Verbatim: Bush Says Congress Stands In Way Of Cheaper, More Reliable Energy - Following are excerpts from President Bush’s Rose Garden press conference Tuesday that dealt with energy. (PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH)

ANALYSIS-Bush drilling plan wouldn’t have eased pump prices - WASHINGTON, April 29 - The Bush administration says the United States would be less addicted to foreign oil and fuel prices would be lower if Congress had only opened up Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. But that claim doesn’t reflect the long lead time to develop the refuge’s huge oil reserves, which would not be available for several more years and initial volumes would still be small if Congress in 2002 had approved the administration’s plan to drill in ANWR, energy experts say. (Reuters)

Rocking Exxon: Rockefellers Back Resolution Pushing Exxon to Go Green - Ah, spring: time for baseball, picnics—and shareholders assaulting big corporations to get them to go green. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

US Companies Dig Into Coffers To Go Green - NEW YORK - US industrial companies are spending heavily on environmentally friendly efforts even as the economic slowdown dents their profits. Fuelling the "green" trend are hopes that products that are made of recyclable materials or use less energy will win praise, forestall onerous regulation and cut rising costs. (Reuters)

From your friendly neighborhood Soros front: Friends of Terror in Peru - Thursday’s vote by the European Parliament to take the Peruvian guerrilla group known as the Tupac Amaru (aka MRTA) off its terrorist list has Peru in an uproar. For good reason: The MRTA is notorious for kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians to advance its political agenda. More recently, Peruvian officials have linked it to Hugo Chávez’s "Bolivarian Movement," which seeks to destabilize democracies in Latin America, and to the Colombian rebel group FARC. (Wall Street Journal)

Gore investment body closes $683m fund - The investment vehicle headed by Al Gore has closed a new $683m fund to invest in early-stage environmental companies and has mounted a robust defence of green investing. (Financial Times)

Gingrich Answers Limbaugh’s Criticism of Global Warming Ad - I don’t think so. The only thing worse than paying lip service to the gorebull warming scam is actually drinking the Kool-Aid and being sucked into being an agent for the misanthropes. There is no case for sabotaging the energy supply. Newt has made a catastrophic and probably politically fatal blunder cuddling up to those who are quite litterally in this case society’s enemies. He made the worst possible choice and his only possible political recovery is to immediately repudiate gorebull warming and energy rationing. Either he’s for the people or he’s agin ‘em — there’s no middle ground on this one. With all due respect to Noel and NewsBusters (sincerely), Newt Gingrich has screwed up big time and that can’t be explained away. Gingrich Answers Limbaugh’s Criticism of Global Warming Ad (NewsBusters)

EIA’s Analysis of Lieberman-Warner Reveals Massive Economic Pain - WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, issued the following statement on today’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) analysis of the America’s Climate Security Act – S. 2191 (Lieberman-Warner) global warming cap-and-trade bill. (EPW Blog)

CO₂ Science Volume 11 Number 18:  30 April 2008

Editorial:
On the Importance of Land: Where does it rank on the list of essential biospheric resources?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data published by 530 individual scientists from 325 separate research institutions in 38 different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Lake Hayq, North-central Highlands of South Wollo, Ethiopia. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Ozone (Effects on Plants - Tree Species: Yellow-Poplar): How will earth's yellow-poplar trees react if atmospheric CO2 and O3 concentrations continue to rise in the days and years ahead?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Narrowleaf Plantain, Paper Birch, Quaking Aspen, and Rice.

Journal Reviews:
The "Divergence Problem" in Tree-Ring Reconstructions of Temperature: What is it? And why would its resolution be so important?

Sea-Level Trends of the North Indian Ocean: Are they consistent with global estimates?

Flood and Drought Variability in China's Yangtze Delta: How is it related to temperature variability on the Tibetan Plateau?

The Impact of Global Warming on Cool-Season Plants: How difficult does it make life for them?

China: Getting Greener (In the Good Sense): As the air's temperature and CO2 content have risen ever higher, so too has the country's net primary productivity risen hand-in-hand with the "twin evils" of the climate-alarmist crowd. (co2science.org)

Before fossil fuels, Earth’s minerals kept CO2 in check - Over millions of years carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been moderated by a finely-tuned natural feedback system— a system that human emissions have recently overwhelmed. A joint University of Hawaii / Carnegie Institution study published in the advance online edition of Nature Geoscience links the pre-human stability to connections between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the breakdown of minerals in the Earth’s crust. While the process occurs far too slowly to have halted the historical buildup of carbon dioxide from human sources, the finding gives scientists new insights into the complexities of the carbon cycle. (PhysOrg)

NASA: PDO flip to cool phase confirmed - cooler times ahead for the West Coast? (Watts Up With That?)

La Nina and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)Cooling in the Pacific Ocean (202Kb PDF) - The announcement by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) had shifted to its cool phase (Fig. 1) is right on schedule as predicted by past climate and PDO changes (Easterbrook, 2001, 2006, 2007). It is not an oddity superimposed upon and masking the predicted severe warming by the IPCC. (Don J. Easterbrook, Dept. of Geology, Western Washington University)

The missing hockey stick is found hiding in central England - Tamino has been looking at the CET - Central England Temperature record - and does some clever stuff picking out a few potential problems with the older records. (The direct link above to the blog post doesn’t seem to be working so you may have to go Tamino’s main blog page to find his article.) But he ignores the fact that this "longest single instrumental temperature record" has been buggered about with, especially since 1974. with station changes, adjustments and tweaking, all with the good intention of "improving" the record. (An Englishman’s Castle)

The Real Butterfly Effect - There has been a renewed discussion of the relevance of the “butterfly effect” to describe the actual effect of the flapping of a butterfly wing on large-scale weather (on Real Climate see and on Climate Science see and see). (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

US ordered to act on polar bear - A judge has told the US government to decide within weeks whether to list polar bears as an endangered species. (BBC News)

Global Warming: The Left’s Latest War on the Family - Procreation is killing the planet, and traditional religion is to blame, Global-Warming cultists insist. First the industrial revolution had to go. Then it was to the wall with oil company executives, those malignant Carbon Interests. Next, SUVs were declared enemies of the planet. Now, the left’s attention has shifted back to its perennial targets — large families and "patriarchal" religion. (Don Feder, GrassTopsUSA.com)

Global warming set to fan the HIV fire - Climate change is the latest threat to the world’s growing HIV epidemic, say Australian experts who warn of the "grim" outlook in the fight against the infectious disease. (AAP)

Global warming expert raises concerns for tourism industry - Nobel Peace Prize recipient[?] Rajendra Pachauri Tuesday warned tourism industry chiefs they need to reduce their impact on climate change as consumers become more environmentally aware. (AFP)

Connecticut Greenhouse Gas Emissions Bill Clears Hurdle At State Capitol - As an Aussie I don’t know, is there any requirement for the Feds (actually the rest of the states, no?) to bail out those states stupid enough to drive their economies over cliffs to appease a wrathful Gaia? If I recall correctly Connecticut now joins California, Hawaii and New Jersey on this suicidal course. Are they free-riding or are they doing this without any form of safety net? Connecticut Greenhouse Gas Emissions Bill Clears Hurdle At State Capitol (Hartford Courant)

Transatlantic conference hears bleak evaluation of EU climate policies - This blog was very silent last week because I was in Washington DC participating in a fascinating two-day climate and energy conference organised by the Transatlantic Platform for Action on the Global Environment (T-PAGE). This dialogue forum was created to facilitate debate among members of EU and US civil society on climate and energy policies on both sides of the Atlantic. (Willy De Backer, 3E Intelligence)

Environmental groups praise move to carbon tax - The B.C. Liberal government drew rare praise from environmental groups yesterday as it moved to become the first province to create a carbon tax on  fuels. (Times Colonist)

Government defends climate change scheme - Check out the costings. Bear in mind there are about 4 million residents total in Australia’s currently autonomous 8^th State of New Zealand — so this nonsense is to cost every man, woman and child a thousand dollars, just to get to 2012! Since the average household is a family of four each household is about to be slugged an extra $1,000 in annual tax. Do you suppose they’ll start wondering why? Government defends climate change scheme (NZPA)

Govt emissions plan will hurt more than necessary - report [See also: Brian Fallow: Report slams emissions scheme] - The Government’s proposed carbon emissions trading scheme has been criticised from yet another quarter - with a leading economics group now saying the plan will damage our economy more than necessary. (New Zealand Herald)

Oil and governments don’t mix: Foster - Prospective presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and John McCain want to scrap the U.S. federal gasoline tax this summer to help U.S. drivers (Barack Obama doesn’t). Ms. Clinton also wants a windfall tax on Big Oil (a suggestion that will receive a boost when those companies shortly announce further “obscene” profits). Recently, Stephen Harper declared that he might play the “oil card” if Messrs. Clinton and Obama reopen NAFTA. In Moscow, Caracas and Tehran, authoritarian leaders are using oil as a prop or a threat. In a dozen countries, from Iraq to Nigeria, oil is fuelling civil strife. (Peter Foster, Financial Post)

Campaign Contradictions - Sen. John McCain has reaffirmed his promise that, if elected president, he will veto any legislation containing "pork-barrel spending." (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Scientists aim to boost world energy supplies — with microbes - British and Canadian scientists expect to begin trials next month (May) to find out whether microbes can unlock the vast amount of energy trapped in the world’s unrecoverable heavy oil deposits. An estimated six trillion barrels of oil remain underground because the oil has become either solid or too thick to be brought to the surface at economic cost by conventional means. (PhysOrg)

Green Ink: Gassy Campaigns - Crude oil prices slipped Tuesday thanks to a recovering dollar and the end to North Sea pipeline disruptions, Bloomberg reports. But don’t rule out $200 oil, says the head of OPEC in the Daily Telegraph: Supply issues beyond OPEC’s control could push crude prices even higher. The NYT takes a detailed look at what those issues are—from declining production in non-OPEC countries to increasingly expensive and hard-to-get reserves elsewhere. And then there’s the militants—Exxon declares force majeure in Nigeria after violence and strikes shut down production, reports the WSJ (sub reqd.) (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Going Nuclear: What To Do With the Waste? - Nuclear power’s renaissance in the U.S. faces plenty of hurdles. But one big stumbling block stands out—what to do with the spent fuel? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

2005 Energy Bill and Grain Prices - The 2005 Energy bill mandated that 4 billion gallons of renewable fuel (mostly corn-based ethanol) must be added to the gasoline supply in 2006. That amount rises to 4.7 billion gallons in 2007 and 7.5 billion in 2012. This still represents a small fraction of the estimated 140 billion gallons of gasoline the US consumes every year. But it is the subsidies and tax credits that have made this ethanol market what it is - without government interference, consumer-driven demand would be nothing and the ethanol market would be SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER. (Icecap)

Inhofe Demands ‘Dramatic’ Action to Address Food vs. Fuel Mandates - Video Clips of Speech Available on Inhofe YouTube Channel WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, delivered a floor speech today calling for “dramatic” action to address global food difficulties caused in part by current biofuel mandates. (EPW Blog)

Biofuels Halt Would Ease Food Prices - Ag Group - WASHINGTON - A moratorium on global grain- and oilseed-based biofuels would help ease raging wheat and corn prices by up to 20 percent in the next few years, a leading agriculture research group said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Keeping the crop in hand - By imposing rigorous sustainability standards, we can make a global market in biofuels work (Peter Mandelson, The Guardian)

The Bisphenol-A (BPA) kerfuffle & the “precautionary principle” - Further to the Junkman’s column, Anatomy of a Chemical Murder, last week in which he deservedly castigated the chemicals/plastics industry for its lack of ardor in defense of its products, there was this useful letter to the editor, No one providing facts in media hype of BPA,  in Plastics News.  Allan Griff, the letter writer, makes an especially important point:

Regarding your report on Wal-Mart and others yanking PC baby bottles and sippy-cups (“PC bottles yanked off shelves,” April 21, Page 1), please stop using the phrase “containing BPA” as if bisphenol A were an additive.

BPA is a building block for polycarbonate, and the other one, phosgene, is even more dangerous. But what matters is what remains, not what it was. Nowhere in your article did I see talk of safe limits or negligible residuals. Reminds me of the signs we use to see around that said: “My mind’s made up, don’t bother me with facts.”

It’s good to see someone in the industry willing to state the facts so plainly.  Griff’s critique of Plastics News is even more applicable to the usually breathless coverage of chemicals as presented by the rest of the print and broadcast media. (JSB)

Time Rejoices over World’s Green Conscience, Banning of DDT - Fresh off its controversial Iwo Jima cover with Marines raising a tree, Time magazine’s May 5 issue celebrates with an Earth Day roundup. The cause for celebration? That in 2008, "every day is Earth Day," exulted Nancy Gibbs. Gibbs celebrated, among other things, the banning of DDT, which led to millions of preventable deaths from malaria. "Back in 1970, there was … poison in our pesticides," she said, but after the Environmental Protection Agency was created, "DDT was banned." (NewsBusters)

Bison can thrive again, study says - Which we need to happen why, exactly? Are we to anticipate a return to Little Ice Age conditions where bison would be a better choice than beef cattle? Or maybe they anticipate greenies will manage to force us back to eking out a living as nomadic hunter/gatherers and we’ll need wild herds again? (JSB)

Pizza is a health food now? - Better not tell anyone they’re, like, eating chemicals! And yes, we are kidding about the health food thing — Grandma was right — a little of everything and not too much of anything and you can’t really go wrong (there’s no such thing as a good-bad dichotomy in foodstuffs). Eating tomatoes is the best way to avoid sunburn and wrinkles (The Independent)

Farming Critics Fault Industry’s Influence - Much of the problem seems to be that industry is a larger funder of ag research than the government is (I think it’s called "private enterprise" and apparently it’s bad). Even worse, apparently, is that industries shape debate over their regulation. What they don’t seem to realize is that every industry is and should be in a position to shape debate over regulation since a) they are the ones it most affects and b) they are the only ones really in a position to know how they will be affected by said regulation. Farming Critics Fault Industry’s Influence (Wall Street Journal)

Shortages Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer - XUAN CANH, Vietnam — Truong Thi Nha stands just four and a half feet tall. Her three grown children tower over her, just as many young people in this village outside Hanoi dwarf their parents. The biggest reason the children are so robust: fertilizer. (New York Times)

As Food Prices Surge, So Could Amazon Destruction - RIO DE JANEIRO - Vast areas of idle land in Brazil could be part of the solution to the world food crisis but there is a danger that surging prices will lead to more burning of the Amazon rain forest. (Reuters)

UN sets up task force to tackle global food crisis - GENEVA: U.N. agencies and the World Bank pledged on Tuesday to set up a task force to tackle an unprecedented rise in global food prices that is threatening to spread social unrest. (Reuters)

Researchers Discover Genes for Frost Tolerance in Wheat - The genes responsible for the wide range of freezing temperatures that can be tolerated by different wheat varieties have been identified by a team of U.S. and European scientists, led by a plant scientist at the University of California, Davis. (PhysOrg)

April 29, 2008

Dan Gainor: Fears about fears - You can tell the days we’re supposed to be afraid — they end in a “y.” (Dan Gainor, The Examiner)

Colin James: Third World resentment on ‘things to be afraid of’ list - Take your pick of frights: climate change, water wrangles, the scramble for fuel and metals, high food prices starving the poor. Here’s another - bad food. (New Zealand Herald)

Klaus receives another environmentalist anti-prize - Brno, April 25 - Czech President Vaclav Klaus Friday received the Green Pearl 2007, an anti-prize the environmentalists annually award for the worst anti-environment statement. (CTK)

By golly there’s money in this hysteria thing - Check out the millions being raked in by AGW advocates with dodgy data, hidden data and blatant falsehoods: (JSB)

UK tabloids contribute to climate complacency - The effect of human behaviour on climate change is misrepresented in the most widely-read UK tabloid newspapers, according to the latest research at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. (PhysOrg)

Comments on the NOAA Press Release “NOAA Employing New Tools to Accurately Measure Climate Change” - NCDC has released the following press release [see Watts Up With That for more information on NCDC’s plans and NOAA Employing New Tools to Accurately Measure Climate Change] (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Chalk one up for coccolithophores (PhysOrg) - Admitting (kind of) that ocean acidification from trivial increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is not an ocean death sentence as some would like to pretend.

Hurricane forecaster’s dispute with school focuses on global warming debate - By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting and teaching 70 graduate students who now populate the National Hurricane Center and other research outposts, William Gray turned a city far from the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca. (Houston Chronicle)

‘New’ Ancient Antarctic Sediment Reveals Climate Change History - Recent additions to the premier collection of Southern Ocean sediment cores at Florida State University’s Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility will give international scientists a close-up look at fluctuations that occurred in Antarctica’s ice sheet and marine and terrestrial life as the climate cooled considerably between 20 and 14 million years ago. (PhysOrg)

Environmental havoc looms for Bhutan - Melting glaciers threaten valley in Himalayas (Los Angeles Times)

U.N. says poor children main victims of climate change - LONDON: Millions of the world’s poorest children are among the principal victims of climate change caused by the rich developed world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent action. (Reuters)

Displacements Set To Increase - OSLO, Apr 28 - Climate change is likely to lead to an increase in conflicts and forced migrations of poor people in the south, a new report warns. Developing countries can reduce this impact by adopting preventative measures now, while international law and human rights principles need to be updated. (IPS)

Oh dear… the Indy with “Climate change: the facts” - You can go through it yourself here but what can we say beyond, "Oh my"? It is full of "tipping points" and "warming locked in for 500 years" and such bizarre claims as CO₂ being responsible for 63% of warming (nothing about water vapor or clouds, of course, nor black carbon particulates). Somehow they have the IPCC claiming 10.4 kelvins warming by 2100. We can say one thing — this is perhaps the worst piece of propaganda maquerading as "the facts" that we’ve seen published in an alleged newspaper in years. (JSB)

NASA’s Hansen Rails Against Coal At Fringe Left-Wing Event - ‘Climate Super Rally’ strays from global warming into leftist anti-Bush, anti-Iraq war and anti-corporation event. (Jeff Poor, Business & Media Institute)

The agony and the eco-status - By Mark Steyn - Last week, Time magazine featured on its cover the iconic photograph of the U.S. Marine Corps raising the flag on Iwo Jima. But with one difference: The flag has been replaced by a tree. (Washington Times)

MIT: In America, even the smallest carbon footprints are large - Whether you live in a cardboard box or a luxurious mansion, whether you subsist on homegrown vegetables or wolf down imported steaks, whether you’re a jet-setter or a sedentary retiree, anyone who lives in the U.S. contributes more than twice as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as those living in the rest of the world. (PhysOrg)

MIT professor will lead science team for NASA satellite to map Earth’s water cycle - MIT Professor Dara Entekhabi will lead the science team designing a NASA satellite mission to make global soil moisture and freeze/thaw measurements, data essential to the accuracy of weather forecasts and predictions of global carbon cycle and climate. NASA announced recently that the Soil Moisture Active-Passive mission (SMAP) is scheduled to launch December 2012. (PhysOrg)

Observed climate change in Colorado (Written by Robert Ferguson, SPPI)

Rockefellers urge action on climate change - One of America’s most powerful families will call tomorrow for a sweeping shake-up at the top of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest company. (The Times)

Nyet: Russia Doesn’t Want a Tough Cap on Carbon - As much flak as the Bush administration gets for opposing calls for a touch new cap on gobal-warming emissions to replace the Kyoto Protocol, it’s instructive to remeber the administration is hardly alone. Plenty of other countries are happy just the way things are— eager to keep their economic growth hopping and convinced a hard emissions cap would stymie it. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Companies urge emission permit auctions - AUSTRALIA should hold weekly auctions of greenhouse gas emission permits to avoid imposing an "impossible" financial burden on petrol companies and undermining efforts to cut fuel prices at the bowser, the Rudd Government has been told. (The Australian)

Tesco trials climate-change labels on groceries - LONDON: Tesco is trialling telling customers about the greenhouse gases emitted from "seed to store" of some products, as it hunts the green pound of customers worried about climate change. (Reuters)

Sweden’s carbon-tax solution to climate change puts it top of the green list - Buses and lorries running on dead cows and a train station using commuters’ body warmth to heat an office block are two innovative solutions to lowering carbon emissions that have put Sweden top of an environmental league table. Gwladys Fouché reports (The Guardian)

Hypocrisy in Congress: A Broken Record - Record high gasoline prices have created an interesting situation on Capitol Hill. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has complained that the Democrats promised to do something about high gas prices in the 2006 elections, but that since winning majorities in the House and Senate they have done nothing except watch prices skyrocket.  Many Representatives and Senators have tried to put the blame on oil companies.  A bill to raise taxes on just the "big 5" oil companies passed the House last year. (Myron Ebell, CEI)

One Answer To Energy Needs Is Spelled LNG - Environmentalists love natural gas — except when they hate it. This schizophrenic approach is costing the rest of us a bundle and is standing in the way of badly needed sources of supply like liquefied natural gas. (BEN LIEBERMAN, IBD)

Carbon trade to burst LNG bubble - THE rapid multi-billion-dollar expansion of Australia’s second-biggest commodity export, liquefied natural gas, could stall if new investors are forced to comply with an emissions trading scheme from 2010. (The Australian)

Pricing can cut CO2 emissions from electric generators - Levying a price on carbon dioxide released by electric generators could considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions — even before the deployment of any environmentally friendly technology — according to scientists in Pennsylvania. Their report is scheduled for the May 1 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology. (ACS)

Green Line: California Transmission Battle Divides Environmentalists - Renewable energy is nice in theory. But what about in practice? That’s the uncomfortable question raised by a showdown in California. Utilities that need to install clean energy to meet environmental targets are running into environmental opposition when it comes to actually transmitting the juice to where people live. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Let them eat ethanol? - By Mona Charen - They don’t have enough to eat. Five people are dead in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after a week of food riots. Unions in Burkina Faso have called a general strike to protest the high cost of grain. (Washington Times)

Big Gust: China Boosts Wind-Power Goal - Central planning makes lots of things easier — including renewable energy. China is upping its target for wind power to 100 gigawatts from 30 gigawatts. The new number equates to about 100 nuclear plants (yes, we know) and more generation capacity than in all of France. From the Shanghai Daily: (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Biodiversity’s Bonn Boondoggle: Foster - In my column last Friday – headlined “Bioperversity” – I suggested that a new book, “Sustaining Life,” from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which claimed that species loss was threatening medicinal discoveries and thus human health, was a typical alarmist crock. It was intended primarily as propaganda to whip up eco-hysteria ahead of next month’s huge United Nations conflab in Bonn to discuss the floundering Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). (Peter Foster, Financial Post)

BRAZIL: Activists Opposed to Rebuilding Amazon Highways - RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 28 - Nearly four decades after they were first planned, three highways through the jungles and swamps of Brazil’s Amazon region are being rebuilt. Neglected in the past when they became economically obsolete, they are once again a focus of environmental criticism. (IPS)

Climate change adds twist to river restoration - The best hope for cold-water chinook salmon to survive global warming may be near sweltering Fresno, Calif. — in the San Joaquin River, where salmon have been extinct for 60 years. (Fresno Bee)

But at least it's natural: Drought, tutu poisons honey - Food-safety officials have confirmed that Coromandel honey eaten by 22 people who fell ill was contaminated with high levels of a plant toxin, and tougher controls on the honey supply are now being contemplated. (New Zealand Herald)

Lip Balms and Glosses May Boost Skin Cancer Risks - Hmm…  obviously not a doctor of physics. While it is not implausible that lip treatments affect the skin’s UV absorbency, after all, you can cover them with UV block, shiny lip balms cannot "attract the sun’s rays to the lips" as stated in this piece (hopefully that’s just stupid reporting).

Think how much higher value than mere cosmetics would be a product that did "attract the sun’s rays" since it would be the Holy Grail of the solar power industry — no huge concentrator constructions but a field of energy collectors that actively attracted energy — nifty, provided you could then get them to release the energy collected. (JSB)

Australian scientists report weight loss breakthrough - Australian scientists may have discovered how to help people lose weight without cutting back on food, a breakthrough that could pave the way for fat-burning drugs. (PhysOrg)

The other side of the story — Part Two - When you or a loved one is making a medical decision that will affect the rest of your life, and might even cost you your life, you deserve the best available information based on quality research and balanced, accurate presentations of the medical risks and benefits. Without that, you aren’t able to make an informed decision. Medical news shows may have the look of documentaries and investigative reports on your behalf, and appear to be providing objective and helpful educational information, but always remember. It’s paid entertainment. (Junkfood Science)

A dash of salt grows healthier tomatoes - Watering tomatoes with diluted seawater can boost their content of disease-fighting antioxidants and may lead to healthier salads, appetizers, and other tomato-based foods, scientists in Italy report. Their study is scheduled for the May 14 issue of ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (PhysOrg)

Small is not beautiful - A new report on the ‘way forward for agriculture’ has been used to justify dragging farming backwards – to the detriment of the poor. (Rob Lyons, sp!ked)

Boost for ‘green plastics’ from plants - Australian researchers are a step closer to turning plants into ‘biofactories’ capable of producing oils which can be used to replace petrochemicals used to manufacture a range of products. (PhysOrg)

April 28, 2008

Ecochondria is not new - Check out these snippets from Life, Jan 30, 1970 (a copy of which was found in an antique store). At the time "solid experimental and theoretical evidence" supported the assertion increased atmospheric carbon dioxide would lead to "mass flooding or a new ice age" and air pollution would reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface by one-half. Not just that but by the ’80s urbanites would require gas masks to survive air pollution and sonic booms from SSTs would damage children in utero.

Guess there really is nothing new under the sun. Funny how little the doom brigade have changed over the years, isn’t it? Even funnier how the media keep publishing their nonsense. (JSB)

Record complaints over ‘greenwashing’ - Record numbers of complaints have been levelled at major businesses who "severely exaggerate" their environmental credentials, the advertising watchdog will say next week. (Daily Telegraph)

Timothy Carney: NBC’s ‘Green Week’ and GE’s green - Earth Day was Tuesday, and NBC Universal has extended the celebration into “Earth Week.” Reprising its “Green Week” from last fall, NBC and its affiliates worked some sort of environmental message into all of its programming this week. (Timothy Carney, The Examiner)

China’s capitalist hordes: Watson - A group called the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland has just published the results of an 18-country poll on people’s attitude toward capitalism. It asked respondents around the world to agree, strongly agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the following question: “The free enterprise system and free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world.” (William Watson, Financial Post)

Sting’s Wife Admits They’re Hypocrites About Global Warming - The hypocrisy surrounding the global warming positions of actors and rock stars is certainly not news, except when one of them actually admits it. (Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters)

Huffington Concedes Her Lifestyle is ‘Contradiction’ to Global Warming Agenda - Friday’s 20/20 aired a piece on liberal columnist Arianna Huffington in which ABC host John Stossel got to challenge Huffington’s views on issues like welfare, OSHA regulations, and the "lunatic fringe" of the Republican party. (Brad Wilmouth, NewsBusters)

The climate change movement must be inclusive - The climate change movement must broaden its social base from the white middle-classes to include the poor and ethnic minorities if it is to be successful in protecting the environment (Diane Abbott, The Guardian)

Al Gore’s global warming debunked – by kids! - Winners announced in ‘The Sky’s Not Falling’ video-essay contest (WorldNetDaily)

Journos still don’t understand - Nice story but not true. Al Gore and the IPCC were joint (and inappropriate) recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize[!] but no single contributor nor reviewer was a recipient — that was shared between Al and the organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. You might say it went to Don Alberto Goreleone and la fratellanza di calore. What you cannot say is that contributors/reviewers "won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize" as this piece and so many others erroneously do. One benefit of the Nobel: students cheer his lecture (Globe and Mail)

Time Magazine’s Environmental War Whoop - Time magazine recently doctored the iconic photo of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima in order to "celebrate" Earth Day. Instead of Marines valiantly struggling to lift the stars and stripes, they are depicted planting a tree. No doubt Time’s editors think they will be celebrated in poetry and song for generations to come for their high-minded cleverness. (Jonah Goldberg, Townhall)

Quit twisting my words - An American government textbook author defends his work against allegations of conservative bias. (James Q. Wilson, LA Times)

The real climate Martians: Solomon - Fred Singer, one of the world’s renowned scientists, believes in Martians. I discovered this several weeks ago while reading his biography on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. “Do you really believe in Martians?” I asked him last week, at a chance meeting at a Washington event. The answer was “No." (Financial Post)

US Environment Groups Target Senate Races On Climate - WASHINGTON - US environmental groups joined forces on Thursday to target Senate candidates in Colorado, New Hampshire and New Mexico, aiming to elect a 60-vote majority to deal with global warming. (Reuters)

If you needed a prod to get busy and fight carbon taxes and energy rationing this should be it. The watermelons just could get enough irresponsible politicians elected to do some real harm.

The Real Cost of Tackling Climate Change - The usual chorus of environmentalists and editorial writers has chimed in to attack President Bush’s recent speech on climate change. In his address of April 23, he put forth a goal of stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2025. (Wall Street Journal)

Global Warming Holiday - Polls are cruel. Voters consistently say they want to stop global warming. They also say consistently that energy prices, especially for gasoline, are too high. So what are politicians supposed to do? (Wall Street Journal)

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, and …..! - One finds it hard to take to Robin McKie, Science Editor of The Observer, whose arrogant review (April 20) of Nigel Lawson’s elegant new book [side bar, ‘Home Page’] was little more than bigoted, ageist “piffle” (why such ageism appears in a liberal, left-leaning paper like The Observer is concerning). Nevertheless, today, Our Robin writes an excellent piece pointing out how UK and European environmentalists have been dangerously wrong on key issues [‘As the world begins to starve it’s time to take GM seriously’, The Observer, April 27, p.27]: (Global Warming Politics)

UN body chief bats for India on climate change - SINGAPORE: Backing India’s position in climate change negotiations, Georg Kell, executive director of the UN body Global Compact, has said emerging markets should be allowed to have the same standards of living as developed nations. (IANS)

REI explores the environmental cost of eco-tourism - It’s easy to see how a person might develop a deeper appreciation for Mother Nature by hiking the Alps or climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Then again, that traveler would contribute to global warming by getting on an airplane and flying across the world. (Seattle Times)

An Urgent Signal for a Coming Ice Age - When paleoclimatologists met in 1972 to discuss how and when the present warm climate would end , termination of this warm climate we call the Holocene seemed imminent and it was expected that rapid cooling would lead to the coming ice age. These ideas were based on the 1M year analogue for climate transitions first proposed by Milankovitch over 60 years ago, which has been demonstrated to show the correlation of glacial and interglacial climate with solar insolation as it is modulated by our changing distance from the sun. These data sets may be used to serve as a signal for the coming ice age. Orbital geometry was approaching similar conditions to those of the previous transitions to ice. (Peter Harris, Icecap)

Scientists reveal presence of ocean current ’stripes - An international collaborative of scientists led by Peter Niiler, a physical oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and Nikolai Maximenko, a researcher at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii, has detected the presence of crisscrossing patterns of currents running throughout the world’s oceans. The new data could help scientists significantly improve high-resolution models that help them understand trends in climate and marine ecosystems. (PhysOrg)

Oh boy... Warming hobbles ancient climate cycle - BEFORE humans began burning fossil fuels, there was an eons-long balance between carbon dioxide emissions and earth’s ability to absorb them, but now the planet can’t keep up, scientists said today. (Reuters)

1828 Miles, 20 stations surveyed, out of 21 attempted. - The week was productive, 21 USHCN stations visited, 20 surveyed, one dropped due to access problems (Southport, NC which turned out to be at an Army Depot). My trip odometer said 1828 miles when I turned in the car in Nashville tonight. (Watts Up With That?)

Can Scientists Really Predict a Global Climate Catastrophe? - Just as Al Gore did not invent the Internet, he did not invent global warming theory. Scientists invented it, and they continue to fuel the mass hysteria they created by making predictions about climate change and its dire consequences for our planet. But have any of their followers stopped to consider how scientists are able to predict a global catastrophe in the distant future without being able to make accurate short-term predictions? (Zach Krajacic, American Thinker)

CO₂ and Temperature: which predicts which? - Parts of this analysis were suggested by Allan MacRae, who kindly offered comments on the exposition of this article which greatly improved its readability. The article is incomplete, but I wanted to present the style of analysis, which I feel is important, as the method I use eliminates many common errors found in CO₂/Temperature studies. Any errors are, of course, entirely my own. (William M Briggs, Statistician)

Emissions Irrelevant To Future Climate Change? - (Apr. 27, 2008) — Climate change and the carbon emissions seem inextricably linked. However, new research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Carbon Balance and Management suggests that this may not always hold true, although it may be some time before we reach this saturation point. (ScienceDaily)

Like we even know the sign of possible feedbacks...

The Black and White Aerosols Show - A paper published in Nature Geoscience last month received a lot of media attention. And rightly so. It showed that the Black Carbon (BC) component of soot is responsible for up to 60% as much warming as CO2. That is significant for many reasons, only some of which were covered in the newspapers. (Climate Resistance)

Drought could mean climate change - Again with the virtual world. Funny how alluvial soil studies suggest there have been both wetter and much drier periods all without human assistance or interference and yet things are supposedly going to be/are already extreme due to change in an essential atmospheric trace gas. Drought could mean climate change (AP)

ROSEN: Global warming hysteria - A growing contingent of scientists has been brave enough to stand athwart the politically fashionable global warming steamroller. More than 500 such skeptics convened in New York at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change last month. They argue factually and persuasively that what warming the world has seen in the last hundred years is at best minimal and at worst exaggerated. (Rocky Mountain News)

Slaves to Bad Analogies - Given the occasional inability of environmentalists to resist the temptation of equating those who challenge the political orthodoxy on climate change with those who opposed the end of slavery, it was only a matter of time before someone would liken the reduction of carbon emissions to the Abolition. That Someone, it turns out, is Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who wants to de-carbonise the world entirely. Weeeeeeeell, it can’t do any harm can it? But more than that, it would be a positive kick up the arse for the economy, apparently. After all, says RFK, the industrial revolution, and all the benefits that brought for humankind, was only possible because of the Abolition. The Business and Media Institute reports: (Climate Resistance)

Polar bear not threatened, Canadian panel finds - OTTAWA — The polar bear is in trouble in Canada because of overhunting and global warming, but it is not endangered or threatened with extinction, an independent committee advising the Canadian government said Friday. (Reuters)

Seth Boringtheme rides again: Narwhals more at risk to Arctic warming than polar bears - The polar bear has become an icon of global warming vulnerability, but a new study found an Arctic mammal that may be even more at risk to climate change: the narwhal. (AP)

Assessing climate change risks to Irish cities - Dublin is increasingly at risk from flooding from the sea, rivers and sudden rain storms, according to environmental experts at a conference in Dublin last week. (The Post)

It's called 'weather'... Extreme weather is here to stay - SOMETHING strange is happening to our weather. Sydney has endured the most sodden school holidays in living memory, including the longest unbroken spell of April drizzle for 77 years, a month after some state capitals sweated through the worst continuous period of baking heat ever recorded. And unseasonably early snow fell in the mountains at the weekend. (Sydney Morning Herald)

US air force calls for mission to combat climate change - The US air force will this week call for the world’s top scientists to come together in a 21st-century Apollo-style programme to develop greener fuels and tackle global warming. It wants universities, governments, companies and environmental groups to collaborate on a multibillion-dollar effort to work out greenhouse gas emissions of existing and future fuels. (The Guardian)

Green Ink: Free the SPR! - A rebounding dollar started to take the steam out of crude prices, until another militant attack in Nigeria spooked oil markets Friday, reports AP. Is crude set to go higher with more disruptions? About 700,000 barrels per day could be taken offline if British unions strike and disrupt North Sea refineries, reports the WSJ (sub reqd.) (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Pain at the pump - We’ll keep paying for gas and other costs of driving (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Kansas Supreme Court puts coal-plant cases on hold - TOPEKA, Kan. — The state’s highest court has put on hold indefinitely its review of a regulator’s decision blocking two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. (Associated Press)

Don’t ignore nuclear investments says US fund - One of the world’s biggest asset managers is urging investors to take climate change into account even if they do not believe in it. But that could mean investing in nuclear solutions, an issue New Zealand’s Government funds are now wrestling with. (New Zealand Herald)

Towers of potential - Nuclear energy regains some of its allure as a clean alternative to coal and oil power (McClatchy)

Carbon, climate factor into opposition - Janette Brimmer of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy wants to look at the big picture when it comes to the expansion proposed for the Murphy Oil refinery in Superior. (Duluth News Tribune)

Protests dog Alberta PR campaign - CALGARY — Conservationists will be rolling out an advertising campaign and dispatching polar-bear-suit-clad protesters this week in an attempt to derail Alberta’s mission to Washington that is aimed at propping up the province’s environmental image south of the border. (Globe and Mail)

Undoing America’s Ethanol Mistake - The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results." (SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON)

Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries: Gore Ducks, as a Backlash Builds Against Biofuels - The campaign against climate change could be set back by the global food crisis, as foreign populations turn against measures to use foodstuffs as substitutes for fossil fuels. (NY Sun)

Cramer Blames Inflation on Ethanol: ‘Drop the Mandate, Prices Plummet’ - In the past couple of weeks, NewsBusters has reported the media’s sudden negative opinion of ethanol as a result of rising food prices and rationing of rice by certain retailers. (Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters)

States’ Rights: Texas to Fight Feds’ Biofuels Mandate? - More fireworks between states and the Feds over U.S. energy policy. But for once, it’s not California rattling sabers. It’s the heart of the oil–and cow–patch. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Biodiesel Battles: EU Producers Attack U.S. Subsidies - Europe’s biofuel industry has long complained about U.S. subsidies. Friday, it took its case to the European Union—but the chances of winning a victory look slim. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

At the Trough: A Peek at U.S. Energy Subsidies - Ever wondered how much U.S. federal energy subsidies amount to—and who’s getting them? So did Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, who almost a year ago asked the Energy Information Administration to cough up the latest numbers. This month, the EIA did. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

In defence of patents - Intellectual Property (IP) has always been a niche public policy area understood best by policy wonks and lawyers. Unless there is a major controversy, IP tends to escape public consciousness. But that is changing. Over the past few years campaigns to undermine IP have increased and are now reaching a fever pitch. (Times of India)

World Malaria Day Marked By Call for Action: Millions at Risk - Washington, D.C. - In observance of the very first "World Malaria Day," an activist with the Project 21 black leadership network is calling upon establishment environmentalist groups and global health administrators to rethink their opposition to the use of the pesticide DDT. (National Center)

Malaria fight hinges on drug first used by Vietcong - GENEVA - The global fight against malaria hinges on a drug crafted by Chinese military experts assisting the Vietcong in the early 1970s, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert said on Friday. (Reuters)

Letter of the moment: We Have the Tools to Combat Africa’s Malaria Scourge - In "More Global Warming Nonsense" (op-ed, April 10), Paul Reiter and Roger Bate point out that "in some regions, it [malaria] persisted until the insecticide DDT wiped it out. It [malaria] is a disease of the poor…increasing at an alarming rate in parts of Africa, and elsewhere in the world." (WSJ)

Is technology ruining children? - Technology is moulding a generation of children unable to think for themselves or empathise with others, says the leading brain scientist Susan Greenfield. Is it time to switch off? (John Cornwell, Sunday Times)

The other side of the story — Part One - Medical news stories on television serve one purpose: to air entertainment of sufficient shock and awe value to generate the most viewers and advertising income for the networks. The lure of advertising dollars, and efforts to please advertisers, has led to content that is little more than infomercials. (Junkfood Science)

No? Duh! Pupils shun Jamie Oliver’s healthy diet for junk food runs - Students are operating a black-market trade in food banned in schools, including burgers and chocolate, in a backlash against healthier canteen menus such as those espoused by the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. (The Times)

Study: Bio-plastic goods not eco-friendly - Bio-plastic goods can still damage the environment by emitting gases that can impact climate change, a study by a British newspaper found. (UPI)

The tyranny tightens the screw - To get the following into context it is important to remember that it refers to a time when violent crime is worse than ever. Children are shooting and stabbing each other in the streets and burglaries, theft and shoplifting are carried out with impunity in the almost total absence of police on the streets. We are governed not by elected representatives, but by officials. (Number Watch)

Biodiversity claims will make you sick: Foster - ‘Biodiversity loss — it will make you sick.” This is the latest claim from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, the huge environmental organization and supposed guardian of endangered species. According to an IUCN-sponsored book, Sustaining Life, the world stands to lose a whole range of undiscovered medicinal marvels because of fast-disappearing plant, fish and animal species: “The experts warn that we may lose many of the land and marine-based life forms of economic and medical interest before we can learn their secrets, or, in some cases, before we know they exist.” (Peter Foster, Financial Post)

You have to admire the chutpah - PAN’s raison d’etre is to inhibit high productivity agriculture — doesn’t matter what advance it might be they’re agin it, pesticides, fertilizer, biotech and even high-yield hybrid seeds are on their hit list and they have the effrontery to suggest they would have delivered increased yields. Compare: Stem Rust Never Sleeps By NORMAN E. BORLAUG, New York Times ‘Neglect of Farming Led to Rice Crisis’ (IPS)

A Green Revolution - Today’s headlines are filled with Americans expressing their fears of food shortages and frustration with spiraling grocery prices. As part of the solution, it’s time to give genetically modified crops a try. (IBD)

Stem Rust Never Sleeps - WITH food prices soaring throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, and shortages threatening hunger and political chaos, the time could not be worse for an epidemic of stem rust in the world’s wheat crops. Yet millions of wheat farmers, small and large, face this spreading and deadly crop infection. (NORMAN E. BORLAUG, New York Times)

As the world begins to starve it’s time to take GM seriously - With the Earth’s population continuing to soar, it will be the poor who go hungry, not the eco-warriors destroying modified crops (Robin McKie, The Observer)

Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World - Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya. (New York Times)

New Delhi’s Food Failure - Inflation in India has shot up to 7.4%, and food prices are skyrocketing. To control prices, the government has banned the export of wheat, pulses and all rice, save the luxury basmati variety. But all those measures are at best beside the point and at worst counterproductive. The real solution is to reform the faulty policies that have led to stagnation in food-grain production for almost a decade. (WSJ Asia)

Fingers in the rice bowl - Food prices have ratcheted up dramatically in the past few years. And rice prices have contributed, more than doubling since the beginning of this year. Why would that be? (Steve Hanke, Financial Post)

The real drivers of food and oil prices: Corcoran - As world food and energy prices rise, look for the policy community to come up with new rounds of explanations and fresh batches of bad policy. A current favourite among United Nations’ operatives and the CBC is to blame the current all-purpose whipping boy for adverse economic developments: hedge funds and speculators. (Terence Corcoran, Financial Post)

Indonesia To Triple Rice Seed Budget To Lift Output - And how will that tackle recent cold weather events that have so severely dented output? Weather events have not been kind to ag output of late and there is little warmth to be found in the list: (JSB)

Chance Of US Drought Seen; Food Squeeze Feared - WASHINGTON - The US Midwest has enjoyed nearly 20 years without a major drought but forecasters worry the corn belt’s luck could dry up this year, further squeezing tight global supplies amid soaring food prices. (Reuters)

Warrior mosquito plan under fire in Malaysia: report - Environmentalists have condemned a trial plan to deploy millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in Malaysia to fight dengue fever, a report said Sunday. (AFP)

April 25, 2008

Anatomy of a Chemical Murder - Wal-Mart announced last week that it would stop selling baby bottles made with the chemical bisphenol A (BPA).

