Doing the right things for the wrong reasons is a serious mistake
Ottawa, Canada, March 28, 2012: “Earth Hour is yet another symbol of how climate activists have hijacked the environmental movement,” said Tom Harris, executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC) which is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. “Most people do not realize that, when they turn out their lights for sixty minutes on March 31, they are not supporting science-based environmental protection. Participants in Earth Hour are unwittingly helping prop up one of the most threatening scientific hoaxes in history—the idea that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human activities are known to be causing dangerous global warming and other problematic climate change.”
ICSC chief science advisor, Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia and author of the best selling book, “Climate: the Counter Consensus” explained, “Science has yet to provide unambiguous evidence that problematic, or even measurable, human-caused global warming is occurring. The hypothesis of dangerous man-made climate change is based solely on computerized models that have repeatedly failed in practice in the real world.”
New Zealand-based Terry Dunleavy, ICSC founding chairman and strategic advisor said, “It’s important not to waste energy, and to generate it as economically as possible in terms both of cost and depletion of natural resources. Those are the right reasons for mass gestures like Earth Hour. However, it is a mistake to promote such initiatives as ‘saving the planet’ by reducing emissions of CO2 when so many qualified scientists do not support the hypothesis that man-made CO2 can or does cause dangerous global warming. As the public come to realize that they have been misled about the reasons for Earth Hour, much of the incentive to engage in constructive behaviour will evaporate.”
In announcing his support for Earth Hour, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon asserted, “We do so [turning off lights] in solidarity with the men, women and children, 20% of all humankind, who live with no access to electricity.”
“If we are going to demonstrate solidarity with those who lack adequate energy supplies, then we need to really feel what they feel, not just turn off a few lights,” said ICSC energy issues advisor, Bryan Leyland of Auckland, New Zealand. “Earth Hour should be renamed Energy Hour and citizens encouraged to use as little energy as possible for 60 minutes so that they can get a sense of what societies without adequate power are actually like. For this is exactly where we are headed if governments continue to yield to climate activists and try to replace reliable, base load generation with expensive, intermittent and diffuse energy sources such as wind and solar power.”
“Climate campaigners will undoubtedly once again cite the public’s participation in Earth Hour as broad support for combating climate change,” predicted Professor Ole Humlum of the Institute of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway and author of the popular climate science Website http://www.climate4you.com/. “Some commentators have therefore suggested using as much energy as possible during the hour to demonstrate opposition to the climate scare. A more constructive approach would be to change the name and stated purpose of the program to one based on the realities of science and the world we actually live in. Energy Hour would stand the test of time. Earth Hour, based on misguided climate change fears, will not.”
The ICSC is a non-partisan group of scientists, economists and energy and policy experts who are working to promote better understanding of climate science and related policy worldwide. We aim to help create an environment in which a more rational, open discussion about climate issues emerges, thereby moving the debate away from implementation of costly and ineffectual “climate control” measures. Instead, ICSC encourages effective planning for, and adaptation to, inevitable natural climate variability, and continuing scientific research into the causes and impacts of climate change.
ICSC also focuses on publicizing the repercussions of misguided plans to “solve the climate crisis”. This includes, but is not limited to, “carbon” sequestration as well as the dangerous impacts of attempts to replace conventional energy supplies with wind turbines, solar power, most biofuels and other ineffective and expensive energy sources.
For more information about this announcement or ICSC in general, visit http://www.climatescienceinternational.org, or contact any of the following ICSC representatives:
In North America:
Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (Mech. – thermofluids)
Executive Director, International Climate Science Coalition
P.O. Box 23013
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4E2
Canada
Email: tom.harris@climatescienceinternational.net
Phone: 613-728-9200
ICSC Webpage: http://www.climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=393
In Australia:
Professor Robert (Bob) M. Carter, PhD, Hon. FRSNZ
Chief Science Advisor, International Climate Science Coalition
Emeritus Fellow, Institute for Public Affairs, Melbourne
Marine Geophysical Laboratory
James Cook University
Townsville, Queensland, 4811
Australia
Email: bob.carter@jcu.edu.au
Phone (mobile): +61-(0)419-701-139
Phone (evening): +61-(0)7-4775-1268
ICSC Webpage: http://climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=394
In New Zealand:
Bryan Leyland, M.Sc., FIEE, FIMechE, FIPENZ, consulting engineer
Energy Issues Advisor, International Climate Science Coalition
Auckland 1022
New Zealand
Email: bryanleyland@mac.com
Phone: +64 9 940 7047; mobile: +64 21 978 996
ICSC Webpage: http://climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=395
OR
Terry Dunleavy, MBE, JP
Founding Chairman and Strategic Advisor, International Climate Science Coalition
Hauraki, North Shore City 0622
New Zealand
Email: terry.dunleavy@nzclimatescience.org.nz
Phone: +64 9 4863859 – Mobile: +64 274836688
ICSC Webpage: http://climatescienceinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=432
In Europe:
Professor Ole Humlum, PhD
Science Advisory Board member, International Climate Science Coalition
Professor of Physical Geography, Department of Physical Geography
Institute of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
E-mail: ole.humlum@geo.uio.no
Phone: +47 79 02 33 00 (department); +47 79 02 33 20 (direct). Fax: +47 79 02 33 01.
