The Week That Was: 2023-05-06 (May 6, 2023)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” ― Benjamin Franklin when asked what type of government the Constitution formed. [H/t Donn Dears]
Number of the Week: $66,446 per unit
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: The monthly report of atmospheric temperature trends by the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is out for April. This gives a good opportunity to summarize what we know about temperature trends, and the need to correct errors as compared with the ability to correct them.
Jennifer Marohasy sent The Guardian newspaper a letter that is a tutorial on the importance of maintaining and revealing the results of standardization periods to determine whether they reveal any changes in recordings when measuring instruments are changed. It is clear that bureaucratic announcements of identical results are not sufficient.
Ole Humlum is emeritus professor of physical geography at the University of Oslo in Geosciences and adjunct professor of physical geography at the University Centre in Svalbard writes an annual State of the Climate which is now published by the Global Warming Science Foundation. His research interests include glacial and periglacial geomorphology and historical and modern climatology of the Arctic region, the North Atlantic region, including the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Svalbard, and Norway. He maintains a website which carries numerous graphs of data covering a wide range of climate issues. Changes in cloud cover changing the albedo of the earth (ability to reflect sunlight back to space rather than absorb it) are of particular interest.
David Whitehouse, previously with the Global Warming Science Forum now called the Net Zero Watch group, has further thoughts about global ice loss and its significance.
The blog, Watts Up With That, has two new features, one on surface temperatures and the second on failed climate predictions.
The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now routinely making claims of what is needed for healthy living without any physical evidence supporting their assertions. A few recent examples are discussed.
The US Supreme Court has taken a case that may require revisiting the concept known as the Chevron deference. The importance is discussed.
The political push to electrify everything including light vehicles requires simplistic thinking. A few problems are discussed,
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Atmospheric Temperature Trends: Roy Spencer and the April 2023 Global Temperature Report from Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), report that:
“The linear warming trend since January 1979 remains at +0.13 C/decade (+0.11 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land)”
This increase is about 0.25°F per decade, or 5 minutes of spring warming on a sunny morning in Northern Virginia. It is incomprehensible why Washington considers such warming is causing a climate crisis or emergency. It is benign and the increase in carbon dioxide emissions is causing plant life on the planet to flourish.
The entire record reported by UAH shows an average warming slightly below that reported by group of scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) headed by Cheng-Zhi Zou. The NOAA group reported an average warming of 0.14°C per decade. The small difference can be explained by the difference in altitudes considered. UAH includes the bulk atmosphere of the Lower Troposphere (surface to about 8 km (26,000 feet)) while the NOAA group considers 1 km to 10 km (3300 feet to 33,000 feet). These altitudes include all weather events except unusual tall thunderheads which rarely can reach 75,000 feet. The claims that this modest temperature increase will cause an increase in extreme weather events is without foundation.
The work of the NOAA group verifies that UAH has done a good job correcting orbital decay and drift of satellites due primarily to air drag in the far upper atmosphere. Once UAH became aware of the problems, they were scrupulous in correcting them decades ago.
The correction of satellite error demonstrates that systematic error can be corrected. Random or erratic error is another issue. Both the NOAA and the NASA-GISS surface-air temperature databases contain fluctuations that no one understands. Thus, they are not rigorous records of surface temperatures and are unreliable indicators of long-term trends. See links under Measurement Issues – Atmosphere and the April 15 and 22 TWTWs.
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Release the Data: The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has long denied independent researchers access to the data needed to check the BoM’s claim that a switch in instruments did not result in different readings for the same location at the same time. Researcher Jennifer Marohasy continues her determined pursuit of records that should be publicly available. Explaining to other parties that the important records of parallel data are limited, she writes:
“As Lloyd [a reporter] reported early this month, only three years of the 15 years of data for Brisbane airport was released to John Abbot on the Thursday before Easter and this is just a fraction of the 760 years [a total] of parallel data the bureau holds for 38 different locations spread across the landmass of Australia.
“I’ve had several academics phone and email me over the last few days asking for assistance in locating the parallel data for Brisbane Airport online. I have explained that this was never provided to me in electronic form, but as over a thousand handwritten pages. I manually transcribed the handwritten entries over Easter and undertook preliminary analysis of this data.”
In her blog, Jo Nova explains why the records are important:
“Climate is the biggest threat the world faces, they say, but the Bureau of Meteorology aren’t so worried about it that they care whether their new electronic thermometers are correct. After the old glass thermometers were replaced with electronic ones, you’d think the bureau would want to check that the new style was recording the same temperatures as the old style would have. I mean, how could anyone compare temperatures in 1896 with 2016 if the equipment changed and the two instruments were not the same?
“It’s easy to show whether the thermometers are equivalent, just put them both in the same box at the same time in parallel, and publish that data, then we’ll all know. The BoM set up the experiment, but the data from it is a national secret. The only conclusion anyone can draw from this behavior is that the new electronic thermometers are reporting artificially higher temperatures than the old glass ones, and the BoM knows it.
“As Jen Marohasy says, Australia is the only place in the world where it only takes one hot second to set a new maximum temperature record:”
The newspaper The Guardian got into the act stating it is writing an article indicating Marohasy’ s actions may be harassment of BoM. Marohasy responded, in part:
“The parallel data are the measurements as they are recorded at the same time and place by a mercury thermometer, which can be compared to temperatures as recorded by a platinum resistance probe connected to a datalogger. There are approximately 38 of these parallel data sets that run for 10 to 20 years each. These are held by the Bureau mostly as transcribed handwritten reports. It is the Bureau’s policy to not make these handwritten reports public.
“The ACORN-SAT (Australian Climate Observations Reference Network – Surface Air Temperature) records are something else entirely. These are the homogenized/remodeled temperature series that are promoted by the Bureau as showing global warming. ACORN-SAT data is publicly available and tends to show very different trends to the raw temperature data series for the same locations as archived in the Australian Data Archive for Meteorology (ADAM). ACORN-SAT is derived from ADAM following industrial scale remodeling.”
