Monday 30 September 2019

GREENS DIVIDED AND WEAK ACROSS MOST OF EUROPE

This article explains how few green MEPs there are in most countries, other than Germany, France and the UK. Voting green is a sign of a nation which does not have other more pressing issues, such as jobs and the economy.

Sunday 29 September 2019

DODGY STATISTICS LEADS TO WTHDRAWAL OF ALARMIST SCIENCE PAPER

This piece explains what has happened. In the end it took a highly skilled amateur to blow the whistle. It shows just how easy something like this could get accepted, giving a completely false picture of ocean temperature. This is something that won't be reported on the main TV news.

Saturday 28 September 2019

AT LAST WESTERN LEADERS CONFRONT THE CLIMATE EXTREMISTS, BUT TOO LATE

This article explains how our leaders are at last waking up to the fact that you will never appease extremists by giving in to their demands. The more they are appeased the more the demands grow. It is so obvious and yet our top politicians have fallen into the trap and now they have allowed the extremist movements to grow they will find it very difficult to stop them. It's not that we can accept their demands - even the timetables that governments have set themselves will be impossible to fulfil. Not only that but I believe there will be a big backlash against these timetables once the people realise the true cost of it. 

Friday 27 September 2019

50% INCREASE IN WORLD ENERGY USE PROJECTED BY 2050

EIA Projects Nearly 50% Increase In World Energy Usage by 2050, Led By Growth In Asia
US Energy Information Administration, 24 September 2019


 

In the International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019) Reference case, released at 9:00 a.m. today, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that world energy consumption will grow by nearly 50% between 2018 and 2050. Most of this growth comes from countries that are not in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and this growth is focused in regions where strong economic growth is driving demand, particularly in Asia.
 
EIA’s IEO2019 assesses long-term world energy markets for 16 regions of the world, divided according to OECD and non-OECD membership. Projections for the United States in IEO2019 are consistent with those released in the Annual Energy Outlook 2019.


 
The industrial sector, which includes refining, mining, manufacturing, agriculture, and construction, accounts for the largest share of energy consumption of any end-use sector—more than half of end-use energy consumption throughout the projection period. World industrial sector energy use increases by more than 30% between 2018 and 2050 as consumption of goods increases. By 2050, global industrial energy consumption reaches about 315 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu).
 
Transportation energy consumption increases by nearly 40% between 2018 and 2050. This increase is largely driven by non-OECD countries, where transportation energy consumption increases nearly 80% between 2018 and 2050. Energy consumption for both personal travel and freight movement grows in these countries much more rapidly than in many OECD countries.

Energy consumed in the buildings sector, which includes residential and commercial structures, increases by 65% between 2018 and 2050, from 91 quadrillion to 139 quadrillion Btu. Rising income, urbanization, and increased access to electricity lead to rising demand for energy.

The growth in end-use consumption results in electricity generation increasing 79% between 2018 and 2050. Electricity use grows in the residential sector as rising population and standards of living in non-OECD countries increase the demand for appliances and personal equipment. Electricity use also increases in the transportation sector as plug-in electric vehicles enter the fleet and electricity use for rail expands.


 
With the rapid growth of electricity generation, renewables—including solar, wind, and hydroelectric power—are the fastest-growing energy source between 2018 and 2050, surpassing petroleum and other liquids to become the most used energy source in the Reference case. Worldwide renewable energy consumption increases by 3.1% per year between 2018 and 2050, compared with 0.6% annual growth in petroleum and other liquids, 0.4% growth in coal, and 1.1% annual growth in natural gas consumption.
 
Global natural gas consumption increases more than 40% between 2018 and 2050, and total consumption reaches nearly 200 quadrillion Btu by 2050. In addition to the natural gas used in electricity generation, natural gas consumption increases in the industrial sector. Chemical and primary metals manufacturing, as well as oil and natural gas extraction, account for most of the growing industrial demand.
 
Full post

Thursday 26 September 2019

POOR CHILDREN SCARED AND INDOCTRINATED WITH DOOM-LADEN PROJECTIONS

Below is a report from CFact.
Gathered at this UN “Youth Climate Summit” on Saturday were some 700 young kids from around the world. They were given a giant PR megaphone, courtesy of the mainstream media, to blast out the sentiments of the UN leadership on climate alarmism.

If there ever was an epic example of mindless propaganda on display, it was at this Summit.

“Young people from different parts of the world are living in constant fear and climate anxiety, fearing the future, the uncertainty of a healthy life or a life for their children at all,” said one student from Fiji.

