From Climate Debate Daily: List of Skeptical Blogs

Here.

Storms bring food-shortage fear

Here.

Excerpt:

China's severest winter weather in 50 years worsened yesterday, bringing transport to a halt across large parts of the country, stranding hundreds of thousands of travellers heading home for the Lunar New Year holiday and threatening food shortages...

Michael Crichton: "Environmentalism as Religion"

See the whole thing here.

Excerpt:

I studied anthropology in college, and one of the things I learned was that certain human social structures always reappear. They can't be eliminated from society. One of those structures is religion. Today it is said we live in a secular society in which many people---the best people, the most enlightened people---do not believe in any religion. But I think that you cannot eliminate religion from the psyche of mankind. If you suppress it in one form, it merely re-emerges in another form. You can not believe in God, but you still have to believe in something that gives meaning to your life, and shapes your sense of the world. Such a belief is religious.

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.

There's an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there's a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.

Note that Crichton's 2003 piece was written before Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" was made.

From a 2006 article about that movie:

...Gore seems to want to hearken back to a simpler time before modern technology came along and messed everything up. Sort of like the Garden of Eden before the Fall.

This is fitting, for Gore often comes across more like a preacher than a politician and global warming more like a religion than a science. He makes a point of framing the debate in terms of morality and ethics rather than politics (although politics inevitably creeps in). He uses the word mission to describe his current path and refers to the alleged ill effects of global warming as "a nature hike through the Book of Revelation."

Like the Book of Revelation, Gore's vision is an apocalyptic one. Scenes of smoggy skylines, gridlocked traffic and smokestacks are interspersed with crashing glaciers, storm-ravaged cities and Third World refugees fleeing on foot. Computer models predict the submerging of continents and the deaths of millions. Every problem on the planet, including overpopulation, war and infectious diseases, is attributed to global warming. If ever there were a vision of the End Times, this would be it. But instead of God's wrath raining down on the planet, it's human beings that are doing the damage. One might call it apocalyptic environmentalism.

At the heart of this new religion is planet Earth, photographs of which Gore holds up as if they were objects of worship...

Deep Arctic Chill Blankets Middle East

Here.

Excerpt:

The most bitter cold front to blow over the eastern Mediterranean since 1964 plunged much of the Middle East into a deep freeze.

William M. Briggs on that AGU statement

Here.

Excerpt:

I am a member of the AGU and the AMS and I do not support the language used in the AGU statement. Here is why.

I find the AGU statement, while accurate and useful in places, to be needlessly sensational and overconfident in others. To start the document with the statement that the Earth is “clearly out of balance” is silly and purposely provocative. It is a feeling among certain scientists that a little exaggeration in “the cause” is justified to “raise awareness”, but I disagree: it always does more harm than good. This statement will raise as many hackles as it does “awarenesses.”

Hansen in Antarctica

Here.

A chilly response

Excerpt from this article:

A Durango man skeptical of global warming has given the opposing side 20 days to put up or shut up: Roger Cohen is willing to bet $5,000 that the average temperature of the Earth will be cooler in 2017 than 2007.

As of Thursday, however, there were no takers.

"Nothing so far," Roger W. Cohen reported Thursday. "If they're willing to write letters but not bet, they shouldn't be taken seriously. They want to spend tens of trillions of other people's money. Surely, putting up $5,000 of their own is not too much to ask."

Judging by this article and this article, it looks like Cohen knows what he's talking about.

Bright idea: encourage students to get their climate change information from Greenpeace

Here.

Actually, I have no problem with this, as long as students also get to hear an opposing viewpoint from someone like Christopher Monckton.

007 to be carbon neutral in new film

Here.

From Chicago: 75-year-old Man Found Dead In Home Without Heat

Excerpt from this article:

If the autopsy shows the death was cold-related, it would be at least the eleventh cold-related death in Cook County since late October 2007, the sixth this year and the fourth this week.

Global warming: Fact or fable?

Here.

CHARTMANSHIP AND MANIPULATED DATA FROM GISS

See the entire post at Greenie Watch here.

Excerpt:

Jim Hansen's GISS have just put out an article that contradicts everthing we know about the raw data for global temperatures over the last decade. How does Hansen do it? A large part of the answer is chartmanship -- the art of creating almost any impression you want by the way you draw a chart. If the vertical axis on the chart below had been much compressed, for instance, you would see an almost flat line instead of a steeply rising one. But that is only part of the story. There is statistical jiggery-pokery going on too. I reprint the GISS article below -- with its accompanying graph -- followed by some comments from physicist F. James Cripwell, a former scientist with UK's Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge who worked under the leading expert in infra red spectroscopy -- Sir Gordon Sutherland - and worked with the Operations Research for the Canadian Defense Research Board.

I have also inserted a couple of italicized comments on particularly slippery statements. There is also another chart in the original article that has in its subtitle the comment "Largest increases were in the northern hemisphere". They sure were! There is NO discernible trend in the Southern hemisphere! The so-called global warming is at best Northern hemisphere warming.

From this linked article:

Wind seems to be blowing in the mind of the politically correct and those on the recent environmentalist bandwagon but the cost is going to be huge, no companies will plunge into it without massive government subsidies and, if actually built, power reliability will take a nosedive.

B.C. TO FUND WORLD-LEADING CLIMATE RESEARCH

Here.

But is this pure research?

Note this excerpt:

It will support and promote societal change and use the synergies of a broad collaboration to leverage funding coming into the province.

(Via Western Standard blog)

Double Whammy Friday: Roy Spencer on how Oceans are Driving CO2

Don't miss this one.

"Does John McCain know what he’s talking about when it comes to climate?"

John McCain is taking fire from all sides because of his nonsensical "against mandatory caps, but for cap and trade" stance.

Feedback for McCain is here, here, and here.

An alarmist's perspective

Here.

Note that this author somehow believes that alarmists are winning the "hearts and minds" battle in the U.S., when recent polls and surveys clearly indicate that they are losing.

Visit the Goracle

Here.

Excerpt:

We aren't sure who first coined the name "The Goracle", but left-wing eco-pilgrims have been using the term for at least the last year to fawn over Al Gore. The name is a combination of "Gore" and "Oracle" that celebrates Al's presumed prescience on the issue of global warming. We happen to think the name is ironic, funny, and wildly presumptuous, so we completed the work of the Gore legions by creating this actual online temple to celebrate the "greatness" of the Lexus-hybrid-driving, mansion-dwelling leader of the global warming doomsday cult.

Don't miss the Hall of Saints and the Prayer of Gore.

Tell me again why we're supposed to believe that carbon dioxide drives climate?

See the analysis here.

Update: A related post is here.

Excerpts:

Note: AMO in the [linked] graph stands for Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. PDO stands for Pacific Decadal Oscillation. USHCN stands for United States Historical Climatology Network, i.e. ground station temperature record.
...
The simplistic GCMs that focus on CO2 to the exclusion of the truly important climate forcings, have the effect of dumbing down the public in science, and diverting trillions of dollars to non-productive (anti-productive) enterprises. Humans could never reach the next level that way.

Another related post by Anthony Watts is here.

Excerpt:

While this isn’t a “smoking gun” it is as close as anything I’ve seen. Time will give us the qualified answer as we have expectations of a lower Solar Cycle 24 and changes in the Pacific now happening.

