Snow continues to trap thousands at Madrid airport

MADRID, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Thousands of passengers were still stranded at Madrid's Barajas airport on Saturday after snow kept runways closed and flights grounded.
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Spain, like many other parts of Europe, has had an unusually cold winter so far.

Gallant global warming fighter rides in motorcade, faces bitter cold, then eats both pork and beef

After riding in a motorcade from their temporary home at the Hay-Adams Hotel, Obama, his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha stepped out around the memorial shortly after 7 p.m.

Bundled in coats in bitter cold, they walked up the steps in a close pack and into the memorial.
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He and Fenty ordered a house specialty, a Chili Half-Smoke - a quarter-pound half pork and beef smoked sausage on a steamed bun with mustard, onions and chili sauce - along with a big helping of cheese fries.

Revealed: the [alleged] environmental impact of Google searches - Times Online

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”

Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its data centres.

Celestial Junk: It's Not Climate: It's a Stock Chart

If warmists want to hold up 1998 as some sort of banner for warming, it is only logical that the 2008-09 winter and possibly the ones to follow, be treated the same ... and be held up as banners for global cooling. If warmists want to treat global warming like a stock chart, which they do, then highs and lows become critical, especially when evaluating average earth temperatures.

I declare, therefore, that 1998 was a peak within the cycle ... and that since then the trend has been flat. 2008 though, saw downward resistance broken, and testing the next line of resistance at 0.2. The planet, folks, may be signalling a Bear Market, but you'll have to stick around a few more decades to get confirmation.

Don't throw away leftovers, warn "food police" - Telegraph

Home cooks will also be told what size portions to prepare, taught to understand "best before" dates and urged to make more use of their freezers.

The door-to-door campaign, which starts tomorrow, will be funded by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a Government agency charged with reducing household waste.

The officials will be called "food champions". However, they were dismissed last night as "food police" by critics who called the scheme an example of "excessive government nannying".
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Tim Burns, from Waste Watch - the contractor carrying out the scheme for WRAP - said: "Food waste has such a high impact on climate change and it is something we can all do something about."

John Holdren on Renewable Energy Problems (Part V in a series on Obama’s New Science Advisor) — MasterResource

If only to cover their bases, environmentalists have from time to time been forthright about the problems of renewable energies. To his credit, John Holdren has punctuated his energy alarmism with a bit of energy realism in this regard...

PETER HITCHENS: Proof at last... aliens in UFOs are far more intelligent than we are | Mail Online

If visitors from another galaxy really are going round destroying wind turbines, then it is the proof we have been waiting for that aliens are more intelligent than we are.

The swivel-eyed, intolerant cult, which endlessly shrieks – without proof – that global warming is man-made, has produced many sad effects.

The collapse of proper education has made two whole generations vulnerable to rubbishy fads.

But the disfiguring of the country with useless windmills, and the insane plan to ban proper light bulbs, are supreme triumphs of this dimwit pseudo-religion.

Both schemes override facts and logic. During the current cold spell, observant persons will have noticed that there has been very little wind, a rather common combination.

Must be a lot of atmospheric CO2 there

What is the red dot? « Watts Up With That?

Note the red dot in Arizona, which is the only one in the USA. Truly an anomaly.

Snow Storm: 8.2 Inches On Ground At O'Hare - cbs2chicago.com

CHICAGO (STNG) - By Saturday morning, more than eight inches of snow had fallen at O'Hare International Airport and another two inches could fall on the city by the time this storm ends, city officials said.

Oregon's GPS Mileage Tax Encourages Bad Habits: Analysis - Popular Mechanics

Is this a good idea? In a word, no. At best, it's overcomplicated and intrusive. At worst, it's a threat to privacy and the environment.

December a record month, says Clive fire chief

Cold weather can create long days for firefighters in Clive and Waukee.

Freezing pipes, vehicle crashes and fires in cars and homes made December a busy month for area fire departments.

"That was a pretty active month for us," Clive Fire Chief Rick Roe said this week.

His department responded to 204 calls for service last month, more than any month in the history of Clive.

Daily Monitoring of Global Average Temperatures « Roy Spencer, Ph. D.

For those who are interested in monitoring how the current month’s global average tropospheric temperature is shaping up, we have a website where you can plot daily global average satellite-based temperatures since August 1998. The data come from the AMSU instrument flying on the NOAA-15 satellite, and the updates are made automatically once a day in the late afternoon; they run about 1-2 days behind real-time.

Energy Czarina Browner Belongs to the Socialist International

With all the accusations that have been hurled at President-elect Barack Obama that he is a political radical, it’s not surprising that he has tried to present a moderate image to the public. The PR campaign has been working to a large extent.

But problems are beginning to emerge...

Global cooling hits southern France

Kate Hill: A French Kitchen Adventure: Frosty Wishes for a New Year

In 20 years I have never seen the canal outside my wheelhouse frozen.

Yesterday I awoke to a silent frosty flat surface, floating leaves frozen in place. The gentle hum of water flowing beneath the hull silent. A grabbed the closest thing at hand, an apple, and heaved it onto the ice to see what happened. It bounced, skidded and then pinged across the canal coming to rest 50 feet away. Frozen. Half-an inch thick.

The kingfishers are curious. The little grebes are hiding. The moorhens are walking on the banks. I, too, wonder how long this will last and when will 'global warming' please start?

Blogger: User Profile: Kate Hill

...my French Kitchen at Camont is a beacon of good cooking in my Long Village.

SNOWPACK: Washington's mountain snowpack [above] average

“For all those residents who have been digging out their driveways and sidewalks for the past month, the notion of an average snowpack must seem like pure hydrological nonsense,” said Pattee, whose office is in Mt. Vernon.

Surveys at high-elevation sites help water managers assess supply for the summer and aid in stream flow forecasts, he noted.

“Typically, 50 percent of the total annual snow accumulation has fallen by mid-January,” Pattee said. “Areas with less snow now will most likely have less runoff in spring and summer, assuming typical weather patterns continue.”

Pattee said the big snows of December helped reduce a previous statewide snowpack deficit by nearly 80 percent. Before the storms hit, the snowpack was between 24 percent to 40 percent of normal.

“In just a few weeks, we’ve closed the gap and now stand at 106 percent statewide,” he said.

CO2 scam spawns yet another round of extremely lengthy meetings - The Road to an alleged Copenhagen climate pact

Next stop on the road to the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December is Bonn in March (29 March-8 April).
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A second, larger, more important meeting takes place in Bonn on 1-12 June. About 2,000 participants are expected. They will whittle down and rationalise the draft agreement, producing what one UN source describes as "the first draft of the real thing". A European Union suggestion for ministerial participation, to give the meeting added weight, has received little support.

Another two-week meeting – the date for which will be fixed in March – will be held in September or October. With the summit looming, this meeting will be more "technical", focusing on reaching agreement on specific words and phrases and on narrowing options in the text.

If progress is slow, another technical meeting might be called either in August or October.

Two other key events will feed into the process: the G8 summit of industrialised countries on the Italian island of La Maddalena in June (with Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea in attendance), and a one-day heads of state (or government) summit as a side-show at the UN General Assembly gathering in September.

UK: Farmer Focus: Frost toll worse than first thought for Bill Davey

The -3C frost I mentioned in my previous article was far more damaging than we could have envisaged.

Our kale seed crop was ruined and consequently silaged - not quite what we had planned. But given the amount of vining peas that were wiped out, Heinz Watties offered us a late pea contract for the same field, which we drilled recently, so all is not lost.

We estimate that we have also lost about 30% of our early-sown winter barley, and we will not really know the full extent of damage to the grass seed until it has been harvested.

"Global Warming To Starve The World By 2100"

According to the researchers, worst is yet to come. Apart from the environmental hazards, Global warming will also lead to world wide poverty. The rapid warming will directly affect the crop yield in tropic and sub-tropic regions of the world, also being the poorest places in the world.

If Obama cools the planet further, will anyone show up for his 2013 inauguration?

