Barking madness from the United Nations Development Programme

From this page:

KUALA LUMPUR: A young, suave executive in suit and tie talks about rising sea levels as he flounders about in his watery office with cartoonish fish and squids darting past his way.
This comical video on the serious message of tackling climate change is one of the UN's latest efforts used increasingly to reach out to the people.

With youth making up half of the urban dwellers in the world, even giant bodies like UN have to structure their outreach efforts accordingly.

"We have to find out how UN and its organisations can appeal to the young, because if youth are not involved in this, all our solutions to today's problems won't be sustainable," said Lilei Chow.

The idiotic video above is supposed to drive traffic to this "12 simple things" UNDP website.

Nov. '07: Launch of Five Climate Change Funds May Enrich Investors, But Won't Save the World

Deutsche Bank, F&C, HSBC, Schroders, and Virgin Money launch climate funds, a trend that validates the role of finance in addressing--though not solving--global warming.

Email sent to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming

Climate

I understand that you will soon hear from a British explorer, Lewis Gordon Pugh, in a self-appointed role as ambassador for the Arctic. Apparently he has been invited due to his recent attempt at paddling a kayak from Spitzbergen to the North Pole. He was forced to abandon the attempt 1000 Km from the North Pole...

See this whole article by Christopher Booker

Ministers in power struggle over power - Telegraph

...The only form of energy subsidy allowed is that given to renewable sources of energy such as wind turbines (nuclear power, though carbon-free, does not count). In Britain it is this "renewables obligation", requiring supply companies to buy electricity from wind at nearly twice the normal price, that makes wind so profitable and hopelessly skews the investment market in favour of the one source of power least able to fill our energy gap.

To address our looming energy crisis with the urgency it calls for, we would not only have to ignore the fantasies of Mr Hansen and the green lobby, but also directly confront our government in Brussels, which stands in the way of almost every measure we need to take. In this sense, in terms of what it will cost us, energy looks to become the defining issue of our EU membership.

At last week's Republican Convention delegates were given a card that put "energy independence" at the top of the party's national agenda, a message reinforced by the vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. Threatened with the same suicidal green stranglehold on its energy policy, it seems America may just be waking up to reality in time. But, apart from the faint voice of Mr Hutton, which politician here has the faintest grasp of what is at stake?

Peter Preston: Blown off course by Gustav | The Observer

Now, I don't doubt the threat or reality of climate change. It's ominous that such a threat isn't widely believed - and widely thought to be exaggerated. But have we - the scientists, the politicians, the hacks - got our tone of voice right? Every step we take is complex, and pretty uncertain. (A press seminar I was at recently saw one distinguished green belabouring another for daring to link hurricane frequency to global warming.) Tracking Gustav's last offshore hours isn't like measuring polar ice caps, to be sure. Moving butts in a bind isn't like mapping rainforests.

But credibility is common to both, and crucial. It counts when the likes of Hanna and Ike threaten devastation - and when they don't. So it's time to ask, more deeply, why the public's scepticism about climate change is growing, not fading. And every assertion we make has to be argued in detail stripped of hysteria, not wrapped in the mother of all hyperbole.

Climate Skeptic: Sucking the Oxygen Out of the Environmental Movement

I have written on a number of occasions that, years from now, folks who would like to see meaningful reductions in man's negative impacts on the environment are going to look back on the global warming charade as a disaster for their movement -- not just in terms of credibility, but in terms of lost focus on real, meaningful improvements.

Yep, it's a religion all right

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming | Environment | The Observer

People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further.

His comments are the most controversial advice yet provided by the panel on how individuals can help tackle global warning.

Lent: Definition from Answers.com

By the 20th cent. meat was allowed, except on Fridays.

UK: Climate realism at the Times

UK: Clarke has nailed Labour’s problem; and its coffin | Rod Liddle - Times Online

All this rain . . . obviously global warming

It is exactly one month to the day since the Fire Brigades Union put out a press release saying that Britain’s wildlife was in danger of being wiped out by the “tinder-dry” heathlands turning into raging bushfires, caused by global warming.

I thought now would be a good time to remind you of this, as you pump up the dinghy preparatory to braving your “tinder-dry” high street to buy a pint of milk. If you see any wildlife on the way, be so kind as to warn them of the coming apocalypse.

The floods, of course, are also caused by global warming – just like those hot dry summers at the beginning of the 1990s when we were warned that Essex would soon resemble Chad and we would all get skin cancer or die of thirst. That was global warming too.

I saw on television news on Friday a chap canoeing across part of the Arctic ocean to raise world consciousness about “disappearing” ice sheets. The last time I looked he was trapped in some ice. Meanwhile, the quantity of sea ice at the other pole has actually been increasing, something the global warming monkeys have a bit of trouble explaining.

There’s a handy guide to global warming on Channel 4’s website, written in the usual cretin-speak for kiddies. Summers will never be like they used to be, the site proclaims. “Your grandparents griped about the typical ‘three hot days and a thunderstorm’ which constituted summer when they were young.” Indeed, and continue to constitute them now that they’re old.

Sea Ice Stretch Run #3 « Climate Audit

[Arctic] Sea surface temps show much less heat than 2007.
Interesting to see how this will impact the freeze.

[temperature anomaly map]

Contrast the information at the link above with the claims in this paragraph from Andy Revkin:

Igor Polyakov, an ice expert at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, said that heat banked in ocean waters appears to be the main force driving the ice shrinkage this summer, while last year wind patterns were the main factor. He told me that surface air temperatures in the Arctic are now “clearly warmer” than they were in the last big warm spell in the region, from the 1930s into the 1940s, and in some places 40 percent warmer. Water flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic is also substantially warmer than it was in the 1990s, he said, adding that this heat is probably contributing to the melting.

Australia: PM's climate change proven to be hot air | NEWS.com.au

No single issue better illustrates the Rudd Government's gross incompetence than its blindly ideological approach to the question of climate change.

Fortunately, and perhaps accidentally, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's own hand-picked climate change guru, Professor Ross Garnaut, has now driven a truck through its principal argument.

Brown’s lagging indicator shows his brand is fading

...Instead of laying down a soft layer of muffling flim-flam about global warming and carbon footprints, ministers could simply pose a more direct question to the electorate and companies, one with an obvious answer: do you want to save money? Like their corporate equivalents, people can often be persuaded to take action in the wider interest if it benefits their own self-interest. Likewise, particular companies can profit from the upfront spending – on, say, “smart” thermostats or long-life lightbulbs – needed to achieve these benefits. That’s why many will link up with charities later in the autumn to promote a new series of eco-initiatives under the banner of Together, the climate change organisation launched last year.

Bravo, John McCain

Sarah Palin to be energy independence chief in John McCain's government - Telegraph

John McCain wants to put Sarah Palin in charge of US oil and energy policy if he becomes president, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

Editorials: Our View: Costs cool public ardor to take on global warming

...Now, a new poll shows 63 percent of registered California voters support reducing greenhouse gases, but less than half — 47 percent — when the question includes likely higher energy costs.
...
As motorists feel the pain at the pump and workers lose jobs because employers flee the state's exorbitant taxes and regulations, Californians increasingly will decide that mobility, employment and prosperity are worth emitting more CO2 into the atmosphere.

UK’s Met Office blows another summer forecast « Watts Up With That?

Climate statistician helps break Mann's revived 'Hockey Stick'

William M. Briggs, Statistician » Do not smooth times series, you hockey puck!

By Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.

(Via Marc Morano)

Limbaugh vs Obama on global warming

Hilarious Barry on Global Warming

RUSH: Obama is in Scranton and said this.

OBAMA: Global warming is a serious problem. Uh, i-it's not just some tree hugger, you know, uhhh, sprout eatin' liberal thing. You know, the polar ice caps are melting. Temperatures are getting warmer in the oceans, and it could wreck (sic) havoc on our agriculture. It could increase insect-borne diseases.

RUSH: But it isn't.

