Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #680
1 hour ago
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Twitter / @seanbhood: Why wouldn't humanity surv ...
Why wouldn't humanity survive global warming? 5 Answers: qr.ae/R6MdE on @Quora
Practically Dis-Educated | Musings from the Chiefio
Cost or Climate? Study investigates our behavioural motivators
APPEALS to ‘save the planet’ may not be the most effective way of addressing climate change, as a new study linking beliefs and behaviours reveals most people are driven by cost and fashion rather than a desire to protect the environment.
I have never really understood deniers' fascination with "1970s global cooling," or that it would mean much of anything even if it were true....Were some people in the 1970s thinking about global cooling? Yes -- given the temperature data, anyone would have.
Climate Armageddon: How the World's Weather Could Quickly Run Amok [Excerpt]: Scientific American
Eventually the north pole may flip and be free of ice year-round.
Several testimonies were followed by cheering, sometimes with standing ovations.
Testifiers questioned global warming’s existence.
Testifier Dr. Gordon Fulks said that C02 does not play a primary role in greenhouse gas emission. “Most scientists recognize the overriding important of water vapor” he said, adding that the scientists of ICLEI “have on training in science.”
Testifier Larry Costello concurred.
Severe frost: 80% of Ontario apples wiped out | Local | News | Sarnia Observer
It’s estimated 80% of the apple crop has been lost, said Kelly Ciceran, general manager of the Ontario Apple Growers, an organization representing about 215 of the province’s apple orchards.
Last season’s Ontario apple crop had an estimated value of $65 million. The organization is planning a survey in June to collect firm data on what’s left of this year’s crop, Ciceran said.
Chinook Pass closed — again | Seattle Times Newspaper
Just as hikers and motorists were thinking of heading to the scenic beauty of Chinook Pass on State Route 410 for the Memorial Day holiday, the state Department of Transportation once again has closed the highway due to snow slides.
Holdren 1997 : Ten Degrees Warming In The US | Real Science
This was before Hansen tampered with the data set. As of 1997, Hansen’s US temperature graph showed more than 1F cooling during the previous 70 years – yet Holdren predicted 10F warming over the next 50 years.
Flannery’s latest eco-plan: pulling teeth | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog
More of those green jobs that climate changers keep promising:
And the best part of this scheme is that the capital investment is so cheap:
“You just need a pair of pliers.”
Satellite Data shows no global warming over long periods « Reasonable Doubt on Climate Change
This first chart which is based on the Microwave Sounding Unit or MSU satellite temperature data, shows the global average temperature measured from 1980-1990. The green line is the temperature trend. Notice that it’s basically flat. In fact it’s actually slightly negative but the number is so small as to be indistinguishable from noise. The important lesson is that the satellite data showed no warming for the decade, despite what the media tells you.
The Federal Republic of Germany has selected the proposal of Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) for the Green Climate Fund Headquarters, Bonn. LAVA's proposal for the headquarters is an 'ecological model project' and demonstrates their motto: 'green is the new black.'
With a design inspired by the beautiful setting in the Rhine valley, and with curvilinear forms, nature light wells, roof top gardens and a large sunken terrace for the restaurant, the three level structure will comply with the latest energy and building ecology standards, meeting the highest demands in terms of sustainability (German Gold Certificate), ecology and energy efficiency (net zero energy).
"Climate change is sliding down in the international policy agenda, which is definitely a worrying trend."
Deadlock on climate talks could sink global deal | Comment | London Free Press
BONN, GERMANY - Hopes are fading that climate talks in Qatar late this year will make even modest progress towards getting a new globally binding climate deal signed by 2015, as preliminary negotiations in Germany this week have left much work to be done.
..."I think it would be unrealistic to think there will be major breakthroughs very soon," the IEA's chief economist Fatih Birol said on Thursday, referring to the climate talks."Climate change is sliding down in the international policy agenda, which is definitely a worrying trend."
The Activist Economist & the IPCC (Part 2) « NoFrakkingConsensus
Readers were invited to trust in the authority and eminence of the IPCC but weren’t told that Jaccard himself has played a role in that body. In effect, he was covertly pointing to his own work as being the last word. Yuck.
1927 : Mother Nature Rampaging All Over The Planet | Real Science
Hansen said recently that weather disasters used to affect only 1% of the planet.
The Billion Dollar Disaster Scam | Real Science
A favorite metric of climate scum like Joe Romm, is that “billion dollar disasters” are on the rise.
The are 2.5 times as many houses along the Gulf Coast as there were in 1960, and the average price of homes has increased by almost 10X. These two factors alone cause Gulf Coast weather disasters to be 2500% more expensive than they were in 1960.
Doubt has been eliminated (?) | Climate Etc.
In a speech before the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, said:
So what is it that is new today? What is new is that doubt has been eliminated. The report of the International Panel on Climate Change is clear. And so is the Stern report. It is irresponsible, reckless and deeply immoral to question the seriousness of the situation. The time for diagnosis is over. Now it is time to act (Brundtland 2007).
Voting Open For Climate Denier Of The Decade | Real Science
Given the failure of the prophesies about Manhattan drowning, ice caps melting, and temperatures rising, the church has come to rely on a select group of people who feel unbounded by history – and are willing to rewrite historical data to suit the needs of the church.
These brave and unselfish souls deserve recognition!
Oregon - 18 inches new powder on Mt Bachelor
Open for skiing Friday, May 25th through Sunday, May 27th
Italy – Most snow in May that he has seen | Ice Age Now
In about 30 years I haven’t never seen so much snow in May.
Gore’s claims about floods, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, or any aspect of weather aren’t supported no matter how you look at it
The Republican Brain: Interview with Science Writer Chris Mooney | Left Eye On Books
Christine Shearer: Your next book Storm World (Harvest Books, 2008) looked at a group of scientists trying to determine whether global warming could be impacting the intensity and number of hurricanes. And there were a few scientists who were just adamant against making such a correlation, even as the supporting evidence mounted. Was it people like that who, in part, got you thinking that there might be more at work than money and religion in causing some to reject scientific evidence?
Chris Mooney: Huh. Actually I’d read that issue a little differently. This was a classic emerging science conflict under high uncertainty. It seems to me that skepticism about a climate-hurricane connection wasn’t necessarily beyond the pale at that time.
Certainly, though, the main character in the book, William Gray, does push the Republican War on Science analysis. Because the guy is a global warming denier, but no conservative. He wasn’t being driven by religion and he wasn’t being driven by corporate greed. Something else was going on there, having to do with a kind of turf battle between old-school meteorologists and computer-modeling climate scientists.
