skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The Reference Frame: House votes to ban U.S. funding for the IPCCEven if the U.S. stops funding for this institution, it will be largely a symbolic move.
America only pays $2 million a year - a number that Obama wanted to increase by a factor of six. However, billions of dollars are being paid to the climate research whose fake impression of importance is being partly created by the "reputable" international IPCC body, and trillions have been wasted for related policies.
On the House Vote to Defund the IPCC « Roy Spencer, Ph. D.The climate models are indeed great accomplishments. It’s what they are being used for that is suspect. A total of 23 models cover a wide range of warming estimates for our future, and yet there is no way to test them for what they are being used for! climate change predictions.
Virtually all of the models produce decadal time scale warming that exceeds what we have observed in the last 15 years. That fact has been known for years, but its publication in the peer reviewed literature continues to be blocked.
My theory is that a natural change in cloud cover has caused most of the recent warming. Temperature proxy data from around the world suggests that just about every century in the last 2,000 years has experienced warming or cooling. Why should today’s warmth be manmade, when the Medieval Warm Period was not? Just because we finally have one potential explanation – CO2?
Gore links Colorado beetle-kill epidemic to global climate change, calls for more 'political will' | Real Aspen | Roaring Fork Valley News, Guides, and InformationWhile Gore’s passion for the environment helped him ascend to the highest political offices – and earned him a Nobel prize and an Oscar — the forests he loves have plunged into despair no thanks to rising temperatures, poor political will and tiny insects.
Can Science and Religion Get Along? - ScienceNOWWASHINGTON , D.C.—Can pastoral warnings of fire and brimstone be redirected toward a heating planet in the interest of preserving God's creation? ....Although some pastors reverted to their earlier climate change denial, Cizik turned his energies toward teaching Christians the truth about what he called the "twin Armageddons" of global warming and nuclear proliferation, ultimately losing his job after 30 years at the National Association of Evangelicals after defending gay rights and promoting climate change activism in an NPR interview in 2008
State climate report: science or just a bunch of tarot cards? - JSOnlineThey are basically asking us to trust them and the supercomputers and the projections that, we're told, are much more than mere predictions. That would be a lot easier if there were some obvious evidence in recent temperature trends that we really are at the base of the Eiger instead of just peering into tarot cards.
Another Climate Propaganda Unit Funded at the University of Chicago | The SPPI BlogThis is yet another new institution with a core of believer scientists, with the same agenda and the same sources, and it will add to the “scientific consensus” in the “count of institutions” supporting the agenda. Core believers include Robin Hankin and Rachel Warren, from the UK Tyndall Centre. Warren is a long term CRU warmer, associate of Tom Wigley (former CRU and now NCAR) on modelling, involved with the MAGICC model with Wigley, one of the main climate models used by IPCC over the years.
Others include Ray Pierrehumbert, a member of RealClimate and an IPCC lead author, Michael Stein, David Weisbach, “Design of a tax on greenhouse gas emissions for the United States”, Rob Jacob, climate modeller, and Rao Kotamarthi, IPCC.
Leader: Farmers count costs of harsh winter - Comment - Views & Blogs - Huddersfield ExaminerFREEZING temperatures and high winds have made it a difficult winter for many.
But spare a thought for the area’s farmers who are counting the cost of the harsh weather and hoping that spring comes soon.
Early snow and plummeting temperatures have caused those who work the Pennine hills a whole barrage of problems.
60 arrested in fridge recycle scam that released 500 million kilos of greenhouse gasesThe environment police of the Civil Guard (Seprona) has arrested 60 people for alleged involvement in illegal management of hazardous wastes, involved in the illegal destruction of over half a million refrigerators, which has netted them illegal profits of over 10 million euros over the last four years whilst at the same time releasing over 500 million kilos of carbon dioxide into the environment.
Operation 'Fragment' is directed by the Office of Environment and Planning. Those arrested are charged with committing various crimes against natural resources and environment, fraud and misappropriation, as reported by the Civil Guard in a statement.
Help Us Name and Shame the Climate Cranks Sabotaging Our Environment | | AlterNetVisit the Facebook page for Generation Hot. Post your suggestions for which cranks to target, what questions to ask, and how to use this action to transform the climate conversation in this country.
No Full Stops In Global Warming'An Appeal To Reason' questions the prevailing orthodoxy on global warming, calling it a big political and economic scam
House votes 244-179 to kill U.S. funding of IPCC | Climate Science WatchJust before 2 a.m. on February 19, the war on climate science showed its grip on the U.S. House of Representatives as it voted to eliminate U.S. funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Republican majority, on a mostly party-line vote of 244-179, went on record as essentially saying that it no longer wishes to have the IPCC prepare its comprehensive international climate science assessments. Transcript of floor debate follows.
Gore brings global warming fight to Aspen | PostIndependent.comGore acknowledged that there are skeptics and cynics, but said an overwhelming consensus of the world's top scientific organizations now recognize the causes and effects of global warming. It should no longer be a partisan issue, he said.
