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Scientists in Washington State Adopt Tiny Island as Climate-Change Bellwether - NYTimes.comAmong the declines the researchers are noticing: historically hardy populations of gulls and murres are only half what they were 10 years ago, and only a few chicks hatched this spring. Mussel shells are notably thinner, and recently the mussels seem to be detaching from rocks more easily and with greater frequency.
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During a research trip in 2000, Dr. Pfister and Dr. Wootton first began testing the pH of water samples. They found the water around Tatoosh and along nearby coastlines to be 10 times as acidic as what accepted climate change models were predicting. Even after collecting seven years of data, when they published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008, their data were met with skepticism.
Controlling gull damageIn the Great Lakes region, the number of ring-billed gulls has been increasing at about 10% per year since the early 1970s. Bent (1947) said of it, “the ring-billed gull yields readily to persecution, is easily driven from its breeding grounds and seems to prefer to breed in remote, unsettled regions far from the haunts of man.” However, a colony on Leslie Spit on the waterfront of Toronto, Ontario, increased from 20 pairs in 1973 to 75,000 to 80,000 pairs in 1982 (Blokpoel 1983). It appears that ring-billed gulls have changed some of their habits in recent years and have adapted to humans in their environment. A colony of laughing gulls in the Jamaica Bay Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, New York, increased from 15 pairs in 1979 to 7,600 pairs in 1990 (Richard A. Dolbeer, pers. commun.).
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Increasing gull populations in North America during the past century have led to a variety of problems for different segments of society.
Climate Change Is Bad News for California Children with Asthma: "Scientific" AmericanHigher temperatures and an increased risk of drought on the West Coast result in nitrogen byproducts that cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, especially among the region's rural and urban poor
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In the middle of the night, Casandra Cabrera stopped breathing. She doubled over in bed, gasping for air. In the panic that followed, her lungs constricted. Her eyes filled with tears. The asthma attack continued for 10 long minutes.
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Climate change is expected to compound the issue, according to a new body of work published in the journal Issues in Ecology. Higher temperatures and an increased risk of drought on the West Coast essentially "cook" the nitrogen, resulting in nitrous oxide and ozone. These nitrogen byproducts cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, especially among the region's rural and urban poor who don't have the money to move away and reduce their exposure.
Flashback: People with asthma should take extra precautions during the cold weatherThe charity says hospital admissions for asthma usually peak during periods of particularly cold weather. Breathing cold air into the lungs can trigger asthma attacks.
[University of Nebraska-Lincoln] Scientists say Climate Change Real, Humans to BlameClimate change is a hot topic this election season and Saturday five UNL scientists joined the debate.
The UNL "Five", as they're known, say climate change is real and human activities are to blame.
Saturday, the professors discussed how they believe global warming will impact residents, from agriculture to infrastructure to human health.
All five agree change needs to start now if the global community is to prevent future catastrophe.
Twitter / KHayhoe: Our latest article, on ...Our latest article, on statistical downscaling of global model outputs for regional climate assessments:
Arctic Ice Melt, Psychopathic Capitalism and the Corporate MediaBlakemore adds that he has spoken with climate scientists who "agree with those, including NASA scientist James Hansen, who charge that fossil fuel CEOs are guilty of a 'crime against humanity,' given the calamity that unregulated greenhouse emissions are quickly bringing on." With 100 million deaths from global warming predicted by 2030, the charge is no hyperbole. Indeed this surely represents the greatest crime in all human history.
Twitter / stevenfhayward: More green energy epicfail ...More green energy epicfail out of China: Tom Friedman kicking his cat.
Climate change emerges as sleeper issue in Senate races - The Hill's E2-WireClimate change has become a sleeper issue in a number of Senate races as Democrats attempt to paint their opponents as extreme, based on their views on the issue.
It’s a largely straightforward peg for an attack that some Democrats hope will appeal to centrist voters that may be swayed if they see the Republican candidate as part of the party’s extreme.
US trounces UK in climate scepticism jibber-jabber • The RegisterFrom this Reg reporter's point of view, Painter and Ashe's work indicates a number of things – but I'll stick to three. First, the US and the UK are more adept at thrashing out the climate-change debate in public than are other countries, perhaps due to their traditions of printed, public arguments.
Second, the clear difference between the inclusion of both pro and con arguments in opinion pieces published by liberal US newspapers versus the lack of same in conservative newspapers is a reflection of the soft left's tendency to seek balanced arguments even when the current consensus belief among the large majority of the climate-science community points toward the reality of anthropogenic climate change.
And finally, when the IPCC releases the four volumes of its Fifth Assessment Report, with the first volume scheduled to appear in September 2013 and the fourth in October 2014, the debate will heat up again, many more articles will be published in newspapers around the world, and your humble reporter will have an awful lot of reading to do. [Via CC]
Big promises, little action on climate change - Israel News The State of Israel made a solemn international commitment to do its part in the worldwide effort to prevent global warming. President Shimon Peres stood at the head of the government delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and declared Israel’s willingness to reduce CO2 emissions 20 percent by the year 2020.
In retrospect, it would seem that there has not yet been a promise to the international community that Israel has so insouciantly flouted. In practice, the government delegation had hardly boarded the plane back home before it forgot its zeal for global solidarity and the meaning of delivering on the diplomatic lip service it had disingenuously spouted.
