Ill wind for Denmark’s green energy revolution

To green campaigners, it is wind farm heaven, generating a claimed fifth of its power from wind and praised by British ministers as the model to follow. But amid a growing public backlash, Denmark, the world’s most wind farm-intensive country, is turning against the turbines.

Last month, unnoticed in Britain, Denmark’s state-owned power company, Dong Energy, announced that it would abandon future onshore wind farms. "Every time we were building onshore, the public reacts in a negative way and we had a lot of criticism from neighbours," said a spokesman for the firm. "Now we are putting all our efforts into offshore windfarms."

Even as parts of the British Government continue to blow hard for wind, other countries seem to be cooling on the idea.

Daily Kos: ThinkProgress's "Extreme Makeover: House of Reps edition"

Those would control the House committees and subcommittees also may include:
...
– Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who opposes the existence of the global warming committee he would chair

Speaking of Michael Mann, take a look at this graph from page 41 of his book "Dire Predictions"

Why, exactly, should we spend $45 trillion in an attempt to make polar temperatures cooler?

Salmon runs, global warming as clear as mud

Myself, I think we know very little about the reasons for the puzzling yearly changes in salmon returns. In fact, I think we -- and that includes virtually every organization from the federal fisheries department to the David Suzuki Foundation -- know almost as little about them as we do about global warming.
...
The science surrounding it is not settled, not by a long way. Pretending it is won't make it so.

Al Gore, Iain Murray and the 'tea party' - CSMonitor.com

How can Al Gore, life-long public servant, afford such a big house? These and other questions fill a new book coming out from Iain Murray.

When DeSmogBlog's Kevin Grandia goes after those allegedly evil fossil fuel folks, is it possible that he himself has any particular axe to grind?

Very Cute Nissan Leaf Polar Bear TV Ad [video] | Kevin Grandia

Kevin Grandia is the Director of Online Marketing for EnergyBoom.com and has been researching and writing on climate change and renewable energy issues for over three years and is the Manager of the award-winning site, DeSmogBlog.com.

About EnergyBoom.com | EnergyBoom

EnergyBoom is a global leader in news information about the renewable energy sector, offering expert analysis to keep you on the cutting edge of the renewable energy world.

From public policy and financial analysis to company profiles to social commentary and the basics, EnergyBoom is your 360° view of the renewable energy world.

About the climate cover-up

...the fossil fuel industry has continued to support efforts to subvert the science, attacking real scientists and promoting a cast of “skeptics” in their place. DeSmogBlog looks behind these deniers to test their credentials and to search out their source of funding.

People have a right to know who is paying the deniers. It is difficult to deceive or confuse a well-informed person. DeSmogBlog exists to clear up the PR pollution around fossil fuels and climate change.

Of all the fraudulent graphs you've ever seen from climate fraudsters, have you ever seen one more fraudulent than this one from fraudulent fraudster Michael Mann?

Check out that red "Temperature changes since 1970" line from page 45 of Mann's 2008 book "Dire Predictions":

Why Health Care Reform Beat Out Climate | The New Republic

I don't see the effort to reduce greenhouse gasses as having failed. I think it's simply switched forms. Basically, the Obama administration tried to craft a bill that did the most efficient job of reducing the costs of limiting carbon emissions. That having failed, the new approach is to do the most efficient job of hiding the costs of reducing emissions. Thus we have a combination of subsidies for green energy and EPA regulation of carbon dioxide emissions. Those measures are popular because, despite being less efficient than a straightforward tax or carbon cap, they obscure the costs to consumers. Indeed, if I were a vulnerable elected official, I might prefer to push the policy mix in this direction as well.

Britain must adapt to 'inevitable' climate change, warns minister - Green Living, Environment - The Independent

Britons must radically change the way they live and work to adapt to being "stuck with unavoidable climate change" the Government will caution this week, as it unveils a dramatic vision of how society will be altered by floods, droughts and rising temperatures.

The truth is getting lost in the Amazon - Telegraph

The proselytisers for man-made global warming have long exercised a tight stranglehold over the contents of Wikipedia. The editors of that online source of all knowledge are ready with lightning speed to ensure that its entries related to climate change are purged of any hint of dissent from the party line – and that entries for “climate sceptics” are given a viciously dismissive twist, Now it seems a similar coup has taken place on Amazon, the online outlet which is Britain’s largest bookseller.

Over the past year, Amazon’s list of global-warming bestsellers has been wholly dominated by sceptics, with my own book The Real Global Warming Disaster standing for months at number one. At the end of last month, however, all the more recent sceptical books were suddenly removed from the list. My own volume, Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion, Bob Carter’s Climate: The Counter Consensus and others have all vanished from the list, so that it is now dominated by titles pushing the prescribed pro-warming line.

Climate change [swindle] law to rip £8bn hole in budgets - Scotsman.com News

SPENDING on schools, hospitals and other key services is set to be hit by the estimated £8 billion cost of Scotland's world-leading climate change laws, the government have admitted.

In a paper obtained by Scotland on Sunday under Freedom of Information laws, officials declare that cuts to all other portfolios will "inevitably result" from the new climate change targets.

Reid to House on the climate hoax bill: "Get real"

Reid: Next climate bill should be ‘piecemeal’ - The Hill's E2-Wire

Reid acknowledged that would be far less than the broader energy measures the House has approved, but noted it is easier to advance bills in the House, where only a simple majority is needed. “The House is also going to have to get real,” Reid said of the need to accept narrower plans.

Daily Kos: Reid on the "next" climate bill, what could be salvaged this year

I'm sure members like Tom Perriello, who stuck his neck out as a freshman to vote for the House bill and is regularly being bashed for it now will love the advice from Reid to "get real." Pelosi must also be quite relieved to learn just how easy it is to get something passed in the House.

Local News | Face-to-face, Senate candidates clash over the economy | Seattle Times Newspaper

When asked whether the federal government should take any action to combat global warming, Rossi was reluctant, framing the climate issue as still being hashed out in arguments between "scientists and pseudoscientists."

Rossi said he opposes so-called cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon emissions, calling it a national energy tax. Such actions, he said, would only drive manufacturing jobs to India and China.

Murray called the effects of climate change very real for Washington state, suggesting that pollution and global warming are responsible for an array of ills, from asthma in children to poor oyster harvests.

"We have to have an energy policy that moves us to a place that is not dependent on oil," Murray said, adding that she has not signed on to any specific bill yet on the carbon-regulation issue.

Economy, voter anger clouds 2nd District race | jconline.com | Journal and Courier

SOUTH BEND - In the spring of 2008, Indiana Rep. Joe Donnelly had glowing words for fellow Democrat Barack Obama as he endorsed his bid for the Democratic nomination for president.

"He can change the tone of Washington," Donnelly said. "He can provide leadership on gas prices and health care and job creation in Indiana. He can work hard to solve Iraq and Afghanistan. I think he can do it with Republicans and Democrats together."
...
Donnelly is trying to set himself apart from the administration in two ads that criticize Democratic leaders including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In them, he says he doesn't work for the "Washington crowd" and stresses his independence.
...
Donnelly insists he has broken rank on key issues, including climate change, and says he held firm to his beliefs on health care - even when Pelosi enlisted the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, and asked him to talk to Donnelly.

The Global Warming Establishment Needs More than Cosmetic Fixes - Shikha Dalmia - Uncommon Sense - Forbes

When a woman consistently messes up her relationships, her therapist doesn’t just tell her to wear a new dress and change her lipstick before her next date; s/he asks her to do some real soul searching. But a new dress-and-lipstick combo is pretty much what an agency charged with reviewing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control’s procedures in the wake of the GlacierGate mess recommended last week.

Prince Charles interviewed on Daybreak by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley | Mail Online

Earlier today Prince Charles appeared on Daybreak to tell Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles that people who have their doubts about climate change are 'extraordinary'.

