Warmist Group Admits Obama’s CO2 Restrictions Are Pointless

Published June 23, 2014

Climate Change Weekly #130

The Obama administration’s proposed carbon dioxide restrictions will have little impact on global climate, a prominent global warming activist group has acknowledged.

Highlighting China’s growing use of coal power plants and the gap in power plant environmental safeguards between the United States and China, Climate Central senior scientist Eric Larson predicted, “all the windmills in the world won’t deliver our children a climate they can depend on” without a substantial change in Chinese policy.

Larson warned such a change is not coming. China built more than 500 new coal power plants between 2005 and 2009, Larson noted, “the equivalent of the entire U.S. coal-fired fleet of coal-fired power plants.” Between 2010 and 2013, China “added half the coal generation of the entire of the entire U.S. again.”

The Obama administration is attempting to build support for its proposed restrictions by claiming the restrictions will reduce non-CO2 pollutants. However, the restrictions will bring few emissions benefits in the United States, as EPA reports power plant emissions of the six principal pollutants already has declined by 70 percent since 1980. On the other hand, the new restrictions will force U.S. electricity prices substantially higher, chasing energy-intensive industries to nations like China where power plants are much more polluting. Reuters reported this spring that only 70 percent of Chinese coal power plants have basic pollution reduction scrubbers that are required on all U.S. coal power plants. Moreover, according to Reuters, many of the Chinese power plants with the scrubbers don’t use them because they substantially raise electricity production costs.

Larson observed, “China burns more than 4 billion tons of coal each year in power plants, homes, and factories. By comparison, the U.S. burns less than 1 billion, and the entire European Union burns 600 million. China surpassed the U.S. to become the largest global CO2 emitter in 2007, and it is on track to double annual U.S. emissions by 2017. While projections for the U.S. and Europe are for steady or decreasing coal use in the coming decades, barring major policy shifts, China’s coal use is expected to keep increasing.”

Larson continued, “Economists predict that by 2040, China’s coal power fleet will be 50 percent larger than it is today. Once these coal-fired power plants are built, they typically run for 40 years, or longer, which means a commitment to decades of CO2 emissions.”

Sounds like President Obama is barking up the wrong tree.

SOURCES: Climate Central and Reuters


IN THIS ISSUE

Registration still open for world’s largest gathering of global warming skeptics July 7–9 … Another alarmist turns skeptic, and immediately gets fired … Gore gives dictator a pass, blames Syrian civil war on warming … Alps were ice-free for most of past 10,000 years … Newsweek claims Antarctic sea ice is declining … Television series Cosmos should have stuck with astronomy … Ho-hum: polar sea ice remains above long-term average


REGISTRATION STILL OPEN FOR WORLD’S LARGEST GATHERING OF GLOBAL WARMING SKEPTICS JULY 7–9

Registration is still open for the 9th International Conference on Climate Change July 7–9 in Las Vegas. Among the keynote speakers are Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore; U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (via video); Australian MP George Christensen; Christopher Monckton, Viscount of Brenchley; broadcast meteorologist legend John Coleman; and scientists Patrick Michaels, Roy Spencer, Joe Bastardi, and Jay Lehr. While presenting the latest science on climate change, speakers will address the Obama administration’s proposed power plant carbon dioxide restrictions, the latest scientific summaries from the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, and flaws in the methodology and substance of recent United Nations climate reports. Several awards will be presented.

SOURCE: Environment & Climate News


ANOTHER ALARMIST TURNS SKEPTIC, AND IMMEDIATELY GETS FIRED

The Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington DC think tank, fired liberal professor Caleb Rossiter after Rossiter published an article in the Wall Street Journal questioning the wisdom of denying affordable conventional energy to people in Africa. Rossiter argued people in Africa will benefit much more from gaining access to affordable energy than they will from remaining in energy poverty while emitting little carbon dioxide. “I am not someone who says there wasn’t warming and it doesn’t have an effect, I just cannot figure out why so many people believe that it is a catastrophic threat to our society and to Africa,” wrote Rossiter in the Wall Street Journal. The Institute for Policy Studies considered such an opinion unacceptable and promptly fired Rossiter.

SOURCE: The College Fix


GORE GIVES DICTATOR A PASS, BLAMES SYRIAN CIVIL WAR ON WARMING

Al Gore absolved Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad of primary responsibility for the Syrian people’s unhappiness with his dictatorship, claiming a global warming-caused drought “may have been the biggest underlying trigger” for the Syrian unrest and civil war. Ignoring objective data, peer-reviewed studies, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s finding that droughts have become less frequent and less severe as our planet modestly warms, Gore argues Assad would have a stronger grip on power if not for global warming.

SOURCE: Rolling Stone


ALPS WERE ICE-FREE FOR MOST OF PAST 10,000 YEARS

Tree remains high in the Swiss Alps show the Alps were ice-free for most of the past 10,000 years, Swiss geologist Christian Schluchter reports. Schluchter, professor emeritus of geology at Switzerland’s University of Bern, discovered remnants of trees in the Alps showing the forest line was much higher than today for stretches of thousands of years during recent history. Schluchter observes the findings show temperatures during the Roman Empire were 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than today.

SOURCE: Der Bund / No Tricks Zone


NEWSWEEK CLAIMS ANTARCTIC SEA ICE IS DECLINING

Newsweek published an article last week claiming a decline in Antarctic sea ice is wreaking havoc on bottom-dwelling marine life just off the coast of Antarctica. The article claims a reduction in sea ice is allowing icebergs to move around more freely and “scour” the sea floor and its resident marine life. While the assertion, like so many other debunked alarmist global warming theories, sounds reasonable at first blush, objective satellite measurements of Antarctic sea ice show the ice is in dramatic long-term expansion rather than decline. The long-term expansion has continued in 2014, with Antarctic sea ice extent setting many new records this year.

SOURCE: The Federalist


TELEVISION SERIES COSMOS SHOULD HAVE STUCK TO ASTRONOMY

Apparently believing people don’t feel nagged and lectured enough about global warming, the television series Cosmos decided to spend a full hour-long episode haranguing us about the topic. The far-fetched theme of the episode is Earth could some day resemble Venus, which was once like Earth but became a hellhole due to a buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The most encouraging aspect of the episode was host Neil deGrasse Tyson was as dull and seemingly sedated as Al Gore droning on about Social Security lock boxes, which guaranteed putting the audience to sleep before the first commercial break.

SOURCE: The Federalist


HO-HUM: POLAR SEA ICE REMAINS ABOVE LONG-TERM AVERAGE

I know this may be getting old, but it bears keeping in mind every time we hear about melting polar ice caps: Polar sea ice remained well above the long-term average this week. The higher-than-normal sea ice extent continues a nearly uninterrupted stretch of 16 months where global sea has been above the long-term average. Southern Hemisphere sea ice set more records last week, but what else is new?

SOURCE: Cryosphere Today

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