Saturday, March 24, 2012

Government climate change staff 'miserable and disengaged' | Australian Climate Madness

Maybe they secretly realise that their department is an utter waste of money, whose actions will make not the slightest bit of difference to the climate? And just piss people off.

TONY HETHERINGTON: Watch out for hot air over carbon sales | This is Money

C.H.writes: I have received very high-pressure phone calls from World Carbon Limited trying to persuade me to invest in carbon credits. The traders have an answer for everything. It seems I am missing out on the best investment since Gordon Brown sold the country’s gold at a few hundred pounds an ounce! I feel that the harder the sell, the better the deal is for the seller. Am I right to be suspicious?

Canadian Ski Resort Sets All-Time Snowfall Record

More than 30 feet (909cm) of snow has fallen on Village Ski and Snowboard Resort in Banff National Park since opening day, the most snow on record in Sunshine’s 84-year history.

Impossibly Hot In 1910 | Real Science

On March 25, 1907 Oberlin got up to 88 degrees. Five degrees warmer than the warmest in 2012.

The question always comes down to : Are these experts incompetent, criminal. or both?

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: NY Times: 'The state of the electric car is dismal, the victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate'

AdjustmentGate–Australia « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

The team that brought you “Hide The Decline” have gone one better, with their latest offering “Invent The Incline”. Across much of the Arctic, GHCN have been caught making controversial temperature adjustments, which have had the effect of reducing past temperatures, thereby creating a false warming trend. (Full story here).

It now appears that it is not just the Arctic. The same sort of adjustments have been discovered in Australia.

1851 Australian Global Weirding | Real Science

Phil doesn’t have any Australian data from 1851, but the newspapers did. Just a typical droughtfloodfire year of extreme heat and horrors in Australia. Phil says that 1851 was one of the coldest years on record.

Phil lists February, 1851 as being -0.344. Newspapers say that it was hotter than hell.

1854 : CRUTEM4 Doubled Their Southern Hemisphere Coverage | Real Science

By February, 1854 – the CRUTEM4 southern hemisphere database jumped from one thermometer to two thermometers – one in South America and one in New Zealand.

Record Low Arctic Ice Has Gained 23,000 Manhattans Over The Last Five Years | Real Science

I keep reading stories that Arctic ice is at a record low. Ice gain over the last five years has been more than twice the size of Texas.

The New Nostradamus of the North: WWF Canada wants Canadians to fly more in order to save the planet

The first 100,000 Canadians who pledge to switch off their lights for Earth Hour can also earn 5 AIR MILES(R)(i) reward miles(i).

Clouds of uncertainty over oceans of data doubt « Tallbloke's Talkshop

Given the uncertainty around datasets, Roger Andrews thinks that Ned Nikolov’s statement that:

The recent warming has been entirely a result of declining cloud cover and related cloud albedo.

Is not well supported by the data. Roger A’s recent investigation leads him to believe that the late C20th warming was more likely caused by oceanic heat release...

Rising concern on climate change - The Washington Post

global energy use will increase by 80 percent by mid-century, with 85 percent of the energy mix coming from fossil fuels. That would likely raise global temperatures well past the target of 2 degrees Celsius, beyond which scientists say climate change could be extremely dangerous. It would also produce lethal amounts of air pollution, manifested in more heart attacks, asthma and other maladies.

...Yet the only energy debate America seems capable of having during this election year revolves around whom to blame for higher gas prices and who can bring them down again. Neither of those is the first, second or even 10th question we’d ask of America’s leaders on energy.

Peter Foster: Suzuki vs. the Senate — who’s silencing whom? | FP Comment | Financial Post

‘Silence and ­demonize’ could be the Suzuki foundation’s motto

The Royal Society’s Blatherfest « NoFrakkingConsensus

The Anthropocene is 100% a political statement. It amounts to a PR strategy on the part of activist scientists. It is a trap laid for gullible journalists. That the co-chair of a conference hosted by the Royal Society has the audacity to suggest that science tells us we’ve entered a new geological era demonstrates not only that science has left the building, it was never there in the first place.

So Insensitive | The Resilient Earth

The choice comes down to dismissing the climate model as predicatively worthless or believe the model when it says all of the really scary, catastrophic affects of global warming predicted by the IPCC and other warmist fanatics are only possible at implausibly high climate sensitivities. Since all those dire predictions are predicated on models, the first choice says the IPCC claims are unsupported in the first place. And if the modeling approach is assumed valid, the reported results led the researchers to conclude: “Assuming that paleoclimatic constraints apply to the future, as predicted by our model, these results imply a lower probability of imminent extreme climatic change than previously thought.” In short, the carbon dioxide climate catastrophe has been called off. Of course, more rational, skeptical scientists would say there never was a looming crisis in the first place.

Hot Temperatures In Sharp Decline In Arizona

http://www.Real-Science.com/hot-temperatures-in-sharp-decline-in-arizona

[Oct 2010] Skeptical Science Firefox Add-on: Send and receive climate info while you browse

In February, the wizards at Shine Technologies broke new ground when they created the Skeptical Science iPhone app. Now they continue to go where no climate software has gone before, creating a Skeptical Science Firefox Add-on. The Add-on has two major features. Firstly, it lets you submit climate links to our database as you browse the web. Secondly (and this is the cool part), if you visit a webpage that has already been submitted (by you or someone else), the Add-on displays any skeptic arguments on that page, a short rebuttal from Skeptical Science and the URL of the full Skeptical Science rebuttal.

Dunn/Milloy: Holding the EPA to Account | JunkScience.com

Texas ER doc John Dunn and JunkScience.com’s Steve Milloy offer some solutions for corralling the outlaw EPA.

Eco-rout down under: ‘A mini-van will have more seats than the Labour party in the new parliament.’ | Watts Up With That?

