Energy Probe

Jack Dini
Hawaii Reporter
March 11, 2009

We’ve all heard about carbon dioxide and its effect on temperature world-wide. But have you heard that temperature increases first, then hundreds or more years later carbon dioxide levels rise? My guess is probably not. A children’s book with a mislabeled graph shows temperature following carbon dioxide; a leading science journal took over ten years to set the record straight; Al Gore blames carbon dioxide. Yet, there has been no temperature increase in the last nine years in spite of increasing carbon dioxide levels. Clearly, we need to find another culprit.

Earth isn’t the only heavenly body that’s been heating up. The polar ice caps on Mars are melting. Jupiter is developing a second giant red spot, an enormous hurricane-like storm thought to be the result of warming in our solar system. Neptune’s moon Triton has heated up significantly since 1989. Parts of its frozen nitrogen surface have begun melting and turning to gas. Even Pluto has warmed slightly in recent years if you can call -230C warmer than -233C.

The question has been asked, is there something all these heavenly bodies have in common? Some one thing they all share that could be causing them to warm in unison, like a giant self-luminous ball of burning gas with a mass more than 300,000 times that of Earth and a core temperature of more than 20 million degrees C, that for the past century has been unusually powerful and active? Hmm- perhaps the Sun should be taking more of the blame for increasing temperatures in the entire solar system.

What about temperature measuring stations? When the Soviet Union was falling apart from 1989 to 1992 folks there didn’t much care about keeping temperature monitoring stations. Thousands were ignored and it’s important to note that many of these were in cold regions-think Siberia. Others around the world were closed at the same time. Could this have contributed to the world-wide temperature increases in the 1990s?

Here in the United States we aren’t that great about keeping our weather monitoring stations in proper order. Anthony Watts, and his team of volunteers, have been checking the condition and placement of weather stations. They’ve now checked 75% of the 1221 United States stations and find only 11% meet standards. The concern is that objects near a station affect what thermometers record. Buildings, parking lots, air conditioners, and sewage treatment plants near weather stations may emit heat and ultimately skew readings.

All of this information and much more was covered at the Second International Conference on Climate Change hosted by the Heartland Institute and 60 cosponsoring organizations in New York City, March 8-10. Nearly 700 attendees from around the world heard opening remarks from Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast and keynote addresses from Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic and of the European Union, and Richard Lindzen of MIT. Other keynote speakers included John H. Sununu, former governor of New Hampshire and chief of staff under President George H. W. Bush, US Congressman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), Lawrence Solomon, author of The Deniers, and Willie Soon, chief science advisor at the Science and Public Policy Institute.

More than 80 presentations were available to attendees during the meeting. My only complaint as an attendee was that with four concurrent break-out sessions at all times, I missed many speakers I would have liked to hear. Fortunately, a lot of material was available in the form of hand-outs and books.

Although some of these folks have been labeled Holocaust deniers, skeptics, and other foul-sounding names, these were serious scientists with data that should be more open to the public. Jay Lehr suggests that these folks should no longer be labeled skeptics, but instead called Realists. I couldn’t agree more.

Jack Dini was a materials engineer and Section Leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is a past national president of the American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers Society, author of more than 250 papers on electrodeposition and the book, Electrodeposition: the Materials Science of Coatings and Substrates. Since 1998 he has been writing a monthly column titled “Fact or Fiction?” for Plating and Surface Finishing (P&SF). He has also written for the American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News (The Heartland Institute) and Hawaii Reporter. His book, Challenging Environmental Mythology, was published in 2003. Reach him at jdini@comcast.net

Read more about the Heartland Institute’s Second International Conference on Climate Change

Read more about Lawrence Solomon, Energy Probe’s Executive Director and a keynote speaker at this year’s Heartland Conference

Larry Wilhelmsen
The Desert Sun
March 10, 2009

A growing number of the world’s very best scientists who are not being paid by the government are now stepping forward with the truth. The computer models suggesting extreme warming rates due to carbon dioxide should not be used for environmental policy because they do not now give consistent results. They have not predicted the stop in global temperature rise since 1998 nor the slight cooling of the ocean since 2001. Who are these scientists?

Please read Lawrence Solomon’s book “The Deniers” published in April 2008. He has interviewed more than 30 scientists for the book and has an inventory of more than 100 interviews now.
Global warming rebuttal

The 2009 International Conference on Climate Change is being held in New York City through today, with nearly 60 speakers and more than 30 sponsors from around the world.

The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) has published an independent examination without bias and selectivity of the evidence available in peer-reviewed literature. The report, “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate,” can be accessed at http://www.heartland.org.

