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Bias at Fox News? The Bill Sammon memos - latimes.comA memo to reporters on climate science suggests an unacceptable level of bias.
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Such data aren't in serious dispute among climate scientists. The way the data are interpreted can vary; it's legitimate for climate skeptics to reach conclusions that contradict mainstream theories. But only a crank would deny the underlying temperature data that show the Earth getting warmer — records compiled by independent stations around the world, combined with satellite measurements and confirmed by observations of rising sea levels, vanishing glaciers and other inputs — because to do so is to deny material and measurable facts. Instructing reporters to treat such facts as controversial is like telling them to question the laws of gravity when discussing plane crashes. The only reason for doing it is to further a partisan agenda, in this case an attempt to cast doubt on climate science in order to fend off government efforts to limit greenhouse gases.
Fox should either come clean about this and crack down on such partisanship in its news ranks, or it should stop pretending to be an objective news source.
An AGU Global Environmental Change Bookshelf | SerendipityOne thing [Hansen] keeps forgetting to mention when talking about the book: all the royalties go to 350.org, which Jim believes is probably the most effective organization right now pushing for action.
... Jim’s first grandchild, Sophie, now 12, wrote a letter to Obama, which includes phrases like “why don’t you listen to my grandfather?”.
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Heidi [Cullen] worked for many years as a climatologist for the weather channel, where she found it very hard to explain climate change to people who don’t understand the difference between climate and weather. When hurricane Katrina hit, she felt like a loser. It was the biggest story of the year, and as a climatologist, there was very little she could say about this tragic, terrible event. It was too hard amongst all the human tragedy to connect the dots and provide the context. But the experience planted the seed for the book, because it was a big climate change story – scientists had been saying for 20 years how vulnerable New Orleans was, and the disaster could have been prevented. And this story needed to be told.
Go Green, KILL PEOPLE! (Crowder Visits Mexico) - Minnesotans For Global WarmingOh, Noes, Climate Change Could Create Hybrid Species » Pirate's CoveOh, so, they’ve developed over millenniums, which include cold and warm periods, and they’ve come through just fine? Well, that’s weird. Anyhow, notice that the left’s precious Darwinism, including survival of the fittest, adaption, and evolution, just disappears?
tehran times : Colder temperatures mean more heart attacksIn a study of hospital admissions in England and Wales, British researchers found that for every one-degree Celsius the temperature dropped in a day, an extra 200 heart attacks were reported at hospitals.
AGU Fall Meeting. Part III: An Open Letter From Greg Craven | Climate Etc.It might surprise, and hopefully disturb you, to hear that in my short time at AGU, I discovered four scientists who are already creating some form of survival retreat for their family, and they told me there are many more. But they are all too scared of being ostracized in the scientific community if they speak of it. It struck me that they aren’t even “in the closet” yet. They still think they are isolated freaks of nature, ashamed to share what they truly feel.
...I am filled with despair. As a result of my time at AGU, I’ve decided to retire completely from continuing to pursue making a difference in the debate, and for my family’s sake I will focus instead on building our own lifeboat. And leave the debate to others.
I know that may confirm to many people that I have indeed gone off the deep end. And I grieve if the many people who have respected and helped me in spreading the videos and writing the book now feel betrayed. So be it. But, given the fact that those four scientists I mentioned were paleoclimatologists, with access to the newest and best data, and with their position of knowing more than any other discipline what the global climate is capable of doing, perhaps you shouldn’t assume I’m crazy. Or that my message has no merit.
The climate bugaboo is the strangest intellectual aberration of our age - TelegraphChristopher Monckton says that perspective was sorely missing at the Cancun climate conference.
MLive.com : VOP letter: Actions of climate change frauds betray wordsAnd President Obama? He flew a chef from St. Louis to the White House just to make him pizza!
Who are the fools here, the hypocritical, scheming, fraudster scientists who perpetrate this scam, or those who make the conscious decision to worship and support these frauds? If these self-styled experts don’t believe what they preach — and they clearly don’t — then why should I?
Two functioning brain cells are sufficient to make that judgment.
More obscene waste, thanks to green scammers | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt BlogYet more evidence that clean coal technology, on which the Gillard Government is spending $100 million a year, is just a a wild promise made to make the government seem green, and bugger the cost. Bugger also the cheaper and most obvious alternative.
That’s your money it’s wasting, folks, to fool you with what it knows will never work.
It's 'the hottest year on record', as long as you don't take its temperature - TelegraphSince Dr Hansen first sprang to fame in 1988 for his part in setting off the global warming scare, he has become one of the world’s most outspoken climate activists. He recently appeared in a Nottingham court as defence witness for 20 activists who were found guilty last week of criminal conspiracy for trying to shut down our second largest coal-fired power station. No one familiar with Hansen’s pronouncements in recent years would be surprised by this. Still, it might seem odd that a senior US federal government employee should fly to England to support a bunch of criminals. Nothing like so odd, however, as the way his state-sponsored temperature record is still the one cited by politicians and the media to support their belief that this is the “hottest year in history”.
Chris Huhne has a blueprint for a green, cold, dark Britain - TelegraphThe government's new energy policy will lead to widespread power cuts and economic disaster, says Christopher Booker
Schwarzenegger could see himself in Washington | PolitiCal | Los Angeles TimesThen, asked if he would consider a post in the Obama administration, he said yes and began to riff on his credentials. "I’m a very big believer in environmental issues," said the governor, who considers legislation to combat global warming one of his major achievements in office. "I’ve traveled the world.... I’m very familiar with the world."
The governor went on to say that he would like to work on public policy issues in which he could have an impact "with my celebrity power, and also my knowledge and experience."