Eat like an ecochondriac!

Here.

Survey of Asia/Pacific travelers

Excerpt from this page:

In spite of global warming and its negative effects on climatic conditions being high on the global agenda, the majority of the respondents (72.6%) are not letting this affect their personal and business travel plans. A fifth (20.3%) said they would make less personal and business trips because of environmental concerns and 7% said they would make more.

Lubos Motl on Naomi Oreskes

Here.

Excerpt:

She clearly had no idea about the actual literature about the climate and the proportion of papers of various kinds.

A growing majority of Americans are scoffing at global warming hype

Check out the latest Pew survey results here.

It looks like "Dealing with global warming" has lost a bit of ground since Jan. '07; if I counted correctly, it's now the 20th highest priority for Americans.

To me, it seems very odd that we'd consider mandating large changes to our economy in an attempt to deal with our 20th most important issue.



Note that "Dealing with global warming" has lost ground across the board in the last year, with an especially big drop among Republicans:

Climate Change Cure Is Warm And Fuzzy

Here.

I Don’t Want To Be Green

Here.

Europe’s Fine Example: Italy

Here.

Carbon Heat Trapping: Merely A Bit Player in Global Warming

Here.

A Serious Problem With The Use Of A Global Average Surface Temperature Anomaly To Diagnose Global Warming - Part I

Here.

Excerpt:

A major key finding from our study is that the magnitude of global warming is significantly overstated using surface air temperature as a metric.

Capturing Carbon Pipe Dreams

Here.

Andrew Dessler vs Marc Morano

At the 17:06 mark of the 12/17/07 audio available here, alarmist Andrew Dessler says this about the cause of recent global warming:

But the fundamental conclusion that we're quite certain it's greenhouse gases--no one really disagrees with that, again--I mean there's no real informed, credible dissent to that point.

Shortly afterwards, Marc Morano published this post, entitled "U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007".

Yesterday, on Andy Revkin's blog, Dessler wrote this:

There are, of course, a few dozen credible scientist skeptics out there, but they pale in comparison to the 50,000+ members of the AGU.

Excerpt from Morano's response:

1) Andrew Dessler is still trying to defend his statement that there are only “a few dozen credible scientist skeptics out there.” Good luck with that one Andrew! Why don’t you list the two dozen ‘qualified’ skeptical scientists right here on Revkin’s blog? That way we will all know which skeptical scientists you have approved as ‘qualified?’ It would be very helpful to us all.

I haven't yet seen a response from Dessler.

Laughable alarmism from doctors and other "international experts in climate change"

Here.

Check out what Dr Hugh Montgomery has to say:

"There is no doubt that Climate Change is happening. And there is no doubt that humans are causing it: every major national scientific body round the world - including Germany, India, China, the UK, and the USA - agrees. Nor is there any doubt about the consequences. They will be very grave indeed. There is no greater threat to human health and survival than climate change. For those of us working as doctors, its imminent and severe threat dwarfs any survival gains due to our daily healthcare activity. Such threats are not just of altered disease patterns for those in distant lands, but are to us and our children: economic collapse, migration and war know no boundaries.
Neither does the impact of ecosystem collapse: we are already losing 3 known species an hour, and face the fact that over 50% of the world's species committed to extinction within a few decades.
The time for talk is over. The time now is for action - from politicians, but also from individuals. And healthcare workers should be in the vanguard."

Redwood trees vs solar panels

Here.

California CAFE Regulations: Terminated! The most important story you haven’t heard

Here.

Study: Young Australians give the environmental category a "very low importance rating"

Excerpts from this article:

Researchers from the University of Western Sydney asked 2500 15- to 25-year-olds what they cared about most in life and what it meant to be Australian as part of an continuing study into Australian identity.
...
Safety topped the list, followed by mateship, education and democracy.
...
Surprisingly, the survey contradicted the view that young people are more concerned about global warming and climate change than their parents are.

Coming in just below academic factors, the environmental category was given a very low importance rating by the young participants.

The only thing less important to young people, according to the survey, were cultural factors.

"I am an intellectual blasphemer"

See the whole thing from Alexander Cockburn here.

Excerpt:

Yet from left to right, the warming that is occurring today is taken as being man-made, and many have made it into the central plank of their political campaigns. For reasons I find very hard to fathom, the environmental left movement has bought very heavily into the fantasy about anthropogenic global warming and the fantasy that humans can prevent or turn back the warming cycle.

This turn to climate catastrophism is tied into the decline of the left, and the decline of the left’s optimistic vision of altering the economic nature of things through a political programme. The left has bought into environmental catastrophism because it thinks that if it can persuade the world that there is indeed a catastrophe, then somehow the emergency response will lead to positive developments in terms of social and environmental justice.

This is a fantasy...

For Richard Branson, a bit of criticism

Here.

Ok, so suddenly WATER is now the world's top priority?

Check this out.

Excerpt:

DAVOS, Switzerland - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Thursday to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies.

I guess those concerns about climate change leading us to "oblivion" were, like, so "2007":

Ban told the VIP audience that he spent 2007 "banging my drum on climate change," an issue the Forum also had as one of its main themes last year. He welcomed the focus on water this year saying the session should be named: "Water is running out."

Green Washing at its Best

Excerpt from this post:

Limousine Eighteen, the international “ground transportation company,” has purchased one hybrid SUV for their fleet of ground vehicles. This was revealed to the world in the form of a mass distributed press release titled, “Boston-Area Limousine Eighteen Joins the Green Movement with Addition of Hybrid SUV to Its Fleet.”

Again the claim: "The Northwest Passage opened for the first time in human memory in 2007"

Here.

Debunked here and here.

WWF attempts to raise the bar on global "warming" stupidity

Check out the coffee cup here.

Excerpt:

Made with a special ceramic coating, as a hot beverage was poured in, the graphic of the world's land mass vanished under the rising sea, symbolically showing the effects climate change may soon have if action isn't taken.

Nobel Abuse

Here.

Tibet’s Temperature Story

Here.

Excerpt from a forthcoming peer-reviewed scientific paper:

“There is no warming trend since the Industrial Revolution, in fact, the linear trend is negative.”

Surrendering our freedom for the common "good"

Here.

More odd stuff from Rajendra Pachauri

Excerpt from this article:

Climate change is only part of a much larger problem, namely we are using nature's resources and ecosystems in a manner that is not going to allow the survival of these resources.

What??!!

We've just been told that climate change is the biggest problem of all time, and now you're telling us that it's just part of a "much larger" problem?!

Note that very recently, Pachauri's "boss", U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, was quoted on climate change like this:

“The world’s scientists have spoken with one voice: the situation is grim and urgent action is needed,” Mr Ban said at a gathering of 190 countries on the Indonesian island of Bali. “The situation is so desperately serious that any delay could push us past the tipping point, beyond which the ecological, financial and human costs would increase dramatically. We are at a crossroads: one path leads to a comprehensive climate change agreement, the other one to oblivion.”

...and this:

"These scenes are frightening like science fiction movies.But they are even more terrifying because they are real and reversing these threats is the defining challenge of our age."

Falsification of the Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects

Here (PDF).

