Archives - November 2008 Obama's Bad Green Deal - President-elect
Barack Obama's plan to combat unemployment by creating 2.5 million public works jobs could only be loved by
someone ignoring the economic and political realities of public works, alternative energy and the Greens. (Steven
Milloy, FoxNews.com)
This must be activists' fallback panic since the Earth steadfastly refuses to enter meltdown mode: Acidic
seas threaten coral and mussels: Impact of rising carbon dioxide levels far worse than previously thought -
Rising carbon dioxide levels are increasing acidity in the oceans 10 times faster than scientists thought, posing
a greater threat to shell-forming creatures such as coral and mussels. So, what's wrong with this picture? Briefly: Of course, if someone was likely to pay me buckets of money to tool around on my own private 'research' reef
I might be tempted to feign concern about these critters too but there is no plausible biological reason to do
so. Carbon Dioxide
(CO2) is Not Pollution - "CO2 for different people has different attractions. After all, what is it? -
it’s not a pollutant, it’s a product of every living creature’s breathing, it’s the product of all plant
respiration, it is essential for plant life and photosynthesis, it’s a product of all industrial burning, it’s
a product of driving – I mean, if you ever wanted a leverage point to control everything from exhalation to
driving, this would be a dream. So it has a kind of fundamental attractiveness to bureaucratic mentality." -
Richard S. Lindzen, Ph.D. Professor of Atmospheric Science, MIT (Popular Technology) Scientists urge
caution on global warming - Climate change skeptics on Capitol Hill are quietly watching a growing
accumulation of global cooling science and other findings that could signal that the science behind global warming
may still be too shaky to warrant cap-and-trade legislation. <chuckle> 'Brown clouds' stir
Asian conspiracy storm - MUMBAI - A controversial United Nations report claiming "atmospheric brown
clouds" generated by Asia are harming the world's climate, agriculture and health has created a storm of
controversy in India, which has slammed it as part of Western pressure on Asia's efforts to counter global
warming. Actually development will clear the Asian Brown Cloud, just as soon as there is ample affordable baseload
electricity (and domestic appliances to take advantage of it). This will have the massive spinoff benefit of
alleviating a large proportion of chronic female and juvenile respiratory problems endemic in the region from
indoor biomass and coal fires used for cooking and heating. Unfortunately everything the greenies and gorebull
warming hysterics desire makes the situation worse, especially for Asians and Africans. The absurd carbon
dioxide fixation currently so fashionable does immense harm, mostly to impoverished people. Adjusting
Temperatures for the ENSO and the AMO - The essay below has been part of a back and forth email exchange for
about a week. Bill has done some yeoman’s work here at coaxing some new information from existing data. Both
HadCRUT and GISS data was used for the comparisons to a doubling of CO2, and what I find most interesting is that
both Hadley and GISS data come out higher in for a doubling of CO2 than NCDC data, implying that the adjustments
to data used in GISS and HadCRUT add something that really isn’t there. How not to measure
temperature, part 76 - This is the USHCN station of record for Oberlin KS. COOP # 145906 It was installed at
this location in March 2008. Consensus dissipating
on global warming? - Global-warming skepticism has apparently gone mainstream enough to get the attention of
Politico. On the cusp of getting the most progressive Congressional leadership in history, the science used to
argue for central control of energy production may disappear along with the warming that by all accounts stopped
ten years ago: (Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) Obama Watch - This week President-elect Barack Obama
promised to “lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change" at an international
climate change summit in California. In a previously-recorded video message to the 800 attendees, Obama repeated
his campaign pledge to push for a cap-and-trade scheme that would reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020,
and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama also promoted his plan to spend $15 billion annually for ten years to
create 5 million green jobs. (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest) Tracking 'The Gore
Effect' - For several years now, skeptics have amusedly eyed a phenomenon known as “The Gore Effect” to
half-seriously argue their case against global warming. Heading for disappointment: How Arctic melting could
benefit shippers, oil companies - With global warming melting the Arctic's eons-old ice at an alarming rate,
shipping and oil companies are looking ahead at how to exploit the new open waters. (McClatchy-Tribune) Moonbat squeaks on: The
planet is now so vandalised that only total energy renewal can save us - It may be too late. But without
radical action, we will be the generation that saved the banks and let the biosphere collapse (George Monbiot, The
Guardian) Here's a newsflash for ya George -- the biosphere is thriving, largely due to human endeavor accidentally
returning a resource in desperately short supply: atmospheric carbon dioxide :) CLIMATE CHANGE: EU Saying, Not Doing, the Right Things
- BRUSSELS, Nov 25 - Senior European Union figures are portraying themselves as champions of sound ecological
policies ahead of the international climate change negotiations that begin in Poznan, Poland Dec. 1. Stavros
Dimas, Europe's environment commissioner, this week described a series of measures being considered by the bloc's
27 governments as "easily the most far-reaching legislative package on fighting climate change anywhere in
the world." PREVIEW - Downturn Tests Resolve
At UN Climate Talks - OSLO - The economic downturn will test the world's resolve to do more to fight global
warming at 190-nation talks in Poland next week, but the election of Barack Obama as US president should temper
the gloom. (Reuters) INTERVIEW - Italy To Veto New EU
Climate Targets If No Changes - ROME - Italy will veto new European greenhouse gas limits for 2020 unless it
gets concessions, its environment minister said on Tuesday, suggesting the EU might wait a year before adopting
new climate change policies. (Reuters) UK Says Supports EU Climate Plan
Despite Recession - LONDON - Britain supports the European Union's tough climate change proposals even as
Europe falls into recession, the UK minister of state for energy and climate change told a conference on Tuesday.
(Reuters) Climate law 'could cost billions' - The UK's
Climate Change Bill - due to become law this week - may represent a poor deal for taxpayers, a former Conservative
minister has said. (Richard Black, BBC) Coughing up to curb climate change - The UK's
Climate Change Bill, which commits future governments to cut CO2 emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050, is
about to receive Royal Assent but at what cost? Peter Lilley MP asks why ministers failed to mention that the
legislation could cost each family in the UK up to £10,000. (Peter Lilley, BBC) EU climate plan could cost more than 100,000
German jobs: report - Germany could lose more than 100,000 jobs if the European Union makes industries pay for
pollution rights that are free at present, a press report said on Tuesday, citing an unpublished economy ministry
report. Carbon Offsets Could Swamp EU
Carbon Price - Report - LONDON - A ballooning global supply of carbon offsets could flood the European Union's
emissions market and dent prices, according to a report to be published next month by Britain's Carbon Trust.
(Reuters) Eastern EU members seek new climate
proposal ahead of summit - Eastern EU member states want to see a fresh proposal from France regarding the
European Union's planned climate and energy package, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Monday. (AFP) Japan Aims To Limit Speculation In
Emissions Trade - LONDON - Japan's prime minister wants to limit speculative trading in his country's carbon
emissions trading scheme, a senior policy negotiator said on Tuesday. (Reuters) The price of dissent on
global warming - WHEN I first stuck my head above the parapet to say I didn't believe what we were being told
about global warming, I had no idea what the consequences would be. I am a scientist and I have to follow the
directions of science, but when I see that the truth is being covered up I have to voice my opinions. Warming Likely from Further CO2 Increases
(pdf) - Even though the computer models have never yielded a single result that matches observations, any
criticism of the models is met with some sort of complex justification that is beyond the comprehension of the
general public so it is readily accepted by the masses and those questioning the validity of the models are
vilified by the promoters of the AGW agenda as skeptics and deniers who are in the pockets of big oil. From CO2 Science this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: A Late Holocene Fire History of East-Central Alberta,
Canada: How does it compare with the region's climate history? Wood Responses to Elevated Carbon Dioxide and Ozone
Concentrations in Trembling Aspen and Paper Birch Trees: What are they? ... and how do the effects of the two
trace gases compare with each other? Effects of Atmospheric CO2
Enrichment on a Marine Diatom: Does CO2-enriched seawater enhance or reduce diatom
photosynthesis and growth rates? Leaf Fluctuating Asymmetry in a Mediterranean Shrub:
How has it been affected by multi-generational exposure to elevated atmospheric CO2
concentrations near a natural CO2 spring? ... and what does the result imply?
(co2science.org) Is Global Warming Spatially
Complex? - Originally Posted on September 25, 2005. Australia cries foul over
climate rules on developing countries - CANBERRA is pushing to change the rules for international climate
change talks in Copenhagen next year to prevent rich developed countries, such as Singapore and South Korea, being
required to do less because the Kyoto Protocol classifies them as developing. California
takes steps to combat global warming - California is building a second line of defense against global warming,
one that will prepare the state for a harsher environment while the other continues to cut climate-changing
emissions. Tell The EPA To “(Not)
Regulate This!” - The EPA wants to regulate just about anything … most importantly, the bureaucracy has
set its sites on regulating carbon dioxide. It will restrict how much we can emit from, you know, pretty much any
economic activity. It’s the proposal — you may have heard of it — that would allow the government to
regulate everything down to your lawnmower. (see our recent GoredEarth cartoon embedded in this post.) (The
Chilling Effect) The Gore-ing of the
Bull - Liberal pit bull Henry Waxman dethrones liberal old bull John Dingell. Major Investors Invited to Compete for
Venezuela’s Orinoco Blocks - Venezuela long has been a prime example of a country where promising crude
reserves have made above-ground barriers bearable for investors. Even with president Hugo Chávez’s antagonism
toward foreign multinationals, companies like Chevron and Total have stuck it out in the South American country,
suffering time and time again through oilfield nationalizations and unfavorable price regulations. Simply put, the
country's huge oil and gas reserves have made the political headaches worthwhile. Wind Power Exposed: The Renewable Energy Source is
Expensive, Unreliable and Won’t Save Natural Gas - This is not what President-elect Barack Obama's
energy and climate strategists would want to hear. It would be anathema to Al Gore and other assorted luminaries
touting renewable energy sources which in one giant swoop will save the world from the “tyranny” of fossil
fuels and mitigate global warming. And as if these were not big enough issues, oilman T. Boone Pickens’
grandiose plan for wind farms from Texas to Canada is supposed to bring about a replacement for the natural gas
now used for power generation. That move will then lead to energy independence from foreign oil. Russia’s Demographic Demise: The People Lose
Faith in a Corrupt System - There has been lots of hand wringing about the rise of Russia as a belligerent
power. And those fears were stoked after the country’s recent invasion of Georgia. But there are plenty of
reasons to doubt that Russia’s influence will last and many of those reasons are based on the simple mathematics
of a population that is rapidly shrinking. This week, a
single egg is said to raise our risks for diabetes… not - By this evening, nearly 200 news stories have
reported that a new Harvard study had found eggs raise risks for developing type 2 diabetes. Medical professionals
could even earn continuing medical education credits by reading a MedPage Today article teaching that men eating
seven or more eggs a week “were 58% more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who did not eat eggs, and
women were 77% more likely to become diabetic if they ate at least an egg a day.” As the story made its way
around the world, it became increasingly embellished, just like that game of telephone you may remember from
childhood. (Junkfood Science) Microsoft
Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’ - If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web
search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from
cyberchondria. Eye roller: Germ alert: Steer clear of flatbed
chicken trucks -- You've heard about the chicken that crossed the road. But have you heard the one about the
chickens traveling down the road? It's no laughing matter. Crates of chickens being trucked along the highway in
the back of an open truck can shoot a bunch of nasty bacteria into the cars behind them, researchers have found. The new world devised by Maurice Strong and George
Soros - Have you ever wondered how capitalism was pushed over the edge of the cliff just six weeks before the
American presidential election? (Judi McLeod, CFP) Will Any Crumbs Remain After Bankers' Feast? -
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 - The vast resources the U.S. and Europeans are pouring into ailing financial firms could
lead to disastrous consequences for global efforts to reduce poverty and mitigate the impacts of climate change,
warns a new study by an independent think tank. We are not in favor of bailouts but one thing is for sure -- they do far less harm than wasting funds
"on measures to fight climate change," none of which do any good for people or planet. The facts are flooding in -
TOO little water in Melbourne; too much in Gippsland. Do I really need to join the dots for the Brumby Government? Can GM save the world? - Genetic modification is
one of the great contentious issues of 21st Century science. November 25, 2008
Incompetent journalist awards? Sustainable
Development in a Doomed City - CARTAGENA, Colombia, Nov 24 - The sea encroaching on the streets of this
Caribbean resort city in northern Colombia dramatically underlines the challenges that 60 journalists, winners of
awards from the Latin American Avina foundation, discussed over the weekend. Fact checking obviously is not within the purview of "Investigative Journalism for Sustainable
Development" is it? All they had to do was plug something like "CARTAGENA Colombia subsidence" in
to their favorite search engine to find out the place is subject to tectonic subsidence as well as fluvial
compaction -- the sea isn't getting taller, the land is getting shorter :) Gorebull warming is now such an article of faith these dills have stopped looking for any real information. Last week, more carbon to stay in soil -- this week: Global
warming changing organic matter in soil: Atmosphere could change as a result - New research shows that we
should be looking to the ground, not the sky, to see where climate change could have its most perilous impact on
life on Earth. Warming could change the molecular structure of soil -- at least if it's done with electric probes heating
the ground 3-6 degrees (last we heard that wasn't an expected part of gorebull warming). Vague about
The Hague - I saw little point in even bothering to mention this latest, rumored moonbat effort — the claim,
“Class action lawsuit against world leaders for allowing global warming being filed at the International
Criminal Court in the Hague,” seeking damages on behalf of “future generations of human beings.” (Chris
Horner, Planet Gore) NBC’s
failed sweeps stunt: The snowjob of Kilimanjaro - Let’s start your Monday morning off with a triple-snort. Kind of... Southern
Ocean Resilient Against Global Warming - A recent study has found that the Southern Ocean has proved more
resilient to global warming than previously thought and remains a major store of mankind's planet-warming carbon
dioxide. ... they are right there is nothing apparently to worry about, ocean currents, while shifting, have not
changed strength or direction -- all normal, in other words. The old saw about carbon dioxide and climate is
tiresome. As yet there is no evidence we could raise the planet's temperature one whole degree even if we burn
all available fossil fuels and even if we could this involves a reduction in extreme cold, not any great
increase in warm extremes for the simple reason greenhouse potential is already saturated in the warm zones. It's even worse! Ocean growing more acidic faster
than once thought - University of Chicago scientists have documented that the ocean is growing more acidic
faster than previously thought. In addition, they have found that the increasing acidity correlates with
increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a paper published online by the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences on Nov. 24. (University of Chicago) Oh, wait... never mind. These critters evolved under much higher atmospheric carbon dioxide conditions. 2 farces for the price of 1? Nations
seek closer ties between UN efforts to save ozone layer and fight climate change - 24 November 2008 – The
United Nations should twin its efforts to combat ozone depletion and climate change to reap the greatest economic
and environmental benefits, governments concluded at a recent global gathering. (Un News) We wish it was that cheap but the climate fraud is going to be far more expensive than its ozone precursor. What a Racket! - California’s Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger signed a declaration this week with Indonesia and Brazil to develop efforts to reduce emissions
from deforestation. This treaty-lite will make it cheaper for California businesses to purchase emission credits
abroad than reduce their emissions. (Julie Walsh, Cooler Heads Digest) Urban
dwellers hold key to climate-change goals: report - Consumption habits and energy use in Canada's cities must
change dramatically to meet climate-change goals established by the Harper government, says a new report to be
released today. Harvard Project Proposes Rich
Nations Cut CO2 First - LONDON - Rich nations should make the first cuts in greenhouse gases while developing
countries carry on business as usual for the time being, according to a plan set out on Monday by a Harvard
University project. We agree with the part "should be scientifically sound, economically rational and politically
pragmatic," which means forgetting about carbon dioxide emissions completely. because there is no value but
immense harm in attempting to limit them. Might get some sense out of Europe after all: A
Fiery Czech Is Poised to Be the Face of Europe - PRAGUE — In the 1980s, a Communist secret police agent
infiltrated clandestine economics seminars hosted by Vaclav Klaus, a fiery future leader of the Czech Republic,
who had come under suspicion for extolling free market virtues. Rather than reporting on Marxist heresy, the agent
was most struck by Mr. Klaus’s now famous arrogance. German conservatives
press for breaks in EU climate pact - BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced calls from fellow
conservatives Sunday to fight to water down a European Union climate pact until the recession-wracked economy is
moving again. (AFP) EU
Moves Closer To Agreement On Reducing CO2 Emissions - European Union governments made progress Monday on an
agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, but did not reach consensus on the details, diplomats
said. Economic
Slump May Limit Moves on Clean Energy - Just as the world seemed poised to combat global warming more
aggressively, the economic slump and plunging prices of coal and oil are upending plans to wean businesses and
consumers from fossil fuel. Rosenthal might as well have written "Finance squeeze limits stupid acts" for that is what it
amounts to. Guess there's an upside to an economic slump after all. Hansen’s Glacial
Recession - A CNN article at the end of last week said that "A team of international scientists led by Dr
James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, say that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are
already in the danger zone." The ‘danger zone’? Is that ‘science’? Either way, the opinions of these
alarmist scientists is hardly news… (Climate Resistance) UK Announces Sharp Rise In Air
Passenger Duty - LONDON - The tax for flying out of British airports is to be raised by at least 10 percent
and will double in some cases by 2010, the government said, giving its green credentials a boost and handing the
Treasury much-needed income. (Reuters) Is There a Human
Effect on the Climate System? - Originally Posted on August 1, 2005. Dead wrong: CEOs Can Have a 'Huge
Impact' on Climate Change - Multinationals have both the responsibility and reach to make a difference. Swartz should actually find out a few things before submitting such tripe. The Asian Brown Cloud is not a
result of industry but rather the use of biofuels: dung, grass & wood mainly, in highly inefficient domestic
cooking and heating and from agricultural burning (both clearing and stubble fires). The source of the bulk of
moisture for Himalayan glaciers is the Indian Ocean and Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall is affected by the Asian
Brown Cloud sourced from southern Asia, not China -- Beijing smog can have little to no affect on Himalayan
precipitation. The answer in both cases is development of cheap baseload electricity and the modernization of
agriculture (mechanization and low till use of enhanced crops) coupled with wealth generation so people can
afford electrical appliances. Just for laughs: Carbon is
forever - Carbon dioxide emissions and their associated warming could linger for millennia, according to some
climate scientists. Mason Inman looks at why the fallout from burning fossil fuels could last far longer than
expected. (Nature) Something like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, eh fellas? (Yes, we know the Lennon song title was merely an interesting
accident.) LATIN AMERICA: Frightening Numbers - MEXICO CITY -
The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean need billions of dollars to deal with the economic impact of
climate change -- funding that is not easily found on the international market. (IPS) I believe they mean "silly numbers" since every dime misdirected toward "addressing" the
phantom menace of gorebull warming is a dime wasted. Model output sillier by the day: Getting warmer?
Prehistoric climate can help forecast future changes - The first comprehensive reconstruction of an extreme
warm period shows the sensitivity of the climate system to changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels as well as the
strong influence of ocean temperatures, heat transport from equatorial regions, and greenhouse gases on Earth's
temperature. (United States Geological Survey) These guys are fixated in carbon dioxide as a driver of global mean temperature, despite the greenhouse
enhancement available from atmospheric CO2 increases being virtually exhausted. How do you close a
closed window? Horse spit! Climate
change to hit Murray-Darling system hard - CLIMATE change will hit the most productive parts of the
Murray-Darling food bowl the hardest, with some farmers to miss out on their full water allocations 80 per cent of
the time by 2030. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology couldn't even predict a wet November for the upper catchment of the
Murray-Darling in October of this year and these clowns reckon they can tell us about precipitation more than 20
years hence? What nonsense! And the Lower Lakes and Coorong are normally closed to the sea -- in its
natural state the 'mighty' Murray River is a string of billabongs (water holes) and dry river bed unless it is
in flood (relatively rare & seasonal state before the Snowy Mountains diversion scheme). People put
water in the Murray and people maintain it with locks and weirs, without which it'd normally be a dry
watercourse for several months of the year. Saving the Planet? - Indonesia’s
National Agency for Meteorology & Geophysics plays host to the International Symposium on Climate and Weather
of the Sun-Earth System in Jakarta on November 24th-26th 2008. From Auburn Hills to Beverly Hills - As I wrote in a
statement for the press: “This should provide a loud wake-up call to American business leaders that the 111th
Congress is not going to play nicely with them on energy rationing policies. I hope that those who have counseled
that ‘if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,’ will now realize that they are on the menu and
they’d better get as far away from the table as quickly as they can. The cap-and-trade bill that Chairman
Dingell proposed this fall would dramatically raise energy prices for American consumers and producers. Chairman
Waxman introduced a cap-and-trade bill in this Congress that would send us back to the Stone Age.” (Myron Ebell,
Cooler Heads Digest) World
on cusp of clean tech revolution: Merrill Lynch - 'History shows that technology revolutions occur about every
50 years . . . Clean tech is at the beginning of a high-growth period' (John Morrissy, Canwest News Service) Given ML's recent track record in the prediction stakes I think it fair to say "clean tech" is an
unlikely candidate for revolutionary status, no? Especially since all technological improvement over the century
or so has been in efficiency and "cleaning" of the energy and production stream simple continued
improvement seems more reasonable. Court Voids Shell's Beaufort Sea
Drilling Plan - ANCHORAGE - The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday blocked a major oil-drilling program
in the Beaufort Sea, ruling that federal officials failed to address environmental impacts when they granted
permission to Shell Oil to drill wells over a three-year period. (Reuters) In Alaska, The Drill Is Gone -
Remember those 68 million acres House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the oil companies had to use or lose? According to
the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, they can't drill there either. (IBD) Coal's return raises
pollution threat - Rising prices are spurring plans for a big increase in mining despite a threat to climate
change goals (The Observer) Polish Miners, Greens Clash On Eve
Of Climate Talks - WARSAW - Greenpeace protesters clashed with coal miners at a new opencast mine on Monday in
an incident highlighting Poland's environmental dilemma on the eve of a major UN-led conference on climate change. Get rid of the greenies, it's way better for the planet and people too. Gas
pains: Southwest Florida boaters say ethanol is harming engines - NAPLES — There’s an ailment afflicting
boats in Florida and elsewhere with symptoms of poor performance and clogged fuel systems. Energy security will be hit by
global slowdown - Cuts and delays to investment in Europe's energy infrastructure caused by the financial
crisis and the recession will weaken future energy security and undermine the fight against climate change, a
leading consultancy has warned. Wind farms becalmed by turmoil
- The Lynn and Inner Dowsing wind farms, off the east coast of England, are a flagship project for their operator
Centrica, the UK energy group, and for Europe. World Health
Organization decides the gold standard of scientific evidence is superfluous - One of the biggest science and
nutrition news stories — one that will have significant impact on the health of people worldwide — has
received no international news coverage. The World Health Organization’s committee that establishes
international food standards has changed its definition of “scientific evidence” used to support health claims
for all foods and dietary supplements. Subtle Science: Heading Off Heart Attacks in
Women - Men's and women's hearts are different -- in ways that doctors are still working to understand. Scientists discover 21st century plague - Bacteria that
can cause serious heart disease in humans are being spread by rat fleas, sparking concern that the infections
could become a bigger problem in humans. Research published in the December issue of the Journal of Medical
Microbiology suggests that brown rats, the biggest and most common rats in Europe, may now be carrying the
bacteria. (Society for General Microbiology) Environment Agency rounds on plan
for third Heathrow runway - Building a third runway at Heathrow would make it “impossible” to meet legally
binding targets on air pollution, according to Lord Smith, head of the Environment Agency. It is way past time these misanthropic environment wallahs were made to get real jobs. Recyclables
stacking up - As worldwide demand for recycled materials plummets, prices drop 80% in a year and storage
becomes an issue Burn it, ya dopey bathplugs! Salmon, owls might have ally in White
House - WASHINGTON – Here’s the question: What does a community organizer from Chicago who spent four
years in the Senate before being elected president know about spotted owls, endangered salmon, mountain bark
beetles, Western water rights, old-growth forests and the maintenance backlog in the national parks? The man's been a community organizer so perhaps he actually likes [gasp!] people. It would be a major
improvement if he does favor people over bugs. November 24, 2008 Waxman's Lunch - The House Democratic Caucus voted
yesterday to replace Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) as Chairman of the Energy and
Commerce Committee. This should provide a loud wake-up call to American business leaders that the 111th Congress
is not going to play nicely with them on energy rationing policies. (Myron Ebell, CEI) Global Warming? Bring it On!
- The argument propounded by the dubious United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report
on Anthropogenic (human-induced) Global Warming (AGW) is willfully fraudulent. The report has been vigorously and
critically undermined, scientifically denounced and found wanting from both notable scientists here and abroad. The lunacy begins? Obama's
green start - Barack Obama and congressional leaders are preparing rapid legislation to cut US emissions that
cause global warming and to kick-start a clean energy revolution. Welcome to the American prison - Earth
to Barack Obama. Peter
Foster: It's jobless being green - Global cap and trade and forced technology schemes are a lousy way to spend
taxpayers’ dollars. They are also wildly impractical. (Peter Foster, Financial Post) ICC ordered to steal
USD 1 billion from skeptical politicians - DeSmogBlog, a propagandistic blog about the climate funded by John
Lefebvre, a criminal arrested for money laundering, informs us about a lawsuit filed by Danny Bloom, a radical
environmentalist activist. We're not
scared anymore Mr Gore Electronic Edition Free Download - An electronic (PDF) edition of We're not scared
anymore Mr Gore has now been released. Free to download, but donations are certainly welcome! (the little skeptic) Problems
Plague U.S. Flex-Fuel Fleet - Most Government-Bought Vehicles Still Use Standard Gas Solar squabble burns brightly in
California - CULVER CITY, Calif. — One neighbor loves his solar panels, which have cut his energy bill and
are helping to combat global warming. The other neighbor adores his trees, which boost his property value and
capture greenhouse gases. Hmm... 28.8kWh for perhaps 6 hours per day by what -- 25 days per month under absolutely ideal conditions?
Less than 4400kWh/month then. If that is replacing $5,000/month electric bills this guy must be paying over
$1/kWh and that is really expensive juice. According
to the EIA, California commercial rate is 12.91 cents kWh while the industrial rate (for which a
furniture manufacturer should qualify) is 10.17 cents/kWh. He'd be way better off looking for a different
provider because he's apparently being ripped off. If, as simple arithmetic suggests, his electric bill was
$5,000 per year then his expensive solar array will certainly not last long enough to see break-even in
40 years time. His statements about his power bill and his array capacity are off by an order of magnitude.
Something we often find when people are singing the praises of solar arrays. Hurricane History
Lessons - Here we go again – hurricane season has come to an end and yet another year has failed to produce
the widespread pain and suffering that can reinforce the claim that the buildup of greenhouse gases is the root
cause of all the damage. We have covered this topic dozens of times in the past, but the literature on the subject
never seems to stop oozing right through the distortion of the greenhouse crusaders. We get tired of writing about
this subject over and over and we suspect you see this as another in a very long line of essays on the topic…we
feel each other’s pain. The hurricane story should have been destroyed a decade ago, but for whatever reason,
the global warmers continue to insist that hurricanes are increasing in frequency, intensity, and/or duration and
the blame should sit squarely on carbon dioxide emissions from the United States. If you want more on the subject,
visit literally FIVE million websites on the subject! (WCR) Wonder if this helps explain hurricane hysteria? Red
tape, overruns ground satellites - Billions spent on weather craft that may never make it to space For the last few years virtually every North Atlantic zephyr has received a name (escalating tropical
storms!), whether originating in the tropics or not. Similarly there has been excessive publicity of storms
irrelevant to landlubbers as they make their brief appearance far from land and harmlessly run their course far
from anyone. Could be that the publicity is no more than a fund raiser. Models... Brisbane-Toowoomba floods 18-20 Nov 08
highlight failure of 28 Oct BoM rain Outlook - In three short weeks the BoM rain Outlook prediction gets shot
to pieces by real world weather. (Warwick Hughes) So uh, who cares? Explorer
with a cause to take on poles, Everest - The prospect of encountering polar bears, cracking ice and frostbite
doesn’t horrify Arctic explorer Eric Larsen. Are they going to walk/swim to the Poles & Everest? So if gorebull warming actually constitutes some form
of danger to frigid zones these guys are going to cause more harm than most, right? They sound like Darwin
Award candidates to me. Stubborn glaciers
fail to retreat, awkward polar bears continue to multiply - Second only to the melting of the Arctic ice and
those "drowning" polar bears, there is no scare with which the global warmists, led by Al Gore, more
like to chill our blood than the fast-vanishing glaciers of the Himalayas, which help to provide water for a sixth
of mankind. Recently one newspaper published large pictures to illustrate the alarming retreat in the past 40
years of the Rongbuk glacier below Everest. Indian meteorologists, it was reported, were warning that, thanks to
global warming, all the Himalayan glaciers could have disappeared by 2035. (Christopher Booker, Daily Telegraph) Andy Glikson in his best BS mode: 21st
century climate tipping points - Recent climate developments in the polar cryosphere and the oceans suggest
the atmosphere is tracking toward conditions similar to those of ~ 2.8 Ma (mid-Pliocene: + 2 to 3oC; sea level +
25±12 metres; permanent El-Nino) (Haywood and Williams, 2005; Dowsett et al., 2005) and a possible tipping point.