This episode demonstrates that some government entities cannot be trusted to preserve public records and make them available to the public. See links under Lowering Standards and Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
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In the Arctic: Svalbard is an archipelago controlled by Norway, well within the Arctic Circle at about 74° to 81° North. It has a population of about 2500 and is a northern outpost for meteorological stations. The West Spitsbergen Current branch of the Gulf Stream gives it winter temperatures up to 20 °C (36 °F) higher than those at similar latitudes in Russia and Canada. The waters are navigable most of the year. Professor of physical geography at the University of Oslo in Geosciences Ole Humlum has done extensive research in the area and in the Arctic.
John Robson draws interest to Ole Humlum’s website Climate4You.com. which has a large amount of climate data and associated graphs. Of particular interest to TWTW were the graphs of cloud cover. There has been a decline, particularly since 1995. The reduction in low level cloud cover reduces the globe’s albedo, the ability to reflect sunlight back to space. As described in the ten essays on Basic Climate Physics explaining Planetary Heat Balance by Howard Hayden on the SEPP website, the change in albedo will cause a warming of the planet’s surface and a significant increase in infrared radiation both from the surface and from the Earth to space.
Further, a reduction of albedo will far better explain the warming of the surfaces of the ocean than the downwelling of infrared radiation from greenhouse gases which cannot penetrate water more than a few millimeters (mm), a fraction of an inch. Thus, we have two reasonable explanations for the warming of the oceans unrelated to greenhouse gas warming: 1) a reduction in the Globe’s albedo; and 2) Professor Yim’s explanation of geothermal activity below the surface of the oceans.
See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy, http://www.sepp.org/science_papers.cfm?whichyear=2022 for Howard Hayden’s Basic Climate Science and the Oct 29, 2022, TWTW for Professor Yim’s explanation.
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Sea Surface Temperatures: Last week TWTW discussed a post, possibly by David Whitehouse, on recent sea surface temperatures. Whitehouse continues his discussion with:
“Data from some 50-spacecraft using a variety of techniques to monitor ice sheets show a worldwide retreat in the face of rising global temperatures.
“However, a detail from a recent news report on ice loss struck me as being very interesting: All the ice lost from Greenland and Antarctica in the past three decades could be represented as a cube 20 km on its side. Just compare that to the height of Mt Everest – about 9 km. That’s a lot of ice.
“A 20 km cube is a lot: 7,560 billion tonnes of it actually. Two thirds of it comes from Greenland with the rest from Antarctica. Greenland is melting, Antarctica is being chipped away at the edges. The combined volume of ice in Greenland and Antarctica is about 32,900,000 cubic km. Hence a 20 km cube (8000 cubic km) represents a loss of only 0.024%, over three decades.
“Looked at in absolute terms that doesn’t appear that much. It has contributed to an estimated 22 mm [0.87 inches] in global sea level rise. But at what stage does this slow melt become just interesting rather than alarming? One the face of it 0.024% over 30 years doesn’t seem something to unduly worry about, after all nobody would expect ice volume to remain constant in any realistic situation of climatic change. [Boldface added]
“The main point I took from the report is that ice loss seems to be a global phenomenon. What’s happening in Greenland and Antarctica is part of a global pattern.
As explained above, TWTW considers this to be part of natural processes, unrelated to carbon dioxide emissions. Among other reasons, loss of Arctic sea ice is cyclical, and Susan Crockford gives an example around Svalbard. Whitehouse’s closing paragraph is interesting:
“Not so long ago the place where I write this (southern England) was uninhabitable tundra, not far from the greatest southerly reach of Ice Age glaciers. Thanks to globally rising temperatures England today has become a green and pleasant land. The Earth has never been unchanging, but now we have the most sophisticated technologies to measure even the smallest and most gradual changes, using a multitude of parameters and features that respond to even modest changes in temperatures and the environments. What is more, we have become hyper-sensitized to those changes and are apt to extrapolate them far into the future – over longer timespans than just few years or decades and anticipating changes far more rapid and far more than one percent.”
Climate change is ongoing, as it has been for hundreds of millions of years. A cooling can be deadly for humanity. See links under Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice.
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New Reports: Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That (WUWT) announced two additions to his website. One is a display of real time (hourly) “global” surface temperatures of the Earth. The trend line starts in January 2015. TWTW is highly skeptical of any “global surface temperature” but the exercise may prove useful in revealing trends at the reporting stations (the ocean buoys reporting sea surface temperatures move) if the procedures are consistent and changes in instrumentation are noted and standardized. The UAH atmospheric temperatures are trends, not specific temperatures, and TWTW considers them to be the most useful and reliable temperature data available.
The second new feature is a timeline of failed predictions. This can be a useful reference. Having pointed out that the mathematics used created conceptual errors in US energy models making them useless for predictions, the 1966 prediction of the earth running out of oil is a favorite of Ken Haapala. Please note that WUWT has carried 450 issues of TWTW. See link under Seeking a Common Ground.
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No Evidence Needed? The rigorous statistical studies demonstrating a strong relationship between frequent inhaling of hot tobacco smoke from cigarettes over time and lung cancer and stroke was an important advance to personal health. This relationship applied even though the exact mechanism was not known.
Unfortunately, this breakthrough was modified by those who thought such relationships could be established to extreme precision. Thus, we have been bombarded with studies that assert relationships that do not stand up to rigorous analysis and often are meaningless. Further, distinguished scientists such as Fredrick Seitz and S. Fred Singer, both of whom were chairman of SEPP, who have criticized this abuse of statistics have been smeared by accusations of taking money for personal gain without any evidence, much to the acclaim of the press.