“Stop the criminal contaminant behavior of big corporations ... enough is enough. We don’t want fossil fuels anymore.”, parroted another from Argentina.

And on and on it went.

That the Left exploits children to carry out its political objectives is nothing new. It’s an old trick they pull from time to time even if it has mixed results.

The flaw in their plan has always been that they bank on people lacking any common sense. Fortunately, most have a brain and understand such antics for what they are — pathetic attempts to manipulate public sentiment by foisting children as puppets.

Does anyone really think these students at the Youth Climate Summit actually understand all the ramifications of eliminating fossil fuels, and getting rid of cars, airplanes, and modern agriculture? Have these kids truly been equipped by their handlers with valid scientific facts surrounding sea level rise, polar bear numbers, temperature records, and severe weather trends?

Of course not. Having been indoctrinated by an education system that allows for no dissent or cross-examination, they merely repeat dutifully the slogans they’ve been fed ad nauseum since their childhood.

Wednesday 25 September 2019

EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS AGO GREENLAND HAD MUCH LESS ICE THAN TODAY

Is modern Greenland ice sheet melt significant?

During the Holocene Thermal Maximum (about ~9000 to ~7000 years ago), the Greenland ice sheet had about 500 meters less thickness than it has had in recent millennia, and its margins had retreated up to ~100 km behind their present-day position (Nielsen et al., 2018). 
The modern Greenland ice melt has amounted to an insignificant 15 mm since 1900 (Fettweis et al., 2017, Fettweis et al., 2008). That’s just 1.5 cm added to sea levels since the 20th century began – and no net contribution for the 60 years between the 1940s and 2000s.

Tuesday 24 September 2019

FREEDOM OF SPEECH UNDER ATTACK IN OZ

This article explains how hugely expensive court action is being used to silence the opinions of a scientist who dared to speak against the policy of his university. This must not be allowed to happen. Freedom of speech is vital to prevent us from being taken over by institutions or individuals with the deepest pockets.

Monday 23 September 2019

WHAT IS THE TRUE COST OF WIND ENERGY?

This piece looks behind the headlines claiming that wind energy is now as cheap as gas turbines. Of course they find that when all the subsidies are added on this is far from the case.

Sunday 22 September 2019

MORE CLIMATE RECORDS DESTROYED

This article explains the nonsense that is going on in Canada.  A spokesman for Environment Canada told a reporter that researchers concluded that historically, there weren’t enough weather stations to create a reliable data set for the 100-year period from 1850, so instead they created their own using computer models using the modern data from 1950 to 2005. In other words they prefer computer data to real data - how very convenient.

NO CLIMATE EMERGENCY RECOMMENDED IN THE NEW FOREST UK

Below is an extract from the recent agenda of the New Forest District Council Environment Panel. The full document is publicly available here.

"That the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel advise the Council that:-

(a) The Panel does not support the motion referred to the Panel by the Council; and

(b) Whilst the Panel recognises that other Councils have declared a climate emergency, this Council can achieve more on a local level through the development of an environment action plan, with the ambition of achieving a carbon neutral position for the New Forest District Council by 2050.  Once developed, the action plan should give prominence within the Council’s Corporate Plan to ensure that environmental issues, including climate change, are taken into account in future decision making."

I am very pleased to say that the report was approved at the meeting on Thursday. A handful of climate change campaigners came along with placards to try and persuade the Panel to change its recommendation, but it was passed.

The original motion was put forward to the Council in May and was put on the blog here.

Unfortunately I was unable to persuade the other councillors to ignore the idea of cutting CO2 emissions altogether, but given the huge pressure that is coming from all directions it was good to find that my colleagues were prepared to buck the trend and not declare a climate emergency. 

Ironically the councillor who put this motion forward had voted to grant, in our district, planning permission to Esso for a new £800 million low sulphur diesel plant. He had voted in favour of it, despite calling for net zero emissions by 2040. He quite rightly pointed out that if that application had been refused, the UK would have had to import the diesel from Russia or somewhere else. But he obviously did not see the inconsistency between voting for the new diesel plant and calling for the New Forest to become net zero CO2 by 2040. He had tacitly accepted that his motion was undeliverable, but could not or would not admit it. 

Saturday 21 September 2019

A QUIZ FOR THE STRIKING STUDENTS TO ANSWER

This quiz is intended for the school students who think they know all about the "climate emergency". Of course the reality is that they have been brainwashed by their teachers. 

