- Bishop Hill blog - I'm following Paul

For those who don't use Twitter, there is a thing called Friday follow, where you suggest good people to follow to your own followers. I think everyone on the dissenting side of the debate should be recommending Erlich. He's a hoot.

Greens Now Stunned/Stumped By The Massive Environmental Collateral Damage From Climate Protection

Last week Austrian Broadcasting network ORF aired the controversial new film Climate Crimes in German.
...
Having seen the film in its entirety for the first time, I was truly horrified by the scale of the environmental destruction and mayhem brought on by the recent climate protection movement. It is truly madness at a whole new level and dimension. If you have the chance to see the documentary, then do so. You’ll be shaking your head throughout the film.

Twitter / PaulREhrlich: #Climate disruption. Remember ...

#Climate disruption. Remember this when denier morons claim snow proves no warming. Just the opposite. #greed. http://bit.ly/Xiwu7G

Explosive Fed. Mandate Killing Thousands of Red Snapper

Shipp said the demolitions are frequent, sometimes three a week in the Gulf, but are seldom video-taped. Shipp also sits on the Gulf Fisheries Management Council, and has been a strong opponent of the demolitions.

“It’s a double whammy,” Shipp said, “Not only are we killing a lot of snapper, but we’re also destroying their habitat.”

The old rigs are an eye-sore, but under the surface, they’ve developed into artificial reefs with rich coral habitats. On some of the older rigs, those habitats have grown over the course of 30 to 40 years.

The killing of the red snapper is also infuriating charter boat captains and anglers.

Bill of the Week: Changing the Climate: Ellis hopes for a cooler future - News Blog - The Austin Chronicle

Climate change, says Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, is "going to be the critical issue of our time." But does that mean the Texas Legislature can – or will – do anything to address the issue? That remains to be seen.

The Media Taking an Advocacy Position on Global Warming

Even before Al Gore’s movie about Global Warming (which he has morphed into Climate Change and now calls Climate Crisis), the NY Times, Washington Post, and the major networks bought into the theory, hook line & sinker. They are now committed to promoting this belief, regardless of the facts that may surface. The current President also is a true believer, and is determined to do what he can to, “Heal the planet”. Eventually, McDonalds or some other restaurant will solve the Polar Bears overpopulation problem with a new menu item. This does not deal with the shamelessness of the media taking an advocacy position on a issue that will have wrenching policy ramifications. Lack of reporting on these new facts shows this complicity, and it won’t be solved with a special sauce.

2,670 Days Since Florida Has Been Hit By A Hurricane | Real Science

Florida has been hurricane-free since October 19, 2005. This is by far the longest hurricane-free period in Florida’s history.

Bangladesh faces mass migration, loss of land from climate change | Toronto Star

Rahman acknowledges the IPCC report did not include the impact of sediment deposit

As Blizzard Nemo Strikes, Global Warming Won’t Be Far Behind - John Ransom

By definition, global warming can now be defined by anything that disturbs the comfort and security of anyone who lives on the Eastern seaboard.

EU promises 20% of its whole budget to stop storms, rain, etc. « JoNova

So what does this mean? Billions more dollars poured into the uber carbon gravy train? Twenty whole percent?

Extreme Weather In The 1960’s & 1970’s « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

In other words, Wallen observed exactly the same sort of extreme weather then, that is now blamed on global warming – unusual cold, unusual warmth, floods and droughts. And not only the events. The same meridional circulation patterns, that he observed, are happening again now, resulting in cold winters in some places, and warm summers in others.

Christopher Booker: Money and energy are thrown to the wind | Climate Realists

Talk about bees clustering round a honeypot… When are we going to wake up to the extraordinary goings-on at the heart of Britain’s energy policy?

Climate hoaxsters: Hey, we just remembered that CO2 has caused the air to become "super-saturated with water"! (By the way, if we start talking about drought ten minutes from now, please forget that whole "super-saturated air" thing)

Opinion: Record snow in a warming world? The science is clear — The Daily Climate [Hoax]

"Climate change contrarians and deniers love to dishonestly cherry-pick individual events to argue that they are somehow inconsistent with global warming, when they are not," said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. "As long as it's cold enough to snow – which it will be in the winter – you potentially will get greater snowfalls."

The reality is that such snowstorms often don't occur despite global warming, but because of it. "It's basic physics, and it's irrefutable," Mann said.

The science behind this is clear: Warmer temperatures cause more water to evaporate into the atmosphere, and warmer air holds more water than cooler air. The air's "water-holding capacity," in fact, rises about 7 percent with each Celsius degree of warming. This results in air that becomes super-saturated with water, often bringing drenching rainfall followed by flooding or – if it is cold enough – heavy and intense snowfall.
...
Mann agrees that we are more likely to experience horrible snowstorms when the temperatures hover in the low 30s or high 20s Fahrenheit, rather than in the teens or colder.  [Hey Michael: How many "horrible" snowstorms will we get when temperatures are above the low 30s?]

After no warming for 15+ years, Revkin defends this Gavin Schmidt statement: "...despite short-term ups and downs, global warming continues much as predicted"

In new look at models v. observations,...

In new look at models v. observations, @ClimateofGavin shows why he’s a vital touchstone on global warming science: “[T]he
models are on the low side of some changes, and on the high side of
others, but despite short-term ups and downs, global warming continues
much as predicted…”

Administration’s New Climate Report: Next Ice Age ‘Has Now Been Delayed Indefinitely’ | CNS News

(CNSNews.com) - A federal advisory committee appointed by the Obama administration to produce a report on climate change says that if Earth’s climate were still “primarily controlled by natural factors”—rather than by man-made global warming—then the next ice age would occur within the next 1,500 years.

But now, because of humans, the committee says, the next ice age has been "delayed indefinitely."

Twitter / HeidiCullen: Wow. RT @TWCBreaking: via NWS ...

Wow. RT @TWCBreaking: via NWS in Gray, Maine. Portland has recorded their greatest snowstorm on record with 29.3" #nemo

What's Killing Minnesota's Moose? | Mother Jones

many members of the conservation community feel climate change is at fault. Doug Inkley, senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation, put it this way: "With the high temperatures in the summer, moose seek out shelter rather than feeding. Nutritional status declines, and they become more vulnerable to disease and parasites. It's like a person who smokes is much more vulnerable to other diseases, and that can be associated with mortality."...Inkley's pretty convinced that temperature inflections are the major factor debilitating the species, and he wishes Congress would quit stalling and do something to reduce carbon emissions. He criticizes Minnesota's state leadership for failing to acknowledge climate as the key issue.

More pure global warming propaganda on Revkin's blog: Warmist Andrew Derocher: "We’re not dealing with greenhouse gases so we will be dealing with starving polar bears and disappearing populations"

Scientists Explore Options as Polar Bears Face Climate Change - NYTimes.com

Remember when Google announced that they were going to be carbon neutral by five years ago? Now they want to build an $82 million private airport for executives

San Jose Official Backs Plan For New $82M Google Airport « CBS San Francisco

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – San Jose should accept an offer by a major airport operator  of Google Inc. at Mineta San Jose International Airport, a city official said.

Signature Aviation, a British firm, wants to construct an executive terminal, hangars and ramp space “accommodating the largest business jets” for Mountain View-based Google at the San Jose airport, William Sherry, the city’s director of aviation, wrote in a memo.

Tom Nelson: google_guys

A photo-op of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plugging-in a hybrid car was part of the search engine giant’s June announcement promising carbon neutrality by 2008. But how this PR-fluff squares with the so-called “Google party jet” — Page and Brin’s gargantuan personal Boeing 767, which burns about 1,550 gallons/hour — is any one’s guess.

