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Lots of snow for Aspen Mountain re-opening | AspenTimes.comASPEN — Aspen Mountain will reopen for skiing this weekend with a better base depth of snow on Memorial Day than it had on New Year's Day.
The base depth has hovered around 70 inches at the mountaintop since the Aspen Skiing Co. announced last week it will extend the skiing season. The base was 38 inches on Jan. 1.
The New Nostradamus of the North: Human impact of rising sea levels - stunning new report by two sociologistsThe Curtis/Schneider report is groundbreaking in its bold conclusions. Who could have guessed that "not all places and not all people in those places will be impacted equally"! Or that "children or elderly require a different approach"!
However, Curtis and Schneider missed one thing: the oceans are not rising.
The Vergano FOI Request « Climate AuditThe difference in how academic institutions have responded to the seemingly similar requests in respect to Wegman and Mann is quite startling. George Mason gave expedited service to a request for Wegman’s emails; the U of Virginia has done the opposite. George Mason turned over Wegman’s correspondence with an academic journal without litigation; the University of Virginia has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on litigation. Multiple academic lobby groups protested the production of Mann’s emails as a matter of principle; the same organizations were and remain silent in respect to Wegman.
They Just Ran Out Of Colors | Real ScienceI can’t imagine why they tried to make Envisat almost invisible.
doxienan: Well said. Marc Morano and his oily friends are criminals,“Well said. Marc Morano and his oily friends are criminals, and will go down in history as the ones responsible for the delay in taking action to prevent climate catastrophe. Jail time for Morano and Inhofe!”
Kyoto Protocol deal loses four big nations DEAUVILLE, France: Russia, Japan and Canada told the G8 they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at United Nations talks this year and the US reiterated it would remain outside the treaty, European diplomats have said.
Carl Pope: The Incredible Shrinking GOP FieldAll seem to be mindful of the remarkable know-nothing standard set for GOP candidates by Marc Morano, the head of the new right-wing, climate-cynic website Climate Depot. Morano, who used to work for Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, proclaims, "Republican presidential hopefuls can believe in man-made global warming as long as they never talk about it, and oppose all the so-called solutions."
We can be certain that if Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin does decide to grace the Republican field, they will go after their opponents with this recycled question from the McCarthy era: "Do you now, or have you ever, believed in man-made climate change? Do you now, or have you ever, supported cap and trade?"
So science, for the Republicans, has become the new Communist conspiracy.
Guest Post By Dr. Hansiniman : “Warming Continues Unabated” | Real ScienceAt first glance it appears that temperatures stopped rising after the first time Monica Lewinsky did not have sex with Bill Clinton. However, our top rated scientists have determined that this is due to a number of factors, which I explain in detail below.
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You aren’t qualified to read the graph
The heat is hiding in poor countries where they don’t have thermometers
The latent heat of massive volumes of ice melting in Greenland has cooled the planet
Something to do with air pollution
2010 was the hottest year ever
You forgot to make up data in the Arctic
All of the hot water sank to the bottom of the ocean
Global warming is unequivocal
You get money from the tobacco industry
Republicans want the planet to die. Stop pretending otherwise.
Audit 'Big U' | Max Borders | Opinion Zone | Washington ExaminerPublicly funded colleges and universities have always fancied themselves as guilds -- immune from scrutiny and entitled to privacy. Until now, the public has generally let them off the hook. Not anymore. America's state-supported "Big U" is in for a rude awakening -- a dose of sunlight that will send these fat 'n' happy academics scattering into the highest reaches of the ivory towers to evade scrutiny. Don’t believe me? Check out these two stories, which (I hope) are but the tip of the iceberg.
Gas prices 'serious' hardship for 4 in 10 Americans | News-Gazette.comFor older Americans, it's worse.
The share of seniors expressing financial hardship over gas prices hit 76 percent; it was 68 percent in March.
Gas tanks are draining family budgets - TwinCities.comFor every $10 the typical household earns before taxes, almost a full dollar now goes toward gas, a 40 percent bigger bite than normal.
Households spent an average of $369 on gas last month. In April 2009, they spent just $201. Families now spend more filling up than they spend on cars, clothes or recreation. Last year, they spent less on gasoline than each of those things.
2009: Energy Sec. Last Year: You Know What's A Swell Idea? $8 Gas! - ForumsREP. CLIFF STEARNS, R-Fla.: Last September you made a statement that somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe, which at the time exceeded $8 a gallon. As Secretary of Energy, will you speak for or against any measures that would raise the price of gasoline?
Power Line - Chu Eats DirtThe truth is that liberals generally want higher energy prices. This is because they are either unconcerned with, or actively hostile to, economic growth. They think the world is rich enough already. (The common belief among liberals that there are too many people in the world rests on a similar foundation.) Thus, they are content to see energy prices rise, even though such increases necessarily dash the hopes of lower and middle-income Americans for greater prosperity.
The liberals who hold these views generally enjoy material circumstances consistent with their view that the world is rich enough already--for them, it is. But they know it is impossible, politically, to state clearly what they are up to--limiting the aspirations of their fellow Americans for prosperity and material success. So it is nice when, every once in a while, the truth comes out.
Chris Christie: New Jersey’s Al Gore | JunkScience.comYes, what logic… brilliant….I don’t know anything… so rather than keeping my big fat mouth shut until I learn something, I’ll side with the likes of Al Gore, Osama bin Laden, Charles Manson, the Discovery Channel gunman, Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Henry Waxman, Bobby Rush and every other whacked out, intellectually and morally bankrupt believer in global warming.
Chris Christie for President? No thanks. I’ll write in Kris Kringle first.
Planting affected by cold May - Herald and News: Local NewsWool coats in May? Snow two weeks before school lets out for summer vacation?
Welcome to Klamath Basin spring 2011.
High temperatures this month are seven degrees below average for Klamath Falls.