...Christine Shearer: How about conservative think tanks like the Heartland Institute – do you think they believe in what they are doing, or are consciously trying to shape public opinion, even if that means promoting false or misleading studies?Chris Mooney: Well, I think these are libertarian ideologues, often white and male. Their beliefs are very strong and they are very sure they are competent and in the right, and that global warming is hokum. I don’t think they’re conscious liars at all. They actually believe that they are rational — critical thinkers, even. Of course, this is a pretty inflated self-image....
Chris Mooney: Oh I think it is largely a threat to their self image as people who are rational and reasonable and, in fact, more reasonable and rational than their political opponents. I’m completely taking that away from them. I’m showing that their reasoning is emotionally driven, and moreover, that their way of responding to the world isn’t so conducive to the kinds of reasoning that we see in the scientific community. That’s threatening on a personal level. I don’t know that it has much to do with money or power.
World News: Solar plane’s first transcontinental flight delayed by clouds - thestar.com
Fog on the runaway at its home base in Payerne, Switzerland, delayed the take off by two hours, demonstrating how susceptible the prototype single-seater aircraft is to adverse weather.
“We can’t fly into clouds because it was not designed for that,” Borschberg said as he piloted the lumbering plane with its 63-metre wingspan toward the eastern French city of Lyon at a cruising speed of just 70 kilometres an hour.
Hat tip: B. Lemon
Hans von Storch: "...I consider this pure alarmism, which is related to the timing, and a misuse of scientific analysis for creating some unsustainable short term drama for the Bonn-negotiations"
A forth interesting issue is that climate science has become irrelevant; it shows up in passing, when "limit devastating climate effects like crop failure and melting glaciers" is mentioned, and the quote "the trend is perfectly in line with a temperature increase of 6 degrees Celsius (by 2050)" is made.This is a pretty bold prediction, given that we have so far less than 1 degree warming since pre-industrial times, so that the warming must be more than 5 degrees/38 years, i.e., about 0.7-0.8 deg/decade. I consider this pure alarmism, which is related to the timing, and a misuse of scientific analysis for creating some unsustainable short term drama for the Bonn-negotiations. I wonder if this 6-degrees claim is really from IEA, or just an addition by Fatih Birol, because is no not mentioned in the IEA's announcement.
Lüning: Major Austrian Study Showing “Fewer Weather Extremes Today” Causes Jaws To Drop!
His comprehensive, peer-reviewed paper found that there has been no increase in weather extremes in the Austrian Alps – surprising the world’s climate scientists. This study in my view is really big, and is upsetting the Climate Establishment in Europe. Dr. Böhm is quickly becoming the new enfant terrible.
Nadeem explains what really constitutes 'climate change' | Business Recorder
"On average agriculture sector of Pakistan would lose 2-16 billion dollars per annum due to climate change by the end of 21st century," he noted.
Twitter / omnologos: Greenpeace 270M$/y but @le
Greenpeace 270M$/y but @leohickman is all excited about @HeartlandInst $6M. Another victory for Joe Bast. >> @BarryJWoods
Hope for NASA Climatology – Joan Feynman | Musings from the Chiefio
Thanks to a comment by Gail Combs at WUWT I’ve got a bit of hope that NASA is not totally a lost cause on the issue of Climate Science.
While GISS may be toast, it looks like JPL still “has clue”.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Booming US solar panel industry captures 3% market share
The Obama green energy economic boom appears to be in full swing, with US solar panel manufacturers capturing a whopping 3% of world market share in 2011. To allegedly protect these vital interests and taxpayer beneficiaries, the administration has slapped a stiff 31% tariff on Chinese solar panels, starting a trade war that now places at risk a $3 billion market annually for US companies that supply and license Chinese manufacturers.
Bald Mann Speaks With Forked Tongue | Real Science
The 1990 IPCC report contained the inconvenient graph above, which didn’t look anything like a hockey stick. Briffa’s trees didn’t look anything like a hockey stick either. Mikey had to get rid of the MWP, but this was going to require some hard work. How did he do it?
- Trashed all the post 1960 tree ring data
- Replaced the post-1960 tree ring data with Hansen’s altered Northern Hemisphere temperature data.
- When you have seen one tree, you have seen Yamal
- Declared the MWP to be local to Northern Europe and Greenland.
The inconvenient truth | Columnists | Opinion | Toronto Sun
But the fact remains despite years of political, media and environmental hysteria about global warming, Canadians care more about environmental issues they see as directly affecting their own health.
The same was true five years ago, when the Strategic Counsel found more Canadians considered toxic chemicals (61%), air pollution and smog (55%), and water pollution and quality (54%), more life threatening than global warming (52%).
Up to 6 inches of snow is expected to fall on Eastern Idaho's mountains through Sunday and nighttime temperatures throughout the region will be unseasonably cold.
Climate-change skeptic to talk to ‘tea party’ groups - News from The Arizona Republic
Monckton and conservative author Tom Ballantyne also will speak to the Red Mountain Tea Party. That talk will be Tuesday at East Valley High School, 7420 E. Main St., in Mesa.
India said it may stop European carriers from flying into the country if the European Union bans airlines from the South Asian nation that boycott the EU's new emissions fee system.
Negotiators reach RGGI deal | Concord Monitor
Republican leaders in the House and Senate have struck a deal on what to do with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and it doesn't involve withdrawing New Hampshire from the program.
Last year, House leaders walked away from negotiations with the Senate after refusing to accept anything but a complete withdrawal from the carbon cap-and-trade program. The Senate doesn't have the 16 votes needed from its 24 members to override a promised veto of repeal by Democratic Gov. John Lynch.
BBC's climate change scam | The Australian
First, it has betrayed its statutory obligation to be impartial, using the excuse that any dissent from official orthodoxy was so insignificant that it should be just ignored or made to look ridiculous.
Second, it has betrayed the principles of responsible journalism, by allowing its coverage to become so one-sided that it has too often amounted to no more than propaganda.
Third, it has betrayed the fundamental principles of science, which relies on unrelenting scepticism towards any theory until it can be shown to provide a comprehensive explanation for the observed evidence.
In all these respects, the BBC has been guilty above all of abusing the trust of its audience, and of all those compelled to pay for it. On one of the most important and far-reaching issues of our time, its coverage has been so tendentious that it has given its viewers a picture not just misleading but at times even fraudulent.
Why Would Anyone Be Embarrassed To Be Associated With Fossil Fuels? | Real Science
Fossil fuels are what makes our modern lifestyle possible. Life was very short and completely sucked for most people before the days of fossil fuels.
BBC News - Climate talks stall with nations 'wasting time'
The latest round of UN climate talks has made little progress, observers say.
