Climate change: A summary – American Thinker

If you paid any attention to what came from COP28, held in Dubai, you have to conclude that world leaders and intellectuals believe we are facing a major crisis, and the world is doomed unless we spend billions, even trillions on climate preventive measures.

Fortunately, most of the common people believe that climate is just long-term weather, which may cause it to be hot one day and cold the next.  Those who have actually studied history know that the world has always warmed and cooled and that there is no cause for alarm.

Carbon Dioxide Is the Gas of Life

Few of those who are sounding the alarm have any understanding of the science of climate.  Al Gore noted that as temperature rose so did the carbon dioxide, but he forgot to find out if the rising of both might have been caused by something else.  Few political leaders even discuss the importance of carbon dioxide in our world.  It is more probable that changes in our sun are causing rising temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide.

Most every grammar school child knows that plants absorb carbon dioxide (which they used to grow) and give off oxygen, which all animals need to survive.  The one process complements the other.

Carbon dioxide is very important, as it is the gas of life.  At the present time, there is about 420 parts per million (0.042%) of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.  From that tiny percentage is grown every plant that exists on the Earth — bushes and trees and even our vegetables.  Some nurseries even burn gas in their greenhouses to increase carbon dioxide and make plants grow better.

Some world leaders consider carbon dioxide a poisonous gas, yet carbon dioxide levels are much higher on submarines and in spacecraft.

Fossil Fuels Delivered the World from Poverty

After oil was discovered, one of the first things produced was kerosene.  Without a doubt, this saved the whales, as whale oil had been used in lamps up to that time.  Even before the discovery of oil, kerosene was made from coal and was called “coal oil.”

World government leaders and the present administration are determined to eliminate the use of all fossil fuels, because the burning of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide. 

But it is the use of fossil fuels that has created modern civilization.  Elimination of fossil fuels would take us back to the Stone Age.  Plus it is not just diesel and gasoline — there are over 6,000 things made from fossil fuels.  I have documented 1,700 items; you can get the idea.  Without fossil fuels, we would have no pavement; no rubber tires; and most important of all, no plastic.  Thus, no vinyl fences or siding, no plastic plumbing, and no packaging of grocery store items.  (Go to the grocery store and look down the aisle.  Then try to imagine all these things without the plastic packaging.)

Wind and Solar Are No Solution

Our electricity is mainly produced using fossil fuels, with some hydroelectric (dams) and some nuclear.  Wind and solar are supposed to take the place of fossil fuels. 

Right now, when the wind does not blow nor the sun shine, the slack is taken up using coal and natural gas.  To be available when needed, these sources of electricity are kept idling.  But under such conditions, they use almost as much fuel and produce almost as much carbon dioxide, so you have gained little.

When these resources are eliminated, we will have to depend on huge batteries.  In some places, during the winter, there may be week after week with cloudy weather, with rain and snow.  (Where we live in North Idaho, we have had only one week of clear weather in three months.)  It would be impossible to build a battery large enough to power a city for a day, let alone for a week, or a month.

Wind machines last only a few years.  Some burn up or break apart.  And the sound of the turbine has been a health problem for some people and for whales.  Bats and many birds are killed by wind machines.  (Many of these birds are considered threatened, so this is a threat to their survival.)  Plus, there is the fact that when it is really cold, the wind sometimes does not blow.

Solar is not a lot better.  Solar panels last a few years.  They produce no electricity at night and little in the early morning or late afternoon.  They produce no electricity when covered with snow, and they make little sense in the northern states or in Canada.  (In fact, I wonder if they make any sense north of the 45th parallel.)  Further, some solar installations failed (more) after a few years, or did not produce as planned.  Here is another problem.

Electric Vehicles Are a Rich Man’s Dream

Since carbon dioxide is a benefit to the planet, none of these programs makes any sense.  Electric vehicles are supposed to save the planet, but this is very unrealistic.  These vehicles are very expensive, must stop every couple of hours and be recharged, and have many technical problems.  These vehicles with batteries are much heavier than a vehicle with an internal combustion engine and are thus unsafe on the highway.  Some cars parked on the coast and covered with sea water have caught fire.

Polar Bears Are Not Threatened

On May 15, 2008, the United States listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  The government believed they would likely become endangered in the future.  They believed that the numbers of bears would decline greatly by 2050. 

However, there were about 5,000 bears in 1970.  Today, there are more than 30,000, so it appears that the bears are not in any real danger.  This determination was based on computer models and not on the history of the bears.  They believed that the bears had to hunt seals from ice, and they believed that the ice would continue to decline in the Arctic, so they assumed that the bears’ numbers would decline as they starved.  But polar bears are great swimmers and can hunt seals in open water, so the danger is a myth.  Not only that, but sea ice in the Arctic has not declined as projected.

Polar bears are the largest carnivores in the world.  They are very dangerous.  A grown polar bear can be larger than a grizzly.  They can be deadly if humans range too close.  Polar bears have been here for thousands of years and will no doubt be here a lot longer.

Not the Climate, but Control

If there is no climate change crisis, then what is the point?  The point is to get you to fear, so that you will spend lots of money on projects that benefit no one.  Rather than spending money on those with real needs, we are asked to spend money on pointless projects that do not improve the lives of anyone.

Want to know more?  You can read my short little book: Climate Change: A Convenient Truth.

Jim Hollingsworth is a graduate of Pensacola Christian College with a master’s degree in biblical studies.  He has written several books:

Climate Change: A Convenient Truth: Second Edition, Improved and Updated
Cortez: A Biography
The Ancient Culture of the Aztec Empire
Abortion Compassion: a Prolife Book on unborn life
Romans: A Commentary
Galatians: A Commentary

All available where books are sold.

Jim Hollingsworth receives mail at [email protected].

Image: 358611 via Pixabay, Pixabay License.