Letter: Turbines Just Are Not the Answer

ROBERTA Owen of Friends of the Earth alarms your readers by suggesting that wind turbines will prevent flooding of the North Wales coast. What nonsense! Can she believe that your readers are so naive as to believe that?

They know, as well as I do, that the tiny trickle of intermittent energy produced by these monsters needs to be backed up every moment by a more reliable source of power, and that no power station will ever close down, or even slow down much, no matter how many are erected on land and in the sea.

Cold December in Australia « Where’s my Global Warming Dude? By Global Freeze

Coldest December in Melbourne in seven years
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Coldest December for Adelaide in seven years
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Coldest December in eight years for Darwin

Truly dimwitted propaganda

Report: Global warming poisoning koalas (Extinction Blog)

Koalas are not exactly nature's hardiest creatures. Adapted to feed on the leaves of just two dozen types of trees, which barely provide adequate nutrition, the koalas also lack any real defensive tools or skills. While not officially endangered, koalas are dropping dead across Australia, and now scientists warns that global warming will soon make matters much worse.

According to Professor Ian Hume of Sydney University and Dr. Dan Lunney of the New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change, global warming is already lowering the nutritional value of eucalyptus leaves, while also causing the trees to absorb more toxins from the ground. Not only is this slowly poisoning the koalas, it is cutting their birth rates and forcing them out of trees in search of more food, where they become easy prey to dogs and other predators.

The situation is bad enough in south-east Queensland -- where koala numbers have dropped from 25,000 to just 4,000 in the last 10 years -- that conservationists have asked the Australian government to declare the population there as critically endangered.

Examinations of expired koalas in Queensland found that they died of starvation, a situation that many fear could soon become more typical across Australia.

It's the cute little critters like this that tend to get noticed when they become endangered, so maybe this will help support efforts to cut greenhouse gases before it's too late. Or not. We'll just have to wait and see.

koala: Definition from Answers.com

The koala family, Phascolarctidae, are believed to have diverged from their nearest marsupial relatives, the wombats, around 24 million years ago (mya).

Comment: 2008 Ends Spotless and with 266 Spotless Days, the #2 Least Active Year Since 1900, Portends Cooling

Maybe we’ll get low solar activity also next year, and SC24 ramps up at late 2009 or 2010. This diagram was published in the solarcycle24.com forum...

(The important difference between this cycle and the one ending 1913 is that SC23 is the longest since late 18th century, before the Dalton Minimum, or?)

BTW, and offtopic: An snapshot of the current status on the AGW side, which is best analyzed with a couple of glasses of champagne:

Was this filmed at NASA Goddard?

Would our economy benefit from trillions of dollars in additional fraud?

Year of the carbon market?

With 13 climate change bills currently under discussion in the Democrat-heavy U.S. Congress, 2009 is expected to be a breakthrough year for the U.S. carbon market.
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The value of the global carbon market increased 80 percent in 2007, climbing to a value of $40.4 billion, according to European analysis and consulting firm Point Carbon. The firm predicts that by 2020, the United States’ carbon market will represent 67 percent of the global carbon market, which is expected to reach $3.1 trillion by that time.

What About Algae Biofuel Hype « The Air Vent

The covering of several states for biofuel would help reduce the CO2 output. My actual feel for the numbers says 3 to 6 Arizona’s minimum today when all factors are figured in, to create enough biofuel to replace our vehicle usage. Currently the lack of numbers on actual production is astounding, yet the claims are tremendous. If someone really demonstrates a 4000 gallon per acre system people should consider creation of a small production installation for evaluation purposes but it doesn’t look very likely to me.

Also, if the costs cannot get to a level similar to current oil production costs, the biggest CO2 savings will be in the form of economic collapse. Something liberals seem to have no fear of.

I therefore do not believe that this biofuel nonsense has anything to do with science, it is currently political redirection by politicians. Support for implementation of any biofuel at this point is non-practical. Even the research should be kept to extremely low levels until some demonstration of actual results works. I pointed out on my other post super algae biodiesel that the results must consider whether energy is introduced into the system as food. This alters the energy balance and makes it seem as though we have improved over the actual numbers. If this is the case 15,000 gallons per acre is possible but at least 11,000 of those gallons are being created somewhere else!

Oregon: Men injured in Scappoose roof collapse recovering at home

The two men had been working with Port of St. Helens employee Jeff Jenkins, surveying damage from an earlier roof collapse that occurred the night before at the Multnomah Mill building, when the second chunk of the 232,310-square-foot roof came crashing down.

German Insurance Giant Cites Role of Climate Change in Record Payouts - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Others critics have warned that the insurance industry is lobbying hard on the climate change issue to help prepare the way for government bailouts in the event of exceptionally costly catastrophes.

Today’s Lebanon Democrat column: “Taxing the functions of farm animals” « Right Minded Online

It’s all part of the global warming hoax. Since the beginning of time, created beings have given off methane, with the planet suffering no side effects. But now, suddenly, in the 21st century, what has always occurred naturally is destroying the planet.

There are two things you need to know about global warming. First, those who espouse the theory that man is altering the climate adhere to global warming with religious-like faith. You have to have faith in global warming, because factual analysis destroys it. Second, global warming is nothing more than a hoax that liberals and bureaucrats are using to grow government and raise taxes.
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Likewise, politicians who endeavor to “save the planet” do so out of an inflated sense of self-importance. Democrats (and some Republicans, too) honestly believe they can change the climate merely by passing legislation that micromanages the lifestyles of everyone else. In reality, global warming alarmists would loot the wealth of individuals and private businesses who stand falsely accused of contributing to global warming. Indeed, looting wealth produced by others is a hallmark of liberalism.

It has been said that ignorance is the most expensive “commodity” we own. Global warming proves it, because if the left ever gets its way, the global warming hoax is going to cost taxpayers a great deal of money and loss of individual liberty.

Briffa and Sodankyla Church « Climate Audit

The old Sodankyla church was built in 1689. Nine cores from beams at this church have been measured and archived. Briffa 2008 used one of 9 cores. Why only one of 9? Your guess is as good as mine.

Climate Research News » More Climate-Carbon-Claptrap from Stern

Hmmmm! Does Nicholas Stern have a conflict of interests in writing the Stern review and being Vice Chairman of IDEACarbon.com, that profits from the carbon-climate industry? Just asking.

Climate Research News » UK Met Office Spins into 2009

Admin: More unscientific nonsense from Phil Jones - warming cannot be ‘masked’ and why is 1991 to 2000 considered more significant than any other period in the 12,000 year old Holocene? Who says 14C is the ‘correct’ global average temperature and what proof do they have? What’s all that CO2 doing?

2008 Ends Spotless and with 266 Spotless Days, the #2 Least Active Year Since 1900, Portends Cooling « Watts Up With That?

This will bring the total number of sunspotless days this month to 28 and for the year to 266, clearly enough to make 2008, the second least active solar year since 1900.

Jim Moss: [Alleged] Setbacks in the Fight Against [Alleged] Global Warming

According to Daily Kos, the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is real has dropped from 79% to 71% over the past few years - mostly due to a decline in Republican belief from 62% to 49%. Apparently, the conservative campaign to deny climate concerns, led by the likes of James Inhofe and James Dobson, has been making some inroads. Even as the scientific evidence for global warming continues to mount, the effort to convince the public of the danger seems to be losing to the right-wing propaganda machine.
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At any rate, it is clear that we need to take seriously the deluded campaign of the right-wing deniers and the ongoing myopia of the American consumer. If we don’t, all the science in the world can’t save us.

Jim Moss - The Seminal :: Independent Media and Politics

Jim Moss is a Presbyterian minister from York, South Carolina. He publishes a blog and a quarterly newsletter called "Discipline for Justice," which focuses on ways North Americans can live lives that promote peace and economic justice.

No word yet on how much energy the area's solar panels are currently kicking out

Roof collapse shuts down only N. Idaho ice arena

COEUR D'ALENE -- The heavy snow took a tool on North Idaho's only indoor ice skating rink. A large section of the roof at Kyro Ice Arena collapsed late Monday night.

