Archives - November 2007 "It's the Sun, stupid" -
"When the international global warming alarm-ocracy gathers for its annual convention on the balmy island of
Bali next week, is there any chance that the delegates will look up at the big yellow ball in the sky and ask,
'Could it be the Sun, stupid?'" (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com)
Nonsense du jour: "EU
call for climate change action" - "The European Union has called for swift action on climate
change in the face of "compelling and alarming" new evidence of the pace of global warming. Never mind "Warming relative to when?" for this alleged "compelling and
alarming new evidence" (and just what evidence that would be remains a mystery), let's just try to specify
which pre-industrial temperature Dimas finds so alluring. Does he wish to benchmark from the apparent unusual
cold in which our thermometric series are founded? If so, why? Such an "increase" would see the world
around the temperatures of the Medieval Climate Optimum (our bad, mustn't call it "optimum" anymore,
now the Medieval Warm Period). Perhaps he means warmer than the average of the last couple of thousand years...
which would then be like the Holocene Climatic Optimum (about 5,000-3,000 BC) of a degree or two warmer than
today. During the Climatic Optimum, many of the Earth's great ancient civilizations began and flourished. In
Africa, the Nile River had three times its present volume, indicating a much larger tropical region. Gee, that'd
be a worry, eh? The
UK ‘Global Warming’ Racket - Despite the hysteria over ‘global warming’ in the UK, the British
Isles are probably one of the worst places on Earth to try to ascertain long-term climate trends from extreme
weather events. "Cooler assessment of
climate obsession" - "OVER the past half-century we have become used to planetary scares of one
kind or another. But the latest such scare - global warming - has engaged the political and opinion-forming
classes to a greater extent than anything since, a little over 200 years ago, Malthus warned that, unless radical
measures were taken to limit population growth, the world would run up against the limits of subsistence, leading
inevitably to war, pestilence and famine. "Everything
is Caused by Global Warming (600+ links)" - "Dr. John Brignell, a British engineering professor,
runs a website called numberwatch. He has compiled what has to be the most complete collection of links to media
stories ascribing the cause of everything under the sun to global warming. He has already posted more than
six-hundred links." (Christopher Alleva, American Thinker) SciAm letter of the moment: "Atmosphere
of Uncertainty?" - "To support the conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) that current warming is anthropogenic, William Collins, Robert Colman, James Haywood, Martin R. Manning and
Philip Mote assert in “The Physical Science behind Climate Change” that the mismatch between surface and
tropospheric warming rates has now been resolved. This claim is not supported by actual observations. According to
the April 2006 Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) report, considerable disparity exists between the observed
warming-rate patterns and those calculated by greenhouse models. Although the models predict that temperature
trends will increase with altitude by 200 to 300 percent, the data from both weather balloons and satellites show
the opposite. This result does not deny the existence of a greenhouse effect from the considerable increase in
anthropogenic greenhouse gases. But it does suggest that present models greatly overestimate the effect’s
magnitude and significance." (S. Fred Singer, University of Virginia) "Carbon
Emissions Don’t Cause Global Warming" - "Our scientific understanding of global warming has
gone through three stages: "How
not to measure temperature, part 40" - "Rounding out a review of California weather stations
this week we visit Gilroy, CA, the garlic capital. This COOP station has an MMTS temperature sensor on a pole just
a few feet from a concrete slab. We’ve seen a lot of that lately. But look closely - roasted garlic
anyone?" (Watts Up With That?) <chuckle> "EU
Forests Expand, Could Aid Climate Goals - Study" - "OSLO - Forests in the European Union are
expanding surprisingly fast and could be enlisted to help the EU achieve goals for fighting climate change,
researchers said on Thursday." (Reuters) Bit of sad news for you guys, low latitude forests might have a net cooling
effect but mid- to high-latitude forests are believed to be net warmers through loss of albedo and hence
increased absorption of solar radiation. "Recipe for a storm: The ingredients for more
powerful Atlantic hurricanes" - "As the world warms, the interaction between the Atlantic Ocean
and atmosphere may be the recipe for stronger, more frequent hurricanes." (UW-Madison) Well, atmospheric carbon dioxide certainly hasn't gone down any, so gorebull warming theory means we should
be experiencing maximum toasting now, right? Odd that global
ACE was higher in the period '88-'97 than it has been for the period '98-'07, no? In fact, the last time it
was lower than the season just closing was back in the near-inactive PDO phase-shift year of '77 when global
cooling stopped and the recent warming kicked off. Funny that... "Loss
Of Herb Saffir - A Pioneer In Communicating Hurricane Risk To The Public and Policymakers" - "As
many of you have read in the news, Herb Saffir has died (see). Herb Saffir, along with Robert H. Simpson, is a
developer of the famous categories 1 through 5 of hurricane intensity." (Climate Science) "Study finds seasonal seas save corals with 'tough
love'" - "Finally, some good news about the prospects of coral reefs in the age of climate
change. According to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society, corals may actually survive rising ocean
temperatures in ‘tough love’ seas with wide-ranging temperatures." (WCS) Oh dear... it was only ever the hysterics who didn't realize corals are quite
temperature robust and under no "warming" threat. "Unnatural History" -
"Hurricane Katrina -- a very big storm by any measure -- has now been called the "largest ecological
disaster in U.S. history," according to the Christian Science Monitor, because it "killed or
damaged about 320 million trees." Moreover, Katrina was a double ecological whammy, as the downed trees will
eventually rot or burn, releasing another increment (probably too small to detect) of dreaded carbon dioxide, the
main global warming gas. The Monitor's report was based upon an analysis of satellite imagery conducted by
scientists at the University of New Hampshire. Uh-huh... "U.S.
lifestyle won't have to change in CO2 cut: report" - "NEW YORK - U.S. citizens will not have to
drive less or read in the dark to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but they will have to buy more efficient
cars and appliances, a report from two business groups said on Thursday." (Reuters) Hey lookit! A buncha Charlies: "Business
Leaders Seek Action on Warming" - "WASHINGTON - Some of the world's top business leaders are
demanding that international diplomats meeting next week come up with drastic and urgent measures to cut
greenhouse gas pollution at least in half by 2050. "A Fifth of UN Carbon
Credits May be Bogus - WWF" - "LONDON - One in five carbon credits issued by the United Nations
are going to support clean energy projects that may in fact have helped to increase greenhouse gas emissions,
environmental group WWF said on Thursday." (Reuters) Don't sweat it fellas, all "carbon credits" are bogus anyway. A suite of gibbering nitwittery from The Groaniad: "Bali:
now the rich must pay" - "A fair and global effort to tackle climate change needs wealthy states
to take the lead in CO2 cuts" (Nicholas Stern, The Guardian) "Climate
chief calls for 80% cuts in greenhouse gas" - "Sir Nicholas Stern, the government adviser on the
economics of climate change and development, has urged nations to agree on ambitious reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions or face the "destructive" consequences of global warming." (David Adam, The Guardian) "Stern:
Climate change a 'market failure'" - "Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure
that the world has seen, Sir Nicholas Stern, whose review last year warned of the economic and social costs of
climate change, said tonight." (Alison Benjamin, Guardian Unlimited) "Forget the green technology - the
hot money is in guns" - "Far from saving us from catastrophe, the market is developing
fortresses to shield the haves from the victims of the future." (Naomi Klein, The Guardian) Questions is: Where would these alleged scientists be trying to lead us? "Leading
Scientists Urge EPA to Find that Global Warming Pollution Endangers Human Health and Welfare" -
"WASHINGTON, DC - November 28 - Citing extensive scientific evidence that climate change constitutes a severe
threat to human health and welfare, 23 leading scientists and physicians submitted a letter to EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson asking him to follow science in regulating global warming pollution under the Clean Air Act. EPA
is preparing to announce its proposed response to the April 2nd Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, a
decision rejecting EPA’s claim that it lacked authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air
Act." (Press release) "Study Details How U.S. Could Cut 28%
of Greenhouse Gases" - "A new report says the country is brimming with opportunities to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions, while saving money at the same time." (New York Times) If there's money in it then capitalism will ensure its use, otherwise, take a hike,
Chucky. An
Inconvenient Fact - The Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. Department of Energy, Washington,
DC, yesterday released the following information (November 28): ‘U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Declined 1.5
Percent in 2006’. Japan dumps Kyoto? Wise move: "Japan
to propose new climate forum" - "TOKYO - Japan wants to involve China and the United States in
talks over a new pact on climate change by launching a working group that will bring together all countries,
including the major emitters that oppose existing plans." (Reuters) "China Wary on
International Climate Goals - Official" - "BEIJING - Beijing is reluctant to set itself
international targets to fight climate change without financial assistance from industrialised countries, a senior
climate change official, Gao Guangsheng, said on Thursday." (Reuters) Chinese rope-a-dope: "China
Says Will Curb Emissions if Gets Tech Help" - "BEIJING - China would "definitely do
more" to cut its contribution to climate change if rich nations were willing to share clean energy
technologies, its chief climate negotiator Yu Qingtai told Reuters on Thursday." (Reuters) "EIB Hopes Climate Loan
Will Spur Change in China" - "BEIJING - The European Investment Bank hopes its loan to China to
help it fight climate change will have a "demonstration effect" that could spur more greenhouse
gas-reducing projects, the bank's president said on Thursday." (Reuters) "Planned UK Biofuel Plant
Seen Risky as Wheat Soars" - "LONDON - Plans by BP Plc, British Sugar and DuPont to build a
bioethanol plant in northeast England could be risky if wheat prices keep rising, but the market for the biofuel
is growing, analysts said on Thursday." (Reuters) No? Duh! "Retailers
Keep 'Green' Behind Scenes This Holiday" - "COLUMBIA, Md. - US retailers may be touting their
environmental-friendliness this year, but just about the only "green" in evidence for the holidays is in
the usual Christmas decorations. "Corn syrup
may not boost appetite, food intake" - "NEW YORK - Though some have blamed the U.S. obesity
problem on the corn syrup ubiquitous in processed foods, a new study casts some doubt on this idea. "CDC
admits there is no obesity epidemic!" - "Well, sort of. They appear to be doing their darndest
to not let you know what they’ve known for years." (Junkfood Science) Uh-oh... redefinition in the wind: "U.S.
obesity rates level off: government study" - "CHICAGO - After 25 years of successive increases,
obesity rates in the United States are holding steady, government health officials said on Wednesday. "Kids' food
choices don't match nutrition knowledge" - "NEW YORK - Kindergartners have a fairly good idea of
which foods are good for them, but they often prefer less healthy choices, researchers from Israel have
found." (Reuters Health) "Starting
them young... on the road to eating disorders?" - "A new board game for preschoolers has come
out just in time for Christmas gift giving. It’s a toy being marketed for 2 to 4-year olds to teach kids
‘healthy eating’ and exercise. Instead, it is one of the most troubling examples of educational toys to
address 'childhood obesity.' Not only does it reinforce with little ones prejudicial stereotypes of fat children,
it shows them how to think like anorectics and compulsive exercisers. "Andrew Bolt: They're
trying to scare you" - "THE campaigners warning us we might end up with two heads after eating
GM foods are ignoring the science that says it's good for you." (Herald Sun) "Australian scientists identify crucial barley
gene" - "Adelaide scientists have identified the major gene responsible for boron toxicity
tolerance in barley, allowing breeders to select with 100% accuracy barley varieties that are tolerant to boron.
The findings have today been published in the journal, Science." (University of Adelaide) November 29, 2007
"Hurricane Season - Mild
for US But Not the Rest" - "MIAMI - For a second year in a row, the United States has escaped a
severe hurricane hit, pushing memories of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans another notch into the
past." (Reuters) Hmm... the count was only "average" because virtually every zephyr was
included, whether tropical or not. Newsflash: November 29, 2007 What? "Venus inferno
due to 'runaway greenhouse effect', say scientists" - "Once styled as Earth's twin, Venus was
transformed from a haven for water to a fiery hell by an unstoppable greenhouse effect, according to an
investigation by the first space probe to visit our closest neighbour in more than a decade. (AFP) Try this: "Caught
in the wind from the Sun" - "Venus Express has exposed the true extent to which the Sun
strips away the atmosphere of Venus. This process could be an important contribution to the way the planet has
evolved to become so different from the Earth. "Ancient Greenland mystery has a simple
answer, it seems" - "Did the Norse colonists starve? Were they wiped out by the Inuit – or did
they intermarry? No. Things got colder and they left." (The Christian Science Monitor)
"A
tsunami of nonsense" - "When disaster strikes, it's only human to attribute blame. In the middle
of the last millennium, the pope blamed witches for the "little Ice Age" that was giving Europe a chilly
embrace. "Upcoming Climate
Science Papers" - "In the coming weeks and months, Climate Science will post information on
several new papers from our research group. We have been busy with research studies while Climate Science was not
actively updated. Among the research findings of our papers are:" (Climate Science) "Paintings
used in climate change tracking" - "London - The vivid sunsets painted by JMW Turner are revered
for their use of colour and light and for their influence on the Impressionists. But could they also help global
warming experts track climate change?" (Sapa-AP) "Global
Temperatures are Uncorrelated with Carbon Dioxide Trends This Last Decade" - "Temperature peaked
in 1998 and have shown no warming for a decade now. Many scientists have been remarking about this trend for
several years but no one takes heed, preferring to believe models than actual data. Here is the satellite derived
global temperature trend since 1979. Note the cooling globally near the volcanically active periods of the early
1980s and 1990s. Note also the warm spike associated with the super El Nino that seemingly marked the beginning of
the end of the warm Pacific trend that began in 1978." (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM) "How
not to measure temperature, part 39" - "One of the most surprising things I’ve learned from
the surfacestations.org project is that for some odd reason, there are a
number of climate monitoring stations of record in the USA at sewage treatment plants. If you’ve ever driven by
one of these in the wintertime, they tend to look like steam saunas. They are localized heat bubbles from the
waste-water processing." (Watts Up With That?) "Terminating
Warming? A Look at California" - "With so much focus on California’s fight against global
warming, we were drawn to a very interesting article in a recent issue of Climate Research. Scientists from
California State University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories, and the University of Utah examined temperature
trends from 1950 to 2000 for hundreds of stations in Governor Schwarzenegger’s California. They calculated the
trend in the mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures, and their results are really not all that surprising. As
seen in Figure 1 below, California seems to have warmed at a rate of 0.13°C per decade over the past half
century. But no Ph.D. in urban climate is required to immediately see that many rural locations are barely
warming, not warming, or even cooling, while the heavily urbanized stations in the Bay Area and Southern
California are warming at a significant rate. LaDochy et al. showed that the “urban” stations warmed at a rate
of 0.20°C per decade while the “non-urban” stations warmed only 0.08°C per decade. Furthermore, they state
that “Large urban sites showed rates over twice those for the state, for the mean maximum temperatures, and over
5 times the state’s mean rate for the minimum temperatures.” The research team concludes that “Some of the
largest temperature increases occur in the vicinity of urban centers, particularly for minimum temperatures. Few
rural stations show significant increases in minimum or maximum temperatures.” We have covered this topic time
and time again, and many of the greenhouse advocates absolutely dismiss the obvious implications of this research.
Many websites claim that California is warming at an alarming rate, and depending on how one defines
“alarming,” there could be validity to the claim. However, LaDochy et al. show that the warming is strangely
confined to the growing urban areas, and they find little to no warming in the rural stations. Heaven forbid, but
41% of the stations had no significant warming and 6% actually had cooling. Despite the undisputed buildup of
greenhouse gases from 1950 to 2000, almost half of the stations in California showed no significant warming!"
(WCR) "Thomas Ring: 'We should not fear global warming'"
- "SUPERVISOR Charles McGlashan, in the Sept. 26 IJ, said "the county's growth policies have to take
global warming seriously. We are fighting a race against potential extinction." Hansen apologizes... kind of: "‘Averting
Our Eyes’: James Hansen’s New Call for Climate Action" - "James E. Hansen of NASA has
elaborated on what he meant when he recently described continued coal burning as akin to sending untold species to
their destruction in “death trains” and crematoria." (New York Times) "Survival of
the Stupidest" - "Hey, did you hear the one about the woman who aborted her kid so she could
save the planet? "Italian
outbreak of rare African disease linked to globalization, climate change" - "LONDON: An obscure
disease from Africa broke out in Europe for the first time this past summer, raising concerns that globalization
and climate change were combining to pose a major health threat to developed Western nations." (Associated
Press) Oh... "Climate
change may cost Florida $345 billion a year: study" - "TALLAHASSEE, Florida - If nothing is done
to combat global warming, two of Florida's nuclear power plants, three of its prisons and 1,362 hotels, motels and
inns will be under water by 2100, a study released on Wednesday said. "Brazil Rejects Emission
Targets for Poor Nations" - "BRASILIA - Brazil reiterated its opposition on Wednesday to
imposing targets on developing countries' carbon emissions, days before a major international conference on
climate change." (Reuters) "Climate
change will cost 1.6% of global GDP, says UN report" - "BRASILIA: Climate change could have
apocalyptic consequences for the world's poor and tackling it will require cuts in greenhouse gases costing 1.6%
of global annual GDP, the UN Development Program said on Tuesday." (AFP) "EU Sees Carbon Capture in
Trade Scheme - Draft" - "BRUSSELS - Companies should get credit under the European Union's
emissions trading scheme for capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) instead of releasing it into the
atmosphere, the European Commission will propose." (Reuters) "Chief
Scientist to tackle climate change" - "A new Oxford University institute that will search for
private solutions to global warming and other environmental problems is to be led by Sir David King when he steps
down as the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser. "Climate
change policies attacked" - "OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper's climate change policies
came under attack from two new international sources on Tuesday, including a United Nations report warning that
Canada would lose its credibility on environmental issues if it does nothing to boost its fight against global
warming. "Brown
praises Rudd's effort on climate change" - "MELBOURNE: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on
Wednesday congratulated Australia's Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd for winning the election and praising his
efforts on climate change said talks with him next month will be very important for the future." (PTI) That's nice... what efforts would they be? Rudd has been Australia's Opposition Leader
for about a year and has promised to sign Kyoto as Prime Minister (he's a bit late, Australia has been a
signatory nation since 1998). Apart from that, what? "Kyoto shift
welcome at Bali" - "KEVIN Rudd's embrace of the Kyoto Protocol will "absolutely change the
dynamic" of the UN conference on climate change in Bali next week, one of the world body's top officials in
Jakarta said yesterday. Interesting, Rudd might manage to get Kyoto ratified in mid-2008 (although there
is no guarantee) but making the right noises is enough to buy a seat at the carbon scammers table? Silly game... The reality: "Ratifying
Kyoto 'difficult': expert" - "The act of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol may create headaches for
the incoming Labor government, an international law expert says. "More Than 1 Billion Trees
Planted in 2007 - UN" - "OSLO - The world has surpassed a UN goal of planting 1 billion trees in
2007 to help slow climate change, led by huge forestry projects in Ethiopia and Mexico, the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday." (Reuters) [/woohoo] "Indonesia to
plant 79 million trees ahead of climate change conference" - "Indonesian forests are destroyed
faster than in any other country. So, the government started a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of
forthcoming critical climate change conference on the island of Bali." (AP) "Climate Change Deals
Another Blow to Orangutans" - "JAKARTA - Climate change will hurt Indonesia's orangutan
population, already under threat from the rapid rate of deforestation, by reducing their food stock, a leading
conservation group said on Wednesday." (Reuters) "Lack of development: that’s
the real disaster" - "An Oxfam report suggests climate change has led to a quadrupling of
weather-related disasters. It pays to interrogate such heated claims." (Rob Lyons, sp!ked) "Countries Urged to Create
Disaster Warning Systems" - "GENEVA - Governments in rich and poor countries should focus more
on investing in early warning systems that can save lives in natural disasters, a United Nations expert said on
Wednesday." (Reuters) And don't forget the infrastructure to move people out of immediate danger -- real
development and the wealth generation required to finance it, in other words, the very things AGW hysterics want
to suppress. "Global System Could Cut
Disaster Toll by 2018" - "CAPE TOWN - A global satellite system should come on line next decade,
potentially saving billions of dollars and thousands of lives by boosting preparedness for natural disasters, a
top scientist said on Wednesday." (Reuters) "Is it ethical to force people
to be green?" - "Our ethical columnist explains what we really need to do to stop climate
change." (Ethan Greenhart, sp!ked) "U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Declined 1.5
Percent in 2006" - "Total U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 7,075.6 million metric tons
carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO2e) in 2006, a decrease of 1.5 percent from the 2005 level according to Emissions
of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2006, a report released today by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Since 1990, U.S. GHG emissions have grown at an average annual rate of 0.9 percent. The 2006 emissions decrease is
only the third decline in annual emissions since 1990. "Energy Efficiency Fails
to Cut Consumption - Study" - "TORONTO - American consumers are driving bigger gas-guzzling cars
and buying more air conditioners and refrigerators as the overall energy efficiency of such products improves, a
report released on Tuesday found. "Clear Thinking
Endangered" - "A political appointee had the brass to question recommendations made on protected
species habitats and gets the business from a Democratic congressman and the eco-left. How much room does a toad
need anyway?" (IBD) "The
good-bad salt debate gets a hearing at the FDA" - "The FDA is convening a public hearing
tomorrow to decide if salt should be regulated as a potentially dangerous food additive and whether to revoke
salt’s status as “generally recognized as safe.” Is this a sign that we should be concerned? Is this hearing
in response to troubling new science showing that the population is at risk from salt, necessitating government
intervention? Has evidence come out showing that salt reductions would benefit everyone? "Poison or Medicine—Toxin or
Drug?" - “Poison surrounds us. It’s not just too much of a bad thing like arsenic that can cause
trouble, it’s too much of nearly anything. Too much vitamin A, hypervitaminosis A, can cause liver damage. Too
much vitamin D can damage the kidneys. Too much water can result in hyponatremia, a dilution of the blood’s salt
content, which disrupts brain, heart, and muscle function,” reports Cathy Newman. (1) "Obesity Rates Are Leveling Off"
- "Obesity rates in American women have stayed steady since 1999, and there are hints that obesity rates may
be leveling off for men, too." (Gina Kolata, New York Times) "Role
models of positive body images for young women?" - "Two articles this week have alerted readers
to risks associated with pro-anorexia websites. One investigative report by People UK revealed to parents the
alarming extremes of starvation encouraged by troubled young women on these unmoderated sites, the
“thinspiration” photos they post of themselves and celebrities they are emulating, and life-threatening weight
loss ideas they share. Included in the undercover dossier was one girl who slashed her wrists on a livejournal
pro-ana chatroom and no one tried to get help for her as she bled to unconsciousness. People UK contacted
livejournal.com and gave them detailed documentation of what was going on and urging them to discontinue the
pro-anorexia forums. There was no response. The livejournal mission statement, according to the report, says it
believes “in letting users create their own content with complete freedom of expression.” This is not to
advocate to censorship, but to serve as an added warning to family and young people about things on the internet
that can be harmful. "Drop Down and Give Me a
Handstand" - "Health clubs are playing to worries about childhood obesity while tapping into yet
another source of revenue, which explains the rise of group exercise at gyms for children 5 and under." (New
York Times) "Report Links Increased Cancer Risk to CT
Scans" - "In a few decades, as many as 2 percent of all cancers in the United States may be due
to radiation from CT scans given now." (New York Times) November 28, 2007
"The Lowdown on Doomsday: Why
the public shrugs at global warming." - "The secretary-general of the United Nations, upon
issuing yet another global-warming report a couple of weeks ago, announced that "we are on the verge of a
catastrophe." Kevin Rudd, Australia's just-elected prime minister, has said that fighting global warming will
be his "number one" priority. And Al Gore, propelled by his Nobel Prize, still travels the world to warn
of doom. His latest stop was the Caribbean, where earlier this month he told a gathering of the region's
environmental officials that rising seas, the result of melting polar icecaps, would threaten their island
paradise. The
Nuclear And GM Litmus Tests - Although ‘The Great Global Warming Myth’ is, in the long-run,
potentially dangerous both politically and economically, in the short-term it can be used politically to achieve
certain beneficial developments. The three most important of these in the UK are undoubtedly a new generation of
nuclear power stations; the acceptance of GM technology; and, a degree of energy efficiency. Civil Society Report Rejects “Kyoto 2”; says
climate policy should focus on removing barriers to adaptation - A new Report* produced by a coalition of
over 40 prominent civil society organisations from 33 countries says that governments should reject calls for a
post-Kyoto treaty (“Kyoto 2”) with binding limits on carbon emissions. The report says a better strategy would
be to focus on removing barriers to adaptation, such as subsidies, taxes and regulations that hinder technological
innovation and economic growth. "Good
News! Pielke is blogging again!" - "Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. has started up his Climate
Science blog again, sans comments, as an informational source only. This is some very good news. See his post
below. "U.S. Key to Balanced Carbon Budget, UN
Says" - "UNITED NATIONS - Calls for profound change in the environmental behaviour of the United
States are on the rise as world leaders prepare to attend a major summit on climate change in Bali, Indonesia next
month." (IPS) To a limited extent that's true, although not for any reason these guys are concerned
with. The biosphere is currently running in carbon deficit, the result of many millennia's biological
sequestration depleting atmospheric carbon dioxide far below most plants' photosynthetic optimum. The US, as one
of the major industrial economies, is definitely helping restore some of that previously inaccessible carbon to
the biosphere, something for which we should all be grateful. Oh dear... "Climate
expert Running offers dim forecast in UM talk" - "The list of good things caused by global
warming is pretty short. Assume, for a moment, that the supposition increases in the atmospheric trace gas
carbon dioxide will lead to measurable global mean temperature increase is true, does that guarantee bad things
will happen? Only if you believe what is good for humans and life in general is necessarily bad. Look at your
history, great civilizations rose in warm periods and declined with temperature. When giants trod the Earth it
is believed to have been about 10 kelvins warmer than contemporary measures with the tropics reaching to mid
latitudes and the temperate zones reaching the poles -- and the biosphere was booming. That was under
conditions that would require almost twice the IPCC's most hysterical "storyline" warming. Cooling,
however, is not such a pretty picture. Really? "Trees
giving bizarre clues to climate change" - "CARSON, Skamania County — Suspended 20 stories in
the air, Ken Bible looks down on the crown of a 500-year-old Douglas fir and ponders a mystery. Not that there's any real reason to associate this higher productivity with
"climate change" but would it be a problem if the forests are more productive? "Batten down the hatches – Climate
fear-mongering to get worse" - "The Commonwealth conference just completed in Uganda provides a
preview of the rhetoric we can expect from delegates at next week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference on
the island of Bali, Indonesia. "Average Atlantic hurricane season
draws to an end" - "Residents of hurricane-prone areas heaved a sigh of relief as this year's
Atlantic tropical storm season drew to an end, while experts wondered why forecasts for above-average activity
have been so wrong. "Scafetta &
West: Climate phenomenology" - "In this weekly dose of the peer-reviewed skeptical literature
about the climate, we look into Journal of Geophysical Research:" (The Reference Frame) "Arctic
Tundra Shrub Invasion And Soot Deposition: Consequences For Spring Snowmelt And Near-surface Air
Temperatures" - "This paper has already been discussed on Watts Up With That but I want to
further emphasize that this research demonstrates not only the role of shrubs on spring snow melt in the Arctic,
but also the significant role of black carbon deposition. This issue was identified in the 2005 National Research
Council report as being a major climate forcing, but its importance was not adequately discussed in the 2007 IPCC
report. As a result, policymakers are attributing a larger fraction of recent near-surface arctic warming to the
radiative effect of added CO2, rather than from soot." (Climate Science) "ABC: Global warming puts fish stocks at risk"
- "While trawling for high-resolution ocean sediment cores, I noticed an interesting core offshore Morocco,
reported by McGregor et al (Science 2007) earlier this year. This study was released just prior to IPCC complete
with press release. Can’t we all think back to a quieter time when a scientist having labored to produce a
detailed analysis of ocean sediments or tree cores would merely publish his study in an academic journal? When I
first became familiar with the climate field, I was astonished at the idea of scientists issuing press releases
that would make mining promoters cringe. This study is an interesting example of the counterplay between the fine
print of the academic article and the promotion in the newspaper." (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit) "World Must Fix Climate in
Less Than 10 Years - UNDP" - "BRASILIA - Unless the international community agrees to cut carbon
emissions by half over the next generation, climate change is likely to cause large-scale human and economic
setbacks and irreversible ecological catastrophes, a United Nations report says on Tuesday." (Reuters) "Crops hit,
more water shortages, higher sea levels, bigger disease risk" - "Saving the world's poorest
people from the effects of runaway climate change will require the west to cut carbon emissions by
four-fifths." (The Guardian) Oh... "Today, the
Poor - Tomorrow, the Next Generation" - "GENEVA - Although climate change threatens the
international community as a whole, the heaviest human costs are borne by the poor, who have contributed least to
the problem, according to the United Nations." (IPS) "Andrew Bolt: Cool it!
