More from Christopher Booker

Here.

Excerpt:

"Surely this was just the moment in history for which the European Union was created." So said Prince Charles in Brussels on Thursday, as he won a standing ovation from MEPs for the most overtly pro-EU speech ever made by a British Royal. To the evident delight of the Foreign Office officials present, he not only unreservedly praised the European Commission and its President, Jose Manuel Barroso, for all they are doing to "fight global warming", but urged them to do more.

The only MEP who stayed seated during the ovation was Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, who said afterwards: "As a loyal monarchist I was the first to rise to my feet when the prince entered, because I was paying respect to a member of the Royal Family. But he then spoke as a politician, making a highly political speech with which I profoundly disagreed."

As it happened, the timing of the prince's remarks was impeccable. They came just when satellite data are confirming that the northern hemisphere (except for western Europe) has been enduring its coldest winter for decades, with snow cover at its greatest extent since 1966. January's global temperatures were lower than their entire 20th-century average. Even as the prince expressed fears that within seven years summer ice in the Arctic might be gone forever, Antarctic summer ice was at its highest January level ever recorded, 30 per cent above normal.

Amid the continuing absence of sunspot activity, many thoughtful climate scientists now believe that the Earth may be entering on a period of marked cooling, similar to that which in the 1970s prompted fears of a "new ice age".

The "warmists" are already trying to explain that this recent drop in global temperatures is only "masking the underlying warming trend". But if such continued emissions of hot air are to have any practical effect, I am sure that all those in China, Afghanistan, the USA and elsewhere who have recently been suffering their worst blizzards in decades will be hugely grateful.

Gore speaks at the Climate Change and Wine Conference

From this post:

The temperature of Venus is 455 degrees because CO2 floats in the air. This is where is we are heading because we are drawing it out of the Earth, trapping it and increasing temperature.

Update: Climate Skeptic responds here, in a post entitled "Off By a Factor of 300,000".

IPCC's Pachauri: 2.5 million people in India losing their lives due to air pollution

From this article:

Dr Pachauri noted that India was losing 10 per cent of its GDP on account of air pollution and degradation of natural resources. He observed that over 2.5 million people in India were losing their lives due to air pollution. He urged industry to promote water conservation, energy management and healthcare awareness for the masses through CSR initiatives.

From this "Times of India" article, entitled "'Indoor' air pollution is the biggest killer":

NEW DELHI: Indoor air pollution (IAP), resulting from chulhas burning wood, coal and animal dung as fuel, is claiming a shocking 500,000 lives in India every year, most of whom are women and children.

According to the World Health Organisation, India accounts for 80% of the 600,000 premature deaths that occur in south-east Asia annually due to exposure to IAP. Nearly 70% of rural households in India don't even have ventilation.

What's worse, WHO is finding it tough to get donors to fund programmes that seek to raise awareness of this unknown menace, besides providing smokeless chulhas or liquid cooking gas cylinders to the rural poor.

The WHO has estimated that globally, it would need $650 million to change the way most of the world cooks. However, it has managed to raise just 10% of the necessary funds.

Speaking to TOI, Alex Hildebrand, WHO's environmental health adviser for South Asia, said, "Donors don't find indoor air pollution a sexy enough cause to donate money, even though more than 1.6 million people die every year from the effects of breathing poisonous smoke.

Can someone explain why carbon dioxide "pollution" gets a colossal amount of emphasis from the UN and Pachauri, when the death toll from actual pollution is [reportedly] so high?

Is this partially because it's so much harder to extort money from the US for fighting real indoor pollution than for fighting phantom outdoor pollution?

A Reflection by the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro

From this page:

I deliberately did not confront any of the candidates from both parties on the very delicate subject of climate change to avoid disturbing illusions and dreams. Publicity does not affect the laws of physics and biology. These are less understandable and more complicated.

I expressed a few months ago the certainty that the most knowledgeable person on the subject of climate change and the most popular would not be running for president. He had already been a candidate and victory was snatched from him as the result of a scandalous fraud. He understood the risks of nature and politics. Obviously, I refer to Albert Gore. He is a good barometer. We have to ask him every day how he slept. His answers would doubtlessly be useful to the desperate scientific community which desires the survival of the species.

In my next reflection I will deal with a subject of interest to many compatriots, but I won't give any hints.

I apologize to the readers for the time and the space that I took for five days with The Republican Candidate.

Fidel Castro Ruz

February 15, 2008

Gently tweaking your global "warming" hysteria pitch for people looking at high snowbanks

From this page:

[Sierra Club Executive Director Stephen Hazell] says with people in Grey Bruce and Simcoe looking at 4' high snowbanks, they need to understand global warming or climate change isn't simply about warmer temperatures.

He says while the global temperature is up a bit, the biggest change you will notice is wild weather, huge swings in temperatures.

As opposed to the Earth's previous 4.5 billion years, when temperatures always remained, you know, nicely stable.

In a new video game, humanity has ruined the earth’s climate

Here.

So isn't "Pong" meaningful enough or exciting enough for this new generation of gamers?

"Reward a hero - buy GM"

Here.

I watched AIT's special features so you don't have to

For some reason, I took the time to watch all the special features on the "An Inconvenient Truth" DVD. I wanted to get some insight into what these people could possibly have been thinking.

As I suspected, it sounds like Al Gore himself provided essentially all of the "scientific thinking" behind this movie. It appears that producer Laurie David and director Davis Guggenheim just gulped down all of "hero" Al Gore's claims without question. After all, since Gore has given this slide presentation so very many times, he must know what he's talking about!

It sounds like the people working on the film sincerely believed this stuff, speaking of "tearing up" at the end, etc. They sound extremely grateful to be part of this wonderful movie, which they really did see as critical in "saving the world" from catastrophe.

David, Guggenheim, etc sound absolutely sure that the science is on their side, with "every scientific article" saying that catastrophic warming was a "fact". Deniers must be funded by Big Oil; they are compared to people who believe the Earth is flat or who don't believe in gravity.

To these people, it seems that Hurricane Katrina provided absolutely rock-solid confirmation of the dangers of CO2. They evidently had no idea of the devastating storms that occurred well before the invention of the SUV or the beer fridge.

Notice any similarities in these state climate websites?

Minnesota (Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group)

Iowa (Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council)

Montana (Montana Climate Change Advisory Committee)

New Mexico (New Mexico Climate Change Action Council and the New Mexico Climate Change Advisory Group)

Florida (Governor’s Action Team on Energy and Climate Change)

A common thread appears to be the strong influence of an alarmist group called The Center for Climate Strategies.

This really does look like "stealth environmental advocacy" to me. More details are here and here.

Nice line from Klaus

From this post:

If you want to live in the future in which policies are adopted without any solid arguments to skittishly fight against a possible slight warming of our planet, policies that negatively influence both the poorest groups of our citizens as well as (especially) the poor countries of the third world, then yesterday is a better choice again.

Wheat prices gone wild

Here.

Southern Hemisphere Trends in Sea Ice Extent

Here.

Freezing weather kills over 900 people in Afghanistan

From this article:

KABUL, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - The death toll of people killed by unusually severe cold weather in Afghanistan since December last year has risen to 926, a spokesman for the country's Ministry for Emergency Situations said on Saturday.

The spokesman said that only within the last five days the number of people killed by the frosts increased by 129.

The national weather authorities earlier said that this winter is the coldest on record with temperatures reaching lows of -30 degrees Centigrade (-22 Fahrenheit) in 17 of the country's 34 provinces.

At least 100 people across the country have had limbs amputated due to frostbite, most of them shepherds who became lost in mountainous areas. The number of amputees is still on the rise.

China: Rich `culprits' on Climate Change

From this article:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Negotiations on a new treaty to fight global warming will fail if rich nations are not treated as "culprits" and developing countries as "victims," China's top climate envoy said.

