Quotes on Climate Change, Energy, Environment
The following list of 816 quotes and headlines was developed from my four books and is provided as a resource. Original sources are stated whenever possible. Quotes are grouped into 37 categories below. However, a given quote may apply to more than one category but has only been listed once. Thanks to many who have contributed to this list.
Agriculture and Water
“How Fertilizer in Farming is Pushing Climate Change Past ‘Worst Case Scenarios'” —Global News, Oct. 7, 2020
“Feeding Cattle Seaweed Reduces Their Greenhouse Gas Emissions 82 Percent” —Physics.org, Mar. 17, 2021
“Cows ‘Potty-Trained’ in Experiment to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions” —The Guardian, Sep. 12, 2021
“Utah School Gives Kids ‘Disgusting’ Insects to Eat in Class for Climate Assignment on Cows Killing Earth” —Fox News, Mar. 6, 2023
“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands.” —Thomas Jefferson, US President, 1785
“Agricultural production accounts for a staggering 70% of the global freshwater consumption, 38% of the total land use, and 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions … The use of agrochemicals is related to ecotoxicity, eutrophication and depletion of phosphorus stocks. Intensive agriculture is related to substantial energy use. The loss of soil and biomass carbon can contribute to climate change.” —United Nations Development Programme, 2010
“In the past half a century, we have erected an artificial, worldwide protein ladder, with grain-fed beef and other meats on the top rung. Affluent populations, especially in Europe, North America and Japan, devour the bounty of the planet. The transition of world agriculture from food grain to feed grain represents a new form of human evil, with consequences possibly for greater and longer lasting than any past wrongdoing inflicted by men against their fellow human beings.” —Jeremy Rifkin, May 27, 2002
“The unsustainable exploitation of water resources represents a growing threat to human development, generating an unsustainable ecological debt that will be transferred to future generations.” —United Nations Human Development Report, 2006
“Since the mid-1940’s over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern vernacular as ‘pests’…These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes … Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life?” —Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962, p. 7—8
“Many of the genetically modified foods will be safe, I’m sure. Will most of them be safe? Nobody knows.” —Jeremy Rifkin, Aug., 2000
“While scientific progress on molecular biology has a great potential to increase our understanding of nature and provide new medical tools, it should not be used as justification to turn the environment into a giant genetic experiment by commercial interests. The biodiversity and environmental integrity of the world’s food supply is too important to our survival to be put at risk.” —Greenpeace web site, 2016
“Groups Press Costco to Reject ‘Frankenfish,” “Food safety and environmental organizations are pushing retail giant Costco to refuse to stock a brand of genetically engineered salmon awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Target, Kroger, Safeway, Trader Joe’s and other companies have already committed to refrain from selling the salmon, dubbed Frankenfish by opponents of food made with genetically modified organisms.” —The Hill, Mar. 18, 2014
” … several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food consumption including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with cholesterol synthesis, insulin regulation, cell signaling, and protein formation, and changes in the liver, kidney, spleen and gastrointestinal system.” —The American Academy of Environmental Regulation, May 8, 2009
“The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies.” —European Commission, 2010
” … maintain or enhance soil and water quality, while also conserving wetlands, woodlands, and wild life. Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used.” —US Department of Agriculture requirements for organic food operations, 2016
“An independent systematic review of the available published literature has shown that there are no important differences in the nutrition content of, or any additional health benefits deriving from, organic food when compared with conventionally produced food.” —London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2008
“We are consuming our forests three times faster than they are being reproduced. Some of the richest timber lands of this continent have already been destroyed, and not replaced, and other vast areas are on the verge of destruction.” —Theodore Roosevelt, US President, 1907
“Deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging, fires etc. account for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector.” —United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 2016
Atmospheric CO2, Greenhouse Effect
“Aqueous vapor is a blanket, more necessary to the vegetable life of England than clothing is to man. Remove for a single summer night the aqueous vapor from the air which overspreads this country, and you would assuredly destroy every plant capable of being destroyed by a freezing temperature.” —Physicist John Tyndall, 1875
“Increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have helped boost green foliage across the world’s arid regions over the last 30 years through a process called CO2 fertilization, according to CSIRO research.” —Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, July 3, 2013
“How to Use CO2 When Growing Marijuana,” “Plant growth can be accelerated by increasing the CO2 levels in your growing area.” —Dr. Who, The Weed Blog, Feb., 29, 2012
If the atmosphere was a 100-story building, our anthropogenic CO2 contribution today would be equivalent to the linoleum on the first floor. By comparison, water vapor, a far more potent greenhouse gas, on average would occupy on average one floor and at times, especially in the tropics, up to four floors.” —Dr. Joseph, D’Aleo, Icecap web site, Aug. 15, 2007
“High resolution records from Antarctic ice cores show that carbon dioxide concentrations increased … 600±400 years after the warming … ” —Dr. Hubertus Fischer et al., Science, 1999
“Al Gore likes to say that mankind puts 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day. What he probably doesn’t know is that mother nature puts 24,000 times that amount of our main greenhouse gas—water vapor—into the atmosphere every day and removes about the same amount every day. While this does not ‘prove’ that global warming is not man-made, it shows that weather systems have by far the greatest control over the Earth’s greenhouse effect, which is dominated by water vapor and clouds.” —Dr. Roy Spencer website, “Global Warming and Nature’s Thermostat,” January 28, 2008
“With each passing year, experimental observations further undermine the claim of a large positive feedback from water. In fact, observations suggest that the feedback is close to zero or may even be negative.” —Dr. William Happer, statement before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Feb. 25, 2009
“The fundamental reason why carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is critically important to biology is that there is so little of it. A field of corn growing in full sunlight in the middle of the day uses up all the carbon dioxide within a meter of the ground in about five minutes. If the air were not constantly stirred by convection currents and winds, the corn would stop growing.” —Dr. Freeman Dyson, Edge website, Aug. 8, 2007
” … the global surface albedo [surface whiteness] and greenhouse gas changes account for practically the entire global climate change.” —Dr. James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, 2009, p. 49
” … the contribution of greenhouse gases to the Vostok temperature changes can be … between a lower estimate of 40% and a higher estimate of 65%.” —Dr. Claude Lorius et al., Nature, Sep. 13, 1990
“The US is responsible for 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It should take responsibility for leading the way.” —Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth, The Independent, Dec. 10, 2005
“About fifty million years ago … geological evidence indicates CO2 levels were several thousand ppm, much higher than now. And life flourished abundantly.” —Dr. William Happer, First Things, June/July 2011
Business and Business Leaders
“Bank of America Announces Actions to Achieve Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions before 2050” —Bloomberg, Feb. 11, 2021
“Space Tourism: Rockets Emit 100 Times More CO2 per Passenger than Flights – Imagine a Whole Industry” —The Conversation, July 19, 2021
“Climate change threatens life as we know it.” —Sir Richard Branson, YouTube, Aug. 31, 2009
“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet.” —Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Business Insider, Feb. 17, 2020
“Report: Apple CEO Says Fighting Climate Change More Important than Profits” —Daily Caller, Mar. 10, 2015
“Google Aims to Run on Carbon-Free Energy by 2030” —Reuters, Sep. 14, 2020
“The telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” —Western Union internal memo, 1876
“We don’t want to debate climate change. We want to stop it.” —Apple Corporation, 2015 Corporate Responsibility Report
“Continued to be the largest voluntary purchaser of green power in the U.S. according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and received the EPA’s Sustained Excellence in Green Power Award.” —Intel Corporation, 2012 Corporate Responsibility Report
“Increasing weather volatility or other long-term changes in global weather patterns, including any changes associated with global climate change, could have a significant impact on the price or availability of some of our ingredients…we may choose to temporarily suspend serving menu items, such as guacamole or one or more of our salsas … ” —Chipotle 2013 Annual Report
“Institutional investors understand that climate solutions will require close co-operation between governments and investors. Accordingly, we call for a new dialogue with the governments of the world’s largest economies on climate policy and the development of workable frameworks that will reduce climate risk and support low carbon investment.” —Letter from coalition of investor groups, Nov. 2012
“Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons … And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.” —Bill Gates, founder, Microsoft Corporation, 2010
“Business as usual is wrecking our planet. Resources are being used up. Air, sea, and land are heavily polluted … We must work hard to change all this.” —Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group, 2013
“Green equals growth. Sustainability equals jobs. Climate equals competitiveness … And we’ve got to really inspire in business, a clean energy future.” —Jeffery Immelt, CEO, GE Corporation, 2010
“Our employees love working on sustainability. They love working on clean energy. We have in our factories what we call treasure hunts, where employees go and look for energy efficiency ideas … As a 130-year-old company you have to constantly be thinking about what’s next. In the eyes of young engineers who are graduating from college today, this is what’s next.” —Jeffery Immelt, CEO, GE Corporation, 2010
“We started in sustainability 20 years ago … Basically it was all about footprint reduction. You think about it now with the stressors on the world, sustainability is really important for the future of civilization…” —Ellen Kullman, CEO, DuPont Corporation, 2014
“Sometimes companies need a little encouragement. When companies refuse to change their harmful practices, ForestEthics holds them publicly accountable. We get creative with online and offline actions, including protests, websites, email campaigns and national advertisements. No corporation can afford to have its brand be synonymous with environmental destruction.” —ForestEthics web site, 2014
“If you don’t worry about the NGOs that are focused on carbon footprint or water, and they decide to start a campaign against you, it affects the reputation of your brands, your sales go down, and there’s your shareholder saying, why didn’t you anticipate this?” —Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, Apr. 15, 2014
“The problems of global climate change and energy, global supply chains for food and medicine, new security concerns ranging from identity theft to terrorism—all issues of a hyperconnected world—have surfaced since the start of this decade.” —”Smarter Planet,” IBM web site, 2014
“Thanks to successful reductions in our carbon emissions and offsetting through forest and climate protection projects in Kenya, Indonesia, and India, Allianz has been operating on a carbon-neutral basis since 2012.” —Michael Diekmann, Chairman of the Board, Allianz SE, 2014
“Eliminating the PTC (Wind Production Tax Credit) will sharply increase prices for wind energy and particularly affect the many large and influential companies that are already committed to buying and using wind energy.” —Microsoft and Sprint Corporations, 2012
“Ben & Jerry’s ‘Save Our Swirled’: Company Seeks to Raise Global Warming Awareness with New Flavor,” “Ahead of the United Nations climate change talks in Paris in December, Ben & Jerry has released its newest flavor that should help spark climate change interest from consumers … We created a flavor to bring attention to this historic issue and to send out our own SOS for our planet, company reps said … ” —HNGN, June 1, 2015
“Everyone understands climate change is occurring, and the people who oppose it are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place.” —Eric Schmidt, Chairman Google Corporation, Sep. 22, 2014
“Oil Giants Call for Global Carbon Pollution Fees,” “Six major European oil companies are asking the United Nations to help impose carbon dioxide emissions pricing in all countries … the letter was signed by representatives of the United Kingdom’s BG Group and BP, Italy’s Eni, the UK-Netherlands’s Royal Dutch Shell, Norway’s Statoil and France’s Total.” —The Hill, June 1, 2015
“Climate change doesn’t cause hurricanes, but hot ocean water makes them more powerful. Climate change doesn’t cause rainfall, but it can increase the frequency and severity of heavy flooding. Climate change doesn’t cause drought, but it makes droughts longer. We believe every company has a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gases as quickly as it can.” —Lee Scott, Chairman of Walmart Corporation, Oct. 23, 2005
” … EU energy and climate policy is punishing the steel sector and other energy-intensive industries, which is having a profound impact on our competitiveness…there is no realistic prospect of renewables powering the European steel industry soon. Despite many improvements, the available technologies are currently limited, placing the EU’s unrealistic emissions reduction requirements out of reach for even the most advanced plants.” —Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, Jan. 20, 2014
“You have a wholesale price that is not actually the driver of investments any longer. If you look at renewables, the money doesn’t come from the actual energy price, it comes from subsidies. In a market with low demand, that puts pressure on the whole system with the merit order pricing system that we have. It makes it difficult to see how you could invest in conventional generation under these circumstances.” —Magnus Hall, CEO of Vattenfall AB, Dec. 10, 2014
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” —Peter Drucker
“Chinese steelmakers enjoy unfair advantage in global trade due to the lack of enforcement of exceptionally weak pollution standards.” —Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Reuters, Mar. 23, 2009
“He [Al Gore] impressed us all at Deutsche Bank Asset Management. We invited him to an internal meeting in April 2007 during which we discussed the issue of climate change extensively. A few months later, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment. We then created a fund that invests in companies that position themselves as climate-neutral. Within two months almost 10 billion dollars flowed into this fund. Can you imagine? 10 billion! There has never been such an overwhelming success.” —Kevin Parker, Director of Global Asset Management, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nov. 15, 2010
“One fifth of every industrial company has moved activities to foreign countries, or plans to do so, because of the uncertain energy and raw material supply.” —German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, European Institute for Climate and Energy web site, Jan. 20, 2012
“Since the 1980s the number of weather-related loss events has tripled … and on an inflation-adjusted basis, insurance losses from these events have increased from around ten billion per year during the 1980s to around fifty billion annually over the last decade.” —Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, Sep. 29, 2015
“Green technologies—going green—is bigger than the Internet. It could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century.” —John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins, 2007
“Everybody loves a tree and hates a business man.” —Paul Samuelson, Economist, Dec. 1976
“The story is one of growth in populations and consumption (in most countries) compounded by inertia stemming from inadequate governance and policy responses. The result is degradation of the environment and social stress.” —Vision 2050, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Feb. 2010
“Policies that count carbon dioxide emissions, purchase carbon offsets, promote use of renewable energy, needlessly reduce energy consumption, and promote adoption of natural materials do little for the environment. If your company pursues any of these policies, they belong in only one place in your budget—that’s your public relations department—because they don’t do anything else.” —Steve Goreham, Outside the Green Box, 2017, p. 191
Carbon Taxes and Trading
“Steel Industry to Suffer Major Losses from Rising Carbon Prices and Climate Regulations” —CNBC, July 30, 2019
“If other countries don’t impose a cost on carbon, then we will be at a disadvantage … we would look at considering perhaps duties that would offset that cost.” —Dr. Steven Chu, US Energy Secretary, The Wall Street Journal, Mar. 18, 2009
“The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is supposed to be the EU’s main policy tool for reducing emissions. But so far, it has been an embarrassing failure. In its first phase of operation, more permits to pollute have been printed than there is pollution. The price of carbon has collapsed to almost zero, creating no incentive to reduce pollution. Across the EU, emissions from installations covered by the ETS actually rose by 0.8%.” —Open Europe web site, Aug. 2007
“But to truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America.” —Barack Obama, US President, remarks to joint session of Congress, Feb. 24, 2009
“If we change the way the electricity sector operates, we can bring down our levels of carbon pollution, and continue the crucial task of tackling climate change. Putting a price on carbon would do this.” —Julia Gillard, Australian Prime Minister, Sydney Morning Herald National Times, Nov. 17, 2010
“The evidence is overwhelming that manufacturers are creating excess HFC-23 simply to destroy it and earn carbon credits.” —Mark Roberts, Environmental Investigation Agency, Huffington Post, Oct. 21, 2010
“Denmark Rife with CO2 Fraud” —The Copenhagen Post, Dec. 1, 2009
“Australians to Punish Carbon Tax Criticism,” ” … the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which this week issued warnings to businesses that they will face whopping fines of up to $1.1m if they blame the carbon tax for price rises.” —US Action News, Nov. 17, 2011
“China Threatens Massive Venting of Super Greenhouse Gases in Attempt to Extort Billions as UNFCCC Meeting approaches,” “China has responded to efforts to ban the trading of widely discredited HFC-23 offsets by threatening to release huge amounts of the potent industrial chemical into the atmosphere unless other nations pay what amounts to a climate ransom.” —PR Newswire, Nov. 8, 2011
“Belgian ‘CO2 Champion’ Plant Bought Off Forged Chinese Carbon Credits,” “The Arcelor Mittal steel plant in Ghent is Belgium’s leading polluting permits buyer. But those CO2 credits are largely bought from a Chinese chemicals plant that forged its emissions scheme.” —MobileReporter, Sep. 23, 2015
Chemicals and Plastic
“The Terrifying Effects of Polyester on the Environment and Our Health,” “Polyester is made from the non-renewable resource petroleum … with 70 million barrels of oil used annually to create polyester.” —Blue & Green Tomorrow, Nov. 1, 2020
“If soaring rates of cancer in young women aren’t enough to make Revlon change their mind about lacing their products with toxic chemicals, hopefully outrage from their consumer will be. We demand Revlon take a stand against cancer and drop these chemicals from their products immediately.” —Shaunna Thomas, women’s rights group Ultraviolet, Safe Cosmetics, Oct. 25, 2013
“I sometimes think there is a malign force loose in the universe that is the social equivalent of cancer, and it’s plastic. It infiltrates everything. It’s metastasis. It gets into every single pore of productive life. I mean there won’t be anything that isn’t made of plastic before long. They’ll be paving the roads with plastic before they’re done. Our bodies, our skeletons, will be replaced with plastic.” —Norman Mailer, 1983
“Manufacturing of the nearly 28 billion plastic bottles used each year to package water in the United States alone requires the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil.” —Earth Policy Institute, World on the Edge, 2016
“France Bans All Plastic Dishware Starting in 2020,” ” … France has enacted a ban on all plastic dishes, cups, and utensils. The ban goes into effect in 2020, after which all disposable utensils and dishes must be made of biological, rather than petroleum-based, material.” —Fortune, Sep. 17, 2016
“Toxic Dangers in Plastic Baby Bottles,” “In the latest assault on plastics widely used in consumer products, a coalition of advocacy groups says that heating plastic baby bottles releases harmful quantities of Bisphenol A (BPA) into milk.” —MinnPost, Fe. 7, 2008
“Our Polluted Bodies,” “Clearly, the system is broken when our health is threatened by everyday activities and products. Current federal and state laws do not adequately prevent harmful toxic chemicals from entering products, food and the environment. Of the 82,000 chemicals in use today, a mere fraction has been tested for toxicity.” —Senator Lisa Brown and Senator Bill Finkbeiner, Seattle Times, July 18, 2006
Climate Change, General
“Bill Gates Issued a Stark Warning for the World: ‘As Awful as This Pandemic is, Climate Change Could be Worse'” —Business Insider, Aug. 5, 2020
“The upheaval of this pandemic presents an opportunity to chart a new course, one that can address every aspect of the climate crisis head on.” —United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, TED Talks, Oct. 2020
“Under the clear terms of the Clean Air Act, EPA can avoid taking further action only if it determines that greenhouse gases do not contribute to climate change or if it provides some reasonable explanation as to why it cannot or will not exercise its discretion to determine whether they do.” —US Supreme Court, Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, 2007
“Adults keep saying, ‘We owe it to the young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear that I fear every day. And then I want you to act. I want you to act as if you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire, because it is.” —Greta Thunberg, panel presentation at the World Economic Forum, Jan. 25, 2019
“Leaders to UN: If the Virus Doesn’t Kill Us, Climate Change Will” —Associated Press, Sep. 27, 2020
“We’re doomed. The outcome is death and it’s the end of life on the planet because we’re so dependent on the burning of fossil fuels.” —Dr. Mayer Hillman, The Guardian, Apr. 26, 2018
“Should We Be Having Kids in the Age of Climate Change?” —NPR, Aug. 18, 2016
“As Climate Change Tightens Its Grip, Are Golf Courses a Luxury We Can No Longer Afford?” —The Salt Lake Tribune, July 23, 2021
“Most scientists now regard anthropogenic (human-caused) global climate change to be the most important environmental issue of our times.” —Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry and Applications, 2007, p. 210
“Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (‘global warming’). —US Next Generation Science Standards, 2014
“We’re taking millions of years worth of carbon, once stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere.” —350.org web site, 2016
“Nature, not human activity, rules the climate.” —Dr. S. Fred Singer, presentation to the University of Virginia, Sep. 2008
“…what we are talking about is extended world war … People would move on a massive scale. Hundreds of millions, probably billions of people would have to move…” —Lord Nicholas Stern, Associated Press, Feb. 21, 2009
“Climatism is the belief that man-made greenhouse gases are destroying Earth’s climate.” —Steve Goreham, Climatism! Science, Common Sense, and the 21st Century’s Hottest Topic, p. 1
” … the combustion of fossil fuel … is likely to prove beneficial to mankind in several ways … For instance … small increases of mean temperature would be important at the northern margin of cultivation and the growth of … plants is directly proportional to the carbon dioxide pressure.” —Guy Stewart Callendar, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 1938
“Thus, human beings are now carrying out a large-scale geophysical experiment of the kind that could not have happened in the past … Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.” —Dr. Roger Revelle, Tellus IX, 1957
“Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat’s dream. If you control carbon, you control life.” —Dr. Richard Lindzen, 1992
“Climatism is the exploitation of the fear of nature to gain power, wealth, and social esteem.” —Vinod Dar, July 24, 2008
“In my view, climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today, more serious even than the threat of terrorism.” —Sir David King, former science advisor to Tony Blair, Science, Jan. 9, 2004
“I sometimes wish we could have, over the next five or ten years, a lot of horrid things happening—you know, like tornadoes in the Midwest and so forth—that would get people very concerned about climate change.” —Thomas Schelling, Economist, Atlantic Wire, July 13, 2009
” … a magical CO2 knob for controlling weather and climate simply does not exist!” —Dr. Willie Soon, presentation at the International Conference on Climate Change, June 2, 2009
“What the current publication process has evolved into, at the detriment of proper scientific investigation, is the publication of untested (and often untestable) hypotheses … This is the main reason that the policy community is being significantly misinformed about the actual status of our understanding of the climate system and the role of humans within it.” —Dr. Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science website, June 4, 2009
“I have no doubt that … a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change … I think that’s a rather arrogant position for people to take.” —Michael Griffin, NASA administrator, National Public Radio, May 31, 2007
“Global warming is part of natural cycle and there’s nothing we can actually do to stop these cycles. The world is now facing spending a vast amount of money in tax to try to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist.” —Dr. David Bellamy, Daily Express, Nov. 5, 2008
“There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.” —Global Warming Petition Project, signed by more than 31,000 US scientists and engineers, including over 9,000 PhDs, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine website
