Warning Signs: With "Friends" Like These

In a recent letter to its members, Friends of the Earth, one of the larger environmental organizations, claimed that “warming means war.”

Like all the diehard Greens that have sought to foist a bogus “global warming” hoax on the nation and the world, FOE is growing more desperate to use this great lie to impose restrictions on the nation’s economic growth that are aimed at the development of our national energy reserves.

Pajamas Media » Gore’s Dangerous Call for Environmental Civil Disobedience

Gore’s call to arms is typical of his environmental conduct: asking others to do what he himself wouldn’t — sacrifice. His massive carbon footprint, his frequent use of private jets, and his inflated electricity bill — more than 20 times the national average — have all been widely reported. Calling for young climate activists to engage in unlawful, albeit non-violent, action takes the hypocrisy to a whole new level. Unlike the symbol of non-violence, Mahatma Gandhi, who led millions of freedom seekers and who spent years in prison for his convictions — Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times but was never awarded — or civil rights activists who through their personal sacrifice won equality for blacks in South Africa and the U.S., Gore prefers to send young activists to chain themselves to bulldozers and potentially spend their best months, if not years, in prison while he himself continues to tour the world and attend carbon-neutral Hollywood parties.

Gore’s anti-coal campaign is a threat to our economic well-being as it inspires activists all over the world to deny working families the cheapest source of base load electricity. Earlier this month a British court cleared six Greenpeace activists of causing more than $50,000 of criminal damage to a coal-fired power plant. In the U.S., anti-coal activists have derailed scores of coal-fired power plant projects in 2007 alone. For the greens this is stunning success, but for the rest of us it is trouble in the making...

Investor's Business Daily -- Cold Reality

Global warm mongers are rapidly losing credibility. Mainstream journalists will still believe them because climate change fits the narrative they've so carefully nurtured. But eventually the error will have to admitted. It won't happen publicly, though, because by the time they come to their senses, the issue will have been long forgotten by the public.

RECENT MELTING OF GREENLAND'S ICE MIMICS 1920s-1940s EVENT

GREENIE WATCH

The writer below ties himself in knots trying to reconcile his pesky findings with current global warming orthodoxy. He says, for instance that "glaciers and other bodies of ice are exquisitely hyper-sensitive to climate change" and then says, "Recent warming around the frozen island actually lags behind the global average warming pattern by about 1-2 degrees C". That juxtaposition makes any and every Greenland glacier change explicable. If it melts it is hypersensitive to global warming. If it gains mass it is the air around it that is strangely isolated from global warming. That the real cause of the oscillations he has observed might be oscillations in ocean currents is not considered...

Are Carbon Offsets a Laughing Matter? - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

For those of you who missed it, carbon offsets were lampooned in a recent episode of the Fox animated series “King of the Hill.”
...
Needless to say, the scene — and the larger critique of giving one’s conscience a good greenwashing by throwing dollars at it — was not very well received on the conservation and climate-change fronts.

100% powered by wind and sun?

UN chief Ban Ki-moon to visit Nepal in end October

According to the UN News Center, Ban Ki-moon’’s tour itinerary includes stops in the Philippines, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
...
Ban Ki-moon is also scheduled to give a lecture at the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and meet Indian business leaders on climate change.
Before leaving for New York, Ban Ki-moon will also visit Bangladesh to meet President Iajuddin Ahmed and other top officials. He is also scheduled to visit micro-finance, disaster reduction and climate adaptation sites.

Lysenkoism And GW

Global Warming Politics

Can Oyster Art Curb Global Warming? « Watts Up With That?

I can see how this class might make students more aware of the ways in which oysters can filter nutrients from water. I can also see how this class might make them more aware of the benefits of biodiversity in a local ecosystem. However, I am hard pressed to see the connection to learning about or producing solutions to global warming. It seems to me the term “global warming” was simply plopped into the press release to get it more attention.

American Thinker: An open letter from The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley to Senator John McCain about Climate Science and Policy

Dear Senator McCain, Sir,

YOU CHOSE a visit to a wind-farm in early summer 2008 to devote an entire campaign speech to the reassertion of your belief in the apocalyptic vision of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change - a lurid and fanciful account of imagined future events that was always baseless, was briefly exciting among the less thoughtful species of news commentators and politicians, but is now scientifically discredited.

With every respect, there is no rational basis for your declared intention that your great nation should inflict upon her own working people and upon the starving masses of the Third World the extravagantly-pointless, climatically-irrelevant, strategically-fatal economic wounds that the arrogant advocates of atmospheric alarmism admit they aim to achieve...

How much fossil fuel does the Greenpeace fleet burn every year?

A year in the life of the Rainbow Warrior - on a mission to stop coal | Greenpeace UK

The Rainbow warrior started this year in New Zealand, campaigning for the planet to Quit Coal. She took that single message to Philippines and then on to Thailand, blockading coal-fired power stations, branding the sides of ships carrying coal, rallying people to take the path of warriors against coal. The Esperanza picked up the same call in Australia as did the Arctic Sunrise in Spain and Italy. The history of the environmental activism has been a dress rehearsal for Climate Change. Coal is the greatest threat to the climate and must be stopped.

From South East Asia Rainbow Warrior sailed to the Mediterranean Sea with the same message ‘QUIT COAL’. She protested in Israel, Turkey and Greece. I took her command in Greece, and sailed her out of the Mediterranean in a terrible storm...

Finally [after the UK and other Europen countries], Rainbow Warrior will reach Poland where the next climate conference takes place in December.

The Rainbow Warrior | Greenpeace International

Gross tons: 555
Length: 55.20 m
Breadth: 8.54 m
Draught: 4.6 m
Maximum speed: 12 knots (2 engines, 3000 L/day)
Engines: 2 Diesel type Deutz M.W.M. 2 x 6 Cylinder, 2 x 500kW
Sailing Speed: 5-7 knots average
Sails: 650 m2

The Esperanza | Greenpeace International

Built: 1984 Poland Gdansk
Gross tonnage: 2076 BRT
Length o.a: 72.3m
Breadth: 14.3m
Draught: 4.7m
Maximum speed: 14 knots
Main engines: 5.876 BHP, 2*2.938 BHP Sulzer V12

The Arctic Sunrise | Greenpeace International

Length O.A: 49.62 m
Breadth: 11.50 m
Maximum Draught: 5.30 m
Maximum Speed: 13 Knots
Main engine: MAK 9M452AK 2495 IHP 1619kW
Aux engines: 2 x Deutz BF6M716 208hp (175 kva)
Bow & stern thrusters: 400 hp each

After recent fossil-fueled trips to Japan, Greenland, and Wales, Canadian alarmist criticizes guy for using a blow-dryer

Gore’s adviser urges pupils to save planet - WalesOnline

AN environment expert who worked on Al Gore’s Oscar-winning climate change film, An Inconvenient Truth, has urged hundreds of pupils to save the planet.

Canadian David Noble, an adviser to the former US Vice President and Nobel Prize winner, made a special trip to Wales after receiving an invitation from teenage environmental ambassador James Fletcher.

Seventeen-year-old James, one of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Climate Change Champions, bumped into Mr Noble at a climate conference in Japan earlier this year.

James invited Mr Noble to visit Lewis School in Gilfach, near Bargoed, where he addressed more than 350 young people from the school and others across South Wales, including Rhymney and Barry comprehensives.

Mr Noble said: “It was great to visit Wales and address a group of young people who care about taking positive action on climate change. We seem to have already got climate change fatigue, but the reality is we haven’t actually done anything to halt its effects yet.”

As well as his work with Gore, Mr Noble spoke about the Cape Farewell project, a recent trip he took to the western coast of Greenland with a group of climate scientists and well-known artists, including singers Jarvis Cocker and KT Tunstall.

The expedition was part of a series of trips to the deep Arctic intended as a cultural response to climate change. Mr Noble worked with the artists on the trip to bring home stories and artworks that tell how a warming planet is impacting on the wilderness.

“I was recently in the locker room at my gym and there was a man in a towel blow-drying his armpit hair. We are constantly talking about how precious energy is yet we’re still wasting it on silly things like this. It’s time to take action to preserve our world,” said Mr Noble .