The whole world must take action to confront climate change, but developed countries have a "historical responsibility" to do much more because their unrestrained emissions in the past century are responsible for global warming, said Ambassador Yu Qingtai.

"The United States and the developed states as a whole are the countries that created the problem, caused the problem of climate change in the first place. In my view, that's what a culprit means," he said in an interview this week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly debate on climate change.

From this Wired article, entitled "China's 2030 CO2 Emissions Could Equal the Entire World's Today":

Coal power has been driving the stunning, seven plus percent a year growth in China's economy. It's long been said said that China was adding one new coal power plant per week to its grid. But the real news is worse: China is completing two new coal plants per week.

Why many IPCC scientists desperately need adult supervision

Ok, so in many Northern Hemisphere locations, we're suffering the worst winter in 50-100 years. What should we do?

From this post:

Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution and Stanford, the lead author on one chapter of the latest IPCC report, spoke today at the Marschak Colloquium.
...
[Major points from the talk:]
...
11. We may need albedo-increasing options, at least to cut the top off the carbon peak for a couple of decades. Simplest approach seems to be to put huge hoses on smokestacks and support them with balloons, in order to release sulphates into the upper troposphere to produce Mount-Pinatubo-like cooling. Cost is manageable; dwell time is about a year, making the process tunable. The big problem would be acid rain. But it's certainly time to put some substantial effort into figuring out whether increasing the albedo is workable, and if so how to do it.

The Sam Ervin test

Here.

Sweden to begin demanding "ecodriving skills" from those applying for a car licence

Here.

Cold Spell Not Due To Climate Change, Says Expert

Here.

Going solar is a luxury few can afford

Here.

Excerpts:

IT’S not easy being green—nor is it cheap. With the best will (and some of the most generous handouts) in the world, solar power still makes little sense for the average homeowner, even in sunny southern California.
...
The problem is that solar-energy technology has been improving incrementally, but its costs have been falling slowly.

If solar cells had abided by Moore’s Law, they too would have halved in price every 18 months or so—and we would all be running our homes on sunshine. But getting photons from sunlight to dislodge more and more electrons in semi-conducting materials like silicon, and so generate electricity, is harder than building a better microchip.

The first solar cells—built more than a century ago—had conversion efficiencies of around 1%. Since then, their efficiency has doubled once only every 30 years—a veritable snail’s pace compared with the speed of microchip development.
...
Here’s where going green gets tough. At today’s prices, your correspondent would have to stump up $48,000 for the solar panels alone. Add the cost of the switching modules, the power controller, the fault protector, the DC-to-AC inverter and the service panel—not to mention the installation charges and the contractor’s profit—and the final bill could easily come to $65,000.

What about incentives and tax credits? That depends on where precisely you live and how effective an installation you have. To get anything like a full grant in your correspondent’s neck of the woods, the array would have to be facing due south and tilted at an angle of 34 degrees to the sun. The first might be possible; the second would definitely not. At best, Mayhem Manor would qualify for about $12,000 worth of local assistance plus a $2,000 federal grant.

Borrowing the balance at today’s interest rates would mean repayments of roughly $600 a month for ten years, even after setting the interest charges against tax. And all that just to feel good about saving $75 of electricity a month. Better to buy a couple of tons worth of [bogus?] carbon offsets each year for $70 and have done with it.

Bottled water industry is bordering on the immoral, says minister

Here.

Climate Clock Initiative!

From this page:

The Climate Clock Global Initiative is seeking ideas from artist-led teams to create a major artwork entitled Climate Clock, which will measure changes in greenhouse gas levels and be the first in a series of global projects calling attention to climate change. Climate Clock will be an instrument of long-term measurement and will collect data for 100 years. The artwork will be located in downtown San José, California, Silicon Valley's city center, and will be a collaboration between an artist-led team composed of artists, international and Silicon Valley engineers and other creative professionals who are working with climate measurement and data visualization.
...
It is anticipated that the budget for the construction of Climate Clock will be between $5 and $15 million, depending upon the scope of the final proposal. These funds are currently being raised, and will continue to be secured during the design phase of the project.

Yo, Peter! The Northern sea ice is back: Corcoran

Here.

The ice between Canada and southwestern Greenland has reached its highest level in 15 years

Here.

Carbon Emissions "Success" Stories

Here.

Excerpt:

Bottom line? No country, save Haiti and Somalia, is currently producing emissions at a level even remotely consistent with levels consistent with an 80% reduction in the world's totals. Hence, all of the finger pointing and debates in political negotiations are based on relative hypocrisy ("We're doing relatively less bad that you are!") or faith-based assumptions in the efficacy of future policies ("Our targets are more aggressive than yours!").

Recent cold snap helping Arctic sea ice, scientists find

From this article:

Temperatures have stayed well in the -30s C and -40s C range since late January throughout the North, with the mercury dipping past -50 C in some areas.

Satellite images are showing that the cold spell is helping the sea ice expand in coverage by about 2 million square kilometres, compared to the average winter coverage in the previous three years.
...
The cold is also making the ice thicker in some areas, compared to recorded thicknesses last year, Lagnis added.

"The ice is about 10 to 20 centimetres thicker than last year, so that's a significant increase," he said.

IBD: Will Global Warming Save Lives?

Here.

Kerry keynotes climate conference

Here.

Excerpts:

He said if scientists are wrong about global climate change, the worst that can happen under this bill is the creation of new jobs, an improved economy, more sustainability and lack of dependence on corrupt Middle Eastern governments.

I wonder why we're suddenly seeing this "if scientists are wrong" stuff so much recently?

Kerry said there are several economic benefits to striving for energy efficiency. He cited the management of a National Instruments company in Dallas that looked at the building plan, consolidated the building to two floors instead of three, so the building takes up less space and uses less energy, and used straight pipes in the construction of the interior for energy conservation. This move kept 80,000 jobs and saved over $3 million per year for the company.

I hope Kerry was misquoted here. How, exactly, did that move keep 80,000 jobs?

Brown College senior Laura Kelley said she was glad Kerry spoke at the event and that she enjoyed being surrounded by others at the speech who truly found climate change alarming. She said it was a drastic change from the recent Student Association debates about the environmental blanket tax as well as the general lack of concern from students about Orientation Week’s common reading and climate change lecture.

Exhaustburger Cooks While You Drive

Here.

Some Google Trends

"climate change" vs "global warming" (US) here

"climate change" vs "global warming" vs "webkinz" (US) here

"climate change" vs "global warming" (UK) here

My conclusion: For the general public in the U.S. and U.K., carbon dioxide hysteria peaked in early 2007.

The media's continued desperate flogging of the global warming horse is utterly failing to panic the public.

Is the swagger gone at RealClimate?

I don't spend a lot of time reading the RealClimate stuff, but in glancing around over there, I'm getting the distinct impression that those guys are getting more uncomfortable and defensive.

Although they're trying to keep up a brave front, I think the continued failure of the Earth to heat up as modeled is really starting to get to them. Posting frequency seems to have dropped, and the self-assured mindset that produced gems like this seems to be vanishing...

Lawyers: Make Room on the Climate-Change Bandwagon

Here.

Excerpt:

Lawyers are following banks, consultants, public-relations people, journalists and other groups trying to make a buck out of the maelstrom of global warming.

Stabilizing Climate Allegedly Requires Near-zero Carbon Emissions!

From this ScienceDaily page:

Now that scientists have reached a consensus that carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the major cause of global warming, the next question is: How can we stop it?

"The chance that the consensus view turns out to be false is much larger than you would have thought"

Here.

Global-warming sceptic Klaus re-elected Czech president

Here and here.

