Why the Tea Party? Ask John Kerry. - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online

What the Tea Party is about, among many things, is a fury at political elites who talk down to taxpayers and fail to abide by the rules and protocols they think others must embrace. In that context, Kerryism is simply a convenient window into the world of a tax-dodging Treasury Secretary Geithner; the contorted sermons by Obama about a frightened electorate, captive to its emotions and lashing out against his agenda in irrational ways; the constant refrains against the “rich” juxtaposed with the serial golf outings and Michelle’s Costa del Sol/Martha’s Vineyard vacationing; and the disconnect between, say, Al Gore’s green world for us, and Al Gore’s own world of mansions and private jetting, or John Edwards’s mansion playroom set against John’s two nations of rich against poor.

» Prop 23: Will California Reject Climatism? - Big Government

So what about mitigation of climate change? Today, China is uses three times the coal of the U.S. and is now the top global emitter. If California is able to achieve their 2020 target of 427 million tons of CO2 equivalent, it will be less than a 0.4% change in world emissions. Even this is meaningless, since science increasingly shows that man-made carbon dioxide emissions do not drive global temperatures. No wonder Prop 23 opponents have abandoned arguments about stopping climate change.

NSIDC -vs- Cryosphere Today – a visual discrepancy | Watts Up With That?

It certainly appears that there is more ice in 2010 that 2007 on the Cryosphere Today page.

A New Kind of Crime Against Humanity?: The Fossil Fuel Industry's Disinformation Campaign On Climate Change - Climate Ethics

The international community does not have a word for this type of crime yet, but the international community should find a way of classifying extraordinarily irresponsible scientific claims that could lead to mass suffering as some type of crime against humanity.
...
Donald A. Brown,
Associate Professor,
Environmental Ethics, Science, and Law
Penn State University

Palin rallies 'Mountain Mamas' in W.Va. - The Hill's Ballot Box

Palin also referenced Manchin's now infamous campaign ad in which he shoots a hole through the a copy of the cap-and-trade bill.

"John's opponent has been all over the map on the Obama agenda," said Palin. "One minute he's for it, the next minute he's aiming a rifle at it."

Idiotic LA Times piece paints climate realists as Bible-banging Tea Party ideologues; fails to mention that only 32% of *independents* believe in AGW

Global warming as a partisan issue - latimes.com

Skepticism about human technology's role in accelerating climate change, and doubt concerning the phenomenon's very existence, have become, at least on the Republican side, a matter of lock-step partisan orthodoxy.
...
In part, public opinion researchers agree, the rise of the "tea party" movement accounts for both the growing skepticism and the demand, which we now can recognize as characteristic, for ideological conformity.
...
The New York Times also has documented among some tea party adherents a strong streak of religious objection to the reality of climate change. As Norman Dennison, one of the group's Indiana founders, told the paper, global warming "is a flat-out lie.... I read my Bible. He made this Earth for us to utilize." Another Indiana tea party member asserted that "being a strong Christian, I cannot help but believe the Lord placed a lot of minerals in our country, and it's not there to destroy us."

The fundamentalist delusion, whether about the Constitution or theology, and demands for a purified orthodoxy are defining characteristics of this campaign.
...
Think back to the billions Big Tobacco spent on the long guerrilla war to stave off regulation of its death-dealing products and you've pretty much got the picture here, though this time around, the corporate manipulators are hoping that they've co-opted the climate skeptics in order to fill the oil and coal companies' coffers for years to come.

Flashback: Wide Partisan Divide Over Global Warming - Pew Research Center

More than half of independents (56%) say there is solid evidence of warming, but just 32% think it can mostly be attributed to human actions.

In an attempt to save year-2050 bats from carbon dioxide, should we install expensive turbines that kill hundreds of thousands of bats right now?

Increasing Wind Turbine Turn-On Speeds Could Help Reduce Bat Deaths, New Study Says | Popular Science

Ironically, one method to ameliorate climate change could make matters even worse for bats. Wind turbines, favored for their carbon dioxide-free power generation, are deadly for bats, especially tree-roosting species that migrate over long distances. One study from the Blue Sky Green Field Energy Center in Wisconsin found for every megawatt of wind energy generated, 22 bats die every year.

Unlike birds, which often perish at wind farms when they collide with the turbines, bats die in blade vortices. Rotating turbine blades create negative pressure pockets, and when the bats fly through them, their lungs explode.
...
“Some wind sites are killing hundreds to thousands of bats in a single fall migration season,” said Paul Cryan, a research biologist with the US Geological Survey. One wind farm in New York is estimated to kill more hoary bats every year than have ever been collected for scientific studies, he said.
...
Most wind turbines in the US are programmed to begin rotating and producing power once wind speed has reached about 8 to 9 mph, according to the Ecological Society of America. Ed Arnett, a biologist with Bat Conservation International, says raising that speed to 11 mph can reduce bat fatalities from 43 to percent up to 93 percent. Even better, the annual energy loss was less than 1 percent.

Slower-moving wind turbines will still kill bats — during two summers of study at a Pennsylvania wind farm, Arnett found a fresh bat carcass every night, no matter the speed of the blades — but it will not kill as many. For the most part, bats don’t fly when it’s too windy.

Was CO2 hysteria a big factor in Exxon's $41 billion bet on natural gas?

Exxon Mobil Makes Big Bet on Natural Gas - NYTimes.com

Exxon Mobil spent $41 billion a year ago to acquire XTO Energy, doubling its natural gas reserves. And it is building up a massive liquefied natural gas capacity around the globe.
...
That’s where the discussion gets really interesting. [William M. Colton, the company’s vice president for corporate strategic planning] thinks policymakers are one day going to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, a debatable point of view, perhaps, now that cap-and-trade legislation looks dead in Congress and some anti-tax Republicans appear poised for victory on Tuesday.

“We tend to assume that at some point, various governments are going to adopt some kind of cost of carbon,” Mr. Colton said, adding that carbon emissions policy is “the elephant in the room.”

“That’s something we have to consider, and it’s another reason we see gas as growing,” he said.

Quadrant Online - Glaciergate meltdown

IPCC authors are a law unto themselves because they can cherry-pick sources, cite material of dubious quality and even provide false references. They also know that reviewers’ comments can be ignored and that no criticism can be expected from the IPCC Working Group.

The IPCC claims that there was a consensus but what kind of consensus was it when it is clear that the draft text was either never examined in detail or it was properly examined but no corrections were ever enforced?

It beggars belief to think that governments around the world intend spending billions, or even trillions, of dollars on the word of such a cowboy organization.

Extended peer community | Climate Etc.

Michael Lowe posted this comment on the Disagreement thread:

Wouldn’t it be great if more science was like this – hundreds of interested bloggers, laypeople and scientist interracting, arguing, disagreeing, learning. Maybe this is the real postnormal science!

Survey USA: Oberstar, Cravaack in dead heat for MN-08 seat « Hot Air

How long has it been since this district sent a Republican to the House? Sixty-four years. But the 8th CD has usually sent pro-life, fiscally conservative Democrats to Washington, which is exactly what Oberstar claimed to be. After not only voting for ObamaCare and cap-and-trade but lobbying other Democrats to do the same, 8th CD voters now know that they sent a Nancy Pelosi clone.

Instead of trying to understand how the climate works, maybe we should study why people don't believe that we understand how the climate works?

Distilling the Human Element in the Climate Challenge - NYTimes.com

Gerry Mahlman, former head of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, used to say that climate science accreted a new discipline every decade. Oceanography, then ecology, then economics, and, now, studies of human cognition and how we are wired.

Cry for California « Heliogenic Climate Change

Less rosy still is a little-noticed and little-discussed draft report circulated last year by the California Air Resources Board’s economic and allocation advisory committee. In it, the panel seriously contemplates using some of the hundreds of millions of dollars the state hopes to collect in carbon “allowance fees” to pay the unemployment benefits of people thrown out of work by new regulations. “Prop 23 is all about saving California’s economy“

PDO vs. HadCrut | Real Science

When the PDO is dominantly positive, temperatures warm. When the PDO is negative, they don’t.