...
He said many global corporations base their profit margins on the ability to pollute. They have banded together and spent billions of dollars in the media and in political campaigns, even hiring “four anti-climate lobbyists for every member of Congress.”
...
Their objective, he said, was to transform global warming into a theory rather than a fact. And so the opponents of the effort to recognize climate change embarked upon a “dedicated, cynical, lavishly funded strategy,” utilizing conservative talk radio, commentator Rush Limbaugh and his many imitators, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Fox News and other right-wing outlets.
...
“I think the mistakes were blown way way out of proportion,” Gore said. One reason for the mistakes, he said, was that a defensive culture developed among some scientists because they were “harassed on a regular basis” by opponents of the concept of global warming.
“But the general consensus [recognizing global warming] is so strong, and so firm, and so widely shared now, that it is clearly the basis for action that the rest of us ought to take,” Gore said.
He was asked about the popular confusion surrounding the topic. For instance, when winter weather turns extremely cold, many people question the concept of global warming.
“With global warming, since the manifestations are distributed globally, it masquerades as an illusion,” Gore said. “It could be a cold winter in one geography while the world as a whole is continuing to get warmer. There can be more extremes of both heat and cold. There can be more volatility in weather patterns.”
Climate Change: The Next Generation: Munich Re Says Natural Disasters in Germany Tripled Since 1970 on ClimateGerman insurers’ losses from natural catastrophes are rising as global climate change causes more inundations and storms, Munich Re said.
Weather-related events have more than tripled in the country over the past 40 years, Peter Hoeppe, who heads the Munich-based reinsurer’s Geo Risks Research Department, told journalists in Dusseldorf today.
Snowstorms set up Sierra Nevada ski resorts for busy Presidents Day weekend - latimes.comRENO, Nev. (AP) — The latest in a string of powerful storms dropped heavy snow Friday in the Sierra Nevada and set up ski resorts for a busy Presidents Day weekend, but it also caused more traffic delays and school closures.
The Alpine Meadows ski resort just north of Lake Tahoe reported up to 4 feet of new snow over a 24-hour period ending Friday morning, for a total of as much as 9 feet of snow since the storms began Monday. Most other Sierra resorts reported 4 to 7 feet of new snow this week.
American Thinker: Can Truth Prevail in a Culture of Spin?The Environmental Protection Agency's demonizing of carbon dioxide strikes everyone but the politicians and carbon merchants as ludicrous. CO2 passes out of our lungs when we breathe and enables plants to convert carbohydrates and water to oxygen. This is the very natural and necessary process of photosynthesis. If a business exhausts this colorless, tasteless, non-combustible gas, the EPA wants to demand that it buy expensive carbon credits if they intend to continue. If you are a manufacturer you may have to shut your operation down. If your business is a power plant, power rates to the customer would "go through the roof."
Policy makers have locked up our natural resources and destroyed so many industries that we cannot work or produce our way out of our 14 trillion dollar debt. The President and Congress are betting our mortgaged chips on green technology. The U.S. Department of Energy is the primary investor. Sixty to ninety per-cent of the manufacturing will be done off-shore. Bankrupt California, gobbling up federal dollars while it drives out productive businesses in favor of green industry, is the DOE's green show dog.
American Thinker: What do Climate Data Really Show? The Berkeley Climate Data Project[S. Fred Singer] I applaud and support what is being done by the Project -- a very difficult but important undertaking. I personally have little faith in the quality of the surface data, having been exposed to the revealing work by Anthony Watts and others. However, I have an open mind on the issue and look forward to seeing the results of the Project in their forthcoming publications.
U.S. charges global warming company was a fraud | ReutersMIAMI (Reuters) - CO2 Tech Ltd, a publicly traded company that lured investors with claims about products and services to fight global warming, was full of nothing but hot air, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.
It said the U.S. Justice Department had filed criminal fraud charges against six men, including stock promoters and traders, involved in a so-called "pump-and-dump scheme" built around shares of the company, which was purportedly based in London but had no significant assets or operations.
Science Czar: Climate Change Skeptics Are 'Heretics' - Obama Czars - Fox Nation(CNSNews.com) - President Obama's top science advisor, Dr. John Holdren, told a congressman asking about climate change skeptics that climate change is accepted science and that "there are always heretics" in the scientific community.
BBC News - John Holdren relishing Congress climate opportunityProfessor Holdren says he is relishing the opportunity.
"Any objective look at what science has to say about climate change ought to be sufficient to persuade reasonable people that the climate is changing and that humans are responsible for a substantial part of that - and that these changes are doing harm and will continue to do more harm unless we start to reduce our emissions.
"If Congress wants to have a series of hearings to illuminate these issues, they are going to get illuminated."
....
"I'm not so sure there's a lot of new scepticism in the climate change debate," he said.
"People are seeing the impact of climate change around them in extraordinary patterns of floods and droughts, wildfires, heatwaves and powerful storms.
