The benefits of climate-change policies are limited and costly. Instead, the president-elect needs to coolly evaluate competing priorities, says Bjørn Lomborg.
Cape Town - Sixty-nine percent of Republican voters say Alaska Governor Sarah Palin helped John McCain's bid for the presidency, even as news reports surface that some McCain staffers think she was a liability.
This is according to a report published by Rasmussen Reports, an electronic media company which specialises in opinion polling information.
Only 20% of GOP voters said Palin hurt the party's ticket, according the Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Six percent said she had no impact, and five percent were undecided.
Ninety-one percent of Republicans had a favourable view of Palin, including 65% who said their view is Very Favourable. Only eight percent had an unfavourable view of her.
When asked to choose among some of the GOP's top names for their choice for the party's 2012 presidential nominee, 64% said Palin. The next closest contenders were two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year - Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.
The enormous climate crisis needs to be understood and acknowledged as a group so that we can respond to it in a unified way, Gore said. In explaining the situation to the web entrepreneurs in the room, he likened it to the message of an “Inconvenient Truth” needing to be “stored in the cloud.” An appropriate sense of urgency around this issue still does not exist, he said.
Me: I'd like to know what National has to offer New Zealand over the Green Party in terms of combating global warming.
John Key: I don't think the most serious issue that New Zealand will face in the next decade is climate change. I do think that it's an important issue, and I think we should take it seriously, and we are going to take it seriously, and that means we'll honour our Kyoto obligations, we'll have an Emissions Trading Scheme, which will be balanced, it will balance our environmental responsibilities against our economic opportunities, we'll make sure it's linked in or at least has reference to Australia, it wont be a big money-making device for the Crown, it will be fiscally-neutral, but look, at the end of the day, New Zealand represents 0.2% to 0.4% of world emissions. I don't see any point in New Zealand completely closing its economy down, simply to export carbon emissions or carbon leakage over to Australia. Now for Upper Hutt... [drowned out by applause]
Obama is also inheriting a climate crisis. The United States and China have been racing to see which nation will contribute most to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. It looks as though China will win in absolute terms, but on a per capita basis, America takes the smoggy cake. We cannot save the planet without a global agreement, and we cannot get such an agreement without massive reductions in U.S. emissions. This transition could have upsides beyond the environmental ones. A carbon tax -- or the auctioning of emissions permits -- could generate huge revenues; some of those could be used to help Americans adjust to the new "green economy," while the rest could be used to reduce the deficit or lower taxes on workers. But we really have little choice here: Europe and other global players are likely to slap a carbon tax on U.S. goods if we don't deal with the issue at home. Their firms will not tolerate giving U.S. firms a competitive advantage simply because we refuse to bear our responsibility for the global environment.
In this strange world of Algoria, development is impossible (it causes climate change) and progress is a zero-sum game (our ‘profligacy’ is their poverty). It is in this fantasy world that Oxfam’s conception of ‘environmental justice’ is invented.
Oxfam celebrate basic lives, and basic sanitation. Meanwhile, it turns anyone with more than basic sanitation who lives more than a basic life into the culprits of a ‘climate crime’. The result is that it tells people in the developing world, and the industrialised world how they ought to live, and what they ought to expect. Oxfam has ceased to be a development charity, and has become an undevelopment charity.
The Internet's critical role in Democrat Obama's victory in the presidential race against Republican John McCain was a "great blow for victory" in addressing a "democracy crisis" stifling action against climate change, Gore said.
The Web has "revolutionized" nearly every aspect of running for US president and delivered an "electrifying redemption" of the founding national principle that all people are created equal, according to Gore.
"Some week," Gore said in greeting to an audience that leapt to its feet cheering. "It really was overwhelming. It couldn't have happened without the Internet."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are fighting over control of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the outcome could affect President-elect Obama's efforts to limit the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming.
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Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., who was working the phones to drum up support for Dingell, said claims by Waxman's supporters that Dingell would not advance climate legislation quickly were "not based in reality."
"This climate change bill is not a slam dunk," said Doyle. "It is not like we have overwhelming votes in the House and Senate."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have not taken sides. Obama's camp is also staying out of it.
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Waxman, 69, has headed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that has spent the past two years taking the Bush administration to task over global warming and muzzling government scientists. It has also investigated the White House's political operation, steroids in sports and, most recently, abuses behind the financial collapse.
He wrote a global warming bill last year that attracted 155 co-sponsors, all Democrats, well below the 218 needed to pass the House.
I do not write papers because ExxonMobil or Greenpeace pays me to, but because my academic researches demonstrate that the sun, not carbon dioxide, is the chief driver of Arctic temperatures, and that much of the "evidence" for the bears' imminent demise is speculative. Indeed the population has increased fivefold since the 1950s, mainly because of restricted hunting. Where the Arctic has cooled, bears dwindle: where it has warmed, they increase.
Polar bears evolved from brown bears 200,000 years ago and therefore must have survived the last interglacial period, when global temperatures were many degrees warmer than the present. More perspective and less prejudice, please.
Willie Soon
Salem, Massachusetts, USA
Personally, I find it incredible that anybody still believes a word the IPCC says. We always knew that it was a politically-motivated body whose sole aim was to find evidence to back up a conclusion already reached. Instead of acting like proper scientific investigators and saying, "well, the fact is that global temperatures are pretty steady or even declining, so let's use this opportunity to find out why so that we can better understand the mechanics of the climate," they lie and mislead in order to keep their preconceived ideas afloat.
The IPCC has abandoned all pretence of impartiality and has become just another in the long line of alarmist organisations desperate to keep the AGW bandwagon rolling in order to achieve political objectives. As Michael Duffy says, shocking.
The orthodox position has depended upon the spectre of "melting ice sheets" to inject fear into the minds of the masses of common media consumers. As long as they could claim that ice sheets were "melting at unprecedented rates" and "approaching the tipping point", the proles could be stampeded into backing the right political candidates--the ones stupid enough to believe in the hysteria or corrupt enough to sell themselves to the orthodoxy.
Now that the ice sheets are showing some resiliency, global temperatures have stabilised or reversed, and oceans are cooling, the orthodoxy is reduced to outright lying and an accelerating rate of obfuscation and political threats. But even worse for the orthodoxers, the ice sheets themselves appear to have much less to do with climate than the hysterics have been claiming all along. The tried and true propaganda they have used all along lacks any support in truth.
Australians elected a carbon hysteric as leader. The Americans have done the same. Europe's leadership positions at both national and EU levels are infested by carbon hysterics. Does the science really matter, when the politicians all back the orthodoxy? We'll find out shortly.
Mayor Bloomberg wants to nickel and dime you at the grocery store - taxing you an extra 5 cents for every plastic bag you take home.
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"Bloomberg is a piece of work," Clemelda Gipson, 39, said outside a D'Agostino grocery store in Chelsea. "Food is expensive and now we have to pay for the bags, too? They should try to come up with ideas and solutions and not just more taxes."
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New York considered a plastic bag tax earlier this year but settled for a mandatory recycling program, figuring most stores would just switch to paper, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) said.
[Alarmist Bill McKibben] We need a deal -- but it's a deal that has to reflect the new crucial piece of information about the planet. According to the scientists at NASA -- your scientists, now -- that world doesn't work right above 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. Now that you're done with 270 electoral votes, that's the number that's got to focus your thinking.