Twisted metal, snapped beams and piles of snow now cover the rink where so many in North Idaho learned to skate and play hockey.

"It's a war zone, scary. It's trusses are down. We're just looking at a lot of work," said Marty Fish, who spent at least five hours a week at Kyro with his family.

The roof collapsed just before 11 p.m. Monday night. No one was inside when it collapsed. Typically there would've been a rink full of people playing hockey well until midnight. But the rink manager noticed something was wrong with the structure and decided to close the doors.

Kyro is a non-profit and the only indoor skating rink in North Idaho. Dozens of hockey teams use the ice for practice and games.

"People drive here from all over. Cheney, Sandpoint - teams drive all the way down from Sandpoint," Fish said.

The closest rink is the Eagles ice Arena in North Spokane, more than 30 miles away. That rink will help, but it will mean earlier and later ice times for teams.

As snow mounts, roofs crumble

SPOKANE -- As the snow continues to mount during the snowiest December on record so, too, do the calls to 911 reporting collapsed and cracked roofs, garages and carports.

As of Tuesday morning numerous calls were made from around Spokane reporting collapses. The Trinity Baptist Church on Monroe, just north of Francis, had its roof collapse around 4 a.m.

American Thinker Blog: Green Inc.

Read Green Inc. by Christine MacDonald, an environmental insider. In it, the "global warming" believer acknowledges that her "good cause" has gone bad.

A comment from Climate Audit

And just a bit of fun with the CET:

Summer 2008 was the 142nd warmest ever (209th coolest)
Autumn 2008 was the 114th warmest ever (237th coolest)
Dec 08 looks like finishing approx 125th warmest ever (226th coolest)

All depends which way you look at it and spin it, but it could be said that three seasons in a row outside the top 100 warmest would be kind of disappointing for those looking forward to England's climate accelerating towards its promised Mediterranean state under global warming

American Thinker: Where should Conservatives Draw the Line?

(4) The Global Warming Hoax. I have saved the most important issue for last. The Obama administration has promised to move full steam ahead to lower the output of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon, a naturally occurring element, will probably be declared a "dangerous pollutant" by the EPA soon after Obama takes office. Obama has sworn to move rapidly to build a useless system of windmills in an effort to replace fossil fuels. There are a number of other equally futile programs in the works. Obama's carbon credit proposal, for example, would radically alter the way business is conducted in America for the sole stated purpose of "saving the planet."

If Obama's plan is implemented on a national scale it will spell short-term to mid-term disaster for American industry and for our economy. But Americans will tolerate the coming brown outs, gasoline rationing, and government control of their thermostats for only awhile. (I predict that in less than twenty years the government will outsource to private companies the task of removing the tens of thousands of windmills Obama seems bent on installing.)

Much more dangerous is that the Obama Administration, leading by example, will continue to encourage and support the UN proposals for forcing third world countries to develop "clean energy." Hundreds of millions of poor people in the third world need a reliable energy system in order to expand industry, agriculture, jobs, housing, medical facilities, and transportation; in short, they need dependable energy to survive.

To deny the third world access to fossil fuels and nuclear energy in an effort to pursue the pipe dream of stopping global warming, is not just madness ... it is evil. Millions of people face poverty, disease, and death simply because they do not have adequate access to reliable energy. Any viable plan to help the third world must include allowing the poor peoples of the planet to aggressively pursue the cheapest and easiest means to develop and import energy.

Stopping Obama's plans to "save the planet" is, in my opinion, a moral imperative for America's conservatives. We must succeed here, not only for our own economic interests; we must do it to save lives. Open-minded scientists, in particular, must speak out on this issue.

No matter how difficult the battle, we cannot allow these programs to be put in place to solve a non-existent problem. All of these proposals are grounded in a scientific theory that is not only unproven, it is constantly changing. We must stop this global warming nonsense. We must draw the line here.

Record snowfall reported in N.D. | Jamestown, North Dakota

In Bismarck, the National Weather Service said the overnight storm brought the city’s December snow total to 33.5 inches, more than any month on record in Bismarck. It tops the mark of 31.1 inches in March 1975.

Other snowfall amounts included 10 inches each in Turtle Lake and Bowdon, 8.2 inches in Williston, 6 inches in Fargo and about 5 inches in Minot and 8 inches in Jamestown.

Grand Forks and Fargo each set records with more than 30 inches of snow for December. Fargo topped its 1927 record for December by about an inch while Grand Forks topped its 1918 record of 27.6 inches.

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Issue Advocacy By The UK Met Office And The University Of East Anglia

Staff at the UK Met Office and the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom continue to communicate erroneous information on the changes of heat content within the climate system.

At the end of what may be the coolest year this century, a strange perspective from the alarmists/frauds at "Real"Climate

Most clueless US politician taking about climate change (with the exception of Senator Inhofe who'd always win):
Sarah Palin...

RealClimate: from the comment section

I came to your site via Climatedebatedaily.com, which named you as the most authoritative pro AGW site. I have learned quite a lot and am gradually managing to get to grips with the central issues. I have a PhD in Mathematics and my professional interests are in probability and statistics and I can understand much of the material. What I found surprising and disturbing is how the subject of global warming resembles a religious war. I am used to listening to spoilt young girls with artfully matted dreadlocks giving me physics lessons on the BBC news, but I wasn’t prepared for the, what only can be described as, childish behaviour of educated scientists (perhaps you are all just programmers!). Use of words such as “denialist”, “contrarian”, “denialosphere” does your cause no good. Neither does adopting a smart-alec superior attitude. Trying to discredit your opponents by bringing their religious beliefs and attitudes towards smoking sets alarm bells ringing in the minds of the curious layman. The majority of those who visit your site probably do so in a genuine quest for information, and resent being treated as if they had inadvertently wandered into a mosque carrying a bottle of beer. If your confidence in the science behind your version of events is so strong, why not stop at a calm, clear explanation?

Response [from Gavin]: Hmm… One reason is that much of the confusion that exists is engendered on purpose. While many of our posts do just explain issues that have come up, we are constantly asked to respond to pieces of deliberate disinformation. It does no-one any favours to pretend that these are just innocent mis-interpretations.

Al Gore, Call Your Office: Climate Alarmist Says there’s no Alarm | OpenMarket.org

Global warming is a tough issue for laymen. Learned people strut about saying that the science is conclusive, done, finished. The world is destined for disaster.

But embarrassing contrary peer-reviewed studies then float by, as independent experts pull the curtain back, revealing the machinations of the alarmist lobby. Rather like the Wizard of Oz, Al Gore & Co. say pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, whooping and wheezing about the end of the world.

If the science really is settled, you’d think the alarmists would leap at the chance to prove it. But Lawrence Solomon recently found just the contrary. When pressed on the issue, his alarmist opponent ran in the other direction.

Cool 2008 warms climate debate | The Australian

WHILE the official figures are not yet in, 2008 is widely tipped to be declared the coolest year of the century.

Whether this is a serious blow to global warming alarmists depends entirely on who you talk to.

Anyone looking for a knockout blow in the global warming debate in 2008 were sorely disappointed.

Jon Ferry: Agencies must get act together before Olympics

The disruption of public services in Metro Vancouver during this unusually cold, snowy Christmas season -- especially at YVR, SkyTrain and on our icy roads -- demonstrates why global cooling poses a far greater problem here these days than Al-Gore-style global warming.

And it's strange that local eco-alarmists don't seem to have woken up to this obvious threat.

This is despite the fact that, according to figures from the leading monitoring agencies, average global temperatures haven't increased at all over the past 10 years -- unlike carbon emissions. And we may well now be in a cooling trend.

Your letters | PostIndependent.com

As a year-end tradition, it’s customary to formulate New Year’s resolutions with a resolve to forgive and forget. To be meaningful and challenging, I’ve selected some issues that really bug me.

For example, these will put forgiving to a true test:
I acquit Al Gore for inventing global warming, since it’ll go down in history as a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernard Madoff’s recent gargantuan fraud.

