Snowpocalypse Russia: 'Snow tsunami' swallows streets, cars, buildings (PHOTOS) — RT

Nearly 200 people have died throughout Russia as a direct result of weather-related accidents and hypothermia this season, according to official statistics, although the extreme conditions have likely contributed to many more fatalities.

Twitter / Ben_Geman: DOE Sec Steven Chu, in Saturday ...

DOE Sec Steven Chu, in Saturday talk, notes rate of sea level rise has been faster than expected. "It is changing faster than we thought."

Prepare for impact of climate change | StarTribune.com

[Minneapolis] It's going to get warmer, stormier and drier here.

Minneapolis, Minnesota (55401) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground

[Monday's projected *high* temperature in Minneapolis: -2 F]

Twitter / RyanMaue: Go to FEC campaign contribution ...

Go to FEC campaign contribution database for your favorite university climate scientist. Big time Obama donors. Some many thousands $

Twitter / RyanMaue: Pretty apparent that loudest ...

Pretty apparent that loudest advocate climate scientists are far left partisans. Must see their scientific expertise thru that prism.

Climate Change Impacts in the U.S.: Sober Analysis, Cool Graphics from Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger

The UN IPCC Fouth Assessment Report (2007) famously concluded that “most of the observed increase in global average temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” However, recent studies attribute components of the observed warming to other factors. Adding up those contributions, Pat and Chip calculate that greenhouse gas concentrations account for less than half of the observed warming since 1950.

Can a Carbon Tax Solve Man-Made Global Warming? - Reason.com

[Ronald Bailey] The trick is identifying those who are actually causing climate damage and those who are being harmed by it.

The Big NOAA 2012 Cheat Continues | Real Science

The last four days of 2012 were very cold. How did NOAA determine the 2012 temperature to .01 degrees, when they are missing 1% of the data which averaged at least five degrees below normal?

Answer : corrupt junk science seance.

C3: NOAA Research: IPCC's Predicted Climate Sensitivity To CO2 Significantly Exaggerated

The IPCC, and its legion of green-sharia scientists on the taxpayer dole, have publicly stated that the climate sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 levels is high, with a predicted result of dangerous accelerated warming - the NOAA global temperature dataset proves that climate sensitivity is likely a fraction of IPCC's estimate

The Reference Frame: What did the winters look like before global warming?

To see some dramatic snowy pictures from Russia, see Alexander Ač's blog. Today, he thinks that wintry winters are caused by global warming. When the chill and snow is gone, I guess that global warming will be causing warmer winters again.

DiCaprio takes break to focus on the environment - Entertainment - NZ Herald News

"I would like to improve the world a bit. I will fly around the world doing good for the environment,'' added DiCaprio, in comments published in German.  [Via Junk Science]

Snow traps hundreds overnight on Alabama highway

A rare winter storm dumped up to a foot of snow around the Southeast on Thursday and Friday, left thousands without power, and played a role in at least one death.

In central Alabama, hundreds of people spent a cold night trapped on Interstate 65 in Cullman County after snow caused a series of wrecks that snarled traffic for miles.

The changing climate of climate change | OregonLive.com

The previous warm periods (Medieval, Roman and Minoan) likely had the same natural origin as the present one. Hence, we should expect a century of cooling that essentially reverses the warming of the 20th century. This is what the Greenland ice core temperature reconstructions show happened previously.

“Low-Hanging Fruit” Out of Greens’ Reach | Via Meadia

Throwing money at ill-conceived green energy projects isn’t working. That’s not a call for throwing more money at more of the same projects; it’s a wakeup call for a different policy strategy.

EU Watering Down CO2 Emissions Targets For Cars | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

Tough new EU carbon dioxide emissions targets for cars are facing “dilution” due to heavy pushback from member states with strong auto-industry lobbies, such as Germany, according to an Irish presidency source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity at a press briefing on 16 January.

Researchers Puzzled About Global Warming Standstill | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

How dramatically is global warming really? NASA researchers have shown that the temperature rise has taken a break for 15 years. There are plenty of plausible explanations for why global warming has stalled. However, the number of guesses also shows how little the climate is understood.

China's Green Leap Backward | The Nation

Three recent developments have shifted China’s tack toward a more fossil-fuel-centered approach and away from the low-carbon model the country pursued under outgoing president Hu Jintao.

Heathrow cancels 100 more flights as snow leaves hundreds stranded | UK news | guardian.co.uk

Airport operating normally after weather improves but airlines struggle to clear backlog from Friday's disruption

Death of 71-year-old is sixth from cold weather - Chicago Sun-Times

A north suburban man who died Thursday night is the sixth cold-related death of the season in Cook County.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Global Warming: A Geological Perspective

A paper titled "Global Warming: A Geological Perspective," published in Environmental Geosciences, and summarized below in Arizona Geology, should be required reading for all climate scientists. The paper notes that if

"the temperature increase during the past 130 years reflects recovery from the Little Ice Age, it is not unreasonable to expect the temperature to rise another 2 to 2.5 degrees Celsius to a level comparable to that of the Medieval Warm Period about 800 years ago"

Gore Losing: No cause for alarm at 5-year mid-point of Armstrong-Gore climate 'bet' -- 'Gore should be pleased to find concerns about a 'tipping point' have turned out to be unfounded' | Climate Depot

'The latest global temperature is exactly where it was at the beginning of the 'bet' -- 'The IPCC's forecasting procedures have been found to violate 72 of the 89 relevant principles'

Amazon rainforest showing signs of degradation due to climate change – Nasa | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Rainforest area twice the size of California experiencing drought rate that is unprecedented in a century, study shows

Great Bear Rainforest's green gold

Critics say conservancy project does not meet a key credibility test for carbon credits

Twitter / Chris_C_Horner: CLASSIC 5:30 Fri b4 3day wknd ...

CLASSIC 5:30 Fri b4 3day wknd EPA FOIA confession. I'm such a good judge of character. Spoiled suit we were minutes from filing. So worth it

EEX cancels German CO2 permit auction on lack of demand - Reuters News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - German energy bourse EEX was forced to cancel an auction of 4.02 million spot EU carbon permits from the 2013-2020 trading phase on behalf of Germany on Friday after the reference price was not reached, underscoring weak demand that has slashed carbon prices.

EU carbon plummets 10 pct on German sale cancellation - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters Point Carbon) – European carbon prices plunged by as much as 10 percent on Friday after energy bourse EEX cancelled a German auction for 4 million EU Allowances, citing a lack of demand.

Snowless Chicago Winter Feeds Budget While Fueling Murder Rate - Bloomberg

The city’s murder rate spiked 66 percent in the first quarter of 2012, when temperatures were 30 percent above normal and snowfall was 30 percent below average. Unseasonably mild weather sends more people outdoors, helping to trigger more violence, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in an interview.

» Hundreds Without Water Following Cold Snap | ABQ Journal

Complaints about frozen water meters and pipes in Santa Fe increased sharply during the past week as temperatures dropped.
...Monday’s high in Santa Fe of 21 degrees set a new record for the coldest high on that date.

23ABC News - Cold nights could cost growers millions

FRESNO, Calif. - For growers, the chilly weather is more than just an inconvenience, it's a serious issue that could lead to millions of dollars in losses.

–44C sets new city record for Jan. 16 | Ontario

TIMMINS - Temperatures reached record low on Wednesday night, dropping to -44°C with the windchill, making the winter’s cold noticeable to even the most snug Timmins resident.

It was the coldest Jan. 16 in Timmins on record.

Flash-freeze warning lifted for northern Alberta, travel still not recommended

Motorists are being told to use extreme caution. There were about 40 crashes Thursday on Highway 63 near Boyle, police said.

