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Market greed or a planned economy for human need? | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal[This is the text of a talk given as part of Melbourne Socialist Alliance’s Socialist Ideas Seminar series on July 28, 2010.]
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Global warming is an unprecedented crisis. If not tackled effectively and urgently it could lead to the decimation of the human race, leaving a small population of survivors living in desperate circumstances in a radically changed and inhospitable environment — if not to the very end of human life on the planet.
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These problems are directly due to the operations of the capitalist system. They cannot be overcome — in the interests of working people — except by radical anticapitalist measures.
We must restart the fight against global warming - The ObserverScepticism is a healthy attitude to adopt to many, if not all, untested propositions. Sceptics throughout history, by applying their reasoned judgment and hard-headed critical faculties, have exposed lies, delusions and superstition.
Which is why scepticism is entirely the wrong word to apply to those who deny that emissions of carbon dioxide from human activity are leading to rises in average global temperatures, with potentially disastrous consequences. True sceptics respond to evidence.
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It is both baffling and sadly predictable that it should be so hard to turn a matter of near certain scientific urgency into political action.
Peru declares state of emergency amid plunging temperatures | World news | The ObserverHundreds die from extreme cold in remote mountain villages also struggling with severe poverty
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"Over the past three or four years we have seen temperatures during the winter months get lower, and people are unable to survive this," said Silvia Noble, from Plan Peru, an NGO. "This cold weather is now extending into areas that never saw these low temperatures before and children and elderly people are especially at risk as they are not physically strong enough to last month after month of sub-zero conditions."
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Seven months on, local NGOs say these mountain villages are now racked with pneumonia, chronic respiratory illnesses and hunger.
The freeze is also killing hundreds of alpaca. Farmers are struggling to keep livestock alive due to frozen water points and a lack of food, which could have severe repercussions on the ability of families to see out the winter.
A dark ideology is driving those who deny climate change | Robin McKie | Comment is free | The ObserverIn the Arctic, sea ice coverage continues to dwindle while a report last week revealed that levels of phytoplankton – tiny marine plants that are the foundation of the oceans' food chain – are plummeting, victims of global warming.
Our world is starting to sizzle as rising levels of greenhouse gases trap more and more of the sun's heat in the lower atmosphere
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Thus the deniers got it wrong while climate scientists got it spectacularly right. ...Our planet may burn, millions may die, and cities such as Moscow and New York may smoulder, but at least we will be free of petty regulation and bureaucracy. It seems a stiff price to pay.
Ready for 'climate chaos'? - Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal SentinelIt was during a nine-day fellowship studying Great Lakes water issues. As our group of 16 journalists circumnavigated Lake Ontario, we heard horror story after horror story of how humankind had messed up the world's largest body of fresh water: whether the devastation of invasive species or the effects of pollution - such as the "dead zone" in the harbor of Hamilton, Canada, where toxic pollutants have ensured nothing can live in the waters: not fish, not zebra mussels, not seaweed. Nothing.
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Yet as the once-in-a-century flood devastated swaths of the Milwaukee region on July 22, I couldn't help but think back to that discussion and the warning that climate change could change life as we know it not just in coastal regions but also in the Great Lakes.
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The phrase "climate chaos" has a nice cadence and cuts to the chase. "Warming" and "change" are too mild to adequately describe the personal toll of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. And "global" too easily makes us forget local factors and consequences.
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Barbara Miner is a Milwaukee-based journalist who took part in the Great Waters Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources in April.
Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources: PROGRAMS: ExpeditionsIJNR fellowship awards cover the costs of meals, lodging, chartered bus and all other field activities during the expeditions. [If we expect our journalists to be unbiased, doesn't this constitute a massive conflict of interest?] In addition, some travel stipends are available.
These expenses-paid fellowships are designed for reporters and editors who aspire to produce deeper, more explanatory news coverage of issues that affect growth, economic development, rural communities, natural resources and the environment.
Funding for IJNR programs comes from a broad spectrum of charitable foundations, conservation and environment groups, state and federal government agencies, news-media groups, natural-resource companies and trade associations, as well as individual donors. (See IJNR's Sponsors page.)
CTV News | Merging onto electric avenueIf you ask Peder Norby what he thinks of Al Gore, he’ll chuckle and use the phrase “snake-oil salesman.” He refers to “quote unquote global warming.” He’s a self-described conservative Republican, calls himself a boring person, and has never been on the cutting edge of anything. And yet Mr. Norby, a 47-year-old planning commissioner with the County of San Diego, may just be an unlikely poster boy for one of the most momentous movements now under way, a worldwide revolution that its most ardent advocates say has the potential to pre-empt wars and save the planet.
...And despite his political leanings, he’s grateful for government involvement in helping industries adapt. A few years ago, he took advantage of government subsidies to convert his home entirely to solar power (which means charging his Mini is 100 per cent emissions-free).
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Maintenance costs are almost non-existent.
Stellar Solar Blog » Solar-Powered Electric Cars Save the Planet — and Money, Too!Turns out that the cost to drive 1 mile on solar power is about 1/20th the cost of driving the same distance using gasoline!
"Rooftop Solar Panels Energize Home and Mini E at Low Cost and With No Emissions" Green Car AdvisorTheir PV array generates 12,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, of which their home - think lights, appliances, air-conditioner - consumes 9,000 kWh and the Mini E 3,000 kWh. That makes theirs a zero-energy home.
Do the Norbys have batteries that store energy during the day for use at night, when the sun's tucked away and the photovoltaics are resting?
No. As long as you have a reliable grid, there is no need for batteries, Peder explained in the comfort of his great room.
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When he needs to go farther on one haul than the Mini-E can go on a single charge, he must use another vehicle, such as Julie's Ford Explorer.
Comparisons of Household Power UsageFor SDG&E for 2006, nuclear is 15%, renewables are 8%, large hydro is 10%, coal is 18%, and natural gas is 50%. The renewable power is mainly wind at 3%, biomass at 3%, and geothermal at 2%.
EV WORLD COMMENTATOR PERSPECTIVES [BLOGS]I drive a Mini-E #183 and have driven that car 18,000 miles powered by sunshine via solar PV. . It is a total zero emissions car for me from both source of energy and driving the car. (somebody is going to bust my chops about the energy required to make the solar panels yada yada yada)
For energy reform advocates, lessons from health care - Washington Post...That effort ended late last month when Senate Democratic leaders acknowledged what insiders already knew -- they had come up around 10 votes short.
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When legislation dies, it is often with a whimper, not a bang. The final months of the cap-and-trade debate saw the air seep slowly from the balloon -- strategy meetings we attended that once drew dozens were attracting just a handful.
...Environmental groups had come together behind a smart, well-funded public education campaign....the anger is real. One environmental organization staffer told us that members of his group contorted themselves to accommodate everyone, and got left knotted up and empty-handed. Others are grumbling that, after spending $100 million to build public support for energy reform, they were left at the altar by Congress and the administration.
[Just $100 million? Remember this from 2008]: Gore unveils $300m advertising blitz to force climate debate | World news | guardian.co.ukAl Gore, elevated to almost prophetic status for his campaign against global warming, on Sunday night unveiled a new $300m advertising blitz intended to force a debate on climate change during the presidential elections.
[Yet another alarmist visits the Arctic and nearly freezes to death; also warns children that it's too warm up there] | Money | The GuardianWhen Antony Jinman fell through Arctic ice into water when the temperature was -35C (-31F), he thought he might be in trouble. "That's about twice as cold as a household freezer," he says. "When you get out of water when it is that cold, your clothes instantly freeze, like concrete, so speed is important." Jinman rolled around on the floor trying to get the moisture off himself, then his colleagues quickly helped him into a tent where they used pliers to prise apart his laces so they could get his boots off. Eventually, he warmed up and managed to avoid frostbite.
