on January 10, 2017

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2016 El Nino Warmth Not Statistically Warmer than 1998 El Nino Year

Written by Peter Zeller

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just reported that 2016 was the 2nd warmest year on record in the United States. Former NASA climatologist Roy Spencer’s global satellite dataset of the lower troposphere temperature found the 2016 El Nino year to be a record, but only a statistically insignificant 0.02 degrees C warmer than the last big El Nino year in 1998. That a slowly warming world would tie a temperature record during an El Nino year is not remarkable or alarming, and everyone expects 2017 to be significantly cooler. With a cooler 2017 the 18 year warming pause should...

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on December 24, 2016

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Climate Change 12: Reasonable Balance is Needed. How Over-Regulation Kills People.

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

Former NASA climatologist Roy Spencer, who continues to compile and maintain one of the global satellite temperature records, is one of the leading skeptics of climate alarmism. As with much of his writing at DrRoySpencer.com, his recent piece on over-regulation made many important and reasonable points that never seem to be considered when the Environmental Protection Agency makes decisions that “weaken our economy and destroy jobs, with no measurable benefit to the climate system.” The overarching goal of every regulatory agency is to write regulations. That’s their reason for existence. It’s not to strengthen the economy. Or protect jobs. It’s to regulate. As a...

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on December 23, 2016

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Climate Change 11: Alarmists predict doom but a healthier world is reality

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

Considering climate alarmists history of alarmingly false predictions, it’s curious that their forecasts continue to be accepted as credible by so many. Here’s what Princeton University professor Michael Oppenheimer wrote in 1990: [By] 1995, the greenhouse effect would be desolating the heartlands of North America and Eurasia with horrific drought, causing crop failures and food riots. … [By 1996] the Platte River of Nebraska would be dry, while a continent-wide black blizzard of prairie topsoil will stop traffic on interstates, strip paint from houses and shut down computers. … The Mexican police will round up illegal American migrants surging into Mexico...

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on December 18, 2016

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Climate Change 10: Why we argue about it, unsettled science and the moral question.

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

John Christy is a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville who maintains one of the global satellite temperature records and is one of the leading skeptics of climate alarmism. His op-ed, Why Do We Argue About Climate Change, hits on a number of important points typically absent from the pubic debate. Christy says “we basically cannot prove anything about how the climate will change as a result of adding extra greenhouse gases to the atmosphere” so “we are left to argue about unprovable claims.” We can measure and prove that greenhouse gases are increasing. And, in the...

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on December 17, 2016

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Climate Change 9: How Useful (or Accurate) is a Forecast 75 Years Out That Won’t Be Noticeable for 300 Years?

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

Climate scientists Patrick Michaels and Paul Knappenberger’s terrific new book exposes the “pseudoscience” that the “the debate is over” crowd relies on for their alarmist dictates. That crowd is big and powerful, but nowhere near 97% of climate scientists (or anybody else) endorse the impoverishing policies that will change our climate in ways that won’t even be measurable 75 years from now. The book, Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything, acknowledges that climate change is real and partially man-made, but shows that the mild, gradual warming we are experiencing doesn’t come close to the catastrophic levels predicted by the...

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on December 16, 2016

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Cops Clamp Down on Bemidji Pipeline Protesters

Written by Tom Steward

in Energy

The bad manners on display by pipeline protesters in North Dakota the past few months appear to have inspired their counterparts across the border this week in northern Minnesota. But maybe law enforcement agencies also learned a thing or two from the decisive action taken by their peers on the Dakota Access Pipeline, judging from the outcome of a publicity stunt by pipeline protesters in Bemidji on Tuesday. The incident unfolded at an open meeting held at a hotel by Enbridge pipeline company to outline plans to replace an aging oil pipeline that runs through northern Minnesota. Before long, however, environmental activist Winona LaDuke...

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on December 13, 2016

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Climate Change 8: “Pseudoscience,” Politicized Science, and the Consequences of Energy Poverty

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

[caption id="attachment_5310" align="alignright" width="253"] The cover of the 2014 Third Assessment Report makes our situation look very scary.[/caption] Climate scientists Patrick Michaels and Paul Knappenberger’s terrific new book exposes the “pseudoscience” that the “the debate is over” crowd relies on for their alarmist dictates. That crowd is big and powerful, but nowhere near 97% of climate scientists (or anybody else) endorse the impoverishing policies that will change our climate in ways that won’t even be measurable 75 years from now. The book, Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything, acknowledges that climate change is real and partially man-made, but shows that...

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on December 10, 2016

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Climate Change 7: How Global Warming is Both a “Hoax” and a Legitimate Area of Study

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

Former NASA climatologist Roy Spencer, who continues to compile and maintain one of the global satellite temperature records, is one of the leading skeptics of climate alarmism. As with much of his writing at DrRoySpencer.com, his recent concise summary of key points in the debate was excellent. He argues that climate change is a hoax, not because the earth is not gradually warming, but because of costly policy dictates that demonize CO2 and won’t even make a measurable difference. While it might sound cynical, global warming has been used politically in order for governments to gain control over the private sector. Bob...

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on December 08, 2016

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Climate Change 6: The Beginning of the U.S. Mess with Politicized Science

Written by Peter Zeller

in Energy

Climate scientists Patrick Michaels and Paul Knappenberger’s terrific new book exposes the “pseudoscience” that the “the debate is over” crowd relies on for their alarmist dictates. That crowd is big and powerful, but nowhere near 97% of climate scientists (or anybody else) endorse the impoverishing policies that will change our climate in ways that won’t even be measurable 75 years from now. [caption id="attachment_5280" align="alignright" width="400"] Covers of the USGCRP second National Climate Assessment, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States (left) and the Cato Institute Center for the Study of Science-produced ADDENDUM: Global Climate Change Impacts in the United...

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on November 29, 2016

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VA Spends 300K to Study Defunct St. Cloud Wind Turbine

Written by Tom Steward

in Energy, Governance

The Veterans Administration has been trying to get a wind energy project up and running at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center since 2007. Almost a decade later, the 245 foot high wind turbine originally hyped as a national model by the White House is up but not running since 2012. The most notable results generated to date by the 93 ton renewable energy installation are a nearly $2 million loss for taxpayers and a black eye for the Obama Administration’s green energy agenda. Yet instead of mothballing the project and cutting taxpayers’ losses, the federal agency recently doubled down on the...

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