Most transparent administration ever update: "The White House asked that a discussion about climate change at the mayors' meeting on Thursday take place behind closed doors"

U.S. mayors focus on 'local warming,' urge Obama to act | Reuters

The White House asked that a discussion about climate change at the mayors' meeting on Thursday take place behind closed doors, frustrating some participants, even as hot button topics from immigration to gun control got public airings.

"This should be discussed openly," said Jim Brainard, the Republican mayor of Carmel, Indiana, who co-chaired the climate panel.

White House liaison for climate change Heather Zichal led the discussion, but declined to comment on why the meeting was closed.

Snow will take weeks to thaw as millions face travel chaos by Hayley Dixon | Climate Realists

The snowfall could take weeks to thaw, the Met Office said today as millions of commuters faced being delayed or even stranded tonight in the travel chaos.

Twitter / RyanMaue: Wednesday morning coldest w/GFS ...

Wednesday morning coldest w/GFS 00z along Ontario/Quebec border. 56°F below normal. Actual temp -52°F pic.twitter.com/kEJytT6e

Antarctica takes out its frustration on the children of the 1% | Grist

logically, you should fly an entire planeful of kids halfway around the world and put them on a gas-guzzling luxury cruise ship in order to teach them about climate change.

Twitter / ToryAardvark: The latest warmist to block ...

The latest warmist to block me from following them @suzyji joins @CHedegaardEU & @MichaelEMann Still wont make the warming happen losers

Boeing’s efficient Dreamliner planes are especially efficient at battery fires | Grist

Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner™©® was meant to be the company’s cap-featherer, a “super-efficient airplane” that hauls hundreds of people for thousands of miles using 20 percent less fuel than older planes of the same size. The company touted its solar-powered factory that produced zero waste, promising to recycle planes once they’d been retired. The plane’s fuselage even eliminates the use of over 40,000 rivets, reducing waste and resource use.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Models have it wrong again: New paper finds clouds act as a negative feedback

A paper published today in the Journal of Climate finds that the global average feedback from clouds is negative, not positive as claimed by climate alarmists. Most climate models are programmed to assume clouds act as a positive feedback that accelerates global warming, but this paper and many others based on observations show this assumption is incorrect.

What Theda Skocpol Gets Wrong About The Climate Bill Fight | ThinkProgress

[Romm] As readers know, I think the opponents of action — the fossil fuel companies, the disinformers, the right wing media, and the anti-science, pro-pollution ideologues in the Senate – deserve 60% of the blame. The lame-stream media gets 30% for its generally enabling coverage — see “How the status quo media failed on climate change” and The media’s decision to play the stenographer role helped opponents of climate action stifle progress.” Then the “Think Small” centrists and lukewarmers get 5% for helping to shrink the political space in the debate (see here and here).

So we are divvying up the remaining 5% of blame between team Obama and environmental groups (along with Senate Democrats, scientists, progressives, and everyone else, including me, and the American public).

Twitter / ChairmanAl: Modelling becoming major problem ...

Modelling becoming major problem in science. Replacing evidence with speculation. Easy to fabricate outcomes & transparency is a big issue.

Twitter / ChairmanAl: KPMG: Automakers shift ...

KPMG: Automakers shift investment from electric back to petrol engine cars http://tiny.cc/szh4qw  electric dream is a nightmare.

Articles: In the Energy Debate between Palin and Obama...Obama Lost

Even though the president apparently lost this energy debate to Sarah Palin, he was clearly right about one thing: the American people are not stupid. The American people have by way of their own ingenuity and hard work built a process for extracting oil and natural gas unanticipated by advanced energy gurus such as T. Boone Pickens. Pickens recently acknowledged that the abundance of natural gas means that energy alternatives such as wind are not economically viable. Predicting the future is difficult, but relying on the ingenuity and hard work of Americans has generally proven to be a safe bet -- you betcha!

Coldest January In Nevada Since 1949 | Real Science

Nevada is averaging -6C so far this month, putting it on track to be the coldest January since 1949, and the fifth coldest January ever. NOAA says that this is due to a man-made overheated atmosphere.

Record low temperature in Seattle WA

A record low temperature of 29 degrees was set at Seattle WA WFO yesterday.

This breaks the old record of 31 set in 2001.

Mayors use climate to nurse off federal purse | JunkScience.com

“Mayors contend that those [climate initiatives] often need federal funding.”

Scientific guide on how to scientifically mention the standstill in global temperatures | Omnologos

In fact, you can say pretty much anything and, as long as you add the mandatory “, but global warming will resume later“, the biggest scientific institutions in the world will support you wholeheartedly, maybe Bob Ward too.

Warmist Spiegel/Euro Media Concede Global Warming Has Ended…Models Were Wrong…Scientists Are Baffled!

Spiegel has finally gotten around to conceding that global warming has ended, at least for the time being.

France - Historic snowfall in the Pyrenees

Up to 200 cm (6.5 ft) of fresh snow has fallen in ski resorts on the French side of the Pyrenees since Sunday, with another 40-70 cm (16-27 inches) of fresh snow expected.

Heavy Snow Sends Northern Mexico into State of Emergency

The Mexican government declared a emergency in 21 municipalities in the northern state of Chihuahua due to heavy snow and a cold wave blamed for six deaths.

Unrelenting snowfalls cause unprecedented travel chaos in Russia - Photos

“Snowpocalypse Russia: Snow ‘tsunami’ swallows streets, cars, buildings,” read the headline in Russia Times.

"Iowa State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said it's still hard to know with much confidence that burning fossil fuels is the primary driver for climate change"

Report: Midwest will suffer numerous effects from warmer weather - TwinCities.com

...Iowa State Climatologist Harry Hillaker said it's still hard to know with much confidence that burning fossil fuels is the primary driver for climate change.

"I think everyone would agree that there is certainly some impact," he said. "There still is a fair amount of disagreement among the climate community about the relative contribution, but it's certainly a significant one."

Land-use changes by humans also may be having a significant, if not larger, impact on climate change, Hillaker added.

Settled science: Global warming is causing more severe winters

Stratospheric Phenomenon Is Bringing Frigid Cold to U.S | Climate Central

“Scientists about a decade ago predicted that stratospheric warmings would become less frequent with climate change, however, just the opposite has happened and they have become more frequent. There is a positive trend in stratospheric warmings since the turn of the century and I have argued this is contributing to more severe winters,” he said.

New York Times Sets Bar Just a Little Higher for Climate Misinformation

And I confess that even knowing the extent to which the Times distorts climate information I am astounded that equating the U.S. temperature record with the world temperature record, when brought to the paper’s editors’ attention, does not merit a correction. It has come to this.

Twitter / Jonathan Overpeck

+ #SWClimate - big question: is there is a AGW trend in the cold outbreaks, and so far seems yes, linked to rapid Arctic sea ice decline.

Al Gore Warming - John Ransom - Townhall Finance Conservative Columnists and Financial Commentary

One of the most compelling presentations at ICCC7 was by Stanley Goldberg, a research scientist with the Hurricane Research division with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

He says the link that we have all heard through mainstream media about more violent storms caused by a rise in global temperatures are mostly manipulated by our ability to better “observe” weather globally. In one compelling case he shows how it used to be that between 100 and 75 percent of the observed storms in pre-satellite days made landfall, once satellite technology was available, the percentage of observed storms that made landfall fell to 59 percent. The implication is that since the decrease in storms making landfall accompanies advances in technology and does not represent an increase in the number of storms that make landfall, the only explanation is that through technology our ability to observe storms is better than its has been in the past.