The meeting in Bonn, Germany saw angry exchanges between rich nations, fast-industrialising ones and those prone to climate impacts.
Campaigners spoke of a "coalition of the unwilling" including the US, China, India and several Gulf states.
...Funding hiatus
Three years ago, developed countries pledged that by 2020 they would be providing $100bn per year for poor nations, to help them "green" their economies and prepare for impacts of climate change.
For the period 2009-12, they are provided $10bn per year in "fast-start finance".
But that agreement comes to an end in December, and no developed nation has yet indicated what happens afterwards.
Twitter / ClimateReality: One of the most adorable a
One of the most adorable animals we can think of now at risk from rising temperatures: Baby sea turtles http://ow.ly/b9hUw via @GlobalPost
- Bishop Hill blog - A new dark age?
Thanks to Alex Cull for this transcript of a segment on yesterday's Today programme on BBC Radio 4. This concerned the alleged threat of an end to enlightenment values.
Earlier this year, the President of the AAAS, America's leading academy of science, claimed that the politicisation of science, on issues such as climate change, genetic modification, evolution even, was driving the U.S. into a new Dark Age. And over here, scientists complain that politicians routinely cherry-pick data, casually disregard the facts when they don't fit their preconceptions. So are we descending into a new Age of Unreason in public policy? Our science correspondent, Tom Feilden, has been weighing the evidence, and has found some encouraging signs that the geeks are fighting back.
If you wanted to get someone to kill themself, an effective way to do it would be to put an idea in their head that something they need for survival is very bad for them. For example, the belief that food was bad killed Karen Carpenter.
Al Gore, James Hansen and a few others are leading an effort to convince people that something else they need for survival – i.e. affordable energy – is very bad for them. If this form of mass mental illness is not stopped, it will eventually have very severe impacts on societal health.
The Reference Frame: Is the "follow the money" argument correct?
Science surely has to check and crosscheck past results, look for the wrong ones, and adjust the new research according to the findings. If the verification weren't done or if its results played no role, it wouldn't be science as the new papers would be building on assumptions that are as likely to be wrong as that they are right. The body of research would resemble noise – or noise "pushed" in a direction dictated by something else than the truth. And the latter is what has described 90% of the climate science since 1988.
The New Nostradamus of the North: The history of the UN led global warming circus
The Toronto Sun´s columnist Simon Kent has written an excellent brief history of the UN global warming travelling circus:Which of the following major world cities and/or seaside resorts has NOT hosted United Nations climate change talks since the inaugural meeting way back in 1997?Marrakech, Morocco; Bali, Indonesia; Lyon, France; Bonn, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cancun, Mexico; The Hague, the Netherlands; Vienna, Austria; Montreal, Canada; Bangkok, Thailand; Barcelona, Spain; Durban, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Milan, Italy; Kyoto, Japan and New Delhi, India.Sorry, trick question. All have played host at some time to the 47 UN-funded get-togethers in the past 15 years.
Friday, May 25, 2012
‘Clean Coal’ Means No Coal - Nash Keune - National Review Online
Like many euphemisms, “clean coal” is an oxymoron — the adjective cancels out the noun. Though Obama the candidate tries to appear friendly to all energy sources (especially ones associated with potential swing states, like coal and fracking-accessed shale in Ohio and Pennsylvania), Obama the president has long played favorites.
Memorial Day Snow for California
Unseasonably cold low pressure system moving into the Sierra today.
ABC News Watch: Further death threat corrections
Editor’s Note (May 25): Questions have been raised about whether one of the released emails did, in fact, constitute a threat to use a gun, with a person involved in the kangaroo culling program claiming the comments were made by him, and were in no way intended as a threat. This story also has been amended to clarify that the specific emails released under FOI contain abuse, but not overt threats.
Washington Post warmist Juliet Eilperin: "Mann and his team used a statistical tool called “principal component analysis” to tease out which factors are most responsible for a given change over time..."
Book review: Michael Mann’s ‘The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars’ - The Washington Post
Mann and his team used a statistical tool called “principal component analysis” to tease out which factors are most responsible for a given change over time and to compare data from all over the globe.
Two Canadians, mining consultant Stephen McIntyre and economist Ross McKitrick, challenged the hockey stick on a variety of fronts. First they went after the proxy data; later they employed the same statistical tool that Mann and his colleagues did, but in what Mann considers an inconsistent way. The result was a smoothing out of the pattern embodied in the hockey stick. “If there is a lesson” in these sorts of fights, Mann writes, “it is that scientific findings that rest on such technical complexities are prone to abuse by those with a potential ax to grind.”
Heartland: What is Judith Curry talking about? « Shub Niggurath Climate
One reason I can think, that Curry is upset/disappointed is because she holds Heartland to a standard of conduct higher than she does, say, Greenpeace. But why? Why does Greenpeace get a pass at rubbish behaviour? They are an organization with a $270 million/year budget. Surely everyone knows, that for every banner drop, ten hats drop on the floor. In a more general sense, why does environmental activism and science uphold such poor standards of conduct and get away with it? Is it simply because these organizations have worked tirelessly in establishing that accepted norms of professional conduct can be overlooked when it comes to them? Curry doesn’t seem to realize it. Almost no one realizes it.
In the end, I think the Heartland Institute did a great job showing what constitutes passable behavior in environmental activism is not acceptable in the real world.
The Blackboard » Comments on Bast’s response to Judy
I also don’t think the fact that Heartland ran an appalling Billboard is any reason to mis-diagnose the mood of the meeting. I think any claim the mood of the meeting was downtrodden is incorrect– the mood was upbeat. Joe was smiling. Many of the staff did seem busier than one armed paper hangers– doing lots of jobs at once– but overall– whether one likes it or not– since I did to to the meeting, and I did ‘interview’ Lakely, I can tell you the mood of the audience, speakers and Heartland staff struck me as upbeat. The meeting did seem smaller than the 2010 meeting–and being smaller. But that doesn’t mean people were moping around. If the people who came or those hosting were depressed, they are doing an awfully good job hiding that fact. The mood was upbeat.
Quark Soup by David Appell: Gleick Review Not Finalized, Pacific Institute Says
Last week Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian reported:
"A review has cleared the scientist Peter Gleick of forging any documents in his expose of the rightwing Heartland Institute's strategy and finances, the Guardian has learned."
But the Pacific Institute is telling me that no such clearing has occurred:
"The Pacific Institute Board of Directors has not finalized its review of the investigation or announced any decisions at this point."
Fraudulent Renewable Fuel Credits Continue to Surface
Yes, creating markets that are easy to fraudulently manipulate would indeed seem to undercut the goal of the ethanol mandate.