Revisiting Superstorm Sandy Part I: Spinning Climate, Weather for Political Points

Manhattan was pounded in 1667 and by the Great Storm of 1693. More behemoths followed in 1788, 1821, 1893, 1938, 1944, 1954, 1960, 1985 and 1992. Other “confluences of severe weather events” brought killer storms like the four-day Great Blizzard of 1888, which convinced New York City to build its subway. The 1893 storm all but eradicated Hog Island, and the 1938 “Long Island Express” hit LI as a category 3 hurricane, brought 18-foot storm surges and wind gusts up to 180 mph, and killed 60 New Yorkers.

Such winds today would rip windows from skyscrapers, launching a deadly blizzard of flying glass, masonry, chairs, desks and other debris, say experts. In fact, a blizzard of glass and debris struck Manhattan in 1912, when a sudden storm delivered an entire afternoon of 60 mph winds and five minutes of 96-110 mph fury! If such winds are accompanied by an event like Sandy, anyone seeking safety underground would drown as subway tunnels flood due to combined storm and tidal surges 20 to 30 feet above normal, the city’s 1995 hurricane transportation study warned.

Even Canada’s east coast has frequently been battered by hurricanes and other major storms. A 1775 hurricane killed 4,000 people in Newfoundland; an 1873 monster left 600 dead in Nova Scotia; others pummeled Canada’s Maritime Provinces in 1866, 1886, 1893, 1939, 1959, 1963 and 2003.

Twitter / LeoHickman: BBC just told me they r now ...

BBC just told me they r now removing "3.5C rise in past 20 yrs" from tomorrow's repeat of #Africa. I will update my blog w/ their statement

Twitter / smbthomas: Tim Worstall: What a stunning ...

Tim Worstall: What a stunning claim by Caroline Lucas or how 0.2598 is lower than 0.1547 on the Greenpeace planet http://j.mp/XuVy9z

Quadrant Online - Weird-weather shenanigans: Part I

Climate models are complex. Fortunately, more of their creators - and promoters - are being forced to defend publicly their alleged powers of simulation, attribution and prediction. But be warned: the new analogy-diced-and-sliced, pseudo-predictive climate-speak is shrewdly crafted to be more persuasive, near-term relevant - and scarier.

The Great White Hurricane Of 1888 | Real Science

With up to 50 inches of snow dumped across the northeast of the United States, this monster blizzard was aptly dubbed ‘The Great White Hurricane’. Major metropolitan areas like New York faced severe winds of up to 45 miles an hour, drifts of more than 50 feet and floods caused when the snow melted. With fire departments unable to function, the financial losses from fires alone amounted to a staggering $25 million. Human casualties totaled 400, with 200 people dying in New York alone.

Recycling con: Millions of tons end up in landfill as officials admit success is exaggerated | Mail Online

Most managers at plants that recycle rubbish for industrial use say that at best 'some' of the waste sent to them is usable

- Bishop Hill blog - Global warming overestimated by factor of two

Ka-Kit Tung and Jiansong Zhou of the University of Washington report that anthropogenic global warming has been overcooked. A lot.

Airbus May Switch A350 Battery to Avoid 787 Lithium Woes - Bloomberg

regulators may even decide that the technology isn’t sufficiently mature to be used by any company.

Is Keystone XL Obama’s line in the sand? - The Globe and Mail

Now, as then, the President’s decision will swirl around politics. TransCanada Pipelines, Keystone’s proponent, has changed the route in Nebraska, thereby bringing the Republican governor onside. Trade unions, a key part of the Democrats’ constituency, want the jobs and economic spinoffs Keystone would bring. Fifty-five senators, including nine Democrats, signed a letter urging Mr. Obama to approve the project.

Oil from Canada, bitumen or otherwise, is deemed by foreign-policy analysts to be more “secure” than that from elsewhere. If Alberta oil didn’t make it to the Gulf of Mexico refineries, oil from somewhere else would arrive. Canada is safe, reliable and friendly. Who could ask for anything more?

More Americans convinced of climate change, poll finds

Less than a third, or 29%, favor cap-and-trade

Kalamazoo Professor says Global warming is happening faster than expected

KALAMAZOO (WKZO) -- As the northeast is getting pounded by its second super-storm this year, a Western Michigan University Professor says we can expect more violent storms, droughts and more powerful hurricanes because global warming is taking place faster than anyone had previously thought it could.

Dr. David Karowe, a professor of biological sciences says in fact its happening probably 20-times faster than at anytime in the last 55-million years, and the evidence is obvious. The rise in the level of ocean waters and the fall in the Great Lakes, the melting of all ice on Greenland, and the retreat of the glaciers.

He says the climate models have been predicting it for decades, just not at this rapid a pace.

Living on Earth: US Carbon Emissions At A New Low

BASCOMB: But with almost all of President Obama’s green team leaving and spending under pressure on Capitol Hill it’s not certain what incentives will be on the table.

Behemoth storm blankets Northeast with 2 feet of snow, darkens 650,000 homes, businesses - The Washington Post

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick enacted a statewide driving ban for the first time since the Blizzard of ‘78, a ferocious storm that dropped 27 inches of snow, packed hurricane-force winds and claimed dozens of lives.

Wild weather strands Shackleton adventurers

Two adventurers attempting to recreate an epic 1916 Antarctic expedition by Ernest Shackleton were on Saturday stranded on a plateau above a glacier after wild weather hit the final leg of their journey.

CO2 argument begins cooling - Denver Libertarian | Examiner.com

A gigantic shift is taking place in the way a potential threat to mankind has been largely viewed by “science” and the public for decades. Yet, somehow, the entirety of the vast media-industrial complex has managed to overlook this massive situation.

Environment Canada's senior climatologist David Phillips: "We know the future is warmer and with less snow"

Green Christmas likely for most Canadians, forecaster says - Canada - CBC News

"We have this reputation. We are known as the Cold White North. But I don't think we're as cold and white as we once were," said Phillips.
...
"The lesson for this is if you get one: embrace it, enjoy it because it is something that future generations will have [to] be dreaming a little harder to get," said Phillips. "We know the future is warmer and with less snow."  [Via ML]

Global warming hoax promoter Michael Oppenheimer: I know CO2 is overheating the planet if there's enough snow to use my sled or if there's not enough snow to use my sled

Climate Change And The Blizzard: Nor'easters More Fierce With Global Warming, Scientists Say

Michael Mann, a climatologist who directs the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, compared a major storm like Nemo -- or Hurricane Irene or Superstorm Sandy, for that matter -- to a basketball slam-dunk with a lower net.

"If you take the basketball court and raise it a foot, you're going to see more slam-dunks," Mann said. "Not every dunk is due to raising the floor, but you'll start seeing them happen more often then they ought to."
...
Michael Oppenheimer, a climate change expert at Princeton University, said global warming is increasing extreme storms. "Storms like this tend to be heavier than they used to be," he told HuffPost. "That's a fact."
...
In fact, Jeff Masters, a climatologist and founder of Weather Underground, noted that the number of intense nor'easters hasn't increased over the last three or four decades. A warmer climate, he explained, can decrease the length of the snowy season, and therefore the time window for nor'easters.
...
Penn State's Mann also likes to use baseball metaphors when describing climate's influence on major storms -- "home runs," he calls them. "What we're seeing now with climate change is weather on steroids."

