Tom Nelson: 2008-07-27

Saturday, August 02, 2008

This strategy of characterizing one's political opponents as immoral is of course is part and parcel of the debate over abortion (which is why I call such politics "abortion politics" in The Honest Broker). In the climate debate the litmus test for having the proper morality (i.e., defined as not "standing in the way of action," by being a "denier" or "delayer" or [insert derisive moral judgment here]) is by holding and expressing (and not questioning) certain acceptable beliefs, such as:

*Not questioning any consensus views of the IPCC (in any working group)

*Not supporting adaptation

*Not emphasizing the importance of significant technological innovation

*Not pointing out that policies to create higher priced energy are a certain losing strategy

Deviation for these beliefs is, blasphemy -- heresy! Or as Paul Krugman recommends . . . immoral.

Green cars are for schmucks

Green cars are for schmucks | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Kevin Rudd gives Toyota $35 million it doesn’t need to build green cars his ministers won’t drive...

"Global environmentalism, despite a veneer of exhuberance and a facade of hope, today is mostly about doom and gloom."

EcoWorld - Editor’s Commentary » Blog Archive » Lucky Lucky America

With global warming alarmist policy, we will rob from the poor and give to the rich as never before.

Jeremy Clarkson nails it

Peep in my wife’s knicker drawer and see what you get | Jeremy Clarkson - Times Online

But here’s the problem. It is extremely rare that the newspapers these days go after genuine charlatans. Every day, I hear rumours of malpractice in charities, or fraud in business, but with dwindling circulations and advertising revenue in freefall, the press simply doesn’t have the funds any more to chase leads.

Woodward and Bernstein seem to have been replaced by a bunch of desk-bound journos who rewrite press releases from global warming lunatics and run a couple of pap pictures of Madonna buying an ice cream.

Alleged Consensus Allegedly Grows

Scoopit - Consensus Grows on Climate Change / NZ News

Unfortunately for the sceptics, and for everyone else, the evidence for human-induced climate change is stronger than ever. Scientists the Herald spoke to were candid in their assessment that there was little room for doubt that global warming is happening and that the only changes in the past few months have been political changes.

"It looks as though the population believes climate change is serious and there seems to be momentum behind the issue, and there are some people who don't like that," says Chris Mitchell, head of the CSIRO's Climate, Weather and Ocean Prediction group. "There are still plenty of creationists around, and there are people who believe tobacco is not linked to serious health effects, and so there are still people who choose to ignore or doubt the amount of evidence for climate change."

Andy Pitman, an editor of the prestigious international Journal Of Climate, says there are good reasons why global warming sceptics cannot get a run in peer-reviewed scientific literature. "We would kill, literally kill, for a good paper that proved the science on global warming was wrong," Pitman says. "Then I could retire and accept my chair at Harvard. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, and there's vast amounts of evidence why."

Update: There's a lot more complete BS in a longer version of the article here.

For example:

Pitman, who is also a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ABC) and director of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of NSW, says the reasons are simple: "In essence, the models we use to predict climate have been proven right." In the past decade, he says, refinements in computer simulations have allowed scientists to accurately predict climate in four dimensions: time, latitude, longitude and depth of the atmosphere.
...
Claims that solar activity may be causing recent global warming, reinforced in State Parliament by the Treasurer, Michael Costa, have been comprehensively demolished in peer-reviewed journals.

Montana: July weather sets two new record lows

July weather sets two new record lows | greatfallstribune.com | Great Falls Tribune

Two temperature records were set or tied in July in Great Falls, including one dating back more than a century, according to the National Weather Service.

An overnight low of 39 degrees on July 11 broke the daily record of 40 degrees set in 1897, said Ed Kurdy hydro-meteorological technician with the Weather Service.

The only other July daily record occurred July 12, when the low was 40 degrees, tying the mark set in 2004.

Whiny Germans Think Climate Change Legislation Costs Too Much!

Whiny Germans Think Climate Change Legislation Costs Too Much! | OpenMarket.org

It’s terrible. The Europeans, who routinely claim to be morally superior to the greedy American species, are now yelping about the cost of climate change legislation. The Germans, in this case, actually want to sacrifice the planet’s future for their own selfish purposes...

Pelosi Jets out of Town Leaving Energy Bill Hanging

American Thinker Blog: Pelosi Jets out of Town Leaving Energy Bill Hanging

As Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats jetted out of town negligently neglecting to deal with the urgent energy situation I'm reminded of the unseemly scandal over her use of military jets that erupted shortly after she was sworn in as Speaker of the House..

Churches "must" lead the way on reducing carbon emissions

Anglican Communion News Service: Churches must lead the way on reducing carbon emissions.

“We were at point where it seemed the government had finally got the message and was implementing policies to reduce emissions, and suddenly oil prices shot up, and suddenly the government caved in over taxes on petrol.” Climate sceptics add to the lack of action, he said, capitalising on the complexity of climate change research that necessarily produced a variety of predictions.

Media reporting was also a barrier, with the adversarial style of reporting giving as much column space to the sceptics as the mainstream science, which Revd James says is overwhelmingly united on the fact of global warming. The question is just how long we have and how bad it will be, and according to the data he presented, we have about twenty to forty years of “business as usual” before the “tipping point is reached” and the global temperature soars to literally unbearable levels.

Ranting Cant

Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle » Blog Archive » Ranting Cant

Climate eschatology really is the ultimate in big lie crisis politics. The far-left has failed so comprehensively to make the case for its vision of society and economy that the only thing left to do is to brazenly and repeatedly assert that the world will literally collapse unless we implement this otherwise indefensible vision.
...
I think the point is that the clock really is ticking. If we don’t “do something” soon, we’ll probably see that we don’t really need to do anything really dramatic, and then the window for radical social change will be closed. So I expect the volume to get much louder.

Energy Sandcastles

Global Warming Politics

“With a final lap of the incoming tide, the Government’s fictitious energy policy is being washed away like a late summer sandcastle” (Carl Mortished, The Times, August 2)

Scientists: Are they corruptible?

Global Shamming: Scientists: Are they corruptible?

Bruce E. Ivins, the government biodefense scientist linked to the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001, stood to gain financially from massive federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Ivins is listed as a co-inventor on two patents for a genetically engineered anthrax vaccine, federal records show. Separately, Ivins also is listed as a co-inventor on an application to patent an additive for various biodefense vaccines.