The 29-year-old from Plymouth is a polar explorer and spends much of his time in the Arctic, leading expeditions with the aim of inspiring and educating children about global climate change through his company Education Through Expeditions.
...One Inuit friend told me that his bay was still free of ice months after it should have frozen over. Seeing these changes first-hand has eroded any scepticism I might have had about climate change."
"...If you lose a glove or the stove won't light, or you get frostbit or a tent-pole blows away and you can't erect your tent, it can be very bad."
Climate Profiteers - IBD - Investors.comAfter the Climate-gate scandal broke, Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said of the scientists at Britain's Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and those they worked with: "They're criminals." He also called them "huckstering snake-oil salesmen and 'global warming' profiteers."
Like the scientists who lived off the grant money they received from scaring us to death with manipulated data, others hope to profit off perhaps the greatest scam of all time.
Is It Hot in Here? Must Be Global Warming. - NYTimes.comResearchers at Columbia University found a high correlation between a participant’s stance on global warming and how he perceived the outdoor temperature on the day he was asked about it. Study subjects were also more likely to say they would donate to a global warming charity on days they perceived to be unusually warm.
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There is a not-insignificant caveat: Those pointing to hot weather as evidence of global warming are, in the broadest sense, more likely to be right. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado demonstrated last year that record high temperatures have occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade.
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In 1988, James Hansen, a NASA climate scientist, spoke at a Senate hearing and famously thrust the issue of global warming on the national stage.
But he apparently had some help in making his point.
We “went in the night before and opened all the windows, I will admit, right? So that the air-conditioning wasn’t working inside the room,” recalled Timothy Wirth, the former Democratic senator from Colorado, in an interview with “Frontline” in 2007.
Mr. Hansen was “wiping his brow at the witness table,” Mr. Wirth said, “and giving this remarkable testimony.”
Scientists shed light on solar activity and Arctic temperatures'The data indicate that solar activity may have been one of the major driving factors of summer temperatures, but this has been overlaid by other factors since 1990,' said the researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), the University of Hohenheim, both in Germany, and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geography in Moscow.
Feedback « the Air VentWhat we cannot discount though is that there was substantially greater deposition rates by biological processes at 15% CO2 concentration as compared to .038%. This huge deposition happened in what (according to today’s climate science) had to be higher acidity oceans, which means life somehow adapted to the CO2 and managed to create shells and limestone even in high carbon environments.
Of course, I don’t know much more than this but find the whole concept of natural CO2 capture both interesting and poorly understood in climate science. This could very well explain why the ‘sinks’ are not saturating as has been predicted by many in climatology.
Mann versus the Provincial Parrots « Climate AuditRoman M and TomRude have observed an interesting letter writing campaign in which Michael Mann contests adverse opinion in provincial newspapers, accusing the letter writers of being “parrots”.
Today (July 31, 2010), Mann sent the following letter to the Saint John (New Brunswick) Telegraph Journal objecting to a letter published July 30. Similar letters were sent on July 22 to the Fredericton (New Brunswick) Daily Gleaner and on July 29 to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Warmers heating up again!And this constant Warmer canard gets me most of all...
91% of the worlds glacier ice is in the Antarctica, where temperatures are -40c. Ice melts at 0c. Are they seriously suggesting a 40 degree celcius rise in temperature? No. Nobody is. The more extremist Warmers are predicting 4 degrees. Get the difference? Now, the north polar area is sea ice. So every time they shout about northern sea ice melting, and "The Northern Passage is finally open!" I shudder. These people are so ignorant they don't even know Archimedes principle. That is, floating ice that melts doesn't raise the water level. It's a known fact for about 2,500 years. And these people scream about science. Lux in tenebris lucet!
"Sex Poodle" Case Gets Curbed - July 30, 2010In a July 22 interview with cops, Gore--who was accompanied by two lawyers--was asked about masseuse Molly Hagerty's claim that he forced her to touch an "intimate area of his body." According to investigators, "Gore's face became flushed and he stammered slightly as he responded, 'Absolutely not!'"
The Portland Police Bureau's report of their interview with Gore (a copy of which you'll find below) was included in 180 pages of investigative documents released today after prosecutors announced that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Gore for the purported sex assault.
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When asked by Portland cops if he had any reason to believe Hagerty was "uncomfortable or fearful," Gore said he "had to contain his anger" when he learned of this claim since he recalled her having a "particularly pleasant demeanor and not appearing upset in any way." Gore added that he was "completely baffled" by Hagerty's claim that she fled the room visibly distressed and shaken.
At one point during his police interview, Gore said that Hagerty's allegations--first aired in the National Enquirer--angered him because of the resulting "pain it caused him and his family." Cops noted that Gore "told us how he struggled to control the emotion raised by the reports and it became apparent he was struggling with this as we spoke."
[From page 4 of 5]
Why ‘clean coal’ will never, ever matter | GristEven if we built a fleet of CCS coal plants, we wouldn't run them. We might as well dig a hole to bury all our money -- it would have an identical impact on the electric grid, economy, and environment.
American Thinker Blog: Think green; but don't buy greenThe phenomenon is called licensing, which works like this: When we do a something we feel is praiseworthy, we build up credit in our moral-worth bank, credit many people subconsciously feel gives them license for doing something reprehensible, like lying and stealing. Feels right to me: I've always got a pleasant frisson of smug superiority when eschewing a plastic bag at the checkout stand for a single item, though I have never shoplifted a candy bar or lied to friends to balance out my moral accounts. Apparently that's a temptation too strong for some, including His Greeniness Himself: "When Al Gore was caught running up huge energy bills at home at the same time as lecturing on the need to save electricity, it turns out that he was only reverting to ‘green' type." I didn't say it: that's the Guardian, Manchester, England.
[Odd stuff from David Frum: He disses climate alarmists, yet advocates a carbon dioxide swindle tax]The money raised from the tax would be pro-rated between the two governments in proportion to their country’s respective greenhouse-gas output. It could be used to cut other taxes or to repay the debt incurred in the 2008 financial crisis.
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The climate-change issue has provoked great skepticism. Too many climate advocates have engaged in hysterical exaggeration (that’s you, Al Gore). Others have engaged in dirty tricks and data manipulation (hello, “hide the decline”). But maybe the biggest problem of all is the well-founded suspicion that many climate-change activists are trying to use the environment to smuggle in other concerns: to promote the redistribution of wealth to poorer countries, to expand the role of government in the private economy.
The climate issue won’t go anywhere until climate advocates jettison those unrelated priorities. Junk the secret agenda, and the core problem may prove surprisingly easy to fix.
Obama: Mission Accomplished | themichiganview.com | The Michigan ViewStanding in front of a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Chrysler's Jefferson North Detroit assembly plant Friday afternoon, President Obama Friday declared that Chrysler "was building the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow." Come again?
The visual non-sequitor was one of many jarring notes in his "Mission Accomplished" visit to Detroit automakers. At one point the president even compared Chrysler's bailout to winning the lottery -- hardly a model for planning long-term corporate security.
Eager to claim credit for charting a new course for Detroit with "targeted investments making new technologies," the president strangely chose as his backdrop the iconic Jeep SUV brand that first launched the small truck craze in the 1980s. This the same vehicle that Obama and his green allies condemn as having laid waste to the planet.
Flashback: Obama camp spies endgame in Oregon"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.
"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.