Perhaps no one is feeling the impact of the low temperatures more than onion and potato farmers.
Brian Charlton with the Oregon State University Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center said those crops in particular are affected by cold temperatures in May.
Be careful during cold snap - Gauteng - South Africa With temperatures in Joburg set to drop even further this weekend emergency services have urged people to dress warmly for the next few days.
Percy Morokane, spokesman for Johannesburg Emergency Services said those driving or taking buses and taxis needed to ensure they had very warm clothes with them: “if your (vehicle) breaks down and you have to wait out in the cold you could risk hypothermia.
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“During the cold period we always have an increase in the number of deaths as a result of fires in homes and informal settlements,” said Morokane.
Greens dismiss Business Council call for low starting price on carbon | The AustralianOpposition climate spokesman Greg Hunt said the council's submission was a big blow to the government.
"The Business Council has put a dagger through the heart of the carbon tax," Mr Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.
"This is a vote of no confidence in the government.
Russia, Japan baulk at climate pledges | Environment | BigPond NewsBut the leaders of Russian, Japan and Canada confirmed they would not join a new Kyoto agreement, the diplomats said on Friday.
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Separately, US President Barack Obama, at Thursday night's G8 dinner, confirmed Washington would not join an updated Kyoto Protocol, the diplomats said.
Snowpack twice as deep as normal | The Olympian - The News TribuneAs excited as whitewater rafters are about a snowpack that is an average of 204 percent of normal statewide, those itching to enjoy outdoor pursuits such as high-country hiking aren’t so happy.
Memorial Day weekend typically marks the beginning of the summer recreation season, but recreationists are more likely to find conditions in the mountains that seem like winter.
Forget facts, it's personality that rules reactions to climate change | smh.com.auIn the foreword to a new book debunking scepticism of science - Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand - Oreskes argues that fear is the major driver of denial. ''Fear that our current way of life is unsustainable. Fear that addressing the issue will limit economic growth. Fear that if we accept government interventions in the market place … it will lead to a loss of personal freedom. Or maybe just plain old fear of change.''
Still Waiting On The Rapid Response Team | Real ScienceIt has now been over six months since I submitted my first query to them, and I am still waiting for their devastating response which will humiliate and humble me.
The longest set of records goes back only 15 years, so the agency will do some modelling for the years before that.
A Foolproof Way to Talk about Climate Change | GristIf you’re like me and have to talk about climate science in public forums a lot, you struggle with the denier community and how to talk about the issue. Personally, I find the denial world so outrageously out of touch that I mostly hit the science head on and then blow the deniers out of the water with facts if they challenge me. But straight science isn’t always the best approach for all audiences, especially very conservative ones. You need to skirt the question sometimes.
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...we know that warming of 2-4 degrees C is much more likely to be catastrophic than good for the world. (It’s very easy to debunk the argument that warming will be bad some places but good other places, the idea that Greenland will be nice and we’ll move there. All that methane filled permafrost melting, plus all the sea level rise easily negates the argument. Not to mention floods, droughts, fires, etc. ) Fourth, we know that humans have the ability to radically cut greenhouse gas emissions, and that doing so will prevent catastrophic warming. So it makes sense to do so, especially since the consquences of inaction will be much more costly.
Still Hiding The Decline? - Investors.comGlobal Warming: Alarmist academics are being forced to show their work and they don't like it. Do they fear that a web of deception will unravel if their data are made public?
For Memorial Day: A Clean Energy Future For Our Military - The Hill's Congress BlogThe Air Force has already set a goal of acquiring half of its domestic aviation fuel from alternative sources by 2016, and has many high-profile programs well underway.
Already, the Air Force has figured out how to fly A-10C jets on biofuel blends derived from a weed-like plant called camelina. It has tested F-15s that achieve supersonic speeds using a blend of fuel based on animal fats and oils.
Where’s the Hoax? - Toon TalkThere was another conference that ignored reality, facts and witnesses that could provide proof. It was held in Iran and it denied there was an actual Holocaust. I believe David Duke was one of the highly acclaimed and credible expert speakers.
Enjoy your conference boys. Try not to be creepy.
6th International Conference on Climate ChangeThe Heartland Institute will host its Sixth International Conference on Climate Change in Washington, DC on June 30 – July 1, 2011 at the Marriott Wardman Park, 2660 Woodley Road NW.
New Jersey to Climate: Drop Dead | Climate | GreenBiz.comIn outlining his reasons for withdrawing from RGGI, Christie explained that the state's emissions are now at lower levels than its stated 2020 goals, while the cost of RGGI's carbon permits is simply too cheap to inspire any behavior changes.
Chris Christie Defers to the Experts on Climate Change | The Intersection | Discover MagazineYesterday, he announced that he has changed his position. I’m not sure what science has been done in the last 6 months to convince Governor Christie to make this change. As far as I know, the science today is exactly the same as the science then. Regardless, Christie recently met with two expert scientists, Ken Miller, a geologist with long experience documenting sea level changes, and atmospheric science Anthony Broccoli, both from Rutgers University. I guess all politics (and now science) is local. After holding these meetings, the Governor has apparently seen the light and has decided to defer to the experts on this controversial issue.
Why the GOP Hates the National Science Foundation | NeuroTribesRepublicans don’t like science and scientists because they are sources of data that are independent of GOP-approved propaganda mills like Fox News. Pesky scientists and academics are always popping up to dispute the Roger Ailes-approved buzz-quote of the day — on climate change...
Science, you could say, has a built-in left-wing bias, because it does not appeal to simplistic notions of God, country, tribal supremacy, or any of the other lesser angels of our nature that the GOP finds handy for its get-out-the-angry-vote drives.
About NeuroTribes | NeuroTribesNeuroTribes is a blog by science journalist Steve Silberman. His articles and interviews have appeared in Wired, Nature, The New Yorker, Time, GQ, Salon, and other national publications, and have been featured on The Colbert Report.
