UPDATED AGW SKEPTIC'S CASE

by James Craig Green
(with links to Alan Cheetham and Anthony Watts websites)


For several years now, I have been researching, discussing and writing about the issue of man-caused (anthropogenic) global warming, or AGW.

Early on, I tried to maintain my objectivity, but the vast conspiracy and duplicity of governments' climate scientists (refusing public records requests), the self-serving politics of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), major media and even several (formerly respectable) professional societies have poisoned too many people with their self-serving and dogmatic assertions that:

1. Global warming during the last several decades has been primarily caused by human activity,

2. Only so-called "climate scientists" self-selected by the IPCC and its supporters have the credentials to publicly opine on the issue, despite their not being allowed to write the IPCC's "Summary for Policymakers" in each of their major reports, routinely published months before the release of technical reports.

3. Skeptics are hacks for oil companies and other polluters who profit from covering up the truth, and

4. The earth will experience an unprecedented warming, never before seen, unless drastic measures are taken immediately by the governments of the world to prevent catastrophic warming that will destroy the human economy as it currently exists.



Fortunately, several prominent climate skeptics (who deny that humans are the primary cause of recent warming) have compiled scientific and other information on websites and in many books that show the failure of the IPCC and its minions to prove their case. Astonishingly, the IPCC's incredibly shoddy and politicized work, including hijacking scientific societies and publications (such as Nature, National Geographic and Scientific American magazines), has been covered up by one of the most dishonest disinformation campaigns in more than a generation.

Enter my heroes Alan Cheetham and Anthony Watts.


I was first attracted to Alan Cheetham's global warming website several years ago because of its detail, excellent writing and voluminous data with graphs, tables and broad scope addressing AGW issues. I have referred to Alan's site many times in email correspondence and articles of my own. Here is his website, chock-full of scientific detail on a variety of technical issues:

http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/

Alan's "Simplified Nutshell" page has also been available for years:
http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/GW_SimplifiedNutshell.htm

In case you didn't know, all IPCC reports depend on a single assumption, that has no basis in reality -- that increases in CO2 warming should be multiplied several times and assumed to apply directly to water vapor, the most dominant greenhouse gas. CO2 comprises only about 1 part in 2400 of the atmosphere, even at today's elevated levels. The earth has been warming since the Little Ice Age from the mid 1700's, when the Thames River in London was frozen, as was the Hudson River in New York during the American Revolution. In other words, the earth had already been warming for two centuries before today's global warming became a "prime time" political issue.


I have more recently been following Anthony Watts' site, "Watts Up With That?" (The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change)
In particular, his latest article as of this date is shown in the link below. It summarizes what I think is the achilles' heel of all IPCC work -- the unproven and dogmatic assumpion that human effects which may cause increased global warming from carbon emmisions should be multiplied several times as a "positive feedback" to the most dominant greenhouse gas, which is water vapor.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/26/the-skeptics-case/

This article, with a handful of excellent graphs, explains the criticism of the IPCC's shoddy work and the case for the skeptic's position, using the most recent data and well-documented data sources.

It is the best focused explanation, with sufficient data, I have found to demonstrate the IPCC's failure to model reality for the last three decades. It focuses on the weakest, but most important link in the IPCC chain, which is the unfounded assumption that warming from CO2 can and should be multiplied and applied to water vapor. Without this assumption, IPCC models fail dramatically to even suggest, much less prove, their case.

CRAIG'S ARTICLES FOR COLORADO'S INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE

by James Craig Green

The following are various articles I have written over the last two decades for Colorado's free market think tank, the Independence Institute, where I am a Senior Fellow in Water Policy. I was first contacted by John Andrews, the first director of II, in 1990 to write an article on Colorado's water rights. Years later, I was contacted by Dennis Polhill on behalf of Jon Caldara to write an updated water rights article during the extreme drought year of 2002. Subsequent articles were mostly on water subjects, with an occasional July 4th celebration of the Declaration of Independence. Many of these articles are hard to find today if you don't know where to look, so I have put links to them here in one place.

Colorado's Independence Institute includes some of the finest free market thinkers in the nation, including its important work to protect freedom and property rights. Recently Rob Natelson, perhaps the most scholarly of Constitutional scholars on original intent has joined Dave Kopel, a leading expert on the Second Amendment, to provide an impressive legal team for promoting liberty at II through the legal process. They are active on several important legal fronts, including the current movement to constrain the scope of the federal government by the Constitution's Tenth Amendment.

My work for II has always been about passion for freedom and the promotion of market solutions over the stifling conformity of bureaucratic ones.



Craig's first paper at II for John Andrews
JUST DAY NO TO CENTRALIZED WATER PLANNING (1990)
(footnote links no longer work, but footnotes are still at the end of the article)



Craig's drought-year (2002) Water rights Primer
USE IT OR LOSE IT (2002)



A review of proposed legilsation in the 2002-2003 legislative sessions
DROWNING IN LEGISLATION (2003)



Craig's article about how markets in water are better than government rules
LET COLORADO WATER MARKETS WORK (2003)



Craig's July 4th article on the flag of American Independence
SORRY, LOST IN CYBERSPACE...
DON'T TREAD ON ME (2007)


Craig's criticism of Colorado media concerning a false "water crisis"
POLITICIANS, MEDIA DUPED BY WATER CRISIS (2006)



Another July 4th article celebrating Thomas Paine's contribution
THOMAS PAINE'S JULY 4TH (2007)



Craig's reply to a Farmer who says the State didn't do enough
SORRY, LOST IN CYBERSPACE...
THE FARMER AND THE WATERCOPS (2009)



Craig's article on solar jobs replying to Denver Post article
SOLAR JOBS' FAULTY ECONOMICS, EXAGGERATION (2009)


Craig's article celebrating the work of Montana's PERC
FREE MARKET ENVIRONMENTALISM (2010)


Craig's article on a destructive 2012 Colorado ballot proposal
DON'T LET COLORADO CONFISCATE WATER RIGHTS (2012)