In the past, I would have laid the blame for this junk science-fueled shame at the feet of anti-chemical environmental jihadists, their pseudo-scientist henchmen at universities and government regulatory agencies and Wal-Mart’s knuckleheaded executives who seem to be more interested in appeasing eco-pressure groups rather than reassuring consumers that the products the retailer has sold for decades are safe.

But the banning of baby bottles made with BPA is so mind-bogglingly baseless, that I just have to lay the blame where it truly belongs — with the lame-o chemical industry, which utterly failed to defend its product against activist claims and a regulatory process so specious that it would cause voodoo practitioners to shudder.

First, there is absolutely no evidence that anyone has ever been harmed by BPA in a consumer product despite widespread use in baby and medical products, and food and beverage containers.

Moreover, there’s no reason to expect that anyone would ever be harmed as exposures to BPA from consumer products are 100 times lower than the “safe” level determined by government regulators.

If you think about it, products made with BPA are in fact safer than, say, Wal-Mart’s  peanut-containing products that can cause fatal allergic reactions in children. Yet peanut products remain on the shelves.

So just how did BPA wind up becoming chemical non grata? (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

All wet - Does this mean they are now admitting claims warming will not raise sea levels due to greater snow accumulation on ice shields? No, just that they have partly observed, partly modeled a recent (~50-year) change but have no idea where it fits in phases of what cycles. Does it necessarily have anything to do with fossil fuels or people? Nope. Wetter Arctic may lead to colder winters (Daily Telegraph)

Floods and Droughts and Global Cooling? - In nearly every presentation on global warming, we hear that floods and droughts will be more severe as the temperature rises. Believe it or not, and who would not believe it given thousands of websites on the issue, there are many scientists who believe the opposite. We have covered these topics in many previous essays, and a recent article in Quaternary Science Reviews reinforces our skeptical viewpoint. (World Climate Report)

Idea to use chemicals to reduce global warming could damage the ozone layer - Ozone schmozone — that’s no reason to do or not do anything. Unless you intend sunbaking at the south pole in the southern hemisphere spring (at around -60 °C) there is no relevance for you in the much-hyped "ozone hole" (which is not a hole) and alleged ozone depletion (which we don’t know to be depleted, "normal" or high). That said we really don’t want anyone screwing around trying to "cool" the planet since that is its least desirable state. Idea to use chemicals to reduce global warming could damage the ozone layer (Associated Press)

The link between solar cycle length and decadal global temperature - This article is from Stephen Wilde - I’ve been a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society since 1968. Admittedly that was before a science qualification was required but I’ve been a weather and climate geek for over 50 years. (Co2sceptic)

Cooked Books, Warmed Earth: Two Experts Say Data Are Wrong - It may be folly or even apostasy - but only in the eyes of some - to do this mere hours after another Earth Day has passed. But, as we see it, now is the perfect time to praise courageous men, those who persistently stick to their own data and conclusions as they swim against the gadarene tide of global warming. Men like William Gray and Patrick Michaels. (Daily News Record)

NOAA Press Release announces they are going to fix the USHCN surface network: Day 2 at NCDC and Press Release: NOAA to modernize USHCN (Watts Up With That?)

Teleconnections In The Earth System By Chase, Pielke and Avissar - We have a new article published which has not been reported on Climate Science. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Ozone hole recovery may reshape southern hemisphere climate change - Recovery? From what, to what? No matter, if whatever they imagine does intensify Antarctic climate change we’ll get what — greater amplitude in oscillation about no change? Or perhaps the entire southern hemisphere will increase its oscillation about, um… no change. I don’t know about you but I’m shaking in my boots about an intensification in the absence of change, the consequences of which are, uh… well they go without saying Ozone hole recovery may reshape southern hemisphere climate change (PhysOrg)

Keeping You Up-To-Date - [The nearly spotless Sun, April 24: SOHO Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) (24/04/2008: for complete image, see here)] Today, Mr. Gradgrind is going to keep us up-to-date with facts about what is happening to the sun and to the atmospheric rise in CO2 and methane: (Global Warming Politics)

Time To Be Angry - In the last few days, a number of highly respected columnists have underscored the dangerous political and economic nonsenses now being inflicted upon us in the name of ‘global warming’. Even more interesting, however, has been the tone of the comment - I have detected, for the first time, the bite of genuine anger over government deceit and outright folly, especially with respect to energy costs. I recommend two seminal articles, as examples. (Global Warming Politics)

CNN: Journalism in Peril - CNN reports today that “Scientists have become more worried in recent years about [greenhouse] gases, with most atmospheric specialists concerned that the increasing accumulation is raising the Earth’s temperature in a potential disruption of climate through changing patterns of rainfall, drought and other storms.” (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

The Green Phantom: Global warming’s curious absence as a campaign issue. - Poor Evan, doesn’t realize it’s not an issue for voters, doesn’t appear in polls or focus group concerns and so doesn’t rate a mention outside far-west and north-eastern coastal enclaves (think maps of where people don’t actually work for a living and where ’sacrifice’ is something you pay others to do). The more people like Thomas point out how hugely expensive it will be to not address a non-problem (think: "sacrifice-serious wartime sacrifice") the less likely gorebull warming will make a campaign appearance. The Green Phantom: Global warming’s curious absence as a campaign issue. (Evan Thomas, Newsweek)

Stuffing the Sky: Carbon’s Up–Good or Bad? - So which is it? Should the world be worried about increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or should it be doing everything possible to pump more CO2 into the skies? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Prophecy all washed up - RAIN sure is falling this week on the parade of our global warming alarmists. Wettest of all is Tim Flannery, who was made Australian of the Year last year for wailing the world was doomed. We were making the planet heat so fast with our filthy gases, Flannery insisted, that the ice caps were vanishing and we had to "picture an eight-storey building by a beach, then imagine waves lapping its roof". No scare seemed too absurd for this Alarmist of the Year. (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun)

Climate Change: hail and freezing temperatures forecast for Puno and southern highlands - This warming thing… really weird effects, no? Climate Change: hail and freezing temperatures forecast for Puno and southern highlands (Peruvian Times)

Best ski season ever in North America? - Guess we won’t hear quite so much about gorebull warming killing skiing and resorts for a little while… Best ski season ever in North America? (Bill Steffen, WOOD TV)

Are Ice Age relics the next casualty of climate change? - Next casualty? That depends on whether they mean genuine climate change (as in the current transition away from the last major glaciation) or simply gorebull warming. The difference is that there have been innumerable critters that did not survive the last ice age (think for example about salmonids that bred in particular river systems that became buried under a mile of ice) but there is no known casualty of gorebull warming (save perhaps common sense). Are Ice Age relics the next casualty of climate change? (PhysOrg)

Humans lived in tiny, separate bands for 100,000 years - Human beings for 100,000 years lived in tiny, separate groups, facing harsh conditions that brought them to the brink of extinction, before they reunited and populated the world, genetic researchers said Thursday in a study. (AFP)

Better regional monitoring of CO2 needed as global levels continue rising - Uh, why? CO₂ is climatically irrelevant and carbon trading a rent-seeking scam so why should we spend any money facilitating con-artists? Better regional monitoring of CO2 needed as global levels continue rising (PhysOrg)

Scientists urged to make a stand on climate change - Chuckle… research institute for climate change and sustainability and he advocates good science? Actually we want the public made aware of the yawning chasm between good science, on which the media is virtually silent, and climate activist crap, which is about all the media publish. Scientists urged to make a stand on climate change (PhysOrg)

Technological breakthrough in the fight to cut greenhouse gases - Scientists at Newcastle University have pioneered breakthrough technology in the fight to cut greenhouse gases. The Newcastle University team, led by Michael North, Professor of Organic Chemistry, has developed a highly energy-efficient method of converting waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into chemical compounds known as cyclic carbonates. (PhysOrg)

Give us your R&D advances for free - China calls for help on climate change - China called on the international community Thursday to increase the flow of technology to developing countries to help them fight climate change. (Associated Press)

UN Climate Change Official: More Incentives Needed for Developing Countries - The top U.N. official on climate change says industrialized countries need to offer more incentives to China and other developing countries to reduce gas emissions.  Daniel Schearf reports for VOA from Beijing that China is fast overtaking the United States as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, believed by many scientists to be warming the planet. (Daniel Schearf, VOA)

Democrats Fumble Ball On Energy - After weeks of dithering and fearing for her party’s political life, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has finally said something about energy. We listened. As the old Peggy Lee song asks, "Is that all there is?" (IBD)

Shock at pump stems from high crude oil prices - Next time you visit the gas station and fill your tank with $3.50 or more a gallon gasoline, reflect on this. Nine years ago you could have bought that same gas for 98 cents a gallon. What is going on? (PhysOrg)

A National Oil Company for the US? - Energy is the lifeblood of a nation. The world runs on oil and will continue to run on oil for at least another 20 years. Every developed nation except the United States has an energy program. National oil companies are playing a larger role in the international energy picture. The US has no national oil company. (Carbon Confidential)

Carbon tax adds 10c a litre to petrol - THE country’s largest oil refiner, Caltex, has stepped up its calls for the Federal Government to quarantine motorists from its proposed carbon-trading scheme, warning it could add an extra $1.4 billion or 10 cents a litre to the nation’s fuel bill each year. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Nostrum Remedium - “Are you overweight or lack energy to get through the day and don't know why? Thousands of American families have relied on the medical wonder known as...”

Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer, M.D., had been heralded as a leading physician of our country, and devoted his 60-year practice to the study of diseases and their treatments. His impressive medical training was at some of the most respected medical schools, and he also studied under a pioneer of homeopathy, making him one of the earliest practitioners of integrative medicine.

According to biographers, Dr. Kilmer found that the ailments that afflict people in our modern age — digestive problems, obesity, water retention, kidney disease, bladder problems, bowel irregularity and liver problems — are the result of hidden chemical additives in modern methods of food processing and preserving, that strain the body. He developed medicines that promised to not only relieve, cure and restore all of these important organs to health, but also strengthen and stimulate them so that they would function optimally to process nutrition, cleanse the blood and rid the body of chemical and biological waste.

Treating nearly a million patients, his practice became so famous and popularly successful, he was able to build a laboratory and manufacturing plant in Binghamton, New York, for his prescription medicines. His remedy said to be the most proven, and developed after exhaustive research and experimentation, is a blend of 15 natural herbs from South Africa, North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Tibet and North-west China.

Dr. Kilmer was, as you may know, born in 1840. His remedy, which exemplified patent medicine, is “Swamp Root Kidney, Liver and Bladder Cure.” (Junkfood Science)

The compassionate message was lost - Cancer patients became another target of the war on obesity in the cruelest imaginable way when a new study was released this week in Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society.

To say that the conclusions of this study and its spin in the news were grossly overstated and bore little resemblance to the actual study, is an understatement.

Before going into detail, let’s put it in the simplest language possible. Physical education and recreation professors took data from the 2005 Canadian Community Health Survey, which included computerized interviews on 114,355 adults who had self-reported if they had cancer or had ever been diagnosed with cancer and what type; their height, weight, age and gender; and how often and long they engaged in leisure time activity (sports, exercises, weight training, yard work etc.) in the past 3 months. The authors calculated the metabolic equivalent task value and labeled as “desirable” amounts of physical activity the equivalent of 1 hour/day of moderate-intensity activity such as brisk walking. They then plotted BMIs and physical activity and looked for correlations between “BMI and participation in various leisure-time activities. That’s it. To put it simply, they found:

Fat people were more likely to be cancer survivors.

Sedentary people were more likely to be cancer survivors.

This was seen as bad news. They concluded that population-wide interventions were necessary to encourage weight loss and more physical activity in cancer survivors to promote a ‘healthy’ body weight.

But they had just shown that:

Fat people were more likely to be cancer survivors.

Sedentary people were more likely to be cancer survivors.

Their conclusions proposed negating what their own study had just found. (Junkfood Science)

The high price of going ‘organic’ - The push for ‘green’ products may have peaked - due in part to the fact that they’re so much more expensive than mass-market alternatives. (CNNMoney.com)

Desalination can boost US water supplies, but environmental research needed - Recent advances in technology have made removing salt from seawater and groundwater a realistic option for increasing water supplies in some parts of the U.S., and desalination will likely have a niche in meeting the nation’s future water needs, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, a coordinated research effort with steady funding is required to better understand and minimize desalination’s environmental impacts — and find ways to further lower its costs and energy use. (PhysOrg)

Latest review finds fault again with spotted owl plan - GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A panel of experts found the Bush administration’s plan for assuring the survival of the northern spotted owl was "deeply flawed" in its approach to protecting old growth forest habitat from logging and was not entirely based on the best available science. (Associated Press)

April 24, 2008

Food Prices ‘Massacre’ Of World's Poor - Chavez - CARACAS - Soaring food prices are a "massacre" of the world's poor and are creating a global nutritional crisis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, calling it a sign that capitalism is in decline.

His comments came only hours after the United Nations' World Food Program called more expensive food a "silent tsunami" that threatens to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger.

"It is a true massacre what is happening in the world," Chavez said in a televised speech, citing UN statistics about deaths caused by hunger and malnourishment.

"The problem is not the production of food ... it is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis." (Reuters)

Hold on there Chucky, it's watermelon assaults on the energy supply, development and capitalism that the poor really need to worry about. Granted they are adept at changing their position of the moment to suit a media with the attention span of your average gnat but it is not hard to follow the paper trail if you care to look/remember:

Friends of the Earth 2004 

The Government should introduce a Biofuels Obligation, to stimulate a UK biofuels industry - as a lower carbon alternative to conventional transport fuels. The obligation would require that a proportion of all road transport fuels in the UK should be sourced from accredited renewable sources.

Friends of the Earth 2008

Friends of the Earth hopes that the Government will now put the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation on hold and demand a moratorium on EU biofuel targets. The real solution to Europe's rising transport emissions is better public transport, more provision for cyclists and higher standards for fuel efficiency in new cars

The watermelons have been trying to do as Maurice Strong states:

“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialised civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” — Maurice Strong, head of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and Executive Officer for Reform in the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations.

They've been after the energy supply for decades, first with absurd claims about acid rain and then about mercury but coal-fired power stations simply captured the bulk of such emissions as a cost of doing business. Then came their crowning glory -- go after the carbon from combustion since that is an almost insurmountable obstacle to our carbon-based energy supply. Unfortunately Gaia isn't playing along and a combination of PDO phase change and a possible low-activity solar cycle make continued warming a dodgy bet, in turn making self-destructive legislation much less likely. That would be why they've now switched to attacking cooling water as an independent reason to assault thermal and nuclear power generation (the anti-dam phase has been ongoing for many decades as a separate issue, now we have anti-wind for critter preservation and so on).

Watermelons don't like people at all and the poor are always the ones who suffer most at the hands of the misanthropes.

It is not capitalism that harms the poor but in fact represents their only real hope. Green-draped socialists are their enemy.

A wise course of action? - A quest to find out where the prawns in his London curry came from took Fred Pearce all the way to Bangladesh - but is was not so much the food miles that bothered him as the social dilemma he unearthed (The Guardian)

About as wrong as anyone can get. The problems 'unearthed' are actually lack of open democratic government, law enforcement and individual property rights. Rather than penalizing those who have no choice but to try to survive the systems they have, which is what nave "ethical source/fair trade..." NGOs do, they should be supporting efforts to bring freedom and democracy to the world. Instead the socialist dipsticks inhibit every effort to do so.

Wrong again -- lack of development is the problem: 'State of the Planet' Summit Concludes Climate Change Causes Poverty - International concern is mounting that global warming could put millions of people at risk through drought, floods and other extreme weather. A group of economists, scientists, and international leaders met in New York recently to discuss how climate change poses a particular risk to developing countries, and what solutions can be taken by rich and poor countries alike. Victoria Cavaliere has more from VOA's New York Bureau. (VOA)

RIGHTS: Climate a "Life and Death" Issue for Native Peoples - UNITED NATIONS, Apr 23 - Leaders of the world's 370 million indigenous peoples are calling for the United Nations to include their voices in its future talks on climate change.

"Both the climate change and its solutions are concerns for indigenous peoples," said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairperson of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Currently, the Forum, which includes 16 representatives -- eight nominated by governments and eight by indigenous representatives -- is holding its seventh annual meeting in New York. The meeting is being is being attended by more than 3,300 delegates from around the world.

"The indigenous peoples contribute the smallest ecological footprints on Earth," according to Tauli-Corpuz, "but they suffer the worst impacts from climate change and mitigation measures, such as the loss of land and biofuel production." (IPS)

Couldn’t agree less… - NewsBusters takes the position Gingrich should be "at the table" but (and I’m an Aussie with exactly zero part in American politics) I disagree vehemently. The Pelosi table is huge government with massive tax and spend schemes and one you should not walk but run away from. I’d have thought you had enough of Republican big-spending big-government with the current regime without flirting with the absurdity of "addressing gorebull warming". Really bad idea guys.

Want to save the world & lead everyone from disaster? Fine, immediately nail down a guarantee to repudiate the UNFCCC and associated nonsense, vow never to attend or support the endless round of climate talkfests, defund all "research" and projects established under the excuse of "climate change" (as opposed real-time weather forecasting), cancel the "biofuels" boondoggle, halt all leakage of tax funds to NGOs and greenie fronts and give all EPA-related staff (state and federal) 12 months to find real jobs.

Then roll your sleeves up and get to work stripping every last mention of "environment" from legislation (it’ll take a while — the wackos have 40-years worth of bullshit embedded in there). You’ll do America and the world absolute wonders. Gingrich Explains Why He Did Global Warming Ad With Pelosi (NewsBusters)

Pine beetles may affect climate change - study - WASHINGTON - Mountain pine beetles that are destroying forests along much of the Rocky Mountain range are doing so much damage that they may affect climate change, Canadian researchers reported on Wednesday.

The damage is nearly equivalent to the polluting effects of forest fires, they report in the journal Nature.

"In the worst year, the impacts resulting from the beetle outbreak in British Columbia were equivalent to 75 percent of the average annual direct forest fire emissions from all of Canada during 1959-1999," Werner Kurz of the Canadian Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia and colleagues wrote.

Usually, a forest is a carbon "sink," soaking up carbon dioxide that would otherwise affect the atmosphere and help hold in heat.

The beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae, changed that. Dead trees release carbon as they rot, and of course fail to use carbon dioxide as they would if alive. (Reuters)

Well, who knew Gaia would come to the rescue like this? What do we mean? A year ago we had studies telling us that temperate forests heated the planet -- Steve wrote about it here: Can’t See the Warming for the Trees. Now we've got Earth Mother nurture figure Gaia deploying an army of critters to turn down the thermostat for us. Of course, worrywart humans misunderestimate the old girl, thinking these little planet coolers will actually do the opposite but Gaia knows best, eh?

Freak weather destroys Afghan poppies - Faltering British efforts to tackle Afghanistan's poppy crop have found an unlikely ally – in the weather.

Freak weather linked to global warming is expected to reduce parts of the country's opium harvest drastically. Scientists believe freezing winter temperatures followed by late rains and a possible drought may cut this year's yields, with some farmers losing half of their crop.

The fierce winter cold – which claimed hundreds of lives across Afghanistan – is thought to have stopped millions of poppy seeds from germinating. Late rains have then stunted many of the plants that survived. (The Independent)

Uh-huh... now we'll have the "weather machine" conspiracy theorists claiming food shortages are a result of W's war on drugs -- see, he froze the opium poppies!

America Must Reject Global Warming ‘De-Stimulus’ Bill - The United States Senate will soon begin to debate a global warming cap-and-trade bill that, if passed, would impose severe economic constraints on American families and American workers for no environmental gain. We have had this debate before, starting with the rejection of the Kyoto Protocol in 1998, then again in 2003, and again in 2005. Each time, these cap-and-trade measures were defeated for two simple reasons: they did not include developing nations; and because of the significant economic impact on the American public. With the American economy facing troubles, now is certainly not the time to try this costly experiment. (Senator James Inhofe, Washington Times)

Will the Economy Kill the Global Warming Hoax? - Al Gore is avoiding the press and spending $300 million ‘promoting awareness’ of global warming. Are these the actions of a man that thinks he’s ‘winning’ hearts and minds to his ’cause’? (The Daily Bayonet)

RFK Jr.: Quitting Carbon Use Like ‘Abolishing’ Slavery - Environmentalist’s ‘manifesto’ in Vanity Fair issues call to ‘decarbonize’ entirely. (Business & Media Institute)

US Environment Scientists Report Political Meddling - WASHINGTON - Nearly 900 scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency have experienced political interference in their work in the last five years, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported on Wednesday. (Reuters)

See Gore, See Spot - A former NASA astronaut says the same solar phenomenon that doomed Napoleon’s army may soon stop Al Gore’s march to glory cold. Prepare for the big chill. (IBD)

Global warming could flood Florida coasts - Scientists studying the consequences of global warming in south Florida say rising sea levels could flood coastal cities and damage fresh water supplies. (UPI)

1600 eruption caused global disruption - The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru had a global impact on human society, according to a new study of contemporary records by geologists at UC Davis. (PhysOrg)

Written to deceive? - I wonder how many people (or reporters) would simply associate reduced Arctic multi-year sea ice and Greenland, thinking Greenland’s ice sheet is also in decline? Well, last we heard it is actually accumulating snow and ice mass is increasing, particularly in every region but a couple of trivial coastal strips. They haven’t really made any egregious false statements but have written the "could" and "may" portions to give the impression largely irrelevant floating ice changes apply to a major land-borne ice shield when patently they do not. Reuters really shouldn’t have WWF writing their feeds. Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Anticipated - WWF ()Reuters

Did a Significant Cool Spell Mark the Demise of Megafauna? - The end of the Pleistocene Epoch was marked with steadily warmer temperatures and the great ice age glaciers that covered vast areas of North America were in retreat. (PhysOrg)

Arctic marine mammals on thin ice - The loss of sea ice due to climate change could spell disaster for polar bears and other Arctic marine mammals. The April Special Issue of Ecological Applications examines such potential effects, puts them in historical context, and describes possible conservation measures to mitigate them. The assessment reflects the latest thinking of experts representing multiple scientific disciplines. (PhysOrg)

New Zealand’s largest glacier will disappear: scientists - New Zealand’s largest glacier is shrinking fast due to climate change and will eventually disappear altogether, scientists said Thursday. (AFP)

China down to 12 days worth of coal - report - CHINA only has enough coal for 12 days of consumption, three days less than a month ago, state media reported Wednesday, sounding the alarm bells over the nation’s most important source of energy. (Agence France-Presse)

China Aims For First Zero Emission Power By 2015 - BEIJING - China plans to build a major emissions-free coal burning power station by 2015, the project chief said on Wednesday, putting it at the front of a tight global race to build the first commercial scale plant. (Reuters)

All You Need To Know about Denmark and Wind Power - Yesterday, a listener on the Michael Medved show challenged me that (I paraphrase), "Denmark has adopted wind power at no cost."

I said that I was no expert on Denmark but that there were significant subsidies involved. As this Economist article makes clear, it is certainly not correct to say that Denmark has adopted wind power at no cost:

Researchers in Denmark have gone a step further and put a value on this effect. They believe that wind power shaved 1 billion kroner ($167m) off Danish electricity bills in 2005. On the other hand, Danish consumers also paid 1.4 billion kroner in subsidies for wind power. (Iain Murray, CEI)

Green v green - The rejection of the Lewis wind farm this week highlights how environmentalists are lining up against each other in countryside battles. Mark Lynas reports (The Guardian)

Dominic Lawson: The staggering cost of renewable energy - The commitment will lead to an increase of about 40 per cent in annual electricity bills (The Independent)

‘Useless’ green levy on drivers rakes in £4bn - The "green levy" on motorists announced in Alistair Darling’s first Budget will double car tax revenue to £4 billion but reduce vehicle emissions by less than one per cent, Treasury figures have showed. (Daily Telegraph)

Bring on the Right Biofuels - Fads come fast and furious in our viral age, and the reactions to them can be equally ferocious. That’s what we’re seeing right now with biofuels, which everyone loved until everyone decided they were the worst thing since the Black Death. (ROGER COHEN, New York Times)

Germany backs EU biofuels targets - Germany does not want to change the EU’s goal of boosting the use of biofuels in cars, a senior official said Wednesday, despite criticism that this may further fuel the global rise in food prices. (AFP)

Years of poor decisions created food crisis: FAO - PARIS - Poor policy decisions over the past two decades have combined to create the current food crisis and resources must now be focused on the 2008 harvest, the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

That’s weird - They say CO₂ levels went "off the chart" in ‘07 yet checking the annual increment from the annual global mean trends data shows nothing exciting (in fact ‘07 was the lowest increment since ‘02 and 3^rd lowest of the last decade).

Fight for carbon markets heats up - A cut-throat battle is emerging to dominate trade in permits to emit greenhouse gases, which could grow to rival the US$3 trillion ($3.85 trillion) oil trade, with dominant exchanges expected in Europe, the US and Asia. (Reuters)

Lack of Clouds, not CO2 drove Early Supergreenhouse Periods - We posed the question Wonder if the significance of this will dawn on anyone soon? when Penn released the study Whether or not is has coverage has certainly been limited. Kudos to AccuWeather.com for giving it a run. Lack of Clouds, not CO2 drove Early Supergreenhouse Periods (Brett Anderson, AccuWeather.com)

Panic! - There are increasing signs that the global warmers are rushing out to place each way bets on which way the climate will jump. The motto is “Get your rationalisation in first”. A correspondent who rejoices in the soubriquet of Perigo Minas draws attention to this attempt to establish that even if it gets colder it’s still your fault. It will delight collectors of non sequiturs. In particular, apparently the Little Ice Age was cause by the Mediaeval Warm Period. It now seems that the latter actually happened after all, Hockey Stick notwithstanding, but we are not offered an explanation as to why it happened. It must all have been some political incorrectness that those naughty Plantagenets got up to. Let us be thankful that we are so much more sophisticated now and have discovered the true religion. (Number Watch)

Comments On The Testimony Of Senator Dick Lugar On Climate Change and Deforestation On April 22 2008 - There was a Hearing on Climate Change and Deforestation in the U.S. Senate yesterday (April 22 2008) [Thanks to Dev Niyogi of Purdue for alerting me to this Hearing]. There will be a presentation of the results so far on the excellent Vulcan project, which Climate Science weblogged on last week (see). (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Coffman interview with Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Professor Emeritus Geology - Transcript reprinted with permission

Climate change talks ‘heading for trouble’ - SINGAPORE — Governments negotiating a new climate change treaty, due next year, remain far apart on many issues, and this should be a "warning sign" that the world is facing trouble, a top UN environmental official said Tuesday. (AFP)

It’s their economy, stupid… - Climate change is getting nasty. And we’re not talking about the weather. The climate change policies rolled out by the European Union in the past few weeks make it clear Brussels will use trade sanctions to push these policies overseas. Legislation tabled before the US Senate indicates the next Washington administration will go down the same slippery slope. (Pramit Pal Chaudhuri , Hindustan Times)

Journalists Urged to Report Objectively On Climate Change - Indian climate expert says journalists should scrutinise all new scientific research on climate change and other environmental threats (Commonwealth News and Information Service)

Neglected diseases - By Sam Brownback - Tomorrow, World Malaria Day 2008, offers a chance for those of us blessed to live in a nation largely free of entrenched infectious diseases to turn our attention and global health-policy agendas to the people in developing countries who spend each day suffering from these diseases. (Washington Times)

A ‘Malaria Day’ Resolution - Tomorrow (April 25) marks the World Health Organization’s inaugural World Malaria Day, designed “to inform the general public of the obstacles encountered and progress achieved in controlling malaria.” We can expect a fair amount of self-congratulation: malaria treatment has improved in recent years, with donors providing more funding and buying better drugs. (Roger Bate, The American)

Plastic hysteria strikes again - By Gilbert Ross, M.D. - A new health scare — over the safe and useful plastic component, bisphenol-A (BPA) — has taken wing, fomented by the usual suspects: "experts" in rat toxicology working with alarmist, chemical-hating "environmental" activists and self-serving media scaremongers. Soon, we know all too well, will come the plaintiffs’ lawyers to "protect" the public from the non-existent (but lucrative) threats lurking in our plastic bottles. (Washington Times)

Is organic food only for the privileged? - The cost of food is skyrocketing, and organic food is becoming priced out of reach for many people. But is eating organic a lifestyle choice or something we should all be striving to support? (The Guardian)

Not exactly -- it's purely for the pampered children of privilege to play food snob and has exactly zero practical value. Call it the epitome of conspicuous consumption.

Soil Association accused of harming African farmers - The government stepped into a mounting row over air freight and "food miles" yesterday by accusing the Soil Association of endangering the livelihoods of 21,000 farmers in Africa. (The Guardian)

RSPB accused over birds on flagship reserve - The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has been accused of hypocrisy after its flagship reserve in Cumbria was officially revealed to have the lowest numbers of moorland birds in the region. (Daily Telegraph)

April 23, 2008

Wildlife highway offers stepping stones to survival - The first wildlife highway to enable animals and plants to escape the worst effects of climate change will be announced today. A corridor 30 miles (50km) long and up to 10 miles wide is to be created in the Severn Vale in Gloucestershire to provide an escape route for wildlife. (Lewis Smith, The Times)

Can't you just picture it? Animal "climate refugees" hitting the road with their possessions tied in a little bundle hanging from a stick over their shoulder.

Climate change ‘may put world at war’ (Charles Clover, Daily Telegraph) - All this nonsense generated by PlayStation™ Climatology — and worth a great deal less than your average video game. The worst of it is some regions of the world take this crap seriously and are becoming increasingly angry at the developed world for ‘causing’ a problem which does not exist.

Global Warming And Consensus Science: Dangerous And Wrong - The following article explains why the usage of the concept of consensus is wrong and dangerous as it applies to global warming and climate change. (Pete's Place)

Peer-Reviewed Articles Skeptical Of Man-Caused Global Warming - Here are many "Peer-Reviewed" articles that should end the belief that "the debate is over" about global warming. It should also destroy the illusion that there is a "consensus" amongst scientists about the causes of global warming. Those propagating the myth of man-caused global warming are simply distorting reality and the facts…..and that is putting it politely. (Pete’s Place)

Climate change can stoke Africa conflicts - scientist - ACCRA - Climate change in Africa could leave 250 million more people short of water by 2020, spurring conflicts and threatening stability on the world’s poorest continent, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

The Environmentalists’ Real Agenda - Once in a while the truth accidentally tumbles out on global warming activists’ real agenda. That’s exactly what happened at the U.N., when Bolivia’s leader called for ending capitalism to save the planet. (IBD)

As Earth Cools, Data Centers Busy Re-inventing the Past - Tom Peterson of NCDC in the next Bulletin of the AMS will be co-authoring a paper Study: Global cooling a 1970s myth. In it he tries to downplay the cooling and the coverage and hype it received. Why the efforts to downplay the cooling? Like the Medieval warm period and Little Ice Age, the mid-20th century cold period has been a thorn in the side of alarmists because it implies natural factors at play. And remember a lot of the cooling came during the post World War II boom. (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Global warming: Are we really toast? - Wading through conflicting claims about the causes of global warming has become a mine field, with both sides quoting scientific opinion for and against the impact of human generated emissions. (Liz Metcalfe, Sympatico)

Sorry to ruin the fun, but an ice age cometh (Phil Chapman, The Australian) - Caveat: we do not understand the sun and its moods anywhere near well enough to make confident predictions about coming cycles. The sun is currently quiet and it is right to be nervous about the potential for cooling temperatures (unlike trivial warming cooling actually does constitute a problem for people and the biosphere generally) but there remains ample time for a strong SC24.

NEWS RELEASE - MANHATTAN DECLARATION ENDORSERS RELEASED - Unfortunate headline — when I first saw it I was under the impression said endorsers must have been incarcerated or something.

Earth Day: Green Yawn? - Has Earth Day gone milquetoast? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

How's this for eco-nuttery? Father of four taken to court and fined … because he overfilled his wheelie-bin by just four inches - With his rubbish collected only once a fortnight, Gareth Corkhill’s wheelie bin was so full the lid wouldn’t shut. And for that, the father of four finds himself with a criminal record. Magistrates convicted the 26-year-old bus driver after hearing evidence that the lid was four inches ajar, which is against rules to stop bins overflowing. He was ordered to pay £210 - a week’s wages - after he declined to pay an on-the-spot fine imposed by the local council’s bin police, who visited him wearing stab-proof vests and carrying photographic evidence of his crime. To add insult to injury he was told to pay a £15 victim surcharge to help victims of violence - despite there being no victim - and threatened with prison if he failed to pay. (Daily Mail)

Time Editor Defends Doctoring Iwo Jima Photo, Calls Objective Journalism ‘Fantasy’ - Stengel says global warming fight just as important as World War II. On journalism rules: We’re ‘making it up as we go along.’ (Jeff Poor, BMI)

From CO₂ Science:
Editorial:
Climate Change and the Human Condition: As earth's climate has historically oscillated between warmer and cooler states, how has the wellbeing of humanity varied?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data published by 527 individual scientists from 322 separate research institutions in 37 different countries ... and counting! This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Steel Lake, north-central Minnesota, USA. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Roman Warm Period (Europe - Northern): What do studies of its level of warmth reveal about the nature of earth's current warmth?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Eastern Purple Coneflower, English Yew, Soybean, and St. John's Wort.

Journal Reviews:
How Well Do We Know What Global Sea Level Is Doing?: Finding the answer to this question is not a trivial exercise.

East Antarctica's Role in Global Sea Level Change: What has it been in the past? What will it be in the future?

Local vs. Global Change Effects on the Coral Reefs of Palau: How do they compare over the course of the past several millennia?

Arctic-Breeding Geese: How would they likely respond to continued global warming?

Symbiodinium Diversity in Soritid Foraminfera: How great is it? And why do we care?

Major Report:
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate: View the report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change. It is an independent examination of the evidence available in the published, peer-reviewed literature – examined without bias and selectivity. It includes many research papers ignored by the IPCC, plus additional scientific results that became available after the IPCC deadline of May 2006. (co2science.org)

Scientists study Arctic haze for clues to global warming - FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Visitors to Alaska often marvel at the crisp, clear air. But the truth is, the skies above the Arctic Circle work like a giant lint trap during late winter and early spring, catching all sorts of pollutants swirling around the globe. (AP)

Larger Pacific Climate Event Helps Current La Nina Linger - Boosted by the influence of a larger climate event in the Pacific, one of the strongest La Niñas in many years is slowly weakening but continues to blanket the Pacific Ocean near the equator, as shown by new sea-level height data collected by the U.S.-French Jason oceanographic satellite. (PhysOrg)

Internal Radiative Forcing And The Illusion Of A Sensitive Climate System By Roy Spencer - Regrettably time constraints mean that the comment facility is closed at Climate Science so we have reproduced the entire item here to make our comment system available for discussion.

The Truths Shall Set You Free - About a year ago, I became convinced that the global warming debate was going the way of other environmental issues during the past 40 years. Dissenting voices were being silenced as America hurtled toward more laws, regulations, and bureaucratic control — which, "informed" opinion makers insist, are the only solutions allowed to any problems global warming might bring. (Iain Murray, American Spectator)

Japan, EU call for ‘highly ambitious’ climate goals - TOKYO — Leaders of Japan and the European Union called Wednesday for "highly ambitious and binding" global targets in the fight against climate change, amid slow-moving talks on a post-Kyoto treaty. (AFP)

California to sign UN compact to help China cut emissions - California, which puts out more greenhouse gases than any other state, is promising to share ideas and research to help China cut back on its own emissions, which rival those of the U.S. as the world’s largest. (AP)

Greece, Canada in Kyoto sin-bin - The UN has ruled Greece and Canada to be in breach of the Kyoto Protocol over monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. The rulings mean the two countries are prevented from international emissions trading under the Kyoto markets. (Carbon Positive)

Carbon plan ‘to cost business $22bn’ - THE Rudd Government’s planned carbon trading system will cost business between $14billion and $22billion a year and will have to be considered in a review of the taxation system. (The Australian)

Imagine that... Maldives Wants Emissions Cuts But Not From Tourism - SINGAPORE - The Maldives, worried about rising seas from climate change, wants steeper cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions but is unwilling to curb its tourism industry, which is reliant on polluting international flights. (Reuters)

Norway urges Exxon, not StatoilHydro, to cut CO2 - OSLO, April 23 - Norway’s $400 billion oil fund has won praise abroad as setting a "gold standard" for sovereign wealth investors — but can sometimes preach tougher corporate ethics abroad than the government practises at home. (Reuters)

Who’ll Pay Alabama’s Tax On ‘Big Oil’? - As the familiar song goes, Alabama has long been "sweet home" for its millions of residents. Too bad Republican Gov. Bob Riley is sounding a very sour note to the large businesses that create jobs and invest in his state, by seeking a punitive tax hike of roughly $200 million over the next six years on energy companies. His move amounts to little more than budgetary blackmail, and Americans in other states should beware of cash grabs like these that will ultimately reach into their wallets. (IBD)

Alaska Rejects Final Exxon Plan For Giant Gas Field - ANCHORAGE - Alaska on Tuesday rejected Exxon Mobil Corp’s latest plan for the giant Point Thomson natural gas field on the North Slope despite industry warnings of another lengthy setback to development of an Alaska gas pipeline. (Reuters)

Peak Oil? Saudis Squeeze the Stone Even Harder - As oil reserves get harder and more expensive to suck out of the ground, one big question looms: Is Saudi Arabia facing “practical peak oil” or the real thing? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

DOT’s Earth Day Treat - The Department of Transportation chose Earth Day to roll out its new fuel mileage (CAFE) rules as mandated by Congress, and the numbers show just how onerous this mandate will be. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)

Scrap The Guzzlers - One way to bring down the soaring price of gasoline is to decrease demand. We can do that fairly painlessly by taking older, less fuel-efficient cars off the road. (IBD)

Coal isn’t cool but our growth depends on it - As far as the Prime Minister was concerned, the overarching (a popular word among bureaucrats and politicians) issue of the summit was climate change, a view echoed in the initial summit report handed to him at the end of the summit. (Alan Wood, The Australian)

Europe Turns to Coal Again, Raising Alarms on Climate - CIVITAVECCHIA, Italy — At a time when the world’s top climate experts agree that carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced to hold down global warming, Italy’s major electricity producer, Enel, is converting its massive power plant here from oil to coal, generally the dirtiest fuel on earth. (New York Times)

Study examines amount of water needed to produce various types of energy - It is easy to overlook that most of the energy we consume daily, such as electricity or natural gas, is produced with the help of a dwindling resource – fresh water. Virginia Tech professor Tamim Younos and undergraduate student Rachelle Hill are researching the water-efficiency of some of the most common energy sources and power generating methods. (PhysOrg)

Wind Power Whips Through Texas - Who knew a “free” source of energy could be so expensive? (Drew Thornley, Planet Gore)

Aviation heads to act on climate change, but set no targets - Aviation chiefs pledged Tuesday to address the industry’s impact on climate change but shied away from setting concrete targets for reducing emissions of global-warming gases. (Associated Press)

A Volt Out of the Red - With the administration’s waning days coming up, the biggest implication of yesterday’s fuel-economy proposals from the Transportation Department is that officials will have some media bouquets to Google at their leisure when they leave office. How fun it will be to read about their boldness in speeding up the already ambitious mileage targets that Congress enacted last year. But anyone who thinks the new schedule amounts to a hill of biofuel soybeans must live somewhere far beyond the Beltway. (HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR., Wall Street Journal)

China Lights Way For Huge Efficient Bulb Subsidy (Reuters) - Hey GE, remind us again how you are going to make a fortune with this ‘ecomagination’ fantasy?

