Climate Change: Head Of UN Environment Porgramme Fears For Climate Change [Swindle] Deal | World News | Sky News

As the G8 summit began in Italy, Achim Steiner called on rich nations to concentrate their efforts on securing a new, low carbon economy, rather than focusing on narrow, national agendas.

He told Sky's Environment Correspondent, Catherine Jacob: "I'm concerned that there are many at the moment who are not taking the point in time seriously enough.

[Look what your cell phone charger did to these poor people]

Palin's Time Magazine Interview

[Q] Two of his big platform issues now are universal health care and your favorite issue, energy, his global-warming plan. What do you think of his positions on both?

[A] His cap-and-trade agenda is a cap-and-tax agenda, and it's going to drive the cost of consumer goods and the cost of energy so extremely high that our nation is going to start exporting even more jobs to China and to other countries that do not have the corporate tax or the equivalent of the corporate tax that the cap-and-trade — I call it cap-and-tax — agenda is going to usher in. What he needs to be understanding is, we have the domestic supplies of energy in America. It's conventional sources — oil, gas, coal, it's nuclear — and we have the renewable sources here in America. But if we're not allowed to drill and develop those conventional sources in this transition period between now and when we can rely more on alternative sources, we're going to become more and more reliant on foreign sources of energy and importing more and more goods because they're going to be cheaper over there to produce, and our country is going to be in a world of hurt. And that, of course, has so much to do with his economic policy in thinking that it's O.K. to borrow money from other countries to fund this government largesse that he's believing in. It doesn't make any sense. We need to develop responsibly our natural resources of energy here. This will provide the jobs here, the true economic stimulus is developing our domestic, safe supplies of energy here, and Alaska is the place to look to contribute.

Climate Change in the Brazos Valley

I looked at several temperature patterns for Bryan/College Station and found no consistent warming or cooling trend.
...
“I think the jury’s still out. I do believe with all the high speed communication and modern technology, we’re more aware of what’s going on around us", said KBTX Media chief meteorologist Bob French.

Once the verdict does come in, instead of trying to figure out exactly what’s going on, I guess we’ll all start to focus more on a solution, one which may turn out to be a lot simpler than we think.

As Steve Huebner put it: “We just have to learn to adapt to it and deal with it.”

Going green in chiropractic

In terms of going green as it relates to healthcare, who has a stronger track record, is more conceptually aligned in general, and better suited than the chiropractor to step forward and bring this potential to the public?

Sermitsiaq - Ice leaves East waiting

Narsaq on Greenland’s east coast will have to wait a little longer to get much needed provisions after the ‘Nuka Arctica’ was forced to turn back from southern Greenland due to large amounts sea ice.

89.3 KPCC | Senate takes up climate change

Kitty Felde: Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer told fellow members of her Environment and Public Works Committee that fighting climate change can also battle a bad economy. Just look at California, she said, where investing in clean energy created more than 125,000 new jobs over a decade.

.: United States Senator Kit Bond :: Press Room :.

Some say that we should just look to the bill the House passed last month - and to that I say which one? We have the 648 page Discussion Draft. We have the 932 page Introduced Bill. We have the 946 page Committee Substitute. We have the 1,201 page Floor Filed Bill. We have the 500 page Redline Version. We have the 743 page Committee Report. We have the 309 page Manager’s Amendment filed at 3am the morning of the floor debate. And, we have the 1,427 page House Passed Bill. In total, that is 6,706 pages or 15 inches of legislative material.

Popular Technology.net: The Truth about RealClimate.org

RealClimate.org is assumed by those who do not know any better to be an "objective" source on climate change. It features activist scientists with degrees in Geology, Geosciences, Mathematics, Oceanography and Physics who are all self proclaimed "climatologists". Yet skeptical scientists with equivalent credentials are not (probably because they have not proclaimed it). Essentially the site exists to promote global warming alarm-ism and attack anyone who does not agree with their declaration of doomsday (proven of course by their own computer climate models) and the need for government intervention against the life supporting, atmospheric trace gas, carbon dioxide. Standard operating procedure is to post "rebuttals" to everything they disagree with and then declare victory, making sure to censor comments challenging their position. [Via Heliogenic Climate Change]

February '07: YouTube - Inhofe, Boxer Debate Global Warming on Larry King Live

Senator Inhofe and Senator Boxer appeared together on the Larry King Live show discussing the upcoming IPCC report.

EPA's Jackson Confirms EPA Chart Showing No Effect on Climate Without China, India

Washington, D.C.-During a hearing today in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, EPA Administrator Jackson confirmed an EPA analysis showing that unilateral U.S. action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would have no effect on climate. Moreover, when presented with an EPA chart depicting that outcome, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he disagreed with EPA's analysis.

"I believe the central parts of the [EPA] chart are that U.S. action alone will not impact world CO2 levels," Administrator Jackson said.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) presented the chart to both Jackson and Secretary Chu, which shows that meaningful emissions reductions cannot occur without aggressive action by China, India, and other developing countries. "I am encouraged that Administrator Jackson agrees that unilateral action by the U.S. will be all cost for no climate gain," Sen. Inhofe said. "With China and India recently issuing statements of defiant opposition to mandatory emissions controls, acting alone through the job-killing Waxman-Markey bill would impose severe economic burdens on American consumers, businesses, and families, all without any impact on climate."

Obama needs to engage GOP on climate [hoax] bill: expert | Environment | Reuters

"To get the bill through the Senate, the President is going to need to engage much earlier, directly with the Senators and reach out to the moderate Republicans," said Elliot Diringer, a vice president at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
...
Speaking at a press briefing in London, Diringer said he is not ruling out the Senate passing the bill this year, but warned that it is unlikely it will make it through the conference committee stage until 2010 at the earliest.

EXCLUSIVE-Sandor says expects US climate [swindle] law by April 2010

CHICAGO, July 7 (Reuters) - Richard Sandor, founder and chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange, said on Tuesday that he expects the U.S. Congress to pass a comprehensive climate change bill by April 2010.

"I'm an economist, not a political forecaster. But if I were then to take a shot ... I would make a market of Oct. 1 '09 to April 1, '10. I do think there is a chance that we can get it done in that time frame," Sandor told Reuters in an interview.

Sandor, an innovative and key figure in the history of the global derivatives industry as the creator of some of the first financial futures markets, also said that regulation of carbon trading and exchange-cleared contracts is essential.

It is "critical," he said. "You can't mess around when there is a daily transparent market."

Sandor also scoffed at notions of "carbon taxes" as out-of-date and said that it was more realistic to expect regional carbon-trading schemes develop first around the world before any global scheme could be effective.

Combative Start to Senate Climate Hearings - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Mr. Chu spoke of climate change as an “unprecedented threat to our way of life.”
...
Another interesting exchange centered on nuclear energy. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican who advocated for nuclear power as an emissions-free solution to global warming, asked Mr. Chu, “Why don’t we have the same level of enthusiasm for nuclear power as for wind turbines?”

Mr. Chu replied, “Quite frankly we want to recapture the lead in utility nuclear power.”

Limbaugh fill-in Belling: "There is no global warming going on," it "stopped in 2001" | Media Matters for America

From the July 7 edition of Premiere Radio Network's The Rush Limbaugh Show:

Ron Reagan Sinks to New Low - Hannity - FOXNews.com

Al Gore may have some explaining to do. It's been over three years since his global warming propaganda film hit theaters and, since that time, ClimateDepot.com reports that the Earth's temperature has actually dropped.

New data from the University of Alabama shows that the planet's average temperature plunged almost an entire degree since 2006.

Sorry, Al, just an "Inconvenient Truth."

The Great Beyond: Big Al speaks on climate (and neuroscience)

I got to hear Al Gore speak today at the close of the World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford, and I was amazed to be treated to a pop neuroscience lecture.

