Tuesday, December 07, 2010

World Bank chief to launch carbon [swindle] fund | News | eco-business.com
Washington DC, December 7 - World Bank President Robert Zoellick is set to launch a new multi-million dollar fund in Mexico on Wednesday to help emerging market countries set up their own carbon markets, the bank said on Tuesday.

While the list of participating countries is still being finalized, they are expected to include China, Mexico, Chile and Indonesia.
...
The fund, which could reach up to $100 million, will provide technical and other support to developing countries to develop their own carbon markets.
...
“We know that the poorest countries will suffer the earliest and the most from climate change,” Zoellick added. “They will bear the brunt of changing weather patterns, water shortages, and rising sea levels even though they are the least equipped to deal with them.”
Anu Bradford: Just Say "No" to (Bad) Climate Deal
Instead, doing nothing in Cancún may be a better strategy for advocates. A failure to enact a post-Kyoto agreement does not mean that there will be no price on greenhouse gas emissions. What most treaty advocates fail to understand is that businesses today are already changing their behavior based on expectations of the future and that carbon emissions already have a de-facto price in their minds.

This de-facto price comes from a mounting swarm of national and sub-national efforts to curb carbon, including renewable portfolio standards, fuels standards, regional trading schemes, and indirect measures including the US EPA's recent authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
AFP: More plant growth could slow global warming: NASA
WASHINGTON — In a world with twice as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, plants could grow larger and create a cooling effect on a warming globe, but could not halt or reverse climate change, NASA said Tuesday.
...
NASA's new computer modeling effort, described in the December 7 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, calculated the plants' cooling effect to be -0.3 degrees Celsius (-0.5 Fahrenheit) globally.
Polar Amplification | Real Science
NSIDC is now showing a significant excess in global ice of about 500,000 km²
Fred Upton, author of the light bulb law, turns against it | San Francisco Examiner
Fred Upton, one of the most liberal Republican congressmen, is tacking hard to the right to ensure nobody blows up his bid for chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. He's already pledged allegiance to blocking a back-door cap-and-trade by the White House and putting the heat on newly empowered HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, but now he's done a 180 on a bill that was one of his crowning achievements -- the bill that effectively outlaws the incandescent bulb.
Amanda Carey at the Daily Caller writes:

Upton says that if he becomes chair of the Energy Committee, he will help undo the law he was instrumental in getting passed.
A tough message, and no easy answers - Stockholm Environment Institute
‘Everything but’ climate change
Yet even with these audiences, talking about climate change can be a turnoff, many said. People want to talk about development, getting out of poverty, maybe how to deal with water problems or extreme weather events. One woman said she talks about “everything but” climate change with the Mexican villagers she works with.

“There’s a lot to be said for not even mentioning climate change,” Shanahan agreed. He sees it firsthand when working with journalists, he said: Story pitches about climate often fall flat, while pitches that frame issues in terms of politics or economics are better-received.
PhillyBurbs.com:  Homeless woman freezes to death
Paulette Wilkie, a schizophrenic woman who became homeless in the last year, died Sunday in Morrisville from exposure, officials said.

Morrisville Police Chief Jack Jones said her death was not suspicious. Bucks County Coroner Dr. Joseph Campbell said the cause was hypothermia.
Climate change shifts the course of the river between Congo and Uganda | Environment | The Guardian
John Magrath, a climate change researcher with Oxfam, believes the plight of people such as Mwesige shows how vulnerable much of the population in the region is to any change in the climate. "For generations, they have relied on fairly set weather patterns and an environment that has served them well, but now they are undergoing great change and heightened risks to their health, security and welfare."
...
"Climatic changes have been very evident here in Uganda," says Kabaseke. "Especially, we get longer droughts than we expect and when we have the wet seasons they are wetter than we expect – causing rivers to burst their banks, causing landslides and very many natural disasters."
Lee County escapes freeze, but Naples sets a record low | news-press.com | The News-Press
Naples saw a low of 39, breaking a record set back in 1984 when this date saw a low of 41.
Finland Fairs Badly in Climate Change Survey | News | YLE Uutiset | yle.fi
Finland continues to receive poor marks in an international climate change survey. Currently Finland stands in thirty-first position in the comparative survey released at the Cancun climate change conference on Tuesday.

Topping the poll are Brazil, Sweden and Norway. However, no states were ranked in first, second or even third place as no nation was considered to be doing enough to combat climate change.
Climate: Hoping for Evolution in the Global Approach to Warming at Cancun - Ecocentric - TIME.com
There are far fewer people here, considerably less attention and significantly lowered expectations—which paradoxically, may help negotiators actually get something meaningful done.
Great Lakes snow piles up in N.Y., Pa. - Weather - TODAYshow.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bands of snow blasting off the Great Lakes buried one western New York town under four feet of snow and caused a pileup that left motorists stranded for hours on a stretch of Interstate 80 in northwestern Pennsylvania.
...
In Randolph, N.Y., a rural town 50 miles south of Buffalo, motorists were banned from driving Tuesday after the area received 40 inches officially, with some seeing even more.
Hertz Puts Electric Cars on the Fast Track, Starting in New York - NYTimes.com
“The buzz has been great,” said Ms. McCaffrey, who conceded that the station hasn’t actually gotten much use without a dedicated fleet based there.
...
And E.V. rental is about to get a sprinkle of stardust. According to Mr. Broome, the Hertz Entertainment Services division, which provides vehicles for film location shoots, is planning to provide electric vehicles for cast or crew and mobile truck-based chargers [Wait a minute: Are these chargers hauled around on fossil-fueled trucks?] to keep them rolling. The units will include Level III fast charging, which can recharge a vehicle in half an hour, he said.
Twitter / Kate Sheppard
Todd Stern puts the damper on China "game-changer" talks. "I don't see anything new in it." #COP16
The Ice Man Warneth - NYTimes.com
[Warmist Lonnie Thompson] Why then are climatologists speaking out about the dangers of global warming? The answer is that virtually all of us are now convinced that global warming poses a clear and present danger to civilization (‘‘Climate Change,’’ 2010).

That bold statement may seem like hyperbole, but there is now a very clear pattern in the scientific evidence documenting that the earth is warming, that warming is due largely to human activity, that warming is causing important changes in climate, and that rapid and potentially catastrophic changes in the near future are very possible.
Twitter / Brad Johnson
Ban Ki-Moon: "Climate change has become the top agenda of the international community." #COP16
Spate of Natural Disasters Spurs Record Relief Spending for U.N. - NYTimes.com
Severe winter weather also prompted humanitarian response efforts. OCHA says it raised $3 million to help Mongolia cope with a dzud, a local term for snowfall so heavy that it becomes impossible for livestock to dig through it to graze.

If I fly in significantly less than 100 people to decorate my house for Christmas, am I greener than the First Green President?

Obama's Christmas tree takes 4 days to put up at height of economic crisis | Mail Online
Almost 100 volunteers from around the U.S. flew into Washington DC on the day after Thanksgiving to help decorate the White House
Climate change denier senators seek to cut funds peddling myths « Shub Niggurath Climate
Michael Mann starts off,

“This is a dishonest climate change denier myth,…”

He then went on to say that errors in the IPCC reports are not important because they are not in the summary for policy makers. I think he reads a specially printed version which only he has access to. He should read more.
...
One wonder what the senators will think of scientists like Michael Mann equating them to liars and ‘deniers’.
Climate effort 'insufficent': Ban Ki-moon
"I'm deeply concerned that our efforts so far have been insufficient, that despite the evidence and many years of negotiation we are still not rising to the challenge," Ban told the UN-led talks of more than 190 nations on Tuesday.