We continue to see assertions of health issues without physical evidence or even rigorous statistics. An example is the CDC website on secondhand smoke which states:
“There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke; even brief exposure can cause serious health problems. Secondhand smoke can cause coronary heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer in adults who do not smoke.”
The references are bureaucratic announcements, not physical evidence or rigorous statistical studies. Using this procedure, one can claim that water intoxication kills humans, therefore there is no safe level of drinking water or fluids containing water.
The EPA is on a similar path on fine particles, PM2.5. No evidence, just assertions and highly questionable health surveys. There are no reports of massive increases in death rates in China, South Korea, and Japan which have been recently plagued by yellow dust from Mongolia. These countries are experiencing significant population aging. People are living longer and healthier than ever, in part thanks to the use of fossil fuels, despite the PM2.5 they create. See link under EPA and other Regulators on the March and https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/secondhand-smoke/about.html.
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Chevron Deference: The Wall Street Journal reports:
“Few Supreme Court doctrines have been stretched more by regulators and lower-court judges than Chevron deference, which says judges should defer to regulators’ interpretations when laws are supposedly ambiguous. The High Court agreed Monday to give Chevron a much-needed legal review.”
After briefly discussing the specifics, the editorial continues:
“Applying the Court’s Chevron (1984) framework, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government’s broad interpretation as ‘reasonable’ because it was not expressly precluded by the law. In other words, as long as a law doesn’t forbid the government from doing something, it can do it. Where have we seen this before?
“The Biden vaccine mandate and eviction moratorium were particularly egregious examples. The High Court resolved challenges to those policies under its major questions doctrine, which requires clear authorization from Congress for regulations that are politically or economically significant.
“The Court is taking the next logical step by agreeing to revisit its much-abused Chevron precedent. This suggests that there could be five Justices willing to overturn the doctrine or at the least pare it back, which would strengthen the separation of powers and individual liberty. More potentially good news from the High Court.”
Those who desire expansion of power in Washington without any clear, compelling, Constitutional justification no doubt will attack the justices on the Court that may alter the Chevron deference. See Article # 1
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Subsidies for Luxury Goods? Thanks to the mis-named Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Washington is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the manufacture of unneeded goods such as electric vehicles. Modern internal combustion engines emit water vapor and carbon dioxide, with few traditional pollutants. Further, North America can be independent of other sources of oil and natural gas. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected Europe’s supply of natural gas, not US supplies other than that exported to Europe.
Washington’s subsidies of Electric Vehicles are effectively for luxury goods – benefiting the wealthy not the ordinary citizen.
Robert Bryce reports that “The average EV buyer has an annual income of about $150,000. That’s twice the U.S. average.” Why is Washington subsidizing luxury goods that depreciate quickly? Further it has no concept of the damage that extracting and processing of rare earths will cause or the expense. See links under Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles.
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SEPP’S APRIL FOOLS AWARD – THE JACKSON
SEPP is conducting its annual vote for the recipient of the coveted trophy, The Jackson, a lump of coal. Readers are asked to nominate and vote for who they think is most deserving. Senators Schumer and Manchin won in 2022.
The voting will close on June 30. Please send your nominee and a brief reason why the person is qualified for the honor to Ken@SEPP.org. The awardee will be announced at the annual meeting of the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness on July 7 to 9.
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Number of the Week: $66,446 per unit. On May 3, Robert Bryce reported:
“Yesterday afternoon, Ford reported a $722 million loss on its EV [electric vehicle] business over the first three months of 2023. During that span, Ford sold 10,866 EVs, meaning it lost $66,446 on every EV it sold.”
There is no reason to expect such losses will continue. Unlike Lordstown Motors, a new manufacturer of light trucks that news reports state will stop manufacturing, Ford is a highly experienced, highly profitable manufacturer. The low sales and huge losses demonstrate that Ford grossly overestimated the market for EV’s and grossly underestimated the cost of manufacturing. Efficiencies of scale are meaningless if the company is losing money on each unit. See link under Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles.
Censorship
Twitter And Free Speech In The Musk Era: The Manhattan Contrarian Experience
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, May 3, 2023
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-5-3-twitter-and-free-speech-in-the-musk-era-the-manhattan-contrarian-experience
“The moral is that humans are flawed creatures [who don’t like being criticized], and Elon Musk is no different from anyone else in that regard.”
Suppressing Scientific Inquiry
Silence of the Grid Experts
By Planning Engineer (Russell Schussler), Climate Etc., May 3, 2023
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
Patrick Moore Discusses Climate Change Manufactured Crisis
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Apr 30, 2023
Video
Scientists Employ Wit To Highlight The Lack of Climate Trends Across Greece Since The 1800s
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, May 1, 2023
Link to paper: In Search of Climate Crisis in Greece Using Hydrological Data: 404 Not Found
By Demetris Koutsoyiannis, et al. Water, Apr 27, 2023
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/9/1711
From abstract: “Given the European declaration of climate emergency, along with the establishment of a ministry of climate crisis in Greece, this dataset was also investigated from a climatic perspective using the longest of the data records to assess whether or not they support the climate crisis doctrine.”
#CoolClimateData: Climate4You.com clouds and water vapour
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
Link to: Climate4you.com
By Ole Humlum, His Blog, Accessed May 3, 2023
Ice Cores, Temperatures, And CO2
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, May 5, 2023
1875 was coldest in 10,000 years, Warming A Good Thing
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, May 5, 2023
Text and Video, From ice core analysis.
[SEPP Comment: Deaths from starvation and associated diseases were common in Northern Europe in the 1800s, and warming is considered bad?]
