Category Archives: climate

Federal Green Expenditures

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Watts Up With That has some ideas for budget cutting in the next administration.  Or, actually, these ideas come from Salon (!) via WUWT (never mind that cutting isn’t what Salon meant).

  • Energy Department

2017 climate-related budget: $8.5 billion

  • Interior Department

2017 climate-related budget: $1.1 billion

  • State Department

2017 climate-related budget: $984 million

  • NASA

2017 climate-related budget: $1.9 billion

  • Environmental Protection Agency

2017 climate-related budget: $1.1 billion

  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

2017 climate-related research and development: $190 million

That works out to $13.8 billion of “useless waste.”  Yes, indeedy.

While we’re about it, let’s cut the “green” subsidies, too.  Every single one of them.  The fossil fuel (coal, oil, and gas) enterprises don’t need the $3-$5 billion (depending on who gets asked) in subsidies they get, either.  That’s yet more budget cutting.19+, although fossil fuels get much less than the “green” money being tossed down rat holes.

Some Climate Moves

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Maybe.  Via Watts Up With That we see these items [emphasis in the originals]:

By Megan Darby in Marrakech

US Republicans are expected to axe billions of dollars in climate finance when they take the White House and Congress in January.

Funds to help poor countries adapt to the impacts of global warming and develop sustainably will be redirected to domestic priorities.

“We are going to cancel billions in payments to the UN climate change programmes and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure,” said President-elect Donald Trump in his 22 October Gettysburg address.

With a Republican majority in the Senate and House of Representatives, there appears to be little standing in his way.

And

What a Trump Win Means For the Global Climate Fight

Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency signals an end to American leadership on international climate policy. With the withdrawal of US support, efforts to implement the Paris agreement and avoid the most devastating consequences of global warming have suffered a huge blow.

by David Victor

With the unexpected triumph of Donald Trump, what’s in store for US climate and energy policies?

[…]

One thing is clear: the Trump administration will inflict more harm on global cooperation around climate than any prior president. After the successful Paris agreement last year, that cooperation was finally poised to make progress with decisive US leadership. I doubt that a Trump presidency will kill the Paris process—too many other countries are too invested in its success. But it will shift the intellectual and political leadership of the process from the United States to other countries, most notably China.

Oh please, oh please.

Global Warming and the World Series

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The pseudo-scientists of the climatistas say that the rain delay between the 9th and 10th innings of last Wednesday’s Game 7 was caused by global warming.

Seriously, the science wizards behind the party’s Twitter account asserted that it “should” be snowing in Cleveland on November 3. It’s November, it’s Cleveland…it’s called science, people.

It’s November. It should be snowing in Cleveland, not raining! Blame global warming for the delay. #WorldSeries

    — Green Party US (@GreenPartyUS) November 3, 2016

Science, indeed.  Here’s a table of temperatures in the latter two-thirds of November 1908, the last year the Cubs won a Series, via the same Watts Up With That link above [highlight in the original]:worldseriesglobalwarmingIt would be funny, if this weren’t so serious.  As it is, it’s risible.

Probably Not A Bad Idea, Then

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The People’s Republic of China is…wary…of dealing with a President Trump, and they’re expressing that wariness in the milieu of the Paris climate accord.  Xie Zhenhua, the PRC’s climate negotiator, is being cited by The Guardian as saying, in response to Republican Party Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s commitment to walk away from the accord, that

The world is moving towards balancing environmental protection and economic growth….

And

I believe a wise political leader should take policy stances that conform with global trends.

And Trump should continue the meekness of President Barack Obama’s (D) following along leading from behind.  The PRC is much more comfortable that way.

That just supports the thesis that the Paris climate accord is worthless, and we should walk away from it.

Climate as Seen through Arctic Sea Ice

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Here’s a graph of Arctic sea ice growth year on year, via Watts Up With That:arcticseaice

Looks to me like positive growth has vastly outstripped negative growth.  Indeed, here’s Anthony Watt’s take on the matter [emphasis in the original]:

Since hitting its earliest minimum extent since 1997, Arctic sea ice has been expanding at a phenomenal rate. Already it is greater than at the same date in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2015. Put another way, it is the fourth highest extent in the last ten years. Even more remarkably, ice growth since the start of the month is actually the greatest on record, since daily figures started to be kept in 1987.

Hmm….