British Allegedly Fight Climate Change With Fish and Chips - NYTimes.com

“You can’t eat enough French fries” to serve all the cars driven in the West, said Peder Jensen, a transport specialist at the European Environment Agency.

What About the Clouds, Andy? « Roy Spencer, Ph. D.

There are two main categories of radiative feedback involved in climate variability and climate change, and Dessler et al. have addressed only a portion of one of them.

Vocal Minority: Global Warming Lie #7: The Science Is Settled

It looks like that if the science is getting settled on AGW, it’s looking better for the denying side.

Politicizing science from the left: The dissenting state climatologists

Thursday evening I enjoyed the pleasure of an off-the-record dinner conversation with a leading "skeptic" of anthropogenic global warming. He talked at length about the political pressure that is brought to bear against scientists who have openly broken with the "consensus" promulgated by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore, and other putative authorities on the subject.
...
Imagine the outrage if Republicans had done these things, and remember these men the next time you are pinned to the wall at a cocktail party by some liberal whining that the Bush administration politicized science in some unique way. [Via Heliogenic Climate Change]

Kenya blames CO2 for problems

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Friday that global warming is a threat to food security, warning that it could wipe out efforts aimed at tackling poverty in Africa unless urgent steps are taken to address it.

Odinga noted that with rising population and unchecked changes in climate, food crisis is a disaster waiting to happen.

"No wonder we are moving from one food emergency to another, in between courting hunger, anger and death," Odinga said when closing a roundtable on disaster, risk reduction and climate change in Nairobi.

Feb '08: Frost affects Kenyan tea production

Four Kenyan tea factories have suspended operations following a frost attack on green leaf in Nandi South.
...
Eight years ago, multinational companies in the district suffered heavy losses after the region was hit by frost. More than 40,000 tea workers lost their jobs, while firms and smallholder farmers incurred losses running into millions of shillings.

Kenya, August '08:  Tea output falls 21 percent

The fall was caused by frost and dry weather. The trader said the cold weather prevailing in tea-growing areas meant production might not pick up soon.

Sept '08 | 'Snowfall' shocks Kenyan village

Residents of a village in central Kenya were shocked to see a blanket of hail resembling snow covering their land.

"I have not seen such a thing ever since I was born," said one resident of Nyahururu.

"Where shall we graze our cattle now? We do not know when this thing will melt," said another.

The LA Times profiles a helicopter-using, hamburger-eating, methane-fearing aquatic ecologist

Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice - Los Angeles Times

At 32, [Katey] Walter, an aquatic ecologist, is a rising star among the thousands of scientists who are struggling to map, measure and predict climate change. Parts of her doctoral dissertation on Siberian lakes were published in three prestigious journals in 2007: Science, Nature and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

According to one of her studies, methane emissions from Arctic lakes were a major contributor to a period of global warming more than 11,000 years ago.

"It happened on a large scale in the past, and it could happen on a large scale in the future," says Walter, who refers to potential methane emissions as "a time bomb."
...
Methane, although a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, breaks down more quickly. But when it does, it oxidizes into a carbon dioxide molecule, which can last more than a century in the atmosphere.
...
Before Walter perfected the methane trap, when she was a graduate student in Siberia, she would swim in near-freezing water, dodging leeches and muskrats. Once she caught pneumonia. Another time, her hair caught on fire as she ignited a methane seep.
...
[John E.] Walsh, at the International Arctic Research Center, emphasizes the "huge range of uncertainty" as to how much climate change methane emissions could trigger. "The potential is there for large releases. But there is also a risk of alarmism."

Is this graph alarming?

The Conspiracy-Theory Conspiracy Theory — Climate Resistance: Challenging Climate Orthodoxy

His blog’s slogan states that ‘Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts’. But Kleiman just makes his own ‘facts’ up while accusing others of ‘denial’. We’ve pointed this sort of thing out often enough that we no longer believe this is just a mistake, or mere hyperbole. This is a phenomenon far more widespread that ‘denial’. This kind of argument is rife amongst people who seem to feel the need to explain their lack of success in convincing the world of their politics. Blame the conspiracy.

Lawrence Solomon: The dirty truth - FP Comment

...a typical coal plant employing carbon capture technology requires between 24% and 50% more energy for every kilowatt-hour produced. [Via Heliogenic Climate Change]

Timothy Birdnow » How to Lose 193,000 miles of Ice

We have wars, terrorists, rogue nations with nuclear weapons, penicillin-resistant diseases, chemical weapons, biological weapons which may include plague and even smallpox, we have the spectre of total economic collapse through a spending spree of a trillion bucks, etc. Do we really need to worry about a computer game played by some over-funded geeks?

Mr. President, How about These Shovel-Ready Projects? — MasterResource

Replacing these older plants as they are retired from service with newer coal-fired power plants represents the quickest and lowest-cost way to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of current coal-fired power generation. And it does so without government subsidies or any deterioration in the quality of electricity service.

Climate change rhetoric spirals out of control - Christopher Booker - Telegraph

It was another bad week for the "warmists", now more desperate than ever to whip up alarm over an overheating planet.

Fred Singer and the vitriol in the global warming discussion | Salsa Verde

Lastly, I just thought I’d reprint some of the varying reaction to my story that I got in the last two days in calls and emails. Most of them were from people I’ll call skeptics. (Singer, by the way, said this community is not monolithic and has a wide variation of opinion; the variety of these reactions seems to prove his point.)...

Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis

Some people might ask why we don't simply switch to the EOS AMSR-E sensor. AMSR-E is a newer and more accurate passive microwave sensor. However, we do not use AMSR-E data in our analysis because it is not consistent with our historical data. Thus, while AMSR-E gives us greater accuracy and more confidence on current sea ice conditions, it actually provides less accuracy on the long-term changes over the past thirty years. There is a balance between being as accurate as possible at any given moment and being as consistent as possible through long time periods. Our main scientific focus is on the long-term changes in Arctic sea ice. With that in mind, we have chosen to continue using the SSM/I sensor, which provides the longest record of Arctic sea ice extent. [Via Climate Research News]

The Reference Frame: Man-made collapse of Arctic ice

Within 24 hours, four huge (black) holes developed near the North Pole. Half a million squared kilometers of ice were lost. The missing ice is nicely symmetric and carries the fingerprint of the human murderous acts against Ms Gaia.

If you look closer into the (black) holes, you will find a rather big text over there. It says "coal power plants are death trains in Auschwitz" - just like the popular prophet likes to say and pray. The debate is over: the industry is guilty! ;-)

Nicholas Stern: Pay me or face extended world war

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - If we don't deal with climate change decisively, "what we're talking about then is extended world war," the eminent economist said.

His audience Saturday, small and elite, had been stranded here by bad weather and were talking climate. They couldn't do much about the one, but the other was squarely in their hands. And so, Lord Nicholas Stern was telling them, was the potential for mass migrations setting off mass conflict.

Climate Resistance on Nicholas Stern

It is as if Stern had no critics. The entire house of commons appears to be in his thrall. One man, who now is Vice Chairman of a group of companies with a commercial interest in climate change legislation, is being cited in lieu of democratic debate.

Britain's freezing winter: the winners and losers in nature - Telegraph

Britain's harshest winter for 20 years has had a dramatic impact on Britain's wildlife, experts have revealed.
...
Ornithologists have reported that several species of small bird, such as bittern and Dartford warblers, have been hit particularly badly by the cold weather.

Puzzling stuff from Paul Fuhr:  He wants John Coleman to provide solutions for a non-problem?

Simply chalking things up to a massive conspiracy, hoax, or scam does nothing for the bigger picture. Instead of constantly refuting evidence, perhaps offering up a solution or two would be a positive move.

