Summary of #24 - IPCC expert reviewer Kenneth P. Green on the IPCC and the climate "socialist amoeba"

00:00:00 - 00:45:00

Kenneth P. Green, an expert reviewer of the IPCC, discusses the organization and their approach towards climate change and the environment. He believes that the issue of climate change has morphed into a socialist amoeba, where various issues such as conservation and protection of rivers are traded off against each other. Green reflects on the language used in IPCC reports and notes that the models may have been 80% too hot, potentially leading to the end of the crisis. He points out that the IPCC process is inherently political and controlled by the UN, and stresses the importance of empirical data and measurements in climate science rather than relying solely on modeling.

• 00:00:00 In this section, Kenneth P. Green, a biologist and environmental scientist, states that the entire field of EHS (environment, health, and safety) was not what they were actually pursuing in their policy angles and the policy elements of the instruction and that became more and more obvious. He quickly realized his libertarian self was not happy with that direction of the field and has been working as a regulatory or policy critic rather than a policy or regulatory designer ever since. He believes that climate change has sucked in issues which were being treated rationally on their own, such as conservation of certain species, ecosystems, and protection of certain rivers that themselves are highly important to people, creating a socialist amoeba in which these issues are traded away against each other.
• 00:05:00 In this section, Kenneth P. Green, an expert reviewer of the IPCC, reflects on how the organization has evolved since the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Green notes that the IPCC made a tragic mistake by choosing mitigation over adaptation and implementing an overt socialist management plan. He explains that the promises of funding became the center of their meetings, and although they pledged trillions of dollars a year, he knew that nobody gives away money. Green also discusses the attacks on Plastics and how their inventors should be celebrated. Despite the existence of the climate scam amoeba, Green remains hopeful that the energy system collapses in Europe are causing the Europeans to turn away from failed technologies and embrace cleaner energy sources.
• 00:10:00 In this section, Kenneth P. Green, an IPCC expert reviewer, discusses the possible end of the climate change crisis and how the language used in the IPCC reports is often lost in political speeches and the media. He suggests that the next IPCC report may reveal that the models were 80% too hot and that the actual trend is one-fifth of what the models predicted, potentially leading to the end of the crisis. However, Green points out that the media will likely blame scientists, who were careful with their wording, and that climate change may just become yesterday's crisis, as people move onto other issues. He also shares his experience of reading hundreds of pages of IPCC reports when he first started writing about air quality and climate policies.
• 00:15:00 In this section, IPCC expert reviewer Kenneth P. Green shares that his duties are in molecular biology, environmental science, and engineering, making him well-equipped to handle the cross-training required to read through the IPCC reports. He also believes that working group one, the scientific basis of climate change, is a good representation of the state of knowledge on the subject. However, he admits that not many people read the reports cover to cover, as it can be painful and full of dense jargon. Through his own experience, Green believes that an enormous percentage of the contributing scientists probably don't read the whole thing themselves, and the staff at the UN works to politicize it. Nonetheless, Green believes it is worth studying the reports and says that AR6 mostly holds up to his expectations.
• 00:20:00 In this section, the speaker explains the levels of fidelity used in IPCC reports, where the technical reports have the most detailed information, and the summary for policymakers has the highly simplified version. The speaker also notes that numerical rankings are used to show confidence levels, which are not statistically derived values but instead are based on expert elicitation. No skeptical scientists are currently involved in the IPCC process due to political reasons, but some of their work, such as Christy's, Roy Spencer's, and Curry's, is still incorporated into the discussion section of some reports.
• 00:25:00 In this section, Kenneth P. Green, an IPCC expert reviewer, explains the process of how lead authors are selected and who decides what goes into the IPCC's summary for policy makers. He highlights that the overall purpose of the IPCC is to provide advice to governments on what to do about climate change and, therefore, the process is inherently political. Green also raises concerns about whether the junior authors would have the spine to stand up to the bureaucrats at the UN and de-politicize the process. He points out that the science part is like an onion with physics at the center, which can interact with gas molecules to create heat. However, he emphasizes that he doubts scientific truth can come out of the IPCC process, as it is not webcast to the public.
• 00:30:00 In this section, Kenneth P. Green, an expert reviewer for the IPCC, explains the limitations of climate change modeling and how he has been attacked by skeptics for simply stating that climate change is real. Green discusses his work on risk modeling and how the incorporation of risk modeling into regulation has been a mistake as it is treated as evidence but is actually just a statistical system of probability. He argues that the obsession with models has become the reality for the people in the climate change world, while for the rest of us, it is not. Currently, Green is working on a piece for Fraser called "Climate Change Models versus Measured," where he will analyze the discussion on temperature, sea level rise, and instrumental data over the past 150 years from the summary of technical summary of working group one of AR6.
• 00:35:00 In this section, IPCC expert reviewer Kenneth P. Green emphasizes the importance of empirical data and measurements in climate science rather than relying solely on modeling. He notes that the amount of data available is limited and not alarming on its own, and that extrapolating trends based simply on empirical evidence would not cause concern. Green takes issue with scientists confusing their models with reality and argues that modeling is not science because it cannot be tested or validated. He also comments on the current Canadian government's strong focus on climate change and their socialist approach to managing it.
• 00:40:00 In this section, Kenneth P. Green, an expert reviewer for the IPCC, discusses the Canadian government's commitment to Net Zero 2050, which aims to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. He believes that while Canadians are generally in favor of regulation and protecting the environment, they may not necessarily be supportive of the stringent guidelines put in place. Green also notes that the electric vehicle transition may not take off due to the high cost of batteries. He explains that the batteries have been packed with so much energy that the dielectrics can no longer keep the charge separated, resulting in charge leakage. Green suggests that investing in electric vehicles may not be the best option for individuals at this time.
• 00:45:00 In this section, the expert discusses the challenges of using battery technology for energy storage and transportation. He notes that there has been limited progress in battery technology since nickel cadmium batteries were invented several decades ago. Although lithium-ion batteries were a step forward, the technology has hit a wall and is not progressing further. The expert also highlights the danger of using lithium-ion batteries and the risks associated with storing large numbers of battery-powered vehicles in underground structures or during flooding.