The following lectures from the Prager University Foundation cover climate change, energy and the environment. The Prager University Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization has created an online resource of concise five minute lectures on environmental science topics presented by scientific experts and professionals. These offer fresh perspectives supported by fact based reasoning on contentious issues to anyone with an open mind.
"A world of new perspectives, five minutes at a time." - Prager University Foundation
Climate Change:
Climate Change: What Do Scientists Say? (Dr. Richard S. Lindzen)
Can Climate Models Predict Climate Change? (Dr. William Happer)
The Paris Climate Agreement Won't Change the Climate (Dr. Bjørn Lomborg)
Do 97% of Climate Scientists Really Agree? (Alex Epstein)
What They Haven't Told You about Climate Change (Dr. Patrick Moore)
The Truth about CO2 (Dr. Patrick Moore)
Is Climate Change Our Biggest Problem? (Dr. Bjørn Lomborg)
Climate Change: What's So Alarming? (Dr. Bjørn Lomborg)
Energy:
Are Electric Cars Really Green? (Dr. Bjørn Lomborg)
Can We Rely on Wind and Solar Energy? (Alex Epstein)
Fossil Fuels: The Greenest Energy (Alex Epstein)
Why You Should Love Fossil Fuels (Alex Epstein)
Environment:
Is Organic Food Worth the Cost? (Dr. Bjørn Lomborg)
Are GMOs Good or Bad? (Dr. Patrick Moore)
Trees Are the Answer (Dr. Patrick Mooree)
Why I Left Greenpeace (Dr. Patrick Moore)
Curriculum Vitae:
Richard S. Lindzen, A.B. Physics Magna Cum Laude, Harvard University (1960); S.M. Applied Mathematics, Harvard University (1961); Ph.D. Applied Mathematics, Harvard University (1964); Research Associate in Meteorology, University of Washington (1964-1965); NATO Post-Doctoral Fellow, Institute for Theoretical Meteorology, University of Oslo (1965-1966); Research Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research (1966-1967); Visiting Lecturer in Meteorology, UCLA (1967); NCAR Outstanding Publication Award (1967); AMS Meisinger Award (1968); Associate Professor and Professor of Meteorology, University of Chicago (1968-1972); Summer Lecturer, NCAR Colloquium (1968, 1972, 1978); AGU Macelwane Award (1969); Visiting Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, Tel Aviv University (1969); Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1970-1976); Gordon McKay Professor of Dynamic Meteorology, Harvard University (1972-1983); Visiting Professor of Dynamic Meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1975); Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Department of Meteorology, The Hebrew University (1979); Director, Center for Earth and Planetary Physics, Harvard University (1980-1983); Robert P. Burden Professor of Dynamical Meteorology, Harvard University (1982-1983); AMS Charney Award (1985); Vikram Amblal Sarabhai Professor, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India (1985); Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (1986-1987); Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA (1988-Present); Sackler Visiting Professor, Tel Aviv University (1992); Landsdowne Lecturer, University of Victoria (1993); Bernhard Haurwitz Memorial Lecturer, American Meteorological Society (1997); Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow, American Geophysical Union; Fellow, American Meteorological Society; Member, Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters; Member, Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society; Member, National Academy of Sciences; Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1983-2013); Distinguished Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Science, Cato Institute (2013-Present); Lead Author, IPCC (2001); Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2013-Present); ISI Highly Cited Researcher
William Happer, B.S. Physics, University of North Carolina (1960); Ph.D. Physics, Princeton University (1964); Research Physicist, Columbia University (1964-1965); Professor, Department of Physics, Columbia University (1965-1980); Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship (1966); Co-Director, Columbia Radiation Laboratory, Columbia University (1971-1976); Director, Columbia Radiation Laboratory, Columbia University (1976-1979); Member, JASON Advisory Group (1976-Present); Alexander von Humboldt Award (1976); Professor of Physics, Princeton University (1980-1991); Chairman, Steering Committee, JASON Advisory Group (1987-1990); Member, Board of Trustees, MITRE Corporation (1987-2011); Class of 1909 Professor of Physics Award, Princeton University (1988); Director, Office of Energy Research, U.S. Department of Energy (1991-1993); Professor of Physics, Princeton University (1993-1995); Eugene Higgens Professor of Physics, Princeton University (1995-2003); Chairman, University Research Board, Princeton University (1995-2005); Member, National Academy of Sciences (1996); Herbert P. Broida Prize, American Physical Society (1997); Davisson-Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics, American Physical Society (1999); Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award, Research & Development Council of New Jersey (2000); Member, Science and Technology Advisory Committee, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2002-2005); Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member, American Philosophical Society; Fellow, American Physical Society (APS); Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, Princeton University (2003-Present)