Health fear as climate scam heats up

TASMANIA faces an ominous and burgeoning epidemic of chronic disease in its climate change future, the State's Director of Public Health said yesterday.

Dr Roscoe Taylor said the spectre of an influenza pandemic was also very real.

The foreseeable risks to health worldwide had been documented, he said, but Tasmania faced its share of public health concerns brought about after events that could only be attributed to climate change.

He said the increased frequency of extreme weather would cause physical injury and psychological instability, as the population became anxious about storm, drought or extreme heat events.

"With changes in Tasmania's weather patterns, we will see more severe weather events," he said.

‘Unforgiving Math of Accumulating Emissions’ - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

“This not a matter of politics or morality or right or wrong. It is simply the unforgiving math of accumulating emissions.”

Todd Stern, the new United States special envoy on climate change, clearly understands the “bathtub effect” that [alleged] experts say makes the rising human contribution to the atmosphere’s greenhouse effect such a thorny challenge.

Wind Watch: Wind power is too fickle to be relied upon by Ohioans

The Feb. 11 Dispatch article “Winds of change” was misleading. It failed to disclose the three problems with wind energy: It is intermittent, volatile and unreliable. It is also misleading to talk about the number of homes served when describing wind-energy capability. In the first place, homes use only 37 percent of all energy in the United States.

Wind advocates use a figure pulled out of a hat (in this case 4,000 kilowatt-hours per home per year) for the homes-served number. My small home, which is all-electric, uses 20,000 kwh per year. Homes using wind energy must always have some reliable source for backup. The wind must be blowing at the right speed to produce electricity and does not do so reliably when most of the energy is needed. Electricity produced varies with the wind speed.

Copenhagen: One of the last big CO2-hysteric meetings of this century?

The average December in Copenhagen has 17 days of rain and a temperature of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius. So, those readers planning to travel there for the U.N. Climate Change Conference at the end of this year will want to book a warm, dry bed for recovering from all the talking, negotiating, talking about negotiating, reporting about talking and negotiating, and all the other crazy stuff sure to go down in the Danish capital.

So, reserve a room now. As in, soon. Possibly yesterday.

Conference organizers say they're already flooded with lodging requests, and while rooms are still available, the ones closest to the conference headquarters are largely booked 10-months out from the gathering.

Organizers are preparing for 12,000 to 15,000 visitors during the Dec. 7 to 18 conference, more than attended the Kyoto and Bali climate conferences. The actual number depends a lot on whether heads of state attend (entourages in tow), or merely send representatives, says Maja Kolmos of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Global Warming Survival Kit

The Global Warming Survival Kit, by popular science author Brian Clegg, is the must-have guide to overcoming extreme weather, power cuts, food shortages, and other climate change disasters. It provides clear-headed practical guidance so that you, your family and loved ones can prepare for for the end of the world as we know it.

Tropical Turtle Fossil Discovered in the High Arctic | How do we know that the Earth is "too hot" now?

Models suggest there may have been between eight times and 16 times as much CO2 in the atmosphere as there was just before the Industrial Revolution.
...
These findings, and others from researchers studying plants, dinosaurs and other vertebrates, helped reveal that the Earth was a very different place in Aurorachelys' time. For a long stretch — from about 100 million years ago to 40 million years ago — it was a hothouse, with diverse reptile communities living above the Arctic Circle and ferns, cycads and palms thriving near the South Pole. The waters around the North Pole were warm enough for a comfortable swim 55 million years ago, and year-round average land temperatures in the tropics may have reached 105 degrees Fahrenheit (today they rarely top the mid-80s). [Via Celebrity Paycut]

Global Village Idiot Blog: GLOBAL WARMING HAS ITS OWN PRESS AGENT -- IT'S CALLED "THE PRESS"

...Global Warming has become a hack writer's hook to hang a news story on. I mean, when was the last time you read anything in a newspaper about polar bears or giant, pre-historic snakes that didn't have to do with Global Warming?

It's such a great hook that a quick search of Google News for "Global Warming" today found this...

Twenty-five thousand and sixty-four stories about Global Warming. That's more stories than all the stories about Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton combined.

Milo Yiannopoulos' Blog :: Review: James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning

Until recently, we were told that the scientific community was in broad agreement about climate change. But, in the last few weeks, open warfare has broken out between experts presenting serious, evidence-based research and hysterical alarmists like James Hansen, who seem hell-bent on destroying the global economy through eye-wateringly expensive and totally unnecessary "emergency measures".

Cutting through global-warming partisans' fog - Letters Unlimited from The Plain Dealer - Cleveland.com

Randy Cunningham was correct that companies are responsible for misinformation. One needs to look no further than Enron's lobbying for the Kyoto Protocol to see how companies profit from the deception spread by Al Gore and other politically and financially motivated entities.

Mark Wallach asked when science was based on surveys. I suppose it began when science was settled on "consensus."

I am a 13-year-old who has extensively researched this topic from both sides, and no one paid me to write this.

What global warming? - Times-Standard Online

Brad Steiger's book “A Road Map of Time,” a documentary on climate energy cycles by PHD scientists Selby Maxwell and Ray Wheeler have shown that we have predictable natural periods of global warming and cooling trends just as we have predictable seasons each year. Please read this book before responding to my editorial. Ask yourself what type of global control will result from this nonsense; possibly increase in taxes, loss of freedoms, monitoring miles driven, fees for methane producing farm animals, or new government agencies for controlling our daily activities.
---
Gary Summers is a retired science teacher, he lives in Eureka.

Maryland: Electricity Bills Skyrocket, BGE Requests Rate Increase

...the PSC recommended a variety of other potential solutions, including reducing costs by increasing generation capacity with cleaner sources.

"Senator James Inhofe: Top Terrorist Threat to Planet Earth" « Thomas Paine’s Corner

Inhofe is correct that consensus is not evidence of truth (a scientific majority once ridiculed continental drift and Einstein’s theory of relativity, for example), but he is dead wrong to claim that the weight of evidence does not overwhelmingly support the conclusion that the planet is heating up due to human–not natural–causes.

The Harvard Crimson: Denying climate change is not just wrong, it’s dangerous

Just when I was starting to get used to the passionate debates that characterize meals in Annenberg, a recent dinner conversation threw me a curveball. Last week, I had the unique—and frustrating—privilege of dining with the last individual on earth who does not believe in global warming.

GORE LIED: iowahawk unplugged: "This Post Brought to You By the Green Movement"

Bakouma was one of approximately one million people who died of malaria last year. Almost all of them were like him: poor, young, and African. And almost all of those deaths could have been prevented through vaccines, insecticide-treated netting, and (gasp) DDT spraying. Empirical research supports the indoor residual spraying (IRS) of DDT as not only safe, but the most economical and effective method for malaria prevention. For example, a 1996 DDT ban in South Africa, pushed by environmental groups, led to a malaria epidemic with over 60,000 cases reported in 2000. After DDT spraying resumed in 2001, infections dropped 80% in one year. Facing a mounting death toll across Africa the World Heath Organization and USAID have recently lent support to IRS using DDT, but its adoption continues to be opposed by environmental extremists relying on shoddy science and fearmongering.

Notoriously Conservative: Utah Governor John Huntsman Running for President in 2012?

He supports civil unions, and is big into global warming.

The Scorecard: 2008 Congressional campaign news and analysis - Politico.com

Huntsman has been one of the leading Republican voices on dealing with climate change, and he was blunt in criticizing elements of his party for ignoring the impact of global warming.

