Bitter cold places January on par with 3 decades ago | The Journal Gazette

[Indiana] Bitter cold places January on par with 3 decades ago | The Journal Gazette: "“Many of the coldest Januaries on record occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, including 1977, 1978 and 1979,” Call said. “Anyone over 35 has experienced weather like this before – just not recently.”"

20007: Former Inuit Circumpolar Leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier Just Misses Nobel Peace Award for her Work on Climate Change

Inuit Circumpolar Council (Canada) - Former Inuit Circumpolar Leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier Just Misses Nobel Peace Award for her Work on Climate Change: "Anchorage, October 12, 2007 The former Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Sheila Watt-Cloutier, jointly nominated for her work on climate change with Al Gore just missed winning the award earlier today. Although it was widely speculated that Ms. Watt-Cloutier might share the award with Mr. Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, gave the award instead to both Mr. Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

OP-ED: Does anyone still believe Al Gore?

OP-ED: Does anyone still believe Al Gore?: "Al Gore, Tom Steyer and Google have all figured out how to exploit environmentalism for power and money, and they’re not alone. Plenty of companies and individuals have figured out ways who manipulate the public’s legitimate concern for the environment to make a quick buck, improve public perception, increase market share and lure lawmakers into passing legislation that benefits them."

More from James Powell, who could find only one dissenting paper last year

Startling Number of Scientific Papers Disputed Human-Caused Global Warming Last Year - weather.com: "If there really is solid, peer-reviewed scientific literature that proves human-caused fossil fuel emissions aren't the chief cause behind the global warming we've experienced over the past several decades, Powell says it's nearly impossible to find.

"If I knew sitting here talking to you, of some really significant piece of evidence that shows that global warming is wrong, I would rush out and write a paper and send that to a journal," Powell said.

"They would no doubt publish that paper and I would become famous," he added. "And I’d have my assistant talking to you, because I’d be too busy receiving accolades.""

Cool it … | Pointman's

Cool it … | Pointman's: "The work the two Macs did on deconstructing Mann’s hockey stick paper gave a whole new meaning to the words forensic science. When any scientist in any field does everything in their power to prevent replication of their research, the inescapable conclusion to be drawn is that they’re up to no good."

A Carbon Tax Would Be Better Than the EU's Vacuum Ban - Economic Intelligence (usnews.com)

A Carbon Tax Would Be Better Than the EU's Vacuum Ban - Economic Intelligence (usnews.com): "Starting in September, the European Union will ban vacuum cleaners using more than 1,600 watts of power, with the limit slated to be lowered to 900 watts by 2017. This ban won't just affect a handful of the worst offenders. According to the European Commission, the average vacuum cleaner sold today uses 1,800 watts.

Intended largely to reduce carbon emissions, the vacuum cleaner ban joins numerous other regulations throughout the world that severely restrict consumers' choices. Want an incandescent light bulb? Too bad – they're banned. How about a gas guzzling car? Sorry – they're being squeezed out by tighter fuel economy standards."

Latest European climate targets may never be met - environment - 22 January 2014 - New Scientist

Latest European climate targets may never be met - environment - 22 January 2014 - New Scientist: "European energy policy is in disarray because of concern that high prices are choking off economic recovery. As a result, countries would not accept national targets for renewables. Countries like Poland are keen to stick with burning domestic coal. Others, most notably the UK, want to follow the US path: exploiting what they hope will be cheap shale gas reserves. The UK also wants a nuclear option.

In Germany, Europe's largest economy, CO2 emissions have begun rising again: coal burning hit a record high last year, nuclear power plants are shut and expansion of renewables has stalled at 17 per cent. Last week, its energy minister announced plans to cut subsidies for renewables by a third."

Another fiasco in Antarctica: $12M ice drilling project fails when hose freezes and fossil fuel runs short

Polar drilling problems revealed : Nature News & Comment: "A specially developed hot-water drilling technique, devised by engineers at the British Antarctic Survey, was designed to minimize air and water pollution...Water also leaked into the cavity drill and froze the hose in the drill hole. Attempts to remove the hose failed, so it had to be cut. At that point, and with not enough fuel left to reach the lake, Siegert gave up."

Antarctic field trip a factor in ship becoming trapped in sea ice on Christmas Eve

Antarctic field trip a factor in ship becoming trapped in sea ice on Christmas Eve: "A passenger standing near Professor Turney overheard the voyage leader, Greg Mortimer, telling him over the radio to bring passengers back to the ship so it can leave.

But minutes later, Professor Turney drove six more passengers into the field.

The overloaded vehicle had no space to collect returning passengers."

