Al Gore: George Soros Should Have More Influence Over American Politics

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/al-gore-george-soros-should-have-more-influence-over-american-politics/

Time to Wake Up: Regional Effects of Climate Change - YouTube

In his weekly "Time to Wake Up" speech about climate change, Senator Whitehouse spoke about the effects of climate change for different regions of the U.S.

Surviving the Future of Climate Change: Saturday, February 2, 9 – 11:30 PM ET [Live Stream]: Scientific American

Join an exciting panel of scientists and leaders for a conversation on the future of the nation and the world in our changing climate. The Origins Project at Arizona State University is hosting the “Great Debate: Climate Change, Surviving the Future.” The panel consists of:

Jim Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Susan Solomon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NOAA...

Michelle Malkin » Solyndra-iffic: Energy Secretary Steven Chu stepping down

Chu will depart without fulfilling his goal of $10 a gallon gas, but maybe his successor can do a better job.

Climate Action ‘Could Halve Energy Firms’ Worth’ | JunkScience.com

“Oil and gas multinationals could lose up to 60% of their market value if the world cuts its carbon emissions to limit climate change, according to the world’s second-largest bank.”

Polar bears godsend for both sides of global warming debate - Winnipeg Free Press

[Zac Unger, who once dreamed of becoming an eco-warrior] also couldn't help but notice that, for all the histrionics of the global warmers, there wasn't much evidence that the world and all its creatures were on the brink of extinction, at least no evidence outside of hugely complicated computer models or the say-so of "big-hitter" scientists who appear on television with just-trust-me messages.

Falling EU carbon price should inspire greater mitigation efforts

[Ross Garnaut] The low prices raise questions about the effectiveness of the emissions trading system. Although controlled in quantum, use of offsets at very low prices from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has pushed prices even lower. Low European and CDM prices would, if uncorrected, introduce low prices into other emissions trading systems with which Europe is linked, notably Australia from 2015. Already New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme has prices close to zero through allowing unlimited access to credits from the Clean Development Mechanism.

Corals Surviving Just Fine In Warm Waters – Another Predicted Catastrophe Gets Cancelled

But now a new study published at the Marine Pollution Bulletin shows that corals are far more resilient than first thought. More bad news for the catastrophe-obsessed climate kooks.

Arctic Ice Growth Blows Away All Records | Real Science

Arctic ice area has increased by 10.5 million km^2 since mid-September 2012.

The press corpse continues to report this event as record ice loss. Leading experts say that the Arctic will be ice-free in a few months, or sooner.

Coldest January In Nevada Since 1955 | Real Science

The future of the world — according to former Vice President Al Gore

The last driver Gore talked about was the climate crisis. Resisting the temptation of saying: “I told you so,” Gore told the audience of how 2012 was the hottest year on record in the United States. There was $110 billion in damage due to climate-related disasters. Half the North Polar Ice Cap is gone.

Every day we are spewing 90 million tons of global warming pollution (the equivalent of 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs) treating our atmosphere like “an open sewer,” Gore said. “We are hearing mother nature’s voice very loudly.”

RI receives $250K to deal with climate change

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Rhode Island will receive $250,00 from the federal government to help authorities in the state address and prepare for health effects associated with climate change.

That's according to the state's congressional delegation that says the funding will come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
...
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says climate change is already bringing warmer temperatures that affects children and seniors.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: New book finds at least 63% of global warming was due to the Sun

A chapter in the book, Global Warming - Impacts and Future Perspective, published in September 2012, finds that at least 63% of the global warming of the past 400 years was due to an increase in solar activity. According to the authors, "The sudden increases of solar activity that occurred after the 1724 and 1924 solar dynamo transitions have been accompanied by sudden increases of average surface temperature of 0.2ºC and 0.34ºC after 1724 and 1924, respectively. Therefore, out of the total increase in global temperature of ~ 0.8ºC during the past 400 years, less than 0.3ºC may be of non-solar origin, in agreement with previous results." The authors predict a decrease in solar activity during the 21st century will result in global cooling of 0.64ºC over the next 100 years.

Scientific American article is a perfect illustration of the global warming farce: After Alaska cooled 2.4 degrees F. last decade, we are supposed to picture Alaskans "desperately" trying to "flee" global warming

Alaskans Try to Flee Climate Change Impacts but Find Little Help: Scientific American

...12 small, indigenous communities on Alaska's coast provide the most extreme example of how global warming can wreak havoc.
...
Three communities "have been desperately trying to relocate for decades," she said. "I'm just stunned by how challenging the relocation effort is."

If they've really been "desperately trying to relocate for decades",  why haven't they moved yet?

Flashback: Oops: After Alaska cooled 2.4 degrees F. last decade, super-scary new federal government report claims that the most dramatic global warming evidence is in....wait for it....ALASKA!!!

Holdren 1975 : Cheap Energy Causes Unemployment | Real Science

Obama’s science adviser says that Arctic winters will soon be ice-free, and that a shortage of energy will increase employment.

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Obama admin wants to grant permits for wind turbines to kill bald eagles

Kelly Fuller of the American Bird Conservancy has a stronger warning: "If you want to turn the public against the wind industry, building a project that kills a lot of bald eagles will do it."

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: Whats the difference between ...

Whats the difference between a warmingista and a polar bear? Polar bears drink coke at Christmas, Warmingistas drink kool ade all yr round

The Reference Frame: Steven Chu quits, misunderstands the end of Stone Age

But you shouldn't overlook the fact that the Stone Age lasted for 2,500 years, between 4500 BC and 2000 BC or so. It couldn't have been reliably superseded in a 4-year tenure of an activist Stone Age bureaucrat. The Stone Age became obsolete not because of some political plan, ideology, or wishful thinking but because of an unexpected invention that arrives at some moment but that can't really be planned....Chu is a smart guy when it comes to certain things. However, his understanding of the profitability of subsidized companies is completely wrong. His understanding of the process of invention and its drivers is completely wrong. His understanding of the human history is completely wrong, too. He misunderstands that certain deep changes in the society are sparked by technological breakthroughs – that emerge according to their own, largely unpredictable and politically unplannable, timing – and not the other way around. If I summarize these things, he doesn't understand how irrelevant for the progress of the human society bureaucrats such as himself are and have been. He doesn't understand how immensely modest a piece of nothing this small Chu of himself is relatively to the overall human ingenuity and everything it still has in store. He doesn't understand how humble he should be which is why he ended with this stunning, smug, arrogance of power.

- Bishop Hill blog - Bad choice of victim

"I'm a very bad loser. They chose the wrong guy to screw," explained David Holland, a climate sceptic who has taken the University of East Anglia to an information tribunal in the Climategate saga's most recent twist.

Coldest January In Utah Since 1979 | Real Science

January was the eleventh coldest on record in Utah, and the coldest since 1979. There is no evidence that winter temperatures in Utah are increasing or that snowfall is decreasing

Radical Idea For Energy Secretary | Real Science

Instead of picking an incompetent left-wing political activist, how about choosing someone who actually knows something about energy – and has the country’s best interests at heart.

Election to be a referendum on carbon tax, economic management, Abbott says

“The coming election will be a referendum on the carbon tax. Above all, it will be a referendum on economic management,” Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said in Thursday’s National Press Club address.

The key to the meaning of Keystone XL-Chrystia Freeland | Reuters

If you think oil is like tobacco, it is a strictly noxious commodity, which seriously harms its users and those around them. We should stop consuming it at once and at all costs. But if you think oil is like red meat, you take a more nuanced view. For the health of the planet, we should find greener alternatives to it whenever we can, but used wisely and in moderation it has an honorable role in the 21st-century economy.
...For the Al Gore wing of the Democratic Party, it has become a symbolic battle in the fight to save the planet; for the Joe Biden wing, Keystone and the unconventional oil revolution are a source of the middle-class jobs many feared modern economies could no longer provide.

