Bill Walker and Mark Begich are in terminal pander mode in their run for governor, telling who they think their constituents are whatever they think they want to hear. And those constituents include the climatistas, the renewable energy aficionados, and the self-congratulating libs who demand we all do something, anything, to make the world a better place, even though what they demand we do ends up making the world a worse place for actual human beings to remain alive and prosper.
Climate change, AKA, manmade global warming due to CO2 emissions, came up as a topic during a debate between the gubernatorial candidates last week in Southeast Alaska. All three gave the expected responses, with Senator Dunleavy being somewhat noncommittal, and Walker and Begich crawling over one another to virtue signal that they were doing or would be doing everything humanly possible to ensure a forecasted warming would be stopped in its tracks due their prescient actions so that it couldn’t harm Alaskans.
Their solution? Walker put together a climate change task force, chaired by a young lady from Seattle who flies in and out of state for meetings. Mark was a supportive climatista during his time in the US Senate (yet another reason he is a former US Senator). Expect more of the same should he be elected. https://www.ktoo.org/2018/06/27/governors-climate-change-task-force-adds-science-education-to-draft-plan/
So what is the next governor to do to fend off climate change, AKA manmade global warming due to CO2 emissions?
The first thing would be to acknowledge that Alaska, while large in surface area, is a miniscule player in the emissions game. Alaska simply doesn’t have enough people or industry to make either a positive or negative impact. While it would be fun and a logical layup to refute the fraudulent notion that CO2 (plant food) is a pollutant, I won’t go there other than making the following two observations:
- CO2 levels in the atmosphere are a lagging indicator of global temperature increases. Every single ice core over the last million years capturing ten ice ages show this. The lag is generally 600 – 800 years. The current CO2 increase is taking place right on schedule following the end of the Little Ice Age. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/09/09/empirical-evidence-shows-temperature-increases-before-co2-increase-in-all-records/
- Due to increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere, total coverage of greenery worldwide is up by over 11% over the last 20 years. Satellite data show that global forest coverage over the last 35 years is up by 7.2%. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/about-those-vanishing-forests.php
Alaska simply does not have enough people creating enough emissions for any significant change in emissions to make a measurable impact on global temperatures. OTOH, as a state located in the cold part of the world, governmental action on energy can most certainly determine how many people are helped, harmed and who gets to live and die.
The single most important thing that an Alaskan governor can do to address climate change is to ensure there is a robust, affordable, source of energy for Alaskan citizens in the future. Regardless of which direction the global temperature goes (my official bet is it will get colder due to the quiet sun), a robust supply of inexpensive, abundant electricity, fuels, and natural gas made available to all citizens in the state, will allow this economy to grow and our neighbors to take care of themselves and one another.
We will not get there with tidal, wind or solar electrical generation techniques, which are expensive, fragile, intermittent, require storage, and rely on elements mined in China. They also have the added attraction of being singularly unable to supply vehicular fuels.
OTOH, we can get there with a Watana Dam, small modular reactors, Gas to Liquids (GTL) and Coal to Liquids (CTL) refineries.
The next governor will make a lot of long range decisions in this regard. We should make sure he chooses wisely for the good of All Alaskans rather than stroking the pseudo-religious beliefs of an interest group he is pandering to during this election season.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