"I think it is going to be very hard to persuade people that climate change is somehow a fraud."
Study: Sea level rise to swamp US coastal cities by 2100 - Science Fair: Science and Space News - USATODAY.comThe report states that the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts will be particularly hard hit. Miami, New Orleans, Tampa, Fla., and Virginia Beach, Va. could lose more than 10 percent of their land area by 2100 due to sea-level rise.
...
"With the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions, the projections are that the global average temperature will be 8 degrees warmer than present by 2100," says lead researcher Jeremy L. Weiss, a senior research specialist in the University of Arizona's department of geosciences.
"That amount of warming will likely lock us into at least 4 to 6 meters of sea-level rise in subsequent centuries, because parts of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will slowly melt away like a block of ice on the sidewalk in the summertime," Weiss says.
The Associated Press: House votes to block EPA's global warming powerThe Republican-controlled House has voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases that scientists say cause global warming.
The 249-177 vote added the regulation ban to a sweeping spending bill that would fund the government through Sept. 30.
Finnish Icebreakers Face Busy Winter | News | YLE Uutiset | yle.fiFor the first time in years, all Finland’s ice-breakers are in operation. The pack-ice situation has worsened considerably with the recent cold weather, and several ships are stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea. If the weather becomes windy, the situation could get even worse.
Dyer visit to speak at collegiate cancelled - Carman Valley Leader - Manitoba, CAEven if it wasn't for the winter storm that struck south-central Manitoba last night, the chances of famed author and journalist Gwynne Dyer speaking at this morning at Carman Collegiate were very slim.
Principal Jack Phillips said he spoke with Dyer at about 8:30 a.m. who informed Phillips that his voice was in poor shape.
Dyer was to speak with the Grade 9-12s at 11 a.m. about his book Climate Wars which deals with the international ramifications of climate change.
Moscow lowers heating despite Siberian temperatures Moscow has endured in recent days close to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) in the early mornings, which, if not a record low, is a dozen degrees lower than the average temperature for February.
How the green lobby smears its enemies – Telegraph BlogsSo it saddens me greatly to read today how [Johnny Ball's] career has been blighted as a result of smear campaigns over his climate change scepticism:
War and Peace Over Holdren's Climate Testimony - ScienceInsider When his turn to question Holdren arrived, Rohrabacher began by requesting permission to submit the names of 100 climate scientists who disagree with the consensus on global warming, including people Rohrabacher described as prominent academics. Then he asked Holdren to disavow previous comments in which he labeled such critics as "deniers," saying that the word is commonly used only to describe those who deny that the Holocaust occurred. Using it with regard to climate science impugns their motives, Rohrabacher suggested. "What purpose does it serve?" he asked.
Holdren immediately ceded Rohrabacher's point. "It was not my intent to compare them to Holocaust deniers, and I regret it," he replied. "In the future I will find other terms to use."
Let's join Johnny Ball in condemning extremists in the climate debate | Environment | guardian.co.ukNo matter which side of the climate debate you're on, no one deserves the treatment experienced by children's presenter Johnny Ball
Green investment bank should make taxpayers see red This seems to be the apotheosis of government waste. Despite repeated warnings from federal watchdogs, it grows and grows. Congress authorized $38.5 billion in LGP loans for 2008 and 2009 — four times what the Department of Energy had requested. DOE has made 18 loan guarantees or “conditional” loan guarantees, worth almost $16 billion, to green energy boondoggles. In its 2011 budget, the Obama administration is asking for the authority to make $2 billion more in wholly subsidized loan guarantees to green energy companies.
This makes no sense economically. It would be laughable were this scam not bordering on criminal waste. It is Washington at its worst.
Which Republicans will stand up to support this? Better yet, which Republican will stand up to condemn the program and vow to kill it?
Mark Helprin: The Fire We Tend Against Winter - WSJ.comSince the beginning of time a potent and merciless ally of starvation and disease, winter has carried away hundreds of millions. As those who in winter have lived in a city under siege or through a military campaign commonly attest, the cold is the worst torture. I came to understand a small part of this when 40 years ago in the mountains of northern Israel I would wait through winter nights for infiltrators, and by 4 a.m., semi-hallucinatory, my heart beating so slowly it seemed about to stop, I thought that being shot might actually be an improvement in my condition.
B'More Green: Local author tries fiction to make climate change real The result is a slim, 154-page nightmarish tale set 25 years from now, with drought, wildfires, rising sea level and civil unrest plaguing the nation. The story focuses on three main characters: an uprooted Midwestern farmer, a New York scientist with ties to radical environmental groups, and a White House aide whose father was a Maryland waterman, put out of work by a catastrophic hurricane.
Stein says he did “a fair amount of research” on which to base his depiction of how climate change is expected to alter weather patterns, agriculture and the like.
...