“Climate change is … a gross injustice—poor people in developing countries bear over 90% of the burden—through death, disease, destitution and financial loss—yet are least responsible for creating the problem. Despite this, funding from rich countries to help the poor and vulnerable adapt to climate change is not even 1 percent of what is needed.” —Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam GB, Global Humanitarian Forum, May 29, 2009
“In a sense the U.S. is climate illiterate. If you look at global polls about what the public knows about climate change even in Brazil, China you have more people who know about the problem and think deep cuts in emission are needed.” —Dr. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Potsdam Institute for Climate Change, Telegraph, Sep. 28, 2009
” … the climate hysteria created and perpetuated by Western government officials has opened Pandora’s Box. What looked to be a valuable policy tool for green protectionism is now threatening to unleash political chaos and economic misery on its creators and their nations. Climate alarmism has turned into a Frankenstein monster that threatens to devour its own designers. I can’t see why Africa and other developing nations should be ready to refrain from demanding hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations given that Nicholas Stern and other green campaigners and government officials claim that the West is liable for current and future climate disasters.” —Dr. Benny Peiser, CCNET, Sep. 4, 2009
“According to a new UN report, the global warming outlook is much worse than originally predicted. Which is pretty bad, when they originally predicted it would destroy the planet.” —Jay Leno, comedian
“The world hasn’t ended, but the world as we know it has—even if we don’t quite know it yet.” —Bill McKibben, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, 2010, p. 2
“Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen … We risk damages on a scale larger than the two world wars of the last century.” —Lord Nicholas Stern, Guardian, Nov. 29, 2007
“One problem facing humanity is now so urgent that, unless it is resolved in the next two decades, it will destroy our global civilization: the climate crisis.” —Dr. Tim Flannery, Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future, 2009, p. 14
“There’s no happy ending where we prevent climate change any more. Now the question is, is it going to be a miserable century or an impossible one, and what comes after that.” —Bill McKibben, The New York Times, Dec. 5, 2010
“We recognize the scientific consensus that global warming is real and is largely being caused by humans. We further recognize the need to reduce the global emission of greenhouse gases by 80% by mid-century at the latest, in order to avert the worst impacts of global warming and to reestablish the more stable climatic conditions that have made human progress over the last 10,000 years possible.” —President’s Climate Commitment, signed by presidents and chancellors of more than 650 US colleges and universities, 2012
“Each gallon of gasoline we burn emits between 24 and 28 pounds of carbon dioxide—the most common greenhouse gas—into the atmosphere.” —Sierra Club website, 2011
“Because the idea of climate change is so plastic, it can be deployed across many of our human projects and can serve many of our psychological, ethical and spiritual needs … We need to ask not what we can do for climate change, but to ask what climate change can do for us.” —Dr. Mike Hulme, Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity, 2009, p. 341
“But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy … One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy any more.” —Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-chair of IPCC WG III, New American, Nov. 19, 2010
“Evidence of warming is not evidence that the cause is anthropogenic.” —Dr. S. Fred Singer, “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate,” 2008
“Climate has been changing for billions of years.” —Dr. Buzz Aldrin, astronaut, The Telegraph, July 3, 2009
“Simple physics says that if I drop a ball and a feather they will fall at the same rate. In reality, my feather blew up into a tree. It is not that the simple law is false, just that there are a number of other simple laws opposing it. In the case of climate we don’t even know what some of these other laws are, so we can’t explain what we see.” —Dr. David Wojick, Judith Curry web site, Dec. 12, 2010
“You can no longer say that the climate of the future is going to be like the climate of today, let alone yesterday.” —Judi Greenwald, Pew Center on Climate Change, Newsweek, May 29, 2011
“If we want a good environmental policy in the future, we’ll have to have a disaster.” —Sir John Houghton, former co-chairman of the IPCC, Sunday Telegraph, Oct. 9, 1995
“The onset of more severe climate impacts overseas may also open up temporary opportunities, or ‘policy windows.’ These would allow legislators the licence to take specific bold actions which they ordinarily believe would not otherwise be possible or politically acceptable…In effect, envisaged solutions can become rapidly translated into practical options for action following a major disaster or near-miss.” —Sir John Beddington, Head of the UK Government Office of Science, “International Dimensions of Climate Change,” 2011
“CO2 is Green!” —Leighton Steward web site, 2011
“Everything on our dinner table—the meat, cheese, salad, bread, and soft drink—requires carbon dioxide to be there. For those of you who believe that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, we have a special diet: water and salt!” —Joanne Nova, radio interview with Mark Gillar, April 15, 2010
“On one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but—which means that we must include all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we’d like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change. To do that we need to get some broad-based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This ‘double ethical bind’ we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what is the right balance between being effective and being honest.” —Dr. Stephen Schneider, former IPCC Coordinating Lead Author, APS Online, Aug./Sep. 1996
“The transformation towards a low-carbon society is therefore as much an ethical imperative as the abolition of slavery and the condemnation of child labor.” —The German Advisory Council on Global Change, “World in Transition: A Social Contract for Sustainability,” Mar. 2011
” … Was it because a lot of the heat went into melting Arctic sea ice or parts of Greenland and Antarctica, and other glaciers? Was it because the heat was buried in the ocean and sequestered, perhaps well below the surface? … Perhaps all of these things are going on?” —Dr. Kevin Trenberth, ScienceDirect, 2009
“Every once in a while, I feel despair over the fate of the planet. If you’ve been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we’re hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.” —Paul Krugman, The New York Times, Sep. 28, 2009
“As University of California physicist John Holdren has said, it is possible that carbon-dioxide climate-induced famines could kill as many as a billion people before the year 2020.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich about Dr. John Holdren, The Machinery of Nature: The Living World Around Us—And How It Works, 1986, p. 274
Climategate
“Well, I have my own article on where the heck is global warming? … The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.” —Dr. Kevin Trenberth, IPCC Lead Author, disclosed Climate gate e-mail, Oct. 12, 2009
” … We have 25 or so years invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try to find something wrong with it…” —Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University, email to Warwick Hughes, 2004
“I’m getting hassled by a couple of people to release the CRU station temperature data. Don’t any of you three tell anybody that the UK has a Freedom of Information Act.” —Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Feb. 21, 2005
” … it would be nice to try to ‘contain’ the putative ‘MWP’ [Medieval Warm Period] … ” —Dr. Michael Mann, IPCC Lead Author, disclosed Climategate e-mail, June 4, 2003
“I know there is pressure to present a nice tidy story as regards ‘apparent unprecedented warming in a thousand years or more in the proxy data’ but in reality the situation is not quite so simple.” —Dr. Keith Briffa, Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Sep. 22, 1999
“Keith’s [Briffa] series … differs in large part in exactly the opposite direction that Phil’s [Jones] does from ours. This is the problem we all picked up on (everyone in the room at IPCC was in agreement that this was a problem and a potential distraction/detraction from the reasonably consensus viewpoint we’d like to show w/ the Jones et al and Mann et al series).” —Dr. Michael Mann, IPCC Lead Author, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Sep. 22, 1999
“I’ve just completed Mike’s [Mann] Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e. from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s [Briffa] to hide the decline.” —Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Nov. 16, 1999
“Also we have applied a completely artificial adjustment to the data after 1960, so they look closer to observed temperatures than the tree-ring data actually were … ” —Dr. Tim Osborn, Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Dec. 20, 2006
“We, therefore, do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (i.e. quality controlled and homogenized) data.” —Climatic Research Unit web site, the world’s leading provider of global temperature data, admitting that it can’t produce the original thermometer data, 2011
” … I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow, even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!” —Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, July 8, 2004
” … the evidence we have seen does not suggest that Professor Jones was trying to subvert the peer review process.” —House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, Mar. 24, 2010
“Mike [Mann], can you delete an e-mails you may have had with Keith [Trenberth] re AR4? Keith will do likewise … Can you also e-mail Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his e-mail address … We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.” —Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, May 29, 2008
” … we find that their rigor and honesty as scientists are not in doubt … we did not find any behavior that might undermine the conclusions of the IPCC assessments … But we do find that there has been a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness … ” —Statement of the Russell Inquiry, regarding the Climategate e-mails, July 2010
” … If you look at the attached plot you will see that the land also shows the 1940s warming blip (as I’m sure you know). So, if we could reduce the ocean blip by, say 0.15 deg C, then this would be significant for the global mean—but we’d still have to explain the land blip …” —Dr. Tom Wigley, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, on adjusting global temperature data, disclosed Climategate e-mail to Phil Jones, Sep. 28, 2008
“On the allegation of withholding temperature data, we find that CRU was not in a position to withhold access to such data or tamper with it.” —Muir Russell Review, regarding the Climategate e-mails, July, 2010
“The world still awaits a proper inquiry into climategate: one that is not stacked with global warming advocates and one that is prepared to cross-examine evidence, interview critics as well as supporters of the CRU and other IPCC players and follow the evidence where it clearly leads.” —Dr. Ross McKitrick, “Understanding the Climategate Inquiries,” Sep. 2010
“Over 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Every day nearly 16,000 children die from hunger or related causes. One dollar can save a life—the opposite must also be true. Poverty is a death sentence. Nations must invest $37 trillion in energy technologies by 2030 to stabilize their greenhouse gas emissions at sustainable levels. Today’s decisions must be made on all information we can get, not on hiding the decline.” —Context statement provided in second release of Climategate e-mails, Nov. 22, 2011
“I gave up on Judith Curry a while ago. I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing, but it’s not helping the cause, or her professional credibility.” —Dr. Michael Mann, IPCC Lead Author, disclosed Climategate e-mail, May 30, 2008
“By the way, when is Tom C [Crowley] going to formally publish his roughly 1500-year reconstruction??? It would help the cause to be able to refer to that reconstruction as confirming Mann and Jones, etc.” —Dr. Michael Mann, IPCC Lead Author, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Aug. 3, 2004
“You might want to check with the IPCC Bureau. I’ve been told that IPCC is above national FOI Acts. One way to cover yourself and all those working in AR5 [the upcoming IPCC Fifth Assessment Report] would be to delete all e-mails at the end of the process. Hard to do, as not everybody will remember it.” —Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, on avoiding Freedom of Information requirements, disclosed Climategate e-mail, May 12, 2009
“The e-mails are mainly about a controversy over a particular data set and the ways a particular small group of scientists have displayed that dataset.” —Dr. John Holdren, US Director of Science and Technology Policy, testimony before the US House of Representatives, Dec. 2, 2009
Electric Vehicles
“California Asks Residents Not to Charge Electric Vehicles, Days After Announcing Gas Car Ban” —MyStateLine.com, Aug. 31, 2022
“We need a motivational goal: make France Europe’s top producer of clean vehicles by bringing output to more than one million electric and hybrid cars per year over the next five years.” —French President Emmanuel Macron, May 26, 2020
“It shall be the goal of the State that 100 percent of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks will be zero-emission by 2035.” —California Governor Gavin Newsome, Executive Order N-79-20, Sep. 23, 2020
“In 2030, we are ending the market for hydrocarbon ICEs, internal combustion engine vehicles.” —British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Nov. 22, 2021
“Climate change is real, and we want to be part of the solution by putting everyone in an electric vehicle.” —General Motors Corporation Chair and CEO Mary Barra, July 20, 2021
“Battery technology will be ubiquitous … All new vehicles in 2020 will have some level of hybridization.” —IBM, 2008
“For EVs to unleash their full potential to combat climate change, the 2020s will need to be the decade of mass adoption of electric light-duty vehicles.” —International Energy Agency, 2021
“I believe that ultimately the electric motor will be universally used for trucking in all large cities, and that the electric automobile will be the family carriage of the future.” —Thomas Edison, 1914
“Auto Makers Grapple with Battery-Fire Risks in Electric Vehicles” —The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 19, 2020
” … prices on electric cars will continue to drop until they are within reach of the average family.” —The Washington Post, 1915
“In a few years, you should be able to plug your American-made plug-in hybrid into the outlet in your garage, so that you never use a drop of gas on your daily commute. This won’t happen overnight, but I promise you, it is closer than you think.” —John Kerry, US Senator, Boston.com, Mar. 5, 2009
“Biden Makes a $174 Billion Commitment to Electric Cars” —Autoweek, Apr. 1, 2021
“650 km Wintertime Trip with VW E-Car Took 13 Hours, 3 Recharges and Lots of Warm Clothes” —NoTricksZone, Jan. 18, 2022
Energy, Biofuels
“I am determined that we use biofuel, from palm and rape oil to soya and sugar, and then eventually use cellulosic biofuels, and potentially even hydrogen, to replace petrol and diesel with low- or no-carbon alternatives.” —UK Minister of Parliament Gordon Brown, Oct. 30, 2006
“However, in the long run, the CO2 emitted from biomass-based fuels combustion does not increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations, assuming the biogenic carbon emitted is offset by the uptake of CO2 resulting from the growth of new biomass. —US Environmental Protection Agency, 2010
“Biomass is considered at CO2 neutral. An emission factor of zero shall be applied to biomass.” —European Commission, 2007
“Europe’s Renewable Energy Policy is Built on Burning American Trees” —Vox, Mar. 4, 2019
“EU Biofuels Goals Behind Deforested Area as Big as the Netherlands” —Independent, July 5, 2021
“To be perfectly blunt with you, biomass will have to be part of our energy mix if we want to remove our dependency on fossil fuels.” —EC Executive Vice President for the European Grean Deal Frans Timmermans, 2021
“Energy Crisis: Will Hungarian Schools Be Heated with Wood?” —Daily News Hungary, July 29, 2022
“America is addicted to oil … We must also change how we power our automobiles. We will increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars and in pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen. We will also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass.” —George W. Bush, former US president, State of the Union address, 2006
“Don’t burn food!” —Dennis Avery, presentation at the International Conference on Climate Change, Mar. 2008
“I set a goal to replace oil from around the world. The best way and the fastest way to do so is to expand the use of ethanol … the use of ethanol in automobiles is good for the agricultural sector … Ethanol is good for rural communities … Ethanol is good for the environment … And ethanol’s good for drivers. Ethanol is home-grown. Ethanol will replace gasoline consumption. Ethanol’s good for the whole country.” —George W. Bush, former US president, Washington Post, Apr. 26, 2006
“I am convinced that one of the greatest challenges of our time is climate change…Today we declared that we want to work together in several key areas related to climate change and energy. Therefore we have developed a common framework—which includes biofuels…The Americans have an ambitious goal of introducing 20 percent biofuels. The European Union has set itself the goal of 15 percent. We can collaborate here.” —Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, address in Washington, D.C., Apr. 30, 2007
“Alligator Fat as a New Source of Biodiesel Fuel” —Bio Fuel Daily, Oct. 28, 2011
“It is estimated that the EU would need to convert about 70% of its agricultural land to provide 10% of its energy need.” —UN Food and Agriculture Organization on biofuel for vehicles in Europe, “Food Outlook, Global Market Analysis,” June 2006
“Rapidly growing demand for biofuel feedstocks has contributed to higher food prices, which pose an immediate threat to the food security of poor net food buyers (in value terms) in both urban and rural areas.” —UN Food and Agriculture Organization, “Biofuels, Prospects, Risks, and Opportunities,” 2008
” … production and use of ethanol as fuel to displace gasoline is likely to increase such air pollutants as particulate matter, ozone, and sulfur oxides.” —National Research Council of the National Academies, 2011
“We’re making new investments in the development of gasoline and diesel and jet fuel that’s actually made from a plant-like substance—algae … we could replace up to 17 percent of the oil we import for transportation with this fuel that we can grow right here in America.” —Barack Obama, US president, The Washington Times, Feb. 24, 2012
“We’re gonna be using American produced, American energy that will create jobs in the United States, will create a far more secure source of energy for us and will make us better environmental stewards because we will be contributing less to climate change and burning much cleaner fuel.” —Ray Mabus, US Secretary of the Navy, on the use of biofuels, US Navy web site, 2012
“It is widely assumed that biomass combustion would be inherently ‘carbon neutral’ because it only releases carbon taken from the atmosphere during plant growth. However, this assumption is not correct and results in a form of double-counting, as it ignores the fact that using land to produce plants for energy typically means that this land is not producing plants for other purposes, including carbon otherwise sequestered.” —European Environment Agency, 2011
Energy, Hydrocarbon Fuels
“We are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years.” —Vaclav Smil, 2022
“Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Kills One in Five People” —NRDC, February 19, 2021
“No One is Being Honest About the Effect of Zero on Britain’s Poorest Families,” “To replace the gas with electrical power would imply a rise in household bills of 160 percent.” —Telegraph, Nov. 4, 2021
“Ban Gas Boilers in New Homes by 2025, Says Committee on Climate Change” —The Guardian, February 20, 2019
“California’s Cities Lead the Way to a Gas-Free Future” —Sierra Club, Dec. 13, 2021
“California to Open 5 Natural Gas Plants to Avoid Blackouts” —FOX26NEWS, Aug. 20, 2021
“I am not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself affected water.” —EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Congressional testimony, YouTube, May 24, 2011
“A century ago, petroleum—what we call oil—was just an obscure commodity; today it is almost as vital to human existence as water.” —James Buchan, Scottish author and historian, New Statesman, July 17, 2006
“In meeting the world’s needs, however, the oil from the United States will continue to occupy a less and less dominant position, because within the next two to five years the oil fields of this country will reach their maximum production and from then on we will face an ever-increasing decline.” —Oil and Gas News, Oct. 23, 1919
“New York City is Banning Natural Gas Hookups for New Buildings to Fight Climate Change” —CNBC, Dec. 25, 2021
“Essentially the entire developed part of the world is currently embarked on a crash program to eliminate fossil fuels from the energy system of the economy.” —Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Oct. 2, 2022
“Oil producing countries in Africa are feeling the hypocrisy. ‘All of a sudden’ after Russia’s invasion there is money to develop oil and gas assets, ‘but for me, not for you.” —Andrew Kamau, principal secretary at the Kenyan Ministry of Petroleum and Mining on Europe nations during the energy crisis, NGI, Oct. 14, 2022
“Eroding Alaska Town Sues Oil, Power Companies,” “A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community’s existence.” —NBCNews.com, Feb. 27, 2008
“There is enough oil in the ground to deep-fry the lot of us, and no obvious means to prevail upon governments and industry to leave it in the ground.” —George Monbiot, UK journalist, Guardian, July 2, 2012
“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership.” —Barack Obama, US President, comments on rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, Nov. 6, 2015
“Gas Firm Funded Sierra Club Campaign,” “From 2007 to 2010, Chesapeake Energy poured $26 million into the anti-coal campaign by the Sierra Club, a tax-exempt environmental group.” —Charleston Gazette-Mail, Feb. 15, 2012
“Coal is a portable climate.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson, US author, 1860
“The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.” —Dr. James Hansen, The Observer, Feb. 15, 2009
“Civilization as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century unless we can find a way to live without fossil fuels.” —Dr. David Goodstein, Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil, 2004, p. 123
” … shale gas offers no meaningful potential as even a transition fuel. Moreover, any significant and early development of the industry is likely to prove either economically unwise or risk jeopardizing the UK’s international reputation on climate change.” —John Broderick, et al., Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Nov. 2011
Energy, Hydrogen
“Because green hydrogen is not just a huge commercial opportunity. Green hydrogen is good for the planet. Green hydrogen is good for energy security. And energy security is an important pillar of our European independence. —President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, May 17, 2022
“Not only will green hydrogen be the basis of green growth through green jobs, but it will also set an example for the world towards clean energy transition.” —India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Aug. 15, 2021
“Through innovation, hydrogen energy will become a trump card to solve the issues of energy security and global warming. … Japan will lead the world in materializing a hydrogen society.” —Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Dec. 26, 2017
“Japan—It’s Hydrogen Economy Runs the Risk of Being Powered by Coal” —Hydrogen Central, Apr. 18, 2022
Energy, Wind and Solar
“Replacing the energy output from a single 100-MW natural gas-fired turbine, itself the size of a residential house … requires at least 20 wind turbines, each one about the size of the Washington Monument, occupying some 10 square miles of land.” —Mark Mills, Manhattan Institute, July 2020
“Energy Prices in Europe Hit Records After Wind Stops Blowing” —The Wall Street Journal, Sep. 13, 2021
“All renewables thus require a material throughput—from mining to processing to installing to disposing of the materials later as waste—that is orders of magnitude larger than for non-renewable energy sources.” —Michael Shellenberger, 2018
“Germany is Dismantling a Wind Farm to Make Way for a Coal Mine” —Oil Price, October 26, 2020
“Crippling Cost of Ontario’s Obsession with Wind Power: 71% Increase in Power Bills” —StopTheseThings, Oct. 2, 2021
“Giant Batteries and Cheap Solar Power Are Shoving Fossil Fuels Off the Grid” —Science, July 11, 2019
“Wind Farms Were Paid £8.7 Million to Switch OFF Their Turbines Last Month Because They Generated Too Much Electricity” —Daily Mail, Apr. 3, 2014
“Wind Power Prices Now Lower than the Cost of Natural Gas” —ARS Technica, Aug. 17, 2019
“Solar and Wind are the Cheapest New Sources of Energy Says BNEF” —SMART ENERGY International, Apr. 29, 2020
“Renewables Increasingly Beat Even Cheapest Coal Competitors on Cost” —International Renewable Energy Agency, June 2, 2020
“The variable energy resources in the future grid scenarios lack the controllability and predictability of the region’s current dispatchable resources. … Modeling showed that by large margins, available resources were repeatedly unable to match their aggregate output to system demand.” —New England ISO, estimating that a system dominated by wind, solar, and battery resources would not be reliable, 2022
“Our response to the twin climate and energy challenge is a plan called REPowerEU. … Our energy system cannot become renewables-based overnight, but we can accelerate the process.” —Commissioner Kadri Simson of the European Commission, Nov. 14, 2022
“There is overwhelming evidence that electricity-generating wind turbines cause serious health problems in a non-trivial fraction of residents living near them.” —Dr. Carl Phillips, Populi Health Institute, July 19, 2011
“About one-fifth of all energy used around the world now comes from solar resources: wind power, water power, biomass, and direct sunlight. By the year 2000, such renewable energy sources could provide 40 percent of the global energy budget; by 2025, humanity could obtain 75 percent of its energy from solar resources.” —Energy: The Solar Prospect by Denis Hayes, 1977
“Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation, and to the renewed use of coal, and to permanent renewable energy sources like solar power.” —President Jimmy Carter address to the nation, Apr. 18, 1977
“Windfarms Kill 10—20 Times More than Previously Thought,” “Wind turbines are actually slaughtering millions of birds and bats annually.” —St. Francis Arboreal & Wildlife Association, 2022
“Obama Administration Issues Permits for Wind Farms to Kill More Eagles,” “The Interior Department says it will change the rules and issue permits that would let wind farms kill eagles for up to 30 year… “ —The Washington Times, Dec. 6, 2013.