California woes: Where Australia is probably headed | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

The Western Climate Initiative, touted as a model for national global warming legislation, will strain the region’s electricity grid and prolong the economic recession, a business group asserted Tuesday. The initiative was launched in September by seven Western governors, including California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, and four Canadian provincial premiers. It seeks to slash regional greenhouse gas emissions by about 15% below 2005 levels in the next 12 years.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Obama’s energy secretary surprised to learn he’s in charge of oil policy

Like Treacher says, the difference between Obama and Jesus is that Jesus knew how to assemble a cabinet.

GORE LIED: Here's some good environmental news, but the media warns us "to not read too much into it." A scientist downplays it too, "It may be a fluke...."

So, if it's good news on the environment it's downplayed as a mere "fluke". On the other hand, if this same reporter and same scientist were describing some slight condition that might indicate a potential negative impact on the environment whom among us would expect them to couch their words in such casual terms? On the contrary, they'd immediately be jumping to conclusions by saying, "this is consistent with what we expect to see with climate change" and otherwise ratcheting up the rhetoric to scare us into low carbon footprint submission.

Twitter / theboydbettis

The sweet IMAX movie about the underwater world was rocking until the small hints of the global warming agenda came out...oh well

Errors in IPCC climate science »  World War II “corrections” live on in dubious Hadley Centre SST data from deep in the Southern Ocean

It looks obvious to me that questionable WWII period corrections have inadvertently found their way into far southern ocean data to produce these surreal results over a very large area of ocean. Just backs up what I have said for years that much SST data has little integrity and longer term trends using SST’s can be dubious. One thing is for sure, we will never know exactly how this taxpayer funded shambles came about.

Satellite Data Show No Warming Before 1997. Changes Since Not Related to CO2 « An Honest Climate Debate

Fatal computer errors in IPCC climate models derive from the fact that none of the abrupt warmings and coolings on the record, especially since 1998, can be attributed to the greenhouse effect. Hence, all IPCC models purporting to predict (project??) climate a hundred years into the future are invalid and their predictions/projections must be discarded. To summarize: existing theory used by the IPCC can neither explain the observed climate nor predict the future. Carbon dioxide warming has been shown to be non-existent in the eighties and nineties, and the warming since 1998 is not carbonaceous in origin. It follows that Quijotic carbon dioxide policies like the Kyoto Protocol and the cap-and-trade laws should be abandoned. See [ICECAP] post here.

Yet more global warming inconvenient truths - Orange Punch - OCRegister.com

As Carter observes, garbage in, garbage out. Gee, such a measure of certainty certainly seems like a good enough reason to devastate the economy by regulating (restricting) emissions of harmless CO2, which by the way has never been shown to increase temperatures anywhere at any time, except in those GIGO computer models.

Pro-Heathrow demo challenges Carbon Cult killjoys • The Register

There's more than a whiff of snobbery about environmental objections to mass travel.

John Brignell, Number Watch

...Note the ageism contained in the accusation “Others are aging scientists with strong conservative beliefs, motivating them to challenge action on global warming not because they disbelieve its existence, but because they are ideologically opposed to regulation of pollution.” There are two main reasons that so many of us are old:

1. We were trained in the era when all scientists were taught to be sceptics (about everything) rather than believers.
2. We are retired and therefore not subject to blackmail within institutions that rely on handouts from state propaganda machines. Many younger scientists would speak out if they did not live in a climate of fear and the threat of careers without research grants.

It is an even more ludicrous than usual to claim that we are ideologically opposed to the regulation of pollution. Many of us were active in opposing real pollution when it was a problem (your bending author, for example, gave much time and money long ago to the cause of water purity, when our post-war rivers were a disaster area). What we do not accept is that carbon, the basis of all life on earth, is a pollution. [Via Greenie Watch]

Striking a nerve: Washington Post's defense of George Will's climate realism greatly distresses alarmists

Will was, simply, wrong, and dishonestly so. The source he cited reported that total ocean ice has remained more or less stable, but that Northern Hemisphere ice, predicted by global-warming models to shrink, has done so, while Southern Hemisphere ice, about which the models make ambiguous predictions, has grown. Thus Will's claim that the sea-ice figures support his what-me-worry optimism was grossly, obviously, and inexcusably wrong.
...
Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy
UCLA

Bloomberg: Arctic Sea Ice Underestimated for Weeks Due to Faulty Sensor

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A glitch in satellite sensors caused scientists to underestimate the extent of Arctic sea ice by 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles), a California- size area, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center said.

YouTube - Australian MP calls for a Carbon Tax

"We have asked a committee of inquiry to look at all options including a tax and I think we need to be open-minded," Mr Robb said.

Rich nations failing to cough up enough climate scam money? | guardian.co.uk

World's richest countries have pledged nearly $18bn to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, but less than $1bn has been disbursed

No Minister: An Inconvenient Truth about Margaret Thatcher

Well it's such a blow, I almost want to cry!
Iain Dale has revealed a provocative post that slates Margaret Thatcher as one of the original global warmongers.

Ice harvest failures: Where's the CO2 correlation?

2009: Hand-cut blocks build icy harvest - Utica, NY - The Observer-Dispatch

Last year’s harvest was canceled due to a warm winter, but this year the ice harvested was close to 18-inches thick.

1907: ICE HARVEST HALTED.; Warm Weather Brings Fear of Another Famine Next Summer

ALBANY, Jan. 4. -- Whether an ice famine will come again next Summer depends on the weather of the next few days. The warm spell and rainy period which set in last week has broken up the frozen surface of the Hudson River as far south as Coxsackie and north to Troy. The Mohawk ice also has broken up and moved down into the Hudson.

1911: Albany: ICE HARVEST ABOUT OVER.; Two-thirds as Large as Average Crop -- Warm Spell Softening It

1921: Wisconsin: Ice Harvesting 1880-1900

Finally, the unseasonably warm winter of 1920-21 finished the industry.

1930s, Colorado: Warm winters a big problem for ice crop

W. E. Doyle had a 20-year contract with the American Refrigerated Transit. In the early 1930's Monument began to have warm and open winters. The lawyer failed to put a clause in the contract "If due to weather conditions the ice crop failed, contract would not be fulfilled" so Doyle had to forfeit several thousand dollars, which broke him and forced him to sell to Mr. VanDiest.

1860, 1870: Ice crop failures on the East Coast

However, Mother Nature can be fickle. Farmed ice had one drawback—unseasonably mild weather could produce “ice famines.” When the Hudson River failed to produce its crop of ice during the warm winter in 1860, the ice trade centered on Maine’s Kennebec River. In 1870 the ice crop failed south of Boston.

World Bank continues to promote the climate change fraud

The World Bank study on climate change in Latin America warns of three other major threats besides glacier disappearance: the destruction of coral reefs by warming oceans, which could cause the Caribbean basin's ecosystem to “collapse”...
...
Pablo Fajnzylber, the World Bank's senior economist for the Latin American region, warned that agricultural production in South America as a whole will drop 12 to 50 percent by 2100 if new technologies and more resistant seeds are not introduced.

Very revealing talk by the World Bank's Rutu Dave

Now Rutu Dave works for the World Bank; several times, she says that they are trying to help their clients "make money from climate change".

High Hopes, Low Expectations, and Deep Fears - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

...Some of the issues were admitted in the Greenwire story: Democrats do not know what kind of bill they want (cap-and-trade? or a tax?); further divisions exist within the Democratic caucus; and numerous committees will, ahem, “help” this time, on the heels of last year's Barbara Boxer-led debacle. Now just toss those on top of the elephant in the bathtub — that the members are very wary of being blamed for doing this to you, particularly during a recession.

The Plug | Climate Skeptic

I have always been suspicious of climate models, in part because I spent some time in college trying to model chaotic dynamic systems, and in part because I have a substantial amount of experience with financial modeling. There are a number of common traps one can fall into when modeling any system, and it appears to me that climate modelers are falling into most of them.

