South Africa - Global warming is biggest scam ever

With reference to “Cape Town faces potential devastation from rising sea levels” (August 17), I believe that global warming is the biggest scientific scam ever.

There is no evidence to prove that the current climate variations are not a natural cycle.

If we were around in Victorian times with modern technology, every scientist and scam artist would be warning of global cooling because the river Thames had frozen.

Climate Change and Social Justice: So this ISN'T really about carbon dioxide?

Neither the origins of nor the solutions to the climate crisis can be understood without facing enduring political questions about class, race, gender, colonialism, corporate power, North-South relations and so on. This interview explores the connections between the fight against catastrophic climate change and movements for social justice; attempts to depoliticise the global warming issue; the US role in promoting the Kyoto Protocol; the contradictions of carbon trading; the relative isolation of Northern middle-class activists; the role of India and China; and the dangers of technology monopolies. [PDF here]

Editorial: Greens' dilemma the price of being our climate conscience

An online survey, whose results were reported this week, suggests as much: the poll found that one in 10 New Zealanders believe it is too late to do anything about climate change - alarming news for anyone trying to spread the message that everyone can do their bit.

Their pessimism is shared by experts: the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said a year ago that we had passed the point where catastrophic climate change was avoidable. But that does not mean we cannot act to mitigate its effects.

Idaho: Malt barley damaged by bad frost on July 10

The crop fared well despite an unusually cold spring and some isolated weather problems this summer. In Northern Idaho, conditions have been dry since early June and a bad frost on July 10 caused some damage.

No, you are not all going to die from warming | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

had to go to hospital on Thursday and found the waiting time for treatment had blown out to hours. Reason? Winters, not summers, and cold, rather than heat, is what makes us sickest and most fills our hospitals. And we should fear global cooling far more than global warming:

Some data? We are more likely to die in winter of temperature-related diseases...

Storm warning | The Australian

BUSINESS has put the Rudd Goverment on notice: it needs to revise its emissions trading strategy to avert a crisis for corporate balance sheets and the nation's economic health. Climate change, the dream political issue for Kevin Rudd at the 2007 election, has been transformed into a political and policy nightmare.

Make no mistake, the Rudd Government is now trapped by its pledge to proceed with an emissions trading scheme by 2010, before most of the rest of the world and, in particular, ahead of most of our trading partners. It faces a dilemma with no escape: it must either alienate the green lobby and climate-change believers to whom it has pandered, or proceed without sufficient support from corporate Australia in the teeth of warnings about corporate financial risk.

The second option is unthinkable. The entire point of emissions trading is not to combat greenhouse gases, it is to establish a reduction trajectory at minimum harm to Australia's economy and competitiveness.

This duality is the key to success. Any Australian climate-change policy that seriously damaged our economy would be seen as a global and domestic failure, not a success.

An admission of the far left credentials of the Green Religion « IAIN HALL

One of my contentions hotly denied by some of my readers of the more leftist persuasion is that the the Green religion is propagated by those who are generally described by we more sensible folk as the “loony Left”, the sort of people who mourn the fall of the Soviet Union or who think that Marxism just did not go far enough. The article I quote below makes it very clear that the Warminists are very much of that ilk, and it is written by one of their own...

Beware sham climate change conference in phishing comments from WGGWCC 08!

All in all, a bad deal if you register for a non-existent conference and pay someone other than the real hotel manager for a non-existent room.

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Biden's Beliefs: Obama's Running Mate Calls Energy America's Top Issue

Forget, for a moment, the motorcade of big SUVs that ferried Sen. Joseph Biden this morning from his Delaware home to the airport and a flight to veep-candidate stardom. Energy, according to the veteran senator from Delaware, whom Sen. Barack Obama announced early this morning as his running mate, is “the single most consequential issue” facing the country.

“If I could wave a wand, and the Lord said I could solve one problem, I would solve the energy crisis,” Mr. Biden said at a campaign appearance last year, when he was running against Sen. Obama to become the Democratic presidential nominee. (See a YouTube clip of his comments here.) Curbing the growth in greenhouse-gas emissions, through improved auto mileage and through “clean-coal” power-plant technologies, is crucial, he said.
...
In a Salon interview last fall, then-presidential candidate Biden detailed his views on the subject. Some highlights from that interview:

Climate change as a security issue: If the predictions of the scientists are correct, you could see ocean levels rise three feet. If that occurs, you’re going to displace over 35 million people just in South Asia, and they’re going to physically be looking for a new place to land. Just that, all by itself, is going to initiate major new conflicts relating to war. You’re going to have nations fighting over arable land, more border disputes and, as a consequence, a great deal of instability.

A simple plan to save the world

When the issue of global warming emerged nearly 20 years ago, it offered the environmental movement -- perversely -- a kind of hope, or at the least, a much tighter focus. This was because its implications were wide-ranging in a way that those of whaling, say, or industrial pollution, were not.

The threat of the warming atmosphere was a threat us all; the imperative to do something drastic about it therefore a universal one.

For the idealists of the green movement, this meant change, which was what they had always wanted -- change in human behavior, to a more caring, less exploitative and less wasteful way of life. The climate threat seemed to mean that this would have to happen, now. People would be obliged to live in respectful harmony with the Earth. They would be obliged to alter their ways: swap their cars for bikes and public transport; substitute renewable energy systems for coal-fired electricity; and consume less of everything.

The alternative was catastrophe. It was go green, or die.

It has gradually become clear that this dream is not going to be realized, which is a sad recognition for anyone who sympathizes with the environment movement to have to make. The world is going to tackle climate change, in so far as it does at all, with a bit of behavior change, and a certain amount of renewable energy, but most of all with technological fixes...

Let’s Try It Again: Joe Biden’s Global Warming Voting Record | Skeptics Global Warming

Joe Biden had might as well be Even Bayh’s clone with regard to his voting record on global warming and energy policy. Biden voted against an oil-leasing program in ANWR. He voted for banning drilling in ANWR. He voted in favor of establishing greenhouse gas trading allowances. Voted no on funding a nuclear waste repository. Voted yes on factoring in global warming into federal project planning. And voted yes to removing oil & gas exploration subsidies.

Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney talks to Grist

Q: What sets your green platform apart from other candidates'?

A: We've taken nuclear off the table. When you start talking about sustainable energy, nuclear isn't it. We need to take offshore drilling off the table, we need to take ANWR off the table. We should also make sure that investment in solar and other types of heating and energy supply are made attractive to people, [through] tax schemes that decrease the price to the end user. [We need] also an incentive so that when people are in the process of buying houses, a score is given for the energy consumption that that house represents. Those are just a few things that could be done very easily.

Gates and Buffett Seek to Invest in Oil Sands?

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates - the first and third richest men in the world - quietly toured Canadian Natural Resources Ltd’s Horizon oil sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta, this week. Greg Stringham, vice-president at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, says the two men asked the industry body to give a general overview of the oil sands and Canada’s position in the energy world.

"Improving" your Corvette

After adding 900 pounds of batteries, you can convert a car that did 149 mph into an electric car that does 30 mph (with an unspecified driving range)!

And depending on where you plug it in, the modified car may get its energy from a distant coal-fired power plant!

A plug-in Corvette? You bet, St. Louis Park man says - TwinCities.com

The car is powered by 13 lead, 12-volt batteries. They weigh 70 pounds each and are tucked under the hood and in the trunk for balance.

The gas tank is gone, of course. But in a nice touch, Shoop hid the socket for the electric plug underneath the gas cap cover.

