Another heretic (from Sunday Herald)

...Philip Lardner, the Tories' Westminster candidate in North Ayrshire and Arran, said the link between carbon emissions and global warming was being exaggerated by "doom sayers" and a self-interested "climate change lobby".

Lardner, 41, an advocate of nuclear power, attacked those promoting wind farms as a sustainable energy source.

"I hugely resent the subsidies that are being paid to wind-farm companies," he said. "Literally billions of pounds are being handed over to these people. They make a profit whether they generate any electricity at all."
advertisement

Some of Lardner's comments were captured on film last month in Renfrew at the inaugural Scottish meeting of the right-wing Freedom Association. Lardner, a primary school teacher, is the association's Scottish spokesman. The clip has been posted on the internet.

The remarks are an embarrassment for David Cameron, the Tory leader, who has gone out of his way to portray his party as more environmentally sensitive, and accepts carbon emissions cause global warming.

The climate change unbelievers - Climate Change, Environment - The Independent

Global warming is happening and we're to blame, right? That's certainly the view of almost every expert in the field. But a die-hard band of naysayers continues to rail against the consensus. Are they completely mad? Judge for yourself...

First against the wall | Grist (see the post for links)

I keep saying this, possibly to the point of tedium, but I really want to drive it home: as long as going green is viewed as an expensive and vaguely altruistic undertaking, it will never be a top priority.

Evidence is everywhere right now. After several years of ceaseless focus on climate and pop culture green-is-the-new-black hype, we're seeing it all go out the window at the first sign of dropping oil prices and economic hard times.

Over on IHT, Daniel Altman (via Brad Plumer) says that in the face of economic downturn, "going green could begin to be seen as an unaffordable luxury." Over on Time, Bryan Walsh discusses how fears of recession are sidelining green concerns. AFP reports that financial woes may derail international climate talks, and the Guardian has uncovered papers which indicate that the EU Council is preparing to bail on green commitments. With oil down to around $88/barrel, the Big Three automakers, who have been shifting to high-fuel-economy vehicles, are panicking. Oh noes! Maybe we should go back to gas guzzlers!

What's to blame for the seeming fragility of green concerns? Here are some possible answers...

But wasn't that warming layer of carbon dioxide up there today?

ReviewJournal.com - Breaking News - Cool day in valley sets new record for lowest high temperature

Today saw the lowest high temperature ever recorded for an Oct. 11 in the Las Vegas valley, according to the National Weather Service.

The high temperature was a mere 60 degrees -- 23 degrees below the normal high temperature for the date. The reading, taken at the weather service's station at McCarran International Airport, also shattered the previous record low high of 65 degrees, recorded in 1997.

Not a big fan of "Green Cincinnati"

Collecting My Thoughts

...Because they saw Al Gore's movie and listened to some Hollywood starlet who reads script for a living say it is true. Helloooo Ohio--you used to be under a glacier. We are not to blame for climate change. There are a hundred good reasons to have clean air and water, but why don't you start with cleaning the trash off the city streets, the old mattresses from the underpasses, and requiring all the legislators to reduce their BMI and their hot air. The world would be a much cleaner, cooler place. No one has a clue how much greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by these measures, but I think we can guarantee that for every new "green" business or activity you bring to town that can smell a greenback a mile away, you'll drive ten established businesses out who won't be able to afford this idiocy.

Bravo, Malcolm Turnbull?

Mr Swan accused Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull of turning into a climate change sceptic.

"He used to behave like he believed in doing something about climate change," he said.

Three-minute interview with Canada's CO2-hysteric Stephane Dion

A good sign: After Illinois congressional candidates debate, Greenpeace organizer doesn't seem happy

8th Dist. candidates square off :: News :: PIONEER PRESS :: Schaumburg Review

Greenpeace field organizer Nicole Granacki from Woodstock attended to hear views on energy alternatives. She was unimpressed. "I'd like to see their plans to stop global warming. People have been talking enough about a plan for the climate crises, but they want to see a plan. The candidates aren't telling us about their differences for a plan," she said.

Instead, Granacki wanted specific ideas for capping atmospheric emissions,investing in alternative energies and creating more energy awareness for the public. "These are areas (that) elected officials, we think, should address, not the failed policies of oil drilling and nuclear power," she said.

Diminished output from Gore's 2,500 climate project presenters?

The October 2008 presentation schedule looks pretty anemic compared to October 2007...

The Climate Project presentation schedule, October 2007

The Climate Project presentation schedule, October 2008

The Climate Project

The Climate Project consists of 2,500 dedicated volunteers from throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Spain, and the UK, all personally trained by Al Gore to educate the public about climate change.

The Climate Project

In October TCP will hold its first faith-based training session in Nashville. The program will result in the training of an exemplary group of faith leaders to deliver a version of the TCP slide show and engage in other activities related to climate change education.

CO2-phobic New York Times editorial

Editorial - Up and Down the Learning Curve - NYTimes.com

Unless we recognize the human causes of climate change, the essential changes in the way this country and others produce and consume energy are unlikely to happen. The old, pre-Sarah-Palin, John McCain knew that.

Politicians take fossil-fueled trip to the Galapagos Islands to learn about global warming?

Baird, Hooley deny congressional junket charge - Jeff Mapes on Politics - OregonLive.com

Reps. Brian Baird, D-Washington, and Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., are about to get raked over the coals by the TV show, Inside Edition, for a congressional trip they took to the Galapagos Islands in June.

The show charges that the trip, which included five members of Congress, three of their spouses and Hooley's daughter, was really an expensive vacation paid for by the taxpayers.

Baird, who is from Vancouver, and Hooley both told me, however, that it was a working trip that gleaned important information on the issue of climate change. The two also noted that they paid their own expenses for Baird's wife and Hooley's daughters, although they flew for free along with the representatives on a military jet.

Senator Inhofe speaks

....Inhofe spent most of his time talking about the downfall of the global warming movement and talking about sensible energy policy, but he was very impassioned and well received.

Some online survey results from Canada

Winnipeg Free Press

The troubled state of the economy was the top election issue Insiders cited, with 87 per cent calling it an important or very important factor in their voting decision. Health ranked a close second at 82 per cent, followed by tax policy (77 per cent) and the party leaders (70 per cent).

Environmental policy and climate change, once thought likely to be a dominant theme in the campaign, ranked sixth in importance as a voting factor, ahead of foreign policy (including Canada's role in the Afghanistan war) and local riding candidates.

Global Shamming: Penn and Teller: Green Guilt

Will Steger expounds on oil shale

[commenter raylottie responds] Global warming is the new religion of the left, and Will is a high priest. I'm all for developing clean, renewable sources of energy, but Minnesota has some long stretches of calm, cloudy weather and long winter nights. Solar and wind power don't work well under those conditions. Man-caused global warming is a theory; energy vulnerability is real. We need to develop all forms of domestic energy that make economic and environmental sense. Is oil shale one of them? Let's find out.

Australian John Brumby's glorious fight against carbon dioxide

Australia: Premier John Brumby spent $78,905 on US trip | Herald Sun

PREMIER John Brumby and his entourage kept a limousine waiting while they dined on a "high-level business dinner" 600m from their hotel on a recent overseas trip.

Mr Brumby and his team spent more than $17,600 on chauffeur-driven sedans, vans and sports utility vehicles on their nine-day US tour that cost taxpayers $78,905.

The extravagant spending was part of a whirlwind Brumby Government US expedition that cost taxpayers almost $9000 a day.
...
He said Mr Brumby held talks on climate change and biotechnology with Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed an alliance between California and Victoria on stem cell research and announced that US retailer Costco would set up its first Australian store in Melbourne.

Everybody's got a big "but"

Diversity of opinions much appreciated

Allowing for diversity of thought made, by and large, for interesting reading and reflection. It stands as a testimony to an energized, eclectic offering that I sincerely enjoyed and appreciated.

But, there is a 'but."

