Two Climate Change Professors at UCLA

"Nice color combination, don't you think?"


There is an amusing op-ed in today's Orange County Register (which tends to print a lot of amusing stuff). Two UCLA professors are insisting that Climate Change is real, and California is in the forefront of combating it. The article is written by Holger Brix, adjunct asst. professor and researcher with UCLA's Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and Michael D Intriligator, professor of economics, political science and public policy at UCLA.

I tried without success to find and download the article on the Register's online site or anywhere else, but I do have a hard copy in front of me. Therefore, I will try to summarize what they say.

First point: "The fact is that the overwhelming majority of the most respected scientists-including those in the highest levels of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Academy of Engineering-agree: man-made greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change."

My comment: And who are the most respected scientists? Are they Phil Jones, the disgraced head of the Climate Research Unit at E Anglia University? Are they that clown, Rajendra Pachauri, who, along with that other clown, Al Gore, accepted a Nobel prize for a now-discredited UN study?



As for those institutions you name, are you saying that everybody in those institutions is in agreement-or does each institute in question have an official opinion and that's that?

The National Academy of the Sciences. Isn't that the outfit now run by an empty-suit named Ralph Cicerone, who used to be the Chancellor at UC-Irvine and who did little or nothing about complaints of anti-Semitism as they were arising on that campus?

Sure is.

Therefore, I don't much care what the National Academy of Science says.

No matter to Brix and Intriligator. They then quote a study by the NAS which says "the Earth's average surface temperature rose 1.4 degrees over the past 100 years-with most of the warming occurring in the past three decades. Therefore, according to the NAS, a national policy framework is needed in order to reduce the country's overall greenhouse gas emissions".

Look, I'm just a rube when it comes to science, but I will assume for the sake of the NAS that they established a connection between the rise in average temperature and the need to reduce our emissions-in other words, that it is man-made. They did, didn't they?

But wait a minute! Isn't it true that the hottest decade on record in the last hundred years was the 1930s, with three years in that decade being among the three hottest years?

"Uhhh......yeaaaah."


But then our two professors hand us the biggest laffer of all when they give us "the most up-to-date numbers" courtesy of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Climate Action Team, who "found" that by 2050, the sea level rise could measure up to 18 inches higher than in 2000, and by 2100, up to 55 inches higher..."

Moreover, "by 2099, $100 billion worth of property in coastal areas will be vulnerable to inundation... and "estimated that by 2050, we will lose at least a quarter of the Sierra snowpack, the source of up to 65% of our water supply, due to warming temperatures."

Hey, far be it from me to argue these points though I have no idea how they can figure what the dollar will be worth in 2099. (I wonder what the Euro will be worth in 2099, or if there will be a Europe.... (I am digressing again.)

What I do want to point out for those who are not fortunate to live in our progressive state (which is getting progressively worse)is that this CEPA bureaucracy is an out of control Environmental monster that is been in the headlines recently. One of their entities, the California Air Resources Board, under one Mary Nichols, an environmental activist, was involved in a scandal last year over a study and report by a guy named Hien Tran. Mr Tran's study came up with statistics showing that tens of thousands of deaths were occurring as a result of diesel fuel particulate matter. This study led the board to pass draconian legislation that imposed all kinds of costly adjustments that had to be made to diesel engines by individuals and companies using diesel-propelled vehicles. Then, it was discovered that this guy Tran had a false educational resume. What he had was a diploma issued by some diploma mill in England, which was operated by some character on the lam from the US on sex charges. Not only that, but when Ms Nichols learned of the false Tran resume, she hid that information from the board until after they voted on and passed the regulations.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2010/03/korruption-in-kalifornia.html

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2010/01/california-air-resources-board-expert.html


http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2010/01/california-air-resources-board-scandal.html

So I don't much care what that agency has to say about greenhouse gases or global warming.


Now, many in California are trying to pass a measure that would suspend the latest government scam, Assembly Bill 32, which is also referred to as the California Global Warming Solution ACT. California, led by the CEPA/CAT, is trying to lead the nation, no the world, in passing emission regulations that would make the UN blush. The proposed voter measure would suspend the AB 32 legislation until unemployment dipped below 5.5%-because this is a real job-killer folks that will do nothing but drive people, their companies and their jobs out of California-which is already happening. Unemployment in California is now at 13.7%-four points above the national average. The measure to limit AB 32 is on the November ballot, and Governor Katzenjammer has promised to fight it.

Our governor


Not to worry, say our two distinguished professors.

"On the contrary, developing clean, safe, alternative energy and energy efficiency technologies in California addresses the climate change challenge while also sparking new investment and jobs. In California, between 1995-2008, green jobs grew 36% while total jobs in the state grew 13%."

"Ah wunnerful, ah wunnerful ah"



You know where that job growth came from, folks? State government jobs, that's where. So, if those numbers are correct, we had a rise in green jobs (whatever they are) and government jobs. Red jobs, blue jobs, yellow jobs, brown jobs, white jobs...that's another matter. Bottom line? California has 13.7% unemployment, but if you work for the state, your union is keeping you safe, sound and fat-at the expense of the tax-payers.

And what are these Green Jobs? I guess if you are a worker who makes solar panels or wind turbines, you qualify. Beyond that, it gets pretty murky. Are you a company that "promotes green jobs and renewable energy"-whatever you actually do? Gee, I wonder if such companies qualify for government grants because they "promote green energy"? One company I found is involved in setting up network lists of other people and companies that are "Green". Do they get government grants? Oh well, just a silly question.

Meanwhile California is bankrupt because the Democrat and union controlled state government just keeps spending and spending on all kinds of social welfare programs and luxuries for their state employees, higher salaries, health care and retirements. And for decades, which voting block was predominantly responsible for allowing and encouraging them to do this? Our liberal university communities, that's who. Now that the well is dry, they are the first ones crying.