"Business as usual cannot be tolerated," he said. "Cancun must represent a breakthrough."
World Bank makes a play for climate finance role « Climate Progress
Yesterday, a group of multilateral development banks – including the World Bank Group – made the case for their role in managing climate finance. These banks clearly have the appropriate tools to move the significant amounts of capital called for in the Copenhagen Accord, but there are still questions about their ability to direct that capital to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
1,000 Recorded Floods On The Yangtze River | Real Science
Including one in 1931 that killed 145,000 people. CO2 was 310 ppm at the time, well below Hansen’s safe level of 350.

How cold is it? So cold that warmist William M. Connolley "only survived by sticking my outer hand down my trousers"

Cold again : Stoat
We went rowing tonight. Oddly enough we were the only crew out. We had to stop past the Elizabeth way bridge due to ice on the river - not solid sheets at that point, but enough floating bits to warn us that worse was coming. Very cold, I rowed with a glove on my inner hand and only survived by sticking my outer hand down my trousers when we span.
Obama goes rogue in Cancun, putting U.S. interests at risk « » Print The Daily Caller
From the “Kyoto II” talks in Cancun, National Journal reports a surprising story, if one almost predictable, as well, given President Barack Obama’s current unraveling and fast-fading loyalty to campaign promises. Specifically, in “U.S. Tells the World It Will Pass Climate Bill,” we read that the Obama administration is seeking to forge an international “global warming” commitment on the premise that the administration will then coerce Congress into passing domestic legislation consistent with treaty promises made to China, Europe, et al.

Along the way, or so the argument goes, the Senate will ratify an agreement to ration Americans’ access to energy sources that work. In conclusion, these parties should take Team Obama at their word and agree to Kyoto II while there’s still an administration in town foolish enough to consider the prospect. Let the administration worry about the public and Congress (and, as necessary, minor constitutional impediments).

The desperation is palpable.
The Associated Press: Climate goal may spell end for some coral reefs
Bleaching occurs due to natural variability; both the 1998 and 2010 events were linked to the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Losing his religion?!: Look what Revkin's saying now

On Climate Treaties and Christmas Trees - NYTimes.com
I noted that meshing the needs of the world’s least enabled communities with climate policy can be a tough go, given that in many places the need for access to cheap, safe energy — fossil or otherwise — will transcend the need to consider limits on greenhouse gases.
...
As the discussions culminated, one crystal clear conclusion emerged. The road through 2050 and beyond will best be navigated not with a climate-centric (and certainly not carbon-centric) lens, but with a wide and cross-cutting view.
...here’s a passage from that declaration that’s worth pasting here, as a reminder that climate-centrism can distract from broader challenges, and opportunities.
Is the End in Sight for The World’s Coral Reefs? by J.E.N. Veron: Yale Environment 360
It is a difficult idea to fathom. But the science is clear: Unless we change the way we live, the Earth's coral reefs will be utterly destroyed within our children's lifetimes.
By j.e.n. veron
Rutgers [junk] scientists invite Gov. Christie to global warming forum | NJ.com
TRENTON — Three Rutgers University scientists came to Trenton today to give Gov. Chris Christie a message: climate change is real, and it's man-made.
...
"I've heard over 100 different arguments about why we shouldn’t accept global warming. They're all fallacious and I'd be happy to point out the errors in any of them," said Rutgers professor Alan Robock, a meteorologist.
...
Paul Falkowski, director of the Rutgers University Energy Institute, said global warming doubts are based on politics and personal beliefs, not science.

"There is no honest argument against human climate change. The issues now rely primarily on political dialogue on how we're going to move this country forward," he said.
"I'm Not Sure We Will Actually Get It" | Mother Jones
There's draft text on the table here in Cancun, but will there be a meaningful outcome? It remains far from clear. On Monday, US climate envoy Todd Stern didn't exactly express confidence on that front. "I think there is an agreement to be had," he said. "I'm not sure we will actually get it."

Guardian calls Cancun a "sceptic-free zone"; suggest skeptics "have no appetite for a fight and have exhausted themselves"

Monckton crashes Cancún business lunch | John Vidal | Environment | guardian.co.uk
After an hour of tolerating Monckton, the patience of the organisers wore thin. "Who is this man?" asked one American green venture capitalist. "These are weird views," said another. A few minutes later he was asked to leave. Surprisingly, considering Cancún is so close to the US, such climate sceptics have been all but absent at the UN meeting. The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow , a US free-market thinktank that used to take money from oil companies, had a small stand in the non-government group halls, but otherwise it is a sceptic-free zone. Opinions were sharply divided over the reasons for their absence from the public arena. One group of people believe that they have no appetite for a fight and have exhausted themselves; another says that they are holding their guns for better sport later. Both opinions will, of course, be fiercely contested.
we shall fight on the beaches: Information from Answers.com
[Winston Churchill] We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
News bites: The Green Energy Collapse | Watts Up With That?
From the GWPF, a collection of headlines
Kenya to set up climate change panel
“When you see leaders coming here and convening small meetings with others before moving on to the bigger negotiating table, they are doing it because they know what is good for their country and they want to persuade others to accept it. We are here to seek what is good for Kenya. We must never lose sight of that,” Odinga said.

Earlier, the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Gender Equality, Lykke Friis, pledged that her country will support Kenya’s position at the talks, saying climate change will be a major area of collaboration between Kenya and Denmark.
Attention bloggers: (Hat tip to Andy Revkin for this one)
WebCite®, a member of the International Internet Preservation Consortium, is an on-demand archiving system for webreferences (cited webpages and websites, or other kinds of Internet-accessible digital objects), which can be used by authors, editors, and publishers of scholarly papers and books, to ensure that cited webmaterial will remain available to readers in the future. If cited webreferences in journal articles, books etc. are not archived, future readers may encounter a "404 File Not Found" error when clicking on a cited URL. Try it! Archive a URL here. It's free and takes only 30 seconds.

A WebCite®-enhanced reference is a reference which contains - in addition to the original live URL (which can and probably will disappear in the future, or its content may change) - a link to an archived copy of the material, exactly as the citing author saw it when he accessed the cited material.
At climate [hoax] summit, they're feeling like deserted islands - latimes.com
"But pledges mean nothing," said Jumeau, who also serves as Seychelles' ambassador to the United States. "Bring something that lands on the table with a clunk."
...
Gregarious and intensely on-message, the former newspaper editor and natural resources minister is an old hand, having navigated previous conferences in Bali; Poznan, Poland; Bonn; and Copenhagen. "If we don't solve climate change, nothing else matters," he said, "because many of us will be wiped off the face of the Earth."
...
Island states, most of them in the tropics, are forging alliances with Greenlanders, Inuit and native Alaskans. "It's simple," Jumeau said. "As the poles melt, we drown."
Kyoto II is dead. Long live Kyoto II. « » Print The Daily Caller
Cynicism, thy name is the global warming enterprise. This lucrative industry will not die easily.

The imminent Cancun “breakthrough” with China will be farce, if outrageous frivolity with taxpayer dollars. It will be no more than political cover to ease a transition to the new wealth-transfer and energy-rationing scheme, different from the old, failed Kyoto scheme only in name.
Climate Common Sense: Aussies Desert Global Warming Scam - Believers Now a Minority!
The latest poll Essential Report poll shows that only 45% of Aussies now believe in man-made Global Warming. Australians have been less skeptical in the past than the US and other countries with a largely pro AGW media pushing the Warmist line . It seems that is now changing and they are now much more doubtful about so-called man-made warming according to the latest poll.
Cancun climate conference: Britain should lead the way - Telegraph
In doing so, Lord Turner, chairman of the committee, urged Britain to lead the world on climate change. He said: "The case for action on climate change is as strong as ever: climate science remains robust and suggests that there are very significant risks if we do not cut emissions."
Cancun climate conference: What to expect in week two - Telegraph
Who is coming?

