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I do not support the current Senate bill nor the prior House of Representative’s bill to reduce greenhouse emissions. My opposition is based on actual science not political science. Read on if you are interested in the scientific basis; count the vote if you are only interested in politics.
When my daughter was five, she asked me how the trees flapped their leaves to make the wind blow. She taught me a very valuable lesson: correlation does not mean cause. And so it is with CO2 and global warming. Perhaps it is a lesson that the congress of the United States needs to learn.
As the senate considers fast-tracking a climate bill that will require a 20% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 – at an unstated cost to the taxpayer and to our economy – one should ask some fundamental questions about the cause of “global warming,” before taking action. Otherwise, the economic consequences will be more disastrous than the government’s mandate to supplement gasoline with ethanol, providing farmers with economic incentives to allocate up to 30% of the United States arable land to produce less than 50 gallons of fuel per acre. As a result, food prices have risen and actual vehicle miles per gallon have decreased, because ethanol does not contain the same higher heating value (energy content) as carbon-based fuels.
My global warming conclusions are supported by a scientific study, Increased Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, by Robinson, A.B., et al, reviewed and endorsed by more than 9,000 Ph.D.s (http://www.petitionproject.org/) , and the testimony of David Evans, the scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto protocol (http://mises.org/story/2571 and http://mises.org/story/2795).
The conclusion of the Robinson research is that the earth is warming at a rate of 0.5 degrees Centigrade per 100 years, that this trend is naturally occurring, as the earth recovers from what is referred to as the Little Ice Age, and is driven by solar radiation, not man-made CO2 production. The current warming trend can be traced to about 1800. The researchers conclude that over the last 3,000 years, the earth’s temperature has varied within a 3 degree Celsius range. Arctic temperature variation correlates strongly with solar activity and not with world hydrocarbon use.
In fact, the study concludes that overall the climate has improved. The number of tornados has decreased, the number of hurricanes has remained constant, and rainfall has increased. During the past 50 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased 22%, much of that due to human activity, but no correlation exists between temperature increase and carbon dioxide production. In fact the major effect has been to increase plant growth and biological diversity (that is, a positive effect).
When my daughter was five, she asked me how the trees flapped their leaves to make the wind blow. She taught me a very valuable lesson: correlation does not mean cause. And so it is with CO2 and global warming. Perhaps it is a lesson that the congress of the United States needs to learn.
As the senate considers fast-tracking a climate bill that will require a 20% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 – at an unstated cost to the taxpayer and to our economy – one should ask some fundamental questions about the cause of “global warming,” before taking action. Otherwise, the economic consequences will be more disastrous than the government’s mandate to supplement gasoline with ethanol, providing farmers with economic incentives to allocate up to 30% of the United States arable land to produce less than 50 gallons of fuel per acre. As a result, food prices have risen and actual vehicle miles per gallon have decreased, because ethanol does not contain the same higher heating value (energy content) as carbon-based fuels.
My global warming conclusions are supported by a scientific study, Increased Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, by Robinson, A.B., et al, reviewed and endorsed by more than 9,000 Ph.D.s (http://www.petitionproject.org/) , and the testimony of David Evans, the scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia’s compliance with the Kyoto protocol (http://mises.org/story/2571 and http://mises.org/story/2795).
The conclusion of the Robinson research is that the earth is warming at a rate of 0.5 degrees Centigrade per 100 years, that this trend is naturally occurring, as the earth recovers from what is referred to as the Little Ice Age, and is driven by solar radiation, not man-made CO2 production. The current warming trend can be traced to about 1800. The researchers conclude that over the last 3,000 years, the earth’s temperature has varied within a 3 degree Celsius range. Arctic temperature variation correlates strongly with solar activity and not with world hydrocarbon use.
In fact, the study concludes that overall the climate has improved. The number of tornados has decreased, the number of hurricanes has remained constant, and rainfall has increased. During the past 50 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased 22%, much of that due to human activity, but no correlation exists between temperature increase and carbon dioxide production. In fact the major effect has been to increase plant growth and biological diversity (that is, a positive effect).
