This year’s bitter cold damages Ontario/Canada grape vines

This year’s bitter cold damages Ontario/Canada grape vines | eCanadaNow: "Some growers even have turned to calling 2014 the year of the grape-killing cold. Hank Hunse, an Ontario grape grower, said he lost his entire Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc crops for 2013 already due to cold temperatures. Crop insurance only covers some of the losses"

Why did warmist Matthew England deny the dud predictions he now concedes? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog

Why did warmist Matthew England deny the dud predictions he now concedes? | Herald Sun Andrew Bolt Blog: "Those models have actually vastly overestimated the warming, but England still wants us to have “confidence” in them. Could his own “wanting” explain why England vilified sceptics as liars for saying what he now admits is true: that the warming of the world’s atmosphere has paused for at least 13 years, contrary to the IPCC predictions?

How can we trust him? And will he say sorry?"

Letters: Name and shame the climate-change deniers

Letters: Name and shame the climate-change deniers - Letters - Voices - The Independent: "There is a longstanding tradition of naming extreme weather events such as hurricanes and typhoons. Perhaps the time has come for scientists to give them more relevant titles and name them after the malicious pundits, politicians and media whose actions have prevented the world from taking the necessary steps to fight this worsening catastrophe faced by the whole of humanity.

Aidan Harrison, Rothbury,  Northumberland"

Get Headlines! How to find a heatwave in five easy steps « JoNova

Get Headlines! How to find a heatwave in five easy steps « JoNova: "Heatwaves have become a publicity tool. Far from there being a clear trend in Australian heatwaves, Geoff Sherrington shows that it’s also legitimate to claim heatwaves were worse 80 – 100 years ago in Adelaide and Melbourne and things are getting better. Those officials who cherrypick their claims might be technically correct, but it’s outrageously deceitful and unscientific at the same time."

Judith Curry on Mark Steyn's "relentless hammering of Mann"

Week in review | Climate Etc.: "I’m not predicting how Mann’s lawsuit will turn out, but Steyn’s relentless hammering of Mann seems to be doing far more damage to Mann’s reputation that the alleged legal defamation."

How Cold Weather Makes You Forget About Global Warming : The New Yorker

How Cold Weather Makes You Forget About Global Warming : The New Yorker: "A slight change in presentation, however, may shift attitudes in the direction of climate science and away from the vicissitudes of local weather. A study out this month, from the Cardiff University psychologists Stuart Capstick and Nicholas Pidgeon, found that periods of exceptionally cold weather in the United Kingdom had the opposite effect as they did in the United States: more people believed in the truth of climate change. The reason for the difference? The media had framed the weather within the context of climate change, emphasizing that it was unnatural, rather than simply cold. Perhaps if people here were told that it’s not just brutal out there, it’s unnaturally brutal, they, too, might jump to a different conclusion"

Vinod Khosla and "clean" tech: Like Michael Jordan Playing Baseball

60 Minutes and Cleantech | The Energy Collective: "Now there’s nothing wrong with Jordan trying something new. He was pursuing a dream. I am sure his presence in the minor league sold lots of tickets. But he was playing the wrong game for his skill set, and after a mediocre season in the minors, he went back to the NBA. Vinod Khosla in the energy sector has been akin to Michael Jordan the baseball player. He struck out because he was out of his element. If a baseball team had been built itself around his skill set, it would have failed miserably."

Vinod Khosla and "clean" tech: Like Michael Jordan Playing Baseball

60 Minutes and Cleantech | The Energy Collective: "Now there’s nothing wrong with Jordan trying something new. He was pursuing a dream. I am sure his presence in the minor league sold lots of tickets. But he was playing the wrong game for his skill set, and after a mediocre season in the minors, he went back to the NBA. Vinod Khosla in the energy sector has been akin to Michael Jordan the baseball player. He struck out because he was out of his element. If a baseball team had been built itself around his skill set, it would have failed miserably."

Gavin Schmidt: "Our ability to properly quantify the air pollution around the world … is actually not very good"

NASA data shows that the ‘pause’ in global warming continues | The Daily Caller: "“Our expectations for what temperatures should be changing like, they come from our understandings of our forcings of climate change,” Schmidt said, adding that such forcings include greenhouse gases, volcanoes, solar activity and air pollution — for example, aerosols from coal burning, smog and volatile organics.