Climate Astrology: Blizzard blamed on global warming?! Is there any weather event that is inconsistent with global warming? -- Climate Depot Round up | Climate Depot

UN IPCC's Michael Oppenheimer on his unused sled in 2000: 'Oppenheimer even had a tear-jerking personal angle on the 'absence of snow' in modern winters omichael@princeton.edu -- NYT quoted 'Oppenheimer on the pathetic spectacle of the unused sled in his stairwell, symbol of a warming world: 'I bought a sled in '96 for my daughter,' said Oppenheimer, a scientist at the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. 'It's been sitting in the stairwell, and hasn't been used. I used to go sledding all the time. It's one of my most vivid and pleasant memories as a kid, hauling the sled out to Cunningham Park in Queens.'

Antarctica Sea Ice Above Normal For 439 Days In A Row | Real Science

Twitter / RyanMaue: 12-18'' of snow over Dakotas ...

12-18'' of snow over Dakotas with Central US storm thru Monday morning. pic.twitter.com/CYWifWEc

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper finds Greenland surface melt was due to natural variability

Last summer, the mainstream media breathlessly reported that a brief 4-day surface melt over the Greenland ice sheet represented evidence of man-made global warming. However, a paper published today in The Cryosphere finds that "the recent warmer summers over [the Greenland ice sheet] cannot be considered as a long-term climate warming but are more a consequence of [the natural North Atlantic Oscillation] variability affecting atmospheric heat transport." In other words, the brief Greenland surface melt has not been linked to alleged man-made global warming.

European Carbon Market Putting Upward Prices on Electric Rates

“The worst part about the carbon policy is not that it is raising the tariffs,” says a company spokesperson at Business Electricity Prices, “It is the fact it is raising the prices of electricity and doing absolutely nothing to reduce the amount of carbon we are emitting.”

Twitter / clim8resistance: Hickman: "The realities of ...

Hickman: "The realities of climate change hardly need embellishment." And yet they are, and they do.

The Facts: How Climate Change is Affecting America | Climate Reality

how much the climate changes in the future is up to us. The sooner and the more boldly we take action, the better we can protect our climate for generations to come.

Timeline Photos | Facebook

[Brown: Why not use a snow day to protest global warming?]

Yale President: Fossil fuel divestment warranted if fossil fuel companies causing ‘grave social injury’ | JunkScience.com

Will be interesting to watch. Would Yale stop using electricity, too?

Study finds European cars are less green than claimed - Reuters News - Point Carbon

BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - European car manufacturers are exploiting test loopholes to exaggerate their vehicles' green credentials, an official European Commission study has found.

EUA supply to exceed utility demand by a third in 2013: analysts - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters Point Carbon) – New supply of EU emissions permits is likely to exceed demand from Europe’s utilities by nearly a third this year, analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said on Thursday, prompting them to cut their 2013 carbon price forecast by 25 percent.

Sweden to buy 21 million CO2 credits by 2020: official - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Sweden needs to buy around 21 million carbon credits by 2020, or three times more than previous estimates, to meet a voluntary emission target for sectors outside the EU cap-and-trade scheme, a government official said Friday.

Actual, non-sarcastic headline: "Carbon tax could tame severe weather"

Carbon tax could tame severe weather

Not long after U.S. President Barack Obama promised to fight climate change in his inaugural address, temperatures soared to 70 in Baltimore — in late January. Our weather continues to be unrecognizable.
... After [Sandy], everyone asked: Did global warming cause this monster? The answer is: yes, yes, and again yes.
...
With a carbon tax or fee attached to fossil fuels, we make these fuels steadily more expensive. This would do two things in the marketplace: reflect the harm these fuels do to our planet and, simultaneously, usher carbon-free fuels like wind and solar power into our economy with the speed and breadth of a hurricane surge tide...As gas-fired electricity costs rise, utilities will switch to wind. As oil gets pricier, electric car sales will explode.
---
Mike Tidwell is director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Weather History for Baltimore, MD [Maryland] for January

[1907--January high of 74; 1932--January high of 79...]

Banking Crisis Solved: Shale Oil Boom Floods Rural Banks With Cash

Deposits in banks with branches in the Bakken shale region, which stretches from central North Dakota to the northeastern corner of Montana, soared 15 percent last year, to $3.9 billion, after rising 27 percent in 2011, according to preliminary data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “By any standard, deposits are exploding.”

New Times Editor: Only Shale Can Save Britain’s Energy Policy | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

Plans for a new generation of nuclear plants can be rescued, but only by encouraging alternatives such as fracking.

We don't need nuclear power to meet climate goals and keep lights on | Caroline Lucas | Environment | guardian.co.uk

It would be a folly to think that there is no hope of tackling climate change without nuclear power

Flashback: Top Democrats Warn Low Snow Levels Prove Global Warming (Video)

'Watch Democrats Jay Inslee, Barbara Boxer, Amy Klobuchar, Robert Byrd and Dianne Feinstein express deep concern and alarm during years when winters were mild and snow was light, contending that global warming was the cause.'

States announce deal to cut greenhouse gasses - SFGate

The RGGI, however, expects the price of carbon allowances to rise from $4 to $10 by the end of the decade, resulting in a less than 1 percent increase in the average electric bill.  [If that's true, will that really change people's behavior enough to prevent hurricanes?]
...
"This is a major milestone in the fight against climate change," Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, said in a statement.

David Rose Voted Top Ten British Investigative Journalist | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

6 – David Rose (Mail on Sunday)

“Brilliant and dedicated, exposing miscarriages of justice, frauds in the climate change lobby, middle east politicking etc.”

Wind Farm Subsidies Are Pushing Scots Into Fuel Poverty, MSP Warns | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

A Scots politician has claimed wind farm subsidies are plunging Scots into fuel poverty. Almost 30% of Scottish residents are being left in fuel poverty and Energy Action Scotland claims the figure could be as high as 40%.

"European heads of state and government have agreed to commit at least 20 percent of the entire European Union budget over the next seven years to climate-related spending"

Climate Gets 20 Percent of Seven-Year European Budget | Environment News Service

Heaviest Snowfall in Many Years Hits Polish-Slovakian Border

Due to heavy snowfall a state of emergency was imposed in 20 towns at the Polish-Slovakian Border, near to Orava. Last night it was seen 75 cm of snow!

Browner: ‘I believe that we shouldn’t be putting more greenhouse gases into the air’… | JunkScience.com

… she said in opposing the Keystone XL.

Heavy snowfall in Slovakia, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan

“Here in the Netherlands, the Main Stream Media (MSM) do not report recent heavy snowfall in Slovakia, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan (or anywhere else in the world),” says reader Argiris Diamantis.

Writing About Climate Change « NoFrakkingConsensus

Is a new academic network just a cover for climate activists?

Blizzard Reading

When the global warming crowd says, “It used to be snowier,” and then responds to equivalent snowfall in the current moment by saying, “This was caused by global warming,” pay attention.

French Ski Resort Shuts Down…Because Of Too Much Snow!

Where’s David Viner when you need him?

The northern hemisphere is experiencing near record high snow cover, Moscow just got buried by record snow, today Boston faces record snow, and now ski resorts in France are shutting down because of too much snow!

- Bishop Hill blog - The long tales

The University of East Anglia is having a conference on writing and climate change. It features well known climate writers Giles Foden, Mike Hulme and, erm, Phil Jones

Historic Blizzard Poised to Strike New England: What Role Is Climate Change Playing? | ThinkProgress

Like a baseball player on steroids, our climate system is breaking records at an unnatural pace.