The '87 Corvette was designed to reach 149 mph and do zero to 60 in 6.3 seconds, according to motoring magazines of the day. When Shoop took the Volt Vette on its inaugural drive in May, top speed was 30 mph.

Jennifer Marohasy: More Skepticism in the Mainstream Media: Case of the Warm and Fuzzy

I can't say that I approve of the title that they gave my piece in The Weekend Australian: Case of the Warm and Fuzzy (pdf 800kbs).

But I am so pleased that they published the six graphs: all is forgiven. Furthermore, in this one piece I have been provided an opportunity to discuss the facts as they pertain not only to global temperatures, but also to rainfall along the east coast of Australia and salinity in the Murray River.

I am reminded of the George Orwell quote: “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” Much thanks to The Australian.

UK: Sales of thermal underwear soar in dismal summer

Department store Debenhams said shoppers were turning their back on summer sarongs, shorts and swimwear and opting for woollens instead.

Sales of thermal underwear at the store are up 54% on this time last year, winter coat sales are up 76% and warm knitwear is up by 53%.

Debenhams said the figures were similar to those traditionally seen during October.

Yet Another Massive UN Conference on Climate Change Begins

More than 1,000 delegates from over 150 countries have come together in Accra. Previous meetings, held in Bangkok in April and Bonn in June, focused on procedure and planning–making the Accra Climate Change Talks the first conference dedicated to actual climate issues.

Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Who’s advising Obama on energy and climate?

Greenwire (subs. req’d) has published a detailed list of who is advising Obama on energy and environment policies, which I am reprinting below the fold...

AGW Today: Clock Ticking On Coldest Year » Pirate’s Cove

Want to see the perfect encapsulation of the anthropogenic global warming hysteria?

Time is running out in the fight against global warming, the UN’s top climate change official warned as a new round of UN talks got started here Thursday.

“There is little time left to get a solid negotiating text on the table. Clearly the clock is ticking,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“People in a burning house cannot afford to lose time in an argument,” he said, citing an Ashanti proverb.

First, in Climahysteria World, you are not allowed to debate. You will comply. Resistance is useless. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us.

Second, it is all about yap yap and treaties, but not about really doing anything to solve the “climate crisis.” Though it is about controlling economies, and, by extension, people. But, anyhow, time is running out. Running out for the climahysteria movement.

Top Five Most Entertaining Moments With Al Gore // ecorazzi.com

Climate Progress » Blog Archive » What is the carbon footprint of McCain’s countless homes?

I’d estimate it’s about 150 tons of carbon dioxide, some 10 times that of the average American. But someone should ask Senator McCain. After all, he says he wants to require all Americans to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60% to 70% by 2050.

Carbon plan 'a company killer' | The Australian

THE nation's peak business group has joined the growing chorus across Australian industry warning the Rudd Government that local companies will close and move offshore unless it fundamentally rethinks its proposed emissions trading scheme.

Climate change – is it really that dire? - WalesOnline

The impact of a changing climate on farming and forestry may, therefore, be less threatening than is popularly suggested – and may even be beneficial.

Northern Greenland glaciers showing fractures, "large" break; Is it global warming or natural?

The article below by Newsweak's Seth Borenstein is amusing. Even Greenie scientists he consulted would not buy into any scare but he nonetheless does his best to attribute a glacial breakup to global warming. Borenstein is an old Warmist from way back.

Obama quotes

I, Barack Obama . . .

"As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya. 11

Never has the failure to take on a single challenge (climate change) so detrimentally affected nearly every aspect of our well-being as a nation. And never have the possible solutions had the potential to do so much good for so many generations to come. 12

Can a $6,000 two-wheeled electric "unicycle" really solve global "warming"?

Brantford Expositor - Ontario, CA

Gulak called his invention the Uno "because it has a European flavour and it does mean 'the one.' When you look at it from the side, it does look like there's only one wheel. And it could be a solution to global warming, if you want to stretch it that far."
..."We are such a visual society; people aren't going to want to do it unless it looks cool," says Gulak, adding he's hoping it will sell for an affordable $6,000.

He doesn't think consumers doing good things for the environment should be penalized with high prices.

Canada: Slow start to environmental festival

The We Are Many (WAM) Festival felt more like We Are Few Friday as unseasonably cold weather got the environmental event off to a slow start.

Missouri: Record low

On Tuesday, Rolla set a record low when temperatures there dipped down to 56 degrees.

Geoffrey Lawrence: NH climate task force would trample individual rights - Friday, Aug. 22, 2008

What benefit might Granite Staters reasonably expect to receive in exchange for their freedom? Realistically, they should expect these policies to have no effect at all on global warming. Thomas Wigley, a well-known climatologist who served as an adviser to Al Gore, has concluded that a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale (in line with the Kyoto Protocol) would have no measurable effect on temperature over the next century. If the entire world could have no measurable effect, it is absurd to presume that New Hampshire could have any effect on temperature by acting alone.

Prometheus » Blog Archive » Science on NCAR

The bottom line is that NCAR has some deep problems, which Kintisch describes in some detail, with a surprising number of climate modelers willing to go the record with strong criticisms of NCAR and UCAR management. One thing seems clear, more money won’t improve bad management, and may have the opposite effect. NSF needs to get UCAR and NCAR in line, before entities higher up the food chain step in and start asking questions.

Prometheus » Blog Archive » Not Nearly Top of the League Table

Over at Dot Earth Andy Revkin points to a call by climate science organizations for a doubling of their current level of funding during the period 2010-2014, asking for almost $20 billion (available here in PDF),as part of the priorities of the next U.S. administration.

The incoherence of the request is remarkable. They invoke Hurricane Katrina as an example of the sort of costly disaster that better models and predictions will help us deal with...

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Weekly Update, August 22nd, 2008

Investor's Business Daily -- Defund Enemies By Drilling For Energy

...Since President Clinton refused to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1995, Democrats have stood in the way of any rational energy plan. Today, we pump just 25% of our oil; 40 years ago, it was 60%. We send about $900 billion a year overseas to buy oil, money that helps fund Russian and radical Islamic mischief. This is a problem.

Now for the good news: The U.S. is the world's largest potential oil supplier — with as much oil, the Institute for Energy Research says, as has been used by the entire world over the last 150 years.

Just offshore, we have 86 billion barrels of crude. The U.S. Arctic region, including Alaska, holds 30 billion barrels. In the Far West, we have more than 800 billion barrels of shale oil.

July 2008 Global Temperatures - Climate Change Fraud - Because the debate is not over

Much ado has been made about global warming stopping since 2001, since 1998 or not increasing in the last decade. Here is more grist to the skeptic mill. The analysis below shows the global temperature has not increased significantly since 1979!

IPCC Author Selection Process Plagued by Bias, Cronyism: Study - by James M. Taylor - The Heartland Institute

The selection of authors for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose 2007 assessment report is often referred to as the definitive consensus regarding climate science, has been riddled with bias and cronyism, falling far short of the broad scientific consensus by which IPCC describes itself, reports a new study by the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI).

"The IPCC is a single-interest organization, whose charter directs it to assume that there is a human influence on climate, rather than to consider whether the influence may be negligible," lead author John McLean, an Australian researcher, observes in the study.

The study documents that instead of seeking input from a wide array of scientists representing a broad swath of the scientific community, IPCC's climate science assessment is dominated by a small clique of alarmists who frequently work closely with each other outside the IPCC process.

GMANews.TV - Women can earn while fighting global warming

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW) have signed an agreement that would empower women economically and would increase their role in fighting global warming.