Politics: Aborted

» Politics: Aborted Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

It is in this atmosphere of political (and moral) exhaustion that environmentalism has thrived. Politicians struggle to connect with people, and so escalate the sense of crisis in order to elicit their participation, and legitimise their own positions. The real crisis is not in the atmosphere, it is in politics.

Moore: ‘There’s too much pop environmentalism’

DNA - Viewpoint - ‘There’s too much pop environmentalism’ - Daily News & Analysis

Do you feel vindicated that the greens’ opposition to nuclear energy is proving to be harmful to the environment?

I wouldn’t say vindicated as much as unfortunate that all of us — including me in the ’70s — who were leading the environmental movement made this mistake of being against nuclear energy. We were caught up in the anti-nuclear war movement and we made the mistake of thinking everything nuclear was bad. We didn’t make the distinction. Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, said if it was not for the environmental movement, there would be a lot fewer coal-fired plants in the world today and a lot more nuclear plants. We actually did something very negative back then.
It is one of the reasons I work so hard to change the perception because I think it was a serious error.

Obama Plays the Moderate in St. Pete

Planet Gore on National Review Online

Only six weeks or so ago, Obama deemed higher gas prices a necessary evil in saving the planet from America. Yesterday in Florida, lowering gas prices became the motive for breaking with his party and offering a compromise on Outer Continental Shelf drilling. The fact that this came in Florida, the same place where John McCain announced his support for an end to the OCS-drilling ban, is pure coincidence.

August 1 fishing report: water still unusually cool off New Jersey shore

The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa., Outdoors Column: Fish Report: August 1, 2008 - Science - redOrbit

Down at the New Jersey shore, things are fairly slow due to unseasonably cool water temperatures, but anglers continue to catch plenty of short fluke and good numbers of bluefish from six to 14 pounds.

Carbon is bogus cash crop for Oklahoma farmers

Carbon is cash crop for Oklahoma farmers | NewsOK.com

The current market rate for a ton of carbon is about $4 per ton on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

That's because the market is voluntary. In some other countries, like those in the European Union, governments have placed mandatory caps on carbon emissions. Companies must trade emissions credits to stay legal.

In those regulated markets, the price of carbon is much higher than in the United States. Carbon is at nearly $40 per ton on the European market, for example.

"now you're seeing Obama realizing that he's menaced by this energy issue"

RealClearPolitics - Articles - Panel on Friday's Events in the House

"The Wall Street Journal" had a poll a couple of weeks ago that Fred was lampooning me about, but it was correct, that Obama had a 65-35 lead on the energy issue.

Last week--this week, the Quinnipiac organization came out in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida, and said it's now 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. In other words, the climate has changed in McCain's direction, and now you're seeing Obama realizing that he's menaced by this energy issue, and I think he's making adjustments--not big adjustments.

And it will be fascinating to see how the environmental community responds to this yielding, and to the position of the gang of ten. I mean, what they want to do--the gang of ten senators are willing to drill only 50 miles offshore, which is much closer to shore than the Republicans' position.

Now, I would say that the environmental movement will go crazy about that, and come out against the measure.

Rolling Back the Allegedly Dwindling Tide of Alleged Climate Extremism

Rolling Back the Tide of "Extremism", One Post at a Time: A Global Warming Denialist's Field Guide

It's not easy to believe that global warming is a hoax or just bad science. It takes a lot of hard work not to get it and that chore is getting harder by the day.

Australia: Cold weather contributes to "ambulance chaos"

Red alerts drive ambulance chaos | General | Coast news | thedaily.com.au

Ambulance services were recovering yesterday after a chaotic day when all Sunshine Coast hospitals hit capacity and were forced to turn patients away.
...
Ms Hanson said the recent cold snap meant more people were presenting to emergency departments.

“Cold weather can ... exacerbate some chronic illnesses, sometimes requiring hospitalisation,” she said.

Obama shifts on offshore oil drilling

Obama shifts on offshore oil drilling - International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON: Democrat Barack Obama said he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that would help promote alternative energy sources, a shift on a plan he has repeatedly blasted rival John McCain for supporting...Obama, who has campaigned on a platform of change, previously ridiculed a push by Republicans to open offshore areas to oil exploration in a bid to bring down surging energy prices. The country's economic woes have largely eclipsed other issues in the presidential race.

A quick "fix" for global "warming"

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | A quick fix for global warming

It's the stuff of science fiction, but could mirrors in space or sea water sprayed in the air be shortcuts to halt global warming?

An Activist’s Confession

An Activist’s Confession « It’s Getting Hot In Here

When I began to organize around climate issues about five years ago, I noticed something about myself: I began to subconsciously belittle the work that other people were doing that was unrelated to energy and global warming. Sure, I recognized that their work was good, but I fell into the trap of thinking that their work wasn’t nearly as necessary as mine. In addressing the causes and effects of global warming, I was, from my point of view, tackling the greatest problem facing humanity.

To be specific, a good friend of mine was involved with the Center for Community Service, working to schedule visits to the retirement home a block from campus. She was struggling to find enough people who could take the time out of their day to do something worthy in the community. At the same time, I was struggling to convince my campus administration that global warming was something they should address on an institutional level. Through my training as an organizer, I believed that I was working towards lasting change, whereas the work she was doing would never be complete; she could never declare victory. As such, I felt that visiting the elderly was not as worthy of my time as my organizing.

In the years since then, I often felt a surge of self-righteousness and pride in the belief that I was working on the most worthy cause ever...

Climate cuttings 21 (link roundup)

- Bishop Hill blog - Climate cuttings 21

Modeling Interannual Variability Of The Amazon Hydroclimate by Medvigy et al. 2008

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Modeling Interannual Variability Of The Amazon Hydroclimate by Medvigy et al. 2008

What this paper tells us is that global climate models that do not adequately resolve such landscape features as the Andes cannot accurately simulate climate variability even on seasonal time scales in the Amazon. The obvious conclusion with respect to multi-decadal global climate predictions is that skillful regional projections of climate change due to human climate forcings are also not possible until global models accurately include such terrain features as the Andes.

BREAKING: Zawahiri Dead, Global Warming Suspected

According to a letter from the Taliban official, “Dr. Zawahiri was enjoying a meal when the earth suddenly heated up by several thousand degrees,” said Ms. Logan. “The way it happened makes Al Gore look like a prophet.”

