A renowned economist has accused government minister Rodney Hide and big business interests of spreading misinformation around climate change.
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Morgan said the book was designed to get past emotion and misinformation, such as views expressed by Hide.
Hide last year told Parliament climate change data and hypothesis "do not hold together". He called emission trading schemes "a worldwide scam and swindle".
Morgan said: "When I get a non-scientist belching emotion like that, I just think that's gutter of politics. I was trying to clear the room of the Rodneys of this world, and whoever his equivalent is on the other [environmental alarmist] side."
It seems as though Al Gore’s contrived, made-for-profit environmental crisis may be losing some steam. At least I hope so. A new national ad campaign is targeting Al Gore’s hypocrisy when it comes to saving the planet. Usually this type of ad campaign is relegated to people running for office. But in this case, Al Gore and his stupid ecochondriac environmental policies are so dangerous to average Americans, because of the money it will cost them, that advertising is now being run to try to save us from economy stalling tax policies hidden as environmental carbon offsets that Al Gore would have us pay.Are Green Jobs Skeptics the New Climate Deniers? | Matthew Wheeland on GreenBiz.com
Much like Eliot Spitzer, Al Gore doesn’t hold himself to the same standards he holds others to...
...And finally, it comes down to the fact that we don't have a choice but to make this switch happen and we will adjust with the consequences. Even if green jobs and the green economy are not a panacea for all our problems, the climate crisis is not going away -- when the economy is back to a healthy state, the environment is still going to be suffering, and the sooner and more boldly we act, the better off we'll all be.Tribune » Blog Archive » Boris: progressive image is just spin
Which brings me to the whole point of this post: are green jobs deniers the newest form of climate deniers?
DURING last year’s London mayoral election, Ken Livingstone argued that underneath Boris Johnson’s affable, buffoonish persona there was a hardline right-winger. Johnson’s writings for the Tory press over the years certainly provided material to substantiate that charge.U2 Guitarist Green Pitch Over "The Edge"? - CBS News
Here was a man whose response to the emerging environmental crisis was to applaud George Bush’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, assert that there was “no evidence that the planet is suffering from the extreme weather patterns associated with climate change” and dismiss concerns over global warming as the modern equivalent of “a Stone Age religion”.
(AP) A few years ago, U2 guitarist The Edge went for a hike, and there in the golden hills overlooking Malibu's cerulean waters, he finally found what he was looking for.
The Edge and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, bought 156 acres in Santa Monica Mountains and now want to build five mansions there, including their own dream home. From a distance, they say, their house will look like nothing more than scattered leaves on the ridgeline.
Professor Wei-Chyung Wang is a star scientist in the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at the University at Albany, New York. He is a key player in the climate change debate (see his self-description here). Wang has been accused of scientific fraud.Deseret News | GOP's strident rhetoric says it: [Gore's AGW is a scam]
I have no inclination to "weigh in" on the topic of climate change. However the case involves issues of integrity that are at the very core of proper science. These issues are the same whether they are raised in a pharmaceutical clinical trial, in a basic science laboratory, by a climate change "denialist" or a "warmist". The case involves the hiding of data, access to data, and the proper description of "method" in science.
House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana called the Democrats' global warming proposals, "legislation that could change the complexion and economic fortunes of the heartland of this country for generations."Is New Zealand becoming the next Denier Nation? « An Honest Climate Debate
Analysts said such rhetoric is typical of a political party or movement that feels it's not being heard and is growing increasingly frustrated.
"They're floundering, and when you get your two seconds in front of a microphone, you have to go for the Hail Mary pass," said Tobe Berkovitz, an expert on political advertising at Boston University.
In the last couple of weeks Australia has been inundated with climate realist news on the internet, in newspapers and on TV. These articles have revolved mainly around Professor Ian Plimer’s new book “Heaven and Earth” (which is selling like HOT cakes in Australia) and reports that the Antarctic is in fact growing.
Now we have New Zealand following in hot pursuit with the launch of “Air Con” by Ian Wishart and climate realist articles in the NZ Herald below...
“Even advocates of cap-and-trade admit the purpose of the plan is to raise the cost of energy,” AEA president Thomas J. Pyle said in an e-mail message to media outlets in eastern North Carolina. “That fact is not in dispute. The real fight in Washington is over how high those costs will go, and what, exactly, we can expect to get from engaging in the unilateral disarmament of our energy and economic future.”
Pyle called the ad campaign “an attempt to expand the reach of this debate to a much wider audience than has previously been included thus far — along the way providing some facts, figures and sunlight we hope will better inform the discussion moving ahead.”
Congress has to act on global warming and energy independence, [U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C] told The Daily Advance this week.
“This debate is not about cap and trade,” Butterfield said. “The debate is about climate change and global warming. There’s near-unanimous agreement that the planet is warming and that the climate is changing and that we need to take federal action to correct that.
Some financial interests, including the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, have been pushing the scam as means of increasing the value of a financial instrument they call "carbon credits". These carbon credits potentially allow financial parasites to cut themselves in for a portion of the revenue of various companies. Carbon credits inflate the cost of goods and services and may force companies to lay off people who would otherwise not lose their jobs.Nenana ice finally goes out: Mick first, Blair second, warmists last | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
Supporters of the global warming scam claim they want to protect the environment, but they call CO2 a pollutant even though it is essential to biological life. Plants need CO2 to produce the food we eat.
The scammers by emphasizing a non-threat to the environment divert attention from ways humans actually affect the environment such as the production of black soot in China's dirty coal electrical plants. Black soot mixing with snow in the Arctic converts sunlight into heat that melts the snow. Without the soot the snow would reflect the sunlight back into space.
I plan to elaborate on some of these points in future posts.
From the earliest break-up of the ice to the latest, this year ranked 35th.
The lives of women and children are particularly being affected by the growing problem of climate change, a United Nations official has warned.Al Fin: Carbon Hysteria Threatens World Economies
Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations' Develop-ment Programme (UNDP), Akiko Fujii, has stressed that changes in weather patterns have affected the physical growth and educational status of many children.
The tragedy of these governmental policy blunders is that they are all totally unnecessary. There is no climate catastrophe brewing. The likely sea level rise between now and the year 2100 is approximately 3 1/2 inches. Antarctica is not losing ice -- in fact Antarctica is gaining sea ice at a startling rate. The far more realistic threat is global cooling, with deadly cold winters, shorter growing seasons and less rainfall leading to more global hunger.
THE Bureau of Metereology has backed down from a claim that temperatures at Australia's three bases in Antarctica have been warming over the past three decades.The Age of Pandemics - WSJ.com
The threat of deadly new viruses is on the rise due to population growth, climate change and increased contact between humans and animals. What the world needs to do to prepare.Twitter / Michael Townsend
Another great weekend -- in Greenland they're saying climate change is a wonderful thing (on CRNT anyway)American Thinker Blog: Another part of global warming theory 'topples'
The fragile and tentative nature of climate science is once again on display, this time via "new data of novel high precision", obtained by glacier researchers in New Zealand, utilizing radioactive isotopes in studying behavior of a glacier in that country. The New Zealand Herald report...Twitter / DMW
As a Mom, muddy footprints bother me A LOT more than Carbon footprints. Sorry Al Gore!
