Tenth International Conference on Climate Change a Smashing Success

To great fanfare, in a paper published in Science, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a new analysis of temperature data showing there has been no pause in warming. After adjusting data from ocean buoy temperature recorders and combining those data with long-term temperature records taken from engine intake channels on ocean-going vessels, NOAA announced no pause occurred in the rise of global temperatures.

Scientists already have pointed to numerous problems with NOAA’s claim. First, engine intake data were never intended for scientific use because they are contaminated by heat from ships’ engines and structural heat absorption. Ocean buoys, which record significantly cooler temperatures than recorded by intake channels, avoid the engine/ship heat island effect. In addition, NOAA’s new claims are contradicted by every other international data set, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s own findings, measurements from the world’s weather balloon and satellite data sets, and its own previous measurements showing the world’s average temperature has not increased for nearly two decades, despite a steady rise in carbon dioxide emissions.

The latest round of United Nations climate talks, held in Bonn, Germany in June, made little progress refining a proposal, to be finalized at a Paris summit in December, to curb greenhouse gas emissions in developed and developing countries. After two weeks of talks, developed countries failed to clarify how and when they will begin financing a promised 2020 $100 billion per year climate fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change. In addition, strong disagreements remained concerning the extent and timing for large fast-developing economies, such as China and India, to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. China’s chief negotiator complained procedural talks had gone so slowly there was no time to discuss emission targets and the pace of emissions cuts.

In the past, climate hucksters like Kevin Trenberth illegitimately linked particular hurricanes to human-caused global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims hurricanes should be getting more powerful and longer-lived due to climate change. Yet, as environmentalist/journalist Seth Borenstein reports, cities that normally get hit with category three or higher hurricanes on average every 20 to 40 years have now gone more than 70 years without such an event. The U.S. is currently experiencing the longest period without a major hurricane making landfall in more than 90 years, and the overall number of intense hurricanes has fallen worldwide, defying climate model projections.

Nevertheless, climate hypesters have found the dark cloud to this silver lining. According to MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel, “It’s ripe for disaster. … It’s just the laws of statistics. Luck will run out. It’s just a question of when.” Emanuel is undoubtedly right, it is just a matter of time before the next big hurricane hits – let’s just hope when it does, Emanuel and his IPCC cronies remember simple statistics and physics, not anthropogenic global warming, caused the next big hurricane.

Pope Francis’s encyclical addressing climate change accepted IPCC’s assessment humans are mostly responsible for climate change. He claimed climate disaster would be especially harmful to the world’s poor and could be prevented only by remaking the global economic system; replacing the goals of continued economic growth with living simpler, less materialistic lives; and instituting some form of global governance, in part to transfer funds from developed countries to developing countries to enable them to better cope with future climate change and other environmental harms.

The Heartland Institute had a ready answer to the pope: Holy Father, you got both the science and the policy prescriptions wrong! As Jim Lakely, communications director for Heartland, said, “Pope Francis’s heart is in the right place, but he made a grave mistake by putting his trust and moral authority behind agenda-driven bureaucrats at the United Nations who have been bearing false witness about the causes and consequences of climate change for decades.” Lakely noted, “More than a billion of the poorest people in the world would remain in abject poverty for generations if they are to rely on windmills, solar panels, and other unreliable and expensive sources of energy.” Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast said, “Humans are not causing a climate crisis on God’s green Earth – in fact, they are fulfilling their Biblical duty to protect and use it for the benefit of humanity.”

Theologian E. Calvin Beisner, founder of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, also sought to correct the pope’s views, saying, “Sad to say, despite Pope Francis’s best intentions, the policies he recommends to mitigate global warming would make it far more difficult to overcome poverty. Wealth enables people to afford better environmental stewardship. Pope Francis should champion economic development as a solution both to poverty and to environmental degradation.”

President Barack Obama admitted trade agreements he negotiates using accelerated trade promotion authority granted by Congress will include climate change provisions. In a June 3 interview on National Public Radio’s Marketplace, Obama said enforcing climate change regulations would be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) his administration is negotiating with Malaysia and 10 other countries. Obama said, “If we want to solve something like climate change, which is one of my highest priorities, then I’ve got to be able to get into places like Malaysia, and say to them, this is in your interest. What leverage do I have to get them to stop deforestation? Well, part of the leverage is if I’m in a trade relationship with them that allows me to raise standards.” Obama would not need Congressional approval for the TPP climate provisions. Rather, he could use the commission established under the TPP agreement to add and enforce those terms as an addendum to the agreement.