Once out of office, he said, he "has plans to go back to Washington with Secretary [George] Schultz and others" to push for a new approach to energy policy. He said the country needs to bring Democrats and Republicans together on energy policies that both sides can agree on in order to reduce dependence on foreign oil and become competitive, "rather than always talking about global warming, which turns some people off."
Schwarzenegger said he has credibility on that issue, and "people are very receptive when I talk about these things because I’m a Hummer driver … not a tree hugger."
Anyone need an energy czar?
Flashback: Arnold's (green) Jacuzzi | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times[Schwarzenegger] All of those things did not work because the fact of the matter is the people should use a big television set -- but it should be powered by solar.
They should go and sit in the Jacuzzi, in the biggest Jacuzzi in the world -- but it should be powered by solar.
They should fly their airplane whenever they want -- but it should have maybe a different kind of designed engine so we don't use fossil fuel.
Or they should go and stay in their SUVs and in their Hummers -- but maybe have that Hummer be powered by electric motors or something like that.
Tax-cut bill includes big boost for liquid coal Dec. 17-- WASHINGTON -- The tax-cut bill that the House of Representatives was expected to pass late Thursday does more than prevent taxes from going up next year. It also provides some energy tax breaks, including a subsidy for producing liquid coal.
Environmental groups oppose the subsidy because of its impact on climate change. Making a liquid fuel from coal adds twice the global warming pollution to the atmosphere as gasoline does because it requires so much energy to produce.
Nissan Delivers Seattle's First 100% Electric Nissan LEAF - PRNewswire - Wire - BradentonHerald.comArea couple Jennifer Steele and Jonathan Hoekstra took delivery of their red Nissan LEAF SL today at Stadium Nissan. This groundbreaking moment represents the state's first delivery of an affordable, mass-market, all-electric car.
Hoekstra is a senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy. Steele is a small business owner. They live in Seattle. Hoekstra and Steele are customers of Seattle City Light, the first electric utility in the country to become carbon neutral. Since 2005, Seattle City Light has achieved net carbon neutral carbon dioxide emissions, every year.
Snow and ice brings chaos to Britain, Europe - Weather - msnbc.comIt is the third winter in a row that Britain has been left largely snowbound, and hit by record low temperatures.
Hammond said he had asked the country's chief scientific adviser to see if it represented a "step change" in weather patterns due to climate change and whether the government needs to spend more money on winter preparations.
BBC News - Rare Arctic Charr making Lake District comebackPeter McCullough, project manager, said: "This is fantastic news for the biodiversity of the Lake District.
"These fish are also important as a barometer of climate change because they are at the southernmost limit of their natural territory."
Climate Maneuvers Revealed by Leaks Don't Surprise ObserversThere is a sharp distinction between climate science and politics, said Ken Caldeira, global ecologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University.
"There are climate-science deniers mostly because there are powerful groups whose interest it is to deny the science. The same is true for biological evolution," Caldeira wrote in an e-mail to LiveScience. "The rejection of climate science in some quarters of our political establishment saddens me, because it diminishes hope that our government can solve any important problem where understanding reality matters."
Global Warming Hoax Update | Blogs For VictoryThere’s this thing called weather, boys and girls, and it is the result of an absolutely stupendous set of variables. Indeed, human beings cannot begin to calculate all of the parameters which go in to make, say, a day of 23 degree weather in London and 71 degree weather in Algiers. With all the variables available, if you figure you are seeing either a steady rise in average temperatures, or a steady decline, the first thing you must do is realize that you know so little that it will be impossible for you to pin-point one, single item which is the primary cause of the observed change.
And that is what is wrong with global warming – it asserts that one thing, man-caused CO2 emissions, are the primary factor in what some people say they observed as a rise in temperatures even though they lack sufficient data to even be sure that temperatures were rising, at all. The global warming theory wasn’t science – not in the least; it was guess which was taken over by people who wanted to obtain power and wealth without working for it. It was an absurd idea from start to finish.
Environmentalism is a plot to take over the world, says coalition of Evangelical Christians [VIDEO] | GristClimate change has split the Evangelical Christian world asunder. On one side, a minority say that the biblical edict to look out for the poor and be good stewards of God's creation makes them natural allies of those who would limit human emissions of greenhouse gasses.
On the other, a far larger group argues that climate change is a fairy tale that progressives tell their children to scare them into being good little humanists, and environmentalism is a "false gospel" that threatens to co-opt the teachings of Christ himself.
Reader's view: Oberstar lost the election all on his own | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, MinnesotaThe man became the ultimate Washington insider, to whom Nancy Pelosi’s agenda became seemingly more important than anything his constituents had to say. He listened to Pelosi and followed her lead on job-killing legislation like cap and trade rather than paying attention to the views of voters in his district. And when we dared disagree with Congressman Oberstar on these issues, rather than listening to his constituents, he condescendingly treated us with disdain and snidely referred to us as ignorant and the “flat-Earth society.” Well, we “flat Earthers” sent Oberstar into a long -overdue retirement.
- Bishop Hill blog - Climategate as a reality checkThe interview closes with what I would describe as a significant pause. Hulme discusses the pressure on him to take a particular line on climate, first discussing a discussion with some green campaigners who harangued him for discussing uncertainties, and then goes on to discuss his conversations with his colleagues. There is what appears to be an almighty struggle, as he tries to conjure up a diplomatic form of words to describe the pressure he is under. Take a listen.
Climate Lessons: Background for teachers: smear-tactics against critics of CO2-alarmism The logical legerdemain of 'appeal to authority' is widely used by scaremongers about CO2 in the air, and is easily spotted (e.g. 'the IPCC says...', as if the IPCC were worthy of trust!, or the appallingly misleading '97% of climate scientists agree...', as if a self-selected tiny-minority response to an obscure questionnaire had inductive merit). Perhaps less obvious, if more unpleasant, are the smear tactics to discredit 'opponents' (for the alarmist are waging a battle, as they solipsistically see it). A blogger called Russell Cook has collected examples of this , and has written several essays to draw attention to them:
Climate debate rages in The Australian | Watts Up With That?I’m pleased to offer some essays and letters with links that have recently appeared in The Australian newspaper. One of them is an essay from my friend and fellow skeptic, Jo Nova, in Perth, who does a superb job with her rebuttal to an attempt to shut down debate on climate change.
