Monckton makes it up

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/08/monckton-makes-it-up/

1. He confused a hypothetical scenario with a prediction.

Climate change: Behold, the gospel according to the UN

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7932201/Climate-change-Behold-the-gospel-according-to-the-UN.html

The Methodist Church is adopting the IPCC's report on global warming as holy writ, finds Christopher Booker

Everybody panic: Area of "huge" new iceberg is only 1,000 times less than the growth of Arctic sea ice since July 2007

Huge ice sheet breaks off Greenland glacier, moves south

The iceberg measures 100 sq miles, or 260 sq km, which is about one quarter of the entire Petermann Glacier's floating ice shelf.

Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis

Average ice extent for July was 8.39 million square kilometers (3.24 million square miles), 1.71 million square kilometers (660,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 mean, but 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 square miles) above the average for July 2007, the lowest July in the thirty-two-year satellite record.

American Thinker: Global Warming, R.I.P

In a remarkable monograph, Roy W. Spencer presents hard evidence that 75% of the observed warming since the start of the 20th century is due to natural processes. He offers a detailed model describing how one of these processes, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), operates in the real world. Most importantly, he demonstrates that anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is a minor contributor to a global climate largely insensitive to man-made CO2.

Kola Temperature Reconstruction Shows Solar Correlation – Refutes The Hockey Stick « P Gosselin – NoTricksZone

In response, German media outlets all hollered “RAPIDLY RISING ARCTIC TEMPERATURES!”, focussing solely on one statement that temperatures have been rising since 1990.

It’s a classic example of how a scientific study comes up with Result A, but the public ends up understanding Result Z, all thanks to sloppy and incompetent communication that exists between the two.

[If China really was racing ahead to develop perfect new energy technologies, why wouldn't that be a good thing?]

Meanwhile, look at the Chinese. They've long been regarded as one of the leading polluters in the world, but now they're creating a booming industry around the development of anti-pollution technology. They're even attracting some of the brightest engineers from the U.S. to work in China on these innovations.

If anyone in the world invents something that is truly better and cheaper than fossil fuels, wouldn't market forces naturally work to deploy it worldwide?

Polar bears face melting chemical cocktail › News in Science (ABC Science)

Fieler is particularly concerned by a group of compounds used to harden the plastics, which mimic hormones.

"They change the hormone system of the animals so that some polar bears have actually turned from being female to male," he says.

The good news, according to Munro Jenssen, is that the polar bear has already demonstrated it can adapt to climate change.

"From 9000 to 6000 years ago, it was probably much warmer in the Arctic than it is today, and the polar bears survived that period."

ABC News Watch: ABC-polar bear whisperers

Can ABC explain how it knows that the Polar Bear in the photo is "waiting for an ice sheet to form"? and not say waiting for a meal? Placing this fanciful caption on a science article is demeaning to science. Please remove the mouse over caption.

Warmists and dinosaurs

[James Isanhart] World renowned scientific leaders including Freeman Dyson, Ivar Giaever (Nobel Prize), Robert Laughlin (Nobel Prize), Edward Teller, Frederick Seitz, Robert Jastrow and William Nierenberg have each come forward with their respective doubts about manmade global warming claims authored by the now discredited consensus of United Nations sponsored climatologists.

I for one do not believe we should institute a carbon tax of any kind at this time as the history of scientific consensus is not one to hang our whole economic future on.

Cap and trade could milk Alberta for generations

The oilsands giants, besides paying their regular bonanza in tax revenue to Ottawa, would become major contributors to balance sheets right across to Quebec.

This is the perfect fix for provinces that have jealously coveted Alberta's energy revenues for a generation. Our companies would simply pay cash to their Crown corporations.

BP collecting millions in government stimulus funds for California power plant | The Climate Desk | Grist

The federal government is giving a joint venture involving oil giant BP millions of dollars in stimulus money to build a power plant on farmland near the tiny Kern County town of Tupman, Calif., even as the company faces heavy government pressure and a criminal probe into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
...
"If you're trying to get money out of them, why are you giving them money?" said Tom Frantz, a local environmental advocate and part-time almond farmer who opposes the power plant. "If I was the government right now, I would not give BP $300 million to do anything."
...
The federal government is providing about 12 percent of the project's price tag to foster clean coal technology that captures carbon dioxide emissions as part of the battle against global warming.

Obama's Political Payback — Green Corruption - Patriotic Resistance

Billions of stimulus money going to Al Gore and John Doerr “green” companies –– multiple federal investigations are underway.

Clean cold comfort

An Ottawa startup believes its 'tempered steam' de-icing system could save the air industry $800 million a year.
...By offering an alternative to the cost, delays and environmental consequences of using heated glycol to remove snow and ice from aircraft, Bourgault's goal is to carve out 30 per cent of the estimated $2 billion the air industry spends annually to make planes safe in cold weather.

Obama's Sunny View of Oil, Medicare and GM - Barrons.com

Take this tidbit plucked from an Aug. 4 White House blog post by Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change: "Today a panel of government scientists released a report which said that the vast majority of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed[,] much of which is in the process of being degraded. A significant amount of this is the direct result of the federal government's aggressive response to the spill." Superman had saved the day, so to speak.

Bizarrely, our fear of nuclear weapons has faded, and our interest in the Hiroshima anniversary has dwindled accordingly – Telegraph Blogs

Objectively, the threat of Armageddon is far higher today, when nuclear weapons have spread from the five postwar powers to Israel, North Korea, India and, soon perhaps, Iran. But, for whatever reason, our attention has wandered, and the disaster-scenario du jour is Global Warming.

Premiers differ on climate change

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says he believes a cap-and-trade program is simply a wealth transfer to other provinces and countries that does little to reduce emissions.

Alarmist Heidi Cullen: Global warming will cause pirates to run rampant

Review of "The Weather of the Future," by Heidi Cullen

Massive floods in Bangladesh may produce "climate refugees," Cullen suggests; New York may be battered by a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds as high as 135 miles per hour; and coral reefs may be eaten away by an acidic ocean. "These predictions and our seeming inability to heed their warning is a potential tragedy," she writes.

Cullen also predicts some geopolitical repercussions of global warming: Pirates run rampant, Osama bin Laden invokes U.S. carbon emissions to recruit terrorists, and Canada and the United States argue over naval authority in an ice-free Northwest Passage. The book is at its best and most insightful when it explores today's environment, such as regreening efforts in Niger. Let models be used to predict the weather, not the politics.

[So we're saved!:  Note this overwhelming evidence that pirates cause global cooling]

" You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature."

How Adapting to Climate Change Could Make Global Warming Worse - Ecocentric - TIME.com

* The study notes that a fifth of the world's remaining tropical forests lie just a few days walk from human populations that could be forced to move should sea levels rise by 1 m. When people migrate away from the coasts to escape the rising seas, expect them to use those forests for fuel and clear them for farming. That could be devastating for biodiversity—nearly half of the Alliance for Zero Extinction hotspots exist within this zone.
...
Of course, the only problem is that it's our inability to plan well for the long-term that has led us to the climate crisis—and there's no evidence that has changed, even as the impacts of warming become harder and harder to deny. Unless the pace of warming suddenly slows—or we can rapidly cut carbon emissions thanks to a political and technological miracle—we may need to beat a few tactical retreats in the face of climate change. How well we plan for that day will decide whether those retreats can help us live to fight another day—or simply lead to greater catastrophe.

'Climate chaos' gives advocates a convenient argument - JSOnline

Ott acknowledges that there are respected scientists who believe in man-made climate change. He also says he himself has not seen enough evidence to be persuaded. I, personally, don't take a position - except to say that linking any one summer's weather, let alone one day's flood, to some sort of climate chaos and a need for carbon emission reduction is like using an increase in the cost of a soda at the local hot dog vendor's stand to argue that the Federal Reserve should alter monetary policy to keep inflation in check.