JFS Special: Results of the largest study on antioxidants - do they have a role in preventive health? - It’s one of the most popularly believed adages of our times: that antioxidant supplements, and lots of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, can avert the damage of free radicals and prevent chronic diseases of aging — the primary causes of death, such as heart disease and cancer — and enable us to live longer. Free radicals, the unavoidable results of being alive, are natural byproducts of breathing. Decades ago, when a correlation was seen between people eating produce-rich diets and lower rates of diseases associated with free radical damage, the belief was born that the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables must be the cause. Decades of clinical trials, that have not supported the ability of antioxidant vitamins to reduce premature deaths, haven’t shaken our conviction, let alone brought most of us to even question it. (Junkfood Science)

Link between ozone air pollution and premature death confirmed - Short-term exposure to current levels of ozone in many areas is likely to contribute to premature deaths, says a new National Research Council report, which adds that the evidence is strong enough that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should include ozone-related mortality in health-benefit analyses related to future ozone standards. The committee that wrote the report was not asked to consider how evidence has been used by EPA to set ozone standards, including the new public health standard set by the agency last month. (PhysOrg)

Life expectancy no longer improving for large segment of the US population - One of the major aims of the U.S. health system is improving the health of all people, particularly those segments of the population at greater risk of health disparities. In fact, overall life expectancy in the U.S. increased more than seven years for men and more than six years for women between 1960 and 2000. (PhysOrg)

Herbicide-tolerant crops can improve water quality - The residual herbicides commonly used in the production of corn and soybean are frequently detected in rivers, streams, and reservoirs at concentrations that exceed drinking water standards in areas where these crops are extensively grown. (PhysOrg)

Will Media Remember Gore’s 1994 Tie-breaking Vote Mandating Ethanol? - As the international disaster of ethanol begins taking its toll on the planet — and, maybe more important, as press outlet after press outlet finally begins recognizing it — will media remember that Vice President Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate requiring this oxygenate be added to gasoline?

After all, regardless of recent reports blaming ethanol for world hunger problems, rising food costs, and increased greenhouse gases, it seems highly unlikely green media will want to tie any of these problems to Nobel Laureate Gore.

Yet, as inconveniently reported by States News Service on August 3, 1994 (no link available, emphasis added throughout): (Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters)

Not sure about the above vote but Alberto is on record here with:

Excerpt: I was also proud to stand up for the ethanol tax exemption when it was under attack in the Congress — at one point, supplying a tie-breaking vote in the Senate to save it.

The more we can make this home-grown fuel a successful, widely-used product, the better-off our farmers and our environment will be. Similarly, we need to address the challenge of global warming in ways that are market-based, and good for farmers. Certainly, no line of work is more vulnerable to changes in the weather than agriculture. And perhaps no part of our economy has more to gain from serious efforts to reduce global warming. Fortunately, part of the solution can be found right on the farm. We can reduce greenhouse gases through carbon sequestration — the use of agriculture to suck the carbon out of the air and deposit it into the soil, enriching our farmland and making our air cleaner at the same time. That is why, last month in Buenos Aires , our negotiators won agreement with other nations on a comprehensive approach that we hope will lead to an international consensus on the role agricultural conservation can play in meeting this challenge. In fact, the Chicago Board of Trade is already exploring ways that farmers can profit from emissions trading, by selling carbon credits on the open market.

Death by Peace Prize: Why Millions Could Die Because of Gore, Carter and the Dalai Lama - Regardless of their intentions, three Nobel Peace Prize winners–Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and the Dalai Lama–are leading humanity straight to hell. (China Confidential)

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World - MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. (New York Sun)

Hmm… wonder if GM is going to keep pushing this.

April 22, 2008

The IR tiger in Exxon’s tank - First up at oil giant’s annual meeting: a shareholder’s proposal to end most shareholder proposals. Oh, and he was once funded by Exxon. (Jeff Nash, Financial Week)

Firms Use Earth Day To Show Their Green Side - Always a really bad idea to pander to/appease the enviro-flakes, even of profitable for the firm in the short term: Firms Use Earth Day To Show Their Green Side (Wall Street Journal)

Burning Question: Is Earth Day Bad For the Planet? - If it defuses some of the enviro-flakes then no, it is not. If, on the other hand it stirs them up then it is very bad. Burning Question: Is Earth Day Bad For the Planet? Some Activists Fear Bold Action Is Lost Amid Annual Hype (Wall Street Journal)

Earth Daze, Courtesy Of Al Gore - Al Gore sees no climate improvement since he made "An Inconvenient Truth." Actually, things have gotten worse. As the environmentalists celebrate Earth Day, the rush to replace fossil fuels threatens global famine. (IBD)

No heaven on Earth Day: Wintry blast cools global warming fervour - So much for global warming. Earth Day festivities went ahead despite the blast of frigid weather yesterday. (Sun Media)

Little Increase in Americans’ Global Warming Worries: Public just can’t seem to get worked up about it - PRINCETON, NJ — While 61% of Americans say the effects of global warming have already begun, just a little more than a third say they worry about it a great deal, a percentage that is roughly the same as the one Gallup measured 19 years ago. (Frank Newport, Gallup)

Starving The Poor By Pandering To Big Ag - Not a day goes by without some big leader warning the world of the coming food crisis. A week ago, it was U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s turn in the race to the microphone and camera. (IBD)

The Case for Ending Ethanol Subsidies - At a time of soaring food prices and concern over carbon emissions, George Bush needs to rethink his biofuel policy. (The American)

Analysis: EU bashes Bush’s climate plan - U.S. President George W. Bush’s policies to combat climate change have come under fire in Europe, with Germany’s top energy policy official accusing the U.S. president of demonstrating "losership instead of leadership." (UPI)

Same Time Next Year - In case this story line from the International Herald Tribune sounds familiar — of global-warming negotiators reaching an important accord to meet again later to reach an important accord — it really, really should. (Chris Horner, CEI)

‘Climate change’? It’s whatever you want it to be - EDMONTON -The trouble with writing a column about an event just before it is about to begin is that it may not pan out exactly as you suspect. But I think I’m on solid ground when I say that Edmonton’s Earth Day 2008 — which was not slated to begin Sunday until a couple of hours after I had to file — was not as well-attended as most of its 18 predecessors. (Lorne Gunter,  National Post)

Vroom or Veggie: Can Fighting Global Warming Still Be Fun? - How big a bummer does attacking global warming have to be? That, unintentionally, was a central topic of disagreement at a climate-change conference at Yale University on Friday. (Dana Mattioli, WSJ)

No Problem: Environmental Defense Fund Says Capping Emissions Will Be Cheap - News flash: An environmental group says tackling global warming won’t kill the economy. The Environmental Defense Fund, which advocates a cap-and-trade scheme to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, just finished an analysis of what such a plan might cost the U.S. Not surprisingly, EDF’s answer is: very little. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

And if you believe that they'll tell you another.

New papers at SPPI

The Government Grant System: Inhibitor of Truth and Innovation?

"Climate Change is more important than cleaning up dog-mess" - Gore

Glenn Beck Interviews; Talks with Monkton, Monkton on Global Warming

When ‘green’ is shorthand for environmental idiocy

Observed Climate Change and Negligible Global Effect of Greenhouse-gas Emission Limits in Wyoming

Roger A. Pielke Sr. Perspective On Adaptation and Mitigation - There is considerable discussion on the relative roles of adaption and mitigation with respect to the findings in the 2007 IPCC report (e.g. see).  Thus, I have concluded that it is worthwhile to specifically define my views on this subject, as I did on the related subject of the human role within the climate system; see Roger A. Pielke Sr.’s Perspective On The Role Of Humans In Climate Change (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Arctic ice more vulnerable to sunny weather, new study shows - The shrinking expanse of Arctic sea ice is increasingly vulnerable to summer sunshine, new research concludes. The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Colorado State University (CSU), finds that unusually sunny weather contributed to last summer’s record loss of Arctic ice, while similar weather conditions in past summers do not appear to have had comparable impacts. (PhysOrg)

This is why you don’t put an official NOAA temperature sensor over concrete - You’d think the answer would be obvious, but here we have a NOAA operated USHCN climate station of record providing a live experiment. It always helps to illustrate with photos. Today I surveyed a sewage treatment plant, one of 4 stations surveyed today (though I tried for 5) and found that for convenience, they had made a nice concrete walkway to allow servicing the Fisher-Porter rain gauge, which needs is paper punch tape replaced one a month. (Watts Up with That?)

Ken Tapping: The Current Solar Minimum - I received this via e-mail from K7RA. The original document comes from Dr Kenneth Tapping who was quoted not long ago regarding the solar cycle being “the quietest [he’d] ever seen in 25 years”. This was taken to mean that the current solar minimum was historically unusual, and here Dr Tapping explains that this is not so. (Solar Science)

The Antarctic deep sea gets colder - Interesting. The current thinking is for an intensification of Antarctic descent water. This will increase the bottom current and the exit of warmer tropical surface waters — in other words increasing rather than reducing meridional overturning and so offsetting potential reduction in wind forcing of the current with a smaller temperature gradient between tropic and pole.

Little Ice Age in Southern South America? - Recall our long essay series a few years (e.g., here) ago regarding the now-debunked “Hockey Stick” depiction of hemispheric and/or global temperatures. In 2001, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) rolled out a depiction of temperatures over the past 1,000 years, and as seen below (Figure 1), the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age all but disappeared, and the warming rate of the most recent 100 years looked nothing short of incredible. The second plot below (Figure 2) comes from the most recent IPCC assessment, and note that (a) the plot is clearly labeled as “Northern Hemisphere,” (b) the recent warming looks less impressive, and (c) the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age periods are more prominent. (WCR)

Some Carbon-Credit Projects Find a Tougher Road to Approval - The United Nations body that grants carbon credits is clamping down amid a debate over whether such awards curb emissions or merely allow polluters to buy their way out of cutting back. (Wall Street Journal)

Britain wants to develop CO2 ‘capture’ knowhow: minister - Britain hopes to develop a new technology to "capture" and store carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels instead of letting it out into the atmosphere, British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said Monday. (AFP)

Industrial companies fears climate change fight will drive them out of Europe - BRUSSELS: Will the fight against climate change drive the makers of steel, glass, chemicals and cement out of Europe or out of business, or neither? (Reuters)

Government to release proposed fuel economy rules - WASHINGTON - The government on Tuesday plans to release a proposal to raise fuel efficiency standards for new cars and trucks, putting the nation’s fleet on track to reach 35 miles per gallon by 2020. (Associated Press)

Green Ink: $120, Here We Come - Crude oil shot to a new record above $117 on the back of further supply disruptions and OPEC’s unwillingness to increase production, reports Bloomberg. A rocket attack on an empty Japanese tanker off Yemen Monday could lead to further supply disruptions, also from Bloomberg. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

America Paralyzed by Fear and Global Warming Hysteria as Gasoline Prices Rise to Deadly Level - As gasoline prices jumped for the first time to an average $3.50 a gallon at filling stations across America, an apparently paralyzed and defeated nation remained focused on … carbon. (China Confidential)

China tries to buck trend toward declining oil production - BEIJING: China, often blamed for propelling the five-year rally in oil prices, is also doing more than many big producers to temper the rise by pressing its state-owned oil companies to pump more crude - at almost any cost. (Reuters) h/t — China Confidential

Questioning nuclear power’s ability to forestall global warming - Rising energy and environmental costs may prevent nuclear power from being a sustainable alternative energy source in the fight against global warming, according to a study in the April 1 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology.

Dam: Africa Gets Serious About Hydropower - Did Joseph Conrad already stumble onto the solution to Africa’s power crisis? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Right idea, wrong costings. Hot air trading is just another dot.bomb [over]due to implode.

Biofuels under fire at International Energy Forum - Biofuels, once seen as a key factor in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, are behind the current global food crisis, major oil producers and consumers charged at an energy forum here on Monday. (AFP)

Bolivia Morales: Biofuels Serious Problem To Poor - UNITED NATIONS - Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday criticized "some South American presidents" for supporting the use of biofuels, which he said are responsible for high food prices and global hunger. (Reuters)

Britain May Push For Changes In EU Biofuel Targets - LONDON - Britain will push for changes in European Union biofuels targets if a review of British policy shows rising biofuels production drives up food prices and harms the environment, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

EU Commission Says Not Dropping Biofuels Goal - BRUSSELS - The European Commission is not starting to backtrack on its target of getting 10 percent of its road transport fuel from crops and biomass by 2020, a spokesman said on Monday. (Reuters)

Palm Oil Protests Target Unilever Sites - LONDON - Environmental demonstrators targeted Unilever on Monday, entering plants and scaling walls, including those of its London headquarters. (Reuters)

Hot News: Lewis Wind Farm Refused - “Fàilte. Ciamar a tha sibh?” I am delighted to be able to report that the dreadful wind farm proposed* for the beautiful Isle of Lewis (Eilean Leòdhais) in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland has been refused by the Scottish Energy Minister (‘Lewis Wind Farm refused’, The Stornoway Gazette, April 21): (Global Warming Politics)

Commentary: You only think you’re hearing all the news - In light of what Kathleen and other scientists are going through, and the fact that there continues to be no scientific support for the ongoing scares being directed at innocent young parents over mercury exposures and vaccinations for their children, it is egregious that this article published in the British Medical Journal last week has not even been reported. (Junkfood Science)

Debate rages over plastic bottle chemical’s safety - WASHINGTON - Canada is moving to get rid of products with a chemical commonly found in plastic baby bottles, the United States is expressing concern over the chemical’s safety, and some retailers are planning to stop selling these items. (Reuters)

Raging debate? Hardly. Noisy wackos claim it’s a problem and dopey legislators listen to them but there is no health issue here.

What is a fair test? - A clinical intervention trial on people has long been considered the gold standard in research, and essential for determining the effectiveness and safety of a treatment, pill or intervention. But all studies are not created equal and some are of such poor quality that we cannot rely on them to make health decisions, either for ourselves or for others. Yet, the very idea of questioning a clinical trial or the basic skills to recognize a biased study from one that can be trusted are uncommon today. Certainly, those trying to promote a treatment — be it a pharmaceutical drug, preventive health intervention, or alternative modality — aren’t keen on such skills and scrutinizing studies too closely. (Junkfood Science)

Kathleen’s update - For those following the Threat to citizen journalism story, blogger Kathleen Seidel at Neurodiversity blog has just posted the latest news. Not only has she been hit with a subpoena demanding “access to virtually the entire documentary record of my intellectual and financial life over the past four years” attempting to scare her silent, she finds herself in Distinguished Company. (Junkfood Science)

If this meat was from a cloned animal, would you eat it? - Are they asking me? Oh well then, yep, fire up the barbie while I cut up some ‘tater & onions. Is the beer cold? I love cookouts! If this meat was from a cloned animal, would you eat it? Cloned animals and their offspring have been declared safe to eat; in a matter of months their meat will be on sale in the US. Ed Pilkington reports on a PR timebomb that’s about to blow (The Guardian)

$1m for putting test tube chicken on table - ANIMAL rights group PETA is putting up a $US1 million ($1.06m) reward for anyone who can grow test-tube meat that looks and tastes like the real thing. (Agence France-Presse)

Co-op clashes with organic group over CO2 and food miles - Two leading voices in the fight against climate change were at loggerheads last night over the weight given to "food miles" in a labelling system designed to encourage consumers to choose low-carbon products in shops and supermarkets. (The Guardian)

Scientists study how climate change impacts food production - The old adage, “We are what we eat,’’ may be the latest recipe for success when it comes to curbing the perils of global climate warming. Despite the recent popular attention to the distance that food travels from farm to plate, aka “food miles,” Carnegie Mellon researchers Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews argue in an upcoming article in the prestigious Environmental Science & Technology journal that it is dietary choice, not food miles, which most determines a household’s food-related climate impacts. (PhysOrg)

Forget carbon: you should be checking your water footprint - Ethical shopping just got harder – but the latest attempt to help conscientious consumers calculate their impact on the environment could do more to preserve scarce resources than all its predecessors. (The Independent)

The Schizophrenia Of U.S. Farm Policy - The price of the new farm bill, final details of which are being hammered out by congressional negotiators, has risen to $280 billion over five years, according to news reports. (IBD)

Conservation loses out to global warming panic - A global food crisis looms, as crops are diverted to biofuels. Food prices have soared 83 percent in three years. Thousands of U.S. farmers are pulling their land out of the government’s biggest conservation program to plant millions of acres back to crops and pasture. U.S. environmentalists warn that "years of conservation progress" will be lost as America’s 35-million-acre Conservation Reserve dwindles, especially in the important bird-nesting areas of the northern Great Plains. (Dennis T. Avery, ESR)

Updated: New Beef Eco-Report - Click here to view the entire paper.

New Beef Eco-Report: Pound-for-pound, beef produced with grains and growth hormones produces 40% less greenhouse gas emissions and saves two-thirds more land for nature compared to organic grass-fed beef. (Hudson Institute Center For Global Food Issues)

April 21, 2008

Resisting the watermelon assault on capitalism: Green makes him see red - Steven Milloy’s proposal sits atop a list of 16 others on Exxon Mobil Corp.’s annual proxy statement. He doesn’t believe the rest of them belong there.

Milloy’s Free Enterprise Action Fund filed a proposal to eliminate "nuisance proposals" from shareholders who use corporate governance to push political agendas. He’s calling for a change in Exxon Mobil’s bylaws to require board approval for including nonbinding proposals in the proxy.

"We believe the purpose of such proposals is to harass and intimidate the company into actions that it would not ordinarily undertake and that, in fact, may be harmful to the company and bona fide shareholders," the proposal says.

As Milloy sees it, too many executives are intimidated by activist shareholders who favor environmental issues and other practices that undermine shareholder value. (Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle)

Let James Hansen and FoE USA Know What You Think of Eco-Censorship - Don’t believe the rumours of well-funded climate change denialism. We at Climate Resistance lack the hi-tech equipment and web infrastructure to offer the kind of webform that Friends of the Earth USA has at its disposal. Maurizio Morabito suggests we use the FoE form to send an alternative message to the Publishers of American Government, offering support, rather than harassment. We think that’s a good idea. But we should also let Prof Hansen and FoE know what we think of their silly campaign. (Climate Resistance)

Stop the CO2 scare, before it’s too late - As President Bush finally caved in to international pressure last week and committed the US to spending untold billions of dollars on "the fight against global warming", I happened to be in Washington at the same time, talking on the same subject to more than a dozen very lively and opinionated radio shows. (Christopher Booker, Sunday Telegraph)

Rather than wasting societal effort and resources on gorebull warming this is the kind of thing we should be worried about: INDIA: Water Aplenty, Nor a Drop to Drink - NEW DELHI, Apr 18 - Over 37.7 million people in India are affected by water-borne diseases due to contaminated drinking water supply and an estimated 1.5 million children die of diarrhoea each year, according to newly available statistics. (IPS)

Poor Malaysia: Al Gore’s global warming show comes to the small screen - Don’t you think it’s funny that Apple board member and director Al Gore — the "great educator" hasn’t yet managed to educate even the press that he is not hawking a Microsoft PowerPoint™ presentation but actually an Apple KeyNote™? (Full disclosure: I work on a MacBook Pro and run Microsoft products in a Parallels shell.) Apple aren’t getting value for shareholders’ money. Al Gore’s global warming show comes to the small screen (The Star)

According to Al, no one is getting their money's worth. He says he and his shlockumentary are failures: No improvement in climate fight since 2006 film: Gore - Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore said in an interview published Monday that there had been no improvement in the fight against climate change since his Oscar-winning film on the issue was released. Speaking to The Sun tabloid, the former US vice-president said that the situation had instead gotten worse since his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" hit cinemas in 2006. (AFP)

Climate Change 101: Key Global Warming Facts - by  Summary: The Earth has had eight warming cycles since the last Ice Age. Several of these were apparently warmer than today, based on the evidence of fossils and isotopes. The Earth’s warming since 1850 totals about 0.7 degrees C. Most of this occurred before 1940. (Dennis T. Avery, CapMag.com)

Global Warming 101: Professor Carter Explains Climate Realism

Friday was a perfect example as New Zealand television’s "Nzone Tonight" broadcast an interview with Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University, Queensland, Australia.

"Global warming" scores a ZERO in the latest ABC News poll - From page six here: (Tom Nelson)

The Climate Change Consensus Registry - Why: We have all seen much in the media about a consensus of scientists supporting Man-made Global Warming.  However we have not been able to find a listing of the learned persons comprising this consensus. This site is for climate scientists, other scientists, researchers, analysts and the general public to stand up and be counted. (Environmental Balance)

How so, we wonder? - That poor virtual world gets a workout again but what makes them think volatility would increase in the real world even if it did warm? Weather violence is triggered by the difference between warm and cold extremes (tropics and poles, basically) and the more the world warms, which under enhanced greenhouse means less cold poles with virtually unchanged tropics, the less intense is the thermal gradient around the globe and so less intense weather events should be anticipated. The drought thing is a nonsense too since the world dries during cold periods and moistens during warm ones. These disaster prognostications just get sillier and sillier. Forecast holds change for state skies (News Oklahoma)

Global Warming Tax Hikes Headed Your Way - America is in the throes of a major housing and financial downturn, soaring food and energy costs, rising unemployment and near recession. But many legislators and bureaucrats are falling all over themselves to restrict fossil fuel use, advance climate change legislation – and thereby increase oil imports, energy prices, and impacts on families and businesses. (Paul Driessen, Townhall)

World’s biggest polluters stumble over specific emissions cuts - PARIS: Climate negotiators from the world’s biggest polluters clashed over how deeply to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases, but decided to hold new talks aimed at reaching an accord. (Associated Press)

E.U. Facing Business Backlash: Europe finds that cutting carbon emissions is far easier said than done - The E.U. bureaucracy is locking horns with European heavy industry over climate-related laws that could take effect as soon as next year. In particular, regulators and some of Europe’s biggest companies are arguing about new legislation that aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent by 2020. The bureaucrats intend to achieve this by rolling energy and other heavy industries into the European Trading Scheme (E.T.S.) and forcing them to buy greenhouse gas emission permits. But energy and other firms, anticipating giant cost increases, have decided to “vote with their feet.” They have begun cancelling investment projects worth billions of dollars, and some firms reportedly are contemplating leaving Europe altogether. (Peter Glover, Energy Tribune)

Austria rethinks environmental policy in bid to meet Kyoto target - Austria has been forced to reconsider its environmental policy after two reports indicated the renewable energy leader will likely fail to meet its Kyoto greenhouse gas emissions targets in 2012. (AFP)

Submission to Garnaut Review - Emissions Trading - a Weapon of Mass Taxation - Carbon Sense Coalition submission to the Garnaut Review, Emissions Trading - A Weapon of Mass Taxation.pdf [PDF 113KB] (Carbon Sense Coalition)

Inhofe Praises President Bush for Rejecting Lieberman-Warner Bill - President Bush stresses new technologies. There has been a lot of dissatisfaction among conservatives over the new Bush approach but I lean to the view that it was the best way of averting a greater folly from Congress. So a comment by someone as politically savvy as Senator Inhofe has considerable interest

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, issued the following statement in response to President Bush’s statement in which he set out a new intermediate national goal for stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions:

"I applaud the President for outlining a bold alternative climate initiative that rejects the concept that the United States must adopt economically ruinous cap-and-trade legislation such as the Lieberman-Warner bill that would significantly drive up the already skyrocketing cost of energy on the American public," Senator Inhofe said. (post lifted from Greenie Watch)

Doing little is doing right, or you’ll wreck economy - In a much-anticipated statement on global warming, President Bush on Thursday announced a national goal to stabilize our emissions of greenhouse gases - mainly carbon dioxide - by 2025. (Patrick Michaels, Cato Institute)

Mis-analysis of the moment - This would be a great analogy but for one little thing — atmospheric CO₂ is not a "pollutant" nor even a cost — it is, in fact, a significant free benefit. How much have global crop yields increased with rising aerial fertilization? Tragedy of commons & modern finance (Economic Times)

I know dearth day is looming but sheesh! Kristof can’t tell the difference between nuclear rogue states and essential trace gases — that is a problem: Our Favorite Planet (New York Times)

Hot air scam = planet hero?: How to Save the Planet and Make Money Doing It (Bryan Walsh, Time)

Time Bomb - Time calls green "the new red, white and blue" and likens global warming to the fight against Nazism and fascism. As it insults World War II vets, the magazine seeks to impose a tyranny all its own. (IBD)

Altogether too plausible: Speaking Out: Global warming guilt finally gets to me - I recently had major heart surgery. I now have more bypasses than the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is one of those experiences that makes you reflect back on your life and question the direction you are going in the future. Several weeks after my surgery, my physician sat me down and asked, "Mr. Shorr, do you know what caused your heart disease?" I immediately replied, "Of course, global warming!" (David Shorr, Business Times)

Or Just Plain Nuts? - The alarms that environmental extremists have sounded have given rise to a market for therapists who treat eco-anxiety. What a concept! Scare the wits out of people, then make money off their fear. (IBD)

News Hounds promotes a RINO: Schwarzenegger tells FOX audience global warming deniers are protecting business (partly correct, AGW advocates are certainly out to destroy capitalism)

Green groups fear for Italian climate policy under Berlusconi - Green groups fear Italy’s efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be hindered by the appointment of a new government under newly elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. (Point Carbon)

CO2 Constraints Have Major Global Security Impacts - Seventeen years ago, post-Soviet Russia was a geopolitical doormat, too poor and weak to exert much influence beyond its borders. This month, at an international summit in Romania, Russia intimidated Western Europe into scuttling a proposal for NATO expansion. Historically, only war has caused rapid, profound shifts in the European balance of power. Russia’s rise, however, has a less malignant, if more bizarre, origin: German environmentalism. (William Yeatman, Times Dispatch Columnist)

Climate change needs money - Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday the fight against climate change needs massive new flows of private investment and globally regulated "green" markets to succeed. (Associated Press)

Money for Nothing - Carbon cartels and the rise of a phantom industry (John Charles, Brainstorm)

Solar Cycle 24: Do we count Tiny Tims? - Another week of excitement as the second solar cycle 24 spot appeared…and then disappeared just as rapidly. I can’t help feeling that with an unprecedented amount of high technology monitoring the Sun with ever higher resolution, the criteria by which a sunspot is defined has become radically weakened to such an extent that it all becomes meaningless. (Solar Science)

Average Day By Day Variations Of The Global And Hemispheric Average Lower Tropospheric Temperatures - The University of Alabama at Huntsville has a valuable summary of  day by day global, and northern and southern hemispheric,  average values of the lower tropospheric temperatures.  Since the Earth is at different distances from the Sun during the year, and the two hemispheres have different amounts of land and ocean, this is an interesting analysis in its own, in addition to its use to compute the deviation from the averages at any time of the year. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

How not to measure temperature, part 61 - maintenance optional - Every time I visit NOAA’s USHCN page I cringe when I see this phrase:

“The United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) is a high quality, moderate-sized data set of daily and monthly records of basic meteorological variables from over 1000 observing stations across the 48 contiguous United States.”

The “high quality” part always gets me, particularly when www.surfacestation.org volunteers like Eric Gamberg keep finding stations like this one: (Watts Up With That?)

Road trip update: 5 stations, 376 miles - I surveyed 5 NOAA USHCN stations today, 2 water plants, 1 sewage treatment plant, and two private observers. Total distance traveled: 376 miles. All stations had MMTS, and were CRN 3,4,5 rated. The sewage treatment plan was a real gem. Mold on the sensor. MMTS was mounted about 18 feet from an open sewer inlet. I have all the yucky pictures. (Watts Up With That?)

Politically Incorrect Old Tree - That excellent and indefatigable ecologist and biogeographer, Leif Kullman, Professor of Physical Geography at Umeå University, has just discovered what he believes to be the world’s oldest living tree [see above].* The spruce in question, which was found on Fulu Mountain at an altitude of 910 m (2,985 ft) in Dalarna (‘The Dales’), Sweden, has been dated to 9,550 years old, and it has been shown to be “a tenacious survivor that has endured by growing between erect trees and smaller bushes in pace with the dramatic climate changes over time” [see: Umeå University Press Release (April 16) - ‘World’s oldest living tree discovered in Sweden’].
 
But just note that wording: “dramatic climate changes over time.” Exactly. Moreover, this remarkable tree would have taken root right after the last ice age, when - wait for it -  “the summers 9,500 years ago were warmer than today” [see: ‘World’s oldest living tree over 9,000 years old’, The Daily Telegraph, April 18]. (Global Warming Politics)

They're so right! Canada’s polar bears in dire straits: WWF (AFP)

I looked up (via a web search) "polar bear" +"dire straits" & this is what I came up with:

now don’t talk to me about the polar bear
don’t talk to me about the ozone layer
ain’t much of anything these days, even the air
they’re running out of rhinos - what do I care?
let’s hear it for the dolphin - let’s hear it for the trees
ain’t running out of nothing in my deep freeze
it’s casual entertaining - we aim to please
at my parties (Dire Straits My Parties Lyrics)

Thanks to WWF here because we never realized these were in fact Canadian polar bears, nor had we remembered the bears were accompanied by rhinos and dolphins.

Seeing clearly despite the clouds - Satellites taking atmospheric measurements might now be able to see blue skies as clearly as optimists do. Researchers have found a way to reduce cloud-induced glare when satellites measure blue skies on cloudy days, by as much as ten-fold in some cases. The result might lead to more accurate estimates of the amount of sunlight penetrating the atmosphere. Because clouds represent one of the largest areas of uncertainty, eventually this could lead to improved climate models. (PhysOrg)

Bio-Foolishness - Poverty, famine and violence are among the supposed products of global warming in the future. Yet these calamities are with us today thanks to a key element of "green" policy, biofuels. This feel-good measure is becoming a real-world disaster. (WSJE)

EU set to scrap biofuels target amid fears of food crisis - The European commission is backing away from its insistence on imposing a compulsory 10% quota of biofuels in all petrol and diesel by 2020, a central plank of its programme to lead the world in combating climate change. (The Guardian)

Bodman on Biofuels: They’re ‘Critical’ to Energy Security - For some U.N. officials, biofuels are a “crime against humanity.” For big biofuel producers, like Brazil, denying the developing world alternative fuels would be the real crime, says Brazilian president Lula. And U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Biofuels under attack as world food prices soar -  Hailed until only months ago as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming, biofuels are now accused of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor. (Economic Times)

The biofuel hoax is causing a world food crisis! As our politicians drill the human food supply for energy (Christopher Calder)

Crop-Based Biofuel Production under Acreage Constraints and Uncertainty - Abstract: A myriad of policy issues and questions revolve around understanding the bioeconomy. To gain insight, we develop a stochastic and dynamic general equilibrium model and capture the uncertain nature of key variables such as crude oil prices and commodity yields. We also incorporate acreage limitations on key feedstocks such as corn, soybeans, and switchgrass. We make standard assumptions that investors are rational and engage in biofuel production only if returns exceed what they can expect to earn from alternative investments. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandates the use of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022, with significant requirements for cellulosic biofuel and biodiesel production. We calculate the level of tax credits required to stimulate this level of production. Subsidies of nearly $2.50 per gallon to biodiesel and $1.86 per gallon to cellulosic biofuel were required, and long-run equilibrium commodity prices were high, with corn at $4.76 per bushel and soybeans at $13.01 per bushel. High commodity prices are due to intense competition for planted acres among the commodities. (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development) [em added]

Maybe Horses Will Fly - Developing Countries and Global Warming - Last week, the New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin blogged about the World Bank’s decision to finance a major new coal fired power plant in India. Revkin ended his blog with a question: "Is all of this bad? If you’re one of many climate scientists foreseeing calamity, yes. If you’re a village kid in rural India looking for a light to read by, no." (Breakthrough Institute)

Activists play climate card in fight over coal: Plant-by-plant strategy aims to sway Washington - WASHINGTON — Every time a new coal-fired power plant is proposed anywhere in the United States, a lawyer from the Sierra Club or an allied environmental group is assigned to stop it, by any bureaucratic or legal means necessary. (Los Angeles Times)

Electricity industry wrangles over California’s greenhouse gas law - Some public suppliers are likely to pay high fees, while private companies may reap benefits from a cap-and-trade system under consideration. (Los Angeles Times)

Reliable Gas? Not for Iran, Turkey, Europe - An unprecedented cold winter for much of the Middle East and the Caspian region highlighted the unreliability of regional gas supplies. The cold weather resulted in heated rhetoric, as Turkmenistan temporarily stopped shipping gas to Iran. Meanwhile, Russia continues to resort to supply interruptions in commercial disputes with transit countries. Here is a closer look at the disputes. (David Wood, Energy Tribune)

Feds: Dismiss state tailpipe ruling: Justice Department officials contend U.S. law overrules Vermont decision. - WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, in support of the auto industry, has urged a federal appeals court to set aside a ruling by a federal judge that said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. (Associated Press)

Don’t outsource mileage, emissions policy to EPA - U.S. Rep. John Dingell has rightfully called out his fellow lawmakers for global warming gamesmanship. His question: If the environment is an overriding issue for world survival, why is Congress outsourcing decisions on the matter to the Environmental Protection Agency? (The Detroit News)

Flowers in the desert - When you have spent years of your life attempting to defend a cause, such as scepticism (i.e. traditional science), it is easy to become despondent in the face of an implacable and ruthless foe: more so when your opponents appear to have absolute domination over the establishment media. (Number Watch)

UK doctor-scientist leading the debate on alternative modalities - Is there evidence for complementary-alternative modalities? Some say there’s been no good research done on CAM and dismiss it out of hand, others say it cannot be tested by using the scientific process and embrace it out of hand. Both sides use their respective reasonings to explain why no evidence exists to support CAM. (Junkfood Science)

Older and heavier need not apply - “Think your weight is nobody’s business? Try telling that to employers,” wrote Julie Forster in the Pioneer Press in the Twin Cities. (Junkfood Science)

What do Tony the Tiger and major league baseball have in common? - Tony the Tiger has been part of childhoods for more than half a century and baseball considerably longer, yet both were blamed today for contributing to the current obesity epidemic. As part of anti-obesity drives, they’ve been targeted for the endangered list as being unhealthy influences. (Junkfood Science)

Yesterday’s joke – today’s politics - Your bending author coined the term “passive drinking” for the 2000 book Sorry, wrong number! Coupled with “toe-nail cancer” it was meant to be so absurd that no one could mistake it for a real example. It has subsequently been used in these pages to help explain such concepts as Trojan Number and Publication Bias.

But there are no jokes in the world of the zealots, so now we have this.

It illustrates so many of the contentions in March of the zealots, particularly the way the success of the anti-tobacco campaign has inspired the other puritans.

Footnote: We are reminded that Number Watch featured the headline It was meant to be a joke twice in its early days, appropriately in the month of April in the years 2001 and 2002. The satirical inventions that became true were "microclusters" and "potato crisps cause cancer". Risky business, making little jokes! (Number Watch)

Inhofe-Mica United Against Federal Land Grab Legislation - Congressional Hearings Expose Significant Opposition to Democrat Water Bill  

WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, and U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Republican Leader, today issued the following statements reflecting on the recent Senate and House hearings on the highly controversial Clean Water Restoration Act. (EPW)

Feds are looking into the dangers of lead in artificial turf - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is looking into the possible health hazards of lead in artificial turf installed at schools, parks and stadiums across the country. (AP)

No surprise given that Canadians are even frightened of cosmetic lawn chemicals: Ottawa to ban baby bottles made with bisphenol A - The federal government announced Friday it intends to ban the import and sale of polycarbonate baby bottles containing bisphenol A, making Canada the first country in the world to limit exposure to the controversial chemical. (CBC News)

A world of hemp lingerie? No thanks - Women will be returned to the Dark Ages if the eco-fundamentalists end up having their way (Melanie Reid, The Times)

Radical Greens Harm The Earth More Than They Help - Tuesday is Earth Day, the calendar’s High Holy Day of Green theology. With each passing year, environmentalism more clearly assumes the trappings of a secular religion. Now, along comes Iain Murray to assert that the Green God is dead. (Max Schulz, New York Post)

Critters are thriving -- must be bad: Moose multiplying in Scandinavia - Biologists say there are now record numbers of moose in Scandinavia — the greatest population since the Ice Age. (UPI)

In Lean Times, Biotech Grains Are Less Taboo - Soaring food prices and global grain shortages are bringing new pressures on governments, food companies and consumers to relax their longstanding resistance to genetically engineered crops. (New York Times)

April 18, 2008

A New ‘Green’ Body Count Begins - Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in riots in Haiti -- perhaps the first of many casualties yet to come from the current fad of being “green.” (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

The biofuel gauge

This one got a good laugh Down-Under - Another case of The Times making [up] the news? 2001 was Australia’s biggest traded rice harvest in the last decade, amounting to a stunning 0.27% of the world’s rice crop according to UNFAO [Aussies mostly grow medium rather than the traded long-grain varieties, almost entirely for domestic consumption, in other words and even then our total is a paltry couple million tons with about 0.5mt exported]. Australia’s effect on global rice trading? It’s doubtful anyone noticed a difference either way. With Australia in the key position of contributing approximately one day’s ration for the global population The Times writes it up like this: A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice (New York Times)

The president warms - THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL - We are all global-warming alarmists now. President Bush’s speech yesterday outlining the goal of halting the growth of greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States by 2025 runs the unusual gauntlet of promising something the private sector will probably deliver on its own — witness the spontaneous rise of "carbon offsets" and green investing — while also kicking the intellectual legs out from under a defensible conservative position on climate change.

Japan welcomes Bush’s ‘positive’ move on climate change - TOKYO, April 17 - Japan welcomes the United States’ "positive" approach to tackling climate change as President George W. Bush said Wednesday the country will curb growth in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Thursday. (Kyodo)

The French Disconnection: Bush Plan Fizzles at Paris Climate Talks - President Bush’s climate-change speech was apparently meant for “domestic consumption.” Just as well—because if Mr. Bush was hoping to tender an olive branch to other countries, they’ve promptly snapped it in half. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Bush’s CO2 Plan Is "Neanderthal" - German Minister - BERLIN - US President George W Bush’s plan to halt a rise in US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 could undermine, rather than support, efforts to combat climate change, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. (Reuters)

US shrugs off ‘hot-blooded’ climate critics - The White House on Thursday shrugged off "hot-blooded" critics of US President George W. Bush’s climate change policies, tarring them as political opportunists unserious about finding real solutions. "You’re always going to see lots of hot-blooded reaction to anything said on climate, and so you should just be prepared for that," spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters. (AFP)

Bush CO2 Plan in Context - For those of you who might wish to place the plans announced by President Bush yesterday into context, according to data from the US EIA (xls):

US CO2 emissions from 2026-2030 are projected to increase by only 0.84% per year. So stabilizing at 2025 levels is not an ambitious goal, given the small rate of increase projected to be occurring for the US at that time. To put this another way, the average annual increase in US emissions from 2025 to 2030 will be equal to about 2.5 days of China’s projected 2030 emissions also using projections from the EIA (which in fact probably represents a dramatic underestimate of where China’s emissions are actually headed, as we suggested in Nature two weeks ago). For those wanting to spin things the other way, you might point out that the proposed five year effects on carbon dioxide of Bush’s plans 2026-2030 are about twice the magnitude of the proposed five year effects of the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. (Pielke Jr., R., Prometheus)

Appalling. Absolutely inexplicable media lapse. - Iwo Jima Veterans Blast Time’s ‘Special Environmental Issue’ Cover - Time editor tells MSNBC ‘there needs to be a real effort along the lines of World War II to combat global warming and climate change.’

For only the second time in 85 years, Time magazine abandoned the traditional red border it uses on its cover. The occasion – to push more global warming alarmism.

The cover of the April 21 issue of Time took the famous Iwo Jima photograph by Joe Rosenthal of the Marines raising the American flag and replaced the flag with a tree. The cover story by Bryan Walsh calls green “the new red, white and blue.”

Donald Mates, an Iwo Jima veteran, told the Business & Media Institute on April 17 that using that photograph for that cause was a “disgrace.”