Is China poor? Key question at climate talks - Houston Chronicle
Today China's share of global emissions exceeds 25 percent, while the U.S. share has fallen toward 20 percent...
Seyni Nafo, spokesman for a group of African countries in the climate talks, noted that the U.S. also said that joining Kyoto would harm the U.S. economy. Years later, the U.N. climate effort still has little support in the U.S. Congress, which includes outspoken climate skeptics.
"We are hoping that they will get on board this time, which is not a given," Nafo said.
Some 48 percent of the people surveyed said the weather has gotten more extreme in recent years – most recently with the record-setting rains of Hurricane Irene last August, and the unseasonal October snow-and-ice storm, which felled many trees and cause serious power outages in the Garden State, among other events.
Twitter / HeartlandInst: NATO does not appear to co
NATO does not appear to consider global warming a security threat, Czech President Vaclav Klaus reported at #ICCC7. http://icont.ac/14Tnr
U.S. cut its carbon emissions in 2011 — but China erased the gains - The Washington Post
The United States also had a mild winter in 2011, which meant less energy was needed for heating.
Europe’s Airline CEOs Blast “Crazy” Carbon Pricing Scheme
Europe’s airline executives launched a new salvo against the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) yesterday (24 May), just weeks before an international working group is due to make new proposals aimed at resolving the dispute over pricing air carbon emissions.
CEO’s from 13 of Europe’s top airlines lined up at a press conference in the Brussels airport's Sheraton Hotel to savage the ETS as “crazy” at a time when economic growth was imperative.
German Labour Leader Calls For New Coal-Fired Power Plants
Oh Dear: CCS Funding May Hold Key To £190Billion Of North Sea Oil Recovery
A new Scottish research centre, devoted to the development of carbon capture technology, could hold the key to unlocking the recovery of three billion barrels of North Sea oil worth £190 billion, experts have claimed.
SIGNIFICANT SNOW EXPECTED SAT AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY.
Essentially no change in US temperatures since 1990 « Reasonable Doubt on Climate Change
Here is NOAA year to date temperature data from 1990-2012. There is a tiny insignificant uptick, due to this years warm weather in the US. Looking at the graph its pretty apparent this years temperatures are not part of any “trend”, its an outlier year.
Twitter / @climateprogress: IEA: Global CO2 Emissions ...
IEA: Global CO2 Emissions Hit New Record In 2011, Keeping World On Track For ‘Devastating’ 11°F Warming bit.ly/KyKR1j
Eco Everest tragedy: Attempt to raise climate change awareness ends in deaths
Congratulations !!! Eco Everest Expedition Spring 2012
[April 20, 2012] Eco Everest Expedition is a program organized in 2008 as a platform to attract maximum global attention. The main objective of this expedition is to raise awareness about the impact of climate change and glacier melting in the mountain leading to high risk of GLOF affecting the lives of the local people. The expedition organized by Asian Trekking focuses on climbing in an eco-sensitive manner and field testing different eco-sensitive methods to be adopted while climbing in the Himalaya.
Three climbers killed on Mount Everest - Telegraph
Officials in Nepal last night confirmed a German doctor, a Nepalese-Canadian businesswoman, and a Chinese man had died on May 19th as they descended the peak as part of the Eco Everest Expedition to clean debris from the mountain. ..This particular expedition was aimed at raising awareness of climate change on glaciers and testing new eco-sensitive techniques to climb the mountain without damaging its environment.
Leanne Shuttleworth said passing the casualties was 'the most horrendous' part of the ascent She said the frozen bodies of climbers who died last weekend were still attached to fixed mountaineering lines Teenager said one teammate was forced to turn back after his corneas froze in the terrible weather conditions
Mount Everest by the Numbers: Deaths, Cost to Climb, and More Mountain Records - The Daily Beast
30: Number of minutes before a climber dies after contracting hypothermia on Mount Everest, depending on how fast his or her body temperature drops
Frost forecast again as cold temps hit Prairies | Alberta Farmer
Temperatures across the grain and oilseed growing regions of Western Canada dropped to below normal levels overnight, with the risk of frost remaining in the forecast over the next day or so.
Twitter / keithkloor: Now if they could just ban
Now if they could just ban all those cars. RT @kate_sheppard LA Bans Plastic Bags—Is Your Town Next? http://bit.ly/KHUAOR by @KaceyDeamer
Climate Conferences | ICCC-7
[videos at the link above]
1 TO 2 FEET OF SNOW EXPECTED WITH LOCALLY HEAVIER ACCUMULATIONS ON NORTH AND EAST FACING SLOPES.
Growing Pains: Scenes from the North Dakota Drilling Boom | OnEarth Magazine
Driving the population surge in North Dakota and in other energy-producing states are jobs.
NASA hit for sloppy hyping of global warming | Washington Examiner
Several former top NASA executives and scientists, including Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle managers and astronauts, are accusing the agency of sloppy and imprecise science in promoting global warming alarms and are also charging NASA’s chief scientist with hypocrisy for warning of a climate change catastrophe.
“We are not trying to stifle discourse, but undisciplined commentary, lacking in precision, is wholly inappropriate when NASA’s name and reputation is attached,” said 41 former NASA officials in a letter to agency boss Charles Bolden.
Bonn climate talks end in discord and disappointment | Environment | guardian.co.uk
participants told the Guardian they were downbeat, disappointed and frustrated that the decision to work on a new treaty – reached after marathon late-running talks last December in Durban – was being questioned.
...Tove Maria Ryding, coordinator for climate policy at Greenpeace International, said: "Here in Bonn we've clearly seen that the climate crisis is not caused by lack of options and solutions, but lack of political action. It's absurd to watch governments sit and point fingers and fight like little kids while the scientists explain about the terrifying impacts of climate change and the fact that we have all the technology we need to solve the problem while creating new green jobs."
Apes, moles and shrews can't keep pace with climate change - environmentalresearchweb
Killer heat projected in Minneapolis by end of century | StarTribune.com
By the end of the century, the Twin Cities area could see eight times as many deaths annually due to extreme heat as it does now, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
The projected increase -- from about 14 per year to 121 by century's end -- would be among the steepest experienced by 40 major metro areas. The authors said that is partly because extremely oppressive heat waves would be more of a shock to northern residents' systems.
Climate of the Twin Cities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
average annual temperature of 45.4 at the Minneapolis St. Paul International airport
Memorial Day Snow? | Musings from the Chiefio
As this cooling turn progresses, the ‘cold loop’ of the Jet Stream is getting colder. Folks on the US East Coast or elsewhere that a ‘warm loop’ from the tropics sits on your head are benefiting from the hot flow to the pole where the heat leaves. This does not mean that your area is “heating up”, just that the heat from the tropics is leaving by running over you… Here on the West Coast we are under the cold air headed south (to be warmed in the process of sucking heat out of the Tropics.)
