By ROBERT SEITZ
In my column in Must Read Alaska, on May 31, I shared my review of temperature data from that claims that Alaska is warming two- to four-times faster than the rest of the planet. In that column I described how I found there is not a problem of increased warming but a lack of extreme cold.
Then in my June 7 column I shared information about the history of Glacier Bay and a paper that shows that CO2 and other greenhouse gas molecules cannot have much effect even with a doubling of the current concentration in the atmosphere.
If Alaska is not really warming at a high rate, we can take time to make some assessments on what we really need to work on that is most affected by the slight warming we have had.
The outcome of research reported in “Infrared Forcing by Greenhouse Gases” by W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer demonstrates there cannot have been and cannot be any great warming as the result of greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of hydrocarbon fuels. So it is time to resist, to fight against the global efforts to alter our energy makeup and focus on cheap energy and the economy.
It is time to consider that our warming has just been a recovery from the Little Ice Age and normal variability of weather.
In Alaska, there is no reason to stop our efforts to use renewable and alternate energy sources, as much of Alaska is remote, and does not have hydrocarbon fuels nearby, so can benefit greatly from the development of wind, solar and hydroelectric power.
We should not be forced, however, to prematurely abandon the energy sources which will provide Alaska with a viable economy and ability for citizens of Alaska to survive the cold winters with a sustainable energy source for the Railbelt, natural gas, coal and crude oil. We can still welcome whatever other energy sources that can provide cheap energy to all our communities and industries throughout Alaska.
It is time ensure the science used to provide guidance for U.S. and state policies is real science and not the political science pushed by the IPCC and other global organizations. For too long any research aimed against greenhouse gas warming has been denied funding or a part of any discussion. Those scientists and engineers with opposing ideas are speaking out and publishing and should now be assured a place at the energy table at our Universities and government policy groups.
The basis for this “PETITION TO COMPLETE A SUPPLEMENTAL ENVRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT FOR THE TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE SYSTEM & PLAN FOR DISMANTLEMENT, REMOVAL, & RESTORATION” is the misguided concern about warming from greenhouse gas emissions from burning of fossil (hydrocarbon) fuels.
Since Alaska isn’t warming at the high rate claimed by the USDA compared to average annual temperatures in past records, it is time to provide a more scientific analysis of Alaska data by unbiased researchers so we can determine what conditions we have to deal with and direct our efforts to what is important.
If we start with what we know about the impact of the Little Ice Age and assume the sun provided the energy to warm the planet back from the extreme low temperature experienced 300 years ago, we should end up with a better understanding of our environmental status.
I have also found that the same comparison of average annual temperature values are used to declare “the oceans are boiling,” when comparison of data with on line sea surface temperature values (for both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans) were usually 4 degrees below normal, with some at or just above normal for that day.
The average annual ocean temperature values also have a “lack of cold temperature” over the recent past as the northern waters are less cold because of the diminished contact with ice. My review of the Arctic ice pack records indicate that the ice pack could be recovering as it is gathering more multiyear ice each year, and does not have an annual decrease of any extent.
And just what is an average annual temperature for this planet? I can’t image any credible manner in which such a value can be reliably achieved. It is time to cease publishing this type of data, and the misleading conclusions developed from them.
The Trans Alaska Pipeline System is our economic engine and we need to get it back up to running at a rate that will benefit all Alaska. Without all the interference from our current federal administration, we should have had a flow rate up to 1 million bpd upon completion of Willow, Pikka, ANWR and others that have been stalled.
So as you enter this fracas please approach this with more passion that you did the call to remove all impediments to the increased production of Cook Inlet gas. We still need to get this moved forward as quickly as we can. Tomorrow would not be too soon. The apparent lack of interest in the recent Cook Inlet leases does not truly represent real attitudes but does result from the ESG-biased financial decisions. I was disappointed that the Reduced Royalty on Cook Inlet gas did not move forward.
As we enter this fight please don’t attack the entrepreneurs who have provided wind, solar, and battery energy storage, as they do benefit the system. We got here by not mandating such alterations. We will need all the energy innovations that can provide benefit somewhere in Alaska.
Robert Seitz is an electrical engineer and lifelong Alaskan.
