New Zealand: Emissions trading scheme up for review under Act deal

The incoming National government will completely review the emissions trading scheme (ETS) - possibly including the science that says humans are to blame for climate change - as part of its support deal with Act.

But Prime Minister-elect John Key is still confident an amended ETS will be passed into law before the end of next year.

National campaigned on watering down the existing legislation within nine months to reduce what it said were barriers to economic growth.

But Act campaigned on scrapping the ETS and has questioned whether human-induced climate change actually exists.

Under Act's support agreement a "special select committee" will be set up to review the current ETS and any proposed amendments "in light of the current economic circumstances".

A draft terms of reference for the review attached to the agreement, includes hearing "competing views on the scientific aspects of climate change" and looking at the merits of a "mitigation or adaptation approach".

It also includes looking at the merits of an ETS, as opposed to a carbon tax, and the timing of any future climate change interventions.

The deal requires the National government to pass immediate legislation delaying the implementation of the ETS until the review is complete.

It also requires the lifting of a ban imposed this year on non-essential new fossil fuel-based power generation.

Christopher Booker: The world has never seen such freezing heat - Telegraph

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.
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If there is one scientist more responsible than any other for the alarm over global warming it is Dr Hansen, who set the whole scare in train back in 1988 with his testimony to a US Senate committee chaired by Al Gore. Again and again, Dr Hansen has been to the fore in making extreme claims over the dangers of climate change. (He was recently in the news here for supporting the Greenpeace activists acquitted of criminally damaging a coal-fired power station in Kent, on the grounds that the harm done to the planet by a new power station would far outweigh any damage they had done themselves.)

Yet last week's latest episode is far from the first time Dr Hansen's methodology has been called in question. In 2007 he was forced by Mr Watts and Mr McIntyre to revise his published figures for US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s, as he had claimed, but the 1930s.

Another of his close allies is Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, who recently startled a university audience in Australia by claiming that global temperatures have recently been rising "very much faster" than ever, in front of a graph showing them rising sharply in the past decade. In fact, as many of his audience were aware, they have not been rising in recent years and since 2007 have dropped.

Dr Pachauri, a former railway engineer with no qualifications in climate science, may believe what Dr Hansen tells him. But whether, on the basis of such evidence, it is wise for the world's governments to embark on some of the most costly economic measures ever proposed, to remedy a problem which may actually not exist, is a question which should give us all pause for thought.

MBA's face up to the cold, hard "facts" about global warming - Times Online

Climate change students are shocked and depressed by what they learn, but business can also influence the outcome
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Nottingham University Business School adopts a similar approach and has set up the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility. Wendy Chapple, the centre’s deputy director, says: “We talk about climate change as just one aspect of sustainability. We see it as the interrelation of business and the environment.”

Chapple gives an example: “Say a supermarket chain decides to shorten the supply chain to source more fruit and vegetables locally. It will need to balance the reduction in carbon footprint with the social impact in a developing country. Businesses are creating value chains by sourcing ethical or fair trade products from developing countries. They can have a positive impact on climate change through encouraging sustainable farming.”

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Feels the Chill

The world is currently in the middle of a real crisis, an economic one, and a quick scan of any newspaper will show that governments and businesses are acting decisively and quickly to do what they believe will avert disaster. Every one understands it to be a real crisis, even if they do not comprehend the arcane details of what brought it about. Global warming is a fake crisis, a hoax, which is why it has never received the urgent attention of governments and businesses. In fact, if it were not for Gore's disaster movie and $300 million 'we' campaign, you can be certain that politicians and marketing people wouldn't feel any need to go greenwashing. Real crises don't need a movie and an advertising campaign to get attention, they never have.

Let's be clear, the natural state of climate is change. Gore and his minions would have you believe that the warming is being accelerated by man's activities, specifically carbon dioxide. It's nonsense, and in a few years it will be hard to find anyone that will admit they ever believed it. The current trend of reactionary and almost totalitarian thrashing and wailing from believers signal the death throes of a cynical movement that dare not believe its time has passed.

They know now that they will be remembered as another fad, a Y2K moment of madness, and it scares them.

Brit's Eye View: Obama-rama | Gristmill

The more sober environmentalists are also yet to be convinced Obama has a radical enough package. Writing in the Telegraph, Charles Clover points out that Obama "would not cut U.S. emissions as much as Al Gore pledged to do under the Kyoto treaty in 1997" and that his "target for stabilizing America's emissions at 1990 levels by 2020 amounts to no more than meeting the pledge which George Bush, Sr. signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992." He also notes that the tests of Obama's commitment will come thick and fast -- perhaps the greatest being the speed with which Obama can respond to the Polish round of climate-change negotiations in a few weeks' time -- and wonders if he is ready to wade in at the necessary speed.

In case you missed it

Bloomberg.com: Europe

Failure by countries to meet their Kyoto targets suggests there's no point in agreeing to a new deal, said Lomborg.

``It questions the whole idea of getting together in Copenhagen next year and making even more ambitious promises when we haven't even been able to fulfill our promises so far,'' said Lomborg, an economist and director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, an economic advisory body.

Tom Friedman suggests that climate realist Bob Lutz is "brain-dead"

Postbulletin.com: Rochester, MN

...The result was an industry that became brain-dead.

Nothing typified this more than statements like those of Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman. He has been quoted as saying that hybrids like the Toyota Prius "make no economic sense." And, in February, D Magazine of Dallas quoted him as saying that global warming "is a total crock of (expletive)."

The News-Gazette.com: New UI institute aims to combat global warming

On a stop-over in London several years ago, lawyer and University of Illinois graduate Joel Friedman started reading a book about global warming.

"By the time I got done reading the book I was in a panic," he said.

The more he read, the more concerned he became, and the more he wanted to do something.

"Who's going to find solutions?" Friedman had asked. Industry? Think-tanks?

The answer may be the UI, with scholars from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; the College of Business; and the College of Law, Friedman said. The university, he said, is a place with "a great pool of knowledge" and unbiased researchers.

The new Environmental Change Institute, http://eci.illinois.edu, will explore ways to mitigate global warming and how the world can adapt to it.

The Alvin H. Baum Family Fund, of which Friedman is president, has pledged $300,000 a year for three years for the institute. And the three colleges also have pledged a total of $120,000 for each of those three years.

Australian Fridges disappear - National - smh.com.au

THE 5000th fridge has been collected as part of the NSW Government-backed Fridge Buyback program.

Climate Change Minister Carmel Tebbutt said the households that sold their second fridge to the scheme for $35 would save a total of almost $1million on energy bills this year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 5000 tonnes.

More on the Maldives' fossil-fueled economy

Tourists may be vital to the Maldives' economy but they are all but ignorant of its problems. The country is one of the world's most upmarket destinations, its luxurious beachside bungalows particularly popular with honeymooning couples. Nearly 90 otherwise uninhabited islands have been turned into resorts that pull in more than 600,000 mostly European visitors each year.

But while the average visitor apparently spends about $300 a day, they will rarely come into contact with local Maldivians, transported to their atoll by speedboat or small plane, and never stepping off it except for the odd day cruise.

This industry, though, accounts for maybe one-third of the Maldives' GDP and at least 60% of its foreign exchange. Import duties and tourism-related taxes generate more than 90% of the government's income; there is little other economic activity on the islands except for fishing.

Few of those visitors are going to keep coming once their accommodation risks slipping beneath the waves at any moment.

"Immense challenge" is right

EcoPinion Survey, “Consumers and Climate Challenge,” Points to Immense Challenge Ahead for President Obama | ecoalign

Nearly one third of Americans believes that no utility bill increase is necessary to manage climate change, and another 44 percent say less than 10 percent.

James Hansen video: Throwing dice for climate prediction « An Honest Climate Debate

From the Scandinavian website KlimatHot Gameover blog, November 12, 2008

Al Fin spoof: James Hansen Apologizes for Using Next Year's Climate Data in October Report

Al Fin was able to catch up with Hansen recently in New York, and questioned him about the embarassing mistake, and about the rumour that GISS is making up temperature data.