You can give birth" - "GOOD news! Kevin Rudd will next month stop global warming, so you won't
have to cull your children, too." (Herald Sun) Just gets worse and worse: "A
change in climate for developers" - "GOVERNMENTS will be forced to consider how climate change
and rising sea levels will affect all future urban developments after a ruling in the Land and Environment Court
yesterday. but: "Global warming
sends salamanders packing" - "A genetic study of the salamander family that encompasses
two-thirds of the world's salamander species shows that periods of global warming helped the amphibians diversify
and expand their range from North America into Europe and Asia, where pockets of them are still found today."
(UC Berkeley) "Need
a legacy? Al's got a hot one" - "All the wiseheads keep telling us that Climate is headed south,
but Weather keeps getting in the way. "Global Warming Shakedown
Begins" - "Al Gore was smiling like the proverbial cat that ate the canary following his
45-minute talk Monday with President Bush. Does he know something about U.S. global warming policy we don't?"
(IBD) "Climate change: the (Groucho)
Marxist approach" - "Why should I do anything for posterity? What has posterity ever done for
me? The only thing we need to hand off to future generations is the strongest possible
economy so they can then do any they require. "CEOs call for climate action" -
"Canada is suffering from "policy chaos" on the issue of climate change and desperately needs a
national action plan that pulls together the common interests of consumers, industry and all levels of government,
according to a group representing the country's highest-profile chief executives." (Toronto Star) Partly right. What everyone needs is a strong and honest leader to admit gorebull
warming is a complete fabrication and that we need to stop all associated policy, dismantle the massive
misanthropic industry constructed on a flimsy scare and really get down to addressing genuine problems. Any
takers? The world could benefit from many more such "failures": "Harper
fails on world stage" - "Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems quite pleased with himself after
almost single-handedly leading the drive to water down a proposed action plan by Commonwealth countries to
seriously tackle global warming. Instead of an aggressive statement by the 52-member organization at its meeting
in Uganda that would have called for binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions on major developed countries,
the group issued a tepid communiqué that simply urged all nations to work toward undefined goals of reducing such
emissions. Well done, Stephen Harper! "Lieberman-Warner
Climate Bill 'Running into Resistance'" - "The Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade
bill continues to meet growing opposition. In a November 19 article, Bloomberg News called efforts to promote the
bill a "vain pursuit," and weighed in with a breakdown of the growing "resistance" the bill
faces. (EPW) "How
not to measure temperature, part 38" - "In our last episode, we looked at a COOP station on a
roof of a fire station operated by the NWS in San Diego. Moving north, we have another COOP station operated by
the San Francisco/Monterey Weather Service office that is also on a rooftop. You can see the MMTS sensor in the
photo provided. GUFFAW! "Australia
Unlikely to Sign Kyoto by Bali: Analysts" - "CANBERRA - Australia's new government is unlikely
to sign the Kyoto pact in time for a UN climate summit in Bali, but will be welcomed next week as part of the
Kyoto family, environment and legal experts said on Tuesday. Australia is already a Kyoto signatory nation, it simply has not ratified said Protocol.
Under Commonwealth
Power to Make and Implement Treaties, "Urgent Treaties" (15.11-15.14) Rudd could present an
instrument of ratification (assuming he can make the subsequent case for urgency, some chance) but then faces
the impossible task of having the Senate approve that ratification within 15 days even though the incoming Kyoto-friendly
senators do not take their seats until the middle of 2008. This would leave Kevni in the unenviable position of
being Australia's first Prime Minister ever to have to withdraw from a treaty he had no authority to attempt to
ratify in the first place. All this "I'll immediately sign Kyoto" has always been empty
rhetoric, which an unfortunate number of frightened and gullible Australian voters swallowed, hook, line and
sinker. Gosh, what could be their motivation? "Arizona
university presidents: Global warming real" - "The presidents of Arizona's three state
universities told an audience of 200 academic, business, media and public officials Monday that not only is global
warming real, but it must be addressed beyond the laboratory. "UN
Coming After Your Wallet to Solve Global Warming" - "As NewsBusters has been reporting for many
months, one of the key elements to the advancement of global warming hysteria is money, in particular, taking it
from those that have to give to those that don't. "UN attacks British
blueprint to tackle climate change" - "Global temperatures would rise by up to 5C and dangerous
climate change would be inevitable if other developed countries followed Britain's flawed blueprint for reducing
its carbon footprint, the United Nations warned yesterday in its annual flagship report on global development. "EU president
backs Brown over CO2 target" - "Portugal, the current EU president, is urging Europe to adopt
the ultra-ambitious targets of Gordon Brown for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to lead the world in
developing clean, low-cost energy." (The Guardian) "Sarkozy Urges China to
Act on Climate Change" - "BEIJING - French President Nicolas Sarkozy challenged China on Tuesday
to play its part in averting climate catastrophe, winding up a state visit in which he repeatedly urged Beijing to
shoulder its responsibilities as a global power." (Reuters) "Rich Nations Should Do
More on Climate Change - China" - "BEIJING - Rich countries responsible for most of the world's
greenhouse gas emissions should take the lead on climate change, a commentary in China's state media said on
Tuesday, a week before the opening of global talks on the issue." (Reuters) "India
slams new UN recommendation on carbon cuts" - "NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday slammed a
recommendation in a new report from the UN Development Programme that urges developing countries to cut carbon
emissions by 20 per cent over three decades starting in 2020. "Report
sets out blueprint for 80% home carbon cuts" - "A new report today sets out how Britain's
household carbon emissions could be slashed by 80% by 2050, but says these cuts can only be achieved with a huge
increase in political commitment and financial support from the government." (The Guardian) And the gummint gets its money from... ? "The Carbon Tax Poverty
Effect" - "Imagine carbon taxes so high that people can't afford to heat their homes in the
winter. "UK companies need
to 'take the challenge of climate change seriously'" - "Business must take the challenge of
climate change seriously if the battle is to be won, environment secretary Hilary Benn told the CBI annual
conference today." (The Guardian) "EU Says Must Do More to
Meet Kyoto Targets" - "BRUSSELS - European Union nations must step up efforts to cut greenhouse
gas emissions if the bloc is to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets on fighting climate change, the EU executive said
on Tuesday." (Reuters) D'oh! "EU
industry warns about carbon trading and renewables" - "The industry lobby group BusinessEurope
has warned that the EU must focus more on energy efficiency, rather than renewable energies and emissions trading,
if it wants to prevent energy-intensive industries such as chemicals and steel-making from taking their operations
elsewhere." (EurActiv) "Voluntary
carbon projects lose credits under Kyoto" - "Enthusiasm for carbon credits reached such a fever
pitch when Meridian Energy listed wind farm credits on Trade Me earlier this year that one 1000-unit parcel sold
for the dizzying sum of $19,262. "World to Seek Broader
Climate Deal by 2009" - "OSLO - The world is to start a 2-year drive next month to bind
outsiders led by the United States and China into a UN-led fight against climate change with the United Nations
rating failure to act "almost inconceivable". (Reuters) Because you asked us to run it again: "EU
trading scheme slammed for 'double counting' carbon credits" - "New report accuses EU's
emissions trading scheme of lack of transparency over practice that allows different firms to reuse the same
carbon allowances" (James Murray, BusinessGreen) | EU Claims
Perfect Accounting (Whatever Its Auditors Might Say) (Chris Horner, CEI) From CO2 Science
this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week Subject Index Summary Plant Growth Data Journal Reviews Late Holocene Climatic
History: Southeastern Shelf of the Laptev Sea: How does it jibe with what James Hansen and others claim about
the relative uniqueness of earth's current mean global temperature? Response of a C3 Forb to
Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Nocturnal Air Temperature: Is the response what might have been expected? Elevated CO2 and Transgenic
Cotton: A Double Whammy for Cotton Bollworms: And what's bad for bollworms is fantastic for farmers. Down Regulation of White
Birch Photosynthesis vs. Soil Nitrogen Content: How serious a problem is the phenomenon? Temperature
Record of the Week "BRAZIL: Auction of Oil Blocks in the
Crossfire" - "RIO DE JANEIRO - Foreign and national companies bid Tuesday for oil exploration
rights in Brazil in an auction opposed by social movements, which are demanding the reinstatement of the state-run
Petrobras’s monopoly over the country’s oil and natural gas reserves." (IPS) "Germany to Speed Up Cuts
in Solar Power Support" - "BERLIN - The German government plans to speed up its planned cuts in
support for rooftop photovoltaic energy from 2009 and again from 2011, but will also substantially increase
overall support for renewable energy." (Reuters) "Palm Oil Not Green For Asia - UN Report"
- "BANGKOK - European Union (EU) demand for supposedly green-friendly fuels, such as palm oil, is coming at a
high social and environmental cost in Asia, warns a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP)." (IPS) "Britain's Nuclear Sites
Safe From Rising Sea - Study" - "LONDON - All of Britain's existing nuclear power plants could
be shielded from the worst expected effects of climate change for the next 100 years using technology available
now, according to research published on Tuesday." (Reuters) "Nuclear
Desalination: Could Nuclear Power Be The Answer To Fresh Water?" - "New solutions to the ancient
problem of maintaining a fresh water supply is discussed in a special issue of the Inderscience publication
International Journal of Nuclear Desalination. With predictions that more than 3.5 billion people will live in
areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025, the challenge is to find an environmentally benign way to
remove salt from seawater. Stupid... "Two
newts given £140,000 new home" - "A house builder spent £140,000 on a special new habitat for
newts - then discovered there were only two on site. ... meanwhile, in the land of socialized medicine, people pull out their own teeth for
want of access to a dentist. "Drive to Increase DDT
Use in Malaria War Has Stalled" - "It is one drug that has raised hue and cry just as much as it
has saved lives. DDT, which is the short form of Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane has been used continually in
public health programmes over the past 60 years. It has saved millions of lives from diseases such as malaria,
typhus and yellow fever. Despite a public backlash in the 1960s, mainstream scientific and public health
communities continued to recognise its utility and safety. "Chuck
out these green myths" - "Recycling isn't anything like as eco-friendly as its propagandists
would have us believe." (Ross Clark, London Times) "Even gold can be
tarnished" - "A riveting pharmaceutical clinical trial melodrama has been playing this past
week. It’s a story filled with conspiracy theories of cover-ups and secret manipulations of clinical trial data
and clinical trial design that’s leaving cardiologists and medical ethicists rankled. Most consumers are unaware
of these debates, however, as there’s not been a peep on network news or in our local newspapers. But this
incredible tale gives us a glimpse as to why even published clinical trials, the gold standard of research,
deserve close scrutiny." (Junkfood Science) "Avian Flu Is
Coming: Hide the Chickens" - "It’s time to quit playing the “organic and free-range”
poultry game. Organic and free range birds carry higher bacterial risks—and now we know they could spread a
deadly human flu pandemic." (CGFI) "New research to decode the genetic secrets of
prolific potato pest" - "The full weight of a consortium of world-leading scientists –
including those who helped decode the entire human genome – is being thrown at a parasitic worm less than 1mm
long." (University of Leeds) "GM food safer than normal food,
government adviser says" - "Genetically modified foods are likely to be safer to eat than
conventionally produced crops, the government's outgoing chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, said today. November 27, 2007
Emotional... and wrong: "Briegleb:
Global-warming evidence supports CO2 theory" - "This is in response to Don Lloyd's essay titled
"The economic side of climate-change initiative," published on Nov. 11. Lloyd states that any actions
taken to "prevent global warming" are a "real threat to the American economy." To support his
arguments against any actions to halt global warming, he called into question the science of climate and climate
change. (Daily Camera) Um... no. Carefully ignored in all the claims of evidentiary support are a couple of
crucial elements: There is nothing unusual or unreasonable in these expectations. Unless you add energy
to a system then the net sum must remain the same, so warming down low should lead to cooling up high. Secondly,
greenhouse is a lossy system since greenhouse molecules radiate to all points rather than "targeting"
Earth, which means you need more radiators in the mid-troposphere for a given surface feedback to allow for this
loss by radiation away from Earth. The absence of either of these "tells" is sufficient to
invalidate the hypothesis of enhanced greenhouse as a major driver of global mean temperature and subsequently,
climate. Taken together they tell us enhanced greenhouse is a very minor player on the climate stage. The use of emotional appeal such as: If Lloyd's claims, supported by many references in the above Web site and by many
global-warming skeptics, are true, then we know next to nothing about climate and what causes its past and
recent changes. Further, the long painstaking effort by many great scientists for nearly two centuries to find
out the causes of climate and climate change has been worthless. is clearly invalid. While it is definitely true that many great scientists have devoted
long, painstaking effort in the last few centuries to begin to unravel the complexities of climate, the mere
fact of recognizing the invalidity of enhanced greenhouse hysteria most assuredly does not devalue or
diminish the work of said great scientists. Moreover, it is clear that we do know next to nothing about this
globe's complex climate system and metaphorically sticking our fingers in our ears and shouting "La, la,
la, we know everything and we won't hear questions" is hardly the way to address that lack, is it. For "an associate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
with more than 30 years experience in climate modeling" Briegleb displays a worrying lack of curiosity
and truly appalling hubris. Green Fool-Aid T-Shirts Now Available at the JunkScience.com and DemandDebate.com Stores! Correspondence: DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN - International Herald Tribune 22
November: The Chinese Foreign Ministry representative Song Dong is singing the same song we heard about CFCs.
China (and India) said you have received the benefits of CFCs with a 30% reduction in food loss through
refrigeration. Now you are telling us that this chemical is destroying the ozone and we should therefore forego
the benefits you have already obtained. The proposal was the West reduce their CFCs and allow China and developing
nations to increase theirs. We said no. They said fine, then we won't sign the Montreal Protocol. "2007 WILL NOT Rank as Warmest Year for the Northern Hemisphere" - "A USATODAY story today claimed that the temperatures for 2007 for the Northern Hemisphere may be the warmest on record. Satellite and hemispheric station and ocean data from the Hadley center updated through October 2007 say that has not been the case, and given the very cold weather in the cards for at least the first half of December (despite the warm NOAA December forecast), that will not change before the New Year. You can see that clearly by looking at the plotted monthly satellite lower tropospheric and UK Hadley Center Northern Hemispheric anomalies." (Icecap) "Chris
de Freitas: Don't blame me for the heat" - "Greenpeace spokeswoman Susannah Bailey's attack on
branches of the New Zealand business sector, which she accuses of continuing to plead grey on global warming,
misses the key point. "NRSP launches ‘Unreliable Sources’ initiative: CBC climate science coverage first under the microscope" - "Ottawa , Canada , November 26, 2007 – The Natural Resources Stewardship Project (NRSP) announces the launch of its ‘Unreliable Sources’ initiative to help counter the steady stream of climate science misinformation emanating from mass media, politicians, lobby groups and industry." (Press Release) "Climate, Coal, and Crematoria"
- "For two decades, scientists and environmental campaigners have been on an ongoing quest for imagery and
analogies sufficiently jarring to focus public attention on global warming and motivate a climate-friendly change
in how we get and use energy. "A Summary of My Position on AGW" - "In response to the many comments I have received recently questioning my position on global warming, I’d like to offer this summary." (Craig James, WOOD TV) ‘Global Warming’ Less Than Nothing - Even among Democratic voters, ‘global warming’ is less than nothing politically. I thought you all might delight in seeing the revealing results of this ‘Washington Post-ABC News Poll’ (Question 9), which was conducted by telephone between November 14-18, 2007, among a random sample of 500 Iowans likely to vote in the Democratic caucuses (the results have a four percentage point margin of sampling error, and the percentages are rounded, thus giving slightly higher than 100%). (Global Warming Politics) "Harper defiant on climate change" - "PM insists all nations, not just developed ones, must work together to reduce gas emissions." (Toronto Star) "Can You Trust the World's Thermometer?" - "Greenwire reports today, “As global monitoring expands, questions about U.S. satellites linger” (password required). Yes. Of course. Questions will continue to linger about these temperature measurements unless and until they conform to the idea that appreciable warming is taking place, which they continue to refuse to do, notwithstanding claims that by narrowing the disagreement between surface and atmospheric readings the disagreement thereby no longer exists. It does (see, e.g., Christy, J.R. and R.W. Spencer, 2005: Correcting temperature data sets. Science, 310, 972)." (Chris Horner, CEI) "How
not to measure temperature, part 37" - "The National Weather Service office in San Diego, CA
operates a cooperative observer network of weather stations, as do all NWS offices. The station in Coronado, CA,
is particularly interesting since it is located on the roof of the Fire Station there. More Play Station® climatology: "Accuracy of past hurricane counts good" - "Counting tropical storms that occurred before the advent of aircraft and satellites relies on ships logs and hurricane landfalls, making many believe that the numbers of historic tropical storms in the Atlantic are seriously undercounted. However, a statistical model based on the climate factors that influence Atlantic tropical storm activity shows that the estimates currently used are only slightly below modeled numbers and indicate that the numbers of tropical storms in the recent past are increasing, according to researchers." (Penn State) "Ozone key to link between heat and increased cardiovascular death risk" - "Ozone may prove the key to the link between high temperature and the increased risk of death from heart disease or stroke, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine." (BMJ) "The heat was on" -
"Re-reading the article I wrote for the November/ December 1988 issue of World Watch was startling- and
discouraging.
Recycled BS: "Polar bear population on thin ice" - "Climate change blamed for decline of carnivores in some of their habitats." (Toronto Star)
"Environmental exodus" - "Climate change is the largest environmental change expected this century. It is likely to intensify droughts, storms and floods, which will undoubtedly lead to environmental migrations and potential conflicts in the areas migrated to." (Springer) Oh boy... "London
Organisers Promise Low-Carbon Flame" - "LONDON - The flame burning over the 2012 London Olympic
Stadium will use a low-carbon fuel, organisers said on Monday. Indoctrination works... kind of: "FTSE
500 Back Carbon Cuts, Unclear on Nuclear - Poll" - "LONDON - Almost all big British businesses
think cutting their carbon emissions is important and that switching to cleaner energy is a good way to do it, a
survey showed. "EU Firms Oppose Auctioning in Carbon Scheme Review" - "BRUSSELS - The European Union's main business lobby, BusinessEurope, urged EU regulators on Monday not to change the bloc's emissions trading scheme to require that companies buy carbon permits upfront rather than get them for free." (Reuters) Don’t
Ask Me About My Business - “I first heard about carbon trading at a conference more than 10 years
ago. I got up and said ‘If I was the financial adviser to the Mafia, I would advise them to get into carbon
trading.’ Nothing that has happened since then changes my opinion - rather the reverse..." "Planting carbon deep in the earth -- rather than the greenhouse" - "Storing carbon dioxide deep below the earth’s surface could be a safe, long-term solution to one of the planet’s major contributors to climate change." (University of Leeds)
"Dunes, climate models don't match up with paleomagnetic records" - "For a quarter-century or more, the prevailing view among geoscientists has been that the portion of the ancient supercontinent of Pangea that is now the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah shifted more than 1,300 miles north during a 100-million year span that ended about 200 million years ago in the early Jurassic Period, when Pangea began to break up." (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)
"New oil refineries
needed" - "Holiday travel season is now upon us, and as if just on cue, gas prices spike and hit
the headlines. Consumers complain about the prices at the pump, while politicians complain about the increasing
U.S. dependence on foreign sources of oil. "Brown:
Britain's prosperity depends on airport expansion" - "Gordon Brown today gave his unequivocal
support for a third runway at Heathrow in an address to a conference of business leaders. "Gordon Brown backs nuclear power stations" - "The Prime Minister has signalled his backing for new nuclear power stations in the face of continued opposition from campaign groups." (London Telegraph) "Families face energy bill rise in climate fight" - "Every household in Britain will have to pay at least £100 a year more for energy within the next two decades if the Government is to meet its failed promises to tackle climate change, a Confederation of British Industry task force warns today." (London Telegraph) "Biofuel and
diet sow seeds of farm crunch" - "Malthus may have been right after all, though two centuries
early and a crank. Mankind is outrunning its food supplies. Hunger - if not yet famine - is a looming danger for a
long list of countries that are both poor and heavily reliant on farm imports, according to the Food Outlook of
the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
"Scientists tout success with drought-resistant plants: study" - "With arid zones expanding worldwide, scientists have created transgenic plants able to survive extreme drought and thrive on far less water in an encouraging potential boon to food production, new research shows Monday." (AFP) "The Environmental Safety and Benefits of Growth Enhancing Pharmaceutical Technologies in Beef Production" - "Growth promoting hormones are a key component of North American beef production. Their use over the past 50+ years (since 1956) has proven beneficial not only to beef producers, but to consumers and the environment, who benefit from lower costs and more efficient use of scarce natural resources. In short, they allow us to achieve the old Yankee maxim of producing more from less." (Alex Avery And Dennis Avery, Hudson Institute Center For Global Food Issues) "Green Group Wary of Plans for 'Eco-Friendly' Palm" - "KUALA LUMPUR - An environmental group has threatened to withdraw its support for a plan to certify "eco-friendly" palm oil, accusing the world's two biggest producers of cynically exploiting the initiative." (Reuters) "Scientists Mystified by Jellyfish Attacks on Fish Farm" - "A mass of poisonous jellyfish devastated stocks of organic farmed salmon off the coast of Northern Ireland -- not once, but twice. Is it a sign of global warming, overfishing or just the natural motion of tides?" (Der Spiegel) Making forests less flammable? "The proof is in the tree bark" - "A study by Indiana University researchers found the chlorinated flame retardant Dechlorane Plus in the bark of trees across the northeastern US, with by far the highest concentrations measured near the Niagara Falls, N.Y., factory where this chemical is produced." (Indiana University) "Too little milk, exercise hurts kids' bones" - "WASHINGTON: Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It's an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it's leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century." (AP) "Low cholesterol levels and premature babies" - "Amidst all the media attention on keeping our cholesterol levels low and the promotions for widespread use of statins — leading many to believe they’re as safe as aspirin — we seldom hear about studies suggesting risks associated with low cholesterol. A study published last month in the journal Pediatrics highlighted a special concern for girls and women of childbearing age and for the health of newborn babies." (Junkfood Science) "France, Germany Seek to Break Deadlock on GMO Foods" - "BRUSSELS - Agricultural powerhouses France and Germany sought on Monday to break the deadlock that has kept genetically modified crops out of most of Europe, saying rules must be changed to ease their approval." (Reuters) "Round 2 for Biotech Beets" - "Sensing that concerns over genetically engineered foods are subsiding, beet producers have cleared their growers to start planting biotech beets next spring." (New York Times) "NSW, Vic lift GM bans in landmark
moves" - "The Victorian and New South Wales governments have become the first in Australia to
allow farmers to grow genetically-modified (GM) food crops. November 26, 2007 Book review: Our Gadarene
generation - Scared to Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North, Continuum UK, 2007, ISBN 0 8264 8614
2. "Is Atomic Radiation as Dangerous as We Thought?" - "A mounting number of studies are coming to some surprising conclusions about the dangers of nuclear radiation. It might not be as deadly as is widely believed." (Der Spiegel) "How Brussels Regulates our Daily Lives" - "The European Commission in Brussels wants to protect European citizens even more effectively against danger and disease. Soon there will be a well-intended -- but mostly completely unnecessary -- regulation for every aspect of life." (Der Spiegel) "WHO: Poor hygiene costs hundreds of thousands of lives" - "SEOUL - A senior UN health official said Thursday that better sanitation and hygiene could save hundreds of thousands of children's lives a year at a cost equal to what Europe spends annually on ice cream." (Agence France Presse) Observing CATastrophe? - Now here is something to put worries about ‘global warming’ right back in the box. Have we, simply by observing dark energy, pushed the universe towards a speedier end? (‘Has observing the universe hastened its end?’ New Scientist, 2631, November 22; see also: ‘Mankind “shortening the universe’s life”’, The Daily Telegraph, November 21). (Global Warming Politics) Environmentally friendly bird killer: "Emory building draped in black to save birds" - "It is one of Emory University's most environmentally friendly buildings, a hallmark of the institution's efforts to "go green." To hear John Wegner describe it, it's also a slaughterhouse." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) I abhor eugenics... "Meet
the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco friendly" - "Had Toni Vernelli gone
ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to
have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers -
and a voice calling her Mummy.
"Environmentalism's Outer Limits" - "Enviro-fanatics are sterilizing themselves to reduce their "carbon footprint." We dread where their nihilistic ideology — that mankind is an evil planetary force — will lead next." (IBD) Uninformed or just anti-American? "EDITORIAL:
U.S. must lead global warming battle" - "Americans like to think of the United States as a world
leader. And, in most realms over the past century, it has been.
