Power Line - It's Really, Really Cold Out There!

In recent years, the scientific debate has shifted decisively in favor of the "skeptics." I've long thought, however, that to drive a stake through the heart of Al Gore-style alarmism, the climate would have to start cooling again. Otherwise governments, which love anthropogenic GW theory because the "solution" is to give them near-total control over their countries' economies, would likely declare the scientific debate over and impose carbon controls notwithstanding the public's lingering skepticism.

And, in what may be the nick of time, it has: the Earth's climate stopped warming a decade ago, and is now getting colder. Here in Minnesota, we're having a winter reminiscent of decades gone by. This morning it was 20 below in the Minneapolis suburbs; there were accidents everywhere because of snow, cold and black ice. That was balmy, though, compared to conditions up north. It was 40 below in International Falls this morning. (That's Fahrenheit, not Centigrade, and temperature, not wind chill.) That's colder than I've ever experienced in Minnesota.

Economy will impact environment policies: economist

Don't expect the American government of president-elect Barack Obama to spend a fortune combatting climate change, an economist said Saturday at Guelph's annual environmental symposium.

"The U.S. government's broke," University of Guelph economic professor Ross McKitrick told an audience of almost 150 attendees at Rozanski Hall.

"Don't look for any costly action in the next few years," said McKitrick, a skeptic of man-made global warming.

How you pay for tomorrow's scares, today • The Register

In a remarkably gullible news item, the BBC reported that 2008 was a ‘huge year for natural disasters’. "The past year has been one of the most devastating ever in terms of natural disasters... climate change [is] boosting the destructive power of disasters like hurricanes and flooding,” it proclaimed.