Welcome to “Significant Figures” – Peter Gleick's blog

A few minor ground rules: I encourage thoughtful comments and questions, even challenging and controversial ones, and will try hard to respond as appropriate. But I discourage – and will be strict about deleting – rude, ad hominem, and off-topic comments. I will be especially hard on marginal comments made by anonymous trolls. I encourage you to use your names, to ask questions, and to join a productive conversation.

C3: IPCC Confirms CO2 Is Not A "Thermostat" & Global Warming Is Not "Dangerous"

The United Nations IPCC climate agency has a gold-standard dataset used since 2007 to make global climate predictions - the HadCRUT3 gold-standard confirms that the predicted dangerous global warming is non-existent, and unequivocally, that CO2 is not the world's thermostat

Its even worse than Al Gore said « Climate Sanity

The CFL bulbs in my basement are like the detonation of a pound of TNT every day!
...
The sun irradiates the surface of the planet with enough energy for my own personal Hiroshima atomic bomb blast every 40 days or so. And your own personal blast. And a blast for every single man, woman and child. The equivalent of 7 billion Hiroshima blasts every 42 days!

1972 : CRU Director Predicted A New Ice Age | Real Science

Exelon chief: Wind subsidies could shut down nuclear plants - The Hill's E2-Wire

A major utility that was ousted from a wind energy trade group last fall said continued government support of wind power could shutter nuclear plants.

Lucy Lawless Sentenced To 120 Hours Community Service For Trespassing On Oil Drilling Ship

Lawless said she plans to continue protesting against climate change and oil drilling.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper finds warming causes less snow

A paper published today in the Journal of Climate finds that warmer temperatures cause less snow, and conversely, colder temperatures cause more snow.

CO2 Buried But Destined To Rise Again | The Resilient Earth

Before rushing to implement expensive and possibly ineffective solutions it would be nice if there was solid proof that we even have a problem.

Massachusetts governor bans driving ahead of winter storm Nemo | WashingtonExaminer.com

The last vehicle ban in Massachusetts was reportedly in 1978.

Senate Dem calls for carbon tax to fight deficits and global warming | WashingtonExaminer.com

Cardin was responding to an NIH employing who suggested Congress “increase public health by eliminating carbon [sic] in our atmosphere and then also raise needed revenues to help stabilize the budget” in a question after during the town hall.

Power company takes blame for Super Bowl outage

Not long after Friday's announcement, the manufacturer of the relay, Chicago-based S&C Electric Co., released a statement saying that the blackout occurred because system operators had put the relay's so-called trip setting too low to allow the device to handle the incoming electric load.

Scientists to Obama: Convene climate change ‘summit’ to map out federal action - The Hill's E2-Wire

“Such a national summit on climate change should be informed by science and could bring your administration together with leaders in the fields of climate research and modeling, mitigation, adaptation, and ecosystem restoration and resilience,” states the letter from the Society for Conservation Biology, the Society for Ecological Restoration, the American Fisheries Society and three other groups.

“With the significant increases in damage due to climate-driven weather extremes, ranging from more intense storms like Superstorm Sandy, more intense and frequent wildfires, severe flooding, and prolonged droughts, people are becoming increasingly aware that something is wrong and that the federal government needs to take action,” adds the letter, which is also from the Wildlife Society, the American Meteorological Society and the Ecological Society of America.

BBC exaggerated climate change in David Attenborough's Africa | Leo Hickman | guardian.co.uk

But however you approach it, Attenborough's claim that "some parts of the African continent have become 3.5C hotter in the past 20 years" appears to fall down upon further analysis.

Personally, I find it bizarre - and frustrating - that an otherwise exemplary series, which took years to film, has been tainted - in my mind, at least - by such a sloppy piece of research. Why rely primarily on a seven-year-old report published an NGO? Why not just directly ask climatologists who would have the latest available data to hand? And how did the BBC's researchers even come across such an obscure fact? You get the sense they simply Googled "Africa temperature rise" and went for the first thing they found.

EPA moves forward with climate change protection plan, asks for comments - The Hill's RegWatch

The Environmental Protection Agency is formally moving forward with its Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

Beginning Friday, the EPA is accepting comments on its draft plan, which calls for the agency to amend its operations — including the promulgation of new regulations — to account for increasingly rapid global warming.

Propagandist Brad Johnson of ‘Forecast the Facts’ tries to make the pending East Coast blizzard about the ocean ‘warming’ – Fails | Watts Up With That?

You knew it was coming from shameless people like him. Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson doesn’t know the difference between what the Gulf Stream pattern looks like and the rest of the sea surface temperature.

India has strong case to show how US is using climate change to promote its companies: CSE 

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has termed the US charges that India’s National Solar Mission is discriminating against foreign companies as ‘hogwash’.
...
“The US is worried and is trying to browbeat India. India should not be cowed down. It has a very strong case to show to the world how the US has been using climate change to further the interests of its companies. The US is the one dumping cheap solar panels, not India,” it said.

Steven Chu | Facebook

I just want everyone to know that my decision not to serve a second term as Energy Secretary has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations made in this week’s edition of the Onion. While I’m not going to confirm or deny the charges specifically, I will say that clean, renewable solar power is a growing source of U.S. jobs and is becoming more and more affordable, so it’s no surprise that lots of Americans are falling in love with solar.

Droughts and Floods

There is no possibility whatsoever that climate change theory can be applied to the issues detailed in this report.

Key words. Droughts, periodicity, predictability, solar linkage, climate change.

Senior Dem: Obama vows to tackle climate – eventually - The Hill's E2-Wire

President Obama’s message to House Democrats on Thursday: Yes, acting on climate change is important. But it’s going to have to wait in line.

Obama barely touched on energy policy during his roughly 20-minute address to the Democratic caucus on Thursday, spending more time on fiscal issues, guns and immigration.

The Scary Truth About How Much Climate Change is Costing You - NationalJournal.com

“There’s no word on Wall Street more important than risk. And climate change is the ultimate risk,” says Mindy Lubber, who heads the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of more than 90 investors, representing approximately $10 trillion in assets, that coordinates U.S. investor responses to climate change. “Climate-change financial implications are the equivalent of the subprime-mortgage meltdown. They impact the entire market.”

Obama Needs to Be Brutally Honest About Climate Change in His State of the Union - NationalJournal.com

“It’s the way that presidents used to talk about war,” said David Cohen, a scholar of the U.S. presidency who teaches at the University of Akron. “The American public—up until 9/11—was willing to sacrifice for war. They knew there would be sacrifices, whether it was prices they’d pay or goods they’d give up. He has to sell this as a threat to the country’s national security. If he can couch it in those terms, he should be able to bring other people from across the political spectrum.”

But Cohen added, “It’s going to be a very hard thing to do.”

Life After Energy: What if fossil fuels disappeared tomorrow? | Watts Up With That?

Here are a few observations of my own about what would happen if fossil fuels disappeared tomorrow

Twitter / DrShepherd2013: prepping for major policy ...

prepping for major policy briefing in DC on #climate change next week, almost certain big blizzard this weekend will cause someone to refute

Twitter / DrShepherd2013: @itsalleternal in fact one ...

@itsalleternal in fact one could find a few studies suggesting strong winter storms consistent with changing climate, jury still out though

Al Gore backs growing fossil fuel divestment campaign

And Wednesday, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, a prominent climate activist and Harvard alum, sided with a strengthening campaign to get that school to back out of its oil and gas investments.