Woonsocket Call - Experts sound global warming alarm at U.S. Senate session in R.I.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who chaired the hearing, warned that information questioning the existence of global warming or its connection to human activity “is part of an effort to fool people.” That effort entails labeling those who buy into global warming as “eccentric scientists or wacky environmentalists,” Whitehouse said.
Under the committee's rules, only invited individuals are allowed to speak, with no input from the public. When Whitehouse was asked after the session why no skeptics were invited to testify, the senator said he is not aware of any “climate change deniers” in Rhode Island. [Whitehouse should read this.]
He joked during the hearing that “Washington seems to be the high-water mark” for industry-based groups that he accused of trying to “sow doubt” about the phenomenon. “They are nervous about the changes necessary as we move to a green economy,” Whitehouse said.
“In this case, the science seems to be unequivocal,” the senator said. “We are not responding as a society to this threat as rapidly as we should.” [Via Marc Morano]

Spotless Sun Prompts Scientist to Fear Dramatic Turn into Global Cooling (roundup)

Al Fin: New Study Revolutionises Atmospheric Science

Of course, informed persons already understood that the huge gaps in understanding of atmospheric processes made current climate models worse than worthless. It is only those who stood to profit from climate alarmism--along with the supremely gullible and academically lobotomised--who carried the alarmist banner so belligerently.

As the infant science of climatology slowly becomes a bona fide science, a better understanding of the authentic processes of climate will emerge.

Bloomberg’s Assault on Wild Birds | OpenMarket.org

Energy expert Robert Bradley Jr. notes that the country’s largest wind farm in Contra Costa California, called Altamont Pass, kills hundreds of birds every year. He notes: “On a percentage basis, the mortality rate per year at Altamont Pass under the estimate is eight times greater than the bald eagle kill from the Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in 1989, and it recurs every year.” The Center for Biological Diversity explains that the wind farm is particularly problematic because is located in a migratory route. They estimate that the wind turbines kill about 880 to 1,300 birds of prey each year, which includes 116 golden eagles, 300 red-tailed hawks, 380 burrowing owls, we well as hundreds kestrels, falcons, vultures, and owls. While wind farms in other locations might not pose as large-scale problems, explanation of this energy source would surely have drawbacks for avian wildlife. Bradley, for example reports similar problems with avian mortality in Europe.

CO2sceptics News Blog | Letter: Climate change-alternative energy

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been discredited in recent years, particularly in the last two years. In fact, there is nowhere near a scientific consensus on the dramatic and sensational claims made by this panel.

Their famous “hockey stick” shaped graph of recent world temperatures has been shown to be fraudulent. Their mathematical models on long term climate change, which I have looked at, are packed with guesses, called “parameterizations” to replace unknown and unmeasurable quantities and feedback gains which are needed by the models.

The McCreary County Record - The Bottom Line: Global What?

I remember vividly as a child the reports on the evening news that were sounding the alarm that global cooling was eminent. One particular interview that stands out in my mind was with a meteorologist that claimed that “we as a nation will be in the early stages of a new ice age by 1995.” Thirteen years have passed since that prediction was supposed to come to pass, and now they are claiming that the world is getting hotter. I have come to the conclusion that the world is not trending in either a hot or cold direction, but is rather cyclical in its weather patterns. I have come to a similar conclusion with regard to the alarmist message of environmentalists. I am convinced that by the time that my grandsons have children, the environmental concern will once again be “global cooling.”

Still More Peer-Reviewed Studies Contradict Global Warming Alarmism - by Compiled by Peter Risdon - The Heartland Institute

Despite what many global warming alarmists assert in the media, there are many articles in the world's leading science publications contradicting the assertion that "the debate is over" about global warming. These articles destroy the illusion that there is a "consensus" among scientists about the causes of global warming. The following is the third of a three-part list of many such articles.Compiled by Peter Risdon...

Forecasting based on climate change is delusional

The only predictable thing about global warming is that it won't negate our weather's unpredictability, writes John Waters

THE IDEA seems to be taking hold that climate change will render the Irish weather more predictable and that we'll never see a dry August day again. Anyone who has lived more than a week or two in this country knows that this is delusional.

McCain's Real House Problem

...But the McHome flap reveals something else: green true-believer McCain has a serious, Al Gore-sized hypocrisy problem.

As a senator who has embraced cap-and-trade, federal fuel mileage laws, and is fluent in green-speak (“Greenland is the most outstanding example of what’s been happening [due to global warming],” he told The Detroit News in a Dec. 2007 interview), McCain would demand huge sacrifices of the American economy even as he lives like a king.

Like any limousine liberal, McCain prefers the symbolic gesture to walking the walk. In our News interview, he was asked what kind of car he drove. As with Politico’s question about home ownership, he didn’t know and had to ask a nearby aide. “A Cadillac CTS,” she told him. But then the senator was quick to point out that he had bought his daughter a Prius — the prefect halo symbol for his green pretensions.

Mother Nature: Polluter

Publicly, the group focuses on a particularly local issue: oil seeps, natural emissions that leave a sheen on the ocean surface and balls of tar on the sandy beaches. Now named Stop Oil Seeps California, the group touts a 1999 University of California at Santa Barbara study suggesting that oil production could reduce the emissions by relieving pressure in undersea oil fields.

Bloomberg Backs Off Windmill Plan

NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg is backing off his suggestion to put windmills on city bridges and rooftops after newspapers mocked the idea with photo illustrations of turbines on the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building.

"There are aesthetic considerations," Bloomberg said. "No. 2, I have absolutely no idea whether that makes any sense from a scientific, from a practical point of view."

Dem Weakness on Energy

The Journal today reports on Democratic Congressional candidates who are running on John McCain’s all-of-the-above energy platform in order to get elected.

Everything's settled--except the bill

Here we go again with the “settled science” doubletalk.

The science of AGW is settled . . . unless, that is, you suggest that the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for climate-related research might be used in more productive ways (say, by letting taxpayers keep it). Then the story becomes: no…no, we desperately need billions more to look into the grave uncertainties.

Warning Signs: The More He Talks, the Worse it Gets for Him

Barack Obama’s real problem, however, is that the more people hear him speak, the less inclined they are to buy his “audacity of hope” because, like most of us, there are some serious problems like the cost of filling the car’s gas tank. Blaming “Big Oil” is nowhere near an answer when the obvious one is to drill here in America for our own abundant oil reserves.

“Clean energy” is another one of those catch phrases that no longer resonates with people who have figured out that wind and solar won’t keep the lights on. If "global warming" is mentioned, you will be able to hear the snickers resonate from coast to coast.

NC Media Watch: And just how important is global warming to Californians (edited)

A thousand potential California voters were asked this open ended question: What are the main issues facing California.

Respondents said that the most pressing issues were:

• The state budget and budget deficit (18 percent)
• The economy in general (12 percent)
• Gasoline prices (9 percent)
• Education (9 percent)
• Illegal immigrants (9 percent)
• Unemployment (7 percent)
• Housing and the mortgage crisis (5 percent)
• High taxes (3 percent)
• Government spending (3 percent)
• Global warming or environment (2 percent)

The total does not add up to 100 percent due to the multiple other issues in the open ended question that did not score.

The Reference Frame: Joe Biden and global warming

Barack Obama will pick Joe Biden as his running mate. When it comes to climate change, Biden seems to be just another mad man:

Face global warming or global conflict (2-page interview)

As a presidential candidate, he said that global warming will destroy the U.S. military. He is the "best one" to solve the "energy crisis" and wants to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 while raising the mandatory percentage of alternative energies to 20%, among many other mad things.

Reuters: World Meteorological Organization says “This year so far coolest for at least 5 years” « Watts Up With That?

