The fact that, despite increased atmospheric CO2 levels, they can’t explain why temperatures haven’t risen for 17 years, the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report now warns that planetary peril is far worse than even their previous alarmist 2007 report predicted.
For good measure, just to be certain it got full news coverage, the new summary version aimed at the media and politicians threw in lots of scary stuff about rising and acidifying oceans, superstorms, and famines.
Not to worry though. All of this is nothing that billions of dollars more in wind and solar subsidies along with wealth transfer from rich countries for them to redistribute can’t cure, providing that we abandon the fossil fuels that enable that prosperity.note Don’t you wish that everything were that simple?
Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution of Science in California, overall lead author of the report, warned: “We live in an era where impacts from climate change are already widespread and consequential.” He went on, “Changes are occurring rapidly and they are sort of building up that risk.”
Yes, “risk.” Throughout the recently released 49-page summary, that word appears about 5-1/2 times per page. According to the report, competition over scarce water and food may even cause world peace to hang in the balance. It predicts that the highest level of risk will first hit plants, and then animals, both on land and in the acidifying oceans.
Climate change, caused by rich countries of course, will worsen problems such as poverty, sickness, and violence. It will break down the benefits of a modernizing society, blocking economic growth and stifling efficient crop production.
If you imagined that flat temperatures since the time most of today’s high school students were born would indicate some problems with IPCC’s previous failed computer model-based doomsday projections, we’re certainly not offered any reason for complacency.
Unlike previous reports which attributed severe weather events only partly to man-made warming, this one also includes broader risks where disastrous consequences like deadly storm surges such as occurred with 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan, 2012’s Superstorms Sandy, and 2018’s Cyclone Nargis might possibly be augmented by rising oceans.
Early study author Richard Toll, a University of Sussex economist, asked to have his name removed from the summary due to excessive alarmist harping about risks. He said “It is pretty damn obvious that there are positive impacts of climate change, even though we are not always allowed to talk about them.”
Let’s briefly review a few reasons why he is absolutely correct.
First, no one I know disputes the fact that climate changes. And while the Arctic has recently been warming slightly (although it is cooler than 1,000 years ago), Antarctica is colder. Even the IPCC has finally had to acknowledge that observational evidence indicates Earth’s climate system is considerably less sensitive to greenhouse gases than they previously claimed.
Regarding IPCC’s future prognostications, Roy Spencer, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, compared predictions of 90 climate models with observed temperatures and found that 95% significantly over-forecast the warming trend since 1979.
As for those super storms, of the 35 cyclones in the last 800 years that have killed more than 10,000 people, 33 occurred when carbon dioxide levels were below 350 ppm (now 400 ppm). And despite all the hype about Sandy, 2013 was actually one of the quietest hurricane seasons in recent history. It occurred at a time when the U.S. is enjoying its longest ever 8-year period without a single hurricane of Category 3 or above making landfall.
Mass starvation and civil strife caused by carbon-fueled warming influences upon food supplies? Well, probably not. Satellites have recorded roughly 14%
increased greening of the planet over the past 30 years in all types of ecosystems. We might assume this is at least partly due to higher concentrations of atmospheric CO2, which enables plants to grow faster and use less water. Incidentally, this benefit applies also to marine life, including corals, which evolved at CO2 levels that were two to seven times higher than now.
Have no doubt that the IPCC’s latest science fiction installment is welcomed in efforts to help sell the Obama Administration’s Climate Action Plan, which is aimed at imposing more energy regulations. The timing coincides with Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent reference to global warming as the greatest terrorist threat. On the other hand, President Obama has stated that he worries most about a nuke attack in New York.
So here’s a thought. If the UN has a good plan to end countless millions of years of global climate change terrorism, do you suppose they might be willing to lend a hand in addressing modern threats posed by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria as well?
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This article first appeared at www.newsmax.com (April 7, 2014).