Deep freeze records set across the country | Finland

Thursday night’s extreme cold set new temperature records across Finland. [Via Global Freeze]

Following Al Gore's carbon footprint: Brainwashed young warmist burns an enormous amount of fossil fuel trying to convince us that burning fossil fuel causes bad weather

Alec Loorz of Ventura to receive Coretta Scott King A.N.G.E.L. Award in Atlanta » Ventura County Star

She said Alec was in Rio de Janeiro for a conference when he found out about the honor.
...
Alec Loorz said he became involved with climate change at 12 after seeing Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth."
...
Alec said he went to El Camino High School at Ventura College for two years before eventually deciding to pursue his high school education through home schooling. Victoria said she and her son were often on the road two weeks a month, traveling on behalf of Kids vs. Global Warming.

Walking the walk: Climate change researcher takes fossil-fueled trip to Antarctica, then drives a vehicle that gets two miles per gallon of fossil fuel

Into Antarctica's Dark Depths - NYTimes.com

Michael Becker, a doctoral student at McGill University, was a scientific diver on an expedition to Lake Untersee, Antarctica.

I’m standing 2,600 miles from human civilization.
...
I’m a Ph.D. student at McGill University working with Wayne Pollard to study the effects of climate change on polar deserts in the high Arctic. While I work primarily in the Arctic, I had worked in the Antarctic before

The Long, Cold Slog - NYTimes.com

But passion isn’t cheap or efficient down here. Expect to shell out around $150,000 for a modified Toyota Hilux. And once it’s down here and driving in the snow with large payloads, these gas-hounds will guzzle down and spit out a whopping two miles per gallon. You read that right – 2 m.p.g.; that’s worse than the U.S military’s 38-ton Buffalo Mine Clearance Vehicle. Our shuttle service to camp wouldn’t be cheap either, running at about $30,000 for the round-trip ferry of gear and personnel. But hey, we ain’t walking.

Take corn out of the tank and put it back on the table. - Obama and the Environment: What He Can Do: Ethanol Reform

It is time to take a hard look at the carbon [dioxide hoax scam swindle bad-weather-preventing] benefits of corn ethanol and its impacts on food prices around the world," says Jonathan Foley, the director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.

Farewell, Obama's "Green Dream Team"

With Chu's departure, there will be only one person left from Obama's original "Green Dream Team [7]," a term environmental groups endowed upon [8] the president's appointees to key departments. Green jobs guru Van Jones is long gone [9]. Climate "czar" Carol Browner resigned two years ago [10], and the special post created for her was dissolved a few months later [11]. Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has said she plans to depart [12] in February. EPA head Lisa Jackson also announced her plans [13] to leave the agency at the end of December. And earlier this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signaled that he, too, is signing off

Greenpeace "activist": "The highlight for me was getting to surf and dive in places that not a lot of people have actually gone to"

http://newnostradamusofthenorth.blogspot.com/2013/01/greenpeace-activist-highlight-for-me.html

Breaking news from AP: "Scientifically, the president doesn't have control of day-to-day weather"

AP: Obama 'Doesn't Have Control of Day-to-Day Weather' | CNS News

Scientifically, the president doesn't have control of day-to-day weather. While his policies can lessen or worsen future projected global warming on a large scale, they cannot do anything about Washington's daily temperature on Jan. 21.   [Via CH]

Why not celebrate Al Gore's fight against rich people at the Green Inaugural Ball? General Admission Tickets are $400 and VIP Tickets are $1,950

Twitter / ClimateReality: This year's greenest inauguration ...

This year's greenest inauguration gala? We're proud to be Gold Sponsors of the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball! Tickets: http://ow.ly/gUmfb

Green Inaugural Ball:  Event Details and FAQ - National Wildlife Federation

A limited number of tickets are still available for purchase. General Admission Tickets are $400 and VIP Tickets are $1,950.

The Way Green Groups Are Swooning, You'd Think Ed Markey Is Justin Bieber | Mother Jones

"The planet is running a fever," said Markey at a Climate Desk Live event co-sponsored by Mother Jones last month. "There are no emergency rooms for planets. We have to use preventative care."

Why the climate bill failed: It’s not that simple | Grist

[Skocpol] is quite right in pointing to the rise of Tea Party Republicanism as a decisive factor, and quite right that climate campaigners didn’t have a plan for dealing with it. But I think she misses the role of money and brute-force Astroturf climate opposition. The summer of 2009 isn’t just when the Tea Party got into the game; it is when Big Oil, having sat out the battles in the House, joined the fight in earnest and blew the climate campaign away.

There Are Whales Alive Today Who Were Born Before Moby Dick Was Written | Smart News

Thirty four years ago, scientists counted 1,200 whales. Today there are about 14,000 of the mammals out there.

Italy in grip of cold snap, Rome 'escapes' snowfall - GazzettaDelSud

Rome, January 18 - Romans did not wake to the predicted snow cover on Friday as elsewhere in the country the cold snap continued to bite. Roads were closed due to heavy snowfall in the central Abruzzo and Molise and southern Basilicata regions and schools were closed in some areas.

Carbon Traders Stung by Rout Try Again in China: Energy Markets - Bloomberg

Carbon traders are backing China to revive a global emissions market that lost 34 billion euros ($45 billion) last year as it shrank for the first time in history.

UK snow causes chaos across transport network - Mirror Online

Motorists were urged to avoid all but essential journeys amid strong winds, plunging temperatures and the looming threat of blizzards.

Michael Mann goes Lance Armstrong in SpeakingFeeGate | JunkScience.com

I can’t defend myself so I must destroy my accuser.

Hansen’s NASA GISS – cooling the past, warming the present | Watts Up With That?

An adjustment of 0.10C or so may not seem a lot, but the latest GISS anomaly, against the baseline of 1951-80, is 0.44C. These adjustments make up about a quarter of this figure.

Weather Service Warns of “Shock Cooling” Coming To Europe…4th Bitter Cold Euro-Winter In 5 Years Shaping Up!

For those waiting for warmer winters with little snow and balmy temperatures, as the warmists used to promise us, you’ll just have to forget about it this winter too. If the current cold keeps up, then this will be the 4th colder-than-normal winter in Central Europe in the last 5 years.

Lisa Jackson’s Gadfly - National Review Online

“At the most basic level,” he says, “we know they’re hiding correspondence that Jackson and her team felt would be sufficiently troubling to the public or problematic to the agenda if revealed that it was worth creating a false identity to protect it.”

Green groups and ExxonMobil pony up for Obama’s second inauguration | Grist

This morning, ExxonMobil announced that it is contributing $250,000 to this “important and historic event.”

'Deddy. What is this strange white stuff falling from the sky?' – Telegraph Blogs

in my book, the occasional humiliating blog post is the very least Dr David Viner (formerly, did I mention this?, of the discredited Climatic Research Unit at the University of Easy Access) deserves for that fatuous, misleading, hysterical and costly prediction he made back in 2000.

In fact personally, I'd say he deserves worse.

OPINION: Rep. David McKinley and Rep. Morgan Griffith in the Washington Times: Obama Coal Regulations Crippling Communities | Energy & Commerce Committee

Our families, friends and neighbors have fallen victim to this war on coal. It is destroying jobs and destroying a way of life. It is destroying American prosperity.

To get our economy working again, we need common-sense policies that encourage investment and job creation, not policies that prohibit the use of affordable energy resources. As members of the Energy and Commerce Committee, we will continue our work to stop the war on coal and allow our economy to grow and prosper again.

Committee Report Exposes Foreign Corporations Benefiting From Green Energy Stimulus Funding | Energy & Commerce Committee

Despite Skyrocketing Debt, Committee Finds Approximately One Out of Every Four Dollars of $16 Billion Spent on “Section 1603” Renewable Energy Stimulus Program Went to Foreign-Owned Entities

Outgoing? Salazar/Jackson/Chu to attend "Environmental and Clean Energy Inaugural Ball"

Environmental and Clean Energy Inaugural Ball

In addition to U. S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who will be a Special Honored Guest, Deputy Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency Robert Perciasepe and Deputy Assistant to President Obama for Climate Change Heather Zichal will be Special Guests. Also, outgoing EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus are invited guests that hope to join the celebration.