YouTube - Don't Panic! Russian fires not result of global warming

Swathes of central Russia are still in flames - with firefighters tackling hundreds of new fires every day. But, are the Russian wildfires evidence of climate change? Patrick Michaels, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and climate change skeptic says no. Michaels argued that the increased temperatures in Russia are merely one weather event and cannot be related to global warming. The earth is warmer than it has been in the past, but this does not mean we are facing an apocalyptic climate scenario.

As the green economy grows, the 'dirty rich' are fading away

While Google's servers gobble up vast amounts of energy, its products exist mainly as pixels on a screen. BlackBerrys and iPhones are pocket-size, and desktop computers, which are among the larger products of the Information Age, weigh a few hundred times less than an automobile.
...
Apart from self-interest, many of the clean rich care about the environment. They tend to be highly educated, and quite a few have scientific training. They understand that climate change is real and must be addressed now. Google, which is run by three computer scientists, set out to be carbon-neutral several years ago and says it has achieved that goal.

[On the hypocrisy of the Google guys]

Larry Page, Google’s billionaire co-founder, is set to marry his girlfriend, Lucy Southworth, on a tiny Caribbean island this weekend… The New York Post reported on Wednesday that 600 guests will be flown on private planes to the wedding on Branson’s Necker Island.
...
A photo-op of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plugging-in a hybrid car was part of the search engine giant’s June announcement promising carbon neutrality by 2008. But how this PR-fluff squares with the so-called “Google party jet” — Page and Brin’s gargantuan personal Boeing 767, which burns about 1,550 gallons/hour — is any one’s guess.

Physician, heal thyself: Amusing revelations from left-wing planet healer Andy Revkin

After lecturing us for decades about global warming and the evils of fossil fuel, he reveals that since 1996, he's been living in a house with substandard insulation, heated by an unmaintained oil burner.

A Snakeskin Where Insulation Should Be - Dot Earth Blog - NYTimes.com

I’d long sought to cut our energy appetite, but often ran into inertia, confusion or — most often — costs. As a result, after considering expensive alternatives like a geothermal heat pump, I’d reluctantly bought a new tank for heating oil to replace the pair of rusting tanks in the basement of our house, which had been built in 1930 by the family we bought it from in 1996.
...Our oil burner was deemed a good choice, if we keep it well tuned and maintained (something I’ve let slip). Our major appliances were Energy Star approved. I said we’d finally break down and get a stove-like insert for our fireplace (something we sorely missed when the power was knocked out by a blizzard last winter, forcing us to live the “ imposed low-carbon life” for several days).

The biggest surprise was the snakeskin I discovered in a space beneath our attic floorboards where insulation should have been. Even where there was insulation, it was only about two thirds of the insulation value of R-30 that we would need even to meet the minimum modern codes.

Quote by P.J. O'Rourke

"Everybody wants to save the world, but nobody wants to help Mum with the dishes."

Settled science?: Could all of the percentages below really be correct?

A huge math problem, and sanity check, for alarmists:  If you could ever sort out the top hundred natural and anthropogenic causes of the 20th century warming, the sum of the contributions would have to be about 100%.  If you get a number like 1200%, something's wrong.

AFP: McCartney calls for meat-free day to cut CO2

McCartney, a longtime environmental campaigner, told the EU magazine that there is "clear" evidence that meat production is "major contributor" to climate change.
...
"A lower-meat diet could see greenhouse gases reduced by as much as 80 per cent," he said.

6 Things You Should Repair Instead of Replace

...experts estimate that 44% of U.S. global warming emissions are due to products and packaging.

Climate Change - What you can do about climate change and global warming: Tips from a Nature Conservancy Scientist

In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions...electricity generation produces 40 percent of carbon emissions from the United States.

Global Oceans Show Potentially Devastating Effects of Climate Change

The ocean has absorbed about 30 percent of human-produced carbon dioxide to date

GlobalWarming.House.Gov | Issues | Global Warming

Buildings currently account for 38 percent of carbon emissions in the United States—more than either the transportation or industrial sectors—and consume 70 percent of the electricity.

Deforestation: The Leading Cause of CO2 Emissions

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported in October 2006 that deforestation accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the release of greenhouse gases

Methane – A Ticking Bomb |  Global Warming Basics | Allianz Knowledge

Contribution to Human-Induced Climate Change: 23 percent

HowStuffWorks "Do cows pollute as much as cars?"

Agriculture is responsible for an estimated 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gases.

Ordinary Soot a Major Cause of Global Warming : News

Soot, or black carbon, may be responsible for 15 to 30 percent of global warming

Army: Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change (Updated) | Danger Room | Wired.com

"The Sun could account for as much as 69 percent of the increase in Earth’s average temperature," West noted.

UHI is alive and well | Watts Up With That?

In it, Jones identifies an urban warming signal in China of 0.1 degrees C per decade.  Or, if you prefer, 1 degree C per century. Not negligible by any means....in the larger cities the actual measurement will be overstated by 25%.

UN climate [hoax] chief cites progress at Bonn talks; others less sure

"I guess everyone understands that it's hard to cook a meal without a pot," said Figueres, according to prepared comments. "Governments are much closer now to actually making the pot." [Has she been smoking it?] ...Dessima Williams, a delegate from Granada, representing island states threatened by sea level rise, confirmed that they were likely to seek an increase in the $100 billion fund, according to press accounts.

Gov. Ritter seeks disaster aid for 2 Colorado counties hit by severe weather - KDVR

Officials in Otero County in southeastern Colorado say nearly 50 percent of the melon crop has been damaged or destroyed by freezing temperatures and hail.

Cold weather wiped out nearly all of Montrose County's sweet cherry crop in western Colorado.

Bill Gates: The Hurdles for Energy & Backing 5 Battery Startups

Or carbon sequestration, because it’s a trillion times larger in volume than nuclear waste, the government will have to agree to take the liability. There are things that hold [energy innovation] back. Innovation hasn’t done as much as it should have done. We need to pursue a lot of paths. If we new solar PV would be 50 times cheaper for sure or this nuclear thing would work, then we would be done. But, boy are there a lot of problems that have to be solved.

Cheap Clean Energy for the Poor: The importance is cheap energy for the poor. Even if you ignore climate change, the value of cheap energy for the poor is literally about life itself. If you can reduce the price of energy you can save lives, if you save lives you can reduce population growth, and you can create this virtuous cycle that two-thirds of the world has experienced, but about one-third of the world is trapped in at this point.

Betsy Taylor: An open letter to all people and organizations working to combat global warming

...we are holding a retreat in mid-November with key allies, organizers, 1Sky staff and board, but also with leaders from other sectors to help us see in fresh ways, and to explore what role 1Sky can best play as we move into the next chapter....We need to redouble our investment in grassroots movement building. Climate and energy advocates were better funded and coordinated than ever before, and yet we were unable to convince reluctant policymakers to take action to prevent global warming and jumpstart a clean energy economy.

Has a Warming Russia Outpaced the World? - Green Blog - NYTimes.com

Better known for long, bitterly cold winters, Russia is well on the way to becoming the poster child for the perils of global warming this summer.
...Drawing on the work of leading climate researchers, a 2008 report compiled by Russia’s state environmental agency, concluded that Russia was warming twice as fast as the rest of the world

"Honest Al" Gore visits Mexico, bars media from his speech, refuses to be interviewed

Narco News: Al Gore Stirs Controversy, this Time In Mexico

The press was barred from Gore’s speech, reportedly about climate change, and state officials refused to state how much the former US presidential candidate was paid (Gore typically receives $170,000 dollars per speech). The mystery was further fueled by vague admissions that private sector donors had financed Gore’s visit, but state officials claimed they did not know who paid the speaker’s fees and costs.