Fear is being used to push many issues not well understood. Read Michael Crichton’s book “State of Fear” to get many examples.
Nuclear power option

A few nuclear accidents around the world stopped the U.S. development of nuclear power, and we are paying for that now. The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona was set up for 10 plants but was stopped at three. They produce power at under 3 cents per kilowatt hour and solar is now about five times that. Wind power can at best produce 20 percent of U.S. electricity, and that is after a very expensive distribution system.

If the nuclear development had not been stopped, the need for Middle Eastern oil would be significantly less and high oil costs may not have contributed to the present economic meltdown. This cheap, steady electricity would have many people now buying electric cars to charge at night and significantly reduce the smog threat in Los Angeles.

The co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, changed his views and now supports nuclear power as the best way to reduce carbon emissions. The Democrats removed the $50 billion set for nuclear power when they trimmed down the stimulus bill for passage.

Solomon’s last chapter covers the pitfalls of the cap and trade movement for control of carbon emissions, and his experience around the world indicates it is a very bad policy easily open to fraud. Do a search of the New York Times for a few examples.

If we do not use natural gas, oil, coal and nuclear power to span the gap to when the solar and wind sources are practical, we will not keep up with China. At least that country is smart enough to limit its population growth while our government continues to pay people to have more kids even when it knows they cannot support them.

Larry Wilhelmsen lives in Indio. Reach him at lwilhelmsen1@yahoo.com.

The Heritage Foundation
March 9, 2009

This morning’s breakfast had two very interesting speakers: climate skeptic Congressman Tom McClintock from California and Canadian author, columnist and environmentalist Lawrence Solomon. Solomon is a founder and managing director of the Energy Probe Research Foundation and is a strong advocate of renewable energy and written a book against urban sprawl.

When Congressman McClintock addressed the audience he emphasized
that the actual threat of global warming is a big one, but not because
of temperature and more so because of what the radical environmentalist
movement can do to control the message and hurt the economy. He
discussed the detrimental economic and environmental effects that the
state’s ethanol policy had on California and warned that California
should not be the model for the rest of the country.

He said:

People love to watch events in California – in much the
same way that people love to gawk at car wrecks. You feel guilty about
it, of course, and you know you shouldn’t stare, but you just can’t
help yourselves. But you do anyway and there’s at least a respectable
reason for it. When you drive by that wreck, you can tell your
children, ‘Kids, that’s what happens when you don’t pay attention when
you drive.’ And California’s wreck is a good time to remind voters,
‘Kids, that’s what happens when you don’t pay attention when you vote.”

The quote drew a resounding applause.

Solomon, a man of sincere intellectual integrity, noted that the
environmentalist radicals in the global warming movement are starting
to fear that they will lose all credibility under a bunch of scenarios.
1.) We will enter a period of global cooling. 2.) People will not stand
for the economic effects of a carbon tax. 3.) There will be rolling
brown outs and black outs as a result of inefficient electricity supply
coming from wind and solar energy. Just as a reminder, this is coming
from an environmentalist in support of renewable technology.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of Soloman’s speech was his telling
stories of the damage international carbon reducing plans are doing to
the developing world. Rather than reducing carbon-generating sources of
energy at home, many developed countries are buying carbon credits from
hydro dams. These governments will displace citizens from their homes
without much warning or compensation.

See, for instance, this January story by Joe McDonald and Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press writers:

“The hydroelectric dam, a low wall of concrete slicing
across an old farming valley, is supposed to help a power company in
distant Germany contribute to saving the climate – while putting
lucrative “carbon credits” into the pockets of Chinese developers.

But in the end the new Xiaoxi dam may do nothing to lower
global-warming emissions as advertised. And many of the 7,500 people
displaced by the project still seethe over losing their homes and
farmland.

‘Nobody asked if we wanted to move,” said a 38-year-old man whose
family lost a small brick house. ‘The government just posted a notice
that said, ‘Your home will be demolished.’”

Now, just imagine if we ask these developing nations to cut their
own emissions. Carbon trading schemes among the developing world is
already hurting these countries. A global plan to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions will de-develop the developed world and halt and reverse any
economic progress made by the developing world.

That should certainly open up some eyes and ears of politicians.

Paul Chesser
The American Spectator
March 5, 2009

Don’t expect to hear much from the mainstream media about it, but the Heartland Institute’s second International Conference on Climate Change starts this Sunday and runs through Tuesday. A Who’s-Who of reputable, well-credentialed (and/or well-studied) skeptics (such as Energy Probe’s Lawrence Solomon) will meet in New York City to debunk, debate, and ferret out the truth about the science and economics of global warming alarmism.

Read Paul Chesser’s full blog to learn more about the conference