This is, IMHO, a direct result of the sun going sleepy, having the UV drop off a cliff, and having the atmospheric height shorten. (All the steps are in evidence, only the proof of causality is ‘a work in progress’.)
Al's Journal : Arctic Death Spiral
“In short, the death spiral -- where more melting leads to more melting -- appears to be even steeper than anyone thought.”
If this is Britain's energy policy, we're toast – Telegraph Blogs
"Global warming" is SO totally over. Even President Obama concedes this now. The problem is that after twenty years or more of infectious drivel from the richly-funded global junk science community (NASA, the Royal Society, the "University" of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, the National Academy of Sciences, etc), the minds of too many politicians have been poisoned, and too much damage has already been done.
Like many other self-proclaimed skeptics, Nova also has the bizarre idea that research normally proceeds by "auditing" existing studies. "Auditing AGW research," she writes "is so underfunded that for the most part it is left to unpaid bloggers who collect donations from concerned citizens online." But nobody audits the JPL to see if it's handling the Cassini probe properly; geneticists aren't being asked to open their books so that other scientists can see if they're fudging the numbers.
Science simply doesn't proceed through audits.
Summary: The International Conference on Climate Change 7 | Watts Up With That?
My conclusions from the Conference were that overturning the current climate science paradigms and the AGW supporters’ activism and malfeasance is going to be a long, slow slog. People like Suzanne Goldenberg want to prematurely claim either victory for their side, or the defeat of their opponents’ side … me, I think this will take years to settle. And more importantly, as far as I can see, neither Heartland nor I have any intention of giving up that fight.
And that for me was the main lesson from the Conference.
The Week Ahead: U.S. Climate Assessment Drafts Due, U.N.Climate Technology Center on... | Bloomberg BNA
http://www.bna.com/week-ahead-us-b12884909656/
Draft assessments by 30 teams of expert authors of current and future climate change impacts on the United States are expected to be turned in by June 1 to the U.S. National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee.
Draft assessments by 30 teams of expert authors of current and future climate change impacts on the United States are expected to be turned in by June 1 to the U.S. National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee.
Daniel Kahneman on the Trap of 'Thinking That We Know'
"Critical thinking has to include assessing one's own thinking."
Joe Bast responds to Dr. Judith Curry’s post on Heartland
I've said after nearly every conference since the 3rd one that "this is probably our last conference," and I've made a fundraising pitch, because the ICCCs are expensive and I suspect they are subject to the law of diminishing returns, but we keep doing them due to popular demand. Stay tuned for news about ICCC-8.
Gore blames 'dirty energy ... money' for 'dirty weather' | The Daily Caller
Former Vice President Al Gore showed that he isn’t giving up on sounding the alarm on global warming and its catastrophic consequences in an appearance on Current TV’s “The War Room with Jennifer Granholm” on Thursday.
Gore, who owns CurrentTV and appeared alongside former Obama administration “green jobs czar” Van Jones, explained that “dirty energy and dirty money” are thwarting a green economy. And that, according to the former vice president, is behind “dirty weather” due to “extreme climate events.”
“Let me add if I could briefly,” Gore said, “As Van said, it’s the intersection of dirty energy and dirty money. And we can’t forget it’s creating dirty weather because the extreme climate events that the scientific community has been telling us are connected to global warming are getting worse. We had 12 events last year here in the U.S. that cost more than a billion dollars that were connected to climate. And it’s getting worse. And now, we have this extensive drought in big areas of the country, dramatic floods, stronger storms — completely consistent with what people have been predicting.”
...Gore also maintained that there is a strong consensus in the scientific community, despite a long list of documented dissent, that these consequences are real and “horrendous.”“And the consequences according to the scientific community are horrendous,” he continued. “Every single national academy of science in the world, every professional scientific society in these related fields in the world; but the coal companies and oil companies buy these all these ads, spend all this money … they seed the organization with these lobbyists, grants and experts that go out and try to gin up this Astroturf deal.”
Supreme, recognizable by his elaborate wardrobe and ludicrous political platforms, has run in many local, state and national elections in the U.S. since the ‘80s, but this year, during his attempt at claiming the White House, he’s become full-on Internet famous thanks to the usual spread of kitschy fan art and YouTube videos.
Small emitters can opt out of EU ETS | Energy Live News
Small emitters will now be allowed to opt out of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme from 2013, in a move which Government claims will cut down on red tape.
The number of small emitters, which includes hospital installations, accounts for roughly 1% of the UK’s EU ETS emissions
...Nigel Jackson, Chief Executive of the Mineral Products Association said the move was welcome: “Industry is going through a tough time and anything the government can do to ease the regulatory burden can only be good for business, jobs and growth”.DECC claim the opt out scheme could save industry up to £80 million from 2013-2020.
Bonn bickering bedevils climate pact - Times LIVE
[caption] Vapour pours from a steel mill chimney
Please assist us in identifying the most effective means for communicating the latest findings of climate science via video. Go to http://www.wri.org/communicating-climate-science to watch the three videos.
Webcam Talk: Brian Helmuth on Sea Star Predation Rates - YouTube
408 views
Uploaded by WorldResourcesInst
on Apr 6, 2012
UNFCCC Newsletter May 2012 - Message by Christiana Figueres - YouTube
105 views
[Minnesotans for Global Warming]: If We Had Some Global Warming - YouTube
455,212 views
As he "racks up frequent flyer miles", warmist David Attenborough evidently forgets that CO2 emissions are allegedly destroying the planet; as he writes approvingly about Attenborough's frequent flying, warmist Chris Hewitt evidently forgets about CO2's alleged dangers as well
[Warmist Chris Hewitt] Don't pay much attention to the cheesy title. "Flying Monsters 3D," the documentary playing at the Minnesota Zoo's IMAX theater, could just as easily be called "Sir David Attenborough Racks Up Frequent Flyer Miles."
The beloved naturalist narrates "Monsters," but he is much more than a narrator. Zipping from the British Natural History Museum to a shack in New Mexico to a river in France to a glider floating on the breeze, Attenborough gives "Monsters" more personality that most large-format documentaries. At 86, he's still curious and still delighted by the world's natural wonders, a delight he effortlessly conveys to us.
