Don't miss this one:
'To greens, I was worse than a child abuser' - Media, News - The Independent

Martin Durkin's documentary 'The Great Global Warming Swindle', aired on Channel 4 last year, enraged the green lobby by claiming human activity wasn't behind global warming. Ofcom, the TV regulator, received 265 complaints and last month ruled that its writer and director lacked impartiality. However, Ofcom ceded that, despite "certain reservations", it did not believe audiences had been "materially misled". Writing for the first time since the documentary was screened, Durkin tells 'The Independent on Sunday' why he stands by his film in the face of continued criticism...

Sorry Campers: Coal Is King

Global Warming Politics 

+Coal provides 25% of global primary energy;

+Coal generates 40% of the world’s electricity;

+Over the last 25 years, world hard coal production has increased by 92%;

+In 2006, estimated hard coal use was 5,370 Mt;

+In 2006, world brown (soft) coal use was 914 Mt, a 0.9% increase over 2005;

+Important recoverable coal reserves are available in over 70 countries;

+The top 5 world coal producers are: P.R. of China (2,482 Mt); USA (990 Mt); India (427 Mt); Australia (309 Mt); and South Africa (244 Mt);

+In Europe, the leading coal producer is Poland (95 Mt); Germany remains the world’s leading brown coal producer;

+The top 5 countries using coal for electricity production (1995 or 1996 statistics) are: Poland (93%); South Africa (93%); Australia (80%); P.R. of China (78%); and Israel (71%);

+Despite its ‘green’ image, Germany still relies on coal for 47% of its electricity generation;

+The top 5 coal exporters are: Australia (231 Mt); Indonesia (129 Mt); Russia (92 Mt); South Africa (69 Mt); and P.R. of China (63 Mt);

+By contrast, the UK depends on imported coal at 51 Mt....

The chickens are coming home to roost

An article in the London Daily Telegraph recently stated the founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, proposed to take Al Gore and other environmentalists to court at a conference in New York. Since then, he has received thousands of e-mails supporting him and thousands of offers of financial support for a legal fund.

I have said in previous letters the mainstream media ignores those who are skeptical of man-made global warming and promotes the socialist environmental groups who use this fictional catastrophe to scare the masses, so they can impose more rules and higher taxes on us.

I support Mr. Coleman and I hope he is able to get this issue into court and away from the politicians where it can be fairly debated.

Another alarmist joins the climate realists

CO2sceptics News Blog | greenworldtrust.org.uk

I did a U-turn in my understanding of AGW. On the way, I collected loads of info - for myself and to pass on. Have a look at the page that tells both my story and the real science and evidence for "the truth beyond Al Gore":

http://www.greenworldtrust.org.uk/TransPlanet/Curious.htm

I think it's now reached a level of excellence that it can be promoted as a primer. It immediately references other excellent primers, and it has a lot of top quality references...

The globe was warming, when global warming wasn't cool...

Met Office: Olympic Games

1928: At the 1928 winter games in St Moritz the 50 km cross country race took place in unusual weather conditions. At the start the temperature was a predictable 0 °C but by the end it had risen to 25 °C — a temperature almost unheard of in February – resulting in a third of the competitors having to give up. The warm conditions also affected the ice rink and led to the speed skating being cancelled.

1932: Four years later in Lake Placid, warm weather also affected the winter games and led to them being extended by two days.

1964: In 1964 the Innsbruck games seemed to be at risk of not going ahead because of the lack of snow, until the Austrian army intervened by transporting snow from other areas. When rain threatened to wash away the snow ten days before the event the army went in and packed down the slopes by foot. Nowadays artificial snow is often used.

Lifes Pressures Stop Us From Being Green (from Sunday Herald)

Hence hypocrisy, as Burchill would have it. It might gladden a green heart to see 4x4s forced off the roads because of fuel prices. It certainly wouldn't bother me. But is it equally pleasing to see old people freeze to death thanks to the same price mechanism?

Like it or not, the answer to that question is not, or not yet, "renewables". Hence Monbiot's reluctant embrace of nuclear. The actual alternative currently on offer is coal and the sop of (untried) carbon capture technology. The journalist has not found virtue suddenly in nuclear waste. He is simply choosing the lesser of two evils, no doubt with regret, in the battle to check CO2 emissions.

He is not the only one. Equally, contrary to Burchill's diatribe, the problem is no longer the province of the least prosperous. The better-off are also feeling the squeeze. For them, rising commodity prices and falling property values are no longer a mere inconvenience. Their behaviour may change, but not necessarily in the way greens might hope. In fact, with tens of millions around the world facing hard times, environmentalism could be facing one of its biggest setbacks in many a year.

The first truth is the most brutal: most people want energy supplies they can afford, and they don't much care where the fuel comes from. They listen to the arguments among those who would save the planet - the Monbiot betrayal is but one - and they grow impatient. They hear the arguments against oil. They hear the arguments against nuclear. They hear the arguments against coal. They hear the arguments against wind farms. They don't hear agreement.

Then they hear that gas prices are to rise by 35%. Then they note the price of a non-organic loaf, never mind the price of the responsible organic variety. Then, perhaps, they indulge in a hollow laugh when they hear lectures on the need to reduce consumption.

Environmentalists insult the public, perhaps unwittingly, when they welcome the end of "cheap" food and "cheap" fuel. Nothing feels cheap, apart from the insult. Most can't wait, cannot afford to wait, for the promised "new society".

That argument again

It is getting easier to be green - Opinion - smh.com.au

We should not worry too much about whether the compelling science on climate change is right or wrong.

With the green economy that is here, now, and a huge opportunity for our country, it doesn't really matter whether you are a believer or not.

Let's get the world's green dollars here, now, and working for us.

The climate change sceptics, just like Kermit the Frog, are wrong - it is getting easier to be green.

Dunagan: New breed of Chicken Littles

...That way they can get their taxpayer paid grants from “just got to stay in power” congressmen and senators and keep working in their ivory towers doing studies and making calculations. These are people who think they are above producing goods or services, so they produce information based upon their own belief, opinions, the desires of their superiors, and most of all to keep their well paid positions secure.

The global warming crowd’s ultimate goal is to have laws passed to extort funds from big and small business’s in the form of what they call carbon footprints, or more simply put: paying for your destruction of the earth as you live and work. Of course business’s will just pass it on to the consumer. But remember, they want individuals to pay for their carbon footprints also, so we, the consumer would be stuck with paying both.

Australia: Alert on big freeze as severe weather tipped | Herald Sun

Weather bureau senior forecaster Scott Williams said the extreme burst of cold weather was expected to peak this afternoon and was a risk to humans and livestock.

"This is probably the first time we've put out a severe weather warning for this sort of thing," he said.

AccuWeather.com News & Blogs: Brett Anderson Blog

First, let me say, the amount of comments and email that have been coming in recently about the cool, wet summer in large parts of eastern Canada is amazing. No doubt, many people are sick and tired of this weather.

Global Shamming: EPA Continues Gore's Plan: Drive Climate Famine

Does the EPA consist of a mere bunch of alarmist enviro-nazis? The answer is a big YES....

Here we see that these alarmists at the EPA will stop at nothing to prop up the mass of stupidity that is the farcical “human-induced climate change” scam. Just like Al Gore, they’re willing to make the poor of the world go hungry to protect their little lie.

Comic relief: Arctic agw expedition blames ice blocked ship on global warming

From the Arctic to the Office

Major ice blockages up past Pangnirtung in the Cumberland Sound that the ice-class ship was unable to break through, as ice conditions are becoming more extreme (both forming and melting) with climate change.