"How not to measure temperature, part 36" - "Surfacestations.org volunteer surveyor Russ Steele brings us this gem of a climate monitoring station from Panguitch, UT. I’ve seen stations over asphalt, such as the University of Arizona station in Tucson, but this one has a special feature; they made a concrete traffic island especially for the station so that it wouldn’t get collided with by nearby parked vehicles. How’s that for diligence?" (Watts Up With That?) "Scientists Urge US$2-3 Billion Study of Ocean Health" - "OSLO - Marine scientists called on Sunday for a US$2-3 billion study of threats such as overfishing and climate change to the oceans, saying they were as little understood as the Moon." (Reuters)
"Carbon Dioxide at Record
High, Stoking Warming - WMO" - "OSLO - Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted
by burning fossil fuels, hit a record high in the atmosphere in 2006, accelerating global warming, the World
Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday. "CLIMATE CHANGE: A Natural Hazard" - "Abstract: The impacts of weather and climate extremes (floods, storms, drought,) have historically set back development and will continue to do so into the future, especially in developing countries. It is essential to understand how future climate change will be manifest as weather and climate extremes in order to implement policies of sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that natural processes have caused the climate to change and it is unlikely that human influences will dominate the natural processes. Any suggestion that implementation of the Kyoto Protocol will avoid future infrastructure damage, environmental degradation and loss of life from weather and climate extremes is a grand delusion." (William Kininmonth, Australasian Climate Research) "Dominic Lawson: Fight climate change? Or stay competitive? I'm afraid these two aims are incompatible" - "Isn't politics wonderful? Within days of Gordon Brown's address to the conservation group WWF, in which he pledged eye-wateringly tough reductions in British emissions of Co2, the Government has announced its support for the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport. "This time he really gets it," Greenpeace's executive director had enthused after the Prime Minister's "Let's save the polar bear" speech. Yesterday, following the Transport Secretary's endorsement of BAA's expansion plans, Greenpeace was back to its default position, spitting ecological tacks." (London Independent) "Global Mitigation or Adaptation"
- "The fourth and final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was released this
week. Speaking at the launch, the Secretary General of the United Nations stated that climate change is putting
the world on the edge of a global “catastrophe”. "Paint it white" - "Amid all the talk of cutting carbon emissions, we never hear about the simple solutions that can make a vast difference to temperatures." (Björn Lomborg, The Guardian) "Global
Warming May Trigger Rise in Heart Deaths" - "WEDNESDAY, Nov. 21 -- Soaring temperatures and high
ozone levels work together to boost death risks from heart disease and stroke, researchers report. Time Magazine on Drought, 2007 Versus 1974 (News Busters) Oh... "Natural disasters have quadrupled in two decades: study" - "More than four times the number of natural disasters are occurring now than did two decades ago, British charity Oxfam said in a study Sunday that largely blamed global warming." (AFP) "Time for some real skepticism about climate change" - "In his latest piece, Webdiarist and contributing author Malcolm B Duncan presents his critical analysis of Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policy Makers released by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, and Webdiary demonstrates that it is a broad church. Now, where have I heard that expression before?" (Web Diary) "Australia to sign Kyoto...again" - "The Associated Press’s Man in Sydney, announcing John Howard’s defeat at the polls reveals a fairly typical understanding of the politics of global warming that it is fair to predict we will more of on our own shores soon, as the cries of our purportedly "rogue" global warming stance increase:
Oddly, Australia’s government admits that it already signed Kyoto, in 1998, though its Parliament has yet to ratify it, just as the U.S. Senate has yet to vote on the duly signed pact (November 12, 1998, previously posted here though something to which our own government seems disinterested in admitting further as the announcement no longer appears in any form on State's website)." (CHB) "Reality check for
climate change plans" - "CAMPAIGN Kevin07's multi-billion-dollar program on climate change and
water faces extensive modifications in the upgraded version, Kevin08, to be installed over the coming year. "Climate accord watered down" - "Canada instrumental in Commonwealth dropping reference to binding targets" (Toronto Star) "Harper dubs Kyoto accord a mistake at end of Commonwealth summit" - "KAMPALA, Uganda - Stephen Harper concluded a Commonwealth summit Sunday by bluntly describing the Kyoto accord as a mistake the world must never repeat." (CP) "Canada not isolated on climate change:
Harper" - "KAMPALA, Uganda -- A defiant Stephen Harper attacked Liberal accusations that he
embarrassed Canada on the world stage in Commonwealth climate change talks, vowing to push all countries for
binding restrictions to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "Opposition
steams at exclusion from global warming summit" - "OTTAWA -- Opposition parties are accusing the
Harper government of excluding them from participating at next month's United Nations climate change summit to
muzzle any criticism about its environmental policies. "China wants rich nations
to take lead in climate talks" - "BEIJING - China wants next month's international talks on
global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and moving more "clean"
technology to poor countries, an official said on Thursday. Green gummints can't be trusted? Imagine that... "Rich
nations fail to honour climate pledge" - "A group of rich countries including Britain has broken
a promise to pay more than a billion dollars to help the developing world cope with the effects of climate change.
The group agreed in 2001 to pay $1.2bn (£600m) to help poor and vulnerable countries predict and plan for the
effects of global warming, as well as fund flood defences, conservation and thousands of other projects. But new
figures show less than £90m of the promised money has been delivered. Britain has so far paid just £10m. "Battle of
the Nobel climate horror disaster movies" - "So here's our ethical predicament for today: Is it
wrong to be a shouting scaremonger in a crowded movie theatre full of shouting scaremongers? And, one might ask,
what happens when a scaremonger shouts fire in a theatre full of people shouting fire? "Robert
Redford Bashes Al Gore as Greedy Opportunist" - "As irrefutable evidence mounts that Nobel
Laureate Al Gore's climate alarmism is about nothing other than lining his supposedly green pockets with green
currency, manmade global warming skeptics around the world wonder when the former vice president's house of cards
will collapse. "Gore’s
Inconvenient Tax Hypocrisy" - "As NewsBusters has been reporting, Nobel Laureate Al Gore's
recent employment by a Silicon Valley venture capital firm puts him in a fabulous position to turn his estimated
$100 million net worth into billions. "Bush,
Iraq, and Global Warming at Center of Bangladesh Cyclone" - "On Monday, NewsBusters asked,
"How soon before someone in the media blames the cyclone in Bangladesh on global warming, the war in Iraq,
President Bush, or all of the above?" Oh my... Hansen: power plants = extermination camps (The Reference Frame) More lunacy: "POLAR BEARS FOR THE SOUTH POLE? Biologists Debate Relocating Imperiled Species" - "As global warming changes the face of habitats around the world, scientists are asking if humans can help save species from extinction by moving them to cooler climes. But before polar bear resettlement and tiger transports begin, is it time to take a look at easier alternatives?" (Der Spiegel) "Politicized Science and the IPCC" - "Just in time for Thanksgiving, the IPCC has delivered another warning of impending doom. This time, it has to do with the world's oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide. While I am not qualified to get into the science of this, I think it is instructive to dissect how the message is being delivered to the masses. For this, I'll use the Drudge-linked article from The Independent, a newspaper from the UK." (Bob Myer, American Thinker) "Is The United
Nations Always Right?" - "Last week, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon,
issued a new warning on global warming that began with this sentence: "We all agree. Climate change is real,
and we humans are its chief cause ... we are on the verge of a catastrophe if we do not act." "UN climate panel co-head
pessimistic about progress in Bali" - "HYDERABAD, India — The co-head of the UN climate-change
panel that shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize said Thursday he was pessimistic about progress at next month's
global environmental summit in Bali. Bali Hoo Is Calling - As you will no doubt all know by now, the U.N. Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be descending on the lovely (and normally peaceful) island of Bali from December 3-14. It is estimated that up to 15,000 (some say 20,000) delegates and camp followers will jet into the small Indonesian island. 7,000 Indonesian armed troops, complemented by UN Forces, will be on duty to protect the jet-setting hordes. (Global Warming Politics) "UN climate circus rolls in on CO2 cloud" - "IT HAS been billed as the summit that could help save the planet, but the latest United Nations climate change conference on the paradise island of Bali has itself become a major contributor to global warming." (London Times) "Global Warming Trumps Critical Issues" - "Al Gore's winning of a Nobel Peace Prize, shared with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its leadership in global-warming issues, has given new impetus to the debate." (E. Ralph Hostetter, NewsMax) "The
Big Secret: Climate Bills Result in No Meaningful Impact on Global Temperature" - "Three bills
have been introduced to Congress which have as a goal to slow the rate of global temperature rise, and in doing
so, avert some type of putative global climate catastrophe. They propose to do so by reducing U.S. emissions of
greenhouse gases. "Carbon Price Vital But Inadequate in Climate Crisis" - "LONDON - Achieving a high and stable price for carbon is vital but inadequate on its own in the bid to beat climate change, British business leaders said in a far reaching report published on Monday." (Reuters)
"Carbon Trading Open Invitation To
Fraud" - "Carbon trading is an open invitation to fraud, in the opinion of Auckland energy
consultant Bryan Leyland, who is chairman of the economic panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. D'oh! "Up to 18 million EUAs may have been double counted: report" - "As many as 18 million European CO2 allowances may have been double counted in the EU emissions trading scheme in 2005 and 2006, as identical allowances have been surrendered several times, consultancy E3 International said today." (Point Carbon) "Industry can generate carbon credits of 417 million tonnes" - "NEW DELHI: Indian industry has potential to generate carbon credits of around 417 million tonnes by 2012 when the first commitment period of Kyoto Protocol ends, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday." (Economic Times) What can you say? "Horses
pitched as alternative transport for France" - "PARIS - French towns worried about fuel prices,
pollution and striking transport workers need look no further than the horse. "EU Swerves Away From Taxing Car Pollution" - "BRUSSELS, Nov 23 - European Union governments look set to reject calls for taxing cars based on their contribution to climate change." (IPS) From the rubber room: "Green
MEP condemns Heathrow decision as 'Climate Vandalism'" - "Government in denial over climate
change!" says Caroline Lucas "IATA
slams Europe's emissions trading scheme" - "A European emissions trading scheme for airlines is
a non-starter, according to the International Air Transport Association, which threatens the scheme will be mired
in legal challenges. "Should fireplace
fires be banned?" - "Under the auspices of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District,
"public hearings" are being held to determine the fate of the family hearth. November 22, 2007 UN Climate Distractions - The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just issued the final installment of its year-long scare-the-pants-off-the public assessment of global warming. (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com) November 21, 2007
It's that time of year again (no, I mean Thanksgiving -- every day is ridiculous scare day in these bizarre times). This year I'll be taking a break from the incessant baseless cries of doom and gloom and enjoying time with family and friends -- hoping you'll do the same. Steve Milloy will still be presenting a column (the man is indefatigable!), which JunkScience Junkies will be able to find here by Friday, and the whole gang of merry debunkers will be back at work next week. Meanwhile, Happy Thanksgiving! Ed. "The Desolate Wilderness"
- "Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by
Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime
governor thereof: "Editorial:
D.C. gun ban gives the criminals the upper hand" - "WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court has
still not decided whether to hear the District’s appeal to reinstate its 31-year-old gun ban, which was
overturned by a three-judge panel in March on grounds it violated the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the ban
remains in effect until the high court acts, so D.C. residents will continue to fall victim to gun-toting
criminals who find them easy prey. "Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gun Control Case" - "WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The Supreme Court announced today that it would l decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.” (New York Times) "Fat for purpose" - "Even though they're ridiculed and discriminated against, not all overweight people want to conform to the notion that thin is beautiful." (The Guardian) "Good news on today’s childhoods" - "How often do we hear good news about our lives and health nowadays? Like, almost never! Parents are so surrounded by nonstop frightening news about their children, that they must find it hard to feel anything but worry for them." (Junkfood Science) "Economists’
weight loss plans" - "What do car mechanics and doctors have in common? They know that the very
first step in deciding the best way to fix something is to make sure from the get go that they’ve correctly
diagnosed the problem and its cause. While the steps they take in the course of their work may be similar,
professional car mechanics would never profess to have the expertise to practice medicine, and vice versa. No! "Proposal:
Suck Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air" - "Emerging technologies could pull carbon dioxide straight
from the air to potentially attack global warming directly.
"Global warming is
not about to unleash hell on us" - "Long-time British chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson,
addressing the New Zealand Business Round Table "Gore urges TV professionals to spread climate message as British dominate International Emmys" - "NEW YORK — Former Vice President Al Gore called on television executives, producers and performers to help warn viewers about global warming as he accepted a special honor Monday at the 35th International Emmy Awards." (AP) "IPCC, the UN and Alarmism" - "Some of you may have noticed over the past few days the UN’s multi-tiered alarmism road show to push the “new” scary IPCC report. This actually happens to be a summary of the three summaries released in staggered, media savvy fashion over the past ten months, the window for work to be considered having closed well over a year ago. As such, it inherently cannot contain anything new or newsworthy without running afoul of the IPCC’s claim that the underlying work and claims made in the summaries has been “peer reviewed” (now proven to be an unsupportable claim, if one that's still made today)." (Chris Horner, Cooler Heads Blog) Right... "Kyoto does work, says UN chief" - "THE head of the United Nation's climate change watchdog insists the Kyoto protocol is working, despite greenhouse gas emissions spewed out from countries including Australia hitting near record levels." (AAP) Doh! "Kyoto
targets flouted" - "GREENHOUSE gas emissions from the world's industrialised countries are again
on the rise and closing in on record levels, despite most having signed the Kyoto Protocol. "Baby, it's so cold
outside" - "GLOBAL warming alarmist Dr Graeme Pearman tells you to look out of your window for
proof that warming is wrecking our world. Place your bets for SC24 - NASA is in two minds about the next solar cycle, and so it’s time to place your bets: (Solar Physics) "Climate
Bill Proving Vain Pursuit as Lobbies Roil U.S. Congress" - "Nov. 19 -- When Senate Environment
Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, Republican Senator John Warner, the nation's largest environmental groups and
General Electric Co. join forces to push a U.S. cap on global-warming emissions, it should be an unbeatable team.
Not in the 110th Congress. "The Big Secret: Climate Bills Result in No Meaningful Impact on Global Temperature" - "Three bills have been introduced to Congress which have as a goal to slow the rate of global temperature rise, and in doing so, avert some type of putative global climate catastrophe. They propose to do so by reducing U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases." (WCR) Just gets worse: "How not to measure temperature, part 35" - "One of the emerging patterns that I see again and again as the volunteers and I survey the USHCN climate stations of record around the USA is that many of them have been relegated to back lots with an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude. At California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo, that attitude seems obvious." (Watts Up with That?) "Global warming swindle" - "What is even scarier than seeing how easily the public, the media, and the politicians have been manipulated and stampeded, is discovering how much effort has been put into silencing scientists who dare to say that the emperor has no clothes." (Thomas Sowell, Spero News) "Editorial:
Maryland’s climate of secrecy" - "Annapolis - Imagine the uproar if Maryland’s previous
governor, Republican Bob Ehrlich, signed an executive order creating a commission to develop policy
recommendations on business taxation and appointed its key members. Imagine further that Ehrlich’s commission
then brought in a secretive corporate lobbying group based in another state to manage the panel’s deliberations
and shape its policy recommendations. Finally, imagine that state officials refused to answer media questions
about the work of the lobbying group or its relationship with the Ehrlich commission. No doubt Democrats in the
legislature would be apoplectic. Everybody would wonder why the governor turned state policy over to a special
interest group that possibly stood to benefit from the result. "Waving The Flag Of Fear" - "One day after the United Nations issued a doomsday report on global warming, it admits it has grossly exaggerated the seriousness of the AIDS problem. The cycle of fear-mongering at the U.N. continues." (IBD) "UN
Cuts AIDS Estimates, Will Global Warming Projections Follow?" - "As NewsBusters readers are
aware, one of the positions of those not buying into the manmade global warming hysteria is that the United
Nations -- whose Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a large part of the alarmism -- is an organization
that has seen more than its share of malfeasance and corruption. Look out, George, you've got competition from Ban Ki Moonbat: "A
Climate Culprit In Darfur" - "Just over a week ago, leaders of the world's industrialized
nations met in Heiligendamm, Germany, for their annual summit. Our modest goal: to win a breakthrough on climate
change. And we got it -- an agreement to cut greenhouse gases by 50 percent before 2050. Especially gratifying for
me is that the methods will be negotiated via the United Nations, better ensuring that our efforts will be
mutually reinforcing.
When Junk Science collides with Deference to Authority (An Englishman's Castle) "US At Higher Risk of Hurricanes in Next 5 Yrs - RMS" - "LONDON - The United States, which has escaped hurricanes for the past two years, faces a high risk of major storms over the next five years, a respected catastrophe forecaster said on Tuesday." (Reuters) From CO2 Science
this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: Holocene Climatic Oscillations of the USA's Mid-Atlantic Region: What were they like? ... and what likely caused them? Coral Bleaching in the South China Sea: Has it historically been more common than we have supposed? Recovery of Palau's Coral Reefs After the ENSO-Induced Bleaching Event of 1998: How fast or slow has it been? Do Terrestrial Plants Emit Methane Under Normal Aerobic Conditions?: A recent study suggested they do. New evidence suggests otherwise. Temperature
Record of the Week: "Auto industry asks
court to slam brakes on state's tough emission standards" - "The legal battle over global
warming moved Monday to the Central Valley, where the auto industry tried to convince a federal judge that
California's attempt to limit car emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is beyond its authority. "Flying In The Face Of Reality" - "Today, I feel I must continue the theme of rhetoric over reality, or, more appropriately perhaps, the Johnsonian triumph of hope over experience, among the ‘global warming’ sorority" (Global Warming Politics) "We'll fight you all the way, airlines warn EU over carbon-trading plans" - "British and other European governments face a long diplomatic battle if they push ahead with plans to include airlines in a European emissions trading scheme, the global aviation body has warned." (The Guardian) "UK steelmakers lobby
for opt out on tougher emission limits" - "Britain's steelmakers are lobbying the government and
the European commission for the industry to be given special treatment within the European Union's emissions
trading scheme (ETS). "SE Asian leaders back nuclear energy" - "Southeast Asian leaders offered their backing Tuesday for the use of nuclear energy despite concerns over safety in a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions." (AFP) Gasp! "An
inconvenient, dirty truth" - "ROME — If you want to make money and don't mind spitting up
black phlegm and destroying the planet, buy coal. While the energy markets and the media are obsessed with rising
oil prices, the developing world is quietly gearing up for a coal development and consumption spree of astounding
proportions. The energy markets of tomorrow are not about oil and hydrogen and wind turbines spinning lazily on
ridges. They're about coal, which is cheap and plentiful but also the worst news for the environment that you
could imagine in the post-Al Gore world. "Near Zero Emissions Coal study launched in Beijing" - "China’s CO2 emissions from using coal are set to double by 2030, the scale of which is significant in the context of mitigating global climate change. In view of the essential role of coal in China’s energy system, it is vital to minimise emissions where coal is used." (British Geological Survey) "Autumn Rain Down 90 Percent in China Rice Belt" - "BEIJING - Large areas of south China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows, state media said on Tuesday." (Reuters) "Nuclear desalination: Could nuclear power by the answer to fresh water?" - "New solutions to the ancient problem of maintaining a fresh water supply is discussed in a special issue of the Inderscience publication International Journal of Nuclear Desalination. With predictions that more than 3.5 billion people will live in areas facing severe water shortages by the year 2025, the challenge is to find an environmentally benign way to remove salt from seawater." (Inderscience Publishers) November 20, 2007 Shriek! "Katrina rated largest U.S. ecodisaster" - "The hurricane destroyed or damaged about 320 million trees across the South." (The Christian Science Monitor)
Not pro-planet, just anti-Christian: "The grinch who stole Christmas cards" - "Primary school pupils in Wales have been banned from exchanging cards in the name of saving the planet and its ‘wretched’ Africans." (Lee Jones, sp!ked) May's misanthropy: "Top
ex-pat scientist urges population curbs" - "HALTING population growth in developing countries
should be part of a global strategy to reduce mankind's impact on the environment, according to an eminent
expatriate Australian scientist.
As clueless as ever... "The Scientists Speak" - "The world’s scientists have done their job on global warming. Now it’s time for world leaders, starting with President Bush, to do theirs." (New York Times)
"IPCC: separating fact from fright" - "Today’s alarmist claims about the planet ‘spinning into a troubling void’ are not backed up by the findings of the latest IPCC report." (Rob Lyons, sp!ked) "Climate Science Anything but 'Clear', Mr. Baird" - "UN Climate Agency’s implication that 2,500 scientist reviewers agree with its report is a deception" (NRSP) "IPCC report: The green iron triangle" - "The Greens-Government-Media Complex – the new Iron Triangle – was on full display this weekend as the U.N. tried to muster a frightening dossier of intelligence to convince the international community to fight a pre-emptive war on global warming." (Henry Payne, Planet Gore) "Brown Least Mad On Climate" - "Well, UK PM, Gordon, has at last shared with us his thoughts on climate change: ‘PM outlines climate action plan’ (BBC Online Politics News, November 19). One doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It is truly pathetic. I, for once, feel quite sorry (crocodile tears, of course) for those who genuinely fear ‘global warming’ - Brown’s words are full of waffling warmth, while the proposed action is either ludicrous or non-existent:" (Global Warming Politics) "The Bali Protocol? Warnings get more extreme before conference." - "Let's hope they come up with a more inventive name. Maybe the Economic Suicide Accord. Anyway, the big news in Anthropomorphic Global Warming is this new report from every environmentalist favorite acronym, the IPCC. This report, which is really nothing new it all, takes a more alarmist approach to the predictions. Higher seas, less ice, longer droughts, more starving, less animal species, you know, the usual but just worse. And "Only urgent, global action will do," says the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon(bat)." (The Denier's Diary)n Brown, has at last shared with us his thoughts on climate change: ‘PM outlines climate action plan’ (BBC Online Politics News, November 19). One doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It is truly pathetic. I, for once, feel quite sorry (crocodile tears, of course) for those who genuinely fear ‘global warming’ - Brown’s words are full of waffling warmth, while the proposed action is either ludicrous or non-existent:" (Global Warming Politics) Following on from yesterday's NOAA comment about their failing to update their websites we've had correspondence regarding their continued use of the flawed "hockey stick" temperature reconstruction (note the accompanying text: The idea of a global or hemispheric "Medieval Warm Period" that was warmer than today however, has turned out to be incorrect. Um, no, actually it's the hokey "hockey stick" that is incorrect, being an artifact of Mannian 'statistics' and dodgy data. Craig Loehle has just published a reconstruction restoring the Medieval Warm and suggesting our thermometric records are based in the coldest period of the last 2,000 years (relative to which we are fortunately warming -- does anyone really want to go back to the privations of the Little Ice Age?). Having diverse subsets of proxies deliver similar results suggests the reconstruction to be quite robust while the "hockey stick" version fails without the inclusion of bristlecone pine tree ring series. "How
not to measure temperature, part 34" - "I recently made a trip into Oregon to survey several
USHCN stations there, including Klamath Falls, Crater Lake, Bly, and Lakeview. I also made a stop at another
remote USHCN station in Cedarville, California. This nonsense gets far too much attention already: "Activists
struggle to get climate change on political front burner" - "WASHINGTON -- Environmental
activists are frustrated. They can't get the issue of global warming into the presidential campaign. "Global Warming, Or Global Con?" - "A U.N. that can't save the world from war, famine, disease and pestilence now releases a report saying global warming will cause all of the above — and it's your SUV that's doing it." (IBD) "Was
Gore Hired as Venture Capitalist or Venture Lobbyist?" - "As NewsBusters readers are well aware,
we have for months been chronicling Nobel Laureate Al Gore's profit motive concerning the advancement of climate
change hysteria. "Global
Warming, Inc." - "Al Gore no longer needs to make claims about creating the Internet, because
the former Vice President deserves much of the credit for creating an entire new industry -- the global warming
business. "Global
Warming Hysteria Could Make Gore Richest VP in History" - "Is the press beginning to see through
Al Gore's global warming scam? "Climate
report revives "dangerous" change dispute" - "OSLO - Governments have promised to try
to avert "dangerous" climate change expected to bring about rising seas, droughts and floods, but have
yet to agree on a common definition of where the danger starts. "BBC HARDtalk with Václav
Klaus" - "You can guess whether the BBC journalist and the Czech president agreed about every
word or not. ;-) "Changes in European Storminess?" - "One of the popular tenets of the greenhouse scare is that storms will become more fierce and more common in the future due to global warming. Whether we are looking at tropical storms (hurricanes) or extra-tropical storms, anything and everything should be blamed on the ongoing build-up of greenhouse gases. Given that the global weather system produces tropical and extra-tropical storms every single day, there is no end of fresh material needed to keep the greenhouse story alive and well. However, a recent article will soon appear in Climate Dynamics, and we suspect it will not be carried by any news service. The international team of scientists is from the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada, the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics in Austria, the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, and the Institute for Coastal Research in Germany. The Matulla et al. group begin by noting “Severe storms can do widespread damage to ecosystems, property and society. Inland areas are affected by wind-throw uprooting trees, soil erosion and damage to construction. Coastal regions are not only exposed to the wind force but to storm surges and wind waves in the wake of storms as well. Due to its impact on socioeconomic structures storm-climate naturally attracts public attention. In the North–East Atlantic and the North Sea a roughening storminess was perceived and public concern was raised in the early 1990s.” Of course, the early 1990s was also the time when the global warming scare was launched and thrown into high gear, and we suspect that Europeans made the link between global warming and their perceived increase in storminess." (WCR) "Sunbathing tree frogs' future under a cloud" - "Animal conservationists in Manchester are turning to physics to investigate whether global warming is responsible for killing sun-loving South American tree frogs." (University of Manchester)
"War
has historic links to global climate change" - "Climate change and conflict have gone
hand-in-hand for the past 500 years, a study reveals. Stop! Thief! "Oceans could slurp up carbon dioxide to fight global warming" - "Researchers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are proposing a new method for reducing global warming that involves building a series of water treatment plants that enhance the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. About 100 such plants — which essentially use the ocean as “a giant carbon dioxide collector” — could cause a 15 percent reduction in emissions over many years, they say. About 700 plants could offset all CO2 emissions. Their study is scheduled to appear in the Dec. 15 issue of ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology." (ACS)
"Iron Is a Tonic For Climate-Saving Plankton" - "MIAMI - From the deck of the research ship Weatherbird II, a California company hopes to prove a controversial theory that putting iron dust in the ocean can produce enough plankton to help save the Earth." (Reuters)
"Climate Change Bill Proceeds in Congress" - "The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held two more hearings this week on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, S. 2191. Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has announced that she wants to mark up the bill in full committee on December 5th. Greenwire’s Darren Samuelsohn reported that Boxer said she had “some terrific ideas” for improving the bill, but wasn’t sure how many she could get adopted in committee. As far as I can tell, most of her ideas would raise the targets that must be achieved by the cap-and-trade scheme that is the centerpiece of the bill." (Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Blog) "CLIMATE CHANGE-ICELAND: Emissions Quota Debate Heats Up" - "REYKJAVIK - "I am of the opinion that Iceland should not ask for a repeat of the Iceland Provision in the upcoming climate change negotiations," says Iceland's environment minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir." (IPS) Imagine that... "NZ Climate Change Policy a Headache for Cenbank" - "WELLINGTON - New Zealand policies aimed at tackling global warming from next year could become another headache for the central bank, with higher energy costs threatening to heat up inflation pressures." (Reuters) "Britain to Study Carbon Cuts as Deep as 80 Percent" - "LONDON - Britain will study whether it can commit to cutting its carbon emissions by as much as 80 percent by 2050, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday in his first major speech on the environment since taking office this year." (Reuters) "Germany at Odds With UK on Renewable Goals" - "LONDON - Germany wants European states to meet their own renewable energy targets as much as possible, rather than pay other countries to do it for them, deputy environment minister Matthias Machnig said." (Reuters) "Big energy users eager to invest in nuclear stations" - "Big British energy users, including manufacturers and transport groups, are so concerned by the threat of rising electricity prices that they are considering investing in new nuclear power stations, The Times has learnt." (London Times) "Report finds increased domestic production won't make US self-sufficient in natural gas" - "A new report by the Energy Forum at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy finds that the United States will continue to rely on imported natural gas even if areas that are currently restricted are opened up to drilling." (Rice University) "The Grayness of green marketing." - "The Evolution of Green Marketing and how "being green" means almost nothing these days." (The Denier's Diary) Oops! Again... "Nitrite/nitrate-rich food may protect the heart" - "NEW YORK - Nitrites and nitrates -- compounds that previously gave cured meats a bad rap -- may not be so bad after all, as new research suggests nitrites and nitrates may protect the heart." (Reuters Health) "A kind of magic?" - "Time after time, properly conducted scientific studies have proved that homeopathic remedies work no better than simple placebos. So why do so many sensible people swear by them? And why do homeopaths believe they are victims of a smear campaign? Ben Goldacre follows a trail of fudged statistics, bogus surveys and widespread self-deception" (Ben Goldacre, The Guardian) "How we know what will kill or cure us" - "With the upcoming conference on the use of homeopathy for HIV/AIDS just weeks away, the homeopathy debate is heating up among the medical and scientific community. As JFS readers will remember, this conference is sponsored by the Society of Homeopaths and its promotional literature claims that with homeopathy, “the AIDS epidemic can be called to a halt.” The current issue of the British medical journal, The Lancet, focuses on this issue. The discussions, however, bring into focus much larger ethical issues about public-funded healthcare." (Junkfood Science) "‘60 Minutes’: Obesity Epidemic Requires Obese Government" - "On Sunday’s CBS "60 Minutes," anchor Lesley Stahl began a segment on calorie labeling for fast food by making this alarmist proclamation: "Obesity rates continue to spiral out of control in this country and nutritionists say one main reason is how dependent we've become on eating out." Enter the big government hero:" (News Busters) "Doubled calorie intake from beverages likely contributes to adult obesity" - "It’s not just sugary sodas that are adding to the obesity crisis – it’s fruit drinks, alcohol and a combination of other high-calorie beverages, say University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health researchers. And during the holidays, when eggnog, cocktails and spiced cider are abundant, the problem can be even more apparent." (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
"Dare to be different — Costs of competitive dieting" - "Regardless of where you work or go to school, you’re more likely than ever to encounter pressures to participate in a Biggest Loser-style competition. Dieting appears to have become the latest national sport. But not only is the science behind these contests lacking, they can come with serious consequences that are not healthful, helpful or wise." (Junkfood Science) "The Environmental Safety and Benefits of Growth Enhancing Pharmaceutical Technologies in Beef Production" - "Growth promoting hormones are a key component of North American beef production. Their use over the past 50+ years (since 1956) has proven beneficial not only to beef producers, but to consumers and the environment, who benefit from lower costs and more efficient use of scarce natural resources. In short, they allow us to achieve the old Yankee maxim of producing more from less." (Alex Avery And Dennis Avery, Hudson Institute Center For Global Food Issues) November 19, 2007 Oh boy... what we are now calling the dire climate change report has been made available and is it ever dire. It is surely a much worse effort than the AR4 upon which it is allegedly based. "Hunting The Climate Change Snark" - "Our post-modern period of climate change angst can probably be traced back to the late-1960s, if not earlier. By 1973, and the ‘global cooling’ scare, it was in full swing, with predictions of the imminent collapse of the world within ten to twenty years, exacerbated by the impacts of a nuclear winter. Environmentalists were warning that, by the year 2000, the population of the US would have fallen to only 22 million [the 2007 population estimate is 302,824,000] and the average intake of the average American would be a mere 2,400 calories (would that it were!)." (Global Warming Politics) Oh... "Climate Change as Frightening as Science Fiction Movie" - "Proof of humans' impact on warming the earth's atmosphere is unequivocal, and the world faces a moral obligation to fight climate change, according to the final report by the United Nations' leading climate council." (Deutsche Welle) "Reality, Rhetoric, And Risk" - "On the very day that the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issues its latest, and 4th, Draft Report (.pdf), and Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, employs his rhetoric to pressurize states to act on climate change before the Bali talks about the UN climate convention and the Kyoto Protocol, which open on December 3, the hard reality of climate-change economics and politics strikes in the heart of London" (Global Warming Politics) Actually JunkScience staff wasted some time on the synthesis report trying to find something (anything) with evidentiary support only to give up in disgust on a speculative disaster script supported only by conjecture, anecdote and selective short-term data, extrapolated to extreme. Our first impression is that the synthesis represents the worst of AR4. Meanwhile November has seen just one brief sunspot, reminding us that lack of solar energy and decline in biological activity (think: reduced crop yield) is the omnipresent real world concern. How concerned will we be about the phantom menace when more of the world is hungry? How much habitat will we set aside from cropping to save the Slightly Rusty VeeDub Beetle or any other critter not essential to the immediate sustenance of Humanity as temperatures fall, growing seasons shorten and shortages increase? What a stupid game this all is. Meanwhile, from non-'treemometers': "A 2000-Year Global Temperature Reconstruction Based on Non-Treering Proxies" - "Historical data provide a baseline for judging how anomalous recent temperature changes are and for assessing the degree to which organisms are likely to be adversely affected by current or future warming. Climate histories are commonly reconstructed from a variety of sources, including ice cores, tree rings, and sediment. Tree-ring data, being the most abundant for recent centuries, tend to dominate reconstructions. There are reasons to believe that tree ring data may not properly capture long-term climate changes. In this study, eighteen 2000-year-long series were obtained that were not based on tree ring data. Data in each series were smoothed with a 30-year running mean. All data were then converted to anomalies by subtracting the mean of each series from that series. The overall mean series was then computed by simple averaging. The mean time series shows quite coherent structure. The mean series shows the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) quite clearly, with the MWP being approximately 0.3°C warmer than 20th century values at these eighteen sites." (Loehle, C. 2007. Energy & Environment 18(7-8): 1049-1058.) but, from fruitloop central: "Alarming UN report on climate change is too rosy, many say" - "VALENCIA, Spain: The blunt and alarming final report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released here by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, may well underplay the problem of climate change, many experts and even the report's authors admit." (IHT) "How Volcanism Affects Climate" - "Climatologists may disagree on how much the recent global warming is natural or manmade but there is general agreement that volcanism constitutes a wildcard in climate, producing significant global scale cooling for at least a few years following a major eruption. However, there are some interesting seasonal and regional variations of the effects. Robock (2003) and others have shown that major volcanic eruptions seem to have their greatest widespread cooling effect in the summer months. In the winters, the latitude location of the volcano determines whether the winters are colder or warmer over large parts of North America and Eurasia." (Joseph D’Aleo, Icecap)
Dou you suppose... "UN scientists urge carbon tax to fight global warming" - "All sources of carbon pollution - from flights to inefficient light bulbs - must become more expensive if the world is to tackle global warming, an influential panel of scientists and government officials will say today." (The Guardian)
"We behave as if there is no penalty for our luxurious consumption" - "Climate scientists are warned to avoid words like 'disaster' - they lead to apathy and fatalism" (Ian Jack, The Guardian)
"What about the
poles?" - "The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting
away," warned Doug Struck in the Washington Post. "The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50
years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low. This summer, the ice pulled back even more, by an
area nearly the size of Alaska." "Climate
scientists want war on warming" - "Climate scientists believe global warming is accelerating and
in a landmark report, out today, they lay out the case for global action to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
"US delegates say dangers of
climate change unclear" - "WASHINGTON — The United States believes there is no clear
scientific definition of the dangers of climate change although it recognizes urgent action is needed, a US
conference delegation said. "Kentucky, climate, and intimidation" - "If you want to see how intimidation by the climate change movement looks like, look at this story. There are hundreds of such stories every day but we have to pick an example. A Kentucky legislative committee had a hearing dedicated to climate change on Wednesday:" (The Reference Frame) "Do Global Warming Policies Help the Poor?"