Even as drought persists in parts of Kenya's arid north, intense rains are claiming lives in other parts of the country
The Lights Go Out in Green Spain
The most draconian spending cuts on record are plunging Spain’s cities and highways into darkness as ministries and mayors struggle to pay for basic services
Cars went barreling along the highway in darkness, ferrying families from Madrid to the beaches of Catalonia during the Easter holiday season, the black stalks of unlit streetlamps flicking past their windows. Truck drivers honked angrily as motorists switched on their full beams to pick out curves in the road, momentarily dazzling oncoming traffic.
World News: Detroit plans to darken street lights to tighten up city - thestar.com
There’s already experience snuffing out street lights within Detroit’s borders. Highland Park, a city encircled by its larger neighbour, removed 1,100 of 1,600 street lights last year, after piling up a $4 million debt to DTE Energy. The move saves $45,000 a month, company spokesman Alejandro Bodipo-Memba said.
Twitter / CJ93: I guess this film ( http:/
I guess this film ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZjsJd … ) wasn't bigger b/c everyone is sick of global warming but it looks good! #nerd #geography
Perth's coldest May morning in almost a century - ABC Perth - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Perth recorded its coldest May morning for 98 years with parts of the metro greeted with frost as the temperature dropped to 1.3 degrees just before 7am this morning.
That equals the record low set on May 11, 1914.
Many centres have been within a degree-or-so of their May record low maximum.
Without global warming, we'd be under a mile of ice by now : The Times of Northwest Indiana
Thank goodness for global warming. Not only was the winter great, but without global warming Chicago would be under a mile of ice. It finally warmed and receded to form the Great Lakes.
Climate bills get two hours of scrutiny
The federal opposition says the government is not allowing enough scrutiny of its carbon tax laws.
The House of Representatives economics committee has scheduled a two-hour public hearing on Monday to look at four bills dealing with carbon pricing and the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
This is a very useful presentation of simple graphs illustrating all aspects of the global warming and carbon demonization scams. Well worth printing in colour for close study:
My @EarthGaugeCA audio interview on Arctic change,...
[Revkin] My @EarthGaugeCA audio interview on Arctic change, methane, fossil appetites and more.
Going to Tahoe? Take your chains | Road Warrior
It’s Memorial Day weekend; the traditional start of summer vacations.
But if you’re driving to Lake Tahoe, take your chains. Yes, be prepared for snow.
Snow adorns the crown of Kilimanjaro - eTurboNews.com
TANZANIA (eTN ) - Constituting the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is slowly building up its snow cover, allaying the fears of prominent scientists who had predicted witnessing the eminence lose its famous white hat. The drifts are slowly thickening on the top point of this summit, giving new hopes to Mount Kilimanjaro environmental watchdogs and tourists that the peak may not lose its beautiful snowy cap, as scientific experts have long been warning.
- Bishop Hill blog - Science communicator, heal thyself
...Isn't that odd? In climate science, it is the sceptics who are challenging scientists. It is sceptics who have opened the subject to the public. And the sci comms community has been at the forefront of efforts to cheerlead for the mainstream, to ignored vested interests, to shut down debate, to argue from authority, and to keep dissent off the airwaves.
The New Nostradamus of the North: Wind turbines kill hundreds of thousands of bats
It is a well-known fact that wind turbines kill hundreds of thousands of birds every year. Now it is becoming clear that these expensive, ugly and inefficient machines also kill a huge number of bats:
150,000 more US heat deaths projected by 2100 | JunkScience.com
Stupid PlayStation® climatological “prediction” of no factual value whatsoever. Moreover, making energy too expensive and/or unavailable will kill a lot more than that guesstimate, as will continuing to trash the economy and employment.
Famed hurricane forecaster Dr. William Gray has issued his hurricane season forecast for 2012 and predicts below-average probability for major hurricanes making landfall. Dr. Gray is Professor Emeritus, Dept of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University and a skeptic of man-made global warming. Dr. Gray contends that the global ocean's natural Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) "is the likely cause of most of the global warming that has been observed since the start of the industrial revolution (~1850) and for the more recent global warming that has occurred since the mid-1970s." In his paper, "Climate Change: Driven by the Ocean not Human Activity," Dr. Gray notes that observations show tropospheric water vapor has decreased with increased CO2, the opposite of the assumptions programmed into climate models, thus, "The predicted global warming due to a doubling of CO2 has been erroneously exaggerated by the [climate models] due to this water vapor feedback."
The CIA documents the global cooling research of the 1970’s | Watts Up With That?
DECC slashes 22GW solar forecast to 11.9GW - 25 May 2012 - News from BusinessGreen
Figures contained in the government's official impact assessment, which accompanied the changes to the scheme announced yesterday, reveal the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has almost halved its forecast for the industry to deliver 22GW by 2020.
The Reference Frame: Iran, AGW: useless summits in Baghdad, Bonn
Some poor countries were promised by the environmentalist i.e. Marxist activists that they would be given piles of wealth after the civilized countries are deconstructed with the help of the global warming lies.
Suddenly, some Western negotiators realized at least the fact that the CO2 emissions can't decrease if the developing countries will keep on developing: the CO2 production would simply shift to the currently developing world. Of course, the poor folks just wanted the money and some of them wanted to damage the West. They don't have the slightest interest in hurting themselves. So the talks can't lead anywhere.
Brrrr — good chance of snow overnight in Regina « Where’s my Global Warming Dude? By Global Freeze
Comprehensive Alps Study Clearly Refutes Humans Are Causing More Weather Variability And Extremes!
A new paper authored by Reinhard Böhm of the Austrian Central Administration For Meteorology (ZAMG) refutes the notion that anthropogenic warming is causing an increase of climate extremes and making weather more variable and extreme.
PJ Media » The Climate Change Debate: Where Are We Now?
So while much has been accomplished, much remains to be done. Former Apollo astronaut and senator from New Mexico Harrison Schmitt believes the number one priority for the skeptical community is to “recapture” youngsters in the K-12 grades. It’s too late for this generation, he says, because they have become so thoroughly indoctrinated. But Schmitt believes it is critical for the future that young people be given the opportunity to be taught both sides of the climate change debate rather than brainwashed to accept the AGW religion.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Climate Change Protest - 3 min. video - YouTube
Protesters gathered outside the hotel of the 7th International Conference on Climate Change sponsored by Heartland Institute. CFACT went outside to say hello...
Michael Mann "SO PLEASED TO HAVE PLAYED A ROLE ;)" in the "downfall of the Heartland Institute"
Twitter / @MichaelEMann: MT @climateprogress The Se ...
MT @climateprogress The Self-Inflicted Downfall Of The Heartland Institute bit.ly/KHSn8c SO PLEASED TO HAVE PLAYED A ROLE ;)
Twitter / @MichaelEMann: @MilnerR There is karma in ...
