop production. A new study shows corn exhibits greater drought tolerance when atmospheric carbon dioxide is elevated. Adding to this good news, another new study shows twentieth century droughts in the U.S. Midwest were not as long or severe as droughts that typified the preceding millennium.
SOURCE: World Climate Report
GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES COLD WINTERS, RESEARCHER CLAIMS
Global warming is responsible for record cold winters in the British Isles, claims Bangor University (Wales) Physical Oceanographer Tom Rippeth. According to Rippeth, “The result here in the UK is that instead of our normal winter conditions, which are dominated by warm and wet winds blowing in off the Atlantic, we experience much colder winds coming in from the North and the East.”
SOURCE: NewsWales
20,000 UGANDANS MADE HOMELESS TO GENERATE CARBON CREDITS
The Ugandan government has kicked 20,000 rural citizens out of their homes in order to clear land for tree-planting that can be cashed in as carbon offset credits.
SOURCE: The Guardian
IS EMISSIONS-FREE SHALE OIL PRODUCTION NEAR?
The American Chemical Society reports new technology offers promise to produce shale oil without emitting carbon dioxide. If this technology pans out, the United States could tap enormous oil resources while appeasing environmental activist assertions that shale oil production emits too much carbon dioxide.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?
ALARMIST SAYS TEXAS BURNING UP MAY BE A ‘GOOD THING’
Global warming alarmist George M. Woodwell, founder of the Woods Hole Research Center, told a Massachusetts newspaper that the “burning up” of Texas, allegedly as a result of global warming, “may be a good thing.”
SOURCE: Falmouth Enterprise
CLIMATEWIKI UPDATE
The Heartland Institute has created a Web site, ClimateWiki.org, to help everyone – from high school students to scientists working in the field – quickly find the latest and most reliable information on climate science. Please send your questions, suggestions for new pages, or improvements to current ones to John Monaghan at [email protected]. And if you have new research to share, ClimateWiki.org is the perfect place.
An example from ClimateWiki, Human Health Effects, reads in part:
“The idea that CO2-induced global warming is harmful to people’s health has become entrenched in popular culture, with the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) being the source of much of this concern. In the Working Group II contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report, the authors claim to have “very high confidence” that “climate change currently contributes to the global burden of disease and premature deaths” (IPCC, 2007-II, p. 393).
They also claim climate change will “increase malnutrition and consequent disorders … increase the number of people suffering from death, disease and injury from heatwaves, floods, storms, fires and droughts … continue to change the range of some infectious disease vectors … increase the burden of diarrhoeal diseases … increase cardio-respiratory morbidity and mortality associated with ground-level ozone … [and] increase the number of people at risk of dengue.” The IPCC admits that warming weather would “bring some benefits to health, including fewer deaths from cold,” but says those benefits “will be outweighed by the negative effects of rising temperatures worldwide, especially in developing countries.”
If you have questions about the ClimateWiki or about The Heartland Institute, contact Jim Lakely, director of communications, at [email protected] or call 312/377-4000.
