From the if we can quantify it we’ll figure out a way to tax it department comes this short press release (h/t Kakatoa)
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research is joining with Cal/EPA and several other State agencies on a new research project about the Urban Heat Island Effect. A major goal of this project is to develop a method to quantify the average temperature increase in California communities due to this effect. Currently no tool exists to quantify the extent and severity of an urban heat island for California.
We intend to produce a tool that can be mapped at the census tract level or smaller, and that enables state and local agencies to identify the areas that are most affected and quantify the benefits of heat island reduction measures.
One of the motivations for this project is to provide another indicator of climate change vulnerability for the CalEnviroScreen, Cal/EPA’s tool to identify disadvantaged communities for potential funding associated with greenhouse gas reduction revenues in California. Cal/EPA welcomes input from local agencies regarding development of the urban heat island quantification tool.
For more information please contact Bill Dean (William.Dean@calepa.ca.gov).
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Apparently they aren’t so much interested in the basic research as they are in creating some sort of rsik database for the CAEnviroScreen Project. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
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Let’s see them explain the linkage between GHG and UHI (beyond their use of TLA) .
It can only breed more skeptics.
(TLA = three letter acronym).
Anthony, you MUST cover this:
http://www.businessinsider.com/international-ban-on-polar-bear-trade-rejected-2013-3
I suspect it will be more depressing than interesting. The goal is to hand out cash to Democratic interest groups and likely voters; the pretense is climate research.
On second thought, it may be interesting after all — to see how they reconcile claiming a high UHI value to maximize special interest payouts with claiming a low UHI estimate to maintain solidarity with the Green Orthodoxy. Sometimes political correctness is just so darn hard.
Creating more victims to add to the victim class. If you work and produce wealth that can be taxed, here is yet another way you are evil: heat disparities. The middle class and wealthy oppress the poor and inner city people by living off the sweat of their brow to enjoy nice, cool A/C.
I thought it was clever of the reds to come up with the idea of “food insecurity.” Logic: “Are you at any risk of losing your job in the near future?” “Yes.” “Are you at any risk of an unexpected expense in the next few months?” “Yes.” If that happened, would you face a challenge to provide a healthy, organic, free-range, pesticide-free, gluten-free, lacto-vegan diet to your family?” “Yes.”
Therefore, you have food insecurity. Oppression of the food-insecure by the food-secure.
Time to redistribute the wealth.
Coincidentally, Rick Perry was recently back in the news – he continues as Texas governor, and lately has been traveling California trying to inform businesses about the more favorable business climate in Texas vs. Cali. -There is some climate change for ya. Better get while the gettin is good – before the UHI tax gets added to what you already pay in Cali.
The political motive for this seems obvious and twofold: 1) Conflate UHI with greenhouse warming and blur the distinction so as to beat down a key reason for AGW skepticism. 2) Use this to justify additional wealth redistribution.
They’re going to conclude that UHI *Increases* overall global warming and that because of that, taxes on everybody and their brother need to go up.
I’d bet that the conclusion and policy recommendations are already written, and they’re just waiting for some friendly data to plug into the blanks that need to be filled. But the game is rigged – in California, it’s always rigged.
You don’t “fix” UHI, you just recognize that it is scewing the average temperature to a higher level than actually exists away from the urban area. What will these California wackos come up with next? Their solution to a non-problem will be in-and-of itself alarming!
Crustacean says:
March 7, 2013 at 6:10 am
” Conflate UHI with greenhouse warming”
Easy. Just assume CO2 causes the UHI. Cities are obviously warmer because they have more cars and so produce more CO2.
Reblogged this on If You Voted For It — You Own It.
Another meaningless project to divert attention from California’s crappy economy.
Well, at least their ideas match their financial condition : they’re both bankrupt.
I say we give CA to Mexico
In fact, let’s just break up the USA into several countries. I live in the welfare state with 25% on medicade….rolling eyes. I’d like to live in a good common sense conservative country, not one that’s broke from handouts and stupid global warming lies.
thelastdemocrat
Wyoming, like Texas, has no state income tax and if you are worried about global warming or UHI we have little of either here with less folks in the entire state than in a suburb of Houston. Move your business here. The minerals industry pays most of the taxes. In fact we could use a little warming of any type. This UHI study might be a good thing if it results in a Mao type program to ‘redistribute populations to more rural areas’ as was done in China. It is the city folks that vote for all the idiots and their programs to protect everyone from everything. Fewer city people fewer idiots in office. Not that we don’t have our share of morons in office here but that’s because Cheyenne is like a suburb of Colorado, itself a suburb of California.
Interesting, once they can quantify it they can take measures to reduce it. No heating (for cooling in summertime which dumps waste heat into the atmosphere) for YOU!
Alan Watt at 5:59 has it right. It’s just another wealth re-distribution scheme that buys them more votes. He who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on Paul’s vote.
It’s ironic (and typical) that the warmists have been asserting for years that UHI is not a much of a factor in global temperatures, and yet now they’ve figured out a way to tax it.
