By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Thursday, April 16, the Rainy Day Patriots gathered at Hoover Tactical Firearms to hear from renowned scientist Dr. Roy Spencer with the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH) about his research into climate theory.
The UAH professor said that he has been fighting the global warming wars for 25 years. “If it weren’t for the politics nobody would really care about this.”
Dr. Spencer said, “Global warming or global cooling can be natural or manmade…Many in the public as well as many scientist have grown up and been indoctrinated into the idea that it is all manmade…There is abundant evidence that climate changes have occurred in the past.”
The global warming theory got popular in the 1980s. 1988 was a big drought year in the Midwest. It was good timing.
Spencer said the theory is that man’s burning of fossil fuels has resulted in more CO2 being released in the atmosphere leading to global warming.
Dr. Spencer said, “That should cause some warming, but how much…The warming in the last 50 years is partly manmade…We do not have a clue as to how much…The earth was on a warming pattern and then 17 years ago it began flattening out.”
Dr. Spencer presented charts showing a Roman warming period from 1 to 200 A.D. followed by a cooling off from 200 to 600 A.D. with a medieval warming period to 1200 A.D. followed by a little ice age that lasted to about 1700 A.D. “Man made CO2 admissions did not really ramp up until after WWII.
Dr. Spencer said, “Global satellite measurements show no warming in the last 17 years…The climate models are failing. Spencer said that scientists who write computer programs predicting how the climate will perform in their, ‘toy climate system’ have all predicted warming since 1979…These models can’t even hind cast…The models have been producing twice as much warming as has actually occurred.”
Dr. Spencer said that this has become so political, “The modelers won’t change their models…It would be politically suicidal to say their models are wrong… Theoretically they could be right…We don’t know how sensitive the climate is to adding CO2…So far the warming on average has been beneficial.”
Most climate modelers are not meteorologists. Dr. Spencer said that the computer modelers think all the warming is human caused. They don’t include El Nino effects. “We found that the climate system is only half as sensitive as they think it is and it may actually be less than that…It is possible that there is no effect.”
The modelers also don’t count the cooling from all the added particulate matter that has been added to the atmosphere.
Dr. Spencer said that, “CNN had me on against some guy who I didn’t even know who turned out to be a nut job.”
Dr. Spencer said that, “We need to quit acting irrationally. There is actually a net downward trend in tornados since 1970. 2005 was the last year a major hurricane struck the US. There is a long record of major droughts in California. Big snow storms have happened before. Global warming fears are almost entirely based upon the theory of what could happen.”
Dr. Spencer said that Humanity requires so much energy now that we are forced to rely on fossil fuels. Renewables are producing only about 14 percent of the power that we need and even in the most optimistic scenario that will be less than 20 percent by 2035. I think it is immoral not to tell people you will kill people if we make them use more expensive energy.
Dr. Spencer said that, “CO2 is necessary for life on earth. Almost all types of vegetation responds positively to more CO2 including phytoplankton in the ocean.
Spencer said that it is amazing that it (global warming theory) took hold. “A lot of people have a certain amount of self-loathing. They are trying to rectify it so their lives have meaning. Why do politicians and many scientists persist on an issue that: Has such flimsy scientific evidence, the public doesn’t care very much about, and we can’t do anything about it?
Spencer says that nothing gets accomplished when he testifies before the Congress or the Senate. “Everyone already has their minds made up…I don’t have the illusion that I am going to change any minds in Congress. You really can’t change any minds…They attack your credibility.” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) slam dunked me as ‘Rush Limbaugh’s climatologist.’”
“Nature takes out half of all the CO2 in the atmosphere for use by plants. Life on Earth has been starved of CO2. As we are adding some of it back life on Earth is breathing easier. The corn growers consult with me to see if they should be worried. No one has seen any evidence yet of negative crops,” Spencer said.
Dr. Spencer said, our ability to grow food on an acre of ground has increased exponentially. Technological improvements have led to huge increase in corn yields since 1960. Through statistical analysis I did find a small negative signal. The U.S. grows most of the world’s corn. The limiting factor is normally temperature in the middle of the summer. There has been some warming in the middle of summer that should produce a 6 percent decrease in crop yield; but the CO2 fertilization guys say that we have experienced a 7.5 percent increase in yield due to more CO2 so warming has still been a net positive.
Spencer said “Humans adapt.” Ocean levels rise and we just decide that the next building that goes up on the beach will be a few feet back.
Dr. Spencer said, “Sen. Jeff Sessions has been very strong on this…He is outnumbered, but he doesn’t really care.”
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) has gone after the funding of scientists whose work casts doubts on global warming.
Spencer continued, “Severe weather has not gotten worse….The damages have gotten worse because we are wealthier and we build fancier buildings on the Coast….For the most part Congress is not hearing it….They are so scared of the media. If enough of the public puts pressure on the public Congress will know it.”
Dr. Spencer said that over the years I have gotten the impression that most members of Congress have at some point made a calculated decision on which position they are going to be on. Only a minority have a strong ideological belief.
Dr. Spencer said that radical environmentalists have caused a lot of damage. Rachel Carson and the DDT scare was totally overblown. Millions of people have died needlessly around the world because DDT was taken off the market and it is enormously effective at combating malaria. Green Peace started to fight atmospheric nuclear weapons testing and transformed itself into an organization that attacks humans.
Dr. Spencer said that Rush Limbaugh claims the whole thing (man-made global warming) is a hoax. “Ted Cruz has taken the same line. I think that is a dangerous track to take. I think that is risky, but he is a smarter lawyer than I am….I don’t like the word hoax.”
Spencer said, “Politicians I don’t see any progress with. The public is becoming more skeptical and that is a good thing.”
Spencer said that most, “Earth scientists have a preconceived bias that the Earth is fragile and needs protecting.”
That has become their religious world view and it is a mistake to pass that off as science.
On Common Core math that he has reviewed Dr. Spencer said, “Are we going to let all the science engineering and math be done by China in the future?”