Australian Climate Madness: CSIRO moonbats screen alarmist climate film

Today, in the Canberra Times, it appears that CSIRO has taken complete leave of its senses by hosting the "green carpet" premiere of this propaganda film [Telling the Truth] at its Discovery Centre, Black Mountain, a centre supposedly to educate and inform the public, in particular young people, about Australian science and its history.

The majority of An Inconvenient Truth has been shown to be nothing more than scaremongering with no basis in science, and yet CSIRO, our national science research organisation, is happy to show, and associate itself with, a film about the Climate Project, which shamelessly plugs An Inconvenient Truth and the lies and misrepresentations it contains.

Speaking of Gore's Climate Project, you can follow its fade online, month after month. For example, compare the number of presentations for Nov. 2007 with the much smaller number for Nov. 2008.

MEPs to debate charging lorries for climate change

Now the MEP coordinating the Parliament's position on the Commission's proposals, Saïd Khadraoui, has drafted an amendment saying EU members should be allowed to charge road hauliers for climate emissions unless they are included in fuel duty. He has also recommended abandoning the maximum amount idea.

The debate among MEPs could well become polarised, with the socialist, liberal and green groups supporting Khadraoui's approach, and the centre-right EPP supporting the Commission's line.

Oregon: Core Principles of Climate Success for President Obama

The act that history will best remember him for will almost certainly be his ability to engage the U.S. in solving the climate crisis. If he does not succeed here, little else will matter.

Three core principles can help guide the President's approach: tell the truth, act boldly and holistically, and focus on root causes.

Through his words and actions, President Obama must tell the truth about the grave danger we face.
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Solar, wind, non-food based biofuels and other forms of renewable energy are the long-term solutions to the climate crisis. But, they need time to mature and scale up. If we make the right investments and adopt effective policies, by the time we have exhausted improvements in energy efficiency, renewables will be ready to take us the rest of the way to a carbon free future.
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President Obama must use his bully pulpit to paint a new vision of an emissions free economy in the minds of American's. He must then empower households, businesses and governments to consider their carbon footprint in every decision they make. Without a change in thinking, we cannot stabilize the climate.

Australia: Thousands march to "stop" climate "warming"

"They get that the government is acting too slow."

A colourful crowd showed up in Martin Place, despite the grey skies.

Some were dressed as polar bears. Others wore windmills on their backs.

Others carried placards of penguins with messages that read: "Don't build your home on my home," and "Some like it hot, penguins not".
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Fellow speaker, 17-year-old schoolgirl, Sasha Hunt, said urgent action was needed.

"Looming on the horizon is the destruction of my future," she said.

"I know we still have the ability to change the world for the better.

"To not act now would be a disaster."

Ian Smallman, who brought his 11-year-old daughter Ciara to the Sydney march, said: "I think it's the most important issue in the world right now."
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[John Mobbs:] "The government has proven many times it hasn't taken much notice of people walking in the streets, but I remain optimistic."

Mayor sold on 'green' software

St. Catharines may join forces with carbon-cutting experts at Zerofootprint Inc. to put a dent in city greenhouse gas emissions.

The non-profit organization made headlines last year when it hooked up with Toronto to measure, track and shrink that city's carbon footprint using state-of-the-art software.

Founder Ron Dembo pitched his green guru services to St. Catharines Friday at the city's first environmental sustainability summit.

Count Mayor Brian McMullan among the converted.
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Individual residents can calculate the carbon cost of their diet, transportation and even pets.

Dembo said St. Catharines could use Zerofootprint software to convert hydro meter readings from Horizon Utilities into city-wide carbon measurements.

Is federal judge Richard Posner beginning to realize that the science isn't settled?

From the peak of the global warming scare (early '07), federal judge Richard Posner expounds on the alleged danger of CO2

In my book Catastrophe: Risk and Response (2004), I considered the evidence to be altogether convincing that global warming was a serious problem for which human-caused emissions were the principal cause—and since then, more evidence has accumulated and the voices of the dissenters are growing weaker. The global-warming skeptics are beginning to sound like the people who for so many years, in the face of compelling evidence, denied that cigarette smoking was harmful to health.

What has changed since I wrote my book is that not only has the evidence become even more convincing that our activities (primarily the production of energy) are causing serious harm, but also the scientists are becoming increasingly pessimistic. It is now thought likely that by the end of the century, global temperatures will have risen by an average of 7 degrees Fahrenheit and the sea level will have risen by almost two feet. Besides inundating low-lying land, turning tropical farms into desert, and causing tropical diseases to migrate north, global warming is expected to produce ever more violent weather patterns—typhoons, cyclones, floods, and so forth.

Richard Posner: Information from Answers.com

Richard Allen Posner (born January 11, 1939, in New York City) is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He is one of the most influential living legal theorists and a major voice in the law and economics movement, which he helped start while a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He currently serves as a lecturer at the Law School.

March '05: What is Richard Posner So Afraid Of?: The high cost of the falling sky - Reason Magazine

Posner's final disaster was "abrupt global warming" of 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Posner reasonably noted that the scenarios for gradual warming over the next century actually did not imply the need for measures like the Kyoto Protocol, which would impose limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Why? Because considering the pace of technological progress, such long term problems might well be handled more cheaply and expeditiously by improvements in technology in 50 to 60 years. Nevertheless, Posner estimated the current expenditures on climate change to be $1.7 billion annually and the possible losses of "abrupt global warming" at $66.6 trillion yielding an implied probability of 1 in 388,000. Again, he asserted that the annual probability of abrupt global warming must be higher than that, and therefore we were once again underspending to protect ourselves against this threat.

Once more, Posner is looking solely at research expenditures aimed directly at studying climatology. He is apparently ignoring the vast sums spent on improving energy technologies and expenditures on basic research in areas like nanotechnology which are likely to yield solutions to energy production problems in the future.

July '08: The Becker-Posner Blog: Should Gasoline Taxes Be Raised or Lowered? Posner's Comment

...the calculation of an optimal carbon-emissions tax is impossible because the costs of global warming and the benefits (in reducing those costs) from a tax on carbon emissions cannot at present be estimated with even minimal confidence.

"Dr. Homer Wang" weighs in

Arctic ammonia could stem global warming | Spero News

...another vision, by independent researcher Dr. Homer Wang, is far different, allowing not only the production of energy but also the simultaneous correction of arctic ice loss.

Oh, the humanity: Summer weather brings bikinis to the beach

LAGUNA BEACH Visitor Kristen Caruso, found hanging out in Laguna Beach this afternoon, isn't going to waste time sight-seeing while on her vacation from chilly New York.

She's going to be out in her bikini at the beach, soaking in every second she can of the unusually warm weather Southern California will have for the next few days.

"I expected it to be warm, but I didn't expect it to be this warm," she said. "I've been working on the tan."

Even on a weekday, there were plenty of people out on the sand hanging out Friday – enjoying summer-ish activities in a month when jackets typically get dusted off.

The real reason ethanol won't—and can't—cut American oil imports. - By Robert Bryce - Slate Magazine

The punch line here is obvious: The corn ethanol scam cannot, has not, and will not significantly reduce overall oil use or significantly cut oil imports because it only replaces one segment of the crude-oil barrel. Furthermore, all the talk about "cellulosic ethanol," a substance that, in theory, can be profitably produced in commercial quantities from grass, wood chips, or other biomass, is largely misplaced because, like corn ethanol, it will only supplant gasoline.

Unless or until inventors can come up with a substance (or substances) that can replace all of the products that are refined from a barrel of crude oil—from gasoline to naphtha and diesel to asphalt—then the United States, along with every other country on the planet, is going to continue using oil as a primary energy source for decades to come. And that will be true no matter how much corn gets burned up in America's delusional quest for "energy independence."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Special Interests, Aggression, Power, and the State

...There is no acknowledgement that this may be bad for many, many people, not just the power plant owners. Also no acknowledgement that having power plants just sit around is wasteful in and of itself. All Americans rely on electricity, to the point that power outages cause enormous hardships. If money is not already going to green energy, that is because it is too costly. These costs get passed onto consumers, rich or poor, adding undue burden to the lives of Bookbinder's fellow citizens...

