Category Archives: Climate change

There is no climate emergency

Consider Signing the World Climate Declaration

From the “Climate Intelligence” website:

>>>>>

A global network of 900 scientists and professionals has prepared this urgent message. Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.

Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming

The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming.

Warming is far slower than predicted

The world has warmed significantly less than predicted by IPCC on the basis of modeled anthropogenic forcing. The gap between the real world and the modeled world tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.

Climate policy relies on inadequate models

Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as global policy tools. They blow up the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.

CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth

CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.

Global warming has not increased natural disasters

There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent. However, there is ample evidence that CO2-mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly.

Climate policy must respect scientific and economic realities

There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050. If better approaches emerge, and they certainly will, we have ample time to reflect and re-adapt. The aim of global policy should be ‘prosperity for all’ by providing reliable and affordable energy at all times. In a prosperous society men and women are well educated, birthrates are low and people care about their environment.

Epilogue

The World Climate Declaration (WCD) has brought a large variety of competent scientists together from all over the world*. The considerable knowledge and experience of this group is indispensable in reaching a balanced, dispassionate and competent view of climate change.

From now onward the group is going to function as “Global Climate Intelligence Group”. The CLINTEL Group will give solicited and unsolicited advice on climate change and energy transition to governments and companies worldwide.

* It is not the number of experts but the quality of arguments that counts

World Climate Declaration plus all signatories in pdf

<<<<<<<

Why global warming is good for us

Climate change is creating a greener, safer planet.

Matt Ridley has written a long piece with the above title for spiked-online.com. Here’s a crucial excerpt:

In January 2020, the UK’s chief scientific adviser organised for some slides to be shown to Boris Johnson to convert him to climate alarmism. Thanks to a freedom of information request, we now know that these slides showed the likely acceleration in sea-level rise under a scenario known as RCP 8.5. This is shocking because RCP 8.5 has long been discredited as a highly implausible future. It was created by piling unrealistic assumptions on to each other in models: coal use increasing tenfold by 2100, population growth accelerating to 12 billion people, innovation drying up and an implausibly high sensitivity of temperature to carbon dioxide. No serious scientist thinks RCP 8.5 represents a likely outcome from ‘business as usual’. Yet those who want to grab media attention by making alarming predictions use it all the time.

This confirms what Darrell Bricker says in his presentation on population growth. We now know it is unlikely to go far beyond 9 billion, will reach its peak around the middle of the century and is likely to be lower than today by 2100. At some point Bricker says that he and his co-author checked a large number of climate studies, and only one even mentioned the possibility of a smaller sized world population. And none took this into consideration when producing their climate models.

Greta Thunberg vs Boyan Slat (who?)

Wrong thesis of media star vs right thesis of a nobody

See here.

Greta is now 19, Boyan is 27.

At age 16, Boyan invented a “passive plastic catchment system, using circulating ocean currents to net plastic waste”. On Boyan’s Wikipedia page, it says: “As of mid 2020, Interceptors have been deployed in Indonesia and Malaysia, and are prepared to be deployed in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic.”

The unbearable smugness of the Netflix elites

'Don’t Look Up' is a preposterous movie that is wrong about everything.

Brendan O’Neill has written a devastating critique of a film I hadn’t even heard about before I saw his article. However, it’s important to know about it because it appears to exemplify how not only “the media” tries very hard to influence our thinking, and not only the big tech companies try very hard to keep us shielded from information and opinions that could change our thinking away from what the media wants us to think. It exemplifies how very hard, and very crudely, the entertainment industry tries to influence our thinking as well – instead of simply entertaining us.

Here’s O’Neill’s summary of his article:

Don’t Look Up sums up the unbearable smugness of the Netflix elites, of those West and East Coast cultural movers and shakers who see it as their responsibility to ‘raise the awareness’ of the little people. The makers of this movie really have convinced themselves that they are brave soothsayers who risk being collared by the CIA and capitalism itself for their reckless propagation of The Truth, when in reality they themselves are the new corporate elites who exercise an extraordinary amount of influence over public life in the 21st century. These days, it isn’t ‘denialism’ that is the problem – it’s catastrophism, the view of everything, especially climate change, as a calamity that our hubristic species has brought upon itself. That is the elite consensus opinion right now and, not surprisingly, Netflix, the cultural embodiment of the new elites, is riddled with this decadent, indulgent End of Days hysteria.

“Do I Believe in God, COVID Totalitarianism & the Climate”

Dave Rubin speaks with Jordan Peterson about these issues

For simplicity’s sake, I will today just quote from the text below the video, because it covers all the essentials. It’s probably the best exposition of Jordan Peterson’s views we will get in just one hour, and I’ve seen a lot of videos with and about him. It was posted on YouTube on 14th November 2021.

Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Dr. Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, about what is actually informing COVID restrictions, the real choice that faces the clean energy COP26 crowd, and his response when he is asked about the existence of God.

First, Jordan discusses why we chose medical tyranny and a totalitarian state as a response to the COVID epidemic. He shares how the politics of fear, more than science, has been informing COVID policy in Canada in the U.S. Jordan also tries to understand how the left, who usually hates big corporations, has handed over it’s trust to big pharma.