There is a real simple cure for all this stupidity. Shut the power off from December till April. Natural selection will take over from there. The smart people will go back to firewood and the rest of these imbeciles will freeze to death. Problem solved.
The issue is that we have a large contingent out there that act like we have some type of plastic bubble over our country and there is no influence from other countries or continents. They honestly believe if we shut off the pipeline our temperatures will drop.
Jim there is a large contingent that have no brains. No appreciation of the great lives we have because of energy. Particularly electricity. Without electricity we are done for. Literally. Some of us could survive a few years without it but most would perish in the first month.
Many Alaskan choose the democrats over our States rights. These a big effort in the bush to register as many natives to keep the current anti-oil and anti-states rights democrat candidate in office. Typical shoot yourself in the foot thinking. Many native corporations are behind this.
That’s why we need to stop subsidizing fuel deliveries to the villages.
Let them pay for their own fuel, just like we do.
Maybe we should end subsidizing the entire what we call an “economy” in Alaska and let everyone, pay their own way.
Maybe we should end subsidizing the entire “economy” in Alaska and let everyone pay.
One day, we will reflect on how we were all gas lit into believing carbon dioxide was our enemy. And just like masks, many will say, “I didn’t really believe it.”
Yet these same people wore their masks everywhere they had a chance, and use words like “carbon footprint” as commonly as any other word, even though it only entered into our vernacular less than 10 years ago. No one in the hot hot South this summer will say, “Oh my, the carbon dioxide levels are sure high today. That’s why it’s so doggone hot!”
And no one in Alaska next winter will say, “boy, I sure am cold. I wish we had some more carbon dioxide to warm up the weather today.” No, they will wish they had cheaper natural gas to stay warm.
Just because you don’t like something, or it is inconvenient for you, doesn’t mean that it is false.
The burning of hydrocarbons is heating up the planet. Pull your head out of the sand and try to do something about it instead of living in denial. Your grandkids will thank you some day.
How about pulling YOUR head out of the sand and just quit using any energy.
Hide under a rock…that will keep you comfortable.
Just maybe your grandkids will thank you.
We do have a “Plastic bubble” over our heads and it continues to grow each and every day that they are allowed to “cloud seed” Alaska with any microplastics. When you see a haze above a normal cloud layer, it has happened. Notice how the air chills as the haze covers the sun? Time to force it out in the open and open all information to the public. When you see one or two high flying aircraft up at 20,000- 30,000 level and watch doughnuts being done in the sky by trail vapors following, it has been done. Observe, especially in the mountainous areas.
I’ve never seen planes do dougnuts in the sky, except for when I was commercial fishing and they were spotting the fish. Are they using microplastics to warm or cool the environment?
Here we go again with Sietz trying to make everything okay when it really is not okay. “…please don’t attack the entrepreneurs who have provided wind, solar, and battery energy storage, as they do benefit the system.” Those entrepreneurs who are making a ton of money through mining throughout the entire world, including Alaska? Those entrepreneurs who are putting out devices or equipment, that so far, do not have good ways to recycle or dispose of those devices or equipment that no longer work. Are those guys being held responsible to ensure “green” ways to dispose or recycle? No, I would not give them any breaks. A real break I would give would be to people who design equipment, like there used to be, to capture aether energy … free energy. No one talks about that though. Maybe President Trump will bring that back when he gets into office again.
Ginny says a lot of “interesting” things. One of those appears that she believes entrepreneurs are rolling in the bucks, able to fund large scale mining. Madam, big mines are hardly entrepreneurial pursuits if for no other reason than the regulatory / legal minefield one needs to traverse. OTOH, recreational gold mining may fit the entrepreneurial description, though they generally leave the streams like they were found.
Most men learned the harsh lesson that the most expensive stuff in the world is the free stuff. We see that every day in the energy world with trillions foolishly squandered chasing “free” solar and wind.
One entrepreneurial approach of interest may be battery packs for energy storage. Elon Musk seems to be well on the way to coming up with something commercially viable. While his approach is entrepreneurial, his economics aren’t, as it is taking the backing of one of the largest companies in the world (Tesla) and one of the most wealthy men in the world (Musk).
