NPR frets the big questions: ‘How Much Do Your Text Messages Contribute To Global Warming?’ (32,000 tons of CO2e per year)
What did you include in the estimate of the carbon footprint of a text message?
We took into consideration the energy used by both the sending phone and the receiving phone, and a proportion for the embodied carbon in the manufacture of the phone, which is a bit of an unknown because you have to make an estimate about how many text messages that phone is going to (handle) over its lifetime. And also the network.
So cell tower, data transfers, data centers?
That’s right.
In that sense, if we do what the reader asked us to do and set us aside the carbon footprint of manufacture and transport of the device, so that’s an even smaller portion of that already tiny amount.
It’s really tiny. The other thing about texts is that they’re so simple and basic, aren’t they, all you’re doing is transmitting a very simple message, you’re not even putting any fonts on it or anything. But the minute you start doing things like, “Oh, I’ll send a photograph while I’m at it,” that dramatically changes it. Suddenly you’re sending a lot more data — up goes the footprint.
But what about emoji?
Well, the emoji is all right, that’s just like a character.…
Watch: Award-Winning Chemistry Prof Dr. István Markó rips ‘Nostradamuses of climate’ – Rejects CO2 fears, calls warmism ‘a religion’
“All the conclusions being reached by the IPCC [United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] are actually flawed conclusions,” said Dr. Markó, who serves as a professor at Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and co-authored The Bankruptcy of Climatism.
His speech at the summit was entitled: “The Nostradamuses of Climate and Their Erroneous Prophecies.” It was a big hit among attendees.
Pointing out that carbon dioxide is not pollution but rather an essential molecule that provides food for plants and oxygen for people, Dr. Markó told The New American that plants were currently starving for more CO2. That is why, for example, greenhouses growing plants are pumped full of CO2 at concentrations far, far higher than those currently found in the atmosphere.
“The worst thing that can happen is decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air,” continued the expert, who has spent considerable time studying the essential molecule.
There is also not a shred of real evidence showing that humanity’s release of CO2, known as the gas of life to scientists, “has any effect whatsoever on the temperature of our earth,” he added.
“This is almost like a religion, you know, you have the original sin, the original sin is carbon dioxide, and the one who committed it is the human being,” Dr. Markó continued. “So we all have to repent. This is basically the message [of the UN COP21 in Paris]. It’s a new religion going on; we call it climatism around here.”…
Flashback 1963: Chicago Tribune: ‘Faulty Memories’ are ‘to blame for insisting ‘old fashioned winters are a thing of the past’
A similar conclusion was reached in 1871 by the Pall Mall Gazette
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10 Jan 1871 – IMAGINARY CHANGES OF CLIMATE. (Pall Mall Gazette.)
‘A Democrat & environmentalist dares question the Church of Global Warming’
David Siegel, a self-proclaimed Democrat & environmentalist.
You are a self-proclaimed Democrat and an initial believer in global warming yet you decided to look more deeply at the issue, which in most liberal circles is an article of faith. Tell us a little about your background and explain what motivated you to study the issue. How did you go about your quest for the truth about global warming?
I have been studying rationality and decision science for four years now, spending a lot of time at sites like www.lesswrong.com. I have an amazing mentor who answers my questions. What I’ve discovered is that what most people (including me) believe tends to be a very distorted version of the facts, and that in general our mental models of the world are not very reliable. Reading “Thinking Fast and Slow,” by Danny Khaneman was also a turning point for me. What we usually call thinking is usually just reacting. At some point, I emailed my mentor and said “So, I suppose you’re going to tell me that global warming is also a load of BS,” and he replied “Do you want to take the red pill, or the blue pill?” As it turns out, he had spent a lot of time sorting this out several years ago, and he started pointing me toward the sources I cite in my essay. I had lunch with a “green” friend, and I asked her about global warming. She said “Really, the science is settled, trust me,” and that made me look deeper. Soon I was upset enough that I started to write. The first drafts were pretty confused, but eventually, with the help of Richard Lindzen, Willie Soon, and others I reached out to, it came together. My goal wasn’t to really interpret the science, only to try to explain clearly what we think we know at this point.
Tell us about what happened when your blog post hit the internet. Did you lose friends? Gain new ones?
I was told I was going to lose friends. I did. About five long-time friends took one look at my essay and decided they didn’t want to hear from me again. I got some very angry emails from people saying I was simply wrong. It’s amazing how the people who are with me talk about the data and the science, while the people who think I’m wrong …
‘Can Hollywood save us from climate catastrophe?’
Perhaps it’s a film about a whistleblower who stands up to oil company executives, who have known since the 1970s that burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming. Such a movie would confront head-on the impact that our car culture is having on global warming.
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According to a study (PDF) conducted by Anthony Leiserowitz at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications, viewing “The Day After Tomorrow” increased movie watcher “concern” and “worry” over climate change. Not only did movie watchers say they were more likely to purchase a fuel efficient car and share their concerns with politicians, but they were also more willing to talk about global warming with their friends and family, reflecting the increased importance that movie watchers placed on this issue.…