Sponsored by the state’s “Commitment to Mexico” initiative as part of a two-day conference on climate change and sustainable development, the website for the forum states that “all of the forums will be transmitted live” on Mexican state television, radio, and over the Internet. All other parts of the forums were in fact broadcast live, but not Gore’s speech.

This, only two months after Gore lambasted similar behavior from the oil company BP for barring reporters from parts of the Gulf of Mexico damaged by its massive oil rig leak. Gore told the Christian Science Monitor that BP’s actions were “completely unacceptable,” and that “this de facto form of censorship needs to stop.”
...
While the forums weren’t open to the public, they were open to credentialed press. But on Wednesday morning reporters covering the panels were surprised to find out that the venue for Gore’s speech would not only be closed to the media, but that they would only be able to listen to the first five minutes of the American politician’s speech from a closed-circuit TV. Journalists at the conference were given a press advisory stating in Spanish that “there would be no transmission of the lecture for any media after the first five minutes,” per the request of Gore’s representatives. The memo also stated that Gore’s media team had requested there be no “interviews or press conferences with Mr. Gore.”

Six Million Fish Dead in Bolivian [cold snap]

(3 Aug. 2010 - Update: The number of dead fish and other water-dependent wildlife has increased to about 6 million.)
---
Over 1 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles, dolphins and other river wildlife are floating dead in numerous Bolivian rivers in the three eastern/southern departments of Santa Cruz, Beni and Tarija. The extreme cold front that hit Bolivia in mid-July caused water temperatures to dip below the minimum temperatures river life can tolerate. As a consequence, rivers, lakes, lagoons and fisheries are brimming with decomposing fish and other creatures.

Unprecedented: Nothing like this has ever been seen in this magnitude in Bolivia.

Access : The climate change game : Nature Geoscience

Abstract
Accusations by sceptics have steered climate researchers into an unproductive battle. They should now rise above the debate and help develop models of the coupled climate–socioeconomic system to advise policymakers.

Could be Coldest August Day on Record | NBC San Diego

July proved to be nearly the coldest on record in nearly a hundred years. Now, 6 days into August, our unseasonably cool weather continues, and today we have a chance of seeing the coolest August day since record keeping began in 1875.

Minority voters think greener, statewide poll shows | SF Public Press

“Ethnic Californians are ahead of the mainstream in their concerns about global warming and the environment,” said Sandy Close, executive director of New America Media, an organization that aggregates the ethnic press and co-presented the survey.

Clock’s ticking: Carbon emissions must peak by 2015 | Carbon

A new carbon cycle model developed by researchers in Europe indicates that global carbon emissions must start dropping by no later than 2015 to prevent the planet from tipping into dangerous climate instability.
...
“It will take centuries for the global climate system to stabilise,” says Erich Roeckner, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute.

Climate talks in danger of unravelling as China and US clash | World news | The Guardian

Environmentalists fear Copenhagen deal could fall apart over backsliding and changes to demands
...
Global climate talks have sunk to a new low after China and the US clashed and rich countries lined up against poor in a refusal to compromise on emission reduction targets.
...
"Events outside [such as the Russian heatwave and the Pakistan floods] are consistent with what we can expect from climate change," said Jonathan Pershing, the lead US negotiator at this week's meeting in Bonn. "But I am very concerned that some countries are walking backwards in the progress made since Copenhagen. If we continue to go down this road, there is no hope of an agreement in Cancun. All parties are stepping back."

Since 1918, it's snowed only three times in Buenos Aires--twice in the last month, and once in 2007

Chilly in Chile: South America Hit by Freak Cold Snap

(Aug. 6) -- The U.S. might be experiencing a hot, hot summer, but south of the border, things couldn't be more different. Latin America's southernmost regions are shivering through the coldest winter in decades, which has left vast swaths of Argentina and Brazil with snow, and caused millions of freshwater fish to freeze to death in Bolivia.

To get an idea of how unusual this icy snap is, you just have to take a look at the weather records of Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. It's snowed there three times since 1918 -- and two of those dustings have taken place in the past month. (The other was in July 2007).
...
And Chile's capital Santiago had an average temperature of just over 42 degrees last month, according to the University of Chile, making it the city's chilliest July since 1908. The Santiago Times said one in three city dwellers had suffered a respiratory illnesses in the past four weeks -- which could have been caused by the increased use of shoddy gas or coal heaters, as well as exposure to the cold -- and reported that a record frost had wrecked avocado, orange and lemon crops. The paper says exports of these fruits are now expected to fall by up to 40 percent.

If you think you're going to be driving a solar-powered car anytime soon, think again

Where Did the Carter White House's Solar Panels Go?: Scientific American

...it would take producing roughly a square meter of photovoltaic panels or the mirrors for a solar thermal system every few seconds for the next 40 years to harvest one terrawatt of energy from the sun by 2050—using present technologies—according to engineer Saul Griffith of Other Lab in San Francisco. The U.S. presently uses almost four terrawatts of energy a year.

Debunking the Blacklist Paper, Part 2: The results were rigged

RomanM: I don’t think that this paper is particularly important nor the ‘findings” inconvenient, but I do find them troublesome from the viewpoint of ethics and professionality. It is in the same category as “scientific” studies done in the 20th century purporting to show that particular racial and ethnic groups were somehow inferior or second class. The paper should not have been published because it reflects badly on the climate science community as a whole – I would be ashamed to be a member of a group that countenanced this sort of thing .

Granholm: Limbaugh’s attacks on American-made electric vehicles are ‘un-American’ « Climate Progress

[Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), on video] It’s just un-American. I can’t believe that somebody would say this about this American product. He hasn’t even driven it. He hasn’t sat in it. You know, why wouldn’t you be supportive of American manufacturers building American vehicles with American workers, who now have jobs as a result of this. Why wouldn’t you be supportive of that? [For starters, how about if the cars suck, they cost too much, they won't prevent bad weather, they'll run mostly on fossil fuel and electricity generated from fossil fuel, and billions in public dollars shouldn't be blown on them?] It is mind-blowing to me. And of course, the public is getting paid back. You know, GM has paid back the loan — the bottom line is, is this is a “good” news story, and somebody who would twist it to be something negative obviously has another agenda. Which we all know he does.

New Ways to Scrub Out the Carbon - Green Blog - NYTimes.com

Three technologies lead the pack for capturing the carbon dioxide in coal while also harnessing the energy. On Thursday, the Energy Department endorsed the “oxyburn” strategy, which involves filtering the nitrogen out of air and burning coal in pure oxygen, with a resulting flue gas that is almost pure carbon dioxide; it will attempt that in Illinois.

Obama Choppers Six Miles For Economy Comments - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

President Obama Friday flew Marine One from the White House less than six miles to Northwest D.C.

He choppered to Gelberg Signs, the Washington, D.C.-based company where he'll deliver remarks on the economy and July employment numbers. According to Google maps, the drive would have taken about 20 minutes from the White House.

By CBS News' Mark Knoller's count, this is the president's 300th flight on Marine One.

As to why the president choppered to a company in D.C., spokesman Bill Burton said, "Probably because it's an easier than a motorcade through the city in the middle of the day."

Hans von Storch on crying wolf: It works well, until people figure out that you were lying

Die Klimazwiebel: Sustainable ... science?

The maximization of short-term utility goes with a prize: The public will understand that it has been manipulated, and that it had not honestly been advised by its publicly funded social institution "science". Admittedly, manipulated for something, which has been perceived by certain elites as "good" – but what is the principal difference in this respect between Greenpeace and Exxon? The dramatic decay of trust into the IPCC, following the illegal publication of e-mails at CRU in November 2009, the inacceptable sloppiness in preparing some statements, for instance about the future of Himalayan glaciers, in a report of the 4th Assessment report of the IPCC, was not really surprising.