Australian Climate Madness: Brown cloud "accelerates global warming" (but also slows it down)

If the science of global warming is so settled, as we are continually told, why does this kind of story come as such a surprise to everybody? Put bluntly, it simply rams home the point that the science is far from settled, the debate ain't over, and in fact the climate is even less understood than we suspected. Even the UN, with its band of alarmist scientists, doesn't really have a clue what is going on in the atmosphere.

Governor: Get ready for rising seas - Sacramento Business Journal:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered several state agencies to prepare a strategy to help California cope with the effects of climate change on the state’s water supplies and coastline.

Lino: Global Warming: Facts and Factoids

...In short, a self-appointed body, staffed by non-elected super-bureaucrats and accountable only to the multi-vested interests hidden behind the global warming scare machine.

Because of all this, any attempt to make the anthropogenic carbon emissions the “bogeyman” of global warming is simplistic and misleading almost to the point of nonsense – or bad faith. And the insistence in “de-carbonizing” the world economy against all evidences cannot be labeled as nothing less than suicidal – or plainly criminal.

So, it’s high time to return the discussion about climate change to the place it should never be withdrawn: that of good science, common sense and the common good. However, this task cannot be left to scientists and politicians alone; it must begin with us common citizens all over the world, by rejecting such a nightmarish agenda for our future.

Updating the Science of Global Warming: A Q&A with Marine Biologist Katherine Richardson: Scientific American

When the world's governments gather in December 2009 in Copenhagen to negotiate a treaty to restrain global greenhouse gas emissions, the science on which they base their decision could be as much as four years out of date. The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offered its synthesis of existing research in February 2007 and it was based on studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals only through 2005.

Stepping into that gap—at the request of the Danish government—will be the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change, a collection of the world's top scientists and economists set to meet in Copenhagen in March 2009 to deliver an updated state of the science on global warming. The prognosis is grim: Emissions throughout the world, both in countries pledged to restrain such pollution and those that have ignored or sidestepped the issue, continue to grow, and impacts can be felt from the Arctic and Antarctic to the Amazon.
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[Richardson]...this meeting is coming in the middle of an IPCC period. The IPCC report is absolutely crucial for starting negotiations. That has been accepted by everyone so you don't need to argue whether it's right or wrong. It's based on consensus.

Note this helpful illustration:

And this is supposed to be a good thing?

EPA Ruling on Coal Levels Playing Field for Wind, Solar | Wired Science from Wired.com

Building an alt energy power plant is risky and expensive, but thanks to a new ruling by an Environmental Protection Agency panel, building a coal plant may become riskier and more expensive.

CRUTEM and HadCRU October 2008 « Climate Audit

First a small point. Living in Toronto, I often look first at how the maps represent Toronto since I know what the weather's been like here. For the most part the land portion of the HadCRUT3 map is identical to the CRUTEM3 map, but not where I live. In CRUTEM world, we experienced a colder than average October (which is how it felt on the ground here), while in HadCRU world we experienced a warmer than average October. One possible and even likely explanation is that HadCRU includes temperatures from the Great Lakes (which weren't warm for swimming this year.) I didn't go swimming at our place on Lake Ontario once this year. But maybe October water was less chilly than usual.

Europe, Japan Face $46 Billion Global-Warming Penalty

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Twenty nations including Japan, Italy and Australia may be releasing more greenhouse-gas pollution than they agreed to under the Kyoto treaty to curb global warming.

They're failing to rein in carbon-dioxide output enough to meet their pledges signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, according to reports by individual countries. As a penalty for missing their goals under the treaty, the nations are required to buy permits for every excess ton of the heat-trapping gas released through 2012. That will total 2.3 billion permits for 20 nations, New Carbon Finance, a research firm in London, has estimated.

The potential penalty, 36 billion euros ($46 billion) for the group based on current permit prices, and the fact that only a minority of 37 Kyoto signatory nations may meet their pledges bodes poorly for international efforts to limit global warming.

``This shows there's a lot more interest in promising stuff than actually keeping those promises,'' Bjorn Lomborg, author of the book ``The Skeptical Environmentalist,'' said in a telephone interview from Copenhagen. ``What you should be doing is investing in research and development to make much more dramatic emissions cuts much cheaper in the future.''

Hospital opens extra ward - Crewe Chronicle

LEIGHTON Hospital at Crewe is planning ahead for the traditionally busy winter months by opening an additional ward.

Ward 11 has opened its doors to provide additional beds to help deal with the anticipated extra patients admitted during colder weather.

People are more likely to catch cold or flu in winter, leading to an increase in the number of elderly patients admitted with respiratory problems. The cold weather can also cause other serious health problems – like heart attacks, stroke, and pneumonia.

The plan is for the ward to be open to March, enabling the rest of the hospital to function as normal during these traditionally busy months.

Illinois: Governor Blagojevich urges people to prepare for dangerous cold temperatures

More deaths caused by cold temperatures than by tornadoes, floods, lightning combined

SPRINGFIELD – With cold temperatures already chilling much of Illinois, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today urged Illinois residents to begin preparing for even colder temperatures that can prove deadly. The Governor’s cold-weather safety advisory came as the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service prepare to kick off the annual Winter Storm Preparedness Week Nov. 16-22. The preparedness week is part of the Governor’s annual Keep Warm Illinois campaign.
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According to the National Weather Service (NWS), extreme cold led to the deaths of 75 people in Illinois over the past 12 winters. During that same period, 25 people died in tornadoes or severe storms, 17 deaths were caused by snow and ice storms, 14 died as a result of flooding, and lightning caused 12 deaths in Illinois.

Governor Rod Blagojevich may be spared some exposure to that deadly cold, since that very week, he'll be in sunny Los Angeles fighting global warming

Calling for collaborative action across the globe in our fight against climate change, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the U.S. governors that will be joining him as co-hosts of the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles on November 18 and 19.
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The U.S. governors co-hosting and who will be in attendance at the summit are Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle.

Al Gore needs a new poster | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

One day many more people will look back and wonder how stupid they were to have been duped by such alarmists and carpetbaggers.

Old & Busted: Global Warming. New Hotness: Global Cooling

Liberals love to claim that conservatives are anti-science, but on manmade global warming, who has been pointing for years to scientific evidence that global warming is a farce while the left has been taken in by silly propaganda flicks about polar bears going extinct because too many people are driving SUVs? [Via Skeptics Global Warming]

World Climate Report » Slowdown in Greenland

Despite all the talk about moulins, melting, rapid acceleration of ice, van der Wal et al. reveal that the ice movement in western Greenland over the past 17 years has … slowed significantly!

James Hansen: Cooking the NASA Books for Climate Change

...NASA simply cannot be trusted to provide scientifically unbiased information on this subject. When not demonstrating incomprehensible incompetence, NASA cooks the books.

Chef-in-chief is Dr. James Hansen.

Climate Skeptic: On Quality Control of Critical Data Sets

I am sure Schmidt would love us all to go off on some wild goose chase in the innards of a few climate models and relent on comparing the output of those models against actual temperatures.

Climate Skeptic: NOAA Adjustments

My point was not that all these adjustments were unnecessary (the time of observation adjustment is required, though I have always felt it to be exaggerated). But all of the adjustments are upwards, even those for station quality. The net effect is that there is no global warming signal in the US, at least in the raw data. The global warming signal emerges entirely from the manual adjustments. Which causes one to wonder as to the signal to noise ratio here...

Someone from the "Global Environmental Facility" weighs in

INTERVIEW-Climate progress unlikely at global meeting-GEF - Forbes.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration's lame-duck status means major progress on climate change will be unlikely at an international meeting next month, the chief of a multibillion dollar environmental group said Friday.