Rather than climate, Gore opened by talking about human psychology and physiology. Climate change, he said, is "ultimately a problem of consciousness". He went on: "What is being tested is the proposition of whether or not the combination of an opposable thumb and a neocortex is a viable construct on this planet".

That's pretty deep, but Gore got deeper. Evolution, he said, had trained us to to respond quickly and viscerally to threats. But when humans are confronted with "a threat to the existence of civilization that can only be perceived in the abstract", we don't do so well. Citing functional magnetic resonance imaging, he said that the connecting line between amygdalae, which he described as the urgency centre of the brain, with the neocortex is a one way street: emotional emergencies can spark reasoning, but not the other way around.

Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV - Summer too cool for lemonade, so far

BLUEFIELD — What’s happened to summer?

Summer holidays like the Fourth of July are usually time to break out the shorts and the sunscreen, but cooler than normal temperatures have compelled local people to get their jackets and blankets out of the closet. High temperatures have only reached into the mid-80s at most, and evening readings of the thermometer have hit the low 60s or lower.

Don Surber » Blog Archive » What happened to global warming?

"...James Hansen has also argued that the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies that actively spread doubt about climate change should be put on trial for ‘crimes against humanity and nature’.”

Right after we try Hickman, Krugman, Hansen and the rest for failure to admit they have been wrong for 20 years about global warming.

40 if you count their years of believing in global cooling.

Newsmax.com - Top Physicist: Global Warming a Dangerous Belief

Instead of being the dangerous pollutant the EPA calls it, carbon dioxide is a vital element needed to sustain life, [Laurence Gould, a professor of physics at the University of Hartford] said.

“We are lucky that there is still sufficient carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he explained. “It is vital for life as agricultural products depend on it. It is therefore not pollution. To suppress it even if it could be done is to continue to put the entire population of the globe at risk.”

He concluded by saying: “It is dangerous that people are acting without understanding the flaws in the climate-change-disaster claims. So I would ask people to find out and to be able to specify — in their own words — what are those flaws. They would then be better able to objectively judge both sides of the issue regarding "global warming/climate change" — as well-informed citizens should.

“We are free to not think about any issue,” he said, “but we are not free to escape the consequences [such as ill-informed legislation] resulting from not thinking."

Al [Gore's days as a climate fraud rock star are fading fast] | Mail Online

Professor Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, also stressed the importance of engaging political leaders.

Sir David, director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University, which organised the three-day forum, said he was 'disappointed' by the poor turnout from members of the Government.

He said he had hoped ministers, including the Prime Minister, would attend.

'That did not transpire. We need to work much harder with the Government.'

Grassley: U.S. should wait for international treaty to address climate change « Iowa Independent

Fighting climate change should be done by international agreements and not with legislation currently being weighed in the U.S. Senate, [Republican] Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley told reporters Tuesday.

“Otherwise we’re going to lose all of our manufacturing — or manufacturing jobs — to China because it’ll be cheaper for our manufacturing to go over there than to pay the stiff fees on energy that they’ll have to pay here,” Grassley said.

A dollar a day could keep climate change away-EPA | Markets | Reuters

WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - The average American family would pay at most $1 a day more to fight climate change, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told a Senate committee on Tuesday.

Since they're clearly just making things up as they go along, why don't they charge us another $365 annually, allegedly to keep cancer and heart attacks away?

More Ideas for [Implementing a Global Warming Swindle When Most People Who Care Have Figured Out That The Earth Hasn't Actually Warmed Since The Clinton (or Maybe The Carter) Administration] - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

The authors, led by Steve Rayner of Oxford University and Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics (known for a provocative critique of the Kyoto Protocol), say the last thing one would do is invent layers of regulatory bodies requiring international accord and transparency in arenas like energy policy, where countries traditionally go it alone. As Professor Prins put it in a statement, “Worthwhile policy builds upon what we know works and upon what is feasible rather than trying to deploy never-before implemented policies through complex institutions requiring a hitherto unprecedented and never achieved degree of global political alignment.”

Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth About Climate Change

There is absolutely no comparison to World War II and climate change. I do agree with Gore on one thing. Battling against the climate change extremists is like fighting the Nazi’s, not the climate change extremists fighting the world. These people are very determined to change the way we live for such a controversial cause. These environmental leftists are trying to force a cap and trade bill on all Americans in order to raise our taxes to “punish” us for polluting. That and they are going to cost our economy millions of jobs. Look at the record, the only people supporting this movement are dedicated and far left liberals. There is no reason for taxes and job loss in order to save the world from global warming. Why? There is no global warming.

Weasel Zippers: Goracle: My Struggle Against Global Warming as Significant as the Battle Against Nazi Germany....

He's comparing a pseudo-science that lines his pockets to the battle against the Nazis and their systematic extermination of six million Jews.....

Steel Importers Fight ‘Cap and Trade’ in Senate | Journal of Commerce

So-called “cap and trade” legislation passed in the House and pending in the Senate has “created a new threat to American manufacturing,” the president of the American Institute for International Steel said Tuesday.

David Phelps, president of the AIIS, which represents steel importers and exporters, said HR 2454, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, “would increase the costs of making steel, increase the cost of transporting steel and increase the cost to run our customers’ facilities.”

Phelps urged the Senate to “kill this ill-conceived and ill-timed legislation. It is not time to pass a new vast regressive tax on the American people, struggling to keep their jobs during the recession.”

Deficits will soar without Carbon Tax: MoF

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry, cautiously reacting to the Supreme Court decision, has hinted at considering the option of harsh taxation measures to maintain financial discipline in case the Rs122 billion carbon tax is completely withdrawn.

‘We do not have any plan B to generate revenue for keeping budget deficit at 4.9 per cent by end of June 2010 without this levy, which was projected on the assumption of generating this revenue from the carbon tax,’ said State Minister for Finance Hina Rabani Khar while talking to Dawn after the Supreme Court’s decision.

RALPH MUECKE  - North Dakota News - Bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing

As you should know by now, The U.S. House passed HR 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Better known as the cap and trade bill.

This disastrous and dangerous bill is truly a wolf in sheep's clothing. It supposedly addresses the problem of man-made global warming, which is one of the biggest hoaxes ever conceived. Another one is that greenhouse gases are supposedly created by cows passing gas. Still another is that carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere causes global warming. Everything living thing inhales oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide, otherwise we couldn't exist. Next they will tell us that we should have more abortions and use euthanasia to cut down the population so there are fewer of us exhaling carbon dioxide.

Epoch Times - [Uneducated women welcome spring, instead of bemoaning the kidney stones they'll probably get]

Story-based dance is one of Shen Yun’s trademarks, and in the dance Welcoming Spring, the women use fans that open like flowers blossoming to celebrate a new season after suffering a long, harsh winter.

Gore: deal on emissions from land useage change critical - Times Online

A global deal to cap surging emissions of carbon dioxide from soil will form a critical part of any successful agreement to tackle climate change in Copenhagen later this year, Al Gore said today.

The Reference Frame: UAH: June 2009: anomaly near zero

UAH MSU has officially released their June 2009 data. This time, they're faster than RSS MSU. The anomaly was +0.01 °C, meaning that the global temperature was essentially equal to the average June temperature since 1979. June 2009 actually belonged to the cooler half of the Junes since 1979.

Global warming is supposed to exist and to be bad. Sometimes, we hear that global warming causes cooling. In this case, global warming causes global averageness. In all three cases, it is bad news. The three main enemies of environmentalism are warm weather, cool weather, and average weather.

Williston Herald - Plover, tern make a late return

Corps natural resources specialist Mike Morris said the nesting season for the plovers and terns runs until about late August. Morris said the plovers usually begin to arrive at the end of April and the terns in June. But due to the winter weather this year and lingering cold weather in the spring, this year is different.

“The terns are running late, same with the plovers. Everything seems to be running late this year,” said Morris.