FWC extends snook harvest ban | news-press.com | The News-Press

Harvest and possession of snook has been prohibited in Florida since Jan. 16 as a response to the extended cold weather in January, during which hundreds of thousands of snook died throughout the state.

Climate Change Is for Real, Y'all | Fast Company

Deke Arndt, chief of the Climate Monitoring Branch of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center and co-editor of the report, says, “The temperature increase of one degree Fahrenheit over the past 50 years may seem small, but it has already altered our planet.” He continues, “Glaciers and sea ice are melting, heavy rainfall is intensifying and heat waves are more common. And, as the new report tells us, there is now evidence that over 90% of warming over the past 50 years has gone into our ocean.”

Waxman supports keeping 'very useful' House climate [scam] committee intact - The Hill's E2-Wire

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said he would support continuing the separate global warming committee helmed by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in the next Congress.

Waxman, a political ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming created in 2007 “served a very useful purpose and I wouldn’t object to it being continued.”
...
His comments are the latest indication that House Democrats plan to push strongly for a global warming fix next year, even though climate legislation has stalled in the Senate and its political prospects are likely to dim further with expected Democratic losses in the mid-term elections.

Emily Murgatroyd | Regina Newspaper Calls on Skeptics to Put Their Money Where There Mouth Is

Local Regina publication, Prairie Dog Magazine, is laying down the gauntlet by asking climate change skeptics to record their doubts on paper.

The magazine has created a declaration that outlines various scenarios for rejecting scientific consensus and has mailed it to several public figures who have openly expressed skepticism on the issue of global warming, including Stephen Harper, Margaret Wente, Rex Murphy, Tim Ball and Ross McKitrick amongst others.

The plan to check in with the skeptics in 10 years is all about "accountability" and the magazine states that should they be wrong they will give credit where credit is due. And if they're right.....it's a sad bet to win.

What’s going on in climate skeptics’ deluded heads?

Why do all you climate deniers risk your reputations defending positions utterly at odds with science and reason?
 
Much has been made of your ties to the oil and coal lobbies, but can you really be doing it just for the money?
...
[George Marshall, the founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network] suspects your motivations are less venal and may be related to a kind of deranged careerism. Marshall notes that the most prominent of your kind are almost all men — men whose careers weren’t terribly noteworthy until you threw in with the adoring denialist hordes.
...
It’s a pity that the media and public can’t see through this rogues’ gallery of failed men and aging cranks.
...
Shame: Morano has none. He’s a tireless brawler who dances away from his every misstep and never misses an opportunity for a low blow against an opponent. Morano’s the dirtiest fighter in the climate denier gang. Do not underestimate.

The Associated Press: Climate talks appear to slip backward

BONN, Germany — Global climate talks appeared to have slipped backward after five days of negotiations in Bonn, with rich and poor countries exchanging charges of reneging on agreements they made last year to contain greenhouse gases.

Delegates complained that reversals in the talks put negotiations back by a year, even before minimal gains were scored at the Copenhagen summit last December.
...
Pershing declined to give details of disputes raised in closed-door negotiations, but he said major developing countries were backing away from commitments to slow the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, and now say emission controls should apply only to industrial countries.

China, India, Brazil and South Africa were among the major developing nations at the Copenhagen summit. Since then, China has become the world's largest consumer of energy, to add to its earlier position of being the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluter.

U.N. climate deal retreats as Bonn talks end

Pershing said some countries were seeking "staggering sums out of line with reality."

A ‘Small’ Spill: China’s Environmental Tango - Green Blog - NYTimes.com

Not long after taking up work in Beijing, I ran across an interesting chart that, reduced to a nutshell, says this: when Beijing’s air is bad, the government tweaks things to make its pollution reports look better than they really are.

Pig-lipsticking, of course, is anything but a Chinese invention, but on Chinese environmental matters, it has long been something of an art.

Weather extremes, not climate change | The SPPI Blog

The Alaska Science Forum is a very sensible and informative site that tends to look at the real facts behind climate and weather. Science writer Ned Rozell at the Geophysical Institute explains the effect of the jet stream on extreme weather events:

“In 1967 the Chena River spilled over its banks and flooded Fairbanks. For more than a week, the city core was underwater, and the town became a lake more than five miles wide. The flood forced thousands of people to leave the city and caused more than $180 million in damage to homes and businesses.”

The jet stream is to blame

U.N. climate deal retreats as Bonn talks end

http://in.mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/AnyArticle/p.rdt?URL=http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-50685020100806

"I came to Bonn hopeful of a deal in Cancun, but at this point I am very concerned as I have seen some countries walking back from progress made in Copenhagen," said Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. deputy special climate envoy.

Argentina Has Colder Winter Than Antarctica, Spurring Record Power Imports - Bloomberg

Argentina is importing record amounts of energy as the coldest winter in 40 years drives up demand and causes natural-gas shortages, prompting Dow Chemical Co. and steelmaker Siderar SAIC to scale back production.

Quadrant Online - Gillard's climate spin

Julia Gillard made it clear in the leaders’ debate that her citizens’ assembly will be set-up to help bring the country with her, which less politely put means ‘to re-educate those who presently have different views into seeing the wisdom of the Great Leader, or at least of the proposals Labor would otherwise want to bring in’. It will be a grouping of cheerleaders for an ETS.

That’s precisely what elections and democracy do NOT produce, groupthink. They produce instead differences of opinion, where everyone thinks he or she has the best interests of society at heart. They simply differ on means.

The sort of thing Gillard is proposing is anything but that. It is premised on an incredibly elitist view of the world, where all we poor dumb bastards need educating and shepherding along by a 150 philosopher kings, or ETS queens. It’s a very patronising view.

No one for a minute thinks this citizens’ assembly will be set-up to indulge in vigorous differences of opinion, with stinging minority reports being written, and blasts issued in the direction of a Prime Minister Gillard. No, no, no. This will be stage managed theatre.

Alberta rolls out slick oilsands campaign, as Quebec, Saskatchewan lend support

He's buoyed by the fact most premiers have been speaking positively about the importance of the oilsands, including Quebec's Jean Charest, who's expressed concerns in the past about greenhouse gas emissions from developing the northern Alberta oil deposits.

Charest said his comments, while in Copenhagen last December at an international climate change conference, were "spun" by other governments to suggest he was attacking the oilsands.

"Totally false," Charest said about his purported attacks on the resource and Alberta, insisting he wants to see all provinces pull their weight on slashing carbon emissions.

If Al Gore Warming is a hoax, then give me a sign!

[Climate change student discovers that CO2 may be less dangerous than a lightning strike to the head] - KDVR

DENVER - Brandan Baker was calm and collected, if not a bit angry, as he described his fateful hike to the top of Long's Peak on Tuesday that landed him in the hospital - the survivor of a lightning strike to the head.
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Baker, a student at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, was visiting Rocky Mountain National Park with a group of students as part of a field study on climate change. He ignored the advice of his instructor and attempted to summit Long's Peak, alone.

Comments On A New Paper On “Climate Sensitivity” By Lin Et Al 2010 « Climate Science: Roger Pielke Sr.

It is time to scrap the use of the global annual averaged surface temperature as the metric to diagnose global warming and cooling.
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Until the climate community moves away from the surface temperature trends, with its inaccuracy and unnecessary complexity, and replaces it with the diagnosis of ocean heat content changes in Joules over time, the policy community will continue to be misled as to the actual warming and cooling of the climate system.

[In a sane world, shouldn't there be tumbleweeds blowing through the meeting rooms of this conference?]: Carbon TradeEx America - Where the U.S. Environmental Markets Come Together.