Around 20 world leaders will be coming, mostly from Latin America and the small island states, because they want tougher measures to fight climate change. [What they want is free bags of cash.] Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, and Bolivia's Evo Morales are all expected to fly in Most other countries are sending environment ministers including the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne. John Prescott, the European Council’s special envoy on climate change will also be there.
Cancun Climate Conference: Gordon Brown got it wrong on Copenhagen says Lord Prescott - Telegraph
John Prescott says Gordon Brown made a wrong judgement by trying to force the world into a climate change deal too early.
December cold bucks 2010 temp trend | Updraft | Minnesota Public Radio
This month, temperatures in the Twin Cities are running a full 8 degrees below average!
Manatees cold Florida: Manatees at risk from boaters as temperatures drop - OrlandoSentinel.com
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Wildlife officials are urging boaters to look out for manatees seeking shelter in warmer waters near power plants and springs as the temperatures drop.
UPDATE: Negishi predicts more Nobels coming from Purdue | jconline.com | Journal and Courier
STOCKHOLM - With the world at attention, Nobel Prize winner Ei-ichi Negishi took the opportunity this morning to push forward his life philosophy and challenge chemists to solve the world's most dire problems by creating a synthetic photosynthesis.

"If we can do that artificially, maybe in the laboratory and later in the plant then I think we will solve ... the major part of the food problem, maybe the energy problem," said Negishi, a Purdue University professor. "And we will also solve this carbon dioxide global warming issue ..."
Fibre warn of damage caused to asbestos roofs during the UK's big freeze
The UK has seen some of the heaviest snow fall in the last couple of weeks all over the country. With the cold weather set to continue, this is causing problems for older properties with asbestos roofs and other asbestos containing materials.
Climate Change Solution: Pay for Children : Turtle Bay and Beyond – International Law, Policy, and Institutions
It is twisted logic to make people pay for their own freedoms, and then claim that the poor would “save money” by not spending it on “fertility rights.” Even communist China did not go as far as that.
Greenpeace : ““100 million people or more are threatened by sea-level rise” | Real Science
Tide gauge data show that sea level is rising somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 mm/year. If a short person stood on the beach motionless for one thousand to three thousand years, they might be in danger of drowning.
Thing Of The Past : Fourth Snowiest Week 49 On Record | Real Science
Rutgers University data shows that week 49, 2010 had the fourth largest snow extent on record.
Death Spiral : Navy PIPS Shows Large Increase In Thick Ice Since 2008 | Real Science
Ice greater than 2.5 metres thick has more than doubled in area since the same date in 2008.
Obama : “What’s snow doing on the ground in North Carolina?” | Real Science
Love North Carolina. Although, I have to say, I came down here for slightly warmer weather. (Laughter.) What’s snow doing on the ground in North Carolina? (Laughter.)
GISS Clueless In 1999 : Warmer Winters Linked To Greenhouse Gases | Real Science
Since this report came out - definitively tying winter warming to CO2, winter temperatures have plummeted in Europe and Western North America – while CO2 levels have continued to increase.
...
These people have no idea what they are talking about, yet they continue to talk incessantly.
Climate Science Scandals – List Of Gates Balloons To 129
35 new gates have been added since August.
Is Promotion Of Environmental Causes Bad For One’s Mental And Physical Health? « The Unbearable Nakedness of CLIMATE CHANGE
# If the underlying engine is “the science“, what are the scientific basis for choosing 350ppmv as the ultimate goal of any climate policy?
# It’s also a mystery how a “long-distance climate campaigner” manages to be around Cancun rather than do the right thing, connect from afar in order to emit far less CO2 than “living strenously” implies. It would also make a lot of sense, given the lack of money 350.org keeps lamenting. What do we get instead? Latest news is a boat trip with a free dive out of Cancun, not exactly cheap stuff.
Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Japan and the Kyoto Protocol
Japan's announcement that it would not participate in a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol caused quite a stir. As I have shown in a paper on Japan's proposed emissions reductions, it simply cannot hit the aggressive targets that were proposed by a former government during a moment of populist over exuberance.

Any commitment by Japan to a Kyoto 2 would be substantively meaningless, even if politically popular among some well-meaning but deeply misguided activists. Japan should be applauded for its refusal to go along with a charade. Of course, in the climate debate nothing is ever so simple.
Yes, we have no bananas | The SPPI Blog
It is always a sad business when a religion passes into the night. A religion it is – or, rather, a superstition of the most childish kind. The president of the conference, a Ms. Figueres from Costa Rica, set the anti-scientific tone of the proceedings by opening them with a prayer to the Mayan Goddess of the Moon. Ms. Figurehead no doubt thought that this would be a nice way for the true-believers to pay a compliment to our Mexican hosts.
How Many Cars are There on Mars? » Publications » Family Security Matters
For the Greens and the environmentalists the car is the main culprit and its eventual disappearance as a gasoline driven machine will, they are convinced, help end man made global warming.

But the Earth was once much warmer than it is today and the polar caps on Mars are displaying a warming trend. The Jurassic and Cretaceous periods in earth’s history make today’s climate seem particularly cool and, as far as I know, there were no carbon emitting automobiles sharing the Earth with the dinosaurs.

And after all, how many cars are there on Mars?
Yes, we bungled, but we've still got a major problem on our hands, say top UK scientists | The Sun |News|Green
IT IS a bitter irony that as governments met in Mexico at the UN climate change conference yesterday, the UK's overnight temperature hit -18°C.

And more seriously, the climatologists admitted that previous worst-case predictions of sea levels rising by 13 feet across the world by the end of the century were just plain wrong - and even a lesser six-foot rise was now very unlikely.
...
[Professor Bob Watson, chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] "But we can be very sure about the middle-level projections of seas rising more than half a metre over a century, and they are already cause for concern. If you are an island state, or Bangladesh or the Pearl River in China, then seas rising half a metre in the next century along with storm surges is not going to be insignificant at all.
EU Referendum: Out of their tiny minds
Not least of their effluvia, they want a substantial proportion of UK car fleet replaced with 11 million electric or hybrid vehicles. At the same time they are suggesting that their 60 percent emissions target is achievable at a cost of less than one percent of GDP.

Taking the cost of the Nissan Leaf – against, say the cost of a new Ford Focus, to replace the entire fleet would cost about £165,000,000,000 over and above the normal retail price of the conventional cars. By my estimation, that additional cost is well over ten percent of GDP.

That, of course, is only the start. For these vehicles to be "emission-free", the electricity they use must come from renewables or nuclear. And the Turner mob have not even begun to work out the price for doing that - but it would be additional to the cost of meeting the current base load. Has anyone done the calculations - the cost of providing electric capacity to charge up 11 million vehicles? Then there is the cost of the charging points.
Education versus indoctrination: Part III | Climate Etc.
Also, an increasing number of those who simply accepted the pro-AGW message, which has recently been exposed to unfavourable publicity, may now be relying on internal narratives that are telling them this has never been about the science; it is about politics, and in that, Joe Bloggs is as expert or more expert than many scientists. As always, there may be some truth behind this narrative, but it’s irrelevant how much for many people: the narrative IS reality.
Cancun climate conference: Fears over global deal on forests - Telegraph
Prince Charles and others suggested a new fund should be set up that allows rich countries to pay poor nations not to chop down trees.

Under certain models the scheme would create a whole new financial market where countries, companies and even individuals can pay to offset their carbon by planting a tree.
South Florida cold weather: Fort Lauderdale breaks cold record for Dec. 7 - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
In Fort Lauderdale, a low temperature record of 42 degrees for Dec. 7 that had been in place for 169 years was broken, said Dan Gregoria, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
UN Continues Push for Global Carbon Tax at Climate Confab
According to Cathie Adams, the United Nations officials and the militant environmental NGOs have been working hand in hand at Cancun to craft a new global tax plan centered on shipping.