Joplin tornado devastation not just 'natural disaster' - Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and LiberationCapitalism exacerbates even 'natural' events
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A socialist government in the United States would work in joint effort with meteorologists and community leaders who are assigned the important task of keeping the public safe. A priority in areas prone to tornadoes would be the mass construction of underground shelters so that when the warning sounds, everyone has a safe place to go.
We can't put an end to tornadoes. But we can put an end to the profit system.
Chris Christie's Mixed Message - WSJ.comThose words are likely to dampen the enthusiasm of some grassroots conservatives. A lot of Americans remain highly suspicious of "consensus" in a community of scientists whose careers are linked to man-made climate fears. Mr. Christie's statement will also raise obvious questions about what "policies" he does support. Wasteful government subsidies for renewables? Federal mandates that require the use of those renewables? None of these positions sits well with free-market conservatives, either. New Jersey is a heavily green state, and Mr. Christie might have felt he needed cover for such a controversial decision. Then again, his supporters have come to admire him precisely because he doesn't usually run for cover.
There Is No Economic Recovery (But Only Fox News Kooks Know It)[Rush Limbaugh] Here's the next one. Did you know that Fox News viewers, most misinformed of all news consumers "are 30 points more likely to say that scientists dispute global warming."? That is a fact. It is a fact that there are scientists who dispute global warming. We have one on this program, our official climatologist, Dr. Roy Spencer, used to work at NASA, University Alabama, Huntsville. Pat Michaels. They're all over the place, folks. There are many scientists, more than ever. In fact, global warming, manmade global warming has pretty much been buried now. It's been established as a mankind hoax, but yet in a hit piece on Roger Ailes in Rolling Stone, the kooks are Fox News viewers who are likely to say that scientists dispute global warming. Apparently to this guy at Rolling Stone and Rolling Stone readers, there's a hundred percent agreement that manmade global warming is real and that every scientist believes that. Only in kookville, i.e., the audience of Fox News.
Investors Flock to ‘Clean’ Tech, So Why the Subsidies? | National Legal and Policy Center. If Eric Schmidt and Jeffrey Immelt want to see “clean” tech thrive, let them back electric cars and solar farms with their own money, and leave taxpayers out of it. Then let’s see how much cheerleading USA Today does over exuberant investment in “clean” tech.
Revkin.net - Anthony Watts has posted a @Wattsupwiththat item...Anthony Watts has posted a @Wattsupwiththat item wrongly asserting that my concerns about statements implying a link between recent tornado outbreaks and human-driven climate change are NEW. I just told him that he must have missed my 2008 piece, including this section...
World Ignores Imminent And Bigger Threat Of Global Cooling As It Fights Non-Existent Global WarmingThe current year 2011 is a good example of what happens when global temperatures drop and we have cold and snowy winters that stretch well into spring. The current La Nina and the cold PDO brought colder temperatures and extra amount of snow during the past winter to many parts of North America, which means significant spring flooding like we just had in Central US and many parts of Canada.
The Yin and Yang of RGGILastly, I’ll note that overall, Gov. Christie’s ideas on energy are awful, as is suggested by the title of yesterday’s address, “New Jersey’s Future Is Green.” The Governor is committed to wasting taxpayer money on expensive, unreliable green energy, and he also announced a moratorium on coal power. Read all about his crummy energy policies here.
Local News | Cool, wet spring delays Washington strawberry crop | Seattle Times Newspaper"This is definitely a year for the record books," said Mike Boxx, who operates Boxx Berry Farms on Northwest Drive. He said they would normally be harvesting strawberries these days, but instead the berries are still green. "We believe we'll start getting a few ripe strawberries between June 15 and June 20."
Already feeling the impacts of a cold, damp spring are dairy and seed potatoes farmers. Many Whatcom dairy farmers haven't been able to get in a first cut of grass or silage, typically done in April. That may force farmers to pay for feed, which can be triple the cost of cutting grass.
[Breaking: Climate change allegedly causes good cherry harvest in Italy] - ANSA English - ANSA.it(ANSA) - Rome, May 17 - For the first time in living memory, cherries are maturing at the same time up and down the Italian peninsula, a phenomenon some observers see as a further consequence of climate change.
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According to the gastronomic-environmental group Slow Food, the reason for this is that for the past two months or so temperatures highs in Italy have been consistently, over 50% of the time, greater in northern Italy than in the south.
The good news is that the quality of this year's harvest is very good throughout the country and prices have already plunged below last year's highs.
Ambrose: The apocalypse and global warming - Framingham, MA - The MetroWest Daily NewsThe moral of this tale is not that we should rule out the possibility of serious danger posed by global warming that may have been largely instigated by humankind, but that our ignorance is far greater than facile talk of a "scientific consensus" would have you believe. Wrong responses could be more disastrous than warming, with no effect on thermometers.
Many get it, I think, that a hard landing could await us if we leap before a lot more calm, careful, apolitical looking, and alarmists should understand that ranting about doomsday afflictions will bring few to the faith.
Science and the media: 21 - 27 May - Physics Today Politics and Policy[Happer] Let me summarize how the key issues appear to me, a working scientist with a better background than most in the physics of climate. CO2 really is a greenhouse gas and other things being equal, adding the gas to the atmosphere by burning coal, oil, and natural gas will modestly increase the surface temperature of the earth. Other things being equal, doubling the CO2 concentration, from our current 390 ppm to 780 ppm will directly cause about 1 degree Celsius in warming. At the current rate of CO2 increase in the atmosphere—about 2 ppm per year—it would take about 195 years to achieve this doubling. The combination of a slightly warmer earth and more CO2 will greatly increase the production of food, wood, fiber, and other products by green plants, so the increase will be good for the planet, and will easily outweigh any negative effects. Supposed calamities like the accelerated rise of sea level, ocean acidification, more extreme climate, tropical diseases near the poles, and so on are greatly exaggerated.