The polar Sea ice and continental ice sheets, which serve as Earth’s climate thermostat, are changing at an
accelerated rate. (Andrew Glikson, OpEdNews) It's always fun to destroy the planet: Apocalypse
how? Revealing the next catastrophic threat to our world - A devastating collision with another planet, a
supervolcano that killed 60 per cent of the world's population and a 25million-year Ice Age. Our world has faced
many catastrophes... so what's coming next? ‘There’s a lot of rich
people backing this cause’ - A former lawyer for Enron, shocked to discover that his main job would be to
help draft a global warming treaty, tells spiked that censorship and conformism are preventing proper
investigation of climate change hysteria. (Rob Lyons, sp!ked) Why is
Land Use/Land Cover Change a First-Order Climate Forcing? - Originally posted on August 5, 2005. How not to measure
temperature, part 75 - Like tornados and trailer parks, USHCN temperature sensors and barbecues seem to have
mutual attraction. (Watts Up With That?) Can't See the Signal For the Trees - ABSTRACT: A new method
is proposed for determining if a group of datasets contain a signal in common. The method, which I call
Correlation Distribution Analysis (CDA), is shown to be able to detect common signals down to a signal:noise ratio
of 1:10. In addition, the method reveals how much of the common signal is contained by each proxy. I applied the
method to the Mann et al. 2008 (hereinafter M2008) proxies. I analysed all (N=95) of the M008 proxies which
contain data from 1001 to 1980. These contain a clear hockeystick shaped signal. CDA shows that the hockeystick
shape is entirely due to Tiljander proxies plus high-altitude southwestern US "stripbark" pines (bristlecones,
foxtails, etc). When these are removed, the hockeystick shape disappears entirely. (Willis Eschenbach, Climate
Audit) Recent figures suggest greater climate debate -
Recently, NBC’s chief environmental affairs analyst Anne Thompson once said there is “no doubt that man is
responsible for global warming” and every scientist worth their weight in beaker solvent agrees that the globe
has been warming steadily over the past four decades. The climate change debate
- Like climate science, the debate about climate change is complex. Like the science – and despite the
protestations of the IPCC, the scientific establishment in most countries and a great number of highly reputable
scientists worldwide – the outcome of the debate is far from clear. PRUDEN: The killer
frost for global warming - Turn up the heat, somebody. The globe is freezing. Even Al Gore is looking for an
extra blanket. Winter has barely come to the northern latitudes and already we've got bigger goosebumps than
usual. So far the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports 63 record snowfalls in the United
States, 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month. Only 44 Octobers over the past 114 years have been cooler than
this last one. Physicians, get a life! AMA meeting:
Global warming has health toll, delegates warn - Orlando, Fla. -- Most climate scientists say the Earth is
getting hotter and that human activity is speeding up the process. At its Interim Meeting in November, the AMA
House of Delegates agreed with the scientific consensus. These guys know how many die in 'flu season, surely? They know that cold kills so many more than heat, right?
What the heck are they doing publishing crap like this? Planes,
trains or automobiles? Climate villains revealed - Which has the worst effect on the climate: cars, planes,
ships, or trains? According to new research, it's cars - at least for now. Always assuming greenhouse gas production is a matter of interest, let alone harmful. Permanent stagflation: Economic consequences
of global warming legislation - Putting the science of global warming aside, imagine “permanent
stagflation.” That was the dire warning Heartland Institute’s James Taylor, senior fellow in environment
policy, gave to a packed audience at the Independence Institute last Thursday night. Taylor was in Denver to
provide the Denver Regional Council of Governments with a free market environmental perspective. DRCOG should be
commended for seeking a perspective beyond the prevailing global warming alarmism. EU Energy Geopolitics - On the eve of this weekend’s
European Union-Russia summit, the first since the Georgian conflict, the EU Commission released a report that says
reducing dependence on Russian natural gas is “one of the EU's highest energy priorities.” European
countries—but especially Germany, the EU’s largest economy—have become increasingly dependent on Russian
natural gas in large part because of environmental regulations targeted at the coal and nuclear energy industries.
Moscow, however, has demonstrated a willingness to use its energy supplies to coerce and threaten other countries.
As a result, the EU is aggressively pursuing the construction of gas pipelines that would deliver fuel from
Central Asia and bypass Russian territory, so that Gazprom, Russia’s state owned monopoly on gas exports, could
not influence or inhibit the flow of gas. Former Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the report by
questioning whether Russia should proceed with a major planned pipeline under the North Sea that would deliver
Russian gas directly to European markets. (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest) From
Russia With Loathing - SHORTLY before the presidential election, at a discussion about Russian-American
relations I attended in Cambridge, Mass., speakers from both countries voiced the hope that the election of Barack
Obama would signal the renewal of a beautiful friendship. These hopes were chilled the day after Mr. Obama won. In
an address to the Russian Parliament, President Dmitri Medvedev welcomed President-elect Obama with a threat to
deploy Russian missiles on the Polish border if the United States put anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe.
While some conciliatory signals followed, it seems clear that the Kremlin intends to keep the “new cold war”
going. They wish... Global Warming Will Help
Russia, CIA Says - WASHINGTON — Global warming could be a boon to Russia, a European country could be
overrun by organized crime and the dollar — and the United States itself — could further decline in importance
during the next two decades, says a U.S. intelligence report with predictions for the world in 2025. Another Misfire From Spies Like Us
- Our spy agencies have taken another look into their crystal ball and see a long period of American decline.
We're betting they aren't any more accurate on this prediction than they've been on others in the past. Indiana coal-to-gas project bucks industry trend
- In the heart of southwestern Indiana's coal country, Duke Energy Corp. crews are building what the company's CEO
calls the power plant of the future _ a $2.35 billion complex where coal will be turned into a gas, stripped of
pollutants, then burned to generate electricity. Granted it would be sensible to worry only about real pollution and treat the carbon dioxide produced by
combustion as the environmental benefit that it is. Null Series: Healthy
eating for the prevention of type 2 diabetes - Nothing better illustrates the ability of epidemiological
studies to lead us astray than when a medical journal publishes two null studies in the same issue: an
epidemiological study suggesting a “causal relationship” and a randomized, controlled clinical trial that
actually tests the hypothesis. Invariably, it’s the epidemiological study - suggesting some worrisome risk, or
magical preventative, for a disease - that comes with the press release and receives the media attention. All
studies are not the same or hold similar value, of course, but even untenable correlations from epidemiological
studies can seem so convincing and intuitively correct, even healthcare professionals can be taken in. (Junkfood
Science) Actual
pictures of childhood ‘overweight’ and ‘obesity’ surprised even most doctors - Researchers in England
have inadvertently shown how silly the crisis of childhood obesity has become and how unrealistic the definitions
are of overweight and obesity in children. We continually hear parents accused of being in denial and incapable of
recognizing their children’s weight “problems.” It turns out, few doctors can correctly identify children in
the overweight and obese categories, either. Why might that be? (Junkfood Science) Government
weight loss plan: blobs of fake fat - Healthcare professionals in the UK are being given 5 pound rubber blobs
of fake fat to help motivate their patients to lose weight. It’s part of the Obesity Tool Kit being distributed
by the Hereford Primary Care Trust and Herefordshire Hospitals NHS Trust. According to the manager of its obesity
programme, the replica of body fat can be very helpful in motivating people and they hope the kits will support
their GP practices to encourage healthy eating and active lifestyles. A Thanksgiving
children’s story - Who would have imagined that a little newspaper column for children would also teach many
grown-ups about one aspect of American history and food production that few of us ever learned in school? Our
Thanksgiving celebration has become a meld of history, romance and myth but is also one of our most cherished
American traditions. While the very first American Thanksgiving celebration wasn’t held by the Pilgrims at
Plymouth colony, nor did that feast in 1623 begin our annual Thanksgiving Day, which wasn't officially marked
until more than 150 years later, it does commemorate the spirit of early immigrants who came to America. (Junkfood
Science) Drill, Dems, Drill - That an
Alaskan senator-elect wants to drill in ANWR is not a surprise. That he's a Democrat is. Were high oil prices what
helped push Detroit over the edge? Unfair Competition From Overseas
Deadly For American Car Industry - Who killed the U.S. auto industry? Plumber’s
Job on a Giant’s Scale: Fixing New York’s Drinking Straw - All tunnels leak, but this one is a sieve. For
most of the last two decades, the Rondout-West Branch tunnel — 45 miles long, 13.5 feet wide, up to 1,200 feet
below ground and responsible for ferrying half of New York City’s water supply from reservoirs in the Catskill
Mountains — has been leaking some 20 million gallons a day. Except recently, when on some days it has lost up to
36 million gallons. (New York Times) Should I become an
ecotarian? - An environmental diet that helps you shed excess carbon pounds sounds tempting, says Lucy Siegle,
but it's not easy (Lucy Siegle, The Observer) I was going to suggest Lucy try life as a real person but I fear she might have reached her limits already... Fields of
Grain and Losses - WALTERS, Okla. — The farmers said it would not last, and they were right. November 21, 2008 Detroit Needs Drilling, Not Bailouts - Looking
for the root of the impending car industry debacle? Look no further than the failure of the Big Three and the
United Auto Workers to challenge the Green attack on cheap gasoline. HOW YOU CAN HELP Stop the EPA from Hijacking the Economy -
This website was created for individuals from agriculture, manufacturing, small business, transportation,
nonprofit, and other industries concerned about the economy-wide effects of the potential EPA regulations on
greenhouse gases. (Heritage Foundation) How wrong can they get? Obama
brings US in from the cold - In a landmark speech, the next president pledges to revive Kyoto Protocol and end
American isolationism over climate change Dubya never "withdrew" from Kyoto, which Slick Willy never submitted to the Senate for
ratification, mostly because it stood no chance since the Senate had voted 95:0 on Byrd-Hagel (Senate
Resolution 98) which precluded US participation in any climate treaty in the form Ozone Al signed at Kyoto
(and later symbolically signed by Slick Willy). The only thing Dubya did was honestly state America's position
(shocking!). The US "withdrawal" from the unratified Kyoto is a complete fabrication used as a
cudgel by the EU, greens, anti-capitalists and anti-Americans generally but it contains no truth whatsoever. New Senate to get major global warming bill
- The US Senate will take up two sweeping global warming bills in January, in the latest sign that Barack Obama's
election could quickly reverse years of US footdragging on climate change. Obama
Out-Gores Gore - Over at Reason, Jacob Sullum is not sold on Obama's Green Snake Oil: (Edward John Craig,
Planet Gore) A
Global farce? - A number of researchers say that despite public opinion, global warming may be a result of
natural causes (Hannah Hoffman, Oregon Daily Emerald) Is climate change the "defining challenge of our age"? - It seems that every other day someone
claims that climate change is the biggest environmental problem facing the globe, or the most important issue
facing mankind, or, as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon puts it, the defining challenge of our age. Is there any
evidence for such statements or are they mere hyperbole? Hypothetically: Sea level rise alters bay's salinity
- While global-warming-induced coastal flooding moves populations inland, the changes in sea level will affect the
salinity of estuaries, which influences aquatic life, fishing and recreation. Another demonstration of how 'settled' is the science: Improvement
In Carbon Measurements In Global Climate Studies - University of Iowa researchers and their colleagues have
found a way to improve existing estimates of the amount of carbon absorbed by plants from the air, thereby
improving the accuracy of global warming and land cover change estimates, according to a paper published in the
journal Science. Dinner
With The Green Glitterati - It may be a dirty world, but under the glittering chandeliers of the
Waldorf-Astoria's grand ballroom, more than 500 guests at a black tie $1,500-a-plate banquet last week were told
they could sup with a clean conscience. The occasion was a "green" dinner, devoted to celebrating
"climate heroes." Carbon offsets had been purchased for their travel to the event. NBC's Curry Climbs 'Poster-Child'
for Climate Change - 'Today' show anchor misleads viewers about declining Mt. Kilimanjaro ice during network's
'green' week. (Julia A. Seymour, Business & Media Institute) ‘Planet
Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office’ – Scientists Continue Dissenting – Gore Admits 'I've failed badly' -
Global Sea Ice GROWS! - Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’ (E&PW) Part
TWO: ‘Planet Has Cooled Since Bush Took Office’ – Scientists Continue Dissenting – Gore Admits 'I've
failed badly' - Global Sea Ice GROWS! - Global Warming Theory has ‘failed consistently and dramatically’
(E&PW) Back
to the alarming future - Even when the weather changes back to how it was, why, that’s consistent with
“climate change” theory, too. Ask University of Southern Queensland professor of climate and water resources
Roger Stone, who analyses the meaning of the storms over Brisbane: (Andrew Bolt Blog) Weak economy could curb Obama coal cleanup
plan - HOUSTON, Nov 19 - As U.S. president, Barack Obama is likely to tighten environmental regulations on
generating power from coal, but his ambitions could be reined in by the cost of such measures given a weak U.S.
economy. (Reuters) What climate
change? Meltdown trumps fears at APEC - LIMA, Peru — Countries on both sides of the Pacific have reason to
be very afraid of climate change. Rising sea levels could swamp coastal farms, higher temperatures wipe out entire
species and increasingly violent storms exact a widening human and financial toll. Global
warming ideas disputed by PSU prof - While a large number of people, including some scientists, believe that
we are in an unprecedented period of global warming caused primarily by humans, Dr. James Koermer, a meteorology
professor at Plymouth State University, would beg to differ. (The Citizen) Lugubrious Lynas... World
saved . . . planet doomed - Green activists are seeing the global economic crisis as an opportunity, but the
truth remains: high economic growth cannot be reconciled with limited resources (Mark Lynas, New Statesman) Good luck fellas: European
Union announces interest in Arctic region - BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union's executive body said
Thursday that the bloc should try to obtain its fair share of oil, gas, minerals and fish exposed by the melting
of the Arctic ice cap. Global Warming Could Lead To More
Arctic Energy - BRUSSELS - The Arctic offers new energy and fishing resources as a result of global warming
and new technology, the European Union said on Thursday. U.K. makes play for Darwin Award: A
rod for our backs - Britain decides that climate change is too important to leave to the politicians More Darwin Award candidates: Broad
Schwarzenegger Emissions Pledge Caps Summit - LOS ANGELES - Impatient with the pace of national governments in
fighting global climate change, 13 US state governors joined counterparts from six other countries on Wednesday to
pledge cooperation to curtail Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions. (Reuters) UN Publishes Draft Proposal Ahead
of Climate Meet - LONDON - The United Nations published a report on Thursday to help lawmakers meeting at an
upcoming UN climate summit to move closer to sealing a new agreement to confront potentially devastating global
warming. (Reuters) Fresh
doubts raised over December EU climate deal - EU countries may agree before the end of the year on the basic
principles and structure of an agreement on the European Commission's energy and climate package, but it is
unlikely that a deal will be finalised, an ambassador of one of the bloc's 27 member states told EurActiv. Bribe not big enough: Poland
unsatisfied with EU proposals to save climate plan: official - WARSAW — Poland has rejected an EU proposal
for its coal-fired power stations to be temporarily exempted from buying all their greenhouse gas permits, a move
aimed at averting a Polish veto of the bloc's climate package, a senior Polish official said Wednesday. (AFP) New satellite indicates cycle of global
cooling - Several Canadian environmental scientists agree the new Jason satellite indicates at least a 23-year
cycle of global cooling ahead. It's completely pointless, so let's do it more... Ozone
Treaty Parties Agree to Start Cutting More Climate Emissions - DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 20 -- Today the 193 Parties
to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer - representing virtually all countries of the
world - agreed for the second year in a row to strengthen their treaty to provide additional protection for both
the ozone layer and the climate system. (PRNewswire-USNewswire) Global militaries enlisted
to combat climate change and save ozone layer – UN - 20 November 2008 – The United Nations has recruited
the help of militaries in several countries in a unique new partnership in the fight against climate change and
the campaign to save the ozone layer. Sheesh! What about leaving our overworked forces do something useful? GE Uses NBC's "Green Week" To Brainwash Americans
- Generally speaking, Americans don’t like being told what to do, so GE uses “Green Week” to propagate
global warming alarmism and frighten Americans into accepting rules and regulations that force them to buy GE
products. (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest) Is CO2 a Pollutant? - Originally posted on
August 9, 2005. NASA's curious climate capers -
There have been a few red faces at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in recent days, to match the
predominant color of its October global temperature map. Based at Columbia University in New York, GISS is the
division of NASA that is responsible for global climate data and is used by the media in assessing global warming.
After analyzing the data, GISS reported that October 2008 was the warmest October since reliable record-keeping
began in 1880. But there was something very wrong with the numbers. (The Register) In the virtual realm: Hot Days and Nights in
Mexico 2090 - UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 20 - Climate change will dramatically increase the number of hot, dry days
in Mexico in the coming decades, while coastal regions like the Yucatán, in the southeast, will be swamped by sea
levels that are half a metre higher than today, a new study has found. This stupidity, again: Malaria
and Dengue the Sting in Climate Change - SYDNEY - Southeast Asia and South Pacific island nations face a
growing threat from malaria and dengue fever as climate change spreads mosquitoes that carry the diseases and
climate-change refugees start to migrate. How wrong they can be, just by fudging a few assumptions. Take, for example, malaria -- this is not a
particularly temperature-sensitive disease since it was endemic from the Equator to at least the Arctic Circle. Global Warming Legislation Necessary
Despite Economic Downturn, Activists Say – A federal cap-and-trade bill is the best way to protect
America’s economic interests and environmental health, according to corporate leaders and environmental
activists with the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). Ontario Enviro Min. tells Schwarzenegger climate
change “deniers” no longer listened to - At a time of worldwide financial crisis and the economy of his
own province in decline, Ontario Minister of the Environment John Gerretsen was attacking “climate change
deniers” in sunny California this week. Rae,
Ignatieff, LeBlanc ditch Green Shift - OTTAWA - Liberal leadership candidates Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff
would ditch the Green Shift carbon tax, outgoing leader Stephane Dion's signature policy, on grounds it was
rejected by voters on election day. (Canwest News Service) Waxman Wins, God Help Us All - To get an idea of what to
expect from Waxman, consider the following quip from CEI’s Chris Horner: “Funny how Dems elected a guy to
chair Energy and Commerce who opposes both.” (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest) What’s
the Point of Daylight Time? - WHY do we — along with 75 other countries — alternate between standard time
and daylight time? Although many people believe it has an agricultural provenance, daylight time has always been a
policy meant to save energy. As Benjamin Franklin argued, if people moved up their summer schedules by an hour,
they could live by “sunshine rather than candles” in the evenings. Peak Oil is a Myth - 175-315
Billion barrels of oil are recoverable at $15 a barrel in the Oil Sands of Alberta, Canada. With a remaining
potential of 1.7-2.5 Trillion barrels. In Canada's oil sands alone, the supplies will last over 100 years.
(Popular Technology) Energy Independence Equals Economic Incompetence
- One of the hallmarks of a primitive economy is that its exports consist mostly of natural resources.
Under-developed nations export their metals, timber, minerals and such because they are too economically
incompetent to make much use of these valuable resources themselves. Instead, they trade them to more advanced
economies in exchange they get cash which they used to buy finished goods or high-technology products that they
cannot make themselves. New material could make gases more transportable -
Chemists at the University of Liverpool have developed a way of converting methane gas into a powder form in order
to make it more transportable. (University of Liverpool) Clean Energy
Confronts Messy Reality - President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to promote clean and renewable energy,
reiterating this week that his "presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate
change." Maybe: Aussie Miners Turn
To Solar Tower Power - SINGAPORE - Australian mining firms, hit by high fuel costs and falling commodity
prices, could soon swap their diesel generators for 24-hour, solar-power systems, the head of a private renewable
power firm said on Thursday. (Reuters) Don’t
Celebrate the Death of Coal Power Quite Yet - Now that the EPA has finally been forced to acknowledge CO2 as a
pollutant, plans for new coal plants are in limbo, and clean energy backers are happily talking up ideas to
replace dirty fuels with wind, solar and other renewables. But wise greens might wait to start counting their
victories until the eggs they’ve laid hatch; abruptly killing coal might not be as beneficial as many assume.
(Chris Morrison, Energy Industry) A
collapsed hedge fund's overlooked wind wager - Tontine became famous for its large, contrarian bets. When it
decided to invest in wind energy, it was able to make a ton of money. (Fortune) EU Carmaking Nations in CO2 Deal
as Italy Signs Up - BERLIN/BRUSSELS - Europe's four big auto making nations have reached agreement on cutting
greenhouse gas emissions from cars after Italy joined a deal between Britain, France and Germany, government
sources in Rome and Berlin said. (Reuters) Survey Says:
Parents purportedly want to be screened for alcohol use by their child’s pediatrician - Pediatricians are
being encouraged to add another screening test to their lifestyle assessments of the families of their young
patients. Medscape just reported on a study in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics telling pediatricians
that it had found eight out of ten parents would “welcome or not mind at all” their child’s doctor asking
them about their alcohol use and screening them for a drinking problem. Pediatricians also read that one-third or
more parents said they would similarly appreciate their child’s pediatrician reporting them to a social worker
or making an appointment for them with their own doctor if he/she found they had a drinking problem. (Junkfood
Science)
School ban on sugary
drinks shows little effect - NEW YORK - Policies that rid Maine high schools of sugary drinks seem to have had
little impact on teenagers' overall intake of sugar-laden beverages, according to a new study. Hostile
Green Takeover: The Auto Industry Faces Environmental Thuggery - Senate Floor Speech - November 20, 2008 A
Green-Tinged Bailout Won’t Save Detroit - Detroit, Mich. — While Planet Congress argues over whether to
spend $25 billion to make the deck chairs greener on Detroit’s sinking Titanic, American bankruptcy lawyers have
been coalescing around the idea that the Big Three ought to be exploring a government-supported bankruptcy plan to
save the ship. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore) Stop the Green
Carjacking - Will environmentalists be permitted to transform the Detroit bailout? If so, automakers and
taxpayers will suffer. Better than average Chernobyl piece: Radiation
Threat Still Permeates Chernobyl's Entombment - Thousands of workers daily take the train from their homes at
Slavutich, across 55 kilometers of unpopulated woodland and marsh in northern Ukraine to their workplace. No
ordinary commuters, they are workers at the Chernobyl powerplant, scene of the world's worst-ever nuclear
disaster. Nearly 4,000 people work at Chernobyl, safeguarding the destroyed reactor building No. 4 and tending to
the three surviving shut-down units. Among the construction teams is Alexander Nikolayevich Plotnikov, project
manager at contractor Utem Engineering, Bucha. (Engineering News-Record) Unbearable
pursuits - A clash between environmentalists and Inuit rights Ecuador Seeks to Sell Rainforest
- Ecuador is the first country in the world to announce plans to leave the oil reserves beneath its rainforests in
the ground. The country wants foreign businesses, including German companies, to compensate it for making this
sacrifice. (Der Spiegel) Sit down money? Get a life and develop, you idle buggers! November 20, 2008 Why
the EPA should find against “Endangerment” - Back in July, as a result of last year’s Supreme Court
ruling on Massachusetts v. EPA, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an “Advance Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking: Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act” and asked for public comment
though November 28, 2008. Freeman Dyson Debunks Dire Forecasts on Global Warming
and Other Tenets - Freeman Dyson gets around. Last Wednesday, for example, the 85-year-old “retired”
physicist regaled a lunchtime audience at the Nassau Club with his “heretical” ideas about global warming.
Just a few hours later he could be found once again sharing his thoughts on global warming, as well as on
intelligent design, nuclear warfare, extraterrestrial life, and HAR-1 (a DNA component that distinguishes human
beings from other animals) with a standing-room-only crowd at Labyrinth Books. (Ellen Gilbert, TownTopics) The
Absurdity of a Reliable Average Global Surface Temperature - ACCURATELY recording the temperature of a body
that is not in equilibrium can be complicated. Recording the average surface temperature of the earth reliably,
and with such accuracy that one can know with certainty that there has been a less than one degree Celsius change
over one hundred years, probably impossible. How not to measure
temperature, part 74 - Sometimes, words fail me in describing the absolute disregard of the placement of NOAA
official climate monitoring sites. For example, this one in Clarinda, Iowa submitted by surfacestations volunteer
Eric Gamberg: (Watts Up With That?) More 'Gore Effect'? Nov
18, 2008: On a cold day, extremely low turnout for DC global "warming" rally Climate Action Now DC rally: freezing, but fired up for change! | 1Sky The blog post above claims that "more than 300" were there, but I'm skeptical that even that many
people bothered to show up. (Tom Nelson) Also see ‘Gore Effect’ history here. Why? Nike, Starbucks
Calling For New US Climate Policy - LOS ANGELES - Nike Inc, Starbucks Corp and investor coalition Ceres are
among the founding members of a new coalition calling for strong US climate and energy legislation in early 2009.
(Reuters) Lawyers 'sprint' to be ready on climate
change - Climate change is bad for the environment, but it may be good for business. Very, very good. UN climate change chief hails Obama
commitments - ALGIERS, Algeria -- The recent commitments on global warming by U.S. President-elect Barack
Obama mark a new beginning for world negotiations to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the head of the U.N.'s climate
change body said Wednesday. The PIF and the EU Unite Against Climate Change
- The Pacific Island Forum and the European Union join up to act against climate change Italy, Germany to
seek joint approach to climate change - TRIESTE, Italy — Germany and Italy will seek a joint approach to
climate change and the environment, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Tuesday after meeting with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel. UPDATE:
Climate Change Rules Shouldn't Hurt Economy - Germany - TRIESTE, Italy -- Italy and Germany agree that
measures to cut greenhouse gases shouldn't weigh on the economy, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a press
conference Tuesday, indicating government support for tough new measures in Europe is waning. (Dow Jones) Poles offered
break on carbon emissions - Power stations in eastern Europe could receive millions of euros of free carbon
emission allowances to overcome opposition to a European Union climate pact. Climate change momentum fading:
Asia-Pacific survey - Climate change is fading as a priority in the Pacific Rim as the gloomy state of the
global economy takes precedence, a survey of opinion leaders showed Wednesday. India: 'We Have Accepted a
Limit on our Emissions' - With its enormous population and booming industrial economy, India is set to become
one of the planet's chief polluters. India's chief climate treaty negotiator, Shyam Saran, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE
his country's role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. (Der Spiegel) Sounds significant, doesn't it? So, what is this limit to which India so startlingly submits? Even though there is no legal obligation on India in this respect, the Prime Minister of India made a
commitment that India's per capita emissions will at no time exceed the average of the per capita emissions of
developed, industrialized countries. We have thus accepted a limit on our emissions and at the same time
provided an incentive to our partners in developed countries to be more ambitious. The more significant their
reductions of emissions, the lower the limit we would need to accept for our own. In other words India is allowing itself a 10-15-fold increase as a "limit". Ah, diplomacy... Australians urged to follow NZ lead on ETS review
- The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the Queensland Government to follow the lead of New Zealand and
initiate a complete review of the science and the cost-benefits of the proposals to levy a new tax on coal and
petrol usage. Let Them Eat Shrubbery -
Science is often at its most newsworthy when it proves the blatantly obvious: getting drunk makes you more likely
to fall over; sunbathing is a risk factor for sunburn, etc. But science that ‘proves’ something that
journalists, commentators and policy bods like to think was blatantly obvious can also command more than its fair
of column inches. Last year, for example, we reported on how a paper published by the Royal Society had proved
once and for all that The Great Global Warming Swindle really did get it wrong about the influence of the sun on
global warming, just like the Royal Society had said it had. More recently, there was the news that human
activities had been attributed directly to the rise in temperatures at the Earth’s poles: (Climate Resistance) Linear
Climate Trends or Sudden Transitions of Climate - Which is More Likely? - A recent paper in Geophysical
Research Letters by K. Zickfeld and colleagues (”Is the Indian summer monsoon stable against global change?”
provides an example of investigating multiple climate forcings. According to their study, sulfur emissions and/or
land-use changes as they affect planetary albedo, or natural variations in insolation and CO2 concentrations,
could trigger abrupt transitions between different monsoon regimes. While the paper uses a simple box model of the
tropical atmosphere, it is a start at investigating a set of multiple climate forcings as causing rapid
transitions of climate in India. Such rapid transitions are already part of the natural system; see Rial, J., R.A.