Dissidents Against Dogma

Another Alexander Cockburn piece is here.

From Peter Sciaky, a retired geologist:

"Among all my liberal and leftist friends (and I am certainly one of those), I know not a one who does not accept that global warming is an event caused by mankind. I do not know one geologist who believes that global warming is not taking place. I do not know a single geologist who believes that it is a man-made phenomenon.

"There are hundreds of reasons--political, pragmatic and economic, health and environmental--for cleaning up our environment, for conservation of energy, for developing alternate fuels, cleaning up our nuclear program, etc. Global warming is not one of them."

Is Global Warming a Sin?

See the Alexander Cockburn piece here.

Excerpt:

In a couple of hundred years, historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then, as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet’s rapid downward slide.

Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church was a bank whose capital was secured by the infinite mercy of Christ, Mary and the Saints, and so the Pope could sell indulgences, like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in “carbon credits” is in formation. Those whose “carbon footprint” is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others, less virtuous than themselves.

The modern trade is as fantastical as the medieval one. There is still zero empirical evidence that anthropogenic production of CO2 is making any measurable contribution to the world’s present warming trend.

More from Jim Hansen

Excerpt from this PDF file:

Old geezers living on high ground may not be concerned about ice sheet stability and future sea level rise, or the out-of-control mess that we threaten to leave for coming generations. However, when one looks at species loss and its relation to climate change, simple calculation shows that each new coal-fired power plant will be a dagger in the heart of at least several irreplaceable species, even though we cannot identify specific species with a specific power plant.

Remember, Hansen is supposed to be "arguably the world's leading researcher on global warming".

Jim--can you just give us a list naming the first 100 species that you predict will be driven to extinction by human CO2 emissions? Projected dates of extinction would also be nice.

Is this a "consensus" of 50,000 people, or is it more like nine people?

Excerpt from Marc Morano's response to an Andy Revkin post:

I hate to burst the bubble here, but the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) climate ‘consensus’ statement does not hold up to even the lightest scrutiny.

It appears that the AGU Board issued a statement on climate change without putting it to a vote of the group’s more than 50,000 members. Its sweeping claims were drafted by what appears to be only nine AGU committee members. The statement relies heavily on long term computer model projections, cherry-picking of data and a very one-sided view of recent research. As with the recent statements by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the AGU statement is the product of a small circle of scientists (again apparently a 9 member panel according to AGU) who all share the same point of view, and who failed to put their statement to a vote of the AGU members on whose behalf they now claim to speak. As such it amounts to nothing more than a restatement of the opinion of this small group, not a ‘consensus’ document.

Bottom line, this new AGU statement appears to in no way represent the views of the AGU rank-and-file members.

A plea for some pepper in the climate change message

An alarmist's lament is here.

Excerpt:

To deliver a story about climate change that intrigues and challenges and galvanizes, the candidates need to really believe that this is a necessary and a great undertaking. They need to believe that it will ennoble and enrich us, that it will make us a nation of history once again. We've become so small. This is how we can become large again -- large of ambition and spirit. Say it like you mean it.

David Beckham: world's biggest environmental threat?

Here.

Talk about evil--these people are actually trying to *warm* the children!

Here.

"Alberta promises to reduce CO2, but not until 2020"

Here.

Upper Midwest Locked In Dangerous Cold Snap

Excerpt from this article:

An elderly Chicago woman was the latest victim to succumb to the wicked weather. She died from hypothermia after being found outside wearing a coat and shoes just steps from her back stairs on the city's northwest side. She was the eighth person to die from the cold so far this season in Chicago.

Can someone remind me again why we're supposed to think that the Earth's temperature is currently too high?

Why Al Gore isn't running for president

Here.

Excerpt:

I spent two hours one-on-one with Gore just before An Inconvenient Truth was released. Much of our interview focused on an irony that seems to have escaped many of those who have urged him to run for president: the last time Gore served in the White House, he failed to deliver much progress against global warming. During its eight years in office, the Clinton-Gore administration did not pass a single major law against climate change. It did sign the Kyoto Protocol, but only after watering it down with crippling loopholes, and then it chose not to seek Senate ratification of the treaty.

The Concession Question

Here.

Excerpt:

So if a generic candidate (Republican or Democrat) who is opposed to significant government action on global warming allows his or her opponent (Democrat or Republican) to say, “The world is heating up, we must cut emissions now,” then they must call them on it. They must call attention to the exaggerations and the hyperbole that surrounds the issue, cut through the PR fog and concentrate on the issue and what fast and deep emissions reductions really mean to Americans and the world: less growth, lower living standards, higher unemployment, more poverty, more death. Conceding that argument is, to my mind, not just bad politics but positively immoral.

AGW alarmism will suck more money out of the economy in 2008

Here.

Hansen 1988: Details of Forcing Projections

Here.

Britain Will Need 12,500 Wind Farms to Satisfy EU Targets

Here.

The Top 5 “Positive” Effects of Global Warming

Here.

About the Environmental Graffiti blog:

Environmental Graffiti is the most trafficked environmental blog based in the UK and third largest worldwide, with over 800,000 readers a month from over 150 different countries.

Cold wave sweeps Bangladesh killing 25

Here.

Excerpt:

The cold wave victims were mostly young children and the aged from poor and low-income families living in straw huts and fragile dwellings exposed to the chill winds blowing from the north.

AMS conference report: day 3

Here.

Excerpt:

I ran into Jim O’Brien, also from FSU, in the COAPS group. Jim tried to recruit me to that group last year: it was a good job, but circumstances would not let me move from New York City. Anyway, Jim was wearing his Nobel Peace Prize pin, somewhat ironically. He was, and is, one of the many 100s of scientists on the IPCC, but Jim is openly skeptical of man-made global warming. Which should give you pause next time you hear the word “consensus” used to describe scientific thought about the matter.

Green Desperation Time

Here.

Excerpt:

And why have a national teach-in when every single day of the year every one of us is hammered with global warming propaganda? Why take college student’s time to blather away about global warming when they have had this nonsense forced down their throats since they were in pre-school?

I will tell you why. Desperation. Time is running out for the global warming hoax.

Gore unhinged: we're facing a disaster comparable to (but greater than) the two world wars

Excerpt from this article:

[Gore] thought that when people (and the media) started "joining the dots" between recent catastrophes - fires in California, Greece, floods in Africa and so on - humankind would realise that we were facing a disaster comparable to (but greater than) the two world wars.

About World War I:

Total casualties were estimated at 10 million dead, 21 million wounded, and 7.7 million missing or imprisoned.

About World War II:

The commitment of resources and the destruction brought about by the Second World War far exceeded anything seen before or since as did the scope and magnitude of the war itself. The human toll of the Second World War was frightful. As many as 50 million military personnel and civilians were killed, some 14 million in the Soviet Union alone.

A chance to date people who share your irrational fear of a trace atmospheric gas!

Here.

Update: A related cartoon is here.

Gore continues his outright fraud

Excerpts from this article:

Climate change is taking place even faster than the worst predictions made by the UN's Nobel prize-winning panel on climate change, Al Gore said this morning.
...
But for the maker of An Inconvenient Truth, the film that gave warning of the emergency of global warning, only a compulsory, global carbon trading system could really tackle global warming.