The Greenroom » Climate AnecdoteWhenever you do even the smallest amount of research, you discover that the most repetitive claims being touted as AGW/CC “science” are worse than junk science: they are like fairy tales for toddlers. The Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Hour I used to watch as a kid offered more empiricism and integrity. Given the numerous holes and guesses infesting our current temperature databases, I assess that the best we can truthfully say is that it looks like there’s been a slight rise in the globally-averaged temperature in the past half-century, if we consider solely the numbers offered from those databases – but ultimately, we can’t be absolutely sure.
HughHewitt.com Blog : Hugh Hewitt : “You paid for this thing. Why not pay a little more?”That's Allahpundit's suggested slogan for the Volt.
Watching the president chest thump about Government Cars telegraphs the Democrats' November campaign.
Believe it or not they are going to run on the takeover of GM --with the 50 billion tax infusion infusion for stock, followed by the complete screwing of the bond holders and thousands of dealers in order to save their UAW allies-- as an example of what can be done when the government picks winners and losers according to its political favorites.
China's largest saltwater lake grows after 50 years of shrinkingXINING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The surface area of China's largest saltwater lake had grown in size over the past five years amid increased rain and decreased evaporation, an expert from the Qinghai Provincial Center of Geomatics said Saturday.
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"The year 2005 was a turning point. Before then, the lake's size was decreasing due to climate change and human activities," Wang said.
Lexus drives global warming debate - Entertainment News, H'w'd and D.C., Media - VarietyHollywood for years has taken a leading role in "raising awareness" of global warming, but lately the message from environmental activists has given way to another sentiment: frustration.
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It wasn't too long ago that many in Hollywood believed, in the wake of "An Inconvenient Truth," that the debate was settled. Because the scientific consensus is that man-made climate change is real, there is no reason to debate the deniers. Ewan McGregor, who was among the celebrities at the latest event, told a news crew that he thought it would be "fun" to watch the debate. "In 2010, I thought it was quite interesting that there even is one," he added.
Is Temperature Spinning, Out of Control? | The SPPI BlogBut not to worry, it is still global warming, as explained by the Moscow head of WWF:
”I think that the heat we are suffering from now as well as very low temperatures we had this winter, are hydro-meteorological tendencies that are equally harmful for us as they both were caused by human impact on weather and the greenhouse effect which has grown steadily for the past 30-40 years.”
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The average Central England summer average for 1961-90, the baseline period used by CRU, is actually –0.15 deg C lower than the summer average for 1721-1750, and under current definitions, thirty years counts as climate, but don’t tell anyone, it might spoil the story.
Comment On The Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings For Greenhouse Gases Under Section 202(a) Of The Clean Air Act” « Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr.There are not three independent records of surface temperatures trends as we reported in our Pielke et al 2007
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They also ignored peer reviewed research that shows a discrepancy between the surface and lower tropospheric temperature trends
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This EPA Denial is yet another perpetuation of the group think that was so evident in the released CRU e-mails.
JOHN COLEMAN EXPLAINS WHY SAN DIEGO HAS HAD SUCH A COLD SUMMER IN 2010 | Solar Cycle 25While heat keeps returning to the mid-Atlantic where last winter all-time record snows fell, nothing but cool weather has plagued the west coast. (May 1 to July 27, 2010)
Obama’s Political Payback: Green Corruption - Part One - Blogcritics PoliticsAlarmingly, our environment has been hijacked by uber-rich individuals, crooked politicians, and an assortment of left wing extremists who are fueled by greed and power attached to a radical agenda to bring about "global governance," “redistribute the wealth,” and put the progressive movement –– big government, social justice and the death of capitalism –– on the fast track. Under the guise of “saving the planet,” these players, who are all interconnected in a variety of ways, are transforming our climate into something more sinister –– a scam of epic proportions.
[Fraudster Michael Mann continues his letter-writing campaign] - Skepticism in one direction is denial - Breaking News, New Brunswick, CanadaClimate change deniers object to the term, using instead "skeptic" to describe those who deny the overwhelming evidence of human-caused climate change. [What, specifically, is this evidence?] "Skepticism" is a good thing in science. But when it is applied in only one direction it is not "skepticism" at all, but indeed, denial.
Raedwald: You'd need a heart of stone ...From the Glasgow Herald;
A report by Transport Scotland, the £2 billion organisation responsible for rail and trunk roads, found that travel-related carbon dioxide emissions by staff had increased by 3% over two years, despite its goal of an 8% decrease.
It blamed a sharp increase in flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow to London to attend meetings for reducing CO² in staff business travel in the two years to November 2008.
Long cold winter, oil spill created havoc for Kemp's ridley sea turtle breeding | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston ChronicleThe most likely reason for the sudden fall in nest numbers is the unusually cold weather this year. Landry said frigid Gulf water probably kept the turtles away from nesting beaches. The turtles normally begin crawling ashore about April 1 to dig nests where they lay about 100 eggs. But the first nest wasn't found until nearly three weeks into the season this year, Landry said.
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Landry said the cold weather can affect the female hormones and their urge to breed. It can also reduce food availability and delay their migration to shallow water to feed.
Suing the skeptics « JoNovaTen reasons why the theory has failed:
1. Previous levels of CO2 were much higher than today and correlated with temperatures higher, the same and lower than today.
2. Movements of CO2 do not correlate with movements in temperature; during the 20th Century from 1940-1976 CO2 increased but temperatures dropped; the same from 1998. Generally, throughout geologic history CO2 follows temperature movements.
3. According to the IPCC the Climate sensitivity of a doubling of CO2 will result in a temperature increase of 3.2C. Since 1900 CO2 has increased 40% which should have produced a temperature increase of 1.3C. However temperature has only increased by 0.7C. Of that 0.7C increase solar influence has been 0.1-0.4C and natural variation at least 0.3C.
4. The mechanism by which CO2 causes heating has never been adequately explained.
5. Optical depth, which is as good a measure of the ‘greenhouse’ effect as any, has not increased in 60 years of measurement.
6. The amount of radiation leaving from the top of the atmosphere has increased which means CO2 is not trapping heat.
7. Solar radiation at the surface increased during the crucial period of AGW warming from 1983-2001 and this by itself can explain the warming which took place during this period.
8. Clouds are a negative feedback which means they are a brake to any warming.
9. Water vapour has not increased as required by AGW theory.
10. The Medieval Warming Period was at least as warm as today which means that the centre-piece of AGW, the hockey-stick, is wrong.
Climate Weapons. More Than Just a Conspiracy Theory?The US is certainly exploring the possibilities of controlling the climate in several regions of the world. The corresponding technology is being developed in the framework of the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program» (HAARP) (3), the objective being to build a potential to launch droughts, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes....From the military standpoint, HAARP is supposed to create a novel type of weapons of mass destruction and an instrument of expansionist policy which can be used to selectively destabilize environmental and agricultural systems of target countries...At the moment the climate weapons may be reaching their target capacity and used to provoke droughts, to erase crops, and to induce various anomalous phenomena in certain countries.
The Climate Sceptics TCS (AEC Registered): TCS Press ReleaseThe 2009 State of the Climate’ report, issued by US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has declared that anthropogenic global warming [AGW] is getting worse. It has 7 rising indicators to prove this. These 7 indicators are shown below from the report. However, of the 7 indicators 6 show a decline, some from 1998, others from 2003. The only rising indicator, sea level, has had a declining rate of increase since 2003.
C3: Global Cooling Is Here, Pt IV: The 2010 La Niña Starts In Brutal FashionThis image from Watts Up With That provides additional evidence of the power of this La Niña's cooling.
Arctic Sea Ice Melt This July Slowest On Record – “Death Spiral” Is Dead « P Gosselin – NoTricksZoneToday I’m coming out a day early and declaring July 2010 as the slowest melting July since the AMSR-E satellite record has been kept. The once ballyhooed “death spiral” is dead.
