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The false, the confused and the mendacious: how the media gets it wrong on climate changeThe Conversation wraps up Clearing up the Climate Debate with a statement from our authors: the debate is over. Let’s get on with it.
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Climate change vs. gravity: Greater complexity, comparable certainty
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We can calculate the effect, and predict what is going to happen to the earth’s climate during our lifetimes, all based on fundamental physics that is as certain as gravity.
The consensus opinion of the world’s climate scientists is that climate change is occurring due to human CO₂ emissions. The changes are rapid and significant, and the implications for our civilisation may be dire. The chance of these statements being wrong is vanishingly small.
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An example of a dangerously ill-informed opinion on how science works is the widely propagated myth that scientists somehow have a “vested interest”, presumably financial, in climate change. This myth has been carefully crafted by deniers to create a chimerical symmetry between their own ties to political and economic interests and the alleged “vested interests” of scientists.
In actual fact, climate scientists have as much vested interest in the existence of climate change as cancer researchers do in the existence of the human papilloma virus (HPV).
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For example, it is not a matter of legitimate editorial process to misrepresent what experts are telling Newscorp reporters — some of whom have been known to apologize to scientists in advance and off the record for their being tasked to return from public meetings, not with an actual news story but with scathing statements from the handful of deniers in the audience.
Maher to Obama: Stop climate change or ‘we’re on our way to being a third-world country’Despite climate change being known as a global phenomenon and not isolated to one country, Maher had a grim warning for the commander-in-chief: Do something or the country will face the perils of a third-world nation.
“You know, I understand we’re on our way to being a third-world country, could we just stop at second-world before we get there?” Maher said. “Why doesn’t he point to this and say this is all because of climate change. He doesn’t seem to use what he has to make a case. I don’t hear the Democratic case being made. That’s my point.”
Climate Change: Bad News for Baby Boys? | Mother JonesGenerally, mothers are less likely to automatically miscarry male fetuses very early in gestation when it's warm, and more likely to do so [miscarry] when it's cold, because baby boys are more "frail" in early life than baby girls. But according to the study, warm temperatures could trick more newly-pregnant mothers—or rather, their bodies—into keeping male fetuses they might otherwise have rejected for genetic weakness. Although that would mean an increase in the total number of births, it would also lead to an increase in the number who die young if those baby boys then experience cold temperatures early on, thus driving down average life expectancy.
In essence, Catalano said, those are boys who never should have been born in the first place. But climate change makes it harder for mothers to, biologically speaking, determine whether a fetus will be resilient as a child.
40 Percent of Corn Goes to Ethanol - By Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore - National Review Online[NY Times] Thanks to Washington, 4 of every 10 ears of corn grown in America — the source of 40 percent of the world’s production — are shunted into ethanol, a gasoline substitute that imperceptibly nicks our energy problem. Larded onto that are $11 billion a year of government subsidies to the corn complex.
Corn is hardly some minor agricultural product for breakfast cereal. It’s America’s largest crop, dwarfing wheat and soybeans. A small portion of production goes for human consumption; about 40 percent feeds cows, pigs, turkeys and chickens. Diverting 40 percent to ethanol has disagreeable consequences for food. In just a year, the price of bacon has soared by 24 percent.
EU Carbon Credit trading takes a dive. In Greece, they can’t hardly give EU carbon credits away | Watts Up With That?Last week, Greece started auctioning their EUAs (European Union Allowances). They need the money, and probably other countries will follow, including Portugal. But they were not that lucky! Of the 1 million permits, only 6000 EUA were sold. The reason: nobody is buying…
Redding.com: The last time the Earth got hotMany deniers of human-caused climate change substantiate their denial with the fact that global warming happened before. Long before humans walked the Earth. 56 million years ago. We didn't cause it then so how could we cause it now?
Global warming deniers to pow-wow in Washington « Summit County Citizens VoiceSUMMIT COUNTY — If it weren’t so dangerous, it would be funny. The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank funded by Exxon Mobil and Charles Koch, is once again rounding up its stable of climate change deniers for the sixth annual Conference on Climate Change (June 30, July 1) in Washington, D.C.
The group is literally playing with fire by trying to slow and block any meaningful policy changes that might slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It works hard to confuse the public about the veracity of climate science.
If Greenpeace can lie this easily, why should I believe them on any subject? – Telegraph BlogsNo, my point has to do with the sheer flagrancy of Greenpeace’s deceit. This is the first time that I’ve been able to verify one of the pressure group’s claims against my first-hand knowledge and, on this basis, they have a 100 per cent record of falsehood. Extrapolating from my experience, I shall henceforth assume that they are equally unreliable in their claims about deforestation, ocean pollution, nuclear power, sustainable agriculture and climate change. Super-epic fail, dudes.
Darwin endures big chill | News | NT News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.auDARWIN is "on track" to break another weather record - heading for the coldest month on record.
Weather bureau senior forecaster Angeline Prasad said that the mercury had dropped below 20C every day in June. "There has been 32 consecutive days below 20C," she said. "It is unusual."
She said the record for consecutive days below 20C in Darwin was 53, set in 1965.
"June is on track to being the coldest month ever recorded," Ms Prasad said.
Study details significant rise in sea level | Minnesota Public Radio News "This is a very important contribution because it firmly establishes that the rise in sea level in the 20th century is unprecedented for the recent geologic past," said Miller, who was not part of the research team.
Miller said he recently advised New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that the state needs to plan for a sea level rise of about 3 feet by the end of the century.
President Obama Abuses Strategic Petroleum ReserveClearly, President Obama is putting politics and polls ahead of responsible governance and a smart energy policy. Even The Washington Post’s editorial board agrees. This morning, in a scathing editorial entitled “The wrong reason for depleting the strategic oil reserve,” the Post argues the White House is likely more focused on a “political emergency” and “the government should not tap the reserve absent a genuine crisis.”
