Forget facts. Forget failed predictions. Forget the best, most relevant science. Climate fear exploiters are set to ram through a “climate emergency declaration” that will give the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners greater powers to dictate just about every aspect of life in our community, and make everything we do and need much more expensive.
The groundwork is being laid in the Board of Health, on which all county commissioners sit. The charge to declare a fake climate emergency is being spearheaded by County Commissioner Kate Dean and Hospital Commissioner Kees Kolff. Once the Board of Health declares the fake emergency the next step will be having the Board of County Commissioners implement what will no doubt be explained as “emergency measures” to address the fake crisis.
The fears behind any emergency declaration are baseless, a bit dishonest and grounded in something closer to fervent religious belief than an objective, dispassionate consideration of the best available science.
Instead of fear-mongering, these leaders should be celebrating good news on the climate. But it seems that good news is the last thing they want to hear.
Take for instance, the best, most relevant predictions on what would happen in Jefferson County if the theory of man-made catastrophic global warming proves true. (A big “if,” as the computer models predicting disaster by now have repeatedly been proven wrong. See further discussion below).
As we previously reported, the best, most relevant predictions for Jefferson County show we do not face a climate emergency. This conclusion comes from University of Washington atmospheric scientist Dr. Cliff Mass and his team of researchers. They have concluded that climate change poses “no existential threat” to Washington. Jefferson County and the Olympic Peninsula are actually in a “sweet spot” and will see no severe increases in temperatures, no droughts, no significantly increased fire risk and no heightened danger of extreme storms.
But, never mind that good news. It is “Polly Anna,” according to Kolff, who without any scientific foundation for his claim, insists we will see even worse temperature increases than predicted not only by Washington’s preeminent meteorologist, but also by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
At the Heath Board meeting in January, Kolff claimed repeatedly that “99% of scientists” agree with his catastrophic climate predictions. “The consensus is almost unanimous,” he said. But, when faced with contradictory conclusions from Mass and his University of Washington researchers, Kolff breezily acknowledges that there exist “different schools of thought,” and promptly rejects Mass’s work out of hand.
So far nothing has been presented to the Board of Health that contradicts Dr. Mass’s predictions. Nothing has been presented to show that Mass has it wrong. Nothing from the IPCC or the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group addresses as specifically as Mass what is the most likely scenario for western Washington in the context of a climate change analysis.
Mass explains that, due to the cooling Pacific Ocean (underway for decades) temperatures in western Washington will continue to be moderate and will not experience sharp spikes. Kolff dismisses the best science available with the claim that “researchers have shown that people have already died in King County” due to increasing heat waves from climate change.
The fake climate change emergency declaration may rest on falsehoods such as this. King County in recent years has experienced but a single death somewhat connected to heat. That was in July 1999 when heat was ruled merely “a factor” in the death of a 66-year old man who already suffered from hypertensive and artherosclerotic heart disease. On that day, Seattle experienced its hottest day on record, 103 degrees, quite hot for the Pacific Northwest but hardly life-threatening.
Global warming cannot be blamed for a hot day in summer. The hottest day in June in Seattle history was in 1955, decades before global warming became a thing. The hottest August day was in 1960. Washington, particularly the eastern side of the state, suffered through prolonged heat waves in the 1930s, well before global CO2 levels were rising significantly.
That ten-year record for July has not been broken, even though climate fabulists tell us we are experiencing runaway temperature increases right now. Indeed, rather than seeing runaway high temperatures, the Puget Sound this past winter saw record low temperatures. February 2019 was the coldest on record since SeaTac airport started keeping track in 1945.
We have been warned that “snow would be a thing of the past.” Not long ago Gov. Jay Inslee predicted nearly snow-less winters as our state’s future. But February 2019 saw record-breaking snowfall and this year the mountains are again doing well, and winter is still with us.
Never mind facts. Never mind actual data. Kolff, Dean and others are going to get their climate emergency declaration regardless.
Surely news of record cold temperatures should come as relief if one is laying awake worrying we are all going to die from heat waves that will produce desert conditions in the Pac NW.
That last bit you may take as unfair. Kolff, Dean and allies certainly can’t be saying that the Olympic Peninsula will become another Sahara.
But they are. Here is an image from the information packet distributed at January’s Board of Health meeting. This was from a page depicting what climate change will do to our area:
No serious scientist has predicted anything like this for the Pacific Northwest, let alone Jefferson County where the predictions are for continued moderate temperatures with increasing precipitation.
There is lots of good news on climate. None of it is welcome by activists and politicians who want to use the excuse of climate panic to boss other people around.
But good news does abound. Snow is not a thing of the past. We are not seeing the predicted global crop failures, endless droughts and famine.
In 1998 the Pentagon commissioned a study on the impact of global warming, examining what would happen if the doomsayers were right. That study, which the military kept secret because it likely would have caused panic, predicted that within twenty years millions–millions-of people would be killed in wars, famines and natural disasters caused by runaway global warming. The world was going to teeter at the edge of anarchy as civilization unraveled and people murdered each other for scarce food and water. A dramatic rise in sea level would drown cities, maybe entire countries. Britain would be trapped in a permanent Siberian winter because global warming was going to interfere with the Gulf Stream.
None of it happened. None. Great news, right?
Not if you want to terrify people so you can grab more power over their lives.
Here’s more good news: CO2 emissions have leveled off. Advanced economies are actually decreasing their CO2 emissions. At a time of historic economic growth, of record low unemployment for Blacks, Hispanics and women, with wages rising for those lowest on the income ladder and manufacturing expanding, when it has attained energy independence and leads the world in production of oil and gas, the United States also led the world in reducing CO2 emissions, cutting its output by 2.9%. Wow.
Arctic Sea ice has recovered, glaciers are growing in Greenland and polar bears are doing just fine. Crop yields are up, hurricanes are down, New York City is not underwater, and the Obamas, not fearing rising seas, bought a $15 million mansion on an island at sea level. The Maldives, we were once told, would be submerged by now due to rising seas driven by climate change. Instead, the government of those Indian Ocean islands has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building five new airports at existing sea level.
The sky is not falling. We do not face any climate crisis that would justify an emergency declaration. The only crisis confronting us is one of confidence in our local leaders.
Jim Scarantino was the editor and founder of Port Townsend Free Press. He is happy in his new role as just a contributor writing on topics of concern to him. He spent the first 25 years of his professional life as a trial attorney, then launched an online investigative news website that broke several national stories. He is also the author of three crime novels. He resides in Jefferson County. See our "About" page for more information.
One might think the Health Department would call all hands on deck instead of making a silly gesture about the weather – Kolff is a religious environmental fundamentalist.