{"id":333070,"date":"2024-06-15T16:55:24","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T14:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333070"},"modified":"2024-06-15T16:55:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-15T14:55:27","slug":"climate-and-energy-a-textbook-case-for-adaptation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=333070","title":{"rendered":"Climate and Energy: A textbook case for adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Duggan Flanakin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spearheaded by E. Calvin Beisner, who in 1999 composed The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship and six years later founded the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, Climate and Energy: The Case for Realism<\/em> provides a blueprint for changing the hearts and minds of an emerging generation that has been heavily indoctrinated in the belief that planet Earth is \u201cdying\u201d because humanity has sinned by using fossil fuels to escape the drudgery of worldwide poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beisner and his co-editor, renowned climatologist David Legates, contribute their own chapters and solicited chapters from nine climate scientists, two environmental and energy economists, and two energy scientists\/engineers. All the chapters have copious references, and Legates also provides a list of 44 climate change papers dating back to Arrhenius\u2019 1896 paper that first described the so-called \u201cgreenhouse effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climate catastrophism that permeates \u201cmainstream\u201d rhetoric and policy is described by American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Benjamin Zycher, one of 27 reviewers whose praise for the book is included. In Zycher\u2019s words, \u201cCharacterized by an unprecedented degree of scientific dishonesty, bureaucratic empire-building, corporate pursuit of government favors, and media ignorance and biases, the public debate over climate policy has been dismal even by the shameful standards of Beltway discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully, as theologian Wayne Gruden of Phoenix Seminary says, this book \u201ccould change the entire debate over climate change and energy policy.\u201d And, as engineering professor James Wanliss of Anderson University adds, it exposes the shameful fact that \u201cmuch of the ruling caste in the West has decided that energy poverty is necessary to \u2018save the planet\u2019 [even though] energy poverty means inevitable destruction of infrastructure essential to a successful modern civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Vijay Jayaraj recounts in the book\u2019s final chapter, \u201cThe developing world is nowhere close to having sufficient energy to eradicate extreme poverty, open education and employment opportunities, and elevate economic prospects.\u201d To their shame, Jayaraj points to climate activists\u2019 lack of compassion for \u201cbillions of people across the developing world [who] worry about whether they will obtain food, water, health care, and other necessities that their wealthier neighbors take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is that moral compass, perhaps influenced by Beisner\u2019s own childhood in India, that drives the central question of this book: Is climate change such a threat to the planet that the \u201cbattle\u201d to maintain a constant global temperature justifies the denial of life-giving energy to half the world\u2019s people? Or is there another solution to the real and perceived threats to the status quo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Prologue, Legates shows how the alarmist narrative has for decades crowded out serious questions in the West about the ethical implications of denying the developing world the tools that made the West rich. Beisner\u2019s Introduction suggests that the wealthy West can address any climate challenges far better through adaptation \u2013 the path taken by countless generations throughout history \u2013 than by self-flagellation and forcing sacrifices on the poor. He asserts that poverty is a far greater risk to human health and life than anything related to climate and weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a chapter on \u201cthe history and politics of climate change,\u201d Legates shows how the fear-mongering on climate has thrown out the scientific method in favor of \u201cpost-normal science\u201d in which feelings matter as much as facts and even to \u201cpost-modern science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second Legates chapter discusses the role of greenhouse gases and explains how even a doubling of carbon dioxide would cause only minor impacts on climate change. The reason? The effect of greenhouse gases on atmospheric temperatures is a strongly logarithmic decay; therefore, climate sensitivity decreases with increasing concentration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In two chapters, climate scientist Roy Spencer addresses the science of climate and the role of evaporation, precipitation, and clouds, notably explaining that the greatest impacts on global temperature from \u201cgreenhouse gases\u201d are the baselines that keep the Earth warm enough and provide sufficient oxygen for human life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The late Patrick Michaels discussed the differences in weather and climate forecasting, noting that climate models (unlike weather forecasting models) are \u201cparameterized\u201d [fudged] to quantitatively estimate important factors that the models cannot reliably generate from scientific first principles. As such, climate modeling typically targets an \u201canticipated acceptable range\u201d of results \u2013 a scheme that Michaels dismissed as \u201cnot even science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a chapter on the role of the Sun, Michael and Ronan Connolly and Willie Soon point out that Earth is currently in a relatively mind \u201cinterglacial period\u201d but still in an ice age, given the vast amounts of ice in glaciers and at the poles. They also discuss the impacts of urban heat islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anthony Lupo has chapters on the role of