Patrick Moore, B.Sc. (Hons) Forest Biology, University of British Columbia (1969); Ph.D. Ecology, Institute of Resource Ecology, University of British Columbia (1974); Ford Foundation Fellowship (1969-1972); Vice-President, Pacific Salmon Society (1969-1972); Director, Western Canada Chapter, Sierra Club (1971-1973); Co-Founder, Greenpeace (1971-1986); Member, Board of Directors, British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (1984-1991); Founder and President, Quatsino Seafarms Ltd. (1984-1991); President, British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (1986-1989); Member, Board of Directors, British Columbia Aquaculture Research and Development Association (1990-1993); Member, Aquaculture Advisory Council, British Columbia Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (1990-1993); Founder and Chairman, British Columbia, Carbon Project (1990-1994); Appointment, British Columbia Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (1990-1994); Member, Power Generation Working Group, Greater Vancouver Regional District (1992); Member, Economic Development and Environment Committee, Vancouver Board of Trade (1992-1994); Director, Architectural Institute of British Columbia (1995-1996); Director and Vice-President, Environment and Government Affairs, Waterfurnace International (1995-1998); Honorary Doctorate of Sciences, North Carolina State University (2005); Founding Co-Chair, Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (2006-2013); National Award of Nuclear Science and History, National Atomic Museum Foundation (2009); Speaks Truth To Power Award, EarthFree Institute (2014); Member, Board of Directors, Forest Alliance of British Columbia (1991-Present); Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Greenspirit (1991-Present); Chair, Ecology, Energy, and Prosperity Program, Frontier Centre for Public Policy (2014-Present)
Bjørn Lomborg, M.A. Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark (1991); Ph.D. Political Science (Thesis: "Simulating Social Science: The Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma and Computer Simulations in Political Science"), University of Copenhagen, Denmark (1994); Georgia Rotary Student Foundation Scholarship, University of Georgia (1983); Undergraduate, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Georgia (1983-1984); Kossack Prize of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Georgia (1984); Assistant Professor of Statistics, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark (1994-1996); Associate Professor of Statistics, Department of Political Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark (1997-2005); Director, Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI), Denmark (2002-2004); Organizer, Copenhagen Consensus (2004); Adjunct Professor of Policy-making, Scientific Knowledge and the Role of Experts, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (2005-2015); Director, Copenhagen Consensus Center, Denmark (2006-Present)
Alex Epstein, B.A. Philosophy, Duke University (2002); Network Model Development and Application Training, OPNET Technologies (1996-2000); Freelance Writer (2001-2004); Objectivist Academic Center, Ayn Rand Institute (2004); Fellow, Ayn Rand Institute (2004-2011); Director, Center for Industrial Progress (2011-Present); Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute (2015-Present)
Monday, August 22, 2016
Thursday, June 30, 2016
NOAA 1974 - Global Cooling Will Starve the World
"The poorest nations, already beset by man-made disasters, have been threatened by a natural one: the possibility of climatic changes ...perhaps throughout the world. The implications for global food and population policies are ominous..." - NOAA, 1974
In October 1974, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published an alarming article in their quarterly magazine stating that climatologists believed a recent global cooling trend would starve the world and send the planet into another ice age. [1]
Most forecasts of worldwide food production have been based on the assumption that global weather will stay about the same as it has been in the recent past. But it has already begun to change.This is consistent with the documented media hysteria of the 1970s about global cooling and demonstrates, contrary to alarmist arguments - that many climatologists did agree with the media's representation of a coming ice age apocalypse. [2]
In the Sahelian zone of Africa south of the Sahara, the countries of Chad, The Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta are enduring a drought that in some areas has been going on for more than six years now, following some 40 previous years of abundant monsoon rainfall. And the drought is spreading—eastward into Ehtiopia and southward into Dahomey, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania, and Zaire.