Chicago, IL | September 28 - 29, 2010

Carbon TradeEx America is contining it's role the premier carbon industry event in North America. We are working with the Carbon Markets and Investors Association (CMIA) to present the leading environmental market conference and trade show in North America.

C3: Global Cooling Is Here, Pt. VI: More Evidence That Cooling Is A Global Phenomenon

From the top of the globe to the bottom, we are witnessing patterns of cold weather that may be indicators of the expected global cooling period that many scientists feel we are entering, or already have...

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Frank Press, President of the NAS, 1989 on Climate Policy

I find it notable that most of today's leading climate scientists visible in the political debate have zero experience in actual policy positions. The president of the NAS today is Ralph Cicerone, a very well respected scientist, who went directly from academia to the NAS. Press took a very different route to the NAS. Today, many climate scientists feel comfortable lecturing on policy and politics with neither experience nor expertise -- and it shows.

Michelle Obama Criticized as "Modern-day Marie Antoinette" Over Spain Vacation - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports the C-32A (757) the First Lady used to fly to Spain - one of the planes that usually serves as Air Force Two, and sometimes Air Force One - operates at a Department of Defense reimbursement rate of $11,351 per hour.

So a 6.5 hour flight to Spain would run $73,781.50 - double for the round trip.

[Will the Michelle Obama's plane alone burn over 54,000 liters of fossil fuel for this unnecessary 13-hour trip?]: Boarding.no : Boeing 757-200 to airBaltic

About Boeing 757-200
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Fuel consumption - 4200 l/h

Access : Rooted in society : [Werner Krauss, cultural anthropologist, celebrates the glory days of the global warming hoax] - Nature Geoscience

Climate science has been a success story. The development from identifying anthropogenic climate change to establishing it as a matter of global concern has culminated, so far, in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore in 2007.

The Ethanol Tax Credit – It’s Worse Than You Think — MasterResource

If ethanol consumption were to drop by only 3.1% or 4.8% – rather than 32% – as a consequence of eliminating the tax credit, the cost of eliminating a gallon of gasoline via this program increases by 7-11 times; from a meager $1.78 as reported by the CBO to a range of $12 to $18. Likewise, the cost of reducing one ton of greenhouse gases would increase from $754 to a range of $8,000 to $9,000.

The Hockey Schtick: Ship find shows Arctic Sea Ice conditions similar to 1853

Interesting that the ship was lost in 1853, right at the end of the Little Ice Age, and coincidentally just 3 years after the start of the HADCRU global temperature record, from which we are led to believe the earth has warmed about 0.7C. If we are seeing "unprecedented" global temperatures and changes in Arctic sea ice, how did the HMS Investigator get this far north at the end of the Little Ice Age?

- Bishop Hill blog - Nature tries to move on

Nature Geoscience is trying its darndest to move on from Climategate, with an editorial declaring the affair closed and accompanying articles looking at where we go from here (although the latter are behind a paywall, one is discussed at Klimazwiebel).

There is an interesting point made about climate scientists at CRU, the ones whose "rigour and honesty as scientists" has been found to be beyond reproach...

[I]n an exchange in late July 1999, climate scientists discussed how to present projected climate change scenarios to best serve the purposes of the WWF (who had apparently expressed concern that the initial presentations were more conservative than those from other sources and asked for one section to be 'beefed up' if possible). Such considerations should not enter into scientific debate.

NZCLIMATE TRUTH Newsletter Number 250: Linear Trends by Vincent Gray | Climate Realists

The IPCC and most climate scientists are obsessed with Linear Trends. They are encouraged by the fact that the only regularly available statistical treatment of irregular information on “scientific” calculators and computer spreadsheets is a “linear regression” calculation, using the method of least squares. Most people do not appreciate that its results are unreliable unless the original data are from a representative sample, uniform in time and place, and they approximately fit the Gaussian “bell” curve in every way. including by being symmetrical
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The most blatant example of the use of an unusual event to claim an otherwise non-existent “linear trend” is in the reports of the Pacific Island Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project of the Australian Government.. The “Linear Trends” that they report for the 12 Pacific Islands, for instance at their latest Report here depend on the recorded depression of the ocean in all of the islands that took place during the two Tropical Cyclones of 1991 and 1992. Without these two events there are no significant recorded changes in sea level at any of the 12 Pacific Islands since then. They must be praying hard that a similar cyclone does not turn up to ruin their precious “trends”

[Obama administration to blow another thousand million dollars on the global warming hoax] | Energy & Oil | Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Energy Department on Thursday awarded $1 billion for the FutureGen clean coal power program and carbon dioxide storage network in Illinois, aiming to cut emissions of greenhouse gases from coal-fired electric generating plants.

Gallup poll in Australia shows declining belief in the climate hoax

Australians' Views Shift on Climate Change

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Australians' attitudes about global warming could be a factor later this month in the general election where climate change has emerged as an issue. The percentage of Australians who are aware of climate change and say it results from human activities fell from 52% in June 2008 to 44% in March 2010, while the number attributing it to natural causes increased 10 percentage points.

Pelosi visits Portland; vows continued effort to halt climate change | OregonLive.com

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was in Portland Thursday touting a new residential energy efficiency program located here, vowed to continue fighting climate change even if it costs Democrats politically in the next election.

"This is about saving the planet, not the Democratic majority," Pelosi said after touring a newly weatherized home in Northeast Portland. "We have to be thinking about the next generation, not the next election and that is what this conversation is about.
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"We have to make up for a lot of lost time," said Pelosi, blaming the Bush administration and Republican congressional leaders for refusing to address the threat of climate change seriously. "We have a moral obligation to preserve the planet."

FALSE ALARM: Why Almost Everything We’ve Been Told About Global Warming is Misleading, Exaggerated, or Plain Wrong » NOAA’s magic wand waves away 2000-2009 cooling

In other words, it stretches credulity to the breaking point to believe that the global temperature trend from 2000-2009 could be a full 0.51°C—half a degree Celsius—higher than the temperature trend for the United States (that is, -.4C + .11C).

Until NOAA issues a correction (which isn’t likely), the cooling of the past decade—which has been such an embarrassment to the hypothesis that human-caused carbon emissions will cause runaway warming—is gone, conjured away by a wave of the NOAA climate fairy’s magic wand.

Should we pay a former disqualified horse trainer (who also ran a Philippines cockfighting business) millions or billions of dollars to save us from invisible, natural atmospheric gas?

Critics see REDD over PNG carbon schemes

Two carbon trade projects proposed for Papua New Guinea have been hammered by critics who list a litany of inconsistencies, dubious science, legal issues and concerns landowners will be ripped off.
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The Kamula Doso venture is led by Nupan, a company run by controversial Australian businessman Kirk Roberts, a former disqualified horse trainer who also ran a Philippines cockfighting business.

Mr Roberts, who is a self-proclaimed "carbon kingpin", has travelled extensively across PNG promising landowners if they stop logging their forests, millions - and potentially billions - of dollars will come via his carbon trade projects.

Climatologist sees disastrous weather in future - Taiwan News Online

[Climate hoax promoter Heidi Cullen] also notes threats that range from the possible extinction of the Bengal tiger because of increased flooding on islands off the coast of Bangladesh, and increased danger to dog sleds from melting sea ice in Canada, east of Hudson Bay. She sees lucrative tourism reduced by warming of south Pacific waters, a warmth that will blanch the colorful corals of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and by the possibility that a hurricane will heavily damage New York's transit system by hitting the third rail at the Christopher Street subway stop.

That station in Greenwich Village is already 14.6 feet (4.5 meters) below the level of the Atlantic Ocean, according to her figures.

Despite more than ample graphs and statistics, Cullen is likely to attract readers with an insistent style and quotes from people who claim to have been already damaged by global warming. That goes especially for those who remember something of what they learned in basic chemistry or physics classes.