Monique Barbut, who heads the Washington-based Global Environmental Facility, had doubts about any big agreements from December's meeting in Poznan, Poland.

The Poznan conference is being convened as part of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and is meant to help craft a global agreement by December 2009 to succeed the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

"It's going to be very difficult in Poznan to come out with something," Barbut said in an interview. "One of the main players in all those negotiations, which is the United States, is going to be in an almost impossible position to discuss anything."

This is because the administration of President George W. Bush will be in its final weeks when the conference gets under way on Dec. 1, she said.

"Without the U.S. engaging ... the full negotiation on climate change will not make so much sense for everybody else," Barbut said.
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As the world's second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter -- China is now the biggest -- the United States is alone among major industrialized nations in rejecting the Kyoto agreement.

U.S. senators voted against it 95-to-0 during the Clinton administration and Bush opposed it on the grounds that it gives fast-developing countries like China and India an unfair economic advantage. Other countries have pointed to the lack of U.S. participation as a reason to wait to act.

MISSING NEXT YEAR'S CLIMATE DEADLINE?

There are widespread doubts that the December 2009 deadline will be met, and Barbut said that may be just as well.

What's more important, she said, is to get a comprehensive U.S energy and climate package approved by the next administration and Congress, then take up global negotiations.

Global Environment Facility - Who are these guys?

As the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC, GEF allocates and disburses about $250 million dollars per year in projects in energy efficiency, renewable energies, and sustainable transportation. Moreover, it manages two special funds under the UNFCCC — the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund.

Global Environment Facility - Climate Change Staff

Greenies divided on carbon food miles

A study published at Iowa State University this year found that transport was responsible for just 4pc of greenhouse gases produced during the life cycle of food. Production accounted for 83pc.

Is a carbon diet on your shopping list?

Earlier this year, the British supermarket chain Tesco began labeling some of its 70,000 products to reflect the carbon released in the their production, transport, and consumption. The 3,729 store behemoth, the world's fourth-largest retailer, now has 20 carbon-labeled items on its shelves, core items such as orange juice and laundry detergent.

The intent, said Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy, is to educate and empower consumers to make informed decisions about their purchases.

But some observers question whether such labels are providing consumers with information that they neither want nor understand. This past April, Forum for the Future, a green think tank in London, issued a report on carbon labeling, noting the danger in providing information without context to consumers.

CO2-hysteric Newsom jets to China to brag about the allegedly "big" climate difference achieved by his policies 

In an opening address at the US China Green Tech Summit in Shanghai this week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said local leaders must set the tone on affecting climate change.
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He noted San Francisco’s plastic bag ban, recycling program, solar tax incentive, green building standards, Styrofoam food tray ban and other measures as easy initiatives any city could do that make a big difference.

“I think we’ve overplayed the notion that this is somehow deleterious and challenging – reducing our carbon footprint,” Newsom said. “I can assure you what we’ve done in San Francisco has been easy.”

Prometheus » Blog Archive » Gaming Cap-and-Trade, Lessons from the EU

The details are complex (always an advantage when trying to avoid policy goals) but the bottom line is that mechanisms like a “price corridor” and “specific fuel benchmarking-auctioning” are ways to avoid the effects of the EU climate policy. The fatal flaw of cap and trade is that the incentives required to secure political agreement invariably undercut the policy goals. The same is true in the U.S. and I expect that any future cap and trade program put forward by the Congress will have more than its share of “safety valves” and “backdoor escape hatches” and “pilot ejector seats” to limit the policy’s potential effectiveness.

When politics and policy move in different directions, policy failure is the inevitable result.

Oregon: A thoughtful Democrat on Oregon's proposed cap and trade

As reported in The Portland Tribune, that's Oregon Senate Majority Whip Dr. Alan Bates, who deserves some credit for actually thinking through this scheme a little. Bates is referring to the estimates that show that if Oregon signs on to the Western Climate Initiative's proposed cap and trade plan, consumer energy prices will rise up to 30%.

But consumer energy price costs rising up to 30% is nothing to Angus Duncan, former chairman of the Oregon Global Warming Commission that worked on the cap and trade plan. Duncan is now president and CEO of the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a nonprofit organization that trades carbon offsets, that is a key part of the Oregon initiative.

Mainstream media reporter sings "Liberated Carbon"

SEJ 2007: NYTimes' Andy Revkin sings "Liberated Carbon"

You might have heard, NY Times environmental reporter, author, SEJ member, and Uncle Wade band member Andrew Revkin penned a little ditty about climate change called "Liberated Carbon." Here he performs it with cohort Patrick Kinney. Not a great video, but a fun one...

Fiddling Around With Global Warming

Here’s a taste of "Liberated Carbon"'s lyrics, courtesy of a sympathetic environmentalist blogger who took them down at a performance:

"We yearned to burn more than dung and sticks.
Then Satan came along and said, 'Hey, try lighting this.'

He opened up the ground and showed us coal and oil.
He said, 'Come liberate some carbon. It'll make your blood boil.'

Liberated carbon, it'll spin your wheels.
Liberated carbon it'll nuke your meals.
Liberated carbon, it'll turn your night to day.
Come on and liberate some carbon, babe, it's the American way."

Mad Dogs And Englishmen

Global Warming Politics

“Mad dogs and Englishmen cap their carbon just for fun.

The Japanese don’t care to, the Chinese wouldn’t dare to,

Hindus and Argentines drive a Tata for as far as it will run,

But Englishmen detest a ... Fiesta,

In the Russian climes they would love some warmth,

to unperm that permafrost,

In the Canadian cold where the tar sands lie,

the Britishers simply sigh,

At the carbon tune the natives swoon, and

no further work is done -

But Mad Dogs and Englishmen cap their carbon just for fun.”

Check out this blink comparator

Questions on the evolution of the GISS temperature product « Watts Up With That?

The last time I checked, the earth does not retroactively change it’s near surface temperature...

Jennifer Marohasy » Links to Stories on Weather Last Century

Links to three interesting ’weather reports’ from last century from Art Raiche

http://tinyurl.com/66tegq 1922 Washington Post story

http://tinyurl.com/6ghpb8 1937 Time story re Northwest passage

http://tinyurl.com/3xfoak 1974 Time story on ice age

Painful contortions from the alarmists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center

"An expected paradox: Autumn warmth and ice growth"

As is normal for this time of year, ice extent increased rapidly through most of October. However, this year, the increase was particularly fast, which contributed to above-average air temperatures near the surface. A look back at the entire melt season from March through October reveals that the Arctic sea ice is showing some unusual changes in growth and melt cycles.
...
October ice extent was 0.89 million square kilometers (0.34 million square miles) less than for the 1979 to 2000 average, but 1.63 million square kilometers (0.63 million square miles) greater than for October 2007.
...
At its fastest point on October 15, the 2008 ice growth exceeded the 2007 growth rate on the same date by 92,000 square kilometers (36,000 square miles) per day. The near-record daily growth rate slowed toward the end of the month and has now fallen below the 2007 growth rate. It is important to reiterate this fast rate of growth is not unexpected under current conditions.
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Arctic sea ice and climate are behaving in ways not seen before in the satellite record—both in the rate and extent of ice loss during the spring and summer, and in the record ice growth rates and increased Arctic air heating during the fall and winter.

