Thanks to the birddogging efforts of John Robson, I learned that the Thomas Reuters Foundation has its feet mired in the messy pseudo science of climate-social injustice, as the foundation terms it. The foundation even has a “specialist,” Sharon Kits Kamathi, its current editor of Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Robson birddogs the statements of climate alarmists and counters their assumptions and data on his CDN Youtube channel and in his newsletter. **
In his episode “Chilly Canada Day,” Robson takes to task Kamathi’s social media post in which she says, “More than 300 million people live in 20 of the world’s most populous capital cities, where they are uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures fueled by climate change, as asphalt and buildings absorb and retain heat.” Robson points out that the urban heat island effect has always made urban areas warmer than rural areas in the same climate zones.
Three Dog Night
Just put a bunch of people in an enclosed room for awhile to see how their body temperatures alone can raise the room’s temperature. It’s the Three Dog Night effect: On a really cold night, snuggle up with your dog; colder nights might require two or three dogs for warmth.
We animals burn food to produce infrared radiation. Gather enough of us, and we can heat a building; if fact, at 2 Rue de Beaubourg in Paris an apartment building gets 35% of its heat from people in the nearby metro station. And in Sweden, where 250,000 people pass through Stockholm Central, body heat is used to warm a nearby building called Kungsbrohuset, reducing the need for traditional heating sources by 10%.*** That people can heat people was even an experiment by Hitler’s perverse doctors who had two naked women get into bed with a Jewish man they had submerged in icy water (as reported in The Third Reich). Yes, all animals, from yaks to humans can warm others by excessive body heat.
Cows and horses know this as they huddle on cold winter days. How did this escape Sharon Kits Kamathi?
So, yes, the urban heat island with not only humans crowded together, but also with asphalt and tarred roofs can, and does, raise local temperature. Asphalt has a low albedo unlike ice, for example, which reflects as much as 90% of incoming solar radiation. Ever play basketball on an urban asphalt court in summer? I have. It’s hot. Certainly, Sharon experienced low albedo environments sometime in her life.
The world is now crowded with climate alarmists who can’t separate data from belief or physical processes from ideology. That there are so many alarmists makes me think of Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)”:
Open up the window, let some air into this room
I think I'm almost chokin' from the smell of stale perfume
And that cigarette you're smokin' 'bout scare me half to death
Open up the window, sucker, let me catch my breath.
Cities are like rooms. The 20 most populous capital cities are like crowded rooms of partygoers pumping heat from bodies and materials into the surrounding environment.
*Sharon Kits Kamathi is the creator, curator and editor of the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter and the Sustainable Business vertical on Reuters.com. She joined Reuters after a stint as the Inclusive Economies Editor at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She enjoys writing about the intersection between climate and social injustice and can be contacted via email for ESG-related queries.
**See CDN episode titled “Chilly Canada Day.”
***See BBC online. Charmaine Lee. September 2020. “The Buildings Heated by Human Warmth.”
In his episode “Chilly Canada Day,” Robson takes to task Kamathi’s social media post in which she says, “More than 300 million people live in 20 of the world’s most populous capital cities, where they are uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures fueled by climate change, as asphalt and buildings absorb and retain heat.” Robson points out that the urban heat island effect has always made urban areas warmer than rural areas in the same climate zones.
Three Dog Night
Just put a bunch of people in an enclosed room for awhile to see how their body temperatures alone can raise the room’s temperature. It’s the Three Dog Night effect: On a really cold night, snuggle up with your dog; colder nights might require two or three dogs for warmth.
We animals burn food to produce infrared radiation. Gather enough of us, and we can heat a building; if fact, at 2 Rue de Beaubourg in Paris an apartment building gets 35% of its heat from people in the nearby metro station. And in Sweden, where 250,000 people pass through Stockholm Central, body heat is used to warm a nearby building called Kungsbrohuset, reducing the need for traditional heating sources by 10%.*** That people can heat people was even an experiment by Hitler’s perverse doctors who had two naked women get into bed with a Jewish man they had submerged in icy water (as reported in The Third Reich). Yes, all animals, from yaks to humans can warm others by excessive body heat.
Cows and horses know this as they huddle on cold winter days. How did this escape Sharon Kits Kamathi?
So, yes, the urban heat island with not only humans crowded together, but also with asphalt and tarred roofs can, and does, raise local temperature. Asphalt has a low albedo unlike ice, for example, which reflects as much as 90% of incoming solar radiation. Ever play basketball on an urban asphalt court in summer? I have. It’s hot. Certainly, Sharon experienced low albedo environments sometime in her life.
The world is now crowded with climate alarmists who can’t separate data from belief or physical processes from ideology. That there are so many alarmists makes me think of Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)”:
Open up the window, let some air into this room
I think I'm almost chokin' from the smell of stale perfume
And that cigarette you're smokin' 'bout scare me half to death
Open up the window, sucker, let me catch my breath.
Cities are like rooms. The 20 most populous capital cities are like crowded rooms of partygoers pumping heat from bodies and materials into the surrounding environment.
*Sharon Kits Kamathi is the creator, curator and editor of the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter and the Sustainable Business vertical on Reuters.com. She joined Reuters after a stint as the Inclusive Economies Editor at the Thomson Reuters Foundation. She enjoys writing about the intersection between climate and social injustice and can be contacted via email for ESG-related queries.
**See CDN episode titled “Chilly Canada Day.”
***See BBC online. Charmaine Lee. September 2020. “The Buildings Heated by Human Warmth.”
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