Note that observed temperatures are absolutely not rising faster than the worst predictions of the IPCC.

Update: A related post is here.

Excerpt:

Mmmm! Since 1990, the IPCC has lowered both it's temperature and sea level rise forecasts, in 1995, 2001 and 2007. In fact, the IPCC seems to have abandoned decadal sea level forecasts in AR4 and gone for an unverifiable 90-year projection/prediction.

If any readers know where Al gets his worsening 'climate crisis' information from, let us know.

EU plans fail to spark carbon price rally

Here.

Excerpt:

The price of carbon credits in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) failed to rally yesterday, despite the European Commissions' announcement that the market would form the centrepiece of its climate change strategy.

Instead the price continued its downward trend of recent days, dipping below €20 a tonne from a high earlier this month of €23.60 a tonne.

"Europe Pisses In The Wind"

See the latest from Phil Stott here.

Waiting for Apocalypse

Here.

Excerpt:

The demise of two recent frontrunners in the race to apocalypse--peak oil and global warming--appears to place doomseekers in a curious position. Waiting for an apocalypse that may not appear in their lifetime. Imagine the disappointment! Peak oil has always been a long shot, but why has the global warming doomsday been cancelled?

Another report from Davos

Here.

Excerpt:

Rajendra K. Pachauri. Chairman of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (and arguably the most senior person on climate change in the world) underlined the short term seriousness of the situation. We have 7 years where carbon emissions can increase. After that they must come down and dramatically. Regardless, we are looking at a relatively short term future of heat waves, floods, droughts, famine.

A few comments:

1. Note that Pachauri is an "economist and engineer"; Al Gore feared Pachauri's "virulent anti-American statements" would undermine the IPCC's authority in the United States.

2. Note that Pachauri has also recently suggested that we can fight climate change by becoming vegetarians.

3. Let's see the math backing that "7 years" figure. Why is the figure not seven days or seventy-zillion years?

4. The article suggests that we have a "growing" consensus on fighting climate change. Recent data suggests that climate hysteria peaked about a year ago and is now fading. See here, here, and here.

Cap-and-Trade Scheme Would Deepen Economic Downturn

Excerpt from this article:

“If Congress and the Administration want to guarantee that the current economic downturn turns into an ongoing recession, they should enact a cap-and-trade bill as quickly as possible,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy for the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

“Look at the European experience,” said Ebell. “European companies that supported the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) are now calling for an end to the resulting economic damage.”

Limbaugh, Geraghty & Global Warming

Don't miss this post by climatologist Roy Spencer.

Excerpt:

How much easier this would all be if it was only as simple as buying hybrid cars, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and building more energy efficient homes. But the public needs to know that all of these meager efforts will have no measurable effect on global temperatures, no matter how much warming you think there will be in the future.

This is the one subject for which I believe “hoax” is an entirely appropriate label when it comes to people’s motives for advancing such solutions. Either “hoax,” or “stunning stupidity.” Rush is right — mankind depends mostly on petroleum and coal for its energy, and nothing is going to change that until human creativity, fueled by the extra wealth created by free markets, leads to new energy technology breakthroughs.

RSS MSU corrections & record cold temperatures

Here.

Look at all these great new green-collar jobs!

Excerpt from this article:

Green-collar workers are installing solar panels, retrofitting buildings to make them more efficient, constructing transit lines, refining waste oil into biodiesel, erecting wind farms, repairing hybrid cars, building green rooftops, planting trees, and so much more. And they are doing it today. There are already many green-collar jobs in America. But there could be so many more if we focus our economic strategies on growing a green economy.

I'd like to see a corresponding list of jobs negatively affected.

Remember Gary Hart?

In this "State of the Climate" post, Gary Hart claims that "sacrifices" will be required to reverse a "catastrophic slide" caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.

By "sacrifices", I hope he doesn't mean throwing people into volcanoes.

Global Warming Fails to Deliver

Here.

Amusing stuff from Realclimate's Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

Excerpt from this post:

Most of us who are involved in research related to climate change have been asked at one time or another to participate in public debates against skeptics of one sort or another. Some of us have even been cajoled into accepting. In the pre-YouTube days, I did one against the then-head of the American Petroleum institute at the U. of Chicago law school. Gavin did an infamous one against Crichton and company. People are always demanding that Al Gore debate somebody or other. Both Dave Archer and I have been asked to debate Dennis Avery (of "Unstoppable Global Warming" fame) on TV or radio more than once — and declined. It's a no win situation. If you accept you give the appearance that these skeptics have something to say that's actually worth debating about — and give their bogus ideas more publicity. If you decline there are all sorts of squawks that "X won't debate!" or implications that scientists have declared "the debate" (whatever that is supposed to mean) prematurely closed when in fact it is "just beginning."

Note that when fellow Realclimate alarmist Gavin Schmidt participated in a high-profile debate last March, the result was a resounding defeat:

After the debate, however, the skeptics' team climbed to 46 percent while the alarmists dropped to 42 percent. The difference changed from +27 (serious warming) before the debate to -4 (no serious warming) after the debate. Skeptics have also won the online vote, 55 percent vs 42 percent with 3 percent undecided.

Some information about Pierrehumbert is here:

He is principally interested in the formulation of idealized models which can be brought to bear on fundamental phenomena governing present and past climates of the Earth and other planets.

Tuvalu is still around

Here.

Bali: Gambling the Present for an Unknown Future

Here.

Answering a critic

Here.

NOAA training manual cites errors with Baltimore’s Rooftop USHCN Station

See the whole thing here.

From the NOAA internal training manual:

The table [below] summarizes a comparison of 12 months of overlapping data that was collected on the rooftop and at the new relocated site (for data continuity), relocated several blocks away at ground level with other nearby standard, ground based stations. A combination of the rooftop and downtown urban siting explain the regular occurrence of extremely warm temperatures. Compared to nearby ground-level instruments and nearby airports and surrounding COOPs, it is clear that a strong warm bias exists, partially because of the rooftop location.

Maximum and minimum temperatures are elevated, especially in the summer. The number of 80 plus minimum temperatures during the one-year of data overlap was 13 on the roof and zero at three surrounding LCD airports, the close by ground-based inner Baltimore harbor site, and all 10 COOPs in the same NCDC climate zone. Eighty-degree minimum are luckily, an extremely rare occurrence in the mid-Atlantic region at standard ground-based stations, urban or otherwise. Temperatures can be elevated on roofs due to the higher solar radiation absorption and re-radiation associated with many roof surfaces including black tar, shingles, stone, and metal. During the colder months, ongoing upward heat transfer through the roof from the heated interior of the building also can contribute to the warm bias although stronger winter winds tend to create better mixing and minimize this impact.

Russ Steele points out that this flawed climate data is being used to justify new greenhouse gas policy.

Climate links

Here.

Up to eleventy-zillion people could become environmental refugees by the middle of the century

Here.

Excerpt:

While climate-related events will put new strains on the security services, governments' responses to global warming could give rise to militant environmental groups using terror tactics to make their points, the report said.

Note the accompanying photo of a Bolivian woman crying after a landslide caused by frivolous Canadian beer fridges.