(Via Marc Morano)

Global warming: different views

Last month the Brookings Institution issued a paper on factors influencing Americans' perceptions of global warming. Major surveys were taken in Michigan and Pennsylvania. The five factors presented to respondents as affecting their belief in global warming:

* Declining glaciers and polar ice
* Higher temperatures in local area
* Computer modeling
* Hurricane Katrina
* "An Inconvenient Truth"

The authors found the first two factors to be significant in Americans' belief in global warming; the last two less so....

Guy who happens to own a grass-fed cattle ranch: grass-fed cattle are the solution to global warming

WorldChanging: Can Cattle Save Us From Global Warming?

Wick—who owns this ranch in the hills of Marin County north of San Francisco with Peggy Rathmann, author of the classic picture book _Goodnight Gorilla_—goes on to outline the climate crisis in terms all-too-familiar to anyone paying attention to the issue. But he then offers a solution that would astonish most people, especially green activists: “Eat a local grass-fed burger.”

AN APPLICATION OF THE GORE INDEX TO THE MAY 6 “FRESH AIR” NPR PROGRAM

Moving On: It had to happen...

A measurement of imprecision: Number of qualifiers in each sentence divided by the number of sentences. This calculation expressed as a index reading is a measure of imprecision.

This measure is called the Gore Index.

Any Gore Index reading in excess of 1.02 indicates that a presentation is not factual...

What's William Gray reading? - St. Petersburg T - Flash Player Installation

I'm a lifelong Democrat. I may be bailing out because of the global warming issue, but I'm also appalled that McCain has held certain views in the past, but he's modifying on global warming, and I believe Obama will begin to modify his view too.

UK: Polls and surveys cost taxpayer £1m per week - Telegraph

In total £55m has been spent in the past year.

The most expensive project was for the Department of Transport to look at the feasibility of charging motorists for every mile they drive. The 'public acceptance' poll cost Ruth Kelly's department £566,111.

The second most costly poll was by the same department when they asked the public about their attitudes to climate change at a cost of £411,500.

CO2 hysteria a key issue in Florida election

Kreegel s challenger says energy is key | HeraldTribune.com | Southwest Florida's Information Leader

"If global warming keeps going on and the temperature keeps going up, South Florida's under water," said [Keith] Richter, who is from Lehigh Acres in Lee County. "Nothing's important if the land isn't here, and my opponent seems to think global warming is not a reality."

[Paige] Kreegel, a climate change skeptic, was instrumental in cutting a key provision in Gov. Charlie Crist's energy bill that would have required cars in Florida to reach high fuel-efficiency standards by 2020.

As chairman of the House energy committee, Kreegel, of Punta Gorda, also opposed mandates requiring that a percentage of the state's energy come from solar power.

Solar power, Kreegel said, does not pay because it costs 8 to 10 times as much as coal-generated power, too much for consumers to stomach.

Richter, on the other hand, believes that Florida's top need is to promote the widespread use of solar energy, build new alternative fuel plants and provide incentives for research projects, such as Florida Atlantic University's experiment using turbines to harness energy from the ocean.

Minnesota: Warmth needed

Area crops need more growing degree days to reach maturity | DL-Online | Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

If we accumulate an average of 18 GDDs per day, it would take approximately 55 days from Aug. 4 for corn to get to 2,200 GDD heat units. So, we will need those warm days and nights and hopefully an extended growing season!

New Zealand: Ski conditions the best in decades

Skifield operators say that this ski season is shaping up to be one of the best in decades with an abundance of snow.

"It's one of the best seasons in 20 years. We have over two metres of snow, it's just a winter wonderland," says Uli Dinsenbacher from Porter Heights.

The Associated Press: In corn country, McCain admits to ethanol disdain

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn't mince words Friday at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn't want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world.

"My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue and that's healthy," McCain said as he stood near bales of straw at one of the nation's premiere farming showcases. "I believe in renewable fuels. I don't believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels."

McCain has never been shy about speaking against subsidizing ethanol when he is in farm country, though that stand helped to make him unpopular enough in Iowa that he skipped participating in its leadoff presidential caucuses in 2000 and again in 2008.

Editorial: Wind, energy don’t need fed [National Wind Watch]

If, as Mr. Pickens claims, wind power is feasible for generating electricity, and natural gas is better than gasoline for trucks, the market will figure it out. From a utilitarian perspective, the market can be counted on to learn what works. From a moral standpoint, freely made choices coerce and abuse no one. That seems much more to resemble, “everything that’s American.”

Urbanization raises the heat in Orange County, CA « Watts Up With That?

Switch to windpower could add £6 billion a year to fuel bills - Times Online

The switch to windpower could see £6 billion a year added to the nation’s power bills by 2020 - equivalent to around £250 per household, the government’s own figures have revealed.

The money would be used to support a system of lucrative subsidies to the power companies that build and operate wind turbines.

It would also support the installation of 7,000 new wind turbines. At current prices it means each turbine could generate more profit from subsidy than from the sale of the power generated.

Ross Gelbspan: $350 billion for 350 ppm « It’s Getting Hot In Here

It will take an investment of about $350 billion a year (for five to 10 years) to achieve that solution through the most effective, direct and ultimately prosperous route possible – a coordinate global public works program to rewire the world with clean energy.

Forget carbon capture and storage. That is a mesmerizing fantasy, based on unproven and potentially catastrophic technology, to allow us to continue to burn coal. From a more cynical viewpoint, carbon sequestration represents a full-employment act for companies like Bechtel, Halliburton and, of course, Peabody coal.

Forget schemes like “cap and trade.” Trading may represent a starting point, but it is incapable of propelling a global energy transition. For too many people, “cap and trade” reflects a misplaced faith in the power of markets. “Market-based” mechanisms, after all, have enriched the global few at the expense of the global many. An unquestioning belief in the omnipotence of markets, moreover, represents an abdication of will and responsibility. We can not solve global warming through the free play of markets. We need to take control of an economic system that is driven by the dynamic of profit-maximization – not by environmental protection or an ethic of global social responsibility.

What nature requires to preserve a stable environment is a direct investment in non-carbon, non-nuclear energy sources – in wind and solar and tidal and ocean-current power, in small scale hydro-power and, ultimately, in a new hydrogen economy.

Conventional Lack of Wisdom

Planet Gore on National Review Online

...What does it say about a party whose current signature position holds that tapping billions of barrels of domestic oil and natural gas really wouldn't make a difference, so we shouldn't bother?, while feverishly nagging their vendors with rigid imperatives to recycle and ensure the fanny packs and hats are made from organic cotton?

Paul Krugman: Drilling for more American oil is "stupid"

Op-Ed Columnist - Know-Nothing Politics - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Key degrees of difference | The Australian

HAS global warming stopped? The question alone is enough to provoke scorn from the mainstream scientific community and from the Government, which says the earth has never been hotter. But tell that to a new army of sceptics who have mushroomed on internet blog sites and elsewhere in recent months to challenge some of the most basic assumptions and claims of climate change science.

Their claims are provocative and contentious but they are also attracting attention, so much so that mainstream scientists are being forced to respond.

The bloggers and others make several key claims. They say the way of measuring the world's temperature is frighteningly imprecise and open to manipulation. They argue that far from becoming hotter, the world's temperatures have cooled in the past decade, contrary to the overwhelming impression conveyed by scientists and politicians.

Northern Greenland Sea: “…this year, there was an exceptional amount of ice -” « Watts Up With That?

I spent about one minute of my life looking at this new US Forest Service Climate Change Resource center, and I failed to find links to any climate realist sites:
CCRC : Climate Change Resource Center

Gee, thanks a lot, Duane

Hypermiler willing to go to extremes for good mileage - Cleveland Lifestyles – Living, Food, Health & Fitness News from The Plain Dealer

Duane Price forgives you for honking. He smiles serenely from behind the wheel of his Prius as you tear past, spewing expletives, even flipping him the bird. He has reason to be happy. He's averaging 80 miles to the gallon around town. And you're not.

