Sudden desert: Midwest drought is bad news for farmers and eaters | Grist

This year’s growing season has been consistently dry and warm, leading to stunted stalk growth, and many of the corn-growing states are now sweltering through record-breaking heat during a critical stage of kernel development with nary a storm in sight...

Paul Bertels, an Illinois corn grower and vice president at the National Corn Growers Association, was downbeat on Monday when discussing this year’s expected harvest. But he characterized the hot dry spell as a “normal event” and said he is not convinced that the weather will change as much as Diffenbaugh and others predict it will.

Not that Bertels wants to downplay the reality of drought. “We’ve had bad droughts here before,” he says. “Eighty-eight was probably the last really significant drought that was Midwest-wide. My grandma will talk about 1934 and 1936 being really bad summers. So it’s not unprecedented, but people’s memories tend to be shorter.”

We’re leading the world in useless gestures | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Greg Sheridan on one of the great carbon tax lies:

ONE of the main reasons the Gillard government is so unsuccessful in selling its carbon tax is that its overall narrative is so utterly dishonest.

Here is the key example. The government and its countless, mostly paid, carbon tax spruikers would have you believe that the Australian carbon tax is in line with most international practice

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: It will rain 'til September

BRITAIN is facing its “worst ever” summer with cold wet weather ruining family holidays and blighting the Olympics, forecasters warned last night.

44,000 Record Low Ice Extents | Real Science

A Google search for “nsidc record low ice extent” turns up 44,800 results. It is like that scene from The Holy Grail, where the horseman is galloping towards you – but never gets any closer.

Nearly every month NSIDC tells us that ice is at a “record low” – yet Arctic ice extent and age continues to increase since the 2007-20o8 minimum. That is what happens when people use confirmation bias ladders to do their cherry picking.

NBC Cites ‘Global Warming’ As Possible Cause of Colorado Wildfires | NewsBusters.org

Thompson quoted two professors who live outside Colorado when she chould have interviewed Colorado state climatologist Nolan Doesken, who pointed out that, “you can’t say it’s climate change just because it’s an extreme condition.”  Doesken also noted that spring of 2012 looked much like the spring of 1910, when warm temperatures hit early and that year was a bad year for fires.

Instead of reporting a fair story, Thompson continued the liberal global warming line and tied it to Colorado wildfires, using sources who support her position and failing to bring on any skeptics who challenge the myth that Colorado wildfires are related to "global warming."