Revkin to appear in the Southern Appalachians

SWANNANOA – Warren Wilson College will host the first Headwaters Gathering to explore the effect of climate change in the Southern Appalachians.
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On March 29, a Writing Intensive aims to build a writers’ network that creates a strong voice on the issue of climate change. The Writing Intensive, hosted by the Warren Wilson Undergraduate Writing Program and facilitated by Janisse Ray and Andrew Revkin, is limited to a relatively small number of people who register for both the March 28 and March 29 programs.

India: Alleged expert climatologist Pachauri appears as "environmentalist" Pachauri

More worries were in store for the UPA-government as it once again failed this year to push the Sethusamudram shipping canal project through the controversial alignment of the Ram Setu.

The Centre -- which last year was forced to withdraw two controversial affidavits questioning the existence of Lord Rama [Images], the Ramayana [Images] and Adam's Bridge or the Ram Setu as a man-made bridge -- filed a comprehensive affidavit in February in support of the project, but was not able to secure a green signal as the apex court asked the Prime Minister's Office to look the matter afresh for alternative alignment.

The verdict has been reserved as the apex court awaits the report of the expert committee, headed by environmentalist R K Pachauri, which has been asked to examine the feasibility of alternative alignment for carrying out the project which the Tamil Nadu government is pressuring the government to take forward.

How do you like warming so far? - Right Mind

But if you believe that something as quaint as scientific principles apply to global warming, then you are wrong. This is politicized science. Early last year, Mark Albright, Washington's assistant state meteorologist, was dismissed after he dared to contradict Seattle mayor Greg Nickles' claim that Cascade Mountain snowpack had declined by 50 percent, with the decrease attributable to global warming. The truth is that the Cascade snowpack has in fact increased. But, when Albright dared to speak that truth to power, he was canned.

UK: New Year's Eve 2009 is forecast to be the coldest since the mid-1990s - Times Online

Millions of people are expected to brave sub-zero temperatures tonight to welcome in 2009, in what is forecast to be the coldest New Year’s Eve since the mid-1990s.

Global warming affecting migratory birds, says Indian ornithologist

Due to global warming, when the birds arrive, the trees have already borne fruit and there is a shortage of food for the birds then. As result of lack of food, the birds become undernourished which in turn affect their reproductive ability. It has been noted that the birds which were earlier laying three to four eggs were now laying only one to two eggs, as result of which their population is declining, said Pandey.

"Seattle PI's Joel Connelly isn't quite ready to put down the Kool-aid"

University of Washington climate experts have repeatedly warned us that ferocious late fall and early winter storms are global warming's footprint for the Northwest.

They've been proved right at least four times in this decade. City government should preach less and prepare more.

2009 predictions

Global warming will lose popularity and credibility rapidly.

Some how that doesn’t effect the fact that “green jobs” becomes the new hip trendy thing to worry about.

As the global warming scam fizzles, Stern claims to be optimistic

Economist Lord Stern has said he is optimistic that a global deal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will be struck under the US presidency of Barak Obama.

Lord Stern, who was behind the first detailed economic assessment of the impact of climate change, said US and Chinese agreement to a cut was crucial.

President George W Bush’s climate views were “prehistoric” and had been seen as an obstacle, Lord Stern told the BBC.
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Lord Stern said that, as well as hoping for action from the new US leadership, he was also encouraged by the the much deeper global understanding of climate change and its impact.

Many countries had made a clear commitment to reducing greenhouse gases, he said, which showed things were moving in the right direction.

Calgary: Cooling global warming hysteria just one story of '08

First, the scientific debate over climate change has entered a new phase. This change is reflected in, though hardly constituted by, petitions signed by natural scientists of various kinds disputing the so-called consensus that human-caused CO2 is responsible for global warming.

Two aspects of this story can be distinguished. As James Peden, an atmospheric physicist, said, many scientists "are now searching for a way to back out quietly" from global-warming fearmongering, "without having their professional careers ruined."

This is an ethical or political problem, not a problem in climate science. The crux of it is that major research grants and, in this country, prestigious Canada Research Chairs, have been awarded on the assumption something must be done to stop CO2 from destroying the world.

Those scientists who are the current beneficiaries of a moral panic they help sustain are squirming not because of their ethical transgressions but because of scientific facts.

Sydney promises 'green' fireworks on New Year's Eve | The Australian

Despite more than 5,000kg of explosive devices being fired off during the $5 million fireworks spectacular on the harbour, revellers won't be contributing to climate change.

The city's celebration for the first time will be carbon neutral, with The City of Sydney Council ordering a carbon audit into its all New Year's Eve activities.

It will measure emissions from fuels and fireworks used during the event, electricity consumption and waste created in the lead-up to and during the big party.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the council would then offset the emissions by purchasing environmentally-friendly power and carbon credits.
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The 5,000kg of fireworks will be 2,000kg more than used last year - with about 11,000 shells, 10,000 shooting comets and 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects.

Climate commission an expensive scheme | Arkansas News

Arkansas is at risk of falling prey to cookie-cutter environmental policy recommendations pushed by an out-of-state “advisory” group, which besides being funded by global warming alarmists, wants the state to raise taxes and utility rates and to spend billions of taxpayers’ dollars all in the name of curbing Arkansas’ carbon dioxide emissions.

New Jersey: Climate realism

The global-warming models that were used to propagate this fraud have been consistently refuted by the most recent peer-reviewed research. More and more data are showing the central role of the sun in any aspect of this discussion; more and more models are attempting to deal with water vapor and its impact (which the IPCC models essentially ignore). And finally, the most recent research on CO2 notes what a tiny part of the atmosphere it is, and what a tiny portion of that tiny portion is affected by man and his activities.

The data are destroying arguments by the global-warming alarmists. Add to this the decade- long cooling of temperatures around the planet and the small increases in levels of CO2 and I wonder why people such as Al Gore and his followers are not laughed off of the stage. Those who do science must drive out those who wish to practice "political" science.

-- JIM GRIFFIN, Plainsboro

Letter to the Editor: Alarmist asks The Oregonian to not print snarky letters from AGW skeptics who "think they are being very clever"

I know it must be highly amusing for you, but will the day ever come that you don't print letters from global warming deniers that equate our local weather condition with the larger phenomena of climate change? I'm sure they think they are being very clever but it's getting kind of stale.

CHERYL SMITH
Southeast Portland
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The truth hurts, doesn't it Cheryl?

The Black Sphere: Nobel Prize – A Sad Joke

I remember when the Nobel Prize meant something. I can't recall the names of all the winners in all the categories, but when I heard the name Nobel mentioned, I paid attention.

That all stopped for me in 2007, when the Nobel Prize committee awarded Al Gore this prestigious award for the farce of man-made global warming. And I recently learned something that added even more to my disdain for the Nobel Prize.

Daily Herald | Bad science fuels global warming fears

Al Gore's film - the "holy gospel" among global warming alarmists - was deemed "propaganda" in a court of law in the U.K. as many points could not be substantiated by scientists. For example, it was revealed that some of the "documentary" footage was created by a graphic artist - the ice shelf collapse was from the movie "The Day After Tomorrow." According to author Christopher Horner, Gore's biggest fallacy is based on "the cause and effect relationship of CO2 and temperatures. The scientific literature is fairly clear and fairly uniform. Temperatures go up, and then CO2 concentrations go up. CO2 does not drive temperature."

Anthropogenic Global Warming is an unproven theory, and 31,000 scientists have signed a petition against it. More than 600 scientists on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - frequently cited as the definitive experts by the alarmists - recently came out against earlier conclusions that man is causing global warming. Global warming is a political issue today, driven by some of the worst "science" since the conclusion that lobotomies would cure mental illness.

Roger Willis

Naperville

A Notional Trust — Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

So, England’s climate is no less ‘predictable’ than it ever has been. It is no more ‘extreme’ than it ever has been. Winters have been getting slightly wetter, and the summers slightly warmer. But it would be an over statement to say they are getting ‘hotter’.
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We’ve called this process ‘Chinese whispers’ in the past: weak and rather inconsequential ‘research’ is stripped of caveats and caution removing it of any scientific meaning it had. The headlines of research are thereby amplified in the media, and the idea that the end of the world is approaching is assumed to have some authority: it came from scientists, rather than the short-sightedness of journalists. What is ‘abused’ in all of this is not ’science’, but the trust that the public has in institutions. All the more an irony, then, that the ‘National Trust’, which is assuming to tell us how to live, should be at the centre of this story.

