The headline says it all. Private Jets Flock To Dubai For COP 28: Event Set To Have Biggest Carbon Footprint In History. COP 28 is the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference. More than 100,000 people are flying into Dubai, in the democratic bastion of the United Arab Emirates. This is twice the amount that attended last year’s event in Egypt. Among the noted climate scientists attending the event are King Charles of England, US Vice President Kamala Harris and Jennifer Klein, Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Gender Policy Council (GPC). You would think that if these leaders were really serious about climate change, they wouldn’t choose to meet every year. Perhaps, instead, these elites could hobnob together only once in every five years, and in the meantime communicate with each other on a regular basis using Zoom.
This year’s spectacle is so full of ironies, you almost have to laugh. Putting aside the obvious issue of all the harmful emissions produced by all the private planes, the conference was held in the UAE, one of the world’s big producers of crude oil and natural gas. Then, on the same day Biden’s climate czar John Kerry warned of out of control global warming, the entirety of Europe was experiencing an unprecedented deep freeze. Europe hasn't seen a snow cover like this since 2010; and Munich, Germany has officially experienced its biggest December snowstorm on record – and winter hasn’t even started yet.
It is quite ironic, if not telling, that this brutal cold and record snowfall is happening 23 years after noted climate scientist Dr. David Viner of the University of East Anglia, a main center of global warming research, predicted that rising temperatures will cause a precipitous decline in snowfall. His exact quote follows: “within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event. Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.”
We’re not anywhere near to being a climate scientist, but we have a prediction that we think will prove to be more accurate than Dr. Viner’s forecast. We will bet even money that the following scientific studies will not be discussed in Dubai.
A UN-backed scientific panel tasked with assessing the effects of the 1989 Montreal Protocol - an international agreement to phase out Ozone Depleting Substances - has found that the ozone layer continues to strengthen, and as a result, the earth will avoid 0.3 - 0.5°C of global warming by 2100. "By protecting plants from ultraviolet radiation, allowing them to live and store carbon, it has avoided up to an extra 1°C of global warming."
A new study out of Ohio State University shows current models grossly underestimate the uptake of CO2 by plants, which will absorb 20 per cent more carbon dioxide than predicted by the end of the century, suggesting climate models are overestimating how fast the planet will warm. Trees are getting bigger because of more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and are likely to be helping to mitigate global warming more than climate models suggest.
Trinity College Dublin said its research painted an “uncharacteristically upbeat picture for the planet,” after finding models had failed to take into account all the elements of photosynthesis. During photosynthesis, green plants use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide, water and minerals into the sugars they need for growth. The Environmental Protection Agency has reported that only 19% of 1,066 weather stations in the United States show an increase in the number of hot days since 1948.
A new study published by the Heartland Institute found that the vast majority of U.S. temperature stations used to measure climate change fail to meet what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration considers to be acceptable and uncorrupted placement. In order to produce accurate temperature readings based on NOAA’s own published standards, thermometers are supposed to be in natural, “pristine” locations like fields, forests, hilltops, etc. But the research has revealed that 96% are in parking lots, on buildings, against brick walls, or in other artificial environments. The bricks, asphalt and other human construction materials used in these environments artificially trap heat, leading to a “warming bias” in the collected data. Thermometers placed in natural settings register lower average temperatures.
It should be obvious to readers that we are not big believers in the climate model forecasting, especially the ones that predict “catastrophic climate change effects” — such as “mass extinctions and runaway sea level rise by the end of this century.” Although our experience in using computer modeling is restricted to economic forecasts and computer trading, we believe that all computer models ultimately fail, because things change – history does not really repeat.” In fact, the more variables a computer model uses, the higher the probability is that the change in one variable will impact and affect how all the other variables interact. Eventually, this means that the equation you are using to make your forecast or predicted result will end up completely different than the one you started out with. Using the past to predict the future simply will not work in the long run, as Dr. Viner’s comically failed prediction about the future lack of snow amply demonstrates.
By the way, even if you do not agree with our doubts about the dire effects of climate change, we highly recommend you rent or stream and watch the movie Things Change. This comedy/drama about the Chicago Mafia, was filmed in 1988. It was directed by David Mamet, and it stars Joe Mantegna and Don Ameche. It was co-written by Mamet and Shel Silverstein. It is one of our favorite movies and it is a good reminder that, like all things in life, things change.
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