The RoanokeSlant

This file is a US personal journal of commentary of examples of the Roanoke Times and Liberal Media Slant...... lbhagen@aol.com

Friday, March 18, 2016

 

Don't blame lung problems on climate


Posted: Roanoke Times,  Thursday, March 17, 2016 2:00 am
Weismantel: Don't blame lung problems on climate
http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/weismantel-don-t-blame-lung-problems-on-climate/article_c4f803b9-0cfc-5e37-b2bd-f65f59b6419b.html

Steve Weismantel is a retired engineer, with a specialty in thermodynamics, heat transfer, and 2-phase fluid dynamics, all of which are important fundamentals of climate dynamics. He lives in Moneta.

With all due respect to Peter deFur, board chair of the VA chapter of the American Lung Association, his Feb. 29 opinion piece, “Protect kid’s health by supporting a strong VA Clean Power Plan,” is terribly misleading when he states “carbon pollution from power plants is helping to drive sea level rise and fuels extreme weather patterns, and endangers the very air we breathe in Virginia.”

While I applaud the Lung Association’s work to improve lung health and prevent disease (I have personally suffered from lung issues), Mr. deFur’s attempt to tie lung diseases to the claims of climate alarmists is not based on any scientific fact.

The fact is that the most significant pollution from power plants (nitrous and sulfur oxides, and particulates) has been addressed over the past 10-20 years by retrofitting expensive equipment to clean the emissions.

Further, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere from power plants is extremely minor, increasing by only 0.008% over the last 65 years, and will continue to be minimal. Implementation of the proposed Virginia Clean Power Plan will do nothing to affect our air quality, which is very clean as it is, especially compared to 65 years ago.

The Virginia Clean Power Plan (CPP), like those of the other 49 states, has been pushed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The CPP only specifies actions to reduce CO2 emission and no other. The CPP is simply an attempt to shut down the fossil-fuel power industry, a long sought goal of radical environmentalists who want to replace the lost power with wind and solar (which is extremely expensive and not nearly enough to meet our electricity needs).

It is also very noteworthy that in February, the U.S. Supreme Court halted implementation of the CCP because it was rammed through the regulatory process without proper vetting or review. That is, there is now no requirement that Virginia implement what Mr. deFlur advocates.

Mr. deFur has applied the standard environmentalist tactic that cynically ties everything to CO2 and the false specter of catastrophic climate change. The proof is mounting that climate is not driven by CO2, never mind that sea level rise or extreme weather has nothing to do with kid’s health.

The fact is that modest sea level rise has been ongoing for the last century and a half, since the end of the little ice-age of the 1800s. And, there were more severe storms in the 1930s and 1950s, all before significant CO2 emissions. The alarmists’ fear-mongering ignores the fact that global temps have been fairly steady over the past 15-20 years and significantly less than the global warming computer models have predicted.

Mr. deFur further overlooks all the pollution controls that have already been placed on power plants to great benefit, as this writer notes above. Those upgrades are what were needed for all of our air quality. We need nothing else.

Lastly, it is reaching pretty low to relate kid’s health to climate alarm-ism in order to promote the environmentalist anti-CO2 agenda. That radical agenda needs to be exposed for what it is: an idealistically driven dogma that is promoted by the politically correct and those activists who mostly have no scientific education but believe we all should live in the dark ages because technology is evil.

They have no appreciation for the benefits technology and cheap electricity brings: a growing economy, jobs, and improving standards of living. Yes, we need to be responsible in using our technology (hence, our past emissions upgrades), but we cannot naively forsake our extremely fortunate and beneficial living standards trying to address a climate problem that doesn’t exist.






<< Home

Archives

February 2005   March 2005   April 2005   May 2005   June 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   October 2005   November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   January 2007   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   April 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   September 2008   October 2008   November 2008   December 2008   January 2009   February 2009   March 2009   April 2009   May 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   February 2010   March 2010   April 2010   May 2010   June 2010   July 2010   August 2010   September 2010   October 2010   November 2010   December 2010   January 2011   February 2011   March 2011   April 2011   May 2011   June 2011   July 2011   August 2011   September 2011   October 2011   November 2011   December 2011   January 2012   February 2012   March 2012   April 2012   May 2012   June 2012   July 2012   August 2012   September 2012   October 2012   November 2012   December 2012   January 2013   February 2013   March 2013   April 2013   May 2013   June 2013   July 2013   August 2013   September 2013   October 2013   November 2013   December 2013   January 2014   February 2014   March 2014   April 2014   May 2014   June 2014   July 2014   August 2014   September 2014   October 2014   November 2014   December 2014   January 2015   February 2015   March 2015   April 2015   May 2015   June 2015   July 2015   August 2015   September 2015   October 2015   November 2015   December 2015   January 2016   February 2016   March 2016   April 2016   May 2016   June 2016   July 2016   August 2016   September 2016   October 2016   November 2016   December 2016   January 2017   February 2017   March 2017   April 2017   May 2017   June 2017   July 2017   August 2017   September 2017   October 2017   November 2017   December 2017   January 2018   February 2018   March 2018   April 2018   May 2018   June 2018   July 2018   August 2018   September 2018   October 2018   November 2018   December 2018   January 2019   February 2019   March 2019   April 2019   May 2019   June 2019   July 2019   August 2019   September 2019   October 2019   November 2019   December 2019   January 2020   February 2020   March 2020   April 2020   May 2020   June 2020   July 2020   August 2020   September 2020   October 2020   November 2020   December 2020   January 2021   February 2021   March 2021   April 2021   May 2021   June 2021   July 2021   August 2021   September 2021   October 2021   November 2021   December 2021   January 2022   February 2022   March 2022   April 2022   May 2022   June 2022   July 2022   August 2022   September 2022   October 2022   November 2022   December 2022   January 2023   February 2023   March 2023   April 2023   May 2023   June 2023   July 2023   August 2023   September 2023   October 2023   November 2023   December 2023   January 2024   February 2024   March 2024   April 2024  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?