Yet another attempt to turn CO2 hysteria into cold hard cash

Australia: Scientists want $110m for Kimberley study : thewest.com.au

Marine scientists want $110 million from businesses and governments for a seven-year research program in the Kimberley, which they say is essential to safeguard biodiversity and protect businesses from climate change.
...
The coalition behind the plan is the WA Marine Science Institution. Its chairman, Peter Rogers, said the research should also include climate modelling to forecast how changing conditions will affect the Kimberley.

How we found ourselves ambushed by reality | The Spectator

Australia’s love of emissions trading to combat global warming is ending in the face of
economic uncertainty, says Tom Switzer

Emissions scheme will stimulate economy: Garnaut - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The chief economist with AMP Capital, Shane Oliver, says with unemployment likely to rise, there will be an abundance of workers who could be diverted to climate change initiatives.

Another knee-slapper from Pachuari

IPCC head: use financial meltdown as opportunity to combat climate change

Near the end [Pachauri] told the joke about two planets passing in the universe. One remarks that Earth is having such a hard time. The other asks: "Why?"

"Well, it's been infested with humans," the first planet answers.

Says the second planet: "Don't worry. They won't last very long."

Are we sure this is really about CO2?

California TV Ad Says Current and Future Immigration Exacerbates Global Warming

Immigrants Produce Four Times More Carbon Emissions in U.S. Than In Their Home Countries

Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) has launched an ad campaign in California TV markets. The TV spots point out that when immigrants settle in the U.S., their energy use quickly becomes Americanized. As a result their carbon emissions skyrocket. The result is a quadrupling of immigrants’ carbon footprints compared to the amount of carbon emissions they produced in their home countries.

CAPS is launching the TV campaign as America faces the largest population increase in its history. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau projections, U.S. population will jump from 305 million today to more than 400 million by 2040. That’s a 33 percent increase yielding an additional 100 million more people in just the next thirty years. It’s an increase equivalent to adding another entire Western half of the country. According to Pew Research, 82 percent of that growth will be a result of immigration and births to immigrants.

Diana Hull, President of Californians for Population Stabilization commented, “Imagine taking close to 100 million people with a relatively small carbon footprint and quadrupling their carbon emissions overnight just by moving them to the U.S. That’s going to significantly impact Global Warming. Cutting immigration to the U.S. isn’t the only thing we should do to solve the global warming problem, but stopping mass immigration, especially from low carbon use nations will go a long way towards a solution because it is a significant contributor to the problems we face.”

Charity Navigator Rating - Californians for Population Stabilization

Founded in 1986, Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is a membership-based, public interest organization determined to end policies and practices that cause overpopulation and the resultant decline in our quality of life in California and in the United States. We are confronting the most important issue facing California and the United States--runaway population growth. Overpopulation brings environmental damage and overuse of nature's bounty. It strains local infrastructure and frays community institutions. It affects air and water quality, causes destruction of forests and wildlife, and results in the permanent loss of fertile land and other non-renewable resources. CAPS works to formulate and advance policies and programs which will preserve a good quality of life for all Californians.

Charleston, SC Latest Editorial News: Climate proposals fail economic test

The Climate Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee (CECAC) recently presented Gov. Mark Sanford a list of policy recommendations designed to reduce South Carolina's greenhouse gas emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

This audacious goal appears noble. However, CECAC prescriptions will do nothing to mitigate global warming and everything to raise South Carolinians' energy costs, taxes, and strangle economic growth.

CECAC hired the Pennsylvania-based Center for Climate Strategies, an avowed global warming alarmist advocacy group masquerading as a "technical consultant," to administer its deliberations. CCS receives funding from major left-wing donors such as Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Energy Foundation, and Ted Turner's Foundation. CCS has operated climate commissions in 26 states and the legislative/policy prescriptions from its cookie-cutter reports are carbon copies for every state.

CECAC/CCS proposes: restrictions on property rights; costly demand-side management programs and energy-efficiency programs; renewable-portfolio standards (RPS), which mandate utilities to purchase a percentage of their power from more expensive renewable sources like wind and solar; and taxpayer subsidies for rent-seeking wind and solar companies.

Gov. Sanford declared that he wanted a report with no mandates, yet CECAC/CCS recommended just that with an RPS: "The goals of this policy include a mandate on public and private utilities that energy efficiency programs and new renewable energy on the utility's retail distribution system each meets 5 percent of its South Carolina retail customers' electricity needs by 2020."

I think Arnold needs a much better "signature achievement"

Schwarzenegger keeps low profile in presidential race - San Jose Mercury News

It's also true that as Schwarzenegger looks beyond the end of his term in 2010, his future may well reside outside the realm of party politics, or at least the Republican Party. His signature achievement as governor is a first-of-its-kind plan to curb global warming, not exactly an issue associated with the GOP. If he wants to continue to work on environmental issues after leaving office, a high-profile role on behalf of the Republican nominee may not serve his interests.

LCV’s ‘Environmental Scorecard’ Marred by Partisan Politics, Inhofe Says

.: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, today commented on the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) 2008 National Environmental Scorecard.

"The LCV is one of the most liberal partisan special-interest groups that make up the Democratic Party," Senator Inhofe said. "It should come as no surprise that I and many fellow Republicans have never received high marks from this Washington, D.C., liberal special-interest group. LCV simply measures the greenness of politicians by how many federal laws they impose on the American people.

globeandmail.com: Bill Clinton praises B.C.'s carbon tax

VANCOUVER — Gordon Campbell, the embattled premier of British Columbia, received some big-name support Friday afternoon for his controversial carbon tax: Bill Clinton, the former president of the United States.

Mr. Clinton said Mr. Campbell's efforts to combat climate change is “the greatest economic generator you could embrace.”

“I know he's taken some heat,” Mr. Clinton said of Mr. Campbell's critics.

CO2sceptics News Blog | Acceleration of Jakobshavn Isbræ triggered by warm subsurface ocean waters

According to a recent email....Connie Hedegaard (Danish Climate minister) was asked to apologise to the 21 world leaders she "tricked" into believing that the gletcher retreat was caused by AGW, but she says she will carry on showing the "effects of global warming".

Media Hype on ‘Melting’ Antarctic Ignores Record Ice Growth

.: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.

The media is once again hyping an allegedly dire consequence of man-made global warming. This time the media is promoting the ice loss of one tiny fraction of the giant ice-covered continent and completely ignoring the current record ice growth on Antarctica. Contrary to media hype, the vast majority of Antarctica has cooled over the past 50 years and ice coverage has grown to record levels since satellite monitoring began in the 1979, according to peer-reviewed studies and scientists who study the area. (LINK)

Former Weather Channel Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo rejected the hype surrounding the recent Wilkins Ice Shelf collapse in Western Antarctica. “The shattered part of the Wilkins ice sheet was 160 square miles in area, which is just 0.01% of the total current Antarctic ice cover, like an icicle falling from a snow and ice covered roof,” D’Aleo wrote on March 25. (LINK) “We are very likely going to exceed last year’s record [for Southern Hemisphere ice extent]. Yet the world is left with the false impression Antarctica’s ice sheet is also starting to disappear,” D’Aleo added.

Climate scientist Dr. Ben Herman, past director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and former Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona, stated, “It is interesting that all of the AGW (anthropogenic global warming) stories concerning Antarctica are always about what's happening around the [western] peninsula, which seems to be the only place on Antarctica that has shown warming. How about the net ‘no change’ or ‘cooling’ over the rest of the continent, which is probably about 95% of the land mass, not to mention the record sea ice coverage recently.”

But if you extend the 2008 cooling trend, how long before Illinois has the climate of Siberia?

Galesburg Radio 14...WGIL

At weather stations around Illinois , mean temperatures ranged from 1.7 to 2.1 degrees above normal last year. This is a problem, says Brian Granahan of Environment Illinois. He says the 2007 data are part of a trend which, if it continues, would give Illinois the climate of Texas by 2095. This would cause more energy consumption here to keep buildings cool, and would have an impact on agriculture ranging from more severe storms to more droughts, increased soil erosion and runoff, and more pests.