The Associated Press: Hassles and headaches may deter inaugural crowds

Kimberli Greene, who is helping to coordinate two buses from Atlanta, said about 15 people dropped out of the trip because they didn't think they could handle being in cold weather for several hours.

Maybe not -78F, but very cold in Alaska. I wonder how fast the permafrost is melting?

Life At Negative 78 Degrees In Alaska : NPR

Day to Day, January 9, 2009 · Right now it's cold in Alaska. Really cold. In the town of Tok, it was 78 degrees below zero yesterday. Aliza Sherman Risdahland her family moved to Tok two weeks ago. Noah Adams talks with Sherman Risdahl about how she's coping with the extreme cold. Also read our blog entry on what to wear at 78 degrees here.

All Products by Site - NOAA's National Weather Service

TODAY MARKS THE 14TH DAY IN A ROW WITH VERY COLD TEMPERATURES IN FAIRBANKS AND MUCH OF INTERIOR ALASKA. TEMPERATURES REMAIN IN THE 30 TO 50 BELOW RANGE OVER MUCH OF THE INTERIOR. THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES OF THIS COLD SNAP HAVE BEEN IN THE YUKON FLATS AND FROM EAGLE TO TOK WHERE TEMPERATURES HAVE REMAINED BETWEEN 45 AND 65 BELOW FOR MUCH OF THE LAST TWO WEEKS. THE COLDEST READING SO FAR THIS WINTER WAS 68 BELOW AT CHICKEN ON JANUARY 8TH. THE COLDEST OFFICIAL READING IN TOK SO FAR HAS BEEN 63 BELOW. SOME PUBLICIZED UNOFFICIAL READINGS FROM TOK APPEAR TO BE IN ERROR BASED ON NEARBY OFFICIAL TEMPERATURE STATIONS AND SATELLITE TEMPERATURE READINGS.

8 Things I Just Learned About Living In Tok Alaska « Living in Tok Alaska: Social Media Capital of the World

4. When your car gets down to minus 50 or colder, strange things begin to happen to your car. Such as your steering and brake fluid begins to freeze. As you are driving.

And For Those Who Need Proof…Minus 80 Degrees F « Living in Tok Alaska: Social Media Capital of the World

This is a shot of the weather station temp gauge at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge offices in Tok, Alaska.

More brainwashed elementary school kids

Lackamas Elementary students are showing their strength in the fight against global warming and its effects on endangered species.

About a dozen fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders gather after school in teacher Jennifer Verbanac’s room for Endangered Species, Global Warming Club.

Expert shines the (sun)spotlight on global warming

SO you thought that global warming is the result of pollution being pumped into the earth’s atmosphere? Think again, says Dr Mark Rose of Qatar Petroleum. Pollution has got nothing at all to do with global warming, it’s all because of sunspots.

Dr Rose, who has been Head of Environmental Quality at QP for the last three years, was addressing a packed audience at the January meeting of the Qatar Natural History Group.

Czechs to donate artifact mocking Klaus to Brussels - press - ČeskéNoviny.cz

Prague - The Czech Republic will donate an artifact mocking Czech President Vaclav Klaus to the European Union within its six-month EU presidency that started on January 1, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) reports, referring to the project documentation.

The paper writes that the work of art is a giant puzzle of an original map of Europe created by Czech sculptor David Cerny along with another 26 European artists each of whom has made his/her vision of the native country. It will decorate the atrium of the Council of Ministers' seat in Brussels during the Czech presidency in the first half of 2009..

In the puzzle, Cerny depicted the Czech Republic as a blue country that is "intoxicated by its head of state" (Klaus) with a display in the middle where Klaus's controversial statements, for instance those challenging the global warming theory, are shown, LN notes.

Dumb and Dumber: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mike Papantonio on their Ring of Fire radio show discussing redistibuting wealth with a carbon tax

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: "With a 100% dividend, which is not a tax. Uh, you would tax the use of carbon, and then not keep the money. The government wouldn't keep the money, but it would redistribute the money evenly to every American so that those who used carbon would get a huge disadvantage, and those who didn't use or used less carbon would collect a dividend without having to pay anything...it's a novel idea."

Novel idea? If you're a Marxist. And how does that cool the earth a fraction of a degree?

Exxon putting $170 mil towards carbon capture technology | Yahoo! Green

Exxon is not known for being a friend to the environment, but for the past couple of decades they have been researching and implementing carbon capture and storage technology. Now, they're investing $170 million towards furthering what they've already accomplished.

Waxman Says U.S. Climate Bill May Clear House Panel This Year

Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Representative Henry Waxman said he is “determined” to pass a climate-protection bill this year in the House Energy and Commerce Committee he heads.
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Waxman, who defeated the former energy committee Chairman John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, in a caucus vote in November, didn’t speculate on whether the bill would pass the full House or the Senate. He does have support from Representative Edward Markey.

So cold the sea around Britain freezes | The Courier-Mail

On Tuesday night temperatures plummeted as low as minus 12C in Benson, Oxfordshire. At Bournemouth Airport it was minus 11C, the coldest January night since 1963.

Meanwhile in Farnborough, Hampshire, where the thermometer also recorded minus 11C, it was the coldest January night on record since 1926.

Classically Liberal: Freezing out the facts.

The deaths are a sad reminder that cold weather, not warm weather, is the main killer of people, especially the elderly. Last year England had 25,300 elderly die due to cold weather, that was up on the previous year when 23,740 died from the cold. A spokesman for the National Pensioners Conventions says: “Since 1997, we have lost over 260,000 pensioners during the winter months because of cold-related illnesses...”

I remember in 2003 that a particularly unusual heat wave hit France while many physicians were on their annual holiday. That summer France saw 14,802 people die from the heat. That got reported in the US. Now we read that cold has killed over a quarter of a million elderly people in just the UK alone in the last decade. The French heat wave from 2003 has not yet been repeated so those 14,802 deaths were in one year only. The UK sees that number of deaths EVERY year from cold plust around another 10,000 more. Did you see that reported in the US media?

Montana's Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer suggests that if you don't buy into Gore's scam, you're against new technology?

Schweitzer added that investment in battery storage technology, to store power generated by intermittent sources like wind and solar, will be crucial. Also, global warming is impossible to ignore, he added.

"If you're going to be a denier (of global warming), you're not going to be a developer," the governor said. "We're not going to increase coal consumption in this country until we solve CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions."

UK: More rats in homes due to cold weather

THE freezing weather conditions have led to an increase in rats entering people's homes in a Suffolk town.

NC Media Watch: Global warming at the Presidential Inauguration?

My guess is that on Tuesday the 20th Inauguration Day, all the participants are going to be wishing they had some of Al Gore's global warming, fake or not.

UK: The day the sea froze (and the cold shut down an ice cream factory) - mirror.co.uk

It's not often you can take your dogs for a walk on the sea...

But things got so cold yesterday that this stretch of coastline at Sandbanks in Poole, Dorset, froze over as the big chill refused to loosen its grip on Britain.

Locals said it was the first time it had happened since 1963, although there was a partial freezing of the sea in 1991.

Temperatures plummet to almost - 12 in some parts of the country making it chillier than Iceland and Greenland, and bringing with it the usual chaos on roads as cars crashed on the ice or broke down.

And the freezing weather claimed its oddest victim yet when a factory in Dartmoor, Devon, had to stop making ice cream - because it was too cold.

Obama's green energy plans build hopes and scepticism

Not everyone cheered Mr Obama's plan. Private companies could use domestic energy resources like oil and coal to create jobs without the hefty price tag for taxpayers, said Thomas Pyle of the Institute for Energy Research, in a statement.

"The road to economic recovery will be paved with private sector investment, not government-sponsored asphalt," he said.

FOCUS ON/Jan. 10: Schools need caution if teaching global warming

Nonsense should not be taught in schools as a consensus. There is a lot of trouble with the way global warming is being taught. (See Bud Kennedy column: "Some don’t want to see anything green — not even during Christmas," Dec. 21)
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In science, you don’t take a theory and use everything that supports the theory as fact and throw out everything and everybody that conflicts with that. That is not science. In science you can only prove a theory wrong; you cannot prove it true.

