Cold weather sends some skiers to the lodge

COPPER MOUNTAIN - Skiers and snowboarders who spent the day outside Saturday will likely need to warm up by the fire after an arctic cold put the whole state into a deep freeze.

Inside Jack's Bar at Copper Mountain, bartender Carol Jedd had a line of customers, all before noon, due to the weather outside.

"It's going to be a great day for us bartenders," said Jedd.

After nearly a month straight of snow in the mountains around Summit County, ski areas like Copper have seen a lot of snow. Copper Mountain spokesperson Lauren Pelletreau says they reached 100 inches by Dec. 20.

"We reported our 100th inch of snow on the season today," said Pelletreau.

It's great for skiing, but the weather has now brought bitter cold temperatures this weekend.

Around the resort, you can see steaming, heated sidewalks; normally completely clear, some now have ice built up on them.

You wish

Lomborg’s dangerously wrong public pronouncements on climate change are sadly still getting some pick up in the mainstream media but the sun is clearly setting on his celebrity status.

Yes but | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The Age grudgingly, finally reports on the sceptics among us, but even in blurbing the story cannot draw breath before damning these heretics...

Liberals now the party of Al Gore | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The “Opposition” has developed an interesting tactic in its bid to seem relevant - to attack Kevin Rudd as not job-wreckingly green enough. Here’s its climate change spokesman, Greg Hunt, savaging Rudd’s absurdly expensive emissions trading scheme...

Lib Radio Host: Record Snows and Cold Caused By Global Warming | NewsBusters.org

Maybe Thom will do us a favor and shoot us a link so that we can examine this fabulous theory in greater detail.

Stay tuned.

Lack of global warming hits Hollywood: Snow Cools Off Hot Holiday Box Office

SATURDAY AM: The weather outside is frightful -- snowstorms, followed by more cold and snow, in the Midwest and East -- on this weekend before Christmas. So very early numbers for the three big movies opening in wide release in some major markets Friday looked severely lower from Hollywood predictions. To give you an idea, here' are top DMA percentage changes from last Friday: New York -45%/wk, Philadelphia -18%/wk, Toronto -45%/wk, Detroit -32%/wk, Boston -81%/wk.

New Storms, Arctic Air on the Way

Another winter storm will cross the Midwest into the Northeast over the balance of the weekend, followed by a blast of arctic air. Meanwhile, a storm that will create blizzard conditions in the Northwest could cause trouble in the Midwest Tuesday and the East Christmas Eve day.

The Midwest and the East will barely have time to dig out from the snow and ice that blasted the regions on Friday before the next system moves through by Sunday.
...
While several feet of virgin powder snow is gold to backcountry enthusiasts, the NWAC warns, "This 'bottomless fluff' has resulted in some difficult travel conditions as well as a potential for 'Non-Avalanche Related Snow Immersion Death' (NARSID), in which a fall into the bottomless powder can be life threatening due to an inability to quickly get out of the snow and resulting snow inhalation and possible asphyxiation."

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: If Del Boy was around today, he'd be trading in carbon offsets | Mail Online

From the New York Times, December 12: Soviet scientists on board an icebreaker drifting just 300 miles from the North Pole have concluded that the world is getting hotter.

Warm-water fish are appearing in increasing numbers in Arctic seas as temperatures have risen, melting the ice caps.

The Russian explorers believe that very soon ships will be able to sail right across the Pole.

This news will be welcomed by ‘global warming’ campaigners - except that it first appeared on December 12, 1938, and has just been republished on a website run by a former TV meteorologist, who treats the whole ‘climate change’ racket with a healthy dose of sea salt.
...
A few short years later, by 1947, the ice caps were restored to their
former glory and Britain experienced one of the harshest winters on
record, lasting well into March.

Heliogenic Climate Change: Why the media only talks about the arctic

"There is just one problem with all this. The effect is exactly opposite of what has been predicted by global warming modelers. Antarctic ice is increasing and temperatures are cooling." "Polar albedo feedback"

As Seattle's eco-hero mayor asks for public solar panel funding, look what real people are buying with their own money

'Mega-storm' brewing: High winds, snow expected - Everett- msnbc.com

LOCAL NEWS - The storm that's expected to rock Western Washington beginning this afternoon has the potential to be life-threatening.

Blizzard conditions may develop at Stevens Pass. Near hurricane-force winds could gust off the Cascade Range, and as much as a half-foot of snow is predicted to fall in Everett.

"It has the potential to be a notable and historic storm for some areas," said Brad Colman, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
...
Camano Plaza True Value Hardware on Friday already had sold out of flashlights, generators, propane heaters, space heaters, de-icers, shovels and sleds, said shipping and receiving manger David Stach.

"Since last week when the storm warning hit that we were expecting ice and snow, we've been sold out of just about every kind of emergency supply," he said. "We're selling cold-weather gloves like they're going out of style. Anything that has to do with cold weather, we've been selling out faster than we can keep it on our shelves."

Related story here.

GE Gets the Climate Change Scam, Do You?

All businesses have a managerial and fiduciary obligation to assess their business strategy to determine whether such opportunities exist for them. As John Woody and I outline in our book from Harvard Business Press, Climate Change: What's Your Business Strategy?, you need to look closely at how your company will be affected by a market price for carbon in the present, near future, and long-term; and you need to decide how to position it to take full advantage of those developments.

Three Key Steps

It is important to understand three key steps in preparing for and capitalizing on the issue of climate change....

Played correctly, carbon markets are an opportunity at profit generation that offers great potential, as international compliance markets take hold and carbon becomes an international commodity.

Going forward, just how large could the worldwide carbon market get? Some estimates range from $100 billion to $3 trillion per year by 2010 after the United States enters international trading schemes.

"Fair and balanced" coverage from some idiot at the ars technica news desk

While their nominations have been praised by many in the scientific community, some groups are less pleased. According to the Washington Post, noted pseudoskeptic think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute (which received large amounts of ExxonMobil money in return for denying anthropogenic climate change) has already decried Holdren as an "extremist" and a "ranter."

The Cap and Trade Fraud

The buying, selling, and trading of carbon credits will not remove one molecule of CO2 from the atmosphere.
...
Global warming zealots are using the Hegelian Dialectic to push their environmental agenda to the detriment of the American people. People are being brainwashed into believing the planet is being threatened by global warming. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi even claims that she was elected to "save the planet." Al Gore, the self-appointed high priest of global warming, lectures everyone to reduce their energy consumption. But don't be fooled. Neither Peolsi nor Gore walks the walk. Both are multi-millionaires who live in energy-gobbling mansions.

These elitist Liberals want to re-create a serf/royalty society, with liberals representing the royalty class. You will know when this global warming hype is for real when Gore, Pelosi, and their ilk give up the amenities of the "rich and famous" and live in 1,600 sq. ft. houses, fly coach, and use mass transit. Until then, their hot air is the cause of global warming. Every aspect of your life will be adversely affected if our politicians are allowed to implement any of these fraudulent cap and trade schemes.

Give us the money

An insightful email from a British reader below:

After forty years of listening to greenie scare stories, (even believing some of them at one time) I think I am starting to see a pattern emerging. It seems to start as:

Plan A: The Scam

We have identified an ecological disaster and HUMANS ARE TO BLAME. But if you pay us lots of money and do exactly what we say, we may be able to fix it in time.

For some inexplicable reason, this does not convince everyone, so we need:

Plan B: The Precautionary Principle

Well, even if we're wrong, you still ought to pay us lots of money and do exactly what we say.

For some inexplicable reason, this also does not convince everyone, so we need:

Plan C: The Tipping Point

OK. So nothing is happening and there isn't any evidence, but there will be soon if you don't PAY US THE MONEY!

