The (green) torch is passed - Press-Telegram

Just in case anyone still wondered, President-elect Barack Obama has now made it plain he is a greenhouse gas believer. He gave no truck during his campaign to skeptics' frequent claims that climate change has nothing to do with human activity and it's now certain he won't as president.
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For Schwarzenegger, this means he's lost his mantle as America's loudest and most visible governmental advocate in the global warming fight. But it will also mean that many goals he's pursued will come to fruition, or at least a start in that direction.

So there was satisfaction in his voice when Schwarzenegger said, "That is staggering. This is so huge. That's really big, because now we as a nation can lead, like we do in other things. Now we can inspire other nations."

Schwarzenegger, entering his last two years as governor, plainly wants to be remembered for the climate change fight as much as for any other thing he's done. "Let me tell you," he said, "when I signed the nation's first law to cap greenhouse gas emissions, California was leading a revolution, but without any soldiers Our revolution now has soldiers and it's spreading around the globe and I'm very happy about that."

In effect, Schwarzenegger was passing a leadership torch to Obama, after years of carrying it through a dark time. And Obama indicated in strong language that he's ready to accept the relay handoff and run with it - another striking example of California pioneering a national and international trend.

Clueless Australian young people call for 40% CO2 cuts by 2020

YouTube - Your Targets are Our Future: Can we get there by keeping our tires properly inflated?

Climate realism in the San Francisco Chronicle

Debra J. Saunders: When the warmest year in history isn't

Here's another reason why people don't trust newspapers. When science reporters write about, say, hormone therapy or drinking red wine, they report on studies that find that hormones or red wine can be good for you, as well as studies that suggest otherwise. Any science involving complex organisms is rarely black and white.

When it comes to global warming, newspapers play up stories that reinforce the prevalent the-sky-is-falling belief that global warming is human-caused and catastrophic. But if a study or scientist does not portend the end of the world as we know it, it rarely rates as news.
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Now honest mistakes happen - even in high-powered, well-funded research facilities. Just last year, again thanks to the vigilance of Watts and McIntyre, Goddard had to reconfigure its findings and recognize 1934 - not 1998, as it had figured - as the hottest year on record in American history.

Alas, it is hard to see Goddard as objective when its director, James Hansen, testified in a London court in September in support of six eco-vandals. A jury then acquitted the six Greenpeace activists on charges of vandalizing a British coal-fired power plant based on the "lawful excuse" defense that their use of force would prevent greater damage to the environment after Hansen predicted the one Kingsnorth plant could push 400 species into extinction.

Of course, he could be wrong.

Physicist says warming fears 'manipulated by a political agenda with no scientific basis'

GREENIE WATCH

Comments sent to EPA by research physicist John W. Brosnahan of Vanderpool, Texas, who develops remote-sensing instruments for atmospheric science for such clients as NOAA and NASA and who has published much peer-reviewed research. Brosnahan has given permission for public release of his statement

As a research physicist who has spent the past 30 years of my career in atmospheric science, I am surprised that government agencies, politicians, and much of the public have been manipulated by a political agenda with no scientific basis, which is the best way to describe the "non-link" between CO2 and global warming. There is virtually NO physical science to support any role of man's generation of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in climate change. All of this pseudo-science is driven by poorly conceived computer modeling and represents a political agenda that uses science and the public as pawns.

Carbon Dioxide is critical for plant life and therefore to animal life and to regulate it as a pollutant is a total misunderstanding of its role in life and the role that man plays in the environment. Rather than restating all of the scientific arguments I suggest that you contact Senator James Inhofe's EPW Committee staff member, Marc Morano, who has done an excellent job of collecting an overwhelming amount of peer-reviewed science (see: here) that clearly demonstrates that there is no basis for the EPA to regulate Carbon Dioxide.

Since Carbon Dioxide is such a minor greenhouse gas compared to water vapor it would make much more scientific sense for the EPA to regulate HUMIDITY! To regulate Carbon Dioxide empowers the creation of a carbon trading scheme that is, in essence, the trading of hot air. In fact, carbon trading makes even less sense than the trading of derivatives by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As global temperatures continue to drop I would think that the last thing that the EPA would want to do is to be responsible for another trillion dollar economic disaster. From my perspective, there appear to be many more top scientists who do NOT believe in AGW and CO2 as a critical element in climate change and see that the SUN is the active determinant for climate.

But can't Obama just mandate that Moore's Law henceforth applies to everything?

Digital Domain - Only the Rich Can Afford It. Should Taxpayers Back It? - NYTimes.com

THE Tesla Roadster is an electric car that goes fast, looks sensational and excites envy. The seductive appearance, however, obscures some inconvenient truths: its all-electric technology remains woefully immature and don’t-even-ask expensive. If enough billionaires step forward to inject additional capital to keep the doors of its manufacturer, Tesla Motors, open, I’m happy for all parties.

If investors pass up the opportunity, however, why should taxpayers fork over the capital that Tesla needs? The Roadster is not much more than a functioning concept car that sells for $109,000. The company is requesting $400 million in low-interest federal loans as part of the $25 billion loan package for the auto industry passed by Congress last year.

The program is intended to encourage automakers to improve fuel efficiency, but should it be used for a purpose like this, as the 2008 Bailout of Very, Very High-Net-Worth Individuals Who Invested in Tesla Motors Act? Can you conceive any way that federal dollars could be put at greater risk — and for no equity in return, keep in mind — to benefit fewer people?
...
Unfortunately for Tesla, batteries are based on chemistry and have nothing to do with Moore’s Law. Lawrence H. Dubois, chief technology officer at ATMI, a semiconductor industry supplier, said, “With batteries, you can’t just squeeze more energy into a smaller and smaller space the way you can squeeze more transistors.”

YouTube - Patrick J. Michaels on Climate Change

Typically braindead alarmist story

CTV.ca | "Glacial" ice melting at "alarming" rate: researchers

European researchers warn that glacial ice is melting faster than previously thought after satellite images showed a massive chunk of Antarctic ice nearly disintegrate in only a few weeks.

The European Space Agency, which has been closely monitoring the Wilkins Ice Shelf, noticed that a bridge of ice connecting the shelf to the Antarctic continent has been disappearing at an alarming rate.

And that's bad news, scientists say, because the Wilkins Ice Shelf acts like an early warning system for other parts of the globe.

"It's probably our best sensor of these large scale changes taking place," glaciologist Lonnie Thompson told CTV News.

In May, researchers noticed that the bridge appeared more narrow than usual. However, within a month, half of the bridge had disappeared.

Earlier this week, another section broke away, meaning the shelf itself - which scientists believe is more than 1,000 years old - is also weakening.

Soon, the ice could break away from the continent entirely, becoming a free-floating iceberg about half the size of Vancouver Island. The slab of ice is so large that seventy countries are actually smaller in area.

While scientists predicted this would happen in the future, they thought it would take an additional 15 years.

"We're seeing a very strong pattern of changes we knew would happen," said researcher Jay Gulledge of the Pew Center on Climate Change.

He added that the break-off is "happening much sooner than we thought (it) would."

Earlier this year, scientists were caught off guard when a chunk of the ice shelf roughly the same size as Manhattan collapsed suddenly.

Still, scientists hope that the news will put pressure on world leaders to ramp up efforts to combat climate change.

How alarming is this data?

If it's cloudy AND your solar panels are covered with snow, how much energy is being generated?

Vail's energy efficiency sometimes hard to see | VailDaily.com

VAIL, Colorado — It’s a cloudy day, and Vail has gotten its first snowfall in weeks — it’s good for the skiing, but bad for the array of newly installed solar panels at the top of Eagle’s Nest.

Luke Cartin, Vail Mountain’s environmental manager, inspects the machines monitoring the panels and squints as he presses a few buttons. The panels, obscured from view by a layer of snow, aren’t producing much energy at the moment, he said.

Doug Giles : The Global Warming Goons Want Your Little Ones - Townhall.com

I bet Jim Jones is tooling around hell right now green with envy over the mind manipulation the global warming greenies are wielding upon our culture....

