Senate Dems urge short-term focus on jobs, cap-and-trade delay

Several influential Senate Democrats from around the country yesterday questioned the political wisdom of diving headfirst into a sweeping climate change and energy package when voters are more concerned about jobs and the state of the economy.
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Casey and at least a half dozen other Democrats said yesterday that the Senate should stay clear over the coming weeks and months from a big global warming bill at the same time Americans deal with record unemployment and a housing crisis.

"I think it's clear from the hiatus that a large cap-and-trade bill isn't going to go ahead at this time," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
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When they do move into the environment and energy arena, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said he would prefer Congress work on a bill that he plans to introduce with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) that curbs conventional air pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury.

Past versions of the legislation have also included a limit on carbon dioxide emissions, but Carper said he would leave that debate for later. "We're not going to start there," Carper said. "We're going to start with three of those P's. And we'll leave the last of those out for now."

Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas said they had their doubts cap-and-trade legislation would be viable in 2010 -- even before the results of the Massachusetts special election.

"Cap and trade was in trouble before Senator Brown got elected," Landrieu said. "That was an issue that was still being hotly debated within the Democratic caucus, so there are many of us that are not yet convinced that that is the right way to go."
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Senate Democratic leaders said they have not yet had a conversation with their rank-and-file members on the climate and energy bill. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the issue did not even come up during the Democrats' first luncheon gathering since the Massachusetts election, whereas last week, Reid suggested a springtime floor debate.

C3: Global Temperatures: How Fast Will Temps Have To Grow To Reach The Alarmist Hyped Predictions?

As the chart below reveals, temperatures over the last 130 years have been increasing at a 0.57°C per century rate. For the last 10 years, the rate per century has been 0.68°C. Global warming alarmists, such as the MIT climate model scientists, claim temperatures will jump +7.0°C by 2100. In order to reach that temperature level, temperatures will have to increase at a 0.76°C per decade rate (that equals a 7.60°C per century rate). That's over 10 times greater than has been experienced in the last ten years. Putting aside the climate model predictions; looking at the graph; and then applying some common sense, there is no way that type of temperature outcome is going to happen. It's all hype to generate press stories, to raise research funding and to cause public fear.

Ready For Act Two? The Global Warming Drama Will Play On - Big Journalism

Yet, if this is not the beginning of the end, it’s at least the end of the beginning. With public support for the proposition that human activity is causing climate change continuing to erode, the players know that they will have to do some rewriting of their in Act Two. Having uttered the warning that “the world will end as we know it unless we do something this year” for so many years, it’s hard to imagine that they can come up with anything that will resonate.

Still, we must remain vigilant, for there is much work to done before the curtain finally falls on this theater of the absurd. If we do – even though the show will surely go on – I suspect that the audience will continue to quietly drift away, until the actors are left playing before a sea of empty seats, their lines audible only to themselves.

Himalaya Glacier Claim an Error, Says U.N.'s IPCC - TIME

Between the undying controversy that was "Climategate" and the near collapse of the Copenhagen summit on global warming, 2009 was not a great year for climate scientists or activists. Less than a month into the new year, 2010 isn't looking much better.

On Wednesday (the day after Republican Scott Brown, an opponent of cap and trade, seized a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts), a new scandal broke over climate science.

Climate Resistance » Ball or Aerosol?

According to the likes of Bob Ward, George Monbiot, Ben Goldacre and Steve Connor, it is a well established fact that the slump in global temperatures over three decades in the middle of the last century is the result of changes in the composition of atmospheric aerosols following various clean air acts in the western world.