Summary of #40 - Jim Steele: “Wrong analyses produce bad remedies”

00:00:00 - 00:40:00

Ecologist Jim Steele argues that climate change predictions based solely on atmospheric chemistry fail to consider the complexities of ecosystems, and carbon dioxide plays a minor role in the overall ecosystem, resulting in benefits such as increased growth and warming. Steele suggests that bad analyses produce bad remedies, leading to misguided solutions and poor decision-making. He emphasizes the need to analyze data correctly and find the right remedy. Steele notes that the warming of the earth is not due to CO2 but rather from different reasons, and the notion that CO2 is warming the oceans is misplaced, as infrared from greenhouse gases does not penetrate any deeper than the upper millimeters of the ocean's surface. Steele emphasizes the importance of considering dynamics such as moisture and cloud cover.

• 00:00:00 In this section, ecologist Jim Steele explains that climate change predictions made by scientists who study atmospheric chemistry, such as Jim Hansen, are often inaccurate as they fail to consider the complexities of ecosystems, such as changes in hydrology, landscape, and previous history. Steele explains that as an ecologist, he has found that carbon dioxide is a minor player in the overall ecosystem and that it has resulted in benefits such as increased growth and warming. Steele goes on to illustrate his point by sharing his experience studying and restoring wet meadows in the Sierra Nevada. He explains that one of the meadows dried up due to a railroad track disrupting the hydrology and heavy El Nino rains further drying out the water table, emphasizing that one needs to consider changes in landscape to truly understand climate change's impact.
• 00:05:00 In this section, Jim Steele discusses the importance of analyzing data correctly and finding the right remedy. He challenges the knee-jerk reaction to address CO2 levels and reduce natural gas usage as a solution to fixing the environment. Steele explains how variations in temperature extremes such as maximum and minimum temperatures can lead to misleading information about the change in temperature. He highlights the story of Parmesan’s climate change catastrophe study and her refusal to share the data, which highlights the attempt to deny Skeptics from being able to look at stuff by calling them deniers.
• 00:10:00 In this section, Jim Steele argues that bad analyses produce bad remedies, and gives examples related to global warming and bird population. Steele claims that bad analyses lead to misguided solutions such as helping animals to move north because of global warming and even blocking the sun with balloons to stop CO2 emissions. Steele points out that analysis of bird population has been also inaccurate, and that data pushed by organizations such as Audubon, Union for Concerned Scientists, and the World Wildlife Fund should be taken with caution. Overall, Steele implies that misinterpretation of data could lead to poor decision making that could actually worsen the situation.
• 00:15:00 In this section, the speaker notes that people migrate to warmer places for their health and longevity, which contradicts the narrative that people are dying because of climate change. He also highlights the flaws in analyzing urban heat islands and shows a picture of how vegetation affects temperature. The speaker notes that the natural ecosystem has been improving with less hunting and repairing of landscapes, and that climate-related deaths have decreased compared to past records. However, politicians are manipulating people by weaponizing natural weather events and the public is being exposed to alarmist rhetoric. The speaker also mentions that the EPA data shows that heat waves were worse in the 1930s due to ocean and atmospheric circulations caused by human activity.
• 00:20:00 In this section, Jim Steele discusses how weather events are weaponized to promote climate change agendas. He explains that temperature records can be misleading because they do not reflect the reason for the heat or cold. Steele also cites past droughts and wildfires to explain how climate change is not always to blame for natural disasters. Instead, people need to understand how weather works and how to manage their environment to prevent these disasters. He suggests controlling ground fuels to prevent forest fires and eliminating bush cover that carries fire up into the trees. Steele argues that droughts have nothing to do with global warming, but are caused by moisture transport from the ocean to the land.
• 00:25:00 In this section, Jim Steele explains that the warming of the earth is not due to CO2, but rather from different reasons. He mentions how the El Nino and La Nina cycles work, where warm water is stored at 200 meters, which then comes to the surface during an El Nino. Steele notes that during an El Nino, the air temperature may be warmer, but the ocean is cooler until it returns to neutral or La Nina conditions. Additionally, Steele explains how heat is transported across the ocean during these cycles and shows how the oceans absorb heat during La Nina-like conditions. Steele concludes that the warming in the Arctic is not due to CO2 but rather from the fact that the oceans are cooling.
• 00:30:00 In this section, biologist Jim Steele discusses how the transfer of heat from the tropics into the Arctic is responsible for the melting of ice in the region. Steele notes that the warming Arctic has increased productivity through increased photosynthesis, which benefits the food chain by increasing the amount of plankton that feeds seals and polar bears. Steele also claims that the increase in Arctic sea ice that occurred during the Holocene Optimum occurred during a time of relative warmth, which suggests that current concerns about polar bear extinction are exaggerated. Steele further argues that climate oscillations and cooling phases, such as the Atlantic multi-decadal oscillation, may result in Arctic sea ice returning by 2030.
• 00:35:00 In this section, Jim Steele explains that the notion that CO2 is warming the oceans is misplaced. Infrared from greenhouse gases does not penetrate any deeper than the upper millimeters of the ocean's surface, which is then radiated out to control the temperature. As such, heat that goes deeper below the skin does not reach the surface and cannot do anything to the climate; it gets stuck there, as seen during La Niñas, until an El Niño brings it up. Steele argues that most of the data he presents are from published papers, which have already been peer-reviewed; hence the narrative that CO2 is causing global warming and the resulting climate change is misplaced and unscientific.
• 00:40:00 In this section, Jim Steele discusses the possibility of sea ice forming in the Arctic as a result of less heat being transported into the North. He also suggests that a lot of global warming is being pushed by Arctic heat ventilation, rather than CO2 warming. Steele emphasizes the importance of considering Dynamics such as moisture and cloud cover, and reminds us to look at the causes of temperature changes rather than immediately attributing them to global warming.