The pipeline is also a litmus test for what you think is the most important problem in the early 21st century.

Turn on, plug in, drop out: An electric car manifesto | Grist

Remember a few years ago, when flat-screen TVs became cheaper, and no one bought the old CRT clunkers anymore? It’s like that. The tipping point is getting closer. Bye-bye internal combustion, and good riddance...I still buy gas [ie "use crack"--see below] occasionally, since the Volt uses gasoline for long-distance trips...“Crack is too expensive,” says the crack addict, “so we should solve this problem by opening up more sources of crack.” Yes, my SUV-driving friend — that is what your argument sounds like to me.

New Research Blows Climate Science Wide Open

THE world’s great forests have long been recognised as the lungs of the earth, but the science establishment has been rocked by claims that trees may also be the heart of its climate. Not only do trees fix carbon and produce oxygen; a new and controversial paper says they collectively unleash forces powerful enough to drive global wind patterns and are a core feature in the circulation of the climate system.

US May Slow Green Energy Gravy Train | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

Cuts and a decade of stagnation loom ahead for renewed clean energy funding.

Twitter / JeffDSachs: In New Orleans to discuss ...

In New Orleans to discuss low-carbon energy to head off more climate disasters. US has vast solar and wind potential. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/september/offshore-wind-energy-091412.html …

Uh oh: In New Zealand, the price of carbon dioxide hoax credits fell to 14 cents a ton last month

Carbon credit price meltdown | Stuff.co.nz

The cost of carbon credits fell to just 14 cents a tonne late last month, taking the annualised cost imposed on New Zealand business well below $10 million.

It is a far cry from the $25 a tonne forecast when the emissions trading scheme (ETS) was created.

The ETS, which mirrored schemes overseas, was designed to put a price on carbon to encourage reduced emissions of greenhouse gases. But carbon prices have collapsed, partly due to the economic crisis in Europe, and partly due to ETS changes designed to reduce the cost to business and keep the New Zealand economy competitive.

At 14 cents a tonne, the cost to New Zealand businesses has now become insignificant. Some market sources wonder if the costs of running the ETS are now greater than the cost to businesses of buying the carbon credits they need to surrender under the scheme.

Westpac's carbon dealing desk said certain imported European carbon credits can now be bought for 28 cents and emitters have to surrender only one credit each year for every two tonnes of carbon they emit.
...
Just how high the cost of a single carbon credit should be is unknown, but Terry said former United Nations' climate chief, Yvo de Boer, recently said he believes the European Union needs to quickly boost its carbon price to about € 150 ($240) a tonne, if it is to meet its objective of reducing emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. "Compared to this, present New Zealand pricing seems to be in make-believe land," he said.

You tell 'em, Al!: Al Gore (a guy who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, owns multiple mansions, and is on the Apple board of directors) warns us that people with money have too much power

As world spins faster toward trouble, Gore claims optimism

Not only is the world facing job-killing technology, overpopulated cities and global warming, American democracy has been weakened by the “suffocating control” of corporate elites, Gore writes.

Hottest year ever update: After subfreezing week in Glendale, Arizona, arborist "estimates that 83 percent of more than 13,000 trees in the city’s parks were injured"

Cold snap isn’t over for trees in Phoenix area

Pocketbooks may get a reminder of the cold snap, too.

Glendale arborist and horticulturist Kandy Van Meeteren estimates that 83 percent of more than 13,000 trees in the city’s parks were injured. She estimates the city may lose about 1,700 trees in the next year, which could run up a $425,000 tab to replace.

Yeah, right: NY Times warmist Justin Gillis claims that he "sometimes will read through hundreds of scientific papers trying to discern if there is consensus in the scientific community about a particular phenomenon before he decides to write about it"

New York Times reporter urges greater climate awareness in Bar Harbor talk

The public needs to demand more action from their governmental leaders on the issue, he said, and it needs to demand better coverage of the issue from the media.

The scope of the implications of climate change runs the gamut — from fires to powerful storms to bug infestations, he said.
...
For most reporters the issue has proven to be overly complicated and too easily muddled by people who have economic or political motives for casting doubt that the climate is changing and that human carbon emissions may be to blame, he said. That is why he focuses on objective scientific research on the issue when he reports for the Times, he said.
...He said he sometimes will read through hundreds of scientific papers trying to discern if there is consensus in the scientific community about a particular phenomenon before he decides to write about it.

That scientific grounding in his reporting, he said, gives him the leverage to write objectively about the issue without falling prey to the “false balance” that has often accompanied climate change stories. False balance, he said, is the need some media outlets feel they have to include differing opinions in their stories, even if those opinions are not based in science and are far outnumbered by those opinions that are.

“The climate deniers will want to confuse you about this,” Gillis said.
...
“We’re in 1925 on climate science, unfortunately,” Gillis said. “This [climate change denial] position is out there, it’s having this political influence. It’s scientifically discredited and illegitimate to say, ‘There is no problem.’

“Now, if you want to scientifically say, ‘We don’t really know how big the problem is,’ that’s completely different,” Gillis continued. “That’s a valid argument. But to say there is no problem is just disproven, so I treat it as what it is. I treat it as this kind of strange, curious political argument in quasi-scientific clothing.”

Professor John McAneney, the director of Risk Frontiers: "This whole thing about climate change being responsible for an increase in extreme weather, or natural disasters, is just a fiction really."

Climate change signals raining down but proof will take centuries | The Grenfell Record

Professor John McAneney, the director of Risk Frontiers, an independent research group funded mostly by the insurance industry, says that based on a database of natural hazard events in Australia, including some dating back to 1803, "there has been no increase in the frequency of natural hazard events since 1950".

But what of the spiralling insurance claims in the wake of hailstorms, floods, cyclones (think Yasi at $1.4 billion) and bushfires ($4 billion for Victoria's Black Saturday firestorms)?

"What we can see very clearly is that when this dataset … is corrected for the increases in numbers of buildings at risk and their value, no long term trend remains," Professor McAneney said.

''It is indisputable that the rising toll of natural disasters is due to more people and assets at risk."

He said US hurricane modelling to identify a signal climate change is contributing to storm strength suggests it could be a while before the data is definitive. Averaging 18 different climate models, "it's going to take 260 years", he said.

"This whole thing about climate change being responsible for an increase in extreme weather, or natural disasters, is just a fiction really."

1970 Cyclone Killed 300,000 People And Had A 35 Foot Storm Surge | Real Science

Bloomberg says that the 12 foot storm surge from Sandy proves global warming.

1950 Shock News : Pine Beetle Infestation Of “Alarming Proportions” | Real Science

Spokane Daily Chronicle - Dec 29, 1950

1953 Global Weirding : US Wracked By Tornadoes And Drought From Coast To Coast – As Floods Killed Thousands In England, Belgium And Holland | Real Science

18 Jun 1953 – DEATH TOLL IN TORNADO 91

1899 : 45 Foot Storm Surge In Australia | Real Science

The Category 5 cyclone was a monster–with sustained winds in excess of 175 mph and a central pressure between 880 and 914 mb. Mahina killed at least 307 people, mostly on pearling ships, and was the deadliest cyclone in Australian history.

1876 : Cyclone Killed 200,000 People With A 40 Foot Storm Surge | Real Science

The Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 (October 29 – November 1, 1876) was one of the deadliest cyclones in history.