OBAMA: I mean, it could really m-mess things up, making hurricanes and tornadoes much more powerful and change w-weather patterns fundamentally. So we've got to take this seriously, and I've got the most aggressive plan to try to roll back, uhh, global warming...

'We spent nearly $15,000 - but we'd think twice about doing it again' | theage.com.au

"You need to give as many incentives as possible. In Germany, people who produce surplus solar energy are paid up to five times the cost of regular energy for it … we need to start thinking about that sort of stuff over here."

Ms Lacheta's household remains connected to mains power and water to help them through the drought and cold weather.

Are we certain that trace amounts of CO2 are the major driver of ice conditions near the Antarctic Peninsula?

Deception Island: Information from Answers.com

Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula which has one of the safest harbours in Antarctica. A recently active volcano, its eruptions in 1967 and 1969 caused serious damage to the scientific stations there.
...
Deception Island exhibits some wildly varying microclimates. Some water temperatures reach 70°C (158°F). Near volcanic areas, the air can be as hot as 40°C (103°F).

EWING: 'Crisis' of global warming is fiction : Speakout : The Rocky Mountain News

‘Man-made’ global warming doesn’t exist, and global warming and cooling has been with the earth forever, and is no crisis.

The Northwest Passage, revised

Nowadays, a few small ocean-going ships, on certain very hot summers, when the ice floes break up, have made the Northwest Passage, yearned for these many years. But at the present rate of global warming, large ocean freighters will not be able to routinely, safely, make the Northwest Passage for another 100 years. Now that is a heartbreak. Here's a greener alternative.

Next Big Future: Anti-peak oil and peak oil people agree: US natural gas production will increase by a lot [Canada too]

Chorley schools could get "free" solar energy (From Chorley Citizen)

It has been calculated that if all 25,000 schools in England are fitted with solar panels, 48,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions could be saved annually - the equivalent of 145,000 people flying from Manchester to Madrid and back.

Patrick Allen, the Co-operative’s director of marketing, said: “We believe that solar panels and wind turbines at a school make a huge climate change statement to children, teachers and parents.”

More CO2 hysteria from Tom Friedman

A Climate for Change - washingtonpost.com

Jennifer Marohasy » Polar Bears Move When Climate Changes: A Note from Nichole Hoskin

In this extract from Dr Vibe, written in 1970, he notes the negative effects of colder Arctic winters and less open water in summer. He explains that polar bears in the late 1960s were moving southwards to unstable sea conditions, with the possibility that more polar bears were dying. However, Dr Vibe also noted that polar bears adapt to climatic fluctuations in the Arctic by moving to the areas with more of their primary prey, ringed seals, as ringed seals move to more suitable habitats.

Jennifer Marohasy » Meteorology Bureau Running Training Course in Propaganda?

The UK Meteorology Bureau is running a training course on climate change, but not just any course. According to the flyer you don’t need any prior scientific training and you will learn how to “dispel sceptism”.

Claim: Satellites are interpreting ice as open water in MANY spots

One reason why your boat may not be able to pass through an allegedly ice-free area

...one of the groups focusing most closely on possible Arctic shipping lanes, the National Ice Center operated by the Navy and Commerce Department, says flatly that the satellites are misreading conditions in many spots and that there is too much ice in a critical spot along the Russian coast (highlighted in the smaller image above) to allow anything but ice-hardened ships to get through. In an e-mail message Wednesday, Sean R. Helfrich, a scientist at the ice center, said that ponds of meltwater pooling on sea ice could fool certain satellite-borne instruments into interpreting ice as open water, “suggesting areas that have substantial ice cover as being sea-ice free.” The highlighted area is probably still impassible ice, including large amounts of thick old floes, he said. I sent the note to an array of sea-ice experts, and many, including Mark Serreze at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, concurred.

Climatic history in Brazil: Snow & 'One of the coldest days ever witnessed in September'

From here (PDF):

Friday, September 5th 2008. This day will go in our climatic history of the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul as one of the coldest ever witnessed in September. It was an amazing day. Temperatures below 5 degrees Celsius during afternoon hours are quite rare even in the coldest months of calendar from June to August, but today temperature dropped to 2 degrees in several cities after midday with the lows occurring during the afternoon. ... MetSul’s chief meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart notes that it was for sure one of the coldest ever recorded afternoons in September in a century. Hackbart explained that the synoptic pattern that favored this Friday snowfall in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) was very similar to the one that produced the first snow in Buenos Aires since 1918 last year. The region was covered by a very cold air mass and a low pressure system advanced from North Argentina, bringing rain that converted to snow under the influence of the frigid polar air.

Meteorologist Eugenio Hackbart, a long time declared skeptic on manmade global warming, observed that extreme cold or snowfall events tend to occur during winter with negative PDO, solar minimum and La Niña. The most important snow events in Southern Brazil during the last 50 years, according to him, occurred at or around the 11- year cycle solar minimum. “Of course, it snow in year of heightened solar activity and El Niño, but history tells the most impressive episodes took place in winters either with La Niña or negative PDO in the Pacific or during periods of lowered solar activity”, he says. MetSul’s meteorologist also notes that the return of the colder winters and the major snow events to the area of the Southern Cone of South America may be the result of the ongoing cooling trends observed in the planet this decade. “This is no coincidence”, he says.

Australia: Heavenly Hotham

A six-hour traffic jam is usually not the best way to start a holiday. When it's a skiing holiday, though, and 27cm of snow is being dumped on the mountain, it sets the scene for a perfect break.
Mt Hotham, courtesy of its position as Victoria's highest ski field, is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this year's heavy falls. Add to that the cold weather which much of South-East Australia has endured over the past month and it means perfect ski conditions should last right through to the end of the season late this month.

Whatever the reasons for the 2 1/2-hour trip from Albury airport to Hotham stretching out an extra four hours - and the proffered reasons included a wayward bus, diesel spill and simply an overabundance of enthusiastic but inexperienced snow drivers - little could dampen the enthusiasm. After all, surely the more snow the better?

So should we make fuel much more expensive in an insane effort to turn the "thermostat" DOWN?

The news is cold comfort to people facing a bleak winter as fuel costs and the price of food spiral above inflation, while benefits remain unchanged. Age Concern estimates that 3,000 people in the South West die every year as a result of the cold weather.

Martin Rogers, director of the charity in Exeter, said pension money could only go so far and people were faced with the choice of whether to spend limited resources on heat or food.

Buzz-light year as bees struggle

The health of Scotland's honey bee colonies are in their worst state for years, according to the Scottish Beekeepers Association.

President Ian Craig said there had been significant losses in the Black Isle and Easter Ross in the Highlands.

Cold weather has led to eggs not being fertilised so producing more males than worker females.

Climate alarmist elected vice-chair of IPCC

IGLO Honor Committee Member Elected Vice-Chair of IPCC

On September 2, 2008, Prof. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, an IGLO Honor Committee member, was elected vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He plans to help Mr. Rajendra Pachauri, co-laureat of the Nobel Prize with Al Gore and president of the IPCC, to respond to numerous challenges...

Global warming will leave Belgium underwater

Brussels will become a coastal capital by the year 3000 as Antwerp disappears beneath the waves because of global warming, a report has warned.

The study into the effects that global warming could have on Belgium was carried out by the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and was commissioned by environmental campaign group Greenpeace.

It predicted that Belgium will experience milder winters and more heatwaves in the summer. Temperatures were predicted to rise by around 4.9 degrees in winter and 6.6 degrees in the summer - temperature increases higher than have been recorded in 10,000 years.

Also forecast for the European country were increased flooding, heavier storms and more coastal flooding. And rising sea levels, caused largely by melting ice caps, would cause just over a tenth of the total land area to be submerged in water, equalling around 63,000 hectares.

However, Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, who lead the research, told edie that these changes could still potentially be avoided by taking action now.

"This model will not definitely become reality - our climatic future is still at least partially in our hands," Professor van Ypersele said. "If the world community manages to stay on a significantly lower greenhouse gas emission scenario than the average scenario considered in our study, these higher sea levels would not be reached."