Climate change “isn’t happening” - Tenerife News - News from Tenerife Canary Islands Spain

Climate change isn’t happening was the main message of a course on the subject at the Universidad de Verano de Adeje (UVA) (Adeje summer university).

A team of experts in various aspects of the subject , with the exception of one, agreed with this tenet.

D'Aleo: Is global warming causing hurricanes and wildfires? No, warming message morphs as Earth cools - Examiner.com

Despite the evidence, don't expect alarmists to concede anything on this issue anytime soon. They have too much of a vested interest in having you believe what they say is true. So expect them to blame any unusual weather on man-made climate change. As Greenpeace's Steven Guilbeault's admonished the media "Global warming can mean colder; it can mean drier; it can mean wetter; that's what we're dealing with."

Global Warming Solutions Act passes Legislature - Marblehead, MA - Marblehead Reporter

Late Thursday night, the state Senate and House gave final approval to the Global Warming Solutions Act, a bill that will make Massachusetts a national leader in implementing global-warming solutions and commit the state to making the pollution reductions that scientists say are necessary to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

Michelle Malkin » Hey, Nancy, how about a light?

Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi controls the cameras in the House chamber.

C-SPAN sends a reminder... (Via Skeptics Global Warming)

Global Warming Did It! Well, Maybe Not. - washingtonpost.com

...the evidence for man-made climate change is solid enough that it doesn't need to be bolstered by iffy claims.

Rising Oil Prices and Global Warming: Connecting the Facts

Wayne Winegarden :: Townhall.com :: Rising Oil Prices and Global Warming: Connecting the Facts

The greatest risk to affordable gas prices in the future is the global warming policies being discussed by policy makers. To see the relationship between ever-higher gas prices and global warming policies all we need is a basic understanding of economics and then simply “connect the facts”.

"Blood and Gore Profit from Carbon and the Democratic National Convention"

Democratic National Convention, 2008

As the Official Carbon Advisor, Camco Global will “work with the DNCC to estimate the Convention's carbon footprint.” Who is Camco Global? One of Al Gore’s investments, of course. The Blood and Gore team (Generation Investment Management, with chairman Al Gore and managing partner David Blood – a former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management) has purchased almost ten percent of Camco Group...

Serious or spoof?

Colombian president: Illegal drugs contribute to global warming_English_Xinhua

BOGOTA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Friday proposed that the anti-narcotics drive be added to the campaign against global warming, since drug traffickers destroyed jungles to make room for illegal plantations.

"Drugs are the great enemy of the jungle," Uribe said during a regional summit on Drugs, Security and Cooperation in Cartagena, some 700 km north of the Colombian capital Bogota.

"I'd like to suggest the fight against illegal drugs be included in the battle against global warming," he said.

Delegations from the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, Venezuela and host nation Colombia are participating in the summit.

Drug trafficking represents "the main enemy of our jungle", and the fight against it should be our first contribution to the strategy against global warming, said Uribe.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Is Obama Channeling Jimmy Carter?

Warning Signs: Obama is Channeling Jimmy Carter

Regarding solar power, note some similarities between Carter 1979 and Obama 2008:

Tom Nelson: Fill 'er up... with Magic Solar Energy Beans™!

Rewind to June 20, 1979:

President Carter announces program to increase Nation's use of solar energy, including solar development bank and increased funds for solar energy research and development.

Daily Kos: Obama, Solar Power, and our future.

As part of a larger plan for a diversified, clean energy future, Barack has proposed doubling research funding for clean energy projects such as solar power while requiring that 25% of electricity consumed in the U.S. be derived from clean, sustainable energy sources by 2025.

Note that nearly three decades after Carter's push, solar is still said to provide only .01% of US power.

Sierra Club columnist offers up the alleged "real solutions" to our energy crisis

Javier Sierra: A Drilled Reputation

The real solutions to our energy crisis, however, are already there:
--By improving the fuel efficiency of cars and small trucks, we would save all the crude we import from the Persian Gulf and all the oil we would extract from the Arctic.
--By opting for clean sources of energy, such as solar, wind and geothermal, we would end our dangerous oil dependency.
--By reducing our energy consumption by only 2 percent a year from now to 2050, we would avoid the worst consequences of global warming.

CEO of Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection endorses Gore's idea!!

Gore's Energy Goal Considered "Possible" Says Climate Expert

The head of a group founded by Al Gore told lawmakers on Thursday that the former vice president's goal of generating all U.S. electricity from clean, renewable sources within 10 years is ambitious but attainable.

Cathy Zoi, CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection, told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that there were no technological or other obstacles in the way of clean power.

More on alleged "climate expert" Zoi is here.

"How exactly did the media know that Gore was so smart and Bush so dumb?"

Peter Schweizer: The arrogance of uneducated liberals - Full Comment

During the 2000 election, George W. Bush was often given the moniker “stupid.” A Boston television reporter tripped him up with a “pop quiz,” asking him the names of foreign leaders. At the same time, his opponent, Vice President Al Gore, was presented as the consummate intellectual. He went out of his way to drop phrases like “Cartesian revolution” and used complex metaphors like “the clockwork universe” in his speeches.

Indeed, Gore seemed obsessed with proving how smart he was — and the media was his willing accomplice. The media reported at least a dozen times that Gore was “the smartest kid in the class.” Bloomberg News observed that Gore had little patience for those “a few IQ points short of genius.” The New York Times asked (in all seriousness), “Is Gore too smart to be president?” His biggest challenge, the paper explained, was “to show that he is a regular guy despite a perceived surplus of gravitas, which at least some Americans seem to find intimidating.” This liberal assumption that a candidate can be just too darn smart to win a presidential election in this country goes back to Adlai Stevenson.

What proof was there of Gore’s alleged gravitas? How exactly did the media know that Gore was so smart and Bush so dumb? In fact, the record did not indicate any of this was true. It was often alleged, probably with reason, that Bush only got into Yale because his father had gone there and his grandfather had been a Connecticut senator. Yet Gore, with high school Bs and Cs (his only As were in art), got into Harvard in part because (like other politicians’ sons, including a raft of Kennedys) his father was a famous senator. At Harvard, Gore’s grades did not improve. In his sophomore year he earned a D, a C-minus, two Cs, two C-pluses and one B-minus. He was in the bottom fifth of his class his first two years in school. Later he flunked out of divinity school (failing five of his eight classes) and dropped out of Vanderbilt University Law School...