Australians come to their senses – March 24th will be remembered as the day they collectively said “we’re tired of this sh**”

German Eco-Czars Threaten To Force Home Owners To Make Costly Energy-Saving Rennovations

CRUTEMP4 Takes Climate BS To New Levels | Real Science

The latest data set from The Met Office reports that the January 1851 southern hemisphere temperature anomaly was 1.800 C.

They calculated the southern hemisphere temperature (within 0.001 degrees) based on a single thermometer in South America. In fact, it was the only thermometer south of Cuba.

Green Climate Fund « the Air Vent

Does anyone here really think that annually handing four times the GDP of North Korea to a bunch of unelected individuals, who exist completely outside of the law, could cause any problems at all?

It sounds like something straight from a science fiction novel.

Queensland Election 2012 rolling coverage | Latest Queensland state election 2012 coverage from The Courier-Mail | The Courier-Mail

Sky News exit polls show voters were most concerned about the Cost of Living (69 per cent), followed by Delivery of State Services (63 per cent), Carbon Tax (44 per cent) Mining Tax (35 per cent), and Campbell Newman's business dealings (17 per cent). LNP leader Campbell Newman's business dealings the main target of Labor's campaign registered with just 17 percent of people.

Global Warming Cult Playbook Released : The Other McCain

The Global Warming hoax is going to raise the skepticism factor in all scientific endeavor, which will be good for science in the long run.

Arctic Ice Almost Identical To 17 Years Ago | Real Science

Global temperatures are lower than 17 years ago.

Mentally Deficient Science At The UN | Real Science

The map below shows CRUTEMP4 coverage of the planet during March 1910, which was the warmest March on record in the United States. Most of the planet had no coverage, and the US was one of the few places which was fully covered. The hottest parts of Africa, Asia and South America had no coverage. Half of Australia had no coverage. The UN has no idea what temperatures were like in many of their small countries 100 years ago, particularly since half of them didn’t even exist.

...No continent has set a record high temperature for almost 40 years.

EDITORIAL: Next time, sue the weatherman - Washington Times

Climate alarmists have lost a major court case that had the potential for turning every weather emergency into endless litigation. It’s a victory for the law, for science and for common sense.

How I frazzled Richard Bacon – Telegraph Blogs

Here's one of the many emails I received. I don't know about you but I find it very encouraging. The public is coming round to the truth about AGW far more quickly than the BBC/political/science establishment class is.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Cold weather keeping Ice Alaska park open through April 1

Through the first three weeks of March, the average temperature of minus 1 degree at Fairbanks International Airport was 9.5 degrees colder than normal, according to a statement released by the weather service on Thursday.

To date, it has been the coldest start to March since 2007 and the third-coldest start to March in the past 40 years.

Aus: $175k to cheer up Department of Energy and Climate Change staff | JunkScience.com

THEY are responsible for some of the government’s most important policies – but staff at the Department of Energy and Climate Change are too ashamed to admit where they work.

Staff morale is so low the government has spent almost $175,000 on consultants to lift staff’s flagging spirits.

Wind farms pose risk to coastline, officials warn | JunkScience.com

Britain’s coastlines are in danger from offshore wind farms, a government report has warned.

Andrew Bolt: Bob Carr the catastrophist | JunkScience.com

Foreign Minister Bob Carr turns out to be, quite literally, a catastrophist - among the most absurdly alarmist of all global warming believers:

Skeptical Science hacked, private user details publicly posted online

Secret Skepticalscience « Shub Niggurath Climate

Now apparently, Skepticalscience has a special feature – a secret forum. News comes via Tom Nelson and Australian Climate Madness of a leak exposing contents of the forum. Apparently a cabal of  secretive website members hang out, coordinating, planning, complaining and strategizing in the forums which is the beating heart of operations. What a bunch of whackjobs, one would think—as though the censorsing and shutting down of debate were not enough they have to go huddle in the back and bitch about you as well.

It is dispiriting to think all that secret activity goes only to produce the kind of stuff they do.

More Unwelcome Light | Digging in the Clay

From what was begun back in December with a blaze of unwelcome light, Gallopingcamel (Peter Morcombe) has emailed with some output from his AR5 Zero Order Draft (ZOD) review.

Australia: Record breaking March chill for Tasmania « Where’s my Global Warming Dude? By Global Freeze

A vigorous cold front that blew through southeast Australia yesterday led to some of Tasmania’s coldest March temperatures in more than 50 years.

WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION CONFIRMS CLIMATE CHANGE ACCELERATED IN PAST 10 YEARS; 2011 WAS 11TH WARMEST ON RECORD | East County Magazine

March 23, 2012 (Geneva) – The United Nation's World Meteorological Organization, representing 183 member nations, issued its Annual Statement onthe  Status of the Global Climate today. The report concludes that climate change accelerated in the past decade and that 2011 was the 11th warmest year since records began in 1850.

Increasingly destructive tornadoes, floods and other indicators of global warming are also occuring with heightened frequency around the world.  The new study found extreme weather events increased from 2001 to 2010 at an alarming rate consistent with global climate change. Worldwide, this included an increase in floods by 63%, drought 43%, heat waves 43%, heavy rain 43%, fires 25%, and tropical cyclones 24%.

[New paper by Kevin Trenberth] Framing the way to relate climate extremes to climate change

The average anthropogenic climate change effect is not negligible, but nor is it large, although a small shift in the mean
can lead to very large percentage changes in extremes. Anthropogenic global warming inherently has decadal time scales and
can be readily masked by natural variability on short time scales. To the extent that interactions are linear, even places
that feature below normal temperatures are still warmer than they otherwise would be. It is when natural variability and climate
change develop in the same direction that records get broken. For instance, the rapid transition from El Niño prior to May
2010 to La Niña by July 2010 along with global warming contributed to the record high sea surface temperatures in the tropical
Indian and Atlantic Oceans and in close proximity to places where record flooding subsequently occurred. A commentary is provided
on recent climate extremes. The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it
is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer
and moister than it used to be.