Woodpecker farce continues

Excerpts from this article:

Biologists plan to tour the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge by helicopter next week, in the hopes that a view from the sky will give them a glimpse of the elusive ivory-billed woodpecker.

A 10-day tour is scheduled to start Monday in Monroe County.
...
The helicopter tour will include officials from Game and Fish, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nature Conservancy and some volunteers from Cornell.

Don't these people realize that when rich Big Oil executives fly in helicopters, the resultant carbon dioxide emissions cause earthquakes in Greenland, make potatoes less nutritious, contribute to the extinction of bulldogs, etc?!

It’s settled science

Here.

Listen to Myron and Jim Talk Global Warming

Here.

Yale Cooks the Global-Warming Books

Here.

Excerpt:

The Yale environmental-performance ranking pretends to offer an objective assessment of relative performance. But even a cursory glance at the way environmental performance is measured shows that the deck is stacked against countries with strong economies, strong industrial and agricultural sectors, large land masses with associated transportation demand; and temperature extremes in summer and winter that require heating and cooling.

Wait...that sounds like North America. What a coincidence.

RSS Corrects 2007 Error

Here.

10 Reasons to Doubt Global Warming is Man-Made

Here and here.

I thought the linked story "The Viking farm under the sand in Greenland" was interesting.

Was California warming too much Tmin or Tmax? Both?

Here.

Why 'Global Warming' is Not a Global Crisis

See the whole Christopher Monckton piece here.

Excerpt:

Schulte (2008: in press) reviewed 539 papers on “global climate change” in the scientific journals. Only one paper mentioned that “global warming” might be catastrophic, and even that paper offered not a shred of evidence for the supposed apocalypse.

Four Co-Sponsors Named to 'Climate Skeptics' Conference

Here.

Energy Disaster Looming

Here.

Excerpt:

There are strong suggestions circulating that the Administration is being firmly lobbied to announce a cap-and-trade scheme for electricity utilities in the State of the Union address as a 'legacy' item and in a futile attempt to bind the hands of an incoming President. This would be a disaster.

Should we turn all decisions over to alleged "experts"?

Here.

Greenhouse Gas Makes Food Less Nutritious

Here.

Excerpt:

Taub's analysis, detailed in the March issue of the journal Global Change Biology, found that when grown in elevated carbon dioxide levels, potatoes showed almost a 14 percent decrease in protein.

I guess we'll all just have to eat more meat.

Control by Carbon: The Totalitarian Side of Climate Change

Here.

Kevin McCarthy plays the "Exxon" card

Excerpt from this article:

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, dismissed the concerns of the global warming doubters.

"They should move to Australia," Gronstal said. "Ostriches put their head in the sand."

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines, questions the concerns being raised by the GOP lawmakers.

"There is not any scientist that we're aware of in the United States of America, outside of some connection to big business or oil, that doesn't believe in what's happening with our climate change, with carbon emissions, with global warming," McCarthy said.

Tajikistan: The ice age. Now

Here.

See also "Children die because of electricity cut-offs" here.

Green club to take flight vow

Here.

Ivory-Billed Bust

Here.

Meanwhile, Cornell folks continue to stand behind their hoax here.

UK Deploying Armada of Robot Submarines and Sensors to Monitor Gulf Stream

Here.

The US is "only" greener than 110 of 149 countries?

Here.

"the reality is that there just isn’t such a thing as a meat-eating environmentalist"

Evidently even Al Gore isn't nutty enough for PETA.

Global Cooling Update

Here.

Courts should confront evidence on global warming

See the piece by S. Fred Singer here.

Excerpt:

Greenhouse warming has been significantly overestimated. NIPCC has found that the models exaggerate the warming effect of greenhouse gases by ignoring "negative feedback" from -- that is, the possible cooling effects of -- clouds and water vapor. Taking this into account, greenhouse warming might amount to no more than one-half of 1 degree Celsius by 2100, well within the climate's normal range of ups and downs.

The leading cause of observed climate warming appears to be variability of solar emissions and solar magnetic fields. The U.N. panel ignored a substantial amount of recent research on the effects of solar activity on climate change. This evidence suggests that climate changes are essentially unstoppable and cannot be influenced by controlling carbon dioxide emissions.

Government efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions will have little effect on the environment. The requirements of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2007 Bali Climate Declaration cannot influence the natural factors controlling the climate. Similarly, massive government efforts to replace fossil fuels with ethanol, bio-diesel, and wind and solar power will have little effect on the climate. Besides, they are uneconomic and require large subsidies.

Global Temperature? Which Global Temperature?

Here.

Excerpt:

...The IPCC has a lot of "guesses" and projections based upon worthless ground temperature data combined with difficult to interpret "proxies" of past temperatures. That is not good enough to overturn the economies of the world. We need more, and better, data.

Political Advocacy By The University Corporation For Atmospheric Research (UCAR)

Here.

Excerpt:

I am associated with several Universities who are members of UCAR, and I am disappointed that this organization has diverged from its core mission to now engage in political advocay. This new direction by UCAR raises valid concerns as to whether their support of scientific research and outreach taints the objectivity which must be the foundation of scientific research. I also was not aware that non-profit organizations, whose primary support is from federal contracts and grants, could engage in political advocacy.

How much damage can Al Gore do to the world's economy?

Excerpt from this article:

Amidst her welcome critique of the biofuel mania, Vandana Shiva's ZNet commentary last month (December 13, 2007) also made this point: "The Kyoto Protocol totally avoided the material challenge of stopping activities that lead to higher emissions and the political challenge of regulation of the polluters and making the polluters pay in accordance with principles adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio. Instead, Kyoto put in place the mechanism of emissions trading which in effect rewarded the polluters by assigning them rights to the atmosphere and trading in these rights to pollute."

Indeed in 1997 at Kyoto, Al Gore bamboozled negotiators into adopting carbon trading as a central climate strategy in exchange for Washington's support -- which never materialized.

Likewise last month's Kyoto Conference of Parties in Bali allowed the "everyone v. the USA" debate to obscure much more durable problems. Even many environmentalists and well-meaning citizens think that building on Kyoto is the correct strategy for post-Bali negotiations.

SOD: UK Energy Policy

More from Phil Stott is here.

India: three meters of snow

Here.

Stats not so hot after all

Here.

Excerpt:

What it all means is that taking the Earth's temperature is not an exact science. It's also a relatively new science, going back no more than 150 years on a 4.5 billion-year-old planet.

Best then to take each new prediction or claim that one year or another was the hottest, or hotter, or less hot, with a grain of salt.

Berkeley Study: Rich Countries Do Eleventy-Zillion Dollars in Damage To Poor Countries

Here.

I hope you're satisfied.

Another tenth of a degree and your bulldog's a goner

Here.

Davos forum features a discussion between Al Gore and that guy that sang "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"

According to this page, the session will be entitled "Combining Solutions to Extreme Poverty and the Climate Crisis".

I wonder if one of the solutions involves burning massive amounts of food.

Price-Waterhouse survey: fewer CEOs concerned about climate change this year

Excerpt from this press release:

Climate change, despite the highly-visible debate over global warming, was cited as a concern by only 34% of CEOs worldwide (down from 40% last year), while the remainder said they did not feel this was a threat to their business.