C3: A Spectacular Failure: Latest HadCrut & NASA Temperatures Significantly Below IPCC Climate Model PredictionsAs is clear in the chart, global temperatures are significantly below even the the IPCC scenario of stabilized (orange curve) CO2 emissions. This is a spectacular failure, confirming that increasing CO2 emissions are not driving temperatures up, despite the "consensus" science. It also confirms how worthless climate models are for policymakers to rely on as predictive tools.
‘Climate [Hoax] Kids’ Find Themselves in Court | ThinkProgressEarlier this week, two groups of kids presented an opportunity to fight together. Kids vs. Global Warming and Youth for Climate Truth sent out an appeal for support in a legal case before the courts right now.
Al Gore strikes back in Rolling Stone article - PostPartisan - The Washington PostFormer vice president Al Gore isn't known for his great political timing, so perhaps it's no surprise that he's published an environmental broadside in Rolling Stone during a week in which there's almost no political oxygen left. The Beltway is clogged with dreary economic news, debt ceiling worries and President Obama's Afghanistan speech. Even given Gore's prodigious talent for generating heat, he's fighting a losing battle.
That's a shame.
Wanted: Republicans for Responsible Oil Policy - NYTimes.com Americans of both parties, outside a small bubble, are very enthusiastic about the responsibility, even the patriotic duty, to use a great gift — oil — more thriftily.
Revkin is out of touch with reality. Of course, people are happy to save oil if it keeps more money in their pockets, and if it's convenient; otherwise, not so much.Revkin himself flies a lot, enjoys lobsterboat races, and admits that he lived in an home with insulation problems and an oil burner that was not well-maintained.
This is hardly the profile of a person who is "very enthusiastic" about using oil more thriftily. Like many left-wingers, I think Revkin's real enthusiasm here is about OTHER people using oil more thriftily.Flashback: Snakeskin Where Insulation Should Be - NYTimes.comOur oil burner was deemed a good choice, if we keep it well tuned and maintained (something I’ve let slip). Our major appliances were Energy Star approved. I said we’d finally break down and get a stove-like insert for our fireplace (something we sorely missed when the power was knocked out by a blizzard last winter, forcing us to live the “ imposed low-carbon life” for several days).
The biggest surprise was the snakeskin I discovered in a space beneath our attic floorboards where insulation should have been. Even where there was insulation, it was only about two thirds of the insulation value of R-30 that we would need even to meet the minimum modern codes.
Laurel Whitney | Fossil Fuel Propaganda In Education: Connecting the DotsScientists have even discovered that brains don’t fully develop and mature until the age of 25. That’s why kids continually shove unidentified objects up their nose, light random things on fire, eat worms, and think licking the light socket might be the best ideas of their short-lived little lives. It’s also why they won’t be able to tell the difference between well-rounded educational materials and industry propaganda.
Youth urged to lead fight against climate change"The youth can do something to fight climate change. The voice of the youth is powerful because the future of the earth is in their hands," he added.
The Failure of Al Gore: Part One | Via MeadiaThis general sleeps in a mansion, and lectures the soldiers because they want tents.
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The Achilles heel of environmentalism in politics has always been its association with upper crust ‘starve the peasants to save the pheasants’ thinking. Gore’s lifestyle and the way he positions the issue strengthen that fatal association rather than undermining it. The more the rich and the well bred applaud his heroism and swoon over his courage, the more sullen and resistant the peasants grow.
The Most Likely Climate Disasters On The Horizon | Fast CompanyAccording to some predictions, the Arctic could lose its summer sea ice as early as 2013.
Presidential Candidate Herman Cain Is Looking for Victims of the EPA | NetRight DailyBy Kevin Mooney – Have you or your business been on the receiving end of mistreatment from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)? If so, you could have a job in a new Herman Cain Administration.
Bob Casey, D(uh) – Pa, Successfully Channels Million$ To Unions For Non-Existent “Green Jobs” Training « SOYLENT GREEN“The growing industry known as the green initiative?” Wouldn’t you love it if someone had asked this scam monger to explain that? Oh yeah, reporters don’t ask questions anymore.
CO2 tumbling downThis week, Bluenext's EUA phase 2 2008-2012, went tumbling down. It closed at 12.21 €, down from 15.41 € a week before, a 20% drop in a week! And after all, carbon markets are not actually helping to combat global warming and climate change, and are open to the kind of speculation and fraud that led to the global financial crisis of 2008...
Strip Al Gore and The UN IPCC of Their 2007 Nobel Peace PrizeRecently, it was discovered that the UN IPCC 2007 Report, the work for which it received its half of the 2007 Nobel Prize, contained false information regarding the risk of glacier melt, species extinction, sea-level rise and natural disaster in an effort to frighten the public and force politicians into taking action. By signing this petition, you are sending a clear message that you wish for Al Gore and the UN IPCC to be stripped of their 2007 award.
Blog: With libertarians like this, who needs statistsThere you have it. The science editor of perhaps the premier "libertarian" magazine in the country advocates a global tax, a "harmonized" tax, on all fossil fuels -- a tax that should "gradually raise" over time. Also note that the only scientific evidence he cited was for warming trends, and not any evidence to show that those warming trends were man-caused rather than natural, or that any cure is not worse than the disease.
With libertarians advocating worldwide taxes, the next things we might expect to see are anarchists protesting cuts to government and Republicans supporting Great Society programs.
Gillard sets income limit on carbon tax compo - The West AustralianPrime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed that households will be offered a combination of tax cuts, higher pensions and increased family benefits to compensate for the higher cost of living under a carbon tax.
Ms Gillard has revealed that the bulk of the estimated $5 billion a year household assistance will be directed at low and middle-income earners, with compensation likely to phase out at incomes of $150,000.
