Greens Concerned Vast Federal Land Clearances for Renewable Energy Projects Might Harm Nature

Ready to Build a new Renewables Project on a Federally Protected Wilderness

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Some green groups finally seem to be expressing concern that colossal renewable infrastructure projects on federal land, clearing, poisoning and paving over millions of acres of federally protected wilderness, for solar farms and wind projects, might harm the natural environment.

Government’s Push for Solar Power on Federal Lands Stirs Concerns
Environmentalists, renewable-energy firms raise doubts over plan to streamline permitting process.
SAGUACHE, Colo.—Over Key lime pie at The Oasis, one of this tiny town’s two restaurants, officials from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and local leaders grappled recently with a big problem: the failure to attract solar energy companies to the San Luis Valley, whose elevation of over 7,000 feet should make for prime solar potential.
For now, the only solar-power production in the valley, a scenic expanse a few hours south…

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#PodestaEmails – Green group asks Hillary campaign manager to ‘put pressure on TV networks’ to link severe weather and climate

Watts Up With That?

From the “say anything” department, comes this email where the League of Conservation Voters asks Hillary’s campaign manager John Podesta to “…help us pressure the evening news programs at CBS, NBC, and ABC to make climate science central to their extreme weather coverage this year?”.

The second half of the email is a form letter, and it says:

This is ridiculous.
From record-breaking heat waves and massive wildfires to historic droughts and Superstorm Sandy, we’ve seen with our own eyes the increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events this past year. Yet in reporting on these disastrous events, the nightly news programs at the major broadcast networks have largely ignored what is fueling this extreme weather – climate change.
As the effects of climate change cause hardship for families across America, we need better coverage if we want people to connect the dots and demand real action to curb…

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America’s Wind Power Cult: Hitler-Like Hypocrites Out to Wreck the Environment & the Economy

STOP THESE THINGS

Bill McKibben: fascism has a new name.

***

The wind power zealot is a psychoanalyst’s nightmare. Driven by infantile ideology, fuelled by hypocritical passion for a technology abandoned centuries ago for obvious reasons and drowning in the delusion that the world can run on benevolent breezes, what makes members of the dwindling wind cult tick would leave the ghost of Sigmund Freud scratching his head.

Narcissism and nastiness mixed up with an amalgam of ignorance and stupidity make for an ugly model of the human condition. What they lack in common sense and human decency, they more than make up for with self-righteous certainty and lectern-thumping moralising bluff and bluster.

The template for eco-fascists is the same the world over: claim the moral high ground and denigrate, ridicule and vilify all those that stand in the way of their perfect World, a fantasy World that can, in their child-like minds…

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America’s clean energy policies need a reality check, say Stanford researchers

Watts Up With That?

From Stanford University comes another head exploder for Joe Romm.

IMAGE: In the fast-globalizing clean-energy industry, the US should press its advantage in engineering, high-value manufacturing, installation and finance, writes Stanford researcher Jeffrey Ball.
America’s approach to clean energy needs to be reformed if it is to meaningfully affect energy security or the environment, according to two new articles by Stanford writers.

The debate over how to fundamentally change the world’s massive energy system comes amid taxpayers’ $500 million tab for the bankruptcy of Fremont, Calif., solar company Solyndra, the global recession, government budget cuts and plunging U.S. prices for natural gas. Making the change cost-effectively will be crucial, write Jeffrey Ball and Kassia Yanosek, both based at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance.

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Define Irony: Photovoltaic Heat Island Effect

Watts Up With That?