- "Invoking the allegedly catastrophic impacts of future global warming on developing countries, Yvo de Boer,
the U.N.’s top climate official, warned that, “Failing to recognize the urgency of this message and act upon
it would be nothing less than criminally responsible.” Flimflam Man: "Q&A: ''We Need to Be Living in a De-Carbonised Economy in Four Decades'': Interview with Tim Flannery, Australian scientist" - "MELBOURNE - With the ‘Synthesis Report’ of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be released this weekend, scientist, environmental activist and 2007 ‘Australian of the Year’, Prof. Tim Flannery, warns that action must be taken to avoid the worst of global warming." (IPS) "Mike Rosen, Al Gore And
The Missing Debate On Global Warming" - "On October 19, 2007, the Rocky Mountain News ran an
op-ed piece entitled “Al Gore’s ignoble Nobel,” by Denver talkshow host Mike Rosen. Five days after that, a
rebuttal appeared. Everyone wants to get into the act... "Was
Noah’s flood a sign of climate change devastation to come?" - "Noah’s flood may have been
responsible for the birth of modern civilisation across Western Europe, according to research. Reports of death of snow skiing greatly exaggerated: "Swiss
Snow Makes 50-year Record" - "Swiss ski resorts are expecting a record season after promising
early snowfall, it has been reported.
Oh dear! From correspondence received we have a classic example of people of people not looking, or deliberately cherry picking data to "prove" global warming. Citing apparent decline in the Porcupine Caribou Herd from here we are told this shows how caribou are being decimated -- what a pity they didn't follow the provided source links where they would have found, yes, the PC herd had a poor calving season in '05 but an average one the following year and a good calving rate this year. Parenthetically, the Porcupine herd increased through the '80s, when there was less snow, and declined through the 90s, when heavy snow and short summer conditions were a problem for them. Side note to NOAA, how about updating your pages to avoid giving these false impressions? Uh-huh... the return to unprecedented conditions... "The new Arctic cold war" - "Ed Struzik, this year's Atkinson Fellow, travelled the remote region to explore how Canadians can adapt to and even exploit a precarious return to warmer times." (Toronto Star) "Green hero slammed as climate heretic" - "Prof. David Bellamy is Great Britain's best-known environmentalist, and has been for most of the last four decades." (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post) "USHCN in
the 'ass end of nowhere'” - "Aplogist Eli Rabett (Joshua Halpern) recently lamented that in order
for dendrochronologists to update tree ring studies used in MBH98/99 (aka Mann’s Hockey Stick) that they “have
to drive out to the ass end of nowhere”. It’s such an inconvenience for those that just perform data wrangling
in the office, instead of going out to get their hands dirty, that a study used as the basis for legislation
hasn’t had its data updated in almost 10 years! "ABC:
Accept Global Warming or Violate 'Moral Imperative'" - "If you don't buy into a Goresque view of
global warming, you're not just wrong -- you're immoral. That was ABC's implication this morning. "Daily Doom Doesn’t Sell" - "The Independent, the ‘compact’ UK newspaper known as the Indie (the Independent on Sunday being the Sindie), which is infamous for its doom-laden front pages on ‘global warming’ (and many other PC topics), is clearly in trouble. I have just been trawling through a few interesting reports and facts: (Global Warming Politics) But it doesn't stop them trying: "A world dying, but can we unite to save it?" - "Pollution in the seas is now speeding global warming, says a devastating new climate report. 'IoS' Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean reports from Valencia" (Sindie)
"New
green law could ration flights and raise fuel prices" - "Britons face a future of green taxes,
higher fuel prices and even flight rationing under anti-pollution laws unveiled yesterday. "BRAZIL: Awash With Oil - Good for Revenues, Bad for Climate Change?" - "RIO DE JANEIRO - The discovery of a huge oilfield 250 kilometres off the southeastern coast of Brazil will not have an immediate effect on world crude markets, but it opens up future prospects of a new oil frontier in the South Atlantic which may deter the pursuit of clean energy sources, experts say." (IPS) "Antarctica, the new hot real estate" - "There's oil and gas in the Antarctic, too, which global warming may open up. But as the U.K. and others stake claims, scientists wonder what it would cost environments there, and ultimately the planet." (Toronto Star) Waiting for the lights to go out: "Regulatory
Uncertainty Ends Plan For Fla 'Clean Coal' Plant" - "NEW YORK -- Citing uncertainty surrounding
future greenhouse gas rules in the U.S., a consortium of power companies on Wednesday canceled plans to build an
advanced coal-burning power plant near Orlando, Fla. "Judicial Overreach" - "The often-loopy 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is now giving orders to the White House. A three-judge panel ruled Thursday that federal fuel-economy standards for light trucks and SUVs must be tougher." (IBD) "Clean Coal Test Traps 95 Pct Carbon - Norway Firm" - "OSLO - Tests of a new technology for capturing greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants have achieved 95 percent cuts in a step towards new ways to fight climate change, a Norwegian company said on Friday." (Reuters) "Biofuels bonanza facing 'crash'" - "The biofuels bonanza will crash unless producers can guarantee their crops have been produced responsibly, the UN's environment agency chief has said." (BBC) "SOUTH AFRICA: DDT finds favour in fight against malaria" - "TZANEEN , 16 November 2007 - After years of resistance, people living in the rural areas of South Africa are beginning to embrace the use of DDT as an effective agent in the fight against malaria-carrying mosquitoes." (IRIN) "An Open Letter to Warren Buffett" - "Recently Warren Buffett issued a challenge to the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people to examine their conscience as to whether or not they were paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes compared with their receptionists. Mr. Buffett also said he believed that the estate tax should not be repealed." (Frank Ryan, IBD) "New Zealand bars British man's 'fat' wife" - "A British man who moved to New Zealand has been told by officials that his wife is too fat to join him." (London Telegraph) BMIs keep them apart (Junkfood Science) "One more time: fatness not linked to overall cancer risks" - "Readers may have overdosed on the fat and cancer stories over recent weeks, so we’ll make this brief. Despite attempts to make things sound confusing or complicated, and convince us that the science is contradictory concerning a link between fatness and cancers, all of the major, long-awaited papers that have been released this month have found the same thing: nothing." (Junkfood Science) "Name that Drug" - "Doctor Wes (Dr. Westby G. Fisher, MD, FACC) has posted the results of last week’s reader challenge, along with some astounding facts. It’s obvious to everyone, and frequently covered here, that medical news has become little more than paid advertising - from the program sponsors." (Junkfood Science) "Internet trolling can turn deadly" - "Many people believe that the only dangers on the internet are the predators preying on children on online communities and chatrooms, like MySpace and Livejournal. While they are most certainly a critical reason to take safeguards, the internet has other far reaching hazards." (Junkfood Science) "Local sources major cause
of US near-ground aerosol pollution" - "A new NASA study estimates that most ground-level
particulate pollution in the United States stems from regional sources in North America and only a small amount is
brought to the country from other parts of the world. "Too few women scientists achieving academic leadership positions" - "New Rochelle, November 16, 2007 – As the U.S. continues to fall behind countries such as China and India in producing high-level scientists, one immediate and obvious solution would be to take advantage of the many women who have obtained doctoral degrees in science but have been passed over in their attempts to rise to the position of tenured professor, according to a provocative editorial in the November 2007 issue (Volume 26, Number 11) of DNA and Cell Biology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The editorial is available free online." (Genetic Engineering News) "Long-term pharmacotherapy for obesity and overweight: updated meta-analysis" - "Patients taking antiobesity drugs will only see 'modest' weight loss and many will remain significantly obese or overweight, according to a study published online today." (BMJ) November 16, 2007 "Global Warming's Bottom Line" - "Sen. Hillary Clinton last week proposed to require that publicly-owned companies disclose to shareholders the financial impacts of global warming. Financial reality, however, is already overtaking the financial fantasy of climate alarmists." (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com) "Linzen Says Chill Out: Global Warming Skeptic Speaks at Colgate" - "Students and faculty crowded into the Henshaw Lecture Room in Lathrop Hall on Thursday afternoon to hear a controversial lecture by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology Richard Lindzen. Colgate Professor of Political Science, Presidential Scholar and Director of the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization Robert Kraynak, who introduced Lindzen, explained that the original title of the lecture had been "Global Warming: Science and Moral Responsibility" but that he and Lindzen had come up with a better one: "Global Warming: Who's to Blame, Human Activities or Natural Causes?" (Colgate Maroon-News) "Speaker slams global warming" - "Researcher argues warming is due to cyclical heating and cooling." (Stanford Daily) Moralistic Neo-Colonialism - Every now and again one reads something that just makes one’s blood boil. There are phrases in this comment by Willy De Backer, ‘A moral right to help kill the planet? The climate change-poverty conundrum’ (3E Intelligence, November 14), which encapsulate everything I loathe about Northern neo-colonial arrogance and ‘The Great Global Warming Scare’: (Global Warming Politics) In a nut shell rather than a nut job: "Most people don't feel that global warming will affect them - but they are wrong" - "The study found that poorer people are less concerned about climate change than wealthier people – not surprisingly, as, for them, the daily imperatives of poverty, a lack of jobs and poor service delivery leading to disgraceful living conditions dominate their lives." (TNS Research Surveys)
Peiser Versus Norgaard - So now, back to gloom and doom, but, somewhat encouragingly, to another interesting debate on the BBC Online News Website, this time with respect to climate catastrophism. (Global Warming Politics) "Understanding the climate ostrich" - "Why do people find it hard to accept the increasingly firm messages that climate change is a real and significant threat to livelihoods? Here, a sociologist unravels some of the issues that may lie behind climate scepticism." (Kari Marie Norgaard, BBC) "Existential risk and democratic peace" - "Has climate change become a stark catastrophist vision of global doom? Here, a social anthropologist argues that it is something to be managed, not scared of." (Benny Peiser, BBC) "Theory On Thin Ice" - "Global warming alarmists have made a big deal out of North Pole ice melting and polar bears suffering due to climate change. Before they mouth off again, they should look at a new NASA study." (IBD) "Getting the message, at last" - "Congress is now taking climate change fairly seriously." (The Economist)
"A climate conference" - "Czech President Václav Klaus (whose book "Blue not Green Planet" was just published in German) and Petr Mach, the boss of the libertarian CEP think tank, have organized a pretty cool climate conference in Prague, showing seven scholars who can be counted as climate skeptics." (The Reference Frame) "Climate theory like Da Vinci Code, says sceptic" - "Investing in sea and flood defences is a more sensible reaction to possible global warming than trying to cool the planet, a former British Cabinet minister told the Business Roundtable in Auckland yesterday." (New Zealand Herald) "VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Who cares about cause? Something
must be done!" - "For more than a thousand years, Christian doctrine had prescribed harsh
punishment for anyone who made a false accusation of witchcraft. Since for obvious reasons it was pretty hard to
actually prove your neighbor had made your cow go dry by hexing it with the evil eye, or that she flew around at
night on a broomstick, this kept false accusations to a minimum. "Another
College Paper Shocker: Global Warming is Killing Us…Not!" - "The more college newspapers I
look at, the more I wonder if Nobel Laureate Al Gore and his global warming sycophants in the press have
overplayed their climate alarmism. You couldn't make this stuff up: "Hurricane Katrina Boosted Greenhouse Gases - Report" - "WASHINGTON - Hurricane Katrina left a big "carbon footprint" along the US Gulf Coast, where the destruction of large trees cut into the amount of greenhouse gases the area can absorb, researchers reported on Thursday." (Reuters) "Cloudy Days on the Global Warming Front" - "Advocates of anthropogenic global warming want you to believe that the science is settled and there is nothing left to debate. But this is the opposite of the truth; in fact, climate science is in its infancy and virtually every proposition relating to it is controversial." (Power Line News) "Gore's Deceptive Rolling Stone Interview" - "In case any doubt remains as to who deserves the title of undisputed Globaloney Champion of the World, Al Gore's Rolling Stone interview should put the question to rest." (Marc Sheppard, American Thinker) "Emission impossible: Why Hollywood is one of the worst polluters" - "Hollywood is very good at sanctimonious environmental-disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow. But, says Kaleem Aftab, it is one of the worst polluters." (London Independent) No limit to human gullibility? "Students
try to make internet carbon neutral" - "Two students have launched an ambitious attempt to make
the internet carbon neutral.
"The Great Pacific Climate Shift II?" - "Back in 1977, the Pacific Ocean underwent a major transformation that was called the Great Pacific Climate Shift. Suddenly warm water replaced cold water that had dominated for most of the prior three decades near the west coast of North America and along the equatorial eastern Pacific. In 1997, researchers at the University of Washington in a paper in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society discovered a multidecadal oscillation in Pacific sea surface temperature and pressure while trying to explain decadal changes in salmon fishery production. They called it the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. They noted that major shift that had taken place in 1977 was a change in the PDO from what they termed the cold phase to the warm phase." (Joseph D’Aleo, CCM) "Science
vs. Expert Opinion: Did the Bush Administration Really Censor Science?" - "Once again, the press
is in a tizzy over the Bush Administration’s “censoring of science.” The case against the Bush
Administration this time is that it edited testimony presented to the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee (EPW) by Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The
testimony, originally 14 pages, was cut to six. "Worldwide atmospheric measurements will determine the role of atmospheric fine particles" - "The Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, Finland, will host the first annual meeting of the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions, EUCAARI, headed by Academy Professor Markku Kulmala, on 19–22 November 2007. The purpose of EUCAARI is to significantly improve current knowledge of the impact of fine particles in the atmosphere on climate and air quality. The first year of the project was dedicated to developing state-of-the-art aerosol measuring equipment, establishing a global network of measuring stations, and planning. The measuring period, beginning next spring, will collect data on European air through both ground-based and airborne measurements simultaneously." (University of Helsinki)
Audio comment: "World greenhouse gas emissions rising faster" - "WORLD greenhouse gas emissions are rising faster and impacts on oceans and the atmosphere are worse than scientists thought." (Courier-Mail) Another one: "Napolitano:
Global warming real, caused by humans" - "Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano says global warming is a
real threat being caused by "human activities" and could result in Dust Bowl-type droughts in Western
states. "Media, Global Warming and Junkscience" - "I am always amazed that in a nation of high technology and science the media are so spectacularly and relentlessly ignorant of the scientific processes. Worse many interest groups exploit this to their own advantage and agendas. Over the years the media have lost their curiosity and the willingness to do their own homework." (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter) "Dire climate warning linked to China and India" - "ROME: The average global temperature will rise to a devastating level by 2030 if China and India do not begin curbing energy use and carbon emissions immediately, officials of the International Energy Agency predicted Wednesday." (Elisabeth Rosenthal, IHT) "Report warns US emissions could soar" - "Sobering research from MIT suggests that far from tackling climate change, technological advances could result in higher greenhouse gas emissions" (BusinessGreen) "Boxer's Rejection of More Time for Climate Bill Rings False" - "WASHINGTON, DC - At today's Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, several Senators called for more time to review and analyze the economic impacts of the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the chair of EPW, rejected such calls saying no more time or analysis was needed to mark up the bill (S.2191). (EPW) "Act now on climate change, says UN official" - "The United Nations' top climate change official warned yesterday that the world was in "deep trouble" if it failed to reach agreement at next month's UN ministerial conference in Bali." (The Guardian)
"Kyoto Protocol 'Much Ado About Nothing' - Enel CEO" - "ROME - The Kyoto Protocol that obliges rich countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions is not efficient, the chief executive of Italy's biggest utility Enel said on Thursday, urging all nations to join in fighting global warming." (Reuters)
"Coffee, tea… eco-guilt?" - "Virgin Atlantic's attempt to shame its passengers into onboard eco-penance is the latest flight of fancy from a guilt-ridden aviation industry." (Nathalie Rothschild, sp!ked) <chuckle> "OPEC
told to tackle climate change" - "RIYADH: OPEC oil exporters must take climate change seriously
at their summit meeting this week, ahead of a key meeting to tackle global warming in Bali next month, a leading
UN climate change official said on Thursday. "Canada Regulator Says Oil Sands Rush May Slow" - "CALGARY, Alberta - Rising costs will temper production growth from Canada's vast oil sands, the country's national energy regulator forecast on Thursday, as it detailed its expectations for Canadian energy production over the next two decades." (Reuters) "Coal power: Still going strong" - "Efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions have yet to dent enthusiasm for coal." (The Economist) "Court Rejects Fuel Standards on Trucks" - "A federal appeals court today said that new fuel-economy standards for light trucks, including S.U.V.’s, didn’t thoroughly assess the impact of greenhouse gases." (New York Times) Text of the Decision (pdf) "German Carmakers Lag France, Italy in CO2 Cuts- Group" - "STRASBOURG, France - Average carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars made by German manufacturers rose in 2006, while French and Italian producers cut pollution from their vehicles, data showed on Thursday." (Reuters) "Greenpeace Blocks Shipment of Indonesian Palm Oil" - "JAKARTA - Greenpeace has blocked a tanker carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of palm oil from leaving an Indonesian port to protest against forest destruction blamed on plantations, the environmental group said on Thursday." (Reuters)
"China Leads Weather Control Race" - "Not content to push the edge in cloning, architecture and geological engineering, China's also leaving the rest of the world behind when it comes to controlling the weather." (Wired) Oh boy... "Ozone hole shrinking - scientists" - "THE ozone layer is on track to a full recovery, with the latest sets of satellite images showing the hole is shrinking, scientists say." (AAP)
Just burn it: "Recycling plastic is not as green as you think" - "FOR many, plastic is one of humanity's greatest sins against the environment, a wrong for which only recycling can atone. In the past five years, recycling rates have soared as greater awareness of the harm plastic causes has spread." (The Scotsman) Uh-oh! Here's another one: "Obesity
paradox seen in people with heart disease" - "NEW YORK - The "obesity paradox" -- an
unexpected decrease in illness and death with increasing body weight or BMI, which has been described in people
with heart failure and in patients having angioplasty -- exists in people with high blood pressure and diseased
heart arteries as well, new study findings show. "British parents are calling for an end to “crazy” school curriculums" - "The top private schools in Britain, driven by parents’ concerns, are fighting back and boycotting the government’s national curriculum of health and social causes, including childhood obesity, that’s taking up a quarter of school time. Instead, they’re returning to educating children the core disciplines like language, math, science and history." (Junkfood Science) "Bad bad food
education" - "Last year, to combat childhood obesity British school cafeterias revamped to
“healthy” foods and the government removed “fattening” foods. The London Times was reporting that schools
were monitoring each child’s food intake, using computers, and including dietary assessments on children’s
report cards; and mothers were finding the lunches they’d packed for their kids inspected and any offending
cookies removed. Kids responded by boycotting the school canteen and turned to food from vendors outside the
school wall. Some were joking that the only way to get kids to abide by the government’s rigid new ideas of
healthy eating would be to lock them up and force them to eat what government officials say. "Is this a “healthy” lifestyle?" - "Lifestyles Month. Among its efforts to build healthy families and teach parents about nutrition and physical activity, the PTA is distributing PTA Healthy Lifestyles: A Parent's Guide. It’s described as a parents’ manual for “doing the right things to cultivate lifelong healthy habits” in their children. See if you agree." (Junkfood Science) November 15, 2007 "Sun and global warming: A cosmic
connection?" - "In February 2007, depending on what newspaper you read, you might have seen an
article detailing a "controversial new theory" of global warming.
"Is there a
consensus among skeptics?" - "Richard Black at BBC asks the question whether the climate
skeptics have unified opinions about detailed questions about the climate. "A Scientific Basis for Doubting Man-made Global Warming" - "The scientific basis for challenging the theory of man-made global warming is large and expanding. Entire books are being written summarizing the many weaknesses. However, for an excellent 12 page summary of some of these weaknesses a recent paper by Willie Soon, Art Robinson, and Noah Robinson, (SRR) is difficult to match." (Michael R. Fox, Hawaii Reporter) Oh boy... "UN
panel in 'difficult' debate over global warming paper" - "VALENCIA, Spain — UN climate experts
wrangled here Tuesday over a landmark document on global warming amid criticism that the draft report was bland
and some of its findings out of date.