Texas Tops Finds From Brazil to Bakken as Best Prospect: Energy - Bloomberg

Energy companies in search of oil riches rivaling the biggest finds from Brazil to Angola are
flocking to Texas shale, where new wells have triggered a 230-fold increase in crude output in three years.

EPA, wind powering electric-rate increases | Wichita Eagle

Though these increases did not come from the partially defunct cap-and-trade dream of Al Gore and others at the Chicago Climate Exchange, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken over energy policy, and the renewable-energy craze is in full swing. Ethanol, solar and wind have each made their marks, but a significant part of the price increases in Kansas is sourced in two factors: EPA and wind.

Mandates in Kansas became law in 2009, supposedly linked to the yet-to-happen start-up at the Holcomb power plant. The requirement of 10 percent renewable wind power to the grid by 2011 has happened. The 15 percent renewable-power mandate has all but already happened, well ahead of the schedule for 2016. Now, we await the 20 percent mandate match for 2020 (some power suppliers are already there, including Sunflower Electric Power Corp.). Thankfully, the mandates are for capacity, not deliverability.

The Republican Brain: News and a Video

[Warmist English major Chris Mooney] First, my friends at Thirst, D.C. have released a video of my book preview talk there. We had a lot of fun with it, as you’ll see; there is even a successful experiment in which I “read” the political views of an audience member based on the person’s personality traits.

Twitter / @PeterGleick: New app for mapping/findin ...

New app for mapping/finding fountains. Have an Android smartphone?Download (free) . Then go out and map/find water fountains!

Documents: White House was all-hands-on-deck as Solyndra collapse neared - The Hill's E2-Wire

Several key White House offices were involved with the Obama administration’s messaging plans and other preparations as the collapse of the taxpayer-backed solar company Solyndra was imminent, newly released documents show.

The latest White House documents delivered to House Republicans on Friday again highlight the extent to which senior administration officials braced for the fallout as Solyndra – a company President Obama had personally visited – was about to go under.

Councils a worse threat than warming | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Two things about climate alarmists. First, they imagine catastrophes despite the evidence against them. Second, they assume the right to drastically change the way others live:

The Reference Frame: Next peak of ice age: year 60,000 AD

The ice age should be comparable to the maximum glaciation around 18,000 years ago. It may be very cold, maybe 8 °C colder than today (in average).

Fighting on the beaches as council orders retreat from climate change ‘threat’ | JunkScience.com

Idiotic scare stories and PlayStation® Climatology are beginning to do real harm to real people

EU Sees Window of Opportunity for Aviation CO2 Curbs Deal | JunkScience.com

The European Union sees a “window of opportunity” for reaching a global deal on aviation carbon- emissions curbs by the start of next year, said Joao Vale de Almeida, EU ambassador to the U.S.

Secret "Skeptical Science" forums posted online | Australian Climate Madness

UPDATE: The most obvious thing is that Skeptical Science is a highly organised and well-oiled PR machine. There is a substantial team of contributors continually refining the message and collating new material. Yet somehow it's the sceptics that are well funded and well organised and are therefore winning the argument. For comparison, ACM is a one-man show. Go figure.

UPDATE 2: Just for the avoidance of doubt, the original poster at Tom Nelson claims that all of this material was available publicly on SS anyway via a massive security hole - if you knew where to look… so it wasn't a hack, and it wasn't a leak either.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Antarctic Seal Pups Threatened By Climate Change

Young seals are particularly vulnerable to higher wind chill and heat loss because they don't yet have the protection of an adult coat.

Ice-cold isolation in Bamiyan | Stuff.co.nz

So far this winter 36 people are known to have died in Bamiyan province in the extreme cold and being caught in avalanches.

Twitter / @Revkin: @keithkloor @GlobalEcoGuy ...

I placed my marker explaining why "climate change is not the story of our time" in '08:

Collide-a-scape » Blog Archive » Collide-a-scape >> The Defining Challenge of Our Time

Sure, climate change seems on track to be one of the defining stories of our time. But is it a bigger story than resource depletion or unsustainable development, which I would argue speak to the underlying reasons for rising greenhouse gases? If so, then it would seem that a project like Climate Desk is merely reporting on the symptoms of a larger problem. That makes me think that the “what the hell are we going to do about it” question is best served by addressing the causes of climate change, not the symptoms.

Maybe next time the Climate Desk gets revamped, it’ll get a new name that reflects the defining challenge of our time: How to chart a sustainable course for the planet without restraining economic growth.

British MP: Green Consensus No Longer Secure

The UK’s cross party consensus on climate change cannot be taken for granted according to a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee.

From the Skeptical Science "leak": Interesting stuff about generating and marketing "The Consensus Project"