1969 : Ehrlich Wanted To Poison The Food And Water Supply | Real Science

LA Times' Dan Turner on Al Gore receiving $100 million in oil-soaked cash: I just remembered that taking oil money is actually not that big a deal

Al Gore's sale to Big Oil not a blow to climate crusade - latimes.com

...As for Gore's crude-soaked cash, it's a minor, if disappointing, distraction.

More outright fraud from fraudster Al Gore: "Roughly a quarter of the 90 million tons of global warming pollution... each day will still linger there – still trapping heat – more than 10,000 years from now."

The Future, By Al Gore - Reviews - Books - The Independent

The discussion is framed in terms of a timescale far, far beyond any normal policy horizon. "Roughly a quarter of the 90 million tons of global warming pollution... each day will still linger there – still trapping heat – more than 10,000 years from now."

Henry Waxman: Carbon Tax Is "Best Legislative Option"

Waxman made the case that putting a price on carbon could actually appeal to Republicans and private sector business leaders.

"Putting a price on carbon is a very important way to give an incentive to the private sector to develop technologies and take actions through market incentives through which they'll benefit," said Waxman.  [Question:  If all but a tiny fringe allegedly believe that CO2 may cause our grandchildren to die in fiery floods, why isn't that already sufficient "incentive"?]

Oil sands pollution: Why industry wants the carbon tax Harper hates | Energy | News | Financial Post

“The world is monetizing carbon [dioxide fraud],” said Daniel Gagnier, president of the Energy Policy Institute of Canada, an advocacy group funded by business. “If a country looks at Canada and says your energy exports are too carbon-intensive, then it becomes an economic competitiveness issue.”

Nissan, NRG Plan U.S. Fast-Charger Network - Bloomberg

There are currently about 160 U.S. rapid chargers, the companies said. Princeton, New Jersey-based NRG is spending about $150 million to set up chargers in the U.S. [How much is that per electric car?], through its eVgo subsidiary.

Fair-and-balanced: To discuss the climate hoax, NPR's "Science" Friday invites four guests, 100.0% of which are warmists (includes disgraced hockey stick promoter Michael Mann)

Are We Losing the Race Against Climate Change?

China burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined--and has 300 more coal plants in the works. But China also leads the world in solar panel exports and wind farms, and has a national climate change policy in place. Is the U.S. falling behind on climate? Ira Flatow and guests discuss how the world is tackling global warming--with or without us--and what it might take to change the climate on Capitol Hill.

Followup question: Just exactly what is Henry Waxman doing on a show called "Science" Friday?

Revkin: "In Wolverine climate listing, a good law, ESA, was torqued to force fed scientists to spend time/$ on abundant species"

Twitter / Revkin: In Wolverine climate listing, ...

In Wolverine climate listing, a good law, ESA, was torqued to force fed scientists to spend time/$ on abundant species. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/9561/0

Twitter / Revkin: @Revkin Via @roamnjoe fine ...

@Revkin Via @roamnjoe fine story on how ruling with ban trapping but not achieve enviro goal of using ESA to cut CO2: http://missoulian.com/news/local/feds-say-wolverines-need-protection-cite-climate-change/article_b88c7c84-6c7d-11e2-a707-001a4bcf887a.html … …

Twitter / Revkin: I'd love @roamnjoe reaction ...

I'd love @roamnjoe reaction to efforts to use #ESA to conserve abundant wolverines on basis of #AGW https://twitter.com/Revkin/status/297690121979981824 … (for @dotearth)

Hottest year ever update: Severe frost strikes Kuwait

Farmers seek compensation as frost damages vegetables

KUWAIT: About 60 to 70 percent of some farms in Wafra were affected or damaged by the severe frost in the past few weeks in some areas of Kuwait. The frost spoiled tens of tons of tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables and caused heavy losses to the farmers. A number of farm owners affected by the frost said they were waiting for the government and the National Assembly Council to compensate them for the heavy losses that they have incurred.

Warmist Paul Narguizian: “In some places, it’s getting colder and we’re seeing global cooling and in some places warmer.”

Climate change discussed at Conejo science talk » Ventura County Star

[Paul] Narguizian, associate professor of biological science and science education at California State University, Los Angeles. “In some places, it’s getting colder and we’re seeing global cooling and in some places warmer.”
...
“The real issue I’m discussing is ocean acidification,” Narguizian said. “The accumulation of CO2 is having an impact on the oceans and the buildup of acid. Ocean acid has nothing to do with climate change per se, but it’s a diagnostic tool for us.”
...
“We’re beginning to see that humans are increasing these gases and that’s the real issue,” he said. “Greenhouse gases stabilize the climate, but too much of them can destabilize it again.”

Damn Pielke Jr's bullshit button, full speed ahead: On his way out the door, Steven Chu invokes disasters loss trends as an indication of human-caused climate change

Letter from Secretary Steven Chu to Energy Department Employees Announcing His Decision Not to Serve a Second Term | Department of Energy

During the three decades from 1980 to 2011, the number of violent storms, floods, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, as tabulated by the reinsurance company Munich Re, has increased more than three-fold. They also estimate that the financial losses follow a trend line that has gone from $40 billion to $170 billion dollars per year...A few short decades later, we don’t want our children to ask, “What were our parents thinking? Didn’t they care about us?”

Flashback: Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: A Handy Bullshit Button on Disasters and Climate Change

With this post I am creating a handy bullshit button on this subject (pictured above). Anytime that you read claims that invoke disasters loss trends as an indication of human-caused climate change, including the currently popular "billion dollar disasters" meme, you can simply call "bullshit" and point to the IPCC SREX report.

Monsanto chief doesn't seem all worked up about global warming: His best scientists said "There's enough evidence to suggest that it's getting warmer"

Boss Talk: Monsanto Reaps Growth Amid Criticism - WSJ.com

WSJ: To what extent are you worried about a changing climate, and its effects on agriculture and Monsanto specifically?

Mr. Grant: We took a look at this three or four years ago. We brought our brightest scientists together and asked them, climate change: fact or fiction? And then, what would the effect be in agriculture in general and our business specifically?

The conclusions that came back were, 'There's definitely something there. This isn't an anomaly. There's enough evidence to suggest that it's getting warmer.' For agriculture that's going to absolutely present challenges, at the very time we need to produce more, it's an environment that's heated. In the much longer term, we're going to have to focus on breeding to accommodate those temperature shifts.

BREAKING: an encouraging admission of lower climate sensitivity by a ‘hockey team’ scientist, along with new problems for the IPCC | Watts Up With That?

UPDATE: Annan now suggests the IPCC “is in a bit of a pickle”, see below.

UPDATE2: Title has been changed to reflect Annan’s new essay, suggesting lying for political purposes inside the IPCC.

Harvard professor has it right: U.S. climate push requires intense grassroots support around ‘cap-and-dividend’ bill | Grist

Any company introducing coal, oil, or natural gas into the U.S. economy would first need a permit obtained at auction. The auction money would then be directly rebated to all U.S. citizens through monthly, equal-sized checks. These checks — or dividends — would protect all but the richest, most energy-consuming households from harm as the price of dirty energy and related products rose under a carbon cap.  [So all but the richest get paid enough that they don't have to change their lifestyles, and the richest are rich enough so that they also don't have to change their lifestyles, and this scheme alters our lifestyles so drastically that CO2-induced bad weather still gets prevented?]