Brazil's Ethanol Madness Exposed :: The Market Oracle

(Luft's claim completely ignores the fact that since 1980, Petrobras, Brazil's national oil company, has been growing its oil production by an average of 9 percent per year thanks to its offshore drilling prowess. Since 1998, Brazil has doubled its oil production and is now producing about 2 million barrels of oil per day. Neither Friedman nor Luft bothered to mention that fact.)
...
The most compelling quote in the piece is from Father Tiago, a 66 year-old Scottish monk who has been working in Brazil for decades. The Scotsman makes clear what he thinks about the issue: "The promise of biofuel is a lie. Anyone who buys ethanol is pumping blood into his tank,” he said. “Ethanol is produced by slaves."

Germany: Snow to continue as road salt runs out - The Local

The wintery weather currently testing the patience and road grit supplies across Germany is set to get even snowier, with up to a metre of new snowfall expected over the next few days in mountainous areas.
...
Die Welt newspaper reported on Saturday that not only were some road salt firms such as Heilbronner Südsalz unable to keep up with demand, deliveries were being held up due to the snow on the roads.
...
[Wolfgang Fricke of the German Weather Service] said he thought the changes were expressions of the climate change caused by man, but allowed for the possibility of the cause being part of a natural development lasting hundreds of years.

Al Gore on George Bush: Sound clip

"He betrayed this country! He played on our fears!"

Feb '07: "He played on our fears" Al Gore and global warming

"He betrayed this country!" Al Gore shouted into the microphone at a rally of Tennessee Democrats "He played on our fears."

Some believe that Al Gore is using junk science for political traction, while frightening many school age children and adults. The agenda driven media is helping Gore spread his folly.

Gore's quotes against President Bush on an entirely different subject could most certainly be applied to Gore when he talks about global warming.

On global sea ice levels, the alarmists blow it again

2/20/09 update: The "deeply disingenuous stuff" (see #3 below) has now been removed from the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center site.
----

1. 2/15/09: George F. Will - Dark Green Doomsayers - washingtonpost.com

According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of [late] 1979.

2. Among the alarmists, this caused great gnashing of teeth--if Will's statement were true, wouldn't that make the global warming fraud more difficult to sell?

I think it's telling that so many alarmists clearly had no idea how to find an ice graph online in order to check Will's statement for themselves.

3. The folks at a University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center site responded by publishing this deeply disingenous stuff

February 15, 2009
In an opinion piece by George Will published on February 15, 2009 in the Washington Post, George Will states "According to the University of Illinois' Arctic Climate Research Center, global sea ice levels now equal those of 1979."

We do not know where George Will is getting his information, but our data shows that on February 15, 1979, global sea ice area was 16.79 million sq. km and on February 15, 2009, global sea ice area was 15.45 million sq. km. Therefore, global sea ice levels are 1.34 million sq. km less in February 2009 than in February 1979. This decrease in sea ice area is roughly equal to the area of Texas, California, and Oklahoma combined.

It is disturbing that the Washington Post would publish such information without first checking the facts.

4. You can check the data yourself here [click for a larger version of the graph below].



Look at the red line in 1979 and 2009, and note that Will is correct--current global sea ice levels ARE equal to those seen in late 1979 (near the end of the last global cooling scare). Note that these are anomalies so that time of year shouldn't matter.

Public radio does a piece on the Sierra Club's gallant fight against reliable electricity

Living on Earth: Kicking Coal

YOUNG: Technology to strip the CO2 from coal as it's burned, and store it in the ground is probably at least a decade away. Some doubt it will ever really work at the scale needed. CO2 emissions, and what it will cost to control them—that's the burning issue with coal. And Sierra Club attorney Bruce Nilles spent the past two years criss-crossing the country to make sure it stayed on the front burner—firing up public interest, filing lawsuits, and talking to financiers about coal's carbon problems.

NILLES: We beat back 84 of these proposed coal plants—again, states saying no, courts saying no and investors saying no from coast to coast. Today we have somewhere between about 70 to 80 remaining. We still have a long way to go, but we've come a long way from the threat we were facing.

YOUNG: The latest Sierra Club victory came in the form of a letter from new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson. She's reviewing a last-minute memo from the Bush administration that gave proposed coal power plants a pass on greenhouse gases.

NILLES: For the last eight years the answer has been to put our heads in the sand and ignore carbon dioxide. And the days of pretending global warming does not exist and that carbon dioxide will not be regulated are simply over. The Obama administration is gonna use existing authorities to begin to take a bite out of global warming and do our part.

Power to the People - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Dr. Clemente agreed that EIA forecasts are crucial because their data projections are used by energy-policy makers in the U.S. and in other countries to estimate the impact of climate-change policy, develop renewable portfolio standards, and — most disturbing — to justify cancellation of coal-based generation. But he noted that EIA has, for example, in only four years (2006 thru 2009 projections) inexplicably reduced the forecast of U.S. electricity generation (needed to meet requirements) in the amount of Texas, New York, and Florida combined. Stop and think about that one for a moment.

Nice phrase from Revkin

Roundup: CO2 Rules, Maps, Eroding Arctic - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

Where to start. This week saw the Environmental Protection Agency give definitive signs it was moving to regulate new sources of CO2, the gas contained in the bubbles in beer. So far, all of the criteria air pollutants under the agency’s purview — substances from lead to sulfur dioxide — have a direct impact on human health and welfare, while risks from the carbon dioxide’s buildup remain indirect, through the rising influence on climate. Can the agency avoid years, if not decades, of litigation over details not dealt with in the Supreme Court decision on carbon dioxide? Stay tuned.

More on the Chu Effect

Feb 4, 2009: U.S. energy secretary raises alarm about Sierra snowpack

In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, all but eliminating a natural storage system for water vital to agriculture.

Feb 19, 2009: Heavy snows again block main road to Sierra ski resorts 

More than 30 avalanches buried a seven-mile stretch known as the Arctic Circle beneath three to five feet of snow, Kasinga said. In two or three spots, there are snow slides 25 to 30 feet deep, she said.

Although bad weather or rock slides close the route briefly almost every year, this is the third major closure on Highway 18 since Christmas.
...
Down the road at Bear Valley Ski & Board Shop, there also was a noticeable lull.

"It takes us down to about half," said Stewart Malcolm. "It slows business down quite a bit, especially with ski rentals."
...
The two ski resorts average 75 to 80 inches of snow a year, but have 94 to 120 inches this year, Riddle said. Most of the snow has fallen in three major storms.

A December storm dropped four feet of snow, he said. A January storm brought more than two feet. And 18 to 20 inches fell Sunday and Monday, he said.

Chris Horner - Canard a la Recession: The Cap-and-Trade Tax

Of course, the last thing that those who seek a carbon dioxide cap-and-trade scheme want to do is offer the less-harmful direct tax on emissions, given that the entire point of cap-and-trade is to avoid the transparency of such a measure. Cap-and-trade isn’t the preferred option for reasons of it being “the most efficient way to reduce emissions” as is commonly misstated; that is inarguably done through a tax. [Via Heliogenic Climate Change]

Interesting alarmist podcast from the height of CO2 hysteria (Feb. '07): CBC News In Depth: Spin Cycles

The PR firms on the other side are, in [Jim Hoggan's] mind, behaving unethically, and he uses words like "criminal" to describe their behaviour. Hoggan oversees a lively climate change blog that contains lots of useful information on the groups leading the fight against the Kyoto Protocol and global warming.

Around the 14:50 mark at the podcast, Mark Hertsgaard suggests that journalists should tell the public who to believe on global warming, since Joe Q. Public is "busy" and the journalists are allegedly good "analysts of information".