Comment from the leaker
I have collated some of the data in a more readable form.
http://files.molongo.ru/en/my/sks.zip  [Note from Tom-I was able to get an unzippable file from this location earlier today; when I tried retrieving the file again this afternoon, I was unable to unzip the file.]
Why has SkS chosen to publish all this on the public internet? Is it the first step towards transparency, or a catastrophic error?
Skeptical Science Forum - Introduction to The Consensus Project
TCP is basically an update and expansion of Naomi Oreskes' survey of the peer-reviewed literature with deeper analysis. In 2004, Naomi surveyed 928 articles in the Web of Science matching the search "global climate change" from 1993 to 2003. We've expanded the time period (1991 to 2011) and added papers matching the search "global warming". We ended up with 12,272 papers. I imported the details of each paper (including abstracts) into the SkS database and set up a simple crowd sourcing system allowing us to rate the category of each paper using Naomi's initial categories (impacts, mitigation, paleoclimate, methods, rejection, opinion). We did find some rejection papers in the larger sample but the amount was negligible. The amount of citations the rejection papers received were even smaller proportionally, indicating the negligible impact of AGW denial in the peer-reviewed literature. Jim and I wrote these initial results up into a short Brevia article that we just submitted to Science (so please don't mention these results outside of this forum yet, lest it spook Science who freak out if there's any mention of a submitted paper before publication). Of course, Science have a 92% rejection rate so the chances are very slim - we'll try other journals if rejected there.
When the paper is published, we would announce it on SkS as the beginning of the public launch of TCP. It will also be promoted through the communications dept at the Global Change Institute although their press releases only go to Australian media so will have to explore other promotion ideas.
Skeptical Science Forum- The Consensus Project Marketing Ideas
To achieve this goal, we mustn't fall into the trap of spending too much time on analysis and too little time on promotion. As we do the analysis, would be good to have the marketing plan percolating along as well. So a few ideas floating around:
  • Press releases: Talked to Ove about this yesterday, the Global Change Institute have a communications dept (well, two people) and will issue press releases to Australian media when this comes out. No plan yet for US media.
  • Mainstream Media: This is the key if we want to achieve public consciousness. MSM is an opaque wall to me so ideas welcome. I suspect this will involve developing time lines, building momentum for the idea and consulting with PR professionals like Jim Hoggan.
  • Climate Communicators: There needs to be a concerted effort (spearheaded by me) to get climate communicators using these results in their messaging. I've been hooking up with a lot of climate communicators over the last month and will be hooking up with more over the next few months so will be discussing these results with every climate communicator I can get hold of, including heavyweights like Susan Hassol and Richard Somerville, to discuss ways of amplifying this message.
    Also Ed Maibach is doing research on the most effective way to debunk the "no consensus" myth so I hope to contact him and hopefully include our results in his research. The more we can get climate communicators incorporating our results into their messages, the better. 
  • Blogosphere: The usual blogosphere networking. Note - Tim Lambert tried to do a similar crowd sourcing effort a few years ago but didn't succeed in generating enough support for the crowd sourcing - I'm confident we can get it done.
  • Climate Orgs: Also have been making connections with various climate organisations and occasionally talked about the possibility of collaboration so will use this project as a focal point as ways to work together. Have to think about this some more
  • Google: Coincidentally, started talking to someone who works at Google, specifically the data visualisation department. So I've been working with them on visualising the consensus data in sexy, interactive ways. This will be one of the X-factor elements of TCP - maybe they can even provide an embeddable version of the visualisation which blogs and websites can use.
  • Video: Peter Sinclair is keen to produce a YouTube video about the TCP results to publish on the Yale Forum on Climate Change.
  • Booklet similar to Guide and Debunking Handbook, explaining the results of the peer-reviewed paper in plain English with big shiny graphics (with translations, I suppose - they're a pain for me to convert but worthwhile doing).
  • Kindle/iBook version of Booklet (can you publish free books on Amazon?).
  • Embeddable widget: graphic showing the graph of strengthening consensus, updated each year, easily copy and pasteable into other blogs. I like this idea, can make TCP go viral and become ubiquitious on the climate blogosphere!
Skeptical Science Forum - The Consensus Project Required Reading
[Brian Purdue] One of the main attackers of TCP will be “No Frakking Consensus” (Laframboise) so better read up on her angle on consensus.

Moody's Says Climate Change [Hoax] Rules Are Emerging Risk for California Refiners

PBS NewsHour: Climate Central a “research organization”; Sorry, no. They advocate solving man-caused global warming | JunkScience.com

Sea level rise induced by man-caused global warming being a trendy topic lately, the PBS NewsHour couldn’t resist airing a report about it. Problem is, their guest was from the same place that has Heidi Cullen on staff, along with a global warming activist writer, an Obama NOAA administrator having long-ago ties to anti-skeptic efforts, and it formerly had an IPCC-associated founding director who’s now been almost scrubbed out of existence there.

Is global warming to blame for the March heat? - The Washington Post

Obviously no one’s going to sue over the fact that the cherry blossoms in D.C. are blooming earlier and earlier each year. But they might sue over deadly heat waves in Moscow. Or other disasters. The science of weather attribution isn’t quite at that point yet, but it’s progressing rapidly.

All-Time Snowfall Records Fall

All-Time Cold and Snowfall Records Fall Across Western Oregon & SW Washington including Portland, Salem, Eugene and Vancouver, WA. 

THE DAILY STAR :: Opinion :: Commentary :: The notion that wind power can be cheap is just more hot air

By Bjorn Lomborg

Al's Journal : 800,000 Years

“The national climate report, to be released today, said Australia's current climate ''cannot be explained by natural variability alone'' and that emissions resulting from human activity were playing an increasingly direct role in shaping temperatures.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

[Winter that Wasn't update]: French beet sowings off to slow start

While frost in February improved soil conditions the extended period of cold weather has delayed the start of beet sowings this year, industry sources said.

Only 3.2% of the area to be sown with sugar beet for the upcoming 2012/13 crop had been drilled as of March 14 whereas almost half of the crop had been in the ground on the same date last year.

Ukraine: Frost has disastrous consequences for orchards

The severe frost, which controlled the weather in a large part of Ukraine from the middle of January till the end of February has had extremely damaging results for the orchards in Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Annually an important part of the
Ukrainian fruit harvest comes from orchards in these regions.
 
The meteorological service of the Ukraine came to this conclusion. According to them more than 50% of the flower buds were lost in the Eastern and Southern regions of the Ukraine because of frost. Only considering pear and apple trees the loss was slightly less dramatic, namely about 20%. What, however, is very alarming,
is the fact, that there are many orchards where the trees have suffered serious damage to the branches and trunks. This could have long term consequences for the fruit harvest in the coming years.

Rate of extreme weather events increasing, Bulgarian meteorologist says - Bulgaria - The Sofia Echo

Valeri Spiridonov, deputy director of the National Institute of Meteorology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, said that arguably for the past 60 years, there had not been a winter like the one past, with heavy snowfalls and prolonged periods of sub-zero temperatures.