I was royally stunned to read from contributor Royal Hamel, "The scientific community is widely divided on global warming . . ." and an ad nauseam continuation of related, dinosauris diatribes.

Good for your newspaper for allowing free-flowing ideas to reach your readers, but I truly hope you hear lots of feedback on that one community writer's ostrich-like opinions.

Is Global Warming Starving Science? « Watts Up With That?

Are we starving science research in other areas to pursue accelerated and possibly needless research into Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) and the dire consequences of AGW at the expense of other more productive and beneficial areas of study?

Just like all of those other problems that may kill all of our grandchildren

Washington candidates: State Legislature, 18th District

Haugen: Global warming is an opportunity to make money and employ people. We need a strong senator who will actively pursue jobs for this area. We can become a magnet for new clean energy jobs with a senator who has a vision for the future. I will be that senator. I ask for your vote.

John Holdren crams a staggering amount of misinformation into one quote

Global Warming: As Machiavelli May Have Seen It

Last, consider this strong statement that Friedman quotes from John Holdren, professor of environmental policy at Harvard, director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science: “The most important conclusions about global climatic disruption–that it’s real, that it’s accelerating, that it’s already doing significant harm, that human activities are responsible for most of it, that tipping points into really catastrophic disruption likely lurk along the ‘business as usual’ trajectory, and that there is much that could be done to reduce the danger at affordable cost if only we would get started–have not been concocted by the Sierra Club or the enemies of capitalism. They are based on an immense edifice of painstaking studies published in the world’s leading peer-reviewed scientific journals. They have been vetted and documented in excruciating detail by the largest, longest, costliest, most international, most interdisciplinary, and most thorough formal review of a scientific topic ever conducted.”

I wonder what happened to the more than £235,000 that this guy DIDN'T rip off

Charity conman admits £15,000 fiddle - ChronicleLive

CONFIDENTLY holding his microphone, he looks every inch a success.

Addressing his audience with poise, Andrew Cox seems to say: “You can trust me.”

But today he’s exposed as little more than a money-grabbing rat facing jail after ripping off £15,000 from an environmental charity.

The Newcastle-based consultant had been carrying out duties as an unpaid treasurer for CarbonNeutral North East.

The registered charity, designed to help firms in the region cut their carbon emissions, had an income of more than £250,000, according to recent accounts submitted to the Charities’ Commission.

But following an internal audit, a probe was launched into financial discrepancies.
...
“CarbonNeutral North East ceased to operate earlier this year when its board decided that the charity had run its course after achieving its aims of significantly raising the profile of climate change.”

So maybe the Apocalypse IS coming--I agree with an entire sentence written by Joseph Romm

EDF's bizarre $10,000 contest | Gristmill

The bottom line is that a carbon cap is utterly irrelevant to curing our oil addiction.

EU climate policy gradually fading away -- bit by bit

CO2 hysteria in Washington state Congressional debate

Burner: Yes. The threat posed by global climate change is very real, caused by human activity, and we need to address it. She wants Henry to live in a world that doesn't have global famines and rising sea levels. She's recalling hikes as a kid to the Carbon Glacier, and how now that Glacier is almost gone. We have to address this problem. We can do it in a way that makes WA and the 8th district stronger by developing new energy sources through stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation.

Reichert: there are 2 bills in congres that address these issues. The Waxman and Gilcrest bills. I'm on the Gilcrest bill. I do agree that global warming is occurring. We do need to do things now. [ed: here he drifts off into general environmental issueus rather than CO2 reduction] I co-sponsored Wild Sky. I've got my own alpine lakes bill. We all want to preserve the NW greenery and protect the environment for our grandchildren. Cites the PI endorsement and the League of Conservation Voters' score.

In case you missed it

Foreign Policy: Putin’s Useful Idiots

It is said that Vladimir Lenin once called Soviet sympathizers in Western countries “useful idiots” for unwittingly advancing the cause of revolutionary Russia. Were the Bolshevik leader alive today, he might apply the same label to German environmentalists, whose influence over their country’s energy policy has been an inadvertent, but essential factor in Moscow’s post-Cold War rise.

Two decades of stringent environmental regulations have made Germany, Europe’s largest economy, increasingly dependent on natural gas from Russia, the world’s largest exporter. Of course, economic leverage translates seamlessly into political power, and Russia’s sway over German foreign policy has been conspicuous as the recent imbroglio in Georgia has continued to play out.

Global Warming « Bikerbernie’s Weblog

8 ) I cannot give you a proper synopsis of the thousands of hours of reading and research in a few sentences and the above are only a few of the many highlights that conclude that man is not remotely the biggest cause of global warming.

All American Blogger » John McCain Ready for Cap and Trade Plan; In Other News, It’s Already Snowing in Idaho

John McCain is ready to set up a cap and trade plan on carbon, because the global warming cultists have him convinced we are on a collision course with a global bake sale. Barack Obama is of the same mind, we are all going to fry unless we address the climate crisis.

Meanwhile, it’s already snowing in Idaho. For the record, it’s a record...

Virginia Tech To Host Climate Change Summit; Hundreds Of Youth Voters Expected

Blacksburg, VA. - With all eyes on Virginia in the final weeks before the 2008 election, hundreds of youth voters from around the state are expected to attend a historic three day climate change summit at Virginia Tech from October 10-12, 2008. Students will create a plan of action to build a sustainable commonwealth through education, grassroots political action, and campus leadership training. World-renowned scientist Dr James Hansen will be a featured speaker on Saturday night.

K-State to Offer Public Session With "Experts on Climate Change"

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Heartland residents can hear international experts discuss global climate change Tuesday, Oct. 21, at Kansas State University.

The 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. program will be in the K-State Student Union´s Forum Hall. Originally designed as in-service training that examines an evolving, worldwide challenge, the event will be the first-ever session that´s open to the public during a K-State Research and Extension Annual Conference.
...
The afternoon´s major topics will include:

The impacts of global climate change,

Adapting to climate change,

Mitigating further change by sequestering greenhouse gases underground,

The policy and economics of climate change, and

The soil carbon credits that can provide farmers access to U.S. carbon market trading.

Prince Albert weighs in again

timesofmalta.com - Prince Albert wants green Formula One auto racing

Prince Albert of Monaco wants Grand Prix cars to run entirely on biofuels in a shift he says will help the sport's image and limit greenhouse gas emissions from his Mediterranean principality.

He also told Reuters that royal families around the world were getting more involved in urging citizens to do more to combat climate change, partly because the scientific findings underpinning global warming had become so robust.

"Everyone can play a part; that's the important message," he said of the drive to slow global warming and avert feared heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas.

California: San Joaquin Valley Braces for Cold Snap, Fire Fighters Battle Heater Fire

Sadly, firefighters say there's a greater risk of dying from fire when it's cold, with December, January and February generally being the deadliest months.

Freeze warning tonight; record lows possible | Yakima Herald-Republic Online

YAKIMA -- A freeze warning is in effect for the Yakima and Kittitas valleys tonight as forecasters say overnight lows could approach record levels.

REDBRIDGE: Fishermen rubbish report that river is drying up (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, Dr Paul Leinster, said the “ground-breaking” research indicated a harsh future for England’s rivers, but the forecast has been treated with a large dose of scepticism by people in the borough.

Keen fisherman Mike Smith, of Waverley Road in South Woodford, is a member of the Hollow Angling Society. He said: “I’m 65 and I’ve lived by this river all my life. I can tell you that river is no different now to what it was like back when I was a child.

“The reason the water might look low is because there’s so many weeds and reeds there, that’s the problem.

“The weather man can’t even predict the weather tomorrow. My home’s been flooded by the river before so I’m more worried about that, rather than it running out. I can’t see it happening.

“At the same time we’ve got another department of the Environment Agency saying London’s all going to flood. They’re just covering all the odds.”

Fraudster Michael Mann publicly faces skeptical questioning

See Mann's comments about Steve McIntyre in the 3-minute video here.

Much more video at Watts Up With That.