American Thinker: The Case of the Curious Climate CovenantSo which is the bigger sin? Failing to stop a so-called global warming crisis which has increasing credibility problems with its underlying science assessments, or breaking the 9th Commandment in order to be sure scientists' criticisms aren't taken seriously?
The Climate’s Gonna Kill Us (Circa 1974) « NoFrakkingConsensusThe moral of this story is that no matter what the weather/climate happens to be doing we humans can’t help ourselves. We’re predisposed to be alarmed by it – and we yearn for someone to tell us what it means.
In earlier times shamans read bones and interpreted entrails. Today scientists construct computer models and pretend they know what they’re talking about.
Additionally, our fears are now perpetually stoked by news outlets. Irrespective of whether the trend is colder or warmer, the media never tires of telling us we should be worried, very worried.
Manatees, turtles harmed by cold weather : Front Page - Tampa Bay Newspapers Cold stress is listed as cause of death for 244 of 699 manatees who died between Jan. 1 and Dec. 5.
The number of manatee deaths through early December 2010 is nearly double the five-year average for the time-period, according to a report released by the FWC on Dec. 10.
Officials said cold temperatures likely contributed to the deaths of an additional 271.
In California, Governor Lauds Climate [Hoax] Heroes for Cap-and-Trade Rules“We have been approving one solar plant after the other. What is it right now, 5,700 megawatts this year alone that we have approved? That’s billions of dollars that are being poured into California, just in green technology,” [Mr. Schwarzenegger] said.
The most important news and commentary to read right now. - The Slatest - Slate MagazineFox viewers were the most likely to believe false statements like "Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring," ... Nobody's surprised, TPM sniffs. "Those who work for Fox News are not working for a journalistic enterprise", Andrew Sullivan sighs. "They are working for the communications department of a political party."
Wisconsin: Woman found near death outside of barCheney says her clothes were frozen stiff when rescue crews got there.
Carbon Trading Schemes in Trouble and IgnoredWhy are carbon trading issues that have gone awry ignored by the media? Two examples: 1-scam artists from around the world, capitalizing on lax regulations at the Danish emissions trading registry have made off with an estimated $7-billion over the last two years, and 2- the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) announced that it will be ending carbon trading this year. Both of these have been underreported (ignored?) by most media.
Moscow To Ring In The New Year At -20C | Real ScienceFor some reason, the press isn’t interested in Moscow weather any more.
Classic Letter | Real ScienceAt one time there may have been a science called “climate science.” However, the term “climate change science” reeks of politics.
The climate has always changed, and does so for reasons which scientists really don’t understand. Time to wean these folks off their CO2 dummy.
EU Referendum: It came againAnd the warmists just don't get it. Or perhaps they do, which could explain the vicious edge to their attacks. Their mantras are not going to survive this winter, and the politicians who continue to promote this lunacy are going to be howled down, ridiculed and rejected. They haven't realised it yet, but this while stuff falling from the skies is a powerful game-changer, a political event of considerable magnitude.
Inhofe bashes Rockefeller’s claim that GOP abandoned block-EPA effort - The Hill's E2-WireSen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) – the Senate’s leading climate skeptic – didn’t take kindly to Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) claim that Republicans are to blame for inaction on the West Virginia Democrat’s effort to halt looming EPA greenhouse gas rules.
“Now, as we have all along, Republicans look forward to working in bipartisan fashion to end EPA's job-killing regulations and restore balance and certainty to the regulatory process,” said Inhofe, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, in a statement Friday.
Cap-And-Trade Tosses An Anchor To Drowning California Economy - Investors.comCARB's new cap-and-trade rules will place yet another load on California's teetering economy. Yet with AB 32 the law of the land, CARB has little choice, other than encouraging an ambitious program to build modern nuclear power plants to reduce California's carbon footprint.
A likelier course will be the repeal of AB 32 before the end of the decade as Californians come to realize that the Golden State's go-it-alone approach to reducing transportation-fuel carbon intensity isn't immune to the laws of economics or physics.
Elderly Woman Freezes To Death In Cambria County Home - News Story - WJAC JohnstownGeistown Borough, Pa. -- Geistown Borough police and the Cambria County Coroner's Office found Ethel States, 82, dead in her home on Wednesday. An autopsy revealed she died of hypothermia.
Cold Weather Can be Deadly(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Greenwood Village, Colo., December 17, 2010 – As the first day of winter approaches, the professional medics at American Medical Response (AMR) would like to remind everyone that plunging temperatures can pose a threat to life and limb. This is especially true for the elderly, small children, the chronically ill, substance-abusers and individuals who stay out in the cold for long periods.
US embassy cables: Cuba uses climate change summit to turn on Obama | World news | guardian.co.uk12. (C) Climate change is Fidel Castro's latest pet project in which poor, socialist countries are the victims and rich, capitalist countries are entirely to blame. Climate change provides Fidel the perfect opportunity to play statesman with little risk to his brother's credibility at home. FM Rodriguez' fiery remarks during his December 21 press conference were out of character and resembled past Fidel Castro speeches. Some element of the GOC may see climate change as a legitimate concern, but the view from the top is that of a political propaganda goldmine. FARRAR
Cold weather can cause stroke, death in toy dogs - The China PostThe cold weather yesterday spared no one, yet proved to be especially unkind to domestic pets.
The National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital reported an increase in canine fatalities and cases of stroke due to vascular diseases, with toy-sized dogs making up the majority of the afflicted.