— Bill Pitts, Fort Worth

Illinois May Pose the Greatest Opposition to Obama's Plans on Global Warming | Environment | AlterNet

In 2008, the Canadian government, which has adopted the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases, "declared that there will be no new oil sands plants or refineries without installing carbon sequestration and capture," Bergerson said, explaining that the declaration meant that any plant starting operation in 2012 or later must capture and store any carbon emissions. It was assumed that industry could afford the controls as long as the price of oil remained above $100 a barrel, she said.

Busting the warming myth - The Daily Observer - Ontario, CA

When reading page 4 of the Dec. 29 Daily Observer issue, I couldn't believe my eyes when also reading the "Today's Opinion" editorial reprint from Sun Media titled 'Cooling the warming hysteria'.

It was refreshing indeed, that a media itself finally has the courage to openly dispute what has been correctly labeled "warming hysteria"! This is exactly what it is. Unfortunately, what is known by numerous renowned scientists for nearly a decade now, ie. that the planet Earth isn't warming towards the apocalypse, has been suppressed because it could destroy many authors and enterprises who feed themselves through keeping the global warming myth well and alive.
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Alfred Beck

Eastern Turkey freezes under -29 Celcius

A bone-chilling cold weather wave negatively affects eastern Turkey, coldest part of the country, for days.

LETTERS: Wild imaginations drive global warming cult

I would suggest to Mr. Bersia that, yes, the climate change hysteria, as presented to our gullible societies, is absolutely a monster movie. It is not based on science, but uses bits of science with dubious computer modeling to validate imaginations gone wild.

In my opinion, the current climate change panic is being used to support a large number of ulterior motives, most of which involve taking other people's money or justifying the use of political power to control other people's lives.

Jim Brown
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It is worth noting how the global cooling panic of the 1970s also required such "quick, decisive action." When that scam petered out, we got the global warming panic of the 1990s, which, after 11 years of substantial climate cooling, is turning into a hoax. It was therefore necessary to rename that hoax the present "climate change" flimflam.
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Marc Jeric

Another insane quote from the next US president

From the Huffington Post

Candidate Obama made clear in his speech to the Detroit Economic Club in 2007 that he gets it:

The United States' dependence on oil puts the nation at security risk, he said. It also jeopardizes the planet.

"The fossil fuels we burn are setting off a chain of dangerous weather patterns that could condemn future generations to global catastrophe."

UK: Cold weather hits The Lizard wildlife

A very dry December and very cold start to 2009 has hit nature hard on National Trust land on The Lizard. Data from the Met Office reported a temperature of -7.8 Celsius on the night of the 6th/7th January: the coldest recorded temperature at Culdrose on the Lizard in a January for twenty years Figures from the Met Office showed that Culdrose actually recorded three consecutive hard frosts with temperatures also falling to -4 Celsius and -5 Celsius, making it one of the coldest starts to January in the area for many years.

The cold snap has been bad news for the common frog tadpoles, wiping out a whole generation of frogs as their shallow breeding pools have been turned to thick ice with heavy frosts on three consecutive nights. Its also made life more difficult for the Cornish chough, which are found on the Lizard, as it feeds by poking its beak into the ground to get at small invertebrates. The frost this week has also penetrated deep into the soil, potentially affecting some winter annuals.

The global tropical cyclone season of 2008: below average

It was a below average year for global tropical cyclone activity, and the destructive power of these storms was close to the lowest levels observed since since reliable records began in the early 1980s.
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The 2008 global tropical cyclone season shows that these storms are subject to large natural variations. Given this high natural variability and the short record of good data we have (just 25 years or so), it will be very difficult at present to prove that climate change is affecting global tropical cyclone activity.

Severe Cold Grips Northern Bulgaria: "Severe" Cold Grips Northern Bulgaria

Low temperatures have been measured Saturday morning in all cities and towns of Northern Bulgaria - temperatures everywhere in the Danube Plain were below 10 degrees Celsius.

AFP:  Child endangerment "cool" in Quebec

MONTREAL (AFP) — Avoiding packed public transit and rush hour gridlock, more and more people in this Canadian city, with one of the world's heaviest winter snowfalls, are braving extreme cold to commute by bicycle.

"It's a bit dangerous, but it's not very complicated," said Valerie Lemieux, stopped on a bicycle path in downtown Montreal.

"You need a good pair of mittens, a hat and warm boots. And you need several layers of clothes," said the student, her face barely discernable beneath a scarf, earmuffs and a cycling helmet.
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"You have more control over when you leave and when you arrive, it helps to keep you in shape and it's good for the environment," said Valerie Lemieux.

Isabelle Penelope rides her bicycle to bring her young daughter to school, as well as hurtle down winding paths of snowy Mont Royal on weekends. She said she likes the "extreme side" of snow-cycling best.

"I've fallen in a park with my daughter seated on the back. We slid on ice and I was hurt, but we dusted ourselves off and kept going," she laughed.

Bravo, US Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond

And while climate change and other "green" issues have become increasingly popular in Congress, Bond has done battle with environmentalists, who refer to him as "Sen. Smog." He has signaled that he will be among the Senate's chief opponents on proposed curbs on greenhouse gases to combat climate change.

Global warming still looks like a scam to some - www.record-bee.com

I stand by my belief that the Sun (and solar activity) is the major influence on our temperature swings, possibly followed by major volcanic activity. Man's contribution remains insignificant. In fact, the Earth has gone through 75 major temperature swings in the last 4500 years swinging from very warm to ice ages that will wipe out life as we know it. Man was not steering this course. Search the Internet and one will learn that hundreds of respected scientists with verifiable credentials consider human induced global warming to be the scam of our time. My conclusion remains valid, our elected officials should not be spending our money on such a fool's game.

Ed Calkins

Climate change: Melting credibility - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Editorial

Remember how mankind's abuse of fossil fuels was going to cause the North Pole's ice cap to melt completely in 2008?

Remember how the beloved polar bear was in danger of soon becoming extinct because there was too little sea ice from which bears could hunt their favorite dinners of ringed seal pups?

It turns out that both of these global warming scare stories were as full of it as Al Gore's Oscar-winning docu-comedy "An Inconvenient Truth."
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Unfortunately, this scientific "surprise" will never get the attention -- or critical analytical spin -- it deserves from the green mainstream media. Nor will the good news about the long-term fortunes of the "imperiled" polar bear be heard by those who need it most -- the nation's brainwashed and unduly alarmed kindergartners.

But with the sea ice's dramatic return, there's no denying that the climate change industry has lost another million square kilometers of its melting credibility.

Oil giant comes in from the cold - Americas, World - The Independent

But Greenpeace – which has waged a multi-decade war against Exxon, its denial of man-made climate change and its secret funding of renegade scientists – warned Mr Tillerson's intervention was a smokescreen for its attempt to slow down the switch to alternative fuels. "A carbon tax is a political poison pill," said Kert Davies, a research director at Greenpeace. "No politician in the US would propose something with the word tax in it. Being in favour of something makes Exxon look like it is being intellectual, but this threatens to derail the prevailing international discussion."
...
Yesterday, Greenpeace challenged ExxonMobil to come up with a detailed proposal for a carbon tax high enough to significantly reduce demand for its products.

RIP: Plenty Magazine Is Actually Shutting Down Everything // Archives // ecorazzi.com

As an update to an earlier article we posted during the week, Plenty Magazine is apparently disappearing off the map. Through Gawker, we originally heard that the environmental magazine was going to continue on through their web presence. However, now new information given to the Razz is pointing to a full-on liquidation. All staff is being let go without severance and the website is dying along with the print magazine.

Doug Zellmer column: Wisconsin: Record snow steals spotlight from frigid temperatures

Record snow during December in Oshkosh spawned a lot of conversation that’s kept the hot stove weather league going this winter.