California: Political insiders start firm targeting cap-and-trade cash -- 02/01/2013 -- www.eenews.net

A group of people with ties to California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), the state Legislature and several key agencies yesterday announced that they have launched a new advocacy firm that will be focused in large part on helping businesses, tech firms and investors access bounty from the state's carbon reduction program.

Hypocrite Gore Targets Fox News But Is OK with Oily Al-Jazeera

After praising the integrity, independence and journalistic standards of foreign oil-backed anti-American Al Jazeera, the former Vice President took a swipe at Fox News Channel.

Right-wingers want to teach kids that climate change is a fairy tale | Grist

In a way, these kinds of laws seem like a last-ditch effort by desperate and backward-thinking plutocrats who are terrified of science and of broad public access to information via new technologies. Not that it makes them any less horrifying

Junk Science: Global Warming Models Got It Wrong, Say Researchers - Investors.com

Environment: The global warming models, as we have said repeatedly, are hopelessly flawed. Earth is not going to heat up as they have projected. Scientific research out of Norway confirms this.

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, maybe the most hysterical organization ever established, has predicted temperatures to rise by 3 degrees Celsius by 2050 if by then, carbon dioxide levels double
...
Predictions of doom have turned out to be nothing more than madness...the global warming panic is not about saving the planet, but is instead an effort to punish developed nations in the West that the political left believes are too rich relative to the rest of the world, and to increase the ruling class' power.)
...
Despite the warnings, our eyes tell us that life on Earth is much as it was before the CO2 alarms were sounded.

Our models say that in 10, 20, even 50 years, the world, if left alone, will still be about the same as it is today.

EV sales off to slow start in 2013 | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com

Electric vehicles and plug-in electric hybrids are off to a tough start in January after a disappointing 2012.

2 Oakland County senior citizens found dead outside from hypothermia - theoaklandpress.com

Virginia Hayes and Dean Fine died in the cold, in two different cities, within the same hour Thursday.

Rooftop Wind Turbines Fail at Toledo Government Center, Taxpayers Stuck with Bill | Heartlander Magazine

Renewable energy advocates claimed the $224,300 wind turbines would save taxpayers money.
...
Even before the turbines stopped spinning, however, there were ominous signs the renewable energy advocates could not back up their promises. For example, even spinning at full efficiency the wind turbines would only be able to produce 0.0035 percent of the building’s typical annual energy consumption. Even if the turbines had not failed, they still seemed unlikely to ever recoup their costs.

A Cry of Frustration at Delhi's Sustainable Summit - NYTimes.com

Maybe heads of state and national legislatures can be ”embarrassed into action by other levels of government,” [Jean Charest] said.
...
John Prescott, a former British deputy prime minister and member of Parliament, spoke angrily about the slow pace of change and the need for political will. ”We can’t continue talking at all these conferences!” he declared from the podium.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu resigns; led green energy push - The Washington Post

[Solyndra's] implosion in 2011 and revelations that the administration hurried a review of the loan in time for the groundbreaking become an embarrassment for Chu and Obama and a rallying cry for GOP critics of the administration’s green energy program.

Lawmakers also criticized Chu for approving the plan to restructure Solyndra’s debt so that two private investors moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment in case of default.

Al Gore Compares Fox News To '24/7 Propaganda Masquerading As News' (VIDEO) - The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/02/01/al-gore-fox-news-propaganda-masquerading-news_n_2601600.html

Blame Climate Change for Insurance Hikes: Travelers CEO

http://m.yahoo.com/w/legobpengine/finance/news/blame-climate-change-insurance-hikes-190820856.html?.intl=us&.lang=en-us

One of the world's biggest insurance companies has been raising premiums for three years because weather patterns across the country have become more severe, said Jay Fishman, The Travelers Cos. (TRV) chairman and CEO.

"We've embraced the notion that weather is different. I don't know why. I'm not a scientist," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Friday. "If you're not impressed with what the weather has been doing over the last few years, you're not keeping your eyes open." 

Dreamliner’s woes hearten green energy’s foes - Darius Dixon - POLITICO.com

Electric-car advocates are trying to stay out of the fray.

Twitter / RyanMaue: Good way to start off February, ...

Good way to start off February, 47°F below normal in the morning. Eastern US well below normal. pic.twitter.com/HIyGhxlR

Twitter / elaineishere: Pre-industrial #pollution in ...

Pre-industrial #pollution in a post-industrial country: Athens shrouded in #smog, as families burn wood to keep warm. http://ow.ly/hjI94

Twitter / RyanMaue: Guardian heaps praise on Obama's ...

Pre-industrial #pollution in a post-industrial country: Athens shrouded in #smog, as families burn wood to keep warm. http://ow.ly/hjI94

Twitter / keithkloor: Denial? RT @Emma_Marris How ...

Denial? RT @Emma_Marris How do green writers/scientists/thinkers deal w their extra jumbo greenhouse gas emissions due to all their travel?

Twitter / Emma_Marris: @keithkloor @SavorTooth The ...

@keithkloor @SavorTooth The fact that I think about the environment all day and still fly does not bode well for change via personal virtue

Energy Secretary Chu steps down, blasts climate-change skeptics

Energy Secretary Chu steps down, blasts climate-change skeptics | The Ticket - Yahoo! News

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist frequently the target of Republican criticism, announced Friday that he was stepping down in the latest shake-up of President Barack Obama's Cabinet. Chu, who disclosed his decision in a letter to Energy Department staff, frequently clashed with GOP lawmakers over gas prices as well as government backing for green-energy companies like the failed firm Solyndra.

In his letter, Chu took aim directly at his critics, saying the clean-energy efforts were a success—and blasted climate-change skeptics as trapped in "the Stone Age."
...
He also scolded climate-change skeptics and urged a shift from fossil-fuels to other sources of energy.

"The overwhelming scientific consensus is that human activity has had a significant and likely dominant role in climate change," Chu warned in his letter. "There is also increasingly compelling evidence that the weather changes we have witnessed during this thirty year time period are due to climate change."

Yet another paper shows the hot spot is missing « JoNova

Remember the evidence is overwhelming, and deniers deny the evidence. But in Oct 2012, two atmospheric scientists were reporting, yet again, the models are wrong. Twenty years after we started looking for the fingerprint of the amplification required to make the CO2 theory of global warming work, it still isn’t there. Forgive me for harping on. It’s still The Most Major Flaw in climate models.

Polar Meltdown Update | Real Science

Climate experts tell us that we are experiencing an unprecedented polar meltdown, as evidenced by the fact that global sea ice area is right at the satellite era mean.

Twitter / aDissentient: Annan: [One climate sci] stated ...

Annan: [One climate sci] stated quite openly in a meeting ... he deliberately lied in these [surveys] to help motivate political action

Twitter / RichardTol: .@aDissentient strategic bias ...

.@aDissentient strategic bias is rife in such surveys

Twitter / RichardTol: @aDissentient It's lying with ...

@aDissentient It's lying with a particular purpose. Us academics feel the need to classify lies.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MESSAGE TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS: STOP POISONING PEOPLE!

MESSAGE TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS: STOP POISONING PEOPLE! Grocery Bag Bans And Foodborne Illness: “Recently, many jurisdictions have implemented bans or imposed taxes upon plastic grocery bags on environmental grounds. San Francisco County was the first major US jurisdiction to enact such a regulation, implementing a ban in 2007. There is evidence, however, that reusable grocery bags, a common substitute for plastic bags, contain potentially harmful bacteria. We examine emergency room admissions related to these bacteria in the wake of the San Francisco ban. We find that ER visits spiked when the ban went into effect. Relative to other counties, ER admissions increase by at least one fourth, and deaths exhibit a similar increase.”

