GREEN NOTES

          My Commentary         

Battling Bad Science! - Over a lifetime of reading and pontificating about everything I have come to some very basic conclusions about ....everything. One of the conclusions I arrived at many years ago is that everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. Another conclusion that I came to is that everything is the basics. Those two kind of go hand in hand. If it is too complicated it probably isn't true, and must be looked at very carefully before being accepted. If it defies what we see in life it probably isn't true. And claims by scientists are very often so complicated that most of us, including other scientists, have trouble understanding them....and very often defy reality. I recommend reading Ecological Sanity by Claus and Bolander.......

          Oh California!!!!!!!           

 

A Drought of Sanity in California  -The ink was hardly dry on the Secretarial Order from Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell blaming California’s drought on global warming that rain and snow swept across the state. San Francisco International Airport was forced to cancel flights and there were blizzard warnings for Lake Tahoe.   The Los Angeles Times warned breathlessly of a winter war footing. San Francisco, the home of a million companies cashing in on environmental panics, received 130% of average rainfall. Sacramento, where terrible ideas from San Francisco go to become law under a Democratic supermajority, is at 160%........

My Take - It must be nice being a member of the Church of the Warming Globe because then you know the reason for 'everything'!!!!  Too much snow, too little snow, too much rain, too little rain, terrorism, acne....oh, just pick something ..... actually anything....and it's caused by global warming. It must really give them a warming and fuzzy feeling to be so well informed.  Or is it ignorance is bliss?  But ignorance is at least a legitimate excuse because ignorance is the natural state.  We're all ignorant about a huge number of things because there's so much out there to know.  Ignorance means we simply don't know, but that can be fixed by learning.  But stupid is different, at least for those with reasonable intelligence, because it means they don't want to know and that kind of stupid can't be fixed.  Then we have Al Gore as the High Priest of the Church of the Warming Globe.   But he's not stupid.....just corrupt!

            Cancer           

It's Time To Stop Using Simplistic Hazard Classifications For Carcinogen Claims - The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was founded with a noble goal - to put an end to environmental claims based on weak observational anecdotes, like Rachel Carson claiming that she knew people who sprayed DDT in their basement and died (1) or that cranberries were going to poison everyone.

Yet in recent years they have become complicit in just that. Their mission is to identify the causes of cancer, known as hazard identification, and not make suggestions about the degree to which each carcinogen presents a risk to public health, yet they have begun to do that all of the time. When they bizarrely claimed that eating sausage was as hazardous as smoking (a Group 1 carcinogen), they damaged their credibility with the public likely beyond repair. And I noted it was because they routinely use the term "risk" - 38 times just in their Q&A on meat. Cell phones, glyphosate, you name it and this has become routine for them. How did it come to be? In last year's "IARC: Diesel Exhaust & Lung Cancer", based on their 2012 assessment of diesel exhaust, I analyzed how IARC intentionally chose working group members that were certain to make biased conclusions. A big part of the reason, I noted, was that Dr. Chris Portier, whose title was officially Chairman of the IARC Working Group, had a secret title - consultant for Environmental Defense Fund........

          Colony Collapse Disorder         

Buzz Kill: How the Sierra Club uses scare tactics about bee health and twists the science to raise money - The Sierra Club, founded by John Muir in 1892 to support wilderness outings and conservation in the American west, is now on a different campaign: scaring the bejeebies out of people to raise money. The once venerable organization, once known for its eco-pragmatism, is twisting the science about bees and pesticides. Literally hundreds of thousands of people who have supported one green organization or event in recent years opened their mailboxes in the past few months to find a scare letter of epic proportions written by Sierra’s executive director Michael Brune:........In a recent series of letters sent out this fall as part of this ongoing multi-year fund-raising effort, Brune makes the case that neonics are behind Colony Collapse Disorder and responsible for a 44 percent decline in bee populations:........Deconstructing Sierra Club’s claims..........

          Endangered Species         

Shades of the Old Soviet Union - "Red" Wolf Acolytes of a Dying Ideology  - At the end of this short article you will find a “news” item from Arkansas State University. To say that I found it simultaneously sad and reprehensible would be an understatement. As someone that attended high school in the 1950’s it brought back memories about how the Soviet Union was taking children from their parents and indoctrinating them in radical ideas.  The fact that there were incidents after incidents reported of the children “turning in” their parents for simply listening to the radio or even just to make the child look good to his or her “government” parents deeply impressed us kids as we were mostly from happy families with loving parents. I look at that introductory photo below and a real chill goes down my spine as I see what those “happy” Soviet children must have looked like......