But would it mean less snowplowing and less energy consumption to keep buildings warm?

The World According to Sara Russell

The University Register - Minneapolis and St. Paul are green cities

In the international scheme of all things green, the United States seems to be continually missing the mark. Not only is the “land of the free” behind on its own clean energy efforts (lagging far behind Denmark, Ireland, and Germany’s abilities to manage and expand wind farms that are also aesthetically pleasing, for example), but our carbon footprint actually continues to grow steadily year after year. As a country, the US has also failed to match its international neighbors’ efforts towards global sustainability and reductions in harmful emissions, thanks to the Bush administration’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol in 2001. This withdrawal spoke volumes about the United States’ nonchalance regarding global warming and climate change.

In echo of Kingsnorth Six, US climate change activists go on trial over blockade of $1.8bn coal-fired power plant

• Eleven face criminal charges after blockading $1.8bn plant
• James Hansen offers to lend support

Many Long Islanders feel unaffected by climate change -- Newsday.com

'World News' Rediscovers Global Warming

It might seem like a non-issue. With the stock market way off its 2007 record highs and banking institutions failing in the midst of a presidential election, global warming alarmists have toned down their pleas for economy-killing greenhouse gas emission regulations.

But ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” is attempting to keep the issue in focus. Gibson’s Oct. 16 broadcast raised “new concerns” about climate change.

“New concerns today about climate change,” Gibson said. “In its annual arctic report card, the government says the ice in Greenland is melting at a record pace. Twenty-four cubic miles of ice disappeared in 2007.

To put it in perspective – Gibson illustrated for viewers just how much ice 24 cubic meters is.

“That’s equal to the amount of water consumed in Los Angeles in an entire year,” Gibson said. “Air temperatures in Greenland have risen nearly five degrees, adding to the number of days when melting occurs.”
...
In January 2008, Greenlanders were noting the increase in ice in some regions, according to a Jan. 16 article in The Copenhagen (Dk.) Post.

“On Disko Bay in western Greenland, where a number of prominent world leaders have visited in recent years to get a first-hand impression of climate change, temperatures have dropped so drastically that the water has frozen over for the first time in a decade,” the article said.

“The ice is up to 50cm thick,” Henrik Matthiesen, an employee at Denmark’s Meteorological Institute, said to the Post. “We’ve had loads of northerly winds since Christmas which has made the area miserably cold.”

But what do the SANE scientists think?

Time for action (From The Oxford Times)

Apart from ordinary poverty, climate change is now seen by scientists as threatening to render homeless by 2050 up to a fifth of the world population —mainly people in the developing world living in coastal zones threatened by rising sea levels.

A Liberal Supermajority - WSJ.com

If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4 and Democrats will consolidate their Congressional majorities, probably with a filibuster-proof Senate or very close to it. Without the ability to filibuster, the Senate would become like the House, able to pass whatever the majority wants.

Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965, or 1933. In other words, the election would mark the restoration of the activist government that fell out of public favor in the 1970s. If the U.S. really is entering a period of unchecked left-wing ascendancy, Americans at least ought to understand what they will be getting, especially with the media cheering it all on.
...
- The green revolution. A tax-and-regulation scheme in the name of climate change is a top left-wing priority. Cap and trade would hand Congress trillions of dollars in new spending from the auction of carbon credits, which it would use to pick winners and losers in the energy business and across the economy. Huge chunks of GDP and millions of jobs would be at the mercy of Congress and a vast new global-warming bureaucracy. Without the GOP votes to help stage a filibuster, Senators from carbon-intensive states would have less ability to temper coastal liberals who answer to the green elites.

Hunting forecast: Northeast Region - OregonLive.com

Fossil, Northside, Desolation, southeast Heppner, northwest Beulah units: Heavy snows decreased fawn survival, and there are fewer small bucks, but the buck ratios remain all right.
...
Wenaha, Sled Springs, Chesnimnus, Snake River, Imnaha units: The long winter and deep snow took their toll on Wallowa deer, particularly among the very young and very old.

Washington: Cold hits sweet corn hard

Plagued by cold, wet and even snowy weather in spring and then a cool growing season, sweet corn growers in Western Washington are not a happy lot.

"Our corn didn't do worth a damn," said Olympic Peninsula grower Nash Huber. "It was too slow to germinate and too late to ripen. I don't know if I've ever seen it so bad for corn in the 40 years I've been farming."

Huber said he typically has some corn to sell by mid-August and early September, but this year it's different.

"Here it is mid-October and we're picking some of our early stands," he said.

Washington: Rating the '08 tomatoes : Chris Smith : Kitsap Sun

It's no secret that the summer of 2008 will be remembered as an awful time for heat loving crops. As one Seattle Master Gardener put it to me in a recent letter, the weather was "too cool in mornings July, August and September." As a result, tomato plants were undersize, less than loaded with fruit and late to bear.

EU facing revolt over climate change target enforcement - Telegraph

Poland fears that its reliance on coal-fired power stations will see it unfairly squeezed and pushed to invest in expensive wind turbines, unlike France which is dependent on nuclear energy.

"We do not say to the French that they have to close down their nuclear power industry and build windmills, and nobody can tell us the equivalent," said Donald Tusk, Poland's Prime Minister.

"We have a veto right in order to use it if there is no other possibility."

The row has opened a deep rift over the costs of meeting environmental targets between rich Northern and Western member states and their poorer neighbours.

An EU text, agreed at a summit in Brussels today, has dropped all reference to four pieces of European Commission legislation required to implement the targets and has introduced a new requirement that they be "cost effective".

Climate change targets: 'Bold and courageous' or just more hot air? - Telegraph

[Miliband'] statement was hailed as "bold and courageous", yet it amounted to nothing beyond the utterance of some words. This is not to say that there is something inherently wrong with wanting a cleaner environment, simply that announcing ever higher numbers has become something of a political virility test with no obvious connection with the real world, and one that the Conservatives seem happy to go along with.

Mr Miliband said the price to be paid for doing nothing was greater than the cost of acting, though not if it means investment in clean technology dries up as a result. There are so many economic uncertainties that substituting one random and impractical number for another seems precipitate.

Is Europe Backsliding on Climate-Change Targets? - TIME

Is this the moment the European Union's ambitious climate change agenda unraveled? At the end of the two-day E.U. summit in Brussels Thursday, European leaders congratulated one another on their bold bank rescue plans. But the mutual backslapping might have provided perfect cover for a retreat from their long-standing commitment to reduce Europe's overall CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
...
It may be premature to write off the EU's emissions program altogether. But
if it does crumble over the next two months, the tipping point will have been the moment the E.U. finally got its
act together on saving its troubled banks.

Exhibition Review - 'Climate Change' - Apocalypse Now, via Diorama, at American Museum of Natural History - NYTimes.com

Water, 16 feet of it, smothers the southern tip of Manhattan, covering the landfill of Battery Park City. Tropic coral reefs are stripped of life, their rocks pocked with contusions. Polar bears rummage in junk heaps seeking food amid construction debris. Glaciers split into ice chips, floods ravage coastlines, droughts parch the Earth and forest fires rage untamable.

A model of Manhattan showing floods that could result from ocean warming.

If the End of Days were going to be portrayed in a museum exhibition, it might look like the array of natural disasters, both real and imagined, that can be found at “Climate Change,” which opens Saturday at the American Museum of Natural History.

There is something almost biblical about these worst-case scenarios, apocalyptically suggested even in the subtitle: “The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future.” And if the plagues promised with global warming don’t include an onslaught of frogs, there is more than enough to worry about: the exhibition predicts proliferation of malaria and desperate foraging of wildlife.
...
And if there are counterarguments to be made about aspects of global warming, why can’t they be addressed here? Take a look at the two sides of the Web site climatedebatedaily.com to see how much disagreement there can be.

This exhibition, in other words, made me feel like an agnostic attending church and listening to sermons about damnation. It may all be true — some of it assuredly is — but from a museum, particularly one devoted to natural science, it is reasonable to seek more revelation.