Small Businesses Irate Over Climate Change Bill - Political News - FOXNews.com

A growing number of business owners and taxpayers are mobilizing nationwide against the House-approved cap-and-trade energy bill, which would reduce energy consumption but could raise energy prices and harm small businesses.
...
Mike Wilson, who led a protest in Cincinnati of about 100 people on Saturday across from the offices of Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio, said he was appalled by the 1,500-page legislation, which was fast-tracked by House leaders for a vote Friday. A 310-page amendment was slapped onto the bill Friday morning.

"It was, quite frankly, criminal passing a bill that you didn't read," said Wilson, founder of the anti-tax group Cincinnati Tea Party.

The Associated Press: Obama officials urge Senate [to implement massive climate swindle]

And that, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson testified, leaves out the benefits of addressing global warming, such as more jobs, less money flowing overseas to oil producers and averting the floods, drought and disease expected to come when the Earth's temperature rises.

"Can anyone honestly say that the head of an American household would not spend a dollar a day to safeguard the well-being of his or her children ... and to create new American jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced?" she asked.

Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the panel, predicted that Americans would feel the pinch of higher energy prices.

"You can be sure of this: once the American public realize what this legislation will do to their wallets, they will resoundingly reject it," Inhofe said. "Perhaps that explains why we are rushing cap-and-trade through the Senate."

AgWeb Blogs: Paul Betz

I will try to keep this short but just so you know where I am coming from, I am a grey haired 60 year old farmer who believes that global warming is the biggest lie, biggest scam, hoax, and fraud ever pushed onto the people of this world. Also I am a High School graduate who remembers a little bit about science and the carbon cycle. I also believe we have a hungry world that needs feeding. Depending on whose estimates you believe there are about 6.7 billion people out there with about 800 million who are undernourished of which 10,000 per day dying of malnutrition or diseases caused by inadiquate nutrition so we need increased crop yields to feed them.
I remember my Vocational Ag instructor, Mr. Fred Morris, in 1965 telling us about how it is just logical that an increase in CO2 in the air would increase crop yields. An experiment had been done by putting canisters of dry ice in a corn field. The corn near the canisters yielded more which supports the theory. I also remember reading about an experiment at the University of Arizona which was done in a greenhouse which also got bigger yields supporting the theory and yields were increased more under stress conditions. Why don't we here more about these experiments from the environmental wackoos? Why aren't more experiments being done?

G8: [Was George Bush recently elected President of China?]

On another key summit topic, climate change, Frattini said Italy was pushing an ''ambitious'' proposal but China was resisting.

Report: [Have trace amounts of CO2 dangerously heated Chesapeake Bay?]

And many of the threats are caused or worsened by man's polluting of the Chesapeake Bay with nutrients, the report charges. Global warming also might be heating the waters, causing some pathogens to thrive.

How the Chesapeake Bay Swim Differs from Pool Swimming

5. The water temperature is usually 68 - 72 degrees during the Bay Swim. However, during especially cold weather, the water has been around 60 degrees. Pools are usually around 80 - 85 degrees.

The colder bay water temperature may startle you when you first plunge in (adds to the fun and excitement of joining a wave of 300 thrashing swimmers). Consider wearing a wetsuit if you're doing the Bay Swim for the first time.

The 4.4 Mile Great Chesapeake Bay Swim Race Report

I could feel pockets of cold come across me so quickly, it made me shiver. And then suddenly a freezing blast of water. I kid you not, I got a brain freeze from the cold water current. Then, I thought about hypothermia and wondered if I should even be out here with no wetsuit. Despite my layer of insulation, I was freezing, my body was fine. But my face, and my head hurt from the cold water.

Numbers Adding Up Against Obama's "Cap and Trade" Bill in the Senate - Peter Roff (usnews.com)

It was hard for the Democrats to get the 219 votes they needed to pass the "cap and trade" climate change bill in the U.S. House two weeks ago. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, may have rolled the dice but, veteran Capitol Hillers say, it was only the intervention of President Barack Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that managed to close the deal.

They did it by pitching the vote as a referendum, at least internally, on Obama's presidency rather than on the underlying issue. No president likes to lose, least of all on a signature issue like the need to combat climate change, so the White House ratcheted up the stakes and, one presumes, took down names.
...
As Rasmussen says in his analysis, "It is quite common to find Americans more favorable toward new government proposals until a price tag is attached." And the price tag for the House-passed version of the cap and trade bill is quite hefty.

The American Spectator : Chris Horner  : They have issues

Now, this post also prompts me to remember a telephone call I received from a White House aide the night in December 2006 that incoming chair of the Senate Environment Committee Barbara Boxer supposedly broke it to Duke Energy's Jim Rogers that no, he shouldn't now expect a cap-n-tax bill to reward his loyal support with billions in rents. It seemed that the issue was too important to have against Bush, and for '08, according to San Francisco's own Ms. Boxer, who lives in a world where this issue is not a punch line.

She, apparently like the New York Times now, saw it as more important to have the issue than the law. The greens got wind of this, however - Rogers, so my caller said, was beside himself and ringing everyone in town he could in outrage, so it was hard not to get wind of it - and demanded what proved to be the Boxer-led disastrous vote last summer in which the bill had to be pulled from the floor in a matter of hours.
...
So it may be that the Congressional Democrats, White House and their handmaidens at the NYT really believe that, outside their world, global warming tax just knocks ‘em dead (as the Times' Pauline Kael, possibly apocryphally, couldn't believe that Nixon won given that no one she knew voted for him). The evidence that I see tells me something different. Let's find out.

Global warming hell arrives in Ohio

July 7: Heat-trapping gases so powerful that it was only too cold to swim on three occasions last week

Three days last week, the pool was closed due to cold weather conditions.

Gore [takes yet another fossil-fueled trip across the pond] | Green Business | Reuters

OXFORD (Reuters) - Public awareness about the "catastrophe" of climate change is not high enough to pressure politicians into taking action, former Vice President Al Gore said on Tuesday.
...
"We have the tools available to us to solve three climate crises," Gore told an environment conference at the University of Oxford, southern England. "We only have to solve one."
...
Geothermal power alone could meet the world's current energy needs for the next 30,000 years, Gore said. Geothermal projects involve drilling wells deep into the earth to tap steam or hot water to power turbines.

Some details on Gore's recent travel are here.

Scoot Over: Next Up, A Hybrid Vespa - Environmental Capital - WSJ

At first blush, the move seems more like green piety than anything else. Traditional gasoline-powered scooters, like the iconic Vespa, already get great mileage. Adding a hybrid engine does boost fuel economy—Piaggo talks of 140 miles a gallon–but also ratchets up the price.

Piaggio’s hybrid three-wheel scooter will retail for about $12,500, the WSJ reports. That compares with just over $7,000 for the cheaper three-wheel models sold in the U.S. The hybrid version could hit the U.S. next year.

Nicholas Liberto: Climate bill shameful scam - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Members of both the Democratic and Republican parties have allowed themselves to be cowed into voting to curtail something that poses no danger to the planet, but instead poses great danger to the standard of living that Americans earned through the application of their individual talents over the past two and a half centuries.

These politicians have allowed themselves to be threatened with losing their valuable seats in Congress unless they comply with a plan that is part of the largest scam ever perpetrated against the American people. The media have allowed themselves to be the messenger and write about "dangerous" things without verification.

More GE Welfare Queen… « Green Hell Blog

“Unable to Unload Limping Divisions, GE Invests in Propping Them Up” is the headline of this article in today’s Wall Street Journal.

If you the read the article, however, you’ll find that it is actually taxpayers that are doing the propping:

Climate Change Fraud - Because the debate is not over - Kill Polar Bears, Drink Coke to Save the Planet!

Does my math seem funny or incoherent? Do my solutions seem ridiculous? Do you detect a bit of a self serving agenda? Good for you. Now, examine what the politicians in Washington, the U.N. and all the “Green” groups out there are doing. Come back and let me know if you can see a difference between me and them. I sure can’t.