Friday 20 September 2019

AS WE FOOLISHLY GO IT ALONE TO NET ZERO THE REST OF THE PLANET CARRIES ON WITH COAL

This article shows what is happening in China and India and South Asia in general. It is the expansion of coal fired power stations. That is the reality, as opposed to the myths being peddled by those who want us to believe that it is the UK and the West that can "save the planet" by our example of moving to net zero CO2 emissions. The developing world is not listening - they are simply laughing at our naivety.

Thursday 19 September 2019

CHINA AND INDIA DEMAND MONEY TO REDUCE CO2 EMISSIONS

This article explains the details. If China and India really believed there was a climate emergency why would they risk the future of the planet by holding the West to ransom in this way? To me it is clear that they see this as no more than an opportunity to extract as much cash from them as they can.

Wednesday 18 September 2019

ATTACK ON SAUDI OIL A WAKE UP CALL

The following piece came from Cfact the US organisation that campaigns for common sense on government policy.

Over the weekend, swarms of explosive drones struck at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil production and sent the world’s biggest crude processing plant up in flames.
About 5.7 billion barrels of output per day, as well as 2.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas, was put out of production. This amounts to over five percent of the world’s entire supply of oil. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but U.S. officials believe they are merely front men. Iran, they say, is truly responsible. 

In the meantime, to ameliorate the disruption of vital energy, President Trump has wisely authorized the release of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves. This will serve as a band-aid for the time being, but the need to re-evaluate our potential vulnerabilities and seek some long-term solutions is clearly in order. This event should serve as a wakeup call to policymakers in Washington.

If there could be a better case-in-point for why America needs to wean itself off greater dependence on foreign sources of oil, it would be hard to find. Placing our nation’s energy security in the hands of regimes that are in unstable regions of the world like the Middle East, or with Russia and Venezuela, is a prescription for disaster. America must continue to aggressively develop its own, homegrown sources of fossil fuel energy, as well as all energy sources where it is feasible through the competition of the free market, to remain strong and free.

Unfortunately, leading Democrats in the House, along with some Republicans in Florida, seem to be hard at work at doing just the opposite.

As we reported to you last week, the House Rules Committee is right now hard at work crafting three bills designed to restrict oil and gas drilling in the U.S. These bills include provisions to stop all offshore drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, restrict new leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, and stifle all ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) development in Alaska.
Leading Democrats running for President – including Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren – have also gone down this anti-domestic energy road by recently pledging to ban all fracking should they be elected.

Needless to say, such measures are foolhardy. As this attack in Saudi Arabia has shown, the world is unstable and fraught with peril. Fossil fuels, whether they like it or not, remain integral in keeping our economy remaining strong and our standard of living intact.

Our representatives are pursuing these bans as a means to “protect the planet.” The number of additional solar panels and wind turbines they call for to replace fossil fuels, however, would require the removal of millions more acres in habitat across the United States. That would be far from “green.” Additionally, all those turbines and panels would result in a significant uptick in the hazardous waste discharged from mining for the “rare Earth metals” that are necessary to wind and solar being built. Powering the entire country on wind and solar? Talk about a large footprint.

Our nation needs not to shrink, but to grow and expand development of its oil, gas, nuclear, and coal resources in order to both better protect our national security and forge ahead toward a brighter future.

Tuesday 17 September 2019

AT LAST THE LAW IS USED AGAINST CLIMATE EXTREMISTS

This article explains that, at last, the leader of Extinction Rebellion is being prosecuted for inciting people to break the law and about time too. They have been treated with kid gloves for far too long with the result that they have become more and more militant. 

Monday 16 September 2019

HERE'S A BIT OF LIGHTHEARTED BANTER FROM THE ARMY

This article will cause some amusement among those with a military background. Yes, it's eco-friendly military vehicles to attract those Greenpeace types who are thinking of a military career. Should do wonders for recruitment.

Sunday 15 September 2019

SPELLING OUT THE CHANGES THAT CLIMATE POLICIES WOULD ACTUALLY MEAN

This piece spells out what it would actually mean if climate policies were adopted. This is something that is totally ignored by those advocating these policies. They must no longer be allowed to dodge these issues, to go from assuming the climate is in crisis, to assuming “reliable, affordable, renewable, sustainable, eco-friendly” alternatives to fossil fuel (and nuclear) energy will just magically appear, or can simply be willed or subsidized into existence.

UPDATE
This piece gives a bit more detail on this.

Saturday 14 September 2019

WHAT ABOUT THE "RECORD MELT" OF THE GREENLAND ICE SHEET?

