"a celebrated French philosopher from the centre left assails the “despotic” politics of environmental fear"

Scorning the propaganda of fear

When a celebrated French philosopher from the centre left assails the “despotic” politics of environmental fear he should expect a dressing down from his climate change-conscious comrades.

But Pascal Bruckner has incited such fury with a diatribe against green prophesiers of imminent planetary ruin, the reaction has surprised even this veteran of the trans-Atlantic culture wars.

“The planet is sick. Man is guilty of having destroyed it. He must pay,” is how Bruckner caustically portrays the received wisdom on environmental “sin” and damnation in his latest book Le fanatisme de l’Apocalypse (The Fanaticism of the Apocalypse).

“Consider . . . the famous carbon footprint that we all leave behind us,” he writes in his introduction. “What is it, after all, if not the gaseous equivalent of original sin, of the stain that we inflict on our Mother Gaia by the simple fact of being present and breathing?”

Greens divided on whether to hit Obama on climate change - The Hill's E2-Wire

The environmental movement is divided over how hard to pressure President Obama on climate change in the homestretch of the 2012 campaign.

The contrasting strategies were evident in statements and e-mails to members that green groups released after Tuesday’s debate, which saw Obama and Mitt Romney battle at length over energy without once mentioning global warming for the second-straight onstage battle.

Alex 'Butcher' Salmond has destroyed Scotland – Telegraph Blogs

Today is the Scottish National Party conference in Perth. At some stage, SNP leader Alex Salmond will no doubt be crowing, as he is wont to do, about his success in transforming Scotland into the "Saudi Arabia of renewables". This is inaccurate. What he has actually done is transform Scotland into the Saudi Arabia of tourism, which is to say he has turned a once-beautiful country into a vast, inhospitable desert which no one in their right mind would want to visit.

Interesting article on Richard Muller

Richard Muller, converted climate change sceptic, still a maverick | South China Morning Post

Tomorrow, the University of Hong Kong will host a lecture by one of the most colourful characters in climate science, Richard Muller. T
...
Though he obtained his PhD in elementary particle physics, Muller's research interests span astrophysics, including the cosmic microwave background and supernovae, along with aspects of geophysics. He has espoused a theory that our sun is partnered by an undiscovered small star he calls Nemesis, "the death star". Muller has written a historical novel, The Sins of Jesus ("he slowly slips deeper and deeper into sin") and a short essay titled "Why Dumbledore is Gay" - on the headmaster of fictional wizarding school Hogwarts. Muller even opened a restaurant; you won't be surprised that the cuisine was "eclectic".

...Monckton's piece supposedly answered "Muller's propaganda", yet was rambling, inconsistent, and threw in debunked notions like the correlation between sunspot activity and temperatures.
...
Notwithstanding his conversion, Muller remains a maverick, ready to express views against mainstream climate science. "Is the Arctic melting due to global warming?" he pondered in a recent radio interview. "You know, the evidence for that is very, very flimsy. I'm not even sure it's true."
...
Interestingly, Muller is president of a company with expertise in fields including natural gas and shale oil.

Instapundit » Battery-Maker A123′s Technology Just Wasn’t Good Enough.

MAYBE SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE SHOVELING IN ALL THE SUBSIDY MONEY: Battery-Maker A123′s Technology Just Wasn’t Good Enough.

It is wind power that will send our bills sky-high - Telegraph

David Cameron's promise to control energy bills runs counter to the Government's own 'green' policies

The New Nostradamus of the North: The U.S. should not waste money on ineffective wind energy - There is more than enough of shale gas

The question Americans should now ask themselves: Why waste money and resources on inefficient, expensive, bird and bat killing, landscape destroying wind energy - when there is more than enough of cheap and clean shale gas available? (And solar power is in many ways comparable to wind energy).

Twitter / Clint_Wilder: GOP Rep. Neugebauer just told ...

GOP Rep. Neugebauer just told 500 enviro journalists that climate change "might be a natural cycle". Q&A should be interesting #sej12

Twitter / KHayhoe: @kate_sheppard according to ...

@kate_sheppard according to natural cycles, we should be cooling right now. Instead, we are warming.

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Much colder late football season ...

Much colder late football season this year than last year. Temps 10-20 below normal big 12 country spreading into big 10 next week, beyond

MSNBC's Chris Hayes Compares Climate Change To The Struggle To End Slavery - YouTube

The Ivy League-educated Hayes ridiculously compared the environmentalists' fight against global warming to the struggle of 19th century abolitionists to end slavery.

Edmonton sees first accumulation of snow this season

Last year, the city saw its first snow accumulation on Nov. 12.

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Brazilian meteogram as snow ...

Brazilian meteogram as snow in Chicago before Halloween! pic.twitter.com/JeNqKR2z

Twitter / MichaelEMann [suggests that if it's ever hot, dusty, or dry in Oklahoma, CO2 caused it]

@afreedma @pdykstra Well, this is hardly the first time climate-related irony has befallen James "Greatest Hoax" Inhofe http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/02/630211/in-oklahoma-its-so-hot-the-street-lights-are-melting/ …

Big Dairy Enters the Era of Big Data - Businessweek

the Dockendorfs went with robots: robots to help feed the cows, robots to help clean the barn, even robots that can milk the cows. The farmers used to spend three hours milking, twice a day. “Now,” says Lori, “we wake up in the morning, and the robots have already milked all the cows.”

In Japan, need of fossil fuels pushes climate change [hoax] targets to back seat - The Washington Post

TOKYO — With Japan’s oil and gas plants firing at full capacity, officials here say there is little chance of meeting a pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly over the next decade, a startling retreat for a country that once spearheaded an international agreement on climate change.

The earlier, ambitious target to slash emissions 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 has been overrun by a more urgent, short-term need: to burn fossil fuels and maintain a steady electricity supply in the wake of the country’s abrupt turn away from nuclear power.

Japan, still the world’s third-largest economy, was once the poster child for aggressive environmental policy. It chaired the historic conference 15 years ago that led to the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s first climate pact, and it pioneered clean technology, using decades of research to boost energy efficiency.
...
Japan has come to object to the Kyoto agreement because it doesn’t include the United States and China, which are together responsible for 40 percent of the world’s emissions. Japan produces four percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“Japan will not participate into the second commitment” period if Kyoto is extended beyond 2012, Masaru Sato, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in an e-mail, using the common term of a renewal

Cambridge climate change pioneer dies in fall

He earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California—Berkeley in the 1960s. During his time in Cambridge, he helmed Boston’s Kendall Foundation from 1993 to 2009, making it one of the first philanthropic organizations in the world to focus exclusively on climate change.

Doug Craig's blog

America created baseball, jazz and this particularly cruel and deceptive beast known as climate change denial. We can proud of many things in our great nation but the fact that climate change "scepticism first appeared in an organized and politically effective form" here in "the land of the free" is not one of them.

- Bishop Hill blog - Misunderstanding FOI

The problem with Moore's position is that it is based on a misunderstanding of what the purpose and effect of the FOI Act are. FOI has exposed corruption and graft within the government and civil service to the benefit of the public at large. This is what it was designed to do. In this way the Act's authors hoped to introduce a deterrent effect on the corruption of the civil service. Set alongside these significant gains, Murray's arguments about the loss to historians look rather feeble.

But what about his more substantive point about the "chilling effect" on policy development. It's hard to know just how many times it will be necessary to repeat the point, but let's just say it once again. Documents related to the policy development process are exempt from FOI. There is no problem.

More research required before you vent, Mr Moore.