Antarctic Peninsula : Fastest Cooling Place On Earth | Real Science

A few years ago the Antarctic Peninsula was the canary in the coal mine and the fastest warming place on earth. A crack in the Larsen Ice Shelf proved that the world was doomed.

They don’t talk about it any more, because it is cooling rapidly and is back to”normal.”

Hiding The 1930s | Real Science

NOAA and NASA have been working feverishly to make the 1930s disappear in the US. Hansen used to know that it was hot and dry during the 1930s, but he somehow forgot over the last decade.

Lower Is The New Higher | Real Science

Below is what the 1990 IPCC report showed. The Medieval Warm period was much warmer, before the great Y2K rewrite of the climate by Mann, Hansen, Karl, Ministry of Truth, et. al.

Are Pacific Atolls Sinking Under The Waves?–New Study Says Not « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

It looks like the Maldives can carry on building their new airports after all!

1893 : Two Major Hurricanes Hit The US And Killed 4,000 People | Real Science

It has been eight years since the US was hit by a major hurricane.

Hurricane expert Barack Obama says that storms are getting stronger, and that none of his subjects in his kingdom are allowed to disagree with him.

The Trenberth Shell Game | Real Science

When it is hot in Texas, look there. When it is cold in Texas, don’t look there.

Hurricanes Were Kindler And Gentler Before “Climate Change” | Real Science

Staggering Admission By James Annan: “High Climate Sensitivity Increasingly Untenable”

Staggering Admission By James Annan: “High Climate Sensitivity Increasingly Untenable”

That is what we call a landmark change of course - by one of climatology’s most renowned warmist scientists. If even Annan can see it, then the writing is truly emblazoned on the wall.

For the warmist zombies out there, still desperately clinging to your catastrophe obsessions, take note!

Thousands die in Midlands due to cold weather

More than 4000 people in the Midlands died last winter because of the cold weather, and more than a million families in the region were living in fuel poverty.

That's according to the charity National Energy Action.

The Reference Frame: France bans light at night

How do they justify this insanity? The emissions of CO2 may be reduced by 250,000 tons per year. Even if you believed the IPCC that the CO2 emissions are heating the Earth by 3 °C a century, which is at least a 3-fold overestimate, it's still due to 30 billion tons of CO2 a year. So we're talking about 10 parts of million of the global emissions which means 30 microkelvins per century or 0.0000003 °C of "mitigated warming" per year. Did I miss a zero? I hope it's correct.

Twitter / RyanMaue: January 2013 reanalysis based ...

January 2013 reanalysis based global temperature anomaly +0.09°C compared to 1981-2010 climo. CONUS +0.006°C pic.twitter.com/cRsJn56j

Twitter / RyanMaue: Averaging all 744 hours of ...

Averaging all 744 hours of January over Lower-48 from RAP-12 km analysis 2-meter temperature: +0.011°C. 1/100th of 1° pic.twitter.com/elot8C6d

Virus study may signal trouble for animal populations facing climate change

Jan. 31, 2013 — Aside from rising sea levels, many climate change models predict that in the future, the planet's temperature and weather will become increasingly erratic with wild, unpredictable storms and fluctuating conditions.
...
The same ancestor virus was then used to create 20 separate populations, and researchers divided the 20 populations into four test groups: One batch of the virus was kept at a consistent temperature of 84.2 degrees Fahrenheit, considered the 'low' temperature; the second was exposed to a 'high' temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the third group was exposed to the high and low temperatures in a predictable pattern of alternating days; and the fourth group was exposed to a random pattern of temperatures that ranged from 84.2 degrees to 98.6.  [Why were these temperatures chosen, and why is 84.2 F. considered "low"?]

EU chief Barroso eyes 40% emissions reductions target | RTCC - Responding to Climate Change

WWF-UK climate policy expert Kat Watts told RTCC a 40% target would be consistent with the EU’s 2050 Energy Roadmap, but expressed frustration that the Commission had not come up with a pathway consistent with that higher level of ambition.
...
“The EU seems to have forgotten that the Council agreed to reduce emissions by -80 – 95%...]

Kerry a climate change fanatic

"He actually goes around saying, 'Can you name a single, peer-reviewed study that challenges man-made global warming?' Yeah, we can name hundreds of them. That's all we do," Morano responds.

"If you break it all down, most of these studies don't look at whether CO2 impacts climate. They're on A-to-Z issues, everything from polar bears to sea level rise to global temperature to floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes -- and on almost every single measure I just mentioned, Kerry's predictions are failing"

One of the arguments against Morano's group and other so-called skeptical organizations is that they are funded by "Big Oil," but Morano denies that charge.

"First of all, our budget is something like 17 or 18 times smaller than the Sierra Club's. Second of all, we're not getting anything from Exxon Mobil, we're not getting anything from Chevron. We're mostly surviving on individual donations and foundations. Look at (a) how much industry has given to environmental groups and (b) how much environmental groups have from governments [and] foundations."

You Know It’s Winter In Minnesota When… | Power Line

If you live in a part of the country where you never have to put foods and beverages in the refrigerator to protect them from the cold, you really don’t know what you’re missing.

Henry Barbour On Climate Change: There Are 'Two Sides To Every Issue'

Henry Barbour, one of five Republicans tasked with rethinking GOP strategy following the 2012 elections, refused to say if climate change is one of the areas his party should address, stating that "there's certainly two sides to every issue."

Google Trends for "climate crisis" shows clearly the decline and fall of the global warming hoax

Greenland Is Not Warming | Real Science

The graph below plots all of the CRUTEM4 records for Greenland. It was just as warm or warmer during the 1940s.

National Journal: Why John Kerry Should Treat Climate Change as a National Security Issue | JunkScience.com

The Himalayan glacier scare was exposed as imaginary in the aftermath of Climategate 1.0 — but it lives on at the National Journal.

Black Carbon: The Secret Climate Threat | Politics News | Rolling Stone

Picture what happens when you toss a rock onto a frozen pond. By the next day, the rock has sunken in and created a little melt pool around it. Black carbon essentially does this to the entire Arctic.

Cool Hand Luke-San | Power Line

This illustrates a point we have made repeatedly: the supposed increase in global temperatures in recent decades is largely due, not to raw temperature data, but rather to adjustments to that data that are made by global warming zealots who, in many instances, have an enormous financial interest in propagating the AGW theory. Watts illustrates the point (which he makes more gently than I just did) with this chart. It shows temperature data from the Darwin, Australia airport from 1880 to the present. Based on actual temperature measurements, it has been getting cooler in Darwin. But adjustments to the raw data create a fictitious warming trend

John Kerry: Hey, you know what was probably my "finest piece of legislation?" My unpassed CO2-induced bad weather prevention bill!

Before global endeavor, Kerry retraces, reflects on his roots - Politics - The Boston Globe

He said one of his biggest regrets was not being able to pass climate change legislation, something he worked on for the past several years.“Probably the finest piece of legislation I did didn’t get enacted into law yet,” Kerry said.

Check out this National Academy of Sciences graph from 1975, when people were trying to sell us global cooling

Shock News : The National Academy Of Sciences Thought There Was An Ice Age Scare | Real Science

Schwarzenegger on how to get people to believe in the global warming hoax: "overwhelm people with data"

Schwarzenegger and Barroso congratulate themselves in Vienna

"If we want to inspire the world, it is time for us to forget about the old way of talking about climate change, where we crush people, where we overwhelm people with data," the former California governor, bodybuilder and film star said.
"I mean I still drive my Hummers but now they are all on hydrogen and biofuel ... We need to send a message that we can live the same life, just with cleaner technology."