The fool’s gold of carbon trading - Times Online

The complexity naturally means the system is open to abuse. Last year The Sunday Times revealed how SRF, an Indian company that produces refrigeration gases at a sprawling chemical plant in Rajasthan, stood to make £300m from selling certificates to overseas companies including Shell and Barclays. The Indian company had spent just £1.4m on equipment to reduce its emissions – and was using the profit to expand production of another greenhouse gas, a thousand times more . Other manufacturers damaging than CO2 in India and China producing similar products are expected to earn an estimated £3.3 billion over the next six years by cutting emissions at a cost of just £67m.

Internal papers leaked from the UN show that such problems arose because the system for checking companies involved in emissions reductions schemes was seriously flawed. One official estimated that up to 20% of the carbon credits issued did not represent genuine reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This meant that the real effect of the system had been to increase the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Nor is this all. One of the unintended consequences of the carbon trading system is a potentially huge – and massively destabilising – transfer of money and influence from the industrialised West to Russia. This is because when the Kremlin signed up to the Kyoto treaty it was given an annual emissions limit based on the horrors pumped out by filthy old Soviet industries back in 1990. Since then Russia’s industrial base has contracted so drastic-ally that it uses only a fraction of its allowances. One recent analyst’s report found that Russia has accumulated emissions permits worth about four billion tonnes of CO2. The report warned: “Russia must be singled out as a potential threat to the ability of the market to produce a meaning-ful carbon price.”

There is of course another huge incongruity in Russia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of coal, gas and oil, also in effect having control of the system for reducing emissions from these fossil fuels. It means that the West could end up paying the Russians for fuel – and then paying them again for the right to burn it.

Dems Excited about Climate Change. Everyone Else, Not So Much. | The Sundries Shack

Isn’t it just like the Democrats to be all excited about boarding a sinking ship?

Hey the Brits are doing it! Act on CO2 [government sponsored carbon cutting initiative; UK videos] | elephant journal

This may be a bit old news but back in March of 2007 the British government began a massive campaign to encourage its citizens to reduce their carbon footprint. The initiative is called Act on CO2 and it is mayor. The website targets all the areas of the average Britain’s life and presents steps for reducing energy consumption. There is a cool carbon footprint calculator (unfortunately you can’t use it without a UK postcode) and many other useful resources for the average UK citizen. Which made me wonder, “Gee, what has the US government done to encourage its population to reduce?”

So I searched “US carbon reduction initiative”. The first hit was for The Cornwall Institute…in Ontario. Ahah! But then there was the Carbon Reduction Institute…of Australia. I don’t want to diminish all the good work that is being done in the US by private organizations, and at the state, or city level. The point I want to make is, shouldn’t we have an enthusiastic Federal Government that is involved and aware and is encouraging its citizens to get on board, to make the necessary changes of behavior to support our planet and slow the progression of climate change? What if the US government was so gung-ho that it was placing ads on TV and elected officials were out campaigning to reduce our nation’s carbon footprint?...

Alec Rawls: An economic analysis of the external value of CO2...

An economic analysis of the external value of CO2 shows an unambiguously high positive value: we should be encouraging, not deterring, production of CO2

Al Fin: Glaciers Grow, Earth Cools, People Grumble

Because of economic hard times, Obama himself may find it difficult to persuade many US legislators to pass suicidal climate regulations, despite his political party holding overwhelming control of Congress. If so, he will bypass Congress and use presidential powers via the executive branch to institute energy-starvation policies via the EPA. The more likely scenario is that enough members of Congress can be bought with pork, so as to provide Obama's anti-CO2 jihad with Congressional cover.

The Strata-Sphere » World Cools On Man-Made Global Warming

The dirty little secret within the Church of Al Gore/IPCC is that the masses will pay a very heavy price to battle the mythical man-mad global warming, and the rich have sufficient money to insulate themselves with minimal effort. The whole cap-and-trade scheme is a way to make the masses pay for the excess of the ridiculously wealthy.

The Associated Press: Obama buzz felt at global climate talks

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The president-elect won't be there, but an Obama buzz will crackle through the conference hall when negotiators gather Monday for a final push toward a sweeping new global warming treaty.

"America is back," says Sen. John Kerry, underscoring that Barack Obama's election signals a U.S. intent to regain a leadership role on climate change.

"After eight years of obstruction and delay and denial, the United States is going to rejoin the world community in tackling this global challenge," said the Massachusetts Democrat, in line to become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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Obama, who enters office in January, would likely need a year to prepare domestic legislation enabling Washington to commit to a new climate treaty.

Nonetheless, delegates anticipate a new U.S. approach that will kick the talks into a higher gear next year.

DFO seeks satellite imagery to trace tracks of trapped narwhals

A federal researcher says he hopes some satellite imagery of the area around Pond Inlet, Nunavut, will help them figure out how more than 500 narwhals became trapped in sea ice near the Baffin Island community.

As of Friday afternoon, hunters have culled 511 narwhals trapped in the ice near Bylot Island, about 17 kilometres from Pond Inlet. The number surpasses previous estimates — 500 whales — by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
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Speaking to CBC News from Pond Inlet, local elder Gamailie Kilukishak said he does not remember seeing so many narwhals trapped at the same time.

Speaking in Inuktitut, Kilukishak said he suspects that multi-year ice has closed off Navy Board Inlet, which runs along the western side of Bylot Island.

The narwhals may have then turned around to head out toward Baffin Bay, only to find the ice had already formed on the east side of the island, he added.

Richard said he believes the whales got trapped in fast-freezing ice as they tried to reach open water.

Channeling Al Gore

Philippine's eco-hero president Arroyo calls for global warming summit

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has called for a summit to discuss ways to address the problem of global warming and climate change, her adviser on the matter said Wednesday.

The Carbon Cutting Congress versus Climate Change (CCC vs CC) will gather 350 stakeholders in Malacañang on November 20, said Heherson Alvarez, Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change.

"Global warming and climate change perhaps is the most engaging and the most dangerous problem of the human community today," Alvarez told a news conference at the Palace.

"It's as much our problem because of our vulnerability. We are susceptible to the many dangers of global warming -- flooding and the ferocious storms…The President is concerned that this dangerous global development has an impact on food supply, and the vast issue of poverty," he added.

GMA going abroad again, this time to HK for Clinton Global Initiative

President Arroyo will leave for Hong Kong tomorrow night to attend the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Asia Meeting, less than a week after a trip to Latin America and the United States.
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The Hong Kong trip of the President would be her ninth for the year.

In January, the President went to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum and stopped by Dubai on the way back to Manila.

This was followed by a visit to Hong Kong last March; the United States in June; China last August for the Summer Olympics; New York in September; China in October; Chicago and New York in November; and Peru, Colombia and Los Angeles last month.

Will fewer people show up in Poland than showed up in Bali?

Dec '07: Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Bali Flooded by UN Climate Convention

Indonesia is plagued by flooding, but today marks the official start of a different sort of flood - one of politicians, non-profit reps, and activists gathering by the thousands (15,000-20,000) as part of the thirteenth United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting.

Now: Aust delegation heads to Poland for climate talks - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

About 9,000 people are expected to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference and meeting of parties to the Kyoto Protocol which start in Poznan on Monday.

I realize that the Poland meeting may be "less important", but I'm wondering why some global warming hysterics would risk Bali's kidney stones and dengue fever, but manage to avoid the temptation of the colder, allegedly much healthier December in Poland...

Evolving story in Iceland

Last year, they were supposed to be "leading the way", showing us how we could fight global warming (and strengthen our economy) by going green.

This year, intense cold is harming attendance at protests over the collapsed economy.

Dec '07: Lured by Clean Energy, Industry Heads for Iceland : NPR

One country that's ahead of the curve is Iceland. This island in the North Atlantic is the only industrial country in the world that burns practically no fossil fuels to generate electricity or to heat homes and buildings. That's because it has abundant supplies of renewable energy. In fact, Iceland has so much cheap and clean electricity, it's encouraging heavy industry to ship raw materials halfway around the world for processing on this island. Iceland says that could reduce the pollution that contributes to global warming.