“If I were a student, I would support what you’re doing,” Gore told students, speaking on campus at Harvard. “But if I were a board member I would do what I did when we took up the Apartheid issue. This is an opportunity for learning and the raising of awareness, for the discussion of sustainable capitalism.”

Flashback: $100 Million in Oil Money Richer, Al Gore's Unsure Why Critics Are Being So Critical - Business - The Atlantic Wire

In conclusion, Al Gore thinks Al Jazeera is awesome, regardless of whether or not it's bankrolled by greenhouse gases-to-be. Current TV is superior to any mainstream network, regardless of the fact that virtually nobody watched it. And money is dumb, regardless of the fact that Al Gore seems to be collecting buckets of it in a giant tank so that he can swim in a pool of gold coins a la Scrooge McDuck.

Lawrence Solomon: Celsius not rising

Our thermometers simply haven’t been rising. According to a study last month by NASA’s James Hansen, Al Gore’s mentor, temperatures have been “flat for the past decade.” According to the U.K.’s Meteorological Office, every bit Al Gore’s equal in alarmism, the temperature standstill has lasted 15 years and, its revised models say, may extend to 20. No wonder public opinion hasn’t rallied to the alarmist cause.

Eve Ensler connects the dots between violence against women and violence against the planet | Grist

[Ensler, the artist and activist behind The Vagina Monologues] has recently been drawing connections between the violence that men perpetrate against women and the violence that fossil-fuel companies perpetrate against the climate and all of us who depend on it.

Delusions of climate modellers and the madness of crowds « The View From Here

“Climate, Chaos and Irrationality: How the Green Agenda Was Hijacked by Global Warming Theorists” is the provisional title of a book in progress by Martin Cohen. He’s an “environmental activist” who has a long, but very readable, essay in the Dec. 10 issue of the U.K.’s Times Higher Education. Some excerpts...
...[Peter Taylor] At first i could not believe the delusions of the modellers had taken such a hold – it ranks as the worst scientific error in the history of science - that is why it is so hard to get the orthodox to admit to a problem!

Poll: Majority prefers climate change regulations over taxes - The Hill's RegWatch

Only 17 percent of respondents in the poll who identified themselves as Republican said they see the issue as a “very serious” problem, compared with 35 percent of Democrats.

Science | Forecasting Regional Climate Change Flunks Its First Test

Now, a group of global, rather than regional, modelers has tested a widely used regional model by simulating climate change, not just static past climate. Preliminary results show that the model improved little if at all on the fuzzy view of future climate provided by a globe-spanning model.

Errors in IPCC climate science » Blog Archive » BoM made a mistake in announcing hottest January day for Mackay

the BoM mistakenly entered 36.9° as 39.6° – and nobody had the nous to question this for a week.

Is Global Warming Killing the Moose in Minnesota? I don’t think so

Is Global Warming Killing the Moose in Minnesota? I don’t think so. | Minnesotans For Global Warming

I checked out where the moose are in Minnesota, then I got the temperature data from 3 different weather stations close to where the moose actually live, Ely, Seagull and Isabella...

‘Mining’ groundwater could help fuel climate change, study finds | Vancouver Sun

Low-lying crop lands here in B.C. could be threatened, as water brought to the surface for human needs compounds the rise in sea levels predicted by climate change models.

Global warming may make the northernmost ocean less productive, not more so | The Economist

As the ice melts, more light can reach the water, and that means more photosynthesis by marine algae....the plankton, too, are flourishing thanks to global warming.
...
Which all sounds most promising. But many researchers think it will not continue. First, the central Arctic is too deep for some important species, such as the polar cod

‘This Clement World,’ a Play About Climate Change - NYTimes.com

Say what you will about the potential end of civilization as we know it, but there’s no denying it is dramatic stuff.

Mali Islamist insurgents: Could climate change be al-Qaida’s best friend in Africa?

analysts aren’t without hope when it comes to areas prone to both Islamic extremism and climate change...
“It's not as if you address climate change, you'll have world peace,” says Werrell. “[B]ut it's an important factor.”

EPA: You know what's allegedly "changing at an increasingly rapid rate"? The climate!

EPA to issue climate change plan Friday - The Hill's RegWatch

“Until now, EPA has been able to assume that climate is relatively stable and future climate would mirror past climate,” reads a notice previewing the plan’s release. “However, with climate changing at an increasingly rapid rate and outside the range to which society has adapted in the past, climate change is posing new challenges to EPA’s ability to fulfill its mission.”

Hungover Energy Secretary Wakes Up Next To Solar Panel | The Onion

According to sources, Chu’s encounter with the crystalline-silicon solar receptor was his most regrettable dalliance since 2009, when an extended fling with a 90-foot wind turbine nearly ended his marriage.

Just in time for a giant snowstorm, National Weather Service gets new chief: a blizzard expert

Last May, weather service chief Jack Hayes suddenly retired after an investigation found his agency was short $36 million and was shifting funds from technology accounts to meet payroll — without congressional permission.

Northeast Wholesale Power Gains as Colder Weather Sweeps Region - Bloomberg

Wholesale electricity prices from New York to Maine climbed as frigid weather lifted demand while a snow storm is forecast for the region over the next two days.

Twitter / HeidiCullen: Life-threatening #blizzard ...

Life-threatening #blizzard targeting southern New England. Fed by unusually warm ocean temps, could dump <2 ft. of snow http://bit.ly/VK0POy

Some more background on Bloom Energy and Al Gore

Exclusive: Whistleblower tells story of Bloom Energy workers paid in pesos - San Jose Mercury News

SUNNYVALE -- They traveled 1,300 miles and toiled long hours, earning the equivalent of $2.66 an hour in Mexican pesos while working in the Bay Area for acclaimed Silicon Valley tech startup Bloom Energy.

"It wasn't right what they were doing. It's not the way to treat people," said a former Bloom Energy contractor who claims he blew the whistle to authorities about the company's mistreatment of the workers, who were brought to this country on visitor visas from the Bloom Energy plant in Chihuahua.

Al Gore accused of conflict of interest in Apple’s Bloom Energy deal | Datacenter Dynamics

A conservative US think tank is accusing Al Gore, former vice president of the US and a powerful climate activist, of having a conflict of interest in Apple’s purchase of a Bloom Energy fuel-cell system for the consumer-electronics and digital-media company’s new data center in Maiden, North Carolina...“Apple buying technology from Bloom Energy, where Gore has a financial stake, is a clear conflict of interest,” Tom Borelli, director of NCPPR’s Free Enterprise Project, said in a statement.

From this CNN article:

Doerr, Bill Joy, and Gore at a meeting at startup Bloom Energy

2008: Climateer Investing: Al Gore: "There are a lot of Great Investments that you can make"

Companies shown in the slide show:
...
Bloom Energy (solid oxide fuel cells)

Polar bears may need to be fed by humans to survive, say scientists | Environment | guardian.co.uk

The day may soon come when some of the 19 polar bear populations in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Norway, and Russia will have to be fed by humans in order to keep them alive during an extended ice-free season or prevent them from roaming into northern communities.
...
Derocher said in an email that the goal would be to distribute food, such as seals, in sufficient quantities over large distances so that hungry bears, forced ashore by lack of ice, would not come into conflict by vying for the same food. The goal would be to keep bear populations widely scattered, as attracting too many bears to central locations could increase the risk of disease transmission. Helicopters could be used to deliver the seals, but the logistics and expense of such a plan would be daunting. Thousands of seals would have to be killed by wildlife officials every summer to meet the needs of hungry bears, who each consume up to five seals a week.
...
As a last resort, the paper mentions "intentional population reduction'" — the killing of starving bears.