17 things you should know before voting for Barack Obama - OT

See my post here.

ABC Won’t Air Gore’s Global Warming Ad | Live Earth

According to ABC, the air could not be aired because of the use of an image of the U.S. Capitol: “Per our Guidelines, national buildings may be used in advertising provided the depictions are incidental to the advertiser’s promotion of the product or service. Given the messages and themes of his commercial, the image of the Capitol building is not incidental to this advertising. Please replace the image with on that is not of another national building or monument.”

Cost of forest loss estimated at eleventy-kazillion dollars per year

Deforestation and degradation is costing the world economy $2 to $5 trillion per year — an amount greater than Wall Street losses during the current financial crisis — said the lead author of a study that estimated the cost of environmental damage in terms of services provided by healthy ecosystems.

How to Win My Vote for Obama

IX. To combat "global climate change" (global warming, to be specific), Barack Obama wants U.S. companies to institute a "cap-and-trade program" for carbon emissions, meaning they would have to buy carbon-emission permits.32 Such a program is beginning to be implemented in the European Union. The price for the right to pump one ton of carbon into the atmosphere is now at $47.60. (Under the Obama plan, these rights would be auctioned off.) This is causing costs to skyrocket. Just one German energy company will pay $14.2 billion for the right to create electricity — the costs will be transferred to the company's customers. The German cement industry is looking at cost increases of $1.4 billion — half its current annual revenues. Even though the program is just getting going and rates haven't hit their uppermost levels yet, Germany has lost thousands of jobs as companies flee to countries not involved in the program.33 How can Obama conceive that this won't destroy American industry?

X. Voters are told that actions like cap-and-trade for carbon emissions must be instituted because if they aren't, catastrophic events from global warming will occur. In fact, there's no evidence of any measurable human-caused warming34, 35: the warming trend matches well with increased Sun activity36 and is consistent with warming for the past several hundred years — since the "Little Ice Age."35 The Earth's temperatures have stabilized over the past decade,37 and at the height of the recent warming, the Earth hadn't yet reached its 3,000-year average temperature.38 Further arguing against warming theory, a cooling trend seems to have begun, as evidenced by the fact that most of the world had an especially harsh winter last year39, 40, 41 and the fact that the oceans have begun to cool42 — which takes a very long time and runs completely contrary to all catastrophic global-warming scenarios. Hundreds of previously believing scientists have now become warming skeptics,37, 43 and the IPCC, which is the political entity that initiated all of the super-scary climate scenarios, has revised its figures on sea-level rise from 11.9 feet by the year 2100 to 1.9 feet,44 so why is the United States considering a cap-and-trade program?

CO2-phobic UN chief continues his fossil-fueled travels

Ban’s upcoming travels take him to Geneva, Quebec City and Boston

Mr. Ban’s speech, entitled “Securing the common good at time of global crises,” will focus on the importance of achieving disarmament, climate change solutions, global health targets and progress against terrorism. It will also centre on the challenge of addressing such issues against the backdrop of concurrent global crises pertaining to finance, food, energy and development.

An alarmist writes about climate realists

Climate Change Deniers: “But They Are Scientists!” « Greenfyre’s

Inhofe Honored For Protecting U.S. Taxpayers from Devastating Climate Tax

.: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, will be honored tonight by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation with their prestigious "Washington Award." Senator Inhofe will join George Will, Ed Meese, Dinesh D’Souza and more than 1,800 grassroots free-market advocates from 38 states that are gathering for Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s (AFP’s) 2nd annual Defending the American Dream.

'Two words: Sarah Palin' | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Obama and McCain advisers spar over whose candidate can best address climate change

Letters to the Telegraph - Telegraph

Writing in support of the BBC's position on climate change, your correspondent says "the onus is on the sceptics to explain why this [increase in atmospheric CO2 levels] should not cause climate change". The answer is well known to everyone in the climate debate. The relationship between CO2 levels and the greenhouse "forcing effect" is logarithmic. It is a law of diminishing returns.

The higher the level of CO2, the less effect any further increase will have. If the current level were, say, 20 ppm, the effect of adding an extra 20 ppm would be dramatic. But at the current level of around 380 ppm, the effect of an extra 20 ppm is trivial.

I have discussed this point with scientists on the IPCC and they accept it as fact, but then they postulate complex feedback mechanisms between CO2 and water vapour to justify their alarmist position.

Roger Helmer, Blisworth, Northamptonshire

RIP Professor Marcel Leroux

In later years Professor Leroux became a prominent critic of the theory of Anthropogenic induced Global Warming (AGW). He pointed out that the evolution of Climate since the 1970s shift (when the Pacific Decadal Oscillation went into its positive phase) wasn't fitting with a simple warming trend of the planet. Among other things, deserts were expanding instead of retreating, in many places there were clear increases in atmospheric pressure and precipitation wasn't increasing. Evidence pointed to an acceleration of Meridional Circulation and not just a warming of the Atmosphere.

(Via Marc Morano)

Huge sigh of relief as sunspot appears

TechTrack - Dr Kelvin Kemm

A sunspot has just appeared on the sun and many people are breathing a sigh of relief. Why?

Well firstly, what is a sunspot? A sunspot is actually a huge magnetic storm on the sun, which, when one looks at the sun, appears as a darker spot on the bright surface.

Do not look at the sun with binoculars or a telescope, as doing that will probably destroy your eye – there are ways of projecting the sun's image.

The sun has a well-known 11-year cycle, during which it moves from Solar Max to Solar Min; this means from a state of many sunspots, or solar storms, to few.

Sunspot data has been collected since 1749, and 100 or more ‘spots' can occur during a single month of the maximum portion of the cycle.

We have just been through Solar Min, and the return of sunspots is late. During the last few months, there have been virtually no spots, and a month with no spots at all is very rare.

It has been found that there is a direct correlation between the number of sunspots and global warming, and, consequently, the state of the climate.

Meteorologists Predict Worst Autumn on Record « Watts Up With That?

h/t to Jeff Lyslo

This is parody from The Onion, in case you have been desensitized to news sensationalism from outlets like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC and don’t recognize it as such.

Kids Against Anthropongenic Global Warming « Watts Up With That?

Coyote Blog: Proof Positive Legislators Don't Understand Even the Basics of Economics

...So I thought this provision was hilarious:

The bill tries to address the economic concerns by excluding small businesses and increasing the number of [CO2 emissions] permits when prices spike.

So when permit prices go up, they will increase the number of permits. But permit prices will necessarily go up if they are doing their job of limiting emissions below current levels. So, in effect, they are saying that if the permit process really does start limiting emissions, new permits will be issued to to allow more emissions.

Planet Moron: CONSENSUS WATCH – 10/09/2008

An ongoing series dedicated to vigorously monitoring emerging threats to The Consensus that global warming is real, caused by humans, and must be addressed immediately if we are to forestall cataclysm. After all, without consensus, scientific conclusions would remain vulnerable to new data and alternative hypotheses that better fit recorded observations!

Scientists pour cold water on climate cooling claims - Lloydslist.com

CLIMATE change scientists working on European Union-funded research have poured cold water on the theory that shipping emissions produce a net cooling effect on the earth’s climate.

Shipping industry groups including the Greek Shipping Co-Operation Committee had hoped to pursuade regulators that shipping’s impact on the climate was at least benign and potentially beneficial.

But David Lee of Manchester Metropolitan University told a meeting at the International Maritime Organization that while shipping’s sulphur emissions created localised cooling, the effect was not great enough to offset the warming effects elsewhere.

Seattle trawlers may face new limits on pollock fishery | Seattle Times Newspaper

Climate change also is a new wild card, with a string of abnormally warm water years. The last few years, however, brought colder temperatures to the Bering Sea, according to [Jim Ianelli, federal scientist and pollock specialist with the Seattle-based Alaska Fisheries Science Center], who criticizes federal fishery management for failing to slash harvests.