I wonder why Hansen/Tamino choose to cherry pick the start date of the mid-1970s as the beginning of their “period of modern warming?”

William M. Briggs, Statistician » Being Against Climate Change Legislation Is Just Like Being For Slavery

Hoffman’s titles: Memo to the CEO: Climate Change, What’s Your Business Strategy?, Carbon Strategies: How Leading Companies are Reducing their Climate Change Footprint, Getting Ahead of the Curve: Corporate Strategies That Address Climate Change. There are others, but my concern for my readers’ sanity precludes naming them.

Wonk Room » Climate Hawk [Bedwetter] Baron Hill: ‘This Is God’s Green Earth And We Ought To Respect It’

Faced with relentless attacks on his vote for clean energy legislation, Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN) slammed his critics for questioning climate science and doing the bidding of special interests who are destroying the environment.

Austrian Der Standard: No Chance For US Climate Bill – Blames “Unprecedented Propaganda Machine”

Now come the old conspiracies and paranoia. Der Standard:

The reason is fear of losing jobs and an unprecedented propaganda machine that was put into motion by the oil industry and its allies.

What, specifically, is this propaganda machine?  Are Climate Depot and Watts Up With That key cogs in this machine?

Hottest year ever update: Earliest ever ski season opening in South Korea

In Korea started the ski season

This year's ski season in Korea started unusually early. Thanks to the sustainable low temperatures, on 28 October 2010 several ski resorts in the province of Gangwon make their tracks available for skiers.

For South Korea current ski season is the earliest in its history. For the first time in its history the Korean ski slopes could offer skating tours in October. This year the season started a week earlier than in 2009.

Only One in Three Buy ‘The Consensus’ | RedState

http://www.redstate.com/vladimir/2010/10/30/only-one-in-three-buy-the-consensus/

There's a huge difference between "global warming" and "anthropogenic global warming". If one believes in warming, but that it is caused by natural forces, it is difficult to argue for man-made initiatives to counteract it. Wasting resources fighting earth-scale or even cosmic forces may be the ultimate act of hubris and folly.

UN: Did we just say that we needed $300 billion a year for cough-mumble? We meant $400 billion

UN: Not Enough Money Available to Feed the World « Business & Finance News and Press Releases

Oct. 29, 2010 /EIN Presswire/ – A crisis is looming in world agriculture because of lack of resources to feed the world’s exploding population.

In a report, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says that up to $100 billion a year may be needed to feed a population expected to grow from its current 6.7 billion level to 9 billion people...
...
The UN group’s report, released ahead of a global conference in the Hague which begins Sunday, says “Available financing, current and projected, are substantially insufficient to meet climate change and food security challenges.”

Existing financing mechanisms instrumental for fighting climate change — such as the Clean Development Fund or the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme — often exclude agriculture, the FAO said.

Flashback: UN needs $300 billion?

Brainwashed person takes convenient, fossil-fueled trip to protest fossil fuels

Video: Student leader and veteran challenges Koch to debate Prop 23 « Climate Progress

This week Joel Francis, a senior at Cal State Los Angeles and a Marine Corps veteran, flew to the Wichita, Kansas headquarters of Koch Industries. His mission was to knock on Charles Koch’s door, and demand he defend his involvement in Prop 23.
...
The video has since gone viral [with less than 9,000 views?] on the web, and Francis garnered over 1,200 supporters in just a few days.

Why didn't Francis travel by foot, wind, sun, or bicycle?

Warmist Richard Branson doesn't favor "green" taxes that may harm his airline business?!

Air Passenger Duty rise: Tax increase slammed by travel companies | Mail Online

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline warned that the rises will make family holidays ‘unaffordable for many’.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh has branded APD a ‘disgrace’, while organisations from Ryanair to package holiday firms to the Association of British Travel Agents have lined up to condemn it. APD was initially introduced as a ‘green tax’ on the basis it would discourage people from flying and cut carbon emissions.

Can we prevent hurricanes by forcibly transferring wealth from poorer people in richer countries to richer people in poorer countries?

Billion-Dollar House for India's Richest Man

Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man according to Forbes, just moved his family into a $1 billion Mumbai skyscraper -- occupying all 27 stories.

The 53-year-old tycoon's new home is larger than the Palace of Versailles and needs a staff of 600 to keep things running. The building has underground parking for 160 cars, three helicopter pads and a theater that seats 50. The Ambani family will occupy all 27 stories, which include a ballroom, several lounges, a health club, a dance studio and an elevated garden large enough to accommodate trees. Everybody needs a little greenery, right?

India's richest man Mukesh Ambani moves into £630m home - Telegraph

According to Forbes magazine Ambani, who owns much of Reliance Industries, the oil, retail and biotechnologies conglomerate, is worth £18bn.

China, India lead demand for extra help in climate change struggle

BEIJING, Nov 26 (AFP) Nov 26, 2008
China and India next week will spearhead calls for rich nations to dig into their pockets to tackle climate change but will resist targeted curbs on their own carbon emissions, sources say.

Hottest year ever update: European ski resorts opening weeks or even months earlier than planned

Ski Season Begins Early In Europe - Fast Track Ski News

A number of big ski resorts will open for the winter 2010-11 this weekend, many of them weeks and even months earlier than planned.

Response To “Hot Topic” | Real Science

They offered no evidence tying the current Arctic warming to CO2. If it is due to CO2, why is it colder now over most of the Arctic than it was 70 years ago?

YouTube - Vitter: 'I Do Not Think The Science Clearly Supports Global Warming Theory'

10/28/10: Charlie Melancon discusses the moral imperative to tackle global warming pollution; David Vitter says the problem doesn't exist

Disgraced head of "policy-neutral" IPCC still blatantly pushing climate hoax on schoolchildren

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Smt. D Purandeswari, Environment Education Awareness

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) organised the Third Environment Educators Conference, a 3-day conference themed “Participatory Approach towards Environment Education: Stakeholder’s Perception and Roles”.
...
The valedictory session of the conference was graced by Smt. D Purandeswari, Hon'ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Govt of India, Dr RK Pachauri...
...
Emphasising on the need to build such bridges of learning, Dr. R.K. Pachauri said, “It would be wonderful if teachers go beyond the regular pedagogy and actively involve in developing the school as a sustainable habitat. Climate change is only a symptom of a much larger problem -- unsustainability. Students and teachers need to think about the poorest of the poor who get their daily needs from the ecosystem; they are most vulnerable as climate change will affect them the most. If teachers are empowered then clearly there would be a major multiplier effect in our society. We need to change the way we live and the way we develop our technologies to move towards the path of sustainability. ”

Lauding the efforts of TERI in the in playing a major role towards sensitising the youth, and the school fraternity towards issues related environment Smt. D Purandeswari said, “Environment issues and practicing environment education is now becoming an integral part of our school curriculum and this conference by TERI is a larger movement of educators where solutions to the dangers of climate change are discussed and made aware of. Today India needs development fast, but not at a cost that degrades environment and ecology. What is required is inclusive development. Teachers and schools need to be the torchbearers of inclusive development and sensitised children about the fine line between development and environment.”

Evangelical climate hawk learns hard knocks in House race | Grist

Ben Lowe is a 25-year-old first-time candidate getting whomped in a suburban Chicago congressional race. He's being outspent 16-to-one by Republican incumbent Peter Roskam...The Democrat has, by Nate Silver's calculation, a 0.2 percent chance of winning. Thank you, come again.
...
Last year, he published Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation, an account of the growing "creation care" movement on Christian-college campuses that links environmentalism with Biblical stewardship values. It's a passionate if slightly scattered story of Lowe's coming-to-conscience, written with an enthusiasm that suggests he'll be making a mark one way or another after the election.

Christmas Price Blow for Millions Of Gas Customers

Energyhelpline.com today branded a swingeing 9.4 per cent increase in gas prices by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) was “a grim Christmas present” for millions.
...
Mark Todd, director of energyhelpline.com, said: “This announcement is a grim Christmas present for millions of people especially as it will take effect during what is predicted to be an extremely harsh winter.

