Amazing grace saves a wretch. I have seen the light and changed my mind. See for example https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/30/amazing-grace-saves-a-wretch/ … which is about someone changing their mind. Not just somebody but an environmentalist, Jim Steele. He has been a sceptic for a while. Recently, he had a heart attack and this is his response.
We also have a book out by a redeemed environmentalist, Michael Shellenberger, a true case of Amazing Grace one might say. It's title is 'Apocalypse Never' – a reference to the apocalyptic nature of climate alarmism (see for example https://papundits.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/book-review-apocalypse-never-… … Shellenberger is a long time climate activist, his credentials are high and he has been active for 30 years. He has apparently seen the light, unhappy with the idea of terrorising children with stories of the end of the world. It might be that maturity has kicked in as he was fully onboard in his teens and younger years. He now regards as hypocritical many of the politicians and environmentalists as a result of them trousering lots of loot. The Green Blob may view this book as devastating but expect the extremists to respond verbally and physically by trying to block the public becoming aware of the book. There is almost no idea propagated by the alarmists that is spared by Shellenberger. The book also has 104 pages of notes in order to meticulously document his research. Falsehoods are exposed on fracking; polar bear numbers; wind energy (which is killing millions of birds and bats); wildfires and extreme weather events. He claims the latter are not historically significant. Solar and wind is inefficient and take up 1000 times the space of fossil fuel power plants. He also ridicules the cutting down of woodland in order to accommodate wind farms – in the process destroying the wildlife habitat. Politicians and elites are exposed for their hypocrisy. Green groups are shown being financially support by renewable energy billionaires – even by fossil fuel billionaires. Environmental scientists, journalists and activists are criticised for embellishment and dishonesty. Telling porkies is quite blatant. He even claims there is a religious backdrop to apocalyptic environmentalism which gives people a purpose and provides meaning to their lives. The same can be said about some brands of socialism, or elite versions of marxism. These are also apocalyptic as they foresee destroying what is already there in order to build a better future – which of course is basically apocalyptic. Religion, over the years, has attemtpted to suppress apocalyptic excesses but it is noteable that some church leaders, who should know better, are fully on board the climate alarmism bandwagon.
Shellenberger calls himself a rational environmentalist and claims apocalyptic climate change will never happen. Ever. It is all in their heads. He has of course woken up to the fact that the environment is being destroyed and the wildlife that lives within it, by the Green Blob – whether it is palm oil plantations in Borneo or solar farms in pristine wilderness.
At www.sepp.org (June newsletter 2020) we have 6 pages on a new paper from MIT professor emeritus of atmospheric physics (again, a mature chap), Richard Lindzen. He has been demonised bv the Green Blob like some other big hitting scientists of note – once admired but now regarded as embodiments of evil. The title of the paper is 'An oversimplified picture of climate behaviour based on a single process can lead to distorted conclusions' in which it is self evident he is talking about the emphasis on co2 by the climate alarmists. Lindzen contests the idea that co2 emissions are causing dangerous global warming. Lindzen goes into why the models are wrong. He says the two most important greenhouse components of the atmosphere are water vapour and clouds. Clouds also reflect sunlight. The earth receives about 340 W/m2 from the Sun but about 100 W/m2 is simply reflected back into space by clouds. This leaves 240 W/m2 that the earth would have to emit in order to establish balance in the system. Water vapour blocks infrared radiation from leaving the surface, causing the surface and (via conduction) and the air adjacent to the surface to heat and convective processes result in decreasing temperature with height (the lapse rate). The amount of water vapour that the air can hold decreases rapidly as the temperature decreases. At height there is so little water vapour remaining that radiation from this level can how escape to space. It is at this level that the temperature must be about 255 K in order to balance incoming radiation. As the temperature decreases with height this means the surface of the earth has to actually be warmer than 255K. The addition of co2 increases further the emission level and causes an additional increase of the ground temperature. Doubling co2 is estimated to be the equivalent to a forcing of about 4W/m2 which is a little less than 2% of net incoming 240 W/m2. Chicken feed one might say. Obviously, Lindzen as a scientist is several grades higher than your average climate scientist which is why it was necessary to demonise him rather than listen to what he was saying.
He continues by saying the situation can actually be more complicated if upper level cirrus clouds are present. They are very strong absorbers and emitters of infrared radiation and effectively block infrared radiation from below. Many other factors such as average cloud area and height, snow cover, ocean circulation, and so on, commonly cause changes to the radiative bduget comparable to that of doubling of co2. In other words, the whole emphasis on co2 was a misnomer from the beginning, an idea born out of ignorance. Well I never.
At https://tallbloke.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/schellenberger-apology.pdf … on behalf of environmentalists I apologise for the climate scare. Shellenberger goes on to say humans are not causing a 6th mass extinction event; the amazon is not the lungs of the world; climate change is not making disasters worse; landscape fires have declined since 2003; the amount of land we use for meat has also declined by a significant amount; the build up of wood fuel and too many houses built at the forest edge, not climate change, explain the fires in California and Australia; carbon emissions have been declining in rich nations for decades. They peaked in the 1970s; adapting to life below sea level made the Netherlands rich not poor; we produce 25 per cent more food than the world requires and food surpluses will continue to rise if the world gets warmer; habitat loss and hunting are a bigger threat to species than climate change; wood fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels; etc. He says he knows the above facts will sound like climate denialism to many activists but that just shows the power and influence of the alarmism.
This book, coming after a film by another environmentalist from the Green Blob, which criticised the elite pushing the hype for their own financial reasons, is an unexpected bonus as it had seemed lately that climate change was going to bring us all to paupery. How the elite thought they would be unaffected is one of those delusions of human nature. It is a welcome development. At the same time Benny Peiser and the GWPF forum in the UK are pushing for fossil fuel power plants in Africa to banish poverty from the continent. Even in South Africa power stations are basically to provide energy for factories and industrial processes. The general population don't have access to plug in electrical points. What could be more worth while. Renewables on the other hand don't cut the mustard. Basically, climate change alarmism means that Africa would be left to wood burning in cramped homes leading to what is now an epidemic of smoke related illnesses. Benny calls it climate change colonialism. See www.thegwpf.com/eco-colonialism-in-africa/ … One factor in climate change rarely discussed is their idea of suppressing the growth of humanity. Keeping the numbers down. Smoke related illnesses do of course help in that process so might that be one reason why the alarmists are so keen Africa and other pockets of poverty in the world, do not have access to modern fossil fuel power plants. The Chinese have done very well out of their coal fired power stations and are still constructing them at a rate of knots. Now, India and Brazil are catching on to the benefits of fossil fuel power and electricity, and their standards of living are on the up and up. The Malthusans won't like that. Obviously, if every part of the world became industrialised to some degree we would naturally have a decline in population as that is what has been happening in rich countries. Western elites need to go back to the drawing board. Next time they feel a need to use science to create fear and despondency they should at least check out and try and understand how the earth system works. At the moment they don't have a clue. If they did have a clue and still propagated their nonsense that would be pure evil.