Everyone go to their corners, now, for a time out… Supporters and opponents of Sunflower Electric’s proposed 1,400 MW coal plants are all saying they are taking a break before the legislature comes back on April 30 (Garden City Telegram).
Of course, the coal plants won’t be the only issue on the agenda (even with two bills on the topic awaiting veto override attempts, plus two back-up bills in the wings) (Wichita Eagle). There’s also immigration, health care, and abortion. None of those are low profile issues. Not in Kansas.
In addition, there’s also the Board of Healing Arts, a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to hunt and fish, an important anti-stalking initiative, and protection for military parents against changes in child custody agreements after they return from deployment.
Wind farm in Cloud County. As reported by Sarah Kessinger, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Cloud County wind farm being developed by Horizon Wind will be this Friday (Hutch News). Located south of Concordia and spread over 20,000 acres leased from local landowners, the first phase of the Meridian Way Wind Farm will come in around 200 megawatts. Details have not yet been released about the terms of the deal between county commissioners and Horizon. Landowners will also receive annual payments.
Accuracy of climate models holding up well. The issue here is pretty easy to understand. The natural world is an incredibly complex entity. Even advanced forms of human understanding – like climate models, for example – can only approximate the complexity of natural systems.
The expectation for creating accurate climate models, then, is that they represent an accurately measured cross- section of the major climate factors, plus how these factors interact together.
And evidently, climate models have been doing so very well (NASA). A study recently completed at the University of Utah finds that: “current climate models are quite accurate and can be valuable tools for those seeking solutions on reversing global warming trends. Most of these models project a global warming trend that amounts to about 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years.”
The study looked at 50 models, including the U.S. models and the IPCC. (Patriotic moment: The U.S. models turned out to be one of the best in the world.) Quotable:
The many hours of studying models and comparing them with actual climate changes fulfills the increasing wish to know how much one can trust climate models and their predictions. Given the significance of climate change research in public policy, the study’s results also provide important response to critics of global warming. Earlier this year, working group one of the IPCC released its fourth global warming report. The University of Utah study results directly relate to this highly publicized report by showing that the models used for the IPCC paper have reached an unprecedented level of realism.
Note, though (as always): Climate models are PROJECTIONS. Not PREDICTIONS. Humans don’t know the future. They can only try to prepare for it.
— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org