Here is an interesting article that puts the recent melting of the Greenland ice sheet in context. It is so easy to use statistics to frighten people who have no idea what the numbers actually mean. 

Friday 13 September 2019

NEW STUDIES SHOW MORE FAILURES OF CLIMATE MODELS

This report explains that the new research suggests that current climate models overestimate future declies in phytoplanckton - the microscopic algae that form the basis of the marine food web and use phosphorus for photosynthesis.This is important because even minute differences in phosphate concentration can radically impact ocean ecosystem processes.

Thursday 12 September 2019

UK TO IMPOSE CARBON TAX AFTER NO DEAL BREXIT

This article gives the details. But it's not all bad news -
 while a tax might sound more onerous than a market, analysts say that this tax approach will mean an easier ride for companies in the UK than in the EU – potentially distorting the European carbon market and putting the UK at risk of failing to meet its emissions reductions targets.

The price of carbon in the EU ETS is currently around £26 per ton. The UK’s rate would be £10 cheaper.

Wednesday 11 September 2019

USA SCIENCE ADVISOR SAYS CLIMATE SCIENTISTS MUST IMPROVE CLIMATE MODELS


Dr David Whitehouse, GWPF Science Editor, 5 September 2019

 
American climate scientists must improve their climate models is one of the key messages in a recent memo issued by the Trump Administration.


 
Each summer the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy issue areas that the US Government would like to emphasis in the following year.
 
The memo is intended to communicate what the government wants and influence what government agency heads request leading up to the president submitting his budget to Congress in February.
 
The memo is co-signed by Dr Kelvin K Droegemeier took up the roll of Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy earlier this year. He is a former meteorology professor at the University of Oklahoma. It is the first time the topic has been mentioned in these memos.
 
It reads:
 
“Knowing the extent to which components of the Earth system are practicably predictable -from individual thunderstorms to long-term global change-is vitally important for physical understanding of the Earth system, assessing the value of prediction results, guiding Federal investments, developing effective policy, and improving predictive skill. Departments and agencies should prioritize R&D that helps quantify Earth system predictability across multiple phenomena, time, and space scales.”
 
The memo also contains an implied criticism that the federal scientific community have not effectively communicated the limitations and uncertainties is using climate models for prediction.
 
“Additionally, agencies should emphasize how measures of and limits to predictability, both theoretical and actual, can inform a wide array of stakeholders. They also should explore the application of AI and adaptive observing systems to enhance predictive skill, along with strategies for obtaining substantial improvements in computational model performance and spatial resolution across all scales.”
 
Concerning the oceans Droegemeirer adds,
 
“Departments and agencies should prioritize new and emerging technologies and collaborative approaches to efficiently map, explore, and characterize the resources of the U.S. exclusive economic zone. Departments and agencies should also focus on processing and making publically available data that characterize natural resources and human activities and on R&D.”
 
Heads of the US scientific agencies and their subservient administrations such as NASA and NOAA have been told there is no extra money for this so they will have to take money away from other areas.
 
 
 

Tuesday 10 September 2019

HEAD OF WMO ACCUSES CLIMATE ALARMISTS OF BEING FEARMONGERS

This report tells us what the head of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is saying about the merchants of doom (climate activists). Here is a man who should understand the real picture of what is happening and I find it quite remarkable that he is prepared to state that the current wave of doom and gloom is not right. You would think that this might give our leading politicians some cause to have a re-think. He explicitly criticised the news media for provoking unjustified anxiety.

Monday 9 September 2019

GREAT BARRIER REEF - IS ITS HEALTH BEING USED AS GW PROPAGANDA?

The latest official report by the Australian government into the condition of the Great Barrier Reef makes depressing reading. but can we believe it? Here are some much more optimistic reports. Yet again we are left wondering what is the truth?

Sunday 8 September 2019

CNN VERSUS WHAT THE SCIENCE SAYS

Here is a good piece refuting the current line being taken by, it seems, all media outlets. It is important to keep repeating that what we are being subjected to, day in and day out, is massive exaggeration and propaganda.

Saturday 7 September 2019

USA ENDANGERMENT FINDING FOR CO2 TO BE CONTESTED IN COURT

This piece explains how a private challenge is being made to overturn the EPA's endangerment finding that CO2 is a danger to health. It will be interesting to see if they get anywhere. However it will probably take them some time.