Church Times - Churches urged to push greener living

Tara Garnett, of the Centre for Environmental Strategy, and the University of Surrey, in her report Cooking Up a Storm, has linked food and eating patterns to “possibly a third” of greenhouse-gas emissions.

There were technological “fixes” that would help keep down emissions, but, given a rising world population, those would never be enough, she wrote in her report, published in September and available online. What was needed was to make “very substantial reductions” in the amount of meat and dairy products people ate.

People in developed countries needed to cut back to half a kilo (just over 1 lb) of meat a week, and one litre (1¾ pt) of milk: the equivalent of two sausages and a cheese sandwich every other day.

“We need to consume less ‘stuff’ overall,” she warned. In the West, one billion people were overweight, while, in developing countries, 840 million people, including one in four children, did not get enough to eat.

People in developed countries could help stop global warming by the way they shopped and cooked. Rather than buy “fragile” food that needed refrigeration people could buy “robust” foods that did not spoil easily. Asking for less choice meant foods would not be produced expensively out of season. There was also a “moderate to high” priority not to waste food, because food thrown away represented “embedded emissions”.

The developing world would need help to deal with these economic changes, she said.

CO2sceptics News Blog | “Time to Erase the Emissions Trading Nightmare.”

...However, there is growing scientific evidence and opinion that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not control the climate. Thus all the resources spent on attempting to limit or remove it will be totally wasted.

Australia is totally dependent on carbon-based fuels and farm animals dependent on the natural carbon cycle. To allow scare mongers from the Canberra hot-house to demonise the use of these harmless natural products on which we all depend is economic suicide.

Moreover, there is no proven technology and insufficient capital and time to significantly replace carbon-based fuels without the nuclear option being chosen by many countries. And the kangaroo grazing option is too silly for words.

UK government lobbying to weaken EU car emissions targets - 09 Oct 2008 - BusinessGreen

The amendments that the DfT hope MEPs will push through include a three year delay to the deadline and a measure to allow broader "eco-innovations", such as improvements in tyre designs, which are not part of the formal emissions tests, to count towards the target.

The return of the water buffalo | The Observers

Going backward seems like a bad thing, but there are many positive incentives (...). Unlike steel buffaloes, water buffaloes are low maintenance, they can eat grass, rice straws, and most things that are green, and this seems like a perfect solution for the rise in gas price. They can also be used for cart haulage, carrying heavy loads, and as great transportation for farmers as well. With so many benefits, I'm willing to overlook that their farts can contribute to global warming. What is really great is that water buffaloes can help improve the soil. Did you know that each year, an adult buffalo produces four to six tonnes of wet manure plus additional urine as bio-fertilizer to the land? This reduces or eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers, as well as provides essential soil humus which chemicals can't provide. This is a tremendous cash savings for farmers. I'm sold, I love this idea."

Scientists search for flock with less fart - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian researchers have begun looking at how to breed sheep that produce less methane gas.

The CRC for Sheep Industry Innovation says the average sheep produces 20 litres of methane gas per day and with almost 90 million sheep in the national flock, it says there is significant pressure to reduce gas production in light of the climate change debate.

Al Gore: Stands and Delivers: Web 2.0 Summit 2008 - November 05 - 07, 2008, San Francisco, CA

He is also chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-partisan, non-profit organization devoted to mobilizing global support for urgent and sustainable solutions for the climate crisis.

Gore is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a London-based firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing; and recently became a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which has formed a strategic alliance with Generation to focus on solutions to the climate crisis. In addition, Gore serves on the board of directors of Apple and as senior adviser to Google.

Delay emissions scheme, says Turnbull | The Australian

"We are proposing three actions the government can take immediately which will strengthen the Australian economy in the face of this economic crisis and add confidence to Australian householders and Australian business."

One of those steps would be to announce a delay to the start of an emissions trading scheme in Australia.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised the scheme would be introduced by 2010, but Mr Turnbull is urging Mr Rudd to admit this was "nothing more than an election year flourish".

"An emissions trading scheme in 2010 would mean the design of the scheme would have to be finalised before we know what the rest of the world is going to do at Copenhagen - which is the big climate change conference in December next year - and indeed before we know what the new US president will do," Mr Turnbull said.

"Industry has come back to the PM and said 2010 is too soon, it's too rushed. We have to be part of a global solution."

Crozier to oppose development of climate change policy - Local News - News - General - Braidwood Times

Cr Crozier said last week that climate was an "important matter and should not have been taken when council was in caretaker mode." He continued that development of a policy would "take a lot of staff resources", as a large and complex subject and "we need to know what it will cost."

Cr Crozier said he prefer a simpler "energy policy" and that Council should wait to see what State and Federal bodies do first. "We should see what's going to be committed on a broader canvas before we commit ourselves" he said.

Cr Bransdon replied that "developing a climate change policy is not a very big issue when you consider the major issue facing the world." Cr Bransdon referred to a similar policy passed by the Tumut Shire (26 August 08), noting that Council "wouldn't be starting from scratch." Tumut's document is simplified to one page.

Cr Crozier was recently quoted in The Australian newspaper (15/9/08 'Emissions trading 'worse than drought') saying he "is sceptical of global warming, and says the ETS is a waste of time."

NYT Times' Revkin: Get real on global warming - The Daily Princetonian

People around the world need to be more proactive in respecting the environment, Andrew Revkin, prize-winning New York Times environment writer and author, said Thursday in a lecture titled “The Hot Seat: Making Sense of Global Warming, from the North Pole to the White House.”

“We are modifying Earth in ways that are profound and permanent,” Revkin said to a crowd of around 40 community members, professors and students in the Frist Multipurpose Room.

Revkin spoke about his experiences as an environmental journalist and writer and about the crucial role humans play in altering the planet.

“We’re becoming the driver of important dynamics on the planet,” he explained, pointing to slides of a treeless forest and an extinct dolphin species. “We are interfering with the way biology works and interfering with cycles.”
...
“Science journalism is not a booming enterprise,” Revkin said. “Trying to get stories on climate on the front page is hard.”

Revkin also brought attention to the “disservice” some journalists do to the environmental field.

“For every Ph.D., there is an equal and opposite Ph.D.,” Revkin said, commenting on the way that reporters pit scientists with opposing views against each other in their articles.

This practice, he said, causes a “disengagement from what we do know, and the facts tend to get hidden.”

Greenpeace plans rally in Jupiter -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

JUPITER - About 200 people are expected to stand on the sand at Carlin Park on Saturday and spell out "Stop Global Warming," part of Greenpeace's twin-coast Florida effort to bring more attention to creating clean energy.

Supporters are expected to gather at the park around 1 p.m. and form the words while a Greenpeace plane flies overhead and takes photographs. Greenpeace is planning the same setup on a beach in Sarasota, where volunteers will spell out "Vote for a Safe Climate."

The volunteers are scheduled to hold red placards above their heads to make the words visible from the air.

Vancouver Sun editorial: Stephen Harper is our choice for the rough road ahead

...Meanwhile, Dion's platform is designed to drive the economy in a new direction. The Green Shift is at heart similar to British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell's carbon tax. They are both designed to be somewhat disruptive to the economy while over time discouraging the use of fossil fuels.

But with concern over jobs, incomes and retirement savings outweighing the fear of climate change, we see little appetite for risky exploration of uncertain economic territory. That makes the Green Shift the wrong plan for the times, regardless of any theoretical merit.

Teske's Tidbits (10/9/08) The One About Records - NewsChannel 9 WSYR

I’ve also included one other bit of information you might find interesting. Here’s a breakdown of all 366 record highs for Syracuse by decade:

1900s 9
1910s 14
1920s 13
1930s 59
1940s 46
1950s 46
1960s 28
1970s 34
1980s 28
1990s 46
2000s 48

Support for Global Warming Alarmism Continues to Wane

Around the world, controversy over climate change continues to grow. Contrary to what the politicians tell us, there is no consensus of scientific thought on whether there is a man-made component to global warming. The science is certainly not settled.

