The Sleight of Hand in the Disingenuous 4th National Climate Assessment
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Foreword
This report was originally written in mid-2019 in the hope that it would be published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute which had expressed an interest in its results. After some very slow editorial adjustments, its publication was postponed by the appearance of Covid. When Covid came to an end it was supposed to be published alongside a report by Pat Michaels. But it was left in abeyance when Michaels died last year. It only recently dawned on me that I could probably publish it on this website and I offer my thanks for the opportunity to do so.
Editor’s Note
With the imminent release of the 5th NCA expected sometime in the next few months, we felt this piece would be an excellent lens through which to view the upcoming report.
By Stan Liebowitz, Ashbel Smith Professor, Department of Economics and Finance, School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas
Most of the analysis and disputation regarding climate change is centered on how many degrees the climate is expected to warm over the current century. But an equally important question that has not received as much attention is whether there will be much economic harm from global warming. US legislation has required that the government study how an increase in temperature might affect the US economy in addition to the question of how much warming might take place.[1] These analyses, in the form of National Climate Assessments, take place every four years, with the last one (the fourth) in 2018 and the next one due in 2022.
On November 29, 2018, Black Friday, the federal government published Volume 2 of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NA4), a 1,500+ page document examining the future economic cost of climate change.[2] The fact that it was made public during a holiday weekend was interpreted by many in the media as ominous evidence that the Trump administration was trying hide the report to limit political damage. The report, which the media nonetheless reported with great fanfare, was described as “dire” in The Atlantic, CNN, and Politico, as predicting “mass deaths and mayhem” by CBS News, “collapse and ruin” by Wired, and as demonstrating that “we’re screwed” according to Gizmodo.[3]
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/19/the-sleight-of-hand-in-the-disingenuous-4th-national-climate-assessment/