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Since the president’s pledge, greenhouse emissions have only risen faster. Indeed this summer saw electricity demand increase by more than 10 percent relative to previous years.) At the same time, the issue has quietly disappeared from the public agenda.
2009: Fundamentalists Wage War on Science, Climate Change Facts on EthicsDaily.comWhy are American Christian fundamentalists waging a war on science? They wage war against the science of climate change.
Public opinion: Most farmers see climate change but can't see humans causing it -- 10/05/2012 -- www.eenews.netA new crop of opinion polls suggests many U.S. farmers believe the climate is changing, but few lay the blame on man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer still favor policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. And many are turned off by even the mention of "climate change," which they consider a highly politicized phrase.
A February survey of 4,778 farmers across the nation's Corn Belt found that while roughly two-thirds believe the climate is changing, just 8 percent believe human activities are the primary cause.
Preliminary results from a similar poll conducted in Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin in 2009 show 40 to 50 percent of commercial farmers in those states don't believe climate change has been scientifically proved, while roughly 70 percent believe climate shifts will have little effect on crop yields.
Even in tiny Yolo County, Calif., a solidly Democratic outpost in a blue state, just 35.2 percent of 162 farmers surveyed by researchers at the University of California, Davis, agreed that human activities are "an important cause" of climate change. And respondents were equally divided when asked whether climate change would benefit or harm agriculture on a global scale.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, polls also show few growers are willing to accept measures designed to combat climate change.
Climate linked to California ER visits | Reuters(Reuters Health) - The risk of heading to the emergency room for certain conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, kidney disease and low blood pressure rises slightly as temperature and humidity increase, according to a new study from California.
Researchers also found that for a few conditions, including aneurysm and high blood pressure, higher temperatures were tied to a drop in ER visits.
Flashback: Dying of cold: More heart attacks in cooler weatherScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2010) — Lower outdoor temperatures are linked to an increase in the risk of heart attacks, according to a new study by scientists at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
Barbados to host climate change conferenceThe impact of climate change on small islands developing states (SIDS) like Barbados will be further discussed in that nation when the island hosts the three-day United Nations sponsored meeting from October 9.
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UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, who will be attending the three-day conference is expected to view the effects of climate change on the island’s coasts and will also deliver a public lecture on the topic “Is Anything Being Done on Climate Change”.
Record cool temperatures Saturday | Abilene, TexasHigh temperatures Saturday are only expected to climb into the lower 50s. The record coolest high temperature for October 6th in Abilene is 59. So, we will likely break this record.
Coal-Fired Australia, Buffeted by Climate Change, Enacts Carbon Tax[National Geographic] ...drought, rampant wildfire in the outback, and the degradation of the treasured Great Barrier Reef have forever altered how Australia views its energy endowment. Facing a future as one of the places on Earth most vulnerable to climate change, and one of the nations with the world's highest per capita carbon emissions, Australia has taken steps to change its fate.
Gary Griggs, Our Ocean Backyard: Weather, climate and coastlines - San Jose Mercury NewsThis year, the U.S. has been running a distinct fever
Kalispell sets new record low temp, Missoula ties record | KAJ18.com | Kalispell, Montana the "freezer award" goes to West Yellowstone, where it was just 5 degrees at the park gate.
Time for GOP to stop denying climate change | The Great DebateOver the past few years, we have witnessed increasing numbers of wildfires, violent hurricanes and tornados, and unprecedented drought. Americans understand what’s happening, and they want us to do something about it.
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Rep Michael Honda (D-Calif.) represents Silicon Valley and is a member of the House Budget and Appropriations Committees.
Yosemite Hantavirus and Climate Change - The Plague of Climate Denial Confronts an Actual Plague - EsquireWe are walking into a great trap here
I’m looking for a snitch, who wants to get rich. « Pointman'sMost countries have laws in place to protect whistleblowers, and the sensible ones have a financial reward arrangement, when the funds in question are government money. You basically get a percentage of the money involved, the government claws some of it back and the criminals get a jail sentence.
The deal is quite simple; tell me what you’ve got, I’ll look at whether you’ve got a live one and, if I think it is, proceed with getting you your money. I’ll act as your agent, charging 20%, out of your end of whatever reward you eventually get, if any. Any expenses incurred by both of us, will come out of the reward money before we share it out. My percentage is not negotiable and we’d be signing a binding contract for services to that effect. Let me run through what my 20% gets you.
First off, you get a hard negotiator with a skill set, that’s very appropriate for this type of work. Most importantly, I’m your cutout. I’ll do the initial contact and subsequent negotiation with the relevant authorities, without revealing my source. I know my way around financial crime and what buttons to press to make bureaucracies work...
How Dave can still lead the 'greenest government ever' and save his party, the economy and rural Britain – Telegraph BlogsAnyway, one thing I'm very much noticing on the campaign trail is the intensity of local feeling on the wind farm horror. When you live in a city – as I did till recently – you simply have no idea how much heartbreak and anxiety and fear the wind farm scam is generating across rural Britain. Country people feel helpless and appalled and betrayed at the way all their valid objections – to noise, to the ecological damage, to the visual blight, to the destruction of the landscape – are simply being overruled by council planning officers.