New paper finds climate change benefits Chinese agriculture

A paper published today in Global and Planetary Change predicts climate change will result in a significant increase of productivity for Chinese agriculture.

Roger Andrews: IPCC AR5 Climate Models – Another Bust « Tallbloke's Talkshop

My thanks to Roger Andrews for this succinct examination of the model-data comparisons from the leaked draft of IPCC AR5. He is absolutely right to draw attention to how poorly the models do in terms of tracking changes in sea surface temperature (SST). This metric is indicative of ocean heat content (OHC), which is the more important indicator of global change (though poorly understood and measured), because the ocean is the climate object with nearly all the heat capacity.

Tony Soprano Environmentalism | Coyote Blog

A while back, it was reported that environmentalists (featured in the movie "Crude" were captured in the outtakes of the movie discussing how they lied about the science to the courts in order to score a big payday (bonus points for Obama appointing one of the fraudsters to the National Academy of Sciences).

How Warm Were the 1930's? | Coyote Blog

I think most would agree that the heat waves of 1936 had about zero to do with man-made CO2 (since it preceded significant increases in Co2 since 1950). It was just freaking hot. When it happened in 1936, people treated it as a natural disaster. Today, we would likely treat it as an excuse to shut down the world economy.

PS - Most warming data you see is biased by the fact that it relies on a lot of thermometers that exist today but did not exist in the 1930's. If you limit the official government data set to only thermometers that have existed since at least 1920 you get this picture of us "warming". This last year was historically quite hot, but not unprecedentedly so (again, US data only)

When did legit media questions become ‘an attack’? | Video | TheBlaze.com

sking legit questions of an environmental nut who sold his business to a media company backed by fossil fuel sales is the equivalent of an “attack” these days?

Obama Chickens Out, Says A Million EVs By 2015 Not Important | The Truth About Cars

Obama says: “Never mind a million EVs by 2015.”

Twitter / joabbess: Forgot to add @Roddy_Campbell ...

Forgot to add @Roddy_Campbell to the watch list of people who show #Climate #Change denial tendencies. (#10) (Thanks for reminding me, Rod)

Flashback : Complain to the BBC @ Jo Abbess

[Jo Abbess] There is no debate in Climate Change. There is only one position, and that position is that it’s serious and getting worse, although at the moment we just don’t know whether that’s going to turn out as “horribly bad” or “incredibly dangerous”.

Andrew Montford’s view simply does not count and he should not have been invited, not even in the name of so-called “balance”. The “balance” you should have sought would lie between those Scientists who feel that Climate Change is “abrupt and dangerous” and those who feel that it is “catastrophic”.

Guardian: At Davos, World Bank president "focused seven of the 10 minutes of his speech to world presidents and prime ministers on the terrible [CO2-induced?] catastrophe that awaits us"

Is denial the biggest barrier to sustainable change? | Guardian Professional

The sense of immense frustration among climate change negotiators and institutional leaders at Davos about the inability of those in power to stand up and be counted was palpable.

The heads of the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD met privately with political leaders and collectively told them to forget about the idea of growth if they are not prepared to deal with climate change and resource scarcity.

The talk at Davos on the final day was of World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, who focused seven of the 10 minutes of his speech to world presidents and prime ministers on the terrible catastrophe that awaits us.

Coldest night in St. Louis in two years on the way tonight | ksdk.com

After sunset, skies will slowly clear while the thermometer quickly drops, leaving most areas with lows of between 5 and 9 degrees above zero. If Lambert-St. Louis International Airport sees a low of 8 degrees, it would be the lowest temperature recorded since February 10, 2011.

Reviewing Flight Behavior: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver | The Yale Forum on Climate Change & The Media

Kingsolver writes about “weather-weirding” and how it’s affecting the Feathertown, Tennessee, community: “The trees had lost their leaves early in the unrelenting rain. After a brief fling with coloration they dropped their tresses in clumps like a chemo patient losing her hair.”

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: The facts show the global temp ...

The facts show the global temp reversal that has started and will take us back to 1978 levels by 2030 due to pdo/amo pic.twitter.com/pAy4m3rf

Twitter / BigJoeBastardi: ECMWF says no above normal ...

ECMWF says no above normal days NYC through Feb 10, 3 precip events, look to be snow pic.twitter.com/7t9ZEal3

The Growing Irrelevance of U.S. Climate Policy

The world will burn around 1.2 billion more tons of coal per year in 2017 than it does today — an amount equal to the current coal consumption of Russia and the United States combined.

Why Climate Scientists Have Consistently UNDERestimated Key Global Warming Impacts | ThinkProgress

The authors thus suggest that climate scientists are biased toward overly cautious estimates, erring on the side of less rather than more alarming predictions, which they call “erring on the side of least drama” (ESLD).

Flashback: Humans Have Already Set in Motion 69 Feet of Sea Level Rise | Mother Jones

Glaciologist Jason Box describes a post-warming world that you won’t even be able to recognize.

Tough questions follow Al Gore book tour - Patrick Gavin - POLITICO.com

If you thought Al Gore was a media darling, you haven’t seen his latest book tour. Although Gore has been selective in which outlets he appears on to promote his new book, “The Future,” they haven’t treated the former vice president with kid gloves. From “Today” to “Morning Joe” to “Late Show with David Letterman” to “The Daily Show,” Gore has come under attack by his interviewers for his decision to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera.

Europe’s carbon price crashes to $4.45. Gillard’s still $23 | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

...Mr Combet repeated he was confident of the Treasury modelling, which predicts a $29 a tonne carbon price in 2015/16.

Joe Scarborough, Paul Krugman and the economist-pundit divide on debt and deficits

What if climate change happens so quickly and severely that the nation must start investing hundreds of billions of dollars to protect Florida from the sea?

German Manufacturing At Risk Because Of Low US Energy Prices | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

The CEOs of manufacturing industry are warning that production in Germany is at risk because of low energy prices in the United States. The energy prices there are now only a third of those in Germany.

Lord Turnbull: Evidence Counts Against Climate Change Alarmists | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

All this suggests that our climate continues to warm gradually, as it has done since early in the 19th century (which is long before CO2 concentrations started to rise). It may be more plausible to conclude that global warming is around 1°C per century with periods of faster and slower growth fluctuating around the trend, rather than the 3°C predicted by the IPCC. If so what is happening is interesting but it hardly justifies the epithet alarming.

Maryland state medical examiners have confirmed 14 cold-weather-related deaths so far this winter

More dangerous temperatures forecast as new cold-weather deaths reported in Maryland - baltimoresun.com

At least two cold-weather-related deaths were confirmed in the Baltimore area during last week's snap of frigid weather, and more dangerous cold is in the forecast.

Hypothermia was a factor in the deaths of an elderly Baltimore County woman and an elderly Baltimore man during the week that ended Monday, according to a weekly report from state health officials. The total number of cold-weather-related deaths that state medical examiners have confirmed so far this winter has reached 14.

Feels Like -43F : Climate Refugees Fleeing To Winnipeg | Real Science

Millions of southern Californians are fleeing the man made heat, and moving to Winnipeg. Just like the experts predicted.

Global Warming Is A Farce | Real Science

Global temperatures are cooler now than they were 30 years ago. But the farce is worse than it seems. Two large volcanic eruptions during the last 20 years of the 20th century made temperatures almost half a degree colder than they would have been otherwise. The graph below removes those records and shows that there has been almost no warming in the past 30 years.

Trust me, says Abbott, the carbon tax is dead | Weekly Review/City

He also promised to do whatever it takes to scrap the carbon tax, even if it means another election within a year should the Senate prove unco-operative.