From that second link:

One of Klaus's tasks in the second term will be to abolish the global warming religion in the European Union that will be led by the Czech Republic in H1 of 2009.

Warming Waters May Make Antarctica Hospitable to Sharks; Potentially Disastrous Consequences!!!

Here.

The author of Amazon's formerly 186,896th-ranked book speaks

From this article:

[Middle-school principal Jacob Sackin's] first novel for young-adults, “Islands,” explores the story of two families in a futuristic world decimated by global warming.

“One of the ways I deal with knowledge about global warming is to create the worst case scenario,” said Sackin, who borrowed the name of the main character, Saskia, from a student he taught in Oregon.

Sackin’s story tracks the two families in a world that is too hot to live in during the daylight hours. One family lives primitively on the outside, only emerging from their cave at night, while the other lives in a technologically marvelous pyramid that protects it from the elements.
...
“Just the fact that this is a possible future is really scary to me,” Sackin said.

Just the fact that Sackin could be my kids' principal is scary to me...

Note: I just checked, and the sales ranking of this book was #649,569.

A telling little quote from Bush?

From this article:

"There are a lot of issues that I suspect people are going to opine about during the Olympics -- the Dalai Lama crowd, you've got the Global Warming folks, you got Darfur.

Speaking of "global warming folks" seems odd, given that the debate is supposed to be over, with "everyone" now on the alarmist side.

A perspective from alarmist Chris Rapley

I thought this whole article was quite interesting.

He says lots of alarming things, then says something that many skeptics would agree with:

The greenhouse effect overall is about 30C, so if you tweak by pushing it up the way we have, it's not surprising you might see a degree or so of warming.

There's plenty of skepticism in the comment thread.

"International Conference on Climate and Wine" founder's frustration

Starting at about the 4:45 mark at the video here, Pancho Campo bemoans his lack of success at reaching "normal people" with his [alarmist] presentations on climate change.

He says they come up to him afterwards and say "That was a great presentation, but that's not really going to happen".

Oh, please

From this post:

Dunster castle in Somerset in the UK, has been protecting Britain from the threat of invading armies for nearly 2000 years – and now, with rising sea levels posing the main threat to Britain, the castle owners have installed solar panels, so that the building can play its part in protecting Britain against climate change.

A little stunt by Greenpeace

See the post (and glance at the comments) here.

"Cheers" bartenders duel over the environment

1. Sam "Mayday" Malone here:

Danson also said the issue of overfishing and ocean contamination is competing against global warming for the public's attention. But, he said, both equally deserve the spotlight.

2. In a video here, Woody Boyd claims that global warming may drive 50% of Earth's life into extinction. He doesn't even mention overfishing and ocean contamination!

"anyone got any idea of the energy cost of carbon sequestration?"

From this post:

By the way, anyone got any idea of the energy cost of carbon sequestration? Capturing, compressing, transporting and injecting this stuff takes energy, so how much energy? Would it require an extra 10%, 20%, perhaps 50% fuel resource to get the same output if you are wasting so much energy putting carbon back underground? Pretty stupid to waste say an extra 30% of your coal fueling the reburial of carbon you have expended energy mining in the first place, no?

A CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGE

From this post:

From Lee C. Gerhard [leeg@sunflower.com], Senior Scientist Emeritus, Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Can anyone out there provide me with any empirical data in support of the theory that humans control climate warming? No, don't tell me that climate is changing - we geologists absolutely know that climate changes all the time, in both directions, and at many scales of time and intensity.

Don't give me results of computer modeling - those are not empirical data, they are the results of very serious attempts to place numbers on natural phenomena, but they are still based on assumptions and estimates, and have not been able to replicate past climate changes, particularly over the last 1500 years. Computer models are currently nothing more than scientific theories set to mathematical music.

Bring us some data, some values that support the concept. Right now the data show correlative changes in temperature and solar activity, modified by ocean current movement and orbital variations, many of which are predictable and which have operated to change climate for billions of years.

Yes, there is an increase in carbon dioxide, but its effects drop logarithmically with its increase. Thus, it doesn't pose a threat. All told the full greenhouse effect, mostly water vapor, does make Earth a habitable planet.

Please don't argue that climate is changing at rates and intensities not ever seen before. That is just not true. Read the data already out there from the geologists and those who study past climate change.

Tell me why otherwise competent scientists argue for their theory but fail to provide any support for their theory other than constant repetition of untrue statements and alarmist exaggerations. Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." Is that what is happening?

How much money should be pumped into the "clean energy" bubble?

1. From this article:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. institutional investors pledged at a U.N. summit on Thursday to invest $10 billion over two years in technologies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to pressure companies to disclose their risks associated with climate change.
...
John Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO, a federation of unions, told the summit that some of the $5 trillion of union workers' retirement funds should be invested in ways that help fight climate change. "These deferred wages of working people are the capital that can fuel the energy economy of the future," he said.

Some analysts have said green technologies like solar power, ethanol and biodiesel are forming an investment bubble that could soon pop.

2. From that article on Gore and subprime carbon:

A report by the McKinsey Global Institute released at the U.N. conference said major investments over the next decade in boosting the output from various types of energy that consumers use could earn investors double-digit rates of return.

3. Given that billions of dollars in private money are pouring into these "clean" technologies, do we really need to inject a lot of public money too?

From Hillary Clinton's website:

A $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund, paid for in part by oil companies, to fund investments in alternative energy. The SEF will finance one-third of the $150 billon ten-year investment in a new energy future contained in this plan;

4. A related post is here, entitled "Clean energy will make Gore rich".

‘Climate crime scene’ marks launch of WWF Scotland campaign

From this page:

To mark the launch of the campaign the charity today unveiled a mock crime scene with a polar bear outline and ‘police’ tape – printed with the words "climate crime scene"– in Scotland’s capital city. This is the first of 25 planned events to be staged across the country aimed at highlighting how Scotland can avoid becoming the scene of future climate change ‘crimes’ and to enable the people of Scotland to make their voices heard. WWF is calling on the Scottish Government and Parliament to establish a strong Climate Change Bill.

How not to measure temperature, part 51

Here.

Can you guess the approximate date when the temperature station was moved?



Reconfiguring the world economy based on data like this is beyond insane.

Gore: Let's reconfigure the entire world economy based on my junk "scientific" claims

Here.

Excerpts:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Al Gore advised Wall Street leaders and institutional investors Thursday to ditch businesses too reliant on carbon-intensive energy — or prepare for huge losses down the road.

"You need to really scrub your investment portfolios, because I guarantee you — as my longtime good redneck friends in Tennessee say, I guarandamntee you — that if you really take a fine-tooth comb and go through your portfolios, many of you are going to find them chock-full of subprime carbon assets," the former vice president said.

Carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is the leading component of "greenhouse gases," which scientists say are playing a key role in warming the globe.

Gore's remarks before a high-profile business crowd that collectively controls some $20 trillion in capital were intended to unleash a financial ripple effect that could force the world to start putting a price on carbon emissions.

Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to warn about climate change, compared the financial risks facing investors in carbon-using industries with the meltdown in the market for subprime mortgages given to people with blemished credit records or low incomes.

"Similarly, the assumption that you can safely invest in assets that come from business models that assume carbon is free is an assumption that is about to go splat," he said. "You have lots of assets, many of you do, in your portfolios right now that truly do deserve that epithet 'subprime.'"
...
Fifty U.S. and European institutional investors managing $1.75 trillion in assets agreed to invest $10 billion more in energy efficiency and "clean energy" technologies over the next two years and to aim for a 20 percent reduction in energy from core real estate investment holdings over three years. California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said his state's leading pension funds would invest more than $800 million in environmental technology with similar aims.

Malaria warning as UK becomes warmer

Check out the alarmist hogwash here.