Because, as well as taking up open countryside, they allow developers to limit environmental innovation to these smaller projects, instead of spreading it through all new housing, and they will be net generators of greenhouse gases according to the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) which is advising the British government on the concept. The towns will, according to the TCPA generate much less greenhouse gas than other forms of settlement but ‘to call it zero-carbon is slack language.’ And if the new eco-towns can’t manage to be carbon neutral, then that means that by 2020, there could be 3 million new carbon-emitting houses in the UK.
Last year, during my second solo attempt to reach the South Pole, I was stopped dead in my tracks by something this continent rarely experiences. Snow. A full-blown blizzard, in fact.Storms & Blizzards - Weather in Antarctica - Antarctic Connection
Most people probably aren't aware of the fact that Antarctica is the driest continent on Earth; it's literally a desert of ice with an average of a single inch of precipitation each year. So what I experienced was akin to standing in the middle of the Sahara during the dry season and getting whacked by a torrential downpour.
As I stood there blinded by the whiteout that had enveloped me, I called a friend back at base camp, a veteran explorer marking his 31st straight year of Antarctic expeditions. "I've never seen anything like this mate. I don't know what to make of it," he replied.
Things are changing here, way too fast.
That type of extreme weather is becoming all too common around the globe, and scientists have no doubt that we humans are disrupting the climate, with potentially devastating impacts for humanity. It's high time for bold action.
Blizzards are a typical Antarctic phenomenon occurring when drift snow is picked up and blown along the surface by the violent winds. Blinding conditions can result in which objects less than a 3 feet away may be invisible. Localized blizzards are caused when the surface wind sweeps up any loose snow, even if the skies above are clear and no snow is falling. A severe blizzard may last for a week at a time with winds blasting at over 100 miles per hour.Antarctic Explorers: Ernest Shackleton: The Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1914-1917
Blizzard after blizzard confronted the men.
One sticking issue for some environmentalists is Kennedy’s reputation as a NIMBY, a "not in my back yard” supporter of renewable energy.
Kennedy drew the ire of the international environmental group Greenpeace and others after he opposed construction of a wind energy farm off the coast of Cape Cod that would have marred the view from his family’s shoreline home.
“While his rhetoric sometimes runs a little hot, it’s hard to challenge his motives,” said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council. “That said, EPA is an agency with about 20,000 employees and a very complicated mission. It does not lend itself to governance by sound bite. So any administrator will have to resist that temptation.”
Kennedy is a senior attorney with National Resources Defense Council. And its spokeswoman, Julia Bovey, said Friday she’d “really have to laugh at the idea that Bobby's positions are radical."
"Sure, he's a strong protector of the environment,” she said, "but his positions and the organizations he's aligned himself with are very mainstream America."
...What I did notice was how little effect our new lifestyle had on anyone else. I considered my decision to be mildly heroic. Most friends thought it was pointless, even obsessive.
When other people boasted of some marathon to the sun, I would mumble that we were trying not to fly anywhere for environmental reasons. But this had absolutely no impact. Some friends had the grace to look sheepish. But I don't think that a single one changed their behaviour.
It wasn't pointless, for me. I had calculated that flights made up quite a significant bit of our family carbon footprint. We were already doing some of the basic “green” things - low-energy lighting, smart meter, bus to school. Slow travel made sense as the next step. But to most people, it seemed to be a non-sequitur.
The next blow was when a deeply green friend told me that she was cutting down holiday travel, but still flying every week for work. I was doing neither. But I couldn't even get credit from a diehard green.
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I abandoned my golden rule this year. We went skiing in Switzerland. I felt ludicrously gleeful, like a naughty child. Now I want to see everything, all over again. The irony is that we probably can't afford to. I will be stuck at home because of the credit crunch. But I will no longer be able to feel smug about it, just frustrated.
TORONTO, Ont. -- The Ontario Trucking Association (OTA) is hailing a provincial government announcement that promotes anti-idling technologies.Why not just pay $3/ton for some bogus carbon offsets, which would only blow $120k per year?
The four-year, $15 million grant program is designed to assist operators of commercial vehicles in the battle against climate change, by investing in fuel saving technologies, and is considered "a good first step that is consistent with the industry's enviroTruck initiative," according to the OTA, which has been working with the province for the past year in developing the program.
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The OTA estimates that APU technology can reduce idling by up to 90% and save up to 7,200 litres of diesel fuel per year for a typical tractor semi-trailer unit. However, the purchase cost of the technology is expensive, averaging from $8,000 to $10,000 per unit, and thus the need for this and previous incentive programs, according to the OTA
Under the plan, Ontario trucking companies will be able to apply for grants towards the purchase of anti-idling devices, such as auxiliary power units (APU's) or in-cab heater technologies, and hybrid or alternative energy vehicles. Companies that qualify for the grant, are required collect data on the fuel savings from the green technologies, as part of a longer-term effort to reduce GHG emissions.
Applications for the program will be available Nov. 28, and the program is retroactive to August 2007 – the launch date of the McGuinty government's "Go Green Action Plan" which includes targets for greenhouse gas reductions by the freight transportation sector. According to Transportation Minister Jim Bradley, the Green Commercial Vehicle Program could take up to 40,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions out of the air every year.
ORLANDO, Fla., Nov 07, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- While many people think of cars as the primary culprit in global warming, the world's buildings actually emit more carbon dioxide than any other industry sector. Realtors(R) at today's Land Use, Property Rights and Environment Forum as part of the 2008 REALTORS(R) Conference & Expo learned how upcoming legislative and regulatory initiatives to address global climate change will affect the real estate industry.REALTORS® CONFERENCE & EXPO - International (The National Association of REALTORS®)
The political climate seems poised for change. This year for the first time, a congressional majority supported sweeping climate change initiatives. Changes in climate and energy policies at the state and federal levels will affect homeowners and commercial investors across the country.
With 25,000 real estate professionals expected to attend from more than 50 countries, the 2008 REALTORS® Conference & Expo is a great opportunity to make new contacts from all over the U.S. and the world. They will all be in one place, Orlando, Florida. Be sure to join us!
The Apollo Alliance, a San Francisco coalition of environmental and labor groups, also released a study in September. It concluded that five million green jobs could be had with an investment of $500 billion -- more than three times Mr. Obama's number.Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Obama's Mandate: Big, Sure, But Does It Really Include Energy?
Kate Gordon, co-director of the Apollo Alliance, says the numbers are less important than the message. "Honestly," she says, "it's just to inspire people."
But on the wider issue of energy, the election results do seem to paint a more nuanced picture. As the Washington Post notes today, about half of Obama voters support more offshore drilling, hardly a rallying cry for the Democrats.
Australian agriculture can’t afford to sit around and wait until 2013 for government to decide how it fits into the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), a global expert in carbon trading said last week.
In Australia for the CarbonExpo 2008 conference on the Gold Coast, Dr Ken Newcombe told Rural Press that the farm sector needs to quickly shape itself into a carbon offsets provider selling offsets products to industries regulated under the CPRS.
Dr Newcombe considers it logistically unlikely that Australian agriculture will ever become a “covered” sector under the CPRS, but it has a big incentive to be in the carbon business—the sooner the better.
“Government’s not going to insist that you have to reduce your energy use on the farm,” said Dr Newcombe, who heads his own carbon finance company, C-Quest Capital, based in the United States capital Washington DC.
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“It seems to me that your interests are best served by saying to government, ‘Give us the opportunity of getting revenue from carbon finance to drive us towards a more energy efficient agriculture right now’.”