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It was the first time that July failed to reach 2 million sq. km. Now 2010 is on track to reach last year’s low. So far the Arctic has been cold this summer, one of the coldest summers north of 80°N on record...
[High-flying] Taiwanese artist uses mermaid to spread [insane climate hoax] message - CNA ENGLISH NEWSOn the afternoon of July 17 on Funafuti, the main island of Tuvalu, Huang and two assistants waded out to a reef to erect a small sculpture of a desiccated mermaid made of dried coconut shells and scraggly pieces of palm trees. Later swimming children circled the piece wearing fake shark fins.
"The installation art of the dried Little Mermaid represented the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit. It is surrounded by sharks, a metaphor for the big powers, " Huang told the Central News Agency back in Taipei, adding that waves repeatedly battered the artwork, resulting in its partial destruction.
After exhibiting the work for about an hour, Huang burned the piece -- titled "Den lille havfrue" after "The Little Mermaid" statue in Denmark's capital -- and collected the ashes in preparation for the next phase of his project.
"I will take ashes to England, the place where the industrial revolution began," he vowed.
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Huang has struck a chord and gained international media attention with works like his gruesome but poignant sculpture of a polar bear holding U.S. President Barack Obama's severed head in its mouth, and his Suicide Penguins series that finds the birds hanging from nooses in public places ranging from Taipei to London.
Mild Valley weather brews record clean-air year - Local - fresnobee.comIf the San Joaquin Valley violated the federal ozone standard every day for the rest of the summer, this still would be the cleanest season on record.
Cool weather in spring and early summer is the most obvious reason, but there is more to it than pleasant temperatures, say air quality experts.
Andrew Revkin on the Death of the Climate Bill | Mother Jonesin June 2009 but the measure lost momentum in the Senate. Is this the end of cap-and-trade? PBS Need to Know's Alison Stewart asks New York Times Dot Earth blogger Andrew Revkin to share his reporting on the subject to find out what happened and what might be next. [audio]
Crazed Sex Poodle Cleared of Assault Charges Can't say I'm surprised. Having that "D" after your name pretty much gives you carte blanche to do as you please.
American Chronicle | Prosecutors will not pursue criminal case against Gore in alleged sex abuse of massage therapistIn her interview with police, Hagerty said she called Gore after the alleged assault because she worried he would complain to the hotel and would affect her business. She said she wanted Gore to take the event "to the dream world" so that he would be less likely to complain.
...Hagerty told police she believed she failed [the polygraph] because of the stressful setup of the test in a hotel room with a former FBI agent -- "a large and imposing man who yelled at her" asking the questions.
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Police interviewed several friends of Hagerty who confirmed they had heard some of the story in the past few years, although none was an eyewitness.
Gore, who met with detectives in San Francisco on July 22, denied all the allegations, saying he was "completely baffled" by her account, according to the police reports. Police also asked him about allegations in a subsequent National Enquirer report that said Gore made inappropriate sexual advances toward two other massage therapists in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Tokyo. Gore denied those accusations as well, the reports show.
The Darker Side of Lexus’ “Darker Side of Green”?To delude people that there is a “debate” about the fundamentals of climate-change science is a core objective of purveyors of Anti-Science Syndrome suffering Hatred Of a Livable Economic System [get it?]. A common tactic, that can all too easily gain traction, is to “challenge” scientists or those aligned with science to “debate” with the aim of either of two results:
1. Have the reality-based person (organization) reject the debate challenge (because they are unwilling to give credence to those peddling falsehoods) so that climate skeptics can use this in “see, they’re unwilling to debate because their arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny.
2. Have the reality-based person show up (and speak with caution) to have the (falsehood spewing, gamesmanship player) skeptic run rings around them on the stage to ‘win the audience’.
The real target, in any event, is to foster the appearance of a substantive debate to confuse the public when that is utterly misrepresentative of the state of the science.
Math whiz tackles the big carbon sink puzzle | Meet the minds behind all that climate change data | GristAfter grad school, Fung joined a climate-modeling team led by the well-known climate scientist James Hansen at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University in New York.
How Prospects Cooled for U.S. Global Warming Bill“There were Democratic majorities in the Congress and a president who clearly understood the issue,” says Gillian Caldwell, head of the national climate change advocacy campaign, 1Sky. “We had a better shot than we've ever had. The environmental community was better-funded and more coordinated than we have ever been on this issue.”
But having a numeric advantage in the Senate—even, for a time, the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster—was not enough for Democratic supporters of climate action if they couldn’t keep the party together. “Their problem is not Republicans; their problem is that about a third of their caucus is sitting on the fence of this one, not wanting to take a risky vote just to make a point," says Frank Maisano, spokesman for the law and lobbying firm firm Bracewell & Guiliani, which represents a number of coal-based electric utilities and industrial clients.
IFRC - Youth and climate change actionThe IFRC has heard your call and wants to help to provide you with tools, training and opportunities that you will need to become the strong advocates and activists that are needed for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement of tomorrow.
Climate change is one of the key issues that you identified in your declaration, and our two-year climate change initiative is designed to promote youth involvement in this field and to empower your voice as Red Cross Red Crescent spokespeople advocating on climate change related issues. Through an online competition, we will identify and select 10 young volunteers from across the world to act as spokespersons for the Red Cross Red Crescent at the UN climate conference in Mexico this December.
Red Cross Red Crescent - Vision, mission and roleFounded in 1919, the International Federation comprises 186 member Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, a Secretariat in Geneva and more than 60 delegations strategically located to support activities around the world. There are more societies in formation. The Red Crescent is used in place of the Red Cross in many Islamic countries.
Backing Al Gore into a corner ... with kid gloves | OregonLive.comIn an 8-page report to Schrunk, senior deputy DA Don Rees argues that "a sustainable criminal case does not exist." And he quickly makes clear that he reached that conclusion by putting Hagerty -- but not Gore -- through the wringer.
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Wait a minute.
Hagerty is dinged for failing a polygraph ... and Al Gore and his attorneys get, through a "pre-arranged agreement," 14 questions that they have all the time in the world to prepare for?
I've heard of good cop bad cop. I just don't get why Hagerty was isolated with the bad cop in this case and Gore was coddled by the fraternal of benevolent police officers.
"Although presenting questions in advance is not the best procedure from our standpoint," Rees notes in classic-understatement mode, "when a person does not have to submit to a law enforcement interview it may be an appropriate practice in order to gain an interview."
Especially if Portland police and the district attorney's office apparently decided, long before that quick dash (at taxpayer expense) to San Francisco, that they had no interest in backing Gore into a corner, nailing him to the wall or making him the least bit uncomfortable.
Al Gore "cleared" of assault allegations made by masseuse | World news | The GuardianOfficial says masseuse and her attorneys were uncooperative, and witnesses could not remember anything unusual
Prince Charles: 'My duty is to save the world' | Mail OnlineBut the Prince has previously come under fire for hypocrisy over his eco-values. Last year he commandeered a jet belonging to the Queen’s Flight to attend the Copenhagen climate change summit, generating an estimated 6.4 tons of carbon dioxide - 5.2 tons more than if he had used a commercial plane.
Critics condemned his words as ‘delusional’.
The Met Office's climate change report: between denial and alarm lies reality – Telegraph BlogsGardner uses in his book as an example of the more alarmist tendencies an ad for the World Wildlife Fund, showing a boy playing baseball in water up to his shoulders. The IPCC actually warns of sea level rises between seven and 23 inches. “That is serious”, says Gardner, “but it doesn’t lend itself to public campaigning, because a picture of someone shin-deep in water isn’t going to catch the attention”.