If you find yourself riding the bumper of his egg-shaped gas-electric hybrid going slightly under the speed limit, don't get mad at Duane. He's saving the planet.

Not only can he travel nearly 900 miles on a 12-gallon tank, he's cutting his CO2 emissions, the main culprit in global warming.

Serious or spoof?

Unburnable Fuel (from The Herald )

I was interested to note that Anne Johnstone's thoughtful column (The Herald, August 7) was prompted by a report from the New Economics Foundation, entitled 100 Months, which I have just finished reading. This report starkly underlines recent scientific evidence which seems to predict that the headline 100 months is all the time that is left, before run-away global warming sets in, if mankind continues to pump carbon into the atmosphere at its current rate.

It intrigued me that the report raises the notion of introducing a new category of fossil-fuel reserve. In addition to the industry's concept of "proven" and "probable" reserves, it suggests we should add "unburnable". Clearly, if all fossil fuels were left in the ground the problem would immediately be alleviated. It seems unavoidable that at some time in the not-too-distant future it will be necessary to send United Nations global warming prevention troops to oil wells, gas wells and coal mines around the globe to cut-off access to the "unburnable" remainder.

"RISING temperatures are likely to bring increased levels of violence to Melbourne by 2010"

Report shows global warming madness now critical | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Do these people realise quite how mad they seem? Just think for a second: the world hasn’t warmed for a decade, and at most might warm by, say, 0.1 degrees by 2010. Would anyone actually notice such a minute change on their skin? Would the difference really then make them punch someone?

The global warming hysteria is more dangerous than any real warming.

Australia: Good crop growth slowed by late frost

CROPS in most areas of South Australia made "quite good growth" during the first half of July, but colder, frosty conditions later in the month saw growth slow considerably, according to the latest crop report from Primary Industries and Resources SA.

Questions for John McCain - Say Anything

You’ve expressed support for global warming legislation. Does the fact that the Earth hasn’t warmed for ten years and that 2007 was one of the coolest winters on record make you think the matter deserves more study before we act?

While we’re on the subject of global warming legislation. Polls have shown that the public is unwilling to pay more for gasoline or electricity to combat global warming. On the other hand studies show that your cap and trade legislation will nearly double the price of those energy supplies. How do you convince cash strapped families that they need to sacrifice so much for something that’s unproven?

Senator 30,000 scientists have signed the Oregon petition saying that climate science cannot guarantee that the global warming theories are correct. Does this make you reconsider your position on global warming?

Won’t doubling the cost of energy result in the loss of jobs in this country? (Follow-up question if he brings up his ridiculous statement that his cap and trade legislation will create jobs.) What economic theory says that increasing the costs of an activity results in more of that activity?

Poll of Filipinos

"For 54% of Filipinos, people have only themselves to blame for typhoons, flooding, landslides, and other calamities that occurred in the Philippines and other countries in recent months," Pulse Asia's Dr. Ana Maria Tabunda said in the firm's August 8 media release. "Religious reasons are cited by 23% of Filipinos as a whole.”

When respondents were asked what these calamities were primarily caused by, the results were:

· 54% pointed to the card which said, "Destructive ways of people who regularly abuse the environment;
· 23% pointed to the card which said, "God's warning or punishment to nations turning to evil ways";
· 18% pointed to the card which said, "Natural processes that regularly occurs worldwide;
· 5% couldn’t say or choose.

Instapundit poll: Which is a bigger danger to humanity...

Instapundit.com -

BBC backed alarmism after January '06 seminar

- Bishop Hill blog - BBC backing climate change alarmism - official

The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts, and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus [on anthropogenic climate change].

Details here.

I love the smell of burned-up alarmists in the morning

The Hill's Pundits Blog » Where's Al Gore?

Anyone can champion the Earth when it's easy, yet too many remain silent when it's hard. The forces behind oil are taking charge in the great energy debate and global warming has virtually disappeared, even from its strongest advocate.

I have supported Al Gore for a generation but am profoundly troubled by his silence and absence from the great debate during this election year. Gore did not run; Gore did not endorse when it mattered; Gore did not push his issues during the primaries; Gore did not challenge the phony gas tax holiday idea; Gore does not challenge the Mother Earth of all flip-flops and sellouts from John McCain, who went from pretending to be a global warming leader to being the great shill for oil company profits.

See the comment section here:
NOAA: U.S. Temperature Above Normal in July « Watts Up With That?

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, August 8, 2008

What Reduces Fuel Mileage? The Ethanol Mandate

Planet Gore on National Review Online

In a July 26 New York Times article, “In Gas-Powered World, Ethanol Stirs Complaints,” a AAA official reports that the “organization has been getting calls from members blaming E10 for mileage drops of 8 to 20 percent. Drivers in Tulsa., he said, are complaining to their local service stations, saying, ‘I used to get 28 mpg; last time around, I'm getting 25. What's going on?' '' That's anecdotal and non-scientific evidence, to be sure. But it's anecdotal and non-scientific evidence of a 10-percent reduction in mileage.

Green Backlash

Global Warming Politics 

The Green backlash has started in Britain with a vengeance. It was inevitable, and the Green movement has largely itself to blame. The priggish and often patronising tone, the elitism, the abuse of science and risk theory, the peddling of trumped up ‘scares’, the desire to make everything cost more, and the authoritarian, anti-libertarian politics have all come together in these difficult economic times to cause folk to say that they have had enough. The media have also played a part in generating this reaction, especially the BBC, by adopting an often uncritical and over-indulgent attitude towards Green issues and Green political activists.

But people are now fed up to their waste bins with it all, and especially with being lectured to day-in-and-day-out.

Interestingly, the media are at last sensing the change of mood, and this is permitting the commentariat of all shades to start to turn on the Greens in one way or another, witness, for example, the following three articles, which have all appeared this week...

CO2sceptics News Blog | Sunspots linked to SOI?

Is the sun driving our weather? Robert Baker thinks it might. For a decade, he’s been observing that the fluctuations of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) can be forecast with reasonable accuracy using the sun’s magnetic cycle.

Dr Baker’s hypothesis, to be published in a scientific journal later this year, is that the interaction between the magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth, ultraviolet radiation, and the way cloud formation is influenced by energy particles issuing from the sun, combine to suggest an alternative reason for the SOI that warrants further investigation.
...
Dr Trewin said this week that he wasn’t aware of any further scientific investigation into the sun-rainfall link, but would be “very interested” to read Dr Baker’s paper.

Dr Baker’s investigation has been hampered by the fact that his hypothesis has attracted little interest from other scientists, and no funding.

He hopes this will change when his peer-reviewed paper is published later this year.

WHAT ABOUT IT? | Daily Telegraph Tim Blair Blog

This [play] has to do with meeting a pretty, young Scots-Bangla woman who adheres to the view that the best way to reduce carbon emissions is to kill as many rich Westerners as possible.

Pelosi on "the war dance of the hand maidens of Big Oil"

Reuters AlertNet - INTERVIEW-Pelosi's top five list for next U.S. president

WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - When the next U.S. president moves into the White House on Jan. 20, 2009, he shouldn't be surprised to get a call from Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill with a list of legislative demands.

"End the (Iraq) war, expand health care, create jobs through innovation, rebuild infrastructure and ensure our energy independence." In that order. [Note that about a week ago, Pelosi said she sees energy independence and fighting global warming as "my flagship issue." Why is it listed only #5 here, and why is the "global warming" part not included?]
...
With consumers demanding relief from high gasoline prices, Pelosi has snubbed Republican demands to lift a ban on offshore oil drilling in protected areas, calling the idea a "hoax."