The itinerary includes imaginary "weather reports" for a series of future years. The one for New York dated "August 2050" is the most optimistic, although it envisions the Atlantic as warming to "bathtub" temperature.

- Bishop Hill blog - BBC review "proceeding with vigour"

This is probably a good point to bring in this transcript of a meeting of top journalists back in 2005. I chanced upon this while looking for something else. These top truthseekers were discussing how to deal with coverage of global warming and I certainly found it fascinating to see Jon Snow cheerleading for the AGW cause and a man from Greenpeace on hand to make sure that everyone is getting the correct message.

Is it any wonder that the mainstream media is on the wane?

DailyTech - NOAA: Don't Believe Skeptics, Global Warming is "Undeniable"

Since the 1960's, there has been an average surface air temperature rise of 0.6 degrees. While this may seem small, the scientists noticed warming climate effects in the increased sea level and humidity, declining glaciers, snow and sea ice and increased lower atmospheric and land temperatures. Signs of warming has also been found as far as two kilometers down below surface in the oceans, since, according to the report, 90 percent of warming has been absorbed by the Earth's oceans.

"Don't be fooled by anyone telling you that global warming is caused by the urban heat island effect or problems with thermometers - the satellite data don't suffer from these issues," said Neville Nicholls, president of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Nicholls also noted that since the satellite record began in 1979, the warming trend has been "identical" for thermometer and satellite data.
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While this new report from the NOAA represents their firm stand on the side of global warming,not all scientists are pro warming. According to a report from the Canada Free Press, 31,486 Americans with science degrees (9,029 PhD, 7,157 MS, 2,586 MD and DVM and 12,714 BS or equivalent) have "signed on" with the Global Warming Petition Project, which sends the message that "the human-caused global warming hypothesis is without scientific validity."

Is the cold weather coming? « JoNova

A July 2009 paper by McLean, de Freitas and Carter showed that global average temperatures followed the Southern Oscillation Index (El Nino/La Nina) with a 5-8 months lag. The graph below shows that when the SOI is shifted forward by 7 months the two plots change direction together (except when volcanic eruptions caused cooling).

The chart above shows a projection of temperatures to Feb 2011. The chances are that the present warm spell will end quite suddenly before the end of this year. Over the next few months the SOI will indicate whether or not the cooling will continue beyond Feb 2011. Evidence from studies on past climate and sunspot cycle related effects gives a strong indication that the cooling will continue.

A 20% Volatility Effect « Musings from the Chiefio

A fairly consistent 10 F of tracking error between either cold phases or warm phases and the overall average. So we have a load of high volatility stations in the GHCN during a cold phase of the PDO, then leaving as we move toward the top of a hot phase. And this is substantially ignored. It would be nearly trivial to get 1 F of “warming” out of this tracking error. Simply mitigate only 90% of it. Even a slight failure to be perfect is sufficient to “create Global Warming” out of nothing but station volatility changes and natural hot / cold cycles like the PDO, AMO, AO, etc.

Extreme cold continues in South America | The SPPI Blog

Strangely, we have seen nothing of the Southern cold reported in the Northern Hemisphere, where the Press are still exercised by the Russian Heatwave, and the “unequivocal” global warming from the NOAA/Met Office State of the Climate Report. It seems not to have been mentioned that the recent Siberian winter was Cold even by Siberian Standards.

“The winter of 2009-10 was one of the most severe in the European part of Russia for more than 30 years, and in Siberia it was perhaps the record-breaking coldest ever,” said Alexander Frolov, head of state meteorological service Rosgidromet. He told reporters that while statistics for the coldest eastern part of Siberia have not yet been thoroughly analyzed, western areas received the second-harshest winter in 110 years. In Far East Russia’s frigid outpost of Oimyakon, the temperature on Jan. 20 plunged to minus 74.0 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere this past winter.”

- Bishop Hill blog - Rees transcript [I've got your overwhelming evidence right here!- There's more CO2 up there now than in 1960!]

[Martin Rees] Of course, I should also emphasise that the science from that group is just one small element in the overall body of evidence on climate change in the past. In my view, the most important piece of evidence that policy makers need to take account of is not the past climate at all but the completely uncontroversial rise in the carbon dioxide concentration over the last 50 years, which is due to, primarily, the burning of fossil fuels. That is, I think, the most important data, and that is not controversial.

The Reference Frame: Study: Arctic cooler in 1989 than in 1870

The Czech media just informed the nation about another study that rules out the industrial activity as the cause of the bulk of the 20th century climate change.

Warming is not related to industrial activity, a study shows (novinky.cz)

That's a pretty clear title, isn't it? ;-)

[We're saved!: NSF pays for Montana State people to repeatedly take fossil-fueled trips to Iceland, where they will deliberately manipulate water temperatures]

He and his collaborators in a four-year study funded by the National Science Foundation will concentrate on one watershed that contains over 15 streams, Cross said. Some of the streams are hot and some are cold, but their water chemistry is almost identical. The streams are heated indirectly by geothermal activity and have likely been at these temperatures for hundreds of years.
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The researchers are also interested to see what happens when they experimentally add slightly warmer water to these streams, Cross said. They are currently gearing up for a three-year temperature manipulation of a whole stream ecosystem.

"The beauty of this natural laboratory is that there are streams with strongly contrasting temperatures just a few meters apart," Cross said.
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The postdoctoral researcher from MSU will live in Iceland year-round, Cross said. Cross and his MSU graduate students will travel periodically to Iceland, probably totaling two months a year there.

UN panel: New taxes needed for a climate fund - Yahoo! News

BONN, Germany – Carbon taxes, add-ons to international air fares and a levy on cross-border money movements are among ways being considered by a panel of the world's leading economists to raise a staggering $100 billion a year to fight climate change.

Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation

While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times.

Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two.

To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny.

Climate change could destroy 80 per cent of rainforest by next century - Telegraph

Fewer than one in five of the plants and animals which currently live in the world's rainforests will still be here in 90 years time, a study predicts.
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Asner and his team made their findings by looking at global deforestation and logging maps from satellite imagery, and high-resolution data from 16 climate-change projections worldwide.

They then ran scenarios on how different types of species could be geographically reshuffled by 2100.

The results showed only 18 per cent- less than a fifth – to 45 per cent – less than half- of the plants and animals making up ecosystems in tropical rainforests may remain as we known them today.

Daniel Nepstad, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, which studies climate change in Massachusetts, said: "This study is the strongest evidence yet that the world's natural ecosystems will undergo profound changes including severe alterations in their species composition through the combined influence of climate change and land use.

[Breaking: Two weeks of local "weather" is now "climate"]: Utilities may win big from energy bill | Analysis & Opinion

Having spent the past two weeks in record high temperatures in Beijing and Shanghai, with global warming being noted publicly by Chinese officials as the primary cause of severe weather, I find the situation faced by U.S. companies somewhat ironic.
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Looking beyond current paralysis and partisan debate, climate regulation in some form or another is likely even though discussion about it among average citizens seems to be waning.

Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, Aug. 5th 2010 « The Daily Bayonet

The EPA and WWF are unlikely climate delayers, a Curry gives warmists indigestion and hippies think re-branding can save the global warming hoax.

Yet another poll shows declining belief in AGW

Polar Ice Cap Is Gone, Kids Can’t Go Outside, Nebraska is a Desert? Poll Finds That Still Wouldn’t Convince Many Americans of Global Warming

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - (Business Wire) A new national poll of green consumers found that belief in global warming is declining, and even the worst nightmare scenarios would not change people’s minds or behaviors.

The poll, one of four annual surveys conducted by Shelton Group, surveyed 1,098 Americans who at least occasionally buy green products and found only about half believe climate change is occurring and caused by human beings.