Friday 6 September 2019

NEW VIDEO SHOWS HOW WE ARE BEING MISLED BY CLIMATE PROPAGANDA

A lot of people believe we are being given a lot of exaggerated information on global warming in order to persuade us that it is essential for our life styles to change dramatically at huge cost. Here is a very persuasive video which illustrates what is happening. Even the colours used on TV weather charts seem designed to make hot weather seem hotter.

Thursday 5 September 2019

OBAMA BUYING SEA FRONT MANSION

This article gives the details of the ex-president buying water-front property despite claiming to believe that climate change would lead to accelerated sea level rise. I suspect his belief is not quite as strong as he claimed.

Wednesday 4 September 2019

CHIEF SCIENTIST DOUBTS THE UK CAN ACHIEVE ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2050

This article looks at the advice from the government's chief environment scientist, Prof Sir Ian Boyd, on how our lifestyles will have to change in order to meet the zero net emissions of CO2 by 2050. The Professor said the public had little idea of the scale of the challenge required. - Dead right here.

He warned that persuasive political leadership was needed to carry the public through the challenge. - The challenge is: can they persuade people to pay large sums in taxes, transport and energy costs to achieve something that will have no effect on the world's CO2 emissions or the temperature or the weather.

He went on to say, "Emissions won't be reduced to Net Zero while ministers are fixed on economic growth measured by GDP, instead of other measures such as environmental security and a relatively stable climate". - Does he want to see GDP fall? If so he will get a permanent recession. Does he really believe the climate has ever been stable? Why should the opinion of a biologist be worth as much as Prof John Christy, a leading expert who has studied the climate for thirty years?

Asked why the UK should take the lead when China's emissions are so high, he answered that the Chinese government was very worried about the climate and was taking it very seriously.  A pity that question wasn't followed up robustly by asking "Why, in that case, are they building hundreds of coal-fired power stations?"
He also said, "We certainly won't be able to travel so much as we have in the past, so we have to get used to using modern communications methods. - But doesn't he realise that tourism is a massive industry and is essential for many poorer countries to survive? 
"Moving material round the planet will be more difficult so we'll have to do more with 3D printing; that sort of thing. - Such shallow thinking! We'll print 30,000 bananas shall we?How does he think trade will continue? He is sounding like a slightly paler version of Extinction Rebellion. Where are all the saner voices - silenced I am afraid (at least from the BBC). 


Tuesday 3 September 2019

EXTINCTION REBELLION (ER) - A VERY DANGEROUS ORGANISATION

While they seem to have disappeared from the news in the summer, ER have not gone away. This lengthy and rather repetitive report  lifts the lid on this very unpleasant organisation masquerading as the only way to salvation for us all. 

h/t to reader Rowlyho

Lurking behind the façade the linked report finds the real ambition or ER is to overthrow our entire way of life and organisation, something they have no hope of succeeding in, but if allowed enough freedom they will cause us all massive disruption and chaos.

They have only been able to get this far with the aid of a lot of what some might call "useful idiots", including Cabinet Ministers who appear to have cravenly kow-towed to them, even asking for their advice. The police stood by while they accomplished the closure of main highways, even joining in with their attempt at a carnival atmosphere.

This extract from the report gives a little insight:  Hallam (one of the ER leaders) argues that councils and civic institutions should call a climate emergency, but warns against only symbolic gestures by saying that, “the hypocrisy of accepting the truth but not taking appropriate action only makes them more complicit in the criminality of the political class.” As such, Hallam argues that councils should be called upon to issue central government with an ultimatum, when they fail to act however, then they should be “asked to break off all administrative cooperation with the genocidal regime and leaders should go on hunger strike to show their horror at the inaction of central government.”

While the above scenario may seem absurd to you and me, it is something that the ER leadership believe is achievable. What has happened is that a number of apparently rational councils have naively called a climate emergency, believing that this is what the public expects, but they have no intention of giving the government an ultimatum or going on hunger strike. However there is a kind of logic in the demands of ER, if there were a genuine dire emergency. 

In another clip ER leaders said “politicians behind the scenes, including this current government, are telling us that they need a social movement like ours to give them the social permission to do the necessary.”  Implying that our government would really like to carry out a much more extreme policy on decarbonisation, but are afraid they would not have the support of the people. This kind of statement must be strongly refuted, or else it will be believed. 

The poor old government. Either they have to admit that they have exaggerated the dangers of climate change or they have to go along with ER and make out it is an emergency and yet they aren't able to carry out the policies that would follow if it was an emergency.