“It’s an absolute disgrace,” Mates said. “Whoever did it is going to hell. That’s a mortal sin. (Jeff Poor, Business & Media Institute)

BBC’s Unbound Climate Zeal: Again! - After a few days of rest, aimed perhaps at calming down the furore around the Harrabin-Abbess story, the BBC Climate Change Propaganda Committee is running at full steam once again. Now is the turn of Richard Black to be on-message with a new scary piece about sea levels in fabled year 2100. (OmniClimate)

Wikipedia’s zealots - The thought police at the supposedly independent site are fervently enforcing the climate orthodoxy (Lawrence Solomon,  Financial Post)

Go after the little kids — they are more easily indoctrinated - California greenin’ comes to Scotland - She helped clean up the most populous US state, defied Arnie and now wants to save the world. The female version of Al Gore talks to environment correspondent JENNY HAWORTH

AS Catherine Witherspoon talks to groups of students, she looks them in the eye and tells them they are the world’s hope for saving the planet.

The former climate change adviser to California’s governors – including Arnold Schwarzenegger – is convinced young people hold the key to changing public opinion by becoming more aware of the impact of their behaviour on the environment.

"I think little kiddies are going to save us," she said. "Little kids nag their parents to recycle. They say ‘Can we have a Prius for our next car’. They ask their mummy to stop smoking.

"It is the really young kids that are crucial. By the time they hit their teens they are more concerned about what’s hip, peer pressure, when do they get their driver’s licence, can they get a new mobile phone that can show movies." (The Scotsman)

INTERVIEW - US Carbon Market Inevitable - EU’s Dimas - PARIS - A US market in greenhouse gases is inevitable and President George W Bush should embrace trading now, so as to sharpen US efforts to slow global warming, European Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Thursday. (Reuters)

GOP congressmen ask for investigation into carbon offset programs - WASHINGTON – Two top Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee today asked committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., and U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to open an investigation into carbon offset programs. (Media Release)

Uh-oh! Someone’s going to get sent to camp to learn climate-speak - This:

The summers 9,500 years ago were warmer than today, though there has been a rapid recent rise as a result of climate change that means modern climate is rapidly catching up.

simply will not do. "Warmer than today" and modern climate "catching up" does not fit the "unprecedented" and catastrophic "uncharted territory" mantra of the disaster mongers. In order to cling to the silly enhanced greenhouse hypothesis and with no fossil fuel use to drive enhanced greenhouse they’d need to claim methane spikes from mammoth Mammoth, uh… oh, let’s not go there.

This poor Swede is headed for the soup unless he recants or claims language difficulties and press misquotation. World’s oldest tree discovered in Sweden (Daily Telegraph)

Our Climate Numbers Are a Big Old Mess - President George W. Bush has just announced his goal to stabilize greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025. To get there, he proposes new fuel-economy standards for autos, and lower emissions from power plants built in the next 10 to 15 years. (PATRICK MICHAELS, Wall Street Journal)

Fairness In Climate Science Reporting - An Example Of Bias - As reported on Climate Science, our article Is There Agreement Amongst Climate Scientists on the IPCC AR4 WG1? was rejected by Fred Spilhaus, Editor-In-Editor of the AGU publication EOS (and subsequently by Nature Precedings). He said that our article “did not fit EOS policy”.  In our weblog we concluded that “From this experience, it is clear that the AGU EOS and Nature Precedings Editors are using their positions to suppress evidence that there is more diversity of views on climate, and the human role in altering climate, than is represented in the narrowly focused 2007 IPCC report.”

Thus it was not a complete surprise that EOS published a clear advocacy article entitled “Improving How Scientists Communicate About Climate Change” by Susan J. Hassol. The long article starts with the text “Science meets policy in the most important challenge of our time: global warming” and includes the recommendation that “Rather than accepting the premise of a poorly framed question, reframe it. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

How not to measure temperature, part 60 - A good number of official climate stations of record in the USHCN network used for climate studies are at airports. All have been converted to the automated ASOS systems, and the placement of these is often chosen to be away from the airport tarmac so that temperature and dewpoint readings aren’t biased. (Watts Up With That?)

Nigel & Philip Have A Whale Of A Time - Now here is something to wile away a couple of hours - Nigel Lawson (Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC, Chancellor of the Exchequer from June 1983 to October 1989) and yours truly being interviewed together on talkSPORT.net by the admirable James Whale during this Tuesday evening’s The James Whale Show [select Media Player: Audio: ‘Climate Change Special’ - “James Whale is joined by Professor Philip Stott and climate change sceptic Lord Lawson to talk about the factors affecting climate change”]. Nigel was fantastic, as James questions him about his new book [see footnote below*], and about his critique of ‘global warming’. You may further enjoy listening to your host rabbiting on and on, and trying to deal with all sorts of questions from listeners. (Global Warming Politics)

Sceptics will have their day - One very clear result from last year’s Federal election is that the greenhouse activists have won the political battle. Now the government is set on several years of bad policy decisions based on terrible science, with the majority support of a public which may have largely misunderstood what the debate is about, and there is nothing much sceptics can do but retire to a corner and mutter. (Mark S. Lawson, Online Opinion)

Greenland’s disappearing lakes leave giant ice sheets largely unmoved - Fears that the rapid draining of water from the top of Greenland’s ice sheet may be contributing to the rise of global sea levels have been allayed by new research. Though scientists confirmed that the water can drain away faster than Niagara Falls, it did not seem to accelerate the movement of the ice sheet into the ocean as previously thought. (The Guardian)

Oceans love CO2, coccolithophores say - Some time ago, we discussed topics related to the ocean chemistry, including its pH. Recall that the oceans’ pH was around 8.17 in 1800, now it is around 8.10. The figure is decreasing as we are adding carbon dioxide (or carbonic acid, if you allow me to combine it with water) to the system. It will stay above 7.8 at least until 2100. (The Reference Frame)

Study Sees an Advantage for Algae Species in Changing Oceans - Contrary to expectations, a microscopic plant that lives in oceans around the world may thrive in the changing ocean conditions of the coming decades, a team of scientists reported Thursday. (New York Times)

Swordfish in the Baltic? - Increasing fish stocks and migration of species to new areas are among the consequences climate change is expected to have for fish stocks in the sea. While the general consensus is that global warming will disturb marine eco-systems, researchers are less certain about the scope of the consequences, it emerged from a conference in Bergen, Norway, on Thursday and Friday. (Norden)

60-90 years? Try forecasting that many days: Global warming to hit ski resorts in Pyrenees: study - Ski resorts in the Pyrenees between Spain and France could be badly affected by climate change this century as the warmer weather melts the snows, a study in Spain said Thursday. Temperatures in the mountain range will increase by between 2.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius between 2070 and 2100, Spain’s CSIC scientific research agency said. (AFP)

Wild Fires Likely To Spread Due To Global Warming - VIENNA - Wild fires are likely to be bigger, more frequent and burn for longer as the world gets hotter, in turn speeding up global warming to create a dangerous vicious circle, scientists say. (Reuters)

"NO TO DEBATE! NO TO DEMOCRACY!" - On Friday, we wrote about the US ‘Friends of the Earth’, who have enlisted James Hansen in their campaign to censor a book on American politics because it might give the impression that there’s something to discuss. Somehow we managed to miss this gem of a page on the campaign’s website… (Climate Resistance)

The New Dissidents - Lawrence Solomon’s book profiles nearly three dozen top scientists who have resisted the pull of climate alarmism.

Once upon a time, the media believed in the open exchange of opinions regarding public policy. People who had doubts about one or another claim put forward by activists and crusaders could express those thoughts without fear of censure or ridicule. And, to be fair, that is still the case in many areas of social policy.

But there’s one hot-button issue on which virtually no dissent is allowed: climate change. In a style reminiscent of the old Soviet Union, people disagreeing with any element of the agenda pursued by Al Gore and his climate catastrophists have been derided as “deniers,” a term clearly intended to equate dissent with mental illness, if not post hoc complicity in atrocities (as in “Holocaust denier”). (Kenneth P. Green, The American)

More time asked for polar bear designation - ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Interior Department wants 10 more weeks to decide whether polar bears should be listed as threatened or endangered, a delay conservation groups condemned as tied to the transfer of offshore petroleum leases in one of the animals’ two U.S. habitats. (Associated Press)

A Storehouse of Greenhouse Gases Is Opening in Sibera (Der Spiegel)  - Well, not really. Regardless of the levels someone expected to find (hence levels being "unexpectedly high") global methane levels tapered off and stopped rising, so there is no apparent acceleration in emissions.

We could wish: Arctic Meltdown - The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming (Scott G. Borgerson, Foreign Affairs)

Feds: Dismiss state tailpipe ruling - WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, in support of the auto industry, has urged a federal appeals court to set aside a ruling by a federal judge that said states have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. (Associated Press)

Don’t outsource mileage, emissions policy to EPA - U.S. Rep. John Dingell has rightfully called out his fellow lawmakers for global warming gamesmanship. His question: If the environment is an overriding issue for world survival, why is Congress outsourcing decisions on the matter to the Environmental Protection Agency? (The Detroit News)

EU Moves To Fast-Track "Clean Coal" Proposals - BRUSSELS - The European Union may boost efforts to capture climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) and store it underground by pushing forward proposals for a dozen demonstration projects, EU officials said on Thursday. (Reuters)

The Junk juggernaut rolls on (Number Watch)

The Risky Business Of Regulating Risk - Congress has been in a regulating mood for the past few years, spurring federal agencies directly or indirectly to pile new regulatory requirements (and inflated costs) onto myriad consumer products and activities. Legislators’ mantra seems to be that if a program or agency is failing, what we need is more of it.

But that is no more true than the notion that more regulation is synonymous with greater safety. Regulation has costs — both monetary and through the inhibition of innovation — which must be weighed against benefits. (Henry Miller, IBD)

News updates: Decisions guided by fears, misinformation and insecurities - An investigative report for the Courier-Mail learned of a doctor who has performed more than a dozen bariatric surgeries on underage teens in the past year. Most disturbing, he is prepared to operate on children as young as ten years of age. Matthew Fynes-Clinton reports: (Junkfood Science)

The medical profession shake up this week - Those who’ve been following the medical news this week know about the editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association calling for the medical profession to clean up its act in regards to conflicts of interest. This issue of the publication is already being called history-in-the-making. Its articles and the major proposals for overhauling medicine made by the editors, Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis, M.D., MPH; and Dr. Phil B. Fontanarosa, M.D., MBA, are being well covered by others, but one point hasn’t yet been raised. (Junkfood Science)

News stories for the bird cage - Does a single drink a day really raise a woman’s risk for breast cancers? That’s what 403 media stories (and counting) have been reporting, based on a new study said to be “the largest of its kind.” But not all studies reported in the news are worth taking seriously or let worry us. Here’s why this one shouldn’t have even registered on our radar. (Junkfood Science)

Sarah Edwards is severely disturbed: Is Going Green Making You Crazy? It’s Time for Eco-Therapy - Sarah Edwards worries about the gasoline she burns, the paper towels she throws out, the litter on the beach, water pollution. She worries so much, it literally makes her sick. (Julie Kirtz Garrett, FNC)

April 17, 2008

The Democrats and Gun Control - Imagine an election race of Pat Robertson versus James Dobson, each of them appearing at organic grocery stores and Starbucks throughout Massachusetts, with each candidate insisting that he alone deserves the vote of gay-marriage advocates. An equally silly spectacle is taking place these days in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia and Kentucky, as Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama compete for the pro-gun vote. (DAVID KOPEL, Wall Street Journal)

Bush Raises Temp on Global Warming - The last months of a presidential administration are often dangerous. Presidents — looking to their legacies — go to desperate lengths to try to enhance their reputations for posterity. A pungent example of such practices by the Bush administration was reported above the fold on the front page of The Washington Times Monday: "Bush prepares global warming initiative." (Tony Blankley, Townhall)

Bush’s Climate Move: Too Little, Too Much - President Bush’s planned speech today on an administration shift in climate-change policy has sparked near-universal cries of too little, too vague, too late—except for shouts that any Bush climate plan would be too much, too soon. The Rose Garden speech is at 2:45 p.m. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

We’ll Always Have Paris: How Will Bush’s Plan Sell Abroad? - President Bush may have planned the timing of his big climate-change speech to coincide with the third “Major Economies Meeting,” which begins in Paris tomorrow. So far, it isn’t winning hearts and minds. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Climate Politics: Bush Tips His Hat - President Bush enunciated a shift in U.S. climate policy–sort of. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Carbon Showdown - The First Commandment of climate-change politics is that you can never be green enough – as President Bush learns anew every time he even attempts to address the issue. Critics were quick to claim a victory of sorts after his Rose Garden speech yesterday, while at the same time carrying on about half-measures and delay on "the planetary emergency."

Mr. Bush, however, made few departures from current policy. His larger purpose was to join a debate that so far has been conducted in a reality vacuum, and to force the global warmists to take responsibility for the carbon and greenhouse-gas regulation they say they favor. (Wall Street Journal)

The Green Zone - The president’s plan to reduce carbon emissions legitimizes the environmentalist agenda of destroying the earth in order to save it. At least one scientist says we need more CO2 emissions, not less. (IBD)

Carbon Capper Capers: Taxation Without Misrepresentation - In the past few months, France, Italy, and the 27-nation European Union have separately threatened a trade war against the U.S. to stem ongoing damage to Europe’s competitiveness. This came amid cries for an end to the economic hemorrhaging from the European Confederation of Iron and Steel Industries, automakers, aluminum producers, and others. (Christopher C. Horner, Energy Tribune)

Poorer Nations Object To Industry Greenhouse Curbs - PARIS - Developing nations objected on Wednesday to possible curbs on greenhouse gases produced by industries such as steel or cement, telling US-led climate talks that too strict standards could throttle their companies. (Reuters)

Industry Curbs Seen Possible Extra In Climate Deal - PARIS - Greenhouse gas curbs on industries such as steel and cement could help a UN-led drive to fight global warming despite fears they would be hard to implement, delegates at a US-led conference said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

CO₂ Science Volume 11 Number 16:  16 April 2008

Editorial:
European Birds Refuse to Respond to Warming as Climate Alarmists Say They Should: Hummmm. Now why should that be??

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from the Eastern China. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Ozone (Effects on Plants - Tree Species: Birch): Ozone wages war with birch trees; but CO2 defends them.

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Corn, Loblolly Pine, Redroot Amaranth, and Sorghum.

Journal Reviews:
Catastrophic Hydrologic Events of the Holocene in the Middle Reaches of China's Yellow River: During what type of climatic regime were they most prevalent?

The Indian Summer Monsoon: How did it differ between the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age? ... and what were the consequences for the country's inhabitants?

The Little Ice Age in Southern Chile: Historical documents testify of its reality.

Elevated CO2 and Soybeans: Ground- vs. Container-Grown Plants: Does the CO2-induced growth enhancement differ between the two rooting environments if planting patterns and densities are equal?

Rising Temperatures and the Red-Backed Shrike: How has the warming of the past four decades impacted the breeding success of the long-distance migrant in the Czech Republic? (co2science.org)

How not to measure temperature, part 59 - I’ve mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again. In the 30 years I’ve been involved in meteorology, I had no idea that water and sewage treatment plants were locations used for climate monitoring until I started the surfacestations.org project. Given the environment at these places, the idea seems simply absurd to me. (Watts Up With That?)

A Really Inconvenient Truth - The most inconvenient truth for climate alarmists is the swelling ranks of influential scientists with dissenting opinions on global warming. (Brad Macdonald, The Trumpet)

Journalists pan Gore secrecy - Reporters take exception to a media blackout of the ceremony in the Vaud capital that confers an honorary degree on the Nobel prize winner. (24 Heures)

Hey, any mappers out there with time on their hands? - I haven’t played with Google Earth or any of the map toys available on the internet but I image there’s a way of plotting Al’s globe trotting and toting up a rough mileage. Maybe we can set up an online board: "Where on Earth is Alberto Goreleone (and where has he been)?" or something. If anyone is interested in such a hobby here’s a partial itinerary: Tom Nelson writes: Where’s Al Gore now? Obviously, Al Gore’s personal "carbon footprint" is massive. As I dug deeper into Gore’s own energy use, even I was surprised at the extent of the absolutely cartoonish gap between his words and his actions.

Observed Climate Change and Negligible Global Effect of Greenhouse-gas Emission Limits in Wyoming - For the Full Report in PDF Form, please click here. [Illustrations, footnotes and references available in PDF version] (Robert Ferguson, SPPI)

Fear profiteers are eroding resistance - Despite its clever wording the result is basically unchanged at 10% support year on year. The number abstaining has more than doubled, however, hence the erosion of resistance. Not a good sign for consumers or the economy. Fewer U.S. mutual funds nix climate proposals: study (Reuters)

Waves of destruction - Rising seas are changing Britain’s coast dramatically. Norfolk is the first low-lying area to face a stark and cruel new choice - plough millions into doomed defences, or abandon whole villages to the invading waters. Patrick Barkham reports (The Guardian)

It ain’t rising seas and it ain’t a ‘new choice’ — this has been going on since the last ice age and their own article points to sand dune breaches and flooding 400-years ago (predates the Industrial Revolution a tad).

Changing jet streams may alter paths of storms and hurricanes - The Earth’s jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting—possibly in response to global warming. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution determined that over a 23-year span from 1979 to 2001 the jet streams in both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward the poles. (PhysOrg)

Oceans Absorbing Less CO2 May Have 1,500 Year Impact - Really? And the sudden sharp downturn in atmospheric accumulation has nothing to do with champagne effect and oceans no longer warming? If the sun fails to get busy and we have a Maunder-style minimum it is entirely possible atmospheric levels will actually fall as seas cool. Oceans Absorbing Less CO2 May Have 1,500 Year Impact (Reuters)

Climate Change Threatens Cradle of Civilization - The Middle East’s famous Fertile Crescent was the birthplace of agriculture, the first settlements and civilization. But a new study shows that climate change will dry up the area’s rivers and destroy its agriculture — with devastating effects for the region. (Der Spiegel)

India’s weather office forecasts good summer monsoon - India’s weather office on Wednesday forecast that the June-to-September annual monsoon rains that are key for crops and the rural economy would be better than average. (AFP)

Socialist nitwits… … can never seem to get a handle on development, wealth creation and poverty reduction — they seem to think there’s a finite pool of wealth in undesirable (Western) hands and that this must be transferred to impoverished peoples (thus destroying the world’s economy and impoverishing everyone — their idea of equality, I guess). Even other left-of-center (be polite) economists declared Stern’s catastrophic fantasy a nonsense so calling his report "landmark" is a more-than-generous description. Lord Stern proposes ‘pay the poor to eat’ plan (Daily Telegraph)

Methane sources over the last 30,000 years - Ice cores are essential for climate research, because they represent the only archive which allows direct measurements of atmospheric composition and greenhouse gas concentrations in the past. Using novel isotopic studies, scientists from the European Project for Ice Coring In Antarctica (EPICA) were now able to identify the most important processes responsible for changes in natural methane concentrations over the transition from the last ice age into our warm period. (PhysOrg)

EPA Publishes Annual National Greenhouse Gas Inventory - (Washington, D.C. - April 15, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the national greenhouse gas inventory, which finds that overall emissions during 2006 decreased by 1.1 percent from the previous year. The report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006, is the latest in an annual set of reports that the United States submits to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. (EPA)

Surprise discovery off coast of Brazil may confound the oil and gas doom-mongers - Excitement about the potential of Brazil as a massive new source of oil and gas intensified yesterday after a senior energy ministry official declared that the newly found Carioca field could have 33bn barrels in place. (The Guardian)

The Next U.S. President Will Be the Chauncey Gardiner of Energy - It is certain that the United States is in for a shock in energy prices and especially in energy supplies – the likes of which have never been seen or imagined. While high prices can be tolerated to a reasonable extent, all hell will break loose if massive supply disruptions emerge. We are much closer to them than people think, and not because of peak oil, which is still decades away. Those who think that we can conserve ourselves to energy independence need not read any further. They are wrong, and it is pointless to try to show them otherwise. (Michael J. Economides, Energy Tribune)

The cost of green tinkering is in famine and starvation - Biofuels threaten food supplies, rainforest and climate - yet our leaders push them in the name of the environment (The Guardian)

Brazil Lula Defends Biofuels From Growing Criticism - BRASILIA - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazil’s production of biofuels on Wednesday, rejecting criticism that they are furthering a surge in global food prices and harming the environment. (Reuters)

Tesco labels will show products’ carbon footprints - Tesco is to test putting "carbon labels" on its own-brand products next month in a move to enable consumers to choose products which are less damaging to the environment. (The Guardian)

The polluted debate on bisphenol A: Foster - Just last week, the Prime Minister and Health Minister Tony Clement were announcing new legislation to keep us all safe from consumer worries. Today, Mr. Clement is due to demonstrate one of the many, many reasons why this is not quite as easy as it sounds. Health Canada is due to announce its findings on the dangers (or not) attached to a batch of chemicals under its larger program of vetting prominent compounds. (Financial Post Comment)

Gene therapy - The head of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation warned last week that critically low food supplies and high demand portend a crisis. With world food prices up 57% during the past year, "the reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf. He predicted that "people won’t be sitting dying of starvation, they will react" by demanding food and even rioting. Almost simultaneously, the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) reported that wheat prices have risen by 130% since March 2007 while soy prices have jumped 87%. (Henry Miller, The Guardian)

April 16, 2008

IPCC: Lawson wrong about climate change - The IPCC said? But they don’t make predictions at all, do they? So, not making predictions they, uh, guess more people will be worse off (we, that’ll certainly be true if people are dumb enough to drive economies off a cliff to appease the Gaia-nuts and stasis claimants). No matter how they try to spin it the Argo float data indicate oceans aren’t warming and the atmosphere certainly isn’t capturing Joules at the rate of 1.6 W/m². So, if CO₂ is warming the planet where is the heat? IPCC: Lawson wrong about climate change (Daily Telegraph)

Feeling burned over a cause for concern - I’VE proved it often: The Age won’t tell the full facts on global warming. Now its own reporters admit they were forced to be biased. What a sad insight into how media salvation-seekers and carpet-baggers are whipping up panic about a warming that actually halted in 1998. And a warning, too, of what can go wrong when the media adopts global warming as a cause. (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun)

Climate Change Hysteria and the Supreme Court: The Economic Impact of Global Warming on the U.S. and the Misguided Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Under the Clean Air Act - Abstract: In the spring of 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must promulgate automobile tailpipe greenhouse gas emission standards under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act (CAA). American environmentalists hailed the Supreme Court’s decision as an important victory in the battle to curb global warming. This article argues to the contrary that: 1) a large body of economic work demonstrates that the likely geographic and temporal pattern of costs and benefits to the U.S. from climate change bears no resemblance to the pollution problems that Congress intended to deal with in the Clean Air Act - with moderate climate change predominantly benefiting, rather than harming, the U.S. - so that that the Clean Air Act cannot reasonably be interpreted to cover greenhouse gas emissions; 2) By effectively forcing the EPA to regulate ghg emissions under a statute that was never intended to cover the very different problem of climate change, the Court has changed the policy status quo in a way that makes socially desirable federal climate change legislation less likely; and 3) given the global nature of the greenhouse gas emission problem, unilateral emission limits in the U.S. are likely to be worse than ineffective, in that they will likely have the perverse effect of lessening the incentive for latecomers to climate change regulation (such as China) to themselves take costly action to reduce such emissions. The article concludes by arguing that a sensible formulation of U.S. climate change policy would involve measures to respond both to the long-term threat to the U.S. and the short-term threat to developing countries. There are policy instruments appropriate to these goals: large increases in subsidies for research and development into clean coal and alternative fuels to respond to the long term threat to the U.S.; redirecting foreign aid to fund climate change adaptation in developing countries to respond to the short term threat to developing countries.

Download paper here. (JASON SCOTT JOHNSTON, University of Pennsylvania Law School)

Warming theories not carved in stone - THE 2020 Summit is supposedly designed to allow consideration of views not previously examined by government policymakers. With climate change on the agenda, this should provide an opportunity to question the alleged scientific consensus claiming that increased emissions of greenhouse gases emanating from increased human activity have caused global warming. (Des Moore, The Australian)

Making Climate Sexy: 350 is the new 450 - Much as I hate the cold (and I really hate the cold) and the agricultural and social disaster that will inevitably accompany it, I almost welcome the looming solar minimum and the global cooling it will cause simply for the sake of finally killing of the current carbon stupidity. All the shining-eyed zealots with their breezy claims "Kyoto is only a symbolic starting point" and gleeful statements that it will take "dozens of Kyotos" to have an effect on global mean temperature are actually admitting atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are a trivial factor in global climate. Come to think of it, temperature is not much of a factor governing human occupation either, since people live in regions across huge temperature ranges (annual averages from 253 - 309 K) and when looking at occupancy ranges across almost 60 kelvins why should anyone get excited even if CO₂ could force a couple degrees change (which it can’t in the ranges considered remotely possible)? Stupid game... Making Climate Sexy: 350 is the new 450 (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Anniversary for Icecap - This month marks the first anniversary for Icecap. We have been growing steadily, almost exponentially. We had 500,000 hits in 2007 and 2,000,000 already in 2008. Unlike the alarmist blogs with blank checks from large environmental public relations corporations and foundations to spread the Gospel according to Gore, the climate realist blogs depend on small contributions from their readers. We received a large enough contribution from one private investor to get the site off the ground last year and incorporate. Since then we have been counting on donations from you our readers. Thanks to all of you who have donated over the last year. (Joseph D’Aleo)

Teenage Skeptic Takes on Climate Scientists - Update: see also 16-Year-Old Climate Realist Kristen Byrnes Interviewed By NPR on NewsBusters, Kristen has replied here. With 1300 new e-mails, mostly supportive, there is hope for NPR’s audience after all Teenage Skeptic Takes on Climate Scientists by David Kestenbaum, NPR

OSU climatologist vacates hot seat - George Taylor details his controversial view on weather changes (Chris Lydgate, Pamplin Media Group)

Short But Informative Exchange Of Viewpoints On Climate Modeling By Tom Knudson, Bill Gray and Steve Lyons - There is an interesting exchange of views by Bill Gray, Tom Knudson and Steve Lyons at the Bahamas Weather Conference (Thanks to Bob Ferguson for alerting us to this short video. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Robust relations between CCN and the vertical evolution of cloud drop size distribution in deep convective clouds by Freud et al. 2008 - There is an interesting new paper on the role of aerosols on clouds and precipitation. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

How not to measure temperature, part 58 - Sacramento’s rooftop weather stations - While looking all over the USA at weather stations, I overlooked an interesting station very nearly in my own backyard. Sacramento. This official climate station, COOP ID #047633 is much like the one in Eureka, CA which also spent much of it’s life on the rooftop of the Post Office downtown. Among other places, the Sacramento station was recently (1999 or 2002 depending on how you interpret the record) moved to a ground level location which I will touch on later. While this is not a USHCN station, it is used by GISS. (Watts Up With That?)

Today's magic number: World Sea Levels To Rise 1.5m By 2100 – Scientists - VIENNA - Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people, new research showed on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Green Ink: Balloon or Blueprint from White House? - Oil prices reached a new intraday high on the back of a weak dollar and supply disruptions, reports the WSJ (sub reqd.) But relentless demand growth, especially in China, is bolstering crude Tuesday, reports Bloomberg. That could make gasoline prices hit $3.65 very soon, notes AP. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Bush to Outline `Principles’ on Climate Change  - April 15 — President George W. Bush plans to outline his principles on climate change tomorrow as he and lawmakers wrangle over proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, administration spokeswoman Dana Perino said. (Bloomberg)

McCain: Curb Emissions? Later, Sure, But Not While I’m Running - Sen. John McCain has caught St. Augustine’s bug: Give me higher energy taxes to dissuade consumption, but not this summer—not while I’m running for president. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Maybe this will tone down the carbon “pollution” nonsense… - … although somehow we doubt it. Nor will it slow the "bring America down" crowd attempting to use energy control for the purpose, even though the US has been dethroned as the world’s major energy user and will soon be so as the major economy. All this under the guise of panic over an immeasurably small effect on global mean temperature of no possible relevance to anyone: China ‘now top carbon polluter’ (BBC)

A New Dragon To Slay - Poor old George W. is no longer World Enemy No.1. Our liberal elite, metro mandarins, and bien pensant media have, with somewhat startling naivety, discovered China. This was risibly demonstrated yesterday evening during one of the very worst Ten O’Clock News (BBC 1) reports I have ever watched. My wife and I just looked at each other in gob-smacking disbelief. The BBC had a ‘scoop’ (!) for the top of its programme: the evil Chinese Dragon is now emitting more CO2 than that Old Texan Dragon. So, here was the BBC on hand as St. George, riding to our rescue. It was pathetic, 10 on a scale of 10. I have rarely seen anything quite so patronising [perhaps more ‘matronising’, it being Aunty] on a main evening news bulletin than the Blue Peter-style use of rice bowls to demonstrate emissions per capita. (Global Warming Politics)

Energy Relief Now - As Democrats bicker over campaign-trail trivia, GOP standard-bearer John McCain has come up with a couple of good ideas to ease the pain of the energy crisis. Let’s hope they have legs. (IBD)

Market Matters: High Energy Prices Reshape Climate Debate - If the peak-oil crowd is right, and oil prices are stuck in triple digits regardless of what the dollar does or where commodities investments go, what does that mean for the shift to a new-energy landscape? Mark this: High energy prices could prove the most important factor in the debate over what kind of international system will replace the Kyoto Protocol when its caps expire in 2012. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Forests’ long-term potential for carbon offsetting - As well as cutting our fossil fuel emissions, planting new forests, or managing existing forests or agricultural land more effectively can capitalise on nature’s ability to act as a carbon sink. Research published online in the open access journal Carbon Balance and Management shows that although planting trees alone is unlikely to solve our climate problems, large-scale plantations could have a significant effect in the longer term. (PhysOrg)

Excess pneumonia deaths linked to engine exhaust - Oh boy… and how was the association with the ailing NHS and socialized medicine? How about cold temperature? Fuel poverty? Was there a single measure of actual exposure or was this all a dredge of socio-economic factors (poorer area post codes associated with higher mortality)? Excess pneumonia deaths linked to engine exhaust (PhysOrg)

Peak Oil: “Da” Say Russian Oil Execs - Is the peak-oil crowd toasting with vodka today? The WSJ reports today on more bleak peak news: Russia could be the newest member of the peak-oil club. The International Energy Agency reported that Russian oil production in the first quarter declined for the first time in a decade. Russian oil executives are gloomy about keeping production steady, let alone increasing output at the world’s No. 2 producer. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Green groups accused of clean coal ‘greenwash’ - In a public relations coup for the coal industry, its chief lobby group will join forces with two prominent environment groups, WWF and the Climate Institute, and the miners’ union, to call on the Rudd Government to set up a national task force to develop "clean coal". The new alliance, led by the Australian Coal Association, will be launched in Canberra tomorrow but it has angered the Greens party and rival environment groups who accuse WWF and the Climate Institute of providing a "greenwash" for the coal industry over its response to global warming. (Sydney Morning Herald)

Where Will Germany’s Energy Come From? - Nuclear power is too dangerous. Coal is too dirty. Gas involves too much dependence on Russia. And renewables are insufficient. So just where is Germany going to get its power from? (Der Spiegel)

Nuclear power has important role in reducing CO2: Brussels - EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs on Tuesday stressed the "important role" played by nuclear power in providing Europe’s energy needs and helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (AFP)

Bush Officials Defend Ethanol As Food Prices Rise - WASHINGTON – Senior Bush Administration officials reiterated their defence of corn-based ethanol fuel on Tuesday, saying it was one factor in rising food prices but that high energy costs were the main culprit. (Reuters)

‘Biofuel from non-food crops within 15 years’ - Bob Watson said? Plenty of room for doubt then: ‘Biofuel from non-food crops within 15 years’ (Daily Telegraph)

New Technology Foresees Trees, not Grain, in the Tank - Conventional biofuels like rapeseed oil and ethanol are ecologically problematic and threaten food supplies. Now a Germany company says it has the solution: an advanced fuel made from wood and other non-food biomass. (Christian Wüst, Der Spiegel)

Starving toddlers mistaken for “healthy eating” - First, there were growing reports of school children being underfed and not getting enough calories, fats and sugars to enable them to grow well and learn, as a result of efforts to feed them ‘healthy’ foods. Now, an investigation of nursery preschools has uncovered tragic findings: nearly all nurseries are feeding toddlers so little fat and calories, and such excessive amounts of ‘healthy’ fiber, fruits and vegetables, that they are putting the children at risk for stunted growth and nutritional deficiencies. Mistaken beliefs about healthy eating are now endangering our youngest children. (Junkfood Science)

Obesity Paradox #15 — No need to stroke out - I kept waiting for mainstream media to report this study… and waited… and waited. Here’s news that you deserve to hear. (Junkfood Science)

Plastic Bottle Chemical May Be Harmful - US Agency - WASHINGTON - A chemical in some plastic food and drink packaging including baby bottles may be tied to early puberty and prostate and breast cancer, the US government said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Uh-huh... the Canadians may even declare it 'toxic' but then, they're frightened of lawn cosmetics too.

Moo-woo - So, what sort of unproven energy claims led the National Institutes of Health and NCCAM to list an exercise as an alternative modality, you ask? Today’s news from the UK explains: (Junkfood Science)

University is not place to crush ideas - SINISTER (adj) 1. Suggestive of evil; looking malignant or villainous. 2. Wicked or criminal. 3.An evil omen. Sinister was the word chosen by The Sydney Morning Herald to describe the campaign launched by the Young Liberals at university campuses under the slogan "Education, not indoctrination".

Remove the SMH filter and here’s the story: a group of Young Liberals is concerned that students are sometimes forced to endure indoctrination by university academics. Their aim is to encourage freedom of thought and intellectual pluralism on campus. Some may say their goal is naive. Universities have always been bastions of left-wing thought. But sinister?

The problem, says the Herald, is that the campaign "is a sinister echo to one waged by conservatives on the other side of the world".

Now we get to the heart of it. (Janet Albrechtsen, The Australian)

Sportsmen Should Beware the Clean Water Restoration Act - Conservationists, Boaters, Fishermen, Hunters, Users of All-Terrain Vehicles and Others Could See Activities Restricted by Oberstar/Feingold Measure (National Center for Public Policy Research)

Fly-tipping is trashing countryside, says CPRE - Gosh! They make refuse difficult and expensive to dispose of and then they’re surprised people dump illegally? Fly-tipping is trashing countryside, says CPRE (Daily Telegraph)

World must reform agriculture now or face dire crisis: report - Another "No? Duh!" moment. Funny how enviros align themselves against biotech, nuclear and fossil fuels and yet claim to be on the side of the world’s poor. With friends like them… World must reform agriculture now or face dire crisis: report (AFP)

The Fury of the Poor - Around the world, rising food prices have made basic staples like rice and corn unaffordable for many people, pushing the poor to the barricades because they can no longer get enough to eat. But the worst is yet to come. (Der Spiegel)

FEATURE - As Other Staples Soar, Potatoes Break New Ground - LIMA - As wheat and rice prices surge, the humble potato — long derided as a boring tuber prone to making you fat — is being rediscovered as a nutritious crop that could cheaply feed an increasingly hungry world. (Reuters)

April 15, 2008

At State Level, More Attempts to Limit Guns - State lawmakers across the country are ramping up efforts to pass new restrictions on guns, following nearly a decade in which state legislative efforts have been dominated by gun advocates. (New York Times)

Really? I thought it had been dominated by the 2^nd Amendment.

TRAVEL ADVISORY! - Readers who suffer vertigo or motion sickness should be advised the following content is composed of the BBC spinning furiously. Please do not attempt to navigate the following item without appropriate medication. For your own safety please ensure you are clear of balconies, stairs or places where fall-injuries might occur. END ADVISORY.

The BBC has replied to e-mail queries (see) with this:

Clinging to Al’s coat-tails — bad idea - Modelers are lashing themselves to the mast of the stricken ship Gorebull Warming and will go down when she inevitably founders. Legates and Spencer have always been reluctant passengers and are wisely taking to the boats.