Excerpt:

The UK is to be hit by regular malaria outbreaks, fatal heatwaves and contaminated drinking water within five years because of global warming, the Government has warned the NHS.

Too Much Ice: Polar Bears Starving

Here.

I question how much McCain really believes in climate alarmism

From this post:

[McCain] talked for a while about global warming in a wheedling sort of way. Basically, “even if we’re wrong about global warming, we’ll develop some neat new technologies.” Meh.

Why ‘climate scientist’ is becoming a term of derision

Here.

Climate Orthodoxy Is Given Little Respect by Anyone Acquainted with Actual Science

Here.

The Weather Channel’s Unintentional Green Comedy

Here.

A new lesson for California students? Global warming

Here.

New CBO Study Further Exposes Cap-and-Trade Flaws

Here.

New Skeptical Documentary to be released: Carbon Dioxide and the "Climate Crisis" - Reality or Illusion?

Here.

Ethanol: Clear and Present Danger

Here.

Use your Leap Day to adjust the Earth's "thermostat"!

From this article:

A campaign has started to give workers an extra day of paid leave every leap year, on the condition they use it to help tackle climate change.

Ok, so which way should we adjust it? Warmer, or colder?

Well, since we know for sure that millions of people are in misery from the cold, and we've heard claims about polar bears being too warm, how about opting for colder?

The Sad Legacy of David Suzuki, Emotional Bully Intolerant of Anyone

Here.

Carbon tax? Not yet, thanks. We want more coal and oil: Corcoran

Here.

Excerpt:

Too much can never be said of the great climate change policy farce. As many parts of the world suffer through harsh cold spells, record snow and deep-freeze conditions, governments and politicians continue to pursue hilariously contradictory policies to make the world colder still. Or so they claim. What's really going on is another matter. Consider the latest news on oil and coal.

Scientist Equates Climate Alarmism to Witch Hunts

Here.

Junk Science: Mayor Gloomberg

Here.

Global warming ignored in Minnesota politics?

An article on Tim Pawlenty's "State of the State" address, along with reactions from others, is here.

Note that nobody mentions "global warming" or "climate change".

I don't think climate alarmists find much solace in this paragraph:

On the energy front, Pawlenty said Minnesota should continue to lead efforts to "Americanize" energy production. Homegrown energy will create jobs and improve the environment, he said.

Maybe this spring will be the earliest of all 4.5 billion springs to date?

See "Volunteers across the Nation to Track Climate Clues in Spring Flowers" here.

Polar Bears Are The Wrong Target Say Inuit

Here.

Wait until a skeptic dies, then immediately claim that he agreed with some of your alarmism?

From a New York Times obituary on Robert Jastrow (who headed NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies for 20 years):

Dr. Jastrow also became a prominent skeptic on climate change issues, arguing that scientists who warned of a global warming crisis were misattributing nature’s effects on climate to the effects of mankind. Dr. Arking, a climate scientist at John Hopkins University who continued to visit his old mentor on a regular basis until two days before his death, recalled arguing the issue with Dr. Jastrow, finding him less and less willing to make any concessions in their discussions.

“I tried to dissuade him on some issues,” Dr. [Albert] Arking said, recalling that Dr. Jastrow responded: “Yeah, you’re probably right, but this is the way we have to put it. We have to convince people that this is not the catastrophe that people were making it out to be.”

From an December 2001 piece by Frederick Seitz and Robert Jastrow:

We find the scientific evidence clearly indicates the global warming in the last 100 years is likely not due mostly to human activities.

Update 1: A related Newsbusters article is here, entitled "NYT Disgracefully Advances Global Warming Alarmism in an Obituary".

Update 2: A very interesting followup with Dr. Arking is here.

Nice two-page flyer on carbon dioxide hysteria

See this two-page "Don't Tax Our Breath" flyer from "Minnesotans For Global Warming".

Check out the graph of carbon dioxide below, and then ponder the likelihood that this trace gas will kill "everybody".

Raving lunacy from Prince Charles

See the remarkable stuff here:

The Prince of Wales has called for a "war" on climate change warning that the world faced a catastrophe without a "revolutionary" approach to the threat.

In his first speech to the European Parliament, Prince Charles delivered an apocalyptic warning that time was running out unless there was concerted action.

"For me, the crux of the problem is - and I only pray I will be proven wrong - that the doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight," he said.

"We are simply not reacting quickly enough. We cannot be anything less than courageous and revolutionary. If we are not, the result will be catastrophe for all of us, but with the poorest in our world hit hardest of all. In this sense, it is surely comparable to war," he said.

"The lives of billions of people depend on your response and none of us will be forgiven by our children and grandchildren if we falter and fail. I don’t think there is a more urgent issue for any of us to be addressing at work, at home, and indeed in every facet of our lives, than climate change."

He said that the EU needed to show stronger leadership by uniting public and private sectors and non-governmental organisations.

"Determined and principled leadership has never been more needed. Surely this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created," he said. "Can that moment not be captured before it slips lifeless from our grasp?"

I wonder if this means that the Prince may cut back to a 236-foot luxury yacht on his next tour of the Caribbean?

Global Warming Will Force Us All To Eat Bugs

Here.

Around the world with no petrol?

From this article:

"This is the first time in history a car is travelling around the world only powered by solar energy. I have a big trailer behind me with six square metres of solar powered cells which give me about half of the energy that I need. The other half is produced in Switzerland with solar cells fed into the grid and I'm allowed to take out of the grid the same amount of electricity from my account, which is 6000-kilowatt hours."

I'd be more impressed if he used a trailer with 12 square meters of solar cells to travel the world without connecting to the grid.

Has Jim Hansen received enough news coverage?

Here.



A related post is here.

Big Climate's strange 'science'

From this page:

Would you trust a software engineer to build a bridge?
...
The scientists who interest me in this field are those who can draw on the experience of a lot of people who have come before them. And uniformly in these areas I find scepticism. People who write mathematical models of complex systems for a living tend to find the climate models very unconvincing. Geologists find the arguments very unconvincing. Engineers find the arguments unconvincing. And astrophysicists find the arguments unconvincing.
...
The climate models seem to be largely driven by over-fitting to a small sample set and positive feedback. The small sample set - at most 30 years of accurate data - might be enough to try and predict one or two years, but 50 year predictions? Ignoring the biggest effect on global warming - water vapour - is surely going to cause problems.

Positive feedback in engineering invariably results in unstable systems - so we have to ask why do most if not all of the climate models rely on it to get doomsday predictions? For the Earth to have survived as long as it has with a stable climate, through major events like ice-ages or volcanic eruptions, there is little doubt that a degree of negative climate feedback is essential.

The myth of Europe’s leadership in the fight against climate chaos

From this post:

Europe might lead in political rhetoric about climate targets but its achievements tell another story. You don’t make effective policy by formulating targets on the basis of nice alliterations (20-20-20 by 2020). What is much more important is to see what is happening on the ground. Have companies changed technologies as a result of the EU’s emissions trading scheme? Hardly. Most of them have made big windfall profits but where are the investments in clean technologies?

Causes of climate change

Here.

Kansas: Senate to Take Final Action on Power Plants

From this story:

The Kansas Senate will take final action on a bill allowing construction of two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas.

The Senate rejected a proposal to impose the state's first rules on carbon dioxide emissions. Such emissions have been linked by many scientists to global warming.
...
The Senate's vote was 32-3 against imposing CO2 rules.

The next economic bubble: in "alternative energy and infrastructure"?

Here.

I think this claim diverges significantly from reality:

Reducing carbon emissions trumps all the economic factors now that, after a 15 year struggle, the informed public is officially terrified by global warming.

Seasonal Forecasts and the Colorado Winter

Here.

A kid's prize-winning poem about the alleged plight of the polar bears!