Sea [Ice] Projections Adjusted Upwards « P Gosselin – NoTricksZoneAnyway, at least five now concede that we may not even reach last year’s low. Strangely, after July’s slow melt, some have grown even more pessimistic. Then again, optimism has never been a trait one finds in climate “science”.
Climate Change Deniers Get Desperate (Video News) - Planet Green - FeaturesAre climate deniers admitting defeat? After rejecting the validity of climate change for decades fossil fuel companies are resorting to a new approach to protect their dirty energy industry.
Case in point—billionaire coal magnate, tea party funder and New York's second richest man, David Koch, who was quoted in New York magazine earlier this week saying that "Global warming could be good for the planet because a far greater land area will be available to produce food."
Presumably Koch will be enjoying all this extra food from his penthouse apartment as the rest of Manhattan is submerged.
Planet Green: Information from Answers.comPlanet Green (formerly Discovery Home and Leisure and Discovery Home) is a television network on satellite TV and digital cable TV in the U.S. run by Discovery Communications. Originally launched on June 1, 1998 as the main competitor to HGTV, the channel offered programming ranging from do-it-yourself to cooking to interior design/landscaping to party planning. On June 4, 2008, the channel relaunched as Planet Green and is the first channel dedicated to the subject of ecologically friendly living. Major advertisers General Motors (GM), S.C. Johnson, Bosch Appliances, The Home Depot, Frito-Lay, Waste Management (WM), Johnson & Johnson, Dow Chemical, Whirlpool Appliances, Clorox, and Wachovia Bank have signed on to be the initial advertisers to the network, bringing in major advertising dollars. Planet Green aims to succeed by attempting to make the crisis become an even larger topic in an informative and entertaining way while not preaching about the subject to its audience.
Tom Toles - Didn't see that comingClimate change is a hoax because we don't like the implications.
Even the most cursory examination of evidence is now too much to ask. Climate change deniers continue to send me their strange little clutch of misleading factoids and sly questions as if I had never seen that stuff before. But it's pretty clear that they have not themselves read the overwhelming case for climate change, or simply are unable to evaluate or even grasp the concept of PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE. It's not that the political spectrum drifts left or right, it's that's it is cascading into absolute fantasy. It is impossible to engage in debate with these strange fevers, because they emanate from HOT HEADS. Excuse the cold water, but all opinions are NOT created equal. -Tom Toles
Damming Patagonia | The Resilient EarthAs with all sources of energy, renewable or not, there is a price to be paid. Even pro-ecology activists have come to realize that the improbable specter of CO2 induced global warming is less threatening to natural environments than damming rivers that still run free. While it is too late for China, where side effects from construction of the massive Three Gorges Dam continue to disrupt lives and alter the environment, Patagonia can still be saved by using coal in the interim and nuclear for the long run. And once that is done, perhaps such a program could help save the United States from its own foolish policies.
Fresh Snow On Both Sides Of The World * Up to 10cm of fresh snow in the Alps.
* Record Snowmaking In Australia.
* Heavy Snow In Chile and Argentina.
* Fresh snow in New Zealand
* Summer ski season ends on Canada.
Climate change blamed for Portugal’s “probable” first case of West Nile virusExperts are warning that climate change could heighten the risk of surges of infectious diseases more common to warmer climates, such as the West Nile virus or Malaria, in Europe.
Diagnosing Al Gore: Truth in the Balance by Mary Ellen Tiffany Gilder (Nov. 2, 2007)This litany of killers is impressive until you realize that out of the fifteen, only Lyme, malaria, dengue and West Nile virus are spread by insect vectors. A closer look at those four even further confounds the point. Lyme disease - far from being a tropical disease spreading northwards - originated in the temperate climate of Lyme, CT and spread South and West. Malaria is a disease confined to the tropics more for socioeconomic reasons than climatologic ones, and it was once prevalent in Siberia and Northern Europe. Its decline in these areas happened largely during warming periods of history. There has been a recent resurgence of malaria in some Eastern European countries that the WHO attributes to socioeconomic instability. Paul Reiter from the Pasteur Institute in Paris published a letter in Emerging Infectious Diseases, refuting the section of the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) report on infectious diseases. (Reiter was actually drafted to be one of the authors of the IPCC report, but withdrew and actually threatened to sue the organization to have his name removed from the author list because he was so disgusted with the inaccuracy of the final product.) He focused on the misrepresentation of malaria and the lack of any evidence for climate-associated spread of dengue fever. Of these diseases, the one most commonly attributed to Global warming is West Nile Virus (WNV). Once again, the science doesn't hold up. The disease vector, Culex pipiens (also responsible for transmitting St. Louis encephalitis), is the most widely distributed mosquito in the world, common on every continent but Antarctica. Prevalent in temperate, not tropical, zones, it is readily found as far north as Nova Scotia. WNV's arrival in the US had nothing to do with changes in vector habitat conditions. (Emerg Infect Dis 6(4), 2000; and also Environmental Health Perspectives /Supplements Volume 109, Number S1, March 2001)
Nasa: "Hide This After Jim Checks It" by Steve McIntyre | Climate RealistsThe word “hide” has obviously attracted a lot of attention lately – “hide the decline” even occasioning its own song.
Today I’d like to discuss the following remarkable instructions by a NASA employee in the recently disclosed NASA emails (available at Judicial Watch): Robert please move to the CU site and hide this after Jim checks it. Darnell please send it out to Jim’s email list. Jim said if I don’t want to you should do…
Instapundit » Blog Archive UH OH: The Volt: G.M.’s Electric Lemon. “So the future of General Motors (and the $50 billion taxpayer investment in it) now depends on a vehicle that costs $41,000 but offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car.” Whether it’s good or not, as a taxpayer, you’ve already bought it!
Clean Vehicle Tour? The Carbon Footprint of Obama’s Detroit Visit - Planet Gore - National Review Online(More planes, choppers & SUVs. Just your typical, six-figure carbon footprint commute to herald the new green economy).
Best Buy, Worst Thinking « Green Hell BlogFor a company like Best Buy, BICEP is the old morally superior public relations ploy. Unlike, in their estimation, those they preach to, the BICEP companies care about the planet. In the end, BICEP’s precepts are simply bone-headed. Poor people can’t afford plasmas or (pay attention NIKE) $140 LeBron VIIs.
The Burning Woman Festival of Global Warming: Step up to the stake, Ms. CurryJudith Curry actually had to say that people should read a book. That's because some of the hysterics published phony studies saying it was not necessary to read a book to understand why they were right and their opponents were wrong. I am not making that up. Everybody from Brian Angliss to Michael Tobis is inventing reasons why they don't need to read criticism of the position they support--that Michael Mann is a saint and the Hockey Stick chart is a holy relic.
There is no better vignette explaining the intellectual dishonesty of the hysterical position, championed by Joe Romm and Tim Lambert, supported by Real Climate, Tamino and Michael Tobis, and egged on from the sidelines by Eli Rabett and countless commenters.
David Cameron runs the greenest government ever? Tell it to the birds - TelegraphAlthough the Coalition is likely to come good on its commitment to combat climate change, it is less clear that it cares about the rest of the environment, writes Geoffrey Lean.
A Massive Winter Heading for the Northern Hemisphere? | Planetary Theory Moves to the Next LevelThe winters of the past two years have been noticeably colder. The northern hemisphere in particular has experienced record cold, record snow and a rebuilding of the Arctic sea ice extent. The southern hemisphere this winter has also seen record low temperatures in South America which is resulting in many hundreds of deaths (human and livestock).