In a further sign that he is out of touch with much of the British public, he said he was baffled by scepticism towards global warming, before condemning families for wasting £10billion of food a year.

And he faced questions over how ordinary people struggling through the downturn will find the time and money to 'go green'.
...
[Charles] 'I would say to sceptics: "It may be convenient to believe all these greenhouse gases we are pouring into the atmosphere disappear through holes conveniently into space, but it doesn’t work like that."'

Remember when Judith Curry endorsed Joe Romm's completely insane book "Hell and High Water"?

2006: Hell and High Water: Joe Romm's new book

"Joe Romm brings a unique combination of expertises in climate science and energy technologies and policies to address the challenges of enabling a clean energy future and reducing our addition to oil. HELL AND HIGH WATER is an important and timely contribution that deserves careful consideration in the dialogue and debate on U.S. energy and climate policy."
- Judith Curry, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

APS Physics | FPS | Hell and High Water

Dr. Romm divides his analysis into 3 periods. The first is "Reap the Whirlwind, 2000-2025." Katrina, forest fires, and floods are already symptoms of wild weather resulting from human produced greenhouse gas warming of the oceans. During this period we can expect stronger hurricanes farther north along the US Atlantic coast and more intense storms earlier and later in the season.

Next, "Planetary Purgatory, 2025-2050." This is a period of extreme drought and gross shortages of water. If we start the eight monumental efforts mentioned above in 2010, then we can live through this period with hope that the apocalypse can be avoided. If we continue our current path until 2025, the "easy" technology-based strategy will not be enough. A much greater and more expensive effort will be necessary to avoiding a grim fate for the next 50 generations.

Third, "Hell and High Water, 2050-2100." Sea-level rise of 20-80 feet will be all but unstoppable by mid-century if current emission trends continue. Some 100 million people will be displaced. All the US gulf and Atlantic coast cities will be below sea level and facing super hurricanes.

UN totalitarians want your money and your life « JoNova

In charge of the worlds agenda? They want to control our weather, our money, our sources of power (is there anything much left?)

They really want to award the money you earned, to the people who didn’t, which includes their friends, their fans, and that enormous group of people who are about to become their friends. This is known as patronage. If you are the man handing out the money, you get the “thanks”. If you are the man forced to pay, your reward is to, not-get-jailed.

Die Klimazwiebel: Richard Tol challenges assertion by Ottmar Edenhofer in ZDF

...This assertion of the co-chair of Working Group III of the IPCC is at best peculiar if not outright false. In the following, I will back this statement in some detail, by demonstrating how specific conclusions from white publications, known to the IPCC lead authors, have been filtered out in support of a (false) claim of consensus in the Summary for Policymakers. At the time of his interview, Dr. Edenhofer was aware of these inconsistencies.

[You know what CO2 is like?  It's like a head-sized tumor growing out of your ear]: Climate Change - A Medical Parable in... | Gather

The tumor growing out your ear, the one you deny exists, is now the size of your head. But you've found a nice paper bag to cover it so have convinced yourself that no one notices.

Meanwhile the trained doctors have started to get more vocal in telling you that the tumor is getting worse and that you must do something about it. They show you more test results, time lapse videos of the enlarging tumor, photographs of your neighbors cringing at the sight of you. The evidence that you have a tumor is overwhelming. Even the one skeptic who is trained in the field is now admitting that the tumor exists.

In an attempt to prevent bad weather in 2110 in Topeka, should today's telecommuter in Katmandu try to avoiding using his printer?

How 'green' is telecommuting?

Stay home, and you have to climate-control at least your own home office, if not the entire house. Office workers also share certain equipment, like printers and fax machines. At home, you're probably running your own peripherals...Mr. Wheeler loses another 19 percent of his CO2 savings to his printer and fax machine...And there are lots of little changes he could make to tip the telecommuting lifestyle in the Earth's favour, even in the dead of winter. For example, he could improve his home's insulation (or just wear a sweater in the winter), ditch his personal fax and printer, and behave more like he's in the office and less like he's lounging around the house.

Pro-climate scam utilities PG&E, Progress Energy, and Duke Energy spent heavily on lobbying this year

Progress Energy, Duke spend more on lobbying

Raleigh-based Progress Energy raised lobbying expenses by 18 percent in the first half of the year, to $1.21 million. Charlotte-based Duke Energy boosted lobbying by 48 percent, to $3.29 million.
...
The nation's biggest utility spender on lobbying, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in California, spent nearly $44 million in the first six months of the year, up from $1.41 million during the same period last year. PG&E had thrown its weight behind an unsuccessful referendum that would have made it more difficult for competitors to enter California's retail electricity market.
...
Progress and Duke supported carbon legislation, which stalled in Congress, because it included allowances that would have exempted the utilities from penalties.

[Pacific Gas and Electric: Heavily promoting the climate swindle] Fighting Climate Change

PG&E is a member of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). The group has developed a set of detailed legislative recommendations for a national, mandatory market-based approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that calls for an economy-wide cap on emissions along with a set of complementary policy measures to advance technology, mitigate costs for consumers and businesses and provide opportunities for the nation’s workforce.

In addition, we were an original member of the Clean Energy Group, a coalition of environmentally progressive utilities advocating for a national, mandatory, market-based approach to curbing greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector.
...
In advance of the climate change negotiations in Bali, Indonesia, PG&E joined with major global corporate leaders to launch Combat Climate Change (3C). This international business initiative brings together more than 50 leading international companies to call on governments to work together to develop a global policy framework to combat climate change.

While we prefer a national approach to addressing climate change, we also recognize how states can act as a catalyst for federal legislation and bringing forth innovative solutions. That is why PG&E was the first investor-owned utility to support the enactment of AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which sets a goal of reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Flashback: Winners and Losers of Cap-and-Trade - NYTimes.com

electricity giants like Exelon and Pacific Gas and Electric would emerge as financial winners

FOXNews.com - Cities Increasingly Turn to 'Trash Police' to Enforce Recycling Laws

een police. They don't carry guns and there's no police academy to train them, but if you don't recycle your trash properly, they can walk up your driveway and give you a $100 ticket.

They know what's in your trash, they know what you eat, they know how often you bring your recycles to the curb -- and they may be coming to your town soon. That is, if they're not already there.

In a growing number of cities across the U.S., local governments are placing computer chips in recycling bins to collect data on refuse disposal, and then fining residents who don't participate in recycling efforts and forcing others into educational programs meant to instill respect for the environment.

'Green' jobs no longer golden in stimulus - Washington Times

Environmental projects fail to live up to hype
---
Noticeably absent from President Obama's latest economic-stimulus package are any further attempts to create jobs through "green" energy projects, reflecting a year in which the administration's original, loudly trumpeted efforts proved largely unfruitful.

The long delays typical with environmentally friendly projects - combined with reports of green stimulus funds being used to create jobs in China and other countries, rather than in the U.S. - appear to have killed the administration's appetite for pushing green projects as an economic cure.

Multidecadal Tendencies in ENSO and Global Temperatures Related to Multidecadal Oscillations

Perlwitz etal (2009) used computer model suites to contend that the 2008 North American cooling was naturally induced as a result of the continent's sensitivity to widespread cooling of the tropical (La Nina) and northeastern Pacific sea surface temperatures. But they concluded from their models that warming is likely to resume in coming years and that climate is unlikely to embark upon a prolonged period of cooling. We here show how their models fail to recognize the multidecadal behavior of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Basin, which determines the frequency of El Ninos and La Ninas and suggests that the cooling will likely continue for several decades. We show how this will be reinforced with multidecadal shift in the Atlantic.

Texas oil companies are attacking our communities with Prop. 23 | San Francisco Bay View

By strangling efforts to move away from oil and other dirty energy, Proposition 23 guarantees that our children will continue to breathe polluted air for decades.

ACTIVIST CLIMATE GUY: Radio conversation about global warming

Here is an interesting radio (CHUO 89.1 FM Ottawa, Canada) conversation about global warming and how it is perceived by train drivers in Australia...