If you have to reframe your talking points, it might not be the talking points, but the issue itself. Climate change didn’t work, because too many people understood that it was code word for “oh, sh*t, what do we call it when it is freakin’ cold outside, people can’t get to work or school because of snow and ice, and people are dying?”dispatches from TJICistan » Blog Archive » a tour of the left-wing propaganda refinery
(a) sometimes the problem is, as Roy Rogers said, the things you know that just aren’t soThe Reference Frame: RSS MSU: 2nd coldest April since 1999
(b) …which is to say, perhaps the reason people don’t care that much about liberal plans for the environment is that they correctly see that their standards of living are more impacted by taxes or poor schools than they are by an extra part-per-million of carbon in the atmosphere.
(c) change the name from ‘global warming’ to ‘happy pink ponies’, if you want, and if ‘happy pink ponies’ involves more leftist lies masquerading as settled science (mass first world starvation, wild animals going blind because of chlorofluorocarbons, etc.), then pretty soon ‘happy pink ponies’ will also be a code word for “progressive liberals, gay marriage and other such issues.”
RSS MSU data for April 2009 are out. The global temperature anomaly, 0.202 °C, is 0.008 °C warmer than the figure from March 2009.
It makes April 2008 the second coldest April since 1999, after April 2008 that was even colder, mostly due to the La Nina conditions. April 2009 was also a whopping 0.65 °C cooler than April 1998: the latter month's anomaly, 0.858 °C, remains the hottest reading on their record: the El Nino of the century is to be blamed.
Maybe those in control of the research dollars are afraid of what might be found if the research community looked too closely at the satellite measurements. There are now billions — if not trillions — of dollars in future taxes, economic growth, and transfers of wealth between countries that are riding on the climate models being correct.SF Environmental Policy Examiner: The only choice that matters regarding global warming
Scientific debate has all been shut down. The science of climate change was long ago taken over by political interests, and I am not hopeful that the situation will improve anytime soon. But I will continue to try to change that.
I further think that achieving carbon reductions in the way environmental activists insist is essentially a crime, and will so be regarded by future generations.SF Environmental Policy Examiner: Relevant quotes from major players in the global warming debate
Global warming has been around long enough for the major players to both be recognised and establish a track record. Remembering I am skeptical (not about the greenhouse effect, not about some global warming, but skeptical about an upcoming catastrophe), you will see the skeptical bias in the quotes I offer below. I would imagine global warming alarmists could offer up a similar sheet of quotes from their side of the issue. But I've never seen one. Skeptical scientists, and there are many, notwithstanding repeated statements that the issue is settled, seem to behave more, well, scientifically.Coal Plant Ban May Not Curb Climate Change -- Grom 2009 (501): 4 -- ScienceNOW
What would happen if the United States stopped building coal-fired power plants? The solution may not be the panacea some have predicted. Although the plants are the single biggest polluter in the United States, contributing to smog, acid rain, and global warming, a new analysis shows that banning them would increase the cost of natural gas while doing little to aggressively combat climate change.
I am obviously sorry to have misread some of Lord Stern’s figures like this. But perhaps those readers so eager to point out my mistake over “CO2e” should be more concerned that our Government’s leading adviser on climate change should have such a wildly optimistic view of the supposed benefits of wind power.More from hockey team member Gavin Schmidt
Our favorite contrarian, the potty peer Christopher Monckton has been indulging in a little aristocratic artifice again. Not one to be constrained by mere facts or observable reality, he has launched a sally against Andy Revkin for reporting the shocking news that past industry disinformation campaigns were not sincere explorations of the true uncertainties in climate science.
Charlie Munger couldn't be much more blunt about his feelings towards cap and trade.
Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK) No. 2 says in an interview with CNBC that it'd be "almost demented" to do cap and trade, because it'd be a "huge shock to the economy," and it "wouldn't do much," since China emits the vast majority of CO2.
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Munger, though, if the past is any indication, doesn't really care to limit emissions at all. Here's his take on global warming from a 2007 investor meeting: "So what we are really talking about with global warming is dislocation. Dislocations could cause agony though. The sea level rising would be resolved with enough time and enough capital. I don't think it's an utter calamity for mankind though. You'd have to be a pot-smoking journalism student to think that."
The authors showed that the Arctic climate changes are natural in origin and several orders or magnitude greater than the anthropogenic impact on the climate. Estimates of possible changes of Arctic air temperature and ice cover propagation area for the 21st century are given on a basis of the revealed stable cyclic oscillations of 10, 20 and 50 to 60 years. See PDF here.
WASHINGTON — The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.”Australian Climate Madness: Rudd quietly ditches climate ads
The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.
Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.”
Remember "Think climate, think change" - probably one of the most vacuous and inane slogans of our time? You may recall that Krudd & Co were planning to spend $14 million of your tax dollars spruiking the whole climate change/ETS nonsense (see here). Now it appears they have given up on it, having spent "only" $8.8 million.
The rise in global temperatures since 1880 closely correlates with increases in postal charges, sparking alarm that CO2 has been usurped as the main driver of climate change.Michigan Lake Levels Not Changed By Global Warming After All « Watts Up With That?
So much for global warming causing the Great Lakes to dry up. Lake levels are back to normal (whatever researchers defines as “normal” I suppose, since the data doesn’t go back that far) after decreasing some for the better past of the last decade. Even though global warming zeolots were quick to point the finger at CO2, the cause for the decrease was in fact - ice dams!Global recession could worsen global warming - USATODAY.com
Hopes that humankind will deal with Earth's changing climate are in danger of being dashed by the ongoing " Great Recession."
In today's You Really Can't Make This Stuff Up moment, the New York Times has issued a correction to a front page article that was highlighted by Nobel Laureate Al Gore in his recent climate change testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on April 24.
It is only a disorganized mob that rants against the facts of global warming. I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't do any good to fight them. It's not the same thing as fighting Creationism in the United States where it is a definite threat to the educational system. There is no danger that the global warming deniers will turn the tide against world opinion on this. It is best to let the facts bring about a slow death to this essentially harmless group of people. They're no more dangerous than believers in alien abductions.
"The smartest investors put their own personal prejudices aside," said Jeff Siegel, managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, an investment advisory service. "Many people think global warming is propaganda, but they're aware that the bottom line is climate change legislation is going to happen. Investors smart enough to realize this know there's an opportunity there."TheHill.com - Reid sees global warming debate as a big headache
“Across America, healthcare is a problem for everybody, but that’s not the way it is for the carbon situation,” said Reid, who made his remarks at a forum sponsored by The National Journal Group.Interview With Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
Reid said that blue states “down the middle of this country,” such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Indiana, rely on coal.
These states either consume or mine large quantities of coal and all are represented by Democrats in the Senate.
Reid said that he has been told that coal-fired power meets 98 percent of Indiana’s energy needs.
The Democratic leader knows he has the power to bring a comprehensive energy bill addressing global warming to the floor but he is uncertain how many Democratic colleagues would side with him. Instead, Democrats from coal states may join Republicans to kill an effort to tax or otherwise restrict carbon emissions.
“I can bring the bill to the floor but I just hope we can get it done,” said Reid.
Secretary Vilsack says agriculture is 7 percent of the problem relative to greenhouse gasses/climate change, and 25 percent of the solution....Won't life be great in a few years, after we've all scammed each other out of billions of dollars?
