POWER August 2013 - 8

SPEAKING OF POWER
Blowing Smoke
P
resident Obama's recent comments
on climate change and the
need for additional federal regulation
of greenhouse gases carelessly
handled the science he quotes. I know,
it's just politics, but the findings of science
take a bit more time to consume
than a 10-second " sound bite. "
President Obama's address to students
at Georgetown University on June
26 clearly impressed listeners of his
willingness to fight climate change by
presidential fiat rather than by engaging
in legislative give-and-take to reach
a more collectively acceptable solution.
The legislative process was intentionally
designed to be pedestrian so that issues
would be thoroughly vetted and the citizenry
heard. I suppose that view is so
20th century.
The president in his Georgetown
speech said that he doesn't " have much
patience for anyone who denies the
challenge [that climate change] is real. "
His statement conflates climate change
(which no one denies is occurring and
which can have devastating effects)
with the implicit assumption that man's
activities are the proximate cause.
A quick check of the facts shows that
for the past 17 years the global average
annual temperature has remained statistically
unchanged, even while global
CO2
emissions have risen near 50% since
1990 with the U.S. portion of global
emissions about 16% today. Even the
infamous Phil Jones of the UK's Climatic
Research Unit, when pressed, admitted
in a recent interview that the global
average temperature rise from 1995
" is positive (0.12C per decade), but
not significant at the 95% significance
level. " What Jones failed to say is the
measurement uncertainty is 0.5C (see
" Where's the Warming? " in the February
2013 issue).
Science by Vote
Three comments by Obama at Georgetown
played fast and loose with science.
First, he dogmatically repeated the talking
point " ninety-seven percent of scientists
. . . acknowledged the planet is
8
warming and human activity is contributing
to it. " It is certainly a delicious
sound bite, but is otherwise tasteless.
The study upon which this claim is
based has been thoroughly debunked.
J.D. Cook, et al. published " Quantifying
the Consensus on Anthropogenic Global
Warming in the Scientific Literature "
based upon the authors' survey of only
paper abstracts. Cook, et al. admit, in
statistics released weeks after the paper
was published, that only 1.8% of authors
actually expressed an opinion in
the abstract. Nevertheless, the reviewers
were somehow able to divine each author's
true opinions. Google it and come
to your own conclusions.
Second, it's true, as Obama noted,
that last July a new " high " temperature
record was set, but there's more to
the story. The " high " temperature was
a mere 0.2C higher than the previous
record, which you now know is a meaningless
statement because the measurement
uncertainty is 0.5C. Even so, if you
take the time to look at the data, you'll
find that the " high " wasn't set based on
the highest temperature recorded during
the day, as he would like you believe,
but rather the nights were less cool
than when the previous record was set
in the 1930s. The so-called " average "
temperatures quoted are determined by
the average of the highest and lowest
temperatures that occur during a particular
day.
Finally, satellite data of the Arctic
has only been collected since 1979, so
few valid conclusions are possible about
long-term ice melt trends. However, we
do know that the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration reported
last year that the Arctic was showing
28% more ice than in 2007 and Arctic
temperatures were higher in the 1930s.
Clearly, the president is not shy about
cherry-picking science when necessary
to make a point.
Selling the Carbon Tax
I've saved my biggest gripe with his
speech for last. Obama's sloppy use of
science was carefully crafted to gain
www.powermag.com
public support for " carbon pollution " as
the source of climate change. Using the
term 20 times in his speech, he again
conflated carbon dioxide, which is essential
to plant life on this planet, with
anthropogenic emissions (particularly
from coal-fired power plants) as the
principal cause of climate change. This
rhetorical trick should now be obvious
to all who were listening closely (or
reading the transcript, as I did).
I wrote in the May issue ( " Bait and
Switch " ) about one of the more noxious
carbon tax proposals under consideration,
which has the support of the administration.
The president's Georgetown
University speech was the logical step
two in the administration's pursuit of a
carbon tax. Obama's role as salesmanin-chief
was to cement in the public's
mind the idea that human activity is the
principal driver of climate change. I'm
not buying what he's selling and neither
should you. ■
-Dr. Robert Peltier, PE is POWER's
editor-in-chief.
All Good Things
It's with mixed feelings that I announce
my retirement from POWER.
The past 10 years as editor-in-chief
of the industry's leading business
and technology magazine have been
challenging, as well as deeply fulfilling.
The challenge has been to bring
you the best possible content each
month while satisfying the varied
information interests of our subscribers.
The position has also been
a great source of personal fulfillment
because I've had the opportunity
to work with many of you to get
your good work onto the pages of
POWER and because I've been able
to work with the best editorial team
in the business. Our time together
has been the pinnacle of my career.
Thank you.
POWER | August 2013
http://www.powermag.com

POWER August 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER August 2013

Contents
POWER August 2013 - Cover1
POWER August 2013 - Cover2
POWER August 2013 - Contents
POWER August 2013 - 2
POWER August 2013 - 3
POWER August 2013 - 4
POWER August 2013 - 5
POWER August 2013 - 6
POWER August 2013 - 7
POWER August 2013 - 8
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POWER August 2013 - Cover3
POWER August 2013 - Cover4
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