"In the Climate Action Network and other NGO gatherings, as well as the official program, the constant theme is the absolute necessity of setting up a new 'infrastructure' to deal with this issue of collecting and allocating the taxes they intend to levy," she told The New American in a telephone interview from Cancun. "They are saying 'end the negotiations, just set up the infrastructure.' So that when the $30 billion promised by President Obama starts flowing in, they can use it to help get the tax schemes going that will guarantee a continuous future revenue stream of hundreds of billions of dollars. George Soros said that there is probably not the political will to get the developed nations to accept a financial transaction tax — which has been a favorite globalist plan — so the most likely prospect for a global tax is the levy on global shipping and air traffic."

Gore Effect Strikes Cancun

Today's my first full day in Cancun at COP-16, and as I emerged from my hotel room I was greeted by a brisk, dry, cool Canadian breeze.

It was 54 deg. F in Cancun this morning — a record low for the date. (BTW, Cancun is nowhere near Canada).

South Florida Farmers Protect Crops From Chilly Blast - cbs4.com
South Florida's record breaking cold temperatures have farmers in Broward and Miami-Dade's scrambling to protect their crops.
...
The last time South Florida had a significant cold snap was in January of this year and the farms lost about 70 percent of their crop.
Major sticking points beset Cancun summit. - swissinfo
Outside the conference rooms, the Mexican beach resort is a hive of activity as 15,000 delegates, journalists and other participants commute back and forth between the two main sites located several kilometres apart.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), experts and companies have set up stall at the ultra-modern Cancun Messe convention centre, while government officials are holed up at the plush, sprawling Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort with its "swim up" bars, horse-drawn carriages and golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
...
For Patrick Hofstetter, spokesman for the Swiss Climate Alliance, a federation of 60 organisations from civil society, “the likelihood of a failure is about the same as for Copenhagen, and everyone is wondering what we are heading for”.
...other NGOs say the whole climate talks process is doomed.
RealClimate: Losing time, not buying time
In reality, aerosol-forming emissions, short-lived greenhouse gas emissions, and CO2 emissions are seperate [sic] dials, controlling very different aspects of the Earth’s climate future. CO2 emissions play a distinguished role, because they ratchet up the Earth’s thermostat. It’s a dial you can turn up, but you can’t turn it back down. CO2 is a genie you can’t put back in the bottle.
Arctic Temperatures Plummet – Coldest Year In The High Arctic Since 2004 | Real Science

Climate Common Sense: God on Our Side!
George Monbiot of the Guardian , an ardent supporter of the Warmist case claims that divine intervention is occurring on the skeptic's side to wreck Cancun! He fantasizes that God is a Republican or runs an intergalactic fuel conglomerate . This is probably mildly amusing to the largely atheist chatterati and shows how little Monbiot understands of where the oppostition to the Warmist scam comes from. A small blog costs ten dollars to setup and little to run and an oil empire is not required to oppose this nonsense. The truth is no longer the preserve of those controlling the main-stream media and instant dissemination of information at light-speed is what is bringing down the global warming edifice.
Bike brothers killed by big freeze - mirror.co.uk
The tragedy brings the Arctic spell’s death toll to at least 11.
Big freeze causes havoc in Scotland - Telegraph
Hundreds of motorists were stranded in their cars overnight and children forced to sleep in their schools as the death toll from freezing weather in Britain rose to nine.
...
Stewart Stevenson, the Scottish Transport Minister, admitted the gridlock which left scores stranded on the M8 and up to 500 vehicles stuck on the M80 and A80 roads, was not a "crowning glory" for the country but claimed the weather constituted "the worst snow and ice conditions since the 1960s".
What Cancún can take from California | Stuart Eizenstat and Jeffrey Horowitz | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
California's climate law which gives carbon credit to developing countries to conserve rainforest is a win-win the world can copy
WikiLeaks cables: US pressured UN climate chief to bar Iranian from job | Environment | The Guardian
Rajendra Pachauri denies helping Washington block scientist from senior post on intergovernmental climate body
Arnie Declares Fiscal Emergency – While Boxer Brags About California’s (14% Unemployment) Smart Economic Choices | Real Science
Action on greenhouse gases a 2011 priority for Senate EPW panel -- Boxer (12/06/2010)
The political collapse of cap-and-trade climate legislation won't dislodge greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the top of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's agenda next year, Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) vowed today.
...
"What we have to do is just let people know the truth" about the science of climate change, Boxer said. The oil industry-backed ballot measure aimed at stalling California's state law lost decisively, she asserted, after supporters of emissions limits "pulled open the curtain" with a well-funded messaging campaign (E&E Daily, Nov. 3).

"We're going to continue, in this committee, to tell the truth," Boxer added. "That's going to mean some robust debate, and I like that -- let the American people see the deniers, and let them see the science. ... I believe in the American people's wisdom."

Boxer said she expects the environment panel to keep the climate issue front and center through briefings, hearings and other events in 2011.
Future uncertain for W.H. energy post - Darren Samuelsohn - POLITICO.com
Would anyone notice if the White House didn't have a special energy and climate office?

That's the million-dollar question as President Barack Obama considers giving Carol Browner a promotion to deputy chief of staff.
...
Comprehensive climate legislation is dead and won't be coming back for several years. House Republicans are salivating over the chance to investigate global warming science, as well as Obama's use of so-called "czars" like Browner who they claim have unprecedented power over Senate-confirmed agency heads.

As opposed to a year ago when Obama himself went to Copenhagen for U.N. climate negotiations, the president is sending only a token team to the talks that conclude this week in Cancun. Browner won't be going.

"The demise of carbon pricing legislation makes the Browner slot vestigial, like an appendix or a pinky toe," said Keith Hennessey, a veteran of the George W. Bush White House who worked on energy and environmental issues.
Powerpoint Diplomacy in an Energy Push at Climate Talks - NYTimes.com
The halls at talks this year are filled with a variegated array of finance ministers, foreign secretaries and energy officials (not to mention armies of energy lobbyists, investors and environmental campaigners).
Twitter / Brad Johnson [Why didn't Chu spend more time at the meeting to save our children from horrible CO2-induced death?]
No time for questions, Chu has to run to the airport
Fast-start finance key to Cancun talks: Ramesh-Dateline India
Mr Ramesh laid out the three elements that form the basis of India’s approach at Cancun. India’s approach would be determined by the need to protect its economic interests, enhance its domestic environmental agenda and use climate change as a tool of global diplomacy to reposition New Delhi.  [Where's the part about saving my grandchildren from fiery floods?]

“There are clouds on an already cloudy Cancun horizon” Mr Ramesh said in reference to the European Union’s inclusion of loans in its contribution of fast start finance and the US’s meagre contribution of $1.8 billion which includes $400 million in export credits.

“I am deeply deeply disappointed”, he said that as per the bargain in Copenhagen the industrialised countries had to put up $10 billion in the first year, that 2010. “That target is far from being met. The fast start finance is neither fast, nor has it started, nor is it finance.” Mr Ramesh was also critical of the “heavy dependence” on carbon markets for finance, saying that this was not the understanding at Copenhagen.
Hottest year ever update:  Today's Cancun forecast high of 73 is only 7 degrees cooler than average
[Average high for this date: 80 degrees F]
The WikiLeaks Climate Cables
RUSH: Hey, Snerdley, can you remember the first time I said on this program that environmentalism had nothing to do with the climate? When was the first time that I said militant environmentalism was the new home for displaced communists? It had to be back during the fall of the Berlin Wall. It had to be around 1990 or '91. So we'll figure 20 years ago. Now, this is what being on the cutting edge -- (interruption) What? Well, that's right, '90, '91, the Berlin Wall came down right after Gorbachev -- when I said that militant environmentalism has nothing to do with the climate, has nothing to do with green trees and all this clean water garbage, it's the new home of displaced communists, right? Well, there's a website out there called Watts Up With That? Watts Up With That, more on the WikiLeaks climate cables. It turns out that there are a bunch of cables that have to do with climate change in the WikiLeaks dump, and a number of them prove my point.
Apathy grows regarding alleged worldwide climate change - Green - Catholic Online
Worldwide climate change is claimed to have the potential to affect every living thing on planet Earth. It's surprising to learn how the subject has been dismissed by some in industrialized nations. A recent survey by GlobeScan, an international research consultancy, shows a sharp fall in the level of public concern worldwide about the issue.
After Cancún: Shifting Climate Gears / ISN
Again, to argue for a halting or reduction in economic growth at a time when people are already under severe pressure from a downturn carries little persuasive power. But reversing the usual line of questioning - not what can the economy do to save the climate, but what action on climate change can do to save (and boost) the economy - might do.