Millions facing fuel rationing over Christmas as heating oil runs low - TelegraphBritain will shiver in temperatures lower than those in the North Pole, reaching 5F (-15) in parts of the country, with this winter expected to be the worst since the big freeze of 1962/3.
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Hospitals are on alert for high levels of patients with fractures and broken bones.
Water firms are also preparing for record numbers of burst pipes and boiler call-outs.
A 60-year drought like that of the 12th Century could be in our future"Major 20th century droughts pale in comparison to droughts documented in paleoclimatic records over the past two millennia," the researchers wrote.
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"We're not saying future droughts will be worse than what we see in the paleo record, but we are saying they could be as bad," said lead author Connie A. Woodhouse, a UA associate professor of geography and regional development.
Newspapers should lead the country | JoNova - The AustralianDAVID McKnight's criticism of The Australian over climate change ("Sceptical writers skipped inconvenient truths", Inquirer, December 11) makes for a good case study of Australian universities' intellectual collapse.
Here's a University of NSW senior research fellow in journalism who contradicts himself, fails by his own reasoning, does little research, breaks at least three laws of logic, and rests his entire argument on an assumption for which he provides no evidence.
Most disturbingly - like a crack through the facade of Western intellectual vigour - he asserts that the role of a national newspaper is to "give leadership".
AGU Fall Meeting: Part II | Climate Etc.The AGU had a session on “Which of these books have you read?” which highlights popular books authored by AGU members, on topics related to global environmental change. I didn’t see any skeptical books on the list, not sure how to interpret that. I guess a number of people were invited to participate, not all accepted the invitation.
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A few words are in order about Greg Craven. Before this meeting, I had never heard of him. Apparently he is a high school teacher, I am not exactly sure why he is a member of the AGU. Apparently his book and youtube video are pretty good (I watched the youtube video). I can’t imagine how to explain his behavior at AGU. I have no idea how to explain how/why he was invited to participate in the AGU. If I had been session chair, I would have interrupted his performances at several junctures (but that is said in hindsight, I can’t imagine what was going on in the session chair’s mind during this performance).
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In a section on controversies, its difficult to leave out Mike Mann. He spoke in a session entitled “Institutional Support for Science and Scientists in an Age of Public Scrutiny.” Mann’s talk was entitled “Climate Scientists In The Public Arena: Who’s Got Our Backs?” It seems that what Mann has learned from his experiences over the past several years is how to write op-eds for the Washington Post.
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I like Chris Mooney, and have learned a lot from him about communicating science. Do I agree with everything he says? Well, I don’t read everything he says, and I am sure there is much out there that I would probably disagree with. But I think he is a good addition to the AGU Board. Yes, he is an english major, but he is a science journalist, and spent a year at MIT (last year) taking science courses related to climate, energy, biotech.
We All Were Believers At One Time | Real ScienceBut then something unexpected happened. The climate turned cold and snowy, and it became obvious that something cyclical had occurred – like in the 1930s (only much less severe.)
Some of us grew up, evolved and moved on. Others still cling to discredited theories of the past.
UN climate change claims on rainforests were wrong, study suggests - TelegraphThe United Nations' climate change panel is facing fresh criticism after new research contradicted the organisation's claims about the devastating effect climate change could have on the Amazon rainforest.
Climate-change funds shift focus from wind, solar FundWatch - MarketWatchNEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The poor performance of some sectors aiming to slow climate change is pushing money managers to cast further afield for investments that both carry green credentials and are likely to post better returns.
Some renewable-energy stocks, such as those in solar and wind industries, have fallen spectacularly in recent years, belying hopes that they were poised to break out.
Pondering a Polar Predator in Retreat - NYTimes.com...(The same goes for environmentalists’ efforts to keep some cold-loving wolverines in the lower 48 states in a warming world by trying to get them protected under the species law. The species is abundant farther north; it’s no wonder that the Fish and Wildlife Service said earlier this week that listing wolverines was “warranted but precluded” and other species were a higher priority. When I saw this chiding headline — Feds Won’t Protect Wolverines from Extinction — I nearly gagged.)
RealClimate: Cold winter in a world of warming?It is nevertheless no contradiction between a global warming and cold winters in regions like Europe. Rather, recent analysis suggest that the global mean temperature is marching towards higher values (see figure below), and Petoukhov and Semenov argue that the cold winter should be an expected consequence of a global warming.
American Thinker: Solar EclipseThe solution to meeting America's energy demands is so simple that anyone other than a politician could grasp it. Stop subsidizing industries altogether. Stop picking winners and losers based on ideological predilections. Stop mandating the use of alternative energy. Eliminate excessive regulation of fossil fuels. Then stand back and allow the free market to decide what works and what doesn't.
Enron And BP Invented The Global Warming Industry | Real ScienceJust another Enron scam.
Pliocene Warm Period 3 C Warmer Than Today « Musings from the ChiefioInteresting what you find sometimes when you start riding a Google Train. One thing leads to another and then you find out that in the prior interglacials it was WARMER than today. All Natural.
Can'tcun : StoatNothing but the obvious really: it was a total failure and it would have been better if it had never occurred. Cancun was the triumph of the negotiator-class: the parasites encouraged by all the process: yet another waste-of-time conference designed purely to generate paper (you can get a feel for this by reading some of the stuff that the otherwise sane Ben Hale blogged. The aura of "why did I bother turn up" is palpable. Probably, someone gave him a grant).
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The main touted success appears to be the establishment of a $100 bn Green Climate Fund, which has a lot of people licking their lips over a nice big barrel of pork. Lots of well-paid Western Negotiating Types are going to get a pile of very well paid jobs out of it, and if there is any money left over a number of Developing Country types may get some Pork (for some odd reason Turkey gets its very own special Pork: para 142).