"Although people are desperate and want a reduced price, this (drilling) isn't going to make this happen, no matter how unpopular it may be to hold that position. Nonetheless it is the right thing to do," Pelosi said.
...
But it is the raging national debate on energy and global warming, exacerbated by soaring gas prices, that now presents Pelosi with one of her toughest challenges as speaker.

Republicans, sensing they have found an issue that is resonating with voters, have been battering Pelosi for blocking their oil drilling legislation -- and some centrist Democrats are moving in their direction.

The debate threatens to fracture the Democratic Party and could put Pelosi at odds with a potential President Obama, who recently embraced some expansion of offshore drilling.

In a sharp tone, Pelosi, whose home state of California suffered a major oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, said: "Let me just say this. I'm not for it."

Instead, she is pushing her own energy measures that she thinks will be quicker-acting while lowering emissions that contribute to global warming.

As a band of House Republicans staged a protest over inaction on oil drilling this week in the Capitol quieted by the summer recess, Pelosi shrugged it off.

"They're doing what I call the war dance of the hand maidens of Big Oil," she said.

With the offshore drilling ban set to expire on Oct. 1, Pelosi said she will listen to arguments. But her opponents must "prove there's a reason" for expanding drilling.

"I remind them," she said, "the speaker sets the agenda for the House."

And ex-Speakers don't.

Ok, but don't overlook late blooms and early-falling leaves

Local gardeners do their part to record possible 'global weirding' -- chicagotribune.com

He is looking for local signs like an early bloom or a late-falling leaf that stem from planetwide changes.

Energy supplies | The devil and the deep blue sea | Economist.com

Among voters’ worries, the cost of driving easily eclipsed the war in Iraq, unemployment, health care or terrorism.

The Fraud that Al Gore took the initiative to create

See the whole thing here:
Riehl World View: Al Gore's Inconvenient Loot

London: New mayor backtracking on environmental "progress" | guardian.co.uk

When Al Gore campaigns for Obama, I think McCain benefits

080708Democraticfund

Though the fundraiser was meant to raise money for Obama’s election fund, much of Gore’s speech covered the issue he has become known for: global climate change.

“This cause is outside the boundaries of history,” Gore said. “These are not normal times. The relationship between the planet and ourselves has been irrevocably and dramatically altered. We’re a bull in a china shop. Today, as the sun sets, we will have put another 70 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere.”

Climate 'alarmists' are counterproductive - Local News - News - General - Goulburn Post

Kialla wildlife artist and environmentalist Humphrey Price-Jones remains sceptical that the planet is suffering from global warming and rejects "alarmist" reports about it.

"If there is global warming and if it is due to human activity then let's look at it more sensibly than saying 'we're all doomed' unless we as Australians do something about it," he said.

"My green credentials are just as good as anybody's - I'm not a redneck suggesting we don't need to anything about our pollution, but to say that Australia's pollution is having any impact on global warming (if is exists) is patently ridiculous."

Should I file this under "fighting climate change" or under "making America more energy independent"?

Montana (AP): Crow Tribe strikes deal for $7B coal project

CROW AGENCY, Mont. (AP) — The Crow Tribe struck a deal Thursday with an Australian company toward building a $7 billion plant to convert coal into liquid fuels, which would be among the first such projects in the nation.

Capping months of negotiations, the Crow Legislature ratified a 50-year development agreement with Australian-American Energy Co., a subsidiary of Australian Energy Co.

The Many Stars coal-to-liquids plant initially would produce 50,000 barrels a day of diesel and other fuels. Construction would begin in several years and coal for the project would come from a mine yet to be developed by the tribe on the reservation, Crow leaders said.

The tribe's chairman, Carl Venne, said the coal-to-liquids project offered an unprecedented chance at improving the lives of the tribe's 12,000 members. The agreement calls for the Crow to receive up to 50 percent of profits from the plant after investors in the project recoup their costs.
...
South Africa is home to the only existing commercial-scale coal-to-liquids plants, built during the apartheid era after oil imports into the country were blocked by international political sanctions.

Hurricanes pesky -- so try rain

GREENIE WATCH

Wind questions [National Wind Watch]

Oilman and wind promoter T. Boone Pickens didn’t get to be a billionaire by being stupid or slow to take advantage of an opportunity. But before we jump off a cliff like lemmings to the sea or blindly follow the Pied Piper, there are many questions that should be asked and answered. These are a few.

If wind is a viable energy source, why would it need government financial help? The technology to manufacture wind turbines is a reality, not a work in progress. If there is money to be made with wind farms, let investors make it and also take the risk.

Can the energy generated be stored for use when needed? How valuable is the wind energy if this is not possible? Will this corridor of wind farms stretching from the Texas Panhandle to Canada require the use of eminent domain? Property owners should determine whether to have wind farms on their property — not the government.

Wind power a costly alternative energy source [National Wind Watch]

...She rightly said that we have energy problems and accurately concluded that we need to take meaningful steps to “protect our air and water quality” through “cleaner, healthier and affordable energy alternatives.” These are excellent sentiments, that I (and I’m sure Mr. Bowers) fully support. (I am a physicist and energy expert).

The fatal flaw in Ms. Cornell’s solution though, is that she apparently believes that any alternative source of energy is better than existing fossil fuels. She also seems to think that all alternative energy sources are roughly equal. Unfortunately, for a variety of technical, economic and environmental reasons, both of these opinions are false.

The scientific facts are that just because an energy source is “renewable” doesn’t make it better (or even good), and that there are major differences between different alternative sources.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently concluded that: “Wind power is subsidized to the tune of $23 per megawatt-hour. By contrast, normal coal receives 44 cents per megawatt-hour, natural gas 25 cents, hydroelectric 67 cents, and nuclear power $1.59.” Does wind power sound like the “affordable” she is advocating?

The Press Association: Climate activists in 'glue' protest

Eco-activists said that they had "superglued" themselves to the front doors of a British bank in the City of London to protest against climate change.

The protesters claimed they were staging the demonstration at the entrance to the Royal Bank of Scotland's oil and gas division to underline "links" between the financial sector, fossil fuel industry and climate change.

The stunt follows a series of protests on Thursday when green campaigners blockaded a biofuel depot in Essex, unfurled banners at Gatwick Airport and targeted RBS's London headquarters by lying in a pool of oil outside the building.

Column - Preparing the Green Archipelago | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

How much further will this cult go when we’ve already named as Australian of the Year a man who warns us to prepare for a dictator?

Read for yourself Tim Flannery’s best-selling The Weather Makers, in which he says if the world warms much more, “humans would have no choice but to establish an Earth Commission for Thermostatic Control”.

Says Flannery: “Inevitably, one day some commissioner will suggest that their work would be more effectively done were they to concentrate on the root cause of the issue - the total number of people on the planet.

“And with such a move the Earth Commission for Thermostatic Control will have transformed itself into an Orwellian-style world government with its own currency, army and control over every person and every inch of our planet.

“As horrific as such an outcome is, if we delay action to combat the climate crisis, the carbon dictatorship may become essential for our survival.”

Solzhenitsyn would have recognised this longing for “order”, this subjugation of individuals for a great cause, this fear of freedom. Can you?

A new kind of farming that doesn't produce any food

The Sietch Blog » Carbon Farming Could Play A Role In The Fight Against Global Warming

E.P.A. Won’t Ease Ethanol Requirements in Gas - NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency rejected on Thursday a request to cut the quota for the use of ethanol in cars, concluding, for the time being, that the goal of reducing the nation’s reliance on oil trumps any effect on food prices from making fuel from corn.

The E.P.A. administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said that the mandate was “strengthening our nation’s energy security and supporting American farming communities,” and that it was not causing “severe harm to the economy or the environment.”

