Wonk Room » Washington Post Defends George Will: The Editorial Page ‘Checks Facts To The Fullest Extent Possible’

...In this instance, George Will’s column was checked by people he personally employs, as well as two editors at the Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicates Will; our op-ed page editor; and two copy editors. The University of Illinois center that Will cited has now said it doesn’t agree with his conclusion, but earlier this year it put out a statement (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/global.sea.ice.area.pdf) that was among several sources for this column and that notes in part that “Observed global sea ice area, defined here as a sum of N. Hemisphere and S. Hemisphere sea ice areas, is near or slightly lower than those observed in late 1979,”

Best wishes,
Andy Alexander
Washington Post Ombudsman

Short term trends from GISS Model E: “The model would be off by about 0.15C in the first five years” « Watts Up With That?

Without a large uptick in temperatures in the next few years, the modelers really have to go back to the drawing board (or they need to discover another “negative forcing” to keep the models on track to reality).

Too funny: Australian alarmist politician Christine Milne appears to argue against both emissions trading AND a carbon tax

Instead of fighting over how little we can get away with cutting our emissions, we need to commit to doing whatever it takes to deliver a safe climate to our children.
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If the Government has made such a mess of emissions trading, what guarantee is there that they would not do the same with a carbon tax? The moment the choice of a carbon tax is taken, you can bet that the big polluters would be walking corridors and knocking on doors making sure it is as weak and full of loopholes as possible. There is every chance that the inherent simplicity of a tax would be muddied beyond recognition by convoluted and intricate arrangements for compensation, offsets and rebates, muting the price signal and undermining the purpose of the exercise just as has happened with the CPRS. If the level of the tax is geared towards the CPRS's pitifully weak 5% emission cuts, very little will be achieved even if voluntary action is counted.

There are signs that the Government is beginning to recognise what the Greens have long said - that there is an abundance of cheap and easy emissions reductions out there for the taking in an economy as energy inefficient as our own.