Former Epa Administrator William Reilly and Incoming Administrator Lisa Jackson with the American Eagle.   (I think using an eagle that hasn't yet been sliced in half by a wind turbine was a smart move).

Irony alert: Even as professional warmist Michael Mann admits to charging up to $10,000 per appearance, he promotes the film "Greedy Lying Bastards"

Mann Backtracks, Admits Charging Up to $10,000 for Speaking Appearances | Media Trackers Florida

Media Trackers will continue to report on the significant fees that controversial climate alarmists such as Mann receive.

Twitter / MichaelEMann: "Greedy Lying Bastards" U.S. ...

"Greedy Lying Bastards" U.S. Theatrical Trailer #KochMachine #HeartlandInstitute #Monckton http://fb.me/GMhbsLeG

Greedy Lying Bastards U.S. Theatrical Trailer - YouTube

From the Koch Brothers to ExxonMobil, to prominent Senators and Justices, this provocative exposé unravels the layers of deceit threatening U.S. democracy.

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey: "...climate change is perfectly natural and not necessarily bad. In general, most of humanity tends to flourish more when global temperatures are in a warming trend...I would hate to see billions of people condemned to remain in poverty because of climate-change fears"

Whole Foods CEO Welcomes Climate Change, Warns of Fascism

[John Mackey] Contrary to what has been written about me I am not a "climate-change skeptic." Climate change is clearly occurring, and based on what I have read global temperatures have increased about 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past 150 years. We've been in a gradual warming trend since the ending of the "Little Ice Age" in about 1870, and climate change is perfectly natural and not necessarily bad. In general, most of humanity tends to flourish more when global temperatures are in a warming trend and I believe we will be able to successfully adapt to gradually rising temperatures. What I am opposed to is trying to stop virtually all economic progress because of the fear of climate change. I would hate to see billions of people condemned to remain in poverty because of climate-change fears.

MJ: So do you think the climate change law that passed the House in 2009 and stalled in the Senate went too far?

JM: Yes, I believe that it did.

Bummer: "global warming and its associated challenges could wipe out the entire defined benefits pensions industry within 30 years if we don't rapidly change course"

Climate change and resource scarcity may wipe out pensions industry | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional

New report from Anglia Ruskin University shows that actuaries, charged with risk management in the financial sector, have ignored the greatest risk of all time
...
This failure, which could be construed as a dereliction of duty, has been rammed home by a new report, commissioned by more progressive forces within the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, which shows that global warming and its associated challenges could wipe out the entire defined benefits pensions industry within 30 years if we don't rapidly change course.

Snowstorm hits Southeast, 1 death linked to storm

ATLANTA (AP) — A winter storm made its way across the Southeast on Thursday, dumping snow in states recovering from days of rain, playing a role in at least one fatality, and leaving thousands without power.

Weather warnings and advisories were in effect for sections of Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

[Warmist Greg Laden:  For the sake of my children, when engaging in a scientific debate, I won't provide a link to my opponent's arguments] – Greg Laden's Blog

It is against my blog policy to provide links to science denialist sites. It would be unethical for me to do that on a regular basis because it would enhance the google juice of pseudoscience. I’ve got children. I want them to grow up in a better world, not the world that Anthony Watts wants them to grow up in. So, no.

Roger Helmer : "We launch a new campaign to demand affordable energy" - YouTube

[3 minutes] European Parliament, Strasbourg, 15 January 2013
Speaker: Roger Helmer, Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) Group

UK weather: Heavy snow sweeps into Wales and the West Country with up to a FOOT on the way | Mail Online

Around 1,100 schools closed in Wales where many A-level and AS-level students were are due to sit exams today

Our energy policy is a load of hot air | Columnists | Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express

Fully exploited in the USA [shale gas] has had a revolutionary effect. Energy prices halved, they are now siting back in their homeland entire industries they once outsourced (exported) seeking cheapness. Pollution down. Not one single earth tremor identified as caused by ‘Fracking’ the extraction process.

So is the UK, starved of locally-sourced British owned energy going for it like a Rugby forward on the charge? Certainly not. Havering and dithering as usual. Why? Because it is opposed by Big Oil and Big Wind - the profiteers and subsidy-junkies. Who seem to have our bumbling bureaucrats in their pockets, along with the Lib-Dems, still happy to sabotage what they can.

So we go on pouring billions of your money into subsidies to build windmills that will return a miserable amount of power but create a happy core of greedy millionaires.

Heavy snowfall leads to hundreds of flight cancellations in Germany and Austria

“We’ve cleared both of our runways three times already today,” said Edgar Engert, a Munich airport spokesman.

C3: NOAA: Accelerating Global Warming Is Not Happening - CO2 Wrongly Accused

Scientifically corrupt IPCC scientists, and their disgraceful, pathetic parrots in the MSM, have claimed that global warming has been rapid and accelerating over recent years due to CO2 - in fact, these claims are easily dis-proven by the latest NOAA research

Group plans billboard campaign to stir climate change debate « Watchdog.org

The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit advocating free-market solutions for environmental issues, is launching the billboard ad campaign this week using a quote from the president to dispute the allegation that climate change was responsible for Hurricane Sandy.

Why Did Cap and Trade Fail? - The Daily Beast

[Megan McArdle] Before Obama said he was serious about reducing emissions, belief in AGW was a symbolic belief with no personal cost. Once that belief might actually result in legislation, people backed away.

I don't want to get into an argument about climate science here, so let's just assume arguendo that the skeptics are wrong, wrong, wrong. It does not therefore follow that the public would have enthusiastically embraced cap and trade if not for those darned skeptics. People do not like to make painful personal sacrifices for the sake of people who aren't born yet and mostly live in very far away places (that being who will bear most of the brunt of global warming).
...I continue to support substantial carbon [dioxide hoax scam] taxes.

The Closing Door of Climate Targets

[Thomas Stocker] Robust evidence from a range of climate–carbon cycle models shows that the maximum warming relative to pre-industrial times caused by the emissions of carbon dioxide is nearly proportional to the total amount of emitted anthropogenic carbon

Who pays for pollution: socialist undertones in carbon price opposition - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

So perhaps it is actually the case that is it those who oppose carbon pricing that are part of a socialist plot, a plot to socialise the cost of their emissions.

Twitter / PeterGleick: How to read science news: there's ...

How to read science news: there's a difference between "found no link" and "didn't find a link". Think about it. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/16/us-eu-pesticides-bees-idUSBRE90F11Q20130116 …

350 | Join the #ForwardOnClimate Rally on 2/17!

Crippling drought. Devastating wildfires. Superstorm Sandy. Climate has come home – and the American people get it.
At Noon on Sunday, February 17, thousands of Americans will head to Washington, D.C. to make Forward on Climate the largest climate rally in history.

Michael Mann retweet: "The proof is now definitive: The Winged Monkeys of the Slyme Pit are in the Climate Science denialist camp. Why? Tribalism, I suspect"

Twitter / gregladen: The proof is now definitive: ...

Climate Change Report Gets Cold Reception on Capitol Hill | EnergyBiz

A new report that says climate change is a matter of national urgency is getting a cold reception from leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee says that the evidence of the earth’s warming is becoming more apparent.

But the odds of any federal legislation that would be enacted to combat such effects are nil...Most Republicans and some Democrats say that the phenomenon can be attributed to natural causes in weather cycles.

Twitter / carrzee: EU carbon market is “a joke ...