This method seems to be a limp-wristed version of that used by Ronnie and Reggie in the East End of London many years ago, and was known then as extortion, or, "demanding money with menaces." (but now it is called "environmentalism." I suppose at least we have a longer word.) Although the Kray's methods seem to have been:

a. less verbose

b. arguably more cost-effective, and

c. they had the balls to do their own dirty work.

The greenie extortionists, having failed at plan C, exhort the legal authorities to silence the dissenters. And if that doesn't work they incite young, idealistic and naive people into acquiring a criminal record on their behalf. Maybe we should just say "BOO" to the greenies for a change. Being polite only lets them get away with it.

Our new CO2-hysteric president weighs in

Transcript: President-elect Barack Obama's Radio Address - FOXNews.com Transition Tracker

Whether its the science to slow global warming; the technology to protect our troops and confront bioterror and weapons of mass destruction; the research to find life-saving cures; or the innovations to remake our industries and create twenty-first century jobs - today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. Its time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore Americas place as the world leader in science and technology.
...
Because the truth is that promoting science isnt just about providing resources - its about protecting free and open inquiry. Its about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. Its about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when its inconvenient - especially when its inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us. That will be my goal as President of the United States - and I could not have a better team to guide me in this work.

Dr. John Holdren has agreed to serve as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. John is a professor and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvards Kennedy School of Government, as well as President and Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. A physicist renowned for his work on climate and energy, hes received numerous honors and awards for his contributions and has been one of the most passionate and persistent voices of our time about the growing threat of climate change. I look forward to his wise counsel in the years ahead.

Again, Obama seems to be pulling out all the stops in an attempt to win 18% of the 2012 popular vote

...only 18 percent of survey respondents strongly believe that climate change is real, human-caused and harmful.

Because it's always so sunny in Seattle: On Nickels' wish list: solar panels atop Qwest Field hall

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels met with President-elect Barack Obama Thursday to promote a giant wish list of infrastructure projects in cities around the country. Among the thousands of requests was $7 million to put hundreds of solar panels on top of the exhibition hall adjacent to Qwest Field.

Two videos you have to see to believe--in the first, humans literally push the earth toward a fiery hellhole

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

Cap and Dividend

Cap and dividend is a simple, market-based way to reduce CO2 emissions without reducing household incomes. It caps fossil fuel supplies, makes polluters pay, and returns the revenue to everyone equally.
Five top reasons for Cap and Dividend

1. It gets the job done.
2. It’s simple.
3. It’s fair.
4. It’s progressive.
5. It’s market-based.

Regarding the first three points, I'd say that it doesn't get the job done, it's not simple, and it's not fair. The video above also fails to mention that the whole scheme is based on what may be the biggest scientific fraud of all time.

GraniteGrok: Meet the New Press radio... Braving the storms of our time

Our friend Chan of the WeekendPundit shares cohosting duties this week. Regular readers of his blog know that global warming-- and the question of whether it's caused by man or nature's cycles-- is a topic near and dear to his heart. Given that it's one of ours here at the 'Grok too, we thought, "Hey, let's talk some global warming stuff!" And thus, we will... We'll note that the debate is actually heating up (no pun intended) and that the skeptics (of the notion that man has been the cause) are starting to speak out. And in some quarters, global warming related regulations are actually being rolled back. Of course, this doesn't stop the crazies! And the recent weather, featuring record cold and early snows? Yep-- you guessed it-- caused by global warming!

Greenhouse: can the people show the way forward? | theage.com.au

Yet significant numbers of Australians — particularly people living outside the major cities, as we report today — remain unconvinced by the science of climate change. Still, farmers are also showing initiative in adapting to weather changes, whether they believe intellectually in global warming or not.

Rudd finds it's not easy (or practical) being green | theage.com.au

AT THE last election, Kevin Rudd declared climate change to be "the great moral challenge of our generation".
...
But on this, political necessity dictated he effectively raise the white flag — for now at least.

It's so much hot air | theage.com.au

SOME juxtapositions just demand to be noted. On the same day that Kevin Rudd announced a skimpy new carbon emissions reduction target of 5 per cent, US President-elect Barack Obama was introducing to the world the crack team that would launch his administration's climate change assault. "This will be a leading priority of my presidency and a defining test of our time," Obama declared before the press gallery. "America will not just lead at the negotiating table. We will lead as we always have, through innovation and discovery, through hard work and the pursuit of a common purpose."

Remind you of anyone? Forgive the excursion into ancient history, but to me this is strikingly reminiscent of a pre-election Kevin Rudd. Remember when climate change was "the great moral challenge of our time"? In those days Australia was sold the idea of being a world leader on the global warming issue, rather than a nation that waited for the rest of the world to drag us into environmental virtue. We would set the pace and be proud to do so. The Howard government's stubborn inaction shamed us. Its successor would bring absolution. If anything, this was one of those rare issues where Rudd's discourse was even more soaring than Obama's.
...
Viewed in this context, Rudd's retreat from the environmental front line, however disappointing, was inevitable. Obama's tune may be different, but it remains to be seen how well it plays when he is in power, especially if the international community is less than co-operative. Prepare for his story to follow a similar plot to that of our own once valiant climate warrior.

Poll Shows Montanans Want Natural Resource Development

As in prior surveys, the P-Base shows Montanans want to see more business growth, especially in high-wage businesses like the natural resource industries. For example, a record 75% of Montana voters want the state to encourage more timber, mining, oil & gas development while only 14% are opposed. 63% believe Montana’s environment is currently well protected with existing laws. Additionally, a strong 76% favor new development of coal-powered electrical generation to provide more long-term, low-cost energy for the state.

Omaha customers using electricity at record pace

The temperature outside may be going down, but the amount of electricity being used by customers of the Omaha Public Power District is going up. On Monday, December 15, the District set an unofficial record when electricity usage peaked at 1,664.4 megawatts between 6 and 7 p.m. That eclipses by a wide margin the old winter season mark of 1,573.2 megawatts set on April 30, 2007. The previous record was driven by unusually high air conditioning usage due to unseasonably warm weather in the District’s service territory.

Normally, electricity usage is lower during OPPD’s winter season, which runs from November through April. The summer season runs from May through October. The official record for the summer season is 2,271.9 megawatts, set on July 19, 2006.

Officials say the rising usage of electricity in winter shows the need for the new coal-fired power plant being built south of Nebraska City. During summer, OPPD can generate additional electricity using natural gas. In times of very cold temperatures, natural gas isn’t available to OPPD because it is needed to heat homes.

Edmonton News - Two minutes for trickery

Mark Brostrom, I know what you're doing. You can't fool me. Mark is the city's director of environmental policy and planning and he's trying to trick us. You can't fault Marko for his goal. He's trying to save the planet, but why the trickery?

Smack dab in the middle of the first big cold snap of the year, he's telling us that one or two minutes is plenty of time to warm up your vehicle. No, it's not. I know cause I've been driving in -30 C for 16 years.

I've been forced, on occasion, to drive my car-sicle without proper warm-up time and I've heard the groans, creaks and screams from under the hood as belts and fans and fluids heat up to a safe temperature.

I'm not a mechanic, but I know those noises can't be good for the safe operation of my ride. I'm guessing this two-minute warm-up time is the "ol' lowball".

You see, if Robby Redneck roasts his rig rocket for 27 minutes before heading up to Fort Mac, then this guy is hoping his two-minute warning won't result in an actual two-minute warm-up time, but maybe a reduction to about 10 minutes from 27. Follow?