Well might he wonder: "Bloomfield
man concerned about the sun's future" - "Each morning I turn on my computer and check to see how
the sun is doing. Lately I am greeted with the message "The sun is blank - no sunspots." "Climate
panel argues over words and phrases in key draft document" - "VALENCIA, Spain: A U.N. climate
change conference argued over words and phrases Wednesday in drafting a scientific report that will guide
governments for years to come on their global warming policies. "Skeptics of global warming address legislative
committee" - "FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A state legislative committee heard from skeptics Wednesday
seeking to debunk the notion that global warming is a looming threat to the planet. "Climate
change to take just years" - "AUSTRALIANS will begin to see the stark effects of climate change
within the next few years, not the next decades, a leading Australian scientist has warned.
"RESORT OWNERS AFFECTED"
- “How Do You Ski if There Is No Snow?” asks the New York Times, warning that “resort owners and tour
operators will be directly and strongly affected by climate change.” The question turns out to be largely
hypothetical: "Flocks of 'lost' auks spark
climate change fears" - "Record-breaking sightings of vast flocks of little auks in Britain have
prompted new concerns over the impact of climate change on the migration patterns of bird species. Sigh... "Greenhouse gases: we are among worst polluters" - "AUSTRALIA'S contribution to global warming may be much greater than first thought. New research shows our power stations are the world's highest per capita producers of carbon dioxide." (Sydney Morning Herald)
"EU
Commissioner speaks out on 'investment in knowledge'" - "Stavros Dimas, Member of the European
Commission, responsible for environment spoke on the subject of Investing in knowledge: Investing in the future at
the Word Science Forum on 10th November 2007. This is what he said:
"CBO
Warns that Cap-And-Trade Approach Could Create ‘Windfall' Profits & Harm Poor" - "The
non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) director, Peter Orszag, testified before the House of
Representatives on November 1 and cautioned that giving emission allowances away to companies under a
cap-and-trade system "could create 'windfall' profits for those firms." "Bangladesh delta is key buffer
against global warming, says study" - "The Bay of Bengal is an unexpected weapon against global
warming as it helps store vast quantities of terrestrial carbon brought down by the Ganges-Brahmaputra river
systems, a study says. "Boxer agrees to slow down global warming legislation" - "WASHINGTON - Sen. Barbara Boxer agreed on Tuesday to take more time to work through complex global warming legislation amid concerns over the possible economic impact of mandating sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions." (Mercury News) Did the Bush Administration Really Censor Science? (Paul Georgia, Cooler Heads Blog) Here's a new one for the list: "Uganda: Climate Change Increases Early Marriages - Report" - "CLIMATE change has been blamed for increasing social problems such as early marriages, a report has stated." (New Vision) "China Power Plant Emissions to Rise 60 Pct by 2017" - "WASHINGTON - Climate-warming emissions from China's power plants -- already among the world's worst greenhouse polluters -- will rise by some 60 percent in the next decade, a new global database showed on Wednesday." (Reuters) "India
needs to check carbon emissions: International Energy Agency" - "NEW DELHI: India will become
the third largest carbon-dioxide emitter by 2015 after China and the United States if it does not step up efforts
to curb emissions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. "Energy: World's energy demand set to double by 2050" - "Global energy demand is set to double by 2050 according to a study presented by the World Energy Council (WEC) at the 20th World Energy Congress on Monday in the Italian capital, Rome." (AKI) "Welcome to a world of runaway energy demand" - “The increase in China’s energy demand between 2002 and 2005 was equivalent to Japan’s current annual energy use.” This nugget of information, buried in the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook, tells one almost all one needs to know about what is happening to the world’s energy economy." (Martin Wolf, Financial Times) "Emphasis On Energies Of
Future Threatens The Supplies Of Today" - "With oil prices soaring to record highs, currently
over $90 per barrel, and Americans increasingly feeling the impact, Congress can choose to magnify the problem or
be part of the solution. "British Energy set for new
nuclear plants" - "Bill Coley, the chief executive of British Energy, expects to announce by the
end of the year the industrial partners with whom he will bid to build two of the UK's next generation of nuclear
power plants. Happy Birthday Junkfood Science! "A cupcake for each of you" - "It’s Junkfood Science’s first birthday. While I can only share a cyber-cupcake with each of you in celebration, it comes with thanks and a note to let you know how terrific you all are! Readers have grown in numbers, without hit gimmicks or paid media connections, to nearly 1 million. We’re mere days away to the millionth reader." (Junkfood Science) "Math phobia — Is that evidence for real?" - "One of the most important scientific and medical research discussions in recent history has been taking place in the British Medical Journal this year. Yet, despite how much the information could help consumers, it has received no media attention. The topic: the misuse and misinterpretation of studies and the adoption of new, more reliable criteria for showing true results. Far too many studies are acted upon and reacted to — by public health officials, medical practitioners and consumers — when credible evidence has not been demonstrated." (Junkfood Science) "Greenwashing – Consumers getting wise" - "Huge publicity has accompanied the green pledges of some major firms. But has all the fanfare impressed consumers?" (EthicalCorp.)
"Africa: Continent Warms Up to
Biotechnology" - "Much of the debate about biotechnology in Africa assumes that African
countries are only being asked to accept products developed elsewhere. To the contrary, Freedom to Innovate:
Biotechnology in Africa's Development shows that extensive biotechnology research is under way in Africa. November 14, 2007 "Fighting a Disease of Logistics, He
Means Business" - "WHEN Lance Laifer, a hedge fund manager in New Jersey and former Internet
entrepreneur, started researching malaria two and a half years ago, a prominent professor with a medical
background told him that doctors were not drawn to malaria research because it was a disease of logistics.
“Doctors don’t do logistics,” Mr. Laifer recalls that he said. “Business does logistics.” Christy
Versus Parry - At last, the BBC Online News Website is providing some belated balance in the
‘global warming’ debate. No consensus on IPCC's level of ignorance (John Christy, BBC) The IPCC: As good as it gets (Martin Parry, BBC) EDITORIAL: IPCC: THE ONLY GAME IN
TOWN? - During the last decade, climate experts and government officials from more than 100 countries have
unanimously agreed the key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s
analysis, its review of scientific literature and its predictions have been carefully scrutinised by governments
and generally accepted. The unanimous political support the IPCC has obtained from the international community
represents a comprehensive consensus on the science and economics of climate change. "Climate change panel esteemed
but flawed" - "VALENCIA, Spain - They are seen as the gurus of global warming, and their reports
are accepted almost as the gospel of climate science. Esteem for the panel of scientists was immortalized when it
shared this year's Nobel Peace prize.
"Irving C. Sheldon Jr.: Science vs politics: Challenging the global-warming hysteria" - "LAST MONTH, Prof. Richard Lindzen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke to the 350 students at St. Marks School on the science of global warming." (Providence Journal) "Climate Change Threatens
Human Rights - Small Island States" - "MALE - Representatives of 26 of the world's small island
states met in the Maldives capital Male on Tuesday to draft a resolution identifying climate change as a threat to
human rights.
"The High Cost of
the Global Warming Scam" - "Coleman is the latest expert to declare that global warming is a
hoax, yet its advocates in Congress and among Democratic candidates for their party's presidential nomination are
promising to saddle the American people with laws designed to stop something that is not happening: laws that will
have many of us in the poor house. Lookout! CO2 good for plants! "Changing
face of autumn as pollution keeps leaves green" - "Pollution from cars and power stations is
changing the face of autumn, according to research by British scientists.
"Weather
Channel Founder Discusses Global Warming Myth With Beck" - "As NewsBusters reported last
Wednesday, The Weather Channel founder John Coleman published an op-ed at ICECAP in which he called "global
warming the greatest scam in history." Several people have raised this item: "Shrinking
ice means Greenland is rising fast" - "Greenland appears to be floating upwards – its landmass
is rising up to 4 centimetres each year, scientists reveal.
"What About the Poles?"
- "The global warming alarmists are at it again, shrieking about “ice melt at the Poles.” "Centuries of Yellow River Climate" - "According to 1,000s of websites trumpeting the horrors of global warming, we find countless claims that the ongoing build-up of greenhouse gases is causing droughts and floods all over the world. Hardly a week goes by nowadays without a front page news story about some weather or climate calamity occurring somewhere on the planet, and global warming is repeatedly claimed to be the cause. Turn the radio to NPR for an hour or so, and you will certainly be told how the failure of the United States to sign the Kyoto Protocol has caused some disastrous flood or drought." (WCR) "Mind Games of the Big Green Scare Machine" - "With each passing day, Americans are increasingly behaving as though Al Gore's mantra "the debate [over man-made global warming] is over" were true. Warming folklore is deserving of incredulity as the extreme left's latest armament in its ongoing battle against capitalism and globalization. But instead it has found insinuation into virtually every corner of our culture." (Marc Sheppard, American Thinker) Whoa! "Global
Warming caused fundamentally from a negative consciousness rather than Greenhouse gases" -
"Redressing the Global Warming catastrophe, requires humanity to appreciate critically the root cause of
Global Warming. Unfortunately, environmental activists and other concerned human beings have absorbed apparent
"half-truths" on Global Warming. As a result, human beings who are critically concerned about Global
Warming, and who want to save our planet Earth from destruction, do not have the kind off overall appreciation of
the Global Warming problem, that is required to do something about it. "SanFran Chronicle: Only The 'Informed' Believe in Global Warming" - "The San Francisco Chronicle decided to pat Californians on the back last week for how much "better informed" Golden Staters are on the supposed dire threat of global warming. With their headline joyously proclaiming, "Californians better informed on global warming threat, poll finds," the SF Chron handed out the party hats, blew their celebratory horns and lined up little Al Gore statuettes to hand out at the awards banquet. And how is it that their poll "found" this startling fact? Why it's because our friends in California believe, man! It's not because Californians are any better informed, that they know all the facts, it's just that they accept Al Gore's claim that the "debate is over" despite any evidence or lack thereof. They really, really believe man." (News Busters) Um, no... "Climate to create huge job shift" - "The environment and clean energy fields are forecast to become a boom employment area in the coming decades generating millions of jobs in new technologies and greenhouse mitigation activity. This will occur at the same time as jobs are lost in great numbers in industries hit by the impacts of a changing climate." (Carbon Positive)
"Climate Changes" - "As a U.N. panel presents its fourth and final report on climate change, a key member rejects his Nobel Prize and the founder of the Weather Channel calls its doomsday scenarios a fantasy." (IBD) Oh... "UN chief flies to Spain as 'messenger' on climate change" - "UN chief Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Spain Wednesday after a week-long tour of South America and the Antarctic that he said has made him an informed "messenger" on the problem of climate change." (AFP)
Whoops! "Ban: Warm Antarctica temps show eco-issues" - "U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said warmer temperatures in Antarctica highlight the dangers of climate change and the need to address them." (UPI)
"Study sees potential for acceleration in U.S. emissions" - "U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could grow more quickly in the next 50 years than in the previous half-century, even with technological advances and current energy-saving efforts, according to a new study by MIT's Richard Eckaus, the Ford International Professor of Economics, emeritus, and his co-author, Ian Sue Wing (Ph.D. 2001)." (MIT)
"IPCC Head Should Practice What He Preaches"
- "The International Panel on Climate Change is holding a conference to draft a report on global warming and
what can be done to stop it. In an apparent dig at diplomats who might try to influence the report’s
conclusions, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said that scientists were determined to “adhere to
standards of quality.” "Brazil Seeks Aid From UN
Chief to Protect Amazon" - "BELEM, Brazil - Beneath a towering canopy in the heat of the Amazon
jungle, Brazilian Indians and officials urged UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to rally international
support to protect the world's largest rain forest. "EU's
Barroso calls on developing nations to reduce carbon emissions" - "ROME: Developing countries
with booming economies and a growing contribution to climate change must accept flexible and fair commitments to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission president said Monday. "China 'will agree to cut its
carbon emissions'" - "China, now the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, will eventually
agree to cut its soaring carbon dioxide emissions, one of the country's leading environmentalists forecast
yesterday – but only on the basis of a deal with the United States and the rest of the developed world. "China: poverty reduction, energy security more important than capping emissions" - "People in the wealthy post-industrialised world tend to forget that for developing nations access to abundant and cheap energy resources is crucial in the fight against poverty. Westerners often hope these countries can somehow skip the polluting fossil fuel path which turned Europe, the US and Japan into prosperous regions, 'leapfrog' into a greener, far more efficient and low carbon future, and fight poverty in the process. But is this is a highly idealistic, very tall order indeed." (BioPact) "Saudi Arabia seeks positive role in tackling climate change" - "Saudi Arabia insisted yesterday that it wanted to play a positive role in tackling global warming but this should be done with new technology, not 'discriminatory' taxes against oil and petroleum." (The Guardian) Uh-huh... "No patenting of clean technology, please" - "Rich nations should set individual targets and transfer clean technology while the poor should take the lead in design and have sector-specific benchmarks." (Economic Times) "Boxer has tricky road on global warming bill" - "WASHINGTON – It became increasingly evident at a hearing today that Sen. Barbara Boxer will have to carefully steer her committee to even get a global warming bill to the Senate floor this year, as senators and witnesses from business, labor and the environment picked apart pieces of the legislation that's now on the table." (Orange County Register) "Satellite shows regional variation in warming from sun during solar cycle" - "A NASA satellite designed, built and controlled by the University of Colorado at Boulder is expected to help scientists resolve wide-ranging predictions about the coming solar cycle peak in 2012 and its influence on Earth's warming climate, according to the chief scientist on the project." (University of Colorado at Boulder) "NASA Sees Arctic Ocean Circulation Do an About-Face" - "A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming." (NASA) Dopey beggar... "The road to enlightenment" - "It is now known that 70% of cuts in emissions will need to be made at local level. Have councils woken up to the challenges ahead?" (John Vidal, The Guardian)
From CO2 Science
this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: The Permafrost History of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: What does it tell us about the nature of today's warmth? Temperature, Precipitation and Vegetative Productivity on the Tibetan Plateau: How is the vitality of the region's plant life influenced by the two climatic parameters? Future Rice Yields in India: What can we expect for various possible increases in air temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration? Microevolutionary Responses to Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment: Do microevolutionary responses in plants enable them to take "enhanced advantage" of the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content? Temperature
Record of the Week: "Wind turbines hazardous to birds, bats" - "Wind energy, a fast-growing sector of the U.S. energy industry, is taking a toll on nocturnal wildlife caught in the turbines, officials said." (UPI) "More
Turbulence for Wind Energy" - "A couple of weeks back (10/30/07) I noted that dreams of wind
power's unlimited potential was running into the reality: the nightmare of unreliability of the technology (the
tendency of wind turbines to breakdown in spectacular — potentially dangerous — fashion). As a result it was
no surprise when The Herald of Glasgow, Scotland reported yesterday that three windfarms were being shutdown after
one turbine bent in half during heavy winds. They aren't even sure if the turbine was turning or operating at the
time. Three entire farms are being shut down while they inspect the other turbines to determine the risk of
similar collapse. As I mentioned before, this could the a portent of the future in the U.S. "EU Parliament Tightens Airline Emissions Rules" - "STRASBOURG, France - All airlines should join the European Union's emissions trading system in 2011 and face tighter pollution caps than first proposed, the European Parliament voted on Tuesday." (Reuters) "Save planet and car industry, says Jones" - "The trade and investment minister Lord Jones yesterday urged Britain's motor industry to play its part in the battle against climate change and warned that "demonising" carmakers could drive them out of the country." (Mark Milner, The Guardian) "No More German Biodiesel Plants Likely to be Built" - "HANNOVER - A new round of tax increases planned on German biofuels means no more biodiesel plants are likely to be built in the country, the chairman of German oilseeds industry association UFOP said on Tuesday." (Reuters) UCS? Who cares? "Alternative
fuels may boost pollution: report" - "Some alternative vehicle fuels such as liquid coal can
cause more harmful greenhouse gas emissions than polluters such as petrol or diesel, scientists warned in a US
study released Tuesday. "Danson: I Lied, Oceans Didn't Die" - "BEGIN TRANSCRIPT - RUSH: Remember back in 1988 when this program debuted, Ted Danson predicted that we only had ten years to live because the oceans were going to be dead and, if the oceans died, then we would soon follow? He made a big deal out of this, one of the early environmental alarmists, the brilliant oceanologist, Ted Danson. Back in 1993, on my television show, I implored the Drive-By Media to ask Ted Danson where he got his information on the oceans having ten years left." (Rush Limbaugh Show) "Communism,
capitalism, and environment" - "An anonymous Marxist third-world commenter mentioned -
incredibly - that he or she thinks that the environmental situation in post-socialist Europe became worse after
the fall of communism. I just can't believe that someone would buy such a thing because it is crazier than any
propaganda I have heard during communism. "Vaccines
cut disease deaths by 99 percent-US study" - "WASHINGTON - Vaccines have cut deaths from the
diseases they prevent by 99 percent, U.S. government researchers reported on Tuesday. "It's time for all-out war on malaria" - "Bed-nets are not going to be enough if we're serious about eradicating a disease that kills a million Africans a year." (Paul Driessen, sp!ked) "Never too young?" - "Yes, this news story is for real. (Although it may be taken from a marketing piece, but what media story isn’t?) Four month old babies are being enrolled in special gyms to “get them in the habit of exercise” as part of efforts to prevent childhood obesity. The gym talks of the need to build their “core” — before they start crawling!" (Junkfood Science) "Little evidence that binge
drinking while pregnant seriously harms fetus" - "There is little substantive evidence that
binge drinking while pregnant seriously harms the developing fetus, finds a study in the Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health. "Researchers explore how
violent video games are exemplary aggression teachers" - "AMES, Iowa – Like other fathers and
sons, Douglas Gentile and his father have spent many hours arguing about video games. What makes them different is
that Douglas, an Iowa State University assistant professor of psychology, is one of the country's top researchers
on the effects of media on children. His father, J. Ronald Gentile, is a leading researcher on effective teaching
and a distinguished teaching professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Buffalo, State
University of New York. "‘Luddite views’ on GM crops waning, says Lord Haskin" - "Food inflation is beginning to worry some governments and it threatens to slow the global economy. That could lead to a rethink on renewable energy policies that are diverting increasing areas of land from food production to energy crops." (The Herald) November 13, 2007 "Frightened to death: Why it's the scare stories that are the REAL menace" - "Do you remember that day in 1996 when a Tory health minister stood up in the House of Commons to announce that there might after all be a link between BSE, "mad cow disease", and what seemed to be a new form of the human brain disease, CJD?" (Christopher Booker, Daily Mail) "Climate scepticism: The top 10"
- "What are some of the reasons why "climate sceptics" dispute the evidence that human activities
such as industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation are bringing potentially dangerous changes to
the Earth's climate? "What do 'climate sceptics'
believe?" - "You might think that you know the answer, having heard, seen and read numerous
counter-blasts aimed at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) over the course of this year, as the
three components of its landmark climate assessment were published.
"Climate
Realist, 'GW' Sceptic" - "Richard Black, Environment Correspondent at the BBC News Website, is
this week putting his keyboard to the task of ‘Unravelling the sceptics’ (BBC Science/Nature Online News,
starting on November 12). Richard asks: “What do ‘climate sceptics’ believe?” "Challenges to Both Left and
Right on Global Warming" - "For many years, the battle over what to think and do about
human-caused climate change and fossil fuels has been waged mostly as a yelling match between the political and
environmental left and the right.
"Cry wolf, but gently" - "Hyperbole has weakened the argument on climate change. But Aesop has a salutary lobbyist's tale." (Leo Hickman, The Guardian) "Hoax-To
Hoax-The Hoaxers" - "Oh dear! I gather from my good pal, Barry Hearn, over at JunkScience
that not all of you are quite as familiar with A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh, and his forest friends as perhaps you
should be. I am deeply sorry if you have had a deprived childhood in this respect. "Well, Well, Well" -
"Thanks to alert reader Cedric, we now have a confession form David Thorpe that he was, indeed, the person
who intentionally put up the fraudulent GEOCLIMATICSTUDIES.INFO website, that he did so with the intent of trying
to discredit people he disagrees with and one other very, very important thing for the media to remember.
More digital nonsense: "Spain
shown perils of climate change" - "It's an apocalyptic view of the future, a stark warning to
Spain of what the country could look like if action is not taken to reduce the effects of climate change. "DPA: Klaus criticises Gore,
environmentalists" - "Prague, Nov 9 - Czech President Vaclav Klaus again sharply criticised
former U.S. vice-president Albert Gore and other "environmental dictators" in an interview for the dpa
German news agency Friday, on the occasion of the upcoming edition of his book "Blue, Not Green Planet"
in German. "Will
Gore Be Time’s ‘Person of the Year?’" - "How could Global Warmingist-in-Chief Al Gore best
finish a year in which he won an Academy Award, an Emmy, and a Nobel Peace Prize? "Carbon Offset Credits: Caveat Emptor" - "As concerns about climate change heat up, more people are buying carbon credits. Are they paying too much, and where is the money really going?" (Mark Scott, Business Week) "Global Warming Plot Thickens: Gore Joins Venture Capital Group" - "The financial scam involved in advancing climate alarmism got even more obvious Monday - to folks outside of the media, that is! - when Nobel Laureate Al Gore joined "Silicon Valley's most prestigious venture capital firm to guide investments that help combat global warming." (News Busters) "Climate
change by Jupiter" - "The alignment of the planets, and especially that of Jupiter and Saturn,
control the climate on Earth. "Polar
bears in danger? Is this some kind of joke?" - "Why don’t polar bears eat penguins? Because
their paws are too big to get the wrappers off, obviously. It’s not a joke you hear so often these days, though,
because polar bears are now a serious business. They’re the standard-bearers of a tear-jerking propaganda
campaign to persuade us all that, if we don’t act soon on climate change, the only thing that will remain of our
snowy-furred ursine chums will be the picture on a pack of Fox’s glacier mints. Chuckle... "World
body warns over ocean 'fertilisation' to fix climate change" - "LONDON - Countries gathered
under an international accord on maritime pollution have warned against offbeat experiments to tackle climate
change by sowing the sea with chemicals to help soak up airborne carbon dioxide (CO2).
Oh boy... "Scientists Strive for Pinpoint Warming Forecasts" - "OSLO - Moving on from the risk of global warming, scientists are now looking for ways to pinpoint the areas set to be affected by climate change, to help countries plan everything from new crops to hydropower dams." (Reuters) "Are the
Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets in Danger of Collapse?" - "Much has been made of a possible
precipitous collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets due to manmade climate change and the
catastrophic sea level rise if such a collapse were to occur. "Trillions for CO2 regulation & propagation of guilt" - "Two years ago, some people criticized the Kyoto counter in the sidebar because it assumes that the Kyoto protocol costs USD 150 billion per year which seemed too high to the champions of CO2 regulation. Well, times are changing. Almost no one would raise such a childish criticism today because most people realize that the actual costs of CO2 regulation are much higher." (The Reference Frame) "Is
the Media More Liberal Than the United Nations?" - "The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change is meeting this week in Valencia, Spain, to adopt and approve the contents of its Fourth
Assessment Report first released in February. "CLIMATE CHANGE: The Worst Can Still Be Avoided" - "MADRID - Climate change is not inexorable, if measures are adopted immediately, said scientists and government officials as the 27th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began Monday in Spain." (IPS)
"A
Global Temperature Chart Not in Gore’s Movie" - "So, you think today's temperatures are out of
the ordinary? "Kyoto critic comes to town" - "Forget about reducing emissions, just adapt to climate change, says Nigel Lawson." (Sunday Star Times) "Rich West 'must set example' to
protect Asian development from climate change catastrophe" - "Asia will be hit especially hard
by climate change, from China and India to tiny Pacific islands, and decades of human development across the
continent will be pushed into reverse, a powerful coalition of aid and green groups reports today. "Why China Could Blame Its CO2 on
West" - "To understand the deadlock in the debate on global climate change, take a look at your
iPod.
"UN panel to set new path on climate at meeting" - "PARIS: Delegations and scientists from about 140 nations meet Monday in Valencia, Spain, and are expected to draft a report that could increase pressure on countries like the United States and China to make binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions." (James Kanter, IHT) Really bad idea: "UN
Panel's Global Warming Report May Win U.S. Support" - "American officials are planning to back a
new United Nations document that says governments and businesses will have to spend billions of dollars a year to
reduce global warming and adapt to its effects. "Hillary will Save Us" - "Senator Hillary Clinton says that if elected president she will promptly commit the United States to a Kyoto Protocol “Round II”. She would strike a deal in 2010, which she says, somehow accelerates global salvation because, though Kyoto expires at the end of 2012, “we cannot afford to wait two more years.” (Christopher C. Horner, Human Events) "Lloyd: The economic side of climate-change initiative" - "If you've wondered why there is an increasing opposition to the whole popular notion of global warming, simply examine the actions being proposed and actually taken to "prevent global warming." Consider what those actions really have become and how effective they might be in actually achieving the intended change." (Don Lloyd, Daily Camera) "A Better
Way to Go Green" - "Next month, the world will get a chance to enjoy some brazen hypocrisy.