Rasmussen: 81% Say Finding New Energy Sources is Urgent National Need

Americans overwhelmingly believe there is an urgent national need to find new sources of energy, and this need is more important that reducing current energy usage, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Australia: Carbon emissions trading scheme to sting Northern Territory for $16m

Research from Canberra-based think tank the Australia Institute released on Monday said state and territory governments across the nation would lose up to $1.4 billion a year to the Federal Government as a result of the carbon emission reduction scheme.

The research paper says the cost of energy, transport and wages paid by state and territory governments will increase as a result of the Federal Government's plan to tackle climate change.

Carbon Chronicles: Poland Seeks Help to Block EU Emissions Trading Scheme - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Poland is on the hunt for allies to block an EU plan to auction off the right to emit carbon dioxide. Ex-Communist countries worry for their economies if they have to bid against the likes of France and Germany.

Ethanol’s bad trip - FP Comment

Summer should offer a chance to forget the antics in our federal and provincial capitals, and some of the boondoggles that result. But some issues, such as government mandates to mix ethanol with gasoline, have a way of following you. For users of gasoline-powered engines, such as chainsaws, water pumps — and, most critically, boats — summer may bring ethanol-related problems closer than ever.

These problems are a classic instance of unintended consequences. Regulations made with one eye on polls and interest groups and the other on administrative convenience often pay no attention to how badly simple bureaucratic edicts fit a complex world.

FrontPage Magazine on Iain Murray's "The Really Inconvenient Truths"

Thus, Murray warns that the goal of the environmental movement is to use doomsday scenarios to increase government regulation of individuals and corporations whose endeavors ultimately do a superior job of preserving, developing and adding value to natural assets. The most serious threat to our environment is state action and coercive control in the name of environmental preservation, he asserts.

George Stamm - Global Warming or Global Governance?

This information is in the public domain and begs the question; is Global Warming an established fact as some globalists promote or does the evidence indicate that globalists are using tools like the IPCC and global warming to impose global governance in the U.S.? Let the reader decide.

Australians say eating kangaroos will save the world - Times Online

The president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia, Pat O’Brien, described the study as “complete nonsense”, saying there would have to be 500 times more kangaroos killed than the current population to produce the equivalent amount of sheep and cattle meat.

“The kangaroo population is in demise in Australia, it’s never been so low because of ten years of drought,” said Mr O’Brien, who is also chair of the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition. “Kangaroos have completely had it unless we stop killing them.”

MOST BIOFUELS FAIL TO MEET ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS

LESS than a fifth of biofuels in UK vehicle tanks meet environmental standards, new data on the fuels shows.

The first monthly report on the supply of biofuels showed that 19% met standards aimed at preventing problems such as deforestation, loss of wildlife, pollution and water contamination.

China: Does Cleaner Air Mean More Global Warming? | Newsweek

Why China's Olympic cleanup may be aggravating global warming...

The Chilling Effect » The Climate Warms For Drilling

A southern Minnesota congressional challenger used a Tuesday farm forum to drill home his support for off-shore oil drilling.

Republican challenger Brian Davis in the 1st Congressional District, serving most of southern Minnesota, repeatedly told the FarmFest audience that opening waters off the country’s coast to oil drilling would help lower farmers’ energy costs. He talked about off-shore drilling when answering more than half of the farm leaders’ questions at the forum.

The Chilling Effect » Going Nuclear? Yes, If You Are Looking To Get Elected

This from Gallup today. It’s definitely not a “mandate” but it’s certainly interesting. Taken together with the current outcry for drilling, it at least looks like the public is in no mood for restricting its energy use...

Jennifer Marohasy: Guest Weblog by Bob Tisdale: Part 2 - Natural Variability of SSTs has NOT been Accounted for by the US CCSP

I have to conclude from these oversights that the CCSP are either misinformed, or they have been misdirected, or they are attempting to mislead the public.

globeandmail.com: No carbon tax in Nova Scotia's climate action plan

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's climate action plan may be under wraps until the fall, but Premier Rodney MacDonald didn't shy away Thursday from saying what won't be included in the province's battle against greenhouse gases.

Mr. MacDonald, who has long voiced doubts about a carbon tax proposal for Nova Scotia, confirmed the measure would not be part of any provincial plan.

“I'm not a fan of carbon tax. We will not be introducing a carbon tax as suggested (by Liberals) at the national level,” said Mr. MacDonald.

“In Nova Scotia there is a high reliance on fossil fuel and we would be hurting Nova Scotians — individuals who are trying to heat their homes this winter — if we move in that regard.”

Mr. MacDonald also said he's not convinced a cap-and-trade system is the way to go either.

The Canadian Sentinel: Liberal Candidates Quitting, Won't Run, Carbon Tax Blamed

Good one from Chris Horner

Planet Gore on National Review Online

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama’s populist rhetoric returns

Oil companies haven’t built refineries in 30 years not because they want to keep profits high, but because environmentalists won’t let them build refineries. Every time one gets proposed, a blizzard of lawsuits and regulatory hurdles follow, eventually making the construction of refineries impossible to justify. Oil companies would much rather refine oil for consumption domestically, but thanks to these burdens, we now have to import — at greater cost — 20% of the refined gasoline we use, as well as 70% or more of our crude oil.

Beyond that, the waitress/oil company argument says something more. Obviously, we sympathize with the waitress, but does that mean we hobble oil companies, especially when the pricing of oil has little to do with the corporations and everything to do with international supply and demand? We could in fact help both the “waitress” and the American oil companies by expanding domestic production, which would create American jobs and allow American oil companies to compete better against the massive, state-owned foreign oil companies around the world.

Be careful what you wish for

The “Sue Us” Petition « International Journal of Inactivism

Petition text

To John Coleman, James Inhofe, Owen McShane, Christopher Monckton, Anthony Watts, and others who actively promote doubt on the reality of global warming, its seriousness, or the need for mitigation thereof:

We, the undersigned, hereby call upon all global warming doubters

1. to bring lawsuits against Al Gore and James Hansen, to charge them for conspiracy, as has been promised on numerous occasions, and to do so as soon as possible — so that the question of whether Gore and Hansen are ‘co-conspirators’ in a global warming ‘scam’ can be definitively resolved at the soonest opportunity...

Climate Audit - by Steve McIntyre » North versus South

July 2008 RSS numbers are out (as a poster mentioned). I expect MSU tomorrow and will post them up together. When I plotted up NH and SH sea ice, I thought that it would be interesting to plot the difference between N and S extratropics (20-80N versus 20-70S) - I plotted RSS TLT3 (through July 2008) as I had the file open. Here are the results, which I find pretty interesting. In general terms, the relative warming of the NH relative to the SH is something that we’re aware of, but isn’t the strength of the trend in the 30 years of satellite record astonishing? And this is nothing to do with UHI.

We’re talking 0.75 deg C in 30 years here!

Suddenly being green is not cool any more | Alice Thomson - Times Online

When David Cameron became leader of the Conservative Party he said that green issues were at the top of his agenda. His slogan for the local elections last year was “Vote Blue, Go Green”. But in the past few months he has realised that voters have lost the appetite for their greens.

He has only given one environmental speech since Christmas. Once he used to talk about putting a £3,000 windmill on top of his house. Now the message is not about conserving the planet but preserving his bank balance. He wears catalogue clothes, grows his own vegetables and holidays barefoot in Britain because it is less extravagant, not because he is trying to reduce his global footprint.

In fact, when the Tory leader's bicycle was stolen a week ago, the message of the story was not how green he was for riding his bike, but how broken our society has become when a politician finds his bike nicked from under his nose.

Boris Johnson was the first to realise that the tolerance for green taxes may have peaked. When he became Mayor of London, he dropped plans to charge a £25 congestion fee on gas-guzzling cars.

Could the Earth be cooling its heels?