And hey, if all things are equal, wouldn’t you rather live in my world? Unlike the real world where Al Gore gets rich, the middle class suffers, and we are faced with regulation on top of regulation that limits modern convenience and our standard of living, I propose a world where we all get to show up to work drunk, girls wear sassy outfits, diet coke flows from your kitchen faucet, and everyone eats steaks! Hey, whatever we can do to save the planet!

Who Killed California's Economy? | Newgeography.com

3. The Environment

Obama holds up California's environmental policy as a model for the nation. May God protect the rest of the country. California's environmental activists once did an enviable job protecting our coasts and mountains, expanding public lands and working to improve water and air resources. But now, like sailors who have taken possession of a distillery, they have gotten drunk on power and now rampage through every part of the economy.

In California today, everyone who makes a buck in the private sector--from developers and manufacturers to energy producers and farmers--cringes in fear of draconian regulations in the name of protecting the environment. The activists don't much care, since they get their money from trust-funders and their nonprofits. The losers are California's middle and working classes, the people who drive trucks, who work in factories and warehouses or who have white-collar jobs tied to these industries.

Rural Cooperatives Add Wind, Cautiously - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Rural electric co-operatives across the country are adding more wind power, but it is not always easy.
tristate Tri-State, a Western utility serving a number of rural co-operatives, just announced its first utility-scale wind investment.

“These rural electric utilities sit on top of a gold mine — some of the best wind resources in the country,” said Jeff Anthony, the manager of utility programs at the American Wind Energy Association, in an e-mail message.

If it's really a gold mine, why must we so heavily subsidize wind power?

Pickens paring down wind farm project | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Energy | Dallas Business News

T. Boone Pickens' plan to build the world's largest wind farm is off.

Instead, Pickens said he will build five or six smaller wind farms, in the Midwest and possibly Texas, though he hasn't settled on locations.
...
Before the markets declined, Pickens managed more than $4 billion in the funds. Now the funds hold about $1.5 billion.

Coal Industry Sees Life or Death in Senate Climate Debate - NYTimes.com

When people in the coal business talk about "the valley of death," they are referring to a grim place not located near any mine. It is an economic chasm that the industry fears awaits it if the Senate approves climate legislation similar to what passed the House.

Breaking: [Climate huckster] Al Gore likens fight against climate change to battle with Nazis - Times Online

Al Gore today compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis.

The former US Vice President said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill by encouraging leaders to unite their nations to fight climate change.

He also accused politicians around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid difficult decisions.

Speaking in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by The Times, Mr Gore said: “Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilisation in World War II.”

He added: “We have everything we need except political will but political will is a renewable resource.”

Mr Gore admitted that it was difficult to persuade the public that the threat from climate change was as urgent as the threat from Nazi Germany.

“The level of awareness and concern among populations has not crossed the threshold where political leaders feel that they must change.

Life or death struggle in the Senate | [snapshot of poll results]

Waxman-Markey will be

* Obama's first major legislative failure and die in Senate. (32%)
* watered down to please rural states and then passed. (25%)
* ineffective, even if it does become law. (23%)
* a narrow triumph for its pronents and then change the U.S. economy dramatically (14%)
* debated but no final action this year. (7%)

Total Votes: 88

Obama’s Solar Panels Won’t Pay for Themselves | Just Politics..?

A 2008 article in the Denver Business Journal sheds further light on the subject. The article notes the total price of the solar array was $720,000. And Dave Noel, VP of operations and chief technology officer for the Museum, was quoted as saying, “We looked at first installing [the solar array] ourselves, and without any of the incentive programs, it was a 110-year payout.” Noel went on to say that the Museum did not purchase the solar array because it did not “make sense financially.”

...
What’s the best part of this story?

Additionally, most solar panels have an expected life-span of 20 to 25 years.

So Much for 'Energy Independence' - WSJ.com

Whenever you read about ethanol, remember these numbers: 98 and 190.

They offer an essential insight into U.S. energy politics and the debate over cap-and-trade legislation that recently passed the House. Here is what the numbers mean: The U.S. gets about 98 times as much energy from natural gas and oil as it does from ethanol and biofuels. And measured on a per-unit-of-energy basis, Congress lavishes ethanol and biofuels with subsidies that are 190 times as large as those given to oil and gas.

Why Do They Want Us To Spend Trillions on a Non-Existent Problem? « American Elephants

Do you have storms in your area that damage power lines and cause a widespread loss of power? Then you are familiar with trying to stay warm, cooking on the barbecue, using candles for light, or perhaps you are one of the lucky ones who has a generator. Nevertheless, you appreciate your electricity. But do you know where it comes from?

Surprisingly, no one in congress or the administration does. At least they must not, for their math simply does not add up. If you cannot read this lovely pie chart, 48.9 % of our electricity comes from coal, 20% from natural gas, 19.3 % comes from nuclear, 7.1 % from hydroelectric plants, 1.6 % from petroleum and the little pinky-peach wedge represents wind, solar and geothermal.

The Waxman-Markey climate bill will punitively tax the energy sources that contribute 90 percent of our current American electricity in order to bet our future on the wedge that is able to produce only 2.4 percent of our electricity. But we can do it. The conventional phrase is “if we can send a man to the moon we can…..

TheHill.com - Centrists threaten Obama's agenda

On climate change and energy legislation, Bayh, Lincoln and Pryor are seen as a collective headache for Democratic leaders.

Anna Aurilio, a lobbyist for Environment America, a liberal group, ranked Nelson, Landrieu, Bayh, Lincoln and Pryor as the toughest Democrats to persuade to join Democratic leaders on environmental votes.

She said that Nelson and Landrieu would present the biggest challenge on climate change legislation — Nelson and Landrieu say the proposal would raise electricity rates and affect jobs in their states.

frogblog » And you, sir, will do what?

Last night I went to the climate change target ‘consultation’ meeting, held in Wellington by Climate Change Minister Nick Smith. Today, I’m still feeling more than a little outrage.

It was heartening to find a room full to overflowing with 400+ citizens who were there to speak up for the need for a target that reflects the magnitude and the urgency of the challenge - or as one speaker so eloquently put it - a responsible target.

On the other hand, it was extremely frustrating to witness Nick Smith’s increasingly squirmy, gutless response.

His response was, roughly speaking, that if the people in the room wanted a strong target, then we had to show him exactly where all the cuts should come from. Putting aside the fact that this particular room may well have contained the expertise to do just that, it made me wonder what Nick Smith thinks it means to be a leader.

Why do we allow the US to act like a failed state on climate change | George Monbiot | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Even so, I would like to see the bill passed, as it at least provides a framework for future improvements. But why do we expect so little from the US? Why do we treat the world's most powerful and innovative nation as if it were a failed state, rejoicing at even the faintest suggestion of common sense?

You have only to read the comments that follow this article to find out. Thanks to the lobbying work of the coal and oil companies, and the vast army of thinktanks, PR consultants and astroturfers they have sponsored, thanks too to the domination of the airwaves by loony right shock jocks, the debate over issues like this has become so mad that any progress at all is little short of a miracle.

Gary North: Its Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.

Global warming is based 100% on junk science. The most vocal promoters are not interested in the details of physical science. They are interested in two things: political control over the general public and the establishment of international socialism.

The Earth Blog : Giving The Earth A Future - Bravenet Blog

I make no bones about my belief in anthropogenic global warming, for various reasons, and not just the scientific evidence; so if you are reading this and thinking about clicking somewhere else because you don’t agree with me, then click away – this essay is aimed at those people who more or less have the same mindset as myself, and are in the all-too-common situation of feeling they have to defend that position. To you, dear reader, I offer the following words: you are in danger of losing your sanity.