But even if action was taken now, it would not be possible to completely avoid the extreme weather changes, he said, due to the effect of past emissions on the climate system.

"The root of the problem lies in greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide," Professor van Ypersele confirmed to edie. "Many countries have joined the Kyoto Protocol to try and reduce these emissions, but Kyoto is only the first step on a road to climate protection."

James Hansen defends people who deliberately did £30,000 damage to a power plant

All fired up : Nature News

[Q:] So do you think that these activists were justified in doing what they did?

The activists drawing attention to the issue seems to me as justified. You should try to do things through the democratic process, but we really are getting to an emergency situation. We can't continue to build more coal-fired power plants that do not capture CO2 if we hope to solve the problem.

[Q:] We need to get energy from somewhere. So if we're not getting it from coal, then where?

The first thing we should do is focus on energy efficiency. The fact that utilities make more money by selling more energy is a big problem. We have to change those rules. Then there is renewable energy — in order to be able to fully exploit renewable energy, we need better electric grids. So those should be the first things, but I think that we also need to look at next-generation nuclear power.

[Q:] Some have said you are hypocritical for flying all the way from the US to the UK just to testify. How do you respond?

I like to travel as little as possible, not only because it uses less CO2 but because I prefer to do science. But sometimes there are things which are sufficiently important that I think it makes sense.

Kingsnorth protest: Activists to use climate change as defence for £30,000 tower damage | Environment | The Guardian

Five activists, with food and water to stay four days, climbed the 200-metre chimney at Kingsnorth coal-fired power station near Hoo, Kent, last October. They had planned to daub "Gordon, bin it" on the outside of the chimney, but only got as far as painting the name "Gordon" before they came down after 30 hours, a jury at Maidstone crown court heard yesterday.

Huw Williams, 41, from Nottingham; Ben Stewart, 34, from Lyminge, Kent; Kevin Drake, 44, from Westbury, Wiltshire; Will Rose, 29, from London; and Emily Hall, 34, from New Zealand are all charged with criminal damage to the chimney. Tim Hewke, 48, from Ulcombe, Kent, who the prosecution says helped organise the protest from the ground, is also charged with criminal damage. None of them deny causing the damage and they also accept the estimated costs of repairing the damage.

The Reference Frame: RICS: Solar panels pay back in 100 years

Obviously, they can't improve RICS' numbers because these numbers are qualitatively correct and the completely correct ones still imply that the investment is silly from an economic viewpoint. Because the maximal lifetime of the solar panel systems is 30 years, it's clear that you will never get the expenses back. Therefore, you won't hear any "better calculations" from them.

So they at least emit some fog about the different "types" and they argue that if the energy prices rise 20-fold, it will actually only take 5-10 years to recoup the money instead of 100-200 years. Also, if the taxpayer pays 50% of the costs, it will only take 50 years for the house owner to get her money back. ;-) Good arguments, indeed.

Garnaut now admits: maybe the cuts aren’t worth it | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

But let’s now ditch Rudd and Garnaut’s don’t-think-just-panic rhetoric completely. If pragmatism suggests even to Garnaut that perhaps we shouldn’t aim even for cuts of a lousy 10 per cent, given how much the pain will outweigh the gain, why is it so evil to now consider doing nothing at all, on the same principle?

Let’s see the sums: cost of doing nothing versus benefits in climate. Garnaut himself now suggests such a calculation isn’t so immoral, after all. That’s the real announcement in his statement yesterday.

Time Rejects Climate Change as Cause of Storm Intensity

Magazine reports disasters worse due to population, not global warming

More barking madness at Wesleyan

See the whole thing here:

The event began with an “Ice” section, in which students were offered t-shirts and ice cream and concluded with “Fire,” in which Prometheus spun fire. Members of the Middletown cyclist community, faculty, staff and students rode on bicycles and even unicycles to demonstrate alternative forms of transportation.

In between “Ice” and “Fire,” renowned professional dance group the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange organized students to perform an original dance that incorporated different elements of the climate crisis. The performers separated students into six groups, each representing an effect or site of climate change such as cyclones, oceans and glacial melting.

A related website is here.

The Wesleyan Argus - LaDuke emphasizes global warming in welcome address

Renowned environmentalist and activist Winona LaDuke welcomed students this year by passionately urging them to think critically about the current global crisis of climate change and the connection between their lives and the environment.
...
LaDuke also discussed the background of her people, describing the main teachings of their tradition: equality, reciprocity, and a cyclical view of the natural world. She explained how these beliefs have taught her to see all animals as relatives to be respected, and how her worldview, which embraces natural cycles like those of the tide and the moon, differs from the linear, myopic system that she sees governing too many minds today.
...
LaDuke continued to address “peak oil” and energy, critiquing the Bush administration’s support of “clean coal” and nuclear power. She insisted instead that more time and money should be invested in renewable energy.

“It turns out that you can only invade so many countries for oil. We have to come to terms with the fact that we can’t mine fossil fuels anymore,” she said.

On food security, LaDuke spoke about the danger of genetic engineering and the corporate concentration of seed types.

“The question of who now owns [seeds] has become a question of seed slavery,” she said, describing the unsustainable agricultural practices she sees advocated by today’s society.

LaDuke went on to explain how her tribe researched their energy consumption and discovered that they could dramatically reduce their fossil fuel use and energy costs by installing solar heating panels and wind turbines.

“Now every reservation in Northern Minnesota wants a wind turbine,” she said.

"Top Climate Change Activist" Launches Casper Lecture Series

University of Wyoming

Sept. 5, 2008 -- One of the world's top activists on climate change (according to Business Week) will speak from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, in the Wheeler Auditorium, Room 103 of the Wold Physical Science Center at Casper College. The lecture is free and open to public.

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's lecture on "Climate Change and the Leadership Imperative" will kick off this year's free public lecture series sponsored in Casper every fall by the University of Wyoming Helga and Otto Haub School and William Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, the UW/Casper College Center and the UW Outreach School.

Turning mayors into climate activists, circa 2005

Sundance getaway converts mayors into climate activists | 14 Jul 2005

City leaders from around the U.S. were treated to a rare bird's-eye view of the environment earlier this week at the Sundance Summit, a three-day mayors' retreat on climate change hosted by Robert Redford in Salt Lake City and at his 6,000-acre resort nestled beneath Utah's Mount Timpanogos, near Park City. In between briefings on "The State of the Science" and "Why You Should Care," and tutorials on emissions-trading programs and retrofitting public transport, a bipartisan troupe of 46 mayors representing nearly 10 million U.S. citizens slathered on sunscreen, grabbed bag lunches, and glided up the Sundance chairlift over miles of tumbling creeks, quivering aspens, and ponderosa pines.

"Oh, I'm just lovin' mayor camp!" said Melvin "Kip" Holden (D), mayor of Baton Rouge, La., as he dismounted the lift and headed back to the conference center. "I feel like I'm back in college -- it's just that excitement of learning, that bigger-than-you feeling of wanting to make change."

That's precisely what Redford and his co-hosts -- Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson (D) and the nonprofit ICLEI/Local Governments for Sustainability -- had in mind when they organized the all-expenses-paid gathering, funded in part by Pew Charitable Trusts and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. "The whole idea was to bring leaders together in a magical place where the monumental implications of climate change and a passion for solutions could really take hold," Anderson told Muckraker.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who served as energy secretary under President Clinton, kicked off the retreat with a feisty call to arms: "Let's face it, if we wait around for the federal government to act, we aren't going to see anything happen," he said. Though Richardson has been a pioneer in promoting renewable energy at the state level, he argued that "even the states are not as accelerated as the cities" when it comes to implementing climate initiatives. "I know where the power is, and I know it's with you guys."

Redford echoed that theme in his opening speech: "You here are closest to the people," he said. "The best and most significant change comes from the grassroots." He later added, "We can't let America play Nero while the planet burns."