There are a number of players involved which can be attributed to this cooling trend and when they come together they are capable of dropping the world's temperatures by a significant amount.
Exxon – $21 Billion… Of Taxes « Musings from the Chiefio...while folks on the left like to rail about Exxon as a profit generating entity, it is far more a tax revenue generating entity.
A Lively Debate on Climate Change - Green Blog - NYTimes.comLord Monckton also delved into the climate record, asserting that climate reconstructions from distant eras proved that the warming being experienced now was hardly unique, and thus no cause for concern.
“It is getting warmer, but it is not warmer than it was in the Middle Ages, or in the Roman period, or in the Minoan warm period, or in the Holocene warm period, 8,500 years ago,” he said.
But Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that knowledge of the world climate during these eras remains sketchy at best.
“There’s no global reconstruction that goes back to the Roman period. There’s no reconstruction that goes back to the Minoan warm period,” Mr. Schmidt said. “These things only exist in the fevered imaginings of the skeptics.”
650,000 years of CO2 and Temperature on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Packed With Drafty Old Buildings, E.U. Pushes for Energy-Neutral Designs - NYTimes.comIn another bid to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption, the European Union is requiring all new buildings to produce nearly as much energy as they consume starting in 2020.
Adrian MacNair: Carbon tax pie in the sky | Full Comment | National PostCarbon trading manipulation can lead to people “playing the market” in order to earn millions of dollars, and would pave the way for “green lobbyists” trying to get the government to subsidize their industries. None of that will do anything toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It’s just moving a fictitious commodity price around.
It’s particularly disturbing that the federal Conservatives are entirely on board with this scheme. They must realize how poorly the European carbon market has fared, and how much it will affect the common taxpaying mule. Yet we still have Jim Prentice representing the Conservative Party’s continued policy of pandering to pie-in-the-sky ideas that have absolutely nothing to do with stopping global warming, whether that be real or fictitious.
The End of the Cap-and-Trade Masquerade Opens New Doors For InvestorsThe revelation last October that many of the scientists involved in climate-change research had tweaked the data to improve their case was not surprising. The climate-change industry has over the last two decades been rewarded with huge government grants and massive media sympathy. And since some scientists, like anybody else, can be fallible human beings, it wasn't a surprise that some had papered over flaws in their arguments. Needless to say, it was therefore a relief when the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change last December failed to produce a meaningful agreement based on that data.
Ind. State Fair to include climate change [hoax] exhibit - chicagotribune.comFairgoers visiting the "Altered Earth" exhibit can learn how humans are contributing to climate change and how they can help reduce global warming.
The display will explore climate, weather and global warming with the "Climate Kids."
New German/Russian Temperature Reconstruction Shows No Correlation With CO2 « P Gosselin – NoTricksZoneA new temperature reconstruction carried out by a team of German/Russian scientists has yielded interesting results. It finds no correlation between atmospheric CO2 and the temperature in the Arctic regions studied over the last 400 years.
ABC The Drum Unleashed - Adaptation the best climate change policyWe all know climate change was a major issue in the 2007 election. So much so that both Labor and the Coalition pledged to implement an emissions trading scheme in order to reduce the nation's carbon footprint. But those days are over: Copenhagen, the GFC, Tony Abbott's rise, climate-gate and glacier-gate have changed the politics of global warming.
In 2010, although the media has dedicated much time and interest to both Labor and the Coalition's climate platforms, the issue itself is not an overriding priority for the broad cross-section of the electorate. The idea of paying substantially higher energy prices when the rest of the world is doing very little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is hardly a voter winner, especially in those marginal seats where voters are mortgaged to the hilt. No wonder neither Julia Gillard nor Tony Abbott are campaigning on an economy-wide cap-and-trade scheme.
Western Canada - Frost now top concernGrowers across the prairie region are nervous about their crops. Seeding delays and a cool spring have pushed back development in all three prairie provinces, exposing the crops to a higher-than-usual risk of fall frost damage.
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Brook said under the worst circumstances there could be massive downgrading of crops if the frost was early and widespread.
A severe Aug. 20, 2004, frost caused the downgrading of about one-third of that year’s canola crop. The discount on that 2.9 million tonnes of canola would have cost growers an estimated $49 million that year.
EPA CHOOSES TO CLOSE OFF OPEN SCIENTIFIC DEBATE"EPA could have chosen to have an open, transparent process to look at the implications of Climategate and hear scientists of all persuasions debate key scientific issues in an open forum," Sen. Inhofe said. "Open and fulsome debate only strengthens the foundations of scientific knowledge. But EPA chose instead to dismiss legitimate concerns about data quality, transparency, and billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded science as products of ‘conspiracies.' Rather, such ad hominem attacks are products of closed-mindedness and ultimately harm EPA's reputation and legal standing in court."
[Lack of global warming blamed for fatal Yellowstone-area bear attack?]Bear reports have been flooding into the Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional office in Missoula this year because of a cold spring that has delayed fruit and berry growth by about two weeks, said Jamie Jonkel, bear management specialist. Consequently, bears are prowling the lowlands where people live and play to find food.
Is La Nina cooling San Diego's weather? - SignOnSanDiego.comThe average monthly temperature, so far, is 65.9 degrees at San Diego's Lindbergh Field, almost five degrees below normal. This could turn out to be the coolest July since 1933. At 2 p.m., today's temperature at Lindbergh was 68, or nine degrees below average for this time of year.
NOAA to Skeptics: We’re Right, You Can’t Deny It | GlobalWarming.orgThe repeated use of the term “undeniable” by bloggers and activists commenting on the report is merely the latest attempt by the warmists to claim that there’s nothing more to be said about climate policy - that the debate is over. It’s like a boxer suddenly grabbing the announcer’s microphone after round three, announcing he has won, and telling everyone watching the match to go home. The only trouble with that strategy is that we’re still in the ring - and we’re not going anywhere.
The good oil on “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced” | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt BlogWithin a month of the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I warned that the damage done by spills tended to be wildly exaggerated, and that this one seemed to be no exception. Two months later, Time now agrees
Climate Lessons: The Carbon Bonanza. More government work for the UEA: not only CRU but LCIC too.Despite the inconvenient lack of a climate signal due to human-released CO2, the carbon campaign unleashed by the IPCC trundles on, with fabulous sums of money being assigned to it. One participant enjoying the bonanza is the University of East Anglia (UEA). We have all heard more than was edifying about CRU, but there is a newer kid on their block: the Low Carbon Innovation Centre (LCIC).
Phelim refutes alarmists mass migration claims35 years ago environmentalist were claiming that our agriculture was doomed due to upcoming freezing temperatures. Today, they've only changed their tune by saying increasing temperatures will destroy crops, and tacking on the threat of mass migration to cause more alarm.
Phelim was invited on to the Neil Cavuto show to rebut these ridiculous claims. The newest claims are worse than the Global Cooling scare because they ignore what history taught us from the medieval warm period—warmer temperatures brings prosperity to nations.
07/29/2010: EPA Rejects Claims of Flawed Climate ScienceThe petitions to reconsider EPA’s Endangerment Finding claim that climate science cannot be trusted, and assert a conspiracy that invalidates the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. After months of serious consideration of the petitions and of the state of climate change science, EPA finds no evidence to support these claims. In contrast, EPA’s review shows that climate science is credible, compelling, and growing stronger.
“The endangerment finding is based on years of science from the U.S. and around the world. These petitions -- based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy -- provide no evidence to undermine our determination. Excess greenhouse gases are a threat to our health and welfare,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Defenders of the status quo will try to slow our efforts to get America running on clean energy. A better solution would be to join the vast majority of the American people who want to see more green jobs, more clean energy innovation and an end to the oil addiction that pollutes our planet and jeopardizes our national security.”