As we have seen, and probably realised from experience, arguing with a Climate Change Denier is like wrestling in a deep, muddy pit: it can be filthy, exhausting and, worst of all, there seems to be no way out. Personal issues aside, the wider danger is that the other side might get their way – and that person, or group, or business, or government, will then be able to spread their own beliefs in the knowledge that there is no-one willing to take the opposing position. The many people who are wavering, or even understand that AGW is fact, can then be easily tipped into denial. This is what happens in totalitarian states: the ruler’s position becomes the de facto belief.

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: The Cost of [a] Cap and Trade [Swindle]

The real issue is not simply how much cap and trade legislation will cost U.S. households. The politics of the issue are such that the answer necessarily must be "not very much." The real question is what kind of emissions reductions can you get for the low cost that the political process is willing to bear. Unfortunately, climate policy has not yet internalized this important boundary condition meaning that the political process is characterized by every trick imaginable to avoid, reduce, or otherwise make costs disappear. If climate policy were being developed with a better sense of political realities, then we'd see a dramatically different approach -- maybe even one that could actually work.

NC Media Watch: Climate 101 - Not (updated)

To insure you have both sides of the climate change story, something missing from Warming 101, you might want to visit the following sites as well.

Tell Me Again Why Couric Is Considered Smarter than Palin? - Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Change can be scary, but the consequence of doing nothing is even scarier. At some point we must focus on the future, even if that means some growing pains along the way.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Hansen Fan Angrily Insists on Recent Cooling - Edward John Craig - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Economist R. K. Pachauri could not be reached for comment.

States seek to rig climate benefit analysis « Green Hell Blog

California, New York, Illinois, Ohio and New Jersey are seeking to increase the benefit of controlling greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of 4, according to a July 2 report in Carbon Control News.

The Department of Energy currently values the “damage” caused by CO2 emissions at $0 to $20 per ton. The states claim that this range is too low, especially since “damage” has already begun and suggest setting the damage level at $80 per ton.
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The reality, however, is that there is simply no evidence that manmade CO2 emissions cause any damage whatsoever — except, perhaps, for the dry cleaning bills of those unfortunates who open recently shaken soda cans and bottles.

Obama wrecking GM… « Green Hell Blog

GM CEO Barack Obama seems determined to wreck what’s left of the auto maker. Consider “Economics Wasn’t GM’s Only Criteria for New Plant” from today’s Wall Street Journal:

Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis

Sea ice extent averaged over the month of June 2009 was 11.48 million square kilometers (4.43 million square miles). This was 420,000 square kilometers (162,000 square miles) above the record low for that month, which occurred in June 2006, and 700,000 square kilometers (270,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average.
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Through most of June, ice extent tracked close to two standard deviations below the long-term mean and just above the levels observed in 2007. By the end of June 2009, ice extent was 337,000 square kilometers (130,000 square miles) higher than extent at the end of June 2007.
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The warmth in the Laptev Sea is consistent with a pattern of southerly winds in these areas, which can be linked to the area of low atmospheric pressure centered just north of Novaya Zemlya Island. Note also the strong high-pressure cell (an anticyclone) over the northern Beaufort Sea.

This contrast between high and low pressure is broadly similar to the atmospheric circulation pattern that set up in 2007. In 2007, that pattern contributed to a significantly accelerated decline in ice extent during July, and a record minimum low in September. Will the same acceleration in ice melt occur this year? If so, a new record low minimum extent becomes more likely. So far, an acceleration has not yet been observed. As July progresses, the Arctic sun gets lower on the horizon, incoming solar energy decreases, and the chances of such a rapid decline become less likely.

Clueless in Dutch Harbor: "Open Passage" site speaks glowingly of people who consume massive amounts of fossil fuel, also tries to convince US not to consume massive amounts of fossil fuel

Open Passage Expedition

Scott is getting ready to move on after some 20 years in Dutch Harbor, using the town as a base for flying, climbing and sailing around the world, and sometimes just living here to work.
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...[Travis] has also worked on film production for The Deadliest Catch, which put Dutch Harbor on the map for many people, and is also working on a documentary about crazy long-distance races in exotic locations around the globe.
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...Then there was the geologist who had just lost his job, but was staying in Dutch anyway. He’d travelled the world, but still preferred the mountains around the harbour. His passion was skate skiing in winter and hiking in summer.

Open Passage Expedition

WWF has two responses to ice loss; the first is to persuade individuals and governments to accept the urgent need for major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Gallup Special Report: Ideologically, Where Is the U.S. Moving? [And why can't I find any mention of The Most Important Issue of All Time in this report?]

PRINCETON, NJ -- Despite the results of the 2008 presidential election, Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their views haven't changed, more members of all three major partisan groups indicate that their views have shifted to the right rather than to the left.
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Indeed, in the latest survey, 38% of Americans describe their political views as conservative, and among this group 58% say their views have grown more conservative in recent years. Although a large segment of liberals (42%) say they have become more liberal, far fewer Americans in the poll (18%) describe themselves as liberal -- thus providing little counterweight to the rightward movement of conservatives.

California’s Nightmare Will Kill Obamanomics: Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg.com

The California morass has Democrats in Washington trembling. The reason is simple. If Obama’s health-care plan passes, then we may well end up paying for it with federal slips of paper worth less than California’s. Obama has bet everything on passing health care this year. The publicity surrounding the California debt fiasco almost assures his resounding defeat.

It takes years and years to make a mess as terrible as the California debacle, but the recipe is simple. All that you need is two political parties that are always willing to offer easy government solutions for every need of the voters, but never willing to make the tough decisions necessary to finance the government largess that results. Voters will occasionally change their allegiance from one party to the other, but the bacchanal will continue regardless of the names on the office doors.

California has engaged in an orgy of spending, but, compared with our federal government, its legislators should feel chaste. The California deficit this year is now north of $26 billion. The U.S. federal deficit will be, according to the latest numbers, almost 70 times larger.

Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Mississippi burning — and flooding: Haley Barbour to be remembered as man who gave his state 90°F temps 5 months a year plus countless Katrinas?

Over the next few months, senators and other major state political figures will be taking sides on the climate and clean energy bill in front of Congress. Thanks to the new landmark 13-agency report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, we now know how those state “leaders” who oppose action will be remembered if they succeed.

I will start with Mississippi because Governor and former dirty-energy lobbyist Haley Barbour is helping to lead the GOP charge to destroy a livable climate at a hearing Tuesday — and because one of the main reasons I wrote Hell and High Water and started this blog is that my brother lost his Pass Christian, Mississippi home to Hurricane Katrina

Something that Flabbergasts Me | Coyote Blog

So, after years of demagoguing oil companies for purposefully limiting refining capacity and output to drive up gasoline prices, Democrats in Congress are on the verge of passing Waxman-Markey, which will have the very focused and predictable result of… limiting US refining output and driving up gas prices. In fact, the only possible way it will achieve its goals of limiting CO2 output is if it is wildly successful in reducing gasoline supply and driving up gas prices. Amazing.

Political Constraints on Programs - Megan McArdle

There's something else that has been bothering me. I have been urged to support Waxman-Markey on the grounds that we musn't make the perfect the enemy of the good, and maybe I do. But the mediocre can also be the enemy of the good. Even if you support national healtch care, you certainly wouldn't build Medicare in its current form. But there is path dependance in institutions: once they exist, they're precious hard to change. Enacting a crappy climate trading system in order to do something forestalls the possibility of enacting a better design five or ten years from now. Given that this bill is universally expected to accomplish virtually no significant emissions reduction in the foreseeable future, that should worry people. Other than me, I mean.

American Thinker: Cap Taxes, Trade Congress

I'm all for cap ‘n trade; it's a nifty idea. Simply splendid. Positively stupendous. Brilliant beyond brilliant.

I just have a different take on the whole notion. I prefer very stringent caps on taxes and spending, coupled with a 2010 trade-in of the entire U.S. Congress.

