NIPCC Report Documents Warming’s Benefits on the Biosphere
Climate Change Weekly #123
The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change released a 1,000-page report documenting global warming’s beneficial impact on the biosphere. The report, Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts, provides a comprehensive analysis of global warming’s impacts on plants, terrestrial animals, aquatic life, and human well-being.
The new volume is the fifth produced by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. A sixth volume, Climate Change Reconsidered II: Human Welfare, Energy, and Policies, is scheduled for release later this month.
More than 30 scientists served as authors and reviewers for the new volume. The volume cites more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies supporting the conclusion that global warming is not causing substantial harm to the biosphere.
“Biological Impacts broadly tracks and critiques the work of IPCC’s Working Group II, which is expected to release its report on the impacts of climate change around the same time as this report is presented. It appears IPCC is continuing its pattern of selectively reporting data to present an alarmist view of the impacts of climate change,” the report explains.
Biological Impacts documents increasing productivity of forests and grasslands, countering IPCC assertions to the contrary. The new volume also presents the scientific evidence that a more productive biosphere effectively sequesters much of the carbon dioxide IPCC claims will cause additional warming.
The new volume is available for free online at The Heartland Institute and NIPCC websites.
MORE INFORMATION: Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change
IN THIS ISSUE
Heartland Institute announces international global warming conference … Carbon dioxide emissions stimulating the greening of Asia … Cold temperature records pile up in March … Polar sea ice refuses to retreat … IPCC turns truth on its head regarding crop production
HEARTLAND INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL WARMING CONFERENCE
The Heartland Institute announced it will be holding its Ninth International Conference on Climate Change July 7–9 in Las Vegas. The conference will highlight two comprehensive new publications by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change and will point out how the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been forced to abandon many of its prior assertions and predictions regarding global warming. Approximately 50 speakers will give presentations, including Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore and climate scientists Patrick Michaels and Roy Spencer. Registration and additional information are available at The Heartland Institute website.
MORE INFORMATION: The Heartland Institute
CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS STIMULATING THE GREENING OF ASIA
Earth’s terrestrial plants are photosynthesizing at ever greater rates, causing a greening of the planet. On the website of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, scientist Craig Idso cites and summarizes a peer-reviewed article documenting this greening in Asia. Satellite measurements show 40 percent of Asia’s non-ice-covered landmass experienced an increase in vegetation from 1982–2011, while only 5 percent experienced a decrease in vegetation. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide “is literally transforming the planet – for the better – right before our eyes,” Idso explained.
MORE INFORMATION: Website of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change
COLD TEMPERATURE RECORDS PILE UP IN MARCH
The historically cold winter of 2013–14 went out like a lion, with new cold temperature records set throughout much of the United States. December 2013 through March 2014 was the coldest four-month stretch in recorded history in President Barack Obama’s home city of Chicago. In the U.S. Northeast, cities such as Caribou, Maine and Burlington, Vermont experienced their coldest March in recorded history. More than 90 percent of the Great Lakes were frozen over in early March, the second-most-extensive ice cover in recorded history.
MORE INFORMATION: Environment & Climate News
POLAR SEA ICE REFUSES TO RETREAT
Polar sea ice was above the long-term average last week, continuing a trend where polar ice has remained above the long-term average for most of the past 15 months. (Calculations of the long-term average date back to 1979 when NASA/NOAA satellite instruments began measuring polar sea ice on a daily basis.) It has been more than two years since Southern Hemisphere sea ice has been below the long-term average. Satellite data also show a substantial increase in multi-year Northern Hemisphere sea ice.
IPCC TURNS TRUTH ON ITS HEAD REGARDING CROP PRODUCTION
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignored global warming’s positive impact on global crop production and falsely claimed global warming is reducing food production, National Review Online writer Rupert Darwall explained in a compelling article. In addition to misrepresenting global warming’s beneficial impact on crop production, IPCC hypocritically blamed global warming for price increases of staple food crops when the price increases were caused by climate activists’ promotion of removing crops from the food market and burning them for fuel instead. “This negligence amounts to downright dishonesty,” Darwall observes.
MORE INFORMATION: National Review Online