If You Don’t Believe In Global Warming, This Guy Wants To Come After You. | Chicks On The RightIn the video below, Wirth is talking to some chick about how all of us non-believers need to be tracked down aggressively and forced taught to believe in the Almighty McManBearPig’s warnings about the doom and gloom of global warming. And if you listen closely, around the 3-minute mark, you’ll hear him spew how he’d like to “undertake an aggressive program to go after those who are among the deniers, who are putting out these mistruths, and really call them for what they’re doing and make a battle out of it. They’ve had pretty much of a free ride so far, and that time has got to stop.”
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Seriously, Grandpa. Bring it.
Temps set record low few weeks after high | The Austin Daily HeraldThursday’s high temperature of 62 degrees broke a coolest maximum temperature for June 23, set in 1957.
Saving the planet will destroy the economy | The AustralianMARGARET Thatcher's one time right-hand man Nigel Lawson is not so much a climate sceptic as sceptical of the necessity for action, let alone the ways we are tackling climate change.
NationalJournal.com - The Skeptics vs. the Cynics (and When it’s Tough to Make the Distinction) - Friday, June 24, 2011[Gwen Ifill] BREAKING: Former Vice President Al Gore chastises President Obama for dropping the ball on climate change.
This is one of those stories that are tough to tell in an “on-one-hand-on-the-other-hand-format.” So we took a stab at representing three points of view when we tackled the topic on the "PBS NewsHour" this week. We invited a disappointed environmentalist who agreed with Gore; another who thought Obama was handling things fine; and a climate skeptic who believes the science is wrong.
One would think we set out to make someone on every side of the issue unhappy. I believe we succeeded.
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Before you decide in all three instances, I will share with you my general rule of thumb on these matters. Cynics believe they have already arrived at the answers to their questions; skeptics hold out the possibility that there are always more questions to be asked.
I ask questions for a living, so you know where I land.
Correction: Andrew Bolt likely prompted death threat sent to Anna-Maria Arabia : Deltoid There are two likely candidates: Bolt's post, and a post by Tom Nelson (the blog where Lippmann posted his confession).
Live by Hype, Die by Hype - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review OnlineHe deplores the Climategate e-mail fraud, but it was as understandable as it was an enormous setback — just as would have been Sarah Palin’s leaked e-mails had they revealed commensurate and conscious efforts at deception.
Gore himself took on prophet-like status and wished to equate the global-warming/climate-change religion with his own godhead, and yet he now seems surprised that his movement suffers bad publicity, oblivious that it might be, at least in some small part, also related to his own public hypocrisies, whether the multiple energy-gorging luxury houses he owned, the private jetting and yacht, or the “crazed sex poodle” charges.
Pine Beetles To Destroy Idaho Forests Before 1987 | Real ScienceEU Referendum: Green jobs – Boeing jobs?Interestingly, Tom Enders, Airbus chief executive, recently teamed up with a number of airlines to write to EU climate commissioner and professional moron, Connie Hedegaard, warning her that it was "madness to risk retaliation" from such influential players as China over the issue.
Bank of America Putting Billions into SolarBank of America is the sole financial lender in the agreement, which is backed by a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy’s Financial Institutions Partnership Program.
Week's Top Enviro Stories: Kyoto, R.I.P. and More | Rolling Stone PoliticsThis is hardly news to anyone who follows international climate negotiations, but it's still worth pointing out: the notion that the good people of the Earth are going to come together and solve the climate crisis by creating some big international agreement to cut emissions is dead. Even Christina Figueres, the United Nations' climate change chief, now says publicly that "this planet is not going to be saved by any big bang agreement."
Breaking: Climate Hawk Jay Inslee to Run for WA Governor | ThinkProgressInslee: “This is a moment for scientists to channel their inner Rambo”:
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Show Us Your Lightsaber Or You Will Be FinedThis year, US oil refiners will pay more than $6 million in fines to the EPA for not using a product that doesn’t exist. Refiners are required to blend at least 6.6 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol this year, or pay a fine to the EPA of $1 per gallon of this target not met.
But here is the funny part – no cellulosic ethanol exists for refiners to buy, even by the EPA’s own analysis.
On Eve of Solyndra Hearing, Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Demands Cooperation from OMB HeadWASHINGTON, DC – House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) is demanding answers and cooperation from Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew regarding an ongoing investigation of a stimulus loan guarantee awarded to Solyndra, Inc. Stearns’ request comes on the eve of a Subcommittee hearing on “OMB’s Role in the DOE Loan Guarantee Process,” scheduled for Friday, June 24, 2011, at 9:30 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Deputy Director Jeffrey Zients is slated to testify, although OMB will not commit to his appearance.
Michelle Obama: 'I can't stop eating French fries. But eat your vegetables.' | Byron York | Beltway Confidential | Washington ExaminerObama mentioned Indian food, and then Mexican food, and then said: "No, if I picked one favorite, favorite food, it's French fries." The audience began to laugh. "Okay? It's French fries," Obama continued. "I can't stop eating them." As the students laughed more, the First Lady quickly returned to her role as advocate of health eating. "But eat your vegetables," she said, to still more laughs. "And exercise."
Obama: Don’t Get Between Michelle & A Tamale | The UpTakePresident Obama speaks at the White House Cinco de Mayo celebration and says ” I asked Michelle the other day, I said, what’s your favorite food — because we were sitting around with the girls. She said, oh, Mexican food. That’s — (applause.) You do not want to be between Michelle and a tamale.
Lawrence Solomon: Supreme skeptics | FP Comment | Financial PostThe justices of the United States Supreme Court this week became the world’s most august global warming sceptics. Not by virtue of their legal reasoning – the global warming case they decided turned on a technical legal issue — but in their surprising commentary. Global warming is by no means a settled issue, they made clear, suggesting it would be foolhardy to assume it was.