Did the Nixon administration know about global warming? - International Business TimesIn a 1969 September memo, Moynihan wrote that there was a widespread agreement that carbon dioxide content would rise 25 percent by 2000.
"This could increase the average temperature near the earth's surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit," he wrote. "This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter."
Fresh snow spoils plan to pick trash from Everest - KansasCity.comFresh snow and unpredictable weather hampered efforts to pick tons of trash left behind by climbers on the slopes of Mount Everest, the veteran mountain guide who led the cleaning crew said Friday.
"The new snow covered the garbage and it was difficult to collect trash in the higher altitude," the guide, Apa, told reporters upon his return to the Nepalese capital of Katmandu. Apa, like most Sherpas, use only one name.
SAVING MOUNT EVEREST: Blog [21 May 2011] According to the weather network, it has been snowing in Everest Base Camp and above and the temperature falls below -30 Degrees Celsius at night. The garbage on the mountain has been covered by snow after the snow fall making the collection difficult.
2010: Everest Expedition To Clean World's Highest Garbage Dump : TreeHuggerClimate change is also changing the face of Everest, thanks to rapidly disappearing glaciers and snows. "The garbage was buried under snow in the past. But now it has come out on the surface because of the melting of snow due to global warming," says Sherpa. "The rubbish is creating problems for climbers ... Some items of garbage are from Hillary's time."
New Hampshire Primary 2012: Green: Newt Gingrich answers climate change question (Video) It may well be that it is dramatically less expensive to adjust to a change in climate than it is to stop the entire planet from changing.
Now, if you were a left wing intellectual, climate change is the newest excuse to take control of lives and you want a new bureaucracy to run our lives on behalf of the newest thing. But remember, in the mid-1970’s there was a cover of Newsweek and Time that says we’re in the age of a brand new glacial period and they had a cover of the Earth covered in ice. This is the 1970’s. Now many of those scientists are still alive and they were absolutely convinced. I mean, if Al Gore were able to in the 1970’s we would build huge furnaces to warm the planet against this inevitable coming Ice Age.
72% Of The US Below Normal Temperatures In May | Real ScienceClimate midgets (McKibben, Cook, Romm, etc.) have been claiming that the extreme US weather this month is due to warming. They say that warm air holds more moisture, so we get more rain and violent weather.
The warm air only exists in their mind though.
Brendan DeMelle | DeSmog Interview with Curt Stager, Author of 'Deep Future' (Part 2)Our greenhouse gas emissions will stick around long enough to prevent the next ice age 50,000 years from now, and emitting more of them could well prevent more ice ages much deeper in the future. One could reasonably argue that ice ages are bad news for Canada and northern Europe, because having your landscapes bulldozed by mile-thick slabs of ice amounts to total environmental obliteration.
...When new ice ages start to roll around in 130,000 AD and beyond, our descendants will then have the option, if they so choose, of burning some of those fossil fuel reserves in order to warm the planet enough to prevent the ice sheets from forming. Of course, we can only guess whether they'll do so or not, but at least we won't have made the decision for them. So there you have it; one more, only half-joking reason to stop our fossil fuel emissions.
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Climate change is not going to kill every last one of us; humans are too resilient for that, having lived everywhere from floating sea ice to burning deserts for thousands of years even without modern technology and despite massive, abrupt environmental shifts of natural origin. In addition, regions such as Greenland may actually become more habitable to humans in a warmer world, offering refuges to at least some remnant populations.
C3: New Study: Michael Mann's Bozo Hurricane Research Gets Trashed By Actual Hurricane ExpertsMichael Mann, the "scientist" behind the infamous hockey-stick and Climategate fiascoes, decided that the world could use his brand of discredited statistics and data manipulation concerning Atlantic Ocean hurricanes. He subsequently published a study purporting to show an increasing trend of hurricanes supposedly due to human-caused global warming. To the surprise of no one, a new peer-reviewed study by actual, honest-to-god, hurricane scientists makes a complete mockery of Mann's non-expertise of hurricanes.
Pay up Obama: President made to cough up C-charge for 'The Beast' | NewsBarack Obama has been ordered to pay the congestion charge for his security vehicle "The Beast", Boris Johnson revealed today.
The Mayor told the Standard each car in the President's motorcade will be billed for £10 - including the bomb-proof Cadillac. Mr Johnson also said he had a discussion with Mr Obama about the US embassy's refusal to pay £5.3 million in C-charge fines.
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The US embassy's outstanding bill is the highest, with well over 45,000 notices since the C-charge was introduced in 2003. A source there said they were unaware of the conversation between the President and the Mayor, adding: "Our position on the congestion charge is well known.
London To Transform Congestion Charge Into Climate Change Fee | PlanetizenOwners of gas-guzzling SUVs would pay $50 to drive into the central city, while drivers of low emission vehicles would now be exempt from the $16 congestion charge.
President's men fill up 'The Beast' in surprise visit to BP garage | NewsWorkers at the station, who at first did not realise who the car belonged to, said the presidential entourage spent £350 in total between seven cars at the station, where a litre of unleaded costs 136.9p.
Gov. Christie a Global Warming DiscipleThe number of people who buy this crap has been dropping for years, and is down to somewhere around 1/3 of the population. People like Christie and Pawlenty have long been in a position to have better access to the facts than the average American. It’s a pity that it’s obviously taking them longer to figure out that the emperor has no clothes than it is taking the average American.
The Miracle of Carbon DioxideAgricultural scientists predict that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would cause a “greening” of the planet unknown in modern times.
Given all the benefits that carbon dioxide represents to humans, animals, and vegetation itself, there appears little reason to impose draconian regulations on emissions of carbon dioxide.
