Courtesy photo

BY DAVID REAGOR
White Rock

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of columns called “The War On Our Middle Class” by David Reagor and will be the topic of the first in a series of townhall meetings to be held on the third Thursday of every other month through the end of the summer. This meeting will occur March 19 at 6 pm in the Jeanette Wallace Room, Room 505, at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos.

The global campaign against Carbon Dioxide emissions has led to the passage of a Climate Action Plan in Los Alamos County. This plan includes a net zero electric grid and the eventual ban of natural gas. These plan measures are already underway and we have seen their initial impact on our utility rates in the county. Are these measures justified?

Carbon Dioxide has an infrared absorption spectrum that consists of sharp lines in the most important part of the Earths infrared emission spectrum. As the concentration of Carbon Dioxide is increased from zero to current values, the heat budget of the planet changes by several percent. A one percent change in the heat budget leads to roughly a 5 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature. The Carbon Dioxide effect is initially large! When the concentration of Carbon Dioxide reaches current values absorption in the infrared spectrum has saturated, and additional Carbon Dioxide has little energy to absorb. As the concentration increases past current values only a small linewidth effect remains, and the change is total heat budget will only be parts per thousand. The action of additional Carbon Dioxide on temperature is weak, but the effect on plant growth is large. A doubling in Carbon Dioxide will more than double plant growth. The current levels of Carbon dioxide are at the lower end of the historic range where plants have flourished. Any additional Carbon Dioxide improves crop production, forest growth, and generally benefits the Earth. 

The alarming temperature data shown to the public, often in the schools, shows quite a bit of warming, but it also has a pattern of day and night warming that indicates a weak correlation to Carbon Dioxide and a good correlation to local heat islands. In addition, we are already in a period of natural global warming that I will discuss in detail. The Climate Action Plan is based on intellectual confusion over sources and magnitudes of warming. There is an complicated history of how this confusion occurred and I will cover this is at the meeting.

If we wanted to go to carbon-free electricity we could just buy a nuclear reactor. The problem is that reactors produce hundreds of Megawatts and we only need 15-20 Megawatts. As a county we are so small that we neither impact the world nor can implement something simple and reliable to solve the problem. The state government or other large entities could easily decarbonize the grid with nuclear power, but they do not do it. Perhaps the real agenda is to transfer wealth out of the middle class to these leaders. Climate panic may just be an excuse.

Fear campaigns, such as climate hysteria, have become a common tool of government to manipulate the public. We saw the same thing during covid: Endless hectoring of the public by government officials, often using flawed science or poor logic. Intentional instigation of animosity or outright hatred by convincing the public that the skeptics of the government’s story were to be hated and punished. Oftentimes those telling the truth were punished personally and doctors were punished professionally just for asking hard questions. The odd part is how the national corporate media were never critical, just spreading inaccurate information as fast the government could make it up. It all made so little sense that perhaps the real agenda was a wealth transfer from the middle class to the government and corporate world. The disease may have just been an excuse.

This meeting will occur March 19 at 6 pm in the Jeanette Wallace room (room 505 at UNM-LA). The meetings in this series “The War on the Middle Class” will occur every other month on the third Thursday through the summer.