One thing could quash the debate over “global warming” real quick — global cooling — and it could be on the way.

This brave, against-the-grain prognostication that the Earth’s average temperature could be actually starting to decrease comes from agricultural meteorologist Drew Lerner, who in circles of the global warming in-crowd is known as a “denier.”...

Climate change: Prepare for global temperature rise of 4C, warns top scientist | Environment | The Guardian

"My own feeling is that if we get to a 4 degree rise it is quite possible that we would begin to see a runaway increase," said [alarmist David] King.

He said a two-and-half-year analysis by the government's Foresight programme on the implications for coastal defences had more impact in the corridors of power than any other research on the effects of climate change that he presented.

"No other single factor focussed the minds of the cabinet more than the analysis that I produced through that ... We begin to have to talk about ordered retreat from some areas of Britain because it becomes impossible to defend," he said. "There's no choice here between adaptation and mitigation, we have to do both."

IPCC leader Susan Solomon weighs in

Global warming "expert" says change starts with public, not government - The National Newspaper

...“The judgement whether that’s acceptable is a tough one because there will be winners, and there will be losers in climate change. You could argue Russia will be a winner, Canada might be a winner. We never had that problem with ozone because everyone’s a loser when you have more UV hitting the planet.”

She considered climate change sceptics to be on the retreat although it would take more time to convince everyone amid further fierce politicking. “I don’t think that the attempts by some people who are sceptical for various reasons are going to be successful in the long run.”

Proving Too Much

Planet Gore on National Review Online

So . . . they just did the wind and solar thing, dumping billions into alternative energy, again (after all, we’ve been subsidizing these dogs for decades to the tune of billions). Unless [Obama] would like to footnote this boast with an admission that these schemes remain on life support despite yet another taxpayer-funded infusion larded on just a couple of years ago, we now know we’ve checked that box. Congress, during Obama’s very few days of service (certainly in policy terms), already did that thing he insists we do now instead of the thing that would actually address a problem of transportation fuels — like opening prohibited areas to exploration and production of legitimate economy-driving energy sources.

That, my friends is progress. I’m even willing to not call it a flip-flop. We’ll just chalk it up to another little confusion about that 2005 bill. It seems we’ve got agreement that it’s time to head offshore and north to Alaska.

Jennifer Marohasy: Guest Weblog by Bob Tisdale: Part 1

When compared to the AMO, the two Northern Hemisphere SST oscillations complement one another from the 1920s to present. Prior to that, they were out of synch, offsetting their individual impacts on global temperature. It is no coincidence that Northern Hemisphere and global temperatures follow the rises and falls of these two residual anomalies.

» I Spy Green Spies… Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

The vanity of the environmental protest movement knows no bounds. They imagine themselves as dangerous subversives. But really, they express exactly the same ideas as the government.

They just use less soap.

Polls have Obama shifting on drilling

Human-induced, catastrophic global warming is far from settled science, and the chief means of rescue if it does prove true will have to be technological developments, unless we want to wreck economies around the world, including our own, of course.

Ásgrímsson: Opening ceremony of The 33rd International Geological congress

The greatest threat to our earth is the climate change. If we are not able to limit the emission of carbon-dioxide we can risk greater suffering in human life than we can imagine. Snorri Sturluson wrote . "the world will come to an end when 3 winters appear in a row without any summer in between". But he also stated. "But there´s still hope! The earth will rise from the sea again and then it´ll be green, fertile and beautiful."

Dr. Collins: Hypothermia in the summer? It can happen | Idaho Outdoors | Idaho Statesman

You would think there is no need to worry about getting too cold this time of year, but some recent adventures in the wilderness proved that incorrect.

While on a recent hike on the West Coast Trail in British Columbia, where the average daily temperature was a balmy 55 degrees, I helped a girl with hypothermia, and another hypothermic hiker had to be flown out.

Two weeks ago, while camping at 5,700 feet in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, my tent was covered with frost every morning.

While kayaking recently on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, many of the lightly dressed rafters were shivering in the sunshine. The water was cold and so were they.

Humans are tropical animals by design; no hair to speak of, a body temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit and a fairly large surface area. We just aren't made for places like Idaho. But we're here, and the trick is to stay warm because hypothermia is easy to get any time of the year.

The Jawa Report: Forget Global Warming, Overweight in '48

...Of course, I remain forever annoyed by the fact that the mainstream media doesn't call out the lefties for not coordinating their end-of-the-world alarms. It would be appropriate to ask, "How can everyone end up overweight when the Gorebots shriek of impending drought and famine?"

Climate-Change Program to Aid Poor Nations Is Shut - NYTimes.com

The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries’ ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards.

Local eco warrior arrested as he tries to join discussion on saving the planet - Borders Today

Dial Nokia to "Save" the Planet

Edmunds and Pollowitz on tire inflation

Planet Gore on National Review Online

I don't doubt that there are some savings to be found by having properly inflated tires, but I think trying to extrapolate an average savings per car, then multiplying that figure by every car in America — which is what Obama, ABC and Politifact are doing — just doesn't hold up that well.

A boon for Pickens, not for America [National Wind Watch]

Investor's Business Daily -- Say Watt, Senator?

Energy Policy: Barack Obama wants a million electric cars on the road by 2015. Where's he going to plug them in? John McCain has the answer — a renewable energy source called nuclear power.

German City Wonders How Green Is Too Green

Marburg Journal - Historic German Town Struggles Over Push for Solar Power - NYTimes.com

MARBURG, Germany — This fairy-tale town is stuck in the middle of a utopian struggle over renewable energy. The town council’s decision to require solar-heating panels has thrown Marburg into a vehement debate over the boundaries of ecological good citizenship and led opponents to charge that their genteel town has turned into a “green dictatorship.”

Henninger: Enviromania

Wonder Land - WSJ.com

The problem with Democratic enviromania is that it's uncoupled from the realities of a nation whose economy has to compete now with the Chinas and Indias of the world, whose high growth rates use proven energy sources.

Republicans this fall should push their argument beyond drilling. Drilling is mainly a proxy for one's understanding of the U.S. economy. The Democrats and Mr. Obama showed this week they are so in thrall to Al Gore's big climate bet that they'd risk having a slow-growth economy. The GOP should run on High Growth America as a better bet than Democratic Slow Growth.

Instead of enviro-messianism, they should propose a drill-to-transition for whatever energy source can prove it works at a nonsacrificial price -- shale, coal gasification, nuclear, solar or some combination. (Windmill farms are a pox on the land.)

Don't be oil-industry deniers. Mr. Obama and Rep. Pelosi want to hammer and punish the only players on the field who actually know how to put massive amounts of energy on the grid. Don't we want them using their resources to drill here, rather than off in some godforsaken place producing gushers of cash for people who want to pound us into a hole? We need Smart Oil on our side for at least 10 years.

Democrats this week chose the prayer of alternative energy over proven prosperity. They've handed prosperity in the here-and-now to the Republicans. Run with it.

Uber-alarmist Mark Lynas: No breathing allowed after 2050

Mark Lynas: Why we must heed Bob Watson's climate change warning | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Heatwaves of unimaginable ferocity will sear continental landscapes: the UK would face the kind of summer temperatures found in northern Morocco today...This isn't just about reducing emissions, it is about getting emissions quickly down to zero (by 2050 or earlier), and then removing some of the excess carbon that humanity has already dumped into the atmosphere.

A related post about Bob Watson is here.

Five minute video » John Coleman wants to sue Al Gore for fraud (FOX News)

Urban wind turbines 'may be waste of time' - Telegraph

Putting up a small wind turbine on the roof of a suburban home may be a waste of time, according to a new report.

It may not generate enough renewable energy even to make up for the carbon emissions produced when it was made.

Breaking: Intellectual Property Institute chairman thinks intellectual property rights key to solving global warming

Save the planet -- support IP!