What's the Best Climate Question to Debate? - NYTimes.comOne question from me would be:
While persistent and deep uncertainty surrounds the most important potential impacts from and responses to greenhouse-driven global warming (see David Roberts, Michael Levi and this list of reviewed research for more), the long-term picture of a profoundly changed Earth is clear. What do you see as the best mix of achievable policies to limit environmental and economic regrets?
- Bishop Hill blog - Three years until the lights go outOfgem, the UK's energy regulator, has apparently announced that the UK should expect power outages to begin in the winter of 2015-16.
Twitter / PeterGleick: I've now written off both #Budget ...I've now written off both #Budget and #Avis at LAX. Horrible. Is there a decent car rental agency there?
Why would Gleick rent a planet-killing private fossil-fueled vehicle when he should be setting an example for us all by walking, biking, using public transportation, or staying home?
Does early snow disprove global warming? | GristFor one thing, it’s not snowing all that early for these places. For another, as we constantly note, isolated weather extremes are different from the long-term trend. And, third, some scientists are expecting a bad winter — thanks in part to global warming.
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The kicker: It’s possible that global warming actually will make this winter colder.
World Climate Report » A Classic Tale of Global Warming AlarmismIn his New York Times “Green” blog article “Running the Numbers on Antarctic Sea Ice” Times reporter Justin Gillis generates a new index of sea ice melt that hypes the loss of Arctic sea ice relative to the gains in Antarctic sea ice. As you’ll see below, perhaps a more appropriate title would have been “Torturing the Data on Antarctic Sea Ice.”
The purpose of Gillis’ article is to downplay the observations which show that the sea ice around Antarctica has recently set a record for its all-time maximum extent (since satellite observations began in 1979).
Lack Of Arctic Ice Produces Record Snow | Real ScienceLast year, the lack of Arctic ice caused a warm winter in the eastern US, but this year it causes record cold and snow.
THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New paper suggests the Amazon has become wetter over past 100 yearsA new paper suggests, contrary to claims of global warming alarmists that the Amazon will dry up, that the Amazon has become wetter over the past 100 years of slight global warming [0.7C]. The study finds an "intensification of the hydrological cycle" in the Amazon, which indicates an increase in precipitation. The authors note, "Climate models vary widely in their predictions for the Amazon, and we still do not know whether the Amazon will become wetter or dryer in a warmer world."
Biofuel firm misses payment on debt | StarTribune.comIn another sign of difficulties in the state's ethanol industry, the owner of the idled Fairmont, Minn., ethanol plant has missed a payment on $170 million in debt.
Beijing Finds that Dropping Coal Is Hard to Do: Scientific AmericanAccording to a recent report from the environmental group Greenpeace, the Chinese government will construct 16 coal power plants, mostly in the western part of the country, in the next three years. By 2015, the country plans to increase its coal production by 2.2 billion tons a year.
EU Energy Commissioner Warns Against New Climate Targets | The Global Warming Policy FoundationFinancial Times Deutschland: The EU Energy Commissioner opposes a tightening of the EU’s climate targets. Instead, energy policy should focus more closely on the needs of European industry. In Berlin, Günther Oettinger made jokes about the green “do-gooders” in his own party.
Britain Faces Risk Of Blackouts, Warns Ofgem | The Global Warming Policy FoundationBritain faces an increasing risk of power blackouts and higher electricity bills in the next four years, power regulator Ofgem has warned in a report.
An “unprecedented combination” of the eurozone crisis, tough EU environmental laws and the closure of ageing coal and oil-fired power stations, has increased “the risk to consumers’ energy supplies”, Ofgem said in its annual Electricity Capacity Assessment on Friday.
Defeat the Flat Earth Five - YouTubeThe League of Conservation Voters has launched a campaign -- the Flat Earth Five -- to defeat five climate change deniers in the House of Representatives: Rep. Dan Benishek (MI-01), Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-24), Rep. Dan Lungren (CA-07), Rep. Francisco Canseco (TX-23), and Rep. Joe Walsh (IL-08).
Unseasonably cold temperatures to move into Oklahoma; frost advisory, freeze watch issued
Three Approaches to Engaging U.S. Climate Deniers | The Energy CollectiveThe lion’s share of resistance to climate change comes from conservatives and libertarians. Rather than working to change people’s ideological frame of reference, it may be more expedient to encourage behavioral change by employing the constructs of people’s preexisting world view. This may be the easiest way to get deniers to change their behavior, even if it does not change their beliefs.
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Paradoxically, it may be more productive to avoid challenging the confused beliefs of climate deniers. This is the view of director Peter Blyck, the maker of the documentary film ‘Carbon Nation.’ In a recent NPR interview, Blyck expressed his view that the best way to get people to make more environmentally friendly energy choices is to avoid the subject of climate change altogether.
Ed Davey hints at 'flexible' carbon target for 2030 | Environment | guardian.co.ukDavey hinted the bill could include a target range, rather than a specific decarbonisation figure, arguing that such an approach would allow for greater flexibility based on the pace of development of low carbon technologies.