“The processes that make farmers more energy-efficient have knock-on benefits for production anyway.”
Dr Newcombe, who grew up on a South Australian dairy farm, led the development of the world’s first carbon fund for the World Bank, which now has US$1 billion invested in carbon offset projects.
He was later a vice-chairman of Climate Change Capital in London, and before starting his own business was a managing director of Goldman Sachs in its Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities Division in New York.
Some theories indicate a temperatures rise of just 4 °C may trigger worsening global warming that would make polar ice caps melt and sea levels rise dangerously. It’s feared low-lying countries such as the Netherlands and Australia may be drowned in a Biblical-scale catastrophe.
October 2030 was named as a pivotal time by the World Wildlife Fund. The environmental organisation warns that humanity consumes too many natural resources and the Earth fails to keep pace.
The Living Planet Report said that, by 2030, a second earth would be required for humans to maintain their current lifestyle.
...For instance, Gary's field faces Southward, and has 5 to 6 nights of frost per year, versus fields facing Northward which have between 10 to 15 nights of frost per year. In addition, clear windless nights where the temperatures fall below freezing are ideal for frost formation. Because of this, Gary and other farmers have removed their wind shields, mostly composed of eucalyptus trees. Other factors like dry ground and weeds also increase frost.Wouldn't it be wonderful if we spent $45 trillion and actually cooled the earth enough so that we'd have to fight frost noticeably more often?
The purpose of the helicopter in this process is twofold. First, the rotor downwash moves the air which stirs the leaves. Creating friction, which generates heat. Second, during the night, the heat which is trapped by the Earth during the day rises as the ground cools. This results in a layer of warmer air above the cooler air covering the ground. When you have an increase in temperature with height, this is called an inversion. The helicopter's function is to push down that inversion into the cooler air on the ground.
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In conjunction with helicopters, farmers use diesel powered windmills, smudge pots, and microsprinklers. These are not as efficient as a helicopter because they are fixed, require constant upkeep, and are labor intensive. Gary Ball says that the helicopter is not cheap, but it is only used for a few days out of the year. The windmill's height does not always coincide with the height of the warm air they are to use, and the horizontal wind they create cannot get past some of the trees. The helicopter on the other hand has the ability to change altitude and find the inversion (warmer air) and feed the air to each individual tree. Smudge pots are cheap to purchase, costly to operate, and very polluting. Chuck says that it's like flying through fog when they are on. The use of water sprinklers to keep the Earth moist is a a useful means of retaining the heat within the soil. Because water freezes slower, moist soil will freeze at a slower rate than dry soil.
The comparative figures are interesting. A helicopter covers 100 acres for $250 an hour while a windmill only covers 10 and costs 15-20000 Dollars plus fuel and maintenance. Gary says he would need eight machines. You need about 40 smudge pots per acre at one gallon per hour of diesel at 0.50-1.00 Dollar per gallon.
BP has dropped all plans to build wind farms and other renewable schemes in Britain and is instead concentrating the bulk of its $8bn (£5bn) renewables spending programme on the US, where government incentives for clean energy projects can provide a convenient tax shelter for oil and gas revenues.
The decision is a major blow to the prime minister, Gordon Brown, who has promised to sweep away all impediments to ensure Britain is at the forefront of the green energy revolution. BP and Shell - which has also pulled out of renewables in Britain - are heavily influential among investors.
BP has advertised its green credentials widely in the UK and has a representative on the ruling board of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). But it said difficulty in getting planning permission and lower economies of scale made the UK wind sector far less attractive than that of the US.
"The best place to get a strong rate of return for wind is the US," said a BP spokesman, who confirmed the group had shelved ideas of building an onshore wind farm at the Isle of Grain, in Kent, and would not bid for any offshore licences.
BP has enormous financial firepower as a result of recent very high crude oil prices. Its move away from wind power in Britain follows a decision by Shell to sell off its stake in the London Array project off Kent, potentially the world's largest offshore wind farm.
Shell gave the same reasons as BP for that move, saying the economics of UK wind were poor compared to those onshore across the Atlantic, where incoming president Barack Obama has promised to spend $150bn over 10 years to kick start a renewable energy revolution .
[Crichton] To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: "These results are derived with the help of a computer model." But now large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world — increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward. There can be no observational data about the year 2100. There are only model runs.
This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynman called it a disease. I fear he is right. Because only if you spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen can you arrive at the complex point where the global warming debate now stands.
Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we're asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?
Last month I witnessed something shocking. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was giving a talk at the University of NSW. The talk was accompanied by a slide presentation, and the most important graph showed average global temperatures. For the past decade it represented temperatures climbing sharply.
As this was shown on the screen, Pachauri told his large audience: "We're at a stage where warming is taking place at a much faster rate [than before]".
Now, this is completely wrong. For most of the past seven years, those temperatures have actually been on a plateau. For the past year, there's been a sharp cooling. These are facts, not opinion: the major sources of these figures, such as the Hadley Centre in Britain, agree on what has happened, and you can check for yourself by going to their websites. Sure, interpretations of the significance of this halt in global warming vary greatly, but the facts are clear.
So it's disturbing that Rajendra Pachauri's presentation was so erroneous, and would have misled everyone in the audience unaware of the real situation. This was particularly so because he was giving the talk on the occasion of receiving an honorary science degree from the university.
Later that night, on ABC TV's Lateline program, Pachauri claimed that those who disagree with his own views on global warming are "flat-earthers" who deny "the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence". But what evidence could be more important than the temperature record, which Pachauri himself had fudged only a few hours earlier?
In his talk, Pachauri said the number of global warming sceptics is shrinking, a curious claim he was unable to substantiate when questioned about it on Lateline. Still, there's no doubt a majority of climate scientists agree with the view of the IPCC.
The Los Angeles City Council had better hurry up and put something called the Green Energy-Good Jobs Initiative on the March 3 ballot, or we will never, ever have solar power in this city. There's no time to see where the plan fits into an as-yet-unseen comprehensive solar plan. There's no time to wonder why its chief sponsors are labor unions. There's no time to ask why the leader of the city-owned Department of Water and Power took this initiative to the City Council over the heads of his commissioners.
At least that's the message that has emerged from council chambers over the last two weeks, after this initiative to install city-owned solar panels on Los Angeles rooftops materialized. Boosters argue that, for goodness' sake, we just have to get this thing on the ballot by today's artificial deadline, and then we'll have plenty of time to answer everyone's questions.
This rush to the ballot has the scent of swindle about it. Council members and a smattering of environmentalists speak about the plan with happy words, but through gritted teeth. That's because, just out of view, their arms are being twisted.
The plan put together by Working Californians -- headed by Brian D'Arcy, business manager of the union representing DWP electricians, and Marvin Kropke, business manager of another International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union that does a great deal of city contracting -- theoretically could form part of an acceptable proposal to expand Los Angeles' supply of solar power. Instead, it does little to advance energy supply and much to reveal who's pulling the strings in Los Angeles.
It stands the priority list for intelligent solar policy on its head. Increased electrical generation capacity and benefit for ratepayers fall to the bottom. They're replaced by secondary priorities, such as economic stimulus and job security for DWP workers, or even non-priorities (for L.A. residents, anyway), such as near-exclusive IBEW power over awarding solar-panel-installation jobs and union support for elected officials.