Oct '08: Iceland Shivers From Financial Crisis : NPR

Morning Edition, October 8, 2008 · Iceland could become the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial crisis. The nation's currency has lost nearly half of its value and banks are collapsing under the heavy debt.

Now: Around 4000 people protesting in Reykjavik, Iceland | IceNews - Daily News

Around 4000 people are now in front of the Icelandic parliament building, in central Reykjavik, protesting against the economical situation in Iceland.

People are asking for the resigning of Iceland’s Central Bank management, re-election of the Icelandic parliament and changes in the government.

Among speakers are writers, journalists and educational advisers.

Between 6000 and 7000 people have been showing up at the last two meetings, it is thought that really cold weather is contributing to the lesser turn-out. Few of the last meetings have led to a near-riot situation, so far this event has been peacefull.

How can we convince the Apple board of directors that global warming is a CRISIS?

Greenpeace: Tech companies not serious about climate change | The Industry Standard

Consumer electronics giants Apple, Dell, Motorola, Microsoft, Nintendo and Samsung have been slow to get serious about climate change, and are notably lagging behind, according to the latest edition of the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics.

Many companies still show little engagement with the issue, which is a disappointment, according to Greenpeace International Climate & Energy campaigner Mel Francis.

"They are basically lagging behind on what we need for a good climate package. They haven't demonstrated any real commitment to cutting their own CO2 emissions, or to lobbying politicians to get a good deal post-Kyoto," said Francis.

Apple - Press Info - Board of Directors

Albert Gore Jr.
Former Vice President of the United States

Now that a surge in pirate stories coincides with apparent global cooling, can anyone still deny that pirates drive global temperature?

seanbonner: Less Pirates = Global Warming

"You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature."

2008 Somali Pirate Haul: $150M + Benefits, Huge Ransoms Paid To GPS-Equipped Criminals

(CBS/AP) Somali pirates have collected more than $150 million in ransoms over the past year, Kenya's foreign affairs minister said Friday, calling on ship owners not to pay when their vessels are hijacked.

In the past two weeks Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates have seized eight vessels including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil. Several hundred crew are now in the hands of Somali pirates.

"We are advised that in the last 12 months, ransom to the excess of $150 million has been paid to these criminals and that is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said.

I don't think a fuel that can't be kept at room temperature can be our principal source of energy | Prometheus 6

In California, where governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promised a "hydrogen highway" with 200 hydrogen filling stations by 2010, there are just five open to the public.

Even Santa's a denier now?

Global warming doesn't seem to be much of a problem at his home in the North Pole, Santa said...

A Land Rush in Wyoming Spurred by Wind Power - NYTimes.com

WHEATLAND, Wyo. — The man who came to Elsie Bacon’s ranch house door in July asked the 71-year-old widow to grant access to a right of way across the dry hills and short grasses of her land here. Ms. Bacon remembered his insistence on a quick, secret deal.

The man, a representative of the Little Rose Wind Farm of Boulder, Colo., sought an easement for a transmission line to carry his company’s wind-generated electricity to market. His offer: a fraction of the value of similar deals in the area. As Ms. Bacon, 71, recalled it: “He said, ‘You sure I can’t write you out a check?’ He was really pushy.”

But can we "lift Americans out of poverty" by diverting more capital to unreliable energy sources, bureaucrats, carbon traders, etc?

AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | ‘New Green Deal’ Focus of Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference

Just weeks after the Obama administration and the new Congress take office—with the economy as the top priority—more than 2,000 union, environmental, business and government activists and leaders will take part in the 2009 Good Jobs Green Jobs National Conference.

The Feb. 4–6 conference in Washington, D.C., is coordinated by the Blue Green Alliance, the partnership of the United Steelworkers (USW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

It will focus on transforming the struggling economy through a wide range of environmental investments in green technology, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Conference organizers say the goal is to develop a “New Green Deal” that would create jobs, increase energy independence, reduce global warming and expand the clean energy and green technology markets.

In addition, the conference will highlight the potential of a green economy to build a new social agenda that lifts Americans out of poverty, improves public health and strengthens the middle class.

Participants can choose from more than 40 workshops on a wide range of topics, including green building, bio-fuels, climate change and green chemistry and have access to a Green Jobs Expo that will highlight the rapid development of green jobs and careers

Keep staggering on - Mark Steyn - The Corner on National Review Online

Britain has clearly decided it has a golden future as one vast theme-park for The Onion. From The Daily Mail, a woman's right to shoes:

Drunk women who stagger about in high heels are to be protected - at public expense - from twisting their ankles.

They will be handed flip-flops to wear by police outside nightclubs as they wend their way home.

But can CO2 raise global temperatures another 15 degrees C?

[ScienceDaily] The researchers thus developed an experimental model. One group of ticks was incubated for 24 hours at 40°C and another group at 25°C. Both groups were then put in contact with humans. The results were unquestionable: the affinity of dog ticks for humans was much greater after the parasites had been kept at a temperature of 40°. Thus the affinity of this group of ticks for humans was disturbed by the rise in temperature. Under the effect of warmth, it was as if the ticks had gone mad and started to bite humans.

Why not run an experiment to see what happens to the ticks if CO2 raises global temperatures to 100 degrees C?

Maine.gov: Facts & History: Maine History Told by Mainers: Diary of a Storm

[1998?] Our situation is unchanged. President Clinton has declared our part of the state a federal "Disaster Area". No sign of power being restored for the foreseeable future. Another snowstorm is due by midnight and it's expected to dump another foot of snow and ice in our area.

Vice President Gore arrives in Maine to see the damage first hand. He hops out of his nice, warm plane at the Portland Jetport and in his nice, clean clothes, picks-up a dead electrical wire, poses for the newspapers and television, and then with a little flip of his hand, he hops back aboard his nice warm plane and flies off to warmer climes.

Why Poland is a thoroughly appropriate location for the UN's latest global warming insanity fest

A roundup:

1. About 9,000 people head to Poland for global warming talks

About 9,000 people are expected to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference and meeting of parties to the Kyoto Protocol which start in Poznan [Poland; Dec 1-12] on Monday.

2. Leaders of host country Poland apply climate brakes - Politiken.dk

The prime minister's hopes for a global climate agreement in Copenhagen next year appear to have been dashed by Poland.

3. The people of Poland are not concerned over global warming

Before next week's giant international climate conference to be held in Poznań, the daily RZECZPOSPOLITA has published results of a probe on climate change, showing that Poles are more worried about other threats than global warming.

4. The weather forecast for Poznan looks cool and dreary:

Real crisis intrudes on fake crisis: Live Earth India canceled

Joint Official Statement from Live Earth Founder Kevin Wall, The Office of the Honorable Al Gore and Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Chairman IPCC regarding Live Earth India | Live Earth

Everyone involved with Live Earth India, from our U.S.- and India-based staff, artists and crew to our India-based broadcast, production, non-profit and marketing communications partners, is stunned and saddened by the tragic events of the past few days in our host city Mumbai. We always felt very welcomed and safe as we spent more time on the ground in Mumbai to finalize plans for Live Earth India, scheduled for December 7.

Due to circumstances far beyond our control, we are saddened to announce that Live Earth India has been cancelled. We will continue to work for solutions to the climate crisis for the good of the people of India and around the world. But for now, our thoughts and our prayers are with the victims of this terrible attack, with the bereaved, with the people of Mumbai and with everyone in India.

Opinion: OPINION: True costs of warming hype | global, warming, temperatures : Gazette.com

...we are likely to find the real damage is caused not by global warming, but by the fight against global warming.

June '08: United States Senator Saxby Chambliss [Georgia] on climate change legislation

This will be devastating to families across the country.

According to Housing and Urban Development, poor families spend almost five times as much of their monthly budget in meeting their energy needs -- 19 percent -- as wealthier Americans, who spend approximately 4 percent.

Increases in energy prices due to carbon limits would hit the poor five times harder, which certainly will be unsustainable. This bill, by some estimates, will hit the average Georgia household in an amount equal to $7,231.

The effects this legislation will have on consumers are outrageous: higher gasoline prices, higher electricity prices, lower household incomes, and job losses.