Twitter / RichardTol: Increase in biodiversity blamed ...Increase in biodiversity blamed on climate change
Twitter / CHedegaardEU: EU Commission teams up with ...EU Commission teams up with businesses, academia and NGOs to promote climate solutions Join in!
Asia ‘center of the universe’ in emission reduction – FigueresAsia is now “the new center of the universe” concerning emission reduction efforts according to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Christiana Figueres.
The climate chief, during the Carbon Forum North America event held last week at Washington D.C., said the region currently leads the push toward the cutting of emissions through cap-and-trade and other market-based mechanisms, which is seen to be growing in the coming years.
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“You are better off if you get involved in the design and the construction of the rules with which you will have to comply, rather than letting other write them for you,” the U.N. climate change chief warned.
Flashback: Global carbon emissions rise is far bigger than previous estimates | Environment | guardian.co.ukChina, which in 2006 took over the US's historical position as the world's biggest emitter, raced ahead in 2010, emitting 8.3bn tonnes – up 15.5% on the previous year, and a 240% increase since 1992. That makes China alone responsible for about one-quarter of global carbon emissions from energy, emitting about 48% more than the US.
The Cyber Bonfire of GISS’s Vanities | Watts Up With That?Playing email hidey-ho in Hansenland to circumvent FOI laws
U.S. coal stocks jump on Romney comments: analysts | Reuters"It's amazing what 15 words about coal in a presidential debate can do for the stocks," said Michael Dudas of Sterne Agee.
"These stocks have been volatile, but you can't discount what a man running for president said about coal. Call it the Romney rally."
Are electric cars bad for the environment? - Business InsiderThe study highlights in particular the "toxicity" of the electric car's manufacturing process compared to conventional petrol/diesel cars. It concludes that the "global warming potential" of the process used to make electric cars is twice that of conventional cars.
Will Stocker Retaliate against the U.S? « Climate AuditThe next question: the IPCC said that it would “reconsider” relations with UK scientists if the secret letter were released. Will the IPCC now “reconsider” relations with US scientists now that NOAA has released the secret letter? Or was the threat limited to the UK where UEA employees had previously solicited Stocker’s assistance in obstructing UK FOI legislation? Is there any principle under which IPCC threatens UK scientists, but not US scientists?
The letter sets out IPCC position in the wake of Climategate, with Stocker reassuring AR4 authors that AR5 would be as “effective as possible while at the same time emphasizing the robustness of AR4 findings”. The letter itself does not justify the elaborate tactics that IPCC used to keep the letter secret. Someone should ask Stocker to explain his threats.
Why Can’t We Get All Our Electricity from Wind?Very high wind penetrations are not achievable in practice due to the increased need for power storage, the decrease in grid reliability, and the increased operating costs. Given these constraints, this study concludes that a more practical upper limit for wind penetration is 10%.
Twitter / RogerPielkeJr: New UK study: 74% see human ...New UK study: 74% see human role in climate change, 44% see issue as exaggerated, 35% don't trust climate scientists
The Skeptics Are Thrashing The Alarmists In The Global Warming Debate - ForbesThe alarmist climate models say Antarctic sea ice should be shrinking. Instead, Antarctic sea ice is growing and consistently setting new records. When skeptics point out the record growth in Antarctic sea ice, alarmists creatively reinterpret what their climate models predicted and hope nobody notices.
This is why global warming alarmists are so afraid to engage in live, public debates. You can write such rubbish for the Houston Chronicle and most of your readers will never dig deep enough to discover the truth. But if you make such assertions in a live, public debate, you end up being posterized in a YouTube video that will last for all eternity.
Global Warming? Blame the TidesIf climate change theorists want to blame man for warming conditions at Earth’s north and south poles, they may need to start blaming the man in the Moon. Long-term lunar cycles may have more to do with such climate changes due to their effect on tidal patterns than has previously been generally understood.
Less is less: New York Times reporter’s take on climate change coverageNew York Times environmental reporter Justin Gillis talks about the huge problems associated with global warming in his lecture "Hot Copy! Journalism in the Greenhouse." The Oct. 16 lecture at Northwestern University's Forum auditorum in Evanston is free and open to the public.
People need more information about climate change to fully understand “how much trouble we’re in,” says Justin Gillis, acclaimed environmental reporter for The New York Times.
He says he has a beef with how climate change is short-changed in the media...
His lecture, “Hot Copy! Journalism in the Greenhouse,” is free and open to the public and will be at the McCormick Tribune Center on the university’s Evanston campus.Many newspapers devote only a few inches to a topic Gillis feels should be explored at greater length.
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“It just gradually dawned on me,” Gillis says. “This is the biggest problem out there."
He left The Post and joined the Times where he felt he could cover the issue the way he thought it needed to be covered.
"I was frustrated with some of the coverage I would read,” he says, adding that many stories on climate change are “just not long enough.”
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Gillis says the trouble he runs into is that most people don’t understand the urgency of the problem — “the idea that we are already out of time.”
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Another problem science writers run up against is false balance, Gillis says. In the spirit of fairness, they often give equal weight to fringe groups and minority viewpoints.
While this may help contextualize an issue — and give the appearance of balance — it also lends credence to theories that have been scientifically discredited, he says.