McIntyre: Reverse engineering a ‘hockey stick’ shows ‘bogus methodology’
By Stephen McIntyre, WUWT, May 1, 2023
Ending Blog
By Donn Dears, Power For USA, May 2, 2023
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
WMO’s State Of The Climate Propaganda
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 29, 2023
“According to the WMO: From mountain peaks to ocean depths, climate change continued its advance in 2022”
[SEPP Comment: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an agency of the UN. Along with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) the WMO established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These organizations have abandoned physical science in pursuit of misanthropic contempt of humanity and dreams.]
“There’s no one who causes more trouble in this world than humans. They drive me crazy. I get so mad when I think about humans, that I could scream.” Snoopy, Peanuts Cartoon by Charles Schultz.
These regions are the most at risk for extreme heat waves
By Nick Robertson, The Hill, Apr 29, 2023
Link to paper: The most at-risk regions in the world for high-impact heatwaves
By Vikki Thompson, et al. Nature Communications, Apr 25, 2023
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37554-1#citeas
[SEPP Comment: Study was discussed last week. In general, increasing greenhouse effect will increase nighttime lows far more than daytime highs. The article also relies on the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave caused by a stagnant high-pressure system, not climate change.]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
“No Bricks, No Glass, No Cement” – What Net Zero 2050 Demands According to Government-Funded Report
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 30, 2023
The Elephants in The Room
By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, WUWT, May 4, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Includes graph of countries where installed nameplate wind and solar capacity exceeds hourly mean demand.]
The dusking of the Age of Aquarius
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
“It starts small. Possibly a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand. You admit minor doubts about some aspect of climate orthodoxy and before you know it you’re marooned on Denier Island with the other comic outcasts. Thus, the Globe & Mail just ran a Gary Mason column headlined ‘The uncomfortable truth about Canada’s climate commitments: they won’t be met’. Not ‘might not be’. Not ‘require more political will’.”
Introducing the Realitometer
By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, WUWT, May 4, 2023
Change in US Administrations
How Much Warming Reduction by Spending $50,000,000,000,000?
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, May 3, 2023
Question to Department of Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk: “’If you could answer my question: if we spend $50 trillion to become carbon neutral in the United States of America by 2050, you’re the deputy secretary of energy, give me your estimate of how much that is going to reduce world temperature.’”
Climate Envoy John Kerry’s Jet-Set Spending Is Getting Plenty of Cloud Cover
By James Varney, Real Clear Energy, May 3, 2023
https://www.realclearwire.com/articles/2023/05/03/slipstream_climate_envoy_john_kerrys_jet-set_spending_is_getting_plenty_of_cloud_cover_897101.html
“’It is an existential issue; it is an issue where people today are dying,’ he told MSNBC in late April. He has called for a 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and endorsed the goal of zero emissions by 2050.”
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Acceleration of tree growth in urban areas in recent decades
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
From the CO2 Science Archive
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Billions of Indians use Coal to Cope with Heat Waves
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, May 4, 2023
“’India will be a coal-surplus country in the next two years and will start exporting coal in 2025-26,’ said India Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi.
“With more than 70 percent of electricity coming from coal, India’s decision to resist energy-restrictive climate policies is proving to be a lifesaving move.”
“Nevertheless, most mainstream media – obsessed with a fabricated climate emergency – treat the use of coal as a problem, not as a victory over death and disease.”
[SEPP Comment: How many tons of aviation fuel has White House greenhouse guru John Kerry used to keep India’s coal production down?]
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
Unable to access article: ‘This shouldn’t be happening’: levels of banned CFCs rising
Researchers have detected increased emissions for five ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons.
By Katherine Bourzac, Nature, Apr 3, 2023
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00940-2
Fossils or not? Nations split on how to meet climate goals
By Frank Jordans, AP, May 3, 2023
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/fossils-or-not-nations-split-on-how-to-meet-climate-goals/
Seeking a Common Ground
In Honor of Earth Day, Two New Exclusive WUWT Features are Now Online
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Apr 22, 2023
Using science to further government objectives
Defenders of truth would do well to keep politics at bay
By Anthony Sadar, Washington Times, May 4, 2023
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/may/4/using-science-to-further-government-objectives/
Models v. Observations
A High-Amplitude Atmospheric Wave Threatened Aviation at Sea-Tac Airport
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, May 3, 2023
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2023/05/a-high-amplitude-atmospheric-wave.html
“This event was a good example of a high-amplitude atmospheric gravity wave.
“A wave that forms on an interface between air of two different densities.
“You are all experts on gravity waves…. just look at the waves on the ocean surface.
“Ocean gravity waves form at the interface of a dense fluid (water) and a less dense fluid (air). When some water is displaced upward, gravity pulls it down, with the result being a wave-like motion.”
“The most amazing thing about this whole event was the ability of UW high-resolution model to PREDICT it. I still can’t believe it.” [Boldface in original.]
Model Issues
New Study: Climate Models Have Uncertainties, Errors Over 100x Larger Than Claimed Drivers Of Warming
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, May 4, 2023
Link to latest paper: Thermodynamics of Evaporation from the Ocean Surface
By Rainer Feistel and Olaf Hellmuth, Atmosphere, Mar 21, 2023
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/14/3/560
Measurement Issues — Surface
Hot, Hot, Hot
By I & I Editorial Board, May 1, 2023
Global Temperature Report for 2022
By Robert Rhode, Berkeley Earth, Jan 12, 2023
From report: “The last eight years have included all eight of the warmest years observed in the instrumental record.”
From article: “With this in mind, let’s take a look at the predictions that have been made by the climate models. Their forecasts indicate that temperatures should be increasing at the rate of about 0.28–0.29 degrees Celsius per decade. That’s about 50% higher than the increases Berkeley Earth found.”
[SEPP Comment: In the report there is a graph of global warming 1850 to 2022 using surface temperatures reported by 5 organizations. All have a warming around 1940 approximately the same as that in the 1980’s with significant increase since. Yet, the reports for 2016 to 2020 are significantly higher than the reports for 1998. Atmospheric temperatures trends show they were about the same. Thus, one cannot conclude that the surface warming was caused by greenhouse gases.]
