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Air Date: July 01, 2015
Host : Jim Schneider
Guest: Dr. E. Calvin Beisner
Dr. E. Calvin Beisner is the founder and national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. He is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing on the application of the Christian worldview, theology and ethics to economics, government, environmental stewardship and public policy. He has served as both a college and seminary professor and has written 12 books and made contributions to over 30 books. He has testified as an expert witness on the ethics and economics of climate policy before congressional committees. He also lectures around the world.
Dr. Beisner began by discussing the case of Michigan vs. EPA. The court decided that the EPA failed to do proper benefit/cost estimates before imposing new regulations on mercury emissions from certain electric generating plants. So the court ruled that the EPA’s mercury emission regulation is now invalid.
Dr. Beisner feel this is great news for two reasons. First of all, the regulation didn’t bring any significant benefit. Even the EPA’s own estimates of the benefits were based on the idea of certain pregnant women eating vast amounts of self-caught fish from the most polluted waters in the U.S. The problem is, they couldn’t find that any such women exist. The other reason the ruling was good is because the regulation cost so much to comply with which pushes up everyone’s energy costs.
The discussion also mentioned a recent White House Summit on global warming. The EPA Administrator, Gina McCarthy, spoke about why the EPA feels climate change is a public health issue. Even the surgeon general said that we need to engage medical students to demand the curriculum change to prepare people for a warmer future.
Through inference, the head of the EPA indicated that climate deniers are not normal humans. So Jim asked Dr. Beisner how he can take the position he does when the White House, the EPA and the surgeon general all claim that we have a public health emergency taking place. Dr. Beisner believes that ‘normal human beings’ insist upon good evidence before spending trillions of dollars before trying to cope with an alleged problem as opposed to those who wave their hands in the air and say, ‘It doesn’t matter.’
For Dr. Beisner, the only ground for making any predictions about future global temperature is computer modeling that attempts to see how the climate reacts to added atmospheric carbon dioxide. On average, the computer models on which those who fear man-made warming depend, simulate twice as much warming than what is actually observed over the relevant period. 95% of them simulate more warming than observed which implies that the errors are not random but are driven by bias somehow written into the computer models. Also, not a single model simulated the complete absence of all statistically significant global warming over the last 17-27 years, depending upon which database you rely on. What this means is that the computer models are invalidated and provide no rational basis for any future temperature predictions and provide no rational basis for policy as well.
Dr. Beisner noted that this conclusion was pointed out to Pope Francis in an open letter regarding climate change in anticipation of his encyclical. This letter to the Pope has been signed by roughly 200 experts. It makes the case that attempting to fight global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions means forcing energy prices up. This would slow or stop economic development world-wide while trapping the poorest in poverty for generations to come and bringing high rates of disease and premature death.
This program also mentions:
–Additional details concerning the Pope’s encyclical on the environment.
–Global warming and the redistribution of wealth.
–The viability of hydrogen for fuel.
–Increased carbon dioxide and the “greening” of the earth.
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