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So I think it has now become perfectly clear that the entire giant international process has stopped being a way to negotiate meaningful cuts in CO2 emissions and has become - well, has been for years, I'm not sure when this first happened, it was a gradual process I suppose - subject to capture by the negotiators, as these things so often are. Far too many people now have far too much of their energy wrapped up and invested in lobbying this bloated zombie process. It needs to die.
Chicago Climate Exchange = FAIL, Now California opens “Pacific Carbon Exchange” | Watts Up With That?California hasn’t learned from the failure of the Chicago Climate Exchange this year, when a ton of Carbon traded for a mere 5 cents. Nobody wanted to buy it even at that ridiculously low price. But, like a zombie, carbon trading rises again in brain dead broken California.
8,735 Green Jobs In The US | Real ScienceWeb site 5milliongreenjobs.org lists 8,735 available jobs. They are only 4,991,265 green jobs away from their goal!
“Clean Energy Standards”: The Sky is the (Price) Limit — MasterResourceWith each passing day, the odds of Congress passing a Renewable Electricity Standard grow more and more dim. But Energy Secretary Chu, Senator Graham and others are now promoting a similar mandate under a new name. Their old vinegar, new bottle effort should be exposed and rejected as the wrong path of energy policy.
Senator to seek vote stopping EPA carbon rules | Reuters (Reuters) - Senator John Rockefeller of West Virginia on Thursday said he would seek a vote before the end of the current congressional session on his bill to postpone Environmental Protection Agency regulation of smokestack carbon dioxide emissions for two years.
Federal Eye - Federal employees may leave early due to snowThis is the third early dismissal of the year for D.C.-area federal employees. Government offices closed for four consecutive days in February due to "Snowmageddon."
grough — Avalanche warnings and minus 25C windchill for HighlandsThe Lake District National Park Authority’s felltop assessor was driven back without reaching the top of Helvellyn yesterday, in the face of extreme winds, but on Helvellyn Lower Man a gust of 82mph was recorded.
Electric Cars: ‘Not Ready for Prime Time’ - By Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore - National Review OnlinePolitical forces, not the market place, are pushing PHEVs into the market through large subsidies in the form of rebates, tax credits, aggressive CAFE standards and perhaps a little coercion. Without subsidies and political pressure, it is doubtful that there would be much demand, except by the wealthy early adopters who want to make an environmental statement.
Using tax dollars to push this technology into the market results in a misallocation of resources, makes it more difficult to reduce the federal deficit, and is not sound energy policy.
Police say stranded Ontario driver 'succumbed to hypothermia'WINDSOR, Ont. — The lone known fatality of this week's blinding snowstorm that stranded hundreds of vehicles on a southern Ontario highway in treacherously cold weather was identified Thursday.
Neeland Rumble, 41, set out from his home in Sarnia early Monday evening, heading to work as a Securitas security guard at a solar farm, before the growing snowstorm turned even more fierce.
Top Ten Climate Events of 2010 : News : Climate Central...there is some evidence that warmer global temperatures can lead to heavier precipitation events, including heavy snowfalls.
Why the heavy bias towards warm events? And why are any of these "climate" events, rather than "weather" events?
Record day for Duke Energy | Salisbury, NC - Salisbury PostDuke Energy customers in the Carolinas set an all-time record for winter power use Wednesday, and the utility says next month’s bills could increase significantly because of it.
The utility generated 17,570 megawatts of electricity for the hour ending at 8 a.m.
That’s around the same time Rowan County’s temperature set a new record low of 9 degrees.
Feel the chill: Temperature hits 50F - Bermuda Sun... Beyond the Headlines - Hamilton, BermudaKimberley Zuill, of the Bermuda Weather Service, said: “Our low yesterday morning in a cold shower containing small hail was 50F. This was colder than the coldest temperature last winter — 51.6F in Feb 2010.
“This also ties our all-time record low for the month of December, which occurred late in the month back in 1955 and again in 1962.
“The previous record low temperature for December 15 was 57F, set in 1971. The record for December 16 was also 57F, set in 1973.
Florida and Caribbean Low Temperature Records | Cuba News Headlines. Cuban Daily NewsAt San Juan Puerto Rico, it was the coolest (if you can call 76 F "cool") Dec. 15th afternoon in 112 years
Opinion: Key pact in global warming fight - John Podesta - POLITICO.com As a result, we now have an agreement on critical areas of carbon mitigation and adaption to climate change. While not yet solving the global warming problem, Cancun advances substantive areas of agreement — and vindicates a process that many were ready to abandon.
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John Podesta is president and chief executive officer of the Center for American Progress.
Elderly at risk as money for heating help runs out - Home News, UK - The IndependentOffice for National Statistics figures show that 28,160 deaths were related to the cold weather over four months last winter, and charities – which point out that the UK has the highest winter death rate in northern Europe – fear the figure will rise this year. Earlier this month, two pensioners in Cumbria – Lillian Jenkinson, 80, and William Wilson, 84 – were believed to have frozen to death at home.
No Warming in West Palm BeachWhy does all this matter? It's all a hoax! "Emissions" cannot possibly be leading to global warming 'cause it isn't getting warmer, and I don't want to hear, "Mr. Limbaugh, the day-to-day temperatures and weather is far different than the study of climate science." It may be but you're gonna have a tough time convincing everybody freezing themselves to death while their heat bills go up and up and up while you tell 'em they are destroying the planet with global warming. So we are in the midst of -- nothing is real -- a fraud a day brought to you by the left. Everything's a hoax, and it's all designed to separate you from your money and to agree with enhanced government powers around the world. And people are very willing to accept responsibility. Everybody wants to matter. That's one thing I've learned over my short but highly valuable and productive life: Everybody wants to matter. Nobody likes to say think they're irrelevant. Nobody likes to say get up every day and think that their life doesn't count, it doesn't affect anything, it doesn't matter.