White House won’t put solar on it … but we will | Grist

That's too bad. But it's also a great reminder of who the real leaders are. If the president can't climb up on the roof and hammer in some solar panels, clearly we need to push him up.

That's exactly what we're going to do on 10/10/10. There are actions all around the world where people are putting up solar panels and finding other ways to get to work on climate solutions. In the Maldives, President Mohamed Nasheed will be on his roof top putting in a set of panels donated by our friends at Sungevity. In Zimbabwe, students will trek out to a rural hospital to install a solar panel there. In thousands upon thousands of communities, we'll be showing our so-called leaders what leadership really looks like.

The San Bruno gas fire and the futility of harping on fossil-fuel disasters | Grist

People don't need hectoring told-you-so's. They need to see a vision of a sustainable future that actually looks appealing.

I grabbed a beer with Greenpeace USA Executive Director Phil Radford a few weeks ago, and he asked me what I'd do if I ran Greenpeace for a week. I offered the idea of an un-protest -- a twist on the group's classic strategy of staging high-visibility protests at sites where environmental damage is being done. Why not instead ambush places that are doing things right -- say, Ohio's Oberlin College, Sweden's Hammarby Sjostad neighborhood, or the car-free Times Square (for better visibility)? Hang banners and find a way to make a ruckus, in celebration rather than protest. Radford was amused -- we'll see if Greenpeace runs with it.

The Climate Post: Climate bill finally dead enough to be fondly remembered | Grist

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) found new ways to let the public know there is absolutely no way the U.S. will get a climate and energy bill this year, the failure of which climate activist Bill McKibben lays at the feet of attempts to make the issue about energy security and the economy.

- Bishop Hill blog - Judy blogs!

Judith Curry has decided to formalise her longstanding campaign to get people on both sides of the global warming debate to fling foul abuse at her. Her new blog is called Climate etc .

Election 2010: Combet is new climate change minister | Australian Climate Madness

Greg Combet has been handed the hospital pass of selling a price on carbon to an increasingly sceptical Australian public. A former union boss, he's Labor through and through.

We wait with bated breath for the Com-bot's first pronouncement on climate. My guess is that we won't have to wait long, and it will be as nonsensical as all of Penny's…

C3: Are U.S. Ocean Coastal Waters Warming? Empirical Temp Data Indicates No Global Warming Trend

Like so many of the liberal/left's global warming myths, the actual temperature data does not support the claims that oceans are experiencing accelerating warming or are even at unprecedented levels, jeopardizing marine life as we know it. If these conditions actually existed, the U.S. coastal regions of the Pacific and Atlantic would be showing it, and in fact, they don't.

Climate change law's suspension slammed by UC Berkeley study - Sacramento Business, Housing Market News | Sacramento Bee

Popular Comment
"When will these ivy league pinheads realize we don't believe them anymore? Global warming is a fraud. The "evidence" is fake! You look at all these global warming types (Al Gore) and they drive around in Cadillac Escalades, fly in private jets and live in one or multiple mansions and take multiple vacations (Obama) a year. At the end of the day they are getting rich and living large by taking away our freedom. We simply don't believe them anymore. Global warming is a fraud and scam!"

An Open Letter to Mr. Bill Gates | Watts Up With That?

The Quality of Life for the World’s Poorest Can Be Advanced Farther, Faster, Cheaper and More Surely Through Adaptation than Through Zero-Carbon Technologies

Guest Post By Indur M. Goklany

Unbearably stupid polar bear advertising | Watts Up With That?

The ad agency that serves Nissan (as does Nissan management) deserves a smack upside the head for promoting the idea that you can hug a polar bear. Some people are actually stupid enough to try it.

2009: Video: Woman Jumped In to Hug Polar Bears, Almost Became Their Meal « Under The Hill

There are four pictures of the woman swimming up near a polar bear (look at the size of that thing in one picture!). She was very stupid by putting her life at risk. Probably as result of watching all that global warming propaganda movies and TV shows about how cute, cuddly and endangered polar bears are, with the excessive marketing and merchandising of “aww, how cute” factor being played on young people’s minds. Like that woman’s mind. No common sense there.

The Reference Frame: Klaus: I am increasingly convinced that freedom, not climate, is threatened

Another statement appears increasingly often in my speeches: just like the freedom, the mankind's prosperity is in danger, too. That shouldn't be surprising because freedom and prosperity are communicating vessels. One is impossible without the other. The environmentalist attitudes we encounter these days, and the economic policies that follow from them, are attacks against both values, especially in the poorer countries. In those places, hundreds of millions of people are at risk that these policies will keep their lives at a "subsistence level" for decades to come.

Power struggles: charging tomorrow's cars

* Infrastructure hurdles undermine bullish forecasts for EVs * Switchable battery model not catching on with auto majors * High capex at time of austerity hinders charge-post model * Some see market splitting in two for growth

The feds don't need no stinking data?: If the number of Pacific walruses has doubled since the 1950s, why should we believe that CO2 might kill them all?

Pacific Walrus Faces Dire Future: Federal Report Predicts Extinction Risk Due to Global Warming

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— A new federal report today finds there’s a 40-percent chance that the Pacific walrus, a species imperiled by loss of sea ice due to global warming, will be on a pathway to extinction by the end of the century. Scientists with the Center for Biological Diversity say even that estimate is far too optimistic because the U.S. Geological Survey relied on modeling that underestimates the effects of climate change.

October '09: Global Warming Could Reverse a Walrus Comeback - NYTimes.com

For the moment, the Pacific walrus remains abundant, numbering at least 200,000 by some accounts, double the number in the 1950s.

Tainted Al Gore School Seen as 'Poster Child' for National Toxics Debate - NYTimes.com

For conservatives given to eye-rolling at the mere mention of Al Gore, the news seemed like a gift from the comedy gods: green groups warning of polluted soil beneath a Los Angeles school set to be named after the former vice president and climate change activist.

"The toxic fumes" emanating from the elementary school, Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly joked on Wednesday, might "create an army of zombies which will destroy Los Angeles." Dennis Miller, a favorite guest of O'Reilly's, shot back that he "was catching toxic fumes off Gore" while viewing the Nobel Peace Prize winner's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

Frank Sesno: Can Climate Change Survive the 112th Congress?

As Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund notes, the odds of a Republican-led climate change bill are low enough to leave Democrats scrambling to pass legislation before election day.
...
The true test of our political candidates will come after election day, when they are faced with the monumental task of addressing global climate change and its effects on American industry and energy security. Regardless of what candidates from both parties say during campaign season, once in government they will be hard-pressed to deny the job-creation potential of alternative energy development.

Winter Forecast 2010-2011: Heavier Snow for Chicago, Minneapolis and Detroit, Normal Snowfall for NYC, Philly and D.C.

Fargo and Minneapolis to Green Bay will also receive above-normal winter snowfall.

Other cities predicted to receive above-normal winter snowfall include Chicago, Omaha, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Seattle and Portland.

Bastardi predicts severe cold will hit Alaska and western and central Canada.

"The Canadian winter will be as harsh as last year's was gentle," Bastardi said.

2014 Volkswagen Electric Golf Concept Test Drive - 2014 VW EV Golf Preview - Popular Mechanics

VW has been here before, most notably in 1976 when an experimental 25 hp electric Golf was successfully tested over 12,500 miles. In 1981, VW unveiled a series of CityStromer battery Golf models in conjunction with electricity supplier RWE. Powered with lead-acid batteries, performance and range were gradually increased and VW sold 100 units of its electric Golf.
...At 3358 pounds, the battery Golf weighs 452 pounds more than its diesel equivalent with a twin-clutch transmission...The bad news is the range is just 87 miles in the NEDC Combined driving cycle. After that you are in for an eight-hour wait if you recharge on a domestic US supply. If they ever arrive on the sidewalks, three-phase 50 kW fast-charge monsters will provide an 85 per cent top up in half an hour, but regular use of such rechargers will reduce the battery's life.