A comprehensive solar plan might well provide welcome job opportunities to Los Angeles residents and businesses. This one appears to be more about locking up those opportunities for its sponsors than opening them to potential competitors. Meanwhile, there are serious questions about the numbers being batted about the council chamber. The 400 megawatts the program would presumably produce by 2014 appear to have more to do with political marketing than with reality. The estimated increases in electricity rates seem similarly speculative.
Council members -- even those seven who are up for reelection March 3 and crave labor donations -- should sober up. If this really must come before voters, there will be plenty more opportunities in this city, where elections are more frequent than rainy days.
...Ooohhh the poor driver... having to work so hard driving all over the tundra to find bears. The horror, the horror...
This is a good year for Churchill's bears (Dancer is in great condition) and should have been a great year for the polar bear cam. We have more snow than ever, there were decent bear numbers early and it is very easy to find polar bears out there, after all, Manitoba Conservation's 2008 aerial surveys recorded the HIGHEST numbers of polar bears in the history of their research - I wonder if the online discussions will mention that.
This decision just seems like the new polar bear cam team wants to come in, gather as much HD footage as they can (while spending as little time in Churchill as possible) to sell as stock. But you'll see the highlights folks, along with a short advertisement and website address and if you call within the next thirty minutes, you can save a bear for 60% off the retail price!!! Nice!
It is NOT a later than usual season - this is the earliest we have had snow in years!!! This is the most snow ever, this is peak polar bear photography season!!! The level of searching?!?!? The polar bears are so few and far between?!?! Hey, I've got an idea, how about I take Milo, my wolf-dog, out there, duct tape his paws to the wheel of Buggy One and we'll find a polar bear in about... hmmm... a minute. Or if that doesn't work... I just had drinks with Dennis, I don't think he's doing anything tomorrow. Plus, I would gladly be a relief polar bear cam driver to relieve his 'stress' of living on Buggy One. (Feel free to post that idea on the Nat Geo blog...)
In memory of Michael Crichton, who died Tuesday, let us consider a question that preocuppied him: How do we separate science from religion in environmentalism? As a spinner of sci-fi horror stories himself, he had a finely honed skepticism for the apocalyptic scenarios presented by environmentalists...Clean energy industry: we want a greater commitment to clean energy subsidies
James Kanter reports that the message to Barack Obama from the clean energy industry across the ocean, is crystal clear: Stick by plans to reform the subsidy system for green power producers...
My weblog of October 28 stirred up quite some dust here in Holland. The Director-in-chief of KNMI was upset enough to send me an e-mail (the first ever!) explaining the official position of his institute. He wrote that KNMI supports the choice of 130 cm of sea-level rise as a worst-case estimate based on the worst-case scenario of IPCC. I responded by writing that I felt it was his duty to declare in public that Professors Kabat and Vellinga had made statements that go far beyond this extreme scenario, and were badly damaging legitimate concerns about climate change that way. He did not respond to that. I also sent him a draft of this second weblog, giving him the chance to respond or to prepare a weblog himself. He didn’t react to that either...
A STUDENT single mum got a Halloween fright when she was told her gas bills had rocketed by more than 300%.
Sarah Hopson got a letter from British Gas on October 31 saying her payments would increase from £48 to £198 a month.
Sarah, 27, lives alone with her three-year-old son Korey at Belle Vue Crescent, Sheepridge.
The first year Huddersfield University student said: “It’s appropriate that I got the letter on Halloween – it’s a scary amount of money.
“If I had to pay this much I wouldn’t be able to look after my son or myself.
“I wouldn’t be able to afford clothing or food or anything.
“I haven’t been able to have my heating on because I’m worried about the bills, which is no good because Korey is just getting over a cold.”
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — The EU business lobby urged the European Union Thursday to drop anti-pollution plans that could increase costs for companies, saying the current financial crisis is already badly hurting their competitiveness.Recession smudges carbon outlook - Investors Chronicle
The EU plans would force industries to buy all pollution permits — which are now free — in the future.
The prospect of a full blown global recession could threaten the health of the carbon trading markets, according to carbon market analysts IdeaCarbon, as the slowdown in economic activity across Europe threatens to slash the projected shortfall between European Union carbon allowances and European industry emissions.
This could reduce demand for carbon allowances by around 44 per cent over the 2008-12 period, according to IdeaCarbon, and is already reflected in the recent fall in the price of EU allowances from a peak of €29.33 in July to €17.40 in late October. IdeaCarbon's director of strategy and intelligence, Andrea Vitelli, said: "Our latest forecasts suggest EU industrial output will grow at just 1 per cent in 2008, and shrink by 0.7 per cent in 2009. This will reduce the level of emissions from industry across Europe, and therefore cause a drop in the shortfall of credits." On top of industrial output decline, lower gas prices are leading to a switch from coal to gas-fired power generation, which produces less emissions.
The knock-on effect could threaten the economic viability of projects in the developing world which create carbon credits to be sold into the European system. Aim companies Camco, EcoSecurities and Trading Emissions could all find their development plans affected by the falling carbon price.
KBC's director of research Andrew Shepherd-Barron said: "Lower prices for carbon are not a great thing. The emphasis at the moment is on delivery of existing projects but this will take out marginal projects."
WHILE you were distracted by crashing banks and clashing US senators, you may have missed a small environmental earthquake.
The price of carbon has collapsed.
In only three months, life has become a lot cheaper for polluters. The financial cost of warming the planet has plummeted in Europe's emissions trading system (ETS) and the effectiveness of such a volatile market mechanism in curbing carbon is being questioned.
You may recall that the ETS is a mechanism to encourage businesses to reduce their carbon output. Europe's larger companies are allocated permits to emit CO2, and these allowances, called EUAs, can be traded on exchanges.
Companies that emit less CO2 than their allocation can sell EUAs for cash, but inefficient polluters must buy EUAs or face financial penalties.
The idea is that a shortfall in EUAs allocated by governments will cause the carbon price to rise, stimulating investment in carbon reduction.
It's a market solution to pollution, but this carbon market is showing a distressing tendency to behave like most financial markets -- hysterically. In July, the right to spew out one tonne of CO2 from a chimney would have cost a power generator E29.33, but yesterday it could be bought for only E18.25 ($34.14).
“People sometimes speak about anti-Americanism abroad. There is not in my experience any anti-Americanism. There certainly is resentment in most parts of the world [toward] an arrogant unilateral America that is seen as a big bully-boy refusing to sign Kyoto Protocols when the rest of the world is saying climate change is a very real threat to the continuous existence of human kind..."
...it is simple to refute the assertion of "Current warming sharpest climate change in 5,000 years" as it applies to global temperature. And in the AR4 the IPCC blatantly misrepresented data in an attempt to disguise the fact that there is nothing unusual about the rate of recent global warming.
The current global warming is in fact a cooling since the late 1990s.
The most recent warming phase began ~1970 and ended in 1998. The previous warming phase was from ~1910 to ~1940. The latter of those two most recent warming periods had the same warming rate (within errors of estimation) as the former. And it is important to note that 80% of the anthropogenic GHG emissions were after 1940.
This failure of the "current warming" to be unusually rapid is an embarrasment to the IPCC and the IPCC's response to it in the AR4 deserves much publicity.
But even under an Obama administration, the U.S. is not likely to join the Kyoto Protocol, said de Boer. Emissions of greenhouse gases in the U.S. have risen about 14 percent since 1990 levels, he said, whereas they would have had to decline by 6 percent if the nation was part of Kyoto.