One Mother's Reaction To The Climate Silence: 'I'm Angry As Hell And High Water' | ThinkProgress

The fact is, life in a world with an unreliable, chaotic climate means that we–and our children–are going to face some very hard choices, very soon, about who lives. And who dies.

NGOs warn displaced Afghans need help ahead of winter

More than a hundred people, most of them children, died as a result of cold or illness in refugee camps in the Afghan capital alone last winter.

Watch: Julianne Moore Demands That Washington Push for Sustainable Energy - Softpedia

[Moore:  "The planet is getting too hot, too fast.  Greenhouse gas pollution is like a heavy blanket, keeping too much of the sun's heat in.  And too many politicians are only adding more hot air."]
“We want a plan for a clean energy future, an end to global warming. Moms know about sustainable energy. After all, mother love in an unending supply and it keeps kids healthy,” the actress says.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein: “90 million people have no one to vote for” - Salon.com

The two main candidates offer more of the same, including drill baby drill on steroids; the policies of George W. Bush are very much alive and well in the agenda of Barack Obama, and we saw that in full view in the president’s competition with Romney for who can build more miles of pipeline and catapult us into climate change faster. It’s an absolute outrage that the debate did not include the fact that we can create three times as many jobs in the green economy. The Green New Deal, which is what we’re calling for, can put an end to climate change and at the same time we can put an end to unemployment.

Congressman Ellison Calls Opponent Chris Fields ‘Lowlife Scumbag’ During Debate

Fortunately, the moderator called for a break, and when the debate resumed, the questions were directed to the less provocative subject of Climate Change.

Walter Russell Mead: Another European Green Fail | The Global Warming Policy Foundation

The European Union is the world’s most dysfunctional policy-making body, and environmentalists are the world’s most dysfunctional policy lobby. Put the two together, and watch the fun begin. Like a string of firecrackers, Europe has been watching one green fiasco explode after another.

In a warming Arctic, U.S. faces new security concerns - latimes.com

"Does the Navy have the ability to go up and operate a number of ships, a number of aircraft, for a sustained period of time in this environment, where it's cold, it's got bad weather, it's got a lot of ice, and it's really far away from everything that supports you? What we found is that the answer is, not really," Gray said.

Do NOT miss this 3.5-minute video: NYU Bioethicist S. Matthew Liao "if you can give something like oxytocin to people, then maybe they'll be more willing to cooperate, to care more about the environment, care more about the big global collective action issues..."

Narrator: "Matthew also said taking drugs like Ritalin to enhance cognition may help with the global population problem, since there's a link between cognitive ability and lower birthrate."

Matthew says this is all voluntary.  Maybe give people hormone treatments to have "smaller children".  Also, maybe put on a "meat patch" like a nicotine patch before heading to a restaurant, to curb your enthusiasm for eating meat.

Human Engineering: Should We Change Our Bodies To Battle A Warmer Climate? - YouTube

HuffPost Senior Science Correspondent Cara Santa Maria speaks with NYU Bioethicist S. Matthew Liao about his radical ideas for combating climate change--through engineering the human body.

Flashback: Do NOT miss this article: Global warming solutions include drugs to help you write checks to Oxfam, drugs to help you avoid eating meat, genetically engineered cat-like eyes, and "human engineering" to make people smaller

Conspiracy theorist Michael Mann suggests that Gallup is showing high Romney poll numbers because they are upset at the Obama administration?

Twitter / MichaelEMann: @DavidGrann @7im Maybe Gallup ...

@DavidGrann @7im Maybe Gallup is upset about this: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/story/2012-08-22/justice-department-joins-suit-against-gallup/57215932/1 …

Winter Getting Set For An Early Onslaught Across Central Europe And Scandinavia, Simulations Show

To European readers, don’t let the warm balmy weather we are now getting fool you. This is just evil Mother Nature luring us into a trap. She is about to slam us with a cold blast.

1703 : Worst Storm In British History | Real Science

CO2 levels were a very safe 280 ppm.

Visualizing How USHCN Hides The Decline In US Temperatures | Real Science

USHCN thermometers show a significant decline in US temperatures since 1920, with 1921, 1931 and 1934 being the three hottest years.

NOAA decided that this simply wouldn’t do, so about a decade ago they started adjusting the data in the four steps shown below. Remarkably, each adjustment step causes the past to get cooler.

By the time they are done corrupting the data, they have hidden the decline and created a strong warming trend, with 1998, 1999 and 2006 being the three hottest years. Prior to corruption, 1999 and 2006 aren’t even in the top ten.

Expert: We must face global warming

[Global warming hoax promoter Chris Robertson, owner of an energy and environmental consulting practice] pointed to stats that show how the world’s temperature has risen exponentially in the past 20 years.

Julian Schreibman says he’s neutral on cap-and-trade emissions rules - DailyFreeman.com

Congressional candidate Julian Schreibman says he has no position on limiting carbon dioxide emissions through a market-based approach known as “cap and trade” after indicating support for the approach earlier this week.

Schreibman, a Stone Ridge democrat who is running against U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, for New York’s new 19th Congressional District seat, said the Freeman’s perception that he did support the approach was the result of a miscommunication and that he needs to see a specific bill to evaluate whether it would hurt small businesses and farmers.

Political science: Warmist junk scientist Andrew Weaver accepts position as Deputy Leader of BC Green Party

Twitter / AJWVictoriaBC: #bcpoli #yyj Pleased to accept ...

#bcpoli #yyj Pleased to accept position as Deputy Leader of BC Green Party tonight. @janesterk It's an honour to serve under your leadership

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: World Series Weather [Could snow in Detroit]

World Series Weather. Detroit looks cold enough so it could snow a couple of times Oct 27-Nov 3...

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Euro temps going into wintery ...

Euro temps going into wintery tank as the arctic presses its agenda. Coldest start to Nov in many a year shaping up...

Twitter / billmckibben: $1k prize offered for best ...

$1k prize offered for best silent film on climate change http://www.pissedoffpolarbears.com/PissedOffPolarBearsContest1A.html …

Twitter / Matulungin: The Green Climate Fund will ...

The Green Climate Fund will be hosted by South Korea as announced just now by the 24-member GCF Board on its 2nd meeting here in Incheon.

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: We have over 5K record lows ...

We have over 5K record lows or low maxes in US since August, and may see more coming Oct 28-Nov 10. Wouldnt know it given media

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: US Ice detectors constantly ...

US Ice detectors constantly behind other nations.. now show what other nations have been showing for days arctic ice over 2007 levels

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Cant help but thinking there ...

Cant help but thinking there may be some tom foolery on this matter given under reporting of anything that goes against AGW. See RealScience

More climate hoax cash for James Hansen: Mann, Hansen and Santer to be in San Francisco on Dec. 4 as Hansen gets another $10,000

The Stephen Schneider Award: Dr. James Hansen | Climate One

James Hansen: The Stephen Schneider Climate Communication Award
...
Dr. Hansen is the recipient of the 2012 Stephen Schneider Award for Climate Science Communication, a $10,000 award in memory of the late great Stanford climate scientist and former member of the Climate One Advisory Council. At the end of the program climate scientist Dr. Ben Santer will present Dr. Hansen with the award.

Friday Funny – why wouldn’t he dress up as Yamal YAD06? | Watts Up With That?

SuperMandia dressed up as YAD06 would even beat Peter Gleick’s 1978 self parody of a human windmill and balloon animal.

Why We Should Allow the Wind Production Tax Credit to Blow Away

It’s time that the Congress accepts fiscal responsibility and pursues a common-sense policy free from crony capitalism. The wind PTC should expire and wind farms should learn to turn off their turbines when no one wants their electricity. In other words, wind producers need to learn what the rest of us learned when we were in elementary school: we should stop making goods and providing services when there’s not a market for them.