From this article:

As I lie here in the warmth of my mother
Hidden in the darkness of our den
The world outside comes to an end
The melting snow will soon fall into our path
Our special place will be no more
The number of us will plummet
Straight to the core of our dying planet
So save us and we will always be at peace
Save the polar bears

Here's a quick rebuttal poem that I just cobbled together:

Polar bears have been around 200,000 years
And they still appear to be thriving
They survived the Holocene climatic optimum
Between 5,000 and 9,000 years ago
When it was a lot warmer than now
So the idea that a bit more warming will kill them off soon
Is a non-starter
Especially since the recent trend is towards
Cooling

"Investor Summit on Climate Risk" at UN HQ today

Details here.

From a related press release here:

"The Summit's agenda seems to be a one-sided view of climate change science and economics," said Steve Milloy of AFM. "Missing from the agenda is the dreadful experience of European countries trying and failing to implement the Kyoto Protocol and a discussion of the economic harm that could be caused by the Lieberman-Warner climate change legislation under consideration in the Senate," Milloy noted.

"We believe many companies are failing to do adequate due diligence on climate change profiteering schemes," said Borelli. "We're concerned about what may happen when the global warming bubble they're creating bursts like the subprime bubble," Borelli added.

"Moreover, since state treasurers have a fiduciary responsibility to manage the state's pension funds on sound economic principles without regard to political considerations, it's somewhat frightening to think that pension fund investments could be influenced by the information presented at the Climate Change Summit," added Milloy.

3'-By-4' Plot Of Green Space Rejuvenates Neighborhood

Here.

Create Your Own Climate Skeptic Think Tank: Answer Those Nagging Doubts

Here.

Do not calculate correlations after smoothing data

Here.

Climate Debate (3): The Church of AGW

From this post:

I am not arguing that “lay people” can “challenge scientific opinion”. It is a given. A scientist that cannot defend his argument (for example, on the pages of SciAm) is clearly in trouble.

Congratulations, Al Gore and Lonnie Thompson!

From "Al Gore and US Scientists to collect prestigious Israeli prize" here:

Al Gore, famous for educating the world about the dangers of global warming and climate change, will be arriving in Israel this May after winning one of Israel's most prestigious prizes, the Dan David Prize, valued at $1 million.
...
"The 2008 Dan David Prize honors Al Gore for establishing climate crisis as a moral and spiritual imperative, thereby helping to galvanize international action against global warming," said the prize jury.

But Gore won't be the only American expected to visit Israel's shores to collect a Dan David prize. A $1 million award will also be shared by US and British scientists working in the field of geosciences. They are professors Ellen Moseley-Thompson and Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University, and Geoffrey Eglinton from Bristol University.

Some interesting background on the junk "science" of Gore and Thompson is here and here.

Ben cuts the carbon AND the romance on Valentine’s Day

Here.

Record cold in northern Vietnam

From this article:

The 29-day cold spell started on January 14 in the north. The previous longest spells were 26 days in 1968 and 28 days in 1989.

But National Hydro-meteorological Centre director Bui Minh Tang warns that this spell could continue until February 20, or a total of 36 days. (VNA)

Definitions for the global warming fanatics who can't tolerate disagreement with their views

Here.

The need for fossil fuels will last for decades, according to BP’s chief scientist

Here.

Maybe burning our food wasn't the greatest idea of all time

See "Cereal stockpiles continue to fall" here.

Extreme Cold in Southwest Asia Seen from Above

Here.

Where have all the sunspots gone?

See the whole thing here.

New Global Warming Bill

Here.

WWF video--our ecological sins will lead to the Great Flood

Mythical Global Warming

Here.

Nuremberg for global warming skeptics?

Here.

More folly bites the dust?

From a post entitled "Commercial Ocean Fertilization Project Halted" here:

Planktos, the California company trying to turn a profit by fertilizing the ocean with iron dust, pulled the plug on planned field tests on Wednesday, citing a lack of funds. At the company’s Web site, planktos.com, a simple notice blamed the shutdown on a “highly effective disinformation campaign waged by anti-offset crusaders.”

The business plan had been to sell “carbon offset” credits earned by triggering blooms of phytoplankton that, in theory, would absorb a predictable amount of the climate-warming gas carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and then sink to the seabed. The credits would be sold to companies or individuals trying to compensate for unavoidable emissions of carbon dioxide (from driving, flying, and the like).

Planktos stock is currently trading near zero.

Climate change: yes? no? banana?

From this post:

Global warming is just one of many, many emergency environmental issues -- like, the world is just plain looking trashy lately -- but, hey, warming gets all the press these days. Whether or not the uptick in earthly sweatiness is caused by man ("anthropogenic") or cosmos (solar flares?) is kind of a moot point: everyone pretty much agrees there's some warming going on, and, to me, anything that panics consumers into using less and actually thinking about how products are made and where they come from is a good thing. Consumer consciousness needs a swift kick in the pants -- let the panic continue!

I encounter this kind of thinking quite often. I don't think these people have any idea of the damage that can be done by misguided efforts to deal with this non-problem.

Are climate models like horoscopes?

See "The Consistent-With Game: On Climate Models and the Scientific Method" here.

Bingaman Skeptical About Ethanol

Here.

Excerpt:

[Democrat] Jeff Bingaman, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, expressed his skepticism about the viability of ethanol as a successful alternative fuel in a Wired blogpost. On the same day, John Fleck, at his ABQJournal blog, writes about unintended consequences of biofuel production.

INTERVIEW-Arctic ice unlikely to see record melt in 2008

Here.

Excerpt:

Some experts project that the ice could vanish in summer by mid-century...

So now we're back to "mid-century" again? Just two months ago, "scientists" were pointing at 2012.

Bulldoze us back to the caves

Here.

Camelot, meet the New Deal

See the Chris Horner post here.

Excerpt:

One of [Obama's] money lines was “we are going to spend billions of dollars on solar, wind, and biodiesel.” Yes. It's criminal that we haven't done that yet.

The details of how those billions would be spent were less amusing: “We will hire young people who don't have a trade and give them a trade making homes more energy efficient, insulating homes, changing light bulbs, reducing our dependence on dirty power plants.” So, the idealistic, modern-day version of the “ask not what your country can do for you” consists of telling slackers that the government will provide windmill and lightbulb-changing jobs after graduation?

Biofuels Meltdown

Don't miss the whole thing here.

Excerpt from a quoted Washington Post article:

It's difficult to understand how advocates of biofuels can believe they are a real solution to kicking our oil addition....[T]he entire U.S. corn crop would supply only 3.7 percent of our auto and truck transport demands. Using the entire 300 million acres of U.S. cropland for corn-based ethanol production would meet about 15 percent of demand....And the effects on land and agriculture would be devastating.

Via Junk Science blog, where there's a great quote from PJ O’Rourke:

The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it.

Is Tim Pawlenty slowly coming to his senses?

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's latest "State of the State" speech is here.

He evidently doesn't believe that carbon dioxide is going to kill us all, because I don't see "global warming" or "climate change" anywhere in there. (Note that he is still touting ethanol).

A key paragraph:

We should also take further steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But it's important that our efforts ensure jobs are not lost as a result and that Minnesota does not place itself at a competitive disadvantage.

A related post is here.

End Of The World As We Know It

From this post:

I want to explain why I think many proponents of Global Warming are ‘fundamentalist’ in their beliefs and behaviour.

A confession: If I wasn't married, I'd probably be tempted to "click to enlarge" this particular blogger's photo.

"we can chill out about a warmer Britain"

From this article:

Unsurprisingly, in a temperate country accustomed to miserable weather, with cold winters and often poor-quality housing, higher temperatures are almost certain to have a net benefit for the UK.

“absurd claims require absurd proof”

Here.