History has proved that carbon dioxide is a giver of life. By no stretch of the imagination can CO2 be intelligently considered to fall within the definition of pollutant. [Via Climate Realists]
Is NOAA Smarter Than Fifth Graders? Think-Tank Says, "Don't Bet on It" | Climate Realists"NOAA's forecast was on target last year, but it was only the second time in seven years the agency got it right. This may help explain why its forecasts the past two years have had such enormous ranges," said Ridenour. "Is NOAA smarter than two fifth graders? Given its less than 29% success rate the past seven years, we sincerely doubt it. To find out for sure, we've commissioned two fifth graders to calculate the number of Atlantic hurricanes using a methodology that 5th graders use to resolve most of life's most vexing challenges."
Did Quiet Sun Cause Little Ice Age After All? - ScienceNOW“There’s tantalizing evidence that [during the Maunder Minimum] the sun may have actually dimmed more than we have thought until now,” Foukal says.
Even so, Foukal concedes that other factors, such as enhanced volcanic activity around the globe, may also have played a role in causing Europe’s Little Ice Age. Meanwhile, the biggest worry to solar physicists—and to society—is that no one knows what caused the sun’s prolonged quiescence in the first place. As far as anybody knows, a repeat of the Maunder Minimum could start within a few years with the next dip in the number of sunspots.
Memorial Day, 2030 « Climate ProgressThe three worst direct impacts to humans from our unsustainable use of energy will, I think, be Dust-Bowlification and sea level rise and ocean poisoning: Hell and High Water.
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It is a world not merely of endless regional resource wars around the globe. It is a world with dozens of Darfurs and Pakistani mega-floods, of countless environmental refugees — hundreds of millions by the second half of this century — all clamoring to occupy the parts of the developed world that aren’t flooded or desertified.
In such a world, everyone will ultimately become a veteran, and Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day may fade into obscurity, as people forget about a time when wars were the exception, a time when soldiers were but a small minority of the population.
GOP presidential hopefuls shift on global warming - Boston.com[Former New York Rep. Sherwood Boehlert] "Not one of them is being forthright in dealing with climate science," he said in an interview. "They are either trying to finesse it, or change previous positions to accommodate the far right. They are denying something that is as plain as the nose on your face."
Utilities turn in blacklisted carbon emission credits • The RegisterMore prominent power generation outfits have surrendered stolen carbon emission permits after realising that they had inadvertently purchased illicit goods.
German utility Eon and Frankfurt-based infrastructure provider Infraserv turned in a collective total of 27,100 blacklisted EUAs (EU Emission Allowances). The certificates were among 186,500 EUAs and 46,000 certified emissions reductions (CERs) fraudulently obtained from German paper manufacturer Drewsen Spezialpapiere via a high-profile phishing scam late last year.
Don’t preach to the converted on carbon tax: it’s the money vote that matters (Science Alert)Ironically, the only certainty in this whole mess is that doing nothing is the worst possible course not just environmentally but economically.
How do we know that doing something stupid and expensive is better than doing nothing?
Letter: Scientists could use FoI law safeguards | Science | The GuardianAnother academic is quoted as saying many FoI requests are made in order to find problems and errors – but that is a valid use of the act. It was the misguided attempt to deny ammunition to critics that led to the Climategate fiasco. The resulting independent review found there had been an "ethos of minimal compliance (and at times non-compliance) … with both the letter and the spirit" of the legislation, and that the campaign of requests to the UEA climatic research unit was partly the result of its own "unhelpful" response to earlier requests. It is not clear that much has changed.
Revkin.net - When Tornadoes Were Blamed on Atomic BombsTornado expert Chuck Doswell looks back at the last horrific tornado year, 1953, when media blamed the deadly storm swarms on atmospheric testing of atomic bomb...The media did what the media always do: spread wild speculation about the influence of atomic tests on the weather without regard for its scientific validity.
Dixon Then and Now: Yes, May's Been Cool, But Not as Cool as 1977 - Dixon, CA PatchThe cold weather in May this year – nearly 20 degrees colder than average on some days – confirms that with weather, the unusual is normal.
Climate change and corruption | Radio Netherlands WorldwideIn addition to corruption, bureaucracy also proves to be rather costly. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) environmentalist, Corneille Ewango, is critical of the United Nations’ deforestation project known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).
“In the DRC, we are wondering why there is still no activity on any of the eight REDD sites in the country”, Ewango says. He adds: “Instead, we are worried that the successive political or technical meetings would exhaust the budget without any work being started on the ground”.
Heavy Snows Spoil Weekend Holiday Plans In West : NPRSki resorts are bustling with activity. A key highway into Yellowstone is closed because parts of the road have seen more than 25 feet of snow. And campgrounds are feverishly removing snow from campsites to clear the way for visitors.
Welcome to Memorial Day weekend in much of the West.
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Rocky Mountain National Park's popular Trail Ridge Road is closed because of 17-foot snow drifts. Normally, holiday motorists can cruise at altitudes surpassing 11,000 feet but not this year.
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The Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center is fully staffed to warn outdoors enthusiasts.
"May snow depths are deeper than anything we have seen in the last 45 years," said avalanche center spokesman Bob Comey.
World Climate Report » No Long-term Trend in Atlantic Hurricane NumbersOf top of this less than perfect solution is the desire (for some at least) to want to try to involve anthropogenic global warming, hoping to find that anthropogenic climate change is leading to more tropical storms and hurricanes. But thus far, the evidence for this is scant, to say the least.
And now, it just got scanter. (We know the word is “scantier” but the one we concocted rhymes with our pugilistic friend in climate hyperbole, Ben Santer).
Brendan DeMelle | DeSmog Interview with Curt Stager, Author of 'Deep Future' - Answer Trivia Qs To Win A Free Book!CS: Thanks to books like Climate Cover-Up and Merchants of Doubt, as well as online resources such as DeSmogBlog, the machinery of the denial movement is now clearly revealed. A relatively small group of individuals and corporations with vested interests in supporting the fossil fuel industry are behind it, not only as a way to generate profits but also as a way to support a radical pro-capitalist ideology.