Pielke Sr., M. Beniston, M. Claussen, J. Canadell, P. Cox, H. Held, N. de Noblet-Ducoudre, R. Prinn, J. Reynolds,
and J.D. Salas, 2004: Nonlinearities, feedbacks and critical thresholds within the Earth’s climate system.
Climatic Change, 65, 11-38.) (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate Science) Oh dear... Global
warming data blunder: Worth the fuss? - Despite broad consensus on the existence, origins and potentially
catastrophic effects of global warming, a vocal minority continues to question the motives, methods and
assumptions of climate scientists sounding the alarm. So when temperature data released by NASA's Goddard
Institute for Space Studies (GISS), one of the leading monitors of climate change, showed an unusually warm
October, climate change skeptics cried foul. ... Matson isn't too good at this, is he? Satellite data shows the
globe had a pretty ordinary October, with most of the globe within ±0.5 °C of average and a
smattering of warmer and cooler spots. Overall ranking 10 of 30, so not even in the top quartile. Why Matson
clings to the absurd NCDC figure is unclear since it is ~8% higher than the GISTEMP joke and ~43% higher
than HadCRUT3. Because 'everybody says'? Cooling theorist has
sunspots in his eyes - Bryan Leyland wrote an article in the Dominion Post and Stuff last week attacking
global-warming theories. Ralph Chapman of Victoria University replies. (Dominion Post) Well, if Chapman is basically going to argue authority perhaps we should counter: In the words of Thomas H. Huxley: The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge
authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin. Climate change opens new avenue for spread of invasive
plants - Plants that range northward because of climate change may be better at defending themselves against
local enemies than native plants. (University of Florida) So, by these guys definition all North American plants north of ~37N are "invasive" since the
Laurentide Ice Sheet (principal glacial cover of North America during the Pleistocene Epoch 1,600,000 to 10,000
years ago) pretty much eliminated pre-existing plant cover. Guess what? Climates change and all manner of
critters exploit available niches. So what's new? Climate Action
Plans Fail to Deliver: Updated 11-17-08 (Robert Ferguson, SPPI) Gassiest
stunt against gas yet - Reuters snaps the most hypocritical protest against global warming, this one thanks to
firey Greenpeace protesters in Germany. (Andrew Bolt Blog) Really? Energy
security 'must not be excuse to expand coal power' - Government must not allow construction of coal power
stations without carbon capture storage, say researchers (The Guardian) And why is that? Moore’s
Curse and the Great Energy Delusion - Big Ideas Our transition away from fossil fuels will take decades—if
it happens at all. Did Hated Speculators Lower Oil
Prices? - Whither the speculators? They were this summer's front-page news, the subject of congressional
hearings, editorials and nightly newscasts. The claimed culprits of oil's price rise, everyone fell over
themselves to be tougher on them. (J.T. Young, IBD) A Chance In Shale - New drilling
techniques may open up a 14-year supply of natural gas trapped in porous rock in the Northeast. That is, if
environmentalists in New York and elsewhere don't keep it trapped in the ground. (IBD) Yeah, green jobs will save us... Closure
of solar plant casts cloud over industry - IN A body blow for Australia's solar industry, the nation's biggest
solar-panel factory will close early next year, taking 200 skilled jobs with it, equal to one-eighth of the total
Australian solar workforce. (Sydney Morning Herald) UK Law's Passage Arouses Dispute
Over Green Energy - LONDON - A move approved by Britain's lower house, to expand a price support plan for
households making green energy to larger renewables projects, could undermine a vital existing scheme, big energy
producers said. (Reuters) Hypersafe for a mill-yun years: Nuclear
planning to the year 1,002,008 - YUCCA MOUNTAIN, Nevada - Will this barren mountain rising up to 4,950 feet
from the Mojave desert look roughly the same in the year 1,002,008? That’s a million years into the future. Null Series: B
vitamins for preventing mental decline as we age - Remember that mischievous little African bee and the
epidemiological study that recently claimed to show that low vitamin B12 levels were associated with
brain atrophy? As we uncovered, the study had actually found no tenable correlations between the B vitamin and
brain size, and the Oxford authors were unable to give a biologically plausible explanation for how vitamin B12
levels might facilitate brain atrophy. Even so, they had concluded that a randomized clinical trial of high dose
vitamin B12 supplementation was needed to see if the vitamin could help prevent cognitive impairment
among elderly. (Junkfood Science) Posole-gate - It’s already being
called Posole-gate. Indoctrination alert: Arthur Goes Green
in New Board Game: Arthur Saves the Planet - CHICAGO, Ill. — Cameron McCandless, U.S. Marketing Director of
FRED Distribution, Inc. announced this week that the popular book and public television character, Arthur, embarks
on a mission to “go green” in a new award-winning children’s board game - Arthur(TM) Saves the Planet, One
Step at a Time. And, the release of this new game coincides perfectly with National Games Week - November 16 to
29. Arthur Saves the Planet aims to inspire children six years and older to take simple steps to care for the
environment, in short, to go green. This environmentally-friendly board game has also won the Preferred Choice
Award from Creative Child Magazine and is endorsed by PBS Kids. (eNewsChannels) We Have Become A Nation Of Thieves
- Evil acts can be given an aura of moral legitimacy by noble-sounding socialistic expressions such as spreading
the wealth, income redistribution or caring for the less fortunate. Let's think about socialism. Use Flower Power To Save Europe's
Bees - EU Lawmaker - STRASBOURG - Honey bees, whose numbers are falling, must be given flowery "recovery
zones" in Europe's farmlands to aid their survival, a leading EU lawmaker said on Wednesday. November 19, 2008 Schwarzenegger
opens climate change summit - BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened his climate change
summit on Tuesday by telling attendees from around the world that they can balance environmental protection with
economic growth. The question none of these stampeding fools have bothered to pose is should we limit atmospheric carbon
dioxide at all? The answer, of course, is that there is significant cost to the environment and society of doing
so but absolutely no discernible benefit, so why do it? Is that global warming? No, just the sauna. - Kansas
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will join some of her fellow governors this week in Los Angeles for the Governor's Global
Climate Summit. The event, hosted by Gov. Schwarzenegger, brings together several governors, policy leaders and
international experts. Blood Forests - "Building on (California's) success
in forming de facto treaties with international entities, Schwarzenegger will sign a declaration with Indonesia
and Brazil to develop efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation. The agreement could make it cheaper for
California businesses to achieve emissions reductions by allowing them to invest in afforestation projects
abroad," according to E and E today. Obama
promises leadership on climate change - WASHINGTON — Calling climate change an urgent challenge,
President-elect Barack Obama promised Tuesday that Washington would take a leading role in combating it in the
United States and throughout the world. Leadership? Where to? Over a cliff? How did we let a bunch of gibbering loons stampede the mob with nonsense
claims of planet cooking with trivial increases in an essential trace gas? Get a grip people! You don't live in
a computer-generated virtual world so you are in absolutely no danger from virtual planet cooking. Obama
addresses global warming summit (Boston Globe) Holder Seen as Pick for Justice Post as
Obama Begins to Settle on Team - In his only public appearance on Tuesday, Mr. Obama indicated that he
intended to move rapidly on one of the most ambitious items on his agenda, tackling climate change. Speaking to a
bipartisan group of governors by video, the president-elect said that despite the weakening economy, he had no
intention of softening or delaying his ambitious goals for reducing emissions that cause the warming of the
planet. 'The Finance Crisis Will Affect
Climate Policies' - In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, discusses how the current financial crisis will dampen national initiatives to curb
greenhouse gas emissions and why he still has hopes Kyoto targets can be reached. (Der Spiegel) India, China React to U.S. Election - Developing countries
are worried that they would face increased expectations to commit to economically harmful emissions reductions if
President-elect Barack Obama follows through with a campaign promise to align with the European Union and
orchestrate a global response to global warming. To date, developing countries have faced little diplomatic
pressure to act on the climate because the Bush administration refused to commit to an international climate
treaty. As a result, the EU has spent its diplomatic capital trying to convince the U.S. to join and largely has
ignored developing countries, even though they account for half of current emissions. If, however, President-elect
Obama reversed the Bush administration’s international climate strategy, a united EU-U.S. would likely demand
that developing countries commit to steep emissions cuts. So it’s no wonder that China and India chose the week
after Obama’s victory in the presidential elections to demonstrate their unwillingness to put global warming
over economic growth. China’s government unveiled their climate plan this week. The centerpiece is to exact a
commitment from developed countries to give 1% of their GDP—about $300 billion annually—to building a clean
energy infrastructure in China and other developing countries. India’s government held a conference in New
Delhi, called Climate Change: Business Sustainability and Society, during which Science and Technology Minister
Kapil Sibal announced that a global action plan to fight climate change was unworkable. (William Yeatman, Cooler
Heads Digest) British lawmakers pass landmark climate
change bill - Lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a bill committing Britain to cut greenhouse gas
emissions by 80 percent by 2050 -- the first country to have such a legally binding framework on climate change. No Ed, it merely demonstrates that stupidity is common in lawmakers. Greens Spell Progress R-e-c-e-s-s-i-o-n
- Great news for global warm-ongers: New data show the world is on target to meet the Kyoto targets for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. The bad news: It took a major economic collapse to get it done. (IBD) Wouldn't it be cool if these dipsticks did something useful? Hollywood
aims to put climate change on prime time - LOS ANGELES, Nov 18 - Could TV really save the world from global
warming? Like maybe draw attention to developing nation health care, provision of potable water, sanitation or some
real, addressable problem. Instead they want to push gorebull warming, about which every action does
demonstrable harm to the biosphere and society. Guys, carbon dioxide is a key resource supporting virtually all life on this planet's surface -- we need it,
we like it and the biosphere thrives on it. An Appeal To
Reason - Has Al Gore read Nigel Lawson's book? Missing Radioactivity in Ice Cores Bodes Ill for Part of
Asia - When Ohio State glaciologists failed to find the expected radioactive signals in the latest core they
drilled from a Himalayan ice field, they knew it meant trouble for their research. Actually it seems to indicate the world is not getting wetter (the alleged enhanced greenhouse positive
feedback loop), which would cause more precipitation at these freezing altitudes. The question is why this
one location has not been accumulating snow like the other sites Thompson has drilled. Change in monsoonal wind
patterns? Atmospheric drying due to the effects of say, the Asian Brown Cloud? It is not clear and there is
nowhere near enough past data to form any conclusions but it sure makes a mess of enhanced greenhouse (again)
doesn't it. Illusions of Climate
Science - How have we come to a situation where, as some polls suggest, most Australians are so concerned
about dangerous climate change that they will put aside the very tools and technologies that have sustained clean
air, clean water, nutritious food and long life? More importantly, is the perceived danger real and will the
reduction of carbon dioxide emissions avert the perceived danger? Although there are many uncertainties to be
resolved, it is clear that the community has been the subject of more than two decades of heavily biased
propaganda. (William Kininmonth, Quadrant) Global warming predictions are overestimated, suggests
study on black carbon -- A detailed analysis of black carbon -- the residue of burned organic matter -- in
computer climate models suggests that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions. (PhysOrg.com) Africa to pay for Europe's
"green policies" - In efforts to make quick and symbolic gains in Europe's otherwise failed policies
to curb climate gas emissions, environmental and anti-globalisation politicians are aiming at Africa's few
economic success stories. Campaigns to buy locally produced food and travel to local destinations particularly hit
out against African products. Consumers in Europe are again growing more environmentally conscious and are willing
to use their purchasing power to assist in what is widely seen as our era's most pressing problems - the
overspending of energy and global warming. Meanwhile, European politicians have been those pressuring strongest to
gain support for the Kyoto Protocol while having totally failed to lower emissions of climate gases in their own
countries. In every country, emissions have steadily increased. (Global Research) Waxman in fight to win key
House chairmanship - Two Democratic heavyweights, Michigan Rep. John Dingell and Rep. Henry Waxman of Los
Angeles, are slugging it out this week over a chairmanship of a key House committee in a fight with major
implications for President-elect Barack Obama's agenda on issues from health care to energy to climate change. ETS review
scuttles global carbon trader’s launch plan - International carbon trading company EcoSecurities Group has
postponed launching an office in this country after National’s decision yesterday to put the Emission Trading
Scheme on hold for at least another year. (National Business Review) Melting ice now main driver of rising sea
levels: study - Runoff from ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland along with melting mountain glaciers have
replaced expanding oceans as the main driver of rising sea levels, according to a new study. This appears to be a panicked effort to get around the increasingly common knowledge that oceans are not
actually warming. Perhaps they are hoping to avoid people finding out that sea
levels aren't actually rising, only the IPCC's "correction factor" and even then levels have recently
shown decline. From CO2 Science this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: Simulating Arctic Cloud Cover and Sea Ice: How well
do simulations of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report models compare with reality? Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Trends: Have
storm numbers and strengths increased in response to recent global warming? The Arctic Ocean: Melting Its Way to Higher
Productivity: It's not just the terrestrial landscape that is "greening" in response to
global change. Double Brooding in Tree Swallows: Even birds become
more productive when the climate warms and growing seasons lengthen. (co2science.org) What
is a “Teleconnection”? Why are Teleconnections Important in Climate Science? - Originally posted on August
25, 2005. Sunflower
sues Kan. over coal plant permit denial - TOPEKA, Kan. - Sunflower Electric Power Corp. said Tuesday it has
asked a federal court to block the state from denying the utility an air quality permit it needs to build two
coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. Calif. utilities must use 33 percent renewable energy for
power generation by 2020 - California utilities, already struggling to meet a law requiring more renewable
energy, saw the bar raised even higher Monday. Arnie forgot to mention it's also the stupidest target in the nation. Just suppose someone (anyone) is foolish enough to invest in producing so much intermittent, unreliable and
expensive electrickery -- how does it get to consumers, by wishful thinking? Obviously not, so you need massive
new investment in transmission lines, not to mention all the fights with NIMBYs and "Save The Slightly
Rusty VW Beetle" antidevelopment nut jobs and front groups whose raison d'être is to obstruct human
endeavor. Europe's $14
Billion Clean-Coal Plan Lacking Backers -- A European proposal to spend 11 billion euros ($14 billion) testing
how to pump greenhouse gases underground is itself getting buried. Why is it critical to waste energy denying the biosphere an essential resource gifted as a byproduct of human
endeavor? Opinion: A Critical Junction: Nuclear Power Faces an Uncertain
Future Under an Obama Administration - Illinois produces more megawatts of nuclear power than any other state
in the union, accounting for nearly 12 percent of the national total, and Barack Obama, the junior senator from
the land of Lincoln, has had a very cosy relationship with the state’s nuclear industry over the years. The
employees of the Exelon Corporation, the largest operator of commercial nuclear power plants in the U.S., have
donated at least $300,000 to Obama since 2003, and for his part, Obama has danced with those who brung him. Bills Come Due On the Ethanol Scam - The
implosion of the corn ethanol sector continues. Last week, VeraSun Energy Corp. announced that it expects its
third quarter loss to reach $464 million – more than four times the amount that it mentioned in an earlier
filing. Offshore wind power could alter ocean
currents - Change is small but was enough to cause upwelling, according to study Airport expansion
must be halted to meet CO2 target, say climate scientists - Only practical solution to meet emissions target
is for airline industry to curb demand for flying, says climate scientist. (The Guardian) Europe's Airlines: ‘No Emissions Trading Without the
Single Sky’ - The heads of Europe’s 35 most important scheduled airlines have called upon national
governments and the European institutions to better recognize the value of the airline industry. In this
perspective they don’t want an Emissions Trading Scheme without a Single European Sky. (CO2Handel.de) Reflections on
today’s news — from the food for thought file… - This news story isn’t about food or weight, chronic
diseases of aging or pharmaceuticals, or which unsound initiative our healthcare resources will be squandered on
next. This is a story being followed by Uyghur Human Rights Project in China, and reported by Radio Free Asia and
China Digital Times, that is so heart wrenching, disturbing and soul-searching on so many different levels, it
deserves to be known beyond China’s borders. (Junkfood Science)
Fighting Fake Drugs
in India - Recently approved legislation should help India in its battle against substandard pharmaceutical
products. No
fooling: Experts bemoan loss of kids' play time - NEW YORK -- In one classroom, a group of preschool teachers
squatted on the floor, pretending to be cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers. Next door, another group ended a raucous
musical game by placing their tambourines and drums atop their heads. Auto-Bailout
Mechanics - Detroit, Mich. — General Motors is not competitive. Help us STOP the Auto Makers
Bailout! Brain food no side serve -
IT'S not that I hate nature. It's just that I hate lies. And that's what alarms me most about the
"we'll-fry-and-die" green movement. Many say no thanks to
no-flush urinals - The influential U.S. Green Building Council promotes no-flush urinals as a way to win its
prized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design endorsements. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers specifies them
for the service's future construction. Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore is a board member of
Falcon Waterfree Technologies of Grand Rapids, Mich., the leading no-flush urinal maker. November 18, 2008 IQ2
U.S.: Do Come, Do Vote Online - On January 13, at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street, New York, Bjørn
Lomborg, Peter Huber (Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute), and I will be debating the motion ‘Major
reductions in carbon emissions are not worth the money’ with Daniel Kammen, Oliver Tickell, and Adam Werbach in
one of the now famous blockbuster IQ2 U.S. debates. The moderator will be John Donvan, correspondent for ABC News
‘Nightline’, and the debate will be recorded for airing on BBC World News Television (reaching 280 million
households globally) and NPR nationally. (Global Warming Politics) How
Barycentric Orbits Influence Climate - "The projections of the IPCC are simplistic, superficial, and now
proven wrong. The whole issue requires a fresh start, based on the mass of irrefutable data which has been
assembled. Certainly New Zealand should not incur any expenditure based on the fallacious IPCC Report. Indeed, New
Zealand should take a lead internationally to publicise the barycentric science, demonstrating how it explains the
recent finding of low sun-spot activity, the very cold winter in Europe, and thereby destroys the whole
‘conventional wisdom’ of so-called global warming. Here is a real opportunity for New Zealand to lead the
world." (Dr Jim Sprott, OBE, MSc, PhD, FNZIC, consulting chemist and forensic scientist, Auckland New
Zealand) Partial Carbon Cut From Coal A
Good First Step - MIT - NEW YORK - Coal-fired power plants might adopt technology with potential to help fight
climate change faster if they used it to capture about half of their greenhouse gas pollution instead of almost
all of it, experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Monday. (Reuters) No, it's a very bad step, first, last and always. On the one hand it's a serious waste of energy and on the
other it is pointless theft of an essential resource from the biosphere. Don't do it! Ever! D'oh! Soil study muddies climate
change debate - Climate change may not be as severe as predicted, suggests an international study that shows
current modeling of carbon dioxide emissions from soils are overestimated by as much as 20%. Uh-huh... Ski
industry predicts boom as cold sets in - Early snowfall on Europe's slopes points to bumper season for Alpine
resorts. (The Independent) Flashback: Ski resorts face uncertain
future - Global warming could devastate European ski resorts within decades, forcing lower-altitude resorts to
close and threatening winter sports which now attract up to 80 million tourists a year. Forests may play overlooked role in regulating climate
- In a study to be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists led by a
team at the University of New Hampshire show that forests may influence the Earth's climate in important ways that
have not previously been recognized. D'oh! Water vapor confirmed as major player in
climate change -- Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its
contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more
precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical
component of climate change. (PhysOrg.com) There remains no evidence however, that there is any positive feedback from water vapor to render trivial
carbon dioxide-driven warming catastrophic gorebull warming. Slumping
Carbon Price Worries Greens - CHURCHVILLE, VA—The price of carbon has slumped in Europe’s emission
trading—for the second time in two years. The long-term investments needed to reduce humanity’s greenhouse
emissions are being discouraged. The carbon price is meant to offset the economic cost of shifting from coal, gas,
and oil to non-fossil energy. If the carbon price is too cheap, however, Greens worry we won’t stop burning the
fossil fuels. (Dennis T. Avery, CGFI) Ex-Soviet Bloc Leads CO2 Emissions
Rise Since 2000 - OSLO - Economic revival in the former Soviet bloc has been the main driver in pushing up
industrialised nations' greenhouse gas emissions since 2000, despite plans to cut them, UN data showed on Monday.
(Reuters) The
Problem With a ‘Cap-and-Trade’ System - It will be very costly, but probably ineffective as a means of
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If everyone is supposedly so all-fired keen to include "externalities" why is it they seek only
costs? Why isn't the enormous service value of returning a trivial amount of desperately sparse essential trace
gas to the atmosphere ever mentioned in the supposed cost-benefit analysis? Granted, it is highly unlikely that
anyone will ever be able to charge the biosphere for this service but surely it should count when tallying
"externalities", which are presently booked only as unpaid charges against human endeavor. My guess is
that it is purely because misanthropists are cooking the books in their unceasing efforts to hamper humanity.
Why the antisocial ratbags are obsessed with that task I can not guess. Would-be wealth redistributors still trying: Greens
at G-20 Summit Call for ‘Rich’ Nations to Fund Underdeveloped Countries - Green energy advocates called on
“rich,” industrialized countries to pony up the money to make the world less dependent on carbon and to
subsidize the efforts of underdeveloped countries to reduce emissions in a G-20 publication distributed at a
global economic summit Saturday. No? Duh! Obama Won't Visit
UN Climate Talks In Poland - UN - OSLO - US President-elect Barack Obama will not attend United Nations talks
in Poland next month working on a new treaty for fighting global warming, the UN Climate Change Secretariat said
on Monday. (Reuters) Wising up at last: Business leaders cheer Key
Cabinet - Business leaders are praising incoming Prime Minister John Key's ministerial picks for their strong
business and economic experience. Global cooling prediction of guest
speaker - A professor from Carleton University may get the cold shoulder from environmentalists when he speaks
in London tomorrow. Cold, Hard Facts - Despite
record snows and low temperatures around the world last month, a major Al Gore supporter says October was the
hottest on record. The only thing being cooked here is not the Earth, but the books. OK, What Caused the Problem? (Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit) What is
Climate? Why Does it Matter How We Define Climate? - The title of this weblog is “Climate Science,” so the
first thing we need to do is define “climate.” For many, the term refers to long-term weather statistics.
However, on this blog we are adopting the definition that is provided in the 2005 National
Research Council (NRC) report where the climate is the system consisting of the atmosphere, hydrosphere,
lithosphere, and biosphere. Physical, chemical, and biological processes are involved in interactions among the
components of the climate system. Figure 1-1 and 1-2
in the report illustrate this definition of climate very clearly. In the NRC report, climate forcings were
extended beyond the radiative forcing of carbon dioxide to include the biogeochemical influence of carbon dioxide,
but also a variety of aerosol forcings (see Table 2-2
in the report), nitrogen deposition, and land-cover changes. Each of these forcings has been determined to
influence long-term weather statistics as well as other aspects of the climate. Greenhouse Misconceptions - As a
retired chemist with experience in absorption and emission spectroscopy, I've noticed basic errors in arguments
promoted by speculators of man-made climate change and propagated in the popular media. Specifically, they've
incorrectly compared absorption behavior of carbon dioxide gas to a functioning greenhouse, erroneously equated
infrared (IR) radiation to greenhouse-energizing radiation from the sun, and distorted textbook science. (Tom
Kondis, JunkScience.com) Transcript: Ian Plimer joins
Lateline Business - Professor Ian Plimer is one of the few scientists roundly disagreeing with the theory of
human induced climate change. (Lateline Business) A
Glimpse Inside the Global Warming Controversy - Why You Need to Consider Both Sides - Many proponents of the
IPCC’s AGW hypothesis consider the evidence for their theory incontrovertible and view it as “settled
science.” They reject all skepticism as mere denial, and appeal to the consensus of the climate science
community against the “deniers.’ There are, of course, crackpots on both sides of the issue who receive
frequent attention from the media. However, the “skeptics” are by no means without credentials. They are
former NASA scientists, university professors, physicists, climatologists, and National Academy of Science
researchers, who are highly respected in their fields. (Dr. William DiPuccio, Icecap) Two-Mile-Deep
Antarctic Ice Core Reveals Stupidity of AGW Catastrophism - The extraordinary conclusions of the Epica 2008
“Quaternary Climate” scientific conference in Venice (Nov 10-13, Venice, Italy) have elicited little interest
in the media. (OmniClimate) Scare-Mongering
on Steroids: NBC Warns Oceans Could Rise 200 Feet! - Forget Al Gore's measly 20-foot sea level rise from
"An Inconvenient Truth." That's small potatoes compared to the kind of catastrophe Meredith Vieira was
talking about last night. Kicking off NBC's Warmest October ever ...Not! - Last
week, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) -- one of four agencies responsible for monitoring the global
temperatures used by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- released its statistics for October.