New study says Western Hudson Bay polar bears could spend 2 to 4 months longer on shore than they do now | polarbearscience

A new study just published (Robbins et al. 2012, abstract below) suggests that non-pregnant polar bears that lived in Western Hudson Bay during the 1980s and 1990s had enough fat to spend at least 6-8 months on land, making the five months that St. Matthew Island bears spent fasting on shore a less than impressive feat.

Friends Of The Earth & WWF Recieved Billions From EU To Promote AGW Scam « Tory Aardvark

The President of the EU is unelected, as is the leading light in feeding plenty of money to the Green NGOs Climate Commissar Connie Hedegaard, the AGW scam suits the Green marxists at the EU, their vision of the misery of the Green Agrarian society gets closer as they feed the purveyors of Green fear stories the money, so that Greenpeace, FoE and WWF can keep the outlandish fear stories coming.

Now you know why the Greens make the endless calls of more taxation to make people Green, it’s all one giant self serving scam.

Seattle and San Francisco consider divesting from fossil fuels | Grist

Seattle’s $1.9 billion pension fund currently holds $17.6 million in investments in oil and gas companies.

Good luck with that: Professor Tedesco hopes that art can convince people "that there is no political agenda behind scientists communicating climate change"

climate data into art

"Art is a powerful messenger," added Professor Tedesco. "I hope that we will be able to help people understand that there is no political agenda behind scientists communicating climate change. The results we are showing in this exhibit are a clear message that the Arctic – and Greenland in particular – is strongly affected by the changes we are observing all over our planet."

 Flashback: IPCC lead author Raymond T. Pierrehumbert displays his alleged lack of political agenda

IPCC lead author Pierrehumbert does an extremely poor job of pretending he's a politically disinterested, just-the-facts man of science: He refers to "little fantasies that many of us progressives use to fend off the nightmare of a Romney win"

Climate Change Set to Batter U.S. Agriculture, Forests | Climate Central

But Cleaves said that the situation “is not all gloom and doom.”

“Some species of trees, if they’re tolerant to a changing climate, might actually thrive on warmer temperatures and more carbon dioxide in the air and more rain,” he said. “We’ve actually seen in some regions of the country, like the Northeast, rainfall increase. We’ll probably see forests there that grow faster, though the species mix may change. There’s some opportunity for new kinds of forest.”

Energy, Security, and Climate » Thinking Carefully About Tight Oil

[Michael Levi] these big pools of oil will be burned if we choose to cook ourselves; they will mostly remain in the ground if we don’t. It’s how much fossil fuels we use, not where they come from, that matters most to the planet.

Twitter / chriscmooney: "It’s not that conservative ...

"It’s not that conservative people are more fearful, it’s that fearful people are more conservative." http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/02/fear_and_conservatism.php …

John Doerr cries - YouTube

[2007] At the end of the Kleiner Perkins partner's presentation at TED, about the perils of climate change, he chokes up.

Arizona legislators want teachers to be able to choose sides on global warming

The proposal by Sen. Judy Burges, R-Skull Valley, requires school board to create an environment "that encourages pupils to explore scientific questions, learn about scientific evidence, develop critical thinking skills and respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues.''
...she made it clear she believes only the environmentalists' viewpoint is being presented.

"I just feel that are students are being inundated with things in classrooms,'' she said. "Students should be given all side of the story,'' Burges said, something they may not be getting now.

Chris Mooney’s Chartsmanship in the Service of Alarmism | Watts Up With That?

Gotta love those charts … in any case, let us consider the headline, “Humans Have Already Set in Motion 69 Feet of Sea Level Rise”. I suppose it is true IF we are the cause and IF the decline continues, both of which seem doubtful. Assuming all that were true, at the current rate of -131.5 km2 of ice loss per year, Greenland will be ice-free fairly soon, in only … well … 1,900,000 km2 ice area / 131.5 km2 per year annual loss ≈ 14,500 years from now …

European carbon price 'inching ever closer to zero' | Environment | guardian.co.uk

"Dramatic", "enduring", "meltdown" – the words used by leading analyst firm Thomson Reuters Point Carbon to describe the continued slump in global carbon prices could not be starker. And according to analysts the chances of prices recovering in the near future remain extremely thin.

IEA: Business 'complacent' about climate change | RTCC - Responding to Climate Change

Business leaders are worryingly unfazed by the potential of 4°C of warming, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) chief economist Fatih Birol has said.
...“4°C is better than 6°C but it is still horrible. The implications of that are a drastic increase in extreme weather events, sea level rise and temperature increases and acidification of the oceans,” said Birol.

Climate change shaking up forest management, federal report says - U.S. News

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Big changes are in store for the nation's forests as global warming increases wildfires and insect infestations, and generates more frequent floods and droughts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture warns in a new report.
...
It says the area burned by wildfires is expected to at least double over the next 25 years, and insect infestations often will affect more land per year than fires.

Dave Cleaves, climate adviser to the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, said climate change has become the primary driver for managing national forests, because it poses a major threat to their ability to store carbon and provide clean water and wildlife habitat.

USDA report predicts all manner of end-times for crops and forests | Grist

Warmer weather, the USDA predicts, will also help weeds grow, potentially stunting grains and soybeans.

Labour, NGOs combine on climate change as election issue - The Globe and Mail

[BC] Kevin Washbrook, director of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, said his organization is pushing to make the proposed expansion of coal port facilities into an election issue.

“We need a frank discussion about how to meet our material needs without contributing to a runaway climate disaster,” he said in an e-mail.

Remember 2011, when "number of billion dollar weather disasters" was the benchmark for U.S. extreme weather? After that number dropped 21% in 2012, that benchmark has been temporarily abandoned

New Report: Ambition Is the Key to Reaching Climate Goals

[EDF president Fred Krupp] Eleven weather disasters in 2012 carried a greater than $1 billion price tag

NOAA: 2011 sets record for billion dollar weather disasters in the U.S. - Capital Weather Gang - The Washington Post

2011 has established a new benchmark [they eventually settled on 14 billion dollar weather disasters, including two snowstorms] for extreme weather in the U.S.

Polar Bear Blog – Ice Free Days

In normal speak, that basically means a late freeze up is good for bears! I mean I sure have been seeing a lot of subadults running around these past few years… who knows maybe some mothers weaned their cubs at 1.5 years again – wouldn’t that be somethin’!

Either way, things don’t look ‘great’. But, it does not look like we are losing a week of ice per decade as is often reported… plus the late freezes in 2004 and 2009 have to have had a beneficial impact on this population even with longer ice free seasons in between. This leads me to believe that Western Hudson Bay population is either stable or showing slight growth.

The NO CARBON TAX Climate Sceptics Blog: Dr Karl's erased cheat tweet.

[Did Dr Karl tweet this?] Yup, world has warmed 0.3C in last 16 years

Entergy’s Super Black Eye - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review Online

Entergy, meet BP.

The Superdome blackout reveals another energy company that, while preening to the public about its green morals, forgot its core business.

Lewandowsky’s latest smear paper gets pulled from the journal website | Watts Up With That?

Tonight I’m pleased to report, that one skeptic who stood up and complained about Lewandowsky’s libelous claims, has had an effect. – Anthony

[With an east coast blizzard looming tomorrow]: Carbon fee would put the brakes on global warming before it's too late | NJ.com

One degree. It sounds like so little — yet, suddenly, we are caught up in a major emergency. Suddenly, the Earth is embraced by an atmosphere laden with nearly 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2), a concentration higher than at any time during the last 800,000 years. The result is a maelstrom of disruptions of the global climate that threaten the stability of every human civilization and natural ecosystem, as well as enormous damage costs.