Avalanche engulfs village family | thetelegraph.com.au

Afghanistan has been experiencing its harshest winter in around two decades, with more than 100 people killed in two previous avalanches elsewhere in Badakhshan province.

Climate change: The spring jailbreak of 2012 - Achenblog - The Washington Post

The tulips are already in flower, weeks ahead of schedule. The apple tree has blossomed. The cherry trees have peaked and we’re only a couple of days past the equinox. And the birds are as chattery already as they usually are on the first of May. It’s a bloomin’ buzzin’ confusion of nature out there, and even if we cannot incontrovertibly ascribe this to climate change (the jet stream is the proximate cause), we can nod our heads when someone says that this is what climate change looks like.

SAY WHAT???? Obama Plays Blame Game on Solyndra – “But Understand: This Was Not Our Program, Per Se”

While the president claims he’s not responsible for Solyndra, the facts say otherwise. After the Solyndra loan guarantee was rejected in the waning days of the Bush administration, it was quickly placed back on the fast track shortly after President Obama’s inauguration. Despite repeated warnings from OMB and DOE experts, Solyndra’s loan guarantee approval was rushed through. When the warnings of failure by the DOE and OMB experts came true and Solyndra was out of cash in the autumn of 2010, the Obama administration doubled down on their bad bet, restructuring Solyndra’s loan in early 2011 and putting wealthy investors at the front of the line ahead of taxpayers. As they say, the rest is history, and taxpayers are now on the hook for half a billion dollars.

Scotland To Become A ‘Wind Farm Landscape’, Warn Planners | JunkScience.com

Scotland’s countryside will become a “wind farm landscape” as hundreds more turbines are built to meet the SNP’s radical green energy targets, the country’s most senior planning officials have warned.

Errors in IPCC climate science » Blog Archive » The newly released CRUT4 shows many warmer tweaks over the Australian region

Moscow On The Potomac | Real Science

A couple of years ago, it was cold in DC so Moscow defined global climate. Now that it is very cold in Moscow, Washington DC defines global climate.

FactCheck.org misrepresents the dangers of carbon dioxide | Just Facts Daily

Far more significantly, Robertson fails to mention that the study found “a 30 percent increase in above- and below- ground soybean biomass” among the crops exposed to more CO2. In plain language, these soybean plants grew 30% larger. They did, in fact, “like” the added CO2.

WV Prof: Marine Murderer, Urinators ‘More Dishonorable’ than Climate Deniers — For Now | JunkScience.com

“Right now, public opinion is likely to judge the liars who got us into a futile orgy of unnecessary civilian killing as more dishonorable than brazen climate-change obfuscators; a few decades hence, opinion may swing the other way.”

Radio Free Delingpole: a Prophet Without Honour….. – Telegraph Blogs

Bill Gates: ‘Not possible’ to reduce fossil fuel use | JunkScience.com

“There’s not a single year where we’ve put out less, even when we had the economic recession, because China and India are moving ahead.”

I Scream, You Scream, Kiribati Screams For Money

Then there’s the slightly inconvenient study, reported in 2010, that the islands are actually expanding, not shrinking. Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University co-authored a study with Dr. Arthur Webb, a Fiji-based expert on coastal processes, finding that “Eighty percent of the islands we’ve looked at have either remained about the same or, in fact, got larger… we’ve now got evidence the physical foundations of these islands will still be there in 100 years,” as he told New Scientist magazine.

In fact, in Kiribati, they found, “the three of the most densely populated islands, Betio, Bairiki and Nanikai, also grew by between 12.5 and 30 per cent.”

But even if the islands aren’t shrinking or sinking, the sea could be salinating their fresh water supply. Which is a whole ‘nother problem, and if the case, then certainly one the international community should look at sanely and rationally.

But lay off crying “global warming” wolf. 

1818 Greenland Meltdown : “remarkable disappearance of the ice” | Real Science

1894 : Dozens Of Whole Counties Destroyed By Fire In Minnesota And Michigan | Real Science

According to Hansen, 1894 was one of the coldest years on record, with CO2 at very safe levels.

Where the depot stood was a burned charred hand; further down the track lay a woman’s leg, while out in the surrounding country are human trunks, heads or bones. Late in the afternoon the body of a man with his intestines exposed and his body black as coal was brought into town along with a child’s fearfully burned body and a man’s leg and shoe.

Dennis Ambler: Lisa P Jackson – EPA Administrator: Fulfilling the UN Mission | JunkScience.com

The EPA is effectively no longer under the control of the US Congress; its allegiance is to the UN and implementation of the policies of Sustainable Development via Agenda 21.

The Colder Side of Global Warming

There has been a stunning disconnect involving land temperatures globally and CO2, whether man-made or naturally sourced.  The Oceans continue to warm, while the surface record flatlines.

Met Office : Making Their Own Dreams Come True | Real Science

So three years later, the Met Office retroactively altered historical data, to make their original forecast correct.

Solar Storm Dumps Gigawatts into Earth's Upper Atmosphere - NASA Science

March 22, 2012:  A recent flurry of eruptions on the sun did more than spark pretty auroras around the poles.  NASA-funded researchers say the solar storms of March 8th through 10th dumped enough energy in Earth’s upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years.

“This was the biggest dose of heat we’ve received from a solar storm since 2005,” says Martin Mlynczak of NASA Langley Research Center.  “It was a big event, and shows how solar activity can directly affect our planet.”

Spread Reckoning: U.S. Suburbs Face Twin Perils of Climate Change and Peak Oil [Excerpt]: Scientific American

Gas is so cheap, I don't even think twice about driving alone in my car less than a mile to the grocery store, just because I want an errand done faster. Gas is so cheap, my father-in-law can use a snow plow in the winter, instead of a shovel. Gas is so cheap, my mother can go for a ride through the woods on a four-wheeler, just for fun.

