The Great Beyond: The Bering Sea Project: Thoughts on Climategate

“I think everyone made a whole lot out of nothing,” says Nancy Kachel, who works at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. “The scientists were imprudent, and they used the kind of language that others could misinterpret – like ‘clever trick’ – but it had nothing to do with deception. It’s pretty irrefutable that humans are impacting our environment unfavorably, including the climate.” Her husband Dave Kachel, also a NOAA oceanographer, agrees, “They were making so much of those emails, when the scientists were just joking around.”
...Why does the public seem to trust those who engage in illegal behavior more than scientists, who are accused but vindicated?

David Shull, professor at Western Washington University, says that although he didn’t read the emails, he is familiar with the situation. “There’s no cover up. These guys have been hounded for years by people attacking them, people that were just looking for some big scandal. My understanding is that they’ve [who are "they"?] been attempting to hack into many different climate groups.” CRU happened to have something they could use. “There are some people who take a certain view of the world, and use that to cherry pick data that supports their view. But science doesn’t work like that.”
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Was Shull aware that one of the graduate students on board, a conservative from Chicago doesn’t agree that the earth is warming, and prefers to talk about his research in terms of changing sea-ice conditions or inter-annual variability? Data collected for the project do address year to year changes, but the Bering Sea Project most certainly attempts to understand how a warming climate could ultimately impact the region. Shull said that was a pretty typical Midwestern perspective; which is to say, people are influenced by those around them. “Good for him," he added. "It’s great to have different perspectives. That’s what science is all about. He is at the outset of his career, and his views will most likely change as he continues in graduate school, if he looks at the data and chooses the best explanation.”

Voinovich Calls It 'Cynical' To Push Climate Change Legislation Right Now | TPMDC

"Anybody that has been in the Senate for any period of time knows there is no way, no way, that an energy bill is going to get done between now and the election or for that matter between now and the end of this year," Voinovich told reporters. "This whole thing is very cynical."

"Give me a break. This is just going through the motions, maybe to satisfy some people in your conference, but don't kid us about we're going to come forward with this thing and it's going to be serious," Voinovich said. "Anybody that's being intellectually honest has got to say we do not have the time to do aything meaningful at this time in regards to climate change."

brutal cold snap - claims dozen of lives in latin america

MONTEVIDEO, July 20, 2010 (AFP) - A brutal cold snap plunging a large swath of Latin America in the most frigid weather the region has seen in decades has claimed dozens of lives, officials said Tuesday.

Twitter / Bryan Walsh

At #CEM, Dan Reicher of Google points out that renewables still have a "long distance to go" to compete straight up w/ fossil fuels

2008: A Convenient Truth – lecture by Dan Reicher of Google.org « Probaway – Life Hacks

Google’s stated objective is to develop a one Gigawatt renewable generating plant that is cheaper than coal in a few years, not decades.