SMART GREEN

The Smart Green Frontiers Project explores how to solve environmental problems without reducing human freedom. The phrase “smart green” is intended to shift the environmental agenda away from a traditional model based on a “command and control” style of regulation and towards the use of markets and property rights.  We present the case that smart green has a better chance to accomplish a universal objective: a cleaner, healthier world.

FRONTIER'S SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SMART GREEN POLICY

Modern environmentalists insist that collective actions produce real results, not just good feelings. A key element in the new approach is a healthy appreciation for the environmental benefits of wealth creation.

Frontier's 7 Smart Green principles:

1. Rely on unbiased science;
2. Focus on measurable results;
3. Recognize wealth creation as the wellspring for environmental improvement
4. Substitute risk and cost benefit analysis for the precautionary principle;
5. Focus on incentives via property rights;
6. Embrace environmentally friendly technology;
7. Eliminate public sector conflicts of interest by separating resource ownership from regulation.

To read more about Frontier's 7 Smart Green principles click here.

SKEPTICAL ON GLOBAL WARMING

Weather systems are complex - It is the total impact of dozens of variables including cosmic and solar radiation, volcanic heat entering the bottom of the ocean, and so-called greenhouse gas or carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A change in any variable has implications for the entire system. CO2, one small component of the atmosphere, has been the sole focus of scientific and political considerations.

Current climate changes are within natural levels of variability -

The climate changes naturally and significantly all the time.  satellite measurements, shows that recent warm temperatures peaked in 2000 and the earth is now heading into a cooling phase.

Human-caused warming theory dominates public policy -

The most fashionable climate theory is known as the Anthropogenic Warming Theory (AGW). Three basic assumptions underlie its view that humans are causing global warming/climate change:

1.     Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas - it delays the escape of heat from the earth to space.

2.     If CO2 increases temperature increases.

3.     CO2 will increase because of human production – primarily through carbon based forms of energy consumption.

CO2 Levels Follow Temperature Changes - Every record of any duration for any period shows temperature increasing before CO2. Temperatures have declined since 2000 even though CO2 levels are increasing.

Human-caused CO2 production is a tiny fraction of total greenhouse gases in our atmosphere – The most common greenhouse gas is water vapour in clouds, representing 95% by volume. CO2 is less than 4% of these greenhouse gases and the human portion is approximately 0.12% of that.

Current atmospheric levels of CO2 are the lowest in 600 million years. Present CO2 levels, measured in parts per million, are 385 ppm. Previous levels have exceeded 4000 ppm and the average level for the last 300 million years is approximately 1000 ppm.  This figure matches what research shows is ideal for plants. Commercial greenhouses pump in that level to increase plant yields four times. If you reduce CO2 levels plants suffer. At 250 ppm many die and at 150 ppm they die. No plants, no oxygen, no life on earth.

CO2 levels do not match temperature in any record – The main proponent of the Anthropogenic Warming Theory has been the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has used its model to advocate for increased government planning and management of economies. Only its computer models have identified CO2 as the cause of warming and climate change. Since weather is so complex computer models do not work. They cannot forecast weather past ten days accurately, let alone 50 or 100 years.

Solar energy variations match temperature records. The sun causes temperature change in three ways:

1.     Physical changes in sun/earth relationships known as the Milankovitch Effect, the elliptical orbit changes the sun’s distance to the earth which impacts temperature.

2.     Changes in solar magnetic fields manifested by sunspots that change low cloud formation and thereby temperature.

3.     Changes in the sun’s electromagnetic spectrum, heat and light.

Read full briefing note with supporting charts here.

 

The following discussion featuring Frontier advisors on talk radio provides a useful realist overview of the politics of climate change -

Are We Causing Dangerous Climate Change? (CFRA) (~81min) – February 22, 2012
Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris on CFRA Radio. The debate is over whether or not we are causing dangerous climate change. A quick look at the list of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific references in the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC - see nipccreport.org) shows that the skeptics side is very well supported. (~82 min.)

 

Frontier Advisor Tom Harris discusses how language has been twisted to stoke alarmism -

"“Climate change is real”, “global warming pollution must be reduced”, “we must stop climate change”. These are phrases used by environmental alarmists, politicians and industrialists to scare the public into supporting multibillion-dollar schemes that enrich the few at the cost of the many."