Webpage: http://www.unis.no/35_staff/staff_webpages/geology/ole_humlum/olepersonal.htm
Lt does not realize that he is a tool of the government and industry too. If he does realize this, he is not only wrong, but evil as well.
Here’s Ross McKitrick’s statement on Earth Hour from which I quoted above. With devastating eloquence, this guy articulates exactly why people on this site are contemptuous of the whole thinking behind Earth Hour.
http://www.rossmckitrick.com/uploads/4/8/0/8/4808045/earthhour.pdf
Lazy teenager says
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/29/re-name-earth-hour-to-energy-hour-and-base-it-on-sound-science/#comment-938339
Well, don’t be lazy for a while
and try to understand all that I have written.
http://www.letterdash.com/HenryP/what-was-that-what-henry-said-3
It might help clear up your mind.
For anyone else here who wants to know why I will leave all lights and things on during earth hour,
it’s because I believe more carbon dioxide is better.
Praise God for the presence of carbon dioxide!!
http://www.letterdash.com/HenryP/more-carbon-dioxide-is-ok-ok
Philip Bradley says:
March 29, 2012 at 4:08 am
When they ask villagers in Africa what they want, 2 things always top the list, electricity, and a school.
This fact, Phil, reminds me of one of my rare “hurl anything at the tv” moments. It was some sort of a “sustainable” type of a UN-approved NGO charity ad, in which a pack of fahionably dressed, insipidly smiling pampered white numpties were shown hooking up a solar panel to a hovel of a mud hut and putting up a single bare light bulb while the rag-clad residents cheered and danced. Another take showed a grandmother pedalling like the Devil on a foot-operated water pump. The tv wasn’t mine, so it survived. Africa sits atop mountains and seas of carbon wealth and these racist genocidal freaks with do-gooder certificates want a continent to lick their hands for a 40w lightbulb and to collapse with exhaustion over a cup of muddy water.
Lazy Teenager is too lazy to cite any of the evidence he is so sure exists that CO2 drives climate. Much as I hate to encourage such a truly delinquent level of laziness (contributing to the delinquency of a minor?) I will quote the evidence for him. This from the Met Office’s principle research scientist John Mitchell:
The “evidence” for a CO2 driver is that by playing with a hundred different variables, the Met and the IPCC can construct CO2 driven models that yield somewhat the shape of the last century and a half of temperature.
Actual science looks at empirical evidence. Is there any sign of a CO2 driver in the historical data of CO2 and global temperature? No, not that is discernable. There is a correlation, but CO2 changes follow temperature changes by about 800 years, indicating that it is temperature that drives CO2 (outgassing from warming oceans). This leaves open the possibility that CO2 also drives temperature, but there is absolutely no evidence for it in the historical/proxy record.
In the absence of any empirical evidence the anti-CO2 alarmists have decided to label their model-tweaking “evidence,” rather like a lazy teenager, or a delinquent teenager. Didn’t somebody write a book about that?
LazyTeenager says:
March 29, 2012 at 4:22 am
“The creationists use this argument a lot when referring to The Theory of Evolution. Seems they close their eyes ever time evidence comes along, so as to maintain the appearance of sincerity.”
=========
Did someone steal your “handle”, this comment is beneath you.
Fossil fuel powered stations don’t reduce pressure just because the energy consumption drops a little bit, like Earth Hour.
I would like to see “Earth Month”. This would mean a real reduction of CO2.
Shut down all the coal / natural gas powered generating stations for a month. This gives employees of the coal / natural gas powered generators enough time to do some maintenance. And nothing will make people appreciate their electricity as much as not having it for a month.
The whole thing is an insult to all poor people around the world lacking the “luxury” of a lamp switch.