Miss Global Warming Yet? If Not, Just Wait And You Might - Forbes

Miss Global Warming Yet? If Not, Just Wait And You Might - Forbes: "Shortened, less reliable growing seasons in Europe brought on the Great Famine of 1315-1317. Norse colonies which had settled in a formerly warmer Greenland starved and vanished by the early fifteenth century as crops failed and livestock froze.

 During the mid-seventeenth century encroaching glaciers destroyed farms and villages in the Swiss Alps. Sea ice surrounding Iceland closed harbors to shipping. Boxed in and experiencing cereal crop farming failures, Iceland’s population fell by half.

In the late seventeenth century agriculture dropped off so dramatically that Alpine villagers lived on breads made from ground nutshells mixed with barley and oat flour. Famines claimed about ten percent of the people in France, Norway and Sweden, about one-fifth of those in Estonia, and one-third in Finland during the late 1600s."

Europe Divides Over More Ambitious Pollution Limits - Bloomberg

Europe Divides Over More Ambitious Pollution Limits - Bloomberg: "“Voices calling for a target of less than 40 percent in Europe want to expose the EU to volatile global fossil fuel prices, risking higher bills,” U.K. Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Davey said."

What happens during a “Little Ice Age?

What happens during a “Little Ice Age?: "Food-producing land becomes scarcer, food-growing seasons become shorter, and the world becomes a much more arid and less hospitable place. Think food shortages and the social unrest that follows."

£10M Of Funding For Tyndall Centre In Last Two Years | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

£10M Of Funding For Tyndall Centre In Last Two Years | NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT: "It seems strange that the government should be using taxpayers’ money to enable the Tyndall Centre to lobby it about climate policy."

Ken Caldeira on scientists who "make poorly supported assertions in areas outside of their expertise"

Fresh Views on Climate Scientists as Advocates - NYTimes.com: "There is a disease wherein one develops expertise in one area and then feels free to pontificate on other areas about which one knows nothing. This is an affliction of many senior scientists, common even among Nobel Prize winners, and an affliction to which I have not been immune.

If someone is speaking with great confidence while uttering pure hogwash, this does tend to reduce confidence in the utterances of the scientist.

So, there is a cost to science and to our personal credibility when scientists make poorly supported assertions in areas outside of their expertise."

MITx course injects science into the global warming debate - MIT News Office

MITx course injects science into the global warming debate - MIT News Office: "Emanuel and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences also hope to change the dynamic around the study of climate change on the MIT campus. In part because the course is not a requirement, and in part because of the perception among students that climate-change study is mostly about politics and not hard science, the on-campus course has not seen the enrollment levels Emanuel would like to see. “Part of the problem is all the publicity of global warming has sent out a message that global warming is highly politicized, and has nothing to do with science,” he says. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”"

Watershed! BBC Now Sees Sun Developing Into A Potent 21st Century Climate Factor As A Real Possibility!

Watershed! BBC Now Sees Sun Developing Into A Potent 21st Century Climate Factor As A Real Possibility!: "Wow. The BBC has really opened the door, perhaps looking to upgrade the impact of solar activity to be on par with human activity. That’s huge compared to what the IPCC scientists claim about the impact of solar activity (negligible). You almost get the feeling that even the BBC is starting to have doubts about the supposed coming warming, and are opening up to the possibility of cooling."

Climate ignored CO2 from 1940 to 1977, but once the PDO shifted in 1977...

The World’s Stupidest People | Real Science: "The climate ignored CO2 from 1940 to 1977, but once the PDO shifted in 1977 – Mann-made CO2 decided to get up off its lazy ass and really warm the place up."

Hopefully this German media report is true: "European Union is seriously jeopardizing its global climate leadership role"

N N o N: Hopefully this German media report is true: "European Union is seriously jeopardizing its global climate leadership role": "The EU's reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking -- jeopardizing Germany's touted energy revolution in the process."

Greens’ “Climate Impact Lens” an Even Worse Catchphrase Than “All of the Above”

Greens’ “Climate Impact Lens” an Even Worse Catchphrase Than “All of the Above”: "Yesterday a flock of green special interests sent a letter to President Obama, asking the Commander-in-Chief to stop using the stupid shibboleth “all of the above,” and instead view all energy policy through a “climate impact lens.”

As you can probably tell by my choice of modifiers, I disdain “all of the above,” even more so than environmentalists. The reason I hate this phrase is that it fails to account for the inane. If an energy source is intermittent and expensive, then it makes no sense to require people to use it…unless you buy into dumb ideas like “all of the above.” Alas, such is our plight."