Alaska Politics Blog : Palin stars at Miller rally

Only a few other moments rated as much applause as Palin's appearance at the rally: a senator from Oklahoma questioning whether climate change is real, and a new commercial from the Miller campaign attacking Murkowski.
...
The video statement from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., focusing on global warming drew an appreciative roar from the crowd. Inhofe told the crowd he was the guy who said global warming is "the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people."

Hottest year ever update: Buffaloes freeze to death in Vietnam

VietNamNet - Cold weather in Hanoi, buffaloes freeze to death in Sapa

VietNamNet Bridge – Damaging cold temperatures has hit Sapa town, a famous tourist destination in northern Vietnam earlier than usual, killing many cattle.

The weather in Sapa is usually colder than other regions in Vietnam but this year cold weather came early and unexpectedly.

2007 - Cambodia and Vietnam on Brink of Crisis from Global Warming - The Daily Green

In a horrendous twist of fortune, the world’s poorest will bear the brunt of the wealthiest. Earlier this week, the United Nations revealed the most developed nations have once again failed to meet emission targets, and the third world will suffer. First in line: Cambodia and Vietnam, according to China's Xinhua General News Service.

The only thing ‘green’ about NASCAR’s switch to corn ethanol is the cash | Grist

NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France was vague about NASCAR's environmental motivations for embracing ethanol. The move would reduce the carbon footprint of a race, he said.

How, exactly? "We're not exactly certain, but there is a benefit," he told USA Today.

Warp Speed for Risky Solar Ventures - NYTimes.com

“These projects in the first instance are being stimulated by public policy to advance them,” Mr. Craver said. “Those policies are not economically driven. They’re there to stimulate a whole different industry, to develop jobs and address environmental concerns.”

Stefan Rahmstorf, Michael Mann – Little Yellow Men In Their Heads

Whenever someone expresses dissent, which is normal in science, Rahmstorf flies off the handle and lashes out irrationally, which is abnormal.
...
For years now Mann, Rahmstorf and Co. have expressed beliefs that no normal person would think. In this post I’m only going to focus primarily on Rahmstorf, as he is the issue here in Germany at the moment. But it fundamentally applies to the rest of his team as well.

OpEdNews - Article: The Republican War on Reality

On the side of the skeptics you have a handful of scientists funded by Exxon, the coal companies, the Koch Brothers and other corporate sponsors who want to maintain business as usual. They claim the jury's still out, and do this in a year when a fifth of Pakistan was flooded, when Russians fled Moscow because runaway forest fires made the air impossible to breathe, and when much of the US suffered both record temperature levels and extreme weather events like massive floods, tornadoes and ice storms. But Rossi sided with the pseudo-scientists, as has practically every other Republican Senate candidate on an issue that should cross political lines. Sharron Angle, Ken Buck, Roy Blunt, Marco Rubio, Linda McMahon, Pat Toomey, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Carly Fiorina, Christine O'Donnell, Joe Miller and Rossi--every one of them has questioned the reality of the crisis and therefore the need to act. Even some who once took strong stands, like John McCain, have muted their voices to appease their hard right base. While European conservative parties lambast their more left opponents for not doing enough, the Republicans remain in denial on the ultimate issue of our lifetime.

South Pole Ice Fluctuations Controlled by ENSO

Whatever happened to CO2 driving the climate and causing melting of the ice caps? So now we have to use the ENSO as a barometer for ice melt (or freezing), sea level rise and climate variation? It is certainly a hell of a lot more plausible, that’s for sure.

Richard Somerville editorial: How much should the public know about climate science? « Climate Progress

# The essential findings of mainstream climate change science are firm. The world is warming. There are many kinds of evidence: air temperatures, ocean temperatures, melting ice, rising sea levels, and much more. Human activities are the main cause. The warming is not natural. It is not due to the sun, for example. We know this because we can measure the effect of man-made carbon dioxide and it is much stronger than that of changes in the sun, which we also measure.
# The greenhouse effect is well understood. It is as real as gravity.
...
# Our climate predictions are coming true. Many observed climate changes, like rising sea level, are occurring at the high end of the predicted range. Some observed changes, like melting sea ice, are happening faster than the anticipated worst case.
...
# The standard skeptical arguments have been refuted many times over. The refutations are on many web sites and in many books.

Message to Young Journalists: Connect the Dots « NoFrakkingConsensus

It is now reasonable, therefore, to pose the following questions:

* Have we all been terribly misled?
* Are vulnerable members of our society enduring cold weather hardship for no good reason?
* Is the entire anti-CO2 movement a gargantuan mistake?

- Bishop Hill blog - More workers sacrificed to green god

Mike McKenna, director of Kronospan's Chirk factory, said the subsidies for electricity generators which use biomass encouraged them to take "the easy option" of burning freshly felled timber.

He told BBC Radio Wales: "The easy option for them is cutting down trees and burning them for electricity generation.

"That's because the subsidies are worth more than twice the value of the wood.

Why did the NY Times choose to lead a story on climate realists with a person who believes the Earth is no more than 6,000 years old?

Ohio Conservatives See Climate Change as 'Another Scam' - NYTimes.com

At 65, the retired teacher has never been politically active. Now, that's about all she does. Campaigning and church, three times a week.

"I believe [the Earth] is no older than about 6,000 years," she said, pointing to her belief that fossil fuels are a divine creation. "The Lord, when he did that, he did not leave us wanting."
...
Mandatory light bulbs! What next?

What percentage of climate realists believe in that statement in bold?

American Thinker: The Church of the Green Dragon

Global warmism and the green movement mark a first: Scientists, media, and government have jointly embraced a religion. The greenies sport wacky beliefs based on bogus studies that breed flimsy theories that inspire harmful policies. The Church of the Green Dragon mocks all of reality, especially science.
...
Greenies are not about other people's prosperity. Greenies would "save the planet" while teasing personal fortunes from other people's money. The fact is that without subsidies, production costs make green electricity too expensive to compete on the open market. Yet subsidies don't totally cover the higher costs. As more and more green electricity gets fed into the power grid, consumers will pay higher and higher prices. Taxpayers will pay higher and higher taxes to cover the subsidies. Anderson warns, "No economy can grow under such circumstances. The reality is that "green energy" actually causes the economy to contract."

Jennifer Marohasy » Volcanic Eruptions and Global Temperature

VOLCANIC eruptions have long been known to influence global climate, besides their obvious local effects. They emit large clouds of aerosols and sulphur-containing gases into the lower and upper atmospheres, affecting albedo, cloud formation and causing optical phenomena. They also cause widespread oceanic disturbance (tsunamis) which can destroy settlements large distances from the eruption. Although there is now conclusive evidence from the satellite record of temperature effects from volcanic eruptions and from ENSO, there is, so far, no evidence of global warming from an increase in greenhouse gases.

The Climate Sceptics (TCS) Blog: Dr. Tim Ball interviewed by Michael Coren

Talking about the time when Canada was covered with an ice sheet 25,000 years ago, he asks:
"Did Barny Rubble drive cars to cause that to melt?"
"They were peer-reviewing each others work; it was a totally incestuous system.."

American Thinker: John Kerry and the People in the Cheap Seats

Now, that last bit -- cheap-seat politics -- is the kicker. How truly awful it must be for the Senate's richest man -- wealthier than the Senate's Rockefeller -- to have to put up with those of us in the cheap seats.
...
When John Kerry says we've abandoned science and truth, we can only ask: If the truth was so compelling, why did the environmentalists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit have to perform their usual "tricks" to "hide the decline"?

The funniest part of Kerry's anguished cry is his complaint that Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are responsible for this rise in what he calls "know nothingism." If you add all of Rush's listeners -- and they are legion -- to all of Glenn Beck's viewers, you still don't come close to the tens of millions of voters who are expected to render a verdict on Kerry liberalism next week.

Desert tortoise gets fast-tracked to the curb | Watts Up With That?

This cute desert tortoise enjoying the sun and flowers needs to move in order to make way for a new kind of flora in the Mojave desert: very environmentally friendly solar panel trees.