Investors Business Daily: "There's more clear thinking at the typical UFO convention, tin hats and all, than at any global warming conference"

Cuckoo In Cancun - Investors.com
The hinges that are supposed to anchor these people to reality are quite obviously missing. There's more clear thinking at the typical UFO convention, tin hats and all, than at any global warming conference — including this year's big party on the beach.
As berry and fish farmers cope, yet more cold snaps expected for Tampa Bay - St. Petersburg Times
With record low temperatures and overnight freezes likely this week, meteorologists say Tampa Bay will see a streak of cold days similar to last January's chill.

At 38 degrees in Tampa, Monday morning recorded the coldest December temperature in three years, said Bay News 9 meteorologist Josh Linker.
...
Tampa may reach freezing temperatures Wednesday morning. The last time that happened in December? The year 2000.
...
Monday's high of 54 degrees in Tampa was just shy of breaking a 110-year-old record for the chilliest high temperature for the day.
When it comes to eco-friendly cooking, raw is best - Washington Post
You could save some serious carbon by tossing your potato in the microwave, even if the result is a leathery, limp facsimile of the oven-baked equivalent....To compensate for the fried turkey's 17 extra pounds of carbon dioxide, you'd need to drive just 19 fewer miles. If you really want to scrimp on CO2, just tell your in-laws you're staying home this Christmas for the sake of the Earth.
The Cancun Wealth Redistribution Conference » Publications » Family Security Matters
Third, we need to stop this runaway climate crisis funding and regulatory juggernaut, until we have satisfactory answers to these questions. That means freeze the funding conduits; halt or defund the EPA “endangerment” rules; and open America’s onshore and offshore public lands to oil, gas, coal, uranium and rare earth metals exploration and development, under reasonable environmental guidelines, to ensure that we have the reliable, affordable energy we need.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: 'Hottest Year Ever' Update: Record number of Manatees Died in 2010 from Cold Water
As reported on NBC Nightly News 12/6/10, a record number of manatees died in 2010 due to unusually cold water.
Indonesia’s billion-dollar climate experiment | The Climate Desk | Grist
[Christopher Barr, a forest policy expert with the U.S.-based consulting firm Woods & Wayside International] adds that "corruption is widespread at all levels within the sector," and powerful interests "have often displaced rural communities that have managed these resources for generations."
...
In late October, Wandojo Siswanto, formerly a top climate-change negotiator and architect of the Norway pact, was arrested and charged with accepting a $10,000 bribe to grant a company's no-bid contract with the forest ministry.
Committee on Climate Change advises UK to cut emissions 60% by 2030 | Environment | The Guardian
Britain is set world-leading carbon emissions cut target requiring complete overhaul of energy, farming and motoring
...

"If we don't do anything there are significant risks of dangerous climate change that we can't adapt to," said David Kennedy, the CCC's chief executive.

Kennedy accepts that the 2030 target proposed today is "highly ambitious". It will require 90% cut in power sector emissions, to be delivered by 40GW of new nuclear, wind and clean coal and gas power – equivalent to 25 large power stations. Delivering the investment needed to build this needs "fundamental changes" to the electricity market.

"We have had the most liberal electricity market in world – which had some benefits in a different era," said Kennedy. The market must be more "planned" he said...
US envoy rejects suggestion that America bribed countries to sign up to the Copenhagen Accord | Environment | The Guardian
Speaking at the UN climate summit in Cancun, Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, suggested that countries that wanted climate aid were in no position to criticise.

Citing, with approval, a confrontation at the Copenhagen summit in which a Norwegian official berated a counterpart from a developing country, he said, "he just stood up and blasted the person, 'you can't on the one hand ask for and make a legitimately strong case for the need for the need for climate assistance and then on the other hand turn around and accuse us of bribery'."

Stern added: "We can eliminate any cause or accusation of bribery by eliminating any money."
Guess I’m A Tory « Musings from the Chiefio
Who Knew…. This video is by Roger Helmer, MEP. You will find it, and more, on his blog at:

http://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/

He has the tag line “Straight Talking”, and boy, does he!

Pretty much covers it all, technical included, and does it with gusto. A great “primer” for anyone who is wondering just why Global Warming Panic is a waste of hot air.
The Answer Really is 42! « Musings from the Chiefio
Tallbloke has a very interesting article that finds that, modulo a “magic number” of 42, the running total of sunspot number has a very strong “wiggle match” to the temperature of the planet. Basically, that running total of sunspot number serves as a proxy for retained heat, that shows up in the ocean temperature. The “42″ is the average of sunspots where there is no net temperature change, where we are presently in thermal balance with solar output.
A Republican Enigma on Renewables (Sen. LeMieux, please check your premises) — MasterResource
What is clear is that Senator LeMieux has friends in high places – places where already successful energy interests squeeze taxpayers first, and ratepayers later, through renewable energy projects.

Also clear and indisputable is that without support from Congresspersons with uneducated views of energy - the U.S. wind industry simply would never have been born. A true marketplace simply demands a higher quality product at a lower price and with more certain delivery terms. Perhaps it is finally time to cut instead of stretching – the wind industry’s umbilical cord.
Billionaire Wants The Rest Of Us To Pay More Money To Stay Warm | Real Science
Maybe he can run his airplanes off wind power.
Cancún climate change talks: Richard Branson calls for global carbon [swindle] taxes | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Branson said that Virgin planes could fly on biofuels within three to five years. "The biggest prize has to be clean fuel. We are investing 100% of our profits from aviation into fuel research. It looks like fuel derived from algae or isobutanal should be powering our aircraft. Both have got products going into test phases. We are perhaps three to five years away."

He said Virgin had considered slowing planes down to save fuel. "But it actually uses more fuel," he said.

"I was hoping by now we would be towing planes to the end of the runways. But we've found there was stress on the front of the plane. Boeing is now looking at battery power to drag planes along the ground from the front wheels.

Settled science: Are massive amounts of CO2 piling up over one small part of Antarctica, or is something else warming the Peninsula?

WUWT alarmism? « Our Clouded Hills
Anyway, so what is the difference between the two analyses? Here are the plots that are provided before the paper is published properly:
The Great Beyond: US Supreme Court accepts global warming case
If the court were to rule either that the EPA's nascent greenhouse gas rules are sufficient to occupy the regulatory void or more generally that the weighty business of crafting climate regulations belongs in Congress and the legislative branch, it could considerably limit the role of the courts in settling climate change disputes, Holmstead says. "There are a range of outcomes, but any one of them is probably likely to reduce the role of the courts."