The Invisible Judith Curry | NoFrakkingConsensus

The Invisible Judith Curry | NoFrakkingConsensus: "A bona fide climate scientist tells US Senators we have no idea whether human-caused global warming will be a serious problem. The media doesn’t report it."

Europe Likely To Roll Back Climate Goals | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

Europe Likely To Roll Back Climate Goals | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF): "Reports say European Commission President José Manuel Barroso is against binding targets for renewables. A leaked document says the EU will focus on cutting emissions but other climate protection measures will be rolled back."

More interesting stuff from Santer re: establishing human culpability, professional PR help, and nearly two dozen workshops (funded by NSF?) bringing together climate scientists and the media

▶ Chris Mooney and Dr. Benjamin Santer on Communicating Climate Science - YouTube: "[Uploaded Sept 2010] Climate Science Watch spoke with climate scientist Dr. Benjamin Santer and Chris Mooney, a science and political journalist and author, about how climate scientists communicate complex research findings to the public in an atmosphere of fierce politicization and competing demands."

At 1:38, Santer says "I had always assumed that if the science was credible, we could just rest our case on the science. It was enough to publish high-quality papers, to establish some human culpability in observed climate change, and that ultimately that would be good enough, and that policymakers would take the right decisions based on the best available scientific evidence."

At 11:08, Santer says Lawrence Livermore National Lab has a "high-quality very professional public affairs department.  They've been extremely helpful in my interactions with the media...They've given me a lot of advice and guidance...I've been very grateful that I haven't had to face this on my own."

At 12:40, Santer mentions "series of workshops organized by Bud Ward, a journalist who's brought together the leading climate scientists with people from the media world-newspaper editors, news anchors, TV weathermen and women...a series of probably nearly two dozen workshops organized that enable each side to understand the problems of the others."

More on the workshops:

Thanks to a series of workshops funded by the National Science Foundation, journalists and climate scientists have been able to address these barriers and develop recommendations for effective communication. These highly interactive workshop dialogues formed the basis of a new resource guide on communicating about climate change for editors, reporters, scientists, and academics.

More interesting stuff from Santer re: establishing human culpability, professional PR help, and nearly two dozen workshops (funded by NSF?) bringing together climate scientists and the media

▶ Chris Mooney and Dr. Benjamin Santer on Communicating Climate Science - YouTube: "[Uploaded Sept 2010] Climate Science Watch spoke with climate scientist Dr. Benjamin Santer and Chris Mooney, a science and political journalist and author, about how climate scientists communicate complex research findings to the public in an atmosphere of fierce politicization and competing demands."

At 1:38, Santer says "I had always assumed that if the science was credible, we could just rest our case on the science. It was enough to publish high-quality papers, to establish some human culpability in observed climate change, and that ultimately that would be good enough, and that policymakers would take the right decisions based on the best available scientific evidence."

At 11:08, Santer says Lawrence Livermore National Lab has a "high-quality very professional public affairs department.  They've been extremely helpful in my interactions with the media...They've given me a lot of advice and guidance...I've been very grateful that I haven't had to face this on my own."

At 12:40, Santer mentions "series of workshops organized by Bud Ward, a journalist who's brought together the leading climate scientists with people from the media world-newspaper editors, news anchors, TV weathermen and women...a series of probably nearly two dozen workshops organized that enable each side to understand the problems of the others."

More on the workshops:

Thanks to a series of workshops funded by the National Science Foundation, journalists and climate scientists have been able to address these barriers and develop recommendations for effective communication. These highly interactive workshop dialogues formed the basis of a new resource guide on communicating about climate change for editors, reporters, scientists, and academics.

2010 Ben Santer video: "Blogging is affecting me profoundly. Obviously, Mr. McIntyre has profoundly affected my life"

▶ The General Public: Why Such Resistance? - YouTube: "(February 25, 2010) Ben Santer, a research scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, discusses the recent problems with the use of the freedom of information act for non-US citizens to demand complete records, including emails, on scientific research projects. Santer posits that this is a dangerous dilemma that will ultimately inhibit scientific research."

The video is 1 hour 46 minutes long.  The best stuff is around 42:30 to the end.

Santer uses words like harassment, frivolous, nonsense, hatred, bullies, "forces of unreason", abuse, and McCarthyism.  He'd like to get some support/protection from the Obama administration.

Santer at 1:26:37 "Blogging is affecting me profoundly. Obviously, Mr. McIntyre has profoundly affected my life".

Environmental Groups 'Break' with Obama | National Review Online

Environmental Groups 'Break' with Obama | National Review Online: "This isn’t a big deal. President Obama doesn’t need their endorsements — nor their money — and this frees Senate and House candidates to take a harsher stance against the president in the 2014 elections."