“Six Flags Great Adventure to Cut 18,000 Trees to Go Solar,” “The theme park plans to cut down more than 18,000 trees for the construction of what it says will be the largest solar farm in New Jersey.” —CBSNewYork/AP, Mar. 27, 2015
“The future of energy in Nevada lies with our ability to develop our solar, wind and geothermal resources and rid ourselves of our dependence on dirty fossil fuels.” —Harry Reid, US Senator, Dec. 31, 2014
“The Solar Panel That Generates Power at Night!” —Predict, Nov. 19, 2022
“The $2.2 Billion Bird-Scorching Solar Project at California’s Ivanpah Plant, Mirrors Produce Heat and Electricity—And Kill Wildlife,” ” … the BrightSource system appears to be scorching birds that fly through the intense heat surrounding the towers, which can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.” —The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 13, 2014
“Solar power is cool. When you put panels on your roof, people notice, and they’ll be nicer to you.” —Solar Power Your Home for Dummies, 2010, p.251
“I will do anything that is basically covered by the law to reduce Berkshire’s tax rate. For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.” —Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, May 2, 2015
“Wind, water and solar technologies can provide 100 percent of the world’s energy, eliminating all fossil fuels.” —Drs. Mark Jacobson and Mark Delucci, Stanford University, Nov. 2009
“Millions of Trees Felled in Pursuit of Energy Targets,” “Millions of trees have been felled to clear the way for wind farms … 2,510 hectares of woodland—the equivalent of five million trees—have been destroyed since 2007 as the Scottish Government pursues tough renewable energy targets.” —The Times, Jan. 2, 2014
“All the energy stored in Earth’s reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas is matched by the energy from just 20 days of sunshine.” —Union of Concerned Scientists website, 2010
“Every minute the sun bathes the Earth in as much energy as the world consumes in an entire year.” —US Department of Energy web site, 2010
“Solar Power Seen Meeting 20% of Needs by 2000; Carter May Seek Outlay Boost” —Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 22, 1978
“By the year 2000, such renewable energy sources could provide 40 percent of the global energy budget; by 2025, humanity could obtain 75 percent of its energy from solar resources.” —Denis Hayes, Rays of Hope: The Transition to a Post-Petroleum World, 1977, p. 155
“Within a few decades … the United States might get 30% of its electricity from sunshine … ” —Christopher Flavin, Worldwatch Institute, 1990, quoted by Howard Hayden, The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World, 2005, p. 49
“The private sector can be expected to develop improved solar and wind technologies which will begin to become competitive and self-supporting on a national level by the end of the decade if assisted by federally sponsored R&D.” —Booz, Allen & Hamilton, 1983, quoted in “Will renewables become cost-competitive anytime soon?”, Institute for Energy Research web site, Apr. 1, 2009
” … the consensus as far as I can see is after the year 2000, somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of our energy could come from solar technologies, quite easily.” —Scott Sklar, Solar Energy Industries Association, 1986, quoted by Robert Bradley in “Getting Real: The Oil Major Move Away from Political Energy,” MasterResource web site, Apr. 9, 2009
“The point is that solar energy is dilute, and no amount of research of technology can change that fact. Nor, for that matter, can a well-funded crash program make the sun shine at night … Solar energy … is utterly inadequate to meet present needs, let alone to grow as demand increases.” —Dr. Howard Hayden, The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World, 2005, p. VI and p. 12
“The intermittent nature of wind turbines … means they can replace only a little of the capacity of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants if security of supply is to be maintained. Investment in renewable generation capacity will therefore largely be in addition to, rather than replacement for, the massive investment in fossil fuel and nuclear plant required … ” —UK House of Lords, “The Economics of Renewable Energy,” Nov. 25, 2008
“Without the renewable obligation certificates nobody would be building wind farms. This is the balance we are trying to strike: protecting the environment and the cost of building wind farms.” —Paul Golby, CEO of EON UK, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 26, 2005
“To build a power plant and run lines to houses, to huts, to anything is a tremendous amount of work … how about … just giving them the service where they need it—on the roof of their hut.” —Ed Begley, Jr., actor and environmentalist, regarding energy for Africa, MSNBC, Jan. 4, 2007
“The study calculates that the programs creating those jobs also resulted in the destruction of nearly 113,000 jobs elsewhere in the economy, or 2.2 jobs destroyed for every ‘green job’ created.” —Dr. Gabriel Calzada Alverez, report on Spain’s renewable energy initiative, March 2009
“The very fact that the wind power system, that has been imposed so expensively upon the consumers, cannot and does not achieve the simple objectives for which it was built, should be warning the energy establishment, at all levels, of the considerable gap between aspiration and reality. Denmark needs a proper debate and a thorough re-appraisal … before forcing the country into a venture that shows high risk of tuning into an economic black hole.” —Hugh Sharman, “Wind Energy—The Case of Denmark,” Sep. 2009
” … Denmark should be a green and sustainable society with a visionary climate and energy policy … The answer to these challenges lies in the way we produce and consume energy and in our ability to adapt our society to climate change.” —Connie Hedegaard, Denmark Minister for Climate and Energy, Energinet web site, 2010
” … between 881 and 1,300 raptors are killed annually in the APWRA. For all birds combined, that number is estimated at between 1,766 and 4,721 … Among these, researchers estimate that the APWRA turbines are annually killing 75 to 116 golden eagles, 209 to 300 red-tailed hawks, 73 to 333 American kestrels, and 99 to 380 burrowing owls.” —California Energy Commission report on birds killed by wind turbines in the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, Aug. 2004
“The more overall generation capacity becomes dependent on the wind, the greater the risks posed by its intermittent nature—which leads to higher costs.” —Open Europe, Oct. 2008
“The wind and the sun are free.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, Repower America website, 2009
“Solyndra Files for Bankruptcy, Looks for Buyer,” “A California solar panel manufacturer that received more than a half-billion dollars in government loan guarantees filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy … ” —Business Week, Sep. 6, 2011
“To produce solar power in Germany is a sensible as to grow pineapples in Alaska.” —Juergen Grossman, CEO of energy utility RWE, Fuldaer Zeitung, Jan. 21, 2012
“Everything will be solar in 30 years.” —Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, 1978, quoted by Howard Hayden, The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World, 2005, p.48
“Wind Brings Down Turbine,” ‘The eco-dream of a village school turned into a Friday 13th nightmare when high winds destroyed their wind turbine … Thank God it happened when the children were not out on the field.” —New Quay Voice, Dec. 2, 2009
“The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030. We keep thinking that we want it to be there and provide power when we need it … Families will have to get used to only using power when it was available, rather than constantly.” —Steve Holliday, CEO UK National Grid, ERCOT News Release, May 12, 2010
“By directly reducing the use of fossil fuels, wind energy significantly reduces the emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and other harmful pollutants.” —American Wind Energy Association, “20% Wind Energy by 2030: Wind, Backup Power, and Emissions,” 2012
“The duty cycle for intermittent renewable wind and solar is not operator controlled, but dependent upon the weather or solar cycle … as a result, their levelized costs are not directly comparable to those of other technologies … ” —US Department of Energy, Annual Energy Outlook 2011, Nov. 2010
“Wind Farm Revolts Blamed for Dramatic Fall in Planning Approvals,” “Local revolts by British residents against wind farms are to blame for the number of planning approvals hitting record lows … ” —The Telegraph, Oct. 28, 2010
“We’ve tried so hard to be eco-friendly, but now we can’t turn it on.” —Stuart McLeod, Headteacher at the Southwell Community Primary School in Portland, England, commenting on the school’s bird-killing wind turbine, Telegraph, Jul. 4, 2010
“U.S. Wind Energy Production Tax Credit Extended through 2021,” “The U.S. production tax credit, a per-kilowatt-hour credit for electricity generated by eligible renewable sources, was first enacted in 1992 and has been extended and modified in the years since.” —Energy Information Administration, Jan. 28, 2021
Energy, Other
“Britons Advised to Stop Showering to Conserve Energy” —OilPrice.com, Aug. 8, 2022
“Consider the world’s biggest battery factory, the one Tesla built in Nevada. It would take 500 years for that factory to make enough batteries to store just one day’s worth of America’s electricity needs.” —Mark Mills, Sep. 14, 2020
“At current installed costs and energy prices, only around … 4% of the state’s residential/commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) load … could cost effectively switch to using heat pumps.” —New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2017
“The Key to Tackling Climate Change: Electrify Everything” —VOX, Oct. 27, 2017
“Electricity Needed to Mine Bitcoin is More than Used by ‘Entire Countries'” —The Guardian, Aug. 20, 2021
“Beware: 100% Green Energy Could Destroy the Planet,” “Moving to a carbon-free energy future requires … extraction of minerals and metals at great environmental and social cost.” —Stephen Moore, Washington Examiner, June 2, 2022
“In the net-zero pathway, global energy demand in 2050 is around 8% smaller than today, but it serves an economy more than twice as big and a population with 2 billion more people.” —Net Zero by 2050, International Energy Agency, 2021
“A Deluge of Batteries is About to Rewire the Power Grid” —Bloomberg, Aug. 2, 2019
“The Batteries that Could Make Fossil Fuels Obsolete” —BBC, Dec. 17, 2021
“To Save the Climate, Give Up the Demand for Constant Electricity” —Boston Review, Oct. 1, 2020
“WINTER CRISIS: One MILLION Pensioners Fear They Cannot Afford to Heat Their Homes,” “As many as 90 percent of the 2,000 pensioners surveyed … believe the high cost of gas and electricity presents a real health threat to elderly people living in the UK.” —Express, Jan. 17, 2017
“It is estimated that nuclear power will provide more than one-quarter of this country’s electrical production by 1985, and over half by the year 2000.” —President Richard Nixon, address to Congress, Apr. 18, 1973
“A Third of Brits Face Poverty with Energy Bills Set to Hit $5,000” —CNN Business, Aug. 8, 2022
“Government Mulls Emergency Measures that Would Enable Networks to Switch Off Your Electricity without Warning or Compensation” —Daily Mail, Sep. 17, 2020
“Low-cost energy is the foundation of modern society.” —Robert Bryce, presentation to the Manhattan Institute, May 18, 2014
“Spanish Shops and Restaurants Banned from Setting Air-Conditioners Below 27C Amid Energy Crisis” —ABC News, Aug. 2, 2022
“Entire Sydney Suburbs Plunged into Darkness as More Power Outages Loom” —7 News, June 13, 2020
“We forget just how painfully dim the world was before electricity. A candle—a good candle—provides barely a hundredth of the illumination of a single 100-watt light bulb.” —Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, 2010
“Saving Energy was never so much fun! Beat the Power Bandit and learn lots of ways to save energy, save money, and help save the planet!” —Commonwealth Edison web site, 2012
“If we use less energy, we can help keep the Earth cooler.” —The Clubhouse Kids Make a Big Difference, Teacher’s Guide, 2007
“There has also been an invasion of new always-on, electricity-sucking ‘vampires’ such as computers, videocassette recorders, microwave ovens, and telecommunications equipment. The energy consumption of these gadgets is rising 5 percent a year, and they will soon consume more per household than a refrigerator.” —United Nations Development Programme, Sep. 2000
“Global Warming: Data Centres to Consume Three Times as Much Energy in Next Decade, Experts Warn,” ” … this level of data centre growth is not sustainable beyond the next 10 to 15 years … We need to be more responsible about what we use the Internet for … it’s driven by social media and mobile phones. It’s films, pornography, gambling, dating, shopping—anything that involves images.” —Ian Bitterlin, The Independent, Jan. 23, 2016
” … the high cost of energy in Europe … has become one of the biggest threats to the competitiveness of European industry. When compared with other regions of the world, industrial energy costs in Europe are substantially higher.” —Accenture, May 16, 2013
“If you ask me, it’d be little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy because of what we would do with it.” —Amory Lovins, environmentalist, Mother Earth News, Nov.-Dec. 1977
“Giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, and Dr. John Holdren, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, 1970, p. 323
“The prospect of cheap fusion energy is the worst thing that could happen to the planet.” —Jeremy Rifkin, environmentalist, Los Angeles Times, Apr. 19, 1989
“Because saturation levels for most major appliances are achieved only minor increases in electricity consumption [will] occur.” —Union of Concerned Scientists, “Energy Strategy,” 1980
“Many analysts now regard modest, zero, or negative growth in our rate of energy use as a realistic long-term goal.” —Amory Lovins, environmentalist, “Energy Strategy, The Road Not Taken,” Nov. 1977
“Efficiency may curtail [energy] demand in the short term, for the specific task at hand. But its long-term impact is just the opposite … efficiency fails to curb demand because it lets more people do more, and do it faster—and more/more/faster invariably swamps all the efficiency gains.” —Peter Huber and Mark Mills, The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy, 2005, p. 111-112
“With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these [hydrogen fuel cell] cars from laboratory to showroom, so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” —George W. Bush, former US president, White House press release, 2003
“The framework recommends the adoption of measures to stimulate RETs [renewable energy technologies] such as obligations on the electricity industry to purchase renewable energy, supply a certain proportion of their energy from renewable sources and the development of a guaranteed market … ” —Institute for Environmental Security, “Renewable Energy for Africa,” May, 2009
“To block the construction of centralized power projects, as not being ‘appropriate’ or ‘sustainable’ is to condemn billions of people to continued poverty and disease—and millions to premature death.” —Paul Driessen, Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, 2003, p. 42
” … it is true that renewable energy is expensive and can’t be done without public sector support, it is an important investment in the future.” —Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, former Prime Minister of Spain, Financial Times, June 4, 2008
“Senator Charles Schumer Touts Tax Incentives for Manure Energy” —Associated Press, Aug. 12, 2011
“We need to stop burning fossil fuels and utilize only wind, water, and solar power with all generation of power coming from individual or small community units like windmills, waterwheels, and solar panels. Sea transportation should be by sail … Air transportation should be by solar powered blimps when air transportation is necessary.” —Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society website, May 4, 2007
“Investment in sustainable energy … is expected to reach $450 billion per year by 2012, rising to more than $600 a year from 2020.” —United Nations Environment Programme, 2008
Environment and Pollution
“I view climate as a pollution problem. It is, in my words, carbon pollution. It’s just like every other pollutant.” —Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, YouTube, Sep. 18, 2018
“Carbon-Neutral California Would Save 14,000 Lives a Year, UCLA Study Says” —City News Service, May 5, 2020
” … scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support the following prediction: By 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.” —Time Magazine, Jan. 30, 1970
“O beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain. For strip-mined mountain’s majesty above the asphalt plain. America, America, man sheds his waste on thee. And hides the pines with billboard signs from sea to oily sea.” —George Carlin, Comedian, 1972
“Air Pollution to Blame for 60,000 Early Deaths per Year” —The Independent, Nov. 30, 2014
“Air Quality Deteriorating in Many of the World’s Cities,” “In most cities where there is enough data to compare the situation today with previous years, air pollution is getting worse.” —World Health Organization, May 7, 2014
“More than 147.6 million people—47 percent of the nation—live where pollution levels are too often dangerous to breathe.” —American Lung Association web site describing air pollution in the US, 2014
“Green protestors are our best passengers. They’re always flying off to their demonstrations.” —Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ireland-based Ryanair, Aug. 2, 2008
“The first great forests will die in the next five years. They are beyond redemption.” —Dr. Bernard Ulrich, University of Gottingen, on forest dieback in Germany, 1981
“We’re running out of places to dump things. We spent all that money getting to the moon, and we aren’t doing anything with that. Maybe we could ship our junk up there. We can end up throwing away the whole Earth.” —Andy Rooney, correspondent, CBS News, Aug. 30, 2001
“Particulate matter causes premature death. It doesn’t make you sick. It’s directly causal to dying sooner than you should.” —Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, 2011
“Although the effects of other unmeasured risk factors cannot be excluded with certainty, these results suggest that fine-particulate air pollution, or a more complex pollution mixture associated with fine particulate matter, contributes to excess mortality in certain US cities.” —Dr. Douglas Dockery, Six Cities study, Dec. 9, 1993
“Senators Vote to Block EPS’s Use of ‘Secret Science,'” “EPA has a long history of relying on science that was not created by the agency itself. This often means that the science is not available to the public, and therefore cannot be reproduced and verified.” —John Barrasso, US Senator, The Hill, Apr. 28, 2015
“Center for Biological Diversity Petitions EPA to List CO2 as a ‘Toxic Substance'” —WattsUpWithThat, June 30, 2015
“The Earth has cancer and the cancer is man.” —Mankind at the Turning Point, second report of the Club of Rome, 1974
“In searching for the new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. In their totality and in their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which demands the solidarity of all peoples. But in designating them as the enemy, we fall into the trap about which we have already warned, by human intervention and it is only through changing attitudes and behaviors that they can be overcome. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.” —Alexander King and Bertrand Schneider, The First Global Revolution, report for the Club of Rome, 1991, p. 115
” … children born today—in both the industrialized world and developing countries—will live longer and be healthier, they will get more food, a better education, a higher standard of living, more leisure time and far more possibilities—without the global environment being destroyed.” —Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist, Measuring the Real State of the World, 2001, p. 352
“The general use of the pesticide DDT will no longer be legal in the United States after today … the continued massive use of DDT posed unacceptable risks to the environment and potential harm to human health.” —US Environmental Protection Agency, 1972
“Every year, indoor air pollution is responsible for the death of 1.6 million people—that’s one death every 20 seconds … In sub-Saharan Africa, the reliance on biomass fuels appears to be growing as a result of population growth and the unavailability of, or increases in the price of, alternatives such as kerosene and liquid petroleum gas.” —World Health Organization, “Indoor Air Pollution and Health,” June 2005
“The polluter-pays principle is the principle according to which the polluter should bear the cost of measures to reduce pollution according to the extent of either the damage done to society or the exceeding of an acceptable level (standard) of pollution.” —OECD Glossary of Statistical Terms web site, 2010
“The planet has been through a lot worse than us … been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages—and we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?” —George Carlin, comedian