World Bank chief warns of global warming impactWASHINGTON (AP) The World Bank's new president says that he intends to make the impact of global warming on the poor a major theme of his work at the lending institution.
Jim Yong Kim was speaking to reporters ahead of the World Bank's annual meeting in Tokyo this month. He said that rising food prices and the recent drought in many parts of the world could be directly linked to manmade global warming. He said: "It's one of the issues that I am going to be very vocal about."
Kim said Thursday that poverty reduction should be the bank's primary focus. But he worries that global warming could shrink the world's arable land and hamper efforts to reduce poverty.
Could Controversy Surrounding Global Warming Cool Down? - US News and World Report"After Al Gore came back from Kyoto, President Clinton tried to sell it to the American people," says Ed Maibach, director of George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication. "In this case, Republicans fear that the kinds of solutions being prescribed are essentially going to grow the government and increase government intrusion into their lives, and that actually may well be the case."
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison planning green experiment on Hawaiian island - TelegraphThe billionaire said he will turn Lanai, the sixth largest island in the US state of Hawaii, into an environmental “laboratory” featuring solar power and electric cars. Projects will be set up to convert of sea water to fresh water, and small organic farms will sell produce to Japan.
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[Ellison] There, what we’re going to do is turn Lanai into a model for sustainable enterprise.
“The electric utility is all going to be solar, photovoltaic and solar-thermal.
“We’re going to convert sea water into fresh water. And then, have drip irrigation where we’re going to have organic farms all over the island.
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This week it emerged that he had bought his ninth mansion on the same exclusive stretch of coastline called Carbon Beach in Malibu, California.
He paid $36.9 million to former Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel for the nine-bedroom property, making it the most expensive sale so far this year in Malibu.
His property portfolio also includes mansions and estates in San Francisco, Rhode Island and Japan.
Larry Ellison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaEllison is a licensed pilot who has owned several aircraft. He was cited by the City of San Jose, California, for violating its limits on late-night takeoffs and landings from San Jose Mineta International Airport by planes weighing more than 75,000 pounds (34 019 kg). In January 2000, Ellison sued over the interpretation of the airport rule, contending that his Gulfstream V "plane is certified by the manufacturer to fly at two weights: 75,000 pounds, and at 90,000 pounds, for heavier loads or long flights requiring more fuel...
Ellison also owns at least two fighter jets, one, an SIAI-Marchetti S.211, used by the Italian Air Force, and he also attempted to import a decommissioned MiG-29, but was refused permission by the US Government.[39]
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Ellison owns many exotic cars, including an Audi R8, and a McLaren F1.
First major U.S. snowstorm, cold snap may harm some cropsCHICAGO (Reuters) - The first major snowfall of the year and a cold snap set to sweep into the northern Midwest could harm some late-maturing corn and soybeans crops and delay the harvest, an agricultural meteorologist and the National Weather Service said on Thursday.
Seen a Better Headline than This One from Post Carbon Institute? Not Likely | The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media“Obscure Expert Joins Little Known Think Tank to Battle Issues Most Prefer to Ignore.”
The gem in this case comes from a Santa Rosa, Ca.-based organization known as the Post Carbon Institute. It was announcing the naming of Paul Gilding, an Australian writer and activist and former CEO of Greenpeace International, as a “Climate & Business Fellow.”
‘GreenGrok’ Duke Dean Chameides on ‘Climate Conundrum’ | The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The MediaPeople rarely make decisions based on information
Fat polar bears chew on whale bones, chase dog | polarbearscienceA string of remarkable photos of polar bears at the Kaktovik whale carcass dump (leftovers from subsistence whaling) on Barter Island on the north slope of Alaska and a dog having some fun, by Wasilla photographer Bill Hess, posted at this blog here. Go have a look. Note the condition of the bears, nice and fat from the look of it.
U.K. Confirms Gas Role as EON, National Grid Open Heat Pipe - BloombergNatural gas remains “absolutely central” to efforts to curb U.K. emissions, Energy Secretary Ed Davey said, as EON AG and National Grid Plc (NG/) opened a heat pipe to boost efficiency at a gas-fired power station.
Early fall snowstorm cuts power, slows travel An early fall snowstorm plunged residents of northern Minnesota into winter-like conditions Thursday, slowing travel and causing power outages while smothering wildfires in the northwest.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for northwestern Minnesota, where more than a foot of snow was expected to fall through Friday.
Some schools canceled classes, including Thief River Falls and Stephen-Argyle, but students from other schools were digging out winter coats, boots and hats and bundling up for the trip to school in blustery conditions.
First Snowfall Causing Problems in Northern Minnesota and North Dakota These winds have produced blowing snow with near-blizzard conditions at times, along with wind chills in the upper teens.
Environment: "India and Pakistan can and should work closely together" by Interview by Naila Hussain[Pachauri] The IPCC has found that there is a large area of negative cost opportunities for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
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NH: You have gone through a rough time at the hands of the Western press! Would you like to tell us the real story?
RKP: I believe the media both in the West and in the East have a right and a responsibility to question scientific findings and knowledge. I feel that in a period when scientists like everyone else are under intense scrutiny, we need to stick to the truth without fear or favour. That is what I have attempted to do all along.