Seeming green | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Even the private jet she uses is recycled, I believe. As is her Mercedes SUV.

UPDATE

Pious drivers of the Prius hybrid feel this save-the-planet lifestyle is a little too slow for them, after all:

Seas stop warming and rising | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Distinguished climatologist Roger Pielke Sr examines three recent papers and says they confirm that the alarmists are wrong:

All of these analyses are consistent with no significant heating in the upper ocean and a flattening of sea level rise, and even more clearly, that these climate metrics are not “progressing faster than was expected a few years ago”.

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Reader Beth was astonished upon opening her copy of a bestseller by a sceptical scientist:

My husband ordered Ian Plimer’s book Heaven and Earth from Tim’s Bookshop in Kew. He said the staff were surly when he ordered it. Then - when the book arrived - the staff had inserted two newspaper reviews damning the book!

Canadian opposition rages against the government’s inaction - COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

"While climate change threatens us all, the Harper government's stubborn inaction is leading Canada towards painful environmental trade sanctions and a costly loss of international prestige," Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff said this weekend according to AFP.

CNSNews.com - Climate-Change Bill Could Lead to Increased Regulations on Fireworks

(CNSNews.com) - Americans use more than 200 million pounds of fireworks each year, the majority on July Fourth. Because fireworks emit carbon dioxide (CO2) as they burn, however, the fireworks industry may come under tighter regulation if cap-and-trade legislation passes in the Senate in coming months.

Micromanaging Carbon: Another Sugessted Carbon Cap Per Person | All American Blogger

So, how is this not going to damage the economy of rich nations? Poor people do not start companies. They do not hire people. They don’t create opportunities.

I want rich people in America. I want a lot of rich people in America. Heck, I want to be a rich person in America.

After they eat the rich, they will still be hungry. They will want the middle class next. Don’t worry, it’s for the common good.

By the way, where I was, this was the second coldest Fourth of July in history. It’s getting colder, yet they want to destroy the rich people to stop global warming. Tell me again this is about climate change.

A Dog Named Kyoto: Newsmax video: Congress badly misinformed about Global Warming

An interview with William Happer, physics professor at Princeton University:

Can we make China quit the opium of the gases? | Carl Mortished - Times Online

[Obama] will almost certainly fail: there will be no Copenhagen treaty. There will, no doubt, be an agreement, full of pomp and promising words, but no pact that would stem, let alone reverse, the continuing increase in carbon emissions. Nothing that will stop the relentless mining and burning of coal: the fuel that powers Asia, the fuel that made the clothes you wear and the screen you watch. As the world tumbled into recession last year, as the lights dimmed in factories and airlines skulked in hangars, the fuel consumed by the developing world for the first time exceeded that of richer countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy, energy demand in China rose by more than 7 per cent last year, while in the US it fell by almost 3 per cent.

Still much criticism of US Foreign Policy: Global Poll

The US is criticized for coercing other nations with its superior power (15 of 19 nations), failing to abide by international law (17 of 19 nations), and for how it is dealing with climate change (11 of 18 nations).

India: [Although it hasn't warmed for ten years, the current overheating was caused by your lifestyle, although hundreds of past warming periods must have been caused by something else] - Bloomberg.com

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Developed countries must bear “historic responsibility” for industrial emissions of greenhouse gases they have produced, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said ahead of climate change talks this week.

“What we are witnessing today is the consequence of over two centuries of industrial activity and high consumption lifestyles in the developed world,” Singh said in a statement in New Delhi today before leaving for the Group of Eight summit in Italy. “It is the developing countries that are the worst affected by climate change.”

Low Expectations for G-8 Summit: How the US Is Blocking Progress on Climate Change - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

But the Obama administration is realizing that ordinary Americans are adamantly opposed to their country becoming the global leader in a radical new green movement. A majority of Americans do not consider the climate crisis to be particularly important. The US oil and coal industries' experienced lobbyists are hard at work. And when a member of the House of Representatives recently referred to climate change as a "hoax," his comments were met with applause. Although Obama is allocating billions and recruiting top scientists nationwide for climate protection, he has deliberately not yet given a strong speech on the environment directed at the rest of the world.
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When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Washington recently, her original intention was to chide Obama on his lack of commitment. But then her advisers told her that in doing so, she could very well jeopardize the narrow majority support in the House of Representatives for the first US climate protection bill, which was up for a vote that same day. The legislation, which still requires Senate approval, does not provide for significant reductions in CO2 emissions until 2050, although it would create the first emissions monitoring system ever implemented in the United States. Merkel decided to change her tone.
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In practical terms, however, the negotiators for the UN member states are light years away from mandating a binding trend reversal in global emissions. At recent preliminary negotiations for the Copenhagen conference at the Maritim Hotel in Bonn, the delegates became bogged down in details, because they knew that their governments are not prepared to make real concessions.

Emerging El Nino set to drive up carbon emissions | Environment | Reuters

During the very intense El Nino of 1997/98, fires in Southeast Asia released between 2.9 billion 9.4 billion tonnes of CO2, blanketing the region in a choking haze. The smoke equated to between 15 and 40 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and is credited with causing a spike in global temperatures.

By comparison, average annual emissions from forest fires in Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2006 were 470 million tonnes of CO2, while average fossil fuel emissions for the same period in the region were 543 million tonnes of CO2, said Canadell.

Over the past two years, forest fire emissions have plunged because of wet weather.
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Previously, El Ninos in general were thought to suppress hurricane activity, but the latest research suggests this is only for episodes where the warmest waters are off the South America.

"The fundamental problem is we don't simulate El Nino very well with our existing climate models," said Hendon. "That makes it a real challenge to run your model for a future climate and see how El Nino will behave."

Massa stands up for state's farmers | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette

Farmers in 29th Congressional District would like to thank U.S. Rep. Eric Massa, D-Corning, for voting against H.R. 2454, the so-called "Climate Change Bill," which will have a disastrous impact on agriculture.

The New York Farm Bureau strongly opposes this legislation. It will dramatically increase already-skyrocketing fuel prices and send feed prices soaring.

Far worse, it will cause a $5 billion per year loss in nationwide farm income by 2020, essentially ruining the future for young farmers in New York.

Aberdeen graduates [are treated to a little more climate fraud promotion as they head out the door]

The graduates were congratulated by the university’s vice-principal, Professor Chris Gane.

He also warned them of the global issues that would affect them now they had left university. They were leaving the university to pursue their careers in a period of great uncertainty, he said, and the global economic crisis was just the latest contributory factor.

“Global climate change, food and energy security, political and military instability — are all major issues from which none of us can escape, no matter how remote from these challenges we may believe our lives to be.

Obama officials gag EPA experts - LORRIE GOLDSTEIN  - Ontario, CA

Where are all the "green" media pundits who used to scream bloody murder about the George W. Bush administration censoring expert opinion on climate change, now that the Barack Obama administration has been accused of doing it?

Most appear to be ignoring the controversy, or assuring the public: "Nothing to see here, folks, just move along," in the wake of the story reported by CBSnews.com last week.

It raises concerns that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency tried to suppress the opinions of two of its own researchers -- an economist and an environmental scientist -- that the EPA was unwisely rushing into declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant, based on outdated and disputed scientific research on climate change.
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The EPA said Carlin's and Davidson's concerns were considered in its decision-making process, which appears to contradict McGartland's e-mails, and added Carlin isn't a scientist -- odd because his co-author was and because economists are routinely cited as experts on climate change by governments in relation to the financial costs of attempting to reduce global warming.

As for the silence of most media on this controversy --who went berserk whenever the Bush administration censored public servants on climate change -- it couldn't be because they're in the tank for Obama . . . could it?