“The sooner the US puts a cap on our dangerous carbon pollution, the sooner we can create a new generation of clean energy jobs here in America … ” —Carol Browner, former US Director of Energy and Climate Change, PRNewswire, May 15, 2010
“By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by one half.” —Time Magazine, Jan. 1970, quoted by Ron Bailey, Reason Magazine, Aug. 12, 2001
Gore, Al
“Modern industrial civilization, as presently organized, is colliding violently with our planet’s ecological system.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, 1992, p. 269
“A thinner ozone layer allows more ultraviolet radiation to strike the earth’s surface … In Patagonia, hunters now report finding blind rabbits; fishermen catch blind salmon.” —Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, 1992, p.85
“The answer to our climate, energy and economic challenges does not lie in burning more dirty fossil fuels—instead, we must continue to press for much more rapid development of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies and cuts in the pollution that causes global warming.” —Al Gore, web site, 2011
“Gore Defends Mansion’s Power Consumption,” “Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kW-hr … That is more than an average American family uses in an entire year.” —CBS News, Feb. 28, 2007
“We have arrived at a moment of decision. Our home—Earth—is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is not the planet itself, of course, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jan. 28, 2009
” … it is appropriate to have an over representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, Grist, May 9, 2006
“Our insatiable drive to rummage deep beneath the surface of the earth is a willful expansion of our dysfunctional civilization into Nature.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, 1992, p. 243
“We the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency—a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential … the earth has a fever. And the fever is rising … Indeed, without realizing it, we have begun to wage war on earth itself … ” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dec. 10, 2007
” … unless we act boldly and quickly to deal with the underlying causes of global warming, our world will undergo a string of terrible catastrophes … ” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, 2006, p. 10
“Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’?—A $30,000 Utility Bill,” ” …electric bills for the former vice president’s 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours.” —ABC News, Feb. 26, 2008
” … it ought to be possible to establish a coordinated global program to accomplish the strategic goal of completely eliminating the internal combustion engine over, say, a twenty-five-year period.” —Al Gore, former US vice president, Earth in Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, 1992
Green Products
“A transition to a greener steel plant is the intention that we have … But this is only possible with financial help from the government.” —Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, The Telegraph, July 21, 2022
“Engineers Create World’s First Carbon-Neutral Cement Out of Algae” —Freethink, July 3, 2022
“This $110 T-Shirt Sucks Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere” —Fast Company, Aug. 3, 2021
“This Vodka Helps Fight Climate Change,” “Vodka is usually made from fermented grains, like rye. But Air Company’s spirit is made out of captured carbon dioxide emissions.” —CNN, July 20, 2021
“Fashion Meets Renewable Energy—Clothes that Charge Your Smartphone,” —The Guardian, Aug. 4, 2014
“Golf Ball with Carbon Dioxide Absorbents” —Nike Inc. patent application February 23, 2011
“World’s First Large-Scale Zero-Carbon Steel Plant Will Require €500m of Public Money” —Recharge News, July 20, 2021
“No-Petroleum Sunglasses Crafted from Castor Bean Oil” —Treehugger.com, Apr. 17, 2014
“Extreme Green: Reusable Toilet Wipes,” “They’re comfy and environmentally friendly. You can use them wet, and they won’t fall apart. It’s a lot more comfortable and soft on your most delicate body parts.” —Livescience, Feb. 27, 2009
“Swiss Chocolatier Barry Callebaut Creates Heat-Resistant Chocolate to Survive Global Warming” —The Daily Meal, Dec. 28, 2015
“Tepid Coffee Anyone? Europe Rules Percolators Must shut Off After Five Minutes” —The Telegraph, Jan. 11, 2015
“Pig Urine Plates,” “A Denmark company called Agroplast can take urea compounds—a key component of urine—and use it to produce bioplastics that can be made into biodegradable plates and utensils. Other companies use less cringe-inducing starters like vegetable oil, but the Danish company says pig urine, fraught with health hazards and high disposal costs unless processed, is a better environmental solution.” —Time, Mar. 3, 2009
“Did You Know Organic Underwear Could Look This Good?” “Fabrics like organic cotton, bamboo and hemp are so soft and comfortable they are perfect for underwear and what better way to add organic fabrics to your wardrobe … ” —Natural Living for Women, 2016
“Green Ideas: Making Concrete from Rice,” “Concrete accounts for about 5% of all human-related CO2 emissions … But what if there was a way to make concrete that was more environmentally friendly? A team of researchers in Texas thinks there might be—by adding rice to concrete.” —Phys.org. July 21, 2009
Hansen, James
“Number one, the earth is warmer in 1988 than at any time in the history of instrumental measurements. Number two, the global warming is now large enough that we can ascribe with a high degree of confidence a cause-and-effect relationship to the greenhouse effect. And number three, our computer climate simulations indicate that the greenhouse effect is already large enough to begin to affect the probability of extreme events such as summer heat waves.” —Dr. James Hansen, Congressional testimony, Jun. 23, 1988
“The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades.” —Dr. James Hansen, The Observer, Feb. 15, 2009
“The greatest danger hanging over our children and grandchildren is initiation of changes that will be irreversible on any time scale that humans can imagine.” —Dr. James Hansen, The Observer, Feb. 15, 2009
“Burning all the fossil fuels will destroy the planet we know, Creation, the planet of stable climate in which civilization developed.” —Dr. James Hansen, letter to Barack and Michelle Obama, Dec. 29, 2008
” … 99 percent confident that the world really was getting warmer and that there was a high degree of probability that it was due to human-made greenhouse gases.” —Dr. James Hansen on his 1988 Senate testimony, PBS Frontline, Apr. 24, 2007
Health Effects (Heat Waves, Disease)
The Earth’s climate is changing in ways that could have serious consequences for public health. In addition to the direct effects of higher temperatures, climate change will likely increase the number of people suffering from illness and injury due to floods, storms, droughts, and fires, as well as allergies and infectious diseases.” —US Environmental Protection Agency, Apr. 2010
“There is good evidence that last year’s European heat wave was influenced by global warming. It resulted in 26,000 premature deaths and cost $13.5 billion.” —Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister, address to the US Congress, Sep. 15, 2004
“Winter regularly takes many more lives than any heat wave: 25,000 to 50,000 each year die in Britain from excess cold. Across Europe, there are six times more cold-related deaths than heat-related deaths … by 2050 … Warmer temperatures will save 1.4 million lives each year.” —Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, Telegraph, Mar. 13, 2009
“Claims the malaria resurgence is due to climate change ignore these realities and disregard history … Public concern should focus on ways to deal with the realities of malaria transmission, rather than on the weather.” —Dr. Paul Reiter, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000
“Climate change is the cholera of our era—fear of the havoc that climate change will wreak should stimulate a new public health revolution.” —Sir Muir Gray, TimesOnLine, May 25, 2009
“Successfully reframing the climate debate in the United States from one based on environmental values to one based on health values … holds great promise to help American society better understand and appreciate the risks of climate change … ” —George Mason University, Center for Climate Change Communication, May 9, 2011
“Some reduction in the risk of death related to extreme cold is expected … the reduction in deaths as a result of relatively milder winters attributable to global warming will be substantially less than the increase in deaths due to summertime heat extremes.” —US Global Climate Change Research Program, 2009 Report
“That makes climate change a bigger public health problem than AIDS, than malaria, than pandemic flu.” —Lois Capps, US House Representative, The Hill, Apr. 6, 2011
” … over the years I have repeatedly found that environmental economics students at C.U. enter my class with strongly-held beliefs that 1) cancer is a growing threat to mankind and 2) pollution, pesticides, food additives and other ‘synthetic chemicals’ are the principal cause of the cancer epidemic. I am not sure why these beliefs are so strongly held (brainwashing?) but it turns out that both beliefs are demonstrably wrong.” —Dr. Bruce Ames, University of California at Berkeley, 1997
Icecaps, Glaciers, and Sea Level
“There is a 75 percent chance that the entire North Polar Icecap, during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years.” —Al Gore, presentation at the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Dec. 14, 2009
“Global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over 1961 to 2003. The rate was faster over 1993 to 2003: about 3.1 mm per year.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, 2007
“The highest quality coastal tide gauges from around the world show no evidence of acceleration since the 1920s.” —Dr. Craig Idso et al., The Heartland Institute, May 2019
“It remains possible that the database is insufficient to compute mean sea level trends with the accuracy necessary to discuss the impact of global warming—as disappointing as this conclusion may be.” —Dr. Carl Wunsch, commenting on the quality of the sea level data in the satellite database, Journal of Climate, Dec. 15, 2007
“Arctic Summers Ice-Free ‘by 2013,” ” … you can argue that maybe our projection of 2013 is already too conservative.” —BBC News, Dec. 12, 2007
“We are melting the North Polar ice cap and virtually all of the mountain glaciers in the world. We are destabilizing the massive mound of ice on Greenland and the equally enormous mass of ice propped on top of islands in West Antarctica, threatening a worldwide increase in sea levels of as much as 20 feet.” —Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006, p. 10
“Humanity faces near certainty of eventual sea level rise of … 5—9 meters, if fossil fuel emissions continue on a business-as-usual course … ” —Dr. James Hansen, July 23, 2015
“There is widespread evidence that glaciers are retreating in many mountain areas of the world. Since 1850 the glaciers of the European Alps have lost about 30 to 40% of their surface area and about half of their volume … glaciers in the New Zealand Southern Alps have lost 25% of their area over the last 100 years … Glaciers on Mt. Kenyan and Kilimanjaro have lost over 60% of their area in the last century…” —Union of Concerned Scientists web site, 2016
“Grim Forecast,” “A senior environmental official at the United Nations, Noel Brown, says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the earth by rising sea levels if global warming is not reversed by the year 2000.” —San Jose Mercury News, June 30, 1989
“Global Warming Expedition to prove Antarctic Ice is Melting Trapped by Ice,” “Expedition leader Chris Turney: One of the purposes of the expedition was to determine the extent to which human activity and pollution has directly impacted on this remote region of Antarctica.” —FrontPageMag, Dec. 29, 2013
“Next Great Deluge Forecast by Science,” “Melting Polar Ice Caps to Raise the Level of Seas and Flood the Continents” —The New York Times, May 15, 1932
“The extent of the ice in the Nordic Seas … has decreased by ≈33% over the past 135 years … The time series indicates that we are in a state of continued recovery from the cooling effects of the Little Ice Age.” —Dr. Torgny Vinje, American Meteorological Society, Feb. 1, 2001
“The Himalayan Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau have been among the most affected by global warming. The Himalayas … provide more than half of the drinking water for 40% of the world’s population … Within the next half-century, that 40% of the world’s people may well face a very serious drinking water shortage, unless the world acts boldly and quickly to mitigate global warming.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, 2006, pp. 42-59
“The crux of the sea level issue is that it starts very slowly but once it gets going it is practically unstoppable … There is no way I can see to stop this rise, even if we have gone to zero emissions.” —Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf, Reuters, Sep. 30, 2009
“Rising sea levels will result in tens to hundreds of millions more people flooded each year with a warming of 3 or 4°C. There will be serious risks and increasing pressures for coastal protection in Southeast Asia (Bangladesh and Vietnam), small islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and large coastal cities, such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Calcutta, Karachi, Buenos Aires, St. Petersburg, New York, Miami and London.” —Lord Nicholas Stern, The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, 2007
“The last time the world was three degrees warmer than today—which is what we expect later this century—sea levels were 25m higher. So that is what we can look forward to if we don’t act soon.” —Dr. James Hansen, The Independent, Feb. 17, 2006
“In the end, it will just melt away quite suddenly. It might not be as early as 2013 but it will be soon, much earlier than 2040.” —Dr. Peter Waldhams on arctic ice, BBC News, Dec. 12, 2007
“Scientists are also unnerved by the summer’s implications for the future … proof that human activities are propelling a slide toward climate calamity … humans may have tipped the balance … a particularly harsh jolt to polar bears.” —Andy Revkin on arctic ice, The New York Times, Oct. 2, 2007
“Ice conditions were exceptional. In fact, so little ice has never before been noted. The expedition all but established a record, sailing as far north as 81°29′ in ice-free water. This is the farthest north ever reached with modern oceanographic apparatus.” —George Ifft, U.S. Consul to Norway, Oct. 10, 1922
“We are trying to send our message to let the world know what is happening and what will happen to the Maldives if climate change isn’t checked.” —Mohamed Nasheed, President of Maldives on his underwater cabinet meeting, CNN World, Oct. 17, 2009
“The consequences would be catastrophic. Even with a small sea-level rise, we’re going to destroy whole nations and their cultures that have existed for thousands of years.” —Dr. Jonathan Overpeck, National Geographic News, Apr. 26, 2004
“Part of the reason Tom’s One Man Epic is taking place now is because of the effect that global warming is having on the polar ice caps … Some scientists have even estimated that the polar ice cap will have entirely melted away by 2014.” —Tom Smitheringale prior to his 2010 aborted attempt to reach the North Pole, Herald Sun, Apr. 23, 2010
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
” … the increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest of any century during the past 1,000 years.” —IPCC Third Assessment Report, WG I, Summary for Policy Makers, 2007, p. 2
“The additional burden of CO2 added to the atmosphere by human activities … leads to the current ‘perturbed’ global carbon cycle … These perturbations to the natural carbon cycle are the dominant driver of climate change because of their persistent effect on the atmosphere.” —IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, WG I, 2007, p. 514
“About 50% of the CO2 increase will be removed from the atmosphere within 30 years, and a further 30% will be removed within a few centuries. The remaining 20% may stay in the atmosphere for many thousands of years.” —IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, WG I, 2007, p. 501
“Projected climate change-related exposures are likely to affect the health status of millions of people, particularly those with low adaptive capacity, through…increased deaths, disease, and injury due to heat waves, floods, storms, and droughts … ” —IPCC 2007 Assessment Report, Synthesis Report, p. 12
“Hot days, hot nights, and heat waves have become more frequent … the observed higher frequency of heat waves is likely to have occurred due to human influence on the climate system … ” —IPCC, Fourth Assessment Report, WG II, 2007, pp. 396-397
“Globally about 20 to 30% … of species will be at increasingly high risk of extinction, possibly by 2100, as global mean temperatures exceed 2 to 3°C above pre-industrial levels.” —IPCC, Fourth Assessment Report, WG II, 2007, p.213
” … based on current models … the global mean temperature will increase at a rate of about 0.3°C per decade during the next century, at a rate at least 10 times higher than any seen over the past 10,000 years.” —IPCC First Assessment Report, 1990
“New analyses of proxy data for the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the increase in temperature in the 20th century is likely to have been the largest of any century during the past 1,000 years. It is also likely that, in the Northern Hemisphere, the 1990’s was the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year.” —IPCC, Third Assessment Report, WG I, Summary for Policy Makers, 2001, p.2
“More than two-thirds of all authors of chapter 9 of the IPCC’s 2007 climate-science assessment are part of a clique whose members have co-authored papers with each other … the majority of scientists who are skeptical of a human influence on climate significant enough to be damaging to the planet were unrepresented in the authorship of chapter 9.” —Dr. John McLean, Science and Public Policy Institute, July 2008
“Under true peer-review … a panel of reviewers must accept a study before it can be published in a scientific journal. If the reviewers have objections the author must answer them or change the article to take reviewers’ objections into account. Under the IPCC review process, the authors are at liberty to ignore criticisms.” —Dr. Richard Lindzen, The Heartland Institute, June 1, 2001
“But more than 15 sections in Chapter 8 of the report—the key chapter setting out the scientific evidence for and against a human influence over the climate—were changed or deleted after the scientist charged with examining this question had accepted the supposedly final text … ” —Dr. Frederick Seitz commenting on the IPCC Second Assessment Report, The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 1996
“The IPCC needs a lesson in geology to avoid making fundamental mistakes … Most leading geologists, throughout the world, know that the IPCC’s view of Earth processes is implausible if not impossible.” —Dr. Thomas Segalstad, Newsbusters, July 9, 2007
“Perhaps the greatest scientific deception of the IPCC is the abuse and misuse of computer climate models. They allow them to make their reports and deliberations appear credible. They allow them to bamboozle the public because computer models are a complete mystery to most people.” —Dr. Timothy Ball, Canada Free Press, May 27, 2008
“We have embarked globally on a path of unsustainable development. Our lifestyles, the way we produce goods and services, are all part of a system that is completely unsustainable. I see solutions to climate change leading to a much larger philosophical shift in the way human society develops. We need a new matrix to define what human progress is.” —Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, IPCC Chairman, Guardian Weekly, Mar. 30, 2009
” … 99% of the casualties linked to climate change occur in developing countries. Worst hit are the world’s poorest groups. While climate change will increasingly affect wealthy countries, the brunt of the impact is being borne by the poor, whose plight simply receives less attention.” —Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Guardian, May 29, 2009
” … to provide the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of knowledge in climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change purpose, IPCC website, 2012
” … warming of the climate system is unequivocal…most of the global average warming over the past 50 years is very likely due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases increases … ” —Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dec. 10, 2007
” … it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without external forcing and very likely that it is not due to known natural causes alone.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, Synthesis Report, 2007, p. 39
“The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide in 2005 exceeds by far the natural range over the last 650,000 years (180-300 ppm) as determined by ice cores.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, WG I, Summary for Policymakers, p. 2