For some details, Stein admits, he extrapolated, or went out on a limb. Oil prices hit $500 per barrel in the story, for instance, which might seem high enough to destroy the economy and society as we know it. But Stein says petroleum had climbed past $100 a barrel when he started writing the book, so he didn’t think it implausible it could keep going up.
Tesco shelves solar power plans The UK’s largest retailer Tesco has announced that, for the time being, it will be shelving plans to install solar panels on a number of its distribution centres after the government announced possible subsidy changes. If a review of subsidies does affect the feed-in tariff on projects producing more than 50kW, then Tesco’s plans to install banks of panels producing 1MW could prove to be uneconomical.
Low carbon energy 'likely to present savings by 2020' - Low Carbon EconomyMr Huhne said if the price sits at around $80 a barrel Brits will pay one percent more on their energy bills in 2020.
However, he added: "At the oil price reached this month - $100 a barrel or more – consumers will pay less through the low carbon energy policies than they would pay for fossil fuel policies."
The Carbon Brief – The European rapid response team | Watts Up With That?The Carbon Brief is a new website designed to provide a rapid response to any climate change related stories in the media.
It is also appears to be intended as a resource for articles and it claims to be an independent mediator between journalists and climate scientists.
The Carbon Brief’s twitter followers seem to have different expectations.
1974 : Expanding Ice Cap And Himalayan Glaciers Threaten World’s Food Supply | Real Science“Leading climatologists” explain that expanding ice caps, expanding glaciers, shrinking deserts, and cold temperatures threaten the food supply.
We also know now from “leading climatologists” that shrinking ice caps, shrinking glaciers (gone by 2035) expanding deserts, and warm temperatures threaten the food supply.
CO2 Report Debunks Climate Change Catastrophes | The Resilient EarthScience marches on as it always does: weak and erroneous theories are discarded along the way based on the strength of observed real-world phenomena. No incorrect theory can survive forever, no mater how insistent or how vocal its supporting clique of self-serving scientists is. So it will be with anthropogenic global warming. AGW will rank with perpetual motion machines and Piltdown man in the scientific fraud hall of fame, an object of ridicule and derision, and a cautionary tail for future generations of scientists—this is not how science is supposed to be done.
Minnesota’s moose herd continues decline | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, MinnesotaThe DNR now estimates about 4,900 moose now roam Northeastern Minnesota, down from 5,500 last year. It’s the second straight year of a statistically significant overall decline.
...
The number of moose in Northeastern Minnesota dropped by 11 percent over the past year according to the Department of Natural Resources annual winter population estimate.
...A warming climate, especially warmer summer temperatures, is considered an overriding factor contributing to disease, parasites, more deer, more wolves and other issues that directly affect moose.
Feb 2010: What's killing Minnesota's moose? | StarTribune.comWildlife researchers estimate that there are 5,500 moose in that region of the state. With a 23 percent margin of error, the estimate is not statistically different from last year's estimate of 7,600, but it supports other evidence that the moose population is declining.
Flashback: Alarmist Mark Lenarz thinks that you're stupidI don't think Lenarz has any evidence that carbon dioxide is killing Minnesota's moose. Once again, it looks like the climate change hoax is being used to help gain additional funding.
Flashback: Moose multiplying in Scandinavia - UPI.comOSLO, Norway, April 19 (UPI) -- Biologists say there are now record numbers of moose in Scandinavia -- the greatest population since the Ice Age.
By the end of the 20th century, there were 30 times as many moose as there had been 100 years earlier, Aftenposten reports. The number of collisions between moose and trains, trucks and cars was also a record this winter.
Noonday's sweet onions dead from the cold | KETKSMITH COUNTY--Noonday sweet onions are a huge cash crop here in East Texas, but nearly a hundred hours below freezing this winter put a sour taste in many growers' mouths.
Sen. Inhofe turns tables | global warming ambushers | | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and EntertainmentMark Hertsgaard later posted his own, highly edited version on his website. Not surprisingly, the full version tells a much different story than the edited version.
In the unedited footage, Inhofe goes back and forth with Hertsgaard about the veracity of climate science, refuting Hertsgaard’s claim that all scientists agree that global warming is man-made by citing the scads of scientists who have come out in opposition to that claim.
Symposium brings Al Gore to Aspen | SummitDaily.com Top scientists and policymakers come to Aspen for a symposium on Feb. 18 to discuss the connection and possible reactions to climate change and declining forest health.
...
Symposium participants include Sen. Mark Udall and Under Secretary of Agriculture Harris Sherman as well as Nobel Laureate Al Gore and former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR's Morning Edition, will moderate the panel discussions and the question and answer sessions. The event is organized by the Aspen nonprofit For The Forest.
Mike Pompeo (R-Koch) gets to work slashing EPA funding | GristLast night, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) proposed an amendment to the Continuing Resolution that would "sharply cut funding for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that collects data on industrial greenhouse gas emissions." The $8.4 million cut would leave funding for the registry at $3.2 million, unless the EPA shifts funds from another program to the registry.
...
