In a speech, Greta Thunberg stated: “all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth”. Continue reading “Greta Thunberg was Wrong about Economic Growth”
Tag: AGW
What will it take for Canada to eliminate its use of fossil fuels?
- Gasoline/diesel vehicles will have to go electric
- Railways will have to be electrified
- Heating will have to go electric
If this were to happen, Canada’s demand for electricity will increase. In this blog, the increase in electricity generation capacity is estimated.
The results show that Canada will require 31 new nuclear plants or 202 new hydro plants or 1413 new wind farms or 15167 solar plants or a combination of the above
First look at current consumption of energy from fossil fuels in Canada:
- Coal 33.2 106 tonnes/yr
- Petroleum products 1.9 mmbbl/d
- Natural gas 8.9 Bcf/d
Continue reading “What will it take for Canada to eliminate its use of fossil fuels?”
What Does “Peer Reviewed” Mean?
Articles about scientific matters (especially climate change) refer to studies with “peer reviewed” papers. Most readers assume that this means that the findings have been endorsed by qualified scientists and that they can be considered reliable.
The reality is that this is actually a low standard and is not an accurate guide to the reliability of the results. Continue reading “What Does “Peer Reviewed” Mean?”
Get Canada Moving Again – Streamlining the Resource Development Approval Process
In Canada resource development projects must go through a lengthy approval process. This is necessary so that all the factors are taken into consideration including, of course, environmental concerns.
However, radical environmentalists have used these approval processes to stop all resource developments, whether it involves pipelines, oil and gas development, hard rock mining or forestry.
The Financial Post has identified 35 projects valued at $129 billion that have been held up or stopped by extreme environmental extremists. Continue reading “Get Canada Moving Again – Streamlining the Resource Development Approval Process”
Towards a Rational Approach to Climate Change
To decide how to deal with climate change we have to first look at the affects it will have. The effects which have been discussed fall into three groups.
These are:
- Effect on wildlife and the environment
- More frequent extreme weather events
- Rising sea levels
My conclusion is that the only aspect that poses a real threat to humanity is a rising sea level.
In this blog I shall look at all three aspects and explain the reasoning behind the conclusion. Continue reading “Towards a Rational Approach to Climate Change”
Is the Number of Papers on a Topic a Good Indicator of its Importance?
The Wikipedia entry on “Global Cooling” dismisses the idea that it was the prevailing view in the 1970’s by showing the numbers of papers on cooling versus the number on warming. Does this truly support the author’s claim?
In this post, I describe a fictitious experiment and then draw up a non-complete list of papers that could be produced from the experiment.
I then show a real-life example of this sort of “paper-churning”. Continue reading “Is the Number of Papers on a Topic a Good Indicator of its Importance?”
Whatever Happened to the Coming Ice Age?
“Climate Change” is now synonymous with “global warming”. However, in the 1970’s, global cooling was the major topic. Wikipedia now claims that there was no consensus among climatologists about global cooling in the 70’s and that such a consensus is just an urban myth. Is this just an example of Soviet-style re-writing of history to fit current political needs?
Having lived through the 70’s, I decided to check through my sources to see if mainstream climatologists did fret about a coming ice age in the 70’s …
I found two sources:
- “The Weather Machine and the Threat of Ice” by Nigel Calder, 1974, published by the BBC (there was an associated TV series); 143 pages.
- “The Cooling World” by Peter Gwynne, Newsweek, April 28, 1975.
Climate Change – The Intellectual Dishonesty of the Climate Alarmists
It is frequently quoted, that the “Science is Settled” when it comes to climate change. However, the nature of science is that it is never really settled – with good science, each question that is answered leads to three or more new questions. It is perhaps more accurate to say “the Politics is Settled”. As skeptics ruefully acknowledge, they may be winning the skirmishes, but the alarmists are winning the war.
Some examples of intellectual dishonesty from the climate change propagandists are:
- Changing the name from “anthropogenic global warming” (AGW) to “climate change”
- Cherry picking weather events as evidence of AGW
- Changing criteria for claims of global warming
- Predictions that don’t materialize swept under the carpet
- Computer models used for predictions which don’t match the historical data
- Using animal population changes as evidence of global warming
With Climate Change, there are four related, but separate questions, each of which will be addressed in future blogs:
- Is the earth’s temperature rising?
- Is the change in temperature man-made?
- Are the consequences of climate change harmful to humanity?
- What should be done to avoid ill-effects?
The “dishonesty” claimed in the title is clear in the climate change propagandists rather than the scientists. The propagandists include:
- the media
- celebrities
- politicians
- “environmentalists”
Continue reading “Climate Change – The Intellectual Dishonesty of the Climate Alarmists”