Climate Change Weekly #23
Global warming is often predicted to cause a devastating increase in the range and frequency of malaria, but somebody forgot to tell the malarial mosquitoes. The World Health Organization reports global malaria deaths have declined by nearly 40 percent during the past decade, even as the Earth experienced its “hottest decade on record.”
Al Gore focused attention on the alleged link between global warming and malaria in his movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” The media has been eager to run with Gore’s assertions, which you can see for yourself by doing a quick Google search of the terms “malaria” and “global warming.”
The case for a link between malaria and global warming always has been very weak. Malaria epidemics were once commonplace in places as far north as Russia. Yet as temperatures warmed during the past century, malaria became virtually unheard of outside of equatorial regions. This clear disconnect between rising temperatures and malaria cases should have made it clear to Al Gore and the media that many factors affect malaria incidence and that warming temperatures play, at most, only a minor role.
The World Health Organization is optimistic that progress against malaria will continue and malaria can be nearly eliminated within a decade or two. Another global warming myth bites the dust.
SOURCES: Forbes.com and World Climate Report
IN THIS ISSUE
Warming periods caused peace, prosperity … Environmental activists dominate IPCC … Is ‘skepticism’ a consequence of being a white male? … Keystone XL pipeline will not affect CO2 emissions … Australia ‘drying up’ despite higher than average rainfall? … An embarrassing defeat for consensus and ostracism … Mann attacks skeptics for being outside peer-review … ClimateWiki update
WARMING PERIODS CAUSED PEACE, PROSPERITY
Five hundred years of data on global temperatures, wars, and economic output show warmer temperatures caused peace and prosperity while colder temperatures caused wars, famine, and smaller humans, reports a new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “[C]ooling impeded agricultural production, which brought about a series of serious social problems, including price inflation, then successively war outbreak, famine, and population decline successively,” the study reports.
SOURCES: Discovery News and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS DOMINATE IPCC
One-third of the scientists brought in by the United Nations to be coordinating lead authors for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are publicly affiliated with environmental activist groups, reports Canadian author Donna Laframboise. Many of these activist scientists serve as Climate Witnesses for the World Wildlife Fund.
SOURCE: No Frakking Consensus
IS ‘SKEPTICISM’ A CONSEQUENCE OF BEING A WHITE MALE?
A pair of sociologists argue in Global Environmental Change that global warming skepticism may just be a knee-jerk reaction tied to being a conservative white male. The study’s authors claim skepticism may be an attempt to halt a challenge to the status-quo. “Something that would challenge the status quo is something [conservative white males] want to shun,” said study author Aaron McCright, sociology professor at Michigan State University.
SOURCE: New York Times
KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE WILL NOT IMPACT CO2 EMISSIONS
While global warming activists argue the U.S. federal government should block construction of a proposed pipeline delivering Canadian oil (produced from oil sands) to the U.S. Gulf Coast, construction of the pipeline will not add to global carbon dioxide emissions, explains Willis Eschenbach in a guest post on meteorologist Anthony Watts’ Web page. Eschenbach provides an in-depth summary of the pipeline issues and observes China will happily purchase the Canadian oil if the U.S. government blocks construction of the proposed pipeline.
SOURCE: Watts Up With That?
AUSTRALIA ‘DRYING UP’ DESPITE HIGHER THAN AVERAGE RAINFALL?
Rolling Stone has published a new article, “Climate Change and the End of Australia,” with a subtitle claiming, “Want to know what global warming has in store for us? Just go to Australia, where rivers are drying up, reefs are dying, and fires and floods are ravaging the continent.” Leaving the coral reef argument for another day, Steven Goddard at Real Science presents Australian Bureau of Meteorology data showing Australian temperatures have been below average during the past year while Australian precipitation has been substantially above normal during the past year.
SOURCE: Real Science and Rolling Stone
AN EMBARRASSING DEFEAT FOR CONSENSUS AND OSTRACISM
Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman has received the Nobel Prize in chemistry, 30 years after he was thrown out of his research group, publicly mocked, and ostracized for challenging the scientific consensus on chemical structures. Shechtman’s research and findings have allowed scientists to produce one of the most durable kinds of steel and may lead to new materials to convert heat to electricity.
SOURCE: Associated Press
MICHAEL MANN ATTACKS SKEPTICS FOR BEING OUTSIDE PEER-REVIEW
After being exposed in the Climategate scandal for conspiring to keep global warming skeptics out of the peer-reviewed scientific literature, Penn State University scientist Michael Mann is giving a public lecture next week claiming skeptical scientists should not be taken seriously because they are not frequently published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.
SOURCE: Canada Free Press
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, Global Warming: Facts vs. Faith, reads in part:
“Walter Cunningham has enjoyed careers in the United States Marine Corps, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and private industry, including 12 years as a venture capitalist. He is best known as the pilot of Apollo 7, the first manned test flight of the Apollo Program to land a man on the Moon.
“He writes: ‘Global climate change is a scientific question, demanding scientific data for understanding, but until very recently, it looked like subjective opinion was winning. Thankfully, some scientists have been willing to risk their careers by speaking out against anthropogenic global warming (AGW) dogma. Disclosures of scientific fraud by the leading advocates of AGW, along with new scientific discoveries and cooling global temperatures, have all helped bring the world back from the brink of adopting some utterly unnecessary and truly harmful limitations on human progress.'”
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.
RECOMMENDED SITES AND NEWSLETTERS
Climate Crusaders
Power for USA
Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
ClimateWiki
Master Resource
The Climate Bet
International Climate Science Coalition
Climate Scientists’ Register
Science and Public Policy Institute
Climate Depot by Marc Morano
World Climate Report by Dr. Patrick Michaels
E-FACT Report by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
Global Warming Policy Foundation by Benny Peiser
Biweekly Updates from the Cooler Heads Coalition
Climate and Environment Review by the Center Science and Public Policy
Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change by Craig Idso et al.
Watts Up With That? by Anthony Watts
ICECAP by Joseph D’Aleo
Climate Audit by Steve McIntyre
Climate Science by Roger Pielke Sr.
Junk Science by Steve Milloy
The Heartland Institute is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization whose mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. The Heartland Institute publishes the monthly newspaper Environment & Climate News and sponsors the International Conference on Climate Change, the largest regular gathering of global warming experts challenging the notion that humans are creating a global warming crisis. James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News.
