“But while the IPCC chooses to look the other way, the scientific evidence supporting low equilibrium climate sensitivity continues to pile up…. This is all around good news, for it means that we can focus more on expanding energy access (via fossil fuels) around the world rather than curtail our energy growth.”
There are basically three key parameters that determine the pace and magnitude of future climate change: 1) how much carbon are we going to emit, 2) what percentage of those emissions will remain in the atmosphere (as opposed to being taken up by the biosphere), and 3) how much will the climate warm as a result of what remains in the atmosphere. We understand these things a lot better than we often let on.
The first parameter seems difficult to assess on timescales that exceed a couple of decades.…
Continue ReadingThe September 24, 2014 New York Times (NYT) had an article by reporter Gail Collins, “Florida Goes Down the Drain—The Politics of Climate Change.” A more inflammatory title for the same article appeared in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution three days later, “Florida soggier as GOP ignores climate change.”
Reading the articles shows the obvious intent to inject climate change into the November Florida elections—in particular the Governor’s race between incumbent Republican Governor Rick Scott and Democrat candidate Charles Crist. Ms. Collins portrays Governor Scott as uninformed about climate change issues with regard to sea level rise. He is not.
This article’s patent exaggerations should be of concern to all rational citizens, not only voters. Sound science versus Malthusian alarmism is an issue not only for the 2014 elections but also for 2016 and beyond.…
Continue Reading“But the true intent of AWWI’s study is not about accurate mortality estimates. It’s about deflecting the avian mortality problem…. The fact is, many more birds (and bats) are dying at operating wind plants than we know, and as the turbines spread, mortality will increase. Now is not the time to relax our concern and look elsewhere. Rather, we should [demand] … that the industry be held accountable for bird mortality once and for all!”
Nobody really knows how many birds are destroyed annually in wind turbine related collisions. [1] Wind proponents have long discounted the carnage by pointing at other sources of bird mortality including cats, windows, and communications towers [2], but the issue still haunts developers.
This month, the American Wind Wildlife Institute (AWWI) released its latest analysis of bird fatalities with the focus on small passerines (commonly referred to as songbirds).…
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