More from Andrew Bolt

Snowed by the CSIRO | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

CARS buried at Falls Creek and Mt Buller, others abandoned on the Kosciuszko Rd and Alpine Way, massive snow drifts up high at Perisher and Thredbo, blizzard conditions, snowfall accumulations in excess of 40cm. As the big dump continues Friday, skiers are looking up at the scoreboard—with a 2m season well within our sights....Clearly, July 2008 has delivered the best consistent skiing conditions since the great 2004 season – and there is potential for a cold and snowy peak month of August.

Was McKnight paid for holding HIS global warming views? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

BREAKING: Award-winning Astronaut Slams Hansen - Urges NASA to 'Debunk the current hysteria' over Warming

Walter Cunningham - In Science, Ignorance is not Bliss

NASA should be at the forefront in the collection of scientific evidence and debunking the current hysteria over human-caused, or Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). Unfortunately, it is becoming just another agency caught up in the politics of global warming, or worse, politicized science. Advocacy is replacing objective evaluation of data, while scientific data is being ignored in favor of emotions and politics.
...
The conflict over AGW has deteriorated into a religious war; a war between true believers in human-caused global warming and nonbelievers; between those who accept AGW on faith and those who consider themselves more sensible and better informed. “True believers” are beyond being interested in evidence; it is impossible to reason a person out of positions they have not been reasoned into.

It doesn’t help that NASA scientist James Hansen was one of the early alarmists claiming humans caused global warming. Hansen is a political activist who spreads fear even when NASA’s own data contradict him.

(Via Marc Morano)

Professional Profile - WalterCunningham.Com

Report: Al Gore’s Carbon Empire: Cashing in on Climate Change

Here.

Somehow I get the feeling that this guy's not a huge Al Gore fan

Recession will be just the ticket, says Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary - Times Online

He is not concerned that by increasing air travel he is shortening the life-cycle of polar bears and shrinking the ice-cap. “The green lobby are like those old guys in the medieval market-place, shouting about the end of the world. Climate change is not the biggest threat to mankind. If it is, why is the summer so crappy?”

Mr O’Leary seems determined to reverse the “green madness”. “Bugger bicycles – I drive a car and a tractor, I have a herd of 600 cows on my farm in Ireland who probably make a more damaging impact on the environment than my airplanes do.” He uses low-energy bulbs but only because “it’s cheaper”. The one thing he recycles is cow pats, which he uses as fertiliser. Environmental campaigners would be queueing for the dole if they were not “prattling on” about climate change.

“This global warming nonsense is no different to some of the more lunatic movements you’ve had throughout history. They were excommunicating Galileo 500 years ago for suggesting the Earth might go round the Sun. Now the nutbag ecologists say we’re boiling the planet to extinction. This is just the crazy idea for the first decade of the 21st century.”

The economic downturn will end the eco-fad. “All this climate change stuff is an inevitable byproduct of a ten-year period of economic growth and low unemployment. Now we have a recession you’ll hear an awful lot less about the bloody environment.” And politicians are manipulating people’s fears to make them pay more tax. “They call them eco-taxes but that’s just spin – it’s just taking more money off us.”

Airport taxes are “highway robbery” even though “air transport accounts for less than 2 per cent of CO2 emissions”, he says. “Marine transport accounts for 5 per cent, double the aviation industry, but you don’t hear these nutbags saying let’s tax the crap out of the ferries do you?”

Chris Davies MP: Why I'm going to climate camp

Chris Davies MP: Why I'm going to climate camp | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

What is at stake here is the future of the planet and the survival of billions of people. Climate change threatens global catastrophe.
...
Kingsnorth is the first of a series of new coal power plants being proposed. Without the use of CCS technology to prevent the CO2 escaping into the atmosphere, they must not be allowed to proceed. If that means politicians joining with other climate change campaigners to sit down in front of bulldozers, then so be it.

The greens are just as greedy as the rest of us

Steve Westly: The greens are just as greedy as the rest of us

...I've long argued that the style of rhetoric employed by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth borrowed heavily from the genre of end-times sermons which he surely studied in his time at Vanderbilt's Divinity School and probably heard growing up in Tennessee.

It's this uncritical perspective that feeds the greenwashing publicity machine that allows companies like Exxon to reap windfall oil profits on the one hand while painting itself as an environmental crusader on the other. Or Google to garner praise for its plug-in hybrid program and electric car investments while the CEO and founders jet around the globe in not one but two private planes which measure fuel consumption in gallons per minute.

Money only purpose of Dion's carbon tax: PM

The only purpose of Stéphane Dion's carbon-tax plan is to spend taxpayer money and not to reduce Canadians dependency on fossil fuels, Prime Minister Stephen Harper charged Thursday.

In another attack on the Liberal Green Shift proposal, Harper rejected the notion that the plan, which calls for a tax on emissions in order to reduce the use of fossil fuels by Canadian industries and homeowners, will be revenue neutral or temporary.

Climate Models Struggling for Credibility

Al Fin: Climate Models Struggling for Credibility

Barack Obama and John McCain want to bet the future of the US economy on the credibility of climate models. How stupid is that? Pretty stupid.

"The truth has finally come out. Officially. Greens think more wealth is a bad idea."

Classical Values :: Battling Against Wealth Increases

John Barrett, one of the authors of the reports by the Stockholm Environment Institute at York (SEI-Y) for the government and campaign group WWF*, was quoted by the BBC today:
"We are constantly battling against increases of wealth... There's a very fundamental problem here that no one really wants to talk about."

Pelosi: Save the Planet, Let Someone Else Drill

Charles Krauthammer - Pelosi: Save the Planet, Let Someone Else Drill - washingtonpost.com

There are a dizzying number of economic and national security arguments for drilling at home: a $700 billion oil balance-of-payments deficit, a gas tax (equivalent) levied on the paychecks of American workers and poured into the treasuries of enemy and terror-supporting regimes, growing dependence on unstable states of the Persian Gulf and Caspian basin. Pelosi and the Democrats stand athwart, shouting: We don't care. We come to save the planet!

They seem blissfully unaware that the argument for their drill-there-not-here policy collapses on its own environmental terms.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle delivers us from evil

Breaking News: Gov says no to coal for state power plants

Using coal at state-owned heating plants is not an option that should be considered as a fuel source, according to a directive issued Friday by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The directive to move away from coal is in line with recommendations made by the governor's task force on global warming.