“The court, we caution, endorses no particular view of the complicated issues related to carbon-dioxide emissions and climate change,” reads the 8-0 decision, delivered by the court’s acclaimed liberal, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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Somewhat in the same vein, Justice Ginsburg notes carbon dioxide is necessary and ubiquitous, and thus shouldn’t be the target of indiscriminate attacks. “After all, we each emit carbon dioxide merely by breathing,” she notes, repeating a point that Dyson couldn’t have said better himself.
To see exactly what the Supreme Court said in its remarkable American Electric Power v. Connecticut decision, click here.
GE’s Ironic New Slogan for Its Favorite Greenhouse Gas: “Natural Gas. It’s Hot Stuff.” | ThinkProgress“running a handheld electric hairdryer on US grid electricity delivers a planet-warming punch comparable to [the heat given off by] two Boeing 747s operating at full takeoff power for the same time period.”
Why It Is OK To Lie About Global Warming Evidence | Real ScienceRemember, any period of time where trends go in the direction you expect is evidence for AGW. Even if the evidence is a single hot afternoon in Los Angeles in the middle of a record cold summer.
We all know that during the last decade of this century, sea level will drown everyone who hasn’t already died from heat prostration.
UNC Professor : Sea Level To Rise 330 Feet By 2050 | Real ScienceLook for sea level to rise about 50mm (two inches) per week for the next forty years.
Ted Turner: Climate Change Humanity's Most Serious ProblemSVALBARD, Norway, June 23, 2011 (ENS) - Today, on a warm [the high was only 21 degrees colder than 1998's high!] day very close to the Arctic Circle, board members of the UN Foundation, including Founder and Chairman Ted Turner, got a close look at what effects climate change is having on the Arctic.
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Brundtland told reporters on the call that the scientists informed the group that ocean waters have heated up over the past decade at least one degree Celsius to a depth of 1,000 meters. "This is a dramatic change in a short period of time due to the changes humanity is causing by how we are acting," Brundtland said.
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"This is the most serious and complex problem humanity has ever faced, so it's easy to see how some people don't get it," said Turner. "
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Timothy "Stagecraft" Wirth, the former U.S. senator from Colorado who now serves as president of the UN Foundation, said the impacts of climate change being felt across the United States this year will convince many people.
"While you can't predict exactly from the climate models what will happen, there has been an increase in drought, fires and flooding happening in the United States," Wirth said. "The dramatic climate impact is with us already. Slowly but surely people are going to connect the dots."
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"Happily," said Wirth, "there are people like weather forecasters that have come together in a group to decide how they will explain climate change when talking about the weather.
From Near the Arctic Circle, UN Foundation Board Discusses Climate Change | UN DispatchThe participants reflected on the melting glaciers they viewed and the warm temperatures they experienced.
History : Weather Underground, Svalbard, 6/23/11[Max Temperature 48 °F; Record 69 °F (1998)]
Never mind how we're dressed. Because it's like super-DUPER hot up here, and because it's your fault, you need to stop eating meat, stop showering, stop traveling, set your home thermostat to an uncomfortable temperature, and cough up $45 trillion.
GOP rips plan for climate office - Washington Times“[The climate service office] sounds a lot like a propaganda office to me. This seems to be an unneeded distraction that has nothing to do with science,” said Rep. Paul C. Broun, Georgia Republican. “This just seems like a politically motivated advocacy office that this administration is trying to stand up.”
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“Our proposed reorganization has nothing to do with cap and trade,” Ms. Lubchenco told skeptical Republicans. “There is no advocacy in what we are proposing.”
Global Warming Hoax Weekly Round-Up, June 23rd 2011 « The Daily BayonetScientists demand respect, Texans see the light and even other hippies are worried about the IPCC’s geoengineering plans.
Face reality on energy, Centrica says - UPI.comLONDON, June 23 (UPI) -- There is a huge disconnect between what London wants in terms of clean energy and what British consumers are willing to pay, a utility official said.
Message For Young Scientists | Real ScienceYes, we publicly berate skeptics, compare them to Holocaust deniers, block them from being published and threaten to de-certify them – but please feel free to do research which runs contrary to the “consensus.” It will be warmly received.
Quadrant Online - Self-effacing LeftBrown claimed in his interview that we are the biggest per capita polluter for any similar country in the world. Leaving aside the inconvenient fact that there are few if any countries relevantly similar to Australia in the world, you would think Brown would be vocally bullish on the carbon price. Not a bit of it. “So higher than $40 a tonne” was the question. “Sorry” was the answer. Brown had become inexplicably hard of hearing – the Howard defence (in his case legitimate). Eventually he replied that he couldn’t say what the figure should be.
I understand why impoverishing policies have to be kept under wraps because I know that they are impoverishing. But they don’t know that. They must think they are good policies. So why be shy about them.
Dutch man builds $1.6 million Noah’s Ark in Biblical proportions (Watch Video) - National People in the News | Examiner.comSo would the ship hold up if the ice in Greenland melts as Al Gore predicted in the film “An Inconvenient Truth?” Huibers told NBC News, “No, I don’t think so.”
Articles: Cash for PumpersClearly, the President's directive is pure politics, intended to placate a restive electorate by temporally driving down the price of oil. And just as cash for clunkers did nothing to increase automobile sales -- it merely drew sales forward by a few months, increasing sales in the summer while reducing them in the fall -- cash for pumpers will do nothing to lower the long-term cost of energy.
New England’s Renewable Energy Mandate: Reality Anyone? — MasterResource“Onshore wind in New England currently demands between 9-11 cents per KWh, more than twice the wholesale price of natural gas. Offshore wind is even more expensive starting at over 18 cents a KWh. More wind energy in the fuel mix will cause upward pressure on energy prices for the life of the power purchase agreements.”