''When I say there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead, I am telling the truth,'' he said.

Twitter / MichaelEMann: Better Link! Thanks :-) MT ...

Thanks :-) MT Looking forward to talking #climatechange w/ @iraflatow tomorrow on @SciFri 3-4pm ET. http://sciencefriday.com/segment/02/01/2013/are-we-losing-the-race-against-climate-change.html …

Are human-caused and natural global warming different? Study says yes. - CSMonitor.com

But a different, more detailed model came to the opposite conclusion that the temperature contrast would ease, according to a study by Jerry Meehl at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

"You'd think, 'OK, we've had increasing greenhouse gases for quite awhile, and we should be able to have observations to show us how the tropical Pacific is responding,' " Dr. Meehl says. "But the observations are not that good going back into the earlier parts of the last century."

Now, the new study suggests that "we are all right," he says.  [So the models are fine, it's the observations that are wrong?]

"the mortality effect of an extremely hot day declined by about 80% between 1900-1959 and 1960-2004"

Adapting to Climate Change: The Remarkable Decline in the U.S. Temperature-Mortality Relationship Over the 20th Century

First, we find that the mortality effect of an extremely hot day declined by about 80% between 1900-1959 and 1960-2004. As a consequence, days with temperatures exceeding 90°F were responsible for about 600 premature fatalities annually in the 1960-2004 period, compared to the approximately 3,600 premature fatalities that would have occurred if the temperature-mortality relationship from before 1960 still prevailed.

Carbon tax v cap-and-trade: which is better? | Environment | guardian.co.uk

In the short term, most economists agree that uncertainty alone argues for a tax. Climate change depends on the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and in each year the increase in that stock due to new emissions is small, so the environment is probably not that sensitive to the uncertainty about the level of emissions brought about by choosing a tax, at least over a year or two.

How Solyndra's Failure Promises a Brighter Future for Solar Power: Scientific American

The bankruptcy of photovoltaic panel-maker Solyndra is actually good news for the U.S. solar industry

Chu mum on his future, but chatty on electric cars - The Hill's E2-Wire

Chu said he would be “a little surprised” if that 80 percent of the world’s new car fleet weren’t made up of “mild hybrid” vehicles five to 10 years from now — those with both a battery and internal combustion engine.

Twitter / WaxmanClimate: Signs of #ClimateChange: 54 ...

Signs of #ClimateChange: 54 degrees in St. Louis, MO yesterday. 13 degrees warmer than normal. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/climate/

Twitter / eschor: With two of NWF's anti- #KXL ...

With two of NWF's anti- #KXL MVPs joining Boxer's staff, I wonder if a more muscular opposition to the pipeline is coming...

Andrea Mitchell Asks Al Gore How A Global Warming ‘Prophet’ Could Sell His Network To Oil Producing Nation | Mediaite

“It would be like taking money from Exxon-Mobile if Exxon-Mobile owned Al Jazeera,” Mitchell added.

Suzuki: Money Doesn’t Matter, Here’s My $30K Invoice « NoFrakkingConsensus

In a speech to students, David Suzuki condemned society’s fixation with money. So why did he charge their school more for a day’s work than many Canadians earn in a year?

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Single graph demonstrates man-made CO2 is not the driver of global warming

The effect follows the cause; the cause does not follow the effect. Short-term global temperature changes precede CO2 levels by about 1 year as shown by observations, and by 800+ years in ice core data.

Michael Mann smears Mark Steyn as a racist | JunkScience.com

Nearly 4½ meters of snow in the French Pyrenees

“The height of a 2-storey building.” (14 ft – 9 inches) – Snow depths not seen in 20 years.

Severe blizzard in Eastern Romania - Video

Terrible blizzard passes from Moldova and south. About 50 national and county roads remain closed across the country due to snow’s blizzard.

Arctic Cyclone Had Insignificant Impact on 2012 Ice Retreat - NYTimes.com

This is one modeling study, so the question is hardly resolved.

INTERVIEW: World Bank eyes spring launch for new carbon fund - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The World Bank aims to launch a new carbon fund this spring after it was delayed almost a year because falling carbon prices made it harder to raise cash, a senior official at the bank told Reuters Point Carbon.

EU carbon slumps 10 pct on market fix fears - News - Point Carbon

LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters Point Carbon) – EU carbon allowances fell 10 percent on Thursday as fears that the EU Commission will be unable to push through its plans to fix the market combined with fresh supply of permits and weak energy prices sent prices tumbling, traders said.

Twitter / vvolco: MT@ayesharascoe: Energy Sec ...

MT@ayesharascoe: Energy Sec Chu spoke several mins about #CCS before realizing reporters had asked him about budget sequestration. classic

Understanding Climate Models | Real Science

Climate Science Axiom # 1 : If a politically correct scientist writes some crap code in a crap language like Fortran, the output of the program is guaranteed to be correct.

Climate Change Plan For Yorkshire & Humber « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

There is absolutely no justification at all for the scaremongering presented in this report, though it no doubt makes the politicians, scientists, committee members and other assorted busybodies feel very self important.

Whatever may happen to the climate as we approach 2050, it is clear that the scientists and their models have no earthly idea about it. Spending billions of pounds addressing problems that may not occur, or worse still addressing the wrong ones, cannot be justified.

Glacial Melt Drowning Alaska | Real Science

Rapidly melting glaciers are pouring into the ocean, causing sea level to fall along the Alaska coast over the last twenty years.

Most Extreme Disaster Ever | Real Science

NOAA has determined that the mild golf course weather in the east last winter was more severe than the period from 1845-1852 – when a million people in Ireland died of starvation.

Why Cold Weather Super Bowl Could Be a Financial Boon

"The possible TV visual of snowy, icy empty seats will have a devastating impact on the NFL," said John Goodman, head of John Goodman Public relations. "And the sporting press will be writing about the fiasco weeks after the game. Playing in a cold weather site is a huge gamble for the NFL and Roger Goodell that could have sky high or devastating PR results."

Bad weather means bad economics said Arthur Fleisher, professor of economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Frost hits northern Mexico vegetables, total damage unknown

Reports coming out of some of the most important vegetable-growing regions in northern Mexico indicate that abnormally low temperatures have damaged crops there. The affected areas stretch through the northern part of Sinaloa and the southern part of Sonora.
...
90 percent of the vegetables grown in the affected areas are exported to the United States.

State houses introduce ALEC climate skeptic school bill - Salon.com

Arizona, Oklahoma and Colorado this year joined the dubious list of states to have this year introduced a bill which would mandate the teaching of climate change skepticism in public school systems, according to an investigation by DeSmog Blog’s Steve Horn. Horn reported that Environmental Literacy Improvement Act, a model bill written by the American Legislative Exchange Council with libertarian, climate skeptic think tank the Heartland Institute, is already gaining ground in State Houses around the country.

Williams Partners’ Transco Pipeline Delivers Record Volume of Natural Gas During Recent Bitter Cold on East Coast

Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) delivered a record amount of natural gas on its Transco interstate gas pipeline to meet demand driven by last week’s bitter cold weather in markets on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.

The Transco pipeline delivered a record-breaking 10.4 million dekatherms on Jan. 22. The new peak-day mark surpasses the previous high of 9.7 million dekatherms set early last year.

3 dead, 20 hurt in 'mile long' I-75 crash in Detroit during whiteout | The Detroit News

Detroit — Three people, including two children, are dead from a massive pileup crash involving 30 vehicles during Thursday morning rush hour, closing Interstate 75 near Springwells and prompting an emergency request for 20 ambulances.