An Inconvenient Truth — Biological Productivity of the Tundra Has Increased Since 1981, Perhaps Due to Warming. | Watts Up With That?

“The biomass of mosses has increased by 74% and that of evergreen shrubs by 60%. The total biomass of the system has increased significantly, and vegetation has grown taller. But because there was plenty of open ground at the site into which plants could expand, these changes did not result in decreases in any group. The research indicates that climate change has already begun to increase plant productivity in the high Arctic.”

State releases landmark global warming [hoax] rules - San Jose Mercury News

Roughly 600 of California's major polluters -- from oil refineries to power plants and factories -- will face mandatory limits on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit, starting on Jan. 1, 2012, under new rules released today by state air regulators.

The facilities will be able to trade pollution credits under a new "cap and trade" market, and will be allowed to use projects that offset global warming, such as tree planting, to cover up to 8 percent of their emissions limits.
...
Industry officials said Friday they are still reading through the 1,000 pages of draft regulations, but are pleased the cap-and-trade program will allow some offsets through programs like planting trees, and also that 90 percent of the pollution allowances will be given away by the state, rather than all auctioned, as some environmentalists had wanted.

Disputing The Skeptical Environmentalist - Soon/Carter/Legates - Investors.com

The central issue is not whether rising CO2 levels will cause a warmer planet. The fundamental concern is whether globally warmer temperatures are factually worse (or better) for human societies — and more (or less) damaging to the environment — than colder temperatures (like those experienced during the ice ages and Little Ice Age).

Bjorn Lomborg, Al Gore and Bill Gates need to consider the likelihood that, driven by changes in solar activity and ocean circulation, Earth will cool significantly over coming decades. Damaging the global economy with ineffectual carbon dioxide controls, in a futile quest to "stop global warming," looks stupid now.

Viewed later, with hindsight, it will be judged outrageously irresponsible.

James Cameron and Google CEO: Questioning Warming Science is “Criminal”

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and film director James Cameron recently concurred that people who question the science of anthropogenic global warming are, in their opinions, “criminal”.

The two made the comments during a recent on stage conversation at a private event in Silicon Valley.
...
During the same conversation Schmidt stated, “There are people who in my view criminally doubt some of the science.”

“I agree, criminally, I agree with that.” Cameron interjected.

UN talks seal deal to save nature - Arab News

“This meeting has delivered a sea change in the global understanding of the multi-trillion dollar importance of biodiversity of forests, wetlands and other ecosystems,” the head of the UN Environment Program, Achim Steiner, said in a statement.
...
“This isn’t a boring protocol. It will regulate billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry,” said Tove Ryding, policy adviser for biodiversity and climate change for Greenpeace.

Is there any hard evidence that more iPhone chargers mean less snow in Colorado?

October 12, 2010: Olympic medalist, X Games champ Bleiler talks climate change at CU « Colorado Independent

BOULDER — Champion snowboarder and Aspen native Gretchen Bleiler told students at CU Monday that she has been “chasing snow” for a decade and that the chase is getting more difficult every year.

“I’m definitely not a scientist. I’m not an expert on climate change. But being a professional snowboarder, I’ve been chasing snow year-round for the last ten years and because of that I’ve been able to see the effects of climate change firsthand,” said Bleiler, who was a guest of the CU Environmental Center.

One year ago today: Biggest October Snow in Denver in 12 Years

The biggest storm to hit Colorado in October in twelve years is leaving roads packed with snow and ice and while crews are being credited with doing a pretty good job of keeping roads cleared, the snow is falling faster than crews can clear it.

Today: Fantastic snow report this morning, plus some photos - Denver Ski and Snow Report | Examiner.com

Ski area locations from around the state are reporting between two and three feet of snow that’s fallen since this storm began this past weekend. It’s still snowing and is expected to snow throughout the day. Accumulations could range from three to six inches.

Lithuania’s power giant favors free CO2 permits after 2012 | GlobalPost

Lithuania’s biggest power producer, Lietuvos Elektrine AB, said the government should use the option of applying for free permits for utilities in the next phase of the European Union carbon market from 2013, Baltic Business News cited Bloomberg.
...
An eastern European decision to auction more permits than required would bolster government revenue while raising the threat of an unlevel playing field in the region.

Why climate change activists are getting their heads handed to them: it's the movement, stupid | Gather

The movement needs an intuitive sense for the theatrical. The movement needs to know how to make a public spectacle. The movement needs a voice that is a moving song that rises up from the crowd and thrills the onlookers to reach within themselves to find the inner strength they didn't know they had to accomplish the impossible.

Wanted: a Martin Luther King Jnr. for the climate change movement.

Deciphering deniers | The Energy Collective

If the fundamental makeup of human beings predisposes a large portion of them to reject well established science, then it seems we have only the following nightmarish options:

* Try to change the way the deniers think. This is state sponsored mind control, on a scale that makes 1984 look like a prototype.
* Force people to change their consumption decisions. To some extent we do this already, via things like CAFE standards for motor vehicles. We also change the effects of consumption, by setting limits on pollution from various industrial activities. But those tiny steps are nowhere near what the science tells us is needed to avoid a list of horrible outcomes in the next few decades. To impose the kind of change that’s needed on an unwilling populace would be impossible in anything approaching a democracy, especially one that, like the US, now has unlimited, undisclosed corporate political spending. The logical conclusion here is that it would literally take a form of eco-totalitarianism, nearly every right wing media darling’s favorite monster under the bed, to implement. The fact that these re the very same people making it impossible, to date, to peacefully make the needed changes, thus increasing the probability of the oppressive state action being used is yet another detail that seems to be lost on them while they battle for ratings points.
* Do nothing and hope that somehow we come to our sense before it’s too late. As I’ve made abundantly clear in the past, I think this is a recipe for disaster, given the immense level of inertia in climate change. Once we are encountering impacts so painful and so persistent that even many of the hardcore deniers start demanding that “someone do something about this!”, we will have already locked ourselves into a path of far greater damage and almost unimaginable pain in the ensuing 50 to 100 years.

Kerry voices frustration with US political scene - Boston.com

BOSTON—Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry unleashed a broadside Thursday against Republican "obstructionism," saying the GOP and its talk-show allies have created a "period of know-nothingism" in the country.
...
Kerry singled out attacks on [a climate hoax] deal he was negotiating with Republicans, which fell apart amid criticism of an emissions-trading program. Some 20 Senate candidates are now opposing the proposed deal in their campaigns.

"It's absurd. We've lost our minds," said a clearly exasperated Kerry. "We're in a period of know-nothingism in the country, where truth and science and facts don't weigh in. It's all short-order, lowest common denominator, cheap-seat politics."

Laurie Oakes: Rudd was blind | Herald Sun

Then, in December 2009, the Copenhagen climate change conference collapsed. "Copenhagen hit Kevin personally," according to a source who worked closely with Rudd on climate change. "He was shattered." And Abbott's "great big new tax" assault on the proposed ETS started to gain traction. It was the beginning of the end of the Rudd prime ministership.

Stalling California's anti-global-warming rules: Jobs or wishful thinking? | statesmanjournal.com | Statesman Journal

The real choice here is between jobs and magical thinking. AB32 promises to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in 10 years. There's no easy way to reach that goal. State regulators will have to raise energy prices on consumers and businesses, raise fees on industries and slap more regulations on already burdened employers.

And for what? Green jobs represent about 1 percent of California jobs -- as opposed to manufacturing, which accounts for 21 percent of jobs.

The Dems’ Green-China Myth - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review Online

The twin China lies of the 2010 Democratic campaign (and they are wall-to-wall here in Michigan) are that 1) Red China is stealing our jobs, and 2) Green China is an energy conservation model. China’s economy is a jobs engine at the same time it’s solving greenhouse emissions?

EPA regulatory lunge could result in 2011 economic plunge - The Hill's Congress Blog

If successful, EPA’s agenda could cost American families $3,000 per year, according to Heritage Foundation estimates. Just this week, moreover, Obama’s EPA proposed a 20 percent increase in fuel efficiency mandates for commercial trucks, buses and tractor trailers by 2018. How does the agency expect already-strapped businesses to suddenly pay for those new mandates?