- Lisa Linowes (below)
It's our Future. Choose wisely. | Fate of the WorldFate of the World is a PC strategy game that simulates the real social and environmental impact of global climate change over the next 200 years. The science, the politics, the destruction — it’s all real, and it’s scary.
Don't put those skis away just yetMount Washington Alpine Resort will be open for skiers and snowboarders over the Canada Day weekend for the first time on record.
"It's going to be a great winter this summer," Don Sharpe, director of the resort's business operations, said Wednesday.
NGOs in Cambodia: Accommodation with the regime can be very profitable. - By Ken Silverstein - Slate MagazineYes, it's always a fine time to be an expatriate aid worker in Cambodia, where several thousand NGOs and aid organizations operate. By day, swarms of foreign do-gooders clog the streets of Phnom Penh in their company-provided SUVs, and by night they fill bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.
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Scan the world's hot spots and disaster areas, and you'll invariably find NGOs and advocacy groups living high off the hog from donor money and hyping their causes with artfully presented information designed to prompt people to reach for their checkbooks.
Solar Sun Spots, Global Warming and the Changing Reason for Environmentalism[davidsteinman] I interviewed Andrew Revkin this week on my radio show about solar sun spots and the sun's apparent new phase of quiescence....though these sun spots are occurring, Andrew Revkin says there is no correlation between them and climate change; they don't predict larger overall climate trends occuring over hundreds of years.
However, nonetheless, some experts believe they may affect the weather for sixty years, less or more. [Wait a minute: if a cool 60-year period is just "weather", why is a warm 30-year period "climate"] The earth may get cool for a while. Yet, the lull in solar activity simply is a short-term weather trend, argues the global warming side.
But also in his blog, he said it would be up to science to determine the outcome. He also mentioned the fragility of basing a movement on climate change--especially during a period of very cool weather. I have a difficult time putting 100 percent confidence in global warming myself, so I wouldn't be surprised if others do...he also talked about having other reasons to enact public policy when it comes to our nation beyond simply basing it on the science of global warming.
Monckton stirs the pot with a cheap shot, and the media obediently perform « JoNova: Science, carbon, climate and taxThis is a very dirty war. There are 2.3 million references to “climate denier”, with You-are-a-Nazi-Sympathizer-and-Holocaust-apologist implied at large. It’s a dehumanizing label and a demeaning insult that’s meant to bully people into silence. Rudd, Gillard, and Garnaut have all used it. Where is the outrage? (Where is their apology? )
Al Gore's rallying call: 'Climate crisis is a struggle for the soul of America' | Environment | guardian.co.ukhere's one thought that might hold the attention of Gore's "Polluters and Idealogues", whose money courses through US politics. It's a warning from economist Nick Stern that, without greenhouse gas cuts, the US could be shut out of international markets for being too dirty. [Scoff]
Jack Handey "We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me." -Jack Handey
EU Referendum: Another one bites the dustNorwegian electric car maker Think has filed for bankruptcy again, according to the Financial Times, after failing to find long-term financial backing for its business. It is the third time the niche car maker has fallen into receivership over the past decade, having last exited court protection back in August 2009 when American lithium battery firm, Ener1, Valmet Automotive from Finland and Investinor, the Norwegian Government-backed investment fund, all backed the company.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) - Memorable quotesKing of Swamp Castle: When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're going to get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England.
Arctic Sea Ice Gone in Summer Within Five Years? [2007] "The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colorado.
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This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions."
IJIS Web SiteThe latest value : 9,673,281 km2 (June 22, 2011)
Environmental Leaders Call For Civil Disobedience to Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline : TreeHuggerAs you know, the planet is steadily warming: 2010 was the warmest year on record, and we've seen the resulting chaos in almost every corner of the earth.
...Keystone Pipeline would also be a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.
... We very much still want to believe in the promise of that young Senator who told us that with his election the 'rise of the oceans would begin to slow and the planet start to heal.'
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Danny Glover
James Hansen...
Bill McKibben...
David Suzuki
Naidoo determined to scale rig againHe was flown via helicopter 80km off the site to Nuuk.
Naidoo, speaking from his home, said that aside from nursing a bad cold and a chesty cough, he was doing well.
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Nobody, he said, was “too important” or “too busy” to lend their support to a cause they believed in.
“I refuse to apologise for bringing awareness to a cause that is totally legitimate,” he said.
Naidoo likened the fight against climate change to various other struggles for equality and justice that other people had faced.
“Various world leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King were vilified during their time – they were both imprisoned.
More insanity from warmists at Greenpeace: Speedboats and helicopters and freezing and diesel, oh my
My Fave Chairman Pachauri Quote « NoFrakkingConsensusSo here they are, Pachauri’s pearls of wisdom:
We’re living in a world where reputation and public opinion are extremely important…
If that were true Pachauri would have been shown the door years ago.
Weather may cost $485 Billion in U.S. Routine weather events such as rain and cooler-than-average days are adding up to an annual economic impact of as much as $485 billon in the United States, according to a just-released study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Tory MEPs warned not to undermine PM over European climate targets | Politics | guardian.co.ukTory MEPs who are threatening to undermine David Cameron over tougher European climate change targets have been warned that their behaviour risks ruining Britain's reputation as a leading voice in the fight against global warming.
Hours before a European parliament vote in Brussels, Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies said the rebels risked not just damaging the prime minister, but also the UK's green credentials.
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[Chris Davies] "It's well known that there are climate change deniers in the Conservative ranks in Brussels and it seems now that they have gained the upper hand..."
Climate crusader sees long, dirty road aheadYesterday, Gilding resorted to a long road trip from Brisbane to Sydney, his tour disrupted by the grounding of planes due to volcanic ash. It was a precursor of things to come. One of the measures he advocates to maintain global warming at one degree warmer than pre-industrial levels, which he says scientific evidence believes is sustainable, is the stranding of half the world's aircraft.