As alarmists continue to push government policies to restrict energy use and the burning of fossil fuels in order to prevent “catastrophic” warming, the world continues to cool. That is leading to increasing suspicion that the call to sacrifice living standards in order to “save the planet” is just political spin designed to persuade the public to accept green taxes and regulations.

Alarmist Hansen ‘Not Interested’ in Debate

Global warming alarmists have been reluctant to debate and defend their assertions in public since Hansen’s colleague, Gavin Schmidt, participated in a high-profile March 2007 debate at New York City’s prestigious Intelligence Squared debating society.

A pre-debate poll of audience members indicated by a 2 to 1 margin (57 percent to 29 percent, with 14 percent undecided) they believed global warming is a crisis. After three experts from each side of the issue debated the matter, however, the audience indicated by 46 percent to 42 percent they do not believe global warming is a crisis, with 12 percent undecided.

Hansen and Schmidt also declined to participate in the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change last March in New York City. Although Michaels and other leading climate scientists from around the world eagerly accepted the opportunity to discuss the latest scientific evidence regarding global warming, Hansen and Schmidt refused to participate in the event.

Avoiding Critical Questions

“The alarmists claim all the evidence supports their theory, but the only way they can prove that is to actually show up for a debate and win,” said Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “If they are afraid to publicly debate and scientifically defend their assertions, it is a good indication who they fear will win the debate.

“It is troubling that a supposedly eminent scientist, who draws his salary from federal taxpayers, is unwilling to publicly explain his beliefs and his policy recommendations unless he is assured in advance that nobody will ask any critical questions,” Lewis said.

“Doesn’t he at least have the intellectual curiosity to hear and consider another point of view?” added Lewis.

“My own suspicion is that if someone is unwilling to tolerate debate and opposing opinions in public, then that person in private is similarly likely to be suppressing other scientific viewpoints,” Lewis said. “One has to wonder if the staff of the publicly funded Goddard Institute really is free to engage in open-minded science, and whether Hansen is stacking the deck with the staff that he supervises.”

New Zealand Scientists Protest Royal Society’s Alarmist Statement

...The society’s climate change statement also drew strong criticism from the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.

The coalition was founded in 2006 by a group of climate experts (including the late atmospheric science professor at the University of Wyoming, Augie Auer) who had become increasingly alarmed about the misleading information being disseminated about climate change and so-called anthropogenic (man-made) global warming.

In a detailed response to the Royal Society, the coalition stated, “It beggars the imagination that an expert committee can launch a public statement about climate change that is so partial in its arguments and so out of date in its science.”

Conflict of Interest

The coalition document says the society has a major conflict of interest in benefiting from global warming alarmism.

“Six of the eight members of the expert committee carry the conflict of interest that they work for institutions that garner research funds to investigate the human influence on global warming. ... Five members are employed by NIWA [the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research], one member works within a global change research institute and one is associated with ‘carboNZero’—which is a ‘greenhouse gas emissions management and reduction scheme offering carbon credits.’”

The coalition statement continues, “Incredibly, the committee contains not a single person drawn from research agencies other than NIWA, nor any independent climate scientist rationalists. The chairman of the committee—through senior positions that he holds at NIWA and within the IPCC—also advises government on climate change. ... In view of such manifest conflicts, it is not surprising to discover that the RSNZ statement on climate change is both biased and inadequate.”

The Death Of The Global Warming Climate Change Debate (Part Two) : “7.62mm Justice” ™

Here in Australia, since the onset of this financial crisis, the Climate Change Debate currently consists of the deafening roar of absolute silence.

RIP Global Warming.

Fraud suspect OK’d to winter in Texas |  INFORUM | Fargo, North Dakota - Moorhead, Minnesota

Verlin Swartzendruber has been living since this summer in a recreational vehicle park near Pelican Rapids, Minn., while awaiting trial on charges that he bilked investors of up to $15 million.

But now the 66-year-old has court permission to spend the winter in Texas after his lawyer presented a letter from his doctor stating that cold weather poses health risks.

“I recommend that you reside in a warmer climate because (you) report chest pain in the cold air and report that your extremities get cold in cold weather,” Dr. Julie Spina of Pelican Rapids wrote in a letter filed with court papers. “Due to your diabetes you have decreased circulation and are at higher risk of heart diseases.”

But how can the UK buy more bogus carbon offsets, install new bureaucracy, mandate more expensive energy sources, and still make energy more affordable?

Ed Miliband's call to maintain climate targets

The energy and climate secretary will propose an element of watering down himself, suggesting aviation should be withdrawn from the EU's targets to increase renewable energy sources in all sectors by 20% by 2020.

He thinks this is irrational because the only existing source of alternative fuel for planes is biofuel, which is itself increasingly blamed for environmental destruction.

Otherwise, he argues, the climate package should stand.

"We need to stick to our climate change targets, to stick to our targets on renewables. We also need to show we can tackle climate change in a way that is fair and affordable for ordinary families," he said.

Mr Miliband said he would be continuing the UK's bid for a reduction in VAT on energy-saving goods, a suggestion treated with scepticism by the Germans until now.

He also stressed that climate change policy had to be seen as an opportunity.

"What people are increasingly realising is that energy affordability and climate change come together. If we can find ways of saving energy it cuts their bills but it also contributes to [cutting] our carbon emissions," he said.

Whitman College takes down a non-alarmist global warming piece?

Global warming is as fictional as a Hitchcock film » Outdoors » the Pioneer | Whitman news, delivered.

Global warming, seems to me, to be something out of a science fiction movie of the 50s or 60s. Something like the cheesy scary movie, the birds, but instead, of appearing randomly to swoop menacingly, they drop from the sky. Global warming, like never before, has transformed ever since 9/11. It has become about telling people about how the world is going to end, species are going to die, the core will emerge from the cement, melting us like the atomic bomb, ice will flood California and sink it….the list just goes on and on. The threat of global warming has existed for a long period of time, and yes, carbon emissions have gone up since Bush was in office, but seriously? The climate is supposed to change over time.

Update from Greenie Watch:

Amusing: The article below by "sararasmussen" is from the student newspaper of Whitman College, a liberal arts college in Washington State -- a college of vast Leftist bigotry. Although datelined the 9th, the article has already been taken down!

Note that the missing article is still available at the Greenie Watch link above.

More alarmist BS

Climate change forcing critters to move up

(10-09) 18:06 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- From the mountains of Yosemite to the tropical lowlands of Costa Rica, global warming is forcing animals and plants to move to higher and higher elevations, searching for climates that have allowed them to evolve and thrive for millions of years.

The exodus from less tolerable habitats to cooler and more benign environments has been taking place for nearly a century, according scientists who scrambled over rocks and ridges, through steamy rain forests and up steep volcanic slopes to complete their painstaking surveys.

And in a few cases, the moves are taking a toll: Some mountain animals, left with smaller ranges to forage for food, may face extinction, while others are up against Darwinian competition as their new habitats intrude on already-established animal populations.

"These kinds of changes have been going on forever," said James L. Patton, a biologist at UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. "The only difference is that this has probably happened in our lifetime. It's the speed with which these changes are taking place that gives one pause."

As the pace of global warming quickens, change is everywhere: from glaciers melting in Greenland, to ice shelves crumbling in Antarctica, to coral reefs dying in tropic seas - and now to animal and plant life in many parts of the world.

John Doerr's CO2-phobic kid weighs in

WorldChanging: An Inconvenient Youth

Inconvenient Youth is doing something truly worldchanging in that they are disseminating critical information and tools to a portion of the population who arguably needs to get it most. And they are doing it with language and communication methods that this group understands.

[Mary] Doerr said that she sees clear parallels between the importance of this movement and the movements that took place in the 1960s. Her hope is that people her age wake up and get involved on that kind of level before it's too late.

"These were students whose lives were at risk, and in a different way our lives and our livelihoods also hang in the balance."