DailyTech - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the (Climate) Forum

When I began writing about global warming climate change, public outcry was tremendous. Amid a sea of media stories about the sins of our wasteful lifestyle, no one wanted to hear about contradictory research, conflicting data, or skeptical scientists.

Now, over two years later, a funny thing has happened. The roles have shifted. My stories are the staid and ordinary ones. It's the fellows predicting flood, famine, and disaster who are generating all the controversy.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. What happened?

2008 was the year predicted to be the "hottest in a century". Instead it became the coldest of the decade. It was the year the North Pole would "melt entirely, allowing you to swim to it". Instead, nuclear-powered icebreakers became trapped in unseasonably thick ice. It was a year of record-breaking cold and snow, everywhere from Baghdad to the beaches of Malibu. It was the year the "Gore Effect" entered the public vocabulary, as whenever global warming protestors got together to march, they were met with blizzards and ice storms. Let's hope schadenfroh isn't a sin.

Polls are clear. Despite the media's increasingly shrill tone and ever-more unrealistic predictions, the public has lost all faith in global warming. After all, how many times can you say that this time the science is now finally proven, without being laughed at?

View From The Lab: Where have all the sunspots gone? - Telegraph

The current calm, however, means that the solar wind is less powerful than it has been for half a century. In turn, that has caused the ionosphere to sink to levels never before measured. At night, the atmosphere now ends – and the void begins – about 250 miles above our heads; which is far less than its average of around 400 miles. For all of us, space is a lot closer than it was at the start of the Space Age.

When will the Sun's internal economy pick up again, and when will its energy exports once more heat up our own chilly atmosphere? Studying the records, which began in 1755, some see an 11-year cycle, although there is much argument about quite how regular this is.

Record snowfalls draw skiers to snap up holiday bargains -Times Online

Despite the strength of the euro, British bargain hunters are heading to the snow-covered mountains of Europe to enjoy the best start to a skiing season for more than 20 years.
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Skiers say that these are the best European conditions for a generation, with the deepest snow to be found in the Swiss resorts of Saas-Fee and Andermatt, where the base is more than 3½m (11ft) thick.

Spokane roofs collapsing under snow

SPOKANE, Wash. The weight of record snowfall has caused roofs to collapse in the Spokane area, while snow was blamed for at least one death.

Portions of the roof at a church, a grocery store and a building supply company were among 19 collapses attributed to the wet, heavy snow, officials said.

The latest snowstorm that brought some 10 inches to the Spokane area this week was also blamed for the death of Venita Johnson, 85, of Rockford, about 15 miles southeast of Spokane, the Spokane County sheriff's office said.

She suffocated over the weekend when snow apparently fell from her rooftop and buried her as she shoveled her sidewalk, the sheriff's office said.

A Bunch of Hooey | Hennessy's View

Hank Paulson, Al Gore, and George Soros are the masterminds behind these carbon credits. Each reaps millions from environmental morons like Michael Dell who seek, not truth, but popularity. And then only popularity with the shallowest, emptiest heads on the planet: the media and Hollywood.

Global Warming and the Jonestown Koolaid

I always wondered, all of my life, how those people could have drank that KoolAid at Jonestown. How could that many people believe all of that and really drink it? Later on in my life, this strange phenomenon breached my concscienceness again when the Hale-Bop Comet came by the Earth and all those people wearing Nike’s tennis shoes thought the comet was the mothership that they needed to beam up to, because they thought the Earth was going to be recycled. They drank the KoolAid as well. Heaven’s Gates people they were called.

Befuddled, I, later in life, was hit with this strange happening where people thought something so outrageous as a mass group, but this time it was on a world wide scale never seen before. This time it affected people I knew. People I respected. People who for the most part hold no fringe views of anything, but just happened to believe this one thing. “Man is responsible for global warming.” To have such a big portion of the world vainly believe this nonsense is startling. To ignore the fact that the sun has everything to do with this and ignore all the times massive weather events have happen before throughout the Earth’s history, is to deny reality itself.

Not a single weather event in our lifetime has not happened before. Not one. Not a single weather event. All part of the ebb and flow of the planet. To believe that we are so powerful to massively change the Earth’s temperature is tantamount to thinking we are God. Yet somehow, it sinks in with so many smart people.

People confusing pollution with the Earth’s temperature. Making it a better planet together for good air quality and good water, somehow morphs into some idea that we are truly affecting the Earth’s temperature to such a degree that we would kill us all.

Environment minister Sammy Wilson: I still think man-made climate change is a con

But while acknowledging his views on global warming may not be popular, the East Antrim MP said he was not prepared to be bullied by eco fundamentalists.

“I’ll not be stopped saying what I believe needs to be said about climate change,” he said.

“I think in 20 years’ time we will look back at this whole climate change debate and ask ourselves how on earth were we ever conned into spending the billions of pounds which are going into this without any kind of rigorous examination of the background, the science, the implications of it all. Because there is now a degree of hysteria about it, fairly unformed hysteria I’ve got to say as well.

“I mean I get it in the Assembly all the time and most of the people who shout about climate change have not read one article about climate change, not read one book about climate change, if you asked them to explain how they believe there’s a connection between CO2 emission and the effects which they claim there’s going to be, if you ask them to explain the thought process or the modelling that is required and the assumptions behind that and how tenuous all the connections are, they wouldn’t have a clue.

“They simply get letters about it from all these lobby groups, it’s popular and therefore they go along with the flow — and that would be ok if there were no implications for it, but the implications are immense.”

Today in Investor's Business Daily: The Warm Turns

Climate Change: The Earth has been warming ever since the end of the Little Ice Age. But guess what: Researchers say mankind is to blame for that, too.

San Francisco News - 2008: The Year S.F. Allegedly Grew Up

Another favorite venue for childish San Francisco playacting concerns the city's Toyland conception of how to care for planet Earth. By December, an Associated Press piece declared the ecological crisis a "ticking time bomb" that has eliminated as much Arctic ice as would cover Alaska, Texas, and California.

San Francisco had spent the previous eight years treating climate change the way a child might. The mayor offered pretend solutions such as cutting back on bottled water. In 2008, it was electric cars. Newsom made press hoopla by associating himself with Project Better Place, an electric car rental company, saying its three Bay Area cars would help make San Francisco America's "greenest" city.

The Board of Supervisors jumped into the enviro-phony game with a measure banning grocery stores from using plastic bags — unless they were thicker "reusable" ones. The result was that many stores started using the more pernicious thick bags to get around the law.

"This year coming up is the most important opportunity the world has ever had to make progress in solving the climate crisis," the AP story quoted Al Gore as saying.

Translation: Grow up, San Francisco.

Al Gore Says Polar Ice Caps Will Completely Melt in Five Years « BrentRoos.com

The fact is that there are so many holes in this so-called Green Movement. You truly have to have faith to believe it. I just happen to find it hilarious that so many edumacated people could be so gullible, as if emotion completely blocks all rationale.

New Project in Decatur blows another $67 million in taxpayer money

A new project in Decatur could be the first step in slowing down global warming. Geologists got the go-ahead from the EPA last week to begin building a pipeline that would store carbon dioxide emissions from ADM's plant underground.

Geologists say if it works, it could also boost the biofuels industry across the nation. The 85 million dollar project just got the go-ahead from the EPA.

This is how it would work: The carbon dioxide from ADM's ethanol plant would go into the ground and be stored in rock instead of going into the atmosphere. The hope is to study how the process helps the environment and then to spread it to other plants like ADM.

"There are very few projects of this sort in the world today. We would call this a large scale pilot test, or a demonstration of the technology," said geologist Robert Finley.

The federal government is paying for 67 million dollars from the 85 million dollar price tag. The rest of the parties involved, as well as the state, will foot the rest of the bill. Construction could start in February.