Investor's Business Daily -- Hell Freezes Over

Climate Change: Sin City gets hit with almost 4 inches of snow as the white stuff even dusts Malibu, Calif. We don't know what computer model global warmongers are using. A slot machine with three ice cubes, perhaps?
...
The Associated Press claims that the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since Bill Clinton's second inaugural. But after it was discovered that NASA's James Hansen, Gore's chief scientific ally, had been fudging the numbers, the agency was forced to correct its data. The 10 warmest years turn out to be, in descending order: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938 and 1939.

If there's a trend there, we don't see it. So is global warming man-made and an imminent danger? As the snow falls in Vegas, don't bet on it.

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Team Obama: Change You Want, Change You Get

President-elect Barack Obama’s initial Cabinet choices mollifed conservatives and disappointed liberals because of their centrist credentials—not to say outright continuity with the Bush administration.

But all the change Sen. Obama promised on the campaign trail has been packed into his nominations for his energy and environment team, which marks a massive break with the current administration.
...
The latest nominations, coming on the heels of the previous picks, together spell an administration determined to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and push for alternative sources of energy, even as a source of job creation.

A different question altogether is whether Team Obama’s energy and climate posse will be enough to overcome all the hurdles facing a wholescale reinvention of the energy mix of a coal-dependent nation that’s now smack in the middle of a recession.

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Ho, Ho, Ho: Green Santa Has Some Seeing Red

The book’s author, Anne Margaret Lewis, told USA Today that inspiration struck after reading a magazine story on melting glaciers with her 6-year old son:

“He asked how we could help the polar bears, so we started going around the house every time we left a room and shut the lights off. Then we would say, ‘We just saved another polar bear,’ ” she says. “I was trying to convince him that you can make a difference, and it worked.”

6 minute video: On CNN, Lou Dobbs, Jay Lehr and meteorologist Chad Meyer all express climate realism

Roger Fuhr Defends Wind Turbines « Blowing Our Tax Dollars on Wind Farms

Sent to WCO website:
I am absolutely shocked to read so many comments here that are, quite frankly, totally irresponsible. Its hard to imagine how many people suffer from NIMBY in this province. Also difficult to believe that so many are in denial still regarding climate change. I have an idea, lets go with safe nuclear power, its not like we are leaving any problems with future generations like byproducts that we can’t dispose of. And, lets build more of these plants in the backyards of those people who would not like to have wind generators. We could give them the option of a coal fired generator in their backyard if they don’t like the nuclear one. Is this a fairer solution to you power wasters out there?? Sincerely, Councillor Roger Fuhr, Township of Perth South, Ontario.

Video: Another moronic PSA from Greenpeace; Greenpeace rescues Santa from a melted North Pole

The Low-Down: Greenpeace rescues Santa from certain doom after the North Pole melts.

The Money Shot: Sea-sick Santa barfing over the railing of the rescue ship? That ought to impress the kids. Please.

Left Turn Clyde « The Air Vent

What three things do these three people have in common?

1 - They all have extremist left wing global warming backgrounds.

2 - They all support hard CO2 caps.

3 - They all have been recently nominated to top positions in Obama’s administration.

American Thinker: Wind Energy will be an early test of Obama's White House Staff

President-elect Obama has said that he would promote "wind farms" as one way to create more jobs. This idea is consistent with popular wisdom about wind energy and, therefore, sounded good while Mr. Obama was in the Senate and during his presidential campaign.

The problem for Mr. Obama now is that this popular wisdom is wrong. Contrary to reports issued by various wind energy advocates, "wind farms" provide few energy, environmental, or economic benefits and create very few jobs - far fewer than could be achieved if the money were used for other investments. Also, wind energy has adverse impacts that advocates like to ignore.

Mr Obama, if you have the urge to bankrupt an industry, why not bankrupt Big Tobacco instead of Big Coal?

Dear Mr Obama

I was very surprised to learn recently that you had suggested bankrupting coal plants and that you wanted to declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant. Not only is carbon dioxide not a pollutant, but without it life on earth would cease to exit.

I found it rather ironic that you are a smoker, who spends money on purposefully inhaling carcinogenic substances and yet you want declare c02 a dangerous pollutant and bankrupt coal plants. Is it wise to bankrupt the coal industry when the USA is experiencing one of its coldest winters this century?

Did global cooling wipe out the cave bears?

(PhysOrg.com) -- Enormous cave bears, Ursus spelaeus, that once inhabited a large swathe of Europe, from Spain to the Urals, died out 27,800 years ago, around 13 millennia earlier than was previously believed, scientists have reported.

The new date coincides with a period of significant climate change, known as the Last Glacial Maximum, when a marked cooling in temperature resulted in the reduction or loss of vegetation forming the main component of the cave bears' diet.

Is a liberal think tank behind Obama's bizarre climate change "plan"?

On the heels of the announcement that Carol Browner will be the Obama administration's "climate czar" comes this question from Plenty: What exactly does a climate czar do?

First things first, don't call her a czar. "It's unlikely that Browner's business cards will actually read "Climate Czar," since Obama reportedly dislikes the title's autocratic resonances.

Still, the media won't let her abandon the title so easily, and conservatives are already trying to use the appointment to paint Obama as another high-handed, big-government Democrat." So think of her more as a high-powered "adviser to the President."

Her tasks: "Browner's precise job description isn't yet clear, but it's likely that she'll serve as a high-level White House adviser, coordinating the work of Cabinet officials and perhaps heading a National Energy Council modeled on Bill Clinton's National Economic Council. That, at least, is the plan put forward by the Center for American Progress, the liberal think-tank that's provided the intellectual muscle for Obama's transition effort (and whose head, John Podesta, is co-chair of Obama's transition team).

"You've got Energy, Interior, EPA, Agriculture, Transport, State, all are going to have something to do with energy and global warming," says Daniel J. Weiss, the group's director of climate strategy. "This would provide a person who could coordinate those activities."

Clearly, Obama is VASTLY overestimating public support for an expensive fight against carbon dioxide

...only 18 percent of survey respondents strongly believe that climate change is real, human-caused and harmful.

Peter Gorrie, former environment reporter, suggests that climate realists don't want a habitable planet

"Angela Merkel said jobs come first, then climate," said Peter Lindlahr, who heads the City of Hamburg's climate-change effort. "This is the wrong way."

Merkel's new stance helped to produce the uninspiring result at the United Nations climate-change conference in Poznan, Poland, that ended soon after Europe reached its disappointing deal.

It has led to nervous hope that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will grab the climate-change torch from Europe's failing hands. But, as I've written before, Obama's stated greenhouse-gas target is much weaker than Europe's and, especially in the financial crisis, he faces stiff opposition in Congress to any measure that would increase energy prices or cap American emissions.

It seems more and more likely that the torch will be left lying on the ground.

That will be good news for the Canadian government – whose performance at Poznan was rated on par with the always-obstructionist Saudi Arabia – but not for anyone who wants a habitable planet.

On our largest source of electricity, complete insanity from Obama's Energy Secretary pick

[Chu] Let me go to the supply side of the energy problem. Now, we have lots of fossil fuel. That's really both good and bad news. We won't run out of energy, but there's enough carbon in the ground to really cook us.

Coal is my worst nightmare.

Chilling thought

Norm Kalmanovitch contends CO2 has no negative impact on the environment and is therefore irrelevant as far as climate change is concerned. This, so eloquently, dashes T. M. Ashby's long-awaited dream for a global warming catastrophe to overwhelm us. But Ashby should not feel so defensive. Who would have thought that a natural cooling trend, as we are now experiencing, would be the culprit destroying all hope for a truly exciting and glorious environmental disaster to take place?