"The state should lead by example and move away from our dependence on coal at the state-owned heating plants in Madison," Doyle said. "Global warming demands leadership, and as we plan for the future of the Madison heating facilities, we must chart a course that lowers greenhouse gas emissions and encourages new alternative energy sources."

China is said to be building one coal-fired power station a week; let's watch and see if they follow Doyle's alleged "lead".

Myth Of Myths: Emissions And Growth

Global Warming Politics

Now, however, the Government’s cover has been blown into the stratosphere, and its ‘global warming’ rhetoric has been exposed for what it is, political myth-making on an industrial scale.
As Roger Harrabin writes [‘UK in “delusion' over emissions”’, BBC Online Science/Technology News, July 31], two new reports from the highly-respected Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), based at the University of York, reveal the painful truth. Roger observes that these reports:
“...are a massive blow to the British government which claimed to have grasped the Holy Grail of climate policy - de-coupling economic growth from emissions growth.”

House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking

The Crypt: House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking - Politico.com

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House and turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m., and they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.
...
Update 6: Rep Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) just pretended to be a Democrat. He stood on the other side of the chamber and listed all of the GOP bills that the Dems killed.

He then said, "I am a Democrat, and here is my energy plan" and he held up a picture of an old VW Bug with a sail attached to it. He paraded around the House floor with the sign while the crowd cheered.

Another Mad Hatter's Tea Party

AGRICULTURE: The Alleged Climate Costs of a Glass of Milk

While countries are looking for ways to produce more food and overcome the current food price crisis, experts from LEARN (Livestock Emission Abatement Research Network) are studying ways to reduce emissions without undercutting productivity.

That was the focus of discussion amongst officials and researchers gathered in Uruguay Jul. 21-24 for the international workshop on agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases, organised by LEARN. Tierramérica was the only media outlet present for the technical segment of the meeting.
...
Because it involves a sector that is very important to countries like Uruguay, the reduction of emissions must ensure that pasture-raised livestock continue to eat a natural, chemical-free diet, Luis Santos, coordinator of Uruguay’s Climate Change Unit, told Tierramérica. One option is to modify the diet of the animals, using varieties of forage that are less rich in methane, he said.

Pastureland accounts for 26 to 40 percent of the world’s productive lands. And cattle emit 37 percent of the methane and 65 percent of the nitrous oxide generated by human-led activities. The vast majority of these gases come from pastures in Latin America and Asia.

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, August 1st 2008

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, August 1st 2008

An alarming sea ice trend?

Carefully compare the 7/27/07 and 7/27/08 sea ice here:

Daily Arctic Sea Ice Maps

If this trend continues, won't much of the Atlantic Ocean be ice-covered in July 2100?

Smoking Out Unreasonable Certainty

» Smoking Out Unreasonable Certainty Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

It is interesting that all Lynas believes he has to win the debate is to claim that the sceptics don’t have to win the debate, and to somehow link ‘denial’ of one form to another, rather than actually have it. He excuses himself from the debate by saying that all that his would-be counterparts would have to do to win it would be to show that doubt exists. Environmentalists generally, and Lynas particularly, don’t like debate, and avoid it. He doesn’t think he needs to have one; ‘the science’ is settled. And from ‘the science’ flow all of the imperatives and moral absolutes, as if from the mouth of God. Instead of making the case, he insists that it is made. Done. Finished. Over. Settled. ‘In’. Won.

Limbaugh vs Gore

Planet Gore on National Review Online

ALGORE: Well, there’s a classic experiment in science, Ted, about a frog that’s dropped in a pot of boiling water and jumps right out. When the same frog is put in a pot of lukewarm water that’s slowly brought to a boil it just sits there until it’s rescued. A frog’s nervous system needs a sudden jolt to get the connection. We’re like that frog! We’re getting the signals of ecological devastation around the world, but we’re still dead in the water. The ozone hole is threatening to open up above North America —

Note that snopes.com debunks Gore's alleged "classic experiment" here.

Minnesota: Cool summer posing challenges for gardeners

Timberjay Newspapers Online

As the month of July winds down, home gardeners across the area have become increasingly worried about their prospects for harvesting many warm weather crops.

The persistent cool weather this summer has slowed the growth of virtually all garden plants, but is posing the biggest challenge to those plants that need real heat to mature. Plants like tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn are all behind and could well run into the end of the growing season before reaching maturity.

“I doubt that some of these varieties will make it,” said Kendall Dykhuis, an educator with the St. Louis County Extension Service in Virginia. According to Dykhuis, most area gardens are about three weeks behind, at least from where they’ve been in recent summers.

Global Warming's Latest Victim: Bottled Water

DailyTech - Global Warming's Latest Victim: Bottled Water

Environmentalism has devolved from its original roots into a hatred of modern industrial society and a hatred of all mankind's works. Where we once proudly built cities and farms to civilize the wilderness, we're now told to minimize our "footprint" on a planet far too good for the likes of us. And our most promising scientific and technological advances -- genetic engineering, nuclear power, nanotech -- are on the hit list of every environmental group. Like the Romans, we no longer have pride in what made us great.

More complete crap from alarmist Mark Lynas

Mark Lynas: The climate change clock is ticking | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

This is the value of the 100 months campaign, which injects a sense of urgency into what is in reality a very slow process of cooking ourselves.

A puff piece about recycling in New York is here:
Paper dreams a cardboard reality - West Shore - SILive.com

Some opposing views are here, in a 2002 article entitled "Recycling: It's a bad idea in New York":

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, desperate to dig the city out of a $4.8-billion deficit, caused a minor uproar recently by recommending the elimination of the city's extravagant recycling program. In doing so, he ripped away the veil on one of the biggest boondoggles of recent times.

Despite flowery promises and earnest intentions, mandatory municipal recycling programs across the United States have proven an expensive economic and environmental flop. Little sustains this odd brand of civic religion beyond the quasi-religious devotion of the Green faithful.
...
Moreover, it's the energy costs associated with recycling—the additional collection services, shipping costs, and industrial processing necessary to tear apart a newspaper, for instance, into reusable material—that contribute to its high costs.
...
In fact, recycling is almost certainly worse for the environment than landfilling. After all, the process of extracting usable raw material from a manufactured product is an industrial activity every bit as involved as the process of combining various raw materials to manufacture a product in the first place. Both processes are energy and chemically intensive. And both create waste.

Recycling 100 tons of old newsprint, for instance, generates tons of toxic waste. Is this consequential? Sure. The Environmental Protection Agency reported some years ago that 13 of America's 50 worst Superfund sites are or were recycling facilities.