We should all hit the lights and hope these people will get electricity soon.
I will for sure have my electric guitar plugged in (among other things).
Eustace Cranch says:
March 29, 2012 at 6:47 am
Yep, no facts in evidence at WUWT. No research, no ideas, no hypotheses, no graphs, no charts…
Just gossip, gossip, gossip as far as I can tell.
Eustace, given your own twittering pronouncement of those kind of brainless memes, why do you think any individual with a working thought capacity is going to bend to you and your fellow Totalitarian thought controllists? Why don’t you all just repeat your dumb a** memes amongst yourselves and have done with it?
Every time that Earth Hour comes round I think of the words of Professor Ross McKitrick, which are worth repeating….
“
In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughts on the importance of Earth Hour. Here
is my response.
I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human
liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended
on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to
work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time
from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on
the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.
Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely
impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition,
depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady
indoor supply of hot water. Many of the world’s poor suffer brutal environmental conditions
in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and
dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related
lung diseases. Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should
realize the importance of access to cheap electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating
stations. After all, that’s how the west developed.
The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I
celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. Earth Hour celebrates ignorance,
poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an
hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off
trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction
called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous,
reliable electricity. People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their
fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a
month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off
there too.
I don’t want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes
to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in “nature” meant a short life
span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty
and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.
Here in Ontario, through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering,
our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s, despite the expansion of industry
and the power supply. If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air
emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into
sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing
something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal
that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature
but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its
tradeoffs is something to be ashamed of.
Ross McKitrick
Professor of Economics
University of Guelph
Eustace Cranch says:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/03/29/re-name-earth-hour-to-energy-hour-and-base-it-on-sound-science/#comment-938428
Henry@Eustace
Please come back here after you have seen and reported on at least as many data as I have seen
from 22 weatherstations
22 x 12 months
22 x 12 x 30 days,
22 x 12 x 30 x 5 = 39600 data =
from
maxima &
means (daily averages!) &
minima &
humidity &
precipitation
http://www.letterdash.com/HenryP/henrys-pool-table-on-global-warming
that is what you call: doing a job
IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT.
For reasons I cannot fathom, Earth Hour has moved their global HQ from Sydney to Singapore. Now they are based in the country with just about the highest per capita CO2 emissions on the planet. So those of us who live there are doing our part to fight the return to the next ice age.
LazyTeenager says:
>>Dr Burns says
>>, because there is no evidence.
>>—————
>>The creationists use this argument a lot when referring to The Theory of Evolution. Seems >>they close their eyes ever time evidence comes along, so as to maintain the appearance of >>sincerity.
LazyTeenager, Chris B, so that I don’t seem like a creationist, in your own words, exactly what is the evidence for man caused global warming ? I’ve heard it is “overwhelming” but no one seems to have any.
Let’s see if you guys run away like lead IPCC author Dr Kevin Trenberth did, when I asked him this question. His response BTW, was that the key evidence was sea levels. He did a runner when I pointed out that sea levels have been rising at a decreasing rate for 20,000 years.
Earth Hour is simply promoting wasting energy – not one gram of CO2 is saved by this nonsense.
Earth Week would save some CO2 as it would allow the power stations to gear down to reduced demand – any takers ???
In the UK we have a national grid, with a centralized system to balance energy demand. If a lot of folks participate in Earth Hour, the grid will have a sudden surge in demand around 9.30pm.
I will be doing my bit in the national interest of energy balance. I will be cooking the Sunday roast on the electric cooker, whilst running the dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. At 9.25pm I will switch off for a few minutes to compensate for other folks putting on the kettle and lighting up their hour of gloom.
Alternatively, I could leave it to the Dinorwic 2GW pump storage scheme in the Welsh Mountains to even out the nonsense. It has only twice this century had to run at full power, as large fluctuations in demand no longer occur like they did when construction started in the 1970s.
http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm
Mike McMillan says:
March 29, 2012 at 2:48 am
Ban Ki-Moon asserted, “We do so [turning off lights] in solidarity with the men, women and children, 20% of all humankind, who live with no access to electricity.”
Far better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. How foolish these world leaders are, and how foolish we are to let them lead.
————————————————–
How right you are!
It is our fault.
Like parents of a spoiled child we’ve given in to their whims for so long and we’ve let them have their way and now we don’t know how to stop them. Now I fear we may not be able to.
We’ve put them in charge. OOPS!
