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Key Issues for 2012

Energy Issues
Europe
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE EUs PARLIAMENT SOARING ENERGY BILLS: A FAILURE OF THE EU? Franco Battaglia, Professor of Chemical Physics and Environmental Chemistry, Università di Modena, Italy
Abstract: The EUs energy policy of the last 20 years has been dead wrong, to say the least. Here it is in a nutshell:
1) It is based on the assumption that human activities have a bad influence on climate, mainly due to CO2 emissions.
2) In order to reduce CO2 emissions several actions are needed: promote renewables, mainly sun and wind energy; promote energy saving; promote energy efficiency.
3) All the above will have the beneficial side effect of creating jobs, thereby increasing wellness and providing prosperity; in a word, this is the green economy.


Environmental Issues
Forest Fires
Pine Beetles, Fire, and Global Warming Mike Dubrasich, Western Institute for Study of the Environment
Abstract: The 2012 fire season in Colorado has been particularly severe. The Waldo Canyon Fire proximate to Colorado Springs is the most destructive in state history, with 18,247 acres burned, 346 homes lost, and two deaths. The High Park Fire near Fort Collins is the second largest in state history, burning 87,284 acres and 259 homes. The Little Sand Fire northwest of Pagosa Springs has burned 24,900 acres in the San Juan National Forest. The Pine Ridge Fire east of Grand Junction burned 13,920 acres. In total 350 fires have burned this year in Colorado; many are as yet uncontained.

Questions arise as to causes. Some have speculated that global warming is a factor. Others point out the pine beetle infestation that has reportedly killed half the state's lodgepole pines across 1.5 million acres, and blame Colorado's fires on that.

But do those speculations have merit? Some facts are in order.

Pine beetle outbreaks have many causes, but warm winter temperatures are not to blame, despite frequent media claims.


Temperature Measurements
Surface Temperatures
Informal Comments to Editor of the New York Review of Books S. Fred Singer
Abstract: I was glad to see my letter in print in the Aug 16 issue of the NYRB, followed by a response by Prof. Wm. D. Nordhaus.

All Key Issues for
2017
2015
2013
2012


Categories
   Subcategories

Energy Issues
 Europe [1]

Environmental Issues
 Forest Fires [1]

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
 Endangerment Findings [1]

Global Warming
 Student Questions [1]

NIPCC
 Scientific Critique of IPCC [1]

Presentations
 Climate Fear and Finance [1]

Temperature Measurements
 Surface Temperatures [1]
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