According to the GISS figures, last month was the warmest October on record around the world. Restoring
EPA’s “Scientific Integrity” - From Inside EPA, in case you’re wondering what they’ve got in store
for you. Comment is unnecessary. As is, apparently, the accountable-to-the-voters Congress actually daring to say
this is what they want: (Chris Horner, Planet Gore) Mutter, mutter... Safe storage of greenhouse-gas
carbon dioxide - To prevent global warming, researchers and policymakers are exploring a variety of options to
significantly cut the amount of carbon dioxide that reaches the atmosphere. One possible approach involves
capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide at the source — an electric power plant, for example — and
then injecting them underground. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) No! No! NO! Supercritical CO2 boosts super optimism
in sequestering greenhouse gas -- Scientists appear to have the rock-solid evidence that suggests carbon
dioxide can be safely and permanently sequestered in deep, underground basalt rock formations, without risk of it
eventually escaping to the atmosphere. The findings have potential implications for sequestering carbon in other
reservoir systems as well. (PhysOrg.com) Why would we waste energy denying the biosphere an essential resource in critically short supply? Global financial leaves
thinking on climate exposed - THE global financial crisis showed how foolish the Rudd Government would be to
base its climate change response on economic forecasts for the coming century, academic and Reserve Bank board
director Warwick McKibbin said yesterday. (The Australian) US Gasoline Closer To $2, Cheapest
Since March 2005 - WASHINGTON - The average US retail price for gasoline is closing in on $2 a gallon after
falling another 15 cents over the last week to the lowest level since March 2005, the US Energy Department said on
Monday. EPA Raises '09 US Renewable Motor
Fuel Requirement - WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency Monday increased the amount of renewable
motor fuels, mostly ethanol, required to be sold in the United States next year. The correct answer is to get rid of the EPA and all associated green nut jobs. Coal regains crown as slump in nuclear
output raises fears of power shortages - Power suppliers are turning back the clock to use coal-fired plants
as their main source of electricity in a bid to avert potential shortages this winter. ANALYSIS - Recession, Cheap Coal
To Cut UK Winter Gas Demand - LONDON - A global recession and cheaper coal are likely to cut Britain's demand
for natural gas this winter, possibly speeding up the fall in gas prices which have so far lagged behind the slump
in oil markets. (Reuters) About time: Gift
to Oil Industry Rushed Into Federal Register Before Bush Leaves Office - WASHINGTON, D.C.— Ignoring the
wishes of two governors and numerous members of Congress, the Bush administration announced today final
regulations for a commercial oil shale program affecting almost 2 million acres of public lands in Colorado, Utah
and Wyoming. These regulations lay out the rules governing royalty rates, evaluation of lease bids, mitigation
requirements, and other technical and procedural elements of commercial oil shale leasing and production. (Press
Release) Although this lot seem miffed about it. UK Needs More Nuclear Plant
Builders, Minister Says - LONDON - Britain needs more than one company to build nuclear power stations to meet
the government's long-term carbon emissions targets and provide affordable electricity, UK energy minister Mike
O'Brien said on Monday. French Wind Farm Firm Theolia
Blown Off Course - PARIS - French alternative energy firm Theolia announced a strategy turnaround on Monday as
it scales down its ambitions and reduces costs to focus on cash generation amid the financial crisis. (Reuters) "Gulf War
Syndrome" is real, report finds - WASHINGTON - A report released Monday concluded that "Gulf War
Syndrome" is a legitimate condition suffered by more than 175,000 U.S. war veterans who were exposed to
chemical toxins in the 1991 Gulf War. While symptoms may be real and there is a natural inclination to help those who serve this is a dreadful
decision. It's no more rational nor medically sound than say, blaming gorebull warming for AIDS (OK, so that's
probably already been done). Sacré bleu! French Court
Fines Power Grid For Harming Animals - PARIS - A French court has ruled that power grid RTE must pay 390,000
euros (US$493,200) to a farming family after a high-voltage line caused its animals to fall sick, a prosecutor
said on Monday. (Reuters) This idiocy, again: Klaus
Bosselmann: Putting steel into the fight to save Earth - Humans have overstepped the threshold of
sustainability. In the mid-1980s, the capacity of the planet to sustain its human population had reached 100 per
cent. The current population now has an ecological footprint equal to 1.25 planets. No, we don't use anything like the carrying capacity of the Earth and, partly because we mine carbon stored
over millions of years, we can increase Earth's carrying capacity tremendously through crop and nutrient
manipulation. The myth of the world being used up is simply recycled misanthropy. Change We Can't Believe In
- Economists often talk about "revealed preferences." If Uncle Stu says that he wants to watch his
weight but continues to gorge himself like a wild boar, it's clear that his preference to eat outweighs any desire
to drop a few pounds. People talk green because they believe society and their peers expect it of them but the truth
generally emerges with the pocket book. See, for example, Green
space no guarantee of greenbacks, where "contingent valuation" (people's alleged willingness
to cough up a few bucks, even in good times) was actually put to the test. The study is particularly telling in
that only people who would benefit from the green space project were given questionnaires, of that 2700
households half (1350) were solicited for donations to the project, of which 10 actually gave (amount
unspecified) and none did so from the 1350 not specifically solicited. That only 1 in 270 households was physically prepared to contribute cash to a green space project everyone
allegedly wants really tells you everything you need to know about people's willingness to part with the green
for green, doesn't it? Environmentalists' hysteria loses
- Last Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court overturned a 9th U.S. Circuit injunction prohibiting certain
Navy training exercises in the Pacific Ocean. The decision was a big win for the Navy and for America's national
security interests. Film-makers taking on our
'global warming hysteria' - A new Irish film claims that climate change guru Al Gore is an alarmist and that
those who think they are saving the planet are only hurting the poor Acid soils in Slovakia tell somber tale - Increasing
levels of nitrogen deposition associated with industry and agriculture can drive soils toward a toxic level of
acidification, reducing plant growth and polluting surface waters, according to a new study published online in
Nature Geoscience. (United States Geological Survey) November 17, 2008
Same way they measure temperature :-) Thousands
walk against warming - Tens of thousands have gathered in Sydney's CBD to urge the Federal Government
to adopt a swifter response to the climate crisis. From the publicly-funded hype factory: Thousands
march in protest against global warming - About 2,000 people have marched through central Sydney as
part of a national day of protest action on global warming. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Reality: Sydney contact reports a mixed bag of greenies, anti-poverty protesters, anti-capitalists,
anti-globalists and mostly people who'd heard there was a free concert amounted to at least 200. Yup, people sure are frantic about this gorebull warming thing on a cool, grey day in Sydney... Warming
emperors shiver without clothes - Once again theories of global warming smack into the fact of cooling: Are Multi-decadal
Climate Forecasts Skillful? - Originally posted on July 22, 2005. This could be embarrassing for them... Updating
the Science of Global Warming: A Q&A with Marine Biologist Katherine Richardson - An international climate
change congress aims to gather the world's top scientists to update the book on global warming (David Biello,
SciAm) ... since there has been no
statistically-significant warming since 1995. The world has never
seen such freezing heat - A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the
temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for
Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies
responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record. GISS,
NOAA, GHCN and the odd Russian temperature anomaly - “It’s all pipes!” - As most readers know by now,
the problematic GISTEMP global temperature anomaly plot for October is heavily weighted by temperatures from
weather stations in Russia. (Watts Up With That?) Questions on the
evolution of the GISS temperature product - The last time I checked, the earth does not retroactively change
it’s near surface temperature. (Watts Up With That?) Nevada USHCN Station
Surveys are done - Thanks to the work of dedicated volunteers, we continue to complete surveys of the 1221
USHCN climate stations in the USA. Last week thanks to a business trip, I was able to complete the final two
stations in Nevada: Wells, and Austin. (Watts Up With That?) Shriek! 'Jelly balls' may slow
global warming - VAST numbers of marine "jelly balls" now appearing off the Australian east coast
could be part of the planet's mechanism for combating global warming. (Sydney Morning Herald) "The Planet" does not have a "mechanism for combating global warming" or anything else --
the planet simply is. If "the planet" were a sentient being and if it valued abundant life then it would
surely want to be warmer, with considerably more-prolific atmospheric carbon dioxide than today's miserable
trace level simply because those are conditions under which life on Earth is most abundant. The "planet's mechanism for combating global warming." Sheesh! Geoff Strong you are an idiot
and if CSIRO's Mark Baird actually said such a stupid thing he should be escorted from the premises, never to
return. How did this mystic pap about "Earth Mothers" and "Spirit Trees /Bears /Daffodils
/whatever" infiltrate science and mainstream reporting? And why didn't Strong's editor rip him a new one
for tendering such gibberish? “Global warming
spreads malaria” - The scare: The Times of India reported in the autumn of 2008 that James H. Diaz, program
director for environmental and occupational health at Louisiana State University, had said that as international
travel increased and climate patterns changed the US was becoming a more stable ecosystem for malaria mosquitoes.
Diaz said that warm, dry summers followed by heavy rain caused mosquitoes to rush their breeding and to seek out
more blood meals, which in turn bred more mosquitoes in less time. He added that warmer climate in major US cities
with heavy international air traffic, such as New York and Los Angeles, seemed to have created an environment in
which infected mosquitoes could survive. Nasa fights global warming with
bathtime favourite - The idea to use bathtub toys for ice-cap research came from Alberto Behar, a rocket
scientist and world authority on space robotics who works at the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles. Slowdown in Greenland
- No self-respecting global warming presenter would ever miss the chance to warn the audience that higher
temperatures could melt ice in places like Greenland, the melting water could lubricate the interface between ice
and rock, and watch-out … the ice could increase its velocity, fall or move quickly into the sea, and cause a
rapid rise in sea level. If you happen to be Al Gore, you might show us melting ice, water pouring into some
moulin (Figure 1), and then cap it off with an image of water drowning out the World Trade Center Memorial. This
story in its near infinite varieties appears on literally thousands of websites dealing with the global warming
issue. (WCR) Al
Gore needs a new poster - Al Gore launched An Inconvenient Truth at just the right time to exploit fears that
Hurricane Katrina was a sign of things to come. Check his poster. And when a cyclone hit Burma, there was Gore
again, picking over the corpses for more “proof” of his theory: (Andrew Bolt Blog) Is
Our Climate Changing? A Study of Long-Time Temperature Trends - Thanks to Richard Mackey and John McLean this
blast from the past. This 1933 paper, ”Is our climate changing? A study of long-term temperature trends” by J
B Kincer of the U S Weather Bureau in Washington DC published in the Monthly Weather Review Vol 61 pages 251 to
259, has an eerie resonance with the current debate. (Icecap) Global Warming Mocumentary (ConservativeCavalry) Here we go again: Floods
under Antarctic ice speed glaciers into sea: study - PARIS — Scientists unveiled Sunday the first direct
evidence that massive floods deep below Antarctica's ice cover are accelerating the flow of glaciers into the sea. Guess what? This effect has apparently been ongoing for millennia and there is no indication of accelerating
sea level rise. Global
Warming Is Good - Here’s another way of looking at things: global warming is good. The green pseudo-revolution -
Whatever the enviro-lobbyists say, subsidising inefficient green industries is not the way to tackle climate
change (Björn Lomborg, The Guardian) Dangerous
Economics - We hear a great deal about ‘dangerous climate change’ from the likes of Al Gore and Nicholas
Stern. By contrast, I wish to speak about dangerous ‘Green’ economics. Schwarzenegger
orders climate change strategy - SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered state agencies to
begin preparing for the projected impacts of global warming on California's economy, people and natural resources. Enter new 'climate villain' (they're going to miss Bush): Russia
the next climate recalcitrant - THE melting of the Arctic ice cap has created an awkward new threat to
international climate change talks by convincing senior officials in Moscow that Russia stands to reap an economic
bonanza from ice-free northern oceans. At least China is helping the planet: China's
noxious coal fires add to global warming - Some have been burning for more than a century; others range over
thousands of miles (McClatchy-Tribune) Congratulations Guardian News & Media: A
climate for change - By far our biggest influence as a company is through our editorial coverage, though we
also recognise the importance of practising what we preach. JunkScience.com would like to extend particular thanks to The Guardian stable of publications. Mad
Dogs And Englishmen - “The political class of Britain is in denial. They just don’t see or they don’t
want to see that they are on their own now. No other country is following. It’s exactly the opposite, they are
all retreating, whereas Britain is saying, ‘Oh, we are not going far enough, we need even more reductions.’
Apart from the question whether it’s actually feasible economically and energy wise and so on, it’s
politically nonsensical.” [Dr. Benny Peiser, ‘Is
the tide turning on climate policy?’, Local Transport Today (LTT), November 14] (Global Warming Politics) Oh... MBA's
face up to the cold, hard facts about global warming - Climate change students are shocked and depressed by
what they learn, but business can also influence the outcome (Stephen Hoare, The Times) ... no wonder they are shocked with the utter garbage spouted about gorebull warming these days. Hopefully
they are been taught a very cautionary tale about the hazards of relying on 'models' -- after all,
predictions are very hard to make, especially about the future ;). Pachauri still playing his interesting games: Brown
clouds seasonal in nature: Experts - NEW DELHI: The haze, or an atmospheric brown cloud hanging over major
Asian cities including Delhi and Mumbai, essentially affects local conditions and can be swept away by a new
weather system or winter rains as is often the case in the Capital. He chairs a group demanding developed world compensation for gorebull warming 'damage' while participating in
the production of domestic reports declaring gorebull warming to be a non-issue (which he likely believes since
he is willing to fly from the US to India and back just to attend a practice session for his cricket team and
again to play in the game). 'Brown
clouds way of getting at India, China' - NEW DELHI: While the west sees atmospheric brown clouds as a major
climate change factor in global warming, India sees the charge that its "traditional" bio-fuels are the
primary reason for the toxic haze as an attempt to put the developing world on the back foot over climate change.
(Times of India) Europe, Japan
Face $46 Billion Global-Warming Penalty -- Twenty nations including Japan, Italy and Australia may be
releasing more greenhouse-gas pollution than they agreed to under the Kyoto treaty to curb global warming. Playing high-stakes chicken: Germany
wants CO2 relief for energy guzzling firms - BERLIN, Nov 14 - The German government wants extensive exemptions
for energy intensive industrial sectors for their carbon emissions caps from 2013, Chancellor Angela Merkel's
chief spokesman said on Friday. How rude: EU looks toward Obama to
break global climate deadlock - European negotiators believe a global climate deal to succeed the Kyoto
Protocol can be achieved, with Barack Obama’s help. (ClimateChangeCorp) Europe essentially says they think Obama is a naive twit that can be talked into committing America to
decline and irrelevance. He may be untested but that's unfair -- there's still a very good chance reality will
intrude. INTERVIEW - Climate Progress
Unlikely At Global Meeting - GEF - WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's lame-duck status means major
progress on climate change will be unlikely at an international meeting next month, the chief of a multibillion
dollar environmental group said Friday. Bush is not now and never has been the reason people can't control the climate. Resolve to Tackle Climate Change Crumbling Internationally -
The resolve in Europe to make meaningful emission reductions’ is crumbling by the day in the wake of the
financial credit crunch sweeping the globe, bringing with it fears of a global economic recession. Climate change
review echoes world trend - As the new National government charts its course toward the brighter future
promised to the electorate, John Key and his team will undoubtedly be mindful of avoiding the imposition of
unnecessary regulations and restrictions, but also reviewing and removing those that are unnecessary. Japanese study emphasizes importance of
China, India, U.S. in post-Kyoto emissions protocol - TOKYO -- If $50 were spent on reducing 1 ton of carbon
dioxide emissions, a large quantity of global emissions could be curbed by 2020, with 53 percent of the potential
reduction achievable by China, India and the United States, a study has found. Global Warming --A
Political Context - European and American statists, including activist NGOs like the Environmental Defense
Fund (EDF), assert that the moderate climate warming that occurred until 2002 is a man-made catastrophe, and have
embraced the dystopian fantasy that coercive policies for the elimination of fossil fuel production and usage can
prevent or turn back the current warming cycle. They have, thus, made the "global warming planetary
emergency" into the central plank of their ongoing campaigns for more centralized government. (Robert
Ferguson, American Thinker) Setback for carbon-trapping technology in EU
talks - BRUSSELS, Nov 14 - Plans to put billions of euros of public funds behind cutting-edge technology to
trap and bury global warming gases suffered at setback in European Union talks on Friday. Good, the world neither needs nor would benefit from such a stupid waste of energy. Green Is for Sissies
- SIX years of relentlessly rising prices have showered the oil industry with record profits even as whipsawing
energy costs have left many Americans alternately furious and baffled. The Great Arctic Game: Russia’s Attempt to Claim
the Arctic’s Vast Energy Resources - If the conflict with Georgia revealed anything, it is that Vladimir
Putin does not play by the rules. Take the Great Arctic Game. In May, Russia met with Canada, Norway, Denmark
(through its sovereignty of Greenland) and the U.S. (the four other nations bordering the Arctic) and agreed to
abide by U.N. adjudication (what we will call Plan A) regarding the Arctic territory and mineral rights.
Unfortunately, the U.N. does not have a good track record in resolving complex territorial disputes and defusing
associated potential conflicts. Putin knows this. He also knows that the U.S. has yet to sign the U.N. Law of the
Sea Convention of 1982. Natural gas rush stirs environmental concerns --
Advanced drilling techniques that blast millions of gallons of water into 400-million-year-old shale formations a
mile underground are opening up "unconventional" gas fields touted as a key to the nation's energy
future. (AP) Tide turns
against 'dirty' oil sands - Tim Webb explains why falling prices may have led to a slowdown in the rush on the
oil sands of Alberta, but environmental concerns are rising (The Observer) Centrica Says Reviewing New Wind
Farm Economics - LONDON - Britain's Centrica is reviewing the economic viability of planned wind farms due to
soaring costs and the credit crunch, the owner of British Gas said. (Reuters) Argentina Vetoes Glacier Law That
Curbed Mining - BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's president has vetoed a law protecting the country's glaciers that
would have restricted mining and oil drilling, officials and environmental campaigners said on Friday. Terence
Corcoran: CTV’s W-Five drops the bomb on Port Hope - W-Five willfully ignored the available science on the
safety of Port Hope (Terence Corcoran, Financial Post) Can we trust the
published results of clinical trials? - News coverage of the long-awaited session of this week’s American
Heart Association’s scientific meetings that had promised to constructively address uncomfortable issues
surrounding recent statin clinical trials is virtually nowhere to be found. There was no AHA press release and
only one reporter even covered it at all. (Junkfood Science) The Null Series —
Vitamins for cancer prevention - Good news — that isn’t trying to scare us into doing something, buying
something, or eating something — means there’s nothing to sell us. That may explain why good news is
considered bad news and studies showing there’s nothing to worry about rarely make headlines. Yet, those
unpopular “nothing to fear here” studies, also known as “null studies,” are some of the best kinds. They
help us feel less stressed out and enable us to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of. (Junkfood
Science) Null Series —
Vitamins and wholegrains for heart disease prevention - Beliefs and ideologies can be stronger than the
science, especially when it comes to our diets. Sadly, so can our fears. Millions of Americans take vitamins and
worry about what they eat, fearing that if they fail to eat loads of antioxidants, free radicals will lead to
heart disease, cancers and other chronic diseases of aging. Yet, the strongest studies continue to show these
concerns to be unsupported. The Wrong
Message in a Bottle - IN late September, the authorities in Belgium seized more than two million counterfeit
painkillers and antimalarial drugs that had been manufactured in India and were en route to Africa. It was the
largest seizure ever of fake pharmaceuticals in Europe. Welcome to the new Sunday `World of the Global
Citizen’ - All is quiet on the Western Front today, even though world governments taking virtual control of
world economies is now complete. (Judi McLeod, CFP) Inhofe: Cancel the
'blank check' (Tulsa World) Inhofe:
Roll Back the Bailout - Lays Out Legislative Plan for Lame Duck Session Right
Side News endorses Senator Inhofe's call to Roll Back the Bail Out! - Right Side News is encouraged that there
are real Senators with backbone in DC, and Senator Inhofe's call to "roll back the bailout" is the right
direction for Americans who have been taken to the cleaners by their own elected representatives. The run-a-way US
government needs to be bridled and tamed by their employer, the American people. We hope this is a crack in the
Paulson hijacking, and that the next step is the call for Paulson's resignation. (Right Side News) :-) Deodorant
Manufacturer's Seek Government Bailout - Washington DC: US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has met with
representatives (not lobbyists) of America's largest deodorant manufacturers. "A stinking world crisis is
looming, which we need $5 Billion to alleviate" said the meeting participants as they exited the conference
room. Water restrictions ordered to help
California fish - SAN FRANCISCO - California officials ordered on Friday an additional 17 percent cut in the
amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect a fish in the most populous U.S. state's
fresh water hub. Oh, it's ForTheChildren™ As
First Plan Stalls, Mayor Tries New Push for Green Taxis - After a federal court ruling stalled a city
initiative to make most new taxis hybrid vehicles, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Friday that he would seek
another way, announcing new financial incentives aimed at pushing taxi owners to buy the more environmentally
friendly gas-and-electric cars. Rightly: Green issues leave students
colour blind - Australian teenagers just aren't ready to change their lifestyle to protect the environment,
writes Caroline Milburn. November 14, 2008 Greens Pave Way for Republican Comeback - If
congressional Republicans -- or what's left of them -- are looking for the path out of the political wilderness
following last week’s electoral drubbing, there’s a shortcut to victory in 2010 being paved for them by the
Greens. Water Laws May
Be Used to Fight Warming - Environmental groups have sought to force the federal government to restrict carbon
dioxide emissions using the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act (because of threats to polar bears from
global warming) and other federal laws, and now they are poised to add the Clean Water Act to the list. (Andrew C.
Revkin, New York Times) This despite knowledge that marine critters are at zero risk from atmospheric carbon dioxide (they evolved
when Earth had many times greater levels than are anticipated whether humans participate or not). It's a good
example of why innocuous-sounding legislation like the "clean water act" should never be entertained
and should be expunged from existing legislation -- they are no more or less than bludgeons wielded by
antidevelopment misanthropists to beat down humanity at every opportunity. We are not allowed to eliminate the
misanthropists so we really need to disarm them. Put global warming on to-do list -
Fellow Canadians, it's time to start thinking of "fixing" global warming the same way we do
"ending" child poverty. Or "settling" native land claims. Or "shortening" medical
wait times. No, it's actually time to run, not walk, run away from this nonsense: Time
to focus on climate change - As world leaders gather in Washington, they would do well to remember that we
face two crises. The global financial crisis is most immediate; the more existential is climate change. The
urgency of the first is no excuse for neglecting the second. To the contrary, it is an opportunity to kill two
birds with one stone. Give the
rainforests our word and bond - Faced with a global credit crunch, the governments of the world are coming
together to act with urgency. But faced with a far more serious climate crunch, we have yet to show our mettle.
(Nicholas Stern, The Times) Better yet, give rainforests more atmospheric carbon dioxide -- it's what they really thrive on. Excuse du jour: Giant Asian
Smog Cloud Masks Global Warming Impact - UN - BEIJING - A three-kilometre thick cloud of brown soot and other
pollutants hanging over Asia is darkening cities, killing thousands and damaging crops but may be holding off the
worst effects of global warming, the UN said on Thursday. Now it's the Asian Brown Cloud (ABC) "hiding" the gorebull warming that would otherwise occur.
Small problem, much of the ABC is composed of soot (black carbon particulates) that allegedly warms the
atmosphere and planet. Oh well... any excuse for a failed hypothesis, eh? Haunting Asia, a brown cloud blots out sun -
BEIJING: A noxious cocktail of soot, smog and toxic chemicals is blotting out the sun, fouling the lungs of
millions of people and altering weather patterns in large parts of Asia, according to a report released Thursday
by the United Nations. Coastal military facilities are threatened by rising sea
levels, Really? (Richard Courtney, CO2sceptics) Schwarzenegger
and global warming - It might be better if our governor just vents concern about climate change and doesn't
sign any global deals at an upcoming summit. (Los Angeles Times) INTERVIEW - Obama Should
Compromise On Carbon Policy - NEW YORK - President-elect Barack Obama may have to compromise on a key point in
his proposed climate policy if he wants to push through a program to regulate greenhouse gases, said the lead
author of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study on cap-and-trade markets. (Reuters) Andy's ecomentia decline continues -- poor blighter: More
Earthly Advice for Obama - Former Vice President Al Gore and Paul and Anne Ehrlich, the prize-winning
ecologists and authors at Stanford University, have weighed in with suggestions for President-elect Barack Obama.
Mr. Gore gave his updated prescription for climate and energy policy in an op-ed article in The Times on Sunday.
It’s similar to his speech earlier in the year, reprising his call to wean the United States from coal-generated
electricity within a decade. (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times) Polish PM Says EU Nearing Climate
Deal In Dec - PARIS - Poland's prime minister said on Thursday he believed a deal in December on a European
Union climate package had come closer following his talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the issue.
(Reuters) Still guessing about the carbon cycle: Corralling
the carbon cycle -- Scientists may have overcome a major hurdle to calculating how much carbon dioxide (CO2)
is absorbed and released by plants, vital information for understanding how the biosphere responds to stress and
for determining the amount of carbon that can be safely emitted by human activities. The problem is that
ecosystems simultaneously take up and release CO2. The key finding is that the compound carbonyl sulfide, which
plants consume in tandem with CO2, can be used to quantify gas flow into the plants during photosynthesis. The
research is published in the November 14, issue of Science. (PhysOrg.com) States revolt over Rudd's
carbon plan - PREMIERS are in revolt over Kevin Rudd's plans for an emissions trading scheme, urging changes
to the proposed formulas for compensating export industries to ensure they are not pushed offshore. When will this idiotic fad end? Carbon
permits face pressure on price from global crisis - THE global financial crisis could force up the price of
the developing-country carbon permits that the Rudd Government is hoping will provide a cheap source of greenhouse
gas reductions for Australian companies under its new emissions trading scheme. From the fevered imagination bureau: Study:
Global warming could be costly for California - California could face as much as $3.9 billion in annual
damages caused by wildfires, rising sea levels and extreme weather events if not enough is done to combat global
warming, according to a report released Thursday. What Are Climate Models?
What Do They Do? - Climate models are comprised of fundamental concepts and parameterizations of physical,
biological, and chemical components of the climate system, expressed as mathematical formulations, and then
averaged over grid volumes. These formulations are then converted to a programming language so that they can be
solved on a computer and integrated forward in discrete time steps over the chosen model domain. A global climate
model needs to include component models to represent the oceans, atmosphere, land, and continental ice and the
interfacial fluxes between each other. Weather models are clearly a subset of a climate model (a discussion of
mesoscale weather models is given in Pielke, R.A., Sr., 2002: Mesoscale meteorological modeling. 2nd Edition,
Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 676 pp), where the basic framework of all scales of weather models is presented).
On the global scale, it is very important to distinguish global atmospheric-ocean circulation models (AOGCMs) from
global climate models. Global climate models need to include all important components of the climate system as
discussed in a 2005 National Research Council report, while AOGCMs up the present have not. (Roger Pielke Sr.,
Climate Science) Model fantasy: Will
the Next Ice Age Be a Very Long One? - A new analysis of the dramatic cycles of ice ages and warm intervals
over the past million years, published in Nature, concludes that the climatic swings are the gyrations of a system
poised to settle into a quasi-permanent colder state — with expanded ice sheets at both poles. (Andrew C. Revkin,
New York Times) More On Whether a
Big Chill Is Nigh - I was on the road yesterday and had no time to collate earth scientists’ reactions to
the Nature paper positing that the world, after 450,000 years of climatic turmoil (the ice ages and warm spells)
is poised to enter a quasi-permanent big chill (unless we avert it, after dealing with near-term warming, with a
subsequent buildup of greenhouse gases). (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times) Andy has unwittingly provided everyone with a brief climate scientist evaluation guide -- actual scientists
call this trivial model exercise what it is: fiction and nonsense while climate fakers can't tell PlayStation®
climatology from the real thing. See especially the gibberish from Hansen about humans precluding ice ages
(through GHG emissions) although the planet plunged into an ice age in the Ordovician when atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels were 4,000+ ppmv and rising. Good work Andy, you've highlighted a few climate charlatans
even though you didn't mean to do so. Al Gore/AIT Index
currently at -.37° F. since An Inconvenient Truth was released - Each month the GORE LIED graphics department
marks up Dr. Roy Spencer's monthly UAH Globally Averaged Satellite-Based Temperature of the Lower Troposphere to
illustrate Gore's personal inconvenient truth. (Gore Lied) Even if it is not meant to be a joke: Polar
Bear Lifejackets? - Swedish design group ADDI has come up with an cutting-edge polar bear lifejacket design
concept to help polar bears navigate the changes in their habitat. They offer the following explanation for their
lifejacket design: If these bears are swimming to the equator, which is where you end up travelling 10,000Km from the North
Pole, to find food then it's highly unlikely they are in need of floaties :) Forecast
for oil price slashed by IEA - The International Energy Agency (IEA) slashed its oil price forecast for 2009
from $110 to $80 per barrel yesterday in the face of looming recession in the world's developed economies. (Sarah
Arnott, The Independent) and yet, just the day before: IEA warns
of oil supply crunch - The world faces an oil supply crunch that could push prices above this summer's
eye-watering $147 per barrel high if falling prices put the brakes on exploration and production expansion, the
International Energy Agency said yesterday. (Sarah Arnott, The Independent) Chevron's Orwellian Crude Discovery
- Chevron has unveiled a revolutionary new way of finding oil. It doesn't involve satellite telemetry or seismic
imaging or some other high-tech means of exploration. It involves advertising. ‘Peak
oil’ adherents grow in number and influence - What do former Vice President Al Gore, Wall Street Journal
columnist Neil King and Long Island City Business Development Corp. director Dan Miner have in common? Silly, to begin with peakers omit unconventional hydrocarbon resources, which are abundant. Thawing Fuel For Palin's Pipeline
- Sometimes, America lucks out. From the Arctic, a new energy source has emerged called frozen gas. It could cut
prices and bring independence. We hope Democrats and Republicans can work together on this. (IBD) Really stupid: Utah
coal plant permit blocked by EPA panel - WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency was blocked Thursday
from issuing a permit for a proposed coal-burning power plant in Utah without addressing global warming. The
ruling by an agency appeals panel means the Obama administration probably will determine the fate of other similar
plants. Wyoming, GE want coal
research plant by 2012 - CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Representatives of the University of Wyoming, the state and General
Electric Co. say their goal is to build a coal research plant by 2012. Today's energy waste: Coal
trial to lower carbon emissions - WORK begins today on a world-first low-emission coal project that could
slash greenhouse gases from existing power stations. EU Seeks New Gas And Wind To Boost
Energy Security - BRUSSELS - Europe must harness more energy from the wind, sun and sea and tap new gas
sources in Africa and the Caspian, the European Commission said on Thursday, as the EU seeks to limit its growing
dependence on Russian gas. (Reuters) Here's some bad news for you fellas: wind is no path to "energy security". Germany Defends Pipeline Project
After Putin Warning - BERLIN - Germany defended plans for a Baltic Sea gas pipeline on Thursday after Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned European partners that Moscow may scrap the project. (Reuters) Questions the media
didn’t ask - You’ve no doubt heard about a study presented this week at the American Heart Association
conference in New Orleans that's being reported as finding “striking evidence” that children who are fat or
with ‘high’ cholesterol have early signs of heart disease. The thickness of the inner walls of their carotid
arteries (“carotid intima-media thickness” measurements or CIMT) was reported as resembling those of a 45-year
old, someone 30 years older than their actual age. This has made news headlines around the world as “alarming”
proof that fat children are at risk for early heart attacks, strokes and death. Your secret's safe
with us — more electronic health information news - Two stunning stories came out today from the federal
advisory committee formulating the government’s action plan for accelerating the adoption of a national
electronic health database (Health IT). The American Health Information Community’s final meeting was today.