I do agree with the end of the report which deals with measures to combat ER. "The Government should take two courses of action to counter and undermine the rise of Extinction Rebellion in the UK. It should focus on preventing the campaigners from causing massive disruption and economic damage—including incitement and conspiracy offences—as well as by opposing and challenging the campaigners’ message. Most immediately, the police must act to prevent demonstrators from taking control of locations in city centres or from blocking roads and bridges. Where Extinction Rebellion succeed in doing so, the police should act quickly to remove and arrest those involved before demonstrators have secured control of these areas."






Monday 2 September 2019

PROPAGANDA WEEK STARTS ON 16 SEPTEMBER (BUT WILL WE NOTICE?)

This piece explains the blatant attempt to manipulate the news media. It sounds like something out of 1984, yet it is happening in supposedly democratic nations. We need to get the message out - you cannot trust everything on the news bulletins.

Sunday 1 September 2019

AMAZON FIRES EXAGGERATED PROPAGANDA



The dramatic photos shared by celebrities of the fires in Brazil weren't what they appeared to be. The photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon. 


 
The increase in fires burning in Brazil set off a storm of international outrage last week. Celebrities, environmentalists, and political leaders blame Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, for destroying the world’s largest rainforest, the Amazon, which they say is the “lungs of the world.”

Singers and actors including Madonna and Jaden Smith shared photos on social media that were seen by tens of millions of people. “The lungs of the Earth are in flames,” said actor Leonardo DiCaprio. “The Amazon Rainforest produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen,” tweeted soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo. “The Amazon rain forest — the lungs which produce 20% of our planet’s oxygen — is on fire,” tweeted French President Emanuel Macron.
 
And yet the photos weren’t actually of the fires and many weren’t even of the Amazon. The photo Ronaldo shared was taken in southern Brazil, far from the Amazon, in 2013. The photo that DiCaprio and Macron shared is over 20 years old. The photo Madonna and Smith shared is over 30. Some celebrities shared photos from Montana, India, and Sweden.
 
To their credit, CNN and New York Times debunked the photos and other misinformation about the fires. “Deforestation is neither new nor limited to one nation,” explained CNN. “These fires were not caused by climate change,” noted The Times. 
 
But both publications repeated the claim that the Amazon is the “lungs” of the world. “The Amazon remains a net source of oxygen today,” said CNN. “The Amazon is often referred to as Earth’s ‘lungs,’ because its vast forests release oxygen and store carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is a major cause of global warming,” claimed The New York Times.

I was curious to hear what one of the world’s leading Amazon forest experts, Dan Nepstad, had to say about the “lungs” claim.
 
“It’s bullshit,” he said. “There’s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration so it’s a wash.” 

Plants use respiration to convert nutrients from the soil into energy. They use photosynthesis to convert light into chemical energy, which can later be used in respiration.
 
What about The New York Times claim that “If enough rain forest is lost and can’t be restored, the area will become savanna, which doesn’t store as much carbon, meaning a reduction in the planet’s ‘lung capacity’”?
 
Also not true, said Nepstad, who was a lead author of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. “The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen, but so do soy farms and [cattle] pastures.”
 
Some people will no doubt wave away the “lungs” myth as nit-picking. The broader point is that there is an increase in fires in Brazil and something should be done about it. 
 
But the “lungs” myth is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider that CNN ran a long segment with the banner, “Fires Burning at Record Rate in Amazon Forest” while a leading climate reporter claimed, “The current fires are without precedent in the past 20,000 years.” 
 
While the number of fires in 2019 is indeed 80% higher than in 2018, it’s just 7% higher than the average over the last 10 years ago, Nepstad said.
 
One of Brazil’s leading environmental journalists agrees that media coverage of the fires has been misleading. “It was under [Workers Party President] Lula and [Environment Secretary] Marina Silva (2003-2008) that Brazil had the highest incidence of burning,” Leonardo Coutinho told me over email. “But neither Lula nor Marina was accused of putting the Amazon at risk.”
 
Coutinho’s perspective was shaped by reporting on the ground in the Amazon for Veja, Brazil’s leading news magazine, for nearly a decade. By contrast, many of the correspondents reporting on the fires have been doing so from the cosmopolitan cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which are 2,500 miles and four hours by jet plane away.
 
“What is happening in the Amazon is not exceptional,” said Coutinho. “Take a look at Google web searches search for ‘Amazon’ and ‘Amazon Forest’ over time. Global public opinion was not as interested in the ‘Amazon tragedy’ when the situation was undeniably worse. The present moment does not justify global hysteria.”
 
And while fires in Brazil have increased, there is no evidence that Amazon forest fires have. 
 
Full post