- Bishop Hill blog - Ministerial meetings

In essence it's simple: with very few exceptions, Huhne gets to meet only:

* energy companies asking for subsidies
* environmentalists.

I think this could explain a lot about government energy policy, don't you?
...
There is no sign of anyone who might give a different point of view getting through the door at DECC. This is rather remarkable. We know that the majority of the British public are unconvinced by the manmade global warming hypothesis and yet it appears that, whatever the stripe of the government, only groups with vested interests get through the front door at DECC. The views of the majority are not to be heard.

Jamming A Square Peg Into A Round Hole | Real Science

This is how the AGW narrative goes. From 1880-1945, the Sun was warming the planet like crazy. Then in 1945, humans suddenly started dumping lots of junk into the atmosphere, causing rapid global cooling. In the 1970s, Congress passed the Clean Air Act and CO2 simultaneously kicked in with a vengeance, causing warming as great as the earlier period. Then around the turn of the millennium, natural variability kicked in and the planet stopped warming. All hell will break lose in a few years and the polar ice caps will melt down and flood the planet.

Trenberth on “fixing the IPCC” and “missing heat” | Watts Up With That?

IEEE Spectrum: You were a lead coauthor with Phil Jones of East Anglia of a key chapter in the latest IPCC assessment, and messages of yours were among the hacked e-mails that aroused such consternation.

Kevin E. Trenberth: One cherry-picked message saying we can’t account for current global warming and that this is a travesty went viral and got more than 100 000 hits online. But it was quite clear from the context that I was not questioning the link between anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions and warming, or even suggesting that recent temperatures are unusual in terms of short-term variability.

Spectrum: It seems to me the most damaging thing about the disclosed e-mails was not the issue of fraud or scientific misconduct but the perception of a bunker mentality among climate scientists. If they really know what they’re doing, why do they seem so defensive?

NYT: Solar Power Projects Face Potential Hurdles

Solar developers depend on two federal programs to make their projects financially viable.

Mt. Hood resorts opening some lifts for Halloween skiers

It's only the fourth time since 1984 that Timberline will be open before Halloween

IPCC will 'probably' make more mistakes, vice chair claims - Telegraph

Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele conceded that the IPCC had been "naive and incompetent" in its handling of the incorrect claim that every glacier in the Himalayas could be melted by 2035, and accepted that there "probably would be mistakes" in a larger report scheduled for 2013-14.

Amtrak Orders Greener Locomotives - NYTimes.com

From 2013 to 2019 it will buy 70 new electric locomotives for use on the Northeast corridor between Washington and Boston and the Keystone Corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, replacing 64 locomotives, some of which date to 1980 and have 3.5 million miles on the odometer.
...
This works better in a train than in a car. In the car, the current goes back into the battery, which has limited capacity and can only accept it relatively slowly. On the train, the energy goes back into the overhead power lines and the electric grid, which can accept all of the energy quickly.

Jürgen Wilder, vice president and general manager of rolling stock at Siemens, explained that this allowed trains to exchange energy. “Maybe another locomotive at the same time can be accelerated with the power that locomotive is going to give back,” he said.

How valuable are random pulses of electricity injected back into the grid?

Hottest year ever update: Devastating frost in Australia

Frosty blow dealt to grain belt - State News - Grains and Cropping - Wheat - The Land

The best wheat crop prospects in a decade have been dealt a cruel blow in many parts of the grainbelt after cold weather and strong winds left a trail of frost damaged and flattened crops, wiping millions of dollars off the value of the upcoming harvest.
...
“Around Forbes, early sown crops are the most severely damaged,” Mr Cronin said.

“Forbes is historically not a frost risk area.

“It’s not often we’re lucky enough to get high grain prices when we’ve got high yields, but we’ve seen it this year, so it’s just a real kick in the guts to get a frost when the crop is looking so good.”

Agronomist, Stephen Todd, at Agman Consulting in Forbes, said the damage was “shocking”, with some pockets suffering severe hits.

“Some growers out there have potentially lost 50pc of their crop over their entire cropping area,” he said

Independence Pass closed for the winter, CDOT says | SnowMassSun.com

ASPEN — Highway 82 over Independence Pass, southeast of Aspen, will remain closed for the winter, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced Thursday.

CDOT locked the gates on either side of the pass, in Pitkin and Lake counties, on Monday morning, as a snowstorm sweeping into western Colorado intensified. At that time, the agency called the closure temporary, indicating the route might reopen in advance of Nov. 7, when CDOT was scheduled to close the pass for the winter regardless of the weather.

Climate Change, Like Slavery, Needs a True Cultural Shift to Stop It : TreeHugger

Hoffman here doesn't go as far as Higgins in advocating abolition of fossil fuels, but he does say that a radical values shift is required

[Do this mean that they hate my grandchildren?]: EU sticks to 20-percent carbon cuts

BRUSSELS — The European Union on Friday gave notice it was not prepared to go beyond a planned 20-percent cut in greenhouse-gas emissions ahead of next month's UN climate talks in Cancun, Mexico.

One way we could reduce the severity of the cuts - Sammy Wilson, East Antrim – HearFromYourMP

On close examination the policies which the climate change zealots propose are frightening. Their demands about changing the way we eat would make wartime rationing look generous, their restrictions on air and car travel would take us back to the 1950s in terms of mobility and access to travel for ordinary people (though not of course for the climate experts who need to travel millions of miles to spread their new gospel) their demand that the population of the UK needs to be halved would make China’s one child birth control policy seem mild and one of the climate gurus James Lovelock has even suggested that we may need to suspend democracy to drive through climate changing measures. All of these crazy ideas may seem so far fetched that we disregard them but the cost of climate change policies are already being paid by us all every day.
...
The cuts which we will have to introduce in N.I. as our share of the national financial burden will be difficult and need to be faced by politicians and the public alike. They will also be immediate, impacting on the quality of life, the job prospects and the economic wellbeing of everyone. I think that most people will rightly question the wisdom of reducing spending on new schools, quicker operations for the ill, a home for the homeless now, whilst throwing money away in the vain hope that in doing so we might reduce the world temperate by a fraction of a degree a hundred years in the future.

Stepping back from the climate change madness which has gripped the political establishment will not solve our financial difficulties entirely but it might reduce the size of the pill which we have to swallow.

Lawrence Solomon: Global warming believers increasingly marginalized, and they know it! | FP Comment | Financial Post

Fewer than one in three Independents and one in six Republicans hew to the global warming line. A majority of Democrats, 53%, do accept the view that humans are responsible for global warming.

Many Democrats, however, are coming to realize that the science is not settled on global warming – just 59% now say that scientists agree that the earth is getting warming due to human activity.

Hottest Year Ever : Coolest Temperatures In The Last Six Years | Real Science

Global temperatures are plummeting and are now the lowest in the last six years.

Over the last two months, temperatures have dropped by almost 2C.

When the First Green President travels to India, will his fleet of aircraft block enough sunshine to cool the planet?

Taj trip included in Barack Obama's itinerary: Obama Visit : India Today

His visit is historic in terms of logistics which is the largest ever for a visiting US president.

The presidential entourage will have 40 aircraft, including the Air Force One that will ferry the president. There will be six armoured cars, including four Barack Mobiles and a Cadillac.

How about a joyride in one of warmist Harrison Ford's fossil-fueled private planes?

Place Bid - BiddingForGood Fundraising Auction

The winning bidder and a guest will enjoy a spectacular flight around the LA Basin with famed actor and pilot Harrison Ford.

Meet Ford at his Santa Monica hangar for a tour of his impressive collection of airplanes from a classic open-cockpit biplane and de Havilland Beaver to an all glass Husky, a Bell helicopter, and sleek Citation business jet—among others. Then take to the air in one of his aircraft as he shows you the sites around Los Angeles. After the flight, enjoy lunch at one of Ford’s favorite local restaurants.

In the last month, did we just lose nearly a century's worth of global warming?