A Global Coup D’etat « Black's Whitewash

This is the first part of a two-part article that will expose the truth about Richard Black’s involvement in the global  agenda of Stakeholder Forum. Part one will focus on Stakeholder Forum. Part two will go into detail about how Richard Black has aided their cause, with the full knowledge of his BBC bosses. I will also show how he has been paid by them and will be paid by them to help them achieve their goals at RIO.  This is not to be taken lightly and I ask you to spread this far and wide.

More fakery from “Forecast The Facts” | Watts Up With That?

(Note: I can back Mike up on this, I’ve been getting several letters like this from my TV Meteorologist friends from around the country, all nearly identically worded. – Anthony)

The “Climate” Word Now Getting Dropped From Discussions About Energy In Germany

In the past he always based the need to switch to renewable energy on “climate change”. Not anymore it seems. Except maybe once in passing, Röttgen didn’t mention the word “climate” once. In fact no one uttered it. It appears that protecting climate has lost its appeal.

Skeptical Science leak?

Click on this comment

This "leak" is just a format conversion of already public material.

One-Third of Energy Dept. Loans on ‘Watch List’

http://junkscience.com/2012/03/23/one-third-of-energy-dept-loans-on-watch-list
"Hybrid-car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. also may be on the list." The Wall Street Journal reports: The Department of Energy has placed nearly one-third of its clean-energy loan portfolio on an internal "watch list" for possible violations of terms or other concerns, according to a copy of the list obtained by The Wall Street Journal, [...]

Look what’s struggling to swim the Thames now… trout

http://junkscience.com/2012/03/23/look-whats-struggling-to-swim-the-thames-now-trout
Previously filthy watercourses are now teeming with fish, a new book reveals Increasing numbers of rivers in towns and cities in Britain are now so clean that anglers are fly-fishing in them for trout and grayling, which are specialised clean-water species, a new book says.

British MP: Majority of colleagues don't understand climate science | RTCC

http://www.rtcc.org/policy/british-mp-majority-of-my-colleagues-dont-understand-climate-science/

Climate Change: The End of Sierra Skiing? - Piedmont, CA Patch

Suchanek said that "1,000-year storms" are already 10 times more frequent now than they were in the 1920s.

"We now have multiple 1,000-year storms per decade," Suchanek said.

From Engineering Marvels, a Turnaround in U.S. Oil Output

Environmentalists are critical because burning more fossil fuels contributes to climate change.

"Life needs to be protected and global warming is the most profound threat to life on earth." said Jay Lininger, an ecologist at the Center for Biological Diversity, which is pushing the federal government to protect wildlife from the effects of drilling in the Permian Basin, the Gulf of Mexico and the Alaskan Arctic.

Carbon credit clamour: Pakistan gears up for another water rights legal battle with India over the carbon-credit funded Nimoo-Bazgo dam in Ladakh

Pakistan is gearing up for another water battle with India, reports Athar Parvaiz from Ladakh. At the centre of the latest row is a dam funded by international efforts

Enviro minister tells Suzuki to 'chill'- Politics - Canoe.ca

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2012/03/22/19537031-qmi.html

There has been no discernable change in UK climate since 1940 | Climate Realists

http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=9327&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimaterealistsNewsBlog+%28ClimateRealists+News+Blog%29
....For the UK itself there has been no discernable change in climate since 1940 and it is unlikely that significant change will occur by 2050 either. The evidence for this comes from the HADCRUT3 averaged temperature anomaly data for all UK stations from 1940-2011. The result is shown in Figure 2. There has been essentially no change.

The Yin And Yang Of Climate Liars

Romm and Masters are on a roll claiming that the US and Canada are having record hot weather.

Somehow they missed the fact that there is an equal area of record cold.

Steven F. Hayward: Not much renewable energy for the buck

Every dollar of tax preference for non-hydro renewables produces 407,000 BTUs of energy, while every dollar of tax preference for fossil fuel delivers 66 times as much, 27 million BTUs of energy

Doh! As green power grows, Calif. considers lifeline for fossil fuel plants | JunkScience.com

http://junkscience.com/2012/03/23/doh-as-green-power-grows-calif-considers-lifeline-for-fossil-fuel-plants/
Before continuing with this item please place all spillables away from keyboards. Consumption of food or beverage is not advised.

Diminished Climate Alarmism: Lessons from L’Affair Heartland

http://www.masterresource.org/2012/03/climate-alarmism-lessons-gleik/
The Heartland affair has shown not merely that some climate alarmists (namely Gleick) will stoop to outright deception, and most of his peers will close ranks to defend him in a sort of Green Wall of Silence. Perhaps more disturbing, it reveals that these people really have no idea how their opponents on the climate issue actually view the world. So when they dismiss skeptics as having no legitimate arguments, it should make outsiders take pause.

European Church of Climate tries to sell 300,000,000 carbon indulgences

http://junkscience.com/2012/03/23/european-church-of-climate-tries-to-sell-300000000-carbon-indulgences/

Someone’s romancing themselves: US to tackle greenhouse gases, carbon tax, after election

Cap and trade will not return to the Congressional agenda because it is too closely associated with the finance sector, said Theodore Roosevelt, a managing director at Barclays Capital in New York.

"Anything that benefits Wall Street is dead on arrival, probably for the next decade," he said.

Do you believe in climate change? | Vicky Pope | Environment | guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/23/climate-change-believe-in-it
Those asking the question include a wide range of people I meet in the pub, friends, politicians and increasingly even some of those active in sustainable development and the renewable energy businesses. What I find interesting is that I have known many of these people for a long time and they never asked me this before.

Dellers on Radio 5

James Delingpole was on the Richard Bacon show on BBC Radio Five Live yesterday (audio here from 1:16:20). It's combative stuff, as you would expect from an avowed right-winger appearing on the Beeb.