LONDON (Reuters) - The first half of 2008 was the coolest for at least five years, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Wednesday.

Australian Space Weather Agency Revises Solar Cycle 24 Start, Adding 6 Months « Watts Up With That?

Solar Cycle 24 just can’t seem to get rolling. IPS announced today (IPS is the Australian Space Weather Agency) , that it has changed its forecast for Solar Cycle 24, pushing it’s start into the future by six months.

Cryosphere Today Makes Changes - Improves product, drops Gore comment « Watts Up With That?

Green faith means gassy water | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

When one green myth smashes into another. The Victorian Government, thinking that dams are a crime against Gaia, decides (belatedly) to build a desalination plant instead. Not only does this produce only half the water for as much as five times the price, but check the emissions...

Why sceptical scientists do it tougher | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Another scientist tackles the global warming orthodoxy - but not before he’s had to clamber over some interesting barriers...

It’s the policies, not the warming, that will kill us | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

One of the most powerful reasons to doubt man is heating the world to hell is the need of the prophets to exaggerate what’s actually happening. Take Henry Derwent, chief executive of the International Emissions Trading Association, writing today in The Age...

If only sceptical Emerson fought as he talked | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Small Business Minister Craig Emerson, a secret global warming denier, lashes out at the greenshirts...

Save the planet, freeze a pensioner | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Bronx Zoo Cancels Holiday Lights in Bid to Lessen Footprint : TreeHugger

If you’re one of the legions of animal lovers who’ve spent a holiday evening admiring the lights at the Bronx Zoo but deploring the carbon emissions they inevitably create there’s good news for you.

Obama’s Brother - Global Warming Warrior | Political Humor by Radioactive Liberty

Iowa Rep. King: Drilling is part of the solution

King, who said he’s “skeptical” about global warming, came to the meetings with charts and graphs to press his case to what were clearly receptive gatherings. At one point in Creston, members of the audience chanted “drill, drill, drill.”
...
In King’s view, a comprehensive energy strategy must rely heavily on nuclear power as well. King said concerns sparked by the nation’s most infamous nuclear accident at Three Mile Island are exaggerated.

“By the way, if you had been chained to the reactor at Three Mile Island when it started its reactivity, you would have gotten about the equivalent dose of an X-ray,” King said in Council Bluffs. “And that was all. So the safest energy we have is nuclear.”

Shopfloor » Blog Archive » Around the Energy Horn

The Understory » The Sustainable Living Roadshow is ready to roll!

Hello blog world! Marty here, checking in from Berkeley, CA, where the crew of the Sustainable Living Roadshow is making final preparations before embarking on its first national tour, “Be The Change 2008.” We are a caravan of entertainers, educators and activists, traveling the country in a fleet of renewable fuel vehicles, setting up off-the-grid eco-carnivals, empowering and inspiring communities to work towards a sustainable and just future. There’ll be carnival games like “Toss
Out Fossil Fuels,” workshops, demonstrations, and some amazing musical acts. It’s time to make sustainability fun!

San Francisco Ponders: Could Bike Lanes Cause Pollution? - WSJ.com

Mr. Anderson disagrees. Cars always will vastly outnumber bikes, he reasons, so allotting more street space to cyclists could cause more traffic jams, more idling and more pollution. Mr. Anderson says the city has been blinded by political correctness. It's an "attempt by the anti-car fanatics to screw up our traffic on behalf of the bicycle fantasy," he wrote in his blog this month.

The Nancy Pelosi of Kansas

Planet Gore on National Review Online

Snyder is simply reciting Renewable Power 101: It’s not economically practical for transmission lines to be erected for wind alone due to the line expense and the erratic nature of wind power. Wind, in other words, can only supplement larger (and less intermittent) energy sources.

Jennifer Marohasy: Environmentalism Can’t Replace Religion: A Note from Ian Plimer

Despite our comfortable materialistic lives, there are many who ask: Is that all? They want a meaning for life and yearn for a spiritual life. Some follow the traditional religions, others embrace paranormal beliefs and many follow a variety of spiritual paths.

A new religion has been invented: Environmentalism. The rise of environmentalism parallels in time and place the decline of Christianity and socialism. This environmental religion is terrified of doubt, scepticism and uncertainty yet claims to be underpinned by science. It is a fundamentalist religion with a fear of nature. It has its own high priests such as Al Gore and a holy writ, such as the IPCC reports. Like many religious followers, few have ever read and understood the holy books from cover to cover.

Like many fundamentalist religions, it attracts believers by announcing apocalyptic calamities unless we change our ways. Its credo is repeated endlessly and a new language has been invented. Logic, contrary data or questioning are not permitted. Heretics are inquisitorially destroyed.

It states that now is the most important time in history and people are told that humanity is facing the greatest crisis in the history of time. We must make great sacrifices. Now. This religion uses thinking out of the Judeo-Christian tradition: If the world has been destroyed, then we humans are to blame.

Warning Signs: The Mayor's Windy Nightmare

The problem is exacerbated by the need to keep the turbines turning even when there is no wind; otherwise mechanical problems can occur. So wind turbines are hooked up to a source of reliable energy like that from a coal-fired plant to keep the blades moving.

If, I hear you saying, you have to hook up the turbines to electricity from a coal-fired, natural gas or nuclear plant, why do you need them in the first place? Good question!
Right now, in terms of all the wind turbines in the nation, the amount of electricity being produced adds up to about one percent of the total.

To put it another way, generating electricity with wind turbines is just about the most stupid way you can devise when compared to other methods. The exception to this is the use of solar panels that produce even less electricity nationwide than wind turbines.

Who, in fact, really likes wind turbines? Answer: The people who make and install them. The reason for this is the tremendous federal subsidies involved. In 2006 alone, the federal tax incentives paid out cost taxpayers an estimated $2.75 billion.

Then, of course, is the fact that the wind does not blow all the time. According to energy industry expert Robert Bryce, in economic terms that means “electricity generated by wind costs more than twice as much as that generated by coal, natural gas, or nuclear power.”

Mayor Bloomberg is afflicted with the same madness of all liberals; the belief that any cockeyed notion that pops into their head and requires a lot of money, plus produces a great deal of pain for the most dubious results, must be implemented.

Skeptics win one! NOAA/NCDC to pull the CCSP report « Watts Up With That?

Warning, strong opinion follows: This report’s contents and the “cart before the horse” way it was produced is the biggest official “crock” perpetrated on the American public I’ve ever been privy to. On a personal note, there are days when I struggle to keep doing this, at times I think I’ll just shut down the blog, turn off the surfacestations website, and return to a normal and hassle free life. Days like this keep me going.

The Virginian: “Green Energy” Corruption, the Elephant in the Room.

Which brings us to the way that robber barons like Pickens, allied with the MSM and the Democrats are on the way to making billions on “alternative energy.” The formula is simple: keep oil prices high, prevent the use of coal, stop nuclear power production, scare people with doomsday scenarios of global warming via “greenhouse gases,” pass laws mandating the use of power sources that Pickens and the Greens own and rake in the billions as consumers get financially raped.

More On Cognitive Dissonance

Global Warming Politics 

Throughout history, many competing cults have attempted to predict dire catastrophes for the Earth. With respect to these cults, the key psychological and sociological question is: “What happens when the predictions fail?” Following on from yesterday’s post [see: ‘Cognitive Dissonance’, August 19], in which I analysed the growing gap between a hot media obsessed with ‘global warming’ disasters and a world in which the climate is currently cooling, I thought it might be helpful to explore the phenomenon of ‘cognitive dissonance’ further.
...
...if an increasing number of media outlets start to question ‘the belief’, it will will be much easier for a formerly strong believer to follow suit. In this, there will be a classic cascade effect. Until recently, the cascade effect has been working in the direction of supporting a belief in catastrophic ‘global warming’, with both the media and scientists frightened of seeming to be heretics and out-of-step. Increasingly, however, there are signs that the cascade is reversing direction.