Next, Jordan discusses the COP26 summit and the horrible position liberals and environmentalists have put themselves in by pushing for more expensive renewable energy while claiming to care for the poor. He explains why their more expensive energy plans will cause electricity prices to skyrocket, hurting those most vulnerable. He suggests we follow China’s lead and invest in nuclear power to create as much cheap energy as possible which can mitigate the effects of climate change without sacrificing the poor. He explains the problems of sustainable development and why you should dismiss anyone who advocates for Net Zero.

Finally, Jordan discusses what religion and spirituality mean to him. He shares the answer he gives when asked “does god exist?” He also explains why people like Sam Harris may not be as atheist as they may think they are. He also explains why science fails as a religion and what religious thoughts really are.

I will just add that Peterson announces that he is going to the UK soon, to speak in Cambridge and Oxford, with, among others, Richard Dawkins. That’s something to look forward to.

Pope Francis wants to “convert” humanity

. . . away from Christianity, it seems

Is the current Pope a Christian? When reading this article by Matthew J.L. Ehret, one can develop doubts about that.

Ehret points out what the current Pope wrote during the recent COP26 conference:

“We can confront these crises by retreating into isolationism, protectionism and exploitation. Or we can see in them a real chance for change, a genuine moment of conversion, and not simply in a spiritual sense.” [emphasis by me, PwG]

In this, Pope Francis has form. As Ehret writes:

Within the 2015 Laudato Si, the Pope took aim directly at the “old and obsolete” notion of Christianity that had seen humanity as a divine creature born with a Promethean spark saying:

“An inadequate presentation of Christian anthropology gave rise to a wrong understanding of the relationship between human beings and the world. Often, what was handed on was a  Promethean vision of mastery over the world.”

This is weird indeed – from a Pope. “Fill the earth and govern it” (Genesis 1:28), God’s first commandment to humanity, is pretty unambiguous. What’s there to misunderstand?

Continue reading →

A Prayer for COP26

Dear heavenly Father,

Today is the day people around the world commemorate the end of World War One. I do not know for sure why this evil entered the world, I don’t think anyone does, but I believe what Alexandr Solzhenitsyn said in relation to the disastrous Russian Revolution applies to this war as well: “All this happened because we have forgotten God”. If this is true, I pray that people around the world heed those words for our present times and troubles, and that we, in everything we do, consider another word from the author of that sentence, namely that the dividing line between good and evil goes right through each of our hearts.

With that in mind, dear heavenly Father, I pray, with regard to climate change and our response to it, that we will learn again to trust first in you instead of in princes of the world and their paid advisers. That we learn to pursue treasures in heaven, not in this world. That we learn to care for your creation by respecting your laws, including the law not to steal from each other, and to not bear false witness against our neighbour. That we all humbly concede that we don’t know all the facts and all the answers. That we help each other by teaching each other the little we do know – and discerning what we don’t, and by listening patiently to one another.

Help us to be weary of the claim that all that is required to know is now known. Help us to discern between action that protects creation and that which, even if well intended, does not or, worse, does the opposite. Help us, and remind us every time we feel the need to act, to count the costs of our actions before we act, lest we build on sand instead of the rock of your word.

Lord, you know I am very sceptical about the currently widely favoured approach to tackling climate change, which is the one promoted and discussed at COP26 in Glasgow, by the many paid advisers of governments, by many big corporations hoping for government money in return for conforming to the ruling narrative, and by almost every established media outlet around the world. However, I pray today for your blessing on each and every participant, and on each and every observer. May those who are truly fearful be assuaged and find peace in you and your assurances – especially the children and young people, who are increasingly frightened out of their wits. May those who are distant from you be drawn nearer, so that they see your plans full of peace and joy for them and all of us. May those who are driven by power and greed be humbled and converted to your way. May those who deceive be humbled by the truth. May those who honestly seek the truth be steadfast in the face of much deception and pressure to conform.

Thank you, dear heavenly Father, for your promise that those who meekly emulate your love will inherit the Earth.

May you, dear Lord and Creator, be glorified, and may your peace reign forever. 

Amen.

“Climate alarmism is doing terrible damage to the young”

A year 12 student speaks out

While UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson can’t find anything better to say about the Industrial Revolution than that it was the time “the doomsday machine began to tick”, thus cynically throwing fearmongering fuel on an already burning fire of widespread pessimism and depression, a brave year 12 student has written about what should be done instead:

We need to start thinking about how to change the world for the better and create a more hopeful future, rather than always focusing on cutting, limiting and reducing our aspirations. All this does is deprive people the world over of purpose and hope. So, instead of criticising governments for not living up to their own doomsday rhetoric, as climate activists have been doing, we need to push them to invest in science and technology, and improve the lives of their citizens.

She squarely places the blame for why this is not happening where it should reside: with the adults.

It’s not fair to blame Generation Z for their pessimism and fearfulness. It’s adults who have encouraged young people to despair in the face of problems like climate change, instead of instilling them with hope and ambition through a positive story of human progress. We need to revitalise young people’s belief in human ingenuity. We need to restore their faith in the future. And we need to show them that it’s possible to move society forward.