Oh boy: Ecologist Simulates Climate Change with Infrared Heaters | JunkScience.com

http://junkscience.com/2012/03/23/oh-boy-ecologist-simulates-climate-change-with-infrared-heaters/

Chaos at Catalunya: Snow curtails stage three

http://globalfreeze.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/chaos-at-catalunya-snow-curtails-stage-three
Nearly 40 riders abandoned the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya in apocalyptic race conditions during Wednesday's weather-reduced third stage.
Rain, snow, ice and wind forced race organizers to reduce the 210km queen stage by 50km, eliminating the final two climbs, including the hors categorie summit finale that was covered in an ever-thickening blanket of snow.

Ghana Needs $1 Billion Each Year for Climate Change, B&FT Says - Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-23/ghana-needs-1-billion-each-year-for-climate-change-b-ft-says.html

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bill McFibben on the Weirdest Weather

Bill McKFibben went on Democracy Now today to talk about the President's attempt to make everyone happy on the Keystone Pipeline (or, at least, make everyone equally unhappy), and mentioned the warm weather in the US, calling it the "weirdest weather ever seen in this country."

Climate Fund Seeks UN-Style Diplomatic Immunity

http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpps/news/climate-fund-seeks-un-style-diplomatic-immunity-dpgonc-km-20120322_18755189
But before it is fully operational, the GCF's creators -- 194 countries that belong to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- want it to be immune from legal challenges and lawsuits, not to mention outside inspections, much like the United Nations itself cannot be affected by decisions rendered by a sovereign nation's government or judicial system.

Global Warming means 20 Metre sea level rise in the pipeline say scientists : Indybay

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/03/22/18709897.php
Sea Levels have been stable for several thousand years, but have started increasing over the last 100 years in response to the increase in carbon emissions driving the increasing global temperatures of global warming.

Why Does Shell Support California’s Climate Change Legislation? | KQED's Climate Watch

Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Peter Voser affirmed his company's commitment to AB 32, California's climate change legislation, and also explained why a carbon trading system is crucial to the development of alternative energy sources.

"We are clearly in favor of cap and trade systems," he said to an audience of Silicon Valley business people and climate experts Wednesday in Burlingame. "We'd like to have it globally, to level the playing field."

The Case for Trimming the EPA - E. Donald Elliott - Health - The Atlantic

The EPA, just as large as it ever was, is now on autopilot, churning out rules and regulations without heed to cost or competing values. It spends huge sums chasing the tiniest of risks.

Global Warming Created The Hunger Games | ThinkProgress

The tale of adolescence, bread and circuses amid economic injustice, and the trauma of war is beloved by a generation of young adults who are living themselves in a science-fictional world. No-one under the age of 35 has been alive when the planet's temperature was normal. The coming decades, as climate change accelerates due to the exponential growth of fossil-fuel burning, will make the recent extreme floods, fires, droughts, and storms of the early 21st century a fond memory. But the authoritarian, apocalyptic world of the Hunger Games is avoidable — if its generation of readers makes wiser choices than those who now control the wealth of the world and are deciding to let it burn.

UPDATE

Torie Bosch writes that the Hunger Games is part of a wave of climate-change young-adult fiction, including Birthmarked and Delirium. "Ship BreakerDark LifeExodusThe Other Side of the Island, the Shadow Children books, The Blending TimeThe Declaration — all are dystopic young-adult novels set in worlds transformed, to varying degrees, by climate change, resource scarcity, population growth, and other environmental disasters. In many cases, the climate change is mentioned only briefly, but it is always there in the background, explaining how the United States, the United Kingdom, and other free countries in which these stories are set could devolve into authoritarianism."

Plants may absorb more carbon dioxide than previously thought

Co-author Professor Phil Ineson, from the University of York, said: "Computer climate models have become increasingly complex and I wanted to go back to basics. We achieved this by somewhat radically building a 'physical' model of the terrestrial carbon cycle – this is equivalent to using a wind tunnel (as opposed to a computer simulation) to test the aerodynamics of a new structure. Our experimental findings made total sense but suggested that the capacity of the Earth to buffer against rising carbon dioxide may be gre ater than the computer models imply – we still have the same major concerns about climate change , but the Earth system may ha ve some tricks up her sleeve!"

Could Arctic Sea Ice Decline be Caused by the Arctic Oscillation?

http://www.drroyspencer.com/2012/03/could-arctic-sea-ice-decline-be-caused-by-the-arctic-oscillation/

Note that back in the 1920's, when there were reports of declining sea ice, record warmth, and disappearing glaciers, there was similar AO behavior to the last couple of decades. Obviously, that was before humans could have influenced the climate system in any substantial way.

I won't go into what might be causing the cyclic pattern in the AO over several decades. My only point is that there is published evidence to support the view that some (or even most?) of the ~20 year sea ice decline up until the 2007 minimum was part of a natural cycle, related to multi-decadal changes in average wind patterns.

The Winter That Never Was

If Theodor Geisel (AKA Dr. Suess) were around today, he might be prompted to write a book called, How global warming stole winter. Not that U.S. residents have been complaining about the recent record-breaking warm temperatures. Watch this local news clip from Chicago on March 14, when the thermometer reached 80 degrees. People are gushing over the summer-like weather.

Whose is the Face, and the Voice, of Climate Change?

http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/03/whose-is-the-face-and-the-voice-of-climate-change/
But is Al Gore still the right person to serve as the foremost face and voice of this movement? Some say he hasn't sustained his momentum or succeeded in bringing about big changes that are needed. Beattie wrote in an e-mail, "Trust seems to me to be one of the most fundamental issues here in people trying to change their everyday habits at some personal cost, for a greener and more sustainable future. A leader who cannot really be trusted, because of his own lifestyle, would be, in my view, a bit of an obstacle."

IPCC: Mann’s claim of receiving Nobel Prize is wrong | JunkScience.com

http://junkscience.com/2012/03/22/ipcc-manns-claim-of-receiving-nobel-prize-is-wrong/

Tropical Forests Rejoice!