Another blogger that differs with Bloomberg on global warming killing "everybody"

Here.

Why do so many outspoken alarmists have NASA Goddard connections?

1. Uber-alarmist James Hansen is head of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

2. Hansen is said to be the boss of RealClimate alarmist Gavin Schmidt at NASA GISS.

3. Gristmill alarmist Andrew Dessler says he did his post-doctoral work at NASA Goddard (at about the 40 second mark here).

4. RealClimate alarmist Eli Rabbet is said to be Josh Halpern:

Prof. Halpern is also the Co-Director of the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD in odd numbered years. This program supports about 30 faculty each year to do summer research at Goddard.

When this worldwide global warming hysteria inevitably dies, it will probably become clear that a core cause was groupthink among a surprisingly small set of people.

If you choose to travel on a 246-foot yacht (with a crew of 24), are you likely to be "carbon-neutral"?

Note the claim here:

...the annual review of [Prince Charles'] accounts, published last summer, revealed he was carbon neutral and had cut his CO2 emissions by 9% in 2006.

Some related luxury yacht info is here.

Stupidity at Scientific American

See "Plants Don't Like Greenhouse Effect" here.

BBC News: Online Versus TV

Here.

Time for Aust-NZ Commission on Global Warming

From this page:

We are all of the view that CO2 in the atmosphere is a benefit not a threat to humans, and there is no need to launch a massive assault on our lifestyle, industry and prosperity to solve a non problem.

"Beware of the Global Warming Taliban"

Here.

Bloomberg again

From this article:

"We are damaging our planet. Nobody knows at what rate but at any rate it is not good," Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on the impact of global warming.

"We have to do something about it and we have to do it now," he added.

Calling climate change "perhaps one of the most important issues facing us," Bloomberg said: "This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism."

Regarding the rate at which we're allegedly warming the planet, I would point out that after we've been around maybe 150,000 years, we're still worried about hypothermia and frostbite in Dayton, Ohio.

Global Warming Stress Syndrome Increasing, Psychologist Says

Here.

Sportsmen want some "free" money based on junk science?

Here.

Excerpt:

They want a cap-and-trade system that will cut greenhouse gas emissions 2 percent a year and generate funds for fish and wildlife conservation.

Global warming is to taxation what actual warming is to beer sales

Here.

Richard Branson has completely lost his mind

From this article:

Richard Branson, the head of Britain's Virgin Group, called for the creation of a "war room" to coordinate the work of scientists, engineers, civic groups and government agencies to come up with solutions. He likened the effort that is needed to slow global warming to the intensive Allied research projects in World War II that resulted in such innovations as radar, sophisticated code-breaking techniques and the atomic bomb.

"There is no coordination of ideas" currently, Branson said at a news conference. "In a war situation, you literally have a war room, and we have a crisis that is bigger than World War I and II combined."

Some horrifying stats on those wars are here.

What are you doing to stop Global Warming?

From this post:

Whatever your chosen method is for decreasing your carbon footprint, stop it. Now. I am sick of being cold...

Don't get all hyped up about global warming!

Here.

Desperately trying to convert junk science into $86 billion in annual cash

Here.

Global Warming And New Taxes

From this page:

Perhaps when global warming hits with full force, the folks in International Falls will only have to put up with temperatures 38 below zero. After those new taxes that Mr. Bloomberg wants to zap them with, we hope they have enough money left over to pay the heating bills.

Speaking of Bloomberg, I just noticed that Bloomberg's site came up as the #1 "sponsored link" on a Google search for "climate change" (when I repeated the search, other sites came up #1).

I noticed that one of the other sponsored links was for Orion Magazine, where you can find articles like this one.

Excerpt:

...You’re enjoying drinks among friends of like political persuasion who share your dismay at how consumerism, corporate greed, runaway technology—all that stuff—are ravaging the environment and heating up the planet. All agree that oil and the internal combustion engine are principal agents in this catastrophe, so you suggest that a partial return to animal power, in agriculture at least, might—just possibly—take some of the pressure off. Your friends fidget and avert their eyes, then change the subject. Recently, one staunch environmentalist acquaintance assumed I had to be talking about harnessing methane gas. Her line of inquiry might be more congruent with the times than mine, but I forge ahead.

[New Zealand] Govt must face reality over carbon plan

Here.

Kansas: Senate panel reworks bill on coal-fired plants

From this post:

Topeka — A Senate committee endorsed an energy bill Monday that would allow two coal power plants in southwest Kansas after stripping out what would have been the state’s first limits on carbon dioxide emissions.
...
It’s obvious that there is not interest in this building and apparently in this state at this time to look at mitigating CO2,” said Sen. Janis Lee, of Kensington, the committee’s top Democrat.

Most bizarre GW claim? Nessie a victim of global warming.

Here.

B.C. is on the side of the "angels"

From this article:

So why should B.C. turn itself inside out to engineer a low-carbon economy, when the net difference years from now will amount to little more than a rounding error next door in Alberta?

Figuratively speaking, why is B.C. fussing over the wisp of smoke from its little campfire, while Alberta's forest fires will rage for decades?

Trees LOVE carbon dioxide

Here.

"2007 did not prove to be the much hoped for tipping point in public opinion"

See the whole thing here.

Note that this alarmist piece appears on the Skeptical Inquirer web site.

World eyes grand plan of payoffs to preserve trees, protect climate

Here.

Power is expected back by the end of March for many lucky Chinese citizens

Here.

Afghanistan: "millions of people in misery" in "worst winter in living memory"

See the BBC article here.

Excerpt from this post, which contains related links:

Of course the global warming advocates will ignore this, but I'm sure the average consumer is paying attention.

I figured that the 'green' industry would suffer when the weather started getting cold, but I didn't expect the Gorebots to be proven wrong so soon..

NST: Scott Luvs Al Gore!

Here.

Finessing global warming

Don't miss this post.

Excerpt:

McCain’s lips say yes, but his words say no.

Regular readers know I believe in global warming about as much as I believe in Santa.

If the world were in eminent danger of collapse, then Al Gore would cut his use of electricity to half that of the normal person. Instead he uses 12 times what a normal person.

John McCain ain’t buying it either...

London Drivers to Pay $49 USD/Day Carbon Charge

From this post:

The new charge is not so much about trying to reduce congestion, but rather curbing carbon emissions by 60% before 2025. "I believe that this ground-breaking initiative will have an impact throughout the world with other cities following suit as they step up their efforts to halt the slide towards catastrophic climate change," said mayor Livingstone.

More on Bloomberg

From this post:

In a seeming attempt to upstage Al Gore - or at least revive talks of a stalled independent run for the White House - NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg ripped into the presidential candidates' positions on climate change, calling them too weak and unfocused...He also reserved criticism for the recently enacted energy law, which calls for a fivefold increase in biofuel production by 2022, stating that its promotion of corn ethanol would lead people to "starve to death in parts of the world" as a result of rising food prices. Instead of subsidizing the production of corn ethanol, the U.S. government should subsidize that of sugar ethanol - which is taxed under the law - he argued.

British firms say carbon commitment is a curb too many

From this article:

The survey shows that seven out of 10 intensive energy users questioned said they believed the scheme would make the UK uncompetitive, almost two-thirds reckoned the costs outweighed the benefits and less than half expected it to reach its target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2m tonnes a year by 2020.

Three-quarters said the combined pressures of the UK scheme, the climate change levy and the European Union's emissions trading scheme will place an "undue burden" on business. But 88% supported the government's commitment to carbon dioxide reduction.

GM's Bob Lutz: Global warming is a “total crock of ****.”

From this post:

– Global warming is a “total crock of ****.” Then he added: “I’m a skeptic, not a denier. Having said that, my opinion doesn’t matter. (With the battery-driven Volt), “I’m motivated more by the desire to replace imported oil than by the CO2 (argument).”