The EPA is destroying America - Wry Heat

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), defying a court order, mandated that petroleum companies must add 14 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol to gasoline, in spite of the fact that commercial quantities of cellulosic ethanol do not exist. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided in favor of the American Petroleum Institute, which sued the EPA, deciding that the EPA “exceeded its authority by requiring refiners to purchase cellulosic biofuel despite the fact the next-generation fuel is not commercially available.”

The Environmental Protection Agency, the home of junk science, environmental radicals, and political zealots, is active on many fronts promulgating regulations that will close down American industries, our electricity supply, and our economy. The EPA is not required by law to consider the economic consequences of its regulations. That oversight should be changed.

Twitter / PeterGleick: If you had choice of a coal ...

If you had choice of a coal plant, w/30 yrs of uncertainty on prices, supply, regs, waste vs. one-time investment in renewables? #coalisdead

Twitter / MLBrook: #goodevidence "How can we trust ...

#goodevidence "How can we trust 'evidence' if journals don't check data, & authors refuse to release data?"..back to #openaccess & #opendata

Twitter / robdoubleday: Hulme asks: Would people have ...

Hulme asks: Would people have more confidence in climate science claims if minority views were officially recognised? #steps13

Twitter / ruth_dixon: . @robdoubleday IPCC reports ...

. @robdoubleday IPCC reports are meant to reflect range of views - what happened? http://www.ipcc.ch/organization/organization.shtml#.URN84oZS2Wg … #steps13

Too funny: Left-wing "climate scientist" Raymond T. Pierrehumbert now portrays himself as more of a geologist who is qualified to expound at length about U.S. energy production

U.S. shale oil: Are we headed to a new era of oil abundance? - Slate Magazine

[Raymond T. Pierrehumbert] Straight talk from geologists about our new era of oil abundance.
...
the climate benefits of switching from coal to natural gas are abundantly clear.
...It will be hard to muster the resources to develop replacements for fossil fuel energy if we wait until both the economy and climate are in ruins.

Raymond T. Pierrehumbert - Slate Magazine

Raymond T. Pierrehumbert is the Louis Block Professor in Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. He was a lead author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report and is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He writes episodically for RealClimate.org.

Flashback: Political hack/former IPCC lead author Raymond T. Pierrehumbert on Mitt Romney: "Perhaps we should call him a Climate Clown...He just can't stop trumpeting his love affair with Satan's Rock [coal]"

IPCC lead author Pierrehumbert does an extremely poor job of pretending he's a politically disinterested, just-the-facts man of science: He refers to "little fantasies that many of us progressives use to fend off the nightmare of a Romney win"

ClimateGate Email 4141

[Ray Pierrehumbert] I think the notion of telling the public to prepare for both global warming and an ice age at the same creates a real public relations problem for us.

Flashback: NY Times quotes Pierrehumbert, who compares trace amounts of carbon dioxide to a "thermonuclear warhead"

“The big damages come if the climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases turns out to be high,” said Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, a climate scientist at the University of Chicago. “Then it’s not a bullet headed at us, but a thermonuclear warhead.”

We are climate scientists, Chicago style - YouTube

We are climate scientists, Chicago style
Summertime in Chicago, feeling more like New Orleans,
I said, summertime in Chicago, feeling more like New Orleans,
Hey, Hey,
Messing with the people and farmland in between.

Took a jump through Mississippi, muddy water was running high,
Took a jump to Alabama, tornadoes in the sky (you know what I mean)
...
Now you better worry, Mr. "Messing-with-the-planet" is his name!
[Featuring Ray T. Pierrehumbert]

University of Michigan to host town hall on climate change

About 100 climate change experts from the Midwest will gather at the University of Michigan for a National Climate Assessment town hall.

Kia Becomes Carbon Neutral In New Zealand | Scoop News

Fast-growing car company, Kia Motors, is taking active measures in New Zealand to reduce its carbon footprint.  [If they actually believe that CO2 threatens to kill our grandchildren, why don't they just quit building fossil-fueled vehicles?]

Ray Duckler: Gore’s message on future resonates with Concord crowd, despite Al Jazeera controversy | Concord Monitor

[Gore]  A computer ... won the international chess championships  [When did that happen?]

Navajo, Hopi tribes struggle without water in U.S. Southwest cold snap | Reuters

PHOENIX, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Thousands of Navajo tribal members in the U.S. Southwest face a public health emergency, having struggled without drinking water for weeks after a long cold snap shattered pipes across the largest U.S. Indian reservation, Navajo officials said on Wednesday.
...
"Northern Arizona is no stranger to cold weather during the winter, but unfortunately in recent months we have seen some exceptionally cold weather," Brewer's spokesman, Matthew Benson, said on Wednesday.

Frigid temps blamed for fish deaths | Arizona

That cold snap a few weeks ago didn’t just kill off tender plants. Thousands of tropical fish in Tempe Town lake also perished. KJZZ’s Al Macias reports.

Worst Drought Ever | Real Science

Climate experts tell us that the current drought is the worst ever.

Except for all the other ones which were worse.

IPCC 2001 : “Milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms” | Real Science

Climate experts used to believe that global warming means less snow in winter, but now they understand that snow and heat go hand in hand.

Ministry Of Truth Update : This Never Happened | Real Science

David Appell explains that recent advances in physics have allowed James Hansen to go back in time to the 1970s, and retroactively convince NOAA and NCAR scientists of the period that the world was not cooling.

1975 : Climate Scientists Wanted To Melt The Arctic – To Save The Planet From Bad Weather | Real Science

Climate scientists are much smarter now, and know that bad weather is caused by melted ice. It used to be caused by unmelted ice.

Al Gore Sells His Business To Foreign Oil Kingdom For $500 Million – Supports Divestment Of American Oil Companies | Real Science

The stupidity of the left seemingly knows no bounds.

Rails Across America? - The Daily Beast

High speed rail from New York to LA isn't feasible. It isn't even desirable.  [But would it prevent bad weather?]

A solar 'superstorm' is coming and we'll only get 30-minute warning - Science - News - The Independent

They cause devastation, occur every 150 years – and the last one was in 1859

NZ carbon steady at record low below NZ$2.50 - News - Point Carbon

BEIJING, Feb 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Spot permits in New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme closed Thursday at NZ$2.45, unchanged from last week as a lack of demand kept prices at record low levels.

Biggest party in EU Parliament opposed to ETS fix - source - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) - Members of the European People’s Party (EPP) remain opposed to an EU plan to rescue the bloc’s carbon market ahead of a crunch vote this month, a party source said Thursday, rebuffing efforts to broker a compromise.

