The Shaman’s at the United Nations Intergovernmental Plunderers for Climate Cash (IPCC) have eyed the computerized goat-entrails yet-again and determined that the failure of sinners to repent will result in even greater global pain and suffering than all previous predictions combined, or something. (Pick up your environmentally friendly ‘The end is Near” sandwich boards at the nearest participating-Nation embassy.)
On the other side of this absence of debate (sorry, there was vigorous IPCC debate over how to explain away the lengthy cooling period we are in), we have the NIPCC. The Nongovernmental International Panel scientists, which are not funded by the UN or governments seeking power and taxpayer dollars to battle the chimera of Climate change, also releases a report for policy makers, to give them some contrast to the entrail-reading Shaman’s at the UN.
The NIPCC latest report can be found here- pdf.
Below is an excerpt for policy makers from the summary version. This is in response to the IPCC Working Group II contribution to the fifth assessment Report (Biological Impacts). You can see the entire NIPCC report by section here.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is a non-toxic, non-irritating, and natural component of the atmosphere. Long-term CO2 enrichment studies confirm the findings of shorter-term experiments, demonstrating numerous growth-enhancing, water-conserving, and stress-alleviating effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on plants growing in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
• The ongoing rise in the air’s CO2 content is causing a great greening of the Earth. All across the planet, the historical increase in the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration has stimulated vegetative productivity. This observed stimulation, or greening of the Earth, has occurred in spite of many real and imagined assaults on Earth’s vegetation, including fires, disease, pest outbreaks, deforestation, and climatic change.
• There is little or no risk of increasing food insecurity due to global warming or rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Farmers and others who depend on rural livelihoods for income are benefitting from rising agricultural productivity throughout the world, including in parts of Asia and Africa where the need for increased food supplies is most critical. Rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels play a key role in the realization of such benefits.
• Terrestrial ecosystems have thrived throughout the world as a result of warming temperatures and rising levels of atmospheric CO2. Empirical data pertaining to numerous animal species, including amphibians, birds, butterflies, other insects, reptiles, and mammals, indicate global warming and its myriad ecological effects tend to foster the expansion and proliferation of animal habitats, ranges, and populations, or otherwise have no observable impacts one way or the other. Multiple lines of evidence indicate animal species are adapting, and in some cases evolving, to cope with climate change of the modern era.
• Rising temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels do not pose a significant threat to aquatic life. Many aquatic species have shown considerable tolerance to temperatures and CO2 values predicted for the next few centuries, and many have demonstrated a likelihood of positive responses in empirical studies. Any projected adverse impacts of rising temperatures or declining seawater and freshwater pH levels (“acidification”) will be largely mitigated through phenotypic adaptation or evolution during the many decades to centuries it is expected to take for pH levels to fall.
• A modest warming of the planet will result in a net reduction of human mortality from temperature-related events. More lives are saved by global warming via the amelioration of cold-related deaths than those lost under excessive heat. Global warming will have a negligible influence on human morbidity and the spread of infectious diseases, a phenomenon observed in virtually all parts of the world.
Source: Idso, C.D., Idso, S.B., Carter, R.M., and Singer, S.F. (Eds.) 2014. Climate Change
Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts. Chicago, IL: The Heartland Institute.
If you want to read more I’d start with the summary. It is only 20 pages. Easy enough to digest in a sitting.
