CLIMATE CHANGE WEEKLY #109: PROMINENT WARMISTS URGE ALLIES TO SUPPORT NUCLEAR POWER

Four scientists at the forefront of global warming activism published an open letter this week encouraging their fellow warmists to embrace safe nuclear power as a means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

The four scientists are pretty close to embodying a Mt. Rushmore of global warming activists. They are James Hansen at the Columbia University Earth Institute, Tom Wigley at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Kerry Emanuel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ken Caldeira at the Carnegie Institution.

Continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity’s ability to avoid dangerous climate change, the scientists wrote. We call on your organization to support the development and deployment of safer nuclear power systems as a practical means of addressing the climate change problem. Global demand for energy is growing rapidly and must continue to grow to provide the needs of developing economies. At the same time, the need to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions is becoming ever clearer.

Nuclear power is about 50 percent more expensive to produce than conventional power. Much of that cost disadvantage is due to excessive government regulation that is unique to nuclear power, but there is no reason to expect government will ease such regulation anytime soon.

Nuclear power is much more reliable and substantially less expensive than wind and solar power. Also, nuclear power avoids many negative environmental impacts of wind and solar power, including millions of bird and bat kills each year and a huge land development footprint.

It will be interesting to see how other warmists, and particularly the large environmental activist groups, respond to the embrace of nuclear power by some of the most prominent scientists leading their cause.  SOURCE: Forbes.com

IN THIS ISSUE

Ocean temps contradict alarmist Cullen on Philippines typhoon … Raw measurements show decline in summer temperatures … Study finds sinking islands are a matter of fiction … Kamchatka Peninsula was much warmer in recent past … 97 percent of models predicted too much warming … CO2 levels reach record highs, nothing happens

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OCEAN TEMPS CONTRADICT ALARMIST CULLEN ON PHILIPPINES TYPHOON

Global warming alarmist Heidi Cullen claimed warm water caused the Category 5 typhoon that struck the Philippines this week. Objective water temperature data, however, show nothing unusual about surface water temperatures in the typhoon’s storm track. Cullen’s claim continues a practice of blaming extreme weather events on global warming even when objective data contradict such claims.

SOURCES: Climate Depot and JunkScience.com

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RAW MEASUREMENTS SHOW DECLINE IN SUMMER TEMPERATURES

Raw data from surface temperature stations show U.S. summer temperatures are in long-term decline since the 1930s. Government employees at the National Climatic Data Center, however, add approximately 1 degree Celsius to recent temperature readings to give the impression of unprecedented summer heat.

SOURCE: Real Science

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STUDY FINDS SINKING ISLANDS ARE A MATTER OF FICTION

Islands in the vicinity of Tuvalu are growing rather than sinking as the planet warms, scientists report in the peer-reviewed Sustainability Science. Despite the widely held perception that reef islands around the perimeter of coral atolls are eroding and will disappear as a consequence of sea-level rise resulting from global warming, this study shows that the total area of reef islands on Tarawa Atoll has increased over recent decades, the scientists report.

SOURCE: NIPCC Report

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KAMCHATKA PENINSULA WAS MUCH WARMER IN RECENT PAST

The Kamchatka Peninsula in Northeast Asia was much warmer than the present for thousands of years in the recent past, scientists report in the peer-reviewed Quaternary Science Reviews. For a period of 500 years approximately 4,000 years ago, temperatures were very close to current temperatures, the scientists report. Then, during a 3,000-year period between 4,000 and 1,000 years ago, consecutive warm periods brought temperatures substantially warmer than the present.

SOURCE: NIPCC Report

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97 PERCENT OF MODELS PREDICTED TOO MUCH WARMING

Climate scientists Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger published an article documenting the near-universal disconnect between climate models and real-world temperature trends. After charting computer model predictions versus real-world temperatures, the scientists observed, Less than 2.5 percent of model runs show that global warming is really global lukewarming to the degree that real-world observations indicate. (emphasis in the original)

SOURCE: Watts Up With That?

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CO2 LEVELS REACH RECORD HIGHS, NOTHING HAPPENS

The Daily Caller published a very good summary of the many ways in which real-world climate is defying alarmist predictions in the wake of rising carbon dioxide emissions. If carbon dioxide emissions are the primary driver of dangerous climate change, why are temperatures flat and extreme weather events less frequent and severe as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise? The Daily Caller article, Greenhouse gas levels reach record highs, nothing happens, presents excellent information and citations giving context and answers to that question.

SOURCE: Daily Caller

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RECOMMENDED SITES AND NEWSLETTERS

Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation
Global Science Report
Climate in Review, by C. Jeffery Small
International Conferences on Climate Change, The Heartland Institute
Center on Climate and Environmental Policy, The Heartland Institute
Climate Policy, The Heritage Foundation
Global Warming, Cato Institute
Center for Global Food Issues, Hudson Institute
JoNova, hosted by Joanne Nova
GlobalClimateScam.com
Center for Energy and Environment, Competitive Enterprise Institute
GlobalWarming.org
Cooler Heads Digest
Climate Crusaders
Power for USA
Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
ClimateWiki
Master Resource
The Climate Bet
International Climate Science Coalition
Climate Scientists’ Register
Science and Public Policy Institute
Climate Depot by Marc Morano
World Climate Report by Dr. Patrick Michaels
E-FACT Report by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
Biweekly Updates from the Cooler Heads Coalition
Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change by Craig Idso et al.
Watts Up With That? by Anthony Watts
ICECAP by Joseph D. Aleo
Junk Science by Steve Milloy