Emission reduction scheme should be seen as 'insurance' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The federal bureaucrat who will implement Australia's carbon trading scheme has attacked climate change sceptics.

The secretary of the Department of Climate Change, Doctor Martin Parkinson, says climate change deniers have misappropriated the term "sceptic".

He has told a forum that the weight of scientific evidence is real and Australia is likely to be hardest hit.

Agmates Rural News » Blog Archive » Bullshit Watch - Todays Winner Brisbanes Courier Mail

“Does the climate change problem exist? Yes,” Professor Likens said.

“The scientific consensus is so strong and so universal - there are just a handful of doubters on this.

“Yet (those doubters) get such high media attention and a lot of support.”(Via Greenie Watch)

AdelaideNow... University of Adelaide seminars for global warming sceptics

CLIMATE change sceptics will have six big questions answered for them in a seminar series organised by the University of Adelaide this week.

At the link above, a poll asks "Is global warming a myth?"

And maybe the biggest fraud of the century

Business Spectator - Climate change a big opportunity: GE

Climate change represents the biggest opportunity for global giant General Electric over the coming decades, the company's Australian and New Zealand chief executive Steve Sargent says.

"For us, we look at this (climate change) as the biggest business opportunity of the century," Mr Sargent told an American Chamber of Commerce in Australia lunch in Melbourne.

Cap and Trade: Economic Suicide

Hawaii Reporter: Hawaii Reporter

Fighting Gore’s hysteria | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Irish filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney - the makers of the brilliant documentary Mine Your Own Business - are appealing for help to get their latest film, Not Evil Just Wrong - The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria, into cinemas. They are after $US3.5 million to get their film into 150 theatres across America by September.

Bear facts demanded | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Alaska’s suit contends that the US Fish and Wildlife Service—part of the Interior Department and the agency that helped make the polar bear decision—failed to consider that polar bears have survived through previous warming periods… Alaska maintains that the polar bear population has doubled to as many as 25,000 over the last 40 years...

Post mortem on the Mauna Loa CO2 data eruption « Watts Up With That?

As most readers of this blog already know, there has been a posting and revision of CO2 data on the Mauna Loa observatory website in the past day that has generated quite a lot of controversy.Now after having been in touch with Dr. Pieter Tan at MLO through several emails I hope to shed some light on what happened...

Climate Skeptic: A Quick Thought on "Peer Review"

One of the weird aspects of climate science is the over-emphasis on peer review as the ne plus ultra guarantor of believable results. This is absurd. At best, peer review is a screen for whether a study is worthy of occupying limited publication space, not for whether it is correct. Peer review, again at best, focuses on whether a study has some minimum level of rigor and coherence and whether it offers up findings that are new or somehow advance the ball on an important topic.

Is Mendocino the new Napa? | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA

...Jones' study, for example, found that the number of hot summer days over 95 degrees in the Ukiah Valley has steadily declined over five decades while temperatures in Napa have risen.

In the 1950s, Ukiah posted an average of 51 days where the high temperature reached 95 degrees or more, according to Jones' study. The average for the last 10 years is just 29 days.

» Hypocritic Oaf Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

Burchill: Greenery is a great way now for posh, useless people to lecture the working classes about what they should be doing, and how they shouldn’t be having cheap food or cheap holidays, and it’s just so disgusting and hypocritical tomfoolery

The Year the World Froze Over -- Berardelli 2008 (805): 3 -- ScienceNOW

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but nearly 13 millennia ago Europe was plunged suddenly into a deep freeze that lasted 1300 years--and the change happened in little more than a year, according to new data. The evidence also suggests that strong winds, not ocean currents, drove the rapid climate change.

Soon after the end of the last ice age, some 12,700 years ago, Europe suddenly fell into another perpetual winter...

Will Alexander: Doomsday Is Approaching For Climate Change Alarmists

My advice to climate alarmists is that now is an appropriate time to start planning your exit strategy. The whole IPCC/UNFCCC edifice is about to disintegrate...

Modest proposals from Duff Badgley, Green Party candidate for Washington governor

Reject basketball, end pollution

Our governor must convene a climate emergency session of the Legislature now to enact emergency World War II type mobilization laws:

# Divert Boeing from airplanes and war machinery to solar, wind and wave power equipment.

# Vastly increase public transport system (low-income citizens ride free).

# Outlaw single-occupancy vehicles, except where no public transport exists.

# Impose corporate carbon taxes rising to $500 per ton by 2020. Assess progressive personal carbon taxes rising to $500 per ton by 2020; low-income residents exempted from tax.

# Establish strict carbon caps for industry, regions and government. Outlaw carbon trading. Begin personal carbon rationing. Direct carbon tax funds to poor to offset high food, housing and transportation costs. Direct carbon tax funds to global rainforest protection and other global south recipients.

If this guy gets more than one vote, I may demand a recount.

Washington Times - Drill, drill, drill is working

The public is putting aside global warming and choosing instead new energy production, a stronger economy, and more job creation. Voters want growth, not austerity.

Ghost of Howard to spook Rudd - Opinion - Editorial - General - The Canberra Times

The special meeting of the state council of the NSW division of the Liberal Party was summoned on Saturday to consider constitutional changes to the way the party operates, in order to put an end to branch-stacking.
...
That done, the party focused on political strategy. The starting point was Brendan Nelson's appropriately skeptical address on climate change. It was sound policy, but it wasn't rah-rah-rah.

Cloud seeding China Olympics | Salon

Such climate engineering could be the next hot topic among atmospheric scientists. "We may have no choice," Cotton says. "Twenty years down the road, if the warming trend has increased enormously and half of Florida is underwater, politicians will say, 'Do climate engineering.' Doing something is better than sitting on your hands. If, at that point, we don't have the scientific knowledge, and we introduce the technology, we could find ourselves in the middle of an ice age. We won't be able to figure this out that fast."

Dr Roger W. Cohen - On The IPCC's Case For Anthropogenic Global Warming

I retired four years ago, and at the time of my retirement I was well convinced, as were most technically trained people, that the IPCC's case for Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is very tight. However, upon taking the time to get into the details of the science, I was appalled at how flimsy the case really is. I was also appalled at the behavior of many of those who helped produce the IPCC reports and by many of those who promote it. In particular I am referring to the arrogance; the activities aimed at shutting down debate; the outright fabrications; the mindless defense of bogus science, and the politicization of the IPCC process and the science process itself.

Medill Reports: Global warming skeptic tells conservative students the problem is overrated

WASHINGTON—For many young voters, the environment is a hot-button issue in this year’s presidential election. But some think concern over global warming is overblown.

Self-proclaimed global warming skeptic Roy Spencer, a former NASA scientist, drew applause Wednesday at the conservative Young America’s Foundation conference when he said the hype around the “green” movement is nearing the level of “a state-supported religion.”

Record low in Maui

It may appear to be an abrupt change in conditions, after Maui County experienced a record low 64 degrees on Sunday that combined with steady afternoon showers to provide another near record 65 degrees on Monday, before the daytime temperature zipped up to a high of 91 degrees that afternoon.

Gore Hits the Waves with a Massive New Houseboat

Several links here

Power Line: Obama Doubles Down

Two points: First, even if Obama's "3 to 4 percent" claim about tire inflation were true, it would not validate his original assertion that proper inflation would equal "all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling." That assertion was, and remains, false.

Second, Obama's claim that "every expert" says that tire inflation would "reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4 percent" is ridiculous. No expert says any such thing. What experts do say is that properly inflated tires can improve gas mileage by approximately 3 percent compared to grossly underinflated tires. But since most people know this and inflate their tires, the actual potential savings is some much smaller amount. Moreover, the U.S. consumes around 20.7 million barrels of petroleum per day. Only about 9.3 million barrels per day are used in motor vehicles. So a 3 percent improvement in automobile mileage would correspond, at best, to a 1.3 percent reduction in total oil consumption.