Alaska argues polar bear not threatened | The Courier-Mail

Murray Feldman, a lawyer from Boise, Idaho, who is representing Alaska and the other appellants, argued on Friday that polar bears are doing fine and don't need the protection of the threatened status.

"Polar bears occupy the entirety of their historic range, with population at an all-time high," Feldman argued in front of the US Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

Gibraltar Chronicle - Gore seminar visit: no financial information available yet, says Cortes

Financial information regarding the overall costs of the forthcoming ‘Thinking Green’ seminar including the fee payable to the main speaker, former US Vice President and presidential candidate Al Gore, “is not yet available as the event has not taken place,” Minister for the Environment John Cortes said in Parliament yesterday.

Gibraltar Chronicle - Monckton throws gauntlet at Gore, ‘debate or get out of Gib’ says environmental sceptic

During a press conference at the Eliott Hotel where he spoke for over an hour without a single note, he reiterated his scathing criticisms of Al Gore and repeated his challenge first delivered in 2007, for a public debate in any format of his choosing, on live international television with the controversial environmental guru.

In his first ever visit to the Rock, Lord Monckton who has travelled the world probing, inquiring and asking uncomfortable, if not inconvenient questions regarding the claims by the world environmental lobby, declared that he would be closely following every word that Mr Gore utters in his seminar and that if there was any claim that could be interpreted as being fraudulent, he would be compiling a report for the relevant prosecuting authorities to consider.

CO2 evidently doesn't kill peanuts; US peanut farmers are harvesting a record-shattering crop this year

Farms Awash in Peanuts - WSJ.com

Peanut-butter hoarders can relax.

U.S. peanut farmers are harvesting a record crop this year, putting to rest fears of repeating the shortage that drove up prices over the past year and prompted some shoppers to load up their pantries with the spread.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week raised its estimate for the 2012 peanut harvest to 6.1 billion pounds, blowing through the 2008 record of almost 5.2 billion pounds.
...
On top of that, farmers for the most part used peanut seeds that are more disease-resistant, yielding a record number of peanuts per acre and a better-quality crop with more peanuts that can be used in peanut butter rather than be processed for oil.

Are CO2 molecules timestamped so that the Earth can avoid absorbing them after year one? Maybe 50% of emitted CO2 disappears from the atmosphere after one year, but it allegedly takes 999 years for the next 31% from that year to leave the atmosphere

Twitter / jeffburnside: One third of the CO2 your car ...

One third of the CO2 your car emits today will still be in the air in 100 years. 19% remains for 1000 years: Texas Tech Climate Ctr. #SEJ12

Flashback: The Case of the Missing Carbon -- National Geographic

Each year humanity dumps roughly 8.8 billion tons (8 metric tons) of carbon into the atmosphere, 6.5 billion tons (5.9 metric tons) from fossil fuels and 1.5 billion (1.4 metric) from deforestation. But less than half that total, 3.2 billion tons (2.9 metric tons), remains in the atmosphere to warm the planet. Where is the missing carbon? "It's a really major mystery, if you think about it," says Wofsy, an atmospheric scientist at Harvard University.

The Princess And The Pea | Real Science

During 2011, Princess McKitten had a lumpy climate, stuffed with too many tornadoes and storms. She complained to her mother Gaia, who delivered a dozen thick mattresses which buffered the Princess from those nasty storms.

The Princess then went back to Mother Gaia, and complained that there were too few tornadoes and storms.

Mother Gaia then banished the Princess from the kingdom for being a moron.

Another Ice Age? | Real Science

This month has set the record for fastest Arctic ice growth in history. It also has seen the greatest ice extent ever measured at either pole. The only possible explanation is that another ice age is on the way.

Ultra-wealthy climate hoax promoter Al Gore: Capitalism resulted in Sam Walton's family getting too wealthy?

Anthony Hilton: Capitalism gets gored by Al the campaigner  - The Independent

We were followed on stage at the British Venture Capital Association annual conference by Al Gore, one-time US Vice-President, now a globetrotting campaigner trying to mobilise the world to combat climate change. But the early part of his speech before he got fully into his stride on that was a scathing indictment of contemporary capitalism. First he highlighted the degree of inequality it was creating by pointing out that the half-dozen members of the family which owns Wal-Mart the supermarket chain have a wealth greater than that of the poorest 100 million Americans combined.

Al Gore Net Worth 2012 | Celebrity Net Worth

Net Worth: Stats $100 Million As of 2012

Maybe Al Gore should spread his own wealth around, maybe by writing a check for $1000 to each of the 100,000 poorest U.S. households?

Stephen Harper’s Tories downplay climate knowledge of new Environment Canada boss

OTTAWA-Federal Conservatives are downplaying concerns over Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s newly-selected boss for Environment Canada and the bureaucrat’s knowledge about global warming.

The department’s new deputy minister, Bob Hamilton, ran into trouble last Monday at a parliamentary committee when he was asked to explain what causes climate change.

“Wow. Umm. They didn’t tell me I’d have to answer questions like that when I took this job. I think that it’s – I don’t know the total answer to that –,” said Hamilton, before Conservative MPs interrupted to prevent him from continuing.

What is ethical energy and why aren’t the candidates talking about it?

To get some perspective on this exchange, I called Marc Morano, communications director of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, a positive voice on environment and development issues. Morano told me about his Climate Depot project and its current campaign, “Ethical Energy.”

The idea, he told me, is this: Limits on North American drilling, mining, pipelines and energy extraction only increase U.S. reliance on “conflict energy” from places like the Middle East, Venezuela and China, where human rights and environmental protection may be less than desirable.

Call for Action on Sea Level Rise | MiamiHerald.com

[2-minute video] Scientists and activists, standing in flood waters on Miami Beach, call for the presidential candidates to address sea level rise.

Twitter / ejgertz: #sej12 Hayhoe: "Best National ...

#sej12 Hayhoe: "Best National Academy of Science report that no one has ever read is "Climate Stabilization Targets."

Twitter / AMSPolicy: Hayhoe: Making people feel ...

Hayhoe: Making people feel good about themselves, not bad, is crucial to solving the #climate problem. #sej2012 HT @rachaelgleason @KHayhoe

Extreme weather - reinsurance profiteering ($82 billion (billion!) windfall to the reinsurance industry)

Since Monday's debate is to be in Florida, it might be worth a revisit to a Florida newspaper's investigation which revealed an insurance organization hosted a "study" which predicted increased hurricane damage, resulting in a $82 billion (billion!) windfall to the reinsurance industry.

The reality is that no hurricanes have hit Florida since 2005, the year of the "study" which predicted more hurricanes.  [Via DB]

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: The $82 Billion Prediction

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has an revealing article today about the creation in 2006 of a "short-term" hurricane risk prediction from a company called Risk Management Solutions. The Herald-Tribune reports that the prediction was worth $82 billion to the reinsurance industry. It was created in just 4 hours by 4 hurricane experts, none of whom apparently informed of the purposes to which their expertise was to be put.

Climate Attribution Achieved | Real Science

Until now, it has been impossible to link specific junk science papers to excessive amounts of climate research funding.

However, we do know that the availability of billions of dollars to fund climate science, loads the dice for academics to generate worthless, dishonest and misleading papers.

For the first time, we can specifically tie peer-reviewed junk science papers to the availability of junk-science money.