You can do a lot of interesting stuff with sufficient resources. Cheers –
Okay, you got me. Maybe I was talking smack about the little guys. My focus is the push for solar and wind here in Alaska – may be great on a small scale, not-100% dependent. Globalists want these to be 100% dependent sources for us serfs. Like I stated, let’s research aether energy – that is an abundant energy source…but, we are not supposed to know about it.
What happened to HAD-CRUT raw temperature data?
When it comes to credibility in assessing global historic temperature trends, I think I’ll stick with the hundreds of academic and professional climate scientists around the globe who form their conclusions using the scientific method and publish them after professional peer review. I dare say that a single electrical engineer in Fairbanks might not have the same knowledge, access to data, technical ability, intellectual independence, or gravitas as they do. He may also have a political agenda as well.
Follow the $$$, Whidbey. Always follow the $$$. The way “science” works these days is that future grant money depends entirely on published results. Publish results that the feds demand (manmade global warming due to CO2 emissions is a real thing), and you always get the next paycheck. Publish anything else, and you don’t. Easy peasy. Cheers –
Your assessment of the feds stand on global warming can also be applied to the entire Covid scam that was bought and paid for by US tax dollars in a foreign lab(in an effort to hide it).
Follow the money and follow “their” science….Batman…wet market…batcave….but dont worry we have a “vaccine” bought and paid for by you as well
The scientific method? What happened to raw HAD-CRUT data? It’s a simple question, Dog. Was it professional? Was it gravitas? I dare say a Fairbanks engineer doesn’t have access to that data. HIDE THE DECLINE, DOG!
Sure,mutt, of course he doesn’t see data that those grant-grifting “scientists” refuse to publish.. ” because it’ll just be used against us”
The current outside based government command and control policies towards eliminating reliable, clean, and inexpensive energy are an existential threat to every living person in the US. Alaska is extremely vulnerable to the consequences of the impending and ultimately certain national monetary, economic and ensuing societal collapse. Politically cogent and functional leadership no longer exists in the US. We do have a relative advantage over most other states for potentially surviving due to a small population and vast reserves of globally marketable resources of proven oil, gas, coal and minerals along with some basic, but functioning infrastructure to extract, transport and market these resources. The criminally misleading misnomered “green” and “renewable” energy generation, storage and distribution technology to power the entire US simply does not yet exist. It remains in a very primitive and theoretical stage. The period of federal and state subsidies to maintain the current economic system and relative political stability we are familiar with, generated from printed and borrowed funds will end abruptly, and soon. There will always be opportunity for entrepreneurs, and brilliant innovators to improve and potentially develop viable solutions for the large scale use of alternative energy over time. We, as an isolated state, need to focus solely on surviving the period of collapse, while maintaining at least the basic access to shelter, energy and food for our families. Maintaining the existing energy grid and fuel sources must be our priority.
You have put it all together very well in your comment. If the supply chain breaks down, and it could, then the Food shortage will become apparent very quickly. We don’t produce enough food in Alaska to feed ourselves, especially for the urban centers that depend on twice weekly containerized cargo ships from Seattle to deliver what we need. (Tote and Sea Land and both deliver twice a week.) I have to agree that a crisis is coming, because it’s being planned. Green Energy doesn’t come close to getting it done. The ESG problem is stopping what needs to happen, and that includes financially and economically. But since the Globalists are controlling the narrative, which is directly linked to Politics, things like Carbon Capture get put into law, and the need to develop Natural Gas and Oil gets sidelined. CO2 is not a poison. Plants need it during photosynthesis, and the man-made component of the 0.04% of the atmosphere it comprises, is something like 1%. The real Science does not support carbon capture, but the State of Alaska has just this last session passed a bill to create a carbon capture infra-structure program. Let that sink in…
Masterful content!! I would expect no less from this Alaskan expert!!
It’s about time someone addressed climate change from the propective of the world’s evelotion that there are natural changes because of ice ages. I outr case we are at the bottom end of an ice age and as happens over time that will reverse and the earth will start back into a cycle of cooling regardless of our fruitless efforts to try to change Mother Nature.
Thank you for your article, it’s right on point. However; I’m sure that very few will listen as they would rather make money off their systems to make people think they have the solutions to change things. Just no common sense, just greed.