The basic assertions by the petitioners and EPA responses follow.
Claim: Petitioners say that emails disclosed from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit provide evidence of a conspiracy to manipulate global temperature data.
Response: EPA reviewed every e-mail and found this was simply a candid discussion of scientists working through issues that arise in compiling and presenting large complex data sets. Four other independent reviews came to similar conclusions.
Claim: Petitioners say that errors in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report call the entire body of work into question.
Response: Of the alleged errors, EPA confirmed only two in a 3,000 page report. The first pertains to the rate of Himalayan glacier melt and second to the percentage of the Netherlands below sea level. IPCC issued correction statements for both of these errors. The errors have no bearing on Administrator Jackson’s decision. None of the errors undermines the basic facts that the climate is changing in ways that threaten our health and welfare.
Claim: Petitioners say that because certain studies were not included in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, the IPCC itself is biased and cannot be trusted as a source of reliable information.
Response: These claims are incorrect. In fact, the studies in question were included in the IPCC report, which provided a comprehensive and balanced discussion of climate science.
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Climate change is already happening, and human activity is a contributor.
[Lots of detail here]: Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act | Regulatory Initiatives | Climate Change | U.S. EPAResponse to Petitions
Myths vs. Facts: Denial of Petitions for Reconsideration of the Endangerment and Cause or Contribute Findings for Greenhouse Gases under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act | Regulatory Initiatives | Climate Change | U.S. EPAThe CRU emails do not show either that the science is flawed or that the scientific process has been compromised. EPA carefully reviewed the CRU emails and found no indication of improper data manipulation or misrepresentation of results.
EPA denies global warming petitions | Washington ExaminerThe Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday denied 10 petitions, one of which was filed by Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, challenging the agency’s 2009 determination that climate change is occurring due to the emission of greenhouse gases and threatens human health.
One basis of Cuccinelli’s petition, filed in February, was the so-called “Climategate” flap, in which internal e-mails from climatologists alleging to have manufactured data were revealed. An investigation into the matter largely cleared the scientists involved of wrongdoing.
“These petitions — based as they are on selectively edited, out-of-context data and a manufactured controversy — provide no evidence to undermine our determination,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.
A shorter working week would benefit society | Anna Coote | Comment is free | guardian.co.ukThe New Economics Foundation is calling for a move towards a much shorter working week, over a decade or more, with a goal of 21 hours as the new standard. We start from the premise that a return to unfettered growth is not only unlikely, given the state of global capitalism, but also undesirable for developed economies because it is incompatible with reducing carbon on the scale required to keep global warming within manageable limits.
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There is evidence that people who work shorter hours are more productive hour-for-hour, so that's got to be good for business.
Jerry Brown calls state's global warming law the key difference between himself and Meg Whitman. - San Jose Mercury NewsCalling the issue the defining difference between himself and Republican Meg Whitman in the governor's race, Democrat Jerry Brown gave an impassioned defense Thursday of California's landmark global warming law.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Mercury News editorial board, the attorney general called Assembly Bill 32 — now under attack by conservatives and some business interests as a job killer — "a path forward'' for the Golden State. Brown said the new law would create hundreds of thousands of clean-energy jobs , reclaiming from China leadership of the clean-tech economy.
"This is a powerful future," Brown said. "I see this as the key" to job creation.
Alarmist ‘State of the Climate’ Report Draws FireNumerous media pieces have recently proclaimed the demise of the “global-warming cult,” noting that the public doesn’t buy it and that politicians who push the alarmism are dropping like flies. But with hundreds of billions of tax dollars invested in the alarmism machine, the movement will not go away quietly.
Immigration and global warmingOppenheimer et al are using this paper as political propaganda, just based on the countries they use as examples. How many headlines would a paper get if it examined immigration patterns between Bangladesh and India, or North Africa and Spain?
We know that PNAS is moving towards being the propaganda arm of climate hysterics--witness their shameful acceptance of the late Stephen Schneider's bogus paper attempting to prove the superior expertise of his 'side' of the argument, and establishing a blacklist of opponents for current and future abuse.
Maybe PNAS should start putting Alfred E. Newman on the cover of future issues.
Lessons From Two Important Climate Forecasts - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com...I find it just as valuable to recall, along with Broecker’s achievements, one of his missteps. He gained widest fame for his warning, derived from studies of past climate fluctuations, that great flows of fresh water from melting ice sheets could disrupt Atlantic Ocean currents and cause regional cooling (such an idea was caricatured in the Hollywood disaster film “ The Day After Tomorrow“).
"New evidence" of global warming is just a new cherrypickCompiled by old frauds. For a start, they left out of their dataset the most accurate climate record of all: The satellite data. You'll never guess why! Below is the DT report, with further comments at the foot of it
American Thinker: The Left and Its Talking Points...After writing that article, I still wanted to find out just how biased the NewsHour was in its global warming presentations, so I copied and counted online transcripts of the NewsHour going back to 1996. Out of 212 global warming-centered program segments, including some online background info pages, only three on-air segments had discussion of basic skeptic science, featuring Western Fuels CEO Fred Palmer, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Chris Horner, and Joe Barton (R-TX), respectively, along with one web page. Barton's science quotes were very brief. All the other segments and web pages offered virtually no rebuttal to statements about man-caused global warming.
IPCC scientists Michael Oppenheimer, Stephen Schneider, and Kevin Trenberth spoke unopposed a great length about man-caused global warming seven, four, and two times, respectively. No skeptic scientists ever had an opportunity to present the myriad faults in the idea of man-caused global warming.
[You had me at "bleakest"]: Wrong Turn on Climate Change - Politics - The AtlanticDemocrats could attempt a carbon cap again in the next Congress. Most assume they will face fewer distractions then; no big legislative push--on the scale of financial or health reform--is planned. But they will also face far more Republicans. "Prospects are bleak now, bleaker later this year, and bleakest of all next year," said one environmental lobbyist, "I don't know where the path forward is."
Michael E. Mann: In denial of warming, lies were repeated [by the way, step right up and buy a copy of my climate hoax promotion book] | StarTribune.comHavanac objects to the term "climate-change denier" to describe him and his fellow travelers. Perhaps he prefers to think of himself as a "skeptic" instead? Well, skepticism is a good thing in science. But when it is applied in only one direction (that is, to reject all evidence of climate change while uncritically accepting transparently flawed arguments against it), it is not skepticism at all, but indeed, denial.
Readers interested in the truth behind the science, rather than the falsehoods and smears perpetuated by people like Havanac, should consult the scientist-run website realclimate.org or scientifically based books on the topic like my "Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming."
If it ironic that Havanac accuses climate scientists of dishonesty. It is those who spread false information about science and scientists -- whether knowingly, or by simply uncritically parroting the disinformation of others -- who do the greatest harm to the public discourse on vital issues such as climate change.
Climate Change: The Next Generation: More Currygate: Judith Curry has spread "disinformation" in Brazil. Interview from Época magazine, May 1, 2010Judith Curry has spread her brand of disinformation in Brazil. Interview from Época magazine, May 1, 2010
Dear Readers, I will try to translate as much as I can, but it will take a while, so please be patient.
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Curry – They do not know with certainty how much of the warming that occurred in the 20th century can be attributed to human activity.
Al Gore’s Masseuse Problem: Crisis Managers Say Fight Harder - The Daily BeastCrisis managers tell The Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove that the former vice president is not doing enough to combat the salacious allegations that he behaved inappropriately with several masseuses.