Elizabeth says:
March 7, 2013 at 4:11 am
Elizabeth, I’ve seen direct evidence of UHI on weather, and you probably have as well. I remember distinctly working in Downtown Atlanta and watching clouds roll in from the west. Many times we’d see a wall of low-lying clouds approach, split apart, and reform on the east side of the city as the front moved through.
The difference, of course, was the heat effect of the city. Since the triple point of temperature, pressure and humidity was just reached by the surrounding countryside, good conditions for cloud formation existed at 500′ to 1000′ off the ground. When the front hit the higher temperatures of the city, however, the warmer air rose up and prevented the humid air from forming into a cloud. In fact, the rising of the air in the city created a bubble of clear air that extended several thousand feet up. The bubble was somewhere around 5 miles in radius around Atlanta. I’ve seen this happen dozens of times.
So, direct evidence of UHI effect on weather. When the air warms in the city, it rises, pulling in cooler air from the surrounding countryside, altering wind patterns near the city. That has an effect on weather patterns as well.
Jim G,
What’s a good conservative town to move to, we are self employed and bring our job with us. A win / win!
I’m surprised they admit UHI is a real thing. That means they have to admit UHI contributes to increased global temps. If they come up with real science on how to study it, control for it, and minimize it, they’ll have made a good contribution to society. This looks like win-win to me.
That said, it’s also possible their science will be questionable, their quantitative analysis corrupt, and their motives clearly based on collecting taxes–not improving the negative effects of UHI. It *IS* California after all.
Before Gov. Perry goes too far he should figure out how many Californians come with those businesses he is recruiting. Californians have been moving to Colorado for several decades and even twenty years ago the Boulder area was starting to turn into another San Francisco. It’s nice to have the business but remember, the nut cases come with them.
“… identify disadvantaged communities for potential funding associated with greenhouse gas reduction revenues…”
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Looks like a social policy issue to me, a way to justify transferring funds from say Los Angeles to towns “suffering” from the UHI drift from LA – measure the pollution dome and provide compensation to the “disadvantaged” communities. Then you can put infrared monitors on drones to keep track of the UHI affect (and put a few other little devices on it at the same time just for added benefit at little cost – sorry – excursioning off into 1984 there) . LOL 😉 Tax dollars at work.
One can already see the goal intended- “Sir, your parking lot is causing heat related issues, so we must tax it to subsidize this program for heat-abatement (probably anything other than giving away power consuming ACs).”
If a press release announcing a study to measure the urban heat island effect involving Cal/EPA exists, I can’t find it: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/PressRoom/
REPLY: It was an email. Here is the link left in Tips and Notes:
http://cert1.mail-mst.com/iRyjvE/cu6d6zc2q01/911iRlrbq/uec0zg1xb/vnqiR89r/xb911iRq/82xebj71vhcym?_c=d%7C10d2pm6q6hpdoey%7C119okui17work28&_ce=1362623856.e3569fbdc96a2f3d9926dc554539cbf3
KevinM says:
March 7, 2013 at 5:58 am
Anthony, you MUST cover this:
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I wouldn’t worry too much about the polar bear. They have been around a long time in one form or another:
It turns out Polar Bears have been around (or their ancestors have) for 5 million years. That means they were roaming the Arctic Boreal Forests (yes – forests) 5 million years ago with CAMELS. (Yes – camels originated in North America and migrated to Asia. It is thought the hump(s) was an adaptation for survival through the winter as it is a fatty storage area – not water like some think. The fatty deposits would have allowed them to survive the winter months in the north when food was less plentiful.)
References:
From: http://www.ibtimes.com/polar-bear-gene-study-finds-earlier-origin-tracks-traces-climate-change-730326
“It turns out that polar bears have been around longer than previously estimated. Other studies have pegged polar bear origin at around 600,000 years ago, but they’ve actually existed as a distinct species as early as 5 million years ago, according to the group’s new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”.
From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/paging-lawrence-of-nunavut-camel-fossils-found-in-canadian-arctic/article9296216/
“Now a team led by Dr. Rybczynski, who is a paleobiologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, has determined the bone’s owner was a camel. It is the first evidence that the ancestors of today’s archetypal desert dwellers roamed the Canadian High Arctic at least 3.4 million years ago.
The find carries implications for climate science. While the planet was only two or three degrees warmer during that period, the camel bone along with fossilized plants from the same period show that average temperatures in the Far North were a whopping 14 to 22 degrees warmer than today.”
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The more we know, the less we KNOW.
http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/article00922.html
http://www.newser.com/story/163957/camels-likely-came-from-canadas-arctic.html
I just thought it was funny that conservation groups do not want to protect polar bears… apparently because a population increase would injure the case that AGW is decreasing their numbers. THats how I read between the lines.
Thanks for setting me strait about the email… I wrote an article about it and was trying to check references:
http://informthepundits.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/the-heat-island-effect/