Yet More Evidence Of Global Cooling Consensus In 1961 « The Unbearable Nakedness of CLIMATE CHANGE

First of all, many thanks to renowned science popularizer and formed editor of New Scientist Nigel Calder for writing this comment:

In October 1961, following the US meeting you describe, the World Meteorological Organization and UNESCO organized an international Symposium on Changes of Climate, in Rome. The discussions were led by H.H. Lamb of the UK Met Office, who went on to found the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

The dominant theme of the meeting was the threat posed by the all-too-evident global cooling to world food supplies. The proceedings were published by UNESCO (Arid Zone Research Series XX, 1963).

I know all this because I was at that symposium. An advantage of old age in this subject is to know just how often the global warmers try to rewrite history, in the Orwellian way.

Warning Signs: Cold and Colder

Joe Bastardi, the Chief Long-Range Forecaster at AccuWeather, has released his 2008-09 Winter Season Forecast addressing issues of average temperature and precipitation that will impact the nation.

His forecast calls for one of the coldest winters in several years across much of the Eastern portion of the United States, the population-dense third of the nation. The northern Rockies and Northwest is predicted to have more snow than normal, though not as much as last year when the snow pack reached twice normal levels. In the East, however, he anticipates a lot more snowfall than last year.

AccuWeather employs 113 meteorologists to provide forecasts and severe weather bulletins to more than 110 million Americans every day via the Internet, mobile devices, and other media. Chances are, if you are checking the weather on CNN, ABC stations, the Washington Post or The New York Times, you are getting an AccuWeather report.

Ed Miliband, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, has his work cut out - Telegraph

Whether you are a climate-change denier, a sceptic or a believer in the scientific consensus on global warming, you have to admit that there is something preposterous about making someone Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

It's a bit like giving King Canute added responsibility for sea level rise: it implies that he can do something about it.

University of Western Ontario physics professor Wayne Hocking - Global warming change part of bigger picture

But with all of the data he has collected on atmospheric changes over the last 15 years, Hocking is hesitant to claim he can make any predictions about global warming.

“For this to be effective, we need to be there for 20, 30, 40 years, have a long-term data set and then we can start to make useful predictions,” he says.

He says researchers do not know enough about the atmospheric changes and how they influence each other to draw any conclusions about global warming.

“We know there is so much complexity involved, we want to tread more cautiously,” he says. “Maybe in 10 years time, it’ll all start to freeze over, we just don’t know.”

I hate it when that happens

Global "warming" causes "deathwatch beetle to chew through precious, historical books"

The Daily Bayonet: Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Oct. 10th 2008

But Will, how do you know that human CO2 emissions caused anything that you saw?

Arctic explorer: 'Understanding global warming not rocket science'

MAHTOMEDI — Both doubting the existence of and fearing global warming are dangerous approaches to dealing with its reality, an internationally-known environmentalist and avid adventurer told a packed house Wednesday, Oct. 1 at the Chautauqua Fine Arts Center in Mahtomedi.

“We need to go at this with a desire for positive change,” said Mahtomedi native Will Steger. “We can all do our part.”

Steger’s hour-long presentation featured photos and video clips from his 1,400-mile dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic this past March through June. And while Steger’s stories about polar bears in camp, wolves pestering his crew’s sled dogs and temperatures that dropped to 30 below zero captivated the crowd, the driving point of his talk was that global warming is a reality.

It’s one thing to look at charts and numbers that try to explain global warming, but it’s entirely different to see the reality of it firsthand, Steger said.

During his trip, Steger traveled across ice fields that should have been smooth surfaces, but are now choppy and broken up as a result of climate change. Areas where glaciers once stood are now empty canyons, he said, and rivers are flowing across some of the ice fields.

“Understanding global warming is not rocket science,” he said, adding that he has seen dramatic change in the Arctic region he has vastly explored.

EU countries may use economic crisis to ditch climate change commitments | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Leaders of EU countries plan to use the global financial crisis as an excuse to renege on climate change commitments, according to sources close to energy negotiations in Brussels.

Papers seen by the Guardian suggest the EU council, which meets next week, propose dropping the previous commitment to an automatic increase in emissions cuts if the world gets a major climate change agreement next year. It also intends to allow countries to avoid having to cut their own emissions by letting them purchase a large proportion of reductions from overseas.

Iceland takes a hit | Cleantech Group

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) may be stealing headlines lately as a big-named backer of geothermal power, but Iceland's Glitnir Bank has been at it a lot longer. But those boom times for Glitnir are likely headed for the slow lane these days.

A leading geothermal investor in North America and elsewhere, Glitnir has been put into receivership amid a significant hit from the global credit crunch on the small country's economy.

FOXNews.com - Five-Star Green Hypocrisy - Opinion

Move over Al Gore. Swankier carbon charlatanism has come to town in the form of the World Wildlife Fund’s luxury getaway called "Around the World: A Private Jet Expedition."

"Join us on a remarkable 25-day journey by luxury private jet," invites the WWF in a brochure for its voyage to "some of the most astonishing places on the planet to see top wildlife, including gorillas, orangutans, rhinos, lemurs and toucans."

For a price tag that starts at $64,950 per person, travelers will meet at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Fla. on April 6, 2009 and then fly to “remote corners” of the world on a “specially outfitted jet that carries just 88 passengers in business-class comfort.” “World class experts — including WWF’s director of species conservation — will provide lectures en route, and a professional staff will be devoted to making your global adventure seamless and memorable.” Travelers will visit the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil, Easter Island, Samoa, Borneo, Laos, Nepal, Madagascar, Namibia, Uganda or Rwanda, and finish up at the luxury Dorchester Hotel in London.

19 scientists sign a letter urging Canadians to vote "strategically" for the environment one day, then sign a letter to end "politicization" of science the next

Canadian researchers call for end to 'politicization' of science

Is Obama spiking Kindergarten Kool-Aid?

Under Obama’s education bill, the NSF would be responsible to provide “Program Elements” for the “Climate Change Education Program” which include: “a national information campaign to disseminate information on and promote implementation of the new technologies, programs, and incentives- and create “a competitive grant program to provide grants to States, local municipalities, educational institutions, and other organizations.” These institutions and organizations will use these grants to “create informal education materials, exhibits, and multimedia presentations relevant to climate change and climate science” and also will “develop climate science kindergarten through grade 12 curriculum and supplementary educational materials.”

Reuters article features climate commentary from the mysteriously-funded Alliance for Climate Protection AND from Prince Albert of Monaco

U.S. focus on climate could ease financial crisis | Industry Summits | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If the United States focused on curbing climate change as soon as a new president took office -- or sooner -- it could help pull the world from the financial brink, environmental policy experts told Reuters.

"Skyrocketing energy prices and the financial crisis have been a wake-up call that something's got to change," said Cathy Zoi, chief executive officer of the Alliance for Climate Protection, which is chaired by former Vice President Al Gore.

"My very strong belief is that we need to reorient our investments toward this transition to a clean energy economy, and it will be the engine of growth for getting us out of the doldrums that we've gotten in right now," Zoi told the Reuters Global Environment Summit this week.
...
The anthropogenic roots of global warming are clear to Prince Albert of Monaco, who told the Reuters summit he didn't "adhere" to Palin's skeptical view.

"There are obviously cycles, but how can you not consider the graphs that have been shown to us?," Prince Albert said. "Those who can't see the correlation between man-made activities and greenhouse gas emissions, it's going to be hard to convince them; but somehow we will have to do so."

But Prince Albert, what about these graphs?

Bravo, James Inhofe

Think Progress » Inhofe Defends ‘Global Warming Is The Greatest Hoax’ Comment: ‘I Think I Was Right’

In Jan. 2005, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) declared that global warming is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.” During a debate this past Tuesday night, when asked whether he stands by that claim, Inhofe offered a defiant defense of his position:

INHOFE: I think I was right on that, and I do believe — first off, let’s keep in mind, though, what the issue is. It’s not whether or not we’re going into a global warming period. We were. We’re not now.