Climate change panel make recommendations for Toronto

From this article:

One of the ideas proposed by Dr. David Pearson was to ban private cars on busy downtown roadways.

WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan weighs in

Here.

Excerpt:

Secondly, she applauded the acceptance of climate change as a reality by world leaders. "Up to now, the polar bear has been the poster child for climate change. We must use every scientifically sound and politically correct mechanism in the book to convince leaders that humanity really is the most important species endangered by climate change," Dr Chan told Board Members.

"According to the latest projections, released in November, Africa will be severely affected by as early as 2020. This is just a dozen years away. Our sector has good evidence about what droughts, floods, storms, heatwaves, air pollution, malnutrition, displaced populations, and water-borne and vector-borne diseases mean for health." Climate change and health will be the focus for World Health Day which will be celebrated on 7 April 2008.

I wonder if they will emphasize the potential for fewer cold-related deaths in an allegedly warming world.

Scientists: Warm seas may mean fewer hurricanes

Here.

Reader comments are here.

‘Today’ Hosts’ Carpool Stunt Shows Dark Side of Carpooling

Here.

Excerpt:

No, it's not convenient for the "Today" hosts to carpool, so they'll just do their part by encouraging you to carpool. And showing you how much "fun" it can be.

Scott Pelley Still Hawking Worn-Out Hoax

Here.

Excerpt:

CBS took the opportunity to denounce Bush for not signing the pointless economic suicide pact known as the Kyoto Protocol. Apparently the boobs running this network don't even know that Kyoto was nixed by the Senate 95-0 several years before W took office.

Tinfoil hat held securely in place against the chill arctic winds, Pelley muttered darkly about the White House censoring climate research to keep us in the dark about how it's actually too hot out.

Needless to say, the special didn't include a single skeptic, though they are becoming very easy to find.

Surprise! There’s an active volcano under Antarctic ice

Here.

Let’s Have A Trade War!

Here.

Excerpt:

This is the EU at its most arrogant, stupid, and potentially dangerous.

Western Antarctic Peninsula Snow Accumulation Since 1850

Here.

Since when is carbon dioxide a "pollutant"?

Here.

“Lawyers Embrace U.S. Global-Warming Practice at $700 an Hour”

Here.

AFGHANISTAN: Cold-snap deaths top 300

Here.

Excerpts:

KABUL, 22 January 2008 (IRIN) - The number of people killed by cold weather and heavy snow in several Afghan provinces over the past four weeks has risen to over 300, and dozens of others have been injured, the Afghanistan National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) said on 22 January.

The main victims are children and elderly people as they are particularly vulnerable to winter diseases such as pneumonia and other respiratory infections.
...
Reports received from across the country by ANDMA in Kabul indicate that over 83,000 farm animals have died over the past month, suggesting that nearly 1,000 rural families could be affected, according to Ghulam Jailani Rasoli, a specialist on farm animals at the Ministry of Irrigation, Agriculture and Livestock.

Farm animals - chiefly sheep, cows and poultry - represent the main sources of livelihood for thousands of Afghan families in rural areas. The livestock deaths will further push already poor rural families that rely on animal husbandry into acute food-insecurity and vulnerability, Rasoli said.

US warns EU on using climate change as pretext

Here.

Excerpt:

"We have been dismayed at a variety of suggestions where we have seen the climate and the environment being used as an excuse to close markets," Schwab said after discussions with Peter Mandelson, her European counterpart.

More on Global Warming Debate

Here.

Google trends: United States vs Washington, DC

Update: Some information about Google Trends is here.

I don't think these graphs are necessarily significant, but they do seem to show that U.S. carbon dioxide hysteria may have peaked in early 2007.

When Science Reporting Was Unbiased

Check out this quote from 1856:

“It is well known as a matter of history, that when Greenland was discovered, it possessed a much warmer climate than it does at present. The ice packs have been extending south from the polar regions for some centuries, and the northeast coasts of our continent are much colder than they were three centuries ago. The cause of this is not well understood - the fact only is known. It is believed by some persons that there is a great eddy in some part of the polar ocean which sometimes changes its direction, and by drifting large iceberges from one place to another, changes the climate of those places whence they are drifted by the presence of such masses of ice diffusing their low temperatures to great distances.”

Put up a sticker and you've done your bit

Here.

Excerpt:

I HAVE this visceral dislike of bumper-sticker moralisers. These are people who go out of their way to advertise what they take to be their own exalted moral sensibilities, but do so at no cost to themselves and without the messy business of having to weigh costs and benefits or to choose between stark alternatives where none is particularly pleasant or easy. It's all form and no substance for these people, and there's no shortage of them around.

A Teachable Moment

Here.

Back to the cooling scare of the 1970s?

Here.

AMS conference report: day 2

Here.

Excerpt:

The best thing is that all these scientists spoke just like you would think good scientists should: a lot of “maybes”, “conditional on this being right”, and “I could be wrongs” were heard. There was none of the apocalyptic language you hear in the press.

Isn't that special

See the "Kids Tackle Climate Change by Learning How to 'Act Green'" press release here.

Excerpt:

According to a recent Scholastic News online poll, kids ranked the environment as one of their top issues in the upcoming presidential elections.

Actually, only 22.6% of kids listed global warming #1 in this online poll.

More excerpts from the press release:

Developed in consultation with an environmental scientist from the University of California at Berkeley, ACT GREEN! at http://www.scholastic.com/actgreen provides kids, parents and teachers with free actionable information that will help them preserve the environment. When kids enter the site, they are first directed to the Green Quiz, to test how environmentally conscious they are.
...
Downloadable appliance tags include a microwave tag that says, "I am a Green Machine," a thermostat tag that says, "Saving the world. One degree at a time," and an "Unplug Me" tag kids can attach to electrical outlets throughout their house or school. Each tag includes a short explanation of how environmentally appropriate the appliance is, and how to make it more green.

Altruistic Al Gore Joins Silicon Valley Venture Firm

Here.

The Conspiracy to Deny the Poor Mobility - and Opportunity

Here.

Excerpt:

Mobility is prosperity—a fact that humans have recognized since the dawn of civilization, when population centers arose next to navigable waterways.

Clouds over global warming

Here.

Excerpt:

It seems that some people get riveted to this issue because they would have another battle cry against their favorite culprits—the rich, the powerful, the government, the Establishment, Western world, etc.

Maybe you can no longer just assume that "everyone" believes in your alarmism

See the post here.

I think it's significant that so many alarmists seem to be abandoning the "science is settled" argument. To many of them, it seems that their "best" fallback argument has become the Greg Craven one, which I summarize as "let's drastically alter the world's economy, just in case Al Gore isn't wrong".

Climate Skeptic responds to that one here:

He uses a number of examples, including car insurance. He argues that one buys car insurance without actually knowing if he is going to crash his car, or how much such a crash might cost. If I had to summarize my response to Mr. Craven, I would retort "Yes, but you wouldn't pay $35,000 for car insurance if you only had a $30,000 car?" Costs matter a lot, as does the magnitude of risk. They can't just be shuffled off to the side.

Ethanol mandate would harm CO economy

Here.