Report: Fargo getting warmer

Adnan Akyuz, North Dakota’s state climatologist, agreed that a long-term shift in warmer temperatures has occurred. Fargo, for instance, is 2.8 degrees warmer on average than it was 100 years ago.

But Akyuz said carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, is a tiny percent of the atmosphere, and there are so many variables and dynamics in the atmosphere that it is difficult to assign major blame to burning fossil fuels.

Mike Williams, Fargo city commissioner, said the shift to green energy sources presents opportunities. The city this year sold carbon credits for $600,000 that it earned from capturing and burning landfill methane.

At today’s prices, the city stands to pocket $450,000 to $500,000 a year for its methane carbon credits, with another $130,000 for selling methane gas to industry and $290,000 for electricity. Fargo’s captured methane is the equivalent of taking 28,000 cars off the road, Williams said.

“It’s a nonpartisan issue,” he said. “It’s about science.”

Bravo, Rep. Mike Noel

Noel to Utah climate-change adviser: 'You drank the Kool-Aid' - Salt Lake Tribune

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is looking to lawmakers to help position Utah on climate change. Trouble is, some them think the issue is nonsense.
For instance, when one of the governor's advisers started explaining this week why Utah is part of a regional carbon cap-and-trade program, Rep. Mike Noel fired back: "So, you drank the Kool-Aid, too."
The Kanab Republican, a proponent of nuclear power, also told a fellow legislator: "You understand, when you are breathing, you are polluting. I don't think it's polluting to breathe, that's my point."
Other members of the Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee suggested it was wrongheaded to try cutting climate pollution because it would hurt Utah's economy and consumers.
...
Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, urged his colleagues not to be so tough on Huntsman's representatives. He described a summer meeting with a European energy minister who said that climate-change doubters there would be laughed out of office.
"This is the reality," he said, "This is not something people are just talking about."

Europeans split over goals to cut emissions - International Herald Tribune

But David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, accused countries of trying to wriggle out of commitments they had made just last year. "There is no setback," Miliband said, emphasizing that he expected an agreement on the current timetable.

"A number of countries have shown buyer's remorse for the agreement in 2007," he said. "There is no going back. No going back on determination to have agreement by the end of the year."

The scale of the backlash against the proposals has caused concern including in Denmark which will host crucial climate change talks next year. "There is not reason to hide the fact that we face some very difficult negotiations up to December," Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark said.

Viet Nam to pay an enormous amount for worthless forecasts?

HCM CITY — A national programme to respond to climate change will require VND2 trillion (US$121.2 million) to provide climate change scenarios from 2009-15.

This was revealed at a workshop on climate change held on Tuesday by Nguyen Van Thang, director of the Research Centre for Meteorology and Climatology under the Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment.

He said the draft National Target Programme in Responding to Climate Change (NTP RCC) would use the funds to present about 36 detailed scenarios on climate change as drawn up by international scientists.

Accordingly, the NTP RCC will estimate the rise in sea levels, the temperature and the impact of climate change to build action plans.

Thang said the VND2 trillion budget does not include measures to cope with climate change related problems.

News - Environment: Russia doubts market can fix climate change

Oslo - Moscow doubts carbon trading can solve climate change because recent swings in stock and commodities prices show markets are unable to fix global problems, an official Russian document showed.

The document, outlining Russian views on a new UN climate pact meant to be agreed in December 2009, also expressed scepticism about tough international targets for greenhouse gases and said any deal should not be "punitive" to violators.

Deseret News | Huntsman, Springmeyer face off in debate

There were a few tense moments during Thursday night's gubernatorial debate on KCPW radio as Democrat Bob Springmeyer attempted to emphasize his differences with GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
...
The pair disagreed most strongly on the cap-and-trade system for emissions endorsed by Utah and other members of the Western Climate Initiative. The carbon-trading program is intended to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the West.
 
"Cap-and-trade will destroy the coal industry in the state of Utah," Springmeyer said, adding that the state could "kiss goodbye" the heart of the state's coal production, Carbon and Emery counties, as well as its coal-fired power plants.

Springmeyer, a business consultant, said such a system would not only be "disastrous to the coal industry and to electric production," it also would raise energy costs in the state. "I don't want to be the one to tell Utahns they have to pay twice," he said. "Thank you, no."

But Huntsman said it's too soon to tell what the economic impacts of a cap-and-trade system would be and that it was important to "let innovation find a way" to make it workable. "You can't wave it off as unacceptable," he said.

WA frost slashes wheat yield - 17/10/2008

Grain growers in Western Australia's wheatbelt are counting the cost of a devastating frost late last month.

The widespread frost struck when many of the grain crops were at their most vulnerable stage, resulting in severe damage to seed pods, stems and individual grains.

Between 15 and 80 per cent has been wiped off the value of crops.

Kevin Davies, from York, says it's the worst frost he's ever experienced, and although he will harvest what's left in his paddocks, it's a bitter blow after years of drought.

EU backs December date for climate deal - Summary : Environment

Brussels - European Union leaders on Thursday stuck to a December deadline for reaching a final deal on fighting climate change after Polish and Italian threats of a veto were won over, officials said. EU leaders meeting for a two-day summit in Brussels decided to "organize an intensified effort in the weeks to come to allow the council (of EU states) to decide in December 2008" on a package of laws aimed at fighting climate change, the summit statement said.

However, the December decision will have to "take into account the specific situation" in each member state, the declaration said in a concession to the objections of Poland and Italy.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told journalists after the meeting that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chaired it, had promised him that any deal in December would be adopted by unanimity, rather than the usual qualified majority needed for environment laws - handing Warsaw a potential veto over proceedings.

And the joint statement discarded a list of rules to govern the December talks which had been proposed by the French government, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, in a bid to reinforce support for the package at a time of financial crisis.

And again, can we assume that the pictured black smoke is carbon dioxide?

Families face £1,000-a-year bill as Government commits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 | Mail Online

Families face a £1,000-a-year bill after the Government committed Britain to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent before 2050.

The decision gives the UK the toughest climate change targets in the world and could usher in an era of green taxes and carbon rationing.

Government advisers admit that the shift to a 'low carbon' economy will cost around £24billion a year at today's prices. Divided among the nation's households, this works out at just under £1,000 extra per family.
...
But Bjorn Lomborg, author of the Skeptical Environmentalist, said: 'It is an incredibly inefficient way to do virtually nothing. If the UK managed to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent, it would mean postponing global warming by an order of less than a 500th of a degree. Is that really what the British population want to spend 2 per cent of its income on?'

Labour: we will cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 | Greenpeace UK

...Well, as Miliband himself acknowledges, setting the target is the easy bit. Meeting the target is the hard bit - and requires determined action from Gordon Brown now, and from every one of his successors for the next four decades.

This is a great start, but the Greenpeace UK climate team isn't out of a job just yet.

Bill Nye: The CO2-phobic Guy « It’s Getting Hot In Here

...And he did not let us down. The science guy was energetic, at times quite funny, but most important he was motivating. After discussing CO2 emissions and how the world is warming faster than ever expected, he told the students “This is climate change. You are now members of the climate generation.”

As his speech drew to a close Bill Nye excitedly proclaimed, “You can change the world!” Students cheered greatly in response to his confidence in the spirit of our generation. After he finished his talk, we were given the opportunity to ask him questions. When asked if he would support a moratorium on coal-fired power plants, Nye immediately said he absolutely would. Many students screamed in support.

He then took a question from a member of our Power Vote team, Tex Condreay. Bill Nye was asked if he would sign our pledge to vote for clean and just energy solutions. He verbally said that he would. However, due to the large number of questions he had left to answer he said he would further address the pledge after all the questions. Tex found him later at the reception and Bill Nye again stated he would be happy to sign our pledge. His assistant took Tex’s address to mail the completed pledge and we are eagerly awaiting it.

Most importantly, every person attending the event heard one of our childhood icons support a moratorium on coal and how he will be voting for clean and just energy solutions!