Lucas: (Whistled and then said...) We're going to fix four times our weight of the problem! Bless us! I know there's been a lot of discussion out in the countryside and certain optimistic folks in Congress that we in agriculture should be and could be able to be rewarded for our good efforts. We are the original environmentalists of the world. We are the people who with the way we farm, the way we raise our livestock, that we sequester incredible amounts of carbon. I'm confident of that.
It is my strongest hope that this deadlock persists, so that we all may be spared the burden of an ill-conceived, economically ruinous climate change mitigation treaty.
English lawns will become a sign of "social and moral decadence" in the next decade as climate change makes it increasingly difficult to maintain traditional gardens, horticulturalists have warned.Turfgrasses, Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming
Research indicates that turfgrasses may sequester up to 800 pounds of atmospheric C per acre per year (7). Based on this estimate, urban turfgrasses in the United States could remove about 20 million tons of C from the atmosphere annually (8).
The installation, which opened late last month, uses radar systems originally developed for Nasa and the US air force to detect approaching birds from as far as four miles away, analyse weather conditions, and then determine whether they are in danger of flying into the rotating blades.
If they are, the turbines are programmed to shut down, restarting once the birds are safely on their way, said Gary Andrews, the chairman of DeTect Inc, the Florida company which developed the technology. The system spots the birds and assesses their altitude, numbers and the visibility. "With all these pieces coming together properly … the turbines will shut down," said Andrews.
So the President is lying about something most Americans distrust and don’t believe. Meanwhile, the lapdog media continues to report “global warming” despite the fact that more than half the voters have concluded they are just hyping it. And that’s exactly what they and the President are doing.It’s Supposed to be Painful | Coyote Blog
Megan McArdle points out the real problem that carbon taxes and other CO2-abatement approaches have — they only really work if it they are painful. I mean, the whole point is not supposed to be to raise government revenue or just arbitrarily raise prices. The whole point is to change behaviors, and the most powerful tool for behavior change is price changes.“Cap and Trade Is a Tax: And It’s A Great Big One” » The Foundry
Cap and Trade Top Ten List
1. Cap and Trade Is a Massive Energy Tax
2. It Will Not Make A Substantive Impact on the Environment
3. It Will Kill Jobs
4. It Will Cause Electricity Bills and Gas Prices to Sharply Increase
5. It Will Outsource Manufacturing Jobs and Hurt Free Trade
6. It Will Make You Choose Between Energy, Groceries, Clothing or Haircuts.
7. It Will Be Highly Susceptible to Fraud and Corruption
8. It Will Hurt Senior Citizens, the Poor, and the Unemployed the Worst
9. It Will Cost American Families Over $3,000 a Year
10. President Obama Admitted “Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket” under a cap-and-trade program. (January 2008)
The Commissioners of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved $2,819,015 in funds allotted through the Global Warming Solutions Fund (GWSF) from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction held in December 2008. The Board determined the funds should be used to help limited income electric customers pay their electric bills during the current economic crisis.Catlin alarmist update
Pen Hadow provided a live interview directly from the ice, where he spoke with Stephen Howard at the conference and addressed HRH The Prince of Wales, also present, as well as a number of CEOs from an eclectic mix of UK businesses.Cap & Trade [Scam]: Helicopter Operators, We Need To Hear From You!
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...Martin’s frostbitten toe is now looking decidedly pink and certainly more healthy than it has done in recent weeks, so all signs are pointing towards him making a good recovery.
It is important for HAI and other general aviation associations in Washington to outline principles for lawmakers to consider when examining the relationship between aviation and climate change. HAI is working to convey a commitment to addressing climate change, while stressing that government cooperation is essential in promoting alternative fuels and clean technology.
The much ballyhooed, two-year long study of proposals for Montana to deal with climate change went nowhere.
At a press conference held two weeks ago, Numberi stated that the World Ocean Conference, to be held in Manado, North Sulawesi, could be a great place for Indonesia to propose an oceanic carbon trading scheme.
He said at the time that the country’s seas had the ability to absorb 67 million tons of carbon a year, with about 20 million tons absorbed by coral reefs, 20.6 million tons by mangroves, 15.3 million tons by seaweed and 11 million tons by phytoplankton.
“Conserving oceans can bring about economic benefits for us,” the minister said. “At present, we are drawing up the necessary formula so that [developed] countries will pay us because of our efforts in taking care of the ocean, given that this could reduce carbon emissions.”
Jeffrey Pierce and Peter Adams of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, point out that cycles in numerous climate phenomena, including tropospheric and stratospheric temperatures, sea-surface temperatures, sea-level pressure, and low level cloud cover have been observed to correlate with the 11-year solar cycle.
However, variation in the Sun’s brightness alone isn’t enough to explain the effects and scientists have speculated for years that cosmic rays could fill the gap.
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To address the debate, Pierce and Adams ran computer simulations using cosmic-ray fluctuations common over the 11-year solar cycle.
“In our simulations, changes in [cloud condensation nuclei concentrations] from changes in cosmic rays during a solar cycle are two orders of magnitude too small to account for the observed changes in cloud properties,” they write, “consequently, we conclude that the hypothesized effect is too small to play a significant role in current climate change.”
The results have met a mixed reception so far with other experts...
Prospects of a House subcommittee markup next week on a major energy and global warming bill appear dim as the panel's Democratic leaders head into the weekend without a clear signal that they have enough votes to move the legislation.
"I think it's a real open question, don't you?" Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) told reporters yesterday when asked about Democrats' plans to mark up a bill in the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee.
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Nearly all Republicans on the panel also outright oppose the cap-and-trade approach for dealing with climate change.
"There's going to be hundreds of amendments," Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the subcommittee's top Republican, said earlier this week. "This is going to be a long process."
Could it be that Butterfield, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, is understanding the message that the Congress of Racial Equality’s Roy Innis has been delivering for so long now? If liberals have trouble supporting cap-and-trade, is there any hope for it at all?StormWatch 8 Weather: DO OUR CLIMATE BELIEFS CHANGE WITH THE WEATHER?
"For each three degrees that local temperature rises above normal, Americans become one percentage point more likely to agree that there is 'solid evidence' that the earth is getting warmer."Cherwell - News - Presidential candidate arrested in Parliament
A candidate for JCR President at University College has been arrested after attaching herself with superglue to a statue inside the Houses of Parliament.
Alice Heath fixed herself to the effigy along with three other protesters as part of a climate change demonstration on Monday.
Far more devastating than unscrupulous collectors of old has been industrial agriculture and the loss of 97 percent of England's natural grassland and wildflower meadows; planting conifers or letting our broadleaved woodlands become too overgrown for woodland flowers; and the sprawl of motorways and urban development.Alarmist Revkin vs Climate realist Monckton - New York Times Reluctant to Set Record Straight
To this deadly cocktail has been added a new poison: climate change. In theory, a gentle global warming should benefit almost all of Britain's butterflies. Creatures of sunshine, most of our butterflies are found in southern England, where many are at the limit of their natural range; as our summers become hotter, these butterflies should thrive and spread further north. There are a few winners already: the beautiful comma is moving north and the rare silver-spotted skipper has done well thanks to hotter summers. Britain may also be visited more regularly by exotic species that were once rare migrants.