Asked whether they agreed with the statement, “Global warming or climate change is occurring and it is primarily caused by human activity,” 52% of green consumers agreed, compared to 49% of U.S. consumers overall. That’s down significantly from a year ago when 58% of all U.S. consumers agreed.

Loren does an Al Gore, produces climate change film | Latest Philippine Headlines

Legarda, who lost in the last vice presidential elections, is the author of the Climate Change Act, which was signed into law in 2009. She can speak volumes about climate change, sometimes even refusing to answer questions not related to it.
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The senator lamented how the issue of climate change is being given small, if at all, attention in the media and government.

“Why am I so passionate about this?” she said. “I’ve seen how people died. I’ve seen how people are dying.”

Cheap, abundant coal means the world is still not warming to a carbon tax

Without any significant commitment from the US, the Copenhagen Accord has become meaningless. Business will now continue as usual, both in terms of climate change diplomacy, with its wandering circus of big international meetings, and in terms of rapidly increasing emissions.

The 2010 Russian River Valley Grape Harvest Delayed by Cold Weather

HEALDSBURG, Calif., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The summer of 2010 has been an exceptional year for growing redwood trees and rhododendrons; however, the unusually cold weather has proved to be a challenge for wine grapes.

UN incineration plans rejected by world's rubbish-dump workers | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Pickers say waste-to-energy incineration plants increase emissions and take away their only means of survival
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The waste-pickers who scour the world's rubbish dumps and daily recycle thousands of tonnes of metal, paper and plastics are up in arms against the UN, which they claim is forcing them out of work and increasing climate change emissions.
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"Waste-pickers, who are some of the poorest people on earth, recover recyclable materials. They are invisible entrepreneurs on the frontline of climate change, earning a living from recovery and recycling, reducing demand for natural resources," says Neil Tangri, director of Gaia, an alliance of 500 anti-incinerator groups in 80 countries.

Oil-State Rebellion - Robert Costa on National Review Online

As the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak continues to evaporate in the Gulf of Mexico, the Democrats’ chances of using it to grease the passage of a new energy bill are evaporating, too.

Last week, House and Senate Democratic leaders rolled out what Politico called their “big spill bills.” The legislation, of course, was stuffed with nearly $15 billion in green goodies: new chokeholds on offshore drilling, cash-for-caulkers, and retrofitting for natural-gas trucks. “That kind of bill, folks, ought to pass, 100 to nothing,” said Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.).
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“Originally this was going to be a cap-and-trade bill to match up with Waxman-Markey in the House,” Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), the ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, tells National Review Online. “But they only have 34 votes — they’re not even close. With this oil spill, they thought that they could turn things around and use it as an excuse to pass something with energy provisions thrown in, masquerading it as an innocuous bill.”

Fish species warms up to cooler temperatures

In a finding that fuels hope for nature's ability to cope with episodes of rapid climate change, the researchers documented how some of the fish -- collected in B.C. in both freshwater lakes and ocean habitats -- were able to survive in water 2.5 C colder than their grandparents' natural habitat.

California asks Holder to investigate climate change rollback donor - Politics AP - MiamiHerald.com

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation into a tiny Missouri nonprofit organization that has pumped nearly $500,000 into a voter initiative to suspend the state's landmark climate change law.  [Is anyone investigating the mysterious sources of Al Gore's $300 million global warming hoax promotion fund?]

The global warming religion comes complete with "threats of hell" and "visions of low carbon heaven"

Do environmentalists hold back sustainable lifestyles? | Environment | guardian.co.uk

'For years we've tried to 'sell' climate change, but a lot of people aren't buying,' Townsend says. 'Threats of climate hell haven't seemed to hold us back from running headlong towards it. We must build a visual and compelling vision of low carbon heaven. And this vision must be desirable.

The End Of Capitalism? What Lies Ahead?

So what if capitalism survives this crisis as it did the others? In that case, I see two possible outcomes.

Option 1 is that the world literally comes to an end, either because of catastrophic climate change or nuclear warfare. The planet fries, the seas boil, and all life ceases, including humanity.  [Given these apocalyptic risks, can we really afford NOT to start throwing virgins into volcanoes?] This possibility is too horrific for me to imagine. I also happen to think it’s less likely than the second.

Flashback - The Aztec Solution

Aztecs believed their cultural continuity depended on sacrifice: “All life exists because of the gods. Their sacrifices gave us life and sustenance. We must repay them through sacrifice.” Central to their apocalyptic worldview was a sense of sacred obligation, possibly similar to our concern for the environment. The Aztec word for debt repayment, nextlahualli, was also a metaphor for human sacrifice. Without constant sacrifices the Aztecs believed the sun would become “angry”, temperatures would rise, corn yields decline and their world would be threatened with imminent destruction.
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According to Bernardino de Sahagun (1540–85), victims were taken to the top of a teocalli and laid on a stone slab. The abdomen was sliced open with a ceremonial flint knife. The still-beating heart was pulled out by priests. It was placed in a bowl held by a statue of the honoured god and the body was thrown down the temple stairs. The Aztecs sacrificed 80,400 prisoners in just four days during their 1487 re-consecration of Tenochtitlan’s Great Teocalli.

Book Launch: Climate Change for Football Fans by James Atkins on LinkedIn Events

...They agree to spend the season together; the Prof goes to all the Burnley games and Joe listens to the Prof natter on about climate change policy. It is a vehicle for discussing climate policy in an entertaining and digestible way. The book is both green and very politically incorrect. James Atkins is Chairman of Vertis Environmental Finance, an emissions trading firm based in Budapest.

[Who needs thermometers (or treemometers) when you've got fossilized kangaroo bones?]: Kangaroo evolution maps climate change | Murdoch University

The evolution of kangaroos has given a clear picture of Australia’s changing climate, according to a new study.

Murdoch University’s Dr Natalie Warburton and Dr Gavin Prideaux from Flinders University have analysed changes to the kangaroo skeleton over time which reflect Australia’s changing environment and climate.

Dr Warburton said in this way kangaroos represent a sort of barometer for climate change.

The Temperature Decline That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Similarly, the NOAA report laments: “People have spent thousands of years building society for one climate and now a new one is being created—one that’s warmer and more extreme.” The implication is that we can somehow freeze-dry the climate we’ve got to last forever, which is absurd. Sea levels have risen 400 feet in the past 15,000 years, causing all kinds of inconvenience for humanity in the process‚—and all quite naturally. As the interglacial continues, sea levels will rise and temperatures will increase‚—until the interglacial reaches its peak, at which point the planet will again move toward glacial conditions. To think that we can somehow stop this process is insane.

Fallout Begins After Senate's Failure to Act on Energy, Oil Spill - NYTimes.com

Still, Morano thinks the oil spill-response legislation was an "inside Washington thing" and a "very minor issue for the voters."

"I don't think there is going to be a big price to pay," for not passing legislation before the recess, Morano said. "If they had passed something, if would have been based on cheap politics at its best."

Snow in Brazil, below zero Celsius in the River Plate and tropical fish frozen — MercoPress

In related news, reports from landlocked Bolivia indicate that to the east of the country in tropical areas temperatures plummeted to zero causing “millions of dead fish” in rivers that normally flow in an environment of 20 Celsius.

Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas said the province was suffering a “major environmental catastrophe” and warned the population not to make use of water from rivers (because of the dead fauna and flora) promising to send drinking water in municipal trucks.

“The last time something of this magnitude happened was 47 years ago”, said governor Costas.

Garnaut hits at failure on climate change [hoax] policy | The Australian

PROMINENT adviser to the Labor government Ross Garnaut has attacked both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
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"Leadership is an essential missing ingredient in contemporary public policy," he said. "Omitted, all the voyage of our lives is bound in shallows and miseries."