Let’s push aside the 39 inches of the white stuff from last month and talk about the cold weather. Just in case you didn’t notice the temperature while shoveling, December was much colder than normal in Oshkosh.

The average temperature in December was 15.8 degrees, which makes it the 10th coldest December in the city since weather records were kept starting in the 1880s, said officials from the National Weather Service in Green Bay. For about the first three weeks of December it was cold enough for the month to flirt with the top five coldest Decembers recorded in Oshkosh.

The UP side of global warming

...on the whole, moderate climate change of an additional two degrees will likely be beneficial for the world, says Benny Peiser, an anthropologist at John Moores University in Liverpool, England.
...
...But Peiser considers Lovelock to be alarmist and expects the rise in temperature to follow the current slow upward trend, which will prove beneficial to human health. "Unless there is a very significant and dramatic increase in the warming, the benefits will outweigh the problems."

Humankind's affinity for warmer weather is ancient and rational, says Peiser, an expert on how past civilizations have handled natural disasters. The world's temperature has fluctuated in the past and civilizations have struggled to adapt, but the big problem has always been global cooling. "In periods of warming you always had thriving societies, and the periods that were troubling for societies were the cold periods, obviously because that's when agriculture suffers."

Monbiot.com » Skating on Thin Ice

I have spent the last two evenings skating. Last night we laid lanterns out across the ice and swooped and swung and fell flat on our faces on this silent lake in mid-Wales, for hours by moonlight. I should have been in bed - I have a chest infection and a cold - but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.

For the exhilaration of this primal game was shaded with sadness: all of us knew that this time might be our last. It is many winters since most of the lakes in England and Wales have frozen hard enough to support a skating party; with every year the chances of another one recede.
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The thought that I might never skate outdoors again feels like a bereavement. I pray for another cold snap, even though I know it will bring all the nincompoops in Britain out of their holes, yapping about a new ice age.

Canadian right blogs rejoice in snowy winter :: The Hook

Now is the winter of their discontent made glorious summer by one damn snowfall after another. For reasons unknown, Canada’s right-wing blogs rejoice in the current cold, snowy weather as a refutation of global warming.
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No doubt the top right-blog warming skeptic is small dead animals, where sarcasm is not only the weapon of choice but an art form.

"Wheat May Bake in the Fields", [Idiotic] Climate Scientists Warn | BNET Food Blog | BNET

Forget polar bears and Greenland ice caps — global warming is threatening our food supply, and could bake the grain growing in the U.S. heartland before farmers ever get a chance to harvest it, warn climate scientists at the University of Washington.

Snowstorms don’t mean climate change threat has passed: alleged expert | Straight.com

British Columbia’s holiday snowstorms drove everybody crazy. But, apparently, no one more so than climate scientists.

“Every time there is a freaking snowfall, it seems like everybody is going, ‘What’s going on?’” Andrew Weaver told the Straight. “It’s frustrating as a climate scientist.”

Weaver, a climate-modelling expert at the University of Victoria and a lead author with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explained that whenever a cold streak hits, some people question accepted theories of climate change and grow skeptical about global warming.

globeandmail.com: Armageddon theory: Vancouver

I tie it all to Vancouver. So much of what the alarmists promised was supposed to be happening now isn't happening. So many events are running counter to their near-term projections, they've decided to go all Armageddon with their long-term ones, projections for a future that none of us will be around to check. So here's the test: The colder it gets in Vancouver, the hotter the dubious scenarios for the globe a hundred years from now will be.

Texas: Greenhouse gases likely a low priority for Legislature

On the presidential campaign trail, both Barack Obama and John McCain said they would champion federal measures that cap emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to global warming.

But with "global warming" a radioactive term in the Texas Legislature, state lawmakers in the coming session are expected to constrain their response to environmental issues to a series of measures that encourage consumers to buy efficient appliances and build more efficient houses and coax utilities to invest in renewable energy.

Go Green Tube - It's sort of like YouTube! - Broadcast Planet Earth - Videos

Videos / search for 'al gore' (clear search)

Go Green Tube - Broadcast Planet Earth - About GoGreenTube

GoGreenTube LLC was founded in March 2008 and was launched in June 2008. GoGreenTube strives to be the destination for the world to share and view green videos online that help provide important information about our environment, green technologies, innovations, products, and services so we as governments, corporations, organizations or individuals can "Go Green" using the most effective means possible.

Wind Watch: Wind energy supply dips during cold snap

Britain’s wind farms have stopped working during the cold snap due to lack of wind, it has emerged, as scientists claimed half the world’s energy could soon be from renewables.

Eco-fascism? Third Way organization is on the host committee for the Green Inaugural Ball

It sounds like a typical liberal/progressive political think tank except that "third way" is also a euphemism for fascism, i.e. the third way between free-market capitalism and socialism (or communism).

Snow on the palm trees in Marseille France (M4GW)

My friend's son was in Europe for 2 weeks and he's in France right now. He said they got almost 6 inches of snow in Marseille yesterday! He sent these photos. So I guess it hasn't snowed there in like 20. Everything is shut down and kids are playing in the street. Their palm trees are covered in snow, yet we who are always covered in snow never get palm trees, the injustice!

What to do if your global warming-fighting vehicle won't start due to global cooling

Owners of popular hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius also must take extra care if the cold weather kills their batteries and a jump start is required. Smart Motors sales consultant John Dolan noted there are differences in jump starting hybrids and non-hybrids - the biggest being that jump cables must be connected to the fuse box in a hybrid, while in non-hybrids they connect directly to the car's battery.

In a hybrid, Dolan noted, the battery is "not really very accessible, so we just bypass it entirely and go to the fusebox (for jump starting)."

Investor's Business Daily -- Carbon Tax: The Lesser Of Two Evils

Climate Change: Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, long reviled by environmentalists for his skepticism of extreme global warming claims, now supports a tax on C02 emissions. A new convert to the cause? We doubt it.

Since climate realists are allegedly paid off by Exxon, should we now expect lots of them to endorse a carbon tax? Let's watch and see...

ND objecting to Minn. emissions cost plans | KXNet.com North Dakota News

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) The North Dakota Industrial Commission is again objecting to Minnesota efforts to attach a cost to carbon dioxide emissions from North Dakota coal-fired plants...
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Gov. John Hoeven and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who are members of the Industrial Commission members, say North Dakota is using sequestration techniques to control carbon emissions.

2008 Coldest Year Since 2000 and Clearly Not a Top Ten Warmest Year « An Honest Climate Debate

2008 ranked 15th coldest of the thirty years of records for the University of Alabama MSU based lower tropospheric temperatures (right in the middle of the pack). It was the coldest year since 2000. It continues the downtrend of the last 7 years. This compares with the Hadley Center data which (together with the equally alarmist WMO) claims 2008 will rank 10th warmest since 1850. (159 years!). How can an “average year” in one data base appear be a “top 6%” warmest year in another?

A Stunning Volte-Face at the New York Times - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

According to Andrew Revkin’s item “Can U.S., China Team Up on Climate, Energy?”

“The Kyoto pact is widely seen as a faltering limited experiment, at best. . . . ”

Wait, when George W. Bush was being pressured to enact climate legislation, Kyoto was the last, best hope for humanity’s continued existence.

I’ll have more to say on this brazen reversal later, after I get my chin off the floor.

Record snow leaves mountains in North Dakota cities... | KXNet.com North Dakota News

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) Officials in North Dakota's largest cities are trying to find places to put all the snow.

Bismarck and Fargo have had record snowfall in December. And they got more this week.

Minot got about a foot more today. Public Works Director Alan Walter says officials are trying to clear the streets and haul some of it away.

He says there are some problems for drivers because the drifts are taller than some of the smaller cars. He says drivers have to be careful.

In Bismarck a snow pile in the parking lot at the Famous Dave's barbecue restaurant is nearly 20 feet high.

Rush Limbaugh: Big Oil Surrenders to the Hoax

Rex Tillerson, I think, is throwing in the towel because he's looking around the world and he sees that leftists have taken over institutions.

