Another Bad Day for the Cooch

The hapless Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli received another blow to his Machiavellian witch hunt against climate scientists.  The US Environmental Protection Agency rejected 10 petitions challenging its 2009 determination that purported that climate change is real, due to greenhouse gases, derived largely from human activity, and threatens human health as well as the environment. In essence the EPA refused to reconsider its Endangerment Finding asserting that climate science imperils the earth and its inhabitants.  AS the Sierra club noted in its pres release:

After months of serious consideration of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA finds no evidence to support these claims. In contrast, EPA’s review shows that climate science is credible, compelling, and growing stronger.

Here are a few of the results of the EPA investigation.  Contrary to the claimants allegations:

• A review of every email revealed, as did four other independent reviews, no evidence of deception or wrongdoing.

• There were only two errors in a 3,000 page report.  One pertains to the rate of Himalayan glacier melt.  The other related to the percentage of Netherlands below sea level.  Neither undermined the basic finding, that climate is changing and threatens us all.

• It is false that certain studies were omitted in the IPCC report.  In fact, the studies in question were included.

• New studies do not refute evidence supporting the Endangerment Finding. Petitioners actually misinterpreted the findings, which support the Endangerment Finding.  However, other studies submitted by the petitioners were based upon unsound methodologies.  The EPA details the issues in volume one of the response to the petition documents on its website.

You can find more at the EPA website. For additional resources, you can go to the sites listed below the fold.

 

Find EPA Climate Change report here.

Find America’s Climate Choices (from the National Research Council) here.

Find NOAA’s State of Climate Report here.

Find the EPA Climate Change indicators here.