Some of these same characters have used similar techniques for years, peddling doubts about the harmful health effects of tobacco and the human contributions to acid rain and ozone depletion. Their methods are simple but effective, much akin to sprinkling sand into the cogwheels of a finely tuned machine. With deep pockets and relentless marketing supporting them, they manipulate public opinion through the media and compliant politicians to create the illusion of uncertainty and controversy where little or none actually exists. It's pretty disgusting behavior, but it works.
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The very fact that this blog exists and that so many people read it with altruistic intent on behalf of humankind and non-human species alike proves that humans are capable of caring enough to do the right thing.
Republican's Climate Solution: Clearcut the Rain Forest - NYTimes.comOn the witness stand was Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s climate change envoy, who was questioned on whether the nation’s climate policy should focus on reducing the more than 80 percent of carbon emissions produced by the natural world in the form of decaying plant matter.
Flashback: Carbon sequestration via wood burial and storage - Zeng, NingTo mitigate global climate change, a portfolio of strategies will be needed to keep the atmospheric CO2 concentration below a dangerous level. Here a carbon sequestration strategy is proposed in which certain dead or live trees are harvested via collection or selective cutting, then buried in trenches or stowed away in above-ground shelters. The largely anaerobic condition under a sufficiently thick layer of soil will prevent the decomposition of the buried wood. Because a large flux of CO2 is constantly being assimilated into the world's forests via photosynthesis, cutting off its return pathway to the atmosphere forms an effective carbon sink.
Climate Change May Not Be Causing Tornadoes, But That's No Reason to Ignore It - Ecocentric - TIME.comThe risk of extreme weather is one of many reasons we need to cut carbon, but improving detection and disaster resilience will save far more lives and far more quickly than going solar or becoming more energy-efficient. As long as we're thinking about tornadoes or cyclones or hurricanes or floods, adaptation needs to be kept in the foreground—the disaster gap between poor countries and rich ones shows what a difference preparation can make in human lives.
NPR.org » University Of Virginia Agrees To Release Some Global Warming DocumentsThat finding and that graph became focal points when hackers stole and then released e-mails between prominent climate scientists that put into question the credibility of the data used to arrive at those conclusions.
Ethanol: A Tale of Two Candidates | The Weekly StandardEthanol fever is far from being a partisan affliction, though. The latest diagnosed case is Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich. In his most recent speech in Iowa, Gingrich declared his commitment to make America energy self sufficient, in part through ethanol. The applause line/press lead of his speech: “if my choice is Iran, or Iowa, I prefer the money in Iowa. If my choice is Saudi Arabia, or South Dakota, I prefer the money in South Dakota."
Spree of deadly storms points to global ‘weirding’Weirding considers how individual weather events—heat waves, cold spells, blizzards, hurricanes and tornadoes—coupled with long-term trends—frequency of drought, reduced crop yield, insect infestation—paints a portrait of the overall change in the weather we’re used to experiencing in our daily lives.
“Where we live today does not feel the same as it did when we were growing up. Spring is arriving on average one to two weeks earlier each year across the entire northern hemisphere. Summer heat is becoming more frequent and more severe. Heavy rainfall events are increasing in strength and frequency,” Hayhoe explains.
Obama speech to Parliament skirts climate change - latimes.com"No country can hide from the dangers of carbon pollution, which is why we must build on what was achieved in Copenhagen and Cancun, to leave our children a planet that is safer and cleaner," Obama said in one of only two references to climate change brought on by human activity.
Current TV: “SKY is ditching us. Murdoch wants to do Berlusconi a favour” - Corriere della Sera The News Corp group broadcaster, led in Italy by Tom Mockridge, claims credit for having “believed in 2008 in Current TV’s potential”, pointing out that audience ratings for Al Gore’s broadcaster “are not growing”. According to SKY, the average daily audience for Current TV in 2011 has so far been 2,952, a loss of 20 over the 2010 audience of 3,600. Sadly, Current TV’s prime time audience decline from 2010 to 2011 is around 40%.
New Jersey to Exit Carbon-Reduction Program - WSJ.comEnvironmental activists say the program's cost to consumers is relatively low. Jeff Tittel, head of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said it wasn't as tough as some would have liked.
"It's a very moderate program," he said. "It's not like this is some big Sierra Club, socialistic, make-everyone-ride-bicycles-and-have-solar-panels-on-their-house type of proposal."
Vt. gov stands by greenhouse gas effort - WHTM abc27 -After getting word of Christie's move, Shumlin said he was deeply disappointed. He says the program is something to be proud of that shouldn't be rejected for political gain.
Chris Christie Strikes a Major Blow Against Cap-and-Trade - FoxNews.comWith Christie’s fabulous leadership, New Jersey will be out of RGGI by the end of the year, punching a huge hole in the middle of the regional scheme, lending momentum to burgeoning repel efforts in New Hampshrie, Maine, and New York, and leading, perhaps, the final and total end of cap-and-trade as a politically viable concept anywhere in the United States.
Significant Role of Oceans in Onset of Ancient Global Cooling - US National Science Foundation (NSF)Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic.
The temperature differences of that era, known as the late Eocene, between the equator and Antarctica were half what they are today.
A debate has been ongoing in the scientific community about what changes in our global climate system led to such a major shift from the more tropical, greenhouse climate of the Eocene to modern and much cooler climates.
Conservative attack ad on Jon Huntsman for liberal views (VIDEO) : Politics Blog[Huntsman] But in order to get to the heart and soul of carbon emission, which is a problem, because it leads to polluted skies and air quality problems and climate change, we must put a value on carbon. Until we put a value on carbon, we've never going to be able to get serious with dealing with climate change longer term. Now, putting a value on carbon either suggests that you go to a carbon tax or you get a cap-and-trade system under way."
