Norton, Virginia as seen from Flag Rock.

Environmentalism 50 Years of Observation

by Lewis Loflin


In May 2022, I will be 65 years old. I've followed earth science and nature since my early teens. Applied science is my passion. I have read mountains of literature on environmentalism for at least 50 years. That is in addition to science in college.

My mistrust originates from the waste and fraud I observed surrounding millions in government spending wasted on "Green" hype. The poor people in Appalachia need more than empty "Green" research centers.

I deal only with applied science and empirical data. I reject computer models being used to justify government policy. I demand full disclosure of data and methods.

Please note all links on this page will open a new window.

The waste, fraud, and abuse of government grants across Southwest Virginia prove full public disclosure on these issues are vital to the general welfare. That includes EPA regulations.

The public must become more scientifically literate. Far back as President Eisenhower's Farwell Address warned of the scientific-industrial complex can be detrimental to the public good.

The public has a right to know the basis of decisions that impact their lives. Secrecy led to the squandering of millions of public dollars in Southwest Virginia.

Why Public Disclosure is a Right. New window will open.

Scientific method for public policy.
Scientific method for public policy.

I take this issue seriously. Political controversy aside, these decisions can ruin lives, wreck the economy, and threaten our civil liberties. We have to get this right.

In August 2019, I came across a 1975 National Academy of Sciences study, "Understanding Climatic Change A program for Action." It exactly confirms what I learned in earth science. Climate is dynamic and ever-changing. The introduction has a superb account of past abrupt climate change into the 20th Century.

This startling admission call into question recent claims:

A striking feature of the instrumental record is the behavior of temperature worldwide. As shown by Mitchell (1970), the average surface air temperature in the northern hemisphere increased from the 1880's until about 1940 and has been decreasing thereafter ... during the period 1958-1963, the hemisphere's (mass-weighted) mean temperature decreased by about 0.6 °C. In that period the polar and subtropical arid regions experienced the greatest cooling. The cause of this variation is not known, although clearly this trend cannot continue indefinitely.

Climate thumpers use the figure of the 1975 baseline for higher temperatures because it followed a severe cooling trend. It looks scary. Go back to 1940 not scary at all.

The NASA Earth Observatory claims "The majority of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15 to 0.20°C per decade." That should total out to 0.15 X 5 decades = 0.57 deg. C, subtract the 0.6 deg. C drop from 1940 to 1975 = 0.1 deg. C since 1940. NASA keeps going back to 1880 when they know damn well the warming began prior to 1850, but temperatures dropped due to volcanic eruptions such as Tambora (~1815) and Krakatoa (~October 1883).

See 1975 Government Study Raises Climate Alarm extracts. A new window will open.

The 1975 Academy of Sciences paper proves Government agencies such as NOAA and NASA altered data collected prior to 2000 to fit a political narrative.

I deal only with the scientific method. The government spent over $1 billion where I live to rebuild a rural Southwest and Southside Virginia economy.

The money was awarded based on ideology. Central planning was the key. Central planning relies on "experts." Millions went to "experts."

Millions went into "green energy" research, etc. "Experts" claimed this was the future. "Green" was the word for government money. "Experts" got rich.

The Virginia Tobacco Commission spent $100-$200 million on related Green programs. The results were predictable. I was proven right - 100% failure.

Some see Green as a key to political and social change. Others holding Nature as divine. We dare not defile the divine. Gaia must be left in a "pristine" state.

I'm not having any of this rubbish.

How about Exide Battery in Bristol Tennessee? They were awarded around $35 million under the guise of Green technology. Gone. $9 million awarded to a wholesale plant nursery to develop oil from switch grass? Gone. $140 million awarded to Green energy research centers including one here in Bristol Virginia? Empty.

What about saltwater and fresh water fish farming in Appalachia? Failed. Eco-tourism? Failed. Carbon capture research? Failed. Failed. Failed.

It felt good. It satisfied a political agenda. They forgot the scientific method.

They failed to adhere to the scientific method. They were doomed from the start. To avoid more failure we have to return to non-politicized science.

I can hear the groans now - science. Not just fun stories of dinosaurs or pictures of cute little polar bears, but hard data and more data. Just because the data isn't what one desires doesn't change the data. You never alter the data. That is scientific fraud.

Above are the vast healthy forest that cover 90% or more of Appalachia. In this case my hometown of Norton, Virginia. The strip mines have long grown over and the region is awash in deer and black bear - in fact some areas are getting overrun.

In East Tennessee bears are invading towns and have to be shot. We have so many auto accidents involving deer I drive home slowly from work after hitting three myself. When I grew up in the 1960-70s we were warned ecological collapse was due any day.

Why as a Bristol resident should we be concerned with climate change hysteria? For the last 50 years it has been ecological collapse any day. The proposed solutions would do zero about climate anything. It would further destroy what little of rural America globalism hasn't already destroyed.

Paradise California Fire Product of Nature, Human Error The Paradise Ca. Fire was not caused by President Trump or Human induced climate change. Any fool could see this coming and they did nothing to mitigate the threat. This drought problem will get worse and started 800 years ago.

Summary: Coming of age in the 1970s I grew up reading about impending ice ages, mass starvation, resource depletion, etc. 50 years of alarmism and failed predictions is why I'm skeptical of such claims today - I believed them then, not today.

With a broad background in science and technology I'm a stickler for the scientific method, not merely "authority". I hate religion and religious concepts. Technology and economic freedom are key to solving many of our problems in relation to the environment.

See Lewis Loflin Electronics Background Biography.

This is a story of my journey to skeptic to what has become to me a another failed ideology. Climate change is the latest iteration of a decades old desire to re-engineer society. To found a new belief system more in tune with New Age spiritualism and deadly opposed to traditional Christian and Western culture.

The Bible with a transcendent deity places man above Nature; the new Green faith places the Earth (Gaia) above humanity.

For the record I am NOT a Christian and never have been. I'm a rationalist. I believe in science and technology, not the corrupted nonsense that passes for government funded science today. Science is often funded to get an expected result to justify desired public policy.

Prior to the Manhattan Project that gave us the nuclear bomb under FDR, science research was funded by private money - America was the greatest innovator in the world.

Two books stand out as to why I consider environmentalism not science but religion. Al Gore's Book Earth in the Balance (1992) proves conclusively in his own words he is on a religious crusade. I own the book.

Another influence is The Ages of Gaia (1988) by James Lovelock. He addresses how his Gaia hypothesis has become a religion. Yes, he uses the word "religion" - his words not mine. This was to defend his original book Gaia, a new look at life on earth. (1979)

Science 101

Ref. www.nasa.gov 11/17/2008 "Water vapor confirmed as major player in climate change."

10% of the earth's water is water vapor. Plants use water for photosynthesis which releases water into the atmosphere through. Plants produce water vapor as does the oceans and surface water evaporation. More vegetation more water vapor more LOCAL climate variation, more water more plants, etc. The process is known as transpiration.

Water vapor can be as high as 4% of the atmosphere or 40,000 PPM. Formula = N% X 10,000

CO2 is 400 PPM depending on temperature. Warm water holds less CO2 than cold water. The atmosphere is 0.04% CO2.

Ratio of water vapor to CO2 is 100 to 1.

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