Energy efficiency hour! What a great idea. Stay as warm/cool as you want in as much light as you want consuming the least amount of energy to do it.
If you really want to see what it feels like to have very little energy try running your refrigerator for 4 hours on and 4 hours unplugged. Repeat that for 24 hours and see how much goes bad.
“Rosco says:
March 29, 2012 at 2:45 pm”
Thats right becaus the power stations are still burning to keep the turbine spinning, spin reserve to manage load demand for when these idiots turn stuff back on.
Geoff says:March 29, 2012 at 12:32 pm
For reasons I cannot fathom, Earth Hour has moved their global HQ from Sydney to Singapore. Now they are based in the country with just about the highest per capita CO2 emissions on the planet. …
Jo Nova had a few interesting comments perhaps worth following up on with bloggers.
pat #34
http://joannenova.com.au/2012/03/the-ground-zero-of-global-corruption-it-starts-with-the-currency/#comment-1017962
Also the recent restrictions restriction proposed of media in Australia. Search ‘media’ on Institute of Public Affairs (IPA).
Australian Taxation Office and legislation pertaining to ‘charities’ and NGOs.
Internet betting [sites] and stock exchanges are also worth a thought, one way or another!
Sometimes, doncha just, you get swept up by the torrent of self-flagellation and depression sweeping out from the gweenies/lemonheads/warmists and you wonder … stuff and things.
My personal wonderation was; if the electric went off in some/any/most of the UK’s large urban centres, and, bearing in mind the state of disgruntlement of many of the population (as what caused the recent riots), what would be left of those urban centres when the lights came back on, apart from possibly a looted, burning and charred wreck.
This sort of ‘energy saving’ guff, if it leads to power stations being closed because they’re deemed dirty or unnecessary, is gonna back-fire. Badly.
I just saw that people are trying to rename it as “Human Achievement” hour. OI! — John M Reynolds
In announcing his support for Earth Hour, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon asserted, “We do so [turning off lights] in solidarity with the men, women and children, 20% of all humankind, who live with no access to electricity.”
To show that support, he should have every light in the UN Headquarters in NY be turned off. For safety reasons everyone should evacuate the building first, especially the women and children.
Be a crying shame if no one ever went back in and no light in that building was ever turned on again. Yup. Absolutely horrific. Sure. A historic tragedy easily on par with the apocalyptic loss of Sodom and Gomorrah, definitely.
Anthony
what gives people like Ban Ki-Moon the notion they can direct anybobys energy usage, but he must be a smart guy – his past
BIOGRAPHY
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations. His priorities have been to mobilize world leaders around a set of new global challenges, from climate change and economic upheaval to pandemics and increasing pressures involving food, energy and water… has sought to be a bridge-builder, to give voice to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and to strengthen the Organization itself.
“Promoting sustainable development
One of the Secretary-General’s first major initiatives was the 2007 Climate Change Summit, followed by extensive diplomatic efforts that have helped put the issue at the forefront of the global agenda. Subsequent efforts to focus on the world’s main anti-poverty targets, the Millennium Development Goals, have generated more than $60 billion in pledges, with a special emphasis on Africa and the new Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health. At the height of the food, energy and economic crises in 2008, the Secretary-General successfully appealed to the G20 for a $1 trillion financing package for developing countries and took other steps to guide the international response and protect the vulnerable and poor.
Mr. Ban took office on 1 January 2007. On 21 June 2011, he was unanimously re-elected by the General Assembly and will continue to serve until 31 December 2016. Highlights of his tenure include:
One of the Secretary-General’s first major initiatives was the 2007 Climate Change Summit, followed by extensive diplomatic efforts that have helped put the issue at the forefront of the global agenda. Subsequent efforts to focus on the world’s main anti-poverty targets, the Millennium Development Goals, have generated more than $60 billion in pledges, with a special emphasis on Africa and the new Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health. At the height of the food, energy and economic crises in 2008, the Secretary-General successfully appealed to the G20 for a $1 trillion financing package for developing countries and took other steps to guide the international response and protect the vulnerable and poor.
UN (AGAIN) hero?
dougieh,
I should add that the UN has consistently refused regular demands for an outside audit of how it spends the money that passes through it, and how much actually ends up where it was intended. Human nature being what it is [“Men are bad unless compelled to be good.” ~N. Machiavelli], it is not surprising that the UN has morphed into an unaccountable kleptocracy.
Very little of the $billions that pass through the UN help the poor. Rather, the money ends up in the pockets of political leaders in return for their support of the corrupt UN.