(Junkfood Science) From the department of silly guesses: California
Dirty Air Costs Over $28 Bln/Yr - Study - SAN FRANCISCO - California is losing $28 billion annually in
health-related costs because of air pollution in and around Los Angeles and in its San Joaquin Valley, according
to a report released Wednesday. (Reuters) Not Everyone Likes the
IPCC - It seems that the international biodiversity community is leery of empaneling an equivalent body to the
IPCC, due to the political implications of such a panel in policy making. From the AFP today (emphasis added):
(Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus) November 13, 2008 Sense, at last: U.S.
Supreme Court OKs Navy use of sonar - Reporting from Washington -- The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a defeat to
environmentalists today and cleared the way for the Navy to use high-powered sonar off the Southern California
coast even if it poses a threat to whales and other marine mammals. Always trying to crowd people into the minimum volume: Asian
cities should grow up, not linearly, to reduce CO2 - Bangkok - To reduce carbon dioxide emissions - blamed for
global warming - Asian cities of the future should grow vertically instead of horizontally, a leading transport
expert said Wednesday. And crowding works so well, too: One
mln Bangladesh cyclone survivors await homes-Oxfam - DHAKA, Nov 12 - Over a million people are struggling
without proper homes and at greater risk of disease than before, almost one year after cyclone Sidr ravaged parts
of Bangladesh, Oxfam said on Wednesday. Luckily: Northern tropical
cyclone activity hits 30-year low - The past two years have seen a "remarkable" downturn in
hurricane activity, contradicting predictions of more storms, researchers at Florida State University say. But that doesn't stop nonsense claims like this: CUBA:
No Choice but to Adapt to Storms - HAVANA, Nov 12 - Three hurricanes have caused a total of 10 billion dollars
in damages in Cuba in less than three months, according to the latest official estimates, while highlighting the
vulnerability of Cuban housing to storms. How
climate changes shook up history: Experts to speak - Between 880 and 1250 A.D., climate change allowed Europe
to thrive while the Mayan civilization collapsed. In the 1400s, another climate shift led to torrential rains and
crop failure in Europe, starving 1.5 million people. Fagan's books The
Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History - 1300-1850 and The
Great Warming are available through our store. See also The
Holocene: An Environmental History (Neil Roberts) and After
the Ice: A Global Human History 20000-5000 BC (Steven Mithen) for longer perspective. The Futile
Quest for Climate Control Quick! It's even worse! Existing
climate actions 'not good enough', EU warned - Global warming is driving major environmental changes more
quickly than expected, with the Earth's average temperature racing towards dangerous levels and the transition to
a low-carbon economy stalling, leading climate experts say. Things must be desperate in climate activist town, all this blasted cooling makes gorebull warming a poor
performer in the fundraising stakes. Another
dumb climate stunt from NBC - climbing Kilimanjaro - You may recall NBC’s Today show sending out their
correspondents to all ends of the earth to highlight “climate change”. Weather Eye: an expected tornado
hits UK - The weather on Monday was a surprise. Deluges of rain, violent winds and a cold blast swept much of
the country. Apart from flooding and fallen trees, a tornado also ripped across part of Suffolk, tearing off roof
tiles, smashing greenhouses and sending trees tumbling (report, November 12). The tornado left a trail of
devastation around nine miles (15km) long, before fizzling out not far from Sizewell nuclear reactor. Just Another
Day in Alarmist Land - If ever there were two items fairly capturing much of the theme of Red Hot Lies —
cruising up the charts nicely here in its first few days off the press, thanks to all — these are the two:
(Chris Horner, Planet Gore) Groan... IEA
stokes doubts over world's climate fight - LONDON - The world will have to bet on extreme measures to avoid
serious global warming, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, adding to growing worries that
governments have under-estimated the problem. Returning some carbon previously lost to the biosphere is the best thing humans have ever done for life on
Earth. Why would we want to undo any of that good? Even in the increasingly unlikely case atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels above those of today have any discernible effect on global mean temperature why would
anyone assume temperature increase is bad? Do they think tropical forests, savannahs and reefs support abundant
life because they are cold? IEA World Energy Outlook
- Today the IEA released its World Energy Outlook 2008. Here are some interesting excerpts from the Executive
Summary here in PDF: Dr.
Michael Oppenheimer to Speak at World Wildlife Fund - WASHINGTON, Nov 12, 2008 -- Dr. Michael Oppenheimer,
Princeton University professor and a leading scholar on global warming, will discuss "Dangerous Anthropogenic
Interference: The Latest Insights" at World Wildlife Fund on Thursday, November 13, 2008 at 4:30 p.m. The
lecture is part of the Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Seminar series, which brings distinguished scientists
from a variety of fields to Washington, D.C. to present cutting edge research of central importance to
international conservation. (BUSINESS WIRE) "Leading scholar on global warming"? Very dubious -- and he's not even in contention as the leading
hysteric, having long been displaced by the likes of Gore & Hansen et al. Calif.
emissions plan hits snag - SAN FRANCISCO - California's blueprint to address global warming won't include
details of an emissions-trading program as regulators try to build consensus on how best to organize the
market-based system. Japan CO2 Hits Record, Risking
Kyoto Failure - TOKYO - Japan's greenhouse gas emissions rose to a record high in the year to March, putting
the world's fifth-largest carbon dioxide producer at risk of an embarrassing failure to achieve its Kyoto target
over the next four years. (Reuters) Where have these people been? Kyoto was a failure before it was even penned. Finally looking for the real problem: Global
Warming Link To Amphibian Declines In Doubt — Evidence that global warming is causing the worldwide declines
of amphibians may not be as conclusive as previously thought, according to biologists. The findings, which
contradict two widely held views, could help reveal what is killing the frogs and toads and aid in their
conservation. (ScienceDaily) Beating a Dead Frog -
Just in case there are still some folks out there who continue to insist that there is a firm cause-and-effect
relationship between anthropogenic global warming and the decline of amphibian species around the world despite
our pointing out on numerous occasions just how tenuous such a linkage is (pay attention here Al), we present the
following abstract of a paper by Jason Rohr and colleagues titled “Evaluating the links between climate, disease
spread, and amphibian decline,” published November 11, 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (PNAS): (WCR) New Arcsine Climate
Forecast: Hot and Cold! - If you weren’t worried before, then take a look at this shocking new
climate forecast! (William M Briggs, Statistician) Corrected NASA
GISTEMP data has been posted - After GISS’s embarrassing error with replicating September temperatures in
the October analysis, the NASA GISTEMP website was down for awhile today (at least for me). Hmm... newly generated anomaly maps still look highly suspect. For example many southern hemisphere countries
have been reporting record cold temperatures and yet GISTEMP shows them with 1-4 °C positive
anomalies? It seems GISTEMP and its incestuously related NCDC time series are so hopelessly corrupted they should be
dropped from discussion of Earth's temperature trends. As yet in HadCRUT3 no such problems have been exposed
(although Phil Jones maintains a complete black box) so that should probably be the reference near-surface set
if required while the latest RSS self-declared improvement makes their time series virtually indistinguishable
from the UAH MSU set, making these broad coverage, near UHIE-proof series pretty much the gold standard in
global temperature time series. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to be recognized as such in the climate
community though, since they offer zero support for the catastrophic global warming scam (hard to get
politicians to throw buckets full of public money at you when there is no problem to solve). Gavin Schmidt: "The processing algorithm worked fine."
- In the last few days, NASA has been forced to withdraw erroneous October temperature data. The NASA GISS site is
down, but NASA spokesman Gavin Schmidt said at their blog outlet that "The processing algorithm worked
fine." The
Globally-Averaged Surface Temperature Trend - Incompletely Assessed? Is It Even Relevant? - The
globally-averaged surface temperature trend has been highlighted as an icon of climate change. For example, a
meeting was held In Exeter, United Kingdom from Feb 1-3, 2005 entitled “Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change.”
The focus on a globally-averaged temperature trend was clear in the emphasis at the meeting. The Hadley Centre
brochure relevant to this meeting stated “Once a tolerable (i.e., non-dangerous) change has been determined -
say in terms of a global temperature rise - we then have to calculate what this corresponds to in terms of
tolerable greenhouse concentrations in the atmosphere.” The message is that a clear global surface temperature
threshold exists over which there are dangerous effects on the climate system. We wish! Earth would be
heading to a freeze without CO2 emissions - PARIS — Scheduled shifts in Earth's orbit should plunge the
planet into an enduring Ice Age thousands of years from now but the event will probably be averted because of
man-made greenhouse gases, scientists said Wednesday. If only atmospheric carbon dioxide really were a major determinant of global mean temperature... alas, it's
but a trivial player in a complex system and has no hope of staving off ice ages -- nor any that it can trigger
"runaway" gorebull warming on our water-rich world. US senator says Congress delays global warming
law - WASHINGTON: Congress will not act until 2010 on a bill to limit the heat-trapping gases blamed for
global warming despite President-elect Obama's declaration that he will move quickly to deal with climate change,
the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee predicted Wednesday. The cost and
futility of trading hot air - Why carbon ‘cap-and-trade’ is an immoral non-solution to a non-problem
(Christopher Monckton, SPPI) Global Warming and local politics - A
fairly obscure local race in Arizona may have national implications. One of our Arizona Corporation Commission
Republican candidates has apparently won his tight race against a hugely funded Democrat candidate. Of the more
than 1.6+ million votes cast for the two, the margin of victory was 462. A conservative majority in the ACC, which
regulates our electric utility companies, may single-handedly initiate the debate that never happened on AGW. Only
one candidate was needed to accomplish that majority. (Russell Cook, American Thinker) Where Have You Gone, Gray Davis?
- California is headed toward fiscal disaster, thanks to the worst performance by any state, ever. So what does
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger do? Convene a big meeting on global warming, of course. (IBD) An easy climate
change / energy quiz - Here is a simple, fun, 10 question quiz that covers a sample of climate change
and/or energy issues. Simply check the appropriate box and push the “vote” button for each question. After you
have pushed the vote button you will see the accumulated wisdom of everybody who has answered that question so
far. You can even leave a comment for any question, which I encourage. Chevron Chief Calls On Obama To
Create Energy Policy - NEW YORK - The head of oil giant Chevron Corp on Wednesday called on President-elect
Barack Obama to create a national energy policy that promotes efficiency, opens up new areas for oil production
and sets a clear policy on carbon dioxide emissions. (Reuters) What about a sensible policy on carbon dioxide emissions, like ignoring them! Reality bites
Barack - I feel sorry for Barack Obama. Notwithstanding his comfortable victory last week and his remarkable
oratory skills, he does not have a hope in hell of living up to the “supernova” expectations that now engulf
him. Hawaii's Greenhouse Gas
Emissions Program is Equivalent to Economic Suicide - In inexplicable acts of government opposition to its
basic sources of Hawaii’s electricity, Hawaii state government is now calling for public hearings on greenhouse
gas emissions on Thursday Nov. 13th. (See "Public Hearing on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions to be Held at
State Capitol Auditorium" ) Yes, we can
strike a balance on the oil sands - Developing the oil sands is vital to Canada’s economy. But can industry
balance extraction and environment? (Bruce March, Financial Post) Alaska found to contain another kind of
exploitable energy - WASHINGTON - Frozen crystals packed with concentrated natural gas and buried 2,000 feet
below the permafrost on Alaska's North Slope could become the next major domestic energy source, according to an
assessment released Wednesday by the U.S. Geological Survey. Czech CEZ hopes crisis will stall EU
climate package - PRAGUE — Central Europe's top power producer, Czech-based CEZ, is pinning hopes on the
financial crisis to thwart the approval of the EU's green package, saying it would hit hard at the region's
coal-dependent industry. Is
Carbon Capture and Storage the Fix? - Promoted in Europe, the technology for storing CO2 emissions underground
could someday transform electric utilities and other industry into eco-friendly businesses (Mark Scott,
BusinessWeek) Bigger question: is anything actually broken for this to "fix"? The answer at present is: not so
far as anyone can tell. China Cools To Clean Diesel For
Vehicles - Paper - SHANGHAI - As China struggles to choose the best powertrain for future vehicles, an
influential minister has gone cold on clean diesel in favour of gasoline hybrids and electric drive trains, the
Automotive News said on Wednesday. (Reuters) UK experts give blackouts warning - Some energy
experts asked by BBC News warn the UK could face an unacceptable risk of major blackouts in less than 10 years
unless policy is improved. JA Solar Cuts Forecast, Sees Solar
'Panic' - NEW YORK - Chinese solar cell maker JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd said on Wednesday the global economic
slump had triggered a "panic" in the solar market, prompting it to slash its sales forecasts and sending
its shares down more than 30 percent. (Reuters) Electronic
medical records — different perspectives sharing the same news pages - Do we want to make all of our medical
records, lab and diagnostic results, and pharmacy records electronic and linked into a national Health IT
database? (Junkfood Science) Leaving kids a
bad taste for science - Even science articles for elementary school children have become venues for scaring
them about their food and health and spreading pop myths about good-bad foods, rather than offer opportunities to
teach science and make science and food fun. This week it was salt. (Junkfood Science) A Chance To Turn Around The FDA
- One of the least visible but most important of the Obama administration's appointments will be the head of the
Food and Drug Administration, which regulates products worth more than $1 trillion, or 25 cents of every consumer
dollar. (Henry I Miller, IBD) New EU Pesticide
Regulations Will Increase Disease - Washington, DC - Today 160 senior scientists from around the world release
a petition against proposed EU pesticide regulations which they believe would shrink the global insecticide
markets, leaving millions of people in poor countries at an increased risk of malaria and other insect-borne
diseases. Looking at drugs in water - RESEARCH
TRIANGLE PARK - Despite rising fear -- and rhetoric -- about the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water,
there is actually very little evidence of whether there are health risks related to the issue. Painting Pictures of
Poverty - It’s Oxfam. Again. Some people have been a little confused about our ‘attacks’ on Oxfam. Why
would we want to criticise nice people who are trying to do good? The
Prince of Angst: Troubled Charles turns 60 amid concerns over Camilla and being King - Four years ago, an old
friend of the Prince of Wales congratulated him on his 56th birthday. The Prince's response was gloomy. 'Yes,' he
said, 'but I'm now the age at which my grandfather died.' Hopefully the damn fool never will be king. He's the definitive case for skipping a generation. November 12, 2008
Tactics of Global Warming Alarmists - This is
a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," November 10, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form
and may be updated. Buy
this book through our store Air Capture Costs Too
Much? Baloney! - James Hansen and colleagues have a new paper out. I notice that the press release that
accompanies the paper includes the following claim: Young Roger feels action to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide is a good thing while we view any loss of this
essential resource is an environmental cost too far. Regardless, it is good to see 'pa Hansen admitting carbon
dioxide reduction is horrendously expensive and not worth doing even if you consider it a problem. 2008 set to be about 10th warmest
year: expert - OSLO - This year is on track to be about the 10th warmest globally since records began in 1850
but gaps in Arctic data mean the world may be slightly underestimating global warming, a leading scientist said on
Tuesday. Seems plausible, many of the time series have recorded months around the 10th warmest, at least in
the last 30 years, so overall 10th sounds fair enough. Also there is an underlying warming trend of
about one half of one degree (0.5 K) per century which may or may not be due to enhanced greenhouse effect
(or recovery from the Little Ice Age or something else entirely -- we don't know and nor does anyone else). This
background warming rate appears fairly constant since ~1650. RealClimate: Gavin
Schmidt puts on a brave face after yet another fiasco (Tom Nelson) Correcting
Ocean Cooling: NASA Changes Data to Fit the Models - NASA scientist, Josh Willis, was so concerned that his
data, showing ocean cooling, did not fit the official consensus on climate change that he searched for a solution.
Eventually he “applied a correction” so the historical ocean temperature record showed a relatively steady
increase in line with the climate models. What
is the Importance to Climate of Heterogeneous Spatial Trends in Tropospheric Temperatures? - Originally posted
on July 28, 2005. The
“Near-Virtual Reality Of Man-made Global Warming - CHURCHVILLE, VA— “As Barack Obama shifts from a
waking dream to the real world, he faces the near-virtual reality of climate change. He has to move decisively.”
(Ian McEwan, “A New Dawn,” Wall Street Journal, Nov8/9.) Even gravy train tickets expire, eventually... Government
Wants To Change Course Of Forest Experiments; Some Climate Change Scientists Upset - For more than a decade,
the federal government has spent millions of dollars pumping elevated levels of carbon dioxide into small groups
of trees to test how forests will respond to global warming in the next 50 years. Yikes! Obama's
Cabinet: Start With Al Gore - If there is a single appointment Barack Obama could make to signal how
dramatically things will change in Washington, it would be to name Albert Gore Jr. -- former House member, former
senator, former vice president, former presidential nominee and current Custodian of the Planet -- as secretary of
state. For all the other aspirants to the job, sorry -- this is an inconvenient truth. Fortunately Don Alberto Gorleone is making far too much money from the gorebull warming scam to take such an
offer seriously but what does it say about Richard Cohen that he would float such a horrendous prospect? Must see--2 more
minutes of outright fraud from Al Gore (Tom Nelson) Obama team study
c-charge - BARACK Obama's transport advisers are studying Greater Manchester's congestion-charge plans - to
see if they could work in the US. ANALYSIS - Cheaper Oil Won't
Scuttle Obama's Efficiency Plan - NEW YORK - Companies specialising in home energy efficiency should get a
boost under US President-Elect Barack Obama's administration despite a slowing economy and a sharp drop in oil
prices. (Reuters) 'Green jobs'
could be costly for Michigan - Gov. Jennifer Granholm has been drinking the "green jobs" Kool-aid,
recently announcing that she is creating an energy department and naming an energy czar to pursue
"alternative" energy and "create thousands of jobs." Yet in these times of economic distress,
the governor's priorities are misplaced. Uh-huh... Global
investors urge action on climate change - WASHINGTON - Global institutional investors holding more than $6
trillion in assets pushed policymakers Tuesday to quickly hash out a binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas
emissions and promote clean technology. (Reuters) ... if investors are such superior judges of required actions and the smart course, why is so much public
money being to diverted to address the global financial crisis that was, uh... caused by investors? And now they
want lawmakers to mandate their profits too? A climate change
conversion - Can the climate change crisis be answered purely by science and technology, or does it need to be
understood as a moral and spiritual issue too? In a lecture for the Christian climate change agency, Operation
Noah today, Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth Abbey that featured on the TV series The Monastery, will make
a compelling case that it is very much the latter. (Mark Vernon, The Guardian) Czech president explains his views on global
warming to Irish - At the reception at the Dublin City Hall, Mayor Eibhlin Byrne said jokingly she would like
to sit at one table with Klaus and former U.S. vice-president Albert Gore whose views on global warming Klaus
criticised in his book. Farmers Want Special Deal On
Carbon Emissions - CANBERRA - Farmers want a special deal in global climate negotiations to make sure they are
not saddled with excessive costs for curbing Greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the world's leading farming
lobby said on Tuesday. (Reuters) From CO2 Science this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: A Brief (One Millennium) History of the Gulf Stream:
Is its strength enhanced or diminished by global warming? Plant Productivity Responses to Experimental Ecosystem
Warming: Have they been mostly positive or negative? The Water Use Efficiency of Silver Fir Trees in a CO2-Accreting
Atmosphere: How did it vary in French forests of the Jura Mountains between 1860 and 1980? Thrips Feeding on Clover: Are the little
plant-juice suckers helped or hindered by rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations?
(co2science.org) Oh... Climate
change helps some invasive species - VALENCIA, Spain, Nov. 11 -- A British study suggests climate change has
assisted some invasive species to advance in a much quicker fashion. One time biologists knew species dispersed rapidly in marine environments due to currents and coastal
shipping -- now they guess it's the gorebull warming that so clearly shows in their computers but can't be found
in the real world. Again with this rubbish? Report:
Greenhouse gases imperil oceans' web of life - WASHINGTON — Corals, lobsters, clams and many other ocean
creatures — including some at the bottom of the food chain — may be unable to withstand the increasing acidity
of the oceans brought on by growing global-warming pollution, according to a report Tuesday from the advocacy
group Oceana. (McClatchy Newspapers) Marine critters allegedly of concern actually evolved during periods when Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide
levels were many times those of today. In fact, levels as low as now are quite rare in the history of life on
Earth. Flood of misinformation
likelier to drown Maldives - ABC Radio's Peter Cave reports the IPCC claim the island nation is in imminent
danger of climate-induced flooding Childish: Santer Refuses Data Request (Steve McIntyre,
Climate Audit) Activist hypocrisy? What a surprise... Former
‘James Bond’ Star Arrives in Limo to Receive Environmentalist Award - Former “James Bond” actor Pierce
Brosnan arrived at the Jane Goodall Institute awards ceremony – where he was honored for his commitment to
environmental education – in a luxury Lincoln Town Car. (CNSNews.com) Reality hits Gore's world - Gore envisions a nationwide
“Smart Grid”–a massive underground network of electrical power lines that would be powered by massive solar
panel installations in the Southwest, and huge wind turbine installations in the Pacific Northwest. The Smart grid
would dole out power and regulate itself using 21 Century computer technology, Gore said. Gore said such a system
would cost $600 billion to build, but that it would pay for itself quickly. (Julie Walsh, CEI) PSC rejects Alliant's
proposed coal plant - The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Tuesday unanimously denied Alliant Energy
Corp.'s proposed 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant, despite the utility's plans to burn "clean coal"
and biomass as fuel. Out of Sight, Out of Mind - The Government
Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, just released its report on the status of
carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and its view of the technology’s future development
challenges. In general, the GAO concludes that the technology faces grave technological, regulatory, economic, and
legal barriers that will not be easily overcome. This is the first time a government agency has come clean on CCS
and shown it not to be the panacea for greenhouse gas regulation, as it is often painted by opponents of
coal-fired power generation. (Dr. Robert Peltier, Coal Power Magazine) -- h/t Icecap Cars Disproportionately
Blamed for Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Electricity, not transportation is responsible for the largest share of
emissions (Skaidra Smith-Heisters, Hawaii Reporter) Iran Promotes Gas - For years, Iran has
debated whether to use its huge natural gas reserves, second in size only to Russia’s, to become a significant
exporter. Doing so would entail the politically risky move of cutting gas subsidies for domestic consumers, one
that should cut skyrocketing demand. But a series of internal and international factors – the biggest of which
may be U.S. political pressure – seem to have finally convinced the Islamic Republic to push for more gas
exports. Nuclear waste arrives at
German dump - A RADIOACTIVE waste shipment arrived at a German dump today after the biggest anti-nuclear
protests in years, pointing up the fierce opposition to reversing Berlin's phase-out of atomic energy. We wish... National
Ignition Facility Promises Endless Carbon-Free Power - LIVERMORE, California, November 11, 2008 - Forty miles
east of San Francisco, scientists are constructing a miniature Sun within a stadium-sized building at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. If a Tree Falls
in the Forest, Are Biofuels To Blame? It's Not Easy Being Green - Biofuels are under siege from critics who
say they crowd out food production. Now these fuels made from grass and grain, long touted as green, are being
criticized as bad for the planet. Amyris is brewing up
barrels of clean biofuel - Men in white lab coats tend gleaming metal vats filled with yeast and sugar. The
air inside the converted Emeryville warehouse smells vaguely like hops. 'Biofuel
key reason for high food prices' - UNITED NATIONS - Rising investment in grain-consuming biofuels is a key
reason food prices will stay high for at least a decade, an influential study released Thursday says. Tackling obesity is going to take time ...