Warning Signs: The GOP Morning After

Lastly, we tend to forget that Sen. McCain is among a swiftly diminishing group of people who believe "global warming" is real and that programs involving the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions are needed. As a new Little Ice Age takes shape, this is about as wrong as one can get, especially if one is President.

A Dog Named Kyoto: Poll: Tories 35%, Bloc 34%, Libs 20% in Quebec

This might help us understand a little better why Prime Minister Harper wants to have an October election.

"Without money, organization and imposing candidates, Stéphane Dion's Liberal Party is headed straight for the slaughterhouse, according to several influential members," the paper reported.

CANOE -- CNEWS - Politics: Dion announces 'Green Shift' changes

WINNIPEG - Stephane Dion finetuned his carbon-tax plan to make it more palatable to farmers, loggers, truckers and fishers Wednesday as he snagged Canada's highest-profile farmer as a Liberal election candidate.

The surprise recruitment of Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Bob Friesen to run in a Winnipeg riding helped blunt criticism that the Liberal leader is scrambling days before an election call to make the risky main plank of his election platform more marketable.

Fall Out Boy Has Fun with Global Warming PSA

But Stump was happy to take the PSA to an apocalyptic level.

"Before lunch, and ultimately recess, I need you to know you're going to die," says Stump.

All this from just trace amounts of CO2?

Hamilton, Simpson: What climate change will do to our province

Not much CO2 hysteria at the conventions

Words They Used - 2008 Political Conventions - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

Windfarm protestors secure council victory [National Wind Watch]

Campaigners fighting plans to build a wind farm near Market Drayton secured an important victory this week after district councillors voted against it.

More than 300 people attended a meeting at the Grove School on Tuesday where the proposal by energy company, Nuon Renewables, was discussed.

North Shropshire District Council’s planning committee decided by 11 votes to three to refuse them permission to go ahead.

Before the meeting, members of Vortex (Veto on Rural Turbine Expansion) gathered outside the school to protest against the plans to build the wind farm on land in Bearstone.

Chairman Anthony Ward, described the outcome as a ‘very good result’.

“This is a major victory which will inspire objectors in other inappropriate areas,” Professor Ward said.

The Pickens Plan: Questions Unanswered

Has oil production finally and irrevocably peaked, as Pickens claims? Why use wind power instead of nuclear power? Are natural gas-powered vehicles a viable alternative to gasoline-powered cars, and would switching to them improve America’s security? What does Pickens believe the federal government should do to make his plan a reality? Might he or the firms he owns benefit financially from such federal aid?

A comment on Lewis Gordon Pugh's blog

Polar Defense Project » End in Sight

Steven Goddard, on September 5th, 2008 at 10:01 am Said:

lewis,

Congratulations on being asked to speak to Congress about “climate change and security.”

Can you spell out what your expertise is in this area which makes you a suitable witness for the US Congress?

From what I have read, you swam in a perfectly normal gap in the ice at the North Pole last year, and got stuck in the ice close to Svalbard this year. While these acts are a testament to your personal strength, athletic ability and courage - they don’t shed any light on the historical record or changes to earth’s climate.

Alarmist kayaker Lewis Gordon Pugh's support boat was actually a “Norwegian seal-hunting vessel”

Adventures in Arctic Kayaking - Update: we’re stuck « Watts Up With That?

Alison Wright (08:29:09) :

Slightly off-topic, but I wondered if Mr. Pugh’s support boat is the very same Havsel, “Norwegian seal-hunting vessel”, which sprang a leak after being pierced by an ice floe between Jan Mayen and Greenland in 2004? (see [next link below]) If so, it doesn’t quite square with his stance of “integrity…total honesty and fidelity to the truth” on ecological matters, does it?

Seal hunters survive maritime drama - Aftenposten.no

Bjørne Kvernmo, who was making his first voyage as the [Havsel]'s new captain and owner, admitted to some tense moments but claimed the crew remained calm.
...
Kvernmo, 52, is an experienced seal hunter himdrlg with a long record of defending Norway's controversial seal hunts. He had worked years to get his own vessel and is accustomed to harsh conditions in icy and stormy seas.

Polar Defense Project » Crew Member - The Captain

This will be one of the last team member portraits for this expedition. I wanted to save the Captain till around this point, as he is a special man. The Captain is called Bjorne Kvernmo, and the MV ‘Havsel’ belongs to him.

Obama talks at a hydro-power equipment factory

Obama's visit was designed to highlight his plans to foster alternative energy, and he said he learned a thing or two about hydro power while touring the Voith facility. He repeatedly mentioned that hydro-power systems can store energy from wind or solar sources, making those forms of energy more viable. Obama pledged to spend $15 billion annually on programs including loan guarantees and tax credits for companies such as Voith. He also proposed incentives to help businesses make their facilities more energy efficient.

All of that would result in 5 million new jobs, Obama said.

MEREDITH VIEIRA asks a good question

CQ Politics | McCain Campaign Manager Steven Schmidt Interviewed on NBC’s “Today Show”

[SCHMIDT]: On climate change he’s disagreed with the administration.

On issue after... VIEIRA: Why didn’t he bring that up then, Steve, why didn’t he bring that up last night...

SCHMIDT: Look, I think -- I think...

VIEIRA: ... some of those key issues where he disagreed?

SCHMIDT: I think that in a speech like this you talk to the American people. You don’t have a laundry list of issues. He talks about it on the campaign trail all the time, and he’ll talk about it as we go forward down the final two months.

New names allegedly give climate talks fresh impetus

WWF has welcomed the initiative taken by a new group of countries in showing the way forward as the latest round of UN climate talks drew to a close in Accra, Ghana.

Confirming trends observed at previous talks, Accra again demonstrated that the EU is losing its role as a climate leader to a range of developing countries and creative players such as Norway, Switzerland, Mexico, South Korea and India as well as the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu.
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'The EU disappointed in Accra, just like it disappointed at previous talks in Bonn, expressing regret for coming to the negotiation table with empty hands,' said Diane McFadzien, Programme Coordinator WWF Global Climate Initiative. 'Poznan should be a home match for the Europeans and a perfect opportunity to live up to their full potential - in order to avoid matching Canada, Russia, Japan, Australia and the US in their lack of ambition.'

Via fossil-fueled jets, holidaymakers flee Britain for warmer climes

Holidaymakers are fleeing Britain in droves this autumn in a last-ditch attempt to find some sunshine, travel agents have said.
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Branches across the country have reported a surge in bookings for foreign destinations of up to 150 per cent at the end of a dismal summer.

Late deals are being grabbed by people who chose to stay at home in the face of an economic downturn but who are now desperate to get away at all costs.

The exodus is largely heading towards the Mediterranean, where temperatures are still reaching 86F (30C), but some have gone further afield to escape the rain.

Sean Tipton of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said he had spoken to 10 members from across the UK and all reported the same increase in activity.

"They have all had a lot of people coming in desperate to get away this month," he said.

"One had a customer who came in in the morning and said 'get me out of here on the first flight to somewhere warm and sunny'. He was flying to southern Spain that evening. The agent said it was the first time he had seen that for 20 years."

Environmental rules 'could cause plane crashes' - Telegraph

Environmental rules demanding planes burn less fuel could cause a devastating plane crash by allowing vital fuel pipes to freeze up, an aviation expert has warned.

David Reynolds, head of safety at the pilots' union Balpa, has called on regulators to "revisit" some of the requirements aimed at cutting CO2 emissions after it was disclosed that a crash landing at Heathrow earlier this year was caused by ice freezing up supply lines to the plane's engines.

"These rules need to be looked at again. Fuel flow is an import factor in the safe running of an aircraft engine."

"With reduced burn, that means that less fuel is circulating, which makes it easier for water to separate and turn into ice.

"In this case this was combined with very low temperatures and perhaps fuel which may have had a bit more water than usual - even though it complied with international standards.

Death stalks on a parched lake shore - Australia

ON THE shores of the beautiful but beleaguered Lake Bonney - where the turtles have started dying as the water retreats, stagnates and grows increasingly salty - live sceptics of man-made climate change.