The key finding of the work is that water use efficiency has shown "an increase of nearly 40% over the past four decades". The explanation for this increase is that rising levels of atmospheric CO2 are allowing for a reduction in the stomatal conductance. At higher levels of CO2, the plants relax a bit, the CO2 is easier to extract from the atmosphere, the pores in the leaves through which transpiration takes place are smaller in diameter, and far less water escapes from the plants. The trees grow at the same rate with far less water! They did observe increasing wet season temperatures and an increase in cloud cover, but neither seemed to explain the increase in water use efficiency.

The facts seem inescapable—extra atmospheric CO2 is our gift to the trees growing throughout tropical regions!

Gallup: Most independents reject global warming | JunkScience.com

"Democrats have politicized the weather. Now it bites them in the tail as Democrats are shown to be reactionary Luddites who reject actual science."

Is Carbon Sequestration Causing Earthquakes?

http://www.minnesotansforglobalwarming.com/m4gw/2012/03/is-carbon-sequestration-causing-earthquakes.html

Climate Progress Calls Winter 2012 “The Winter That Wasn’t”

The left in the US have become a bunch of isolated, provincial, ignorant a$$holes – who can't see Russia from their house. They are desperate to retain power and keep a socialist in the White House, and no lie is too big any more.

‘Climate change at its current trend could cost Pakistan $14 billion a year’ – The Express Tribune

http://tribune.com.pk/story/353606/climate-change-at-its-current-trend-could-cost-pakistan-14-billion-a-year/
About 90% of the natural disasters in Pakistan are due to the changing climate, he said. "The most alarming thing is that the frequency of these natural disasters is going up with 60% occurring in the past ten years."

Germany Singing A Requiem For Its Solar Industry – “Not a Single Company In The Black….Industry Will Disappear Within 5 Years”

All the green jobs of the future that were promised – now dashed dreams. On the scrap heap along with the promises communism, redistribution, third ways, etc.

FOCUS magazine here brings us up-to-speed on the trials and misery of Germany's much maligned solar industry. The situation is worse than we thought.

The Science of Truthiness: Why Conservatives Deny Global Warming

You know, Stephen Colbert once said that "reality has a well-known liberal bias." And essentially what I'm arguing is that, not only is that a funny statement, it's factually true, and perhaps even part of the nature of things.

Early Spring Sets Much of U.S. Awash in Color and Pollen Dust - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/us/early-spring-sets-much-of-us-awash-in-color-and-pollen-dust-627485/?p=0
ATLANTA -- Spring, with its promise of flip-flops and daffodils, can have a dark side. Take this one, which hit so early in many parts of the nation that the headaches are outweighing the sunny benefits.
___
Can we see a complete list of the benefits and headaches that were considered before arriving at this conclusion?

Harold Ambler on CO2 as a sieve, not a blanket (from his book Don't Sell Your Coat)

CO2 absorbs heat only along limited bandwidths, and the bandwidths in which it absorbs are already largely covered by other greenhouse gases, water vapor and nitrous oxide among them. The idea that CO2 is a "blanket" capturing nearly all heat trying to leave the Earth is false. It has more in common with a heat "sieve," and is up in the atmosphere with other sieves with similar size holes at similarorientations.

Inhofe on skeptic web sites part 1

There are several top skeptic sites that I recommend, but to name a few I would suggest R.A. Pielke Sr., Colorado State Climatologist Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist CIRES University of Colorado at Boulder (http://pielkeclimatesci.word-press.com), his son Roger Pielke Jr., professor of environmental studies at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder (http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com), Judith Curry, Professor and Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology and President (co-owner) of...

Inhofe on skeptic sites part 2

...Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN) (http://judithcurry.com), Steve McIntyre (ClimateAudit.org), Steve Malloy (JunkScience.com), and Anthony Watts (WattsUpWithThat.com). For one-stop shopping of the best headlines of the day, my former committee staffer Marc Morano runs the site www.climatedepot.com. While these sites do not necessarily represent my views, I think they are wonderful vehicles that show the aggressive ongoing debate about climate science.

Klaus on The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future

"The global warming religion is an aggressive attempt to use the climate for suppressing our freedom and diminishing our prosperity. Senator Inhofe's book is an important contribution in the fight against this totally erroneous doctrine which has no solid relation to the science of climatology but is about power in the hands of unelected global warming activists. Senator Inhofe is, in this respect, one of the world's most influential voices."

New study finds Medieval Warming Period and Little Ice Age were also present in Antarctica

press release today from Syracuse University reports a new study has found evidence that the Medieval Warming Period and Little Ice Age also involved Antarctica. The research adds to overwhelming evidence collected by over 1000 scientists that the Medieval Warming Period [MWP] was a global phenomenon. Climate fraudsters such as Michael Mann et al have attempted to erase the global MWP using statistical tricks or failing that, dismiss the MWP as being limited to Europe.

July, 2009 Was The Coldest On Record In Illinois

http://www.Real-Science.com/july-2009-was-the-coldest-on-record-in-illinois
Who in Illinois could possibly deny global cooling? July, 2009 was 13 degrees cooler than 1936

Extreme Global Weirding In March 1910

http://www.Real-Science.com/extreme-global-weirding-in-march-1910
March of 1910 was by far the hottest March on record in the US

Chu on this: wasting $billions on pixie-dust power is good

Energy Secretary Steven Chu has just about had it with House Republican accusations about Solyndra and other clean-energy companies that won billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees.

Chu's frustration was apparent after spending more than two hours before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee answering pointed GOP questions concerning his handling of more than $14.5 billion in stimulus-funded loan guarantees.

NYT: A Measured Rebuttal to China Over Solar Panels

Hmm… we give money to China to "green up" energy, we pay money to encourage people to install pixie-dust power scams and then we… impose tariffs to make it dearer for them to do so.

Maybe if I smoke some of what they're smoking it'll make sense to me too