Lyle R. Sakatch, Calgary

Reuters cheerful about economic slowdown: Now China is growing slower, can it grow clean

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Dec 19 (Reuters) - China's dramatic economic slowdown is paying an environmental dividend, slashing emissions levels from the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter as its highest-carbon industries begin to contract.

UK Chamber of Shipping suggests that shipping prevents catastrophic global warming

The Chamber of Shipping, the representative body for UK-based commercial shipping, announced today that it is taking a lead position in the international shipping industry’s response to climate change by advocating a global and open emissions trading scheme.

“This is a bold and far-reaching decision that gives a lead to the rest of the shipping world,” said Martin Watson, President of the UK Chamber of Shipping. “The UK industry recognises that shipping, which carries 80 per cent of all world trade goods – and 90 per cent of the UK’s trade – must make a significant contribution to the battle to reduce mankind’s carbon emissions.

“The carbon cost of carrying a ton of freight by ship is 10 times less than by road – and 100 times less than by air. Shipping is by far the most carbon-friendly transport mode. However, because so much freight is carried by sea, shipping does produce nearly three per cent of total emissions. We need to take whatever action is needed to try to limit those emissions – but without accidentally causing freight to be shifted from ships to other, less carbon-friendly forms of transport. That would be catastrophic in terms of total emissions.”

Garnaut criticism shows Rudd is a 'climate change fraud'  (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The Opposition's environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, says Professor Garnaut's criticism shows how far Kevin Rudd has moved from his original stance on climate policy.

"Well prior to the election, Professor Garnaut was the great touchstone for Kevin Rudd," he said.

He says the Government should have downplayed expectations.

"Well Kevin Rudd set expectations unbelievably high, he did it on a craven basis, knowing that he would never achieve what he promised," he said.

"Its all about the impression of activity and Ross Garnaut has exposed him as a climate change fraud."

Bangkok Post | North, Northeast hit by cold weather

The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation revealed that 33 provinces have been affected by extreme cold weather conditions.

The department declared that 30 of these provinces need emergency assistance as villagers there have been affected by extreme cold weather conditions.

The 33 provinces are located in the northern and northeastern parts of Thailand.

Realist Congressman James Sensenbrenner podcast (11 min)

Congressman James Sensenbrenner joins me to talk about why he wants to talk to Obama about Global Warming (MP3)

CO2sceptics News Blog | Sun Still In Deep Slumber - 2008 Now Ranks #2 Since 1900 in # Sunspotless Days

With the number of sunspotless days reaching 16 so far this month, we have now exceeded 1912 as the 2nd quietest sun year since 1900. Only 1913 ranked higher with 311 days. With 12 more days this month as of this writing, we could reach as high as 266 days. Note that 2007 also ranked in the top 10.

Heliogenic Climate Change: Little Ice Age blamed on European conquest of the Americas

I kid you not...

Stanford University researchers have conducted a comprehensive analysis
of data detailing the amount of charcoal contained in soils and lake
sediments at the sites of both pre-Columbian population centers in the
Americas and in sparsely populated surrounding regions. They concluded
that reforestation of agricultural lands-abandoned as the population
collapsed-pulled so much carbon out of the atmosphere that it helped
trigger a period of global cooling, at its most intense from
approximately 1500 to 1750, known as the Little Ice Age.

Tree industry eyes alleged impact of climate change

Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, said the United States must look at alternative energy as an economic opportunity and a way to reduce global warming. He said people can doubt global warming but “is it worth the chance to be skeptical? Is it worth rolling the dice?”

Shuler said that he has seen climate change in his lifetime. When he was young, Western North Carolina used to get large snow events, but none have occurred in recent years.

“My son is seven, and he hasn’t seen adequate snowfall,” Shuler said.

Maybe he should take the kid to Las Vegas or Los Angeles.

Reply to RealClimate’s Attacks on the NIPCC Climate Report

Now consider Mann’s and Schmidt’s qualifications. Mann is the author of the “hockey stick” temperature graph that did so much to fuel global warming hysteria when it was featured in an IPCC report, but which a Congressionally appointed panel of experts found was not supported by scientific data. Gavin Schmidt is a climate modeler at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and in recent weeks has been frantically trying to explain why his organization falsely reported that October 2008 was the warmest October in recorded history. Many climate researchers believe Mann and Schmidt are deliberately falsifying temperature data to keep their global warming scare going a few more years.

With no apparent sense of irony or shame, these two discredited authors call one of the world’s leading scientists “dishonest.”

Mann and Schmidt pretend to be engaged in a scientific debate over global warming, but they are not. They have banned global warming “skeptics” from posting on their blog, resort to ad hominem attacks against anyone who dissents, and have repeatedly declined invitations to appear in public forums to debate their critics. They are what the history of their organization says they are: A PR shop for discredited global warming alarmism.

Schwarzenegger: Lawmakers must try again on budget

The governor's office had sought what he said was assistance for homeowners facing foreclosure, broad authority to relax environmental regulation on public work projects and more toll roads.
...
Paul Mason, deputy director of the Sierra Club in California, suggested that by demanding environmental exemptions, the governor was betraying his public image as a crusader against global warming.

A John Holdren Reader | SolveClimate.com

SELECTED INDIVIDUAL POWERPOINTS, VIDEO, AUDIO [Via Planet Gore]

Al Gore: "challenge awaiting us before we can pass new laws that truly solve the climate crisis". According to Gore the "challenge" is public support

My thoughts: This is a victory. An admission from The Goracle himself that a consensus of the public would be a good idea before we spend $45 trillion of the taxpayer's money to cool the earth a fraction of a degree.

Priceless 2.5 minutes of audio lunacy from alarmist Thom Hartmann: He actually blames global warming for current US snow and cold

Cold Weather Can Put A Cramp On The Power Grid - KNDO-TV- msnbc.com

GRANGER--While the cold is leading to a lot of fires, it is also leaving some people in the dark. The city of Granger was without power for five hours Wednesday.

A representative of Pacific Power said that their system is prepared for the extra load that freezing temperatures will bring.

The biggest reason for power outages is not overuse or trees falling on lines. It's careless driving.

"Our biggest cause of outages in the winter is vehicles hitting poles," Clark Satre, Pacific Power, said. "We design our system for weather like this and we expect it. "If we've done our job well, we don't have too many problems."

Wind Watch: Linking offshore wind farms to grid to cost £10bn – and public will pay

It will cost more than £10 billion to build the infrastructure needed to connect offshore wind farms around the UK to the electricity grid, a new report reveals.
...
Danielle Lane, development manager at the Crown Estate, said the cost was still a “relatively small” amount compared to the overall cost estimated of bringing on stream 25 gigawatts of wind power, which has been calculated at £80 billion.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate added: “It is a lot of money. It’s a big challenge to deliver the government’s target for renewable energy generation.

“The infrastructure needs to be put in place if we are to deliver government targets, and obviously we are committed to working with them to deliver those targets.”

Could the current cold kill the Pine Beetle

Pine beetle experts say the latest cold snap will help -- but they doubt it will be enough to wipe out the pest that has already chewed through hundreds of thousands of hectares of B-C wood.
Forestry consultant Tom Lacey says cold weather, especially early in the winter, is one of the most effective ways of wiping out the voracious bug.
However, he says the current deep freeze may be too little, too late to have a major impact.
Mr. Lacey says he would be disappointed if Mother Nature let humans beat the beetle so easily.