Levy cars if public transport works, says Livingstone - The Irish Times - Fri, Oct 17, 2008

FORMER MAYOR of London Ken Livingstone has said the €200 levy introduced in the Budget on car park spaces in urban areas was "like something I would do. But you must make sure you have good public transport".

He said "such is the catastrophe to come [with climate change] that we really have to do something about emissions, a third of which cars are responsible for".

He also felt that "in a small city like Dublin it should be possible to get around walking, cycling, busing". Mr Livingstone, who has never learned to drive, said it must be cheaper to get around cities through using cabs, public transport or walking.

But is that blackish stuff actually carbon dioxide?

Fight against climate change must continue: Rudd - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Pollution ... 'the problem of climate change doesn't disappear because of the financial crisis' (www.sxc.hu: Gary Tamin, file photo)

BS at American Museum of Natural History

Museum Exhibit Focuses On Global Warming, How To Slow It Down -- Courant.com

"Climate Change: The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future," opens Saturday in New York, addressing a complex issue that already is proving difficult to resolve because it will mean substantive changes in how individuals and institutions function.

"Presenting the latest information about what climate change is, what causes it, and alternative energy options, the exhibition makes clear both that there is no single solution for addressing this imperative issue and that a combination of individual and society actions are necessary to and can successfully mitigate it," said Ellen V. Futter, the museum president.

Global warming skeptics? Not here. Ninety percent of the scientists involved in climate change research are convinced man-influenced global warming is real, Futter noted, and the museum doesn't equivocate for a moment in insisting that societies must reduce carbon dioxide emissions substantially in coming years to avoid serious impacts, from dramatic sea level rise, to more violent storms, to the severe alteration of worldwide ecosystems.

How much sea ice does a reindeer need to survive?

Arctic temperatures allegedly hit record high | MiamiHerald.com

Summer 2007 set a record low for sea ice in the Arctic, threatening reindeer, walruses and polar bears and opening shipping lanes above the Arctic Circle, the report said. This summer's ice melt was only slightly smaller.

"There has been a massive loss of sea ice starting in the 1990s," said one of the authors, James Overland, an Arctic expert at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "In 2008, we've lost so much multi-year old ice, it's very difficult for the ice cover to go back to where it was 20 years ago."

The American Spectator: Green Journalism

The Society of Environmental Journalists conducts its annual conference this week in Roanoke, Va., and the best thing that can be said about it is that this bunch won't be on the beat somewhere trying to report something -- especially about global warming.

But then again these journalists couldn't call it that since the planet's mean surface temperature has not increased over the last eleven years. Instead they've adopted the catchall identifier used by their fellow alarmism activists: "climate change." It's all over SEJ's web page for members, which they call "A guide to the information and disinformation." This is allegedly where they tell their members how to do a fair and balanced job.

Should Obama classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant?

Al Fin: Obama's Brave New Energyless World

Obama in his wisdom is preparing to put the finishing touches to the demise of the US (and thus the world) economy. The implications of this incredibly foolish proposal go to the heart of Obama's judgment and personal competence.

How Do Enviros Scare Middle America? Threaten Their Hunting.

California Clueless on Carbon Capping Costs » The Foundry

The environmental left is making fantastic claims to justify this unprecedented expansion of government power. The Los Angeles Times reports: “Environmentalists praised the blueprint as ‘an economic stimulus plan’ that could spur a ‘clean tech’ economy similar to Silicon Valley’s technological boom.”

An “economic stimulus plan”? Are they serious? Back in the real world where the European Union has actually begun to implement its carbon capping plan, it is exceedingly clear that capping carbon is a job and economy killer. That is why industry leaders throughout Europe are demanding the EU suspend its carbon capping laws...

Can you affect the size of the icecaps by peeing on the ground in public?

MTV Encourages Public Urination As Water-Saving Alternative

These days conservation is the name of the game, and it’s up to environmentally-focused rock stars (that’s you) to help create a more sustainable future. One obvious way to make a positive impact on the planet is by reducing our water usage. If you think about it, there are a million easy ways to save water: take shorter showers, eat less meat, urinate in public…..WAIT, WHAT??

Yep, the latest ad in MTV’s Switch campaign is encouraging Europeans to go a peein’ in public. The minute-long spot, entitled “Slash,” recommends public urination as a water-saving alternative to the gallon-wasting flush machine we call a toilet. Even though the idea is funny, the commercial is part of a very serious conservation campaign designed to encourage young people to help reverse climate change by making simple lifestyle changes. Wanna see more? Check out the video below!

Deconstructing Eurospeak

Global Warming Politics

One of the funniest cartoons in Private Eye is always ‘EU-phemisms’. Today, the EU has excelled itself in ‘EU-phemisms’, as it tries to square fantasy policies on climate change with the harsh realities of the credit crunch and world recession [original headline - ‘EU “resolute” on climate targets’, BBC Online Europe News, October 16]. Here is my brief guide to some of the Eurospeak on climate change that has emanated from the European Council Summit in Brussels...

The Taboo Answer in Presidential Debate - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com

So I was glad to see Mr. Lovins write in his comment: “Nuclear power and all other ways to produce or save energy should be allowed to compete fairly, at honest prices, regardless of their type, technology, size, location, or ownership.”

Now if only there were a way to create that fair competition — and break the political taboo. Any ideas?

NSIDC’s Dr. Walt Meier answers reader questions on sea ice « Watts Up With That?

Out of Juice?

Planet Gore on National Review Online

[New York Times] Tesla Motors said Wednesday that it will lay off employees and delay production of its next battery-powered car. The once-hot electric car start-up also said it was removing Ze’ev Drori as chief executive and appointing Elon Musk, now the company’s chairman, to the post.

Obama Win Would Clear Deadlock in Climate Talks, Pachauri Says

Bloomberg.com: Environment

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The election of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama would help clear the deadlock in United Nations talks to slow global warming, said Rajendra Pachauri, head of a United Nations panel of climate-change scientists.

``A critical factor in these talks is the position of the U.S.,'' Pachauri, chairman of the UN panel that shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, said today in an interview in Berlin. ``If Obama is elected, and this seems more likely, this would create positive momentum'' for the UN talks.
...
Obama will tell the Environmental Protection Agency that it may use the 1990 Clean Air Act to set emissions limits on power plants and manufacturers should he win the presidential election, his energy adviser, Jason Grumet, said in an interview. President George W. Bush declined to curb CO2 emissions under the law even after the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 the government may do so.

Obama to Declare Carbon Dioxide Dangerous Pollutant (Update1)

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, 17th Oct. 2008

CANOE -- CNEWS - Canada Votes 2008 - News: Failed Green Shift may lead to inaction

Suzuki said he now fears the next Liberal leader won't be as bold as Dion was with environmental policy, and Canada may go through another 20 years of inaction before another prime minister treats environmental crises seriously again.

It was 20 years ago that former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney and his environment minister Lucien Bouchard warned Canadians about the dire threat posed by global warming, and yet two decades later, little has been accomplished to slow climate change, Suzuki said.

"I interviewed Lucien two months after he was appointed and I asked him what the most important issue facing us was. And his answer was immediate: global warming. His exact words were: 'It threatens the survival of our species, we have to act now,"' Suzuki recalled.

"Can you imagine in 1988 the scientific community was absolutely convinced humans were causing (global warming), politicians had responded and nothing has happened and now it's 20 years later?"

Suzuki said Canadians missed a great opportunity to register a vote for the environment given that few, if any, major parties in the past have ever highlighted the issue so strongly in their campaigns.

"I don't think there's ever been a more stark choice in terms of the environment," he said, adding that he believes the environment vote ended up being split between all the opposition parties.

He also said he was disappointed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was quick to attack the Green Shift plan rather than debating the merits of a cap-and-trade plan.

"The prime minister is my prime minister too, he's everyone's prime minister, and for him during an election to simply encounter a carbon tax proposal by saying, 'This is insane,' or 'This is crazy,' that really diminishes the discussion about a very serious issue," he said.

"I was shocked that he said that and that it was the end of discussion."

(Via commenter John M. Reynolds)

So how'd he get to the Netherlands?