EU Budget Commissioner Questions Global WarmingEuropean Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is apparently unconcerned that the chief architect of the EU's forthcoming multi-annual budget has major doubts over the existence of global warming.
Environmental groups are sounding alarm bells however, warning that EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski's scepticism towards climate change is almost certain to affect his drafting of the crucial EU document which will shape the bloc's policy for years to come (2014-2020).
"There's an emerging point of view, that the thesis about coal energy as the main cause of global warming is highly doubtful," Lewandowski told Polish trade magazine Nowy Przemysl earlier this month.
"Question marks are appearing ever more frequently over global warming itself," added the Polish commissioner, whose country relies on coal for 90 percent of its electricity generation.
A spokesman for Lewandowski confirmed the accuracy of the statements.
Union of Concerned Scientists: Win a (high carbon footprint) trip to Brazil!One wonders why the Concerned Scientists are not at all concerned about the the carbon footprint created by the trips to the Rio Cachoeira Natural Reserve in Brazil? If the scientists were really serious about global warming, they certainly would not actively want to contribute to make it worse, would they?
Which collapses first? The Euro or Global Warming? | ScottishScepticIt’s interesting to compare the two charades: The Euro and Manmade warming. Both of them exist in the absence of any substantial material support, and almost exclusively due to a huge political pressure that “wants” them to exist.
Energy Policy in California: Turning Gold into Lead — MasterResourceIn the Middle Ages, alchemists searched for the secret of transmuting lead into gold. Today, California’s economy-killing energy policies have achieved the impossible—converting gold into lead. Will a critical mass of voters say enough is enough?
New foe for U.S. solar energy: the railroads | Reutersgton Northern Santa Fe Corp has joined an unlikely coalition of environmentalists, American Indians and politicians who are opposing a massive solar energy project planned for California's Mojave Desert.
The railroad is sounding the alarm over what it says are potentially "catastrophic" consequences of a proposed 663.5 megawatt solar facility that would be so bright that the glare could temporarily blind train operators.
The point of cap-and-trade is the tax moneyThe experience of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in the northeastern United States shows us once again that the point of cap-and-trade is to generate tax revenue and not to reduction carbon dioxide emissions or reduction global warming.
FTT Action Day round the world - a tiny solution (taxing big banks) for a big problem (financing climate change)! | 350.orgA few days ago, a group of us dressed as Robin Hoods and Speculative Bankers pulled off a stunt in Wellington’s Cuba Mall to show our support of the Robin Hood Tax. We had breakdancers, and sang our song loud -
“Small change for banks, big change for people” and “It’s not taxing you or me - just the speculative transactions!”
Matthew Dakotah: Women In Power: Vivienne Cox, Former BP Executive, Says 'Climate Change Is Real -- We Are Still Not Taking It Seriously Enough'Today, Cox is the Chairman of Climate Change Capital, a green investment and management firm with interests in everything from carbon finance and real estate to cleantech and energy infrastructure. "Climate Change Capital has a strapline [tagline], which is 'wealth worth having' and the whole premise that this company was set up on was that there was good business to be done in trying to solve the problems of climate change," she says. "And indeed, unless there was good business to be done in solving the problem of climate change, then climate change wouldn't be solved."
"The organization has $1.5 billion invested in funds which make a difference to climate change," Vivienne continues. "It does some advisory work for companies wanting to do M&A [merger and acquisition] transactions in this space, and it also does some work in advocating and developing policy..."
Experts puzzled by big decline in honeybees over winter | Environment | The GuardianBeekeepers are puzzled by the decline because the cold winter and early spring should have favoured bees.
Maine group vows to continue wind power fight - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsFARMINGTON, Maine (AP) - Environmental activists in Maine are vowing to continue their opposition to industrial wind power projects in the state.
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Maine Earth First's Jessie Dowling says the group feels strongly that industrial wind is a false solution to climate change. The Sun Journal reports members remain committed to defending Maine's mountain forests as a habitat for rare and endangered species.
Abbott under fire over Lord's 'Nazi' jibeOpposition Leader Tony Abbott is still planning to share the stage at a mining conference with Christopher Monckton, despite distancing himself from the prominent climate sceptic's depiction of a key government adviser as a Nazi.
[NPR blogger criticizes Al Gore?!] : It's All Politics : NPRWhile casting blame, Gore doesn't deal much, if at all, with some of the challenging and legitimate questions that go beyond the science and into the realpolitik of the global-warming issue.
For instance, let's say the U.S. enacted caps on its greenhouse gas emitters. If China, India and other faster growing economies didn't, what then? Indeed, those nations could even see unilateral U.S. caps as giving them additional room to emit more carbon into the atmosphere.
Also, if caps drove up the costs of U.S. production, wouldn't that put the U.S. at a disadvantage in terms of exports? And if producers passed along their higher production costs to consumers, how would that help an economy struggling to reach higher levels of growth and job creation?
Gore doesn't really deal with these questions.
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To a large degree, news outlets are responding to their consumers by giving them Trump and Sheen. If global warming stories drew eyeballs to web site like Sheen did, does anyone doubt news sites would be awash in global warming stories?
Leading German Meteorologist: Michael Mann’s Sea Level Story “A Quack”PIK report: “Sea level rising fastest in 2000 years” turns out to be a quack! Data shows no change!
Climate Resistance » A Dark Shade of GreenConservation is too often taken at face value. Criticise it, and you may find yourself accused of wanting to concrete over the entire countryside, and to have all the creatures that live within in slaughtered for fun.
The truth is, however, that even a country as densely-populated as the UK is less than 10% developed, and the majority of its population live in cities that are strangled by ‘green belt’ — rings of land protected by law.