Speaking of journalists and global warming, here's one of my favorite quotes from Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger

Mr. Munger says that Carbon Dioxide is what plants eat. And that he does like it a little warmer than colder. Charlie Munger goes on to say about climate change, "So what we are really talking about with global warming is dislocation. Dislocations could cause agony though. The sea level rising would be resolved with enough time and enough capital. I don't think it's an utter calamity for mankind though. You'd have to be a pot-smoking journalism student to think that."

About Mark Hertsgaard

Mark Hertsgaard, an independent journalist based in San Francisco, is the author of five books that have been translated into sixteen languages. He covers climate change for Vanity Fair, The Nation, Time and Die Zeit and has written for many of the world's leading newspapers and magazines.

About James Hoggan (mentioned above), from a Huffington Post comment section

DeSmogBlog

Funded by James Hoggan (James Hoggan & Associates) and John Lefebvre (Former President of Netseller Group)
So who is James Hoggan? He's a public relations man, based in Vancouver. His firm, James Hoggan and Associates, is positioned as a feel-good local operation with clients in all the "right" public and private sectors. He also sits on the board of the David Suzuki Foundation.

One of his side efforts is a blog operated out of Hoggan and Associates. Funded by retired Internet bubble king John Lefebvre, the blog has one full-time and three part-time staff. They spend their time tracking down and maliciously attacking all who have doubts about climate change and painting them as corporate pawns.
There has been no mention on the blog of James Hoggan's client list. They include or have included the National Hydrogen Association, Fuel Cells Canada, hydrogen producer QuestAir, Naikun Wind Energy and Ballard Fuel Cells. Mr. Hoggan,is a Businessman.
But it is as a climate commentator that Mr. Hoggan gets carried away. On The Denial Machine, Mr. Hoggan is allowed to go on at some length about how climate skeptics are not true scientists, are not qualified, or have no expertise.
Lefebvre, was arrested by FBI agents at his Malibu home and charged with conspiring to promote illegal gambling by transferring billions of dollars of cyberspace bets placed by U.S. citizens with offshore gaming companies.

Global Warming Hitting Russia Harder than Any Other Country, Experts Warn

Vienna, February 19 – The Russian Federation will be more profoundly and negatively affected by global warming over the next 40 years than will any other country, a projection that Russian experts and officials say make it critical that Moscow take the lead both domestically and internationally to combat this trend.

Top weatherman says global warming good for Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Global warming may be a worry to low-lying lands but Russia's top weatherman said Wednesday that warmer temperatures would help to cut heating bills in one of the world's coldest countries.

Scientists capture "dramatic" footage of Arctic glaciers allegedly melting in hours - Telegraph

Dr Box, from Ohio State University, thinks the way to combat melting glaciers is to cover them with blankets that will reflect the sun’s rays.

Dr Box said: “We’re in the midst of a climate catastrophe and glaciers are the epicentre of that problem.

“Glaciers around the planted are decanting into the oceans at shocking rates and I want to stop that.”

World Climate Report » Slowdown in Greenland

Probably the largest surprise in the article can be seen in the Figure 3 in which we can see the velocity changes at many sites over the 17-year period. The authors note that “The overall picture obtained by averaging all stake measurements at all sites for individual years indicates a small but significant (r=0.79, P < 0.05) decrease of 10% in the annual average velocity over 17 years”. Despite all the talk about moulins, melting, rapid acceleration of ice, van der Wal et al. reveal that the ice movement in western Greenland over the past 17 years has … slowed significantly!

Audubon tries to cash in on the climate change scam?

From this Audubon doc [PDF]:

Amid mounting concerns over accelerating global climate change, Audubon looked to the birds to determine if and how these sensitive creatures might be responding to changes here in the continental U.S.
...
It will take action by America’s millions of bird enthusiasts—and their elected representatives—to address the problem of climate change while there’s still time.
...
Whether seen in the movement of the birds, or the melting of ice caps, the evidence cannot be denied—ecological disruption is underway.
...
The United States should set mandatory limits on global warming pollution and establish a cap and trade program that is consistent with preventing average global temperature from rising another 2° Fahrenheit. Any such program should require pollution permits to be auctioned, use the revenue to ensure a rapid transition to a clean energy economy, and provide the necessary assistance for helping people, wildlife, and ecosystems adapt to climate changes caused by global warming.

Snowstorms wreak havoc: World: News: News24

Nis - Heavy snowfall has blocked a key trans-European highway in Serbia, leaving hundreds of motorists trapped amid freezing weather that has already claimed three lives, reports said on Friday.

Water Vapor Feedback Loop Will Cause Accelerated Global Warming, Alarmist Professor Still Claims

“It’s a vicious cycle – warmer temperatures mean higher humidity, which in turn leads to even more warming,” Dessler explains.

1. If Dessler is right, why didn't warming follow the early 20th century warm period, rather than decades of cooling?

2. If Dessler is right, why didn't warming follow the late 20th century warm period?

Vámonos - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Mexico’s AGW plan appeared around the time of the Bali conference, and it is heavy on preventing deforestation — which is an indication that they, like major emitters Brazil and Indonesia (among others), are keen on getting scores of billions in wealth transfers for promising not to cut down trees, while at the same time insisting on no international monitoring. There was a big push for re-forestation rent-seeking at the international level during Bali, which numerous signs (including from domestic sources, which I suppose is only fair) indicate will only escalate in the coming months.

How not to measure temperature, part 83: No smoking please « Watts Up With That?

But that is likely swamped by the larger local signal near the temperature sensor -
...
- the waste heat from the sewage treatment plant.

Co2-hysteric President praises Co2-hysteric mayor

“You know, instead of debating the existence of climate change, mayors like Greg Nickels in Seattle are leading efforts to make cities greener and more efficient,” Obama said during the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting.

Models: Global Warming Means More Dire Respiratory Problems

As the Earth slowly warms and weather patterns start to go non-linear, the side-effects for human health aren't always what you'd expect. In coming years, hospitals need to brace themselves for a spike in hospital visits due to respiratory problems, especially during summer.

Reality: Cooling Means More Dire Respiratory Problems

“Deaths due to respiratory disease increase 12 days after a fall in temperature.”

Provisional figures for 2007-08 reveal there was an increase in the number of excess winter deaths in Wales. There were around 1,500 excess winter deaths during winter 2007-08, 7% more than in the previous winter. Over 80% of these deaths involved people aged 75 or older.

Basic Geology Part 2 - CO2 in the Atmosphere and Ocean « Watts Up With That?

[Steven Goddard] This week is National Engineering Week in the US, when elementary school children are encouraged to learn math and science. Don’t they deserve and need accurate information? Are Laurie David’s book and Al Gore’s movie acceptable in a science classroom?
Whether or not you believe that the burning of fossil fuels significantly affects the earth’s temperature, the ice core data offers no evidence to support that - no matter how big the graph is.

Dash for wind is no more than a gravy train bubble (From Hereford Times)

Analysis of latest government statistics indicates that the contribution of wind-energy is being greatly overestimated. Official figures show no evidence of any contribution from UK wind-farms to a reduction in CO2 emissions from 2002 to 2007 when most of the UK’s wind-farms were developed. In fact CO2 emissions from electricity generation rose by 10.5 per cent. Most of this (6.4 per cent) was due to reduced efficiency in generation caused at least in part by the difficulties of assimilating a rapidly fluctuating energy source into the national grid. In addition, the statistics give no evidence of a worthwhile contribution to electricity supply.

The dash for wind has nothing to do with green energy. It is another gravy-train bubble like the one which led to the banking crisis and is being driven by greed for power and money amongst landowners, industrialists and politicians. And when investors begin to realise that they have been taken for a ride, who will clear up the mess that’s been created in our countryside?

STEVE DAVIES, Whitelye, Catbrook, Chepstow.