Former Vice President Al Gore will speak in Oslo as he accepts his Nobel Peace Prize. No doubt he’ll offer
plenty of hot rhetoric about the dangers of global warming, and warn listeners they need to act -- right now -- to
save our fragile planet. "EU Court Rejects Polish Call for Carbon Cut Delay" - "BRUSSELS - A European Union court has rejected Poland's request for a temporary suspension of a cut, set by the bloc, in the country's carbon dioxide emission limits, the court said on Monday." (Reuters) "Ocean robots network achieves universal coverage" - "Scientist’s efforts to fathom how the oceans influence climate and fisheries productivity enter a new era this month with the milestone establishment of a network of 3,000 futuristic, 1.5-metre tall ocean robots operating simultaneously throughout the world’s oceans." (CSIRO) "Government health officials’ newest initiative: combat obesity and climate change in just 30 minutes!" - "According to Dr. Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, the CDC is considering a public promotional campaign to fight two deadly public health crises — global warming and obesity — at the same time. Their simple solution, they say, will cut calories and carbon dioxide in one. What is their proposal?" (Junkfood Science) "Ethanol Backlash" -
"Like water seeping out of the giant High Plains Ogallala aquifer, support for corn ethanol seems to be
ebbing in Congress. As political news goes, this is of the miracle variety, but apparently the market distortions
caused by ethanol mandates are finally having an impact. "Strategic Reserves That Go Undrilled" - "Hillary Clinton wants to tap the U.S. petroleum stockpile to increase supply and lower the price. Brazil has found a better way — drill for more. And what about that strategic reserve her husband vetoed — ANWR?" (IBD) "Sell the Petroleum Reserve"
- "For quite a while now, the spot price of oil -- that is, the price at which you can buy or sell oil for
delivery today -- has been well above the futures price. The futures price is the price at which you can buy or
sell oil for delivery at a specified time in the future. For example, on Friday, Nov. 9, the price on the New York
Mercantile Exchange of light sweet crude oil for December delivery was $96.32 a barrel and the futures price for
delivery in December 2008 was $87.60 -- $8.72 a barrel lower. This relatively unusual time structure of oil prices
is called "backwardation." "Oil, yet more oil" - "For those who wish to believe that the days of oil are soon numbered, three FT commentaries provide a salutary, if not a slick, riposte." (Global Warming Politics) "N.Y. needs
power plants, energy groups warn" - "Montgomery — How's this for an inconvenient truth:
Someday soon, when you flip the light switch, the power might not come on. Unep & mercury mania: "UN Wants Global Action on Mercury Threat" - "NAIROBI - Countries must speed up collective efforts to phase out the use of deadly mercury, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday." (Reuters)
"Fat and long life — The “obesity” crisis is crumbling" - "The latest study from CDC senior research scientists at the National Center for Health Statistics on the associations between various body weights and deaths has been in the news this week. The media has been giving us bits and pieces of the story and various angles, but not all of it accurate or complete. With no clear overview, it’s been virtually impossible for most of us to figure out what the study actually showed or to understand what it means for us. In fact, the study findings we haven’t heard are some of the most important parts." (Junkfood Science) "The Hollywood Diet" - "A writer in New York Times Magazine points out the absurdity of today’s food aversions and beliefs. Refusing to eat and enjoy food has become a way to project discipline and power, she writes. Not wanting to be “out-restrained” by someone appearing to be eating more virtuously than themselves, diners are taking eating fears to ridiculous heights." (Junkfood Science) "What doctors are really discussing?" - "Only 37%? Doctors actually participated in a poll asking them if they thought scaring fat people with threats of cancer would work to incentivize them into losing weight. The MedPage Today poll results were reported on Friday, along with an uncritical synopsis for its clinician readers on the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research report. This provides a disturbing example of the medical literature available to healthcare providers and of their grasp of these issues." (Junkfood Science) "Tears won’t change a thing, but words can" - "Harriet Brown has written a thoughtful piece calling for compassion and science to bring understanding and support for these young people and their families, rather than brand them with devastating stigma. There are doctors and nurses in her community, she writes, who still blame the families or think that it’s a lifestyle choice...." (Junkfood Science) "Wellness can be a state of mind" - "Today’s article in the Daily Mail illustrates the heartbreaking distress that comes to young people from being surrounded by today’s nonstop health news and pervasive preoccupation with health and “wellness.” (Junkfood Science) "Beyond cute and cuddly" - "Conservationists are questioning the value of protecting 'celebrity animals' such as pandas and tigers, reports Europe correspondent Peter Wilson." (The Australian) "New public-private hybrid
rice group aims to raise rice yields in the tropics" - "Manila – A new international research
initiative, linking the private and public sectors for the first time and launched on November 9 at the 2007 Asian
Seed Congress, aims to boost the research and development of hybrid rice for the tropics. "Sow technologies, reap benefits" - "Widespread use of the technology together with intensive or high input cultivation has resulted in a rapid increase in yields of major crops and in lowering production cost." (G. Chandrashekhar, Hindu Business Line) "Food giant enters fight to keep GM bans" - "ONE of Australia's largest food companies has joined consumers in urging the State Government not to lift bans on genetically modified crops when it considers the issue this week." (The Age) November 12, 2007 Has Big Oil been caught in a new global warming disinformation funding scheme? Big
Oil Paying Off Climate Scientists: An Insider's Story - (Katy, TX - Nov. 11) Many environmentalists have
long suspected that "Big Oil" pays a small cadre of climate scientists to perform and publish bogus
research, as well as spread disinformation regarding the state of the science of global warming and climate
change. Eco-Fatigue - Writing in today’s The Guardian, Leo Hickman employs a marvellous neologism, and then (for it is The Guardian after all) laments its onset: “eco-fatigue” [see: ‘Cry wolf, but gently’]: (Global Warming Politics) "UN's Ban Says Global
Warming is 'An Emergency'" - "EDUARDO FREI BASE, Antarctica - With prehistoric Antarctic ice
sheets melting beneath his feet, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for urgent political action to tackle
global warming.
Mammoth
Change - Coniglio Kaninchen, Jr. 2007. “Faunistic adaptation during the ‘Forest Period’ in southern
England: a textual analysis of sudden short-term climate change.” Journal of Deconstructed and Hybrid Climates,
Vol. 27(1), 2007, pp. 234-57|DOI: X1.2067/0432156376p2987xpoohb. "Czech Leader Raises New Doubts on Climate Change" - "BERLIN - Czech President Vaclav Klaus has criticised Chancellor Angela Merkel for her efforts to fight climate change, saying politicians, journalists and scientists are exploiting an unproven issue for their own advantage." (Reuters) Darfur
- I must commend this truly outstanding letter from Mike Hulme (University of East Anglia and founding Director of
the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research) in issue 2629 of the New Scientist, November 10, 2007, page 26: "Why the IPCC should be disbanded" - "The common perception of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of an impartial organization that thoroughly reviews the state of climate science and produces reports which are clear, accurate, comprehensive, well substantiated and without bias." (John McLean, SPPI) "Bias And Concealment In The IPCC Process: The “Hockey-Stick” Affair And Its Implications" - "ABSTRACT: The climatic “hockey stick” hypothesis has systemic problems. I review how the IPCC came to adopt the “hockey stick” as scientific evidence of human interference with the climate. I report also on independent peer reviewed studies of the “hockey stick” that were instigated by the US House of Representatives in 2006, and which comprehensively invalidated it. The “divergence” problem and the selective and unreliable nature of tree ring reconstructions are discussed, as is the unsatisfactory review process of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report that ignored the invalidation of the “hockey stick”. The error found recently in the GISS temperature series is also noted. It is concluded that the IPCC has neither the structure nor the necessary independence and supervision of its processes to be acceptable as the monopoly authority on climate science. Suggestions are made as to how the IPCC could improve its procedures towards producing reports and recommendations that are more scientifically sound." (David Holland, Energy & Environment) "UN
climate report: already out of date?" - "PARIS -- Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the
UN's top scientific panel on climate change will meet in the Spanish port city of Valencia Monday to finalize a
landmark report on global warming and how to avoid its worst ravages. Definitely not that Mann: Global Temperatures - 2500 B.C. to 2007 A.D. (Long Range Weather) "Seas to Absorb Greenhouse Gas, But Food Chain Hit" - "OSLO - Tiny ocean plankton can reduce global warming by soaking up unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide but their carbon-bloated cells might damage marine food chains, scientists said on Sunday." (Reuters) "Outspoken ASU prof draws
ire" - "Arizona State University climatologist Robert Balling attended the premiere of Al Gore's
global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.
"Despite predictions, sky is not falling" - "Reading about the recent global warming rally at Kincaid Park, I wondered if the participants would be relieved if man's activities were proved not responsible for Alaska's warming weather. An intriguing question." (Paula Easley, ADN) "A Global Warming Debate" - "As many of you already know, Katie and a film crew visited Duquesne University in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago for the global warming debate featuring Dr. Charles Keller and noted skeptic Dr. Fred Singer. In this video, Katie shows you some clips from the debate. In her next video, she personally interviews both Dr. Singer and Dr. Keller and presents them with many of the questions that we received from you on the commentary part of this blog." (AccuWeather) "UK Court Hearing Record" - "Complete hearing record for the UK Court case in which the judge ruled that Al Gore's film may not be distributed by the UK Govt. to UK schools unless a disclaimer of 9 science errors should be read first to the children." (Robert Ferguson, SPPI) "Chilling Uncertainties about
Global Warming" - "The Emmy, Oscar, and Nobel Peace Prize committees all seem to agree: global
warming exists, humans cause it, and without Al Gore, we'd all be doomed. "Local Meteorologists Debate Global Warming" - "It's a movement that's gained momentum and has become mainstream, especially in political and media circles. Even major television networks these days are promoting Going Green, to stop Global Warming. One of the things you're not hearing in the national media is a voice like John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel. In a recent article, Coleman calls Global Warming the greatest scam in history." (KLTV) Video: A Critique of Catastrophic Man-Made Global Warming Theory (Coyote Blog) "Ignore Al
Gore - but not his Nobel friends" - "This week, the United Nations' climate scientists will
release a major report synthesising the world's best global warming research. It will be the first time we've
heard from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize
with former US vice-president Al Gore. "Flood
alert: the aftermath" - "East Anglia escaped serious flooding by a “knife edge” yesterday
despite the storm surge being on the same scale as that which caused devastation in 1953.
"Climate History and Climate Changes in Georgia" - "The observations we have detailed herein illustrate that climate variability from year-to-year and decade-to-decade plays a greater role in Georgia’s climate than any long-term trends. Such short-term variability will continue dominating Georgia’s climate into the future." (Robert Ferguson, SPPI) "Kentucky Climate Profile" - "The observations detailed herein illustrate that climate variability from year-to-year and decade-to-decade plays a greater role in Kentucky’s climate than any long-term trends. Such short-term variability will continue dominate Kentucky’s climate into the future. At the century timescale, Kentucky’s climate shows no statically significant trend in statewide average annual temperature, and a weak tendency towards increasing statewide total annual precipitation and decreases in the frequency and/or severity of droughts." (Robert Ferguson, SPPI) I wonder if poor Mark actually believes any of this pap? "How to stop climate change: the easy way" - "We have about 100 months left. If global greenhouse gas emissions have not begun to decline by the end of 2015, then our chances of restraining climate change to within the two degrees "safety line" - the level of warming below which the impacts are severe but tolerable - diminish day by day thereafter. This is what the latest science now demands: the peaking of emissions within eight years, worldwide cuts of 60 per cent by 2030, and 80 per cent or more by 2050. Above two degrees, our chances of crossing "tipping points" in the earth's system - such as the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, or the release of methane from thawing Siberian permafrost - is much higher." (Mark Lynas, New Statesman) "Fighting Fat and Climate Change" - "WASHINGTON — America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time." (AP) "Rich Must Bear Climate Change Costs - Report" - "LONDON - The rich caused the problem and must therefore pay the price of fixing the global climate change crisis, a new report said on Monday." (Reuters) "Experts Discuss Engineering
Feats, Like Space Mirrors, to Slow Climate Change" - "CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 9 — There is now
“no doubt” that some of the effects of human-induced climate change could be offset with engineering fixes,
according to David Keith, an expert on climate and energy at the University of Calgary. "Globaloney" - "A misguided environmental-policy bill meandering through the Senate would slap U.S. businesses with pie-in-the-sky requirements for cutting greenhouse gases by unattainable amounts." (Washington Times) "Republicans Urge Slowdown on US Carbon-Cap Bill" - "WASHINGTON - US Republican senators on Thursday urged a Democratic-led Senate committee to slow its work on a bill to cap climate-warming carbon emissions, arguing that debate is being rushed." (Reuters) "A green policy takes flight: Schwarzenegger's
air travel, and its emissions impact, questioned." - "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger crisscrosses
the globe in a private Gulfstream 400 jet, advocating environmental virtues after signing a significant global
warming reduction bill last year. He says he offsets his plane's greenhouse gas damage by financing projects that
reduce carbon emissions elsewhere. "China Emission-Cutting Fund to Reap up to US$3 Bln" - "BEIJING - China could have as much as US$3 billion coming to a state-owned fund that supports emissions-reducing ventures, if a slate of projects on its books win UN approval, the Finance Ministry said on Friday." (Reuters) "Australia Faces Worst Cyclone Season in Yrs - Study" - "LONDON - Australia should brace itself for the worst tropical cyclone season since 1998/1999, a leading catastrophe forecaster warned on Friday." (Reuters)
Business-As-Usual - For ten years, I have been pointing out that fossil fuels are not going to go away, and that coal, in particular, is about to experience a mighty resurgence. As three stories today underline, my predictions are already on the way to being fulfilled. (Global Warming Politics) "China Blocks River to Build Second Largest Dam" - "BEIJING - China has blocked the flow of the country's longest river to build its second-largest hydropower project, state media reported on Friday." (Reuters) "How China is eating the world" - "China's remarkable economic growth is powering the global economy, but can the world afford to keep on supplying its ever-growing demands for food and raw materials? By Sean O'Grady" (London Independent) "New Biofuel Crops Pose Risks to Farms, Ecosystems" - "NEW YORK - New plants the biofuels industry has touted as potential sources of green domestic fuels pose risks as aggressive weeds that could damage farms and other ecosystems." (Reuters) "Demand for palm oil 'is damaging the planet'" - "Growing demand for Asian palm oil by some of the world's largest companies, such as Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble, is now one of the principal drivers of climate change, the environmental pressure group Greenpeace says." (London Independent) November 9, 2007 "Global Warming's Senseless Consensus" - "Is there a “consensus” on global warming among the scientists participating in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)? To find out, I conducted the first-ever survey of scientists participating in the most recent IPCC report." (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com) "Survey of IPCC Climate Experts" - "Introduction: Many claim that there is a consensus among scientists that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide(CO2), are harming global climate. To test the nature of this consensus, we surveyed the U.S. contributors to, and reviewers of the most recent scientific assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." (DemandDebate.com)
PC nonsense: "Health
toll of climate change seen as ethical crisis" - "MADISON -- The public health costs of global
climate change are likely to be the greatest in those parts of the world that have contributed least to the
problem, posing a significant ethical dilemma for the developed world, according to a new study.
From the other side of the Atlantic, the other side of “global warming” - Viscount Monckton of Brenchley to visit NY November 16-26: available for political interviews and talk-show appearances. "What is Wrong with the IPCC?" - "In the international discussion about climate change, which is now going on for almost twenty years, the IPCC has played a questionable role. From its inception, is has almost exclusively focused on the AGW hypothesis, while systematically ignoring alternative hypotheses." (Hans Labohm, SPPI) "Warming to debate the art of hypocrisy" - "THE telling thing about the global warming faith is that it's preached almost entirely by hypocrites. As you're about to see in tropical technicolour next month." (Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun) "Snow and Ice Surprises" - "A recent headline carried around the world certainly caught our eye as it proclaimed “Mont Blanc Growing Due to Global Warming.” When we first saw the piece, we fully expected to read about a process called isostatic rebound. If you are rusty in basic earth science principles, isostatic rebound occurs when weight is reduced from the earth’s crust (as is the case when a substantial amount of ice disappears from a region), the crust rebounds upward, and the land surface increases its elevation with respect to sea level. Oppositely, when ice accumulates over a region (e.g., Greenland, Antarctica), the crust is depressed, sometimes well below sea level. So when we first saw the piece about Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps, we assumed the article would be about how melting of the mountain glaciers has now led to crustal rebounding and a higher summit. However, we were in for a huge surprise." (WCR) Really? "Hoax
Bacteria Study Tricks Climate Sceptics" - "OSLO - A hoax scientific study pointing to ocean
bacteria as the overwhelming cause of global warming fooled some sceptics on Thursday who doubt growing evidence
that human activities are to blame.
Now available from DemandDebate.com! A Primer on CO2 and Climate
"California to sue US government over greenhouse gases" - "California on Thursday said it was suing the United States government to secure approval for the state's tough new proposals aimed at slashing vehicle greenhouse gas emissions." (AFP) "US, not China,
main obstacle in climate change talks - EU delegation" - "BEIJING - The US, and not China, is
the main hurdle to a new climate change deal, a European parliament delegate said in Beijing. "UN climate change chief
impressed by China" - "China is taking all the necessary steps to tackle the adverse impacts of
climate change, chairman of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Pachauri has said.
"EU Parliament to Tighten Airline Emissions Rules" - "BRUSSELS - The European Parliament next week will set stricter rules for airlines entering Europe's emissions trading scheme, establishing an earlier start date and tighter pollution limits than first proposed, a lawmaker said." (Reuters) "China Environment Woes Blamed on Lack of Planning" - "BEIJING - Lack of central planning, ministerial infighting and a pervasive get-rich-quick attitude mean China's environmental problems are not going away any time soon, a state newspaper on Thursday quoted an official as saying." (Reuters)
"An Energy Crisis Of Our Own Making" - "As oil climbs toward an unprecedented $100 a barrel, we can only blame ourselves. By falsely demonizing oil in the debate over global warming, we assure an energy-impoverished future." (IBD) "Rising Demand for Oil Provoking a New Energy Crisis" - "Unlike past oil shocks caused by interruptions in exports, this time prices are being driven by rapidly growing demand, partly from developing economies." (New York Times) "Brazil discovers huge oil reserves" - "BRAZIL has discovered huge new petroleum reserves in its south that could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world, the government and its state-controlled oil company has announced." (Agence France-Presse) "CA Paper: Want a New Gas Tax? Call it a 'Fee' to Fool Voters" - "The Contra Costa Times has given us an interesting new angle to fool the voters into voting for a new gasoline tax in an article titled, "Calling gas tax a 'fee' may help at ballot." In an opinion laced article, the CCTimes is advising politicians to call the tax hike a "fee" instead of a tax to fool the voters into accepting it at the ballot box." (News Busters) Of course they do: "Being
fat is still unhealthy, experts warn" - "CHICAGO - Being overweight may not kill you, but it
could lead to obesity, U.S. health experts cautioned on Wednesday in response to research suggesting that being a
bit heavy does not raise the risk of death. "Oh I’m so fat"
- "Julianna Backer, a journalism student at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, wrote
an unusually perceptive article on the war on fat for the Pine Log, the student newspaper. She dedicated her
article to young women who are finding it hard to be happy with their weight in this country. As she concluded,
“one day, we’ll all look at ourselves and worry about something other than how fat we are.” "Flabby government can't make thinner children: We have frittered away £1 billion on tackling obesity" - "Twenty months ago the Audit Commission gave warning that the Government's plans to stop the rise in child obesity by 2010 were flabby and in poor shape. The recent announcement, then, that the Government will be moving the target to 2020 was an unfortunate vindication of our findings." (Steve Bundred, London Times) "Forced to be 'fit'" - "Part one of Katie Couric’s CBS news special this week, “Forced to be Fit,” profiled employers mandating that their employees “get healthy or else.” Employees at Benton Company (home to Walmart) who refuse to submit to health screening and are unable to pass certain health indices are charged higher health insurance premiums. “Being fat is going to cost,” she reported. Smokers, the fat, and “unfit” are having to paying $2,000 higher deductibles." (Junkfood Science) "Counterfeit drugs and supplements" - "U.S. Pharmatechnologist just reported on a small, but growing, number of counterfeit drugs, both pharmaceutical and alternatives, that are finding their way into our medicine cabinets. Writing of a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, it highlighted the obesity drug Rimonabant (Acomplia), which was falsely advertised for sale over the internet before it had even received EU marketing approval. As previously reviewed here, even look-alikes have become part of the Wild West of online drugs." (Junkfood Science) "Britain 'to be growing GM crops by 2009'" - "Ministers are set to push ahead with plans to introduce genetically-modified crops across Britain, despite widespread public opposition." (London Telegraph) November 8, 2007 "Survey of IPCC Climate Experts" - "Introduction: Many claim that there is a consensus among scientists that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide(CO2), are harming global climate. To test the nature of this consensus, we surveyed the U.S. contributors to, and reviewers of the most recent scientific assessment by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." (DemandDebate.com) What? Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory? (Journal of Geoclimatic Studies (2007) 13:3. 223-231)
Nude Socialist... "Are
men to blame for global warming?" - "EVEN climate change cannot escape the gender wars. Now
Swedish men are being blamed for having a disproportionately large impact on global warming. "Population
7 billion a sign of success, say authors" - "Global warming is prompting some environmentalists
to reframe their approach on how to help stabilize Earth’s climate. "The fraud allegation against some climatic research of Wei-Chyung Wang", Energy & Environment, 18: 985–995 (2007). Remarks. (Douglas J. Keenan, Informath) "Global warming 'not linked' to typhoons" - "A study of intense typhoons in the Pacific has failed to show a link with global warming, instead revealing that their number waxes and wanes naturally over the decades." (Roger Highfield, London Telegraph) "Southeast drought culprit: Not enough hurricanes?" - "Headlines trumpeting a drought crisis in the southeast United States this fall expose the absurdities of global warming paranoia. Green hysteria that blames every weather event on global warming has become commonplace, and journalists from The New York Times to the Augusta Chronicle have blamed the Southeast’s woes on man-made carbon dioxide." (Henry Payne, Planet Gore) "The Science and Politics of Climate Change" - "The Science and Politics of Climate Change at the 2007 Battle of Ideas conference hosted by the Institute of Ideas. Panelists include Mike Hulme, Chris Rapley, Hans von Storch and Joe Kaplinsky. The panel is moderated by Tony Gillard." (Institute of Ideas) "Comments About Global Warming" - "I was privileged to work with John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel in the year before it became a reality and then for the first of the 6 years I was fortunate to be the Director of Meteorology. No one worked harder than John to make The Weather Channel a reality and to make sure the staffing, the information and technology was the very best possible at that time. John currently works with KUSI in San Diego. He posts regularly. I am very pleased to present his latest insightful post." (Icecap) "Global warming? Bring it on" - "WHY DO we believe the Earth's climate was at its optimum at the start of the 20th century?" (Gregory J Rummo, The Record) "John
Stossel: ‘Don’t Look to Government to Cool Down the Planet’" - "As NewsBusters reported,
ABC's John Stossel bravely presented a skeptical view of manmade global warming on the October 19 installment of
"20/20." What a sad piece of indoctrination... "Elementary
school students join fight against global warming" - "Third-grade teacher Debbie Robles made her
acting debut before a packed auditorium of youngsters at Rancho Elementary School in Novato. She bombed. "Prince 'alarm' at climate change" - "Prince Charles has warned that climate change is the biggest challenge facing society." (BBC)
"UN
Climate Panel to Discuss Global Warming at Tropical Resort" - "Here's an amazingly inconvenient
truth: the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held at the Bali International Convention
Centre, "a truly beautiful tropical island paradise...home to the island's most luxurious hotel and
resort." "Lieberman-Warner will lead to ‘higher energy prices, lost jobs and reduced GDP'" - "A new analysis of the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill (S.2191) by the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) finds the bill will lead "to higher energy prices, lost jobs and reduced GDP (gross domestic product)." (EPW) "EU Court Says States May Adjust '05-'07 CO2 Plans" - "BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG - European Union states may make changes to their carbon emissions plans for 2005-2007, an EU court ruled on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the key regulator of the bloc's emissions trading system." (Reuters) "China to Reject Binding Emissions Caps, Europe Says" - "BEIJING - China will not accept binding emissions caps in any pact to tackle global warming, a European Parliament team said on Wednesday, but added the bigger obstacle was those countries who might refuse to join the fight at all." (Reuters) Inter alia: "Carbon tax could pose inflation headache" - "The potential inflationary effect of climate change costs on power and petrol could be a major headache for the Reserve Bank in future, Westpac economists said today." (NZPA) "Enviros Challenge Dumping
Urea in Ocean to Sink Carbon" - "An Australian company is injecting urea into the ocean, hoping
to sequester greenhouse-gas pollution and cash in on carbon credits.
This old chestnut, again... "Maldives Warns Global Warming Threatening Islands" - "LISBON - The President of the Maldives on Wednesday called for urgent global action against climate change, saying rising sea levels are threatening the survival of his country's low-lying islands." (Reuters) "Climate risk – Acts of God on the books" - "Some investors want US companies to treat climate change as a financial risk in their annual reports. But it is not as simple as it may sound." (EthicalCorp)
"Carbon Neutral Government Act of 2007" - "U. of Illinois lawprof Andrew P. Morriss calls it a "astounding invitation to interest groups and lawyers to help themselves to taxpayers' money" (Point of Law) "Gore
Nightmare Wins as Europe Pays to Ship U.S. Coal" - "Now that the price of coal is at a historic
low relative to oil, there's no stopping consumers and producers alike from embracing Al Gore's nightmare. "World to Stay Hooked on
Fossil Fuels - IEA" - "LONDON - The world will stay hooked on fossil fuels up to 2030, although
oil's share of global energy demand will fall slightly, while coal use rises, the International Energy Agency (IEA)
said on Wednesday. Hmm, someone's not too good at these calculations... "Global-warming
gases set to rise by 57 percent by 2030: IEA" - "Emissions of greenhouse gases will rise by 57
percent by 2030 compared to current levels, leading to a rise in Earth's surface temperature of at least three
degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.
"China to Topple US as Top Energy User After 2010 - IEA" - "LONDON - China is set to dislodge the United States as the world's top energy consumer soon after 2010, as scorching growth there and in India reshape the global energy order, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday." (Reuters) "Exxon
Sees Rising CO2 Emissions Despite More Renewable Fuels" - "SAN FRANCISCO -- It's hardly
surprising that Exxon Mobil forecasts continued steady growth in petroleum demand for decades to come. "Big food companies accused of risking climate catastrophe" - "The rush to palm oil and biofuels threatens to release 14 billion tonnes of carbon from Indonesia's peatlands." (The Guardian)
"Business body makes climate change plea" - "Business think tank Environment Business Australia (EBA) has written an open letter to both the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party, calling for bipartisan support on climate change action." (AAP)
Uh-huh... "Ship Emissions Causing 60,000 Deaths a Year - Study" - "BEIJING - Emissions from ocean-going ships are responsible for about 60,000 deaths a year from heart and lung-related cancers, according to research published on Wednesday that calls for tougher fuel standards." (Reuters) "Bad Science Journalism" - "Sometimes Bad Science Journalism is viewed as a tautology. There is no subject journalists seem to understand as poorly as science. This Reuters article by Michael Kahn illustrates why. There is no link to the actual underlying study (a common failing in science journalism) so it’s hard to tell how much fault lies with Mr. Kahn or with the study authors. But I have my suspicions." (Jeff Bohren) NFI Challenges USA TODAY - The American public deserves accurate, balanced information about fish consumption which public health experts widely agree is a vital part of our diet. USA TODAY instead relied on agenda-driven activists, erroneous data and one-sided reporting in its October 30 cover story. We have requested that USA TODAY address these inaccuracies and will hold USA TODAY publicly accountable. (National Fisheries Institute) | Gannett News Service offers limited response "Go ahead, have pie (or gravy) during holidays, expert says" - "A Purdue University expert says people who try to deprive themselves of their favorite foods during the holiday season to avoid weight gain are setting themselves up for failure." (Purdue University) "Now doctors say it's good to be fat" - "After years of anti-obesity public health advice, a major new study causes an outcry by concluding that the overweight live longer." | Jeremy Laurance: This research may bring sanity to the weight debate (London Independent) "A few extra pounds may save your life" - "Latest research indicates being a little overweight can reduce death risk." (Sacramento Bee) "Flabby claims about food and cancer" - "Professor Patrick Basham and Dr John Luik, authors of Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade, pick apart a shocking report on food and cancer that hit the headlines around the world last week." (sp!ked) "Is
a high-fat diet the answer to the obesity problem?" - "Scientific theories are set up to be
toppled. Remember Galileo? How about Darwin or Pasteur? "Adult Supervision" -
"We're already paying the price for the epidemic of overprotectiveness. Congress has appropriated more than
$600 million to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. An entire generation of kids now rides in minivans to
schools where they aren't allowed to chase one another, swing on swings or play dodgeball. And we wonder why we
have an obesity problem. "Old McDonald Had a Phytochemical" - "Forget the moo-moo here and quack-quack there. Farmers may find phytochemicals to be the barnyard bonanza." (Texas A&M) November 7, 2007 "Dominic
Lawson: A retort to the population control freaks" - "Enoch was right," said Mr Nigel
Hastilow, and within 24 hours of uttering those words the speaker found that he was no longer the Conservative
parliamentary candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. "Attack of the Killer Mattresses – Coming to TV News Near You!" - "How did a new fire safety standard designed to save hundreds of lives a year get twisted into a health hazard? Who is behind “People for Clean Beds,” and why are journalists turning to a group which claims fire retardants will kill more people than the Black Death and AIDS combined?" (Trevor Butterworth, STATS) "Rudy Is Right In Data Duel
About Cancer" - "My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it —
in the United States? Eighty-two percent," says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad. "My chances of
surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44%, under socialized medicine." "Causes of Death Are Linked to a Person’s Weight" - "A group of federal researchers report that overweight people are much less likely to die from a grab bag of diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infections and lung disease." (Gina Kolata, New York Times) "Universal child care — Are our children better parented by the government?" - "Judy Aron at Consent of the Governed has been discussing thought-provoking issues in her series on growing efforts to create universal government preschools. State-run preschools have already been introduced in a number of states across the country. Promoters for institutionalizing 3, 4 and 5 year olds, she writes, believe parents are incapable of raising their own children without the government’s help. Not only that, but the belief that it gives kids a vital head start in academic success has not been shown to be true in sound research." (Junkfood Science) "A Research Revolution"
- "In a Newsweek article this week, Sharon Begley reported that during the time Andrew S. Grove spent at
Intel, the computer chip company he co-founded, the number of transistors on a chip went from about 1,000 to
almost 10 billion. Over that same period, the standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease went from L-dopa to . .