Interview with Benny Peiser

200811142593 | Is The Tide Turning On Climate Policy? | / | Energy & Environment

"The political class of Britain is in denial. They just don't see or they don't want to see that they are on their own now. No other country is following. It's exactly the opposite, they are all retreating, whereas Britain is saying, 'Oh, we are not going far enough, we need even more reductions.' "Everyone else is saying, 'Hold on, stop, we need to think. Is that really what we want, is that viable economically? Should we go it alone? Or shouldn't we put some pressure on the rest of the world? But Britain says, 'We'll go alone.' Apart from the question whether it's actually feasible economically and energy wise and so on, it's politically nonsensical."
...
LTT first interviewed Peiser two years ago (LTT 30 Nov 06), just after publication of Sir Nicholas Stern's report on the economics of climate change and at a time when the topic was rocketing up the agenda in transport. "The political, economic climate has changed beyond recognition globally, in Europe and in Britain, from the time we last met," he says. "Then we were at the peak of the climate change concern. I said this has to run its course, it's unstoppable, everyone is shouting 'The house is burning' but eventually it will cool down. I did not expect that to happen so quickly and dramatically.
...
Cold feet in Europe

Peiser says these problems have been crystallised in Europe, until now, the global leader in championing emission reductions. "This is the fascinating new development. Europe has basically abandoned any unilateral climate policy."
...
"I think the debate would be different if we saw significant warming. But for the time being, the politicians think, 'Hold on, is the world different today than it was ten, 20 years ago? Is here an emergency, something we have to really completely overturn our economy and risk social stability, do we really need to do it?' And I think most politicians have come to the conclusion that's not the case. And so the tone has changed and people have calmed down and are taking amore reasonable position, which is good."

Peiser believes climate scientists are losing their influence in the debate. "One of the big losers in this is the scientific community. Because their advice is no longer sought and their advice is no longer followed. Why? Because they've overdone it. I don't think the decision-makers trust their advice. Not because they are climate sceptics - don't get me wrong, I don't think they are - but I think the exaggeration of the problem has made it difficult for decision-makers.
...
"Do I believe there will be a global agreement? No. This is where the runaway train crashes into the buffers." The problem, he says, is that the price of a deal is too high for all sides. The developed world insists that developing countries such as China and India must commit to emission reductions. "Can they afford to cut emissions? No, there is no way. Their economies are booming, the energy demand is increasing at astronomical levels, they're scouring the planet to find resources. Can they cut CO2 emissions? No. Impossible." Meanwhile, China says that if developing nations are to cut emissions than the developed nations must devote a massive 1%of their GDP to help them do so.

"It's a blame game now," says Peiser, and he sees the G8 declaration as part of that. "No one will say this has collapsed. They'll say, 'OK, well, we'll meet again in a year - there will always be another conference.'" There may even be an agreement on aspirational reduction targets. "But a target in its own right doesn't really matter if you don't have a solution to get there. And the solutions are not there."And so, emissions will keep on rising, and atmospheric concentrations will go up far beyond the 450-550ppm CO2e that people such as Stern say should be the limit. "If you want to know what I think is going on inside Prime Ministers' offices around the world, it's 'Let's kick this into the long grass.' Because that is what it will take to approach the problem. The short-termism is gone.

"If Britain's politicians really believe they can turn the country in the next two or three decades into this low carbon or zero carbon economy then they are facing a harsh reality. Can you believe that the Labour Government is in power since 1997 and has made climate change top priority for the last ten years and hasn't even been able to bring down CO2 emissions - I mean that tells you everything you need to know. "Sometimes it's hard to accept reality because it's so against all your beliefs but in real life it's important, particularly if you're a decision-maker, to accept reality. Even if it's completely opposite to what you'd like reality to be. Once reality hits you, you are either able to accept it and change your view and to adapt or you are just an autistic politician and you stick to your idea regardless."

South Dakota blizzard roundup

The Fives: Stranded motorists, tragedy beneath the bridge and trouble at Wal-Mart » RapidCityJournal.com

We get our share of blizzards, but early November blizzards tend to be a bit rare in these parts. And those that create 8 foot drifts will always get our attention. The aftermath of the storm continues to roll out throughout the region as folks in rural parts of western South Dakota remain without power, snow removal efforts continue to roll on and the heavy wet snow takes it toll on buildings.

Short video here

I wonder how well solar panels perform under 8 feet of snow (or under 1 inch of snow, for that matter).

Producer Angling for Higher Ethanol Blends - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

The Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol industry group, has suggested a 15 percent cap, as have others. But could the engines installed in the conventional car fleet handle the uptick?

“From an engine/vehicle performance point of view, there are no ‘show stoppers’ in going from 10 to 15 percent in a modern vehicle,” said Gregory Shaver, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, in an e-mail message. He noted, however, “Ethanol is less energy-dense than gasoline, so I would expect a very modest reduction in the miles per gallon.”

Brett Smith of the Center for Automotive Research was somewhat more circumspect. “Current vehicles could be capable of running E15,” he said in an e-mail message, referring to a 15 percent ethanol-gasoline blend. “According to my sources, E20 would be pushing it, and may require ethanol-capable equipment.”

Australia: "Green" State government puts crocodiles before people's lives

A CROCODILE that killed a man in far north Queensland three years ago was returned to the river by the State Government - which said it had been shot. [Via Greenie Watch]

Russell Cook: Global Warming and local politics

A fairly obscure local race in Arizona may have national implications. One of our Arizona Corporation Commission Republican candidates has apparently won his tight race against a hugely funded Democrat candidate. Of the more than 1.6+ million votes cast for the two, the margin of victory was 462. A conservative majority in the ACC, which regulates our electric utility companies, may single-handedly initiate the debate that never happened on AGW. Only one candidate was needed to accomplish that majority.

Arizona might be able to initiate the debate that Al Gore says is over

An interesting email from Russell Cook below

See my story in American Thinker [above] on how Arizona might be able to initiate the debate that Al Gore says is over.

It's a simple story - To make sure this debate doesn't happen, it appears an attempt was made to get a highly funded pro-Al Gore candidate (with ties to billionaire George Soros??) into our Arizona Corporation Commission, an agency with elected members who regulate our local electric utility companies - and who will decide if a huge cap-and-trade plan is credible or pointless.

Since the pro-Al Gore candidate lost his election, Arizona's Republican legislature leaders and Republican majority in the Corporation Commission can simply ask the WCI planners, Al Gore and the IPCC, "You say humans are causing global warming. Can you prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt?"

It's entertaining to think about: In the case of the eastern/mid-atlantic US states, they accepted the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's plan with no question of the underlying science whatsoever. If Arizona rejects the Western Climate Initiative's plan, the next 'dominoes' to fall might be Utah and Idaho, rejecting the same plan. Wouldn't that undermine the RGGI to the point of collapse? And if it collapses, how angry would the people living in the eastern/mid-atlantic US states be about their own utility regulators' ability do things right, and their Governors' failure to understand all sides of the issue?

Reducing CO2 emissions the British way

They're going to use wind-up flashlights at this year's Wales Rally GB!

THIS year’s Wales Rally GB is blazing a trail in more ways than one.

The event has been awarded carbon neutral status, meaning its carbon footprint is zero.

Schemes to slash carbon output include car sharing for officials, replacing battery-powered torches with wind-up alternatives and recycling.

Cars will race each other only for barely over 1400 kilometers!

Overall distance 1428.44 km

Barely 140,000 fans from across the globe will attend!

Wales Rally GB, the UK and final round of the World Rally Championship (4-7 December), is one of the world’s leading motorsport events, attracting over 140,000 including fans from across the globe. The Saturdays are the icing on the cake of the event’s hour-long entertainment package prior to the special stage of the rally at the Millennium Stadium. The line-up includes world record holding stunt driver Terry Grant, the UK’s number one freestyle motorcross rider Jamie Squibb and the Fuel Girls, a sassy collective of stunt artists and dancers.

People will watch the race while flying over it in fossil-fueled helicopters!

The Special Stages of Wales Rally GB are surrounded by Restricted Airspace. Entry is only permitted to helicopters registered with the Organisers prior to the Rally.

Registered helicopters will receive the Rally Helicopter Information Manual, containing landing site details, and landing permission for many sites along the Special Stages, and identity numbers for the helicopter.

Worldwide, only 15 of these particular races will be held this year!

The season consists of 15 rallies and began on January 24, with the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.

CROSSROADS by Professor Will Alexander « An Honest Climate Debate

Many thanks for all those emails urging me to continue exposing this whole climate alarmism issue for what it is. In this memo I make one last attempt for this year at least.