A Peek Inside The Psychotic Mindset Of The Climate Religion | Real Science

Unprecedented global warming kills trees, except for 10,000 year old trees who didn’t get the memo.
...
He must be confused. Colder weather is proof of global warming, and is exactly what they predicted all along. This new warm weather (cleverly disguised as cold weather) makes old trees rejuvenate.

Opacity of Hope: Obama broke FOIA promises | WashingtonExaminer.com

Perhaps the most useful to aspiring citizen journalists is Horner's nutshell-like treatise and "how to" for FOIA-based investigations. Horner's sage advice for the citizen journalist is a remedy for what to do when an application for a fee waiver is denied: "In the event your request for a fee waiver is denied and, objectively, you qualify, you have the option of promptly sending another FOIA request seeking copies of all requests for fee waivers that were granted by that agency." This recommendation has proven itself a useful strategy for many, including my own organization. But ultimately, Mr. Horner's parting words of encouragement to prospective citizen journalists on the FOIA is to "Annoy the Statists." It appears, at least in Mr. Horner's case, that he has more than accomplished this task.

Top Five Threats to National Security in the Coming Decade

The administration projects that the change wrought by a warming planet will lead to new conflicts over refugees and resources and catastrophic natural disasters, all of which would require increased U.S. military support and resources. The scientific community, in this area, cannot agree on what it will take to reverse this trend.

U.S. GAS: Futures Hit 2012 Highs on Weather Forecasts

Private forecasters are expecting cold weather to descend across much of the U.S. over the next two weeks, prompting investors to wager on a surge in gas-fired heating demand from homes and businesses.

WSI Energycast said Friday that a "sizeable pattern shift" will lead to a sharp cooling across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. The forecasts led to the third-straight session of gains in gas futures.

"Cold weather reminds everyone in the market that natural gas's main event of the year is the winter," said Tom Saal a broker at INTL Hencorp Futures. "You've got to like the market here."

Twitter / jorge_salazar: K. Hayhoe: #Climate disruptions ...

K. Hayhoe: #Climate disruptions to infrastructure, pub health services trump big 3: heat death, infectious, air

Twitter / billmckibben: At next debate, whoever most ...

At next debate, whoever most wants to be "Mr. Coal" should offer to eat a lump! With gusto! Because it's clean!  [Will McKibben eat "with gusto" any clean item of my choice?]

Global warming video, greatest song on Natures fury, tsunami video: Dont Kill Me!! - YouTube

It wasnt quite all that long ago
when this world was green and beautiful
but with the advent of development
all thats left is grey and smoky fuel..

Chris Hayes Compares Climate Change To The Struggle To End Slavery | NewsBusters.org

HAYES: I mean there’s one other thing here which is the fossil fuel industry. Opposition to it didn't just [inaudible] spring up. There was hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent because frankly, I mean, the amount of money that’s on the line, the only historical analog for the amount of money that’s on the line in terms of the fossil fuel industry is the sum total value that the slaves represented in the Civil War. That is the analogy you have to go back to. When you think about the current present value of the fossil fuel reserves that are on the books, the current fossil fuel companies, the last time that that much wealth was at stake was when the south fought the Civil War.

SMITH: Nobody suggested they dump the oil in the Gulf. It’s not like…

HAYES: I mean, no, people are suggesting, I mean Bill McGibbons says if you do the math, one-fifth, which means four [?] out of every five BTU’s that are in the ground have to stay there. That's trillions of dollars of wealth.

The sad history of climate policy, according to David Brooks

[Ezra Klein] So, to summarize: Addressing climate change by pricing carbon — an idea Brooks supported then and supports now — was a bipartisan project in 2003. It became a partisan project because Al Gore thought it was important enough to make a documentary about. Republicans began opposing efforts to price carbon, in part because they hate Al Gore. That left funding renewables research as the only avenue for those worried about climate change. Funding renewables research means funding some projects that won’t work out, and some that might make Al Gore rich. This led to bad publicity that tarnished the whole program.

The passivity of Brooks’s conclusion is astonishing. This isn’t a story of overreach, misjudgements, and disappointment. It’s a story of Republicans putting raw partisanship and a dislike for Al Gore in front of the planet’s best interests. It’s a story, though Brooks doesn’t mention this, of conservatives building an alternative reality in which the science is unsettled, and no one really knows whether the planet is warming and, even if it is, whether humans have anything to do with it. It’s a story of Democrats being forced into a second and third-best policies that Republicans then use to press their political advantage.

GHCN’s Arctic Adjustments « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

As you will see, every station has had the same sort of adjustments as the Icelandic ones – either the past is cooled or the present is warmed, or both. Most stations have had adjustments of a degree or more.

Video: Obama stimulus flop paid workers for playing cards « Hot Air

Another Day, Another Taxpayer-Funded Battery Disaster - By Greg Pollowitz - Planet Gore - National Review Online

And this is why manufacturing in China beats America. Because in China, they don’t pay workers to sit around and do nothing.
...
And here’s the official release from the White House on just how fantastic all of this is.

Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Each and Every One Its Own Solyndra

I drove through Indio / Palm Springs on Tuesday and was aggravated, as I always am, at just how few of the zillions of government-subsidized windmills are actually turning. Saying that one in twenty were generating power would be generous. I know the wind was blowing because a few of them were turning.

Obama Washington Wink-Winking like crazy at EPA | WashingtonExaminer.com

Here are just a few of many examples cited by Inhofe of costly new Obama-inspired regulations that EPA will impose on the economy after Nov. 6

Climate change: journalism's never-ending fight for facts | Leo Hickman | Environment | guardian.co.uk

What about "punishing" the journalists who persistently mislead on climate change? Is exposing their mistakes and wilful misinformation enough? Or do they need to face some kind of tougher sanction? If so, who would act as the judge, jury and prosecutor? Are ombudsmen a powerful enough deterrent?

Tax rich to fund poor: Jeffrey Sachs

New Delhi: Indian government needs to impose more tax on rich to raise resources for funding its anti-poverty and other social sector schemes, said renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs here today.

Saudi Arabia reveals plans to be powered entirely by renewable energy | Environment | guardian.co.uk

World's biggest oil producer says it wants to make a 100% switch from fossil fuels to clean energy

Beware George Osborne, we ‘environmental Taliban’ are on the march - [Pie-throwing warmist Mark Lynas] - The Independent

The Taliban reference smears all of us who care about the future. It is also the opposite of reality. It is not those working to avert dangerous climate change who are the faith-based ideologues, but those who deny the overwhelming scientific evidence on global warming, who use smears and dishonest rhetoric in their desperate battle to defend fossil fuels and stymie the progress that this country is finally making towards cleaning up its energy supply.
...
Make no mistake: the Taliban coalition in favour of sustainable energy is broadening all the time. Under the guise of the CBI, whose director, John Cridland, is a strong backer of the greening agenda, it now includes probably the majority of British business. And it also includes much of the Government, not least the entire Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Osborne should watch out – the environmental Taliban are everywhere. We have the Chancellor surrounded and firmly on the defensive.

Good news: Interior Department creating their very own climate-change committee « Hot Air

Because none of the hydra-like heads of the Obama administration’s ever-growing bureaucracy can ever be really complete without it’s own personal council of green-energy-promotin’, climate-change-science-pushin’ environmentalist types, the Interior Department is all set to get their special board of eco-advisers to help them inform their decisions on future policy-making, whoop-de-doo...But hey, by all means, let’s just keep growing the government’s merry band of eco-crusaders and endow them with enough regulatory fiat that no mere commoner will be able to challenge their ostensibly conservation-minded ways. It’s all for the good of the planet, right?