The fate of one much-loved native shows that this happy outcome, however, will not come to pass for most species.
I have now seen Andrew Revkin’s reply (Word document) to my letter of complaint and the supporting email from the deputy environment editor, but, for the following reasons, I am not satisfied with their responses, and should be grateful if, as I had originally requested, you as Public Editor would investigate the four questions I raised in my original letter of complaint. Revkin says that the public statement from the coalition of energy interests and the private advice from the scientists whom it consulted are “in fact directly contradictory”. They are not.Colleagues rally over 'trivial' dismissal - National - NZ Herald News
Dr Salinger said last Saturday that he was given three hours to clear his desk after being dismissed for speaking to the media about issues such as high temperatures, flooding and snow lines. He told the Weekend Herald he received no formal written warnings, and no criticism of his work.Nature magazine cover promotes the greatest scientific fraud of all time
The climate situation may be even worse than you think — this is the theme running through this week’s issue.
The coal seams and tar sands of the world hold enough carbon for humankind to emit another trillion tonnes — and the apocalyptic scenarios extend from there
Foreign correspondent Stephan Faris, who was inspired to write Forecast after witnessing climate-change-induced suffering in Darfur, offered the starkest of reminders: Change is coming, no matter what we do. We can act to limit the global warming we already have set in motion, or we can let it go unchecked and gather strength For all those who complain of the cost of reducing our carbon footprint , Faris warned that doing nothing also will carry a cost. A heavy cost. (See the Stern Report and its conclusion that not acting on climate change will cost us $7 trillion in the next 40 years - 20 percent of all the money in the world).No [sanity] on [alleged solutions to alleged problems]
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We have made changes in the past: we responded to the anti-littering campaign of the sixties and seventies by changing how we behave, cleaning up the litter from streets and roads and rivers seemingly overnight. We woke up and changed on smoking, and drinking and driving, too. Climate is the biggest challenge we have faced since World War II, but America has a history of rising to such challenges. We just need to figure out if we want to be the climate ostrich, or the hawk.
Edward Humes is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist and the author of Eco Barons.
Faced with worsening projections for global warming and energy security, learning that the wind turbine maker Vestas will be closing its factory on the Isle of Wight is a bit like hearing that pharmaceutical companies are closing down the production of flu vaccines just as the alert for swine flu goes from level five to full pandemic.CQ Politics | Opponents of Climate Change Bill Launch Ad Campaign
Few committee Republicans are expected to vote for the bill. But Republican Mary Bono Mack of California, who is undecided, said some Democrats have told her there’s “no way” that they will vote for it, either. “Certainly, there are no Republicans who want to take a difficult vote and allow those on the other side of the aisle to be able to take a free pass,” she said.Exxon ad: Capturing CO2
[Quote: "...a lot of natural gas has impurities like CO2 in it."If CO2 is an "impurity", what's the chemical composition of "pure" air?
You can learn a lot from Google searches. For instance: I have discovered that there are at least 5,970 people who are wondering whether climate change is "a bunch of hooey.." I guess there are old prospectors from the '49 gold rush who can work a computer after all. Of course, we're all too familiar with those other results too--climate change is a hoax, a scam, a lie, and so on. It would've been nice to see at least one straight up positive result (I guess "Wisconsin activity guide" has gotta count for something). Anyhow, this peculiar search inspired me to find out what I could dig up doing various searches for green topics--and what I discovered ranges from hilarious to depressing.What’s your interest in this, Mr Gore? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
Tim Blair draws attention to one line in particular of Professor Robert Manne’s bizarre demand for no debate on global warming - a line I glossed over:NSF Releases New Extensive Climate Change Report - Science News - redOrbit
In regard to the science of climate change, as Clive Hamilton has put it, the only decision citizens have to make is not what to believe but who.
Science is now a popularity contest?
“Climate is a fundamental factor in ecosystem health,” researchers wrote. “While most species can survive a sudden change in the weather, such as a heat wave, flood, or cold snap—they often cannot survive a long-term change in climate.”NSF Climate Change | ICE | Background
Ice is disappearing around Earth's poles as well.
"I think we can do a bipartisan bill," Reid said at the event. "I think health care reform is easier than all this global warming stuff, so health care may jump ahead of that."
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Reid sought to tamp down expectations for climate change legislation, which he named as the issue that would cause him the most headaches before the 2010 elections. He said he expected that the Senate would have legislation written - but not necessarily passed - by the time a climate change conference in Europe takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.
"I don't know whether we'll have the bill passed by that time, I'm not too sure," Reid said. "It will have passed the house. I think we'll have probably the committee work done."
Reid outlined the process by which he expected the Senate to consider climate change legislation, saying Senate committee would take up legislation passed by the House. Committee with jurisdiction over the bill would include Environment and Public Works, Energy and Natural Resources, Foreign Relations, Commerce and Finance panels, Reid said.
He suggested the House would have an easier time passing climate change legislation than the Senate.
"I can't guarantee I can get things done," Reid said.
You can learn a lot from Google searches. For instance: I have discovered that there are at least 5,970 people who are wondering whether climate change is "a bunch of hooey.." I guess there are old prospectors from the '49 gold rush who can work a computer after all. Of course, we're all too familiar with those other results too--climate change is a hoax, a scam, a lie, and so on. It would've been nice to see at least one straight up positive result (I guess "Wisconsin activity guide" has gotta count for something). Anyhow, this peculiar search inspired me to find out what I could dig up doing various searches for green topics--and what I discovered ranges from hilarious to depressing.What’s your interest in this, Mr Gore? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
Tim Blair draws attention to one line in particular of Professor Robert Manne’s bizarre demand for no debate on global warming - a line I glossed over:NSF Releases New Extensive Climate Change Report - Science News - redOrbit
In regard to the science of climate change, as Clive Hamilton has put it, the only decision citizens have to make is not what to believe but who.
Science is now a popularity contest?
“Climate is a fundamental factor in ecosystem health,” researchers wrote. “While most species can survive a sudden change in the weather, such as a heat wave, flood, or cold snap—they often cannot survive a long-term change in climate.”NSF Climate Change | ICE | Background
Ice is disappearing around Earth's poles as well.
A group of Australian climate scientists has written an open letter telling the electric power industry Down Under that the days of coal-fired power plants are numbered:Prince Charles' May Day [Climate Scam] Summit!The unfortunate reality is that genuine action on climate change will require that existing coal-fired power stations cease to operate in the near future. We feel it is vital that you understand this and we are happy to work with you and with governments to begin planning for this transition immediately.
The Prince’s May Day Summit is the UK's largest gathering of businesses committed to taking action on climate change.‘Cash for Clunkers’ Gaining Momentum - Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore on National Review Online
Don't worry, taxpayer. The incentives are "funded by the government" and must be free.Headline of the Day - Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore on National Review Online
Why not just fly over America in a helicopter and shovel billions of dollars out the door as you go along?Q&A: Coming in early December '09: Copenhagen climate change summit 2009
More than 15,000 officials, advisers, diplomats, campaigners and journalists are expected to attend COP15, joined by heads of state and government.
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What does the summit hope to achieve?