Finally, we're constantly told recycling creates jobs. But let's face it: These are miserable jobs at miserable wages, and we've got plenty of those. Moreover, the argument neglects the jobs that aren't being created because New York City is taking $57 million a year out of the economy (actually, about $103 million accounting for the deadweight losses associated with the tax system) to pay for this make-work labor.

Banning farm machinery would create a lot of jobs too, but nobody in their right mind would advocate it. Why, then, do we entertain recycling’s brand of that same nonsense?

When recycling makes economic sense, government doesn't have to mandate it or subsidize it. Somebody in the private sector will be happy to pay you for your garbage or, alternatively, charge you less for recycling services than for landfilling services. If people want to recycle regardless—simply because it makes them feel better about themselves—that's their right. But let them spend their own time and money to do it.

"Forget the planet, save the humans!"

A Few Things Ill Considered : Forget the planet, save the humans!

20 Questions From Thomas Friedman

20 Questions From Thomas Friedman, On the Green Revolution « La Marguerite

...The book makes the distinction between “fuels from hell” and “fuels from heaven”...Friedman describes the controversy that ensued when meteorologist Heidi Cullen tried to educate her audience about global warming.

Jerry Brown vs. Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown staffer defends lawsuit against global warming. In response, I cite a certain 1964 Yale Law School graduate.

Though a liberal Democrat with an impressive record of environmental advocacy, this razor-sharp Yalie thought little of the global warming lawsuit against six automakers pushed by then-California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who earned his law degree at night school.

Among the thing this highly regarded fellow told me:

1) "One of the principles of tort law is that damages should not be speculative," and Lockyer's lawsuit failed that basic test.

2) He questioned how Lockyer's suit could assert "causation" between vehicle emissions and the reduced size of California's mountain snowpacks.

3) Sure, there was an urgent need to do something about global warming, but attempting to build a unified national and international approach to the problem made a lot more sense than a lawsuit.

Who was this thoughtful, brilliant lawyer?

Edmund G. Brown Jr. Better known as Jerry Brown. California Attorney General Jerry Brown.

A related link is here.

Pelosi's Energy Stonewall

Pelosi's Energy Stonewall - WSJ.com

If nothing else, this summer's oil drilling stonewall is giving voters an insight into this ideology, which recoils at any oil, natural gas or coal production -- oh, and nuclear besides. That puts 93% of all U.S. energy off limits for expansion. Back in the real world, and barring a cold fusion or other miracle, the U.S. will remain dependent on fossil fuels for decades. A fresh round of domestic oil-and-gas exploration would ease the long-term pressures that supply and demand are exerting on prices, plus bolster energy security.

And those not bound by anticarbon theology are coming around. Broad margins of the American public -- now even a slim majority of Californians -- favor increasing domestic production. Many Congressional Democrats are working below the radar to craft a compromise that couples drilling with conservation and programs to prop up renewable alternatives.

But the leadership won't bend even a bit, and so Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid have spent the summer using every parliamentary deception to evade debating the issue that the American public cares most about. Short of cutting off the air conditioning on Capitol Hill, Democrats won't get the message until voters make them -- perhaps in November.

Pickens Gives New Meaning to 'Self-Government'

JunkScience.com -- Steven Milloy, Publisher

Pickens has gamed Texas for his own ends, and now he’s trying to game the rest of us, too. Worse, his gamesmanship includes lending his billionaire resources, prominent stature and feudal powers bestowed upon him by the Texas legislature to help the Greens gain control over the U.S. energy supply.

Consider Mr. Gore's Past Record on New Technology

Consider Mr. Gore's Past Record on New Technology - WSJ.com

Finally, there is this stunningly idiotic prediction by Mr. Gore, who had spent years demanding the overregulation of biotechnology applied to agriculture, ostensibly because of concerns about environmental safety: "My biggest fear [about biotechnology] is not that by accident we will set loose some genetically defective Andromeda strain. Given our past record in dealing with agriculture, we're far more likely to accidentally drown ourselves in a sea of excess grain."

Doubtful Nats scrutinise climate science

Undersea volcanoes, sunspots, cosmic rays and orbital wobbles were thrown into the climate change mix in Armidale, NSW, last week, where several of Australia's most prominent climate change sceptics met at the invitation of the NSW Nationals.

Professor Ian Plimer, Professor Bob Carter and William Kininmonth joined Dr Alan Moran and Dr Paul Collits at a Nationals 'Roundtable Conference' to discuss, among other things, whether Australia should hold a Royal Commission to verify the fourth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

According to Prof Plimer, who is Professor of Mining Geology in the University of Adelaide, the IPCC is a club of atmospheric physicists who have failed to consider other evidence that might contradict the theory of human-caused global warming.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Despite the pressure, Pelosi stays firm: No vote on offshore oil drilling

Pelosi drew derision from her critics for telling Politico this week that she was blocking a vote on offshore drilling because "I'm trying to save the planet." But she elaborated on that theme today, saying she sees energy independence and fighting global warming as "my flagship issue." She said she would use her power to resist a policy that could increase the country's oil dependency.

"I'm not going to be diverted for a political tactic from a course of action that has a big-picture view - a vision about an energy independent future that reduces our dependence on fossil fuels ... and focuses on those renewables that are protective of the environment," she said.

State shutters FPL 'green' program

State shutters FPL 'green' program - 07/30/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

For almost five years, Florida Power & Light trumpeted green energy, saying customers could help the environment by contributing as little as $9.75 a month to buy renewable power.

About 39,000 customers signed up. In April, the U.S. Department of Energy called the program, Sunshine Energy, one of the top 10 residential green power programs in the country.

On Tuesday, angry state regulators killed the program by a unanimous vote after a Public Service Commission staff audit found that about 80 percent of the contributions went for marketing and other administrative expenses.

The staff reported that about $1.8 million of the $9.6 million FPL customers contributed over a four-year span went to purchase renewable energy.

"The energy speech McCain should deliver"

Jay Ambrose: The energy speech McCain should deliver - Examiner.com

Email from Lord Monckton to Penny Wong

Monckton warns Wong: You’re steering Labor to doom | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

If you introduce an emissions-trading scheme, when it transpires that the scheme and its associated economic damage had never been necessary - and it will, and sooner than you think - you and your party will be flung from office, perhaps forever.