Eight House Republicans, After Carrying Climate [Swindle] Effort Last Year, Fend Off Attacks - NYTimes.com

It's clear, however, that the House climate bill, offered by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), is politically threatening to even Democrats.

NY Times: Japan wants to scrap the Kyoto Protocol

Diplomats Ponder Temporarily Extending the Kyoto Protocol - NYTimes.com

Not all countries want Kyoto to continue. Japanese delegates, for example, argued that the report ignored their preferred option: scrapping Kyoto and crafting an entirely new treaty -- presumably based on the principles of the Copenhagen Accord.

18-minute video of Stephen Schneider defending junk climate science in Copenhagen

'Climate Warrior' Stephen Schneider dies

[At the 16:40 mark, Schneider says "It's Climate Denier Gate...[They're] the ones who have broken the law... They're the ones who should receive the enmity of the public."]

Colder Arctic temperatures in the melt season vs. GISS temperatures.

GISS use a 1200 km radius for the temperatures measured from land temperature stations. The 1200 km radius is also applied to the coastal land/city/Airport temperature stations thus "covering" up to 1200 km over the oceans. GISS for example "covers" the Arctic ocean from land stations.
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From DMI we learn, that Arctic 80N-90N temperatures in the melt season this year is colder than average. This was the case last year too, while earlier years in the DMI analysis period (1958-2010) hardly ever shows Arctic melt season temperatures this cold.
This is how DMI temperature averages for Arctic 80N-90N melt season appears when plotted to allow compare over time:

[When you believe in the climate hoax, but don't care enough to actually make a phone call]: Australian Youth Climate Coalition » Power Vote

Just click to Power Vote and your politician’s office will receive an automated phone call on your behalf, telling them you’ll vote for the candidate who puts climate change action first.
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When your politician or their staff pick up the phone, they will hear: “[YOUR NAME] from [SUBURB] is voting for leadership on climate change this election.”

[Why not get a PhD in weather improvement through livestock fart management!]

Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen (LIFE) offers offers 8 PhD scholarships within Climate Change; Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation...

Research areas
1. Research to prevent methane emission from ruminant livestock and associated damage to the environment

A Healthy Public Skepticism

Why have the alarmists’ efforts achieved so little? They offer a multitude of handy explanations, most of them based on crackpot conspiracy theories involving oil companies, real-estate interests, the Religious Right, and water-breathing space aliens set on melting the polar icecap as a prelude to colonizing the Earth’s oceans.

Okay, so I made that last part up, but it’s not much of an exaggeration of the absurdity of their allegations.
---
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.

Thieves hate fuel-efficient cars | Grist

Even more motivation not to buy gas-gulping, big-honkin' SUV's just pulled into the next parking spot: These cars are more likely to get stolen!

What's the carbon footprint of … drying your hands? | Environment | guardian.co.uk

At the high end, at about 20g of CO2e per go, are conventional heated hand dryers. These take a shade longer than the Dyson and use around 6 kilowatts of power. The big difference in electricity consumption is explained by the fact that it always takes a lot of energy to create heat.

Peter Foster: Cleaning up at the UN | FP Comment | Financial Post

When Mr. Ban assumed his job as Secretary-General in 2007 — succeeding Kofi Annan, whose son was deeply implicated in oil-for-food — he declared that his top priorities were transparency, accountability and pushing the global climate agenda.

Uncomfortably for him, those issues became inextricably linked last December, just before the failed UN climate conference at Copenhagen, with the release of the Climategate emails.

McDonnell Kicks Off Town Hall Meeting Tour

[town hall speaker] "We seem to be buying into the Al Gore sponsored global warming ponzi scheme that most of the people in this room probably scoff at."

After ClimateGate » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog

It seems to me that boiling down policy statements from nuanced scientific research undermines both the work of good scientists and our faith in their project. If we are simply told what to do, or if scientists become just another form of late night infomercial “experts,” then our capability of choosing well, our most important privilege, is damaged. And of course, no one likes being told what to do.

Greens defend climate tactics - POLITICO.com

“The reason why I’m not looking around, hearing a lot of people scared for their jobs, I think the general view within the environmental community is consistent with mine: We ran a very effective, well-coordinated effort,” said Dan Lashof, director of NRDC’s climate center.
...
How much money was spent is difficult to pin down. NRDC, the Sierra Club and Clean Energy Works declined to open up their books to show how much they spent on the climate campaign. EDF had spent $20 million on climate legislation since October 2008. Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection pledged in 2006 to spend $300 million, but it’s unclear how much it ended up using.
...
“We really got our ass kicked in August during the town halls,” EDF spokesman Tony Kreindler said.

Arctic Energy Production: Let’s Move Forward, Not Backwards — MasterResource

The world’s demand for oil and gas is likely to grow, whatever misguided policy occurs in the U.S. But despite the best efforts of the USGS, no one will know whether the estimated undiscovered resources exist until actual drilling takes place. That activity will be affected not just by the accuracy of those estimates, but by the exploration and production costs of getting them to market.

Al Fin: Ancient Geologic Upheaval Still Hides Most of Earth's Oil

Scientists have known for quite a while that most of Earth's oil came from vast numbers of oceanic microscopic organisms -- rather than from dead dinosaurs. From diatoms to micro-algae to cyanobacteria and more, these microscopic life forms thrived on warmer seas and higher levels of atmospheric CO2 than are presently available to sea life. Many of these sea creatures are capable of converting gaseous or dissolved CO2 directly into oils and hydrocarbons of various types, and would cheerfully welcome much higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and in the oceans, if only they could get it.

Gulf Oil Spill In Perspective – Stop Crying Over Spilled Milk « P Gosselin – NoTricksZone

...This equals…folks my calculator doesn’t even get anywhere near that far out!
It’s like one rat drowning in Lake Erie. It’s in the trillionths! The average lake has more greasy suntan lotion in it.

Wildlife in the oceans are not even going to notice this, not at all! Fish have other far greater worries on their minds – like not becoming dinner for other fish.

So everybody really ought to just calm down about it. The whole thing has been overhyped a 1000 times.
The Gulf shores will get cleaned up and big mother earth will do the rest.

Cold is Deadlier than Heat, Despite Summertime Media Frenzy - by James M. Taylor

Federal mortality statistics show 800 more people die every day in December, January, and February than occurs on an average day during the rest of the year. The winter months kill 72,000 more U.S. citizens than the spring-summer-autumn average.

The three months with the lowest mortality are the hot-weather summer months of June, July, and August.

Heart attacks and strokes are major culprits.

Truth Alert: Carbon Dioxide Benefits Phytoplankton - by James M. Taylor

A plethora of media articles this morning claim global warming is killing off phytoplankton, which forms the base of the oceans' food chain. The problem with these articles is they are all based on a single, very shaky study that is contradicted by many more rigorous studies that have reached the opposite conclusion.

Seventy Years of High Arctic Plant Responses to Climate Change

The four researchers, all from the Czech Republic, report that their work "did not reveal any changes in vegetation, since a previous study in 1936-1937, that could be attributed to climate change."

American Thinker: The Renewable Electricity Standard is a Hoax, a Fraud, and a Rip-Off

In all of this, the proposed legislation ignores nuclear power, which is not only "clean" in the sense of not emitting carbon dioxide, but also competitive in price with most fossil fuels. Nuclear is most likely to become the major source of electric power once low-cost fossil fuels are depleted. Yet ACELA explicitly says that new nuclear power, updates to existing nuclear facilities, and generation from municipal solid waste incineration are not included in the base quantity.

The hypocrisy of the RES advocates is appalling. It's okay for the taxpayer to subsidize low-carbon energy that doesn't work (wind, solar) but not low-carbon energy that does work (nuclear).