EU carbon market is “a joke the whole world laughs about”...eon CEO Johannes Teyssen tells Manager Magazin ...sigh #EUETS #climate

Put government labs to work on climate change - The Washington Post

[Oreskes compares the threat of slightly warmer weather to the historical threat of a Nazi atomic bomb] There is a powerful precedent for the president to take this route. The core of the national laboratory system was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the Manhattan Project to address an earlier threat to American safety and security: the possibility that German scientists were going to build an atomic bomb that could have been decisive in World War II. Scientists brought the issue to the president’s attention and then did what he asked: They built a deliverable weapon in time for use in the war.

While historians have long argued about the seriousness of the threat of a Nazi atomic bomb, there is no question that at the time it was viewed as imminent. Today we face a threat that is somewhat less immediate but far less speculative. An obvious response is to engage the national laboratory system to study options to reduce or alleviate climate change, which the president could do by executive order.

Update: Polar bear population now 22,600-32,000 – when tallied by nation | polarbearscience

So when you add up the individual estimates provided on each of the two maps on this web tool, you get two different numbers that have no resemblance to the “official” estimate of 20,000-25,000.

Salt Lake Tribune letter writer: Don't date people who fail to believe that CO2 causes bad weather; if you do, you'll likely end up with a "dysfunctional and abusive relationship"?

Twitter / LeoHickman: There's any exchange of letters ...

There's any exchange of letters in the Salt Lake Tribune of the topic of "dating climate deniers". Seriously. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55626618-82/climate-date-facts-denier.html.csp …

Dating climate deniers | The Salt Lake Tribune

These characteristic denialist behaviors are also key ingredients in dysfunctional and abusive relationships.

By mocking the overwhelming climate consensus, Kimble’s hunky date showed he’s the kind of guy who thinks words and facts mean exclusively what he wants them to mean — no more, no less. It goes without saying, he’s hardly relationship material.

Professional warmist Michael Mann on his speaking fees: "my agent Jodi Solomon...charges anywhere from 5-10K depending on the venue, a rate that the speakers bureau has set based on their assessment of fair market price"

HEARTLAND HYPOCRISY... | Facebook

[Michael Mann] So Heartland Institute affiliate (http://heartland.org/alyssa-carducci) Alyssa Carducci presented herself as a conference organizer for the "Association of Air Conditioning Distributors" (an organization that does not exist, according to google anyway) in order to get a quote for a speaker's fee from my agent Jodi Solomon (who charges anywhere from 5-10K depending on the venue, a rate that the speakers bureau has set based on their assessment of fair market price).

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper finds solar cycle changes Earth temperature

A paper published today in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics finds a significant influence of solar activity upon Earth temperature during the second half of the 20th century. The authors find surface temperature linked to the 11-year solar cycle, and also influenced by the timing of volcanic eruptions. Once again, the claim by climate alarmists that small variations in solar activity cannot control temperature or climate has been debunked by observations.

On the Non-equivalence of Greenhouse Gases and Entitlement Spending - NYTimes.com

[Paul Krugman] Serious people are and should be deeply worried, indeed horrified, by the lack of action on greenhouse gases.

[For $441k] Al Gore buys 59K shares of AAPL stock valued at over $29.6M

The SEC filing notes that Gore exercised the director stock option on Tuesday to acquire 59,000 shares at a price of $7.475 per share, meaning the purchase cost him roughly $441,000, reports The Next Web.

With AAPL closing Thursday $502.68 per share, Gore's 59,000 shares are currently worth some $29,658,120. According to the filing, Gore still has 61,574 non-derivative shares left after the transaction.

Mother Jones political blogger Kevin Drum suggests that CO2 might cause the planet to get "baked to a cinder"

Why Climate Change Legislation Failed -- And What to Do About It | Mother Jones

The climate community may have to get a bit more direct about things if they want to make progress before the planet gets baked to a cinder.

MPR warmist Paul Huttner suggests that without anthropogenic CO2 emissions, the "consistent" warming since 1976 would be "a one-in-a-billion shot"?

Climate change expected to hit Minn. with rising temps, moving forests | Minnesota Public Radio News

If you start looking at the numbers it just becomes pretty remarkable. Let's boil this down to a number: 36. That's the number of years since the last cooler-than-average year globally. 1976 was the last year that we were cooler than the 20th century average. So if you're 36 years old or younger, you have never lived on this planet through a cooler than average year. The 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1998. Twelve of the 14 warmest years since 2000. Every year since 2000 has been in the top 14 warmest years. Twenty in the past 25 years. And each of the past three decades has been warmer globally than the previous decades. So from the 80s to the 90s to the 2000s.

If you look at that as a natural occurrence, that's a one-in-a-billion shot. You would expect in any natural system you're going to have some above-average, below-average years. To have that many decades in a row where the climate is consistently warming, there's something else going on there.

300 to 600 private jets expected to arrive at Dulles for the First Green President's second inauguration?

Dulles may close runway for inauguration’s arrival of private planes - The Washington Post

Officials at Dulles International may close the airport’s westernmost runway to accommodate hundreds of private planes expected to descend on the region over the next few days.

After all, those Gulfstreams and Learjets will need a place to park while their passengers are in town for the inaugural festivities.

Airport officials expect 300 to 600 arrivals in the three-day period leading up to President Obama’s second inauguration on Monday.

Question: How many people will actually take the time to download and read a 147-megabyte "National Climate Assessment"

National Climate Assessment Draft Embraces Non-Solutions

The full report is a whopping 147 Mb file, but an Executive Summary gives its flavor—and this is the only portion of the report that analysts and policymakers will read...Even on its own terms, the newly released draft of the National Climate Assessment does not make the cost/benefit case for drastic U.S. government intervention in the name of mitigating future climate change. These policies would harm U.S. competitiveness while doing little to slow global emissions. To point out these facts isn’t to be a “climate denier,” it is simply to ask that policymakers base their decisions on sensible arguments.

Hungary: "dozens of homeless are found frozen to death each year on the streets"

Hungary's Homeless Face Harsh Winter, Harsher Fines

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Homeless men and women huddle on street corners amid Budapest's majestic domed palaces, shivering under old blankets and cardboard boxes in frigid winter weather.

It's an image that critics say Prime Minister Viktor Orban doesn't want the world to see.
...
At least 1,500 homeless are believed to be currently living rough in Budapest, even as temperatures are expected to remain below freezing in coming days and dozens of homeless are found frozen to death each year on the streets.

Snowstorm hits Southeast, Mid-Atlantic

ATLANTA (AP) — A winter storm that dumped 4 inches of snow in parts of Mississippi was hitting Alabama on Thursday afternoon, with the system expected to spread across northern Georgia and into the Washington, D.C., area, according to the National Weather Service.

Blizzard conditions expected to cause travel chaos across UK | UK news | The Guardian

Heaviest snow will hit Wales, where up to 30cm is expected, while disruption is predicted on train services and flights

Met Office issues blizzard alert for Wales as Britain braces for blanket of up to 12in of snow tomorrow

Supermarkets in Wales stripped of bread and milk as customers panic

Will Obama punt again on climate change? - Andrew Restuccia - POLITICO.com

But here’s the reality check for the green movement: Obama has proposed no new strategy on climate, it’s unclear if one is in the works, and there’s no guarantee the issue will occupy a major place in the inaugural address or next month’s State of the Union. On alternative energy, his administration has committed billions of dollars, but made headlines so far mostly for the bankruptcy of Solyndra. And the administration soon could turn its back on its allies in the environmental community and approve the Keystone pipeline.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Two new papers predict fewer Northern Hemisphere cyclones in future

The papers add to many other peer-reviewed papers projecting that cyclones and storms such as Sandy will become less frequent and less severe in the future, despite the protests of uninformed climate alarmists.