Bolt: A million blogging warnings to a lazy media

Column - A million blogging warnings to a lazy media | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

But what has boosted my blog numbers far more is another issue the MSM won’t cover fairly, preferring to preach rather than inform.

Global warming is still so ingrained a faith in journalism that to question it is not just proof of stupidity, but evil. But again the blogs - not just mine, but several overseas - have filled the gap, fact-checking the warming preachers, and telling readers of the dissenting scientists that the MSM won’t touch.

Take this week alone. If Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery has said global warming will leave Perth parched, I can run a graph showing its dams haven’t been so full in years.

If Al Gore says Bangladesh will drown under rising seas, I can show that satellite measurements prove the country is growing, not shrinking.

If the UN’s climate scientists warn of doom, I can link to a new peer-reviewed study showing none of their predictions seem to be coming true.

If some other alarmist says the North Pole is almost gone, I can run satellite pictures from Wednesday showing much more ice there now than at this time last year.

All this would seem obsessive if done in a newspaper. But on a blog, which need please few and has space for plenty, it can be done with less risk - and even more effect. In fact, I’ve noticed results I’d never have got if I wrote only newspapers columns.

Many Liberal politicians tell me they’ve drawn on the blog for evidence to get their party to get tougher in resisting the global warming hysteria.

ABC’s Lateline this week reported through clenched teeth that this blog - and another by scientist Jennifer Marohasy - were now “hosting a new scientific debate” by repeatedly running data proving the world had stopped warming, at least for now.

But more than that, blogs like mine have given frustrated academics, even from India and Canada, a place to send dissenting material on global warming that much of the media prefers to ignore. A debate the media often says is “over” is on again. Thanks to blogs.

Again, I ask: Where else in the media do you get that debate? On the ABC? In The Age?

More from Al himself

Al's Journal : Campuses Go Green

In many ways, this article is telling us something we’ve known all along: educating Americans of all ages about the environment and the climate crisis could not be more critical.

Ice Scare Goes Wong

Jennifer Marohasy: Ice Scare Goes Wong

Comments On The Draft CCSP Report “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States”

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Comments On The Draft CCSP Report “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States”

As recommended in the Climate Science weblog [see] we need new scientists who are not encumbered by their prior advocacy positions on climate change to lead the preparation of balanced climate assessment reports.

The response of the media when this report is released in its final form will also be enlightening. Those reporters who parrot the synthesis without questioning its obvious bias and conflict of interest should be identified as sycophants. Those who adequately communicate the diversity of scientifically supported disagreements with the report should be lauded for the true journalist that they are.

Dion mocked by his own staffers over the Green Shaft

A Dog Named Kyoto: Dion mocked by his own staffers over the Green Shaft

When your own paid staffers are producing stuff like this, you know you must be in trouble. Big trouble.

I really enjoyed skimming the complete comments section of this article

Eco Worrier: How can I persuade my husband to use a push mower? - Times Online

Hard science should come before hard choices

Opinion: Hard science should come before hard choices - Brookline, MA - Brookline TAB

Sen. Pacheco’s bill asks that “measures … minimize costs and maximize…benefits.” Until we have reliable climate knowledge, that legislation would be impossible to implement. The House of Representatives sent it to the Ways and Means Committee for study, and should let it stay there this year.

The Tonight Show mocks the greens

More evidence that it's now cool to mock the greens...

On Jay Leno's Tonight Show yesterday, "Al Gore" called in to introduce a spoof ad for a "Green Barbie".

Green Barbie was shown in a hot tub filled with brown "used water" containing a cigarette butt; her clothes were said to be "100% hemp"; Green Barbie was said to be "on a waiting list for a super hybrid car"; Green Barbie herself was made of disgusting used grease that attracted flies; and Green Barbie's house was so biodegradeable that it turned into dirt overnight.

UK: Eco worries not affecting travel plans

Eco worries not affecting travel plans

Concerns about the environment are not having an effect on the travel plans of most people from the UK, according to a recent poll.

Thousands of Britons enjoy their holidays in Spain each year and their travel habits are not being adjusted as a result of concerns about the contributions their journeys could be making to carbon emissions.

Most people are worried by the prospect of climate change but even so-called green taxes designed to deter travellers would be unlikely to deter Britons from taking their families on Spanish holidays.

Does T. Boone understand that American oil wouldn't have to be imported to America?

Greg Mitchell: Coming from NYT on Sunday: T. Boone Pickens Hits Bush, Says Obama Has Run 'Hell of a Campaign'

Asked how he feels to be on the side of Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi with his energy plan, Pickens tells Deborah Solomon, "If they're on my side, that's good." He says President Bush's offshore drilling push is "not going to fix our problem. I don't call that a plan. You've got to cut imports."

Wikiality on Global Warming

Global Warming - Wikiality, the Truthiness Encyclopedia for Colbert's Heroes

The Carbon Credit Scam: Windfall Profits?

Emerging out of thin air, it has already surpassed solar and wind as the largest cleantech industry. Carbon credits were worth a staggering $63 billion in 2007 and $59 billion in the first half of 2008 alone.

Maggie Gyllenhaal Kicks Off Climate Matters Video Contest

Maggie Gyllenhaal Kicks Off Climate Matters Video Contest // Archives // ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

Maggie Gyllenhaal, one of the stars in this summer’s biggest blockbuster The Dark Knight, is teaming up with the organizations Brighter Planet and 1Sky to launch the “Climate Matters Video Contest”. The campaign will give Americans the chance to have their global climate change message seen by our next president and other political leaders...

A related article is here, entitled "Holy Ecology Batman! Hong Kong Green Groups Fight Film-Makers' Call For All-Night Lights".

A encouraging response on satellite CO2 measurement from the AIRS Team

A encouraging response on satellite CO2 measurement from the AIRS Team « Watts Up With That?

Also if you read between the lines in their response to me, particularly this paragraph:
Since our results are at variance with what is commonly accepted by the scientific community, we must work especially hard to validate them. We have just had a paper accepted by Geophysical Research Letters that will be published in 6-8 weeks, and are preparing a validation paper.
I’d say that waiting that 6-8 weeks for the paper and supporting data will be well worth it. The working title of the upcoming paper is: “Satellite Remote Sounding of Mid-Tropospheric CO2″ and the lead author is Moustafa T. Chahine.

Good things come to those who wait.

Gasbagging

Global Warming Politics

...The politicians, the gasbags, will this week be exceptionally quick to stir up consumer ire against the the “greedy capitalists”.