Let's redistribute up to $200 billion annually for no good reason!

Here.

Is there really a “growing consensus” on the need for U.S action on climate change?

Here.

So what's happened in the last year to feed this allegedly "growing consensus" on global warming (besides the supposed sudden reversal of one complete century's worth of global warming)?

The Coming EU Energy Crisis

From this post:

...in the case of energy companies, many who support cap-and-trade do so in the expectation that they’ll get a boatload of carbon permits from the government—for free!
Permits represent an artificial, government-created scarcity in the right to produce energy. The right to produce energy is very valuable, especially where government restricts it. The tighter the cap, the more valuable each permit traded under the cap.

Nobody wants to have to buy carbon permits, but lots of companies hope to sell permits, especially if they can get them at no charge.

Update: A related post at Coyote Blog is here, entitled "Cap and Rent-Seek".

The Environmental Record of Communism

Here.

Beat global "warming" with a group hug?

Here.

Prince Andrew brings Gore number to town

From this article:

If he made a faux pas, it was to go all Al Gore on this O.C. crowd and actually acknowledge global warming exists! You could have heard a crumpet drop when he praised "Gov. Schwarzenegger's leadership" in reducing greenhouse gases and said he "is to be admired."

"We can and must reduce emissions by at least half," he said, "calling it a moral obligation." At that moment, somewhere to the rear of me I heard a single clap. Then nothing. Dead silence. Throwing a bone at the moneymakers, he did estimate that a $500 billion market exists for products to reduce those gases. Whew.For a moment, I thought we'd have a stampede for the doors.

Second Generation Biofuels: We Love CO2!

Here.

Jack Johnson and global warming

Here.

Excerpt:

And he struggles with the contradiction of travelling the world by plane, surrounding himself instead with those who try their best to negate the effects of all that jet fuel.

"It's a step-by-step process. It's a learning experience for me and there's two ways of looking at it: we could make less of an impact by not touring at all, but, at the same time, if you can help change the industry you're involved with, that's a more responsible thing than to just walk away altogether. Because I do have that guilt of flying airplanes wherever we go but it's fun. I like travelling and it's nice to go places."

Ok, so Jack thinks global warming may kill us all, but he doesn't actually care enough to give up some "fun"?

Cold wave in India attributed to global warming

Here.

Climate Change and International Trade

From this post:

Let’s not kid ourselves: Someone will want to turn the planet’s minerals into energy until every last bit of coal and oil is gone.

Don’t Capitulate on Energy Policy

From this post:

Rather than pre-emptive capitulation, I think the correct strategy is to resist cap-and-trade legislation while the realities of energy rationing sink in. It will be more difficult to enact cap-and-trade in the next Congress, even if the new president and more members of Congress support it, because the high costs are becoming ever more apparent in the European Union. While I think we can win by waiting this one out, there are unfortunately all too many defeatists in the business community who can’t resist the temptation to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Under-Population Crisis

From this post:

The European Union estimates that, because of declining birthrates across the continent, Europe will face a shortfall of 20 million workers by the year 2030. Population stability requires a birthrate of 2.1 babies per woman; Europe’s average birthrate is just 1.3 babies per woman. According to the groups sponsoring the website, no European country is giving birth to enough children to maintain its population.

The group cites demographic studies which show that Russian will lose one-third of its population by 2050.

Biofuel Bull

From this post:

Suddenly, everyone is noticing what libertarians have been saying for years—that the high price and low market interest in biofuels was telling us something.

The free market isn’t just a way of getting cheap iPods. It’s the original information super highway, giving us nonstop information on resource scarcity. That the market had little interest in biofuels without government prodding was telling us that they were a disaster. If biofuels were so wonderful, companies would be cutting each other’s throats to exploit them.

"Two California Trees Sentenced To Death By Former Governor Jerry Brown"

Here.

The alarm industry

From this post:

...it is clear this latest strand of virulent fundamentalism - carbon fundamentalism - is tolerated and indeed encouraged by virtually all powerful vested interests on earth. Here’s why:

* Insurance companies get to charge higher premiums
* Fossil fuel companies get to keep prices (and profits) high
* Politicians get to enact new taxes
* Public sector entities get new tax revenue to fund their pensions
* Environmental organizations get more funds
* Left wing activists get a new basis to attack private ownership
* Labor unions get more jobs, especially in the public sector
* Lawyers get a new basis to file lawsuits
* Wall street gets to trade emissions credits
* Climate researchers get more grant requests funded
* United Nations bureaucrats get a guaranteed revenue stream

And along with those special interests, sadly, add the inspired hoards of greentech entrepreneurs who are spending precious time groveling for carbon-offset funded subsidies and other government handouts, instead of pursuing innovations that win competitively in the free market.

Of sunspots and so on…

From this post:

I make no prognostications, I have no set opinion, but I like the idea that the vaunted “scientific consensus” about anthropogenic global warming could be wrong… I don’t like consensuses on principle–I think it’s a good way to avoid the truth by getting together with a group of like-minded people and agreeing that what we want to be actually exists. Besides, humans have a natural tendency to enjoy end-of-the-world hysteria and to over-exaggerate their own impact on the world as a whole. IMHO.

brrrr chilly out global warming blamed

Here.

A related post from that same blog is here.

"..the basic threshold for participating in the climate change debate.."

Here.

A really bad day for biofuels

From this post:

A lot of money is being bet on, and a lot of policy has assumed, extensive substitution of biofuels (mostly ethanol for now) for petroleum as a global warming program. These publications are the sudden expansion of a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a hand into a very scary, dark overcast.

An alarmist that didn't like "An Inconvenient Truth"

Here.

Global Warming Hysteria

Here.

"Environmentalism inevitably points toward a policy of extermination of pet dogs"?

Here.

Fumbling in the dark for warming salvation

Here.

Update: Commentary on this decision is here, here, and here.

"When was the last time the myth of global warming beheaded someone?"

Here.

Trib’s PR mode on global warming

From this post:

The story also exhibits another integral trait of good PR writing: the absence of an opposing point-of-view. It is devoid of any scientific disagreement on the extent of causation between carbon emissions and global warming, and there’s plenty.

Global Cooling; Are we headed for a new Ice Age?

Here.

A vastly increased number of people are now questioning the global warming scam.

Calm Sun, Cold Earth!

Here.

Venting from another skeptic

Here.

Bloomberg: Global warming may "kill everybody"

From this article:

"Terrorists kill people. Weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill an enormous amount of people," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters after addressing the U.N. General Assembly, but "global warming in the long term has the potential to kill everybody."

A related post is here.

BBC: Global warming 'may save lives'

Here.

Energy efficiency may increase energy use overall

Here.

Is a "Survivalist Green" scenario plausible worldwide in the next 10 years?

Check out the insanity here.

Excerpt:

Hunting and fishing will experience a major resurgence Appointment to a State fish and game management commission will become a coveted political opportunity.

Existing suburban tract-home developments filled with 5+ bedroom mansions will be converted to multiplex condominiums and mixed use communities with combined heat and power (CHP) units to provide electricity and heat to all residents. Single family homes without thermal solar panels, as a minimum icon of energy independence, will be thought of as undesirable, and out of fashion.

Obama pledges to cut global warming "pollution"

Here.

Time to get nostalgic about global warming?

Here.

Polar Explorer Will Live on Renewable Energy at the 2041 E-Base in Antarctica

From this post:

So in March this year, Robert Swan and his troop will go and live at the E-Base in Antarctica, solely on renewable wind and solar energy for two weeks.

I'd be much more impressed if they vowed to use 100% renewable energy to travel between their homes and this base.

Point/Counterpoint: Leigh Steinberg's "Green" Super Bowl Party

Here.