Warming skeptic gets key Science post - On Congress - POLITICO.comLeading House climate skeptic Jim Sensenbrenner appears to have landed a perch to lead investigations into global warming science.
The Wisconsin Republican is set to become the vice chairman of the House Science Committee under incoming Chairman Ralph Hall (R-Texas), Hall told POLITICO Thursday.
“With his background, his insistence, he can do the mean things that we don’t want to do,” Hall said. “I’m a peaceful guy; he likes combat.”
Severe cold sweeps across much of nation | The Japan Times OnlineSevere cold gripped the nation Thursday, with temperatures in some locations dropping to their lowest so far this winter, the Meteorological Agency said.
The mercury fell to as low as minus 21.7 in Kitami, Hokkaido, the record low in the city for the month of December, the agency said.
CBC News - New Brunswick - Bad weather is 'new normal': roundtableNew Brunswickers dealing with massive flooding likely don't need to be convinced of the effects of climate change.
A new report from the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy suggests volatile weather will only get more frequent in the future.
"I think what we are experiencing now and seeing now … in New Brunswick and elsewhere is the new normal," said David McLaughlin, the roundtable's president.
"The problem with climate change is it'll manifest itself in exactly that kind of way — different wild kind of changes in weather. You'll see storm surges. You'll see heavy rainfalls where you didn't expect to see them, unseasonably hot weather, unseasonably cold weather."
Serious Question: Would You Eat Soylent Green? | Science Not Fiction | Discover MagazineFirst, a quick recap: In the movie, the earth is overpopulated and over-polluted. Global warming is in full swing and even rich people have to eat crummy food. The government hands out rations of Soylent products, which are awful, flavorless cubes and loafs of “soy” (actually plankton but really it’s irrelevant cause it’s people) foodstuff that look like red, blue, or green Play-Doh. When you die, you go to a death-a-torium of sorts where you pay a small fee, then watch a really pretty movie filled with scenes from nature and peaceful music. You die quickly and painlessly from a colorless, odorless gas.
Then your body is shipped off and turned into Soylent Green which everyone loves to eat.
If Murdoch really cares about climate change, he'll fire Bill Sammon | Media Matters for AmericaAs CEO of News Corp., Murdoch can either profess to care about them setting an "example" for their audience on climate change, or he can employ a Washington managing editor that directs his staff to push phony stories to cast doubt on the science behind it.
BBC News - Viewpoint: Small steps offer no respite from climate effects[Professor Kevin Anderson, the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research] There is currently nothing substantive to suggest we are heading for anything other than a 4C rise in temperature, possibly as early as the 2060s.
Yet over a pint of ale or sharing a coffee it is hard to find any scientist seriously engaged in climate change who considers a 4C rise within this century as anything other than catastrophic for both human society and ecosystems.
Moreover, ask those same scientists if 4C is likely to be as high as it could get prior to the temperature beginning to fall, and many will shake their heads pointing to a range of discontinuities (tipping points) that may see us witness temperatures increasing well beyond 4C.
Florida reels from freezing temperatures this December.Tourists in Orlando, perhaps heeding Bastardi’s pronouncement to go South, faced wind gusts of 15 to 20 mph and 20-degree temperatures. Wind chill advisories were activated along with warnings of the deep freeze. A combination of extremely dry air and high winds activated fear of brush fires. The icy weather could not have been less timely for Walt Disney World’s Theme Parks, which hosted two holiday festivities at Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom. Both were scheduled in the evening and outdoors.
Carbon trading tempts firms to make greenhouse gas - environment - 16 December 2010 - New Scientist. By some estimates, the value of the carbon credits is up to 100 times the cost of incinerating HFC-23. The resulting income of Chinese companies alone is estimated to reach $1.6 billion by 2012.
Great news: California to adopt cap-and-trade « Hot AirCalifornia’s unemployment rate has soared to 12.4%, third highest in the nation. For the sixth straight year, it has a net loss of population to other states as employers look to escape the onerous regulatory regimes and high tax rates in the nation’s most populous state. What better time to make energy more expensive and give government even more command control of the economy?
Corporations Push President on Global Climate Fund | National Legal and Policy CenterCompanies like PepsiCo and Walmart, like all good liberals, are prepared to push for global warming "solutions" only so far as it's painless for them. But if they have to go to investors with plans to do things like contributing to a Global Climate Fund, they'd rather pressure the U.S. government to make American taxpayers pay for it. And that's apparently what Congress plans to do in the omnibus bill, according to my friend Chris Horner.
US embassy cables: Dalai Lama says prioritise climate change over politics in Tibet | World news | guardian.co.ukThe Dalai Lama argued that the political agenda should be sidelined for five to ten years and the international community should shift its focus to climate change on the Tibetan plateau. Melting glaciers, deforestation, and increasingly polluted water from mining projects were problems that "cannot wait." The Dalai Lama criticized China's energy policy, alleging that dam construction in Kham and Amdo have displaced thousands of Tibetans and left temples and monasteries underwater. He recommended the PRC compensate Tibetans for disrupting their nomadic lifestyle with vocational training, such as weaving.
US embassy cables: India a 'raucous democracy' but 'true partner' of America | World news | guardian.co.ukIndia's association and close coordination of its climate negotiating position with the Basic Group of nations, comprised of Brazil, South Africa, India, and China, indicates India is beginning to understand it must address the climate issue not as a poor developing nation but rather as the major economy it has become.
Technology News: Science: Critics Slam Fox News for Distorting Global Warming Debate Sammon's assertion in his email that there is some question that the planet is warming was challenged by experts interviewed by TechNewsWorld. "I don't know of any scientist who would say that the planet is not warming," declared John Abraham, an associate professor of engineering at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
Abraham, who authored in May a widely disseminated rebuttal of the arguments by skeptics of global warming, added: "Everyone knows the planet is warming. There's very, very clear evidence of that."