Obama in Russia cuts global warming nuke treaty Opinion Articles - Satire by Scott Ott

The U.S.-Russia deal includes a cap-and-trade system that allows nations with large volumes of nuclear weapons to purchase radiation-emission credits from nations which have no nuclear arsenals. The plan won't reduce the overall potential temperature of the atmosphere, however, it will provide an income stream to boost the prosperity of pre-nuclear nations and drain the resources of nuclear superpowers forcing them to consider alternative sources of national defense.

Experts say nuclear detonation has a global warming impact potential that rivals carbon dioxide, second-hand cigarette smoke, lawn mower exhaust and even livestock emissions in its ability to heat the atmosphere, thereby threatening wildlife habitat.

President Obama said the new round of negotiations would "lead to a world of clean air and clean energy where the only people who have nuclear weapons are those who have no respect for the rule of law."

IN THE MAIL: It’s time to take steps to combat climate change | Grand Forks Herald | Bryce Haugen

MOORHEAD — I’m getting pretty sick of the ignorant, antiquated arguments of climate change skeptics. It’s time to stop debating the indisputable science and take meaningful steps to combat what is clearly a crisis.

The Reference Frame: Polar bear experts face extinction

Wow. The group is overrun by dishonest demagogues who use 20th century totalitarian methods combined with a politically correct jargon to achieve the ideological "purity" (meaning "complete dirtiness"). In my files that are getting ready for the collapse of this gigantic scam, I am adding Andrew Derocher one year in prison. What a screwed jerk.

Has it become normal in polar bear science - or broader science - to filter participants of conferences according to ideological and political criteria and to be open about it? Have you heard what had to be done with the previous groups who were doing similar things?

Also, I find it very arrogant to call Taylor's views "dissenting". It is the AGW Chickens Little who are dissenting - and who are rejecting the very basics of democracy, freedom, modern civilization, and the scientific method. AGW nuts, you're the hippies, freegans, loons, and freeloaders. And be sure that I will go after your necks, bastards.

Open letter to Senator Mark Begich

Perito Moreno Glacier, the largest glacier in Argentina, is growing. Pio XI Glacier, the largest glacier in Chile, is growing. Glaciers are growing on Mt. Logan, the tallest mountain in Canada. Glaciers are growing on Mt. Blanc, the tallest mountain in France.

Glaciers (230 of them) are growing in the Western Himalayas. Glaciers are growing in Norway. Recently, all 50 glaciers in New Zealand were growing. Glaciers in Greenland are growing thicker. And contrary to what we’ve being told, the Antarctic Ice Sheet is growing, not shrinking.

More than 90 percent of the world’s glaciers are growing, but all that we hear about are the ones that are shrinking. [Via Climate Depot]

Useful idiot Louise Gray continues pumping out alarmist propaganda

Coral reefs in danger of dying out in next 20 years - Telegraph

The world's coral reefs are in danger of dying in the next 20 years unless the world drastically cuts carbon emissions, a coalition of scientists led by Sir David Attenborough has warned.
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According to Alex Rogers, the scientific director of the International Programme on the State of the Oceans, the figure will reach 450 ppm in the next 20 years if the world continues to burn fossil fuels at the current rate. Once that figure is reached, the ocean will become too acidic for corals to survive.

"The kitchen is on fire and it's spreading round the house. If we act quickly and decisively we may be able to put it out before the damage becomes irreversible. That is where corals are now," he said.
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"Essentially coral reefs are on death row and Copenhagen is one of the last opportunities for a reprieve," he said. "Because if we carry on business as usual collapse is inevitable whereas if we decide to do something about it we can make a difference to the current trajectory."

2008: Jennifer Marohasy » Ocean Acidification: Photographs from Bob Halstead and a Note from Floor Anthoni

The shallows near Dobu Island off Papua and New Guinea have active underwater fumaroles pumping out virtually pure CO2. The sea grass is extraordinarily lush and healthy and there is very healthy coral reef a few metres away.

For young people, climate propaganda from a group with a name very similar to Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection

Finally, Someone Has Made [Global Warming Fraud Allegedly] Cool | PEEK | AlterNet

Thanks to the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE), there is terrific outreach going on to reach high school students and give them the information and encouragement they need to help us tackle this issue.

Here's what ACE is up to:

Our primary goal is to equip students with the knowledge and tools they need to confront the global warming challenges our planet faces. ACE teaches the most current and accurate climate science so students will best understand the global warming crisis, and take initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through more informed lifestyle choices.

And the best thing is that they are reaching youth in an engaging way. Check out the video to the right to see a trailer about the (free) assemblies they put together for schools.

The video above includes this helpful illustration, which evidently suggests everything roasting in hellfire when CO2 gets somewhere up above 300 ppm:

Smart Method Blog

The Alliance for Climate Education trains educators to go into schools and present the latest information of climate change. Think of it as bringing an Al Gore disciple into your school who knows all about what’s going on in your local community. One question is how to keep the relationships that these presenters form with the students going after the presentation is over.

Blog | Alliance for Climate Education

It was a cool and cloudy morning in June; more than a dozen volunteers placed red flags across a park field in Bonn, Germany. We were preparing to create a giant aerial image and message to the UN climate talks taking place here. No one anticipated just how wet we were all about to be -- or just how beautiful an message we would create...

Starting at around noon over 500 people (Bonn locals and international activists alike) braved a steady, cool rain to form the aerial image directed by our friend John Quigley, SpectralQ. With penguins, polar bears, and puppets greeting the crowd as they entered the park it was a festive event and a clear demonstration of the groups' dedication for the issue -- lying on the wet ground for over 40 minutes as photographers and press snapped pictures.

Letters - Debating Climate Change - NYTimes.com

In “Betraying the Planet” (column, June 29), Paul Krugman asserts that those of us who oppose government regulation to deal with climate change are committing “treason against the planet.” I think Mr. Krugman is committing treason against reasoned debate.

One of the most compelling arguments against climate-change regulation is not that global warming isn’t occurring but, rather, that the dangers of further regulation far outweigh its likely benefits. Government regulation is inevitably a political animal; it’s never guided purely, or even largely, by disinterested science.

Is it treasonous to worry about the influence of interest groups on regulation? Is it treasonous to fear that centralizing more power in Washington will result in unforeseen negative consequences? Is it treasonous to believe that the threat to our well-being posed by further constraints upon markets is worse than the threat posed by higher temperatures?

Donald J. Boudreaux

The greenhouse gas has gone out of the carbon credit balloon

The carbon market has not escaped the effect of the recession. Irish Environment Minister John Gormley earlier this year asked the government-owned National Treasury Management Agency to stop buying carbon credits abroad as Ireland was close to meeting its targets under the Kyoto Protocol — a United Nations mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide — because of the recession. Under the agreement, industrialised countries must reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5,2% compared to their 1990 levels.

An Individual Carbon [Swindle] Cap for Every Man, Woman and Child? - thedailygreen.com

A new framework for reducing carbon emissions takes a crack at the knottiest dilemma confronting a global climate solution: how to divvy cuts between rich and poor nations.

The study, published Monday, attempts to sidestep the rancor, finding that virtually every country has a class of individuals -- the so-called "high emitters" -- enjoying a rich, carbon-intensive lifestyle. If those individuals, no matter their locale, are forced to take responsibility for their emissions, a great swath of countries become participants in the climate effort, the study claims.

"Rich people in poor countries shouldn't be able to hide behind the poor people in those countries," said Robert Socolow, co-director of Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative and a co-author of the study, published in the journal Proceeds of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Of course, none of this really works unless the developed world takes the lead. The original 1992 United Nations climate convention, ratified by more than 160 countries, including the United States, says that the developed world needs to act first.

They haven't done that yet, and experts agree time is quickly running out. This proposal is a way to bring the world together soon, they say.

"The north has got some sort of come-to-Jesus moment in its future. We just don't know how it's going to play out," said Tom Athanasiou, founder of EcoEquity, a think tank focused on global climate justice. "It's a terrible situation. It just is. We're way late."