On the Relative Contribution of Carbon Dioxide to the Earth’s Greenhouse Effect « Roy Spencer, Ph. D.

Doubling of atmospheric CO2 (which will probably happen by late in this century) enhances the Earth’s greenhouse effect by about (1/33=) 3%.

China Shows the Way? - Planet Gore - National Review Online

An article Drew Thornley recently noted in this space — “China blacks out towns to meet energy goal” — makes clear the costs of embracing the energy diet prescribed by those in the grip of global-warming fever. I and others have argued that the only way to reduce carbon absolutely, as opposed to per capita, is to restrict energy use with the result that factories will be shuttered, people will put out of work, and the general welfare will decline.

China, being still mostly a planned economy, can act directly to do this. One wonders if the Obama adminstration and the Pelosi-led Congress wish they had that power.

C3: The Coming Electric Car Fiasco? The Car Stupidity Being Pushed By Politicians & Activists Has Big Problems

A Bear Hug? Nissan Ad Raises Eyebrows - NYTimes.com

The advertising blog Copyranter was even less charitable, calling the spot “outrageously manipulative” and “hubristic,” and pointing out that the millions of non-electric cars that Nissan continues to produce each year were “helping to destroy the bear’s ice pack.”

Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic posted the commercial on his blog with the headline “Smug Alert.”
...
In an interview with the New York Times in August, Jon Brancheau, vice president for Nissan marketing at Nissan North America, said the polar bear ad offered “a little twist, perhaps a wink” at more serious efforts to promote ecofriendly products by other companies.

Was Obama's Choice to Pass on Climate a "Blunder of Historic Proportions"? : TreeHugger

If the US fails to act to avert catastrophic climate change, future generations will perhaps scour history's actors and non-actors for the reason that extreme weather events have become commonplace around the globe and that once fertile and and occupied coastline has been submerged (among other phenomena, of course).

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : AP: Johnson's Calamitous Comment on Climate

...reporters Scott Bauer and Dinesh Ramde say there have been missteps! For example:

Johnson's campaign has stumbled on occasion. He drew scorn last month when he said he "absolutely (does) not believe" in the science of man-caused climate change.

"It's far more likely that it's just sunspot activity or just something in the geologic eons of time," he said.

Oh my! Can he possibly overcome such a blunder?

Sodexo Asks Students to Fight Climate Change with Less Food Waste | Reuters

The company launched a campaign this week called "Stop Wasting Food," aimed at reducing some of the 31 million tons of wasted food that ends up in U.S. landfills. Decomposing food generates methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and breaks down the ozone layer, Sodexo wants students to know.

[Wait a minute: Is George W. Bush President again?!]: U.S. Seeks to Block Europe on Airline Emission Fees - NYTimes.com

The United States has stepped up pressure to prevent Europe from charging foreign airlines for greenhouse gas emissions when they take off and land there.

Deutsche Bank — A Wunch of Bankers « JoNova

If this was Exxon pushing a PDF promoting skeptical views, it would be on the front page tomorrow. Where are the front page headlines?

White House Spurns Solar Panel - NYTimes.com

Mr. McKibben met with three mid-level White House officials Friday morning who told him, politely, no dice.

They explained that there were a variety of reasons that the White House roof is not available for a gesture with very little energy-saving potential and that the Obama administration was doing more to promote renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions than any previous government. The word “stunt” may have come up.

White House Puts Off Solar Enthusiasts - NYTimes.com

I spoke briefly with the three students from Unity, Jean Altomare, Amanda Nelson and Jamie Nemecek and here are some quick reactions from them.

Altomare:

Every single one of us was highly emotional afterward…. I actually confronted the fact that what happens in the next few years will determine the quality of the lives my children and their children will have. We went in without any doubt about the importance of this. They handed us a pamphlet.
...
Nelson:

I didn’t expect I’d get to shake President Obama’s hand, but it was really shocking to me to find out that they really didn’t seem to care. They couldn’t even give us a statement…. They did stress it’s a slow process and I recognize that. What we did today maybe will help a year from now. But right now it didn’t happen.

Twitter / David Roberts

We'll know this country's making progress when more of its brightest Ivy League grads head to clean energy than to banking & finance.

'Manhatten' ice island splits in two - CNN.com

The largest piece is approximately 152 square kilometers in diameter, or around 2.5 times the size of the New York borough of Manhatten, while the smaller piece is around 84 square kilometers, he said.
...
He and international teams spanning at least nine time zones have been tracking the ice island hourly since it broke off from the main glacier. Muenchow predicts the main pieces will be found off the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador in two to three years' time.
...
"The exciting stuff as far as we are concerned is trying to understand the physics of the piece intact," Muenchow says. "As far as I'm concerned the piece that has broken off has gone."

Carbon swindle update: Even at the lowest allowable price, 25% of RGGI CO2 offsets go unsold

CORRECT: UPDATE: Northeast CO2 Auction Hits Lowest Allowed Price - WSJ.com

The allowances that power plants in the Northeast U.S. must buy to emit greenhouse gases fell to their lowest allowed level for the first time, selling for $1.86 a ton in the latest auction this week.
...
"The market is way oversupplied," said Paul Tesoriero, director of environmental markets for environmental brokerage Evolution Markets.
...
This auction was the first in which not all allowances for sale were sold. RGGI officials said around 75% of the allowances up for sale were bought with most going to electric generators and their affiliates that need them to comply with the program instead of investors and other speculative buyers.

Has the Greens' moment come? - Telegraph

At the 1992 party conference, for example, members fired Sarah Parkin, who was largely responsible for the 1989 success, just two weeks after she had been officially declared the party's "greatest asset" – and then went on to give a rapturous reception to David Icke who, apart from claiming to be "an aspect of the godhead", was early in developing the belief, now widely promulgated by extreme climate sceptics, that global warming is a scam designed to impose global government.

Sierra Club Presents Obama with Vision for Managing America's Great Outdoors

"Today, America's wild legacy faces its biggest challenge. Global warming is stressing wildlife like grizzly bears and lynx and threatening habitat with forest fires and drought," said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. "Fortunately, our leaders can take steps to protect our public lands and wildlife from the worst impacts of climate change."
...
"As wildlife like grizzly bears face diminishing food as a result of climate change, they will need to migrate safely to new habitat. Protecting corridors will help ensure their survival," Brune said. "America's forests and wetlands don't just provide a source of inspiration, recreation, tourism and jobs. They also play an important role in fighting climate change. Protecting key public lands is one of the most important things we can do to reduce global warming pollution."

2005: Yellowstone grizzlies are a success story — High Country News

Because of the law’s protections and the focused management efforts it has stimulated, the grizzly population in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem has been growing at a rate of 4 percent to 7 percent a year for at least the last 15 years. There are now more than 600 bears in the population, and all demographic and distribution parameters in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Recovery Plan have been met or even exceeded.

Sen. McCaskill draws heat at Fulton forum

[U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.] said she opposes cap and trade energy legislation because it would help shift even more manufacturing jobs to China by making American products more expensive.

Non-climatologist Lord Stern on people who don't believe in unspecified "evidence" that CO2 is dangerous: They're unscientific/irrational/intellectually dishonest

Dogged lord of climate change [fraud] - Environment - NZ Herald News

Probably more than any other, it's [Nicholas] Stern we have to thank that terms like "offsets", "carbon tax" and "emission trading scheme" are now in common usage.
...
"Those who choose to ignore evidence, I think, are reasonably described as unscientific or irrational."

So far, in the series of Sir Douglas Robb lectures he's given at Auckland University, he hasn't encountered New Zealand's vocal climate change deniers. But he's no stranger to people who disagree with with his point of view, sometimes in extreme ways.
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How? "You deal rationally with the issue. You say: 'Look here's the evidence [like what, specifically?]. Here is how it's accumulated'. You can challenge the evidence - that's good science and good discussion. But chanting and slogans and making up facts and misinterpreting evidence isn't."