Perhaps I should have said "some modelers" since paleoclimate modelers have just demonstrated the over-reliance of models on CO₂ as a forcing:

The Paradigm Is Shifting - Everywhere this Spring, there are clear brown shoots telling us that the ‘global warming’ paradigm is shifting, and, as ever, it is the changing metalanguage that above all betrays the shift: (Global Warming Politics)

Cleaner Air Means a Warmer Europe - The situation just gets worse and worse for the modelers, doesn’t it? Not that there’ll be any immediate admission of it but this is yet more supporting evidence for the potential power of the Svensmark Effect (gosh, who knew clouds could make that much difference eh? they don’t in our models, right fellas?). Further, this will eventually get through to modelers that their guesstimaed CO₂ sensitivity is far too high and so carbon control will not have anything like the already-negligible effect estimated. Unfortunately simple facts stand no chance against the hot air scam juggernaut already rumbling along and I don’t know what it will take to make it grind to a halt: Cleaner Air Means a Warmer Europe (Der Spiegel)

The Icecaps are Growing - There is very little precise data when it comes to climate change. Are the Ice Caps growing or are they diminishing? Accurate measurements are hard to obtain. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) provides very precise data that can answer this question. The IERS calculates leap seconds. Just like leap years add days to keep our calendar in sync with the actual amount of time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, leap seconds are used to keep highly accurate atomic clocks in sync with clocks based on the Earth’s rotation. The Earth’s rotation has slowed down. To keep the clocks in sync leap seconds will have to be added at a constant rate. If the Earth’s rotation continues to slow down leap seconds will need to be added at an increasing rate. (David J. Ameling, Icecap)

British Antarctic Survey: evidence against AGW - Joseph D’Aleo has informed me about this rather fascinating page written by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and describing the impact of the Antarctic data on the climate change Learning-to-Love-Global-Warming  debate: (The Reference Frame)

Bias In Two New Papers In Assessing Trends In Surface Temperature Extremes - There are two recent papers that claim changes in extreme temperatures. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

President to cave on global warming? - There are strong suggestions circulating that President Bush is about to ask Congress to pass a bill on global warming.  The story even made the front page of the Washington Times today.  What’s going on? (Iain Murray, CEI)

Bush ‘can’t support’ climate bills in Congress: White House - US President George W. Bush is opposed to legislation being discussed in Congress to cap greenhouse gas emissions because the proposals would hurt the economy, his spokeswoman said Monday. (AFP)

No one said the press were very bright… - This is not a ‘new’ battleground — it’s what gorebull warming has always been about. Gaia-nuts want to strangle the energy supply because it is the best way to inhibit human activity and rent-seekers want a piece of the action on every energy transaction (think about the number of energy transactions just getting your breakfast cereal to the table and you’ll see why it’s worth hundreds of millions to panic legislators into enabling ’saviours’ taxing every good and service through energy): Global warming has a new battleground: coal plants (LA Times)

Economic Pain Of Carbon Cuts Will Be Global - The political debate over climate change has advanced rapidly in recent years, and there is now tremendous pressure to reduce carbon emissions from U.S. industrial activity. (IBD)

Carbon Credits: U.N. Raises Questions - Is the booming global trade in carbon credits doing anything to curb global warming? (Jeffrey Ball, WSJ)

California Group Seeks Standards For Carbon Market - LOS ANGELES - The Climate Action Reserve, officially launched on Monday, seeks to provide more certainty, clarity and transparency to a sometimes opaque voluntary carbon reduction market in the United States. (Reuters)

Environmental “bombs” must be in - Yesterday we had greenpeas with their "carbon bomb" claim for Canadian logging, now we have a "time bomb" (water bomb? water time bomb? timed water bomb?): Melting Mountains A "Time Bomb" For Water Shortages (Reuters)

Revisiting the global warming-hurricane link - A new study underscores the difficulty of estimating global warming’s effect on weather. (The Christian Science Monitor)

The Lack of Recent Hurricane Activity? - This hurricane issue never goes away and new websites appear every day warning us of more hurricanes in the immediate future. We cover this issue over and over, and no fewer than three more articles on hurricane activity have appeared in the scientific literature recently of interest to us at World Climate Report:

Drilling The Future - America’s energy crunch is sadly self-inflicted. While others around the world engage in a mad dash to find more oil reserves, the U.S. seems to think $111-a-barrel oil won’t be affected by more supply. (IBD)

Rocky Politics: The Coal Question - Which weighs more this election year—the economy, or the environment? (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Green Ink: Gamed by the Carbon Markets - Crude oil prices recovered after an early dip Monday as traders try to see if the dollar strengthens, reports Reuters, adding that increasing headwinds for crude are intensifying, such as slowing global demand. Don’t get too excited by the big Bakken oil reserves, cautions the Toronto Star: They’re actually small, and devilishly difficult to recover. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Sizing Up the Utilities, if Carbon Caps Take Hold - FUEL prices and dividends are usually big drivers of the share prices of utilities. Now there is a new variable to consider: how much carbon their power plants emit. (New York Times)

EU carbon trading could hurt European energy industry: Shell chief - Plans to make business pay for carbon permits previously distributed for free in the European Union’s carbon-trading system could hurt the bloc’s energy industry, the chief executive of Shell said in an interview released Monday. (AFP)

New Joint Oil Find May Be Biggest Yet In Brazil - RIO DE JANEIRO - An offshore find by Brazilian state oil company Petrobras in partnership with BG Group and Repsol-YPF may be the world’s biggest discovery in 30 years, the head of the National Petroleum Agency said on Monday. (Reuters)

Lights out? - When it comes to all things "green", common sense seems to have been abandoned. Our failure to think clearly about such matters would be amusing if the potential consequences were not so serious. (Björn Lomborg, The Guardian)

Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing - The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels. (New York Times)

Biofuel rules ‘could make millions homeless’ - Millions of people face eviction from their land to satisfy demand unleashed by new rules requiring petrol and diesel from today to include a proportion of plant-based "bio-fuels" according to protesters. (The Daily Telegraph)

Daniel Howden: Brazil’s experience testifies to the downside of this energy revolution - The apostles of biofuels would have us believe that the congested streets of Sao Paulo offer a glimpse of a better future. There, traffic jams are made of flex-fuel cars that run off a growing menu of bio and fossil fuel mixtures and all filling stations offer "alcohol" and "gas" at the pump. (The Independent)

Biofuels Threaten Food Access In Latin America – UN - BRASILIA - A global increase in biofuel production threatens to make food for Latin America’s poor less accessible, a United Nations body said on Monday. (Reuters)

Europe’s Food Supply Not At Risk From Biofuels – EU - BRUSSELS - Europeans should not fear a fall in food supplies caused by the European Union’s ambitious targets for using biofuels in transport fuels, the EU’s executive Commission said on Monday. (Reuters)

Biofuel: the burning question - The production of biofuel is devastating huge swathes of the world’s environment. So why on earth is the Government forcing us to use more of it? (The Independent)

Blow to introduction of greener fuel as oil firms face production delay - Government plans for the introduction today of cleaner fuel on all the country’s forecourts have been thrown into turmoil, with the oil companies ready to offer biodiesel but warning they will not have bioethanol available for greener petrol until the beginning of next year at the earliest. (The Guardian)

ANALYSIS - Japan Ups CO2 Offset Buying As Nuclear Power Slows - TOKYO - Japan is stepping up efforts to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets by buying more greenhouse gas emissions offsets from abroad than previously planned as its own emissions rise and nuclear power production dwindles. (Reuters)

Over 30 Parties Submit Proposals For UK Nuclear Sites - LONDON - Britain’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said on Monday it had received proposals from over 30 parties interested in land surrounding 18 nuclear sites — all potential locations for new power stations. (Reuters)

US - Japan Team Plans New Nuclear Reactor In Wales - LONDON - A US -Japanese consortium is working on a plan to build a new nuclear reactor in Wales that would not involve Britain’s biggest nuclear power firm, British Energy, the Times newspaper said on Monday. (Reuters)

Dental Offices May Be Source Of Mercury Pollution - NEW YORK - Dental practices may be a source of a dangerous form of mercury contamination in the water supply, a small study suggests. (Reuters)

Boom in sales of outdoor wood boilers spark complaints - WAUSAU, Wis. –An explosion in the number of outdoor wood-fired boilers to heat homes is creating a new air quality problem — their smoke is choking neighbors. (Associated Press)

April 14, 2008

Bush prepares global warming initiative - By Stephen Dinan - President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, and will lay out principles for what that should include. (Washington Times)

Democrats Face ‘Ferocious Infighting’ Over Global Warming Legislation - Boxer-Dingell Differences Likely Mean No Global Warming Bill in 2008 (EPW Blog)

House Energy considers possibility of EPA regulating CO2 - Regulating greenhouse gas emissions with the Clean Air Act would be a mess, Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee John Dingell, D-Mich, said yesterday at a hearing on the subject. (Restructuring Today)

‘A Glorious Mess’ - Usually Congressional subcommittee hearings are as routine and tedious as they sound, but John Dingell managed to enliven one on Thursday. The venerable Michigan Democrat had the candor to point out that if climate change is really the transcendent challenge his party says it is, then Congress should bother to pass legislation, not outsource policy to the Environmental Protection Agency. (Wall Street Journal)

Yale hopes climate change conference is groundbreaking - Except this isn’t a conference about possible climate change but an Amway-style sales meeting to increase pressure for activist-desired action: Yale hopes climate change conference is groundbreaking (Associated Press)

Rich states failing to lead on emissions, says UN climate chief - Developing countries, including China and India, are unwilling to sign up to a new global climate change pact to replace the Kyoto protocol in 2012 because the rich world has failed to set a clear example on cutting carbon emissions, according to the UN’s top climate official. (The Guardian)

Two Carbon-Market Millionaires Take a Hit as U.N. Clamps Down - What rubbish. These scam artists have exactly nothing to do with "addressing global warming" or whatever populist term you want to use to describe the absurd notion of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change. Whatever reason you might have for favoring reduced fossil fuel use there is no excuse for pretending carbon constraint will magically twiddle the global thermostat and dial up some imaginary ‘optimal’ temperature (for whom and when such temperature might be optimal are other unresolved questions). Three kinds of people drive the push for carbon constraint: rent-seekers; misanthropists and; the deluded. Everyone needs to know that no good can come of it: Two Carbon-Market Millionaires Take a Hit as U.N. Clamps Down (Wall Street Journal)

Business is booming - Richard Sandor, president of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), said in an interview with E and E TV (subscription req), “I just want to see reductions.” CCX also owns 50% of the European Climate Exchange, which covers 85% of EU emissions credits. (Julie Walsh, CEI)

Smart money eyes climate change - David King is the latest policy wonk to cash in on the green winds of change. UBS has hired Britain’s chief scientist under Tony Blair to advise it and its clients on global warming. He follows Al Gore, Nicholas Stern, Theodore Roosevelt IV and even Blair himself into the ranks of high-profile climate gurus drafted by banks and investment firms to help understand greenhouse gases and their economic implications. (Jeffrey Goldfarb, breakingviews.com)

Cashing In On Global Warming - Show Me the Money! - The 70s was big on ecology and the ecology flag was designed in 1969 as America was preparing to save the environment and go green. Talk of global cooling was in the air and soon the government got involved with tax credits to encourage energy efficiency. (AGORAVOX)

They give prizes for the best scammers now?: NZ green firm among world’s best (New Zealand Herald)

Gore Admits Financial ‘Stake’ In Advancing Global Warming Hysteria - For years, NewsBusters has reported on Al Gore’s financial interests in advancing global warming hysteria around the world. (NewsBusters)

Gore to press: Stay Out! - Bizarrely, the members of the fourth estate continue to fawn over and repeat the nonsense espoused by Don Alberto Goreleone. Go figure! Gore to press: Stay Out! (Watts Up with That?)

Financing crucial to next climate change pact: U.N. - The global fight against climate change after the Kyoto pact expires will fail unless rich countries can come up with creative ways to finance clean development by poorer nations, a U.N. official said on Saturday. (Reuters)

UN official urges developed nations to take first step against climate change - BOAO - Rajendra Pachauri, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman, urged developed countries to take the first step and make a commitment to tackling climate change here on Sunday. (Xinhua)

China takes responsible attitude to climate change - BOAO - China is taking a responsible attitude towards climate change and some measures taken by the country are even more pro-active than some developed countries, Richard Yorke, HSBC China chief executive officer, told Xinhua at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in the country’s southern Hainan Province. (Xinhua)

Turf war over climate change - NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s attempt to forge a National Action Plan on Climate Change has turned into a bone of contention between different ministries feuding over turf. (Times of India)

Ouch! Jo Abbess must be feeling unloved - The following comes directly from the Campaign against Climate Change UK activists' portal. Comments are unedited, sequential and complete as at 05:50 GMT Saturday, April 12, 2008. it must’ve come as quite a shock to Jo Abbess that even her fellow enviros are appalled by her actions. Even more troubling is that the BBC folded to pressure from what increasingly appears one lone and unsupported fruitcake who offered not a single instance of factual error in the original article. As yet we know of no one who has received a reply from the BBC requesting further information on the alleged request for change from the WMO. Developing…

Deals with superstition… and repeats it - Kristof is correct pointing out how ignorant and superstitious societies seek someone (anyone) to blame for the vagaries of weather — then goes on to embellish the superstitious nonsense of carbon dioxide (specifically American CO₂) controlling African weather. This has got to stop. There is no realistic expectation that tweaking developed world carbon dioxide emission could have any measurable effect on either climate or global temperature. Reinforcing the superstition can only enhance the hostility Benny Peiser wrote of here. Extended Forecast: Bloodshed (New York Times)

"The Climate is Changing, naturally." - A Submission from: The Carbon Sense Coalition (www.carbon-sense.com) to the Garnaut Climate Change Review on its Issues Paper No 4 “Low Emissions Energy Technology.”

An Age of warming bias - We’ve often complained of proselytizing press but it is unusual to find a scribe actively exposing it (very pleasant surprise): An Age of warming bias (Andrew Bolt)

Exposing the Climate Change Agenda - Dr Muriel Newman of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research

Hurricane expert reconsiders global warming’s impact - One of the most influential scientists behind the theory that global warming has intensified recent hurricane activity says he will reconsider his stand. (Houston Chronicle)

Points for theatrics anyway: Canada Logging May Ignite ‘Carbon Bomb’ - Greenpeace - VANCOUVER - Canada threatens to ignite a "carbon bomb" that could drastically worsen global warming if it continues heavy logging in areas of its vast northern forest, Greenpeace warned in a report on Thursday. (Reuters)

Polar Bears not Endangered, Experts Tell Senator Boxer - (Washington, DC 4-13-08) In an April 9 letter to Senator Barbara Boxer, Professor Scott Armstrong announced that the Armstrong, Green and Soon paper “Polar Bear Population Forecasts” has been accepted for publication in Interfaces. This is the only peer-reviewed paper on the topic that has been accepted for journal publication. The paper shows that there is no basis for a forecast that polar bear numbers will decline. If there is any change, one might expect a modest short-term upward trend. (TransWorldNews)

Group cites climate change in fight for SW frog protections - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Environmentalists are suing the federal government over protections for a threatened frog found only in New Mexico, Arizona and a small part of Mexico, arguing that the amphibian is just one of many species facing increasing pressures due to climate change. (The Associated Press)

Melting Causes Lake in Chile to Empty - Well yes, as this story relates, the warming of the planet is related to this phenomenon — they just neglected to mention that it’s the warming that has been going on for about a dozen millennia: Melting Causes Lake in Chile to Empty (AP)

Real Climate’s Agreement That The IPCC Multi-Decadal Projections Are Actually Sensitivity Model Runs - In the peer reviewed literature, I have emphasized that the IPCC multi-decadal global climate runs, while they refer them as “projections” and also “scenarios” are actually model sensitivity studies since all of the important climate forcings and feedbacks are not included (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Sun-climate link: a reply to Sloan and Wolfendale - Three weeks ago, we mentioned three recent preprints about cosmoclimatology, a theory in which galactic cosmic rays create clouds just like in a bubble chamber (and cool down the Earth unless they are filtered away). (The Reference Frame)

The Return of the Precautionary Principle - Last Friday, we asked ‘what happened to the precautionary principle‘. Recent arguments dominating the public discussion on climate change seem to have been about the ’scientific consensus’ achieving certainty, rather than advising caution in the face of doubt. Yet on inspection, this certainty isn’t real. It is the kind of certainty that there is about being uncertain. Like Donald Rumsfeld’s famously ridiculous ‘known unknowns’ - things which you know you don’t know about, and ‘unknown unknowns’ - things you can be certain you don’t know you don’t know about. Uncertainty can be spun into certainty… All it takes to talk bollocks is balls. (Climate Resistance)

A Textbook Case of Politics - You can say whatever you like about climate change, just as long as it doesn’t appear to undermine political action to ’save the planet’.

You can, for example, be the billionaire founder of the world’s first international, 24-hour TV news channel, and claim that in just 30 or 40 years humans will be cannibals, forced to eat each other’s flesh because all the crops will have died, without people making much of a deal about it. (Into the bargain, you can use your money and influence to advance the political idea that too many people inhabit the planet, and still be called a ‘philanthropist’, without a hint of irony). (Climate Resistance)

Mean greens: Valley plants, trees may add to pollution by emitting tons of a key smog element. - An astonishing fact is buried in dirty-air data: Valley trees and plants produce far more hydrocarbons than vehicles do. (Fresno Bee)

Vanity Fair’s ‘Green’ Issue: Another ‘Do as I Say’ Affair: Magazine fails to print on recycled paper—again. There was no reason to expect that Condé Nast would actually display some sort of responsible environmental citizenship in the production of its third annual "green" issue for Vanity Fair. While they have a right to run their business as they see fit, they must also take responsibility for their lack of commitment to protecting the environment. (Folio)

The inconvenient truth about Earth Hour - On March 29, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., hundreds of thousands of people, and countless more businesses across Canada, shut off their lights as a symbolic gesture of concern over global warming. It was perhaps one of the most successful environmental awareness campaigns in recent history. (Globe and Mail)

Waste Not: A Steamy Solution To Global Warming - Forty years ago, the steel mills and factories south of Chicago were known for their sooty smokestacks, plumes of steam, and throngs of workers. Clean-air laws have since gotten rid of the smoke, and labor-productivity initiatives have eliminated most of the workers. What remains is the steam, billowing up into the sky day after day, just as it did a generation ago. (Lisa Margonelli, New America Foundation)

Australians may soon live in glass houses - Nonsense, Aussies chuck way too many rocks Australians may soon live in glass houses (AAP)

Not just expensive but really stupid - You need 30-40% more coal just to meet the energy requirements of capturing, compressing and re-injecting the carbon we expended energy mining in the first place. The only vaguely plausible reason for doing so is if you are using the injected CO₂ to enhance oil recovery and even then you need to get a major boost in oil extraction to make it worthwhile. There is just no upside to this nonsense: ANALYSIS - "Clean Coal" Elusive As Governments Balk At Cost (Reuters)

Catching carbon - tricky, but it’s not nuclear fusion - Capturing carbon dioxide is an exercise in separating the gas you want from the gases you don’t want. The problem is that we release the energy in coal by combining its carbon with the oxygen in air, and air is about four-fifths nitrogen. At some point in the process, all that unwanted nitrogen has to be got out of the way. Inevitably that comes at a cost in capital plant and energy losses. (New Zealand Herald)

US Says OPEC To Earn Almost $1 Trillion From Oil - WASHINGTON - OPEC member nations are expected to rake in almost $1 trillion this year from their oil exports due to record crude prices, according to the US government’s top energy forecasting agency. (Reuters)

Japan’s Arctic methane hydrate haul raises environment fears - Japan is celebrating a groundbreaking science experiment in the Arctic permafrost that may eventually reshape the country’s fragile economy and Tokyo’s relationships with the outside world. (The Times)

Natural Gas Woes: If You Don’t Build It, They Won’t Come - So New York Gov. David Patterson struck down the idea of a new natural-gas terminal in Long Island sound, trusting in conservation and energy efficiency to make up the energy shortfall for the region. Almost 7,000 miles away, China and Qatar inked what could be at least a $60 billion deal for liquefied natural gas exports over the next quarter-century. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Tesco green fuel ‘adds to climate change’ - As some of the world’s poorest nations face food shortages and price rises, controversy is growing over the use of crops in diesel (The Times)

EU Can Hit Biofuels Goal Without Conflicts - Germany - BRDO - The European Union can achieve its 2020 target to get 10 percent of all transport fuel from biofuels without adding to soaring food prices and harming rainforests, Germany’s environment minister said on Saturday. (Reuters)

Scientists Ask EU to Drop Biofuel Targets - BRUSSELS, Apr 12 - Scientists tasked with advising the European Union’s policy-makers have called for a target on promoting the greater use of biofuels to be dropped. (IPS)

Biofuels nothing short of disaster - Environmentalists to blame as emissions worsen, world’s poor starve (Lorne Gunter, The Edmonton Journal)

Poor go hungry while rich fill their tanks - Rocketing global food prices are causing acute problems of hunger and malnutrition in poor countries and have put back the fight against poverty by seven years, the World Bank said yesterday. (The Guardian)

Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites - Across the world a crisis is unfolding at alarming speed. Climate change, China’s increasing consumption and the dash for biofuels are causing food shortages and rocketing prices - sparking riots in cities from the Caribbean to the Far East. Robin McKie and Heather Stewart report on the millions facing starvation - and the growing threat to global security (The Observer)

Darling calls for urgent review of biofuel policies - Alistair Darling has demanded an urgent review of international biofuel programmes as part of a plan to tackle the world’s mounting food crisis. The Chancellor said he had asked the World Bank to produce an analysis - for June’s G7 meeting of global leaders - on the impact of green policies, including America and Europe’s biofuel programmes, on global food shortages. (The Observer)

Hungry for oil, starving for food - Supplying the world’s growing energy needs while at the same time improving food security for the poor and needy is no easy task. And if it can be done, it will probably involve developing new energy sources to replace fossil fuels while addressing the spiralling cost of food. (Bangkok Post)

Biofuel potential for commercially grown grass - Grass from the western counties of Britain could soon rival oil seed rape and wheat from the eastern counties as a source of biofuel for cars, scientists have said. (Daily Telegraph)

Killer whales blamed for decline of Scottish seals - Attacks by killer whales may be helping to drive the sudden and mysterious decline of seals around the northern coasts of Scotland, new research suggests. (The Independent)

Nuclear plants sucking the sea life from British waters, researchers claim - The nuclear industry in Britain is killing billions of fish every year and taking a devastating toll of stocks, an Oxford University academic suggests. (The Times)

Britain ignored risk of whale extinction in rush for oil and gas - Documents that government fought for three years to keep secret reveal warnings of devastation to wildlife (The Independent)

What’s in a name? “Natural” and “science” doesn’t mean safe - One year ago, the April fools’ post on diet wackiness included a serious discussion of potentially dangerous substances being found in natural weight loss supplements. The FDA and health agencies around the world were especially concerned about one ingredient, aristolochic acid, due to growing reports of kidney toxicity and failure, and carcinogenicity. (Junkfood Science)

Vytorin expert panel minutes released - For those following the Vytorin issue: The Committee on Energy and Commerce that has been investigating the ENHANCE trial documents issued a press statement yesterday, saying it had written the CEO of Schering-Plough Corporation and Merck & Co, Inc., requesting additional information about the ENHANCE study trial after uncovering in company documents “serious concerns about the handling of the ENHANCE trial and the release of its results,” according to Rep. John Dingell, committee chairman. (Junkfood Science)

JFS Special Report: Major findings on childhood obesity programs - This week, we learned how effective the Student Nutrition Policy Initiative has been in reducing childhood obesity. This comprehensive initiative includes all of the school-based programs, in accordance with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Guidelines to Promote Lifelong Healthy Eating and Physical Activity,” that are being proposed across the country. The long-awaited results of this intensive 2-year study were just published in the journal Pediatrics. (Junkfood Science)

The Price of Rice Protectionism - The global price of rice is soaring, and for the Philippines – the world’s largest importer of rice annually – that’s bad news. Food queues and fears of riots are real fears. But this is a problem of Manila’s own making. (WSJ Asia)

Cotton, rice and corn-ucopia: Hard work documented by video - California Women for Ag will present the video about ag to every legislator (Capital Press)

Is this the beginning of water wars? - As Barcelona runs out of water, Spain has been forced to consider importing water from France by boat. It is the latest example of the growing struggle for water around the world – the "water wars". (NewScientist.com news service)

Fears about water supplies spur opposition to bottling companies - McCLOUD, Calif. - The lumber mill closed five years ago, and so many families moved out that the town can no longer even field a high school football team. But McCloud is hoping to turn things around by exploiting the other natural resource in abundance along the icy flanks of Mount Shasta - water. (Associated Press)

April 11, 2008

Why isn’t Gore hounding the Olympic torch?

By Steven Milloy
April 10, 2008

Tibetan protesters aren’t the only ones who ought to be dogging the Olympic torch relay.
 
When Al Gore received his Nobel Peace prize he said that global warming is a “moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.”
 
Ted Turner recently told PBS’ Charlie Rose that if steps aren’t taken to control global warming, “in 30 or 40 years… most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state — like Somalia or Sudan — and living conditions will be intolerable.”
 
And the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights says that, “Global warming and extreme weather conditions may have calamitous consequences for the human rights of millions of people.”
 
But despite their melodramatic rhetoric — and the just-reported news that the Olympic torch relay will release more than 11 million pounds of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions from more than 550 SUVs — you won’t see Al, Ted or anyone from the U.N.

Fiends of the Earth are going after moderate texts - Now, the offending text points out there are unknowns in climate science and that [gasp] there are upsides as well as down with every climatic shift.  Nothing surprising in FoE being stupid — that’s their function, you say. True enough, but check out the letter from Hansen — on NASA GISS stationary and signed in his official capacity as Director. Recall how much fit hit the shan when doubt was expressed that could have been misconstrued as NASA’s position? What do you suppose are the chances of Jimmy "They’re trying to censor me" Hansen being jerked into line for such an egregious abuse of title and stationary? Nice of Jimmy to prove J. Q. Wilson’s point though:

"It is a foolish politician who today opposes environmentalism. And that creates a problem, because not all environmental issues are equally deserving of support. Take the case of global warming." (p. 559)

High School Textbook Challenged for Global Warming Bias (Press Release)

Wonder if the significance of this will dawn on anyone soon? - Absence of clouds caused pre-human supergreenhouse periods

In a world without human-produced pollution, biological productivity controls cloud formation and may be the lever that caused supergreenhouse episodes during the Cetaceous and Eocene, according to Penn State paleoclimatologists.

"Our motivation was the inability of climate models to reproduce the climate of the supergreenhouse episodes of the Cetaceous and Eocene adequately," said Lee R. Kump, professor of geosciences. "People have tried increasing carbon dioxide in the models to explain the warming, but there are limits to the amounts that can be added because the existing proxies for carbon dioxide do not show such large amounts."

In general, the proxies indicate that the Cretaceious and Eocene atmosphere never exceeded four times the current carbon dioxide level, which is not enough for the models to create supergreenhouse conditions. Some researchers have tried increasing the amount of methane, another greenhouse gas, but there are no proxies for methane. Another approach is to assume that ocean currents changed, but while researchers can insert new current information into the models, they cannot get the models to create these ocean current scenarios. (PhysOrg)

On Global Warming and Horrible People - Dr. Roy W. Spencer–a principal research scientist for the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the U.S. Science Team Leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, recently wrote:

"For those scientists who value their scientific reputations, I would advise that they distance themselves from politically-motivated claims of a ’scientific consensus’ on the causes of global warming — before it is too late. Don’t let five Norwegians on the Nobel Prize committee be the arbiters of what is good science."

Spencer made this commentary as he was writing up three questions that he–and a good many other scientists and science writers–would like to see answered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, the UN’s ministry of global warming truth-telling and Al Gore’s governmental right arm. (David Brant, Ground Report)

World Bank "Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis" - NEW YORK, Apr 10 - A new study released by an independent policy think tank casts further doubts on the World Bank’s ability to stay neutral in the global politics of climate change. "It is making money off of causing the climate crisis and then turning around and claiming to solve it," charged Janet Redman, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies. (IPS)

Ted Nordhaus on the Politics of Personal Destruction - Ted Nordhaus eloquently characterizes a disturbing pattern in debate among those calling for action climate change — avoid debating the merits of policies, and instead smear the character of those making arguments that you disagree with. (Prometheus)

Global Warming Censored: How the Major Networks Silence the Debate on Climate Change - So much for that job requirement of balance and objectivity. When it came to global warming the media clearly left out dissent in favor of hype, cute penguins and disastrous predictions. (businessandmedia.org)

Imbalance Of Powers - Imagine a group of lawyers at work on guidelines for instituting an imperial presidency. There would be an uproar, and rightly so. But what if the goal is to blunt global warming?

Well, then, in that case it’s OK to bypass the checks and balances between the branches of the federal government, right? We can’t think of a single proposal on the right side of the political spectrum in which academics could construct a manual to help the president unilaterally fast-track policy because the legislative and judicial gears of government move too slow.

The media and law professors would storm the White House if President Bush decided the executive branch alone would cut taxes or privatize Social Security, bypassing Congress.

But global warming? Now that, they believe, is a threat the president should be able to deal with without the constraints of limited power. (IBD)

Don’t reporters check anything anymore? - How hard would it have been for the reporter to plug in a simple search (like "’polar bear’ +cannibalism", maybe?) and then up would pop items like:

Factors affecting the survival of polar bear cubs (Ursus maritimus) are poorly understood (Derocher and Stirling, 1996). Low food availability and accidents on the sea ice may be the main sources of cub mortality (Uspenski and Kistchinski, 1972; Larsen, 1986; Derocher and Stirling, 1996). Intraspecific predation, infanticide, and cannibalism have been reported in polar bears (Belikov et al., 1977; Hansson and Thomassen, 1983; Larsen, 1985; Lunn and Stenhouse, 1985; Taylor et al., 1985). However, some of the instances have followed human activities such as harvest or immobilization (Taylor et al., 1985). Regardless, intraspecific predation has been suggested as a regulating feature of ursid populations (e.g., McCullough, 1981; Young and Ruff, 1982; Larsen and Kjos-Hanssen, 1983; Stringham, 1983; Taylor et al., 1985). (Infanticide and Cannibalism of Juvenile Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) in Svalbard, ARCTIC, VOL. 52, NO. 3 (SEPTEMBER 1999) P. 307–310)

Wouldn’t they then have wondered about the list of references 1977-1985 specifically on intraspecific predation (in case reporters don’t know, intraspecific means existing or occurring within a species — in this case bears eating each other or practicing cannibalism), infanticide, and cannibalism (a term some references used rather than the cumbersome intraspecific predation)?

So which is it? Were ice conditions similar 20-30 years ago or do bears simply act this way normally? Either way there doesn’t seem to be anything new here, does there? Sheesh! What a lot of nonsense about bears you see printed lately: Beaufort Sea polar bears starving to death, scientist finds - Desperate animals resorting to cannibalism, wandering south to find food (CBC News)

The Polar Bear Tractor Beam: How the Endangered Species Act Could Accomplish What Al Gore Couldn’t - Two weeks ago I wrote a column on the proposed rule to list the polar bear as a "threatened species" under the Federal Endangered Species Act. This past Monday, California Senator Barbara Boxer chaired a hearing on why the United States Department of the Interior had failed to make the decision on whether to list the bear.  The hearing was a classic of the genre:  "Experts" testified on the peril confronting the polar bear, and Boxer and others declaimed on the need for the feds to get off the dime and list the animal. (Hugh Hewitt, Townhall)

As if California hasn’t enough problems: California to be home to $600 million global warming research center - California will establish a high-profile, $600 million research center to devise solutions for global warming, the Public Utilities Commission decided in a 5-0 vote Thursday. (Mercury News)

Krupp’s "Warming" meets Ponte’s "Cooling" - Michigan, like the Midwest in general, has endured a brutal winter with record cold temperatures, snow two feet above normal as of March, six inches of snow in Detroit on Easter, 26 inches in Marquette on April 5, and more snow predicted for Detroit Metro this weekend as temperatures maintain their sub-normal trend. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)

How not to measure temperature part 57 - One of the surfacestations.org intrepid traveling volunteers, Eric Gamberg, has been traveling through Nebraska as of late, picking up stations as he goes.

He recently visited the USHCN station of record, COOP # 256040, in North Loup, NE, not to be confused with Loup City, which he also visited. Records describe this station as being in a rural area, which is true. As some might say, it is surrounded by a “whole lotta nothing”. See the map. According to the Nebraska Home Town Locator website: “North Loup had a population of 339 with 192 housing units; a land area land area of 0.41 sq.” Seems quite small.

At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be much wrong with this station. (Watts Up With That?)

Important New Paper On The First-Order Role Of Land Use On Weather and Climate by Nuñez, Ciapessoni, Rolla, Kalnay and Cai - There is an excellent new paper that documents the first order role of land use on climate (thanks to Timo Hämeranta for alerting us to it!). The paper is Nuñez, Mario N., H. H. Ciapessoni, A. Rolla, E. Kalnay, and M. Cai, 2008: Impact of land use and precipitation changes on surface temperature trends in Argentina. J. Geophys. Res. – Atmos., 113, D06111, doi:10.1029/2007JD008638, March 29, 2008 (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

The “Collapse” of the Wilkins ice shelf - A few quick calculations put the size and effect of latest broken piece of Wilkins ice into perspective (Climate Sanity)

Love that Dirty Water - Things are really getting strange out there. Here’s how it all started. Last year the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant. This was an amazingly stupid ruling. In doing so they gave the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) the legal power to control it’s emission into the atmosphere from cars, trucks and you name it probably lawn mowers, charcoal grills and cigarettes. Now the Attorney General of the State of Connecticut Richard Blumenthal is suing the EPA to make them regulate the emission of carbon dioxide from Connecticut vehicles. Actually it’s Connecticut and about 17 other states that are doing this, of course the movement started in Massachusetts where Michael Dukakis learned that dirty water can lose you a presidential election a few years back.

The crazy part of all of this is that the Supreme Court made such a terrible ruling about CO2 in the first place. Carbon dioxide is NOT A POLLUTANT! Al Gore will tell you it is but he got a D and a C in the only intro science classes he took at Harvard so he is hardly the one to listen to. (Art Horn, The Art of Weather)

Voinovich could be the Senate’s GOP enviro (or anti-enviro) king - What is often a game of inside baseball could become important to more than environmentalists — and Ohioans — if John McCain wins the White House. We’re talking about musical chairs in the U.S. Senate; in this case, when the music were to stop, George Voinovich would be in the chair of the top Republican on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee. (Plain Dealer Politics Blog)

CBO Report Exposes Lieberman-Warner Bill’s $1.2 Trillion Tax Increase  - WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, today commented on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) cost estimate for the America’s Climate Security Act – S. 2191 (Lieberman-Warner) global warming cap-and-trade bill. "Today’s CBO analysis reveals that the Lieberman-Warner bill will impose a $1.2 trillion tax increase over the next 10 years," Senator Inhofe said. "As the economy continues to face uncertain times and as energy prices soar, this new analysis shows once again why this bill is wrong for America. CBO also says the bill would increase entitlement spending by $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years. (EPW Blog)

LiveScience might need a name change - Did Andrea Thompson copy this from the BBC or maybe Greenpeace sites? As Svensmark has already pointed out, Sloan apparently has no idea how the effect works. Some background can be seen here and here: Global Warming Not a Cosmic Swindle (Andrea Thompson, LiveScience)

Hunters Worry About Global Warming - WASHINGTON — Global warming could force elk and mule deer from much of the American West. Wild trout could disappear in lower Appalachian streams. Two-thirds of the country’s ducks may disappear. (AP)

UK human CO2 output represents 0.0025% of greenhouse gases. - Al Gore and The BBC climate change propaganda machine tell us the science of climate change is settled - all sensible scientists believe in global warming, and think the major cause is human produced CO2. (John Redwood’s Diary)

Shell wants developing nations in carbon market - Are Shell simply rent-seeking here or are they setting up for "developing countries aren’t doing it so we can’t either" defense? Shell wants developing nations in carbon market (Bloomberg News)

Green jobs law an empty promise - If lawmakers in Olympia are serious about global warming, there is a simple solution that economists agree is the easiest, most efficient way to curb the Evergreen State’s carbon footprint: a gasoline tax.

Thanks to an abundance of hydropower, most of Washington’s greenhouse gas emissions come from cars, so a steep gasoline tax would go a long way toward inducing climate-friendly behavior such as car pooling and public transportation. Given a gas tax, the state’s contribution to climate change would plummet quickly.

There is, however, a problem: People think they already pay too much for gasoline. According to a recent poll by the National Center for Public Policy Research, 48 percent of Americans are unwilling to spend even a penny more in gasoline taxes to help reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Just 18 percent of Americans are willing to pay 50 cents or more in additional taxes per gallon of gas to cut emissions.

So voters are sending a mixed message to policymakers. They want to "do something" about climate change, but they aren’t willing to pay to do it. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Cold, Cons, And Coal - Our soi-disant elitist press and media like to pour scorn on their more tabloid and ‘red top’ kin, yet I have found on numerous occasions that the latter report ‘global warming’ issues in a far fairer and more critical manner. It is interesting to speculate about why this should be so. Today, for example, the Daily Express has a very good piece indeed, entitled ‘Global warming? No it’s getting COLDER’ [April 10, p. 17: not online], in which it reports the fact that there has been no ‘global warming’ since 1998, and on the likelihood that there will be a further drop in temperature this year. The article quotes both Bob Carter of James Cook University, Australia, and yours truly at length. In my case, the accuracy of the reporting is exemplary, which makes a nice change - one up there to the Daily Express. Moreover, it appears that the lack of warming since 1998 is beginning to dawn on a wider public and media - as Jeremy Paxman declared when interviewing Nigel Lawson [Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC, Chancellor of the Exchequer from June 1983 to October 1989] on Newsnight: “Interesting!” [An important reminder: Nigel’s excellent new book, An Appeal to Reason: a Cool Look at Global Warming, is published in the UK today - it is available here] (Global warming Politics)

Speaking of cons: More light than heat: Bureaucratic meddling has harmed solar power - If they can produce cells for $1/Watt that would be a significant improvement but anyone contemplating solar power needs to be aware that solar cells are only part of the cost. In Australia you can get cells for under $4/Watt so a 1kW should be about $4,000.00, right? Well, yes but… an installed 1kW grid-connected system (the only real option to avoid battery cost/replacement etc.) will set you back roughly $16,000.00 ($15,900 in my local paper Wednesday) and then you have ongoing cleaning and maintenance costs too. Here in subtropical Queensland I can expect an average of 7.75 hours sunshine per day so, in perfect conditions, such a unit might replace $1’s worth of power (retail price) per day and (almost) pay for itself in just 43 years. Unfortunately current cells degrade and their output declines at least 2% per year, additional costs are incurred having to keep dust, mold, mildew, lichens etc. from obscuring the cells and further reducing their efficiency, support frames must be maintained etc. and so there is no chance the unit will ever pay for itself before having to be scrapped and replaced.

The $1/Watt mantra sounds great but to be really useful solar cells need to be churned out at about the penny/Watt price range.

Truly useful and cost-effective solar-cell-based distributed power is about as close as commercial fusion power. Until solar can return the total, unsubsidized price of installed systems in less than the expected half-life of the most vulnerable components and do so with realistic sunlight expectations for mid- and high-latitude regions there is simply no reason to have them and there is never any excuse for politicians to waste our taxes subsidizing the useless things. Solar is fine for satellites and situations where you cannot viably provide real power or fuel — otherwise forget it: More light than heat: Bureaucratic meddling has harmed solar power (Economist.com)

Westinghouse wins first US nuclear deal in 30 years - Westinghouse Electric, the nuclear design and build firm sold by the British government two years ago, has won its first contracts in America for 30 years. (The Guardian)

Dominic Lawson: As they tackle climate change, governments are starving the people they set out to help - The law of unintended consequences has claimed many millions of victims over the centuries; the first decade of the 21st century is now demonstrating that governments have not lost the knack of destroying the livelihoods of the very people they purport to help. (The Independent)

Forecasters Implement New Hurricane-Tracking Technique - See, this is the kind of thing that reduces developed world vulnerability to extreme weather events — good and improving warning systems and infrastructure to get people out of harm’s way. Basically it’s a matter of societal wealth, which is precisely why carbon constraint is exactly the wrong policy to improve the health welfare and safety of developing nations’ citizens: Forecasters Implement New Hurricane-Tracking Technique (PhysOrg)

What did the WMO say and when did they say it? - The BBC is sending this fatuous response to queries about the infamous capitulation to climate activist Jo Abbess’s extortion:

Dear Reader
There has been considerable interest in the story about global temperatures authored by our correspondent Roger Harrabin, and the alteration made to the text after publication.  A minor change was made to the piece on our website to better reflect the science.  A number of people, including the report’s authors the World Meteorological Organization, pointed out to us that the earlier version had been ambiguous.
With thanks for your mail, time and interest.
BBC News website

Well, for a start the Beeb is supposed to report what is known and in most cases the available data is open to interpretation — it is in fact ambiguous by nature. No points there.

So, if the WMO (source of the press release reported on by Harrabin) actually complained (and they might have since they are a UN shopfront):

1. what exactly did they say
2. what changes did they request
3. why was this not noted when edits were made
4. why wasn’t the the editing timestamp updated to reflect changes
5. importantly, why was Abbess invited to "Have a look in 10 minutes and tell me you are happier
   We have changed headline and more"
6. does the BBC believe Abbess to be a representative of the WMO
7. if not, what position does Abbess occupy that gives her editorial control over BBC content

This is how the file reads now and here’s our capture of the original.

How does this comply with the BBC Trust’s stated values?

Our values

• Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.
• Audiences are at the heart of everything we do.
• We take pride in delivering quality and value for money.
• Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation.
• We respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone can give their best.
• We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together.

If you’d like to help find out whether the WMO really requested changes and what they said if they did then the place to start asking is here: NewsOnline Complaints [mailto:newsonline.complaints@bbc.co.uk] and pose your questions. Perhaps ask who contacted them from WMO and what did they say?

If the BBC wants to be a clearing house for activist propaganda that’s fine — so long as the activists are the one’s footing the bill rather than the fees levied on the British public.

Uh-oh… Daily Telegraph repeats BBC’s ‘mistake’ - Will Jo Abbess manage to cow them, too? Will TDT show any more spine than the dear old Beeb? Will they be asked for changes by the WMO, as the Beeb claims to have been? Stay tuned… Climate experts predict temperature drop -

Climate experts are forecasting a drop in global temperatures this year.

But the world is also facing more dramatic rain storm events such as the flooding which hit Britain last summer, scientists warn.

Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organisation, said temperatures in 2008 are likely to be cooler because of the effects of the La Nina in the central and eastern Pacific.

He said it was likely that the La Nina phenomenon would continue into the summer. If his forecast is right it would mean temperatures have not risen globally since 1998 when El Nino warmed the world.

La Nina (the little girl) and El Nino (the little boy) are two great natural Pacific currents whose effects can be felt worldwide.

Recently La Nina caused one of the coldest winters in memory in China, Canada and the Arctic and brought torrential rains to Australia.

Mr Jarraud said La Nina was expected to continue into the summer, depressing global temperatures by a fraction of a degree. (Daily Telegraph)

April 10, 2008

Little fund says GE’s ‘junk science’ hurts business - General Electric Co.’s stock is a "dog," says Steven J. Milloy, and his opinion goes down from there. He accuses what is possibly America’s most admired company of promoting "junk science" — in this case, the view that human beings cause global warming — mainly to get environmentalists off its back and to further its own business interests. (Tribune-Review)

The slick trick behind global frauding - In Stalin’s Russia any dissenter from the Party Line was guilty. Innocence had to be proved. It’s a standard tyrant’s trick. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England, witchhunters did not have to prove that their victims were guilty. The accused witches had to prove their innocence. That’s what Al Gore has done to science: He and his friends have flipped innocence and guilt from normal science to Stalinist science. (James Lewis, American Thinker)

Freedman: The Price of Al Gore’s Climate Battle - The ‘price of Al gore’s climate battle’ is absolutely trivial compared with the cost should Don Alberto Goreleone succeed. Unfortunately Andrew Freedman has no idea of the ideology and misinformation driving the catastrophic gorebull warming myth: Freedman: The Price of Al Gore’s Climate Battle (Washington Post)

More Global Warming Nonsense - Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the implications of climate change for human health. Malaria will top the menu, but so will ignorance and disinformation. (PAUL REITER and ROGER BATE, Wall Street Journal)

’Global Warming’ is Causing Malaria, Floods and Malnutrition - The scares: The World Health Organization announced on 7 April 2008 that millions of Asians could face poverty, disease and hunger as a result of rising temperatures and increased rainfall. The WHO’s regional director for Asia said that malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and floods cause an estimated 150,000 deaths annually in the region. A WHO adviser on malaria and other parasitic diseases added climate change in combination with unchecked human development has contributed to the problem. (SPPI)

Wilkins’ Fracture Barely a Blip in the Big Picture as Antarctic Ice Anomaly 2nd Highest on Record - Last month, reports about the Wilkins Ice Sheet break-up were exaggerated in the media with headlines like “Bye-Bye Antarctica”. We posted several blogs in a reality-check response here, here and here. This week we posted a story where Roger Pielke Sr. reported on Climate Science on a paper in EOS that showed the melting this past summer was 40% below the average for the past 20 years. (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Latest MSU Lower Troposhperic Temperature Values From The University Of Alabama At Huntsville - John Christy has provided us with the latest information on the global (GL), northern hemisphere (NH), southern hemisphere (SH) and tropical (Trpcs) values. For the last three months they are (in terms of anomaly)

            GL    NH    SH    Trpcs
Jan   -0.05 -0.11  0.02  -0.21
Feb    0.02  0.25 -0.21  -0.33
Mar    0.09  0.43 -0.25  -0.49

The positive value in the northern hemisphere is dominated by the land areas.  This large difference between the hemispheres (and the large negative values in the tropics) needs explanation, as none of the global models have predicted such a behavior that I am aware of.