Robyn O'Dea, who runs the newsagency in Barmera, the South Australian Riverland's town on the edge of the lake, is one.

"I think we are more in a cyclical thing," she says of the conditions that have left the Murray-Darling Basin parched in recent years.
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"We need to get an environmental flow into the lake," Mrs O'Dea says. "All the aquatic life is stressed.

"I am a climate-change sceptic. I believe politicians are brainwashing the public into believing in climate change to shift the blame off of their mismanagement of our water resources. My biggest fear is that the politicians will continue to use climate change as an excuse to not do enough about water over-allocation. The easiest thing will be for them to sacrifice environmental sites across the Murray-Darling Basin."

Global Warming Forecasts Not Taking Into Account Nanoscale Atmospheric Aerosols | NDN

Researchers from Arizona State University in the U.S. have released study findings indicating that a type of nanoscale atmospheric aerosol called brown carbon is currently ignored in broad-ranging climate computer models, a finding which could lead to more accurate forecasting of potential global warming activity. The article says that most studies on climate change have focused on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, while other atmospheric components such as carbonaceous and sulfate particles from fossil fuels, biomass, ocean salt, and desert dust also contribute to warming and cooling. According to the researchers, brown carbon both warms the atmosphere and cools the earth surface, introducing “large uncertainty in the degree of warming predicted by climate change models."...

Global Warming Bakes Plague Conditions

For those who always insist on looking at the bright side of life, here's one positive from the gloom and doom of global warming. Destruction of the planet is reducing the outbreak of the plague, in the western U.S. at least. Yes, that plague, as in the Black Death, the one that killed about 50 million people back in the 1500s.

The Concordian - Global warming is the biggest sham in history

From high ideals to modest goals | The Australian

Garnaut has also dropped his cavalier attitude to a national emissions trading scheme, previously calling for an aggressive approach, welcoming a higher world price on carbon. Now his starting point is considerably more constrained: a capped price of permits starting at $20 a tonne in 2010, and pretty much staying there until a global deal has been brokered.

Garnaut is upbeat about this happening at climate change talks in Copenhagen at the end of next year. Few in the know share his optimism.

EU paves way for more hydrogen cars | Greenbang

...European Parliament MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a law proposing the establishment of a Europe-wide filling station network for hydrogen powered cars.
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The EU also wants hydrogen-powered vehicles to be propelled by pure hydrogen produced as far as possible from renewable energies, saying the use of mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas/biomethane to propel vehicles must be no more than a transitional technology.

More detail on the spectacular failure of Lewis Gordon Pugh's attempt to kayak to the North Pole

Sam Branson's Arctic diary - mirror.co.uk

[Sept 4:] ...we could all feel a sense of achievement as the end of the trip lingered in the air and all our minds. ... I have always found that people dedicated to an issue like this, all seem to have a good sense of the world and have travelled [via the burning of fossil fuels] to many places.
...
We have now left the realms of the ice and are heading south to Spitsbergen...

Last ITV text update by Phil Reay Smith, dated Sept 2

We wake up to find we're trapped.

Overnight we've been drifting amongst the ice floes and the wind has blown them together, tight around the MV Havsel.

The captain grinds the engine backwards and forwards in an attempt to free us. Getting frozen in would be bad news, as it's the end of the summer and the weather is about to get a lot colder very quickly.

We make grim jokes about only getting out in the spring, and having to eat each other to survive. Fortunately that turns out not to be necessary as we eventually break free.

What's clear is that there can not be any paddling from where we are. But the crew are convinced that there is open water to the north. So we steam around looking for a path that's navigable by kayak.

A wonderfully sarcastic comment on Pugh's blog

As a school instructor, when we first heard of the placing of the flags at the North Pole my students warmed to the symbolism. However, we were a bit disappointed that conditions kept the world flags so distant from the Pole as we have marked your position on a map. We do hope a secondary flag is available to place when you get to your destination as it would seem deflating to kayak another 1000 km under such conditions for such a noble cause without a flag to mark the end of your journey and serve as an exclamation point to the loss of the ice cap.

If the ice does not allow free travel of the Havsel is it possible to helicopter a symbol of your expedition to the Pole itself? Of course my students insist that a biodegradable flag be left as they do not wish to harm the polar bears!

Please be safe, we are all watching.

More on conditions aboard the large fossil-fueled support ship

The Havsel is a remarkable ship - 110 feet long with masses of space below decks. A corner of the cargo hold is converted into our edit suite and there are several cabins for the 12 people on board, made up of the ship's crew, Lewis's team, and me.

I'm sharing a cabin with Tom, who is in charge of Lewis's blog. I'm on the top bunk and it's a little cramped. If I turn over in the night, I hit the ceiling.

But the conditions on board are luxurious compared to other assignments I've worked on. There's a hot shower and there's a cook from one of the restaurants in Longyearbyen, the port from which we set off on this expedition.

In the evening he serves us duck in a red wine sauce, which tastes rather good. It feels very strange to be bobbing up and down in the middle of the Arctic Ocean eating duck.

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Sept. 5th 2008

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens wants to change how the nation generates energy — and he just happens to be building the world's largest wind farm - TwinCities.com

Pickens, who is worth a reported $3 billion made from oil and natural gas, is building the world's largest wind farm in Texas. He says the country can loosen the grip of foreign oil only by first erecting tens of thousands of wind turbines from Minnesota and the Dakotas down to Texas to produce at least 20 percent of the country's electricity in 10 years.

He wants people to tell Congress to extend the federal renewable energy production tax credit by 10 years. The tax credit has had a history of starting and stopping every year or two, and it expires again at the end of this year unless Congress takes action.

The second part of his plan calls for the government to mandate the use of natural gas instead of gasoline in trucks and fleet vehicles, Pickens said.

Consumer usage would be optional, he said.
...
And Pickens also could profit handsomely if the next administration adopts his plan, with his large holdings in natural gas and growing financial interests in wind. But Jacobs dismissed critics who label the plan as another clever way for Pickens, a corporate raider in the 1980s, to make more money.

Bravo, GOP

GOP takes aim at ethanol mandates - TwinCities.com

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Ethanol's wild ride has brought it quickly from political golden child to scapegoat for everything from soaring food prices and world hunger to pork-barrel spending.

This week, the Republican Party in its national platform called for an end to ethanol mandates in just the latest shot at a fuel alternative that, in some circles, has grown more target than treasure.

High ranking politicians, including presidential candidate John McCain, have publicly opposed ethanol subsidies before, but the platform approved during the Republican convention in St. Paul, a corn-belt capital, marks the first time a major U.S. party has taken an official stance against publicly funded ethanol incentives.

Public Invited to Submit Essays, Photos for Online Global Warming Book « Watts Up With That?

We’ve seen many eloquent commenters on this website speak with passion about global warming. Now is their chance to reach a broader audience and let people know who the next David Thoreau, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Stephen King, or P.J. O’Rourke is. Since not all submissions will be accepted, why not cross-post them here so that we have a complete, grass-roots record of how global warming is really affecting people.

Jim Manzi: Conservatives, Climate Change, and the Carbon Tax

By getting past denial and taking a science-based approach to the issue, clever conservative candidates could take a principled stand that pays major tactical dividends.

FT.com | Brussels Blog | Paying the climate change bill

The report assesses six recent studies, ranging from the Stern Review and a World Bank analysis to research prepared by Vattenfall, the Swedish energy company. In these reports, the average annual global costs for mitigating and adapting to climate change are put at anything from €230bn to €614bn, based on 2006 data.

NBC's Brian Williams weighs in

Brian Williams tells grads: "Start with climate."

So pick one area: energy, politics, diplomacy, science, education, military, transportation. Start with climate. Something tells me this may be a challenge in the years ahead. Tomorrow's predicted high for Columbus is 220 degrees.