"As the head of the Western Governors' Association, I'm doing my best as the leader of this group to develop a comprehensive energy program that we're going to turn over to the next president of the United States, which will include issues of affordability, issues of energy independence, and issues of sustainability. And when I speak of sustainability, I talk about ultimately a cap-and-trade system."
Lighting Specialists Stockpiling Incandescent Bulbs this attack on us mere commoners who actually appreciate consumer freedom runs into a problem: many hotshot interior decorators and lighting specialists also like the incandescent bulbs, thus the stockpiling. It’s an interesting contrast — it is okay for experts who appreciate light to stockpile incandescent bulbs but everyone else is overreacting, possibly succumbing to the right-wing media machine
INHOFE TO REINTRODUCE BILL TO ALLOW STATES TO OFFER 'ETHANOL-FREE GASOLINE'Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, will reintroduce legislation this afternoon that would allow states to opt out of the conventional biofuel requirement under RFS2 and would also expand the definition of cellulosic biofuel under the regulation, OPIS has confirmed.
GE sees solar cheaper than fossil fuels in 5 years « Climate ProgressSolar power may be cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels and nuclear reactors within three to five years because of innovations, said Mark M. Little, the global research director for General Electric Co. (GE)
Florida's climate is a deterrent to killer tornadoes, but state ranks third in the number of stormsFor that, as with most things around here, you can thank the state's temperate climate.
Mild winters and hot, still summers simply don't lend themselves to the biggest tornadoes, Florida meteorologists say.
"You have to have a clash between real cold air and real warm, moist air," said James O'Brien, a professor emeritus of Meteorology and Oceanography at Florida State University.
FOI requests shouldn’t be needed in the first placeIf such research were being done with the scientists’ own money and did not involve policy affecting billions of the world’s people, then the refusal to follow normal scientific protocol in terms of transparency could, perhaps, be justified. But it is not the scientists’ own money, and their work does affect you and me, profoundly.
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, May 26th 2011 « The Daily BayonetJane Fonda’s brother called POTUS a traitor without a trace of irony, union hippies are geographically challenged and UVA may be exposed to some sunshine disinfectant in the near future.
Lord Turnbull Trashes the IPCC « NoFrakkingConsensusIn effect, carbon dioxide has been named the arch villain. Large swaths of the UK government have made fighting it a top priority. But what if all that attention and money is being wasted? What if this arch villain is, at most, a petty criminal?
ApologizeMr. Pawlenty, Americans are forgiving people—but you have to ask. We know you can say: “I’m sorry.” Can you renounce the man-made climate-change scheme, apologize for the policies you put in place that are hurting the people of Minnesota, and assure your potential voters that as President, you will not pick and choose—through mandates and subsidies—which energy sources we the people can use? It’s not “too late to apologize.”
Declining Spring Snow Cover Forces Aspen To Open For Memorial Day | Real ScienceClimate models predicted this :
Record Cold Leads To Record Rain In Montana | Real ScienceButttt …. Jeff Masters said that heavy rain is caused by warm temperatures
27,658 Days | Real ScienceIt has been 27,658 days since the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the US struck. CO2 was well below the safe level of 350 ppm at the time.
What Motivates Climate Change Deniers? : Ursula Goodenough : NPRSo here's what I don't get: What motivates a denier? If you are a denier-reader of this blog, what motivates you? I'm not asking for more URLs – we already have plenty of those on file. I'm asking about intent.
I know what motivates my position: the sirens, the polar-bear pictures, the IPCC reports, fear for my grandchildren's future. What motivates the denial?
About '13.7: Cosmos And Culture' : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPRUrsula Goodenough is a professor of biology at Washington University, where she teaches cell biology and molecular evolution.
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Goodenough's avocation is an exploration of the religious potential of our scientific understandings of nature, generating a book, The Sacred Depths of Nature (Oxford), and long-term participation in the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.
Putting humanity in a kangaroo court | Ben Pile | spikedSuch is the extent of the anti-humanism of the sustainability agenda that meeting the most basic of human needs is not a ‘good’ unless it has been assessed for its environmental impact. It is not humanity in general, but these sustainability advocates that deserve to be in the dock.
iMatter March intro on Vimeo[Brainwashed kids rant about their fear of carbon dioxide. Just before the 1-minute mark, a kid suggests that because of CO2 emissions, there may be "no future"]
Bill “Chicken Little” McKibbenThis decline in the absolute number of deaths caused by tornados, floods, and hurricanes is even more impressive considering that U.S. population more than doubled over these 70 years, from 132 million in 1940 to 308 million today.
Seems that McKibben’s apocalyptic prognostications about humanity’s future are as fact-based as are those of the Rev. Harold Camping.
UN Climate Talks and the Power Politics: It’s Not about the TemperatureI will begin with my contentious conclusion, which is that the international diplomacy of climate change is the most implausible and unpromising initiative since the disarmament talks of the 1930s, and for many of the same reasons; that the Kyoto Protocol and its progeny are the climate diplomacy equivalent of the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 that promised to end war (a treaty that is still on the books, by the way), and finally, that future historians are going to look back on this whole period as the climate policy equivalent of wage and price controls to fight inflation in the 1970s.
Nasa gives up on Spirit: News24: Sci-Tech: NewsWashington - The US space agency said on Tuesday it is giving up on trying to contact its Spirit rover on Mars, saying the robot explorer likely froze to death in the Red Planet's harsh winter.
GF Airport hits freeze mark at 4 a.m.; Hallock down to 30 | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota The temperature could fall below 30 degrees at some sites in the northern Red River Valley extended, for long enough to damage or even kill some sensitive plants, the weather service said.