What he sees is that a carbon tax on you, is far less damaging to him than a cap-and-trade program (that Obama wants) is on him. A cap-and-trade program on businesses, meaning emissions will be governed and arbitrarily set by government, and if you exceed those emissions, you have to pay a fine or you have to trade with a company that's not getting close to what it's allowed to emit and so forth. All of this under the false premise of reducing emissions that cause manmade global warming, which is a hoax! Cap-and-trade programs are miserable failures wherever they have been tried. They are hoaxes that benefit the likes of the designers, Algore and others. So Rex Tillerson, as a CEO, is doing due diligence here, and for his shareholders is making the right call.

He has concluded that governments around the world are going to raise taxes on somebody, on something having to do with energy, and he's absolutely right. And he says that the lesser of two evils is a carbon tax on carbon dioxide emissions rather than cap-and-trade. But it still, to me, represents a surrender. Why won't somebody stand up -- especially now, with abundant evidence -- and point fingers at all these people and say, "You're lying to us! It is a pure agenda-oriented hoax. We're not going for it. We're not going to raise taxes. We're not going to participate!" Well, Obama and Harry Reid this week both have said global warming is real and we must do something about it, and they couldn't care less whether it's real or not. All they care about is the opportunity it presents to raise taxes. (sigh) So, it's a surrender out there, ladies and gentlemen. However, I want you to know that here at the EIB Network, there is and will not ever be surrender.

Coldest in Years Plains to East Coast

This is about as bad as it gets folks. I don't think I've seen anything like it since 1994. Sure its been very cold at times over the past 14 years, but the total area impacted by this cold wave will be huge. By next Thursday and Friday, extremely cold air will chill the entire area from the Great Plains to the Eastern Seaboard, and the cold is also going to reach the Deep South. Only the far West will be unscathed.

From the central Plains to the Northeast temperatures are going below zero; there is no question about it. Meanwhile, the Upper Midwest and northern New England could experience readings lower than 30 below zero!

One might have to go back to Jan. 1994 to find anything worse. In that bitter outbreak, temperatures went below zero from the central Plains to the East Coast. In New York there is a chance it will go below zero next Thursday or Friday night. The last time New York City experienced a below-zero temperature was Jan. 1994.

Al Fin: As Europe Freezes, Who Will Fight Back Against Carbon Hysteria and Nuclear Phobia?

As Europe and later much of the developed world freezes, who will fight back against the hysterics and phobics who have seized control? Who will speak out against these destructive and fearful fools who are supported by the news media at large? It sounds like a job for "new media."

Washington Times - LOCKITCH: Environmental angst

It is time to recognize environmentalism as a philosophy of guilt and sacrifice and to reject it in favor of a philosophy that proudly upholds the value of human life.

The world at our feet | The Daily Telegraph

Well, we Australians are the rulers of the Warm War. According to Professor James Hansen, head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, "Australia exports coal and sets atmospheric carbon dioxide goals so large as to guarantee destruction of much of the life on the planet".

Read that last line again.

So far as Hansen can tell, Australia guarantees destruction of much of the life on the planet. We don't have to build missile silos, launch moon rockets, establish atomic weapons bases on Cuba or send dissidents to remote gulags.

All we need do is simply continue digging up combustible dirt and otherwise carry on as usual and we hold a knife to the world's throat.

We can barely defeat a South African cricket team led by someone with only one functioning arm, but destruction of the planet is something we can achieve even despite an under-performing opening batsman and an off-spinner who off-straights. We. Totally. Rock.

Bear in mind that Hansen isn't one of your fringe-dwelling, apocalyptic, carbon-pollution maniacs, the type who only risk reproduction during the excitement of Earth Hour and don't own shoes. He's one of your mainstream, apocalyptic, carbon-pollution maniacs, who is a pal of Al Gore and testifies before US congressional committees.

Can U.S., China Team Up on Climate, Energy? - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Now President-elect Barack Obama has a ripe chance to work with Chinese leaders and take the climate lead, according to a variety of people trying to forge new efforts to cut long-term climate risks by curbing emissions.

China announces plan to single-handedly destroy the climate; guess whose "fault" this allegedly is

In short, from 2007 to 2015, China will increase its coal production by an amount equal to two-thirds of the entire coal consumption of the United States — an amount that surpasses all of the coal consumed today in Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America.

Such is the legacy of 8 years of the Bush administration blocking all national and international action on climate change, and indeed actively working to undermine international negotiations by creating a parallel do-nothing track for countries like China. As Chinese officials have told me, we gave them the cover to accelerate emissions growth.

Remarkable CO2 hysteria from our next Secretary of Energy: the alleged danger is "very clear" to "virtually everyone"

YouTube - Steve Chu - Climate Change as "Titanic the Sequel" - Copenhagen Climate Council and CITRIS Interview

Steve Chu, Barack Obama's choice to lead the U.S. Department of Energy and a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, decribes what climate change means to him. The interview was conducted by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at UC Berkeley.

By the way, wouldn't the "Titanic/iceberg" analogy be a more appropriate choice if your fear was global cooling, rather than global warming?

Brazil Experiencing Variable Weather

The forecast isnt good, with just a few, sparse rains not big enough to get a whole farm wet. Weve had cold weather for this time of year its been 99 years since we have had such cold temperatures during the period of the year, and Im not sure how long its been since weve had such a bad drought.

OOPS, We Forgot Siberia... Part Deux! (M4GW)

In my original blog entry December 9th I talked about a worldwide temperature chart and said that it was inaccurate because of the large amount of weather stations that went offline when the USSR collapsed around 1990.

I pointed out that this brought the number of reporting weather stations around the world down from a high of 15,000 in 1970 to 5,000 in 2000. This takes some of the coldest places on the planet out of the equation, like Siberia.
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I received some criticism for not mentioning any sources, so I made this Google map with some of the weather stations in the former USSR that went offline around 1990.
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Here are the charts from Minnesota.

Seattle Food Examiner: Food Matters: best-selling author Mark Bittman in Seattle

"We are finally starting to acknowledge the threat carbon emissions pose to our ozone layer, but few people have focused on the extent to which our consumption of meat contributes to global warming. Think about it this way: In terms of energy consumption, serving a family-of-four steak dinner is the rough equivalent of driving around in an SUV for three hours while leaving all the lights on at home."

Bittman's no-nonsense approach sheds light on the ramifications of government policy, big business marketing, and global economics influence what we choose to put on the table.

Re: Exxon, Carbon Prices, and Surrender - Iain Murray - The Corner on National Review Online

I cannot understand why US energy companies are so willing to negotiate the terms of their surrender. The usual "we must have a place at the table" excuse is laughable when you are going to be the menu.

As Andy says, there is every reason to oppose this disastrous "inevitability." The American people will not put up with a massive rise in their energy costs, especially at a time when they are a) experiencing a significant tightening in their financial circumstances and b) seeing the only relief in those circumstances in the form of a drop in energy prices for transportation. That is why no one actually in the legislature or incoming administration is willing to do what Tillerson says and propose an outright carbon tax....
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Those points are easily made and easily understood by voters. The BTU tax, proposed by a new rock star President with his party in charge of both houses, still failed because voters, especially in Democrat energy states, feared its consequences. Carbon pricing can be defeated similarly. Pre-emptive capitulation, on the other hand, guarantees a bad result. This is the time when backbone is needed.

Cardinal George Pell, 2008: Global Warming and Pagan Emptiness

Belief in a benign God who is master of the universe has a steadying psychological effect, although it is no guarantee of Utopia, no guarantee that the continuing climate and geographic changes will be benign. In the past pagans sacrificed animals and even humans in vain attempts to placate capricious and cruel gods. Today they demand a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

YouTube - A Mantel Moment 1-9-2009 - Global Warming?

Question for alarmists: Before the Depression, why were summers so hot in Washington, DC?

