Chennai, India’s Cold Winter vs. Global Warming Hype

By Vijay Jayaraj -- March 21, 2018

“Why do developing countries like India fear calling out the climate myth? Because doing so would risk international trade relations by challenging the European economic powerhouses that are vehemently opposed to any country that leaves the Paris accord. In fact, the European Union’s new Brussels policy stipulates that the EU will not sign trade pacts with any country that does not ratify the Paris agreement.”

While many climate alarmists call for India to cut down its dependence on coal, fearing that carbon dioxide emissions will cause a climate apocalypse, real-world temperatures—local, regional, and global—suggest otherwise.

Chennai—a southern Indian city that is home to more than 10 million people—has recorded its coldest winter in 5 years.

Background

Chennai is the administrative capital of Tamil Nadu state and serves as a trade and financial hub of south India. Its port, the second largest container port in India, lies in a strategic trade route and is the primary reason for the city’s development.

In the last two decades, Chennai’s information technology industry has boomed, and the city is now the second-largest IT exporter in India. It is also a manufacturing hub, home to several international car manufacturing units—BMW, Hyundai, Ford, and Renault to name a few.

The energy sector, dominated by thermal and nuclear power plants, has been the backbone of Chennai’s economic development in the past five decades, providing the vast amounts of affordable, dependable energy indispensable to these and other industries.

Energy Meddling

India’s national government, under pressure from anti-coal lobbyists at international political institutions like the United Nations, is pushing Tamil Nadu to adopt restrictive energy policies to fight global warming. As a result, Tamil Nadu has become a leading locale for investments in renewable energy, despite their benefits’ being questionable.

At the Paris climate conference in 2015, leaders of the international campaign against global warming—mostly from wealthy countries of the West—urged India and other developing countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emission levels by transitioning from reliable and affordable coal plants to more expensive, unreliable, intermittent sources such as wind and solar. The policy was justified by claiming it would contribute to reducing carbon dioxide emissions enough to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

False Alarm

While most of the mainstream media promote this as a worthwhile endeavor to save the planet, they seldom address the actual temperature patterns at global and regional scales.

For the past two decades, contrary to predictions based on computer climate models, global temperatures have failed to rise significantly. The models exaggerate the influence of carbon dioxide on global temperatures, which explains their failure—a fact widely acknowledged by climate scientists. Consequently, the rise in global temperature attributable to carbon dioxide emissions is likely much smaller than feared, and so is the reduction of that rise that could be achieved by reduced emissions.

The temperature pattern in Chennai was no different from the global pattern. In the last 10 years, the city displayed no warming trend despite an exponential increase in population and industrialization. The average maximum temperature for winter 2018 (January and February) was 0.3ºC lower than that of winter 2010. Temperatures in Chennai displayed a significant increase only during the El Niño years of 2010 and 2016; they reverted to normal levels in the following years.

Chennai’s highest temperature was recorded in 2003, contrary to predictions by climate alarmists.

The city’s previous highest temperature was recorded way back in 1910, thus proving that increased carbon emissions from the industrial activity didn’t have any significant impact on temperature levels, and warmer temperatures prevailed even before industrialization began in post-independence India.

Mean winter temperatures for the whole of India showed no significant increase not only over the past ten to twenty years but over the entire period from 1901 to 2016, except that the very strong El Niño pushed 2016’s temperatures higher.

The global warming hype also fails regarding rainfall patterns in India. Contrary to predictions of increasing drought, India has largely received above average rainfall during the past two decades, including a decrease in the number of dry spells.

My Home

In the city where I live, Coimbatore, there has been no shortage of rainfall for the past 28 years. The city enjoyed above normal rainfall largely, with only two years falling short of average. If temperatures are not rising to dangerous levels and rainfall patterns remain unaffected, India has no reason to submit to climate alarmists’ pressure.

Yet despite growing evidence against the extreme warming hype, alarmists continue to push their agenda through international political institutions, claiming to have a scientific consensus that exists nowhere.

As a result, nations that remain in the Paris climate treaty are forced to conform to the ever-tightening emission targets of elites at the United Nations.

Conclusion

Why do developing countries like India fear calling out the climate myth? Because doing so would risk international trade relations by challenging the European economic powerhouses that are vehemently opposed to any country that leaves the Paris accord. In fact, the European Union’s new Brussels policy stipulates that the EU will not sign trade pacts with any country that does not ratify the Paris agreement.

Why do developing countries fear calling out the climate myth? Because doing so would risk reductions in international trade and development. i.e., they’re victims of blackmail by Western elites.

But this shouldn’t continue for long! Empirical evidence of temperature patterns across the world will soon derail the extreme warming rollercoaster, and with it the subsidy-entitled renewable rush.

At least, that’s what we should hope for. Otherwise, the mad race to replace fossil fuels with renewables will rob us of the abundant, affordable, reliable industry essential to the completion of our conquest of poverty.

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Vijay Jayaraj (M.Sc., Environmental Science, University of East Anglia, England), Research Associate for Developing Countries for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, lives in Coimbatore, India.