Al Fin: Planet Earth Adjusts Over Time to Recycle CO2 -- Planetary Rainforests Grow and Gobble Greenhouse Gases at Record Rates

We are living through a disastrous convergence of the climate zombies and the Obama zombies.

Bravo, Andy Alexander: The Washington Post’s mystifying defense of global warming denialism « John McQuaid

There’s a forest-for-the-trees absurdity here: The Washington Post has, apparently to avoid conceding error to critics it dislikes, closed ranks behind a piece denying what a nearly universally-accepted scientific fact — one that is a very grave threat to humanity — and all-but explicitly backed the distortion of science. It’s crazy. Andy Alexander is new on the job. If he’s smart, he’ll take a second look at this one.

Minnesota: Glyndon area wind farm draws opposition

Many landowners voiced strong opposition. They say the company building the farm, Noble Environmental Power, can't be trusted; at one time, calling it slimy.

Arkansas Ice Storm was Worst in Modern History

Last month's ice storm was the most destructive in Arkansas' modern history.

Did global warming cause this?: Another Bumper Harvest In Hanoi

Another bumper harvest in Hanoi has cut vegetable prices so low that local farmers can’t sell their crops.

Nieman Watchdog > Ask This > Nine climate questions for President Obama

...as we discovered last year, when the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act crashed and burned in the Senate, there’s no substitute for presidential leadership on this issue. And as Obama himself discovered with the stimulus bill, letting Congress drive legislation and then joining the fray late doesn’t necessarily lead to the bill the president wants.

So what does the president want? It is time for Obama to make that clear — not by wading into the all the minutiae, but by explaining to the American people why a climate bill is important and what basic principles he thinks should guide it. In November, Obama called for a cap-and-trade system leading to 1990 emission levels by 2020, and an 80% reduction below 1990 by 2050. But since then, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has raised doubts about that commitment, telling the New York Times in a recent interview that alternatives to cap-and-trade, such as a carbon tax, might still emerge, and that “in today’s economic climate,” a cap-and-trade regime for the U.S. “might not be completely politically sellable” because it would put American industries at a disadvantage to their counterparts in non-carbon-constrained economies such as India and China.

Grist - Viral Video and Print Advertising Competition - Brief | Zooppa.com

Mooooooo... vrrrrooom... munch, munch... pffffft... these are the sounds of global warming. Whether you’re driving your car, eating a burger or growing rice, it’s easy to be a part of the global warming problem. But being part of the solution? Not so much. Ummm... wait – is there a solution?

That’s where Grist comes in.
...
At Grist, they understand that global warming is no laughing matter, but they also know that they won’t engage an audience by being dull or sanctimonious. They want the 20 – 30’s, urban progressive crowd to join us in the conversation and creating the solution. So laugh now or the planet gets it.

Alright Zoopers, it's time to motivate, captivate and regurgitate your best videos or banners to let the public know that the global warming conversation is hip and happening on Grist. There will be $5,000 in prizes for the best edutainment videos/banners that will not only make people laugh but have a message that is both compelling and relevant. You have until March 1st 2009 to partecipate!

Can Citizen Action Stop Climate Change? | Green Day | Fast Company

To avoid alienating the skeptics, or just those who feel the US has other priorities right now, these campaigns would be smart to remain focused on the link between green energy and green jobs.

2009 Oscar Predictions From an Oddsmaker Turned VP Nom | Gambling911.com

I spent 13 years living amongst the Hollywood hypocrite crowd in Malibu, California.
...
They cry over global warming and brag incessantly about their politically-correct electric cars, but fly private jets and ride in limos to accept their awards- using up more gas in one trip than the rest of us spend in an entire year (see Al Gore).
...
In case you've never spent time with the Hollywood crowd, let me educate you- they are such fakes, frauds, hypocrites and spoiled brats, they would make you want to vomit if you spent 5 minutes around them. They are the biggest bunch of dysfunctional headcases, neurotic flakes, and pathetic souls you've ever seen in your life.

But after spending 13 years putting up with their pathetic whining and nauseating political correctness, I know these people like the back of my hand. I can tell you how they think...how they vote (always for the most revoltingly liberal candidate)...and how they vote for the Oscars. EVERYTHING - and I mean everything- they say, think and do is colored by their bleeding-heart socialist political views. So with all that in mind, here are my 2009 Oscar predictions...

GUINEA: Record cold snap destroys crops, kills hundreds of animals

DAKAR, 20 February 2009 (IRIN) - Near-freezing temperatures in north-central Guinea in January destroyed crops and livestock on which thousands of people depend for food as well as cash.

Elderly locals told IRIN they had never seen cold this intense in Mali, a town in Guinea’s Labé region.

YouTube - Alex Jones: Global Warming

Those looking for the culprit responsible for global warming have missed the obvious choice - the sun. While it may come as a newsflash to some, scientific evidence conclusively shows that the sun plays a far more important role in causing global warming and global cooling than any other factor, natural or man-made.

Daily Howler (March '07): Gore advocates doing BOTH a carbon tax and cap and trade

CLINTON [see the 3:00 mark at the YouTube video above] (continuing directly): I wanted to just ask for some further clarification on a couple of your proposals, which I find extremely intriguing. The first—to follow up on Senator Alexander, if there were a carbon-based tax, would there be a need for an economy-wide cap and trade system?

GORE: They are not either/or. We can do both. I am in favor of both. Many people discuss cap and trade and a CO2 tax, revenue-neutral CO2 tax swapping for employment taxes as if you have to pick one. As a practical political matter, there would be some people who would say only one of the above. I think the most effective approach is to do both.

Heliogenic Climate Change: Green policies are killing California - "lost 25% of its industrial work force since 2001"

Does the nation really want to follow California's disastrous example? Do the zealots at EPA know or care about what has happened to California?

Obama Agrees: There is “No Silver Bullet” at Oil Change

The long and short of it is that if Obama believes there is no “silver bullet” on climate change, that rules out CCS being applicable for tar sands. And if there is no CCS, there is no tar sands, whatever its proponents might argue.

Coming soon to a park near you?

It looks like something out of a science fiction movie – but a giant wind turbine with a viewing platform at its top could soon be built in a park near you.
...
Its viewing platform – accessible by lift or stairs – has been visited by more than 50,000 people since it opened in 1999.

Reid promising to apply the ham-handed Congressional touch to global warming legislation « HoodaThunk?

Driving straight ahead into a decision using information generally recognized to be factually incorrect at best and fraudulently wrong at worst is not a recipe for success. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is saying that the Senate will move on global warming legislation this year, likely later in the summer. (Ed.: I can’t help thinking the reason he’s waiting to do it then is so he can reduce the chances of being hit with the Gore Effect and getting stuck announcing the Dem effort to reduce global warming in the middle of a blizzard.)

The science that’s been actually done on the subject is leaning very heavily toward the conclusion that CO2 increases follow temperature increases and not the other way around. The public is becoming very much aware of this fact as I mentioned the last time this subject was getting national press out of DC. The proposed actions coming out of the Democrat side of this debate are to cap “greenhouse gases” which the science appears to show have less to do with the warming trend than suggested. The only information offered in support of the notion has been debunked. (I’m referring to the now-infamous “hockey stick graph.”)

Moonbattery: EPA to Start Regulating All Human Activity

Carbon dioxide is an essential element of our atmosphere that plants need to live, and that is generated by all human activity, including breathing. There is no evidence that it causes the natural and inevitable process of climate fluctuation. But by pretending that it is harmful to the planet, the government has established that literally everything we do is bad and subject to suppressive legislation. The negative consequences for our economy — not to mention our liberty — could not be overstated.