Global air and sea temperatures starting to drop rapidly | Watts Up With That?

Dr. Roy Spencer has an essay below on sea surface temperatures starting to bottom out, but in addition to that, the UAH daily lower troposphere plot shows a sharp drop also.

As this graph of UAH TLT from D Kelly O’Day’s site shows, The current global anomaly is 0.044C – or very nearly zero. That’s a big drop from last month when we ended up at 0.60C.

Flashback: Is There Global Warming? The answer may not be what you expected. - Home

the 20th Century temperature increase was .6 degrees.

Chinese chemical companies' $2.8 billion carbon trading scam unplugged - Shanghaiist

Add greenhouse gas trading to the list of scams in China. Apparently earning and trading carbon credits is one dodgy business and a few Chinese chemical companies had mastered its loopholes to the tune of $2.8 billion. That is, until they finally caught the eye of Europe’s carbon market sheriffs.

The companies in question were manufacturing an environmentally friendly refrigerant called FCFC-22 simply so that they could turn around and destroy it’s potent byproduct, HFC-23. The result, a carbon credit payload. Now however, the European Commission is considering banning the credits because of the companies' demonstrated “total lack of environmental integrity.”
...
Of course carbon credit controversy is not new for China. In the past couple of years, industry hounds have been barking about the Middle Kingdom gaming the system with its massive hydroelectric dam construction efforts and push to ramp up wind farm capacity.

There were loud cries that these projects didn’t meet the criteria of additionality. More plainly put, that China would build these farms regardless of whether credits were given or not, thus disqualifying their eligibility.

And just yesterday, this being the carbon credit merry-go-round it is, PetroChina, the largest oil company in China, also announced that it is opening a UK-based trading desk to gain a foothold in the European carbon market.

Makes us wonder if China is going after Coca-Cola and Pepsi next in order to unify all carbons and create the greatest “carbonation” the world has ever seen!

Climate Fools Day Battle Cry: "It's Time We Challenged This Nonsense": by Gabriel Rychert (CO2sceptic) | Climate Realists

For CFD 2010 it was a completely different story, although we had John Sanderson, we had no spare funds available, and any doors that were there to be opened had to be paid for with hard cash, in spite of people and media perception of "deniers", they are NOT funded by oil companies, the cupboards ARE bare.

Climate phenomenon may grip Europe this winter | Reuters

Meteorologists say a negative NAO usually points to colder, calmer and drier winters in northern Europe and wetter, windier weather across the Iberian Peninsula and Italy as westerly winds from the Atlantic are pushed south.

The NAO has been negative since last autumn, pointing to a possible repeat of last year's winter with wind and hydro dampening Spanish gas demand, cold weather stoking UK gas use, and reduced German wind power lifting fossil fuel demand.
...
Last winter the NAO was at its strongest negative value since records began nearly 190 years ago, and Britain had its coldest winter since 1978 -- despite the general warming trend over the last few decades -- driving gas heating demand to record highs at the start of 2010.

Unusually cold, calm weather in northern Europe also meant that German wind farms produced much less than their potential, according to the German wind energy association.

Stephen Moyer Fears New Ice Age in 'Ice' Trailer

Another environmental disaster movie, "Ice", is coming out and a trailer is available for preview. It picks up a real issue of climate change that, in the movie, causes unimaginable devastation and panic worldwide as the human race finds itself contemplating the dawn of a new ice age.

Global warming skeptics support slavery « Sister Toldjah

So, let’s see. In recent years, those of us who are skeptical of climate change as anything other than a poorly understood series of natural cycles have been called “deniers,” a deliberate comparison to Holocaust denial; we’ve been labeled traitors to the planet; and it’s been suggested we be put on trial. I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Regardless, having resorted all these smear cards, why not deal the “slavery card,” too? It’s an easy way to delegitimize the skeptics, make one feel all warm and superior inside, and keeps Green Statists from having to deal with the actual science.

NYT: Hey, this professor makes a good point when he compares global warming skeptics to defenders of slavery! | Washington Examiner

I know, I know — environmentalists employ EXTREME rhetoric to shock Americans out of their complacency. Is it Thursday already? Anyway, you’re losing the global warming debate rather badly in the court of public opinion, so how can you win people over? I know! Let’s kill some kids. Wait, that didn’t work? Let’s try comparing global warming skeptics to proponents of slavery:
...
I don’t know what’s more offensive, the idea that skepticism of global warming is a moral injustice on par with slavery, or the fact that those people pushing global warming think of themselves in such incredibly self-righteous terms where they’re the ones saving humanity from itself. If Environmentalists wonder why their credibility is shot, perhaps they should stop with the doomsday propaganda and come up with a better solution to the global warming problem than making my monthly utility bills cost more than the gross national product of Burkina Faso.

Washington's Abortive Scientific Renaissance | Smart Journalism. Real Solutions. Miller-McCune.

The momentum away from bipartisan climate agreement is puzzling because it flouts the linear trajectory that scientific findings typically take from laboratory to public arena. Generally, scientists conclude that the Earth is round, or the ozone is damaged, or that lead can poison, and the rest of us eventually come around to the idea, too.

“I used to believe that,” Mooney said of the pattern. “But I totally don’t believe that any more. I think there’s no clear relationship between an increase in scientific knowledge and increasing public acceptance, if the issue is controversial. They can completely go in the opposite direction, and in fact climate change is a great example. We need to give up on the idea that truth finally triumphs because science figures something out. It triumphs within science, but that’s very different from having it triumph within society.”

So what will happen when a Congress newly stacked with scientific skeptics clashes next year with an executive branch staffed by Nobel-winning scientists like John Holdren and Steven Chu?

Mooney could give no answer. But he predicts that the ensuing scene, a bottom-up “war on [junk]science” driven by grassroots conservative anger, will look different from the top-down “war on science” that existed during the Bush administration. Then, the political meddling was largely a public relations push to align the government’s scientific output with the president’s position on climate action (or his supporters’ position on contraception or stem cell research).

This time, Mooney said, scientific skeptics are not trying to control the administration’s message, but to derail an administration’s goal. Instead of quietly rewritten climate reports, we may get theatrical congressional hearings investigating scientific research.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s important to do some pretty fundamental rethinking of how it is that we promote a reasonable society,” Mooney said.

Why is it that public acceptance doesn’t follow scientific consensus? Why do some people cling to beliefs in the face of contrary evidence? [Like what, specifically?]

“Restoring Science to Its Rightful Place”: Where It All Went Wrong | The Intersection | Discover Magazine

What happened? Well, ClimateGate happened. Then the Tea Party happened. Climate science got stronger, but the issue became highly politicized and resistance became stronger than ever.
...
Where does this leave us? Not a good place, but we’ve got to learn something from what happened. Now’s a time for figuring out where the rails of rationality were when we left them.

The Climate Post: Pre-election maneuvering marked by fits of climate skepticism | Grist

Colorado's tight race for U.S. Senate is turning into a referendum on the power of views on climate change to sway voters, at least in that state: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) is attacking his opponent, Tea Party favorite and Republican Ken Buck, for saying climate change is a "hoax."

David Roberts (drgrist) on Twitter

# RFK Jr: For less than the cost of the Iraq War, we could have had free energy, forever, in this country. #e2 about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck

# RJK Jr: Build a $1B solar plant, fuel is free forever. Build a $1B coal plant, you have to buy fuel, make roads/railroads to deliver it. #e2

Wonk Room » RI-01: ‘No Climate Tax’ Candidate John Loughlin Is Radical Global Warming Denier

State Rep. John Loughlin, the Republican candidate for Rhode Island’s First Congressional District, is part of the radical science denial movement that is a core plank of Tea Party ideology. When asked why he signed the Americans for Prosperity “No Climate Tax” pledge at an October 19 debate, Loughlin launched into a falsehood-drenched rant about climate science

Are Americans in Denial and "Mad As Hell" about Climate Change....Or Just More Generally Anxious, Fearful, Disillusioned, Worn Out, Frustrated, Down, and Distrustful? | Age of Engagement | Big Think

For journalists and commentators, the attribution makes for an easy and dramatic narrative. It also feels comfortable to many liberals and Democrats. If opposition is based on deep anger, there is no hope to reason or compromise with the other side, or perhaps more importantly, to re-evaluate policies such as cap-and-trade in favor of other solutions that might offer clearer benefits to Americans. Instead, opposition to cap and trade is narrowly defined as outright denialism or a "bottom up" war on science.