but it will be worth the effort - Complex problems like criminal behaviour or obesity can’t be solved
overnight. Tackling them requires a robust evidence base and a lot of patience, Professor Paul Wiles tells Alison
Thomas I admit as far as I'm concerned "social science" is when real scientists discuss physical science
over a few drinks and has nothing to do with the emotional pap that currently gathers under that name. Worse,
Socialists and others with a similar dictatorial bent try to use it as justification for their insane
machinations. Big test for disease
hope - Researchers trying to create the world's first malaria vaccine are starting a large medical trial as
early as next month involving 16,000 children. The metastasizing UN: Possible Global Body
Slated To Tackle Biodiversity - The possibility of establishing a United Nations-supported scientific
intergovernmental body to address biodiversity loss and protect ecosystems is being discussed at a global
conference which kicked off in Malaysia today. Fish farms among new chances for arid
nations - OSLO - Solar energy, ecotourism and even fish farms can create new jobs in arid regions of
developing nations as global warming strains scant water supplies, a U.N. report said on Tuesday. Japan scientists say pot plants may one day absorb toxic
gas - A worker waters newly potted plants. As well as brightening your room, potted plants may one day help to
prevent headaches in "sick" houses by absorbing toxic gas, according to Japanese scientists. November 11, 2008
Gavin's come out to play :) Climate
doubts based on short-term irrelevancies - The opinion piece by Michael Duffy contains multiple errors of fact
and plenty of errors of interpretation ("Truly inconvenient truths about climate change being ignored",
November 8-9). And the climate model's attack puppy is after Mike Duffy with RealKlimate's cant, too. Now, Pachauri could be seen as technically correct in the sense that warming in the post-1975 period
exceeds that of the previous three decades (when there was none and the planet cooled, causing the looming ice
age alarm). Duffy is quite correct about the decline sine 1998 and in fact there has been no statistically significant
warming since 1995. The bottom line though is that there is no difference between apparent warming rates before and after that
cooling of the 1950s through 1970s despite significant difference in atmospheric carbon dioxide accumulation in
the two periods. In fact atmospheric carbon dioxide increased far more in the cooling period 1945-1975 than it
did in the warming period 1910-1944. So much for carbon dioxide abundance being a dominant driver of global mean
temperature. The 'lecture' in contention is here. Readers
and interested parties can address replies to Gavin's waffle here. Meanwhile, back at fake trend central: GISS
Releases (Suspect) October 2008 Data - October 2008 “warmest” October on record (according to GISS) RSS MSU: 0.013 deg C
month-on-month cooling - RSS MSU (a satellite-based team to measure the temperature on Earth) has switched
from v3.1 of their dataset to v3.2 of their temperature listings. We hope they're right... The Sun Shows Signs of Life
- After two-plus years of few sunspots, even fewer solar flares, and a generally eerie calm, the sun is finally
showing signs of life. "I think solar minimum is behind us," says sunspot forecaster David Hathaway of
the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. (PhysOrg) ... because, unlike gorebull warming, global cooling is something to worry about. Indian
temperature rise will exceed projected rainfall, say scientists - Washington, Nov 10 : Scientists have
determined that the estimated temperature rise in India will far exceed the increase in projected rainfall by the
end of the century. Is that right? So, uh, how have monsoon predictions gone so far? Oh, like
this, huh... Oh well, keep trying (can't get much worse, eh?). SEQ
beaches to disappear - Australia's east coast faces unprecedented erosion within the next decade, heading into
a storm period made worse by climate change, new research predicts. No, it won't be a new phenomenon and no, there is absolutely no indication of gorebull warming's influence
(Australia's east coast tends to get its greatest thrashings during cooler periods). Financial
crisis puts heat on Australian govt over climate plan - Australia's What is Climate Change? - For the next
several weeks Climate Science is reposting a number of weblogs that are worth repeating. We have quite a few more
readers now than we did when my weblog started. The first reposting appears below. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate
Science) Did Napoleon Use Hansen's Temperature Data? - It's colder in
Russia in October than in September, as Napoleon found out to his cost in 1812. Climate Action
Plans Fail to Deliver: Updated 11-10-08 - Around the country, localities, states and multi-state regions are
convening Climate Change Task Forces aimed at developing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Cost, biofuels smudge lines in debate on coal-fired
power plant - Cassville — Lawrence Roe seems an unlikely opponent of the $1.3 billion coal-fired power plant
Alliant Energy Corp. wants to build in Wisconsin's southwest corner. A 1933 graduate of Cassville High and a
retired mining engineer, he was a vocal supporter of the Crandon mine, a controversial project opposed by
conservationists. Obama's Looming Energy
Disaster - I subscribe to an Internet newsletter called Energy Central and the news is getting more depressing
every week. Every time I scan the headlines I realize I'm looking at another piece of a gathering energy debacle. Green Power Needs Reliable US Grid
Planning – NERC - NEW YORK - As the United States attempts to lower carbon dioxide emissions from
electricity generation, it needs a national policy on climate change to help ensure reliable power delivery, said
the US watchdog for electric reliability. (Reuters) Ethanol will curb farm income until economy rebounds,
economist says - Ethanol helped drive two years of record profits for grain farmers, but also will hold income
down during a looming recession that has already sliced crop prices in half, a University of Illinois economist
says. Utilities To Test Solar Power At
Traditional Plants - LOS ANGELES - A US utility group announced on Monday a plan to test adding solar thermal
energy to natural gas and coal-fired power plants in a move designed to cut fuel costs and greenhouse gas
emissions. (Reuters) EU To Launch Plan For Caspian Gas,
Wind Power - BRUSSELS - Europe should erect more wind turbines, keep a closer watch on oil stocks and improve
access to Caspian gas, Europe's energy chief will say this week. Greenpeace Says Blocks Palm Oil
Ships In Indonesia - JAKARTA - Greenpeace has blocked three tankers due to transport crude palm oil to China
and Europe from leaving an Indonesian port in a bid to highlight deforestation caused by the cash crop, the
environmental group said on Monday. Police clash with
protesters over nuclear waste train - BERLIN: German police wielding truncheons yesterday beat back
environmentalists trying to block a train carrying radioactive nuclear waste from western France to a dump in
Germany. When the news
sounds too good… statin, the new wonder drug - “It's a breakthrough study. It's a blockbuster. It's
absolutely paradigm-shifting.” — Dr. Steven E. Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio (Washington Post,
November 9, 2008) A loss for all - Dr. Michael
Crichton (1942 – 2008) (Junkfood Science) Rebecca Goldin on the Use and Abuse of Statistics in the
Media - The numbers may be against us because reporters and readers too often fail to dissect the statistics
in news reports. Police warn of
growing threat from eco-terrorists - Police have warned of the growing threat of eco-terrorism after revealing
they are investigating a group which has supporters who believe that reducing the Earth's population by
four-fifths will help to protect the planet. The
Protein Pyramid - Per capita meat consumption more than doubled over the past half-century as the global
economy expanded. It is expected to double again by 2050. Which raises the question, what does all that meat eat
before it becomes meat? Cyanide to be recycled for
drinking water in Queensland - A WIDE range of industrial contaminants including cyanide, pesticides, grease
and fertilisers can be included in waste that will be recycled as drinking water for the 2.6 million residents of
southeast Queensland. Plastic additives leach into medical experiments, research
shows -- Researchers in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry have shown that using
plastic lab equipment can skew or ruin the results of medical experiments. November 10, 2008
On Concerns Over
Gun Control, Gun Sales Are Up - DENVER — Sales of handguns, rifles and ammunition have surged in the last
week, according to gun store owners around the nation who describe a wave of buyers concerned that an Obama
administration will curtail their right to bear arms. Quick! Panic! (Oh, and make me a green billionaire): The
Climate for Change - THE inspiring and transformative choice by the American people to elect Barack Obama as
our 44th president lays the foundation for another fateful choice that he — and we — must make this January to
begin an emergency rescue of human civilization from the imminent and rapidly growing threat posed by the climate
crisis. The Climate-Change Reformation
- Al Gore — outdone only by L. Ron Hubbard in his ability to weave science fiction into a religion — is
reforming the climate change faith, and turning it toward the discussion of energy independence and American
financial viability. The truth, alas, has proved too inconvenient to ignore. Among non-partisan researchers, there
is now little doubt that human-generated carbon dioxide makes only an insignificant contribution to climate
change. More importantly, there is agreement among virtually all climatologists that the planet is experiencing
the beginnings of a cold spell, expected to last as long as 30 years, due to a decrease in solar activity. Most
significantly, however, the tangible financial crisis has displaced concerns over the invisible climatological
one. With the mercury plunging alongside the Dow Jones, the Gore age is on the way out. (Abe Greenwald, Commentary
Magazine) Fevered imaginings: Changing climate
may push more countries past the brink of war - A warmer planet could find itself more often at war. The wildest imaginings being that we can control the planets' climate. The end is... overdue? Revised Theory Suggests
Carbon Dioxide Levels Already in Danger Zone -- If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon
dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels that already exist today, according to a study published in Open
Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of 10 scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. What a crock of utter nonsense. What makes them think the recent (in planetary terms) dearth of an essential
resource is desirable? Why would you aspire to such a thing? Spencer update November 9, 2008:
The two papers we had submitted to Geophysical Research Letters have both been rejected, with instructions to not
resubmit either one. The first paper showed how none of 18 IPCC climate models, in over 1,000 years of global
warming simulations, ever exhibits the negative feedback we have measured from global satellite data. Limits on CO2 Climate Forcing from Recent Temperature Data of Earth
- Abstract: The global atmospheric temperature anomalies of Earth reached a maximum in 1998 which has not been
exceeded during the subsequent 10 years. The global anomalies are calculated from the average of climate effects
occurring in the tropical and the extratropical latitude bands. El Nino/La Nina effects in the tropical band are
shown to explain the 1998 maximum while variations in the background of the global anomalies largely come from
climate effects in the northern extratropics. These effects do not have the signature associated with CO2 climate
forcing. However, the data show a small underlying positive trend that is consistent with CO2 climate forcing with
no-feedback. (David H. Douglass, John R. Christy, arXiv) Paradise almost lost:
Maldives seek to buy a new homeland - The Maldives will begin to divert a portion of the country's
billion-dollar annual tourist revenue into buying a new homeland - as an insurance policy against climate change
that threatens to turn the 300,000 islanders into environmental refugees, the country's first democratically
elected president has told the Guardian. Nope: Coastal flooding; myths and facts in
past, present and future sea level changes (Nils-Axel Mörner, Paleogeophyscs & Geodynamics) Truly
inconvenient truths about climate change being ignored - Last month I witnessed something shocking. Rajendra
Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was giving a talk at the University of NSW.
The talk was accompanied by a slide presentation, and the most important graph showed average global temperatures.
For the past decade it represented temperatures climbing sharply. CO2-hysteric
Pachauri now has a blog--with a comment section (Tom Nelson) A New Dawn - The benefits of
climate-change policies are limited and costly. Instead, the president-elect needs to coolly evaluate competing
priorities, says Bjørn Lomborg. Copenhagen Business School professor Bjørn Lomborg is the organizer of the Copenhagen Consensus and author
of "Cool
It." Lomborg believes the global warming hype, we don't and we see no plausible physics to suggest catastrophic
gorebull warming is remotely possible. That said, he is right about the need to prioritize effort and
spending on the most urgent addressable problems. On the other hand: A New
Dawn - As Barack Obama shifts from a waking dream to the real world, he faces the near-virtual reality of
climate change. He has to move decisively, Ian McEwan writes. (WSJ) Fitting that such fantasy comes from a novelist, no? From the "Why should anyone care?" department: This
year’s Antarctic ozone hole is 5th biggest - From NASA News: This is considered a “moderately large”
ozone hole, according to NASA atmospheric scientist, Paul Newman. And while this year’s ozone hole is the fifth
largest on record, the amount of ozone depleting substances have decreased about 3.8% from peak levels in 2000.
The largest ozone hole ever recorded occurred in 2006, at a size of 10.6 million square miles. Stratospheric ozone levels are seasonal and
irrelevant to life on Earth. The UN dream of their own global tax revenue lives on: Tax
polluters for global warming funds: UN - BEIJING: The global financial gloom will make citizens of rich
nations reluctant to use their taxes to fight global warming and any plan to help poor nations should make the
polluters pay, a top U.N. climate official said. UN
seeks broad Obama role on climate - BEIJING - The head of the UN climate change body has called on the United
States to take a more active role in fighting global warming once Barack Obama becomes president. Germany Has Doubts About Obama's Green
Commitment - Germany's foreign minister says US climate protection plans will take a back seat to economic
concerns, even under a President Obama. Various groups are calling for Obama to back up his green campaign talk. Gone With The Wind - From
California to Missouri, four of five environmental initiatives lost at the ballot box. Voters are clearly still
not ready for exorbitant costs and excessive regulation without clear benefits. (IBD) Party tussle ensnares Obama's climate goals - WASHINGTON -
Democrats are fighting over control of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the outcome could affect
President-elect Obama's efforts to limit the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. (Associated Press) Harper starts
the ball rolling with President-elect Obama - The prime minister has tried to dovetail our climate-change
needs with the U.S. (The Gazette) Why
Obama’s ‘Green Jobs’ Plan Won’t Work - It would indeed create jobs, but it would do so by killing
other jobs. Is that really what Americans want? (Kenneth P. Green, The American) Put your hands in the air and step away from that button! World
needs climate emergency backup plan, says expert - In submitted testimony to the British Parliament, climate
scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution said that while steep cuts in carbon emissions are essential to
stabilizing global climate, there also needs to be a backup plan. Geoengineering solutions such as injecting dust
into the atmosphere are risky, but may become necessary if emissions cuts are insufficient to stave off
catastrophic warming. He urged that research into the pros and cons of geoengineering be made a high priority.
(Carnegie Institution) If the sun does not go into a funk then we are looking at about 0.5 K (°C) warming this
century from enhanced greenhouse, something no one will notice. On the other hand the sun could remain
quiescent, in which case we are looking at catastrophic cooling. PREVIEW - Japan Set To Say
Emissions Rebounded Last Year - TOKYO - Japan's greenhouse gas emissions rose last year, government data is
set to show, underscoring the huge challenge the government faces in meeting its targets under the Kyoto Protocol
climate pact. (Reuters) Course change for Kyoto country: Conservative
former trader wins New Zealand vote - WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealanders chose a wealthy, conservative
former financier Saturday to help navigate the country through the global financial meltdown, handing long-serving
left-wing Prime Minister Helen Clark a crushing election defeat. Lawrence
Solomon: Green market risk - If you think the causes of the financial crisis are complicated, just wait until
we start trading carbon (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post) Carbon
scheme: Wong quiet on possible delay - Climate Change Minister Penny Wong gave away no clues yesterday about
whether the Federal Government was considering delaying or altering the emissions trading scheme in light of the
global financial crisis. Carbon crash hits
Europe's emission trading scheme - WHILE you were distracted by crashing banks and clashing US senators, you
may have missed a small environmental earthquake. Recession
smudges carbon outlook - The prospect of a full blown global recession could threaten the health of the carbon
trading markets, according to carbon market analysts IdeaCarbon, as the slowdown in economic activity across
Europe threatens to slash the projected shortfall between European Union carbon allowances and European industry
emissions. (Investors' Chronicle) Oh boy... My View: Carbon bank demands an honest
accountant - California's forests have always been an important part of our heritage and our daily lives. We
rely on them for water, wood and recreation. We are likely to rely on them even more as a powerful resource to
help combat climate change. ... gorebull warming pollution. About the only real "pollution" in that respect is all the media
and activist blathering because increased carbon dioxide-forced global mean temperature change is trivial and as
yet undetectably small. It is possible there has been some CO2-forced warming over the 20th
Century but the enhanced greenhouse contribution is not yet quantifiable (and it may never be). Red Hot New Book a Must-Read for Climate Realists - From the author of the New York Times bestselling Politically
Incorrect Guide(tm) to Global Warming (and Environmentalism) comes Red
Hot Lies, an exposé of the hypocrisy, deceit, and outright lies of the global warming alarmists and the
compliant media that support them. Did you know that most scientists are global warming skeptics? Or that
environmental alarmists have knowingly promoted false and exaggerated data on global warming? Or that in the
Left's efforts to suppress free speech (and scientific research), they have compared global warming dissent with
"treason"? Shocking, frank, and illuminating, Chris
Horner's Red Hot Lies explodes as many myths as Al Gore promotes. Click here
to purchase. (Cooler Heads) ExxonMobil and polar bear research - Your
article (October 1) inaccurately implies that I wrote a paper demonstrating that none of the published studies on
the imagined threat to polar bears from imagined "global warming" had followed the established
scientific norms for population forecasting because I had received a grant from ExxonMobil. Not so. The rules of
the leading journals in which my research is published are clear: the sources of funding must be openly declared
in the paper, so peer reviewers can take them into account when deciding whether the scientific analysis has
sufficient merit to justify publication. Polar Bear Blog - November 6, 2008 - The Jokes On You - This could
be just as good as Pat Broe's honourary degree... Looks like there's no polar bear cam this year, it was bad
enough that it was going to start on November 10th (???) but now the swindle is complete folks... This is from the
National Geographic site... (Polar Bear Alley) Climate
theory 'like Y2K scam' - The Federal Government's emissions trading scheme has been likened to the ''Y2K
scam'' by climate change sceptic Professor Ian Plimer. Climate Change. Interview with Hans Labohm (Parts 1 - 4) - In this
interview by Kate & Richard Mucci for Matrix News Network (USA), Hans Labohm, expert reviewer of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, takes issue with the man-made global warming dogma. Part
1; Part 2; Part
3; Part 4 RSS
Global Temperature for October: RSS revises data to improve quality - There is some interesting news in the
October RSS global temperature anomaly numbers. We are still cooler than one year ago, and the 12 month trend
continues to drop. But, the big news is that RSS has revised their dataset to reflect improvements in quality
control. (Watts Up with That?) UAH for October sneak peek - I
sent a query to Dr. John Christy, curator of the UAH global temperature anomaly dataset, inquiring about some of
the changes in the RSS dataset. In addition to commenting on that, he was also kind enough to send along an
advance copy of the soon to be posted UAH data for October, which you can see here. Oh... Temp Trends
on Rise -- Jennie Williams, of Flintstone, Ga., said she knows the warmer temperatures are unusual, but that's
all right with her. John Christy helpfully provides: This must be a joke. No one compares a single year's temps to the 1971-2000
year normals (a very cool period) as evidence for anything. Mr.Konarik needs to look at the period 1925-1954 -
by far the warmest such 30-year summer period in Huntsville AL (see plot of the most rigorous, published time
series of North Alabama). The draft CCSP synthesis did the same sort of funny business - comparing current temps
to those in the coolest period of record (roughly 1960-2000) rather than the entire period of record. Along with these graphics. Another one: Countdown to
perilous global warming - The climate clock is speeding up. Governments must take responsibility and protect
their people from disaster (Andrew Simms, The Guardian) Holland
Inundated: Another Opinion - Guest Weblog by Hendrik Tennekes - My weblog of October 28 stirred up quite some
dust here in Holland. The Director-in-chief of KNMI was upset enough to send me an e-mail (the first ever!)
explaining the official position of his institute. He wrote that KNMI supports the choice of 130 cm of sea-level
rise as a worst-case estimate based on the worst-case scenario of IPCC. I responded by writing that I felt it was
his duty to declare in public that Professors Kabat and Vellinga had made statements that go far beyond this
extreme scenario, and were badly damaging legitimate concerns about climate change that way. He did not respond to
that. I also sent him a draft of this second weblog, giving him the chance to respond or to prepare a weblog
himself. He didn’t react to that either. Population:
The Critical Component in Global Warming - As I've considered the evidence for global warming and massive
climate change over the past fifteen years, I was only vaguely aware of the eight hundred pound gorilla among all
the scientific research, a gorilla that had the last say on whether we save our planet or not. That gorilla was
the planet's population. Unless we address the population explosion in a comprehensive way, not much else we do
will matter as runaway global warming wrecks the planet. (Craig Etchison, Appalachian Independent) 'Runaway global warming'? Not even physically possible on our watery planet. As the World Wildlife
Fund announced, "human activities are causing the most rapid decline in species since the extinction of the
dinosaurs." We've consigned about 25% of our animals to extinction in the last 35 years so far. Really?
Can you name any? Any at all? Actually people have had a hand in several extinctions, mostly through transport
of ferals to islands (rodents & cats, mostly accidentally, pigs and goats as emergency supplies for stranded
mariners). Most of these have been isolated island subspecies of lizards and the flightless birds of New Zealand
(although that was more than five centuries ago during Maori settlement of the islands). A quarter of all animal
species over the last 35 years? Utterly stupid and baseless claim. As far as contemporary species eliminated by man go I can think of one: smallpox and hopefully polio is soon
to follow. This, again: Global Climate Change May Spur
Seasonal Sniffles - Many scientists now believe that global climate change is affecting various aspects of
human health, including nasal allergies. There is scientific evidence that higher levels of carbon dioxide are
warming the atmosphere, which in turn may be increasing plant growth and the pollen that is known to trigger nasal
allergy symptoms. Global
Warming’s Cold Propagandists: Attacking Michael Crichton (Chilling Effect) Another
Parting Gift - Gale Norton has to be happy. In 2003, Ms. Norton, then President Bush’s secretary of the
interior (and now a senior oil executive at Royal Dutch Shell), struck a deal with the governor of Utah that would
open about 3 million pristine acres of federal land to oil and gas drilling. Green giant
step for mankind - THE clue to its ambition is in the name. Barack Obama says his No 1 priority on getting
into the Oval Office will be something he calls "the Apollo project". Hanging his legacy on fighting a phantom menace... Meanwhile, in the land of fruits and nuts: California
Study Shows High Cost Of Renewable Power - LOS ANGELES - If California expands its renewable power generation
to be a third of electricity delivered in the state by 2020, it may cost $60 billion, the state's utility
regulator said in a report issued on Thursday. Punitive Taxation Of Profitable Oil
Industry Won't Break Dependence On Foreign Crude - FLINT, Mi. — With joblessness and serious economic
problems rising, the last thing we need is public policy that makes them rise even faster. Yet, there is a danger
this could happen if President-elect Obama's proposed punitive taxes on the oil industry are enacted and lead to
less energy development. (Mark J Perry, IBD) If Not Coal, Then What? - Coal is the
redheaded stepchild of the American energy business. Yes, coal is dirtier than the other fossil fuels. Yes, it
pollutes the air and emits more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than oil or natural gas. And of course, coal
mining is a dirty business that scars the earth. $60 on the way to $200 - In 2005, when oil
prices were about $60, I predicted on CNBC that the price of oil was inexorably moving towards $100. Others at the
time were talking about pulling back to a more “logical” $40. European
Union alters climate plan - BRUSSELS, Nov. 6 -- Global concern about the ailing economy has led the European
Environment Committee to revise its energy package. EU newcomers want energy security included in bloc's
climate deal - Seven European Union newcomer states want the security of energy supplies to be included in the
bloc's planned climate strategy, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday. INTERVIEW - Dutch Seek LNG Ties To
Boost Energy Independence - AMSTERDAM - The Netherlands is building closer contacts with liquefied natural gas
(LNG) exporters and developing alternative energy sources to strengthen its negotiating power with large energy
exporters such as Russia. (Reuters) Energy island to supply green
power when wind drops - A man-made island housing a hydroelectric plant and generating enough electricity to
supply two million Dutch homes is planned for the North Sea by 2020. (The Times) U.S.
Decides One Nuclear Dump Is Enough - WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will recommend that Congress give
up the idea of a second nuclear waste dump, dropping a grand bargain struck in the 1980s, and instead vote to
enlarge the repository now proposed in Nevada, the director of the Energy Department’s civilian radioactive
waste management program said on Thursday. End ban on new nuclear plants - It should already
be clear to lawmakers that the state can no longer afford to rule out the construction of nuclear power plants in
Wisconsin. Finland sets energy targets, may need more
nuclear - HELSINKI, Nov 6 - Finland set targets on Thursday to rein in power consumption and raise the share
of renewable energy to meet European Union goals for 2020, and flagged the possible need for more nuclear power.
(Reuters) Govt eyes solar power generators for
schools - Public middle and primary schools nationwide are to be encouraged to introduce solar power
generators as part of efforts to cut greenhouse emissions, the government announced Friday. ANALYSIS - Problems Threaten To
Blow UK Wind Energy Off Course - LONDON - The British government insists it is on track to hit ambitious
renewable energy targets, but the industry says a swathe of problems in developing wind farms threaten to blow the
plans off course. (Reuters) Can anyone be
taking this seriously anymore? - The more the evidence keeps failing to support an obesity-related
international health crisis, the more hysterical and frantic the claims become. This week, our friends in the UK
have been threatened with proclamations that obesity is the new Black Death and will kill as many of their
children and that the obesity crisis will cause cancer deaths to double in the UK by 2050. There can be no other
response to predictions with no science behind them than to look to British comedian Dr. Graham Chapman
(1941-1989), who would appear in the middle of a skit as the Colonel and pronounce: “You’ll have to stop this
now. It’s getting altogether too silly.” (Junkfood Science) Teaching tots —
what our youngest children are internalizing from the war on obesity - This is one of the most heartbreaking
studies you may read about this year. Within its findings is the hurt felt by every child who is born with a body
that doesn’t fit the norm. This small study of disadvantaged, minority preschoolers in a Southwest community
won’t likely make major news. There is nothing to interest commercial or political stakeholders, and nothing to
sell … but the need for compassion and understanding. It calls upon us to stop, look and listen what our culture
and well-intentioned health interventions are teaching children. Children’s
stories with not so happy endings - This is why sound science matters and how stereotypes can hurt the most
innocent. All of that
for not — eliminating sweet drinks in schools fails to reduce overall consumption - To receive federal funds
for school meal programs, schools have been required since 2005 to implement local wellness policies addressing
food and beverages available for sale, as part of the national agenda to lower obesity rates. School vending
machines are a source of sodas and other sweetened drinks, mostly only available at the high school level, and
become a focus of efforts to reduce the sweet drinks consumed by young people, under the belief they contribute to
obesity. But, to date, there's been no data on whether restricting or eliminating sodas from schools actually
matters and has any significant effect on the total sweet drinks and other beverages high schoolers consume.
(Junkfood Science) A new shock ad campaign -
Catching up on medical news from the UK, one can’t help but look in wonderment at the logic of allocating
limited public healthcare resources. These stories appearing in juxtaposition are a case in point. (Junkfood
Science) PC version: Oversize becomes
the norm for children - DEMAND for supersize school chairs that can withstand up to 225kg is growing as
schools try to accommodate increasingly overweight students. Correct version: School chairs built
to handle 225kg - But it's not all about size. Mr Webster said the chairs were also proven to help children
learn, as they were more comfortable and allowed a range of sitting positions. Creationism
should be taught as science, say 29% of teachers - Twenty-nine per cent of teachers believe that creationism
and intelligent design should be taught as science, according to an online survey of attitudes to teaching
evolution in the UK. Nearly 50% of the respondents said they believed that excluding alternatives to evolution was
counter-productive and would alienate pupils from science. (The Guardian) Creationism survey is not all
it seems - I'm not quite sure what to make of this survey from the website and TV station Teachers TV. It
apparently shows that 29% of teachers think creationism should be taught as science and 18% of science teachers
think evolution and creationism should be given equal status. The evolution of science
teaching - Keep creationism off the curriculum but train teachers to deal with questions about intelligent
design (Adam Rutherford, The Guardian) Enviro-cranks' poster boy RFK Jr.: Too
controversial for EPA? - Some energy and environmental lobbyists are worried that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s
controversial past would thwart his Senate confirmation if President-elect Barack Obama tapped him to be
administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Actually the fool could damage the EPA far worse than Browner did, possibly even to the extent of finally
convincing voters all things environment should be expunged from the statutes. Touchy-feely voters are long
overdue coming to the realization environmentalism is the new name for misanthropy. People first, last and
always. “Environmental
Justice” – a Fiction - Oxfam, with the Climate Justice Program and Advocates for International Development
are running a competition. More dumb green: In
Mayor’s Plan, the Plastic Bag Will Carry a Fee - In its struggle to make New York more green, the Bloomberg
administration has tried discouraging people from using plastic bags. It has taken out ads beseeching residents to
use cloth bags and set up recycling bins for plastic bags at supermarkets. So naturally, The Crone is all for it: It’s
Not Easy Being Green - When Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his grand plan to make New York City “the
first environmentally sustainable 21st-century city,” he offered a banquet of 127 excellent ideas. They included
congestion pricing, more parks, windmills to produce energy and a promise to plant one million trees in the next
10 years. But as he has learned since that heady day more than a year ago, greening the apple is not automatic.
(New York Times) Putting Gov't First - Two
prominent "Republicans" are using the financial crisis as cover to raise taxes. New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must not escape blame. 'Clean-up'
bees could save endangered hives - Plan to use genetically programmed 'hygienic' breeds to combat parasites
(The Observer) November 7, 2008
The First Green President - President-elect
Barack Obama could be the nation’s first green president -- whether he likes it or not. The Greens’ early
investment in Obama’s political soul has matured, and they’re already angling for -- and even demanding --
payback. (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com) Vigilance
Required - Earlier this afternoon, Rush Limbaugh read from Quin Hillyer’s analysis of what we can expect
from an Obama presidency coupled with a highly partisan Democrat Congress. The Democrats, Hilyer argued, would
seek “to drastically tilt the playing field, seed our side of the field with land mines and, in short, rig the
process to make it next to impossible for the political right, or Republicans, to recover. It will begin with
their efforts to secure a filibuster-proof majority of 60 senators (including the two independents).” The
U.N.’s “Green New Deal” - “You can’t pick an empty pocket,” lamented Yvo de Boer, director of the
United Nations Framework on Climate Change. With this telling statement, Mr. de Boer expressed his concern that a
global recession would decrease the amount of money developed countries could transfer to developing countries for
expensive green projects. Does Green Energy Add 5 Million Jobs? Potent
Pitch, but Numbers Are Squishy - Calls for a clean-energy system in the U.S. have long met with sticker shock.