AFP: US promotes climate aid to skeptical CongressRepresentative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican who heads the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee in charge of oversight, poured scorn on United Nations-led climate diplomacy and pledges of financial assistance.
"With a federal budget in massive deficit and an economy that has yet to pull itself out of a deep recession," he said, "the expectation that the United States will be footing a major share of the bill for such a UN fund is pure fantasy."
U.-Va. agrees to complete response to global warming public records request by August - Virginia Politics - The Washington PostIn an agreement filed in Prince William Circuit Court on Tuesday, the university agreed it will turn over all records, in electronic form, within 90 days--or Aug. 22.
Bookies bet on carbon price under $25 | National - Rural | BigPond NewsAs the multi-party climate change committee gets down to the serious business of setting a carbon price, bookies suggest it will be under $25 a tonne.
Et tu, pistachios? How climate change will mess with trail mix | GristIt turns out that crisp apples, chewy almonds, ripe plums, and a host of other nuts and stone fruits might become much more costly to grow -- or not grown at all in some spots -- because of rising winter temperatures, according to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS One.
...climate solutions can boost economies and create jobs.
I personally try to do my part by taking the bus and riding my bike to work, and choosing to buy energy-efficient products.
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Robert Lalasz is the director of science communications at The Nature Conservancy.
Harsh winter depletes antelope numbers - Daily Inter Lake: Featured Storythis year hunters should expect slimmer pickings due to high mortality from a brutal winter in Eastern Montana.
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The Glasgow area was pounded by a record total snowfall of 108 inches — the previous high was 70 inches — with devastating effects on mule deer and antelope.
Spring survey flights confirmed that about 1,000 antelope, crowded along railroad tracks, were killed by trains over the winter. More were killed on rural roads and many succumbed to the deep snow, unable to find forage.
iafrica.com | news | sa news | Cold snap surprises SAAlthough snow may not have fallen elsewhere, South Africans made it known that they were "#freezing", with the word being the third biggest Twitter trend in the country for the day. Other trends included "#chilly", "#fridge","brrr" and "#heater".
Ruling alters climate-papers fight - Washington Times“I want to look at what they’ve given us and examine what they’ve withheld and see why its been withheld,” Mr. Marshall told The Washington Times. “The more they stonewall, the more theyre making Richard Nixon look like a choirboy.”
[comments]- Bishop Hill blog - Paul Nurse on FOISo Bob Ward says that the intention is to trawl through scientists work and find errors. He obviously doesn't like the idea. There is a name for the process of looking for errors in someone else's work whosoever does it.
Bob. It's called science.
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Dear Climatologists
It is very simple.
My taxes have been used to pay you to collect data on my behalf. If you do not feel able to allow me access to that data, I feel no need to continue paying you.
What you do on your own time is yours. But what you do on my dime is mine.
Simple.
Damn You, Global Warming! | The Resilient EarthAll the world's eco-activists and treehuggers—so quick to blame humanity for everything bad that happens—have made common cause with the climate change alarmists. Anthropogenic global warming has become the root of all evil, the cause of every catastrophe. Like all good conspiracy theories, global warming can explain every bad event no matter how contradictory or implausible. And like all good conspiracy theorists, nothing can shake the climate alarmists' beliefs. As tragic as effects of this spring's violent weather have been, we need to remember that all of Earth's creatures, including humans, live here at the sufferance of nature. Instead of yelling “damn you global warming,” climate alamists need to recognize that natural disasters are just that—natural.
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[comment] Everyone's favourite meteorologist, Joe Bastardi, said on Cavuto this afternoon that “They own every answer. It could snow cheese in New York tomorrow morning and that would be from global warming.” Amen, brother.
Outdoors | Best Bets for this weekend: Folklife, seagull calling, Ski to Sea | Seattle Times Newspaper families are invited to join the Kids Ride for Penguins, a five-mile ride through Point Defiance Park to focus attention on global warming and the problems it creates for wildlife such as penguins
Oxfam - climate change a 'monstrous injustice' - Story - Environment/Sci - 3 News[Oxfam campaigns director John Stansfield] "There's a group of people over in one part and they're all fat and obese, they've got heart disease, they've got far too much food.
"And a group of people over here, they're all skinny, they've got malnutrition, and they're the ones actually producing the food.
"And in the middle is this mountain of food going to waste, rotting and being thrown away, and a billion people in the world go to bed hungry every night when there is enough food.
"The system of governance of food is broken."
Cold weather here connected to tornadoes there(05-25) 17:33 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- That unseasonably cool air blowing through the Bay Area this week was one of the ingredients that created deadly tornado outbreaks in the Midwest, according to weather experts.
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Jan Null, a meteorologist who runs Golden Gate Weather Services, said, "This isn't global warming, this isn't climate change. This all falls under the category of, 'Stuff happens.' "
Freedom of Information | Climate Etc.IMO, Nurse’s money quote is this one:
“Scientists are going to have to get used to the idea that transparency means being transparent to your critics as well as your allies. You cannot pick and choose to whom you are transparent,”
The Myth of Killer Mercury | The SPPI BlogTo build its case against mercury, the EPA systematically ignored evidence and clinical studies that contradict its regulatory agenda, which is to punish hydrocarbon use.
Spending Bill Clears Military Use of High-Carbon "Liquid Coal" - NYTimes.comSupporters of the provision, however, note that current law prohibits the Defense Department from buying crude produced from Canada’s oil sands, potentially increasing fuel costs to the military — and its reliance on more far-flung foreign suppliers.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper finds no evidence of climate change causing increase of tropical stormsA paper published online today in the Journal of Geophysical Research finds that there is no evidence to suggest that 'climate change' is responsible for a reported increase in the frequency of short-duration tropical storms of the North Atlantic during the 20th century. Rather, the paper finds that an increase in reported storms is simply due to improved methods of detection (the "observing system") over the 20th century rather than any evidence of 'climate change.'
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