the oceans and on the effects of human-induced global warming. In the first, he discusses the natural oscillations (El Nino and La Nina are but two) that exert influence on each other and on weather and climate. The relationship between longer-term oceanic cycles and global temperature may, he says, play a bigger role in climate change than current climate science recognizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second, Lupo notes that the media and policymakers only emphasize negative impacts of global warming on biodiversity and human health while ignoring positive effects like increasing vegetative production. El Nino derided as an economic negative, led to lowered use of fossil fuels for winter heating in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicola Scafetta\u2019s chapter on quantifying climate sensitivity is admittedly \u201cnot easily understood by nonscientists,\u201d according to the editors, but his conclusion is much easier to comprehend. \u201cClearly,\u201d he says, \u201cthis is unsettled science, challenging climate alarmism and the necessity of urgent and expensive mitigation policies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timothy Terrell shows that affordable, accessible energy, mostly from fossil fuels, has been the primary driver in human thriving. He chastises the West for demanding the developing world find another pathway to prosperity. The hypocrisy of energy colonialism is rapidly being rejected by developing nations, led by China and India, whose reliance on coal has brought hundreds of millions out of abject poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Hefner V reminds us that 95 percent of world energy today is sourced from coal, oil, gas, hydro, and nuclear, with renewables supplying only 5 percent. Fossil fuels and nuclear energy are hundreds to thousands of times more efficient than wind or solar systems in both energy density and land use requirements. He also notes that the information technology sector is the world\u2019s third-largest consumer of electricity, behind only China and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Peacock argues that the moral and effective way to improve mankind and the planet is through citizens\u2019 free choices, from which optimal solutions evolve naturally, not from government mandates. Most interventions in markets, he states, do not improve human rights but rather degrade them. As Fredrich Hayek put it, the decisions of regulators will always be inferior to those made by buyers and sellers acting on information transmitted by market prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G. Cornelis van Kooten has two chapters on climate change and energy economics. The first shows that an energy transition away from fossil fuels cannot happen rapidly without major disruptions, if at all. The second reiterates that the push for Net Zero is incompatible with economic growth for developing nations. China, India, and other emerging nations, while forced to pay lip service, ignore the demands of the West to build their economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, Climate and Energy<\/em> is valuable as a textbook both on the science and policy implications of climate change and on the ethics of policies that harm the world\u2019s poor and the citizens of developed nations as well. Beisner, Legates, and their colleagues show that the alarmist response is not only unattainable but would wreak far greater damage to the planet and its people than adaptation measures that are compatible with human flourishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duggan Flanakin<\/a> (<\/em>duggan@duggansdugout.com<\/a>) is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of public policy issues.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spearheaded by E. Calvin Beisner, who in 1999 composed The Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship and six years later founded the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation,\u00a0Climate and Energy: The Case for Realism\u00a0provides a blueprint for changing the hearts and minds of an emerging generation that has been heavily indoctrinated in the belief that planet Earth is \u201cdying\u201d because humanity has sinned by using fossil fuels to escape the drudgery of worldwide poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":333078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818076,691827486,691818296],"class_list":{"0":"post-333070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-co2","10":"tag-el-nino-la-nina-cycles","11":"tag-greenhouse-effect","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/00Screenshot-2024-06-15-165230-1.png?fit=1124%2C901&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1oE6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":338117,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=338117","url_meta":{"origin":333070,"position":0},"title":"\u201cMissing Context\u201d: How Climate Catastrophists at NOAA Mislead without Lying","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/31\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"By now practically everyone who follows news and commentary about climate change has seen graphs of global warming over the past century or more. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) produced this one in 2017, covering 1880\u20132016.","rel":"","context":"In \"climate catastrophists\"","block_context":{"text":"climate catastrophists","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-catastrophists"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/OIG-29.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/OIG-29.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/OIG-29.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/OIG-29.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":426209,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=426209","url_meta":{"origin":333070,"position":1},"title":"New York Times Gives Wind Turbines a Free Pass to Slaughter Birds","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/14\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Bird Conservancy estimates that wind turbines kill between 700,000 and one million birds annually in the United States alone. 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