Climate change beliefs: Political views trump facts for someScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) — For some people, scientific facts help determine what they believe about an issue. But for others, political views trump scientific facts and determine what information they will accept as true. It's a phenomenon that is particularly prevalent on the issue of climate change.
These are among the research findings presented by Lawrence Hamilton, professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire, in the article, "Did the Arctic ice recover? Demographics of true and false climate facts." The article is available online now in the journal Weather, Climate, and Society.
Military To Defend America With $50,000 Golf Carts | Real ScienceObama needs to show a few sales of Chevy Volts, so has ordered the Pentagon to steal money from your children and buy lots of worthless, overpriced golf carts.
Important Reminder About Ice | Real ScienceOnce ice on the surface of a body of water melts, it can never form again. Particularly at high latitudes, where temperatures are far below freezing for nine months a year.
Down here at 40N, we observe this every year. Lakes and ponds melt every spring, and then never freeze up again. This phenomenon has caused the Colorado Polar Bear population to shrink to dangerously low levels.
Will Global Warming Make Scientist’s Brains Work Even Slower? | Real ScienceThe hottest April 16 in Massachusetts occurred in 1896, with temperatures reaching 87 degrees at Blue Hill and Lawrence. How does this crap get published?
Al Gore’s Inconvenient Greentech Truth : Greentech MediaAn SEC Form 13F from GIM reveals that of the 30 stocks in the $3.2 billion GIM Global Equities Fund, not one firm builds a PV panel, a biofuel, an EV, or a wind turbine.
Twitter / Revkin: @ClimateSilence #climatesilence ...
Study: Fraud growing in scientific research papers | Warmist Seth BorensteinWASHINGTON (AP) — Fraud in scientific research, while still rare, is growing at a troubling pace, a new study finds.
A review of retractions in medical and biological peer-reviewed journals finds the percentage of studies withdrawn because of fraud or suspected fraud has jumped substantially since the mid-1970s. In 1976, there were fewer than 10 fraud retractions for every 1 million studies published, compared with 96 retractions per million in 2007.
The study authors aren't quite sure why this is happening. But they and outside experts point to pressure to hit it big in science, both for funding and attention, and to what seems to be a subtle increase in deception in overall society that science may simply be mirroring.
Expert says acceleration of global warming is 'frighteningly quick': theparliament.comA high-level conference was told that the acceleration of climate change in the arctic is moving at a "frighteningly quick" pace.
Konrad Steffen, director of the Swiss Federal Research Institute, said that 2012 had been an "extreme" year for global warming in the arctic.
Steffen, a renowned expert on arctic issues, told the conference organised by the International Polar Foundation, "The acceleration of it has exceeded all expectations. It is quite scary."
Steffen, whose research has been studied by international scientists and experts, also warned that the economic malaise in the eurozone had "pushed" the climate issue further down the political agenda.
He said, "The focus is on the economy at the expense of budgets for tackling climate change. This may make sense to economists but policymakers have to realise that we need both."
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On the eve of the event, German glaciologist Reinhard Drews was presented with the prestige €150,000 InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship for his proposal to investigate how melting ice shelves could contribute to increased ice flow.
Jack Handy quotes“We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me.”
Climate change may force evacuation of vunerable island states within a decade | Guardian Sustainable Business One of the world's foremost climate scientists has warned that vulnerable island states may need to consider evacuating their populations within a decade due to a much faster than anticipated melting of the world's ice sheets.
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Mann, who is one of the primary targets for attacks by "climate deniers," said that there is still uncertainty about the speed of global warming as it is not clear what the impact of feedback mechanisms could be. In particular, he pointed to the release of methane that will come as the permafrost in the arctic melts.
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"The climate models tell us that what today are record breaking levels of heat will become a typical summer in a matter of 20-30 years if we carry on with business as usual. Not only will this become the new normal but we will have to change the scale because we will see heat and drought far worse than anything we have seen before."
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"I think we are close to a potential tipping point in public consciousness and what will tip it, you never quite know, but another summer like the one we just witnessed we will see a dramatic shift in public pressure to do something about this problem."
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"I am optimistic," he says. "The forces of denial will not go down with a whimper and as the rhetoric becomes more heated and the attacks become more concerted, we see the last vestiges of a movement that is dying. The effort to deny the problem exists will have set us back decades but it is still possible to avoid breaching 450 parts of per million of CO2 if concerted action is taken."
How to argue with 'climate sceptics' - Blue and Green TomorrowThe climate sceptic is a strange breed of human: irrational, intolerant and inflexible – traits that make arguments against them frustratingly difficult and painfully repetitive.
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- [Question for people who don't think that trace amounts of CO2 cause bad weather] What makes you hate the future so much?
...But please be careful of the lesser-spotted, extremely volatile and inherently nutty pollutocrat.
Transcript of press conference by Tony Abbott 4 Oct 2012 | The StumpNow, I want manufacturing industries like this to flourish and the problem with the Prime Minister’s carbon tax is that it acts as reverse tariff on Australian manufacturing. The carbon tax hits the costs of this company but its import competition is entirely free of the carbon tax: that’s why this is a tax on Australian jobs, that’s why it’s a tax on Australian manufacturing, that’s why it’s a toxic tax and the first order of business for an incoming Coalition government will be to get rid of this toxic tax.