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
UAH Global Temperature Update for April 2023: +0.18 deg. C
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, May 2, 2023
Global Temperature Report
April 2023, Maps and Graphs
By Staff, Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Map: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2023/April/202304_Map.png
Graph: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2023/April/202304_Bar.png
Text: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2023/April/GTR_202304APR_1.pdf
Changing Weather
The Big Chill will Save California From the Big Melt
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, May 1, 2023
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-big-chill-will-save-california-from.html
“But one thing is clear: the political ‘leadership’ in California has been deeply irresponsible during the past decades by not adding more reservoir capacity. No new reservoirs have come online in the Golden State during the past 40 years, as the population has doubled.”
A Three-Dimensional Heatwave
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Apr 29, 2023
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2023/04/a-three-dimensional-heatwave.html
April 2023 In Central Europe Cooler And Wetter Than Normal…Like The 1960s
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, May 5, 2023
Melting Ice – 1923
By Tony Heller, His Blog, May 3, 2023
“’Gulf Stream Flowing Hot’”
Where’s The Warming? April In Tokyo Hasn’t Warmed In 35 Years…Hachijo-jima Island In 80 Years!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, May 2, 2023
Changing Climate
West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreated far inland, re-advanced since last Ice Age
By Staff Writers, Golden CO (SPX) May 02, 2023
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/West_Antarctic_Ice_Sheet_retreated_far_inland_re_advanced_since_last_Ice_Age_999.html
Link to paper: Constraints on the Timing and Extent of Deglacial Grounding Line Retreat in West Antarctica
By Ryan A. Venturelli, et al. AGU Advances, Apr 26, 2023
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022AV000846
Changing Seas
30 Years of Measuring and Analyzing Sea Levels using Satellites
Guest Essay by Dr. Alan Welch FBIS FRAS, Ledbury, UK, May 2, 2023
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
17th century documents & 1970s ice maps show sea ice habitat in Svalbard has always varied greatly
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, May 3, 2023
Ice is in global retreat. How much, how fast, how serious?
Data from some 50-spacecraft using a variety of techniques to monitor ice sheets show a worldwide retreat in the face of rising global temperatures.
By David Whitehouse, May 2, 2023
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Technology and an Optimal Climate Are Feeding the World
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, May 2, 2023
European Green War on Agriculture: Farmers Banned for Life if they Want Compensation
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 3, 2023
Though Beleaguered, Science Education is Alive in America
National Science Teachers Association Rejects the Scientific Method
By Sharon Camp, WUWT, May 2, 2023
[SEPP Comment: A Ph. D. in analytical chemistry on being thrown out of the National Science Teachers Association conference.]
Bureau Can’t Dodge Differences in Temperature Data
By Jennifer Marohasy, Her Blog, May 1, 2023
Why is temperature data a national secret? BOM still hiding data
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, May 1, 2023
Bucketing the trend
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
“If people really wanted to understand the situation, they’d make sure they used all the methods side by side in a sustained way so as to calibrate them against one another. Whereas if they wanted to hype a scary warming trend requiring them to get more money and power, they’d chuck that bucket over the side and pretend it had never been there.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Scientific snow job
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
“After years of laments about the lack of snowpack in the American west due to global heating we now hear from Scientific American that ‘The West Braces for the Most Epic Snowmelt in 40 Years’. And being climate-related it’s bad, of course: ‘Communities across the U.S. West are preparing for flooding and mudslide disasters as record snow begins to melt’. But even if true, we have to spoil the party by saying your ‘settled science’ didn’t see it coming, did you?”
The Guardian, Temperatures, Misinformation (Part 1)
By Jennifer Marohasy, Her Blog, May 5, 2023
Norfolk’s “Climate Refugees”
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 30, 2023
“Our hopeless media is conflating local erosion problems in Norfolk [UK] with absurd forecasts of sea level rise:”
Crumbling away – Is dredging the villain in the drama of Britain’s eroding coasts?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 30, 2023
“While the media is now determined to push the climate scare, it was not too long ago that they gave us serious analysis. Well respected science reporter, Fred Pearce, wrote this piece about coastal erosion in Hemsby and the rest of Norfolk back in 1996:”
L A Times Electric Bill Increase Editorial Conceals California’s Incompetent Energy & Climate Policies that Hugely Drive-Up Costs
By Larry Hamlin, WUWT, Apr 30, 2023
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Record sea surface heat sparks fears of warming surge
By Benjamin Legendre, Paris (AFP) May 4, 2023
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Record_sea_surface_heat_sparks_fears_of_warming_surge_999.html
“”The ocean, like a sponge, absorbs more than 90 percent of the increase in heat caused by human activities,” said leading oceanologist Jean-Baptiste Sallee, of the French research agency CNRS.
“Year by year ocean warming is increasing at ‘an absolutely staggering rate’, he told AFP.
“In early April, the average surface temperature of the oceans, excluding polar waters, reached 21.1 degrees Celsius, beating the annual record of 21C set in March 2016, according to data from the United States NOAA observatory that goes back to 1982.”
[SEPP Comment: A 0.1°C increase in seven years is staggering?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
IPCC attributes non-existent hurricane trend to GHGs
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
[SEPP Comment: More reason why the politically written IPCC synthesis report is not credible.]
The problem of lack of knowledge
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
“Well, not all the updated scientific knowledge, only the kind that lets them claim the SCC is higher than ever. And ‘scientific knowledge’ is good, or would be if you had any, while ‘economic models’ sounds better than ‘wild guesses.’ But the timing is fishy:”
[SEPP Comment: Recalculating the false social cost of carbon to justify higher subsidies for batteries which are not needed unless one believes the false numbers.]