A host of other climate related lawsuits are pending in the courts. In one case, the native Inupiat village of Kivalina in Alaska is suing a variety of energy companies over their role in global warming. Whereas the current lawsuit is pushing for climate regulations, Kivalina is asking for damages to the tune of $400 million. And various lawsuits are pending regarding the EPA's efforts to begin rolling out climate regulations using authority granted by the Supreme Court in 2007.
BBC “disappears” headline “Coldest December Day on record for some sites” | Watts Up With That?
the article says:

So its been the equal coldest December day in the Vale of York since records began in 1932.
UK Met Office supports new climate [junk] science exhibition
Professor Julia Slingo, Met Office Chief Scientist, said: “Met Office scientists are playing leading roles in formulating expert evidence on past and future climate change to international bodies such as the IPCC and across all sectors of UK Government and business.
Warning Signs: Eco-Insanity and ANWR
If you flew over, it would be a tiny speck in a huge frozen wasteland. And it would provide about two million barrels of oil a day that we would not need to import from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

An Arctic wilderness is not a national monument and it is an obscenity to even consider such a designation.
Hottest year ever update | Two Men Freeze to Death in Joliet
Joliet, Ill. - The unrelated deaths of two homeless men, both found outdoors in Joliet over the past three days, may both be related to the cold weather.
...
Also over the weekend, a woman was found frozen dead in a ditch near southwest suburban Palos Park late Sunday. Sources say she may be a woman who has been reported missing.
...
The woman, who is white and believed to be in her 50s, was found lying face up in a 4-foot ditch, partially frozen in ice, including her head, sources said.
...
Last winter, 12 deaths in Cook County were attributed to the cold.

Monday, December 06, 2010

The Associated Press: Cold weather blasts through the South
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Canadian high pressure system pushed a blast of winter weather through the Southeast on Monday, leaving people shivering as far south as Florida.

Strawberry growers there tried to salvage delicate blooms, schools in at least eight North Carolina counties closed because of snow, and cold weather shelters opened in Pascagoula, Miss.
...
Such cold is so unusual that Florida officials issued a statement reminding people to dress warmly and bring their pets inside. Broward County on the southeast coast and Lee County in the southwest opened cold-weather shelters.
No Pressure : Ancient Peruvians Sacrificed Children To Control The Climate | Real Science
Klaus speculates that the rituals may have been driven by the failure of the Moche warrior sacrifices to drive away bad weather brought by El Nino. If adults didn’t work, why not try kids?
Ted Turner urges global one-child policy to save planet - The Globe and Mail
Climate change and population control can make for a politically explosive mix, as media mogul Ted Turner demonstrated Sunday when he urged world leaders to institute a global one-child policy to save the Earth’s environment.
Ted Turner: Biography from Answers.com
In December 1991, Turner married Jane Fonda, movie star and liberal activist. Two previous marriages had produced five children, who sit with Turner and Fonda on the board of the charitable Turner Foundation.
Hottest year ever update: Pothole season will be the ‘worst ever’ | Easier
Motorists are being warned to brace themselves for the “worst ever pothole season”, say experts.
...
Potholes are caused by water or snow filling existing cracks in road surfaces and freezing. The expansion this causes breaks open the road, which is revealed when the ice melts. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles cause maximum damage.
Democrats lament demise of a committee - Washington Times
A decision by House Republican leaders to kill a special committee set up by outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi not only will save taxpayers $2 million per year, Republicans say, but also will deny Democrats a key bully pulpit for advancing their environmental agenda.
Germany: Forget Breakthrough In Cancun. Chancellor Merkel Not Even Attending
The German press and politicians are writing off this conference, already. It’s over, and nobody sings “Time to say goodbye” better than Europe does. Sit back and enjoy this lovely tribute to Cancun (pre-recorded).
Key Tool for the Scare Campaign: Censorship. How bullying critics keep editors from straying. « JoNova
why under the Goddess of Free Press should any serious newspaper feel required to declare their belief in a particular scientific theory?
Leaders urged to cut deeper to limit warming to 1.5C | The Australian
WORLD leaders should boost the target set at Copenhagen and limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, not 2C, from pre-industrial levels.

This is according to a draft agreement from the UN climate change conference in Cancun.
Lord Stern Charts A 'Green' Industrial Revolution | SolveClimate News
The non-profit GGGI was established last June at the East Asia Climate Forum with a commitment of $10 million a year for three years from South Korea. It charts the clearest plan yet for how countries can "leap frog” into the clean energy economy, its leaders say.

Currently, around 1.5 billion people, nearly a quarter of humanity, lack access to electric power.

"It's much easier to [solve] that with sun and wind and water and biomass than with a very big grid structure," Stern said.
Timothy Snyder: Will Global Warming Unleash Genocide?
[Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University. He is the author, most recently, of Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. This piece ran in the October 28, 2010, issue of the magazine.]
...
Both Hitler’s Holocaust and Stalin’s Terror took place during an interval of environmental risk: between the identification of a critical environmental problem and the introduction of the technologies that would solve it.
...We face our own environmental limitations and so have very good reason to recover this history. We have entered a new interval of environmental risk, an era in which we know that global warming is taking place but do not yet have the means to slow it. We Americans tend to see events of great importance as unique and the end of history around every corner. Of course global warming is an unprecedented challenge, and of course the Holocaust was an unparalleled tragedy. Yet the relationship is not as distant as we may think. We must use what we know of the dire environmental politics of the past to prepare for the calamities yet to come. We can recall that the most dangerous of ideologies were those that unified a promise of environmental mastery with the demonization of the group that seemed to stand in the way. Perhaps, by recalling this history, we can prevent a new age of mass murder....

In the waning days of the global warming hoax, Gore's people seem obsessed with the "deniers"

Repower America | Vote for your favorite shirt
Whether you're part of the climate movement because you want to save money on your electricity bill or because you want to save the planet for your grandchildren, you know it's important for supporters to come together in 2011.  [Repower America just sent out an email that included the previous sentence, plus this one: "Climate deniers and the fossil fuel industry are emboldened, and it's up to us to show that we will keep standing strong."]

Wonk Room » Scientists Fight Inhofe Attack On Climate Fund
The Wonk Room contacted the Climate Science Rapid Response Team, a new volunteer effort by top scientists, to find out what they thought about the claim that the threat to the developing world is too uncertain for the United States to act.

This is a dishonest climate change denier myth,” top climate [junk] scientist Michael Mann, director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center, explained. The senators are referring to two or three errors in the thousand-page impacts report that are “so insubstantial that they didn’t even make the summary for policy makers or the technical summary report.”

Dr. Gary Yohe, the Huffington Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan University, charged the senators with “misdirection and misrepresentation”

Japanese government and the UN encourage African journalists to spread climate scam propaganda

African Journalists [Promote Global Warming Hoax]
The declaration was made in Nairobi during a two-day workshop on improving public awareness on the phenomenon.

Media men and women from 20 African countries have worked out an innovative strategy and a practical approach of using the pen and microphone to halt the triggers of climate change. Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya from November 29 to 30, journalists of the print and audio visual media declared their determination to succeed where policy makers and other actors in climate change issues have failed.
...Organised by the Japanese government in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) within the framework of the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), the Nairobi confab was, in essence, the launching of a climate change awareness project. The project which is a component of AAP is targeting the key role that African media can play in effectively and accurately investigating, interpreting and reporting on climate change issues and events so as to positively influence African public opinion about the immediate challenges therein. The whole thing has to do with making news out of the environment and dealing with climate change "denialists."

Tweets from a Cancun climate hoax junket attendee

Straight-Six (ProdigalSix) on Twitter
@benjaminclymer Every guy will weep and drool! Lovely, lovely car...
...
# #cop16 Quality Moment 10: Realising that Malcom X foretold climate change when he said:" By any means necessary." Do something, folks...
...
# #cop16 Quality Moment 8: Hearing yet another speaker talk about "we/you have the power!" Cattle prods unfortunately not legal in Cancun.
...
# #cop16 Quality Moment 5: Being lectured about developed country debt to developing countries before the dwarf tried to sell me a T-shirt...
...
# #cop16 Quality Moment 2: Former UNFCCC Exec Sec de Boer likes to use the word "depressing" a lot. Grumpy look & body language reinforcement
Climate Change Dispatch - Global Warming University in Shock Ban on Academic Freedom and Debate
Extremist pro-green Swedish university shackles academic freedom and bans all teaching that doesn’t conform to dogma of human-caused global warming.