Climate Ambassador Al Gore in Audi A6 TDI e

INGOLSTADT, GERMANY - October 16, 2008: Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Climate Ambassador and former Vice President of the United States, traveled to the Netherlands on October 14 to speak to approximately 2,000 guests about his most pressing issue: the reduction of emissions to protect the climate. His choice of transportation: the AUDI A6 2.0 TDI e, the most efficient automobile in its class.

While in the Netherlands, why didn't he choose to travel by biking, walking, or using public transport?

Great minds thinking alike?

All of these stories showed up on Google News in the last 15 hours:

Temperatures rising in D.M., group reports | DesMoinesRegister.com

"As any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect," said Andrew Hug, an advocate for the environmental group.

Our average temperature up 2° | Cincinnati Enquirer | Cincinnati.Com

Things are heating up across Ohio, the report from the Environment Ohio Research and Policy Center in Columbus showed, leading environmentalists to call for more efforts to combat global warming.

"While 1 or 2 degrees may not seem like much, just as any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect," said Amy Gomberg, program director for Environment Ohio.

Metro - Mass. temps rise again in ’07

“The evidence of global warming continues to build up around us,” said Rob Sargent of Environment Massachusetts. “Temperatures are rising in Massachusetts and across the country. While one or two degrees may not seem like much, any parent with a sick child knows that even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect.”

Report: Philly’s temps are rising

“While one or two degrees may not seem like much, just as any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperatures can have a big effect,” said Nathan Willcox, Energy and Clean Air Advocate for PennEnvironment, which released the report.

Delaware: Hot year spurs call for pollution control | delawareonline | The News Journal

“Throw out the record books because global warming is raising temperatures in Delaware and across the country,” said Jennifer Mueller for Environment America. “While one or two degrees may not seem like much, just as any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect.”

Arkansas Blog: Seem hot to you?

“Throw out the record books because global warming is raising temperatures in Arkansas and across the country,” said Audubon Arkansas Ken Smith. “While one or two degrees may not seem like much, just as any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect,” he continued.

Jennifer Marohasy » How Melbourne’s Climate Has Changed: A reply to Dr David Jones (Part 2)

There has been a steady decline in the amount of water in Melbourne’s dams since 1998, but the chart of total catchment rainfall shows no such decline. Indeed rainfall over the last decade appears to have been fairly steady.

When Dr Jones writes that rainfall has been 20% below the long-term average I wonder what time frame he uses by way of comparison? When Dr Jones writes that runoff has been 40% below average it is interesting to again ponder time frames and also what changes in land management in the catchment may have contributed to the reduction. Indeed the available data suggests that dam levels have fallen significantly even though there has been reasonable rain.

Jennifer Marohasy » How Melbourne’s Climate Has Changed: A reply to Dr David Jones (Part 2)

There has been a steady decline in the amount of water in Melbourne’s dams since 1998, but the chart of total catchment rainfall shows no such decline. Indeed rainfall over the last decade appears to have been fairly steady.

When Dr Jones writes that rainfall has been 20% below the long-term average I wonder what time frame he uses by way of comparison? When Dr Jones writes that runoff has been 40% below average it is interesting to again ponder time frames and also what changes in land management in the catchment may have contributed to the reduction. Indeed the available data suggests that dam levels have fallen significantly even though there has been reasonable rain.

Temperatures rising in D.M., group reports | DesMoinesRegister.com

"As any parent with a sick child knows, even a small rise in temperature can have a big effect," said Andrew Hug, an advocate for the environmental group.

Temperature dips in Kashmir valley with rains, snow | Kashmir Media Service

Doctors at Srinagar's SMHS hospital said that valley is witnessing an abrupt climatic change and common diseases have stated to spread. "People suffering from common cold, fever and other diseases are coming to outdoor patients department (OPD) for treatment," said Dr Sajad Ahmad adding, "People must take boiled water, wear the woollens and take other precautionary measures."

Bali's Environmental Activists Campaign for World Silent Day

TEMPO Interactive, Denpasar:Balinese environmental activists yesterday began their campaigning to get public support for their World Silent Day (WSD) action, to be held on March 21, 2009. The action is considered an easy and inexpensive way to prevent global warming and climate change.

The director of the Bali branch of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), Agung Wardana said that the activists will come to schools, government offices and the community associations.

Two Balinese activists will be sent to Poznan, Poland to participate in the 14th Climate Change Conference on December 1 – 12, to seek international support for the World Silent Day program.

WSD emerged following the 13th Climate Change Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, on December 2007. Bali's activists from the Collaboration for Climate Change felt that real action agreed upon at the conference must be implemented, such not using energy for four selected days a month. The concept was inspired by the Balinese Nyepi tradition. On that day, Balinese people do not use any type of energy for the whole day, thus greatly reducing the use of kerosene as the source of emission.

Scientists to probe Antarctica for sea rise clues | Environment | Reuters

...The scientists will also see if the shelf was "collapsing because of global warming or whether localized warming is to blame."

News - Environment: The swallows have arrived

Fed up with cold weather and gloom, tens of thousands of European visitors have flocked to Durban to take advantage of the city's sunny warmth.

Two weeks earlier than usual, huge numbers of migratory barn swallows have arrived at one of South Africa's biggest roosting areas, at Mt Moreland, north of the city.

EU leaders agree on financial rescue, deadlock on climate

The other major issue on the leaders' agenda was climate change.

This saw Italy throw its weight behind Poland and seven other member states from Central and Eastern Europe in threatening to veto EU proposals to cut the bloc's greenhouse gas emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

"Yes, we have to limit CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions, but this must be done with a global agreement, because it's not conceivable that the EU should be the only one to do it when the other major producers of CO2 don't," said Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, echoing similar complaints by US President George W Bush.

Sarkozy shot back: "We can't question our (climate) goals, they have to stand, and the timetable has to stand. We have to find a position before January. If we scale back our targets, if we change the deadlines, we'll count for nothing. If some people want Europe to count for nothing, let them say so."

Despite the rancour, there were some humourous moments in Brussels.

Berlusconi once again raised eyebrows by suggesting that Russia should join the European Union, while Poland's premier and president, bitter rivals back home, ignored each other during the meeting.

President Lech Kaczynski had previously been forced to charter his own plane to Brussels after being left behind by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Europe's carmakers face massive hit from over-the-top CO2 rules | The Detroit News | detnews.com

As car sales crater and manufacturers cut output, lay off workers and slash prices to try and retain some semblance of viability, the European Union plans to saddle the industry with huge cost increases because it wants to change the climate.

These new rules would stop the industry selling its most profitable vehicles, force it to spend money making econoboxes nobody wants to buy, and all in the name of curbing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which many reputable scientists say have no proven link with a changing climate.
...
If this kind of action was likely to save the world from catastrophic climate change, it would be irresponsible to object. But this consequence is disputed. Atmospheric physicist and human-induced global warming skeptic Dr. S. Fred Singer, founder of the Arlington, Va.-based Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), doesn't think we have the power to change the climate.

"The impact on climate is negligible, not detectable. Even the impact on CO2 levels is negligible," said Singer, asked to comment on the likely impact of the proposed new EU rules.
...
When inflated bills plop onto citizens' doormats across Europe, the arguments about the extent of human involvement in climate change are liable to reignite.

"Is current global warming due to natural or human causes," Singer asked in a recent SEPP editorial.

"This crucial question can be settled only by examining the evidence, both pro and con. We conclude that Global Warming is mostly natural -- hence unstoppable -- and that policies to limit CO2 emissions are pointless and inimical to rational policies to supply low-cost and secure energy," he said.

This view hardly warrants a mention in the mainstream media, but there are many highly qualified climate scientists who share Singer's doubts: Professor Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia, and Philip Stott, emeritus professor of biogeography at the University of London, to name but a few.

But clearly the view that excessive CO2 emissions are warming the climate is the conventional wisdom.

Green groups like Brussels based Transport & Environment lauded the move to stand firm at 43 mpg by 2012, but instead of saying this was a victory for the climate, concentrated on the possible savings for consumers. They didn't see any problems for the manufacturers in complying.