Historians, long hence, will surely have a fascinating time analysing the rise and fall of the cult of catastrophic ‘global warming’. Even now it is possible to detect close parallels with the pattern of many traditional doomsday cults. And, it is particularly interesting to note that scientists are just as susceptible to such cults as non-scientists.

Geologists' Debate Sparks Debate | DeSmogBlog

There is, once again, an unquenchable enthusiasm in the denier community for "debate" of this kind, rather than the more conventional form of scientific argument, in which scientists must make their case, in writing, before a group of their peers and must stand accountable for the accuracy of their work. People like the Australian Bob Carter, who has no research credits in atmospheric science and therefore no expertise when it comes to criticizing climate models, stand up in a public debate such as this as quotable contrarians, not as literal "experts. Which, to belabour the point, means that this was not science: it was public relations.

And public relations on whose behalf? Ask yourself, who is the biggest employer of geologists - in Norway and the world?

Coyote Blog: The Hands That Currently Produce Things People Actually Want Can Also Fix Broken Windows

OK, so the total employment of all these industries that might be related to an alternate energy effort is about 2.28 million. So, to add 5 million incremental jobs would require tripling the size of the utility industry, tripling the size of the utility construction and equipment industry, tripling the size of the auto industry, tripling the size of the aircraft industry, and tripling the size of the shipbuilding industry. And even then we would be a bit short of Obama's number.

Backwards to the Future — Climate Resistance

Oxfam was once a charity set up to provide famine relief. It was hard to criticise without looking a bit mean. It is now a gigantic international NGO which influences the direction of policy towards and within the developing world. Like many other organisations, it has found a new way of arming itself by capturing anxieties about climate change. Where once there were ambitions for people in the third world to enjoy Western standards of living, now the voice of the voiceless instead celebrates the primitive lifestyles that the worlds poorest people suffer.

Climate Skeptic: No Trend in Drought or Floods

Canada: A carbon election that clears the air

The stepped up partisanship by the Conservatives suggests a government that is tired, having exhausted its early agenda of cutbacks and tax breaks. While Dion has grappled with the challenges of climate change, Harper has virtually washed his hands of greenhouse gases. Quick to ridicule Dion's carbon proposals, he has abdicated a federal leadership role and allowed the provinces to move into the vacuum.

Linda McKee: Flood-hit Ulster wonders how to weather the winds of change

The question of how far climate change is connected to our present woes has sparked another spat between green campaigners and climate change sceptic Environment Minister Sammy [Wilson].

The minister in fact agrees that climate change is happening but is dubious about the role of human influence in global warming. But yesterday the Green Party’s climate change spokesperson Dr Peter Doran warned that Mr Wilson’s “ideological refusal to deal with climate change” could cost our community and business sector dearly.

Australia: Going Green: An alternative view

LEADING economist and climate change sceptic Alan Oxley has warned Greater Dandenong businesses not to go green too soon.

Mr Oxley didn’t write off climate change, but argued it was happening at a slower rate than the environmental movement would have big business think.

New Zealand: Choppers fight frost over kiwifruit

Frost-busting helicopters were out in force again this morning to protect early-budding kiwifruit after two heavy frosts - yesterday's the stiffest frost of the year.

Yesterday morning the ground temperature dropped to a cracking minus-six degrees. Growers warned by a frost alert and monitoring called out helicopters to prevent the frost settling and damaging their vines.

Both Ashworth Helicopters and Gisborne Helicopters put machines in the air, starting around 4am in the hours before dawn.

Six helicopters were in action in the Ormond and Waerenga-a-Hika areas, and another five were out again early this morning.

At around $1200 an hour, the use of helicopters to bring warmer air down on to the vines is an expensive but necessary option to avoid damage at the critical budding period.

Hey Corzine, is it warming or cooling?

link

What’s the harm in spending trillions of taxpayer dollars grasping at straws for alternative energy programs “just in case” global warming and cooling are real this time? The harm is ironic considering the agenda behind either/or to implement the seemingly well-intentioned cause of economic equality on a global scale, let alone state and local levels. If that sounds like neo-con paranoia, ponder this February headline: “The good news from America — Most environmentalists are indeed leftists who support the redistribution of wealth and believe in a simpler lifestyle.” It appeared in the New Statesman and its author is hardly alone with his ideological sentiments and accolades from Al Gore himself.

Given the benefit of the doubt, global warming and/or cooling aren’t insidious hoaxes. But the redundant misinterpretation of facts leads to disastrous policies such as the Kyoto Protocol, cap and trade, burning our food supply with boondoggled attempts at new energy sources such as ethanol, and so on. The only equality achieved by these schemes are disproportionately high food and gas prices, coupled with (and not just caused by) staggering inflation, and increasing dependency on the Middle East. It’s time for alternative energy sources like wind, solar, and even dog poop if it works. But it’s not time to sever current energy sources, which are hardly warming or cooling the planet any more than its own natural cycles. Especially, if the underlying goal is truly aiding the poor.

Californians allegedly worried about greenhouse gases

Capitol Weekly: The Newspaper of California State Government and Politics

The survey of 1,000 people conducted Aug. 3-10 also shows support for a market-based strategy conducted in coordination with other western states, as proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a number of business groups. The market structure is generally supported by the AB 32 Implementation Group, the business coalition that commissioned the poll, although the details of the market have yet to be worked out.

The survey of a random sample of California voters was conducted by EMC Research of Oakland with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points.

EMC said the goal of the survey was to "measure current attitudes toward California Assembly Bill 32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act, and to gauge how both positive and negative arguments affect voter support for the bill."

--Voters are largely unaware of AB 32, but they initially support its goals. Support for the bill significantly decreases as voters are given more information, particularly about the costs of implementing the bill.

Bravo, Charles A. Jenkins

Heretic in the religion of global warming in our society

Not believing in manmade global warming does not in any way suggest a "total disregard for Earth."
...
As for my behavior as an elected official, if you're looking for a lemming you won't find one here.

Charles A. Jenkins, Frederick

The writer is a member of the Frederick Board of County Commissioners.

La Cosa Climate protection racket: Scientists pressure govt for $9 BILLION to 'protect' U.S. from economy from climate

Scientists urge US to protect economy from climate | Reuters

It could also help businesses that produce virtually no greenhouse emissions, such as wind farms, know where to best locate their operations, he said.

The scientists said cooler temperatures in the first half of this year are making their task more difficult. "One of the challenges we face ... is to make the case that while we are in a period of warming, we should not expect every year to be the warmest year on record," Snow said.

The global mean temperature to the end of July was 0.50 degrees Fahrenheit (0.28 C) above the 1961-1990 average, the UK-based MetOffice for climate change research said on Wednesday. That would make the first half of 2008 the coolest since 2000.

(Via Marc Morano)

World Climate Report » It’sa Getting Warmer—I’ma Gonna Killa Myself

Our ongoing quest for researchers making bizarre connections between (fill in the blank) and global warming frequently takes us to far-flung recesses of the library (or, more likely, dusty corner cobwebs of the World Wide Web). For this installment, we have uncovered some novel “climatology” being practiced in the Journal of Affective Disorders, a psychology journal “…concerned with affective disorders in the widest sense: depression, mania, anxiety and panic.” In a 2007 paper, provocatively entitled “Global warming possibly linked to an enhanced risk of suicide: Data from Italy, 1974–2003,” authors Preti, Lentini, and Maugeri argue that “global warming” has raised male suicide rates throughout the Boot.