CQ Politics | Poll Tracker - Eye on the Senate: Chambliss Ahead in Georgia

First-term Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss holds a 52 percent to 46 percent lead over Democratic challenger James Martin), a former state representative, in their Dec. 2 runoff battle, according to a Research 2000 survey conducted Nov. 23-25. Two percent are undecided and the margin of error is 4 points.
...
Georgia and Minnesota, where a recount is going on, are the last two chances Democrats have to reach the magic number of 60 in the Senate, which is enough votes to break a filibuster.

Tom Borelli : Obama’s Grand Experiment: Global Warming Cap-and-Trade Policy - Townhall.com

Sounding like he was auditioning for a role in Al Gore’s next film, Obama said, “The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.”

TheStar.com | News | More lame duck posturing on climate change

Expect reports Monday of an electric atmosphere inside the International Fair, the cavernous convention centre in Poznan, Poland.

It's the opening day of the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, the latest event in the global effort to negotiate further greenhouse gas emissions cuts after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The election of Barack Obama will allow the 10,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries to briefly act as if the world is finally ready to fend off an environmental nightmare.

Soon, though, they'll settle comfortably into what they do best – long, inconclusive debates and secretive strategy sessions that lead to a dramatic last-minute agreement to hold more talks.
...
Some observers suggest Obama is too smart to ignore the likes of Hansen. He might hitch his pants, look the issue in the eye and do the right, politically dangerous things to keep Earth habitable.

Only one glacier, and only back to 1944?

Himalaya glaciers allegedly melting much faster - Discovery.com- msnbc.com

But when the team analyzed samples of glacier, what they found stunned them. Glaciers around the planet are usually dated by looking for two pulses of radioactivity buried in the ice. These are the leftovers from American and Russian atomic bomb testing in the 1950's and 1960's.

In the Naimona'nyi samples, there was no sign of the tests. In fact, the glacier had melted so much that the exposed surface of the glacier dated to 1944.

"We were very surprised not to find the 1962-1963 horizon, and even more surprised not to find the 1951-1952 signal," Thompson said. In more than twenty years of sampling glaciers all over the world, this was the first time both markers were missing.

And again, if the science is so settled, why are we constantly reading about scientists claiming to be stunned by new data?

Economy may force Barack Obama to cut back on green pledge | World news | The Guardian

"We have to figure out what is achievable ... within one year, given our economic realities," Kerry said. "The bottom line is we are not going to be in the position we were two years ago in the short term to do as much technology transfer or economic assistance in terms of transitional issues that might have led other countries to participate."

The caution came amid rising expectations on the eve of the two-week UN meeting, which begins on Monday, about the prospects of negotiating a successor to the Kyoto protocol late next year. Kerry said there would be little negotiation on a treaty at the meeting but it would focus on setting out a timetable leading up to next year's international climate change summit at the Copenhagen meeting. "This is not a negotiation session," he said. "This is a negotiation to set up a glide path going into Copenhagen."

But to "focus on setting out a timetable", do you really need 9,000 people for two weeks?

WARSAW, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Some 9,000 people confirmed their participation in the 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 4th meeting of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, Alexander Saier, a UN official, said here Friday.

The conference will be held in Poznan of Poland on December 1 to 12, 2008, according to Polish news agency PAP.

Why couldn't that be done over the Internet?

So who gets the "blame" here: Bush or Exxon?

Poland applies EU climate brakes - Politiken.dk

Poland gives the thumbs down to plans for a European climate agreement this year, as Denmark prepares for the Climate Summit in 2009.
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The prime minister's hopes for a global climate agreement in Copenhagen next year appear to have been dashed by Poland.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly said that a global agreement on CO2 reductions at next year's Climate Summit in Copenhagen is contingent on the European Union being able to reach its own compromise at this year's December EU summit.

But Poland has made it clear that under current circumstances it will not agree to EU targets and is close to giving up negotiations completely.
...
At the same time, it is hoped that the EU summit will confirm the Union's ambitious target that 20 percent of Europe's energy should come from sustainable energy sources by 2020.

But Dowgielewicz says that in reality, the goals are unattainable.

38 million
"Poland is not France which has nuclear power. Poland is not Denmark, which is almost self-sufficient in its energy requirement," says Dowgielewicz.

"We are 38 million people in the middle of Europe and we are behind the rest. We have to catch up with developments in your countries - and that is in everyone's interest. And if you say to us - a country that gets 95 percent of its energy from coal - that we have to change everything, it's just a dream. A nice dream, but a dream nonetheless," he adds.

Ultimatum
Dowgielewicz arrives in Brussels today with an ultimatum for the Commission, the French Presidency and other EU countries. His government is adamant that the current negotiations are going nowhere, and that much more consideration must be given to less wealthy EU countries.

The Polish government feels that the current status of the negotiations is impossible and that the French Presidency is only looking out for itself, Italy and Germany - all of whom are hiding behind Poland in a wish to postpone or scrap the European climate agreement.

Movement
Dowgielewicz says he finds it difficult to see a compromise.

"There are no good signs for the negotiations of the coming weeks. And quite honestly I am sorry about that. But everyone is going to have to compromise if we are to reach agreement in December. At the moment, I cannot imagine how that is going to be possible," he concludes.

GM Asks U.S. FAA to Bar Public Tracking of Leased Corporate Jet. I didn’t realize you could d…

HEH: GM Asks U.S. FAA to Bar Public Tracking of Leased Corporate Jet. I didn’t realize you could do this. Can somebody start tracking the flights of celebrity global-warming activists the same way?

Living Oprah: Gore-y Details

Today, we saw a rerun of Al Gore's visit to Oprah's stage. I remember the show the first time around. Oprah was adamant that if we haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, we must. AND, we should get it for our friends and families today. Done.

You know, I happen to be one of the tree-huggers who believes our actions cause huge planetary problems including global warming. And actually, the reason I call myself a tree-hugger is I once brought my blue bag recycling down to our bin in the alley and a car full of teenagers screamed "F&@*ing TREE-HUGGER!! as the screeched pass me. I was speechless. It was one of those times when I thought of a dozen brilliant retorts hours and hours later, but couldn't come up with anything clever in the moment. I think all I managed was a nervous giggle.

When I hear the naysayers, who think we're nutso for being gung-go about being green, I try to respect their opinion. But I also think - WHO CARES if I want to recycle, use the most minute amount of plastic possible, commute by bike, etc? At the very, very, very least, I can afford to pay my electricity and I don't uglify my city by littering. Why is it so offensive? I was accused by a friend that I was just trying to be "trendy" by buying local produce whenever possible. WHA?!?! Leopard print flats are trendy. Local fruit is just plain fresh and delicious.

Worldwide: Find a Dec 6, 2008 CO2-hysteric event near you

For 6th December 2008: Climate Crisis Coalition and Greenpeace US will be organising events around the US on the Global Day of Action.

Earth Equity News

On Saturday, December 6, 2008, concerned citizens around the world will be participating in the fourth annual Global Day of Climate Action. This important day will be midway through the annual UN climate conference, taking place this year in Poznan, Poland. This year, actions in the U.S. are particularly pertinent because the U.N. conference is going to set the parameters for the all-important post-Kyoto treaty to be signed in December, 2009 in Copenhagen. We need to keep the President-elect Obama and the new Congress focused on the climate crisis. In Minneapolis, MN, climate crisis activists will hold a Rush-Hour Picket and Bannering on the I-94 Freeway Overpass at Riverside & 25th Avenues on the first day of the Poznan Conference, Monday, December 1st from 4:30 to 6:00 PM.
...
Climate Crisis Protesters will be standing on the I-94 Freeway Overpass at Riverside & 25th Avenues on the West Bank, Minneapolis. If driving, take the Riverside exit off I-94. If taking mass transit, the # 2, 7 and 8 buses stop near by.

Agmates Rural News » Blog Archive » Board Member Criticizes ABC Global Warming Biased Reporting

Finally after 10 years of cooling, a bitterly cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere, expanding sea ice in the Arctic & Antarctic and tremendous spring rains virtually across the whole of Australia, it’s good to see the influential mainstream media like The Australian newspaper starting to report the physical facts, rather than the fanciful & hysterical predictions of the alarmists contrived computer models.