Threatened Island Nations | Climate Etc.A concise readable summary of the issue of sea level rise and atoll islands is provided by this report by Climate Analytics. From the Summary:
Reports of a recent study showing that 43% of 27 central-Pacific Atoll islands have grown in net area over recent decades, with only 145 of these studied islands decreasing in net land area, have led to claims that risks to these islands from projected sea slevel rise due to global warming have been overstated.
Carbon-Footprint Calculator Helps Lazy Americans Fight Climate Change... - StumbleUponTwo climate-change communications research centers, one at Yale, the other at George Mason University, found that more Americans have been giving themselves a break on taking actions that would limit climate change. We’re less likely in the winter to turn the thermostat down to 68 degrees or cooler. We’re less likely to carpool. We’re less likely to bike or walk instead of driving.
These drops have been particularly pronounced in the last year. In 2010, most Americans (56 percent) reported that they often or always turned down the heat. Now less than half of us do—just 45 percent. But we began slipping even before this year: In 2008, more than three-fifths of Americans (62 percent) were keeping their thermostats low. And not only are we going easy on ourselves, we’re telling ourselves that it doesn’t matter. That our actions won’t change anything. We’re pessimistic about the impact of choices that other Americans and other people in industrialized countries are making, too.
Americans’ Actions to Conserve Energy, Reduce Waste, and Limit Global Warming in May 2011 | Yale Project on Climate Change Communication 18 percent of Americans say they have volunteered or donated money to an organization working to reduce global warming, while 13 percent have posted a comment online in response to a news story or blog about global warming.
10 percent of Americans have written a letter, email, or phoned a government official about global warming. Of these, 77 percent urged officials to take action, while 20 percent urged them not to take action to reduce global warming.
Chinook Pass opening latest in 37 years - Enumclaw, WA PatchChinook Pass between Enumclaw and Naches is scheduled to open Thursday at 10 a.m., the latest opening in 37 years.
Cold weather might be killing turtles: scientists - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) says cold weather could be causing a spike in turtle deaths around Townsville in north Queensland.
Cosmic Log - Is Arctic ice thinning?The satellite obtains thickness measurements with a technique that bounces radar waves off the ice and the water in cracks which separate the ice floes. A calculation allows them to determine the sea ice thickness above the water.
Of course, about 90 percent of sea ice is actually underwater, "but if you measure the 10 percent above and know roughly what the density (of the ice) is, which tells you how much is above versus below, then you can calculate the total thickness," Meier said.
Rain, hail, gales, frost, ducks: yes, it's summer again - The Irish Times - Thu, Jun 23, 2011the recent ground frost has scorched the leaves of a host of semi-tender crops and left some potato plants looking very miserable indeed.
According to Teagasc’s vegetable crops adviser, Stephen Alexander, the damage has been surprisingly widespread. “A night-time low of minus 2.5degrees was recently recorded at Dublin airport and we’re getting reports of frost damage to potato crops in Dublin, Meath, Tipperary and even Cork,” he says. “What I would call semi-tender crops, such as pumpkins, sweetcorn, tomatoes, courgettes, French beans and runner beans, have also been hit.”
Gore criticizes Obama's inaction on environment | 89.3 KPCC[Audio] As much as half of the oceans species will become extinct in the next few decades if global warming isn't halted. This according to a new report. Also today, in Rolling Stone Magazine, Al Gore has issued a pointed attack on President Obama and other U.S. leaders for not taking on climate change. Andrew Revkin is here to talk about all of this. He writes on the environment for the New York Times at the Dot-Earth blog.
Al Gore's Critique Sparks Debate Over Obama's Record on Global Warming | PBS NewsHour | June 22, 2011 | PBSKENNETH GREEN: Well, with all respect, this whole language about the new green economy is silly.
If you look at the experiences of all of the countries in Europe that have tried it, they have found it economically unsustainable, have lost jobs on net, and are now backing away from their subsidies.
California, a world leader in environmental quality -- everybody agrees with that -- look at their job situation. Look at their economy.
ksl.com - Popular campgrounds and highways still buried under snow For example, if you go to the U.S. Forest Service reservation website and try to book a spot at the Mirror Lake campground in the Uintas, the earliest you can get in is July 14th. The road to the campground still isn't open!
"Mirror Lake, sometimes it's open for Memorial Day, but normally it's the middle of June, Kathy Jo Pollock, PIO with Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, said. "They are going to try to have Mirror Lake open by next weekend."
UDOT has a full crew with giant snow blowers, graders and snowcats trying to get Highway 150 open. In some spots, the drifts are 20 feet deep.
"The end of green ideology"It is interesting to note, that you can read professor Sorman´s outstanding article in the China Daily, not in any of the major English language western newspapers. No, a sober, realistic and positive analysis like this, is not welcome in the politically correct mainstream media, which are more than happy to publish every piece of rubbish, written by ignorant enviro-fundamentalist scaremongerers.
Richard Littlemore | Canadian Geologists Embarrass Themselves on Climate(Can't someone please tell Dr. Hutton that the Cambrian period was 500 million years ago - a time when the sun was markedly cooler, and when the earth was still going to evolve for, uh, 500 million years before it would be habitable for humans?)
The Crisis of 1300 AD « Musings from the ChiefioWhat happened in that circa 1300 “fall from warmth” into a cold Little Ice Age? And given that our present temperatures are not as high now as they were then, what will this time be like? ( We can know temperatures were warmer then from many sources. From Roman villas built without heating in places that now need it – and with Romans having evidenced their abilities to build in heating and closed space; to the fact that several historic ports from that era are now landlocked, abandoned by a receding sea.
Upton: House Will Vote to Bring Back the Bulb - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review OnlineHouse Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R.,Mich.) has finally agreed to support a bill this summer that means lights out on the looming 2012 ban on the incandescent light bulb. Upton himself co-sponsored 2007 legislation making light bulbs illegal, a ban that has become a symbol of bipartisan Big Government run amok.