The latest victim targeted by global warming fascists is Swedish professor, Dr. Claes Johnson who is smacked down for speaking the truth by his employers, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
High Court Will Review Climate Change Lawsuit - ABC News
In a new case about climate change, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from electric utilities that are trying to short-circuit an effort by states to force cuts in power plant emissions.
American Thinker Blog: WikiLeaks and the Great Myths of Global Warming
Those who have studied the UN process on "Global Warming" aka Climate Change, know full well that it is little to do with climate but everything to do with advancing the interests of global corporations and international financiers. The WikiLeaks revelations detailed in the Guardian demonstrate the accuracy of that assessment.

The Great Myth revealed in the leaks, is the long held and deliberately promoted belief that the US is opposed to any measures designed to "control climate." Nothing could be further from the truth because behind the scenes it has been promoting and engineering the process for many years, driven by NGO's and their funders, the "eco" billionaires.
Richard Branson to Climate Negotiators: Get Off Your Butts!: Cleantech News «
The headline is actually the PG version. On Saturday night at the World Climate Summit, the high-flying entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, delivered a message to the negotiators at the U.N.’s climate change meeting, COP 16, in Cancun, Mexico, which continues this week: “Just do it, for God’s sake. Get off your asses and get on with it.”

The “advice” came out of an onstage interview with both Branson and CNN founder and environmentalist Ted Turner, and Turner echoed the call to action: “Let’s do it. Let’s do it now before it’s too late. Let’s stop doing the dumb things and let’s start doing the smart things.”
...
The interview was one of the first times that Turner and Branson appeared in conversation together, and when asked if they would work together to help businesses fight climate change Turner said “We’re toiling in the same vineyard, and we’re in contact with each other. When we can help one another, we’ll do it.” The two genuinely seemed to like each other and when the interviewer pointed out that Branson’s space port was being built next to Turner’s ranch, Branson joked “Anywhere in America is next to Ted’s properties.”
Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection Shutting Down Offices | NewsBusters.org
With cap-and-trade legislation defeated in Congress this year, and the tremendous unlikelihood of it advancing with next year's more Republican legislature, one has to wonder if we're seeing the beginning of the end of Gore's scam.
INTERVIEW - Climate talks must heed business, set binding caps | Reuters
(Reuters) - U.N. climate talks must heed investor demands for binding cuts in greenhouse gases to cement the financial returns that will support low-carbon energy, said the co-head of green investment at a $45 billion British pension fund.
Cancún climate change summit won't work without back-room deals | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Diplomacy requires some degree of secrecy, and at the Cancún climate conference leaders need to talk behind the scenes
Politico: Energy Secretary Steven Chu intends to stay « Climate Progress
While it’s fascinating to learn that soon-to-be-former governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger are leading candidates for the job of Energy Secretary if it opens up anytime soon, all my sources had said there were no signs that Chu was planning to leave.
Making PIK Feel Sad For The Rest – PIK Spy Observes Berlin Skeptic Conference
Heller exposed a spy who had been sent over to check up on what was going down at the denier pow-wow on the other side of the Climate Science Iron Curtain.
Fish death fears as pools freeze over « Express & Star
Fish are dying and thousands more are at risk after a fishing pool in the Black Country froze over during the cold spell, it emerged today.
The Virginian: Media lags climate change by 15 years
During one of the coldest days in a long time (Chesapeake, VA 30⁰) in our temperate part of the world, the Virginian Pilot issues one of its periodic catastrophe warnings: global warming will cause Norfolk to drown. Quick run, it may already be too late. The fact that even the people who brought you the global warming hoax have now admitted that the earth’s temperature has not increased in the last decade, the news media is still busy flogging a decomposing horse and is, as usual far, far behind the times. At the AccuWeather blog they are claiming that the "missing heat" is hiding! When faith and reality collide, true believers stick with faith and become more shrill.
Using doom and gloom so people take climate change seriously doesn't work | Guardian Sustainable Business | guardian.co.uk
Remember that campaign Stop Climate Chaos? It was meant to scare the hell out of us with threats of heatwaves, droughts, rising tides… Now it just sounds like a Daily Mail headline castigating the government for not gritting the roads.

It's bad enough getting gloomy at the glacial rate of progress over in Cancún. Now that's compounded by the sense that the public aren't – how shall we put it? – exactly with us on this one. My cab driver the other night summed it up: "What are they doing trying to stop this global warming, eh? Bring it on!" I didn't have the heart to disagree. And even if I did, my breath would have frozen on the window.

Global warming hoax promoter Kate Sheppard: Global warming could kill a million people a year by 2030

Climate Change: Adapt or Die? | Mother Jones
Global warming could kill a million people a year by 2030. So why's the US stalling on a deal that would help countries adapt?
...
In the next decade, the effects of a rapidly warming climate could kill 5 million people—as many as live in Singapore or Finland. More than 99 percent of those deaths will likely occur in developing countries, and almost four-fifths are expected to happen in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. There could be as many as a million climate-related deaths each year by 2030 if nations don't significantly cut planet-warming emissions, according to a report released Friday.
Eyewitness news – global warming is over « The Daily Bayonet
Having just cleared >2ft of global warming from the drive, it is gratifying to be able to bring a first-hand account of the devastation that weather climate change can wreak in just 24 hours. Just this morning several small branches were unable to take the burden of snow and tragically fell to to earth, never to sprout CO2-munching leafs again. The horror, my friends, the horror.

We can overcome a vengeful Gaia, but it takes technology. In times of extreme weather climatic disruption, Mr. Snowblower is our friend. It gratifies me that not only does it do the job with ear-splitting 8-horse efficiency but that the only thing louder is the grinding of my hippie neighbor’s teeth when I fire it up. Good times.
Homes crack under weight of snow - Local - Sunderland Echo
HEAVY snow meant residents had to leave their homes amid fears a roof would collapse.
Colombian leader cancels climate conference trip after flooding - CNN.com
(CNN) -- Colombia's president says devastating flooding forced him to cancel his scheduled trip to the United Nations' climate change conference this week -- even though global warming itself could be causing the disaster his country faces.
YouTube - Roof collapse at RG Consort, Dundee
The moment heavy snow caused the roof to collapse at Dundee garage RG Consort, on November 28, 2010.

In an effort to save your future children from kidney stones in 2050, why not try to convince your wife to take a cold shower today?

Richard Ellis – giving carbon the Boot | Guardian Sustainable Business | guardian.co.uk
For example, the firm is developing a shampoo that works in cooler water, raising the prospect of a daily shower that uses less energy and lasts less time. However, Ellis realises that the product will face a few challenges winning over new customers. "Eighty-three per cent of our customers are women and how many women really want to wash their hair in cold water?" he asks.

Psychologists and abandonment and churn, oh my: Healing the planet is tougher than it sounded when you earned all that cheap applause by announcing it

DWP quietly scales back Villaraigosa's ambitious renewable energy goal - latimes.com
Leadership upheaval at the agency has resulted in shifting priorities. Under First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, the agency is revising plans to generate 40% of its power from renewable sources by 2020.
...
That shift, initiated under the leadership of First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, is only the latest at an agency marked by upheaval as it pursues the mayor's lofty environmental agenda.

Since Villaraigosa took office in 2005, the nation's largest municipally owned utility has been in a state of churn. Multimillion-dollar initiatives have been announced, then abandoned. Executives have been installed, then jettisoned.
...
And at one point last year, an organizational psychologist was brought in to sort out frictions between top utility managers.
...
For Freeman, 84, it was his second stint heading DWP. Instead of the geothermal plan, he chose to pursue the development of a massive solar energy farm that, he predicted, would cover up to 80 square miles of dry lake bed in the Owens Valley.

Four months later, Freeman was pushed out as well, replaced by Beutner, a former investment banker who insisted on a more cautious approach to the solar initiative, including figuring out how much it would cost.