What bothers him most is the way deniers seize on "oscillations" or fluctuations in temperature and try to argue there is no trend. "If you've got an undergraduate student, trying to estimate the growth of the economy by joining a line between the peak of the last boom to the bottom of the last recession and think they are estimating the growth rate you would throw them out of class."

The same poor logic is used by deniers who try to argue temperature stopped rising 10 years ago - completely false when you look at the trend, ask about the overall average and apply knowledge about why decadal oscillations occur.

"Ordinary sensible people looking at evidence will know that you have to take an average over time and if you do that you see every decade over the last five to six decades has been hotter than the previous ones."

Stern's steadfast response to the deliberate sowing of doubt and spreading of confusion is rationality - patiently setting out the case in a balanced, clear way. [Where, specifically, has Stern ever done this?] "So many people who think they are Galileo are not."

A large measure of why the story isn't properly told he puts down to a failure of media and journalism. Yes, says Stern, the onslaught against the story is strong and organised, but it's irrational, unscientific and badly based. It says because you can't identify relationships with certainty, the best assumption is they don't exist. "That's a schoolboy error."

Stern says the media fails to look at the wider context - something that should have happened regarding the hacked "Climategate" emails from the University of East Anglia. "What journalists should have asked is that if everything that the university had done was obliterated, what difference would it make? The answer to that question would be hardly any difference at all."

Similarly, the IPCC paper incorrectly predicting Himalayan glaciers retreating should be seen in a wider view: "This idea that if you find a few papers that are wrong among a few thousand papers you've somehow undermined all the evidence is so intellectually dishonest, it's very important to expose that intellectual dishonesty for what it is."

Media-Newswire.com - Press Release Distribution - PR Agency

As the last ice age was ending, about 13,000 years ago, a final blast of cold hit Europe, and for a thousand years or more, it felt like the ice age had returned.

Obama on Dems running from party: 'That's how political races work' - The Hill's Ballot Box

Reps. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Mike McIntyre (D-N.C.) have run similar spots highlighting their opposition to cap-and-trade and distancing themselves from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : More Cap-n-Trade Sleaze

My Congressman, Tom Periello (D-VA), has through television ads and interviews just doubled down on what has already been extremely curious advocacy in support of his vote for cap-and-trade, a major component of his representation of San Francisco from a Central Virginia congressional district.

This morning on a radio show I heard him say that cap-and-trade would actually lower some peoples' electricity bills "in the near-term" -- part of his push to brand his Republican opponent a scoundrel for outrageously voting for something that created the "opportunity" (Periello's word) for an electricity rate increase.

Grassley and Conlin needle each other about jobs | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs

Grassley said that she supports “cap and trade” (an idea meant to limit industrial greenhouse gas emissions), wants to shut down off-shore drilling and wants to let certain tax cuts expire.

“That’s a job killer,” said Grassley, a 30-year Republican senator who is seeking another six years in office on Nov. 2.

Blunt focuses on energy tax at FARM-PAC endorsement

Blunt focused the majority of his remarks on the Cap-and-Trade proposal, which would essentially put a tax on carbon emissions.

“Cap and trade is one of the key reasons why people aren’t creating jobs, because the other side the other side keeps talking about how they want to put a tax on coal based electricity and in the ag community, you know that that raises every one of your input costs,” he said. “It all goes up and there’s no reason to believe there’s any offsetting things that happen.”
...
If cap-and-trade was put into law, Blunt said, “You double the electricity bill – which is what would happen in our state in a decade.” He said our nation would lose “the jobs, and make the CO2 problem worse.”

IEEE Spectrum: U.S. National Parks [Allegedly] Threatened by Climate Change

Last year Spectrum had occasion to draw attention to cyber threats to Virginia's state computer systems. Now the focus is on climate change and Virginia's major tourist attractions, with the release last week of a report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council: Profile of Virginia's Special Places in Peril.
...
At the briefing I naturally wondered why a Rocky Mountain organization was examining an Appalachian park and an Atlantic monument. The answer is that RMCO has been systematically examining the impact of climate change on major national parks, starting in the west, with special attention in one report to Glacier National Park. But there also is a not particularly hidden agenda. In the last year, the Virginia attorney general has been conducting something of a crusade against climate activism: He sought to take legal action in connection with the climategate research imbroglio, and he has taken a leading role in challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate carbon.

NRDC's Theo Spencer said in opening remarks last week that the report is meant to convey (among other things) that there are more constructive ways of addressing climate change than to conduct a "witchhunt against climate scientists." [Like conducting a $45 trillion witchhunt against trace amounts of an invisible, harmless, natural atmospheric gas?] And the report concerns issues, Spencer continued during the Q&A, that are unfolding "in DC policymakers' backyard."

Global Warming, Must We Do Something, Anything? :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website

The point of Craven's argument is to reach a conclusion that we should support carbon-trading permits or some other incredible central-planning scheme that would fundamentally alter human society and economics without having to win on the science.

AGW promoters have good reason for steering people away from the science. Once you start to tug on that ball of yarn, the entire politically motivated fraud starts to unravel.

Is the Right Wing Anti-Science? | The Atlantic Wire

Making 'Support of Science an Ideological Litmus Test' This is, essentially, what is going on in the American right wing, argues blogger A. Siegel. "While climate denial is central to that litmus test, it is far from the only element." He notes that "there has been a growing gap between scientists and the Republican Party," with an odd poll of scientists in 2009 showing only 6 percent identified with that party.

NSF continues to spend your money to promote the greatest scientific fraud in history

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) News - Climate Change [Hoax] Education Partnership Program Is Launched

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced 15 awardees who will take the lead in planning collaborations across the United States as part of the Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) program. This program will connect climate [junk] scientists, experts in theories on how people learn science, and formal and informal education experts, with the goal of increasing public understanding of global climate change and preparing the next generation of scientists and educators.
...
CCEP-I: Climate Science Meets Social Psychology and Strategic Communications: Applying proven learning and communications strategies to climate literacy in the San Diego Region
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The overarching purpose of the Climate Literacy Zoo Education Network is to develop and evaluate a new approach to climate change education that connects zoo visitors to polar animals currently endangered by climate change, leveraging the associative and affective pathways known to dominate decision-making.
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CCEP-I: Making the Global Local - Unusual Weather Events as Climate Change Educational Opportunities

* Award # 1043235
* PI: Edward Maibach
* Institution: George Mason University

Steelworkers Accuse China of Illegal Subsidies in Clean Energy - NYTimes.com

The filing, by the 850,000-member United Steelworkers union, accuses China of violating the World Trade Organization’s free-trade rules by subsidizing exports of clean energy equipment like solar panels and wind turbines. Through its policies, fair or otherwise, China has helped turn its makers of that equipment into the global leaders, while manufacturers in the United States and Europe have struggled financially, cut jobs and in some cases moved operations to China.

Arctic Reptiles Had Warm Climate During Eocene Period | Climate Change & Global Warming, Arctic Animals | LiveScience

How did cold-blooded alligators and giant tortoises once thrive well above the Arctic Circle?

It turns out the climate in some Arctic locales sometimes never dipped below freezing some 50 million years ago, scientists now reveal.
...
"We go up in July each year, which is usually the most pleasant month in the Arctic, but even on a really nice year like this year, we still lost a day to weather, with a helicopter stuck in the snow," researcher Jaelyn Eberle, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, told LiveScience. The scientists always have to keep a shotgun with them, she noted, to ward off polar bears.

Steelworkers Accuse China of Unfair Trade Practices in Clean Technologies - NYTimes.com

The largest American industrial union is accusing China of using unfair trade practices to create jobs in its clean energy technology sector and get a permanent edge on U.S. manufacturers.

The United Steelworkers yesterday filed a 5,000-page complaint with the U.S. Trade Representative that asserts China aims to control the global clean energy market at the expense of U.S. jobs.