You know, God’s still up there. We’re now going through a cooling spell. And the whole issue there was is it man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, CO2, methane. I don’t think so.

Asked whether John McCain is a victim of the global warming “hoax,” Inhofe responded, “People are afraid of some the environmentalists out there because they pour all the money into campaigns and, consequently, we have a lot of people who fall in that category, and some of them are Republicans.”

Summing up his assessment of global warming science, Inhofe declared: “It’s hysteria.” Watch it:

By the way, I saw the following graphic today on the "Think" Progress site:

Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed (Hardcover)

Planet Gore on National Review Online

I note in Red Hot Lies how APS is little different than the AMS and other membership organizations placing high-stakes bets with the global-warming industry and, as part of that, a partisan crowd. They diminish their internal credibility with complaints such as that described above, and other stunts — like issuing statements that the membership never voted on, though clearly purporting to represent the membership's position. These and other practices slowly erodes the seriousness with which the public views them but, more importantly, also how the public start to distrust and then tune out "science" as just another interest group siphoning taxpayer money.

The Left may own the partisan shrieking about how they are the enlightened ones while others hate knowledge, but I make a pretty persuasive case in RHL how the institutions of science run a great risk of killing science.

Alarmist attempts to spread CO2 hysteria in Alaska

Nobel Laureate Michael Schlesinger visits Alaska | APRN

Nobel Laureate and Atmospheric Scientist, Michael Schlesinger, recently made the rounds in Alaska. He spoke in Homer yesterday about climate change, and its causes and repercussions. The University of Illinois professor is a contributor to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the 2007 Nobel Prize.

Actually, Schlesinger received something like 1/5000 of a Nobel PEACE Prize, awarded by Norwegian socialists (Gore got half, and "2500" IPCC folks split the other half. Note that many of the IPCC scientists very much disagree with Schlesinger and Gore).

Dec '05: Global warming could halt ocean circulation, with harmful results

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Absent any climate policy, scientists have found a 70 percent chance of shutting down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean over the next 200 years, with a 45 percent probability of this occurring in this century. The likelihood decreases with mitigation, but even the most rigorous immediate climate policy would still leave a 25 percent chance of a thermohaline collapse.

“This is a dangerous, human-induced climate change,” said Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The shutdown of the thermohaline circulation has been characterized as a high-consequence, low-probability event. Our analysis, including the uncertainties in the problem, indicates it is a high-consequence, high-probability event.”

Serious or spoof?

UNICEF - At a glance: Denmark - Making children's voices heard at the 2009 Children's Climate Forum in Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, 8 October 2008 – Children from all over the world convened to make themselves heard in the global climate debate earlier this week, as UNICEF Denmark and the municipality of Copenhagen hosted a preview of the Children’s Climate Forum Copenhagen 2009 (CCFC 09), which will be held in November of next year.

The event, held at a public school in Copenhagen, offered an advance look at CCFC09 to the Danish and international media.
...
The children participating in the event were between the age of 14 and 17, and they all had previous experience working with climate and democracy in their home countries. Some took part in digital communities and online learning scenarios prior to the event.
...
Mr. Karunan shared his expertise involving children in political processes and decisions. "Children alone cannot address the major global problems," he said. "They need the support of governments, parliamentarians, policy-makers, NGOs and civil society. Therefore, we need to make the voices of young people heard and taken into account in decisions that affect their lives today and shape their world tomorrow."

CCFC 09 is being held in the run-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), which will be held in December 2009.

Cowboys and spacemen?

Arboretum to host talk on global warming | CITIZEN-TIMES.com | Asheville Citizen-Times

BENT CREEK – George Hawkins, director of the District Department of the Environment in Washington, will discuss the conflicts over global warming in a talk 9:30-11 a.m. Nov. 15 at the North Carolina Arboretum.

Hawkins’ lecture is sponsored by the arboretum and the French Broad River Garden Club Foundation.

Limited to 140 people, this free 90-minute lecture on “Cowboys and Spacemen, Global Warming and a Theory of Almost Everything” will explore how two perspectives on global warming are in conflict but each make sense based on a differing set of assumptions – exemplified by cowboys and spacemen.

But why do chimps still emit all that CO2, water vapor, and methane?

"Sage" Dr Jane Goodall chimps in with advice | Herald Sun

She tells how a chimp sources its food in a sustainable way - as compared to a baboon, which will snatch at a tree and discard any unripe fruit after a single bite.

"The chimpanzee will feel it, or squeeze it, or sometimes gently bite it, while leaving it on the branch, and they can come back to it tomorrow. They have the beginning of understanding that they should conserve."
...
"Heads of corporations seem to be schizophrenic -- on the one hand they are making a decision based on the bottom line . . . and on the other hand they go home and they seem to be loving parents or grandparents."

Dr Goodall, who has set up a youth program called Roots and Shoots, is hopeful future generations will focus on climate change, animal welfare and environmental conservation, rather than financial gain.

Trend News : Lithuania threatens to block EU climate-change program

Lithuania will refuse to close its Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power plant as planned unless the European Union provides adequate compensation, Lithuanian Economy Minister Vytas Navickas said on Thursday, reported dpa.

"Unless the energy security problems Lithuania would face after closing the Ignalina plant in 2009 are solved, we will not approve the climate change program," Navickas told the Baltic News Service in an interview shortly before flying to Luxembourg for a meeting of EU energy ministers on Friday.

Members of the European Union, including Lithuania, have agreed to cut emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 to help protect the climate.

Lithuania agreed to close Ignalina as one of the conditions of its EU membership in 2004.

However, a planned replacement to be built in partnership with Estonia, Latvia and Poland is unlikely to be ready before 2015 at the earliest.

Politicians and the public are fearful that a six-year energy gap would increase the country's energy dependency on Russia and hurt the economy.

Such is the strength of feeling that Lithuania's general election, to be held on Sunday, will include a referendum asking voters if they would like to keep Ignalina open until a replacement is ready.

Navickas said he intends to tell his EU counterparts that Lithuania will keep the Ignalina plant open until 2012 unless it is given around 1 billion euros (1.37 billion dollars) in aid and allowed higher emissions tariffs than are presently planned.

UK government proposes speed camera network covering every A-road in the name of fighting global warming

UK Speed Cameras to Monitor Every Stretch of Road

The UK Commission for Integrated Transport last year proposed a nationwide blanket of speed cameras as a means of fighting global warming. After a series of trials, the Home Office is now set to make this a reality by approving early next year the SPECS3 "distance over time speed measuring device" that will make it impossible to drive on any primary road in Britain without being tracked and subjected to an instant fine for exceeding the posted speed limit.

Stansted expansion decision is an act of war | Plane Stupid

The Government has given the go-ahead for the first expansion at Stansted, paving the way for 10% more flights each year. It's a decleration of war: on the climate, local communities and democracy.

Notice any parallels between witch hysteria and CO2 hysteria?

Zimbabwe: The Hunt for Witches - OhmyNews International

Dr Gordon Chavaunduka, a sociologist and also the president of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) notes that witch hunting is just one kind of abuse women in the country are facing. In other places, he says, the victim is condemned to death or expulsion from the community or physical assault by family members.

Arguing that witchcraft does exist, he says that the government should amend the Witchcraft Suppression Act, which he says was a colonial law that did not recognize the existence of witchcraft.

Zimbabwean sociologist Obert Jiya says cases of witchcraft were mainly linked to the country's economic environment and education and the demystification of certain myths that surrounds the subject are paramount.

"We need to look at the wider picture. It seems the upsurge in the country of cleansing ceremonies is also a reaction to sudden changes in Zimbabwe's social upheaval, the problems related to HIV-AIDS, freak weather conditions which have devastated agriculture, and huge increases in living costs."

People may cast around and find scapegoats in the form of defenseless women, says Jiya.

Nowadays, many more widows live alone than in previous times and if they are not seen much around the village, an air of mystery may grow up around them. They have no support systems to help them counter accusations of witchcraft. They are vulnerable and usually poor.