Their analysis supports the findings reported at Watts Up with That from the RSS MSU analysis group. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Josh Willis Comments On Ocean Heat Content Trends - In responses to the April 1 2008 Climate Science weblog, I e-mailed to Josh Willis to both alert him to the weblog and follow up on his comments about upper ocean heat trends. With his permission I am posting our e-mail exchanges below. These adds to our knowledge of this critically important climate metric of global warming and cooling. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Geologist: Sun’s shift could mean global chill: ‘Warming’ fits 30-year cycles, geologist argues - BELLINGHAM — Fluctuations in solar radiation could mean colder weather in the decades ahead, despite all the talk about global warming, retired Western Washington University geologist Don Easterbrook said Tuesday. Easterbrook is convinced that the threat of global warming from mankind’s carbon dioxide pollution is overblown. (Bellingham Herald)

Climate change kills migrating birds - No. Not that change — the cold: South African cold snap spells tragedy for Europe-bound swallows (AFP)

Floods, droughts to rise due to climate change - BUDAPEST - Flooding in temperate regions and the tropics and droughts in arid regions are likely to increase over the course of the century due to climate change, according to a study released yesterday. (Reuters)

Senate Republicans Seek Consensus on Greenhouse Gases in Private Meeting - Senate Republicans went behind closed doors Wednesday to take their first serious step toward consensus on an issue that deeply divides them: global warming. (Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff)

Dingell, Hill staffers report what’s brewing with climate bill - National global warming legislation won’t likely happen this Congress, House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich, told the EIA’s 2008 Energy Conference yesterday. (Restructuring Today)

Hot Air in Bangkok - After five days of contentious discussions in Bangkok, governments from nearly 200 countries last week agreed to an agenda for further talks to forge a new United Nations global warming agreement. One sticking point has been developing nations’ insistence that industrialized countries should take the first steps in reducing emissions and should help finance reductions in developing countries. But this represents a serious misreading of the underlying economic situation. (Indur Goklany, WSJ)

Next US President Urged To Outline Climate Policy - And naturally EU nations would be delighted to have the US meddle in their politics. Regardless, what the incoming US President should (but undoubtedly won’t) do is declare immediately that the US will not under any circumstance commit economic suicide to appease the Gaia cultists and that everyone should stop being so foolish and start dealing with the weather rather than attempting to impose imaginary controls on it. I know, I dream: Next US President Urged To Outline Climate Policy (Reuters)

Business Leaders Unite To Sway UN Climate Talks - COPENHAGEN - Business leaders, scientists and policymakers from around the world have joined forces to try to influence politicians negotiating a post-Kyoto deal at next year’s UN Climate Conference in the Danish capital. (Reuters)

Climate change: A Contrarian’s Opinion - Not a day goes by where we are not all bombarded with angst over global warming and climate change caused, apparently, by our over use of fossil fuels. (Lance Burnham, Meaford Express)

Woodside finds carbon scheme lacking - ONE of Australia’s energy chiefs has accused the Rudd Government of having no idea how it will protect export industries, as it plans for the introduction in two years of its carbon trading scheme. (The Australian)

Garth George: Climate change warriors, cast down your weapons - While the nation obsesses over the trade deal with China, the parliamentary finance and expenditure select committee is hearing 200-plus submissions on the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable References) Bill. (Garth George, New Zealand Herald)

Expert: "We’re brainwashing our children" about global warming - Another post from guest blogger Rick Neale of Florida Today, from the National Hurricane Conference in Orlando:

William Gray, the well-known Colorado State University hurricane forecaster, routinely uses the annual National Hurricane Conference as a platform to bash global warming. In a statement to Florida Today, Gray argued that the scientific consensus on global warming is bogus — and "a mild form of McCarthyism has developed toward those scientists who do not agree" that mankind is in danger.

"We are also brainwashing our children on the warming topic. We have no better example than Al Gore’s alarmists and inaccurate movie which is being shown in our schools and being hawked by warming activists with little or no meteorological-climate background," Gray wrote. (USA Today)

From CO₂ Science:

Editorial:
Climate Model Problems: VI. The Double-ITCZ Problem: What is it? How bad is it? And how pervasive is it?

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue's Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from the Yangtze River Delta, China. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project's database, click here.

Subject Index Summary:
Roman Warm Period (Europe - Mediterranean): What does its existence imply about the nature and cause of the Current Warm Period?

Plant Growth Data:
This week we add new results (blue background) of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature for: Garden Pea, Soybean, Sunflower, and Tomato.

Journal Reviews:
Detecting Changes in the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: How difficult is it? And what do real-world data indicate about the phenomenon?

Intense Typhoons of the Western North Pacific: How have they varied over the past half-century?

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Time of Flowering in Plants: Do they accelerate, delay or not affect time-to-flowering in most plants?

Evolution of Dispersal Ability in the Speckled Wood Butterfly: Adjusting to global warming at the most basic of levels: a butterfly's tale.

Cotton Bolls vs. Cotton Bollworms in a CO2-Enriched World: Which group wins as the air's CO2 content continues to climb?

France, Germany Nearer To Cars CO2 Deal - Diplomats - BRUSSELS - France and Germany are making progress on finding a common position over proposed new European Union limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars, diplomats said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Beat up on Big Oil? It does little good - Rather than learn from the energy policy mistakes of our recent history, some in Congress are instead bound and determined to repeat them. (Star-Telegram)

Green Ink: Lambasting Lieberman-Warner - U.S. demand for oil will slow, but global demand will keep prices above $100 this year, says the EIA, in the WSJ (sub reqd.) That slowing U.S. demand is putting pressure on crude prices Wednesday, reports Bloomberg. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Running With the Bulls: EIA Says $100 Oil “New Norm” - Chalk up another convert from the oil bear camp: The U.S. Energy Information Administration has given up on seeing double-digit oil prices this year, and says $100 oil—and loads of volatility in crude markets—is the “new norm.” That’s a sudden shift from the $87 barrel of oil the EIA was forecasting in January. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Profiles in Energy Independence - Energy independence must be really, really good. That much I can gather from the fawning media coverage of the idea and its support from both political parties. Just what it is, exactly (other than really, really good) is a little harder to figure. (Mac Johnson, Energy Tribune)

It Ain’t Easy Legislating Green: California’s Renewable Woes - Here’s something you don’t see every day: Renewable-energy groups are lobbying against an ambitious clean-energy proposal for California. The battle shows how legislating the growth of alternative energy is as tricky as securing cheap supplies of polysilicon. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Biofuels Hit the Fan - Ethanol has been recognized for decades as an undesirable fuel for transportation. A primary reason is that a gallon of ethanol contains only 2/3 the energy in a gallon of gasoline. This is well known to thousands of freshman engineering students. Second it takes a lot of energy to make the ethanol, sometimes more energy than can be recovered from the ethanol. (Michael R. Fox Ph.D., Hawaii Reporter)

Money for India’s ‘Ultra Mega’ Coal Plants Approved - Excellent! Although obviously neo-Malthusian Andy prefers ecochondria to little brown people: Money for India’s ‘Ultra Mega’ Coal Plants Approved (New York Times)

Royal Dutch Shell threatens to quit Europe over carbon-charging proposals - Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s second-largest oil company, threatened yesterday to stop investing in Europe if it is forced to pay for emissions permits that have previously been free. (The Times)

We can bury carbon dioxide forever - But why would we? Why would we take a 30-40% energy hit to rebury carbon we have already expended energy mining in the first place? The only purpose for carbon hysteria is the strangulation of society’s energy supply, something which might suit Gaia-freaks who consider human life a pathogen but which serves no societal or environmental purpose whatsoever: We can bury carbon dioxide forever (The Australian)

More Failures of Wind Energy - While wind energy is being wildly supported by many in the U.S., there have always been drawbacks to the performance and costs of these machines. The U.S. has had a heavily subsidized romance with them for nearly 40 years and too few of the state and federal policy makers have taken a close look at what the tens of billions in subsidies have actually done for the taxpayers. (Michael R. Fox Ph.D., Hawaii Reporter)

The Super Battery Prize - There’s no question that electricity is the key development factor in countries around the world. Countries that have cheap, abundant electricity have healthier economies than those that don’t. But the next big step in the efficient utilization of electricity is obvious: super-high-capacity batteries. (Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune)

Rise in singletons thwarts moves to save energy - Britain’s efforts to become more environmentally friendly are being thwarted by social forces that are causing more people to live alone, the Office for National Statistics warned yesterday. (The Guardian)

Government is taken to court over fuel poverty - The Government is being taken to court for failing to meet its own targets on eradicating fuel poverty. It is legally committed to ending fuel poverty in vulnerable households by 2010 and in all households by 2016. (Daily Telegraph)

And at the same time they are trying to increase the cost of energy in the name of carbon constraint.

INTERVIEW - Poland Sees Power Prices Surging On EU Carbon Plan - OSLO - Polish electricity prices could surge 50-70 percent if the European Union goes ahead with plans to force power producers to buy their carbon emission permits from 2013, Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Point Carbon studies RGGI as market starts to form - Point Carbon released a report called "Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) Market Brief," analyzing the current state of the impending CO2 market RGGI is laying the groundwork for. (Restructuring Today)

PANEL: Price on carbon will determine coal’s future versus nuclear, gas - With growing demand, power firms are going to have to build new baseload but whether they will choose coal or nuclear power isn’t known, panelists said at the EIA’s 2008 Energy Conference yesterday. (Restructuring Today)

Nigeria: A Case Study in Power Shortages - MTN is one of Nigeria’s biggest suppliers of mobile phone services. It is also one of Nigeria’s biggest independent power producers. The South Africa-based mobile phone giant has about 15 million subscribers in Nigeria. But ensuring reliable service to those users has required MTN to invest heavily in electric power generators. The company runs about 3,000 base stations and another 100 switching and controller stations across Nigeria – and each one of them requires the use of a diesel generator. MTN estimates it now generates about 60 megawatts of electric power to keep its mobile customers connected. The cost of fueling those myriad generators is about $6 million per month. (Leonard Lawal, Energy Tribune)

How sweet it is: ‘Revolutionary’ process points to sugar-fueled cars - Chemists are describing development of a “revolutionary” process for converting plant sugars into hydrogen, which could be used to cheaply and efficiently power vehicles equipped with hydrogen fuel cells without producing any pollutants. (PhysOrg)

Nope. This study is actually NHI (No Humans Involved) Researchers link growth spurt in early childhood to obesity - A spurt in growth early in childhood could lead to obesity later in life, research suggests. Scientists have found a link between rapid growth as a baby and the long-term rise in a person’s metabolism. (The Guardian)

Alert to mothers! Please don’t feed your children like birds - Good heavens. This is the most unthinkable reporting of a research study in recent history — and that’s saying something. Nothing better demonstrates the absurdity of today’s obesity hysteria and the willingness of some to make anything and everything about obesity. (Junkfood Science)

Institutionalized discrimination. Brought to you by The State - Weight discrimination common, U.S. survey finds (Reuters Health)

Attacks against medical researchers: Time to take a stand - Biological Psychiatry, in its upcoming April 15th issue, is publishing a critically important commentary written by its Editors, members of its Editorial Committee, and its Editorial Board. This commentary is an urgent public statement, highlighting the increasing problem of terrorist acts, by individuals affiliated with groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, against investigators conducting research in non-human primates in the United States. (PhysOrg)

Food watchdog seeks ban on six artificial colourings - From what I’ve seen so far that should probably read "growing body of assertions" rather than "of evidence" but this is how they’ve chosen to write it up: Food watchdog seeks ban on six artificial colourings (The Guardian)

I wonder if they really can’t see it? - The developed world, most specifically the United States, has been working hard to apply the free market to the problems The Crone whines about. Biotechnology and modern low-till farming dramatically increase yields while reducing soil erosion and who are actively obstructing its uptake, mainly in the developing world? Yup, the watermelons, actively aided and abetted by The Crone and much of the MSM. Who is the driving force behind absurd anti-carbon hysteria which resulted in the completely wrong-headed biofuel subsidies and mandates? Same answer. To a huge extent The Crone and fellow-travelers are the problem. Will they ever wake up and smell what they’re shoveling? The World Food Crisis (New York Times)

The Biggest Green Mistake: Biofuels and the global food crisis - In the last year, the price of wheat has tripled, corn doubled, and rice almost doubled. As prices soared, food riots have broken out in about 20 poor countries including Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, and Mexico. In response some countries, such as India, Pakistan Egypt and Vietnam, are banning the export of grains and imposing food price controls. (Ronald Bailey, Reason)

Britain wants G8 to discuss biofuel link to food prices: report - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written to his Japanese counterpart asking for the impact of biofuel-production on food prices to be discussed at the Group of Eight rich nations summit in July, The Guardian reported Thursday. (AFP)

Researchers discover novel ‘gene toggles’ in world’s top food crop - University of Delaware researchers, in collaboration with U.S. and international colleagues, have found a new type of molecule–a kind of “micro-switch”–that can turn off genes in rice, which is the primary source of food for more than half the world’s population. The discovery is reported in the March 25 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. (PhysOrg)

Special labels mislead consumers; milk is milk - A recent commentary in the Post-Dispatch about the use of rBST, a hormone manufactured by Monsanto that increases dairy cow milk production, carried the headline, "Lobbyists try to keep milk information from consumers." However, the commentary itself omitted important information for consumers — including relevant safety information from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — about the dairy products they purchase. (Kevin Holloway, St Louis Today)

April 9, 2008

UAH Global Temp Anomaly: also slightly above zero - A few days ago I posted the results of the RSS Microwave Sounder Unit (MSU) global temperature anomaly data by RSS (Remote Sensing Systems of Santa Rosa, CA). For March 2008 it has moved a little higher, with a value of .079°C for a change (∆T) of 0.081°C globally from February. (Watts Up With That?)

EDITORIAL: It’s getting warmer? Oops: More bad news for climate change Chicken Littles - Contrary to what Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio say, the global warming debate is not over. Hysterical warnings about flooded coastlines and boiled polar bears remain nothing more than hot-air predictions. Their belief in an approaching apocalypse is based on nothing more than theory and blind faith, when the measures they advocate — the dismantling of capitalist economies and making energy unaffordable for the masses — demand hard evidence. Well, the latest data on climate change is in and, not surprisingly, it favors the "deniers." (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Seeing the Wood for the Trees: Interactive climate analysis for everyone - In America we have a saying, “Seeing the forest for the trees…” which is used to suggest seeing the bigger picture. In Britain, the similar saying is “Seeing the wood for the trees…”. I’ll explain this in a moment, please read on. (Watts Up With That?)

Why multiple climate model agreement is not that exciting - Check out the comments under the original post for a grumpy Gavin, gatekeeper at RealKlimat, unhappy about the challenge to his virtual worlds. Sounds like he spends too much time watching Italian Apple Mac advertisements: "E pur funzionano…" (loosely: It just works (And simply they work)). Pardon us for not dashing to destroy the global economy on the strength of Gavin’s argument. Maybe I should try an Albert & Gavin: send me vast sums of money — trust me, I’m saving the planet: Why multiple climate model agreement is not that exciting (William M Briggs, Statistician)

Has the IPCC inflated the feedback factor? A Guest Weblog by Christopher Monckton (Climate Science)

Academic cool on warming - RESPECTED academic Don Aitkin has seen the ugly side of the climate change debate after being warned he faced demonisation if he challenged the accepted wisdom that global warming poses a danger to humanity. (The Australian) TRANSCRIPT: Don Aitkin’s speech (pdf)

“Climate Target is not radical enough” - For the Full Report in PDF Form, please click here.
[Illustrations, footnotes and references available in PDF version]

Nasa scientist warns the world must urgently make huge CO2 reductions - Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, Monday, 7 April, 2008. Commentary by Christopher Monckton (SPPI Scare Watch)

Another Hurricane Update - A few months have passed since our last hurricane update, and sure enough, two more interesting articles have appeared recently in leading scientific journals. Despite a relative calm over the past few years on the hurricane front, the global warming crowd continues to insist on thousands of websites that hurricanes are becoming more frequent and intense due to the ongoing buildup of greenhouse gases. Their claims are looking more silly every day, but they fully understand that some other Katrina-like disaster is always in our future, so they seem to be patiently waiting for the next major photo opportunity. (WCR)

Will they never learn wealth creation works, wealth redistribution does not? GLOBAL: Rich must pay climate change health costs - BANGKOK, 7 April 2008 - Countries, mostly in the developing world, could spend between US$6 to $18 billion a year by 2030 to manage additional costs to health services as a result of climate change, according to independent research cited by a World Health Organisation (WHO) official, hence the need for rich countries responsible for global warming to help pay towards these additional health costs. (IRIN)

Hug the Earth, kill the humans - Yesterday, Post readers were moved by the image of our Prime Minister, in Poland on April 5, kneeling at the Death Wall of Auschwitz, the worst of the Holocaust extermination camps. In the museum guest book he wrote, "Lord, bless the souls of those who suffered and perished here, and deliver us from evil."

Stephen Harper’s prayerful posture and traditional words of commemoration for the lost souls of a barbaric era reveal a sensibility noticeably out of sync with the religion of environmentalism that presently dominates our culture.

The contrast was illuminated in the coincidence of Mr. Harper’s expression of reverence for human life with the contempt for human life displayed by Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society chief. In reaction to the March 29 maritime deaths of four seal hunters, Watson declared the deaths of seals a "greater tragedy." (Barbara Kay,  National Post)

Gore launches climate change ad campaign - Too few people are changing their lifestyles, environmentalists say, and too few politicians are acting. (Christian Science Monitor)

Uh-oh… Al Gore: New thinking on the climate crisis - Oh my… This is as copied from TED.com

In Al Gore’s brand-new slideshow (premiering exclusively on TED.com), he presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists were recently predicting, and challenges us to act with a sense of "generational mission" — the kind of feeling that brought forth the civil rights movement — to set it right. Gore’s stirring presentation is followed by a brief Q&A in which he is asked for his verdict on the current political candidates’ climate policies and on what role he himself might play in future.

Another propaganda piece - Apparently Hoggan is more confused than most Canadians:

While 79 per cent said they understand climate change "fairly well" or "very well," when pressed for an explanation, only 38 per cent were able to identify greenhouse gases as the cause of global warming.

Guess what, Jimmy? That should read:

While 79 per cent said they understand climate change "fairly well" or "very well," when pressed for an explanation, only 38 per cent were sufficiently indoctrinated to misidentify greenhouse gases as the cause of global warming.

In fact no one knows how much, if any, of estimated warming over the past 250-odd years is due to enhanced greenhouse. Climate models associate the two but they are programmed to do so and reflect solely the guesses of the programmers. The mid-troposphere, where warming should theoretically be greatest, seems quite disinterested. The tropical mid-troposphere, where the definitive "human fingerprint" hot spot is eagerly anticipated, provides no solace for warmers either.

Presumably those of the 79% cited above as understanding climate change "very well" we not well-represented in the 38% misidentifying enhanced greenhouse as causing global warming: Climate confusion (James Hoggan, The Ottawa Citizen)

Climate blowback: The CO2 crusade only generates hostility against the West - Imagine, there is a UN climate conference, and hardly anybody seems to note or care. This is what appears to have happened with the latest round of post-Kyoto negotiations that ended in Bangkok last Friday. While delegates from more than 160 nations met at yet another United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change confab in the Thai capital, much of the media seemed indifferent to its deliberations or did not bother to report about it.

What used to be major environmental gatherings that would trigger global media hype and front-page headlines has turned into routine diplomatic meetings that wrap up, these days, on more or less the same note: Let’s meet again. Eight more such meetings are planned for the next 18 months to negotiate a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012.

Instead of the passionately celebrated "breakthroughs" that used to be the hallmark of international climate conferences, today they often end in deadlock and disappointment.

At the heart of the solidifying standoff lies a growing realization that the entire Kyoto process has been an abject failure. (Benny Peiser, Financial Post)

End-run around democracy, planning to impose Kyoto (and worse) by executive fiat: Fast-tracking climate policies: CU lawyers investigate boundaries of authority - The globe is warming quickly. Congress is moving slowly.

That’s the idea behind a new study from a team of researchers at the University of Colorado law school, who worked full time for nearly six months on a project that could help the next U.S. president make sweeping climate-change policies — fast. The new report probes the edges of executive orders and lays out the authority the next president could use to introduce global-warming policies without waiting for legislation to wind its way through the notoriously slow congressional machine.

"Given the extreme importance of climate change, this is a way for the next president to be able to take rapid action," said Kevin Doran, a researcher at CU’s Center for Energy and Environmental Security. (Laura Snider, Boulder Daily Camera)

Maryland Global Warming Bill Dies - Hooray! Read about it here. (Johnny Lucid, JSB)

THE BBC, CLIMATE HYSTERIA AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY - John A [e-mail supplied], open letter on CCNet

Strange Bedfellows: Manufacturers Lobby For Clean-Energy Subsidies - As the U.S. Congress gropes its way toward a new energy policy, it’s creating unlikely alliances. The latest? The National Association of Manufacturers is lobbying senators to support tax-credits for renewable energy and energy efficiency. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

EPA Ruckus: Republicans Accuse Agency Staff of Improper Lobbying on Greenhouse Gases - Another day, another call to probe lobbying on global warming at the Environmental Protection Agency. Only now, the calls are coming from Republicans, and the targets are senior EPA officials who favored letting California regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. (Dana Mattioli, WSJ)

DVDs and CD-ROMs that thwart global warming

Chemists have developed greener ways to manufacture plastics, such as material found in CDs and beverage bottles, from waste CO2. Credit: Photo by the American Chemical Society

Carbon dioxide removed from smokestack emissions in order to slow global warming in the future could become a valuable raw material for the production of DVDs, beverage bottles and other products made from polycarbonate plastics, chemists are reporting. (PhysOrg)

Coal’s Woes: Costs Just Keep Climbing - We’ve written a lot about the obstacles coal faces as a power source in the U.S., from environmental protests, to cold feet on Wall Street, to a shifting political and regulatory climate. But all of that pales before what could be its biggest hurdle now: Coal is in demand everywhere and gets more expensive all the time. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Dilemma for Labor in coal bonanza - Actually there’s no ‘dilemma’ — the simple fact is Australia will supply coal to anyone who can pay for it just as fast as we can mine and ship it. Same deal for iron ore, bauxite, lead, silver, zinc, gold and anything else we can rip out of the hostile dry crust or grow on it. Meanwhile a pampered minority with nothing better to do will make a disproportionate amount of anxious noises over gorebull warming and other ecochondria. Just don’t expect Australia to actually do any of the stupid things eco-flakes and Gaia-nuts so-noisily claim to want. Australia is open for business and governments State and Federal need a lot of tax revenue to fund lagging infrastructure expansion and repairs: Dilemma for Labor in coal bonanza (The Australian)

Green Groups Oppose World Bank’s India Coal Plant - WASHINGTON - Environmental groups called on the World Bank to delay a decision on Tuesday on funding for a $4.2 billion coal-fired power plant in India until more analyses of costs and environmental impact are done. (Reuters)

Obama endorses Amazon deforestation - The National Post has applauded Barack Obama for embracing the deforestation of the Amazon. Of course, they don’t say it quite that way. But that is the consequence of Obama’s endorsement of government mandating “flex-fuel engines in automobiles in order to break the oil monopoly, as Brazil has done.” (Henry Payne, Planet Gore)

Cow stomach holds key to turning corn into biofuel
 

The graphic illustrates the process in which corn is genetically modified to produce an enzyme that unlocks the sugars bound in plant leaves and stalks to make them available for ethanol production. Credit: Gordon Shetler

An enzyme from a microbe that lives inside a cow’s stomach is the key to turning corn plants into fuel, according to Michigan State University scientists.

FEATURE - Solar Balloons To Power Remote Areas? - HAIFA - Giant solar energy balloons floating high in the air may be a cheap way to provide electricity to areas lacking the land and infrastructure needed for traditional power systems, researchers in Israel say. (Reuters)

Sea salt worsens coastal air pollution: study - Air pollution in the world’s busiest ports and shipping regions may be markedly worse than previously suspected, according to a new study showing that industrial and shipping pollution is exacerbated when it combines with sunshine and salty sea air. (PhysOrg)

House-to-house searches — for twinkies and guns? - We make a bit of a departure today because this story has been all the buzz, and probably in your town, too. People are asking: “Did you ever imagine we would see this day in America?” The health and welfare implications of this issue may also be more real than might appear at first glance. (Junkfood Science)

What’s really going on here? - So, British consumers are intimidated into purchasing fruit and veg to apparently comply with nanny’s harassment campaigns (5 a day, etc….) — can’t be seen at the checkout with only good to eat items, must have the ‘healthy stuff’ too — only to bin roughly one-third of it? Solve two ‘problems’ quite easily: tell people it’s OK to not buy stuff they don’t want and won’t eat. What could be simpler? Wasted fruit and vegetables add to Britain’s CO2 emissions (The Times)

As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation - Out on the farm, the ducks and pheasants are losing ground.

Thousands of farmers are taking their fields out of the government’s biggest conservation program, which pays them not to cultivate. They are spurning guaranteed annual payments for a chance to cash in on the boom in wheat, soybeans, corn and other crops. Last fall, they took back as many acres as are in Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Environmental and hunting groups are warning that years of progress could soon be lost, particularly with the native prairie in the Upper Midwest. But a broad coalition of baking, poultry, snack food, ethanol and livestock groups say bigger harvests are a more important priority than habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife. They want the government to ease restrictions on the preserved land, which would encourage many more farmers to think beyond conservation. (New York Times)

Death Looms for a Flood-Control Project - STEELE BAYOU, Miss. — Seven decades of hydro-engineering have transformed the lower Mississippi Delta from wetlands to dry fields of cotton and soybeans. Levees and canals funnel runoff from hundreds of thousands of acres here to a huge set of metal gates that sit across Steele Bayou. The debate over whether the Delta’s transformation was an engineering feat or environmental folly winds up here, too. (New York Times)

Experts push hybrid rice to solve soaring food prices - Hybrid rice, produced commercially by crossing different varieties to attain higher yields, could hold the key to resolving a looming food crisis, the International Rice Research Institute said Tuesday. (AFP)

Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods - THE next time you stop at a gas station, wincing at the $3.50-a-gallon price and bemoaning society’s dependence on petroleum, take a step back and look inside your car. (New York Times)

Food biotechnology: real world challenges - Genetically modified crops have been widely adopted by American farmers. In spite of their use in the United States, the European Union (EU) imposed a 6-year freeze (1998–2004) on growing and importing transgenic crops. (PhysOrg)

Fungus fight: Researchers battle against dangerous corn toxin

 
Rising use of corn for food and fuel is creating heightened concerns about contamination of this staple crop with deadly aflatoxin. Credit: Courtesy of Keith Weller, United States Department of Agriculture

The spiraling use of corn for food and fuel is creating heightened concerns about contamination of this staple crop with deadly aflatoxin. Produced by certain fungi that grow on corn, this contaminant is a known human carcinogen that especially threatens food safety in the developing world and can potentially cause the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in the United States each year. (PhysOrg)

April 8, 2008

Solar cycle minimum at the earliest in second half of 2008?

Current SOHO: The Sun is blank again

The outlook for solar activity continues to be pushed further back as cycle 23 spots continue, such as the group of 3 seen last week, but no cycle 24 spots are being seen. NASA’s convened panel of scientists obviously missed their mark of consensus in predicting cycle 24 would start in March 2008. There is growing concern over the delay in the start of cycle 24. Now a new prediction portends more delay. If we go to May or later before the solar min is reached, cycle 23 will be the longest cycle since the late 1800s. Now it is looking like cycle 24 may not get started until late 2008 or early 2009. (Watts Up With That?)

Oh, to be in England…

…now that April’s there.
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!
- Robert Browning

Oh, to be in Heathrow Terminal 5,

Now that snow is there…

British Airways has cancelled more than 120 flights after snow added to the list of woes at Heathrow’s Terminal 5. With 12 flights scrapped from the schedule because of ongoing problems with the automated baggage system, another 126 were axed because of the cold weather.

The record-breaking cold weather recently afflicting China, the Middle East, and Europe, amongst others, has led some to ask questions about what’s going on when we were expecting global warming. Luckily, the experts are on hand to make sure that we don’t stop panicking. (Climate Resistance)

Recent Data On Surface Snowmelt In Antarctica - In the March 25 2008 issue of EOS, there was a News item by Marco Tedesco titled “Updated 2008 Surface snowmelt Trends In Antarctica”. It reports the following: (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Snow World - What a Year for Snow in Unusual Places - IT STARTED IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE WINTER OF 2007

A rare winter snowstorm dusted South Africa’s commercial capital Johannesburg early on Wednesday June 26 closing mountain passes and claiming at least one life. ‘SNOWBURG’ trumpeted the headline of Johannesburg’s Star newspaper. Gleeful children built snowmen in Johannesburg’s Zoo Lake Park, while families could be seen carrying snowballs back to their cars, fast melting souvenirs of the city’s first significant snowfall, the first real snowfall in more than a generation. (Joe D’Aleo, Intellicast)

Qualifying spectacularly as the least of our troubles at the time… … and given that stratospheric ozone is almost completely irrelevant to life on Earth, why would anyone bother trying to model stratospheric ozone levels in the event of a thermo-nuclear exchange? They have got to work on their priorities: Regional nuclear conflict would create near-global ozone hole, says CU-Boulder study

Oh dear… has the Beeb really degenerated to this - Update: This exchange is apparently genuine and has been posted on the Media Lens Message Board by climate activist Jo Abbess here. It even comes with a reminder to "challenge any skepticism": The BBC Changes News to Accommodate Activist (JenniferMarohasy.com)

Stressed by climate change? Go see your doctor - As silly as it sounds some people do really believe the activist rants and claims of imminent harm from gorebull warming. This really is leading to stress but the cause is activism, not "climate change". Once again the WHO and their merry band of activists are causing health problems rather than addressing them. What else have we come to expect from UN entities?: Stressed by climate change? Go see your doctor (Sydney Morning Herald)

The latest Krupp - It’s Fred who’s got it all wrong. It is not ’stopping global warming’ that has anyone at all troubled but the horrendous waste involved in such a stupid attempt. There are so many better things to do with human effort than waste it shouting to frighten storms away, which is about as close as we are to controlling global climate. Let’s see if we can’t get potable water and sanitation to the world’s population — that ought to be challenge enough to keep us out of mischief for a while: Climate Change Opportunity (FRED KRUPP, Wall Street Journal)

Stop this foolish overreaction to climate change - Over the past five years I have become increasingly concerned at the scaremongering of the climate alarmists, which has led the governments of Europe to commit themselves to a drastic reduction in carbon emissions, regardless of the economic cost of doing so. The subject is such a complex one, involving science, economics and politics in almost equal measure, that to do it justice I have written a book, albeit a short one, thoroughly referenced and sourced. But the bare bones are clear. (Nigel Lawson, Financial Times)

More Pressing Issues than Global Warming - “As often happens—especially these days with Web-based media—contentious issues such as global warming become politicized to the point that the discourse trivializes to an alarming extent. Indeed, all one seems to hear about climate change are essentially useless debates between believers and skeptics, along with unrealistic and grotesquely draconian proposals that would force us back into the Stone Age in an effort to mitigate carbon dioxide production,” says Michael Shaw. He adds, “Assertions by zealots and politicians, who should really know better, that climate change is the ‘most important environmental problem facing the world,’ ought to be subjected to the cold light of reason. Before untold resources are spent, shouldn’t we at least compare climate change to other problems facing mankind?”

Let’s look at some of these other problems facing mankind. Ten of the most serious challenges facing the world today include: access to education, climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, corruption and governance, financial instability, hunger and malnutrition, migration, sanitation and access to clean water, and subsidies and trade barriers. (Jack Dini, Hawaii Reporter)

Not Getting it as Fast as Anticipated - The Washington Post still can’t bring itself to openly address the reality of greenhouse gas emissions vs. the rhetoric. Instead, they obsess with serially nasty editorials complaining specifically about our lack of European-style promises, all of which pieces (and their news articles) have consistently ignored how the U.S. has led the world in growing the economy while reducing the rate of growth of emissions. (Chris Horner, CEI)

Maurice O’Brien: Cutting carbon emissions futile - Will cutting our carbon emissions really make any difference to the planet? The answer is a definite no, and most of the proposals to do so are ludicrously inadequate anyway.

Take Australia, for example, where about 135 million incandescent light bulbs are in use. The Government wants to ban them by 2010 to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 800,000 tonnes a year by 2012. If this sounds a lot, bear in mind that it represents a reduction of just 0.14 per cent. (New Zealand Herald)

‘Revolutionary’ CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources - Umm… I may have missed something but it doesn’t sound to me as though there’s a single measurement of actual CO₂ levels in this project. Fair enough, they are inferring levels from other reported measures but why? It’s colorless, odorless and completely harmless at levels encountered in the free atmosphere in the continental United States. Emissions are highest around population centers eh? Go figure… got any real work to do? ‘Revolutionary’ CO2 maps zoom in on greenhouse gas sources (PhysOrg)

INTERVIEW - Post-Kyoto Targets May Not Be Same For All - Lagos - MIAMI - The next deal to combat climate change may not set the same type of targets for developing nations as it does for the big polluting industrialized countries but everyone will have to be included in some way for it to work, a UN envoy said on Monday. (Reuters)

Starving the emissions beast - The focus of the debate on climate change has shifted drastically in the past several years. The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 on the assumption that climate change and global warming were being caused by emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2 and other greenhouse gases. (Japan Times)

About this zero emission thing… … regardless of whether the West ceases to emit CO₂ altogether note that China wants coal, lots of coal, and they are prepared to pay to get it (and that Australia is only too happy to supply as much as they’ll take). There will be no reduction in CO₂ emissions for the foreseeable future. Get over it! Trade to surge on coal deal (The Australian)

Obama and Clinton Agree on Coal - It is by now well known that China uses more coal than the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. (Carbon Confidential)

Gore convinced US will sign up to new climate treaty in 2009 - Nobel Peace Prize-winner and former US vice president Al Gore said Monday that he believes Washington will sign up to a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen in 2009. (AFP)

Too stupid. A 30-40% energy hit to bury carbon we expended energy mining in the first place... Shell seeks European help in developing carbon storage - Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell called on EU nations Monday to make urgent moves towards developing carbon capture and storage systems, a key part of the bloc’s ambitious plans to tackle climate change. (AFP)

The $100 Billion Windfall: Why Utilities Love Cap-and-Trade - Another cautionary tale about how not to fight climate change: By giving away greenhouse-gas emissions permits for free, Europe may hand power companies windfall profits of up to 71 billion euros—about $100 billion—and undermine the fight to curb emissions. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Green Ink: Forget Gas, Let’s Look for Oil - The weak dollar trumps weak demand, pushing oil prices higher Monday, reports Bloomberg, and a slight dip in OPEC production doesn’t help the supply picture. The prospect of even more interest-rate cuts to shore up the U.S. economy is only pressuring the dollar further, thus giving legs to commodity investors, AP reports. The U.S. needs to cut consumption of oil—and not just in a recession—to leave enough for the rest of the world, at Platt’s Barrel. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Energy Independence in Brazil: Lessons for the United States - Nationwide, average retail gasoline prices are nearing the all-time inflation-adjusted high of $3.40 a gallon reached in 1981, lending urgency to renewed calls for U.S. energy independence.  Analysts often tout Brazil as the epitome of energy self-sufficiency.  Brazil imported more than 80 percent of its oil in the 1970s, but it likely reached energy independence by the end of 2007, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Brazil’s success is commonly attributed to its thriving ethanol market, but this is at most only a small part of the story. More critical to Brazil’s energy independence is its significant increase in domestic oil production. (NCPA Brief Analysis)

More on Californian redwoods and solar panels - Stupid argument to start with. I live north of Brisbane in sunny Queensland (~7.75 hours sunshine/day annual average), have a perfectly equator-aimed and unshaded roof expanse ideal for solar collection — and pay dearly for electricity due to long-term government incompetence — and yet I have no hope of recouping the cost of even a 1kW grid-connected system even if the system were to produce at 100% efficiency, without cleaning or maintenance cost of any description, for 3-times the anticipated life of the components (at an impossible 7.75kWh/day my simple break-even on outlay is 53 years).

Anyone looking at such an investment would be well advised to work out realistic generation for their system and location, figure what daily return you might get (and don’t rely on subsidies lasting beyond the current subsidy providers term in office — perhaps work in real current-power cost and then as the efficiency of your unit decays it may be offset by rising power cost) and see what return you can get.

Oh, I’m gonna get a lot of mail from the solar scammers and subsidy farmers again… Trees Block Solar Panels, and a Feud Ends in Court (New York Times)

Spain’s gain from wind power is plain to see - Windmills pay. On a breezy Saturday at the end of March, Aeolian Parks scattered across the hill-top ridges and off-shore sandbanks of Spain produced 40.8pc of the country’s electricity needs - 9,862 megawatts to be precise. (Daily Telegraph)

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but gasoline might - Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees. (PhysOrg)

Fuel Fight: Detroit Disses California’s Carbon Crusade - Auto makers scored a big victory last December when the Environmental Protection Agency said California can’t regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks. But the industry’s lobbying work isn’t over. (Jeffrey Ball, WSJ)

Car Talk: Ford to Announce Carbon Curbs - Ford Motor Co. and some of its environmentalist critics are planning a public display of affection. (Jeffrey Ball, WSJ)

Global warming mascot left in the cold by delays - By Valerie Richardson - Temperatures are rising over the delay in deciding whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

"The polar bear cannot wait much longer," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the three litigants. "As our greenhouse emissions increase and the Arctic sea ice melts, the window of opportunity to save the polar [bear] is closing rapidly."

The problem, say Bush administration officials, is that the polar bear is no longer just a shaggy, white mammal with a taste for seal. The species has become a proxy for the debate on global warming, and the implications of a listing decision stretch far beyond its U.S. habitat in northern Alaska. (Washington Times)

FEATURE - Rubber Trees For Tyre Industry Shrink China Rainforests - XISHUANGBANNA - On a map on ecologist Liu Wenjie’s computer, the subtropical southern tip of China’s Yunnan province is slowly turning from green to red. Rubber plantations — shown in red on Liu’s computer screen — have supplanted nearly all the low-lying forest in the prefecture of Xishuangbanna and are now starting to encroach on the highlands. Liu and other scientists are worried that the expansion of rubber plantations to feed China’s voracious tyre industry, the world’s largest, will destroy the ecosystem of Xishuangbanna. The province is home to China’s richest variety of flora and fauna. (Reuters)

Not the fart tax, again! All Cows are Green - The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on all farmers and those who eat farm products to raise their voices in opposition to the silly proposals of Australian and New Zealand governments to include emissions and motions from farm animals as a taxable carbon emission. (Carbon Sense Coalition)

European Mountain Top Vanishes - BERLIN, Apr 7 - The peak of the Stubai Mountains in the Austrian Alps has vanished. It was around a couple of months back, but since then no one can say exactly when it disappeared.

"One day, the mountain top was simply gone," says Gunther Heissel, director of the Austrian Research Centre for Alpine Geology in Innsbruck, about 450km from capital Vienna. Earlier television footage confirmed that the peak was once there, and now is not.

"The glaciers on the Alpine mountains flow 20 centimetres a day due to the melting of permafrost," Heissel told IPS. The pace of the melting is believed to be at least partly a consequence of global warming. (IPS)

Parents follow pediatrician advice on administering MMR vaccinations - Absurd scares doing less damage? We can only hope. It is good to see parents ignoring the lunatic brigade and protecting their kids with vaccines: Parents follow pediatrician advice on administering MMR vaccinations (PhysOrg)

Well worth repeating - Actually I agree that every parent has a right to decide whether their children are vaccinated provided those that choose not to contribute to herd immunity promptly leave the herd, never to return or have any physical contact with members of the herd and so not putting anyone else at risk. If they’re off the planet about vaccinations then they should be off the planet physically, too: A Multitude of Vaccine Benefits, Yet Controversy Persists (New York Times)

‘Conflict’ chills research - By Elizabeth Whelan - A new scientific McCarthyism is alive and well in America today. Nowadays, the inquiring mantras come from journal editors and government panel chairmen. It goes like this:

Are you now, or have you ever been, the recipient of funds from a profitmaking institution? Have you consulted for a pharmaceutical company? Have you received research funds from a chemical company? Were you ever a paid speaker at an industry event?

If the answer is yes — even if your work and scientific reputation are stellar — under the new scientific McCarthyism you are tainted and untrustworthy, the conclusions of your research are highly suspect and you are most likely ineligible for membership on a government scientific advisory board. (Washington Times)

Alligator blood may put the bite on antibiotic-resistant infections - Funny, isn’t it? Virtually every chemical compound used by Man has been ‘nicked from nature’ (we copied and synthesized them, in other words) and yet chemophobes carry on about them as ‘unnatural’, ‘novel’ and universally dangerous at undetectably low levels. Silly blighters: Alligator blood may put the bite on antibiotic-resistant infections (PhysOrg)

City may consider backing off 2009 pesticide ban - Coinciding with the arrival, finally, of spring weather, local environmentalists are picking up trowels and vowing to fight a perceived threat to Windsor’s anti-pesticide bylaw.

