By Vijay Jayaraj
Europeans are getting ready for what is expected to be a tough winter, with some likely to be choosing between paying heating bills or having food on their plates. The major drivers of this dismal energy situation are so-called green policies that weakened the energy sector by replacing significant amounts of dependable energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas with expensive, intermittent wind and solar technologies.
Justification of green energy is often made with fearmongering about impending wildlife extinctions. Al Gore set the ball rolling with false claims about polar bears in his 2007 documentary. Since then, it has become a trademark of the climate hysteria perpetuated by mainstream media.
However, these claims are often dubious, sometimes backed by cherry-picked data about regional populations but no serious analysis.
Polar bear populations have remained largely stable for the past few decades and even are rising in some regions. Bengal tigers in India have doubled in population in recent decades.
Similarly, some sea life has increased in numbers. Whales across the world’s oceans have made a comeback after conservation efforts began in the 1970s. It turns out that hunting and not climate has been the biggest influence on the animal’s population.
Blue whales, the largest of the behemoths, were hunted down to near extinction in the last century. More than 95 percent of the 350,000 individual whales were hunted down to nearly nothing between 1904 and 1967.
However, since the 1970s the blue whale population has recovered partially to between 10,000 and 25,000, increasing by 7-8 percent each year. In a recent 23-day survey around the U.K.’s sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, 55 blue whales were sighted.
Talking about the sightings, Dr Trevor Branch from the University of Washington says, “To think that in a period of 40 or 50 years, I only had records for two sightings of blue whales around South Georgia. So, to go from basically nothing to 55 in one year is astonishing.”
Humpback whales – a favorite of whale watchers – have registered an incredible population growth, rising from around 8,000 to about 50,000 in the last five decades.
It turns out that a number of whale types are thriving. “All of the Southern Hemisphere whale species, the populations for which we have data, are increasing,” says Dr. Branch.
The good news is surprising given a popular notion that whale food is decreasing across the globe. Some media and scientists speak of climate change leading to declining numbers of krill – a shrimp-like crustacean that is a particular favorite of blue whales. Nevertheless, scientists who survey blue whale populations say that an increase in numbers has occurred despite no significant increase in krill.
Ironically, hunting pressure on whales decreased after petroleum oil replaced whale oil for lighting.
Robert McNamara, in his A Brief History of Whaling, notes that “the 19th-century whaling industry was one of the most prominent businesses in America…With oil extracted from the ground being refined into kerosene for lamps, the demand for whale oil plummeted. And while whaling continued, as whalebone could still be used for a number of household products, the era of the great whaling ships faded into history.”
The same is true with polar bears and tigers: Over-hunting in the past, not climate change, has been the dominant factor in determining their population trajectory. Polar bears are increasing to levels where the Inuit people in Canada are asking for an increase in hunting quotas. In Asia, recent warming and conservation efforts have increased forest cover in tiger habitats.
This commentary was first published at Real Clear Markets, October 28, 2022, and can be accessed here.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, UK, and resides in India.
Tags: climate change, Vijay Jayaraj, ocean life
All too late for Owen Coffin
https://youtu.be/JBysEkQHr2Y
Out of curiosity I searched for data showing krill, the favorite food of several whale species, decrease in the oceans. NO problem. The amount of krill is actually staggering, with estimates of 6 billion tons around antarctica. Looks like data trumps feelings once again.
Maybe we, humans, should learn to eat krill…
I’m glad to hear the tigers are recovering.
Goats aren’t!
Climate Alarmists are always trying to make something out of nothing.
Sorry Tom Abbott, but I disagree. I would say that Climate Alarmists are always trying to make nothing out of something.
“ Some media and scientists speak of climate change leading to declining numbers of krill..”
And Krill are ‘hunted’ in industrial volumes, along with Sand-Eels, so regulate fishing in International waters.
On the other hand offshore wind “climate action” severely threatens whales and such:
https://www.cfact.org/2022/09/27/how-to-kill-whales-with-offshore-wind/
the wind farm south of new england is being planned for building in an endangered right whale zone . unbelievable . sound is how whales navigate and communicate , especially low frequency sounds .
Another bus depot fire, no mention of the cause, but it is known that some electric buses circulate in the area.
Massive 2am fire rips through Slough bus depot as vehicles and infrastructure are destroyed and police warn public to keep away
You won’t hear it in the MSM
For those who believe in spontaneous combustion, the electric vehicle is proof of it.
18th September 2020
Slough Borough Council has announced a trial period, starting in the last week of October, for residents to use the electric buses for free on the experimental bus and cycle lanes along the A4.
The buses – which will operate Mondays to Saturdays – will produce no fossil fuels and lower carbon emissions and will help with the council’s efforts to improve air quality on the route and reduce noise.
You can see why councils are a big part of the problem…
“The buses – which will operate Mondays to Saturdays – will produce no fossil fuels “
While it’s certainly true that “The buses…will produce no fossil fuels”, I presume that was a misprint. The REAL question, though, is “Where will they find enough electricity to recharge them?” With the current (pun intended) shortage of all types of energy in the UK now, even billowing clouds of coal smoke will not provide enough electricity this winter.
Everyone knows only deniers use data.
Real science is done in a teepee, preferably not within 2,000 km of the animals involved, and involves singing and getting in touch with your innermost feelings about what you just “know” to be true.
Arctowski Polish Antarctic Statio
Humans, and other mammals like blue whales produce few young slowly, but the former are in great danger of overpopulation. Others not so much. Shark endangerment was a great concern, but after we made pets out of some of them, attacks increased fairly quickly. Somebody not teaching math and basic biology properly.
