The Week That Was: 2024 04-13
The Week That Was: 2024 04-13 (April 13, 2024)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week:
"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."
- Albert Einstein [H/t Jim Steele]
Number of the Week:
200 to 500 centimeters (80 to 200 inches) per century
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: Ed Calabrese published another paper showing that the LNT model is based on a significant omission of evidence, an activity that is common in environmental science today. In their monthly temperature report Spencer, Christy, and the UAH science team demonstrate an integrity that is lacking in the temperature reports of NOAA and NASA-GISS. Most climate commentators ignore the dominant change to Earth from increased CO2 – global greening. Advocates of "ocean acidification" have misled the public by ignoring ocean chemistry. Effects of UN false claims about climate change are showing up in European courts. The US EPA continues to abuse its respected position by making absurd claims about chemicals.
Non-Science: Edward Calabrese and Paul Selbe had a paper published in the Archives of Toxicology demonstrating additional research efforts that were hidden in establishing the widely used and unworthy linear no-threshold model (LNT). The paper "Muller and mutations: mouse study of George Snell (a postdoc of Muller) fails to confirm Muller's fruit fly findings, and Muller fails to cite Snell's findings" is one more example of the poor science that went into the LNT. The abstract states:
"In 1931, Hermann J. Muller's postdoctoral student, George D. Snell (Nobel Prize recipient–1980) initiated research to replicate with mice Muller's X-ray-induced mutational findings with fruit flies. Snell failed to induce the two types of mutations of interest, based on fly data (sex-linked lethal/recessive visible mutations) even though the study was well designed, used large doses of X-rays, and was published in Genetics. These findings were never cited by Muller, and the Snell paper (Snell, Genetics 20:545–567, 1935) did not cite the 1927 Muller paper (Muller, Science 66:84, 1927). This situation raises questions concerning how Snell wrote the paper (e.g., ignoring the significance of not providing support for Muller's findings in a mammal). The question may be raised whether professional pressures were placed upon Snell to downplay the significance of his findings, which could have negatively impacted the career of Muller and the LNT theory."
The US EPA and the UN World Health Organization have gone on to declare hundreds of thousands of premature deaths without any confirmation of disease and its severity from particulate matter, namely PM2.5, less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which can be easily inhaled and exhaled by the human body. The EPA website states:
"Health Effects The size of particles is directly linked to their potential for causing health problems. Small particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter pose the greatest problems, because they can get deep into your lungs, and some may even get into your bloodstream. Exposure to such particles can affect both your lungs and your heart. Numerous scientific studies have linked particle pollution exposure to a variety of problems, including: premature death in people with heart or lung diseases nonfatal heart attacks irregular heartbeat aggravated asthma decreased lung function. increased respiratory symptoms, such as irritation of the airways, coughing or difficulty breathing. People with heart or lung diseases, children, and older adults are the most likely to be affected by particle pollution exposure."
The website includes environmental damage and materials damage, which have no relation to human health. Independent researchers have been unable to uncover any compelling physical evidence or rigorous statistical evidence of increases in human deaths from exposure to PM2.5. Certainly, when yellow dust from Mongolia engulfs much of east China and Korea as it has since the 1300s, we should be seeing mass deaths, yet simple preventive measures such as using cloths over noses and mouths seem to work for the natives. Some plant pollen which may trigger allergies is as small as 2.5 microns, such as forget-me-not flowers. As discussed below, the EPA is extending such sloppy science to claim certain chemicals are a hazard to human health. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, Defending the Orthodoxy, and Litigation Issues.
Scientific Integrity: Roy Spencer and John Christy and their team at the Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama, Huntsville produced their report on March temperatures as measured by satellites. Part of the text states:
"March's global atmospheric temperature anomaly crept up to +0.95 °C (+1.71 °F) and continued