” … we conclude that it is very likely that greenhouse gases caused more global warming over the last 50 years than changes in solar irradiance.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, WG I, 2007, p. 675
” … it is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation associated with ongoing increases of tropical sea surface temperatures.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, Summary for Policy Makers, 2007, p. 15
“I am withdrawing because I have come to view the part of the IPCC to which my expertise is relevant as having become politicized. In addition, when I have raised my concerns to the IPCC leadership, their response was simply to dismiss my concerns.” —Dr. Christopher Landsea, IPCC resignation letter, Jan. 17, 2005
“The IPCC hierarchy had its mind made up years ago to make every attempt possible to link rising levels of CO2 with increases in global hurricane intensity and frequency … Input from skeptics or any hypothesis or data that did not link rises in CO2 to increases in tropical cyclone activity was to be avoided, suppressed, or rejected.” —Dr. William Gray, Science and Public Policy Institute, Oct. 11, 2011
“The IPCC is a scientific body. It reviews and assesses the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change. It does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate-related data or parameters.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change web site, 2012
“Because of its scientific and intergovernmental nature, the IPCC embodies a unique opportunity to provide rigorous and balanced scientific information to decision makers. By endorsing the IPCC reports, governments acknowledge the authority of their scientific content. The work of the organization is therefore policy-relevant and yet policy-neutral, never policy-prescriptive.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change web site, 2012
“In my more than 60 years as a member of the American scientific community, including service as president of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Physical Society, I have never witnessed a more disturbing corruption of the peer-review process than the events that led to this IPCC report.” —Dr. Fredrick Seitz on the IPCC Second Assessment Report, The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 1996
“The IPCC doesn’t do any research itself. We only develop our assessments on the basis of peer-reviewed literature.” —Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Rediff.com India News, June 5, 2007
“Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world … the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, WG II, 2007, p. 493
“We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.” —Dr. Murari Lal, IPCC Lead Author, on the Himalayan glaciers “melting by 2035” exaggeration in the Fourth Assessment Report, Daily Mail, Jan. 24, 2010
“Up to 40% of the Amazonian forests could react drastically to even a slight reduction in precipitation … forests will be replaced by ecosystems that have more resistance to multiple stresses caused by temperature increase, droughts and fires, such as tropical savannas.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, WG II, 2007, p. 596
“By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition.” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, Synthesis Report, 2007, p. 50
“Unfortunately, there is no way to ‘fix’ the IPCC, and there never was. The reason is that its formation over 20 years ago was to support political and energy policy goals, not to search for scientific truth. I know this not only because one of the first IPCC directors told me so, but also because it is the way the IPCC leadership behaves. If you disagree with their interpretation of climate change, you are left out of the IPCC process. They ignore or fight against any evidence which does not support their policy-driven mission, even to the point of pressuring scientific journals not to publish papers which might hurt the IPCC’s efforts.” —Dr. Roy Spencer web site, Nov. 23, 2011
” … the findings for the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report that … 2050 targets for developed countries should be between 80 to 85 per cent below 1990 emissions.” —Commonwealth of Australia, “Securing a Clean Energy Future,” 2001
” … IPCC reported that ‘there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.'” —California Air Resources Board, “Climate Change Scoping Plan,” Dec. 2008
“The IPCC’s analysis suggests developed countries should collectively reduce their emissions by 25—40% below 1990 levels by 2020.” —UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, “The UK Low Carbon Transition Plan,” Jul. 15, 2009
” … the UN IPCC … estimates that the average global surface temperature is likely to increase by between 1.4 and 5.8°C by 2100.” —Government of Canada, “Climate Change Plan for Canada,” 2002
” … the IPCC has clearly indicated that most of the global warming observed over the past 50 years was likely induced by the increase in concentrations of greenhouse gases … ” —China National Development and Reform Commission, “National Climate Change Program,” June 4, 2007
“Most of the observed increase in global average surface temperatures since the mid-20th Century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations—IPCC” —US Environmental Protection Agency, “Climate Change Indicators in the United States,” 2010
Media and Wacky Headlines
“Swedish Scientist Advocates Eating Humans to Combat Climate Change,” “After Söderlund’s presentation, 8% of the audience raised their hands when asked if they would be willing to try human flesh.” —Think Big, Sep. 8, 2019
“Global Warming Makes Couples Cheat, Says Dating Website” —Miami New Times, May 28, 2014
“New York Times Essay Says You Should Mate with Short People to Save the Planet” —Fox News, Jan. 3, 2023
“It’s Time to Admit It: We Are Addicted to Cars” —Humankind, June 9, 2018
“‘Back to the Cave Age’: Brussels Diners Eat in the Dark Amid Energy Crisis” —Euronews, Oct. 3, 2022
“It’s Time to Ban the Sale of Pickup Trucks” —Passage, July 13, 2021
“More Western Leaders Call for the End of Private Vehicle Ownership” —TheTruthAboutCars, Dec. 29, 2021
“Three Reasons Why We Should Stop Using Concrete,” “We can’t continue destroying the environment to create living spaces for ourselves.” —Climate Conscious, May 15, 2020
“Surgeon Uses Human Fat to Run His Cars” —Independent, Dec. 26, 2008
“Motorway Speed Limits Cut to 60 mph in bid to Reduce Carbon Emissions” —Confused.com, Oct. 29, 2020
“Kill Your Gas Stove” —The Atlantic, Oct. 15, 2020
“Nightclub to Convert Dancers’ Body Heat into Renewable Energy” —Cool Hunting, Nov. 11, 2021
“Struggling to Heat Your Home as Gas and Oil Prices Soar? Why Not Switch to Wood?” —Farming Independent, Oct. 21, 2022
“Cities Are Starting to Ban New Gas Stations” —Axios, Mar. 1, 2021
“Urban Density May Be One of Our Best Strategies to Fight Climate Change,” “A recent American study suggested doubling urban density may reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 48 percent (travel) and 35 percent (residential use), with those numbers the same for Canada.” —Real Estate News Exchange, Feb. 24, 2022
“How Whiskey Waste Can Replace Fossil Fuels on the Road to Net Zero” —Reuters, Nov. 23, 2021
“Poo-Powered Bus Hits the Road in the UK,” “In the UK, the country’s first ever bus powered on food waste and human poo has taken to the road, which engineers believe could provide a sustainable way of fueling public transport.” —The Digest, Nov. 20, 2014
“Making Batteries Out of Crab Shells May Be a Great Idea” —Gizmodo, Sep. 2, 2022
“Zombie Storms are Rising from the Dead Thanks to Climate Change” —Live Science, Sep. 25, 2020
“I Moved My Family Off-Grid in Rural Alaska to Prepare for a Zombie Apocalypse” —The Sun, Nov. 8, 2021
“Climate Change: Can Sending Fewer Emails Really Save the Planet? —BBC News, Nov. 19, 2020
“PARK SPARK: Public Park Converts Dog Poo to Energy,” —Inhabit, Oct. 6, 2010
“Hummingbird Halts Construction of Controversial Oil Pipeline,” “Trans Mountain Corp, which is carrying out construction of a US$12.6 billion project that will nearly triple capacity of the pipeline, was ordered to halt work on a section to protect the hummingbird’s nests.” —Independent, Apr. 29, 2021
“Drink Beer, Save the Planet! NZ Company Introduces World’s First Beer-Based Fuel” —RT News, July 11, 2015
“Washing Hands in Hot Water Wastes Energy, Study Says,” “Although the choice of water temperature during a single hand wash may appear trivial, when multiplied by the nearly 800 billion hand washes performed by Americans each year, this practice results in more than 6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually.” —National Geographic, Dec. 12, 2013
“Manicured Lawns Contribute to Global Warming by Producing Greenhouse Gases” —Tribune India, Jan. 18, 2015
“Climate Change and Air Pollution Will Lead to Famine by 2050, Study Claims” —MailOnLine, July 28, 2014
“Is Air Conditioning Killing the Planet?” ” … the solution to staying cool by cranking up the air conditioning has a dark side; the energy it uses also happens to be a big contributor to climate change.” —Discovery News, July 28, 2015
“Earth to RUN OUT of Water by 2050: Leaked Report Shows ‘Catastrophic’ Fate Facing World” —Daily Express, Apr. 30, 2016
“Fertilized World—’If we don’t watch out, agriculture could destroy our planet.'” —National Geographic, May, 2013
“Is Your Lawn Accelerating Climate Change?” “A study published in the Journal of Environmental Management … found, the total CO2 emissions from lawns in the US is about 25 million tons annually. These emissions are primarily released from the 2.2 billion gallons of fossil fuels used for gas-powered mowing and the manufacturing/application of synthetic fertilizers in the US each year.” —CleanAirLawnCare, 2016
“There’s No Way Around It: Donald Trump Looks Like a Disaster for the Planet,” ” … all the fragile but important progress the world has made on global warming over the past eight years is now in danger of being blown up.” —Vox, Nov. 9, 2016
“For years I was a newspaper editor and I knew—as most editors know—that if you print a lot of good news, people stop buying our paper. Conversely, if you publish the correct mix of doom, gloom and disaster, your circulation swells. I have done the experiment! The publication of ‘bad news’ is not a vice peculiar to editors … It’s what people on average demand.” —Julian Cribb, Australian science journalist, ATSE Focus, Nov.-Dec. 2004
“If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?” —Scott Pelley on the lack of interviews of climate skeptics, CBS News, March 23, 2006
“On a wintry Saturday last December, there was what was billed as a major climate change rally in London. The leader of the Green party, Caroline Lucas, went into the Westminster studio to be interviewed by me on BBC News channel … I pointed out to her that the climate didn’t seem to be playing ball at the moment. We were having a particularly cold winter, even though carbon emissions were increasing. Indeed, there had been no warming for ten years, contradicting all the alarming computer predictions. Well she was outraged … Miss Lucas told me angrily that is was disgraceful that the BBC—the BBC!—should be giving any kind of publicity to those sort of views … But it is effectively BBC policy, enthusiastically carried out by the BBC environment correspondents, that those views should not be heard—witness the BBC statement last year that ‘BBC News currently takes the view that their reporting needs to be calibrated to take into account the scientific consensus that global warming is man-made.” —Peter Sissons, former BBC newsreader, Daily Mail, July 15, 2009
“Russian Scholar Warns of ‘Secret’ US Climate Change Weapon,” —Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, Jul. 30, 2010
“Eat Kangaroo to ‘save the planet'” —BBC News, Aug. 9, 2008
“Researchers Suggest Link Between Obesity & Global Warming” —Scotland of Food and Drink, Aug. 17, 2011
“Scientists: Aliens May Punish Our Species for Climate Change” —The Atlantic, Aug. 2011
“Columbus Blamed for Little Ice Age,” “By sailing to the New World, Christopher Columbus and other explorers who followed may have set off a chain reaction of events that cooled Europe’s climate for centuries.” —ScienceNews, Oct. 13, 2011
“Climate Change ‘Could Spark More Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis'” —Daily Mail, Apr. 19, 2010
“British UFO Sightings at ‘Bizarre’ Levels,” “Some experts believe it could be linked to global warming and craft from outer space are appearing because they are concerned about what man is doing to this planet.” —The Telegraph, July 7, 2008
“Global Warming Link to Kidney Stones” —The Times of India, May 15, 2008
“Flesh-Eating Disease is on the Rise Due to Global Warming: Experts Warn” —Science Daily, Aug. 16, 2007
“Study Says Global Warming Shrinks Birds” —The Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 21, 2009
“Bigger Birds in Central California, Courtesy of Global Climate Change” —SF State News, Oct. 31, 2011
“EU to Ban Cars from Cities by 2050,” “Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU master plan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years.” —The Telegraph, Mar. 28, 2011
“Global Warming Could Shrink the Human Race” —The Register, Feb. 24, 2012
“Global Warming Could Spur Toxic Algae, Bacteria in Seas” —Wild Singapore News, Feb. 20, 2011
“Climate Change Could Be Causing Cougar Attacks: Expert” —Canada.com, Aug. 29, 2007
“Climate Change Cited as Shark Attacks ‘Double'” —The Raw Story, Feb. 13, 2012
“GM to Investigate After Chevy Volt Hybrid Catches Fire for SECOND Time in a Week—Even Though It was Unplugged” —Daily Mail, Feb. 23, 2012
“Study: A Dog or Cat Pollutes More than an SUV.” —Italian News Agency, Sep. 8, 2010
“Lizard that Outlived Dinosaurs May Go Extinct from Climate Change.” —Planet Save, June 19, 2010
Models
” … the possibility of circular reasoning arises—that is, using the temperature record to derive a key input to climate models that are then tested against the temperature record.” —Dr. Theodore Anderson et al., Science, May, 2003
” … the computer models are very good at solving equations of fluid dynamics but very bad at describing the real world. The real world is full of things like clouds and vegetation and soil and dust which the models describe very poorly.” —Dr. Freeman Dyson, The Independent, Feb. 25, 2011
“On the whole, the evidence indicates that model trends in the troposphere are very likely inconsistent with observations … ” —Dr. David Douglass et al., pointing out that model projections do not match satellite and weather balloon temperature measurements in the Topics, International Journal of Climatology, Oct. 11, 2007
“Weather balloons had been measuring the atmosphere since the 1960s, many thousands of them every year. The climate models all predict that as the planet warms, a hot spot of moist air will develop over the tropics about 10 kilometers up, as the layer of moist air expands upwards into the cool, dry air above. During the warming of the late 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, the weather balloons found no hot spot. None at all. Not even a small one. This evidence proves that the climate models are fundamentally flawed, that they greatly overestimate the temperature increases due to carbon dioxide.” —Dr. David Evans, Financial Post, Apr. 7, 2011
“People underestimate the power of models. Observational evidence is not very useful.” —Dr. John Mitchell, U.K. Meteorological Office, The Register, May 13, 2011
Ocean Acidification
“Coral reefs, the rain forest of the ocean, are home for one-third of the species of the sea. Coral reefs are under stress for several reasons, including warming of the ocean, but especially because of ocean acidification, a direct effect of added carbon dioxide. Ocean life dependent on carbonate shells and skeletons is threatened by dissolution as the ocean becomes more acid.” —Dr. James Hansen, address to the National Press Club, June 23, 2008
” … the oceans are 30 percent more acidic today than they were during pre-industrial times and, if we continue burning fossil fuels as we are now, we will double the ocean’s acidity by the end of the century.” —Sigourney Weaver, Apr. 22, 2010
“Carbon dioxide pollution is transforming the chemistry of the ocean, rapidly making the water more acidic. In decades, rising ocean acidity may challenge life on a scale that has not occurred for tens of millions of years. So we confront an urgent choice: to move beyond fossil fuels or to risk turning the ocean into a sea of weeds.” —Sigourney Weaver, Natural Resources Defense Council documentary, Sep. 17, 2009
Overpopulation
“Is Having a Baby in 2021 Pure Environmental Vandalism?” —Vogue, Apr. 25, 2021
“Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.” —Thomas Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798, p. 4
“At the present time the annual increase in world population runs to about forty-three millions. This means that every four years mankind adds to its numbers the equivalent of the present population of the United States, every eight and a half years the equivalent of the present population of India … The problem of rapidly increasing numbers in relation to natural resources, to social stability and to the well-being of individuals—this is now the central problem of mankind … So far as the masses of mankind are concerned, the coming time will not be the Space Age; it will be the Age of Over-population.” —Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, 1959
“One of the greatest challenges today is the population explosion. Unless we are able to tackle this issue effectively we will be confronted with the problem of the natural resources being inadequate for all the human beings on this earth.” —14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, 2000
“A cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells; the population explosion is an uncontrolled multiplication of people.” —Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, 1968, p. 152
“Our home is the biosphere, it’s fixed and finite—it can’t grow. And we’ve got to learn to live within that finite world.” —David Suzuki, Dec. 20, 2010
“Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single ‘technology’ now available to the human race. But it is not appreciated widely enough that this would still be true even if there were no such thing as a population problem.” —James Grant, “The State of the World’s Children,” UNICEF, 1992
” … unless the runaway human population is brought under control—and soon—the result will be catastrophe. What kind of catastrophe cannot be predicted, but numerous candidates have been discussed in this book: ecological collapses of various kinds, large-scale crop failures due to ecological stress or changes in climate and leading to mass famine; severe resource shortages, which could lead either to crop failures or to social problems or both; epidemic diseases; wars over diminishing resources; perhaps even thermonuclear war.” —Paul Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, and John Holdren, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, 1977, p. 795—796
“It’s terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn’t even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable.” —Jacques-Yves Cousteau, interview with the Unesco Courier, Nov. 1991
“Interestingly enough, the country that is doing the most for the planet is China. People talk about the smoke and pollution from China, but they have limited their population in a way that no other country has or will, and that in itself will have an effect on not using up the Earth’s resources.” —Reverend David Lunan, Church of Scotland, The Scotsman, Oct. 21, 2014
“We still don’t understand why fertility has gone down so fast in so many societies, so many cultures and religions. It’s just mid-boggling.” —Hania Zlotnik, UN Population Division, 2011
” … demographic history suggests that, contrary to Malthus, constant geometric growth does not characterize human population history. Rather, at each stage a major improvement of economic and health conditions has produced a sudden increase in population, which gradually moderated as the major productive advance and concomitant health improvements were assimilated. Then, after the initial surge, the rate of growth slowed down until the next big surge. In this view, population growth represents economic success and human triumph, rather than social failure.” —Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource II, 1998, p. 315
“Climate-Change Activists Call for Tax Policies to Discourage Childbirth,” “Climate-change activists are mobilizing to cut the birthrate, arguing that richer nations should discourage people having children in order to protect them from the ravages of global warming and reduce emissions.” —The Washington Times, Aug. 19, 2016
“Environmentalists Giving Away Earth Day Condoms to Combat Overpopulation,” “We need people across the country to help distribute 44,000 Endangered Species Condoms in time for Earth Day. These colorful, fun condom packages feature six species threatened by our growing human population—already more than seven billion—along with talking points to help get the conversation started.” —The Center for Biological Diversity, The Daily Caller, Mar. 21, 2014.