Extreme Weather Whining | Real Science

Romm and friends are constantly whining about an imagined increase in extreme weather, but as usual, they have no clue what they are talking about.

In the US, the 1930s had nearly as much extreme weather as all other decades combined. In fact, the past decade (2000-2009) may have had the least extreme weather.

Twenty three states set their record high temperature in the 1930s, compared with one during the past decade.

Energy Claims and Realities » Publications » Family Security Matters

Does anyone honestly think we can cap-tax-and-trade, regulate, litigate and otherwise penalize oil, natural gas and coal use – and not cause serious, even massive, harm to Pennsylvania’s economy? To the economies of the other 26 states that rely on coal for 47-98% of the electricity that generates their jobs, opportunities, prosperity and modern living standards?

States like Arkansas (47%), Colorado (65%), Illinois (48%), Indiana (95%), Kentucky (94%), Missouri (81%), North Dakota (91%), Ohio (85%), West Virginia (98%) and Wisconsin (66%), to name just a few. Penalizing coal use would cost millions of American jobs, and increase families’ energy and overall cost-of-living by thousands of dollars a year, according to studies by the Brookings Institute, Heritage Foundation, Congressional Budget Office and other analysts.

Video: Canadian citizen with giant carbon footprint pretty opinionated about California green initiative « Hot Air

The One tried to warn us about shadowy foreigners interfering in our elections, didn’t he? And yet, we laughed at him.

Who’s laughing now?

Hansen The Cherry Picker | Real Science

Hansen ran to the press this summer proclaiming the hottest 12 month period in history. I wonder why he couldn’t wait until the end of the year?

Governor's Aide Steps In for Ousted Environment Chief - NYTimes.com

In a brief telephone interview, Mr. Iwanowicz called the staffing cuts “one of the challenges.” Another, he said, is readying the administration’s climate-change action plan for public comment in coming weeks. The plan addresses “how New York State is going to achieve an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gases by mid-century,” he said.

Environmental Advocates of New York, which had joined other environmental groups in asking for Mr. Grannis’s reinstatement, noted that the new chief would face some hard choices given the layoffs requested at an already strapped department.

Climate change requires shift similar to smoking, slavery - professor — The Daily Climate

In the 1700s slavery was a primary source of energy and wealth worldwide, especially for the British Empire. Abolitionism challenged that way of life and threatened to trigger economic collapse. It took more than 100 years, several uprisings and a civil war to change cultural norms and abolish slavery.

Just as few people saw a moral problem with slavery in the 18th century, Hoffman said, few in the 21st century see a moral problem with burning fossil fuels.
...
Abolitionism gained traction with the advent of machinery and fossil fuels as an alternative to human toil. The Montreal Protocol, the international treaty protecting the Earth's thin ozone layer, was triggered after DuPont developed an alternative to ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.

"If we developed feasible and scalable renewable energy tomorrow, public opinion on climate would shift fairly quickly," Hoffman said.

The Armistice Day Blizzard Of 1940 : CO2 320 ppm | Real Science

No one got hysterical and tried to blame on global warming.

Breaking: Poor nations now need $300 billion a year for environmental cough-mumble

BBC News - Nature deal 'on knife-edge' as nations clash on money

France followed Japan in pledging funds for conservation; but the sums were well short of what poorer nations want.

Brazil is arguing that by 2020, $200bn per year should be made available for biodiversity conservation.

Flashback: Developing Nations Need $100 Billion Per Year for Climate Change

A report released on Wednesday by the World Bank has concluded that developing nations may need as much as $100 billion per year, until 2050, to help them adapt to climate change.

Salon : Global Warming Equals Global Cooling | Real Science

Salon says that the storm this week was as bad as the one in 1975, and that proves “global warming“
...
Problem is, in 1975, the weather was blamed on “global cooling“

Climate Change Denial Pervades U.S. Elections - IPS ipsnews.net

WASHINGTON, Oct 28, 2010 (IPS) - In the run-up to the U.S. elections set to take place Nov. 2, the amount of money being spent and eccentricities on display have reached record levels. This has been particularly obvious in debates over energy and climate change.
...
Citing the still poor economy and hostile political environment, Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, sees the outcome of the elections as "likely to make advancing climate policy an even tougher fight than we experienced over the last two years".

"I think I speak for most of those working on this issue in Washington when I say the chances of passing a major climate bill in the next two years are nearly zero," Claussen told an energy and business convention in Tel Aviv last week.

Harper trips cost taxpayers nearly $7 million

- Copenhagen to attend a climate change conference in Denmark. ($400,418)

Heather Taylor-Miesle, NRDC: Are We in for Another Round of "Whatever It Is, I'm Against It?"

If you need more of a reason to get out there and vote, let's reflect on a few of the memorable moments in the 2010 midterm election season.


Remember when Ron Johnson, running against Senator Feingold in Wisconsin, said that extreme weather events were caused by sun spots, not global warming pollution. 

...
The issue is not the details of legislation, but an entire worldview. Are important matters going to be dealt with using reason, analysis, science and consistent thinking? Or are ignorance, stubbornness, negativity and political expediency going to rule the day?

We also have to be prepared. We have to fight the deniers by setting the record straight and broadcasting the truth. And we have to do it right away.



You say climate hawk, I say bedwetter

William S. Becker, Executive Director, Presidential Climate Action Project: Climate Action: Part 4 - Obama's Legacy

Two decades from now, people will be experiencing much more intense climate disruption; they'll think about what Obama did, or didn't do, to prevent it.

Left unaddressed, climate change will undo many of the accomplishments on which Obama spent so much political capital during his first two years in office. The health care system will labor under the escalating costs of climate-related injuries and illnesses. Climate refugees will surge over our southern border in numbers that make today's immigration problem look minor. The world will be even more tense than today, as similar problems occur at much larger scale in other nations with less ability to cope. The recruitment of terrorists will be easier because of global instability. The United States will be regarded worldwide as an eco-criminal, a theme Osama bin Laden already is sounding.

The costs of trying to adapt to climate change and repair its damages will keep government budgets in unprecedented deficits. Once the flood waters reach their ankles, even libertarians will expect government to help.

Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes muscles to defend climate-change law | Environment | The Guardian

"You have to be aware that whatever you do can be undone by outside forces," he told the San Jose Mercury News. "It's a great battle between good and evil – it's like a movie. You have the villain dressed in dark black, and the good guys in white and green."

His comments at the Commonwealth Club in Santa Clara were even more brutal, rejecting the Texas firms' claims they were trying to protect jobs in California. "This is like Eva Braun selling a kosher cookbook. It's not about jobs at all. It's about their ability to pollute and protect their profits," he said.

AFP: Global warming 'unquestionably' linked to humans: France

PARIS — Global warming exists and is unquestionably due to human activity, the French Academy of Science said in a report published Thursday and written by 120 scientists from France and abroad.
...
Allegre is a member of the Academy of Sciences and also signed off on the report.

"He has the right to evolve," the academy's president Jean Salencon said. Pecresse said: "The debate is over."

But Allegre told AFP that the document was a compromise and "I have not evolved, I still say the same thing, that the exact role of carbon dioxide in the environment has not been shown."

Alarmist Tent So Small It Cannot Accomodate Judith Curry | Climate Skeptic

I find it just staggering that Judith Curry, whose hypotheses about man-made global warming probably overlap those of the hard core alarmists by 80-90%, can no longer be tolerated by alarmists. Much as the Catholic Church radicalized Martin Luther when all he initially wanted to do was reform some practices (many of which the Church later reformed), the attacks on Curry seem to be having a similar effect.