         Endocrine Disruptors            

Nature editorial ‘exploits public anxiety’ on endocrine disruptors - In December 2016, the European Union member states will vote on proposed legislation that would mandate an ambitious program to identify and regulate “endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment. On November 22, the journal Nature carried an editorial entitled “Stand firm on hormone disruptors” by NYU pediatrician Leonardo Trasande. Rather than laying out the scientific issues relevant to consideration of the problem of chemicals in the environment and their effects on the general population, the editorial indulges in far-reaching speculation.......

          Energy         

The $3.5 Trillion Fracking Economy Is About To Get A Lot Bigger - OPEC’s Nightmare Scenario: U.S. Frackers Are Winning The Oil War.......

          EPA          

 

Obama's EPA 'Does Not Verify the Accuracy or Science' On Its Own Blog - Restoring science to its "rightful place"?  In President Obama's first inaugural address in January 2009, he declared, rather grandly, "We'll restore science to its rightful place..." The president has often prided himself on his devotion to science, and earlier this year the White House posted "100 Examples of Putting Science in Its Rightful Place" on its blog. This emphasis on the primacy of science is what makes the editor's note attached to many of the posts on the EPA's official blog eight years in to the Obama administration so curious: ""EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog....


Setting the Record Straight on Scott Pruitt - Trump’s nominee to head the EPA will protect the environment, not out-of-control bureaucrats. The ink had not dried on Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the EPA before many in the media labeled him a “climate denier.” Like most cases of slander, this one rested on the flimsiest of reeds — lines from an op-ed I co-authored with Attorney General Pruitt and published in May at National Review Online under the title “The Climate-Change Gang.”  The column is still available for all to read and should speak for itself, but some attacks should not go unrebutted. So let’s set the record straight.........

         Genetically Modified Organisms        

UN Biodiversity Meeting Supports Gene Drives, Rejects Environmentalists - The UN Convention on Biodiversity meeting - typically dominated by environmental activists lobbying bloated quasi-world-government committees - recently met in Cancún and when we weren't talking about their enjoyment of catered dinners and $600 a night rooms in a resort town completely lacking in biodiversity, we were talking about the other hypocrisy in the environmental movement; claiming they care about science when they really want to ban all of it.  In this case — synthetic biology. Right now, activists have limited themselves to seeking bans on Genetically Modified Organisms - GMOs - but those are a precise legal term for one product. Mutagenesis and lots of other biological manipulation from 50 years ago are still allowed to be called "Organic" and have gotten a free pass......

          Global Warming         

2016’s biggest loser: Big Green  - The day after the presidential elections the executive director of the Sierra Club glumly called the Donald Trump victory “deeply disturbing for the nation and the planet.” Well, yes, if you’re a climate change alarmist who hates fossil fuels, you’re in for a bad four and maybe eight years.

Reality-based climate forecasting - These days, even shipwreck museums showcase evidence of climate change. After diving recently among Key West’s fabled ship-destroying barrier reefs, I immersed myself in exhibits from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, the fabled Spanish galleon that foundered during a ferocious hurricane in 1622. The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum now houses many of the gold, silver, emeralds and artifacts that Mel and Deo Fisher’s archeological team recovered after finding the wreck in 1985. Also featured prominently in the museum is the wreck of a British slave ship, the Henrietta Marie It sank in a hurricane off Key West in 1700, after leaving 190 Africans in Jamaica, to be sold as slaves.........

Green/Left Double Standard - Dr. Susan Crockford (email: scrock@uvic.ca) has written a well-informed and approachable book about polar bears.  She has no time for the usual Warmist scare about the bears being "endangered". The book has only just been released but the Warmists are already on the case.  A review by someone called "Eli" on Amazon reads:

"Caveat emptor: the author's vague self-description as "a professional zoologist who has studied polar bear ecology and evolution for more than 20 years" appears intended to mask the facts that her PhD and professional work are in the field of canine archaeology, and that she has no formal training or expertise in polar bear science. Up to you to decide whether she's the best source of information for you and your kids on polar bear facts and myths."