Guest post by David Middleton

From the Department of All Things Ironic…

irony

Solar panels, while they mitigate the effects of global warming by replacing fossil fuels, can add heat in the locations where they are installed, reports a team of University of Arizona researchers.
At first blush, the experimental results, published Thursday in Nature Science Reports, seem to contradict computer simulations that said solar photovoltaic arrays, by intercepting some of the sun’s warming rays and converting them into electricity, would have a cooling effect.
The UA researchers measured the heat-island effect of a solar array at the UA Tech Park at Rita Road and Interstate 10. They found that its overnight temperatures were about five to seven degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer than a nearby plot of undisturbed desert.
Additional experiments are being conducted to determine the potential effect of the measured heating on nearby communities and the overall environment.
[…]

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How Gaia and coral reefs regulate ocean pH

Climate Etc.

by Jim Steele

Although some researchers have raised concerns about possible negative effects of rising CO2 on ocean surface pH, there are several lines of evidence demonstrating marine ecosystems are far more sensitive to fluxes of carbon dioxide from ocean depths and the biosphere’s response than from invasions of atmospheric CO2. There is also ample evidence that lower pH does not inhibit photosynthesis or lower ocean productivity (Mackey 2015). On the contrary, rising CO2 makes photosynthesis less costly.

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A reply to @HillaryClinton and @Algore on climate and weather

Watts Up With That?

While attending a rally with Al Gore in Florida today, weather became climate.

Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore campaign together at the Miami Dade College on Tuesday in Miami. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Here is the video (h/t to WUWT commenter Alan Robertson)

Hillary Clinton later made the statement on Twitter:

We've always had destructive hurricanes, but Hurricane Matthew was likely more destructive because of climate change.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 11, 2016

Followed by Al Gore saying:

“from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 36 hours, that’s extremely unusual”

Maybe, as I don’t have stats on that, but Matthew only spent 6 hours as a category 5 storm, the record was the “Cuba” hurricane in 1932 with 78 hours as a Cat5.

IMHO, @HillaryClinton is the right choice in this election…

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Climate Craziness of the Week – USA Today duped into thinking severe weather began in 1980

Watts Up With That?

From USA Today: Report: Climate change behind rise in weather disasters

12:53PM EST October 10. 2012 – The number of natural disasters per year has been rising dramatically on all continents since 1980, but the trend is steepest for North America where countries have been battered by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, searing heat and drought, a new report says.
The study being released today by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance firm, sees climate change driving the increase and predicts those influences will continue in years ahead, though a number of experts question that conclusion.
Whatever the causes, the report shows that if you thought the weather has been getting worse, you’re right.

Two words: Oh, please. This is easily dispelled by looking at the data. Apparently Doyle Rice can’t be bothered to do some basic research.

Time for a graphjam, starting with this:

But wait, there’s more:

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IPCC, Government, and Insurance Enables Dangerous Behavior

Watts Up With That?

Guest opinion: Dr. Tim Ball

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Benjamin Franklin

The claims of increasing disasters presented as inevitable by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided opportunities for government interference and crony capitalism on a massive scale. Their actions ignored the realities and enabled unwise behavior by offering assistance and compensation if problems developed in areas where problems are well-known and inevitable.

The insurance industry is a major benefactor of this crony capitalism. They promoted the false IPCC claims on their web pages, sponsored documentaries, and did everything to exaggerate the threat. Look at the comments from the web page of Swiss Re.

Re/insurance plays an important role in managing climate and natural disaster risk, and that’s why it’s part of Swiss Re’s core business.
Managing climate and disaster risk is part of Swiss Re’s DNA.

Munich Re is a…

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The Economist, fossil fuel subsidies and ‘climate disaster’

Watts Up With That?

Guest essay by Andy May

I’ve been a subscriber to The Economist for years. It is one of the few mainstream media publications I still read. But, I found a very annoying article in the October 1, 2016 issue. The title and link are “Notes from the undergrowth.” It starts out with a false assertion that is easily debunked, but often stated:

Media myth #1

“DESPITE deluges in the South, droughts in the West and fires throughout national forests this year, the words “climate” and “change” have seldom been uttered together on the campaign trail.”

The UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Nature magazine, and the IPCC all have said extreme weather cannot be reliably linked to climate change.

From the WMO:

“There were fewer deaths, even while exposure to extreme events increased as populations grew and more people were living in disaster-prone areas. According to the…

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