The Dubious Ethics of Tipping Points Catastrophism

From this post:

Therefore: either Lenton et al. refute the catastrophic commentary mistakenly reported in the media; or they become accomplices, like helping people to yell “fire!” in a crowded cinema.

GISS: January 2008 was the coldest month since May 1995

From this post:

...Hansen's team hasn't seen a cooler month for more than 150 months, not even during the 1995-1996, 1998-2000, 2000-2001 La Ninas. Also, January 2008, the globally coldest January since 1989, was exactly 0.75 °C cooler than January 2007.

If we were fans of the alarm and extrapolated the latter trend, we would deal with 75 °C of global cooling per century. That could indeed be a catastrophe. ;-) If we extrapolated the 0.28 °C month-on-month cooling since December, the cooling would remove 336 °C per century, dropping below 0 Kelvins before 2100. :-) Entertainingly enough, January 2008 was also 0.27 °C (anomaly-wise) colder than June 1988 when Hansen gave his infamous testimony before the U.S. Congress, predicting a dangerous warming in the following 20 years.

No, I am not comparing apples and oranges here. January 2008 was also 0.39 °C colder than January 1988.

A related post from Anthony Watts is here.

Remember, we were constantly told that a little upward nudge from CO2 could cause the Earth to become an uninhabitable fireball (because of positive feedbacks). So why wouldn't the current drop in temperature cause expanding snow and ice cover, increasing the Earth's albedo, which further cools the Earth until we've got an uninhabitable iceball?

An Embarrassment of Ignoramuses

See the post (and the list of "Related posts") here.

Bloomberg: carbon dioxide as big a threat as nukes or terrorism

From this article:

"This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Amusingly, the UN seems to think that we'll be moved towards spending $20 trillion on a trace atmospheric gas based on the "star power" of Daryl Hannah and Richard Branson.

From the UN web site:

United States actress, English entrepreneur issue call at UN for climate action

11 February 2008 – American actress Daryl Hannah and Sir Richard Branson, Founder and Chairman of the Virgin Group, appealed in New York today for concerted global action to face the challenges posed by climate change.

The response to global warming “comes down to a question of values and I think it’s important on a personal level to really examine the ramifications of our actions and of our daily choices,” Ms. Hannah said at a press briefing on the occasion of a General Assembly climate change debate which kicked off today.

“I’m thrilled to see that people are finally starting to recognize the urgency of the situation,” the actress, famous for her work in films like “Splash” and her support for renewable energies, noted.

Al Gore's propaganda is winning over some 8-year-olds

From this article:

Tiffany Bluemle in Burlington, Vt., knows exactly how she feels. She and her partner, Elizabeth Shayne, drive an environmentally friendly hybrid and live a generally green lifestyle. When their eight-year-old son, Will, wanted a "global warming" birthday party last year, they treated him to a cake decorated as Earth, a bike repair workshop for his guests and a pinata in the shape of a gas-guzzling Hummer that partygoers beat to the ground.

"He's adamant that I drive 55 (miles per hour) but I'm naturally a speedster," Bluemle said. "We have a bumper sticker on the car saying '55 slows down global warming.' It's killing me."

Global warming to cause an insect "explosion" (while also extinguishing all life on Earth)?

Here.

1. If these insects are going to be so hungry because of the alleged nasty effects of carbon dioxide, why would their numbers explode?

2. Would insect diversity increase while numbers of birds/mammals/fish would crash? If so, why?

3. Would bees do well in this new scenario, or would the insect increases be very strictly limited to ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnly the "bad" ones?

Update 1: Check out the headline from National Geographic News: "Ancient Global Warming Gave Bugs the Munchies".

The article includes this nugget:

Insects do better generally when it's warmer out, she added.

Update 2: More questionable "science" here, headlined "Warming temperatures and CO2 increase threaten leafy plants".

Attorneys launch climate change practice!

Here.

UN salivating over their potential cut of the bogus carbon credit biz?

From this article:

The levy could be extended to Kyoto Protocol climate deals between rich countries, known as Joint Implementation, or to carbon credit trade, he said.
The fund now comprises about $36 million, but might rise to as much as $5 billion a year by 2030 if investments in green technology rise.

Remember, the end of carbon dioxide hysteria would spell real trouble for the carbon credit industry.

Some detail about bogus carbon credits is here, in a post entitled "Smugness Coupon with Enron Accounting".

Controlling GHG will impact our local economy

Here.

Trees Make Bad Thermometers

Here.

Richard Branson still drinking deeply of the Kool-Aid

From this article:

Sir Richard said climate change was "the quietest, most sinister, most deadly threat of all" and said there was "no excuse for inaction, no excuse for ignorance".

While You Are Up Get Me A Global Cooling Grant

From this post:

What is needed in climate research is an alternate “problem” that can compete with global warming as a source of research funding, the life blood of the physical sciences and the foundation of a university scientist’s career.

Brrrr... Record Cold Wave Blasts Mumbai, India

Here.

What happened to Al Gore's $100M ad blitz?

From this October 2007 article:

The former vice president, Oscar-winner and now Nobel Peace Prize recipient is embarking on a climate-change advertising campaign estimated to cost between $100 million and $200 million a year, one of the largest public service campaigns in history. Expect to see television commercials, newspaper spreads and Internet ads popping up in a few months time.

Funded by donations and proceeds from Gore's 2006 "An Inconvenient Truth," the campaign will focus on convincing people that they can do something about global warming.
...
The campaign will be created by the Richmond, Va.-based Martin Agency, the same outfit behind Geico's successful caveman ads and UPS' "What can brown do for you."

From a related page here:

...Spending on the campaign, expected to roll out this fall, hasn't been disclosed, but is expected to rival other major social-marketing efforts, meaning it will likely be more than $100 million in measured media.

The request for proposal suggested the campaign, a three- to five-year global effort, will launch online in coming weeks, followed by a heavy broadcast presence.

Over at the Alliance for Climate Protection site, you can view the first ad in the national advertising campaign. With some ominous music in the background, it shows black (the color of Death!) balloons emerging from household appliances.

In not showing black balloons emerging from the noses of puppies or cute human babies, I think the Martin Agency made a good judgment call. Not depicting CO2 as green balloons being hungrily gobbled by beautiful roses or poor people's vegetable gardens was also a savvy touch.

The voice-over is done by Tommy Lee Jones, who roomed with Gore in college and presumably knows a great deal about the weaknesses of climate models.

Eco-Friendly Times Recycles Styles Article From 2006

Here.

Cheap Carbon Credits: To Japan, From Russia With Love?

Check out the carbon credit insanity here.

Excerpt:

What’s certain is that Japan is chafing under the emission-reduction promise it made under the Kyoto treaty. As we wrote last month, Japan pledged to cut its emissions 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. But as of 2006, Japan’s emissions were 6.4% above 1990 levels – despite all those Prius hybrids that Toyota Motor Corp. sells.

A ridiculous "Global Refunding Scheme" to fight the alleged evils of carbon dioxide

Here.

Frog species soar in India

Here.

Not completely convinced that the world is overheating?

From a MuchMusic.com blog:

We wanted to know more about what a lot of people call "the biggest problem of our generation". We wanted to see if the media had blown it out of proportion or if this in fact was a huge problem that we'll have to face. You can watch and form your own opinion as we did.

Along the way we interviewed oil companies, froze our asses off, hiked a glacier, froze our asses off, joined in on a demonstration march in Edmonton, froze our asses off, took a helicopter ride over the oil sands in Fort McMurray and yes, froze our asses off and a whole bunch more interesting and exciting stuff while freezing our asses off. All in all it was the most informative trip we've been on, the coldest trip we've been on and most exercise we've ever had - all in one trip.