I would love to know who Eli is.  I want to ask him whether tobacco-grower Al Gore's speeches about global warming should be disregarded because Al's qualifications are in divinity and social science. 

 

El Niño Does Not Mean The End Of The ‘Pause’ - ‘Knives Sticking Out Of My Back’: Judith Curry On Why She Left Academia



 

Skeptical Climate Scientists Coming In From the Cold - In the world of climate science, the skeptics are coming in from the cold.  Researchers who see global warming as something less than a planet-ending calamity believe the incoming Trump administration may allow their views to be developed and heard. This didn’t happen under the Obama administration, which denied that a debate even existed. Now, some scientists say, a more inclusive approach – and the billions of federal dollars that might support it – could be in the offing.  “Here’s to hoping the Age of Trump will herald the demise of climate change dogma, and acceptance of a broader range of perspectives in climate science and our policy options,” Georgia Tech scientist Judith Curry wrote this month at her popular Climate Etc. blog.......

 The next great sucking sound -  President-Elect Trump has pierced the veils surrounding the holy of holies wherein reside the eco-dogmatists of the EPA and the U.N. and promises the rightful return of respect to the essence of scientific research…skepticism.  In 1746, philosopher Denis Diderot penned, “Skepticism is the first step towards truth.”  Billions of taxpayer monies have been spent by our progressively bent government and its crony supplicants to turn that concept on its head.  Mass media acolytes wordsmithed “skeptic” into a dirty word.  Emulating the harsh but masterful government propaganda machine of 1930s Germany, they successfully convinced much of the public and ruling class that the life-sustaining trace gas, carbon dioxide, is an earth-destroying pollutant.   Federal agencies promoted the concept and dispensed billions of dollars in lavishly funding those scientists and commercial interests willing to pervert the term “climate change,” a constant feature of geohistory, into a man-made threat and a money-making commercial enterprise......next great sucking sound should be that of the Washington, D.C. swamp being drained and taking away the accumulated detritus of pseudo-science coopted in the service of false dogma and political favoritism, with the subsequent restoration of “skepticism” to its place as a benchmark for the advancement of scientific knowledge.......

The End Of Germany’s Energiewende? - Rex Tillerson Says Climate Science 'Inconclusive', California Is Singing In The Rain, Climate Alarmists Make Fools Of Themselves, Heavy Rain And Snow End California’s 5-Year Drought....

         Pesticides         

The Phosphine Accident – A Tragic Chemistry Lesson - We routinely write about phony chemical scares. Thanks to know-nothings, groups with agendas, and the press, the mere mention of BPA, which is about as close to harmless as chemicals get, sends people into a frenzy. Some will go to great lengths to avoid it, such as refusing to touch cash register receipts. But, there is nothing phony about phosphine—the gas that recently killed four children in Texas. Phosphine is a real poison and a very potent one at that. Most chemists will go their entire careers without ever using it......

How Can Pesticides Be Safe? Many people may find it difficult to imagine how a pesticide could ever be safe. To understand how that is possible, it is helpful to make the comparison with something more familiar: electricity. It is hard to envision modern life without electricity. As much as we enjoy and need this source of energy, it involves some hazards. Electricity can, and sometimes does, cause injury or death..........

Missouri Senator to Propose Pesticide Spraying Bill, Again - Sen. McCaskill (D-Mo.) says she will refile a bill to overturn a federal court decision on spraying pesticides over water  Lawmakers have tried to change the requirements since 2011

          Scientific Integrity is an Oxymoron         

 

If peer review were a drug, it would never get on the market - Hundreds of thousands of papers are published each year in the medical literature, and each year the number of papers published continues to grow. Publication in a “peer-review” journal is a core requirement for advancement in one’s career as a scientist, and since quality is often hard to judge, quantity (i.e., number of papers published) is a widely used metric.  The peer review system is supposed to winnow out work that is not suitable for publication. The system relies on “peers,” or experts, to examine a paper prior to publication, critique it, and offer a recommendation either for or against publication. In the scientific community, it is widely recognized that, like any system that depends on human beings, the peer review system is not perfect. Reviewers are expected to donate their time, and it can take several hours to critically evaluate a paper........