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While almost all of the scientific community accepts that the planet is warming, there are a few members who don't, and Fox uses that to warp the issue in the name of fairness, according to Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
In the name of being fair and balanced, she told TechNewsWorld, Fox "implies that there is an equal number of scientists on all sides of this issue, which is not the case. It's really distorting the facts."
"Fox seems unwilling to accept the facts," she maintained.
"Most media outlets try to have some factual basis," she added. "I think Fox prefers fantasy to facts."
We HAVE Heard This Rhetoric Before « NoFrakkingConsensusThe similarity to contemporary global warming rhetoric is striking. Back in the groovy 1970s, we were being told that the evidence for dangerous cooling was so persuasive that we:
* shouldn’t gamble with the future
* shouldn’t ignore the evidence
* mustn’t risk inaction
* should view scientists with alternative points-of-view as irresponsible
* should consider the evidence too strong to be ignored
Despite such highly-charged, eerily-familiar rhetoric, rather than descending into an ice age the globe promptly, we’re now told, began a 25-year-long warming period.
Warning Signs: Did the Global Warming Hoax Die in Cancun?There never was a “consensus” of scientists to support the global warming fraud. What is left is the spectacle of United Nations delegates seeking to impose its control over the world’s sovereign nations through the most audacious scheme ever perpetrated in the name of science.
Why Media Matters Doesn’t « Green Hell BlogRather than urging skepticism, Sammon merely advised reporters to treat claims about global warming as what they are — claims that are disputed. Sammon correctly noted that a journalist’s job is to report the facts rather than to decide what they are.
This is apparently too a subtle distinction for the comrades at Media Mutters.
Hasta la vista, global warming believersNext year, there will be another giant gathering producing another useless communique. Hopefully, with scientific and public opposition to computer-assisted astrology growing ever stronger, that will be the end of the global warming mania.
Obama MPG Regs Will Cost $6,400 Per Car - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review OnlineThe willful, random mandates (why not 100 mpg? 150 mpg?) set by Washington’s green zealots would also gut manufacturing jobs as it “would prompt consumers to hold on to their cars for far longer, costing more than 220,000 auto manufacturing jobs as new vehicle sales fall,” the study added.
So much for green policies generating green profits.
No Correlation « Musings from the ChiefioThis graph was in a link at WUWT. I’ve lost the context and can’t do a proper attribution. At any rate, I find it a very compelling statement about the complete NON-correlation of CO2 levels with temperature levels on our planet. It also shows the “model” results are outside of all reality. Way out in Fantasy Land.
In 2007, Mike Huckabee supported cap and trade — now he denies it. « Climate ProgressYesterday afternoon, Mike Huckabee denied that he ever supported a mandatory cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse pollution. “I never did support and never would support it – period,” the former Arkansas governor, Republican presidential candidate, and Fox News personality claimed in a blog post on his political fundraising site Huck PAC. However, when he spoke at the Clean Air Cool Planet conference in Manchester, NH, on October 13, 2007, Huckabee was unequivocal in his support for “cap and trade of carbon emissions” because “it’s all our responsibility to fix” climate change:
UN Official Says We Must Send Him Money | Real Science“The top 20cm of soil is all that stands between us and extinction,” he told the Guardian.
C3: NOAA & NCDC Pursue Goal of 'Warmest Year Ever' For 2010 - Release Newly Fabricated Global TemperaturesAmazingly, they found mucho, newly discovered degrees of global warming during the late 19th century. (How did they miss all this "warming" during their last fabrication revision of global temperatures way back in 2009?)
Climate Depot's Morano on Fox News Global Warming Coverage: 'It's an inspiration for journalism, and it's a beacon of hope that Fox News gets it' | Climate DepotArticle Excerpt: "Marc Morano, a former staffer for Capitol Hill's most prominent climate skeptic, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), and editor of the skeptic website Climate Depot, went a step further.
'It's an inspiration for journalism, and it's a beacon of hope that Fox News gets it,' said Morano, saying that by balancing experts who believe that climate change is a danger with others who do not, the network is living up to its 'Fair and Balanced' slogan."
Hottest year ever update: Cuba Registers Record Low Temperatures in Fifty YearsHAVANA, Cuba, Dec 16 (acn) Cuba registered on Wednesday its lowest temperatures for December in the last 50 years with 31 local records.
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The lowest temperature was registered in Colon, central province of Matanzas, with 1.9 degrees Celsius, which is also one of the five lowest temperatures ever registered in the Island, Granma newspaper reports.
Corporations represented at summit with Obama already cozy with administration | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and EntertainmentNoticeably absent from yesterday’s meeting were CEOs from Caterpillar, John Deere, and ConocoPhillips. All of those companies withdrew from USCAP within the last year.
John Doerr from the Silicon-Valley venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins was also in attendance. But as the Daily Caller previously reported, Doerr has successfully lobbied the Obama Administration the last two years for policies supporting green initiatives that support companies he has major financial stakes in.
Doerr, whose business partners include former Vice President Al Gore, depends on government policies for the success of the start-up firms focused on green technology that he has invested in. the mutually-beneficial relationship prompted one energy scholar to tell theDC recently, “they’re co-dependent and loving it!”
“Obama’s CEO Summit was pure propaganda,” Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Project told theDC. “The meeting was billed as an effort to mend tensions between the business community and the president when in reality many of the CEO attendees are acting as an arm of the Obama Administration.”
He continued: “The meeting was not to establish relationships but a rally to keep CEOs pushing for the Obama’s radial policy agenda.”
