Roger Pielke Sr.: Towards Climate Science Pluralism–and Starting Over With Climate Policy
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 11, 2009Roger Pielke Sr. is a well respected climatologist and professor. His blog is a top go-to place on the Internet for those searching for the happy middle of the contentious climate-change debate. (His son, Roger Pielke, Jr., also has a must-read blog for Climategate students.)
… Continue ReadingHere at MasterResource, Chip Knappenberger covers climate science. Knappenberger is skeptical of ultra-skepticism and trenchantly challenges exaggerated science in the service of climate alarmism.
In this tradition, I recently read a very interesting post on Pielke senior’s blog, titled “Three Distinctly Different Climate Science Perspectives,” that is worth sharing with MasterResource readers. Here is what he wrote, and my critical comment is at the end.
There needs to be recognition that there are three distinctly different viewpoints with respect to the extent that humans alter the climate system.
The Left, Nuclear Power, and Copenhagen: Rejecting the Viable
By Robert Bryce -- December 10, 2009With thousands of politicians and environmentalists meeting in Copenhagen to discuss ways to achieve major cuts in global carbon dioxide emissions, one might assume that the need for drastic increases in nuclear power capacity would be an obvious solution – a path forward upon which factions on both the Left and the Right could agree.
Alas, that is not happening. Instead, the Green/Left in the US continues its decades-long opposition to nuclear, all the while insisting that the only way forward is through greater use of alternative energy sources like solar and wind.
Los Angeles Times: Now and Way Back Then
Consider the unsigned editorial published by the Los Angeles Times on November 28. The piece, titled “No new nukes – plants, that is,”[1] declares that nuclear energy “is not a reasonable solution because plants take too long to build and cost far too much.”…
Continue ReadingElectricity for the Poor – What Copenhagen Really Needs to Confront
By Donald Hertzmark -- December 9, 2009When you fly overnight from Johannesburg to Europe the lights become thin just north of Lusaka, Zambia, a few more in Zambia’s Copper Belt and then nothing (and I mean nothing) until the North African coastline. For most of this 11-12 hour flight there are no artificial lights below. From the Sahara on south, but excluding South Africa, a region that is home to more than 400 million people consumes less electricity than New York City.
The World At Night (courtesy of Bert Christensen. Click to enlarge.)
- And yet this area includes major oil producers:
Nigeria produces 2.1 million b/d oil and consumes 19 billion kWh/y
Angola produces 2.0 million b/d oil and consumes 3.2 billion kWh/y
Equatorial Guinea produces 0.36 million b/d and consumes 26 million kWh/y
Other sub-Saharan Africa oil producers supply more than 1 million b/d to world markets.