Inauguration Weather: Swearing-In Date Switcheroo - Capital Weather Gang

...[Sen. George Norris] also took climatology into account. Here's what he said in a 1924 House hearing:

The thing I am anxious to do is to get the Congress to working in January, as soon as possible, because we all recognize that the best time for Congress to work and the time it can do the best work, is before the hot weather of August and July comes on in Washington, and the longer we put it off the more liable we are to push Congress over into the summer months of Washington which is an undesirable thing, as we all know. [Keep in mind that air conditioning didn't reach the Capitol building till the 1950s.]

Another idea was to keep the inaugural date as March 4 and have the new Congress meet right away. But this would likely push sessions into the summer, and that didn't sit well with Norris or with Rep. Charles Gifford (R-Mass.), who said:

It would be a serious thing to my mind to leave Congress in session here in the summer and make it a yearly occurrence. It would make it almost unbearable. We would not do good work.

Has ExxonMobil Bought Into Climate Alarmism? — MasterResource

ExxonMobil’s new corporate position in favor of carbon taxes, reported today by the Wall Street Journal, is not entirely unexpected. It is the result of a policy drift of recent years toward compromise and appeasement with the company’s political critics.

But I doubt that ExxonMobil has bought into alarmism. Back at Enron, where I was director of public policy analysis, we didn’t necessarily buy into climate alarmism but welcomed the concern because we had seven profit centers (see pp. 3–4) that stood to benefit. ExxonMobil, the anti-Enron, has not set itself up as a rent-seeker but wants a seat at the policy table given the perceived choice between a carbon tax and carbon cap-and-trade.

It is ironic that ExxonMobil’s shift has come at a time when the case for climate alarmism is in growing trouble. Global temperatures are flat, not accelerating, as Chip Knapperberger recently blogged.

Green Options Environmental Discussion Forum • View topic - Hair-brained Mitigation proposals???

Recent comment in another blog.
"Why would you try to sequester plant food, when facing a possible famine?"
Come to that, why would anyone sane even suggest, let alone actually do it, using food to make fuel?
What really worries me is that some well-meaning idiot will come up with a scheme that really does remove CO2 from the atmosphere. At 385 ppm we are only just over twice the level (180 ppm) at which plants start to die! Without plants, the anthropogenic problem is totally solved and the mass extinctions guaranteed.

The Pastiche Politics of the Runway Rush — Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

This game of dressing-up and let’s-pretend is pastiche politics. It creates retrogressive manifestos by decoupage, not political ideas: historical images are stripped of their context to give meaning to the lives of a small number of morally-disoriented moralising whingebags. This breeds grotesque chimeras: the privileged offspring of the establishment, convinced simultaneously of their own importance and the belief that they are the downtrodden victims of industrial society. They march into the lives of ordinary people, going about their ordinary business and demand it all stops, to be reorganised around their insecurities and sense of alienation. Such incomprehensible naffness would be funny, if these infantile clowns didn’t already have what they were demanding.

Gore is the honorary chair of the "2009 Green Inaugural Ball"

2009 Green Inaugural Ball - Event Details

Due to overwhelming demand, tickets to the Green Ball sold out in 15 minutes.

Take a look at the sponsors here

Amusing Freudian slip by alarmists?: "Global CLIENT Crisis"?

Live Earth Team Picked as Executive Producers for 2009 Green Inaugural Ball

“The 2009 Inaugural Green Ball Organizing Committee and I hand-picked Kevin Wall and the Live Earth team to executive produce this year’s event to ensure we deliver the best possible Green Ball befitting this historic occasion. It is my pleasure to be partnered with Live Earth again, as they are the experts in creating high-profile events that marry music star power with an important environmental message,” said the Honorable Al Gore.
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On July 7, 2007, Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis became the largest global entertainment event in history, with simultaneous concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Hamburg, and reaching an estimated audience of 2 billion people worldwide. As with the 07.07.07 first Live Earth event, with the Global Climate Crisis, Live Earth partners with former Vice President and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore and his organization, The Alliance for Climate Protection, whenever dealing with the Global Client Crisis. Live Earth’s overall mission centers on leveraging the power of entertainment through integrated events, media, and experiences to ignite global movements aimed at solving the most critical environmental issues. www.liveearth.org.

As per usual, I think that "2 billion audience" number is vastly inflated - BBC, July '07 | Diana ratings dwarf Live Earth

The British TV audience for the Live Earth concerts was less than a third of that for last week's Concert for Diana.

BBC One's average ratings between 2000 and 2200 BST on Saturday were 3.1 million, compared with 11.4 million for the Diana gig on the previous Sunday.
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"The audience for Live Earth peaked at nearly five million viewers," a spokeswoman said.
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Madonna used foul language when she encouraged fans at Wembley Stadium to "start jumping up and down" as a way to "save the planet".
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Critics argued the gigs themselves caused pollution, but organisers said they were as environmentally-friendly as possible.

There were also claims that many of the celebrities involved were poor role models because they flew around the world with entourages while on tour.

Brutal Cold in the IPCC Models versus Nature « Roy Spencer, Ph. D.

...What does all this mean for the theory of manmade global warming? How fast have these coldest airmasses warmed, compared to the IPCC models? Well, the location in Siberia that is traditionally the coldest, Ojmjakon, hit -60 deg. C (-76 deg. F) twice last month (December, 2008), a temperature that has been reached only one other time in the last 25 years. So, I suspect that global warming isn’t happening nearly fast enough for the folks who live there.

Nearly 800 schools of Kyrgyzstan on 2-month vacation because of electricity deficit

BISHKEK, January 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Nearly 800 schools of Kyrgyzstan will have a two-month vacation because of the ongoing electric power crisis, a source at the Kyrgyz Education and Science Ministry told Itar-Tass on Friday.

He said that would apply only to schools heated with electricity. Such schools will have classes until the middle of June. The rest of Kyrgyz schools will resume classes as usual. It was planned initially to extend the vacation at 1,300 schools, but many of them managed to switch to alternative fuel.

The energy crisis in Kyrgyzstan occurred last spring because of insufficient water reserves in the Toktogul dam lake. The Toktogul hydropower plant supplies up to 40% of all electricity in Kyrgyzstan.

This oughta do it

Climate Rush: Dinner At Domestic Departures

If you care about climate change and want deeds not words to curb reckless global warming, then put on your finest Edwardian garb and make like a Suffragette to Heathrow on Monday 12 January for Climate Rush. Scheduled is a civilised picnic at 7pm in Domestic Departures, Terminal 1, accompanied by a live string quartet and other like-minded, similarly dressed climate change protesters from Climate Rush. The movement is inspired by the Suffragette Rush 100 years ago which saw women rushing the doors of Parliament, demanding votes for women and several years of direct action from women and men campaigning for equal rights.

Climate Rush instructions are quite specific - attendees are not to display Edwardian outifts until signalled (luckily, the cold weather should still be with us so a long coat over a narrow high-necked Edwardian gown for the long journey through Hounslow shouldn't be too unwelcome) and bring food, be polite, comply with police present... it seems that if you're going to do it, do it nicely, do it well, do it calmly and get your message across even more effectively than chaos and anarchy ever could.

Al Gore at Work - Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore on National Review Online

One of the big frauds of carbon offsets is that they do nothing to actually reduce energy usage or carbon emissions. Which brings me to this photo of Al Gore at work. If he really wants to reduce his carbon footprint, does he really need three gigantic computer monitors as well as an electricity hogging flat screen TV on at the same time?

Video: 100 years of newspaper climate change headlines

The media's relentless fanning the flames of climate alarmism is certainly nothing new. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Anyone out there ever had a roommate?

Why can't we just find a reliable way to control the Earth's "thermostat", get all 6.7 billion people to agree on the "correct" setting, spend whatever it takes to achieve and maintain that setting, and then just divide the cost 6.7 billion ways?

U.N. Says 'No,' Climate Hackers Say, 'Yes We Can' | Wired Science

A major Indian-German geoengineering expedition set sail this week for the Scotia Sea, flouting a U.N. ban on ocean iron fertilization experiments in hopes of garnering data about whether the process actually does take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and sequester it in the deep ocean, a intruiging technique that may help reverse global warming.

