Image from The Atlantic
By Nancy Thorner –
The Heartland Institute, as a prelude and counter to the Biden/Harris administration's celebration of Earth Day on Thursday, April 22, 2021, presented its own Zoom event on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, titled, "The Real Crisis: Biden and the Left's Radical Climate Policies."
Heartland's event featured a panel of the following notable climate science experts:
- Steve Milloy, Founder and Publisher of Junk Science
- James Taylor, President of The Heartland Institute
- Gregory Wrightstone, Executive Director, CO2 Coalition
- Myron Bell, CEI's Center for Energy and Environment.
The panel focused on several different aspects of the Biden plan and what's going on with the climate summit, what's going on with the American Jobs Plan, the so-called infrastructure package, the Paris Treaty commitments, and some of the science that the Biden administration and its supporters don't pay attention to.
Since the topic is so important, with its ramification closely tied to this nation's economic future and its survival as a world leader if fully enacted, Thorner decided her article needed to be presented in two parts to do justice to each of the four panelists' remarks.
Part 1 features the presentations of Steve Milloy and James Taylor. A Part 2 follow up will cover the remarks of Gregory Wrightstone and Myron Bell.
Steve Milloy, Founder and Publisher of Junk Science
Steve Milloy was introduced as a publisher, a lawyer, and a biostatistician by training. He's the author of several book including his most recent work, "Scared to Death".
Four question were initially entertained by Mr. Milloy for consideration:
- Where are we going?
- How do we get there?
- Can it be done?
- Is it worth it?
As to the third question, Milloy questioned whether it's possible physically or financially politically possible to do.
As Milloy related: "The Democrats want to spend trillions of dollars that will need to be printed. AOC's Thrive Act with Ed. Markey would spend $10 trillion over 10 years. That's lots of money being spent. When money is spent, shouldn't some basic cost-benefit analysis be done? What is the value of spending trillions of dollars, and still the problem is not solved? Cutting emissions is not a benefit without other benefits?"
Milloy presents three micro examples of Biden's plan
1. Electrify the federal car fleet: According to Milloy, even if the entire federal fleet were electrified, it won't make a difference.
2. Extreme weather: Biden said in a speech that his $2.6 trillion infrastructure plan will reduce the frequency/intensity of hurricanes.
But not according to NOAA, which claims global warming has been worth an average of two extra named storms and not one major hurricane.
3. Electricity Mandates: According to a University of Chicago study of renewable mandates of November 2020: 1) Higher electricity prices are real; 2) No benefits from trivial CO2 cuts; 3) Global emissions are way up anyway.
Milloy presents enlightening conclusion
Milloy: “What do we get for spending trillions on climate?
- Nothing describable climate-wise (by definition, a waste of money).
- Global leadership: 1) We are 10% of emissions and decreasing; 2) Global economic and social development depend of fossil fuels; 3) China and India deny responsibility for historic emissions and are not cutting theirs; 4) China's goal is to be the lone global superpower by 2049, not to be global neutral."
James Taylor – President of The Heartland Institute
James Taylor, as President of Heartland, has been directing Heartland's climate for most of the past 20 years. With Taylor, the discussion moved from politics and economics to some of the science of global warming. Taylor’s topic: “Global Warming, the Scientific Facts”
Referring to the trillions of dollars to which Steve Malloy had previously referred — predicated on the notion that we are facing a climate crisis (a climate catastrophe) — Taylor advised that we should not just take what it being said, but instead see what science says.
Said Taylor, "Keep in mind that current temperatures are unusually cool, not hot. Whenever we hear that the hottest years on record were the past 11 years, the key phrase is on the record.”
“Remember that climate activists only refer to the last hundred years, a small speck of time in regard to how long human civilization has been around.”
Temperatures cooler today than 1000 years ago
A slide detailing an European Science Foundation report indicated that going from 10,000 years ago to temperatures that exist today, even with the warming of the past century and a half, temperatures are still cooler today than they were 10,000 years ago.
As Taylor explained: "The same holds true of temperatures 2,000 and 1,000 years ago. For example, in Greenland whole villages existed and thrived because the temperature was warmer at that time. This is science showing us that present temperatures are unusually cool, not warm."
“Data published by the UN indicates the same thing. Temperatures of today are significantly cooler than temperatures that have dominated during the time period of human civilization.”
“The hottest years on record are not occurring now, but thousands of years ago. Humans without today's technologies, not only survived, but thrived through these temperature periods.”
“The UN has admitted that warming is slower than predicted. According to temperatures measured by NASA/NOAA satellites, temperatures are rising much closer to 0.01 C degrees per decade than 0.03 or 0.02. In other words, the temperature predictions of accelerating temperatures have not occurred, and there is no indication that it is going to change soon.”
Taylor examines extreme weather events
"In taking a look at extreme weather events, the IPCC (United Nation's body for assessing the science related to climate change), in its Interim Report of 2018, admits there is only low confidence to the attribution of any detectable changes in tropical cyclone due to anthropogenic influences ( the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by humans). Although temperatures have increased modestly, we also haven't seen any increase in hurricanes. The same holds true for tornadoes, floods, droughts, and fires."
Benefits of higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations
As gleamed from a NASSA website of February 11, 2019, Taylor explained: "It is important to keep in mind that there are substantial benefits to higher atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and lower temperatures."
"There has been a substantial greening of the earth throughout the 20 years since 2000. There has been an increase of average leaf area of 5% during the same period. With a greening earth we see deserts receding, seeing more lush vegetation, also an increase in global crop production. There are tremendous benefits that we can't overlook.”
Taylor’s conclusion
“As a whole when we look at the science for the expansive plans that Joe Biden and others are proposing, the scientific evidence is not there.”
Part 2 will be on Illinois Review Friday.