[Pompeo] But this data is the very foundation of the EPA's effort to pursue its radical anti-jobs agenda. Indeed, continuing the greenhouse gas registry at currently funded levels will permit the EPA regulatory nose inside the job-destroying tent. We cannot head down this path.
Are Skeptic Scientists Corrupt? | OriginalsThe collection of Original Papers at SPPI are authored by people with impressive credentials in science, or at least they have a demonstrated grasp of the various technical aspects of global warming theory through their history of writing on the subject. I must stress on no uncertain terms that I do not share those accomplishments, a fact that will no doubt delight believers of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) and prompt them to read no further into this paper, but instead accuse SPPI of issuing papers written by people unqualified to speak about the subject. That would be unfortunate, as the evidence I present here and the questions I ask are things any unqualified, disinterested bystander might find and ask about. Indeed, believers of AGW could have posed the following to each other in order to see if their criticisms about skeptic scientists survive under hard scrutiny.
Want to Fight Global Warming? Don't Just Focus on CO2 - ScienceNOWWASHINGTON, D.C.—Carbon dioxide is the elephant in the room for any discussion of how to stem global warming. But a new report suggests that tackling emissions of two other short-lasting pollutants—methane and the black component of soot—could slow expected warming by a full 0.5˚C beyond what targeting CO2 alone could accomplish by 2070.
The report, which will be discussed here Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW), includes a lot of uncertainty.
...
The report did not undergo formal peer review, but Bond and Fahey were among hundreds of outside scientists who submitted comments before the study was released. On Wednesday of next week, environment ministers from around the world meeting at the United Nations will receive the preliminary version of the full report and begin to discuss how to implement some of its findings, said a spokesperson for the United Nations Environment Programme, which sponsored the report along with the World Meteorological Organization.
Scientific predictions are made by con menEarlier WikiLeaks memos confirmed this worldwide hoax. The imploding of the global warming swindle was initially ignited by 13 years of e-mails of Phil Jones, the head of the British Research Center becoming public. They found memos that exposed international scientists in collusion with each other, exaggerating warming data and suppressing contrary evidence.
This cabal of global warming alarmists rewarded themselves with honorary speaking engagements, published papers and large grants while excluding any scientific papers that disagreed with their perspective. Any scientists who were non-believers were not only prevented from participating in the peer review process but were shunned from government grants and academic promotions.
The Himalayan and Amazon revelations showed the international scope of this conspiracy.
Not So Smart - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review OnlinePenske, the astute Detroit billionaire whose Midas touch has won Indy car races, built a truck-rental and auto-dealership empire, and even staged a successful Super Bowl in downtown Detroit, bailed on his agreement to sell the tiny Daimler Benz product on Monday. Since selling 24,622 units in its 2008 debut year, Smart ForTwo sales have slumped. Even as overall U.S. vehicle sales rebounded in 2010, Smart sales plummeted 60 percent to 5,927.
The news caught no one by surprise.
In truth, the only people who ever thought the Smart would be a U.S. bestseller were the Germans, the MSM, and Barack Obama, all of whom have proven spectacularly out-of-touch with American middle-class reality.
Study Links Extreme Weather And Climate Change : NPRIn 2000, England and Wales experienced the wettest autumn since record keeping began in 1766. An Oxford University study says the likely cause was human-driven climate change — the first time scientists have linked climate change to an extreme weather event.
As Kiribati Sinks, 'Migrating With Dignity' Is Looming Option | TakePart - Inspiration to Action"To me, to think that our country won't exist or our race, then it's like we are nothing,” said Baure, who is living in Australia and being trained as a nurse. “To me if my country sinks, then, I'm—it's like there's no use of existing as a human being."
The nursing student hopes to bring her parents to Australia when she graduates.
But there’s a problem: her parents won't believe in climate change, no matter how hard she tries to convince them in her twice-monthly calls home.
Cap-and-Trade Is Not Dead « The Enterprise BlogRepublicans need to understand this: despite the president’s rhetoric of including nuclear power, natural gas, and coal with “carbon capture and storage” as clean energy, environmentalists are not going to consider them to be “clean.” They will insist that a credit of solar power or wind power be worth several times a credit for natural gas or nuclear power. As for coal with carbon capture and storage, the economics and engineering logistics of that are so horrendous as to render it a fantasy. Once again, this “trading system” will be used for political purposes of favoring friends and punishing enemies, while putting the bill for more expensive energy on the ratepayers.
Ambrose: Don't overreact to so-called global warming | ScrippsNewsThere's a new book out, something called "Hot." The author worries how his little girl will suffer if something isn't done about global warming, says a New York Times reviewer confiding that the concern broke his heart.
Here's something that should also break his heart. If we do the wrong thing about the climate, we might do far more harm than global warming ever could, maybe killing children.
It's utterly amazing that so many journalists and others inundate us regularly with scare stories demanding that the United States take fierce anti-warming action while scarcely ever pausing to mention the possible futility of it all -- or the costs.