According to a municipal policy adopted by city council two years ago, and which gets progressively tougher each year, this will be the last growing season lawn and garden lovers will be permitted to use chemical pesticides on private property for so-called cosmetic purposes. Next year, such synthetic solutions for weeds and unwanted bugs and fungi will be taboo in Windsor, as is currently the case in a growing number of Canadian cities.

But critics are warning that a staff report now being prepared, and expected to be considered by council next month, could see the 2009 ban rescinded. (Windsor Star)

Hermaphrodite Frogs Found in Suburban Ponds - Just as frogs’ mating season arrives, a study by a Yale professor raises a troubling issue. How many frogs will be clear on their role in the annual springtime ritual? (New York Times)

Still Feeding the World - Norman Borlaug just turned 94 - and is still going strong. He’s the father of the Green Revolution. Penn and Teller call him the greatest person in history. When the Nobel committee awarded him the 1970 Peace Prize, it said his work had saved a billion lives. Norman Borlaug turned 94 on March 25 and, despite cancer that had him sick and hospitalized a couple months ago, just attended a conference in Mexico on new rust-resistant wheat varieties and modern agricultural methods. (Paul Driessen, Icecap)

No Quick End For Cloning Product Moratorium - USDA - WASHINGTON - The US Agriculture Department said Monday it will not lift a voluntary moratorium on selling meat and milk from cloned animals to consumers any time soon. In January, the US Food and Drug Administration ruled that products from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe as milk and meat from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary ban on the sale of cloned products. (Reuters)

Salt-tolerant gene found in simple plant nothing to sneeze at - Whether a plant withers unproductively or thrives in salty conditions may now be better understood by biologists. The cellular mechanism that controls salt tolerance has been found in the arabidopsis plant by a Texas AgriLife Research scientist collaborating with an international team. (PhysOrg)

April 7, 2008

Earth in crisis, warns NASA’s top climate scientist - Global warming has plunged the planet into a crisis and the fossil fuel industries are trying to hide the extent of the problem from the public, NASA’s top climate scientist says. (AFP)

Meteorological Prize Winner Warns of Accelerating Warming - GENEVA, Switzerland, April 6, 2008 - The man who has just won the climate science community’s highest prize, predicts "a higher future global warming estimate than expected heretofore." (ENS)

As if he hadn’t caused enough harm already - So Mario, what’s the "ought to be" temperature for planet Earth?: Nobel scientist issues warning on global warming (Reuters)

Meddling medics consult fowl viscera again - Quite obviously this is merely a component of the coordinated propaganda push we warned you about in February: Aussie medics warn on health impact of climate change (AFP)

Head Of UN Climate Panel To Seek New Term - OSLO - India’s Rajendra Pachauri said on Saturday he will seek a new six-year term as head of the UN climate panel that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore. (Reuters)

UN climate talks agree on agenda for 2009 global warming pact - BANGKOK: Climate negotiators agreed on Saturday on an ambitious agenda for talks they hope will lead to a global warming pact, overcoming a heated dispute between Japan and developing countries on how to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (AP)

CO2 monthly mean at Mauna Loa leveling off, dropping? (Watts Up With That?)

Outstanding Job That Anthony Watts Has Done On Documenting The Immediate Environment Of Suface Temperature Monitoring Sites (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Isn’t this the mob who predicted El Niño and the warmest year ever for 2007? - And what we got was La Niña and the largest temperature plunge in decades, wasn’t it? Outlook for summer is warm … and wet (The Guardian)

Multidecadal Ocean Cycles May Determine If This Cooling Continues and If Summer Drought Occurs - The BBC, UK Met Office and UN IPCC had to acknowledge that global temperatures have at least for the time being decoupled from the CO2 rise and levelled off or fallen (6-7 years). They are blaming the cooling on La Nina. They are of course correct, La Ninas global cooling just as El Ninos brings global warming. It must have pained them to do so as they have previously discussed these factors as being secondary to greenhouse gases and with impacts that were mainly regional in nature.

They promise once this event ends, their predicted warming will resume. It is likely that temperatures will bounce as the La Nina weakens but the real key as to where temperatures go over the next few years and decades is not increasing greenhouse gases but whether the multidecadal cycle in the Pacific (PDO) has transitioned back to the cold mode it was in when the earth cooled from the 1940s to the 1970s (and what happens with solar cycles 24 and 25, which many solar scientists the world over feel will revert back to the quiet modes of the so called Dalton Minimum in the early 1800s or possibly worse.) (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

Global Warming Profiteers Are Wrong - Climate alarmists are alarmed, scaremongers scared, for their predictions of catastrophe are not coming true. "Global warming" has stopped. For 10 years, average temperatures on earth have not risen. For seven years, the trend has been downward. The fall between January 2007 and January 2008 was the biggest since records began in 1880. (Christopher Monkton, SPPI)

The REAL inconvenient truth: Zealotry over global warming could damage our Earth far more than climate change - Over the past half-century, we have become used to planetary scares. In the late Sixties, we were told of a population explosion that would lead to global starvation. Then, a little later, we were warned the world was running out of natural resources. By the Seventies, when global temperatures began to dip, many eminent scientists warned us that we faced a new Ice Age. But the latest scare, global warming, has engaged the political and opinion-forming classes to a greater extent than any of these. (NIGEL LAWSON - Daily Mail)

Environmental hysterics - By David Deming - Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley recently warned that failure to take action on global warming could mean the extinction of the human race. Over the last few years, we’ve been repeatedly warned we are in the midst of a climate crisis that threatens our survival. Al Gore calls it a "planetary emergency." We might take this concern more seriously if the doom-mongering wing of the environmental movement weren’t burdened by a long history of false prophecies. (Washington Times)

Uncommon cold is an antidote to warming fears - You have to hand it to the global warming crowd. A little cold and snow doesn’t scare them one bit. (Frank Miele, Daily Inter Lake)

Scientists downplay global warming’s effect on hurricanes - We’re in a busy period of hurricane activity that will inflict unimaginable damage, but global warming is not the cause, leading researchers told the nation’s foremost forecasters and other experts Friday. (Miami Herald)

AP with another Lonnie Thompson promo - As far as we know Lonnie still hasn’t corrected Don Alberto’s misuse of his time series in that media presentation he flogs around the place, despite being listed as "adviser". Thompson’s conclusions haven’t fared too well under scrutiny at Climate Audit either: Analyzing ancient ice in the tropics before it melts (Associated Press)

Fires main threat to Amazon in drier climate: study - OSLO - Fires set by people will be the biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest in coming decades linked to a drier climate caused by global warming, researchers said on Monday. (Reuters)

Carbon credits could help save Amazon, blunt warming: study - Global carbon markets could generate billions of dollars each year for developing countries that tackle tropical deforestation, a major source of global warming, according to a new study. (AFP)

New Value For Old Forests - SYDNEY, Apr 4 - Newly sensitised to the dangers of climate change, researchers around the world are making progress in helping to protect old growth forests that are threatened by fires, urban development and logging. (IPS)

EDITORIAL: Cut the trees — It may save the planet from global warming! - Not long ago, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid famously suggested that global warming may be causing an increased number of forest fires. In fact, it may be the other way around. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Amazon Ghost Highway to Be Brought Back to Life - RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 4 - BR-319, a road blazed 35 years ago through the heart of the Amazon jungle and now impassable due to neglect, has sparked a new battle between environmentalists and the Brazilian authorities, who have decided to rebuild it. (IPS)

Sachs, Irector of the Dearth Institute - Fool! Your climate change mania represents the greatest contemporary danger to humanity and the environment. It isn’t a case of "No, we can’t" but rather "No, we mustn’t". (JunkScience Blog)

The costs of climate change - BANGKOK, With global markets in turmoil and the United States threatened by recession, negotiators at a climate change conference are asking: can nations afford to make rapid cuts in emissions to fight global warming without going into an economic tailspin? (Miami Herald)

Action on climate change must include India, China: IMF - Which, rightly, developing nations will not do: Action on climate change must include India, China: IMF (IANS)

Brownstein: The climate-change conundrum - No, it has exactly nothing to do with ‘climate change’ and everything to do with competitive advantage. First the EU sought trade advantage over the booming American economy, with which they could not compete and now the rent-seekers like Don Alberto Goreleone and the Carbon Mob have moved in to muscle a slice of the action but it has nothing to do with the planet’s climate: Brownstein: The climate-change conundrum - U.S., world wait on each other to impose mandatory reductions (National Journal)

BBC ScareWatch - Global Temperatures Going Down Imply Temperatures Will Go Up (Robert Ferguson, SPPI)

River delta’s rise puts Arctic’s future in flux - Yeah, hurray. There has been some evident change since the end of the cooling/beginning of recent warming c1977. Will the reverse occur now it looks likely that we are entering another period of cooling? It will be interesting to revisit this in oh, another 30 years or so: River delta’s rise puts Arctic’s future in flux - Climate change in Arctic seas is driving summer water levels at the Mackenzie’s mouth to three times normal, B.C. researchers find (Globe and Mail)

Stevens calls for management of Arctic fisheries - ANCHORAGE — The United States should make an aggressive case for managing Arctic Ocean fisheries before polar ice thins enough for fishing vessels to access them in summer without icebreaking equipment, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said. (Associated Press)

We wish! - Unfortunately Sol seems to be going quiet and the chance to exploit the frigid zone will likely diminish rapidly: A very cold war indeed - As the polar icecap melts, huge deposits of gas and oil below the seabed will become accessible for the first time. But the question of who owns what in the Arctic is far from clear. With major military build-ups beginning in the area, Oliver Burkeman heads north to investigate (The Guardian)

Shell Bullish On Chukchi Oil And Gas Potential - ANCHORAGE - Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, the remote region separating North America’s northwestern tip from northeastern Siberia, is one of the "potentially most prolific oil fields" left in the world and could ultimately compare to the Gulf of Mexico as a source of domestic energy, a Shell official said Friday. (Reuters)

Senate votes to override coal plant bill veto - TOPEKA — The Senate voted Thursday afternoon to override Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ veto of a bill permitting two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. (Harris News Service)

Fuel made from coal ignites green row - The most astonishing facet of this is that the media apparently believe someone should give a rat’s what misanthropic greenies think or want: Fuel made from coal ignites green row (The Guardian)

Labour ‘killing Britain’s renewables industry’ - Government grants to encourage families to install cleaner energy are being slashed, making green manufacturers fear for the future (The Independent)

European power companies paid for polluting: WWF - Power companies in just five EU nations could reap windfall profits of up to 71 billion euros over five years thanks to Europe’s emissions trading scheme, the green group WWF claimed Monday. (AFP)

Blowing Hard: European Money Piles Into U.S. Wind - Politicians in Washington may not yet be convinced of the viability of renewable energy like wind power, given the Hill’s repeated delays in renewing federal tax-credits. But there are a few true believers: big European utilities convinced the U.S. is the El Dorado of wind power. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Wind farms could be moored off Scotland - Right but they mustn’t run the power ashore via submarine cables (greenies have already run test cases against that for the power link between Tasmania and Victoria — EMFs might upset the fishies, you know) so they are going to string cables between really tall pylons? The antis have already established plenty of precedents to stop this: save the cod/sand eels/deep water coral/puffins/guillemots/visiting polar bears… (JunkScience Blog)

Like Corn Ethanol and Soy Biodiesel, Big Wind Power Push Depends on Government Mandates (Carbon Confidential)

E.ON Humber wind farm faces MoD opposition - E.ON, the power generator, has today submitted a planning application to build a £700m wind farm off the east Yorkshire coast, despite opposition from the Ministry of Defence. (The Guardian)

Union chief realistic [about?] climate change - Actually he’s a damn fool selling his members down the river. There is not now, nor will there ever be a global-temperature related reason to limit carbon dioxide emissions. It is his job to fight the misanthropic Gaia-freaks to protect his members’ jobs against the misinformation campaigns but he is actively aiding and abetting the enemy. He should be replaced by someone who knows what his function is. The unions are in enough trouble without being headed by surrender-monkeys: Union chief realistic [about?] climate change (The Australian)

India’s coal reserves overestimated: WWF - Uh-huh… presumably a little birdie told them. Why would anyone look to the critter lobby for information on strategic energy resources of sovereign nations? And why does the critter lobby presume to waffle on about such things when they collect money from unsuspecting kids for critter preservation? Worried about methane-bed bacteria numbers, maybe?: India’s coal reserves overestimated: WWF (Asia Pulse)

Weblog subpoenaed in escalating intimidation attempts against bloggers - Composite post (JunkScience Blog)

Threats to citizen journalism - What may be the biggest story to hit the blogging community to date has, incredibly, received no notice by mainstream media. While there is little to add to the eloquent and pivotal blog posts on this ugly saga, JFS must join the voices of fellow medical and science bloggers and help to ensure everyone learns what is going on. (Junkfood Science)

Cavities and kids - According to popular wisdom, childhood obesity is caused by eating too much junkfood, sweets and sodas, so fat kids must have more cavities, right? The findings of another study looking for links between bad behaviors and obesity weren’t what everyone was sure they would find. Researchers and journalists are struggling to make sense of it. No one has noticed the answers are right there and the findings aren’t a surprise at all. (Junkfood Science)

North Dakota Gravel Sparks Fears - The sounds of children playing baseball has been silenced at one ball field in this western North Dakota city. Officials fear the ground itself is simply too unsafe. The ballpark, one of two in this town of about 700 people, is covered with crushed gravel containing erionite, a mineral found in the chalky white rock mined from the nearby Killdeer Mountains. The rock, used for decades on everything from gravel roads to flower beds, contains fibers that can collect in the lungs of people who breathe it, health officials say. (AP)

More romantic nonsense from The Indy - Be advised The Indy’s interesting ‘facts’ aren’t facts at all. The name ‘koala’ is a corruption of ‘gulah’ (sometimes ‘coolah’) from the Dharuk dialect once spoken by indigenous people of eastern Australia and the bit about ‘doesn’t drink’ is total fantasy. As it happens koalas are most vulnerable to dog attack when they come out of the trees to, among other things, drink and this is one of the reasons they get clobbered in urban regions because Fido frequently takes offense at noisy interlopers in his backyard (male koalas looking for new territory and/or mates can be rowdy little buggers). While habitat clearance has virtually eliminated koala populations around Sydney (koalas favor the same coastal littoral people choose for suburbia) populations north and south (as well as introduced populations outside their normal range to the west) are thriving, literally eating themselves out of house and home. At ridiculous expense South Australia has a capture and sterilization program for the little monsters although it would be both cheaper and more efficient just to shoot a portion of the population annually (their fur is quite dense and there used to be a hide industry which could make population control a cost-free enterprise if the animal nutters would get out of the way and stop misinformation campaigns about ‘endangered’ koalas).

Nonetheless, since atmospheric CO₂ levels have increased koala populations have too and there is no known threat to their survival at this time or the foreseeable future: Koalas in danger - Eucalyptus leaves – which Australia’s favourite marsupial depends on for survival – are being destroyed by abnormally high levels of greenhouse gases (The Independent)

The Polar Bears Are All Right - So cool it about the Arctic ice. (The Weekly Standard)

Navy sonar blamed for death of beaked whales found washed up in the Hebrides - Anti-submarine sonar may have killed a group of whales found dead in the Hebrides in one of Britain’s most unusual strandings, scientists believe. (The Independent)

Seahorses find desirable home in clean waters of Dagenham - A protected species of seahorse has been seen living in the Thames estuary in a discovery described as “like finding treasure”. (Lewis Smith, The Times)

Ethical bags ‘may be bad for environment’ - Fashionable "ethical" shopping bags may be no kinder on the environment than their plastic counterparts, it is claimed. (Laura Clout, Daily Telegraph)

The Worst Moment in History for Biofuels - Dennis T. Avery slams biofuels in the following essay. Avery is a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC and Director for the Center for Global Food Issues. He was formerly a senior analyst for the Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Hundred Years. (Carbon Confidential)

German Minister Stops Biofuel Blending Plans - BERLIN - German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Friday he had stopped government plans to raise compulsory bioethanol blending levels in fossil gasoline. (Reuters)

Reuters Summit - US Seen Importing Ethanol, But Tariff Uncertain - WASHINGTON - The United States will need to import more sugarcane-based ethanol to meet renewable energy mandates, a top US official said, but he stopped short of recommending that a controversial ethanol tariff be lifted.

Environmentalists To Latam Bank - End Biofuel Loans - MIAMI - Environmental groups urged the Inter-American Development Bank on Saturday to stop lending money to big companies piling into the booming ethanol business that some critics say is partly to blame for soaring food prices. (Reuters)

Clean Gasoline Fuels Soybean Production - RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 3 - The Brazilian government has decided to move up the deadlines for obligatory addition of biofuels to gasoline and diesel fuel, a measure that will boost the production of soybeans, the oilseed crop with the lowest yield and that causes the most environmental damage. (IPS)

Australia Says Stable Food Supplier Despite Drought - TOKYO - Australia has demonstrated that it is a reliable, global supplier of wheat and other food, despite up to seven years of drought that has cut deeply into crop production, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said on Friday. The droughts, particularly bad in the past two years, have prompted concerns within the food industry in Japan, which is heavily dependent on imports, about the reliability of Australia as a stable supplier. (Reuters)

GM crops on way to NZ, say experts - Genetically modified pastures are coming to New Zealand, experts say. Speakers at a biotechnology conference in Auckland last week said crop technology was developing fast and the public mood towards genetic modification had changed as the world’s population grew and food prices rose. But GMFree New Zealand says the introduction of GM crops could put our international reputation at risk. (New Zealand Herald)

April 4, 2008

Bush beats Gore on climate? - George Bush appears to have beaten Al Gore again.

In very same week that Gore launched a $300 million public relations campaign to convince Americans that “together we can solve the climate crisis,” prominent climate alarmist Tom Wigley essentially endorsed President Bush’s approach to global warming, while criticizing that of Gore’s co-Nobelist, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
 
In an article entitled “Dangerous Assumptions” published in Nature (April 3), Wigley writes that the technology challenge presented by the goal of stabilizing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations “has been seriously underestimated by the IPCC, diverting attention from policies that could directly stimulate technological innovation.”
 
Wigley, a lead author of the most recent IPCC report, describes that document as relying on “unrealistic” and “unachievable” CO2 emissions scenarios — even for the present decade. (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com)

The road from Kyoto - The strategy has failed. The world must follow Japan in a radical rethink of climate change policy (Gwyn Prins, The Guardian)

Gore Campaigns to Win Over ‘Tiny, Tiny Minority’ - $300-million propaganda launch gets a complete pass from supportive media. (Dan Gainor, Business & Media Institute)

ABC Journalism: Fraudulent or Truthful? - ABC’s Dan Harris smears respected physicist, Dr. Fred Singer as a "global warming denier" (Bob Webster, WEBCommentary)

‘An Inconvenient Book’ Review - A main function of the news media is to inform the public about local and world affairs. Another main function, of course, is to make money for the owners and shareholders. From time to time, like every day, these two functions conflict. (Dr. Robert Carter, SPPI)

One cool view of global warming - About a year ago I decided that I should look hard at the issue of Anthropogenic Global Warming the notion that it is we human beings who are responsible for the warming of the earth. I thought we had immediate environmental problems facing us, including our failure to manage water and our over-dependence on oil , and that we should be dealing with them. Global warming seemed a distraction. (DON AITKIN, Canberra Times)

Hold critical debate on climate change: Montek - NEW DELHI: Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has called for a more comprehensive debate on the issue of climate change as there was an element of uncertainty on whether the climate change was as serious a threat as it was being projected. (The Hindu)

Montek questions Pachauri panel report - New Delhi, April 2: Blaming alarmists, including the United Nations, for "propelling" global warming from a scientific curiosity to "the mother of all environmental scares in a little over 20 years", a new report released in India by Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, has cast serious doubts over the predictions of the Nobel Prize-winning UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its recent reports. This new report has also questioned the Kyoto Protocol, which has been blamed for costing billions of dollars. The new report has accused the UN and its member countries of blaming climate change "for problems that either they have failed to address or that they have actively caused". (Howrah News Service)

No climate agreement without India, says US - The US Congress will not ratify any global climate change agreement if India is not a party to it. (Rediff)

Here we go again: ‘No Sun link’ to climate change (Richard Black, BBC News)

Is John Vidal really this stupid? Apparently so - When a luxury housing development in Washington was torched, it seemed an open and shut case. The Earth Liberation Front was to blame. But was it? Does it even exist? And why is the Bush government intent on casting ‘eco-terrorists’ as public enemy number one? John Vidal reports

Perhaps we can clear this up for you right off, John. While trial runs like the DDT ban managed to kill off tens of millions of ‘little brown people’ who had the temerity to ‘breed with the irresponsibility of codfish’ and successfully damaged third world economies, holding down standards of living, they pale into insignificance against the effect of strangling the energy supply via the absurd gorebull warming scam. The misanthropic maniacs collectively known as ‘greens’ are without doubt the greatest threat ever faced by humanity and by extension the global environment since only societies generating a surplus of wealth and effort beyond their needs can treat the environment as an entity of intrinsic value — otherwise it must necessarily be viewed in terms of edibles and flammables in a struggle for subsistence. This is where the natur über alles Gaia-freaks have is so wrong because they think impoverishing people somehow protects ‘nature’ when the reverse is true. That clear it up any for you? Bloody idiot!: The green scare (John Vidal, The Guardian)

Three-point basket: An Ecuadorean Environmental Ultimatum - Environmentalists in Ecuador have a difficult decision to make: pay the government roughly $350 million a year for the next two decades, or see oil companies drill in the pristine heart of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. President Rafael Correa, who recently delivered the audacious ultimatum, wants to harness his country’s oil wealth to develop its foundering economy.

Although it’s unclear what will eventually happen, Correa’s strategy will have a lasting impact in Latin America and the Caribbean. If the environmentalists give in and pay Ecuador, other countries could copy Ecuador’s strategy. And if the NGOs demur, countries will wonder why they should halt profitable projects when environmental groups are reluctant to sacrifice money for their principles. In effect, Correa’s proposal forces environmentalists to rethink how they operate in the region, where governments resent the presence of foreign NGOs that try to block energy projects needed to power developing economies. (Randy Woods, Energy Tribune)

Congress’ Comedians - Defense: A top al-Qaida expert sees an election year terrorist attack, yet Congress keeps America vulnerable by letting FISA expire. Top Democrats have other priorities: "Time’s running out for the polar bear," says one. It could pass for stand-up comedy if the implications weren’t so grave. America is now in its seventh week lacking protection from terrorism because the Democratic Congress refuses to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Don’t worry, they’re not wasting time. Senate Democrats were busy this week pining about the fate of the Arctic’s polar bears. (IBD)

Funny how they never mention anything good thriving: Harmful algae taking advantage of global warming  - You know that green scum creeping across the surface of your local public water reservoir" Or maybe it’s choking out a favorite fishing spot or livestock watering hole. It’s probably cyanobacteria – blue-green algae – and, according to a paper in the April 4 issue of the journal Science, it relishes the weather extremes that accompany global warming. (PhysOrg)

Chicken and egg… - Warm paleoclimates saw increased volcanic activity… increased volcanic activity saw warm paleoclimates… there were also periods of increased volcanic activity in very cold paleoclimates but the record was not preserved as massive glaciations receded leading to a distorted impression of association… The Nude Socialist apparently only considers the first of these to be worthy of consideration.: Melting ice caps may trigger more volcanic eruptions (NewScientist.com news service)

Canadian Researchers Warn Of New Arctic Worries - VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Canada’s massive Mackenzie Delta is feeling the impact of climate change faster than expected and could foretell of problems elsewhere in the Arctic, a Canadian researcher said on Thursday. Melting ocean ice is apparently allowing larger storm surges to flood into the delta in Canada’s far north, a change that could have an impact on energy development plans for the region, said Lance Lesack, who has been tracking environmental changes in the region for more than a decade. (Reuters)

“Missing Ocean Heat” re-visited - The Mystery of Global Warming’s Missing Heat

This recent post with reference to the NPR report on missing ocean heat is relevant to the work of Dr Robert E Stevenson, an eminent oceanographer who died in 2001. I have no personal expertise in this area but it seems to me that we all too easily forget the lifetime "hands on" experience of people like Stevenson and get caught up too much in the mathematical minutiae of the climate models.

As referenced in Roger Pielke’s comments in the post, Professor Pielke Snr discussed the earth’s heat budget in a short paper in 2003, quoting a paper by Levitus et al. HEAT STORAGE WITHIN THE EARTH SYSTEM BY ROGER A. PIELKE SR.

As it happens,  Dr Stevenson had reviewed the Levitus et al paper in 2000 and the full text of his article, complete with references, can be found here.

If he were still around I am sure he would have a pertinent comment to add to the latest discussions, possibly, "I told you so". (Harbinger)

Bangkok climate change talks to produce more talks - Bangkok - UN-sponsored climate change talks under way in Bangkok this week are likely to result in agreements to hold a whole lot more talks over the next two years to hash out a complex international agreement by 2009, participants said Wednesday. "They are going to more or less have to double the negotiating time," predicted Bill Hare of Greenpeace International. (DPA)

MEPs vote on scientific data on climate change - The European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Climate Change (CLIM) on 1 April adopted its interim report examining the scientific data on climate change. In the non-binding own-initiative report, which will be put to a plenary vote Strasbourg in May, MEPs criticised current mitigation efforts as being ‘insufficient to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions over the next decades’. (CORDIS)

Greenhouse gas cuts will cost $430b: Costa - MAKING the cuts to greenhouse emissions recommended by the nation’s economic adviser on climate change would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and slash the size of Australia’s economy by 4 per cent, modelling by the NSW Treasury shows. (Brian Robins, Sydney Morning Herald)

Carbon prices rise amid tighter rules - The EU’s fledgling market for carbon yesterday shrugged off provisional figures showing that Europe’s big polluters emitted lower levels of carbon dioxide than allowed last year. The price of carbon permits for 2008 rose by 4% as investors took the view that tighter emissions rules that came into effect this year will mean permit shortages in the future. (Mark Milner, The Guardian)

How not to measure temperature, part 56 - Our newest volunteer at surfacestations.org is Keith Taylor, and he’s gotten of to a great start with 2 stations in 2 days. Hi first was the climate station of record for Williamsburg, KY, USHCN station #158709 (or maybe 158711). Like many USHCN stations, it is located at a sewage treatment plant. I’ve previously mentioned several times how the MMTS electronic thermometer has caused stations converted from traditional mercury max-min thermometers to MMTS get closer to building because of cable laying issues. This one is a little closer than usual. (Watts Up With That?)

Major La Nina Storm with Tornado Outbreak, Flooding and Blizzard End of Next Week? - Although it is a week away, there are continuing signs we may be in for a typical early spring La Nina storm event that will threaten more flooding rains, at least one major tornado outbreak day and a major blizzard on the northwest side.  Flooding in La Nina years averages nearly $4.5 billion compared to an average of $2.4 billion. We have already seen examples of that this year in Missouri and Arkansas. (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM)

US Forecaster Expects Busy Storm Season - ORLANDO, Fla., - The noted Colorado State University forecast team expects an above-average Atlantic hurricane season and may raise its prediction of 13 tropical storms and seven hurricanes when it updates its outlook next week, the team’s founder, Bill Gray, said on Wednesday. La Nina cool-water conditions in the Pacific and higher sea surface temperatures in the eastern Atlantic are contributing to enhanced conditions for hurricane activity, Gray told Reuters at the US National Hurricane Conference. "We’re expecting an above-average season," Gray said. "The big question we have is, are we going to raise the numbers from our December forecast? We might." (Reuters)

Expect A Warmer Summer — But No Floods - LONDON - This summer is expected to be warmer and perhaps slightly wetter than average but with little chance of a repeat of last year’s devastating floods, the Met Office said on Thursday. "It looks like being a typical British summer," a spokesman said. (Reuters)

Green Concerts: Hot Music, Hot Air? - The music industry is jumping on the green bandwagon, offering environmentally friendly packaging and even low-carbon tours. But it’s a bit fuzzy on the details. (Dana Mattioli, WSJ)

The ‘No, Nothing’ Democrats - Most sources of energy are beyond the pale in the Democratic Party, but nothing carries quite the moral stigma of coal. The latest excommunication is under way in Kansas, of all places, and it may be a forerunner of national political trends.

Governor Kathleen Sebelius calls it "a moral obligation," as though she were opposing crimes against humanity. This is a reference to coal companies guilty of nothing more than attempting to provide power to consumers. But their misfortunes include emitting carbon dioxide into the current political atmosphere, and also the presence of Ms. Sebelius, who recently invented another way of enacting her preferred global-warming policies without legislation. (Wall Street Journal)

Oil politics alleged in polar bear decision - California Sen. Barbara Boxer accused the Bush administration Wednesday of delaying a decision on whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species so it could finish its oil lease sales in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where one-fifth of the world’s polar bears live. "The administration went ahead and accepted bids, even though oil and gas activities may disturb polar bears making a den, and even though an oil spill could pose big risks to the polar bear population," said Boxer, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. (SF Chronicle)

Coal power policy under attack from top scientists - Britain’s leading scientists have told ministers that plans for a new generation of coal power stations pose an unacceptable climate risk, unless greater efforts are made to trap and store the carbon pollution they produce. (The Guardian)

Green Ink: Backtracking in Bangkok - Oil investors are still trying to determine if U.S. crude and fuel stocks are above-average or falling, leading to wild price swings, reports Bloomberg. But crude seems to be following fundamentals again, analysts say: “The accurate picture is one of western recession becoming closer, and oil being supported by demand from India and China,” said Robert Laughlin, a senior broker at MF Global Ltd. in London. “It’s only a matter of time before these economies slow down, and ultimately prices will suffer.” (WSJ)

Overblown: The Real Cost of Wind Power - If you have a hankering to see Britain’s green and pleasant countryside or its rugged coastline, you shouldn’t wait too long. They are both likely to disappear soon under thousands of massive, swirling, 400-foot wind turbines. Recently, U.K. Industry Secretary John Hutton announced that the British government is planning 25 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity, adding to the 8 GW already in development. A grand plan that could, in theory anyway, power all of Britain’s 25 million homes by as early as 2020.

Wind seems to be blowing in the minds of the politically correct and those on the environmentalist bandwagon. But the cost is going to be huge, no companies will plunge into it without massive government subsidies, and should the turbines actually be built, power reliability will almost certainly take a nosedive. (Peter Glover and Michael Economides, Energy Tribune)

UN Body Nears Agreeing Ship Pollutant Limits - LONDON - The world’s top maritime body has tentatively agreed new sulphur limits for ship fuels that will slash air pollutants, but cost the oil and ship industry dear, an industry source close to the talks said on Thursday. At a major UN International Maritime Organisation (IMO) meeting in London this week countries gathered to thrash out how best to reduce harmful ship pollutants, like sulphur dioxide, and tackle climate changing gases. (Reuters)

Chavez v. Exxon: Who Will Prevail? - Last month, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States. This was in response to news that Exxon Mobil had obtained court orders in the U.K., the U.S., and the Netherlands to freeze $12.3 billion of assets owned by PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. (Francisco Rodriguez, Energy Tribune)

Get On Line: Wind Power’s Real Hurdle - Here’s the $36 billion question: Is wind power an expensive distraction or a key ingredient in the global energy cocktail? It all depends how you move the juice. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

It’s About Time, Time - We were hopeful when we saw this week’s Time magazine cover on ethanol – until we read the entire story. To call ethanol a scam just because it does not bode well for the even bigger scam, anthropogenic global warming, is not that interesting. (Michael J. Economides, Energy Tribune)

Watchdog deals blow to Government’s fuel plan - The Government’s desire to introduce biofuels has been dealt a blow by a top independent official, who says the move threatens New Zealand’s reputation as a clean, green country. Jan Wright, who as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is effectively a watchdog for green issues, yesterday told a select committee the proposed biofuel legislation should not be passed. (New Zealand Herald)

‘Implementation of Biofuels Plan Was a Disaster’ - Germany wanted to lead the way in the use of bioethanol on its roads. Now, though, it looks as though too many cars would be unable to handle the biofuel, making the plan impractical. German papers argue that may not be such a bad thing. Germany’s enthusiasm for biofuels is in question this week after estimates were released that well over a million vehicles on German roads would be unable to run on gasoline containing a higher mixture of bioethanol. (Der Spiegel)

Fuel Cells for Planes: They Fly, But So Did the Wright Brothers - Hydrogen fuel cells may be losing ground in the race to power cars, but they work for airplanes—as long as they are light, small, and don’t fly too long. Or at least come equipped with a pair of regular jet engines. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

“Corrupt science” - That’s rich. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, the Enviro-mental Working Group (EWG) has posted on its web site a press release announcing that they’ve successfully mau-maued Rep. John Dingell’s Committee on Energy and Commerce and Rep. Bart Stupak’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee into an investigation (read inquisition) of the US chemicals industry.

Richard Wiles, Executive Director of EWG avers,  “This is a landmark investigation. For the first time the public will find out exactly how the chemical industry uses their influence to corrupt government science at the expense of public health.”

Oooooooooooooooohhhhh! Scary. Another political witch hunt and a show trial, ahem, Congressional hearing is bound to follow. You just know some big-time political/ideological IOUs were called.  Too bad Congress is so beholden to the zealots of the Left that we’ll never see how their organizations use their influence to corrupt the government at the expense of public welfare.

I can’t wait to see how Ms. Eilperin at WaPo will write this up. My prediction?  She’s just crib from news releases from EWG and any other group that decides to pile on. (Johnny Lucid)

The world according to chemophobes: Campaigners urge ban on cancer-link chemicals - Health campaigners today called for a Europe-wide ban on man-made chemicals found in cosmetics and pesticides to help cut rising rates of breast cancer. A report published today warns that cases of the disease can only be reduced by removing hormone-disrupting man-made chemicals from a range of household products. (David Batty and agencies, guardian.co.uk)

Germs in Soil Find Antibiotics Tasty - Antibiotics for breakfast? The drugs are supposed to kill bacteria, not feed them. Yet Harvard researchers have discovered hundreds of germs in soil that literally gobble up antibiotics, able to thrive with the potent drugs as their sole source of nutrition. These bacteria outwit antibiotics in a disturbingly novel way, and now the race is on to figure out just how they do it - in case more dangerous germs that sicken people could develop the same ability. On the other hand, the work explains why the soil doesn’t harbor big antibiotic buildups despite use of the drugs in livestock plus human disposal and, well, excretion, too. (AP)

Rain Forests Fall at ‘Alarming’ Rate’ - A News Report - There was a news report on February 3 2008 titled “Rain Forests Fall at ‘Alarming’ Rate”. It is also reported at Cempaka Eco Green. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

NAFTA, US Drought Endanger Canada’s Water -Study - Canada’s water? Aren’t these the same buncha fruit-loops demanding water be made a human right? Remarkably flexible about their views on sovereignty, aren’t they? NAFTA, US Drought Endanger Canada’s Water -Study (Reuters)

Asian waterbirds stage remarkable comeback - According to a report released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), several species of rare waterbirds from Cambodia’s famed Tonle Sap region have staged remarkable comebacks, thanks to a project involving a single team of park rangers to provide 24-hour protection to breeding colonies. The project pioneered a novel approach: employing former hunters and egg collectors to protect and monitor the colonies, thereby guaranteeing the active involvement of local communities in the initiative. (PhysOrg)

Just as well they release hatchery fish then: Hatchery fish outnumber wild chinook salmon in troubled fall run - A recent study indicates that wild salmon may account for just 10 percent of California’s fall-run chinook salmon population, while the vast majority of the fish come from hatcheries. The findings are especially troubling in light of the disastrous decline in the population this year, which will probably force the closure of the 2008 season for commercial and recreational salmon fishing. (PhysOrg)

Food Prices To Rise For Years, Biofuel Firms Say - LONDON - Staple food prices will rise for some years, but should eventually fall to historical averages as harvests increase, biofuel company executives said on Thursday. Soaring demand for better quality food from rapidly industrialising emerging markets such as China, supply shortages, increased demand for biofuels, and a surging appetite for food commodities by investment funds, have combined to push prices of basic foods higher and higher in recent months. (Reuters)

April 3, 2008

Climate alarmists back Bush over Gore - In this week’s Nature prominent climate alarmist Tom Wigley, with co-authors Roger Pielke, Jr. and Christopher Green, writes that the IPCC has seriously underestimated the technical challenge of stabilizing atmospheric CO₂ levels. Just as President Bush has long done the authors call for "enormous advances in energy technology". Nowhere do they call for the kind of economy-killing, anti-people government mandates and subsidies favored by Gore and his ilk.

Wonder how the Gore-struck media will handle this?

Barton, White House map tough road ahead on climate policy - As the Democrats move to pass climate change legislation this year, Rep Joe Barton, R-Texas, will be there to fight them, he told the US Energy Assn’s annual membership meeting yesterday. Barton isn’t convinced that emissions from mankind have led to global warming and thus can’t support any bill that, as he sees it, would do severe harm to the economy. Energy is tied into economic growth as the more prosperous a people become the more energy they use. The people in fast developing countries such as China, India and Brazil won’t want to give up a chance to match our lifestyle for the sake of lower CO2 concentrations, said Barton. "We have a lifestyle that is dependent on energy," said Barton.  "Not many of us would choose to go back to the good old days where it was man power or animal power." (Restructuring Today)

Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years

Product Description
By Fred Singer and Dennis Avery. Updated edition. 264 pages.

In this New York Times bestseller, authors Singer and Avery present the compelling concept that global temperatures have been rising mostly or entirely because of a natural cycle. Using historic data from two millennia of recorded history combined with natural physical records, the authors argue that the 1,500 year solar-driven cycle that has always controlled the earth’s climate remains the driving force in the current warming trend.

This is actually quite funny - Their final answer?

How accurate are climate models? We don’t know… but they’re better than they were!

See: Models Look Good When Predicting Climate Change (SPX)

Unfortunately Doughton includes a lot of rubbish but the Argo project is always interesting: Robot buoys are taking the ocean’s pulse (Toronto Star)

Have to admire the euphemisms - So:

There had to be costs because the whole idea of the system was to send a price signal to reduce emissions

In other words they are trying to price consumers out of the energy market, as we have been pointing out all along. ‘Price signal’ be damned! When will people wake up that what they are really saying is:

We are a bunch of Gaia-freaks using any excuse to prevent you dreadful masses from consuming

Are people really so gullible they’ll let fear-profiteers rip them off, aided and abetted by misanthropists who think less of people than they do of bugs and critters?: Business says carbon-trade law too strict (New Zealand Herald)

Advocates devastated at failure of resolution to recognize water as a basic human right - We should really thank Maude and the rest of the fruit-loops. The more they maneuver to circumvent national sovereignty and impose global government by the unelected bureaucrats of the UN the more previously gullible governments shy away from them: Canada foils UN water plan (Toronto Star)

Do global warming pledges matter? - Negotiators here are working on the world’s most ambitious pact yet against global warming, but questions are growing about how to force governments to live up to the promises they make. (AFP)

EU climate plans undermines poverty reduction strategies - Research released this week at a UN meeting in Bangkok to develop a new global strategy to tackle climate change warns that the strategy being pushed by the European Union would harm efforts to eradicate poverty in poor countries. (Africa Science News Service)

Australia ‘reverting on climate change’ - Poor old watermelons never seem to understand that even Leftist governments want to remain in power and thus have to be re-elected periodically in democracies and republics — which means they can’t simply destroy their countries’ economies and their voters’ jobs to accommodate the vocal Gaia fringe. K.Rudd has been informed Australia can’t simply abandon its coal-based economy to polish his global-stage eco-credentials, which probably came as a bit of a shock after becoming Australian Prime Minister without a plan of any description: Australia ‘reverting on climate change’ (AAP)

This nonsense, again - Malaria was endemic in the UK and it surely wasn’t temperature change that altered that. Check out From Shakespeare to Defoe: Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age by Paul Reiter, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Present global temperatures are in a warming phase that began 200 to 300 years ago. Some climate models suggest that human activities may have exacerbated this phase by raising the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Discussions of the potential effects of the weather include predictions that malaria will emerge from the tropics and become established in Europe and North America. The complex ecology and transmission dynamics of the disease, as well as accounts of its early history, refute such predictions. Until the second half of the 20th century, malaria was endemic and widespread in many temperate regions, with major epidemics as far north as the Arctic Circle. From 1564 to the 1730s—the coldest period of the Little Ice Age—malaria was an important cause of illness and death in several parts of England. Transmission began to decline only in the 19th century, when the present warming trend was well under way. The history of the disease in England underscores the role of factors other than temperature in malaria transmission.