The Sierra Club’s War on Coal - By Chris Horner - Planet Gore - National Review Online

A new report I’ve authored on the Sierra Club’s war against coal [PDF] is up on the Capital Research Center’s site. Here’s a preview...

What’s the harm in acting anyway? « JoNova

We can save energy and stop real pollution without setting up a whole financial bureaucratic system based on “thin air”. The wholly unnecessary trading system feeds the sharks of finance with more money and power. We waste blood, sweat and tears and encourage cheats. We reward fraud and foster corruption.

When we trade real things, people who cheat get caught easily. They can’t get away with it for long. But in the quasi world of meaningless permits-for-air, the only limit to cheating is “what they can get away with”.

Speech Crimes & Ethics 101 « NoFrakkingConsensus

There are, apparently, crimes against humanity and vicious crimes against humanity. The latter aren’t committed by violent despots in nightmare nations but by corporations. The ultimate act of barbarity, apparently, occurs when corporations attempt to persuade others of their point-of-view.

So says Donald A. Brown, professor of ethics at Pennsylvania State University, in a ridiculously muddled-headed blog post. His argument goes something like this: People opposed to taking certain actions against climate change don’t care if untold generations of humanity suffer so long as their corporate bottom line is maintained. They are, therefore, evil incarnate – and must be held responsible for lying to the public.

Schwarzenegger Is a Climate Cuckoo, Not a Climate Hawk | GlobalWarming.org

Rather than “climate hawk,” a more appropriate bird metaphor for Arnold Schwarzenegger is “Climate Cuckoo.” The Cuckoo is a parasitic bird that lays its eggs in other nests, in order to be reared by other birds. That’s a pretty good parallel for what the California Governor is doing with respect to climate policy. He helped birth a climate law full of sacrifice that his successor will have to shoulder.

If you don't fear CO2, does that make you a pervert?

'Shrinking' the Climate Problem - NYTimes.com

I’ve just returned from speaking at the international headquarters of psychoanalysis, the Institute of Psychoanalysis, established in 1913 in London…. I imagine this was the first time eminent psychoanalysts, environmental professionals, activists and scholars have gathered within these hallowed halls to contemplate our current environmental predicaments. For two full days, almost two hundred people came together to “shrink” the climate change crisis….
....
[Q] What was your reaction to the session on climate denial in a perverse culture? what was the nature of the “perversion”?
A. “Perversion” here means something entirely different from what we commonly think of as perverse (i.e. “perverted”) — and is apt for thinking about how our culture is responding to human-driven climate change material. Paul Hoggett discussed how perversity (as a psychoanalytic concept) is a form of cultural behavior that functions in preventing coming to terms with loss — where outright rejection of reality becomes tenable. It is related to denial, but more insidious as a mode of conduct that is pervasive in corporate culture and particularly the financial institutions.

Hoggett drew on Susan Long’s work, The Perverse Organization and Its Seven Deadly Sins, as it applies to how we are dealing with climate change. The “sins” include prioritizing individual pleasures, instrumental relationships, and the collusion of others in the denial of reality. This is considered “perverse” behavior and has become normalized in our culture.

Reality denier: Huffington Post suggests that climate realism is a "far right" position, when even most *independents* are climate realists

Michael J.W. Stickings, Huffington Post: When Independents Turn Stupid (and Vote for Republican Extremists)

...at least three of these four are ideological extremists who shouldn't win, ever. I'll leave Toomey off that list, though he too has embraced the far right, such as on climate change.

Wide Partisan Divide Over Global Warming - Pew Research Center

More than half of independents (56%) say there is solid evidence of warming, but just 32% think it can mostly be attributed to human actions.

Climate [hoax] services have bright future – de Boer

Climate services being pioneered by Germany, the UK and the US will increase rapidly in coming years as businesses and policymakers will require more information on how to adapt to climate change, former UN climate chief Yvo de Boer has said.

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Oct 28th 2010 « The Daily Bayonet

Hippies turn against hipsters, Virgin greenwash isn’t enough to protect the final frontier from warmists and Britain is revolting. Against the green agenda, to be clear.

All Cost, for No Benefit « the Air Vent

As we head into elections, liberals are going ahead with ever more government and ever more regulation as though there is no bottom to the cash they can print. To solve global warming, they are now proposing regulations on semi trucks to limit fuel usage. Semi’s already limit fuel usage in an extreme of course as it is one of the primary costs in their business, but nope more government can always help in some peoples minds.

All for a rarified gas which can be measured in parts per million, which nobody knows how much warming it will cause, nobody knows if the warming will cause any problems at all, and the people who make the rules don’t understand one thing about the engineering, science or business. Of course the voters don’t either. We are a brilliant bunch of monkeys us.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks about livable communities | Grist

I think walking and biking paths provide the connectivity for cities and suburbs

In American suburbs, what percentage of households fetch their groceries via walking or biking?

Asbestos and electrocution and long-distance flying, oh my: Unintended consequences of insane, expensive government policy to save us from harmless CO2

Pink batts installers exposed to asbestos | The Australian

INSPECTORS have discovered asbestos in homes fitted with insulation under the government's pink batts scheme.

The find has raised concerns that young installers might have been exposed to deadly fibres.

The discovery has left some home owners waiting months for potential safety risks caused by the insulation to be fixed.

Queenslander Gary Fortington decided in April to get his foil insulation removed after a taxpayer-funded inspector warned him it could become electrified in the future.

It took until July before two electricians were flown, at taxpayers' expense, from Brisbane to his home outside Cairns to remove the foil. However, the electricians found asbestos in his roof and left. "They said, 'We can't take the insulation out, but someone will ring you'. Well nobody did and here it is October so I rang them," Mr Fortington said. "I got a lady who read a pre-prepared statement that said the government was working on how to treat roofs with asbestos."

Electric cars expected to struggle for next decade | Grist

Yes, electric cars have come back from the dead. But it looks like their pulse will be pretty weak for awhile. A long while.

EU Referendum: Stuffed warmists

The point, of course, is that temperature is only a proxy for heat if you are measuring a known, stable quantity. And since air only holds a fraction of the heat held by the oceans – and we have no reliable way of determining the average temperature of the global water mass, we have no way of calculating the total heat - much less the degree to which it has changed.

Watch the Pea « Climate Audit

Jones’ carefully crafted statement says only that he hadn’t personally deleted the Wahl-Briffa emails. It is silent on whether Briffa and/or Wahl acted on Jones’ request to delete the email record of their surreptitious IPCC correspondence.

Is Green Socialism EPA's Real Goal? - Investors.com

Government: While it destroys jobs with its regulations, the EPA has an opening for an "environmental protection specialist" whose job it is to help the agency meet its "environmental justice goals." Meet its what?

Global warming speaker at Lakeland college - Vermilion Standard - Alberta, CA

Audience members will be able to participate in a discussion of the basic science, and will be empowered by Makarechian to think independently about information shared in the media.

Shell, ConocoPhillips May Get Free Carbon Permits in California - BusinessWeek

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Oil refiners including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips would be among the companies to get free pollution rights under California’s planned cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy’s High-Water Mark?

As the AGW (man-made [Anthropogenic] Global Warming) hoax has made clear, it is not just the humanities and liberal arts, but also the soft sciences (psychology, anthropology, etc.), as well as the hard sciences (chemistry, math, etc.) that have been used as fronts, or covers, for promoting left-wing ideology.

It's Time To Pardon Carbon - Forbes.com

It's high time we recognize that carbon dioxide has been treated unfairly. Not only have the good deeds of that wonderful molecule so essential to rain forests, begonias and plants that feed God's creatures been ignored, it has even come to be demonized as an endangering pollutant and climate-ravaging menace. What real evidence has been offered up to support these defamatory charges? Absolutely none.

Global Warming Hysteria: Al–Elmer Gantry–Gore » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog

Al Gore is Elmer Gantry. Expert at posing as the Puritan, he preaches hell and brimstone and calls on us to be saved by saving the planet. And he’s gotten very rich doing it. He won (ludicrously) the Nobel Peace Prize. He’s become a rock star of the Left.

But walk the walk as if the world really is in danger? Not on your life.