The Official Start to The Most Difficult Decade | The Lukewarmer's Way

I’ve been writing for several years now that this would be the toughest decade for climate activists. My reasoning has been that the economics of the prescriptive measures being pushed would become clearer (and people would start to understand how expensive fighting climate change really is) and that many of the factors that worked to push temperatures up in the last decade have switched modes–the alphabet soup of AMO, PMO, ENSO, accompanied by solar cycles, etc.

I even bet climate activist Joe Romm $1,000 that this decade wouldn’t warm more than 1.5C, based just on the changes in these factors. I still think I’m going to win.

New Government Climate Change Report Yet More “Show Science” | Cato @ Liberty

[Michaels/Knappenberger] This is yet another example of our imperial government’s predilection towards “show science” in order to justify taking people’s stuff. By analogy, think of the “show trials” in some of history’s more freedom-loving regimes.

Hoover Dam Builder Hired for Google’s Ocean Wind Power Line - Bloomberg

Bechtel Group Inc., the U.S. contractor that built the Hoover Dam, has been hired for a Google Inc (GOOG).-backed project to deliver offshore wind power to electricity users in New Jersey.
...
There are no U.S. offshore wind farms operating or under construction, though companies have been planning to install turbines at sea for more than a decade...
“This will jump start an industry that will provide 20,000 jobs in New Jersey and gigawatts of long term, clean energy,” Needham said today at a conference in Holmdel, New Jersey.

US environmentalists challenged to get climate change laws through Congress | guardian.co.uk

She said environmentalists needed to be "realistic". Even with extreme weather events like Sandy, there was little prospect of action on climate in the absence of a broad-based climate movement.

"You have got to pass legislation, and the way the US Congress works, what senators and representatives think is important and what they are willing to vote for depends on lot on what they are hearing from organised groups and citizens."   [I'm confused:  So are "organised groups" completely OK when they are *for* expensive climate hoax legislation, but completely evil when they are *against* expensive climate hoax legislation?]

Twitter / bryanrwalsh: It's less important how many ...

It's less important how many reporters are on enviro beat than how many editors actually think it matters. The latter is dwindling too

Energy Secretary Chu Said to Plan Departure From Cabinet - Businessweek

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who drew criticism from Republicans over his support for loans to Solyndra LLC before the solar-panel maker went bankrupt, will leave his Cabinet post in President Barack Obama’s second term, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Chu’s departure will be announced as soon as next week, according to one of the people.

100th Anniversary Of The Hottest Temperature Ever Recorded | Real Science

The hottest legitimate temperature ever recorded, occurred in 1913 at Death Valley, California – when CO2 was well below 350 ppm.

AP: "Extreme cold on Inauguration Day, folklore says, can be a killer"

Can Obama keep warmer inauguration weather pledge?

Extreme cold on Inauguration Day, folklore says, can be a killer.

In 1841, newly elected president William Henry Harrison stood outside without a coat or hat as he spoke for an hour and 40 minutes. He caught a cold that day and it became pneumonia and he died one month after being sworn in. Twelve years later, outgoing first lady Abigail Fillmore got sick from sitting outside on a cold wet platform as Franklin Pierce was inaugurated and she died of pneumonia at the end of the month.

Joseph E. Johnston - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When Sherman died, Johnston served as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral; during the procession in New York City on February 19, 1891, he kept his hat off as a sign of respect in the cold, rainy weather. Someone with concern for the old general's health asked him to put on his hat, to which Johnston replied "If I were in his place and he were standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat." He caught a cold that day, which developed into pneumonia, and he died several weeks later in Washington, D.C.

Roger Harrabin quotes a Met Office contact on seasonal forecasts: "I accept that from the point of view of people deciding where to take their holiday they were actually pretty useless"

BBC News - Harrabin's Notes: Isn't it warm enough?

In a frank conversation this week a Met Office contact told me: "I must admit to feeling a bit misled myself as to how experimental the seasonal forecasts were. When the team said the forecasts were pretty good they meant that they were scientifically good given the extreme difficulty of the challenge. I accept that from the point of view of people deciding where to take their holiday they were actually pretty useless. We have learned a lesson from that."  [Via WL]

AP: [Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club] urged Obama to take “swift, decisive action to prevent more erratic weather, superstorms and wildfires.”

Keystone XL pipeline, climate change among second-term energy challenges for Obama - The Washington Post

Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said Obama’s second term will be pivotal in the fight against climate change, which he called the “singular issue of our time for anyone who cares about clean air, clean water and a safe future for our families.”

Brune urged Obama to take “swift, decisive action to prevent more erratic weather, superstorms and wildfires.”

Uh oh: "Contrary to Michael Mann’s Claims, Mann’s Agent Quoted a $10,000 Speaking Fee for Events"

Contrary to Michael Mann’s Claims, Mann’s Agent Quoted a $10,000 Speaking Fee for Events | Media Trackers Florida

Mann’s agent did indeed quote a $10,000 speaking fee, plus expenses, for Mann to speak at a meeting for my family’s air conditioning business. E-mails from Mann’s agent clearly confirm that such a conversation took place.

I also called Mann yesterday before publishing the Media Trackers Florida article and left him a polite voice mail in which I identified myself with Media Trackers Florida and asked him about his speaking fees. Mann chose not to return my call. Mann could have resolved any of this alleged confusion by simply returning my phone call.

Croatia snowfall shatters record set in 1861 - Video

“We have new record snow depth for January set to 68cm (27 inches) beating previous 49cm (19 inches) and all of that in just 24 hours! That’s biggest snowfall from 1861.

“More snow is on the way until end of the week!

A Mysterious Patch Of Light Shows Up In The North Dakota Dark : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

No wonder locals are calling North Dakota "Kuwait on the Prairie."

Washington, D.C. presidential inauguration weather history - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post

Much like four years ago, cold weather is on tap for the upcoming 57th presidential inauguration...temperatures at the swearing-in ceremony have averaged about 7 degrees warmer for Republican presidents than for the Democrats (since 1937, nine of the 19 January inaugurals were for Republican administrations, so the sample is about equal).

Rolling Stone quotes Obama as saying "I don't know what" to do about climate change; article also says "the president has no plans to propose any climate legislation to Congress", also suggests that because of CO2 "our suburban paradise of shopping malls, big backyards and SUVs is a relic of an earlier era"

Obama's Climate Challenge | Politics News | Rolling Stone

The polar ice caps are melting faster than scientists predicted
...
But if the president is planning any bold action during his second term to combat global warming, there's little evidence of it. "I want to do something on climate," he told a friend and former White House staffer after the election, "but I don't know what." Before his 2008 inauguration, Obama solicited ideas for combating climate change from top environmentalists and energy executives. This time around, there have been no such meetings, and the president has not telegraphed any ideas on climate change to Congress. "If he has a larger strategy on this, I haven't seen it," says the chief of staff to a leading Democratic senator. One Democratic donor and climate activist who visited the White House in December was told point-blank by Heather Zichal, the White House adviser on energy and climate, that the president has no plans to propose any climate legislation to Congress, knowing that House Republicans would shoot it down.

"I think the president understands the climate crisis intellectually, but he has not had the 'holy shit' moment you arrive at when you think about this deeply enough," says a leading climate advocate who has had private conversations with Obama about global warming...Lisa Jackson, a tough inside player willing to stand up to Big Oil and Big Coal, announced in December that she was stepping down. "She was clearly exhausted by the endless political attacks on the agency," says one insider...That means Obama must drop all the talk about "clean coal" and "energy independence" – code words for more mining and drilling – and articulate the hard truths about global warming: that we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels as quickly as possible, that we'll have to prepare ourselves for life on a hotter, less hospitable planet, and that our suburban paradise of shopping malls, big backyards and SUVs is a relic of an earlier era.
...
Obama can kick off the conversation by permanently halting the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been dubbed "a fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet."
...the president knows there is little political upside to spending his last years in office focused on a gloomy subject like climate change.