RealClearPolitics - Articles - The Idiocy of Energy Independence

McCain and Obama talk constantly about how much they will "invest" -- with money taken from the taxpayers, of course -- to achieve energy independence. "[W]e can provide loan guarantees and venture capital to those with the best plans to develop and sell biofuels on a commercial market," Obama said.

What makes Obama think he's qualified to pick the "best plans"? It's the robust competition of the free market that reveals what's best. Obama's program would preempt the only good method we have for learning which form of energy is best.

Has he learned nothing from the conceits of his predecessors? Jimmy Carter, saying that achieving energy independence was the "moral equivalent of war," called for "the most massive peacetime commitment of funds ... to develop America's own alternative". Then he wasted billions of our tax dollars on the utterly failed "synfuel" program.

Brrr! Farmers' Almanac says cold winter ahead

Households worried about the high cost of keeping warm this winter will draw little comfort from the Farmers' Almanac, which predicts below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.

"Numb's the word," says the 192-year-old publication, which claims an accuracy rate of 80 to 85 percent for its forecasts that are prepared two years in advance.

The almanac's 2009 edition, which goes on sale Tuesday, says at least two-thirds of the country can expect colder than average temperatures, with only the Far West and Southeast in line for near-normal readings.

"This is going to be catastrophic for millions of people," said almanac editor Peter Geiger, noting that the frigid forecast combined with high prices for heating fuel is sure to compound problems households will face in keeping warm.

When it comes to the environment, the sky isn't exactly falling

The Barrie Examiner - Ontario, CA

Here's another problem. The report doesn't project what the death count would be, if, say, we immediately banned the use of fossil fuels in order to dramatically reduce air pollution.

Under that scenario, the number of people of all ages who would die from the cold in winter, and, to a lesser extent, heat in summer (because cold is more dangerous to humans than heat) would skyrocket.

Questions on why new underpass was flooded - Belfast Today

But Mr Wilson said that his well-known scepticism about increased carbon dioxide being responsible for damaging climate change was unshaken by the deluge.

"Those people (who believe we are responsible for climate change) would say from their models that this should be happening less often because this part of the northern hemisphere should be getting dryer," he insisted.

Australia: Bright harvest prospects, but concern over frost damage

...Qld AgForce Grains president Lyndon Pfeffer is beginning to hear of significant frost losses within early-planted crops, particularly in central Queensland.

“Paddocks round Thallon and Talwood (southern Queensland) were looking quite good but I’ve heard as much as two-thirds of some paddocks in central Queensland may have been frost-affected,” he said.

“So it’s fingers-crossed for the moment because it can take between a week and 10 days for frost damage to show up,” Mr Pfeffer added.

His concerns were echoed by noted Jambin district grower Selwyn Schmidt in Central Queensland who says he too is hearing reports of frost damage on both chickpeas and wheat.

“I’m not sure how substantial it is but there are definite reports of some levels of frost damage,” he said.

“The winter has certainly been colder than average and a bit longer than average,” Mr Schmidt added.

Just-released figures suggest that frost damage in Queensland and northern NSW wheat and barley crops translates into losses estimated at $120m per annum in an average year.

The combined effect of direct frost damage, late flowering to minimise frost risk and terminal drought stress, represent the most important constraint to increased winter cereal production in the northern grains region, according to DPI&F research scientist Troy Frederiks,

“The yield of early-sown crops that escape frost can be 20-50pc more than crops sown at the recommended time,” he said. ”However, only one frost event can be enough to destroy a crop.”

Daily Herald - IN OUR VIEW: Shrinking problems

But one may wonder whether, deep in their hearts, climate-crazed liberals believe their own religion. Note how far off the goals are: 12, 32 and 42 years from now. It's very, very unlikely the mayor or Council members will still be in office by then, or that anyone will remember or care about the Great Climate Hysteria of the early part of the 21st Century.

AdFreak: Gore's global-warming ads still feeling cold

Where the earlier stuff was soft and ineffectual, and roundly panned by most media observers, this commercial is just whiny and oddly worded. Bidding politicians to "use the wind" is an unfortunate turn of phrase in at least two ways. The line "We demand that we repower America" is just confusing. Stop forcing the word "we" into every sentence! There's no "we" in America, by the way, just a "me" and an "I." Think about that next time your hemp-powered buggy runs out of juice 20 miles from home. Also check out this earlier ad from the campaign, where "we" all behave like the monolith-worshiping apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the spot, "we" all appear to be moving giant power switches. Does that make Gore an emissary from a technologically advanced, extraterrestrial civilization? You know, in his mind—and some others—I think it does. Wake up, people: The man's from Tennessee.

ENN: Study: People Rank Global Warming Lower Than Local Environmental Issues

Konisky recently surveyed 1,000 adults concerning their attitudes about the environment. The survey polled respondents about their levels of concern for the environment and preferences for government action to address a wide set of environmental issues.

A strong majority of the public expressed general concern about the environment. According to the survey, the top three issues that the public wants the government to address are protecting community drinking water, reducing pollution of U.S. rivers and lakes, and improving urban air pollution issues like smog. In the survey, global warming ranks eighth in importance.

National Clean Energy Summit: Boone

Famed oilman T. Boone Pickens gave the morning keynote at the National Clean Energy Summit, in what might have seemed hostile territory. "I don't see anyone here from my party," said the longtime Republican and funder of the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry. "I'm making new friends. That's good." And make friends he did -- by the sound of it, the crowd was utterly charmed.

Pickens reeled off the familiar numbers -- see PickensPlan.com -- about America's small sliver of world oil reserves (3 percent) and its large appetite for oil (25 percent), which is leading to a growing share of oil being imported (70 percent). "We are getting very close to a disaster," he said. He rehashed his plan to boost wind and move natural gas over to transportation.

He made a point of saying that Al Gore's plan to move directly to green electricity in 10 years, including transportation, is "unrealistic." We need a bridge to get there, he says, and that bridge is natural gas, which is being discovered in huge shale reserves in Texas and elsewhere.

In an implicit response to concerns about environmental degradation and climate change, he said: "I'm for everything American." (Pickens has been quite vocal in his support for offshore drilling and coal.) The crowd applauded, perhaps not entirely grasping the context.

Alarmist group Focus the Nation assures us: we're not dead yet

Some of you may have been confused by rumors and emails lately about developments at Focus the Nation. We want to assure you, like Mark Twain, that the report of our death was an exaggeration.

Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » Why federal funding of “wind & solar farms to nowhere” will succeed.

Reminiscent of Alaska’s infamous bridge to nowhere, Congress stands poised to repeat their spending folly with wind and solar farms… with no transmission lines to urban service areas, and inadequate capacitance needs..

Global Warming: The Air Conditioned Bus Stop In Dubai | Anorak News

And how about wind-powered beanies on each New Yorker's head?

NYC mayor calls for wind turbines atop skyscrapers [National Wind Watch]

Wind turbines would top New York City skyscrapers and bridges and dot the city’s shorelines, while the mighty tides that drive the Hudson and East Rivers would also generate power under a new plan Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented on Tuesday.

“I think it would be a thing of beauty if, when Lady Liberty looks out on the horizon, she not only welcomes new immigrants, but lights their way with a torch powered by an ocean windfarm,” Bloomberg said in a copy of a speech he will give in Las Vegas at the 2008 National Clean Energy Summit.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Udall flips on drilling, Colorado reels

Udall and the rest of the Democrats have finally awoken to the anger of an American public which finally realized that they have been fed populist pap for decades on oil production.