“Our ability to properly quantify the air pollution around the world … is actually not very good, and we have had historically a problem in defining those aerosol forcings very accurately … and that has not improved,” Schmidt admitted."

Gavin Schmidt: "Our ability to properly quantify the air pollution around the world … is actually not very good"

NASA data shows that the ‘pause’ in global warming continues | The Daily Caller: "“Our expectations for what temperatures should be changing like, they come from our understandings of our forcings of climate change,” Schmidt said, adding that such forcings include greenhouse gases, volcanoes, solar activity and air pollution — for example, aerosols from coal burning, smog and volatile organics.

“Our ability to properly quantify the air pollution around the world … is actually not very good, and we have had historically a problem in defining those aerosol forcings very accurately … and that has not improved,” Schmidt admitted."

‘Retroactive Looting’: Spain Plans To End All Pre-2004 Wind Subsidies

‘Retroactive Looting’: Spain Plans To End All Pre-2004 Wind Subsidies | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF): "The Spanish government said it plans to end all price subsidies for wind capacity online before end-2004, while slashing remuneration for younger capacity."

Pre-Industrial Farming Sprouted Global Warming | LiveScience

Pre-Industrial Farming Sprouted Global Warming | LiveScience: "Early farmers boosted Earth's temperature by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) over a period of 8,000 years, a new study suggests.

"This is almost as large as the global warming in the past 150 years," said Feng He, lead study author and a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "That means early agricultural is as powerful as the whole Industrial Revolution."

However, the study concludes that the net warming caused by early humans was only 1.3 degrees F (0.73 degrees C), thanks to a slight cooling of 0.31 degrees F (0.17 degrees C) due to more sunlight reflecting from cleared land."

Could the Northlands Look Like the Prairie? - MN2020 Hindsight

Could the Northlands Look Like the Prairie? - MN2020 Hindsight: "If we continue emitting carbon at our current rates, the Boundary Waters will turn into an open prairie by the end of the 21st century, killing off and pushing away moose, lynx and some songbirds, according to a recent National Wildlife Federation report."

U.S. to launch 'climate hubs' to help farmers face climate change | Reuters

U.S. to launch 'climate hubs' to help farmers face climate change | Reuters: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the effects of climate change have led to a longer crop growing season in the Midwest, a fire season that is 60 days longer than it was three decades ago, and droughts that cost the United States $50 billion from 2011-2013."

CAMPAIGN 2014: GOP mounts broadened ad blitz to frame Rahall as 'no friend of coal'

CAMPAIGN 2014: GOP mounts broadened ad blitz to frame Rahall as 'no friend of coal' -- Tuesday, February 4, 2014 -- www.eenews.net: "For months, it's appeared as though every attack ad in West Virginia is a knock on Rep. Nick Rahall (D) over his vote for a carbon tax, but now the House Republicans' campaign arm is getting ready to expand its reach.

A document obtained by E&E Daily shows that the National Republican Congressional Committee plans to criticize Rahall in upcoming ads over old votes on cap and trade, the renewable portfolio standard and U.S. EPA regulations and funding, while also continuing to hammer its message on the carbon tax."

Hulme tries to throw all scientists under a bus

Hulme tries to throw all scientists under a bus. It’s just “the debate is over”. Cook, consensus take collateral hit « JoNova: "It’s another tiny marker on the road to reality. Mike Hulme has admitted that Cooks 97% study is “infamous” and “irrelevant”. He’s trying to wash himself of both the “Consensus” argument and Cook’s work which he can see are becoming a liability. But make no mistake Hulme is more alarmist than ever. He’s just trying to rebrand the gravy train."

"State of the Union climate rhetoric undermines rational decision making"

thebahamasweekly.com - "State of the Union climate rhetoric undermines rational decision making": "Obama’s error is not harmless. It is part of the way language has been distorted to bolster concerns about human-caused climate change. Calling CO2 carbon, or worse, carbon pollution, encourages people to think of it as something dirty and so important to restrict. Obama reinforces this misunderstanding by referring to power plants that have low CO2 emissions as clean. This mistake is so entrenched that even those who oppose fashionable beliefs about climate change make it often.

Calling CO2 by its proper name would help people remember that, regardless of its role in climate change (a point of intense debate among scientists), CO2 is really an invisible gas essential to plant photosynthesis, and so to all life. Recent studies demonstrate that worldwide crop yield has soared as CO2 levels have risen. So although CO2 is an ‘infrared absorbing gas’ blamed by governments for most of the past century’s modest warming, it is no more a pollutant than is the major ‘greenhouse gas’ in the atmosphere, water vapour."