Global Warming Just Isn’t happening: Official

But why it is the Met Office revision such an important story? After all, it’s just one national weather service and a small downgrading of its predictions, is it not? Far from it. The UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Research is one of a select group of four global centers upon which the UN IPCC depends, having been set up by former Hadley Centre Director John Houghton. And the downgrade calls into question the credibility of the entire ‘human-carbon-emissions-are-to-blame’ house of cards. And here’s how it adds to the growing crisis for the UN IPCC’s AGW theory.

Black Carbon and Warming: It’s Worse than We Thought by Carl Zimmer: Yale Environment 360

it’s not too surprising that different teams of scientists have ended up with markedly different estimates for the net effect of soot on the climate.

Should Polluting Nations Be Liable for Climate Damages? by Fred Pearce: Yale Environment 360

Once the law gets involved, however, there has to be proof linking polluters to damaging weather...Within a decade, approaching two-thirds of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will have been emitted since 1990.

[Must be because it's so hot up there this time of year]: Monster Storm Lashing Outer Reaches of Alaska | Climate Central

An extraordinarily powerful ocean storm, packing hurricane-force winds and waves towering up to 62 feet, has been spinning its way toward Alaska's Aleutian Islands after undergoing a phenomenally rapid intensification process in the Western North Pacific Ocean since Sunday.

Peter Gleick brings up GleickGate on Michael Mann's Facebook page: "...This is from a group that has been shown to pay Fred Singer $5000 a MONTH, along with substantial payments to others. For what, exactly?"

Heartland Institute... | Facebook

[By Peter Gleick] Oh, one more thing. This is from a group that has been shown to pay Fred Singer $5000 a MONTH, along with substantial payments to others. For what, exactly?

Flashback: GleickGate: Climate change activism takes a big step backward | SciGuy | a Chron.com blog

Perhaps most damning, Gleick was (until very recently) chairman of the American Geophysical Union’s Task Force on Scientific Ethics.

Mann update: He's still denying that he received $10k for a talk in sunny Florida; he admits that he received travel expenses and does typically receive a speaker's fee; also suggests that I'm a "professional" climate change "denier", which is a lie

Heartland Institute... | Facebook

Yesterday a Heartland Institute affiliate Alyssa Carducci (http://heartland.org/alyssa-carducci) engaged in a smear on a right-wing website falsely claiming that I was receiving 10K for a talk that I am giving at the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) Annual Meeting in Daytona (http://florida.mediatrackers.org/2013/01/16/climate-alarmist-michael-mann-charges-10000-speaker-fee/). Not that I'd complain if they were, and indeed Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau does typically negotiate a speakers fee for engagements they book for me.

But in reality, I am doing the SMTA event pro bono (other than travel expenses) and Ms. Carducci's claim that I am receiving 10K for the event is pure fiction. Nonetheless, the false claim was immediately trumpeted by climate change deniers like Christopher Monckton and Tom Nelson.
...
While some might be surprised that climate change deniers would immediately promote a pure falsehood in an attempt to smear me, this if of course precisely the sort of behavior we have come to expect from professional climate change deniers.

Its also a cautionary tale that you really can't believe anything you hear from the likes of Monckton, Nelson, and their ilk.

Cold-weather deaths continue this winter all over the northern hemisphere; if the large U.S. newspapers had widespread warm-weather deaths like this to blame on global warming, we'd never hear the end of it

Hypothermia victim 'worried about gas price' - UK

A HYPOTHERMIA victim found dead in a bath was worried about the cost of her heating bills, an inquest has heard.

Hypothermia ruled cause of death in man found frozen at the Rock Shop; Sleep aide found in his system - Wyoming

It’s possible that the man sleepwalked outside, where he fell victim to hypothermia, officials said.

Medford man's death leaves many questions | Oregon

An elderly Medford man who died from hypothermia was found lying in his front yard at 9 a.m. Tuesday, the Jackson County Sheriff's Department reported.
...
He had power to his home, but his heat had been turned off, and temperatures inside were colder than they were outside, sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Carlson said.
"He had space heaters in the home, but they weren't turned on," Carlson said.
Sheriff's investigators said bottles of liquid inside the home were frozen solid, Carlson said.

Hypothermia likely cause of Chetek woman's death - Wisconsin

Laurie Lindig died last month. Her body was found in a wooded area outside of Chetek on Christmas Day. She was2.5 miles from home.

But now the Barron County sheriff says investigators have learned it was not unusual for Lindig to go for long, 2 mile walks. He says all indications are that she died of hypothermia.

Woman Dies Of Hypothermia In North Portland's Piedmont Neighborhood‏ | Albany Tribune News

Detectives learned that 63-year-old Wendy Marie Loren lived at a residence in the 4600 block of North Michigan Avenue and may have wandered away from home not properly dressed for the cold weather.

Illinois father and two sons freeze to death during hike - Missouri

KANSAS CITY, USA - An Illinois man and two of his sons died from exposure to freezing temperatures during a weekend hike in the Ozark Mountains in southeast Missouri, authorities said on Monday.
...Rain moved into the area and temperatures plunged to the mid-20s overnight.

1/3/2013: Sudden deaths climb as cold front slams nation - Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The number of sudden deaths rose rapidly in the nation as the first cold front of winter made itself known in Taiwan.

Cases of sudden deaths at Taipei Mackay Memorial Hospital, for example, jumped to four times their usual level over the past week, from an average of one case every two days to one or two cases in a single day.

1/14/2013: Delhi morgues overflow as cold wave claims nameless victims : North, News - India Today

As a severe cold wave gripped the Capital during the last month forcing many Delhiites to take solace in the cozy confines of their houses, there were some who were dying a 'cold' death on pavements and at other open spaces.

Mortuaries of various government hospitals in the city have received dozens of unclaimed bodies of people who apparently died of cold.

12/23/2012: Bulgaria: Week Sees 200 Deaths from Cold in Europe, Russia - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency

The cold wave that has gripped most of Europe and Russia has led to some 200 deaths over the week.

Warmist filmmaker Jeff Orlowski: You know why you don't believe that CO2 is overheating the planet? "Most of climate science is in numbers and graphs and in such technical terms that people don't understand it..."

Global warming documentary Chasing Ice to show at Princeton film festival — NewsWorks

Those who continue to deny climate change "do not have access to the science," said Orlowski. "Most of climate science is in numbers and graphs and in such technical terms that people don't understand it and think it is not true. Now we have evidence that is accessible to all people."

Jeff Orlowski - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jeff Orlowski is an American filmmaker from Staten Island, a borough of New York City. He is the director of the documentary Chasing Ice, which he began shooting while still an undergraduate student at Stanford University.

Tree Theft on the Rise in Germany as Heating Costs Increase - SPIEGEL ONLINE

The paper reports that now some foresters are outfitting log piles with GPS devices to track thieves.

Editorial: Global Warming Takes A Vacation | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

Those who dare assert the Earth’s temperature isn’t on a perilous rise are derided as “deniers.” For liberals, the climate debate has ended, and it is an unquestionable article of faith that mankind’s carbon-dioxide emanations have set the stage for rising oceans, devastating hurricanes and disasters on a scale never before seen. To say otherwise is unthinkable, and that has created a dilemma. It’s not actually getting warmer.

Eco-activist allowed to leave protest tunnel as temperatures plummet | Environment | guardian.co.uk

An eco-activist holed up in a tunnel as part of a campaign to stop a controversial road scheme was allowed to leave his burrow as temperatures plunged below freezing – and return the next morning.