Jennifer Marohasy: Polar Bears Can Survive where there is no Summer Sea Ice: A Note from Nichole Hoskin

Interestingly there is no summer sea ice in western Hudson Bay in the Canadian Arctic and there are polar bears.

According to polar bear experts, Douglas Clark and Ian Stirling (1998), “The polar bear population that inhabits western Hudson Bay spends the period from late July through early November on shore because the annual ice melts completely.”

Jennifer Marohasy: 7000 Year Climate Record Shows Century-Long Doughts in North America and 1500 Year Solar Cycle

A stalagmite in a West Virginia cave has yielded the most detailed geological record to date on climate cycles in eastern North America over the past 7,000 years. The new study confirms that during periods when Earth received less solar radiation, the Atlantic Ocean cooled, icebergs increased and precipitation fell, creating a series of century-long droughts.

Jennifer Marohasy: Sea Surface Temperatures of the Oceans Surrounding Australia - A Note from Bob Tisdale

The effects of ENSO events on SST trends are obvious once we're reminded of them. Keep in mind that it is not only the frequency of El Nino and La Nina events but also the magnitude of those events that must be considered during discussions of their impacts on global or local climate.

Prometheus » Blog Archive » "Consistent With" Chronicles: A New Record

“From a climate standpoint it is far too short a period to have any significance,” says Amanda Lynch, a climate change scientist at Melbourne’s Monash University. “What we are seeing now is consistent with our understanding of variability between decades. If we hung about for another 30 years and it kept going down, then you might start to think there is something we don’t understand. But the evidence at this point suggests this is not something we should hang around and wait for.”

Environmental Capital - WSJ.com : Climate Court: Saving the Planet One Gavel at a Time

A single, global environmental court replete with its own scientific body would give countries the incentive to tackle climate change, Mr. Hockman argues. Businesses would get a “centralized system” with a large body of environmental law and consistent rulings, which should make it easier to operate in a globalized economy.

Global Warming Skeptics Prominently Featured At International Scientific Meeting

During the Geologic conference, Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia of the Center of Advanced Study in Geology at Punjab University and a visiting scholar of the Geology Department at University of Cincinnati, openly ridiculed former Vice President Al Gore and the UN IPCC's coveted Nobel Peace Prize.
...
Ahluwalia, a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet (http://www.yearofplanetearth.org) also criticized the promoters of man-made global warming fears for "drawing out exaggerated conclusions" and took the UN to task for failing to allow dissenting voices.

"When I put forward my points in the morning, some IPCC official got up to say that what I was [saying was] ‘nonsense.' See, when we have that sort of attitude, that sort of dogma against a scientific observation that would not actually end up in very, very positive debate. We should maintain our sense of proportion, maintain our sense of objectivity, allow a discussion -- not have fixed mindset about global warming," he said to applause from the members.

Global Warming Not Linked To Increased Hurricane Activity

“I did not say if there is global warming, it would be man-made,” [NOAA Hurricane researcher and Meteorologist Stanley B. Goldenberg] emphasized. “Not all scientists agree that the warming we’ve seen is necessarily anthropogenic. It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.”

Cognitive Dissonance

Global Warming Politics 

I must ask a very serious and urgent question of our media. Why do you continue to talk glibly about current climate ‘warming’ when it is now widely acknowledged that there has been no ‘global warming’ for the last ten years, a cooling trend that many think may continue for at least another ten years? How can you talk of the climate ‘warming’ when, on the key measures, it isn’t? And now a leading Mexican scientist is even predicting that we may enter another ‘Little Ice Age’ - a ‘pequeña era de hielo’.

Such media behaviour exhibits a classic condition known as ‘cognitive dissonance’. This is experienced when belief in a grand narrative persists blindly even when the facts in the real world begin to contradict what the narrative is saying. Sadly, our media have come to have a vested interest in ‘global warming’, as have so many politicians and activists. They are terrified that the public may begin to question everything if climate is acknowledged, on air and in the press, not to be playing ball with their pet trope.

But that is precisely what is happening...

Scorching summer days to sizzle more by 2100: study | Reuters

"The extremes warm faster than the averages," said Rob van Dorland, a spokesman for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute which wrote the study with scientists at Utrecht University.
...
Dorland said it was unclear why extreme temperatures would rise so fast -- a theory was that warmer soils dry out, reducing the amount of heat they can absorb from the sun. "If the soil is drier, then solar energy goes more to heating the air," he said.

More anecdotal and oddly cool summer weather: Rockford, IL yet to reach 90 degrees « Watts Up With That?

ROCKFORD HAS NEVER GONE THROUGH A SUMMER WITHOUT A 90 DEGREE TEMPERATURE.

Democrats planning everything but the weather in Denver « Watts Up With That?

“Rain or shine,” Obama will speak outdoors at Invesco Field at Mile High, said Natalie Wyeth, press secretary for the Democratic National Convention.

AMS Linking Weather Events to Climate Change « Watts Up With That?

I find it odd that I get criticism when I talk about weather events and the oft repeated maxim “weather is not climate” yet here we have the premiere meteorological organization doing exactly the same thing - pointing out extreme weather events. Yet, they don’t even mention the word “weather” in the context of the graphic, preferring the more worrisome but less accurate label of “climate anomalies”.

The Reference Frame: Oslo 2008, 33rd IGC: geologists are skeptical

Henrik Svensmark and Bob Carter were on the panel and Bob Carter in particular has said many wise and nicely organized things over there. Most geologists who spoke from the audience were skeptics, too.

Various participants of the conference have criticized the notion that the climate is still warming (how many cooling years do we have to witness to stop saying that?), Al Gore, IPCC and its lack of open-mindedness, unreliable climate models, especially when it comes to clouds (Svensmark), the opinion that sea levels are accelerating, and so on: see RightSideNews.

Rasmus Benestad is nervous about the conference and wrote a text attacking the "contrarians", apparently not realizing that it is him who is the contrarian here. Not surprisingly, geologists have been denounced as puppets of the oil industry by the RealClimate.ORG faithful and everyone is happy again. ;-)

The sacrifice-free election strategy | Salon News

Barack Obama too is an honors graduate of the Political Academy of Painless Dentistry. During the Olympics, the Obama campaign has been running a gauzy ad so uplifting that it makes Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" seem like an Edward Hopper painting. As the TV screen glows with scenes of happy workers, the offscreen narrator buoyantly promises, "The hands that install roofs can also install solar panels. The hands that build today's cars can also build the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles. Barack Obama [will] ... create 5 million jobs developing homegrown energy technologies." The underlying message is that global warming and an Obama presidency will spur the biggest jobs program since Franklin Roosevelt's WPA. As Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, who is not affiliated with the Obama campaign, explains, "One of the most important ways of positioning on global warming is to emphasize the jobs issue, since it appeals to people who you might not otherwise reach with your message."

Bravo, Tom McClintock

His Record Doesn't Lie: Tom McClintock - Colfax

Tom McClintock has long enjoyed a reputation for being a straight-shooting, principled conservative. You may not believe what he believes, but you usually get a sense that he knows what he's talking about. That's why people [here]were stunned when McClintock, in a speech to the Western Conservative Politcal Action Conference, called global warming a "farce." In a rant against environmentalists he blasted the state's new greenhouse emissions law, saying it would hurt industry and (get this) even cause starvation in the world.