But we must not let these failed politicians off the hook. The UK is in very serious trouble over energy for one prime reason: our politicians have put off making the key decisions for over 30 years. They must now be called to account.

Indeed, no political party should be considered electable until it commits itself to new coal stations, to new nuclear plant, and to the improved import and storage of gas. Above all, we want, and need, to hear on this from the currently-empty vessel that is David Cameron and the Conservative Party.

Climate-change researchers should use more data to avoid errors: study

The Canadian Press: Climate-change researchers should use more data to avoid errors: study

...Newman's team used two models and expected some level of variation in the results. But they did not expect contradictory data.

"We basically got opposite answers when we should have gotten the same answer," Newman said.

"What we've shown is if you use more than one model you can get entirely different results, so (based on studies that used only one model) maybe we have no view at all of what the impacts are going to be."

"Stop the War on the Poor"

Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor > Home

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Leaders from the civil rights, African American, faith-based, senior, agriculture and consumer advocacy communities recently launched a national campaign to publicly unmask more than 100 politicians and 50 environmental extremist groups that are waging an immoral “war on the poor” by pushing policies that limit America’s ability to produce more America energy and drive energy prices skyward.

Seattle’s planet-saving plan: Jump rope, draw chalk art

Michelle Malkin » Seattle’s planet-saving plan: Jump rope, draw chalk art

Reuters: Gore "seems certain to land a lead role at the Democratic National Convention"

Planet Gore on National Review Online

That inbred IPCC

Al Fin: The UN's IPCC: More Inbred Than an Appallachian Hog Holler Cousin Orgy

The secretive oligarchy will be huddled together on the balmy Hawaiian Isles, attempting to get their stories straight concerning these and many other issues that are keeping the warlords of weather awake at night. It is a crisis for the oligarchy, a possible tipping point.

July 28 update: still plenty of ice encountered as boat prepares to enter "the Northwest Passage proper"

Tyhina

The sail across Disko on Monday kept me on my toes as the wind swung from south to south east to east to north east. Not an issue normally but as icebergs float along bits drop off and become bergy bits, these range in size from football to refrigerator size to the size of a car. It is the refrigerator and coffee table size bits that are a worry. They are hard to see and can make a fair dent or hole in the boat. Bergy bits normally drift off down wind of the iceberg, but as the wind had changed through the day, they were just all over the place and in 20 knots of breeze and a few white caps, difficult to see. All turned out fine though and I made it into Ilulissat dent free.
...
From here it's north and west. We wait for good weather and a good ice report to cross Baffin Bay and then we'll be into the Northwest Passage proper.

Horner: Another miss for the modelers

Planet Gore on National Review Online

...Other than that, why, those models are perfectly wonderful tools on which to premise trillion-dollar economic decisions!

Fortunately, we have two candidates for president promising to do just that.

Bravo, Australian Senate Opposition leader Nick Minchin

Hostile climate for the craven - Peter Hartcher - Opinion - smh.com.au

...With a big decision on the Coalition's climate change policy looming for the next day, it was the subject of most urgent interest. Minchin has long been a sceptic on climate change.

When Ian Campbell was Howard's environment minister, Campbell tried to persuade Minchin that man-made climate change was real by sending him articles on the subject. Minchin would clip pieces on the counter-view and send back articles challenging the science.

No cheeseburger for you; also, a simple $24,000 check helps turn climate change skeptics into true believers

Raising a global stink -- chicagotribune.com

One of the company's three local cafeterias, at Wheaton College, went so far as to stop offering cheeseburgers in the all-you-can-eat dining hall. Customers at a small campus grill are reminded that choosing a chicken sandwich instead of a burger can reduce their carbon footprint.

"People still don't get the impact of food as a significant contributor to climate change or the environment in general," said Helene York, who directs Bon Appetit's Low Carbon Diet. "But there are ways big and small that we can change the culture."
...
By keeping methane out of the atmosphere, the dairy farmers get to sell carbon credits to companies that fail to meet their pledges to reduce global warming pollution. The arrangement recently netted the Blocks a $24,000 check, and has turned the former climate-change skeptics into true believers.

Is John McCain Stupid?

Wonder Land - WSJ.com

Recently the subject came up of Al Gore's assertion that the U.S. could get its energy solely from renewables in 10 years. Sen. McCain said: "If the vice president says it's doable, I believe it's doable." What!!?? In a later interview, Mr. McCain said he hadn't read "all the specifics" of the Gore plan and now, "I don't think it's doable without nuclear power." It just sounds loopy.

UN holds a press conference to tell us about their plans to try turning up thermostats in August

7thSpace - PRESS CONFERENCE ON NEW UNITED NATIONS IN-HOUSE CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVE

During a month-long trial period in August, the thermostats would be turned up from 72° F (22.2° C) to 77° F (25° C) in most parts of the Secretariat building and from 70° F (21.1° C) to 75° F (23.9° C) in the conference rooms, Mr. Adlerstein said...Mr. Adlerstein, the official in charge of the Organization’s massive renovations, said that, in launching the campaign, the Secretary-General had said: “We have succeeded in moving climate change to the top of the international agenda for action, and this means that the UN must take action itself. We must lead by example, and if we are to ask others to take action, we must do so as well.”

The initiative would save some 4.4 billion pounds of steam during the month of August, or the equivalent of 300 tons of carbon dioxide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, he said. That equalled an approximate 10 per cent reduction in energy consumption. It would also produce cash savings estimated at $100,000. If successful, the test would be extended.

A few questions:

1. If scientists for decades have known that CO2 was incredibly dangerous, why didn't you do this decades ago?

2. Why are you doing this only on a trial basis? Will you hold another press conference to tell us the results of the trial?

3. Are you currently using any fossil fuel energy to power this building? If so, on what date will you go completely "off-grid" and use only "clean" energy such as wind and solar power?

Pages of Late-Night Jokes About Al Gore

Al Gore Jokes - Late-Night Jokes About Al Gore

Hmm--you're telling me that if it's too warm near Antarctica, the penguins will respond by heading to the tropical beaches?

Penguins wash up along tropical beaches | NEWS.com.au

Mr Silva said biologists believe stronger-than-usual ocean currents had pulled the birds north but others have said overfishing and warmer ocean temperatures may have led the birds to search for food further north than their normal Antarctic and Patagonian habitats.

An alternative explanation of Climate Change

Interesting stuff here.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Friday, August 01, 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

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