Brian Williams nominates "Mother Earth" for Person of the Year

My nominee for 2007 Person of the Year is a woman--a woman with a history of abuse, a woman who has never run for elective office, someone we all know, someone who makes her presence known on a daily basis in all our lives and, for my money, is better than any male alternative. That woman is Mother Earth. I think the environment is the compelling issue of our time.

Brian Williams on Bloggers:”I’m up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment.”

"You're going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe. All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I'm up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn't left the efficiency apartment in two years" — Brian Williams, anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," speaking before New York University journalism students on the challenges traditional journalism faces from online media.

Brian Williams/ Somebody get this guy a jet - TwinCities.com

On his hectic travel schedule: "We did the math — 38,486 miles in eight weeks including two Pacific crossings, three Atlantic crossings and 10 overseas cities. ... Why don't I have a jet? Tell me why I don't have a jet? I need my own jet — that's the lesson."

Al Gore's impossible plan for 100% renewable energy

Advocating pipe dreams like powering a country solely on solar and wind is counterproductive to producing a viable solution to handling any possible negative effects associated with global warming.

Lots of skeptics in the comment section here: Global warming opens up Northwest Passage

Feds warn climate change could harm giant sequoias - San Jose Mercury News

VISALIA, Calif.—Warming temperatures could soon cause California's giant sequoia trees to die off more quickly unless forest managers plan with an eye toward climate change and the impacts of a longer, harsher wildfire season, federal researchers warned Thursday.

Hot, dry weather over the last two decades already has contributed to the deaths of an unusual number of old-growth pine and fir trees growing in Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, according to recent research from the U.S. Geological Survey.

In the next decade, climate change also could start interfering with the giant sequoias' ability to sprout new seedlings, said Nathan Stephenson, one of several scientists speaking Thursday at a government agency symposium on how global warming could affect the Sierra Nevada.

Yosemite Association - Nature Notes

Precise cross-dating of tree rings on cut stumps has shown that sequoias can reach at least 3266 years in age...

Dutch and Belgian top fruit weathers frost

Frost damage during the April blossoming period has dampened prospects for Dutch and Belgian pears this season. As both countries forecast downturns in apple and pear volumes, Doris Lee Butterworth catches up with marketers and asks what this will mean for exports.

ottawasun.com - Ex-defence minister to run against Baird

Pratt also accused Baird of failing in his job as environment minister, saying the world now looks upon the Canadian government as climate-change skeptics.

"I think that is probably his most monumental failure," he said.

Legislators embrace global warming skeptic for advice on Utah environment.

Lomborg—an argumentative Danish economist and frequent American talk-show guest, draws emotional responses from all corners. He founded the Copenhagen Consensus Center, an arm of the Copenhagen Business School that identifies and works to solve the world’s great health and economic challenges. He has said that as a world priority, global warming should rank at the bottom of the list, while AIDS prevention should be at the top.
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For about $300,000, Lomborg will bring a cadre of top economists—some Nobel Prize winners—to Utah to review all the information available and participate in a two-day seminar hosted by the chamber and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics. Legislative leaders of both parties have approved, expecting the process to be completed by December.

Bravo, Sammy Wilson

BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | Wilson row over green 'alarmists'

The Environment Minister Sammy Wilson has angered green campaigners by describing their view on climate change as a "hysterical psuedo-religion".

In an article in the News Letter, Mr Wilson said he believed it occurred naturally and was not man-made.

"Resources should be used to adapt to the consequences of climate change, rather than King Canute-style vainly trying to stop it," said the minister.

Peter Doran of the Green Party said it was a "deeply irresponsible message."

Mr Wilson said he refused to "blindly accept" the need to make significant changes to the economy to stop climate change.

"The tactic used by the "green gang" is to label anyone who dares disagree with their view of climate change as some kind of nutcase who denies scientific fact," he said.

The minister said he accepted climate change can occur, but does not believe the cause has been identified.

"Reasoned debate must replace the scaremongering of the green climate alarmists."

Wilson voices doubts over climate change - Belfast Today

John Woods, director of Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, said: "In the face of overwhelming scientific evidence he is like a cigarette salesman denying that smoking causes cancer. Ironically, if we listen to him Northern Ireland will suffer economically as we are left behind smarter regions who are embracing the low carbon economy of the future."

Green Party Executive member Peter Doran invited Mr Wilson to attend the next UN-sponsored negotiations on limiting national CO2 output.
"Sammy would discover that he is in a rapidly declining group of sceptics and that he is almost unique in that he holds a deeply irresponsible message on the causes and implications of climate change," he said.

But Mr Wilson won support from Nigel Calder, a former editor of the New Scientist, who urged him to "be strong".
Out of 2,500 scientists involved in the last IPCC report on climate change only 62 agreed with its conclusions that man was responsible: "There are a string of high-ranking professional scientists saying man-made climate change is rubbish," he added.

And Dr Patrick Moore, a founding member of Greenpeace, said Mr Wilson was "certainly right" that climate change has been happening for millions of years. "It has a much better correlation with changes in solar activity than CO2 levels," he said. The last IPCC report on climate change had excluded important input from earth scientists and physicists about ancient changes in the earth's climate and the influence of the sun, he said.

Freshinfo | News | Vegetable sector mourns loss of British summer

The UK received just 60 per cent of the average 169 hours of sunshine normally experienced in August last month – the lowest light levels on record for August in 150 years. This has, unsurprisingly, not escaped notice within the vegetable industry.

In what insiders have described as a “bumpy ride”, the last three months in general have seen rainfall and cold nights throughout the country, with Lincolnshire suffering temperatures as low as 8°C at least three times in August and normally sunny Kent experiencing unseasonably low light levels.

Think Progress » Christine Todd Whitman: ‘Definite correlation’ between global warming and hurricanes.

Ban sort of warns against waiting for climate deal

IATP | Trade Observatory | Headlines

The world should not wait until next year to cobble together a new climate change pact, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Sunday.
...
"I would emphasize the need to make the most of the upcoming opportunity in Poznan," he said. "It is my sincere hope that by the end of this year in Poznan parties to the climate change convention will have achieved a better understanding of a shared vision for long-term cooperative action."

Heh

10% climate cuts ok: Garnaut

Top climate adviser Ross Garnaut says Australia should aim for a 10 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 because immigration rules out any greater reduction.

In a major report released today, Professor Garnaut says Australia is a special case and should reduce its emissions by less than every other developed country.

The reason is a high level of immigration, which he says means Australia cannot realistically cut emissions as much as can other wealthy nations.

And Professor Garnaut thinks Australia should soften its target to a five per cent cut, based on 2000 levels, if an international climate pact is not forged.

The 10 per cent target will be a disappointment to the environmental lobby, which has called for a cut of up to 40 per cent.

FULL TEXT OF MCCAIN'S SPEECH

Instapundit.com -

...My fellow Americans, when I'm President, we're going to embark on the most ambitious national project in decades. We are going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much. We will attack the problem on every front. We will produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells offshore, and we'll drill them now. We will build more nuclear power plants. We will develop clean coal technology. We will increase the use of wind, tide, solar and natural gas. We will encourage the development and use of flex fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.


Senator Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But Americans know better than that. We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and to restore the health of our planet. It's an ambitious plan, but Americans are ambitious by nature, and we have faced greater challenges. It's time for us to show the world again how Americans lead.

Note no direct mention of climate change/global warming/greenhouse gases/cap-and-trade/etc.

Picking through the Pickens Plan

Planet Gore on National Review Online

So even if we installed 268,205 wind turbines (unlikely, since the most ever installed in one year in the United States was 3,188), existing natural gas plants would still need to produce all the power they currently do. This means no natural gas would be freed up to replace petroleum as a motor fuel for automobiles.

Cutting off a nose | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The NSW Government loses a rationalist, reformer and warming sceptic:

CONTROVERSIAL NSW Treasurer Michael Costa has been sacked. Mr Costa was told late last night by NSW Premier Morris Iemma that he would not be included on the new front bench to be unveiled this afternoon, in a reshuffle brought on by the resignation of Deputy Premier John Watkins.