Daily Pundit » Innumerate Thinking Emoting
Whatever happened to the hydrogen economy? - New Scientist

Repeat after me: There are no hydrogen wells.

Maybe, if we were to build a nuke power plant in every county, we could accept the 75% energy loss involved in powering things with hydrogen. Until we have power to throw away, forget about it. And unless we go nuke, we’ll be greatly increasing the dreaded carbon emissions.

Walk Against Warming | The RiotACT

Last time I went to one of these, I was stunned at the number of cars!

Using that massive Exxon funding that "we" allegedly enjoy, why don't climate realists attempt something like this?

In a few weeks, 1Sky will launch the Climate Precinct Captains program: a major effort to build a network of climate leaders covering all of the nearly 300,000 electoral precincts nationwide. Stay tuned for more information coming soon!

Dangerous CO2 hysteria from 1Sky's Gillian Caldwell

Australia: Why Alarmist Clive Hamilton Wants To Shut Down The Net

[Hamilton:] “The internet has spawned a community of devotees who operate in a cow-boy culture that thinks itself beyond the normal reach of social control, as if they inhabit an independent cyber-nation that applies it own laws in the form of voluntary protocols for those who choose to accept them.”

Note the term ’social control’. Even though the majority of Australians don’t realize it over the past 2 decades Clive Hamilton through his leftist intellectual think tanks The Australia Institute & The Climate Institute have had a not inconsequential impact on Australian society.

Hamilton and the intellectual left have focused on 2 modes of operation: ‘social engineering’ brought about by ’social control’.

Social Engineering:

Clive Hamilton through his left winged Think Tanks, The Australia Institute and The Climate Institute have spent an enormous amount of time developing ‘leftist social engineering’ manifestos.

From the Climate Institute web site, here's the title of their July '08 newsletter

"Leaving the fatal shores of the high carbon economy"

July '08: Climate too hot for Clive | Herald Sun

CLIVE Hamilton had an excellent plan last month when Charles Sturt University made this green preacher its Professor of Public Ethics.

"Over the last 20 or 30 years . . . academics have been less willing to engage in public debate," the former Australia Institute boss said.

That had to change, and by Gaia, Hamilton was the man to change it.

So how odd to see Hamilton a fortnight later telling a popular discussion website, On Line Opinion, he's no longer going to debate there.

"I will not be contributing any further pieces to the site because it has been captured by climate change denialists," he huffed.

Hamilton conceded he actually didn't know the science he's defended: "I do not presume to engage in arguments about climate science because I do not have the expertise to do so without making a fool of myself."

But, as with other such preachers, this didn't stop him from vilifying the "denialists" who disagreed with him as "loopy and deceptive" - the sort who'd accuse "the Royal Family (of) being in cahoots with global Jewry".

Actually, Hamilton's retreat is part of a pattern...

11/26/08: James Hansen jets across the pond yet again

James Hansen, NASA scientist, is in Westminster today to give evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on the impact of current science on climate policy. It’s being billed by new group Climate Safety as “one humdinger of a debate” between, in the red corner, Hansen and researcher Tim Helweg-Larsen of the Public Interest Research Centre, as they go head-to-head with, in the blue corner, Professor John Beddington and Professor Robert Watson, both Chief Scientific Advisers to the UK Government...

Arctic winds bring a blast of good fortune to mountain resorts - Times Online

The large snowfalls last week brought magnificent conditions across the Alps, Pyrenees and Scandinavia.

The snow in many areas is already more than twice as deep as average for this time of year. The high-altitude resort of Zermatt in Switzerland has reported more than 2m of snow, but even slopes down to 1,000m (3,280ft) have had enough snow to leave sufficient cover for the rest of December without another snowflake falling.

Particularly encouraging is that the big snowfalls have come with very cold weather. Often an early snowfall quickly melts because the ground is too warm. The recent cold temperatures froze the ground, however, letting the snow settle and build up a thick base, which can better withstand a run of no snow during the rest of the season. [Via Global Freeze]

Winter coming on strong this year - York, Pennsylvania

Old Man Winter seems more energetic than in recent years, making his appearance earlier than expected.

Heavy snow keeps children away from school in Spain

Tyre chains are needed on nearly 40 mountain passes of the main road network because of the snow, 12 passes are closed completely, and five regions of the country remain on yellow alert for harsh weather this morning - Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid.
Cataluña and the Baleraic Isalnds are also on alert for high winds and possible storms this morning.

The snow resulted in 1,200 pupils getting a day off school yesterday in Castilla y León, and 60 lorries heading for Cantabria came to a halt in Aguilar de Campoo, Palencia.
197 schoolchildren in Lugo were also without classes because of the snow.

Peter Foster: Ferguson's fears - Full Comment

[Niall Ferguson:] Obama will face climate change on his agenda, but it will not be item one, two, three, or four.

New MP calls for nuclear energy rethink : thewest.com.au

[Joe Francis:] “We should be exporting (uranium) and using it for power ourselves. If we were really concerned about global warming and carbon emissions, instead of bringing in an emissions trading scheme tax that’s going to hit hard West Australian industry, the best thing we can do to reduce the world’s carbon emissions is to mine uranium.” Though Cabinet lifted the Labor government’s ban on uranium mining this month, the Government remains opposed to nuclear power and nuclear waste dumps.

Caruba: The Relentless Greening of America

CTV Calgary- Climate meeting draws industry leaders

Ottawa has new climate change legislation, but it can't be enacted until the government creates new regulations to go with it but Federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said that won't be the conservatives' first priority.

"We will not, let me be clear on this, we will not aggravate an already weakening global economy in the name of environmental progress," said Prentice.

Natural cycles cause global warming, cooling

Scott Richardson's column (Pantagraph, Nov. 2) is proof that global warming alarmism is more religion than science. The believers have their messiah, Al Gore, who is not a scientist and has refused all monetary offers to debate the science.
...
After examining Spencer's work, I am convinced that observed climate changes are mostly natural. Unlike the believers who refuse all debate, I would welcome any opportunity to present my evidence.

R. John Muench

Australian Climate Madness: UN forecasts huge rise in costs of emissions reduction

Nothing in this should surprise anyone, of course. What does surprise us is the fact that this comes from the UN itself...

Access : Climate researchers 'should cut their carbon footprint' : Nature News

Jet-setting scientists responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions.
---
Anna Petherick

Climate change researchers and the agencies that fund their work should do more to cut the community's carbon footprint, says an atmospheric chemist who has calculated the carbon emissions of his colleagues.

Tax breaks for 'green' jobs are bad deal for Minnesota

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is proposing $85 million in tax breaks to create jobs in solar energy, methane gas, and wind energy. According to the governor, we're going to have a whole new manufacturing sector building solar power plants and wind turbines, and his tax breaks will bring those new jobs to Minnesota. Isn't that a good idea?

No. It's a bad idea.

Captain Planet newsletter for kids promotes eco-propaganda

Our Planeteer, Amy McAllister, is still in her journey around four continents spreading Captain Planets message.

From the Captain Planet kids newsletter:

The 20th century’s last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia.

Captain Planet: Information from Answers.com

Ted Turner[1] created Captain Planet in 1990 with the intent of entertaining viewers into an awareness of environmental hazards. Captain Planet battled such villains as Verminous Skumm, Sly Sludge, Duke Nukem, Looten Plunder, Dr. Blight & Hoggish Greedly.

Transy senior to join world environmental leaders in Poland

Next week, one of Kentucky's newest and most well-traveled young environmental activists will join world leaders and experts in Poznan, Poland, for the United Nations climate change conference.

Marcie Smith, a 21-year-old senior at Transylvania University, will lobby on behalf of the 20-something generation as part of a delegation from the grass-roots group SustainUS.
...
"We want to see a treaty that is bold, that is courageous. It needs to be binding, and there needs to be accountability," Smith said. "And we want to see U.S. leadership, which has been lacking."
...
She has founded a campus environmental group and has interned in Congress and for a think tank in The Hague, Netherlands. She has studied in Madagascar off the coast of Africa and hopes to spend next summer in France after graduating with a double major in international relations and French.