New peer-reviewed paper "suggests that the anthropogenic global warming trends might have been overestimated by a factor of two in the second half of the 20th century"

Using data to attribute episodes of warming and cooling in instrumental records

The observed global-warming rate has been nonuniform, and the cause of each episode of slowing in the expected warming rate is the subject of intense debate. To explain this, nonrecurrent events have commonly been invoked for each episode separately. After reviewing evidence in both the latest global data (HadCRUT4) and the longest instrumental record, Central England Temperature, a revised picture is emerging that gives a consistent attribution for each multidecadal episode of warming and cooling in recent history, and suggests that the anthropogenic global warming trends might have been overestimated by a factor of two in the second half of the 20th century. A recurrent multidecadal oscillation is found to extend to the preindustrial era in the 353-y Central England Temperature and is likely an internal variability related to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), possibly caused by the thermohaline circulation variability. The perspective of a long record helps in quantifying the contribution from internal variability, especially one with a period so long that it is often confused with secular trends in shorter records. Solar contribution is found to be minimal for the second half of the 20th century and less than 10% for the first half. The underlying net anthropogenic warming rate in the industrial era is found to have been steady since 1910 at 0.07–0.08 °C/decade, with superimposed AMO-related ups and downs that included the early 20th century warming, the cooling of the 1960s and 1970s, the accelerated warming of the 1980s and 1990s, and the recent slowing of the warming rates. Quantitatively, the recurrent multidecadal internal variability, often underestimated in attribution studies, accounts for 40% of the observed recent 50-y warming trend.

Moscow's Snowiest Winter in 100 years

Moscow has not witnessed such a snowy winter in the past 100 years, Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov said on Tuesday, after heavy snowfall hit the Russian capital last night.

Whiteout hits Romania - Video

Two die and thousands isolated in Moldova – Snow two meters deep completely isolated houses in four villages of Vrancea.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Settled science: New study 'shows that atmospheric gases can help clouds form in a way no one had ever considered'

Scientific American reports today, "a new study shows that atmospheric gases can help clouds form in a way no one had ever considered" and, in perhaps the understatement of the year, that "Although scientists may have a better handle on clouds, even they don’t know it all." The uncertainties with respect to clouds greatly exceed the alleged effect of CO2, such as recent papers demonstrating an increase in US sunshine has had 4.4 times more effect than greenhouse gases since 1996 and that an observed decrease in cloud cover alone could account for all global warming observed since the ice age scare of the 1970's.

ATI’s FOI request to the University of Arizona ‘excessively burdensome’ | Watts Up With That?

Chris Horner writes in with this news, I had to chuckle at some of the language UofA used in the reply, seen below, as if Malcolm Hughes and Jonathan Overpeck had to sit in the scribe room on hard wooden stools for days painstakingly reviewing each email with a magnifying glass. That’s what FOIA compliance officers are for, and even my own little local University has one. – Anthony

Obama Weighs New Emissions Rules - WSJ.com

Congressional Republicans and businesses have objected to regulating existing plants. Rep. Ed Whitfield (R., Ky.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power, who has coal-fired plants in his district, said such a move would be a "serious misstep" and added, "We're going to be very aggressive in letting them know that if they try to start doing this with existing plants, they're going to have a real battle on their hands."

Investors Curb ‘Cleantech’ Fund Raising Due To Lack Of Interest | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

One of the most aggressive cleantech investors, VantagePoint Capital Partners, has stopped raising its more recent billion dollar cleantech fund. Why? Lack of interest from limited partners, the investors that put money into VC funds. And that’s been an ongoing trend.

Climate change: apocalypse postponed | Rob Lyons | spiked

Because amid all the heat about climate-change ‘alarmists’ and ‘deniers’, and the claims that the world is about to get unbearably hot over the next few decades, the ‘consensus’ view on where temperatures are heading has become more moderate in recent times - which should have consequences for how we approach the problem of tackling climate change.

Matt Ridley Elected To The House Of Lords | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

Viscount Ridley has been elected as a Conservative hereditary Peer in the recent by-election to fill the vacancy after Earl Ferrers’ death in November 2012.

Recreating our way out of Global Warming? | ClimateWest

...Which is why Sally Jewell’s nomination for Interior Secretary is a shock. Here is an agency that stands to play a critical role in transitioning our nation to clean energy, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and meaningfully addressing the threat of global warming. And what does the President do? He nominates an outdoor enthusiast who refused to take a stand on climate change for fear of upsetting customers with a “broad array of political views.”

The warmists’ electric car crashes | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

A tale of green carpetbagging and the dangers of politicians, armed with your money, deciding they can see the future - a future they can’t distinguish from their dreams.

Al Gore-backed green energy firm fined for violating minimum wage law | JunkScience.com

The law in California is $8/hour; the company paid $2.66/hour… in pesos.

1974 Shock News : Ominous Global Cooling Causing Droughts And Floods | Real Science

Government scientists are much smarter now and know that global warming causes droughts, floods, and massive tragedies – rather than global cooling.

Regardless, John Cook has proven that the global cooling scare never happened.

Meteorologists warn of February ‘deep freeze’ across Nordic states

Several locations in Finland set new record lows in December and January

Coming Up On The 40th Anniversary Of The Worst Tornado Outbreak In US History | Real Science

The worst tornado outbreak in US history occurred when Nixon was president, in April, 1973

Obama’s ‘Green Trade War’ - By Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore - National Review Online

NRO contributor Iain Murray and Geoffrey McLatchey write in Forbes on the president’s protectionist policies to protect “green” industry in America. The opener:

Trade wars benefit nobody, but we may need to brace for one soon.

Pregame: Entergy Bragged About the Superdome’s Low Power Use - By Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore - National Review Online

Riddlebarger notes that much of the world holds a lingering image of the Superdome far different from the renovated stadium that will showcase the game. After a $336 million restoration, the “refuge of last resort” for 30,000 people during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 is now buttressed with protective and energy-saving features. The stadium’s outer wall is a specially designed double barrier system with improved insulation and rainwater control. The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, as it is now known, is ringed with 26,000 LED lights, covering two million square feet and supported by five miles of copper wiring, but which draw only ten kilowatts of electricity—as much as a small home. The stadium stands as an example for “not just rebuilding what was there before, but making it more environmentally sound,” Riddlebarger says.

Minnesota Public Radio Airing Weekly ‘Climate Cast’ Program | The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media

Huttner and MPR introduce the idea behind “Climate Cast” as follows:

These days it seems like we are witnessing climate changes unfold right before our very eyes.

It’s not our imagination.

The nature of our seasons is changing. Spring blooms come earlier. Summer is more humid with a documented increase in extreme localized flash flood events … and more frequent droughts. Fall lingers longer. Lakes freeze up later. Winters are shorter and noticeably, measurably milder.

We’re all living witnesses to rapid climate changes in our lifetime. This is no longer your grandparents’ “Minnesota.”

List of Minnesota weather records - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Highest Temperature 114 °F (46 °C) July 29, 1917 [Beardsley]
July 6, 1936  [Moorhead]
Lowest Temperature −60 °F (−51 °C) February 1996 Embarrass

Chevy Buys IdleAir CO2 [Hoax] Credits

Chevrolet says it will purchase up to 75,000 metric tons worth of carbon credits created by the IdleAir truck stop electrification project...Chevy says it was the largest corporate buyer of voluntary carbon reduction credits in the US by volume for 2011

Climate change: the Obamacare of the second term — MSNBC

...In that, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele said the president indicated that climate change would be a crucial part of his second term legacy.

“When I heard that line, what struck me is this is the Obamacare of the second administration” Steele said. “Climate change is going to be the sleeping dog issue that he is going to fashion and put into play, maybe a total package or piecemeal, but I think that’s going to be part of the second term legacy.”

Antarctic Sea Ice Almost Set Some Records « sunshine hours

Antarctic Sea Ice almost almost set some records and averaged the 2nd or 3rd most ice at this time of year ever over the last week. Almost a record is definitive proof of the end of days … isn’t it?

Waxman Whines: No Republicans show up for vote to compel climate hearings | JunkScience.com

They were outside enjoying the nice near-50-degree February day in D.C.!