Weekend blizzard expected to batter upper Midwest - USATODAY.com

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Wind chill readings could plummet to 50 below zero in North Dakota, and a blizzard warning has been issued for parts of northeast South Dakota and western Minnesota as another round of snow and fierce winds is expected to create whiteout conditions in the upper Midwest this weekend.
...
Sioux City, Iowa, was hit hardest, with 10.3 inches of snow. Already, this month is the second-snowiest December on record for Sioux City, according to reports from the weather service in Sioux Falls.

As of today, Sioux City has seen 21 inches of snow. The city's record snowfall for December is 26.4 inches, set in 1897.

On Twitter right now, three of the top ten trending topics contain the string "snow": #snowmageddon OR snow OR #snow1219 - Twitter Search

I Showed You Mine . . . - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Given that this gentleman is now on tap to be the chief science advisor to the president — despite an hysterical track record of projecting that millions would already be dying, now, from global warming — isn’t this a very good time to finally ask for something, anything to support the ritual claim that he parrots that the vast or even overwhelming majority of scientists adhere to climate catastrophism?

ABC News: Antarctica: A Call to Action

Few people have actually witnessed, first-hand, the effects of climate change on Antarctica. But Sebastian Copeland, an award-winning photographer and environmental activist, has made it a personal mission to document this fragile and quickly changing part of the world.

ABC News: Antarctica: A Call to Action

Antarctica has warmed by 4.5 degrees since 1945

World Climate Report » Antarctica Ain’t Cooperating!

That is correct – despite all you have heard elsewhere on the subject, the South Pole has been cooling over the past half century.

Mind-numbing stupidity on parade

Alleged Methane time bomb ticking louder

At a press conference Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, a Russian scientist who has spent the last 15 years tracking the release of methane from Siberia was asked if a huge surge he and his team detected this summer constituted "a global emergency."

Igor Semiletov did not say no, but did not challenge the premise of the question.
...
...Semiletov thinks that if just 1 percent of the ESAS methane is released, it will push total atmospheric methane up to 6 parts per million, and he cites researchers such as David Archer in arguing that this would push us past the point of no return toward runaway global warming.

Leading climatologist James Hansen also gave a talk at the conference, to his usual throng of thousands, about the threat of runaway global warming and the need to phase out coal plants. He happened to mention that the global atmospheric record showed a slight fall-off in methane for 2008, so I asked him if he was less concerned about this particular threat to a stable climate. Hansen said that on the contrary, the paleontological record probably isn't a good guide to global methane release, because "even though evidence of releases might look like spikes on a plot, they still happened over thousands of years. Human forcings are happening so fast they don't allow for negative feedbacks."

Flawed Science Advice for Obama? - TierneyLab Blog - NYTimes.com

Does being spectacularly wrong about a major issue in your field of expertise hurt your chances of becoming the presidential science advisor? Apparently not, judging by reports from DotEarth and ScienceInsider that Barack Obama will name John P. Holdren as his science advisor on Saturday.
...
Dr. Holdren’s resistance to dissenting views was also on display earlier this year in an article asserting that climate skeptics are “dangerous.” (You can read about the response to that article at DotEarth.)

Dr. Holdren is certainly entitled to his views, but what concerns me is his tendency to conflate the science of climate change with prescriptions to cut greenhouse emissions. Even if most climate scientists agree on the anthropogenic causes of global warming, that doesn’t imply that the best way to deal with the problem is through drastic cuts in greenhouse emissions. There are other ways to cope, and there’s no “scientific consensus” on which path looks best.

Roger A. Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado and the author of “The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics,” discussed Dr. Holdren’s conflation of science and politics in a post on the Prometheus blog:

The notion that science tells us what to do leads Holdren to appeal to authority to suggest that not only are his scientific views correct, but because his scientific views are correct, then so too are his political views.

Pictures of the year: funnies - Telegraph

A researcher adjusts a plastic tank on the back of a cow, in attempt to capture its gases for global warming research, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, July 4, 2008

Journalists complain about all those stupid, emotional, Rush-Limbaugh-listening "deniers"

In an e-mail interview with The Yale Forum, Beeman, a former president of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), allowed that the reactions usually aren’t very pretty.

“Whenever I cover the climate change issue, the reader comments attached to my Web story tend to be mostly from people who do not believe climate change is happening,” he wrote. “I have yet to see any cite a peer-reviewed, objective scientific study to support the contrarian view.” (Also see Yale Forum article, Plain Dealer Reporter Michael Scott Explores Cleveland’s Broadcast Met Attitudes, for another example of a story’s generating extensive and highly vocal reader response.

Among beat reporters, hard-hitting denial from often anonymous readers is a common point of frustration that’s vented the way waiters might complain about bad-tipping tourists. It’s an emotional dimension that doesn’t always factor its way - with some exceptions - into those specialty climate change blogs and sites that attract mostly science junkies and enviro insiders.

The denial rhetoric continues even as belief in man-made climate change is [allegedly] growing over time in the U.S.
...
National Public Radio’s science reporter Richard Harris says his audience might tend to deliver “more sophisticated responses” than perhaps consumers of other general distribution media do. (Comments are attached to his stories at npr.org.) He sometimes hears from the environmental crowd that he’s “not being panicky enough.”

But Harris too still sees his share of sharp denial and criticism. “There are some people who have read a Michael Crichton novel or listened to Rush Limbaugh or gotten it into their head that there’s some type of conspiracy,” he said in a phone interview with The Yale Forum.

Harris said climate “skeptics” reacting to his on-air reporting often portray uncertainty as going only one way: that scientific doubt about the pace of climate change inevitably means it’s not going to happen, as opposed to its also leaving open the prospect that things may get worse than currently projected.

“I haven’t pointed out people’s logical fallacies,” he said, “… though I’m sorely tempted to do that.”

The pattern of response to climate change stories generally is hard to quantify. And it’s tough to know exactly how much of the hard-core denial in the Web traffic is the same old set of people, perhaps making sport of hectoring the resident environmental journalist and keeping him or her “honest,” as it were.

North Dakota Ethanol Producers are at Risk as Fund Dries Up : Gas 2.0

North Dakota’s fund for helping ethanol producers hedge against fluctuating corn prices is about to run out, and the producers are getting worried.

Prometheus » Blog Archive » Can Hurricane Activity Be Predicted Out to Five Years With Skill?

The answer to the question posed in the subtitle is, unfortunately, no.

MWC News - A Site Without Borders - - New Alleged Arctic Meltdown Rates Cut Little Ice with Governments

First, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, the counterintuitive nature of global warming and consequent denial relegate dangerous climate change, in the eyes of most, to the realm of science fiction.

It is counterintutive, yet proven, that a rise of atmospheric CO2 by about 100 ppm raises mean global temeprature by at least 1 degrees Celsius, plus another 1 to 2 degrees C due to carbon cycle and ice melt feedbacks, pushing the atmosphere to conditions of 3 million years ago (mid-Pliocene) when sea levels rose by 25 metres. It is equally counterintutive, yet demonstrated, that a rise of atmospheric CO2 by several hundred ppm has resulted in a mass extinction about 55 million years ago.
...
Dr. Andrew Glikson
Earth and paleoclimate scientist
Australian National University

Isis Goddess & Earth: Global Warming and Los Angeles

In all that Al Gore has stated in regards to Global Warming, I have to say that he is wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong. It is snowing in a place that has never gotten snow, Los Angeles. If the world is getting warmer then it should not be snowing at all.

So what's the correct setting?

Scientist proposes 'colossal refrigeration system' to stave of global-warming - International Business Times -

A little known Maryland scientist has made public a patent to solve one of man's most enduring and daunting problems: global warming.