Many climatologists have associated this drought and other recent weather anomalies with a global cooling trend and changes in atmospheric circulation which, if prolonged, pose serious threats to major food-producing regions of the world.
Annual average temperatures over the Northern Hemisphere increased rather dramatically from about 1890 through 1940, but have been falling ever since. The total change has averaged about one-half degree Centigrade, with the greatest cooling in higher latitudes. A drop of only one or two degrees Centigrade in the annual average temperature at higher latitudes can shorten the growing season so that some crops have to be abandoned. [...]
...the average growing season in England is already two weeks shorter than it was before 1950. Since the late 1950's, Iceland's hay crop yield has dropped about 25 percent, while pack ice in waters around Iceland and Greenland ports is becoming the hazard to navigation it was during the 17th and 18th centuries. [...]
Some climatologists think that if the current cooling trend continues, drought will occur more frequently in India—indeed, through much of Asia, the world's hungriest continent. [...]
Some climatologists think that the present cooling trend may be the start of a slide into another period of major glaciation, popularly called an "ice age."
References:
[1] CLIMATE: A KEY TO THE WORLD'S FOOD SUPPLY (NOAA Magazine, October 1974)
[2] 1970s Global Cooling Alarmism (Popular Technology.net, February 28,2013)
Saturday, January 30, 2016
The Truth about What'sUpWithThatWatts, et al.
"Your resident dummy reviewer... [referring to himself]"
- Peter Miesler, Skeptical Science Forums
Peter Miesler ("Pete the Carpenter") is a brain-dead stoner / framing carpenter with a high school diploma who likes to spam emotional and unsubstantiated nonsense around the Internet under the username 'citizenschallenge'.
Pete was born in Münster, Germany on July 1, 1955, moved to Burlingame, California in 1968, graduated from Burlingame high school in 1973, had a "spiritual re-birth" at Yosemite National Park in 1974 and moved to Colorado in 1979 where he spent two decades honing his "scientific" knowledge working at restaurants before moving to the scientific big leagues as a day laborer, yet wound up filing for divorce in 2012.
When Pete is not contributing to deforestation, he spews a horrendously formatted troll blog named "What'sUpWithThatWatts, et al." that was originally created to stalk and harass skeptical meteorologist Anthony Watts but is now used to smear anyone who disagrees with his alarmist ideology. Pete's scientific "credentials" include learning about global warming in a 1970's high school science class and being a registered Democrat.
Unfortunately, Pete's limited education and intellect prevents him from being able to defend the lies, misinformation and strawman arguments he spams on his blog. His debating skills amount to copying and pasting results from amateur Google searches without reading them, fabricating conspiratorial delusions that support his emotional positions and then censoring fact-based comments that refute all of the nonsense he spams.
Pete is incapable of debating anyone where they can actually reply without being censored or having their comments hacked up and edited. When he does respond it often includes incoherent gibberish, which is a telltale sign of marijuana induced brain damage, making any such interaction futile.
While other alarmists try and smear skeptics as "Holocaust deniers", ironically Pete's late father Dieter Werner Miesler actually fought for the Nazis - something cartoonist John Cook at Skeptical Science can only dream of.
Blogs:
Citizen's Challenge
What'sUpWithThatWatts, et al.
Friends of Wolf Creek
NO Village at Wolf Creek
Further Reading:
Clarifying Peter Miesler’s (aka CitizenChallenged) Dishonest Internet Sniping: Emperor Penguins
Peter Miesler Helps Expose USHCN Homogenization Insanity and Antarctic Illusions
How What'sUpWithThatWatts Argues Against Global-Warming Skeptics
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