Officials will try to agree a new climate treaty as a successor to the Kyoto protocol, the first phase of which expires in 2012. According to Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, the four essentials needing an international agreement in Copenhagen are:
1 How much are industrialised countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
2 How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?
3 How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?
4 How is that money going to be managed?
John Tomlinson, the Michigan Mauler, has now written a column with a cracking 38 howlers in his denial of global warmingAlternative Energy 's Fortunes Shift - WSJ.com
Other wind-turbine makers also have had layoffs -- enough to worry Iowa Gov. Chet Culver. "We've got to help them hold on," he says between meetings at the state capitol. Gov. Culver is glad that several wind-turbine companies -- including those based abroad -- have set up factories in his state. "Long-term, I think this is probably the strongest sector of our economy," he says. "I can't predict today what the future is going to be -- how long these companies are going to have to struggle."Waxman, Markey Still Searching for [Climate Fraud] Votes - Washington Wire - WSJ
“I don’t think the votes are there in the subcommittee,” Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D., N.C.) said in an interview. Mr. Butterfield said he was particularly concerned about the bill’s impact on low-income Americans, adding “What do I tell a single mom making eight dollars an hour?”C3: As New Data Continues To Contradict, Is GW Theory Now Global Warming 'Speculation' At Best?
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...the bill is largely silent on who will bear the costs of the legislation. It does not specify, for example, the degree to which industries will have to pay for emissions permits, and how revenue raised from selling those permits at government auctions would be used.
Lawmakers from regions heavily reliant on the coal industry, fossil-fuel generation and energy-intensive industries want the government to give out the emission credits to those sectors for free to soften the fiscal impact.
“I can’t vote for a bill unless my refineries (are protected) because of the nature of my district, it’s a job base and a tax base,” Rep. Gene Green (D., Texas), another moderate member of the panel, said in an interview. “Frankly it’s a national security issue, I don’t want to transfer production offshore for refined products, relying on imports from the Middle East and Venezuela.”
Although the global warming theory has been the favorite adopted theory of the political class, grant-seeking scientists and guilt ridden celebrities/journalists, it has not returned all the love bestowed on it by the reverent. Other than the period between the mid-70's and late 90's, the hypothetical human CO2 causation of global warming has meager observation evidence to support it. That being the case, the term "Global Warming Theory" has become an incorrect scientific description, no longer deserving the respect of 'theory' status.
Instead, based on the following widely accepted definitions, a simple review reveals it has become, at best, Global Warming Speculation, unsubstantiated by any real world data or proof. Unfortunately for the devoted, global warming can't even sustain a position of being a convincing hypothesis.
Savonarola, aka George Monbiot, is at it again. He just can’t resist it, can he? First of all, damn it, folk like me can’t be tarred with accepting filthy money from the evil pervaders of fossil fuel death, so instead we have to be dismissed because we are “driven by vanity, not cash.” Then, even worse, we have the audacity to be in our “sixties or above”, heaven forfend, and are clearly totally incapable of understanding or writing about anything other than false teeth, the latest twinge, and pensions [although I have no doubt that there are far too many of us ‘oldies’ emitting carbon from our pipes and slippers].Sequester carbon in a piano: forestry advert hits bum note | smh.com.au
George, this demeans you. Why can you simply not accept that what I say and write is what I genuinely believe? I am happy to grant this for you. Why can you not extend the same courtesy to me, and to other people, like David? Moreover, I can assure you that I have far better things to do with my life - I only need to write and to speak out to counter-balance the nonsense from good folk like yourself.
A TIMBER industry campaign that claims chopping down trees to build luxury items such as pianos will help save the environment has outraged green groups.Obama’s plan ‘necessarily’ skyrockets energy bills
The print advertisements, funded by Forest and Wood Products Australia, feature a concert grand piano and a headline that declares: "It's more than a stunning piano. It's a helping hand in climate change."
The ad describes forestry as "one of the most greenhouse-friendly sectors of the Australian economy" and says using timber to make long-lasting products ensures the carbon inside them is sequestered from the atmosphere, thereby making room to plant new trees.
But the climate alarmists’ energy policy would inflict harm. The net effect of causing rates to “necessarily skyrocket” on a product that everyone must buy -, usually from state-sanctioned monopolies - is that we must “necessarily” lower our standards of living. In economically distressed areas and in the developing world, this is a death sentence.From the biggest promoter of the biggest scientific fraud in history: Answers to Climate Deniers
These facts don’t deter Obama or congressional leaders like Reps. Henry Waxman, D-CA, and Ed Markey, D-MA, co-sponsors of the House’s primary cap-and-trade tax proposal, as they seek to change the mix of resources that fuel our lives.
Their favored sources of electricity production – wind and solar – demand government subsidies of at least 50 times (per megawatt-hour) the amount coal receives, and that’s just to meet a sliver of the total electricity demand that coal supplies. Imagine what utilities (and their customers) will pay if Obama and company implement their desired mandates for even more alternative, or “green,” energy.
Even “skyrocket” may not be a strong enough word.
Recently the Politico quoted RNC Chairman Michael Steel denying the existence of the climate crisis:
“In March, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele told a national conservative radio program that the Earth is 'cooling,' not warming.”
I would refer Chairman Steele to the GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) Surface Temperature Analysis site which clearly demonstrates the opposite is true.
The debate over the climate crisis should not be partisan, it should not be ideological, and it shouldn’t be dominated by who can win the next news cycle. This is a moral issue and one that requires serious debate. That requires its participants to know the facts.
Now our final pie, to show how tiny carbon dioxide is in the scheme of things check this out:
This is the make up of our Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen, Oxygen and that tiny sliver of Argon. Where is carbon dioxide and methane and all that other stuff? They are too small to be represented in a pie chart, that is why they are called trace gases.
It is a powerful illustration of the end-of-world fantasies of many in the green movement and at the top of society. Behind all the PC and seemingly reasonable talk of ‘tipping points’, ‘scientific findings’ and ‘carbon calculating’, this is a modern-day, secular version of the countdown to the End of Days that gripped earlier apocalyptic movements in human history. Yet if we are going to have a serious debate about the environmental issues facing our society, and the political challenges associated with them, then we need to state one simple but currently heretical idea: the end of the world is not nigh and, more to the point, humans are the potential makers of history, not merely its unwitting victims.Pajamas Media » Global Warming Skeptic Takes Center Stage
After years of challenging global warming supporters without any response, Wagner is beginning to see some chinks in the armor of the climate change “consensus.” He was recently asked by Penn State University’s biology and economics departments to make a presentation following an appearance at the university by a representative of Al Gore’s Climate Project. And he is fielding requests from student groups on college campuses all over the country to deliver his “Smoking Guns of Global Warming” presentation. But he doesn’t expect university professors advocating global warming in their classrooms to line up for a debate:Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Is The Atmospheric Concentration Increase From Human Added CO2 “Toxic”? That’s What The Economist Wrote In Their April 25 2009 Issue
These guys are running scared. They have bet the farm on a natural cycle that’s now turning against them and they’re hoping that the Obama administration can impose these draconian regulations on commerce before people catch on to how bogus and politically-driven global warming data really is.This is what makes the debate between Wagner and Fox on Saturday so extraordinary. As we saw last week when Democrats squashed the efforts to have Lord Monckton side-by-side with Al Gore before Congress and the American media, global warming advocates are reluctant to provide any venue for their “science” to be subject to scrutiny or debate. With such deliberate obstruction, it is hard to see how their “science” is little more than propaganda.
