Climate Change Reconsidered II
Biological Impacts
© 2014, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change and Science and Environmental Policy Project
Published by THE HEARTLAND INSTITUTE
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Please use the following citation for this report:
Idso, C.D, Idso, S.B., Carter, R.M., and Singer, S.F. (Eds.) 2014. Climate Change
Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts. Chicago, IL: The Heartland Institute.
This print version is black and white. A color version is available
for free online at
www.climatechangereconsidered.org.
ISBN-13 – 978-1-934791-43-1
ISBN-10 – 1-934791-43-1
2014
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Foreword
For the past five years, The Heartland Institute has
been proud to partner with the Center for the Study of
Carbon Dioxide and Global Change and the Science
and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) to produce
authoritative and independent assessments of the
latest science concerning climate change. The present
volume in the Climate Change Reconsidered series
focuses on the biological impacts of rising
temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)
levels.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) insists that rising
temperatures and CO2 levels have harmful effects on
Earth’s plant and animal life. But as this report
demonstrates, IPCC’s claims are at odds with literally
thousands of real-world observations, model-based
projections, and laboratory and in-the-field experi
ments. The reality is that the world is getting greener
over time as plants, animals, and humans benefit from
higher temperatures and CO2-enriched air.
NIPCC: A Brief History
The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate
Change, or NIPCC, is an international panel of
scientists and scholars who came together to
understand the causes and consequences of climate
change. NIPCC has no formal attachment to or
sponsorship from any government or government
agency.
NIPCC seeks to objectively analyze and interpret
data and facts without conforming to any specific
agenda. This organizational structure and purpose
stand in contrast to those of IPCC, which is
government-sponsored, politically motivated, and
predisposed to believing that climate change is a
problem in need of a U.N. solution.
NIPCC traces its beginnings to an informal
meeting held in Milan, Italy in 2003 organized by Dr.
S. Fred Singer and the Science and Environmental
Policy Project (SEPP). The purpose was to produce
an independent evaluation of the available scientific
evidence on the subject of carbon dioxide-induced
global warming in anticipation of the release of
IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (AR4). NIPCC
scientists concluded IPCC was biased with respect to
making future projections of climate change,
discerning a significant human-induced influence on
current and past climatic trends, and evaluating the
impacts of potential carbon dioxide-induced environ
mental changes on Earth’s biosphere.
To highlight such deficiencies in IPCC’s AR4, in
2008 SEPP partnered with The Heartland Institute to
produce Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the
Climate. In 2009, the Center for the Study of Carbon
Dioxide and Global Change joined the original two
sponsors to produce Climate Change Reconsidered:
The 2009 Report of the Nongovernmental Inter
national Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), the first
comprehensive alternative to the alarmist reports of
IPCC.
In 2010, a Web site (
www.nipccreport.org) was
created to highlight scientific studies NIPCC
scientists believed likely would be downplayed or
ignored by IPCC during preparation of its next
assessment report. In 2011, the three sponsoring
organizations produced
Climate Change
Reconsidered: The 2011 Interim Report of the Non
governmental International Panel on Climate Change
(NIPCC).
In 2013, a division of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences translated and published an abridged edition
of the 2009 and 2011 NIPCC reports in a single
volume. Also in 2013, NIPCC released Climate
Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science, the first of
v
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
three volumes bringing the original 2009 report up-to
date with research from the 2011 Interim Report plus
research as current as the third quarter of 2013. A new
Web site was created (
www.ClimateChange Reconsidered.org) to feature the new report and
future volumes, including the current one, and news
about their release.
The current volume is the second volume in the
Climate Change Reconsidered II series, subtitled
Biological Impacts. A third and final volume,
subtitled Human Welfare, Energy, and Policies, is
also being released in 2014.
CCR II: Biological Impacts
In this new report, Lead Authors/Editors Craig D.
Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer have been
joined by a fourth author, Sherwood B. Idso, one of
the world’s most distinguished soil scientists and
authorities on the impact of CO2 on plants. Together,
they worked with a team of more than 30 scientists
from 13 countries to produce a report that is
comprehensive, objective, and faithful to the
scientific method. The sheer size of this volume—
more than 1,000 pages and containing references to
thousands of peer-reviewed articles and books—
suggests what an extraordinary research, writing, and
editing endeavor this turned out to be.
As they did for previous volumes in the Climate
Change Reconsidered series, NIPCC authors paid
special attention to peer-reviewed articles that were
either overlooked by IPCC or that contain data,
discussion, or implications arguing against IPCC’s
claim that “human interference” in the global climate
has “dangerous” consequences for the natural world
and human populations. They found a large body of
evidence produced by thousands of scientists over the
Diane Carol Bast
Executive Editor
The Heartland Institute
vi
course of many years that directly challenges IPCC’s
narrative. Study after study reveals that warming
produces more benefits than harms for a wide range
of plants and animals and, not insignificantly, humans
as well. So plentiful is the research and so clear are
the conclusions that one can only wonder how IPCC’s
authors overlooked them.
The Lead Authors/Editors briefly discuss their
perspective and findings in the Preface, followed by
an Executive Summary beginning on page 1 sum
marizing the volume’s principal findings. Most
notably, its authors say IPCC has exaggerated the
negative impacts of global warming and rising
atmospheric CO2 levels: “We find no net harm to the
global environment or to human health, and often find
the opposite: net benefits to plants, including
important food crops, and to animals and human
health.”
Acknowledgements
As we did in the forewords of previous volumes in
the Climate Change Reconsidered series, we extend
our sincere thanks and appreciation to the scientists
and other experts who helped write this report and its
precursors, to those who conducted the original
research that is summarized and cited, and to those
who participated in the peer-review process. Editors
could not hope to work for a team of wiser, more
distinguished, or more patient writers.
Funding for this effort once again came from
three family foundations, none of them having any
commercial interest in the topic. We thank them for
their generosity. No government or corporate funds
were solicited or received to support this project.
S.T. Karnick
Research Director
The Heartland Institute
https://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