The thinking error that makes people susceptible to climate change denial
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 3, 2023
Communicating Better to the Public – Go Personal.
Wind-financed Exposé against Kevon Martis Backfires
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, May 1, 2023
“Delegitimization is a favorite tactic of the climate alarmist/forced energy transformation lackeys. They cannot conceive that a moral, reasonable person can be against a scheme to impose “clean” energy on townships (really ‘machine up’ the great outdoors). Kevon Martis proves them wrong, and they cannot accept it. What will they come up with next?”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Color us skeptical
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 3, 2023
“Not that alarmists need colorful maps, when they have a facility for colorful language.”
Sign Of Global Warming
By Tony Heller, His Blog, May 5, 2023
“Thanks to a one part per ten thousand increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past century, temperatures of 70F (21C) are now red hot.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda on Children
The Conversation: “Is acting on climate change as important as love and bedtime stories?”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 2, 2023
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Climate activists plan blockade of White House correspondents’ dinner
By Jared Gans, The Hill, Apr 29, 2023
“A video posted by the group on Saturday accuses Biden of committing ‘ecocide,’ which the European Law Institute, an independent non-profit organization that studies European law, defines as the ‘devastation and destruction of the environment to the detriment of life.’”
[SEPP Comment: The greenhouse effect prevents land masses from getting too cold at night, killing life. CO2 is necessary for green life. Now this “green” group is claiming it causes ecocide?]
Expanding the Orthodoxy
The Next Green Front? Your Front Lawn
By Larry Behrens, Real Clear Energy, May 04, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/04/the_next_green_front_your_front_lawn_897383.html
“No Mow May.”
Questioning European Green
Prepare For Energy Shortages In 2030
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 30 2023
“We have come across UK FIRES before. They warned us in 2020 that If it is to achieve its target of net zero climate emissions by 2050, all UK airports must close by mid-century and the country will have to make other drastic and fundamental lifestyle changes.
“They do have a habit of pointing out the harsh realities of Net Zero, which are deliberately hidden from us by the government, CCC and the rest of the climate lobby. Just last month they published this analysis concerning the state of UK energy supplies:”
Questioning Green Elsewhere
The Lack of Critical Thinking on Critical Minerals Mining Threatens Our Future
By Julie Lucas & Chris Ventura, Real Clear Energy, May 02, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/02/the_lack_of_critical_thinking_on_critical_minerals_mining_threatens_our_future_897075.html
The Push for ‘Net Zero Emissions’ is Climate Hoax Fiction, Not Energy Reality
By Jerome Corsi, American Thinker, May 3, 2023
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/the_push_for_net_zero_emissions_is_climate_hoax_fiction_not_energy_reality.html
AFR: “If your fund wants to stop climate change, why did it buy Microsoft?”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Apr 29, 2023
“Why aren’t more fund managers following NOAA Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick’s advice, and getting in on the ground floor of the green investment opportunities of tomorrow?”
Green New Deal Appeasement Leads Nowhere
By Bette Grande, American Thinker, May 3, 2023
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/05/green_new_deal_appeasement_leads_nowhere.html
The Conversation: “Can we justify … botanic gardens in an age of climate change … ?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Apr 30, 2023
Funding Issues
Biden pledges $1B more in US funding for UN’s Green Climate Fund
Billion-dollar US taxpayer contribution to UN climate fund intended to help developing economies take ‘stronger climate action’
By Timothy H.J. Nerozzi, Fox News, Apr 20, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-pledges-1b-more-us-funding-un-green-climate-fund
Link to press release: FACT SHEET: President Biden to Catalyze Global Climate Action through the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate
The White House, Apr 20, 2023
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-catalyze-global-climate-action-through-the-major-economies-forum-on-energy-and-climate/
“The President will highlight how the United States is addressing these four priority areas at home through measures including the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest U.S. investment ever in reducing U.S. emissions, accelerating the clean energy economy, and protecting communities from climate impacts – and how these efforts are creating good-paying jobs and building a more secure and sustainable clean energy economy.”
[SEPP Comment: No mention of the source of $1 Billion. Petty change?]
The Political Games Continue
Exclusive: Nine Senate Democrats say solar-tariff resolution would be ‘devastating blow’ to solar industry
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, May 2, 2023
Markey introduces bipartisan bill to improve climate-related mental health services
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, May 4, 2023
“’Environmental justice communities are bearing the brunt of compounded climate and mental health crises fueled by climate disasters that level homes, break apart communities, and leave people with visible and invisible scars,’ Markey said in a statement.”
[SEPP Comment: Save me from 5 minutes of sunny spring morning warming every ten years?]
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
CfD Indexation Is A Rip Off
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 2, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Agree to a guaranteed minimum price by government, but when the market price exceeds the government price, sell to the highest bidder, not the government.]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
New EPA Rule Shows Joe Biden’s EV Push Is Just a Pipe Dream
By Mandy Gunasekara, Real Clear Energy, May 03, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/03/new_epa_rule_shows_joe_bidens_ev_push_is_just_a_pipe_dream_897320.html
“The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the EPA administrator to set vehicle regulations aimed at reducing pollutants from light-duty vehicles that negatively impact public health and the environment. In setting these standards, the administrator must take into consideration the feasibility of new technologies as well as costs.”
[SEPP Comment: Will the EPA just make up the “new technology” required?]
Energy Issues – Non-US
Green Energy Progress
By Tony Heller, His blog, May 5, 2023
“During 2021, global use of fossil fuels increased six times faster than wind and solar. The consumption of energy from fossil fuels was eighteen times higher than energy from wind and solar.”
[SEPP Comment: More subsidies needed?]
Net Zero Watch calls for emergency restart of fracking
As Russia threatens UK energy supplies, Britain needs to restart fracking now
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, May 4, 2023
Irony: German Bundestag Admits Conversion To Heat Pump Systems For Its Own Buildings Not Possible!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Apr 28, 2023
“Yet, expects its own citizens to convert their homes beginning next year!”