As I have shown on many occasions, my actions are driven by the lack of believable evidence and the severe consequences of the proposed mitigation measures on national economies and the welfare of peoples. Now for the first time the alarmists are faced with a situation that requires action and not words. They have painted themselves into a corner. They have refused to come to the table and discuss my earnest, very serious, and solidly based drought warning.

Gassing on about magic solutions | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

So we have a fantasy plan that imagines fantasy cooperation to achieve a fantasy solution to avoid a fantasy catastrophe. And politicians and journalists are still nodding sagely, saying this is what we must do, no question.

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Are Multi-decadal Climate Forecasts Skillful?

Climate forecasts (projections) decades into the future have not demonstrated skill in forecasting local, regional, and global climate variables. They have shown that human climate forcing has the capacity to alter the climate system, but we should not present these model simulations as forecasts. To present them as forecasts is misleading to policymakers and others who use this information.

Are we close to having an electric car that can seriously compete with our current fossil-fueled cars?

If the Tesla is any indication, I think the answer is "no". Is the average American interested in a very expensive car that takes 3-30 hours to "fill up"?

Tesla Motors - FAQs

A full charge using the High Power Connector can be achieved in as little as 3.5 hours.
...
The car ships with a particularly easy-to-use High Power Connector that is installed in your garage by a qualified electrician. There is also an optional Mobile Connector that allows you to charge from any available 110v or 220v electrical outlet.

Tom's Blog

If the mobile connector is powered with a standard household outlet (120V/15A circuit, drawing 12A) the Roadster charges at a rate of about 8 miles of range per hour of charging, or more than 30 hours to charge a fully depleted pack. Connected to a 240V/50A circuit, drawing 30A, the rate jumps to about 40 miles of range per hour of charging, or about 7 hours to charge a fully depleted battery.

However, it turns out that there are regulatory roadblocks to Tesla Motors selling an EV power cable with a 240V/50A connector. Basically, it's illegal.

Options — 2009 Tesla Roadster Convertible — Yahoo! Autos: MSRP $109,000

Price
• 40-Amp High Power Connector $1,500
• 70-Amp High Power Connector $2,000
• Mobile Connector $1,200

UK Coal fired up to bring clean "energy" out of the collieries

More than a dozen of the UK's former coal mining sites are to be redeveloped as wind farms under a scheme to turn old energy into new.

UK Coal, once the main part of the National Coal Board, has announced a joint venture with Peel Energy that would see 14 former colliery locations used to erect 54 turbines generating up to 133 megawatts of electricity per hour, enough to power 80,000 homes.

Pickens' wind plan hits snag - Nov. 12, 2008

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is delaying his massive Texas wind project, citing a drop in natural gas prices and the tightening credit market.

"With natural gas prices where they are, you can't kick off a wind project, you're not economical." Pickens said Tuesday at a news conference in Arizona.

But Pickens, who has spent millions over the last few months promoting his "Pickens Plan" to wean the United States off foreign oil by switching to wind and natural gas, said natural gas and oil prices will rise again in less than a year, and characterized the setback as temporary.

A spokesman for Mesa Power, Pickens' company that is building the Texas wind farm, laid the blame more on the credit markets.

"The capital markets are problematic for everyone and...may lead us to scale back a bit," Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Mesa, said in a statement. "But we are still going forward with our wind business."

Greenpeace building a domed Climate Rescue Station

As governments prepare for the next round of crucial climate talks this December in Poznan, Poland, we're making a few preparations of our own. Obviously, we'll be at the talks, pressuring governments to quit coal and work towards a meaningful deal to save the climate - but we also have plenty planned for the run up to the talks.

Granholm's SciFi-nomics

Pollowitz rightly ridiculed Granholm for claiming that home appliances will soon be run by your car. Her comments came in a column for CNN.com in which she defended a multi-billion bailout for the U.S. auto industry because American carmakers will “lead the way to energy independence.”

“How? The car you drive will soon be the storage unit for all your energy needs,” she explained. “Your home, your car, your appliances can all be powered through the advanced battery that will sit inside your plug-in electric vehicle.”

Responded Pollowitz: “Is there anyone in America who actually believes this? What happens to my refrigerator when I'm driving my car to work?”

Robert Ferguson: Global Warming --A Political Context

Given just a decade or two of such "sustainable" policies, bolstered by Gore's religion, the world will be well on its way to a new Dark Ages, and the human misery it breeds.

The American people who owe their long, comfortable and healthy lives to the accomplishments of modern industry, technology, medicine and affordable fossil energy ought to be outraged by activists' claims and policies. They should come to grasp the terrible costs and futility of the left's policies; they must understand that life lived as the left envision it for them and their children is baneful; life lived in submission to the hard natural forces of climate and disease, increasingly lived without labor-saving technology, without the fruits of sophisticated agricultural techniques, and without modern medicine, sanitation, electrification and transportation systems is, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Hobbes, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

Economic growth requires energy growth, and restricting energy growth through self-interested international agreements such as Kyoto or domestic policies such as carbon taxes or cap-and-trade schemes is a recipe for global poverty and human deaths.

Australian Climate Madness: Ban Ki-Moonbat - "Green is good"

"Low or near zero cost" to cut emissions in the US? "Fighting global warming" (which stopped in 2001)? Who are they kidding?

Groundhog Day

Bloomberg.com: Latin America

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- European countries will urge the United Nations to hold an extra round of international talks on global warming to avoid missing a deadline to forge a new treaty by the end of next year.

The Growing Alliance of Dumbledore's Army | Future Majority

If you haven't heard of it by now... where have you been?! The Harry Potter Alliance got started in 2005 on MySpace and has grown into a larger and larger alliance tackling issue after issue bringing online involvement into offline actions.
...
Their specific causes include but are not limited to:

* Genocide, Poverty, AIDS, and Global Warming are ignored by our media and governments the way Voldemort's return is ignored by the Ministry and Daily Prophet.

New Zealand: Why virtual silence about climate change during election?

NewsWire writer ANNE CORNISH, who has been writing stories about climate change, the emissions trading scheme and recycling, ponders why these environmental issues barely rated a mention during the election:

HOW bizarre it is that, in the excitement of an election campaign, we seem to have forgotten all about climate change and sustainability.

It is unlikely the issue has gone away. I suspect our climate is still changing, yet we are choosing not to notice.

Even the Green party wasn’t making a lot of noise about it during the campaign. Surely they don’t think the emissions trading scheme is the only solution. Isn’t it just the first step on the long and tortuous path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

I’m disappointed in the performance of the Greens in the lead-up to the election. They seem to be wary of the tag “loony greenies”, to the point where they are so hell-bent on being reasonable and non-alarming, they avoid confronting us with the deteriorating state of our planet.

In The Field: Carbon conference: The other election

Before signing off for the conference, I figured I would highlight one other bit of news that cropped up yesterday. It involves a major national election and a peaceful power change that could shift a government’s policy on global warming emissions. And no, it has nothing to do with Barack Obama.

While the world’s eyes were on a sharp turn to the left in the United States, New Zealand held its own elections on Saturday - and moved sharply to the right. Apparently one of parties – ACT – that stands to gain is sceptical about global warming and has promised to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol. And all of this comes at a time when New Zealand is implementing a potentially groundbreaking cap-and-trade program designed to regulate all greenhouse gas emissions, including the difficult stuff like agriculture and development that is cutting down native forests.

Tony Blair heralds 'tremendous' potential of Barack Obama's presidency

Tony Blair has urged Barack Obama to take the initiative on issues from climate change to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a way to heal the divisions between America and Europe.

In an interview with the Guardian during a visit to Rwanda, the former prime minister said Obama's election as US president opened up "an era of real possibility".

"I think he can say to Europe, look I'm going to champion a global deal on climate change, I'm going to take the Middle East peace process seriously, I'm going to make sure that poverty in Africa is right at the top of the agenda, I'm going to listen to your concerns and get a shared agenda with you."