But to call her a citizen of the world shortchanges her strong and deep Kentucky roots.
...
But the two seminal events that widened her perspective, Marcie said, were in high school when she read New Yorker writer Philip Gourevitch's book about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and two summers ago when she attended a screening of former Vice President Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

Green tax is the end of low-cost flights -Times Online

A spokesman said: “The Government has always said that this is an environmental tax, but that has never been the case. The money is not spent on the environment. Travel is being used as a cash cow.”

He said that the UK travel industry employed thousands of people and that job losses were inevitable if people stopped flying because of the higher prices.

Ryanair's deputy chief executive, Michael Cawley, said: “The Government is insane if it thinks that price-sensitive passengers will continue to travel when faced with increased costs.”

Turn veggie to save planet, says Sir Paul - Science, News - The Independent

Sir Paul McCartney has teamed up with a Nobel Prize-winning scientist to urge people to become vegetarian to save the planet from the greenhouse gases created by rearing livestock.

In a letter to The Independent, the musician joins Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to blame worsening global warming on a rise in the number of people who eat meat.

The musician and Mr Pachauri, who are both vegetarians, also believe that global food shortages are exacerbated by the planting of cereal crops for animal fodder. A mass switch to a more vegetarian diet will, they say, help the poorest people in the world.

Becoming vegetarian, or at the very least eating less red meat, is "the single most effective act" anyone can take to lessen greenhouse gas emissions. As well as producing the greenhouse gas methane, the livestock business uses up increasingly scarce sources of fresh water and increases other forms of pollution through its need for agricultural chemicals, they argue.

"Unfortunately, with higher incomes, societies, even in developing countries, are turning to greater ... consumption of animal protein, which reduces the availability of food grains for direct consumption by impoverished human beings," they say. "Already 60 per cent of food crop production in North America and western Europe is being diverted for production of meat." Sir Paul and Mr Pachauri also suggest that people switch off lights, turn down their central heating, buy compact fluorescent lamps and use bicycles.

Rosemont students experience poverty’s cold reality

Then the students spread straw to sleep on around a small campfire. Due to the evening’s unseasonably cold temperatures, which plummeted to below freezing, students were invited to sleep inside the chapel if they so desired.

Michigan: May frost damaged Christmas trees

"We had some frost at the end of May so it damaged some new growth on the trees," said Tannenbaum Farms co-owner Laurie Koelling. "People don't expect frost would damage Christmas trees but they were already growing. It killed the new branches on our Douglas Firs and some of the spruces."

That frost set the farm back a year in its rotation, meaning the pickings could be slim a few years down the road.

Wheels Coming Off the Enviro-Left’s Climate Bandwagon? » The Foundry

...the rebellion against more stringent climate goals by several E.U. member states comes at just the wrong time for those on the American enviro-left.

Winter resorts revel in white gold after best snowfall in decade - Times Online

Ski resorts across Europe will open this weekend ahead of schedule after the biggest November snowfalls for at least a decade.

The exceptional conditions, including 60cm (23in) of snow on Alpine slopes and even more in the Pyrenees, has given a much needed boost to the ski industry after claims that global warming could devastate its multibillion-pound business.

“This is nature's way of cocking a snook at the experts,” said Christian Rochette, the director of Ski France International, the tourist body for French resorts.The industry was expecting a good season despite gloomy forecasts from bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

“We've got excellent conditions for this time of year and very cold temperatures, which means we can use the snow cannons to make artificial snow as well,” he said.
...
A spokeswoman for the tourist office in Meribel, an up-market Alpine resort and a favourite of British skiers, said that, with 30cm of snow at an altitude of 1,500 metres and up to 80cm at 2,000 metres, the ski lifts would start operating today, a week earlier than planned. “It's many, many years since we've had this much snow at this time of the year,” she said.

Michael Broom Smith, of Purple Ski, said: “On the lower pistes, the snow is thigh deep and beautifully light and fluffy and more snow is forecast this weekend.”

Val d'Isère will also open today with snow two metres deep at 3,000 metres. “We've often had to put off the opening,” a tourist office spokeswoman said. “Last year we opened a few slopes at the start of the season but this year we're opening them all.”

The mood is equally upbeat in the Swiss Alps. The Ski Club of Great Britain said that snow in parts of Switzerland was 12 times deeper than average.

Pyrenean resorts are also enjoying snowfalls unseen for years. “Oh, what happiness!” said Hervé Mairal, director of the Pyrenean Tourist Federation. “We've got 95cm at the foot of the slopes and 1.4m at the top. We've not had that for a decade.”

Andorra, which has had some poor conditions in recent years, is enjoying its best start to a season for four decades and both the main areas of Grandvalira and Vallnord will be open fully from this weekend.

On the Spanish side Roberto Buil, the marketing manager of the Baqueira Beret resort, said that the slopes had opened on November 22 for the first time in 44 years. “All our 69 ski runs are open,” he said. “We are having an amazing start.”

NC Media Watch: Al Gore brings his propaganda machine to Oprah

We can only hope the most people in the US are shopping on Black Friday and not watching the Oprah Winfrey Show today...

Vincent Gioia | President-elect Barack Obama will hasten America's decline

Sorry, Mr. President-elect, but the science actually disputes your premises and you and your side are perpetrating a hoax on the American public by ignoring and covering up the facts.

Unthinking dogma | The Australian

Science must always be contested - even climate change

IF climate change is real -- and "if" is the operative word -- every aspect of the phenomenon needs to be picked over and analysed with the utmost rigour. It is too important for anything less. But in parts of the community, rigour and climate change have become mutually exclusive terms.

Distressingly large numbers of people have elevated climate change to something verging on a fundamentalist religion. True believers draw comfort from endlessly repeating the dogma to each other. Those who demand proof are shunned as heretics.

This approach might be fashionable, but it is dangerous. It is a reversion to a pre-enlightenment mindset that rejects the essence of the scientific method. And without the mental toughness of science, any public policy on climate change will have all the effectiveness of burnt offerings.

Science, with its questioning and testing, provides none of the comfort and certainty that comes from an article of faith. But there can be no rational response to this phenomenon without an understanding of the true nature of what the world is facing. That will only be possible if the community -- and those responsible for public policy -- are given all the facts, not just those "good" facts that support the received dogma.

In this regard, the media has a heavy responsibility to lay out all the facts -- even the "bad" facts -- and allow the debate to take its course. But in some parts of the media, this traditional approach to journalism has been displaced.

Obama Faces Tight Deadline On Climate Change : NPR

International climate negotiations get under way next week in Poznan, Poland. Hopes are high that the United States, under President-elect Barack Obama, will take on a leadership role in these ongoing talks once he is president.

The problems Obama will inherit are huge. Scientists say the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rapidly over the coming decades. That means shifting from cheap energy like coal to cleaner, but more expensive, alternatives. And nations around the world must act together.
...
Obama has some ideas in mind for domestic policy. For starters, he says he intends to invest heavily and quickly in jobs to build new clean energy sources such as wind and solar.

But the governments of Western Europe are pressing for far more — they want binding emissions-reduction targets and timetables for reaching those. To create those domestically, Obama will have to work with Congress to enact tough new legislation.

Global Warming Myth - Your Weekly Round-Up for November 28, 2008 | Skeptics Global Warming

Texas to EPA: don’t mess with us | Greenbang

Where some see going green as a new opportunity to create jobs and grow new industries, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sees a threat to his state’s way of doing business.

Citing the possible harm to his state’s economy, the Republican governor this week urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not to adopt new regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“The EPA is making plans to re-interpret the Federal Clean Air Act in ways that were never contemplated when this law was passed and will cripple the Texas economy,” Perry said. “The methods under consideration by the EPA will punish innovation, cost jobs and drive investment out of Texas and overseas.”
...
“Texas is the nation’s leading energy producer, supplying 20 percent of the nation’s oil production, one-third of the nation’s natural-gas production, a quarter of the nation’s refining capacity and nearly 60 percent of the nation’s chemical manufacturing,” he writes. “Simply put, Texas fuels the nation.”