Less worth voting for.

Real Arctic "tipping points" have nothing to do with CO2

Sea Ice Stretch Run #3 « Climate Audit

The true "tipping point" was 4.45 billion years ago when the collision that created the moon and tilted the earth's axis occured.

The true "tipping point" will occur again on September 21st, when the sun sets below the horizon and stays there for six months just like has in the Arctic every year for the last 4.45 billion years.

The average temperature at the North Pole is -24.5C. So there is a little melting in late August and early September just like there is every year. ALL the ice will return in short order when the temps fall to -30C to -45C for the next six months, just like it has every year.

I imagine there has not been a single year in the last 4.45 billion years, when it has not snowed at the North Pole in the winter given there has always been six months of darkness.

A little melting in August will never be a tipping point.

A pretty remarkable 3.5 minute video

No wonder the Harper government is against a carbon tax | DeSmogBlog

After watching a video clip of Canada's Environment Minister trying to explain the ins-and-outs of a carbon tax policy, it is clear now why Harper government is so vehemently against a carbon tax policy in Canada - they don't know what it is.

Watch it [here].

Kingsnorth trial day four: Zac Goldsmith appears for the defence | Greenpeace UK

When asked about his motives for taking action on climate change, Huw said that, having spent a lot of time there and personally witnessing progressive climate changes like encroaching deserts, the pressure on water supplies and flooding, he was especially interested sub-Saharan Africa.

"I've witnessed people suffering starvation," he said. Huw talked about Kenyan pastoralists who lose over 90 per cent of their cattle after a succession of droughts that have been directly attributed to climate change. He'd personally seen people lose cattle, homes, crops and livelihoods after severe floods in Africa. Every tonne of CO2, he said, increases the damage globally.

So all of the defendants have now taken the stand. Tomorrow, it's the turn of the Inuit leader, Aqqaluk Lynge.

Or maybe just turn up the room's CO2 level to 450 ppm?

New movie: "The Steam Experiment"

The film, starring Val Kilmer, Armand Assante and Eric Roberts, will be filmed all over town - downtown, along the Grand River and at The Grand Rapids Press. According to sources, the film involves a scientist trying to prove his theories on global warming, locking people into a steam room and threatening to turn up the heat if the local paper doesn't tell his story.

Another Dissenter: NZ Professor Geoffrey G. Duffy

nzclimatescience.net - CLIMATE CHANGE - THE REAL CAUSES

Climate and local weather is forever changing. Sure we must minimise pollution of our air and water systems with obnoxious chemical and particulates, and not treat them as ‘sewers’. But even doubling or trebling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.

(Via Marc Morano)

Carly Fiorina's disappointing speech

Planet Gore on National Review Online

As some matters are off-the-record, please allow me to just say that a European legislator has read a McCain advisor chapter-and-verse on what carbon cap-and-trade has meant to the Euros’ economy, in front of about a hundred activists, imploring her to talk some sense into the candidate and campaign on this one. Larry Kudlow has tried to do likewise quite publicly — as economic adult Phil Gramm has privately, I’m fairly certain — among other McCain insiders.

My colleague’s description at the time of the lady’s response to the plea said it all: “nodding, ashamedly.”

It was pretty clear she gets it. And I know this is politics. But that’s not a universal excuse for doing any old thing one feels like doing. My advice to this campaign remains what I’ve said all along: No one thinks you can reverse course on this, but — for heaven’s sake — stop digging.

New Zealand: Greg Plowman: Climate change ideas generate more issues than they solve

This is a scam. I cannot understand why there is not more public anger about this.

The science behind global warming is uncertain. There is no evidence that the scheme will have any effect on the world's climate.
...
The Emissions Trading Scheme and the nonsense about renewable energy will not make any difference to the world's climate even if the theories from the UN international panel on climate change are 100 per cent correct.

What they will do is damage this country physically and economically.

More on Hansen's insane Kingsnorth testimony

Kingsnorth trial day three: world's leading climate scientist gives evidence | Greenpeace UK

* "Humans are now in charge of atmospheric CO2 and the global climate... It's up to those of us alive today to take the bold steps needed."
* If we carry on as we are at the moment, the Greenland ice sheets will melt, leading to a sea level rise of at least two metres this century. Hundreds of millions of people will be come refugees. There will be mass species extinction and ecosystem collapse.
* If the ice in the (vulnerable) Western Arctic* West Antarctic ice sheet melts, the sea levels would rise by around six metres.
* The complete loss of Arctic sea ice in the summer is now inevitable. The impacts on China, Kent, Bangladesh and the polar regions are enormous.

(* Sorry, my error in typing up my notes.)

It was at this point that I started to feel really sorry for the jury. They're getting, essentially, a crash course in climate change and its impacts from some of the most knowledgeable minds on the subject (Hansen and Meaden) in the world, and some of the most passionate (the defendants). I'd imagine, to some of the jurors, the evidence must seem pretty terrifying. It is terrifying.

Thankfully though, Hansen went on to talk about what could still be done. He was invited to go on stage with Al Gore at Live Earth, he said, and took his grandchildren along. How many species do we need to save, he asked them. "All of them," said his grand-daughter. ("Me too," said his [three-year-old] grand-son.)

We can't save all of them but we can still save most, he said. If we continue with business-as-usual our descendants will be "left with a much more desolate planet and much less biodiversity". But, although "there's just barely still time", we need an immediate moratorium on the construction of all new coal fired power plants (without CCS) and the phasing out of existing coal plants to get back to 350ppm. And somebody - whether it's the UK, US or Germany - needs "to stand up".

Air Conditioning Outdoors No Longer Legal in New York City

Like many towns, NYC has struggled in recent years to keep up with energy demand, particularly as the population keeps growing. Almost everyone is connected to the almighty Grid, and it's obvious that energy hogs can result in high prices, intermittent service and even brownouts or blackouts for others.

Going further, it's possible that ending a practice that seems blatantly wasteful and over the top to some may encourage others to give a little more thought to conservation. Will businesses might not like more regulations, people need to realize that the age of cheap energy and ignorance about the threat of global warming is over, and people are going to have to learn to be better energy citizens.

The Associated Press: UK report says ice caused hard landing at Heathrow

LONDON (AP) — Ice in fuel lines probably caused a British Airways jet to lose power and make a jarring emergency landing in London in January, investigators said Thursday.

Nineteen people suffered minor injuries when the British Airways Boeing 777 made a crash landing just inside the airport perimeter on Jan. 17.

Investigators from the Air Accident Investigations Branch said that water, which is normally present in aircraft fuel, may have frozen because of unusually cold weather on a flight from Beijing to London on Jan. 17.

The Great Beyond: Hansen backs power station damagers

The closest thing climate science has to a super-star scientist (vice president ‘Ali G’ doesn’t count) has turned up at a court in the UK to defend six activists who damaged a power station.

James Hansen, who heads up NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, is backing the Greenpeace protesters, who claim that climate change is a excuse for the damage they caused to a chimney during a protest (see Climate fights trump property rights, claims Greenpeace). According to the Guardian, Hanson said he agreed with Gore’s line that more people should chain themselves to coal power stations to stop carbon dioxide emissions.
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Hansen is famous for his 1980s testimony to the US government on global warming, his staunch opposition to both the Clinton and Bush administration stances on climate issues, and – if you’re the BBC – being Al Gore’s advisor.

From this BBC link:

Nasa expert meets Kingsnorth duo

A top climate change scientist and adviser to Al Gore is meeting activists opposed to plans to build a new coal-fired power station in Kent.

James Hansen, head of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the USA, will discuss their concerns about the proposed plant at Kingsnorth.

Dr Hansen last year wrote to Gordon Brown urging him to reject Kingsnorth.

Decrease in sea ice a 'cyclical' event (OneNewsNow.com)

The AP article quoted a NASA ice scientist saying these new data could mean that climate warming is coming faster than the models are predicting. However, Joseph D'Aleo – the executive director of the website IceCap.us – disagrees.