The Litmus Test For Nonsense

The quintessential litmus test for nonsense on climate is the use of the phrase, “a stable climate”. Climate has never been, and never will be, “stable”. The phrase represents the ultimate oxymoron. It is a foolish human desire for something that does not, and never can, exist. How did The Times let such a piece of nonsense through?

Climate action a moral crusade - Wong | The Australian

AUSTRALIA has a "moral" duty to tackle climate change and won't delay action because of the world economic meltdown, the Federal Government says.

The doom and gloom pervading world markets may have taken the heat out of global warming, but a defiant Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says it's no excuse to delay action.

Senator Wong, in a speech to the prestigious London School of Economics overnight, rejected calls from business and the Opposition to hold off on emissions trading, which is due to start in 2010.

"There is a moral and personal dimension to this debate," she said.

"Ultimately, we are not doing this only for ourselves.

"We have a responsibility to future generations to tackle climate change while we can."

It was now more urgent than ever to act on climate change.
...
"We have the potential to become world leaders in clean energy technology," Senator Wong said.

Australia could take the lead in providing financial services to the region's emerging carbon market.

Senator Wong dropped a hint to the vocal opponents of emissions trading that they would not have it all their own way.

The Government would pay close attention to the needs of households, and of all industries, not just those protesting against emissions trading, she said.

Birmingham Lunar Society discusses climate change - Birmingham Post

...For example, asked whether climate change was a natural planetary or man-made event, Ms McGlade warned: “A hundred and fifty years ago we started the industrial revolution and it is obvious that from that point carbon dioxide started to increase.

“In the last 150 years what we have seen is an unprecedented increase in CO2 emissions. Every observation we bring in tells us we are now outside the most conservative models for CO2 emissions. Even sceptics I meet are becoming more convinced.”

One such sceptic on the panel who remained unconvinced however, was former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Energy Nigel Lawson whose book An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming, dismisses the majority scientific verdict.

“The science is anything but settled,” he told a somewhat incredulous audience.

“There are natural forces at work in the climate, there always has been. The hysteria we have on this issue is totally unwarranted.”

Fabulous headline: "Warming In Yosemite Sends Small Mammals Running For The Hills" - Science - redOrbit

Climate change and press freedom - CPJ Blog - Committee to Protect Journalists

Last weekend I participated in a conference in Venice, Italy, on climate change and the press. The meeting was hosted by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev under the auspices on the World Political Forum, an organization Gorbachev founded in 2003 to foster discussion on "crucial problems that affect humankind."

The premise of this particular meeting, which brought together politicians, policy-makers, scientists and journalists, is that the media must do more to alert the world to the threat posed by climate change and mobilize action. The mood was bleak and dire. Speaker after speaker stressed that the pace of global warming appears to exceed even the most alarming predictions and the window for action may be closing. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, the situation may be even graver. It is difficult to imagine a scenario in which the world comes together in the short tem to take action.

10.15.2008 - Dozens of East Bay climate-change researchers to gather at I-House

BERKELEY — On the wall of Professor Kirk Smith’s office in the School of Public Health hangs an embossed certificate honoring his contributions to the United Nations’ Nobel Peace Prize-winning climate-change organization.

Because of his groundbreaking work on the deleterious health effects of air pollution caused by indoor cooking and heating fuels around the world, Smith was invited to be part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s painstaking assessment process, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Next week, Smith will lead three of his fellow East Bay prizewinners in a discussion of the value of the IPCC, not just in reaching scientific conclusions about the dangers of climate change but as a model for the process of bringing worldwide expertise and consensus to bear on urgent global issues.

The occasion will be a celebratory dinner and ceremony being held by the United Nations Association of the East Bay on Friday, Oct. 24, at International House.

Honored at the dinner will be the 45 or so East Bay scientists and academics — from UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley (LBNL) and Lawrence Livermore (LLNL) national laboratories — who contributed to the IPCC’s massive, ongoing reports on climate change. The evening also marks the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 1945.

Climate change comes to Manhattan - The Weather Guys - USATODAY.com

Planning a visit to the Big Apple in the next few months? The American Museum of Natural History wants to give you a "warm" welcome, in a new exhibit that aims to demystify climate change.

"Climate Change: The Threat to Life and a New Energy Future" opens Saturday Oct. 18 and will allow visitors to "intelligently engage in the public debate," says co-curator Edmond Mathez.
...
"We thought it was a bad idea to pile on potentially depressing facts and not say what they can do until they’re … worn out at the end," says co-curator and Princeton University geosciences professor Michael Oppenheimer.

Depressing facts? Well, the exhibit certainly shows the domino effect of global warming, from melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and stronger hurricanes, to more intense heat waves, drought, and wildfires.
....
(Photo: A diorama of a large polar bear reduced to foraging through a garbage dump is a graphic illustration of how polar bears will be forced to invade human-populated areas in response to the dwindling of their habitat. Courtesy American Museum of Natural History.)

Thomas Jefferson on Climate Change, 1781 « The Unbearable Nakedness of CLIMATE CHANGE

A change in our climate however is taking place very sensibly. Both heats and colds are become much more moderate within the memory even of the middle-aged. Snows are less frequent and less deep. They do not often lie, below the mountains, more than one, two, or three days, and very rarely a week. They are remembered to have been formerly frequent, deep, and of long continuance. The elderly inform me the earth used to be covered with snow about three months in every year. The rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scarcely ever do so now. This change has produced an unfortunate fluctuation between heat and cold, in the spring of the year, which is very fatal to fruits. From the year 1741 to 1769, an interval of twenty-eight years, there was no instance of fruit killed by the frost in the neighbourhood of Monticello. An intense cold, produced by constant snows, kept the buds locked up till the sun could obtain, in the spring of the year, so fixed an ascendency as to dissolve those snows, and protect the buds, during their developement, from every danger of returning cold. The accumulated snows of the winter remaining to be dissolved all together in the spring, produced those overflowings of our rivers, so frequent then, and so rare now.

Canadians cool on warming politicians | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Climate realist Chris Horner speaks at Knox College

...Some students informed me that the college administration had not wanted to host my lecture — a fact communicated to them by several faculty members. After all, college campuses are no place for such heterodoxy. Once it was formally scheduled, a faculty-sanctioned alternative event was slapped together to discuss the economic crisis. One student had invited the school president to my talk. He apparently vowed that he would not waste his time bothering to hear the side of the climate-change debate that he hasn’t yet heard. Sad, if not surprising in today’s academic environment. Though the administrator then noted he had of course attended a recent event touting “sustainability.”

That can't be good, can it?

Climate's three-headed dog - State News - Agribusiness and General - General - Stock Journal

There's a "three-headed dog" savaging Australia's climate, according to CSIRO scientist Dr Wenju Cai, and two of the heads are eating away at rainfall in southern Australia.

The three climate influences referred to by Dr Cai are El Nino, the Southern Annullar Mode, and the Indian Ocean Dipole.

All are driven by ocean temperatures, and all are being intensified, to Australia's disadvantage, by global warming.

A Tale of Two Theories - Climate Change Fraud - Because the debate is not over

The media, which has never been a bastion of scientific thinking, has infused this uncertainty with the patina of factual evidence. What started off as a scientific community of investigators looking for climate change answers has now become a political institution intent on proving man-made CO2 is the root cause.

The ChamberPost: Al Gore, Offsets, and Action
Wisconsin: Homecoming features Big Ten’s first ‘carbon-neutral’ football game (Oct. 15, 2008)

The project will involve the planting of thousands of trees at the Arington Tree Farm near Cambridge, beginning at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16, when Bucky Badger, UW-Madison student-athletes and university officials will be on hand for the planting of the first seedlings.

The university's commitment also involves the purchase of carbon credits — made possible by an anonymous donor — to offset estimated game-day carbon dioxide emissions.
...
Most scientists think the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is one of the prime reasons our climate is changing.

But if they seriously believe that CO2 is a threat, why aren't they doing this for every athletic event?