30 Dec 2008 - Minnesota Moose - Victims of Global Warming?

The alarmist LA Times ran an article on Dec 29 claiming that the moose population in Minnesota is declining due to global warming "the primary culprit, scientists say, is climate change, which has systematically reduced the Midwest's already dwindling moose population and provoked alarm in Minnesota". As usual, cherry-picked data "over the last 40 years...etc." eliminate historical context of the data and give a mistaken impression. See the new Minnesota Moose Decline page which debunks the moose hysteria.

Newsmax.com - The Bear Truth About Arctic Warming

If you want to get an idea of just how absurd the global warming propaganda has gotten, consider a current TV commercial that suggests that "our green planet" will cease to be green if we don't do something about the things that threaten its greenness, such as growing levels of atmospheric CO2.

Think about that for a moment. Ask yourself this question: What makes our planet green?

If you guessed CO2 you're right. CO2 is to trees and foliage and all vegetation what oxygen is to humans — they can't survive without it. It's what makes them green and healthy.

The more CO2, the greener and healthy our planet. Yet the global warming fanatics are classifying CO2 as a pollutant and blaming it for dangerously warming our (fast cooling) plant.

How stupid do they think we are?
...
If you want something real to worry about, try an eruption of the Yellowstone caldera where scientists have discovered that the ground is over 70 centimeters higher than in was in 1923 — indicating a massive swelling underneath the park.

There was a swarm of 16 earthquakes in 24 hours this past weekend. The reservoir is filling with magma at a staggering rate. The volcano erupts with a calendar-like cycle of every 600,000-650,000 years.

The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago.

Last time it erupted, 642,000 years ago, it ejected 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma into the air. If this happened in today’s world, it would kill millions and cover most of the United States in a layer of ash at least a centimeter thick. The lighter ash would rise up into the atmosphere, initiating a volcanic winter and ruining crops worldwide.

This is something genuine Al Gore could get really his teeth on. Instead of recommending carbon caps, he could suggest sacrificing a few virgins to the god Vulcan. It would be cheaper than cap and trade.

Avalanches cut a deadly swath - Los Angeles Times

Fifteen people have died over two weeks in the U.S. and Canada. Casualties at ski resorts underscore the danger.
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Reporting from Denver -- An unusual winter snowfall has triggered a series of avalanches in the high mountains that has killed nine people in the U.S. and six members of a snowmobiling group in British Columbia in the last two weeks.

Jordan: Extreme frost wave expected Thursday

AMMAN - The Kingdom will be affected as of tomorrow by a very cold and dry air mass, forecast to bring sub-zero temperatures and cause frost formation, the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) said on Tuesday.
...
The Kingdom was hit in January this year by the most severe frost spell to sweep through the country in 16 years, leaving behind over 15,000 dunums of damaged vegetables in the Jordan Valley

About Jordan: Answers.com

It borders on Israel and the West Bank in the west, on Syria in the north, on Iraq in the northeast, and on Saudi Arabia in the east and south.

Higher grade diesel in short supply |  Grand Forks Herald  | Grand Forks, North Dakota

BISMARCK — Fuel suppliers say they’re struggling to keep up with the cold-weather demand for higher grade diesel fuel.

“Whenever you get a cold, heavy winter like this, No. 1 becomes a hot commodity,” said Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association. “We’ve got guys going as far as Wyoming and Denver to get product.”

National Weather: Frigid Cold On The Plains Difficult For Livestock - Cattle Network

Meanwhile on the northern Plains, conditions for livestock remained very difficult due to a substantial snow cover, occasional blowing snow, and frigid weather.

Dec '07 - Canada's Weather Guru: A Chat with Alarmist David Phillips

Also, I am concerned about climate change, especially the adverse impact it will have on Canada with increased variability and more weather extremes. However, I am optimistic that Canadians will do the right thing about climate change. It is solvable. We have the capacity to deal with it. We know the problem. The science is strong. We did the right thing with the ozone hole and acid rain.

Dec '08: Phillips admits some of the inconveniently cold truth at a press conference

3) The long winter

Regions across eastern Canada, including Muskoka, were weighed down by as much as 500 cm of snow in 2008. Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa were all close to breaking all-time records. In 2007, eastern Canada had its second-least snowy year on record.
...
5) An early winter

The evidence of Canada's early winter is still on the ground in many parts of the country. For the first time since 1971, the entire country had a white Christmas. Vancouver had the whitest Christmas in Canada, an odd feat for a city that has only had five white Christmases in the last 50 years.

6) Hail

Wine growers in the Okanagan Valley were pelted with hail in July, losing almost half their crops. Meanwhile, farmers in Saskatchewan watched in horror as hail fell every single day that same month. In Alberta, corn crops were also cut in half. And not a single orchard in Ontario escaped some degree of hail.

7) Winter's last big storm

On March 8, with spring so close you could almost smell it, eastern Canada was walloped with its biggest storm of the year. As the last flake fell about 40 hours later, parts of Ontario were covered in as much as 52 cm of snow. Quebec City got 40 cm, just three days after getting 35 cm.
...
9) Canada, the coldest place on earth

Around the same time residents of PEI were chipping through the ice, Saskatchewan experienced temperatures of – 60 C with the wind chill. Edmonton, at – 45 C, experienced its coldest temperatures in 30 years. For a brief period, Canada was the coldest place on earth. Recess was cancelled in Yellowknife.

Ringing In 2009 With People Power - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

How many tourists in Times Square does it take to light up the “2009″ sign on New Year’s Eve?

137,228.

That’s how many people it took to generate enough electricity to light up the numerical display that will blaze after the clock strikes midnight and the ball drops over Times Square in Manhattan on Wednesday night.

Beginning Dec. 2, holiday visitors stopping by the Charmin public restrooms on Broadway and 45th St. could ride the escalator two flights up and hop on one of six stationary bicycles that looked like snowmobiles and were rigged to electric generators. The generators charged a set of four large batteries that will light the sign and help green the annual event.
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The “2009” sign is made up of 608 halogen bulbs that will require 7.25 kilowatt-hours of electricity to light up after the famous ball drop. By comparison, in 2006, the average residence in the United States consumed 920 kilowatt-hours per month.

The human-generated electricity will deliver enough juice to keep the bulbs blazing during the televised portion of the evening’s broadcast, or about fifteen minutes. Afterward, the sign will revert to the utility grid for power for the remainder of the night.

On the Stability of the Planet's Permafrost

Froese et al. say their observations indicate that "permafrost has survived within the discontinuous permafrost zone since at least the early-Middle Pleistocene," noting that "this age range includes several glacial-interglacial cycles ... considered to be longer and warmer than the present interglaication." Most important of all, therefore, they say their finding "highlights the resilience of permafrost to past warmer climate and suggests that permafrost and associated carbon reservoirs that are more than a few meters below the surface may be more stable than previously thought," taking much of the wind out of the sails of those who claim these carbon stores will soon be released to the atmosphere in consequence of what they call the unprecedented warming of the late 20th century and its projected continuation over the remainder of the current century.

Church of England Gives 150 Million Pounds to Gore's Investment Firm | NewsBusters.org

Did you need any more proof that climate alarmism is indeed an environmental religion?

The Church of England has invested 150 million pounds with Generation Investment Management, the green fund started by Nobel Laureate Al Gore.

Heliogenic Climate Change: Old DEW Line radars in Greenland, once elevated 20 feet, nearly buried in snow now

I know, an alternative explanation is that the radar sites sank into the ice. But D'Aleo cites a 2005 paper which found 2 inches per year growth in the thickness of the Greenland Ice Sheet. That's 100 inches, or more than 8 feet, growth in 50 years.

City of Portland's brand-spanking-new $140,000 prototype public toilet falls victim to global cooling

Two things happened. No. 1: More than a foot of snow covered the solar panels, which charge the batteries, which run the lights, mechanisms and heat tape that warms the pipes. The batteries died. No. 2: A hydraulic flushing mechanism froze as a result.