. L-dopa. Grove (who beat prostate cancer 12 years ago and now suffers from Parkinson’s) thinks there is
something deeply wrong with this picture, and he is letting the pharmaceutical industry, the National Institutes
of Health and academic biomedicine have it. "Climate Bills Will 'Require a Wholesale Transformation of the Nation's Economy and Society'" - "A Washington Post article today stated that the Democrats' current global warming proposals "will require a wholesale transformation of the nation's economy and society." The article by Post staff writer Juliet Eilperin noted that Democrat presidential candidates' climate proposals would "cost billions of dollars," and detailed exactly what the American people will face when it comes to cap-and-trade proposals." (EPW) "The opinion polls aren't settled either" - "The BBC is trumpeting the results of a poll it commissioned, which, it claims, shows that "most people are ready to make personal sacrifices to address climate change". (The Monkey Tennis Centre) Why? "Legal
framework for carbon emission cuts" - "Britain will become the first country in the world to
introduce legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions in a bill announced in the Queen's speech today. "Climate Change Bill promises 60% cuts" - "The Climate Change Bill is claimed to be the first in the world to set a nation on a path towards legally binding cuts of 60 per cent in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050." (London Telegraph) That Climate Change Bill... - Today is the Queen’s Speech opening Parliament. Here are the full details of the Government’s ‘Climate Change Bill’ as laid out in the Speech [and as as reported by the Rt. Hon. Sir Gullible Green]: (Global Warming Politics) Emission Impossible - Yet again we see what an abject waste of time the Kyoto Protocol has become. When will politicians face reality? Surprise, surprise. As London’s Metro newspaper vividly reports: ‘Greenhouse gas emissions at “record high”’: (Global Warming Politics) "More
evidence of sun induced Global Warming" - "If CO2 emissions were the major cause of global
warming then we would see constant increases in temperature across the day and night as the CO2 blanket keeps the
heat inside our atmosphere. Scientific research has shown that this has occurred with both minimum and maximum
temperature increasing. "CBC’s continuing denial of the climate
science debate" - "Like the network itself, The Fifth Estate has violated its own mandate with
‘The Denial Machine’
But what if The Fifth Estate itself is the perpetrator of the injustice? What if it is their own network that has ignored and mistreated those who disagree with “conventional wisdom” on an issue of national importance? Will the programme then “challenge assumptions” on which fashionable views are based? Or will they simply parrot political correctness, carefully ignoring, or denigrating the opinions of those who spend their lives studying the field?" | Part II: CBC’s denial of the climate science debate (Dr. Tim Ball & Tom Harris, CFP) "How Green Is NBC?" - "NBC is going green all week long! What does this mean? The peacock logo that perches (rather annoyingly) in the corner of the screen during shows is green. Sometimes, a lil’ green feather detaches and sets up a green tip. Did you know you should buy a power strip to plug all your stuff into, and then turn the strip off, because when electric devices are plugged into the wall, they still use up electricity? I’m unplugging my refrigerator right now!" (Pop Omnivore) "Green Weak At NBC" - "Environment: A lot of carbon was emitted flying Matt Lauer to the Arctic, Ann Curry to Antarctica and Al Roker to the equator. Want to save energy and the planet? Turn off NBC." (IBD) Oh boy... "Green with Energy?" - "Energy demands at odds with global warming and health as well as environmental concerns." (MMP)
What? "Antarctic
odyssey documents alarming retreat of the sea ice" - "When the renowned wildlife photographers
Jonathan and Angie Scott first visited the Antarctic 15 years ago, at the beginning of the continent's summer in
early November, they could see the pack ice from their expedition ship.
"Alaska warming from Arctic tundra shrub invasion and soot deposition?" - "Dr. Roger Pielke forwarded me his latest paper published in the JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, for release. It has quite a different take on the issue of regional warming in Alaska. Given the emotional testimony given in congress this week by Cheryl Charlee Lockwood, who is a recent high school graduate and works in the Alaska Youth for Environmental Action program, before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, this study seemed relevant to current events." (Watts Up With That?) "Understanding global warming" - "You've seen a lot of news stories on it and perhaps you have seen Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." While scientists agree global warming is real and happening now, they disagree over what's causing it." (Jim Kambrich, WNYT-TV) "Why So Hot
Under The Collar?" - "RALEIGH, NC - A journalist friend of mine asked me the other day why my
colleagues and I at the John Locke Foundation have so closely followed -- and criticized -- the workings of two
state global-warming panels. The answer is simple: there are few issues of greater significance to the future of
North Carolina than getting our energy policies right. That virtual world taking a hiding again: "Climate change could diminish drinking water more than expected" - "As sea levels rise, coastal communities could lose up to 50 percent more of their fresh water supplies than previously thought, according to a new study from Ohio State University." (AP) "UN Climate Chief Confident on Bali Progress" - "SINGAPORE - The UN's top climate change official said on Tuesday he was confident world governments meeting in Bali next month would finally begin negotiations on mapping out a second plan to fight global warming." (Reuters) Real climate studies at work: "Climate
Experts to Help Fight Africa's Meningitis" - "OSLO - Climate and health experts are teaming up
to combat meningitis in Africa, fearing that creeping desertification and dust storms will aid a disease that
thrives where people suffer from sore throats. "NASA technology helps predict and prevent future pandemic outbreaks" - "With the help of 14 satellites currently in orbit and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Applied Sciences Program, scientists have been able to observe the Earth’s environment to help predict and prevent infectious disease outbreaks around the world. The use of remote sensing technology aids specialists in predicting the outbreak of some of the most common and deadly infectious diseases today such as Ebola, West Nile virus and Rift Valley Fever." (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene) That's great fellas... "Scientists
enhance Mother Nature's carbon handling mechanism" - "Taking a page from Nature herself, a team
of researchers developed a method to enhance removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and place it in the
Earth's oceans for storage.
From CO2 Science
this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: A Six-Century Streamflow Reconstruction for China's Yellow River: What does it suggest about the river's major "dry-ups" of the late 1990s? Plant Stomatal Response to Volcanogenic SO2: What is it? ... and what is its primary significance? Effects of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment on Vegetative Productivity: Have they been over-estimated by enclosure studies? Herbivores vs. Oak Trees in a CO2-Enriched Atmosphere: Which receives the advantage compared to the situation that prevails in ambient air? Temperature
Record of the Week: "Yet Another Energy Revolution (Yawn)" - "The New Age of Energy" trumpets the cover story in U.S. News and World Report this week. Illustrating the revolution is a photo of what looks like a carpenter's level stuck in the ground after just arriving from outer space." (William Tucker, American Spectator) "EU Executive Faces Blow to Car Pollution Tax Plan" - "BRUSSELS - Several European Union states oppose replacing their car registration tax with a levy based on how much a car pollutes, an EU document showed, in a big setback to the bloc's executive." (Reuters)
"Shell rapped over CO2 advert" - "A Shell advert featuring a drawing of flower heads emerging from refinery chimneys, implying the oil company used its waste carbon dioxide to grow flowers, broke industry rules, a watchdog ruled today." (The Guardian)
"Diesel exhaust associated with higher heart attack, stroke risk in men" - "Increased roadway pollution produced by diesel fuel in vehicles is leading to a cascade of conditions that could result in heart attack or stroke, researchers suggested in the report of a small study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2007." (American Heart Association)
Uncommon sense: "Record
profit and green raspberry from Ryanair" - "Michael O'Leary dismissed the climate change debate
as a "middle-class mid-life crisis" as he announced that Ryanair's half-year profits had soared by 24%
to record levels and raised the firm's target for the full year. "World Action on Carbon Capture Said Inadequate" - "LONDON - Capturing carbon emissions from power stations and burying them could be a major weapon in the fight against global warming, but to date there has been little sense of urgency anywhere, a leading geologist said on Tuesday." (Reuters) Woohoo! "Eat More Chocolate and Help the Environment" - "LONDON - Chocoholics can assuage any guilt they may feel after a new process was developed that turns the by-products of making chocolate into a biofuel -- meaning you can eat your chocolate and be eco-friendly." (Reuters) November 6, 2007 "Curing the Diseases of Poverty"
- "ACCRA, Ghana -- The World Health Organization will discuss this week the problems facing the world's poor.
Many of the technocrats gathering in Geneva for the Intergovernmental Working Group on public health, innovation
and property rights believe that eliminating drug patents will usher in a new era of global health and prosperity.
They blame intellectual property laws for high drug prices and limited research and development into cures for the
"diseases of poverty" -- illnesses that disproportionally affect the poor, such as AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria. "The Case for DDT" -
"Malaria is as old as mankind and still going strong, infecting hundreds of millions (and killing between one
and three million) each year. A cure was known in 17th-century Europe. But because it was brought to the continent
by Catholic missionaries (who actually learned of it from South American natives), many malaria sufferers,
included Oliver Cromwell, thought the medicine was part of a "Popish plot" and refused to take it.
Cromwell died of the disease in 1658. It took his death, and the subsequent curing of King Charles II, to shift
public opinion in favor of "quinine," as the anti-malaria agent is now called. Support the campaign against DDT scaremongering with a DDT T-shirt! "The Rise, Fall, Rise, and Imminent Fall of DDT" - "DDT is probably the single most valuable chemical ever synthesized to prevent disease. It has been used continually in public health programs over the past sixty years and has saved millions from diseases like malaria, typhus, and yellow fever. Despite a public backlash in the 1960s, mainstream scientific and public health communities continue to recognize its utility and safety. DDT's delisting for various uses in the United States in 1972 was a political, not a scientific, judgment. After decades of extensive study and use, DDT has not been proven to be harmful to humans. But by 1997, its future looked bleak. Environmentalists were pushing for it to be banned worldwide, and its most articulate champion, the South African Department of Health, stopped using it. Surprisingly, DDT recovered its reputation, and in 2006 the World Health Organization (WHO) championed it again. But celebrations have been short-lived. The momentum to increase DDT use has stalled for lack of increased political and financial support." (Roger Bate, AEI) "Young hunter hypothesis: Why gaining weight with age increases longevity" - "The Daily Mail UK recently reported on a paper published in the journal Medical Hypotheses. Endocrinologists from Israel proposed an interesting hypotheses that JFS readers may find intriguing. Called the 'young hunter hypothesis,' it is supported by the clinical research to date on set-point and the natural weight gain during healthy aging seen among humans throughout history. As the researchers explain, the weight and fat gained in adulthood, particularly around the abdomen, has evolutionary roots and is a major driving force behind human survival and longevity." (Junkfood Science) Someone's green slip is showing: "WTF?
Jennifer Lopez’s New Album Gets Rare Wood USB Key" - "Someone over at SONY BMG Music thought
it would be a great idea to team up with the Adam & Eve brand and create a flash USB key made from the
threatened wood of a tree in Africa. How they managed to get the product out the door without Lopez suggesting a
gift bag made from the skins of puppies is beyond me. "Fizzling 2007 hurricane season stokes warming debate" - "With less than a month left in the hurricane season, and the remnants of Hurricane Noel dissipating off the New England coastline, it appears this season could end up as something of a bust." (Houston Chronicle) "Gore, TODAY spread green message" - "Nobel Prize winner says global warming finally getting serious attention" (Mike Celizic, TODAYShow.com) "Al Gore, Comedian: Media's Global-Warming Coverage Too Balanced" - "Did Al Gore win his Nobel for "peace," or did it perhaps come in a new category: comedy? I ask in the wake of his rib-tickling routine on this morning's "Today." Al, that inveterate card, actually claimed that the MSM's coverage of global warming is . . . too balanced." (News Busters) "Global Warming: Are You
a Whiner or a Viking?" - “Global Warming” has replaced “The Sky is Falling” or “The End is
Near” as the doomsday mythology of our (pseudo-scientific) time. Doomsday mythologies are necessary
psychological props for the weak minded, nervous Nellie whiners of this and all human generations who justify
their wilted flower humanity by arrogantly proclaiming that the worst is inevitable. ANALYSIS
OF UNIPCC 4AR DISPELS MYTH OF "THOUSANDS" OF SCIENTISTS "Freeman Dyson on Heretical Thoughts and Climate Change" - "Previously I wrote about Camille Paglia’s view of “fancy-pants, speculative, climate models”. Like Paglia, Freeman Dyson is listed as one of the top 100 intellectuals in the world today, rated at number 25." (Watts Up With That?) "Proliferation of Climate Scepticism in Europe" - "Climate scepticism has now gained a firm foothold in various European countries." (Hans H.J. Labohm, TCS Daily) "Cirrus Disappearance: Warming Might Thin Heat-trapping Clouds" - "(Nov. 5, 2007) — The widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds is challenged this month in new research from The University of Alabama in Huntsville." (ScienceDaily) "Climate change: Rising tides" - "Britain will spend billions to defend against rising tides over the coming decades, but experts are sharply divided as to how far and fast the waters will rise, reveals Roger Highfield" (London Telegraph) Following on from this item yesterday: "The shape of things to come?" - "A leading climate change scientist gives his prediction of what living with the effects of climate change could be like within 50 years" (Neil Adgar, The Guardian)
"Greenland Climate: Now vs. Then, Part II. Record Greenland Melt Area?" - "Recently the press was more ablaze than California with NASA proclamations that the surface area of Greenland had melted in 2007 at a record-high rate. This is true, if the record only extends back only 20 years or so—which is the case of the NASA dataset. If you could peer back a bit further into the past, say back into the 1950s, it is quite likely that the melt area in Greenland then was about the same as it is now, effectively rendering the 2007 melt area hardly newsworthy. Just another NASA climate-change exaggeration?" (WCR) "Joe Bastardi Interview Part II" - "Katie Fehlinger brings you part two of her interview with our hurricane and long range expert Joe Bastardi. You do not want to miss this one." (AccuWeather) "Global Warming Causes Carbon Dioxide" - "Erroneous Scientific consensus stifles progress" (Tom Scheffelin, California Air Resources Board -- Design News) "Myths, Lies and Deceptions of Climate Change Part 1: The Arctic" - "It seems we are bombarded daily with news of the looming catastrophe from climate change. You can’t turn on the news these days without some anchor telling us that we are facing certain doom if we don’t take drastic measures to stop climate change. But are these reports accurate?" (GloWarming Skeptics) The Cause of Global Warming—Are We Facing Global Catastrophe in the Coming Century? GLOBAL SEA-LEVEL RISE: SHOULD I SELL MY SHORE HOUSE?: MILLER, Kenneth G. Sr1, SUGARMAN, Peter
J.2, and BROWNING, James V.1, (1) Dept. of Geological Sci, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor
Rd, Piscataway, NJ, (2) New Jersey Geol Survey, P.O. Box 427, Trenton, NJ LATE-19TH CENTURY TO EARLY 21ST CENTURY BEHAVIOR OF SOUTHERN ALASKAN GLACIERS: MOLNIA, Bruce Franklin,
USGS, 926A National Center, Reston, VA CORRELATION OF GLACIAL SEQUENCES TO UNRAVEL PATTERNS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT RESOLUTION IS NEEDED?:
LOWELL, Thomas V., Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH GEOLOGIC EVIDENCE OF RECURRING CLIMATE CYCLES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING AND
CLIMATE CHANGES IN THE COMING CENTURY: EASTERBROOK, Don J., Dept. of Geology, Western Washington Univ,
Bellingham, WA VARIATIONS OF TOTAL SOLAR IRRADIANCE AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE: WILLSON, Richard, Center
for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, 12 Bahama Bend, Coronado, CA EXAGGERATION OF HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL WARMING PREDICATIONS: GRAY, William M., Atmospheric Science,
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO "Alps
tourism anticipates climate change" - "INNSBRUCK, Austria - Climate change in the Alps may not
be all bad. Flashback: "Green Alps instead of perpetual ice" - "Glaciers are widely considered as indicators for global warming. Several glacier and climate experts now present new studies with astonishing results. The current decline of the glaciers, according to these studies is not unique. Far from it: over the past 10,000 years these slopes of the Alps have been green more than once." (Michael Breu, ETH Life) "Proposal to fix Pacific with 'urea' dump" - "Proposals to dump large quantities of nitrogen-rich chemical in the Pacific as a quick fix for climate change have emerged at a UN treaty meeting in London." (London Telegraph) "Lieberman-Warner climate bill: reactions" - "U.S. Senators Lieberman and Warner are proposing a new bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." (The Reference Frame) Ooh! Doesn't authority get grumpy when politicians won't keep giving it vast amounts of our money? "Nobel scientists slam Tories for cuts to climate-change research" - "Canadian winners of the Nobel Prize say the Harper government is failing to protect the country from the dangers of global warming because it has shut down a federal climate-change research network and blocked new studies on the impact of rising greenhouse-gas emissions in the atmosphere." (Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service) Proving you can fool most of the people some of the time? "Canadians would accept personal sacrifices to curb climate change: poll" - "PARIS -- Canadians are among the world's leaders in being prepared to accept potential lifestyle changes and higher taxes in order to address climate change, according to a new poll released Monday." (CanWest News Service) He's still at it: "Rich nations must bear bulk of carbon adjustment costs: Stern" - "MUMBAI: ”Most of the greenhouse gases are emitted by the rich countries and they should bear the bulk of the carbon adjustment,” says professor Nicholas Stern, the chairperson of the Stern Committee on Climate Change." (Economic Times) Using Stern's BS models: "UK can meet an 80 per cent CO2 target" - "The UK can cut its CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 according to a new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), WWF and the RSPB published today (Monday). The report says that the Government’s current target of 60 per cent cuts in CO2 emissions by 2050 is inadequate because it is based on out-dated science and excludes the UK’s share of emissions from international aviation." (Press release) More wannabe social engineers: "Q&A: 'The UN does not expect India to reduce emissions'" - "The UN Human Development Report's core message is that climate change could cause reversal of human development in the 21st century, particularly in developing countries. Lead author Kevin Watkins tells Narayani Ganesh that rich countries ought to take drastic, mandatory action to prevent global catastrophe." (Times of India) "Warning of 'crisis of inequality'" - "Poor most at risk as countries lack means to tackle problem: UNDP" (The Nation)
"European Climate
Change Committee visits China to discuss Kyoto talks" - "China is reluctant to accept mandatory
emission cuts, saying that as a developing country, it cannot yet afford to make such an undertaking. "Blair calls on US, Europe to engage with China on climate change, global issues" - "HONG KONG - The United States and Europe need to engage with China and other countries if they want to tackle global issues such as climate change, terrorism and free trade, Britain's former Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday." (AP) Oops... "Japan's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rise 6.4% From 1990 Levels" - "Nov. 5 -- Japan's greenhouse gas emissions rose 6.4 percent in the year ended March from 1990 levels, forcing the government to quicken measures to ensure the country meets its Kyoto Protocol target." (Bloomberg) "Rich Nations' Climate Emissions Up, Near Record" - "OSLO - Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions rose near to an all-time high in 2005, led by US and Russian gains despite curbs meant to slow global warming, UN data showed." (Reuters) "EU leaders will fly across Europe just to sign treaty" - "The European Union opened itself up to criticism from eurosceptics and environmentalists yesterday after agreeing to split next month's summit of 27 heads of state and government between Lisbon and Brussels. Barring a last-minute change of heart, 26 presidents and prime ministers will fly by private jet to Lisbon, swiftly sign the contentious new EU treaty and hop back onto their planes, returning to Brussels for the normal sumptuous summit dinner and discussions about climate change, the Middle East crisis and the credit crunch." (The Guardian) "Climate change needs to be fought like 'World War Three'" - "The fight against climate change has to be fought like "World War Three", the head of the Environment Agency warned today." (Daily Mail)
"Florida Gov. to Lobby for Ethanol on US Congress" - "SAO PAULO - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said on Monday he will encourage US Congress members to lobby for more ethanol use and a reduction in the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian imports of the biofuel." (Reuters) Another misguided moonbat missive: "The western appetite for biofuels is causing starvation in the poor world" - "Developing nations are being pushed to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to political expediency" (George Monbiot, The Guardian)
"Solar-Power Fever May Not Last - Japan's Tokuyama" - "TOKYO - The world's current fever for solar power may not be sustainable and could be a bubble, an executive at Japanese silicon maker Tokuyama Corp said on Monday." (Reuters) "Socialist
oil death spiral" - "Socialism always plants the seeds of its own destruction, and state-owned
oil is no exception. Most people do not realize that about 90 percent of the world's liquid oil reserves are
controlled by governments or state-owned companies. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest privately owned oil company,
owns only 1.08 percent of the world's oil reserves, and the five largest private global oil companies together own
only about 4 percent of the world's oil reserves. Bull spit! "Time
to clean up our energy" - "IN just one day the future for Australian jobs and the economy looks
a whole lot brighter.
Wonder if this means Europe is catching up to North American reforestation? "Europe's forests flourishing, but fire remain a threat: study" - "Fires pose a major threat to Europe's woodlands, but the continent remains the world's only area where forest ecosystems are undergoing a revival, an international study said Monday." (AFP) "Devgen, Monsanto Develop In-Seed Crop Protection" - "BRUSSELS - Belgian biotech group Devgen said it had developed together with US agricultural products company Monsanto Co an insect-protection approach for crops that can be built into the seeds." (Reuters) "France Casts Doubts on Timing of GMO Evaluation" - "PARIS - It may take longer than expected to assess pest-resistant genetically modified (GMO) crops for use in France, the agriculture minister said in remarks published on Monday." (Reuters) November 5, 2007 "A Long Range Forecast" - "It was already late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a chief now in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like." (Icecap) How naïve can you get? "Solutions v sophistry" - "The IPCC, an independent, global panel of scientists, has now clearly shown the causes and effects of climate change. Will the world listen?" (David Adam, The Guardian) "Living
on the edge?" - "SINCE the Industrial Revolution, which led to Wales producing steel and coal
for a lucrative global market, concentrations of the principal greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide – have risen by
a third.
"The
deceit behind global warming" - "No one can deny that in recent years the need to "save the
planet" from global warming has become one of the most pervasive issues of our time. As Tony Blair's chief
scientific adviser, Sir David King, claimed in 2004, it poses "a far greater threat to the world than
international terrorism", warning that by the end of this century the only habitable continent left will be
Antarctica. "If not in atmosphere, where does carbon go?" - "A prominent atmospheric scientist Monday (Oct. 29) called for more research into natural carbon “sinks,” which today absorb almost half of man-made carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and which will play a large role in determining the extent of future global warming. (Harvard University) "Ocean carbon sink & Henry's law" - "David Archer at RealClimate.org is promoting a new kind of climate catastrophe. The ocean is already getting "fed up" with absorbing man-made carbon dioxide, he says. The ocean will get so upset that it may start to emit CO2 instead, we learn. A usual discussion about positive feedbacks and tipping points follows." (The Reference Frame) "Le Chatelier's principle and nature's adaptation" - "The discussion about the ocean carbon sink and Henry's law inevitably evolved into chemistry, especially the question how various concentrations in the equilibrium respond to external changes. I would like to say a few words about an important principle that is respected by all these processes, namely Le Chatelier's principle." (The Reference Frame) "Commerce Department Study Finds 'Unprecedented' Arctic Melting" - "Washington, D.C., November 2, 2007—The story is ominous, chronicling the melting of glaciers, the disappearance of Arctic sea ice, and the eradication of seal habitat. It could have been written yesterday, but it was actually written 85 years ago today." (CEI) Partly right... "Climate
shift 'poles apart'" - "The Antarctic will be spared the worst of global warming and its ice
mass could even grow, but the Arctic will be devastated by rising temperatures, a major new scientific report will
claim.