Hillary Clinton On Energy And Foreign Policy: We Need To 'Address The Very Real Threat Of Climate Change' | ThinkProgress

[Hillary Clinton] Our oil and natural gas production is surging

UN Carbon Declines to Record [Low] as EU Moves to Ban ERU Credits - Businessweek

United Nations carbon offsets for December fell to a record as the European Union proposed a ban on carbon credits from emerging economies.

UN Certified Emission Reductions for December fell 4.2 percent to 1.36 euros a metric ton as of 2:02 p.m. on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. The futures contract for March also dropped to its lowest-ever price, declining 2.4 percent to 1.20 euros a ton, and the December 2013 contract weakened 1.9 percent to 1.55 euros, also a record.

allAfrica.com: Sierra Leone: Journalists Sensitized On Climate Change

In order to minimize the effect of climate change across the country, Global Environment Facility (GEF) in collaboration with Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Tuesday sensitized journalists, civil society organizations and government officials on climate change and its project.

The training at the conference room of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security brought together over 20 media practitioners from both the print and electronic.

Be Liberal Or Be Branded “Anti-Science” - By Wesley J. Smith - Human Exceptionalism - National Review Online

Scientific American is an ideological magazine more than a science journal. In a current column, Shawn Lawrence Otto throws the “anti science” canard at those who disagree with the Science Establishment’s ideological views.
...
In other words, agree with our (liberal) policy prescriptions or be deemed an anti science rube. What rubbish.

Twitter / Revkin: Climate "deep uncertainty" ...

Climate "deep uncertainty" pool getting crowded @judithcurry http://judithcurry.com/2012/10/18/coping-with-deep-climate-uncertainty … @drgrist http://grist.org/climate-energy/in-a-climate-crazed-world-how-can-we-plan-for-the-future … @levi_m http://blogs.cfr.org/levi/2012/10/05/how-can-we-cope-with-deep-climate-uncertainty/#cid=soc-twitter-at-blogs-how_can_we_cope_with_deep_clim-100512 …

It's all so confusing: While CO2 is allegedly causing farmers in "many" unspecified countries to commit suicide in mass numbers, Iowa farms are "minting millionaires"

Iowa Farms Minting Millionaires as Rich-Poor Gap Widens - Bloomberg

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- At an auction in northwestern Iowa, 314 acres of cropland fetched $4.5 million this July. The price reflects a booming worldwide demand for grain that has showered wealth on some farmers and tripled land values in Iowa in the past decade. The surge is creating local millionaires.
...
Thirty minutes later the bidding stopped at $14,300 an acre, more than four times the average for U.S. cropland. That meant about $4.5 million for the Schoenemans, a pioneering Iowa family that owned the property for generations.

Farmland auctions in Iowa now resemble a dressed-down spectator sport with Sotheby’s prices, a reflection of the yawning divide that has opened in some of the most bountiful stretches of rural America. Farm earnings in the state and throughout the U.S. increased at eight times the rate of nonfarm wages from 2008 to 2011, fueling resentment and straining the social fabric of places with deep egalitarian roots.
...
Booming worldwide demand for grain has showered wealth on farmers by tripling Iowa land values in the past decade and setting them up for record profits this year, even in the face of the nation’s worst drought in more than half a century, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects.
... Advances in technology --mechanical planters outfitted with GPS can be 54 corn-rows wide -- have accelerated the consolidation in agriculture. “Same acres, bigger farms, fewer farmers,” Duffy said.

We're all going to die and no-one's talking about it - YouTube

Our planet is rapidly changing - scientists across the world are freaking out - farmers are getting hysterical and, in many countries, committing suicide in mass numbers - and yet our two Presidential candidates are fighting about who's going to pump more carbon pollution into the atmosphere

U.S., Germany walk back 1M electric vehicle goal | Washington Free Beacon

The Obama administration pumped roughly $5 billion into the electric vehicle industry. Sales are underwhelming despite the efforts, barely reaching 5 percent of the president’s target. Fewer than 50,000 electric vehicles were sold between the start of 2011 and the end of September.

Rather than admit its goal was unrealistic, the Obama administration subtly moved the goal posts and declared success.

In climate puzzle for crops, ancient tree offers clues - Khaleej Times

FULUFJALLET, Sweden - On a windswept Swedish mountain, a 10,000-year-old spruce with a claim to be the world’s oldest tree is getting a new lease of life thanks to global warming, even as many plants are struggling.
...
“There will be no nice wine from Sweden this year,” lamented Lauri Pappinen, one of a handful of new wine producers on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic, where grapes failed to mature after a cool spring followed by mildew in a wet summer.

The failure of Pappinen’s 2012 harvest was the first since he started producing a decade ago as an experiment on the same latitude as southern Alaska or Siberia.

Niche Modeling » The Creation of Consensus via Administrative Abuse

So consensus is ultimately created via administrative abuse!

Now its possible to see why blogs porporting to represent an authoritative consensus such as RealClimate, SkepticalScience and LewsWorld must delete objections

U.S. Winter Seen Harsher Than Last Year, Boosting Demand - Bloomberg

The coming U.S. winter will probably be cooler than a year ago, boosting demand for heating fuels such as natural gas, a panel of forecasters said.

Regarding our planet-healing Department of Energy, an update: "Deputy secretary insists on security detail so he can fly business class"

Deputy secretary insists on security detail so he can fly business class

Special agents tasked with protecting the Department of Energy (DOE) have blown the whistle on what they describe as a dangerous culture of “fraud, waste, and abuse” that includes drinking on the job, mismanagement of weapons, falsification of security reports, and “wasteful spending” that reaches all the way to the deputy secretary of energy.
...
The agents’ letter exposes a dysfunctional security office marred by corruption.

From wasteful spending habits to agents consuming alcohol on the job, the security officers decry a culture of “mismanagement” and cronyism that has led at least 14 “highly qualified and experienced line agents” to quit their posts in protest over the past several years.
...
Among the allegations is the claim that Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman has demanded executive protection during all international travel so that he can “maintain his business class travel status,” rather than because there are credible threats on his safety, the letter states.

One Capitol Hill source said that the cost to fly Poneman and his security detail in business class is extremely wasteful.

“Deputy Secretary Poneman has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer’s money as one of the most traveled administration officials because he thinks he’s too good to sit with the 99 percent,” the source said. “Not only does he owe Congress and the administration an answer for this, he owes us our money back.”

What centrally-planned, taxpayer-funded bad-weather-preventing jobs look like?: "they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies"

Volt no jolt: LG Chem employees idle | WOOD TV8

HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) - Workers at LG Chem, a $300 million lithium-ion battery plant heavily funded by taxpayers, tell Target 8 that they have so little work to do that they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies.

They say it's been going on for months.
...
"There's a whole bunch of people, a whole bunch," filling their time with card games and board games," one of those current employees said.

That employee says some workers are doing odd jobs around the building, including cleaning and maintenance, while others hang out in the cafeteria playing video games, Texas hold-'em and Monopoly or doing Sudoku or crossword puzzles -- all on company time. The employee said some watch movies.

NOAA Continues To Prepare America For The Big 2012 Lie | Real Science

2012 won’t even be close to record heat, until NOAA adds several degrees on to the measured temperature.

Bad Weather Caused By Man’s Sin | Real Science

Many religions believe that bad weather is punishment for man’s sins. The most famous example is Noah’s flood.

Today’s most enlightened academics also believe that bad weather is the result of human’s sins. They consider themselves intellectually superior to those ignorant religious people with the identical belief.

Dirty Weather, Clean Weather And The Effects Of 1960s Drug Abuse | Real Science

Earlier this week McKitten was complaining about the lack of tornadoes due to global warming, but others are complaining that global warming is causing tornadoes.

