We got a kick out of this response to power plant regulations announced today by the EPA.
It comes from an official-sounding group, the National Center for Public Policy Research, one of the many right-wing organizations that tries to derail any action on climate.
Title of the press release:
Top 10 Reasons to Oppose President Obama’s New Climate Regulations
Here are their reasons, with our reaction in []:
- The Earth hasn’t warmed since the Clinton Administration; [ridiculous, not true – for the first time, carbon levels exceeded 400 ppm for an entire month, in April]
- New global warming laws and regulations harm people, especially those with lower incomes and minorities; [not true, the laws will improve their health since polluting facilities are usually located in those communities]
- Energy-related carbon emissions in the US fell 12.6% from 2005-2012, while worldwide emissions rose 17.7%; [true! but our emissions are still way to high, and are rising again as of 2013. Either way, it’s no excuse for the US to sit back and relax]
- The climate models upon which President Obama’s belief in human-caused catastrophic global warming is based do not work – since 1979, over 96% of climate models predicted more warming by now than has taken place; [ridiculous, scientists are horrified by how quickly changes are proceeding; if anything they have been too conservative in their predictions]
- Claims that 97% of scientists endorse the global warming "theory" are propaganda. [absurd, completely false].
- The IPCC is a political, not scientific, body. [wow – they can sure make stuff up!]
- As temperature predictions haven’t come true [really?], global warming activists desperately started blaming climate change for hurricanes, tornadoes and even cold weather [temperature predictions are true, you bet we blame the onslaught of extreme weather events, ocean acidity etc.]
- Current sea ice levels prove nothing. While arctic sea ice levels are below average, Antarctic sea ice levels are above average, as are global sea ice levels. [below average in the Arctic?! Try getting close to being ice-free; I guess they missed the news on Antarctica, sliding into the sea].
- While claiming global warming is a crisis, environmental groups paradoxically oppose the major energy sources that can reduce carbon emissions, such as nuclear, hydropower and fracking [that’s right, we prefer renewable energy that’s clean and safe, why don’t you?]
- After the Clinton-Gore Administration signed Kyoto, they didn’t present it to the Senate for ratification and after the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed cap-and-trade legislation in 2009, it didn’t come up for a vote in the Senate – they act as if they don’t believe it themselves. [Kyoto didn’t have a chance of being ratified with the Republican majority, which filibustered the vote on cap-and-trade.
At the end of the press release, there’s this:
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Notwithstanding rising carbon levels, it’s true that average temperatures have not increased lately, rather plateaued. However, the scientists are agreed in predicting increasing change. The Arctic Ocean being increasingly free of ice does mean that white reflection of sunlight energy is reduced, and ocean warming is increased. On the other hand, heat is consumed in the melting process, which may explain plateauing overall.
People seem constantly to believe that global warming is true only if their own back yard is getting warmer. That ignores the fact that warming can express itself in a variety of ways differing according to the geographic location of the observer.