Now, the cost of making the transition -- hundreds of billions of dollars -- is being touted as a selling point. ANALYSIS - Investors Want Proof Of
Obama "Green" Change - LONDON/SINGAPORE - President elect Barack Obama faces demands for proof of a
change in US tack on the climate from "green" investors and businesses around the world. (Reuters) Wannabe green billionaire: Al
Gore Group Urges Obama To Create US Power Grid - WASHINGTON - Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has
some environmental advice for the incoming Obama administration: focus on energy efficiency and renewable
resources, and create a unified US power grid. (Reuters) How sweet! Al recommends the naive president-elect directs public spending to Al's profit-making ventures. Gore increasingly realizes
that a shrinking number of Americans still believe in his climate scam (Tom Nelson) Green, easy and wrong: Why a
verdant New Deal would be a bad deal - TWO pressing problems face the world: economic meltdown and global
warming. Conveniently, a solution presents itself that apparently solves both: governments should invest heavily
in green technology, thus boosting demand while transforming the energy business. Actually any effort to address the phantom menace of gorebull warming is waste to be avoided. Germany Urges Obama To Give World
New "Green" Deal - BERLIN - The United States after Barack Obama becomes president must work closely
with Europe to fight climate change, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday. ANALYSIS - Credit Crisis A Threat
To Obama's Carbon Plans - SINGAPORE - US President-elect Barack Obama's credentials may be green, but
gathering financial gloom means fixing the economy will take priority on his agenda before dealing with national
carbon trading and clean-energy investment. (Reuters) Nunavut
rejects call to curb polar bear hunt - Nunavut has decided to leave unchanged the number of polar bears it
allows to be killed each year in one of the largest areas of the territory, rejecting calls for tighter
restrictions on hunting to allow the carnivores' populations to recover. What do people expect? You keep claiming polar bears will crash to extinction due to gorebull warming why
shouldn't the Inuit harvest all they can (everyone knows they are toast anyway...)? Turtles alter nesting dates due to temperature change -
Turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other areas are altering their nesting dates in response to rising
temperatures, says a researcher from Iowa State University. (Iowa State University) Blimey! Critters that have been adapting to changes in local conditions for millennia, like, adapt! And I
thought this Non Sequitur strip was a joke. About as right as they can get by being completely wrong: EU
Global Warming Limit May Not Be Possible - IEA - LONDON - A European Union target to limit warming of the
planet to no more than 2 degrees Celsius may not be technically achievable, the International Energy Agency said
in a report to be published next week. Granted, there is no feasible way of protecting standards of living and the economy while completely
eliminating fossil fuel use (which is required to achieve the silly atmospheric carbon dioxide level limits
supposedly desired). That said there is no possibility humans will drive a 2 °C global mean temperature
increase, so technically 'success' is guaranteed. Stupid game... Are they really this stupid? ANALYSIS
- Obama Climate Shift Could Add Pressure On China - OSLO - The United States has a chance to regain lost
leadership in fighting climate change under President-elect Barack Obama that would add pressure on countries such
as China to do more, experts say. (Reuters) Developing countries are not about to abandon development just because America chose The One. Sheesh! China Climate Exchange Sees Cash
In Govt Promises - BEIJING - China's first emissions exchange hopes to capitalise on the country's pledges to
shift towards cleaner growth, even in the absence of any government caps on production of pollutants, its chief
executive told Reuters. PREVIEW - China Set To Take The
Initiative In Climate Talks - BEIJING - China is seeking to seize the initiative in talks on cutting the
world's greenhouse gas pollution, pressing rich nations even as global financial turmoil and Barack Obama's
victory recast climate change diplomacy. (Reuters) China Advisor Outlines Climate
Tech Proposal - BEIJING - China is promoting a plan to dramatically boost the flow of greenhouse gas-cutting
technology from wealthy economies to developing countries (Reuters) Fossil-fueled
helicopters now to battle killer frost that hundreds of years of CO2 emissions couldn't prevent (Tom Nelson) Cloud radar with a silver lining - it
can really predict the weather - A revolutionary system with a signal that reaches twice as high as a plane
will enable more localised - and accurate - forecasts (The Guardian) 'Aliens Cause Global Warming' - From a
lecture delivered by the late Michael Crichton at the California Institute of Technology on Jan. 17, 2003: New
Paper On Dynamic Downscaling Of Climate Models By Rockel Et Al. Published - Our paper Rockel, B., C. L.
Castro, R. A. Pielke, Sr., H. von Storch, and G. Leoncini (2008), Dynamical downscaling: Assessment of model
system dependent retained and added variability for two different regional climate models, J. Geophys. Res., 113,
D21107, doi: 10.1029/2007JD009461 has been published [this paper was also discussed on the Climate Science weblog
of September 8 2008] Limestone Gives Clues On Rise,
Fall Of Dynasties - HONG KONG - Scientists have found a giant 1,810-year-old limestone in a cave in northwest
China which offers clues on the strength of Asian monsoons in the past and how they may have affected China's
political history. Note the NSF graphic -- so much for
Mann's 'vindicated' hockey stick, eh? The Medieval Warm Period is back, making the Modern warm look pretty darn
insipid by comparison. After 2 centuries of shrinking, Alaska glaciers got thicker
this year - Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of
2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and
August. (Anchorage Daily News) More 'could if might but maybe' from the virtual world: Global
warming predicted to hasten carbon release from peat bogs - Billions of tons of carbon sequestered in the
world's peat bogs could be released into the atmosphere in the coming decades as a result of global warming,
according to a new analysis of the interplay between peat bogs, water tables, and climate change. There's about half a dozen variations of this been block released: 'Unprecedented'
warming drives dramatic ecosystem shifts in North Atlantic -- While the planet has experienced numerous
changes in climate over the past 65 million years, the most significant climate change of the last 5,000 years has
been in recent decades. That change is global warming. Uh-huh... and this reinvasion has nothing to do with the primary agent of aquatic transfer we hear so much
about -- namely ships' ballast water transfer? What? The sun influences Earth's climate? Sunlight
has more powerful influence on ocean circulation and climate than North American ice sheets - A study reported
in today's issue of Nature disputes a longstanding picture of how ice sheets influence ocean circulation during
glacial periods. Flimflam man blathers again: Flannery
says farming's the answer - Farming and forestry hold the keys to resolving global warming, because carbon
trading by itself “is nowhere near sufficient” to deal with the crisis, prominent scientist Tim Flannery said
last week. Calif gov urges tax on oil
extraction in state - SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 6 - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Thursday that
lawmakers should approve a severance tax on oil production in the state to raise revenue to help close a state
budget shortfall that has swollen to $11.2 billion. Agency
Predicts a Return of Triple-Digit Oil Prices - The global economic slump that has curbed energy demand and
pushed oil prices down in recent months may provide only a short-lived respite for consumers, according to the
world’s top energy forecaster. Oil Majors Await Obama's Plan -
Anticipating a stronger emphasis on renewable fuels from President-elect Barack Obama, oil-industry executives say
they want to see a substantial increase in federal research funding before they commit considerable muscle. Ottawa
swoops in with climate-change offer - OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is proposing to strike a joint
climate-change pact with president-elect Barack Obama, an initiative that would seek to protect Alberta's oil
sands projects from potentially tough new U.S. climate-change rules by offering a secure North American energy
supply. Shell
secures 25-year access to Iraq's oil, gas - A joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and Iraq's state-owned
South Gas Co. could give Shell a 25-year monopoly on production and exports of natural gas in much of southern
Iraq - the biggest foreign role in Iraq's oil and gas sector in four decades. (UPI) Gathering
clouds: The economic slowdown casts a shadow over the prospects for clean technology - EARLIER this year, with
the oil price at record heights, T. Boone Pickens, a celebrated Texas oilman, seemed to confirm the unstoppable
growth of the clean-technology industry when he announced plans not only to build the world’s biggest wind farm,
but also to spend $58m of his personal fortune promoting the cause of wind power. On October 30th, with oil prices
having fallen by more than half, he told a television reporter that the boom he had foreseen in wind would be
“put off”, due to the unexpected fall in the price of fossil fuels and the sudden difficulty of borrowing
money. (The Economist) Blow to Brown as BP
scraps British renewables plan to focus on US - BP has dropped all plans to build wind farms and other
renewable schemes in Britain and is instead concentrating the bulk of its $8bn (£5bn) renewables spending
programme on the US, where government incentives for clean energy projects can provide a convenient tax shelter
for oil and gas revenues. Britain burying huge amounts of
potential fuel - Britain's biomass industry will miss targets necessary to meet renewable energy goals by 50%
unless "blockages in the system" are removed by the government. In a letter to the new energy and
climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, representatives from the wood industry say urgent action is required to put
biomass back on track. (The Guardian) Eight Nations Warn EU Over Biofuel
Barriers - BRUSSELS - Eight developing nations warned the European Union on Thursday they could file a World
Trade Organisation complaint over what they see as unfair barriers being raised against their biofuels. (Reuters) Scientists perfecting spray-on solar cells -
CHICAGO–Researchers have developed some of the tiniest solar cells ever made and said today the organic material
could potentially be painted on to surfaces. Can living in
rainy areas really cause one-third of autism cases? - At first, this study sounded like it might have been
published in the Journal of Spurious Correlations or an entry for the Spurious Correlations Contest and would
provide a note of levity. Recycling this one, again: The
disappearing male: Studies show rise in birth defects, infertility among men - Are males becoming an
endangered species? Don't worry girls, numbering more than 3 billion human males are hardly endangered. Michael Crichton’s
Question - In memory of Michael Crichton, who died Tuesday, let us consider a question that preocuppied him:
How do we separate science from religion in environmentalism? As a spinner of sci-fi horror stories himself, he
had a finely honed skepticism for the apocalyptic scenarios presented by environmentalists. In a speech in 2003,
he argued that environmentalism was a modern remapping of Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths: (John Tierney, New
York Times) Ol' Night Soil speaks again: Garrett's
green talk makes opposing forces see red - Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has been warned against
presenting Australia's environment and economy as competing forces in the wake of a controversial speech in
Melbourne at the weekend. No booming economy, no environmental sops, period. Apparently the Midnight screamer hasn't figured out that
when faced with a choice between falling living standards for people or bugs, rational people don't choose bugs. Recycling waste piles up as
prices collapse - Thousands of tonnes of rubbish collected from household recycling bins may have to be stored
in warehouses and former military bases to save them from being dumped after a collapse in prices. Lump
together and like it: The problems—and benefits—of urbanisation on a vast scale - IN JANUARY this year a
vast number of would-be travellers were stranded at railway stations and on roads in China, after an unusually
heavy snowfall blanketed the south of the country just before the country’s new-year festivities. What amazed
the world (in addition to the unusual sight of a prime minister apologising for his government’s slowness) was
the unprecedented scale of the disruption: an estimated 200m people were on the move. People bad... unless they're not: Loss
of hill farms could destroy rare upland landscape, experts warn: National parks fear a knock-on effect on
precious environments if sheep and cattle farms collapse Peter
Foster: Just plain bananas - Two years ago, the U.K.’s appallingly biased Stern Review on the economic
impacts of climate change suggested that new taxes be installed to discourage the long haul of exotic fruits. The
arch villain was identified as the humble kiwifruit. In May of this year, the Democratic National Convention in
Denver demanded that all its food be sourced locally. In 2007, the term “locavore” (one who eats locally grown
food) was crowned Word of the Year by the Oxford American Dictionary. Food
mile myths: Buy global - The ‘food mile’ perspective severely distorts the environmental impacts of
agricultural production (Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu, Financial Post) Even The Guardian knows Charlie is full of it: Indian
farmer suicides not GM related, says study - Suicides among Indian farmers have not increased as a result of
the introduction of GM crops, according to a large scientific study. November 6, 2008 Can't say you weren't warned: Environmentalists
see high hopes for new Congress - WASHINGTON--Environmental officials said on Tuesday they expect major
legislative victories in the new Congress on climate control, chemical plant security, an EU-like chemicals
controls bill and a new pollution tax on chemical producers. Obama May Put
Renewable-Energy Plan Ahead of Climate Package - Nov. 5 -- President-elect Barack Obama may pursue legislation
early next year to speed a transition to an economy fueled by renewable energy sources and delay a fight on
climate change until the economy improves. Eye-roller: Bring On the ‘Reality- Based Community' -
It took a while to discern the guiding ideology behind the Bush administration's poisonous science policies. The
real problem wasn't tax cuts and war spending, even though the combination did strangle domestic programs so
severely that scientists at the nation's premier physics lab were ordered to take unpaid leave, and the government
is allocating 13 percent less to biomedical research in 2009 than it did in 2004. Nor was the culprit the sop that
Bush offered the religious right in 2001 by banning the use of federal money for research on new lines of human
embryonic stem cells, paralyzing the field for eight years and sending some of the nation's most promising young
biologists overseas. It wasn't even Bush's refusal to take any action to reduce greenhouse gases, allowing U.S.
emissions to grow by 178 million tons during his years in the White House and making the needed cuts that much
deeper now. No, Obama and Congress can reverse all of that if they want to. The truly poisonous legacy of the past
eight years is one that spread to much of society and will therefore be much harder to undo: the utter contempt
with which those in power viewed inconvenient facts, empiricism and science in general. (Sharon Begley, Newsweek) Global Warming Talk Is
All Just Hot Air - For a lot of years when I worked in presidential and congressional elections, we lost. Like
most of my colleagues, I joined in the finger pointing, blaming the people in charge for running inept campaigns
and suggesting that what had not been done was the reason for the losses. Could Obama appoint a "climate
czar"? - WASHINGTON - U.S. environmental groups see Barack Obama's presidential victory as a chance to
undo the Bush legacy on global warming, and one idea they are discussing is the possibility of a White House
"climate czar". (Reuters) Oh Bill... President Obama’s Big Climate
Challenge - As he assumes the presidency, Barack Obama must make climate-change legislation and investment in
green energy top priorities. And he must be ready to take bold — and politically unpopular — action to address
global warming. (Bill McKibben, Yale 360) Funny: Climate
talks: Obama victory offers hope - One of Barack Obama's first tasks will be to lead the United States back
into the heart of the global debate on climate change, ending the country's years of isolation and scepticism. Regardless of whether Obama and the Democrat regime decide to destroy America's economy there still will not
be any agreement on global carbon dioxide emission control because developing countries will not commit economic
suicide to appease some Western eco-deity (and they may sabotage the talks to avoid having their best customers
committing economic suicide too) while the EU is already learning the costs and running away with as much
decorum as shear panic will allow. Speaking of which: China,
Emerging Asia to Fight `Protectionist' Obama - Nov. 5 -- Asia's leaders, led by an ascendant China, say they
hope Barack Obama didn't really mean those campaign promises to protect American trade. And if he did, they are in
better shape to object than ever before. See also: New EU States
Team Up Against Parts Of Climate Plan - WARSAW - Seven eastern members of the European Union on Wednesday
upheld a joint stand against parts of the bloc's climate package, which they fear could harm their economies,
their leaders said. (Reuters) And: Carbon Market
Slumps on the Back of Widespread Policy Uncertainty and Market Turmoil - The European Environment Committee
has backed plans to revise key clauses in the landmark climate and energy package just as the financial turmoil
and the expected protracted economic slowdown place severe downward pressures on carbon credit demand and pricing. Even Andy realizes political reality will intrude: The
Presidency and the Climate Challenge - Whoever is elected tonight, it’s clear that the next president will
face a profound challenge if he wants to make global warming and nonpolluting energy a high priority. A host of
surveys show that most Americans remain doubtful, disengaged, or confused about the basic science pointing to
centuries-long changes in climate patterns and coastlines if greenhouse gas emissions from burning fuels and
forests are not reduced. (Andrew C. Revkin, NYT) Carbon-Capturing Rock: Geologists
discover that certain rock formations could sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide. - Chemical reactions
that pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and store it in the form of solid rock inside geological formations
could offset billions of tons of carbon-dioxide emissions each year, according to researchers at Columbia
University, in New York. The scientists say that research done on large rock formations in Oman suggests new ways
to sequester carbon-dioxide emissions to help lessen global warming. (Technology Review) Atmospheric carbon dioxide is a resource and we should not be trying to limit it. The great gorebull
warming farce has much to answer for. Pitch from GIM[me your money]: We
Need Sustainable Capitalism - When greeting old friends after a period of absence, Ralph Waldo Emerson used to
ask: "What has become clear to you since we last met?" BBC Shunned Me For Denying Climate Change - FOR
YEARS David Bellamy was one of the best known faces on TV. Dr
Roy Spencer Censored by the Guardians of Politicised ‘Official’ Science? - On November 3rd 2008, two
technical papers that Dr Roy Spencer had recently submitted to the journal Geophysical Research Letters were
outright rejected in back-to-back emails and on the same day all 78 reviews of his book ‘Climate
Confusion’ on Amazon.com were removed from that website. Ironically, this coincides with the publication of
his Journal of Climate paper, blogged by Climate Research News here.
(Climate Research News) Parenthetically, the CET results are out for
October. Unless the Central England region records an unusually warm final 2 months of the year a top-30
finish looks highly unlikely for 2008 in the "warm rankings" -- in fact a top-50 finish is rather
dubious at this point (monthly figures of late have been in the region of 150/350 rank). Where Have All
the Hurricanes Gone? - Ryan Maue of Florida State University documents that Northern Hemisphere tropical
cyclone activity is the lowest that has been observed in the past 30 years. Before you get all excited and jump to
conclusions, I am happy to report that the latest research shows that more, less, or the same level of tropical
cyclone activity is perfectly consistent with predictions of climate models. So the record inactivity should
definitely be seen as vindicating the prediction of climate models as well as a potential harbinger of things to
come, or perhaps the calm before the storm, or something. (Roger Pielke, Jr., Prometheus) David Archibald compares various sunspot metrics with the
current Solar Cycle (SC) transition, SC23 - SC24 - In the last week or so David has sent me the following
graphics illustrating where we might be in the current SC23-SC24 transition period. These warrant an article on
their own. I have changed the order from the original post. Comments mainly from David. (Warwick Hughes) Nighttime tornadoes are worst nightmare -- A new study
by Northern Illinois University scientists underscores the danger of nighttime tornadoes and suggests that warning
systems that have led to overall declines in tornado death rates might not be adequate for overnight events, which
occur most frequently in the nation's mid-South region. (PhysOrg.com) New
Article In Physics Today Titled “A Broader View Of The Role Of Humans In The Climate System.” - Physics
Today has just published an invited opinion piece Pielke Sr., R.A., 2008: A
broader view of the role of humans in the climate system. Physics Today, 61, Vol. 11, 54-55. (Roger Pielke
Sr., Climate Science) That poor virtual world: Climate
change to hit electricity, dams, footpaths - All forms of infrastructure in Australia including electricity,
dams, roads and even footpaths will be severely affected by climate change, a new report has found. Another one to add to the list: Climate
change pushes lemmings to the edge - ONCE famous for their numbers, Norwegian lemmings are disappearing, say
scientists who point the finger at global warming. (The Australian) Global
Warming - Who really decides if it exists - Agree with it or not, global warming and greenhouse gas talk is
everywhere. And whether it scientifically exists and is man-caused or not, federal agencies are going to have to
deal with it as the agencies authorize actions, and comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”)
and the endangered Species Act (“ESA”). So while many of us are not convinced that global warming is anything
except a natural phenomena if it scientifically exists at all, the legal fact is that in getting a federal agency
to complete the necessary NEPA documentation and ESA Section 7 consultation to renew a livestock term grazing
permit, authorize a mine, develop an oil and gas field, construct or maintain a road, prepare a land use plan, or
even authorize a crop payment or EQUIP grant, global warming has to be part of the consideration if the agency
wants its decision to survive a challenge in court. (Ag Journal) Green
Initiatives Get Slaughtered in California, Will Media Notice? - Californians by very wide margins defeated two
green initiatives that anthropogenic global warming enthusiasts in the media and in legislative houses across the
fruited plain should take heed...but will they? (NewsBusters) America Did
Not Elect Al Gore - Chris Horner notes below that Democrats may be reshuffling their Congressional leadership
in alarmingly climate-alarmist ways. But do they really have a mandate? (Edward John Craig, Planet Gore) Obama tries to hide the costs of his global warming
solution. - The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of environmentalists and labor unions, wants the federal
government to spend $500 billion over 10 years to "build America's 21st century clean energy economy"
and thereby "create more than five million high quality green-collar jobs." Barack Obama says he can
accomplish the same goal for only $150 billion, which gives you a sense of how reliable these projections are.
(Jacob Sullum, Reason) Under
Obama, Dark Days Seen Ahead For Fossil Fuels - WASHINGTON -- Under President-elect Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,
the fossil fuels industry may face "dark days ahead," while alternative energy sectors are likely to
flourish. Dark days for a while, probably -- but not for very long as reality intrudes and the need for energy sweeps
aside the watermelons' nonsense. Cutting
emissions 'could' reduce revenues - Report by the European Commission argues that reduced energy consumption
could lower governments' tax revenues and highlights risk of 'carbon leakage'. The High Price of
Higher Energy Costs - Dr. David Kreutzer of the Heritage Foundation, a past interviewee at The Chilling
Effect, has a new web memo on continuing efforts to make power consumption more expensive. This is just one tidbit
from “Impact of CO2 Restrictions on Employment and Income: Green Jobs or Gone Jobs?”: (The Chilling Effect) Berlin urged to speed up energy
projects - Germany’s energy regulator is urging politicians to speed up the approval of infrastructure
projects to ensure that the country can avoid a looming threat of power shortages. The
Death of Ethanol: One Thing Wall Street Saw Coming - Once upon a time, ethanol was seen as the future of clean
energy and as leading the U.S. to energy independence. Wanted: A Viable Arizona Biofuel Crop -- Researchers at
The University of Arizona are considering various crops for bioenergy production that could be grown in Arizona.
Bioenergy is the name given to renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources. (PhysOrg.com) Yeah, a lot of people are looking for a viable biofuel crop... and not just in Arizona: Starving and penniless,
Ethiopian farmers rue biofuel choice - With a slight reeling in his gait, Ashenafi Chote ventures into his
small plot of land and shakes his head, his eyes full of regret: "I made a mistake". Paper churning - It is a cliche, but it is
true, that academics must publish or perish. Papers, and more papers, and more papers still, are what makes for a
professorial life. Government program
tied to weight gain in adults - NEW YORK - A Mexican government program that offers cash assistance to
encourage healthy habits may paradoxically result in excess weight gain and higher blood pressure in some adults,
a study suggests. No link between gut bugs and obesity -- The types of
bacterial bugs found in our guts are not a major cause of obesity, according to latest findings from Aberdeen
researchers. (PhysOrg.com) Peter
Foster: Save Capitalism from Harper's - We should remember how little use Sarbanes-Oxley was in heading off
current problems Requiem In Pax: Michael
Crichton, `Jurassic Park' Creator, Dies at 66 - Nov. 5 -- Michael Crichton, the best-selling novelist whose
books such as ``Jurassic Park'' and ``The Andromeda Strain'' envisioned unexpected, catastrophic consequences from
scientific exploration, has died. He was 66. The Greens and the
Bell-Curve - A little article on the Times website caught our eye. Who'd a thought? Stressors affect plants: Extreme
weather postpones the flowering time of plants - Extreme weather events have a greater effect on flora than
previously presumed. A one-month drought postpones the time of flowering of grassland and heathland plants in
Central Europe by an average of 4 days. With this a so-called 100-year drought event equates to approx. a decade
of global warming. (Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres) Argentine Cow Clones May Help
Boost Milk Output - BUENOS AIRES - Argentine scientists have found a way to make cows produce more milk by
injecting them with a bovine growth hormone produced by cloned and genetically modified dairy cows. November 5, 2008
The Over-Hyping Of Green - The US green
movement is moving forward with its agenda to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) gas emissions. Colorado
Governor Ritter has proposed various CO2 reduction measures. Many US state legislatures are beginning
to mandate that various percentages of future electrical energy generated come from renewable energy sources.
Renewable energy is currently much more expensive than traditional fossil fuel energy. Many cities and states
across the US are starting to implement costly programs to reduce CO2 emissions. I doubt that the
public is aware of the heavy economic penalties to be paid by efforts to substantially reduce CO2
gases. These CO2 reduction efforts are beginning to be made just at the time we must start to adjust to
the serious economic problems associated with the recent severe stock market downturn. (William M. Gray) The Great
Global Warming Swindle - Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Martin Durkin, the producer of the documentary
The Great Global Warming Swindle.
(FrontPageMagazine.com) Eye-roller: This year's Antarctic zone hole is 5th
biggest -- This year's ozone hole over Antarctica was the fifth biggest on record, reaching a maximum area of
10.5 million square miles in September, NASA says. That's considered "moderately large," NASA
atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said in a statement. (AP) Actually we have no indication whatsoever that humans have anything to do with the
annual Antarctic Ozone Anomaly (a.k.a 'the ozone hole'). EU Climate Policy Update - The European Union’s climate
agenda further disintegrated this week after member states watered down a major renewable energy law. In 2007, EU
countries agreed to ambitious greenhouse gas emissions cuts of 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. In early 2008, the
EU Commission developed a comprehensive strategy to achieve the emissions targets, which must be accepted by
member states before it is implemented. Like all policies that call for significant greenhouse gas emissions
reductions, the EU Commission’s climate plan is economically harmful—Open Europe, an independent think tank,
estimates that the Commission’s policies would cost the EU $93 billion a year by 2020. With that much at stake,
member states have spent all of 2008 protecting their economic interests by weakening the Commission’s strategy
with exceptions and exemptions. (William Yeatman, Cooler Heads Digest) Global warming melts from
view now the economy's on ice - GIVEN that we, at least everybody with a government-guaranteed bank account,
are all socialists now, everybody understands how cruelly incompetent capitalism is. Especially people who bet big
in the prophecies of doom market. Alarmists Still Heated Even As World
Cools - It's been a bad year for global warming alarmists. Record cold periods and snowfalls are occurring
around the globe. The hell that the radicals have promised is freezing over. (IBD) If You Don’t Like
History, Change It! - Recently I was looking at some graphical temperature data from NASA. I was able to find
a graph of United States temperature from 1880 up to 1999. I then went to the NASA GISS site and found the most
recent plot of this data. I wanted to compare the two and see if there had been any changes in the trends. Each
graph was on a different scale so I had to fit one to the other so they could be compared. After that I saved each
image and opened them each in a simple paint program. In this way I could toggle between the two and visually see
any changes that might have taken place. (Art Horn, Icecap) Telling the truth about climate change has become a
revolutionary act - Alan Greenspan former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Board, a position touted as one
of the most powerful unelected offices in the world, in a hearing before Rep. Henry Waxman’s House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform said he got it wrong in answer to questions about his role in the recent financial
meltdown. His extremely mobile face deadpanned that his economic models, which he had relied on for 40 years, were
wrong. He did not apologize; it was merely a statement of fact that portrayed no irrational exuberance. He gave no
hint of concern about the massive damage his reliance on the models had done. Huge losses of money among those who
exploited the situation his models allowed, garnered no sympathy. However, the dashing of hope at the bottom of
the economic pyramid, the disaster of losing one’s home or job, the stress created by worrying about losing
either, and a myriad other such stories in the US and across the world appeared to be dismissed with a wave of the
academic and intellectual hand. (Tim Ball, CFP) Is
Climate Change A Co-Equal Threat As Global Urban Unemployment in the Future? - A remarkable news article
appeared in The Times by Sean O’Toole with respect to global urban unemployment and crime entitled “The Big
Picture: ‘It’s equal to climate change as a future threat’“. Observed Climate Change in
Florida - In October 2008, the Governor’s Action Team on Energy and Climate Change released a draft version
of its 14-month effort of developing an Action Plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from Florida. The
impetus behind the creation of the Action Team and the development of the Action Plan grew out of a summit on
climate change (“Serve to Preserve: A Florida Summit on Global Climate Change”) hosted by Governor Crist in
July of 2007. This event “gathered leaders of business, government, science, and advocacy to examine the unique
risks of climate change to Florida and the nation, and to explore the economic development opportunities available
through an aggressive response to climate change.” Reframing the climate change challenge in
light of post-2000 emission trends - Abstract: The 2007 Bali conference heard repeated calls for reductions in
global greenhouse gas emissions of 50 per cent by 2050 to avoid exceeding the 2°C threshold. While such endpoint
targets dominate the policy agenda, they do not, in isolation, have a scientific basis and are likely to lead to
dangerously misguided policies. To be scientifically credible, policy must be informed by an understanding of
cumulative emissions and associated emission pathways. This analysis considers the implications of the 2°C
threshold and a range of post-peak emission reduction rates for global emission pathways and cumulative emission
budgets. The paper examines whether empirical estimates of greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2008, a
period typically modelled within scenario studies, combined with short-term extrapolations of current emissions
trends, significantly constrains the 2000–2100 emission pathways. The paper concludes that it is increasingly
unlikely any global agreement will deliver the radical reversal in emission trends required for stabilization at
450ppmv carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Similarly, the current framing of climate change cannot be
reconciled with the rates of mitigation necessary to stabilize at 550ppmv CO2e and even an optimistic
interpretation suggests stabilization much below 650ppmv CO2e is improbable. (Kevin Anderson and Alice
Bows, Phil Trans. R. Soc. A) --h/t GreenieWatch Poland Proposes EU Carbon Price
Cap And Floor - BRUSSELS - Poland has proposed upper and lower limits to the price of permits to emit carbon
dioxide in the European Union's flagship Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) at a meeting of EU finance ministers.
