Editorial - Climate Loopholes - NYTimes.com

Offsets are an important cost containment mechanism since it is usually cheaper for a company to buy offsets in the near term and gain time to install the new technology necessary to eventually meet its targets. But they can be easily manipulated. Academic studies have found that many of the offsets purchased by industrialized countries under the Kyoto treaty turned out to be bogus or produced far less reductions than advertised.

This is a very real danger with some of the offsets in the House bill. For instance, the bill would allow polluters to meet their requirements not by paying farmers to put new conservation techniques in place but by paying them to keep doing things they were already doing. The result is that money changes hands, but the atmosphere is no better off. Offsets must be real and verifiable, or the integrity of the entire scheme is at risk.

Earthtalk: Do sunspots and solar flares affect climate change? | csmonitor.com

Ironically, the only way to really find out if sunspots and solar wind are playing a larger role in climate change than most scientists now believe would be to significantly reduce our carbon emissions. Only in the absence of that potential driver will researchers be able to tell how much impact natural influences have on Earth’s climate.

Exclusive WND/WENZEL POLL: 2 out of 3 Americans oppose Cap-and-Trade

Survey shows huge majority resists opening wallets for Cap-and-Trade...
Asked about the pending "cap and trade" legislation in Congress that restricts the amount of carbon dioxide and water vapor that can be produced – generating financial penalties for violators – only 23.7 percent of the respondents support the measure.

National Farmers Union › Blog Archive › NFU: Rural America Can Benefit From Climate Change Legislation

“To state it simply, the cost of no action must become a central part of the ongoing climate change debate. Models of climate change scenarios demonstrate increased frequency of heat stress, droughts and flooding events that will reduce crop yield and livestock productivity,” Johnson said.