Global Warming T-Shirts, bumper stickers, etc - for both believers and realists

Jennifer Marohasy » A Depression Would Reduce Carbon Emissions

So, why isn’t all the bad economic news openly embraced as positive news by those that advocate we urgently cut carbon dioxide emissions. Surely, if solutions to global warming are so pressing, the best thing that could possibly happen is a recession if not a depression?

It is very confusing to me that the Federal government is so determined to maintain domestic growth above 2 percent, on the one hand, while at the same time telling us we are ruining the planet with our emissions. The reality is that you cannot have it both ways. Economic activity and emissions are related.

More money (and energy) sunk into wind power

Construction of a windfarm off the Denbighshire coast could be delayed after a barge carrying giant cranes sank in the Atlantic.

The barge, KS Titan 1, was travelling from the United States to Liverpool when it was lost at sea. There were no injuries.

Its cranes were due to install turbines at the Rhyl Flats windfarm.

npower Renewables said it would have minimal impact and the windfarm was on course for completion by July 2009.

The KS Titan 1 was being transported on board a “heavy-lift” vessel, the Ancora, which sailed from Pascagoula in the United States but developed engine problems in the mid-Atlantic.

With the Ancora rolling and tilting, the KS Titan 1 toppled over and sank, along with its onboard cranes.

The KS Titan 1, which is owned by Singapore-based KS Energy Services, was a new three-legged “jack-up” barge equipped with two cranes capable of lifting 180 tonnes.

Björn Lomborg: Subsidising inefficient green industries is not the way to tackle climate change

President-elect Obama is now facing countless people who claim that subsidies for renewable energy and CO2 taxes are great ways to tackle global warming and forge a new green economy. Unfortunately, this is almost entirely incorrect. Taxes and subsidies are always expensive, and will likely impede growth. Moreover, if we really want to tackle global warming, we shouldn't spend vast sums of money buying inefficient green technology – we should invest directly in R&D to make future green technology competitive.

Obama should seize the initiative and make the meeting in Copenhagen next year not about bloated subsidies for inefficient technologies, but about lean investments in future breakthroughs. That is the way to tackle global warming and support a genuinely vibrant economy.

'Little things' can change the world, says Jane Goodall; or why the world is noticeably cooler this morning

She urged the public to act locally when it comes to tackling climate change and other worldwide issues.

"Think about all the little things we do every day," she said, noting that she bought a carbon offset for her travel.

EU looks toward Obama to break global climate deadlock - ClimateChangeCorp.com

...since Bali, progress on plotting the details of a post-Kyoto regime has slowed, largely because of US insistence that emerging economies such as China and India should commit to CO2 cuts. Poorer countries see this as an attempt to cap their development and have resisted. Europe now hopes Obama will break the deadlock.
...
The main focus for such assistance would be green investment and forest protection. Anders Wijkman, a Swedish lawmaker who is the European Parliament's lead negotiator on EU assistance to developing countries for climate change adaptation and mitigation, said up to $100 billion will be needed annually for technology, and $50 billion for forests. Solar power investments in Africa need to be part of the deal, said Wijkman. He added that action “has to be linked to the traditional development agenda,” to ensure buy-in from poor countries.

The amounts sound high but are “peanuts compared to what is at risk,” Wijkman said.

UK: Carbon dioxide blamed for beach pollution

Torrential summer rain that washed pollutants off farm fields into the sea was blamed for the fall in the number of beaches that hit the relevant EC guideline standard for water quality.
...
Chris Mills, director of the Agency, said: “We have to do more to counter the impact of run-off on our beaches created by heavy rain.

“Long-term projections linked to climate change suggest we can expect more wet summers in future.”

Prince Charles: A man prepared to put "his" money where his mouth is - WalesOnline

There is no Constitutional or formal role that accompanies the title Prince of Wales, yet Charles has created a full-time career for himself, proving remarkably adept in embracing modern, active and innovative causes with a skill and enthusiasm that has won praise from many, but which has also raised eyebrows in some quarters, particularly when, as in his early days, he advocated theories on such diverse subjects as climate control, the environment and integrated healthcare, that were laughed at when he first spoke, but which have since become accepted practice.

UK: Osborne to change role and downplay green taxes as Tories lose economic battle

The second major change in economic policy will come on green taxes, which are to be downgraded. Osborne believes that two factors have made it more difficult to sell them: the row over the government's plan to increase car tax on gas-guzzling vehicles, which he believes has given such taxes a bad name because these are to apply retrospectively; and the overall economic downturn.

The change on green taxes will have a major impact on Cameron's approach to the environment and his theme of supporting the family. A "family fund" to support tax breaks for couples - gay and straight - is meant to be created from green taxes.

Space Fantasy 2009

The only nugget in The Planetary Society report was it's reference to Earth Observation which like the rest of the planet is the real cash cow in this solar system.

From a public policy perspective investing billions in earth observation over the next 4-8 years could save trillions if the skeptics are right and the planet is fine and on course for an ice age some 2000 years from now.

And the flip side works just as well. As we really do need to know if the goose is cooked and the planet is in trouble. If it is real we will need to take substantial actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

And somewhere in the middle we might just find that Man's impact is just what the terraformers recommend we do to mitigate the ice age a few thousand years from now. It takes science - and lot's of it - to answer these questions.

Two decades ago Bush Senior directed NASA in the wake of the first shuttle disaster and the emerging issue of global warming to invest in earth observation to study this issue and let the scientists do their job.

Twenty years later global warming is one of the biggest issues in the global public policy debate. It's time to solve this riddle and have the knowledge to enable the hard decisions to be taken that could cost trillions and change the course of human civilization.

Prometheus » Blog Archive » Understating the Mitigation Challenge, IEA 2008

You should conclude from this exercise that it is possible, even probable, that the IEA has underestimated the mitigation challenge by a very large amount. Consequently, the IEA’s cost estimates depend upon first assuming a very low rate of growth for carbon dioxide emissions, starting from a misleading baseline. This will have the effect of making the challenge look smaller and less costly (and yet, even in the IEA scenarios the challenge is huge and expensive).

I cannot help but think that mitigation policies are poorly served by getting the scope of the challenge wrong at the outset. I suspect we are dooming them to failure.

INTERVIEW:UN FAO Aide:Food Crisis Looms; A candid admission

While attention is distracted by the international financial crisis and the drop in grain prices has taken the urgency off of dealing with soaring food prices, a new, more severe, food crisis is looming, according to a top economist from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.
...
"We are worried (and) wanted to be even a bit more alarmist" due to the drop off in attention, Abbassian said.

Sam Kazman, IBD: Chevron's Orwellian Crude Discovery

Chevron should know better, yet its Web site offers an easy-to-e-mail cartoon showing an "Oil Addiction Treatment Center" with bikes parked outside. Chevron's accompanying advice: "The average American uses 25 barrels of oil every year. So how about cutting back on that habit?"

It's one thing for government to urge us to conserve in a crisis. During World War II, for example, government posters reminded us that "waste helps the enemy," and that "when you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler." But wartime is, thankfully, the exception, not the norm.

Or at least it used to be. But the global-warming alarmist campaign that triggered Chevron's ads is on the verge of becoming a war of its own, to be waged 24/7. This war will almost certainly go into high gear under President Obama, with his promise of an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

If carbon dioxide is the enemy, then we are all enemy agents, complicit from the first cry we let out at birth. And if Chevron's "Energy Saved Is Energy Found" slogan smacks of doublespeak, it may be because the global warming campaign itself is so similar to the perpetual war in George Orwell's "1984."

The dispatches in this war come not from far-off battlefields, but from vague climate fronts. We're besieged with news stories about such items as Mt. Kilimanjaro's vanishing snows (though a British court found their disappearance unrelated to warming) and Al Gore's PowerPoints on the alarming correlation between increased CO2 and higher temperatures (even as it turns out that the temperature spikes came before those of CO2, belying the latter's causal role).

And just where is the warming? Despite increasing CO2 levels, global temperatures have been level, if not declining, for the last decade. When the warming doesn't occur as predicted, there are other Orwellian tricks — alter the rhetoric to "climate change," or devise an excuse for why the warming won't arrive for another decade.