"I don't believe it has anything at all to do with global warming, or at least carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases. It's a normal cyclical change that we've observed in the Arctic going back centuries," D'Aleo contends. "The Arctic ice diminished in the [19]30s, 40s, and 50s. It diminished in the 1800s so much so that the Northwest Passage was open and they were catching codfish off of Siberia. This is a cyclical phenomenon that relates to periodic, very predictable warming in the Atlantic and the Pacific."

D'Aleo notes the Pacific Ocean has cooled to pre-1977 temperatures, and he believes the Atlantic will follow within a decade. He also says that Arctic sea ice will recover and possibly increase as a result.

Catastrophic cravings misguided - Opinion

This kind of fear-mongering takes on a new relevance in light of the newest disaster-of-the-hour: global warming. It's the buzzword on everybody's lips, a major plank in the presidential candidates' platforms, and the impetus behind the "go-green" phase that's sweeping the nation's corporate ad campaigns. Two years ago I bought it hook, line and sinker, leading the charge into the Lamron Opinion section and urging everyone to take off their blinders and fight the good fight against climate change.
This year, after reviewing the data and actually reading the arguments of dissenting voices, I'm here to urge a different course of action: Don't listen to me, or anyone else who claims to know unequivocally what they're talking about. Read scientific reports, not news about them. There is evidence out there, though unpopular, to suggest that climate change isn't the apocalypse we're all waiting (and half hoping?) for. I'm not saying the atmosphere isn't warming, or that we shouldn't take care of our environment, but we may not need to spend 500 trillion dollars (better spent stemming starvation and AIDS) in a crash course to save the world from a questionable calamity.

Read the data, cut through the politics, decide for yourself.

Another sign of the times

In a long list of the supposed environmental horrors of pig farming, the alleged greenhouse gas problem gets just "also-ran" billing in the article below.

Ham eaters tell us about the alleged horrors of ham

Due to the high variety of bacteria, worms and other undesirables in pig flesh, and because of the quick-spread disease potential of crowded pig farms, heavy doses of antibiotics are administered routinely. Those same drugs end up in your body via waste streaming into our water supply, and via that Mooshu pork to go. Other side dishes you might not have ordered include growth hormones to encourage meat-heavy livestock and vaccines injected to avoid profit-damaging disease.

The crowded piggies also contribute to climate change by emitting methane air pollution, otherwise known as farting.

But the real travesty of pig farms, as you may have heard, is their contribution of dangerous phosphate and nitrate levels to our water supply. Large, corporate pig farms are home to deep vats of untold tons of pig crap, called "lagoons," which regularly overflow or seep past inadequate lining into the earth. The bad stuff in pig manure is associated with stomach cancer, blood oxygen disorders and other health ailments.

We won't go into the ethics of eating meat to begin with--just yesterday we enjoyed a savory ham cheesecake with red pepper jelly, the pre-cubed ham being delicious yet of unknown origin.

Google Trends continues to show that Gore's scam isn't resonating with the public

UK graph, then US graph below:

CO2 hysteria/fraud may cause several billion dollars to be misallocated in Africa

DAKAR, Sénégal, September 4, 2008/African Press Organization (APO)/ — To help Africa obtain its fair share of emission reduction projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and satisfy growing carbon market interest on the continent, partner international agencies and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) on Wednesday launched the first all Africa Carbon Forum in Senegal, under the umbrella of the Nairobi Framework.
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The Nairobi Framework was launched in November 2006 to spread the benefits of the CDM, especially in Africa. Several projects have been launched in Africa, but the continent still accounts for just 27 of the more than 1150 CDM projects now registered in 49 developing countries. That said, the number of projects in Africa is growing, and the projects already in place are expected to stimulate several billion dollars worth of capital investment.

Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN’s top climate change official, was in Dakar to open the forum and expressed his satisfaction with the work to date.

“Combating climate change will take political will, and it will take a great deal of investment. Mechanisms like the CDM are an important means to stimulate that investment, so it’s good to see that Africa is now getting the attention it deserves from the private sector and public sector through events like the Africa Carbon Forum,” Mr. de Boer said.

The Bubble in Europe

Wealthy Europeans set to pledge €1 trillion to save the planet

Sustainable investment by wealthy individuals in Europe will top €1 trillion in less than five years time, at the current rate of progress, according to a newly-published report.

This investment will be equivalent to a 12% weighting in their portfolios, compared to the current 8%, it said. The report has been published by the European Sustainable Investment Forum, Bank Sarasin and accounting firm KPMG.

Kelly McParland: Dion downshifts on the Green Shift

But Mr. Dion has been saying since he introduced the plan that there will be no pain, thanks to the big tax cuts he'll introduce to offset the additional energy costs. On the party's thegreenshift.ca web site (not to be confused greenshift.ca, the private company that is enraged at the Liberals for stealing their name) is a calculator that purports to illustrate how much extra money individual Canadians will have thanks to the Green Shift. I just told it I'm a single person earning $100,000 (which isn't true), and it says I'll get $837 more than before. At $150,000 I'd be ahead by $1,172. So even rich people are going to make out like bandits.

So why, if the plan is so lucrative, are the Liberals offering $900 million more in "incentives and rebates"? And why, if I'm so much better well off, would I cut back on my heat or gasoline bill? For $1,172 I could put a down payment on a Hummer.

Is there something here they're not telling us?

"Science" in thrall to "ideology" keeps "bogus" debate alive - The Irish Times - Thu, Sep 04, 2008

...four decades later, in late 2007, US vice-president Dick Cheney was able to claim with a straight face that "there does not appear to be a scientific consensus" that climate change is caused by human activity.

The story of how the science of global warming has been hijacked and politicised was outlined at a lecture in Trinity College Dublin last night by Prof Naomi Oreskes of the University of California, San Diego.

Sounds serious indeed

B.C. may balk at Stéphane Dion's Green Shift plan | Straight.com

Liberal MP Joyce Murray, who won the March 17, 2008, by-election in Vancouver Quadra, has been holding town-hall meetings in the riding to promote Dion’s Green Shift plan.
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Murray is one of the designated spokespeople for Dion’s Green Shift. In an interview following her election, Murray stressed that putting a price on carbon emissions is widely accepted as a sound measure to address the challenge of “catastrophic global warming”.

“We have a serious, serious problem and we need governments to take this seriously,” Murray told the Straight. “The Conservatives are not. That’s clear from their attack ads and just their policies, actually, and their government [is] led by someone who’s denied the existence of climate change and fought against measures to deal with it until very recently.”

Does this look like a starving polar bear?

Polar Defense Project » The Bear

"Sarah Palin Has the Energy Answer"

Larry Kudlow on Sarah Palin and Energy on NRO Financial

The drill, drill, drill Alaska governor will be a powerful weapon in this election.

Bravo, Jack Davis

Davis is not your ordinary Democrat : City & Region : The Buffalo News

In the heated contest for the Democratic nomination to replace Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, Jack Davis stands out in ways that are not conventionally Democratic.
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And he’s the only one who doubts that human beings caused global warming, and who thinks we shouldn’t do anything about it.
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Davis dismissed health care as among the “side issues” that he hasn’t focused on in the campaign, but he made clear that he has strong opinions on the twin issues of energy and climate change that fall far from the party line.

While other Democrats tout the “green collar” jobs that could result from expanded alternative energy sources, Davis worries that solar and wind power are costly and unreliable. Instead, he’s a strong proponent of nuclear energy and drilling for oil on the outer continental shelf and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“It was very ignorant of the people not to want to drill in our country over the last 20 years,” Davis said. “And look what it’s done to us. We have a $100 billion transfer of wealth to oil-producing countries.”

Regarding climate change, Davis said: “I don’t think man is making it and I don’t think man has the capability and certainly can’t afford the cost of trying to control it.”

Asked what is causing global warming, Davis noted that the polar ice caps on Mars are melting, too, and said: “The sun is on a heat streak.”