Ron Ace, a 69-year-old, has been researching the earth's climate for years and has found what he calls the most "practical, nontoxic, affordable, rapidly achievable" and beneficial way to curb global warming and a resulting catastrophic ocean rise.

Ace proposes to spray gigatons of sea-water into the air and in effect, build a "a colossal refrigeration system with a 100,000-fold performance multiplier." He contends a number of positive effects would be in action at the same time to help stave off warming.

"The Earth has a giant air-conditioning problem," he said. "I'm proposing to put a thermostat on the planet."

Arctic melt 20 years ahead of climate models - environment - 19 December 2008 - New Scientist

Though scientists tend to agree that summer ice at the North Pole will eventually disappear, they haven't settled on a date. And one group now claims to have evidence that Santa may have to start swimming much sooner than we thought.
...
As the summer melting season finished up this year, they waited with bated breath to see how much, if any, ice would survive.

4.67 million square kilometres remained at the end of September.
"The Arctic is the heat sink of the Northern hemisphere; the circulation patterns of the oceans could change dramatically," says Serreze.
...
What's more, the effects from this rush of heat seem to already be bleeding out into neighbouring Alaska and Siberia.

12/19/08: More snow, cold head for Aspen | AspenTimes.com

ASPEN — The snow in Aspen just keeps on coming, but it may be too cold to enjoy it by Saturday.

A winter storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on local ski slopes over the past two days has moved out, but another system is headed for Aspen Friday night. So are plummeting temperatures and a brutal wind chill.

12/16/08: Study: Climate change may force skiers uphill - International Herald Tribune

DENVER: A study of two Rocky Mountain ski resorts says climate change will mean shorter seasons and less snow on lower slopes.

The study by two Colorado researchers says Aspen Mountain in Colorado and Park City in Utah will see dramatic changes even with a reduction in carbon emissions, which fuel climate change.

American Thinker Blog: Obama's choices for science advisors - global warming advocates

Both believe in catastrophic climate change scenarios - despite growing evidence to the contrary. Will they act like scientists and keep an open mind on climate change data? The appointment of Holder is not encouraging in that regard. Lubchenco, on the other hand, may surprise us.

But clearly, the Obama Administration will want to implement some kind of green house gas reduction scheme - even in the middle of a deep recession - in the first half of their term in office.

Local News | Strong winds, more snow on the way | Seattle Times Newspaper

Puget Sound residents coping with slick streets and freezing temperatures now need to brace for another blast from Mother Nature: a fierce windstorm barreling toward Western Washington that could produce gusts in the Cascade foothills up to 90 mph.
...
"People need to figure out, 'How will I heat my home safely if the power is out for a few days?' " said Andy Haner of the Weather Service.

Haner stressed that people need to avoid using barbecues and generators indoors, which have produced fatal cases of carbon-monoxide poisoning in recent years.

Everybody knows that the proper location for a barbeque is OUTDOORS (preferably within about eight feet of the nearest USHCN temperature sensor)

Like tornados and trailer parks, USHCN temperature sensors and barbecues seem to have mutual attraction.

Metro shuts down 100 bus lines | Seattle

King County Metro shut down more than 100 bus lines Thursday night — cutting its service in half and stranding commuters — after deciding some icy roads were just too dangerous for its fleet. Service is likely to be hindered again today.
...
Thursday night passenger David Enroth e-mailed The Times to vent about the Metro cancellations.

"Who in the hell is responsible for this decision? How does METRO expect people like me to get home without freezing to death?" he wrote. "I live in Madison Park and the only bus service is Route #11. I'm at the Seattle Center. How am I supposed to get home?"

When reached by phone an hour later, he was still at Seattle Center, seething and without a way home.

Shouldn't David just be happy that he's been temporarily spared the inevitable CO2-driven combination of malaria, kidney stones, heat stroke, and dengue fever?

Long Beach facing near-record lows tonight - ContraCostaTimes.com

LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Southland braced for more chilly weather as forecasters predicted a near-record low for Friday night into Saturday morning.

AccWeather reported that tonight will be partly cloudy and cool with the temperature approaching the record low of 35 set in 1978. The Long Beach high Thursday was 57 with an overnight low of 41.
...
The storm dumped 54 inches of snow on the Big Bear ski resort region in the San Bernardino Mountains, just three inches below a record snowfall set in 1979, said James Oh, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Diego. The mercury dipped to 30 degrees on Thursday, the lowest December temperature recorded in Big Bear since record-keeping began in 1960, Oh said.

Schools were closed Thursday, many of them for the fourth straight day, in several high desert and mountain districts.

WHO Expects a Tropical Tropospheric Hot Spot From ANY and ALL Sources of Warming? | The Blackboard

It turns out that back in Dec. 2007, “The Group” at Real Climate informed readers that the hot spot was expected for any source of warming. The tone of the RC blog post would suggest that this information is widely accepted and agreed on by everyone. They appear to support their contention using a single GISS model run using an increase in solar forcing not experienced by the actual earth.

A Plug-In Hybrid Goes on Sale, in China - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com

The questionable quality of Chinese cars has been the butt of many jokes, but it looks as though BYD Auto of Shenzhen, China, might be having the last laugh.

Where the Ideologues Roam - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

One thing struck me about today’s rollout of President-Elect Obama’s “science” team, which as noted below is chock-full of global warming alarmists hailed as leading scholars but who, upon scrutiny, turn out to have gained their highest credential — membership in the National Academy of Sciences — through a “temporary” (if still ongoing) back door for environmentalist activists, seemingly acknowledging that this was their sole pathway available to them.

I notice the strange distinction that it is solely on the issue of “global warming” that the rigidly dogmatic ideologues have found succor so far in the administration...

The Mick Jagger of Climate Change - The Plank

What I know about environmental issues could be safely deposited in a thimble. I am a veteran of those hoary times before Earth Day. Several years ago, however, I was lured by a fancy dinner into hearing John Holdren from Harvard’s Kennedy School, whom Barack Obama has appointed as his science advisor, speak on climate change at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington. I have to say it was the equivalent of hearing Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones in their prime. By the end of Holdren’s speech, I was ready to join the world environmentalist crusade. I didn’t do that, but I did write an article on hurricanes and NOAA that got the principals there very angry. I can’t assess Holdren’s scientific credentials, but Barack Obama couldn’t have been better in picking an advocate for combatting global warming. Holdren’s appointment is a good indication he is going to pursue the issue in spite of the world recession.

Govt. minister asks Italians to forgo pineapple

MILAN, Italy (AP) -- Italy's agriculture minister is urging Italians to keep imported pineapples off their holiday tables -- but says drinking espresso is still OK.

Edible Christmas Cards Cuts Down on After-Holiday Waste : TreeHugger

A British eco-design company has developed a Christmas card made from potato starch. They figured that in order to reduce the environmental impact of holiday cards, you might as well send cards that can be eaten.

Sugar-coating the carbon | The Australian

The CPRS is meant to place a price on carbon to encourage the nation to switch to cleaner energy sources and production in the long run. Compensation doesn't dull the price signal in an economic sense because energy suppliers will still see prices change from day one. But compensation does send the wrong message politically. It makes households believe the job of reducing greenhouse gases has nothing to do with them changing their own behaviour. Even the most grasping swinging voter will see the rhetoric doesn't match the refund.
...
Rudd's CPRS contains an equivalent double count. He is selling lower emissions from carbon trading and larger family payments from money raised from carbon-emitting permits for industry. So generous is the compensation package that it returns more than the forecast price rises from carbon trading to all families earning up to $120,000 a year with children, depending on the number ofchildren.

Yet this is meant to be the greatest challenge facing this generation. As the Prime Minister said on Monday: "Climate change is nothing less than a threat to our people, our nation and our planet."