“By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.” —Pete Gunter, The Living Wilderness, 1970
“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, 1968, p. 5
“We must have population control at home, hopefully through a system of incentives and penalties, but by compulsion if voluntary methods fail … The birth rate must be brought into balance with the death rate or mankind will breed itself into oblivion.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb, 1968, p.6
“I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible.” —Sir Jonathan Porritt, former advisor to Tony Blair, Newser, Feb. 2, 2009
“We’re too many people; that’s why we have global warming … on a voluntary basis, everybody in the world’s got to pledge to themselves that one child is it.” —Ted Turner, media mogul and father of five, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Apr. 3, 2008
“We must not put pressure on people, but by providing information on the population and the environments, and appropriate contraception for everyone … doctors should help bring family size into the arena of environmental ethics, analogous to avoiding patio heaters and high carbon cars.” —Dr. John Guillebaud and Dr. Pip Hayes, British Medical Journal, July 24, 2008
“I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate.” —Sir Jonathan Porritt, UK Chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, Daily Mail, Feb. 2, 2009
“Because Americans are high resource consumers in a country with a large, rapidly growing population base, the U.S. has a much bigger ‘per-person’ impact on global climate change than any other nation.” —Center for Environment and Population, website, 2008
“Under current conditions in the United States, for example, each child adds about 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average female, which is 5.7 times her lifetime emissions.” —Dr. Paul Murtaugh and Dr. Michael Schlax, Global Environmental Change, Feb. 2009
” … probably the single-most concrete and substantive thing an American, young American, could do to lower our carbon footprint is not turning off the lights or driving a Prius, it’s having fewer kids … we’ll soon see a market in baby-avoidance carbon credits similar to efforts to sell CO2 credits for avoiding deforestation … ” —Andy Revkin, journalist, CNS News, Oct. 19, 2009
“By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people … If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich, speech at the British Institute for Biology, Sep. 1971
“Although reducing human emissions to the atmosphere is undoubtedly of critical importance … the truth is that the contribution of each individual cannot be reduced to zero. Only the lack of the individual can bring it down to nothing.” —Dr. Chris Rapley, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, The Independent, Jan. 7, 2006
“The importance of the speed and magnitude of recent population growth in boosting future greenhouse gas emissions is well recognized among scientists…Each birth results not only in the emissions attributable to that person in his or her lifetime, but also the emissions of all his or her descendants. Hence, the emissions savings from intended or planned birth multiply with time … No human is genuinely ‘carbon neutral,’ especially when all greenhouse gases are figured into the equation. Therefore, everyone is part of the problem, so everyone must be part of the solution in some way.” —United Nations Population Fund, 2009
Polar Bears and Species Extinction
“Models that account for population dynamics indicate that some species population, such as those of polar bears, will decline precipitously over the course of the next century due to climate change.” —IPCC 4th Assessment Report, WG II, 2014, p. 301
“What the lasts report shows is that climate change is adversely impacting us now, wherever we live. It isn’t just the Arctic and the polar bear anymore. We are now the polar bear.” —Dr. Michael Mann, Pennsylvania State University, Apr. 14, 2014
“Climate Change is Causing Polar Bears to Eat Dolphins” —The Week, June 12, 2015
“As a result of climate change, sea ice is melting earlier and forming later each year, leaving polar bears less time to hunt. As their ice habitat shrinks, skinnier and hungrier bears face a grave challenge to their survival.” —World Wildlife Fund web site, 2016
“The researchers created a model that dictated global warming will cause extinctions. Surprise, surprise! When they ran the model, that’s exactly what they got.” —Ian Murray, Competitive Enterprise Institute website, Jan. 9, 2004
“Global warming isn’t a crisis that’s decades away. It’s here now. The sad truth is that polar bears are already starving as global warming melts the Arctic.” —Kassie Siegel, Director of the US Center for Biological Diversity, Telegraph, Dec. 9, 2010
“You now have polar bears coming into towns, getting into cabins, breaking property and just creating havoc for people up here.” —Gabriel Nirlungayuk, Director of Wildlife for Nunavut Tungavik Inc., Examiner.com, Jan. 8, 2010
“By working with Coca-Cola, we can raise the profile of polar bears and what they’re facing, and most importantly, engage people to work with us, to help protect their home.” —Carter Roberts, World Wildlife Fund CEO, website, 2011
Political Leaders
“We’ll take steps toward my goal of achieving 100-percent carbon pollution-free electric sector by 2035.” —US President Joe Biden, Jan. 27, 2021
“Our energy policy today includes bringing forward our target to have New Zealand 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2030.” —New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Sep. 11, 2020
“We believe that in 10 years’ time, offshore wind will be powering every home in the country.” —UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Oct. 6, 2020
“On electricity, we’re committed to phasing out coal-fired electricity by 2030 … and that we have a net-zero grid by 2035.” —Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Nov. 2, 2021
“Next-generation energy storage devices will help enhance the efficiency and reliability of our electric grid, reduce energy costs, and promote the adoption of renewable resources.” —US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Washington Examiner, May 22, 2019
“Basically, right now, wind energy, we are not getting the wind, some of the stuff is frozen, we’ve got ice on the propellers.” —Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, Feb. 16, 2021
“If anyone is wondering if climate change is real, come to California.” —California Governor Gavin Newsom, commenting on recent wildfires, Huffington Post, Apr. 12, 2019
“‘Gaps’ in Renewable Energy Led to Blackouts for Millions of Californians, Gov Newsom Says” —Daily Caller, Aug. 17, 2020
“Sixty percent of our emissions that need to be reduced come from you, the person across the street, the senior on fixed income, right? There is no bad guy left, at least in Massachusetts, to point the finger at, turn the screws on, and you know, break their will so they stop emitting. That’s you. We have to break your will.” —Massachusetts Undersecretary for Climate Change David Ismay, Boston Herald, Jan. 25, 2021
“Climate change, and especially rising seas, is a threat to our homeland security. … Along our coasts, thousands of miles of highways and roads, railways, energy facilities are all vulnerable. … A further increase in sea level of just one foot by the end of this century could cost our nation $200 billion.” —President Barack Obama, speech to the US Coast Guard Academy, May 20, 2015
“Sea Level Rise? President Obama Just Bought a Beachside Property” —WattsUpWithThat, Aug. 24, 2019
“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. … Because I’m capping greenhouse gases … they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.” —Presidential candidate Barack Obama, January 2008
“Glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate. Sea levels are rising three times faster than they did in the twentieth century. The kind of intense storms that used to happen only twice or three times in a millennium are now becoming almost normal.” —Secretary of State John Kerry, address to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, January 2017
” … climate change is occurring and humans play a contributing role … ” —New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, 2011
“Bill Gates Pushes Carbon Tax and Lectures on Energy Efficiency while Living in a 66,000 Square Foot Mansion with $30,000 a Month Electric Bills” —Climate Depot, Sep. 2, 2010
“How are more Americans with cancer in the national interest? … Children and families in the US have a right to know now before any decision to approve the Keystone tar sands pipeline is made how it would affect their health.” —Barbara Boxer, US Senator, February 27, 2014
“Scientists are saying this. Glaciers are falling down. Ecosystems are suffering. You can see the world’s climate change because of two factors: one) man-made pollution, and number two) a huge, huge reliance that the world has on petroleum and fossil fuels.” —Bill Richardson, New Mexico Governor, June 6, 2007
“There are real and growing dangers to our simple and most precious possessions: the air we breathe; the water we drink; and the land which sustains us. The rapid depletion of irreplaceable minerals, the erosion of topsoil, the destruction of beauty, the blight of pollution, the demands of increasing billions of people, all combine to create problems which are easy to observe and predict but difficult to resolve. If we do not act, the world of the year 2000 will be much less able to sustain life than it is now.” —Jimmy Carter, US President, Jan. 14, 1981
“How wise is it for the Republican Party to wed itself to the deniers and proclaim that climate change is a hoax? … When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama, and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, for billions of dollars to recover.” —Sheldon Whitehouse, US Senator, May 20, 2013
“Video Shows Hillary Clinton Boarding Private Jet Just Hours After Launching Global Warming Push—And She’s Using a French Aircraft that Burns 347 Gallons of Fuel Every Hour!” —DailyMail, Aug. 6, 2015
“Climate change is the world’s greatest environmental challenge. It is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialization and economic growth … is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable.” —Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister, Times Online, Jan. 30, 2006
” … the best projections tell us that we have less than 100 months to alter our behavior before we risk catastrophic climate change and the unimaginable horrors that this would bring.” —Charles, Prince of Wales, Associated Press, Mar. 12, 2009
“Global warming causes volatility. I feel it when I’m flying.” —Debbie Stabenow, US Senator, Detroit News, Aug. 8, 2009
“We called the Weather Bureau and found out what historically was the hottest day of the summer … So we scheduled the hearing that day, and bingo, it was the hottest day of record in Washington, or close to it … we went in the night before and opened all the windows … so that the air conditioning wasn’t working inside the room.” —Timothy Wirth, former US Senator, on preparations for the Senate 1988 hearings on climate change, interview with PBS Frontline, Apr. 24, 2007
“Climate alarmists believe in their own omnipotency, in knowing better than millions of rationally behaving men and women what is right or wrong, in the possibility to give adequate instructions to hundreds of millions of individuals and institutions and the resulting compliance or non-compliance of those who are supposed to follow these instructions.” —Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, Euromed, Mar. 17, 2008
“I am afraid there are people who want to stop the economic growth, the rise in the standard of living (though not their own) and the ability of man to use the expanding wealth, science and technology for solving the actual pressing problems of mankind, especially of the developing countries.” —Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, Euromed, Mar. 17, 2008
“Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It’s global warming. It’s ruining our country. It’s ruining our world.” —Harry Reid, US Senator, interview on Fox Business Network, June 30, 2008
“Nobody … likes talking about enforceable international protocols and yet unless there is a real change in attitude, we have to contemplate those very unwelcome possibilities if we want the global economy not to collapse and millions, billions, of people to die.” —Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, BBC Radio, Mar. 28, 2006
“Never waste a good crisis … Don’t waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security.” —Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, Reuters, Mar. 7, 2009
“Being often with many leading politicians, I feel frustrated that they do not listen. They already know. They fully subscribed to the idea that talking about ‘saving the planet’ is an effective way to show their ‘caring’ for humanity and that it is the easiest way to maximize votes irrespective of any relevant activity which would aim at the real needs of people. The global warming dogma has become a very easy form of escapism from the current reality.” —Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, speech to The Wall Street Journal ECO: nomics Conference, Mar. 6, 2009
“We have so much room for improvement. Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory … of how we are taking responsibility.” —Nancy Pelosi, US Representative, on climate change, Associated Press, May 27, 2009
“The American president [George W. Bush] closes his eyes to the economic and human damages that are inflicted on his country and the world economy by natural disasters, like Katrina, through neglected climate protection.” —Juergen Trittin, German Environmental Minister, Washington Post, Sep. 2, 2005
“We can’t tell an electorate … when you have something like in excess of 300 million people without any access to electricity at all that you have to put a cap on this.” —Ronen Sen, India ambassador to the US, AFP, Mar. 4, 2009
“Responding to the challenge of climate change is the ultimate political test for our generation … Our package not only responds to this challenge, but … is an opportunity that should create thousands of new businesses and millions of jobs in Europe.” —Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commission President, Europa, Jan. 23, 2008
“We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late … We can save our planet and also boost our economy at the same time.” —Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California, California press release, Sep. 27, 2006
“The transition to a low-carbon economy will be one of the defining issues of the 21st century. This plan sets out a route-map for the UK’s transition from here to 2020 … every business, every community will need to be involved. Together we can create a more secure, more prosperous low carbon Britain and a world which is sustainable for future generations.” —Ed Milliband, UK Secretary of State of Energy and Climate Change, “UK Low Carbon Transition Plan,” July 15, 2009
” … American leadership is essential to meeting the challenges of the 21st century, and chief among those is the complex, urgent, and global threat of climate change. From rapidly rising temperatures to melting arctic icecaps, from lower crop yields to dying forests, from unforgiving hurricanes to unrelenting droughts, we have no shortage of evidence that our world is facing a climate crisis … Under President Barack Obama, the U.S. will take the lead in addressing this challenge, both by making commitments of our own and engaging other nations to do the same.” —Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, press release, Jan. 26, 2009
“It’s a pity the US is still very much unwilling to join the international community, to have a multi-lateral effort to deal with climate change.” —Emily Ojoo Massawa, Kenya, Chair of the African Group of Nations, The Independent, Dec. 10, 2005
“Europe cannot solve this alone. We need stronger U.S. activity on the climate change issue if we are going to move forward. We are trying to do what we can to convince them to be more active on this.” —Anders Borg, Swedish Finance Minister, Boston.com, Oct. 2, 2009
“We acknowledge—now with President Obama—that we have made mistakes in the United States, and we along with other developed countries have contributed most significantly to the problem we face with climate change.” —Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, CNS News, July 20, 2009
“We think 65 billion dollars are needed to deal with the effects of climate change on a continental scale. That is to say that our expectations are very high.” —Salifou Sawadogo, Burkina Faso Environmental Minister on climate payments needed for Africa, AFP, Oct. 9, 2009
“Nothing in the Constitution of the United States gives the Congress or the Executive Branch the power to attempt the task of regulating climate, as impossible as that would be under any realistic scenarios. No national security emergency exists relative to climate that would warrant increased governmental control of energy production. Today’s Americans have an obligation to future Americans to elect leaders who do not believe in an omnipotent government but believe, as did the Founders, in limited government, and in the preservation of liberty and the natural rights of the people.” —Dr. Harrison Schmitt, former astronaut and US senator, foreword for The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania, 2012
“We’re all agreed that climate change is one of the greatest and most daunting challenges of our age. We have a moral imperative to act and act now.” —David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, April 8, 2010
“Few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear.” —Barack Obama, US President Elect, message for the Global Climate Summit, Nov. 17, 2008
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” —Barack Obama, presidential candidate, January 17, 2008
” … climate change is real and it is caused to a significant extent by human activity.” —Julia Gillard, Australian Prime Minister, CNN, July 23, 2010
” … climate change is accelerating. It threatens our well-being, our security, and our economic development. It will lead to uncontrollable risks and dramatic damage if we do not take resolute countermeasures.” —Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, UN Climate Change Summit, Sep. 22, 2009
“India was a late comer to industrialization, and as such, we have contributed very little to the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. But we are determined to be part of the solution to the problem.” —Mahoman Singh, India Prime Minister, speech at Council on Foreign Relations, Nov. 23, 2009
“We have pledged to be the greenest government ever. We must lead by example … We are not asking others to do things we will not do ourselves.” —Charles Hendry, UK Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, owner of a castle with 16 bathrooms, Daily Mail, Nov. 18, 2011
“Historically the Department of Education hasn’t been doing enough to drive the sustainability movement, and today, I promise that we will be a committed partner in the national effort to build a more environmentally literate and responsible society.” —Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education, CNSNews, Sep. 23, 2010
” … in just 25 years the glaciers in the Himalayas which provide water for three-quarters of a billion people could disappear entirely.” —Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister, speech at the Major Economies Forum, Oct. 2009
“With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.” —James Inhofe, US Senator, speech to the Senate, July 28, 2003
“So we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” —Dr. Steven Chu, prior to serving as US Energy Secretary, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 12, 2008
“I think we can say our energy system will be the most efficient and environmentally friendly in the world.” —Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, Bloomberg, Jan. 4, 2011
“All new schools … should be models for sustainable development: showing every child in the classroom and the playground how smart building and energy use can help tackle global warming … Sustainable development will not just be a subject in the classroom: it will be in its bricks and mortar and the way the school uses and even generates its own power.” —Tony Blair, former UK prime minister, Green Schools Initiative web site, 2004
” … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal … ” —Barack Obama, presidential candidate, speech in St. Paul Minnesota, June 3, 2008
“We are disillusioned. The current political system is broken … Essentially nothing has changed in 20 years. We are not remotely on a course to be sustainable.” —Dr. Robert Watson, UK Chief Environmental Advisor, former IPCC Chairman, The New York Times, Sep. 28, 2009
“Remedies” for Sustainability
“The Norwegian Military Is Fighting Climate Change with Meatless Mondays,” “We need to get our soldiers to understand why they should eat more environmentally friendly'” —The Atlantic, Nov. 21, 2013
“Buy locally grown food. It takes much less fuel to transport local foods to your farmers’ market or local store than to import food from other countries or states.” —101 Ways to Save the Planet by Deborah Underwood, 2012, p. 8
“Democracy is not a panacea. It cannot organize everything and it is unaware of its own limits. These facts must be faced squarely, sacrilegious though this may sound. In its present form, democracy is no longer well suited for the tasks ahead.” —The First Global Revolution, The Club of Rome, 1991, p. 7
“Barrington School Keeps Students—and Parents—In the Dark,” “The lights are off every Tuesday inside Grove Avenue Elementary School in Barrington, Illinois, thanks to the Green Tuesdays program. The school also asks its kindergarten-to-five students to wear an article of green clothing Tuesdays.” —The Barrington Hills Observer, Sep. 4, 2013
“California Targets Dairy Cows to Combat Global Warming” —California Air Resources Board, Fox News, Nov. 29, 2016
“Stern: Rich Nations Will Have to Forget about Growth to Stop Climate Change,” “At some point we would have to think about whether we want future growth.” —Lord Nicholas Stern, The Guardian, Sep. 11, 2009
“EU to Ban High-Energy Hair Dryers, Smartphones and Kettles” —The Telegraph, Aug. 28, 2014
“Germany Wants All Europe to Ban Non-Electric New Cars by 2030” —ItechPost, October 31, 2016
“James Cameron and Wife to Launch Campaign Advocating Sustainable Plant-Only Based Diet” —The Guardian, July 4, 2014
“EPA Wants to Monitor Your Hotel Showers,” “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to develop a wireless shower monitoring system that would measure the length of guests’ showers and water use … This device will be designed to fit most new and existing hotel shower fixtures and will wirelessly transmit hotel guest water usage data to a central hotel accounting system.” —The Daily Caller, Apr. 9, 2015
“In absolute terms, we may have to look at restricting the number of flights people take.” —Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of UK Committee on Climate Change, Belfast Telegraph, Feb. 7, 2009
“Whether you eat meat of not, you can be part of this decision to limit the meat industry destroying our planet’s resources.” —Stella McCartney, daughter of Paul McCartney, The Independent, June 15, 2009
” … if we all turned down the thermostat in our house by just one degree, we would save over £650 million worth of energy and nearly nine million tonnes of carbon emissions every year. That would be the equivalent of taking three million cars off our roads … we can bring about a Green Consumer Revolution in this country to improve our lives, enrich our economy and protect our environment.” —David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, speech on The Green Consumer Revolution, Oct. 16, 2009
“Eventually, we can get to a system where an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air conditioner won’t operate at its peak … ” —Carol Browner, former US Energy and Climate Change Advisor, US News, Mar. 9, 2009
“The evidence is in … UN report shows that animals raised for food generate more greenhouse gases than all cars and trucks combined.” —People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Aug. 29. 2007
“Meat production represents 18 percent of global human-induced GHG emissions … While the world is looking for sharp reductions in greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, growing global meat production is going to severely compromise future efforts … a study from the University of Chicago showed that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by 20 percent it would be as if they switched from a standard sedan to the ultra-efficient Prius.” —Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Science, Sep. 6, 2008
“The actions needed to develop a more sustainable food system in the NHS whilst maintaining nutritional value include … a reduction in the reliance on meat, dairy and eggs.” —British National Health Service, Jan. 2009
“I love eating meat, but I love our planet even more. So I will join this campaign and stop eating meat at least one day each week.” —Richard Branson, Support Meat-Free Monday web site
“The World Health Organization recently published some data showing that each overweight person causes and additional one tonne of CO2 to be emitted every year. With one billion people overweight around the world—of whom at least 300 million are obese—that’s an additional one billion tonnes.” —Sir Jonathan Porritt, Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, Telegraph, June 3, 2009
“We need a more authoritative world … What’s the alternative to democracy? There isn’t one. But even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.” —Dr. James Lovelock, Guardian, Mar. 29, 2010
“Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature. It is predicated on infinitely expanding markets, faster consumption and bigger production in a finite planet … You can either have capitalism or a habitable planet. One or the other, not both.” —Robert Newman, UK author, Guardian, Feb. 2, 2006
“Capitalism and the thirst for profit without limits of the capitalist system are destroying the planet … Climate change has placed all humankind before a great choice: to continue in the ways of capitalism and death, or to start down the path of harmony with nature and respect for life.” —Evo Morales, President of Bolivia, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Nov. 28, 2008
“If we don’t overthrow capitalism, we don’t have a chance of saving the world ecologically.” —Judi Bari, environmental group Earth First
“A massive campaign must be launched to de-develop the United States. De-development means bringing our economic system into line with the realities of ecology and the world resource situation.” —Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, and Dr. John Holdren, Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, 1970, p. 323
“We must make this an insecure and inhospitable place for capitalists and their projects. We must reclaim the roads and plowed land, halt dam constructions, tear down existing dams, free shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of acres of previously settled land.” —David Foreman, Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkey Wrenching, 1987