They may have the physical signs which influence those inclined to believe they are witches; for example, blood shot eyes from cooking over smoky fire all their lives, and the inescapable characteristics of old age like wrinkles, bags under the eyes, grey hair, twisted limbs and gnarled hands.

Jiya also argues that there will be those who are greedy and impatient to inherit the resources of the elderly. Trumped up accusations of witchcraft may be one of the easiest ways of getting their hands on coveted property. Or diviners find it more profitable than working the dusty soil of crop fields.

Supernatural powers of witches are believed in Zimbabwe to be at the heart of almost everything that brings sorrow, pain or shame, death, illness, insanity, impotence, barrenness, crop failure, accidents, the breakdown of marriages, unemployment, failure in exams, among other things. The recent violent political violence has created animosities within communities and as such led to many families trading accusations that they have been bewitched.

In recent years there has been some effort by the parliament of Zimbabwe to enact a law to protect victims, but the process was stalled after clashes emerged between faith-based organisations and traditional leaders over the issues of granting the traditional healers sweeping powers that would see them having the sole rights of identifying witches and in some instances prescribing medication.

ABC Won't Air Gore's Global Warming Ad

The media in the hip pocket of big oil and coal? Sounds like an outrageous claim given how much those industries get blasted on the networks. But that’s just what the CEO of the Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection’s “We Campaign” has alleged.

Hoopy Frood Dude: What Happened To Global Warming: Doom And Gloom Goes 'Back Of The Bus'

I know I can't be the only person who has noticed lately, the more or less extreme failure for there to be any reports on Global Warming as of late. I mean what happened to all the "it'll be the end of the world as we know it!" stuff we were being force fed by the (fair and balanced) media on a daily basis? Exactly how did Global whining, just simply cease to exist? Did Mother Nature just decide one day to halt the doom and gloom forecast in its tracks? Or has enough of America essentially had enough of the crap?

Doom and gloom, as it were, seems to have taken a back seat to issues that actually affect Americans.

Worldwide Sawdust:: "Drastic Changes Necessary" says United Steel Workers President

But can you run a steel mill on wind and solar power?

Al Fin: Carbon Dynamics in the Deep Oceans Surprising

This research is long overdue. Politicians are prepared to complete their slaughter of the world economy, based upon obsolete models of climate change. The models are worse than worthless, because they are based upon false assumptions, poorly thought out theories, and missing data. The death of economies is what happens with psychological neoteny in charge of governments, politicised quasi-scientific agencies such as the IPCC, politicised funding agencies and academic departments, and a populace that is too stupid to know when it is being taken for fools.

CO2-phobe takes fossil-fueled trip around the world; offsets the guilt with a tithe

Carbon Offestting and Solar Panels - Burdett, United States Travel Blog

The donation was for around 10% the cost of my RTW trip. Like tithing that feels about right. However I do want to be clear, mostly to myself, that offsetting is in no way a positive solution for our environmental problems. Nor is it a way to psychologically sooth any trauma I might incur from realizing what harm the emissions I cause create. It is merely a way to limit some of the destruction and to practice awareness of responsibility for my actions.

Canada: Alarmist letter sent; how many of the signatories are actually "top climate scientists"?

TheStar.com - Vote on environmental issues, scientists urge

VANCOUVER–More than 120 of Canada's top climate scientists have signed an open letter criticizing Conservative government policy and urging Canadians to vote "strategically" for the environment in next week's federal election.

From the open letter

Many may not realize that even if we immediately stabilized atmospheric greenhouse gases at current levels, the Arctic would still go ice free in the summer, between 10% and 25% of the world’s species would still be committed to extinction, and weather will continue to become more extreme. We have as much warming in store over the next few decades as has already transpired since preindustrial times when the Thames River in England used to periodically freeze over.

Check out the List of Signatures

One swing voter, swung | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

For the first time in this year's presidential debates, the two candidates were asked point-blank about what they would do to address climate change in the first two years of their administration.

This morning, Grist caught up with the young woman who asked the question -- Ingrid Jackson, 30, a senior psychology major at Tennessee State University in Nashville and a Children Services Officer for the Tennessee Department of Children Services.Jackson said that climate change and environmental destruction have been issues concerning her for years now, and that the lack of action has been frustrating.
...
"I remember being in grade school and talking about the hole in the ozone layer, and it just really affected me, because we only have one planet. What would we do? How would we change it? What could we do? It's kind of like a death sentence," said Jackson. "So, fast-forward and it's 20 years later and we still haven't done anything, really."

I think Jackson should spend some time looking at the graphs here.

Seattle - Exposing political wacks and media hacks » Inviting Al Gore puts Gregoire in camp of global warmers

As far as I’m concerned, Gregoire’s political swoon in favor of the global-warming myth and her invitation to Gore to be a guest speaker at her fund-raising luncheon should be all voters in Washington need to vote against her in next month’s gubernatorial election. Of course, there are many other reasons to vote her out of office, but her global-warming position should enough for voters to back her opponent, Dino Rossi.

The Seattle print and broadcast news media, already in Gregoire’s corner because of their Liberal stance, will undoubtedly be on hand to cheer Gore on and to report favorably on his remarks at the October 24 fund-raiser. Wouldn’t it a blessing and a hopeful sign if reporters, editors, and broadcasters would pin Gore down on his clearly lying statements in his controversial film and his speeches?

I have a gutty suggestion for Rossi to consider before the November election, if there is enough time. Wouldn’t it be great if he would invite some of the legitimate scientists to come to his own fund-raiser so that they and Rossi could refute Gore, Gregoire, and all other global-warming hoaxers?

The Death Of The Global Warming Climate Change Debate (Part One) « PA Pundits

Australian Climate Madness: Sydney Morning Herald - even the technology writers are AGW alarmists

I suppose in a paper like the Herald, you don't get published unless you subscribe to the AGW craze. Its green ooze seeps through the cracks in the tiles under the environmental desk and drips onto the technology desk on the floor below. Graeme Philipson, in a piece entitled "Weathering the Storm - how will the economic downturn affect the IT industry" manages to slip in a comment about "climate change" and "deniers"...

Idaho: Senate candidates debate

The issue of global warming illustrated clear differences among the three.
Risch said there is no reason to question that the earth is warming, but said it remains to be seen what the best idea is for slowing the problem. He suggested measures and incentives to reduce carbon emissions and put emphasis on nuclear power.
LaRocco said he supports the full menu of alternative energy sources and suggested his plan would help create 14,000 jobs in new alternative energy industry in Idaho.
But Rammell suggested global warming is science fiction.
"I do not support this myth that man is responsible," Rammell said. "We've got bigger problems."

Germany's Hans Joachim Schellnhuber: Fool or fraud?

One-metre sea-level rise this century, scientists say : Environment

Schnellnhuber, who is official adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on climate-change issues, said the new findings employed data unavailable to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for its most recent global warming report.

The two experts said the IPCC report had been based on data up to 2005 only, but since then ice loss in the Arctic had doubled or tripled.

Schnellhuber charged that 20 per cent of the loss of the ice sheet on Greenland could be directly linked to the added carbon dioxide emissions from new Chinese coal-fired power stations.

Note that current Arctic sea ice extent is similar to its 2005 extent

Mocking Al Gore at the Boston Herald?

That Savior of the Planet Al Gore is headed to Harvard on Oct. 22 to yap about the environment at the Tercentanary Theater. Do save us two seats down front.

South Phoenix gets $1 million to fight air pollution; climate change money unchanged

The Department of Environmental Quality has agreed to pay for a $1 million effort to track air pollution and screen children for respiratory illnesses in south Phoenix, following an outcry over a plan to instead use a polluter's fine to fight global warming.

The program was unveiled on the heels of a protest over the agency's decision to spend $1 million on the Western Climate Initiative, made up of seven western states and four Canadian provinces. That money comes from a $6 million fine levied against a Honeywell plant for discharging harmful solvents and jet fuel into the sewer system and soil.