Global warming may bring malaria to Britain: doctors (Reuters)

Guest Weblog On Albedo from Mike Smith - This weblog is graciously provided by Mike Smith.  Mike Smith is CEO of WeatherData Services, Inc., An AccuWeather Company.  Smith is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a Certified Consulting Meteorologist.   He is a recipient of the American Meteorological Society’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Meteorology and WeatherData has received the Society’s Award for Outstanding Services to Meteorology by a Corporation. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Researchers to curb CO2 emissions - Oh boy… "dangerous carbon dioxide emissions that fuel global warming" Researchers to curb CO2 emissions (PhysOrg)

Carbon Copy: Europe’s Still Not Cutting Emissions - It’s not a surprise but a bummer nonetheless: Greenhouse-gas emissions are still rising in Europe despite lots of autographs on the Kyoto Protocol and an elaborate cap-and-trade system. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

EU Industry Carbon Emissions Flat In 2007 - LONDON - European Union industry emissions were roughly flat in 2007, preliminary EU executive Commission data showed on Wednesday, with low gas prices and a mild winter slowing growth. As expected, emissions were less than industry’s quotas of permits to emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) under an EU climate change scheme meant to drive emissions cuts through permit shortages. (Reuters)

FSA warns of false ‘green’ claim risks - Emissions trading firms risk damaging the integrity of the nascent market by making false claims about their green credentials, the City watchdog has warned. (London Telegraph)

Submissions flood in for emissions trade scheme - A mountain of submissions will begin to be heard today on the Government’s flagship emissions trading scheme, which has become a more contentious issue than when it was first announced last year. (New Zealand Herald)

Shoppers say no to plastic bag levy to tackle climate change - Consumers want incentives to stop using the carriers, not an extra charge at the checkout, and to reduce other packaging (Steve Hawkes, The Times)

The Wilkins Ice Shelf Con Job - On 25 March the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) jointly published a press statement declaring that the Wilkins Ice Shelf “has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica.” I’ve looked at relevant public data and I’m undecided whether this statement was a gross exaggeration, an inept interpretation of the evidence or borderline fraud, because I can see nothing about the collapse to indicate that it was anything but a natural event. (John McLean, Icecap)

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming - Do you have your copy yet? It’s available through our stores, just click on the graphic below:

Product Description
By Chris Horner. Paperback. 366 pages. February 2007.

"Global warming": the Left’s last best chance to gain a stranglehold on our political system and economy

For decades, environmentalism has been the Left’s best excuse for increasing government control over our actions in ways both large and small. It’s for Mother Earth! It’s for the children! It’s for the whales! But until now, the doomsday-scenario environmental scares they’ve trumped up haven’t been large enough to justify the lifestyle restrictions they want to impose. With global warming, however, greenhouse gasbags can argue that auto emissions in Ohio threaten people in Paris, and that only "global governance" (Jacques Chirac’s words) can tackle such problems.

Now, in The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming and Environmentalism, Christopher C. Horner tears the cover off the Left’s manipulation of environmental issues for political purposes–and lays out incontrovertible evidence for the fact that catastrophic man-made global warming is just more Chicken-Little hysteria, not actual science. He explains why, although Al Gore and his cronies among the media elites and UN globalists endlessly bleat that "global warming" is an unprecedented global crisis, they really think of it as a dream come true. It’s the ideal scare campaign for those who hate capitalism and love big government. For, as Horner explains, if global warming really were as bad as the Leftist doomsayers insist it is, then no policy imaginable could "solve" it. According to the logic of the greens’ own numbers, no matter how much we sacrifice there would still be more to do. That makes global warming the bottomless well of excuses for the relentless growth of big government.

Horner (an attorney and senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute) reveals the full anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-human agenda of today’s environmentalists, dubbing them "green on the outside, red to the core." He details how they use strong-arm legal tactics–and worse–against those who dare to point out the weakness of their arguments for global warming. Along the way, he explodes ten top global warming myths, carefully examining the evidence to determine how much warming there really is and what is actually causing it. He exposes the lies that the environmental lobby routinely tells to make its case; the ways in which it is trying to impose initiatives such as the Kyoto Protocol on an unwilling American public; and much more–including the green lobby’s favorite politicians (John Kerry, John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and others).

It’s time to stand up to the environmentalist industry and insist: human beings are not the enemy. In breezy, light-hearted, and always entertaining fashion, The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming and Environmentalism gives you the facts you need to do so.

Five Lessons of Climate Change: a personal statement (PDF) (Professor Mike Hulme, March 2008)

What can you say? Turner: Global Warming Will Cause Mass Cannibalism, Insurgents Are Patriots

By Brent Baker, NewsBusters

Interviewed Tuesday for Charlie Rose’s PBS show, CNN founder Ted Turner argued that inaction on global warming “will be catastrophic” and those who don’t die “will be cannibals.” He also applied moral equivalence in describing Iraqi insurgents as “patriots” who simply “don’t like us because we’ve invaded their country” and so “if the Iraqis were in Washington, D.C., we’d be doing the same thing.” On not taking drastic action to correct global warming:

Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.

The real risk posed by the phantom menace — someone might actually try to do something about it: The sun blotted out from the sky - Global warming demands more than do-gooder actions. It demands "geoengineering" — like blocking the sun’s rays with stratospheric dirt. (Elizabeth Svoboda, Salon)

The Hijacking of the Endangered Species Act: Barrasso - WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Barrasso , R-Wyo., took aim at attempts to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) during an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. (Senator John Barrasso)

Polar Bears Potential ESA Listing Called ‘Regulatory Monster’ - For the second time in the past three months, the EPW Committee conducted a hearing on the decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The potential listing of the polar bear under ESA is being promoted by many activists as a way to save the bear. Today’s hearing also focused on the  Department of the Interior’s failure to meet its court-ordered and statutory deadlines for making a listing decision and the subsequent lawsuit brought by environmental groups. (EPW Blog)

Former NASA scientist? Something we should know about? - Hansen v. Duke: The Perfect versus the Good? - EC quiz of the day. Which best describes the U.S. energy industry, according to James Hansen?

A) It’s Darth Vader
B) It’s no different than Big Tobacco denying cancer
C) It needs to be whacked on the head with a two-by-four
D) All of the above

The former NASA scientist and global warming maven wrote an open letter last week to one of Big Coal’s favorite punching bags, Duke Energy chief executive Jim Rogers. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

The continuing assault on energy: Bank of America: More Heat on Coal - In the race to pin green laurels on their green visors, Bank of America leapfrogged big rival banks by announcing it, too, will adopt the “carbon principles” that frown on financing conventional coal-fired power plants, on top of the internal price on carbon emissions the bank’s number-crunchers now employ. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Congress’ Oil Barons - A hypocritical Congress drills oil executives for high gas prices while driving up food prices by subsidizing ethanol. If the first presidential primary were in Alaska, would we be getting oil from ANWR? (IBD)

Another peak-oil wish piece: End of the oil age is looming - Ignore it, or try for a clean and secure energy future (Canwest News Service)

30-40% energy cost to bury carbon we expended energy mining in the first place… Solid Energy looks underground - Solid Energy is investing in a project in Australia to test if Co2 emissions can be stored underground where they will not add to global warming. (ONE News)

Gas-Tax Boom Times - California is one of several states that have scored windfall revenues because of rising gasoline prices. So what do state lawmakers do? Propose legislation that would add to the tax burden. What’s worse, they call it a "climate change mitigation and adaptation fee" — that is, a tax levied to deal with a problem that doesn’t exist and probably won’t happen. (IBD)

States Suing EPA Over Global Warming - Officials of 18 states are taking the EPA back to court to try to force it to comply with a Supreme Court ruling that rebuked the Bush administration for inaction on global warming. (AP)

Porsche challenge to London pollution charge - Porsche launched a High Court challenge in London on Wednesday against the mayor’s plan to impose hefty pollution charges on high-emissions vehicles entering the city centre. (AFP)

German cars not ready for new biofuel - sources - BERLIN - More than 2 million cars in Germany cannot run on a new biofuel the government wants to introduce, well over a limit the administration has set as a pre-condition for its use, industry sources said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

World grapples with aviation’s climate change footprint - Air travel is booming as the world’s population grows and fares fall, but its impact on Earth’s sensitive climate must be taken into account in any new global warming pact, green groups say. (AFP)

Brazil Biodiesel Sputters On Social, Green Goals - IRAQUARA, Brazil - Booming demand for biodiesel has become a lifeline for some poor farmers who plant oil seeds in Brazil’s dry northeast but critics say the fuel is not as clean, equitable and bountiful as the government boasts. (Reuters)

Overweight kids have fewer cavities, new study shows - Contrary to conventional wisdom, overweight children have fewer cavities and healthier teeth compared to their normal weight peers, according to a study published in this month’s issue of Community Dentistry & Oral Epidemiology.

Surprised researchers at the Eastman Dental Center, part of the University of Rochester Medical Center, conducted a secondary analysis of nearly 18,000 children who participated in two separate National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES III and NHANES 99-02).

The study found no differences in rates of caries (tooth decay) among children ages 2-5 in all weight ranges, while children ages 6-18 who were considered overweight and at risk for becoming overweight showed a decreased risk of caries compared to their normal weight peers. (PhysOrg)

Natural trans fats have health benefits, study shows - Contrary to popular opinion, not all trans fats are bad for you. University of Alberta researcher Flora Wang found that a diet with enriched levels of trans vaccenic acid (VA) – a natural animal fat found in dairy and beef products – can reduce risk factors associated with heart disease, diabetes and obesity. (PhysOrg)

Eight glasses of water a day? There’s not a drop of evidence it’s good for you, say experts - The belief that we need eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy is a myth, researchers say. There is no solid evidence that drinking plenty of pure water is good for the skin, wards off weight gain or helps rid the body of toxins. Instead, most of us get all the fluids we need to avoid dehydration from food and other drinks, including tea and coffee. (Daily Mail)

There Will Be Hunger In Argentina - Americas: As sure the sun will rise, Argentina will fall into crisis. It’s not just the tax hike that has led to a farm strike. It’s a government that still expects much of an economy at all after killing off any reason to farm. (IBD)

Terror? Obesity? It’s apocalypse - Public life is now filled with such hyperbole that it’s hard to have rational discussion (Mick Hume, The Times)

April 2, 2008

Check out the nonsense from this clueless believer (apparently not an April Fool prank piece) - The Future Is Now - BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 1 - Our fingers are glued to the global thermostat, pushing it ever higher, and climate catastrophe has already begun to reshape human civilisation.

Drought. Flood. Heat wave. Tornado and hurricane. Once sole products of natural forces, all are now amplified by the massive amounts of additional heat trapped in the atmosphere because of burning fossil fuels, scientists warn.

Such calamities are no longer distant in time or space. Tens of millions have already been impacted by unnaturally extreme and violent weather for at least the past two decades.

Annual emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) are three times higher today than in the 1990s. Even if the impossible could be done — cease all CO2 emissions today — the average global temperature will continue to increase from the present 0.8 degrees C above normal to 1.6 - 1.8C, data shows. And that new global average temperature would remain higher than normal for the next 500 years because of the time it will take for the warming oceans to cool. (Stephen Leahy, IPS)

Turning off global warming fears - All over the planet recently, people turned off electric lights to illustrate alarm about human-caused global warming, and the symbolism, it seems to me, is dead-on right about the possible consequences not of warming itself, but of hype about warming. Progress could become regress, and figuratively speaking, the world could go dark.

The fear mongering knows no surcease. Every possible evil is blamed on climate change, from water shortages to flooding to the disappearance of certain frogs. Supposedly, there’s a scientific consensus of coming catastrophe of almost unspeakable horror, and millions have been swayed to this point of view, as the “Earth Hour” light-dimming showed. The politicians are at this moment devising policies meant to be preventive but that could be perilous or pointless or both.

You begin to edge toward balance in a survey in which more than 500 climate scientists were asked if we knew enough to formulate such policies. A majority said we did not. A think-tank fellow reaffirms in an op-ed piece that the United Nations employed clearly faulty methods in making dire projections about the warming to come and that there’s no sound basis for insisting that today’s warming is the highest ever known in Earth’s history.

Now comes news that the upper waters of the ocean have been cooling for the past four years, that average Earth temperatures have been slowly cooling since 1998, that the melting Arctic has been freezing again and that this past winter has been one of the coldest in the Northern Hemisphere on record. (JAY AMBROSE, Scripps Howard News Service)

Pyramid-selling climate hysteria? - Climate change fighters sign up - Glen Pearson is one of two MPs spending this weekend with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore to get lessons on battling climate change. Pearson, Liberal MP for London-North-Centre, will head to Montreal with about 200 other Canadians to learn how to spread the message. It’s key for Canada’s leaders to re-ignite interest in the environment as it appears to be taking a back seat to the economy, Pearson said. “It is up to Canada’s leaders to take advantage of these opportunities.” (Sun Media)

Wonder if Dan Harris and the ABC have got the message - I just had a look at some of the comments under their S. Fred Singer hit piece:

Global Warming Denier: Fraud or ‘Realist’?
Physicist Says Humans Will Benefit From Warmer Planet
His fellow scientists call him a fraud, a charlatan and a showman, but Fred Singer calls himself “a realist.” Singer, an 84-year-old Princeton-trained physicist, is the grandfather of the global warming skeptics who dispute the established scientific consensus that global warming is real, that it is caused by the pollution humans are pumping into the atmosphere, and that it will be catastrophic if measures are not taken immediately. “All bunk,” Singer told ABC News in his characteristically…

Wonder if advertisers are taking notice?

British policy advisor says Gore is in ‘panic’ mode - British environmental analyst Christopher Monckton says Al Gore’s latest attack on global warming skeptics shows the former vice president and other climate alarmists are “panicking.”

On Sunday, CBS News correspondent Leslie Stahl asked Al Gore on the television show 60 Minutes what he thinks of people like Vice President Dick Cheney who doubt that global warming is caused by human activity.

“I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona, and those who believe the earth is flat,” replied Gore. “That demeans them a little bit, but it’s not that far off.”

However, Lord Christopher Monckton, a policy advisor for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s, says the former vice president can enjoy his “flat earth fantasies” for a few months, but in the end, the world will be laughing at him.

“The alarmists are alarmed, the panic mongers are panicking, the scare mongers are scared; the Gores are gored. Why? Because global warming stopped ten years ago; it hasn’t got warmer since 1998,” he points out. “And in fact in the last seven years, there has been a downturn in global temperatures equivalent on average to about [or] very close to one degree Fahrenheit per decade. We’re actually in a period … of global cooling.”

Monckton contends Gore is now “panicking” because he has staked his reputation as a former American VP on “telling the world that we’re all doomed unless we shut down 90 percent of the Western economies.” He also contends that Gore is the largest “global-warming profiteer.” (Jim Brown, OneNewsNow)

Comment On Weblog Titled “Josh Willis On Climate Change: Global Warming Is Real” - There is an interesting post on March 31 2008 of comments by Josh Willis on nationalpost.com by Marni Soupcoff titled “Josh Willis on climate change: Global warming is real” [thanks to Jos de Laat for alerting us to it!]. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science)

Comparing the Latest Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies - It’s that time again (yes, it is finally April!) to check out the latest global sea-surface temperature anomalies. Overall, it looks like the blues are beginning to win out a little bit over the warmer-than-normal yellows and reds, especially in the southern hemisphere, including a good chunk of the Indian and Pacific Oceans as we look at the latest image from March 27th, 2008. White areas are where there is a high enough % of sea ice. (AccuWeather.com)

Geologist decries floodplain development - Midwesterners have to be wondering: Will April be the cruelest month? Patterns in the Midwest this spring are eerily reminiscent of 1993 and 1994, back-to-back years of serious flooding, with the Great Flood of 1993 causing nearly $20 billion of economic damage, damaging and destroying more than 50,000 homes and killing at least 38 people.

Parallels this year include abnormally high levels of precipitation in late winter and early spring and early flooding in various regions, such as the floods of late March in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois and the Ohio River watershed. An unknown factor is the effect of the snow melt – Wisconsin, for instance, had record amounts of snow this winter – on river systems this spring and summer.

Despite the similarity in conditions, and periods of flooding nearly every year after those flood years more than a decade ago, one thing Midwesterners have not learned is “geologic reality,” says Robert E. Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

“When people build commercial or residential real estate in flood plains, when they build on sink holes, when they build on fault lines, when they build on the hillsides in L.A. that are going to burn and burn, over and over again, they’re ignoring geologic reality,” Criss says. “They’re asking for chronic problems.” (PhysOrg)

NASA Launches Airborne Study of Arctic Atmosphere, Air Pollution - NASA Launches Airborne Study of Arctic Atmosphere, Air Pollution WASHINGTON — This month, NASA begins the most extensive field campaign ever to investigate the chemistry of the Arctic’s lower atmosphere. The mission is poised to help scientists identify how air pollution contributes to climate changes in the Arctic.

The recent decline of sea ice is one indication the Arctic is undergoing significant environmental changes related to climate warming. NASA and its partners plan to investigate the atmosphere’s role in this climate-sensitive region with the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) field campaign.

“It’s important that we go to the Arctic to understand the atmospheric contribution to warming in a place that’s rapidly changing,” said Jim Crawford, manager of the Tropospheric Chemistry Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are in a position to provide the most complete characterization to date for a region that is seldom observed but critical to understanding climate change.”

Study finds that damaged land can restore itself - There is widespread interest in restoring land damaged by gravel-sand mining, but the high costs of such projects can be off-putting. A new study published in Restoration Ecology offers remarkable new evidence that these damaged environments can be effectively restored within a matter of years, and at virtually no cost. (PhysOrg)

IPCC Review Editors Comments Online - IPCC Review Editors have an extremely important function under IPCC procedures. In prior discussion of the Replies by WG1 Chapter Authors to Review Comments, we noted their unresponsiveness on issues that we were familiar with e.g. the deletion of the inconvenient post-1960 Briffa reconstruction results, the handling of the HS dispute. When the IPCC WG1 (grudgingly) placed the WG1 Review Comments and Replies online- url here they did not place the Review Editor comments online, despite the importance of review editors. Through the diligent efforts of David Holland, the IPCC WG1 and WG2 Review Editor comments have now been obtained and are now online for the first time here - at this point, another Climate Audit exclusive. (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit)

From CO₂ Science this week:
Editorial:
Threats to Amazonia: Natural and Otherwise: If people do not directly mess with the tropical forest biome, it should do just fine over the coming decades and centuries.

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue’s Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Permafrost Regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Subject Index Summary:
Roman Warm Period (Europe - Central): How did its warmth compare with that of the Current Warm Period?

Journal Reviews:
Six Centuries of Drought in the Uinta Mountains of Utah (USA): What do the data reveal about the impact of 20th-century global warming on droughts of this region?

Tropical Atmospheric Temperature Trends: Simulations vs. Measurements: How do the two compare?

Editorial:
Threats to Amazonia: Natural and Otherwise: If people do not directly mess with the tropical forest biome, it should do just fine over the coming decades and centuries.

Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week:
This issue’s Medieval Warm Period Record of the Week comes from Permafrost Regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Subject Index Summary:
Roman Warm Period (Europe - Central): How did its warmth compare with that of the Current Warm Period?

Journal Reviews:
Six Centuries of Drought in the Uinta Mountains of Utah (USA): What do the data reveal about the impact of 20th-century global warming on droughts of this region?

Tropical Atmospheric Temperature Trends: Simulations vs. Measurements: How do the two compare?

Agricultural Crops, the Herbivorous Pests that Feed on Them, and the Bigger Omnivorous Bugs that Eat the Pests: How do they all fare in a CO2-enriched atmosphere?

Progressive Nitrogen Limitation after Eight Years of CO2 Enrichment of Young Aspen and Birch Trees: How strong has it gradually become?

Global Warming and the Vascular Plant Species Richness of Individual Countries: How is the biological “wealth of nations” impacted by rising temperatures? (co2science.org)

Key climate decision should wait for new US president: UN - A global decision on how much rich countries should slash their greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade should be made after the United States has a new president, the UN climate chief said Tuesday. (AFP)

Or the one after, or the one after that... what they really need is the courage to do the right thing -- exactly nothing.

Global economy woes cast shadow on climate talks - Painstakingly tough negotiations on how to fight climate change are getting even harder as concerns mount that the global economy is heading into recession. (AFP)

Poor nations at climate conference demand more money to cope with global warming - 2008-04-01 09:52:58 - BANGKOK, Thailand - Poor countries at U.N. climate change talks demanded Tuesday that wealthy nations provide them with billions of dollars a year to cope with global warming and shift away from polluting, carbon-intensive industries. (AP)

U.S. Rejects China’s Call for Climate Change Funding - The U.S. rejected a Chinese proposal that developed countries should contribute a percentage of their gross domestic product to mitigate the effects of climate change. China, the world’s second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, called for developed nations to provide financial support of 0.5 percent of their GDP a year to help it and other developing nations fight global warming. (Bloomberg)

Global Warming for Kids - I wonder if Sen. John McCain, who has fallen hook, line, and sinker for Al Gore’s shameful global warming scam, is also on board for the scare-the-dickens-out-of-the-kids campaign being waged by Mr. Gore’s acolytes. (Philip V. Brennan, NewsMax)

The Media Ignore Al Gore’s Planned Global Warming Profiteering - By now you’ve probably read about how Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection plan to drop $300 million on hard-hitting affective propaganda aimed at convincing the American viewing public to embrace the drastically reduced standard of living that carbon emission controls guarantee. (NewsBusters)

Concern over ‘zero carbon’ homes - UK home-owners are not prepared to make the changes needed to live in “zero carbon” homes, according to a report. People felt the eco-friendly buildings would require extra maintenance and that they would have to cut back on certain appliances, it added. The National House-Building Council (NHBC) Foundation study said buyers also feared the homes would cost more. The government has set a target that all new homes in England must have no net carbon emissions by 2016. (BBC News)

Climate changing gas from some surprising microbial liaisons - The climate changing gas dimethyl sulphide (DMS) is being made by microbes at the rate of more than 200 million tonnes a year in the world’s seas, scientists heard today at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. “This gas has many different effects”, says Dr Andrew Curson from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. “It triggers clouds to form over the oceans – and clouds are amongst the worlds most potent climate cooling factors; it attracts birds by alerting them to a food supply; and it smells – that typical seaside smell.” (PhysOrg)

Google and the Green Machine - So Fox called me at 6 a.m. — always lovely when there are babies in the house — eager to talk later in the day about Google’s latest left-wing cause: working with environmental activists to arrange 1 million phone calls to Capitol Hill on “Earth Day” in support of “eco-friendly measures.” We can only assume by the target audience that these eco-friendly measures are of the mandatory sort, pending before Congress in the form of legislation.

Fox apparently wanted to talk because of this story, in which I was quoted. As the telephone interview began, I hear myself introduced as someone “who has issues with” Google enabling 1 million phone calls to Congress. Well, no, I don’t actually — and the article that got their attention makes clear that while I think Google is increasingly annoying in its left-wing activism, that’s life in a free society. (Chris Horner, Planet Gore)

Interesting disconnect - Aren’t these the same guys who want to dramatically increase the consumer price of gasoline to discourage its use? Aren’t they considering all manner of anti-consumer taxes and caps on fossil fuel-sourced energy while mandating expensive and unreliable ‘renewables’? And they are whining about fuel companies charging market price? What strange critters… Democrats hit Big Oil (Washington Times)

Oil Refinements - The latest in the series of pointless gestures that constitute Congressional energy policy came yesterday, when executives from five major oil companies were paraded before Ed Markey’s House hearing on global warming. They served as political props for Members to denounce rising gas prices, ventilate Dick Cheney conspiracy theories and otherwise advertise their ignorance of the markets they purportedly oversee.

Democrats, for instance, might rejoice over higher energy costs, which is precisely the eco-policy they’ve been advocating for years. Until Congress finds a way to abolish the price mechanism, paying more for gasoline is the only signal that will tell Americans to cut their consumption. How exactly do Democrats think a carbon tax or cap-and-trade regime is going to work?

The oil executives performed a public service by pointing out other economic realities. About 70% of the price of gasoline is determined by the global price of crude, which is rising because of world-wide demand and volatility in the commodities markets, not to mention the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policy. Congress might also look to its gas mandates and the corset it has laced around domestic production.

It’s true that industry profits are at a record high, but oil is a classic boom-and-bust business, which is why billions in capital investments are folded back into exploration and production. Besides, the industry’s effective tax rates are in the neighborhood of 40% to 44%. Over the past five years, Exxon Mobil’s total U.S. tax bill exceeded its U.S. revenues by some $19 billion. (Wall Street Journal)

Congress Confronts Big Oil: Industry Defends Agenda as Prices Rile Voters, Truckers - WASHINGTON — Rising gasoline prices and flush profits are putting the oil industry on the political defensive in Washington, but industry executives gave little ground Tuesday to hostile members of Congress or angry truckers on the road. Top oil company executives pushed back against attacks on their industry at a congressional hearing, calling for the right to drill in off-limits areas and criticizing a proposal that would take away billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil to subsidize renewable energy technology. (Wall Street Journal)

U.S. Biofuels Subsidies: Not for Farmers, but for Europeans - How big a mess is America’s biofuel policy? Beyond the wild swings in agricultural commodities markets, such as corn and soy, which end up hitting consumers in the grocery store, or federally-mandated increases of production of biofuels which aren’t even out of the lab yet, there is another problem the recent energy bill failed to address: export subsidies for biodiesel. (WSJ)

Fueling ethanol production while protecting water quality - Grain-based ethanol production has increased dramatically in recent years as the cost and instability of oil has increased. New U.S. government policies require major increases in ethanol production. While future plans call for a viable cellulosic ethanol industry, expanded grain ethanol production will lead to further growth of corn acres in the near term, with unintended negative water quality impacts. (PhysOrg)

Algae could one day be major hydrogen fuel source - As gas prices continue to soar to record highs, motorists are crying out for an alternative that won’t cramp their pocketbooks. Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are answering that call by working to chemically manipulate algae for production of the next generation of renewable fuels – hydrogen gas. (PhysOrg)

£3bn climate change bill for energy firms - Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, will claim today that profiteering energy companies will be required to spend nearly £1bn a year over the next three years to help individuals fight climate change, twice the amount required under previous schemes. (The Guardian)

Help for parents worried about vaccines and autism - Two noted doctors have written articles on childhood immunizations this week, attempting to give parents the best available science to help them sort through recently resurfaced concerns over a link between vaccines and autism. While no amount of science will assuage the fear some are attempting to foster, hopefully this information will answer a lot of questions for parents who are seeking facts. What may surprise some readers, for example, is that the recent vaccination court decision actually had nothing to do with mercury. (Junkfood Science)

Diversity outlawed in Japan - Can you imagine being forced by the government to undergo blood tests, take prescription medications (with controversial safety and effectiveness), and lose weight until your waist measures less than 33.5 inches … or lose your job? This is not an April Fool’s joke, but a very disturbing story. Today, the Japanese government institutes its compulsory “flab checks” for all workers over the age of 40.

To stem Japan’s “soaring obesity,” the health ministry has mandated that all waistlines among its 56 million workers over age 40 be below “regulation size” of 33.5 inches (for men). Any company failing to bring its employees’ weight under control — as well as the weights of their family members — will be fined up to 10% of its earnings by the government. (Junkfood Science)

CMEs and purple light — what are doctors and nurses learning? - Once one becomes a nurse or a doctor, it is now possible to get the continuing medical education credit hours required to keep our licenses without ever reading a lick of science. That’s a terrifying thought as a patient and a disheartening one as a medical professional. (Junkfood Science)

Dominic Lawson: Food miles are just a form of protectionism - Middle-class neurosis is being exploited to protect an archaic form of agriculture (London Independent)

‘Silent’ famine sweeps globe: Rice, fertilizer shortages, food costs, higher energy prices equal world crisis - WASHINGTON – From India to Africa to North Korea to Pakistan and even in New York City, higher grain prices, fertilizer shortages and rising energy costs are combining to spell hunger for millions in what is being characterized as a global “silent famine.” Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the last year, escalating a trend that began in 2002. Since then, prices have risen 65 percent. Last year, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent. (WorldNetDaily)

GM seeds can ‘last for 10 years’ - Seeds of some genetically modified crops can endure in soil for at least 10 years, scientists have discovered. Researchers in Sweden examined a field planted with experimental oilseed rape a decade ago, and found transgenic specimens were still growing there. This was despite intensive efforts in the intervening years to remove seeds. No GM crop has been found to endure so long; and critics say it shows that genetically modified organisms cannot be contained once released. (BBC News)

China makes non-spread GM rice - Genetically modified rice that can be killed if it accidentally spreads to conventional fields has been developed by a team of Chinese scientists. The team at Zhejiang University says their discovery could encourage greater introduction of genetically modified crops as they can better control against risks of contamination. Several incidents of GM crops contaminating conventional crops have been reported in recent years, raising fears among farmers, environmental groups and governments. (PLoS)

French parliament kicks off debate on new GMO law - PARIS - France’s parliament began a long-awaited debate on Tuesday on a proposed new law governing genetically modified crops that is contested fiercely by green groups and ecologists. Parliamentarians from the National Assembly will thrash out proposals approved by the Senate in early February before casting votes towards the end of the week. Second readings within both the upper and lower house are likely before the government passes the law later in the year. (Reuters)

April 1, 2008

JunkScience.com is 12 today!

Carbon Folly: CO2 Emissions Sources and Options

By Donn Dears, 135 pages, Published by TSAugust 2008

The UN demands that the US cut its CO2 emissions by 80%. Congress is debating Cap & Trade legislation that will require the U.S. to cut its CO2 emissions by up to 80%. But few are asking, is it possible to cut CO2 emissions by 80%? Or by any meaningful amount? Carbon Folly examines each sector, from the Electric Sector to the Residential Sector, to determine whether proven technologies are available for cutting CO2 emissions. With America s population increasing 139* million people by 2050 there will be tremendous pressure for more electricity, more cars and more jobs. What are the consequences for American society if carbon regulations are established but CO2 emissions cannot be cut by any significant amount? Cap & Trade could be the largest hidden tax increase in history. Will ENRON have merely been the tip of the iceberg? With CO2 emissions directly linked to economic growth, cutting CO2 emissions will result in economic decline. * Based on change from 2000 census. The change equals total US population in WWII.

Get your copy from the DemandDebate.com store.

I wouldn’t get too excited about items like this - People might be displaying considerable rationality and rating global warming as relatively insignificant but Don Al Goreleone has been working with his Consiglieri and Capo-Regimes for many years assembling a massive war chest and a literal army of soldiers — and they are getting ready to go to the mattresses. Note they are about to unleash a $300,000,000.00 3-year indoctrination campaign in preparation for making society an offer it can’t refuse — and muscling a piece of the action in every energy transaction. Notice how quickly the button men at RealKlimat respond should any hapless scientist stray off-message, how well-coordinated are the hit pieces from activist sites, the releases from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Indoctrination and the constant looming climate disaster feed from a complicit media.

Do not underestimate Don Alberto. He doesn’t want a paltry U.S. Presidency — he’s got his eyes firmly on the prize of world domination through control of the energy supply.: Citizens less worried about global warming (UPI)

We warned you: Gore to recruit 10m-strong green army (The Guardian)

Must be very disappointing for Andy - Check out the suspicion of his Don’s motivation displayed by early commenters under this piece: Madison Avenue Sells S.U.V.’s. Can It Sell Climate Action? (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times)

Show Me the Money! - A few things came to mind about the new Al Gore ad campaign, and his appearance with wife Tipper on CBS’s 60 Minutes last night. The first was the confused nature of the claimed target of this largest ad campaign ever, at least according to the Washington Post. Gore has repeatedly insisted (and 60 Minutes reiterated the claim) that the public are overwhelmingly with him, and that it is therefore the too-timid lawmakers who must be influenced; but the ad spokesman says it is aimed at influencing the public. (Chris Horner, CEI)

“Warming Island”—Another Global Warming Myth Exposed - In our continuing theme of exposing ill-founded global warming alarmist stories (see here and here for our most recent debunkings), we’ll examine the much touted discovery of “Warming Island”—a small piece of land that has been “long thought to be part of Greenland’s mainland”—but that turns out to have been known to be an island back in the early 1950s. Another good story out the window. (World Climate report)

The oceans have stopped warming! - This year of 2008 is starting out cold—but according to the “consensus” climate watchers it’s still likely to be one of the “top 10 warmest” in the thermometer record before it’s over. After all, the Greenhouse gasses continue to accumulate in the atmosphere.

But wait. Something isn’t following the Greenhouse script. The oceans, which contain 80 to 90 percent of the planet’s heat, have recently stopped warming! (Dennis T. Avery, ESR)

Canada faces climate disaster: memo - The Harper government was warned last year by its environmental scientific experts that Canada would have to join an aggressive international campaign to fight global warming to avoid “substantial global and Canadian impacts” or risk irreversible damage to the planet, newly-released memorandums obtained by Canwest News Service reveal. (Ottawa Citizen)

Specially-designed soils could help combat climate change - Yeah, hurray… except increasing levels of the essential trace gas CO₂ are really a good thing and we don’t want them lowered. And no, it will not adjust the global thermostat either: Specially-designed soils could help combat climate change (PhysOrg)

No Laughing Matter - Bacteria Are Releasing A Serious Greenhouse Gas - Unlike carbon dioxide and methane, laughing gas has been largely ignored by world leaders as a worrying greenhouse gas. But nitrous oxide must be taken more seriously, says Professor David Richardson from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, speaking today (Monday 31 March 2008) at the Society for General Microbiology’s 162nd meeting being held this week at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. (SPX)

Poor nations fear being left in cold on global warming - Outraged poor nations bearing the brunt of global warming have become increasingly bold in UN-led climate talks, but some worry that recent trysts of large countries are leaving them out in the cold. (AFP)

UN climate chief critical of changing base year for emissions cuts - The UN climate chief was critical Monday of Japanese-led calls to change the 1990 base year for cuts in gas emissions, saying the real issue was how much nations would do to fight global warming. (AFP)

From Bali to Bangkok: How To Cut Hot Air - Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour never made “Road to Copenhagen.” That task—drafting a new climate-change treaty to replace the soon-to-expire Kyoto Protocol—instead falls to delegates from 163 nations gathered in Bangkok this week for the latest global warming confab. (Keith Johnson, WSJ)

Google steps up eco-activism, will help flood Capitol switchboard - A group of environmental activists has enlisted Google to help flood the congressional switchboard with one million phone calls on Earth Day urging lawmakers to enact eco-friendly measures. (Washington Times)

Roger A. Pielke Sr.’s Perspective On The Role Of Humans In Climate Change - There continues to be misunderstandings on my viewpoint on the role of humans within the climate system. This weblog is written to make sure it is clear, and can be used whenever someone asks the question as to where does Pielke Sr. stand on this issue. (Climate Science)

A Maverick Climate Policy - Republican nominee for president John McCain recently returned from a whirlwind tour of Europe meant to promote his global statesmanship. In Europe, he met with leaders such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and even published opinion pieces in major French and English newspapers that outlined his global vision. (American Spectator)

As Fight for Water Heats Up, Prized Fish Suffer - WISDOM, Mont. — It’s a simple fact of life across the rural West, as it is here in Montana’s mountain-ringed Big Hole River Valley. Flooding river bottoms to grow hay sustains the economy but means less water in the river for the prized wild trout population.

The competition for water is not new, but it is intensifying as the climate here gets warmer and drier. (New York Times)

Save The Earth — Hug A Logger - As environmental alarmists entertain themselves by turning off lights, their efforts sometimes lead to unintended consequences. A new study, for example, shows they may be warming the earth by saving trees. (IBD)

Apparently not an April Fool but an ordinary one - Hansen politely lists a group of Aussies who coincidentally form the core membership of our unofficial misanthropy society (population panickers and exclusive elitists all). Readers of Benny Peiser’s excellent CCNet will recognize serial pest Andrew Glickson and his extravagant rants (personally I’m not convinced the man would know carbon dioxide from cane toads but that doesn’t stop his evangelism). Nonetheless, here’s James They’re-trying-to-censor-me Hansen trying to convince novice PM Kevin Rudd that we shouldn’t burn coal in a country whose economy is totally dependent on exploiting its massive coal reserves for cheap power and export: Hansen to Australian PM: stop coal plants now (James Hansen)

House votes to protect coast from oil drilling - California moved a step closer to permanently protecting its shores from offshore oil drilling Monday when the House approved legislation to ban development in federal waters along all 76 miles of Sonoma County’s coastline and off the southern tip of Mendocino County’s coast. (SF Chronicle)

Global warming and Fairbanks’ power solution - In the future, nuclear energy might become more attractive for many regions worldwide, even for Interior Alaska. However, I am not sure whether the public will accept a renaissance of nuclear energy. (Daily News-Miner)

Patagonia Without Dams - Recently, environmental activists and local residents gathered near the small Chilean town of Cochrane to protest a plan to build a series of hydroelectrical dams. Cochrane is part of Chilean Patagonia, and it would be transformed beyond recognition if the project goes ahead. But the change in Cochrane would be nothing compared with the change in Patagonia. (New York Times)

Wind farms for sale - One of the world’s biggest owners of wind farms has put its portfolio up for sale in a deal that could be worth up to €4bn (£3.17bn). The sale includes farms operating and in development in Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and Italy. (The Guardian)

Tidal power comes to Northern Ireland - Weighing 1000 tonnes, with a width of 43 metres from tip to tip and resembling an underwater upturned windmill its makers claim it represents a clean green alternative to climate-destroying fossil fuels. (guardian.co.uk)

France, Germany close to deal on auto emissions: report - (FRANKFURT) - France and Germany are close to resolving their dispute over EU auto emissions targets that could see a softening of the proposed regulations, a German newspaper report said on Monday. (EUbusiness)

A Contest for the Biggest Loser - NEW YORK, Mar 31 - Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, is facing the wrath of U.S. green groups and corporate watchdogs for its constant opposition to legislative proposals aimed at increasing fuel efficiency standards in California and other states. (IPS)

Biofuels, scam? Subsidy farming? Nah… - composite posting.

Activists slam changes to green grants - The government announced a shake-up of its controversial grant system for renewable energy technologies yesterday but was sharply criticised by green campaigners who said it does not go far enough. (The Guardian)

World cooling on biofuel solution to climate change - Once a golden promise in the fight against climate change, biofuels are fast losing their lustre as high demand for essential crops drives land clearing and pushes up the price of food. (AFP)

Indonesia’s palm oil boom takes environmental toll (AFP)

The Clean Energy Scam - From his Cessna a mile above the southern Amazon, John Carter looks down on the destruction of the world’s greatest ecological jewel. He watches men converting rain forest into cattle pastures and soybean fields with bulldozers and chains. He sees fires wiping out such gigantic swaths of jungle that scientists now debate the “savannization” of the Amazon. Brazil just announced that deforestation is on track to double this year; Carter, a Texas cowboy with all the subtlety of a chainsaw, says it’s going to get worse fast. “It gives me goose bumps,” says Carter, who founded a nonprofit to promote sustainable ranching on the Amazon frontier. “It’s like witnessing a rape.” (Michael Grunwald, Time Magazine)

Good behavior - Health and wellness seem to have become the national obsession. That’s not because we’re so horribly unhealthy, but because there is tremendous profit, along with power and control, that can be waged over a population when people can be convinced to believe that health is a matter of personal responsibility and good behavior … that chronic diseases can be prevented by living a “healthy” lifestyle and eating “healthy” … that those who are healthy have idealized characteristics (health indice measures as seen in 20-year old white people of privilege), and everyone else — ageing, minority, fat, disadvantaged or sick — are seen as ill-behaved, ignorant and indulgent masses burdening the rest of society. Health and fitness becomes a duty to society and the common good, and those who aren’t become enemies of the state and are viewed as diseased and inferior, and in need of oversight and management. (Junkfood Science)

Gastric bandwagon - Over recent years, television and medical stories reporting on the wonders of lap band surgeries seem to be everywhere. That’s no accident, nor are they actual medical news stories. As today’s Wall Street Journal reveals, we’ve been witnessing the largest, slickest marketing ever seen for an elective surgery. It’s being led by two industry giants, medical-device makers and venture capitalists, along with surgeons eager to cash in on the next big thing in commercial medicine. (Junkfood Science)

They were persuaded - In other pharmaceutical news this week, the evidence review committee for NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) issued a final appraisal determination on the diet drug Acomplia (rimonabant) that surprised the world. It reversed its December draft technology appraisal recommending against the diet drug. (Junkfood Science)

When science and sales get mixed up - There’s an old adage in business and politics that when you need to release troubling news, issue the press release late on a Friday afternoon when it’s certain to get the least notice and be forgotten by Monday morning’s news. A remarkable and disturbing announcement was issued late yesterday that deserves to make the news and receive the attention of the scientific and medical community. (Junkfood Science)

Bald vitamins - The FDA issued a consumer warning today advising people not to purchase or consume the “Total Body” dietary supplement formulas. Severe adverse reactions have been reported among people consuming flavors tropical orange, peach nectar and orange/tangerine, including significant hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea, joint pain and fatigue. (Junkfood Science)

Computer Gaming: Your waist doesn’t really go to your head - A press release went out on Tuesday to enable the media, in lockstep, to announce the results of a new study on the embargoed date — before it was published or even available to medical professionals who had paid subscriptions to the journal — ensuring the media release spin would pre-empt any professional critique. Accordingly, at least 638 (and counting) news stories have been breathlessly reporting that “big bellies increase risk for dementia.”

This was our first clue that what we’ve been hearing is marketing, not science. They are not remotely the same thing. (Junkfood Science)