John Holdren on Global Cooling (Part I in a Series on Obama’s new science advisor, ‘Dr. Doom’) — MasterResource

Skeptics of climate alarmism have often trotted out the fact that a number of climate scientists sounded the alarm over global cooling before they sounded the alarm over global warming–an argument for humility in the face of complexity, uncertainty, and change.

Global cooling was more than fringe thinking...

Prometheus » Blog Archive » Overselling Disasters and Climate Change by Munich Re

Over the long term the loss of lives from disasters has gone down remarkably.

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : California Dreaming: Even In San Francisco, People Don't Want to Pay to Drive Downtown

Are environmental initiatives too important to be left to voters? That’s the issue raised by the squabble over congestion pricing in San Francisco.

Warning Signs: People I Don't Want to Hear About in 2009

Al Gore. This pusillanimous fraud, a leftover from the Clinton administration who was defeated for president in 2000, has devoted his time to issuing warnings against global warming, the greatest hoax of the modern era. He tends to be most vocal during blizzards.

Dr. James Hansen. Right behind, with his nose deeply buried in Al Gore’s posterior, is the man who started the global warming hoax when, in the 1980s, he testified to Congress that the whole world is doomed. To his name I add the hundreds of other alarmists.

No rush on global warming -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Is it really the "Time to fight global warming," as suggested by a recent letter? If there has been no significant increase in global mean surface temperatures since 1997, what's the rush?

Shouldn't we try to figure out why the current cooling, even though carbon dioxide levels have increased? Could it be that solar activity determines whether we have warming or cooling?

Higher CO2 levels are actually beneficial, causing better crop yields, so maybe we should not reduce carbon emissions.

Russ Stabley, Fort Lauderdale

Carmel Citizen named 'Climate Change Advocate of the Year' | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

"We recognize Leslie for her untiring efforts to raise awareness about the extraordinary challenge of global warming, especially in the midst of a segment of our society appearing to dismiss the science underlying man-made climate change," said Jesse Kharbanda, Executive Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council.

Blowing Smoke on State Climate Action Plans

Many states have adopted Climate Action Plans (CAPs) that limit greenhouse gases by 2020, and nearly identical plans are advancing rapidly toward approval in other states.
But according to a peer-reviewed study of the Maryland CAP by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Massachusetts - an economics think tank - these cookie-cutter proposals are “seriously flawed” for multiple reasons. If implemented, the plans could take other states down the same road California is already traveling. Anti-business policies that were often justified mainly on environmental grounds, have cost Californians dearly. Millions of jobs fled to lower tax neighbors like Nevada and Arizona, the state’s 8.4 percent unemployment rate rivals Michigan’s, and political gridlock over a $40 billion budget deficit could leave California bankrupt early in 2009. [Via The Chilling Effect]

Shock: Minnesota Public Radio links to climate realist post

MPR: Objects in Mirror: Minnesota life: How not to measure global warming

In his Gather post about how not to measure global warming, Minnesota Life contributor Greg Schiller shows us images of several Minnesota Weather datapoints.

How Not To Measure Global Warming | Gather

The truth is, NASA knows its data is corrupt and has admitted that what they supply to academics, the IPCC and the public is based on a deteriorating network.
...
I could not tell you how much the corruption of USHCN data affects the science of global climate change.

But then, neither can anyone else.

The Payson Roundup / This is global warming?

A rare snowfall in Las Vegas, glaciers building up in Alaska, blizzards, snow storms, ice storms coast to coast and border to border and beyond. Sub-zero temperatures and reported sub lows are occurring all over our nation, and this is global warming? You have to be looney.

Well, I guess Al Gore and those like him are. Madoff and Al Gore have the honor of presenting the world with the two largest swindles of our time. Madoff with his $50-plus billion phony scheme and Al Gore with global warming and his cap-and trade scheme, which has made him millions. Obama will inherit this cap-and trade program which he aggressively espouses and it will be extremely costly.

Al Gore: The real Flat Earther

How many times in history has any scientific theory had as much dissent from scientists than global warming?

Long Island Business News » Keating: An energy policy that is the stuff of nightmares

It’s a major concern if energy policy is being run by individuals who fear coal, believe the price of electricity is too low and want to impose a massive and costly regulatory scheme on U.S. consumers and businesses in the name of a highly disputable assumption. In fact, it’s a nightmare.

Tyler, Texas: #3 Most-read Story of 2008: Baliunas Says Global Warming Related To Sun

Number 3 on the list is the appearance of astrophysicist Dr. Sallie Baliunas at the University of Texas at Tyler R. Don Cowan Fine and Performing Arts Center. She told the audience that global warming is more directly related to solar variability than to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, an alternative view to what's been widely publicized in the mainstream media.

Alaska: Bitter cold moves in to Interior - Juneau Empire

FAIRBANKS - Bitterly cold weather slid over from Canada and settled into Interior Alaska with forecasters saying temperatures could continue to slide to nearly 50 degrees below zero in coming days.

Over the weekend, the mercury at Fairbanks International Airport dropped to 39 degrees below zero. Areas in the Interior outside the city were even colder; 46 below on the Yukon Flats, 41 below in Fort Yukon and 44 below in Central, according to the weather service.
...
The howling winds and frigid weather were too much for several mushers, including four-time Iditarod winner Jeff King and his dog team, who pulled out of the Gin Gin 200, a 200-mile race along the Denali Highway.

It's like adopting an adorable puppy, except less fun

Adopt a fire hydrant - KHQ-TV- msnbc.com

SPOKANE, Wash. - Due to record snowfall already received and projected Fire Departments are asking for assistance from all residents to adopt the closest fire hydrant to their home or business. In order to ensure the most prompt and efficient emergency response it is imperative that all residents that are physically able "Adopt a Hydrant."

2009 to allegedly be one of the hottest years on record | Metro.co.uk

Next year is set to be one of the five warmest on record, climate scientists have predicted.

Bitter cold to ring in the New Year; 65,000 still without power | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Expect bitterly cold weather for New Year's Eve, with partly cloudy skies and lows near 10 degrees.

The Associated Press: Spokane digs out from record-breaking snow

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Spokane residents were trying to dig out Tuesday after a month of record-breaking snow collapsed roofs and clogged streets.

The center of a snow-laden supermarket roof in north Spokane collapsed Monday evening, prompting the evacuation of that store and adjacent businesses. A fire official said only one minor injury was reported.

The roof collapse came as Spokane set a monthly record for snowfall, at 59.7 inches, after 8.3 inches were recorded in the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Monday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ellie Kelch. That's more snow than the area receives in a typical winter.

The previous record of 56.9 inches was set in January 1950. Snowfall records in the area have been kept since 1893, Kelch said.

Feb '08: Spokane Mayor Mary's snow job falls on deaf ears

And now it appears Mary Verner has adopted Hession's mantle of management through reticence.

At least that was the Verner M.O. during Spokane's recent "snowpocalypse."

Civic heartburn over the city's slow and spotty system of snow removal is the new mayor's first real test of leadership.

Give Verner a big fat frigid "F."

True, the mayor is finally communicating on the issue.

But for most of last week, when residential storm angst was highest, the mayor was more absent than a heat wave.

Calls and e-mails have come to me all week asking the question: Where's Mayor Mary?

Aw, let's not be too hard on the mayor. Verner had larger issues on her mind.

The newspaper, in fact, just received an invitation from the mayor asking us to join her for a meeting in the downtown library.

The purpose of said meeting? To discuss the creation of a "strategic action plan to address the ways that climate change and global oil depletion may impact our ability to continue offering top quality service to our taxpayers."

You can't make up stuff like this.

Climate change? Oil depletion?

Oh, Lord. We elected Alice Gore.

Seattle: City's garbage takes flight

Jim Conchie of South Seattle said his garbage hadn't been picked up since two weeks before Christmas.

He said Mayor Greg Nickels should stop pushing ambitious global climate initiatives and concentrate on core city services, such as garbage pickup and snow removal.

"It's time for the mayor to give up all his high-flying fantasies and get back to providing basic services," said Conchie, who lives east of Columbia City.

Conchie said the high winds had blown trash throughout his neighborhood, making it look like "a Third World city."