The hockey stick graph remains an illusion | Andrew Montford | Environment | guardian.co.uk

In many ways the decision by my critics to use such tactics against me is good news, because those outsiders who want to know the truth about this most important and most revealing story can now see that the facts as presented in the book are pretty much correct. If the facts were wrong, we would certainly have heard about it by now.

The truth doesn't need a sales tool like the hockey stick graph and it doesn't need ad hominems and fallacies. Neither does it need a communications director to spin it out of trouble. Perhaps now, nearly nine months after it was published, we might see people, from both sides of the debate, answer Judith Curry's call to debate what the story of this most remarkable scientific paper tells us about the state of climatology and the state of science in general.

Civil war in Africa has no link to climate change - science-in-society - 10 September 2010 - New Scientist

THE idea that global warming will increase the incidence of civil conflict in Africa is wrong, according to a new study. What's more, the researchers who previously made the claim now concede that civil conflict has been on the wane in Africa since 2002, as prosperity has increased. If the trend continues, a more peaceful future may be in store.

David Suzuki's a Force of Nature

TORONTO - "I've always seen myself as the messenger, not the message," says David Suzuki, as a faint flush appears on his familiar features. Though he is, at this point in time, a household name, a leading authority on climate change and the host of one of the longest-running programs in Canadian TV history, Suzuki just isn't used to being a "star."
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At 74, Suzuki says he's happy for the meditative state that comes with age. "Years ago, I was driven by testosterone and the urge to get laid and pass on my DNA. Now, I can go for hours and hours without thinking about sex at all."

DailyTech - NASA Green Aviation Summit Pushes for 20 Percent Fuel Cut by 2020

Ames Research Center Director Simon "Pete" Worden speaking to the audience at the summit stated, "As the world travels even more we're going to have a very serious global warming issue, as well as lots of other environmental impacts of aviation."
...
Talk of global warming, particularly in light of recent revised melting figures, is sure to provoke criticism from some and praise from others. However, most would agree that cutting NOX emissions -- which are toxic and cause health issues -- is desirable. Likewise, most can agree that cutting noise pollution is a good idea.

Prospect of water 'white elephants' raised | The Australian

AS water flows under Bonnie Doon bridge to swell Lake Eildon, signalling the end of a 10-year drought, questions are being raised.

Questions such as whether the Victorian government was panicked by climate change fears into funding a multi-billion-dollar "white elephant".

At the height of Victoria's worst drought in a century in 2007, the government embarked on building a desalination plant that might cost as much as $5 billion, as well as launching a $2bn Foodbowl Modernisation Project and a $750 million north-south pipeline.

Early snow in The Alps!

The 2010/2011 ski season is almost upon us and sooner than we expected. Up to two feet of snow has fallen on some of the highest slopes in the Alps, which is highly unusual for this time of year.

Why from now on I'm flying Ryanair – Telegraph Blogs

Problem is, no one who flies Ryanair gives a stuff about their carbon footprint. What they want is cheap flights – something government eco-taxes levied in the name of “combatting climate change” render less and less attainable each year.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining. If Michael O’Leary’s remarks prevent even one Independent reader climbing aboard one of his Carbon-Spewing Horror Machines of Winged Planetary Insta-Death, then it will have done both their moral conscience and that part of the world which doesn’t believe in drivel like carbon footprints the most mighty favour.

TIFF Movie Review: Cool It : Empire Movies

Directed by Ondi Timoner, Cool It is an environmental documentary that looks at author Bjorn Lomborg who wrote the book The Skeptical Environmentalist and came under fire from the scientific community for his published views on the topic of Global Warming.
...
Cool It acts in a way as a direct response or rebuttal to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. It brings up a lot of issues discussed in that movie and instead provides the viewer with an alternate take. For example, the issue of the declining polar bear population. An Inconvenient Truth would have you believe that this is a direct result of Global Warming. Cool It tells us that the polar bear population stood at around five thousand in 1950 whereas the current polar bear population stands somewhere between twenty and twenty-five thousand. So we are much further ahead today than we were some 60 years ago. He further contends that more bears are shot every year than bears who die from the effects of Global Warming. So if we are so concerned about the polar bear population, we should stop people from shooting bears rather than spending $250 billion on a climate change program that isn’t yielding results.

Stupid goes viral: Climate Zombies in IA, MO, UT, VT, and WA | Grist

I'm tracking Climate Zombies: every Republican candidate for House, Senate, and Governor who claims that global warming is a hoax, doubts the science of climate change, and wants a new Dark Ages for America.

First, a brief note on why. During the Bush years, most Republican politicians ducked questions on climate change, professed a desire to do something vague and unspecified about energy independence, and derided cap-and-trade. Only a few, led by James Inhofe (R-River in Egypt), openly mocked science. The emergence of the Tea Party has changed that.

New discovery: Climate change was caused by witches! - TH!NK ABOUT IT

20 009 B.C.

When the weather is bad, the chieftain summons the whole village. “Well, well. Who did it?” he yells. “I will not ask twice. Confess. If you deny your guilt you make it only worse for you !” After some time they drag in old Mrs. Ugly. A witness complains: “I saw her boil some strange soup just before the storm came. Which clearly proves, she is a witch. Demons helped her to call bad weather upon us.” Everybody nods, that the evidence is solid. And they stone her to death.

2009 A.D.

Environmentalists summon a huge conference and they complain: “The weather is worse and worse. We must have displeased the Goddess Gaia. It is a punishment for our sins.” A sceptic frowns: “But isn’t it just a natural phenomenon? Rising solar activity always causes increase in temperatures.” The crowd of environmentalists drag the sceptic out of the room and then they continue. “We must find those responsible for the bad weather. And bring them to justice. That is to eliminate them before it is too late.”

Audio | Congresswoman Betsy Markey Faces Uphill Battle in Colorado | Capitol News Connection

Markey also voted for the controversial “cap and trade” legislation in the House to deal with global warming and promote clean energy. That bill is all but dead in the Senate amid opposition from Republicans and some Democrats. Markey stresses the need for a renewable energy standard to require more power production from sources like wind and solar.

"Climate Moms" Juggle Career, Kids and the Threat of Catastrophe : TreeHugger

I've asked before why, with all the potential misery and danger in the world, do eco-activists still have children. But then I've also declared that disasterbation turns you blind, and I've even started out on my own path to being a new green dad. There's no doubt, however, that knowing what we know about climate change, peak oil, extinctions and biodiversity loss can be a depressing prospect for anyone—but it's especially depressing when you start considering your own kids' future.

The Press Association: Charles baffled by climate sceptics

The Prince of Wales has said he found the views of climate change sceptics "extraordinary".
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He warned that living on the planet would be "no fun at all" for future generations unless people took action to combat climate change.
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Asked by Bleakley what he thought of climate change doubters, the Prince responded: "I find it quite extraordinary, because to me it seems only sensible to take a precautionary approach. There is something going very wrong."

Lawrence Solomon: Another cold Arctic summer | FP Comment | Financial Post

The summer of 2010 was unusually cold, according to the Centre for Ocean and Ice at the Danish Meteorological Institute. For almost the entirety of the June to August period, mean daily temperatures were below the corresponding daily temperatures over the past half century during which the Centre has maintained records.

Lord Oxburgh Caught In The Headlights

Yesterday I watched the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee questioning Lord Oxburgh. Once the official transcript becomes available I expect that this will cause quite a stir. If there was any doubt before that his inquiry was a fiasco, then there can be none now.

What follows are a few notes based on listening to a recording rather carefully last night.

At the outset, Oxburgh made it very clear that he had been most unwilling to take on the job of chairing the review panel when the University of East Anglia (UEA) asked him, however he had eventually been persuaded. Why the university had been so persistent in their overtures, rather than just looking elsewhere, was not explored, but perhaps it will be at some point in the future.

