“Just think of how the tens of billions of dollars spent on trying to link CO2 emissions to climate change might have prevented some of the Harvey-caused tragedy, if they had been spent instead on flood-plain infrastructure and management updates these past twelve years.”

In addition to the pictures and media reports on Hurricane Harvey, there are news reports implicating the hand of man, not nature, for the tragic impact. For them, Harvey becomes another opportunity to invoke climate change as a novel event in the intensity and path of this hurricane.

In the Houston Chronicle “Gray Matters” September 1, 2017, Allyn West gathered together snippets of commentary by several authors and presented his version of the “big picture” of the flooding in Houston. It mirrors similar claims in the Los Angeles Times.…

“But what is lost in simplistic news stories announcing each new record, or worse, ignored in lurid stories casting these records as indicators of future climate catastrophe (and oftentimes promoting efforts to mitigate future trends through federal efforts to regulate energy choice), is that the on-going temperature rise is proceeding much more slowly than has been anticipated.”

It’s been eight years since I wrote this piece critical of the exaggerated “concern” that the Houston Chronicle showed in its coverage of climate change and its causes and implications. How has my critique held up?

Back in January of 2009, the Chronicle was touting yet another “warmest year on record.” This is was true then, just as it is true today (regarding 2016). The earth is warming up, and humans play a role in this trend.…

“Flawed science as fact is the real danger.”

Charles Battig is a plenty smart physician (a real doctor versus us doctorates) who has carefully studied the climate debate. This ‘talented amateur’ (as in non-climate scientist) knows the hidden assumptions and the non sequiturs behind the alleged case for climate alarmism and forced energy transformation. Now living in Houston, he has been a one-person truth squad to the Houston Chronicle’s New York Times-like editorials on climate.

Now retired, Dr. Battig holds three degress from Tulane University: M.D.; M.S., Electrical Engineering; and B.S., Electrical Engineering. In 2009, Battig was named president of the Piedmont Chapter of Virginia Scientists and Engineers for Energy and Environment (VA–SEEE), a “grassroots organization” founded by climatologist Fred Singer who is also president of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP).…

“[The Houston Chronicle’s Chris Tomlinson] sets up a straw man argument implying that ‘Republican leaders’ do not acknowledge the human ‘contribution’ to a warming planet and rising sea levels and are thereby remiss, ignorant, or worse. You do not attempt to quantify how much that contribution might be. You do not seem to be aware that land use (farming, irrigation, land clearance) changes do greatly influence climate patterns. You do not distinguish between carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use and these other components of the climate puzzle.”

As an on-line subscriber to the Houston Chronicle, I am familiar with Mr. Chris Tomlinson’s daily column “Outside The Boardroom.” His commentaries on various business related events have been generally entertaining and informative.  Perhaps the heat of the recent presidential election season brought forth some heretofore suppressed political activism residing in his otherwise analytical nature.…