A review and commentary on topical matters concerning the science, economics, and governance associated with climate change developments.

By Alan Moran,

2 March, 2017

Global Environmental News

The latest global temperature records are spoiling the alarmists’ party:-

At the same time there is a suspicion that America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manipulated data to erase the post 2000 “pause” in temperature increases prior to the Paris 2015 meeting. Dr Bates, a whistleblower who was one of two Principal Scientists at National Centers for Environmental Information has revealed the apparent tampering illustrated in this chart:

Congress is to hold an inquiry into the paper and its release.

In spite of the warmista financed wild life programs totemistically featuring polar bears marooned on a warming ocean their numbers are increasing and, from 8,000 in the 1960s may now be over 30,000.

Warmistas have tried to tie a sinking Mexico City to human induced climate change but the evidence is that the city has been sinking for centuries under the weight of human activity.

US developments

Rupert Darwell destroys the Republican grandees’ agenda for a climate tax. Designed to prevent “carbon leakage,” from the migration of energy-intensive production to developing nations, he points out that the tax would require validation of inputs from imports and a vast expansion of the Taxation office as well as within suppliers. “The best that can be said for a carbon tax is that it is the least bad way” of shrinking national income.

Trump starts to unwind the greensters’ damaging measures. Aside from the installation of Pruitt as EPA Administrator, we have seen requirements rescinded on coal companies which previously had to make increased payments to “protect” waterways.  The President describes this as "another terrible job killing rule" and will also support Congress in unwinding a methane production regulation for mining on public lands.

For his part EPA head Pruitt has said the agency's priority will be on research other than climate change and has even declined to say whether any climate change research would be permitted.

Meanwhile Trump is said to be planning to cut the EPA budget by 25 per cent and reduce its 15,000 staff level to 12,000. Another report has the White House preparing to cut EPA spending by over 10 per cent and to revoke the $1 billion earmarked as international support under the Paris Agreement.

But there was only slight outward concern from the newish head of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa. While worried about Trump and the Paris Agreement she proclaimed, "The transformation has started. I think it's unstoppable."

And in another triumph of hope over experience, Minnesota is to increase its renewable energy share to 50 per cent by 2030, saying this "will improve air quality, continue to drive down the cost of renewable energy, and generate thousands of new energy jobs."

Back to the Old World

Britain is wasting hundreds of millions of pounds subsidising power stations to burn American wood pellets that do more harm to the climate than the coal they replaced; a study has found chopping down trees and transporting wood across the Atlantic Ocean to feed power stations produces more greenhouse gases than much cheaper coal, according to the report. It blames the rush to meet EU renewable energy targets, which resulted in ministers making the false assumption that burning trees reduced CO2 emissions.

This follows findings last year that protected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU’s renewable energy targets, according to an investigation by the conservation group Birdlife. Up to 65% of Europe’s renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving fuels such as wood pellets and chips, rather than wind and solar power.

But the EU is pressing on with its suicidal drive to ‘climate leadership’ which entails a carbon trading system under which emissions from major firms will be cut by 43 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, said in its report, The Price of Power: Reforming the Electricity Market – that decarbonisation is best achieved at the lowest cost to consumers, by “waiting for the development of new technologies which can reduce emissions”.  

Australia laments

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) chairman Tony Marxsen said at a meeting on 6 February that AEMO was confident that adjustments made to wind farm software means there is no risk of the (September 2016) South Australia blackout being repeated. Two days later other, albeit less comprehensive, blackouts were forced because of a failure of wind farms to operate at more than two per cent of capacity.

I wrote about the unfolding policy-induced Australian renewable energy tragedy in Quadrant, and in Catallaxy Files I discussed the odyssey of the Chief Scientist to Denmark and Ireland seeking answers from two of the few markets that are higher cost than Australia. 

I also drew attention to the destruction of low cost coal generation that the renewable policy was engendering with the higher costs and unreliability this entails in articles in the Herald Sun and in the Australian Financial Review. These articles promoted the immediate cessation of all electricity industry subsidies, a matter that former Prime Minister Tony Abbott promoted in launching the book Making Australia Right.

An alternative view was promoted by a government financed Australian National University study which claimed that we could have fossil-free and totally reliable electricity at $73 per MWh, a price which the researchers thought was cheaper than that available from coal and gas; needless to say the group and its supporters did not advocate the corollary of this, namely an abandonment of renewable subsidies.

Green Whimsey

Our bread is going to taste increasingly lousy according to researchers at Australian Grains Free Air CO₂ Enrichment (AGFACE) facility. With the rise in atmospheric CO₂ levels these skilled practitioners say they found that elevated levels of CO₂ will reduce the concentration of grain protein and micronutrients like zinc and iron, in cereals (pulses are less affected). 

Others have additional concerns including:-

• Disasters like floods, tornadoes, and drought have been found to trigger PTSD, anxiety, depression, and drug abuse.
• Slight increases in heat or rainfall have been found to raise the risk of riots and civil wars, as well as crimes like rape and murder.
• Babies in the womb who are exposed to urban air pollutants from fossil fuels are more likely to develop anxiety or depression later in life.
• Many people now experience “climate anxiety” — feeling depressed and overwhelmed by you-know-what — and support groups have emerged to help them.

Lifting the veil

My book CLIMATE CHANGE: Treaties and Policies in the Trump Era, published by Connor Court, is to be launched in the coming week at events in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. To purchase a copy of the book click here.

Details of events and registration:-

Melbourne - 6 March 2017, 12.15pm - to register click here

Melbourne - 6 March 2017, 6.30pm  - to register click here

Sydney - 7 March 2017, 6.30pm - to register click here

Brisbane - 9 March 2017, 6.30pm - to register click here

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