(A study in last May's issue of Nature, for example, blamed oscillating ocean currents for the delay.)

Jennifer Marohasy » Temperature Data from Satellites: Inconvenient but Accurate

IT is my prediction that in not so many years time weather station data will be collected more for fun, a sense of history and for site-specific information, than for serious regional and global climate statistics. In the future it will be data from satellites that is recognised as much more reliable for understanding regional and global temperature trends.

The recent debacle with the global temperature data set compiled by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) from thousands of thermometers in little white boxes all over the world will probably hasten the transition from a primary reliance on thermometer to satellite data.

While we have known for some time, including through the work of Anthony Watts, that many weather stations are poorly maintained and positioned in wrong places – including next to air conditioning outlets on bitumen – the recent GISS saga indicates how subjective the system of compilation can be. Indeed it appears that when Australia sends data in late, rather than wait, the team in New York might be inclined to best guess based on last month’s pattern and climatology.

A problem for those who have hitched their careers to claims that global temperatures will continue to rise is that the satellite data is much less subject to manipulation in favour of confirmation bias.

Warning Signs: "Change" for the Worse

Previously I have written that the global warming hoax was essentially dead and that the many Green organizations advocating all kinds of programs to wreck the nation’s economy were “desperate.”

I was wrong.

The Sierra Club, the Friends of the Environment, and the countless other Green organizations are euphoric and they have reason to be.

The election of Barack Obama and a Democrat controlled Congress has put the Greens in the driver’s seat and we face at least four and possibly eight years of executive orders, legislation, and regulation based on a scientifically baseless lie that will introduce Americans to what life is like in Third World nations where electricity is both costly and unpredictable.

States revolt over Rudd's carbon plan | The Australian

PREMIERS are in revolt over Kevin Rudd's plans for an emissions trading scheme, urging changes to the proposed formulas for compensating export industries to ensure they are not pushed offshore.

Breaking: EPA Kills US Coal Plants | DeSmogBlog

Wow. A decision by the Environmental Protection Agency today has ruled that all new and proposed coal-fired power plants must have their carbon dioxide emissions regulated.
What this means is that 30 permits for new coal-fired power plants in the seven state directly regulated by the EPA's permitting process, plus projects on all Indian Reservations will immediately die because of this ruling.

More from alarmist Dessler: A surprising alleged confluence of goals

Given the high stakes involved, this lack of information is simply unacceptable. The world therefore needs an IPCC-like assessment of our fossil fuel reserves. While some countries may balk at providing the relevant data needed to verify their reserve estimates, the world must compile the necessary information to assess this risk. Second, we should recognize that solutions to the problems of energy supply and climate change are, to a great degree, aligned. Solutions such as energy efficiency, the cheapest and most cost effective “new” source of energy, and renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and nuclear, can help solve both energy supply and climate problems.

A few solutions, however, address only one problem and not the other, and these policy pathways should be avoided. For example, coal combined with carbon sequestration, where CO2 from coal combustion is sequestered rather than released to the atmosphere, is a poor choice if coal is less abundant than expected. Geoengineering, active manipulation to bring about a cooler global climate, is also a poor choice because it does nothing to address energy availability.

Pure barking madness

St. Catharines Standard - Ontario, CA

Gwynne Dyer thinks the battle against climate change will spark war, mass starvation and migration.

And that’s if we win.

Even if countries worldwide drastically cut greenhouse-gas emissions in the next 30 years, “There will be casualties,” Dyer told students during a visit to Ridley College on Thursday.

“People will die, wars will happen, refugees will move.”

The Canadian-born journalist is better known for his columns on the politics of war, published in newspapers worldwide.

His new book, Climate Wars, also talks about the potential for military conflict. This time, the wars will be fought over water rights, drought-induced famine and eco-terrorist attacks.

The real enemy in each case, he said, will be global warming.

“The generals are right: climate change will produce waves of refugees, failed states and probably some wars,” he said.
...
Scientists are looking at “ways to cheat,” Dyer said. Specifically, at measures to artificially cool the atmosphere.

One suggestion: mimicking the effect of volcanic eruptions by spewing sulphur into the atmosphere, possibly in airplane fuel. The particles would temporarily deflect sunlight — but also probably cause acid rain, he noted.

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/12/2008 | U.S. reports huge Alaska energy reserve — and it's not oil

WASHINGTON — Frozen crystals packed with concentrated natural gas and buried 2,000 feet below the permafrost on Alaska's North Slope could become the next major domestic energy source, according to an assessment released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study finds that in the North Slope, frozen methane-and-water crystals known as hydrates contain as much as 85.4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. That's enough to heat 100 million homes for as long as 10 years, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said.

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Enter, Stage Left: Think Tank Outlines Obama Energy Plan

...What’s missing from the picture? About 70% of the electricity in the U.S. today. The blueprint calls for a “Manhattan Project” to crack the secret of clean coal; until then, dirty coal is taboo. “In the meantime, the United States should not build new power plants that are unable to manage carbon emissions,” the report says.

Not every energy idea gets play in the report: “Building a Vibrant Low-Carbon Economy” makes no mention of nuclear power.

Polar Bear Lifejackets?

Swedish design group ADDI has come up with an cutting-edge polar bear lifejacket design concept to help polar bears navigate the changes in their habitat.

IBDeditorials.com:  -- Where Have You Gone, Gray Davis?

In case you don't remember, California in 2006 passed the most sweeping greenhouse gas limits for any state in the union. Under this plan, CO2 output would be slashed by 25% by the year 2020. This is equivalent to removing 6.5 million vehicles from the road.

Sounds great. Except that greenhouse gas output has yet to budge, and the promised boom from "green jobs" promised by Schwarzenegger and his Democratic friends are nowhere in sight. California's jobless rate is now officially over 7%, nearly a point above the national average.

Instead, the greenhouse gas limits approved by Schwarzenegger will cost California billions of dollars in lost output as businesses locate elsewhere and take jobs with them. The one-time Golden State is rapidly deteriorating from a cutting-edge, high-tech economy to the fiscal equivalent of a Third World nation.

"The (state global warming) programs are costly to consumers and will not have any impact on the environment," the nonpartisan American Legislative Council concluded in a recent report.

In short, no bang for the buck. Just a lot of photo ops of Schwarzenegger hobnobbing with other governors and a handful of foreign officials eager to see the U.S. go down the same path to financial ruin as they have chosen.

Water Laws May Be Used to Fight "Warming" - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Environmental groups have sought to force the federal government to restrict carbon dioxide emissions using the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act (because of threats to polar bears from global warming) and other federal laws, and now they are poised to add the Clean Water Act to the list.

The Center for Biological Diversity says it is prepared to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to use the water law to respond to the threat of ocean acidification.

GORE LIED - Al Gore lied about anthropogenic global warming

Bad news for Al Gore. Temperatures have gone down a total of .37° F. (or .205° C.) since An Inconvenient Truth was released at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2006.

edmontonsun.com - Lorrie Goldstein - Put global warming on to-do list

Fellow Canadians, it's time to start thinking of "fixing" global warming the same way we do "ending" child poverty. Or "settling" native land claims. Or "shortening" medical wait times.

Like these other issues, "fixing" global warming has become yet another meaningless promise that all politicians of all stripes will be paying lip service to in perpetuity.

One they will spend billions of our dollars "fixing" year after year. To no avail.

In the end, "fixing" global warming will be a boon only to present and future generations of lobbyists, activists, consultants and other rent-seekers who will be, in the famous phrase coined by Tom Wolfe, "mau-mauing the flak catchers" into eternity.

"Mau-mauers" are the professional whiners who perpetually haunt the corridors of federal, provincial and municipal governments, demanding ever-increasing amounts of our money to "fix" global warming.

In response, the "flak catchers" -- complicit and cowed politicians -- will keep shovelling our money out the door to appease them, although nothing will ever be "fixed," prompting new demands for more money.