'Is this science, or literature?' • The Register

Stringer says the practices exposed at CRU undermine the scientific value of paleoclimatology, in which CRU is a world leader.

"When I asked Oxburgh if [Keith] Briffa [CRU academic] could reproduce his own results, he said in lots of cases he couldn't.

"That just isn't science. It's literature. If somebody can't reproduce their own results, and nobody else can, then what is that work doing in the scientific journals?"

The depth and rigour of Oxburgh's panel also raised eyebrows. Oxburgh said the intensive interrogation (described above) had taken several days, but FOIA requests show his team of seven spent just two days on the job, clocking up "45 man hours" including lunches and coffee breaks. The final report amounted to five pages of assessment.

Another sign of a dying climate hoax: Will attendance at Cancun drop 82% from attendance a year ago at Copenhagen?

[Al Gore's] Climate Project Canada

The Climate Conference will take place in the Moon Palace Hotel in the city of Cancun. Governmental representatives from over 170 countries are expected to be in attendance during the Summit accompanied by numerous nongovernmental representatives, NGOs, journalists and others. In total 8000 people are expected to descend upon Cancun in the days leading up to and during the Summit.

Flashback: Crowded COP15 | Climate | GreenBiz.com

The Bella Center, site of the conference, holds 15,000 people, but 45,000 people registered to attend the convention.

ABC News Watch: Groupthink, Sensationalism, Naive and Inept Journalism: Climate coverage at the ABC- Part 1.

...bias in ABC climate reporting is not so much due to a grand conspiracy of misguided amateurish environmental activists acting as reporters, though it seems many now walk the corridors of ABC’s head office, but stems from ineptitude. As Napoleon Bonaparte suggested “Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”

New climate change mitigation schemes could benefit elites rather than the rural poor

Their fears are fueled by the broader concern that REDD+ will prompt governments to recentralize forest management, reversing many of the gains that have accrued to rural people from recent land tenure and decentralization reforms. The temptation to seize control of large sums of money, the argument goes, on the pretext that only governments can be held accountable for the use of this money to reduce carbon emissions, could prove irresistible.

Climate Change Denial Perverts And The Unconscious Obstacles To Caring For The Planet « The Unbearable Nakedness of CLIMATE CHANGE

Anybody with £60 and a weekend to spare should attend the two-day event “Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic Perspectives“, organised by The Institute of Psychoanalysis, Byron House, 112a Shirland Road, London, W9 2EQ for Oct 16-17.

You will be told about psychic consequences of the discovery of personal ecological debt, different structures of feeling in relation to the natural world and about engaging with the natural world and with human nature. You will also be told about unconscious obstacles to caring for the planet, and climate change denial in a perverse culture.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: New UN climate scam chief blames CO2 for floods, droughts, fires, and mudslides

The Associated Press: UN climate chief urges flexibility in talks

Figueres said countries have felt a renewed urgency to address global warming given this year's series of frequent and catastrophic disasters, including massive flooding in Pakistan, drought and fires in Russia, and mudslides and floods in China.

"All these events are constant reminders to governments that they need to deal in a consummate manner together to address climate change," she said, adding, "It needs to be the contribution of all countries together to be effective."

List of natural disasters - Floods and landslides - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Note the years that these occurred.  Which ones were caused by carbon dioxide?]
1. 2,500,000–3,700,000[13] 1931 China floods China 1931
2. 900,000–2,000,000 1887 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1887
3. 500,000–700,000 1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1938
4. 231,000 Banqiao Dam failure, result of Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent disease. China 1975
5. 145,000 1935 Yangtze river flood China 1935
6. more than 100,000 St. Felix's Flood, storm surge Netherlands 1530
7. 100,000 Hanoi and Red River Delta flood North Vietnam 1971
8. 100,000 1911 Yangtze river flood China 1911
9. 50,000–80,000 St. Lucia's flood, storm surge Netherlands 1287
10. 2.400 North Sea flood, storm surge Netherlands 31 December 1953

Sure, worry about climate change – but not too much - Bjørn Lomborg - The Globe and Mail

The chief Cassandra in this chorus of doom has been Al Gore, whose 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth was unabashedly (and rather accurately) marketed as “the most terrifying film you will ever see.” Mr. Gore rightly was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for putting climate change on the global agenda, but his penchant for hyperbole – as in “we have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe” or we must take “large-scale, preventative measures to protect human civilization as we know it” – isn’t likely to win him any prizes for accuracy or good science.

Peter Garrett: a cautionary tale for the Greens › Environment Blog (ABC Environment)

The Greens are a bit like Garrett in that they come from an activist background, and carry the goodwill of the environment movement.

They have built their party up on hardline environmental credentials. Any erosion of these would erode the Greens support base.

If a Greens MP or senator were to accept a ministerial position related to the environment or climate change, they would inevitably be forced to compromise their idealistic view on how the environment should be managed to one more mundanely pragmatic. The damage to the reputation they have formed over 18 long years at the federal level would be irreparable.

All CO2-spewing kit now in existence is OK for the planet • The Register

All the carbon-spewing machinery the human race now possesses - powerplants, transportation, boilers, the lot - can be kept running for its entire designed life without any significant ill effects on the planetary ecosystem, according to new analysis. It is the new machinery to replace what we now have which will either push atmospheric carbon over the UN's red line - or not.

William Dameron: Global warming questions - Leavenworth, KS - Leavenworth Times

For a much more complete discussion of global warming, if you have an hour and a half and access to the Internet, watch the Powerpoint presentation at climate-skeptic.com. Global climate is a very, very complex subject, and this site explains it more completely and objectively than most.

EU emissions trading scheme on course to make tiny savings, says report | Environment | The Guardian

The entire five-year period of the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) that ends in 2012 is set to deliver carbon savings of less than a third of 1% of total emissions, according to a new report.

The scale of the low-carbon task is immense | Chris Goodall | Environment | guardian.co.uk

The scale of this task is immense. My rough calculation is that the world needs to ramp up its yearly rate of installation of low-carbon energy about 30-fold from today's levels within the next couple of decades.

2010 Climate [Hoax] Leadership Summit

October 12-13, 2010 in Denver, Colorado...The 2010 ACUPCC Climate Leadership Summit experience has been designed to compliment the AASHE conference program, with a strong emphasis on facilitated dialogue around substantive topics proposed by signatory presidents and implementation liaisons

Fight over bid to suspend California's global warming law gets ugly - latimes.com

Proposition 23 backers shot back with a statement titled, "Have they no shame?" which charged that Shultz, 89, who served as secretary of State in the Reagan administration, "is solidly behind higher gas prices for California's 2.2 million unemployed and those who worry they will be next."

Shultz responded through a spokesman: "The people attacking me must be desperate. They retreat from honest discourse to malicious misinformation."

The Proposition 23 campaign also characterized Thomas F. Steyer, Shultz' co-chairman on the No campaign, as a "billionaire hedge fund manager [who] talks a good game, but loves his oil profits."

Steyer's $20-billion San Francisco-based fund, Farallon Capital Management, it said, has investments in oil and gas companies operating in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, as well as in an Indonesian coal company.

Steyer also once owned Valero stock, the statement said, "presumably feeling no guilt about getting those fat dividend checks until divesting himself of that lucrative asset when the company's profits began to decline."

In an e-mail, Steyer responded, saying, "I don't object to private enterprise or to oil and gas. I simply want them to be fairly and properly regulated.... We need to start the process, which will take decades, of moving to independent and clean sources of energy."

Brown rips Whitman's jobs plan, defends climate-change law and his decision not to fight for Prop. 8 [Updated]| PolitiCal | Los Angeles Times

Pressed for how he would revive the economy, Brown pointed to his green-jobs plan, which he said would create 500,000 jobs over the next decade.

He criticized reports that attorneys general from four other states are preparing a legal challenge to AB 32, the state’s landmark global-warming law, if it is not put on hold by voters in November. He said the law would reduce dependence on oil, which would be good for the environment, the economy, national security and public health.