"Solar on that scale has never been done in this country. Never," said Beutner, who is Villaraigosa's top advisor on job creation. The DWP is now studying a solar project that is one-twentieth the size of Freeman's, officials said.
PlasticsEurope provides new climate change data
PlasticsEurope, the European association of plastics manufacturers, has produced a publication that it claims shows the role plastics has in mitigating climate change.

The brochure Plastics' positive contribution to climate protection gives a broad overview on the carbon footprint of plastics, taking into consideration all steps from production to waste management.
No so worried about warming that they’ll pay to stop it | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
Of course Australians still believe man is heating the world. It’s just that half of them now don’t want to lift a finger to stop it
...
This is a huge fall from three years ago, when a massive 77 per cent of people polled told Newspoll they’d love to pay more, and only 18 per cent said no.
Rajan's Take: Climate Change: Cancun Speeds up the end of Climate Hysteria
For NGOs, the end of the scam for many is an end of their number one revenue spinner. Christopher Booker sums it rather nicely “The global warming scare may have been fun for the children while it lasted. But the time has come for the joke to be declared well and truly over.” NGOs are however not expected to make a formal admission that their role in this scam is over. But it is only a matter of time their climate staff are given the pink slips, if at all it hasn’t happen already. Most of these redundant staff is unlikely to be re-assigned responsibilities as the scam taint has made them unemployable within the industry, as they become an embarrassment for both the organization and the entire sector.
It is apparent that for a long, long time, NGO advocacy on any issue is not going to have a cutting edge as questions are expected to be frequently raised on their judgement of issues and competence in engaging in issues that based on science or technology.
Climbing Out Of The Dark: Cancun, Who Are The Deniers Now?
Someone has to pull the plug on the climate scam. Funding needs to be rerouted to REAL pollution problems. Send those Sierra kids to Africa to dig water wells, at least then they will make up for all the pollution that exists because money has been diverted to third world despots.
Video: Arctic elegy: a lament for the disappearing ice - Telegraph
At a micro level, a warming Arctic Ocean has begun to recalibrate the planet’s carbon exchange by heating billions of lifeforms in the microbial soup at the bottom of the food web. These processes are improperly understood, and outcomes can be good as well as bad. A shifting phytoplankton population in an ice-free ocean may result in an abundance of fish, solving, at a stroke, the planetary protein deficit.
The Associated Press: Carbon credit programs fail without climate [hoax] bill
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A national program that paid farmers millions of dollars for reducing greenhouse gasses has fizzled amid uncertainty about U.S. climate legislation, stopped paying dividends and will no longer taken enrollment after this year, the president of the group running it said.
...
But carbon credits that fetched up to $7 a metric ton a few years ago are now nearly worthless, said Robert Carlson, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union. The group has 6 million tons worth of credits that have gone unsold, and while it will continue to try to sell those, no new credits will be issued after this year, Carlson said.
...
"These (carbon credit programs) started because there was a presumption there would be a value on carbon and there would be legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gasses," Johnson said. "Carbon really has no value now."

Terry Ulrich, who raises cattle and crops near Ashley in south central North Dakota, said he pocketed about $6,000 during the first three years of the program for employing no-till farming techniques on about 2,000 acres of his land. But it's been about two years since he received a dividend from the program, he said.
....
"The contract will be broken now, and we can all do what we want to do," Ulrich said. "But I'll still no-till the land, absolutely. That, I'm sold on."
Review & Outlook: Ethanol on the Run - WSJ.com
A left-right coalition is emerging against this energy boondoggle.
Consumer groups call for end to EU light bulb ban - The Local - m.thelocal.de
Consumer protection organisations have demanded a suspension of the EU ban on incandescent light bulbs, citing official tests that showed the new compact fluorescent lamps to be dangerous if broken.
Gigaton Awards Spotlight Companies' Success in Reducing Carbon | Climate | GreenBiz.com
Billed as the "Oscars" of climate change events, the official mission of the Gigaton Awards is to "inspire and challenge businesses to make a difference to climate change and global sustainability." Unofficially the Gigaton Awards strived to make carbon reduction and corporate climate change initiatives a bit sexier and more glamorous -- a noble and lofty ambition. One of the better lines of the evening came from presenter Andrew Winston, who likened the Gigaton Awards to the "Stanley Cup of Carbon."
Why climate change negotiators should go postal
The postal business has long been dependent on extensive carbon-intensive infrastructures and operates probably the largest vehicle fleet in the world, estimated at 500,000 [How many of these vehicles are currently powered by wind turbines or solar panels?], including trucks and planes, but it is making the long-term capital investments to convert from carbon-intensive processes.

Warmist Bryan Walsh of Time openly admits that Environmentalism is a religion

Eco-Activist Links Environmental Work and Spiritual Values - TIME
Environmentalism began as a religion. Certainly that's how paleo-greens like John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, would have seen it. Muir was awakened to nature when he first explored Yosemite in the 1860s, and he felt it in a religious way — he called what would become one of the nation's first national parks "the grandest of all special temples of Nature."
...
Wangari Maathai, for one, would like to change that. The Kenyan activist won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 — making her the first environmentalist to earn the award — for her work with the Green Belt Movement, a nonprofit that focuses on planting trees, conserving the environment and fighting for women's rights. Now Maathai has a new book called Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World, and she's preaching a green gospel. To Maathai, environmental work needs to be linked to spiritual values — and spiritual values should drive us to care about the environmentalism, contributing to what's called in Judaism tikkun olam, the healing of the world.
..."The environment becomes sacred, because to destroy what is essential to life is to destroy life itself."

That's a religion that John Muir would recognize — and one we shouldn't surrender.
Al Gore's climate [swindle] group shrinking - Darren Samuelsohn - POLITICO.com
One of Al Gore's campaigns to save the planet has scaled back its field operations since climate legislation failed earlier this year in Congress.

The Alliance for Climate Protection was operating in about 25 states at its peak, including Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
...
But the group now has field offices in just seven states.
...
Gore in 2008 launched a $300 million advertising and lobbying campaign through the Alliance to help pass climate legislation on Capitol Hill, telling CBS' 60 Minutes at the time it was a “blitz as sweeping and expensive as a big corporation's rollout of a new product.”

The group has not disclosed how much of that money it ultimately spent.
Is Time ‘Running Out’ for the Climate? Panel [of believers] Debates at Stony Brook
Carl Safina, Elaine Karmarck, and an assembly of prominent Stony Brook professors joined together Tuesday in order to discuss an article by Peter Goldmark and climate change.
...
Lee Koppelman, a Stony Brook professor who is an expert in local level policy, started off by talking about the dangers of scientists becoming activists. According to Koppelman, the reason scientists are trustworthy is that they base their conclusions off their data. But when scientists get involved in politics, they become just about as believable as, well, politicians.

He focused on the e-mails that proved some scientists fabricated models to make the threat of climate change seem more drastic and immediate. Scandals like these make other scientists seem less credible.
Cancun Climate Summit Ridiculed in World Press
...around the world, more and more media are risking the ire of bureaucrats and officials to expose the fraudulent warmist hypotheses.

The New American magazine predicted the slow death of the global-warming crusade in an article earlier this year as politicians who supported the hysteria began dropping like flies and the warmists were still licking their wounds from Copenhagen and a devastating series of scandals. But with so much invested in the scam, it will definitely not go down quietly or without a fight. For now, the embattled parade is scheduled to limp on in Durban, South Africa, next year.
Western Climate Initiative moves forward, smaller than imagined — High Country News
The toxic politics of cap-and-trade
...
In New Mexico, time nearly ran out. The same day the board OK'd the rules, Republican Susana Martinez, who is skeptical about man-made global warming and opposes cap and trade, was elected governor. The new board she picks "will be hostile -- almost certainly -- to climate regulation," says Bruce Frederick, a lawyer with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.
...
"Somewhere along the line, 'cap and trade' as a phrase became about as popular as bank bailouts," says Eric de Place, a senior researcher at the Seattle-based Sightline Institute.