Excerpt:

Recently, however, environmental scientists have turned against biofuels. New research has shown the significant ecological impact of farming more corn, a resource-intensive crop. And last September, an article in the prestigious journal Science demonstrated that global ethanol production emits two to nine times the greenhouse gas emissions "saved" by substituting it for gasoline.

So ethanol is bad for the environment, and Congress stopped supporting it, right? Wrong. Rational decision-making doesn't apply when two of the nation's most successful special interests are involved.

Take the corn lobby. These are the same people who convinced Congress to pay them to grow nothing. Collectively, they're known as King Corn.

Scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age

Here.

Excerpt:

Temperatures on Earth have stabilized in the past decade, and the planet should brace itself for a new Ice Age rather than global warming, a Russian scientist said in an interview with RIA Novosti Tuesday.

Brussels demands thousands more wind turbines across the UK

See the article here, then see the reactions in the comment section.

Reality scored a 48-8 win last Sunday night

Less than eight million people watched CBS' attempt to convince us that the planet is dangerously overheating.

At the same time, over 48 million people watched the Packers and Giants play football in bitterly cold (-25 windchill) temperatures.

GLOBAL WARMING BACKLASH

An alarmist notes the obvious here:

A movement against man-made global warming seems to be growing on the internet, and I think it will gather steam.

Elsewhere in the post and comment section, the author concedes that the skeptics may actually be right.

Najib Blames Global Warming For Govt’s Poor Preparation to Local Floods

Here.

Excerpt (see the post for links):

Just as with Gurney Drive, these fool-some-of-the-people-all-of-the-time politicians avidly hope to trick us into believing that the 0.00034147% of the atmosphere increase in carbon dioxide has more direct impact on local rivers than lousy drainage systems, deforestation, construction, bad village placement and poor administration.

Will the Ice Caps Melt?

Here.

EU says companies profit from carbon trading

Here.

Birds in Great Salt Lake Felled by Cholera by the Thousands

Here.

Excerpt:

...According to the United States Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center, they died from avian cholera.

The disease is not new to the West, but the recent outbreak was especially potent, said Tom Aldrich, an expert at the Utah division of wildlife resources. It flourishes in cold weather — last November was the coldest on record, Mr. Aldrich said — and rapidly spreads when there are concentrated populations of birds with diminished food resources.

Prince saves his energy in dramatic appearance at climate conference

Here.

Excerpts:

In the many years in which the Prince of Wales has attended official functions he has never appeared quite like this. At the alternative energy conference in Abu Dhabi he was not exactly there in the flesh. There was no video link either.

Instead, delegates were treated to a full-size, walking, talking, fiddling hologram of his royal highness, who made a brief speech then vanished back into thin air.

His appearance was the talk of the 2,500 delegates at the World Future energy summit, most of whom had flown thousands of miles to discuss renewable energy and climate change and how to save emissions.

The very sight of Prince Charles caused many to gasp, and they were also surprised by his reference to a common "creator" figure. "Scientists are now saying that the problem of climate change is now so grave and so urgent that we have less than 10 years to slow, stop and reverse greenhouse gas emissions. Common actions are needed in every country to protect the common inheritance that has been given to us by our creator..." said the prince.
...
Jonathon Porritt, the UK government's adviser on sustainable development, admonished the UN and energy companies for insisting that oil and gas could be part of the energy mix for a century...

Global Warming Scam to Cost EU $100 Billion

Here.

Evidently, everything opposed by anyone causes global warming

See "Klamath dams do add to warming" here.

Gee, Steve, thanks so much for the "education"

Excerpt from this article:

The most recent Sims game, SimCity Societies, even incorporates the effect of global warming. In the game, players build a community by placing roads, buildings and power sources throughout the region. The power sources range from options that emit high levels of carbon dioxide to more environmentally friendly alternatives like solar power and wind farms.

The game actually monitors the carbon released into the atmosphere as well as natural disasters like droughts, heat waves and powerful storms.

The video gamer is presented with a series of real-world issues that make the game seem more life-like than anyone could imagine.

"We have the opportunity to demonstrate the causes and effects of global warming," said Steve Seabolt of Electronic Arts. "We can educate players how seemingly small choices can have a big global impact."

The Bali "Roadmap" and Environmental Double Standards

Here.

Excerpt:

[Jared] Diamond undoubtedly thinks well of the UN Climate Change Conference held in Bali, Indonesia, December 3-14, 2007. It is easy for more reasonable people to poke fun at this gathering. As colder weather swept through the northern latitudes, delegates headed for a tropical resort to complain about “global warming.” They then spent two weeks in luxurious surroundings, calling on more common folk to cut back on their materialism. But behind the more pretentious statements about “green” lifestyles and mankind’s allegedly harmful effects on the environment, old fashioned realpolitik was much in evidence.

Warmie Psychic: EU To Go Eeeeu Over Poland

Here.

There Will Be No Satisfaction No Matter What The Determination Of Polar Bear Protection

Here.

Excerpt:

From 1983 until 2006, the bear population has inched up and has stayed pretty consistent in the low to mid 20,000s since. Isn’t it fair to ask how can we conclude that the polar bear is disappearing?

Is Carbon Trading the Next Big Thing?

Here.

Excerpt:

Not for nothing, as the Russians say, are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley pouring money into carbon trading. The giant financial firms need new products to sell into the increasingly interdependent global economy. So selling hot air--trading carbon credits for a cooler planet--could be the Next Big Thing. In fact, carbon trading volumes could eventually dwarf those from the sale of stocks, bonds and all other financial instruments.

The big banking firms are even researching ways to trade biodiversity--meaning, the once ridiculed idea of paying Peru, say, not to develop energy resources in pristine areas may not be far-fetched, after all.

According to recent Financial Times article, should consensus be attained on a plan to fight global climate change between the largest emitting jurisdictions, expenditures could top $1 trillion within five years.

[In an appeal for nearly $300 million], Red Cross Says Climate Change One of Greatest Threats Facing Humanity

Here.

CBS 'Global Warming Special' Host Likened Warming Skeptics to Holocaust Deniers

Here.

I'm watching this special on the DVR right now, and I agree that Scott Pelley's reporting is incredibly shoddy.

For example, the show suggests that polar bears are headed for extinction, claiming that they allegedly can "only hunt on the ice". So where's the ice in this video of a polar bear successfully hunting?

In this special, the omnipresent James Hansen appears yet again on national TV to make the odd claim that he's being "censored" by the Bush administration.

The Sun and Us by Al Gullon

Here.

Science Bloggers Want to Save the World

Excerpt from this post:

Science news has a hard time competing with drivel. During a panel discussion, Jennifer Jacquet of the Shifting Baselines blog illustrated just how big the problem is with a horrifying anecdote: When Al Gore made a major announcement about global warming; many major news outlets were preoccupied by the custody battle between Kevin Federline and Britney Spears.

I've got two questions:

1. What, specifically, was this alleged major announcement about global warming?

2. Of all people, why would Al Gore be chosen to make any major scientific announcement?

MMGW…Milking Tax Payers While They Can

Here.

From a linked article:

A Swedish university has received 3.8 million kronor ($590,000) in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch.

Heavy snow in China causes deaths and damage

Here.

"The Boycott"

Here.