Increasingly, we see evidence that this is an arrogant and out of touch government. There are reports today that the Prime Minister’s own power bill at The Lodge has gone up by thousands of dollars as a result of the carbon tax. The Prime Minister is completely oblivious to the impact of the carbon tax on households. She is completely oblivious to the fact that the carbon tax is adding hundreds of dollars to the power bills of ordinary Australian families and the fact that this Prime Minister thinks that the carbon tax doesn’t hurt demonstrates that taxes are just going to go up and up and up. A government that thinks it can get away with tax increases is a government that is going to hit you with more tax increases.
Cap and spade: Will California’s carbon market dollars go to organic farms? | GristBorroughs doesn’t know what kind of carbon her family’s pastures may be sequestering, but she says she’d jump at the chance to find out if and when California’s cap-and-trade dollars fund the research.
USHCN Resolves Their Temperature Problem | Real ScienceUSHCN has been doing some spectacular work cooling the past and warming the present.
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Having been called out on this, they have fixed the problem by deleting all their data from disk. All of the monthly temperature data has gone missing.
Al Gore Walks Away From Green Energy - TheStreetReading through the promotional materials he puts out through his company, Generation Investment, it is hard to tell whether his "Client Update" is selling investments in his Climate Solutions Fund or memberships in the Sierra Club.
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This goes on for 20 pages. But even Gore does not seem to be listening anymore.
Gore's company files a quarterly report with the SEC that tells a different story about the 30 stocks in its portfolio. His company's public investments in wind, solar, biomass and other alternative energy to combat climate change are practically non-existent.
...And if you want a piece of the natural gas pipeline game -- heavily dependent on the environmentally suspect fracking -- you can find that in Gore's portfolio as well with Quanta Services (PWR)...If Generation Investment is a bit gun-shy on alternative energy, perhaps it is because of its catastrophic brush with First Solar...According to SEC filings, Gore's company bought 440,000 shares in late 2010 at about $130. By the first quarter of 2012, the value of First Solar -- and just about every other solar manufacturer in America -- had plummeted.
Generation Investment rode it all the way down...
...Every year I talk to hundreds of people about their portfolios. Never does anyone say they want to be in alternative energy, whether it makes money or not. Wind and solar and biomass are more popular with people who invest other people's money.
Like pension funds, for example.
Gore's company is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in public employee pensions in California and New York. Generation Investment's fees in New York alone are $30 million over three years, reports the New York Post.
At least someone is making some money off solar. Even if it is only Gore. Do they give Nobel Prizes for phony finance?
Climate scepticism highest in US, Britain [and Japan]On the question whether climate change had been scientifically proven, agreement was highest in Indonesia, Hong Kong and Turkey (95, 89 and 86 percent respectively).
It was lowest in Japan (58 percent), preceded by Britain (63 percent) and the United States (65 percent).
Asked whether human activity was mainly responsible for climate change, 94 percent of citizens in Hong Kong agreed, followed by 93 percent in Indonesia, 92 percent in Mexico and 87 percent in Germany.
Dissent was strongest in the United States, where 58 percent agreed with the question, in Britain (65 percent) and Japan (78 percent).
UCR Today: 2nd Annual UC Riverside Climate Change Fair to Take Place on Oct. 13
“Because higher education provides the intellect and initiative to move this country forward, it is important that we set the standard for society to aspire to and train the intellectual community and the workforce to preserve this planet for future generations … and do battle with the causes of climate change,” said UCR Chancellor Timothy P. White.
Climate-change denial getting harder to defend - latimes.comSimilarly, Markus Huber and Reto Knutti of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich found by using simulation models that non-greenhouse gas factors could have accounted for only about 1% of the warming experienced since 1950.
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Glen M. MacDonald chairs UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and is a professor of geography and of ecology and evolutionary biology.
- Bishop Hill blog - Ten years of the Science Media CentreThe Science Media Centre is celebrating ten years of doing whatever it is it supposed to do and has issued a glossy brochure to celebrate its greatest hits. Prominent among these is, of course, Climategate.
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It's a pity they don't mention their work on the Oxburgh report, when they managed to wheel out a series of big hitters in the scientific world, all of whom were willing to describe the five pages of the report as "thorough". That one of them was implicated in wrongdoing in the Climategate emails and another in the cover-up added a certain air of unreality to the whole affair.
Climate goes off the presidential radar | Watts Up With That?[Romney] also talked about making the XL pipeline a reality. But the real zinger was when he talked about Obama’s choices on backing green energy companies like Solyndra:
“You put $90 billion – like 50 years worth of breaks to Solyndra … I have a friend who said, ‘you don’t just the pick the winners and losers – you pick the losers,’”Romney said.
California: Climate Policy Postmodernism (all-pain, no-gain for feel-good elitism) — MasterResourceThe California Air Resources Board (CARB) is all-in, damn-the-torpedoes relating to AB 32, the state’s 2006 anti-global warming law, even while acknowledging that it will drive up the cost of energy. CARB chair Mary Nichols confirmed the start of a statewide cap-and-trade auction system November 14 under which industrial firms will buy and sell emission rights for pollutants–despite receiving unrebutted testimony from manufacturers and business owners about the very onerous, and even devastating, impact of moving forward with the auction.