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Erroneous News Article In The Times

The writers of the Time article, and other journalists who write similar misinformation, damage the likelihood of responsible environmental actions as a result of their overstatement and erroneous communication to the public and policymakers of climate science.

Sarcastically Speaking: The risky side of global warming

So, if one lottery ticket gives a 50% chance for the jackpot and a 50% chance for doom and gloom and the other gives a 50% chance for doom and a 50% chance for gloom, which ticket would you pick?

Global warming: Reasons why it might not actually exist - Telegraph

2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved, according to the Telegraph's Christopher Booker. Sceptics have long argued that there are other explanations for climate change other than man-made CO2 and here we look at some of the arguments put forward by those who believe that global warming is all a hoax.

Dallas/Ft. Worth Libertarian Examiner: Offsets revisited: voluntary vs. mandatory

Climate Change nee Global Warming and all its political claptrappery is just another way to force-fit the square peg of socialism into the round hole of America without the embarrassing necessity of calling it socialism.

Manatee succumbs to lack of local warming

Over the weekend an adult manatee washed up north of the Dog River Bridge on the west side of Mobile Bay.
Scientists performed a necropsy Sunday on the animal. Preliminary results for the cause of death point to cold shock.

Dr. Ruth Carmichael is a Senior Marine Scientist with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
She says, "It does look like the animal probably just died from cold shock. For whatever reason, we're not entirely sure. Some animals seem to just miss that cue to leave, and instead they stay around for a little too long, and it may be what happened to this animal, it got too cold and died."

The Daily Weekly - Will Voters Just Say Snow to Mayor Nickels? - Seattle Weekly

If you're going to get upset at Mayor Nickels, why not focus on why he has spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on fighting "Global Warming".

New Year’s Ball in Times Square to Stay Bright, All Year Round - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Of course, conservation-minded readers might wonder if the organizers ought to be using so many more bulbs at all – even if they are taking advantage of energy efficiency breakthroughs. And it remains unclear whether keeping the ball illuminated year-round will cancel out the energy savings from using L.E.D. lights.

An Allegedly Eco-Friendly Billboard for Times Square - NYTimes.com

The first eco-friendly billboard is coming to Times Square, entirely powered by the sun and the wind — but there is one small catch.

The billboard, seen in a rendering, will have four 45-foot stacks of wind turbines to power it.

When there’s no sun, and no wind? The $3 million billboard goes dark: there is no backup generator.

“We think if that happens, it’s just fine,” said Ron Potesky, a senior marketing vice president for Ricoh Americas Corporation, the office equipment and document-storage supplier that owns the sign.

The billboard — traditionally called a “spectacular” on the Great White Way — weighs in at 35,000 pounds. It will be 55 feet off the ground at 3 Times Square, wrapping around the northwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street.

Fitted with 16 wind turbines and 64 solar panels, the sign will be “a first for Times Square,” said Barry E. Winston, a Times Square billboard consultant not involved in the Ricoh project, who has been a sign expert for more than 50 years.

Wind turbines for the vast sign, which is 126 feet wide and 47 feet high, have arrived in a warehouse in Deer Park, N.Y., where preliminary testing is being done. Construction will begin this month, for a lighting ceremony on Dec. 4.

Ricoh would not say how much it was paying for its three-year lease, but based on recent deals, the lease would most likely cost in the low six figures, as much as $200,000 a month, according to sign rental experts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are contractually forbidden to make public statements.

Such a cost would not be unusual for a sign across the avenue from 1 Times Square, where the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.

By generating its own electricity — enough to light six homes for a year — the sign could save as much as $12,000 to $15,000 per month, according to Ricoh, which estimated that the sign would prevent 18 tons of carbon from being spewed into the air yearly.

Why not just put up a traditional sign and spend maybe $54 annually for bogus carbon offsets?

James Hansen Selected as EarthSky Scientist Communicator of the Year

"Jim Hansen was the first leading scientist to explain global warming to the U.S. Congress and the American people," said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. "His warnings proved to be accurate and prescient. When he came under political attack, he bravely and successfully defended his freedom to speak out. His fortitude has made him not only a great scientist, but a great scientist-statesman, one who plays a unique role in helping all of us understand the dire risks of man-made climate change and how to address them."

Just past the 4-minute mark at this podcast, Hansen actually says "We're doomed only if we stay on business as usual".

Dallas/Ft. Worth Libertarian Examiner: Sinned against Earth? Buy an indulgence

In the modern world, people who drive SUVs and fly in jet aircraft are browbeaten into confessing their sins against the climate and shamed into paying some sort of retribution. The Climate Change industry, having at this time an almost total monopoly on the "science," came up with the idea of (a) declaring virtually every normal human activity as detrimental to the climate (giving them their guaranteed sinner base) and (b) providing the sinner an escape from purgatory by offering him a carbon offset.

Midsummer in Australia: Weather turns fickle as rock fans head to Falls - Music - Entertainment

INSTEAD of sun hats, they wore beanies. In place of singlets and sandals, it was parkas and gumboots.

The three-day Falls Festival, held just outside the seaside town of Lorne, kicked into gear in frigid temperatures yesterday morning.
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In previous years, the biggest medical concern on site has been sunstroke and sunburn. Last year, for instance, temperatures soared above 40 degrees. But this year's unseasonal cold forced organisers to buy more than 600 blankets to help forgetful or ill-prepared festival-goers stay warm in the evening chill.

"I think people from up north would be surprised it can get this cold in the middle of summer," Daly said.

More than 55 per cent of Falls attendees hail from outside Victoria, and there was bemusement and disbelief from Queenslanders and Sydneysiders on site yesterday.

"We thought it might be a bit cooler, but this is insane," said Danielle, 19, who had travelled with friend Kate, 20, from Byron Bay.
...
In Lorne, staff at surf shop Sharky's reported selling more cold-weather gear than swimsuits and boardshorts.

Bravo, Sammy Wilson: DUP minister hits out at climate change 'hysteria' - Ireland

The North's Environment Minister has claimed that unfounded hysteria about climate change is deflecting the world from tackling real problems facing the planet.

Sammy Wilson of the DUP has already attracted the ire of environmentalists for denying human involvement in global warming.

In his latest comments on the matter, he says vast spending on reducing carbon emissions is depriving third-world countries of vital funds to tackle famine, HIV and other diseases.

He claims most commentators on the matter don't have a clue what they are talking about and are only going along with the consensus because the issue is popular.

A Price on Carbon is No Panacea | OpenMarket.org

The alternative (which is likely if clean coal continues to be technologically frustrating) is that nuclear power becomes the dominant energy source, another thing environmentalists hate.

Which all suggests that if environmentalists want carbon-free, nuclear-free power for America, they should stop hiding behind carbon pricing mechanisms and come out for mandates. Then we can have a proper debate about America’s future energy needs and costs.

"Clouds" Spencer has a new site

Prof. Roy Spencer has many distinctions but an important one is that he is a leading researcher into the way clouds affect the earth's climate. Greenies generally seem to feel that they need no such knowledge. They just assume that they know what cloud effects to plug into their models. Spencer's research tends to indicate, however, that those assumptions are the reverse of the truth -- with the result that the models predict far more warming than is in fact likely. Prof. Spencer has set up a new site to help circulate knowledge of what really happens. It is here. But below is the general introduction from his new site:

'Global warming' refers to the global-average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more. But to many politicians and the public, the term carries the implication that mankind is responsible for that warming. This website describes evidence from my group's government-funded research that suggests global warming is mostly natural, and that the climate system is quite insensitive to humanity's greenhouse gas emissions and aerosol pollution.

Believe it or not, very little research has ever been funded to search for natural mechanisms of warming...it has simply been assumed that global warming is manmade. This assumption is rather easy for scientists since we do not have enough accurate global data for a long enough period of time to see whether there are natural warming mechanisms at work.

The United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims that the only way they can get their computerized climate models to produce the observed warming is with anthropogenic (human-caused) pollution. But they're not going to find something if they don't search for it. More than one scientist has asked me, "What else COULD it be?" Well, the answer to that takes a little digging... and as I show, one doesn't have to dig very far.