...They will start with an immense reservoir of good will from across the world, but there will be limits. Even the litmus paper issue of climate change and carbon usage, espoused by Ban Ki Moon as his big issue, is not universally popular in the developing world, where they have reasonable suspicions that it is an attempt by industrialised countries to pull the ladder up after them.Continental shift -- or drift?
So Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to make common cause with his new friend Barack Obama on a continental approach to climate change. A stunning reversal by a long-time climate skeptic, a cynical dodge, or good news for planet Earth? At the moment, all three are possibilities -- although a green victory party may be premature.Analyst: Climate change bills could spell the end of local manufacturing
THIBODAUX – If passed, climate change bills gaining momentum in Congress could drive the U.S. manufacturing sector offshore within two decades, including fabrication and shipbuilding in the Terrebonne and Lafourche area, a researcher with a Washington think tank told business leaders Thursday.
With a bill like America's Climate Security Act before Congress last year, "We basically wipe out manufacturing in the U.S.," said William Beach, the director of the center for data analysis at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
An unseasonal frost has wreaked havoc in plant nurseries and vineyards across the district.Climate theory 'like Y2K scam' - The Canberra Times
Helen and Bill Hargreaves at Terrace Gardens nursery saw the signs and thought they were prepared for the worst.
They clambered out of bed well before sunrise yesterday morning hoping to get the water on to their 30,000-odd Christmas lilies in time to save them from frost bite.
“We don’t know whether it was worth it or not at this point. We won’t know the real impact for another few days but we’ve certainly lost a lot of lilies,” she said.
But the damage didn’t end with the outdoor stock; when the couple opened the shade house they were greeted by hundreds of blackened and wilting plants. The cold snap not only took out cucumbers, zucchinis, tomatoes and all the usual frost tender plants; even marigolds and other frost hardy plants were nipped.
“We expected it to get cold and we had covered the frost tender plants in the shade house, but even under two layers it still got them,” Mrs Hargreaves said.
Dubbed the ''inconvenient professor'' by mining industry chiefs, Professor Plimer said large amounts of scientific evidence already questioned the existence of human-generated climate change.
He said scientific research in Australia was more likely to go ahead if it shadowed Government policy.
''Scientists play politics the same as everyone else,'' he said in his speech, titled ''Human-induced Climate Change a Load of Hot Air''.
''I think we've got people playing games in politics,'' he said.
''If you want the research funding and if you want the money, then ... follow the money, follow the pocket of paradise, but it could actually send us broke.''
Reported ''doomsday'' scenarios attributed to human-induced climate change were overstated or wrong, he said. Reports that Tuvalu would be inundated as sea levels rose had been debunked by scientists who had known since 1830 that the island nation was sinking, he said.
''The problem with Tuvalu is that it sits on a crack of the Pacific Ocean where the ocean floor is sinking: no wonder it is inundated.''.
ASPEN — Few people dreaded Aspen’s record low temperature Thursday as much as the folks at the wastewater treatment plant.New Zealand: Nelson pilots join the fight against frost
The Aspen Consolidated Sanitation District isn’t biased against winter. Officials there just have an aversion to the problems it brings.
Aspen hotels and lodges activate their boilers at this time of year, and that often means flushing anti-freeze substances. Out of ignorance or belligerence, some operators flush the anti-freeze into drains tied to the sewer system. The anti-freeze raises hell with the multimillion-dollar sanitation plant.
"There are 670 helicopters in New Zealand and 85-90 percent of them will be out on a big frost night," Helipro business manager John Read said. "I would not be surprised if there were more than 500 flying tonight, based on the forecasts I have seen."
Helicopters prevent frost damage by circulating the layer of warm air trapped above the freezing conditions closer to the ground.
Nelson weather forecaster John Mathieson said a minimum air temperature of 1.9degC was recorded in Stoke Friday morning, well below the mean November minimum of 9.8degC.
Thursday's maximum of 14degC was the third-lowest November maximum for over 20 years, he said, with the record low of 13.7degC recorded "near 1941".
If at first you don’t succeed in convincing viewers global warming is a problem, try, try again. That must be the NBC “Today” show’s motto.
The morning show crew announced Nov. 6 it will air the second annual “Ends of the Earth” feature beginning Nov. 17. The show’s four co-hosts will travel to “fragile yet beautiful places, locales, for an up-close look at how the planet is changing and what those changes mean for all of us,” weatherman Al Roker said.
“Today” co-anchor Matt Lauer said the 2008 installment will focus on “the world’s most precious and essential resource. We’re talking about water.”
News anchor Ann Curry promised the feature would offer “an intense look at what’s happening to our planet, especially with global warming.”
But in the segment announcing the feature, “Today” didn’t acknowledge the irony of sending four hosts – and camera crews, producers and other crew – to remote locations to talk about global warming. The trips will pump tons of carbon emissions – which global warming alarmists point to as a major culprit in climate change – into the atmosphere.
To "green up" their businesses, many studios now have departments dedicated to reducing their carbon footprints and some have even offered staff incentives to buy hybrid cars.Obnoxious alarmist Phil Plait appeals to authority
But the biggest challenge is cutting down on the excesses of large-scale productions.
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Some cite the industry's massive use of fuel and diesel engines on location as its biggest problem.
"Consider how much fuel we use. Generators, night shoots, 'distant locations,' trucks per shoot, idling trucks, moving cranes, moving everything, people, wardrobe, grip equipment, out to the set and back, move locations, fly crews and helicopters," film and TV producer Judith James wrote in Traction, an online publication for women in Hollywood.
About once or twice a month I get an email from some global warming denier who mocks my stance that humans are the cause of most of this effect.2007--A sample of Plait's previous work entitled "Glenn Beck: idiot"
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Incidentally, water vapor is far and away the biggest contributor to greenhouse warming. The amount in the air is hugely variable, but relatively unaffected by man’s activities. So over time, those variations even out, and the contribution of warming from water vapor is steady. The increase we see in temperature — and there is an increase in temperature — cannot be from water vapor, and the methane contribution is small. We also know it’s not from the Sun, either.
That’s why atmospheric scientists primarily study carbon dioxide.
And they’ve been studying it a long, long time. It’s a very difficult field of research, fraught with hidden variables, difficult measurements, and political landmines. But chances are they know more about this than you and I do. There’s a reason they’re called experts, folks.
So the next time you want to send me some snarky email to embarrass me about some piece of info you just found on the intertoobs, please do yourself a favor: stop, think for just a moment, and ask yourself: "Is this really likely to have been missed by thousands of really smart highly educated people who have been studying this field for a combined length of time equaling many man-millennia?" The embarrassment you save just might be your own.
I don’t like to call people names, but Beck is given a national audience, and his intellectual capacity is clearly such that he shouldn’t even be allowed to rant in public parks to passing squirrels. I’ve had enough of such idiocy, especially on matters of what is in fact and in deed life and death.
Thousands of tonnes of rubbish collected from household recycling bins may have to be stored in warehouses and former military bases to save them from being dumped after a collapse in prices.But should rich people in developing nations alter THEIR lifestyles in response to the climate scam?
Collection companies and councils are running out of space to store paper, plastic bottles and steel cans because prices are so low that the materials cannot be shifted. Collections of mixed plastics, mixed paper and steel reached record levels in the summer but the “bottom fell out of the market” and they are now worthless. The plunge in prices was caused by a sudden fall in demand for recycled materials, especially from China, as manufacturers reduced their output in line with the global economc downturn.