Another Govt Climate Change Propaganda Unit | The SPPI BlogThe National Park Service is seeking an energetic professional individual to serve as the Cultural Resources Climate Change Adaptation Coordinator. The position is located in Washington, DC and provides cultural resource management assistance to park units, and provides leadership and guidance to stakeholders in the cultural resource management and historic preservation communities nationwide on issues relating to climate change.
Environmental insults: Who are you calling a climate crank, nut job? | The EconomistEnvironmentalists efforts to fight spin with spin seem to have spun out of control. The Twitter hashtag created to publicize Tuesday’s event, #climatecranks, was used in nearly equal measure by both Mark Hertsgaard, the environmental correspondent for the Nation who coined the phrase and led the action, and an opponent of greenhouse-gas regulations, who co-opted it to heckle him. And America’s “fair and balanced” network was also quick to belittle the activists' efforts. “Global Warming Nuts Try to Ambush Sen. Inhofe...Fail”, jeered the Fox News headline.
Climate activists have the science on their side, but American conservatives are winning the war of words. And as the rhetoric heats up, so too does the planet.
Tom Toles - Circular reasoningThe opponents' side:
-A realization that some familiar consumption patterns will need to change and that there will be some costs.
-The conversation suddenly goes backward from "what is the best way to deal with this?" to "the whole problem is just made up."
-The only way to get around the science is to construct a theory that all the scientists in the world have gotten together in a deliberate conspiracy to subvert their field of study, and hoax the world for personal gain. Virtually ALL of them. Pay attention ONLY to the tiny tiny minority.
-The threat of climate change is no longer discussed as a range of possibilities, but is recalibrated down to ZERO, or next to it.
-If the deniers are right, then they may have saved themselves a few dollars and some personal convenience in doing things the way they have become comfortable with.
-If the climate science is correct, vast destruction may ensue, up to and including millions of deaths. But let's not even CONTEMPLATE that as a possibility, because maybe, just maybe, it's all a conspiracy. In fact, not maybe. It's definitely a conspiracy. We're sure of it.
-So sure we will bet the whole planet on that supposition.
Nobody likes being called stupid. What would you call this? --Tom Toles
Special Report - The California Carbon Rush (Hold the Eureka!) - ReutersThis new market will rapidly expand, beginning at just under $2 billion (1.2 billion pounds) and rising to nearly $10 billion in 2016, according to estimates from Point Carbon, a Thomson Reuters company focussing on carbon markets.
...
That's why Point Carbon is forecasting that prices will jump to between $69 and $87 per ton in 2020, sufficient to tap a containment reserve of credits that the state had hoped would be an unofficial ceiling on the market.
Greens may block carbon farming billBut Greens deputy leader Christine Milne has dismissed Labor's carbon farming program, comparing it with discredited Howard government managed investment schemes, in which landowners were given tax breaks to plant trees.
"I don't think this has been very well thought through," Senator Milne told the same forum at Parliament House.
Gore, Jackson, 6,000 students expected at We Day rally in Ontario - Winnipeg Free PressWATERLOO, Ont. - Thousands of students gather today to listen to some inspirational leaders but the politicians may well be the ones to find it inspiring.
Nobel Laureate Al Gore, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Rev. Jesse Jackson are in Kitchener, Ont., for a rally for social change called We Day.
Climate change: Americans and global warming, continued | The EconomistSome commenters had the provocative thought that environmentalists should emphasise the effect (climate change) rather than the cause (anthropogenic).
ABC News Watch: The truth not reported while activists ruleABC's Alarmist morning current affairs program AM reports on claims that extreme weather is linked to man made climate change. The research is called "robust" yet the time frame of the study (1950-1999) hardly covers more than one climate cycle and the paper makes the mistake of taking for granted that recent warming is not mainly due to natural variation.
Die Klimazwiebel: Climate change and extreme flooding linked by new evidence? Several elements of the story are familiar to Klimazwiebel readers. There is the attempt to link current weather to long term climate, to use computer models to achieve the evidence, and to alarm the public and policy makers that climate change is real and here. This storyline follows a script used by Hansen who made a reference to "loaded dice" back in 1988
The Tomato Knows « Musings from the ChiefioFolks who’ve been here for a while know I’ve used the “tag line” of “GIStemp, Dumber Than a Tomato”. Newbies can click on the “GIStemp” tab up top for an example.
Well, we had a cold spell a few weeks back. It froze all the way down to Mexico. Now the impact on tomatoes is being felt all over North America. This is just another example of the Tomato being a more truthful indicator of “climate change” than all the manipulated numbers in the world.
OVERNIGHT ENERGY: GOP sharpens climate message ahead of votes - The Hill's E2-WireBut Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) – who is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee – defended the proposal against criticism that it's anti-science.
"Is this a debate about climate science?" Whitfield asked Simpson in a staged conversation on the House floor Wednesday.