Green Goal of 'Carbon Neutrality' Hits Limit - WSJ.com

But in an interview, Dell officials estimate that the emissions produced by its suppliers and consumers each amount to about 10 times the footprint Dell has defined for itself. That means the company is only neutralizing about 5% of the greenhouse gases that go into the making and use of its products.

Moreover, while Dell is improving its energy efficiency, it is claiming carbon neutrality mostly by purchasing environmental "credits."

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV - Scientific data counters claims of global warming, fuels worldwide debate

Many of those who believe man is causing global warming think the situation is so dire that we don’t have time to debate the issue further, or to wait for sufficient evidence to produce a true consensus among climate scientists. But the liveliness of the debate tells us that we have a long way to go before a true consensus will be formed, and we should always be suspicious of causes too important to be held up to scrutiny.

Anchorage | Frigid temperatures raise concerns over frostbite, car care

"Cold weather brings out the best in all of us and the worst in most cars," vehicle specialis A.J. Chriswell said. "Plug in, let it warm up. (Tuesday) won't be as cold as Wednesday and you'll see 30 or 40 below. Forty below, fan belts break real easy."

For the next week the National Weather Service says expect it to be really cold, with temperatures below zero most of the time.

It's bad enough that the police department's taking extra steps to make sure everyone, especially the homeless, are safe.

Co2-hysteric James Hrynyshyn: What to do with the alleged pseudoskeptics?

For the last four years, I've spent a fair bit of time trying to do my bit to undermine the pseudoskeptical claptrap that passes for criticism of the idea that humans are responsible for global warming. And I'm getting tired. It doesn't seem to matter how many bloggers and journalists who understand the science of climate change point out the facts as climate science understands them, pernicious long-debunked ideas (it's all the sun's fault, the hockey stick is a fraud, water vapor is a forcing, etc.) refuse to die. Is there any point?

EURweb.com - JOSEPH C. PHILLIPS: Anthropo – who?

The arrogance of manmade global warming hucksters seems boundless. And it gets more bizarre...

Watertown, New York | 'Crazy' snow draws on highway reserves

Both Watertown and Lowville have seen more than double the snowfall they historically receive for the month of December, 58.6 inches and 26.5 inches, respectively. Public works employees first manned plows this season Oct. 28.

"When has it ever snowed that much before Halloween?" asked Peter E. Monaco, city of Watertown assistant superintendent of public works. "I sure as heck can't remember."

Town of Watertown plows made rounds 27 of the 31 days after Thanksgiving, Mr. Rohr said.

In San Francisco, 'congestion pricing' is something they're sneezing at - Los Angeles Times

The plan could charge motorists $3 to drive into downtown during peak commute hours and another $3 to leave. The reaction has ranged from lukewarm to downright hostile.

Alarmism in 'science'

Finally I can breathe a sigh of relief that some scientists and engineers at the University of the West Indies have entered what so far has been a one-sided and somewhat strident commentary on the global warming/climate change issue, a commentary that seems to have scattered a series of hobgoblins about the effects of the phenomenon now attracting the attention of the international community.

China, early '08: Paralyzed by the perfect storm

Chenzhou was one of the most severely damaged cities in the rare winter snowstorms caused by a lingering, brutal winter. Meteorologists called it "the worst of its kind in five decades" for many of the regions in southern China hit from mid-January till February.

　　Such harsh weather is commonplace in north China, weathermen said. But it caused enormous destruction when it moved south.

　　"Chenzhou snowed in the past winters, sometimes heavily, but the temperature usually rebounded above zero within a few days so that ice thawed. What was unusual in January was that the temperature remained under zero for too long," Li Yanqiong recalled.
...
　　Statistics later showed that as a result of the snowstorms, nearly 500,000 buildings collapsed and 1.69 million homes were damaged in south China.

　　The steel, high-voltage towers in southern provinces also buckled in the lingering snowfall and icy rains.

　　Zhang Haiyang, spokesman for the State Grid, said more than 184,000 high-voltage towers in 10 provinces collapsed in the rare weather conditions.

Heliogenic Climate Change: You WILL cut down on your driving

"The state of North Carolina recently proposed a change in the way taxes are collected for the Department of Transportation. Instead of relying solely on the statewide gasoline tax, North Carolina wants to implement a road-use tax of one-quarter cents per mile, with the first 2,000 miles free. You, as a North Carolina resident, would be required to have your odometer read annually and taxed based on your vehicle’s usage. There has even been some talk of using GPS satellites to determine when and where you drive, and charge you accordingly, to “manage congestion”.

Now, it’s being reported that Oregon wants to do the same thing..."[More here]

Wind Watch: Wind farm simulations don’t convey beauty lost

Let’s not be afraid to acknowledge that a major reason for living on the Cape is its natural beauty. Only those who have taken the time to savor the awesome beauty of this place can comprehend the magnitude of the loss we are about to experience.

I am all for responsible alternative energy in the right place. I also think saving 25 square miles of ocean from the development of an alternative energy plant is about as ecofriendly as we can be. Is it really too late to stop this travesty from going forward? I sincerely hope not.

Wind Watch: Montana’s got wind, needs power lines

Helena, Mont. — Gov. Brian Schweitzer envisions a day when New Yorkers will be driving cars powered by the wind that howls across the Montana prairie. The Democrat recently called on the federal government to spend $15 billion to build a next-generation transmission grid to link such far-flung regions.

“You start delivering wind to cars and the [oil-nation] dictators, they get sad fast,” says Mr. Schweitzer in his Helena office-cum-classroom, where he keeps vials of biofuel feed stock and model windmills to show visitors. He has a lump of coal, too – a reminder that Montana not only has lots of wind to harness, but tons of coal to shovel.
...
“We’re going to hook some coal into it,” he says. “Fifty percent of the electricity in America comes from coal. I’m all for change, but unless you are willing to live naked in a tree and eat nuts for the next 30 years, coal’s going to be part of the portfolio.”

Australian Climate Madness: Climate nonsense from Munich Re

Let's look at the world's worst natural disasters. Of the top 10, five are unrelated to climate change (4 earthquakes, one dam failure) and the remaining five all occurred before 1970, i.e. before the global warming hysteria was even thought of - in 1970 we were all getting ready for the next Ice Age, remember?

As for Cyclone Nargis, true, it is the 7th largest death toll from cyclones and hurricanes, however the top 6 all occurred before 1975 (and four before 1881), again, before "global warming" could have had any possible effect. The reality is that the death toll from a cyclone or hurricane has far more to do with its location, and the population density under it, than its intensity...

But hey, who cares about the facts when it makes a good story?

Technology Review: Lifeline for Renewable Power?

Without a radically expanded and smarter electrical grid, wind and solar will remain niche power sources.

The Global Warming Swindle: Physicists may save us from climate alarmists

Serious debate in scientific journals is needed. Such debate has started in the physics community. We need to understand climate before we think about attempting to manipulate it. So far, a "considerable presence within the scientific community" feel that we do not have that level of expertise and understanding. [Via Skeptics Global Warming]

YouTube - Car of your future! - The 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition

[Via Gore Lied]

The Future of Energy? « The Air Vent

Many of us know that fission nuclear has been given a bad rap by extremist groups but there is another beast in development which in my mind represents the true “green” energy source. The trouble is twofold, first the technology needs more time but the second is that the many of the same extremists have already rejected it. People who think global warming is so bad should be screaming for money to be injected into it but I’ve heard nothing.

Fusion reactors have many advantages over fission but two stand out above the rest. First is they can’t melt down. If things go out of control, they shut off, that’s it. Second, they don’t generate the long half-life wastes that fission reactors do.

Climate Crusaders: Please Don’t Accept Money from Climate Criminals (Or Alternatively Buy Carbon Credits) | An Inconvenient Blog (Gore spoof site)

Remember: in these trying times, climate criminals will rely on cool temperatures and cheap gasoline to buy your continued support of their destructive ways. Don’t fall for it. Just say no to them or yes to carbon credits.