The Brits apparently don’t have a stiff upper lip when it comes to climate change.That’s because Canadian culture warrior Jordan Peterson is courting more contrarian controversy — this time over claims that burning fossil fuels is good for the environment.In a podcast with equally controversial UK politician Nigel Farage this week, Peterson said NASA data shows “the influx of carbon dioxide from the fossil fuel industry into the atmosphere is actually a net ecological good.”“In the last 20 years alone, the planet has greened by an area factor of 20%.”According to NASA data most of that ‘greening’ has come from a least likely source: China. Satellite data has shown China alone has contributed a net 25% to the planet’s increase in green leafy area.After eight tries, Farage was finally elected to Parliament in the UK elections last week..But Peterson critics said the net greening was due to a massive geo-engineering program to halt — and reverse — the growth of the Gobi Desert. Since the 1970s, the Chinese military has planted tens of billions of trees to halt desertification within its own borders and has redeployed soldiers from front line positions to undertake the task.Dubbed the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, or ‘the Great Green Wall,’ the project aims to construct large strips of woodland to prevent damaging dust storms.But more recent studies indicate that any of the benefits to global vegetation gained from higher levels of greenhouse gases from 1982-1998 — due to either China and India's agricultural revolutions — have now taken a sharp turn for the worse. In fact, global vegetation levels are now ‘browning’ due to what researchers are calling a deficit of atmospheric water vapour due to higher global temperatures, according to satellite data..“It's like there's a pump in the air, and the pump extracts the water from the soil and plants via the vascular tissue. When the (water vapour deficit) increases,” lead study author Dr. Wenping Yuan from Peking University told Newsweek. “Then the pump extracts the water faster and stronger.”“The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere will increase if other conditions do not change, which will result in a stronger greenhouse gas effect.”Peterson has been blasted by the likes of NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt who appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to accuse him of “not knowing what the hell a climate model is.” For his part, Peterson has accused his critics of being “informed by the Club of Rome 'overpopulation' doomsayers,” in reference to the European non-profit group which he believes has engaged in an agenda-driven disinformation campaign.
The Brits apparently don’t have a stiff upper lip when it comes to climate change.That’s because Canadian culture warrior Jordan Peterson is courting more contrarian controversy — this time over claims that burning fossil fuels is good for the environment.In a podcast with equally controversial UK politician Nigel Farage this week, Peterson said NASA data shows “the influx of carbon dioxide from the fossil fuel industry into the atmosphere is actually a net ecological good.”“In the last 20 years alone, the planet has greened by an area factor of 20%.”According to NASA data most of that ‘greening’ has come from a least likely source: China. Satellite data has shown China alone has contributed a net 25% to the planet’s increase in green leafy area.After eight tries, Farage was finally elected to Parliament in the UK elections last week..But Peterson critics said the net greening was due to a massive geo-engineering program to halt — and reverse — the growth of the Gobi Desert. Since the 1970s, the Chinese military has planted tens of billions of trees to halt desertification within its own borders and has redeployed soldiers from front line positions to undertake the task.Dubbed the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, or ‘the Great Green Wall,’ the project aims to construct large strips of woodland to prevent damaging dust storms.But more recent studies indicate that any of the benefits to global vegetation gained from higher levels of greenhouse gases from 1982-1998 — due to either China and India's agricultural revolutions — have now taken a sharp turn for the worse. In fact, global vegetation levels are now ‘browning’ due to what researchers are calling a deficit of atmospheric water vapour due to higher global temperatures, according to satellite data..“It's like there's a pump in the air, and the pump extracts the water from the soil and plants via the vascular tissue. When the (water vapour deficit) increases,” lead study author Dr. Wenping Yuan from Peking University told Newsweek. “Then the pump extracts the water faster and stronger.”“The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere will increase if other conditions do not change, which will result in a stronger greenhouse gas effect.”Peterson has been blasted by the likes of NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt who appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to accuse him of “not knowing what the hell a climate model is.” For his part, Peterson has accused his critics of being “informed by the Club of Rome 'overpopulation' doomsayers,” in reference to the European non-profit group which he believes has engaged in an agenda-driven disinformation campaign.