The morons should probably try to get their story straight.

Warmist Steven Amstrup: It's a "great discovery" that Arctic sea ice will reform when it's cold enough; he's also going to save polar bears via driving his fossil-fueled vehicle to deer and turkey hunting locations??

Steven Amstrup says it's not too late to save polar bears – and ourselves - Yahoo! News

Steven Amstrup, a senior scientist at Polar Bears International, has led a team of researchers that discovered that, contrary to expectations, even if all the sea ice in the Arctic disappeared, once the planet cooled back down, it would return.

"That was one of the great discoveries that allowed us to continue to instill hope in people that we could do something," Dr. Amstrup says. "Human nature is such that, if you think there's nothing you can do, you don't do anything. So this was a really important find."

That scientific discovery, published in 2010 in the journal Nature, is just one of the reasons that Amstrup was honored with this year's Indianapolis Prize, which is awarded every two years to a leader in the field of animal conservation. The winner receives $100,000 and the Lilly Medal.
...
Every month or so, he says, someone writes to suggest putting giant floating pieces of styro-foam in the Arctic for the polar bears. While both are white and float, styrofoam isn't capable of sustaining the ecosystem of algae and bacteria that grows on the underside of the ice.
...
Then there are logistical issues: "Two weeks ago, we had lost as much sea ice as 35 times the size of Indiana. How much styrofoam can we make?" Amstrup asks.
...
To change course will require people to change the way they live to reduce usage of carbon-based fuels, he says, citing things such as having well-insulated homes, energy-efficient furnaces and vehicles, and supporting businesses that engage in sustainable practices.

The biggest step, he says, is to find policymakers at all levels of government willing to entertain changes to people's throwaway lifestyle. "The critical thing is that polar bear conservation can't occur in the Arctic," he says.

Amstrup and his wife are building an energy-efficient home in northeast Washington, where they will grow their own fruits and vegetables. He also plans to hunt white-tailed deer and turkeys for food. Some of his prize money will go toward solar panels for their home and to replace their aging pickup trucks with fuel-efficient vehicles.

US on course to notch record year of heat

 A record-warm winter would be in line NOAA's latest report on global temperatures, which found September 2012 tied for the hottest September in world records going back to 1880.

Green Investment Bank Won’t Fund Construction Of Wind Farms | The Global Warming Policy Foundation

Britain’s Green Investment Bank plans to channel funds for offshore wind projects into facilities that are already operating and probably won’t fund the more risky construction phase.

Don Kraus: Dear Candy, You Blew It on Climate Change

I'm very worried about what kind of world my 15-year-old daughter Hilary will inherit. Sure, I am concerned about jobs, the economy and her getting a fair deal as a woman. Lord knows I'd feel better if assault weapons were off the street. But what does all of that mean if global warming goes out of control?

When I think of what kind of future she could face, with coastal cities flooded by storms or rising sea levels, climate induced famines and resource wars igniting across the globe -- well, the bread and butter concerns of this election seem relatively tame.

Power Hogs Targeted by France in Big Brother Legislation - Bloomberg

Heating a French home could soon require an income tax consultation or even a visit to the doctor under legislation to force conservation in the nation’s $46 billion household energy market.

A bill adopted by the lower house this month would set prices that homes pay based on wages, age and climate. Utilities Electricite de France SA and GDF Suez SA (GSZ) will use the data to reward consumers who cut power and natural gas usage and penalize those whom regulators decide are wasteful.

“It’s Orwellian,” opposition lawmaker Daniel Fasquelle said by telephone. “The law will create huge inequalities and infringe on people’s individual freedoms. It won’t work.”

Socialist President Francois Hollande is pushing boundaries of privacy and privilege in carrying out a campaign promise to reduce energy costs.

Chinese Company May Still Pursue A123 After Bankruptcy - Bloomberg

“A123’s bankruptcy is yet another failure for the president’s disastrous strategy of gambling away billions of taxpayer dollars on a strategy of government-led growth that simply does not work,” Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement this week.

Planning reforms 'totally ignore climate change', warn green groups - 19 Oct 2012 - News from BusinessGreen

David Cameron says Growth and Infrastructure Bill will unlock billions of pounds of new investment in energy projects

BBC News - UK experiences 'weirdest' weather

The driest spring for over a century gave way to the wettest recorded April to June in a dramatic turnaround never documented before.

The scientists said there was no evidence that the weather changes were a result of Man-made climate change.

Canadian expert says warmer, wetter, weather adding to extreme weather woes - Yahoo! News Canada

Sandford said for every degree the average temperature rises as a result of global warming, the atmosphere can carry seven per cent more moisture.

Global warming may give oceans the ‘sound’ of dinosaur-era

Global warming may give oceans on Earth the same hi-fi sound qualities they had more than 100 million years ago, during the ‘Age of the Dinosaurs’, a new study has found.

New research suggests that global temperatures directly affect the acidity of the oceans, which in turn changes the acoustical properties of sea water.

Seeing is Believing - Video

Atmospheric CO2 is NOT a pollutant.

“Hydroponic growers use co2 in their operations,” says reader John the 1st. “There are several great videos on you tube demonstrating it. Plant yield, root structure – everything – is improved.”

We would be at war

If a foreign nation had launched an attack on America to destroy its coal-fired plants, to shut down its coal mines, and to thwart its ability to drill for oil and natural gas, we would be at war with it. - Alan Caruba

Presidential Advice: Sea-Level Rise a Yawner — MasterResource

“My best advice to both candidates is to just leave the issue alone. Sea-level rise does not represent a national threat, and trying to do something about it through our energy policy would cause hardship without a discenible impact along our coasts.”

Richard Courtney: Empirical assessment of the warming effect of CO2 « Tallbloke's Talkshop

In summation, as I said, at present levels of atmospheric CO2 concentration additional CO2 in the atmosphere has no discernible effect on the Earth’s climate.

Devoted under-consumer feeds her friends a meal made of trash | Grist

She doesn’t use toilet paper AND she doesn’t replace her underwear? PASS.

The one good thing we can say about this woman is that she’s pretty close to climate-neutral.

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Weatherbell Tolling Coldest ...

Weatherbell Tolling Coldest US November since 02 and widespread early lake effect snow season this year. BTW.Watch carib for troptorm nxt wk

Interior Dept. creates climate change [hoax] committee

The Obama administration is creating an advisory committee on climate change to advise the federal government on future operations.

The Interior Department announced the new bureaucracy in a recent federal registry notice along with a call for nominations by Nov. 19 to seat the 25-member board.

The notice specifically states membership will be comprised of state and local government employees, non-governmental organizations, Native American tribes, academia, individual landowners and business interests.
...
The new committee will be chosen by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and will meet [via teleconference, or via fuel-guzzling and expensive travel?] two to four times a year.

Government may ease curbs on cheap Kyoto emission credits

The federal government appears open to the possibility of relaxing restrictions on the number of cheap Kyoto pollution permits Australian businesses can purchase to offset their carbon emissions.

Climate change target row | Islington Tribune

TOWN Hall chiefs have been accused of abandoning – without any public announcement – a target to cut CO2 emissions in the borough by 40 per cent by 2020.

But yesterday (Thurs) Labour environment chief Councillor Paul Smith told the Tribune that the council “had other priorities”.

"Dirty weather" T-shirt design contest entry for Fraudster Al's "Climate Reality" project: "Emissions from cars, planes and power plants feed a monster tornado that is ripping through the scene"

Dirty Weather- don't make it if you can't take it | Dirty Weather | Threadless Atrium

Emissions from cars, planes and power plants feed a monster tornado that is ripping through the scene. This looks like trouble.