The LOHAFEX experiment will spread 20-tons of iron sulphate particles over a 115-square-mile section of open ocean north of Antarctica — that's about 1.7 times the size of Washington, D.C. The initiative has drawn fire from environmental groups who point out that 200 countries agreed to the moratorium until more evidence was available about its efficacy.

But that hasn't stopped the LOHAFEX team, composed of Alfred Wegener Institute and Indian National Institute of Oceanography scientists, who say they need to conduct experiments to get such data.

“If the LOHAFEX iron dump goes ahead, it will be a clear defiance of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity,” Jim Thomas of ETC Group, said in a press release.

It's becoming clear that when it comes to global warming reversal schemes, deciding who will control the global thermostat is as complex an issue as how such schemes could actually be accomplished.

Cold snap in Europe takes toll

As Sofia began rationing gas supplies to industries, 75 schools across the country closed until Friday for lack of adequate heating.

The change-over proved little comfort for residents of Serbia's northern Vojvodina province, most reliant on Russian gas, where many were left without regular heating and some factories stopped production.

About 72,000 households in the snow-blanketed Bosnian capital Sarajevo also remained without heating for a third day due to a total halt in Moscow's gas supplies.

Third runway at Heathrow set for go-ahead | News

THE go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow looks imminent.

Pakistan: Snow, severe cold paralyzes routine life in Gilgit-Baltistan

GILGIT, Jan 9 (APP): The people living in Gilgit‑Baltistan were facing hardships as snow and heavy winds disrupted their routine life besides business activities.

Snow and cloudy weather which gripped all Northern Areas, further brought the mercury level in the mountainous region forcing the people to stay indoors.

The upper portions of the region have received heavy snowfall which is expected to continue till the month of March.

Due to abrupt change in the weather, seasonal diseases have broken out, affecting mostly children, women and elderly of the area.

Madrid airport closes

MADRID - A RARE, heavy snowfall in central Spain closed Madrid's airport and paralysed traffic in the city and several German rivers were frozen over as much of Europe remained in the grip of Siberian conditions on Friday.
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The northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela, a destination for thousands of pilgrims, recorded the heaviest snowfall in recent memory on Friday, according to the online edition of daily newspaper El Mundo.
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In Germany, the death toll from the cold snap rose to three and several rivers were frozen over, blocking ship traffic, authorities said.

Drift ice covered 80 to 90 percent of the surface of the river Elbe from Doemnitz to the Germany's main port of Hamburg in the north, a spokeswoman for the Water and Shipping Office said.

Some barges had to be freed late Thursday with industrial ice breakers.

Germany is experiencing one of its coldest winters of the past 100 years, with the mercury dropping as low as minus 34.6 C (minus 30.3 F) in the mountains in the south.

One person also died from the cold in Poland during the night, bringing the death toll in the country to 83 since November 1, most of them homeless people.

Isn't the sun an external driver?

GKSS scientists refute argument of climate skeptics | Eureka! Science News

With the help of the so called "Monte-Carlo-Simulation" the coastal researchers Dr. Eduardo Zorita and Professor Hans von Storch at the GKSS-Research Centre together with Professor Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern estimated that it is extremely unlikely that the frequency of warm record years after 1990 could be an accident and concluded that it is rather influenced by a external driver.

The fact that the 13 warmest years since 1880 could have accured by accident after 1990 corresponds to a likelihood of no more than 1:10 000.

"Yes, It's Cold. No, That Doesn't Mean Global Warming Is Bogus" - thedailygreen.com

Neither record high, nor record low, temperatures -- in and of themselves -- mean anything to our understanding of climate. It's the long term trend that matters, and that long term trend is clear: It's getting warmer, significantly warmer, and faster than expected.

OK, did "they" expect it to be even colder than it is right now?

Crist's energy policy for Florida is made of pixie dust -- OrlandoSentinel.com

They collaborated with his Action Team on Energy and Climate Change to produce a glowing report on Crist's energy policies. These include a goal of getting 20 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2020.

20 percent by 2020.

Our energy policy is based on a slogan.

It certainly isn't based on reality.
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The impression many people have is that we simply can tear down our power plants and replace them with solar cells and windmills.

It's not that simple.

Polar Explorer Braves Arctic British Weather to Visit North London School

At a time when we are facing the possibility of a deep recession, The Intelligence Squared Green Festival of Debate on Climate will bring together some of the most expert, authoritative and controversial voices on climate change. They will debate the scientific, regulatory, economic and social dimensions of the issue and discuss what should be done at government, corporate and individual levels to tackle whatever challenges we face.

The event’s 25-strong list of renowned speakers from all over the world will include Nobel-prize laureate Professor Mohan Monasinghe (Vice Chairman IPCC joint Nobel Peace laureate with Al Gore in 2007), Professor Robert Watson - DEFRA’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Christine Loh – one of TIME magazine’s ‘Heroes of the Environment’, Tony Juniper, Former Executive Chairman of Friends of the Earth and David Bellamy, renowned broadcaster, botanist and environmental activist.

The big chill: Baby, it's cold *worldwide* - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk

From Courchevel and Chamonix in France to the slopes of Lombardy and the Tyrol, they have seen nothing like it for a generation.

At almost any other time, the best skiing conditions in a quarter of a century would be a cause for celebration for more than 1.3 million British snowsports enthusiasts.
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The skiing is just as good in the United States.

OH CAROL, WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING A SOCIALIST? - JunkScience.com -- Steven Milloy, Publisher

If there's nothing wrong with an acknowledged socialist [energy/environment czar Carol Browner] being a top Obama administration official, then what's up with the mysterious and Stalinist-like disappearance of Browner from [Socialist International's] web site?

BTW, SI wasn't entirely successful in scrubbing its web site. If you to a site search on "Browner" you'll get (at least for now) a vestigal page indicating her attendance at a November 19, 2008 meeting in London.

Climate change is more than abstract idea - Opinion - smh.com.au

While legitimate science retains doubt about many aspects of global warming, such as the distribution of vegetation, the frequency of forest fires or the survival of species adapted to cold climates, the basic relationship of carbon dioxide to rising temperatures is not a subject of serious debate.
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Its appearance in newspapers is filtered by journalists, few of whom have scientific training. Any climate sceptic with any sort of scientific training is shunned by colleagues but covered in compensatory glory by the far right.
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Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatry registrar.

A tale of two "pollutants" — The Daily Climate

LANSING, Mich. - After more than a decade of research, a team of scientists has found that by releasing one pollutant into the environment, we might help capture another.

Findings from one of the National Science Foundation's longest-running studies show that adding nitrogen to soil prompts northern hardwood forests to absorb more heat-trapping carbon dioxide.
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Andrew McGlashen, a second-year graduate student at Michigan State University's Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, is an intern at Environmental Health News and the Daily Climate.

I'd still like to see a spreadsheet laying out the details of those 7 million jobs Obama promised to "create"

Efficiency Help Wanted - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Training and technical schools would also be needed to teach some of these skills, Mr. Burt said — adding that, in all, some 56,000 new workers and 14,000 project managers would be needed to realize Mr. Obama’s one-year goals.

“Then there would be thousands of new accountants and office staff needed to support this volume of work, folks to verify savings and quality assurance professionals,” Mr. Burt said. “Someone will have to train all of these new employees and someone will have to manufacture the products they install.”

The Obama Promise: Five Million New Green Jobs : Red, Green, and Blue

“We’ll create 5 million new, high-wage jobs by investing in the renewable sources of energy that will eliminate the oil we currently import from the Middle East in 10 years, and we’ll create 2 million jobs by rebuilding our crumbling roads, schools, and bridges.”

Alarmist Bob Doppelt still imagines a conspiracy

Bob Doppelt: [Alleged] Climate Deniers [Allegedly] Gin Up Unscrupulous Science

What drives climate deniers? Some are legitimately uncertain about the science. They may have heard the erroneous claims and think they are accurate.

For others, climate change is a cultural war. The reality of human-induced climate change threatens their core beliefs about the relationship between people and the earth, the role of government in the economy, or the values upon which society function.