“Those four AGs, those states, they are either unwilling dupes or conscious allies of not only oil companies from Texas, but oil companies from Iraq, Nigeria, Venezuela, all the people who enjoy grabbing our dollars because of our oil addiction,” Brown said.

Hot Air » Oh my: Palin endorses O’Donnell over Castle

She mentions O’Donnell’s opposition to cap and trade and ObamaCare as evidence that she’s the conservative in the race. Fair enough on the first point — Castle did vote for C&T in the House — but he voted against O-Care.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Inconvenient Truth: Sea Level Rise has Decelerated 44% since 2005

Despite alarmist claims to the contrary, the rate of sea level rise has been decelerating for the past 8000 years. The rate of sea level rise decreased in the latter half of the 20th century, despite an exponential increase in CO2 levels. A further 60% deceleration since 2005 was noted by a paper published in 2009 in Ocean Science and based on satellite data as of June 2008.

Needed: A 50-state strategy on climate | Grist

Coal, oil, and gas are a powerful political force in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Biofuels are just about the only bone thrown to the ag sector in the cap-and-trade bill. And farmers aren't just worried about higher energy prices in production -- their families live here too, often on fixed incomes, and drive to distant jobs and medical facilities. Winters are cold and summers are hot. Higher energy costs will hit this region coming and going. No sane politician will take that lying down.

Howard Dean had it right with the 50-state strategy. We need not just better messaging but a better message, a real commitment to making the clean-energy transition work for rural America. And yes, rural America does still exist, think, and vote.

Green groups press Barack Obama for 60MPG fuel efficiency standard | Environment | guardian.co.uk

In a sign of that strategy reshift, 20 environmental groups launched a new campaign today to press Barack Obama to propose far more ambitious fuel efficiency and pollution standards for cars of 60mpg by 2025.  [If we set the standard at infinity, couldn't we run all of our cars on less than one gallon of gasoline?]

Reality denier: After Arctic sea ice extent grows by over 7,000 Manhattans in three years, alarmist Mark Serreze claims "It's continuing down in a death spiral"

Another big-ice Arctic thaw, say experts

"There are claims coming from some communities that the Arctic sea ice is recovering, is getting thicker again," Mark Serreze, director of the Colorado-based centre, told Postmedia News on Wednesday.

"That's simply not the case. It's continuing down in a death spiral."
...Serreze said the overall pattern is unmistakable: "The decline in the extent of ice — the square kilometres — is being attended by a decrease in the volume of ice."

[Sept 7, 2010]: Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis

Average ice extent for August was 5.98 million square kilometers (2.31 million square miles), 1.69 million square kilometers (653,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average, but 620,000 square kilometers (240,000 square miles) above the average for August 2007...

Arctic Melt Season Bottoms Out – Recovery Is In The Forecast

Colder than normal Arctic is in the forecast for the coming winter

Wind is Not Power at All (Part III – Capacity Value) — MasterResource

This final part will look at the extension to power density, that is, capacity (power) value, which takes into account wind’s randomness and intermittency of supply. Again wind fails to qualify as industrial energy.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary denies man-made climate change - Telegraph

Michael O'Leary, the controversial Ryanair boss, has denied the existence of man-made climate change.
...
In response, Greenpeace spokeswoman Joss Garman said: "Personally, I wouldn't trust 'O'Really' to tell me the price of a seat on his own airline, but to be fair his position does have the support of such intellectual heavyweights as Nick Griffin, Sarah Palin and George W Bush."

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Global Warming Solved: All we need is 14,600 additional nuclear power plants or 146,000,000 wind turbines

Doing the math, the wind turbine equivalent for 14,600 nuclear power plants would require ~5.475 million square miles containing ~146 million turbines. Or only 456,000 square miles of solar panels.

Against Catastrophism, by Lord Stern « The Unbearable Nakedness of CLIMATE CHANGE

Three hoorays for the former Sir Nicholas’ conversion to the church of let’s-stay-practical (aka we-are-called-deniers).

The Reference Frame: Nature equates science with regulation

In a text called Nature uses the D-word, Anthony Watts notes that Nature, in a shockingly political diatribe called Science scorned (Nature),
uses the popular radicals' expletive for climate realists, the "deniers". Well, the comrades inkspillers try to do much more than that. They want to convince the readers that when it comes to any question you may ask, science and left-wing politics is the same thing.

Make no mistake about it: this is the lesson the reader is expected to make from every single paragraph of the text.

Nature attacks Rush Limbaugh and others because they dare to criticize the Left for their attempts to hijack science and to contaminate it to their own image. However, the very editorial in Nature is nothing else than another proof that Limbaugh is 100% right.

George Shultz says Prop 23 will harm national security » Ventura County Star Mobile

On Thursday, Shultz was joined by retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn and former Marine logistics officer Ian Thomson on a conference call with reporters to make the case that passage of Proposition 23 would harm U.S. national security.

McGinn was a member of a military advisory board that concluded in a 2007 report that climate change represents “a serious threat to national security” because environmental changes will create instability as nations cope with drought and other weather-related disruptions. He also says he believes economic disruptions will inevitably follow as the world’s oil supplies continue to dwindle and become increasingly concentrated in countries hostile to U.S. interests.

Climate Feedback: Nature Climate Change website - coming soon

Our regular readers will have noticed that Climate Feedback has been on hiatus over the summer - apologies for the silence. The good news is that taking a break from blogging has allowed us to do all of the ‘behind the scenes' work on getting Nature Climate Change, our forthcoming journal, underway.

Joe Bastardi: “Future Shock…Brutal Winters Ahead from 2013 On…Now Into A Major La Nina”

That’s what Joe says in his latest video. The PDO is now going into its cold phase and the current La Nina is going to be a bear – and quite possibly a polar bear at that.

The Pacific, the primary global climate driver, has been in its warm cycle since the late 1970s, and that’s coming to an end. That period was dominated by El Ninos, which kept the planet on the warm side. But now the Pacific has flipped and we’re now entering a cool phase, where La Ninas are expected to dominate.

Ryanair boss: AGW is "horse shit" | Australian Climate Madness

Fantastic stuff from the colourful Ryanair chief, Michael O'Leary (with a few of the asterisks filled in)

More wind turbines needed to meet climate change target - Telegraph

However the CCC did advise the Government to reduce the current target to source 10 per cent of renewable energy for surface transport like cars from biofuels by 2020. Lord Turner said that the current target could cause food shortages and deforestation around the world as growing biofuels takes land away from other crops.

Wong’s world over-heated | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Penny Wong’s style of earnest fervor - if I can put it that way - has petered out into exhaustion on all sides

Debate set over global warming ballot initiative - San Jose Mercury News

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Advocates on both sides of an initiative that seeks to suspend California's greenhouse gas emissions law will face off in a debate next Wednesday before the Sacramento Press Club.

Republican state Assemblyman Dan Logue of Marysville supports Proposition 23 on the November ballot. It would suspend the 2006 law until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters.

Logue will debate San Francisco investment banker Thomas Steyer, the primary funder of the opposition. Earlier this week, Steyer challenged the CEO of Valero Energy Corp. to debate the initiative.

How to Trade November 2010 Elections

You can count on subsidies for alternative energy to get axed as unaffordable luxuries, which have created 500,000 jobs in California alone in the past two years. After all, global warming is nothing more than a leftist hoax, right? The good news is that the higher oil prices Republican policies are guaranteed to bring means that green companies of every stripe will become profitable in their own right, making subsidies unnecessary.

U.K. Climate Adviser Urges Government Not to Raise Renewable Energy Target - Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-09/u-k-climate-adviser-urges-government-not-to-raise-renewable-energy-target.html

The U.K. shouldn't raise its target for generating 15 percent of its energy for heating, power and transportation from renewable sources by 2020 because it would be too costly, the government's climate change adviser said.