A Busy Week Ahead as Senate Starts Work on Climate [Hoax] Bill - NYTimes.com

These are the first in a long line of Senate climate hearings as the Democratic-led chamber tries to cobble together a bill in time for Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) Sept. 18 deadline for all committees to clear their pieces of the legislation.

Also Wednesday, Reid plans to bring together the chairmen of the six key Senate committees for what are now becoming regular strategy sessions on the issue: Agriculture's Tom Harkin of Iowa; Commerce, Science and Transportation's John Rockefeller of West Virginia; Energy and Natural Resources' Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico; Environment and Public Works' Barbara Boxer of California; Finance's Max Baucus of Montana; and Foreign Relations' John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Boxer is expected to take the lead in writing the core components of the climate bill, building in large part off the House legislation approved less than two weeks ago on a 219-212 vote. A Democratic committee aide today said legislative text should be ready for public release within the next two weeks. Boxer has set aside the weeks of July 27-31 and Aug. 3-7 for marking up the bill.

Oxfam: [Stuck on Stupid] : TreeHugger

A new report from Oxfam tries to put a human face on the suffering that climate change will cause in the future, even if we muster the political will to hold global average temperature rise to 2°C, as well as what's already happening around the globe. Suffering the Science: Climate change, people and poverty goes into greater detail, but in short the report says that hunger, disaster and disease will be the "new normal":

CNSNews.com - White House Won’t Reveal How Much Michelle Obama’s European Vacation Cost Taxpayers

(CNSNews.com) – America may be in the midst of a deep recession, and the nation may be facing unprecedented deficit spending and debt, but the White House will not reveal the cost to taxpayers of the European vacation that first lady Michelle Obama and the president’s two daughters, Malia and Sasha, took last month.

Travel by an American first lady typically includes the military passenger jet that carries her and the children, Secret Service personnel to provide security, and a separate cargo plane to haul official vehicles.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s tour of Paris with her children included a convoy of 20 vehicles, according to news reports. She also moved by “motorcade” through London.
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In late November 2008, after reports that executives of the financially troubled auto companies had been using private jets, then-President-Elect Obama said, "I thought maybe they're a little tone-deaf to what's happening in America right now."

The Associated Press: UN official seeks G-8 cash for climate [hoax] fund

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Developing countries need money now to grapple with global warming, and the Group of Eight summit this week could energize troubled climate negotiations if it decided to make "significant" funds available, the top U.N. climate official said Monday.

Global warming expected to be top issue at summit in Italy - Politics AP - MiamiHerald.com

China hasn't been willing to commit to a target of emissions reductions, but it has been enacting policies that will reduce the amount that its emissions are increasing. China and other countries are looking to the G-8 for financial support for clean-energy technology and adapting to climate changes that already are happening.

"I don't know how many times they have to say no," said Ben Lieberman, a senior policy analyst on energy and the environment at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy-research center. "They're not willing to do to themselves what we're asking to do unilaterally to the U.S."

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Predicting the Waxman-Markey Vote and the Limits of Political Science

Silver has applied his model to the Senate and finds only 52 votes with a probability greater than 50% of supporting Waxman-Markey. Silver is correct to note that the Senate bill won't be the House bill and all sorts of dynamics could be in play. So I wouldn't write off Senate passage just yet, but I'd be very surprised if it happened in 2009. Silver comes to the right conclusion:

The question is how many ornaments the Democrats could place on the Christmas Tree before it starts to collapse under its own weight.

Carbon [Swindle] Trading Set to Triple by 2012 -- Seeking Alpha

Following the recent approval by the US House of Representatives of a climate change bill, the world now appears set on an irreversible path toward a dramatic expansion of carbon trading. Oxford Analytica takes a look at carbon emissions legislation around the world in a new report.

Al Gore Watches Temps and Credibility Drop Since ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

All of the most powerful evidence–from temperature change going back thousands of years, to solar activity, to global warming on other planets, to unreliable data–points toward natural and cyclic causes for temperature fluctuations. Socialists in Washington want to scuttle the American economy based on junk science…or simply a convenient excuse to exercise more control over their American subjects.

The American people must send that message loud and clear over and over again until the socialist tyrants in Washington either learn to behave, or we remove them from office in 2010 and 2012.

Goldilocks Graphs: Not to close, not too far | JoNova

And before anyone accuses me of ‘ignoring the long term trend’, can I mention Akasufo? Yes please, lets use that graph from 1880-2009, in fact, lets use one from the depths of the little ice, or the depths of the big ice age. There is no timespan that I won’t talk about, because they all help the skeptic case.

Pajamas Media » A Modest Proposal for Dealing with the Traitors Who Imperil Our Planet

PJM is proud to bring ye another Swiftian proposition to deal with the climate traitors in our midst.

My Money’s on the Bear - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Yes! Let’s convince the Russians that what they really need to worry about is global warming. Group hug!

And you thought George W. Bush’s hopefulness when it came to the Bear was cute.

Nothing to See Here - Chris Horner - Planet Gore on National Review Online

Goldman, Goldma- . . . ah, that's right, the guys who in the mid-1990s were working with Enron to set up a trading shop to sell ration coupons (and wet their beaks at both ends). I recall a former head of their energy practice (who shall remain nameless) laughing to me madly on the way to the bank, extolling the riches that awaited them if they pulled this thing off. (Cue Far Side cartoon in which two spiders string a web at the bottom of a playground slide, with one noting, "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings!" Hint: you're not the spiders.)

More Polar Bear Populations [Allegedly] in Decline - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

For the latest forecasts of this summer’s Arctic ice retreat, have a look at Sea Ice Outlook 2009, an effort to collate and compare a variety of studies aiming to project the minimum ice extent each summer. There is a strong consensus that the ice will remain well below the average recorded for the last three decades and that there is “no indication that a return to historical levels will occur.”

MIT Climate Scientist on man-made climate fears: 'Ordinary people see through this -- but educated people are very vulnerable' | Climate Depot

MIT climate scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen mocked man-made global warming fears in a July 2, 2009 radio interview on WRKO's Howie Carr program. (Full audio of Lindzen's interview available here.)

Lindzen noted that man-made climate fears were "divorced from nature" and he said the scientific foundation for climate fears is "falling apart."

"How did we get a population that can be told something that contradicts their senses and go crazy over it?" Lindzen asked on the program. Lindzen recently co-signed an open letter to Congress with a team of scientists warning: "You Are Being Deceived About Global Warming' -- 'Earth has been cooling for ten years.'

When asked about climate fears, Lindzen dismissed the notion that "ordinary" Americans are buying into former Vice President Al Gore's climate views.

"We are too smart for that. You look at the polls, ordinary people see through this, but educated people are very vulnerable," Lindzen quipped. (at 09:14 min. mark on audio)

Lindzen noted that people are being told that if they change a lightbulb, they are "saving the Earth", they are "virtuous, they are smart."

"Now you are told if you that if you don't understand global warming is going on, you are dumb, but if you agree to it, you are smart," Lindzen explained.

Yahoo’s Data Centers Will Be Powered By Niagara Falls | Sustainability Ninja

David Filo, co-founder and “Chief Yahoo” released the following statement on the Yahoo website last week, detailing the company’s environmental goals over the next few years:

“This morning, at a press conference in Buffalo, New York, with New York Governor David Paterson and Senator Chuck Schumer, we took another big step forward in addressing climate change. We announced plans to build one of the greenest, most energy-efficient data centers in the world.

REPORT: Toyota plans to manufacture up to 30,000 plug-in hybrids in 2012

Fanning competition against GM's upcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt plug-in, the Nikkei business daily reports that Toyota Motor Corp. plans to manufacture 20,000 to 30,000 plug-in hybrids in 2012.

Toyota Tundra sales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Toyota Tundra is a full-size pickup truck introduced by Toyota in the year 2000.
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