Richard Littlemore | Canadian Geologists Embarrass Themselves on ClimateOrganizers even brought in the Danish astrophysicist Henrik Svensmark - a man who will clutch his chest and fall to the ground rather than offer a straight answer as to why he insists the sun is causing climate change when the sun has been in a long weak cycle even as the earth continues to overheat. (The "heart attack," reported above, was later confirmed to be a stress reaction.)
Kevin Grandia | Copendenier Henrik Svensmark collapses on Danish TV"It's my heart," and fell to the ground and the pacemaker kicked in once more and you could hear him scream. Bjrøn Lomborg yelled "call an ambulance, call an ambulance" and the host and the other participants came over to help the man.
The show was put on hold for 10 minutes and the viewers were informed that Svensmark has a pacemaker, and it went on because his heart rate had slowed down.
Do environmentalists need shrinks? | GristLet's face it: If you care about the environment, you've got a lot of reasons to be bummed out. Is the sorry state of the planet dragging you into the dumps?
...Some people described crying that recurred over a few days, not feeling they could get out of bed, feeling listless and helpless. Definitely anger was a very, very, important part of their descriptions. They all felt angry.
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I was at a high-level conservation conference recently, and someone who was transferring into the field looked at me and said, "Boy, people here drink a lot." I said, "Yeah, they do." That's a symptom of what's going on -- it's a way of escaping, but it's not a healthful way of escaping.
Why the End is Always Near, but Never ArrivesPlease, someone, please tell me the last time an international group of scientists did not get together and then announce to the world that some horrid future awaited everyone?
More Green Jobs Go PoofThe Mackinac Center’s Michigan Capital Confidential reports that a green tech transportation company has burned through a significant taxpayer loan, and they ain’t payin’ it back, because the business went belly-up
Watch Live | 6th International Conference on Climate ChangeCheck back to this page on June 30 starting at 8am as we broadcast live the full proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Climate Change.
Down under and dirty « The Daily BayonetWhen it happens to a climate scientist, it’s headlines, but if a hippie jokes about tattooing ideological opponents, or gassing them, or blowing up their kids… crickets, chirping.
Chris Matthews: Deniers Of Climate Change In ‘Corrupt’ Conservative Media Are ‘Evil’ | MediaiteChris Matthews was somewhat surprised with Al Gore’s harsh critique of President Obama in Rolling Stone regarding his inaction on climate policy. Instead Matthews argued that even if Obama has not been perfect, Gore should really be angry at the “corrupt media on the right” who refuse to believe in climate change, not because they are stupid, but because in Matthews’ opinion they are “evil.”
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Matthews argued that the Republican party is lining itself up as “anti-science” and selling half the country “nonsense.” He singled out Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, the Wall Street Journal editorial page and the Chamber of Commerce as being guilty of pandering to business interests and declared “these people are evil in what they are doing.” Especially since Matthews doesn’t believe Beck or Limbaugh are stupid, he thinks their motives are not well-intentioned. And in a quote that will surely get some of Matthews’ own critics excited, he admits that on certain issues like climate, he really hates “so called objective journalism” where “even-handedness” forces reporters to give credibility to both sides of an argument when one side just isn’t true.
Record snowfall extends ski season to July - USATODAY.com"Being open July 2-4 is a rare occasion," Squaw Valley spokesman Sean Kristi said. "With over 800 inches of snowfall this season, it's been a year to remember."
gulftoday.ae | Indigenous forest people condemn climate schemeJAKARTA: Indigenous peoples of Indonesian Borneo on Wednesday demanded a halt to internationally backed forest conservation schemes, saying they are trampling their rights and robbing their lands.
NationalJournal.com - EPA Climate Rules: An Inconvenient Truth For Gore - Wednesday, June 22, 2011One thing seems certain: Obama will not be talking up climate science or urging strong action on climate change as long as he is fighting to keep his job and facing attacks from the right for EPA’s climate regulations.
Chabot Space & Science Center Receives $1.8 Million Grant from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation - PR Newswire - sacbee.comOAKLAND, Calif., June 22, 2011 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation of Palo Alto has awarded Chabot Space & Science Center a $1.8 million grant to support enhancements to the Center's Bill Nye's Climate Lab exhibition and website. The Lab enables kids ages 8-14 to learn basic principles of climate science and engage in behaviors that address climate change.
Bill Nye's Climate Lab offers an optimistic, solutions-oriented, highly interactive educational experience focusing on climate science. Featuring Emmy-award winning science educator Bill Nye, visitors join an urgent mission to thwart climate change by discovering exciting new clean energy opportunities while gathering "solutions" on their Climate Scout ID badges. The exhibition is one of the most popular in the Center's history; the accompanying website, BillsClimateLab.org, continues the experience at home or in the classroom with online information and activities.
Al Gore's Newest Hypocrisy - Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog - A Conservative BlogAccording to the World Bank, the current world fertility rate is 2.5 births per woman. That's nearly 40% below the fertility rate of the now broken Gore household.
The Gore fertility rate is roughly equal to the fertility rate in Pakistan, Sudan, and Ghana today; not far behind what it is in Kenya; more than double what it is in China, India, and Brazil and almost double what it is in Mexico.
Huntsman on past support for cap-and-trade: Everyone was doing it - The Hill's E2-WireRepublican White House hopeful Jon Huntsman has found a way to explain his embrace of cap-and-trade when he was governor of Utah: Everyone was doing it.
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“Every governor was talking about dealing with emissions back many, many years ago only to find that with the economic implosion, we can't afford anything that is going to put any kind of hamper on economic growth. So cap-and-trade is not something that is viable today,” Huntsman told Fox News.
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