“Ironically, hunting pressure on whales decreased after petroleum oil replaced whale oil for lighting.”
***********
And I will hazard a guess and say that the pressure on forests have decreased (perhaps significantly) also as a result of fossil fuels. I don’t have any numbers on what has happened to forest acreage since the 19th century, but it would not surprise me if it has gone up quite a bit.
Of course, fossil fuels never get any credit for any of this.
Found data to answer my own questions….
U.S. forest land has been stable in the fossil fuel era (first graph in link below). It has risen in the North and South (although not consistently in the South).
U.S. Forest Facts Trend Data (thoughtco.com)
The polies aren’t stable, they have increased 5x
John D Rockefeller and Standard Oil have always been interesting. He made his money the old fashioned way, by satisfying customers with lower prices, better products, improved production efficiencies, less waste, and everything else a good member of society does, and in the process helped save the whales. His reward was breaking up his company after it had already been in decline for a decade or more, and demonization by the people who harp on whales as more important than people.
And his descendants in The Rockefeller Brothers Foundation are trying to kill the oil industry.
More CO2 means more plant food for phytoplankton blooms. The bottom of the food chain is greening the polar oceans. This means more life all the way up the food chain to the great whales.CO2 is a blessing for the world’s growing population.
“The major drivers of this dismal energy situation are so-called green policies that weakened the energy sector by replacing significant amounts of dependable energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas with expensive, intermittent wind and solar technologies.”
Isn’t the major driver in this case the reduction of oil and natural gas coming from Russia? Without accidentally sounding like a green energy stan, it seems like renewables would have actually made the situation better and not worse in this case, since they don’t depend on fragile political ties.
The renewables are irrelevant. We would still require the same hydrocarbon capacity whether we had 0 renewables or 100 GW for the times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind doesn’t blow. In actual fact there has been no reduction in hydrocarbons from Russia, the reduction has come from the political will to place ideaology before citizens lives and stop receiving that available fuel. If it is a harsh winter and there is severe excess mortality then our elected political elite will have blood on their hands as well.
The renewables are relevant, because Russian wars don’t block sunlight in Germany. There’s a widespread lack of diversification in energy sources, and now we’re seeing why that’s a bad thing. It shouldn’t be controversial to say that relying on the stability of nations like Russia and Saudi Arabia for your energy infrastructure probably isn’t a great idea. Maybe if European nations hadn’t succumbed to public pressure and shuttered nuclear facilities it wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but here we are.
There’s also the issue that oil prices are set on the global common market, so even if there was no change in the amount of oil and gas coming into Europe, the price would still be higher because of the political uncertainty.
Sorry, but it may be important.
In five days, there will be an even stronger winter stratospheric onslaught in western North America.
Temperatures in inland Alaska are now dropping below -20 degrees C.
“Bengal tigers in India have doubled in population in recent decades.”
Go and watch the documentaries on the Sundarban tigers in Bangladesh.
Those dimwit tigers wear a thick fur coat in one of the most heat-oppressive climates imaginable. I guess evolution knows something the greentards don’t.
Exactly.
the whales are reaching cabo san lucas and the sea of cortez early this year. must be the warm pacific waters.
From the head post:
“Blue whales, the largest of the behemoths, were hunted down to near extinction in the last century. More than 95 percent of the 350,000 individual whales were hunted down to nearly nothing between 1904 and 1967.
However, since the 1970s the blue whale population has recovered partially to between 10,000 and 25,000.”
Per them, about 5% of 350,000 whales remained in 1967. That’s 17,500 remaining.
But now, the population has “recovered partially to between 10,000 and 25,000” … which according to their numbers mean it hasn’t increased at all.
Sometimes, having a nose for bad numbers is a pain.
However, the overall thrust of the article is 100% right on. The main threat to the whales was always hunting. It went on until quite recently. As a kid, I used to go out to the local whaling station to watch the whales brought in by the catcher boats. Even then I thought it was very sad.
w.
There is a type of ocean warming that does kill off sea life and that is volcanism.
Joe Bastardi in his Saturday Summary video goes through the years of SSTs in the Pacific and points out the remarkable correlation between the hot spots, like that reoccurring “Blob” Southwest of Alaska, and the Pacific Ring of Fire.
He seems to have become convinced that increased volcanic activity along the ring of fire is the prime driver of what warming there has been and points out SSTs with their hot spots and how it has correlated with the satellite temperature record.
Scroll down for the free video:
WeatherBELL Analytics
Every “study” proclaiming imminent devastation to sea creatures—every single one—rapidly (instantaneously, actually) decreases the pH levels of the seawater environment of the studied organism to match some future “predicted” level, something every salt water aquarium owner knows is really bad for the fish (and coral). They spend weeks getting the pH settled before introducing fiah and coral into the tank and obsessively monitor it to keep the tank healthy. Rapidly (or instaneously) and significantly changing pH causes problems. But that’s not what’s happening in the oceans. The pH level fluctuates seasonally all the time—and fairly significantly,—but it happens gradually and oscillates back; a natural process that sea creatures are well adapted to. The glacially slow rate of modest change to ocean pH from carbon absorption is easily handled by even the poster child for “ocean acidification”, coral. They’ve been around for half a billion years, survivng much more “acidic” environments than those predicted in the next century.
The Cambrian, Ordovician, Silarian etc, when atmospheric CO2 ranged from 7,000 to 4,000 ppm was also the time of the greatest explosion of sea life in earths history according to the proxy paleo evidence and fossil record.
It would have to be an unusual ecosystem that did not benefit from co2 fertilization.