Weekly John Locke Foundation research division newsletter focusing on environmental issues.
The newsletter highlights relevant analysis done by the JLF and other think tanks as well as items in the news.
1. EU CO2 Reduction Plans face internal opposition as Poland blocks new targets
Apparently Poland has had enough of the "carbophobes" in the old European Union who want to set stringent CO2 reduction targets for the Union thereby shackling the potential for economic growth for newer members from the former Soviet Union. According to the European Energy Review, Poland
blocked a ministerial resolution endorsing the European Commission’s low-carbon 2050 roadmap. Last June, it said it didn’t like the reference to a 25% emissions cut in 2020 – the EU is currently committed to just 20%.
Poland is arguing that
Europe must act "according to the speed of global developments"…or watch its energy-intensive industries depart and its economy suffer. Poland wants a country-by-country, sector-by-sector analysis of what the Commission’s low-carbon 2050 roadmap will cost.
And apparently Poland has support among its Eastern European neighbors:
Poland may have been the sole voice of opposition to the roadmap on Friday, but the Czech Republic and Romania at least, reportedly support it behind the scenes.
2. 25% of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder sufferers act on fears of global warming
This is the result of a new study of OCD sufferers in Australia. As reported on the New Zealand website Stuff:
More than a quarter of patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in a recent study in Australia were found to have obsessions which directly related to climate change. The majority were male.
The patients were found to be carrying out rituals, such as checking lights, stoves and taps were turned off, so they could reduce their global footprint.
And Australian psychiatrists have discovered the first case of climate change delusion.
Dr Joshua Wolf and Dr Robert Salo, of the Royal Childrens Hospital in Melbourne, treated a 17-year-old who was convinced that if he drank water, millions of people would die of thirst.
What is unfortunate is that the Stuff article takes dire predictions about future global warming as a given, as did the researchers doing the study, without ever mentioning that in fact the planet has shown no warming trend for about 15 years.
3. Washington Post: ATI’s FOIA lawsuit against UVA continues, with good chance of victory
The American Traditions Institute (ATI) has been trying for some time to get its hands on email communications written by climatologist Michael Mann and owned by the University of Virginia. Mann’s work at UVA led to the now discredited "hockey stick" graph that drove many of the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change during the last decade.
Email communications exposed during the "climategate" scandal revealed that Mann suddenly changed data sets that were being used to construct the graph at a crucial point. He did this in order to "hide the decline" in temperatures that would have been inconsistent with the alarmist ideology he wanted to propagate. This was the same ideology that was driving the IPCC and its conclusions.
Mann is trying to hide the email communications that he had with other researchers while he was working on his now infamous study. The Washington Post has a very good article explaining why ATI’s lawsuit has a good chance of success. The primary reason is that:
U.Va. apparently has already given the 12,000 e-mails to Mann himself, though he left Charlottesville years ago. The American Tradition Institute, the conservative group hoping to show that climate change scientists like Mann manipulated their data, argues that U.Va. can’t give the e-mails to one person and not another. By giving the emails to Mann, the university has waived any exemptions they’re claiming to the state Freedom of Information Act, ATI says.
You gave ’em to him, you gotta give ’em to us, basically. And a number of well-informed FOIA experts in Virginia say that ATI is right.
"I would agree with that," said Megan Rhyne, executive director of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. "Once you turn it over in one venue, you’re deciding to give it out."
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