Simpson replied: "It is not even necessary to be a climate change skeptic to be an EPA greenhouse gas regulation skeptic. These regulations are all economic pain for little if any environmental gain.”
Rep. Hall: Dump New Climate Research Plan Many Republicans are skeptical about climate change research. And Texas GOP Rep. Ralph Hall, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, is acting on that skepticism. He wants to withhold money for the Obama administration’s plan to restructure federal climate change research and monitoring programs, The Hill reports.
Warning Signs: Deconstructing the Global Warming FraudReal science can be corrupted in the same way as other aspects of society can be. For me, the real crime of global warming is the way governmental agencies, beginning with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, deliberately falsified data, mostly based on computer models, to underwrite the global warming fraud. That is also what NOAA, NASA, and the EPA, have done, to name just three.
Global warming may reroute evolution | Science Blog Although all plants grew larger in response to elevated carbon dioxide, and all plant families showed similar growth and reproductive responses, plant families responded differently to elevated carbon dioxide in their production of chemical and physical defenses against plant-eating insects.
The 5 Dumbest Claims People Make for Electric Cars | BNETI’m more in line with Bill Reinert, a senior manager at Toyota, who thinks the gas engine will be around in some form for the next 30 years, and just one or two percent of the market will be electric by 2020. I’m more optimistic — we’ll be into double digits by then.
ATI Refutes Lisa Jackson's Rationale for GHG RegulationsThe American Tradition Institute has examined the 10 reasons that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson gave to oppose Republican plans to not fund the implementation of climate change regulations at EPA. Our review documents the sad state of critical thinking at EPA and its failure to distinguish between its core mission and its Malthusian alarmist activism.
Here are the 10 reasons and why each is wrong, wrong-headed or simply silly
[Junk] Scientists connect global warming to extreme rain | Fox 11 | KMSB Tucson | National NewsWASHINGTON (AP) — Two studies in the journal Nature link global warming to extreme rainstorms and snowfalls and find these weather events are getting substantially worse.
One study found that the strongest precipitation events were 7 percent wetter in the 1990s than they were in the 1950s. The other looked at costly flooding in England and Wales in the fall of 2000 and found that global warming more than doubled the likelihood of that flood occurring. Both studies used computer modeling.
The PJ Tatler » In which global warming alarmists compare themselves to Galileo to shut off debateUnpack that a bit and you have fallacious appeals to authority, followed by ad hominem attacks and insults. That’s not science, though having worked around more than a few scientists in my time, it’s unfortunately not uncommon behavior for scientists to engage in. Hertsgaard never deals honestly with the ClimateGate emails, which provide extremely strong evidence that the scientists at the heart of the debate were and still are cooking the books. It’s as if “hide the decline” never entered the debate. It’s as if none of the pile of information showing real and widespread fraud done in the name of global warming alarmism never happened at all.
That’s what I call living in denial.
NSIDC Press Room: Thawing permafrost will accelerate global warming in decades to come, says new studyThis is a press release from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
One- to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost will disappear by 2200, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a study by researchers at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Peter Calthorpe on why urbanism is the cheapest, smartest way to fight climate change | GristQ. There's a lot of rhetoric on the right about "we need freedom of choice, we don't want these kinds of dense development, people are telling us what to do with our property."
A. All you can do in that context is put out the facts.
Frost damage forcing schools to limit produce | Northwest News - The News TribuneCold weather in southern states is causing shortages in produce served at area school districts.
...
Leslee Caul, district spokeswoman, said principals were notified last week that a freeze in Arizona had damaged iceberg, romaine and green leaf lettuce. There could be similar problems with cucumbers and tomatoes, she said.
The A, B, C's of Limiting Climate Risk - NYTimes.comWhat’s refreshing is that the building human influence on the climate system is not being portrayed definitively as an unfolding catastrophe, with present-day events cast as the reason for action. That approach, from Katrina forward, was bound to fail, given the variability of conditions year to year and persistent (and non-manufactured) uncertainty surrounding some of the most consequential impacts (for instance, the pace and extent of warming and sea-level rise in this century).
Andrew Weaver vs Tim Flannery « NoFrakkingConsensusFrom this perspective, Flannery’s instincts are the most admirable. He recognizes that the IPCC is a political football and is repelled. Weaver, on the other hand, tries to convince himself (and us) that all the UN-grade intrigue connected to the IPCC doesn’t really matter.
Only 20 Days Until The 2011 Catlin Survey | Real ScienceAs The Guardian pointed out, Arctic temperatures are soaring at -32 degrees.
U.N.: Global warming could cause 'climate chaos' - USATODAY.comAMSTERDAM (AP) — Global warming is a looming threat to stability and national security around the world, and militaries should spend some of their ever-expanding budgets on reducing carbon emissions to avoid "climate chaos," the U.N.'s top climate official said Tuesday.
...
Figueres said the world's military budgets grew by 50% in the first nine years of this century. Rather than continue that growth in weaponry, she said, the generals should invest in preventative budgets to "avoid the climate chaos that would demand a defense response that makes even today's spending burden look light."