Republican supporters said McClintock "seems to be in a time warp. The most recent PPIC poll shows that even 60 percent of Republicans see an immediate need to tackle global warming (82 percent of independents did too). McClintock didn't do himself any favors on this one. He's just handed Democrats and even his likely 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary opponent, Steve Poizner, an issue to campaign on, making it even easier to paint McClintock as an extremist out of touch with California values."

Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com Arctic Ice Grows 30 Per Cent In a Year

Alarmist scientists who predicted that the North Pole could be “ice free” this summer as a result of global warming have been embarrassed after it was revealed that Arctic ice has actually grown by around 30 per cent in the year since August 2007.

Back in June, numerous prominent voices in the scientific community expressed fears of a mass melting of the polar ice caps, including David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, who told National Geographic Magazine, “We’re actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time [in history].”

“This summer’s forecast—and unusual early melting events all around the Arctic—serve as a dire warning of how quickly the polar regions are being affected by climate change,” adds the article.

In February, Dr. Olav Orheim, head of the Norwegian International Polar Year Secretariat, told Xinhua, “If Norway’s average temperature this year equals that in 2007, the ice cap in the Arctic will all melt away, which is highly possible judging from current conditions.”

As per usual, the reality has failed to match the hype of the climate doomsayers.

According to collated data from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the University of Illinois, Arctic ice extent was 30 per cent greater on August 11, 2008 than it was on the August 12, 2007. This is a conservative estimate based on the map projection.


Blue pixels represent increased ice coverage over the North Pole in the year since August 2007.

The video below highlights the differences between those two dates,” reports The Register. “As you can see, ice has grown in nearly every direction since last summer - with a large increase in the area north of Siberia. Also note that the area around the Northwest Passage (west of Greenland) has seen a significant increase in ice. Some of the islands in the Canadian Archipelago are surrounded by more ice than they were during the summer of 1980.”

But what of the Antarctic down south? Figures tell us that ice coverage in the year since August 2007 has grown by nearly one million square kilometers.

As The Register article notes, “The Arctic did not experience the meltdowns forecast by NSIDC and the Norwegian Polar Year Secretariat. It didn’t even come close. Additionally, some current graphs and press releases from NSIDC seem less than conservative. There appears to be a consistent pattern of overstatement related to Arctic ice loss.”

A general cooling trend across the planet is now clearly apparent as sunspot activity, the main driver of climate change, dwindles to almost nothing.

Too cold for global warming relay - Local News - News - General - Lithgow Mercury

Climate change may be THE hot international issue of the moment but enthusiasm for the cause clearly wanes on a freezing Friday afternoon when the campaign moves to a mountain top where the wind chill factor is below zero.

This was perhaps the predictably disappointing outcome when the GetUp! climate change lobby group organised an enviro torch relay from Hassans Walls Lookout to Queen Elizabeth Park to focus public attention on the issue.

Ironically, global warming would probably have been welcomed by the handful of hardy souls who turned up to lend their support to the campaign on one of the coldest Lithgow days of this or any other year.

New Zealand: Largest snow base EVER

Let go of the past and allow offshore oil drilling - Los Angeles Times

Tim Ball: The inconvenient lies of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The IPCC mandate is to examine human causes of climate change. However, you cannot determine the human effect if you do not know the cause and extent of natural climate change. You cannot determine the effect if you leave out major components of the climate system and make assumptions that contradict natural evidence. As a result they have publicly determined with a 90% certainty that human CO2 is the cause of temperature change. Now events have caught up with them - their sins have found them out. My Grandmother wouldn’t be surprised nor should the public once they understand what is going on behind the so—called science.

OPNTALK: Brainwashing You To Think Green

This is going to go way long, but it is needed. I have been giving you all the FACTS about this complete and utter scam called Man-Made Global Warming now for years.

D'Aleo: 12 Facts about Global Climate Change That You Won’t Read in the Popular Press

Grazing animals may lessen Arctic warning - UPI.com

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've determined the impact of global warming in the Arctic may differ from computer predictions because of grazing animals.

Mexican scientist says Earth will enter 'Little Ice Age' for up to 80 Years Due to decrease in solar activity!

The article is in Spanish here. Google Translated link from Spanish: here.

GREENIE WATCH

An expert from the National Autonomous University of Mexico predicted that in about ten years the Earth will enter a "little ice age" which will last from 60 to 80 years and may be caused by the decrease in solar activity. Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM, as argued earlier during a conference that teaches at the Centre for Applied Sciences and Technological Development...

Error Theory: Hathaway and the IPCC: both simply ignore contrary evidence

Olympic Athletes Stop Global Warming and Promote GREEN OLYMPICS | The Sustainability Symbol

Lancashire fire service signs climate change pledge (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

By signing the declaration Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service has agreed to develop plans with partners and local authorities over the next two years to address the causes and impacts of climate changes.

Chief Fire Officer of Lancashire, Peter Holland, said: "Teams of Lancashire firefighters joined local crews and firefighters from other UK Fire and Rescue Services to deal with the consequences of serious flooding in Yorkshire in June last year.

"Though it may be disputed whether those particular floods could be attributed to climate change, they certainly gave a chilling insight into a scenario that climate specialists describe as typical of the adverse environmental consequences of a failure to reduce ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions.

No matter if thermometers say it's cooling; fires and floods say it's warming, and furthermore, your ceiling fan caused it

Featured Columnists: Thomas D. Elias: Climate change consequences felt

But not even the skeptics can deny the ever-worsening fire scene in California and the summer's massive, record-level flooding along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Both are aspects of global warming; two sides of the same coin, as different as they may look.

Pueblo, Colorado: Record-shattering low maximum temperatures

In terms of temperature, Pueblo produced a high of 64 on both Friday and Saturday that set new daily records for the lowest-high temperatures.

Friday's high snapped a 29-year-old record low of 75, the NWS reported, while Saturday broke a 100-year-old temperature record of 70.

But in fairness, there really haven't been a lot of decades between the 1980s and the current one

Virginia: Mild temperatures make this the coolest August in years -- dailypress.com

This summer, Hampton Roads has had the lowest average temperature in five years. In fact, this decade has been cooler than previous decades. Since 2000, Hampton Roads has seen 58 days when the official temperature has climbed above 90. That represents the smallest total since the 1980s.

Temperatures don’t rise, but green taxes do | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

No change in the world’s temperature for a decade, but already the Government has changed the way it charges extra taxes. Great scam.

By the way, green preachers keep telling us global warming is an opportunity, not a cost. So why does everything to do with it come with big prices tags?

Hot debate for warming priest | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Read [the transcript] here.

Lectures from business class | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Sheryl Crow embarked on a Stop Global Warming tour of America last year accompanied by three trailers, four buses and six cars.

Interview: “Scared to Death” Authors Talk With Chilling Effect (Part I)

Inconvenient Youth: Brainwashing Teens With Climate Hysteria | NewsBusters.org

Isn't that sweet? Now Gore's got kids brainwashing other kids to further climate hysteria in the hopes that Congress will eventually enact a carbon cap and trade program that will likely make him a billionaire.

Wind Jammers - WSJ.com

Wind power has also become contentious in oh-so-green Oregon, once people realized that transmission lines would cut through forests. Transmissions lines from a wind project on the Nevada-Idaho border are clogged because of possible effects on the greater sage grouse. Similar melodramas are playing out in Arizona, the Dakotas, the Carolinas, Tennessee, West Virginia, northern Maine, upstate New York, and elsewhere.

In other words, the liberal push for alternatives has the look of a huge bait-and-switch. Washington responds to the climate change panic with multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies for supposedly clean tech. But then when those incentives start to have an effect in the real world, the same greens who favor the subsidies say build the turbines or towers somewhere else. The only energy sources they seem to like are the ones we don't have.