BEIJING (AFP) - - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday that rich nations should alter their lifestyles to help tackle global warming, at the start of a two-day meeting on climate change, state media reported.
"The developed countries have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to global climate change by altering their unsustainable way of life," Wen was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
Developed countries should also help developing countries respond to climate change, Wen said, according to the agency.
The gathering in Beijing, which is being attended by representatives from 76 nations, is expected to focus on development and transfer of technology that can help tackle climate change.
"If we go to citizens under the current circumstances...and say 'I'm increasing your tax burden in order to pay for climate policy', that might not go down very well," [Yvo de Boer, who heads the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat] told Reuters.
The solution, he said, was to directly target the polluters as a source of revenue to help developing countries.
Speaking ahead of a major conference on climate technology transfer in Beijing, de Boer warned the rich world that under a roadmap for a climate deal to replace the current Kyoto Protocol, they had to create revenue to help developing nations fund greener growth.
Detroit, Michigan — The change we need? President-elect Barack Obama has just named Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm to his 17-member economic advisory panel.CHRIS HORNER: Is Obama planning to force the U.S. into the Kyoto II Treaty without Senate ratification?
Granholm carries respect in the Obama administration thanks to her alternative energy “vision” — that is, heavy subsidies for alternative-fuel plants such as ethanol and renewable-power mandates on utilities.
* Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.Obama’s Plan: 100 Hours Community Service for College Kids…MANDATORY!
* Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
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• Enact a Windfall Profits Tax to Provide a $1,000 Emergency Energy Rebate to American Families.
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Eliminate Our Current Imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 Years
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Create Millions of New Green Jobs
• Ensure 10 percent of Our Electricity Comes from Renewable Sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Deploy the Cheapest, Cleanest, Fastest Energy Source – Energy Efficiency.
• Weatherize One Million Homes Annually.
• Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology.
• Prioritize the Construction of the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline.
Reduce our Greenhouse Gas Emissions 80 Percent by 2050
• Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.
• Make the U.S. a Leader on Climate Change.
The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start. [Via All American Blogger]
During the past few weeks I have spoken in public on the benefits of lower consumption of meat as a means to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). As would be expected I have, as a result, received some comments that are positive and others which amount to strong criticism. My purpose in raising this issue was only to create a debate on the subject.Climate Change: The Fight for Asia's Future - Development Asia
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Quite unexpectedly, I received considerable media coverage on my presentation and several comments. The ‘Observer' of the UK on September 7, 2008 carried a front page headline "UN says eat less meat to curb global warming". The UN was in no way involved with the views that I expressed, because they represent my personal views on the subject, of course within the context of lifestyle changes that the IPCC has put forward as a possible approach to mitigation of GHG emissions. Even more unexpected, and somewhat amusing, was the op-ed page article authored by Boris Johnson, the recently elected Mayor of London, which was carried in the Daily Telegraph of September 9. Prior to his election there were references to Mr. Johnson as a joker. He certainly has a sense of humour which I appreciate, particularly since he stated in his article, "No, Rajendra Pachauri, distinguished chairman of the panel, I am not going to have one meat-free day per week. No, I am not going to become a gradual vegetarian. In fact, the whole proposition is so irritating that I am almost minded to eat more meat in response."
All in all I am happy that I have been able to at least stir up a "healthy" debate linking dietary choices with the health of individuals and, of course, the health of the planet, the only one on which we humans can live at present. As a result, I have also received several invitations for speaking on the same subject in other parts of the world, and I might accept some of these to see that there is global attention provided to the excessive consumption of meat and the benefits of reducing it both in terms of human health and the health of the planet. I certainly do not expect people to alter their daily preferences, but perhaps some reflection could bring about changes that may actually result in reducing emissions of GHGs. If that were to happen I would feel satisfied that at least raising this issue was not so futile despite the Hon'ble Mayor of London threatening to eat more meat in response to my provocation. Since I believe he travels on a bicycle, he would probably have to travel a little more to burn up the extra calories! He may then even qualify for an appropriate event in the 2012 Olympics, which are to be staged in London.
[Q] What do you think of the explosion of public interest in climate change?
[Pachauri] In some sense it has been mind-boggling because one never expected this kind of response. But it also indicates that there are underlying concerns and people are making observations related to climate change. I think this level of awareness on a subject like this is something unprecedented.
[Q] Is there a possibility of overreaction by the public to climate change?
[Pachauri] We need to provide people the right information, the right data, so that their interest in the subject is kept alive and doesn’t lead to those who are ill-informed influencing their thinking in the wrong direction. There is a definite danger of over-reaction. Often when there is an extreme weather event, the immediate response is: “Oh, this must be connected to climate change.” That clearly is not the right approach. There are variations in the weather for natural reasons. That has been the case throughout the history of this planet. To immediately jump to that conclusion, and make those connections, is not helpful.
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[Q] Should international financial institutions stop supporting coal projects?
[Pachauri] I don’t think so. I think that will be a shortsighted move. It might be politically popular to do that, but if one is in the business of trying to promote development, and given the fact that a number of countries are trying to address the problems of poverty, then merely turning away from coal projects is not the solution. What is far more effective is to think in terms of “good coal-based projects”—those that use the best technology, even if the costs are higher.
I think that one has to take a pragmatic and realistic view of this issue. Those countries that have large coal resources really can’t forego options that are dependent on the utilization of coal. How do these countries use these coal resources in the most efficient manner with the least impact on climate change? That is where development organizations play an important role in helping find these solutions and strategies.
America faces unprecedented economic, environmental and national security challenges. We urgently need new jobs, stable energy prices, and freedom from dirty fossil fuels and global warming pollution.Before that: We Can Solve It
Climate change is real. And it’s happening much faster than was predicted just a few years ago. The good news is that we can solve this crisis. We can switch 100% of America's electricity to clean energy sources – within 10 years.Before that: climatecrisis.net
I knew it would happen eventually and, yesterday, it did: I found my first offer to purchase so-called “carbon credits” had arrived in the mail.Video: Shatner: Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050. Yes, That Shatner.
A review of the offer, which arrived in the form of a postcard-size insert inside the envelope carrying my monthly electric bill, left me scratching my head and wondering.
Delivered under the banner of AmerenUE’s Pure Power program, the offer implies that I need only check the box on my bill to sign up for 100% P.U.R.E. and become a “P.U.R.E. Genius” — that is, a member of the group of “People Using Renewable Energy.”
Advocating for Sierra Club's Two Percent Campaign (as in cutting carbon emissions two percent a year for the next 40 years), William Shatner says, "Together we can meet the challenge of global warming."Stay rational on climate change - On Line Opinion - 7/11/2008
...Still, dissenting from any aspect of the wide-ranging orthodoxy can see you branded a dangerous sceptic. You can be orthodox on cause, but disagree on effect, and be labelled a sceptic. You can be orthodox on cause and effect, but object to carbon pricing as a response, and be labelled a sceptic. You can be orthodox on cause, effect and response, but question “cap-and-trade” emissions trading, and be labelled a sceptic.
We have arrived at the absurd point where you can be orthodox on everything, but disagree with the government’s timetable for emissions trading, and still be damned as a sceptic. Try criticising green shibboleths like light-rail and bicycle paths and you can be tarred as a sceptic for that, even if you are otherwise orthodox.