Unless we revolt against the leftist lunatics who are imposing this bizarre new form of totalitarianism, America will soon be reduced to sub–Third World living standards. This might be a good time to look into immigrating to communist China — for the freedom to generate wealth.

Why Utilities Are Not Well-Suited To Deliver Relief To Low- And Moderate-Income Consumers In A Climate Bill

Even a modest 15 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions would cost the poorest fifth of Americans an average of $750 a year per household. These households have average annual incomes of only about $15,000. Without relief to offset these higher costs, millions of households would be driven into poverty, and those who already are poor would become significantly poorer.

Alarmist Roberts: "Most heartening email of the day"

MoveOn preps for gigantic green economy campaign

Max Schulz Says Renewable-Energy Technologies Are a Bad Investment of Government Funding - WSJ.com

If the green-jobs claim sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.

There's an unavoidable problem with renewable-energy technologies: From an economic standpoint, they're big losers. Renewables simply cannot produce the large volumes of useful, reliable energy that our economy needs at attractive prices, which is exactly why government subsidizes them.

The subsidies involved are considerable. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported in early 2008 that the government subsidizes solar energy at $24.34 per megawatt-hour (MWh) and wind power at $23.37 per MWh. Yet even with decades of these massive handouts, as well as numerous state-level mandates for utilities to use green power, wind and solar energy contribute less than 1% of our nation's electricity.

Compare the subsidies to renewables with those extended to natural gas (25 cents per MWh in subsidies), coal (44 cents), hydroelectricity (67 cents), and nuclear power ($1.59). These are the energy sources (along with oil, which undergirds transportation) that do the heavy lifting in our energy economy.
...
Digging deeper each month to pay for expensive renewable energy, consumers will have less to save or spend in other areas of the economy. Killing jobs in efficient industries to create jobs in inefficient ones is hardly a recipe for economic success. There may be legitimate arguments for taking dramatic steps to fight climate change. Boosting the economy isn't one of them.

Heroic humans in fossil-fueled motorboat save dolphins dying from lack of global warming?

Using a small motorboat, the fishermen towed one dolphin with rope out to a wider patch of open water, albeit one which is still surrounded by ice.

Shock: I agree with an entire sentence written by Joe Romm

If you want to find the best journalism now on climate — the most science-based, the most fact-based, the most relevant to your lives and the lives of your children and the people you care about and indeed all of humanity — you must go to the web, specifically the blogosphere.

The dangers of letting math-challenged politicians set US energy policy: yet another exhibit

First, don’t look to the federal Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 for guidance. That law calls for fuel wholesalers to use 1 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol by 2013.

“There is no way at all that will happen,” says Ron Oster, an analyst at Broadpoint Amtech who tracks the emerging biofuels sector. The BP-Verenium facility in Florida will likely be the first–or second–full-sized next-gen biofuels refinery built in the U.S. It will churn out 36 million gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol – and it won’t produce the first gallon until 2012. To hit the 1 billion mark would require industry to build another 28 refineries of the same size.

Good luck. Credit and debt markets remain frozen. The technology remains new and untested, leading the industry to move slowly. That target simply won’t be hit, which will trigger a government subsidy creating a $3 per gallon floor for cellulosic ethanol.

The same law calls for 16 billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol in the U.S. transportation fuel mix by 2022. To get there, the industry would need to build 444 refineries the size of the BP-Verenium collaboration. These biofuels refineries can’t get too big because then they would outgrow their feedstock supply.

To put that in perspective, there are fewer than 150 fossil fuel refineries in the U.S. At least the landscape would be familiar—the U.S. Gulf Coast offers a longer growing season ideal for sugar cane, sorghum, and miscanthus.

What about the economics? The BP-Verenium facility will cost between $250 million and $300 million to build and create 140 fulltime jobs in the refinery and farm. That’s pretty pricey – about $7 to $8 to build each gallon of capacity, more than three times the cost of ethanol refineries.It will also take 20,000 acres to grow enough plants to turn out 36 million gallons of ethanol.

If the BP-Verednium refinery serves as a template—and it’s likely costs will fall and yields will rise over time—the industry would create 50,000 jobs and sprawl across 13,600 square miles. That’s not far shy of two New Jerseys covered in grass. Oh yeah, and it’ll cost somewhere around $100 billion to build it all.

Twitter / Fred

As an Apple shareholder it gave me great pleasure to vote against Al Gore for Board of Directors.

Chuckle-worthy headline: "Arctic explorers ready 'to swim' to North Pole" - Telegraph

A team of Arctic explorers, led by Pen Hadow, travelling to the North Pole to investigate climate change, may have to swim for up to two hours a day because of melting ice caps.
...
We estimate that up to 15 per cent of our time – over 150 hours – will be spent in the sea in immersion suits with polar boots and Arctic clothing underneath," he said.

So you're planning to swim there in winter, when an attempt to kayak there in summer fell 600 miles short?!

Australia: Opposition hardens to climate change plan | smh.com.au

THE future of the Government's key climate change policy was uncertain yesterday as the minister, Penny Wong, renewed her attack on the Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, and asked him not to block it from coming into law this year.

"The challenge will be for Mr Turnbull to stand up to the climate change sceptics in the Coalition who do not want action taken on climate change," Senator Wong said at a forum of the Australian Business Economists in Sydney.

Accusing Mr Turnbull of backing away from his support for a carbon emissions trading scheme, the policy's centrepiece, Senator Wong mocked what she called his prevarication, saying: "It is time for the curtain to close on Mr Turnbull's Hamlet soliloquy on climate change."

Despite the senator's promise to introduce draft legislation for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme soon, opposition is hardening within the Coalition and among Greens senators as businesses and environment groups remain critical of the plan.

The Opposition spokesman on the environment, Greg Hunt, said yesterday the Coalition supported the concept of emissions trading, but "what we do not support is sending Australian emissions to China along with Australian jobs".

Mr Turnbull indicated this week the Coalition would not support the scheme without large concessions from the Government, and the Opposition spokesman on emissions trading, Andrew Robb, floated the idea of supporting a carbon tax instead of an emissions trading scheme.

Senator Wong accused Mr Robb of using a carbon tax as decoy politics. "Andrew Robb and his sceptic friends know it is not going to happen, so it is perfectly safe for them to promote it," she said yesterday.

Skiinfo - Up To 2m Of New Snow In Seven Days for Austria And Switzerland

It is still snowing heavily in Austria, German and Switzerland with many resorts receiving more than a metre of new snow in the past week, and www.skiinfo.com issuing numerous powder alarms to subscribers.

Switzerland had the largest falls of all with Sörenberg reporting an incredible 210cm (seven feet) of snow falling in the past seven days (the biggest fall of 60cm/two feet yesterday, February 17th). St-Cergue La Dôle came close with 200cm (6.6 feet), 50 cm of which also fell yesterday. Zermatt continues to have the biggest snow depth in Europe and probably the world with 7.12m (24 feet) on the glacier. [Via ICECAP]

Dispatch from Bryan Walsh's world: The Race Toward a Climate Change Cure - TIME

...a growing chorus of experts is beginning to doubt whether cap-and-trade alone will reduce CO2 enough to curb runaway climate change. [Bryan--can we see a list of names, please?]
...
The Brookings idea is one among many, but what's clear is that while the country is increasingly coming to agree on the scale of the threat posed by climate change [Bryan--could we see some polling information that backs up your claim?], we have yet to pose solutions that can match that scale. Taking federal energy R & D off life support is one way, but we'll need others.

Massive UN-run "crack and trade" program needed?

Feb. 19, 2009 -- Whether devastating faults, dank caves or mud cracks on a drying desert plain, Earth's surface is riddled with fractures. Now a new study had found that the cracks exhale large quantities of gas, perhaps enough to affect global warming.