Fight Global Warming: Approve the Pipeline! - Phil Kerpen

Fight Global Warming: Approve the Pipeline! - Phil Kerpen - Page full: "In its latest review, the State Department outlined the greenhouse gas impact of approving the pipeline against the backdrop of this reality. They analyzed three different potential “no action” scenarios and found they would all have significantly higher emissions than approving the pipeline. The all-rail scenario would have 41.8 percent higher emissions; a scenario in which rail is used for part of the route to reach existing pipelines would have 39.7 percent higher emissions, and a scenario in which rail is used to ship crude to reach tankers would increase emissions 27.8 percent."

Fight Global Warming: Approve the Pipeline! - Phil Kerpen

Fight Global Warming: Approve the Pipeline! - Phil Kerpen - Page full: "In its latest review, the State Department outlined the greenhouse gas impact of approving the pipeline against the backdrop of this reality. They analyzed three different potential “no action” scenarios and found they would all have significantly higher emissions than approving the pipeline. The all-rail scenario would have 41.8 percent higher emissions; a scenario in which rail is used for part of the route to reach existing pipelines would have 39.7 percent higher emissions, and a scenario in which rail is used to ship crude to reach tankers would increase emissions 27.8 percent."

Climate change threatens to cause trillions in damage to world's coastal regions

Climate change threatens to cause trillions in damage to world's coastal regions: "According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, global average storm surge damages could increase from about $10-$40 billion per year today to up to $100,000 billion per year by the end of century, if no adaptation action is taken."

Why a meteorologist took the bus for 28 hours instead of flying.

Why a meteorologist took the bus for 28 hours instead of flying.: "My world is much smaller now, and that’s both good and bad. I’ve found myself exploring more around where I live. One of the biggest downsides is giving up international travel, which I love. But I’d rather do my part now so the people who actually live in all those exotic places can continue to do so. Maybe, someday soon, there will be a low-carbon way to travel to those places again. Here’s hoping. But for now, for me, the climate is more important."

Auto Sales for January Held Down by Harsh Winter Weather - NYTimes.com

Auto Sales for January Held Down by Harsh Winter Weather - NYTimes.com: "Automakers reported on Monday sharp declines in United States sales in January as a harsh freeze and winter storms thwarted purchases across much of the country."

Ban Ki-moon selects Bloomberg as cities and climate change envoy

Ban Ki-moon selects Bloomberg as cities and climate change envoy: "“Cities are on the frontline because federal, national and international organisations aren’t doing anything,” he said.

“They either deny that the world is changing or they say that it’s not changing so fast that we should do anything about it but all of the scientific information that we have and the empirical evidence that we see … these are things that somebody’s got to worry about.”"

Polar bears have always had a varied diet

Polar Bear Blog – Polar Bear Diets and Sharing Seals | Polar Bear Alley – Guide to the Polar Bears of Churchill: "My one difficulty with the articles on this paper is that they make it out as if the polar bears are forced to forage because of a warming climate. In truth, polar bears have always had a varied diet. Yes, their primary focus is seal but they are opportunists and even the early whalers noticed them feeding on grasses and such, even comparing them to sheep grazing in herds. And then they slaughtered them, but that’s a different blog entry.

Anyway, there were many obersvations of summer foraging in the late 1960s near Churchill, as well as the early 1990s and all along. Bears will dive to feed on kelp and algae on the ocean floor. They have always scaled cliffs to raid nests and occasionally attacked walrus. Females emerging from the maternity dens will sometimes graze for a number of days before heading to the seal hunting grounds on the ice. They even make open water seal kills. Its such a shame that all of this creativity is simply lumped into ‘oh look what the poor bears have to do now’."

Stick Yourself Up :: SteynOnline

Stick Yourself Up :: SteynOnline: "Reluctant public figure" and shrinking Nobel violet Michael Mann writes more newspaper columns than I do these days, but his latest in The Guardian has one delightful moment of self-sabotaging omniscience, in which he does to the early typewriters what he did to the Medieval Warm Period. That's a good example of why he's careful never to expose himself to genuine debate, and why his cross-examination on the witness stand will be such a hoot. Seating limited. Book now.