[SEPP Comment: No matter the costs for you, not me!]
Beatrice’s Missing Output
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 5, 2023
“The suspicion therefore is that some of Beatrice’s output, amounting to 551.1 GWh, has not been declared to the LCCC, and sold on the open market at a profit, which should have been repaid to the LCCC. The numbers confirm this suspicion:”
[Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited]
Energy Issues – Australia
“A couple of hours after Liddell [Power Station] Closed, AEMO … Issued a Market Notice”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Apr 30, 2023
“None of the legacy fossil fuel power plants have been properly maintained. Australia’s ‘reliable’ energy infrastructure is no longer reliable, all the plants have all been run into the ground, by owners who believe fossil fuel energy has no future in green Australia. The Australian government’s recent introduction of a carbon tax in my opinion just seals their fate.”
“80% renewables by 2030 is Bullshit” says former Snowy Hydro CEO — transition will take 80 years, not 8
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, May 5, 2023
Aussie Green Energy Shock: Snowy Hydro Cost and Completion Time Blowout
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 3, 2023
Energy Issues — US
Energy Gradualism
By Robert Hargraves, Real Clear Energy, May 04, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/04/energy_gradualism_897390.html
“Similarly, the Inflation Reduction Act makes a trillion-dollar downpayment on an unproven grid of 100% renewable energy sources, while a decade of China’s gradual growth of multiple energy sources doubled its GDP and electricity use, now twice U.S. consumption.”
New York passes ban on gas stoves for new residential buildings
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, May 3, 2023
“Existing buildings are unaffected by the budget provision, as are new commercial buildings. New York City implemented a similar phaseout earlier in 2023, set to expand to taller buildings by 2027.”
[SEPP Comment: Forget Chinese stir-fry, using plenty of oil/fat is healthier?]
Energy Deregulation Is a Sham
By Charles H. DeBow, Real Clear Energy, May 03, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/03/energy_deregulation_is_a_sham_897351.html
“But a closer examination of energy deregulation reveals that it does not create real competition for customers; instead, it results in a variety of bad options and more expensive electricity. For the many small black-owned and operated businesses in Louisiana, this would mean more expensive monthly electric bills.”
Electrified Compressors and the Great Texas Blackout (a threat to grid reliability everywhere)
By Ed Ireland, Master Resource, May 4, 2023
“U.S. power grids have been warning that they are destabilized by wind and solar power generation. Add to that the potential problems they may face as a result of the electrification of natural gas compressors, and the tenuous situation becomes clear.
“More power grid operators need to consider their own versions of the rules that ERCOT and the Texas Railroad Commission are implementing.”
[SEPP Comment: Green government in action: solving the problem of unreliable electricity from wind and solar by making reliable electricity from natural gas turbines unreliable?]
Despite ‘Woke’ Investing, Traditional Energy Performs
By Graham Copley, Real Clear Energy, May 03, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/03/despite_woke_investing_traditional_energy_performs_897310.html
Washington’s Control of Energy
Four ways Biden is boosting fossil fuels — and drawing heat for it
By Saul Elbein, The Hill, May 3, 2023
“Allowing an Alaska ‘carbon bomb’”
[SEPP Comment: Drilling on the Alaska’s North Slope National Petroleum Reserve established for petroleum development?]
Peak U.S. Shale To Raise Prices At The Pump
By Tsvetana Paraskova, Oil Price.com, May 01, 2023
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Peak-US-Shale-To-Raise-Prices-At-The-Pump.html
“A third one [exploration and production firm executive] put it bluntly,
“’The administration’s policies will continue to affect domestic natural gas and oil production negatively. Oil and gas prices will soar in the next few years, and we’ll be at the mercy of nations that hate us.’”
Top Energy Republican blasts Haaland on lease sales: ‘You haven’t been following the law’
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, May 2, 2023
Forcing Consumers to Purchase Electric Vehicles: A New Low for the Biden Administration
By Jonathan Lesser, Real Clear Energy, May 01, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/01/forcing_consumers_to_purchase_electric_vehicles_a_new_low_for_the_biden_administration_896531.html
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Natural Gas in the New Energy World
By Vaclav Smil For Naturgy Foundation, Via Real Clear Public Affairs, May 4, 2023
https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/public_affairs/2023/05/04/natural_gas_in_the_new_energy_world_897399.html
“The good news is that the global reserves and resource of natural gas is more than sufficient to encourage a dramatic rise in gas usage around the world.”
“We must be realistic: renewables are growing in importance but will not displace fossil fuels any time soon, measured in decades not years.”
[SEPP Comment: A far cry from the 1970s when US government models were used to show we would soon run out of oil and gas. Washington proclaimed that the new miracle fuel was coal.]
U.S. LNG Exports Full Steam, Sales to Latin America Up
By Staff, Natural Gas World, May 1, 2023
https://www.naturalgasworld.com/u.s.-lng-exports-go-full-steam-ahead-sales-to-latin-america-rise-104934
China, Russia, Oil, Gas, Coal, Climate
The China-Russia axis is dangerous for fossil-fuel-disarming America and the West
By Don Ritter, WUWT, May 4, 2023
Guyana’s Energy Production Is a Quiet Boon to the West
By Nazar Mohamed, Rel Clear Energy, May 02, 2023
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2023/05/02/guyanas_energy_production_is_a_quiet_boon_to_the_west_896532.html
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Feds admit offshore wind can kill whales!
By David Wojick, CFACT, Apr 27, 2023
https://www.cfact.org/2023/04/27/feds-admit-offshore-wind-can-kill-whales/
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Ford Is Losing $66,446 On Every EV It Sells
And FoMoCo isn’t making up for it in volume.