But the dominant driver has been a purposeful deceptive strategy by oil and coal companies.

BluegrassBulletin.com: Global Warming Update

Just got an email this morning from my friend in Alaska. Seems he has had to miss another week out on the trapline. While temperatures of -20 might be tolerated, it is -45 again which is far too dangerous.

In addition, he just returned home from one of his assignments to Galkana (Glenallen area). The temperature was -50 there and -77 in Tok.

This is the second coldest period of weather IN THE HISTORY OF ALASKA!
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Doesn't it give you a better perspective of just how arrogant is the ignorance of those goof balls in Hollywood who gave Al Gore an Oscar as if he had just swam upstream against a flood of mean old conservatives who couldn't care less about our planet?

What a freaking joke!

Will Obama Save Offshore Wind Power--Or Kill It? - Environment and Energy

So that's where Obama comes in. If MMS hasn't released its report by the time he takes office, he'd have two options: He could send a message to the new agency heads telling them to release the document quickly—or, he could allow the Cape Wind permitting process to languish. What action the new administration might take remains unclear. During his campaign, Obama promised to take action to "catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future," and approving the Cape Wind project would get the ball rolling on offshore wind projects. On the other hand, Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family played a critical role in helping Obama get elected. While there's no overt evidence that any of the Kennedys have spoken to Obama about Cape Wind, given the family's relentless lobbying against the project, it's reasonable to expect that a direct request for yet another delay will be made—if it hasn't been already.

BBC NEWS | Birds stressed by cold weather

Wintering birds on the Somerset Levels are under stress due to the prolonged cold weather and the public are being asked not to disturb them.

Natural England is asking people to stay away from lakes and riverbanks so that the birds can conserve their energy and are not forced into flight.

Birds such as ducks, swans and waders have been unable to feed and roost due to the frozen ground.

Moving in Circles | FedEx Citizenship Blog

One of the questions I was asked concerned energy policy and the viability of a national strategy of moving from gasoline and diesel for powering our nation’s vehicles to using natural gas. I didn’t express much enthusiasm for the plan. Here’s why...

But if they're really so readily available, abundant and affordable, why do we need to mandate them?

Obama Inauguration to Highlight Dramatic 'Green Energy' Agenda

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- President-Elect Barack Obama will take office January 20th with the strongest commitment to renewable energy of any President in history. Obama's widely anticipated inauguration speech is expected to highlight bold new national policies to speed America's transition to a renewable energy economy.

-- Construction of a high-voltage "interstate highway" system to bring more wind and solar energy to America's major cities.

-- A national policy mandating America's electric utilities to buy a percentage of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind - the most readily available, abundant and affordable sources of green energy.

-- Aggressive near-term targets to reduce America's dependence upon imported oil to address both global warming and national security.

Wind and solar energy companies, already coming off a year of record growth in 2008, are expected to gain new momentum through the inauguration and first 100 days as the new Obama administration implements its green agenda.

Europe shivers, but world is allegedly getting hotter | Environment | Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - It might feel cold in Europe but the world is getting hotter and global warming remains a danger, the United Nations weather agency WMO said Friday.

"The Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Michel Jarraud, has stressed that we mustn't confuse the current weather that we're seeing with global warming," WMO spokeswoman Gaelle Sevenier told a news briefing.

Temperatures have plunged to record lows in Germany and heavy snow brought Marseille in normally sunny southern France to a standstill Thursday. Switzerland was shivering under temperatures of below 0 Celsius for the eighth day in a row.

"South Park" takes on global warming hysteria and Al Gore

We Didn't Listen! - Clips - South Park Studios


Manbearpig Meeting 8am Sharp - Clips - South Park Studios


South Park: Episode 1006 - ManBearPig - South Park Stuff.com

Al Gore uses the word "serial" in place of "serious" and "seriously" in the episode. This is in reference to his gaffe on The Oprah Winfrey Show when he was asked for his favorite cereal, to which he answered "Oprah", clearly mistaking the word "cereal" for "serial".

Climate realist speaks Jan. 28 | KXNet.com North Dakota News

[An] expert on global warming makes two presentations Wednesday, Jan. 28, for the Bismarck State College Visiting Scientist Series.

Dr. Roy Spencer, principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, addresses fears about global warming at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Sidney J. Lee Auditorium, Schafer Hall.

Spencer will present evidence for the possibility that past global warming might have been a mostly natural process due to fluctuations in average cloud cover. He also will discuss what his theory means for future levels of warming.

UK: Ice Age returns to south as the sea freezes over - Portsmouth Today

With temperatures plunging to their lowest in 30 years, ponds, lakes and even the sea have frozen over.
The cold snap has brought us the chilliest nights since 1979: -7C was the lowest this week from Tuesday night through to the early hours of Wednesday.

The icy conditions have even caused sections of Portsmouth Harbour, next to Portchester Water Meadow, to freeze over for the last three days.

Alarmist Lewis Gordon Pugh allegedly astounded world by allegedly becoming 1st person to swim at North Pole, to raise global warming awareness | WcP Blog

He traveled to the geographic North Pole on a Russian icebreaker with a 29- strong back-up team including a mind coach.

To develop his cold sea swimming technique he practiced in a pool filled every day with a ton and a half of ice.

Has Andy Revkin fully investigated Pugh's funding?

Why not just build wind turbines that will keep spinning (and generating) for days after the wind dies down?

Prof: Use wind turbines as flywheels to smooth output

Thus, according to the engineers, any power grid intending to use large amounts of wind normally needs to use expensive power storage units and/or backup generation to smooth out short-term spikes and troughs in output. But they believe that a useful amount of this can be avoided, by letting the turbine spin faster during gusts - so storing energy in the same way as a rotating flywheel - and only extracting as much power as the grid would like to have. Then, should a lull follow, the energy stored in the fast-spinning windmill can be extracted to bridge the gap.

It seems unlikely that this technique would be able to cope with the days-long calms which some critics of wind power have pointed out as the main weakness of the idea. The potential of wind turbines to fail catastrophically when spun too fast might also be a factor of concern. Nonetheless, the idea of dual-purposing the actual generating turbine itself as a storage flywheel is certainly an elegant one.

UK: Why you didn't get a Christmas card this year

Concerns about global warming are contriving with the credit crunch to undermine sales of the traditional greetings card.

Wind Watch: WEPCO wants to study putting wind towers in lakes

While no one doubts the potential for wind power on the Great Lakes, there are environmental, construction, transmission and maintenance issues that need examination before wind turbines and towers begin rising in the depths of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

Portugal: temperatures plummet

A polar air mass circulating in an anticyclone over the British Isles last week has resulted in temperatures in Portugal plummeting down to extreme lows.

The bitterly cold weather has also put the country to the test, as heating equipment sold out in many shops, heating gas has two-week waiting lists and firewood delivery companies were working flat out in most parts of the country.

In the middle of the week, thirteen of Portugal’s eighteen districts were handed meteorological warnings due to the cold snap, with Braga being the worst affected district as temperatures dropped to as low as -7ºC.

Shops in Lisbon could not keep up with demand for heaters and homeowners in several regions were unable to buy heating gas as waiting lists grew exponentially.

Despite the freezing temperatures, no snow was recorded in any areas under 500 metres altitude and the lack of wind eased the burden on the nation.

The cold weather drew attention to the fact that buildings in Portugal are unable to cope with extreme weather as thermal insulation is often very poor and heating facilities are below average.

Many schools were unable to deal with the unpleasant weather, forcing students and teachers to wear jackets and gloves during classes.
...
Heavy investments have also been made to improve thermal insulation in hospitals, but many staff still complain about the drastic temperature changes in different rooms of the same hospital. It is in these areas where improvement is most needed, as Emergency Services were inundated with thousands of flu cases this week, reaching around 32,000 people a day, according to Mário Carreira, the National Health Board’s supervisor of Emergency Services.

Although there is no direct association between the cold weather and flu, elderly people, babies and the chronically ill were warned by the National Health Board to take extreme precautions during the week.