“The Second World War and the concept of rationing is something we need to seriously consider if we are to address the scale of the problem we face.” —Dr. Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Telegraph, Nov. 29, 2010
“What we are beginning to witness is a whole new set of rules for economics, based on rationing resources.” —John Prescott, former UK Deputy Prime Minister, Guardian, Aug. 8, 2009
“The reduction of methane emissions through the management, in a humane manner, of feral goats, feral deer, feral pigs, or feral camels.” —The Australian Carbon Farming Initiative Act, authorizing the killing of animals for carbon credits, Dec. 8, 2011
“It is such a shame that, considering the fanfare, it emerges that this facility cannot be used by the children all year round.” —Gail Engerts, Councillor, regarding the Muswell Living Ark solar classroom that was too cold for students to use, Daily Mail, Feb. 24, 2011
“It was pretty disgusting. The girls had to step over a river of urine. I could smell it as soon as I walked into the hallway.” —Frank Barbieri, school board member, regarding the failed waterless urinals at Spanish River High in Boca Raton, Daily Mail, Jan. 30, 2012
“I’ve never worked in such cold. I’m all for saving the planet, but this was barbaric.” —Teacher at Ansford Academy in England, after heat was turned off during December “eco-day,” The Blaze, Dec. 7, 2011
Resource Depletion
“It’s pretty obvious that Western lifestyles, which rely on gigantic amounts of electricity, use up far more resources than a subsistence-based life. A little more poverty would be a good thing.” —Author Tom Hodgkinson, The Guardian, Nov. 10, 2009
” … US oil supplies to last only 13 years.” —US Department of the Interior, 1939
“If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.” —Limits to Growth, 1972, p. 23
“As to how much time we have left with business as usual, no one knows for sure. We are handicapped by the difficulty of grasping the dynamics of exponential growth in a finite environment—namely the earth. For me, thinking about this is aided by a riddle the French use to teach schoolchildren exponential growth. A lily pond has one leaf in it the first day, two the second day, four the third, and the number of leaves continues to double each day. If the pond fills on the thirtieth day, when is it half full? The twenty-ninth day. Unfortunately for our overcrowded planet, we may now be beyond the thirtieth day.” —Lester Brown, World on the Edge, p. x
“We live in a world of finite resources. Although it may sometimes seem quite big, Earth is really very small—a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe.” —David Suzuki, 2004
“We Americans think we are pretty good! We want to build a house, we cut down some trees. We want to build a fire, we dig a little coal. But when we run out of these things, then we will find out just how good we really are.” —Will Rodgers, American cowboy and entertainer, early 1900s
“It is a stark and arresting fact that, since the middle of the 20th century, humankind has consumed more natural resources than in all previous human history.” —Margaret Beckett, UK Environment Secretary, 2003
“We have created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks—water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land—and not by generating renewable flows.” —Joseph Romm, The New York Times, Mar. 7, 2009
“We face today a problem which no previous generation has had to face. In 1982, nations have two choices: to carry on as they are and face, by the turn of the century, an environmental catastrophe which will witness devastation as complete and as irreversible as any nuclear holocaust, or to begin now in earnest a cooperative effort to use the world’s resources rationally and fairly.” —Mostafa Tolba, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, May 3, 1982
” … in the very long run there is simply no statistical evidence that relative commodity prices have ever trended upwards.” —David Harvey, University of Nottingham, May, 2010
“In the short run, all resources are limited … The longer run, however, is a different story … Greater consumption due to an increase in population and growth of income heightens scarcity and induces price run-ups. A higher price represents an opportunity that leads investors and business people to seek new ways to satisfy the shortages. Some fail, at cost to themselves. A few succeed, and the final result is that we end up better off than if the original shortage problems had never arisen.” —Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource II, 1996, p. 12
“World consumption of oil is still going up. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970s and 1980s, by five percent a year as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.” —Jimmy Carter, US President, Apr. 18, 1977
“We’ve embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil.” —Mike Bowlin, CEO of Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), Feb. 9, 1999
“We Were Wrong on Peak Oil. There’s Enough to Fry Us all.” “The automatic correction—resource depletion destroying the machine that was driving it—that many environmentalists foresaw is not going to happen. The problem is not that there is too little oil, but that there is too much.” —George Monbiot, The Guardian, July 2, 2012
” … world oil production has peaked in 2006 … The world is at the beginning of a structural change of its economic system. This change will be triggered by declining fossil fuel supplies and will influence almost all aspects of our daily life.” —Dr. Werner Zittel, Energy Watch Group, Oct. 2007
“Although it is impossible to predict the future, extrapolating present trends … leads to ‘The Perfect Storm’ sometime in the next decade. At the tipping point, oil prices exceed the pain tolerance of a sufficient number of global consumers, causing economies to roll over into severe recession.” —Dave Cohen, Association for the Study of Peak Oil website, Oct. 31, 2007
” … the amazing exhibition of oil which has characterized the last twenty years and will probably characterize the next ten or twenty years, is nevertheless, not only geologically but historically, a temporary and vanishing phenomenon … ” —J.P Lesley, State Geologist of Pennsylvania (1886), quoted in Standard Oil Company (Indiana): Oil Pioneer of the Middle West by Paul Giddens, 1955, p.2
“It is unsafe to rest in the assurance that plenty of petroleum will be found in the future merely because it has been in the past.” —L. Schneider and B. Brooks, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 1936, quoted in Edward Porter, “Are We Running Out of Oil,” American Petroleum Institute discussion paper #81, Dec. 1995
“Natural gas is an ideal fuel, but one that is in short supply … If consumption of natural gas continues at the present rate and exploration does not pick up, the United States may burn its last molecule of domestic natural gas within 20 years.” —Allen Hammond, Energy and the Future, 1973, p. vi
“Prominent exploration experts have recently predicted that total world production of liquid oil will peak by about the end of this decade—or a few years later if production does not rise much—and will decline thereafter.” —Amory Levins, World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues, and Options, 1975, p. 26
“Oil production should peak out around the world in the early 1990s … That means in five years’ time we may have chewed up most of the possibility of further expansion of oil production.” —James Schlesinger, former US Energy Secretary, Time Magazine, Apr. 25, 1977
“Gas lines and rapid increases in oil prices during the first half of 1979 are but symptoms of the underlying oil supply problem—that is, the world can no longer count on increases in oil production to meet its energy needs.” —US Central Intelligence Agency, “The World Oil Market in the Years Ahead,” Aug. 1979
“We are in a second world oil crisis. But in the 1970s the problem was a shortage of oil. This time around the problem is that we have too much.” —Greenpeace, 2000, quoted by Bjorn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist, 2001, p. 258
“The real problem is that there may be too much fossil fuel, not too little.” —Dr. Dieter Helm, Guardian, Oct. 18, 2011
“We are not running out of oil and gas. We are running into oil and gas. Predictions of peak oil and gas are not only being made for the wrong year and decade, but also for the wrong century.” —Dr. Robert Bradley, Institute for Energy Research web site, July 7, 2011
“Science is Settled” and Deniers
” … the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for influential GW deniers.” —Dr. Richard Parncutt, University of Graz, Oct. 25, 2012
“CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature.” —Dr. James Hansen, address to the National Press Club, June 23, 2008
” … the debate among the scientists if over. There is no more debate. We face a planetary emergency. There is no more scientific debate among serious people who’ve looked at the science … Well, I guess in some quarters, there’s still a debate over whether the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona, or whether the Earth is flat instead of round.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, CBS Early Show, May 31, 2006
“If you look at all the serious scientists in the world, there is no big disagreement on the basics of this … it would be absolute lunacy to act as if climate change is not occurring.” —Lord Nicholas Stern, The Guardian, Mar. 10, 2009
“The misconception that there is serious disagreement among scientists about global warming is actually an illusion that has been deliberately fostered by a relatively small but extremely well-funded cadre of special interests, including Exxon Mobil and a few other oil, coal, and utilities companies. These companies want to prevent any new policies that would interfere with their current business plans that rely on the massive unrestrained dumping of global warming pollution into the Earth’s atmosphere every hour of every day.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, 2006, p. 264
“The diagnosis is clear, the science in unequivocal—it’s completely immoral, even, to question now, on the basis of what we know, the reports that are out, to question the issue and to question whether we need to move forward at a much stronger pace as humankind to address the issues.” —Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, on climate change, UPI, May 10, 2007
“When we’ve finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we’re in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards—some sort of climate Nuremberg.” —David Roberts, Grist, Sep. 19, 2006
“I wonder what sentences judges might hand down at future international criminal tribunals on those who will be partially but directly responsible for millions of deaths from starvation, famine, and disease in the decades ahead.” —Mark Lynas, UK journalist, Christian Science Monitor, July 10, 2009
” … every time someone dies as a result of floods in Bangladesh, an airline executive should be dragged out of his office and drowned.” —George Monbiot, UK journalist, Guardian, Dec. 5, 2006
“We can no longer tolerate what’s going on in Ottawa and Edmonton. What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act.” —Dr. David Suzuki, address to the McGill Business Conference on Sustainability, Feb. 2008
“Since I started writing essays challenging the global warming consensus, and seeking to put forward critical alternative arguments, I have felt almost witch-hunted. There has been a hysterical reaction. One individual, who was once on the board of the Sierra Club, has suggested I should be criminally prosecuted … There was a shocking intensity to their self-righteous fury, as if I had transgressed a moral as well as an intellectual boundary and committed blasphemy. I sometimes think to myself, ‘Boy, I’m glad I didn’t live in the 1450’s, because I would be out in the main square with a pile of wood around my ankles.'” —Alexander Cockburn, American journalist, Jan. 25, 2008
“Disinformation about the state of climate change science is extraordinarily if not criminally irresponsible … ” —Dr. Donald Brown web site, Oct. 24, 2010
“There is, even today, a Flat Earth Society that meets every year to say the Earth is flat. The science about climate change is very clear. There really is no room for doubt at this point.” —Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, Chicago Tribune, Aug. 3, 2008
“The science behind climate change is settled, and human activity is responsible for global warming.” —Lisa Jackson, US Environmental Protection Agency, The New York Times, Feb. 23, 2010
“Despite the international scientific community’s consensus on climate change, a small number of critics continue to deny that climate change exists or that humans are causing it. Widely known as climate change “skeptics” or “deniers,” these individuals are generally not climate scientists and do not debate the science with the climate scientists … ” —Dr. David Suzuki Foundation website, 2012
“Since the late 1980s, this well-coordinated, well-funded campaign by contrarian scientists, free-market think tanks and industry has created a paralyzing fog of doubt around climate change. Through advertisements, opeds, lobbying, and media attention, greenhouse doubters (they hate being called deniers) argued first that the world is not warming, measurements indicating otherwise are flawed, they said. Then they claimed that any warming is natural, not caused by human activities. Now they contend that the looming warming will be miniscule and harmless. ‘They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry,’ says former senator Tim Wirth, who spearheaded environmental issues as an undersecretary of state in the Clinton administration. ‘Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That’s had a huge impact on both the public and Congress.'” —Sharon Begley, Newsweek, Aug. 12, 2007
“If you’re one of those who have spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions, and cattle-prodding democratically elected governments into submission, then hear this: We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.” —Gene Ananth, Greenpeace web site, Apr. 1, 2010
“We know who the active denialists are—not the people who buy the lies, mind you, but the people who create the lies. Let’s start keeping track of them now, and when the famines come, let’s make them pay. Let’s let their houses burn until the innocent are rescued. Let’s swap their safe land for submerged islands. Let’s force them to bear the cost of rising food prices. They broke the climate. Why should the rest of us have to pay for it?” —Steve Zwick, Forbes, Apr. 19, 2012
“Sheldon Whitehouse Calls for News Outlets to Suppress ‘Extreme’ Op-Eds by Climate Skeptics,” “Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wants newspapers to stop publishing extreme and phony op-eds written by climate-change skeptics, blasting such articles an industry propaganda” —The Washington Times, July 14, 2016
Scientific Organizations and Funding
“Previously published research shows that a dangerous level of global warming will occur if carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeds a concentration of about 450 parts per million. That’s equivalent to about a 61-percent increase from the pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million … ” —NASA, Oct. 24, 2008
“Does Climate Change Impact National Security? ASU Gets $20M to Find Out,” “The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) has awarded Arizona State University a five-year, $20 million agreement to research the effects of climate change and its propensity to cause civil and political unrest.” —The Republic, July 3, 2014
” … at the heart of the IPCC is a cadre of scientists whose careers have been made by the IPCC. These scientists have used the IPCC to jump the normal meritocracy process by which scientists achieve influence over the politics of science and policy. Not only has this brought some relatively unknown, inexperienced and possibly dubious people into positions of influence, but these people become vested in protecting the IPCC, which has become central to their own career and legitimizes playing power politics with their expertise.” —Dr. Judith Curry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Aug. 20, 2013
“It is no secret that a lot of climate-change research is subject to opinion, that climate models sometimes disagree … The problem is, only sensational exaggeration makes the kind of story that will get politicians’—and readers’—attention. So, yes, climate scientists might exaggerate, but in today’s world, this is the only way to assure any political action and thus more federal financing to reduce the scientific uncertainty.” —Dr. Monika Kopacz, The New York Times, Apr. 12, 2009
“Man-made global warming was a potential serious threat, and NASA wanted Congress to fund new satellites to study the problem. It was a team effort to get that accomplished.” —Dr. Roy Spencer, website, Jan. 29, 2009
“The evidence is incontrovertible. Global warming is occurring.” —American Physical Society website, 2011
” … human activity is the primary driver of recent warming.” —National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website, 2011
“The current warming trend … is very likely human induced … ” —National Aeronautic and Space Administration website, 2011
” … emissions of CO2 must be reduced by more than 50 percent … ” —American Geophysical Union website, 2011
” … human activities are a major contributor to climate change … ” —American Meteorological Society website, 2011
” … need for substantial action to limit the magnitude of climate change … ” —National Academy of Sciences website, 2011
” … evidence that the warming…has been caused largely by human activity … ” —Royal Society (UK), “A Summary of the Science,” Sep. 2010
“Climate change is now one of the major hurdles facing the global community … ” —Royal Meteorological Society (UK) website, 2011
“Human activity is most likely responsible for climate warming.” —European Academy of Sciences and Arts, “Let’s Be Honest,” Mar. 3, 2007
“Human activities must … significantly reduce emissions starting immediately.” —Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, letter to the Canadian Parliament, Nov. 26, 2009
“EPA Awards $17 Million to Support Research on the Impact of Climate Change,” “Twenty-five universities to explore public health and environmental facets of climate change.” —Environmental Protection Agency News Release, Feb. 17, 2010
“Construction Begins on $100 Million Climate Supercomputer in Wyoming,” “About $20 million will come from the Wyoming state government. Other funding is coming through the National Science Foundation.” —USA Today, June 15, 2010
“MSU, Partners Bring Climate Change Curricula to High Schools,” “Part of the $2.5 million National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12 project. Mississippi State University to create better ways to teach climate change.” —Mississippi State University press release, Feb. 1, 2011
“All modeling efforts will inevitably converge on the result most likely to lead to further funding.” —Charlie Martin, PJMedia, Aug. 30, 2011
“Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields … Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity … The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present—and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” —Dwight Eisenhower, US president, farewell address to the nation, Jan. 17, 1961
“UI Gets Grant to Study Climate Change,” “The University of Idaho announced the largest single grant in its history Friday, a $20 million award to study and plan for how climate change will affect cereal grain production in the Pacific Northwest.” —The Lewiston Morning Tribune, Feb. 19, 2011
“Granthams to Fund Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London,” “Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham are donating GBP 12 million to establish the Grantham Institute for Climate Change based at Imperial College London … ” —London Imperial College news release, Feb. 26, 2007
“Access to supercomputers. The science is well ahead of our ability to implement it. It’s quite clear that if we could run our models at a higher resolution we could do a much better job—tomorrow—in terms of our seasonal and decadal predictions. It’s so frustrating. We keep saying we need four times the computing power. We’re talking just 10 or 20 million a year—dollars or pounds—which is tiny compared to the damage done by disasters. Yet it’s a difficult argument to win.” —Dr. Julia Slingo, chief scientist UK Meteorological Office, Nature, Dec. 30, 2010
“Purdue Wins $5M Global Warming Crop-Research Grant,” “Purdue University scientists have won a $5 million federal grant to help corn and soybean farmers adapt to the various climate change scenarios global warming is forecast to bring in the coming decades.” —Associated Press, June 29, 2011
“I am very disappointed at the downward path the AMS has been following for the last 10-15 years in its advocacy of the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) hypothesis. The society has officially taken a position many of us AMS members do not agree with … Instead of organizing meetings with free and open debates on the basic physics and the likelihood of AGW induced climate changes, the leaders of the society … have chosen to fully trust the climate models and deliberately avoid open debate and discussion … My interaction (over the years) with a broad segment of AMS members … have indicated that a majority of them do not agree that humans are the primary cause of global warming.” —Dr. William Gray on the American Meteorological Society position on global warming, WattsUpWithThat, Jun. 16, 2011
“University of Florida-led Teams Awarded $6.9 Million for Climate Change Projects” —University of Florida News, June 30, 2011
“When I joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood … the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence … How different it is now…the money flood has become the raison d’etre of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs … It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist.” —Dr. Harold Lewis, resignation letter from the American Physical Society, October 6, 2010
“In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible? The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ≈288.0 to ≈288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in the ‘warming’ period.” —Dr. Ivar Giaever on the American Physical Society and global warming, Global Warming Policy Foundation web site, Sep. 14, 2011
Solar Effects
“The scientific results … indicate that the varying activity of the Sun is indeed the largest and most systematic contributor to natural climate variations.” —Danish National Space Center website, 2009
“Sunspots and cosmic rays have a 79 percent correlation with our thermometer record since 1860. Meanwhile the CO2 correlation is a mere 22 percent.” —Dennis Avery, Environmental Views, April 19, 2009
“The correlation of the solar indices and modeled solar irradiance with the Earth’s temperature are significant at better than 99% confidence level.” —Dr. Douglas Hoyt and Dr. Kenneth Schatten, Journal of Geophysical Research, Nov. 1, 1993
“The theory describes mathematically the early growth of sulphuric acid droplets in the atmosphere. These are the building blocks for the cloud condensation nuclei on which water vapor condenses to make clouds.” —Danish National Space Institute, web site, “The SKY Experiment,” 2011
“We’ve found that cosmic rays significantly enhance the formation of aerosol particles in the mid-troposphere and above.” —Dr. Jasper Kirkby, CERN press release, Aug. 25, 2011
Sustainable Development
“How Affluent People Can End Their Mindless Overconsumption,” “Every energy reduction we can make is a gift to future humans, and all life of Earth.” —Vox, Nov. 20, 2020
“The future is green energy, sustainability, renewable energy.“ —Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor, political leader, interview with BBC News, 2012
” … because the resources that we all depend upon—fresh water, thriving oceans, arable land, a stable climate—are under increasing pressure. And that is why in the twenty-first century, the only viable development is sustainable development.” —Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, June 22, 2012
” … meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” —Definition of sustainable development, Our Common Future, Brundtland Commission, 1987
“Many present efforts to guard and maintain human progress, to meet human needs, and to realize human ambitions are simply unsustainable—in both the rich and poor nations. They draw too heavily, too quickly, on already overdrawn environmental resource accounts to be affordable far into the future without bankrupting those accounts. They may show profit on the balance sheets of our generation, but our children will inherit the losses.” —Our Common Future, Brundtland Commission, 1987
” … the major cause of continued deterioration of the global environment is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production, particularly in industrialized countries … Developing countries should seek to achieve sustainable consumption patterns in their development process, guaranteeing the provision of the basic needs of the poor, while avoiding those unsustainable patterns, particularly in industrialized countries, generally recognized as unduly hazardous to the environment, inefficient and wasteful, in their development processes.” —Agenda 21, United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992
“Central to the issues we are going to have to deal with are: patterns of production and consumption in the industrial world that are undermining the Earth’s life-support systems; the explosive increase in population, largely in the developing world, that is adding a quarter of a million people daily; deepening disparities between rich and poor that leave 75 per cent of humanity struggling to live; and an economic system that takes no account of ecological costs or damage—one which views unfettered growth as progress. We have been the most successful species ever; we are now a species out of control. Our very success is leading us to a dangerous future.” —Maurice Strong, United Nations Conference on Environment & Development, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 3, 1992
“We need to change the value sets. For instance, currently a reduction in GDP is seen as a sign of government failure. In the future, reduction in GDP, while improving quality of life, could be seen as a success.” —Vision 2050, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Feb. 2010
“I think the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that our present civilization on Earth will survive to the end of the present century.” —Sir Martin Rees, University of Cambridge, 2003
“The near-universal failure to make the connection between energy-intensive lifestyles and ecological disaster is a disturbing illustration of collective amnesia. As a consequence, an increasing majority of the population is inadvertently complicit in a process that is already reducing the quality of life of literally billions of people, and which will almost certainly cause the deaths for millions in the near and longer-term future.” —Mayer Hillman, Policy Studies Institute, Sep. 19, 2005