@MilnerR There is karma in the world, and they are reaping what they've sown. However #Heartland just but one of many denier front groups.
"the UNFCCC Climate Change Secretariat does not know how to raise five million Euros needed for its next climate conference...What is more, Germany is going to halve its climate funding as of next year."
Drought Warning: UN Climate Talks Running Dry
The UN climate campaign is running out of money. Launched with high hopes, the global "Green Climate Fund" (GCF), set up by the United Nations to finance climate change projects in the developing world, is gridlocked due to an international power play. Meanwhile, the UNFCCC Climate Change Secretariat does not know how to raise five million Euros needed for its next climate conference.
At the UN climate conference in Bonn, which runs until the end of the week, the impasse over the Climate Fund is dominating the negotiations. Environmental groups also complain that climate funding often does not end up at the right places. The UNFCCC Climate Change Secretariat is suffering from cost-cutting measures and does not know how to raise five million Euros needed for its next climate conference. What is more, Germany is going to halve its climate funding as of next year.
Sorry guys, no more Heartland Institute conferences | Grist
[Jess Zimmerman] Denialist think tank the Heartland Institute likes to have all its besties over once a year to watch movies, braid each other’s hair, and talk about how they don’t believe in science or, when it comes down to it, really know what it is. Well, I have bad news for journalists looking for telling quotes, and for people like Lord Monckton who don’t get invited to any other parties: This year’s shindig was the last one for the foreseeable future...So many funders walked out over that one that Heartland doesn’t have the money to put on its annual Jerkapalooza anymore.
Oh, denialists — will you never again go to the ball? Perhaps your fairy godmother will come and save you. She’s at least as plausible as the other things you believe in.
Jess Zimmerman (j_zimms) on Twitter
Editor of Grist List, but tweets are mostly about feminism, nerd stuff, and dogs. I say lots of swears and I hope you do too.
Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse Imminent | Real Science
Looking at the weather report, it becomes clear why Hansen keeps mumbling something incoherent about Antarctica melting down.
Don't serve carbon lies, ACCC warns | thetelegraph.com.au
SHOPS and restaurants could face fines up to $1.1 million if waiters or sales staff wrongly blame the carbon tax for price rises or exaggerate the impact.
And households are being warned to watch out for telephone scammers offering to deposit carbon tax compensation into their bank accounts.
Twitter / RyanMaue: Memorial Day well above no
Memorial Day well above normal for Great Lakes .. but well-below normal for 2/3 of USA. GFS 18Z temps for Monday: pic.twitter.com/ckalmfrK
Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Texas our Texas! Some gre
Texas our Texas! Some great global warming/epa bashing commercials down here by candidates running for office. They tell it like it is
Twitter / keithkloor: Crazy. RT @dangerroom: Con
Crazy. RT @dangerroom: Confirmed. Senate Armed Services Cmte votes 13 to 12 to kill military alternative fuels.
Twitter / Revkin: Great! An enviro who dives
Great! An enviro who dives into politics instead of griping about it: @ColinBeavan runs for Congress, NY-8th Dist. http://bed-stuy.patch.com/articles/no-im …
Look beyond coal: climate activist - ABC Newcastle NSW - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Ms Rose says while she understands coal is an important industry for the Hunter, it comes at a cost.
"There's a lot of money in coal in the short term but the cost of continuing Australia's coal expansion is that we're sacrificing the future of young Australians," she said.
The Blackboard » Vermin Supreme Fashions interpreted by Josh.
Real Climate : Twenty Years In The Future | Real Science
May 25, 2032 – posted by gavin jr.
There was no global warming scare.
The Self-Inflicted Downfall Of The Heartland Institute | ThinkProgress
“Well, I appreciate you telling me that,” said Lakely, who was taking a break from managing Heartland’s conference to watch the 60 or so people protesting the event outside the hotel.
...But Sensenbrenner was right about one thing: The public dialogue has moved dramatically backward in the last three years, driven largely by the aggressive disinformation tactics of the climate denial community — and enabled by the Obama Administration’s decision to stop talking about the issue and the media’s decision to sharply curtail coverage.
Christie Seeks to Divert $279 Million From Clean Energy - Bloomberg
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie plans to return to the state’s clean-energy fund for another $279 million to narrow a budget gap of as much as $1.3 billion,
according to the state’s treasurer....“I’m going to make every effort to prevent the governor from taking this money,” McKeon, a Democrat, said today in an interview. “It’s up to us to stop him from raiding the clean-energy fund.” The funds are collected through a 3.8 percent surcharge on utility customers’ bills.
[Ian Plimer] Labor bequeaths us climate careerism - On Line Opinion - 25/5/2012
Labor could not convince the electorate that minute emissions of a trace gas would lead to catastrophic global warming. They were unable to show which part of the last 300 years of warming was natural and which part was of human origin. And Nature had the last laugh: the planet is cooling. Nature just does not obey legislation, computer models and Labor's ideology.
Labor treated voters as fools. They are not.
House Votes to Eliminate Funding for NSF Climate Change Education Program
As you have recently discovered, there is no big money denial machine. We are scientists and engineers who do this for free, in defense of science and free speech.
The corruption and big money is on the alarmist side. People like Peter Gleick have been trying to crush dissent since time immemorial. It never works – truth always finds a way.
And all your hysterical rantings won’t change a thing.
Heartland Protester Lacking Historical Perspective | Real Science
It is interesting how the alarmists operate. Instead of showing up for their invitation to debate, they send hippies to try to shout people down.
If there was any actual science behind what Hansen, Mann et al are doing, they would be eager to debate.
The end of the UN led global warming travelling circus is - fortunately - one step closer. Leaders and governments of the rich industrialized countries have clearly put the global warming hoax on the back burner - there are other, much more urgent - and real - problems to take care of.
The fact that the hundreds of climate bureaucrats - especially those representing countries, which have been expecting a climate change bonanza - meeting in Bonn, are becoming more and more frustrated, should be viewed as an encouraging development:
China Projects Skirt Around Price Floor, Avoid CO2 Supply Cuts - Businessweek
China, the biggest exporter of carbon credits since the Clean Development Mechanism started supply in 2005, installed
the floor by refusing to approve projects that proposed in their applications to sell offsets at lower prices
La la land: Plastic bags to be banned in LA grocery stores; the followup paper bag ban "may not even be necessary"; no word yet on whether reusable bags or groceries themselves will eventually be banned
Historic News as L.A. Bans Plastic Bags in Stores | Ecorazzi
Once the plastic bag ban ordinance is enacted, larger stores will have six months to stop handing out plastic bags and smaller markets will have 12 months. After that, retailers would be required to charge 10 cents for each paper bag they provide to customers.