Clearly, it’s about framing debates and manipulating public opinion. “Denier”, “sceptic”: bludgeons to keep people in line and intimidate troublemakers. Shudder at the consequences. How many millions of dollars will be squandered, how many livelihoods put at risk, and how many opportunities lost, owing to fear of these reprehensible tags?
As of yesterday the global sea ice anomaly at cryosphere reached 0. Four weeks ago it was at a negative 2.6 million sq kilometers. This is the fasted move in the 30 year history. The sea surface temperature anomaly around the Antarctic remains strongly negative.
FAIRBANKS — One of the coldest Octobers on record in the Interior has the Yukon River grinding to a halt and residents settling in for winter.Student believes propaganda
October 2008 went down as Fairbanks’ fourth-coldest October on record since 1904, according to meteorologist Rick Thoman with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. The average temperature of 15.1 degrees was 8.4 degrees below normal.
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The early part of winter has been much colder this year than normal in terms of “freezing degree days,” which Rundquist said are the driver for freeze-up and ice thickness. Freezing degree days are accumulated when the average daily temperature drops below 32 degrees. One freezing degree day is the equivalent of one degree below freezing. For example, if the average daily temperature is 22 degrees, it equals 10 freezing degree days.
Fairbanks accumulated 600 freezing degree days in October this year, compared to an average of 260, Rundquist said.
A memorable moment was the morning of Day Four, all of us awakened by Robert Buchanan singing “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.” I instinctively looked out my window and there was a young male polar bear staring right back at me. He was only five feet away, and his expression looked troubled. Then I remembered why we were there, to learn how to save bears from extinction. I vowed then and there to do whatever it takes.Global Warming Hoax: Antarctic Ice for October 1979 and October 2008, Penguins Looking For Warmth!
Words cannot begin to describe my experience, living out on the tundra among the wild polar bears. Seeing them in their natural habitat was truly an honor. Although my trip was miraculous, it was not all polar bear hugs. We learned from our facilitators the effect that global warming has on these bears and how it has already diminished their population. There are about 900 polar bears in Churchill and only 20,000 bears remaining in the entire world. You may think this is a large number, but did you know that bears are expected to go extinct within a decade? Because of global warming, there is little or no ice on the lakes and bays of northern Manitoba. The bears rely on the ice to hunt, mate, and build dens for their cubs.
Note that the ice extent for October 1979 (when satellite measurements began) is 18 million sq km, for October 2008 the ice extent was 18.1 million sq km. Ice concentration shows even greater increases, from 13.6 million sq km, to 13.9 million.
Not a huge increase but certainly notable since everyone has been screaming about Antarctic ice melt off, obviously that is not happening. Interior ice is increasing at an even greater rate. According to NOAA GISS data winter temperatures in the antarctic has actually fallen by 1°F since 1957, with the coldest year being 2004. All the while global CO2 levels have gone up and the main stream media has been reporting near catastrophic warming conditions. The MSM and certain segments of the scientific community truly must have no shame.
We're firmly non partisan at Greenpeace, but I think it's fair to say that the organisation is breathing a collective sigh of relief that the morally and scientifically illiterate Bush administration is nearing its end - and we'd echo the real sense of hope for the future that so many others are feeling with the election of Obama.
Nunavut has decided to leave unchanged the number of polar bears it allows to be killed each year in one of the largest areas of the territory, rejecting calls for tighter restrictions on hunting to allow the carnivores' populations to recover.
The Ministry of Environment has left unchanged the annual quota of 105 polar bears from the Baffin Bay region. A formal announcement of the decision is expected as early as today. Setting the quota has been highly controversial because it fixes the number of the animals that are available for both Inuit hunting and international big-game hunters.
The Baffin population straddles Canada and adjacent areas of Greenland. The number of polar bears has dropped from an estimated 2,100 in 1997 to about 1,500 today, due to high levels of hunting by Inuit in both countries.
Environmentalists have warned that the hunting decision may lead to international boycotts against Nunavut, and to concerns that the government, which relies heavily on advice from Inuit hunters, is ignoring the scientific research showing a precipitous plunge in the number of bears.
The hunting quota was set at 105 in 2004, based on the relatively large population numbers from the late 1990s. The harvesting in Nunavut was also based on an assumption that the number of bears killed in Greenland was as low as 18 a year, but subsequent research has shown the actual figure to be about 10 times higher.
"You can't pretend to be looking after polar bears by carrying on with the same level of harvest. It is just totally unacceptable," said Peter J. Ewins, director of species conservation for WWF-Canada, an environmental advocacy group that has lobbied Nunavut to reduce hunting levels. "They've made a huge mistake that caused a 30-per-cent population decline."
He says hunting should be curbed while Greenland, Nunavut and the federal government jointly work on a plan that would allow populations to recover and then be managed on a sustainable level.
The recommendation for the hunting quota was made by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board and accepted by the Ministry of Environment.
But in 2007, the ministry had proposed a range of options to the board, from having a complete harvest moratorium until the population increases to the healthy levels that prevailed in the 1990s, to allowing a scaled-back hunt of 64 animals a year, the previous level.
Mr. Ewins said the government's decision reflected pressure from Inuit hunters.
International CTIA WIRELESS 2009 ... the premier event representing the global wireless industry, today announced that former Vice President and Noble Peace Prize Winner Al Gore will deliver a keynote address at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 3. International CTIA WIRELESS 2009 takes place April 1-3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
“You can’t pick an empty pocket,” lamented Yvo de Boer, director of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change. With this telling statement, Mr. de Boer expressed his concern that a global recession would decrease the amount of money developed countries could transfer to developing countries for expensive green projects.I guess he really did say that
"You can't pick an empty pocket," Yvo de Boer, the United Nations' top climate official, told the Associated Press last week.
Japan is all about reducing carbon emissions, fighting the global climate change monster and generally reducing the spin on the electric circuit…except in Shinjuku.But remember, if you still want the right to eat your supper under a real light bulb, you're the Antichrist.
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At there is an area with 470,000 blue-white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Pity the poor guy who was assigned to count them, eh?
The good news from Tom Parton’s point of view is that familiar faces remain in Congress. Parton, president of the American Forest Resources Council, said his timber industry organization has spent the past two years working with a Democratic majority in Congress. Key Democrats on important committees — Washington Rep. Norm Dicks on appropriations and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who heads the interior and environment subcommittee — understand the West’s natural resources, Parton said.
He worries that Obama may lack a clear understanding of federal forest issues. But the president-elect’s concern about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions makes him sensitive to the need to thin federal forests to keep the tremendous impact of wildfire-caused carbon emissions at bay, Parton said.
“He does want to reduce wildfire and manage sustainably. Those are the good parts of his platform, and we’d like to be part of those solutions,” Parton said.
An 80 per cent majority of pest controllers, farmers and gamekeepers believe climate change will have an impact on the UK rat population, according to a survey by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU) at the Game Fair. Among that majority, 92 per cent say they expect the impact to be an increase in rat numbers.Again, the rule is simple: If you don't like a plant or animal, CO2 will enormously benefit that plant or animal. If you LIKE the plant or animal, CO2 will be absolutely devasting to it.
President-elect Barack Obama could be the nation’s first green president -- whether he likes it or not. The Greens’ early investment in Obama’s political soul has matured, and they’re already angling for -- and even demanding -- payback.