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“’Crazed sex poodle’ has got to be one of the great coinages of our time,” says Los Angeles-based crisis-communications expert Allan Mayer, who says that Gore, if blameless, should fight the charges, possibly by going on a respected morning television show opposite a tough interviewer “like Matt Lauer.” Mayer also advises Gore to file a libel suit against the National Enquirer, which broke the story, and his accusers. “Whenever you’re accused of anything these days, and it’s not true, you have to fire back with both barrels—give an unequivocal denial and, if possible, an explanation,” Mayer says. “I find it hard to understand why he wouldn’t do that, except for the fact that it might be true. From the way he’s been behaving, the only logical inference is that there must be at least some truth to these allegations.”
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“I personally have seen a lot of people melt down in this business and I don’t derive any pleasure from it,” says New York-based Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf. “It is awful to see it happen to this guy, who found his life’s work trying to save the world’s climate, and now he may not be known for that as much as he used to be—and that’s not good…. Can Al Gore come back? In a funny way, the best thing that can happen to Al Gore—and maybe the worst thing for everybody else—is for what he’s been saying about consequences climate change and global warming to actually happen. And then he becomes a visionary, and people are able to forgive him more quickly.”
A Dead-Letter Energy Bill? - Stephen Spruiell - National Review OnlineDemocrats may be pushing doomed energy legislation in order to brand Republicans as obstructionists.
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Judging from the previous remarks of key Senate Democrats, Senate majority leader Harry Reid isn’t likely to get enough votes for the energy bill he unveiled this week. Even without carbon caps or renewable-energy mandates on utility companies, Reid’s bill is too much of a job-killer to pass.
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Not Particularly SurprisingNatural seeps in the Gulf of Mexico release more oil each year than even the most recent oil spill. Somehow, nature consumes this oil with only a few tar ball showing up on beaches.
By All Means, Let’s Look to Europe - Planet Gore - National Review OnlinePlanet Gore readers well know that Europe’s “green economy” — and the subsidies underpinning this latest version of central planning — have all collapsed under their own weight (after compounding Europe’s economic crisis). Nonetheless, Barack Obama presses ever harder to impose the same calamity here.
Madonna flies With chefPop diva Madonna is so obsessed with her diet that she takes her own private chef to cook her macrobiotic meals on flight.
The 'Material Girl' hitmaker is committed to her strict diet and buys her chef a seat on the plane so they can make her personalised in-flight food, Daily Star reported.
On a recent Virgin Atlantic flight from New York to London, the 51-year-old reportedly splashed out thousands on bringing her own chef with her and booked up an entire aisle in upper class for her entourage.
Flashback: Live Earth is a win for global yawning - Telegraph"If you wanna save the planet, jump up and down!" urged Madonna. Can global warming be stopped by an out-of-breath, middle-aged, super-rich narcissist in a leotard and high heels?
The superannuated pop queen was certainly up for the challenge, but judging by the negligible response to the text message number displayed on stage, I suspect the public may have been justifiably confused by the link between aerobics and the environment.
Ok, I was just sitting here, blogging and minding my own business while watching an old episode of "The Big Bang Theory" on my fossil-fueled Tivo. At the end of the show, the text below flashed on the screen.
Oh, as of early last year, what grand things Barack Obama and Big Government were going to accomplish!CLP - Vanity Card #239TO DO LIST
[1st Aired: 2 February 2009] Live to see a highly educated, deeply thoughtful, articulate, cool, biracial President who is not overly crippled by childhood wounds and capable, in no particular order, of freeing the nation of its oil dependence, restoring its international standing, creating universal health care, resurrecting the economy, ending two wars, rebuilding the public education system, finally bringing about an end to the mindlessness of racism, encouraging science and technology, firmly addressing environmental issues and global warming, and uniting the nation - and the world - in a giant cultural, tipping point leap forward.
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One down, five to go.
Controlling Soot Might Quickly Reverse a Century of Global Warming | Wired Science | Wired.comA massive simulation of soot’s climate effects finds that basic pollution controls could put a brake on global warming, erasing in a decade most of the last century’s temperature change.
Compared to the larger, longer term task of getting greenhouse gas pollution under control, limiting soot wouldn’t be hard. Unlike new energy technology and profound changes in lifestyle, the tools — exhaust filters, clean-burning stoves — already exist.
“Soot has such a strong climate effect, but it has a lifetime in the atmosphere of just a few weeks. Carbon dioxide has a lifetime of 30 to 50 years. If you totally stop CO2 emissions today, the Arctic will still be totally melted,” said Stanford University climate scientist Mark Jacobson. If soot pollution was immediately curtailed, “the reductions start to occur pretty much right away. Within months, you’ll start seeing temperature differences.”
Flashback: In the year 3008, will "philharmonic orchestras and poets and singers" really be praising the likes of Al Gore for saving the world from trace amounts of carbon dioxide?" | Epicenter | Wired.com[Climate fraud promoter Al Gore] I think we ought to approach this challenge with a sense of profound joy and gratitude that we are the generation about which, a thousand years from now, philharmonic orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying they were the ones that found it within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for our bright and optimistic future.
Extinction Countdown: Thaw Deal: Climate change could leave penguins in the darkFew animals can live totally in the dark, and penguins are no exception. But new research shows that climate change could soon rob Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) of the sunlight they need to survive, and that could drive them into extinction.
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The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Antarctic Program.
Chilean fruit industry compensates smaller shipments with higher global prices — MercoPressOn July 14, the Aysén Region (XI) was declared an agricultural emergency area because of extremely cold temperatures at the time.
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Because of this cold front, experts predicted orange exports to fall about 40% and avocado exports to decrease about 15%.
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For the 2010-2011 season, the recent severe frost could lead to decreases in production and thus shipments of avocados by 30 percent, said Antonio Walker, president of Fedefruta, a trade organization of fruit producers.
Bid to make UEA climate research more accessibleThe £62,000 funding given to UEA will pay for a one-year project in partnership with the Science and Technology Facilities Council looking at the best ways to make the data and research methods available so that others can use them.
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, July 29 2010 « The Daily BayonetA game show host challenges Al Gore to live the green life, the Governator seems rudderless in defense of his climate bill and global warming causes Mexicans, or something.
Reid's sad "Clean Energy" probably doomed - War Room - Salon.comThe Reid bill needs the support of every Democrat and one Republican to have any chance at passing, and to win that support Reid would probably need to add some sort of reverse-carbon cap, in which the bill would call on the government to pay companies to emit as much carbon as they can, for fun. (The House passed cap-and-trade already, a long time ago.)
Cool summer: L.A. sets more low-temperature records | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles TimesThe unusually cool summer continued in Southern California, where several new record-low temperatures were recorded on Wednesday.
The 68-degree low at Los Angeles International Airport broke the old record low for the day, which was 70 degrees in 1991. Santa Barbara (68) and San Luis Obispo (69) broke records as well.
The temperature at USC, 75, tied the record low set in 1999. UCLA also set a record, 56 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The Death Of The Global Warming Movement - Forbes.comFuture historians will pinpoint Democratic Sen. Harry Reid's energy legislation, released Tuesday, as the moment that the political movement of global warming entered an irreversible death spiral. It is kaput! Finito! Done!
This is not just my read of the situation; it is also that of Paul Krugman, the Nobel laureate-turned-Democratic-apparatchik.
Betting on science: Odd and ends | The EconomistClimate-change sceptics and believers alike might be interested in Paddy Power’s book on the world polar-bear population, as estimated by the WWF, a global conservation group, at the end of next year. Bets around the current estimated population of 20,000-25,000 attract the shortest odds, 6/4, while pessimists opting for under 10,000 bears can get 20/1.
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