Barack Obama's ignorance on the subject of energy is remarkable.

American Chronicle | Global Warming and the Faith of the Brainwashed

Effects of climate change 'felt by 2090' - New Zealand rural news on Stuff.co.nz

The cool oceans around New Zealand will limit the impact of global warming, pipfruit growers heard at a conference yesterday.
...
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research's principal climate scientist Jim Salinger, told the Pipfruit New Zealand conference in Nelson yesterday that by 2090, the traditional growing areas would be too humid, too wet and too cold for pipfruit.

Dell pretends to be carbon neutral : TreeHugger

Earlier this year, the company announced that [it is pretending that] its global headquarters campus is powered by 100 percent green energy.

Tax these warming fanatics | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Pardon? $250,000 for hideously big and noisy turbines able to power just 60 laptops - and even then only when the wind blew?

I’m sorry permission to build them was knocked back. Stupidity needs to be taxed.

Draw your panic | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Can these students’ indoctrinators point to a single study which predicts 3 metre rises in the lifetimes of these students? In fact, even the alarmist IPCC claims the seas will rise, at worst, no more than 59 cms this century. And, of course, over the past two years the seas have actually fallen.

So on what information was this map drawn?

Origin Energy backs carbon trading scheme | The Australian

CORPORATE Australia cannot afford to harbour climate change sceptics as the Government moves towards introducing its emissions trading scheme, according to Origin Energy's chairman.

Queensland's climate has shifted south, research shows | The Courier-Mail

Scientists say global warming sceptics should dip their toes in the water off a Queensland beach if they want proof the phenomenon exists.

They claim climate zones have moved south by more than 200km in the past 60 years, so Brisbane's climate has moved to Byron Bay to make way for a more balmy weather pattern.

Australian Institute of Marine Science researcher Janice Lough revealed the findings in a paper published by the American Geophysical Union.

She said she was in no doubt the changes were due to global warming caused by increased greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.

You Don’t have to be an Environmentalist to Have Green Habits

I could spend hours trying to convince many of you that the idea of man made global warming is flawed, and no matter what the facts, you will probably never change your mind. Believers in cults rarely do. But ultimately what you believe doesn’t matter, because you don’t have to believe to be green.

Al Gore’s Yacht Not Exactly Environmentally Friendly - Say Anything

The problem? It’s apparently so “bio” and “solar” that it has to be plugged in to not one but two outlets down at the marina.

Why don't the politicians tell us specifically what those "green jobs" are?

I was wondering if anyone over at NR can tell me just what in the world a "green job" is? I have heard that many would be created, but there is never an example. The types of jobs I envision are more of a government-funded boondoggle paying someone too much money to pick up roadside trash. Would picking recyclables out of a trash heaps or wiping solar panels down with a sponge be some of the jobs that Americans won't do? I suppose that the notoriously unreliable windmills require a lot of maintenance — so that might be a skilled profession that would pay well. Perhaps most jobs will consist of folks sitting in government offices ensuring compliance with regulations or managing DMV style lines of customers waiting to purchase their monthly ration of carbon credits.

The Green Hornet - WSJ.com

...Problems like these are the reality of "alternative" energy, and they explain why every "energy independence" plan has faltered since the 1970s. But just because Mr. Obama's plan is wildly unrealistic doesn't mean that a program of vast new taxes, subsidies and mandates wouldn't be destructive. The U.S. has a great deal invested in fossil fuels not because of a political conspiracy or because anyone worships carbon but because other sources of energy are, right now, inferior.

The Hedgehog Report » OK: Climate realist Inhofe Holds 22% Lead

Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr. Research Group News » Guest Weblog By Marcel Severijnen

Uncertainty is a key aspect in air pollution modeling. But modellers are just becoming more used to the idea of including model uncertainties in the resulting maps. It’s not easy to report that your validated model shows a twofold deviation from observed values, and that is current practice for most models. EU Directives established quality objectives as a measure of acceptable modelling results. For instance for PM10, the annual mean uncertainty limit is 50%.

Obama on the Cheney Energy Plan

Obama and McCain Respond to the Paris Hilton Energy Plan

UPDATE: McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds emails: “It sounds like Paris Hilton supports John McCain’s ‘all of the above’ approach to America’s energy crisis — including both alternatives and drilling. Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.”

Copious Dissent - Your Daily Dose of Liberty: Barack Obama Supports Ethanol Subsidies, Promises to Starve Entire Third World

It has not even been six months since America's subsidization of ethanol turned into an abject disaster. Not only did it waste taxpayers' money on a product that cannot survive in the free market, it had the result of increasing the price of food everywhere and literally starving thousands of poor people throughout the world. Subsequently, one would expect removing all ethanol subsidies would be a nonissue; then again we have to remember that we are in an election cycle where all intelligent decisions get thrown out the window.

Boone Doggle

Business World - WSJ.com

Boone Pickens may be a fine man, and has played a colorful and useful role on the American stage for decades. But his "energy plan," which he's spending a fortune to promote on cable TV, is not a plan.

Asserting that something would be good to do is not "a plan." Saying how to do it is "a plan." By this standard, what the legendary oil man is devoting $58 million to pitch hardly amounts to a decent slogan.
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Take the universal recrimination over our failure to impose tougher fuel-mileage mandates, in which Mr. Pickens also indulges. These complaints are lofted without the slightest attention to what we've actually learned in 30 years of such mandates -- that car buyers simply amortize their forced investment in fuel-saving technology by driving more miles. They buy more affordable homes farther from town; they commute longer distances to work; they trek across two counties to buy groceries at Wal-Mart rather than the pricey supermarket down the street.

No: As Mr. Pickens says, we can't drill our way out of the dilemmas of living in the world. But drilling is one of many things we can do that are worth doing. Over time, the price mechanism and technology will tell us how to harness the energy that is infinite around us. There's the sun, the tides, geothermal and nuclear -- energy is not in short supply; only know-how is. And a shortage of know-how is a problem that our society, as long as its basic incentives remain intact, is constantly solving every single day.

Gunter: environmentalism is causing global warming

The Chilling Effect | cooling heated rhetoric on global warming » Brown Is The New Green

Bolivar Herald-Free Press - Global warming: Where is the heat and science?

What the mainstream media has been feeding our nation on the issue of global warming is more hype than heat and more scam than science. Thus, for a change, we shall look at the facts...

Knights of the Planet Gore

Henry Payne on Michigan & Energy Plans on National Review Online

Ultimately, McCain’s soft-spot for nuclear is because it’s not coal: America’s most abundant — and cheapest — energy resource. It is an aversion that McCain shares with Senator Obama, because both candidates are, at root, global-warming alarmists.

And global warming alarmism is not good for the state that they are wooing.

Unmentioned in the media coverage of sparring energy plans is that both candidates are ardent supporters of federal cap-and-trade laws. Writing for the Mackinac Center, a Michigan think tank, author Deneen Borelli reports that “the economic cost of a cap-and-trade bill would hit Michigan especially hard. The increase in energy costs would compound the loss of manufacturing jobs in the state and reduce the disposable income of Michigan residents.”

An American Council for Capital Formation study of this year’s Lieberman-Warner cap and trade bill found that "Michigan would lose 37,400 to 56,260 jobs in 2020 and 91,490 to 121,786 jobs in 2030” and electricity prices would increase by 126 percent to 177 percent.

Obama and McCain are fighting for the affection of industrial states like Michigan, each touting their own government plan to put America on the proper green-energy course. But the closer one looks at their handsome gifts, the more they look like Trojan horses hiding armies of government regulation.