At the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, CO2 does not fit any of these definitions. The Economist (and if they accurately reported) the EPA postion misrepresent the actual effect of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is a climate forcing NOT a toxic air pollutant.
NEW DELHI: The global financial meltdown may have forced the Yale University in US to slash its overall endowment from $24 billion to $17. 5Ecofanatics took over Earth Day | hattiesburgamerican.com | Hattiesburg American
billion and reduce its workforce by 300 people, but that has not affected the university's initiatives in India, a senior varsity official said here.
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As part of the India Initiative, the university has also appointed climate scientist R.K. Pachauri, who had chaired the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as the part-time head of the university's new Yale Climate and Energy Institute set up in March 2009.
The institute is partnering TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), led by Pachauri, in clean energy and climate change, he said.
"Yale is also looking at strategic dialogues between India, China and US on climate change prior to the UN meetings in Copenhagen in December to lay the groundwork for a post-Kyoto protocol," Joseph said.
...all the media hype and politically correct blather this year have demonstrated that ecofanatics have hijacked Earth Day to push their ideology of manmade global warming.
Manmade global warming is not so much a scientific theory as it is fearmongering, to disparage American ideals and to justify a totalitarian world government.
It is shoddy science in the service of shady politics which has now cast its dark shadow on Mother Earth. May it follow Columbus Day into the dismal realm of soiled memories!
Zip Ribar
Long Beach
For all the fireworks over a national renewable-energy standard, actually putting one in place won’t much change the future energy mix—or the cost of electricity.The Met Office UK summer forecast - Mad Dogs and Englishmen « Watts Up With That?
Persistence is the British trait which kept the Shackleton crew alive and helped England withstand the Nazi’s throughout World War II. It keeps the Catlin Crew going and kept Lewis Pugh relentlessly paddling his kayak over Arctic Ice towards the pole. And it is the same trait which keeps the UK Met Office forecasting warm summers year after year. The Met Office forecast 2007 to be the warmest year ever globally, and a hot summer in the UK.Minnesota House says no to new nuclear power plants
A move to open Minnesota to future nuclear power plants fell short Thursday in the House, hurting the chances of any change this year.Murdock: War on CO2 leaves Americans waiting to exhale | ScrippsNews
The vote was 72-60 against undoing a 15-year-old moratorium on new nuclear facilities.
CO2 hidden within a new forest's trees would stay stashed until 2100. But wind turbines and atomic reactors age. Either of those strategies would have to be repeated periodically until the 22nd Century, and at epic expense. Remember: Every billion spent combating CO2 as if it were the swine-flu virus is one less billion to cure the swine flu, educate Kindergartners, or feed impoverished octogenarians.
"The idea that the world can achieve these atmospheric targets at anything approaching affordable cost is quite simply fantasy," Murray told me. "After 10 years with no temperature increase -- something the climate models failed to predict -- it is irresponsible in the extreme to suggest we should try to meet these targets at any cost. It would be like Gerald Ford's flu vaccinations, which seemed like a good idea to save a few hundred lives, but ended up killing a thousand. Except the human cost here could be orders of magnitude bigger."
HOBART has shivered through three consecutive April days below 12C for the first time in more than 50 years.Why only 31 of 1,000?
Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis announced this morning that 31 communities across [New York] state have pledged to follow a 10-point plan that would reduce greenhouse emissions by making municipal fleets and infrastructure more energy efficient and encouraging residents to do the same.List of towns in New York - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 10-point plan, called the Climate Smart Community Pledge, encourages local governments to use fuel-efficient vehicles, organize hazardous waste recycling for residents and use “greener” lighting in government-owned buildings.
As of the 2000 census, the 62 counties of New York State are subdivided into 932 towns and 62 cities.
As one of the world’s leading research and trust companies, BRE specializes in building sustainable and innovative communities, and believes that carbon neutral homes of the future could be made utilizing hemp.Which MP dares launch this book in Victoria? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
And other politicians would do well to note that the earth does not swallow Boswell whole, and that they, too, may dare speak up in defence of debate, reason and science.Letters: Stephen C. Elkjer - On the path to socialism
If cap and trade (remember Al Gore's global warming is a hoax) is passed and the new tax on oil companies is put in place, you will pay almost $3,100 more per year in energy costs. Is that the change you voted for?Spring Trees Affected by Freezing Winters
MINNEAPOLIS - It's finally starting to feel like spring, but the harsh winter has taken a toll on a lot of plants and trees.Global warming arguments lack proper evidence, logic - The Daily Collegian Online
It's not just people that get frostbite; evergreens around Twin Cities were also affected by Minnesota’s cold temperatures.
Studies published about the same time as his letter prove the Earth is currently cooling, the ice packs are growing, and we have an increase in the number of Polar bears, all over the last decade while CO2 generation has increased. I would apply this evidence to the Global Warming Hypothesis which predicted the exact opposite of these trends and reject it completely. We have plenty of real environmental problems to work on!
Al Black
Sydney, Australia
Wind energy advocate and entrepreneur Derek Tennant says you can't be on the fence about global warming.Twitter / Peggy Braun
Tennant's company, Skyway Wind Group, is involved in developing several wind energy projects under the province's Standard Offer Program (SOP). He has eight small scale SOP projects in the Ontario Highlands region south of Highway 4 near Dundalk and Southgate, and another larger 100 megawatt project under development on 5,000 acres on the Bruce Penninsula.
"My family and I are committed to fighting global warming," he states during an interview at his Collingwood home.
"For an educated person to not educate themselves and take a position is unethical and bordering on immoral."
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"Climate change and global warming trump all other concerns by 1,000 times - there will be no future if we don't act on this now."
My first graders were asking me today about global warming. I told them it was all nonsense, that the earth was cycling and not to worry.Guy who sells scooters suggests that buying scooters may save the world
The artists' mode of transportation is also making a point. "If the 69 percent of Americans who own two or more cars would just switch one set of four wheels for two, the reduction in fuel consumption, emissions, congestion and cost would be significant-not years from now, but right now," said Paolo Timoni, president and CEO of Piaggio Group Americas, Vespa's parent company. "Even if Americans were to switch just 10 percent of their total mileage to scooters, they would consume 14-18 million gallons less fuel per day and carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 324 million pounds per day."
Statement of Sierra Club Lands Director Athan Manuel:American Thinker: Welcome To Buffalo Jump U.S.A.
For the first time in history, this bill would create a national strategy for helping wildlife survive global warming. Polluters should have to pay for the damage they do. This bill makes polluters pay to repair the damage they've done to our wildlife and natural heritage.
Passing this bill is our best chance at getting programs in place at a state, local and federal level that will help fish and wildlife adapt and survive global warming.
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If we want America’s wildlife to survive global warming, we have to help them adapt to rising temperatures.
During a buffalo jump stampede, one terrified buffalo turned to another and asked, "What says conventional wisdom?" The other buffalo responded, "Conventional wisdom says we are headed in the right direction."Homeostatic mechanisms help make the modern day climate stable, compared with the geologic past
According to a recent AP poll, more Americans than not say the United States is headed in the right direction. Welcome to Buffalo Jump U.S.A.
An email from Steve Short [steve@ecoengineers.com] starts with an argument that increased atmospheric CO2 leads to global COOLING and then goes on to ridicule the exaggerations currently being made about the significance of the small changes that are currently being observedApril - another record month at WUWT « Watts Up With That?
