Cement, Energy and Environment

are having a positive effect on most corals. • Polar bears have survived changes in climate that exceed those occurred during the twentieth century or are forecast by the IPCC's computer models. • Most populations of polar bears are growing, not shrinking, and the biggest influence on polar bear populations is not temperature but hunting by humans, which historically has taken a large toll on polar bear populations. • Forecasts of dwindling polar bear populations assume trends in sea ice and temperature that are counterfactual, rely on unvalidated computer climate models that are known to be unreliable, and violate most of the principles of scientific forecasting. Chapter 9. Human health Effects • The IPCC alleges that "climate change currently contributes to the global burden of disease and premature deaths" and will "increase malnutrition and consequent disorders." In fact, the overwhelming weight of evidence shows that higher temperatures and rising C0 2 levels have played an indispensable role in making it possible to feed a growing global population without encroaching on natural ecosystems. • Global warming reduces the incid,ence of cardiovascular disease related to low temperatures and wintry weather by a much greater degree than it increases the incidence of cardiovascular disease associated with high temperatures and summer heat waves. • Mortality due to respiratory diseases decrease as temperatures rise and as temperature variability declines. • Claims that malaria and tick– borne diseases are spreading or will spread across the globe as a result of COrinduced warming are not supported in the scientific literature. • Total heat-related mortality rates have been shown to be lower in warmer climates and to be unaffected by rising temperatures during the twentieth century. • The historical increase in the air's C0 2 content has improved human nutrition by raising crop yields during the past 150 years on the order of 70 per cent for wheat, 2~ per cent for cereals, 33 per cent for fruits and melons, 62 per cent for legumes, 67 per cent for root and tuber crops, and 51 per cent for vegetables. • The quality of plant food in the COrenriched world of the future, in terms of its protein and antioxidant (vitamin) contents, will be no lower and probably will be higher than in the past. • There is evidence that some medicinal substances in plants will be present in significantly greater concentrations, and certainly in greater absolute amounts, than they are currently. • The historical increase of the air's C0 2 content has probably helped lengthen human lifespans since the advent of the Industrial Revolution, and its continued upward trend will likely provide more of the same benefits. • Higher levels of C0 2 in the air help to advance all three parts of a strategy to resolve the tension between the need to feed a growing population and the desire to preserve natural ecosystems: increasing crop yield per unit of land area, increasing crop yield per unit of nutrients applied, and increasing crop yield per unit of water used. • Biofuels for transportation (chiefly ethanol, biodiesel, and methanol) are being used in growing quantities in the belief that they provide environmental benefits. In fact, those benefits are very dubious. By some measures, "the net effect of biofuels production ... is to increase C0 2 emissions for decades or centuries relative to the emissions caused by fossil fuel use." • Biofuels compete with livestock growers and food processors for corn, soybeans, and other feedstocks, leading to higher food prices. Rising food prices in 2008 led to food riots in several developing countries. The production of biofuels also consumes enormous quantities of water compared with the production of gasoline. • There can be little doubt ethanol mandates and subsidies have made both food and energy more, not less, expensive and therefore less available to a growing population. The extensive damage to natural ecosystems already caused by this poor policy decision, and the much greater destruction yet to come, are a high price to pay for refusing to understand and utilize the true science of climate change. Courtesy: Liberty Institute, New Delhi 33