Lobbying Muscle and Green Agenda Blinded Boeing to Reality | National Legal and Policy Center

There are those who will pooh-pooh the idea that Boeing overreached in its pursuit of “green” technology, and will argue that the aviation industry always seeks to lower its costs (like any business), especially the biggest ones: labor and fuel. This is true, but when it comes to what powers their aircraft, in a true free market not distorted by government giveaways, businesses such as Boeing would certainly err closer to the tried-and-true rather than the experimental. But because of those massive deformations in the marketplace, behemoth Boeing is in the business of political ingratiation as much as it is in the business of making aviation and aeronautical equipment.

Climate change: Beckmann vs. two U-M professors - Politics - The Detroit News

At The Detroit News op-ed page we allow for debate more than you’ll see at a lot of opinion pages. You don’t have to agree with us and we don’t have to agree with you. You just have to argue your side to the best of your ability.

Over the last two weeks we’ve run two columns on climate change, one by Detroit News columnist and WJR radio host (and voice of U-M football) Frank Beckmann, taking the skeptical position; the other by University of Michigan professors Donald Scavia and Knute Nadelhoffer, argues that yeah, climate change is real and we should be talking about how to resolve it, not debating its very existence.

Twitter / capitalweather: [Must be the CO2]

Amazing...after 70 degs yesterday, snow flurries today in DC's N suburbs. Whiplash weather!

UN Shock News : Entire Nations Drowned In 1999 | Real Science

Earth ran out of time 14 years ago, and we all fled and then died horrible global warming deaths.

Japan’s ‘Cool Hand Luke’ moment for surface temperature | Watts Up With That?

it suggests that Japan is using an entirely different method for both land and sea data. For the post 2001 land data, it suggests they use the CLIMAT data as is, rather than the “value added” processing that NCDC/NOAA and NASA GISS do

THE HOCKEY SCHTICK: Two new papers find global fire activity decreased in 20th century

In his inauguration speech, President Obama claimed the "devastating impact of raging fires" was due to man-made climate change. However, two papers published this week find that global fire activity has declined since pre-industrial times.

Can Obama Do for the Grid What Eisenhower Did for Highways? - NYTimes.com

A recent study [footnote 1] shows that even the Atlantic region of the United States can achieve electric energy self-sufficiency, using a combination of wind and solar, aided by storage which is feasible today.

Al Gore: UK leaders 'seriously misinformed' about climate change | RTCC - Responding to Climate Change

Former US Vice President Al Gore says he is concerned the UK’s political leaders have lost their will to address climate change.

North Dakota Went Boom - NYTimes.com

“This is our time,” Clay S. Jenkinson told me one morning over coffee at a Bismarck Starbucks, where he often goes to write. Jenkinson, a humanities professor, is a North Dakota author and columnist best known for his impersonation of Thomas Jefferson on public radio. “It’s our gold rush, our Silicon Valley. It reverses decades of anxiety about out-migration and rural decline and death. Suddenly the state that never had anything is in the middle of an oil boom that is larger than anybody could have predicted. We aren’t going to do anything to jeopardize it. People aren’t interested in stepping back.”
...North Dakota’s oil boom now accounts for 11 percent of U.S. oil production, and it is the main reason the state government currently has a $3.8 billion surplus

How To Make Wind And Solar Appear Cheaper « Tory Aardvark

Any industry that is based on tax payer subsidy is not a real economically viable business, it is little different from any nationalized enterprise or government department, funded by the bottom less pit of the tax payer wallet.

Dems ask NFL, NBA for suggestions on how to battle climate change - The Hill's E2-Wire

A new Capitol Hill climate task force wants a wide range of parties — including energy companies, green groups, sports leagues and plenty in between — to submit suggestions for federal actions to battle global warming.

EU Carbon Trading ‘death spiral’ continues | Watts Up With That?

Carbon has closed below $4 a ton in a new record low while Deutsche Bank bails

Wind turbines – not just hateful but ruddy dangerous too! – Telegraph Blogs

For chapter and verse on this go to Caithness Windfarm Information Forum. It has compiled a list of accidents and fatalities caused by wind turbines. Since the 1970s, for example, there have been at least 133 fatalities caused by wind turbines. The worst of these was an accident in Brazil last year when a turbine fell onto a bus, killing 17 passengers.

BBC: What YOU spent on our lawyers in Secret Climate 28 debacle • The Register

The BBC has revealed the cost to the licence-fee payer of its surreal legal fight to keep a publicly available list from the public. Or at least a small part of the cost we all paid in the affair which became known as "28Gate".

Planet-healer Bob Menendez not working hard enough to reduce his emissions?

Menendez rushes to pay private-jet tab after FBI raid « Hot Air

“Wonderful things, subpoenas,” Wilford Brimley said in Absence of Malice, after the threat of one broke the silence of conspirators in the film’s climax. We can add FBI raids to that list of wonderful catalysts. After discovering that the FBI had raided the offices of his frequent travel companion and campaign donor Salomon Melgen, Senator Bob Menendez suddenly remembered that he owed nearly $60,000 to Melgen for private-jet flights to the Dominican Republic

Flashback: Shock: New Jersey planet healer Bob Menendez, who offered to spend federal money to save Santa from CO2-induced doom, now accused of regularly flying in fuel-guzzling planes to the Dominican Republic

[Menendez, Dec. 23, 2012] Dear Santa Claus,

I am writing out of concern, because you may have to move from the North Pole due to the dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice. The Navy's chief oceanographer says that by the summer of 2020 the North Pole may not have summer ice and other scientists project that an ice-free Arctic is possible as soon as 2012!

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that polar ice is melting because of greenhouse gas pollution and I am working hard to reduce these emissions. But there is probably nothing we can do in time to save the North Pole. I am worried about your safety and your ability to deliver billions of Christmas gifts if the ice cap on the North Pole no longer stays frozen all year.

FOUR DOMINICAN HOOKERS Confirm They Attended Sex Parties With Sen. Bob Menendez | The Gateway Pundit

The main source in the Bob Menendez underage hooker scandal sent the FBI the names of four hookers who confirmed they had attended sex parties with Salmon Melgen and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in the Dominican Republic. On Tuesday, FBI agents raided the West Palm Beach business Dr. Melgen who is suspected of providing free trips and even underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.

David Suzuki, Dirty Old Man « NoFrakkingConsensus

For a day’s worth of his time, Suzuki billed this publicly-funded, not-for-profit school $30,000 plus tax.

But here’s where things get creepy. Someone – either Suzuki or the school – thought he needed “bodyguards” to escort him from one location to another. But those bodyguards had to be students. Moreover, they had to be attractive, female students. Really.
...
The grownups at John Abbott College sincerely believed that David Suzuki required the company of attractive, 17 to 19-year-old women during his visit. The dean’s secretary appears to have personally inspected them beforehand. Moreover, Suzuki (as well as others) expressed an opinion about how these young women should be attired.

Regina: Temperatures are expected to reach a high of just -26 with the wind-chill feeling more like -46 on Thursday.

Health experts say it's cold enough for exposed skin to get frostbite in a matter of minutes.

Climate change top priority Rep. Waxman says in Hermosa Beach talk

Waxman said he is not hopeful new climate change legislation can be passed

1930s Was By Far The Hottest Decade In The US | Real Science

There are 824 GHCN HCN stations which have been continuously active since at least 1920, The graph below shows how many of them set their all-time record maximum each year. As you can see, the US used to be much hotter, and the summer of 1936 was by far the hottest summer.