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It just so happens that I am of the view that increased atmospheric CO2 leads to increased global photosynthetic biomass (both land-based and oceanic) which leads to increased production of biogenic aerosols which produces an increased global density of CCN (cloud condensation nuclei) which produces increased cloud cover which produces increased albedo. Been rather wet and/or very cold all over lately I notice.
The hits just keep on coming. 1,672,437 page views this month, up from 1,478,801 page views in March.
Eminent physicist Freeman Dyson raised eyebrows a month ago when he told the New York Times Magazine that a little extra carbon dioxide—and global warming—might turn out to be good for the planet. So when we saw his name on an event around the corner from Scientific American's offices we figured we'd go hear his criticisms, dubbed "Climate Disasters, Safe Nukes and Other Myths," firsthand.BBC - Climate Change: The Blog of Bloom: Oh dear god, please don't tell me chocolate is killing the planet?
At the luncheon put on by the Cato Institute, when the talk turned to climate change Dyson started out sounding as if the whole thing was overblown, noting that the prospect of global warming is a problem that should be taken seriously. But he also said that no one should be alarmed about it yet.
Then he outlined his main criticism: Too much of the science of climate change relies on computer models, he argued, and those models are crude mathematical approximations of the real world. After all, a simple cloud—small in scale, big in climate effects, the product of evaporation and condensation, all of which it is difficult to create equations for—eludes the most sophisticated climate models.
So climate modelers turn to what they call parameters or, as Dyson likes to call them: "fudge factors."...
Every kilo of dark chocolate we scoff generates two kilos of greenhouse gas, making it twice as climate-friendly as the worst option, white chocolate, say the report's authors, Sybille Büsser and Niels Jungbluth.Hmm: BP stepping off the "green" bandwagon?
The energy company BP, which famously rebranded itself as 'Beyond Petroleum' in 2000 and pledged that being 'Green' was a core company belief, has replaced its trademark 'Green' brand value with a committment to be 'Responsible', according to the BP website.
In practice, this means that BP wishes to be seen from now on as 'committed to the safety and development of our people and the communities and societies in which we operate ... no accidents, no harm to people and no damage to the environment.'
While most Christian ministers agree that human beings are to care for creation, they disagree on the details. That's especially true about the topic of global warming.Twitter / keelygirl
Just watched Bill Clinton give a speech about global warming and the economy followed by Will.I.am from Black Eyed Peas performing! Awesome!Questar’s CEO on Energy and Climate Realities (A pretty darn good industry speech in our age of T. Boone Pickens, Aubrey McClendon, and other energy interventionists) — MasterResource
Now, I’d love to stand here and debate the science of global warming. The media of course long ago declared that debate over – global warming is a planetary emergency, we’ve got to change the way we live now. I’ve followed this debate closely for over 15 years. I read everything I get my hands on. I’m an engineer, so I tend to be skeptical when journalists hyperventilate about science – “World coming to an end – details at 11”. My research convinces me that claims of a scientific consensus about global warming mislead the public and policy makers – and may reflect another agenda.Is Climate Change the “Defining Challenge of Our Age”? Part 3 of 3 « Watts Up With That?
Thus we see that neither on grounds of public health nor on ecological factors is climate change likely to be the most important problem facing the globe this century.Twitter / rrea83
So the next time anyone claims that climate change is the most important environmental problem facing the globe now or whenever, ask to see their proof that climate change outranks other problems.
Global warming: all the cool planets are doing it!
Let’s settle down and think this through and not throw away our oil-based economy just yet. We have time to change to other technologies. Let’s not tax energy around the world, which would be a tax on the poor (China and India won’t pay anyway). There is no urgency to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 is the heaviest gas in the atmosphere and only 500 parts per million; it hugs the earth and feeds vegetation. It does not pollute any more than water vapor (now there’s a real greenhouse gas!)What's Good for Chrysler is Good for the Masses - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online
My father told me once that someday the government would find a way to tax the air we breathe.
So let’s come full circle from the great crisis of “global warming” and “climate change” to just “the weather.”
James Shannon
Regarding my post and Henry's below (and his longer Corner item), the signals could not be any more clear about the present and future machinations and motivations involved in the unfolding Chrysler disaster than what I just saw:Greed, Green and Grains: What coordination problem?At his presser announcing the matter, the individual immediately to his left (not much room, admittedly . . . except possibly for recent-ex-board members of the Socialist International) appeared to be none other than Climate and Energy Czarina Carol Browner.Ummm . . . why? At an event to announce an auto company's . . . state . . . managed . . . future. Ah. Right.
In my own circles I hear that climate scientists sounding the alarm about global warming are simply pursuing larger federally-funded research budgets. I wonder if these people have thought carefully about the coordination problems involved with such a strategy, and compared it to, say, coordination by OPEC countries (which appears largely ineffective at controlling prices[1][2]).
Storm total snowfall at the Great Falls airport for the three day period of April 27...28...29 measured 25.4 inches. This is an all time three day snowfall record which surpasses the previous record of 18.1 inches set November 26...27...28 in 2005. Snowfall at the Great Falls airport for the two day period of April 28...29 measured 24.2 inches. This is also an all time snowfall record which surpasses the previous record of 17.3 inches set April 19...20 in 1973.3 WSJ Letters to the Editor: How much CO2 can EPA control? | GORE LIED
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The AP is again is playing up the cracks in the Wilkins ice Sheet in The story Antarctic Ice Sheet Falling Apart. The AP reports scientists warn massive ice chunks are crumbling away from a shelf in the western Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said Wednesday, warning that 1,300 square miles of ice - an area larger than Rhode Island - was in danger of breaking off in coming weeks. While that seems large it is just 0.048% of the Antarctic ice sheet and will quickly refreeze in the rapidly growing ice shield that will more than double its size during the long southern winter. Also not reported is the fact that the current ice sheet remains well above normal for the time of year in the 30 year record (1,250,000 square km above the normal about 21.7%).
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Temperatures in April were very cold for early fall with temperatures as low as -104F at Vostok and -90F at the Amundsen Scot AFB at the South Pole.
Why the reluctance to state that the cost is billions of dollars to the general population, as we will all pay for this folly?[Allegedly] Growing Interest in the Climate Change [Scam] | Reuters
John Fischer
Palatine, Ill.
A two-year old Climate Change Market Index developed by HSBC in Britain is getting attention from at least one of the biggest pension fund investors on this side of the pond, signaling to U.S.-based manufacturers that positioning themselves to take advantage of a green economy is a good bet going forward.
Investors will increasingly seek companies making climate change-related products. Kevin Bourne, managing director of equities in HSBC’s global banking and markets unit, told about 100 attendees at the Sustainable Manufacturing Summit in Chicago this week.
“It doesn’t matter if investors believe in climate change or not, they know it’s a good investment category,” he said. “But investors are global and if they can’t find your company, they can’t lend their money to you. The tough question is how to let investors know that you’re involved in climate change.”
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After Bourne’s formal remarks at the summit, he told me HSBC has just signed on one of the largest U.S. employee pension funds as a new client to gain access to the companies listed on its climate change index. While he wouldn’t name the fund specifically, Bourne said it was among the four largest: either California State Teachers’ Retirement System, California Public Employees Retirement System, State of New York Employees’ Retirement System, or the Florida Retirement System.