Security staff stood aside as the activist – known as Simon Sitting Bull – left the tunnel so that he could warm up [via the burning of planet-killing fossil fuels?]. Next morning they let him back in so that he could resume his protest against the scheme in East Sussex.

Beijing is not the only Asian city with lethal air pollution | Environment | guardian.co.uk

The Chinese capital is just one of hundreds of cities where poisonous air is the fastest growing cause of death
...
The blame is variously levelled on the geography of cities, the inversion of temperatures especially in cold months which trap pollutants, the vastly increasing number of cars, power plants, forest fires and the boom in building construction.

George W. Obama's Interior Secretary last week: "the administration is fully committed to exploring for potential energy resources in frontier areas such as the Arctic"

Obama On Climate Change Faces High Expectations, And High Hurdles, In Second Term

“Developing America’s domestic energy sources is essential for reducing our dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs here at home," Salazar said last week, "and the administration is fully committed to exploring for potential energy resources in frontier areas such as the Arctic."

Congress Feels the Heat on Idea of Carbon [Dioxide Hoax] Tax - NationalJournal.com

“They’ll be out there offering the carbon tax as a fix because nothing else works,” Norquist said. “It’s like a teenage boy on prom night who wants one thing— and he’s going to keep coming back, asking the same question, again and again.”
...
One thing that has opponents worried is that the fossil-fuel industry is no longer united against the carbon tax. Even oil companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell have indicated they’d support it, in part because both are now big producers of natural gas, a low-carbon form of energy that would gain market advantage in a carbon-taxed economy.

“It’s not going to go away. It’s too tempting of a revenue stream,” said the group’s leader Thomas Pyle, a former lobbyist for oil conglomerate Koch Industries. “The sheer size of the hole that Washington is in has changed the political dynamic of this issue. There’s far too much money.”

Sluggish German economy forces EU carbon to record low - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters Point Carbon) – EU carbon prices hit a fresh record low on Thursday as poor economic data from Germany and relatively healthy supply of coal continued to force European power and coal prices lower.

allAfrica.com: Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki rejects Climate Change Bill

Kibaki also rejected the Climate Change Bill, which would have set up an independent Climate Change Authority to advise on global warming and reducing the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

Hell Freezes Over–But Don’t Tell Hansen - By Wesley J. Smith - The Corner - National Review Online

Notice how little attention this story received from the mainstream media? Whatever interpretation of varying data might be made, this is an important story. The cause of the media’s ongoing collapse isn’t just because of technological factors.

Hottest year ever update, Mexico edition: "heavy frost has severely damaged crops"

Mexico: Crop damage due to frost

In Mexico’s Sur de Sonora region heavy frost has severely damaged crops. In the Valle del Yaqui mostly vegetables and corn were affected. Producers also reported damaged chilli peppers, tomatoes, squash and other types of crop.

Pielke Jr on the "golden age of scientific authority": It's a "fable that scientists tell themselves to justify their current demand for more authority in politics"

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: The Authoritarian Science Myth

First, science and scientists have never been more central to policy making than they are today. Second, the golden age of scientific authority that he invokes is a fable that scientists tell themselves to justify their current demand for more authority in politics.

Warmist DeSmogBlog on the National Climate Assessment: "The 1146-page report reads less like a government assessment and more like the Old Testament"

National Climate Assessment Delivers Dire Warning On Climate Threat | DeSmogBlog

A draft version of the 2013 National Climate Assessment is making headlines this week, and not because it is so uplifting. According to the report, the effects of climate change are becoming alarmingly visible throughout America and the rest of the world.

The 1146-page report reads less like a government assessment and more like the Old Testament. Accounts of hurricanes, droughts, floods, impending famines, and natural disasters of every kind are listed in the report, and all of these occurrences have been directly linked back to climate change.

India: Union government spending less on the health sector than it spends adapting to the alleged effects of trace amounts of carbon dioxide?

Sept 2012: : ‘More spent on climate change adaptation than on health sector’

The Union government’s spending on climate change “adaptation” is more than its spending on the health sector, said a top official of the Union Finance Ministry on Monday. Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a national workshop on financing strategies for implementing State-level action plans to counter the effects of climate change, Dipak Dasgupta, Principal Economic Adviser to the ministry, said the Union government spent 2.8 per cent of national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010-11 on climate adaptation measures, which are intended to reduce the impact of global warming and climate change on various sections of the population.

“We have not included the expenditures on mitigating the effects of climate change,” Mr. Dasgupta pointed out.

"In December 2012 the area of snow cover in the northern hemisphere was at its highest for 130 years"; Global warming means more snow for Siberia

Global warming means more snow for Siberia: expert | Business Standard

Siberia, famous for its long winters and massive snowfalls, could receive even more snow due to global warming, a Russian geographer has warned.

Russian Academy of Science Geography Institute director Vladimir Kotlyakov claimed that climate change could mean more snow for the northern hemisphere and Siberian region.

"The paradox arises - during warming, which we are seeing now, the earth will get more snow. This is happening in large areas of Siberia where there is more snow than a decade or two ago," Kotlyakov said.
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In December 2012 the area of snow cover in the northern hemisphere was at its highest for 130 years at almost 3 million square kilometres, or over 200,000 km above the previous record in 1985, according to the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), the report said.

On average, American weather experts say, the area of snow cover in the northern hemisphere in winter is rising at a rate of 0.1 per cent per decade.

One benefit of the Australian heat wave | Watts Up With That?

the recent hot spell has killed most of the ticks.
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An added benefit, apart from the yuck factor, is the reduced risk this year, of myself and my fellow Australians catching one of the awful diseases associated with tick bites, such as Queensland Tick Typhus.

Global warming? Bring it on.

Rajendra Pachauri, Pessimist-in-Chief « NoFrakkingConsensus

The head of the IPCC thinks “a large part of the human species” is endangered by climate change. Apparently that makes him an optimist.

Earliest Blooms Recorded in U.S. Due to Global Warming | JunkScience.com

So the enviros oppose more flowers?

MICHAELS: Global warming apocalypse canceled - Washington Times

it’s a pretty good bet that we are going to go nearly a quarter of a century without warming.

Veteran German Meteorologist Calls Climate Science “A Fairy Tale That’s Rich In Fantasy…Spook Watching”

Thüne concludes at the end of his commentary: “The statement that CO2 concentration, whether natural or man made, is the main factor in driving air temperature is a scientific fairy tale that’s rich in fantasy. Making climate forecasts is spook-watching!”

Fewer Than 10 Environment Reporters Left at Top 5 U.S. Papers

Fewer Than 10 Environment Reporters Left at Top 5 U.S. Papers

Michael Mann, a climatologist who directs the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, said specialized, experienced environment editors and reporters are essential to navigate the escalating politics and complicated science of climate change. "Without properly trained science journalists to serve as honest brokers ... the public is increasingly ill-equipped to sift through the cacophony of anti-scientific propaganda that pervades the public discourse and to identify the emerging threats to our health and our environment," Mann said.
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In 2012, the New York Times published 857 stories about climate change, The Washington Post published 593 and the Los Angeles Times published 496, according to Boykoff's review. The Wall Street Journal and USA Today published 133 and 124 stories, respectively.

Serious journalists cover really important bad-weather-prevention meeting in Mexico in 2010

Mainstream media: Remember all those detailed stories we wrote about Manti Te'o's girlfriend over an extended period of time? We all forgot to check whether every single bit of it wasn't complete bullsh*t

Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax

There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te'o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te'o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te'o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te'o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te'o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te'o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest.

Lennay Kekua's last words to Manti Te'o were not "I love you."