“My hope is that so few paper bags will be used as a result of this measure that the formal ban … on paper bags may not even be necessary,” said Councilman Paul Koretz, who initially had hoped to prohibit paper as well.
The Activist Economist & the IPCC (Part 1) « NoFrakkingConsensus
First, the IPCC is supposed to be a collection of dispassionate experts. Its website says that it assesses the available scientific evidence in an “objective” manner – and that its work is “rigorous and balanced.”
How can such claims be taken seriously when it turns out that one of its authors not only has an activist agenda, but is so committed to that agenda he’s prepared to be hauled away in handcuffs?
Climate change expert presents inaugural awards - Local News - News - General - Western Advocate
Controversial climate change expert Professor Tim Flannery will take the podium today at the local centre that bears his name.
He will not only present Skillset’s first sustainability awards, the Skillset Sustainability Award and Skillset Sustainability Partnership Awards to two Central West businesses, he will also be the keynote speaker at Skillset’s annual Training Award ceremony.
GHCN v3 A Question Of Quality | Musings from the Chiefio
How many thermometers might read 1 C high for a year? Or 0.4 C high for two years? And never be ‘outed’ by the “QA” code?
We just don’t know.
But we do have a very suspicious “onset” of the ramp in warming right at the time the electronic systems are rolled out (found by two folks using entirely different methods) and long after CO2 had been increasing for decades.
IMHO this is more than enough of an “issue” to put some Liquid In Glass thermometers in selected locations to “Guard the Guardians”… ( from Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? )
We are, in essence, fully dependent on some rough sieve computer programs checking some occasionally insane automated data entries to determine if there is Global Warming, or not. I find that inadequate.
Bummer: NRDC climate hoax propaganda suggests that trace amounts of CO2 will cause annual Washington heat deaths to "go from a current average of 24 to 2,994 by 2099"
Death ray: Global warming will kill over 150,000 by 2099 | Washington Examiner
If you go outside on hot summer days, prepare to feel sick--or die. A new global warming report claims that temperatures will rise up to 11 degrees over this century, killing an additional 150,000 or more Americans, and nearly 6,000 a year in the Washington-Baltimore corridor by 2099. First to fall, according to a shocking report titled “Killer Summer Heat” from the National Resources Defense Council, will be the elderly, kids and the poor. And with more Baby Boomers heading into their Golden Years, they will likely be part of the death boom, if the alarmist projection comes true. ... In Washington, NRDC projected that excessive heat days will surge from the current average of 16 to 69 by 2090-2099. The resulting death toll will go from a current average of 24 to 2,994 by 2099. Baltimore has nearly identical numbers in the NRDC report.
Warmist claims: "if Heartland Institute gets its way, it could be the end of civilization as we know it"; "Anyone who can deny climate change has never been to Texas"
“I’m willing to risk my arrest, because if Heartland Institute gets its way, it could be the end of civilization as we know it,” stated Alice Coffey an activist who risked arrest at today’s event.
“Anyone who can deny climate change has never been to Texas where there is an historic record drought caused by the climate crisis, or Arizona, where we no longer have monsoon season, but haboob season – just wind, and dirt and heat, but no rain,” said Ian Fecke-Stoudt, who also participated in the climate confrontation.
A second group held a rally outside the event earlier in the day. Scores of activists demonstrated outside the Hilton Hotel protesting the Institute and the Conference while a banner was dropped from a hotel window.
“The Heartland Institute exists to spread climate disinformation to protect the profits of the few,” said Josh Trost of Rising Tide Chicago. “Climate Deniers have no right participating in policy discussions. Daily, the global scientific consensus strengthens as planetary health indicators decline. Each lie is a theft from the remaining time we have to act to limit escalating climate chaos..
China hits back at claims it is blocking climate talks < German news | Expatica Germany
China hit back Thursday at claims it was holding up global climate talks in Germany, saying the United States, Europe and other rich states were the ones applying the brakes.
Developed nations are trying to wriggle out of legal targets to curb global warming, Chinese chief negotiator Su Wei told AFP.
"They try to evade the legally binding commitments," he said on the sidelines of negotiations in the former German capital Bonn.
On Wednesday, the European Union warned that the effort to forge a new global pact on climate change by 2015 was in danger of floundering, and some negotiators pointed the finger at China.
"It is very dirty communication politics," Su said sharply, insisting his country has "shown a lot of flexibility."
On Not Having Joe Bast to Kick Around Anymore | Planet3.0
Clearly, defeating or at least diminishing Heartland is a positive step, but it is a long way from victory. We have not yet, though, cashed the check that Peter Gleick wrote for us. What we see so far is just an advance.
What is important is to look at the whole structure of right wing philathropies and how they warp public discourse. After all, what does “Donors Trust will never allow any funds to drift to organizations on the left” mean? What could it possibly mean? I think it means “all funds will be used to defend the privileges of the rich and not a penny will go to anyone or anything that actually needs it”.
But what of those “organizations of the left”? In “The Philanthropic Complex“ a remarkable and compelling essay at the alarmingly named Jacobin magazine, by Curtis White, an argument is made that leftish (really, Democrat-leaning) charities in the US are also instruments of oligarchy, perhaps more important than those on the right.
Man-made sea-level rises are due to global adjustments « JoNova: Science, carbon, climate and tax
Now of course, any one of these adjustments could be for very legitimate reasons and give us results closer to the truth. But the adjustments always bring data closer to the modeled trend. It’s decidedly non-random. Either there is a God who thinks teasing climate scientists is spiffy, or else there is something fishy going on, and some investigative journalists need to ask some investigative questions. Is that sea-level rise due to global warming or is it due to global adjustments?
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Paul Ehrlich's 'population bomb' is now stone-cold dead
Look around you. For most nations of the world, birth and fertility rates have never fallen so far, so fast, so long, so surprisingly, all across the globe. Except for America.
Seen globally, the population explosion—or what Stanford's Paul Ehrlich called "the population bomb" in the 1960s—is now stone-cold dead. The ramifications are enormous economically, geopolitically, culturally and personally. For one, the United States will become stronger than ever in the games nations play.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
[comment] The Australian geologist and climate skeptic Ian Plimer has often said that a key reason so many people, particularly urban dwellers, believe catastrophic climate claims is that they are so divorced from the implications of natural climate swings. In a farming family/community, there is lore about how they survived the drought of ’36, or the heat wave of ’57, or the late frosts of ’73. There are strategies passed down as to how to cope with dry/wet, hot/cold variations.
In a city, these types of events really just mean slight variations in the heating/air conditioning bills, which are quickly forgotten, and it is easy to come to believe that things have been pretty constant over the years.