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, May 3, 2023
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/ford-is-losing-66446-on-every-ev
A Try at Electric Vehicles: Samuel Insull a Century Ago
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, May 3, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Electric Vehicles are not a new technology, the problems of 125 years ago remain: lightweight, plentiful, inexpensive battery power.]
Electric cars losing value twice as fast as petrol vehicles – drivers may lose £25,000
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 5, 2023
Carbon Schemes
The Practical Impossibility of Large-Scale Carbon Capture and Storage
By Steve Goreham, Master Resource, May 2, 2023
Link to one dataset: CCUS Projects Explorer
Tracking CO2 capture, transport, storage, and utilization projects worldwide
By Staff, IEA, Mar 24, 2023
https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-tools/ccus-projects-explorer
California Dreaming
California: from Mega-Drought to “The Big Melt”
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, May 2, 2023
[SEPP Comment: In one winter season!]
Californians urged to prep for fire season: ‘Don’t let the rain and the snow fool you’
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, May 2, 2023
[SEPP Comment: First the drought was caused by CO2, now the rains are caused by CO2?]
In A World First, California Bans New Diesel Truck Sales From 2036
By Tsvetana Paraskova, Oil Price.com, May 01, 2023
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/In-A-World-First-California-Bans-New-Diesel-Truck-Sales-From-2036.html
EV adoption brings cleaner air to California — but mostly in wealthy communities
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, May 3, 2023
Link to paper: Emissions redistribution and environmental justice implications of California’s clean vehicle rebate project
By Jaye Mejía-Duwan, et al. PLOS Climate, May 3, 2023
https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000183
[SEPP Comment: Only the wealthy get healthy?]
Health, Energy, and Climate
Why Israelis live so long and what they can teach the rest of us
Resilience and social connections are factors in Israeli’s longevity, and a Mediterranean climate doesn’t hurt
By Sharon Kirkey, National Post, Apr 22, 2023 [H/t John Robson]
https://nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/why-israelis-live-so-long
“From the Mediterranean diet and Mediterranean weather — sunny, warm, no extremes — to religiosity, mandatory military service and optimism despite decades of near-constant conflicts. All have been cited as factors contributing to Israel’s longevity standing.”
[SEPP Comment: Even with 21% of the adult population smoking and a diet including animal fats, proteins, and salt?]
Other News that May Be of Interest
Understanding Crime In America — The Phenomenon Of Concentration
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Apr 30, 2023
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-4-30-understanding-crime-in-america-the-phenomenon-of-concentration
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
CO2 Targeting Pregnant Black Women
By Tony Heller, His blog, May 5, 2023
Let Them Ride Bikes! German Green Party Minister Uses Official Car To Fetch Her Forgotten Jacket
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Apr 30, 2023
Mortgage fees are changing for homebuyers next month. Here’s what you should know.
By Medora Lee, USA TODAY, April 26, 20023
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2023/04/23/mortgage-fee-structure-change-may-2023/11713841002/
CNN: Puppies Cause Hurricanes
By Tony Heller, His Blog, May 2, 2023
XR Founder Moans About His Carrots
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 29, 2023
[SEPP Comment: Sorry, Kale and Crickets are out of season?]
ARTICLES
1. A Welcome Supreme Court Review of Chevron Deference
The Justices agree to revisit their much-abused legal doctrine.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, May 1, 2023
https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-loper-bright-enterprises-v-raimondo-chevron-deference-fisheries-a6f5cb24?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
TWTW Summary: Key issues discussed above in This Week
******************
2. ‘The Gulag Archipelago’: An Epic of True Evil
Published 50 years ago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s account of the Soviet Union’s barbaric system of forced labor camps is arguably the 20th century’s greatest work of nonfiction.
By Gary Saul Morson, WSJ, May 5, 2023
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-gulag-archipelago-an-epic-of-true-evil-e9c9653e?mod=opinion_reviews_pos2
TWTW Summary: The article by the professor of Slavia Languages begins:
“Today the word ‘gulag’ is often used figuratively, but in the Soviet Union the Gulag—an acronym designating the system of forced labor camps—was all too real. Millions of people lived and died in the Gulag’s many ‘islands,’ the camps scattered over the vast country. The worst were located in the Kolyma region in northeastern Siberia, where prisoners labored at 50, 60, even 70 degrees below zero and were given insufficient calories to sustain life.
“So different was this experience from anything Western intellectuals had imagined, and so thoroughly did it discredit fashionable Marxism, that reports by Gulag survivors were laughed at, especially in France where Marxist ideology was strongest. That all changed when Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s detailed history of the Gulag was smuggled out of the U.S.S.R. ‘The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation,’ published 50 years ago, was much more than a detailed account compiled from the testimonies of hundreds of people; it was also arguably the 20th century’s greatest piece of nonfiction prose.
“Dedicated to ‘all those who did not live’ to tell their story, ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ demonstrates a nadir of humanity with nearly unfathomable cruelty. In one memorable passage, Solzhenitsyn muses that if the intellectuals of Chekhov’s plays who wondered what things would be like in a few decades had learned ‘that prisoners would have their skulls squeezed within iron rings; that a human being would be lowered into an acid bath . . . that a ramrod heated over a primus stove would be thrust up their anal canal (the ‘secret brand’); that a man’s genitals would be slowly crushed beneath the toe of a jackboot . . . not one of Chekhov’s plays would have gotten to its end because all the heroes would have gone off to insane asylums.’
“Those who had admitted some of the horrors often blamed them entirely on Stalin, as if Lenin would not have done such things, but, Solzhenitsyn demonstrates, Lenin set up the system of terror and the Gulag while making clear that both were to be permanent features of the new regime. To those Westerners who imagine that this bizarre system of punishment could not happen in their country, Solzhenitsyn cautions: ‘Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.’”