"Kerry Remains a Fool"

With scientific evidence weighing in favor of the idea that global warming is man made, it is imperative for the global community to shift away from dependence on fossil fuels and to a green economy as a matter of survival, Kerry said.

“You can’t be half-pregnant on this issue,” he said. “You can’t accept the science and say ‘yes, global warming is man made and yes, climate change is happening faster than the scientists in fact thought it was going to,’ and then not accept the same scientific conclusions with respect to what that impact is and what we’re already witnessing.”

Kerry expressed concern over melting ice caps, rising ocean levels, weather pattern changes, forest migration, agricultural changes and potential draughts. [Via Heliogenic Climate Change]

For an evaluation of today's climate science, Politico turns to an ex(?) snowboarder with an MA in philosophy and a background in Seattle tech work

Letter to the editor on climate story - Russ Walker and David Roberts - Politico.com

... it is simply false to point to a "growing accumulation" of evidence rendering basic climate science "shaky." There is no such accumulation; there is no such science. If there were, perhaps the author would have cited some of it — it is telling that she did not.

Instead, she relies on the work of Joseph D'Aleo, a meteorologist (meteorology is the study of weather, not climate). D'Aleo's lack of qualifications in climate science would be less relevant if he had published his work on "global cooling" in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Instead, it appears in the Farmers Almanac.

Incidentally, D'Aleo's professional association, the American Meteorological Association, is one of dozens of leading national and international scientific groups to endorse the broad consensus on anthropogenic climate change. For some reason, the author did not reference or quote a single one of the hundreds if not thousands of scientists who might have vouchsafed that consensus (inexplicably, the one countervailing quote is given to Al Gore's spokeswoman). If she had spoken with mainstream climate scientists, she would have discovered that they are not "urging caution" on global warming — they are running around, to paraphrase ex-CIA chief George Tenet, with their hair on fire, increasingly radicalized by the ignorance and delay of the world's governments in the face of the crisis.

Gristmill: About David Roberts

After several wayward years spent snowboarding and getting an MA in philosophy (go griz), he woke up with nothing but a dissertation between him and an arid, cloistered life spent debating minutiae with the world's other 12 Dewey scholars. So he bailed. A period was spent trudging through the swamp of Seattle tech work, wading past Amazon.com, IMDb.com, and Microsoft, before the fine folks at Grist fell for his devastating good looks in December 2003.

Yeah, maybe. Give me $45 trillion and I'll work for a while on both issues

Experts bemoan loss of kids' play time | Gainesville.com

Among the speakers at last week's Wonderplay conference was Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a Temple University psychologist who contends that lack of play in early childhood education "could be the next global warming."

Without ample opportunity for forms of play that foster innovation and creative thinking, she argues, America's children will be at a disadvantage in the global economy.

More from the Hockey Team

RealClimate

Michael Mann and Gavin Schmidt

Much in the spirit of the Fraser Institute's damp squib we reported on last year, S. Fred Singer and his merry band of contrarian luminaries (financed by the notorious "Heartland Institute" we've commented on previously) served up a similarly dishonest 'assessment' of the science of climate change earlier this year in the form of what they call the NIPCC" report (the "N" presumably standing for 'not the' or 'nonsense'). This seems to be making the rounds again as Singer and Heartland are gearing up for a reprise of last year's critically…er…appraised "Conference on Climate Change" this March. Recently some have asked us for our opinion of the report and so we've decided we ought to finally go ahead and opine. Here goes.

The fact that the very title of the report summary ("Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate") itself poses–at best–a false dichotomy is not an auspicious start. The fact that the fonts and layout are identical to the real IPCC report is another indication that this isn't quite on the level (and reminiscent of the infamous fake PNAS paper that accompanied the first 'Oregon Petition').

Reading the table of contents, the report has eight chapters (in addition to an introduction and conclusions chapter). Five of these, quite remarkably, have titles which are simply untrue. The remaining three chapters pose loaded questions which are disingenuous and misleading, if not outright dishonest, with 'answers' provided by the authors. In fact this is such a massive regurgitation of standard contrarian talking points and discredited canards, it's obvious that reviewing this would be a herculean task (which is presumably the point - if you can't convince people with actual science, bludgeon them).

However, precisely because most of these points have been made before, there exists a large body of work pointing out the flaws already. So instead of regurgitating these counterpoints, we will simply link to an index of these rebuttals. As some of you may know, we have a set up a resource to do precisely this; the RealClimate Wiki.

With the emergence of the RealClimate Wiki, the story gets curiouser and curiouser. Allegedly great "real" climate scientists Schmidt and Mann allegedly don't have time to "point out the flaws" themselves, so who do they refer us to?

From the RealClimate Wiki:

For each article, the links to content are on the author page (or in the case of editorials, on the newspaper page). Links are provided to content on a number of sites, some of the most common are denoted by initials: RC = RealClimate, CB = Coby Beck's "How to talk to skeptic guide" at A Few Things Ill Considered, TL = Tim Lambert at Deltoid.

From Tim Lambert's Home Page:

What I Teach:

* Computer Graphics
* Advanced Graphics
* Engineering Design and Innovation
* Computational Geometry
* I use Java for teaching.

From Coby Beck's "About" page:

Coby is a software developer specializing in Artificial Intelligence applications. He has been blogging about climate change since January, 2006.
...
In addition to blogging and earning a living in software, Coby Beck is an avid photographer.

Interview: Yvo de Boer : article

Poznan is going to be a very important transition moment. In 2008, we had four meetings during which governments and international organizations came with a large number of proposals on what they feel should be elements of an agreed outcome in Copenhagen. Then at our last meeting in Accra, Ghana, in August, the chair of that process was asked to pool those ideas into a single compilation document. That's going to be on the table in Poznan. And that basically constitutes the first version of a negotiating document.

This is probably going to be a huge disappointment to many people, but the conference in Poznan is not going to be spectacular...

So they aren't going to leave all that coal in the ground?!

The Navajo Times Online - News

The time has come for Peabody Coal Co. to leave Navajo land and let other companies mine and market the coal reserves it has controlled for close to 50 years, a former tribal leader said Tuesday.

"The best thing that the Navajo Nation could do is to get rid of Peabody," said former Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr.

He made the comment when asked for his opinion on an environmental impact statement concerning Peabody's plans for Black Mesa, where it has over 65,000 acres under lease.

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining is in the process of finalizing the study, and is proposing to endorse the plan that Peabody wants.

Last week Hopi Tribal Chairman Ben Nuvamsa said the plan OSM is poised to approve would shut out the Hopis from decisions governing their share of Black Mesa coal reserves for years to come.

London congestion charge: Western extension scrapped - Telegraph

The decision to scrap the western extension of the zone into Kensington and Chelsea follows a public consultation which showed overwhelming public and business hostility to the scheme.

It comes months after Mr Johnson also scrapped another initiative by Ken Livingstone, which would have seen drivers of 4x4s and other "gas guzzlers" facing a daily £25 charge to come into the heart of London.

Poll: Global Warming Enthusiasm Wanes | Commuter Outrage

In other words, 80% of respondents prefer not to spend additional money to fight global warming. This includes taxes.

The global warming movement clearly has a lot of work to do. Maybe Al Gore should put out another movie.

Stunningly stupid stuff from Politico’s Jeanne Cummings

Letter to the editor on climate story - Russ Walker and David Roberts - Politico.com

Editor’s Response from Politico’s Jeanne Cummings:

Giving voice to the losing side of a national debate is often fraught with peril. It requires navigating a terrain littered with grudges, slights, insults and hard feelings.

To do that without becoming ensnared requires extraordinary care. In Politico’s case, we slipped.

The article in question was never intended to offer a sweeping examination of the scientific support for or against climate change.

It set out only to provide an update on the last hold-outs against global warming given the dramatic shifts — both electorally and in public opinion — against their position.

Politico found them still feisty and readying for a fight despite their diminishing odds.

That’s the part we got right.