Though the financial crunch should place economy-harming global warming legislation on the back burner, the Natural Resources Defense Council is pushing for it within the first 100 days of the new Congress, supposedly as a means of easing the credit crisis and financing renewable energy projects, according to a report in the November 3 issue of Carbon Control News.
Under the NRDC proposal, credits covering as many as six billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions would be issued in the program’s first year. The credits would be guaranteed a minimum value of $15 per ton by Obama’s Treasury Department, magically converting all that hot air into a $90 billion asset. The guarantee would allow the credits to be used as collateral for loans to green energy projects.
...He said in the middle of the crushing season, the sugarcane crop had experienced severe cold conditions due to frequent occurrence of frost during December-January months which caused extensive damage to the crop.
He said due to these factors, the yield of sugarcane was affected and farmers suffered losses as they could not fulfil the requirement of cane supply to the mills.
Helicopters will be in short supply this weekend as vineyards prepare for frosts in three major wine-growing regions.
Temperature readings at Christchurch Airport yesterday morning hit new lows for November of minus 5.7deg (grass) and minus 2.6deg for the air, reported MetService, with further frosts expected tomorrow and Sunday.
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"Just about every helicopter in New Zealand is allocated, with Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Canterbury all looking at getting frosts quite severe frosts."
Last year the vineyard had to sacrifice whites to save the reds.
Analysts were wary of Obama's campaign promises, not convinced he will deliver on cap and trade nor plans to invest $150 billion over 10 years in low-carbon energy sources.
"A cap and trade system is by no means a done deal," said Guy Turner at London-based New Carbon Finance, given that would need Senate support.
"I'd like to see the first $15 billion (of low-carbon cash) funded in his first budget," said Mark Diesendorf, environmental and sustainable energy analyst at Australia's University of New South Wales.
The Australian government was elected last year partly on promises to cut greenhouse gases and expand renewable energy. "However, in its first budget in May 2008, it funded almost none of its promises to renewable energy," said Diesendorf.
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Obama wants to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
"He's certainly committed to a very aggressive reduction target," said Abyd Karmali, global head of emissions trading at Merrill Lynch.
"The economic downturn suggests that there may be a light start approach, similar to that we had in Europe," said adding that the draft Dingell-Boucher climate bill allowed gentler carbon emissions cuts than previous proposals.
Another strong signal would be Obama or his advisors' participation in an unofficial role at U.N.-led climate talks in Poland next month, said Josh Margolis, co-chief executive of carbon brokers, CantorCO2e.
Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman made a bold power play Wednesday by signaling that he will challenge Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the dean of the House of Representatives, for chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.
In challenging Rep. Dingell, Rep. Waxman is seeking to upend a long Democratic Party tradition of assigning chairmanships based on seniority. Rep. Dingell joined the House in 1955 and is the second-longest-serving member in the chamber's history.
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In 2002, tension between Reps. Pelosi and Dingell peaked when she supported his Democratic opponent in the Michigan lawmaker's re-election bid. The lawmakers' relationship is thought to have improved since then.
Rep. Pelosi, like Rep. Waxman, has had ideological differences with Rep. Dingell over policy matters under his committee's jurisdiction. Both California Democrats have advocated for tougher environmental controls that Rep. Dingell, a longtime ally of the U.S. auto industry, has been unwilling to pursue.
Among other things, the energy committee will be a starting point for action on reducing greenhouse gases, a top Democratic priority next year. Rep. Dingell, once a skeptic of global climate change, now agrees the problem is real and that Congress needs to confront it. But he has moved more slowly than many liberals would like and has been more willing than many to support market-based solutions to climate change.
Last year, over Rep. Dingell's objections, Rep. Pelosi created a special committee to address the reduction of carbon emissions. The move was widely perceived as an attempt to weaken Rep. Dingell's power as head of the energy committee.
As the Obama administration takes shape, one important issue that will come to the fore is climate change. On this issue, like so many others, the Bush administration was rather schizoid: Bush himself acknowledged the "reality" of global warming, thereby ceding the issue on principle, but his sounder instincts caused him and his administration to drag their feet on doing anything that would be ruinous to the economy. Obama so far has displayed no such ambivalence. At present, there is no reason to doubt that his administration will try to implement severe measures in hopes of changing the world's weather.
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It will be interesting to see whether the Obama administration proves to be open to backtracking on AGW. As noted above, there is no sign of such indecision so far. But poll data indicate that most Americans don't buy the global warming theory, notwithstanding (or maybe because of) unremitting propaganda from the Left. And whatever mandate Obama may or may not have, he certainly does not have a mandate to devastate the economy through ill-considered environmental measures.
VeraSun CEO Don Endres said the company does not expect to scale back corn buying. It plans to be able to make payroll and pay off goods and servcices bills owed to those doing business with the plants.
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In 2006, VeraSun shares made a powerful debut at more than $30 a share as ethanol was touted as a solution to the oil crisis. After being de-listed by the New York Stock Exchange, shares were reportedly going for 28 cents each early this week.
Due in part to the ethanol industry's own role in raising demand for corn, and early-season flooding that caused concern for corn supply, VeraSun locked in crop in the midst of the record run-up in corn prices. Corn in June was selling for about $8 a bushel, almost twice the current value, and many farmers sold their anticipated crops ahead to take advantage. VeraSun reportedly paid futures between $6.75 and $7, triggering a net loss for their third quarter earnings.
A wintry blast of ice, snow and heavy wind blasted the upper Plains states, knocking out power and forcing highways to close.
In western South Dakota, blizzard conditions prompted the closure of a section of Interstate 90, and no-travel advisories were in effect in several counties.
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A 180-mile stretch of Interstate 90 — the main east-west route across South Dakota — was closed from Murdo to Spearfish. The South Dakota Department of Public Safety was warning motorists not to travel on any roads in seven counties: Lawrence, Butte, Meade, Jackson, Jones, Custer and Pennington, which includes Rapid City, the state's second-largest city.
I just received my copy of Chris Horner's new book, Red Hot Lies. I am just getting started with it but it is a powerful reading about the anatomy and physiology of the global warming propaganda machine.
The Preface is subtitled "How Greenpeace Steals My Trash".
Here is a rough table of contents:
1. Media on a mission: lies, distortions, cover-ups, and the reporters who push them
2. Fear and loathing: alarmist scare tactics, demonization, and threats
3. The establishment attacks: woe to dissenters
4. Stifling everyone's speech: even their own
5. Poisoning the little ones: propagandizing your children
6. Big government: how government, politicians, and alarmists abuse power in the pursuit of power
7. Stupid science tricks: keeping that gravy train chugging
8. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: the UN's four-alarm liar
Conclusions: heretics, speak out
From Kenya to Bangladesh, other climate change leaders across the globe said they were reveling in Sen. Obama’s election.
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Saleem Huq, a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report on adaptation and sustainable development, said he is “very, very hopeful” that the United States will take a new direction on climate change under Obama.
“It’s absolutely great news. I stayed up all night to watch it,” said Huq, who now serves as head of the climate change division at the U.K.-based nonprofit International Institute for Environment and Development.
The next major round of climate change negotiations will take place in December in Poznan, Poland. Huq and others said they hope to see Obama send strong signals over the coming weeks that the United States will engage in the global drive to reduce heat-trapping emissions.
As for the chance that Obama would personally attend the Poznan conference, Huq said, “that would be wonderful. That would really be a game-changer, even if he didn’t come himself but sent an envoy like [former Vice President] Al Gore.”
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