(Reuters) Step
Aside, Mr. President, Why the Next EPA Chief Could Be America's Most Powerful Leader - The most powerful
person who will set forth the vision and tone for America's future may not be Barack Obama or John McCain. It may
in fact be the next director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). From CO2 Science this week: Medieval
Warm Period Record of the Week: Subject Index Summary: Plant Growth Data: Journal Reviews: Winter Droughts of the Upper Rhine River Basin: How
have they varied over the past four and a half centuries? Winter Floods of the Vistula River: How have they
varied over the past millennium? Engineering Crops to Better Cope With Global Warming:
Is it imminent reality? ... or is it merely wishful thinking? We Live in a Complex World ... and so do Grasshoppers:
How does the combination of anthropogenic-induced changes in three environmental factors influence the growth of
grasshoppers? Meetings: CO2 Truth-Alert: The
Past Half-Century of Sea Level Rise: In his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives' Select
Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, NASA's James Hansen stated "there is increasing
realization that sea level rise this century may be measured in meters if we follow business-as-usual fossil fuel
emissions." Agreeing with Hansen, many people have been quick to jump on the CO2-induced
global warming/rising sea level bandwagon. But how close to reality are the projections of a future sea level rise
that is measured in meters? (co2science.org) Mount Shasta’s
glaciers- proxy for what? - The photo below I took this weekend on my way back from a station survey in the
remote northestern corner of California. It shows Mount Shasta getting it’s first significant snow of this
precipitation season here in California. (Watts Up With That?) ANALYSIS - US Vote Seen As One-Way
Bet For Solar, Wind Power - SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES - An anticipated Democratic US election sweep is
thrilling solar and wind power investors because that outcome is seen as a big step toward establishing federal
requirements for alternative power generation. Really? What about the cost to cash-strapped consumers? Bankrupt
with the Facts - The blog headline read: "Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry"
and the author charged that the audio of the meeting with Obama "(had) been hidden from the public." Energy and the Election - But the key point is that both
presidential candidates strongly support a major policy that will not lower energy prices, but raise energy prices
significantly. Too bad it wasn’t discussed in the campaign. It will be interesting to see how the American
people react to this surprising news in a few months. (Myron Ebell, Cooler Heads Digest) Good one! :) Can't
we just make diesel so expensive that Antarctic researchers are forced to make do with wind and solar? (Tom
Nelson) Back to burning wood? Economic
growth found in forests - Plans to use Scotland's forests to fuel economic growth and increase renewable
energy capacity have been unveiled by Environment Minister Mike Russell. A consultation paper wants communities,
landowners and the forestry sector to "unlock" the potential of woodlands. Its launch took place on the
Annandale Estate in Dumfries and Galloway. Mr Russell said the nation's forests - worth about £850m - could make
a vital contribution towards a "greener and wealthier Scotland". The consultation paper - Climate Change
and the National Forest Estate - outlines a number of proposals. They include plans to develop renewable energy
projects and plant more trees to increase the area covered by woodland. Mr Russell said Scotland's forests could
help the country meet its target of 50% of energy being produced by renewable sources by 2020. "Scotland's
forests are one of our greatest natural assets and also hold huge potential for greener energy," he said.
(BBC) Licht Sees Crisis Slowing 2009
World Ethanol Growth - PARIS - The world's fast-expanding ethanol industry will be hit by the financial crisis
next year as the credit crunch halts or slows expansion in many regions, commodities analyst F.O. Licht said. ANALYSIS - Solar Sector Shakeout
Looms As Credit Crunch Bites - FRANKFURT - Many of the world's solar energy companies could fail or fall into
the arms of stronger rivals as the financial crisis raises borrowing costs and as solar module prices fall. Rule of law still applies in Australia, at least: Greenpeace
trio fined thousands over smoke stack stunt - Three Greenpeace activists who scaled a smoke stack at a power
station west of Brisbane have been ordered to pay more than $23,000 in damages. Data dredge
of the day: exercise and breast cancer - On Friday, news began reporting that postmenopausal women can cut
their risks for breast cancer by 30% with vigorous exercise, and that even moderate physical activity won’t cut
it. This was shown, we heard, in a huge study of over 32,000 women followed for 11 years, conducted by scientists
at the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. Say what? Autism linked with
rainfall in study - WASHINGTON - Children who live in the U.S. Northwest's wettest counties are more likely to
have autism, but it is unclear why, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. What is their proposed mechanism? Television viewing -- but they have no idea how much viewing these kids
actually did/do. Say it was reduced sunlight exposure and low vitamin D levels (some biological plausibility, at
least), why would there be similar autism levels seen in say, Australia, with its relatively low rainfall and
high sun exposure? Are north-western 'wet' counties also more likely to have tofu munchers than beef eaters and
would this explain the differences observed? As studies go this looks like a washout. Study links
child's autism, parents' mental illness - CHICAGO - In another sign pointing to an inherited component to
autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems
roughly doubled a child's risk of being autistic. Gene for brain
connections linked with autism - WASHINGTON - A gene that helps the brain make connections may underlie a
significant number of autism cases, researchers in the United States reported on Tuesday. Snake
bite is a 'neglected tropical disease' - Snakes kill more people than either dengue fever or skin cancer,
according to a new worldwide estimate. Old
Europe sees G20 opportunity - Stand back, everybody, the Europeans are coming. It's the end of capitalism, and
what we are apparently going to get in its place is some real economic leadership from hard-nosed European
interventionists. The days of free-wheeling U. S. laissez-faire are over, welcome to Euro dirigisme. Killer
living wages - The newest social justice fad is another sop to unions that has nothing to do with poverty
(Peter Shawn Taylor, Financial Post) Feds propose much fewer snowmobiles in Yellowstone -- A
cap on snowmobile use in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks would be lowered by 40 percent under a federal
proposal released Monday in response to a judge's rejection of earlier plans. Consumer not ready for tailor-made nutrition - In the
near future it will be possible to customise the food we eat to individual needs, based on the genetic profile of
the individual. Dutch researcher Amber Ronteltap suggests that the consumer market is not yet ready for this
so-called nutrigenomics. Ronteltap concludes that many obstacles must be overcome before products based on
nutrigenomics become a reality. (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) November 4, 2008 Oh for goodness sake! Drought
land 'will be abandoned' - Parts of the world may have to be abandoned because severe water shortages will
leave them uninhabitable, the United Nations environment chief has warned. Yes, providing safe potable water is a critical element of poverty abatement. No, it is not dependent on
'fighting climate change' -- rather just the opposite applies since the world cannot afford gorebull warming
claptrap. If gorebull warming theory (actually the enhanced greenhouse hypothesis) has any validity then the
very same marvelous magical multiplier required to boost trivial possible carbon-dioxide-driven warming to
catastrophic heating -- increased evaporation and atmospheric water vapor (the only truly significant greenhouse
gas) -- then drought becomes less likely. Moreover, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide radically
improves plant water use efficiency, making plants less susceptible to drought and increasing surface water
runoff into watercourses and impoundments. Finally, the picture chosen by The Observer demonstrates either their ignorance or deception. Leigh
Creek is a coal mining town in South Australia's arid north and far north of Goyder's
Line (the 12" rainfall line). While some beef cattle and sheep are raised in these desert conditions it
is perfectly normal for large areas to be completely barren (as shown in the picture). What The Observer
does not say or does not know is that the carcasses are arranged in a line like that because that is where the
property owner dumps dead stock (dragged to a grazed out or perpetually barren area so as not to foul grazing,
feeding or watering points). One inevitability of having livestock is that you will also have to contend with
deadstock and this is how they are dealt with in the 'outback'. The picture is not the result of a mass die-off
of stock but the carcasses of normal mortalities collected from watering points over probably hundreds or even
thousands of square miles of very marginal country, where good season stocking rates are measured not in head of
livestock per acre but rather the number of square miles per head. Natural
or Anthropogenic Effects on Atlantic Hurricanes, Past, Present, Future? - We have often discussed the observed
patterns of Atlantic tropical cyclone activity and what may lie behind them, and we generally have concluded,
based upon both our analysis of the data, along with a thorough review of the scientific literature, that
identifying a statistically significant and robust human signal in the observed history of Atlantic basin tropical
cyclones, whether over the past 100+ years, or in recent decades, is untenable. (WCR) What is really happening to
Greenland icecap? - The Greenland ice cap has been a focal point of recent climate change research because it
is much more exposed to immediate global warming than the larger Antarctic ice sheet. Yet while the southern
Greenland ice cap has been melting, it is still not clear how much this is contributing to rising sea levels, and
much further research is needed. (Huliq News) Selling Global Warming - Network television
and other media are using global warming to sell the news. I’ve been a television meteorologist for 29 years,
and have been affiliated with CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS. Over nearly three decades of weather forecasting on
television, I have seen many changes. The least of these changes have been in the atmosphere. By far the greatest
changes have been in the television industry itself. Are Evangelicals On the Global
Warming Bandwagon? - For more than three years, a number of politicians and media observers have prophesied
about the fracturing of the coveted “Evangelical Vote” over the issue of environmental stewardship. And during
the same period, a handful of evangelicals have toiled to persuade the faithful that manmade global warming is
such a serious threat that it deserves top priority in their social witness. ANALYSIS-European climate backlash puts global
deal at risk - BRUSSELS, Nov 3 - Europe's plan to lead the world towards a deal on fighting climate change has
been seriously imperilled by a backlash by Italy, Poland and other east European nations wary of the short-term
costs. (Reuters) China
Sends Global Warming Ransom Note - China has now destroyed Western hopes for a new global warming agreement,
just weeks before global talks in Poland aimed at writing a successor for the Kyoto Protocol- which expires in
2012. China has attached a ransom note to its Polish meeting RSVP: They might go along with a new warming pact if
the rich countries agree to hand over 1 percent of their GDP-about $300 billion per year-to finance the required
non-fossil, higher-cost energy systems the West wants the developing countries to use. (Dennis T. Avery, Right
Side News) Canada An Environmental Slouch,
Study Says - TORONTO - Canada's environmental record is among the worst in the industrialized world, due in
part to its poor performance fighting global warming, according to a report from the Conference Board of Canada on
Monday. (Reuters) The anti-Australia Institute: Australia
Carbon Scheme Should Omit Agriculture - Report - SYDNEY - Australia's $29 billion-a-year agricultural industry
should be charged for polluting rather than included in a carbon emissions trading scheme planned by the
Australian government, an independent public policy research group said on Monday. (Reuters) RBA board member Warwick
McKibbin urges delay on emissions trading scheme - KEVIN Rudd's 2010 timetable for an emissions trading scheme
is under fire from a Reserve Bank board member who has backed the Coalition's push to delay the scheme. October becomes warmest on
record for L.A. - Thanks to an 11-day heating streak, October 2008 has become Los Angeles' toastiest in
history. Global warming? Not even - it's called the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE). Berkeley Lab have a good example here:
"Cities all over the world have been warming up in the summer over the years. Los Angeles is a striking
example of how a city was transformed into an urban heat island. In the 1930s, Los Angeles was an area
covered with irrigated orchards. The high temperature in the summer of 1934 was 97°F. Then, as pavement,
commercial buildings, and homes replaced trees, Los Angeles warmed steadily, reaching 105°F and higher in the
1990s." FACT: Only
Computer Illiterates believe in "Man-Made" Global Warming - What people do not understand is that
there is no proof of "Man-Made" Global Warming without using irrelevant computer models. Yes computer
models have a place in engineering but are utterly useless at fortune telling, I mean "climate
prediction". With engineering you can build and test in the real world to confirm the computer model's
accuracy. You can do no such thing with the planet Earth and it's climate. You cannot build a planet and it's
atmosphere to "test" your computer climate model. I don't think the claim is accurate, at least not literally so. The bigger problem is that quite computer
literate people do not know enough of other disciplines to realize how bad climate models truly are, so they
believe the output. Others (probably most) are unaware that gorebull warming is model-driven at all, so their
computer literacy is irrelevant. The one truly appalling part of this is that climate modelers have divorced
themselves from real-world research to the extent they believe their process models capable of prognostication
and that model output constitutes and can substitute for actual data. While driven by subterfuge and
misdirection by a relative few the scam thrives because most researchers assume published papers must be
accurate and so base their assumptions on supposedly demonstrated affects which do not exist. A classic example
being the 2.5 times magnifier of warming expected from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide due to water vapor
enhancement. In the real world increases in water vapor appear to inhibit enhanced greenhouse as a net effect
and actual climate sensitivity is between one-fifth and one-tenth that imagined by the model fraternity.
Empirical data shows they should be dividing by a similar factor as they are multiplying -- but that
won't generate any "climate emergency" to keep the politicians throwing our money at them, will it? “Beware of geeks bearing
formulas” - Those are the words of Warren Buffet, who warned of the coming credit crisis. Buffet—one of
the very few—had little faith in the “complicated, computer-drive models systems that many financial giants
relay on to minimize risk.” Which
is it? Trees Cool Or Heat the Planet? Studies Give Contradictory Results - Marc Morano has alerted us to an
interesting contradiction with respect to how landscape affects the climate system which he headlines “Subject:
Which is it? Trees Cool Or Heat the Planet? Studies Give Contradictory Results “. (Roger Pielke Sr., Climate
Science) Obama and
Your Energy Bills - Sean Hannity takes on Obama's gleeful promises to bankrupt coal companies and cause your
electricity rates to skyrocket: (Edward John Craig, Planet Gore) Video
of Obama's Bankrupting Coal Industry Remarks - On Sunday, my colleague P. J. Gladnick helped break the story
about Barack Obama discussing how his carbon cap and trade proposals would bankrupt coal-fired power plants. (NewsBusters) Obama's Mine Shaft - Barack
Obama's plan to bankrupt anyone building a new coal plant prioritizes global warming myths over U.S. energy
independence. It also wields government power punitively and will hurt the economy. (IBD) A Bankrupt
Media, Too - I can’t let Obama’s San Francisco Chronicle quote on coal go by without sharing a couple of
comments from inside the belly of the MSM beast. Because the story is as much about the media as it is about
Obama’s green radicalism. (Henry Payne, Planet Gore) Coal
Association Calls Obama-Biden a Disaster, Will Media Notice? - The Ohio Coal Association, in response to
revelations about Barack Obama's extremely hostile position towards coal-fired power plants, issued a statement
Monday claiming, "the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America's coal industry and the tens of
thousands of Americans who work in it." (NewsBusters) Gulf petrodollars
help UK go green - The fight against climate change will get an unexpected boost today from oil-rich Gulf
states which will pledge to invest some of their petrodollar profits in British green energy projects. What to do when 'green' industry goes bust? Try to flog it to cashed-up Arabs, of course. At least it's one
last straw for these poor guys to clutch at: A
Splash of Green for the Rust Belt - LIKE his uncle, his grandfather and many of their neighbors, Arie
Versendaal spent decades working at the Maytag factory here, turning coils of steel into washing machines. May: European
Emissions Trading Plan 'Contrary to International Law' - The Air Transport Association, industry trade
organization for a number of US airlines, expressed harsh opposition this week to the European Parliament's
October 24 final approval of legislation covering the world's airlines under the European Emissions Trading Scheme
(ETS). A new
epidemic: kidney stones in children? - This is a pop quiz of critical thinking skills: (Junkfood Science)
Child's sleep linked
to adulthood obesity risk - NEW YORK - Consistently getting a good night's sleep may help protect children
from becoming obese as adults, a study published Monday suggests. Study links teen pregnancy to sexy TV
shows - CHICAGO - Exposure to some forms of entertainment is a corrupting influence on children, leading teens
who watch sexy programs into early pregnancies and children who play violent video games to adopt aggressive
behavior, researchers said on Monday. Business
braces for more government regulation - WASHINGTON - Business groups are bracing for a wave of new regulation
next year, no matter who wins the White House. And some lobbyists already are pushing back by warning that too
much regulation would worsen an ailing economy. Mammoth
step in bringing back extinct species - Resurrection of frozen extinct animals, such as woolly mammoths, could
be a step closer to reality, with scientists cloning mice from the brain cells of dead mice which had been in a
deep freeze for more than a decade. November 3, 2008 Atlantic
SSTs and Saharan Dust (and Hurricanes) - In our last World Climate Report article, we described new findings
that verified older findings that the patterns of sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the Atlantic Ocean
(including in the tropical Atlantic region which is the birthplace of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes),
are largely a reflection of natural variability, with some anthropogenic warming thrown in for good measure. With all respect to the guys at World Climate Report they just don't get it. Note that these actions are driven by fossil fuel use and the profits there from and that they are reducing
the dust that inhibits hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin. Q.e.d. people and carbon dioxide are increasing the
ferocity of Atlantic hurricanes. What greater demonstration of evil corporate influence on the world do these
guys need? Atlantic Hurricane Season 2008 Withers on the Vine - The
North Atlantic hurricane season has nearly come to an end. As November progresses, the chance of another storm
developing becomes smaller. Climatology (last 60 years) tells us that roughly 4 in 10 years see a November storm
formation including 4 in 2005 (Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon), Hurricane Michelle (2001), Hurricane Lenny (1999),
and Hurricane Kate (1985). Jeff Masters from the Weather Underground has an image of previous early-November storm
tracks especially clustered in the Western Caribbean. Now available from our store! Global Warming Fantasies Meet Financial Contraction
- Whoever is elected president, global warming legislation is going to be passed in Washington next year. Climate Change Bill
makes chilling reading - Who says the Almighty has not got a sense of humour? Last Tuesday MPs spent yet
another six hours discussing what is potentially the most expensive single piece of legislation ever put through
Parliament. Save
us, please, from those who would save the earth - Snow fell on London this last week, a beautiful blanket of
snow -- the first to fall in the month of October since the year of grace 1922 -- while the Mother of Parliaments
gave third reading to an extraordinary piece of legislation, which will put a huge new bureaucracy in place to
monitor and fight global warming, sucking taxes from a shrinking British economy. The
true cost of emissions trading - One of the problems of being a sceptic about Australian carbon price policy
– as opposed to a denier about greenhouse gas science – is that the Canberra bureaucrats seem unable to
perceive, let alone concede, the central fallacy of their “it won’t really hurt” advice to the Rudd
government. Hmm... wonder if this is why we aren't hearing much about the Arctic at present? Daily Updated Time
series of Arctic sea ice area and extent derived from SSMI data provided by NANSEN.
(Arctic ROOS) Great Barrier Reef could
adapt to climate change, scientists say - THE prediction of a prominent marine biologist that climate change
could render the Great Barrier Reef extinct within 30 years has been labelled overly pessimistic for failing to
account for the adaptive capabilities of coral reefs. Oh brother... Coming up in the next two weeks: 3-5
November, Paris, France. THE IMPORTANCE OF MILITARY ORGANISATIONS IN PROTECTING THE CLIMATE: 2008. This Institute
for Governance and Sustainable Development workshop aims to summarise emerging and available climate protection
technologies suitable for military and civilian applications; focus on military-unique problems not solved by
technology developed for civilian applications; and present case studies of military and commercial leadership to
protect the climate. A conference report will be published with consensus findings, including proven strategies to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions while improving military effectiveness. (ICTSD) Probably what the watermelons have against warming: Summer
Births, Winter Deaths - July is the most hectic month at maternity wards in Finland nowadays. But in the
1970s, early spring was the busiest season for births. Meanwhile more deaths are occurring during the winter than
ever before. (YLE) Global
warming: Good news for California's coast? - Two weeks ago in Southern California, Santa Ana winds threatened
to drive two fires in Simi Valley — the Porter Ranch and the Sesnon Fire — on a path through the sun-baked
hills towards the ocean. But instead of building in strength and destructiveness, as the winds often have in the
past, the Santa Anas died down after a couple of days, much to the relief of firefighters and homeowners in the
area. Could it be traced to gorebull warming? Why not? Most everything else is. Reese’s Peanut
Butter Cups Mock Global Warming - I saw this tonight on TV during commercial break for an episode of The
Simpson’s and looked it up, just to make sure it wasn’t a joke. It isn’t. (Watts Up With That?) Interview On Mother Jones - Mother
Jones has just published an interview with me by Kiera Butler that was conducted several months ago: Q&A:
Roger A. Pielke Sr. It is discussed very effectively by my son on Prometheus yesterday (see). Magnetic Portals Connect Sun and Earth -
During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many
scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of
high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of
the page. Evidence of sunspot involvement in climate
change compelling - Over the last few years, the evidence that sunspots on our sun are directly related to
climate change on earth has been steadily increasing. They laughed at Reagan for saying something similar: Chemical
released by trees can help cool planet, scientists find - Scientists discover cloud-thickening chemicals in
trees that could offer a new weapon in the fight against global warming. (The Guardian) Reagan was right though, trees do contribute quite a lot of emissions to the atmosphere, some of which are
smog ingredients. Forests also affect weather and ultimately climate in a number of ways: evapo-transpiration;
aerosols; surface wind speed (topography and drag) and albedo, to name just a few. The net sign of
forest-induced/related feedbacks to the climate system is unknown, see, for example, Can’t
See the Warming for the Trees. Fewer than 1 in 10 young travelers fall for carbon scam: Gen
Y not as green as it thinks - Contiki is the biggest youth travel company in Australia and it takes the pulse
of the market with an annual survey. This year the much-talked-about issue of green travel is the focus, with
Contiki attempting to find out whether talk about responsible travel is just hot air. What people say in polls is no guarantee anyone's willing to pay for what they say they desire: Greenspace
no guarantee of greenbacks (.pdf). You'd think at least politicians would have figured that out by now. Alarmist Naomi
Oreskes: 15-minute video - At the 12-minute mark, Oreskes expresses frustration because the American public,
especially Sarah Palin, doesn't share Oreskes' severe CO2-phobia. (Tom Nelson) U.S. must rally to fight climate change, Thomas Friedman says
- While sharing a taxi cab with Al Gore, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman asked the former vice president
- who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for drawing the world's attention to the problem of global warming -
for a written apology. Treasury is no longer a
bastion of reason - ON Sunday, October 12, Treasury signed off on Kevin Rudd's unlimited bank deposit
guarantee. Sheesh! World
Bank Tries To Keep Global Warming On Agenda - The World Bank's private-sector investment arm said Friday that
climate change remained on the agenda despite the turmoil currently afflicting global financial markets. Hidden
Audio: Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry - Imagine if John McCain had whispered
somewhere that he was willing to bankrupt a major industry? Would this declaration not immediately be front page
news? Well, Barack Obama actually flat out told the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate) that he was willing to see
the coal industry go bankrupt in a January 17, 2008 interview. The result? Nothing. This audio interview has been
hidden from the public...until now. Here is the transcript of Obama's statement about bankrupting the coal
industry (NewsBusters) Obama: I’ll make
energy prices “skyrocket” - In another clip from the same January 2008 interview with the San Francisco
Chronicle in which Barack Obama promised to bankrupt anyone foolish enough to build coal-burning power plants, he
also made an interesting admission about his entire energy plan. Obama told the editors that his policies would
make energy prices “skyrocket” as the energy industry passed along the exorbitant costs of his cap-and-trade
policy: (Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) The Battle Over Coal - The future of coal use
is inextricably bound up with the climate debate. While nuclear power’s carbonneutral credential has split
climate alarmists, the reemergence of King Coal the bête noir of ecowarriors everywhere as the fuel of choice for
power plants has reunited them. The result is an outright declaration of war on coal use. For Greens of all
shades, coal and its carbon dioxide emissions represent nothing less than the apocalyptic tipping point for the
planet’s future. And in its cause, governments are to be swayed, courts besieged, and the battle taken to the
streets. (Peter C. Glover, Energy Tribune) Everyone but the US? Brazil’s
Petrobras agrees to explore for oil offshore Cuba - Brazil is scheduled to sign on Friday an agreement with
Cuba for deep-water oil and gas exploration and production. The event is considered the highlight of the two day
visit of President Lula da Silva to the island beginning late Thursday. (Mercopress) Judge
Kills Mayor’s Try at Greening Taxi Fleets - A federal judge dealt a blow on Friday to Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg’s efforts to improve air quality in the city, blocking a rule that all new taxis must meet stringent
fuel efficiency standards. Italy Resists As EU Carmaking
Nations Sign CO2 Deal - BRUSSELS - Italy stood by small car makers like Fiat on Friday, refusing to join
France, Germany and Britain in a deal to cut carbon dioxide emissions. (Reuters) Pickens delays world's biggest
wind farm project - The multibillion dollar project to build the world's biggest wind farm in Texas has been
delayed because of the fall-out from the credit crunch and the drop in the price of natural gas, it emerged today. Another one bites the dust: Ethanol
maker VeraSun files for bankruptcy protection - VeraSun Energy Corp., the second-largest U.S. ethanol
producer, filed for bankruptcy protection after making bad hedging bets on corn, a raw material used to make the
fuel. Banana bread diet - Remember
Google Health? Sure you do. We were invited to type in personal information about ourselves — diet and lifestyle
habits, smoking and alcohol intake, medical history, family history, screening and lab tests, prescription
medications, weight, age, ethnicity, etc. — at Google Weaver online. In return, Google would offer custom
“health guides” that would provide health information targeted for us by Google’s trusted advisors to help
us make the right healthcare decisions. While there’s no legal protection for how that personal information
about us can be used or who it can be shared with or sold to, we were told to trust Google to keep it private. Twas the night of Halloween
- It’s that time of the year again, when scary stories of spooky dangers hiding behind every door go into high
gear. It’s not ghosts and goblins some parents fear, but candy and sweets, razor blades in apples, and Halloween
madmen. Definitions are
everything - A medical journal editor with a sense of humor or, perhaps, making a comment on current
disclosure guidelines? (Junkfood Science) “Sustainability”
runs amok in my town of Chico - About two years ago I was asked by my local city councilman Larry Wahl to
serve on the city of Chico “sustainability task force”. I was initially enthusiastic, but the talk soon turned
away from alternative energy solutions that I embrace, to getting a city wide inventory of carbon emissions. The
task force, chaired by Vice Mayor Ann Schwab didn’t seem the least bit interested in solutions, but focused on
tallying carbon emissions in town. That effort didn’t make a lot of sense to me then, since it gained the city
nothing. In Bush's end-game, lots of changes on
environment - WASHINGTON - As the U.S. presidential candidates sprint toward the finish line, the Bush
administration is also sprinting to enact environmental policy changes before leaving power. America:
We will still hate you - ‘Anti-Americanism didn’t begin with George Bush and it won’t end with an Obama
presidency’ (Lawrence Solomon, Financial Post) What utter rubbish: The
GM genocide: Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops - When
Prince Charles claimed thousands of Indian farmers were killing themselves after using GM crops, he was branded a
scaremonger. In fact, as this chilling dispatch reveals, it's even WORSE than he feared. (Andrew Malone, Daily
Mail) Biotech is not at fault, grinding poverty, failure to prevent fraudulent seed sales and discriminatory
agricultural policies are. Four-day tourist Andrew Malone talked to a couple of people and drank deeply of
antidevelopment Kool-Aid. GM bean could help prevent heart
attacks - The first genetically modified foods with direct benefits for human health should be available
within four years after successful experiments in the United States. EU Agency Says French GMO Maize
Ban Unjustified - PARIS - Europe's top food safety agency said on Friday that France's ban on a
genetically-modified maize developed by US biotech giant Monsanto was unjustified. (Reuters) |