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Howard A. Learner, executive director of Chicago’s Environmental Law & Policy Center and President Barack Obama’s chief climate change advisor during the presidential election campaign, was fervent that a green revolution is underway. “People are either getting on board for the ride or they’re running fast to catch it,” he says. “The pace of change with clean energy development, wind power and other new technologies is all happening very fast.”
The reach of the soot is not too spread-out (unlike other GHGs), so how global is this mud-stove- replacement solution going to be? I have not forgotten Delhi's commendable efforts on setting local standards for PM that were stricter than national ones to ameliorate its 'fourth most-polluted city in the world' problem. But is it even fair to ask some small village (that makes but a tiny contribution to GHG emissions) to alter its lifestyle fundamentally so that major polluters can continue their ways unchanged?Yes, the planet’s future is a worry, but we’ll carry on flying, consumers tell opinion poll - Times Online
Even consumers who care about the environment are not willing to fly less and are sceptical about the benefits of carbon-offsetting, a poll for The Times has found.Global Warming Science and Public Policy - Scare by Ravaging Science Redux
Only 38 per cent of concerned consumers said that they would take fewer flights in the next 12 months, down from 46 per cent last year, while just 10 per cent believe that offsetting is an effective way to tackle climate change, according to the Populus poll.
Some American popular science journal editors like to take swipes at apparently allowable targets of anti-science like Kansas school board ignorers of Darwin’s theory of evolution, or the UFO guys, who are probably rightly categorized for being nuts – if of a loveable sort. But these editors hide under their chairs when global warming by any means other than “Al Gore’s as usual” comes up. This is never so obvious as when popular nature science magazines politely turn away provocative articles that would open up the freer exchange of ideas. Why?
Al Gore and his potent decentralized and in many cases paid lobby, appointed by him into the U.S. government bureaucracy or anywhere outside it, don’t want any freer exchanges of ideas here. Here the 1st Amendment does not apply for Americans, as Mr. Gore and his followers amply demonstrate by their collar-grabbing tactics with scientists, science writers, editors, journalists, popularizers, and curious students who “won’t listen.” (The many who do are amply rewarded in the group.) Just make sure you’ve purchased your carbon credits (ie, the right to “pollute”) like Mr. Gore already has, which might possibly mean your right to breathe. (Wait a second! He’s a millionaire! What’s it going to cost the regular Joe like you?)
The financial meltdown, partly driven by risk analysis of the unknown, should serve as a warning beacon to those who believe that modelling the earth’s atmosphere over one hundred years is a believable and useful enterprise.Denver Weather Examiner: President Obama warns of ‘cataclysmic hurricanes’ despite evidence to the contrary
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The belief in climate modelling parallels the belief in financial risk modelling. The practitioners have been brought up to use computers as a primary tool for investigation. It has become so extreme that one lead IPCC author described the difference between model calculations and an actual measurement where the chance of the two overlapping was less than 5 per cent as “[measurements] consistent with model simulations, just larger than model average”! So now calculations verify measurements, where in classic science it used to be the other way round.
The financial disaster and its enabling by risk analysis should be a wake-up call to our policy makers. Even within the IPCC there are hints. Dr Kevin Trenberth, another lead IPCC author stated: “None of the models used by the IPCC are initialised to the observed state, and none of the climate states in the models correspond even remotely to the current observed climate.”
Reread the last sentence of the Merton and Black Nobel Prize press release and look at what followed. Then think about Al Gore, his Nobel Prize and what may follow. What more need one say!
With his ill-advised and untrue statement, the president continued an unfortunate trend of politicians issuing dire predictions about climate change with no basis in reality. The end result simply serves to polarize his opponents and those who do not agree with the global warming theory. The outlandish claims turn the public off and they are quickly learning to ignore any discussion of the issue – from either side.Chris de Freitas : We need to be listening to science - Science - NZ Herald News
In the light of the latest evidence, a new question is being asked: What is the basis for the claim that carbon dioxide is a major driver of global climate?Antarctic Ice Increasing by Ed Ring - EcoWorld
If it turns out that there is no basis, or that the evidence for it is weak, a new and perhaps more important question arises: Are carbon dioxide emissions unwelcome?
It's a well-known fact that carbon dioxide is food for plants, and that at current concentrations they are carbon dioxide-starved. Increased carbon dioxide has a pronounced fertiliser effect on plant growth. Plants convert the carbon dioxide into food and fuel. It keeps our forests and pastures healthy.
No one knows for sure what the future holds, but there are some good clues as to what's going on. It hinges on growing evidence that natural influences on climate are in fact stronger than any man-made greenhouse effect.
It may be premature to discard our anxiety over the threat of possible human-caused global warming, but this anxiety should not be based on ignorance of what science can tell us.
* Chris de Freitas is a climate scientist at the University of Auckland.
An excellent analysis posted on April 17th, 2009 by Ron de Haan entitled “The Antarctic Wilkins Ice Shelf Collapse: Media recycles photos and storylines from previous years,” documents how the Wilkins Ice Shelf has been reported by the mainstream media to be ominously collapsing every year now since 1999. Haan also provides satellite photography back as far as 1993 showing the end-of-summer thaws and mid-winter maximums for the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Not much has changed over the past 15 years. Thank goodness for the blogosphere to help us accurately assess the cryosphere!
The 2008 election ended the reign of junk science in our nation’s capital, and the chances of meaningful action on climate change, probably through a cap-and-trade system on emissions, have risen sharply.Cold weather slows seeding in Sask.
But the opponents of action claim that limiting emissions would have devastating effects on the U.S. economy. So it’s important to understand that just as denials that climate change is happening are junk science, predictions of economic disaster if we try to do anything about climate change are junk economics.
REGINA -- The ground has been too cold for most farmers in Saskatchewan to begin seeding in the last two weeks of April, but they are getting ready to put in their crops soon, says a ministry of agriculture spokesperson.Lawrence Solomon: A primer for global warming deniers - Full Comment
Another day, another denier comes forward to challenge the views of Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The number of scientists who are speaking out for the first time is heartening — I take it as a sign that the climate of fear is subsiding, and that reason may soon reign in this politically charged debate.Warming to "Earth" — Disney's cinematic "lesson" about climate change | Seattle Times Newspaper
But I find one aspect of the coming out of the deniers to be tiresome — a seemingly obligatory statement to the effect that they care about the environment, often coupled with bromides on energy policy that are not only trite but wrong.
Anyone still skeptical of global warming, both as a scientific phenomenon and one in need of human solutions, ought to see "Earth." The Disney movie is for children, but given the rhetoric over global warming, it's age-appropriate for everyone.Fraudster James Hansen wins Environmental Integrity Award
I TOOK my 8-year-old son to see "Earth," the cinematic version of the Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" series so he could grasp the threat of global warming even as many adults appear to struggle with the concept.
NEW YORK, April 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- The Century Foundation, in cooperation with the National Audubon Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association, and former colleagues of Peter A.A. Berle, today announced the winners of the first Peter A.A. Berle Environmental Integrity Award. James E. Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), and David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, are the first recipients of this award, which is intended to recognize demonstrated courage and integrity in defense of the environment by public officials and private citizens in the United States.
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