“… we don’t have a first-principles theory that tells us what we have to get right in order to have an accurate projection [of anthropogenic climate change]…. This is sort of an emergent knowledge base. So, that’s the translation of this last statement, ‘To date, a set of diagnostics and performance metrics that can strongly reduce uncertainties in global climate sensitivity,’ a la projections, ‘has yet to be identified’.” (p. 89)

“… if the [temperature] hiatus is still going on as of the sixth IPCC report, that report is going to have a large burden on its shoulders walking in the door, because recent literature has shown that the chances of having a hiatus 18 of 20 years are vanishingly small.” (p. 92)

– William Collins, Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

The True Cost of Solar Electricity

Study: New York’s climate goal—staggering costs, no benefits

A Review of the Regional Green Gas Initiative

Study: Turbines reduce the productivity of surrounding vegetation

Hidden consequences of intermittent electricity production

Integrating the supposed “social cost of carbon” into wholesale power markets

MIT: Researchers Announce Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

DOE staff releases their Energy Reliability Study

These are my observations on the DOE study

Some other comments are: here, here, here, here and here.…

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Superior: New EU proposals would kill solar and wind

Study: Turbine Effects on Bats Likely Worse Than Thought

Study: Solar Energy’s Dirty Little Secret

Study: Large Solar Performance Reduction Due to Dust

Study: Evaluation of a proposal for grid power with 100% wind, water, and solar

Study: A Looming Disaster in Energy Security

Wind Turbines Are NOT Clean or Green, and Provide Zero Global Energy

Storage Burden Should Fall on Wind and Solar Projects, not the Grid

Wind Power’s Future in U.S.…

“Will Ms. Lavelle admit that global lukewarming is a valid area of scientific inquiry and conclusion; there are benefits, not only costs, to the human influence on climate; and ‘government failure’ exists alongside ‘market failure’ in the quest to ‘do something’? Adaptation to realistic scenarios, private sector as well as public, is an alternative to–and opportunity cost of–mitigation.”

The article by Marianne Lavelle, “5 Shades of Climate Denial, All on Display in the Trump White House,” a feature at Instide Climate News (June 9, 2017), deserves a second look. The good news is that a much more useful categorization that has been offered (by Richard Mueller, below) can be used to correct the unstudied, biased five categories presented in ICN.

Here are Lavelle’s five categories:

1. “It’s Not Real”
2. “‘It’s Not Our Fault,’ and Other Lighter Shades”
3. “The Science Is Just Too Uncertain.