"Traversing the Arctic" - "As darkness overtakes the very Far North, and the wintry plunge in temperatures starts to rebuild the depleted Arctic Ocean floes, several newsbits offer harbingers of hot change in 2008 and beyond." (Alaska Report) "Polar bear
pandering" - "Sen. Barbara Boxer of California delivered a speech in the Senate last week in
which she linked global warming to the San Diego wildfires, Darfur, the imminent loss of the world's polar bears
and even a poor 14-year-old boy who died from "an infection caused after swimming in Lake Havasu,"
because its water is warmer. Forget arson. Forget genocide. Forget nature. There is no tragedy that cannot be
placed at the doorstep of global-warming skeptics. "Guest Weblog: CO2 variation by Jim Goodridge, former California State Climatologist" - "Moderator's note: This is reposted from an essay that Jim sent to me. Jim was the State Climatologist for California for many years, and still does consulting work for the California Dept. of Water Resources on rainfall studies. Jim has a command of simplicity in presentation, as you’ll read below. Jim’s presentation lends some insight into why CO2 increases lag temperature in historical and proxy climate records. Jim has also done another essay I’ve posted which relates The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Sunspots, and Length of Day variances to rainfall patterns in California which you can read here." (Watts Up With That?) "Bicycles & Bear Skins" - "Global warming alarmists are so confident they've conditioned the masses that they're now moving ahead with their ideas for mandatory lifestyle changes — their goal all along." (IBD) "Former 'Hurricane' Noel Heads for Eastern New England" - "In a May 18, 2007 blog entitled ”Could this Year Be the Northeast’s Hurricane Year?” we noted “History tells us during the warm Atlantic (phase), New York and New England is also more vulnerable to a direct hit. History also tells us this is more likely during La Nina summers. In fact in the 11 La Nina summers when the Atlantic was warm since the middle 1930s, there was at least one landfalling storm from the east coast of Florida to New England in every year with a total of 15 storms, 9 of the storms affected the northeast directly or indirectly.” (Icecap) What? "Politics
has failed" - "The World Health Organisation talks of 150,000 people dying each year from
climate change. In 2007 some 66 million people were made home- less by exceptional floods in Asia. I am writing
this in Melbourne where the drought has lasted eight years and shows no sign of abating. Last month a million
people were evacuated from fires in California. It is difficult to image what kind of catastrophe we are trying to
avoid that is not already happening. And it will, of course, get worse and worse, every year, for all our
lifetimes. Eye-roller: "Two
panels warn climate change could pose huge security challenge" - "AMSTERDAM, Netherlands —
Climate change could be one of the greatest national security challenges ever faced by U.S. policy makers,
according to a new joint study by two U.S. think tanks. "Climate wars threaten billions" - "More than 100 countries face political chaos and mass migration in global warming catastrophe." (Robin McKie, The Observer) "Global Warming Compared to Nuclear Holocaust -- Again?" - "It's always eyebrow-raising to see liberals denounce Team Bush for blatant "fear-mongering" about the terror threat from al-Qaeda or Iran, then watch them turn around and do blatant "fear-mongering" about global warming. A new report from Arthur Max of the Associated Press helpfully relays a crystal-ball report from several think tanks:" (News Busters) "Fires Contribute to Global Warming?" - "The recent wildfires in California have certainly provided an opportunity for the greenhouse crusade to further claim that global warming is already increasing fire frequency, duration, and intensity all over the planet. In the midst of the disaster in California, Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters that “One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming.” However, when pressed by astonished reporters on whether he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster. Since then, literally hundreds of newspaper articles appeared throughout the country reinforcing the idea that emissions of greenhouse gases have warmed the earth, dried the forests, and made fires a lot worse." (WCR) "Circumcision
on Decline in Africa Due to Global Warming" - "Maybe the finest example of Global Warming
Derangement Syndrome to date is the claim by an Australian mammologist and paleontologist that climate change has
reduced circumcision rates in Africa. "Global Warming Tutorial Media Should be Required to Watch" - "While media members fawn over Hollywood productions about manmade global warming such as Al Gore's schlockumentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and Leonardo DiCaprio's box office disaster "The Eleventh Hour," they should take time out of their busy propagandist schedules to view a lecture that Australian research professor Bob Carter recently gave." (News Busters) Doh! "Most Britons Aware But Unwilling on Climate Change" - "LONDON - Warnings about the effects of climate change have made most Britons aware of the crisis, but few are willing to make major changes to the way they live, a survey showed on Friday." (Reuters) "Surplus to requirements?" - "Emissions trading is the market's solution to carbon reductions, but the scheme has already hit snags. And does it really make a difference?" (David Deans, The Guardian)
Oh Neil... "The shape of things to come?" - "A leading climate change scientist gives his prediction of what living with the effects of climate change could be like within 50 years" (Neil Adgar, The Guardian)
Oh Michael... "New York set to tax carbon emissions" - "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a national "pollution pricing" plan that would tax companies directly for the greenhouse gases they release." (AP)
"Mayor
Bloomberg to Attend U.N. Meeting on Climate Change" - "Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is once again
getting ready to pack up his plane and head overseas, this time to the island of Bali for a United Nations meeting
on climate change next month, he said yesterday. "Warming scaremongers lap up the cash" - "People who reached adulthood in the 1960s were greeted with the growing notion that a "population explosion" would wreak havoc upon civilization. In his 1968 book, "The Population Bomb," Paul R. Erlich predicted that:
CBS television produced a special program based on his writing to scare the pants off an unsuspecting
generation. The media jumped on this new, "enlightened," progressive revelation by this Stanford
University butterfly expert, and for years, nations set out to prevent this certain disaster. Very disappointing... "Half of UK's top firms fail to publish plans to cut carbon emissions" - "Only 48 of the top 100 companies trading on the UK stock exchange have published a plan to address and reduce their carbon emissions and a significant minority refuse even to reveal their carbon footprint, a Guardian survey shows." (Murray Armstrong and David Adam, The Guardian)
"Counting carbon" - "What happened when the Guardian and the CDP asked 1,300 major firms to disclose their emissions?" (Murray Armstrong, The Guardian)
"Climate change: we have the power" -"There are pale greens and dark greens. Often they don’t see eye to eye. But there is no shortage of technologies to tackle global warming. We listen to the visionaries of change" | Climate change: the visionaries creating a greener future (Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times) "Heading for trouble" - "Can the government be serious about reducing emissions and promoting public transport if it also plans to expand road and air travel? Zara Maung reports" (The Guardian)
"World's Coal Dependency Hits Environment" - "Cheap and abundant, coal has become the fuel of choice in much of the world, powering economic booms in China and India that have lifted millions of people out of poverty. Worldwide demand is projected to rise by about 60 percent through 2030 to 6.9 billion tons a year, most of it going to electrical power plants." (AP) Obviously worried about CO2 emissions... "China's Yanzhou Plans to Double Coal Output by 2012" - "ZOUCHENG, China - Yanzhou Coal Mining Co Ltd China's third-largest coal producer by market value, plans to double its annual output to roughly 70 million tonnes by around 2012, with aggressive expansion offsetting lower production at its old mines." (Reuters) "Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite" - "Soaring crop prices and demand for biofuels raise fears of political instability." (John Vidal, The Guardian)
"Shrinking ice cap, growing crisis" - "Impact of melting Arctic sea ice seen in drier California winters" (Sacramento Bee)
"Lake Huron water levels spell deep trouble" - "The lake has dropped a metre in last decade and theories abound about the cause." (Toronto Star) "China blames warming for growing water shortages" - "BEIJING, Nov 5 - China suffers a water shortage of nearly 40 billion cubic metres a year which Water Resources Minister Chen Lei blamed largely on global warming, state media reported on Monday." (Reuters) "Nature's Assassin" - "It has laid waste to armies, brought empires to their knees and killed half the humans who walked this planet. photojournalist John Stanmeyer travelled the world to document the terrible power of mosquito-borne malaria." (Sunday Herald) "Last Chance for DDT" - "Thanks to the pragmatism of African health officials and the efforts of some in the U.S. government, the insecticide DDT is still repelling and killing mosquitoes in Africa nations, saving thousands of people from malaria and other infectious diseases each year. But its days may be numbered. While the Bush administration and the World Health Organization have argued articulately in favor of DDT over the past two years, so-called environmentalists and those companies selling alternatives to DDT are pushing to prevent it from being deployed." (Roger Bate, Wall Street Journal) | For the access-impaired Support the campaign against DDT scaremongering with a DDT T-shirt! "Sick and deadly double standards" - "If “corporate social responsibility” is to be more than a brilliant strategy for compelling companies to follow the dictates of “progressive” pressure groups, it must apply defensible ethical principles to all organizations. That is not now the case." (Paul Driessen, Townhall) "Why the Left Seems Right" - "We laugh at phony predictions made by psychics and fortune tellers, but there is a large group of people that makes predictions on a daily basis – but when they’re wrong, we don’t call them on it. Why not? FSM Contributing Editor Bob Parks delves into a strange phenomenon where the Left always seems as though it’s right." (Bob Parks, The Family Security Foundation, Inc.) "Fire and Rain" - "When the FBI transferred me to Los Angeles in 1970, I saw every nook and cranny of LA County, including some neighborhoods recently ravaged by fire. On a muddy hillside there was a scorched foundation, and a hand painted sign lamenting, “We’ve seen fire and we’ve seen rain.” For as long as there has been recorded history, the hills surrounding LA burn annually, and this year is no exception." (Gary Aldrich, Townhall) "Staged marketing event reported as a real story" - "What’s on the news isn’t always real. Last month some marketing agency goofed and forgot the name of the medical organization that had been created to market for the diet drug industry. Not only that, but their press release was again reported on news across the country as if it was a real story. Oops!" (Junkfood Science) "Blame it on the bacon" - "The latest commotion over diet and cancer suggests the hysteria bug has now infected doctors" (Mark Lawson, The Guardian) "Living size acceptance" - "Another living example of accepting bodies of all shapes and sizes comes from someone whose TV character was once associated with being without feelings. Mr. Leonard Nimoy, who most remember as Mr. Spock on Star Trek, is not only an actor and director, but a noted photographer and poet with passion and compassion. He has photographed bodies of all sizes, but his latest project is the topic of a recent indepth interview with the Jewish Chronicle. Reporter Simon Round writes:" (Junkfood Science) "McDonalds in plan to help Amazon forests" - "McDonalds has joined forces with US grain buyer Cargill and environmental group The Nature Conservancy for a strategy that could serve as a model for Brazilian soy farming." (London Telegraph) EU butterflies 'dire' (London Telegraph)
Yomping* The Organic Brigade - I had missed this glorious piece in Tuesday’s Daily Mail by the one-and-only Max Hastings, the ‘liberator’ of the famous Upland (organic?) Goose on the Falkland Islands: ‘Overpriced and over-hyped, don’t believe all you read about organic food’. Now Max was never one to take prisoners: (Global Warming Politics) "North Sacramento-based Ventria Sowing a storm
with altered rice" - "In a little town in Kansas, Sacramento's Ventria Bioscience is about to
turn one of the biotechnology industry's long-held dreams – and one of its critics' nightmares – into reality. "Frankenpolitics" -
"It's three strikes and you're out -- except in Europe, where Austria is still illegally trying to ban
genetically modified plants and the EU is still letting Vienna get away with it. November 2, 2007 "Food Nannies' Halloween Cancer Scare" - "The latest food scare was announced, appropriately enough, on Halloween. But the science behind the scare is about as believable as are ghosts and goblins." (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com) Junk à la carte (Number Watch) "JFS Exclusive: What’s the evidence cancers are our own fault?" - "We haven’t been able to turn on the television or radio or open a newspaper without being hit with news of the Second Expert Report just issued by the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research. The Report is called “Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective,” and is said to have found the most convincing evidence yet that being fat causes six cancers. Cancers, we’re told, “are mostly preventable” by following their diet and lifestyle recommendations." (Junkfood Science) "The real problem is we're living too long" - "Jeff Randall wonders what Churchill would have made of today's unholy alliance of puritans, health fascists and nanny-state control freaks." (London Daily Telegraph) "Is Nutrition Science Not Really Science?" - "I was hoping to slow the ban-trans-fat cascade by wondering if it would lead to bans of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup — but some readers liked the idea of outlawing those sweeteners. Well, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. But before we pass any more laws on what to eat, I wish we’d take a harder look at how often the supposed experts in nutrition have been wrong before." (John Tierney, New York Times) "Frog killer fungus 'breakthrough'" - "New Zealand scientists have found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is responsible for wiping out many of the world's frog populations." (BBC via Greenie Watch) "Effort to Save Everglades Falters as Funds Dwindle" - "Seven years into an $8 billion effort to rescue the Florida Everglades, federal financing has slowed to a trickle." (New York Times) "Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased" - "The debate is over. A consensus has been reached. On global warming? No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers." (IBD) BS du jour: "Parent sue over bisphenol A in bottles" - "A group of California parents has filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers and sellers of baby bottles containing bisphenol A." (UPI) "World domination" - "JFS readers likely found humorous Medscape’s choice of a title for an article describing the new definition of myocardial infarction: “New Definition of "MI" Poised for World Domination.” Calling the new consensus statement “a bold move,” today’s issue explained that the task force behind the new mandate justified the change by saying it will standardize the definition so that hospitals around the world will be on the same page. The parallel to recent changes in other health definitions is striking, as standardization was the very same rationale used to change the definition of ‘overweight.’" (Junkfood Science) Why we need broad spectrum insecticides: "Bed
bugs: Awake to the growing problem" - "Bed bugs have taken up residence in urban areas across
the country, and the infestation may only get worse, said a Penn State entomologist. "Green Self-Fulfilling Prophecies" - "There is little more annoying for a policy analyst than when two types of wrong-headedness conspire to undermine his case. Such is the case for policies driven by the pursuit of a pesticide free -- or at least pesticide diminished -- future, which will cause an increase in insect-borne disease. When this happens, as it surely will, climate alarmists will claim it's due to your greenhouse gas emissions, not their policies, and will press for more stringent controls." (Roger Bate, TCS Daily) Now available from DemandDebate.com! A Primer on CO2 and Climate
Neo-Fascism
- Today, I should like to commend an interesting article by James Delingpole writing in The Spectator
(October 31): ‘Might
I be a Marxist?’
I could not agree more. This web site stands firmly on the side of libertarianism and the Enlightenment against the authoritarianism and Utopian romanticism of ‘the state’, both of Old Communism and of Fascism. What Delingpole is really concerned about is a resurgent Neo-Fascism, especially with respect to Islamism and “eco-fascist hysteria”, among other issues. (Global Warming Politics) "'Global Warming'
as Pathological Science" - "Trofimko Lysenko is not a household name; but it should be, because
he was the model for all the Politically Correct "science" in the last hundred years. Lysenko was
Stalin's favorite agricultural "scientist," peddling the myth that crops could be just trained into
growing bigger and better. You didn't have to breed better plants over generations, as farmers have been doing for
ages. It was a fantasy of the all-powerful Soviet State. Lysenko sold Stalin on that fraud in plant genetics, and
Stalin told Soviet scientists to fall into line --- in spite of the fact that nobody really believed it. Hundreds
of thousands of peasants starved during Stalin's famines, in good part because of fraudulent science. "NASA Data May Help Improve Estimates of a Hurricane's Punch" - "As Tropical Storm Noel churns off Florida's east coast, NASA and university scientists have announced they have developed a promising new technique for estimating the intensity of tropical cyclones from space. The method could one day supplement existing techniques, assist in designing future tropical cyclone satellite observing systems, and improve disaster preparedness and recovery efforts." (NASA) "Palin says polar bear protection
as endangered is unjustified" - "Unfazed by new studies predicting the disappearance of polar
bears from Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin is repeating her opposition to listing the bears as threatened under the
federal Endangered Species Act. "New
global warming villain fingered: Trees" - "Forests have long been thought of as an ally in the
fight against global warming, but a new study suggests that Canada's boreal forest may in fact be releasing more
greenhouse gases than it absorbs.
"US fires release large amounts of carbon dioxide" - "Large-scale fires in a western or southeastern state can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as the state's entire motor vehicle traffic does in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder." (NCAR) It's supposed to be a nice holiday... "The icy road to Bali" - "The UN's quiet new boss is hoping that his eco-tour of the southern hemisphere will concentrate minds on the planet's travails." (The Economist) Time it actually did something useful, like closing its doors permanently: "A UN agency struggles with climate change" - "NAIROBI is the third base of operations for the United Nations, after Geneva and New York. It is home to two UN agencies: Habitat, which deals with urban planning, and the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, which has had a mandate to “save the environment” since its inception in 1972." (The Economist) Should've expected this: "Britain's
colossal food waste is stoking climate change" - "Britons must swap their wasteful habits with
food for the thrifty approach of previous generations by buying less and eating leftovers if the UK is to play its
part in averting climate change, shoppers were warned yesterday. "Campaign launched to reduce UK's £8bn food waste mountain" - "British households are in effect throwing away every third shopping bag of food they buy, most of it ending up in landfill at huge environmental and financial cost, according to research." (The Guardian) More Krupp: "A Lid On Warming: Lieberman Bill To Cap Emissions On Track" - "When it comes to climate change, words are almost as plentiful as greenhouse gases. Speeches, rallies and campaign promises have raised public awareness, but while the rest of the developed world has moved forward, the United States government has been notably short on real action. With scientific evidence mounting that we are fast approaching a dangerous tipping point beyond which climate change will accelerate rapidly, we urgently need Congress to produce results." (Hartford Courant) "Climate Bill Will Cost ‘Hundreds of Billions of Dollars' - Lieberman Concedes" - "The Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill (S2191) would cost "hundreds of billions of dollars" to the electrical and industrial sectors of the economy, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) conceded today. Senator Lieberman made the remarks during today's Environment & Public Works (EPW) subcommittee markup on the bill." (EPW) "Greenhouse gases: Demand control policies, supply and the time path of carbon prices" - "EU leaders don’t determine the pace of climate change. Demand reduction by some consumers only lowers fossil fuel consumption to the degree that resource owners decide to curtail their supply. Ultimately, the volume of fossil fuel burnt globally depends upon the rate of extraction and this is in the hands of oil producers who care about carbon’s intertemporal price path. Policies aimed at lowering carbon demand without concern for the price path of carbon may backfire." (Hans-Werner Sinn, VoxEU) "Doublethinking PM: Orwell, it could always be worse when it comes to politics" - "To understand Prime Minister Stephen Harper's policy on global warming, you have to appreciate the concept of doublethink from George Orwell's great political satire, 1984." (Edmonton Sun) Correspondence received: Dedidici Astra Quom Asini Gubernatus - My state's
motto Ad Astra Per Aspera, (To The Stars With Difficulty), needs to be modified whenever a liberal such as
Governor Sebelius is elected from now on. I rather like Dedidici Astra Quom Asini Gubernatus, or Forget The
Stars When Donkeys Rule. For this life long Kansan, it's starting to feel a bit like I'm living on the left coast,
and not just the left coast but the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco über left coast. We've actually gone even
farther than them in one respect. We are the very first state in our blessed Nation to reject a clean burning, job
boosting, economy growing, coal fired power plant because of concerns that it will harm the environment by
releasing carbon dioxide! We used to just be famous for wheat production, pheasant hunting and the world's largest
ball of twine, but our dear Governor saw fit to make us the first state sanctioned victim of Al Gore's carbon
scam. Maybe she did it as an honorarium in recognition of his Nobel Prize for fiction, or was it the Nobel Prize
for the promotion of socialism? I forget.
"Fixing Leaky Gas Pipes Seen as Next CO2 Grab" - "NEW YORK - Plugging leaky natural gas pipelines in Eastern Europe could be the next big business opportunity in reducing climate changing emissions, the freshly selected chair of a global greenhouse gas business group said." (Reuters) "Airline emissions: Europe’s winners and losers" - "Budget airlines are best placed to deal with the aviation industry’s entry into the EU carbon-trading scheme, writes Mike Scott (CCC Newsdesk) Oh boy... "Power from the final frontier" - "Giant collectors in space that beam solar energy back to Earth could soon be a reality. And, as James Bloom reports, it could be a bigger moneyspinner than space tourism" (James Bloom, The Guardian)
"Energy Legislation"
- "While it seems some leaders in Congress are willing to compromise with the White House on an energy bill,
back-door wrangling could grind the measure to a halt, a prospect many conservatives and business groups wouldn't
mind in the least. "Biologists for Agency Endorse Dams Plan" - "Federal wildlife officials in Seattle said the plan, with minor modifications, does not jeopardize the survival of 13 stocks of endangered fish." (New York Times) "Biofuel rush harmful, Oxfam warns" - "The rush for biofuels could harm the world's poorest people, Oxfam has said. In a new report, the UK aid charity appears to be joining a growing chorus of concern about the side-effects of Europe's drive to get fuel from plants." (BBC) "Asia Energy Keen for Bangladesh Nod on Coal Mine" - "DHAKA - London-based miner Asia Energy hopes Bangladesh will soon agree a coal policy that will give the company the green light for a US$3 billion investment in a major coal mine project, and it defended the planned open pit mine against criticism from environmentalists." (Reuters) "Sweet potato shines as new promise for small enterprise and hunger relief in developing countries" - "Sweetpotatoes, often misunderstood and underrated, are receiving new attention as a life-saving food crop in developing countries." (American Society for Horticultural Science) "New designer toxins kill Bt-resistant insect pests" - "A new way to combat resistant pests stems from discovering how the widely used natural insecticide Bt kills insects. Figuring out how Bt toxins punch holes in the cells of an insect's gut was the key to designing the new toxins, according to a Mexico-U.S. research team." (University of Arizona) November 1, 2007 Another Halloween feature? Nature's
fury: climate change - a special report
The time for talking is over. Climate change is with us and now we must all live with the consequences. Forget
the gloom, let's get on with it. "My Nobel Moment" -
"I've had a lot of fun recently with my tiny (and unofficial) slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But, though I was one of thousands of IPCC participants, I
don't think I will add "0.0001 Nobel Laureate" to my resume. Even more hypocritical than Al? "A
Nobel cricketer" - "RK Pachauri heads the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for informing the world about the dangers of climate change.
What you may not know about him is that he is a cricket fanatic and plays regularly, even at the age of 67. He
captains the Tata Energy Research Institute in Delhi's corporate league, in which he has taken 345 wickets. The Indian
Express reports that Pachauri once "took a break during a seminar in New York and flew to Delhi over the
weekend to attend a practice session for a match before flying back. Again, he flew in for a day, just to play
that match." "The Environmentalist
Fires" - "Last week, CNN delayed for a few hours the scheduled Tuesday night broadcast debut of
its much-hyped documentary series "Planet in Peril" due to live coverage of the tragic wildfires that
have displaced more than 500,000 people in Southern California. But that didn't keep CNN "golden boy"
reporter Anderson Cooper from using the tragedy to tout the program he starred in as much as he could. "Using Fires To Sell Global Warming" - " We don't know which is weirder — Dennis Kucinich's belief in UFOs or the House holding hearings on Harry Reid's claim that global warming caused California's wildfires. The "scientific link" doesn't exist." (IBD) Virtually: "Wildfire drives carbon levels in northern forests" - "Far removed from streams of gas-thirsty cars and pollution-belching factories lies another key player in global climate change. Circling the northern hemisphere, the conifer-dominated boreal forests - one of the largest ecosystems on earth - act as a vast natural regulator of atmospheric carbon levels." (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
"Wildfires Release as Much
CO2 as Cars" - "Large wildfires in the Western United States can pump as much carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere in just a few weeks as cars do in those areas in an entire year, a new study suggests. The Greenland-Antarctica Melting Problem Does Not Exist My attention was drawn to a Working Paper by Alan Carlin, which was basically about how emissions reductions
may be a dangerous strategy to avoid climate change. Much of his perceived threat is based on papers by Hansen
(2007) and others who propose rapid melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica (henceforth Antarctica) Ice
Sheets that causes a sea level rise of 5 m or more. "Climate Change and the ‘Politics of Fear’" - "Is the environmental movement, like the war on terror, premised on a “politics of fear”? In other words, does it try to unify people by scaring them with threats to their basic survival?" (Sewell Chan, New York Times) "Bjorn Lomborg: Hotter weather, fewer deaths" - "What will happen over the coming century, with temperatures rising? The standard story is that our world will become a very unpleasant one. Famously, the chief scientific advisor to the British government, Sir David King, even envisions that an ice-free "Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked." (National Post) "The Global-Warming Neurosis"
- "As the California fires continue to play themselves out – albeit at great distances from where we live
– invisible quantities of ash and other byproducts of the conflagration permeate the air. Our dog – accustomed
to drinking from her pan outside the back door – sniffed, but refused to drink, the water, apparently noticing
an unwelcome substance or odor. Only after my wife refilled the pan from inside the house would our dog drink. "Monkey Sighting Stirs Climate Fears in Kenya" - "NAIROBI - The discovery in Kenya of a new population of monkeys far from their normal habitat is a sign of how climate change may already be changing Africa's ecology, a leading conservationist said on Wednesday." (Reuters) "Lake Superior called 'early victim of climate
change'" - "DULUTH - Like ice sheets melting in the Arctic, Lake Superior has begun showing some
of the world's most tangible evidence of global warming, according to scientists gathered in Duluth this week. "Nordic Nations Sound Alarm Over Melting Arctic" - "OSLO - Nordic nations sounded the alarm on Wednesday about a quickening melt of Arctic ice and said the thaw might soon prove irreversible because of global warming." (Reuters) "Northern Pebbles New Pawns in Arctic Chess Game" - "PARIS - A tiny speck of pebbles found off the northern coast of Greenland could open up a new front in the looming battle for control of the Arctic and the North Pole." (Reuters)
"Japan Greenhouse Emissions Fell 1.3 Pct Last Yr - Paper" - "TOKYO - Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.3 percent in the year ended in March partly due to a warm winter, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, but a rebound this year threatens to make Tokyo's Kyoto goal still harder to reach." (Reuters) "Japan
Needs Measures to Avert $10.5 Billion Carbon Credit Cost" - "Japan needs to implement measures
to lower greenhouse gas emissions and avoid a bill of as much as 1.2 trillion yen ($10.5 billion) to buy carbon
credits in global markets, a government report says. "Climate change and the
right to develop" - "At the 15th Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) held in Sydney last month, President Hu Jintao made proposals for tackling climate change,
including ways to strengthen cooperation, pursue sustainable development and promote scientific and technological
innovation. He stressed that "climate change is ultimately a development issue and it can only be addressed
in the course of sustainable development". "Dead
treaty, but Labor's flogging it" - "It was hilarious seeing Kevin Rudd give a press conference
on renewable energy at a Townsville school on Tuesday, when the wind and solar batteries failed and plunged the
room into darkness. The media questioning continued, but under the thin light of the battery-operated TV cameras. "US Pension Fund Urges More Climate Risk Disclosure" - "WASHINGTON - Calpers, the biggest US pension fund, said Wednesday it could not assess companies thoroughly unless they detail potential exposure to climate change-related risks and benefits." (Reuters)
"Senate
Banking Committee takes up corporate disclosure of financial" - "Several Democrats on the Senate
Banking Committee today said they may push for greater disclosure from companies about the financial risk they
face from climate change. Well, duh! "Government 'puts the economy before the environment' with transport plan" - "Ministers were accused of downgrading the drive to cut carbon emissions from Britain's transport network after revealing a long-term strategy for increased road, rail and air travel." (London Independent) "Energy-saving
moves could add to emissions" - "Initiatives aimed at saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions
could end up damaging the Government's climate policy instead, a new study claims. "Rising fear of energy crisis this winter" - "Electricity shortages and gas supply problems predicted to push bills up" (The Guardian) "Climate Change Obsessed Media Boycott Looming Energy Crisis" - "Coal-fired electric power plants might be in danger of extinction at the hands of global warming alarmists, possibly setting the nation up for a looming energy crisis like none it's ever experienced." (News Busters) "Sweden Wants More Eco-Studies of Baltic Gas Link" - "OSLO - Sweden demanded on Wednesday more studies on the environmental impact of a planned US$7 billion gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, throwing up a new obstacle to the strategic Russian-German project." (Reuters) "Researchers warn Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone' could grow" - "The New Jersey-size Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" will likely grow in coming years unless federal policies to control it change, in part because the demand for corn-based ethanol fuel will worsen the problem, University of Michigan scientists say." (University of Michigan) "La Nina to Persist into
2008 - UN Weather Agency" - "GENEVA - A "La Nina" cooling of sea temperatures is under
way in the Pacific Ocean and the phenomenon is likely to persist into next year, the United Nations weather agency
said on Wednesday.
"'Fit towns' plan to tackle
child obesity" - "The government is planning to tackle the growing obesity epidemic in Britain
by broadening its plans for eco towns and turning them into healthy or fit towns, the Guardian can reveal. "Did Diet Politics Corrupt World Cancer Research Fund Recommendations?" - "One of the World Cancer Research Fund's key recommendations on how to avoid cancer may be flawed because of what was not included in the survey." (Trevor Butterworth, STATS) A picture is worth a thousand words. This T-shirt graphic was designed by Allan Faustino and has become the topic of the day because it powerfully illustrates the futility and heartbreak of trying to become something you were never naturally meant to be. Just as this adorable little rhino can never become a unicorn — which is a fictitious, unattainable figure, anyway — a genetically fat person can’t just become a thin one." (Junkfood Science) "Brussels to Have Last Word on GMO Corn" - "The deadlocked EU debate on Austria's ban on genetically modified corn will be sent to the EC for a decision." (EUobserver) |