CNN Poll: Most watchers say Romney debate winner – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com BlogsAccording to a CNN/ORC International survey conducted right after the debate, 67% of debate watchers questioned said that the Republican nominee won the faceoff, with one in four saying that President Barack Obama was victorious.
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"No presidential candidate has topped 60% in that question since it was first asked in 1984," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
Another View: Climate change is about jobs and the economy | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregister.com[L. Hunter Lovins] OK, forget science; this is about business. Assume climate change is a hoax. Don’t go to Las Vegas on the odds of that being true, but it turns out that it doesn’t matter. If all you are is a profit-maximizing capitalist, you’ll do exactly what you’d do if you were scared to death of climate change, because we know how to solve it at a profit.
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If it turns out global warming is a hoax, we’ll make a lot of money. If it turns out it’s real — as Iowa farmers are now experiencing — we’ll make a lot of money — oh, and we’ll be on our way to solving the climate crisis.
Voters may care about climate change — but not nearly enough to make a difference | GristThat orange and yellow graph makes one thing clear: Among voters, that energy and passion is missing. It shows awareness and dispassion, meaning that elected officials can safely ignore the issue. People know it exists, but they don’t care. They’re not going to fund a campaign; they’re not going to march on Capitol Hill. No relationship, no cover, no fear. So no political clout.
Environmentalists Create Another False Claim About Climate ChangePeople have stopped reacting to constantly changing scare claims, so McKibben and others are moving the goalposts again. Now they claim change is unnaturally fast, but that’s false.
Gillard’s bill: $7000 a year to feel good about doing nothing | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt BlogSuch extra costs really hurt people who must pay their own bills - and what makes it even more obscene is that all that pain is for zero gain to the climate:
JULIA Gillard’s personal carbon tax bill for living in the Lodge is costing taxpayers an average of $7000 a year...
NY Times Dishonestly Shills for NSIDC Antarctic Deniers | sunshine hoursIf you go the press page for NSIDC you will see that Antarctic Ice Extent record is not mentioned until October 2nd, 2012.
How unusual is early October snow in North Dakota?Records going back to 1940 show that, in the Red River Valley and the Devils Lake Basin, the last time the area received early measurable snow was 62 years ago, on Oct. 2, 1950. Another notable snowstorm in those areas happened on Oct. 7-8, 1985.
The Blackboard » ARIMA(1,1) MC corrected: GISTemp trends inconsistent with 0.2C/decade.
Jean-Michel Giraud: The Nation's Capital Prepares for Hypothermia SeasonAs we walk by people bundled up in blankets in storefronts in the evening, we are reminded that nights are getting colder in the City and that, soon, these folks will be confronted with more serious decisions to get away from the life threatening cold on the streets of the District this winter. The Nation's Capital has its cycles as Congress and business activity ebbs and flows throughout the year, but the need on the street is always there.
...There is often a feeling of apprehension among service providers and volunteers in the homeless services community as severe weather is announced. Rapid interventions on the street by skilled outreach workers make the difference between life and death during the winter.
This amazing winter service upsurge results in significantly safer conditions for our homeless neighbors. Sadly, though, people do die outside in Washington every winter. The District only counts folks actually found dead on the street as hypothermia victims. Other jurisdictions, like New York City, include people who die in hospitals after they are admitted due to severe exposure to the cold. Some of us at the Interagency Council on Homelessness have questioned this practice. Confidentiality governing hospital care was cited as the main reason for the limited criterion but it would be helpful to know how many people die in hospitals because they have been exposed to severe weather conditions in the city streets and parks.
NYT reporter Justin Gillis Antarctic ice claims called 'a joke' by climatologist -- Gillis' polar sea ice claims called 'a total irrelevancy' & 'ludicrous' | Climate DepotDr. Patrick Michaels full statement on NYT's Justin Gillis: “Taking five year averages from the beginning and the end of the records is a joke. An actual scientist would regression-fit the linear increase in Antarctic ice anomalies (in square km) and second-order fit (because it is obviously a curve) the decline in Arctic ice using the similar metric (data are from Cryosphere Today). The trended gain in Antarctic ice is about 0.9 million square kilometers, while the (second order) trended decline in the Arctic is about 1.7. The Arctic net loss is about twice the gain in Antarctica.
Gillis' '25 times' figure is a ludicrous gaming of the cruel facts of geography, a total irrelevancy.”
Climate skeptics to once again get airtime on PBS | Watts Up With That?I expect by about mid-November, after yet another skeptic media event following this PBS Frontline report (no, I’m not telling you who’s airing it) both Joe and Brad won’t have any brains left to explode. This time it isn’t just one climate skeptic they’ll have to start a campaign against.
Twitter / CFigueres: Just met with new World Bank ...Just met with new World Bank President. #Climatechange top priority. "Have to do it for my 3 year old son"
Northeast cap-and-trade proceeds surpass $1B | HartfordBusiness.comOnly nine states still participate in RGGI
Politics: Romney has room both to attack and to fail in debate on climate -- 10/03/2012 -- www.eenews.net
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