Humans have become weather makers so we'd better be aware of the future we are creating. I believe that images like this have the power to help people wake up and that t-shirts can be great living billboards.

Twitter / ClimateReality: We’ve received over 100 awesome ...

We’ve received over 100 awesome designs for the #dirtyweather T-shirt contest – pick your favorite: http://ow.ly/eyLes

The Electric Car: An Idea Whose Time May Never Come | Power Line

The vision of the future touted by many environmentalists includes electric automobiles. The dream of the electric car is an old one; for quite a few decades now, electric vehicles have supposedly represented the future. Thus, a friend sent me this photocopy of a newspaper article titled “Ford Chief Says Electric Car Now Is Under Development.” The article appeared in January 1971
...
My favorite part is the conclusion:

The last successful American automobile powered by batteries was the old Baker Electric, which used a tiller arm instead of a steering wheel and was last made in the 1920s.

The car of the future!

Stopping the next great extinction could cost just $11.42 per person per year | Grist

It’s also about how much money it would cost (per person in the world, per year) to stop any species from ever going extinct ever again.

Fiona Rotherham: Was Al Gore Speech Worth $12,500?... | Stuff.co.nz

Tickets didn't come cheap with the least expensive costing around $800 and VIP tables went for around $12,500. Gore is said to have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to speak.
...
But mostly he talked about global warming. Like any good evangelist he labelled climate change naysayers as crackpots who weren't facing what he claimed to be the undeniable truth. He reiterated one of his favourite quotes - that 90 million tonnes per day of global warming pollution was going into the Earth's atmosphere as if it was "an open sewer".

‘The Local’: Munich RE “Profiteering From Climate Change Scare Stories Based On Quasi Scientific Reports”

The local writes:

Scientists decry insurer’s extreme weather claims

German insurance companies stand accused of putting the wind up American policy holders and profiteering from climate change scare stories based on their own quasi-scientific reports Der Spiegel reported on Thursday.

[...] scientists are furious, saying the insurance company has no proof to support the claim. “Most [of the study] doesn’t make sense, and it contradicts observations,” atmosphere researcher Clifford Mass from University of Washington in Seattle told the magazine.

Obama blew enormous amounts of our money on crappy cars that were supposed to prevent CO2-induced bad weather: More details

For Hybrid Drivers, a Gas Pump Allergy? - NYTimes.com

Data on drivers’ habits has been harvested by ECOtality, a start-up that is struggling to help build the nation’s charging infrastructure. Many say that a core apparatus is needed to spur mass demand for electric vehicles. In a multiyear $230 million project for which the Department of Energy is supplying half the money, the company is tracking use patterns for around 6,000 vehicles, mainly Chevrolet Volts and Nissan Leafs.

EV Project | ECOtality

In August of 2009, ECOtality was awarded a cost-reimbursement grant of $99.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to undertake the largest deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) and installation of charging-infrastructures in history – now known as The EV Project.

In June 2010, The EV Project was granted an additional $15 million by the U.S. Department of Energy. With partner matches – including Chevrolet and Nissan – the total value of the Project is now approximately $230 million.
...The ultimate goal of The EV Project is to take the lessons learned from the deployment of these first 8,300 EVs, and the charging infrastructure supporting them, to enable the streamlined deployment of the next 5,000,000 EVs.

To learn more about how ECOtality, Chevrolet, and Nissan are creating the richest EV infrastructure in history, visit The EV Project.

June 2012: Electric vehicles fall drastically short of Obama's 1 million goal - CBS News

(CBS News) WASHINGTON - The Obama administration invested $2.4 billion as part of its goal of putting one million electric vehicles on the road by the end of 2015. But that effort has, in part, stalled.
...
To get to one million, the White House pinned its hopes on 11 models of electric vehicles - including the Karma. Our CBS News investigation found that six of the 11 -- Ford Focus, Ford Transit Connect, Fisker Nina/Atlantic, Tesla Model S, Tesla Roadster and Think City -- either haven't made their first delivery, stopped production, or are already out of business.

Others aren't even close to the government's 2015 projections. For example, 36,000 Fisker Karmas and 505,000 Chevy Volts were supposed to be made. But current projections slash the Karma's 2015 number in half to 18,000 and put the Volt at one-eighth of the goal at 62,000.
...
Even falling far short of a million, backers say electric cars will take off as people realize how much fun and cheap they are to drive. Just to be sure, the president wants to invest $4.7 billon more tax dollars in electric vehicle incentives.

Hmm: New ad suggests that nuclear energy is a "dangerous fossil fuel" that we need to "move beyond" in order to address "THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS"

It's time to Break The #ClimateSilence: Help air this ad on TV! on LoudSauce

[30-second video] By funding this campaign you will put the voices of young voters on national television, demanding the candidates lay out plans to get off fossil fuels and address the climate crisis.

Duresny Nemorin, along with 200 other young voters, filmed this question during a march & rally in Tallahassee, FL -- we're taking it national to demand the candidates address their question.

At the 10-second mark, we hear this:  "Young people in Florida and across the country are working to move beyond dirty energy like coal, fracking, and nuclear. What would your administration do to move beyond these dangerous fossil fuels and address our generation's greatest challenge: [All] THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS! WOOOOOO!"

NY Times op-ed: "Suddenly, green tech looks less like a gleaming beacon of virtue and more like corporate welfare, further enriching already affluent investors..."

A Sad Green Story - NYTimes.com

Then, in 2008, Barack Obama seized upon green technology and decided to make it the centerpiece of his jobs program. During his presidential campaign he promised to create five million green tech jobs. Renewable energy has many virtues, but it is not a jobs program. Obama’s stimulus package set aside $90 billion for renewable energy loans and grants, but the number of actual jobs created has been small. Articles began to appear in the press of green technology grants that were costing $2 million per job created. The program began to look like a wasteful disappointment.
...Suddenly, green tech looks less like a gleaming beacon of virtue and more like corporate welfare, further enriching already affluent investors.
...The U.S. government wasn’t the only one investing in renewables. Governments around the world were also doing it, and the result has been gigantic oversupply, a green tech bubble...[Solar panel] prices have fallen by three-fourths since 2008. Manufacturers will need huge subsidies far into the future — as Bradsher writes, “a looming financial disaster.” The U.S. share of the global market, meanwhile, has fallen from 7 percent to 3 percent since 2008.

The biggest blow to green tech has come from the marketplace itself. Fossil fuel technology has advanced more quickly than renewables technology. People used to worry that the world would soon run out of oil, but few worry about that now. Shale gas, meanwhile, has become the current hot, revolutionary fuel of the future.

Writing in Foreign Policy magazine, Daniel Yergin projects that in 2030 the worldwide fuel mix will not be too different than what it is today.
...
All in all, the once bright green future is looking grimmer. Green tech is decidedly less glamorous, tarnished by political and technological disappointments.
...
Global warming is still real. Green technology is still important. Personally, I’d support a carbon tax to give it a boost. But he who lives by the subsidy dies by the subsidy. Government planners should not be betting on what technologies will develop fastest. They should certainly not be betting on individual companies.

This is a story of overreach, misjudgments and disappointment.

Strathspey and Badenoch Herald | News | Winter may be coldest in a century

Some of the snowiest and coldest conditions in at least a century are being forecast for the strath and the rest of the Highlands this winter.

The warning, as the first hard frosts start to bite, has come from online forecaster Exacta Weather which is also predicting some record-breaking winds in parts of the UK which could prove very damaging.