David Appell: Quark Soup: Mark Haartsgard Confronts James Inhofe ...these kind of tactics won't convince anyone who isn't already in the choir.
Most people, I suspect, find it a real turn-off. I do.
NPR : Kiribati To Drown Within 50 Years | Real ScienceThe closest tide gauge is at Chuuk and it shows no sea level rise, but facts are not important at taxpayer funded NPR.
A request for an audit of our temperature figures | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt BlogThe much publicized BOM data record has to stand the test of independent scrutiny if accusations of ideological or political motivation are to be adequately addressed. If the BOM data record is accurate and any adjustments are scientifically justifiable, then the BOM should have no objections to being held to account to the standards they proclaim in their annual report. If there are any areas of doubt, then the policy?makers and public need to be made aware of those areas so that informed decisions can be made regarding how any doubt may influence policy decisions.
Northern New Brunswick wind turbines frozen solidFREDERICTON — A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a potential supply of renewable energy for NB Power.
The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, located 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, N.B. has been completely shutdown for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades.
GDF SUEZ Energy, the company that owns and operates the site, is working to return the windmills to working order, a spokeswoman says.
“We can’t control the weather,” Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas.
The New Nostradamus of the North: Are we going to see solar powered aircraft carriers?UN climate chief Christiana Figueras has been talking to Spanish parlamentarians in Madrid about what "generals" could and should do in order to fight (imaginary) human induced global warming/climate change. She mentioned that some American bases in Afganistan are experimenting with solar power. However, she stopped short of telling "generals" to start using solar powered or electric tanks, jet fighters or aircraft carriers. Figueras will probably include those in her next scare speech ...
Taiwan: Agricultural losses from cold weather exceed NT$225 millionTaipei, Feb. 16 (CNA) Taiwan's agricultural sector has suffered losses of roughly NT$227.6 million (US$7.7 million) over the past month, as low temperatures brought by cold fronts have damaged crops and fish farms in some areas, the Council of Agriculture said Tuesday.
India aims to raise wheat output to 90 mn tn by 2020India, which aims to achieve 90 million tonnes of wheat production by 2020, is looking at newer technologies and agricultural practices adopted in other growing countries including Australia, a government research body said.
...
India, the world's second biggest wheat producer after China, is heading towards harvesting a record 81.47 million tonnes of the produce in the 2010-11 crop year.
"The country aims to enhance wheat output to 90 million tonnes by 2020 and is keeping its eyes open to new technologies and efficient agri-practices around the world," Singh said at the closing ceremony of the two-day India-Australia Programme on wheat.
Flashback: Climate change threatens Indian agricultural growth The rice and wheat yields could decline considerably with climatic changes (IPCC 1996; 2001)
Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland: Climate Change -- A Glimpse of the Future In the school in Koyra the children enacted with great gusto -- and acting skills -- how climate change may happen. One of the taller boys acted as the tree which the others cut down, even though warned not to. The winds came, and the consequences were played out -- they all knew where the climate shelter was! As I watched with a grandmother's eye, it struck me that every primary school around the world should be beginning to bring home to children what we must all do to change our habits. Every school needs to be a "green school", so that children can educate their parents. For some it will be knowing where the nearest climate shelter is. For others -- in the developed world -- it will be learning to reuse, reduce, recycle, eat less meat, and travel by public transport, among other ideas.
Snow helps and hampers maple syrup producersRANDOLPH, Vt. - The mountains of snow that have buried the Northeast this winter will have a sweet - and just slightly bitter - taste for the region's maple syrup producers.
Sweet because an abundance of snow actually helps with the production of the sap that is boiled down to produce syrup. But bitter because, well, too much snow is just as much a chore for maple syrup producers to deal with as it is for the rest of us.
Disaster assistance for livestock, poultry producers affected by winter weather | IndianaThe USDA’s Farm Service Agency in Indiana issued a reminder to livestock and poultry producers throughout Indiana that FSA programs may be available to assist them. Many are dealing with harsh winter weather, which is causing serious harm to livestock and forage due to heavy snow, ice and extremely cold temperatures.
How London bike hire users can cut the scheme's carbon emissions | Laura Cox | Environment | guardian.co.ukJust when Transport for London (TfL) thought the bike hire scheme provided an answer to London's carbon emissions problem, they found a snag – bikes cannot be provided without producing emissions.
...
The vehicles are narrower than the trailers of bikes, which critics says has led to accidents involving cyclists. A Freedom of Information request by the bike blog reveals that 24 road accidents have involved Serco transport vehicles since the scheme's launch last summer, including four which also involved a cyclist.
In November, David Ellis, a 37-year-old cyclist was knocked off his bike by one of the vehicles. He said the trailers were a danger to cyclists because their width is greater than that of the tow truck. None of the recorded Serco/cyclist collisions were fatal. Compare this with 13 cyclist deaths caused by HGVs in London during 2010.
Posts