Miami Advertising Examiner: Reese's makes a mockery of the global warming crisis

The art is simple, with the product's identifiable brand colors as the background and fonts for the ad. Using the iconic circular chocolate candy with the ridged-edges as the focal point, there is the stark copy for the ad superimposed on the spot: "Stop global warming now or all the Reese's will melt." It then quickly segues to the ending line "Reese's perfect."

Personally, I think that this is the most distasteful way of an advertiser trying to use "green marketing" to attract viewers. Sure, it's supposed to be fun, maybe tongue-in-cheek even, but with such a crucial and sensitive topic such as global warming, it probably is not wise to use it in this fashion. Some will say that I don't have a sense of humor, which is definitely not the case, and others will say that I am taking it out of context. Call me a tree-hugging hippie if you'd like but I think that global warming is not a laughing matter. If Reese's wanted to jump on the "green" bandwagon like so many advertisers have then why not create some actual eco-friendly initiatives and then touting them, like maybe making the paper cups from 100% recycled paper and using that as a selling point in your commercials?

Ed Miliband: No retreat from green agenda despite recession | Politics | guardian.co.uk

New energy and climate change secretary tells Patrick Wintour and Allegra Stratton the battle to stop climate change must continue

The new energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, insisted today that there must be no retreat from the government's climate change agenda in the face of the coming recession, as he prepared to accept proposals from Lord Turner's climate change committee tomorrow to increase Britain's statutory target to cut carbon emissions from 50% to 80% by 2050.

In his first interview since he was appointed secretary of state at the new Department for Environment and Climate Change, he claims many of the new jobs of the future will be green jobs, adding that the cost to taxpayers of failing to fix the environment will only be higher if it is not tackled now.

"The central argument of the Stern report is that the costs of not acting are worse than the costs of acting, and the longer you leave it, the worse it gets in terms of the costs. So I don't think there is an option not to act," Miliband told the Guardian.

He is due to respond tomorrow in the Commons to a recommendation from the government's climate change committee, chaired by Lord (Adair) Turner, that the government raise its target to cut carbon emissions to 80% by 2050 from 1990 levels.

Without being specific about his response tomorrow, Miliband makes it clear he shares Turner's assumption that the science has changed since the original 50% reduction target was set in 2000.

"It would not be true to say that after the events of the past three weeks that climate change is at the front of millions of people's minds. But politics is about leadership and that means saying this is an incredibly important issue not just for us but for our children," he said.
...
He added that he wanted a bigger popular green movement. "Politicians cannot do this alone."

But Miliband will disappoint some NGOs by saying that aviation should not be included in emissions targets, arguing that "there is not a credible way of showing in relation to aviation it can be driven by renewables".

Airlines such as Virgin are pledging to use 5% renewable fuel by 2015.

Looking at the wider state of the debate on climate change, Miliband says "the argument about the science has been broadly won, but I do not think the argument on what individuals can do to make a difference has yet been won."

He said he thought government had to do more to make it easier for people to go green in their daily lives, and admitted that he was not a paragon of virtue in his personal life, even if he was trying to use his car less.

He said he was taken by the "thought experiment" on personal trading allowances of the foreign secretary, his brother David.

"This is my thought experiment on it," the climate change secretary said. "What is very smart about this idea is transparency, the idea that we get to know what our personal carbon emissions are. I do not say that is the end of the story - that is the very important first step along the road to personal carbon allowances. As to the long-term practicalities and how it would work, I don't know. I'll need to commission some work on it."

Politicians worldwide should take note

Harper's second minority suits the national mood

Canadians' passion for environmental causes has now been subject to a direct test, albeit under adverse economic conditions, and measured with tremendous exactitude. It turns out that jobs and savings accounts still come first with the public. Columnists, activists and pollsters have been telling us for years that global warming is the great issue of the age, and poor Mr. Dion was really foolish enough to believe them; perhaps he was a victim of his own detached academic character.

Arctic sea ice now 28.7% higher than this date last year - still climbing « Watts Up With That?

10/14/2008 7,064,219 square kilometers

10/14/2007 5,487,656 square kilometers

A difference of: 1,576,563 square kilometers, now in fairness, 2008 was a leap year, so to avoid that criticism, the value of 6,857,188 square kilometers can be used which is the 10/13/08 value, for a difference of 1,369,532 sq km. Still not too shabby at 24.9 %. The one day gain between 10/13/08 and 10/14/08 of 3.8% is also quite impressive.

Cold snap ends Oregon grape harvest prematurely

MEDFORD, Ore. -- Cold has cut short the grape growing season in Southern Oregon.

That means some growers are hustling to get the crop into the wineries for crushing, and some may suffer losses.

Growers in Jackson and Josephine counties say temperatures over the weekend dove into the mid-20s and dropped even further in some spots.

Marcus Buchanan is an extension service specialist who toured the Southern Oregon region. He says cold weather was expected, but it turned out about five degrees lower than forecast.

Buchanan says some growers are only halfway through the harvest. He says there's likely to be damage in the Applegate region for growers who didn't have frost protection and in low areas of Jackson County.

Scientist who was fmr. Greenpeace member says 'no proof' CO2 is driving global temps!

Jarl R. Ahlbeck: No significant global warming since 1995 | Facts & Arts

According to the UK climate panel IPCC, this last warming period has been forced by increased carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. There is however no proof of that and the theory of how carbon dioxide influences the global mean temperature is complicated and unreliable. And if the global temperature again starts to increase slower than the natural long-term trend of 0.5 deg C/100 years, or even starts to cool, we can be quite certain that the recent faster warming trends have been natural too.

Jarl Ahlbeck - SourceWatch

Jarl R. Ahlbeck, born. 1946 in Nykarleby (Finland), D.Sc. (Chem Eng), associate professor in environmental technology in Åbo Akademi, the Swedish University of Finland. Expert in waste water treatment systems and flue gas cleaning. 200 scientific publications, 4 patents. Participated in numerous technological projects in the third world (China, India, Bangladesh) for creating clean water supply systems for poor people and flue glas cleaning systems for small and middle-range power plants. Former member of Greenpeace and the Finnish socialist party DFFF.

(Via Marc Morano)

Chemist declares himself 'skeptic' - 'No uncontrolled, runaway greenhouse effect has occurred in the last half billion years' -

Global Warming – Man-made or Natural? | Facts & Arts

Chemist Dr. Kenneth Rundt, a bio-molecule researcher and formerly a research assistant and teacher at Abo Akademi University in Finland, declared his global warming dissent in June 2008. “Let me state immediately before you read on that I count myself among the ‘skeptics’,” Rundt wrote in a scientific paper titled “Global Warming – Man-made or Natural?” on June 16, 2008. “I am only a humble scientist with a PhD degree in physical chemistry and an interest in the history of the globe we inhabit. I have no connection with any oil or energy-related business. I have nothing to gain from being a skeptic,” Rundt explained. “My personal belief is that natural forcings have more importance than anthropogenic forcings such as the CO2 level,” Rundt wrote. “It can also be reliably inferred from palaeoclimatological data that no uncontrolled, runaway greenhouse effect has occurred in the last half billion years when atmospheric CO2 concentration peaked at almost 20 times today’s value. Given the stability of the climate over this time period there is little danger that current CO2 levels will cause a runaway greenhouse effect. It is likely, therefore, that the IPCC’s current estimates of the magnitude of climate feedbacks have been substantially overestimated,” Rundt wrote. According to Rundt, even a doubling of CO2 levels from 317 ppm to 714 ppm “would increase absorption approximately 0.17%. This corresponds to an additional radiative forcing of 0.054 W/m2, substantially below IPCC‘s figure of 4 W/m2. An increase of this order would not result in a temperature increase of more than a tenth of a centigrade.” “The biggest problem for the pro-IPCC scientific community is that there are no means to experimentally determine the effect of an increasing CO2 level,” Rundt wrote. “IPCC’s spokesman Al Gore has often claimed that the ‘science is settled’, but there is a growing group of scientists critical against the claims of ‘settled science’ and overwhelming ‘consensus,’ he concluded. (Via Marc Morano)