Excerpt:

The film will be hilarious and poignant and utterly magical, and launch a worldwide eco-revolution by convincing every person who sees it that global warming isn’t just an environmental issue, it’s everyone’s issue and it’s absolutely imperative that they drop everything and dedicate their life to solving the problem. And they will.

Why is a trace gas the sole focus of most climate change debates?

Here.

Excerpt:

Attributing global climate change to human CO2 production is akin to trying to diagnose an automotive problem by ignoring the engine (analogous to the Sun in the climate system) and the transmission (water vapour) and instead focusing entirely, not on one nut on a rear wheel, which would be analogous to total CO2, but on one thread on that nut, which represents the human contribution.

Former IPCC Member from Argentina Doubts Man-made Climate Change

Here.

Second man found frozen

Here.

A related story is here, entitled "Killer cold takes a life".

Message from Viscount Monckton

Here.

Excerpt:

It will rapidly become evident that, notwithstanding the measures proposed or even adopted in mitigation of "global warming", carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere will continue to rise relentlessly, and harmlessly.

"I love plastic bags"

Here.

Excerpt:

...the greenhouse gases emitted in producing a paper bag have been estimated to be around five times greater than those from producing a plastic bag.

Quarter Of Chinese Wind Power Unplugged Due To Bad Planning

Here.

How not to measure temperature, part 47

Here.

Excerpt:

I’ve posted about stations that had proximity to a/c units before, but this one is of particular interest since it has dual a/c units to its west and east.

Antarctica Snowfall Increase

Here.

Carbon regulation vs millions of jobs

Here.

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, the current EU ETS price of carbon emissions is between 1 and 2 eurocents per ton. ;-)

Volcanic Poles and Glacier Melting

Here.

Follow up to CBS Global Warming Hysteria

Here.

Professor Ben Herman Of The University Of Arizona on Maximum Temperature Trends

Here.

Excerpt:

There is an issue with regards to U.S. surface temperature trends that seems to have been overlooked, although apparently well recognized. I am referring to the HO-83 thermometers that were installed at many USHCN sites as well as first order stations. It has been well documented (Gall et.al. 1992, Jones et.al. 1995, Karl et. al. 1995) and others.that a warm bias existed, primarily in the daily maximum temperature readings reported by these instruments. The error in the Tucson data was about 2-3 deg F, but this error was apparently different with each thermometer. Karl et. al. (1995) have suggested that the average for this error over the country was on the order of 0.5 deg C on the reported maximum temperatures. Thus, if the maximum temperatures were corrected by this amount, average temperatures in the U.S, would be lowered by about 0.25 deg C, assuming the minimum readings were correct. This would probably pretty much neutralize the reported trend increase during the late 80’s and 90’s in this country.

We Are All Nobel Laureates Now--Dumbing Down the Nobel Prize

Here.

Excerpt:

It is a shame that the public concept of "Nobel laureate" has to be dumbed down by quasi-impostors such as [Steven] Running. It is a huge shame that the NYTimes and most of the rest of the mainstream media abets in that process.

Proposed polar bear listing threatens YOUR future!!

Here.

EU to set easier CO2 regime for heavy industries

Here.

Velasco: Climate change, is it real?

Here.

Excerpt:

...to jump to the conclusion that the planet will drown, the weather will go berserk and the earth will turn against us because we release a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is preposterous, extremely alarmist and borders on lunacy.

At Birdforum, a strange new silence on global warming

About three short months ago, the "consensus" on Birdforum was that global warming is serious and caused by humans. Any skeptics must be idiots or must be funded by Exxon. (See the thread here).

Nowadays, most of the know-nothing alarmists out there seem to be missing in action. After a day, this global warming thread has only attracted a single response.

What happened to the Birdforum alarmists? I'm guessing that some of them have taken a little time to read about the skeptical side of this debate, and to their surprise, they've found that the alarmist case is vastly less solid than they'd assumed.

New York Times on food versus fuel

Here.

Excerpt:

A startling change is unfolding in the world’s food markets. Soaring fuel prices have altered the equation for growing food and transporting it across the globe. Huge demand for biofuels has created tension between using land to produce fuel and using it for food.

Even Senator Barbara Boxer's own supporters evidently don't share her climate alarmism

See the survey results here, and note that only about a quarter of respondents listed "Global warming/environment" as their number one issue.

See the commentary "Barbara Boxer, the Senate's New Al Gore" here.

Excerpt:

Since taking over as chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in January, California Sen. Barbara Boxer has emerged as a truly bizarre figure in the global warming debate. Making climate change the focus of committee activities, Boxer maintains that "the American people have the will to slow, stop, and reverse global warming."

Frozen pipes cause trouble in New Mexico

Here.

"most believe they should be allowed to build whatever home they like"

Here.

McCain’s Costly Tax on Energy

Here.

Gray Matter, Golden Balls

See the whole thing from Phil Stott here.

Secret Report Threatens European BioFuels Strategy

Excerpt from this Treehugger post:

Imagine the worst case scenario: developed nations, eager to do something about global warming, set minimum biofuels targets. Huge swaths of forest, relying also on land outside of those nations, are cleared to grow more crops. Petroleum-based fertilizers are required to grow the crops, and more fuels are needed to convert the crops to biofuel and transport them to the point of use. Subsidized biofuels producers can make a profit even with less efficient processing. By the time all these factors are thrown into the calculations, the biofuel tanked by Europeans barely saves a few percent of greenhouse emissions compared to using traditional fuels. And the forests are gone: with fewer trees to absorb CO2, the net effect is: worse global warming.

On top of that, social unrest grows, set off by rising food prices as crops are diverted for fuels, and by people having little say over how land is being used to serve the demands of other nations. Security of fuel supply is threatened.

Remember, according to this post, good ol' Al Gore "saved the ethanol" in the U.S.

Note also an excerpt from this page:

Vice President Al Gore maintains that “it’s well known that I’ve always supported ethanol. I have a consistent record of shoring up the farm safety net.” Gore, who as vice president cast a tie-breaking vote in 1994 against a proposal Senator Bill Bradley sponsored to cut tax incentives for ethanol fuel, adds that “I have not ducked when votes for ... agricultural interests were on the floor.”
Source: Sustainable Energy Coalition, media backgrounder #2 Nov 18, 1999

US unlikely to sign Kyoto, whoever wins office, energy official says

Here.

I'm so confused

See the Pielke Jr post here.

Excerpt:

I am so confused.

Focus the Nation is unadulterated political advocacy. But my campus forbids me to use my official time, paid for by taxpayers, to advocate for particular campaign issues. But global warming is so important. But my Chancellor forbids me to engage in political advocacy as part of my job. But my Chancellor is the keynote speaker for our Focus the Nation activities. But my job is to teach not indoctrinate. But I actually agree with many of the proposed policies. But it is not my job to use my platform as a professor to tell students what to think; I am supposed to teach them how to think and come to their own conclusions. But if I don't go along I'll be castigated as one of those bad guys, like a Holocaust denier or slave holder. But doing the right thing is so obvious.

Thank goodness I am on sabbatical.

A post about Focus the Nation is here.

Millions of Brits don't care about global warming?

Here.

Top scientist takes new tack on global warming

Here.