So why all the compensation?
...
f Rudd can get his CPRS through the Senate without resorting to more
bribes, he will have defied political precedent. If he can win the
election that will come after voters have tasted the real thing - the
one due in 2013 - he will have made history.

Temperature drop brings frost to Benguet - Philippines

In Kibungan, Mayor Benito Siadto said he hoped the frost that occurred in the last two days would not worsen.

He said newly planted carrots and potatoes are vulnerable to frost.

Teliaken said around 40 percent of newly planted crops were in danger of being wiped out should the frost continue.

“Farmers are groaning but what can we do? It’s a natural calamity,” Teliaken said in a text message.

NASA Alarmists Attempt to Link Severe Storm Increases, Global Warming

PASADENA, Calif. -- The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Gore's scam nets $106.5 million for 10 states -- Newsday.com

ALBANY, N.Y. - The nation's second auction of carbon dioxide emissions allowances yielded $106.5 million for the 10 northeastern states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
...
RGGI reported Friday that all 31.5 million allowances, each representing a ton of carbon, were sold in the Dec. 17 auction for a clearing price of $3.38 per allowance.

Middle class still not sold on climate change | The Australian

"I CAN'T for the life of me see why we should be paying for something that won't make a jot of difference.

"India, China, Brazil, Indonesia. They won't contribute. So we go first. I just can't see why."
...
"I don't quite understand how it's all supposed to work, this reduction target and the trading system. I am worried it will put a cost on things that will flow right through my business -- power, materials," he says. A day speaking to Verey and others in the shops, streets and malls of Deakin reveals a great deal about Kevin Rudd's chances of selling his climate change policy beyond the younger cohort and into middle Australia.

Warm-up act in climate war | The Australian

According to the Climate Institute, a 5 per cent national target means the non-shielded parts of the economy have to reduce their emissions by 18 per cent. If the Government tried for a 15 per cent national cut, the rest of the economy would have to reduce its emissions by a whopping 29 per cent.
...
It's said a camel is a horse designed by committee, which makes you wonder what kind of bizarre ETS creature could emerge from the upper house.

Chicago: "Violent snowstorm" cripples traffic in global warming messiah's hometown

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Cars were spinning out and traffic conditions were already bumper-to-bumper as early as 4 a.m., as a violent snowstorm clobbers the Chicago area and leaves the roads engulfed in snow and ice.

The state is issuing a stern warning to motorists: Stay off the roads unless travel is absolutely necessary.

CNN falls to the sceptics | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Scepticism is going mainstream when even CNN has a weatherman prepared to attack man-made global warming as a con - and when CNN gives him air time to do it...

Hit & Run > John Holdren to be Obama's Science Advisor - Reason Magazine

While Holdren makes rhetorical gestures toward the private sector, he still seems to think that new technologies arise full-blown from government agencies and university laboratories.
In any case, Obama is clearly signaling with the appointment of a Green Team, including Holdren as science advisor, Carol Browner as "energy/climate czar," Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, and Lisa Jackson as EPA administrator, that he means to make a big federal push on alternative fuels and carbon rationing.

Plan to clean up power plants could create pollution - The Boston Globe

A regional effort by 10 states, including Massachusetts, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from area power plants could actually add to the pollution problem elsewhere, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Cambridge nonprofit.

Climate Research News » Malaria and Global Warming

Present global temperatures are in a warming phase that began 200 to 300 years ago. Some climate models suggest that human activities may have exacerbated this phase by raising the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Discussions of the potential effects of the weather include predictions that malaria will emerge from the tropics and become established in Europe and North America. The complex ecology and transmission dynamics of the disease, as well as accounts of its early history, refute such predictions. Until the second half of the 20th century, malaria was endemic and widespread in many temperate regions, with major epidemics as far north as the Arctic Circle. From 1564 to the 1730s the coldest period of the Little Ice Age malaria was an important cause of illness and death in several parts of England. Transmission began to decline only in the 19th century, when the present warming trend was well under way. The history of the disease in England underscores the role of factors other than temperature in malaria transmission.

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Current Climate Impact of Heating From Energy Usage By A.T.J. de Laat 2008

This paper presents evidence of another important human climate forcing that has not been adequately investigated and reported on in climate assessments.

Latest U.P.S. Fuel-Saving Strategies: Leg Muscles and Hydraulics - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Of course, each U.P.S. bike delivery system (typically a $350 mountain bike pulling a custom trailer) can haul only 15 to 20 packages per trip — a mere fraction of what a truck can deliver. Nonetheless, the company estimates that for every three bikes deployed during peak season on the West coast, it will save around 17 gallons of fuel per day and about $38,000 dollars in vehicle maintenance costs.

Has some friend of Rod Blagojevich been hired to do vehicle maintenance for U.P.S.?

Marketplace: EPA ruling stalled by ethanol debate

Questions about the impact ethanol has on the environment are keeping the EPA from making a ruling about how much biofuel the U.S. should produce. Sarah Gardner reports.

Blogging is Great! « The Air Vent

Let’s look at some of the bigger events which have happened to the Id.

- Discovery that biofuels, wind power and solar are not technologically ready to replace existing energy sources.

- Uncovering multiple flaws in Mann08. A huge adventure for sure, after all this guy created Albert Gore’s hockey stick graph.

- I found that Mann 08 infilled data, pasting on a hockey stick on the end of 90% of the proxies.

American Thinker: Climate Crisis = Logic Crisis

Proponents of global warming finally have an irrefutable, because incoherent, theory guaranteed to win any debate. This hypothesis cannot be refuted. If the "weather" cools it proves that the "climate" is getting warmer. If the weather gets warmer then the climate gets warmer. As the barker shouts out at the carnival,
"Winner! Winner! Winner!"

This latest hypothesis is a violation of the most basic of the laws of logic: the principle of non-contradiction. Something cannot be both A and not A. The weather cannot get colder while the climate gets hotter anymore than the earth can be flat while the world is round. This is not science, or logic; this is unabashed nonsense.

Yes. Climate science has come to this: We are now being told, in effect, to ignore the data and believe the hypothesis. I have recently written that global warming is not a science -- it is a religion. I take it back. Global warming, aka climate crisis, is now a crisis of logic. In other words, it is insanity.

Scaring people

Apocalyptic operates today in an insane self-reinforcing cycle. Someone- usually some authority figure such as a scientist or environmental NGO spokesperson- starts a scare with some comment that expresses more junk science than rationality. These comments may be in reference to some setback or unnatural event often taken out of its long-term context. The media then pick up on these comments, liberally spicing reporting with extremist and fear-engendering language to upgrade the sense of panic and looming disaster in order to capture public attention. Note the repeated use of words in headlines such as crisis, peril, threat, catastrophe, cataclysm, meltdown, alarming, and so on (media sociologist David Altheide refers to this use of alarmist language in Creating Fear). Polling organizations then take the public pulse and report back statistical levels of public fear and worry.

Breitbart.tv » Santa Goes Green: School Christmas Play Fans Global Warming Hysteria

Lone Star Times: The children’s chorus sang Christmas wishes to the audience as Santa and Mrs. Claus appeared on stage. The show went downhill from there. Mrs. Claus informed Santa how terribly wasteful many traditions are, including how even Rudolf changed his nose to an LED light, all the while forgetting that the original was lit by an inner light of love that did not use power at all.

A couple of days ago, the video had maybe three hundred views. Now, it's got over 18,000.

Some related comments are here.