The IPCC’s 12 Days of Christmas « NoFrakkingConsensus10 student experts
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-6 pal reviews
Police say stranded driver froze to death after leaving vehicleWINDSOR, Ont. — This week's storm that stranded hundreds of motorists near Sarnia, Ont., claimed the life of a 41-year-old man, police said Thursday.
According to Sgt. Gary Conn of the Chatham-Kent Police Service, the man's body was found 50 metres away from his vehicle near Ridgetown, Ont.
Conn told CBC News hypothermia was the likely cause of death.
Praying For Rain in Iraq - NYTimes.comWhatever the explanation, three days after the special prayer, it began to rain and then rain more, a welcome respite after a long dry year.
More records fall as snow keeps piling up in Syracuse | syracuse.comThe 70.3 inches of snow that has fallen since July 1 is the most ever before the winter solstice, the official start of winter, said Theodore Champney, a meteorologist with the weather service's Binghamton office. The old record, 63.5 inches, was set in 1995.
Hey, you can get out of that suit now...-Melanie Phillips‘..the usual greenhouse gas scenario’, he says airily. In other words, like so many of his peers he appears to have mindlessly accepted as the foundational premise for his research something that a moment’s independent thought would suggest doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
As I have so often observed in respect of the Great Anthropogenic Global Warming Scam, if you feed rubbish premises into the computers you get rubbish predictions out. It’s what’s called in the vernacular a self-fulfilling argument, aka a closed thought system that is intrinsically inimical to scientific inquiry. And you don’t need a PhD to know that.
Why should we take seriously a single word that Mr Amstrup and his fellow scientific chumps say ever again?
UNHCR - Vital cash grant gives winter relief to Iraqi refugees in SyriaDAMASCUS, Syria, December 16 (UNHCR) – For the first time since it started helping Iraqi refugees in Syria, UNHCR has been handing out cash grants this month to tens of thousands of vulnerable Iraqis to help them endure the winter.
"For the past four years, Iraqi refugees have been crying out for help to keep their children warm during the tough winter months," said Ayman Gharaibeh, UNHCR's assistant representative in Syria. "It's a relief we finally have the means to provide this support."
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At first, Soha struggled to support her three children with her savings, but today she is entirely reliant on UNHCR for financial and food assistance. "Although it will only be a one-time payment, it will still be a great help for me," she said of the grant. "I will be able to pay for fuel with it. Last year we had nothing to heat our house and we really suffered from the cold."
Climate Change Workforce Survey Forecasts Dot Com-Like Growth and Potential, Formidable Growing PainsThe fact is that professional greenhouse gas management is an emerging field on the cusp of explosive growth.
“It’s similar, in some ways, to the dot-com boom,” Frank DeSafey of Sequence Staffing recently told me in a phone interview.
WikiLeaks Climate Revelations Spark Fury, GloatingThe media, on the other hand, has had a field day with the cables. "I know for a fact that global warming, climate change, whatever term they attach to it, is nothing more than an attempt to create socialist nations as far around the world as they can and to separate us from our money,” said talk-radio personality Rush Limbaugh during his program after the revelations. “That's all it is and now the whole thing's been exposed as a full-fledged, 100 percent fraud."
Interview: Expert says with Cancun, UN climate negotiations "off life support" but "not fully healthy yet" - People's Daily OnlineGovernments have, as a result, paid more attention to the climate change problem, learning that fighting climate change can create jobs and spur innovation and industry, particularly when bolstered by national policies.
"They aren't doing it because it's a moral imperative or for environmental reasons although that's a part of it, they're doing it because they see it in their national self-interest to do so," Kenber said of governments.
Tokyo, Osaka Brace for Cold Snap That May Boost Demand for Power, Heating - BloombergJapan is forecast to have colder temperatures starting today as the weather patterns that caused freezing conditions in the U.S. and Europe envelop the country, boosting demand for gas and power from companies including Tokyo Electric Power Co.
Accuracy of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Results Challenged by Recent H. Douglas Lightfoot PaperFirstly, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration units have been confused. Measurement units of “parts per million by volume” (ppmv), meticulously specified by Charles Keeling for measurements of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, were replaced by “parts per million” (ppm), a measurement by weight without sufficient notification. For carbon dioxide, 1 ppmv is equal to 1.52 ppm, a significant difference.
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Secondly, the most frequently quoted estimate of the warming effect of carbon dioxide appears to be overestimated by 2 to 10 times.
Season of the Seal | The Sag Harbor Express“There are plenty of harbor seals,” she noted with a laugh. “More and more are coming down here.”
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Long Island is just about as far south as the harbor seal travels. Any further south and the water is too warm for their well-insulated bodies to handle. But as Arctic glaciers continue to melt and the warm Gulf Stream continues to evade the East Coast, the waters off of Long Island are becoming increasingly cooler and more habitable for seal populations.
Why did Ratcliffe defence fail where Kingsnorth Six succeeded? | Mike Schwarz | Environment | guardian.co.ukThe Greenpeace defendants were tried for criminal damage to the power station's chimney and argued that they had "lawful excuse" for their actions: they sought to protect property around the world threatened by climate change. Again, their vivid accounts of melting ice caps, expanding oceans and deforestation – and resulting erratic weather, flooding and rising sea levels - were supported by expert evidence.
Among those who testified was James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists who, in evidence to the US Congress in the 1980s, first drew attention to man-made climate change.
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More seriously, one might speculate what has happened in the two years since the Maidstone verdict in 2008? In the science world, "climategate" has been exploited by "contrarians" to reduce the proportion of the population who are concerned about climate change, even as mean world temperatures rise. Internationally, the Copenhagen and Cancún summits have failed to provide legally binding and effective agreements to tackle climate change. In the UK, the focus is on the reduction of the deficit through pinching financial short-termism. In an austere new world, the public may be less receptive to arguments of morality and altruism which recognise our responsibility to the world community and future generations.
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