Polling

The study — the American Climate Values Survey (ACVS), conducted by the consulting group EcoAmerica — also found that only 18 percent of survey respondents strongly believe that climate change is real, human-caused and harmful.

But if you're 10, how much global "warming" have you actually experienced?

Focus Earth: November 29, 2008: Growing Global : Planet Green

This week, Bob Woodruff and the Focus Earth team investigate what it is like to grow up with global warming. From the opinions of young students in Brooklyn to campaigns to fight global warming initiated and led by kids, to a United Nations project showcasing young artist's calls for a solution to the problem of climate change, Focus Earth looks at the youth response to one of the world's most pressing problems.

First, Bob Woodruff sits down with students from third, fourth, and fifth grade classes at a school in Brooklyn. They tell him their hopes and fears for a world in the grips of a climate crisis and offer their words for the world to hear. Then, they join the Focus Earth team on a tour of the new climate change exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

After hearing the opinions of one group of youth growing up in an age of global warming, Terry McCarthy reports on the efforts of kids across the United States to raise awareness of climate change. He visits a number of youth-led groups campaigning to fight global warming and discovers that there are a surprising number of young people involved. The motivation is easy to understand: their generation will suffer most from the effects of climate change.

Another reason that young folks buy into environmental scams: they haven't yet seen many of them come and go

[Stossel] I`ve covered this over the years. Killer bees were going to get us, SARS, anthrax, mad cow disease, saccharin, Nutrasweet, scares one after the other. Cell phones are going to give you brain cancer. Everyone was convinced about that. We just like to be scared. It`s why we go to horror movies and now we believe Al Gore and global warming.”

Geneva area still not overheating

This was a cold, cold week week- in fact so cold the doors on the new M2 Metro subway trains froze
for a while mid-week. Temperatures will remain around 0C at night and
not rise above 4-5C during the day in most of the region, for the next
five days, predicts MeteoSwiss.

Gloves and caps if you’re heading outside, please.

Hot Air Tour: Exposing the Ballooning costs of Global Warming Hysteria

Climate alarmists have bombarded citizens with apocalyptic scenarios and pressured them into environmental political correctness. It’s time to tell the other side of the story.

Americans for Prosperity is working hard to bring you the missing half of the global warming debate. What will the impacts of reactionary legislation be for you, your family and our economy?

Join us at an event near you to learn more about climate alarmism and the looming Big Government "solutions."

Western Governors: 'Obama, Act Quickly on Energy' | The Seferm Post

At first glance, the Utah Mining Association said, it is supportive of WGA's efforts to focus on a national energy plan that reduces greenhouse gases.

"But as you know, the devil is in the details in how you get there," said association president David Litvin. "In this country right now we have a big push for renewables and many people think we can just move off our traditional sources of energy supply, but over 50 percent of our electricity comes from coal. Renewables only count for 2 percent of electricity produced. You can't move from 2 percent to 50 percent overnight."
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Still, even here, Huntsman's ideas on global warming, the environment and establishing a regional cap-and-trade system are met with plenty of resistance from within his own party.

His former chief of staff, Jason Chaffetz, rallied delegates to their feet this spring at the state GOP convention on his way toward winning a congressional seat by saying: "Jon Huntsman, as much as I like you, you're wrong on global warming. It's a farce."

The state's Republican-controlled Legislature passed a bill prohibiting the governor from entering into agreements with other states after he had Utah join the Western Climate Initiative, which would establish a regional market to trade carbon emissions and is designed to keep costs down for those affected.

Huntsman vetoed the bill, but the reason lawmakers didn't override it is because Huntsman pledged to consult them about similar pacts in the future before committing the state to anything.

Many lawmakers don't believe global warming is caused by people, and they're unwilling to establish a cap-and-trade system because they fear it will hurt businesses and drive up costs for consumers.

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Real Climate Misunderstanding Of Climate Models

Real Climate is “surprised” that there are “maybe a half dozen” tunable parameters. They should have not been surprised but have looked in more depth to ascertain if their conclusion was correct (which they are not). Climate Science would be glad to post a guest weblog from Real Climate if they disagree with the Climate Science conclusions.

Alarmists Barry Brook and Jim Hansen on nuclear power

[Brook:] Hansen is willing to talk about nuclear energy. I am too - given chronic intermittency issues with large-scale renewables and the need for plenty of extra energy to fix huge looming problems with hanging together a sophisticated civilisation on a habitable planet, it’s got to be in the mix. Indeed, in the long run, it, in the form of fusion power, could well be the only form of energy that matters to humanity (if we manage to get through the post-industrial crunch, that is). There are plenty of tantilising prospects for safe, effective, long-term baseload power from 4th+ generation nuclear fission power. But for now, there is just nowhere near enough action ($ and willpower) on the R&D and roll out front.
...
[Hansen:] Wait a minute! If it’s that good, why aren’t we doing it? Well, according to Blees, it’s because, in 1994, just when we were ready to build a demonstration plant, the Clinton Administration cancelled the IFR program. Blees offers a partial explanation, noting that Clinton had used the phrase “You’re pro-nuclear!” to demonize rivals during his campaign, suggesting that Clinton had a debt to the anti-nuclear people. Hmm. The matter warrants further investigation and discussion. It’s not as if we didn’t know about global warming in 1994.

Even more curious is the assertion that Argonne scientists, distraught about the cancellation, were told they could not talk about it (why do I find this easy to believe?). Here too there is no explanation in depth, although Blees notes that the Secretary of Energy, Hazel O.Leary, was previously a lobbyist for fossil fuel companies (my gosh, is everybody in Washington an ex-lobbyist – alligators will go extinct!).

I have always been agnostic on nuclear power...

Villaraigosa unveils solar plan for Los Angeles - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city's energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry.

Appearing at a South Los Angeles manufacturing plant where solar panels are made, Villaraigosa said the initiative will help the Department of Water and Power wean itself off of fossil fuels -- natural gas and coal -- as part of the effort to address global warming.
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Shifting Los Angeles to cleaner fuels could buttress both Villaraigosa's run for reelection and any future run for governor. If he runs in 2010, Villaraigosa would likely face state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, an avid environmentalist.

"L.A. has everything it takes to make this [solar plan] work," said Villaraigosa, standing alongside environmentalists, union leaders and City Council members. "We have the sun in abundancy. We have the space. We have the largest municipal utility in the country."

Still, one DWP watchdog questioned the financial underpinnings of the plan

"There is one huge assumption here -- that they'll get these huge tax credits, volume discounts and economies of scale," said Jack Humphreville, a neighborhood council member who has been pressing the DWP to appoint a ratepayer advocate. "I have serious questions about whether that is pie-in-the-sky or not."

DWP General Manager and Chief Executive H. David Nahai said his agency will spend the next 90 days developing a financial analysis of the solar plan, including its effect on ratepayers.

Under the plan, the largest share of solar power, 500 megawatts, would come from generating facilities built by private-sector companies in the Mojave Desert.

An additional 380 megawatts would be achieved through smaller programs, including one that would help low-income residents add solar panels to their homes and another that would allow DWP customers to purchase shares of city-owned solar plants.

Voters will decide on another part of the mayor's solar plan on March 3, at the same time that Villaraigosa seeks a second and final four-year term. That ballot measure would allow the DWP to install and own 400 megawatts of rooftop solar panels by 2014. Villaraigosa and the council have been criticized in recent weeks over that proposal, which was conceived by an organization with strong ties to the union that represents DWP employees.

Business leaders contend that the ballot measure was written by and for DWP employee unions and would lock out companies that specialize in rooftop solar panels.

Gary Toebben, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said he is encouraged to see the mayor place a greater emphasis on private-sector solar initiatives. But he said there are unanswered questions about the solar ballot measure's effect on electrical rates.

"We still have a concern that the cost of the ballot initiative has not been laid out," he said.

Villaraigosa said the solar plan could lead to higher rates as soon as 2011. But City Council President Eric Garcetti noted that coal, one of the DWP's cheapest -- and most polluting -- energy sources, will also become more expensive as Congress moves to impose a carbon tax.

"Coal is not going to be the same price that it is today," he said.