Jonas Raises Major Questions Concerning Climate Alarmist Narrative

While digging out from the 30 or so inches of snow that mega snow storm Jonas left behind on the US East Coast last weekend, I could not help but think of how the storm suggests a number of the problems with the Climate-Industrial Complex (CIC) narrative. The CIC is the name I have given to those who promote climate alarmism, including the wind and solar industries, most environmental organizations, the United Nations, the Obama Administration, and many liberal news media.

The institutional arbiter of alarmist climate science, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that “milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms.” One alarmist newspaper even published an article entitled “snowfalls are now just a thing of the past,” and another published an op-ed predicting “the end of snow.” Actual data, however, shows that winter temperatures in the US Northeast have been falling sharply from 2012 through 2015. Could that be the explanation for the fact that major snow storms have been more numerous there in the last decade? Maybe colder winter temperatures can lead to more major winter storms?

My snow removal efforts also led me to further question whether prevalent winter temperatures in the Northeast are really ideal anyway. There must be a reason why millions of Americans have moved to warmer climates for their retirement years. Obviously catastrophic increases in global temperatures need to be avoided if possible, but no valid scientific case has been made that such increases will occur. But minor increases, which are the most that appear even remotely likely to occur, would on balance be favorable, as discussed in my book Environmentalism Gone Mad.

Use of Non-hydro Renewables Greatly Increases Costs and Decreases Electric Reliability

As also discussed in Environmentalism Gone Mad, the most serious consequences of the CIC’s efforts to greatly increase the use of non-hydro renewables are the greatly increased costs and decreased reliability of electric power supplies that will result as their EPA-mandated reductions in fossil fuel-powered electrical generation are implemented.

During the storm on the East Coast the only thing that prevented it from being a widespread human disaster was that there were few electrical outages, allowing most people to keep their heat and prevent their water pipes from bursting. When EPA’s new power plant regulations are effective, however, such an outcome would be much less likely when the wind fails and the sun stays under a cloud, such as during the early part of Jonas. Western Europe has already seen such circumstances, which have forced Germany and Great Britain to build new fossil fuel capacity to avoid grid collapse during such periods when their non-hydro renewables do not supply adequate electric power to meet demand.

Over that last 30 years the CIC has made numerous predictions as to how the climate will behave despite the gross lack of understanding of what determines its fluctuations. Happily, every major prediction tested so far has proved to be wrong. They claimed that global temperatures would rise dramatically, but there has been no rise for over 18 years using valid data rather than government-“adjusted” thermometer data. Yet they continue just as if they had useful things to say rather than promoting the world’s biggest scam. Unfortunately, thanks to the Obama Administration, EPA regulations require states and their electricity users to incur the huge costs of what the CIC is pushing–non-hydro “renewable” energy–with no measurable benefits for anyone not on the alarmists’ payroll.

Snow storm Jonas does not prove that the climate is getting colder; it does raise questions, however, concerning the alarmist narrative.