West digs out from record snow that's heading east - Nation | DailyAdvance.com

SPOKANE, Wash. — Road crews worked around the clock to remove two feet of snow from Spokane, Wash., streets early Friday as the winter storm that set records in the West moved through the Great Lakes region and bore down on the Northeast.

The storm left thick ice in central Illinois, where up to 14 inches of the snow was expected by morning. Heavy snow started falling before daybreak in Michigan and was forecast to start in the Northeast by midmorning, with up to a foot expected by the evening commute.
...
Records were similarly smashed in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, with 25 inches of snow. The past record was 16 inches in 1955.

"It has eclipsed any previous records by a significant amount," said John Livingston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in eastern Washington.
...
Hundreds of schools and school districts from Michigan to New Jersey, New York and New England called off classes.
...
In the mountains of Southern California, thousands of motorists began moving Thursday after being stranded overnight as snow and ice made several major arteries impassible. A segment of Interstate 5, the main link between Los Angeles and the Central Valley and Northern California, was closed for nearly 24 hours by treacherous conditions in Tejon Pass. Two portions of Interstate 15 were also closed including a 50-mile stretch in the Mojave Desert that is on the main route between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Podcast Reviews: Lord Lawson and The Alarmists - global warming review

I thought there was consensus. At the UChannel Podcast we have had many speakers who build on the assumption there is consensus about global warming and rush to tell us what dramatic policy changes we need to take up. We have had Lord Stern and more recently Thomas Friedman and many others. I can recall only one who took a contrary view in account and this was on waste management. There the word religion was applied. And Lord Lawson, in a recent UChannel Podcast speaks of the likes of Stern and Friedman as alarmists and warns of the alleged consensus also in a way of a intolerant religion.

Lord Lawson propagates a cool look at global warming and in short argues that the warming may not be half as bad as the alarmists claim it to be. He also claims that the time span in which the warming will take place gives ample window for man's adaptation so in his view, global warming, if at all happening, is not a problem. Consequently, the economics of the 'alarmists' are completely wrong in his view. Not only won't they be applicable, or if applied won't work, but also the divert the attention from much worse and pressing problems.

More from fool/fraud Andrew Dessler

Climate uncertainty is a reason to take action and Fred Singer makes big bucks
...
Over on Rabett Run, Eli looks into Fred Singer's finances. Turns out you get paid pretty well to be famous skeptic. I should note here that I don't believe skeptics are doing it for the money. I am quite convinced that they would be saying exactly the same thing even if they were not getting paid for it. The huge amounts of money they get paid (according to Eli, Fred got $143,000 for his work on the NIPCC) is just a nice bonus. Hey Fred, can I get a job with SEPP?

Alarmists, Anonymous - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

An issue I explore in Red Hot Lies is how, although alarmists assail skeptics who prefer anonymity (to avoid being the latest victim of a demonstrated pattern of retribution for speaking out), several of the nastiest alarmists themselves hide behind pseudonyms and pen names.

Along that line, one scientist wondered to me rhetorically, “Why is Joshua Halpern, a chemist at Howard University with connections to NASA hiding behind the [blogger] name ‘Eli Rabett’? Skeptics being attacked had the courage to speak out independently and publicly, yet criticisms of these people are mostly from people that hide their identity.” To the extent that “Rabett” is substantively memorable for anything it is for a miserably failed effort to discredit Nir Shaviv over the Svensmark cloud experiment, “getting his scientific butt well and truly kicked” in the words of one scientist. But substantive commentary is not the distinguishing characteristic of “Rabett’s” public utterances; instead, he likes to call names as much as hide his own.

The decision by “Eli Rabett” to engage in personal attacks does not come in a vacuum; he may simply not want people to know of his financial ties to NASA/GISS. That, after all, might cloud their judgment about his ceaseless cheerleading for GISS’s results (which stand out for their deviation from the three other major temperature measuring programs). NASA has a joint fellowship program alternating years with Howard University (even years) and the University of Maryland (odd years). The funding is generated by the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program, NASA’s point man at Howard is Joshua Halpern. In other words, this is significant funding for the graduate program in meteorology at Howard U. is provided by NASA through Halpern, the financial link between GISS and “Eli Rabbet’s” rabid support of the Hansen crowd, another page lists Halpern as a staff member.

It seems likely that “Rabett’s” fear driving him to anonymity is that his alarmism will be frowned upon by those actually guarding the taxpayers’ interests...

New Zealand: Gas and coal-fired electricity ban repealed

The new Government has scrapped another Labour climate change measure – passing legislation today that repeals restrictions on the building of new coal and gas-fired power plants.

The so-called consensus on global warming is melting

If scientific trends and scientists are increasingly contradicting what environmental interest groups have been telling us about climate change, it's quite reasonable to expect any consensus on what we should do could be very different three years from now. It would be a shame to take steps now that will later be considered a foolish waste of time and money.

Murdock: Global cooling is here | ScrippsNews

This "lull" should doom the 0.54 degree Fahrenheit average global temperature rise predicted by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Vatican of so-called "global warming." Incidentally, the IPCC's computer models factor in neither El Nino nor the Gulf Stream. Excluding such major climate variables would be like ESPN ignoring baseball and basketball.

So, is this all just propaganda concocted by Chevron-funded, right-wing, flat-Earthers? Ask Dr. Martin Hertzberg, a physical chemist and retired Navy meteorologist.

"As a scientist and life-long liberal Democrat, I find the constant regurgitation of the anecdotal, fear mongering clap-trap about human-caused global warming to be a disservice to science," Hertzberg wrote in September 26's USA Today. "From the El Nino year of 1998 until Jan., 2007, the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere near its surface decreased some 0.25 C (0.45 F). From Jan., 2007 until the spring of 2008, it dropped a whopping 0.75 C (1.35 F)."

As global cooling becomes more widely recognized, Americans from Maine to Malibu should feel comfortable dreaming of a white Christmas. [Via CO2 Sceptics]

Let rip | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The Australia Institute thinks it’s simply making a complaint about Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme:

The only effective way for households to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions will be to buy emissions permits and rip them up.

That’s actually a challenge. Go you green things. Dig into your own pockets.

Advocates for Action on Global Warming Chosen as Obama's Top Science Advisers - washingtonpost.com

President-elect Barack Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources, sending the strongest signal yet that he will reverse Bush administration policies on energy and global warming.

The appointments of Harvard University physicist John Holdren as presidential science adviser and Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will be announced tomorrow, dismayed conservatives but heartened environmentalists and researchers.
...
In October, Lubchenco told the Associated Press that she believed public attitudes on climate change were shifting, adding: "The Bush administration has not been respectful of the science. But I think that's not true of Republicans in general. I know it's not."
...
But Holdren's reported selection inspired no joy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market advocacy group that denounces global warming "alarmists" and opposes many environmental laws. Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at CEI, said, "I think he's a very bad choice. His views are extreme, they're not based in fact, and he's a ranter."

Of the overall Obama team, Ebell said, "They will pursue an anti-energy agenda that is designed to constrict energy supplies and raise energy prices."

Vancouver: Big chill set to break records

The plunging mercury looks set to break records this weekend.

"We're forecasting record low temperatures for the day on Friday," said David Jones, Environment Canada meteorologist.

"The record low for December 19 is -10, and for December 20 it's -11.8, both set in 1990. We're forecasting -10 and -12."

With the wind chill, the cold will feel even more bitter.

Letter: Science puts chill on global warming : Letters : TCPalm

IPCC conclusions of human causation are based on faith in a flawed theory and are not supported by a single study identifying a human component of global temperature. In the last 570 million years of Earth’s climate history, there has never been a period when greenhouse gases significantly affected climate.

Evidently, that hasn’t changed.

Bob Webster