“Humanity’s collective demands have exceeded the Earth’s regenerative capacity by 26 percent. It is fearful that there are still large numbers of people dreaming the ‘American Dream,’ hoping to consume like the Americans.” —Lester Brown, People’s Daily Online interview, Sep. 8, 2005
Temperature and the Hockey Stick Curve
“Based on current model results, we predict … under the IPCC Business-as-Usual emissions of greenhouse gases, a rate of increase of global mean temperature during the next century of about 0.3oC per decade (with an uncertainty range of 0.2oC to 0.5oC per decade).” —Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, First Assessment Report, August, 1990
“We know temperature goes up and down, we know there is tremendous amount of natural variation, but for how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand, we politicians and scientists and so on, that the planet is not warming? For how many years must the cooling go on?” —Dr. David, Gee, geologist, at the 2008 International Geological Congress
“The ten hottest years in the atmospheric record, going back only 160 years, have been in the last eleven years.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, address to the American Association for Advancement of Science, Feb. 14, 2009
“The Earth is warming but physical evidence from around the world tells us that human-emitted carbon dioxide has played only a minor role in it. Instead, the mild warming seems to be part of a natural 1,500-year climate cycle (plus or minus 500 years) that goes back at least one million years.” —Dr. S. Fred Singer and Dennis Avery, Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, 2007, p. 239
” … it is quite obvious that the temperature change during the last 100 years or so includes significant natural changes, both the linear change and fluctuations. It is very puzzling that the IPCC reports state that it is mostly due to the greenhouse effect.” —Dr. Syun-Ichi Akasofu, paper for the International Arctic Research Center, March, 2007
“I received an astonishing email from a major researcher in the area of climate change. He said, ‘We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period! … In 1999, Michael Mann and his colleagues published a reconstruction of past temperatures in which the MWP simply vanished … ” —Dr. David Deming, testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Dec. 6, 2006
“The data set of proxies of past climate used in Mann … for the estimation of temperature from 1400 to 1980 contains collation errors, unjustifiable truncation or extrapolation of source data, obsolete data, geographical location errors, incorrect calculation of principal components and other quality control defects.” —Stephen McIntyre and Dr. Ross McKitrick on the Mann Hockey-Stick Curve, Energy & Environment, 2003
” … that the decade of the 1990’s was likely the hottest decade of the millennium and that 1998 was likely the hottest year of the millennium cannot be supported by their analysis.” —Dr. Edward Wegman commenting on Mann et al., testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, July 29, 2006
“And then you see right away it may well happen that you enter a decade or maybe even two, when the temperature cools relative to the present level … I’m definitely not one of the skeptics … However, we have to ask the nasty questions ourselves, or some other people will do it.” —Dr. Mojib Latif on the recent global cooling, Deep Climate, Oct. 2, 2009
“If we cut emissions today, global temperatures are not likely to drop for about a thousand years.” —Dr. Tim Flannery, The Washington Examiner, Mar. 26, 2011
“When we consider the fate of the planet as a whole, we must be under no illusions as to what is at stake. Earth’s average temperature is around 59°F, and whether we allow it to rise by a single degree or 5°F will decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of species, and most probably billions of people.” —Dr. Tim Flannery, The Weathermakers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, 2001, p. 17
“There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a dramatic decline in food production … after three quarters of a century of extraordinarily mild conditions, the earth’s climate appears to be cooling down.” —”The Cooling World,” Newsweek, Apr. 28, 1979
” … the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born.” —Newsweek, Jan. 26, 1970
“New Ice Age—It’s Already Getting Colder,” “Some midsummer day, perhaps not too far in the future, a hard, killing frost will sweep down on the wheat fields of Saskatchewan, the Dakotas and the Russian steppes … ” —Los Angeles Times, Oct. 24, 1971
“A recent flurry of papers has provided further evidence for the belief that the Earth is cooling. There now seems little doubt that changes over the past few years are more than a minor statistical fluctuation.” —Nature, Mar. 6, 1975
“The existence of the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period were an embarrassment to the global-warming establishment, because they showed that the current warming is almost indistinguishable from previous warming and coolings that had nothing to do with burning fossil fuel. The organization charged with producing scientific support for the climate change crusade, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), finally found a solution. They rewrote the climate history of the past 1000 years with the celebrated ‘hockey stick’ temperature record.” —Dr. William Happer, First Things, May 21, 2011
“Few scientists now dispute that today’s soaring levels of carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere will cause global temperature averages to rise by as much as nine degrees Fahrenheit sometime after the year 2000.” —Dr. Carl Sagan, The Vindicator, Dec. 12, 1985
“It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth. A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate.” —Dr. Bjarne Andresen, Science Daily, Mar. 18, 2007
“We have discovered that the warming in New Zealand over the past 156 years was indeed man-made, but it had nothing to do with emissions of CO2—it was created by man-made adjustments of the temperature.” —New Zealand Climate Science Coalition web site, Nov. 25, 2009
” … the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia apparently cherry-picked Russian climate data.” —Andrei Illarionov, President of the Moscow Institute of Economic Analysis, Dec. 17, 2009
“These factors all lead to significant uncertainty and a tendency for overestimation of century-scale temperature trends. A conclusion from all findings suggest that global data bases are seriously flawed and can no longer be trusted to assess climate trends or rankings or validate model forecasts. And consequently, such surface data should be ignored for decision making.” —Anthony Watts and Dr. Joseph D’Aleo, Science and Public Policy Institute, Aug. 27, 2010
Transportation
“France Moves to Ban Short-Haul Domestic Flights” —BBC News, Apr. 12, 2021
“Dutch Airline KLM Calls for People to Fly Less” —The Guardian, July 11, 2019
“These Hybrid Airships Are the Low-Carbon Future of Air Travel” —Euronews.Green, Sep. 15, 2021
“By no later than 2020, at least half of all energy that the navy uses, both afloat and ashore, will come from non-fossil fuel sources.” —US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, 2011
“California’s High-Speed Rail Cost Rises to $105B, More Than Double Original Price” —Construction Dive, February 15, 2022
“BC Transit’s $90M Hydrogen Bus Fleet to Be Sold Off, Coverted to Diesel” —CBC News, Dec. 4, 2014
“United continues to lead from the front when it comes to climate change action, said United CEO Scott Kirby. “Today’s SAF flight is not only a significant milestone for efforts to decarbonize our industry, but when combined with the surge in commitments to produce and purchase alternative fuels, we’re demonstrating the scalable and impactful way companies can join together and play a role in addressing the biggest challenge of our lifetimes.” —PR Newswire, Dec. 1, 2021
“The easiest and cheapest way to reduce emissions is to reduce ship speed.” —International Maritime Organization, 2021
“Climate Change: Speed Limits for Ships Can Have ‘Massive’ Benefits” —BBC, Nov. 11, 2019
“California Governor Newsom Executive Order Bans Gas, Diesel Cars by 2035” —Fox News, Sep. 22, 2020
“Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Completes Three-Week Catamaran Voyage Across Atlantic” —Salon, Dec. 6, 2019
“California Looks to Ban Diesel Trucks at Ports by 2035” —The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 20, 2022
“BC Transit’s $90M Hydrogen Bus Fleet to Be Sold Off, Converted to Diesel” —CBC News, Dec. 4, 2014
“Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” —Dr. Dionysys Lander, University College of London, 1800
“The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad.” —President, Michigan Savings Bank, 1903
United Nations
“UN Environmental Chief Resigns Amid ‘CO2 Hypocrisy,” “A draft internal UN audit … found Solheim had spent almost $500,000 on air travel and hotels in just 22 months, and was away 80% of the time.” —The Guardian, Nov. 21., 2018
“In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” —United Nations, Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992
“As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: ‘With all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas,’ or, ‘They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them.'” —U Thant, United Nations Secretary General, 1970
“The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, that promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimensions of sustainable development within the United Nations system and that serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.” —UNEP web site, 2016
” … to achieve … stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” —United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, 1992
“To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate policies, including population-related policies, in order to meet the need of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” —United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, 1994
“These Western lifestyles of consumerism are spreading all around the world through products and services, media and trade policies. Western type restaurants and coffee shops are as common on the streets of Beijing, as international brands of clothing and other products—Goods and services previously seen as luxuries—TVs, mobile phones and cars—have now become necessities…However, the price is paid in the form of degradation of many ecosystem services and the exacerbation of inequities and disparities between people.” —United Nations Environmental Programme website, 2010
” … the Kyoto Protocol … the first component of an authentic global governance … ” —Jacques Chirac, President of France, speech to the Sixth Conference of the Parties, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Nov. 20, 2000
“Climate change … is the fundamental threat to humankind … If we fail to act, climate change will intensify droughts, floods and other natural disasters. Water shortages will affect hundreds of millions of people. Malnutrition will engulf large parts of the developing world. Tensions will worsen. Social unrest—even violence—could follow. The damage to national economies will be enormous. The human suffering will be incalculable … We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet.” —Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, prior to the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen, UN News Centre, Aug. 11, 2009
” … adopt national policies and take corresponding measures on the mitigation of climate change, by limiting … emissions of greenhouse gases.” —Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed by 41 nations and the European Community at the Rio Earth Summit, 1992
“Climate change is also showing us that the old model is more than obsolete. It has rendered it extremely dangerous. Over time, that model is a recipe for national disaster. It is a global suicide pact … it may sound strange to speak of revolution. But that is what we need at this time.” —Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General, speech at the World Economic Forum, Jan. 28, 2011
“The concept of national sovereignty has been an immutable, indeed sacred, principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. It is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation states, however powerful. The global community must be assured of environmental security.” —Maurice Strong, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, 1992 Earth Summit
“Asia-Pacific countries must undergo structural adjustment to make key policy changes needed to switch their development mode … Most member countries have followed the industrial model of developed countries, which is the root cause of climate change. This traditional industrial development model results in an unsustainable energy consumption pattern.” —United Nations report, December 2010
“Fifty Million Climate Refugees by 2010” —United Nations Environment Programme web site, 2005 (now erased from site)
Weather, Droughts, Floods, & Fires
“As CO2 levels rise, temperatures rise. The result: as the world gets warmer, the climate changes. An extreme weather events become more common.” —Dr. David Suzuki, YouTube, Jan. 31, 2014
“California’s New Normal: How the Climate Crisis is Fueling Wildfires and Changing Life in the Golden State” —CNN, Oct. 30, 2019
“Why the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season Has Spun Out of Control” —The Washington Post, Sep. 24, 2020
“The $5 billion ski industry is in jeopardy as a result of ‘low-snow’ winters and shorter seasons,” —County of Boulder, Colorado v. Oil Companies, Apr. 17, 2018
“Now, it’s difficult to attribute a particular event to climate change, but it’s the frequency, and therefore the patterns, of weather that we’re actually seeing … we have an expectation that things are actually going to get worse, in terms of the frequency of these extreme events.” —Sir John Beddington, Apr. 1, 2014
“But a growing body of evidence suggests that the kind of extreme cold being experienced by much of the United States as we speak is a pattern that we can expect to see with increasing frequency as global warming continues.” —Dr. John Holdren, Chief Science Officer of the United States, commenting on the “polar vortex,” Jan. 8, 2014
“The failure of the public to get unduly alarmed over a degree or two of warming has led the environmental alarmists to turn to the bogey man of extreme weather.” —Dr. Richard Lindzen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Climate Change: The Facts edited by Alan Moran, 2015, p. 52
“Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.” —Mark Twain, US author
“Trend analyses for extreme tropical cyclones are unreliable because of operational changes that have artificially resulted in more intense tropical cyclones being recorded, casting severe doubts on any such trend linkages to global warming.” —Dr. Christopher Landsea et al., Science, July 28, 2006
“To my knowledge, not a single scientist at the Hurricane Research Division, the National Hurricane Center, or the Joint Typhoon Warning Center believes … that there is any measurable impact on hurricane numbers or activity from global warming.” —Dr. Stanley Goldenberg, presentation at the International Conference on Climate Change, Mar. 9, 2009
“You’d see more floods like you’ve seen in Mozambique in 2000, you’d see more droughts like you saw in Kenya in the late 1990s, there would be a serious threat to the water flow down the Nile on which 10 countries depend.” —Lord Nicholas Stern, Independent Online, Apr. 10, 2007
” … 2009 saw the eighth ‘ten-year flood’ of Fargo, North Dakota, since 1989. In Iowa, Cedar Rapids was hit last year by a flood that exceeded the 500-year flood plain. All-time flood records are being broken in areas throughout the world.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, testimony before the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House of Representatives, Apr. 24, 2009
“As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming.” —Al Gore, former US Vice President, Al Journal, Feb. 1, 2011
“What’s disconcerting about this record is that it suggests that the most recent drought was relatively minor in the context of the West African drought history … You have droughts that last 30 to 60 years, and then some that last four times as long.” —Dr. Timothy Shanahan et al., Science, Apr. 17, 2009
“Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming,” “World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight … Denmark … hasn’t had a white Christmas for 14 years … and only had seven last century.” —Bloomberg, Dec. 17, 2009
“Never has good weather felt so bad. Never have flowers inspired so much fear. Never has the warm caress of a sunbeam seemed so ominous. The weather is sublime, it’s glorious, it’s the end of the world.” —Joel Achenbach, Washington Post, Jan. 7, 2007
“I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining.” —Groucho Marx, comedian
“Irene’s got a middle name, and it’s Global Warming.” —Bill McKibben, Daily Beast, Aug. 25, 2011
“Remember … this year has already seen more billion-dollar weather-related disasters than any year in US history. Last year was the warmest ever recorded on planet Earth. Arctic sea ice is near all-time record lows. Record floods from Pakistan to Queensland to the Mississippi basin; record drought from the steppes of Russia to the plains of Texas … This is what climate change looks like in its early stages.” —Bill McKibben, Daily Beast, Aug. 25, 2011
“Weather Panic! This is the New Normal (and We’re Hopelessly Unprepared)” —Sharon Begley, Newsweek cover story, June 6, 2011
“Heavy rains, deep snowfalls, monster floods and killing droughts are sign of a ‘new normal’ of extreme US weather events fueled by climate change, scientists and government planners said on Wednesday.” —Reuters, May 18, 2011
“It’s a new normal and I really do think that global weirding is the best way to describe what we’re seeing.” —Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Reuters, May 18, 2011
“Protecting dozens of major coastal cities from future flooding will be challenging enough—rebuilding major coastal cities destroyed by super-hurricanes will be an almost impossible task.” —Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: Global Warming—the Solution and the Politics—and What We Should Do, 2007, p. 90
” … rising levels of CO2 can have little or no significant influence on tropical cyclone frequency and intensity.” —Dr. William Gray, Science and Public Policy Institute, Oct. 11, 2011
“It is well known that strong to violent tornado activity in the US has decreased markedly since statistics began in the 1950s, which has also been a period of average warming. So, if anything, global warming causes FEWER tornado outbreaks … not more. In other words, more violent tornados would, if anything, be a sign of ‘global cooling,’ not ‘global warming.'” —Dr. Roy Spencer web site, April 29, 2011
“According to any textbook on dynamic meteorology, one may reasonably conclude that in a warmer world, extratropical storminess and weather variability will actually decrease.” —Dr. Richard Lindzen, “Understanding Common Climate Claims,” 2005
“One of the robust findings of the report is that snow cover in most continental areas will dramatically decrease unless warming is stopped … Large areas are expected to become snow free.” —Dr. David Archer and Dr. Steven Ramsdorf on the IPCC 4AR, The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change, 2010, p. 147
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” —Dr. David Viner, Climatic Research Unit, The Independent, Mar. 20, 2000
“Snow-capped Snowdon has been an iconic Welsh image for centuries. It is shocking to think that in just 14 years, snow on this great mountain could become nothing but a permanent and distant memory.” —Lembit Opik, Wales Minister of Parliament, The Independent, Jan. 18, 2007
” … snowpack has decreased and been observed to melt earlier in the calendar year…the observed changes in the hydrological components … can be explained well by anthropogenic forcing (greenhouse gases and aerosols) alone.” —Dr. Tim Barnett et al. on the western US snowpack, Waterwired, Jan. 4, 2008
“Despite the cold winter this year, the trend to milder and wetter winters is expected to continue, with snow and frost becoming less of a feature in the future.” —Dr. Peter Stott, UK Meteorological Office, First Post, Feb. 2, 2010
” … the chance of a severe winter in 2010/2011 is no greater (or less) than the current general probability of 1 in 20. The effect of climate change is to gradually but steadily reduce the probability of severe winters in the UK.” —UK Meteorological Office, Local Transport Today, Jan. 15, 2011
“Even though this is quite a cold winter by recent standards, it is still perfectly consistent with predictions for global warming. As for snowfall, that could actually increase in the short term because of global warming.” —Dr. Myles Allen, Telegraph, Feb. 3, 2009
“In December 2009 and February 2010, several American East coast cities experienced back-to-back record-breaking snowfalls. These events were popularly dubbed ‘Snowmageddon’ and ‘Snowpocalypse’ … Such events are consistent with the effects of global warming, which is expected to cause more heavy precipitation because of a greater amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.” —Dr. Daniel Huber and Dr. Jay Gulledge, Pew Center on Global Climate Change web site, June, 2011
“Is the divine presence a Republican? Or is He/She/It running an inter-galactic fossil fuel conglomerate? … whatever the explanation may be, the Paraclete appears to be as determined as any terrestrial corporate frontman to prevent a successful conclusion to the climate talks. How I know? Because every time anyone gets together to try to prevent global climate breakdown, He swaths the rich, densely habited parts of the world with snow and ice, while leaving obscurer places to cook.” —George Monbiot, Guardian, Dec. 2, 2010
“The most active period of the witchcraft trials coincides with a period of lower than average temperature known to climatologists as the ‘little ice age’ … In a time period when the reasons for changes in weather were largely a mystery, people would have searched for a scapegoat in the face of deadly changes in weather patterns. ‘Witches’ became target for blame because there was an existing cultural framework that both allowed their persecution and suggested that they could control the weather.” —Dr. Emily Oster, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter, 2004
“Out With a Shiver; Global Warming Protest Frozen Out by Massive Snowfall,” “Global warming activists stormed Washington Monday for what was billed as the nation’s largest act of civil disobedience to fight climate change—only to see the nation’s capital virtually shut down by a major winter storm.” —FOX News, Mar. 2, 2009
“Gore Decries ‘Global Warming’ in Bitterly Cold NYC,” “With a near-record low temperature and single-digit wind chill in New York City, former Vice President Al Gore took to the podium in Manhattan’s Beacon Theater today to blast President Bush for contributing to global warming.” —World Net Daily, Jan. 15, 2004
“Snow Blankets London for Global Warming Debate,” “Snow fell as the House of Commons debated Global Warming yesterday—the first October fall in the metropolis since 1922.” —The Register, Oct. 29, 2008
Miscellaneous Great Quotes
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” —Yogi Berra, New York Yankees Catcher
“A myth is like an air mattress. There’s nothing in it, but it is wonderfully comfortable.” —Economist Milton Friedman, 1977
“To travel is to live.” —Hans Christian Anderson
“The ultimate resource is people—especially skilled, spirited, and hopeful young people endowed with liberty—who will exert their wills and imaginations for their own benefits, and so inevitably they will benefit the rest of us as well.” —Julian Simon, The State of Humanity, p. 27
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” —Charles Mackay, Scottish journalist, 1841
“Nature never deceives us; it is always we who deceive ourselves.” —Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762)
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” —Dr. Carl Sagan, Cosmos, episode 12, PBS, Dec. 14, 1980
“All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.” —Ecclesiastes 1:7, The Bible
“We need a proper understanding of the past to correctly judge the present if we ever are to foretell the future.” —Dr. Craig Idso, CO2Science website, 2001
“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time but it ain’t goin’ away.” —Elvis Presley
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed—and hence clamorous to be led to safety—by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” —Henry Lewis Mencken, American journalist
“For every complex problem there’s a simple answer—that’s wrong!” —Henry Louis Mencken, American journalist
“The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.” —Franklin Delano Roosevelt, former US President, 1936
“The greatest evils which stalk our Earth are ignorance and oppression, and not science, technology, and industry, whose instruments, when adequately managed, are indispensable tools of a future shaped by humanity, by itself and for itself, overcoming major problems like over population, starvation and worldwide diseases.” —The Heidelberg Appeal, 4,000 signatories, Science and Public Policy Institute website
“Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” —Edmund Burke, Irish statesman, 1784
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” —John Adams, former US president, 1770
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive … those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” —C. S. Lewis, UK author
“Never give in, never give in—never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.” —Winston Churchill, former UK Prime Minister
“An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” —Winston Churchill, former UK Prime Minister
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” —Winston Churchill, former UK prime minister
“I am willing to love all of mankind, except an American.” —Samuel Johnson, English author, 1778
“Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again.” —William Cullen Bryant, American journalist, 1839
“It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.” —Dr. Richard Feynman
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” —Abraham Lincoln, former US President
“Give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.” —Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, co-founder of the Soviet Union
“If we torture the data long enough, it will confess.” —Dr. Ronald Coase
“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.” —Albert Einstein
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” —Upton Sinclair, US journalist
“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” —Thomas Jefferson, former US president
“Sometimes the very learned and clever can be brilliantly foolish, especially when seized by an apparently good cause.” —George Pell, Cardinal of Australia, presentation to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Oct. 26, 2011
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” —Mark Twain, US author
“Every time I go near the stove, the dog howls.” —Comedian Phyllis Diller