A dispatch from Pachauri's world: U.N. climate panel chief sees strong deal ahead

Pachauri said he saw growing political will to consider the global financial downturn an opportunity to build low carbon economies.
...
Pachauri told Reuters late on Thursday there was global realisation that the financial problems were "temporary" while the climate challenge was an existential issue.
...
However, a U.N. climate panel said emissions levels need to peak by 2015 in order to avoid the worst of global warming.

It says rich nations need to cut by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to keep temperatures below what some nations see as a "dangerous" 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) rise.

"There is no choice," Pachauri said, referring to a deal by the year-end. "They will have to agree."

What Liberals Are Teaching Your Kids

Nickelodeon wants to teach your kids to “shoot SUV’s in your mission to destroy the carbon monsters!”.

Your kids are falling behind in math and science in public schools and the Nick network has targeted your 9 year old with a videogame that takes sponge bob out “shooting” pollution and SUV gas guzzling trucks with a “green gun”!

This kind of stuff would have made Joseph Goebbels very proud.
If you want to start a cult of global warming alarmists I guess you need to start early and often.

John Laforet’s Blog » Blog Archive » Does Premier McGuinty Really Support Spending $660 Million to Create 200 Temporary Construction Jobs?

Let’s face it, on a project that no wind expert to date thinks is going to be economically viable. And to think, a few days ago $24 Million spent on lawyers looked bad. Based on reasonable calculations, it can be expected that the proposed offshore wind turbines in Scarborough will lose a collective $310 million bucks over 20 years.

Want to challenge my facts? Call me names? Just read this first.

YouTube - Astronomer devises giant sun shield to reverse global warming

Professor Roger Angel thinks he can diffract the power of the sun by placing trillions of lenses in space and creating a 100,000-square-mile sunshade.

Each lens will have a diffraction pattern etched onto it which will cause the suns rays to change direction.

He intends to use electromagnetic propulsion to get the lenses into space.

If work was started immediately Prof Angel thinks the sunshield could be operation by 2040.

David Slade: Do your climate homework

It seems there are almost no scientists who do not believe that rapid, human-induced climate change is happening. And those very few who still claim otherwise, all seem to get their funding from multinational corporations who stand to lose from reduced oil consumption.

No scientific papers that refute the climate change theory have been published in reputable scientific journals in recent years, whereas thousands of scientific peer review papers have been published supporting climate change theory.

Hockey, Swan trade blows on economy, climate change - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Mr Swan defended the decision to shut down his own inquiry into an emissions trading scheme, but said the Government remains committed to the plan.

"We're not going to delay the legislation," Mr Swan said.

"We don't make any apologies for a slower start because of the global recession."

Upon hearing his defence, Mr Hockey lambasted the Treasurer.

"You don't know whether you're Wayne or Wendy," he said, to laughter from the audience.

Twitter / Bravo, Mark Azevedo

Greenpeace recruiter at my doorstep was telling me about global warming, I said: "I'll tell you what I told the Mormons, IT DOESN'T EXIST."

Investor's Business Daily -- Our Self-Created Energy Problem

The unpleasant outcome of all this will be higher electricity costs for consumers that will act as a tax increase, which will, as all tax hikes do, hurt the economy.

Blocking tar sand oil and weakening the country's ability to generate electricity because it's politically correct to oppose CO2 would be foolish.

It would dilute our quality of life, restrain economic growth and increase our dependence on hostile regimes.

That's not the change that voters were hoping for in November.

Australian Climate Madness: Idiotic Comment of the Day - John Connor

Climate change is not just about warmer weather. It's about wilder weather. Climate change costs ... climate change kills."

A "Right-wing global warming denier propaganda machine"

What do you think a "Right-wing global warming denier propaganda machine" would consist of? Something pretty sinister, high-powered and richly financed, no doubt? Something with a large staff and a big office on K street at least? Well the Green/Left have recently discovered a "Right-wing global warming denier propaganda machine" and do you know what it consists of? It is simply a short list of email addresses! I kid you not...
...
Must watch those evil lists of email addresses! You never know what censorship attempts they might disrupt! I am one of those on Marc's list, I am pleased to say. He is indeed a useful clearinghouse of scientific information and debate. I am in fact the third one on Marc's list so I am pleased that the Warmists listed me. They must have been disappointed that they could find no evil "affiliation" for me, though. Since I have no formal affiliations, that is not too surprising. It shows how desperate the Warmists are, however, that a humble blogger writing from an upstairs room in a house in a backstreet of a small Australian city could be seen as part of a "Right-wing global warming denier propaganda machine"

What the Warmists omit to mention is the high level of scientific qualifications of most people on the list. I, for instance, not only have a Ph.D. but have been getting academic papers published on the psychology of environmentalism since 1974. And I can assure you that psychology is by far the most relevant discipline for understanding Warmism! And I have received "funding" from no-one. I haven't received as much as a hamburger, in fact. Nor have I sought anything. As a retired man, I live entirely on the proceeds of my investments.

Artificial Glaciation: A way out of Global Warming?

In Pakistan, “glacier grafting” is a common practice since the 19th century. This involves carrying ice from naturally occurring glaciers to high altitude areas, where it is put inside caves fashioned out of “scree-slope”. Other ingredients like water, salt etc. are also placed at the same “cave”. They eventually turn into newer glaciers and the snowmelt water obtained from them is invaluable for the farmers in irrigation purposes when natural water is scarce.

Scientists debate that whether assembled ice masses are really behind higher water flows. Ingvar Tveiten of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences thinks that glaciers would have formed naturally at those locations, while Kenneth Hewitt of Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario believes that the procedure has increased the “ice stock”.

Midnight Monkey Monitor: Live from Day 1 of National Sustainability Conference

At every environmental conference, people must always ask why are we sitting in an aircon room freezing our butt off

Fewer Shark Attacks NOT Blamed On Global Warming » Pirate’s Cove — Blimey!

I think they missed the narrative. It used to be that when it was hot, it was global warming, when it was cold, it was weather. Then they changed it to when it is hot, it is global warming, when it is cold, it is because of global warming. So, when shark attacks surge, it is global warming, when they dip, it is because of global warming.

Then don’t make a film about cars | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

If they truly loved the planet most, they’d plant their offsets without actually causing the emissions first.

Newsmax.com - California Weather Exposes Fiction of Global Warming

“It's the Gore Effect,” says a laughing James Taylor, editor of the Heartland Institute think tank journal Environment & Climate News. “Almost every time global warming doomsayer Al Gore speaks or his movie is shown, unusual cold or blizzards happen. And now we have the Chu Effect. He warns of global warming-caused drought in California, and the heavens reply with almost nonstop rains. Maybe somebody up there is trying to tell us something.”

I love this headline from alarmist Emily Gertz: "Well-Dressed Activists, Spin-Savvy Journos Equally Essential to Stop Global Warming"

From McKibben's description, this action looks like it's taking a thoughtful, course away from tired, self-limiting activist tactics that (in the opinion of this former activist) needed to be retired long ago...

Yeah, good luck with that one - washingtonpost.com

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's decision to make her first overseas trip to China, where she arrives today, highlights the daunting tasks the new administration faces as the world scrambles to forge a new climate-change treaty this year: trying to persuade emerging economies to make deep cuts in greenhouse-gas releases that they have long resisted while coaxing Congress to adopt first-ever limits on the United States' own emissions.
...
"This is an opportunity waiting to be seized," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who held a hearing last month titled "The Road to Copenhagen" and had privately urged Clinton to make her first overseas trip to China to discuss global warming.

While I was reading this Washington Post article on saving the world from Co2, I was amused that their accompanying video ad was urging me to fly Air France.

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.
...
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.