Review & Outlook: Electric Car Crash - WSJ.com

Obama's green energy industrial policy turns up in Chapter 11.

Warmist Chris Hayes: People who tell pollsters that they care about global warming actually "don't care"

Chris Hayes on Global Warming Complaceny - YouTube

[46-second video]  [Chris Hayes himself evidently doesn't care enough about global warming to sit down for panel discussions without refreshing, planet-killing bottled water within easy reach.]

Will climate change lead to more droughts? | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Some areas are predicted to experience more drought, others less, but the competing effects make it harder to detect and predict changes, so uncertainty in these projections is large.

David Whitehouse: Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature As Warm In 1775 As Today | The Global Warming Policy Foundation

Another piece of research using climate proxies has cast some light on the recent evolution of sea surface temperature in a region of the Atlantic.

Eugene Robinson: Why no discussion of climate change? - The Washington Post

Not a word has been said in the presidential debates about what may be the most urgent and consequential issue in the world: climate change.

Early Triassic Temperatures Could Have Been Hottest Ever On Earth (VIDEO) : World : Latinos Post

The study revealed that ocean water temperatures reached a lethal temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

Obama needs to talk about climate change - baltimoresun.com

Mr. Obama needs to wake up and recognize that addressing climate change should not only be a high priority for the nation, it ought to be central to his re-election message.

Bad acid trip: A beach bum’s guide to ocean acidification | Grist

Over the last 200 years, human pollution has caused the oceans’ pH to drop 100 times faster than it did in the previous 650,000 years. To give you an idea what the oceans are going through, try to imagine taking in the entire six seasons of The Wire in 32.4 seconds. You’d have 11 strokes.

Twitter / ClimateComms: Bad news for wine-lovers: ...

Bad news for wine-lovers: Drought, hail, cold conspire to turn European wine grape harvest in worst in half a century http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/drought-hail-cold-conspire-to-turn-european-wine-harvest-in-worst-in-half-century/2012/10/17/ab4fadc4-1850-11e2-a346-f24efc680b8d_story.html …

Twitter / ClimateSilence: Just a reminder: 6 months ago ...

Just a reminder: 6 months ago @BarackObama told @RollingStone that climate would be a big part of the campaign. http://on.fb.me/WFajrA

Activists: Put climate change on presidential debate agenda - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com

“Nowhere else is the reality of climate change more visible than right here, right now on the corner of 10th and Alton in Miami Beach,” said Christie Elles, an outreach associate for the Union of Concerned Scientists, who stood barefoot in ankle deep water along with about 20 activists on the flooded sidewalk next to the Whole Foods parking lot. “This is an issue the next president of the United States will have to address.’’
...
Harold Wanless, a University of Miami geology professor who has documented decades of sea level rise in South Florida and signed the letter sent last week to both campaigns, said he’s frustrated by Washington politicians who took the issue seriously four years ago but now want to avoid it.

“I know we are worried about 10 million other things but this is the one that is going dominate our next century,” he said.

Twitter / Chris_C_Horner: After my 4th related FOIA request ...

After my 4th related FOIA request EPA sends memo imploring staff to no longer use private emails for work. Want to avoid precedent of search

Twitter / Kenwardjr: The Obama EPA is the most ...

The Obama EPA is the most difficult to get information and answers out of that I've covered in 20 years http://www.cjr.org/feature/transparency_watch_a_closed_door.php?page=all …

ITV’s weird exchange of skeptic views - on the Alan Titchmarsh show | Carbon Brief

Some studies show that it is possible to increase the growth of some plants with extra carbon dioxide, under controlled conditions inside greenhouses. But when scientists have experimented with real outdoor conditions, the outcome is poor with average yields around 50 per cent lower than before.

Obama’s ‘Doubled Fuel Efficiency’ Con: "the (ethanol) number is multiplied by seven"

Obama’s ‘Doubled Fuel Efficiency’ Con - By Henry Payne - Planet Gore - National Review Online

In the second presidential debate, President Obama touted his MPG mandates as evidence of his commitment to energy independence. “That’s why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars,” said Obama at the Hofstra town hall. “That means that in the middle of the next decade, any car you buy, you’re going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas.”

No, you won’t.
...Because “in calculating mileage numbers to meet the federal government’s fuel economy standards, automakers are allowed to use the average of the gasoline mileage and the (ethanol) mileage for flex fuel vehicles. But the (ethanol) number is multiplied by seven to reward them for producing vehicles capable of using the alternative fuel,” explains the Detroit News.

Multiplied by seven.

That random number, bought by lobbyists, helps automakers (along with more credits gained from electric cars, and natural gas cars, and different air conditioning fluids, and “placing louvers on car grilles to improve aerodynamics,” and we’re not making any of this up) meet President Obama’s equally random 30 percent fuel economy increase by 2016. Or the “doubling” of fuel economy by 2025.

These are fictional numbers set by bureaucrats and manipulated by lobbyist dollars. They are a con. They exist only in Obama World. And in presidential debates where a president and his in-the-tank media willfully mislead the American people into voting for more and more expensive regulations that drive up the price of their cars even as they don’t deliver the benefits claimed.

Prof. Judith Curry on 16 year global temps: ' Nothing in Met Office's statement...effectively refutes Rose's argument there has been no increase in global avg. surface temps for past 16 years' | Climate Depot

Curry defends UK Daily Mail article: 'How does this refute Rose's argument? No statistically significant positive trend, and it makes it look like [warmist Skeptical Science] hasn't done their homework with the latest data'

The March NOAA Big Lie | Real Science

They accomplished these amazing feats by adding several degrees on to recent temperatures relative to older temperatures.

Obama Unites Global Warming Alarmists, Skeptics In Presidential Debates - Forbes

Global warming alarmists and skeptics disagree on many things, but President Obama has finally found a way to bring us together. We all acknowledge Obama is not being forthright about the reasons behind his energy policies.

Gergis hockey stick withdrawn. This is what 95% certainty looks like in climate science. « JoNova: Science, carbon, climate and tax

In May it was all over the newspapers, in June it was shown to be badly flawed. By October, it quietly gets withdrawn. The apology and press release are coming soon…right?

"The entire renewables sector, Mr Helm argues, has become an orgy of rent-seeking"

Climate change: How to fix it | The Economist

The system therefore relies on a panoply of subsidies which, as night follows day, has produced an enormous industry to compete for them—wind and solar firms, lobbyists, NGOs and politicians. The entire renewables sector, Mr Helm argues, has become an orgy of rent-seeking.

1899 Storm Lasted 28 Days | Real Science

The 1899 San Ciriaco hurricane was the longest lasting storm on record, and killed more than 3,000 people.

Your great grandfather’s SUV loaded the dice, and made this storm possible.

McKitten To Burn Massive Amounts Of Oil To Attack Big Oil | Real Science

McKitten plans to travel by motorized vehicles all over the country, attacking oil companies.

Send This Video to Everyone You Know | Real Science

[Obama] “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

“Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

Climate change comes before honeymoon for 'bride'|Life|chinadaily.com.cn

"We saw polar bears three times and videotaped the encounters. They are so cute. I feel sad the bears' habitat is under constant threat from the melting of ice caps," she says.

Fastest Arctic Ice Extent Refreeze Ever! (in 31 days) « sunshine hours

Today is day 291 in the Arctic. The minimum in 2012 was on day 260 – 31 days ago.

If you calculate the percentage of ice gained (the refreeze) 31 days after minimum, then 2012 is the fastest refreeze ever!

Arctic Sea Ice Extent has increased by 43.8% since the minimum was reached.